Originally posted by nariusseldon Originally posted by Jairoe03In short, Don't blame the general audience for having diverse interest, blame the companies for not being focused enough. If a games design is shallow they are going to get shallow players and vice versa for much deeper games. Deep games doesn't necessarily make everyone happy but their customers tend to be around for years i.e. EVE Online. They are considered successful at below 1 million subscribers.
Why would anyone want 1M (Eve is more like 0.5M) when you can get 2M? GW2 got 2M in the first 2 weeks.
Not many companies has the resources that GW2 has to appeal to a broader range of people. Plus many aspects of the game in itself lacks a lot of depth. It's decent at everything but really great at nothing IMO. I'm sure they are paying way more overhead than most other MMO's are as well since they organized so many teams to manage and run this game.
Also, not every company has the luxury of pulling in 2M but was merely pointing out an example where sheer subscriber amount isn't the only way an MMO can be considered successful.
One of the reasons I stopped playing EQ and one of the reasons making alts in either EQ or DAoC all sucked was due to camp & grind.
Some people loved the early high level EQLive dungeons where you literally had a group camping every spawn point, sitting on their butts for 10+ mins waiting for their spawn to repop so they could kill something. Back then we didn't know any better. There's a reason the genre evolved away from this and that's because it sucks miserably.
I would like to see a deviation from solo ez-mode speed leveling in 3-x days. I would like to see leveling take months ala EQLive at release. I don't see how a dev can draw out the leveling process with the way content is done now - you'd need a few planets worth of zones, or you'd need to make combat slow and tedious, and both would suck.
I'm sure there are some ideas floating and I'm hopeful that EQNext will be neither a return to camp and grind misery or yet another generic quest hub speed level for dummies fest.
One thing I think that could be done would be to all but require grouping to level - just without the camp and grind. As it is now in most MMORPGs, grouping is entirely optional. There might be zero a few outdoor elite encounters. There's the obligatory dungeon every few levels that's entirely optional.
I say, flip this mofo around. Make doing dungeons and elite style content the norm, with solo opportunities being the extreme minority. Make it so yeah, you can solo, yeah, it can take you 50x longer to level solo too. Making grouping the dramatically more efficient way to level would go a long way to encourage more grouping!
One challenge with filling a world with group-requiring combat, like making it purposeful or quest-oriented, is that it's hard for players, even friends, to stay on the same quests. So you'd need to mix it up with dailies or more spontaneous quests rather than rigidly fixed quests. In some ways, you could almost have something akin to the old camp & grind. If you could get daily kill quests in zones, like kill 50 elite giants, it'd force extended grouping but rather than park in one spot for hours you would more likely move around and fight varying targets. 50 giants here. 50 ogres there. Collect 100 bones from skeletal variants here. Etc. Stuff like this could be more spontaneous. You could also go with some of the newer event-driven type of content as long as it scales. Letting players zerg content to death doesn't keep it "elite" but if those adhoc groups/raids face challenges via scaling that kind of thing would be good to mix in too.
Now, one other point is, I hate wusses that have babysitters do content for them. I hate gutless punks who need a high level friend along to babysit them thru content. So straight up, if EQN is supposed to be ANY kind of challenge they need mechanisms in place to turn xp into nothing when high levels are babysitting, or a mentoring type of system that lets high levelers become content appropriate (ala EQ2).
IMO, people who want to solo excessively and/or exclusively in MMOs shouldn't be playing MMOS (basic logic, play single player games instead if you want to play alone) and if some hardcore soloists decide not to play an MMORPG because that massively multiplayer game is too heavily group-oriented, then so be it. No loss. In fact I'm all for it, because IMO the heavy bent on solo MMORPGs are turning into glorified single player games with kindergarten mentality chat and are barely MMOs anymore.
All the older MMORPGs had way better community for one simple reason. You had to group or you weren't leveling. If you MUST group, you must behave more reasonably, be social, develop and maintain a decent reputation, make friends, etc. All of this leads to a much stronger community. You just don't get anything like that in modern MMOs that are full of soloists with the only units that get anything done being guilds that largely keep to themselves.
I'd like to see WAY, WAY more grouping in MMORPGs, just without the tedium and boredom of camp & grind. I'd like to see solo kicked to the curb to be something that you can do but it's horrifically inefficient vs grouping. Nobody can group 100% of the time so having an option, even if it's a sad option, to solo, should somewhat be there. I'd like to see a return to strong community in an MMORPG due to the grouping factor, and along with that, for a refreshing change, far less asshats since the mouthy chat brats and other punks will never get groups and will just quit and go away or learn to play nice.
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
Uh......your title which said: Who wants camping back? and then when you said "Do you remember the cool places you used to camp in EQ?"
So I answered, I would want camping back, if the system were able to solve the problem of having all the 'cool' boss camps taken and spending your entire evening running from dungeon to dungeon trying to find ONE boss that dropped something worth having that wasn't camped. The extreme outcome of camping was the time period where it was virtually impossible to obtain your epic because the boss you needed was always CAMPED.
Can you show me in your scenario how you avoid such issues?
You know why we shouted, 'camp check?' Because most of them were always taken.
Do I want it back? ABSOLUTELY. But solve that problem first.
All I'm saying is that camping had some major drawbacks. Your ideas are great. But you gotta think of unintended consequences. How do you ensure there is a camp with worthy rewards available to every group all the time? Or do you think there should be some groups that are just shit-outta-luck?
What I remember about the cool camps in EQ is that it was prohibitively difficult to find one available.
Alright I think I understand what some people are thinking.
If you were a LOOT WHORE in Everquest then yeah, I'm sure you don't want camping back becuase you were willing to sit on your ass for 8 hours wating for a negligible gear drop.
So no, this definitely isn't about adding rare loot drops to bait some idiots into staying in one spot for marathon sessions.
