Why do you play a MMO

I don’t know about any of you, But I do know why I play.

 

The reason I started to playing Everquest was that I was told that thousands of people played it every day, And they was in the same game, At the same time as I would be. That was wild sounding to me, And I could not see how that could be. So I have told my story of how my younger brother picked up a copy and it just sat there for a month or so, Till I was bored to death one day and started to load it up. I was on dail up back then. The first thing about the game that made go, WTF was that after I had did the disk thing, It wanted to download more of the game. It seems like it took two days to do this. This did not make me want to trash it then in there. No it made me want to see what the hell could this game be that took so damn long to get in.

So then I get to log in for the first time. “What in the hell is this. Hey bro, Come check this out. It wants me to make my dude.”  My bother said ” That’s bull shit, they could not even make the damn dude for you.” and walked out of the room. A very long time after that I was done making my dude, and entered the game. Nothing made any sense to me. I didn’t know what I was to do, are where to even go. I ran around lost as hell, But SOB if this was not the coolest thing I had ever seen. I could see people talking together in the game. Come to find out only half of them was people, The othere half was the NPC’s in the game. Even the way you got your quest was a “holy hell, did you see that.”  moment for me.

Then as my brother watch me play and reminded me that it was his game, No lie it was his, and now he wanted it back. Before I could get my own copy of EQ it was three of us taking turns playing. This may sound like a horror story from hell to you, But I am telling you that it was this type of things that pulled me in deeper and deeper.

After the three of us had our on EQ’s we learn how to group, Man them was fun nights. Every Saturday Night we would jump into game and play till the sun came up the next day, and some times longer. Then the friends we started making in game, then came the time we found out about guilds and joining one. Man it was all so new and nothing like any thing that we had seen before.

Today I play, because it’s something that I have a lot of fun in. It has also became my hobby. that is to say, I do things like this blog, When I am not in game. I have many sites that I go read. I watch video’s about MMO’s. I chat online and offline with people about MMO’s. All of this is fun for me.

 

So if any dare to comment, What made you start, and what keeps you in?

 

Alik Steel

Ever Raid, Will it allways be two games in one?

SOE is now sitting on two MMO’s that are endgame games. WOW is a endgame game. And I am sure other’s will follow as well. The thing is, As we all know by now, That most (I know, not all) are set up the same way. You have the first part (This is where I like to play) where it’s all adventure, explore, and crafting. With maybe some mini-games on the side. Till you hit the top end of the game. “Yes, yes, we know this all ready Alik, Whats the point?“

My point is, Why does it have to be this way? Why can’t it be two games played in the same style world. So you could use the same lore and make it where each type of player could have his cake and eat it too. Take the name I have up top, Ever Raid (everaid, everraid {sp}) could be done as a raid only game played in the (EQ/EQ2) world Norrath. This could cut out a lot of BS for the raiders. No more power leveling to get to the part you want. Also by doing this you could make your non-raid game open at the end part till the next expantion comes out.

But even with them never doing the two game for both sides, They could make it a living world. and NO I do not see WOW or EQ/EQ2 as living worlds. At lest WOW seems to be trying it with there next expantion. But I think to keep players like me, and I know we are more than half the gamers out there. They need to make it where the world changes some. It does not have to be all of the world. Just change an area or so. When your games go for as long UO, EQ or even EQ2 and WOW. Seeing the same quest giver standing in the same place, Giving out the same quest for the past 5 to 10 years, Get’s old.

Going back to the all raid MMO idea, You can still put some solo stuff in the game, to give the new players something to do, When they are still learning the game and waiting to get into a guild. Crafting is a hard one to call, because I know a lot of hard core raiders that are just as hard core with there crafting, when they are not in a raid. So no idea. I do know that I wish one of them(SOE/Blizzard) would try, As they are the two main MMO co. That have the top end games.

Is WOW new expantion going to change all of the game? or just the first to mid level area’s? What ever it is, it will be good for he players, EQ2 has been changing one zone at a time, But only got two of them done that I know of.

 I  know this is out of left field, but how hard is it to make a MMO that has good grouping and solo content? I just don’t understand why it seems you can only have one are the other.

but any way …

I think that a game is dead in the water when they start doing all top end stuff for there game. At that point, They have put up there hands and said we give up.

In the end this post is BS, As in nothing will change for a long time, They have gotten set in there ways, and it will take something big to knock them out of there grove. I would say hooray for WOW, but I just don’t know how much they are doing, and when will be the next big change?

Alik Steel

AAA MMO Rating System

I’m asking for MMO Bloggers and Blog Readers to Unite in creating AAA MMO Rating System.

