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Happy scale, how happy are we ?
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
This morning I was sitting here thinking about my overall mmo happiness. Sounds crazy right !
Then I had to take it a few steps deeper. What's my view of everyone else's mmo happiness. I would view myself as a negative influence, however I see others as overly positive influence.
So, what I'm asking is how do you view EVERYONES happiness OVERALL !
It's no secret that mmo's have changed in many directions several times over since conception. Please take into account, many had stopped playing altogether and don't even contribute to this site anymore, however maybe I'm wrong and mmo's had gained popularity because of changes and the current state.
What's your view OVERALL ?....... I understand some questions sound close to the same, pick one anyway that best fits your belief's
Then I had to take it a few steps deeper. What's my view of everyone else's mmo happiness. I would view myself as a negative influence, however I see others as overly positive influence.
So, what I'm asking is how do you view EVERYONES happiness OVERALL !
It's no secret that mmo's have changed in many directions several times over since conception. Please take into account, many had stopped playing altogether and don't even contribute to this site anymore, however maybe I'm wrong and mmo's had gained popularity because of changes and the current state.
What's your view OVERALL ?....... I understand some questions sound close to the same, pick one anyway that best fits your belief's
Comments
Most of the "MMO's" out there at the moment aren't really MMO's at all, they're just online games with cash shops. Most of the rest have very little actual massively multiplayer content to justify the name MMO.
Practically all of them have lost the plot when it comes to the social aspect of MMO's.
The whole of the gaming industry is currently suffering from the mercenary attitude of suits and the bottom line. There are a few indie developers out there that still do projects where the game comes first but AAA is all about the money now.
I voted the way I did because I do feel that the business aspects have been driving the evolution of MMOs over the last 5 years, rather than love and understanding of the genre. This has led to a lot of very short-sighted decisions and a general move away from massively-multiplayer towards single-player online.
The result has been a general increase in the number of games and an increase in total revenue, but a drop in retention and a drop in happiness as people continually search for an online "home".
The only people I have seen remain consistently happy are the casual soloers. I am always shocked at just how many of my friends play MMOs casually. They only play WoW, ESO and SW:TOR, they never raid, they don't care about builds or stats, they don't pvp, they are solo 99.99% of the time. They are, without fail, "bad" gamers - they are just shit at combat and consistently die. However, for that group of people they just don't care. They love exploring the worlds, doing the story quests and engaging in the "fluff". For my female friend in particularly, costumes are a big part of their gaming time. They'll happily spend a whole week hunting down cosmetic items to create the perfect outfit, then post screenshots all over facebook. Or, they'll spend 5 hours on a saturday just experimenting with the character creator and posting screenshots. They use social media, rather than in game features, to make their playtime social.
I find that my lvl of being content or not, depends a lot on my mood and energy lvl and how many positive experiences I have with people during a day.
Encountering a jerk during gametime and it influences my interest in the game negatively, encountering the opposite of a jerk and I can find it the best game ever or at least decent.
What I do aim for is not to dwell too much in negative thoughts and emotions about games or well life in general, because life is simply too short for that. Literally.
This does not mean I do not get caught up in one or the other extreme every now and then, negative as well as extremely happy, but for the most part I am just generally content I think.
Games are just a luxury product, it is not a requirement in life. Based on that, I find it difficult to really evaluate what I think about MMORPGs overall.
These products does not even have a practical use. Cant use it for cleaning, cant use it as transport, cant really do anything with it other than just allow myself a break from the often demanded seriousness in RL.
Of course I cherish these breaks a lot, but I find that its easier to adjust to the world around me, than demand the world to adjust to myself. Or should I say it would have been convenient if it was opposite, but that is not going to happen.
Gaming just is what it is, same way as art just is what it is. Everybody have a different opinion about what makes good art, and when our days, moods and lives change, so does our opinions. And within those contributive factors, we can dangle back and fourth picking up old opinions from time to time also.
So I would have liked to have an opinion, tempting to shape one on the whim, but an opinion subject to change constantly does not really give a solid impression.
So on a good day everything is great, on a bad day everything sucks and most days things are just pretty fine and ok.
Today I think everything is pretty ok.
I think the industry is evolving and it will continue to evolve, if they make good products, which some will do, I will buy those and skip the games I dont like much.
I find it hard to not like something, at least in the massive amount of content and choices we get on the market.
If I still somehow were to contribute with something, that I find as much or more relevant than the current markets design in games, it would be that its hard to hold on to these kind of games as far as group content goes. Being an older gamer its hard to find common grounds with people who adapted entirely to the internet based new world.
This means the communication based on exchanging life experiences are very limited, I believe the youth tends to call life experience "just anecdotal evidence" these days, which pretty much means "I dont care about what life you have lived or what you have deducted from that, cause I will find all the facts on the internet"
In turn this means there is nothing to really learn from the youth, they dont experience anything, they just play games. It is at least very very hard to meet a younger player these days and experience a conversation, like a real conversation, not just an exchange of copy pasted wiki quotes.
When there is no longer that feeling or acces to experience playing with likeminded and people willing to bond via communication and sharing life stories, the games overall lose my interest.
This is not at all the games fault, it just means that in general the people playing them, no longer have much interest to me.
And other people were the original motivation for me to try out MMORPGs, as it made a more lively world than sologames.
With that lost, the MMORPGs are lost to me, does not matter how good or bad they are.
