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Missing factor in today's MMO's: Sense of accomplishment
kewda007
Member Posts: 3
Been an MMO player for years. The one thing that I remember the most as an individual was the overall sense of accomplishment I felt in EQ1.
Accomplishment as an individual:
- New zones
- Harder mobs
- Better gear
- Scary zones and living through it!
- Figuring out hard quests
- Getting help from other people in zone and showing me the "ropes"
- New more powerful spells
- Crafting
Accomplishment as a Faction
- Long live Barbarians!
- Alignment with a group of characters that felt like a true team
- Gaining benefits from improved faction in zones with shopping or quests
Accomplishment as a Guild
- Teamwork
- EPIC quests
- EPIC gear
- EPIC experiences
Yes, the quests were hard. Yes, the graphics weren't top-notch. Guess what - nobody cared. It was the sense of accomplishment that you felt after you beat a hard mob, got some brass armor, found your body underneath gnolls in the Queynos sewers, or just made a good friend and worked your ass off for that new shiny. People recognized your accomplishments by the type of gear, and they know what you went through to get it. Want J-Boots? yeah, you might need to take a week and stay up late just to get the chance for it. Once you made that right click for the effect everyone recognized your accomplishment without having to say a thing. Want to make EQ Next epic? Go with what works and make people feel like they are earning something that other people may not get. I dont want to install Zygor Guides (no offense to them) and step through 3000 quest steps so I can do the exact same thing anyone else can do to get the exact same result. I wat my character to feel unique and respected.
Go EQ Next, and let me in to the beta!! 
Comments
im sorry bout EQnext will not have any of that.
Sense of Accomplishment requires either failure to accomplish, or lots of time/difficulty in getting to the accomplishment. Since society can't handle failing at anything ever these days and people have no patience/want to put in minimal effort, games won't ever have a sense of accomplishment anymore.
Wouldn't want anyone to not always feel amazing by making everything easy and handing out tons of rewards for minimal effort.
^
I don't think i've felt a sense of accomplishment in a game since i was a child, let alone now. IMO, it comes with growing up and looking at things from an existential light. people will play before, during and after you stop playing. they will accomplish the exact same things you'll have accomplished.
it's hard to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, when everybody else is doing exactly what you're doing right along side you.
I do hope a lot of these thing you mentioned op post are implemented in eqn. I think it will build a sense of community. And not just children can feel a sense of accomplishment in video games. In anything you do that you put time and effort into achieving something difficult you will have a sense of accomplishment. It is the same in sports if you work hard at swimming and your times get better and better and you have sense of accomplishment. I really do hope eqn gives you something to work at and get better and give us a challenge.
I also agree with op about having a sense of accomplishment when working with certain factions to have a notable impact on the world.
depends on the game TBH, SWG there was a lot of acclompishment in because of legendary drops, crafting, mining etc it was possible to be the "best" on a server or such like sure someone could take your place but only when you had left, there were the best and not just schmucks with a youtube channel.
As others have said though as we have all grown the MMO industry has devolved with us its now catered to the 16 year old of 1998 who has a wife a job 2 kids 1 dog and a goldfish or the kids just up and coming who won't work for anything.
I have the kids the job the hosue the dog but I'd still love to see a game come on the scene that challenges us again.
i know its just a game but the first time getting the acid stone in AC with just one other person as a noob felt pretty good. if any of you played AC back in the day you know what im talking about. that thing was a bitch to get.
that kind of feeling isnt in games anymore.....
not for me anyways.
i guess the closest was pvping in conan fighting 5v2 and winning that felt pretty good.
sure it will
EQ2 fan sites
This is my point. Put a little lipstick on accomplishment for 2013 and I think we will be on the right track. Let's face it though, quests will always be apart of MMO's. They create a sense of purpose. Landmark may change that a bit, but quests create goals, and goals result in accomplishments. I agree that killing spiderlings is mundane, but it's the start of something bigger. Today's games need to take that forward and update it a bit. You have to let someone nibble a bit before they take their first bite. Early quests need to allow the character to be come tactfully stronger and more powerful. You have to want to continue pushing further. Don't you remember taking down your first mammoth in Halas? How about an ice giant! Seeing some dude gallop through town adorned with high-end gear and items was always really cool. When they took the time to drop some knowledge or help out the community with a quest or even, that was fun too. Everyone in EQ was genuinely committed to their role and their toons and it made for a great experience. Let's see that again.
Of course OP meant sense of accomplishment on a computer game scale, not on a life scale. Everyone knows what he meant, why are people so insecure about their maturity they need to try and point out at every possible occasion how grown up they are and that they are now taking care of "serious family problems", not some silly little games. Ok, we know, you are successful, grown up man. We got the message, good for you. Really.
Now going back to the topic, of course games give less and less sense of accomplishment, but the truth is it would be hard to bring that feeling back again. Why? Because most of difficulty in old games lied in their technical issues, bad design, bad interface, and many other inconveniences that were not planned. As we progressed, developers added all the features that were previously missing, fixed a lot of mistakes in design, resulting in easier experience.
To make a game hard now, you would need to try much harder than "back in the days" where stuff was just broken, no one gave a damn, and lag killed people.
I wouldn't worry about that too much since it is only tip of the iceberg. There are lots of problems with todays mmo's, lack of originality, and generic lore being one of them. Aren't people tired of long ear elf races? They are in almost every possible lore, it is almost like they really exist... like a mandatory race next to human. It's crazy.
*shudders* I'll pass. I'm commited to my wife, another commitment will tear my soul apart, so to say.
If I were into games where you have to commit to them, I would still be playing EvE. That period of my life was over many years ago.
