Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
I wonder
exestenz69
Member Posts: 121
As i sit here and read the different thread of "hardcore vs casual" , and the various other threads saying as much. I wonder if all of the older games EQ,AC,DAoC if these games were redone in there original form with the graphics of say AoC, hell even Vanguard. If these games were developed by a company that's not chasing the fast buck, but instead for the simple enjoyment of creating "there" world. Each game developed along the same lines as they were originally ( ie pre luclin for eq) before they started trying to cater to everyone. Since EQ was my favorite of the 3 i listed ill use that as my main example.
Lets say some company Remade an EQ classic type game with Vanguard graphics. How well would such a game do in the current market? I personally think it would hold up quite well. Even if said game would only get 2 to 3k subs or less ( i think it would be considerably more ), just enough to keep it going say 3 to 400 subs minimum. I think it will eventually happen. Just wondering what the general populace here on MMO think.
Would a game such as this do well ?
IF so why?
IF not why?
When i say well i mean would said game be able to keep up the costs of running it with say a 10$ a month sub price.
Comments
Doubt it. In this day and age if they did it would be deemed with the infamous "asian grinder" tag - least far as EQ goes anyways. It would have it's fans but wouldn't do very well least in my opinion.
Plus by updating their graphics especially to the level of AoC they would alienate some of their player base. Not everyone has the computer to run games like that nor can afford to.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I typically wouldn't imagine a "classic" game would be "successful". It could probably have enough subs to keep operating and perhaps make some profit, but it wouldn't be considered a "AAA" mmo. The reason why I say that is because there's a reason most of the people left those games. Perhaps graphics is that reason, and then your idea would work. However, I imagine the reason for most is a lack of content in some form. Perhaps EQ players were no longer sold on raid or die, or SWG players (like myself) didn't see a sandbox focus with minimal linear content as viable long term entertainment.
I think the next big step in the genre is gonna have to be innovation of some sort. If not, everyone's just got the been there done that mentality. That's why wow clones don't do well. So what's the next logical progression after a linear themepark? Hybrid imo. Combine the sandbox and the themepark, and double (or more) replayability.
Well the thing i noticed about the older games is that combat was alot slower. Most everything now has to have the fast fast fast now now now type content. In any newer MMO ( if they can even be called that anymore) people don't socialize at all unless its with there own guild. Hardly ever do you just sit around and chat it up. Some of the better times in the older games was getting in a PUG and just talking with everyone over the next couple of hours of "grinding" or what ever it was you were doing.This made the grind not be so much of a grind in my opinion so much as just a relaxing way to spend the afternoon chatting with people of like mind while we bash some MOB heads in. Sure there were long downtime's, but i think lots would say including myself that you hardly noticed it when you had good conversation.
Everything now is so fast you hardly have time to look at the names in your group list between killing something. No conversation unless its in vent and on the hole , alot less interaction between players.
If it was done well, it would attract a large enough crowd to stay afloat. Lots of people have this standard of gigantic sub numbers being the only indicator of success. If an MMO can sustain its development/operating costs with its existing playerbase, then that would be successful, in my opinion.
I think there's always room for different kinds of MMOs. People will eventually get bored with an MMO and move on to something else. If everything is the same, then the genre as a whole will stagnate. If everything was like WoW, I would've left the genre a while ago.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
Eh, I do miss the communtiy in the older games. It's not like there weren't pricks back then too but people, generally speaking, just seemed so much friendlier towards each other and willing to help each other out.
However, far as the downtime goes? The hell with that. If I never have to play a class with the amount of downtime my wizard had in EQ even with whoring myself out for kei and selling the souls of my unborn children off for mana regen items it will be too soon.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Yes, I agree that community has been overlooked for gogogo gameplay. Quite frankly, developers need to "force" people to develop communities in some way. Communities fulfill all sorts of psychological desires, from the ability to meet to people, to strut your gear, to work out backroom deals, or to simply observe others. This is stuff that is actually fun to most people, but they don't really realize it because they think that all they want is fast action gameplay.
