I voted for SP RPG's. Although i am an active MMO subscriber and enjoy their social aspect no MMORPG can give me the immersion and story telling a high quality single player RPG offers. Baldurs Gate II, Planescape Torment, Gothic 1&2, KotOR, Morrowind, Oblivion, Mass Effect, The Witcher. I've spent hundreds of hours on the above mentioned and others. Just me and a good headset exploring their worlds and living the stories through my characters. I hope that TOR will come closer to the immersion & story telling aspect of SP RPG's than any other MMO.
Btw, anyone else waiting hard for The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings? I saw a preview and the game looks fantastic. I think it will be better than Dragon Age 2.
This is silly. The point of MMOs is not to compete with traditional RPGs, they just can't do it. Games like Fallout New Vegas and Mass Effect go beyond anything that has ever been accomplished in an MMORPG, simply because the devs have more experience in their genre and don't have to worry about creating an server for thousands of people to play on. When I'm looking for a chance to "role play", I will choose a single player game simply because their storylines are so vastly superior. If I am looking for great interactive multiplayer I will choose an MMO.
I go for both, as long the games has new storyline and gameplay. Single RP has its own enjoyable phase of gameplay as long as the storyline takes you off to a wonderland type environment. MMORPG takes to a world of social and sometimes political world of gaming you can't live doing solo most of the time.
They both have their positives and negatives, of course. For me, nothing will ever compare to the Final Fantasy VI's, the Chrono Triggers, even the Tales Of series.
Phantasy Star Online however holds a special place in my heart as well, so I don't know.
I'm just as guilty as anyone else, but I think all gamers should learn how to take our games for what they are and stop comparing them to some unreachable goal that we create in our minds.
MAIN: LOTRO (Chedriin Azariah, Landroval), STO (Jay Andover)
Voted for Single Player RPG, due the undeniable fact that, Single player has a much high amount of variety in terms of genre and great stories told by convenional and unconvenional methods, partly due to the lesser development times, something that is unavoidable in the MMO category.
Single player RPG have
Traditional Fantasy - Dragon Age: Origin, Baldur's gate
Historical Fantasy(with a touch of sci-fi) - Assassin's Creed
Sandbox Fantasy - Elder Scrolls
Sci-fi - Mass Effect, Dead Space, Deux Ex?
Sci-fi/sandbox - Fallout 3
FPShooter - CoD (blah), Battlefield, Halo, etc
Sport - Top Spin, Fifa, PES, NBA 2K
Superhero - Infamous (third person shooter), Prototype (Hack n Slash)
Japanese Fantasy - FF series, Kingdom Hearts
and for some, the CORPG guild wars? (not how I would describe it, but some likes to call it that)
AND finally, the horrific incident called FFXIII, yes the FFXIV counterpart in the single player genre
MMORPG, at least in recent years, are plague by the generic fantasy genre of human,elves, dwarves, etc, go kill those 5 boars over there and collect that box I dropped over that, then move onto the next area. I wasn't old enough to play games like EQ, UO, etc which I heard great recommendations of. Since the success of WoW, which I am still unwilling to try since the seemingly draconian lifestyle it tends to lead (my friends is constantly on it like.......anytime I call him), has stalled the advancement in gaming technologies to compare with the Single Player Counterpart. Yes we do get the occassional fun feature in one game, but one feature only will never propell the game into the spotlight, simply because the other features are often sloppy at best.
Take Rift as an example, very polish, very well made, with a dynamic feature like rift, then comes the realisation that rift is actually not the main point in this game, it almost serves no important gaming changing elements in the story, other than the invasion from a bad ass character, the occassional zone wide event, and serving as the open world end game raid content. Trion making one of their widely advertised feature (along with the ascended soul system) as a alternate event to the normal boring quest was just a very sloppy design. Confident in your feature? Make people experience it.
