A Thought on MMORPGs

[Commissar]

As I'm still on crazy-ass Russian time, and consequently still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed despite it being 7:30AM, I thought I'd pose a question to you lot.

 

Why is it that the only successful MMORPGs seem to be sword-and-sorcery types? The exception is Star Wars Galaxies, of course, and possibly Matrix Online, though I haven't followed the latter enough to know if it's gone silent yet or not. But the point still stands; it seems (at least to me) like the vast majority of MMORPGs are essentially Dungeons & Dragons clones, and I'm wondering why the sci-fi ones don't fare better.

 

Is it developers only wanting to back a sure bet? The general caution of the game industry? I'd imagine that most, if not all, big game studios would want a piece of the MMORPG pie, and they could easily get it, provided they had the right licenses. The two settings that come most readily to my mind as brilliant matches for the MMO playstyle are Fallout and Shadowrun. For the record, I've already designed Shadowrun Online in my head, from top to bottom; if I had one iota of programming or game development experience, I'd make a few million and call it a day. So for any game company CEOs out there that want to retire in style, just PM me. Yeah, it's that good.

 

Anyway, feel free to post your thoughts.

[Musopticon?]

Generic fantasy sells. That's why Salvatore is such a bitch.

[LadyCrimson]

Musc about sums it up for me too.

 

Fantasy is what (many) people are used to, and they start to cry if the usual stuff isn't there. Dragons, damsels, fireballs, the same classes and spells etc.

 

I've seen games that are more sci-fi oriented, but it still amounts to a similar gameplay concept - fighter(soldier)/magic(chemical)/archer(grenader). And they usually - not always of course - don't sell as well. Thus I'd assume business wise it's about that aspect.

 

Consumer-wise, perhaps players tend to associate tech/guns/space with shooters/action/strategy and not RPG's out of long habit. And as we all know, some habits die hard.

[Musopticon?]

You put it so much better.

[Cantousent]

City of Heroes is quite popular and it's a "comic book hero" sort of MMORPG.

 

City of Villains is hitting the shelves soon.

[Musopticon?]

From what I understand CoH's success is nothing when compared to the Top-5 fantasy mmos.

[Cantousent]

Even if that's true, Commissar proposed that the only successful MMORPGs are sword and sorcery. CoH isn't exactly burning unsold copies of the game on Venice beach. It's a successful game.

[Musopticon?]

Didn't deny it. Just wanted to point that out.

[metadigital]

Don't forget those crazy Coreans (they like to spell their countries name with the traditional C, rather than the Japanese imposed K).

[Musopticon?]

A good point. There's a whole different world of games in Corea. Especially rpgs.

[213374U]

The only MMORPG I might be persuaded to try must be set in the WoD.

 

Wait. We're talking MMORPGs here. Never mind then.

[GhostofAnakin]

I'd play a MMORPG if it was set in the Star Wars universe and was good, which automatically eliminates the current one. "

[Musopticon?]

I'd play an mmorpg, sure. They just need less people, more tightly-knit and intelligent communities, real roleplaying and no mothly cost. Well, I might pay if it was exceptionally good.

[Drakron]

Most popular MMORPGs are Lineage I and II followed by WoW.

 

Let me put this way, Limeage sells on the far east and became a status symbol of sorts there.

 

WoW success is due to Blizard reputation.

[213374U]

I'd play an mmorpg, sure. They just need less people, more tightly-knit and intelligent communities, real roleplaying and no mothly cost. Well, I might pay if it was exceptionally good.

Well, Mus. You already play an MMORPG. Otherwise, what's your excuse to grind levels like that? ^_^

[Musopticon?]

Touch

[Darth Jebus]

I've been playing WoW for a couple months now and I'm almost level 60. And right about now I'm really starting to question what the point of all this has been. I've started posting questions over on the WoW forums like, "So, what do you do after you hit 60?"

 

The most common response?

 

"Roll an alt, noob."

 

Most people just grind the same high-level instances (dungeons, for those not familiar with the lingo) over and over again when they hit level 60 for the purpose of getting epic gear and gold.

 

Which again, leads me to the same question: so then what? I mean, what do you do? Which leads to the above response of, "Roll an alt, noob."