I'm talking about actual gameplay, just setting up in one spot and gaining decent exp in a group instead of blowing through dungeons or doing easy solo quests. There should be reasonable loot drops but no, I'm not advocating rare spawns for people to fight over. It most definitely does not need to be done that way ever again.
For all the great times I had camping for mobs, I had equally these times
Log on, spend 30 minutes looking for a group,
spend another 5 to 10 minutes debating where to camp, the hunt "red" mobs, slower to kill but greater xp or kill "light blue" mobs faster to kill but less xp debate was always fun.
Spend 5 minutes getting to the camp
You have been logged in for 45 minutes and not one kill
15 minutes into the camp, the healer has to go
back to town looking for healer
back to camp to see other party there
debate where to camp
make it to new camp
Tank, I have to go now
head back to town.. 3 hours online, 1 bar of XP filled
For all the great times I had camping for mobs, I had equally these times
Log on, spend 30 minutes looking for a group,
spend another 5 to 10 minutes debating where to camp, the hunt "red" mobs, slower to kill but greater xp or kill "light blue" mobs faster to kill but less xp debate was always fun.
Spend 5 minutes getting to the camp
You have been logged in for 45 minutes and not one kill
15 minutes into the camp, the healer has to go
back to town looking for healer
back to camp to see other party there
debate where to camp
make it to new camp
Tank, I have to go now
head back to town.. 3 hours online, 1 bar of XP filled
log out, try again tomorrow
you have been doing something wrong then m8.
For me it was, i log in /insta invite to several groups (jeej being a Tank rules) I often made one myself asswell but never have spend more then 5 mins looking for people unless i wanted a certain class. its nice when you are a tank and your buddy is a healer tends to speed the entire process up.
never really had to debate about where we where going there where several Good spawnpoints for our level and we just set out for one. if it was taken we head for the next.
and party members going well that always sucks. but even in your 10min dungeon in wow you have people leaving your group. More so then when they have to invest some time. people where reasonable back then on how much time they could spend with the group and wheter they should group at all. new people wernt that hard to find specially dpsers.
I thought about the mechanics of spawn camping vs dungeoning on my feet for the past oh, about 10 years now, I'm kinda ready to just chill at a camp again.
Think about it: you go to an area, group up, pick a campsite and just chill there pulling mobs to your spot.
Maybe change things up a little from the early days of EQ such as:
1) Kill X mobs in X amount of time quests or "scalp" style turn-in quests
2)Random boss/named spawns
3)Random multi-mob spawns...think you've got the spawn broken? Put in a random chance for 4 mobs to spawn where 1 normally does.
4)Remember the cool places you used to camp in EQ? It could be a kitchen, a throne room, a campfire, etc. Developers could really liven it up with some visually interesting camp spots.
5)"Hold the line" camps where you rain fire on a sea of orcs trying to cross the moat
Honestly none of this would require a massive re-coding of any current MMO. Pump up the spawns in a given area and let people have at it. Unlike the days of EQ you could still have the normal quest-quest-quest for exp path of current MMOs; this would just give players another alternate way of gaining levels.
Do you remember not being able to get your epic because your mob was camped 24/7 by guilds on rotation with a calender set up?
Fix that and I might be on board.
That was an OLD problem that SOE failed to take care of until it was too late.. I remember the cleric epic in Skyfire very much and it was insane.. But too little, too late SOE fixed that by making the mob spawn triggerable.. That is just one simple way of handling the problem, without destroying the social community with instancing.. IMO
For all the great times I had camping for mobs, I had equally these times
Log on, spend 30 minutes looking for a group,
spend another 5 to 10 minutes debating where to camp, the hunt "red" mobs, slower to kill but greater xp or kill "light blue" mobs faster to kill but less xp debate was always fun.
Spend 5 minutes getting to the camp
You have been logged in for 45 minutes and not one kill
15 minutes into the camp, the healer has to go
back to town looking for healer
back to camp to see other party there
debate where to camp
make it to new camp
Tank, I have to go now
head back to town.. 3 hours online, 1 bar of XP filled
log out, try again tomorrow
you have been doing something wrong then m8.
For me it was, i log in /insta invite to several groups (jeej being a Tank rules) I often made one myself asswell but never have spend more then 5 mins looking for people unless i wanted a certain class. its nice when you are a tank and your buddy is a healer tends to speed the entire process up.
never really had to debate about where we where going there where several Good spawnpoints for our level and we just set out for one. if it was taken we head for the next.
and party members going well that always sucks. but even in your 10min dungeon in wow you have people leaving your group. More so then when they have to invest some time. people where reasonable back then on how much time they could spend with the group and wheter they should group at all. new people wernt that hard to find specially dpsers.
I should of clarified. My first MMO was EQOA (where I know most of you laugh at that even being an MMO) loved that game and it got me into MMO's.
When I had a great party nothing was better, it was a lot of fun but..
There was no Looking for group button, it was standing in Freeport spamming the general chat with "Level 46 tank LFG"
and yes debates on where to go were rampant. A lot of people had strong opinions on either fighting lower level mobs vs higher level mobs
And to continue on the bad things of camping, I always played a tank and took a lot of pride on how I pulled. I knew how to use my taunts and kept my party from being hit, but knew when to stop using it so the party could kill the mob while I pulled another so there was no down time. By doing that the DD had to loot, my armor would be shot and he goes offline right when we finish having me pay for all my repairs.
Don't deny others options they find enjoyable just because you don't enjoy them.
Sure. You can camp in WOW now. No one is stopping you. The option is there.
True. But the difference is...
1. I Played WoW 4 years ago and won't go back...as it's even more solo friendly then it was before.
2. Due to the solo friendliness...I wouldn't call it camping when you can pull an entire camp in WoW and massacre them in most cases without dying.
1) Then go to another MMO that has spawns. There is nothing preventing you to sit around, and just kill.
