30th August 2010, 1:37 PM
Well that's the big flaw in MMOs. I'm starting to think that the entire concept of an MMO is doomed from the start, and we should all just go back to "small party" online RPGs like Phantasy Star Online. You just can't change the entire world without screwing everyone else on the server out of that experience, past and future players, and that's not acceptable. You can "instance" places, but any ol' online game can already do that, that's nothing special. There's that recent "phasing" thing, but now how is it really online? The world changes for you and ONLY for you, but talking to others it's clear they're very literally not in the same WORLD you are in any more, sometimes you can't even see them until they "catch up" in the story. I really don't see the upcoming Knights of the Old Republic changing that basic fact any time soon.
In the end, what exactly DOES one get out of the "massive" part anyway? Can anyone tell me that? It's not like you do much more than pass BY anyone you aren't in a party with. Maybe you can impress them with all your neat fake stuff, and there's that big arse "online economy", but seriously, who gets joy out of pretending to run an eBay business? I say just make these things "standard online", and then you can change the world all you want with your party of friends. Plus, the "persistent world" element need not apply (since as I mentioned, that part really doesn't DO anything when the world remains static forever anyway, Animal Crossing it ain't).
Of course it all comes down to how even the most "casual friendly" MMOs are designed from the ground up to waste as much of your time as possible. Leveling up takes weeks to months even at the quickest, and from there it's all about gathering better and better full sets of new shiny armor and weapons. Sure there's leveling and gear upgrading in standard RPGs, but it's set up so even in the most "grindy" single player games it's all somewhat seamless with the adventure, you feel like you're doing something, and it only takes about a week or two at MOST to max out your character and get the nicest gear you can. No matter the designer's claims, if every single new dungeon depends entirely on getting silly rare drops from the previous one just to stand a chance (on 40 people), then it's wasting my time.
In the end, what exactly DOES one get out of the "massive" part anyway? Can anyone tell me that? It's not like you do much more than pass BY anyone you aren't in a party with. Maybe you can impress them with all your neat fake stuff, and there's that big arse "online economy", but seriously, who gets joy out of pretending to run an eBay business? I say just make these things "standard online", and then you can change the world all you want with your party of friends. Plus, the "persistent world" element need not apply (since as I mentioned, that part really doesn't DO anything when the world remains static forever anyway, Animal Crossing it ain't).
Of course it all comes down to how even the most "casual friendly" MMOs are designed from the ground up to waste as much of your time as possible. Leveling up takes weeks to months even at the quickest, and from there it's all about gathering better and better full sets of new shiny armor and weapons. Sure there's leveling and gear upgrading in standard RPGs, but it's set up so even in the most "grindy" single player games it's all somewhat seamless with the adventure, you feel like you're doing something, and it only takes about a week or two at MOST to max out your character and get the nicest gear you can. No matter the designer's claims, if every single new dungeon depends entirely on getting silly rare drops from the previous one just to stand a chance (on 40 people), then it's wasting my time.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)