MMORPGs and the single gamer

[Janmanden]

There's an interesting article at Gamespot with a Bioware dev, Damion Schubert, about people who play MMORPGs alone without interacting much with other players.

 

Welll.. "Schubert said it's a question that has been asked increasingly in the MMO community of late, with the conventional wisdom being that MORPGs were only for those willing to group with others" What bubble have you been living in?!

 

WoW has been full of single-player quests and etc since.. well, I only played from the fall of 2006 to the point where I cancelled my subscription in 2008.

 

Playing MMO's solo is as old as MMO's itself from soloing through text-based DikuMUD's in the early nineties (multiplayer adventures in textual virtual worlds; singleplayed) to the point'n click graphical MMO's of today. Killing time between wating for groups to assemble or just killing time. There isn't anything new in that article about MMO game development other than explaining what it has been about for nearly two decades, but since it has evolved from being fairly geeky to public acceptable I guess it makes more sense and interesting to turn that into a science now and spread it like ripples in the water to all kinds of sociological and antropological sciences or whatever the intent may be. But.. Nothing beats having some professor or Biowarian Designer tell you, what everybody knows or could figure out themselves on the first day of any subscription by observing the players around them, but just in a lot more words posed as if they were shocking news.

[Nihilus5078]

An MMORPG that has single player, Sweet!

Edited September 20, 2009 by Nihilus5078

[Purkake]

An MMORPG that has single player, Sweet!

 

A single player game that has a monthly fee, sweet!

[Hurlshort]

Eh, I've gotten a ton of free content from LotR Online, or rather a ton of content for $10 a month. I haven't had any single player games match that.

[Purkake]

LotRO isn't a single player game either.

[Maria Caliban]

Am I the only one who thought this would be about dating in MMOs?

[Purkake]

Am I the only one who thought this would be about dating in MMOs?

 

Now that you mention it...

 

I just auto-correct the titles in my head, I guess.

[Calax]

An MMORPG that has single player, Sweet!

 

A single player game that has a monthly fee, sweet!

WEll, for 120$ a year you get a LOT more content than you would out of two single player games.

[Blarghagh]

Yeah, you pretty much get all KotOR 1 has to offer in about 80 hours. That's nothing like the amount of time I used to spend in WoW (I actually started playing that again last saturday, too.)

[Gorgon]

I tend to join ad hoc groups of people who are already there to play the mission rather than clans, rather I think the word is guilds*, I go alone if I don't trust people to stay the course or if the only people available are all capping asshats.

Edited September 21, 2009 by Gorgon

[Amentep]

I don't want to have to put up with lamers and griefers to play a game.

 

That's me.

 

And until someone patches Human Nature, I think there's no way around that in a MMORPG.

[Maria Caliban]

And until someone patches Human Nature...

 

I've been saying this for years. People try to build societies around humans and it's like building a house on the sand. Human nature is the problem so changing human nature is the solution.

[Slowtrain]

And until someone patches Human Nature, I think there's no way around that in a MMORPG.

 

]

That would be a pretty big download, I think.

[Purkake]

Having an online game means you get both good and bad people. That's pretty much the package, you take it or leave it.

[Gorgon]

And until someone patches Human Nature, I think there's no way around that in a MMORPG.

 

 

That would be a pretty big download, I think.

Amazingly it comes to only 324 kb.

[Amentep]

And until someone patches Human Nature...

 

I've been saying this for years. People try to build societies around humans and it's like building a house on the sand. Human nature is the problem so changing human nature is the solution.

 

Not sure its possible to do though...

 

And until someone patches Human Nature, I think there's no way around that in a MMORPG.

 

]

That would be a pretty big download, I think.

 

People on dial-up will have to go to their local library or an internet cafe to patch themselves.

 

 

Having an online game means you get both good and bad people. That's pretty much the package, you take it or leave it.

 

That's why I have yet to commit to any MMORPG. I've never found it fun to be around people whose only desire is to make sure you don't have fun.

[Purkake]

Having an online game means you get both good and bad people. That's pretty much the package, you take it or leave it.

