All Posts by qombi

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So far different than I expected. I always unfairly stereotype younger players wanting easier games.

I love polls and I have been lately curious to if some of these stereotypes that get thrown around are true or not. You hear some such as "You are X years of age if you play X game" "That game is grind only X year old player would be interested in that". Let's see if one of the stereotypes hold true to what you thought it would or if you are really surprised about what age of gamer actually likes in this feature in a game.

There was some questions without answers I would like but anyhow I am crazy about polls!

WoW is a shallow easy game to play.  Don't  make fun of the only thing it brought new to MMORPGs ...and that is a horrible gaming community.

Originally posted by Runefan101

tl;dr

People that don't even have time to read a post is the future of MMORPGs unfortunately.

Originally posted by taxguy

There are several things that would bring not just me back but others as well.

 

1. MORE SOLO content. Players want this. Just check out WOW and EQ2. Players want more casual friendly. Solo is important for casual players.

2. Faster leveling especially at pre level 70. Casual players need faster leveling. I didn't say fast,just faster. Also, if this can be put in pre level 70, we can start to catch up with the existing player base.

3. Less time sinks: EQ, from what I have read, has implemented this a bit ,but it needs to get better. Eliminate need to run through zones and corpse recovery. DEFINITELY eliminate the experience loss on death. I can't emphasize this enough. Maybe they should adopt what is found in WOW or EQ2,which is damage to armor that requires repairs or some small amount of experience debt,which can be eliminated over time.

Are you serious? Why not just go play Wow then? I think they should bring it back to it's original state when the game opened. I don't want to play a progression server with all the garbage that is new still floating around in the game. In the progressive server we still had to see those stupid POK books. I think one of the  best ideas I have read came from the guy above me in another post, if you play on a classic server you can transfer over to another server at the end if you don't want to stay on the classic server. That way everyone is happy. People like me can stay where we feel the game was best. The should revert the graphics back as well and the UI and game mechanics though. The XP level should be back to the original as well, I think the screwed with it some.

Okay kids I am going to write down below a game design for all of you that don't like the "grind" and want it removed.

Game starts then game ends. There you have it. Not a bit of grind ..was it fun?

I think PvP has the potential to hold a customer's attention longer than static dungeons IMO. I am a big big EQ fan but that doesn't make me blinded to the fact PvP is a dynamic activity between players (not AI) that keeps people coming back.

I think they have to be very very careful with how they reward PvP though, if it is done like WoW is now, the fun will be sucked out completely. WoW in my opinion didn't have much going for it to begin with considering how shallow and easy it is then they made the honor system and ruined the only thing good about the game it had going for it, open pvp fights that players chose where and when to do.

The more control they put in a game, the less fun it is. EQ had alot of freedoms, and most games today have too many boundaries, instances.

Originally posted by MachoM

Not a bad idea but i prefer something w/o levels altogether.  I still don't understand why developers keep going back to the level system.  People have expressed their feelings toward levels and said that they want something new yet every game that is coming out takes the same old MMO style and adds twists to it.  That is not what people mean when they say they want something different. 

Personally I favor the skill system.  It allows for greater customization and you gain skill as you use those skills.  It seems like the devs are just too lazy to create a brand new game from scratch.  There is no imagination left in the MMO world and its quite disappointing.  Its not like the skill system is a radical new concept.  Ultima Online has proven that the skill system attracts players and works. 

The game that comes to mind that refutes this is WoW.  WoW is the most successful MMO to date but that is not to say that everyone loves WoW.  I tried it when it had just come out a few years back and I couldn't stand it.  I guess I was just 'spoiled' by UO's freedom.  I wasn't used to having to follow a linear quest system and I certainly didn't enjoy doing quests to level.  Another thing that bugged me after I stopped playing UO was that all other MMOs have a hotbar and offer very little UI customization compared to UO.  Its almost like all the devs got lazy and just wanted to release a product without actually caring about the customer.

The day all this changes is the day I get excited about MMOs again...and I am not the only one that feels this way. Hopefully 2008 will be a better year but I seem to say that almost every year and it never is true.

