Being a member of this Forum since 2004 I now have a good understanding of what type of player is the average MMORPG.com member.
Yet I would like to know in your own words what kind of MMORPG player you are.
I mostly blab about Old School MMOs virtues, but probably people will be surprised to know that I actually like almost every type of MMORPG. That's really my main hobby.
My ideal type of games are Social MMOs, Group focused, and with a good level of Player Interaction.
I don't really like Solo or Casual, though I do enjoy it with the right game, but the main reason I play MMORPG is to play with other people. Specifically I like to cooperate with other players either in PvP or PvE in order to achieve things.
For that reason, my absolutely favorite ones are Vanilla EQ, Vanilla EQ2, and Vanilla WoW, yeah I like Vanilla ice cream too.
But I am not so narrow minded to dismiss other type of MMOs, in fact I enjoy anything as long as the game is good and most of all I like anything that is Original or add something unique to the Genre.
For this reason I also loved Darkfall, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, Guild Wars 2, Archeage, Elder Scrolls Online, Black Desert Online, EVE Online, Age of Conan.
So as you can see my portfolio covers the whole MMORPG spectrum, from FFA PvP, to Carebear PvP, Sandbox, Solo/Casual, Thempark, Old School, Hardcore Raids and Sandpark.
It's safe to say I have a good knowledge of the MMORPG market, as I can put myself in the shoes of all the different types of MMORPG players.
But I also hate few things about MMORPGs.
One of my pet peeve is unoriginal MMOs or Copycats, I don't see the point, I always play the originals.
Also in general I don't like Asian MMOs (except for AA and BDO), and absolutely hate all type of Cash Shops, even though If I like the game, I try to tolerate them (you can't really avoid them these days).
About specific games, I hated Warhammer Online because it was the first WoW clone, and SotA because it failed all my expectations. I also strongly dislike John Smedley for running SoE to the ground and killing the EQ IP (and SWG), and Trion for ruining one of the best MMOs imports (Archeage) with the worst Cash Shop ever implemented in a game.
So what about you?
What do you really love about MMORPG?
What do you like or tolerate?
What do you hate?
Comments
I love the PvP part of MMORPG's
I tolerate PvE
I hate people who don't tolerate PvP
I like to believe I am interested in lore, adventure, exploration, a living world, etc., but really I am pretty much always trying to figure out how to get better stuff.
I deplore gold buying and gold sellers, but if the game has a cash shop I will probably use it.
I extol the virtues of a player community, but mainly I solo or jump into PUGs with players I never speak to beyond "hi."
I would like to play a lot, but I have limited time these days.
I would love to raid, and have raided respectably in the past, but I am growing old and slow - too slow for dance dance revolution raiding. The pyrotechnics also overwhelm my bifocals.
I hear myself saying I want stiff death penalties and constant danger from wandering high level mobs, and I think I am sincere, but it has been so long quite possibly that would annoy the shit out of me.
I get lost easily. Need a map. I suck for saying that, but I'm at least being honest.
I like slow leveling. I think. It's been a long time since there was any, so maybe just my past self liked slow leveling. One thing is sure, I don't like slow leveling when the only person leveling slow is me.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
At the same time i want a game to challenge me constantly and unless i progress in game i would eventually find that brick wall that prevents me getting forward. I want a game to tell me occassionally 'you're not ready for this encounter, go back and level/skill/gear up more and try again later. I like long grinds and rewards obtainable in foreseeable future and i love crafting and farming mats for it. The longer it takes the better.
I hate linear gameplay, trivial combat, excessive hand holding, sparkling quest objects, etc. Pretty much everything that tells me 'You're playing a game and we wanted to make it easy for you to understand'. I hate instant gratification or that 'everyone plays, no one fails' -mentality we've seen in most MMOs of lately.
While it would seem i'm one of the more classic MMO players, i still want somewhat modern graphics and functional UI. Vanilla WoW has been my home for last 7 years. Next week i'll start playing on TBC realm and i will stay there until Pantheon launches officially.
Apparently you officially don't exist.
I like both group content and solo, but if I had to choose, I'd go with the latter. There's way too many obnoxious people on the internet (and outside of it!) for me to want to deal with them ALL the time. I've done my share of raiding and PvPing, although my main focus is usually PvE. I find it much more relaxing than the activities where you constantly have to bring your A game.
I love character customization, both the visual aspects and messing with builds, although the latter tends to irk me if the game is poorly balanced and pretty much forces you to adopt one of the handful of builds that are OP, or be forced to under perform all the time. "Illusion of choice" sucks. I like lore and story content, although I CAN go without them if the gameplay is good enough to keep my interest without them.
I'm fine with cash shops, always have been. I thought they were a pretty clever idea from the start... BUT... it highly depends on the implementation. Blatant P2W is an instant no, although my bar lies far higher for that sort of stuff than most of the people on this site, I don't scream "OMG P2W!" the moment a game lets you sell things for RL cash. Blatant greed is another one. Charge me half the price of a brand new AAA game for ONE single outfit that I can only use ON one character? You can bet that when people ask my opinion on it I will bash your game on that one (hi BDO and more recently, SWL). But I can live with it, I'll just boycott it by not buying the items.
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/
I like skill based combat, meaningful PvP such as fights for ideals and territory, in-depth crafting, territorial control, challenging and engaging PvE and exploring amazing environments.
I tolerate random ganking and shallow PvP for the sake of PvP alone.
I hate level and gear grinding.
Social Events
World Events
Open Worlds with no loading screens.