 Why wait on the next online site to come up with what they think the rating should be, When we could make one for ourselves. We the MMO gamers should know more about what we like and what we dislike in a MMO. So I am asking for help. Help in coming up with what’s important to the way a MMO is Rated.

May goal in this post is to try and get a united MMO rating system that we can all use to rate our MMO’s.

I am going to put a few things down, and would love to have you fill in some of the blanks and add as needed.

 AAA MMO needs to be defined into mathematical rating.

First thing before the first step, is to say how many Rankings there are. Without this AAA does not mean anything. Also MMO comany’s can see how there game is rated by ther players.
AAA, AA, A, B or something like that. I am going to go with a rating of 4 as the top and 1 as the lowwest. This way as you add up the point system up, The higher the number the better the MMO is.

(I am keeping it with a low number rating to help me, As there are some really good bloggers out there that can really build this up big time. I am just trying to get the ball rolling.)

First step, rating comany money/size of the MMO. As size and money does count as to how much money and time can go into working on the game. I know size does not matter every time, but it does count.
(4) Large sized multimillion dollar company.
(3) Medium sized million dollar company.
(2) Small sized company with a few people.
(1) One man show working out of his garage.

Second step, How fun is the game.
(1) Hard to find your way around the world and/or hard to find what the game wants you to do and/or is not fun to play.
(2) It’s hard to see what they want me to do and/or find where to go, But I am having fun being lost.
(3) The game play is smooth and fun.
(4) The game play is perfect, don’t chang anything.

Third step, What does the MMO look like?
(4) OMG it looks like I am looking out of my bedroom window. This can not be a game!
(3) Very pretty world, Lot’s to look at.
(2) Needs lot’s of help.
(1) One word Blocky.

fourth step, How much room does this MMO need?
(1) Thats more  gigabytes than my whole hard drive has!
(2) I’ll have to delete a game to get this one.
(3) That’s doable.
(4) It’s like I didn’t even add a game.

 

There are a few more that I would add, but I really want to go play my game now, And I would also like to see what you will add. Maybe we are thinking of the same thing.

 

Alik Steel

Who really wants a persistent MMO world?

When you could have a dynamic MMO world!

I think I am getting done with the same ol same ol, yes expantions are great but they don’t come out but once a year, most times.

I don’t want a world that “THE PLAYER MAKES A DIFFERENCE” I want it to chang around me as I play. I want time to move in the game. Maybe quest are not the way MMO’s need to fill the time sinks. When you add quest, that tie’s a NPC down, or what ever you have set for people to get the quest from. So if you want a world that is all ways on the go, then we will have to come up with a way to stop the quest!

I want to return to that cave that I killed them 10 rats in, and find out the rats are gone and it’s nothing but a wild cat, or something in it. I want to see NPC’s having a life, and not just standing in that one spot, for the next 10 years of the game. I want him to have a life in the game, at night he goes home, after some time he my grow old, and even die.

I think this is why I have been having a hard time playing my games, it’s all ways the same. Same quest giver, Same ol mob to kill, Same ol loot. Just not that fun any more, and it’s not just EQ2. If I was to log into any MMO, It would be the same. Hoping 38 Studios is going to chang things, but I am not hold my breath.

Alik Steel

Does going mainstream, Make MMO’s go dumb?

As our MMO’s go more mainstream, I see the MMO’s change more and more. It seems to me that in order for games to make a stand in the mainstream.

1) They must be made for people to jump in and out of with out a thought.

2) They have to make it where you are not tied down to doing any thing for more than a few minutes at a time.

3) The player must be able to get to any area of the game in a moments time.

4) The mob’s or what ever you are dealing with, Must be something that is not to hard to deal with.

5) And new to the line up is, That you must be able to pay real money for in-game items.

Most of the stuff on the list you can find on any console games.

To me this a dumbing down of MMO’s.

Look at most of the new MMO’s coming out and I am sure you will find most of the things on the list, or look at some of the older games out there and see how they are working on making the MMO’s fit the list. Are they maybe done with the list and now looking for new ways to fit into the mainstream area.

I am not bitching, Well yes I am, But I understand why all the MMO’s are going to this. MONEY!!! Thats right, dirty, greedy, money, and don’t you dare get on your soap box, Every MMO is made to make money, and YOU know it. Knowing why they are doing it, and understanding, Does not mean I like it. I am a old school MMO player, So I want to have to use my brain, and think my way through something. If it takes hours, so be it.

Alik Steel

Invited to do a Recruit-A-Friend to …

WOW! Yep, I have a friend that I worked with a long time ago that sent it to me.