No matter what you do to a game there is going to be some kids that call having to do anything a "grind". Look at how easy WoW is and you still have kids saying WoW is a grind which is a joke. Untill they get to the point where they remove progression all together which makes the game a first person shooter kids will say it is a grind.

I find it stupid how fast people want their online world to go by. Now is it just a online single player game to see how fast you can "beat" it, which is retarded. Everquest took a long time to level, because it was suppose to, it was a world not a game. You were part of it, and were meant to be in it a long time. Kids forget what MMORPGs are about, that is a long term experience and a social community. It is ashame, but WoW fails at community which makes it fail as a world in my opinion. It is just a popular "Halo" or "Earthworm Jim" that is all.

I do like skill based character development, but kids will call that a grind too, because it actually takes some time to do it. Listen up kids, the time you are spending is suppose to be fun, not a rush to the finish line in an online world. I personaly would like to see a game made with so many levels that are hard to obtain that it would be impossible to finish and the devs add content along the way, then no one can whine about not being the best.

Originally posted by gestalt11

 

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

Originally posted by SaintFin

Originally posted by sanicek

 

Originally posted by SaintFin

Honestly, I have always loved games in which I can do things on my own. I have a family life, and, well, a life in general. This whole new party system on all these new MMO games are driving me crazy, Sometimes I just don't have the time to sit down and grind away with a party for hours just to see 1-2 lvls at a time.

Are there any games that I can play that are good that I can lvl just as easily soloing, or maybe close, as with a party? I am currently playing Rappelz, but good luck gaining lvls passed 50 without a party. They make it so easy to hit lvl 50 (well, sort of), then after that, there is no more soloing to lvl, it's all partying from there. I now have three chars that are Rank 3/lvl 50+ and working on another one at the moment. I seem to get them all to lvl 50, then quit because the game gets too dependant on others after that.

Any suggestions?

 

Wrong genre?

No, not at all. All of the original MMORPGs were not party based at all. THey allowed you to fight with others, but did not make the game nearly impossible to do so by yourself. In fact, the original ones worked better when soloing. It was not until the last couple years that these games suddenly became party dependant.

Hmm..amazing how different people perceive things.....from my view point games have become increasing solo friendly over the years and WOW really made it easy to solo (to level anyways)

 

In the early days of DAOC or EQ....you had to party to level....no choice really...... not true today though....

Must just be the difference in the games we've played......

Those were forced grouping games.  UO was not this way.  There has always been this divide since before MMORPGs existed.

 

There were forced grouping MUDs as well and MUDs where you could solo everything.

I personally hated forced grouping MUDs and found them to be a huge turnoff.  

I wonder why so many RPGs think you should start off as a cripple?  A full grown human male is pretty dangerous even without weapons or training.

Why don't we continue to offer both instead of what is happening now, all shallow solo friendly MMORPGs? I think the market is big enough for different games to be aimed at different audiences.

Sounds like you are looking for single player rpgs, why are you playing MMORPGs again? Pick up Oblivion that would be a wonderful game for you. I am not trying to be sarcastic but seriously I think you would enjoy Oblivion so much more.

If you guys don't like the "grind" character progression there are games that exist that don't have it already called first person shooters. I myself like character progressive games and feel levels are given too easy now in games as it is. There is too much focus on getting the the finish line. Levels should be long long long and dungeons  to explore with trolls, dragons, goblins at each level. Most people should never reach the end of the game before an expansion is about to come out, about a year or so. That is a MMORPG, a long last experience. The focus doesn't have to be how fast can I finish this game, you are paying monthly to be part of the world for godsake.

If you don't like character progression go play a first person shooter. World of Warcraft is too shallow and easy as it is. They only have interesting content at the very end where everyone rushed to. They have already made it even easier to get there in the last patch I believe I read which is sad. It should be harder to level, to make levels mean something or just remove them and make World of Easycraft the first person shooter of the MMORPG world. If they are saying levels mean nothing already by making them even faster why not do what I just said remove them since apparently it is only in the way of the final goal of envious players who can't stand someone being higher level than them.

