Help...FFXI

[Daeval]

I am the only one that sees the dreadful timesink of MMORPGs as some kind of design flaw? Aside from the extremely boring combat and repetetive.. well.. everything else.. nearly every problem they have is related to the more play time = success mentality. Especially the way their economies go to crap in about a month because some people have no lives, or the hideously long travel times.

Edited February 15, 2005 by Daeval

[Wizard]

Jumping MMOs is a bad idea. Why? Because you'll be bouncing back between both. I garuntee it.

[Gryph]

I am the only one that sees the dreadful timesink of MMORPGs as some kind of design flaw?  Aside from the extremely boring combat and repetetive.. well.. everything else.. nearly every problem they have is related to the more play time = success mentality.  Especially the way their economies go to crap in about a month because some people have no lives, or the hideously long travel times.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're not alone. I feel the same way about MMOGs. That's why I hate them so much. You spend sooo much time doing the same stuff over and over again and you pay them a monthly fee to do it! If I ever want to do that, I'll just daydream thank you very much.

[Daeval]

I am the only one that sees the dreadful timesink of MMORPGs as some kind of design flaw?  Aside from the extremely boring combat and repetetive.. well.. everything else.. nearly every problem they have is related to the more play time = success mentality.  Especially the way their economies go to crap in about a month because some people have no lives, or the hideously long travel times.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're not alone. I feel the same way about MMOGs. That's why I hate them so much. You spend sooo much time doing the same stuff over and over again and you pay them a monthly fee to do it! If I ever want to do that, I'll just daydream thank you very much.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only MMOG I've played that I didn't think fell into this category was PlanetSide. Granted, it's an FPS, not an RPG, and I played mostly in Beta. Earning experience still meant playing the game for a while, but that wasn't bad because the game was fun and varied, even at the first rank.

 

It's also the only MMOG I ever had any fun grouping in. All the players on your team (out of 3) start in one small spot, so it's pretty easy to get a decent group together. Someone who can fly a dropship will sit it in the courtyard and everyone will load up as they join. When the dropship's full, the pilot will take it out into the warzone and the squad leader will pick a decent place to land and either defend or attack an outpost.

 

PlanetSide was by far the most original and interesting MMOG I've ever played, and I've played quite a few. Star Wars wasn't TOO bad, but the economy was so flocked it wasn't funny, and combat still broke down to autocombat with bonus buttons.

Edited February 15, 2005 by Daeval

[Wizard]

Theres a free trial for PS now. And you get free Fileplanet Subscriber's too. I haven't much touch with it since it was retail, but it was pretty fun during the beta, the expansion I hear has mechs. Makes me so wanna start playing again.

 

Funny things can be done too, like doing a conga line after taking an enemy base over. Then getting owned by the very same force you forced out!

[Gryph]

I am the only one that sees the dreadful timesink of MMORPGs as some kind of design flaw?  Aside from the extremely boring combat and repetetive.. well.. everything else.. nearly every problem they have is related to the more play time = success mentality.  Especially the way their economies go to crap in about a month because some people have no lives, or the hideously long travel times.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're not alone. I feel the same way about MMOGs. That's why I hate them so much. You spend sooo much time doing the same stuff over and over again and you pay them a monthly fee to do it! If I ever want to do that, I'll just daydream thank you very much.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only MMOG I've played that I didn't think fell into this category was PlanetSide. Granted, it's an FPS, not an RPG, and I played mostly in Beta. Earning experience still meant playing the game for a while, but that wasn't bad because the game was fun and varied, even at the first rank.

 

It's also the only MMOG I ever had any fun grouping in. All the players on your team (out of 3) start in one small spot, so it's pretty easy to get a decent group together. Someone who can fly a dropship will sit it in the courtyard and everyone will load up as they join. When the dropship's full, the pilot will take it out into the warzone and the squad leader will pick a decent place to land and either defend or attack an outpost.

 

PlanetSide was by far the most original and interesting MMOG I've ever played, and I've played quite a few. Star Wars wasn't TOO bad, but the economy was so flocked it wasn't funny, and combat still broke down to autocombat with bonus buttons.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I followed Planetside for a while and it looked fun because it was an FPS game...by the time it came out I stopped caring. But it sounded like a fun game with massive gun battles and stuff like that.

 

I'm waiting for a MMOFPSRPG that has modern combat at a global scale where different countries and factions can spread and take control. Kind of like Battlefield 2 on a much larger scale.

[OverlordMondo]

MMO haters!

 

Seriously, what game isn't like that? Nearly every RPG rewards you for spending more time on the game. Other games, in general, reward you for doing it as fast as possible, but to do it as fast as possible, you have to drop a fair amount of time into it.

 

Also, define repetitive. You can break almost every game down into a simple step by step process and make it sound repetitive.

 

The economies can be problematic.

 

The travel times are only really long in a crappy MMO. Like Star Wars Galaxies. In fact, SWG can't be used for any further arguments you have against MMOs.

 

The monthly fee is trivial, at best. Working at minimum wage, you'll get enough money to pay for it in one or two hours. Working a job that doesn't suck, you'll get the money in an hour or less. If you don't work because you're a poor little preteen, then you're screwed. But I know at lest one of the plaintiffs (and I'm pretty sure both of them) are in their 20s or very late teens.

[Gryph]

The kind of RPGs I enjoy have a tight well written story with excellent dialogue options. That's one reason I don't enjoy MMORPGs.

