Let's face it, EQ was a hardcore PvE game and that is where it really excelled. DAoC was a great PvP game. Vanilla WoW was a great casual PvE game and from there is where the MMO scene got muddled with jack of all trades and master of none.
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
Let's face it, EQ was a hardcore PvE game and that is where it really excelled. DAoC was a great PvP game. Vanilla WoW was a great casual PvE game and from there is where the MMO scene got muddled with jack of all trades and master of none.
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
Let's face it, EQ was a hardcore PvE game and that is where it really excelled. DAoC was a great PvP game. Vanilla WoW was a great casual PvE game and from there is where the MMO scene got muddled with jack of all trades and master of none.
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
Hmmm.... EVE?
Old-school MMOs (or games in general) are considered to have their roots in P&P RPGs.
I don't see EVE count as old-school under these terms. And yes, I played the TRAVELLER RPG back in the old days and and EVE can't also compare to that.
Not denying that EVE is a good game, it just doesn't fit the bill.
Let's face it, EQ was a hardcore PvE game and that is where it really excelled. DAoC was a great PvP game. Vanilla WoW was a great casual PvE game and from there is where the MMO scene got muddled with jack of all trades and master of none.
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
I don't agree, 500k is not a huge amount anymore with the expanded pool. If something is done well, I see 500k very doable, but it also needs to be more old school, like EQ or a UO/EQ type mix...No way a new fast level game will do it, people will spit it out too quick.
The problem is, people putting up money don't dream of 500k loyal paying people, they dream of millions when they give money. You can make money on bonds, but the stock market is the higher risk, more potential investment...Same with mmo money imo.
I think it would take a bigger name in the industry to pull it off, if people are going to bank on 500k subs at $15 a pop, which is good money, they would have to feel like it is a somewhat safe bet that the person could pull the game off.
Let's face it, EQ was a hardcore PvE game and that is where it really excelled. DAoC was a great PvP game. Vanilla WoW was a great casual PvE game and from there is where the MMO scene got muddled with jack of all trades and master of none.
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
Hmmm.... EVE?
Old-school MMOs (or games in general) are considered to have their roots in P&P RPGs.
I don't see EVE count as old-school under these terms. And yes, I played the TRAVELLER RPG back in the old days and and EVE can't also compare to that.
Not denying that EVE is a good game, it just doesn't fit the bill.
Well the jist of your post was that you won't find a game with similar unforgiving elements, and EVE does have those. Not sure why a game having its roots in P&P RPGs would be a particular turn off to players. Normally people talk about the difficulty and, like I said, unforgiving nature of oldschool MMOs.
Themepark games are not the hopeless disaster that people think. I think that GW2, WoW, and FF are all very good theme park games right now. Its true that they lack the long term retention tactics that old school games relied on. But that's by design.
You see adding elements of sandbox, difficulty gating, social gating (you have to know the right people to advance your character) and grind gating (how long it takes you to level to get gear etc etc) - it CAN add to player retention. It can also turn players off.
This is what Blizzard found out - that players very early on were giving up. So rather then strive for retention alone they tried to make the game easy to play but hard to master. That was the mantra in BC - and its a good one. Nowadays yes its shifted too much towards easy to play. But the point is balance needs to be found..
Despite the woe is me bit from old school gamers - many of these new games are quite good. GW2, WoW and FF all seem to be excellent games. Just because they can't keep someone occupied "forever' doesn't mean they aren't good games. There is a some kind of 'play limit' that the game shoot for.
The average player can play maybe 1000 hours of an MMO without being 'done' in say GW2. Sure EQ1 might take 10,000 or more but the downside of this approach is that so many players would be turned off.. It's a challenge for developers and one that they are by and large meeting..
These games are successful and they are making a good chunk of money. GW2 has more then covered their development costs - I'd wager 2x over by now. And WoW must have cleared 10x their development costs at this point..
