I have spent well over a hundred hours this past month playing Final Fantasy XIV. It is my first modern MMO, I played Star Wars Galaxies way back when but that was before everyone copied WoW. Now being an action single player focused gamer getting used to an MMO is kind of tough and while I have enjoyed playing it I can't help but think the entire genre is a mess. Maybe it's just FFXIV but I doubt it since from what I read the core basics of MMOs are universal. Obviously this is from my point of view, I understand everyone has different qualities that they look for in games.
NO FUN ALLOWED
I would say the biggest issue I have with this genre is that for some strange reason almost 90% of the activities in the game are not fun and it seems this is done on purpose. Nearly every mission is some form of fetch quest, the majority don't even try. Go there, kill 4 of that, inspect 6 lamps, deliver 3 letters, and not one of these objectives require any form of thinking. Even missions where thinking seems like it would be a good fit like "investigate a murder" is turned into "go to glowy spot and press interact". The game never lets the player do anything outside of fighting, it is a giant game of following markers and pressing buttons that perform whatever action for you. Why can't the game allow you to ever have some form of input. In a mission where you need to figure out something why not present multiple options where some form of basic observation is required. (FF has some sightseeing missions which are riddles of places you need to stand and "lookout", these make you think but they are locked away by nearly random times of day that you would have no clue of knowing when to lookout unless you have a guide, so even when they try to give the player some kind of puzzle they screw it up).
Every MMO has combat classes and other classes which include smiths, gatherers, miners, basically classes that gather and create items. These are by far the most boring classes to play cause the actions you perform are extremely mindnumbing. It is essentially a series of menus where you press a button over and over. Why are these classes so purposely boring? To me these non combat classes give developers the opportunity to create nearly any kind of gameplay they want, they could make it fun if they wanted to. Why not make collecting be a mini game? It could be anything. Mining could be a form of tetris, gathering could be a rhythm based mini game, crafting could be some kind of button masher. Hell if you are creative enough you can make a sort of shoot em up out of them. Fishing could be *gasp* an actual fishing mini game! Nope instead all those classes is just press button, press button, press button. I wonder if it is because MMO players want the least amount of work possible. If these classes were filled with mini games they would actually have to pay attention and they couldn't create a macro to do it for them, or some bot to perform the same actions over and over.
IT IS A JOB
While starting my miner class and mindnumbingly running from rock to rock mining I wondered why am I doing this? I then wondered about the entire game in general, why all the grinding. Why is this genre filled with activities no one enjoys. I am in a guild and I heard many conversations of people saying stuff like "Ugh time to farm for wind shards, I rather have my skin peeled off". What activities in life do people do for many many hours that they don't enjoy, the main answer to that for many is work. Why do people work cause you get a prize at the end, money. This is exactly the same thing in MMOs, the reason everyone is doing extremely boring terrible actions over and over is for a prize, a virtual prize but the concept is the same.
I started a miner class cause FFXIV has treasure hunts, basically you find a map then you get a picture with an X on it and you need to match that to a map. Just the fact that you have to figure out where the X corresponds to on your own blew my mind so I was instantly hooked, plus you may get amazing gear which creates a sort of gambling. But of course to find treasure you need to become a level 40 miner or spend a crazy amount of money buying maps. Level 40 miner is like 20 hours of grinding shit, but people do it cause TREASURE MAPS. I have been playing this game for over 100 hours cause at level 50 there is a ton of high level post story content which is where actual skill is needed. It only takes 100 hours to get there, again work to get to your prize.
THEY WANT YOUR MONEY
Then I got to thinking why does everything in MMOs take forever. Level 40 mining just to be able to dig up maps, really, why make me do like 20 hours of shit to try one of your gameplay systems. Why does leveling take so long in general? Why is the game filled with systems that have daily limits? Why are there like 6 different monetary systems that require different kinds of missions to earn prizes in? Oh, of course, they want you to stay paying the monthly fee. In the case of free to play they want you to get so pissed off at the boring shit that you pay for shortcuts or simply hide the good stuff behind a paywall. There needs to be insane amounts of content to keep people playing for months on end and the easiest content to make is boring crap that is a time waster.
