MMORPG's aimed at children more fun than the mainstream?

[Blindrooster]

I'm not the most Hardcore MMO player, but with Star Wars Galaxies going offline I've been testing out a few games to get my mmorpg fix till TOR comes out. (Excited for TOR but it helped kill galaxies to the dismay of many) Here is what I found;

I started with the obvious WOW, which I had only watched my friends play and never tried myself until recently. I found it to be quite the grindfest, which put me to sleep as I don't want to devote months of my life just to be good at pvp or be a part of a raid.... (I know galaxies had alot of grinding too, but at least their were proffesions that negated it and made it more of a social experience. Also I had good friends on galaxies and good God the WOW community was rough....)

I then looked to steam and tried Champions Online. It's F2P so i guess it isn't fair to say it feels out-dated, but it also felt bland and the world sort of lifeless..... Foresaken World (also F2P on Steam) also gave me this feel.....

I don't even want to talk about EVE..... I can see how some would find it fun, it's just not for me.

Read up on Age of Conan, sounds okay didn't even think it was worth the download as I didnt see much that seperated it from the rest.

While almost out of hope, I decided to branch out a little more to try and save myself from drowning in the vast the sea of bland MMO's and downloaded wizarding 101. That kid's game there used to be a commercial on tv for... It was a blast! it was the first time I felt like dishing out dinero for an mmo besides galaxies. It was entertaining, funny, and plays like a mix between Yugi-Oh and Final Fantasy.... The battle system is unique and fun. I thought I was on to something, and after i beat all of the F2P areas of Wizarding 101 I decided to try another MMORPG aimed at kids.

As an avid Star Wars fan, I tried the Clone Wars Adventures online. I'm sad to say i was reluctant to give it a shot simply because of it's quirky tv commercial; (Remember Kids, ask your parents before playing! I'm old enough to purchase alcohol, I'm old enough to download this, thank you Obi-Wan.)It also was very fun and refreshing! More so than the WOW clones or other MMO's I tried.

Don't believe me? Try some for yourself! It's free after all. (I personaly have nothing better to do game playing wise until TOR Releases.)

So I'm just curious if anyone else has had a similiar experience? Are young kids getting all the creativity in the MMORPG industry? Anyone else believe that they're as if not more fun than the mainstream games aimed at older individuals?

 

[Songbird-O]

Here's the thing.

A lot of older gamers tend to think that they need to play more mature games. However, the word "mature" is often translated as "gritty and overly-serious." And if a game (or anything for that matter) is serious every single moment, it usually loses my interest or becomes hilariously inept due to the fact that it takes everything more seriously than I do.

Games need diversity. In real life, no one is scowly and serious 24/7. And if they are, they probably won't want to play games very often. People make mistakes, tell jokes, and have fun, while still having time to take things seriously. Games that are written well in this regard can engage the player in many ways, notably with fun gameplay and fun writing that doesn't get tiring. People who don't have the attention span or the desire to listen to long wordy stories or hours of grinding, be they kids or adults, tend toward these games.

I personally don't understand why anyone would want the wordy self serious games. I play Runescape, and while there is some grinding involved, I am smart enough to do it minimally, and the world has a lot of character and many fun quests and silly quirks. Where it's aimed, it cannot say. I just know that the writers are not afraid do make a quest that centers around militant penguins.