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unkn0wn

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Why the world needs an MMO like Dark Souls

MMOARPOWG, or, Massively Multiplayer Online Action Role-Playing Open World Game for short, could be a breath of fresh air the MMO community needs. Technical aspects aside, imagine an MMO where the idea of killing each individual monster and/or player requires skill. A semi-ruthless world where instead of mapping abilities to an action bar, your knowledge and commitment would determine to what degree of success you would meet in the ensuing battle.

We've all had a fling with World of Warcraft, love it or hate it, no one can deny the success it has had. As it may be dying now, due to the stale taste left in our mouths, or the flood of arguable mediocre MMO's now in the market, the reason why it did so well is because they released a playable game. When I first bought it I felt as though I had bought the finished product, where as with many others thus far, still feel as they are stuck in a permanent sort of beta-limbo, unfortunately. They all draw from a proven formula. Leveling, gear, healers, tanks, etc..

However, what if none of that existed? We have to ask ourselves the question.. does it have to exist? And even more pertinent, why does this formula repeat itself so many times over? These companies seek to replicate WoW's success, instead of making their own. WoW definitely wasn't original in it's own rite, however, as its been said a million times, they did it right in their OWN way.

Forging success for yourself is no easy path, and more often than not, the road seems to end in disaster. The question remains, why has there been very little momentum behind games ditching the almighty action bar? What makes developers think it's more fun to press an attack than to actually organically integrate them? I hope for a day, one day when the game exists that every player may actually forge their own destiny, that they may have to manage their potions carefully, because there is no healer, and that every player will be required to dodge and/or block attacks to keep themselves alive. A battlefield of some open world PvP where the prize is a great amount of currency or armor, hundreds of players vying for one prize, and in the end, only one player remains, in the namesake of a truly free-for-all battle. Where each person in a twenty-man raid has to look out for themselves, and each individual player requires skill to contribute as a whole to reach the end. Imagine a fierce battle between two people, perhaps where one player is more geared, but not necessarily more skilled, and thus loses to his better.

I don't know about the rest of you but I for one am tired of waiting for a tank or healer for such an amount of time to no avail, just to have a group started. This game, everyone would be DPS, and everyone has to look out for themselves. I'd rather rely on myself than a tank to keep aggro and a healer to keep me alive. I want to riposte my way out of death, perhaps parrying here or there to keep myself afloat. The idea of a complex and entirely player-dependent battle system is truly the only MMO I can see now that would be worthwhile. These times we are in now are the dark ages of the potentially greatest genre to ever exist.

TopDudeMan4669d ago (Edited 4669d ago )

All right, I'll read this in the morning after I wake up, But for now, I'll just say: awesome idea!

Good night!

TopDudeMan4668d ago (Edited 4668d ago )

I can see your point. I think guild wars 2 looks like a step in that direction, albeit a small step, but a step nonetheless. They still have the action bar, but the battles require more skill and everyone is their own healer.

But I think the only people I'd allow to develop such a game would have to be from software.

Ravenor4669d ago

Latency, Latency, latency.

You aren't going to find a game like Dark Souls online purely because of network limitations. An MMO entails potentially having hundreds of characters in the area, can you imagine the headache of keeping all of those fights feeling tight and responsive with players sticking around 100-300+ MS latency.

Your best closest bets right now are Guild Wars 2 and Tera, we aren't going to get a "Real time MMO" for a long while.

DragonKnight4669d ago

Umm, have you played some of the action based MMO's out lately? Like, for example, the Dynasty Warriors MMO that has the exact same combat as the DW games and doesn't have this supposedly terrible latency you're talking about?

This game that the OP is talking about is very possible. It just takes developers with actual talent as opposed to ones who just want to make a quick buck and will slap together a WoW clone *cough*Zenimax*cough*

smashman984668d ago

latency is no where near as big a deal in those games as they would be in a souls mmo

souls depends on precision and timing more than anything else and with lag it would turn from hard and unforgiving to unfair and stupid

Ravenor4667d ago

@DragonKnight

Dynasty Warriors and the gameplay in DW doesn't equate to the precision and speed required in a Souls game. They are incredibly different games and I'm a little miffed you even attempted to discredit my point with it. Dynasty Warriors doesn't even require half of precision that either Souls title does, when you're doing nothing but simple combo's and attacking dudes who just stand there.

It's a fine idea sure, but when we are talking about a dodge or parry being the difference between winning or losing. You're putting an awful lot faith in the client and server declaring the right person the winner.

