(first real blog wewt)
For me, gaming has always been about the MMORPG experience. Having played 11 titles in the last 7 years, I consider myself quite the connoisseur on the genre. However, I started with Everquest and I feel as though I will end with Everquest as well. Lately, there has been a massive amount of FAIL in the genre itsself and for good reason: I can't imagine its easy to create a living, breathing world... one where your gamers will stay longterm and form a closely knit community and thriving economy. I feel as though the days of plot, lore, faction, and epic journies are over in favor of the eye candy, casual MMO experience, which is mostly why I play Everquest, 10 years old and still going. And this blog is why.
How does one begin? First, you create a world. Easy enough, huh? Just a planet (or more considering EVE and SWG!) with its own sprawling plains, jagged peaks, vast seas and unique flora/fauna. If you're at a loss, you can always borrow the ideas of others, such as Norse, celt, and British mythology (Dark Age of Camelot) or the settings of books/movies (Age of Conan). Now, you've got a world... but no one in it. How do you draw people to YOUR game? What's so special about living a second existence in the world YOU'VE created? You give them a role to do, be it healing the hero, tanking the monster, poking things with sticks, making biscuits... they now serve a role in the greater scheme of the functioning community, relying on others to band together and accomplish tasks. Now we add money. Yes money, as big a driver in games as in real life. Suddenly players are exchanging goods, trades, and services for money. Congrats! You've now got a working economy based on supply and demand!
And then you take all of this: the years of hardwork, the back story, the lore, the world itsself, the playerbase.... and you flush it all down the proverbial toilet because the game is rubbish and you epically fail at creating an enjoyable experience.
At least, that's what Funcom did with Age of Conan and what Sony Online Entertainment did with Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
It really begs the question: Why do games like Everquest last so long? Why do games like World of Warcraft draw in 10 million players? Can you really chalk it up to the feeling of
je ne sais que?
I'm not a game creator, but I would hazard a guess that the missing ingredient as of late to the MMORPG soup is Ambience. Yes, nothing to do with the world itsself, only the feeling, unique to each and every player, that the subscribers get from the experience. From teabagging the opposition right the way down to roleplaying. Now as far as success is concerned, Everquest's longevity and WOW's playerbase are proof that they are the most successful titles in the industry. Why? Ambience.
WHen I play I don't want to feel like I am playing a game, I want to feel like I am in a whole other world. I don't want to feel like I am merely hitting a few attack buttons, I want to feel like I am stalking and pouncing on my prey. It may sound a bit silly, but its what we as MMO players have come to love and expect, and what the pretty eye candy as of late has failed to deliver. PLayers have to feel apart of the lore, and recognize where they fit into the grand scheme of the game experience. The lore, the essence, of the MMO has to be thick and prevelant, not just a cheap backdrop to the generic MMO experience (Age of Conan).
This is why I am still playing, after 7 years, Everquest. No other game matches the rich experience, the intricate lore, the factions, the creatures, the ambience! No other game world, except maybe EVE online, is as HUGE as the world of Norrath. The playbase are not using general chat to tell Chuck Norris jokes or wiping raids... most who play are experienced veterans. Not since Everquest have you seen a 72 man pick up raid on a god ran by one person using the chat box to give intructions! I like WOW, but 5 people can barely pull it together for a normal group using voice chat! The world and the players within have grown, and changed, and been molded with time... and the result is like a fine wine.
That, is why I like MMOs... and still play Everquest.
Quality: Everquest:
Eye Candy and thin: Age of Conan:
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I can't get into MMOs anymore. Maybe it's the monthly subscription fees that turn me off, or maybe it's the fact that I hate grouping up with random douche bags to complete a quest. Either way, whenever I want to feel like I'm in "another world" I just play a really deep RPG.
I still like WoW, but I need some sort of job to keep playing.
This new PS3 isn't helping. Not one bit...
I have tried a couple of MMOs but two still stand out as my favourites.
City of Heroes/Villains was a hell of a lot of fun, esepcially for a giant comic geek like me and the people on it were brilliant. It also had a nice way of levelling as you play as opposed to the playing to level style that puts me off of most other MMOs.
