Help...FFXI

[Gryph]

The kind of RPGs I enjoy have a tight well written story with excellent dialogue options. That's one reason I don't enjoy MMORPGs.

 

You can break down anything in life to being repetative and a simple step by step process and make it sound repetative. There's just something about them...it's just there.

 

The principle of the monthly fee is what I don't like. Sure it's the only way they will survive and it's a minimal fee but I like to play with myself.

 

But Guild Wars looks interesting because it's an MMORPG that you don't pay a monthly fee for, once you pay your $50 for it, that's it.

 

But as I said earlier, if they come out with an MMOG that caters to my tastes then I'll be sure to give it a go. Till then I'll be what Linda Lovelace was to porn, an MMORPG vet turned anti-MMORPG activist.

[OverlordMondo]

it's a minimal fee but I like to play with myself.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Say what? Clarification?

[Gryph]

it's a minimal fee but I like to play with myself.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Say what? Clarification?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was a poorly written sentence. It is a minimal fee, I agree with you about that but I'd rather play with myself. I inserted a little masturbation self deprication "joke" in there.

[Daeval]

Seriously, what game isn't like that?  Nearly every RPG rewards you for spending more time on the game.  Other games, in general, reward you for doing it as fast as possible, but to do it as fast as possible, you have to drop a fair amount of time into it.

Single player RPGs reward you for spending more time by giving you more of the story. Little, if any story is to be found in MMORPGs. Stories can often be found on related websites, etc, but there it is not a reward for gameplay, and is often impersonal to the characters you play. Rewards for extended play time in MMORPGs are purely statistical, which is unlike (most good) single player RPGs.

 

Very few single player RPGs these days require you to wander around and level up for extended periods of time. You might have to pound through a dungeon, but it is always to reach the next story-point at the end. MMORPGs, on the other hand, are solidly based on a wandering type of gameplay, aimless but for the next level or powerful item.

 

Now that single-player RPGs are out of the way, we come to another important point. Most multiplayer games are balanced such that the difference between two players is (ideally) entirely based on skill. Players of FPS or RTS games, for example, acquire familiarity and knowledge of their games over time. This helps them out, to be sure, but they do not gain hard-coded statistical advantages for having played 20 out of 24 hours in a day. The same cannot be said of MMORPGs.

 

Also, define repetitive.  You can break almost every game down into a simple step by step process and make it sound repetitive.

Main Entry: rep·e·ti·tious

Function: adjective

: characterized or marked by repetition; especially : tediously repeating.

See also: Auto-attack, Camping, Crafting, Collection Quests.

 

The travel times are only really long in a crappy MMO.  Like Star Wars Galaxies.  In fact, SWG can't be used for any further arguments you have against MMOs.

I've never met an MMORPG whose travel times weren't either really long, making them tedious, or teleport-fast, completely destroying the point of the scale. Except maybe PlanetSide, since just about anyone could drive a vehicle. "Ships," to use the EQ term, are boring as hell. You wait for them to show up, then you sit and wait some more. Whee. Player-mounts or vehicles aren't a bad option, but they normally require you to have already spent 3 months walking everywhere or sitting on ships. If WOW has a better solution, I'm unaware. And SWG is actually one of the better ones I've played. If it weren't for the completely crappy economy I might actually have stayed on that one.

 

The monthly fee is trivial, at best.

I've been paid out of that monthly fee, so I know how trivial it is. Let's put it this way: When I worked at Sony, it took 7 people worth of monthly fees to employ me for a day - which doesn't even include the hefty benefits - and I was just one of a huge pool of tech support, testers, and GMs. And that says nothing of the bandwidth, servers, electricity, internal maintenance staff, developers, etc, etc, etc. Running those games is expensive as hell, and the monthly fee is more than justified.

[Daeval]

I'm waiting for a MMOFPSRPG that has modern combat at a global scale where different countries and factions can spread and take control. Kind of like Battlefield 2 on a much larger scale.

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That is basically what PlanetSide is, except it's near-future style sci-fi instead of modern combat, and the three sides are established instead of different groups popping up. All three sides fight for control of a number of continents, and there are bonuses to holding a whole continent - kind of like in Risk.

[Skythe]

You'll sooner than later get sick of playing FF11. Then after awhile go back to playing it again. I've been doing that since it was first released on PC. Same goes for UO. Anywho. Just remember that the game will always still be there after you turn it off.

[Gryph]

I'm waiting for a MMOFPSRPG that has modern combat at a global scale where different countries and factions can spread and take control. Kind of like Battlefield 2 on a much larger scale.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is basically what PlanetSide is, except it's near-future style sci-fi instead of modern combat, and the three sides are established instead of different groups popping up. All three sides fight for control of a number of continents, and there are bonuses to holding a whole continent - kind of like in Risk.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, but if only it was modern (near-modern) then it would be great. I remember I was excited about World War II Online until it came out. Wow, was that a failure or what.

[Lucandrake]

I rather play a MMOFPS then a MMORPG, because the fact MMORPG's take no skill unless your in a higher level, and even then it's just like playing chess exept with spells and abilitys. Yes I do pay, but not for this month, like I said earlier, if it keeps on going like this, im going to uninstall it and go for a game like planentside, even tho I never heard of it, but diso and gryph got weird tasts in gaming, not like the general public, wich helps me toward the decision of buying a mmo. Well, thanks for the info guys, and the storyline for FFXI is more like the combanation of middle aged history with FFIX and FFT storlylines in one. It's weird and strange, but it's the only FF I've seen that try's to stick with humans and realism, unlike games like FFVII were your in a futuristic timezome but a gun is consedered a rare weopon.