 

Again, for those not familiar with the lingo an alt is an alternative character starting at level 1. Which means, essentially, start the whole game over again.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no real sense of accomplishment in MMOs. At least in WoW.

 

I find the game alot of fun but ultimately, there's no point to it. There's no real sense of consequence or role-playing because there is no real story. What makes or breaks an MMO is the community. And that's what keeps WoW fun, IMO. Going to the forums and seeing all the people you played with last night. You actually start to make friends there and you find that you begin to "hang out" in the game.

 

But there comes a point when you realize that all this amazing loot you've acquired means absolutely nothing. That lvl 60 elite dragon you and your guild just slew? It'll just respawn for the next guild to fight. That epic sword you've acquired that's worth hundreds of gold and can kill things with one or two blows? There's at least a dozen other players with the exact same weapon as you.

 

There's really no self-worth in the game because everyone is doing the exact same thing you're doing. Some of them even look like you.

 

So I don't know. It's fun but if you're into story and actually trying to accomplish something that affects the world in which you play in, you'll probably be disappointed.

[metadigital]

The "unique" high level items become the membership criteria for the cirlce of fruitcakes that grind to get them. If you haven't got the Dragontooth Sword of +19 Sex Appeal, then you don't get to hang out with the homies.

[Guest Fishboot]

There's no real sense of consequence or role-playing because there is no real story.

 

I played WoW for a few months after launch (in the typical "start playing with a circle of real life friends, last one to quit loses" style) and I have to say that there really is some "story" there, particularly if you know the WC3 backstory (which I don't). But unfortunately it's so pathologically derivative of Tolkein by way of D&D and Warhammer that it's impossible to take seriously, to the point that I didn't even notice it unless people pointed it out to me.

 

I feel like waiting a couple more decades to see if the MMORPG genre grows into anything really interesting before I can decide what to make of it.

[Calax]

I've been playing WoW for a couple months now and I'm almost level 60.  And right about now I'm really starting to question what the point of all this has been.  I've started posting questions over on the WoW forums like, "So, what do you do after you hit 60?"

 

The most common response?

 

"Roll an alt, noob."

 

Most people just grind the same high-level instances (dungeons, for those not familiar with the lingo) over and over again when they hit level 60 for the purpose of getting epic gear and gold.

 

Which again, leads me to the same question: so then what? I mean, what do you do?  Which leads to the above response of, "Roll an alt, noob."

 

Again, for those not familiar with the lingo an alt is an alternative character starting at level 1.  Which means, essentially, start the whole game over again.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no real sense of accomplishment in MMOs. At least in WoW.

 

I find the game alot of fun but ultimately, there's no point to it.  There's no real sense of consequence or role-playing because there is no real story.  What makes or breaks an MMO is the community.  And that's what keeps WoW fun, IMO.  Going to the forums and seeing all the people you played with last night.  You actually start to make friends there and you find that you begin to "hang out" in the game.

 

But there comes a point when you realize that all this amazing loot you've acquired means absolutely nothing.  That lvl 60 elite dragon you and your guild just slew? It'll just respawn for the next guild to fight.  That epic sword you've acquired that's worth hundreds of gold and can kill things with one or two blows? There's at least a dozen other players with the exact same weapon as you.

 

There's really no self-worth in the game because everyone is doing the exact same thing you're doing.  Some of them even look like you.

 

So I don't know.  It's fun but if you're into story and actually trying to accomplish something that affects the world in which you play in, you'll probably be disappointed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

simple, Raid the instances and go PVPing my friends also worked on their alts so now they each have 2 60's and several others over 20

 

They need to make a 40k mmo.

[metadigital]

...

I feel like waiting a couple more decades to see if the MMORPG genre grows into anything really interesting before I can decide what to make of it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

But watch out for:

[Musopticon?]

:::Pictastic: +1:::

[Guest Fishboot]

:::Pictastic: +1:::

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I adblock about 90% of the internet (This forum looks like a Lynx screenshot to me) so meta's post looked like some kind of weird zen koan before your reply clued me in that there was supposed to be a picture there.

[metadigital]

But did you click the link? (Everything has more than one meaning.)

[Guest Fishboot]

But did you click the link? (Everything has more than one meaning.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Contemplating the koan has allowed me to mentally transcend the petty realm of your "links". Ohhhm...