Planetside is still my favourite game purely because of how much that game was made of everything I look for in a game. It had shooting, war stuff, sci-fi, player vs player with no NPCs in the way and fantastic people on it. I am sad it died but that's the way of most games I suppose.
Also, nice write up
Have you ever played Graal Online?
I'm really not a fan of MMO's
I tried WoW for 2 weeks, then I realized I was just spending hours upon hours clicking in a very bland looking world filled with clones clicking all the same things I was.
No MMO has provided a rich enough story for me to give a shit about anything I'm doing. It's all so impersonal and bland, boring grinding missions that consist of click click click and repetitive "go here and kill/collect this missions". I can understand the strategy aspect of the combat, but without an interesting back story, I just don't care.
Orcs and elves are not interesting.
I totally predict that this blog will hit a new Sunday record for comments AND that you will become and editor within a month.
i agree with Butmac and not just because hes super sexy.
@butmac, why do you say that?
hah its just a thing that seems to happen on Dtoid, all females instantly get amazing amounts of comments.
But either way kudos for a very good first post. admittedly though if i got addicted to viva pinata as easily as i did, i don't think a person like me should EVER go near a MMORPG!
true pheonix, but its a good thing you realize that now, and not decades into an addiction haha! you're ahead of the curve.
Even though I didn't particularly like most of the additions that the expansion Trials of Atlantis brought to DAoC, it allowed for incredible PvE pick-up raids. All throughout the expansion were people banding together in the zones to complete master quests or artifact raids, and joining 30-100 people at the drop of a hat was pretty common.
DAoC's strong points were always in the RvR design, though... and I wish Mythic had modeled WAR a bit more similarly in that regard.
same Arttemis, it feels mythic dropped their good points in favor of a generic WOW clone to appease the market.
needs pictures :|
Hehe.. Thinking on EQ brings back some memories like sitting in the EC tunnel as people auctioned their wares and training griffons along every once in a while. Those were good times. :)
I was a guide for about six months on Cazic Thule about seven years ago. Wow, that feels like a long time! While answering petitions could be sort of fun, participating in GM-run world events was the most awesome thing I've experienced in a MMO. From killer gnomes to lost ice giants, it really was a rush as people would rush in to participate.
Of course, sitting at Lord Nagafen's feet while answering petitions was pretty nifty too. :)
@chocobo haha! On my server it was the kelethin bank for auctioning... starting for the first time in the game as a wood elf was certainly confusing watching the text fly by... and then falling off the platforms of te city lol.
Navie :) I love you lol. It's hard to find people out there who feel this way about mmo's. I have the same feeling for one mmo out there that has swallowed my life for the past 7 years as well, that being WW2Online :). That whole jazz about ambiance you talked about, well .. you hit the nail on the head.
Time for a trip down memory lane: WW2Online
I played world war 2 online from 2001 all the way till now, I played it for 4 years straight and then on and off every year after that till today. Now whats strange about this game is that it is hailed as a very bad game, buggy, and not noob friendly. While I can agree with it being not noob friendly this game is far from bad.
Imagine a game, that is half the scale of Europe, you are literally in a world that is a virtual battlefield. You have thousands of combatants that are constantly trying to defend or push their lines forward. With a realism system so vast that you have to range your weapons and estimate how far an enemy target is before you try take them out (this goes for rifles, artillery, tanks, etc). Then take into account shell shock and battle damage that can come so easily you really are at the edge of your seat trying to survive every second you are on the ground or in the air.
World War 2 Online gave that, and still gives me that, 200+ people on average are in every town battle in that game. That includes people playing s infantry, armored personnel, artillery, supply, naval, and air. Over 200+ in a combat scenario.. you want to experience a real battle? WW2Online is as close as you can get.
Now this game isn't for the simple and those without patience, this game requires a lot of dedication much like eve online. You can spend 40 minutes preparing for a airborne drop on some village only to have your ass shot the moment you jump out of the plane.. or even on the way there. What do you do? You pick up the pieces and you try again, or you go down to the mobile infantry spawn points and join the ground invasion. Its a hell of a grunge match, but if you love history, and you love the concept of virtual warfare.. look no further.
