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Default Simplification in recent mmos

April 16th, 2011, 23:11
I wonder if all these "simplifications" that newer mmos employ to help streamline the gameplay process might just end up being counterproductive. Let me give a couple of examples:
  • maps - included by default, "fully explored" and viewable from start
  • maps - automatic quest tracking and waypoints given
  • loot - "AoE"- or auto-looting of all nearby enemies
  • loot - overabundance of powerful equipment, turns lower tiers to trash, equipment doesnt reflect the player's skillset
  • loot - token-based systems, no surprises, role of guilds diminished
  • combat - no involved "tactics" required aka plain tank & spank, no auxiliary class-specific skills/tradeskills/items or environment required
  • quests - overreliance on kill x, gather y, visit z
  • quests - no class-specific quest, unique challenges that require knowledge of class, unique rewards/abilities
  • classes - no distinguishing features between classes, generalized to dps/tank/healer
  • classes - unified stats, casters = clerics, ranged combat = close combat
  • dungeons - large and involved dungeons nonexistant, only mechanics involved is fighting through trash-mobs to bosses, wing-based design
  • achievements - no secrets to discover in the game, turns every aspect of the game to a "grind"
  • traveling - instant travel to all regions/dungeons, deflates illusion of being part of a world, missed opportunity for player interaction
  • leveling - leveling aspect of game deemphasized, three or four weeks of very casual gameplay to max level, players expected to use raid content with little or no knowledge of their class
  • grouping - dungeon finder, no need for personal contact between players, no training of organizational skills
  • grouping - cross server grouping for instances, de-emphasizes server community
  • raiding - reduction in total player size, guilds become smaller while the symptoms persists
  • raiding - dungeons with multiple difficulty levels, little motivation for completing dungeon the hard way
  • factions - create characters across multiple factions per server, reduces community built around opposing factions.
  • development - budget depleted at launch, overreliance on first week release sales, mindset set to "how to keep players" instead of "how to attract players".

These are just a small collection of recent trends I've seen in the game I've seen. Feel free to contribute more "recent trends", or maybe argue why these are actual good things for an mmo to have.

Note 1:
I've focused on PvE stuff since that's what I'm most familiar with. I've never done any PvP besides getting ganked.
Note 2:
I'm in particular refering to the recent persistant open-world mmos. The recent online games I've played are Guild Quest (privately-instanced zones), Everquest 2 (privately-instanced dungeons), World of Warcraft (single-instanced continents), DDO (privately-instanced dungeons), Lord of the Rings (single&privately-instanced zones), Warhammer Online (single-instanced zones), Age of Conan (multiple-instanced zones), Rift (single-instanced continent). Correct me if I'm wrong about some of these categorizations.
Last edited by hishadow; April 25th, 2011 at 10:28.
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April 17th, 2011, 00:05
Well, almost none of that applies to DDO which is the only online game I play!!
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April 17th, 2011, 00:12
Originally Posted by Corwin View Post
Well, almost none of that applies to DDO which is the only online game I play!!
Well, I've complained about instanced mmos in other threads, so I thought I'd skip that one here.
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April 17th, 2011, 21:04
your saying mmos were complicated to begin with?

lol nostaligia
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April 18th, 2011, 02:07
Originally Posted by SAGO View Post
your saying mmos were complicated to begin with?
More like less involved. That's not to say some aspects of mmos can be complicated. Have you ever done raids?
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April 18th, 2011, 02:59
If I were to put a title on your list of concerns, that title would be "accessibility".

Your concerns here is with WoWs design, and therefore most competitors, is its being so accessible that you're not feeling special and unique. Maybe even bored. You have a lot of time for MMORPGS and are willing to spend it trying to be the most powerful in the server. But not everyone has your kind of time and guild support!

I have a question for you, though…

For WoWs first expansion…. How could you expand the game without raising the level cap and introducing new items that make the old sets totally worthless? That treasure was hard earned and with a blink worse than green items. Is it really worth investing time in routine raiding?

Is it really worth playing MMOS?

I don't think so. :/
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April 18th, 2011, 03:46
Originally Posted by SirJames View Post
If I were to put a title on your list of concerns, that title would be "accessibility".

Your concerns here is with WoWs design, and therefore most competitors, is its being so accessible that you're not feeling special and unique. Maybe even bored. You have a lot of time for MMORPGS and are willing to spend it trying to be the most powerful in the server. But not everyone has your kind of time and guild support!

I have a question for you, though…

For WoWs first expansion…. How could you expand the game without raising the level cap and introducing new items that make the old sets totally worthless? That treasure was hard earned and with a blink worse than green items. Is it really worth investing time in routine raiding?
I think a guild is an important part of an mmo and not something that should be viewed as an obstacle in your gameplay. There's plenty of choices here, like small/big, casual/hardcore/roleplaying, pvp-oriented/pve-oriented. It really depends on what you like. The gaming world is already filled to the brim with introverts, so I think its good that they get "pushed" into some human contact.

As for the expansion and "gear reset". That's really not the problem. There were numerous occasions before the expansion hit where this took place, like with the different tiers of dungeon and raid content. I think its more important to have a great challenge with great rewards, and achieve this with other players. Isn't that sort of the point of being an mmo? If not, wouldn't I rather be playing a singleplayer game instead, like Diablo?

As for this "not being special anymore", its not what its about. I played a hunter in "as casual as it can get" raiding guild. We were about one tier behind the hardcore guilds. Pratically anyone who could show up one or two times in a week could participate. There were plenty of other guildmates carrying a Lok'delar and Rhok'delar. You don't go around cursing the world because of that. People were happy for your achievement, and you for theirs. So anyone with the slightest interest in that aspect of the game could would be able to participate. For instance, a 12 year old completed it in our guild and was very happy about it. People who did hardcore raiding might feel otherwise on this issue though.

Originally Posted by SirJames View Post
Is it really worth playing MMOS?

I don't think so. :/
Sure they are. I had a great time playing many of them, though at varying durations. Its not like I have to torture myself into playing them. If stuff gets too boring I quit. Hence this list on "simplifications" which I regard being counterproductive to a player like me.

I have a question for you too… did you do hardcore raiding in WoW? I know some other people on this board did and they sound very bitter about wasting their time on this particular game.
Last edited by hishadow; April 18th, 2011 at 04:54.
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April 18th, 2011, 13:03
Our last hope is ArcheAge - or so it seems

It's the only MMO I'm aware of that will try to combine the advantages of modern MMOs with those of the sandbox genre - AND evolve the genre at the same time.

It will largely depend on how succesfully they can "westernize" it for US/EU audiences.

I'm just hoping for a proper EU server.

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April 18th, 2011, 17:39
It looks pretty massive from the videos I've seen. I'm kinda skeptical since its an south-korean mmo with connection to Lineage. Definitly impressive what they're trying to achieve.

ed: here's a recent trailer for it.
Last edited by hishadow; April 24th, 2011 at 12:52.
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