I suspect that much of the willingness of players to pour money into MMO Kickstarters is out of a strong desire to see games emerge that recapture the spirit of the games that originally caused us to fall in love. But can that be done?
Former EverQuest II designer Ryan Shwayder said that while the desire may be simple, the execution is hellishly complex: “So, there’s quite a bit you can do to reproduce elements of the magic of old school MMOs. But, the truth is, there is that nostalgia element there still that is impossible to reproduce for people who have played other massively multiplayer games. After they’ve played one, they are no longer an MMO virgin, and you’ll never make an MMO the same as their first love. What you can do is make your MMO their great love; the one they will marry.”
Join us as we take a tour of some of the most interesting MMO blog posts from the past two weeks, including an analysis of BlizzCon, trying Star Citizen for the first time, how to utilize life skills in Black Desert, and more!
Don’t Mention Ze War: Return to WAR
“I couldn’t help but squeal with murderous glee as I logged into WAR for the first time in years. Everything was so familiar and nostalgic. The Elves were still cross-dressing nancies, the dwarfs grumpy, drunken balls of vengeance, and the goblins looked like they needed a good smushing. I was home.”
Creeping Through It All: Black Desert Online — Living large with life skills
“Right now I feel like I actually have a decent life skills system going. It keeps me busy in the game, it’s rewarding and I’m enjoying the game again. After all, I bought BDO for the life skills.”
Battle Priestess: BlizzCon post-mortem
“BlizzCon was weird for me in that while I was there as a first-time attendee, I also couldn’t help but look at it from a planner’s perspective. BlizzCon itself is… well, intense is the only word that even comes close to describing it. It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Self Distract Sequence: Citizenship test
“Despite having a lot of bugs to squash and many more features to implement, Star Citizen seems to be a game that has a lot of potential to become great. But there are other space games with multiplayer persistent universes, such as Elite Dangerous and EVE Online that Star Citizen will have to compete against.”
Alternative Chat: All over the world
“I dunno about you, but I’ve been spending quite a bit of time thinking about the announcement that we’ll be quite literally taking the fight to the Legion in this expansion. That means Argus and now it is confirmed that this will be 7.3 content? A lot of stuff makes sense.”
“I have shown above how Turbine is continuously adding gear grind as a substitute for new content and an incentive to buy items in the Store. Now, before the fanboys and -girls leap upon me, this post is not about me hating the game. I love Lord of the Rings Online; its landscape, cute quests, festivals, and group content in particular. I have written many posts on this blog that celebrate those aspects. It is possible to love a game but dislike a specific aspect of it. This post is also not about attacking LOTRO’s successful free to play model or invoking the end of LOTRO. It is about identifying the recent disturbing trend of monetizing endgame gear, that can be — at best — described as borderline pay-to-win.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