2) uh? That is the definitely of camping. And i doubt you can do what you claim. I would love to see that. WOW is designed to have small number of pull. I doubt (unless you are a pally), you can pull 10 mobs and survive.
I did many of times with my frost mage..... Talk about mage farming, I felt like a GOD
Although I understand exactly where you are coming from and whole heartedly agree...you will learn fast on this site...that you are better off talking to a wall with a certain group of individuals.
Unfortunately, the group of people you really mean are people like yourself, the fanatics, who don't understand how the world really works, they have a fantasy in their heads and they couldn't care less if it's factually accurate.
WoW.. I finished reading more post and I'm just confused why so many claim that camping is a boring grind (killing 100 rats).. while at the same time believe that doing 10 NPC quest of "kill 10 rats" each is not.. (killing 100 rats total).. I have news for most of ya.. You gain XP to level by killing mobs in most games, it's only a matter of HOW you are going to kill them.. I personally found It annoying as hell to accept a quest from NPC to kill 10 rats (run to area on map and kill) them return for reward ONLY to have that same annoying NPC send me back again to the same area to do something else (run to area on and kill), then return for reward and AGAIN have that same NPC send me back out there a 3rd time to kill the named rat...... ARE YOU F"ING SERIOUS? You (NPC) sent me to an area 3 separate times to do your task wasting time running back and forth for no damn reason.. I think the worst example of this was the quest hub in Duskwood.. I absolutely hated running back and forth from the cemetery.. If I ever see another ??? quest hup again , it will be too soon..
Originally posted by Rydeson WoW.. I finished reading more post and I'm just confused why so many claim that camping is a boring grind (killing 100 rats).. while at the same time believe that doing 10 NPC quest of "kill 10 rats" each is not.. (killing 100 rats total).. I have news for most of ya.. You gain XP to level by killing mobs in most games, it's only a matter of HOW you are going to kill them.. I personally found It annoying as hell to accept a quest from NPC to kill 10 rats (run to area on map and kill) them return for reward ONLY to have that same annoying NPC send me back again to the same area to do something else (run to area on and kill), then return for reward and AGAIN have that same NPC send me back out there a 3rd time to kill the named rat...... ARE YOU F"ING SERIOUS? You (NPC) sent me to an area 3 separate times to do your task wasting time running back and forth for no damn reason.. I think the worst example of this was the quest hub in Duskwood.. I absolutely hated running back and forth from the cemetery.. If I ever see another ??? quest hup again , it will be too soon..
Good point. Ratkilling quests are also a boring grind.
In fact 90% of all quests in all MMOs are rather bad. But the thing is that you shouldn't have to stand still in the same place waiting for the next spawn of mindless mobs there only for you to kill them, no living breathing world in that.
Quests should be epic, not menial work. But hunting orcs should be dangerous and challenging, not you standing still in the same spot. Imagine tracking a small orc warpack in a dark forest before they burn down some random farm or attack a merchant caravan, that is fun.
We spawncamped and killed rats since 1996 (M59 had them both), lets try something different now.
For all the great times I had camping for mobs, I had equally these times
Log on, spend 30 minutes looking for a group,
spend another 5 to 10 minutes debating where to camp, the hunt "red" mobs, slower to kill but greater xp or kill "light blue" mobs faster to kill but less xp debate was always fun.
Spend 5 minutes getting to the camp
You have been logged in for 45 minutes and not one kill
15 minutes into the camp, the healer has to go
back to town looking for healer
back to camp to see other party there
debate where to camp
make it to new camp
Tank, I have to go now
head back to town.. 3 hours online, 1 bar of XP filled
log out, try again tomorrow
you have been doing something wrong then m8.
For me it was, i log in /insta invite to several groups (jeej being a Tank rules) I often made one myself asswell but never have spend more then 5 mins looking for people unless i wanted a certain class. its nice when you are a tank and your buddy is a healer tends to speed the entire process up.
never really had to debate about where we where going there where several Good spawnpoints for our level and we just set out for one. if it was taken we head for the next.
and party members going well that always sucks. but even in your 10min dungeon in wow you have people leaving your group. More so then when they have to invest some time. people where reasonable back then on how much time they could spend with the group and wheter they should group at all. new people wernt that hard to find specially dpsers.
I should of clarified. My first MMO was EQOA (where I know most of you laugh at that even being an MMO) loved that game and it got me into MMO's.
When I had a great party nothing was better, it was a lot of fun but..
There was no Looking for group button, it was standing in Freeport spamming the general chat with "Level 46 tank LFG" (As much as I feel your pain, LFG for an instance wasn't much better.. When I leveled up Alts in WoW I gave up clicking LFD because I would be logged on for hours and NEVER get a group.. EVER EVER.. The only time the LFD finder was ever used was end game.. IF you were a tank or healer, fine, you normally queued up and got into a dungeon quickly.. however if you were DPS, good luck in that.. Even at end game doing heroics, I would wait easily over 30 minutes, LONGER if it was just normal dungeons and not heroics.. and PvP bg's became insane to queue up for) Especially during NON prime time hours..
and yes debates on where to go were rampant. A lot of people had strong opinions on either fighting lower level mobs vs higher level mobs
And to continue on the bad things of camping, I always played a tank and took a lot of pride on how I pulled. I knew how to use my taunts and kept my party from being hit, but knew when to stop using it so the party could kill the mob while I pulled another so there was no down time. By doing that the DD had to loot, my armor would be shot and he goes offline right when we finish having me pay for all my repairs. ( Wait wait, I'm confused.. you were a puller in WoW? That is news to me.. From where I come from (EQ) WoW doesn't allow traditional pulling.. and WoW doesn't allow ONE person to loot everything by default unless the leader sets the options for it.. but COIN is always split.. But I don't see how it's possible in WoW for you to go OUT and pull, while others sit in a camp? If you could, can you go in detail exactly where this takes place).. TY
For all the great times I had camping for mobs, I had equally these times
Log on, spend 30 minutes looking for a group,
spend another 5 to 10 minutes debating where to camp, the hunt "red" mobs, slower to kill but greater xp or kill "light blue" mobs faster to kill but less xp debate was always fun.