 

That's why I have yet to commit to any MMORPG. I've never found it fun to be around people whose only desire is to make sure you don't have fun.

 

Ah, but doing that IS fun. It's like a vicious circle of fun and unfun.

 

Also, getting annoyed is pretty much what the griefers want if you ignore them you kind of win.

[Amentep]

Having an online game means you get both good and bad people. That's pretty much the package, you take it or leave it.

 

That's why I have yet to commit to any MMORPG. I've never found it fun to be around people whose only desire is to make sure you don't have fun.

 

Ah, but doing that IS fun. It's like a vicious circle of fun and unfun.

 

Also, getting annoyed is pretty much what the griefers want if you ignore them you kind of win.

 

Or I can just avoid the experience and I win!

[Purkake]

I wasn't saying that you should play them. I don't...

[alanschu]

I looked at Age of Conan and really, really liked it.

 

But I didn't touch it with a bargepole. I don't want to pay a subscription to play a game. I don't want to have to put up with lamers and griefers to play a game. I don't want to be connected to the internet to play a game.

 

So why don't they simply make a basic Age of Conan single-player core product and charge for DLC / modules? You open up a new revenue strand for every MMORPG because the feedback here is that most folks are playing them solo anyhow.

 

Cheers

MC

 

 

The thing is though, if they did that they'd lose the money from those that pay the subscription fee for a predominantly single player experience.

 

I don't know if it'd be that successful to release single player versions of the games.

[Gfted1]

I tend to join ad hoc groups of people who are already there to play the mission rather than clans, rather I think the word is guilds*...

 

 

This is how I play too. I am in a guild but thats only for what they can offer me and vice versa. I think the "lamers and griefers" thing is totally exaggerated. Ive literally been in thousands of pugs (Pick Up Groups) and rarely if ever run into those kinds of people. Of course, I also only play on a PvE server so Im sure a lot of that is mitigated.

[Hurlshort]

I tend to pick RP servers when offered, not because my need to act like a scottish dwarf, but because the overall maturity level tends to be higher. Griefers don't last all that long on RP servers because they get reported quite frequently.

[Calax]

I tend to pick RP servers when offered, not because my need to act like a scottish dwarf, but because the overall maturity level tends to be higher. Griefers don't last all that long on RP servers because they get reported quite frequently.

Sometimes on WoW's rp servers you'll get reported for not being "in character" all the time. But in general the whole thing about griefers and such are blown way out of porportion, sure there are some runnin around but usually they're found out and ostrasized from the server at large.

 

On my server we have a guy who "ninja'd" the Ashbringer (one of the few legendary items in the game, probably the best too because it has a lore line with it), at least that's what most people think. Basically what happened was that a rogue had stolen the item, and this guy had convinced the guy to give it to him so he could pass it to the person who should have gotten it. Unfortunatly the person who was doing the passing (and the guy I'm talking about) didn't take into account the fact that you can only move things once, so he got the sword and couldn't give it to the person who should have it. Thus he's known as a Ninja, and was so throughly ostrasized that he had to change his name to stop getting nasty tells.

 

Thing is he's a good guy and didn't do much wrong, just the circumstances are a bit shady. People don't take well to ninjas and will often take action to prevent the ninjaing of stuff. Griefing? now that's another thing. In wow if you grief your own faction you're yelled at and ostrasized by all except for your guild/group of friends. If you grief the other faction it's considered normal (hell on a PvP server it's a rite of passage to survive in STV when you're leveling. That place is murder on both factions lowbies because bored 80's go there and just murder anyone of the opposite faction they see).

[Blarghagh]

And until someone patches Human Nature, I think there's no way around that in a MMORPG.

 

 

That would be a pretty big download, I think.

Amazingly it comes to only 324 kb.

 

bootcode:

if {asshat} = true > run [abortion.obj]

Edited September 22, 2009 by TrueNeutral

[entrerix]

i liked guild wars for single player. i spent about 100 hours beating the oc in the first month that the game came out. tough as hell.

 

i tried replaying the game recently and got bored almost instantly. it also felt way easier too.