Superior Character Development ( Discussion)

[Darkhawke]

Why .. Why ..do Asherons Call, Anarchy Online and Ultima Online have vastly and far superior character development than every MMO that has released since them...

Its really not even close in any way , do devs really just herd the masses thru kill 10 wolves and hand you gear .. Ohh and grats you leveled please progress on our skill tree as we see fit...

And a game like GW2.. fun for what is . is also guilty of just handing out everything on a n easy path...


I returned again to Anarchy to check out the lates changes and again you are completly engulfed by charcarter development .. Working carefully towards that skill and tweaking your way to squeeze into gear or implant .. Scouring Mission terminals hoping to find an new piece of gear as a reward if you can complete it..

It makes other games seem shallow , contrived ,linear rides in everyway , and i know AC and UO do the same thing ..


Why wont devs push this genre further instead of making Easy Rides thru there game , there obviously is a market as all these games are survivng for 10-15 years .. so why .. someone tell me why we just get the same game over and over now .. And i hate to use the term but they all really are Wow clones with slight twists ..Now understand the do bring some fun also but boy do i feel dumbed down when i play them compared to these other games..

Even the combat all the games since Wow are just skill spamming near thotless zombified facerollin clk fests..And in AO , Ac or UO you had better be prepared and think thru your combat and approach . your preparation is paramount or death along with a meaningful death penalty are imminent....


Why?????

[Ashenfield]

It all comes down to the stock market in my opinion.
The stock market doesn't reward innovation or creativity, it rewards financial productivity.

Boards of directors and CFO's and the like have absolutely 0 interest in making a good, intelligent progressive game. They want to make the most money possible using the smallest amount of resources. (Why design when you can adapt and borrow for much cheaper?)

They don't have any interest in a self sustaining small community of gamers that would enjoy a game like you describe. They want to hit the largest demographic of people they can, take the money and run. Of this demographic, gamers interested in an intelligent, challenging game are sadly the minority. The realy money is in the casual gaming converts. The stay at home moms, and the people who think that Michael Bay is a modern day film prophet.

If a company could run for 100 years, employing 10,000 people with a living wage without losing or gaining a penny, it would be a complete failure in today's "free market" because it's not buying anyone a yacht, or making investors free money. Forget the fact that it is supporting 10,000 families.

We'll have to look for privately owned independents to give us the kind of game you are looking for. Anything produced by a publicly traded company will inevitably fall into the same rut as what you described once the business school grads start trying to wring every penny out of it to pay for their ridiculous golden parachute funds.

[Dizzarian]

Ash is exactly right on why it happens the way it does. Also the sad truth is that most mmo players don't want that level of complexity that we do. These types of games that you're referring to will forever be delegated to being niche games. There are games out there being very profitable do this though, I mean look at eve online, it goes against everything in every way and doing very well being hardcore but it's a niche game and does not pull the numbers that most investors are looking for.

[Spidubic]

WoW screwed with the numbers. Millions of subscribers instead of 100's of thousands. They set the bar that everyone want to beat even when the chances of having their number of subscribers is slim to none. WoW opened up the casual market and that has many more people to draw from. Less time and effort to make a game for the casuals.

[Ashenfield]

EVE is a great example. CCP Games is a privately held company, so it can continue to be a self sustaining as long as it keeps it's user base happy. Without having to fall into the stock futures gambling game.

This whole publicly traded stock system and the games people play with it (read: exploit) is the root of so much crap we have to deal with; from cookie cutter games to drug companies charging $120 for a single pill to treat a manageable disease.
It runs us into the ground both creatively and literally.
Bah humbug.