[Wizard]

I rather play a MMOFPS then a MMORPG, because the fact MMORPG's take no skill unless your in a higher level, and even then it's just like playing chess exept with spells and abilitys. Yes I do pay, but not for this month, like I said earlier, if it keeps on going like this, im going to uninstall it and go for a game like planentside, even tho I never heard of it, but diso and gryph got weird tasts in gaming, not like the general public, wich helps me toward the decision of buying a mmo. Well, thanks for the info guys, and the storyline for FFXI is more like the combanation of middle aged history with FFIX and FFT storlylines in one. It's weird and strange, but it's the only FF I've seen that try's to stick with humans and realism, unlike games like FFVII were your in a futuristic timezome but a gun is consedered a rare weopon.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You've never seen the Red Mage's crazyass weapon. It looks like a friking rifle!

[Lucandrake]

Dude, there are guns in this game, true, but you have to be a high level synthisis or a rich biatch to get them. No I havent, still lvl 18....

[OverlordMondo]

Single player RPGs reward you for spending more time by giving you more of the story.  Little, if any story is to be found in MMORPGs.  Stories can often be found on related websites, etc, but there it is not a reward for gameplay, and is often impersonal to the characters you play.  Rewards for extended play time in MMORPGs are purely statistical, which is unlike (most good) single player RPGs.

 

Very few single player RPGs these days require you to wander around and level up for extended periods of time.  You might have to pound through a dungeon, but it is always to reach the next story-point at the end.  MMORPGs, on the other hand, are solidly based on a wandering type of gameplay, aimless but for the next level or powerful item.

My first reaction is, "If you want a story, read a book." But the story is pretty much the entire point of a console 1-player RPG. The story being second to gameplay and development on a PC RPG.

 

The focii of an MMO are two things. One, playing with other people. And two, character development. It's always more fun when the mage and priest in your party aren't controlled by the same person as the warrior.

Also, development doesn't even exist in most console games. It's a "Here's a premade character that gains static skills." kinda thing.

 

But the main problem with single player games is just that, only one person can play. Games like Final Fantasy or Bloodlines are pretty good when you're alone. But what if you wanted to play with friends? Or even complete strangers for that matter. Most PC RPGs cover that, but on a console you're screwed.

 

Now that single-player RPGs are out of the way, we come to another important point.  Most multiplayer games are balanced such that the difference between two players is (ideally) entirely based on skill.  Players of FPS or RTS games, for example, acquire familiarity and knowledge of their games over time.  This helps them out, to be sure, but they do not gain hard-coded statistical advantages for having played 20 out of 24 hours in a day.  The same cannot be said of MMORPGs.

 

MMOs aren't based on Competition any more than DnD was. While PvP is available for most of them, it's not the focus. Other people are there so you can form adventuring groups with them to go out and explore a vast world. The "grind" is all but nonexistant in the more recent MMOs, allowing you to put more focus on exploration and having fun.

 

That said, there's a fair amount of skill involved in PvP as well. Two level 20 characters don't come out of a fight tied, one of them wins. Skill makes some win more than others. The only problem is when a level 20 and level 30 charcter fight, the level 30 will more than likely be the victor. But then when I'm playing WCIII and get randomly matched up with someone, the one who's been playing for 2 years straight will beat me, who's played for less than one. There isn't much difference. If you want to be truly good at an online game, you have to devote yourself to it. If the level 20 has been playing for two years, and the level 30 was just powerleveled in a week, guess who wins the fight then?

 

Main Entry: rep·e·ti·tious

Function: adjective

: characterized or marked by repetition; especially : tediously repeating. 

See also: Auto-attack, Camping, Crafting, Collection Quests.

Clever. :\ I can say that in World of Warcraft at least, you can't just flip on auto-attack and hope to win. You have to be there using your skills the whole time. A second where you aren't casting a spell or using a skill is a second wasted. This plays a bit into the skill part I mentioned up there.

 

Camping is equally non-existant. I can't even see a reason someone would want to do it in WoW.

 

Crafting isn't the main part of the game. Chocobo racing is just as repetitious as crafting.

 

Quests are the things that allow you to avoid the grind. And they aren't all based on collection.

 

The only part that isn't repetitious about a console RPG is the story. In fact, it's even more repititious in most cases. You travel what's basically a straight path with a few offshots that you can run to every once in a while (though you always end up on the main path), fighting random monsters in often times turn based battles until you reach a more powerful enemy, after which you're told some story. It's like the instance portion of an MMO, only with less choice, and without and other parts of the MMO.

 

I've never met an MMORPG whose travel times weren't either really long, making them tedious, or teleport-fast, completely destroying the point of the scale.  Except maybe PlanetSide, since just about anyone could drive a vehicle.  "Ships," to use the EQ term, are boring as hell.  You wait for them to show up, then you sit and wait some more.  Whee.  Player-mounts or vehicles aren't a bad option, but they normally require you to have already spent 3 months walking everywhere or sitting on ships.  If WOW has a better solution, I'm unaware.  And SWG is actually one of the better ones I've played.  If it weren't for the completely crappy economy I might actually have stayed on that one.

WoW isn't an incedibly long game. You can probobly reach max level in a month, easy, as long as you work at it. There are many ways to increase your speed, and they start as early as level 20. A week of game time, max. By level 40 you get your actual mount, and travel becomes relatively fast. City of Heroes had teleport fast travel speeds, but only because you're actually teleporting. Every MMO before about a year ago contained pretty much every problem you've listed, but the recent ones don't.

 

SWG contains all the things I hated about the old MMOs. Things like my Blaster Rifle wielding Wookie getting killed by flocking butterflies. And the definite lack of in battle skills. And it had an incredibly long travel time. I saw someone clock in at 18 minutes for a trip from one outpost to another (He got in 8 battles, and died twice, because it wasn't just autwalk, it was auto-flocking-everything. "This game is so advanced, you don't even need to play it, to play it.").