120°

MMO's Can Be Fixed If The Fans Stop Breaking Them

The MMORPG genre has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade, encompassing everything from original to well-known franchises. Yet it seems that every time I read about an MMO, it’s a fan stating that “X game is boring and has no content”. But if one looks at how much content said MMO truly offers one can’t help but think, really?

The problems really are the fanboys and the type of content produced to satisfy them.

Read Full Story >>
epicslash.com
dedicatedtogamers4836d ago

MMOs can be fixed if MMOs try to be more than WoW clones. We need a new model for how MMOs operate. The pattern for the last 7 years (since WoW has been out) has been this

- a new MMO comes out aiming to overtake WoW
- the first 25-50 hours are stocked with content
- players reach the endgame
- players get bored then go back to WoW

Endgame content is why WoW is still so popular. Blizzard makes sure that high-level players always have a ton of stuff to do.

admiralthrawn874836d ago

its gonna take a lot of work to keep people playing a game without repetition. i think tor learned that the hard way. but repetition is bad if not done right and i think blizz is doing a good job with a varied end-game for pandaria.

FlashXIII4836d ago

Was about to say something similar tbh. MMO's wouldn't need to be "fixed" if they all stopped trying to copy WoW.

It was said best I think on the swtor forums... sandbox games copy theme park elements but theme park games don't copy sandbox elements. I personally think it's time developers start looking at what makes games like eve so popular and take those ideas and turn the WoW genre (and let's be honest WoW has created a completely new mmo genre) upside down.

SPAM-FRITTER-1234836d ago

i think the old republic offers a refreshing way of MMO-RPG's

its still early days and after watching the guild summit Q&A there is stacks of new stuff coming and will be heavy supported for years to come.

FlashXIII4836d ago

Take out the storylines for classes and the voice over dialogue and you're left with a poor man's WoW in space.

I'd even go as far to say that if it wasn't for the fact the game had the Star Wars license, it'd have bombed terribly.

dedicatedtogamers4836d ago

The problem is, SWTOR follows the same exact blueprint as all of the other "big" MMOs that have come and gone in the last 7 years. Early and mid-game content is plentiful, varied, fun, and exciting.

But once you hit endgame, TOR falls apart and gets boring pretty quickly.

Kahvipannu4830d ago

Guild Wars 2 seems to be the one who actually might take over WoW, it maybe isn't revolution in MMO's, but huge evolution yes. Just the way how the game handels PvE content is so much ahead of it's competition is insane, it throws the levels/content restrictions to trashbin, and also it seems there actually is that content plenty.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4830d ago
Drabent4836d ago

We didn't break FFXI.......SE did><

thehitman4836d ago

From an MMO player who has played like almost ALL F2P MMOs and never played WoW, but played Rift... I can say that its both the fans and the developers who are to blame. I think that people complain about grindy games in games you have to pay to play mostly only. Fact is no one wants to spend all their time that they are paying to play fighting mobs they want to do dungeons get in the action with pvp. Everyone just wants to get high level fast and get to end game content asap. If more developers went the GW2 model just buy the game and small micro transactions cash shop, people would complain less about grinding because they can spend more of their time enjoying the content w/o feeling rushed. Then developers could focus more on "Horizontal Growth" which in reality is the only way to increase the longevity of the game. Also the games I had the most fun in are the MMOs that are 1-99 models not 1-50. Where it took MONTHS to reach lvl 80+ and not weeks to cap out.

Also from my experience with Rift watering down the game is the WORST thing you can do for an MMO. When Trion dumbed down the dungeons like 50% of the hardcore gamers quit within that month, which I think was a result of people crying about them being too hard(fan fault). Also I think over-tweaking the PvP made Rift kind of dull as well.

JeepGamer4836d ago (Edited 4836d ago )

WoW is part of the problem to some degree but the real problem is player attitude that was shaped by WoW.

Rush, rush, rush, and the only people you should ever have to actually talk to are people you know already. This completely wrecks any sense of community and when you factored in the cross realm battle grounds and dungeon crawls it put a final nail in that coffin.

