This is subjective, but these are 5 areas where I believe modern MMO's have gone wrong.
5 Areas Modern MMO's Have Failed
- Story - I put this as number one, because I am often finding myself breaking immersion because the story line does not make sense. Or quests have no relevance. Even the items in game feel disjointed. If you introduce something into the game, make sure it belongs there, and it fits the story and just makes sense.
- Catering to Solo - I will start this off by saying I do not believe solo adventuring content is bad, but it should never be priority. I stated this in a post elsewhere, but class or race story lines are good spots for solo content. Things people can do in their down time. I also think this could be offset with the Sphere system mentioned in my previous blog about top things MMOs did well.
- Reason 1: If anyone can get to end game with out the aid of a group, then they really don't know how to play their class with others. Not to mention the lack of a challenge does not give any kind of feeling of accomplishment. In World of Warcraft, I got to level 90 in less than a week, and all I could think is big deal, no one cares. Personally, I wouldn't be opposed to having to complete a 5 man raid quest to level up for each of the last 5 levels, that might be taking it too far though.
- Reason 2: If you can solo to end of game, and you don't rely on a group, then you could care less what role you play in the online community. You aren't held accountable by your actions, because the reliance on group is a consequence in itself.
- Reason 3: Why solo in an mmo? If I want to solo, I load up Skyrim. I personally like the team dynamic, relying on others to accomplish a tough task that not everyone including my 4 year old son can complete.
- Doing too much and not enough at the same time - I've seen too many games try to put forth too much content from the very beginning and failing to deliver on too many promises. As much as I loved Vanguard, at release they had a lot of low end content and next to no higher end. I think MMO's would be better served starting out with 20 levels as a max and solid content to match that, and then over the next year providing higher and higher level content. Until they have the level 50 content. You can get the game out the door that much faster, and have a much more solid game with attention to the finer details that really make a game world feel alive. There is nothing in the MMO handbook that says you have to start out with 50 levels worth of zones and content.
- Killing the Challenge - It seems like a lot of MMO's want to walk you through everything, even the raids feel like they are telling you how to kill the boss. One of the things about EQ that was really cool was the way I saw different guilds take down a boss. Rarely did people use the same tactics. Quests lead you through them one by one. Most people know where I am going with this. Make bosses, even mini bosses challenging. Situational even to the point you need certain classes to take down some of them. You want to bring down an Arcane boss, you better have a class that can siphon mana, etc.
- Consequences - Modern MMOs lack all consequence. You have people using zerg tactics and running in again and again to kill things with no skill. Rolling on items they don't need so they can sell it or break it down for mats. Leaving groups high and dry because they can. Imagine a game world where your actions negatively impacted your character, where you lost prestige for bailing on a group. Dying repeatedly you become diseased, lose xp, get tossed into an ocean far away from your group and can be summoned back only when the group is out of combat. Do not care what the consequence is, but there should be something to make the reward worth the risk.
Not my most elegant post haha, had a tiring day at work. Anyway, there are the 5 I had in mind.
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