The key here is "GOOD".

Good single player rpg's are much richer and deeper in terms of plot, character, setting, story arcs, etc.,  than any mmorpg could ever be, yet...

you're playing alone.  The shared experience counts for much, yet...

I enjoy playing mmorpg's solo 99.44% of the time.

For me the best description of a Good mmorpg is:  "Playing Alone Together."

The community and camaraderie is there if / when you want it , else you can turn it off and adventure solo.

Why Aren't MMOGs More Fun?

Because the no-talent half-wit Frauds that pass themselves off as high priced "Game Designers" these days couldn't design their way out of a paper bag.

2010 Game Designer Motto:

Form over Function,

Style over Substance,

Better to Look Good than to Be Good,

Image is Everything

Forget about QUALITY things like Storyline, or Character Development, or Depth of Gameplay, or Immersion, or Suspension of Disbelief, or Dynamic Tension, or any of the other Thousand-Year-Old-Standards that made stoytelling great - no, no, just crank out any old shyt with massive polycounts and n-dimensional shading and a gigantic Marketing budget.

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Any RP minded table-top GM or DM could create a more "fantastic" and unique world that what's being pushed out today.

YES!  ABSOLUTELY.  I agree 100%. 

Local Hobby GMs / DMs are FAR MORE SKILLED in creating immersive scenarios and campaigns than the so-called professionals today. 

With the exception of Bioware and a cuople indies, the phony commercial rpg "designers" today are not worth a DAMN.

The so-called professional game designers today aren't fit to stoop down and untie the sandals of the hobby designers.

Originally posted by Swoogie

Now if you pay $200 and get full raid gear and a maxed out char then we have a problem.

Why?  What's the problem???

According to the sell-out / whore philosophy of current MMO gaming, =everything= should be available for the right price.  There is no right or wrong, the end justifies the means.

 Why would you have a problem with someone Buying a fully geared and maxed character?

For that matter, why would you have a problem with someone Buying a raid victory?

I'm very very sad and disappointed to hear that Aion is just another fighting game.  

Yet another fantasy shooter, a  hollow shell filled with nothing.  Epic fail.

Seems the last best hope for a realm of Wonder and Intrigue and Imagination lies with Bioware.

Maybe this guild leader will also return  -  a WoW classic

( warning: nsfw)

Onyxia Wipe

Originally posted by Jenneroflok

This article brought back many memories.  Writing a history for a new character with it including the Black Ogre event that happen between Trinsic and Skara.  Working with Friends trying to Clear the undead out of Trinsic,   

God I remember those!  The best times I've ever had in any MMO was during those chained Live Events in UO.
 

I remember... the public funeral for some murdered noble in one of the ciies, many players in attendance, the dm-led ceremony was proceeding very solemnly, when a black robed character pushed his way thru the crowded church and shouted threats of doom and destruction on all in the city, then disappeared!

Mass confusion for a few minutes, what was going on??? 

Suddenly the npc Town Criers staterted yelling TO ARMS! TO ARMS! THE CITY IS UNDER ATTACK!

Everyone RACED out of the church to find the gate was being sieged by waves of monsters!  Friends and strangers spontaneously grouped and fought like berzerkers to push them back and chase them up the highway.  After what seemed like hours of fighting our over-zealous party got too far ahead and we fell to a pack of Red Robe Mages. 

Later we found out the whole assault was just a diversion - when the city emptied out to fight the monsters someone slipped in and kidnapped the Mayors daughter!  Who planned and executed such a foul deed?!?!  Where was she taken??? We must rescue her!!!

and on and on the Adventures and Intrigues went.  Wonderful stuff.

As someone on his blog suggested -

Given EA's history of raping devs, you must have known this would eventually happen when you signed with them,...

and Bioware will be the NEXT group to be stripped of it's executive level creative talent.   :(

I imagine the up-front money is really nice, but damn, it's like selling your soul to satan - you KNOW it's a losing deal long term.

" Christian Nutt " ???  is either a fake name or his parents had a weird sense of humor.

I spose he's lucky they didn't name him Busta.

Who else is on staff at Gamasutra? Jewish Looney ? Islamic Crazy ?

 Ask any Star Trek fan to quote the opening to the TV show and you’ll hear the words

“…to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Bah!!!  Revisionist Heretic!!!

Here's the Original intro to the Original Star Trek, spoken by Capt. James Tiberius Kirk himself-

www.youtube.com/watch

"...to boldly go where no Man has gone before"

Man, as in Mankind, as in humanity; not some politically correct powder puff muddying of a once clear destiny.

Kirk 'd knock ya on yer ass if he heard such watered down limp wristed gender neutral pablum!

Thanx for the article, TomeNEt is a game i'll play. 

