Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[alexjames01]

Gee, I think Sonic R is actually pretty good... You just have to play it like a racing game instead of a Sonic game.

Sonic R holds some of my favorite gaming memories. I owned Sonic R, Bomberman Netlink Edition, and Sega Rally. I got more out of those games than all of the games I have acquired since (which is a lot).

[aaron]

I LIKE being penalized for dying in an MMO. I think I should drop my items, money, lose Exp, be sent back to town, etc. This gave me a reason to Bank my important items, and be careful when playing the game. Most new MMO's don't even slap you on the wrist anymore, because too many people whine about losing their rare/expensive items.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a masochist.

All the whiners are just wusses. If a game doesn't punish you, what's the point of playing? To have fun? Bah. As I said, wusses.

i actually totally agree with this. it's bullshit. it's a really really good, hard lesson to learn when you don't save or bank something then go off and get yourself killed. if you can't pick yourself back up, go for it again, and never make the same mistake twice, then you are weak and have little hope of getting very far in life.

just my opinion.

[Menegrothx]

I LIKE being penalized for dying in an MMO. I think I should drop my items, money, lose Exp, be sent back to town, etc. This gave me a reason to Bank my important items, and be careful when playing the game. Most new MMO's don't even slap you on the wrist anymore, because too many people whine about losing their rare/expensive items.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a masochist.

Blame the new generation of (MMO) “gamers“. Just look at what they did to WoW. They went from mount at level 40 for 90g and leveling to 60 taking something between 360 and 840 hours (15-35 days) in vanilla (a bit longer in BC before leveling was made easier during mid and late BC) to leveling taking a few days and mount at level 20 for 1g if I'm not mistaken. And then again WoW was never as demanding as Everquest.
I really loathe the new generation of WoW gamers, although I admit that WoW is really the game that killed oldschool/hardcore/whateveryouwannacallem MMORPGs in the first place. But vanilla and early BC were still very demanding compared to what the game is nowadays. Not really people who didnt ask for any of this, but the ones who have an obnoxious self entitled attitude. It's the same thing with casual stritcly current gen gamers in general.

[BurningDoom]

It is not "rare" for a licensed game to be good. Sure a lot of the shovelware will be licensed, but just about every year the industry releases several good licensed games.

For sure. Plenty of great licensed games out there. And specifically, plenty of good comic-book based games, as well (I hear that most comic book games suck, plenty).

[isiolia]

But vanilla and early BC were still very demanding compared to what the game is nowadays. Not really people who didnt ask for any of this, but the ones who have an obnoxious self entitled attitude. It's the same thing with casual stritcly current gen gamers in general.

Adjusting some aspects of the game so that more casual players can actually log in and enjoy themselves isn't necessarily the same as removing every possible challenge in the game.

Besides, like you mentioned, WoW defined the easy mode MMO.

Top end players are supposed to be targeting top end content. Not whining because a new subscriber can do in a month what used to take a year. Nobody would start playing if they knew it'd take the same time to catch up as it took people to get there originally.

[Violent By Design]

I LIKE being penalized for dying in an MMO. I think I should drop my items, money, lose Exp, be sent back to town, etc. This gave me a reason to Bank my important items, and be careful when playing the game. Most new MMO's don't even slap you on the wrist anymore, because too many people whine about losing their rare/expensive items.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a masochist.

When WoW came out, I was shocked that there was no punishment for dying. It's still something I am not totally used too, granted I have barely played any MMO's in the WoW era.

[Menegrothx]

If theres one feature above all else in modern RPGs and MMOs that sucks, its arrows that point where to go and quests that show on your map.

Adjusting some aspects of the game so that more casual players can actually log in and enjoy themselves isn't necessarily the same as removing every possible challenge in the game.

Besides, like you mentioned, WoW defined the easy mode MMO.

Top end players are supposed to be targeting top end content. Not whining because a new subscriber can do in a month what used to take a year. Nobody would start playing if they knew it'd take the same time to catch up as it took people to get there originally.

Sure. But they over did it. Mounts at level 20, quests showing on the map and so on. New players will never learn to play the game the old fashioned way because leveling is such a cakewalk. Old fashioned way meaning that they learn the game by trial and error and playing, rather than reading a guide on the internet that explains everything at once.

[Retrodude]

It is not "rare" for a licensed game to be good. Sure a lot of the shovelware will be licensed, but just about every year the industry releases several good licensed games.

For sure. Plenty of great licensed games out there. And specifically, plenty of good comic-book based games, as well (I hear that most comic book games suck, plenty).

Totally agree with this. The first 360 game I got was Watchmen:The End Is Nigh and I'm really enjoying it. I'm looking forward to getting Captain America: Super Soldier 'cause that one looks pretty cool too.

[jinx]

If theres one feature above all else in modern RPGs and MMOs that sucks, its arrows that point where to go and quests that show on your map.

This is the reason I do not play WoW.
I played vanilla WoW and some of BC, and enjoyed it a bit. Came back for Cataclysm, and left within the first month. Things I had fought for in vanilla were practically given to me, and it felt like it was holding my hand the entire time.

I've recently started playing PSO for Dreamcast again, and have been enjoying every bit of it. Might not be a huge open world MMO, but it fills that gap that has been missing for some time. Eve Online is another game that I love to play due to it's complex nature and punishment for dying. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to invest in a game like Eve anymore. It's really more of a life-style than a game.

[isiolia]

Sure. But they over did it. Mounts at level 20, quests showing on the map and so on. New players will never learn to play the game the old fashioned way because leveling is such a cakewalk. Old fashioned way meaning that they learn the game by trial and error and playing, rather than reading a guide on the internet that explains everything at once.

Realistically, who learns every aspect of a game like that first-hand?

Additionally, how long should it really take to learn? I don't play WoW, but FFXI has very similar complaints for new vs old. Practically speaking though, MMOs tend to incorporate a lot of padding either way. They can be complicated, but they're not so complicated that they take hundreds of hours just to learn how to play a class.
At least with FFXi as well, there were plenty of terrible players who put in the time years ago, and plenty of good players now who can absorb and apply information without needing to practice it 1000x over. Good players will be good, bad players will be bad, all there is to it.

I think from a game design standpoint, you're simply looking at a transition from being a newer game, to having enough endgame content to keep players subscribed.

Basic problem is that, for many players, the point of an MMO is that feeling of accomplishment or progress. Making their past "accomplishments" trivial annoys long-term players. I understand that feeling (really, I've been playing FFXI since before WoW even came out).

To me, it's just a hard thing to be objective about when you have significant time sunk into a game. MMOs are a genre that deliberately incorporate design that's bad for the players. It didn't take weeks or months to level a character because that was the ideal time to learn it. It took that long because you're paying $15 a month for the privilege.

Plenty of fixes actually serve to make the game objectively better, even if they sting for the older players. Though, again, I don't know of many long-term MMOs for which simple XPing is worth jack shit in the grand scheme. You hit the level cap so you can start on the real content

Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to invest in a game like Eve anymore. It's really more of a life-style than a game.

Which is also a large reason for allowing for more casual play. I know plenty of FFXI players who wouldn't be able to fit the game as it was into their schedules now...but can because the modern incarnation of the game is more flexible.

Of course, someone who can sit online 12 hours a day can still do more.