Tom Chick is one of the (if not the) most influential video game writers out there. He also doesn’t like MMOs very much. This is a problem!
He lays out five reasons why not here. You should go read. When you come back, I have some helpful suggestions!
Problem one: Subscription fees
Well, um, not every MMO charges subscription fees. Guild Wars lets you play as much as you want once you buy the box. MMOs for teens like Maple Story and Runequest pioneered the model of “playing for free until you get addicted, then pay a little more”. Games like Puzzle Pirates let you pitch in a dollar or whatever when you need to. This isn’t an unsolved problem. What is an unsolved problem is that perception that subscription fees imply a level of quality in craftmanship, and “free products” are cut-rate. This is driven largely because at the moment, that’s how the market shakes out. After all, World of Warcraft charges a subscription fee, therefore, statistically speaking, all MMOs do! Right?
Problem two: Why do I have to install Omen again?
For those of you not being drug by your nose through World of Warcraft raiding, Omen is the name of a third party threat meter used to ensure your aggro management is precisely where it should be. Aggro is a key part of the Holy Trinity that to date every DikuMUD (muds descending from Diku code bases, as Raph Koster’s magisterial analysis describes), and the core combat mechanic hasn’t really changed that much in the intervening decades. You takes the beats, you heals the beats, you mitigate the beats, you spread the beats around. It’s all about the beats. Unless, you know, you fight other players, since other players are usually immune to taunting unless it takes place on message boards. Even in DikuCombat, PvP breaks the whole aggro paradigm. And there *are* other combat systems that have been introduced. They’re rare, and usually get roundly trounced in the marketplace because people enjoy the safe, secure embrace of take/heal/deal beats. Ultima Online, for example, is entirely apart from the whole DikuMUD aggro mechanic – it has aggro, but it’s dependent on lots of bizarre things such who hit what when and whether you had a bard and the phase of the moon and whatever. But, if you play World of Warcraft, that’s what you’re going to learn, since, statistically speaking, all MMOs are actually World of Warcraft.
Problem three: Why are there so many goddamn buttons on my screen?
Because you’re playing a Warlock? Because you’re raiding? The core World of Warcraft UI is actually pretty simple. It’s player-crafted addons that hoist it aloft into a F-16 HUD. But the real core problem is the button-mashing that, again, DikuCombat is dependent on. It’s an artifact of MMOs being client-server systems at their core; more interactive combat such as Oblivion’s sword slashing imposes a huge tax on latency and percieved responsiveness. There have been hacks (such as Age of Conan’s “autoattacking into space” directional attacks) but, in the main, World of Warcraft uses the same tried and true DikuCombat which means you’re going to be pressing the 1, 2 and 3 keys on your Rogue over and over. And statistically speaking, all World of Warcraft players are in fact Rogues (soon to be Death Knights).
Problem four: Why is there a line to kill Sauron?
World of Warcraft is, by its very nature, intentionally a static amusement park. You get on the ride, you experience thrills, chills, the occasional spill, and get to the end, at which point you get to do it all over, but for reputation points. This is because if someone came before you and saved Bloodmyst Isle from the Sun Elf threat, you’d have a pretty damned boring time getting your space goat to level 20, wouldn’t you? There have been many attempts to address this problem – having player-generated content (such as UO’s Seers), having player-vs-player content (such as Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer’s Realm vs Realm fighting), or having procedurally generated content (such as Anarchy Online’s early stab at instancing and World of Warcraft’s current iteration of ‘phasing’). But… hey, I bet you know how this will conclude, and I won’t spoil it for the next 50 people doing this quest line. (Hint: ’statistically speaking…’)
Problem five: I can’t go raiding with Bob with my level 6 paladin
That’s because, for whatever reason, World of Warcraft never implemented sidekicking or mentoring – the ability to temporarily boost yourself or lower your friend’s levels so that they can match, which is a key feature of pretty much every MMO that isn’t World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, statistically speaking, every MMO that isn’t World of Warcraft doesn’t exist, so that’s probably why it hasn’t been implemented yet.
