Steele Phoenix
Cadet
I have played most of the MMOs that have come out. It seems that each has had their moments that were fun or ideas that were almost complete. Often times my group talks about what we liked from different games that we have played. So let’s see a list. What have you liked about past games you have played?
Star Wars Galaxies (Beta and pre first expansion)
There have been a LOT of pitfalls from this game, however many of their concepts were well done. I really enjoyed the cantina environment in the beginning; it is perhaps the closest the graphical games have come to a community compared with Gemstone.
The ability of player bands to form that seemed like they had worked together for a long time was great. Loved how one band member could ‘lead’ the band and everyone would play music and move in sync with each other. Really added to the immersion of the cantina. Then the ability to add dancing to the band in the background just took this one step higher. Would have liked to see a player be able to actually bartend to some degree. This could be done, but only for a role-playing effect.
On our world several player bands actually formed that you could book for functions. Our guild sponsored a guild party night. This was by far the best memory anyone in my guild had from this game. We brought in two bands to play in different areas of our guild hall, had several pets out from creature handlers, and had an aquarium setup from dropped items in the game world, and a large fireworks display at the end of the night. Several years later I still have guild members talking to me about the experiences from that night. So several key elements came together to make this a great night. Again the player bands, the ability to be creative with dropped items, the ability to make and set off a large fireworks display (there was a system to hold and launch many fireworks easily) and a guild hall that we could decorate as we wanted.
Crafting in this game was nearly great. Loved the idea of shifting resources that required the crafter to reset collecting machines every couple weeks. However actually collecting the resources became very time intensive and repetitive VERY quickly. Having to spend several hours every day, or lose resources, was a serious drain on the fun factor. The creating of items with varied quality material was really great also. Gave a good reward for those that looked for the good resources. One thing that was missed though was that the demand for many different types of items dwindled fairly quickly as items didn’t wear out. This quickly caused the market to be glutted with crafted items.
Dark Age of Camelot (Beta through 1st expansion)
This game is perhaps the best (IMO) implementation of group of group PvP combat I have played in. There were certainly class balance issues. But the actual system in play was fairly well balanced for small groups. The rewards with character skills were also interesting, made for a nice goal and were mostly appropriate. So far no game has made my heart rate jump as much as DAOC when I saw another group approaching or while stalking another group.
The linking of Realm vs. Realm (RvR) status (number of control points held) opening up a vast dungeon was also quite a boon. On busy nights the dungeon would change hands several times leading to vast pitched fights between many groups in different parts of the dungeon as the new faction swept through. Holding off the waves of enemies or devising traps with multiple groups defending in tandem was a lot of fun. This also created a reason to plan and participate in the RvR going on in the different zones. This dungeon (Darkness Falls) also had several built in good points. One is that it supported several different play styles all within one dungeon.
- Raid level areas
- Static name spawn points off to the sides and out of the way
- Lots of area for roving groups to experience hunt
The second good point: Loot was a matter of collecting tokens from the monsters and turning in said tokens for exactly what a character wanted. No more random loot that might or might not actually help the group of players out.
Another piece that was done well is the implementation of Battle Grounds. Allowing like level characters the ability to compete against like level characters has been unmatched in other games. It was easy to get to this area and usually competitive for everyone. Which made it an instant hit. The area was large enough to have strategic and tactically important areas. A well working group could function very well without having to resort to “zerging sides”.
The idea with DAOC that was a near hit is the mode of transportation. Use of horse routes both fit the fantasy setting and also allowed players to gather fairly effectively without really removing the notion of distance. If a player new the horse routes well, usually there was very little running needed to at least get into the general area (zone) to meet up with friends. Some criticized the actual implementation as not being flexible enough, but IMO it was a lot better than magically gating around the world (ala Plane of Knowledge in EQ).
Planetside (Beta through 1st expansion)
Couple really great things from this game. Easily into the meat of the game without needing to worry about levels or how much time was available to play. The ability to drop into hot zones really made this work well. This doesn’t translate very well to a fantasy world directly. But perhaps a mini game type approach for something with this type of access should be kept in mind.
Training simulation allowed new characters to get familiar with weapons and vehicles without having to learn while competing. This allowed new players to become at least competent with the different aspects of the game and really reduced the frustration levels while learning a new system.
Everquest 2 (Beta through 1st expansion)
Crafting profession was very viable option as an only character. Also each crafter was highly specialized in that they had to choose a single class to work within. Resources could be easily gathered (early game) or bought from the broker (bazaar). All the different crafters had a very firm niche they filled in the game, though a few did suffer from the lack of decay (similar to SWG).
PvP system also had a built in system to limit the levels of competing characters. Again this really helped limit the amount of frustration by requiring the characters to be at least of similar power.
World of Warcraft (pre 1st expansion)
The individual home starting areas did a great job introducing the different races and set a very good tone for all of them. Made playing a new character rather interesting through the first 15 – 20 levels as new content was seen. This also did a good job of exposing the lore for each race and could see their position in the game world.
