24th July 2004, 8:17 AM
EM, WW is before LttP, not after. After OoT and before LttP. :)
Online RPGs... I think I figured out part of why I don't care much for Diablo 2's multiplay. It isn't really a team game. You don't work together, usually. It's just a few people who happen to be in the game at the same time. What's the point? Just play single player, it's not too different...
Good online RPGs definitely should have a fun single player game, but they also should have a good team game. Diablo 2 doesn't really. Guild Wars, for instance, has a quite good one... that's the whole game, really, actually -- instanced zones... that's probably the biggest reason it isn't really a MMORPG. The only areas where people can come and go at will are the non-combat areas like towns and the meetingrooms in front of missions and stuff. All the combat areas are instanced, either for just you or for you and a party (PvP or PvE).
Normal MMORPGs definitely have a lot of things in them that chew up time. You have to level, and can't fall behind your friends, and all the rest... definitely problems in most of these games. WoW? It does a few things differently, sure, but at heart it definitely looks like a MMORPG. But in any game with levelling problems like that can't be totally avoided. It's certainly true in Diablo 2... I guess I have to mention Guild Wars again. What they are trying to do is make it so you don't have to do that. Levelling is de-emphasized, as is getting better loot... sure, you can get it and get many more abilities. But you can only ever have eight at a time and better armor and weapons and stuff gets stronger in a category but also becomes more specialized so that it has weaknesses as well. And at a certain point you stop getting more hitpoints... to make it so that people don't have to play too long before they're competent against anyone as long as they can use their abilities well.
Quests in MMORPGs, DJ? Yeah, they do often kind of stink, don't they... I know the quests in Ryzom were idiotic. Kill monsters, craft or forage things, collect items from monsters, look for certain monster types and kill them... I didn't bother with them and I don't think many others did either. I know WoW is trying to be a lot better in this category but you'll still have to do a lot of quests of questionable difficulty and interest to keep getting XP. Oh well, it's the way of the genre...
Still, the few times that Ryzom actually was running at a playable framerate it was entertaining. Not good enough to be worth paying much for, but not awful... if they could fix the lag and performance it'd be better. But that game has a lot of issues they have to work through. :)
Online RPGs... I think I figured out part of why I don't care much for Diablo 2's multiplay. It isn't really a team game. You don't work together, usually. It's just a few people who happen to be in the game at the same time. What's the point? Just play single player, it's not too different...
Good online RPGs definitely should have a fun single player game, but they also should have a good team game. Diablo 2 doesn't really. Guild Wars, for instance, has a quite good one... that's the whole game, really, actually -- instanced zones... that's probably the biggest reason it isn't really a MMORPG. The only areas where people can come and go at will are the non-combat areas like towns and the meetingrooms in front of missions and stuff. All the combat areas are instanced, either for just you or for you and a party (PvP or PvE).
Normal MMORPGs definitely have a lot of things in them that chew up time. You have to level, and can't fall behind your friends, and all the rest... definitely problems in most of these games. WoW? It does a few things differently, sure, but at heart it definitely looks like a MMORPG. But in any game with levelling problems like that can't be totally avoided. It's certainly true in Diablo 2... I guess I have to mention Guild Wars again. What they are trying to do is make it so you don't have to do that. Levelling is de-emphasized, as is getting better loot... sure, you can get it and get many more abilities. But you can only ever have eight at a time and better armor and weapons and stuff gets stronger in a category but also becomes more specialized so that it has weaknesses as well. And at a certain point you stop getting more hitpoints... to make it so that people don't have to play too long before they're competent against anyone as long as they can use their abilities well.
Quests in MMORPGs, DJ? Yeah, they do often kind of stink, don't they... I know the quests in Ryzom were idiotic. Kill monsters, craft or forage things, collect items from monsters, look for certain monster types and kill them... I didn't bother with them and I don't think many others did either. I know WoW is trying to be a lot better in this category but you'll still have to do a lot of quests of questionable difficulty and interest to keep getting XP. Oh well, it's the way of the genre...
Still, the few times that Ryzom actually was running at a playable framerate it was entertaining. Not good enough to be worth paying much for, but not awful... if they could fix the lag and performance it'd be better. But that game has a lot of issues they have to work through. :)
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