 

You can break down anything in life to being repetative and a simple step by step process and make it sound repetative. There's just something about them...it's just there.

 

The principle of the monthly fee is what I don't like. Sure it's the only way they will survive and it's a minimal fee but I like to play with myself.

 

But Guild Wars looks interesting because it's an MMORPG that you don't pay a monthly fee for, once you pay your $50 for it, that's it.

 

But as I said earlier, if they come out with an MMOG that caters to my tastes then I'll be sure to give it a go. Till then I'll be what Linda Lovelace was to porn, an MMORPG vet turned anti-MMORPG activist.

[OverlordMondo]

it's a minimal fee but I like to play with myself.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Say what? Clarification?

[Gryph]

it's a minimal fee but I like to play with myself.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Say what? Clarification?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was a poorly written sentence. It is a minimal fee, I agree with you about that but I'd rather play with myself. I inserted a little masturbation self deprication "joke" in there.

[Daeval]

Seriously, what game isn't like that?  Nearly every RPG rewards you for spending more time on the game.  Other games, in general, reward you for doing it as fast as possible, but to do it as fast as possible, you have to drop a fair amount of time into it.

Single player RPGs reward you for spending more time by giving you more of the story. Little, if any story is to be found in MMORPGs. Stories can often be found on related websites, etc, but there it is not a reward for gameplay, and is often impersonal to the characters you play. Rewards for extended play time in MMORPGs are purely statistical, which is unlike (most good) single player RPGs.

 

Very few single player RPGs these days require you to wander around and level up for extended periods of time. You might have to pound through a dungeon, but it is always to reach the next story-point at the end. MMORPGs, on the other hand, are solidly based on a wandering type of gameplay, aimless but for the next level or powerful item.

 

Now that single-player RPGs are out of the way, we come to another important point. Most multiplayer games are balanced such that the difference between two players is (ideally) entirely based on skill. Players of FPS or RTS games, for example, acquire familiarity and knowledge of their games over time. This helps them out, to be sure, but they do not gain hard-coded statistical advantages for having played 20 out of 24 hours in a day. The same cannot be said of MMORPGs.

 

Also, define repetitive.  You can break almost every game down into a simple step by step process and make it sound repetitive.

Main Entry: rep·e·ti·tious

Function: adjective

: characterized or marked by repetition; especially : tediously repeating.

See also: Auto-attack, Camping, Crafting, Collection Quests.

 

The travel times are only really long in a crappy MMO.  Like Star Wars Galaxies.  In fact, SWG can't be used for any further arguments you have against MMOs.

I've never met an MMORPG whose travel times weren't either really long, making them tedious, or teleport-fast, completely destroying the point of the scale. Except maybe PlanetSide, since just about anyone could drive a vehicle. "Ships," to use the EQ term, are boring as hell. You wait for them to show up, then you sit and wait some more. Whee. Player-mounts or vehicles aren't a bad option, but they normally require you to have already spent 3 months walking everywhere or sitting on ships. If WOW has a better solution, I'm unaware. And SWG is actually one of the better ones I've played. If it weren't for the completely crappy economy I might actually have stayed on that one.

 

The monthly fee is trivial, at best.

I've been paid out of that monthly fee, so I know how trivial it is. Let's put it this way: When I worked at Sony, it took 7 people worth of monthly fees to employ me for a day - which doesn't even include the hefty benefits - and I was just one of a huge pool of tech support, testers, and GMs. And that says nothing of the bandwidth, servers, electricity, internal maintenance staff, developers, etc, etc, etc. Running those games is expensive as hell, and the monthly fee is more than justified.

[Daeval]

I'm waiting for a MMOFPSRPG that has modern combat at a global scale where different countries and factions can spread and take control. Kind of like Battlefield 2 on a much larger scale.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is basically what PlanetSide is, except it's near-future style sci-fi instead of modern combat, and the three sides are established instead of different groups popping up. All three sides fight for control of a number of continents, and there are bonuses to holding a whole continent - kind of like in Risk.

[Skythe]

You'll sooner than later get sick of playing FF11. Then after awhile go back to playing it again. I've been doing that since it was first released on PC. Same goes for UO. Anywho. Just remember that the game will always still be there after you turn it off.

[Gryph]

I'm waiting for a MMOFPSRPG that has modern combat at a global scale where different countries and factions can spread and take control. Kind of like Battlefield 2 on a much larger scale.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is basically what PlanetSide is, except it's near-future style sci-fi instead of modern combat, and the three sides are established instead of different groups popping up. All three sides fight for control of a number of continents, and there are bonuses to holding a whole continent - kind of like in Risk.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, but if only it was modern (near-modern) then it would be great. I remember I was excited about World War II Online until it came out. Wow, was that a failure or what.

[Lucandrake]

I rather play a MMOFPS then a MMORPG, because the fact MMORPG's take no skill unless your in a higher level, and even then it's just like playing chess exept with spells and abilitys. Yes I do pay, but not for this month, like I said earlier, if it keeps on going like this, im going to uninstall it and go for a game like planentside, even tho I never heard of it, but diso and gryph got weird tasts in gaming, not like the general public, wich helps me toward the decision of buying a mmo. Well, thanks for the info guys, and the storyline for FFXI is more like the combanation of middle aged history with FFIX and FFT storlylines in one. It's weird and strange, but it's the only FF I've seen that try's to stick with humans and realism, unlike games like FFVII were your in a futuristic timezome but a gun is consedered a rare weopon.