Tom Chick’s core problem: MMO = World of Warcraft. This isn’t really a fair cop, as I have it on good authority that he’s fond of LOTRO, too. But still. Every screenshot in his story is from World of Warcraft. Every problem in his story is from World of Warcraft. Every time he says MMO, he really means World of Warcraft.
And you know, when one of the most influential game writers in the industry makes this mistake, and essentially writes a piece on “Why is World of Warcraft Like World of Warcraft?”, I think we have a problem bigger then aggro management.
Statistically speaking.
#1 by Factory on January 28th, 2009
Erm, while all these criticisms can apply to WoW, they also apply to pretty much every other Everquest clone out there, which is the majority of the market.
This is really an attack on the genre, not on WoW.
#2 by Mark on January 28th, 2009
– Problem five: I can’t go raiding with Bob with my level 6 paladin
Because most mmo’s are built to hook you into spending time (money) leveling so you can raid with Bob. That’s the only reason I can think of.
#3 by GTB on January 28th, 2009
I’m confused. Most people who aren’t 13 year olds already know that WoW actually sucks, and the reasons why. There’s no reason for this dude to continue to point them out. We know already. We get it. The non-13 year old contingent has already moved on to other (mostly) better things. When you are able to provide a bullet-point list as to why you hate specific things in the game you are playing, that is what you do.
This is clearly not a criticism of MMOs in general though, as you pointed out, since it doesn’t apply to anything that doesn’t fit the WoW/EQ mold. CoH/CoV for instance.
Don’t worry, Darkfall is going to save the genre. It’s being released as a Phantom console exclusive later this year.
#4 by jinstevens on January 28th, 2009
I largely agree with you, Scott.
1. Subscription fees aren’t a problem. Sorry they aren’t. WoW having 10M+ subscribers is a “problem” a lot of companies would like. And I think Tom thinks we must be a bunch of sheep. I have no compunction of canceling a MMO to go try another one or to spend time with a single person game. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that I’m obligated to pay a subscription if the MMO doesn’t interest me or I want to try something else.
2. Aggro isn’t a problem with just MMOs. Diablo, which Tom mentions in his post, use the same mechanism. Even stealth based games like Rainbow Six rely on aggro management. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
3. Like you mention, plenty of MMOs don’t have lots of other buttons, and the button phenomenon is compounded in WoW by third party add ons. Isn’t giving players a choice as to what their UI should look like is a good thing? Clean UI doesn’t necessarily mean that’s necessarily better.
4. I don’t see how giving every player a chance to take on the ultimate baddie is a bad thing. If you make it more exclusive then you get problems with camping the baddie until he spawns…that’s one of the most horrible aspects of an MMO, which WoW largely (but not completely) avoids.
5. City of Heroes had sidekicking from its earliest days. Other games have it too, like you mention. The problem with sidekicking however is that it promotes twinking and exploits…that’s the problem, not the ability to play with friends.
Bottom line: I think Tom needs to play more MMOs besides WoW.
#5 by Montague on January 28th, 2009
You are woefully ignorant of WoW’s demographics.
#6 by jinstevens on January 28th, 2009
It has? Then there’s a lot of 13 years olds still playing WoW…like 10M+ of them.
Oh? You mean like Age of Conan was going to be the WoW killer? Or that Warhammer Online would take away a good chunk of Wow’s subscriber’s base? Sorry for the sarcasm, but I remain skeptical of Darkfall from the little I’ve seen of it.
#7 by Chris F on January 28th, 2009
1. Sub fees are a problem, to casual people who want to play at a human pace. At least in North America. In Asia it is 0.06 cents an hour. I would pay that in a heartbeat for WoW, and enjoy WoW, WAR, LotRO, COH, all in the same month. Perhaps saying its a problem is a problem. Better of saying “it would be BETTER with payment options”. The Sub fee acts as a barrier to most gamers (not all) and serves two purposes. a) Rediculously high profit margins, and b) A one game exclusivity for consumers (which is currently WoW), acting as a barrier for gamers to play other MMOs.