Themepark games are not the hopeless disaster that people think. I think that GW2, WoW, and FF are all very good theme park games right now. Its true that they lack the long term retention tactics that old school games relied on. But that's by design.
You see adding elements of sandbox, difficulty gating, social gating (you have to know the right people to advance your character) and grind gating (how long it takes you to level to get gear etc etc) - it CAN add to player retention. It can also turn players off.
This is what Blizzard found out - that players very early on were giving up. So rather then strive for retention alone they tried to make the game easy to play but hard to master. That was the mantra in BC - and its a good one. Nowadays yes its shifted too much towards easy to play. But the point is balance needs to be found..
Despite the woe is me bit from old school gamers - many of these new games are quite good. GW2, WoW and FF all seem to be excellent games. Just because they can't keep someone occupied "forever' doesn't mean they aren't good games. There is a some kind of 'play limit' that the game shoot for.
The average player can play maybe 1000 hours of an MMO without being 'done' in say GW2. Sure EQ1 might take 10,000 or more but the downside of this approach is that so many players would be turned off.. It's a challenge for developers and one that they are by and large meeting..
These games are successful and they are making a good chunk of money. GW2 has more then covered their development costs - I'd wager 2x over by now. And WoW must have cleared 10x their development costs at this point..
I dunno it seems like a totally reasonable complaint to point out that lack of longevity in a subscription-based game. A lot of us who complain about modern MMOs are just wise to their carrot-on-a-stick gameplay tricks.
Let's face it, EQ was a hardcore PvE game and that is where it really excelled. DAoC was a great PvP game. Vanilla WoW was a great casual PvE game and from there is where the MMO scene got muddled with jack of all trades and master of none.
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
Hmmm.... EVE?
Old-school MMOs (or games in general) are considered to have their roots in P&P RPGs.
I don't see EVE count as old-school under these terms. And yes, I played the TRAVELLER RPG back in the old days and and EVE can't also compare to that.
Not denying that EVE is a good game, it just doesn't fit the bill.
Well the jist of your post was that you won't find a game with similar unforgiving elements, and EVE does have those. Not sure why a game having its roots in P&P RPGs would be a particular turn off to players. Normally people talk about the difficulty and, like I said, unforgiving nature of oldschool MMOs.
Please care to actually read what you quote
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
I never said I can't find an "unforgiving enough" game, not even that I am looking for it.
My statement is, that there is no playerbase anymore that would pay the sub for the original Everquest .
And regarding EVE - it might surprise you but an SF MMO where most of the gameplay is about space and ship combat is NO substitute for a high fantasy setting with dungeon crawls. Just because its unforgiving doesn't mean that the setting has to appeal to everyone. Or do you actually think it does? O_o
Let's face it, EQ was a hardcore PvE game and that is where it really excelled. DAoC was a great PvP game. Vanilla WoW was a great casual PvE game and from there is where the MMO scene got muddled with jack of all trades and master of none.
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
Hmmm.... EVE?
Old-school MMOs (or games in general) are considered to have their roots in P&P RPGs.
I don't see EVE count as old-school under these terms. And yes, I played the TRAVELLER RPG back in the old days and and EVE can't also compare to that.
Not denying that EVE is a good game, it just doesn't fit the bill.
Well the jist of your post was that you won't find a game with similar unforgiving elements, and EVE does have those. Not sure why a game having its roots in P&P RPGs would be a particular turn off to players. Normally people talk about the difficulty and, like I said, unforgiving nature of oldschool MMOs.
Please care to actually read what you quote
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
I never said I can't find an "unforgiving enough" game, not even that I am looking for it.
My statement is, that there is no playerbase anymore that would pay the sub for the original Everquest .
And regarding EVE - it might surprise you but an SF MMO where most of the gameplay is about space and ship combat is NO substitute for a high fantasy setting with dungeon crawls. Just because its unforgiving doesn't mean that the setting has to appeal to everyone. Or do you actually think it does? O_o
You said you'll never find 500,000 players subbing for a game that denies them any fast travel and makes them do a naked corpse run. EVE fits this description very well.
