Poll: What is most important in an MMO

[jesskit]

Hey, so I was just reading a post over on the Rift forums that was basicly a guy saying Rift's last beta was awful cause it tried to make you take more time during leveling. He claims that all he wants from an MMO is the ability to get to top lvl as fast as possible for the "endgame". I really don't understand this kind of play. I love RPG's and especially MMO's for getting me lost in a world, for making me care about the lore and the people around me, real or npc. Why do some people see questing or leveling as simply an inconvenience? Also it seems that "endgame" becomes stagnent after a little while until the next raid comes out which is quickly beaten. Off my main point a little but I also dont understand the overemphesis on pvp in many MMO's. Why create this amazing world and all the quests, for the best rewards to be from pvp (im looking at you WAR), and to essentially box the players into pvp area's even in open world.

Anywho rant over. Hopefully some of you escapists can shed some more light on this.

 

[Random Fella]

Being non-subscription... You should only have to pay once.

OT: finding a way to entertain in an open world. Having fun is all that matters, if you play a game just to farm stuff for one item that you can probably find better of anyway it's not fun.

 

[Avantar45]

Most important thing to me is free PvP. Adds a layer of tension to the game and makes you always more wary and more likely to group up.

 

[Avantar45]

huh sorry for the double post... Bit of a problem posting I guess...

 

[Klitch]

Being non-subscription... You should only have to pay once.

That'd have to be my answer too, even though it's not an option. I refuse to pay a subscription fee for a game, so I haven't played a MMO since Star Wars Galaxies. My fondest memory of that game was the role playing so I guess that fits under your entertainment in an open world option.

 

[Lusty]

Had the most fun in WoW in the endgame raiding. The 40 man raids in vanilla WoW were epic.

Levelling was a massive grind from lvl 40 onwards though, no idea what it's like these days since they sped it up.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Endgame is by far most important. I shouldn't have to grind just to get all my skills and abilities. I want to be playing the majority of my time with all my skills and abilities (playing the REAL game) not doing boring quests to level up. There is just not enough content in MMOs to take you hundreds of hours just to reach max level. What I mean by that is that MMOs stretch themselves to thin and they are going to throw boring and repetitive quests at you to keep you playing longer, pretty much Extra Credits' episode on the Skinner Box. You can design better and more interesting quests for maxed out characters than you can low level ones. One of the reasons why console online multiplayer is so popular is because those games don't take long to get all your stuff, and you can always play them with friends because if someone just started playing console multiplayer game, they can play with a veteran player. In MMOs, everyone is doing different quests because they are at different levels until endgame. Imagine if a few friends got say the latest and greatest shooter and they convinced you to buy it; you get it and ask them to play with you, but they're like we are at level 50 or endgame so we're doing all this high level stuff that you can't do until you do all these quests to level up. MMOs should focus on getting people to continue playing them just by having great gameplay instead of using cheap Skinner Box mechanics to keep people playing.

And, MMOs should have no monthly fee whatsoever. I don't mind paying a fee to keep the servers up and running, for updates, and more content. But don't charge me a monthly fee, charge me based on how much I play. If I'm paying $15 a month, I feel obligated to play the game as much as possible. However, if I'm paying on based on how much I play, I can take a week or two off and play some other game and not feel like I'm wasting half my monthly fee.

 

[jesskit]

I can understand wanting to play with friends and lvl difference making that hard, what i dont understand is calling the "endgame" the real game. isnt it all the real game, because that is the game your playing.

 

[danp164]

Dont know if im alone on this but I REALLY liked WAR for its PVP element and wish their more games like it. There was nothing quite like going through a zone, feeling like a bit of pvp, talking on general chat and within a few minutes their being 20-30 of you off to hammer and order keep. Also the fact you could pvp from the start and if you wanted level through nothing but PVP.

I mean there are plenty of MMO's that let you only do PVE, whats wrong with games geared for only PVP?

Shame WAR was buggy, glitched to hell and release rushed though.... I liked that game.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I can understand wanting to play with friends and lvl difference making that hard, what i dont understand is calling the "endgame" the real game. isnt it all the real game, because that is the game your playing.

Once I have all my skills, I can then employ higher level strategies since more options are open to me. I want the majority of my play time to be with all my skills so I can take on quests/bosses that require good knowledge of the game's systems and force me to use higher level strategies. Quests and bosses that are designed for high level players are just more complex than low level questing where you have to collect X of that. Image in COD if you had to get 1000 kills to be able to play on the next map or playing 50 hours to get a P90 or playing 100 hours to get that perk you been waiting to get, that's basically what most MMOs do.