World area was also very nice. The continuous world with different zones was done very well. While each zone certainly had a specific feel to it the blending of the zones really improved the immersion of the world.
Star Wars Galaxies (Beta and pre first expansion)
There have been a LOT of pitfalls from this game, however many of their concepts were well done. I really enjoyed the cantina environment in the beginning; it is perhaps the closest the graphical games have come to a community compared with Gemstone.
The ability of player bands to form that seemed like they had worked together for a long time was great. Loved how one band member could ‘lead’ the band and everyone would play music and move in sync with each other. Really added to the immersion of the cantina. Then the ability to add dancing to the band in the background just took this one step higher. Would have liked to see a player be able to actually bartend to some degree. This could be done, but only for a role-playing effect.
On our world several player bands actually formed that you could book for functions. Our guild sponsored a guild party night. This was by far the best memory anyone in my guild had from this game. We brought in two bands to play in different areas of our guild hall, had several pets out from creature handlers, and had an aquarium setup from dropped items in the game world, and a large fireworks display at the end of the night. Several years later I still have guild members talking to me about the experiences from that night. So several key elements came together to make this a great night. Again the player bands, the ability to be creative with dropped items, the ability to make and set off a large fireworks display (there was a system to hold and launch many fireworks easily) and a guild hall that we could decorate as we wanted.
Crafting in this game was nearly great. Loved the idea of shifting resources that required the crafter to reset collecting machines every couple weeks. However actually collecting the resources became very time intensive and repetitive VERY quickly. Having to spend several hours every day, or lose resources, was a serious drain on the fun factor. The creating of items with varied quality material was really great also. Gave a good reward for those that looked for the good resources. One thing that was missed though was that the demand for many different types of items dwindled fairly quickly as items didn’t wear out. This quickly caused the market to be glutted with crafted items.
Dark Age of Camelot (Beta through 1st expansion)
This game is perhaps the best (IMO) implementation of group of group PvP combat I have played in. There were certainly class balance issues. But the actual system in play was fairly well balanced for small groups. The rewards with character skills were also interesting, made for a nice goal and were mostly appropriate. So far no game has made my heart rate jump as much as DAOC when I saw another group approaching or while stalking another group.
The linking of Realm vs. Realm (RvR) status (number of control points held) opening up a vast dungeon was also quite a boon. On busy nights the dungeon would change hands several times leading to vast pitched fights between many groups in different parts of the dungeon as the new faction swept through. Holding off the waves of enemies or devising traps with multiple groups defending in tandem was a lot of fun. This also created a reason to plan and participate in the RvR going on in the different zones. This dungeon (Darkness Falls) also had several built in good points. One is that it supported several different play styles all within one dungeon.
- Raid level areas
- Static name spawn points off to the sides and out of the way
- Lots of area for roving groups to experience hunt
The second good point: Loot was a matter of collecting tokens from the monsters and turning in said tokens for exactly what a character wanted. No more random loot that might or might not actually help the group of players out.
Another piece that was done well is the implementation of Battle Grounds. Allowing like level characters the ability to compete against like level characters has been unmatched in other games. It was easy to get to this area and usually competitive for everyone. Which made it an instant hit. The area was large enough to have strategic and tactically important areas. A well working group could function very well without having to resort to “zerging sides”.
The idea with DAOC that was a near hit is the mode of transportation. Use of horse routes both fit the fantasy setting and also allowed players to gather fairly effectively without really removing the notion of distance. If a player new the horse routes well, usually there was very little running needed to at least get into the general area (zone) to meet up with friends. Some criticized the actual implementation as not being flexible enough, but IMO it was a lot better than magically gating around the world (ala Plane of Knowledge in EQ).
Planetside (Beta through 1st expansion)
Couple really great things from this game. Easily into the meat of the game without needing to worry about levels or how much time was available to play. The ability to drop into hot zones really made this work well. This doesn’t translate very well to a fantasy world directly. But perhaps a mini game type approach for something with this type of access should be kept in mind.
Training simulation allowed new characters to get familiar with weapons and vehicles without having to learn while competing. This allowed new players to become at least competent with the different aspects of the game and really reduced the frustration levels while learning a new system.
Everquest 2 (Beta through 1st expansion)
Crafting profession was very viable option as an only character. Also each crafter was highly specialized in that they had to choose a single class to work within. Resources could be easily gathered (early game) or bought from the broker (bazaar). All the different crafters had a very firm niche they filled in the game, though a few did suffer from the lack of decay (similar to SWG).
PvP system also had a built in system to limit the levels of competing characters. Again this really helped limit the amount of frustration by requiring the characters to be at least of similar power.
World of Warcraft (pre 1st expansion)
The individual home starting areas did a great job introducing the different races and set a very good tone for all of them. Made playing a new character rather interesting through the first 15 – 20 levels as new content was seen. This also did a good job of exposing the lore for each race and could see their position in the game world.
World area was also very nice. The continuous world with different zones was done very well. While each zone certainly had a specific feel to it the blending of the zones really improved the immersion of the world.