[quote]I dunno it seems like a totally reasonable complaint to point out that lack of longevity in a subscription-based game. A lot of us who complain about modern MMOs are just wise to their carrot-on-a-stick gameplay tricks. [/quote]
Longevity is trivial for the developers to implement. It's just that longevity that doesn't tick the crap out of the players they DO have or turn off future ones that is really difficult to pull off. Companies struggle to hit this balance..
It seems to me a large percentage of the MMO crowd wants content that cannot be delivered. They essentially want a Holo deck when current computers are basically a series of light switches. People DEMAND content like the little stories they have in GW2 or the quests they have in WoW.
You can't have endless hours of this style of themepark content. This is because quality themepark content has to be HAND CODED. Its themepark quality with some sparks of longevity OR sandboxes that MOST players find really boring. The developers usually choose to go with the themepark approach - because its leads to more satifisfaction for the players.
The other issue I see in threads like this that are DOWN on the genre is a lack of understanding about how HUGELY PROFITABLE World of Warcraft is - and why other companies will be chasing their model for generations. They have built the Holy Grail..
For years Banks and other institutions have dreamed of computer that would just trade stocks automatically and turn that into profit. In a way World of Warcraft is the closest thing to this. Its a computer program where they just need to spend a modest amount of money upgrading every year and half and it brings 1Billion dollars of revenue or so every year. It's basically a money printing machine.
Do you think they spent even 100 million on the last expansion? Or Cata? Talk about a return on your investment. WoW might be one of the best performing investments ever. People are never going to stop chasing it..
So no MMOS are doing well - even if its really only one major player cashing in - and longevity is only a problem if you want to attract a small audience for a long time instead of a large audience for a short one. I think most companies prefer their money upfront..
[quote]I dunno it seems like a totally reasonable complaint to point out that lack of longevity in a subscription-based game. A lot of us who complain about modern MMOs are just wise to their carrot-on-a-stick gameplay tricks. [/quote]
Longevity is trivial for the developers to implement. It's just that longevity that doesn't tick the crap out of the players they DO have or turn off future ones that is really difficult to pull off. Companies struggle to hit this balance..
It seems to me a large percentage of the MMO crowd wants content that cannot be delivered. They essentially want a Holo deck when current computers are basically a series of light switches. People DEMAND content like the little stories they have in GW2 or the quests they have in WoW.
You can't have endless hours of this style of themepark content. This is because quality themepark content has to be HAND CODED. Its themepark quality with some sparks of longevity OR sandboxes that MOST players find really boring. The developers usually choose to go with the themepark approach - because its leads to more satifisfaction for the players.
The other issue I see in threads like this that are DOWN on the genre is a lack of understanding about how HUGELY PROFITABLE World of Warcraft is - and why other companies will be chasing their model for generations. They have built the Holy Grail..
For years Banks and other institutions have dreamed of computer that would just trade stocks automatically and turn that into profit. In a way World of Warcraft is the closest thing to this. Its a computer program where they just need to spend a modest amount of money upgrading every year and half and it brings 1Billion dollars of revenue or so every year. It's basically a money printing machine.
Do you think they spent even 100 million on the last expansion? Or Cata? Talk about a return on your investment. WoW might be one of the best performing investments ever. People are never going to stop chasing it..
So no MMOS are doing well - even if its really only one major player cashing in - and longevity is only a problem if you want to attract a small audience for a long time instead of a large audience for a short one. I think most companies prefer their money upfront..
I agree that you can't really have endless themepark content... that's the problem with themeparks. And that's why they have to implemented endless grinds to keep people playing.