If we can get a developer that is willing to understand the wants of players, let say putting in a lot of features that is well liked, new and innovative, not necessarily original (cos original does not equal good), we can get a lot further in this business. Let say, if we can take the rifts of RIFT, interactive combat system like Blade and Soul (possibly TERA?), dynamic events as quest from Guild Wars 2, the immersive story telling of the good ol' bioware (not saying SWTOR since we have no idea how that game's story will turn out), and depart from the heavy reliance on the stats and hidden dice roll. We might get a game that is engaging on the eyes and minds.
If you have read up to this point, you probably think I am a advocate for the Single player games, well I'm not. Yes I like to play single player games, but I'm constantly anticipating the next and potentially great mmo. I believe MMO is the future of gaming, at least online gaming, the fact that a lot single player games now integrates online features into their games to make it more enjoyable is the number one undeniable fact
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW? As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
A small studio can still make a good single player RPG game with good enough polish. MMOs are a lot more expensive and that means a studio can experiment a lot more with the singleplayer RPGs.
Yes, RPGs are better than MMOs because they are a lot more diverse. A single player RPG also usually last a lot shorter time than a MMO and that means it needs a lot less timesinks and grinding.
On the other hand is it not even possible in most RPGs to spend as much time as in a MMO.
And MMOs have a social value no single pöayer game can match, and few other multiplayer games for that matter.
I still have to vote RPGs since all MMOs are coming from a small handful games and the genre evolves at snailspeed. The only people trying something new neither have the budget nor talent to pull it through.
Voted for Single Player RPG, due the undeniable fact that, Single player has a much high amount of variety in terms of genre and great stories told by convenional and unconvenional methods, partly due to the lesser development times, something that is unavoidable in the MMO category.
Single player RPG have
Traditional Fantasy - Dragon Age: Origin, Baldur's gate
Historical Fantasy(with a touch of sci-fi) - Assassin's Creed
Sandbox Fantasy - Elder Scrolls
Sci-fi - Mass Effect, Dead Space, Deux Ex?
Sci-fi/sandbox - Fallout 3
FPShooter - CoD (blah), Battlefield, Halo, etc
Sport - Top Spin, Fifa, PES, NBA 2K
Superhero - Infamous (third person shooter), Prototype (Hack n Slash)
Japanese Fantasy - FF series, Kingdom Hearts
and for some, the CORPG guild wars? (not how I would describe it, but some likes to call it that)
AND finally, the horrific incident called FFXIII, yes the FFXIV counterpart in the single player genre
FPS games and sport games are not RPGs. Not even close. YOu do have a good point besides them however.
Didn't vote... I prefer cooperative RPG at a LAN party.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
If the market had more Wizardry and Ultima styled CRPGs, I'd be a happy camper.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Voted for Single Player RPG, due the undeniable fact that, Single player has a much high amount of variety in terms of genre and great stories told by convenional and unconvenional methods, partly due to the lesser development times, something that is unavoidable in the MMO category.
Single player RPG have
Traditional Fantasy - Dragon Age: Origin, Baldur's gate
Historical Fantasy(with a touch of sci-fi) - Assassin's Creed
Sandbox Fantasy - Elder Scrolls
Sci-fi - Mass Effect, Dead Space, Deux Ex?
Sci-fi/sandbox - Fallout 3
FPShooter - CoD (blah), Battlefield, Halo, etc
Sport - Top Spin, Fifa, PES, NBA 2K
Superhero - Infamous (third person shooter), Prototype (Hack n Slash)
Japanese Fantasy - FF series, Kingdom Hearts
and for some, the CORPG guild wars? (not how I would describe it, but some likes to call it that)
AND finally, the horrific incident called FFXIII, yes the FFXIV counterpart in the single player genre
FPS games and sport games are not RPGs. Not even close. YOu do have a good point besides them however.
