The Quest For Good MMORPGs – Missing The Grind Yet Not
Posted on April 13, 2009
Filed Under Age of Conan, DnD, Games, Rambling, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft
Its been over a week or two since I’ve last played Warhammer Online, and I don’t think I’ll be doing so anytime soon. It was a good run, but the end game was just lackluster to say the least. I’m not going to post a detailed reasoning as other people who have already quit have already posted pretty much the same story. I’m taking up solace, and reintroducing myself back to DnD 4th edition. As well as reinstalling an old MMORPG that my WAR guildmates have all switched to, which is Final Fantasy XI Online.
Some of my friends were wondering why the switch to this old game instead of World of Warcraft. While I used to play WoW quite avidly, I just don’t have the desire to now. It seems like they give away the end game content way to easy. There’s no sense of reward anymore. Granted I don’t really miss the second job like raiding that I used to do, however I do miss the sense of achievement after learning a hard encounter for the first time.
I’m sure some of you hard core mmorpg raiders know what I’m talking about. The weekly raids with 20-40 people getting together to beat the other guilds on your server to a server first boss kill. Especially when it meant something that your guild killed Onyxia, in Molten Core, fighting in Blackwing Lair, or fighting bosses in Naxxeramus. Even prior to that there was people who got together to do planes raids in Everquest, which was an even harder thing to do back then.
What’s happened to the current MMORPGS nowadays? There’s no real sense of accomplishment in getting to the end game. We want that achievement, but games like World of Warcraft have really spoiled us in terms of how we should get there. It seems like the standard is now to have an easy time getting to the end level, which is where the content starts. Where as, before the fun was actually in leveling up or even the grind. Its something that I thought I would never miss after playing games like Lineage 1 and 2. Or even Ragnarok Online. However, I do admit once you got to your next level you did get that little bit of joy even though you’ve spend most of your day sitting at your computer neglecting your social life.
In a game like Warhammer Online, you play against other people in one of two factions. Yet there was no stake in the game. If you died you didn’t lose any items, exp or anything of value to you except time. You had no stake in any of the keeps, or land that the opposing faction was trying to take over. There became no real reason to defend said keeps/forts/even capitols. Even Failcom’s Age of Conan got that part right, by forcing people to grind out their guild cities they emphasized a need for that guild to stay together, and make enemies/allies with caution. You had a ’stake’ in what you put into the game, and to defend this you actually put in an honest effort since you didn’t want to lose your hard work.
Has it really come to this? Have we as gamers who have always wanted to skip through content to see the end game now just complaining that we have it all too easy? I kind of miss the grind, but I kind of don’t at the same time. Is it just me that feels this way?
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14 Responses to “The Quest For Good MMORPGs – Missing The Grind Yet Not”
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I think the best games are the ones that combine a hard grind up and hard end game content. Original WoW had this but expansion after expansion has killed it. I guess that is the price for making money.
I think I like games that have great leveling up content. I mean when you first when through Maradon’s key quest at around level 40 or so in WoW It really felt somewhat epic, but it wasn’t ridiculously hard. Yet you still felt like you achieved something afterwards.
That’s a false correlation. Less grind time doesn’t mean easier. It means less tedious. Grinding, is easy. Grinding is incredibly easy, all you to is attack the same simple enemy over and over that you can kill quickly. That is not in any way difficult, it’s time consuming.
You talk about being the first to a server boss kill. And that’s exactly it. What you are missing isn’t some difficulty challenge, you miss being elite. You miss the fame of being one of the best. You miss being the high level character when there were barely any at all…
And this is the same in every game. When your the top notch of the game in strategy games, or shooters, or action games, you get the same feeling. MMORPGs have no difficulty to them though, all they require is basically time. And when you were one of the few to put in that time, you got that feeling. But you can’t get it anymore, because there are a ton more players playing now, a lot more giving up all their time.
Well no not exactly elite. I miss the experience of learning an encounter for the first few times, and then completing it. I miss having that learning curve to do something.
I personally don’t care if I’m the highest level, or have a unique armor etc. I just miss games where the quests were more in depth with a story line that you had to go through at earlier levels.
Other examples that I remember are: That Maradon quest was one, the first time doing the warlock mount quest, Stein of Muggok Quest in Everquest the first time around, certain enchanter quests in eq where you had to figure out what to do (illusion/charm etc) instead of just being told via a quest box.
While I do agree with the fact that I don’t have as much time to play as I once did. I don’t miss the time I spent raiding or even the time to grind supplies needed to raid. (ie enchantments/potions/repair money etc).
The current quests that are the norm nowadays are things like. Go kill 10 of these mobs, then go gather 10 of these things, go kill this boss. It really requires no skill, provides no difficulty, and is just a plain unrewarding experience.
Warhammer Online was OK. It had some good features, I liked the records/titles you got for reaching certain thresholds however I stopped playing after just a month or so as I found the response time to be very slow.
Is the monster dead? Is the monster just going to stand there for a few seconds before it realises, very disappointing…
I to was a fan of WOW original content. It was harder to organize 40 people, and there was a greater sense of accomplishment in downing bosses. I stuck it out with BC, but finally had to walk away. For me it was watching the things that I had worked so hard for becoming suddenly worthless with a new expansion. It took all the fun away.
Trout Fliess last blog post..The Pheasant Tail Nymph
Not only do these MMORPGs bores gamers but with all the cheats engines, bots and the link, it really saddens me that we have come to this.
I think most MMORPG’s are going to be the same no matter what. You’re always going to find cheat engines, bots, gold farm services, etc. One of the reasons I no longer play these games. On most occasions, the uber characters have just cheated there way to their current status.
True i too miss the fun that we used to get by levelling up content. I agree with digital media college that the best games would be the ones that combine a hard grind up and hard end game content.
Nintendos last blog post..Resistance Retribution
I just bought Warhammer Online through steam and it won’t launch, probably because of my Vista. On the store’s page for warhammer it suggests to “Run as administrator” on the desktop shortcut, that doesn’t work either. It mentions also something about this would only happen if you have “User Account Control” on, how would I turn this off? Or could I move the Warhammer file out of Steam somehow?
Any other suggestions are also greatly appreciated!
@ Beautiful Landscapes, you have to run steam as administrator, not Warhammer if you bought the game through steam.
the original wow was totally epic playing from the very Begging throughout all the patches i can say it was amazing like when the pvp system first came out tarruen mill was a war(idk if anyone else experienced the same thing) it was the shit. i think the expansion ruined the game it totally fucked it, it makes me so sad
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