2problems with modern players and games 1). They want great content and then want to rush past it, no less insane than wanting a great book then skimming to last page. 2) no appreciation for storytelling and lore. A game without a great story is just a series of images and key presses.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
I'd pay for a sub to Eq1 without any fast travel and corpse runs, as long as it had the original community social aspect of EQ1.
I'm tired of games being about soloing and silent zerg runs and boring daily grind quests. Everquest had almost no quests
(ironically), and it was a true mmo. Now games have forgotten the socialization aspect, and they are all about pointless
grinding of loot and daily quests to get more loot.
Everquest 1 actually had class design that worked and was balanced. Druids and Wizards could teleport people, and gameplay that was hard and challenging, especially crafting where you could use your materials and fail the combine and lose all of your materials. Tradeskills should be connected and interwoven like they were on vanilla original Everquest 2.
Games have missed the point. WoW doesn't add fun new crafting recipes, or even finish the darkmoon faire. I thought that the faire would get some cool profession recipes at some point but now it has been like 2 years. Why don't we ever get fun new profession recipes?
SWToR ruined crafting, they didn't give cool unique recipes or any fluff cosmetic content or housing at all (decorating).
Games should be more like Star Wars Galaxies. Take the gameplay mechanics of Everquest 1 and add in the SWG crafting and player housing/player shops and guild towns. The multiple planets and the ability to get housing blueprints, give us architects and bio-engineers. Give us politicians to be the mayors of our cities, give us lotteries and fun mini-games, give us the Everquest 1 casino in shadow haven expanded with more games!!!
Give us fun things to do like Image Designer, Dancer and Musician and places to hang out in like Cantinas!! Non-combat missions !!
Taking the farming of WoW's sunsong ranch in pandaria, mix in more Lord of the Rings Online and farmville, and have us farming for our professions. We should have plenty of things to do and see, lots of exploration but not overcrowded servers merged together creating pointless pve competition and camping.
We should have shared quests that everyone can update together to provide teamwork and friendly comraderie. So that everyone learns how to help each other and respect each other , and kill rare name together and tame rare pets together. Bosses should be on a reasonable lower timer for respawns, so that people aren't wasting time camping instead they are playing the game.
For every 1 person camping that is one person not grouping or raiding and not playing with others. If everyone is camping then no one is grouping or raiding and people start feeling the game is "dead' or is "dying",b ecause everyone is busy soloing their daily quests and camping solo mobs.
Instead they have to have more heroic group oriented content, and allow everyone to get updates at the same time...
How did games go so wrong? Everquest 1 had it right , before they nerfed that, and nerfed Vanilla Eq2 and WoW, destroyed Vanguard Saga of Heroes because it never had any popularity after its failed launch, and canned SWG. Lord of the Rings Online is great for what it is, but now even that has been nerfed. Games aren't the way they were 12 years ago, and this genre has really gone downhill....
Why does debuffing a mob no longer matter on Everquest 2? Slow meant everything on Everquest 1. Why do most groups offtank and aoe down adds on Everquest 2 and no one mezzes a mob anymore? Used to mez and crowd control on EQ1. Why did WoW take out class/racial quests and put them on trainers? So you can buy your awesome class abilities for almost no money, and no longer do a cool fun questline full of lore for them.
The developers should make the exact opposite of what the OP said those older games did (They where more specialized IMO though)
They should specialize on different groups of people, not try to please everyone... It's obvious that this doesn't work.
Developers are afraid of making something different, and something that might not appeal to everyone... But they are just f'cking blind. Look at EVE ! EVE is the most successful MMO apart from WoW. And not even WoW have been able to keep their players and have an increase of player like EVE have had. It can't get much more complicated and hardcore than EVE, and it still has an amazing support.
I don't play EVE, because it doesn't appeal to me personally with the way you travel in space and stuff... It's also very hard to get into. But I love the systems they have in the game, and how hardcore it is. I'm pretty sure there are many others who feel the same thing.
