Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Games

[Skanky Burns]

I basically speak from Dransik experience. They did updates semi-regularly, but due to it being a beta they were constantly changing code in the software. As a result bugs could appear that would render all the latest backups unusable. The largest one I witnessed, as mentioned before, was a timewarp of a whole week. A significant portion of players stopped playing after that incident.

[Zero]

Originally posted by DrSpike


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?

diablo isnt a competitive game.
I played d2 "hardcore". I have absolutely no skill in that game.

I just wasted 100000000000 hrs on getting a good character thats all.

Disclaimer: some ppl do play hardcore and have skills. (PvP players) but they are so rare species... especially with d2 game design making it so hard for you to engage in PvP...

MMORPG IS glorified SP that u play with other ppl. ha!

[Zero]

Originally posted by Dissident
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.

well supply meets demand. you want it badly, we supply it.. for the right cost. if u dont want it then we dont supply it. simple.

You just gotta play it differently. You have to know how the game works or just copy the way someone who knows how it works plays.

This involves increasing magic find % and doing high percentage yield runs over an over and over again.

it also doesnt hurt sharing an acct with friends instead of having sepearate characters each.

[DrSpike]

So you get a high level character by a process that doesn't really sound all that entertaining. Then what?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by DrSpike
So you get a high level character by a process that doesn't really sound all that entertaining. Then what?

MMORPGs actually cater to a wide variety of players. For some people, geting a high level character is the end all be all. They have fun just killing **** endlessly to raise stats, and they don't care if they have to sit in the same damn place and kill the same damn monsters all day long to do it. (This is most pronounced in Everquest... and Diablo, if you want to include that)

Some people play it for the social aspect, and leveling their characters is really only done so that they can keep up with their friends, and hunt together ect... Often these are the sort of people who also focus in trade skills and can be found buming around town chatting and making goods to sell.

Some people play it for adventure, and like to go on raids and explore dungeons, ect... for them leveling up is fun because it's exciting. This is different from the first in that they don't really like "camping" spawn points - they like going through the entire dungeon with a large group of people and killing everything. (I think this is most pronounced in DAoC, there would usually be organized raids on various dungeons daily with sometimes 100s of people taking part - which neccisary to kill the most powerful monsters, like dragons. )

And, of course, some people play it for the PvP and only level up so that they can compete against other people.

Of course, it also depends on the game, since each one tends to cater to a slightly different audience. (The social players and campers from EQ certainly wouldn't get along very well with the powergamers and playerkillers of Shadowbane, for instance)


And as for you question about "then what?" well, that's often a problem in these games. Asheron's Call answers is by having no level cap - there's no limit to how powerful you can get, so the the question never comes up. Everquest answers it by making the process so long and tedious that most people don't get a question to ask it, but for those who do, there are the planar raids which only the highest levels can ever get a chance to see. DAoC answers it with PvP - once you get to a high level you can start taking part in the realm vs. realm warfare. And Shadowbane... well, it doesn't answer it, and that's often the biggest complaint about the game... although most people will just keep on making new characters and going through the process over and over (Partly for somethign to do and partly to keep up with the PvP trends or to try out new character templates).

[Dis]

I just want adventure in a social setting. I dislike powergaming, although I don't make weak characters. I do make strong builds, I don't like to struggle to kill things. But I don't obsess over getting every stat and skill just right.

So what game is good for that?

[General Ludd]

I would say DAoC.


EDIT: There isn't alot of room for powergaming in it. The amount of input you have into how your character developes is minimal outside of the race and class you choose. Of course, this can be a downside if you like to have unique characters.

[Arrian]

I once spent a bunch of time playing on a MUD (multi-user dungeon or multi-user domain). It was pretty small, free, and was text-only. No graphics.

It was fun, though, at least for a little while. It also happened to suck up a lot of time. Plus, between my dialup connection and the MUD's iffy server, there tended to be lag problems... everyone there knew the agony of lag death.

flee *enter*
flee *enter*
flee *enter*

nothing...

then, in a rush:

Ra the Sun God's BRUTAL thrust scratches you!
Ra the Sun God's BRUTAL thrust Wounds you!
Ra the Sun God's BRUTAL thrust Wounds you!
Ra the Sun God's BRUTAL thrust *MANGLES* you!
Ra the Sun God's HORRIFIC Fire Breath ANNIHILATES you! You are DEAD!

Flee from whom?
Flee from whom?
Flee from whom?

Heh, I did have some fun with it. My characters are probably all toast by now. It's been years since I logged on. Hell, for all I know the site is dead.

-Arrian

[Zkribbler]

Awhile back, I bought a $10 version of Everquest which came with a free month of playing.

The first time I "spawned" it was the middle of the night & I was facing a wall...so I couldn't see and I couldn't walk forward. I was purplexed.

Once I got the game going, I was so weak, I could only go out and fight rats. yippie.

It was kind of cool travelling around & seeing stuff. But I couldn't invest much time in the game, so I ended the month still killing the occasional rat.

Once I fell off a pier while wandering around in the middle of the night. I spent at least an hour trying to find my way out from under that #@*&^%!! pier in the dark. No fun.

I recommend a good game of Morrowind instead.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Zkribbler

Once I fell off a pier while wandering around in the middle of the night. I spent at least an hour trying to find my way out from under that #@*&^%!! pier in the dark. No fun.

Ah... brings back memories. I remember knocking dwarves off the tree city Kelethin and watching them plummet to their deaths. (alright, I couldn't actually knock them off... instead, I would blind them and watch them run off the platform while doing the 'chicken with it's head cut off' impersination that alot of people do when they're blinded.)

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Awhile back, I bought a $10 version of Everquest which came with a free month of playing.

The first time I "spawned" it was the middle of the night & I was facing a wall...so I couldn't see and I couldn't walk forward. I was purplexed.

Once I got the game going, I was so weak, I could only go out and fight rats. yippie.

It was kind of cool travelling around & seeing stuff. But I couldn't invest much time in the game, so I ended the month still killing the occasional rat.

Once I fell off a pier while wandering around in the middle of the night. I spent at least an hour trying to find my way out from under that #@*&^%!! pier in the dark. No fun.

Sounds great.

I suppose these are games it's hard to get into if you don't have bags of time to play.

[General Ludd]

By the way, this is why I would suggest avoiding Everquest like the plague. It is by far the most tedious and frustrating MMORPG in existence. It also requires the largest amount of time to get anywhere.

[duke o' york]

What was that game that Skanky and others were playing a few months back? I remember that they had a thread in OT, and seemed to give one another loads of money all the time, which seemed to be a bit naughty, but you have to look after your fellow 'polytubbies don't you.

[Skanky Burns]

There are steep initial learning curves for these types of games. I remeber my first character in Dransik was born a fighter and struggled to kill rats and bats and ... spiders. Gathering a large load of their meat, I sold enough to buy a slightly better dagger which enabled me to hunt for longer. Soon I could get cloth armour, then after days of real-time playing, I could eventually afford some of the cheaper leather armour...

The second time through, my character was a miner. Not only was this the quickest activity to gain experience points, but ore sold very well and you could gain massive amounts quite quickly. Before I was level 2 my character had full chainmail armour and the best sword you could buy on "newbie island".

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by duke o' york
What was that game that Skanky and others were playing a few months back? I remember that they had a thread in OT, and seemed to give one another loads of money all the time, which seemed to be a bit naughty, but you have to look after your fellow 'polytubbies don't you.

That "game" was "Legend of the Green Dragon", iirc. It was a webbased game though. Still, fun for what it was, not that I'm going to start playing it again.