Top 10 Problems With MMOs

September 14th, 2009 14 Comments

IGN released what it thinks are the Top 10 problems that the MMORPG industry needs to address. This is a good read for both publishers, developers and for the players too.

Maybe those in the industry can get good ideas so that we’ll come out with better games in the future.m Allow me to summarize them after the break…

TOP 10 Problems with MMORPGs

  1. Elves – too much of them. No orginality anymore
  2. Humans – Griefers, scammers, hackers. They make the world a living hell for honest players
  3. Perverts - What more can I say? This is totally disgusting.
  4. No Consequences – Epic dragons, boss monsters, impossible quests. The game world still maintains status quo. And yeah, thousands of others have done the same thing or even better.
  5. No Story – a lot of games are “cookie cutter” builds. No originality in stories whatsoever.
  6. The Grind – MMO games are designed to slow you down. It’s simple math, 3 is higher than 2. There’s always something better and players will strive to get the best.
  7. PC Focus – C’mon, when are we going to see epic console titles?
  8. Too Little Roleplaying – it IS an RPG. Yet people chat like they’re in Facebook or YM
  9. Death – iRL death folks. From too much playing. Beware! Watch what you eat and watch your health
  10. Stats - most people are obsessed with finding short-cuts to make these the end-all and be-all of their gaming.

Part of my job is to look out for interesting games that we may purchase and release locally. I’m glad I read this short article. Now I have a simple checklist of things to look out for.

Hope this also helps you guys as a player.

For the full article at IGN click here

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  • bRO player

    RO perspective (personal opinion)

    Elves – I remember Geffenia. Anything else? I think they are in no way over-used.

    Humans – Many problems can be fixed at source. Come on, can’t Gravity fix e.g. the trade bug? Other problems can be dealt with (you got my mail right?)

    Perverts – Non-issue, really. *IF* there is harassing (as defined by the game contract), screenshot + ticket = ban. The word filter is MUCH more stupid.

    No Consequences – One word: sieges. RO has an aspect that has large consequences in the game world for the ones involved in it.

    No Story – It’s a good thing to be able to skip the story altogether. RO has LOTS of stories. It’s one aspect of the game that is not used much. Glast Heim is not just a creepy place to healbomb monsters, you know… (they should make an instance dungeon about its past).

    The Grind – Can’t stand it? Go play a RTS game, chess or whatever. RO before transclass was actually OK. If sieges are considered, a 80-89 character wasn’t difficult to have and was quite good in old times. To be 99 was the edge, some few points on attributes and HP/SP. But after transclass, when people *HAD* to be 99 to be able to enjoy the new classes (and they were way stronger), grind hit very very hard RO.

    PC Focus – As it should be. Lookout for FFXIV, but you’ll probably need a keyboard to chat so… is it an advantage to play it on a console? Whatever…

    Too Little Roleplaying – (A) “Hey, what’s your level?” (B) “Level? What is that?” (A) “The number on the little bar on top of your screen..??” (B) “What do you mean? I can’t understand you!” blah blah blah. I saw it happen and I think it’s very stupid to force that on others. Go to a RP server or an RP guild (always lower population, mind you).

    Death – IRL? Nothing to say.

    Stats – RO gets this right. It’s unmerciful about mistakes though (not anymore?). Try to find “best knight build” and you’ll find dozens for different play styles. Point made.

    This is long and will need approval I’m sure! ^^

  • Matto-kun

    CHEATERS! zOMG HAX!!

  • Matto-kun

    I agree Elves are boring..

  • Asker25

    8. Too Little Roleplaying – it IS an RPG. Yet people chat like they’re in Facebook or YM

    — di ako agree GM T d2… RPG = Role Playing Game..

    ibig sbhin ni-rerepresent lng ng karakter nya ung
    sarili nya… edi kung mahilig sya sa chat edi ok lang,,,, XD

  • fr0stbyte

    Role-playing?! I dunno if I’d want to shout ‘I will smite thee!’ as a knight in the middle of a battle with a mob..

  • Gamer

    number 6 is what i like in this kind of game to be number 1

  • dasdasd

    1. Elves – Agreed
    2. Humans – Although I hate them, I think MMORPG’s will be boring without them O_o
    3. Perverts – Same as above
    4. No Consequences – True, it would be better if MMORPG’s will implement greater consequences for some of the things that happen in the game.. like if you die you lose a level or something to make players be more careful when playing… because really… no one cares if they die in pvp anymore.. no one cares if they die in a high level dungeon while being leeched etc.
    5. No Story – i think the problem really isn’t the story but rather how all the players will feel the story.. for example in ragnarok morroc got destroyed… so what? the map just changed right? there was no impact on the feel of playing ragnarok whatsoever..
    6. The Grind – it’s alright to grind so long as its rewarding ^_^
    7. PC Focus – I love the PC focus because console MMORPG’s = less potential players.. p
    8. Too Little Roleplaying – Completely Disagree
    9. Death – Agreed
    10. Stats – this can’t be removed can it? it’s a human instinct

