Earlier this year, I did a video showcasing Star Wars Galaxies Legends player city overhaul, and in it, I admitted to something silly: A minor inventory change to player droids actually annoyed me so much that I kinda stopped wanting to craft, which led to my taking a hard break from the game. It was a change so trivial that almost nobody but me appears to have even noticed it, let alone complained about it, and yet it had a huge impact on my crafting workflow, to the point that I didn’t want to engage with it. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a big reason I stepped back from the game last year and have really been back only in spurts since.
For this week’s Massively Overthinking, I want to talk about those little things that can either sweeten the MMO experience to the point that you fall in love or sour it until you just wander away. Heck, give me one of each, those insignificant patch notes, dev quotes, and in-game happenings that push you over into take it or leave it. Do the little things make or break an MMORPG an MMO for you?
Ben Griggs (@braxwolf): Small, easily overlooked details can go a long way in endearing an MMO to me. For example, NPC dialogue towards your character being customized based on your race, class, or past in-game accomplishments. I love it when a game goes the extra mile to include these kinds of things.
On the other hand, something that irritates me as a casual player is the constant tweaking of the meta, specifically when it causes a complete skill reset, and especially when it was targeted towards a play style that doesn’t apply to me. I don’t particularly care that X class has been deemed OP in small-side PvP. Why do I have to adjust my entire build because of it?
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): Little things that make an MMO for me: Getting a new outfit on a character I love always works like a magnet for me. I can refresh my love in a toon – and therefore, my hunger to log back into the game – so fast by stumbling into an awesome cosmetic outfit.
Little things that break an MMO for me: Really, anything that disrupts my comfort zone in an MMO. Don’t break or alter my class in a way that changes how I play. Don’t muck with the UI so badly that it breaks all my mods. Man, just thinking about a fleet of broken mods makes me nope out so fast. I know it’s not really the game’s fault, but I only needed those mods because the game was insufficient somehow, so actually yes it is the game’s fault.
Carlo Lacsina (@UltraMudkipEX, YouTube, Twitch): Diablo 4 still feels completely unplayable because of hope close the camera is to my character. It just doesn’t feel right.
I also get annoyed because I’m pretty sure Blizzard did it to make it run better on the PS5 and Xbox. I’m assuming this is the main reason the camera has to be closer in the PC because there’s crossplay and it would be an “unfair advantage” if PC players could see farther.
I think for me the main thing that still bugs me is Black Desert Online’s draw distance and weird lighting. It could be 3 a.m. in-game and look like 4 p.m., but the lighting is so out of whack you cant see anything unless you have a firefly.
On the other hand, the Blood Wolves settlement in BDO was/is a very popular grindspot, and there was this stick in the main rotation that players kept getting caught in. Pearl Abyss removed it and just made the entire experience all the more better.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): I don’t know that it’s a complete dealbreaker, but after having played survival sandbox games that don’t let me craft from storage, I will say that those that don’t offer that feature immediately get a very, very low opinion from me. Like… this is a solved problem. You’re either being lazy or obtuse on purpose, and neither is a good look.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): I was always annoyed with the armor choices for characters in Warhammer Online. I know it’s based on an IP, which I don’t know a lot of details about, but I always felt like the armor options were limited and boring for the blue side. I think it was called Order. Was Chaos the bad guys? I think so. After the first big expansion got stale and I still felt like my hero looked awful, I moved on. There were a lot of other problems, but that’s easily what I remember the most.
Something that holds me is tough – probably because I haven’t really caught onto anything recently. In general, some form of balanced combat that doesn’t take forever is important to me.
Tyler Edwards (blog): I think this is a difficult question to answer because people have different definitions of what “little things” are. I’ve stopped playing MMOs purely for story reasons, and a lot of people would find that absolutely trivial, but for me it’s not trivial at all.
I do think Ben has a good point about small class changes often making a big difference. For a recent example in World of Warcraft, I was thinking of playing my warrior a lot more in War Within (mainly on the basis she’s a Dwarf and it’s an underground expansion), but the recent talent tweaks made it no longer possible to bring one of her core attacks, Bloodthirst, down to a 3-second cooldown.
With the 3-second cooldown, I had a good rhythm down where I could hit Bloodthirst, hit any other button, and then have Bloodthirst ready again. Now that rhythm is broken, and honestly that’s enough to kill the fun of the character for me. I’m not super keen on playing a different spec; I don’t love Arms, and Prot can be painful to solo with. Very small change, but it made a huge difference to me.
Every week, join the Massively OP staff for Massively Overthinking column, a multi-writer roundtable in which we discuss the MMO industry topics du jour – and then invite you to join the fray in the comments. Overthinking it is literally the whole point. Your turn!
