MMPOG's are a rip off.

[VeeDubb]

A friend of mine (who is still stuck on windows) is a huge fan of MMPOG's (Massively Multi-Player Online Games) Example game, City of Heroes is $50.00 + $15.00/month - 2 months free, so to buy the game and play it for 1 year, which I can do with most $50.00 games costs $200.00

 

I watched him play, laughing to himself about how wonderfull a deal a game that's $200.00 for the first year, and $180.00 per year after that, is. And as I watched, I realized that it's actualy a single player game for most of the game.

 

You go and get quests from NPC's, and complete them by beating up other npc's, rescuig more npc's and don't forget retrieveing junk for npc's, all the while dodging npc's you're not supposed to deal with unitll later and you just totaly ignore all the other Players who are runing around doing the same thing.

 

Eventualy, after many hours of running around by yourself, you may find enough people at a similar point in the seemingly single player game to form a "super group" which is a small group of Super Heroes, usualy no more than a half dozen, that play together. Nothing especialy massive about that is there? The only way to get more people is to have a very large circle of friends who also play the game.

 

Of course, even then, you ALL have to be paying $180/year, and you all have to have internet access just to launch the game because there is no network version, so unless one of you has a T1 connection, it's not actualy possible to all play together in the same house. so you must all sit in your own rooms in your own houses, completely alone, just to play together.

 

THe same is true of the PS2 version os Everquest. You run around all by your self, and occassionaly, when you get a quest that's too hard for you and you are

too lazy to level up before completing it, so instead of playing alone, you go find one or two people who are bigger than you and beg them to help you complete the quest so you can go back to playing by yourself.

 

 

Does anybody else see the problem with this? I asked my friend and he said I should just compare the hours of entertainment to movie tickets. By that logic, A typical $50.00 game that I can easily get 100 hours out of (and that's a bad game) should cost $950.00 (movie tickets are $9.50 around here) and a rubix cube should cost something like $250,000.00

 

I know that video game production costs money, as does supporting those games, and the servers needed to play them, but this is rediculous. You basiclay have to re-purchase the game every three months.

 

 

edit**** City of Heroes only includes 1 month free, so it's $215.00 for the first year

Edited May 17, 2004 by VeeDubb

[Guest English Sniper]

Thats prothetic!!!!

 

thats absolutely prothetic and if i were to buy that ide have to be looney first!

i mean thats just too much for a game!

 

MMPOG's should be sued by someone! i mean damn wright 2 expensive!

 

Edit: big long essay there! must have taken u ages it 2 me like 5-10 mins 2 read lol

Edited May 16, 2004 by English Sniper

[Darkelve]

Thats prothetic!!!!

 

thats absolutely prothetic and if i were to buy that ide have to be looney first!

i mean thats just too much for a game!

 

MMPOG's should be sued by someone! i mean damn wright 2 expensive!

 

Edit: big long essay there! must have taken u ages it 2 me like 5-10 mins 2 read lol

Yet another reason to play Morrowind :P :deal:

[Qchem]

Whats wrong with nethack?

[DragonMage]

I have known this since Ultima Online (the original).. That's why I never played subscription based MMORPG. The only Online RPG I have ever played is NWN but even then it's not MMORPG or if they are trying to make an MMORPG based world, it's not subscription based.

[LittleJohn]

Yes I own NVW and to me it is one of the best. You at least don't have to subscribe to be able to play online. But also you are right veedub, if you don't have friends you seem to end up playing alone anyway. Which is the whole reason I wanted to play online, so I wouldn't have to play alone. DUH!! But most of the kids playing have geeked out characters and they just run around not caring about other players or just playing the game the way it was meant to be. But having a couple of friends that want to play makes it much better. Also the other cool thing about NVW they don't have to complain about piracy because they do a really good job of protecting theirselves. So their game shouldn't get to expensive. Of course it isn't cheap. I agree though subscribtion is ridculous!!

[tyme]

City of Heroes is a fairly new game. MMORPG's take a little while to build to critical mass, the point were you interact with more than just NPC's.

