Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
MMO devs can learn from Bungie
ThomasN7
87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690
This was a good read but the quate from Joseph staten of Bungie hit the nail right on the head.
Joseph Staten: "Halo wasn't great because of the story," Staten said. "Halo was great because it's fun to play."
All we hear about is mmo devs talking about story in mmos. About how it has never been solved and it needs to be addressed. Story this story that, we need good story in mmos, blah blah blah.... That is all we hear but yet all Bungie did was focus on making a great fun game that will probably go downa s either #1 or #2 game of all time. We need more developers like Bungie to bring mmos back from the dead. 
Link: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6280864.html?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B6
Comments
Halo, like WoW, did good because it didn't have a single original idea. It took the best ideas other games preceding it had done and got the timing right. It was a major FPS on the XBox and hit a market that had never really played FPS games because they weren't PC gamers, similar to the way that WoW hit a market that had never played MMOs. In both cases the people thought it was amazing, fresh, and original and got hooked and other people noticed that the games were actually 100% unoriginal.
But yes. The overall focus on any MMO should be the question "Is this fun?"
I suppose it depends on what side of the fence you fall on.
I purchased Halo and thought it was atrocious and silly.
Yet I played through Baldur's gate, Dragon Age (several times) Neverwinter nights (several times) and I am still actively and avidly playing Oblvion with many quest/story mods.
story and purpose are fun for me. at least a sense of "why" I'n doing something. If I can add that myself then great but it's nice when I go out to clear a dungeon an have some background or perhaps am actually on a quest.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
You assume MMO developers capable of learning. I just wrote a blog post about this very notion, in terms of SOE's new journy into the F2P market with EverQuest Extended.
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/rejad/102010/6806_EverQuest-Extended-SOE-Fails-Again
http://mmo-hell.blogspot.com/
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/rejad
But instead it's "How much money can we scam people for this time"?
Fixed that statement. I totally agree
Funny how you say Halo doesn't have a single original idea, that's pretty wrong. But besides that, yes devs tend to focus on the wrong things many times, this being 1 of the biggest, fun.
I'll Be Back
If you are holding Halo up as a "gold standard", it will lose the argument because it was not the "best" for everyone that played it. The one thing I will give Bungie is that the game was relatively bug free. But, that there is a big difference between a single player campaign with a small multiplayer component. The single players game does not have to appeal to everyone nor deal with all the "social" elements. The MP portioin only has to allow for limited PvP. So, I guess you could say that Halo is successful because they kept it simple. Most MMO players don't want "simple".
Let's party like it is 1863!
Of course it wasn't great because of the story ... it's a shooter for christ sake. The story lasts, what 10 hours? Very different objectives in making each type of game. But yeah ... fun needs to be brought back to MMO's ... and get rid of the carrot on a stick.
Feel free to name them.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
Its not only about original ideas. Its about execution and Halo did that very well overall despite some flaws, which EVERY game has. Was it overly realistic? Nope, but it was never meant to be. Those who judge a game on original ideas and not how those ideas are actually implemented, are fooling themselves. Those types of people seem attracted to MMO forums=)
Halo looked good, played well, had high production values and it was certainly fun for most people. What else does a game need to do to make it good? Not appealing to a few geeks on some forums suddenly discounts the millions & millions who actually think its fun? Hardly. Personally I love the Stalker series too, which is the polar opposite of Halo. And you know what, they're BOTH great examples of a well done FPS series. Those who can appreciate the merits of both and have fun playing them, are always better off.
Sorry I think I might have misread, but did you just seriously try to claim that Halo will go down as the best or 2nd best game of all time? The only positions Halo is ever going to be at number 1 is on top of a most overrated video games of all time.
I just don't get it how people are able to compare a single/mulitplayer games and then suddenly MMORPG devs should learn from it.
Let me see Bungy create a MMORPG then perhaps we can talk about what MMORPG developers might learn from Bungie, but most likely what Bungy might learn from MMORPG dev's
You simply can not compare a company that makes single/mulitplayer games with company's that make MMORPG. But perhaps if a person is totaly new in this genre I could expect a topic like this, so it's kinda strange to see a topic made by someone I thought knows a thing or 2 about MMORPG development.
I can understand if a person would want game developer X to try and create a MMORPG.
Also do people actually believe that MMORPG developers want to create games that are not fun???? Just because some games might not be fun to me or you or someone else does NEVER mean the developers wanted to make a un-fun game.
Halo like all console game are what I consider "disposable content".
They will pimp it for 6-12 months then kick it to the curb and start on a new project. Trying to compare the two is like apples & organges. All mmo companes try to make there games fun to play, the one's that get it right last for years.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...