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MMO where you can be UNIQUE Character ?
Lobotomist
Member EpicPosts: 5,980
Damn...I have been roaming this site since 2004. Played every MMO there is... Looking for something ... never finding it.
Finally I gave up on subscriptions , and than on MMOs all together
But lately I got again started looking for it.
So I sit down and made a list of what I am looking for in MMO.
Sandbox , crafting , complexity ... etc
And than it downed on me. What I was looking all these years for. One single thing:
MMO where you can be unique as a character !
Not just another lvl 80 warrior with set of raid gear , with cool looking cosmetics and skills you can change on the fly to adapt to any party.
No, I want to be that guy that is only guy on server that can craft item X , or a guy to go when you need material Y ,
Or a guy that is specialist for tanking , or crazy guy that only grows cabbage all day, or only guy that uses this special weapons or skills, or only one that can talk to this faction , whatever .... something that sets you apart
What ever it is. I guess that the game has to be sandbox and skill based , have pretty wide range of activities and not be on the rails(themepark) - otherwise everyone is the same.
So what do you say people , can you suggest MMO that is even remotely close to this ?
Comments
LOL , so right ...
Completely unique character, mechanics-wise? Perhaps not. However, there is a pretty cool-looking upcoming mmorpg called Albion Online that looks like it might get close. There are no classes, but instead abilities that are defined by what you craft into your gear. Apparently there are thousands of different combinations possible. Uniqueness has a chance, then, if you are willing to get weird. You can mix tons of different pieces of equipment to make everything from a roguish priest to a squirrel-juggling dandelion farmer (ok I made that up.)
It has no levels, but the more powerful gear (and thus abilities) are made from higher-tier resources. The highest tier resources are supposedly VERY rare, thus further enabling the uniqueness you asked for. It's still in development, but it might be worth watching the progress of, considering what you are looking for. Here are more details:
http://albiononline.com/charaktercustomization/
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/PerfArt
Yes, i am following this one.
I am also pretty hopeful. It seems that we are finally seeing the light on the end of the tunnel.
With EQNext , Star Citizen , Repopulation , Albion ... etc
Shame there is nothing available to play right now though ....
You hit the nail on the head, having a wide range of activities is the only way you'll even come close, so right now EVE would be one of your few choices. With over 28 RL years of total training, no one has them all on a single character, but there probably people with unique combinations of crafting or combat skills that few others match, (like say, being able to pilot all 4 Titan ships in the game) but I'm not sure you'd be able to really stand out because of this.
Some people in EVE manage to stand out by their activities, I recall "the bookseller", a player I identified having seeded one sector of space with about 100B ISK in skill books (by my best estimate) at all the key remote planets and did quite a trade in them. I tried to compete with him in a few select markets but he would have none of it, soon as I tried to list some books at a lower price, he would almost immediately undercut me (which was impressive considering how many stations he had them in) and drive me out of the market.
Other's lead star empires, such as BOB, the Goonswarm and many others, actually a pretty small club over the years, but certainly not unique. Or you could set yourself up as a wormhole hermit, I knew one guy that lived in his own hold, had tons of ships including Dreads and carriers, and basically multi-boxed his own empire for years.
EVE is full of stories like this, but again, players are unique based on their activities within the game world (remember the guy who started EVE bank and absconded with 100's of billions of player's ISK) and not from their actual avatar themselves.
MMORPG's rarely allow for any mechanic that will let a player create a totally unique character, therefore even if you do someone , somewhere will likely notice you and copy what you are doing. Heck, with hundreds of thousands of players, even if they've never seen you random chance means several will get the same idea as you and end up with the same skills and abilities.
Closest I've ever heard of what you want is SWG, where I'm told the game world would spawn crafting resources that were totally unique in terms of the stats they would impart on the crafted item, so if someone managed to farm all of the available supply of that material, they could create blasters or something with stats that no one else could and once the material was gone, might never be seen in the game again.
Like you said, there's some new games on the horizon that might allow for some uniqueness, but its not likely you'll find a way to make your avatar itself totally unique, but perhaps only a small handful will choose to follow the same road.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
and why is this a delusion? MMo's should be like that tbh.
This have been a good conversation
You dont have to be unique to the point of being only one among million. But in today MMOs , and we can all agree - you are no more than a carbon copy * 10000.
To have a MMO where a player can be recognized by his character (build skill or contribution) is the essence sandbox should strife for.
And so far I can only think of EVE - where indeed you can carve real unique paths for yourself.
SWG and Ultima also pop to mind ...
Trials of Ascension actually looks like it would allow uniqueness due to:
1. Innovation system of skills
2. Magic being super hard to acquire and super powerful when you do
3. Permadeath after 100 deaths (+ unconscious revival any number of times)
4. Skill system
=
Go from T = 0 to T = 1 + N and you'd have wide divergence of characters.
