10-13-2009, 05:08 PM
The biggest advantage MMOs have is a community. I view single player RPGs similar to a book - the most important thing to me is not the gameplay, its the story. Knights of the Old Republic, Planescape: Torment, Ultima 7 Part 2, and Baldur's Gate part 2 are the 4 best single player RPGs in history because they all told a very compelling story - even if 3 of the 4 had serious flaws in their actual gameplay (torment was more of a novel than a video game). I have played all 4 of those games through completion at least 3 times and love them as much as many of my favorite books.
I missed the whole EQ thing but pre-battleground Wow had something they didn't - a community. I wasnt just fighting against mobs or players like I was in pickup internet games, I knew who I was killing. This died when they had interserve battlegrounds because while it made the game more fun for instant gratification it made it have no community - I didn't know who I was killing. I think Aion has the buildings of a good community game.
The problem is, I no longer have the time to play a community game. And thats the problem, the things that make a good MMO also require you to spend an inordinate amount of time playing that MMO. You can't build a community unless you are a regular member, and that requires a lot of time invested. When I got big in wow I had just graduated and broken up with my ex girlfriend and my roomate played - I could dedicate alot of time to it. Now, I can't. I'm not sure if you can appreciate the good things about an MMO if you don't play it religiously, otherwise it really isn't any different than just jumping on a random counterstrike server...
I missed the whole EQ thing but pre-battleground Wow had something they didn't - a community. I wasnt just fighting against mobs or players like I was in pickup internet games, I knew who I was killing. This died when they had interserve battlegrounds because while it made the game more fun for instant gratification it made it have no community - I didn't know who I was killing. I think Aion has the buildings of a good community game.
The problem is, I no longer have the time to play a community game. And thats the problem, the things that make a good MMO also require you to spend an inordinate amount of time playing that MMO. You can't build a community unless you are a regular member, and that requires a lot of time invested. When I got big in wow I had just graduated and broken up with my ex girlfriend and my roomate played - I could dedicate alot of time to it. Now, I can't. I'm not sure if you can appreciate the good things about an MMO if you don't play it religiously, otherwise it really isn't any different than just jumping on a random counterstrike server...