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What Makes a good mmorpg?
narrowpath
Member Posts: 110
I was wondering is your opinion whats makes an mmorpg good? what games keep bringing you back to them? Is it the gameplay, the graphics, the community? Personally for me i believe it is gameplay and community without them a game is souless.
Comments
Well i think SWG has alot of stuff i think makes a great mmorpg!
Shame the game has no real direction and no raids and that.
good social content that SWG has is fun
For EG. Cantinas, perma damage so you have to seek out doctors and entertainers to heal u etc
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scientology
Community and then gameplay. If there isn't a good, fun community, I'd rather be doing something offline, to be honest.
Community and then gameplay. If there isn't a good, fun community, I'd rather be doing something offline, to be honest.
I completely agree with you Nova. IMO the community is extremely important, if not the most important factor of a great MMORPG. Next would be gameplay and content, then a great economic system, then outstanding graphics. In that order.
You can get away with mediocre to good graphics in an MMORPG and have a great community, gameplay and economic system and the MMORPG would be fantastic. It's all a matter of opinion.
Speaking of community, no one wants to play in an MMORPG when everyone is either rude and unfriendly, or there isn't a good server population. Either one of those stink, both make the game just horrid. A good example of this is "Face of Mankind". Not only is there not a decent server population, but everyone is just plain ignorant and rude. It's one thing to have a PK guild and they are just roleplaying evil characters....it's something else when people are just asses. It makes the community suffer. I thought games like EQ and SWG had GREAT communities, even WoW had a good community. There were players in all 3 of the games I mentioned that were willing to help if needed and were all around friendly people. Sure you have some kids that act like idiots, but I've seen some adults that acted the same childish way so it's a catch-22.
Anyway those are my thoughts.
Joe
Community and then gameplay. If there isn't a good, fun community, I'd rather be doing something offline, to be honest.
I am going to disagree, but please make sure you UNDERSTAND before flaming. Gameplay is far more important than community - here is why. Gameplay attracts players and sets up the facilities (chat, trading system, guilds, etc.) to attract caring gamers and also sets the stage for there to be a quality community. Without quality gameplay one will find a small and likely poor community. Gameplay is what we all come to any MMORPG for - that is what initially attracts us and ultimately why we fire up the game each day. Do not misunderstand, community is VERY important - BUT, the game developer CANNOT "force" a good community - it CAN (if it really cares) develop and give us quality gameplay.
If all else in life fails you, buy a vowel.
Depends on what you want out of it. Some people evidently just want an opportunity to bash others (PvP), wanting basically Diablo2-like play (aka Guild Wars). Others want an immersive experience -- aka plot, setting, nonlinear quest structure, etc.
It comes down to a few questions:
1) PvP vs. PvE -- both are MMORPGs, but take a different perspective. PvE (player versus environment) should emphasize plot, characterisation, an open-ended questing structure. PvP can either be 1v1, which is the easiest to do (WoW for an example of taking something simple and still failing), or it can be mass versus mass, in which case we have DAOC's RvR (realm versus realm) for the win. I personally prefer a PvE environment with limited PvP (arena-based, for instance; as in, the upcoming EQ2 expansion adding gladatorial-styled arenas where players fight other players).
2) Community -- doesn't matter which style of "environment" you prefer (#1), the community will make or break a game. I left WoW for several reasons, but absolutely high on the list, if not at the top of the list, was the endless childish L33t-speak, 10-yr-old "I soooo OWND him!" crap that seems to be the majority of the player-base there. Never ran into that with EQ1 (played for three years, from the start), nor EQ2, nor DAOC or AC. If you're one of those who like that stuff, great, you've got your game; otherwise, if you're like me and want to avoid that sort of ridiculousness, then you want a community that's more mature and more involved in the "setting" and "playing" the game/setting. Community makes or breaks it.
3) Company attitude -- this is a big one, too. If the company has a "who cares what the community says/wants/asks for/points out" attitude, then run. It's not without irony that I hold up EQ2 as an example of a game where, since launch, the company has added a LOT of content and expanded the game in a lot of ways. I tried EQ2 originally, thought it was a good base for a game but it just wasn't fun; came back recently, and am enjoying the game now. The changes in the interim created that "fun" factor that I didn't have originally. WoW, on other hand, is an example of the other way. They take credit for "world events", but fail to point out that they call adding Santa Clause (when did Santa Clause become consistent with the world-setting of World of Warcraft? Or did that little tidbit fail to get through their skulls?) in one place in the world a "world event". Did I mention, hey, they put him in the worst possible place to maximize lag? Anyway. Or the "easter egg" hunt -- ooh. Compare that with Asheron's Call, which YEARS AGO offered world events that actually "shook the world" - villages burned down, etc. The company's attitude and approach will, beyond all other things, make or break the game. What saves Blizzard is that it tailored WoW to be the lowest-common-denominator -- idiots get to run around bashing each other and trying to force others into duels, etc; and there's no effort required for the questing/PvE side. Very accessible. What saves EQ2 is the community (not remotely as childish as WoWs) and the fact that the game itself has been improving.
Anyway. More on this later. That should encourage some... discussion. Flame away!
A game that offers something beyond grinding, endless quest, and crafting that is just grinding in a different form. I found Ultima Online world to be something that always had something to offer beyond just hack and slash and level advancing.
Hell with the 2d engine people use to stack items so they appreared to be plants, fish tanks, ect. to decorate their house, tower or castle. You could go fishing, sail around in your boat, look for sunken treasure, find a treasure map and search for it. You could write a book and place it on a bookshelf in town. Some people actually had some pretty good stories. You could even play chess or checkers in a Tavern.
It may be that I remember UO to foundly as it has been a long time since I played but overall it was the most fun I ever had in an MMO.
I also had the most fun playing UO. Next would be EQ1, and then SWG. I had fun in WoW also but it got boring too quickly. I've played AO, DAOC, AC, and other no-name MMORPG's and they just didn't do it for me. I also tried GW for about 2 weeks and got bored as well. Although GW isn't an MMORPG, it was a PVP hack n slash arcade game to give me a break from real mmorpg's.
That is why I am playing Guild Wars, none of the MMO's interest me at all