The bad news is that this indie mmorpg looks really low on pre-alpha graphics by some indie devs who are running a ks campaign that does not look like it will reach it's mark. Seems to me it's possible for mmorpgs to have this dream become a real mmorpg except players don't vote with the wallets or don't recognize it or expect polish at a certain level expected from the big pubs multi-million dollar efforts.
The above you list all look good however, particularly SC and The Repopulation.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
In Ultima Online, especially after Age of Shadows (cursed be it otherwise) you could definitely have quite unique combinations of skill build and equipment.
So what you are really looking for is a game with horizontal progression rather than vertical.
If you are the only character on a server that can provide a service:
1. Wouldn't you have a monopoly on prices?
2. What would happen if you left or took a break?
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I think what the OP should instead do is find a game he likes, strive to be the ABSOLUTE best in a particular aspect, and then make videos so people KNOW that he is the absolute best.
This is much easier for PvP, but can also be done by having a LOT of crafting resources.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
This, EVE, where everyone can get to know you if you want, 1 server.
or SWG, but the official game is dead.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
EVE is about the only place where you can "make a name for yourself" in the current MMO world.
A lot of that is because of the lack of instant travel. In 95% of modern MMO's, you can be anywhere in the world within seconds via teleporting. There is no regional anything, no place where you can carve out a niche for yourself simply because nobody else has bothered to or because it's too inconvenient for most...
In themepark games, the very design of the game rules against YOU being unique in any way. Everything must be accessible to all players with minimal effort.
But there is a resurgence of sandboxy MMO's on the horizon, so things may change for the better soon. Besides, things can't get much worse...
There is a poem in AoW that calligraphers can transcribe, called Legend of Mr. Wului. Scholars use them to increase the level of their skills. Over the past year, only six or seven people have received the original. I was one of those lucky people. I think 3 of the people no longer play.
I've made a looot of cash of these. With the August expansion a system was introduced that allowed people to buy the skills from a vendor. Up until then I was selling them for anywhere from 100 silver to 400 silver each. It takes five for a new skill page. The new system allowed for people to buy them for 100 silver for all five... They had to nerf me
For me this is hardly an issue of themepark, sandbox or complex mechanics(unless you do something like rift where every character is just a click away from changing to any class of the archetype). It is much more dependant on the difficulty to progress your character.
Just looking at the "Not just another lvl 80 warrior with set of raid gear ..." made me thinking about earlier mmo's. I still remember times where being a max level char with raid-equipment was something rare on your server. While not 100% unique there were less than a handful of chars like this and still room for a few more things to make your character more different. Same thing with the cosmetics. If you have to earn them instead of just buying them it will generate a much better diversity of characters within the game.
Difficulty is only necessary as a differentiator if the game is linear in design.
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
This is a very good point, in the example of the bookseller I mentioned above, he had not cornered the market in regions of space, would have been impossible, but rather at one specific star groupings that lead out to 0.0.
There would be opportunities in other regions of space to replicate his success, and the reason I didn't try is because my current activities were in the same region as he was, and due to logistics I could not easily go elsewhere.
So having travel distances that impact player choices is important to an MMORPG that is based more on a virtual world, but many players won't tolerate this mechanic and decry it as time wasting and undesirable.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Conversely, the ready accessibility of travel and travel methods in Ultima Online allowed the player-run taverns, malls and cities to grow and thrive. Travel distance doesn't impact territorial division and diversity as much as having multiple desirable locations for players to base out of or call home. There is no reason to set up shop or base yourself out of Kargath (WOW) when everything is in Orgrimmar, however there are plenty of people based out of Alenia (EVE), despite the major trade hub being 18 jumps away.
It is not travel that allows for the diversity and opportunities; It is the support for mutliple player-chosen hubs that does. That is why we saw a lot of the same behaviour in UO that we see in EVE in regard to regionalization and diversity, despite the travel mechanics being at the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
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
Last time i felt like that was back in Vanguard. There were a handful of people that could craft certain items me being one of them. If you needed thatches made for a T3 house or caravel sails ( for all three continents) there was like 5 people on the sever that could make them. I spent a lot of time harvesting and sold those items. Yellow harvesting gear to riggings for boats. You made a name for yourself and people sought you out because they knew you could make it and offer and good price for your time.
A friend of mine hated the crafting in VG. thought it was to hard to understand. Did he bitch about it? Nope. He asked me to make him harvesting gear and he started a business selling granite in bulk. He was making plat hand over fist doing that. People would place orders with him for his granite to the point he had a note pad next to his desk with orders for it.
I feel as if these days are long gone. In the modern era of MMos where everyone wants to be everything all the time, you cant have the type of MMO the OP is looking for. At least not one that will rake in WOW type money or appeal the the greatest common denominator of the player base.
Sorry but you don't need to wait for those mmo's, Wurm Online is pretty close to what you are looking for.
http://wurmonline.com/
Thing is their will never be a mmo that let's you be a totally unique character, might as well give up mmo's.
I agree, AOW comes pretty close.