lol, People seem to be using the MOBA term very loosely, to define any objective based PvP event with a finite duration.
iROs WoE fits, if the term is applied so loosely. Especially WoE 2.0. Barricades, guardians between you and the shiny rock at the end. Push back the enemy, break through the defenses, and claim the shiny rock. The difference is that there was no limit to the number of players who could attack you, no match making, your “farm” happened during the entire week before WoE, and once you got the shiny rock you had immediately to defend it with your life!
WoE was blast! Really really really hoping that ToS implements some form of large scale GvG events with a meaningful reward for victory.
If you’re looking for more of dedicated small group PvP teams, there are a ton of examples of your standard arenas. While also fun, I tend to be biased towards the epic large scale battles that pit army against army. Just my preference haha.
I’m reading that… as why is the game an MMO. I’ll forget about the part about MOBAs.
The only real benefit from being an MMOs is the economy for ToS, and having a lot of fellow gamers to compete against. Downside is the usual–people can’t change or shape the world in any meaningful way. ToS’s primary feature is it’s near infinite progression and variety of play in what is essentially an online aRPG with channeled MMO style zones, and traditional instanced zones with a few puzzles. If that doesn’t interest you much ToS may not be your cup of tea.
How people can deny that a MOBA is more likely a fast MMORPG…
Maybe, we don’t know yet. But some people were expecting improved immersive mechanics better than other games have had. And that’s the reason why people are complainig about exp rate because they don’t enjoy linear map grinding, don’t misunderstand me… i like grinding but i think this must improved.
Hmm but I understand that you can’t choose where to lvl, because of the exp penalty. So, there are “solo play” classes after all. Bad thing, this reminds me of RO a lot
I’ve spent thousands of hours playing several mobas and if anything it made me more anti-social.
Here’s a interesting thought: If you want social interaction then go and do it.
It shouldn’t be needed to be tied to big rewards. Either go and be social or don’t.
Some people prefer the lone wolf approach and don’t like having to depend on others to make progress.
However, I would very much support the idea of bringing people together in a meaningful way with enjoyable events.
Keep in mind that just because you are playing the game with others doesn’t mean that you are being social
Don’t forget mercenary quests, of which we don’t know much about, but they’re probably some sort of weird party scenario thing. Another thing that is already like this, but less “official” are party events, which are more or less just waves and a boss, but social nonetheless. World bosses, too.
You can also always just sit around being chummy in town if that’s your sorta thing.
What an MMO offers over other genres is social interaction, so neglecting that strength makes as much sense as putting the burden of balancing competition on players in a fighting game. Why wouldn’t players just go to a game that does it better? Solo players will never be satisfied because they’d rather be in a different genre to begin with.
Real life has icebreakers because people are often unwilling to take the initiative or take risks even if they want to do something.
I don’t think I’ve ever once chosen a MMO to play just for their social interaction features alone, but then again, that might just be only me.
Social interaction is a feature that defines MMOs just as much as having first person view in a FPS does; it is apparent in every game within their genre. Sure, it makes sense in a fighting game, since the game’s core gameplay is affected by its balancing. However, a MMO’s core gameplay is not dependent on social interactions alone. In the end, it is a game’s core gameplay (which, solo players also look for) that determines whether the game will be worthwhile or not.
Of course, I am not trying to disregard social interaction from MMOs, but the game’s gameplay itself is just as, if not, much more important. In order to have social interaction in a MMO, it requires a player base. In order to have a satisfactory player base, the game has to appeal to the players. Even if there is a game out there that has outstanding interaction features, it means nothing if its gameplay deters people from playing the game. Don’t forget, a MMO is still a game, and as such, it should take precedence on gameplay above all else in order to continue appealing to the gamers. If social interaction is the only thing a person is looking for, then they might as well just rely on social networking to meet those needs.
Have a fun, satisfying, and enjoyable game that is able to attract a diverse and large population, and it will surely be more than enough of an “icebreaker” to spark interactions within such a large playerbase, wouldn’t it?
Just like how anyone looking for only gameplay might as well play a single player game. Of course, social networking has been enormously successful. If the goal is to attract a lot of users and keep them engaged, the market has proven there’s more than one way to do it. To use a more practical example than Facebook, WoW shipped with bad gameplay, but it was one of the most successful games of all time. The early vanilla period was an atrocity of running across the Barrens, enemies that auto-face you and can’t be dodged by moving around them, “kill 10 of X” quests, and Molten Core’s tedium.
