MMOs- what makes a good one?

[dlouismartin]

Prompting Questions

 

1. How long does an MMO have before it can be properly evaluated and labeled as good?

 

2. What are the primary things (say 5, or more if you are spirited) that make an MMO good?

 

3. What is an example of a good MMO, and why?

 

4. Compare and contrast a good MMO and a bad MMO.

 

Bonus Question

- How are the bulk of MMOs retaining their sub base?

 

I don't really expect all of these questions to be answered, but in answering them I ask you to just just stick to questions.

 

I am newer'ish to MMOs and I want to see what people base their standards off of.

 

That is all---

 

Thanks!

 

Professor notes: Good may also be synonymous with fun.

Edited January 4, 2012 by dlouismartin

[dlouismartin]

Also -- try to keep SWTOR out of the comparison.

[imaslapu]

I'll bite:

 

1. Since by nature they're a persistent beast, launch is usually THE place where first impressions are made (or broken). This is why many current MMO's launch with way too many servers, way too many support staff etc.

 

2. Uptime/Reliability, community, corporate support to foster an active and involved community, an advancement system as mindful as is possible of different playstyles (casual, hardcore, PvP, PvE, RP, explorers, socializers, killers, achievers...etc)

 

3. Ultima Online - just turned 15? Great community of a well-known RPG franchise, constant and worthwhile new content...

 

4. I'm not going to compare and contrast, classes don't start for a week SWG finally died because of a disconnect with the playerbase and a real contempt for them. This is SOE in a nuthsell however. Great MMO's don't happen under Sony's title anymore

 

Bonus Answer:

time invested and friends with xpacks being an occasional bone to those drooling for new content. Those types are usually gone a week after they've used up the new content anyway so aren't really long-term subs.

[Qoojo]

I am sure people have heard me say it before, Fishing.

[Oxboy]

Easy:

 

Stuff to do in a group

Stuff to do when I don't want to group

How do I look doing said stuff

[yodimaster]

Prompting Questions

 

1. How long does an MMO have before it can be properly evaluated and labeled as good?

I give any MMO six months atleast unless you're like FFXIV <(T-T)> I gave them half that time, but will resubb at FFXIV 2.0

 

2. What are the primary things (say 5, or more if you are spirited) that make an MMO good?

1.) Story lines FFXIV, Rift, and Current WoW CaTa stories were huge failures for me!

2.) Unique Class choices. (I think FF series excelled better at this)

3.) Content something that everyone wants.

4.) PvP some like and some hate it!

5.) Smooth Combat.

6.) Sandboxing (I really would love to play one that had this)

7.) Graphics (not FFXIV type graphics but no crappy ones either cough....Warhammer....)

 

3. What is an example of a good MMO, and why?

1.) WoW till BC was to me no need to explain why most here have played it.

2.) FFXI the game was very challenging and rewarding even though crafting took forever or was costing you millions to even start up, the UI was atrocious, No real pvp and combat was slow, but the game had Notorius Monsters, Legendary gear, Artifact gear, Unique monsters, Unique classes, was not based on the highest level of gear as you could wear low level gear that was better, and THE COMMUNITY was the best in any MMO.

 

4. Compare and contrast a good MMO and a bad MMO.

FFXI, WoW, Rift, GW, and ToR (good games with 300K subs or more) vs FFXIV, Vanguard SoH, SWG, Warhammer, Age of Conan, and matrix ( games that fell flat on their faces after release or closed down)

 

Bonus Question

- How are the bulk of MMOs retaining their sub base?

1.) FFXI 400k subs active not including the $1.00 mules for eact created char after the first.

2.) WoW 10 million+

3.) Rift 550k subs

4.) GW 1 million

5.) ToR 1.5 million

6.) FFXIV 20k subs (this is still while the game is F2P, we'll see once it goes P2P in the next two weeks)

7.) Vanguard SoH 30k subs

8.) SWG closed down

9.) Warhammer 10k subs

10.) Age of Conan 40K subs

11.) Matrix closed down

Edited January 4, 2012 by yodimaster
spelling

[DigitalDreamz]

Prompting Questions

 

1. How long does an MMO have before it can be properly evaluated and labeled as good?

 

2. What are the primary things (say 5, or more if you are spirited) that make an MMO good?

 

3. What is an example of a good MMO, and why?

 

4. Compare and contrast a good MMO and a bad MMO.

 

Bonus Question

- How are the bulk of MMOs retaining their sub base?

 

I don't really expect all of these questions to be answered, but in answering them I ask you to just just stick to questions.

 

I am newer'ish to MMOs and I want to see what people base their standards off of.

 

That is all---

 

Thanks!

 

Professor notes: Good may also be synonymous with fun.

 

These points are from a Western culture point of view:

 

1.

-Reading a few blogs from MMO developers. A few have said that within the first few seconds it very crucial to the gaming experience. If your players just aren't 'feeling it' forget it they and many others are long gone. As far as how long, well as soon as it's released it's fair game. Bugs are expected but it's up to the dev team to clean em up in a timely manner.

 

2.

-First is graphics engine. HAS HAS HAS to have a fluid, clean and good looking graphics engine. Choppy animations are a no go. Doesn't have to be the worlds best looking but has to be good looking and perform well.

 

-Second is UI, think of the UI as an operating system. It's the liaison between you and the game core. It's SOOOO important yet many of MMO developers treat this last. Has to be easy to see, cool looking and customizable. The UI can make you feel connected to your toon or feel like a mass confusion. The UI is how you specifically communicate with the game.

