Nervous about MMO's...

I've been seeing the popularity of MMO's increasing over the last few years and have always been intrigued by them. I'm a big PC single player RPG fan and like my games to be long (i.e. FFXII).

I'm nervous about MMO's because I've seen people get sucked into them so much so that it takes away from their daily lives lol

I'm just wondering if anyone else knows what I'm talking about.

JDawggS316 said:

I'm just wondering if anyone else knows what I'm talking about.

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Welcome to the club. I play World of Warcraft here (actually playing now) and I do put quite a bit of time into it.

You just need to know how to limit yourself.

Well with the upcoming DC Universe title coming out soon I've been seriously considering it.

I know if I were to test the waters I'd fall right in lol

So it's either fully yes or fully no at this point.

JDawggS316 said:

I've been seeing the popularity of MMO's increasing over the last few years and have always been intrigued by them. I'm a big PC single player RPG fan and like my games to be long (i.e. FFXII).

I'm nervous about MMO's because I've seen people get sucked into them so much so that it takes away from their daily lives lol

I'm just wondering if anyone else knows what I'm talking about.

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I played the first EverQuest quite religiously, and then thankfully that appears to have killed all lure and addiction to MMO's entirely. I was in the WoW beta but only played for a month or so after release. I'll load up one every once in awhile to play with some people I used to game with, will play for an hour or two a day for a few days, and then I completely lose all interest.

First thing to note is that none of these games are RPG's. The things you like in PC single player RPGs are completely absent. There's no story, the world is generally completely static with next to no way to leave your mark. MMO's are only RPGs in the sense that you develop a character, and that means grinding in some form or fashion to create a rather large timesink. People may argue this, and you can make cases for there being things like story, world changing events, etc, but I assure you they're watered down almost entirely.

Morrowind kind of helped me kill EQ. I loaded it up and then remembered what I loved about RPGs and just how much better it was.

I don't regret playing EQ, I'll just never play another MMO unless someone makes an honest-to-God roleplaying game out of one and doesn't just create a game on the same model that sucks time away. If you see one that interests you, try it out, just have a game plan set up on how to limit yourself, because just like when we all first discovered IRC way back when, any type of new intarweb social interaction can be highly addictive.

shadin said:

First thing to note is that none of these games are RPG's.

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Uhm, in a (r)ole (p)laying (g)ame you play a role of a character. That, by definition is a role playing game. No other criteria. Care to explain how modern MMORPGs don't qualify? Your definition of an RPG is based on an arbitrary standard of 'single player PC RPG is the only type of RPG!' By that same token, others might say 'D&D is the only REAL RPG!!' and they'd be just as wrong.

ratbuddy said:

Uhm, in a (r)ole (p)laying (g)ame you play a role of a character. That, by definition is a role playing game. No other criteria. Care to explain how modern MMORPGs don't qualify? Your definition of an RPG is based on an arbitrary standard of 'single player PC RPG is the only type of RPG!' By that same token, others might say 'D&D is the only REAL RPG!!' and they'd be just as wrong.

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Nope, if you don't see a stark difference betwee CRPGs like Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, etc, and MMORPGs then we'll just agree to disagree right up front. I'm sure there's plenty in both of our camps.

shadin said:

Nope, if you don't see a stark difference betwee CRPGs like Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, etc, and MMORPGs then we'll just agree to disagree right up front. I'm sure there's plenty in both of our camps.

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Those are all RPGs as well. It's a very general and inclusive category.

i agree with shadin that they are completely different classes, but if you are just playing to develop a character and not a world then you may consider them to be similar. either way WoW almost ruined my life. I should spend my time finding a significant other and not playin a video game.

Yeah, I'm looking for RPG's that have an ending and ones that don't go on forever lol

Plus...I'm engaged now so I can't be sucked into any type of game that will suck the soul out of me

JDawggS316 said:

Plus...I'm engaged now so I can't be sucked into any type of game that will suck the soul out of me

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Like marriage?

JDawggS316 said:

Yeah, I'm looking for RPG's that have an ending and ones that don't go on forever lol

Plus...I'm engaged now so I can't be sucked into any type of game that will suck the soul out of me

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MMORPGs by their nature are RPGs which tend not to have an ending. You probably want something single player if that's your criteria.

RPGs are different.

MMOs = level up character ASAP, use the healer/tanker "with the highest dps" method for all fedex quests and camp monster spawns for l33t item drops. There is also little to no believable characters played by NPCs.

If you just promise yourself that you won't play until you get X things taken care of, it shouldn't really be a problem in your professional/academic life....Social life, well...Who needs that anyways, right?

SteveLord said:

RPGs are different.

MMOs = level up character ASAP, use the healer/tanker "with the highest dps" method for all fedex quests and camp monster spawns for l33t item drops. There is also little to no believable characters played by NPCs.

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That's one way of looking at it, but they are still role playing games.

MattNo5ss said:

Like marriage?

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LOL the irony

ratbuddy said:

Uhm, in a (r)ole (p)laying (g)ame you play a role of a character. That, by definition is a role playing game. No other criteria. Care to explain how modern MMORPGs don't qualify? Your definition of an RPG is based on an arbitrary standard of 'single player PC RPG is the only type of RPG!' By that same token, others might say 'D&D is the only REAL RPG!!' and they'd be just as wrong.

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By this definition, Mario is an RPG because you are playing the role of Mario.

Letter for letter.. What does the MMORPG stand for then?

I simply assumed it stood for - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.. Which World of Warcrack is.

Mario is a platform game. Like Command and Conquer is an RTS. Then you have the Simulation games like Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon and Flight Simulator. The FPS is the most general genre of games. It could slide in the sim category or even strategy. One game frachise that is odd to class. Is Puzzle quest. I think games like World of Goo are simulations.

mage_x said:

By this definition, Mario is an RPG because you are playing the role of Mario.

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Thats just abusing the relation structure. One could claim Counterstrike is an RPG as you are playing the role of the terrorists / ct forces.

Game genera names are stupid to begin with... Platformers and FPS's are taken from a camera and control perspective. While others like RTS are hybrids taken from pre-digital transfers and put in real time.

Mav2KM said:

Thats just abusing the relation structure. One could claim Counterstrike is an RPG as you are playing the role of the terrorists / ct forces.

Game genera names are stupid to begin with... Platformers and FPS's are taken from a camera and control perspective. While others like RTS are hybrids taken from pre-digital transfers and put in real time.

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I think one reason they are called real time. Is that they are not turn based. Like when Fallout was out. You took turns in the game during combat and used point stats for hits/defense. That was a hybrid genre I think. It was CRPG, but had RTS elements. Which turn based is a major hallmark of RPG. Though Fallout was not a full on RPG. It is easy to class any game based on character stat elements, in the RPG genre. Now a days. Characters based on stats = RPG. Regardless if it really is a RPG in its true form.

With any game genre that involves multi player. You need to let your clan or group not suck you in. Then require you to be there all the time for runs and practice. It can even happen with shooter games. If the game is really compelling to you. It is hard not to want to play all the time.

I am a true RPG'er D&D, AD&D. got some originals by Gygax. What we have now are just a shell of the BIG DADDY. If I had the money I spent on that stuff I could buy one of thoss new Cray systems and all the RPG MMORPG games I could handle.