Spend 5 minutes getting to the camp
You have been logged in for 45 minutes and not one kill
15 minutes into the camp, the healer has to go
back to town looking for healer
back to camp to see other party there
debate where to camp
make it to new camp
Tank, I have to go now
head back to town.. 3 hours online, 1 bar of XP filled
log out, try again tomorrow
you have been doing something wrong then m8.
For me it was, i log in /insta invite to several groups (jeej being a Tank rules) I often made one myself asswell but never have spend more then 5 mins looking for people unless i wanted a certain class. its nice when you are a tank and your buddy is a healer tends to speed the entire process up.
never really had to debate about where we where going there where several Good spawnpoints for our level and we just set out for one. if it was taken we head for the next.
and party members going well that always sucks. but even in your 10min dungeon in wow you have people leaving your group. More so then when they have to invest some time. people where reasonable back then on how much time they could spend with the group and wheter they should group at all. new people wernt that hard to find specially dpsers.
I should of clarified. My first MMO was EQOA (where I know most of you laugh at that even being an MMO) loved that game and it got me into MMO's.
When I had a great party nothing was better, it was a lot of fun but..
There was no Looking for group button, it was standing in Freeport spamming the general chat with "Level 46 tank LFG" (As much as I feel your pain, LFG for an instance wasn't much better.. When I leveled up Alts in WoW I gave up clicking LFD because I would be logged on for hours and NEVER get a group.. EVER EVER.. The only time the LFD finder was ever used was end game.. IF you were a tank or healer, fine, you normally queued up and got into a dungeon quickly.. however if you were DPS, good luck in that.. Even at end game doing heroics, I would wait easily over 30 minutes, LONGER if it was just normal dungeons and not heroics.. and PvP bg's became insane to queue up for) Especially during NON prime time hours..
and yes debates on where to go were rampant. A lot of people had strong opinions on either fighting lower level mobs vs higher level mobs
And to continue on the bad things of camping, I always played a tank and took a lot of pride on how I pulled. I knew how to use my taunts and kept my party from being hit, but knew when to stop using it so the party could kill the mob while I pulled another so there was no down time. By doing that the DD had to loot, my armor would be shot and he goes offline right when we finish having me pay for all my repairs. ( Wait wait, I'm confused.. you were a puller in WoW? That is news to me.. From where I come from (EQ) WoW doesn't allow traditional pulling.. and WoW doesn't allow ONE person to loot everything by default unless the leader sets the options for it.. but COIN is always split.. But I don't see how it's possible in WoW for you to go OUT and pull, while others sit in a camp? If you could, can you go in detail exactly where this takes place).. TY
my experience in camping for my stories was EQ only not WoW.
EQ was the only game where I grinded for XP, when I played WoW I pretty much soloed til the end
Originally posted by Rydeson WoW.. I finished reading more post and I'm just confused why so many claim that camping is a boring grind (killing 100 rats).. while at the same time believe that doing 10 NPC quest of "kill 10 rats" each is not.. (killing 100 rats total).. I have news for most of ya.. You gain XP to level by killing mobs in most games, it's only a matter of HOW you are going to kill them.. I personally found It annoying as hell to accept a quest from NPC to kill 10 rats (run to area on map and kill) them return for reward ONLY to have that same annoying NPC send me back again to the same area to do something else (run to area on and kill), then return for reward and AGAIN have that same NPC send me back out there a 3rd time to kill the named rat...... ARE YOU F"ING SERIOUS? You (NPC) sent me to an area 3 separate times to do your task wasting time running back and forth for no damn reason.. I think the worst example of this was the quest hub in Duskwood.. I absolutely hated running back and forth from the cemetery.. If I ever see another ??? quest hup again , it will be too soon..
Good point. Ratkilling quests are also a boring grind.
In fact 90% of all quests in all MMOs are rather bad. But the thing is that you shouldn't have to stand still in the same place waiting for the next spawn of mindless mobs there only for you to kill them, no living breathing world in that.
Quests should be epic, not menial work. But hunting orcs should be dangerous and challenging, not you standing still in the same spot. Imagine tracking a small orc warpack in a dark forest before they burn down some random farm or attack a merchant caravan, that is fun.
We spawncamped and killed rats since 1996 (M59 had them both), lets try something different now.
Well, not sure about that.. I actually at times logged on, and farmed giants in Everfrost for loot and XP.. It was a relaxing way to spend an hour or two.. Now as for the living breathing world, that is something I like about GW2 in having dynamic events.. Defending an outpost in GW2 is very much like camping with a reason.. I just wish I could do that more often.. There are times in GW2 I farm an area for mobs and loot, waiting for a dynamic event to trigger and BOOM I'm in..
I believe too many games use QUEST for simple task.. I do like the tracking comment as well.. I have said for years I miss my druid ability in EQ of tracking and going after wondering mobs.. I believe a world should be made up of static mobs (camps) and equal numbers of roaming mobs that move about the map freely..
I do agree, we need to killing mobs outside the box.. I would like to see a combo world of GW2, Rift, EQ taking the best of each and making a fun and exciting game for all.....
Well, not sure about that.. I actually at times logged on, and farmed giants in Everfrost for loot and XP.. It was a relaxing way to spend an hour or two.. Now as for the living breathing world, that is something I like about GW2 in having dynamic events.. Defending an outpost in GW2 is very much like camping with a reason.. I just wish I could do that more often.. There are times in GW2 I farm an area for mobs and loot, waiting for a dynamic event to trigger and BOOM I'm in..
I believe too many games use QUEST for simple task.. I do like the tracking comment as well.. I have said for years I miss my druid ability in EQ of tracking and going after wondering mobs.. I believe a world should be made up of static mobs (camps) and equal numbers of roaming mobs that move about the map freely..
