I hate MMORPG's!

The BBQ Pit
1

Damn you MMORPG’s! Your vile, fetidly putrisilaminous coirruption spreads over all. Now, no real RPG’s exist at all, substituting idiot 10-year olds trying to hit on me with epic tales, genuine plots, and the deep characterization of wonderful stories. Thanks you to scum, I now get exactly 2 RPG’s a year. If I’m lucky. And one will really be an action game in disguise. Fun for a while, maybe, but also with none of the things I mentioned above.

Dammit! I want Planescape: Torment 2. I want another Fallout without waiting fifty years between games. I want an Ultima game that doesn’t use 20-year old graphics and has a bunch of identical plate-mail armor-wearing. uber-wizards with crossbows plugging me. I want to run around Norrath and be THE HERO, not Wizard #4,893 camping some site for some accursed item drop I don’t really want and will throw away next week.

If I get romance, it better damned well be something more than the aforementioned 10-year old trying to get me to “cyber.” If I get a quest, there’d better damned well not be 47 others standing around outside discussing how to do it, how they did it with their alt, how much harder it was on the last patch, and that the mob’s got 18khp so it takes 3 hours to kill.

In short, I hate MMORPG’s. They are awful and a creation of evil which makes me long for RPG’s. They pretty much butchered all the possible creation of new single-player RPG’s, and given how most companies who make them keep shooting themselves in the foot (Troika anyone?), they’ll probably vanish soon, anyway. :frowning: MMORPG, die!

Sigh And the worst part is that I’d still be playing some out of sheer need to play any RPG at all, if I had the money. There’s only so many times I can spend 300 hours making a demigod in Morrowind. I’ve pretty much obliterated every RPG I’ve gotten me hands own, including Japanese ones (there are a few I don’t have and really can’t get, them being out of print and me not having $$).

And since this is the Pit: [insert your own cussing here]

2

They won’t die soon…in fact, I think they are getting more popular. There are a whole bunch of new ones right around the corner (including a D&D MMORPG due out next year I believe).

I’ve played my share of MMORPG’s since they first started shipping and I have come to agree with you on most of your points. The canned quests and ‘camp some spot to wack 9 million of mob X to get item Y’ gets old pretty fast. Most of the newer MMORPG’s are moving more into a PvP or RvR arena after you cap out. Thats fun for a while but even that gets old real fast. After being in your 1000th zerg (taking or receiving) its just…well, old hat. After grinding through all the levels with your 8th alt you just feel sick…even when their is a new update, patch or expansion with new goodies or even new races/classes.

As far as simple RPG’s, I miss them as well. I wish there were a new Fallout game (hell, I’d take a new Fallout Tactics game at this point). I think those days are done, as even the RPG’s aren’t really standalone anymore and are designed with LAN/WAN play in mind (though the worlds are persistant).

I hear there is a new Pirates type MMORPG coming out next year that might be interesting, and the D&D game might be cool (supposed to be real live DM’s online as part of the game)…but over all I’m at the point that I just don’t get excited about them anymore. Give me a good standalone strategy game any day.

-XT

3

Well there is always Oblivion. Whenever Bethesda gets finished with it, that is.

4

I too long for the old Rocket Propelled Grenades…the simplicity of pointing and shooting and blowing things up with a click of a mouse…and those explosions! :smiley:

I used to get a lot of RPGs…especially before the Patriot Act…usually by the dozen…but now I can only get 2 RPGs a year…my fun has been quite limited as of late. :frowning:

And what’s this great clammor over Mutilated Monkey Organ Rocket Propelled Grenades? They certainly don’t do as much damage as the old RPGs and there not even half as fun! They are twice as messy though, so I wouldn’t recommend using these near your house, let alone IN your house. Trust me…been there, done that. :eek:

And where are all these monkeys coming from? Will someone think of the monkeys! No organs? How can they fling poo if there isn’t any to be made?

Poor Bastards.