That attitude carries on to other games and people say there's 'no content', by which they mean they've gone as far as they can go by themselves and have no personal attachment to any friends in the game, so they go back to the game where they think they do.

I would say the best example I ever saw of this was in Rift. I ran in to somebody who actually kept a timer going for dungeons and howled endlessly that it was taking 20 or so minutes longer than 'average'.

Saladfax4836d ago

Some people play MMOs to fill up experience bars. They like the grind. The really interesting ones are going to be those which move beyond the dull and stable structure of grind, quest, instance, grind.

Even moving toward different styles of leveling, like what The Secret World has going for it.

Or having players run the world as opposed to NPCs. World of Darkness, based upon Vampire: The Masquerade, intends to have clans and cities run by people (princes) who are PCs. Yes, by the nature of the world, regular folks will be able to set a blood hunt on another player, which essentially means the entire city is encouraged to track down and kill someone.

While this might seem like its begging for greifers, the system will likely be balanced by people who would quickly overthrow a corrupt entity. Yeah, it could backfire, but at least it's an interesting thought.

Show all comments (13)
80°

Rolling the Dice: Do Modern RPGs Miss the Point of Team-Based Play?

It seems it was long time ago. A bunch of friends spending hours on end playing RPG games, sitting around the table with the box of cold pizza. Excited about the story, listening to the Game Master, they were completely engaged in the worlds only visible to them and their imaginations.

Read Full Story >>
gameskinny.com
Takwin3057d ago

The GM is the programmer, and in MMOs and co-ops, you can play with others. If you want to ONLY use your imagination for the visuals, read a book.

210°

Record of Agarest War 2 announced for PS3

Scrawl: "Looks like we know how that new Compile Heart countdown is going to end. The latest issue of Famitsu has confirmed that Agarest Senki 2, known as Record of Agarest War 2 in the US, is Compile Heart’s newest title."

Read Full Story >>
scrawlfx.com
Godmars2905502d ago

1) Hope they put it on disc this time.
2) Hope this is a positive for Neptune coming over as well.

Demons Souls5502d ago

If so, that's being developed & published by Idea Factory. Compile Heart has nothing to do with it (Thank God for that).

Godmars2905502d ago (Edited 5502d ago )

Thought Compile Heart was one of the companies lending characters.

Was also speaking in general as in regards to a US of Neptune. If these guys are offing a second game, NIS or Atlus, both of whom offer quirkier titles, will put that one out.

@kagon01:
My issue isn't - wholly - with the DL-only option, but the price. The first game should be $30. Maybe $40, and by that I mean $39.99. The only reason its $45 is the 360 disc version which has extras. Nevermind that by all rights its a PS2 game. Something that proabbly could have been done if the devs had the GOW2 engine or tools.

ClownBelt5502d ago

I approve of this god damn message.

Could have gotten my 60 bucks if they just put it on a disc.

5502d ago Replies(1)
Tripl3seis5502d ago

Another exclusive damnn the ps3 keeps on rollin wit games awesome ;)

Jack-Pyro5502d ago

Is this a half decent SRPG, porn aside, cause if it is, i might just decide to go and buy it for the 360.

Anon73495502d ago

There's no porn just some sexual innuendos but that's it.

Also it is a great game by itself, maybe not graphically but everything else is top tier.

RedDevils5502d ago

so it had some kind of "top tier" porn story jk

ThanatosDMC5502d ago

Yup, it's a decent game. I just hate that a move has to go first before any attack options.

Show all comments (33)
120°

Bless Online Korean MMORPG Gets Server Merge

This is not the first time that Bless Online receives a server merge in Korea. An announcement was made on the official Korean site.

Read Full Story >>
mmoexaminer.com
3093d ago
Bismarn3093d ago

Bless must be an amazing game to be on all these platforms (according to the tags): iPad iPhone Nintendo DS PC PS Vita PS2 PS3 PS4 PSP Wii Wii U Xbox Xbox 360 Xbox One