I feel like classes have lost their way in modern games. They are quickly picked apart for the berst specs and best equipment. That is all that matters to people. They often don't care at all about the concept of the class or going on an adventure. They don't care about the concept of adventure and the unknown in general. It is only about the meta game where you level up quickly, raid, get the best gear, find the best spec, and learn to play your character. That is more like a game of chess than an adventure in a fantasy world. It seems the days of exploring dangerous new lands and playing a role in game is long gone. I always used to imagine myself as a Ranger wandering the wilds and helping lost travelers in fantasy games. A person choosing a class for a reason like that would be unheard of in this day and age. It is simply not logical and to based on fantasy and dreaming. There is nothing of numbers and metagaming in it. It is all about imagination and fun.
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I used to hade fun when stealth though dungeon and watch the enemy mob idle animation in close range .
A Ranger is a woodland protector and travels the wilds.
A Paladin fights against injustices and lives by a very strict code of honor.
A Mage is a seeker of knowledge and studies a lot.
These are all just concepts and they seem to have lost their meaning in the age where people are trying to breakk all stereotypes. Instead we are just left with the game mechanics and how to utilize them. With this in mind why even bother with a fantasy world at all? Just make a game that is about crunching numbers and finding the best mathmatical solution. It no longer has anything to do with the fantastical.
Gear building and skill optimizing can be fun and even addicting (especially in games that give players plenty of real options and choices). Getting caught up in it is easy to do but you shouldn't let it get in the way of enjoying the game. There is a toxic concept that you're an uncool hopeless noob if you aren't max level with the accepted best gear and skill build for your class... Who cares what a bunch of gear snob leets think? So what if some stuck up jerk calls you a noob because you play the game differently than they do? You should never be afraid to play the game your way - even if it means being rejected from parties sometimes or taking longer than others to reach max level. You are not doing it wrong if you're having fun
Role play, even casual role playing, is a dead concept with most players these days. Why even bother with a 'massive multiplayer ROLE PLAYING game' if you are 'too cool' for role playing to exist in your game? If you don't like it, that's fine, just don't do it. Making fun of others for role playing in a game that's made for role playing isn't ok. Unfortunately this happens so often that people are afraid to role play because they might look uncool or out of place in a MMORPG for doing so.
These games are designed more for the journey than the destination. I'll never understand why people rush through 90% of the game then spend the rest of the time complaining about the "lack of content"... *sigh* to each their own.
MMOs have real communities. Sadly, players doing things they normally wouldn't to try to be popular or to gain social status is going to happen. This often comes at the cost of having fun for many.
The downfall of MMORPGs is when they try to be something they are not. Catering to players who really don't enjoy the genre for what it is ruins it for those who do. That goes equally for both developers and the players of these games.
Make it more like 95%, then doing the last 5% treadmill repeatedly for months, while complaining
Mmorpg should be about roleplaying with a community online, and not a rush to the treadmill at the cap for chasing the bestestestest gear available.
I can't blame enough Blizz for that, it was them who infected and mutated the genre into this "kill, loot, level up, chase the numbers" crap with diablo. Rpg - even cRpg - was much more than that before diablo, hell even Garriot's Akalabeth had more rpg than diablo :awesome:
That's my point, those players were the majority even back then, and now they are mostly the entire playerbase out there (except in games like TSW or LotRO, with great community focus, but even with those games number-chasers are quite a large group).
The truckload of games with shorter and shorter journey (leveling part), the options for start a character at the cap, content update as a new tier for the treadmill, level scaling and auto-pathing, etc. not just happened out of the blue, that's what the majority wanted all the way. I remember when AoC added the offline levels and I went against it, I was flooded with "gtfo then" and similar responses and that was maybe 6 years ago I think. It is not something new, it was always there, even in the MUD / MUSH era we had a few of these players (and their numbers went up after diablo...)
Surely that's how they started (MUDs).
MMORPGs lost the purpose they originally were designed for, that's what the OP is saying, and I agree with him.
When you were finished, you'd be handed you very first weapon of your choice, and then set out to learn new skills, techniques, spells and even just become a farmer/merchant. Classes were just a title, a rank of what kind of player you were. You were the player of your own story with your friends.
It isn't like that anymore...
A buffer in your group in DAoC made you Godly. You felt like such a weak SoB when you did not have one.
Casters made your endurance and mana faster etc. For casters, it was hard to solo without a tank to hold agro, but when someone was taunting it, you could focus and not worry about kiting, shit lit on fire.
The way mmo's were: Community, Exploration, Character Development, Conquest.
The way mmo's are now : Cut-Scenes,Cut-Scenes, solo Questing, Cut-Scenes...
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