[POLL]MMORPG Expectations, too high? too low?

Jairoe03

My latest blog entry provides my input on the topic of whether or not we, the players, expect too much out the MMO industry as a whole: Expectations & Exaggerations

This thread is to really get the feedback of everyone else at the MMORPG.com community. I'm really curious in regards to everyone's feedback and where we stand together in regards to this topic. I figure the best way to gauge is with a poll (plus polls are fun and not enough pop up at least maybe in the General Pub forum).

Feel free to read my thoughts and opinions in regards to it, but this thread is really about everyone else's opinion. If you don't have too much thought or opinion, at least vote. I'm sure most people fall on one side or the other in regards to this.

Evasia

Maybe most dont view there opinions to much on demanding more quality and thats why many mmo's/games are released unfinished.

Dont forget only small portion of gaming community comes to forums and they who visit forums are not even the avarage player that most games populated(dont mean to say all who come to forums are elite there just more deeply into games then mass and express there opinions more).

If games are released and many copys are sold its maybe posible that most who come to this forum dont buy it becouse its crap or not what they thought it would be.

I say whole gamers community should demand more of game so games companys dont release games half fnished or below avarage quality.

But still luckly some suffer from bad launches and fail.

Quirhid

People should stop expecting unrealistic features and start demanding more simple things like quality.

Kenaoshi

Originally posted by Quirhid


People should stop expecting unrealistic features and start demanding more simple things like quality.

 

QFT

EricDanie

I'd say "both", but since we don't have this option I voted "neither".

Why?

We expect too much from features, we actually expect the ultimate complexity in every MMO - the sandbox. Developers sometimes hint they are not making one (or even attempting to reach this utopia of a concept) and instead are making a theme park, but then again the same expectation can be too high for theme parks, which are basically a linear gameplay progression (hi, levels) with combat being the major, if not only, entertainment.

We expect these highly limited environments to be able to entertain us for months of our time - at release, or no subscription until there is stuff. Everyone above the average gamer the developers focused at will be disappointed. The gameplay itself can disappoint us, being shallow and consequently repetitive, even for those below the target average gamer.

In my opinion, the term MMO in itself brings a lot of expectation with it. I am not looking for some cooperative online RPG (instances), some lobby-based online game (lobbies, staging rooms, non seamless world). I am looking for a MMO. It's different from these genres, but unfortunately the genre definition is getting twisted to fit all these smaller genres in an attempt to draw revenue of a MMO and providing quality lower than a MMO.

Now comes the part of lower expectations. We actually accept what would be the demise of a non-MMO - known bugs that remain unpatched for weeks, months, slow updates and shallow features. It's cool to kill that awesome boss and get that unique item, but when it is so easy and the simple result of a linear progression time consumption, everyone's bound to beat that boss and get that unique item someday too, here comes that static issue of MMOs. The experience shouldn't be the same for everyone, yet a lot of people accept it to some degree.

I think this is enough, sorry for the long post. I hope it is at least comprehensible and compatible with some people's thoughts here, or at least it will serve to show how twisted my thoughts have become, instead of the industry.

TL;DR - Neither. In some aspects we expect too much (like complexity and versatility of gameplay) and in others we expect too little (polish, the issues of rare items and hard feats being not so rare, accepting static content and instances in MMOs). Some MMOs are no more than sub-MMOs being branded for higher revenue (subscriptions), in my concept MMOs are something above the rest. Read full version for better (hopefully) explanation.

Dave3216

I chose neither everyone has their standard its not our standards at fault its companies pushing unfinished games out that is the problem, companies whose financial department dictates if the game is ready or not, is the problem ect ect so forth and so on.

Cik_Asalin

My most recent experience is with Star Trek Online.  This game seems to have blown more people away as to how underwelming it is as a reportedly and designed mmorpg, it's astounding. 

So I say that we arent expecting too much, but should expect more in 2010, though with that title, what was delivered was non-existent.

AIMonster

I think we should expect more, but as mentioned by Quirhid we should be expecting quality rather than a huge feature list.  I'd also like to see some at least one major truely unique or interesting feature in a MMO (a few of the newer MMOs look promising here).  Too many MMOs nowadays try to please too many people (we need to have awesome battleground PvP, group PvE, casual play, raid, open world PvP, etc.) rather than focus on making a few features exceptional.

Also companies are getting into a habit of rushing a product out, charging for beta, cash shop on top of subs, and other nasty things lately.  I think we should start speaking with our money and not give these companies a dime until their product is finished, but I don't think that's going to happen, and so we are going to be stuck with these rushed products designed to be early money sinks rather than long term profit for these companies.

Wizardry

I would not say i expect a lot,what i expect is what developers CAN deliver ,and so far they are not delivering their best effort.Almost every single developer is just whipping a game together for the sheer purpose of making money,there is absolutely no hear t and soul into these efforts.

The absolute best effort i have seen was in Vanguard,it delivered the epic beginning and continued it.Now although the effort was real good,they were not that creative,they were just like the WOW guys,former EQ guys that basically copied EQ.

Square Enix is next in line for BEST effort,the difference being they are MUCH more creative than every single developer out there.I still see holes in their designs,i believe this is again due to money and time restraints,these developers are confident that they can deliver a 75% effort and still sell their product.This of course works when you have the rest of the developers delivering a 50-75% effort with tons of holes in their games and NO creativity.

 

 

Jairoe03

EricDanie has an interesting perspective in regards to this idea. Why is it that we do accept some things like experiencing the same thing over and over again, quality, difficulty issues and when it comes to things like skills, classes, overall complexity and intricate systems, we expect more?
I think a good theory could be that the obvious features of the MMO like combat systems, economies and pretty much everything involving the actual gameplay is easily seen and it's what people look forward to and want more of.
With the things we don't have much expectations for, I think its because it involves more of the underlying mechanics of the game such as ridding the bugs, static game experiences and other subtleties in the game. They aren't as obvious to many players and a lot of it is already what most people expect it to be. A game shouldn't have bugs, some people expect events B and C to follow events A and prefer knowing it that way. Or maybe its just me, I want to think there's some rhyme and reason to everything

I see the constant thing about developers only doing things for the money. To counter this for the sake of discussion, what could we say about the part of the company that involves getting feedback from the customers? What about the ones that do implement the wants/needs of their subscribers? Does this still exemplify that same idea that money is the root of all things and/or can we at least safely say that there is some concern for their consumers?

Comnitus

Eh, in my opinion, we expect way too much, hype ourselves up, become disappointed by our unrealistic expectations, and then blame the company for "screwing us over".

It's a brutal, yet amusing, cycle.

Cephus404

Originally posted by Quirhid


People should stop expecting unrealistic features and start demanding more simple things like quality.

 

I don't want unrealistic features, I want games that work, that are released complete, that don't promise things and not deliver, etc.  This kind of nonsense would never be accepted in a single-player game, why should we accept it in an MMO?