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Sword Art Online is awesome! But really is there anything in it that isn't already doable/ done in M
MMOExposed
Member RarePosts: 7,400
I am loving Sword Art Online. Reminds me so much of the first emotional time I was attached to a MMO back in the day and all the drama and joyful moments that came with it.
there are so many great connections. Also like how they mock a few game mechanics I also agree, hurt the MMORPG genre over the years......
but I digress ....
I greatly enjoy Sword Art Online, but one thing I kept asking myself,
"what gameplay elements in Sword Art Online, hasn't been done in MMORPGs? What makes Sword Art Online's gameplay unique to what we have currently seen from MUD-2014?"
thats is when I realized that despite how cool Sword Art Online really is, nothing about it hasn't been done already gameplay wise except the input method. That's it.
so maybe the greatness of it is how the community there feels more worldly like what many of us here on this forum desire out of a MMORPG. So I wonder how we & developers can fix that.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Comments
The games in itself seems pretty average even if the fairy thing they play in the second half of the first season seems slightly different from most.
Nah, I would rather play what they play in "Log horizon" instead, that series is more focused on social aspects of MMOers instead of just going higher up in a tower or lower in a dungeon. Log Horizon is more interesting from many aspects, I recommend it strongly.
The third big MMO anime IP, .HACK is also pretty standard.
Edit: here is an comparison: http://tay.kotaku.com/ani-tay-faceoff-sword-art-online-vs-log-horizon-1549604121
Agreed. Log Horizon was better executed than SAO and has better coverage of an actual mmorpg. So if someone hasn't seen either before, I'd suggest watching SAO first just so you understand how superior Log Horizon is.
Oh look, an another SAO thread
maybe doing a quick search before it would be nice...
about the gameplay elements, I still think the "one life, no new accounts, etc" aspect wouldn't work in an actual game http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/6132468#6132468
And as they mentioned above, Log Horizon is cool too.
I am pretty sure that all of these light novels have much further advanced AIs than anything that has already been done. Every one of these novels go to great lenghts to explain how realistic the AI feels. Not to mention, many of them spend an equal amount of time describing how the companys that developed the game have little to no control over what happens in the game world. Ever novel stresses how the players shape the world and are able to change it.
SAO, Log Horizon, Moonlight Scultpor, Ark, etc.
There is always bound to be some repetition on forums, compared to the solo Vs group threads or a whole bunch of others standard threads this is nothing.
Discussing the mechanics of SAO have certainly enough room for a new thread, as do comparing the themepark SAO/AHO with the sandbox Log Horizon.
True and agree
it was only a bit surprising, Exposed used to start a lot of threads, interesting ones too, and it's uncommon to start one which was already discussed and even polled.
"SAO/AHO" actually that transition could be a nice topic. A big company takes the remains of a previous one, ripping its product / program into pieces to build a new cash-grab from it, now where have I seen this in RL... dunno...
I've watched a bit of SAO but didn't really like it. I think the reason it is so compelling to many people is because of the drama in the story taking place. Even though the players are in a fictional setting, they are forced to act as if it is the real world. Kind of like actors in a play. Role playing basically. So the feeling of worldiness as you describe comes from the players.
The answer lies in the hands of the community, provided that the game is not too overbearing in directing the player on how to play, which unfortunately is the case these days usually.
I just discovered SAO and like it. I will check out the other and see if its on Netflix.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Yeah, that is it until October 4th when second season starts.
I do think the one life per account thing could work if it was framed as a short term eSport. EQ did this a bit with specialized servers around the plane of power expansion. I know I played on one pvp server where you cant rez/respawn. It lasted only a few weeks but was intense.
Ex.
1. WoW/blizzard creates a new copy single full pvp server.
2. No respawn/resurrection rule
3. Only allow 1000 players in the game for a 50$ entry free (Money drives excitement)
4. If you die, you can buy your way back in for another 50$ but must wait in queue. Again, money drives excitement and media coverage, which is the main value of such a competition. Attention for the top pvp + pve players.