Then we have something like starcitizen that just keeps milking the mmo playerbase. It is either the waiting game and allowing your pockets to be siphoned by the in development mmos or getting screwed by the asian mmorps that have blatant p2w elements. There are some western mmos that have been on the market for a long time now like SW:TOR and AoC but they too have some form of cashshop elements and are more or less barely scraping by because of terrible early decisions/flaws or players are bored of it.
Too many poor choices and lack of player feedback in mmorpgs. Almost every mmo i've played in the past 8 years had some kind of terrible decision of crippling flaw. Such as:
Aoc- bugs, lack of content, downright lying, screwing over your playerbase(collectors edition) and just bad designs.
DFO- Insanely huge grind, hackers, bugs/exploits, bad game mechanics.
APB- Hackers, terrible game mechanics, not enough content.
These are few amongst many. I don't expect a flawless mmo, but too many mistakes are made in this genre.
MurderHerd
These days is hard to find one that doesn't have some Shopping Channel like functionality within the game. This has cheapened the experience for all of them and makes them feel like you're there to play AND shop.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
1 Numbers have proven that people are NOT having fun because MOST games drop off badly after only 1-2 months.
2 I see the faces of these people in Twitch and i get more an indication of happiness because they are profiting from gaming than the actual games and then i see some very unhappy/salty people that are very obviously only in it for the $$$.
There is after 30 some odd years only one game that has ever rebounded with BETTER numbers and that is FFXIV.Every other game sees everyone claiming FUN FUN,but the numbers dropoff.We should also realize that numbers dropoff might seem OK,but remember that while some would leave there are lots of outside people lurking to get in.Point is that when you see numbers drop they are seriously dropping because they do not show NEW players entering at the same time.
Simple math..5 million drops to 2 million.Seems like 3 million gone right..nope,what if another 500k or 1 million entered during that quarter?What happens a lot of time is people jump on the bandwagon of a new game,so when they leave that game,other games can see an influx of new players.
Long winded point,people are not HAPPY,they are hmm what is the term well bored,completionist's "they feel a need to strive forward even if bored",the want or need to feel a part of a community,play because their friends are and the faces we can actually see "streamers" for $$$ reasons.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
New crates incoming next month, cant wait!
And as far as shopping goes, I have a gene that loooves that.
Prices could be lowered a bit, but hey!
If anything I love that development, sooo much more fun to check out the new Crown Store collections each month, than run the same instances over and over and over and over and over till you really hate to log in.
Sorry I commented on your post, we can just keep this between you and I, I love that new design :pleased:
I'm reasonably satisfied with the overall state of gaming though, plenty of promise on the horizon.
Playing a lot of online RPG-esque games like ARPG Path of exile, and the 28th the new overhaul for rpg/towerdefense mashup Dungeon defenders 2.
I don't even like auction houses or in-game vendors. Just let me at the damn game and keep the distractions away.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Your not giving anyone any credit to be open minded and look at the overall.
I think people are smarter than that !
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Like many things, there is a lot more creative freedom when things first start up. After a model was found that made a lot of money people were more interested in using that to make as much money as possible. At the beginning, there was freedom to create as investors didn't know what was popular and were just gambling on random things. They gave a lot of control to the developers. That may be false, but it is my impression of how things work.
Gee wiz the vast majority of voters on this poll are having horrible days. What a coincidence!
I still love old school designs and enjoy EVE and DAOC on a 2002 ruleset, but nothing modern.
Since others are happily playing titles such as ESO, FFXIV and a host of others it's not really a problem these games are designed the way they are, other than to me and others looking in a different direction.
"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
We all got out the wrong side of the bed this morning and logged in to see the OP's thread.
"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
Now, being able to get reviews, watch games being played before I buy them, buy them and play them in mins. all without leaving the house with a relatively fast internet connection and I'm happy. Yes, they can be expensive and try to nickel and dime you to death but it's nothing that my budget can't handle and I can even treat myself to some nice fluff from time to time. It's a buffet to me and I can easily pick and choose the style of game I want to play any given day. So very happy with current gaming world.
"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
"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
Once upon a time....
Take games like GTA V, appraised by millions and the critics. Hell the game is still among the top 10 and that is just phenomenal. What GTA V managed to do was a to create a WORLD. No matter how small or tiny, but still a WORLD nonetheless.
I think the potential of this genre has remained untapped. Chris Roberts addressed that potential to some extend--which is to create a world--and he has a cult following him and ~$140m plus more to come. I am not saying he will deliver or not, time will tell.
To me what is being created compared to the true potential is like when children draw a watch on their wrist. Some of them drawings are neat and cute, but that's all they are--not real watches. A caricature of what could have been.
Now I am a perfectly happy person, my life is great and everyday is a blessing. I am very lucky in life and I thank universe for it. But I am not happy about the state of this genre, and I don't have to go through a break-up to realize this.
The thing is, most MMOs do make money. Nobody would keep an MMO running if it wasn't making some money (unless there was some kind of future growth potential), and almost no MMO ever released actually gets shut down.
In this way, making a quest-driven p2w MMO with 1 or 2 unique things has become a relatively safe bet. Compared to the mobile market, there is barely any competition. Odds of making all your money back in the first month is pretty good, no matter how crappy your game is, just because we're all so bored. And it's now been proven that the world has no shortage of idiots with too much money to blow on p2w games.
The problem is in the end, games are art. You can't just run a marketing algorithm and pump out the results (although I'm sure a company like Perfect World would love to do just that).
So we're left with a situation that's relatively safe for devs but without any real exponential growth potential, and inevitable disappointment for gamers.
The only upcoming MMO I have some faith in is Camelot Unchained. Mark Jacobs has the heart of an artist, and he's been shown to be willing to take risks.