Sorry, I was more refering to the whole Single Player vs. Massively Multiplayer Online, a bit out of the topic :P
Since there are mmofps and mmo sport, I thought it was fair to list them in.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW? As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
mmo's killed singleplayer rpg's for me. Well not killed but certainly kneecapped. After playing mmo's I lost the flavor of standalones. I realized it when Oblivion came out. I was very excited about it, but after I started playing, the thought that I was the only real person in the whole gameworld kept popping into my head. Like being on a no-pop server in an mmo. Completely lost the desire to keep playing the game after a few days. Sad
To make it simple if a player is a loner and wants powerful items right away go play single player games but if the player wants to interact with other people and wants to collect the hard way and has lots of time in his/her hands go for MMO.
unfortunately MMORPG's are so far behind Single Player RPG's it's not even funny. To be honest I'd actually like to see more good Co-op RPG's.
When GW2 hits the scene I may change my mind but as it stands now if you want some socialization it's MMO, if you want to play a good game it's Single Player. I mean the MMO thats the most popular right now is WoW and it's decades behind single player games.
Single player games offer better mechanics, better stories, better game play and often times sadly better replay and sometimes more initial gameplay.
Single player games also offer more diversity, you have good sandboxes, shooters, Adventure games, themeparks, puzzle games, you name it it's pretty much out there as far as single player games go.
MMO's? Well you pretty much have RPG's and the rare venture out into the other genre's. Even then you are pretty much limited to themeparks with the rare sandbox.
I'd like to see better MMO's but that seems like I'm asking for to much because pretty much the same formula is used without question with few exceptions.
So in lieu of better MMO's I simply want to see more good Co-op games as that seems like it's something I'm more likely to get.
There really should be a both option. A good single player rpg can then turn into a multiplayer rpg or even vice versa. Just look at the Diablos, and theres a number of others. I think in the future the majority of games will ahve some way to connect with other people and keep playing
Currently mmorpgs are lousy rpgs who cover it by social elements as its more fun to interact with players.
If you recall that those online people dont mean much more than the people you pass by on the street you might tend to offline rpgs more as they offer generally better story , combat and graphics while demanding less grind to keep you subbed. Though one might argue that dlc's became worse than subs.
I think its like 50-50, but I voted for MMORPG because I like to see some newly better feeling MMORPG's. I am certain that in the future there will be a new breed of MMORPG's that make you feel a better gaming experience that you never felt before.
I strongly feel that at their base core, MMORPGs are some ofthe worst kinds of games on the market today.
If you strip away the online Social aspect ofthe MMORPG, I think you're left with a terrible product that would be laughed out of the gaming industry.
I fully believe that they only succeed because there's so many people craving social interaction with friends / relatives / strangers. There's no way in hell I'd ever choose MMORPGs in this poll.
Games like Skyrim... shit even Fable II, entertained me far more than any MMORPG has. But the allure of meeting another human being around any corner?
Thats a fetching thought... unfortuantely, however, its always packaged in a steaming turd of a game.
Comments
SRPG for me.
RPG in MMOs is non-existent nowadays.
I voted for SP RPG's. Although i am an active MMO subscriber and enjoy their social aspect no MMORPG can give me the immersion and story telling a high quality single player RPG offers. Baldurs Gate II, Planescape Torment, Gothic 1&2, KotOR, Morrowind, Oblivion, Mass Effect, The Witcher. I've spent hundreds of hours on the above mentioned and others. Just me and a good headset exploring their worlds and living the stories through my characters. I hope that TOR will come closer to the immersion & story telling aspect of SP RPG's than any other MMO.
Btw, anyone else waiting hard for The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings? I saw a preview and the game looks fantastic. I think it will be better than Dragon Age 2.
The key here is "GOOD".
Good single player rpg's are much richer and deeper in terms of plot, character, setting, story arcs, etc., than any mmorpg could ever be, yet...
you're playing alone. The shared experience counts for much, yet...
I enjoy playing mmorpg's solo 99.44% of the time.
For me the best description of a Good mmorpg is: "Playing Alone Together."
The community and camaraderie is there if / when you want it , else you can turn it off and adventure solo.
Where is the BOTH button?
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
This is silly. The point of MMOs is not to compete with traditional RPGs, they just can't do it. Games like Fallout New Vegas and Mass Effect go beyond anything that has ever been accomplished in an MMORPG, simply because the devs have more experience in their genre and don't have to worry about creating an server for thousands of people to play on. When I'm looking for a chance to "role play", I will choose a single player game simply because their storylines are so vastly superior. If I am looking for great interactive multiplayer I will choose an MMO.
half, half. Huh?