 

-Third is comfortablility/usability. What I mean by this is players have to get comfortable with your mmo fairly early on. Can't have the craziest of crazy crafting right at level 1. This just creates overload and many will leave. If you have confusing quests, really off the wall stats and awkward combat most likely many will leave.

 

-Fourth would be story. Story keeps a person reading a book, watch a movie or play an MMO. Before WoW you had WC, WC2 and WC3. So much lore and story even before WoW was released. Story was there and many were able to easily follow it. If the story is bland such as what you see in Cataclysm, then you'll feel bored or not feel as if there's immediate danger. *Oh boy an angry dragon killing people. *. Like we haven't seen that one coming.

 

-Fifth would be world. This is where gamers will do and see everything listed above. The land can tell a story fairly well just be how it's made. If you enter an area with skeletons laying on a desert, swords all over the place, banners and a few broken machines it gives you the jibbies and you think about what happened in this area in the past. You start to explore and feel like you're uncovering a hidden secret. World also has to be large where you will meet many others such as yourself. If everyone is sweatboxed into one area you start to feel cramped. Even if a game is incredibly large, having 20 tiny zones will always seem smaller than having one medium sized zone.

 

-*Bonus* Things such as Balance, Level grind and End game. These I didn't include because they can always and repeatedly be added and adjusted into the game. The level grind is important though because if it's too fast people get to end and get bored if it's to slow then they'll leave cause noone wants to waste months only to be level 20. Fine tuning this is vital.

 

3.

-There are quite a number of good MMOs out there. Yes we all bash on WoW but at TBC it was an amazing game. Over time they picked and chose who they'd cater to. Instead of just developing and staying out of the gamers business.

 

-Aion isn't that bad either. It has a VERY VERY heavy grind for exp but the zones are beautiful, combat is pretty fun and the world is very large. Story is a bit hard to follow and the world, while being very nice was a tad bit difficult to follow where you were and where you needed to go.

 

-Jury is still out on SWTOR. So far I'm enjoying it but it's really lacking many things.

 

-Rift is actually a pretty damn good game now. They've really worked hard, although many are ignoring it they're doing very well, fixed tons of issues and added much in content.

 

4.

 

-Compare good and bad alright. (Sorry I didn't use SWTOR) (>.<)

 

-We'll use everyones favorite WoW vs. Lineage 2. I'll describe it using my points above:

 

-Graphics:

 

-WoW has a cartoony style but that's what they're going for. Lineage 2 has the far east Asian artistic design. Both look well and fall under personal preference but where L2 fails and WoW delivers is in how the engine behaves. WoWs is so smooth it's like butter. L2 it's like dicing onions.

 

-UI:

 

-WoW has a fully and I mean fully customizable UI. L2 has if I remember correctly 2 bars which couldn't be moved. L2s UI was lifeless and looked as if they spent about 2 seconds creating it. Also with a bit of customization you can get WoWs UI perfect for how you want.

 

-Comfortability/Usability:

 

-Getting comfortable with your character or the game in L2 was a nightmare. Had it not been for my guild I'd quit long before I did. So much in the game and I had no way of finding out. WoW is so simple you can train monkeys to understand how to play. Once you get comfortable with a game it starts to feel natural to play. L2 was so foreign for such a long time. Also L2 was a point and click game, it's like playing with your feet.

 

-Story:

 

-L2 didn't have a story. Let me rephrase L2 didn't have a STORY! You leveled by picked an area and just mindlessly killed the same mobs over and over and over and over again. I never did a single quest. WoW has the entire Arthas saga...nuff said.

 

-World:

 

-WoWs world offered so much exploration, beautiful areas and so much hidden lore in the world. TBC is still my favorite zone. Just had a mysterious power to the zones. They were large and very detailed. L2 had a like an upside down 'Z' shape to their map. One straight walk to one end or another. No real monuments, just hills, or sand, or grass ... endlessly.

 

As you can see Lineage 2 failed on fundamental levels whereas WoW excelled. Any bugs WoW has or had was completely overlooked because the actual foundation of the game was solid. Strange thing L2 did so well in Asia. Any crazy long grind game they enjoy and honestly I have NOOO idea why. I played once for 4 hours straight leveling in a zone and only got 13% exp. After that I said screw this!

 

*BONUS QUESTIONS*

 

-How are MMOs retaining their subs?

 

-It all depends. The majority of MMOs are free to play with a real money market for in game items. Some charge gamers to play. The large market MMOs: WoW, SWTOR, RIFT, AION advertise on different sites to attract others. Usually to keep subscribers subbing they add expansion to their games which usually change the structure or add really cool and neat things to the game to keep it fresh.

 

Hopefully this gives you my take on MMOs. I've played Lineage 2, DaoC, Aion, Rift, WoW, Rose Online, Warhammer Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars and Tabula Rasa. I didn't include questing mechanics or pvp combat because that isn't part of the actual foundation of an MMO. You can easily change how pvp combat is going to behave or change how you quest and PvE. WoW has done fairly well and they're questing was just *right-click, accept, right-click accept*. It was because at it's core it was outstanding.

 

SWTOR has many things going for it but also many things tugging against it. For one the worlds seem small. There may be many zones to explore but the perception is it's not very explorable. Second I'm not a fan of the graphics engine they used, it hasn't been performing as well as it should. I believe it's the same graphics engine used for the John Madden football games. (Don't quote me on that, I could be wrong) The animations are choppy and combat is still a bit on the unresponsive side. Time will tell how Bioware handles things though. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Anyway if you read this thanks for reading my rant. Thought I'd just give your question some thought.

[Ahlin]

The ability to retain subscriptions over a long term.

 

/thread.