Massively Malygris Online Games

[Andy Chalk]

Massively Malygris Online Games

Andy Chalk would really enjoy MMOGs if they weren't jam-packed full of jerks.

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[John Funk]

QQ MORE NOOB

 

[ravensshade]

actually i found that disappointment as well rule of thumb for most of my mmo expeditions don't except role playing (not even on a role playing server...). The only exclusion to this would be lotro which actually had a decent/good role playing going. I have yet to meet any jerks and socials interactions are usually quite decent. (Once again as long as you don't except role playing.)

so to keep it short in my opinion mmo's work the best if you think of it as killing monsters with a group.

 

[dnadns]

Sad, but true. I think my only true role playing experience that was actually really good was back ago some time when MUDs were still popular. I wonder where all those players went as they were pretty articulate and good fun most of the time.

Maybe it's just one of those forgotten arts that vanished with the use of language (I mean the real thing) in online games.

 

[Larhanya]

Sadly, a lot of what you have to say about MMO players is true. Now get a significant female in your life to try an MMO with some sort of voice chat and see how "jerks" turn into something much more sinister.

I think that the key to getting the DnD experience, including the role playing flavouring if that's your thing, is to try and get a few friends, family members, etc to play with you. That's how my husband got me hooked on MMOs. After we got married and he discovered that I was really a gamer waiting for a game to play, he got me hooked on RPGs. Then he suggested (as I'm sure was his plan all along) that we needed a game to play together. I wasn't interested in playing _against_ him (touchy feely cooperative girly gamer that I am) so games that involved, as you say, dealing as much damage to the other guy/gal as possible were not on the menu.

So he slyly suggested MMOs. We tried a couple of games in open free-to-play preview but settled eventually on Asheron's Call. We've since moved on to Dungeons and Dragons Online, and have enjoyed our time there. My sister has been recruited to join us on our adventuring and while we might not roleplay it up all the time, we enjoy ourselves, taking things slowly or quickly as we desire.

If we need help, the massively multi playerbase is still there to add to our parties. But due to much of what you've said above (and my own weird online shyness), we don't usually avail ourselves of that help.

That said, shy or not, there is deep down a part of me that still wistfully imagines that perfect full party of roleplaying adventurers to join with as we take down a dragon or explore a new landscape...

 

[Krakyn]

very high hopes for Runes of Magic.

Don't. I played it up until level 18, actually, with both classes. It's all hack and slash. People spam the chat constantly and act like dicks on the American Servers, so I went over to the European ones. It was better, but the gameplay was "Collect ten of this, deliver a message to this guy." Just...boring. And the only reason to team up is to take on a boss, and you can respawn those whenever you want, so no challenge in just saying "Anybody want to kill ?" and finishing it in a couple minutes.

I can't play MMOs, I guess.

 

[DirkGently]

That about sums up my experiences with MMOs whenever I go in alone. I've had pleasant experiences when I go in with friends or manage to get lucky and find a group of not-crazy regular players, usually from a group of people I already know online. I've had some good times with people when they actually want to talk, but I've also had instances where the only thing that was discussed was people telling me how to play my class, and telling everyone *else* how to play their class. When everyone clearly has been playing for around forty levels. Not years.

 

[Keane Ng]

QQ MORE NOOB

Yes, cry more, Andy.

 

[Doug]

Sad, but true. I think my only true role playing experience that was actually really good was back ago some time when MUDs were still popular. I wonder where all those players went as they were pretty articulate and good fun most of the time.

Maybe it's just one of those forgotten arts that vanished with the use of language (I mean the real thing) in online games.

Indeed... its been my experience on the few MMO's I've tried. Getting a group together is a chore, and the results aren't that brilliant to be honest. Nope of the MMO's I've played have really gripped me enough with their world to get me really into a game. Guild wars did get me some of the way, but the factions campaign (I'd bought factions) was so dull.

I just hope someone invents an MMORPG not based around instanced questing - a social or RP one perhaps. That wierd and under published 'LOVE' one does look interesting, but because its apparently a one man project, getting information about it is stupidly hard. It seems to be about socialising and making stuff, but I have to wonder if it'll just end up the mess Second Life is.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=187451

 

[monalith]

god try flying around in eve when your part of a milita (caldari is doing the best so far screw you space french)still eve is full of dicks as well they just live in lowsec and get killed by bob and goonswarm

 

[Doug]

I guess the flaw in alot of MMO's is that they assume the bulk of players want to have social fun, instead of just being jerks to people (although why they don't just goto 4chan, I've no idea).

 

[Taniquel]

Personally I enjoy the instanced questing because it keeps the aforementioned jerks from PKing and avoids the lag time of having to wait while the area resets because someone else just killed the boss. I mostly play Guild Wars (all campaigns) for the fun of playing a game with friends.

I have to admit that I am suprised at how many people are still playing Aardwolf (cheers!) with all of the newer MMOs out now. If you want to play with some nice people that enjoy getting into the game, try a MUD!

 

[Doug]

Personally I enjoy the instanced questing because it keeps the aforementioned jerks from PKing and avoids the lag time of having to wait while the area resets because someone else just killed the boss.

True, true, but it makes the only area's that feel alive the NPC towns, and those towns tend to be static and dull without the other players.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I've told you Andy, City Of Heroes is the way to go. Dungeon Runners only has the amusing accents and the silly named items.