2)The Threat mechanic is silly as implemented. Currently you have a small percentage of players that can actually withstand the hits from a “boss” or it’s game over. So, a God of the underworld, living for thousands of years, can’t quite shake his head at the fact that no matter how many times he puts the Tin Can within an inch of his life, somehow it is instantly brought back to full health. Of course, a God of the underworld wouldn’t try to fight anyone else that may be causing the whole healing instantly thing, because even if he did the Tin Can would call him a name and he would instantly forget anyone else was even in the room. No, I don’t have a solution to this either =) It is a bit on the silly side though.
3. I can’t wait for an evil genius to build an MMO that isn’t built around button mashing cooldowns. As a healer class, I didn’t even see most boss encounters, just health bars. It would be a complete innovation for MMO’s to not need 20+ boxes on your hotbars, but hey, it may even be possible (and an improvement).
4. Persistant world is impossible in current MMO scape, especially when it comes to bosses and the like. I don’t really have a problem with it, but the design does encourage grind-loot mentality. Instead of making 20 bosses, devs make one – and force you to kill him 20 times so you can be geared enough to fight the next boss. 20 times. I know a lot goes into tuning those encounters, so again, not really a solution here for PVE.
5. I wouldn’t mind seeing a change to the leveling curve. A max level character is pretty much invincible to a level 1 character, even hundreds of them. Why not have a max level character only 10% “stronger” than a level 1 character? Keep the power curve more relative so developers can focus on making content for everyone, instead of gigantic budgets for an hour that players will never play once they past level 10? You can still have 90 levels inbetween as the cheese for the rats so people are still making “achievements”.
6. Tom does think WoW = MMO. I am guessing so does every investor and shareholder of MMO companies does too. Regardless, the same inherent problems in Fantasy MMO land exist. (Less in Super Hero MMOland, and Space ship MMOland, as mentioned.)
Question is if change is not only possible, but wanted by consumers. Different is scary.
#8 by Mist on January 28th, 2009
This is the guy that said of Deus Ex: “I’d say it’s only 90% bad.”
I think this guy just doesn’t like PC games.
#9 by Njal on January 28th, 2009
@ jinstevens re: Darkfall … whooooosh.
#10 by DrewC on January 28th, 2009
When did “I don’t like X genre” become “X genre is broken”? Why is it not okay for me to come over here and have my fun, while you go over there and have your fun?
#11 by Guido Jones on January 28th, 2009
Tom actually likes PC Games a lot – he wouldn’t stop talking about Company of Heroes for example. His tastes just tend to differ from what the “mainstream” is.
#12 by dartwick on January 28th, 2009
The guy made some good points except for the static world thing, to be honest its required for most other good idea in MMOs to work. And its not hard to live with.
Subscription fees – they arent bad themselves but MMO players are still new to the genre and are stupid customers who are willing to accept exploitive game design.
Agro – as implimented in most MMOs its crappy game design.
Simple button smashing – MMOs have a big problem in that they appeal to incompetent gamers who want this.
Leveling – the whole idea of levels in an MMO is retarded
#13 by J. on January 28th, 2009
He can play City of Heroes. Yahtzee liked it!
http://gamedamage.net (around 21:19)
#14 by Jobrill on January 28th, 2009
@DrewC I’ve wondered this myself. A lot of people don’t seem to realize that the MMO Genre is not FOR them, and that they’d be better served finding another genre of game to play rather than insisting the MMO genre, or at least current MMO games, change to suit their wants.
#15 by Merkwurdigliebe on January 28th, 2009
I thought it said Jack chick.
#16 by Random Poster on January 28th, 2009
“In Asia it is 0.06 cents an hour”
you know at that rate it would cost some people MORE to play WoW than it does now. Granted that would fall in line with the “hardcore” but still.
I wouldn’t mind the option of Pay by Playtime alongside a normal subscription plan. Let the buyer choose.
#17 by Freakazoid on January 28th, 2009
Apparently I never heard of this Tom Chick, because for a moment I thought you meant Jack Chick. That made me very, very confused.
#18 by Freakazoid on January 28th, 2009
@Merkwurdigliebe
I should read comments more often because waddup thought-it-was-jack-chick buddy
#19 by Servantes on January 28th, 2009
@Chris F
Looks like the solution to your problem came before it… Ultima Online.
