Saturday, January 16, 2010
Star Trek Online - Fail
My first MPG was a Star Trek type game - STRSHP. 300 baud and you preferred playing it on a smart terminal over a dumb one. The guy that wrote it was a friend of mine and he won the Westinghouse Science award for it that year. I'm also a Star Trek fan. The fact I have absolutely no interest in playing this game doesn't bode well for it. There's something about 10,000 Captain Kirks running around in a Starship Enterprise that just doesn't seem like it will cut it as an MMO.
What makes a mpg successful? Game mechanics and it should have some wow factor. GemStone was by far the most popular of its day. The mechanics based on Rolemaster were sound, the environment was great and people actually roleplayed their characters, and the big quest events like Black Swan Castle were more intricate than anything else I've played since. It was almost like a second home.
The wow factor for Everquest was a stunning world design. I was on the edge of my seat trying to hunt as a young Erudite at night (you couldn't see but a small area around you your torch lit up). I remember my first run from Qeynos at night in the rain with that little torch trying to make it safely to the other side of the continent that someone had said it would be safe to do, just stay on the path. It wasn't until after I started out that someone in the guild said to watch out for hill giants. For years Everquest was a great game but unfortunantly eventually became bogged down with what turned out to be bad mechanics.
Everquest 2 never had a chance. It is by leaps and bounds the best at player housing. The player housing there is so good that I would say it is the single best feature of any MMO out there. The quest lines and lore are also very well done. Game mechanics suck and they have not improved one bit since launch. First the Alternate Advancement does very little to change your character there - it only improves attributes. I have fairly equivelent classes maxxed in both games - a warlock (pet class) in WoW and a necromancer (pet class) in EQ2. Both have pets that tank, magic dps, and melee dps.
In EQ2 if my necro gets aggro I'm toast in a couple of hits - and I'm talking about solo play. The only feasable option is to pet tank and do dps and feign death if you get aggro. Trying to use the mage or scout pets solo is so out of whack from the tank pet that you don't even bother. As for the pet void beast you get from AA, I have no clue exactly what that is good for.
In WoW my warlock can use any of her pets while soloing. There are three distinct talents trees she can choose (the WoW AA) - affliction (vampire health sucking mode), demonology (powerpet class including a felguard pet that you actually use instead of whatever that void beast is), and destruction (fireballs!). All three trees are distinctly different from each other but completely viable in solo or raid play.
Lastly is the raids - I went to an epic x 4 raid (the highest in the game) recently in EQ2. I remember more tactics being used in EQ1 than that had. The raid mechanics designs in WoW are still the best out there of any game I've played. Yeah, WoW is cartoonish, but those mechanics are the real meat of any game and is why WoW is still on top after all this time.
I have played 15 to 20 MMO's since EQ1 and I would have to say EQ1 still ranks second in design behind WoW. I wonder why some of them were even released and I wonder why it is so hard for them to actually improve and come out with a better game.
What makes a mpg successful? Game mechanics and it should have some wow factor. GemStone was by far the most popular of its day. The mechanics based on Rolemaster were sound, the environment was great and people actually roleplayed their characters, and the big quest events like Black Swan Castle were more intricate than anything else I've played since. It was almost like a second home.
The wow factor for Everquest was a stunning world design. I was on the edge of my seat trying to hunt as a young Erudite at night (you couldn't see but a small area around you your torch lit up). I remember my first run from Qeynos at night in the rain with that little torch trying to make it safely to the other side of the continent that someone had said it would be safe to do, just stay on the path. It wasn't until after I started out that someone in the guild said to watch out for hill giants. For years Everquest was a great game but unfortunantly eventually became bogged down with what turned out to be bad mechanics.
Everquest 2 never had a chance. It is by leaps and bounds the best at player housing. The player housing there is so good that I would say it is the single best feature of any MMO out there. The quest lines and lore are also very well done. Game mechanics suck and they have not improved one bit since launch. First the Alternate Advancement does very little to change your character there - it only improves attributes. I have fairly equivelent classes maxxed in both games - a warlock (pet class) in WoW and a necromancer (pet class) in EQ2. Both have pets that tank, magic dps, and melee dps.
In EQ2 if my necro gets aggro I'm toast in a couple of hits - and I'm talking about solo play. The only feasable option is to pet tank and do dps and feign death if you get aggro. Trying to use the mage or scout pets solo is so out of whack from the tank pet that you don't even bother. As for the pet void beast you get from AA, I have no clue exactly what that is good for.
In WoW my warlock can use any of her pets while soloing. There are three distinct talents trees she can choose (the WoW AA) - affliction (vampire health sucking mode), demonology (powerpet class including a felguard pet that you actually use instead of whatever that void beast is), and destruction (fireballs!). All three trees are distinctly different from each other but completely viable in solo or raid play.
Lastly is the raids - I went to an epic x 4 raid (the highest in the game) recently in EQ2. I remember more tactics being used in EQ1 than that had. The raid mechanics designs in WoW are still the best out there of any game I've played. Yeah, WoW is cartoonish, but those mechanics are the real meat of any game and is why WoW is still on top after all this time.
I have played 15 to 20 MMO's since EQ1 and I would have to say EQ1 still ranks second in design behind WoW. I wonder why some of them were even released and I wonder why it is so hard for them to actually improve and come out with a better game.
