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Last month in MMO Reroll, Mitch took a trip back to the Dark Ages of gaming - the early 2000s - and gave the aptly named Dark Ages of Camelot a try. This month, it's TERA.
Comments
The history of gaming has been one of making games ever easier. Each year they must slowly get easier than the last, by doing this you cater to the lowest common denominator of gaming experience and skill, which increases sales to the largest possible group of players. At least that's the dogma, I think skilful has a place in gaming, unfortunately the gaming industry does not. As the former CEO of EA said, "we are going to make games your mum could play", that went down very well with investors, players may disagree but they play whatever they are given so who cares what they think?
That said I look forward to more, especially as we have have found out he is not a teenager as some suspected.
I think part of the problem is the devs not understanding the player's issue with leveling. Players have complained about having to grind mobs as well as the added fluff of extra travel between/during quests slowing things down. They heard "leveling is too hard, lower the difficulty.
FFXIV finally heard the real complaint and took action. They have reduced the total number of quests, shortened the amount of extraneous running back and forth, and even though the left side quests there for anyone who wants to do them you can level through the story quests alone. The actual fights aren't any harder or easier than they used to be.
That game felt revolutionary back when it came out.
Dated today, but the combat was still the best out of any 'MMO' to date, even over Black Desert.
The games you mentioned are all very old MMOs, very old games don't get played much in the present.
Players had extremely little choice and in fact for a few years were not even aware of what was going on, nearly two decades down the line we are so accustomed to ever easier that it seems unnatural that games could be harder. And that goes for myself too, it becomes the norm and a game that has more difficulty can seem frustrating. Let me put that into perspective, if we do something in a game and it does not work perfectly the first time the game can be seen as frustrating.
That is an astonishing place for gaming to be; no risk, no meaningful decisions, it is the gaming of the pre-school playground and we are being treated like we were babies.
It's never going to improve beyond what it is. It's a headliner MMO. It's one of the first MMOs who paved the way for the genre. But it's old. Really old. And it's limited in what it can do. It also doesn't have a base anymore that warrants putting a bunch of work into it. It's not necessarily rose colored glasses but more so that it still offers combat and RvR in a way that no other game has yet. So it still has a niche there.
I think DAoC's combat is what is unique about it. Take a look at all the MMos these days. You swing 8 times per second while using spells and gcds. They've made combat so absurdly fast these days it only matters how fast you can push buttons rather than be strategic. DAoC combat rewards you for getting off positional/reactionaries/counters. It requires good timing and predictive strategy. So much so that it can change the course of a fight. These fights at end game can be fast. But most of DAoC isn't about one on one. However it's not without it's fallacies. Over the years it's been destroyed by /use items and charges. The game is on its final days and will likely shut down in the next few years at most. As it should be. Tbh I think it should have shut down a year ago.
The risk in MMORPGs is time. The best and brightest at raiding take weeks to months to conquer some of the harder stuff in MMORPGs. PvP is a constant challenge in almost all MMORPGS that offer it.
I think people get confused about the reality of difficulty in MMORPGs because they are perfectly happy being mediocre. I know that I am for the most part. Every once in a while I choose to push hard against the difficulty in MMORPGs, and they rarely disappoint. But in general, the time it takes to be elite is too high a price in MMORPGs compared to other gaming experiences for me. But for those that crave difficulty in that way, MMORPGs tend to deliver.
Then quit because it wasn't fun.
I hope he does a better job here.
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
How would you know if the "journey" is worth it if you don't in fact experience any of the end game content? I believe this the fundamental flaw in your article. You never get to endgame, so how would you know if the process of getting there is worth it or not?
Let's be frank, getting to the "endgame" of DAoC (which I will consider getting to lvl 50 and RR3) may take casual gameplay every other day for a couple of weeks...
I didn't want to comment of this bs again, but the fact that first part of this article is you basically sticking up for your laziness is just mind boggling. Instead of taking honest criticism from your last article and building upon that, you again talk down upon a game you spent minimal time getting to know and then go to say that people simply don't understand the point of these articles.... Laughable.
WoW patch 2.3. Increased XP gains, easier leveling, built in quest markers and sparkly objectives.
That started the downfall.
Back to MMOs, what you seem to be saying is the difficulty all lies in the top end play, well that means everything up to top end has got easier, which is what I am saying. I am sure you realise many MMOs don't have raids, indeed they don't even have PvP. "Top level" content these days is as likely to be dailies as it is anything that is difficult.
If you focus on wanting difficulty, you can definitely find it in MMORPGs. As you put it, in general.
Here are some links, mind you I would be the first to say "don't believe the pundits", make up your own mind. I leave you to have the last post on this if you wish:
Mainstream Video Games Have Become Too Easy - Gamer Professionals (gamerpros.co)
Are Games Getting Too Easy? (whatculture.com)
Easy modes are too easy nowadays Gaming News (gamestogather.org)
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Back when was i shopping i gave tera a test drive which turned into a fairly long road trip but in the end the super easy unbelievably stupidness of combat/leveling was a killer. Started a new toon and halfway through the first zone, i had to skip the next 2 or 3 ZONES!!! to make chit relevant again.
I mean i get that easy makes more money, however in this situation it almost feels disgruntled in that suits screamed to developer make it more like wow, same thing which killed EQ2, so dev was like "you want want easy? here's your fucking easy assholes" and players pay the price for yet another mmorpg ruined by idiocy.