We’ve all been struck by profound MMO disappointment at some point during our gaming careers. I would be hard pressed to remember every MMO I have tried and disliked after a few days or weeks but more recently, SWTOR, TSW and ESO have let me down for different reasons. Age of Conan too was a game that I actually was subbed to for quite a while but ultimately failed to impress me. For most games that I played and quit, I always tried to elaborate why:
I don’t claim my judgements are always comprehensive or final or a 100% fair, if there’s such a thing. I focus on other aspects in MMOs than the next person. First impressions matter and like most of you out there (not Syp!), I won’t play every MMO for weeks and weeks until that magical moment arrives when it “gets good”. Sometimes your timing ain’t right or your expectations ruined the experience. Sometimes you’re spot on an the game is just garbage.
There’s a pivotal time during the first few days and weeks after launch in which MMOs have to win us over, especially the ones of the subscribing persuasion. It may take very little to put us off or rather, a lot to draw us in. Players are fickle too…..and why aren’t there any cute minipets for me to hug in this game, huh?? Kthxbai!
MMOs on our “bad” side
It gets interesting when we dislike games in lieu of personal experience. You might discount such opinions altogether but we are all influenced by our environment, if not the gaming press then certainly our trusted peers and their tales of horror. There’s MMOs I know I don’t need to try, because I know my friends and I really know myself.
One such MMO that I never actually played but dislike not only for comic relief on Battle Bards, is ArcheAge. Yeah, a lot of people certainly don’t speak favorably about ArcheAge by now but I had this early impression of just another great-looking Korean staple grinder. Then I saw the silly upside-down gliders people were riding and as if that wasn’t enough, pictures like this one –
Can you imagine going through the horror of ordering Starbucks coffee in an MMO? Fun farming feature or not, non-medieval setting or not, I don’t need this in my face either while enjoying my leisure time. And don’t get me started on the cars everywhere.
It is entirely possible that ArcheAge is currently in a different place. In my case though, that ship has sailed. Once I made my mind up about an MMO, that’s final *cough*.
Those pictures are both from the korean version though – the version known for a rather lax filter. You still saw a few weird, hilarious and stupid things around in the NA one but they weren’t very common. I think the most popular image type was Rngesus prayers in peoples farm spaces.
Ahhh I see, well that’s good at least. Funny too though how they made different filters for different regions.
It’s interesting you mention ArcheAge, because this week I set myself to the task of writing five nice things about the game. I figured maybe this would get me motivated to actually play it.
I’m only on day 3 of 5, and I’m already struggling to come up with any more favorite features about ArcheAge, other than it takes pretty screenshots and has slightly flexible quests for leveling.
The ideas of economic domination, epic sea battles, and massive guild-vs-guild land sieges on Auroria are things I should be excited about, but I’m just not. It’s a game I would have loved 10 years ago, but today it just seems like too much effort. (I think it’s the same reason I can’t just casually slip into EVE Online.)
There’s certainly some effort there – the boats as you say looked good and also the whole farming system. That alone can’t satisfy though.
I do look forward to your post, if you manage to finish it! 🙂
I’m finding this topic fascinating as more people post on it, I’m going to have to get to it at some point myself. With so many games out there, there’s plenty of choices – but not everybody needs to like every option! I’ve definitely got games that I can’t get into for the life of me, regardless of how much my friends enjoy them.
And you bring up a really interesting point about TSW. This isn’t where a player tries to talk you out of your opinion either, I don’t do that to people. While I enjoy the glimmers in the dark tone, it is very much not a light game and you’ve given me something to remember when i talk to folks who haven’t played. (Funny enough, I have another friend who got turned off partly because he couldn’t tell if it was “serious” or not!)
Nice post in any case, lots to think about!
I have good friends who still enjoy TSW a lot and I believe them when they say it has very unique storytelling. For me though – I am a child of the whimsy ^^ I like high fantasy games and I get scared easily, hehe….
Am glad you enjoyed the post, thank your for commenting!