 

[Eri]

Sorry but that is what you get when you play a shitty MMO. Discount difficulty levels, FFXI has a great community. WoW has a split community of half retards, half decent people. I'm not going to say that in the ones I mentioned mean things will never occur. But not to the extent you mentioned.

 

[schneevs67]

I tried Runes of Magic and while it was ok for a free MMO the community was at least as bad if not worse than the WOW community on some servers. If it's free than it's open to everyone so therefore it is bound to attract a lot of immature people (including those who get banned from pay2play MMOs like WOW and others). I'd suggest giving LOTRO a try as I've found the community a lot more mature and helpful although you still do run across a few jerks (albeit a far less amount than most games).

 

[Fenixius]

I just hope someone invents an MMORPG not based around instanced questing - a social or RP one perhaps. That wierd and under published 'LOVE' one does look interesting, but because its apparently a one man project, getting information about it is stupidly hard. It seems to be about socialising and making stuff, but I have to wonder if it'll just end up the mess Second Life is.

I've told you Andy, City Of Heroes is the way to go. Dungeon Runners only has the amusing accents and the silly named items.

I've found the most fun in an MMO in City of Heroes. And surprisingly, the most fun I've had is in the roleplay. The costume editor is sufficent to create anything you really want. I've got such characters as your standard super-suited hero, a vampire, a tiefling warlock, an alien feline sky-pirate, an angel... I'm sure I have more. It's all possible through the character editor and the vague character classes that don't really specify the flavour of the character.

You don't play a Paladin, Holy Knight of the Order of whatever. You just grab a kind of character (tank, melee dps, ranged dps, controller, etc, etc), pick a general "origin", like Technology, or Mutation, or Magic, and look however the hell you like. It's freeform enough to play anything you like.

As long as you enjoy rp, City of Heroes is the way to go. It's still got dickheads playing it, but they're not as numerous as in most other games. The server I play on is Virtue, and that's where (I'm told) most of the cool rp people hang out.

Hope that helps people who're sick and tired of leetists in their MMO.

 

[Doug]

I just hope someone invents an MMORPG not based around instanced questing - a social or RP one perhaps. That wierd and under published 'LOVE' one does look interesting, but because its apparently a one man project, getting information about it is stupidly hard. It seems to be about socialising and making stuff, but I have to wonder if it'll just end up the mess Second Life is.

I've told you Andy, City Of Heroes is the way to go. Dungeon Runners only has the amusing accents and the silly named items.

I've found the most fun in an MMO in City of Heroes. And surprisingly, the most fun I've had is in the roleplay. The costume editor is sufficent to create anything you really want. I've got such characters as your standard super-suited hero, a vampire, a tiefling warlock, an alien feline sky-pirate, an angel... I'm sure I have more. It's all possible through the character editor and the vague character classes that don't really specify the flavour of the character.

You don't play a Paladin, Holy Knight of the Order of whatever. You just grab a kind of character (tank, melee dps, ranged dps, controller, etc, etc), pick a general "origin", like Technology, or Mutation, or Magic, and look however the hell you like. It's freeform enough to play anything you like.

As long as you enjoy rp, City of Heroes is the way to go. It's still got dickheads playing it, but they're not as numerous as in most other games. The server I play on is Virtue, and that's where (I'm told) most of the cool rp people hang out.

Hope that helps people who're sick and tired of leetists in their MMO.

I must admit, CoH's does look pretty nice - I've a few questioned, if you'd be so kind as to answer .

1) Is it grind heavy? I've heard that the missions can be very...samey...? Or is that out of date?

2) Is City of Heroes better or City of Villains? Or is it worth getting both? (and would I have to subscribe twice for that?)

 

[Fenixius]

I must admit, CoH's does look pretty nice - I've a few questioned, if you'd be so kind as to answer .

1) Is it grind heavy? I've heard that the missions can be very...samey...? Or is that out of date?

2) Is City of Heroes better or City of Villains? Or is it worth getting both? (and would I have to subscribe twice for that?)

Well, let's work backwards. Because.

You can get both CoH and CoV for ~$20 USD (total, not each) from the PlayNC website. And you only pay one subscription. There's not a terrific amount of inter-game stuff to do, though. A couple PvP areas, and of course the trans-dimensional Nightclub, Pocket D, is a noncombat zone for people from either side to hang out in. Aside from those, though, there's a sprinkling of missions which ask for people from either side, and it's all split in two.

That said, it really feels like one game, just divided. Getting the Good Vs Evil pack is what I'd recommend - It has both sides of the game, and you get some awesome bonusses to go with it, like a jump pack which makes travelling easier, and a Pocket D teleporter to save you a -lot- of running around.

Grind heavy? Well... to be honest, yeah, it's pretty much grindy. Gaining levels isn't a slow process in City of Heroes, but the missions do kinda take on a similar feeling after a while. There are story arcs and stuff, which are a bunch of fun, but the police radio/newspaper missions are pretty samey.

So I suppose it depends what you like. The game only has 50 levels, so it's not like you're going aaaaaall the way to 80 or 90 or even higher. There's a fairly strong encouragement to have lots of characters, which is all too easy to do when you've got really not a lot of limits on the kind of characters you can make. I know I have too many - I've got noone past 30 yet. But I've done a lot of roleplay, so it all balances out.

Hope that helps, Doug.