5. Victory condition is defeating the top boss of that expansion.
6. Rewards for those still on aggro list after boss dies might be something unique/special.
A. World of Death Survivor T-Shirt, etc.
B. Guest host for future blizzard events.
My argument is such an activity would drive attention back to WoW and reward good players with what most crave the most, to be part of history (and arguably be recognized).
-Wl
Werewolf Online(R) - Lead Developer
But i like the whole Mass Co-Op idea behind SAO. The FFA element was a side thing, since most guilds didnt support that.
I like the idea of everybody (or most) of the players working together for a common goal.
SAO had a community. Had Traders, and Dungeon runners. They had a Trinity as well if you notice. Also there were cool reasons to go to different levels.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Lol sword art poverty anime. would rather want a mmorpg about log horizon. sword art will never happen i'd like to see a 100 world game with a end game boss at each... That would be trutly epic.
Ready player one is worth reading if you like the idea of SAO but don't like anime..or if you like both I guess
It's a bit more "realistic" as far as these things go and if you're 40+ there are a lot of references you'll understand that younger people may not.
I think the biggest difference between a real mmo and these types of things is mmos are just games right now. These are actual virtual worlds. I thought for a long time that virtual worlds is what " the masses " really wanted but seeing what gets made and what makes money, it doesn't seem that way. There seem to be a lot more people out there looking for a casual drop in instead of a full on escape. At least in the spending numbers.
That is really hard to say since so few virtual worlds actually are getting made, and the ones that are made have low budget and inexperienced devs.
Most people want a good game and if a good virtual world came out people would play it, just like a good themepark or for that matter FPS game.
I'm going to put on my writer hat for this post, since an "I'm inside a video game" is actually the most recent piece of fiction I was working on (based on an online roleplay I'm GMing, for which I BTW have an open slot). I read and/or watched more than 30 examples of this type of story over the years, before the desire to make one struck me. And they are NOT about gameplay, original or otherwise. There has to be a gameplay system of some kind, and I made up an original one for my story, because I'd never bothered getting into the details of stats and abilities and combat math before and it seemed interesting (as a designer; I've definitely dealt with them as a player trying to figure out how to spend my points). But I didn't try to make my system unique or never-before-seen because that wasn't the point at all.
The point of this kind of story is to combine the familiar feeling of playing a game (which has nothing to do with originality) with a convincing experience of being in a real world. The appeal is imagining "What sneaky, clever, or hax things could I do in real life if real life's mechanics were more like those of a game?" "How could I use my genre-savviness to take advantage of these mechanics more effectively than others, thus becoming famous/wealthy/powerful/etc.?"
I think first thing make SAO or other MMORPG (from novel) interest is the combat.
They all have first person view combat .
And relate to combat is "super AI" and well craft enemy attack patent .
For example big body enemy can kill player just by moving they mass body around.
As you watch the novel portray the combat , fighting with one mob never end in just few seconds like most of game , it pretty much tell player to work together to make fighting become faster. And even with party , it take few minutes to finish one mob.
Then the balance between grind and quest , they don't have our quest hub exp filler . lol
Also the quests all well craft.
All the "novel" MMORPG have large among of casual contents like crafting , fishing , housing , farming .
IMO the casual contents make the game compete , things wasn't just roll around combat.
And last thing is mad GM.
Heck , he even spy player by become one of them and planing in game events .
If i have to say what make SAO great is the GM .lol.
Personally i much prefer SAO over Log horizon. Log Horizon has too much perverted anime humor that just makes me cringe when i watch it. To each their own though but i thought Log Horizon was a pretty horrible anime
Pretty much it has outside the whole 'being inside the game' deal. I mean heck I've seen so many games rush love stories like in SAO that looks so silly and unrealistic, and then toss away their story completely early on after having a good idea.
Bashing aside (sorry I can't help it, I need to bash an Anime that takes an awesome idea and ruins it on me!) its not going to really be that 'ground breaking' what you see since most ideas that make sense has already been done in games. Abstract ideas (while cool at times) won't likely find steady mainstream attention.