#20 by Davide on January 28th, 2009
Guild Wars has already solved most of the problems listed and I still rate it as one of the best PvP games available.
No Sub fee’s, fast leveling curve, in fact you can play a L20 PvP character right out of the box.
You can’t make a godlike character, everything has a counter. You spec for a specific strength and have specific weaknesses. The button mashing becomes situational depending on the targets state or where in the chain you are.
Looking forward to GW2 immensely.
One thing I did like about Warhammer was how taunting worked in PvP, it actually serves a purpose. When you taunt a character they do 50% damage to anyone else but you, kind of novel.
The agro range quote mentioned is one of my biggest pet peeves. It’s pretty dumb to walk up to a bunch of NPC’s all talking in a group and stand 10 feet away from them killing them all 1 at a time. Vanguard had a pretty cool bit with linked mobs and when you targeted one you could see any of the other mobs linked to it. But get real, if you attack a camp or castle or whatever, every living thing should make a beeline for you when the alarm is raised.
The biggest disappointment I have with the genre is how difficult it is to transition from single player games. We all went through the leveling grind to turn our little L1 wimps into walking gods that could destroy worlds and sadly that doesn’t translate well into multiplayer.
The ironic part is with MMO’s your character is strongest at level 1. You can take on multiple mobs your level or higher and survive, whereas by max level anything remotely close to you will squish you into little bits.
My idea for a masochistic game would be for you to start off at L1 at your most powerful (in terms of survivability, HP’s, mana and whatnot) and that leveling would actually make you weaker, albeit with more skills. So go ahead and level all you want, the challenge increases all the more…
#21 by BadMisterFrosty on January 28th, 2009
I work on a game that does most things differently. There’s real time combat. It is made so that you aren’t totally locked into your level range (you can theoretically dodge all damage and wear down strong opponents). You don’t need the ‘Pants of Doom’ gear to mitigate just enough damage to survive the 3rd attack wave which unlocks ownage of the boss. You have only few skills at a time on screen. Aggro in our game is arcane — there is no taunting monsters while its grilled by someone else. The Diku Trinity is a rudiment only. It’s still a static world for now. Right, the Subscription fee thing — ok, that’s still an issue on his list.
Yes, there are games that do it differently than WOW.
#22 by UnSub on January 28th, 2009
I fail to see how most of these stated problems are actually real problems. Except for WoW = the entire MMO industry.
#23 by Jeff on January 28th, 2009
@GTB
You do realize what assuming does right? I’m 35 and yeah, I have my problems with WoW, it’s not perfect. But then I go to Warhammer, yet another game where I feel like I am paying to play a beta, and I realize all the things WoW does right. A lot of us may have a lot of beefs with WoW, but what does it does with a lot of polish and this side of 3.08 it generally does really well.
More to your point regarding 13 year olds: I am in two guilds in WoW, Soldiers of the Cross on Laughing Skull, and the Ist Fist of Light,on a different server, which migrated away from Warhammer when we saw how imbalanced things were in T3-T4.
To my knowledge, we have ONE 13 year old in both guilds. Most of the people I play with are in their 20s and 30’s, some are even in their 50’s and 60’s. My friends list is pretty much the same. I’m not saying that there are NOT 13 year-olds in WoW, I’m just saying to pretend only kids like WoW and everyone over the age of 13 is waiting for Darkfall is a false assumption.
#24 by Apache on January 29th, 2009
>>Tom Chick is one of the (if not the) most influential video game writers out there.
In which universe do you refer to?
#25 by ubvman on January 29th, 2009
Regarding Problem four: Why is there a line to kill Sauron?
Theres a lot of lazy and bad writing out there, and since everyone started out as Everquest clones, they copied that genetic defect from the very start. I’m not talking about about the, “kill ten rats for me” quests that are perfectly logical to be repeatable. Its the repeating storyline quests that makes nonsense of the whole concept that its “FANTASY WORLD“, but rather its really a videogame theme park with button mashing rides.
How many times do we have to kill Sauron (for example, any raid boss will do) to lose all respect for him as an antagonist? “Killing” him once is an achievement, raid on him a second second time – you realize he/it is just another elaborately painted pixelated bowling pin, not very different from the Wii bowling game your neice is playing at.