I do agree, we need to killing mobs outside the box.. I would like to see a combo world of GW2, Rift, EQ taking the best of each and making a fun and exciting game for all.....
GW2s DEs are great but they are too predictable and tends to be the same thing over and over at the same place. A bit more randomness to them would probably help. And many games like EQ2 actually have a tracking system but you rarely need it in PvE because the mobs spawn in the same place and at best walks a small round.
But I do agree that taking a bit of the best from different games would make things a lot more interesting. Mixing DEs with more regular quests and maybe a more random and interesting version of RIFTs invasions (Orc rampage anyone?) could be very fun.
They would really have to keep only the interesting epic quests, I don't really need anyone to ask me to go on a goblin killing spree.
And what you say about wandering mobs is interesting as well, you could even use them as triggers for DEs. Say that a certain numbers of gnolls are in the dark forest at the same time, that could trigger an attack on the elven village and so on...
Although I understand exactly where you are coming from and whole heartedly agree...you will learn fast on this site...that you are better off talking to a wall with a certain group of individuals.
Unfortunately, the group of people you really mean are people like yourself, the fanatics, who don't understand how the world really works, they have a fantasy in their heads and they couldn't care less if it's factually accurate.
LOL...ok pal.
I understand how the world really works just fine. I didn't survive this long not knowing so...nor would have ever worked in Naval Intel or earned a college degree....so don't sit here and try to act all high and mighty and all knowing with me.
You and a handful of others habitually regurgitate the same BS constantly in threads you shouldn't even bother opening if they don't pertain to you or your likes, and make it quite apparent you favor instanced lobby games over actual MMORPG's. What gaming company do you guys work for? Seriously.
There is absolutely no reason a game cannot have multiple methods of advancement without impeding on a certain groups of players "fun". Just no one bothers when the lemmings are content with a linear model that gives rewards every 30 seconds and let's them feel like Gods.... so why bother putting more effort and resources into it. Companies are laughing all the way to the bank in disbelief that they can provide so little and get so much money in return I bet. And people like you gobble it up and keep the hamster wheel of mediocrity turning.
I bet when, yes, I said when, not if...an MMORPG comes around again providing an experience like the old ways (Open world exploration, epic (chain) quests, character development that matters, meaningful crafting, etc) while incorporating all of the new improvements to the genre (Customizable UI's, better combat, etc.)...you and a certain few here will be there on their forums to whine why the game sucks and should be changed to suit you guys.
In short, Don't blame the general audience for having diverse interest, blame the companies for not being focused enough. If a games design is shallow they are going to get shallow players and vice versa for much deeper games. Deep games doesn't necessarily make everyone happy but their customers tend to be around for years i.e. EVE Online. They are considered successful at below 1 million subscribers.
Why would anyone want 1M (Eve is more like 0.5M) when you can get 2M? GW2 got 2M in the first 2 weeks.
Yeah Jairoe03. Why would you want 1M long term dedicated players who add revenue towards the game consistently when you can have 2M sporadic game jumping players who will complain about the game until things are changed and provide short term miniscule amounts of cash to the game to boot?
In short, Don't blame the general audience for having diverse interest, blame the companies for not being focused enough. If a games design is shallow they are going to get shallow players and vice versa for much deeper games. Deep games doesn't necessarily make everyone happy but their customers tend to be around for years i.e. EVE Online. They are considered successful at below 1 million subscribers.
Why would anyone want 1M (Eve is more like 0.5M) when you can get 2M? GW2 got 2M in the first 2 weeks.
Yeah Jairoe03. Why would you want 1M long term dedicated players who add revenue towards the game consistently when you can have 2M sporadic game jumping players who will complain about the game until things are changed and provide short term miniscule amounts of cash to the game to boot?
GW2 actually have plenty of players still, but that really is beside the point here.
Both games do fine because they did some things different from the rest, not because they copied every single idea from UO, EQ, M59 or whatever. When you think outside the box your game stands out from the rest of the games that do the usual thing with upgraded graphics.
GW2 did maybe become too wide (I hated it when they made the game so much easier after the first 2 beta weekends, and so did many other old GW players) but the game do differs from other games for good and bad.
And everyone don't have to love your game but far too many MMOs don't bother to change anything of an already overused model and that frankly turns them into small F2P games fast.
That is why I look forward to upcoming games like WoDO, Class 4 and maybe EQN (hopefully), I might not like them all but they wont feel like I played them for years after 3 days.
I definitely don't want to see camping make a comeback. Mob grinding for hours in the hope of getting a rare piece of loot from a rare spawn mob was not an enjoyable experience in itself. I'm all for more group content though and more boss content. Would much rather see it on the move though and with more variety in loot than we used to have in those old days. I certainly don't want to hear, "Camp Check!" ever again.
camping wasn't bad. But if it makes a comeback, it needs to do so that it makes it interesting. For instance you could watch a day pass, and the mobs that would come along would be different. Or you could have npcs that come visit. Or a challenging camp. (for the record I do remember them with fondness- just thinking in what form it could make a comeback)
Yes I very much want open world raid bosses to make a comeback. I loved camping bosses in XI, The only thing I would like to see different is for the epic world raid bosses to have a much much much larger spawn radius. where your not having hundreds of players camp a tiny area. The fastest guild to mobilize and organize would get claim, instead of the of the claim boters.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore) Now Playing: N/A Worst MMO: FFXIV Favorite MMO: FFXI
For all the great times I had camping for mobs, I had equally these times
Log on, spend 30 minutes looking for a group,
spend another 5 to 10 minutes debating where to camp, the hunt "red" mobs, slower to kill but greater xp or kill "light blue" mobs faster to kill but less xp debate was always fun.
