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MMOGs: What's the deal?
Having dipped my toes into several online roleplaying games recently, I'm wondering what other people make of them.
World of Warcraft has come across as mostly dull grind, peppered with the occasional moment of brilliance (player-driven emergent behaviour, mostly), but it is, essentially, an expensive chat service.
EVE online is vast, intimidating, obscenely detailed, and probably the most tempting online game I've come across due to the fact that most of the interesting events in the game are directly controlled by players. That, and the ability to screw people over with impugnity has me seriously contemplating a subscription.
A Tale in the Desert: What a dump. Not only were there hardly any players (rendering 90% of the game unplayable), but because I made a second character, apparently against the terms of use, they threw my main character in 'jail', and I had to wait until a GM found time to chat with me. He then explained the situation, telling me it was 'theft' and that I could be in 'legal trouble' (ooh, I'm shaking!). That said, we did come to an understanding, and as compensation for wasting my time he promised to add an extra 12 hours on my account, which never materialized. Utility -> Account -> Delete followed soon after.
Anyway, what experiences have you people had with these types of games? Are there any good ones out there that aren't a) populated by smacktard wannabees, b) huge time wasters or c) just poorly run?
World of Warcraft has come across as mostly dull grind, peppered with the occasional moment of brilliance (player-driven emergent behaviour, mostly), but it is, essentially, an expensive chat service.
EVE online is vast, intimidating, obscenely detailed, and probably the most tempting online game I've come across due to the fact that most of the interesting events in the game are directly controlled by players. That, and the ability to screw people over with impugnity has me seriously contemplating a subscription.
A Tale in the Desert: What a dump. Not only were there hardly any players (rendering 90% of the game unplayable), but because I made a second character, apparently against the terms of use, they threw my main character in 'jail', and I had to wait until a GM found time to chat with me. He then explained the situation, telling me it was 'theft' and that I could be in 'legal trouble' (ooh, I'm shaking!). That said, we did come to an understanding, and as compensation for wasting my time he promised to add an extra 12 hours on my account, which never materialized. Utility -> Account -> Delete followed soon after.
Anyway, what experiences have you people had with these types of games? Are there any good ones out there that aren't a) populated by smacktard wannabees, b) huge time wasters or c) just poorly run?
Comments
Puzzle Pirates is a game I played since beta, but stopped playing over a year ago. There was a special deal for beta testers that we got 2 years of play for $50. I played it more in those two years than I play most $50 GameCube games. I liked it because it was really a game about puzzle skill and social interaction in pirate crews. The problem is people started to take the politics too seriously and scarily. All I want iss a happy pirate puzzle game. I'd reccomend playing the demo for free, but it's just not worth what they charge.
When I MUDed back in the day I played crappy Diku MUDs mostly. Everquest is a Diku MUD with graphics, go look it up. But eventually I came across one MUD named Achaea. I played the MUD for 5 minutes and realized it was the MUD to end all MUDs. It is perhaps the perfection of online role playing. It might not even be a MUD, but a MOO or MUSH I dont' know. I stopped after 5 minutes and saved myself a few years of my life. I recommend experiencing it to know it's greatness, then abandon it to avoid eternal addiction.
I wrote three entries in my blog a long time ago about MMOs. Keep in mind they might be poorly written since they are so old. The one you want to read is this one. It described the idea for an MMO that I came up with, and hope to one day create. I believe that this is truly the concept for an MMO that doesn't suck. Tell me what you think.
The only issues I see are:
1. Technical- MMOs are among the most obscenely complex systems in all of existence, ever. Seriously. I've seen at least 40 WoW servers crash over the past week alone, and those guys are at the top of their game, so to speak. Your game, with its positronic-brain-needing requirements, will die like clockwork, probably on the hour. I predict it will become the gold standard for precision timekeeping.
2. Social- from my experience, the players who go really deep into MMOs are only there so they can show off their level 60 Gnome Baker\Barbarian to all their online buddies. Thus, the lack of stats or skills will leave the WoW crowd out in the cold. The only people who will truly apreche-ate the game will be the people with no time to play it. Like me.
