MMO's

[Mikeyboy636]

Any MMO fans out there. 

I watch a lot of MMO style anime's, and what gets me is the friendship's and the overall appreciation that yes everyone is gamer and therefore people are there to have fun. I play a lot of single player RPG's and only therefore a damn good story and content.

Yet recently downloaded WOW and just could not hit play, cowardly I know. A while back I started playing GW2, played couple of hours before realising it is just a bunch of people running about with very little or no story or interaction. I just didn't fancy getting started to only get bashed by long time players and the toxicity of some of the forums is less appealing.

Maybe I view MMO's as some sort of fairy tale and have built it up in my head of how awesome they are etc. Also whenever somebody suggests multiplayer to me all they want to play is fornite or apex which is my version of boredom … sorry avid fans just not for me.

I don't know, any input from people would be greatly appreciate or just general advice. I have played most modern AAA rpg's, currently trying to work my way through DOS'2 definitive edition, which sometimes can be a touch taxing so I don't play it all day every day.

As said any input greatly appreciate, cheers!

 

[efaardvark]

9 hours ago, Mikeyboy636 said:

 

I've encountered some of the same issues, to the point that I basically don't play MMO games anymore.  At least not on public servers.  They're either boring (fortnite) or the fanbase is toxic (Star Citizen) or both.  GW2 - at least as of about a year ago - was one of the better ones, but it still had issues.  It is extremely hard to find a game that has a mature, helpful player base.  Sometimes it seems like the game producers aren't even trying to find ways to punish toxic play(ers) anymore.  I also have an additional problem with simply finding time to play that pretty much rules out most of the more "grindy" games.  Add platform incompatibilities and my own refusal to support certain companies' (like EA's or Sony's) business practices and .. that doesn't leave a lot.

Some things can help.  Competition seems to bring out the worst in people so I try to avoid PvP and stick to PvE.  Casual & socially-focused games seem better as well, in general.  That doesn't work for everyone though, and even in stuff like creative-mode minecraft there's a certain class of player that just seems to get more out of the griefing process than from playing well with others.  (That said, there's a certain appeal to the chaos of "anarchy" servers, including even such ancient and much-lambasted servers as 2b2t.  Probably an acquired taste, but if you know what you're getting into and are mentally prepared they can be entertaining in their own f-ed up way.  )

In general though my "solution" is to only play on private servers with trusted game-friends.  That or stick to single-player mode.  Sorry, I wish I had a better answer. 

[Mikeyboy636]

11 hours ago, efaardvark said:

I've encountered some of the same issues, to the point that I basically don't play MMO games anymore.  At least not on public servers.  They're either boring (fortnite) or the fanbase is toxic (Star Citizen) or both.  GW2 - at least as of about a year ago - was one of the better ones, but it still had issues.  It is extremely hard to find a game that has a mature, helpful player base.  Sometimes it seems like the game producers aren't even trying to find ways to punish toxic play(ers) anymore.  I also have an additional problem with simply finding time to play that pretty much rules out most of the more "grindy" games.  Add platform incompatibilities and my own refusal to support certain companies' (like EA's or Sony's) business practices and .. that doesn't leave a lot.

Some things can help.  Competition seems to bring out the worst in people so I try to avoid PvP and stick to PvE.  Casual & socially-focused games seem better as well, in general.  That doesn't work for everyone though, and even in stuff like creative-mode minecraft there's a certain class of player that just seems to get more out of the griefing process than from playing well with others.  (That said, there's a certain appeal to the chaos of "anarchy" servers, including even such ancient and much-lambasted servers as 2b2t.  Probably an acquired taste, but if you know what you're getting into and are mentally prepared they can be entertaining in their own f-ed up way.  )

In general though my "solution" is to only play on private servers with trusted game-friends.  That or stick to single-player mode.  Sorry, I wish I had a better answer. 

Appreciate that. I shall probs stick to single player mode really. Dont have any friends who are into gaming so cant play on a specific server like that sooo we shall see. Hopefully in the future there will be some changes but who knows.

[User 781]

Ah, good ol MMO games. I would like to share my experience with the few I've played without writing a whole novel about it but egad was it a huge part of my life.

I think what you should consider first when starting an MMO is the most important bit: do you have the time for it? It doesn't make any difference how many mechanisms the developers put in place to make it feel like less of a grind or a chore. If you intend to commit to an MMO, you're going to be sinking potentially hundreds if not thousands of hours of your life into it. Especially if you intend to play with others, which is arguably the key selling point of the genre. If you join a raiding group for example, that comes with social expectations as well as new time commitments (logging on for raid during set schedules in the week, and set aside time to prep your character for them in between said times.)This is genuinely a full-time job for some players who like to challenge high-level content.

Secondary is whether you can afford it. If it's a free-to-play game, can you resist temptation to buy cosmetic services? Free-to-play is deceptively more expensive for certain personality types. A subscription-based model might cost you, say, 12-15 a month whereas that's the price of a cool mount or maybe a neat outfit for your character.

