• 14Apr 09

  Sorry, No Apps Under 25 Years Old

  Obviously the main draw to any MMO is that there is player interaction. In every MMO I have ever played, nothing useful can be done in terms of progress without a group of adventurers ready to take on all challenges. Oh boy, what a great idea; let's make it so that people can't be serious gamers without the group.

  That is fine. In fact, I love that system. I love it when you need to group up for a 25 man raid in WoW, etc. That was definitely the main appeal. Unfortunately, I had not needed to apply to a guild in WoW because my brother was the GM of mine. After WoW, I tried EVE Online, a game in which I knew no one in and needed to apply to a corporation in.

  So I did the logical thing; I went to the recruitment channel. Unfortunately I didn't realize that a skill you can't buy at a market, but need to be able to play EVE Online is age, and I'm not talking about your in-game character.

  Literally every single corporation had in the slogan, "Over 20." In fact, there were at least four that I saw with requirements for age to be "Over 25." I just don't see why. Maturity? If so, then the corporations should look at its own members, for they are the intellectuals they pretend to be in their recruitment spams. F-Words, S-Words, etc. Again, I am fine with them, and I do curse a lot in real life, but to reject someone strictly on the merits of age because of maturity is like not allowing someone who is an alcoholic teenager into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting because they aren't drinking age. The person fits the qualifications, he is an alcoholic, but the sheer fact that he isn't old enough to drink would hold him back.

  I guarantee someone is going to respond with, "well why don't you just lie?" First off, I am not a liar, so that is a last resort at best. Second off, I shouldn't need to lie at all in the first place, hence this blog. Third of all, I would not pass for a 20 year old. I am 16 years old and just sound younger than someone who is 20 or 25.

  And no, this isn't only in EVE. It's in every MMO. All I am saying is that people should give other people a chance before just flat out rejecting them because of some stupid rule in an attempt to preserve whatever "maturity" these corporations, guilds, whatever, pretend to maintain.

  • Posted Apr 14, 2009 10:42 pm GMT
  • Category: Rant
  • 2 Comments
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• 21Nov 08

  MMO: The Grind, Difficulty Level

  No matter what fan of what MMO game you are, everybody has to admit that MMOs are a grind, whether or not a person likes it.  Every single one is a grind, and this is what has turned me off to all MMO games.  I tried Guild Wars, which was at the point in time when I played it, too easy; WoW is too long of a solo grind, and Warhammer Online is too much of an instanced pvp grind.  No matter which one you choose the end result is the same; you grind to the max, repeat the rewards which do seem very rewarding at first, and then those too become a grind.

   

  This got me thinking, do MMOs really have to be such a grind?  There are a number of single player games out there, all of them are very highly story driven, involve deeply engaging quests which (depending on the game) hardly repeat themselves, and there is usually some sort of satisfying feeling that goes along with finishing that quest you have been stuck on for a few days.

   

  Why can't some game studio, somewhere, at some point in time develop an MMO that isn't just a constant grind?  To some, the grind can literally feel like a second job.  This game would have cutscenes, a heavily driven plot, and not just a menu of text on why you have to kill another 40 helboars.  The plot wouldn't be that you are just the destined hero.  A person in this game should start out neutrally, and then go to a different faction based on decisions that they made in the game's earliest missions, each with its own consequences and rewards.

   

  A game like World of Warcraft, for instance, has the two factions, and both basically do very similar missions despite being enemies.  That is stupid.  The game experience should literally be like playing two different games for the factions, and there should be some thought into what decisions you make.  Now I know that there are some of the current MMO fans who are in it only to do something with people they like, and it just happens to give them a group activity, and that is fine.  I, however, cannot understand someone who is playing the game and is unguilded, or struggling to find a guild, and is consitently grinding.  Believe me, there are people like those out there.  In fact, I may consider myself to be one of them.

   

  If an MMO had a fully developed plot that made people want to play, and wasn't just a constant grindfest to the max level, then I am sure that whatever company made that particular game would receive a lot of money from people like myself, who currently only play games like Oblivion, Fallout, Fable II, and have put down Warhammer and Warcraft.

   

  Speaking of grinding, why does it take so long to grind to max level in the first place?  These companies are at a lack of activities to give the player when they reach max level.  Let's think about this for a second; Warcraft gives players set boss fights which act in the exact same manner each time, Warhammer gives multiple PvP and RvR options which can be repeated over and over again.  The objective in both games is to gain the best gear, so you can become the best at doing these same activities the next time you do them, which is likely to be soon.  I have two concerns with that.  One, it gets overly repetitive, and two, if it is more challenging with worse gear to accomplish a boss fight, why would I want to gear up?  I don't want a game that eventually will become such an easier game that I can do it with my eyes closed after the twentieth time I have fought a boss.

   

  I am not hating on MMOs, but MMOs are the only games where challenges get easier as the player progresses in gear.  In every other game ever made, every level gets harder, in shooters, ammo becomes more scarce, and the game tends to mix things up at a point.  For an MMO, however, if it is the eleventh time doing Illidan, and you have both of the Warglaives, then it is going to be much easier than when you first did it.  While it may certainly be harder to get to Illidan in the first place than it was to beat a single player game, the single player game has a climax and leaves the player satisfied they beat something on the highest level, while an MMO climaxes difficulty and then has the player repeat the boss for weeks before advancing or reaching the end of the game.  I would say that in a PvP based game like Warhammer the problem is even worse because there is really not that much variety once a player has fought every class for a few weeks.

   

  So please, leave a comment for those who have read this.  I hope someone does, I spent a pretty long time writing it.  It is a basic topic, but this is my first real blog entry and I wanted to just get this out there.

  • Posted Nov 21, 2008 8:53 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 1 Comment
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• 7Nov 08

  More Reviews to Come

  For anyone who enjoys reading my reviews, I renewed my Gamefly subscription, which will lead to more Xbox360 reviews to come, as well as the occasional PC review.
  • Posted Nov 7, 2008 8:58 pm GMT
  • 0 Comments
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