“Fun, satisfying, and enjoyable” are subjective, and it seems we have different definitions of them. Given that MMO’s make compromises on gameplay for the sake of having a large number of players in a persistent world (for example, waiting for quest mobs to respawn, or slow-paced combat to account for lag), what is it that draws your interest to an MMO instead of a single player or small group (e.g. Diablo) game?
I don’t see dungeons or raids as meaningful social acitivies.
Oftentimes they boil down to finding a bunch of other random people in order to clear some content, but other than that you don’t care about them. Basicly you are just using each other.
Kind of the same way you don’t care about the busdriver who brings you to school every day, you need him, you interact with him every day, but you don’t socialize with him.
Well… that depends on the dungeon/raid style (on most mmorpg’s is always the same frivolous way) and the interactions what we can do during the journey are very important (not only killing monsters and bosses).
Also high death penalty is better than selecting random people in order to kill mobs. I’m not saying that ToS should go on that way, but we need an improvement on these “social tools” and create some new.
Those who want to be social will do that and the rest won’t.
They could create big community events, something like back in WoW for the Ahn’qiraj where the whole server had to get together and meet strechgoals, or other creative events. These are big factor in creating a atmosphere where people feel like they are achieving something together.
Like I said, I don’t see the need to implement social tools.
Let me tell you about my most social experiences that I’ve had in MMOs.
It wasn’t the countless hours of dungeonrunning or raiding I’ve done in games like WoW.
It was the complete lack of knowledge that I’ve had when I was just starting out on a MMO.
I would seek out more experienced players and ask them for advice on gameplay mechanics and other kind of stuff.
Because of this I would often end up in a guild full of friendly and helpful people which supported each other in the game and were generally just spending time together. And I would also find genuine friends who didn’t just help me because they had some kind of expectations.
I’ve never been more social in a MMO, despite the fact that I’ve never actually teamed up with these people in order to clear content in the form of a dungeon or the like
[quote=“trielav, post:58, topic:39788”]
Just like how anyone looking for only gameplay might as well play a single player game.
[/quote]Let me ask you this: if gameplay and mechanics are such insignificant details in a MMO, why is it that a person would prefer to play Maplestory over World of Warcraft? TERA over Maplestory? Final Fantasy 14 over TERA?
In social networks, there is a reason why Facebook remains to be the most used social networking site on the web. Due to how mainstream and widely used it is, it has practically no competition amongst other social networking sites, meaning no incentive for someone to be switching to a new website, since the vast majority will still remain on Facebook. If such is the case for MMOs (if they are being used solely for social interaction purposes, that is), why is it that people still continue to try out new MMOs, even if the numerous ones that are currently available should allow a more than adequate form of social interaction? Why play Tree of Savior, when one could just play Ragnarok Online? Based on social aspects alone, it makes no difference no matter which game you play, right?
Of course, this may merely be subjective and hindsight, granted, I have not played the game myself. However, keep in mind that standards have, and will continue to change over time. What was considered to be a successful game over a decade ago may not be so from today’s newer generations. It is why World of Warcraft has changed into what it is today, and yet still able to remain successful despite that its social interaction aspects are now not what it had used to be.
A game’s style, mechanics, and appeal play a much more important role than you might think.
[quote=“trielav, post:58, topic:39788”]
what is it that draws your interest to an MMO instead of a single player or small group (e.g. Diablo) game?
[/quote]First, I want to point out that being a solo player and being anti-social are not one and the same. A person who prefers solo play over party play does not necessarily mean that they dislike socially interacting as a whole. It is a preference in playstyle. With that being said, there is not much of a difference as to why a solo player is interested in a MMO when compared to a non-solo player.
Though to answer this from a different perspective: it would be money. Not many people have the freedom to use money however they please. And considering that the majority of MMOs are free, it is a easy way for people to get their fix.
They didn’t, according to a quick google search, taking free to play effects into account. Is this ordering related to release dates, since new releases always generate hype? TERA was all about the Elin ERP, anyway.
“Hey honey, let’s eat at the exact same restaurant every week. It doesn’t matter where we go since the point is mating anyway.” Good luck with that.
RO is more than a decade old, RO2 never took over its audience, there’s still players out there, and all the hype surrounding TOS is coming from the legacy RO community looking for a real successor. RO proves how powerful social aspects can be even after the game itself is long obsolete.
Or the network effect is stabilizing it after the changes to the game lost a huge portion of its playerbase. Many factors are affecting it, so how do you isolate the effects of improved mechanics versus fast content releases, production values, marketing, etc?
