Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Games

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
The major problem is these types of games are only fun when you have massive amounts of free time, and you only have massive amounts of free time if you don't have a job. In that case, $10 a month is worth way more to you than to someone who works.

Well, it's a matter of vices, I suppose. If you don't waste any money on booze and drugs (like me) You can justify paying for broadband and online games.

Because in a rpg you want to keep your character around. You don't want him to die after you play just 2 months. You may want to pick him up again.

so in order to keep your character alive if you want to play him again, you have to keep paying.

All the MMORPGs keep your character around if you unsubscribe. Some have a limit to how long they'll keep it, though. Everquest is six months, I think, but as far as I know shadowbane keeps them around forever.

[Adagio]

The only MMRPGWhatever game I've been interested in is City of Heroes (Each player is a superhero who fights villaints )... the game will be released in a few days as far as I know... too bad it has a monthly price, which I'm not interested in paying

[DrSpike]

Is World of Warcraft going to be subscription based?

[General Ludd]

Of course.

[DrSpike]

I sort of guessed, but then WC3 and Diablo2 don't require anything. Any idea whereabouts in the discussion above WoW will fit into?

[General Ludd]

WC3 and Diablo don't have to maintain persistent worlds with 1000s of people playing simulaneously.


Anyways, I haven't been following WoW too closely but from what I've heard it's going to be similiar to DAoC - a well rounded game with a bit of everything. The combat and level progression is supposedly similiar to diablo, in that you're consistently rewarded as you fight, instead of camping the same spawn for hours on end to get a decent weapon or go up a level (like in some games). From what I understand it will have limited PvP, in a smiliar style to DAoC -with it being horde vs. alliance, with the races of the two 'teams' working together and unable to hurt each other. I've heard something about the PvP having "strategic" aspect, but I don't really know what that means. Probably resources and such that you can capture to gain bonuses for your side, similiar to the relics in DAoC. (But probably better designed)

[DrSpike]

So it's team based? The only game I've really seen in this genre is Eve, which some of my friends play. They pretty much do their own thing, though there is a grand scale war going on with 2 factions I think.

Also I've never played Diablo.......what do you mean it is not a persistent world?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by DrSpike

Also I've never played Diablo.......what do you mean it is not a persistent world?

You've never played diablo? You always struck me as the 'hard-core gamer' type. How could you not have played that?


When you play diablo, you're just creating a new game which is limited to only a few people being able to play in (6 or 8?) Every game you start takes the same path (ie. the same dialouge and bosses, over and over and over in a loop - you're basically playing the single player game with other people) and when everyone logs out, the "world" that was created is gone.

MMOGs, on the other hand, have servers running 24/7 in which everyone plays in at the same time. When you log out the world keeps on going, along with all the other 'inhabitants' - ie, the other players.

There are some MMOGs that take the idea of a persistent world further by letting you leave your mark on it, like in Shadowbane where you are able to build and demolish cities. And then there's Atriarch which wants to create a world that doesn't even need players to opperate - where your character stays within the world 24/7 with instructions left from you on how to behave when you aren't controling it. (atleast this was the plan last time I checked - which was about 2 or 3 years ago while it was still in the conceptual phase)

[General Ludd]

By the way, DAoC is also teambased (obviously) only it has three teams. Everquest also has some team PvP servers - one divided by races and one divided by the alignment of your chosen god. Shadowbane is also team based in a sense, only the teams are created by the players - it's absolutely neccisary to join a guild in that game, and guilds inevtiably end up fighting and competing against each other, usually trying to destroy each other's cities for whatever reasons. (usually revenge for being 'ganked', or somethign equally trivial)

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by General Ludd

You've never played diablo? You always struck me as the 'hard-core gamer' type. How could you not have played that?

I am, but if you want to be competitive in a MP game you can't spread yourself too thin. I've never got around to it.

I still don't quite get it though.........why do people buy items online and cry when they lose their high level characters if it is just glorified SP?

[Dis]

because they are losers

I could never see buying items.

I have never had good items in Diablo2. I have no idea how people get these uber items. I just like building up my character and killing things. I can get some decent items, but never any of those super good items. Of course I have never played any hell difficulty level games either.

Diablo2 (which is what we're talking about) has 2 battle.net servers. On one, they store your character on their own server (to try to prevent cheating). You can choose a character (they let you have up to 5) and then elect to either join a game or create your own game. The maps are randomly generated (except for a few), and monsters and items are also randomly generated. The quests in Diablo are pretty basic, it's not too hard to keep them straight. If you join someone else's game and they have completed those quests, then you can't complete those quests (although you may be able to if they are in a different act). Explaining the quests can be kind of confusing, but as I said, depending on who created the game, and what quests they have completed in the current game, and what quests they have completed in prior games determines what quests you can do.

They have tweaked it quite a bit over the years. Now, more than ever they have encouraged team play. I find team play to be enjoyable for the most part- although almost everyone goes too fast for my tase. But sometimes it's fun going fast, you can fly through acts, quests, and levels.

[Sava]

some people are really freakish at these games... I've heard of people buying Everquest characters for thousands of dollars...

crazy

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by DrSpike

I still don't quite get it though.........why do people buy items online and cry when they lose their high level characters if it is just glorified SP?

The people who buy items online either have money to throw away and want a short cut to the 'good stuff', or they are in a social competition and want to impress people. Just like some people buy nikes or sports cars or whatever to earn respect in real life, they do the same in the game world. (MMOGs are very social games, afterall.)

As for losing high level characters... there aren't actually any MMORPGs that use perma-death at the moment (but there are a few in development) so you can't really lose high level characters outside of some sort of database error. But you can sometimes lose items, usually as a result of someone 'scamming' you (ie. you being naive ) and the reasons someone would cry about that are usually that the really high-end stuff in these games takes an enormous amount of time and effort to get. (think of people camping a spawn point for 24 hours straight to get a single item in Everquest *shudder* )


A funny thing about someone with too much money came to mind while typing this. In DAoC there was a guy who had 8 computers and 8 accounts and would simultaneously play all of them at the same time. He set up the computers somehow so that he could press a single button and all of the characters would attack / cast spells at the same target. He was a one man army. (actually, I'm sure it sucked for everyone outside of his realm. Those sorts of people can often be the deciding factor in PvP conflicts )

[Skanky Burns]

Database errors are the worst thing for these type of games though. Nothing is worse than playing for 8 hours straight only to have the admins of the game post "Ooops, database error". 8 whole hours you have put into the game gone just like that. In some instances, I have heard that the last usable backup was a week old.

[DrSpike]

Yeah that must really blow. They must have a backup system in place though........I think Eve does.