5

I don’t like MMORPG’s, though I love RPG’s in general. I just think that, mostly for the reasons mentioned, they suck all appeal out of the RPG experience. They substitute cookie-cutter quests for actual stories, and the combat systems are laughable.

What really worries me is the way that the upcoming Final Fantasy XII resembles an MMORPG more than anything in the series before, having substituted a real-time “stand and whack” battle system for the traditional, strategy-heavy turn-based system. Yikes.

However, Dragon Quest VIII, which comes out tomorrow, is already getting “perfect,” “10/10,” and “pros: all cons: none” in pre-reviews. I played a demo of it, and it looks and feels to be one of the best RPG’s in about a decade.

Also, don’t sleep on Magna Carta: Tears of Blood, out tomorrow - it’s a Korean-made RPG from a first-time creator that really looks amazing.

6

I’ve managed to avoid everyone’s attempts to get me to join their MMORPGs. A buddy of mine a few years ago was practically begging me to join him on Evercrack.

“Come on, man! It’ll be great! I’ll give you all kinds of awesome weapons and items! I’ll help you level up! You can join my guild! It’ll RAWK!!”

Maybe it was the fact that he spent about 14 hours a day on that game, subsisting solely on 2 liter bottles of Coke and Wheat Thins that got me to say no. Maybe it was his lack of a social life. Maybe it was both.

7

According to Gamespy’s current article, it has both wait mode and real time options, making it litle different than previous FF’s in that regard. They do have AI decision-making for party members, but I don’t know if you can turn that off or not. Character positions are impotant now, but that’s not really that new.

While I like those Japanese games, they aren’t much of an RPG, either. There’s a story (good), but no actual choices to make except equipment and time spent leveling. It’s not bad, mind you, but they don’t come packed with sidequests and adventures. I never feel like I’m in control with them. MMORPG’s, on the other hand, give me immense numbers of options and things to do, but have such a limited story that I don’t really ever feel like doing it.

Again, it’s not that there aren’y any real RPG’s around, it’s that they are very slow in the coming. Games take years now, and RPG’s just aren’t coming out. I know of six: The Witcher, Gothic 3, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Heroes of Might and Magic (or some other variation on the title). These are going to be released over the next two years.

Frankly, I will beat Gothic 3 in a few days, in all probability. I will later play a different class. I don’t even know if The Witcher and Heroes will actually be RPG’s. They are being marketed as much as action games (hence my earlier statement). Mass Effect looks iffy to me (I am not a fan of Bioware now). Dragon Age looks pretty generic. I am not even sure either will come out on PC.

That leaves Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights 2. Great. Well and good. But they can’t keep me going forever itself. Not even with mods. And I don’t expect Neverwinter Nights 2 until 2007.

8

I thought I saw a new NWN expansion in the store the other day (I have the game but couldn’t really get into it). If so, that might tide you over for a few days. :slight_smile:

I’m not sure whats new coming out…I don’t follow the game industry like I used too. Tis the season though…for some reason game companies still don’t get that they don’t have to hold release for this time of the year. Good games will sell any time. But I expect quite a few new releases in the next month leading up the Xmas, so maybe you’ll get lucky with a new contender bringing out a new RPG out of left field. It COULD happen…

-XT

9

Have you tried Jeff Vogel’s stuff from Spiderweb? He’s an indie developer making turn based rpg’s with some of the best writing I’ve seen in recent games (and I say this as a devout Elder Scrolls fan.)

