2 years later... the almost sad state of MMOs in the new era

Cybsled

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FFXIV hit a good note with crafting, IMO. Some of the BiS stuff can be made with crafting, but you need really good crafting gear and strategy to craft it at high quality. Otherwise, you can get rare materials and make cool glamours/transmog items.

It's also fun. They're not the first MMO to want to make crafting a type of combat (I recall Brad wanting to do that with Vanguard, no clue if that ever made its way ingame since I never played that), but they pull it off really well.
 

Ravishing

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Yeah... MMO's are over. The evolution of MMO's, fueled by money and the audience, has taken it beyond a time where both the creators and players were the D&D, RPG, etc. breed. It's spoiled until time can go full circle again. It's unfortunate that people will not experience gaming as many of us did. We'll probably have to experience a few different era's before MMO's are a thing again if ever.

I am willing to bet you never see a successful "traditional" MMO again.
And by Traditional, I'm talking a majority of the game is hand-crafted PvE content.

However, "MMORPG" can still evolve and be "something else".
For example, the movie "Ready Player One" is a type of thing I see happening some day. A massive "social" game where you can roleplay as whatever you want and play all types of games, and improve/dress up your avatar.

Just imagine Facebook as a game basically.
 
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Locnar

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I have not invested my time in a MMO since EQ/Shadowbane/Vangaurd. That era. Except for emulators of the previous mentioned games. Glad I did not since all of you over the years confirmed they were all shit with no staying power.
 

Kriptini

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Archeage didn't fail because they tried to cater to a wider audience, they failed because of lack of meaningful content, stupid nerfs (hur hur, let's equalized vehicle speeds so we can sell faster vehicles later, then nerf them after people buy those! ), and blatant pay2win gameplay mechanics mixed with typical Korean MMO RNG bullshit.

All of those things came way after when they swung too wide and missed everyone (aka update 1.0); ArcheAge was dead long before equalized vehicle speeds and P2W.
 
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Cybsled

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The whole crafting / boost quality was pay2win and that was day 1. “Your shit has a high chance to blow up unless you buy our cash shop items, in which case it still has a chance to blow up but slightly lower!”
 
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yerm

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P2W mechanics are more devastating the more persistent your game world is. Mmos are not hamstrung because "kids these days" nonsense. They are not built to capitalize in the current trending marketplace, and that's on the grown ass men. Even before cash shops many were crippled by RMT and paying to win, as you either deadlock the end game with no drop loot and barriers for entry / catching up, or you leave it open and people use their wallet. A moba for example doesn't have to suffer this problem, and ones that had cashed in on p2w (like lol) stopped it.
 
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Ravishing

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P2W mechanics are more devastating the more persistent your game world is. Mmos are not hamstrung because "kids these days" nonsense. They are not built to capitalize in the current trending marketplace, and that's on the grown ass men. Even before cash shops many were crippled by RMT and paying to win, as you either deadlock the end game with no drop loot and barriers for entry / catching up, or you leave it open and people use their wallet. A moba for example doesn't have to suffer this problem, and ones that had cashed in on p2w (like lol) stopped it.

I've been playing LoL for almost it's entire lifespan (and still do), when was it P2W?
 
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Punko

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The gaming industry has gone through a huge talent drain, while they have far superior technology available then 10-20 years ago, they don't manage to make games as good as they were back then.

Why don't we have a new starcraft? Where is the new EQ?

The industry has 3 kinds of people left: SJW's, Koticks, and nobodies that take their orders from the former two.

Lets hope aliens nuke E3.
 
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Borzak

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The consumer base is not the same. Got to have rewards now. Got to have skins and "micro" transactions and such. Anything they dn't get in the first 30 seconds it's on the internet and streams. Can be totally mapped out from start to finish. Downtime in game? More like move to another game time.
 
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Punko

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The consumer base is not the same. Got to have rewards now. Got to have skins and "micro" transactions and such. Anything they dn't get in the first 30 seconds it's on the internet and streams. Can be totally mapped out from start to finish. Downtime in game? More like move to another game time.

The consumer base still consists of many different groups, each with their own interests.

It just happens to be that the younger audience that wants to play twitch based games with instant gratification and low overall investment is the biggest of these groups, so we get a fuckton of games that tries to appeal to this group, while other genres are completely ignored, despite a lack of competition on those markets.