I don't like quest either, I don't need some npc making my adventures, give us interesting dungeons to explore, castles, etc etc and put neat items on big baddies along the way .. .let the players decide what monsters need to be killed. Giving XP for quest was the stupidest idea ever in these games, which about has made it REQUIRED for you to follow their stupid linear game play. Make MMORPGs a world again .. not single player rpgs online. I can play that offline.

Originally posted by scotczech

Some want it some dont, i say give us the choice for christs sake!

make a classic server, why not???

you dont like play on one of the others!!

 

EQ2 needs its too, its gone all mamby pampy carebear shit.

 

1 lousy classic server on each game, why not ehh?? we all pay to play, let us decide dont force it on us!

I like your spunk! I agree with you.

It may nullify it but after so many years you think they would give this to the players (I sometimes feel they didn't keep the backups at different points). They could just put a donation button up on their website with a set goal for this server type and see if it meets it and can keep a donations going monthly. I don't see how that would be bad for them. I personally would pay monthly again for a classic EQ but it would have to be really classic, I want to stare at that spellbook. once again.

I think it very well could. It would actually have to be built again, I don't know how much farther they can take a browser based MMORPG.

I respect Runescape completely. There are some great folks that love that game. I do not care for it personally but much respect! Same goes for alot of other game such as UO, AC.

Originally posted by Yeebo

 

Originally posted by Zorgo

Bah....answer the question people.

I suspect the reason you're not getting any direct answers is that most of the folks that want a classic server don't care about "what comes next after you finish SoV."  They would be perfectly happy being "stuck" in a game that ended at SoV.    So your question is meaningless to them. 

 

They don't like the content has been added since SoV, and so it not being available to them is a complete non-issue.   They would rather play a "pure" old school style game that has a cap you can hit in a year or so than the "watered down" current game with years of content (most of which they don't care for).  

I know it's hard to believe, but there are some players that don't really care if their end game is constantly being expanded.  They don't need anything "to do" as long as they get to hang out in an online space they enjoy.

For example, take EQOA.  The game overall has much less content than EQ launch through SoV.  And because of the PS2 hardware limitations, it can never be expanded in any significant way.  And yet the game holds steady at 10-20K subs.  Once you have raided the last raid zone (about a year of work I would guess starting from level 1), there is literally nothing else to do.  And yet it was revealed in a recent interview (which I'd be happy to link if your not willing to take my word for it) that EQOA has some of the lowest "churn" of any SOE product.  There are thousands of players who have been happy with the game just the way it is for years now.  Go figure.

I think a true classic server in EQ would attract the same kind of cult following.  You'd see players that would stick with it for years, whether they had anything new to do or not.  They would fart around with alts, roleplay, craft, or do crazy faction grinds.   Not the sort of thing that appeals to me (I like my EQ "easy mode" and Luclin is actually one of my favorite areas).  But I have never understood why the Devs don't implement a classic server for the crazies that would get into it.

 

I think you explained it well. I love it when people hit a wall in a game. Like in Rubies the community gets very active when this happens, we start making up our own little crazy things to do which is more fun than any content patch can do for us. There would be player races (who could make it across the continent the fastest, biggest train, etc) , there would be events etc. I know how these communities work, we don't need someone making our content!

Also I would like to add even though DAOC classic servers are not truely classic they are very very popular. I know for one if EQ brought back EQ before Luclin, they would have my subscription fee at least for 3 years .. which is pretty dang good and maybe even longer after that. Why don't they just give an option on their webpage for a donation with a goal they set for making a classic server. I know alot of people who would just donate to keep this little world alive. If the game finally gets to the point where donations are not keeping it up, then shut it down.

I have a sneaky feeling that it wouldn't go down for years because like Rubies, alot of players will donate to keep their world alive they love.

Originally posted by Zorgo

Bah....answer the question people.

I did earlier. I don't like drastic changes to a game. I don't play my old games over and over because they are new, I do it because I love the games. I think the game server would rust apart before I made one of every class and tried out almost every race. So to answer your question, I don't care, I play a game right now called Rubies of Eventide that never changes. You got that right and guess what? There are people playing it because we love it. We like trying new builds, being with friends, and just being in the world we love.

Things don't have to constantly change for some believe it or not.