You know, that Starbucks impersonation would actually be appealing on some days to the oldest mini-Red, who has discovered coffee this past year. (Mainly because she needed it to wake up in the mornings.)
Well…..I worked part-time at SB as a student and let’s just say, nothing gets me in there anymore (the stuff they make the frappucinos with omg. -.-
Also: /hugs! 😀
Oh wow, that Starbucks place is certainly making an effort to break immersion. What keeps me away from ArcheAge most, though, is that it’s one of those games where female characters get skimpy armour. That, and the fact that I’ve got enough to do in my current MMOs (SWTOR and occasionally LOTRO & GW2).
I’ve not even bothered with their armor, so that’s telling you something…
And the SB thing is teh worst, like the McDonald’s houses in Landmark! >_<
Hmm, I guess I’ll be controversial and state that the game that disappointed me was Star Wars Galaxies. I tried it back in 2009 and it just seemed like a grindy “second job simulator” to me. Back then paying a monthly fee for a game was alien to me, to pay for a game where I had to log in to check on mining stations or whatever seemed crazy even though I had friends who loved it to bits. Then I tried WoW and had real stories to follow not dependent on PVP and that was that…
I believe in some corners that statement is indeed controversial, haha! I never played SWG, I only know I liked some of the music a lot. On any fair day tho, I would prefer a fantasy MMORPG to stwarwars, sooooo.
Archeage is a pay to win friendly game, has PvP as a built in forced thing, and encourages early land rushes as a thing that people can benefit from.
That’s really all I need to know to put it on the blacklist. All the comedy and drama surrounding it’s mismanagement just ensures it stays there. But really, the worst thing is when the game’s defenders come in and try to claim nothing is Trion’s fault because it’s actually made by someone else.
Trion is the one selling it. They are responsible. That’s how business works. If they have a bad agreement with a bad supplier, that’s their problem.
I get that, it seems tho that the AA debacle tainted some of that good rep. I made good experiences with Trion myself when I played Rift, so I really can’t judge this.
“Archeage is a pay to win friendly game, has PvP as a built in forced thing, and encourages early land rushes as a thing that people can benefit from.”
triple-eugh.
a) Does the game allow for / promote negative progress as a selling point? Ie. Your armor breaks, someone can steal stuff from you, your xp bar goes backward when you die, etc.
b) Does the game promote one primary type of endgame as the holy grail over others, especially the heavily competitive, forced-grouping kind?
c) Do I have to pay any money, especially a large amount up front, or a monthly subscription fee for the “privilege” of being someone else’s punching bag / victim / content, and have to climb several hills in the snow for several years / months before I can be considered to be on a level playing field with other players?
Yeah, no. Not bothering to try those.
Oh god yes, and I wanna add “inventory weight” to a) plz!
Agree with all your points, none of that appeals to me either. I guess I could really turn this into a follow-up post where I make my own list. Likely very long 😛
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m quite snobbish when it comes to which MMOs to try, as I’ve turned down quite a few people that asked me to join them in a trying out a new one! Most of it seems to come down to the art direction and my overall impression of the world/lore, though other factors can come into play. I think it’s easy to be a snob these days because you only have so much time in a day and there are so many MMOs to potentially play!
I don’t want to go around ragging on the games that don’t appeal to me though. I know I don’t like the negative nancies that only ever want to complain about the games I play instead of spending their energy on something they actually enjoy.
Unrelated, but are you ever going to explain the VIP system in your comment section? At first I thought us VIPs all had a certain unique number, but now I see that some people appear to have the same number, so I’m at a loss as for what it means! Maybe another subject for Blaugust… 😛
Haha – actually I was debating of removing the gimmick altogether. Basically it’s a little plugin that goes from 0-5 stages of VIPdom depending on how often you comment on the blog. But it’s also inaccurate because it doesn’t take the entire past into account and am not sure how it deals with different IPs.
A while ago I was looking into ways to create thank-you badges for returning visitors basically, so I tried this one.