The gaming industry, and especially its design and marketing divisions, seem quite immature still. Thinking a game that did well in China will do well in the U.S. displays a lack of awareness when it comes to the cultural differences which determines how players and communities receive a game and behave in it.

Companies investing resources to make a game that appeals to all audiences in most of the world are absolutely retarded, which doesn't prevent Blizzard from trying.

Games like Battletech are a guaranteed hit, because despite their flaws and low budget, they are the best (only) product in their segments, which further supports the suggested lack of maturity in the industry.
 
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zombiewizardhawk

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But if your game can only be played hardcore, then it will only have a hardcore population, and that means a crash and burn type game. 250000 subscribers on the first month, 10000 the next.

How is that any different from literally every MMO to come out in the past 15 years?
 
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Pharone

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All I want is for someone to make a new EQ. That's it. I don't care about the other shit out there. I don't need twitch game play, nor do I need face rolling across my keyboard button mashing mayhem.

I just want mobs that follow the same game mechanics as the players (can be mezzed, snared, rooted, charmed, feared, etc), and a game world with content where pulling and crowd control is a thing.

Also, thanks to the /pick system from current EQ, the "instance runs" game design can go die a horrible death in Hell where it belongs. Create detailed elaborate huge dungeons with multiple campable locations, and use /pick to choose another pick of that zone if the camps you want are taken.

And, while we're at it, because of the /pick design, put the damned loot back on the rare mobs in dungeons for crying out loud. Fuck that whole Chuckee Cheese prize booth shit that all MMORPGs have today. Seriously, fuck getting tickets, tockens, credits, what ever that you take back to town to hand in for gear. That's horribad game design. If the bastard back in town has the best gear in the game world that he will only trade to you in exchange for proof that you have gone to the content THAT REQUIRES THAT GEAR IN THE FIRST PLACE multiple fucking times, then kill him and take the gear. Fuck going to the dungeon a hundred times. The gear isn't in the dungeon... Its in the prize booth!!!

But... I digress... anyway. Somebody wake me up when we get a new MMORPG worth playing.
 
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Ravishing

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I like the influx of <10 post count posters we've been seeing lately.

Is this organic (from progression servers maybe?) or is it mostly previous posters making alt accounts, or banned people making new accounts?
 

Punko

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Try asking them about vaccines or the earth being flat.
 
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Pharone

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I like the influx of <10 post count posters we've been seeing lately.

Is this organic (from progression servers maybe?) or is it mostly previous posters making alt accounts, or banned people making new accounts?
I was Bilbo Faggins on the rerolled.org or rererolled.org or what ever it was at the time. I lose track. I haven't been on the FoH forums posting since that whole domain went away. I couldn't figure out if my account had been rolled back in to this forum or not, so I just made a new account. Besides, I have no idea what email I used back in the day for Bilbo Faggins.
 

Mick

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I think that having player/custom run servers is they way to go. Hosted by the developer and you modify the game world as you see fit. All characters get locked to that server and are not allowed to transfer.
 
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Pharone

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I think that having player/custom run servers is they way to go. Hosted by the developer and you modify the game world as you see fit. All characters get locked to that server and are not allowed to transfer.
This! Absolutely this!
 

Punko

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I think that having player/custom run servers is they way to go. Hosted by the developer and you modify the game world as you see fit. All characters get locked to that server and are not allowed to transfer.

Those just split up the playerbase.

Splitting up the potential audience should be done during design, not while creating events for a live game.
 

Ravishing

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Those just split up the playerbase.

Splitting up the potential audience should be done during design, not a while creating events for a live game.

The only way it works is if servers are NOT locked and you can transfer character to ANY of them to play that ruleset.
Make character progression something global, not able to be affected by the ruleset.

Nobody wants 1000s of different servers each with a piddling of a player base.
Social is what makes games explode these days, make it easy to socialize, don't cut it off.
 

Punko

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The only way it works is if servers are NOT locked and you can transfer character to ANY of them to play that ruleset.
Make character progression something global, not able to be affected by the ruleset.

Nobody wants 1000s of different servers each with a piddling of a player base.
Social is what makes games explode these days, make it easy to socialize, don't cut it off.

Server transfers are one of the terrible modern age things that have ruined the importance of social interaction in MMO's.