I go for both, as long the games has new storyline and gameplay. Single RP has its own enjoyable phase of gameplay as long as the storyline takes you off to a wonderland type environment. MMORPG takes to a world of social and sometimes political world of gaming you can't live doing solo most of the time.
They both have their positives and negatives, of course. For me, nothing will ever compare to the Final Fantasy VI's, the Chrono Triggers, even the Tales Of series.
Phantasy Star Online however holds a special place in my heart as well, so I don't know.
I'm just as guilty as anyone else, but I think all gamers should learn how to take our games for what they are and stop comparing them to some unreachable goal that we create in our minds.
MAIN: LOTRO (Chedriin Azariah, Landroval), STO (Jay Andover)
SIDE: FFXIV, RoM, Wakfu
lol NEVER VENTURE OUT ALONE
Some of the RPGs I have played were amazing, memorable! I still remember some of the storylines! This is why RPGs > MMORPGs.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Voted for Single Player RPG, due the undeniable fact that, Single player has a much high amount of variety in terms of genre and great stories told by convenional and unconvenional methods, partly due to the lesser development times, something that is unavoidable in the MMO category.
Single player RPG have
Traditional Fantasy - Dragon Age: Origin, Baldur's gate
Historical Fantasy(with a touch of sci-fi) - Assassin's Creed
Sandbox Fantasy - Elder Scrolls
Sci-fi - Mass Effect, Dead Space, Deux Ex?
Sci-fi/sandbox - Fallout 3
FPShooter - CoD (blah), Battlefield, Halo, etc
Sport - Top Spin, Fifa, PES, NBA 2K
Superhero - Infamous (third person shooter), Prototype (Hack n Slash)
Japanese Fantasy - FF series, Kingdom Hearts
and for some, the CORPG guild wars? (not how I would describe it, but some likes to call it that)
AND finally, the horrific incident called FFXIII, yes the FFXIV counterpart in the single player genre
MMORPG, at least in recent years, are plague by the generic fantasy genre of human,elves, dwarves, etc, go kill those 5 boars over there and collect that box I dropped over that, then move onto the next area. I wasn't old enough to play games like EQ, UO, etc which I heard great recommendations of. Since the success of WoW, which I am still unwilling to try since the seemingly draconian lifestyle it tends to lead (my friends is constantly on it like.......anytime I call him), has stalled the advancement in gaming technologies to compare with the Single Player Counterpart. Yes we do get the occassional fun feature in one game, but one feature only will never propell the game into the spotlight, simply because the other features are often sloppy at best.
Take Rift as an example, very polish, very well made, with a dynamic feature like rift, then comes the realisation that rift is actually not the main point in this game, it almost serves no important gaming changing elements in the story, other than the invasion from a bad ass character, the occassional zone wide event, and serving as the open world end game raid content. Trion making one of their widely advertised feature (along with the ascended soul system) as a alternate event to the normal boring quest was just a very sloppy design. Confident in your feature? Make people experience it.
If we can get a developer that is willing to understand the wants of players, let say putting in a lot of features that is well liked, new and innovative, not necessarily original (cos original does not equal good), we can get a lot further in this business. Let say, if we can take the rifts of RIFT, interactive combat system like Blade and Soul (possibly TERA?), dynamic events as quest from Guild Wars 2, the immersive story telling of the good ol' bioware (not saying SWTOR since we have no idea how that game's story will turn out), and depart from the heavy reliance on the stats and hidden dice roll. We might get a game that is engaging on the eyes and minds.
If you have read up to this point, you probably think I am a advocate for the Single player games, well I'm not. Yes I like to play single player games, but I'm constantly anticipating the next and potentially great mmo. I believe MMO is the future of gaming, at least online gaming, the fact that a lot single player games now integrates online features into their games to make it more enjoyable is the number one undeniable fact
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
A small studio can still make a good single player RPG game with good enough polish. MMOs are a lot more expensive and that means a studio can experiment a lot more with the singleplayer RPGs.
