Asheron's Call 2 Closing- MMORPG overview

[bipper]

"In spite of our hard work and the launch of Legions, AC2 has reached the point where it no longer makes sense to continue the service. We will be officially closing the Asheron's Call 2 service on 12/30/05. Until then, we plan to run live events, but we will not be adding any content or features."

and MMORPG is an Massivley Multiplayer Online RPG - like Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, etc.

Wow this is bad :( It seems a lot of the new MMOs aren't making it too far.

Do you like MMORPGs? If so/not what do you like/dislike about em?

[Mindflare]

I was an avid AC2 player. I think it's tragic that it's shutting down. I've always questioned some of Turbine's decisions, but this is beyond anything I'd have expected. I quit playing about a year ago when they completely rebuilt the crafting system. The scope of the new system was too broad for the size of the player base. But, in the end, I enjoyed that game more than I have ever enjoyed playing a game. No other MMO can hold a candle to my ideas of how an MMO should be, thanks to my experiences in AC2 (even if AC2 wasn't perfect, I figured it was close enough).

Anyway, I hope they release some solution to retrieve our characters in a way where players could host servers and play our old characters, or play them in the world, all alone on the client. Just for giggles, not any actual playing value.

It's a tragic loss to me.

Turbine is an awful, misguided company. They took their good (but buggy) game, turned it into something good, drove it into the ground, and then shut it down a few months after it's expansion pack release. I do not look forward to anything they produce in the future.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Welcome to the real world of marketing. Having constant updates to a game can only be done via a steady cashflow. One which MMOGs find hard to counter-balance. Only the mega popular (Everquest, WoW, City of Heroes) survive. Isht happens.

[fantasyjunkie]

I played my first MMORPG in December 1999 when I saw my cousin playing Ultima Online. I played that for 3 years before Electronic Arts totally changed the rules, so I moved on to Star Wars Galaxies. I played that for 18 months before Sony totally changed the rules on that game too. Now I am playing World of Warcraft. I enjoy MMORPGS but I feel that developers are only hurting the game when they change all the rules at one time to the point where it is literally a whole different game. It's like loving Chess then the Chess Federation changes the rules and says you can't move the pieces like you are used to anymore.

[bipper]

Mindflare: Good points on tribune. I really tried to play ac1. I really didnt like it much. I was going to go to AC2 but it looked like it suffered from a lack of imagination. I have yet to find a MMO that grabs my attention full on. I play daoc, and I hated it when it came out... then Mythic gets soooo detemined to release more content that people will pay for (via expansions) it gets really sad. They don;t change the rules -- the just keep adding rules, and different requirements to compete.

I am gonna pick up World of Warcraft soon, as I have heard many a promicing thing from it :)
Bipper

[Mindflare]

...so I moved on to Star Wars Galaxies. I played that for 18 months before Sony totally changed the rules on that game too.
I played SWG from it's release for about 3 months. The only thing I really enjoyed about that game was it's character customization (I have yet to see any other game come close to it's customization). Once they started adding content, I stopped playing. The battle system was boring/awkward and getting crafting resources took constant logging on to maintain, so if you missed a week of playing, goodbye money/harvesters. Not to mention the unbelieveable amount of boring grinding to level your crafting levels. (If I ever get carpal tunnel, I'll blame my months with SWG. Heh.)

Anyway... I hope Turbine releases some sort of server software. I get so sad thinking about it, knowing they won't.

[bipper]

I heard a rumor that this was a "scare story" to get pr and hopfully gain back old players. :D

Why would that not suprise me? The humility of tribune knows no bounds

Bipper

[Lord Chainsaw]

I used to be much more of an ecclectic gamer back in the day. Then the MMORPG came out and I began to slack on my library. I've spent thousands of hours on all the MMORPGs I've played up to this day. I don't regret it though. I absolutely love MMORPGs.

My favorite part of them is the exploration involved. Sometimes the most fun you'll have is exploring the huge world at your leisure, entering a weird dungeon and seeing all these powerful enemies. It's like the ideal Zelda game that never was, and never will be.


Edit:Oh wait a minute, Zelda 1 was pretty damn close to the MMORPG feel. You could explore all you wanted, and enter grossly overconned dungeons before you were supposed to.

Let me rephrase my previous statement: The exploration and design of the MMORPG is like the ideal Zelda game that will never again be.

[escobert]

Guild Warts > all. I absolutley love this game I used to play EverQuest then I played FFXI then Shadow Bane. I still say Guild Wars tops them. It's so much nicer just doing missions and not spending hours upon hours leveling.

[bipper]

Levels were supposed to mean somthing in old RPGs. They were required so that not everyone had a high level everything. Now that seems a mute point as everyone one wants a high level everything.

I don't knwo how a single mmo company would fix this issue.

Bipper

[escobert]

make it so you don't have tro level for 2097839873 hours a day. oh wait that's how Guild Wars is.

[bipper]

Well I see it as tippy issue. If you let people do everything, what is the point in teaming, sidez zerg on zerg fighting? If you are worthless solo, its all that much harder to just enjoy the game.


