That's it! I Quit! (figurative title)

[Rics]

There are always certain things that get to us so bad that we're not able to get past them. A lot of MMOs have little things we dislike, but can endure. SomeMMOs have things that are just so horribly wrong it becomes the reason we don't play the game. That said, what is the one feature, lack of feature, or annoyance in Hero's Journey that would seal the deal for you and send the game on the back shelf never to be played again?
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I'll start. For me it would have to be the amount of characters per account. No matter how wonderful the game may be I just couldn't play it if we're only allowed 1-2 characters or if we have to pay more for extra slots. Everyone gets enjoyment out of the game in their own way, be it pvp, crafting, or RPing. For me it just so happens to be RPing, plots, and socializing. Limiting me to one character would take away from the aspect that I enjoy most and limit me to only playing one role.

Sad to say, I will not be playing HJ if we are not given multiple character slots per account.

 

[Sylvado]

Instant travel and global chat.

 

[Luciro]

One of the factors that makes me quit is a lack in variety.
EQ2's locals just all looked the same. There wasn't much variety in combat. Then their gear was sort of generic, even the epicly cool stuff.
Pretty much most games had that problem with me. I'm alright for about a year as long as the game play offers variety but usually shortly after maxxing and doing some great PvPing, I just get done with a game.
WoW, EQ1, Horizons (really quickly sadly), all the Korean games, and now City of Villains has worn it's welcome. I guess persistant games don't update quick enough for me. But, I can typically wait a few months and go back to play either of these and get a couple more months worth of giggles out of it.
Lack of variety in armor, quests, apperances, weapons, game play. The tedium.. That's one of the reasons I'm putting a few eggs in the basket with HJ. Hoping they surprise me soon with more info about how they wish to combat tedium.

 

[ShadowZERO]

Its too early for me to say on this subject. It will depend on how things are implemented. For me, "game-breakers" (as i like to call them) are never 1 particualr thing, but a combination of how many different things are handled. Genreally speaking, its more the "vision" of what the game is supposed to be that keeps me playing or not rather than 1 particualr this that is or isn't in the game.

One thing i'm a little worried about is simu's stance on Bots/Real money transactions. IMO people caught using third party programs should be permanently banned, as should those purchasing in game items with RL cash. There should be tools build into the game to help find those that do cheat. If simu doesn't enforce things like this, the HJ economy may very well go down the drain. A ruined economy would be one thing that COULD(if it got bad enough) become a game breaker for me.

 

[milamber]

I have to agree with ShadowZero that a ruined economy was one of the things that really turned me off to WoW. But, the biggest deal breaker for me is the lack of originality - aka same game play over and over again. At a certain point in WoW it became a grind. And while I did have several characters in WoW I typically only played two or three of them since I wanted to keep up with the friends I had made in WoW.

 

[Nnem]

I played DAoC. There was an expansion that came out, that literally caused thousands of people to quit the game. What Mythic (the company ) ended up doing, was creating servers that did not include that particular expansion.

I thought it was kind of funny, but a good idea.

 

[thebiv]

raiding, or at least the WoW form of raiding. I have a job, I have a social life. I don't want to play yet another game where in order to be good you have to sacrifice ALL of your free time. Im not necissarilly opposed to raiding, as I feel raids on par with WoW's Onyxia/world bosses would be acceptable. Raids that might take some time and practice at first, but essentially never last over 2hrs.

 

[PrestoAdam]

'End-game' content is what pulled me away from WoW. The fact that I had to raid the same instances over and over, farming gear I did not need. And for what purpose? To waste time, imo.

So for me, the deal breaker for HJ would be if the core game philosophy suddenly changes because I am now at the highest level.

 

[Rics]

Yeah, my "game-breakers" are instant things that would cause me to quit immidiately. Another one for me is seeing numbers in names or leet speak in names. I played Lineage II for 3 days then uninstalled it. Didn't even finish off the free month due to the name issue. And I can honestly say that I doubt I'd even give HJ a chance if I only had 1 or 2 character slots.

I do have other things that gradually get annoying and cause me to leave though, as most games do.

milamber? I knew a milamber on Feathermoon

 

[Bordolaf]

I agree that "leet" speak will turn me off to a game faster than anything.
One other thing that will cause me to leave a game quickly is a lack of balance between solo and raid content. Not everyone has the time raid and the movement of some of the more popular titles out there seems to be to a raid mentality.

 

[z80]

more tedium, less fun in all it's forms.
-raid or quit dynamics (i'd prefer raid or do something else just as rewarding dynamics. raiding should be only one of many methods of getting high end rewards)
-punishing faction grinds (faction standing progress would be better if it increased at the same rate as normal xp and leveled up much the same way)
-soulbinding items (won't really make me quite but i seriously hate that and i'd gladly play 25 dollars a month for a good fantasy mmo that doesn't do it and sh** on everything else)
-any dynamic that impedes my progress because the devs are anally biased against my playstyle (you know...the whole "what we were doing before capping out" thing.)

 

[Daax]

One big thing for me would be the button layout. I really don't want a big layout and ten thousand abilities like WoW. It got really confusing and really hard for me to remember every button and what key it was on at higher lvls. I'm sure alot of you never have this problem but I do.