Its just very, very unimaginative fantasy writing more suited (in fact it should only apply) to single player games. You can easily break out of that paradigm with some thought put into it but since the genre is either too lazy or timid to step away from the whole EQ clone thing it doesn’t.
I’m rather glad Arthas (WoW thing), is not a killable boss in WotlK, not while the standard philosophy of storyline encounters written as EQ repeatable pinatas is still in place.
#26 by ubvman on January 29th, 2009
AHHHH!!! I replied to the wrong article! Can you move it Lum?
#27 by Aufero on January 29th, 2009
I’d never heard of Tom Chick before reading this, and I’ve spent a ton of time over the last thirty years reading about video gaming. Either the standard for being an influential video game writer is pretty low, or he’s influencing some group that doesn’t include me.
#28 by Viz on January 29th, 2009
But ubvman, the thing is that Blizzard has stated that Arthas WILL be a killable boss in WotLK (and the final one, at least). The excellent but now-defunct Hammer of Grammar had an excellent comic about this process… unfortunately, I didn’t save it.
#29 by Viz on January 29th, 2009
Correction: It appears to merely have changed domains, though there still hasn’t been a new comic. The one in question is http://www.hammerofgrammar.com/wordpress/2007/08/13/in-the-future/
#30 by Random Poster on January 29th, 2009
My guess is that when Arthas becomes a raidable boss is that when we fight him we don’t “kill” him, afterall the Lich King is not a physical being, it just happens to be contained in Arthas’ body for now. No one is even sure how much of Arthas is actually in the collective consciousness of the Lich King.
So at best the vessel is destroyed and it goes on to inhabit some previously minor character to become strong again at a later time.
Cliche’ yes but it is a built in safety valve
#31 by Vasagi on January 29th, 2009
C’mon – “one of the (if not the) most influential video game writers out there”?? Please. Controversial maybe from his general jackassery … bu influential? … I don’t think so. That’s like saying that Don Imus is one of the most influential DJs on the air. Publicity from being an ass grants attention – not necessarily influence.
His article is one big whine about things he doesn’t like in WoW, and in the section where he is supposed to offer suggestions he just says “you guys figure it out”. Why even have a “what needs to be done to fix it” section after each point if he’s just going to profess his ignorance for the fifth time? At least Lum had the courtesy to reflect on some history to even make an ATTEMPT to ponder on why things are as they are.
My personal favorite is how he claims the “button lock” of MMO (WoW) makes the games boring – then says he should stick to diablo. Exactly WTF is fun and interesting about mashing a single mouse button as opposed to mashing the top row of number keys on your keyboard? Either way, Blizzard is taking his bank, because the only alternative to a Blizzard product is another Blizzard product!! MUAHAHAHAHA
#32 by Brask Mumei on January 29th, 2009
Mashing a single button in Diablo is fun because I do it in a LAN party with a bunch of friends. Mashing 20 buttons in WoW sucks because said friends are all different levels/servers/experiences/incompatible classes.
Lum nailed it at the beginning – the real crime is that MMORPG == DikuMud in too many eyes. Equally guilt are commenters here claiming Tom Chick’s problem is with MMORPGs, that he just doesn’t like the genre. If the MMORPG “genre” consists only of DikuMuds I need out quick. I agree fully with all of his complaints, but can’t help but notice most of them were addressed by UO a couple of centuries ago…
#33 by Tesh on January 29th, 2009
If UO “did it right” way back when, what difference does it make? Modern mainstream MMO design is firmly rooted in the DIKU lineage, which has some definite weaknesses. WoW makes money hand over fist. Other devs have seen that and want to do the same thing, whether or not it’s good design, and whether or not they can actually compete. (They can’t.) Chick wants something different. Telling him to go back to UO isn’t really helpful.
#34 by Rog on January 29th, 2009
Game journalists have to ’sample’ multiple games at a time, it goes with the job. If they don’t love it, if they can’t keep their attention-span moving, they burn out. So MMO subscriptions and a large variety of content within one game presents a conundrum: It’s too much to consume and review before moving on. And some react negatively, it doesn’t fit within their experience, they dip their toes in and recoil.