 

I played Everquest for a good 7 months (consistently) and go back every now and again to see whats new. For the first month or so of my experience, I only interacted with NPC's for a few reasons: To put items/money in my bank, to buy things, and a few minor things. Most of the time I was grouped with other players, hunting mobs and having interesting conversations during the downtime.

 

It's really a matter of the game, and how long it's been around. EQ is big because it's been around so long, tons of people play it, so the interaction with NPC's is really at a minimum. If I can buy something from another player, I can probably get a much better deal than from an NPC vendor...so buying from vendors is even a rare thing for me anymore (well, I haven't played in over 5 months now).

 

What I'm saying is, basically, its all a matter of the game and the amount of time it's been out. You're right, if you're only interacting with NPC's its a complete waste. But once you start grouping with other players, and sort of get together a group of regulars...it's not as much of a waste of money.

 

Damn it, now I want to install EverQuest again...grr!!

[pcorajr]

MMOPG are pretty much pointed to a certain crowd i played EQ for almost 6 years. was it worth the money ? for me yes when i started playing eq the monthly charge was around 9.99 as time passed it grew up to 13.95. wile i understand your point of view i also understand why people pay that much for online games.

 

 

Some people get home cook dinner and play mmo till is time for bed i was one of them. wile the normal person gets home and gets involved in other activitis (watch tv, go to the movies/bar or go shopping) most of the hardcore MMOPG players spent their time in fron of a pc playing. thats the way these games are built. it take a long time to achive something in them. so you can look at MMOPG as a time consuming hobbie. some people spend up to 50 dollars a month renting movies/ going to the movies wile other spend money at the mall or buying stuff for what ever hobbie they have. MMOPG players just spend 13-17 dollars a month and have their hobbie expences taken care of.

 

In EQ i played a solo class (Necromancer) wile other people had more interaction with the online community i was soloing my way to 40 then to 60 and then finally to 65. after that i started a new character and joined a rading guild ( in eq rading guilds are groups of peoplethat meet up everyday to go kill dragons gods etc mainly monsters that need a big force to be killed or events around 50 to 72 players)

 

so what happends after you kill all the dragons and gods ? a new expancion pack comes out with even more stuff to kill explore.

 

i remember back when shadows of luclin came out it took my guild close to 6 month to get everybody ready to kill one of the top monsters in that expancion pack (getting every single person in the guild keys/ wepons and armor so they are equiped and rdy for the final fight. and even then after killing that monster we had a few more weeks for killing stuff in vexthal (sp) before we were done with that expancion pack. and by then it was time to move on the the next expancion pack (planes of power) wich took us near 1 year to get done with.

 

wile maybe this is not the case with most of the new MMopg out there now this is what they all trive to do. keep their players comeing back for more. and like i mention above not every person will like the game style in online games.

 

one last thing its been almost a year since i gave up my eq addiction err hobbie. now most of my time after work is spent in college or working on linux and so far i have spent 500 dollars on my linux hobbie. building new pc buying linux books buying cdr's to burn some distros etc etc. thats double the money i use to spend in a year of eq.

[iphitus]

Angband forever!!!!

 

I play Mangband across the school network

 

No MMORPG can beat the fun of going through the dungeons of Angband with a mate'

 

 

i fixed the linkage - tyme

Edited May 18, 2004 by tyme

[Gowator]

one last thing its been almost a year since i gave up my eq addiction err hobbie. now most of my time after work is spent in college or working on linux and so far i have spent 500 dollars on my linux hobbie. building new pc buying linux books buying cdr's to burn some distros etc etc. thats double the money i use to spend in a year of eq.

Yep but thats hardly wasted money.... you have something to show.

While you played EQ all you had to show was virtual.

 

p.s. Some REALLY good linux books are available online.... :D for free if you read em on screen....

[ShadowFoxLSU]

Right now I am playing World of Warcraft (for free) and the chances are I will not ever touch it again once it is released, but for now, it is mindless fun. The only time you cannot solo is when you go to the elite dungeons and instance dungeons ( that is unless you 5+ levels higher). It's incredibly boring untill you get a little group of people, and then it is fun.