Thirdly, if it's story or lore you're interested in, be mindful that there is a huge disconnect between enjoying the game for the first time and doing so with other players. Most people who play an MMO are trying to rush through the content to reach the end game. Endgame content is ironically where a ton of the actual serious gameplay occurs. They will take the shortest path through the dungeon, skip all the cutscenes, and kill the boss as quickly as they can while exchanging no words with their party. They click through quest text and follow the map markers, often having no idea why they're doing things, understanding only that it nets XP. It's simply the reality of it and it doesn't seem to resemble the naïve representation of MMO games in anime.

The overall community of each game is also different depending which it is. A well-noted example of this is WoW and FF14. WoW is characterised by the 'rushed' gameplay noted above, and really the only way you're going to enjoy the story (and yes, there is in fact a very intricate one,) is if you go at it solo. Contrasting that, FF14 is known to be very story-focused, in fact, you have to complete the main quest line (which is loooooooooooooooong,) to even get to the endgame. The community however is much friendlier and might even talk to you during a Duty (a dungeon). It's not without its flaws and is also known to be incredibly grinde-y.

I understand Genshin Impact is the new up and rising MMO on the market, but I haven't played it and cannot give you a fair analysis about whether or not the experience is more pleasant compared to others. The jury is out for that one but from footage I've seen, it does appear to have a function in which you can switch between a multiplayer and single player layer to your liking.

Anyway, in the interest of this not being an obnoxiously long post, I would personally stick to single player games if you don't have the time and want to actually enjoy the story while playing it rather than reading it from a wiki page in your downtime.

[Mikeyboy636]

Thanks for that, honestly you have put into perspective what I had guessed. I think my issues is time honestly, I probably get some time in the evening and some time over the weekend but none of it is ever guaranteed. 

I'm interested by your comments on the way in which these games are played and I assume that unless you play an mmo on release date realistically the story is the second priority as people are trying to make their way through it to get to the end to play with the serious players.

Hmm food for thought, so thank again

[User 781]

13 hours ago, Mikeyboy636 said:

I'm interested by your comments on the way in which these games are played and I assume that unless you play an mmo on release date realistically the story is the second priority as people are trying to make their way through it to get to the end to play with the serious players.

I think it just comes down to what people want in the gameplay, and the reality is that most people who play multiplayer games are not interested in the bells and whistles. They're not interested in who the boss is, or why they're fighting them, they want to hit it until it dies so they can brag to their friends that they did the most damage to it. That's not to say everyone is going to rush off to endgame content, but when the diving board and floaties are at the deep end and the kiddie pool is in your way, it doesn't matter how pretty you paint the bottom or how much you hope someone will notice it. The only ones who are going to notice it are the ones who aren't in any rush to go sit in the big pink donut. And when you add in things that are designed to promote player competition- such as Server Firsts, Regional Firsts, and World Firsts- then you have a game that seemingly rewards those players who want to nap on the way to their destination, regardless of whether the game is shiny new.

[2xVEmmallee]

Woah, some great insight here. I was recently looking at MMO games even though ive never been a gamer. A big hang up for me was that I'm no good at interaction with people, and i wondered what the gaming experience was like. The previous comme ts on this post were extremely informative. 

[efaardvark]

2 hours ago, 2xVEmmallee said:

Woah, some great insight here. I was recently looking at MMO games even though ive never been a gamer. A big hang up for me was that I'm no good at interaction with people, and i wondered what the gaming experience was like. The previous comme ts on this post were extremely informative. 

I hate people too.  Well, some of the time.    Maybe hate is too strong a word but interacting with people is definitely not one of my strengths, and it usually tires me out quickly.  Over the years I've learned to overcome it but I'm definitely more on the introvert end of the scale.

That said, I do find that multiplayer online games can be fun.  There are a lot of games that are multiplayer-optional too.  Minecraft for instance will even let you start in single-player mode, then if you like you can open your single-player game up to other players on your local LAN.  Ultimately of course Microsoft would like you to rent yourself a "realms" server from them and play online with a bunch of your friends (even friends not on your LAN), but they make it easy to start single-player and take baby-steps toward multiplayer as you're ready.  Something like that might be good to start with.  In fact, some of my best experiences with multiplayer gaming have been in "LAN party" mode, not MMO games per-se.

I would even say stay away from most of the big-name MMO games if you're at all unsure of yourself.  Especially games like fortnite or PUBG that are highly competitive by design - arena-style "battle royale" or "last man standing" - can be quite intimidating to get into multiplayer.  They can be fun once you do get familiar with it and I'm not saying stay away forever but I wouldn't make something like that my first choice.  Unless you like learning to swim by jumping in the deep end of the pool of course.    (For me they're boring too because there's no story or progression of any sort, just repetitive kill-or-be-killed on the same map(s) over and over.  But that's more a personal preference sort of thing.  Some people do enjoy that.)