I feel that I must mention Progress Quest in this thread... An interesting, free MMORPG with a streamlined interface which I think is coded in Visual Basic...

Did I tell you about the hidden 3d-graphics mode?

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Original post by Man_with_a_Plan
They really are usually you sit there holding the run button for like 10 mins then you kill some monster that lacks any kind of A.I. Then you go back to the town then repeat. Zzzzzz.

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Yeah, this is exactly what keeps me away. Lag and the race of the status bars. Great, can''t wait.



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Just waiting for the mothership...

Its the level treadmills that do me in.

God I miss you classic UO... Remove Trammel and Feluccia, and I''ll play you again.

*huggles his UO*

I never played big house MMORPGs, but they have no justifications to make a boring game. They get a shitload of money, so they should spend at least half of the money for teh game (ie. hire more people, do more quests, events, enlarge the world, etc.).
Smaller MMORPGs, OTOH, don''t have the resources to add new content all the time, so they can get boring. That''s one of the problems we have, and I plan to change it (the first step was embedding a scripting language in our server, to make the quests creation easier).

I just don''t get the very premise - lets get thousands upon thousands of gamers together into one giant megaworld, have them come on as often as possible and....

(deep breath here)

break off into small teams and go beat up unimpressive AI monsters in gameplay that was old when NetHack was new.

Wow, its like Nethack and IRC rolled into one! omfg that''s incredible!

Yeah, I don''t like MMORPGs. Its not the MMO thats the problem, nor the RPG. I just don''t know who decided that the two things that needed to be merged were dungeon crawlers (which are traditionally for very small groups of players) and massive amounts of players.

Now, MMORTS or MMOFPS, I could try - but I''m too cheap to play those ones.

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Original post by Raduprv
I never played big house MMORPGs, but they have no justifications to make a boring game. They get a shitload of money, so they should spend at least half of the money for teh game (ie. hire more people, do more quests, events, enlarge the world, etc.).

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When I see trends like this I say "why make fille mignon when your customers will eat dog food?"

It''s like the old complaints of poor TV programs-- stop patronizing poor product and it will change!

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Just waiting for the mothership...

The only MMORPG I have ever played was runescape. I allways used to think that if I ever played an MMORPG I would become totaly addicted, but instead I ended up getting really bored really fast. It seemed like the most pointless game I had ever played. Then again I have heard it''s a pretty crappy MMORPG.

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Original post by Man_with_a_Plan
They really are usually you sit there holding the run button for like 10 mins then you kill some monster that lacks any kind of A.I. Then you go back to the town then repeat. Zzzzzz.

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I thought that''s what most RPGs were like?

Kidding aside, it sounds like they''re lacking the forward-driving element most offline RPGs seem to have - storyline.

I''ve not played any, though, so I don''t know how much that''s true. I hear at lot from players about their low-level stories, but it''s one of these things where you only get out as much as you want to put in; if you don''t take charge and decide what you want to do yourself, the role you want to take on, then you''re left just standing around asking "What''s next?"

(I''m going to try moving this from the Lounge to the Game Design forum in the hope that it''ll be more productive that way. My apologies if it doesn''t work. )

I''ve played 2 MMORPGs (Star Wars Galaxies, and City of Heros). I got both because friends had them and begged me to join so we could all play together, and because they did indeed look pretty appealing to me. (my friends also tried to drag me into a 3rd MMORPG, which I resisted)

SWG I loved for a month. I was thrilled to explore all the different areas. However, eventually I became disenchanted when I realized that nothing was really unique. There''s too much really to go into, but very suddenly, everything became bland to me. I quit playing almost immediately after, and never went back.

CoH I just began about a month ago. For 2 weeks I played it almost non-stop. Recently I''ve begun to feel a bit burnt out on it and so I''ve cut back significantly. However, unlike with SWG, I dont feel any desire to actually quit. I still have fun when I do play, I actually *enjoy* the manner of leveling, and there''s a number of stories involved that I''m eager to see how they pan out. As of now though, I''m just taking my time.

Definately though, I prefer the more dynamic, competetive, and skill-based type of gameplay found in online FPS''s. I played Tribes2 for over 3 years straight. (And I''d still be playing it if my new video card would handle it better).

I definitely agree with the original poster. Like a few others above I''m trying to change that as well.

There are two problems plaging the MMO industry as I see it:
a) real lack of continued content (as was stated above - the more successful they are, the more money they SHOULD have for content, writers, development, but the less they are ACTUALLY spending)

b) lack of innovation in interface.


Lets start with the second and go back to the first in a bit.

Right now with the way MMOs are scripted there are basically only 9 things you can do: kill, protect, collect, trade, deliver, combine, destroy, type text, or pilot a vehicle.

That''s it. Very very limiting. My wife plays a lot of mystery games like Nancy Drew, Uru and the like which arent online games, but have story-driven interfaces that are part of the environment and the game. One of the things that is needed to save MMMOs is more interaction with the actual gameworld via interfaces like computer control panels, bombs to diffuse, levers to switch on and off...i mean you can think of an infinite number of them and they all make the game much more immersive...which is the strength of an MMO. Living in the world.

Now the question of lack of content development. Games are a business and who wants to spend more money when you can deliver sub-par work and make millions? Well as evidenced by this thread those days are coming to an end. Players are expecting more and they need it to be interested.

Our team is taking a kitchen-sink approach. Sure everyone has projects that they say they have high aspirations to complete but indulge me. The only way MMOs are going to survive is to expand the content through interaction with the world and an expanded grouping of genres. MMOs like There and Second Life are taking interesting approaches to content already. Combine FPS with MMO with RPG and even RTS. Throw in vehicle driving. Throw in world building. Throw in crafting. And thats just the start. Make it all meaningful and dynamic.

There will always be a set group of people who like MMOs...but until the worlds get more lifelike and lifelike with a purpose, people will be discouraged to play them.