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You want a successful MMORPG? Then scratch the following crap from your developmental blueprints
Dauzqul
Member RarePosts: 1,982
You want a successful MMORPG? Then scratch the following crap from your developmental blueprints:
#1. Remove Quest Hub to Quest Hub progression. A game might seem big. However, when it comes time for end-game, most of the world is rendered useless, as most lands become pointless due to being under your level.
#2. Remove Set in Stone Item Loot. It's so predictable; it's so boring. Such a lame axiom should be replaced with something more statistically randomized, e.g., SWG Loot / Diablo-style loot. This style of loot makes level grinding much less arduous. Of course, crafting should still have a major benefit such as allowing the user to either pinpoint certain attributes and/or bonus effects.
BORING
INTERESTING
#3. Remove Story. A theme/setting with deep lore is fine. However, the story element always turns into a mind-numbingly redundant bore-fest. Moreover, I personally find that personal kills player immersion. NPC Kyla has lost her Gold Needle in that bale of hay for the 200,000th time... Quests should be massively believable, e.g., SWG-like Mission Terminals, city-style collective quests that require users to provide enough of any needed supply (meat, wood, stone, etc).
#4. Remove Instanced PvP / Dedicated PvP Areas on PvP Servers. I can understand the desire to have optional PvP areas on PvE Servers. However, on PvP Servers, such areas should either be removed or offer no participation rewards. There is nothing "Massively Multiplayer" when it comes to 6v6 CTF, Huttball, or whatever other Immersion breaking game mode lack-luster developers may introduce. Make it realistic; make it Open World War.
#5. Add Player Bounties. Why this feature is never added is beyond me. It's requested during the development of every game, yet it gets zero attention from any dev team. Player Bounties should automatically be placed on those who constantly grief lowbies and team-kill. If the target is hunted and killed, the target should suffer greatly, e.g., inability to respawn "x" amount of time, severe debuff, or whatever...
#6. Remove Clueless Developers:
#7. Make ALL factions aesthetically appealing. Some people wonder why most servers are horribly one-sided. The answer is simple: The "good" faction always looks goofy and sassy. All factions must have aesthetic appeal.
#8. Remove Character levels that appear over your enemy's head. Players would have to be much more careful when picking their targets. How different would the following movie be if he had known Miyagi's true combat level:
#9. Remove Asians. This is not a racist statement. It's a simple fact that gold selling destroys games. It's a simple fact that gold selling is virtually all because of Asians. Sanctions must be in place to block foreign IP addresses. I know there are ways around this, but even a simple grammar test to enter the game would do wonders to NA-MMO gaming. They can play on their own servers...
#10. Deep crafting. Star Wars Galaxies. Enough said.
Screw it. I could go on and on and on and on. However, the realization of my monumental waste of time is finally here. Keep on pumping out the same crap, devs. If a game is finally good, it will most likely be raped beyond repair, e.g., Trion's P2W greed and ArcheAge.
Comments
How about remove trading ? No trading = no gold farmer .
Do you know even ban IP you can't stop Asian gold farmers farming .
They have ways to break your game no matter what you try.
Even South Korea Internet account control can't stop gold Chinese gold farmer , nice try but it will never work.
Only way to stop gold farmer is no trading . deal with it !
#9. Remove Asians. This is not a racist statement. It's a simple fact that gold selling destroys games. It's a simple fact that gold selling is virtually all because of Asians. Sanctions must be in place to block foreign IP addresses. I know there are ways around this, but even a simple grammar test to enter the game would do wonders to NA-MMO gaming. They can play on their own servers...
Having lived in the US for 14 years I have realized that the average American thinks that grammar is someone who buys them socks for Christmas. This clearly would not work.
Kind of agree with your points, especially the redundancy of similar weapons that then end up on some auction house. It doesn't make any weapons special, it doesn't make collecting them fun.
Same with color coding every weapon, my God, let players choose items themselves like in EQ, so they can weigh the benefits from the negatives.
I don't care about PVP, but PVE players still support good servers and games for PVP. The bounty system seems like a good idea.
That's a good recipe for a game that could build a solid base and expand on it, like CCP did with EVE, until they could afford to make stupid decisions with other IPs. The problem is devs don't want to be CCP, they want to be Blizzard. Their investors want them to be Blizzard. The people who buy the games en-masse and then move on in a month, well, who the fuck knows what they want, because they certainly don't. So the devs and investors keep going for the non-scary options, which are pretty much the opposite of what you've listed.
You don't have to ban Asians. Be Squeenix with FFXI and ban gold buyers instead.
Also, you missed a fine example to post a photo of SWTOR male Jedi badonkadonk in robe. That shit made me quit and uninstall faster than anything else I've ever encountered in an MMO.
While I find your humor slightly amusing at times, rename your thread to:
"Scratch the following crap if you want a game that pleases ME. OR give me back SWG, kthxbai"
Got me! I thought this was a relevant thread for about 2 minutes. Then I got to the end and realized that it's a "let's revive SWG thread" Good job.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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- Albert Einstein
Open World PvP often seems to be Open World full of PvP bandits not PvP soldiers
So if you want to make Open World War you have to make sure the soldiers dont turn into bandits.
this ^
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
Define successful.
I imagine it's somewhere between barely profitable and one that everybody will play and no other games should try to enter the market.