    then let’s add

    11. Most MMORPG’s are the same
    12. Some MMORPG’s forces you to play a different gender depending on the job – which really sucks
    13. Most MMORPG’s have unbalanced characters and tend to have items that completely make other players more powerful than anyone else
    14. Most MMORPG’s have a predetermined path for a player to follow.. for example flyff forces all players to follow a single route because there are only a few monsters you can kill per level.. much unlike ragnarok where you can choose from a wide variety of monsters to kill at any level
    15. Most MMORPG’s have nonsense item system.. players shouldn’t buy new items every other level that’s just absurd and stupid.. telling us that we can’t use a weapon till we are level 99 is just plain absurd.. it’s understandable if it’s a godly item or a very special item.. but a common npc sold sword?! it’s like telling us that our characters have to level up just so they can weild sharper swords..it would be better if mmorpg’s copy the item system of ragnarok where you can use the same weapon you were using when you were level 10..
    16. Too much walking – nuff said.
    17. Straight forward quests

  • http://evc-ngcs.blogspot.com Emil Fencer Hatsuya

    Siguro para masabi na may role-playing nga, may iba na gagawa pa ng kanilang fanfic ^_^

    Of course kung dumating na ang Emil Chronicle Online, talagang gagawan ko ng fic yung character ko dun.

  • darkseed

    geez… yan din ang nakakaasar especially when dnd 4th ed is gearing towards the mmorpg market rather than use the traditional tabletop RPG

  • bRO player

    *still trying to figure out why my comments are censored* :-(

  • Pingback: The Ten Plagues of MMOs: MMOGrindHouse.com

  • Mike

    To all who disagree with the notion that there’s little role-playing in MMOs:

    In the history of video games, CRPGs (as the name suggests) are computer versions of pen-and-paper RPGs. If you haven’t heard of true pen-and-paper RPGs (i.e. Dungeons and Dragons, GURPS), then you should look it up.

    Pen and paper is about assuming the role of fictional characters. You DON’T represent yourself in an RPG–that’s just not how it works.

    It’s true, there’s hardly little role-playing in MMOs. It’s all about the grind, it’s all about the powerleveling. What’s sad is that true role-playing, the essence of what a real RPG should be, is relegated to RP servers in MMOs.

  • http://www.mmogrindhouse.com captbash

    Here’s my take on the ten plagues of MMOs that should be avoided by the gaming industry in the future

    10. Elves – Elves are inevitable. Even the Star Trek Online has its own half-breed or hybrid elven form character no other than Mr. Spocks. Banning elves from MMos is racism!

    9. Humans-Gold farmers, hackers, and bots (run by humans) are the ones severely hurting the MMO industry. These shirtless scumbags must be castrated to prevent them from diluting the gene pool of the human race.

    8. Perverts-You’d think twice if you think that the world of MMO is safe for your children when they are left home alone by themselves after reading this bizarre article headlined “Proof Paedophiles are using HOME”. Totally disgusting indeed!

    7. No Consequences- I’ve been dreaming of an MMO that can give an exclusive quest for each player which could trigger an event that affects the whole nation or major changes in the story and environment. How about a time travel based MMO, where altering the past or present time, will drastically change the future.

    6. No Story – You’ve collected the required keys, defeated the boss, and finally made it to the Imperial Gate. What’s next? Most MMO’s are derivative, they shamelessly copy other games without bringing an exciting new twist to the story

    5. The Grind- You need a significant time investment (as well as hard earned money) before you can reach your character level’s magic number. That’s how P2p system is designed. MMO publishers never runs out of gimmicks to make your progress in the game draggingly slower than molasses.

    4. PC Focus – Blizzard has reiterated for a zillionth time that no Xbox 360 or PS3 port of World of Warcraft is being planned. WOW was not really designed to work with consoles. It’s just more like a square peg on a round hole thing for the game.

    3. Too Little Roleplaying –
    MMO’s is designed to make you escape reality. Your imagination and excitement cut short after hearing a group of orcs blubbering about job recessions, stimulus bills, and taylor swift drama. This is RPG not Twitter, damn people!

    2. Death – New study reveals that common adult video-game addicts are overweight, introverted, and often depressed. Death is a curse to those sitting around gold farming 18 hours a day, nuff said.

    1. All About Stats – I think this has already been resolved in Atlantica Online MMO. Your character’s success or failures rates on monster quests to pvp depends largely on the methodology of stunning and time limit. The random dice roll doesn’t exist in the game at all.

    I resposted it here (with cute pics haha): http://www.mmogrindhouse.com/uncategorized/the-ten-plagues-of-mmos/

  • Thalazar

    I will gladly shove my penis into a bag of razorblades the day we EVER find a game everyone can agree on. Yes this is a redundant statement but, hell with it.


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