Lately the years are starting to pile up on me. Granted, I’m still fairly young compared to some of the old-dogs that still roam the yard, but I can certainly say I’ve been around and back when it comes to the far reaches of the online video game genre. Now, every day I hear whispers or see sneak peak trailers of some upcoming ‘next big thing’ and I immediately let out a deep sigh, the problem is though, I’m not entirely sure why.

Starting at the root of the problem: I no longer get excited by these new release candidates (someone should market Viagra for video games?). When I was younger, I was all about the newest beta; I was all about learning every inch of a game so that when it launched I would have a huge advantage and further my competitive edge; I was all about hyping up games and prepping the guild so that everyone was prepared with the right class make-up and strategies in place; I was all about the new titles. Today, I sit in my office wondering what has changed and why.

Starting with the obvious suggestions: too old. I’ve passed my prime, as it were, and am living in a world of ‘back in my day”s – Back in my day [we had to make our own maps, we didn’t have a fancy website that told us where to go and how to get there]; [we actually lost things when we died, and quite a bit of them]; [we had a stock GUI and had to adapt accordingly, we didn’t just download things to do work for us]…etc. Am I too old and trying to reject the evolution of the genre or are people just awful and exceptionally lazy?

The second thought that crossed my mind was that I’m too cynical or critical of current-gen common issues. When I was younger I could tolerate ridiculous flaws because everything was new and exciting, now I look at frame issues and lack of end game as an immediate /quit. Am I disillusioned about the games I played when I was younger or is everything getting progressively worse and more rushed?

Third, money. After WoW made just over onefinity dollars, other companies set their greedy sites on attempting to capitalize on this market, causing a ridiculous oversaturation of the genre in all its hideous forms. On top of that, realizing that this is now a profit industry instead of an attempt to make a quality game, the capitalist adage of pleasing the masses yields the greatest profit regardless of compromised integrity or vision has come full pass. Every game, either from the get go or within the ‘Deyth trial period’ (three months) will compromise their vision so that more people will buy the game. 90% of the gaming population feel our game is too hard? I guess it must be, it couldn’t be that they are ridiculously lazy and prescribe to ideology that everyone should win eventually. Remember old console games? You have 3 lives to beat the game, you probably won’t even get half way. Get fucked. Where did that go? When did challenge become a bad thing? Even WoW slowly regressed from a game where <5% saw >95% of the content to a game where everyone and their mother (which does happen now) has a chance to play through the entire game. This ‘raise the floor/lower the ceiling’ mentality is hugely related to games appeasing the masses so they can make the most profit – casual players don’t require a feeling of earned accomplishment and triumph, they want instant gratification, “give me stuff, all the time, no matter how bad I do”.

So, as I conclude my rant, I again question: ‘what has happened to my desire to play MMOs, is it my fault or are they really that awful that I’ve just been completely turned off the genre forever’. I leave that open for discussion, in the mean time I’m sticking with competitive games – locked team numbers and no item grinding.

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Stengah


Havoc, Press Rep and Doer of All Things - The Fallen Angels

Originally Posted by Devil The nostalgia I get when thinking about these older games might be part of my problem though.

Originally Posted by nomadimp A related article over at Elder Game: http://www.eldergame.com/2009/08/12/...for-designers/ money quote: "Modern gamers expect all punishment to cease when they are playing your game the right way."

Originally Posted by Scizyr What the fuck did I just read: "You can take advantage of this to train players to play your game the right way." "This actually makes it harder to train players to find the fun in our games." "Like other types of punishment, it’s a great way to get players to think the way you want them to." And this Eric character who wrote the article has a very strange definition of negative reinforcement that doesn't really differ from positive reinforcement. I believe this is the answer to Havoc's rant. It's not age, and we aren't becoming more cynical. Game designers simply don't have a clue what they are doing anymore. MMORPG's should be about the player playing the game the way the player wishes to. It should be the developers job to provide that environment. Instead we are given multi-player linear adventure games. It's outrageous.

Originally Posted by nomadimp Eric Heimburg was a lead on AC 2 and Star Trek, for what its worth. His main point being that designers feel like they can't actually punish players because if they do then they will simply move to another game that doesnt punish them. Because, well, only a small niche of people enjoy being punished. He says that this is bad for designers because then they have to try and come up with other ways of whacking the player instead of doing nothing but giving out carrots.

Originally Posted by Scizyr I understood the point he was trying to make and I agree that with the way current mmo's are developed punishment for failure is not tolerated by most gamers. My point is that his entire perspective needs to be shifted, or he should just stop offering his opinions and find another line of work. Instead of focusing on herding players and training them to play the game properly designers should be focusing on removing restrictions placed on gamers in the current mmo market. No one enjoys being punished, but the restrictive nature of current mmo's is punishment in itself. Eric said it specifically: In order to have fun in a game with his design concepts you have to play a certain way. If you remove those restrictions and let the player decide how to have fun in the game then a stiff death penalty(and other punishments) will be tolerated by most players and even seen as a way to grow and learn in some cases. Unfortunately most designers follow Eric's method of thinking blindly believing it's the only way to be successful. Like Rynar said they need to seriously think more about the rules. They should use some creativity developing a good ruleset instead of copying other shitty games before them.

Originally Posted by nomadimp Fair enough but that is a tough pitch for any designer. Marketing would probably have none of it and for a publisher that is a much bigger question mark than they're probably comfortable with. That isn't to say that indie devs aren't doing it but most devs have to answer to a higher power that is very risk-averse.