MMOs: Where Equipment is more Heroic than You

[Part of my MMO Design Folder]
 
In MMO's usually what you wear is more important than who you are.

One of my main gripes in most MMOs is that regardless of who your character is, in the end you are defined by the gear you use - and often that gear despite having some level of rarity will never be unique. It's kind of like saying, to make the knights of the round table better you should equip each of them with an Excalibur and a Holy Grail. Suddenly such artefacts become cheapened simply by having duplicates. Why this is the case I'm not sure, as it surely isn't that hard to simply code that a particular item is unique, there is only ONE of them in the game. Maybe its magic properties expires after a week, regardless of the owners log in time, upon which it vanishes or reverts to a more common item resetting the flag for someone else to be able to get the magic shishkebob or whatever.

That is of course beside the point. If everyone can have all the gear then basically you are a storm trooper. Yeah you might think you are unique, with all those hard earned skills and levels behind you but guess what - everyone else can attain those too. In the end if you come across your counterpart of equivalent ability it will come down to the +1 underwear one of you is wearing to have an edge on the other. At least the way you play can still define you right?

Some games try to combat this by either going crazy with their available skill tree (Path of Exile) or simply adding an element of player skill (GW2, NWO) much like how flight and combat sims do it, yet even there exist tiers upon tiers of items locked behind abstract level requirements. Why? To take your time and money mainly. I just wish there were more games where a sword is just a sword and what makes your character better is his (and your) skill with it, instead of one sword being slightly more magical than the other. Yeah ok, that's plausible too but not when -every- person in the game (barring newbies) has a variation of magic sword.

What's really funny is when "gear score" comes into play. Basically your arms and armor become the hero, the only thing of importance, instead of the person underneath it.

We'll take the one with the +10 belt?

Top 10 Reasons Why I Stop Playing Games

I'm sure everyone has their own version of this list but just for kicks I figured I'd put mine up here to hopefully give game developers some possible extra insight on such matters.

#10: My Friends Dislike the game

Especially true in MMO's, if our guildmates don't give your game the thumbs up it makes it a bit less likely that I will play it over something they do enjoy. Almost impossible to cater for everyone's likes but this is the first "flood gate" that usually stops games from even being installed on my PC.

#9: I Dislike the game

Even if my friends aren't playing, I still may go ahead and play your game regardless if I like it enough after testing or researching it (Age of Conan is a good example) - and if I don't like it but they do then I may still put up with it. Obviously if no one likes it, it becomes a no brainer. Reasons I dislike games not only stem from actual game play mechanics but can also be things that don't sit well with me. Payday is a good example there where you can only be the "bad guys" (not even a dark shade of gray). For that reason alone I will never play it.

#8: We Can't Play Together

Another MMO slayer. If we can't play together then odds are high that your game is just going to be looked over or skipped after the initial test run. Region/IP barriers are quite frustrating for a guild with members all across the world. Even non MMO's suffer from this. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombies is a good example. The gameplay is great but trying to get into a session that no one drops out of is like digging through a stone wall with a plastic fork. Worse still is that the person that drops out cannot rejoin a session like in L4D2. Good game, but if I am asked to recommend a co-op zombie shooter Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombies would NOT be on my list.

#7: It Isn't Free

This is probably a unique one for me. You see, I've sworn not to buy games for myself anymore. I still buy them for other people and receive them from my family and friends so that's all cool, however I don't think anyone would ever offer to pay for an ongoing subscription fee for me which is the main reason that World of Warcraft and other MMO's that require or really push for it simply get ignored like the leeches they are. Afterall, the best things in life are free - right?

#6: I've Won The Game

This is an odd one to be on this list because as you might expect that's when most people stop playing games. However a select few such as Diablo and Path of Exile simply just unlock harder modes to the same story that you've already played. Unlockable difficulties has always been a gripe of mine as it just shows for lazy development. Let people play the hardest mode at the get go and I'll have more respect for you. As it stands, after I win once that's it. The end. Unless you have new content (or are that frigging amazing) it's uninstall time for you.