I am guessing you are thinking wow killer, which your points certainly would not accomplish that. I do not think most gamers would be interested if you were pitching a game that you had to make your own story for.
I also keep hearing "everybody wants open world pvp", and yet, every game that tries it, fails. Give it objectives worth going for, one faction ends up always ruling. remove objectives, and there is no point. Open world pvp doesn't work, instanced does.
I'm sorry to be the one to inform you, but your perfect game would end up being very niche.
I can fly higher than an aeroplane.
And I have the voice of a thousand hurricanes.
Hurt - Wars
A game that sustains a healthy player-base and earns more than enough income to remain.
A game and company that is respected. Eve is a great example. While it's not for everyone, the game itself is respected. Compare that to someone like BioWare, Funcom, Mythic, Cryptic, etc.
A game that doesn't have to sucker people in with "limited time cash shop" offers etc.
Moreover, it would not be niche at all. ArcheAge on paper would be niche. However, if it wasn't for such a lousy P2W ruleset, it would do quite well.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Ok i am not going to say that you are wrong, such a game as you describe could be a hit and make money.
After all with a low enough budget most well made things can make a profit.
The question is can you keep your game running with a player base of 25-50K(in total). Because those are the numbers you would be looking at in my mind. Gaming have changed, even SONY realized that. Now what they did was pants-on-head stupid but they did it for a reason.
Most people do not want to go back to your golden vision of a MMO. The generation that played that do not have the time anyt more and the new generation.. like it or not... Have a different taste in games... Pong does not satisfy any more.
So OP... Your list is a good way for a developer to drive their game in to the ground. Try getting any kind of investors to the game you describe.
This have been a good conversation
So:
-Make a sandbox (fine with me but themepark games undisputably sell very well compared to every sandbox that isn't EVE Online.)
-Cater to the OP's subjective aesthetic preferences (should they clear racial designs with you before launching game?)
-Be a racist idiot and ignore the fact that "Asians" will indisputably find ways around your IP blocks if they want to play your game (although to be fair I don't know why they would given your attitude). Also ignore that China is forecast to be the biggest economy in the world in 2016 and Japan is currently #3. Great recipe for financial success there.
How many unsuccessful AAA MMORPGs have there been?
Or do you mean, just unsuccessful in their pursuit to please you personally? Because there are plenty of successful MMORPGs around that did not follow your step by step guide to developing a game.
I can fly higher than an aeroplane.
And I have the voice of a thousand hurricanes.
Hurt - Wars
I like and agree with everything except with the removal of PvP instances ,
some people need these because they might have lower end computer hardware , or because massive PvP doesn't appeal to them , or because they simply just can't.
Crude logic and personal preference.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
1.- Agree. Actually, that's one reason I like GW2, since you get downleveled, and still get level apropiate rewards, in theory there's really no area that's useless after reaching level cap. In practice still needs some extra work and could use some extra incentive to go to some areas, but beats the way it was in WoW back when I played where once you reached level cap you mostly were limited to 2 or 3 areas and the rest of the world was just a backdrop while you traveled between them.
2.- Mixed feelings. I guess it's like in GW2 right now, where anyone can drop any loot with different stat combinations... but with the result that you don't really care about drops (unless it's a precursor or one of the expensive fancy skin ones), so you end up just buying the stats you want from the trading post or crafting yourself. I kinda miss from other games going out to hunt a specific monster or dungeon boss because he was the one that dropped a specific piece of gear I wanted.
3.- Disagree. I think the story can be part of a good MMO, sometimes even an integral part of it (I still consider The Secret World as one of the best MMOs I've played, for example), only that it can't be the only worthwhile part, there must be something (preferably lots of things) to do once the story ends, and also lots of things to do if you decide to just ignore it.
4.- No comments, as I'm not a PvP player.
5.- Same as above
6.- And who gets to define who's a clueless developer?... if we go by forums, there wouldn't be any developers left..
7.- Agree that all factions should be aesthetically appealing... that said, beauty is on the eye of the beholder... in 1 and 2 to be honest I find the "stupid" look more interesting to the "badass" one, third one I find both to be stupid, agree on the WTF... and I do remember several MMOs I've played (WoW being one, for example) where at least on the server I played the "good" faction outnumbered the "bad" one sometimes even 3 to 1
8.- I'd guess I'd agree when it comes to PvP, same as 4 and 5.
9.- On principle I'm against IP blocks (specially being in Venezuela)... and there are so many ways to bypass them that I don't think would be effective in the first place... and TBH, adding a grammar check would also prevent over half of NA players from entering as well..
10.- Agree as something to do... but as long as it's not the whole focus of the game.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To be brutally blunt and honest... That does not matter one itty bitty iota.... Unless you are self/crowd funded and self publishing.
Because you need to explain to INVESTORS why you with such brazen bravado leave a huge amount of potential revenue off the table. Because you see... They hold the money and they do the risk calculations.. They do not like your idealistic "maybe" as an answer to. "will they come". Heck if anything WildStar will have not only closed that door but welded it shut and put a dragon guarding it.
I agree many big MMO´s have had to switch from sub to F2P... But honey dear... Story has NOTHING to do with that.
Care to have a hint what has... Investors. F2P generate a lot more revenue then sub... the choice is easy.
This have been a good conversation
I self identify as a monkey.