I thought this article was interesting. With the gameplay descriptions I''ve seen, I''ve never been attracted to MMORPGs. It has alway seemed to me that the leveling up mechanisms (chopping wood, mining, tailoring, etc) were very lame, and combat, because of latency problems, could never be all that sophisticated. What do you think? Have you played MMORPGs? Is the article off base? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

I think he was generous. I''ve played EQ and it was worse than I can describe. A cross eyed hippo could make a better game using only his feet and a ball of yarn

Wavy,
Having played UO since its release (I just quit last month) I can say that they guy is pretty much right.

There are some issues that newer MMORPGs are trying to correct, such as latency (broadband only games?) and richer interaction with NPCs/PCs. One game that I have a particular interest in is
Horizons.

Of course the Venusoft team has a huge interest in this as we are working on the design of our MMORPG (no web site yet).

Something else that may change this genre of games is the volunteer game master issue... whew... lot''s of debate on that and a court hearing to boot!

Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

Check Out: GreatShot.com

None of the new crop of MMORPGs are facing the single, main problem that they have ALL had so far:
They take too much of your time.


People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~

quote: Original post by MadKeithV

None of the new crop of MMORPGs are facing the single, main problem that they have ALL had so far:
They take too much of your time.

I wonder what the answer to this is? You''d have to shorten or get rid of advancement, it seems. That cuts out a major motivation for play for many.



--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

the solution is simple: get rid of leveling completely. However make sure that characters can change themselves without it taking more than a few seconds (like being able to change character class almost at will). Make combat more interesting and add political struggle between factions of players.

The solution would lie in a system where any advancement is not based on the amount of time you spend playing, and you can still have fun when only playing an hour a day.


People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~