Article : "Content locusts killed my MMO"
 

Hello everyone,

I just found this : http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cf…re/6045/page/1

It fits to something I have had as a feeling about DDO as well - mostly by reading through the forums there, though.

In one thread in the DDO forums, people discuss about what might be the reason for swarming "content locusts".

The term of "instant gratification" is the one of which I have the feeling as if it hits the top of the nail better than other explanation tries.

Others argue that there might be different generations of gamers out there.

Discussion thread about it in the DDO forums : http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=359924

Alrik

Rather off-topic : An interesting snippet from the commentaries there :




And I think that this comment adresses the "early MMOs vs. nowadays MMOs" thing best :

ONe rather satirical comment :

The author seems to think that leveling in SWTOR goes too quickly compared to other games, which is not really an experience that I've had. I'm not sure that it's really any faster then vanilla WOW was.

The author also seems to think that it's a bad thing that it's inefficient to do every single quest in the game as you level up. I disagree here as well. By having some quests that you don't do, it adds greatly to the replay factor.

Overall though I can understand that he likes the level up phase of the game and wishes it would last longer.

A few more comments before I quit commenting, lol :

What I find most interesting, imho, is this little snippet from below :


One'S personal experience with wow :

The article's author name is a female name.
At least here.

From Warcraft before any expansion I used (check your character):
Level 10-20: ~1 week
Level 20-30: ~2 weeks
Level 30-40: ~2 weeks
Level 40-50: ~3 weeks
Level 50-60: ~3 weeks

Started in beginning of October and dinged 60 around christmas 2005. Our LAN group played it pretty extensively so there wasn't that much idle time either. Never played Everquest so it probably felt fast-paced for those players, but I felt the leveling tempo was optimal to me.

In the English language, the word he is generally the default gender neutral pronoun. But looking up the author, your definitely correct that she is female.

Reading the comments I think the author definitely overly glorifies older games like EQ. Yeah it took a long time to level up, but part of that was because it took hours to do anything….you couldn't just log on and play for an hour because it took an hour to reach a place to gain xp, and then another hour to find a party. Also the freeform non quest driven play style that the author talks about was pretty much just sitting in the same corner of the world for 4 hours killing the same monster over and over as soon as it respawned. Plus most of the quests that did exist were still things like "bring back 5 skeleton teeth".

What strikes me is that in the comments about 98 % agree with her.

I still stick with : "Isabelle" is a female name. At least here.

Nostalgia. Most of the people that agree probably have good memories of playing their first MMO in the 90s, but they wouldn't be able to stomach them now if they were released.

UO, Everquest and Ascheron's Call are still up and running, if people love this type of game so much why don't they have more players? (less than 100k each)

I like cake but I won't eat one which is few months old :)

Simple answer : Because "modern" gamer generations can't stomach this kind of gameplay. "Instant gratification" is King nowadays. Some commentaries even call ADHS to be the problem.

Modern games are done so hat gamers get gratifications as soon as possible. No hard labour work anymore, and I fear if they transport this into real life … Then the Crime will flourish ! - Because - what's the fastest way to earn money ? Crime !

Hard, long labour work is something for whussies !

I've never even considered playing games like EQ and UO, simply because I prefer developer created content to "social content" - the community was everything in older MMOs, the game itself actually had no real content if you wanted to play for an hour or two on your own.

When I level alts in WoW or TOR, I do it the same way I would a single player game, but while chatting and teaming up with friends. I wouldn't even bother if it didn't have a single player-ish story to go along with it.

A big part of the reason why people have fond memories for the older games is because of the heavier social element. In EQ you literally sat around for 4 hours killing the same monster over and over. There virtually no story or adventuring or quests or clearing of dungeons. Just just sitting in one place for 4 hours, out of which aproximately 3 and a half hours were spent just waiting for the respawn. Because there was absolutely nothing else to do during this time, many people developed friendships, formed bonds, and roleplayed their own stories. They understandably have very fond memories of these times.

In more modern MMOS there is actually a game you play that keeps you occupied. You don't just sit around doing nothing for 99% of the time. So people form fewer friendships and spend less time roleplaying elaborate backstories for their characters.

