RPG Progress Report

[Exhuminator]

I don't have any cool MMORPG stories to add, except that I will never forget the day that Rainz killed Lord British with a fire field spell. (August 8, 1997)

[isiolia]

Every zone is like that. There is a little something for everyone, but you just need to explore to find that out. A lot of players have refined the game and streamline it and it drives me nuts that they do that. I had a player ask me why I was hunting in the newbie grounds in the Feerot and I said, because I have an Ogre character. They buffed me a bunch, gave me invisibility and said, "Go to freeport. It's quicker to level that way."

Well, to a point, it might depend on how much those people have played. If they've been playing for years on end, then finding a way to get a new character rolling faster makes sense. Exploring can stop being as magical if you've already been through the area twenty times, and have higher level stuff that you want to get to.

Personally, I enjoy exploring the mechanics of some games. I haven't played much with regard to MMOs that was truly open. The modern theme park structure doesn't tend to keep me though. For as much as stuff like WoW has in it - and that is staggering, really - it does very easily get boiled down to finding characters with question marks over their heads.

It's nice to have at least a little of a sandbox setup, instead of things designed down to class, level, and group size every time.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Every zone is like that. There is a little something for everyone, but you just need to explore to find that out. A lot of players have refined the game and streamline it and it drives me nuts that they do that. I had a player ask me why I was hunting in the newbie grounds in the Feerot and I said, because I have an Ogre character. They buffed me a bunch, gave me invisibility and said, "Go to freeport. It's quicker to level that way."

Well, to a point, it might depend on how much those people have played. If they've been playing for years on end, then finding a way to get a new character rolling faster makes sense. Exploring can stop being as magical if you've already been through the area twenty times, and have higher level stuff that you want to get to.

Personally, I enjoy exploring the mechanics of some games. I haven't played much with regard to MMOs that was truly open. The modern theme park structure doesn't tend to keep me though. For as much as stuff like WoW has in it - and that is staggering, really - it does very easily get boiled down to finding characters with question marks over their heads.

It's nice to have at least a little of a sandbox setup, instead of things designed down to class, level, and group size every time.

Again, this is why I think points are going to Everquest for this. There is a city for every race and with that there are starting zones that have so much content. The thing is, if you make a different class/different race, you are thrown into that new city. If you do quests, or believe in a different god, you are limiting yourself by pissing off a faction somewhere else and tehrefor, you can't go to another city or area. That means that if you pick another class and race, you have a completely different experience and environment. Sure, at a high level you all start to experience the same content, but then why do people rush to get to the higher levels, when in reality all you do is the same thing, just with a different role?

With Everquest, merchants, guild masters, quest holders are never labeled. You need to consider them to even see if they are a trainer or a merchant. As for quest giving, you need to hail them in public chat and ask questions in the local chat to learn more and find quests. There are not nearly as many quests as a modern RPG, but levelling was not really pushed through quests and instead is done through hunting. The quests were more for color and for dealing with factions. They are very story oriented and were done in weird ways.

For instance, there is a quest in the Ogre city of Oggok. The Ogre chief (which is the city bartender by the way) has a signature drink that is being ripped off by some guy. You need to investigate to see if the drink is an actual knockoff and then murder that guy. Well, that guy is in the city of the Dark Elves, Neriak and has ties to the merchant guilds there. Kill them and the merchants there will like you a whole lot less and will give you piss poor prices for doing it.

Getting to Neriak is impossible in and of itself, because it recquires you to sneak through Freeport and head through very dangerous territory, but it is an adventure to just get there and then have to find the guy and murder him. It is a whole world of crazy.

There are quests too that deal with bargaining, rely on you keeping rewards from previous quests, bribing people and a lot more strange events that are beyond just, "kill this," (which they still do, but there is more of the oddball quests).

I am going gaga... sorry. I am just amazed that the original Everquest is still preserved, unlike the poor prequel on the PS2, which closed a few years ago and can not be preserved like Phantasy Star Online.

[isiolia]

That means that if you pick another class and race, you have a completely different experience and environment. Sure, at a high level you all start to experience the same content, but then why do people rush to get to the higher levels, when in reality all you do is the same thing, just with a different role?

That's largely the case with any MMO though, isn't it? At least ones with multiple races/factions/etc. There's usually some different starting experience that eventually pushes you out to explore, and probably hooking into a larger shared plot.

'course, I'm mostly used to FFXI, which (from what I've heard, repeatedly) was largely based on EQ in the same way that ARR copied a lot of WoW. In that though, there are only three nations, and the ability swap jobs/etc means most folks will only have one main character per account. It's kind of mixed, with little hand-holding...but also few real penalties or permanent decisions and next to no PVP. Also very similar in that quests/missions have little to do with XP, as that's largely via grinding.

Though, it's cut up into a lot of discrete zones, likely due to targeting the PS2 hardware. Still, it's a very different experience from modern MMOs. So, I appreciate where you're coming from, but having played XI for over a decade, I can also understand the "just do the efficient thing" mentality.
Some of the immersiveness does wind up getting old too. After years of spending a chunk of playtime waiting on airships or riding a chocobo out to a camp or whatnot, being able to warp around is great. It might not be as immersive, but, there's a lot that can be done in less than an hour now, instead of the old "oh, you're not able to set aside 3-4 hours at a time? this may not be the game for you...".

[BogusMeatFactory]

Oh yeah ffxi was really doing something different in the genre and kept the core idea of what everquest was doing. I never really put so much weight on the end game of mmos. Most of the time it locks you into obligations and I hate that about these types of games. I love having a nice core grip of friends who are just up to playing together whenever and never run the risk of them just skyrocketing ahead of you in levels.

Anywho.... back on topic. I made a good character in everquest. A half elf bard in qeynos. I could be in Freeport, but again, I love the journey.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Soul Blazer is cool. Forgot how linear and beat 'em up -ish it is. Fans of this game should check out Alcahest, though Alcahest isn't nearly as fun.

[Xeogred]

Soul Blazer is cool. Forgot how linear and beat 'em up -ish it is. Fans of this game should check out Alcahest, though Alcahest isn't nearly as fun.

But dat OST slays Gaia.

EDIT: Thought this was the TR Gaia thread.

[Sarge]

I'm up to Skyhold in Dragon Age: Inquisition. My word, this game just got even bigger. Yikes.

[MrPopo]

I'm up to Skyhold in Dragon Age: Inquisition. My word, this game just got even bigger. Yikes.

Hahaha, yeah. My recommendation would be don't put off doing story missions to fully clean out every part of a zone; you'll end up overleveled.

[Sarge]

I'm okay with overleveled, but I'm definitely overwhelmed right now. I think they've gone a little too far in the Skyrim direction with this one. I could comfortably 100% (or near to it) the previous games, but this one, as fun as it is, is going to be a bit of a slog if I try to do everything.