Open World PvP
A Crafting Oriented gear progression, without spreadsheet compiling as a requirement.
A detailed character creation system.
More classes and character combinations the better.
Games you don't have to "no-life" to enjoy.
Things I greatly dislike:
Instanced Dungeons inside of Sandbox game.
Heavily Instanced MMOs
Extensive grind to the point where someone who plays semi-casually for 6 months has still not "caught up".
Grind for the sake of you looking for cash-shop workarounds.
Extensive RNG mechanics.
Ugly Graphics or character models. (so many games have this.)
Games you must no-life or keep running in background to be successful.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
I love:
Tactical combat or other turn-based combat.
Crafting (especially the minigame kind), growing crops or raising farm animals, and pet-related gameplay such as capturing, breeding, and raising.
A deep fantasy or science-fantasy world which isn't all about war.
Story, quests, and NPCs who feel like real people. (Some quests are crap though, like killing more than 50 of the same thing.)
Visual character customization especially as quest rewards. These include hair colors and styles, modifiable gear or costumes that go over gear, tattoos, mounts, etc.
Owning my own property and being able to build and craft there.
Shapeshifter classes or abilities, and pet-user classes or abilities. Mages/Archers that aren't restricted to light armor. Stealth classes that don't need to backstab (so annoying always maneuvering for position...)
I like:
Global auction houses, if they aren't too burdened with "taxes" or auction botting.
WoW-style spellbar/cooldown combat.
I tolerate:
5-person dungeon runs
Dueling, card games, or mount racing against other players if there are prizes for victory but no penalties for loss.
I hate:
Permadeath
Open world PvP and developer effort wasted on PvP
Raids or realm v realm
Player shops instead of using a global auction house system
Factions being unable to talk to each other or group for dungeons
Cash shop items that don't fit the world and break imersion
Guild membership being mandatory for major sections of gameplay
Party membership being required to get certain drops
Dungeons that don't scale to solo play
Overhead view
First-person view with no option to switch to third-person.
Worldbuilding that includes guns
"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
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
PvP players pay monthly fees, buy cash shop items, and generally contribute to the success of a game.
PvE players pay monthly fees, buy cash shop items, and generally contribute to the success of a game.
If there is a large enough PvP/PvE community in any title to pay for the development of their own content then that development isn't "wasted".
No single crowd has a right to 100% of the developers time, and nobody has a right to the money other players with other content preferences spend on an MMO. The developers probably aren't "wasting" your sub fees on developing PvP content. The money they spend on it is in all likelihood covered by players who would not otherwise play without that content.
More features for a game covered by the players that use them is always a good thing. Just don't play games that force you to PvP if you don't want to.
What most people refers to when talking about wearing "Rose Tinted Glasses" is the assumption that people remember the game better than it actually was in reality.
This way of thinking is closely associated with the infamous comment Blizzard did few years ago at Blizzcom "You think you know what you want, but you don't".
Many people seems to agree with Blizzard (maybe not you), they think that some people like Vanilla WoW (or EQ) because it was their first MMO and have fond memories of it, but if they were to play a similar game today, they will get bored really fast, which I don't agree with.
There are plenty of people playing on Illegal Servers (not just WoW) for years lke the guy I quoted and they can't be more happy.
Keep in mind these people are playing all those years without any new content whatsoever, so that's how much they like that game.
If I had complete certainty that Illegal Servers would be permanent I would play on them as well, but I don't like my progress being wiped out without notice.
Sometimes i do PvE too.
In the past i used to raid and do dungeons not anymore i mostly solo nowadays
I like PVE and dislike PVP i try to avoid it whenever i can.
I dont mind cash shops and frequently by from them however i do not like it if you can buy P2W items there.
And i am a hopless altoholic ihave to have 1 of each class and race,
Have not yet though. Maybe there is hope?
Nah there is really none for me or the human race.
When I solo I prefer exploration to running quests but I can run some soloquests as well.
I play mainly in periods, I can stay off all MMOs in months, casually log in a little or spend 6 hours a day for months depending on time of the year (no long MMO sessions in the summer), if I got a new game or expansion or just if I feel for MMOs or not.
Most of my memorable moments comes from PvP and group content.
It's the main reason I got in to them in the late 90's. I primarily PvP'd at the time (FPS/RTS games, Quake/2, Starcraft mainly.).
So instead of just hanging out in mIRC/ICQ we'd (Quake clan members) just chillax in EQ.
hmmm, I think anyone wanting the older games also wants a functional UI and better graphics.
They might be more willing to forgo the better graphics part because they can adapt to older graphics.
There's also a difference between the "rose tinted glasses brigade" and the "they don't see through my glasses brigade".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I'm equally at home in PvP or PvE. I like to know that the outcome of combat is going to be based on my brain, and not on what gear I'm wearing or how long I've been playing (twitch). This means I can't play action-combat games (too boring) and the combat system must be sufficiently deep for my decisions to be meaningful.
My absolute musts for an MMO:
- Strong IP - purely subjective, but if I'm gonna find a new home, I have to actually want to live there
- Deep combat system
- Open World, Objective Based PvP - I love fighting over keeps!
- Horizontal Progression
Admittedly, this criteria has prevented me from finding an MMO to call home for many years, but I live in hope! Camelot Unchained is the only one on the horizon currently set to meet these needs.I often enjoy PvP. I also enjoy well done PvE, and crafting, and exploration, and social aspects etc. A game that does not cover all of these areas is not an MMO I will play for long.
So at least for me, if an MMO isn't broad then it fundamentally fails to meet the criteria I desire from an MMO.