Bipper

[Lionx]

Make it so its harder to get high levels. I am currently playing FFXI and i have no plans to stop in the near future. There is enough to keep me interested, i play Ballista to curb some time, go out and do ENMs with LS mates for fun, and we help one another on quests and chest/coffer hunts. A good community is needed in FFXI though and FFXI certainetly has a much better playerbase than say WoW. I heard many bad things about WoW, and the only good thing i would say that its for the pvp ethuniast and the need of a casual MMO. However i dont feel that Casual MMOs are any sort of high calibur, as MMOs are here for longetivity and WoW seems to fail at that point along with its content and playerbase(with soloing and asshats). FFXI has a long leveling curve however grinding is not the only way to get exp.

I find that community and friends is what makes an MMORPG fun along with content added in periodically to make it so your friends can tackle it to be fun. Without any of my LS friends i probably wouldnt play FFXI as long. And for those complaining about monthly fees, you have already no idea how the MMO industry and games work and should stop playing. On that note i do not feel Guild Wars is really a MMO in the first place besides the towns, as the world if everything is instanced, creates a solitude feeilng and doesnt feel like a persistant world. Sorta like PSO.

EDIT: Thats the thing, the reason why i like FFXI over WoW was that WoW is instant gratifcation, its easy to get things done so everyone with the best equip is easily attained(its just..oh its another person with good gear, oh well whatever), however if anything less its ilke you are lazy. In FFXI hardly anything is easily attained, and most of the good gear you need friends and a group of people to get, sometimes you might spend days on something, and you will hate it, but once you get that item, its like YES! and the gratification and bonding experience between people and the value of the item to you goes way up. So when you wear your AF its like yes!

That and it seems most ppl just Zerg monsters that take huge groups of ppl to take down in WoW...FFXI you cant really Zerg them as the alliance limits that and you have to organize appropiately.

My sig makes me feel good >< not many people get the "You are a good xxxx job!" I feel cool ><;

[bipper]

On that note i do not feel Guild Wars is really a MMO in the first place besides the towns, as the world if everything is instanced, creates a solitude feeilng and doesnt feel like a persistant world. Sorta like PSO.

I really agree with your view of instancing. DAOC added instance, and now to level a healer is insanely lame. Online games are made for groups, you can't just take taht away.

Also, most people like that instant gratification, which would make a great game for three months till everyone gets board of making 30 capped out characters.

I feel that mmo developers are abusing thier funds, and thier limited imaginations. I have heard great things about final Fantasy XI, and I have hear a lot of bad. Mainly that you need to devote a lot of time and energy to keep up. The economey is also shot as so many have told me. Since farmers never get in trouble, the people who invest actual money prosper, while those who cannot, die off.

/shrug, so many issues to keep a mmo good it is mind boggleing. I used to run a mud, and even with a small playerbase it was nutts :)

Bipper

[Lionx]

Also, most people like that instant gratification, which would make a great game for three months till everyone gets board of making 30 capped out characters.

I feel that mmo developers are abusing thier funds, and thier limited imaginations. I have heard great things about final Fantasy XI, and I have hear a lot of bad. Mainly that you need to devote a lot of time and energy to keep up. The economey is also shot as so many have told me. Since farmers never get in trouble, the people who invest actual money prosper, while those who cannot, die off.

Yes i agree with your statement of instant gratification, it just doesnt work out the way you want it to if you want to play for a long time.(unless you can crank out content just as fast...i doubt it however)

Well also keep in mind they are in this for a profit, and as long as they use what they put aside for the game correctly i cannot complain.

Yes the game does require time to keep up, but as long as you plan ahead and have 2 hrs and devoted players/friends, you can be fine. The economy is varying, some things are inflated as to when retail came about but that also means that items sell for more so gil value is reletively the same, just different numbers.

Farmers do not harm the economy if they do not monopolize the items(its been fixed as for the most heavily camped item Archer Rings). The thing about gilfarmers is that they always consistantly bring in supply even if there is not much demand for an item and as long as its not monopolized, can bring an item down in price. Once they disappear and no one farms them as much the demand will not meet the supply for certain items and it will actually INCREASE the item. Basically they arent all that bad unless they try to MPK you(if you report them however i am sure GMs take more action now than before). However FFXI is not the only game with gilfarmers as WoW, and other MMOs have them too. Some gilsellers are nice, some of em are asses, depends. I have no qualms with them using their time like that as long as they do not bother me.

There is ALWAYS a way to get money in FFXI, the lazy usually quit, the ones that arent are totally fine. You just need to find a way and not overcrowd the area with competitors. Investing in a craft is also good. It takes work to get money which makes items have more value.

Doesnt mean FFXI is without flaws :P But some of the common misconceptions is that economy is bad, when in reality if you arent lazy, its not THAT bad.

[bipper]

Ah yeah, i was thinking of migrating there instead of WoW, but I am putting too much effort into projects lately. I friend of mine quit the game and offered it to me for free, i was thinking about it :)

All the good that I have heard do outweight the negetive, but in my lifestyle of constantly working on things, and balancing family in there, devotion to a video game (playing) just isn't somthing i can afford :D at times.

Bipper