#5: Slow to Patch

Updates to the game are good but there is a limit to what I will deem acceptable. Mabinogi is actually an example for me here because it is notorious for having massive updates which like to fail, and then require a reinstall to repair. Well, I -could- go through all that trouble or I could play a different game that won't give me any hassles to play. Guess which one always wins out? Also having BIG patches (looking at you Warframe) that interrupts my other online gaming really ticks me off, so if I can't finish downloading your patch in the time it takes for me to have a shower then I'll likely NEVER patch, and toss your game into the void.

#4: Frequent Patching

Almost a continuation of the above. Patches are good, but patching every day or even every week just tells me that your developers are shit, don't test, and require to keep pushing out "fixes" which only make more issues to compensate on your unfinished, unpolished, turd of a product.

#3: You Don't Let Me Play It

Guildwars 2 is a unique beast in this category. While I did like to voice my concerns about various parts of it, it was still a game that I would play regularly until I suddenly couldn't because they don't send me the validation email anymore. Checking on their forums the only staff reply to the issue I found was "The emails are going out, check with your email provider." Well, I -could- do that OR I could play a game that lets me play it with no hassles? Anything that causes me hassles just makes me give the middle finger to the screen and move on to something more productive and/or enjoyable. I'm here to play, not talk to tech support.

#2: Work vs Play

Playing games is meant to be enjoyable. The line between work (unfun, unrewarding, repetitive activities) and play exists for everyone and some people can simply take more "work" than others. As I get older I find that "work" line growing more and more over the "fun, rewarding" section because I have less time than I used to. Our last Ultima Online shard really killed it for my brother when it decided to increase the "work" side waaaay too much. The result? Not only did the game get uninstalled but the CD and box was thrown into the garbage.

#1: New Shinies

Christmas time and my birthday are the usual times this happens (given I don't buy myself anything), but wow do I get inundated with stuff when they do! As with all things I will go poke and play with the new shiny games for a bit until I either finish them, or find my older ones more appealing after the initial shine has faded off. Not really anything developers can do to combat this other than make their game the best it can be. :)

Walking the Path of Exile

I was all set to bag out this obvious Diablo clone for being just that, and then I played it. It's a pretty decent game, and arguably better than Diablo in parts once you get past the limited character creation. I imagine it's because they put all their development into the character advancement screen. It definitely overwhelmed me the first time I saw it!

The game also features more skill options in combat, though for the most part you will still be breaking your mouse buttons while you not only level your character but each "skill gem" which means your fire ball or shield bash may not be as effective as the guy next to you. The self-refilling potions is a new one for me too. Instead of lugging around hundreds of health or mana potions, here you have a belt of five (of your choice) that refill as you kill baddies. Obviously you'll be swapping out the little flasks for the big ones that are more beneficial but does this also mean you'll be hoping each boss comes with adds (extra minions) to give you top ups? It's a little weird.

I think she's about to refill her potions.

 

The other thing I also like is the barter system they have, but can see where there is room for improvement. There's no gold in the game, instead NPCs trade you random bits and pieces to form little consumable things like weapon or armor improvement and scrolls of identi-*cough*-wisdom. The problem is that all the NPCs give the same tidbits which means players have found common items to use as currency. I would have preferred if each NPC (at least in the one zone) traded different goods from all the others, and possibly doesn't accept items of particular types but I guess that's an improvement for next time.

Really my biggest issue with the game is a little one. It is an ARPG, not an MMO. You have safe zone hubs where you can run into people, sure - but out in the ever changing, procedurally generated wilderness each instance is only for you or your party with zero chance of meeting anyone else (actually didn't DDO and GW1 do the same/similar thing just without the procedurally generated map). Even in Warframe if you play "online" there's a chance other random players will show up to help in your mission (which also has randomly generated maps), though only a maximum of 4 at any one time. I think it would be nice to be able to bump into others out in the wilds every now and then, but I guess that opens up the door to other issues.

Of course the real question is: is it good enough to keep playing? To that my answer is a solid yes.