DragonKnight4667d ago

@Ravenor: Again, have you even played DWO? You're not playing against "mindless A.I." You're playing a combo oriented action game against other people. Where a block can mean the difference between victory or defeat. And unlike Dark Souls, it's not 1 on 1, or 3 on 1. About the only thing Dark Souls has over DWO in terms of combat is the dodge move. But in terms of attack animations, DW is a lot more complex.

Ravenor4667d ago

@DRAGONNIGHT!

*FACEPALM!*

He's talking about a MMO, an MMO to me involves more then 12 player teams (12v12 is the max in DWO, most is 4v4).

From the OP's blog: A battlefield of some open world PvP where the prize is a great amount of currency or armor, hundreds of players vying for one prize, and in the end, only one player remains, in the namesake of a truly free-for-all battle.

Tell me again, how am I wrong and how does Dynasty Warriors online prove that this is possible? It doesn't! You're also really confusing complexity of combo animations with where the latency would cause real problems in the combat.

So to reiterate my points here:

Dynasty Warriors Online tops out at 12v12, so latency isn't as big an issue it would be if there was HUNDREDS of players on the field.

Combo animations don't have a thing to do with latency. I'm talking about the server and the client both reporting hits, parries and dodges accurately. How many times have you died in a shooter because your shots didn't register? It's the same thing here.

Really don't understand why this is so complicated.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4667d ago
unkn0wn4669d ago

Aside from Dragon's point, I said technical issues aside in the second sentence.

WeskerChildReborned4669d ago

I'm about to pick up Dark Souls right now lol.

Fragger2k84669d ago (Edited 4669d ago )

The reason that we don't have an MMO like Dark Souls is because probably a good 90% of those who are playing MMOs want them to stay the same.

Almost none of these people want a game that is based off of their own skills, wits, and patience. They want something that is incredibly easy to play, and you can't get much easier than a hot bar. Pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 over and over again until you kill something is extremely simple, requires pretty much no effort, and they love that. To them, these mindless repetitive "games" are a lot of fun.

Probably the biggest reason they play MMOs, though: They can be great at the game without actually having to do much at all. They can become an overpowered fighting machine just by pressing a few numbers on the keyboard. That's all it takes.

Most of these people aren't gamers. There are millions of them out there, and developers and publishers absolutely hate focusing on the actual gamers nowadays, so they do the easiest, safest, and cheapest thing they can think of: copy another game's success.

I really hope this WoW/WoW-clone craze dies out soon. We need more MMOs to be real games. The players have to get tired of playing the same boring junk eventually, right?

unkn0wn4669d ago

Hopefully gamers as a whole can evolve after the realization that WoW clones are a tasteless way to play.

Unfortunately, it seems that when the craze is about to die down, there's a sudden influx of the same old crap. I hate how MMORPG's promise to be different, and what do we get? The exact same thing with different polygons.

Fragger2k84668d ago

That is definitely true.

It should probably be illegal to claim something like that because of how often it happens. Almost every new MMO dev/publisher tries to feed us the same bs lines, saying it's exciting and different, when all we get is what? Oh, look.. it's WoW copy #32. How wonderful..

We really, really need a big time dev to come along and give us something that actually is different. Something that looks and plays just like a real game. I want to see MMOs to be done in ways similar to games like Skyrim or Morrowind, Darksouls, Diablo II, STALKER, and Borderlands. Not the same ancient junk we've been getting for years. All we have right now is, what, PlanetSide? We need somebody to put an end to this by releasing something amazing.

Sadly, though, even devs outside of the MMO world, like BioWare, that (used to) make awesome real games, are now putting their focus on casuals. It will probably take a while before anything changes.

Gaming as a whole is just heading on the wrong track.

D3mons0ul4668d ago

The Secret World is pretty awesome.

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gold_drake18h ago

its not uncommon but definitely a scummy move.

what this means legaly speaking, is that if a user has a dispute against Nintendo, a neutral Thirdi party will be brought in to evaluate, instead of going to court.

again, not uncommon, but scummy, especially coming from "sues alot" nintendo

PRIMORDUS4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

A judge should force Nintendo or any other companies that if people want to file a class-action lawsuits they can do so. This is why I always feel that when companies try to fuck over it's customers, I want those people involed who call the shot to be removed from this world. I will never change my stance on this.

goken3h ago

“Removed from this world “‘ like Luigi style?

ZycoFox4h ago

Wonder if this is an easy way out of potential Joycon drift.. Screw Nintendo if so. Getting super lazy and cheaping out on hardware at the same time.

badz1494h ago

Nintendo and their scummy practices have no boundaries. "Family friendly" my foot

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