 

[Eve_CinVin]

Mostly, grinding boredom. After that, all the other cookie cutter EQ stuff already mentioned that takes the fun out of the game.

I would like to ask z80 why he doesn't like soulbinding items.

 

[WatchMaker]

Honestly, I have no problem with 1337 speak. Infact, I love it. It can be very funny to use at times, and I have yet to see it ever OVER abused in a mmorpg. Its only annoying to the hardcore RP'ers, in which case, any normal non-rp'ing talk would be just as bad.

I love end-game content. Infact, its one of the main features CoH is lacking. There is nothing to do but raiding Hamidon. A feature that is almost demanded to make a mmorpg complete.

Grinding is not a feature. You cannot prevent grinding. You don't -have- to grind. So please, stop complaining about it.

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

For me it would have ot be sudden unannounced drastic changes in game play.

...There is nothing to do but raiding Hamidon...

...You cannot prevent grinding. You don't -have- to grind. So please, stop complaining about it.

er...'m confused

 

[z80]

I would like to ask z80 why he doesn't like soulbinding items.

Because it's my bloody item. It's just the principle of it being mine. As such, I should be able to give it to whomever I please. It's mine.
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Grinding is not a feature. You cannot prevent grinding. You don't -have- to grind. So please, stop complaining about it.

There are degrees of grinding. Some grind is worse than others. Some is so light it doesn't even feel like grind. For example, going from lvl 1-60 in WoW isn't a bad grind. Feels about right. Grinding up to exalted or revered with orgrimmar on the other hand is mindnumbingly godawful. People are well within their rights to not want that kind of grind because it's less fun more tedium.

 

[Sylvado]

Because it's my bloody item. It's just the principle of it being mine. As such, I should be able to give it to whomever I please. It's mine.
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There are degrees of grinding. Some grind is worse than others. Some is so light it doesn't even feel like grind. For example, going from lvl 1-60 in WoW isn't a bad grind. Feels about right. Grinding up to exalted or revered with orgrimmar on the other hand is mindnumbingly godawful. People are well within their rights to not want that kind of grind because it's less fun more tedium.

Hide all numbers for skills and attributes and don't have any levels. Then there is no grind and players just play the game.

 

[z80]

Perhaps. But then a site similar to thottbot will come up and list relative item value rankings. Hiding the grind means there's still a grind. You will still wander off to a point where you can't wander any further or you will get killed. At that point you will still have to grind to get strong enough to pass that point safely. I'm not against grind because it is an important part of the rpg experience. I'm only against ridiculous excessive extreme grind.

 

[QuantumWire]

Isn't "grinding" the name given to endlessly repeating one single task to achieve a certain goal? With that the definition, leveling in WoW in general is not a grind since you loads of different quests which help you level up quickly (apart from the last levels). Grinding started when you had to endlessly kill a special class of monsters to achieve a faction or repeatedly run the same instance to get a specific item or farm Tyrs Hand for gold.
(My definition may be wrong, though, corrections are welcome).

Anyway, back to the topic:
- Grinding (as defined above) would be a reason for me to stop playing. As somebody put it: I don't want my games to feel like work.
- I don't think I could stand leet-speech and power-gaming-talk in the general chat in a MMORPG which is centered around Roleplaying.

 

[Thaos Nightwind]

Isn't "grinding" the name given to endlessly repeating one single task to achieve a certain goal? With that the definition, leveling in WoW in general is not a grind since you loads of different quests which help you level up quickly (apart from the last levels). Grinding started when you had to endlessly kill a special class of monsters to achieve a faction or repeatedly run the same instance to get a specific item or farm Tyrs Hand for gold.
(My definition may be wrong, though, corrections are welcome).

Anyway, back to the topic:
- Grinding (as defined above) would be a reason for me to stop playing. As somebody put it: I don't want my games to feel like work.
- I don't think I could stand leet-speech and power-gaming-talk in the general chat in a MMORPG which is centered around Roleplaying.

"Grinding" is probably a subjective thing. To me its the entire process of repeatedly getting/completing quest that require you to kill beast. As well as what you describe. Which is one of the features that attracted me to HJ. The alternatives that may be available for completing missions other than just forging right in there and start slaying.

For example figure out a way to collapse a bridge to accomplish the same ends. Figure out a way to quench a dragon's fire in order to weaken it or reflect that fire back on it to kill it. Figure out a way to sneak and cut down a tree at the right moment to fall on an unsuspecting group of baddies or, get at the right angle to throw a pebble at an Ulkar so it thinks the beast you need to kill did it and so the Ulkar kills it instead of you having to. (break out the popcorn and watch the action).

See that goon you need to slay walking under that heavily suspended primative clock? Why can't I trace out the ropes holding it to find the right one and shoot it with a bow SWOOSH BAM!!! Dead villan etc. Hoping to be able to use my head as opposed to just making sure my stats are high enough on my skills and weaps etc.

I like the idea of being able to scan the enviroment and seeing if there could be some other way to do something other than the constant head long frontal attack (grinding) as the only option.