 

[danp164]

Oh and one other thing, accessability. Dont get me wrong we all love the nice shiny bright bloom effects, the overdone shadows and the particular glow of a peice of gear BUT. Some of us dont play on supercomputers, some of us have crap computers, some of us even use laptops. Aion, RIFT I may have considered playing if I didnt have to upgrade my computer to run the login page -_-

 

[NuclearPenguin]

The way up to max level needs to be just as fun as the max level.

 

[Candidus]

I hate the levelling process in most MMOs. It's long, boring, I don't care about the story... Worst of all, the progress is transitory in nature, so the items you're using along the way aren't rewarding to own or usually attractive to look at, and the things you're doing are irrelevant to everyone but you (while only being relevant to you because you `have` to do them). Playing an MMO usually involves getting no sense of progress or worth out of what you're doing for a very, very long time.

Worst culprits, WoW and Lineage 2.
Best exceptions, Guild Wars 1 (not technically an MMO), EVE Online (depending).

EDIT: As far as I'm concerned, there should be several modes you can choose from at character generation in all MMOs. A mode for those who don't give a damn about the levelling process, which reduces the length of that process to a sort of 'tutorial' level of a few days ("I'll probably subscribe to your game for a few years, if I could only be 85 in a few days.")... and at the other end of the scale, a mode for those who think a long, dragging levelling process is somehow worthwhile or even "hardcore"- as if open PvE has ever been a measure of skill. You know the sort. Infinite patience for drudgery.

Everyone would be happy, except for those who think everybody should level as they do.

Looking forward to GW2 and Tera. Particularly GW2. Looks like it's going to kick the MMO scenes' ass- not that I'm calling WoW killer. WoW will die of natural causes over a decade or two, there's no way to decimate a loyal player base of 10 million in a single year.

 

[Gyrefalcon]

Multiple choices of action. I don't have much patience for games that are basically "beat things up" repetitively. And it has to be interesting even if you are the only one on at the time or one of a few. These are the reasons I prefer playing Oblivion over City of Heroes.

 

[RollingThunder]

I don't want MMOs that are grindfest, enough is enough, I want to explore, I want to meet people, I want some stories!

 

[jesskit]

hehe i love that picture rollingthunder, it is soo true, i do tend to prefer to play more like the top one

 

[Chibz]

For me: Having something OTHER than the generic, awful MMORPG combat.

 

[jesskit]

Once I have all my skills, I can then employ higher level strategies since more options are open to me. I want the majority of my play time to be with all my skills so I can take on quests/bosses that require good knowledge of the game's systems and force me to use higher level strategies. Quests and bosses that are designed for high level players are just more complex than low level questing where you have to collect X of that. Image in COD if you had to get 1000 kills to be able to play on the next map or playing 50 hours to get a P90 or playing 100 hours to get that perk you been waiting to get, that's basically what most MMOs do.

Here is a further question I guess, would you care about leveling, if you had all the skills from the start and there was some other point to the quests

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Once I have all my skills, I can then employ higher level strategies since more options are open to me. I want the majority of my play time to be with all my skills so I can take on quests/bosses that require good knowledge of the game's systems and force me to use higher level strategies. Quests and bosses that are designed for high level players are just more complex than low level questing where you have to collect X of that. Image in COD if you had to get 1000 kills to be able to play on the next map or playing 50 hours to get a P90 or playing 100 hours to get that perk you been waiting to get, that's basically what most MMOs do.

Here is a further question I guess, would you care about leveling, if you had all the skills from the start and there was some other point to the quests

I'm not opposed to leveling but the main aspect of a MMO shouldn't be leveling, it should be playing at max level. Since leveling wouldn't take forever, you have more incentive to try other classes. A couple of my friends have played WOW off and on for about five years, neither played WOW hardcore but they did play hardcore for a month here and there. Neither of them reached max level in WOW, that is a problem, they never got to experience endgame.

Another example is Dungeon Fighter Online, which is just a 2D brawler. When the game came out, it took so long to reach max level it was ridiculous. The game is just a 2D beat'em up, and it probably took as much time to reach max level as it takes to play probably 2 single player RPGs. Dungeon Fighter Online just doesn't have the content to justify the length it took to reach max level. Now, it takes less time but it still takes 2 weeks to reach max level. If the game Scott Pilgrim took 2 weeks to get everything, there'd be far too much grinding involved.

People play online console games like COD, Assassin's Creed, Bad Company, Halo, etc. because they really like the gameplay. They aren't playing to get to the next level. MMOs should focus on creating gameplay that people will keep coming back to instead of getting people to keep playing to get the next best thing.