DO IT MY WAY
The combat is really the only area of the game where any kind of actual gameplay shines. Being an MMO it is all about being part of a team and working together in perfect harmony to defeat powerful bosses. This is where my experience as a mostly single player action game fan comes in, the structure of combat in MMOs seem fundamentally broken to me. This stems from the tank/healer/DPS system that locks players into a certain role where there is only ONE proper way to play. Essentially if you are to be a good team player you are expected to read up on exactly how to properly play your class. To me that is like having a strategy guide all the time, there is absolutely no room for trial and error or improvisation. If you enter a dungeon for the first time and don't tell others it is your first time you are a horrible douchebag and believe me they will tell you. If you do tell them most teams will have someone tell you exactly what to do in each battle. I hate guides, I hate any thing that I would consider cheating, this is an entire genre based around following a guide or one set strategy.
Now I am a tank with is basically the team leader so I have to know what to do or the entire team dies, if I screw up everyone dies. So I suck it up and just do what others tell me. I don't get to experience a dungeon for the first time as I normally world. Every trap is told to me before it happens. All boss strategies are explained before hand, no chance to figure out the pattern on my own. Now yes there is still execution which is all I am focusing on, the more I play the better I get at battle but I am still following a preset plan.
The reason there is such a strict way to play is because this stupid tank/healer system which ruins everything. Instead of a party where all members can have some level of self sustaining skills allowing for real on the fly strategy and skill to come into play you are instead locked into major roles that limit what the player can do. Games like Destiny does not use this system and every player on that team has the ability to forge their own strategy and be who you want to be. Older games like PSO allowed far more freedom cause classes were not so defined. I feel MMOs would be so much better without such strict archetypes.But maybe that is just me, I would assume some of these MMO players really enjoy this kind of system and wouldn't want more skill based combat.
PEOPLE SUCK
Playing for the first time, that means you are a noob. Get ready to be picked on, laughed at and generally be a nuisance to others. Most people are nice and will aid when possible but it only takes a few to ruin a good time. Make a mistake and someone is bound to give you shit. I see giant hunt parties where people end up in some verbal pissing match over pulling the enemy too soon. I am not a person that ever feels the need to trash talk, I hate that aspect of multiplayer gaming and in MMOs you are forced into it cause it is the only way to play. Once you get to the high level stuff team work is NECESSARY so communication is key. Now if you stick to a good group of people you know you will have a blast but most of us will have to play with randoms and you never know what you will get. Just be prepared for human stupidity.
IT IS THE ONLY GAME THEY PLAY
I never stick to one game long, I enjoying playing as many different games as possible. The people who love MMOs I am assuming mostly only play the one game they are into. I see the head of the guild I am in has been playing since the start, he is on every night. I have talked to other members who don't really seem to know what is occurring in gaming , one asked "what is this Destiny I keep hearing about?" There are people that find one or two games and stick to it, that is all they want to play and basically this kind of game is made for them. That is fine, I am no one to tell anyone how to spend their time. I am just saying that for me this kind of mentality does not work.
MMOs have the power to make the player feel important in an actual community of other players. If I am good at an action game that means nothing to anyone but me, sure there maybe some leader board of random names and stats but that is all. In an MMO you can be a power player in a true virtual community and I bet that is one of the most alluring aspects of the game to some people. That means little to me, I rather the game have fun gameplay systems than focus on that world simulator. I just never hear anyone really complain about the structure of MMOs and I wonder if some people want it that way, as long as they get their virtual world they don't care that it can be so much better. Or some don't even know how it could be better,
I DONT HATE THE GENRE
I know this is mostly a blog whining about this genre I am new to but the truth is I am enjoying something, I would not play 100+ hours if I did not. I want it to be better, or different. I want an MMO that is more of a mix of what I enjoy of course (could you imagine if MMO dungeons were like Zelda! I am amazed I lasted this long without saying the game should be more like Zelda :P ) Or at the very least allow for more odf what makes single player RPGs so much fun, mostly being in full control. Of course the nature of MMOs is to be part of a team but why can't the team have more freedom, why cant I be a big dude with a sword that can also heal himself, that way another team member can focus on what they want to do rather than heal me all the time. And why do dungeons have to be cleared one way all the time, randomize it so that a new strategy is needed each time, that way the game is about learning the dungeon as a team rather than following a guide. Why does no one ask for any changes to this genre, these games could be so much better.
Of course they want it that way. MMORPGs are shallow, because their shallowness allows the community to dictate what the experience is going to be like, rather than the game dictating the experience.
Also, only 100 hours to get to the max level? While that's not as bad as World of Warcraft (pre-added levels, at least), how fucking short are they making MMORPGs these days? Geez.
Your suggestions remind me of something like Puzzle Pirates, which is an MMO but with more complex and stringent rules. The community does not at all matter in that game.
Think of MMORPGs as the dumbest, most shallow pop music. Is it horrible to actually listen to? Obviously, but it's inoffensive and causes most people to dance.