Oddly, I started playing MMOs in part because of this. I’d been working at Electric Playground and after years of playing several games a week, I wanted to settle down and enjoy just one game for awhile (Ultima Online at the time). A variety of content, but within one big world. I didn’t feel like constantly grappling with new interfaces and game mechanics. I wanted to slow down, feel comfy and cozy and not have to rush to the next game. I welcomed the subscription format, so long as it meant continued development of content in a single game-world.
There were other reasons I want to play in some sort of virtual world, social aspects, ongoing RPG and whatnot, but sticking with one game for awhile was a big factor.
Most of my co-workers reacted different, they didn’t think that was a game. A game did one thing well. Maybe an MMO isn’t so much of a game as it is a place where gameplay also happens. This leaves a lot of people in the rest of the (non-MMO) industry cold. I’ve heard the ‘MMOs are bad gameplay’ rants from journalists and game designers alike, but it’s like listening to a Football announcer panning Hockey. They try to explain MMO success with the ‘addiction’ or ‘kiddies’ factors, which they’d quickly balk if said about videogames as a whole.
And here’s Tom Chick, still with the pan-popular-games-for-easy-reactions schtick.
#35 by jso on January 29th, 2009
wow is just an inferior game at it’s core, blizzard has not put any of their dedication or money into improving their game or even making it fun, they just churn out one raid instance after another and drag the grind out more and more
#36 by Freakazoid on January 29th, 2009
Maybe the influential writer comment was sarcasm? If it was, it flew over my head. Be more obviously sarcastic, lum!
#37 by Brad Grenz on January 29th, 2009
@Aufero
Yeah, it’s the group of people that gets paid to write about or develop games. That may not include you, but he’s very well respected in the industry and has worked (freelance) for just about every major PC and Videogame magazine there’s been. He also played Gil, Oscar’s boyfriend on the Office (not kidding) which has its own cache.
#38 by Vajarra on January 29th, 2009
#39 by EpicSquirt on January 29th, 2009
Whenever I read WoW I think: millions of flies eat shit, surely they can’t be mistaken?
#40 by Talance on January 29th, 2009
Honestly, comments like this just amaze me. If the MMO that has 5 times more participation than its closest competitor (Runescape runs about 2 million, doesn’t it?) is considered “an inferior game”, then where is the superior one? Don’t get me wrong, WoW certainly has its faults, but you can’t just discount it because it’s not the game for you. The fact that it has millions more people playing it than any other MMO in history attests to the fact that there’s gotta be something there. Just because a lot of people like Corvettes and I don’t doesn’t make a Corvette an inferior product, it just doesn’t fit my tastes.
On a side tangent, this discussion kinda reminds me of the Best Picture Oscars this year. If you can’t find a way to at least nominate the second highest-grossing film in history as a top film this year, what exactly IS your definition of “good”?
#41 by Ed on January 29th, 2009
What’s wrong with the subscription model? I pay a monthly fee for my cable TV and don’t feel compelled to watch it or “lose money.” I don’t feel compelled to use all of my wireless minutes each month either. Why are MMOs any different?
#42 by Mist on January 29th, 2009
All the WoW hate is definitely hurting the industry. Developers refuse to see what Blizzard has done right. Sure, I don’t play WoW anymore, but I played the crap out of it for 4 years before I got bored with it, and I’m rather easily bored. The WoW model is the only one I’ve seen that can deliver enough content, of varying difficulties to keep 95% of the players from ever finishing the game.
The fact that WoW happens to have the least/worst PvP content of any major MMO is WoW’s only really significant failing at the moment.
#43 by Robin Kestrel on January 29th, 2009
It seems like all his gripes are related…
5. Based on his other points, I’d guess his real beef with a monthly fee is that he fears it motivates the designers to insert a long level grind to keep people playing just a little longer, just a bit more to reach that next achievement that isn’t really an achievement. I’d agree with that, but that a design issue, not a problem with the payment structure.
4. I interpret this as a way of saying that the aggro mechanic is an outdated way of substituting for real AI. It’s only there because people have become used to beating “the aggro game” and it’s easy to design classes and spawn points around, but it doesn’t make much sense from a fantasy immersion viewpoint. Plus, it makes all your foes basically just the same personality with a different skin. I agree with this.
