In my first post here at MMOCrunch I went over why I think City of Heroes/Villains (COX) is still a good and somewhat underappreciated MMORPG. This time around I am going to discuss something I touched on the last time, what makes a good MMO. There are a number of points, but there are some key factors in my opinion that can make or break a game.
One of the things that both COX and World of Warcraft do throughout the year is in-game events, especially around the holidays. This consists of special missions or instances that the player can partake in usually around Halloween, Christmas or Valentine’s Day. Just recently COX wrapped up its Winter Event that ran from December 15th to January 12th. The event featured the opening of the ski chalet in Pocket D which is an open zone that both villains and heroes can hang out in. In addition to ski slope runs and extra badges, players were also granted the optional mission of rescuing baby new year (who to me just looked like a little person in a diaper) to gain even more badges and temporary powers. Scattered all through Paragon City and the Rogue isles are also presents that will either spawn killer snowmen or candy cane salvage which can be traded in for badges and powers. One of the highlights of the event is battling a building-sized snowman called the Winter Lord in a zone where heroes and villains can work together on teams while it is open.
In World of Warcraft it was called “Feast of Winter Veil” and ran from December 25th to January 2nd. Like COX it is themed around the holidays and features special achievements and instances for players. Instead of a Winter Lord causing mayhem, Greatfather Winter is the figurehead and seems to be more Santa orientated in its focus. These seasonal events help give long-term players a reason to keep playing, it’s like a holiday thank you from the game developers.
Another key ingredient to making a good MMO is keeping in touch with the community within the game. As I stated in my last post, what keep me coming back to COX is the people I play with. Having talked with many WOW players, it sounds like they feel the same. What both games have done well is keeping an open line to the users and re-acting to what they like and don’t like. Prime examples of games that have not done this are Sony Online Entertainment’s Star Wars Galaxies and the NcSoft’s ill-fated Auto Assault.
Star Wars Galaxies started off strong and early on was very popular among MMORPG fans. I used to have many friends who played it religiously and really liked the game. Then there was the update that changed many things, including making everyone a Jedi. Previously players had a long road to be a Jedi and put in many hours collecting Holocron pieces to get that rank. Then after the update it seemed all that hard work was for nothing and fans quickly left the game in disgust. There is now talk of a new MMO coming out set in the world of the Old Republic and I will be curious to see if fans of the genre will give it another try.
NcSoft thought they really were striking into new ground with Auto Assault developed by NetDevil. But after only a few months of being online, it was shutdown and many refunds were given. What made that game unique was that your main character was a vehicle with you having a semi-customizable human to wander around in cities with to either get missions or upgrades. I played the game quite a bit and did enjoy driving around in a post apocalyptic world blowing up things, but found being humanoid clunky and distracting at times. The mission types were escort, patrol and kill which would earn you in game money to upgrade your weapons and look of your vehicle. There was no death penalty per se in the game; once your health ran out your only cost was the time to get back to a mission, but no loss of experience. What ultimately killed it in the end was lack of players. Even though there was a really easy teaming system in place,there just wasn’t not enough people online to team with. I would log on and there would be hardly anyone on the servers. It is a shame though, I think if it had been given a chance by the fans it would have lasted longer.
So as we head into this New Year and decade it does not look like MMORPG’s are not really slowing down at all. Looking ahead I am anxiously awaiting to see what the new Going Rogue expansion for COX, DCU Online, Star Trek Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic has to offer us all. If the developers keep in touch with the fans, listen to the communities and give them what they want it will be very busy online year. Heck, I might even have to play more than one at a time if they can bring the goods to the table, so to speak.
I do like events, but not necessarily annual events, as much as once in a lifetime events, things that really give you that connection with the world your playing in. Also, in regards to StarWars: Galaxies, a successful MMO requires virtually unattainable goals, goals that most players cannot possibly hope to achieve. When you take away the light at the end of the tunnel, suddenly paying $15 a month to reach the end of it just dosen’t seem that appealing. You need something for even the most elitist of players to aspire to.
Haha, I just posted on another blog recently that I would be absolutely DELIGHTED if one MMO – just one! – would give the damn Christmas events a miss. So sick of seeing every single MMO in the world doing their own in-game Christmas. Enough already!
Agree with Carson :) I don’t need to see Christmas in WoW or EQ2 or SW:G or any other game :) I play to escape from it!
I love the ingame events, yes even the christmas stuff. I think what makes it fun is when an online world is living and breathing.
The modern static gameplay worlds really makes things grow old. I think what blizzard is doing with the cataclysm is amazing, what would be more amazing is to see those events unfold over a 2 month period. Creating a living world.
The one thing that got me into wow was the spread of disease that is so famous today. When I first read about it I thought that it was put into the game deliberately.
Just before wrath was launched and the zombie curse was everywhere, that was one of my favorite times of the game. People were running from each other, some were spreading terror. I even read of groups of paladins grouping up and attempting to clear out cities. Essentially that event made the cities living and dynamic.
Many events and pvps – thats what im looking for.
I have played 3 MMORPGs; FFXI, WoW, and Warhammer (WAR for short). They all have thier own strengths and weakness’. I will just give lists of what
I do and dont about each and what I would like to see a game maker do I know would keep me around and would possible keep more people joining up that i used to play with on each game.
I’ll start with WoW since it currently holds the title of number one MMORPG subscriber base. What I felt makes WoW a good game is that you can level solo, getting exp for quests, autogrouping, and something to do after you hit max level cap.
I didnt spend a lot of time playing wow because
I felt the game was very empty and lonely people are not that friendly and there seems to be a lot of smug players and young children. Nothing here that made me go WoW. So I am quiting play after my second go at this game might not cancel my account and see what Cataclysm has to offer.
WAR will be my second one. Things I feel WAR did well were above all RvR which no one else came close to. beeing able to get EXP for quests like in WoW. But the game pretty much ended there.
I feel I lost a lot of interest in playing because a lot of lag issues. While it was nice to be able to autogroup or get into a realm and deffend keeps it was on the other hand all for nothing to have huge numbers of people battleing if everything is broken up and laggy. The other major problem was that without a third Realm servers tended to become lopsided. The servers I played on tended to be heavy to one faction or another. I think mostly in part to people quiting after finding that one faction usually held domain on each server. I never hit End game but from wat I read I didnt miss much. One of the main reasons I left was because it was a game that required large numbers in your faction and when people quit that made play quite difficult.
FFXI was the first MMORPG I have played. I was emerssed in a world that you had cooperation from other players in order to achieve higher levels, ranks and complete missions. This lent itself to the online environment. I loved getting into a party and getting a few thousand experience points maybe some levels. I loved its crafting system although very complicated and slow leveling the rewards were great. The notorious monster hunting, BCNMs and KSNMs. The world is endless. The storyline to the game is probably one of the best I have ever found in a game period. While some of the tasks were mundane and monotenous I find myself returning for more.
With the games age The world is soooo expansive and some of the items which you used to get from notorious monsters and some instancing and some events have become obsolete, I feel SE should work on changing the leveling system and giving more reason for veteran players to fill up the starting areas, if they did new players may find more of the contact which makes this game so great. FFXIV was a horrible failure SE should be ashamed. They still have a strong enough fan base they should work on rebuilding it for this game. There are many changes they could make such as when they add new equipment dont make it negate the want or draw to old items or missions so that when new players come into the game or old ones return they are not faced with a 3 year grind just to catch up to old players in the EG.