Spend 5 minutes getting to the camp
You have been logged in for 45 minutes and not one kill
15 minutes into the camp, the healer has to go
back to town looking for healer
back to camp to see other party there
debate where to camp
make it to new camp
Tank, I have to go now
head back to town.. 3 hours online, 1 bar of XP filled
log out, try again tomorrow
you have been doing something wrong then m8.
For me it was, i log in /insta invite to several groups (jeej being a Tank rules) I often made one myself asswell but never have spend more then 5 mins looking for people unless i wanted a certain class. its nice when you are a tank and your buddy is a healer tends to speed the entire process up.
never really had to debate about where we where going there where several Good spawnpoints for our level and we just set out for one. if it was taken we head for the next.
and party members going well that always sucks. but even in your 10min dungeon in wow you have people leaving your group. More so then when they have to invest some time. people where reasonable back then on how much time they could spend with the group and wheter they should group at all. new people wernt that hard to find specially dpsers.
I should of clarified. My first MMO was EQOA (where I know most of you laugh at that even being an MMO) loved that game and it got me into MMO's.
When I had a great party nothing was better, it was a lot of fun but..
There was no Looking for group button, it was standing in Freeport spamming the general chat with "Level 46 tank LFG"
and yes debates on where to go were rampant. A lot of people had strong opinions on either fighting lower level mobs vs higher level mobs
And to continue on the bad things of camping, I always played a tank and took a lot of pride on how I pulled. I knew how to use my taunts and kept my party from being hit, but knew when to stop using it so the party could kill the mob while I pulled another so there was no down time. By doing that the DD had to loot, my armor would be shot and he goes offline right when we finish having me pay for all my repairs.
Hehe my first 3d mmo (and what i was referring too) was EQOA asswell. european branch Stonewatchers server.
As i said my (rl) friend was a healer (shaman) and a damn good one i might add, so we never had problems getting dps for our party unless we wanted a bard or something. Even when we where playign necro/enchanter we still got instant groups because of our reputation on the server.
On where to go wasnt a problem either. We always headed north. Going towards either 3/4 spots of skeleton inhabited iglo's 2 spots of frost giants, a little island in a sea of ice where alot of grypohns where or if we where feeling adventurous we would head into castle Vox. and there are stil alot of other places left out.
Im like you chainpulling like a madman. altho repairs where not an issue (im not sure but i think we had loot set to round robin distributing automaticlly. (that option was available afaik) either that or my healer friend would loot everything (shaman worked trough HoT's he had alot of time between casting heals) and distributing afterwards.
i would love camping again. socializing with your party etc.
Originally posted by toddze Yes I very much want open world raid bosses to make a comeback. I loved camping bosses in XI, The only thing I would like to see different is for the epic world raid bosses to have a much much much larger spawn radius. where your not having hundreds of players camp a tiny area. The fastest guild to mobilize and organize would get claim, instead of the of the claim boters.
Originally posted by spades07
camping wasn't bad. But if it makes a comeback, it needs to do so that it makes it interesting. For instance you could watch a day pass, and the mobs that would come along would be different. Or you could have npcs that come visit. Or a challenging camp. (for the record I do remember them with fondness- just thinking in what form it could make a comeback)
Agreed with both.. I think dynamic camping would be fun if done correctly.. I like the idea of random boss spawning.. GW2 soft grouping as they call it would be the way to go, so that we don't run into the KS'ing bs of old.. I wouldn't mind seeing more randomness to camp spawns as well.. I think any predictable form of playing will make a game boring.. I enjoy the unknown and surprises. I do like how GW2 does DE's, I wish they would take it a step father..
Camping is fun. I like camps. I like camp checks. I like clearing a camp. I like leveling in camps. I want camps.
What I don't want is camps that require 8+ hours (and that was once considered short).
Well said. I remember enjoying FFXI camping up to the point you mention, usually post level 50 when it took 8 hours or more of camping to level up. Time is an issue and is the reason camping disappeared and went to quest based xp gain for leveling. I enjoy both but I do miss the community aspect of camping and the strategy and the locales. How to bring that feeling back without making it time intensive is the real question and is it worthwhile for a developer to consider tackling?
Comments
Not many companies has the resources that GW2 has to appeal to a broader range of people. Plus many aspects of the game in itself lacks a lot of depth. It's decent at everything but really great at nothing IMO. I'm sure they are paying way more overhead than most other MMO's are as well since they organized so many teams to manage and run this game.
Also, not every company has the luxury of pulling in 2M but was merely pointing out an example where sheer subscriber amount isn't the only way an MMO can be considered successful.
No thanks.
One of the reasons I stopped playing EQ and one of the reasons making alts in either EQ or DAoC all sucked was due to camp & grind.
Some people loved the early high level EQLive dungeons where you literally had a group camping every spawn point, sitting on their butts for 10+ mins waiting for their spawn to repop so they could kill something. Back then we didn't know any better. There's a reason the genre evolved away from this and that's because it sucks miserably.
I would like to see a deviation from solo ez-mode speed leveling in 3-x days. I would like to see leveling take months ala EQLive at release. I don't see how a dev can draw out the leveling process with the way content is done now - you'd need a few planets worth of zones, or you'd need to make combat slow and tedious, and both would suck.
I'm sure there are some ideas floating and I'm hopeful that EQNext will be neither a return to camp and grind misery or yet another generic quest hub speed level for dummies fest.
One thing I think that could be done would be to all but require grouping to level - just without the camp and grind. As it is now in most MMORPGs, grouping is entirely optional. There might be zero a few outdoor elite encounters. There's the obligatory dungeon every few levels that's entirely optional.
I say, flip this mofo around. Make doing dungeons and elite style content the norm, with solo opportunities being the extreme minority. Make it so yeah, you can solo, yeah, it can take you 50x longer to level solo too. Making grouping the dramatically more efficient way to level would go a long way to encourage more grouping!
