Most of the MMORPGs all suck, if not all of them, sadly. They suck the life out of hapless players who for whatever reasons waste vastly inordinate amounts of time often driven in the end by the greed for stuff that the original post talked about. The main players, the popular ones, all follow the model of gain powers and stuff, worthless virtual stuff that people will devote 40 hour weeks to obtaining and in the end for what? So they can do it all over again on the next harder rung of the grind ladder and get more power and stuff, rinse, repeat, eventually burn out, then finally quit - hopefully with some RL relationships still intact.
At least after a couple hundred hours in a CRPG like Oblivion you return to life or if nothing else, move on to a completely new experience. Hopefully you've enjoyed some kind of story to go with the exploration, leveling up, getting stuff, questing, killing stuff, etc.
I've known and I suspect many of you have as well, people who literally live in lands like Norrath. They spend as much time there as many do on full time employment. One person I liked well but felt sorry for had actually been playing EverQuest for an average of 40+ hours per week for a full six years and that was only the/played time on her main. She has other high level characters and as far as I know, lives in Norrath still.
I know these are player issues, not game issues but these games are designed with grind in mind. Keep the player busy, doing SOMETHING, however mundane, stupid or mind numbing it may be. EverQuest Monks sitting for some 50+ hours hoping to kill the one mob they need for a piece of pipe that is just one step in their "first" epic weapon comes to mind. Clicking over and over and over to gain a skillup in what is supposed to pass for "crafting" items, etc. The timesinks in many of these, maybe all of the mainstream ones? are simply hellish wastes of time and life. Yet people enslave themselves in the quest for the holy grail of raid gear and top rankings on thier server, etc.
We've all seen those who prefer to purchase a ready made (already played) high level character on ebay, lots of plat or gold or whatever the currency is to get the best stuff, twink out thier toons, etc. This is the most obvious example of people who don't even get that the point is to actually play the game, not purchase it preplayed for you. That people do this at all says something about how these games work and reward players and what kind of players sometimes gravitate toward this kind of game system. There is a high greed factor at work in many of these games and it is frequently a source of bitterness among players as some steal kills, camps, etc. from others.
So they make it all instanced in many of them now. Great. Now you have games like D&D Online where basically you just plow through dungeons that feel like Diablo in 3D with a group of people too busy killing stuff, busting barrels and looting chests to actually interact with each other. Not exactly D&D in its purest essence if you ask me. Not even close, despite the license.
I have yet to play WoW but I am guessing they have evolved the genre substantially or they would not be enjoying the success they are, even though I have read enough to understand that it is evolution here, not revolution.
I think I am going to play WoW and see for myself why it enjoys the success it does. I hope to like it. I know I plan to play casually. I have a life and I enjoy lots of other things and other games. I will not be a slave to one game and I pity the poor souls who do fall into that. It's OK with me if I am done at 60. I can try playing another class for a new experience, perhaps on the other faction, in another city, etc. That works for me. I am not raiding every night in the hope I get a lucky roll for a single item that might give me a chance in pvp. I'll pass thanks.
Maybe I'll try a "instant" pvp toon in Guild Wars just to see how pvp can be. That may also be fun. Skip the grind and just roll a
"In summary if you give the players the reigns, they will no doubt ruin the world and drive off the other players"
I read the quoted text above and just had to laugh at how much that sounds like the real world...
No wonder it played out that way in UO when people were given whatever they demanded... Todd's "monsters," Samurai's... omg... I saw that stuff happening and thought what the hell? Who actually plays that sad, twisted excuse for Ultima?
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ROFLMAO!!! Good call man. Good call. Oops, time to gear up and move out! Later...
Most of the MMORPGs all suck, if not all of them, sadly. They suck the life out of hapless players who for whatever reasons waste vastly inordinate amounts of time often driven in the end by the greed for stuff that the original post talked about. The main players, the popular ones, all follow the model of gain powers and stuff, worthless virtual stuff that people will devote 40 hour weeks to obtaining and in the end for what? So they can do it all over again on the next harder rung of the grind ladder and get more power and stuff, rinse, repeat, eventually burn out, then finally quit - hopefully with some RL relationships still intact.
/played time on her main. She has other high level characters and as far as I know, lives in Norrath still.
At least after a couple hundred hours in a CRPG like Oblivion you return to life or if nothing else, move on to a completely new experience. Hopefully you've enjoyed some kind of story to go with the exploration, leveling up, getting stuff, questing, killing stuff, etc.
I've known and I suspect many of you have as well, people who literally live in lands like Norrath. They spend as much time there as many do on full time employment. One person I liked well but felt sorry for had actually been playing EverQuest for an average of 40+ hours per week for a full six years and that was only the
I know these are player issues, not game issues but these games are designed with grind in mind. Keep the player busy, doing SOMETHING, however mundane, stupid or mind numbing it may be. EverQuest Monks sitting for some 50+ hours hoping to kill the one mob they need for a piece of pipe that is just one step in their "first" epic weapon comes to mind. Clicking over and over and over to gain a skillup in what is supposed to pass for "crafting" items, etc. The timesinks in many of these, maybe all of the mainstream ones? are simply hellish wastes of time and life. Yet people enslave themselves in the quest for the holy grail of raid gear and top rankings on thier server, etc.
We've all seen those who prefer to purchase a ready made (already played) high level character on ebay, lots of plat or gold or whatever the currency is to get the best stuff, twink out thier toons, etc. This is the most obvious example of people who don't even get that the point is to actually play the game, not purchase it preplayed for you. That people do this at all says something about how these games work and reward players and what kind of players sometimes gravitate toward this kind of game system. There is a high greed factor at work in many of these games and it is frequently a source of bitterness among players as some steal kills, camps, etc. from others.
So they make it all instanced in many of them now. Great. Now you have games like D&D Online where basically you just plow through dungeons that feel like Diablo in 3D with a group of people too busy killing stuff, busting barrels and looting chests to actually interact with each other. Not exactly D&D in its purest essence if you ask me. Not even close, despite the license.
I have yet to play WoW but I am guessing they have evolved the genre substantially or they would not be enjoying the success they are, even though I have read enough to understand that it is evolution here, not revolution.
I think I am going to play WoW and see for myself why it enjoys the success it does. I hope to like it. I know I plan to play casually. I have a life and I enjoy lots of other things and other games. I will not be a slave to one game and I pity the poor souls who do fall into that. It's OK with me if I am done at 60. I can try playing another class for a new experience, perhaps on the other faction, in another city, etc. That works for me. I am not raiding every night in the hope I get a lucky roll for a single item that might give me a chance in pvp. I'll pass thanks.
Maybe I'll try a "instant" pvp toon in Guild Wars just to see how pvp can be. That may also be fun. Skip the grind and just roll a
"In summary if you give the players the reigns, they will no doubt ruin the world and drive off the other players"
I read the quoted text above and just had to laugh at how much that sounds like the real world...
No wonder it played out that way in UO when people were given whatever they demanded... Todd's "monsters," Samurai's... omg... I saw that stuff happening and thought what the hell? Who actually plays that sad, twisted excuse for Ultima?