I don't just play one console/pc game (not MMO), I play many different, and I like games that others don't. I love Dark Souls, others thinks it's too hard, or just want to play multiplayer games etc... It should be the same with MMO's.
When I check out MMO's, I should find a whole bunch of different games that have a healthy and active playerbase, but one might be more for a hardcore player that likes PVP, another for more casual players that like PVE etc etc.....
Originally posted by Cephus404 No, you're missing the point. It doesn't matter what the MMO genre was originally intended to be, it only matters what it is now. [mod edit] It's entirely irrelevant to the modern day MMO which are driven by market forces and what the majority of people actually want to play now.
Sounds like YOU missed the point to me. The majority of people don't even know what a real MMO is. These people playing MMOs today never played EQ, UO, or Daoc. They think WoW was the first MMO. Nothing is irrelevant in this conversation, we can have a freaking discussion no matter what it is now if we are not happy with what it is.
Originally posted by Cephus404 No, you're missing the point. It doesn't matter what the MMO genre was originally intended to be, it only matters what it is now. [mod edit] It's entirely irrelevant to the modern day MMO which are driven by market forces and what the majority of people actually want to play now.
Sounds like YOU missed the point to me. The majority of people don't even know what a real MMO is. These people playing MMOs today never played EQ, UO, or Daoc. They think WoW was the first MMO. Nothing is irrelevant in this conversation, we can have a freaking discussion no matter what it is now if we are not happy with what it is.
It takes a True Scotsman to recognize what a Real MMORPG is.
Comments
There is the problem.
Many people assume the playerbase has always been the same and that MMOs just shifted to please all or different segments.
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
Developers/publishers are simply trying to please the current largest market segment. And that wants a dumbed down WoW with teleportation to instances, mounts and epic gear within the first 5 level and auto-everything
I am not pleased with that but I have to play what the crowd asks for and wait for the return of old-school which - let's face it - will probably never come.
Hmmm.... EVE?
Old-school MMOs (or games in general) are considered to have their roots in P&P RPGs.
I don't see EVE count as old-school under these terms. And yes, I played the TRAVELLER RPG back in the old days and and EVE can't also compare to that.
Not denying that EVE is a good game, it just doesn't fit the bill.
I don't agree, 500k is not a huge amount anymore with the expanded pool. If something is done well, I see 500k very doable, but it also needs to be more old school, like EQ or a UO/EQ type mix...No way a new fast level game will do it, people will spit it out too quick.
The problem is, people putting up money don't dream of 500k loyal paying people, they dream of millions when they give money. You can make money on bonds, but the stock market is the higher risk, more potential investment...Same with mmo money imo.
I think it would take a bigger name in the industry to pull it off, if people are going to bank on 500k subs at $15 a pop, which is good money, they would have to feel like it is a somewhat safe bet that the person could pull the game off.
Yeah it may not happen, but you never know.
Well the jist of your post was that you won't find a game with similar unforgiving elements, and EVE does have those. Not sure why a game having its roots in P&P RPGs would be a particular turn off to players. Normally people talk about the difficulty and, like I said, unforgiving nature of oldschool MMOs.
Themepark games are not the hopeless disaster that people think. I think that GW2, WoW, and FF are all very good theme park games right now. Its true that they lack the long term retention tactics that old school games relied on. But that's by design.
You see adding elements of sandbox, difficulty gating, social gating (you have to know the right people to advance your character) and grind gating (how long it takes you to level to get gear etc etc) - it CAN add to player retention. It can also turn players off.
This is what Blizzard found out - that players very early on were giving up. So rather then strive for retention alone they tried to make the game easy to play but hard to master. That was the mantra in BC - and its a good one. Nowadays yes its shifted too much towards easy to play. But the point is balance needs to be found..
Despite the woe is me bit from old school gamers - many of these new games are quite good. GW2, WoW and FF all seem to be excellent games. Just because they can't keep someone occupied "forever' doesn't mean they aren't good games. There is a some kind of 'play limit' that the game shoot for.