Yes, RPGs are better than MMOs because they are a lot more diverse. A single player RPG also usually last a lot shorter time than a MMO and that means it needs a lot less timesinks and grinding.
On the other hand is it not even possible in most RPGs to spend as much time as in a MMO.
And MMOs have a social value no single pöayer game can match, and few other multiplayer games for that matter.
I still have to vote RPGs since all MMOs are coming from a small handful games and the genre evolves at snailspeed. The only people trying something new neither have the budget nor talent to pull it through.
FPS games and sport games are not RPGs. Not even close. YOu do have a good point besides them however.
Didn't vote... I prefer cooperative RPG at a LAN party.
If the market had more Wizardry and Ultima styled CRPGs, I'd be a happy camper.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Sorry, I was more refering to the whole Single Player vs. Massively Multiplayer Online, a bit out of the topic :P
Since there are mmofps and mmo sport, I thought it was fair to list them in.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
mmo's killed singleplayer rpg's for me. Well not killed but certainly kneecapped. After playing mmo's I lost the flavor of standalones. I realized it when Oblivion came out. I was very excited about it, but after I started playing, the thought that I was the only real person in the whole gameworld kept popping into my head. Like being on a no-pop server in an mmo. Completely lost the desire to keep playing the game after a few days. Sad
To make it simple if a player is a loner and wants powerful items right away go play single player games but if the player wants to interact with other people and wants to collect the hard way and has lots of time in his/her hands go for MMO.
unfortunately MMORPG's are so far behind Single Player RPG's it's not even funny. To be honest I'd actually like to see more good Co-op RPG's.
When GW2 hits the scene I may change my mind but as it stands now if you want some socialization it's MMO, if you want to play a good game it's Single Player. I mean the MMO thats the most popular right now is WoW and it's decades behind single player games.
Single player games offer better mechanics, better stories, better game play and often times sadly better replay and sometimes more initial gameplay.
Single player games also offer more diversity, you have good sandboxes, shooters, Adventure games, themeparks, puzzle games, you name it it's pretty much out there as far as single player games go.
MMO's? Well you pretty much have RPG's and the rare venture out into the other genre's. Even then you are pretty much limited to themeparks with the rare sandbox.
I'd like to see better MMO's but that seems like I'm asking for to much because pretty much the same formula is used without question with few exceptions.
So in lieu of better MMO's I simply want to see more good Co-op games as that seems like it's something I'm more likely to get.
i want to choose both. hahaha, but really i started as an rpg gamer before.
There really should be a both option. A good single player rpg can then turn into a multiplayer rpg or even vice versa. Just look at the Diablos, and theres a number of others. I think in the future the majority of games will ahve some way to connect with other people and keep playing
My role playing profile
Currently mmorpgs are lousy rpgs who cover it by social elements as its more fun to interact with players.
If you recall that those online people dont mean much more than the people you pass by on the street you might tend to offline rpgs more as they offer generally better story , combat and graphics while demanding less grind to keep you subbed. Though one might argue that dlc's became worse than subs.
Pi*1337/100 = 42
Both have good merit, but i voted for MMORPG for i love the replay value and i always want to go dungeon run with my friends.
I think its like 50-50, but I voted for MMORPG because I like to see some newly better feeling MMORPG's. I am certain that in the future there will be a new breed of MMORPG's that make you feel a better gaming experience that you never felt before.
I strongly feel that at their base core, MMORPGs are some ofthe worst kinds of games on the market today.
If you strip away the online Social aspect ofthe MMORPG, I think you're left with a terrible product that would be laughed out of the gaming industry.
I fully believe that they only succeed because there's so many people craving social interaction with friends / relatives / strangers. There's no way in hell I'd ever choose MMORPGs in this poll.
Games like Skyrim... shit even Fable II, entertained me far more than any MMORPG has. But the allure of meeting another human being around any corner?
Thats a fetching thought... unfortuantely, however, its always packaged in a steaming turd of a game.