What the fuck is so hard about making a decent MMO?
Seriously, I have tried so many MMOs to get away from WoW, and they all suck.
I realize WoW set the bar way higher, but none of these games even come close. These gaming companies should be embarrassed. The latest “big company” (as opposed to the small, free with item shop, myriad of shitty Asian grind MMOs) MMOs such as Age of Conan and Warhammer Online were terrible. Age of Conan I could barely play (I’d give it a try on my new computer, but apparently the reviews sucked as bad as the performance on my laptop before I got this nice behemoth of a computer) and Warhammer Online was a terrible let down. I thought the solo play was horrific and the end game is apparently lacking. To be quite honest, it seems like when you take a company that had produced the brilliance that was Dark Age of Camelot, have EA buy them out, and then have them team up with a company who takes their IP so seriously that it hurts the gameplay of your MMO just so that it is accurate (Games Workshop), you get the mess that was Warhammer Online. For all the great gameplay videos and such, what a waste of time that was.
I just don’t understand why its so hard to at least get the basics going of what WoW has. I don’t want another WoW, but leveling up after level 10 should not be so mind numbingly boring that you can’t fathom what level 32 is going to be like.
I can’t figure out all these niche MMOs. If I wanted a niche game, I’d go play that game single-player on my console where it is undoubtedly better. I play MMOs because they are supposed to have multiple gameplay options. If I want to hunt, I hunt. If I want to craft, I craft. Raid, PvP, quest, so on and so forth. The variety, the fact you interact with other players, and the open world designs are what attract me to these games. Quite honestly, none of the niche games actually do fulfill their niche better than how WoW does it as a non-niche game as well.
The first major issue I am having with these games is the controls. I cannot fathom why it is so difficult to make walking so fucking hard. I just tried Final Fantasy XI. The configuration options of this game are so limited I wanted to scream. I had so much trouble moving around and using the camera that I nearly gave up after a minute. Then I go to alt+tab to read online how the hell to even do anything, and it errors out because of some kind of hack protection. Really?
On top of that, I doubt they’ve had a graphics update in the 7 years the game has been out. I don’t want to play a game on this new computer that is constantly blurry. I built it to run good games, update the graphics for those of us who like to play games.
Back to controls, I’d say the only game with decent controls recently (of course, besides WoW) was Warhammer Online. Everything worked as it should mostly. Age of Conan was simply too laggy to really try, though every time I jumped the guy looked like he got blasted with a cannon with how they animated him leaping. I would imagine the controls don’t suck, but the gameplay was too horrible to bother checking out now that I have a decent enough computer.
I tried Vanguard recently as well, which at least didn’t totally suck, but seems to be riddled with issues and the interface was obviously not a serious concern. I really try to figure out why developers feel the need to reinvent the wheel here. Clicking through menus, especially talking to NPCs with multiple options, should not be such a chore. Vanguard was ok for the brief time I played and had some really interesting ideas, but overall it just lacked so much polish and obviously is not a game to play much into the future since it is dying and barely has any support.
So many games coming out look like they are going to be major letdowns. I’m about to try The Chronicles of Spellborn and quite honestly I don’t see it being anything to write home about. I didn’t bother installing Darkfall. I’m not such a hardcore player that I am ok with losing everything if I die. So many other new ones are these crappy Asian MMOs that are all grind and free to play. They all have the same classes, same spells, and a different world/backstory to differentiate them. No thank you, I played them before. Aion is a big name release that… well, it looks terrible.
The only game that looks like it might not suck is Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is easily at least 2-3 years away. Square Enix is going to announce their new MMO (which they talked about for years) at E3. Blizzard is developing a brand new IP and brand new game experience, but its too early to see how that is going and they have released no other details besides them saying its too early to tell if they will seriously get behind it and produce it.
It is like a bad joke. I’ve gotten back into console games just because I don’t expect any decent developments for the next year or so at least out of the MMO world. Sometimes I’ll login to WoW and walk around, but immediately am sick of it again since there really is not much innovation. I’ve logged into Nexus a few times recently but not to actually play so much as look for a friend to hang out with for awhile if I can find any on. It is just so hard to believe that this is the state of these games. Prior to WoW there was some really great stuff going on. DAoC was a blast, Everquest 2 was ok for awhile when it came out alongside WoW, and some of the other games that were already out around that time didn’t suck either though I didn’t play them in-depth that much, like Ragnarok Online.
At this point after playing WoW, I can’t return to the old games which are simply outdated as far as graphics, controls, interface, etc. goes. I tried Dark Age of Camelot again and couldn’t believe how old it felt compared to my memories. Which is why I really need a new game. Even Lord of the Rings Online, which I tried for about 20 minutes, was annoying.
I just don’t get it. I know designers want to make their games special or stand out, but what is wrong about creating a world that take all the good basics of these games already and upgrading them to the next level, like the upgrade that WoW was from Everquest? MMOs are so popular and people are so sick of WoW that any generic game that gives you the same basic functions and simply works as far as playability goes will be a hit for at least awhile. Maybe you handle PvP a bit differently or raids are a little more or less intense, but I imagine people would flock to anything different just to get a chance of scenery and check out something new.
Very, very disappointing.