3. Here he’s talking about the way the game world is broken up into so many discrete level-appropriate areas that it breaks immersion, and leads to the only challenege being to find the right area and figure out what buttons to push, without any sense that you are accomplishing something heroic. I agree with that, and that’s a problem of level and combat design as much as it is a UI problem. But the UI is a contributor. Need to get those buttons off the bottom edge of the screen and incorporate the commands in such a way that players will watch the action instead of cooldowns and healthbars; at the same time you need to rethink your level and combat system to give players a wider range of viable choices and strategies.
2. Agree 100%. These are amusment park rides, not virtual worlds. There’s little difference between most MMO games and what they’d be like as a single-player standalone save for the fact that everything respawns. It doesn’t need to be like this. Yes, I know everyone says that truly dynamic worlds using random procedurally-generated content are too hard to implement and manage on a massive scale, but I don’t believe it, and someday someone will do it right. No one with deep enough pockets wants to take the risk of failure right now.
1. I am all for compressing the levels and making the effective difference between min level and max level much less. As Davide mentioned above, what’s the point in having all those fancy skills/spells and elite gear if subjectively your character is less heroic than he was at level one? The focus of the game changes to raiding, as they can’t make an “elite” monster that won’t kill most player characters with one hit because of the way they’ve chosen to scale hitpoints and damage output. This needs to be rethought from the top down.
#44 by harl on January 29th, 2009
Subscriptions?
4 MMPOGs is $60 a month. Less if you use longer subscriptions. Or you could get 1 new single player game for the same price.
#45 by Sweetmeat on January 29th, 2009
In a way City of Heroes mitigates some of the perceived problems Tom has. After playing it, I’ve been disappointed with both LoTRO and WAR for not having Mentoring/Sidekicking available. Also the Veteran rewards for subscribing over a period of time are about perfect with respect to not being over powered, but still being things you enjoy having and being useful enough to make me keep my CoH subscription even when I’m playing something else. I think other companies are missing out by not incorporating both concepts.
With regards to agro, Warhammer did this well. For PvE it’s the standard foolishness of a tank shouting about what he did with the mobs sister the night before to get it off the guys who are really killing the thing. In RvR however, your opponents make their own decisions about who is really killing them and where to base their loving attention. Remarkably many people still spend a lot of time beating on tanks even though they may not be what’s killing you. Unless you’re an Archmage, then you are pretty much getting killed by anyone that comes along, including the Tanks.
I love my Archmage, she has the most fantastic dresses! But unless the people I’m playing with are really looking out for me she eats more dirt than an earth worm and in the rocks paper scissors model, she’s essentially an amputee.
#46 by Klaitu on January 29th, 2009
Things like these make me miss UO.. you know, before it got all hosed down with wowjuice.
Things were much more awesome back then.
#47 by Tesh on January 29th, 2009
Yup, and I can play that one game for longer than a month, and I don’t lose access to it if I don’t pay another $60.
#48 by harl on January 29th, 2009
First off your numbers are off. It’s 4 months for $60.
Second. You don’t play single player games after the first month. Sure there are exceptions. But they’re exceptions. Most games are bought, beat, and shelved. I saved so much money once I stopped paying for single player games. The cost per hour on them is insanly expensive compared to MMPOGs.
#49 by Vivianne Draper on January 29th, 2009
subscription fees notwithstanding, where does Tom think people are going to get the time to play all these free MMOGs?
#50 by undead dolphin hacker on January 29th, 2009
What “MMORPG” means is “Diku-clone.” Is that how it should be? No. But at this point the distinction has been made. To argue to the contrary is sort of like arguing “inflammable” means “fire hazard.” Yeah, that’s what the original intent of the word was, but the unwashed masses refused to accept it as-is and the definition changed, much to the chagrin of some stubborn scholars.
At this point, Lum, you’re starting to sound like one of those stubborn scholars. Yeah, you have a point. Yeah, you’re in the right. But Tom is making more important — and pertinent — points, which makes you come across as a little… pedantic.