I work at the Delta cargo center here in Mobile, So I see a lot of people. Some of them, like the othere day, Are friends from times past. After we took care of his cargo, We sat and talked of the good ol’ days. At some point our gaming came up, I found out that way back when, He was playing EQ when it first came out and now he is playing WOW. After I poked at him for playing WOW, We started to really talk MMO’s and where we saw them going. As close as we could figger-it. WOW is starting to push there game play in the direction that EQ2 is at. I was also telling him how it looked to me, EQ2 seems (and this is just me talking here) to be pushing in the direction of WOW with there game play.

Note: I’m not going to get into what I think they are doing to EQ2, Trying to not to all ways talk ill of the MMO I call home.

By the end we had given each othere our Email’s. and have sent out the recruit a friend’s to each other.

Will WOW be my new main MMO, Never, But if I have fun with them in WOW and I have the money for the sub, sure I would pay to play with good friends. Will he change his main to EQ2, I would think never for him as well. But it will be something to see how I like WOW when I have people to go hunting with.

Oh and you may have seen that I made sure I did not put WOW or World of Warcraft in the name. I did not want people thinking I was trying for numbers. That is after my two post I did to see if having the name in the title would really work or not.

Now to find the time to play the dang thing.

Alik Steel

The Battle of Scheduling Game Updates in MMO’s

I play EQ2 and from the start we have had our game updates every month. From the start of the year 2005 till the end of the year 2008 we have had a game update every month. Then at the start of this year (2009) we (EQ2) started getting our game updates quarterly, Every three months we get a very big update. They are loaded down with a ton of new content. Back when we had monthly update we get a lot less per update, and it seemed to come at us very fast and dirty.

This is where the battle starts, When you have monthly game updates and the content is on the small side, but you get more content in just a month. You don’t feel like you are missing any thing, Are at lest I never did. Also when things go bad in a update, you only have to deal with the crap on the forums for a month, As long as you make sure the next update is a great one. The down side to this is that you only get a big content game update a few times eack year, the only one that is a for sure big one is the one that came out at the same time that the new expansion went live. Also with fast game updates you get dirty content that has had very little time to be tested.

With the quarterly game update you get a ton of content, and the dev’s have a lot more time to work on it all. Some times it’s as if it’s a mini expansion. It’s like a party when they come out, Every one is running around looking for the new content, and checking out has been changed, Hoping the change is for the good. It’s good times all around. There is two down sides that I see for the longer wait, First it’s a longer wait, as in the people that live the game eat’s the content up in a little over a month and are sitting for all most two months for the next game update. Also if it turns out to be a bad game update every one has to deal with it for the next three months. The three months will seem like years if it’s real bad.

So you have fast and short on content vs slow and long in content. Both can and will make players happy, but it all ways comes down to the down side. What it comes to is what down side can you deal with best.

I think I would like to see a bi-monthly game update. This would be a little faster than quarterly and also would give the faster conten more time in test so it came out into live as good clean content.

Alik Steel

Is WOW the last WOW for MMO’s?

 

I don’t play WOW and unless all my othere games go under I don’t see me ever playing it, but I know there is a lot of you out there that do play it and that means that it must have something to it that keeps you all into it far as long as it has. I would have to think that it has to do with the Wowfactor of coming across a game that just has every thing that you ever wanted out of a game. EQ had that way about it for me. I think the only reason I left that game was because I was getting into it’s little brother EQ2.

The first time you log into a game, Has a lot to do with if you play it for every thing you can or if it’s a game that you play for a bit then sit it to the side. Just going back to it from time to time. There has only been a few MMO’s that has even done that. Don’t get me wrong, what ever game you my be playing may be that game for you and thats great. But what I am talking about is the games that set the bar for all othere MMO’s. EQ was the first to do it, Then came WOW and made the numbers that played EQ look like it was second hand game.

Now WOW has been out for a few years now, Not real sure how long, but for sure a few years. And we have all read time and time again about this new MMO was going to be the wow killer. I don’t think there will ever be a WOW killer. I beleave that WOW will go on for many more years and getting smaller as it does, Untill it ends up like all the othere MMO’s out there now.

Speaking of all them othere MMO’s out there, I beleave they are the reason that there will never be anothere WOW again. There is just to much out there to pick from. True when WOW first went live there was some othere MMO’s out there. but nothing like it is now. All the free-to-play and browser MMO’s on top of what is out there now. Some old with a few new. We have never had so many MMO’s and it’s only going to grow in number. With so much to pick from, and so many hiting in there on nich. Everyone not going to all go running to only one game. It’s just never going to happen again. Unless something bad happens and all but one or two MMO’s are all that there is left.

 

It’s time to face it. The old days are dead and we have moved into a time where MMO’s are becoming just like the console games, and every one and there brother seem’s to be making a MMO.

 

Alik Steel