Regardless of the game, a lot of these "accomplishments" lose their luster because we've been doing basically the same stuff in MMO's for over a decade.
Why? Completing a difficult task should give you a sense of accomplishment at least on some level. Nobody is saying that an MMORPG should replace your real life accomplishments. I don't understand this argument at all. It seems like people say it as a way to sidestep the fact that games nowadays are easier and as such less rewardiing.
I agree and what we see just reading forums is that many players think gaming needs to be VERY fast rewards,followed by every excuse in the book as to why they need it fast.
I can remember a simple raised level cap idea in FFXI early days was to go out and farm a Papyrus paper.It was incredibly taxing,some players would help then soon they get theirs they would leave,even after making claims they would stay until everyone got theirs.It often took some players a full week just to get that one item for the raised cap.Yes even i had frustrations at times but after all was said and done,we all felt that incredible sense of accomplishment.The next phase was Artifact armour,again a level of accomplishment was felt.
Now we hear too much about players want to be SPECIAL,they want to stand out among other players,sorry but anyone with some common sense,knows we can't all be special.In the end we are all apart of that same game some with more time to spend than others but nobody is going to look at you and think you are special,a friend yes but not special.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Don't code games for the lowest common denominator as a player-base. yes I understand it's a business, but what's the point of going through years of development and infrastructure only to launch a watered down version of everything else that's out there. Dare to make something different, dare to make something hard, and dare to create a new generation of "remember when" players that will take this over the next decade of gaming. Beat on Wow all you want, but they made a game that lasted years and years. It's no easy task, but you have to look at what keeps players around and build on it. I have a wife, family, responsibilities and i'm older than most on this forum, but I'm a gamer 4 life and I have free choice. Everyone has that first experience that they remember and try and recreate, but I'm just saying that I really hope that the devs take a loooooong look at the opportunity before them and make wise choices. Go with your gut, and code for the dedicated not the lookey-loos. Make complex quests, make challenging PVP, make hard zones that aren't for the average player. The IP for EQ is so amazing. I thought Everquest II was a departure from what made EQ1 so amazing and I think it showed with the player base. I haven't seen this much buzz for a MMORPG in a long time (TESO is close) but EQ N is well on it's way to make the next-level experience. I cant wait.
Yeah, I don't agree. I don't think that the OP means that he expects a sense of accomplishment on the same level as getting your masters degree in real life, but it's possible and reasonable for an adult to feel a sense of accomplishment from meeting a goal in a game. Also, in MMOs we play with other real people and share our accomplishments with them, that alone makes the accomplishment real.
They're not real, even by video game standards.
REAL video game accomplishments would be beating a chess game on grandmaster difficulty or beating an action game without ever being hit.
Those are REAL accomplishments because they take actual intelligence of skill to complete, whereas MMO accomplishments usually just amount to getting lucky or spending lots of time.
So what you're saying is, no one who spend lots of time practicing REAL tasks to get better at them counts?
How exactly do you believe actual skill is acquired? Are they magically god given?
This real life card bullshit is getting old. Everyone in their right mind understands and can distinguish the difference. That doesn't take away the experiences people can have in a game. Everyone is different and can feel different emotions associated with different achievements, be it in game or in real life. Who is anyone to try and tell anyone otherwise?
I'll continue to feel how i want to feel about whatever the fuck i want regardless of venue because feelings are real regardless.
Wow, that sux, I feel sorry that you can't gain anything more than fun / light pleasure when playing a challenging MMO. I am old grown up but luckily not emotionally stunted so I still can find satisfying things to accomplish, especially when playing as part of a good team/guild.
OP, I am right there with ya. I love the sense of accomplishment in MMOs, there are a bunch of niche MMOs in development that should bring back some of the old challenge you miss.
That itself is childish thinking because you think there is no sense of accomplishment in it there is none. You can get sense of accomplishment on anything they put time and effort in to. By your way of thinking every single hobby there is would be pointless and no one would have a hobby.
On topic I think its hard to get any of these things now day just because the large population of player that keep the game alive are well mostly casual gamers. The cost to making games have gone up ALOT and its at the point where its impossible to keep the game alive with just the people that like things this way. Well it would be possible if they do it well and have a solid base they cater to but all company are greedy and want a piece of the WoW's huge casual fan base pie so almost every game design toward making everything easy and accessable to anyone even if they play like 2hrs a week.
I really miss having to spend time to lvl, planning out the most optimal leveling path mix of grind, quest and event exp boosts. To feel like my level had a point since I had to work to get there rather than O I have to get here so I can start on the real part of the game.... so wtf was the point of having to level if you get there super fast and game doesn't really start until we get there. Why not just start us all at cap and go from there.
You are a sad little man. Gaming is a hobby just like any other. When my stupid co-ed kickball team wins a game I still feel like I accomplished something even though it obviously doesn't mean anything in the big picture of the world and means no more than beating a game does. If you can only feel like you accomplished something because of your job you just are a sad little man.
That's ridiculous. You act as if every accomplishment has to be on the same level.
First of all, all "accomplishment" means is to successfully finish something.
I cleaned my bathroom. that is an accomplishment. I'm not alerting the media or asking for a medal. I finished doing it and it's a damn good job.
I hiked Mt. Washington. That's an accomplishment. It's not on par with me getting into the conservatory I graduated from but it's an accomplishment. didn't take brains either, just one foot in front of another. Not everyone can do it but many can do it. I did it. One item crossed off the bucket list.
If I go out and decide to try to shoot 20 hoops in a row, that's an accomplishment. It's not going to bring world peace or feed the hungry but it's a task and goal that I dedicated myself to and completed.
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