But I like pop music...
Yeah that is what I assume with MMOs its for people that dont really care for the game aspect of it. Still I dont get your point on how adding fun activities would remove the player involment aspect. Everything can stay the same, just make the missions go from go there press X to an actual mini game of some sort, the results are the same. If anything it can become more of a community event as people can help you out to get better at non combat classes. It adds a new avenue for learning and teaching.
100+ hours in a single month!
I played it for maybe 12-15 hours total in a month.
My work has really slowed down. Not much else to do.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that then.
Think about playing Halo 2 online with people. Yes, it's still a social thing and all about da bros, but it's very much an experience defined by the developers, and not your bros. The only way to manipulate the experience is by rebelling against the set rules. Now consider Wii Sports: not only is it more easily accessible, due to the higher level of simplicity the experience is more affected by the people playing, which makes it so fun in multiplayer. But it's still got a very strict set of rules and is so simple it isn't enjoyable for long sessions, or over a lifetime of hundreds of hours.
The advantage of not adding fun game modes into an MMORPG is that everything is an immediately accessible, abstract experience, and all the deep elements are effectively separate from the immediate gameplay (character building etc.); whereas the opposite of this is true for mini-games: the mechanics are often complex, but the rules are simple. The MMORPG model means you can not only have a deep, complex aspect to the game which will make it engaging for a long time, but with the actual gameplay (the immediate experience) being so simple and meaningless, it can becomes an entirely social experience.
As soon as you add higher levels of complexity it is only engaging to those who want to take the game more seriously, and that means that (the majority of people) casual players will have to devote their attention to it, and away from their own vision of how they want to play and interact with the community: how are you going to be sending people messages easily, or fucking around with other people, if you've got to concentrate on gameplay even as simple as a mini-game? Remember that you're not in the same room as other people, and voice chat is usually private.
It is the simplicity of mechanics and "level" design combined with deep rules that also gives the player so much freedom: if every experience is mechanically the same, then it feels like you can do anything; at least that is the immediate experience. With mini-games or more complex dungeons, you are creating specific, individual experiences, which obviously won't actually work with the experience MMORPGs are trying to create.
Indeed, as soon as you start adding more immediately engaging elements, you begin to whittle away at the mass hypnosis (
) and the result is that the game becomes overbearing. Besides, let's be honest, you haven't played 100 hours of Wii Sports with only you in the room (I hope), but you have played over 100 hours of FF14.
So, as unfun and inexplicably engaging as the lack of gameplay of an MMORPG is, that's the secret to its success: what exactly are you getting sick of if you're not actually doing anything? And you're still getting lots of positive feedback, and a deeper sense of progression than in the vast majority of games. But throw in mechanics, force the player to concentrate on what they're doing beyond the base rules, and then you've got an experience that is much harder to sustain over such a long period of time; and, more importantly, one that won't attract a lot of the MMORPG audience, because it is limiting in every way except immediate gameplay. And MMORPGs are designed around everything else.
And you can also have your cake and eat it, too, and do mechanically more complex stuff with PvP because only the people interested in a more distracting, challenging experience will be doing that anyway.
(Or you could play EVE Online.)
This is an amazing post, what an amazing breakdown. And I hate that you are totally right, wow MMOs are twisted.
But there is one area of the game where it is all about full gameplay attention and those are the dungeons. For that 20-60 minutes it is you and 4-8 people doing nothing but engaged in beating a dungeon. Now to be fair the grand majority of RPGs have rather bland dungeons, so its not fair to say the dungeons should be as complex as Zelda. And FFXIV actually has some decent dungeons, each with their own themes and cool trap rooms. My issue is that you almost need to know the dungeons beforehand to succeed, I wish it were randomized that way each time the whole team is on the same page, which is being in the dark. Of course that can lead to other issues and more boring dungeons.
Also the whole tank/healer shit sucks. But that is an MMO staple, bah.
A friend of mine used to be someone big in some guild-or-other in WOW. In his position, he would experience a lot of the (new) content as being fresh, as no one in his group would know what was coming next. Also, if you play long enough with the same people, it becomes a lot like a place to meet with people you enjoy. Kind of like what the VGpress is to us. A place to hang out. The fact that you have to pay to be able to hang out is just convenient for the publisher.
Yeah I see that with the FC I am in. I see their chats, they seem like virtual friends now. Every night they hang out together, share stories and stuff.
I was like that on PSO, I had a core group that would meet every night, it was awesome. There are aspects of MMOs that are great and you get what you put in but man the game part is so bleh at times.