Caltrops - MMORPG Level Treadmill

Forum Overview :: MMORPG Level Treadmill

by Debaser 12/03/2004, 7:26pm PST

Rightbug wrote:

It strikes me that you have discovered through experience that you do not enjoy this gaming genre.

Well, yes and no. See, I keep thinking I [i]would[/i] like the experience if it didn't plod along so much. I didn't want people to Justify Their Opinion just for the sheer sake of the content, here. I'm a huge fa(n/g) when it comes to single player RPGs. I enjoy gaining new abilities, watching stat bars rise, and pretending to be a female elf. A game that could give me that experience perpetually in a multiplayer environment would be great; but I do need some sort of motivation beyond abstract experience/power increases. Every MMORPG to date features combat that's plodding and dull, scenery that might be cool if you didn't have to spend three weeks to get to see any of it beyond your barren little starter area, unbalanced character building that's exposed in an FAQ within a month of the game's release, and an environment that's shallower and more lifeless than Morrowind's. None of these need be inherent failings of the genre. But when the fan/reviewer base will gobble the knob of any variation on the theme that's less crappy than the original Everquest, you become more than a little cynical about the whole thing. I would have completely ignored this game except it's by all counts the greatest MMORPG EVAR, which meant it stood a snowball's chance in hell of not utterly sucking. Some sort of explanation of why it was so well recieved might allow me to judge whether or not this was the case without blowing my fifty bucks first.

The THRILLING CONCLUSION:

Being nothing if not a spendthrift and masochist, I went out and bought the game yesterday. Judgement: Pretty good. I cringed when my first quest was "kill 6 mottled boars", and there's still a bit too much of that type of nonsense, but actually making the quests scripted rather than generated allows them to not to all be variations on the same exact theme. Plus they make a point of getting you up and exploring within a few levels, rather than confining everyone to one city area for a long time. You never have to stop and heal or replenish mana. Ever. Well, at least I haven't yet. New abilities come quick and regular and they actually alter the way you approach combat to some degree, rather than just being more powerful attacks or special abilities you never use because they suck compared to the more powerful attacks. Combat's not a great leap forward (Why do all MMORPGs feature that stupid ability cool-down waiting period? Is it supposed to be some sort of lag equalizer?) but it really does move quickly and by level six (or about three hours of play, including time spent dicking around trying different classes) I actually had impetus to think a little bit on how I approached things. Eye gouge to stun, circle around, backstab isn't Go for the internet generation or anything, but it give me something to do other than click on icons as they ungrey. I don't know if it's strictly psychological or what, but having many quests on your log at once makes it feel more like you've got real short term goals, whereas the usual style of having a single character assign you one quest at a time always just reinforced the crushing level treadmill design-scheme.

All of this isn't enough to make it OMG greatest game ever, but it's no less worth 50 bucks than, say, Morrowind which I probably only really played for a month anyway.