Great Players and Fun Gaming

[stormlord]

Ever see stuff like this:
"Lf Dps 35-40."
"Need tank 20-25, send tell."
"Lf cleric and monk, 30-35."

Or:
"Just got my epic! Anybody want my dps?"
"Wizard lf group, have my epic and my banished cloak!"
"2.6432dps Rogue, LFG!!!"
"2106hp/2563ac warrior lfg."

IMHO, these're all examples of the way games go down hill. Granted, some of it's just a response to the way a game is coded. For example, if you just HAVE to have a cleric because that's the way the game is then you're incited to ask for one. But a lot of it's just players being dumb and spreading it like a virus until the whole mmo-sphere is infected. This also happens when games get overplayed; they become shriveled and boring.

See, a great player isn't his/her items or buffs or class or level. A great player is a person who responds well when the SHTF. A great player does things right even when they're playing the wrong class in the wrong level range wearing the wrong gear. They respond well and make everybody comfortable around them.

It's also my view that the BEST gaming is not staring at the screen while I'm DPSing and drooling on my keyboard. Good gaming is not wishing you had a better weapon so you could gain 5% dps. Good gaming is not about hitting the same hotkeys every 5 seconds while counting the number of times you've farted since last month. You see, the reason people are so obsessed with gear and level and class and all these other zombie things is because the shit isn't hitting the fan enough. Players get complacent and familiarized to it. They're either grinding too much or the developers have failed to make a compelling game. The game is not in hitting autoattack and sitting back and hoping your gear and level is good enough to compete, the game is in responding to an add that came from no where or running through a maze of tunnels to escape a train or surviving a bad pull or other non-optimal circumstances. Those're the times when our gear and our level become less important than our ability to act in a complex situation with seconds to spare.

I loved this game and still like it today. But never liked the camping. Never liked how pickup groups became less and less popular. It's those SHTF moments when this game shined its brightest because that's when the person comes through, not their numbers. Numbers are too linear to capture the full beauty of experience.

What do you think? I'm nuts? Well I am. But do you have anything to offer to build on this topic? I'm saying that when games lose dynamism then they lose direction. They start losing their soul.

Dynamism is that special indefinable thing that happens when the SHTF.

The opposite of dynamism is campism. Everything is a scientific law in campism. People have their perfect permanent roles and everything proceeds as planned and the most that happens is zzzzzzzzz.

That's how SHTF moments are killed.

It's my view that a mmorpg should reward people who die the most (AND adventure) more than anybody else. Instead many end up rewarding everybody indiscriminately that kills something. This ends up favoring the campers and the min/maxers and others who make the game into a scientific discipline and henceforth kill the fun. I myself have enjoyed min/maxing in the past. I love numbers. But I have to be honest with this post. After all the numbers and rules have been figured out and approved by Julius Caesar it KILLS the game.

To put it plainly... The fun isn't in the answers to problems, it's in the struggle.

[Silo69]

i remember my first mmorpg...

[McMuffins]

I recently went on a full blown everquest classic story Google hunt. Let's say that right now I'm really, really wishing that all my EQ classic days could be replayed in all their glory.

My first trip outside of butcherblock, scary as shit. My first group venturing into kunark... WTF! It was amazing.

This is the reason everquest live entices me now. It's because I'm playing it without knowing what the hell is going on, it's so different that it's mad exciting.

I play on the test server, where gear and money means shit, because people can copy things from the live servers over. So the grouping dynamic is heightened, hell, I even went to the plane of fear and cazic was up.

I'm working on my epic quests, with a buddy of mine. We're having a damn good time.

When we play on red99, it feels like a lot of people just want that next level, that next item. I do it too, because there is no mystery about it. I know what item I want in my hand.

On red99, we made two brand new toons, and we're not going to twink them at all. It's going to be legendary.

[Toehammer]

I tend to agree that, essentially, MMOs are most fun the first time around. For me, P1999 feels like a second first time if that makes sense. Back in 1999-2002/3 I played on a shitty computer, with a shitty connection. I leveled about 5 characters to mid 20s but kept dying due to lag/choppy graphics. Also, being in high school, my dad wouldn't let me play more than a couple hours a week.

I decided I was gonna buckle down and level a warrior because if I lagged at least the cleric with the good computer would keep healing me and i would be attacking, lol. Literally, that was my logic. Got to level 57, got sick of being LFG for 1/2 my play time and quit EQ cold turkey.

Now on modern computers the game runs flawlessly, and I play a shaman. I explore new zones, can solo, find groups easily. The game is completely different.

However I still remember one of the most fun things back in 2000 was checking all the new items that people discovered every day. Newness is super sweet in MMOs. But if you don't overplay them... the worlds are so big that it always will seem new [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Splorf22]

I tend to agree stormlord, which is why I'm in the a-team trying to kill Overking Bathezid with 5 rather than TMO/BDA/FE trying to kill trak with 30.

However, EQ does not really reward this playstyle. You'll get a lot more mileage out of repeatedly doing the same thing.

[Kika Maslyaka]

stormlord,

every time I read your post - it feels like listening to a preacher [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] (I am non religious, but I mean it in a good way)

I think what you looking for:

-a brand new game first of all (full of secrets and exploration opportunities no one solved yet)

-game with strong group orientation and player interdependency

-game that is build in such system that it continuously pushes people forward and prevents 1 spot camping (LDON is sort of good example - mobs do not respawn in the dungeon - or at least respawn very slowly - so you are forced to keep moving forward to get more mobs, and as you move from room to room, time from time you will keep run into those "oh shit!" moments)

-game with well balanced class structure, that one hand still maintains holy trinity at its base but is not locked on ultra specific classes for max possible performance like EQ1 is (so if there is multiple healer classes - they all can heal equally well, if there are multiple tank classes, they all can tank equally well etc)