One challenge with filling a world with group-requiring combat, like making it purposeful or quest-oriented, is that it's hard for players, even friends, to stay on the same quests. So you'd need to mix it up with dailies or more spontaneous quests rather than rigidly fixed quests. In some ways, you could almost have something akin to the old camp & grind. If you could get daily kill quests in zones, like kill 50 elite giants, it'd force extended grouping but rather than park in one spot for hours you would more likely move around and fight varying targets. 50 giants here. 50 ogres there. Collect 100 bones from skeletal variants here. Etc. Stuff like this could be more spontaneous. You could also go with some of the newer event-driven type of content as long as it scales. Letting players zerg content to death doesn't keep it "elite" but if those adhoc groups/raids face challenges via scaling that kind of thing would be good to mix in too.
Now, one other point is, I hate wusses that have babysitters do content for them. I hate gutless punks who need a high level friend along to babysit them thru content. So straight up, if EQN is supposed to be ANY kind of challenge they need mechanisms in place to turn xp into nothing when high levels are babysitting, or a mentoring type of system that lets high levelers become content appropriate (ala EQ2).
IMO, people who want to solo excessively and/or exclusively in MMOs shouldn't be playing MMOS (basic logic, play single player games instead if you want to play alone) and if some hardcore soloists decide not to play an MMORPG because that massively multiplayer game is too heavily group-oriented, then so be it. No loss. In fact I'm all for it, because IMO the heavy bent on solo MMORPGs are turning into glorified single player games with kindergarten mentality chat and are barely MMOs anymore.
All the older MMORPGs had way better community for one simple reason. You had to group or you weren't leveling. If you MUST group, you must behave more reasonably, be social, develop and maintain a decent reputation, make friends, etc. All of this leads to a much stronger community. You just don't get anything like that in modern MMOs that are full of soloists with the only units that get anything done being guilds that largely keep to themselves.
I'd like to see WAY, WAY more grouping in MMORPGs, just without the tedium and boredom of camp & grind. I'd like to see solo kicked to the curb to be something that you can do but it's horrifically inefficient vs grouping. Nobody can group 100% of the time so having an option, even if it's a sad option, to solo, should somewhat be there. I'd like to see a return to strong community in an MMORPG due to the grouping factor, and along with that, for a refreshing change, far less asshats since the mouthy chat brats and other punks will never get groups and will just quit and go away or learn to play nice.
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.
Alright I think I understand what some people are thinking.
If you were a LOOT WHORE in Everquest then yeah, I'm sure you don't want camping back becuase you were willing to sit on your ass for 8 hours wating for a negligible gear drop.
So no, this definitely isn't about adding rare loot drops to bait some idiots into staying in one spot for marathon sessions.
I'm talking about actual gameplay, just setting up in one spot and gaining decent exp in a group instead of blowing through dungeons or doing easy solo quests. There should be reasonable loot drops but no, I'm not advocating rare spawns for people to fight over. It most definitely does not need to be done that way ever again.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
For all the great times I had camping for mobs, I had equally these times
Log on, spend 30 minutes looking for a group,
spend another 5 to 10 minutes debating where to camp, the hunt "red" mobs, slower to kill but greater xp or kill "light blue" mobs faster to kill but less xp debate was always fun.
Spend 5 minutes getting to the camp
You have been logged in for 45 minutes and not one kill
15 minutes into the camp, the healer has to go
back to town looking for healer
back to camp to see other party there
debate where to camp
make it to new camp
Tank, I have to go now
head back to town.. 3 hours online, 1 bar of XP filled
log out, try again tomorrow
you have been doing something wrong then m8.
For me it was, i log in /insta invite to several groups (jeej being a Tank rules) I often made one myself asswell but never have spend more then 5 mins looking for people unless i wanted a certain class. its nice when you are a tank and your buddy is a healer tends to speed the entire process up.
never really had to debate about where we where going there where several Good spawnpoints for our level and we just set out for one. if it was taken we head for the next.
and party members going well that always sucks. but even in your 10min dungeon in wow you have people leaving your group. More so then when they have to invest some time. people where reasonable back then on how much time they could spend with the group and wheter they should group at all. new people wernt that hard to find specially dpsers.
That was an OLD problem that SOE failed to take care of until it was too late.. I remember the cleric epic in Skyfire very much and it was insane.. But too little, too late SOE fixed that by making the mob spawn triggerable.. That is just one simple way of handling the problem, without destroying the social community with instancing.. IMO
I should of clarified. My first MMO was EQOA (where I know most of you laugh at that even being an MMO) loved that game and it got me into MMO's.
When I had a great party nothing was better, it was a lot of fun but..
There was no Looking for group button, it was standing in Freeport spamming the general chat with "Level 46 tank LFG"
and yes debates on where to go were rampant. A lot of people had strong opinions on either fighting lower level mobs vs higher level mobs
And to continue on the bad things of camping, I always played a tank and took a lot of pride on how I pulled. I knew how to use my taunts and kept my party from being hit, but knew when to stop using it so the party could kill the mob while I pulled another so there was no down time. By doing that the DD had to loot, my armor would be shot and he goes offline right when we finish having me pay for all my repairs.
I did many of times with my frost mage..... Talk about mage farming, I felt like a GOD
Unfortunately, the group of people you really mean are people like yourself, the fanatics, who don't understand how the world really works, they have a fantasy in their heads and they couldn't care less if it's factually accurate.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
Good point. Ratkilling quests are also a boring grind.
In fact 90% of all quests in all MMOs are rather bad. But the thing is that you shouldn't have to stand still in the same place waiting for the next spawn of mindless mobs there only for you to kill them, no living breathing world in that.
Quests should be epic, not menial work. But hunting orcs should be dangerous and challenging, not you standing still in the same spot. Imagine tracking a small orc warpack in a dark forest before they burn down some random farm or attack a merchant caravan, that is fun.
We spawncamped and killed rats since 1996 (M59 had them both), lets try something different now.
