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in their infinite wisdom.
aleos
Member UncommonPosts: 1,943
You would think the way things were going compared to the way they are now. We would have full on all out virtual worlds by now. NPC's and Players alike deemed necessary in the experience of OUR experience should be walking around, talking, sharing, trading and behaving.
At this level you cant help but to think or at least have some kind of impression by "so what" world of warcraft. To me it seems like everything was moving at the quickest of levels in all categories. Then WAM it all immediately halted and stopped completely.
Since numbers is such a huge ordeal nowadays. Were the numbers so much of a big deal then that even the most common sense of business man couldn't see the potential behind a MMORPG. Why hasn't anything changed? Why is it we had such wicked mmos then with so little money and today have nothing with so much?
If they could and still work in the industry today. Why is no one speaking up to say something clever like "This isn't working" or "This isn't a good idea."
Who is the asshole that is saying "This is a good idea." or "Mexican Jonas brothers." Who is the asshole signing off on this crap?
If no people are in the background saying anything of complete blatant obviousness. This genre might as well be doomed as a whole.
Let it be known i don't personally care why you think "this is why warcraft has held me." or "This is why -insert reason everyone else knows comment-" type statement. That is in no way important in this situation. Everyone is practically clear as to why games fail and some succeed. Regardless of colliding opinions.
What is relevant is "why the hell?!?!?//1///1/1/??!?"
These companies try so hard to impress knowing damn well how todays culture is in the gaming market. Yet every single publish, choose to say fuck you and jack your wallet. its appalling.
I truly feel the MMORPG market has become so polluted that it would rather make it big in one shot. Than give you a chance at experiencing true freedom on another level such as a virtual world.
If you showed up late to the scene you cant understand today how it was then. thats just the way it is.
i hate the fact i actually had to name drop a game to make a point because lets be honest. As soon as you name drop something you are guaranteed for a focused attack on the grounds of that product. This is clearly not what i want.
In the end. what am i supposed to do? talk with my wallet? i am.
I have been talking with my wallet for the last 2 years. Hasn't changed a damn thing at all seeing as how im not the target audience anymore.
Personally. I don't even want these questions answered . I just want to remind you.
/Drunk_Rant_Over
Comments
I am one who turned up late to MMO's, but have been gaming for around 20 years. I have seen the decline over all Computer games and entertainment, Reality TV, Blockbuster Film Derp, Streamlining in all videogames. While I never got to enjoy the early games of MMO's, I do understand the sentiment involved. Its not Nostalgia, its recognising the systematic streamlining and dumbing down of entertainment to reach a broader audience. Yes, I speak of the Lowest Common Denominator, people may argue, and whine, and deny that this is the cause, because they enjoy their games and dont want to be lumped into that catagory, thats okay, just know that the games you now enjoy, are empty lifeless husks that pale in comparison (Insert Graphics whore detraction here, also add in a nice barb about grinding, death penalty, basement dweller and cheetoes to derail thread) to games of yesteryear.
Sadly, alot of the new generation arent old enough to appreciate what gaming can be, how great it can be, they see the classics and refuse to play them because of OMGAWD THE GRAFFIXX SUXX MY EYES HURTED, or WHAT? Text only? WTF is this, I dont want to read a book! Its the new generation of Facebook, Youtube and Insta gratification ADHD zero attention span casuals that are the new target demographic. Unless its fast paced, Linear to hell, and has more bloom than a botanical garden in spring, they dont want to know about it.
Sometimes reminding others can hurt, because they look at what they have now and despair.
In short, we still get crap mmos because players are still buying them and paying to play them. Where is the incentive to make a better game when they are already making a ton of money with the tired old model they've been using?
The point which this happened can be EASILY pin pointed.
As soon as MMOs went mainstream and started appealing to non MMO gamers aka when WoW came out.
Worlds were getting bigger, more complex, companies were doing amazing things, and it came to a GRINDING halt after WoW launched. Companies started saying "ok, I want a piece of that pie" so publishers said "only way to do that is to copy them, and its gonna take a BIG marketing budget!"
So publishers mismanage money and force companies to make WoW clones, meanwhile the market stagnates. It's a crime, a true crime, that a game from THIRTEEN YEARS AGO has MORE ADVANCED FEATURES than 97% of the MMORPGs released in the last 6 years. How does that even HAPPEN? I hate this genre now.
Actually... they aren't, not that much. We haven't had a successful AAA MMO in a long time.
Tabula Rasa failed.
Aion failed
LotRO failed (though least of all, just like SWG before it, it pulled through based on IP alone)
WAR failed
AoC failed.
You'd think these publishers would get the hint that we don't want WoW clones.
On the flip side, let's look at MMOs that have been steadily growing.
Eve
Darkfall
Fallen Earth
Hmm...
But, now SWTOR is coming out, being the most dumbed down and linear of any MMO to date, and maybe, just MAYBE, if its a massive failure, the genre will collapse, and we can go back to getting GOOD games like DAoC and Ultima Online.
You guys have to start understanding something here.
As soon as EverQuest came out with a D+D style of game with levels and grind, the entire MMO scene started going down an inevitable path to what we have today. Yes, it was fun and exciting...at first. But as the game matures and the players move along, all the lower level content becomes meaningless. And that's where everything starts to become what we have today.
Once upon a time....
Uhh... what? What does that have to do with ANYTHING? Many early MMOs didn't even HAVE levels.
That depends on what you call "levels". The whole point is on the earlier content becoming useless, and the focus being strongly placed on grinding upwards. The term "end game" came about with this, an appropriately titled ideal.
Once upon a time....