The average player can play maybe 1000 hours of an MMO without being 'done' in say GW2. Sure EQ1 might take 10,000 or more but the downside of this approach is that so many players would be turned off.. It's a challenge for developers and one that they are by and large meeting..
These games are successful and they are making a good chunk of money. GW2 has more then covered their development costs - I'd wager 2x over by now. And WoW must have cleared 10x their development costs at this point..
I dunno it seems like a totally reasonable complaint to point out that lack of longevity in a subscription-based game. A lot of us who complain about modern MMOs are just wise to their carrot-on-a-stick gameplay tricks.
Please care to actually read what you quote
But in fact the playerbase has changed drastically just within 15 years - nowadays you'll nerver find 500.000 players who sub for 19.90 a month for a game that denies them any fast travelling and makes them do a naked corpse run when they die.
I never said I can't find an "unforgiving enough" game, not even that I am looking for it.
My statement is, that there is no playerbase anymore that would pay the sub for the original Everquest .
And regarding EVE - it might surprise you but an SF MMO where most of the gameplay is about space and ship combat is NO substitute for a high fantasy setting with dungeon crawls. Just because its unforgiving doesn't mean that the setting has to appeal to everyone. Or do you actually think it does? O_o
You said you'll never find 500,000 players subbing for a game that denies them any fast travel and makes them do a naked corpse run. EVE fits this description very well.
[quote]I dunno it seems like a totally reasonable complaint to point out that lack of longevity in a subscription-based game. A lot of us who complain about modern MMOs are just wise to their carrot-on-a-stick gameplay tricks. [/quote]
Longevity is trivial for the developers to implement. It's just that longevity that doesn't tick the crap out of the players they DO have or turn off future ones that is really difficult to pull off. Companies struggle to hit this balance..
It seems to me a large percentage of the MMO crowd wants content that cannot be delivered. They essentially want a Holo deck when current computers are basically a series of light switches. People DEMAND content like the little stories they have in GW2 or the quests they have in WoW.
You can't have endless hours of this style of themepark content. This is because quality themepark content has to be HAND CODED. Its themepark quality with some sparks of longevity OR sandboxes that MOST players find really boring. The developers usually choose to go with the themepark approach - because its leads to more satifisfaction for the players.
The other issue I see in threads like this that are DOWN on the genre is a lack of understanding about how HUGELY PROFITABLE World of Warcraft is - and why other companies will be chasing their model for generations. They have built the Holy Grail..
For years Banks and other institutions have dreamed of computer that would just trade stocks automatically and turn that into profit. In a way World of Warcraft is the closest thing to this. Its a computer program where they just need to spend a modest amount of money upgrading every year and half and it brings 1Billion dollars of revenue or so every year. It's basically a money printing machine.
Do you think they spent even 100 million on the last expansion? Or Cata? Talk about a return on your investment. WoW might be one of the best performing investments ever. People are never going to stop chasing it..
So no MMOS are doing well - even if its really only one major player cashing in - and longevity is only a problem if you want to attract a small audience for a long time instead of a large audience for a short one. I think most companies prefer their money upfront..
I agree that you can't really have endless themepark content... that's the problem with themeparks. And that's why they have to implemented endless grinds to keep people playing.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I'd pay for a sub to Eq1 without any fast travel and corpse runs, as long as it had the original community social aspect of EQ1.
I'm tired of games being about soloing and silent zerg runs and boring daily grind quests. Everquest had almost no quests
(ironically), and it was a true mmo. Now games have forgotten the socialization aspect, and they are all about pointless
grinding of loot and daily quests to get more loot.
Everquest 1 actually had class design that worked and was balanced. Druids and Wizards could teleport people, and gameplay that was hard and challenging, especially crafting where you could use your materials and fail the combine and lose all of your materials. Tradeskills should be connected and interwoven like they were on vanilla original Everquest 2.