WW2Online set the ambiance perfectly, while its graphics are nowhere near spectacular, and its learning curve is quite aggravating for new comers, it still is one hell of an amazing adventure to go through. If you can join that game with people that are experienced with it I can promise you, if you are a history & military buff, you will not walk away from this game.
And you know what.. no other game has been able to hit that tone like world war 2 online has. Everquest is the same way, even its squeal felt like it bit to much into the main stream for me. I'm glad to see these two oldies still kicking and screaming. Its comforting to know that if I ever want to go back and get a taste of the way the MMO's used to be, I can just reactivate my account's :).
holllyy shit that was much longer than I thought it was I am sorry! D:
DYSLIXEC NEEDS A GIRLFRIEND CONFIRMED!
I agree with Butmac too. He's kind of a big deal.
An interesting post, Nav. Always good to see a good post with something to say. As often as I try, so never read mine. Oh well, lol.
I can't say I've ever sampled an MMO properly, except Guild Wars at a friends place. I'm glad that some out there still enjoy these games, but the monthly payment of anything just kills it dead in the water for me (each to their own).
I do like the free play set up of Guild Wars though, and if I was ever going to forsake normal games or just indulge in MMOs, this model is the only one that would interest me. I shell out to much bucks on games as is (let alone bills), to dedicate so much money to just one (and that's before upgrading my crap PC).
I agree with you ambience idea, for if a world is not compelling enough for someone they won't stay long. However, this also appeal to other factors like story and enough general variety in MMOs themselves. MMOs are too fantasy/scifi based for their own good, and that's another major turn off for me.
So do any MMOs interest me? Well, yes. I love the look of Sony's The Agency. When I bag a PS3 I'll invest in a copy, providing I don't have monthly fees. Its this kind of variety, that MMOs need if they are ever to break their stigma. Kudos too to those little known korean MMOs out there, also offering more diverse experiences, than those laced in swords, spells, spaceships and guns.
Oh yeah, besides The Agency, I also like the look of Shin Megami Tensei MMO (otherwise none as the Persona jrpg series). Simply because its set in the modern world, and has you being able to use magic as well as tradition weapons like guns and swords.
Go to school and hunt demons on the side, a nice change.
I'm done with MMO's. Like you, I started in EQ just before Kunark was released. It was a good time to play it. I quit just before PoP. I don't know, something definitely changed, maybe it was the whole CAAAAAAATS IN SPAAAAAAACE feeling of Luclin that ruined it for me. It was a unique experience back then, and the developers didn't hold your hand. I'm guessing many of the WoW players today never spent a whole day trying to recover a corpse to get your stuff back before it poofed. Or actually spending several hours running to places, scared out of your mind as a Barb Warrior going through the Dreadlans because they were blind at night and squinting at a 15 inch CRT.
I've tried many others like Vanguard, Star Wars Galaxies, and *shudders* Asheron's Call 2 to name a few, but none have reproduced the same sense of adventure that EQ had.
@trickynicky yeah, they just dont have that feel. I LOL'd at caaaats in spaaace I had the same feeling. But I didnt quit for the first time till OOW expansion.
Funny your username is Trickynicky, my real name is Nicky and I use Trickynicky42 as my logins and sometimes usernames!
@dreadhawk
no no that's not true! :( I just need a life, I have way too much love for older video games :x.
yo my dick is hard.
BUTMAC is a prophet.
a wild hamza appears?!
I hate MMOs because my wife is addicted to WoW. Fuck those games.
Don't even get me started on this topic ....
My hair is awesome in that picture MattFoo
Ok I'll admit it I'm not an experience hardcore-gamer, in fact I'm just a B.G. (BABY GAMER).The thought have crossed my mind but maybe I should star playing MMO games, possibly for the social experience.
P.S. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should start off with, or if I should start at all?
@ETERNALDEATHSLAYER: MMO'S are like a white horse.....?
@facemask WOW is a good starter MMO, but I think |Everquest has a much more in depth, long term gaming experience. It's up to you really, whatever your style is. Search a few games on the internet.
I am abit biased tho, I recommend EQ ^_^