For any who are fans of Rogue-alikes i HIGHLY recommend Dwarf Fortress - a free indy sandbox sim/game in development by Bay 12 Games www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

Your mmo history is nearly identicle to mine, except i went from BBS doors to Realm, UnderLight and Meridian 59 before finding UO.

A lot of the exciting qualities you describe come from Pencil and Paper D&D. In my opinion that's really what modern mmogs are missing - Dungeon Master (DM) creativity and interaction. 

The closest that mmogs have come to that level of interaction are the early months of UO when employees ran weekend Events (the Shrine Wars campaign was ASTOUNDING!) and also good old Asheron's Call, where again the storyline and world was advanced by DM Events.

For Depth of Immersion and Suspension of Disbelief, I still await the mmog that can even come =close= to a good DM-run "Village of Hommlet"  D&D intro scenario. 

So I log in to a MMOG for 15 minutes with an older rig. 

What do you propose I be able to do other than chat or check the status of inventory, bank or exchange prices?

Maybe MMOs should incorporate some kind of Facebook / Twitter access from within the game for these brief visits, every other e-media outlet seems to be doing that. 

Tweets from Ironforge, yay.

Oh good, yet another 1st / 3rd person action fighting twitch game,

success depends on how fast you can jiggle a joystick. 

And oh ya, they have Pee vee Pee.  BFD.

Mile Wide, Inch Deep. 

Yawn.

This guy is 100% corporate suit. 

Hopefully R.A. Salvatore won't be too insulted, disappointed or embarrassed with what they do with his input.

By the by, Salvatore is best known for Drizzt Do'Urden.

Originally posted by badgerer

But would anyone have paid a monthly sub to play Neverwinter Nights?

*raises hand* - with professional quality content advancing the storylines each month, hell yes.

Eventually we're gonna come full circle and get back to the one player / story driven mmorpg formula that got it right -

Asheron's Call.

Story modifies choice -->choice modifies action -->action modifies Story -->

Originally posted by Karsk_Jagare

It's nice somebody still thinks about this stuff in game dev.  These are the kinds of questions designers like Richard Garriott used to explore back in the pre-UO days, when IDEAS were still important, before money became the single all-encompassing goal for development.  Gone are the days when designers dreamed of creating rich immersive compelling fantasy Worlds, now it's 'how can we make a buck'. 

There are problems with the status quo 4 pillars.   Take combat and progression for example.  In my opinion, the two  do not seem to be compatible.   

PvP is inherently antithetical to MMOGs. Period.  The myriad convoluted solutions designers have tried over the years to make the 2 work together demonstrates the incompatibility.

Exploration? You bet. But what kind of exploration are we talking about here?  Aimless wandering through huge but unpopulated environments?  That works for a couple of weeks.  Adventure has to result in something.  

God yes, manys the time i've run thru the wilderlands hoping for something ANYTHING novel to stumble across, a small shrine, a ruined cabin, a fairie ring, jeez Anything that would lead to something going on in the world.

You create a world with multiple interactive institutions.  Many player associations that each have an in game, story driven purpose.  PLayers can join and leave these associations.   An army.  A black market.  Engineering groups.  As well as towns, birthplaces, worlds, empires. All associations that players can belong to.  Each association has a geographical location, a set of unique experiences to go with membership...(Armies fight and so on,  Engineers build things and so on) Each association has its own truly unique experience.  Story driven. And the associations can interact with one another...Engineers build mechs that amries use.. black markets provide a place where stolen things get sold.  

Yep, stuff like this is what the original MMO designers were talking about back in the early '90's, a dynamic, player driven, consequential, Living World.

When someone says Story is important, this is the kind of thing I think of. Sure its important, but how are you going to embed an individuals story into the gameplay?  How does his or her actions relate to their individual story? How does (the individuals story) become a part of the story of the world or the empire?

 I think there IS a way to do it, you're talking about implementing History into a gameworld , history being defined as the cumulative effect of individuals actions.  It's do-able.  But it won't come from the EA's or Sony's of the world, it'll come from an indy developer.

Originally posted by khaelf

Let's talk about Korean F2P games.

Since the entire free to play category doesn't have good visibility in the game media, it's not surprising that many people, even within the industry, know little about what's going on within it.

They're already far too visible as it is

Agreed.  (to be fair it seems to me MMORPG.com has toned down the coverage of these games.)

Many people, both within and outside the industry, wish these trash games would become completely IN-visible.

$10 Million budget?  For what?  It can't cost more than a few Hundred dollars to churn out this trivial garbage.

WHAT?! ... No ffa PvP???

/sarcasm

Mortal Online will split the tiny hard core pvp market with DarkFall , then both companies will fail for lack of customers.