PrestoAdam
Cadet
Hello all, it's been a VERY long time since I posted.
I've been hanging out in LOTRO, with great expectations of where that game would go. It is probably too soon to say that LOTRO will ultimately fail, but I already see signs of its faltering, and I thought I would share my opinion.
Ultimately, LOTRO suffers the same problem as WoW to me. It focuses to much on killing large amounts of virtual bad guys to get loot which neither significantly improves on stats, nor has the potential to increase wealth.
For myself, what I want in a game is adventure, fame, and wealth.
Let's talk about these things, and maybe the creators of HJ will take heed, or alternatively ignore another raving lunatic (me).
Adventure. It seems so obvious that players want to adventure, yet not since the days of Wizardry and Ultima IV have I really felt like I was on ground never before trod by another adventurer. It was riskier back then, dying had crappy consequences, but as I was the hero, I had abilities that mitigated those threats. When I play LOTRO, every 20 feet there is yet another creature I must depose to continue on my way. Yet, no matter which movie or book I pick, it rarely is the case that evil creatures so densely roam the land. Is creature-killing adventure? Not to me. It is just the easiest mold to code to for the developers of these environments. What happened to puzzles? Labyrinths? Secret Doors and traps? What happened to using my wits to accomplish a goal instead of my sword?
Fame. Yeah, I took out that foozle, and all by myself! Fame is great, but current games almost exclusively demonstrate fame through gear. Umm, I could give a rats butt what whiz bang shuriken of pain +127 you are carrying. Fame is about being well known, not about gear (to me). I loved walking around Stormwind in WoW when I was uber and as citizens walked by they would go, 'hey look, there goes the great (enter your name here)'. My question is why it never said anyone's name but mine? Heroes among heroes. There must be rewards that are less tangible, that still make a player feel like they are making a difference in the world.
Wealth. Greed really. And what is the point of obtaining loot if I have nothing to spend it on. You think I care if my horse goes .05% faster? Or hey thanks, I bought a dwelling that looks exactly like all of yours (tracked homes in virtual space). What about my wealth makes me feel unique? In LOTRO, I have plenty of coin, but it really doesn't matter. The game is becoming another space where the designers have to glue on entertainment.
What I want to see (HJ, here's the part where you should take heed) is a world that combines the adventure aspects of The Bard's Tale (the original series), wizardry, ultima, might and magic, etc with the puzzles of games like Betrayal at Krondor and NetHack (ahh, Nethack, still one of the best game even after 20 years). I want to see the game designed around a social locale like a Pub, where when you walk in, your fame determines how you are treated.
These are just some thoughts, and I know that in the long run, the game designers will realize that they will have to grow from their current paradigm. I have waited since Zork for it to happen, so I guess I can wait some time longer.
What do you think?
I've been hanging out in LOTRO, with great expectations of where that game would go. It is probably too soon to say that LOTRO will ultimately fail, but I already see signs of its faltering, and I thought I would share my opinion.
Ultimately, LOTRO suffers the same problem as WoW to me. It focuses to much on killing large amounts of virtual bad guys to get loot which neither significantly improves on stats, nor has the potential to increase wealth.
For myself, what I want in a game is adventure, fame, and wealth.
Let's talk about these things, and maybe the creators of HJ will take heed, or alternatively ignore another raving lunatic (me).
Adventure. It seems so obvious that players want to adventure, yet not since the days of Wizardry and Ultima IV have I really felt like I was on ground never before trod by another adventurer. It was riskier back then, dying had crappy consequences, but as I was the hero, I had abilities that mitigated those threats. When I play LOTRO, every 20 feet there is yet another creature I must depose to continue on my way. Yet, no matter which movie or book I pick, it rarely is the case that evil creatures so densely roam the land. Is creature-killing adventure? Not to me. It is just the easiest mold to code to for the developers of these environments. What happened to puzzles? Labyrinths? Secret Doors and traps? What happened to using my wits to accomplish a goal instead of my sword?
Fame. Yeah, I took out that foozle, and all by myself! Fame is great, but current games almost exclusively demonstrate fame through gear. Umm, I could give a rats butt what whiz bang shuriken of pain +127 you are carrying. Fame is about being well known, not about gear (to me). I loved walking around Stormwind in WoW when I was uber and as citizens walked by they would go, 'hey look, there goes the great (enter your name here)'. My question is why it never said anyone's name but mine? Heroes among heroes. There must be rewards that are less tangible, that still make a player feel like they are making a difference in the world.
Wealth. Greed really. And what is the point of obtaining loot if I have nothing to spend it on. You think I care if my horse goes .05% faster? Or hey thanks, I bought a dwelling that looks exactly like all of yours (tracked homes in virtual space). What about my wealth makes me feel unique? In LOTRO, I have plenty of coin, but it really doesn't matter. The game is becoming another space where the designers have to glue on entertainment.
What I want to see (HJ, here's the part where you should take heed) is a world that combines the adventure aspects of The Bard's Tale (the original series), wizardry, ultima, might and magic, etc with the puzzles of games like Betrayal at Krondor and NetHack (ahh, Nethack, still one of the best game even after 20 years). I want to see the game designed around a social locale like a Pub, where when you walk in, your fame determines how you are treated.
These are just some thoughts, and I know that in the long run, the game designers will realize that they will have to grow from their current paradigm. I have waited since Zork for it to happen, so I guess I can wait some time longer.
What do you think?