New to MMORPGS?

Do you new players to the MMORPG genre still get an amazing feeling when you first start out?  I don’t know if any of you new players have read about that “amazing feeling” that is just indescribable..maybe the first sexual experience you have as a teen?…may be a good way to describe it, but do you feel it when you first logged into your newly found game?  You think about the game at work, you hurry up as fast as you can to get home and log on,  you procrastinate just so you can get another hour in the game?  Does anyone experience this anymore?  I know I was 13 when I started my MMORPG career, and I had these feelings all the time.  Just the love, want, and desire for the game.  It gave me shakes when something was new and difficult (PvP) and a sense of accomplishment when I achieved my first whatever.

Some would probably call this addiction.  I call it a love for the genre, the game, and the ideals of the genre.  Games were meant to be adored and loved, but no one does that anymore it seems.  They feel it’s a right they should have to be able to log on, get whatever they want, and log off.  It shouldn’t work like that in this genre.  I know it does, but it shouldn’t.  It’s a bastardization of everything that our MMORPG forefathers created.  The games were meant to be a difficult adventure…full of danger, enjoyment, adventure, and achievement.  Sure you failed/died A LOT, but that was part of the fun and the challenge to succeed and do better.  This was the game.  Not an instance at level 80 to be farmed, but a world to explore and never know the full extent of this world.  There was always something new to be challenged, or item to obtain, or skill to master.  You were one with your character and you treated him/her as you.  You wanted the best for yourself in game, and you worked at getting it.  It was never handed to you, or bought with a micro transaction.  You devoted your time to the game, and the game rewarded your hard work and effort.

These ideals are lost, and I do not think they will ever return to the market of MMORPG gaming.  I think WoW proved this to us, unless Blizzard has a change of heart and returns to its 2004 roots, or makes us a skill based sandbox.  Companies will continue to send out crap level based grinds because “Simpsons(Blizzard) did it” and greedy investors see this as a quick dime.  All of my old brothers and sisters, I think our time has faded, we are no longer a niche.  The old gaming Gods have been buried under time by hardcore carebear casuals, and their incessant whining for reward.

Raise your glass to the Gaming Gods of Old, for they slumber for near eternity.

Mother F*cker

My best friend is a bastard.  “HEY BRO LET’S PLAY SOME WOW OK?”  I hate him obviously, because last night I reactivated WoW.  One of the main reasons we did this is because there’s not crap to play.  Every game is a garbage fest.  Every new game (Darkfall/Fallen Earth) is horrible because they are more like an offline RPG.  Yes, I have done all the large clan drama/warfare for months and after about 2 weeks it’s just boring.  I did not know this, but Blizzard made it so you could have Alliance/Horde characters on the same PVP realm, so that makes me feel ok doing the reactivation, and me and my buddy will actually have content that we can play together.  Of course there’s tons of solo content and it’s faster if you solo, but where’s the fun in that?  These are MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER online role playing games.  Darkfall and Fallen Earth give me the sense of “I don’t really need anyone but myself.”  Say me and my buddy want to go farm some mobs in Darkfall, with high archery you can pretty much do anything solo, so having him there totally gimps the money and skillgain.  Yes, he’s my buddy and I choose to have him there because it’s more fun for me, but why isn’t grouping rewarded with more bonus to skillgain?  I can understand this would be easily exploitable, but it’s just an idea.

World of Warcraft, at first, rewarded large groups of players (Raids) for epic gear/loot/items.  Difficult challenges for large groups of people, why did this go away?  Why would an MMORPG company reduce the MM part of the genre?  Since 2006 WoW it’s been on a downhill slide of easiness, laziness, and “screw everyone else” mentality.  Give me DAoC where it took an entire realm to bring down Sidi/TG/Galla, or the realm dragons.  I miss playing with my friends.  Sure we’ll be all online together, in the same guild, in the same ventrilo, but spread out all across the map because it’s better to work alone than together when it comes to leveling/gaining skill.  This separation will just get worse and worse as WoW continues the dumbing down of content.  I read a blog the other day that talked about 3 of their level 80 friends soloing MC.  This just stuns me, and the next expansion is adding 5 more levels.  Is there going to be anything left?

Can there really be that many people (I guess there is because of WoW’s US sub numbers…+1 thanks to me) that are interested in soloable content?  Where did this mentality come from?  (I won’t go into the selfishness of humanity) This feeling of “playing alone is better” was not really around back in early years.  Sure people soloed for a CHALLENGE.  Now it’s the only way to play it seems, and god forbid if there’s a mild challenge in a new game.  Then it is time to run to Google and find out the strategy to beat it. *shakes head*  I am almost ashamed to play MMORPG’s nowadays.  I feel like i’m disrespecting my forefathers by giving these companies my money, but I want to play with my FRIENDS in a GROUP, TOGETHER.  Weird I know, i’m sorry.