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The Evolution of Online Dragon-Slaying
1up has a second article in a series on the evolution of online games. This entry wonders aloud about the MMOG player preoccupation with dragon-slaying. From the article: "Are we really that happy to hang out with orcs all the time? Apparently, yes. According to mmogchart.com, an MMO research site run by Bruce Sterling Woodcock, fantasy-based RPGs account for approximately 85 percent of the market share of all current MMO players. Aside from the recent exception of City of Heroes (which lets us swap out our leather elven tights for spandex superhero tights), most games that don't let us brandish +3 battleaxes of dorkdom and slay mightye beastes have fallen over like level 1 rats." We've previously discussed the first article in this series.
Oh dear.
"Game-design-wise, WOW's success proves in a very strong way what I had hoped for years was true," says Auto Assault's Seabury, "which is that fun games are what people really want. I've often felt the first-generation MMOGs were built by sadomasochists, despite their success. There were so many punishing, tedious systems and mechanics that made those first games great for someone, for example, who might enjoy peeling their fingernails backward very slowly, just to say they could do it."
You may now return to your timesinks.
EVE is sci-fi, and it does it well. You can save your personality into a clone, and this can live on after you die. Makes even more sense to me than resurrection in a fantasy setting - in WoW, for example, how could there have been a terrible war if people can be resurrected willy-nilly? Or, to paraphrase that list mocking RPG conventions, it's the "Why didn't they use Phoenix Down on Aeris, then?" effect.
I don't care about WoW and it's wars, but in the case of Aeris, she was DEAD, not KO, the status ailment that Phoenix Down cures. There's a difference.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
How many times are we going to refer to SirBruce's charts as definitive? He's mentioned publicly, as well as on the site itself, that his numbers are based on press releases and hearsay. Additionally, the companies themselves use the same terms to describe different metrics ("registered users" vs. "subscribed users" vs "active users" vs "active accounts", etc).
Sure, there are no other independent sources out there compiling this information, but surely we don't have to be subjected to yet another gaming journalist that believes he or she has found the penultimate source material for another dissertation on the meaning and existence of online games. Do we?
Older video game RPGs simply overused dragons. (The Dragon Warrior/Quest and Final Fantasy series being some of the biggest offenders.) In paper-and-pencil RPGs (such as D&D), dragons were never meant to be common, or even rare. Dragons were meant to be some ultra-rare, near impossible to beat, usually only appearing during storyline related moments monster.
I'm interested in hearing about any MUDs any of my fellow /. MUD geeks have found that they feel are doing something new and original. I'm an avid MUDder but I'm starting to grow sick of the Dikus, etc. The most original I've seen lately is Nodeka, but I'd enjoy seeing any others that are doing something different. Any recommendations, my unwashed nerd masses?
A serious question - did this death have an emotional effect on you?
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
In every market research study and sales report I've seen. from Wizards of the Coast years ago to this day, fantasy roleplaying dominates the roleplaying genre in every medium. Yes, there will always be mildly successful science fiction RPGs, and even lesser candidates such as westerns, cyberpunk, etc., but for the foreseeable future, fantasy RPGs will rule the day. I'd like to offer some real analysis why fantasy MMOs dominate as they do, but I don't have data, just guesses (in short: D&D, Tolkein, and a sort of shared "fantasy" universe that is more approachable than unique worlds.) We should also have to account for churn. The MMORPG genre approaches its first decade of mass appeal, and many of its early adopters have moved on, and many of the new gamers that arrive appear to have the same preferences as the older ones--that is, for fantasy RPGs. At the same time, they haven't been "bored to death" with "yet another fantasy MMORGP". The analysis I've seen, like it or not, is that it's generally better, in terms of sales anyway, to be the 5th or 6th most popular fantasy RPG instead of the 2nd most popular science fiction game.
but in the case of Aeris, she was DEAD, not KO
So then the question becomes: Why did a weapon which is a nonlethal KO attack 99.99% of the time mysteriously KILL her when he wanted it to?
And, if he had the ability to KILL people, why didn't he use it more often (like, against the rest of your team)?
The funny thing is that most of those same people like to watch sci-fi tv series. Go figure :)
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