Vogel’s got two series going. The first is Avernum, his flagship series. It’s a story about an underground kingdom, originally a gulag run by the above ground Empire. There’s three games in this series and the fourth is currently underway. These are enormous and open ended games as you struggle to find a place in the underground kingdom, fighting for or against the Empire and Avernum’s other foes.
http://www.avernum.com/avernum/index.html

The second series is Geneforge. This one involves a mystical group called the Shapers who can control and shape the essence of life to make mutants to do their bidding. Some of the mutants are starting to get irate about it. This series moves a little faster than Avernum and is a little more focused. And you get to make your own mutant army, which is always a plus.
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/geneforge/index.html

Both series have better writing than my inadequate despcriptions of them. Both feature unique races and an indepth skill system. Faction is important too (especially in GF) where the people will remember your words and deeds and treat you accordingly. I’ve actually had to turn off the games a few times while I think about who I want to ally with.

He’s got a third game world too, Nethergate, which I also love. You play either as the Romans or the Britons exploring mysterious happenings in the forests of Britain, A.D. 60.
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/nethergate/index.html

As indie games go, the graphics are, and I mean this kindly, primitive. But the game play is absolutely top shelf. All the games come with enormous demos so you can try before you buy. The games run about $25 each. They’re available for both Mac & Windows. I stop people on the street and tell them to play these games because I love them so much. :slight_smile:
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/

10

The only reason I clicked into this thread was because I hoped the OP might actually tell what MMORPG stands for.

I gather that RPG means “Role Playing Game”, but to me, MMO means Music Minus One, a precursor to karaoke. I’m pretty sure it’s not that.

So, please, just tell me what the MMO stands for*, and I’ll be able to ignore this thread in future.

*I’m pretty sure it also doesn’t stand for Mutilated Monkey Organs.

11

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

12

MMORPG - Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game

Like:

Ultima
Everquest
World of Warcraft
I love them. These have their place in gaming. I also enjoy more traditional RPGs. But, whatever.

13

I do indeed own Neverwinter Nights, but becuse I lot the manual I can’t play it anymore. No CD key. :frowning:

14

You’re bitching because a computer game can’t match the experience of talking to people in real life? Even a computer game that lets you interact with people online? What kind of hoser are you?

If you want a custom, personalized, epic game, the only way to do it is to sit down with a group of friends and hash something out. Otherwise you’re goddamn well stuck with whatever some doofus programmer can come up with.

And the programmer managing a MMORPG gets to charge you a monthly fee for the privilege. Other people do not.

Face it: the skill set required to program a computer game is not the same as the skill set required to write and manage an interesting role-playing game.

15

Thank you.

Ta-ta.

16

Search your hard drive(s) for a file called nwncdkey.ini. Open it with Notepad or some other text editor. It should contain any CD keys you entered when you previously played.

17

I heartily second Merneith’s recommendation of Spiderweb Software. Their forums are a great help, too. I own five Spiderweb games, and I’m considering buying Nethergate because I dig the Romans/Celts thing.

18

This is working off of the incorrect assumption that MMORPG/RPG programmers develop all the storylines, this isn’t the case (some traditional computer RPGs actually have professional authors who write the stories.) A lot of times the “devs” are also in on the creative process, but most MMORPG companies have a creative staff separate from the “zero and ones” guys.

19

Man, Barbarian, where did that come from? I can’t even tell which post you’re responding to. I think you must have misread something, because your response has nothing to do with anything I posted.

20

I feel the OP’s pain. While I haven’t tried the wide range of MMORPG’s that everyone else here seems to have, I did play Final Fantasy XI for about 2½ years, and finally came to realize that:

a.) You can’t trust anyone to stick around forever in an MMORPG, especially when a better linkshell/guild/clan comes along;
b.) You won’t get anywhere without a large group of friends who want to see you do well in the game;
c.) You’ll spend all day crafting or farming while waiting for a party to invite you to XP, quest, etc.
d.) The game is an endless repeat of quests, levels, and camps. FFXI goes much like this:

XP→Subjob quest→XP→Chocobo license→XP→RSE finds→XP→Airship Pass→XP→AF quests→
XP→Sky/Promyvion quests→XP→HNM’s/Gods

If you don’t follow this lineation closely, you won’t do well. Bleh.

An addictive waste of time. I think I’ve shrugged them off forever.

Adam