Games have missed the point. WoW doesn't add fun new crafting recipes, or even finish the darkmoon faire. I thought that the faire would get some cool profession recipes at some point but now it has been like 2 years. Why don't we ever get fun new profession recipes?
SWToR ruined crafting, they didn't give cool unique recipes or any fluff cosmetic content or housing at all (decorating).
Games should be more like Star Wars Galaxies. Take the gameplay mechanics of Everquest 1 and add in the SWG crafting and player housing/player shops and guild towns. The multiple planets and the ability to get housing blueprints, give us architects and bio-engineers. Give us politicians to be the mayors of our cities, give us lotteries and fun mini-games, give us the Everquest 1 casino in shadow haven expanded with more games!!!
Give us fun things to do like Image Designer, Dancer and Musician and places to hang out in like Cantinas!! Non-combat missions !!
Taking the farming of WoW's sunsong ranch in pandaria, mix in more Lord of the Rings Online and farmville, and have us farming for our professions. We should have plenty of things to do and see, lots of exploration but not overcrowded servers merged together creating pointless pve competition and camping.
We should have shared quests that everyone can update together to provide teamwork and friendly comraderie. So that everyone learns how to help each other and respect each other , and kill rare name together and tame rare pets together. Bosses should be on a reasonable lower timer for respawns, so that people aren't wasting time camping instead they are playing the game.
For every 1 person camping that is one person not grouping or raiding and not playing with others. If everyone is camping then no one is grouping or raiding and people start feeling the game is "dead' or is "dying",b ecause everyone is busy soloing their daily quests and camping solo mobs.
Instead they have to have more heroic group oriented content, and allow everyone to get updates at the same time...
How did games go so wrong? Everquest 1 had it right , before they nerfed that, and nerfed Vanilla Eq2 and WoW, destroyed Vanguard Saga of Heroes because it never had any popularity after its failed launch, and canned SWG. Lord of the Rings Online is great for what it is, but now even that has been nerfed. Games aren't the way they were 12 years ago, and this genre has really gone downhill....
Why does debuffing a mob no longer matter on Everquest 2? Slow meant everything on Everquest 1. Why do most groups offtank and aoe down adds on Everquest 2 and no one mezzes a mob anymore? Used to mez and crowd control on EQ1. Why did WoW take out class/racial quests and put them on trainers? So you can buy your awesome class abilities for almost no money, and no longer do a cool fun questline full of lore for them.
The developers should make the exact opposite of what the OP said those older games did (They where more specialized IMO though)
They should specialize on different groups of people, not try to please everyone... It's obvious that this doesn't work.
Developers are afraid of making something different, and something that might not appeal to everyone... But they are just f'cking blind. Look at EVE ! EVE is the most successful MMO apart from WoW. And not even WoW have been able to keep their players and have an increase of player like EVE have had. It can't get much more complicated and hardcore than EVE, and it still has an amazing support.
I don't play EVE, because it doesn't appeal to me personally with the way you travel in space and stuff... It's also very hard to get into. But I love the systems they have in the game, and how hardcore it is. I'm pretty sure there are many others who feel the same thing.
I don't just play one console/pc game (not MMO), I play many different, and I like games that others don't. I love Dark Souls, others thinks it's too hard, or just want to play multiplayer games etc... It should be the same with MMO's.
When I check out MMO's, I should find a whole bunch of different games that have a healthy and active playerbase, but one might be more for a hardcore player that likes PVP, another for more casual players that like PVE etc etc.....
Sounds like YOU missed the point to me. The majority of people don't even know what a real MMO is. These people playing MMOs today never played EQ, UO, or Daoc. They think WoW was the first MMO. Nothing is irrelevant in this conversation, we can have a freaking discussion no matter what it is now if we are not happy with what it is.
It takes a True Scotsman to recognize what a Real MMORPG is.