I remember starting SWG way back when, and at that point my last RPG (and really only rpg for that matter) was Diablo 2. Well, you can imagine the shock I went through, from loot design to community. I thought that the entertainer professions were pretty darn weird, and didn't really get why people would rather do that than hunt phat lootz. But even back then I realized the social dynamic that those professions caused. Sure, we had a *reason* (mind pool) to be there, but something about a good full cantina in SWG was an amazing amount of fun (despite the fact it can be perceived as relatively lame).
It was this social dynamic that really made SWG thrive. You'd watch people come in and out and check out their gear, you'd meet up with new people to group/grind/"level" with, you'd perhaps check out some guilds or try to recruit for your own guild, or if you were a crafter you could try to make business contacts or sell specialty wares. No matter what your reason, you always had a need to stop by the local pub and socialize, and that built fantastic community.
OK, so my point here is that fast action combat does not necessarily make a game have no community. It's more about how the game is set up and whether there are mechanics in place to give people a reason to be social. My SWG story was less of a rant than it was an example of how game design created community. In general, humans are social beings, and when you really look at it you might be surprised at just how much social content is left out of modern mmos. Admittedly, there is large guild content which can take on that role sufficiently, but it's just not quite as good imo.
I tend to think the downtime was a good thing. It promoted your reliance on your fellow players to shorten it. If you were in a good group you could tell it right away as you could chain pull mobs sometimes 2 or 3 at a time only stopping every 5 minutes or so for the casters to get back some Boom juice. I think the downtime encouraged more interaction between players.
They would have to take "some" things from the newer MMO's, such as simplified class mechanics, faster combat, optimized UI and such, but yes, I think such games might do very well.
Remember, games like WOW are for newer players. Games with EQ-type elements (that are not prehistoric like EQ is today) would challenge more experienced players.
I can hardly wait until an MMO comes out with a challenging world. Need not be PVP, but just hardcore PVE, where mistakes are punished to the point that players strive to play better.
I respectfully disagree. To me it was more the fact that in those games you primarily grouped for all of your accomplishments so by default it tended to make communities more cohesive. Plus even if it was working the same camp spot over and over again you always had to focus on working together as a team. So whether you liked it or not it "forced" you to interact with others.
...and if you didn't like it since that was the main focus of the game you simply didn't play it.
Or rolled a necro >_>
Everything in those older games was so team oriented, which for better or worse pending on your perspective isn't necessarily a main focal point in the majority of mmos coming out these days.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
While I agree that improved communities would certainly benefit the MMORPG genre, youve also got to rememebr that there is a massive difference in the communities of game like original EQ and newer MMOs. Back in EQ days, the population was just a fraction of what anything considered a "popular" MMO today is. While you may have had a community of a few hundred to a couple thousand on at a time 5-10 years ago, allowing the majority of the population to form relationships with eachother, youre looking at much much larger groups of people now. So rather than associating with say the 100 other players that happen to be online at the same time as you on your server a few years ago, nowadays you mostly associate with the 100 or so people in your guild, and dont pay much attention to the other 10000 that are on. Its not necassarily that there is NO community, its more that the community has become so large that it is simply more feasible to break the overall community up into smaller factions/guilds and maintain only those isolated relationships. Its somewhat like real life, where EQ used to be that small town of a few hundred people where everyone knew eachother, but then you move to a major city with a few million like WoW and its just not possible to know or be as close to so many people like you could back home. You may have a relationship with those around you, just as many as before, the difference is just that in the scope of the new much larger comminity, it gives you the feeling that there is no community simply because while you talk/play with the same # of people as before, its a smaller percentage of the whole. Its all really a matter of perspective.
While i agree that the population is quite a bit bigger now than 10 years ago, i disagree that that is the reason you cant have a decent social game. The only socializing i see in lets say WoW just because its the biggest is guild internal. With the addition of things like Auction houses and NPCs that sell your stuff for you, or the ability to just sit there afk and sell stuff like an NPC, it completely killed the enjoyment many got out of simply sitting around in a trade zone (ie EC or Gfay) bartering different items or just stopping in for an hour or so to see if you could catch a deal.