Personally I'd much rather play a game with stuff to do. I think most people are like this. But people have different tastes and some miss the days when there was nothing to do but roleplay and talk to your friends..

Yes as I said, Isabelle is a female name, but that kind of misses the point of my response to you. But it's probably better that we don't get this conversation derailed into a discussion of the rules of the English language.

This is an *excellent* point. I played EQ and it was horribly monotonous. The reason I have such great memories (besides it being my virgin MMO which also plays into things) is there was nothing to do but chat with others. There was a lot of down time (and travel) in this game. Not to mention the way other players could truly help out.

Corpse runs - I got, and gave, tons of help when it came to corpse retrivial. There was ample oppurtunity to help folks with travel, quests (which were mega obscure sometimes), and just a lot more room for interaction and communication.

Many games now are much faster paced. In fact I have to do 90% of my chatting while just sitting out in a city or maybe doing some crafting. It is very hard to carry on a full conversation (in chat at least - I suppose voice chat is much easier although I am not a big fan of VC) when things happen so much more quickly. There just seems to be less time to get to know people and the whole process is much more utilitarian.

That being said I am also a casual player so I don't have any huge issues with speed. A friend made level 50 in just over a week in SWTOR. My highest level right now is 20 and I have been playing since it came out. In RIFT I had guild mates make max level before the first month was over while it took me 6 months. Course in EQ it took me over a year.

But I tend to agree with the general idea that current MMO's seem to push more getting to "end-game" content … which is a little bizarre considering all the effort they put into the content you experience during your journey there. Not to mention most new MMO's seldom have great end-game content at release.

I am in the minority though. When I reach max level that is when I get bored as I like the journey the most. I don't like raiding or grinding or the gear emphasis. I like to explore, chat, level, do some solo and some easy/casual grouping, and the end-game just doesn't have that feel.

PS - The title is accurate though. In most any new MMO these days many new players (not all of course) are like a swarm of locusts. They rush through content to get to the end-game … and then often complain about it. But is that the fault of the players? The developers? Just a side effect of the current generation?

This above quote struck me the most:
Is this true? It completely kills any inkling of desire I had to try the game.

EQ was also my first MMO and, while I realize there is some nostalgia going around, I think it was indeed more social. And more difficult. Nowadays, there is so very little camaraderie felt between group members (if a group is even required… but that is another matter). You join a group and 30 minutes later leave without a hello or goodbye. It's all so sterile.

People are generally so focused on self-gratification, that they dismiss most of everything else. In EQ, yes you camped a spot for hours… but you did so while having fun with others.

Well IF it's true Drithius it indeed doesn't sound like good idea to me as well. PvP and raids might keep a part (even a larger part) of players happy but what about PvEers? That was a problem with Age of Conan too but you had 80 rather than 50 levels.

I have no idea if this is true - but it sounded logical to me, that's why I had quoted it here.

By the way, what does the term "corpse run" actually mean ? I haveN' understood it yet.

And about this social aspect : Several commentators there said that user-generated content helps getting this game become more social, so to say. Several people point out to SWG because of that.

I don't think it's true. It sounds like some random guy on a comments board making baseless speculation. Certainly it's not based on anything official.

In truth almost everything about SWTOR that seperates it from other MMOs is something that happens during the level up proccess. They place a huge amount of emphasis on voice acting and individual class story lines and the vast majority of this occurs before level 50. As a result I'd say all evidence is on the opposite of Bioware trying to speed people along to lvl 50.

Plus it does still take a fairly long time to get to level 50. Most people I know (myself included) who have been playing since the game came out have not gotten there yet. There isn't really that much emphasis on raiding or high level pvp yet either.

As for EQ, yeah as I said it was more social there was nothing else to do while sitting around then talk to your fellow players. Some people really enjoyed this, many others hated it. It all depended on how much you enjoy talking to random gamers on the internet and whether you considered this fun enough to sit around for 4 hours doing nothing. Personally if I want to chat with people I'd rather do it somewhere else.