since these forums have
Since these forums have been aflame with complaints and disgust, I decided to make this post inspired by a conversation that my friend and I had last night concerning MMORPGs. Please keep responses civil. This thread is not a poke at the developers of AoC or at any particular style of gameplay.
So last night my friend and I were shooting the breeze when the topic of AoC came up as we both play but have limited time to progress quickly. We came to the conclusion that we truly love this genre but that the time investment is far too demanding for the typical person. We also noted that a large portion of the MMORPG community are older now and some are married with children and work long hours each week so again the time investment subject comes up. As we moved along in our discussion the topic of Shadowbane came up. We love that game and the reason was simple: You can level a toon to 75 in 2-3 days of casual play and have him geared out to the max ready for the good stuff, that being seiges, fights over mines and rolling xp groups. It was a lot of fun, truly. Shadowbane\’s only big problem was the lack of resources to continue evolving the game and yet even now they still patch it from time to time and its free to play. Shadowbane was way ahead of its time when it came out and I do not think that the majority of the playerbase at the time was prepared. If it were released as it was today with updated graphics engine and questing features (non-instanced of course) it would have been a huge hit as now even the most pacifistic of players at least try the PvP route.
As my friend and I continued our conversation we identified two distinct groups in the MMORPG world and it wasn\’t really PvE vs PvP. You have the traditional group - They like long tedious grinds so that their time investment is meaningful. They want instances to protect them from unwanted PvP situations. They want god-like gear that only the most determined will ever acquire. They like PvP but not PvP balance. They want their god-like gear to be the deciding factor in a fight. They like to RP and live for the immersion factor. There is nothing wrong with this group. This is the kind of game they have come to enjoy.
The next group is the competitive group (my group) - This is a crowd that likes fast-paced, balanced PvP centric gameplay. We want quick easy leveling with highly volatile end-game PvP. We want to build cities and destroy others. We do not want gear to be the deciding factor in a fight but rather a strategic part of character development. We like quests to a degree but we want them to be easy and single player friendly so we don\’t have to spend hours looking for groups to get our levels. Nothing is wrong with us either. This is how we like to play our games.
The question is, why is it that developers insist on trying to put us in the same game? Its not like one group hates the other. Its more like we just keep butting heads on core game mechanics. I personally will probably never see a character get to 80 in AoC. Not because I do not like the game, I do like the game, I just go crazy. I have been playing for 4 weeks now a least 8 hours per week and I am only level 59. It gets tiring as all I care about is being 80 and seiging. Levels 1-79 mean nothing to me. I do not even read my quests. I just click through them and look at my map and run to orange Xs. This isn\’t a bash. I understand that there are players who like the game to be long like that. The problem is what about players like me?
Its not about the challenge. There is no challenge to time sinks (OK so maybe it challenges my patience). The challenge for me is testing my strategically planned build against others, fighting to keep a city when it is seiged, taking other guilds cities, holding resource points, killing other players as they level and taking their loot without getting killed myself. This is what\’s fun to me and many of my friends who play MMORPGs.
In conclusion, I think it is necessary for developers to start picking sides when they develop their MMORPGs. Either one will be a winner as the MMORPG crowd is fairly split into those two groups. EIther make it a gear-based grindfest or a fast leveling totally PvP centric gankfest. Build it and one of the groups will come. Keep trying to appease both crowds is pointless. PvP and PvE servers do not work. I know it is a mass market thing by trying to appeal to a larger audience, but it DOES NOT WORK IN MMORPGs.
Sorry for the long post. Comments and queries are welcome. No flaming necessary.
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