MMORPG madness!

[Dark Jezter]

I'm not going to waste my time by getting into a flame war with you.

I don't want a flame war either, but I'll call trolling as I see it.

I did try everquest, I spent some time getting to like 5-6th level, then I died and when I respawned I LOST ALL MY STUFF that I had gotten. Then I find out I had to look for my old body to get my stuff back, and i looked and looked and could not find it, all that time completely wasted. No one Online wanted to help me. So I uninstalled, took the game back, and canceled my account.

How exactly does your bad expirience with Everquest translate into all MMORPGS being wastes of money? I started this thread to talk about the next generation of online RPGs coming out, and guess what? Most of them will be addressing the very things you are complaining about.

That was after waiting on hold to talk to a real person for almost an hour, but wait, this is a MMORPG, according to you, MMORPGS have great customer support.

Where did I say that?

I'm am trying to tell people what a waste of money MMORPG's are. I play DnD with a guy, he was so happy awhile back because he got a new, second computer just so he can play EQ while he is playing EQ with the first computer, he pays for 2 accounts and plays on 2 computers at the same time, a total waste, IMO.

Well of course MMORPGs are a waste of money. So is surfing the internet, buying D&D books, subscribing to cable, playing golf, going bowling, paying to see movies, etc. All that matters is how much fun you have wasting that money.

 

[KenM]

On customer support, the article you posted said the fee helps pay for that, hench it is implied that customer support is good. From what I understand, the online help is players that volenteer to do it. Let me put it too you another way, say you have a choice of playing in one of 2 DnD games, one DM charges you money just for the right to play, the other DM lets you play for free, the skills of the DM/ players are the same. What game would you rather play in?

 

[Dark Jezter]

On customer support, the article you posted said the fee helps pay for that, hench it is implied that customer support is good. From what I understand, the online help is players that volenteer to do it. Let me put it too you another way, say you have a choice of playing in one of 2 DnD games, one DM charges you money just for the right to play, the other DM lets you play for free, the skills of the DM/ players are the same. What game would you rather play in?

That's a bad analogy. As far as I know, there are no free MMORPGs out there, and certainly none that can contend with the most popular MMORPGs. And no, Neverwinter Nights is not an MMORPG.

 

[KenM]

I'm not saying NWN is a MMORPG, but having played a little EQ, and NWN, they do play simalr, but I feel I can get a better online RPG experence with NWN, as its not just people waiting to kill things. I don't think its a bad example to compare charging people to play a game and another game that plays almost the same does not, and does it better.

 

[Felon]

No new content? I guess the 2400+ modules I can download for neverwinter nights, FOR FREE is not considered new content. Or the hack packs, patches, portrits, ect. is not considered new content.

Wait a second here. Isn't the vast majority of that stuff generatd by other players, not by Blizzard itself? That is not an example of the company providing free add-ons for their product. That's just an example of a players supporting a product that was designed to be supported by players.

Game expansions is considered new content.

And they are not free. Blizzard did not just give away Neverwinter Night's expansion pack.

How about maps/ mods for Battlefield 1942? Or the bonus packs for UT2003, those are not new content? Or all the skins/ mods for freedom force is not new content?

A grab bag of bonus goodies cannot be compared to the content that the constant stream of new content that MMORPG updates contain, except on the most remote possible level. Building new dungeons, creating new monsters, introducing new quests, designing new items and equipment...reality check, man.

When I tryed to call EQ support, it was the worst support line I have EVER called. Why should I pay extra money when all the MMORPG games are just "what for big monster to respawan (along with 50 other players, and ONLY the person that gets the killing blow gets what the monster has) and you try to kill it, then you go onto the next monster when you level up.

You shouldn't. Play another MMORPG.

If blizzard can do battle.net for free, so can other companies,

Seems that all you think you get for your money is keeping the servers running. The nature of the MMORPG is to keep adding large amounts of new content to the initial product.

MMORPGS are cash cows, thats the bottom line.

They're businesses, yes.

I bet not one of the companies that run it will let us go into they're books and see what they cost to run and how much profit they make. If they are not making any profit, why are companies putting so many out?

What the heck are you talking about? Of course you can't go look at their books. That's what you call sensitive information. They do post quarterly earnings though.

And nobody says they're not making a profit. But they obviously wouldn't make a profit employing an entire of programmers for years on end without actually generating any revenue past the initial product sales.

I don't know whether you're a troll or not, but you're being pretty damned irrational.

 

[KenM]

Felon, first off its Bioware, not Blizzard that put out Neverwinter Nights. I'm just using Battle.net as an example of a company that does not charge the players to play online. I never said new expansions were not free, but at least I don't have to pay to play. If you get free content added to MMORPG's, how come you have to pay extra for the EQ expansions that they have put out? If I'm paying by the month to play, according to you, the expansions should be auto downloaded next time I log on. I may be irrational, but at the end of the month I have more money in my pocket from not playing these stupid games.

 

[CrusaderX]

Felon, first off its Bioware, not Blizzard that put out Neverwinter Nights. I'm just using Battle.net as an example of a company that does not charge the players to play online.

But that company, Blizzard, will be releasing the pay-to-play MMORPG World of Warcraft. So obviously Blizzard knows that there are huge differences bettween what you get from a MMORPG vs. what you get from Battle.net.

Blizzard WILL charge players to play World of Warcraft online. That's a fact. So it's not about the company, it's about the type of game. Comparing a MMORPG to Battle.net or NWN is comparing apples to oranges. Blizzard knows that, as do the people who are arguing with you.

 

[KenM]

The ONLY reason Blizzard is doing it is to have its own cash cow. I still like other Blizzard games, but I don't see the point of paying $40- $60 for a game then have to pay more money each month just for the right to play it. I get a better online playing experence playing other games then I do with games you have to pay for every month.

 

[Felon]

KenM, on an unrelated note, may I ask why your signature lists your PC specs? Just curious.

 

[nazmi]

Isn't the vast majority of that stuff generatd by other players, not by Blizzard itself? That is not an example of the company providing free add-ons for their product. That's just an example of a players supporting a product that was designed to be supported by players.

Hope this isn't too off-topic, but I think community-based content may not only be more timely but, without all the marketing-research/profit/loss/risk-BS behind it, better (at point of release) than what companies offer. E.g., soon I'll be able to run d20 modern with my local, weekly LAN group for something originally thought to be a FRCS-only setting: http://d20modern.lostdays.org/d20modern/ ...very cool!

tmj