3. Cost- to make a game this good, it would take a metric assload of money to make. And quite frankly, if I had enough money to make it, I'd probably just by a yacht and fill it with hookers and blackjack.
If none of the above was an issue, what we really need is the Burning Wheel of online games. Player driven missions, customisable environments, accurate physics, realistic economy. While we're on a flight of fancy, put the real world into a computer. Then fuck with it a bit. There's your ultimate game...
Outside of that I find it a bit boring.
Basically, if you're trying to play an MMO on the merits of the game itself, something's wrong.
Of course, D&D Online sounds as though they're trying to incorporate actual elements of gameplay into it, so I'll see how that is.
http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/02/24/what-are-the-lessons-of-mmorpgs-today/
The games are NOT perfect by any means and they really kinda suck if you try to solo your way through a game. Finding a good guild is freaking hard but if you do you'll have a great time.
Yes, Blizzard hired psychologists to design WoW.
EDIT: I'd play the punk kids versus the old man MMO. Fun.
http://pong.flash-gear.com/
massively multiplayer pong.
You are assigned to a team (look at the bottom) and it works out where the paddle goes to based on an algorithm that's performed on the location of everybody's paddles.
It rocks, possible TOtD material, if I may say so myself.
This seems to have tons of Free MMORPG games of various types..
Was thinking of trying a few of them out. but haven't got around to it yet...
They have a tons of free MMORPGS....
(probably will be trying out D&D online when I get a new computer in the next couple days.)
I'm also waiting for Darkfall Online to come out, it looks promising.
let me know,
D&D online apparently has more skill in it then just clicking on the badguy apparently. However I am not quite clear and will find out when I buy it..
Level 46 Enchanted Motorcycle Ur-Paladin baby!
Honestly, I can't stand MMOs. They're just a grind plus a social group. I can get the socializing anywhere I want (the real world, for example ^_~), and I get enough grinding in my job.
This comes at two expenses: the social aspect of the game, and scope of game. All of the mission content in the game is instanced, which is both a good and bad thing. It's a good thing because it removes all the typical MMO asshattery: camping, ninja looting, killstealing, random PvP asshats, etc. However, SINCE it's all instanced, you'll only have your own group and the enemies, so social interaction is greatly hampered.
Now, that wouldn't be a problem, if there were anything more to the game BESIDES missions at the moment. Basically, your group goes from the main city (the only place where you encounter other players) to instance dungeons for a mission and back again. There's no wilderness to explore or anything, so the MMO aspect is totally shot. This can be fixed, nominally, by adding more content, but if everything remains instanced besides the city, the game will not be able to have any decent level of social interaction. It's a good thing to do with people you already know, I suppose.
I do have to emphasize that the "game" aspect looks pretty interesting, or at least as interesting as any 3rd-person action game. It's certainly a step in the right direction for making an MMO into a game, and a step backwards for social interaction.
EDIT: Level 47 Half-Orc Ur-Paladin. I'd be higher level, but the latest nerf hit me pretty hard.
It's a First Person Sooter MMOG. There are very few out there, according to wikipedia (Wiki1 Wiki2). The game is in its 2nd beta release, I believe. I downloaded it and played it for a few hours. It being the first MMOG I have played, I was very confused. Eventually I figured out what to do, and what not to do (DO NOT BUY A CLONE IN THE TUTORIAL), and started roaming around the many cities. I got my ass shot so many times.
In terms of an FPS, its not too good. Headshots do little damage; the lag makes it hard to aim; close range pistol battles are annoying and take LOTS of ammo; and the actual aiming is slow.
I have, mind you, only played this for a short while. I could just be bitching cause I suck. Either way I DO like it and will continue to play it for a while to see if it really is any good. You should check it out if your looking for something new in the MMORPG world. (Or I assume it's new. If not, still try it.)