Quote:
Originally Posted by Sono_hito
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All i can cite is my personal experience. I left shortly after the PoP came out. I found that making things so easy, what i always called pandering to the players, was what killed it for me. Its started taking away what felt like the essense of the game. It also started making an already huge game a little unwieldy. And with player loads going down, it started devolving into the few "best" zones that had any players in them, leaving much of the world to feel empty.
While WoW did definately do a few things to streamline the whole experience, it made such a small accessable world that it always felt crowded. And with fast-travel the modis-operandi on such all already small world. As just a small thing, it made it feel too easy. Eventualy, with the ease of play and it being SO accessable, the large numbers of players turned things into the social game it is now. (imho) The expected MMO experience now, for most users that i poll personaly, is no longer that your playing a very challenging videogame that requires groups to compete. But to be something "experienced" (whatever the fuck that means). I watched a video on the "hooks" of games and why things like FarmVille works. It very quickly shows why games like WoW work. Not because they are a challenge, but because of their native competition between players as a social networking tool.
We, as real gamers, expect a challenge. Social connections between the challenge is very much a secondary thing. In so much as to be something that comes as a benefit of facing the challenges together. When end-game is reached, and all content is used up, the only part left is the social aspect. So for gamers looking for content/challenge, its hard to keep playing a game in which theres nothing new. And new players looking for a challenge cant play when the major user-base is high level and not playing the low content any longer. So a vicious loop occurs. Old players want more content but dont want to play the same thing over and over. New players want to play the content they have not seen before, but have no one to play with.
To solve this, a new MMO can be procured. But for people like us, the challenge just does not seem to be there. The experience is lost. We are looking for a challenge like we once saw and felt, but these new MMO's seem to be running off of the social base first, game challenge second. One of the games that ive seen circumvent this is Eve online. I played that game for 2 years and was still learning things. But to say its a wholetogether new experience is to underlay exactly what the game is. This can be a challenge to some of us that are looking for the experience we where missing from EQ. And in the end, while the game is fun. I found it ultimately lacking in that...essense (for lack of a word.
Vanguard was to be the sequel that we where looking for. But, if you followed that at any length, you know what happened to it. I lement this. As i for one could see what they where really trying to do. Which was make a game for people like us. If they had the needed DEV time and proper advertising. I really think that this game could have gone off. But as things stand, it had a faltering start and bad press. Which killed any chance it had. Which is really a shame.
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Well, if WOW is being played by my sister, everything is a lot clearer. Not to say WOW has anything wrong with it, but it's a lot friendlier than eq was in 1999! In 1999, things weren't exactly hard, we had friends, lots of friends. But the aim was different, the audience was different. Hmm. I don't think there's anything wrong with WOW going in a social direction. In fact, i think that's a great thing to see. We've seen a lot of that in EQ over the years. We've pointed to it and made it one of the reasons EQ was so great in 1999.
I think that when there're a lot of people playing things are easier in EQ. When you take the people away, things get a lot harder. I know I feel best in EQ when there're other people to help, other people to see, other people to remember in my thoughts. We're dependent on eachother, and when there's no one else to turn to, you're as good as dead in this game unless you can solo. But that ain't good enough anyway. This, like WOW, is an MMO. We need other people, not just to play the game, but to socially meld and make friends.