Well, not sure about that.. I actually at times logged on, and farmed giants in Everfrost for loot and XP.. It was a relaxing way to spend an hour or two.. Now as for the living breathing world, that is something I like about GW2 in having dynamic events.. Defending an outpost in GW2 is very much like camping with a reason.. I just wish I could do that more often.. There are times in GW2 I farm an area for mobs and loot, waiting for a dynamic event to trigger and BOOM I'm in..
I believe too many games use QUEST for simple task.. I do like the tracking comment as well.. I have said for years I miss my druid ability in EQ of tracking and going after wondering mobs.. I believe a world should be made up of static mobs (camps) and equal numbers of roaming mobs that move about the map freely..
I do agree, we need to killing mobs outside the box.. I would like to see a combo world of GW2, Rift, EQ taking the best of each and making a fun and exciting game for all.....
Ahh OK.. I never played EQOA, cause in the original EQ, there was no cost to repair gear, that is what threw me.. TY..
GW2s DEs are great but they are too predictable and tends to be the same thing over and over at the same place. A bit more randomness to them would probably help. And many games like EQ2 actually have a tracking system but you rarely need it in PvE because the mobs spawn in the same place and at best walks a small round.
But I do agree that taking a bit of the best from different games would make things a lot more interesting. Mixing DEs with more regular quests and maybe a more random and interesting version of RIFTs invasions (Orc rampage anyone?) could be very fun.
They would really have to keep only the interesting epic quests, I don't really need anyone to ask me to go on a goblin killing spree.
And what you say about wandering mobs is interesting as well, you could even use them as triggers for DEs. Say that a certain numbers of gnolls are in the dark forest at the same time, that could trigger an attack on the elven village and so on...
LOL...ok pal.
I understand how the world really works just fine. I didn't survive this long not knowing so...nor would have ever worked in Naval Intel or earned a college degree....so don't sit here and try to act all high and mighty and all knowing with me.
You and a handful of others habitually regurgitate the same BS constantly in threads you shouldn't even bother opening if they don't pertain to you or your likes, and make it quite apparent you favor instanced lobby games over actual MMORPG's. What gaming company do you guys work for? Seriously.
There is absolutely no reason a game cannot have multiple methods of advancement without impeding on a certain groups of players "fun". Just no one bothers when the lemmings are content with a linear model that gives rewards every 30 seconds and let's them feel like Gods.... so why bother putting more effort and resources into it. Companies are laughing all the way to the bank in disbelief that they can provide so little and get so much money in return I bet. And people like you gobble it up and keep the hamster wheel of mediocrity turning.
I bet when, yes, I said when, not if...an MMORPG comes around again providing an experience like the old ways (Open world exploration, epic (chain) quests, character development that matters, meaningful crafting, etc) while incorporating all of the new improvements to the genre (Customizable UI's, better combat, etc.)...you and a certain few here will be there on their forums to whine why the game sucks and should be changed to suit you guys.
Yeah Jairoe03. Why would you want 1M long term dedicated players who add revenue towards the game consistently when you can have 2M sporadic game jumping players who will complain about the game until things are changed and provide short term miniscule amounts of cash to the game to boot?
GW2 actually have plenty of players still, but that really is beside the point here.
Both games do fine because they did some things different from the rest, not because they copied every single idea from UO, EQ, M59 or whatever. When you think outside the box your game stands out from the rest of the games that do the usual thing with upgraded graphics.
GW2 did maybe become too wide (I hated it when they made the game so much easier after the first 2 beta weekends, and so did many other old GW players) but the game do differs from other games for good and bad.
And everyone don't have to love your game but far too many MMOs don't bother to change anything of an already overused model and that frankly turns them into small F2P games fast.
That is why I look forward to upcoming games like WoDO, Class 4 and maybe EQN (hopefully), I might not like them all but they wont feel like I played them for years after 3 days.
https://www.therepopulation.com - Sci Fi Sandbox.
camping wasn't bad. But if it makes a comeback, it needs to do so that it makes it interesting. For instance you could watch a day pass, and the mobs that would come along would be different. Or you could have npcs that come visit. Or a challenging camp.
(for the record I do remember them with fondness- just thinking in what form it could make a comeback)
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
Hehe my first 3d mmo (and what i was referring too) was EQOA asswell. european branch Stonewatchers server.
As i said my (rl) friend was a healer (shaman) and a damn good one i might add, so we never had problems getting dps for our party unless we wanted a bard or something. Even when we where playign necro/enchanter we still got instant groups because of our reputation on the server.
On where to go wasnt a problem either. We always headed north. Going towards either 3/4 spots of skeleton inhabited iglo's 2 spots of frost giants, a little island in a sea of ice where alot of grypohns where or if we where feeling adventurous we would head into castle Vox. and there are stil alot of other places left out.
Im like you chainpulling like a madman. altho repairs where not an issue (im not sure but i think we had loot set to round robin distributing automaticlly. (that option was available afaik) either that or my healer friend would loot everything (shaman worked trough HoT's he had alot of time between casting heals) and distributing afterwards.
i would love camping again. socializing with your party etc.
Agreed with both.. I think dynamic camping would be fun if done correctly.. I like the idea of random boss spawning.. GW2 soft grouping as they call it would be the way to go, so that we don't run into the KS'ing bs of old.. I wouldn't mind seeing more randomness to camp spawns as well.. I think any predictable form of playing will make a game boring.. I enjoy the unknown and surprises. I do like how GW2 does DE's, I wish they would take it a step father..
Well said. I remember enjoying FFXI camping up to the point you mention, usually post level 50 when it took 8 hours or more of camping to level up. Time is an issue and is the reason camping disappeared and went to quest based xp gain for leveling. I enjoy both but I do miss the community aspect of camping and the strategy and the locales. How to bring that feeling back without making it time intensive is the real question and is it worthwhile for a developer to consider tackling?