by Chris Noll on Oct 07, 2009
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Games come and go, but communities and friendships can last a
lifetime. It is these communities and relationships that keep us coming
back to our games, and are often more important than the game itself.
Today Benjamin J. de la Durantaye sends out a plea to bring back the
community to our games in Loading... Community Disservice.
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"Biggest movers this past week:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2216">DUSTImportant
Dates
I stand by the philosophy that any game can be fun if played with the
right people. I don't care if it's Pac-Man, Pong, or Pirates of the
Burning Sea; if you bring your friends with you, you're going to have
more fun than if you wade into the waters alone.
So why is it that virtually every MMOG nowadays caters to the soloing
crowd during the leveling process? By human nature, players will always
take the path of least resistance, and if that means they're better off
to grind through solo quests, or solo kill thousands of mobs, then
that's exactly what they'll do. Sure, it gives the advantage of
ensuring everyone can level up in your game to maximum level, but
should that really be the priority? Constant pandering of the solo
player has not only had a hugely adverse effect on the gaming
community, but it also affects the amount of fun
players have in the game.
Granted, no one likes to sit LFG for hours because they can't do
anything on their own. But instead of slapping in mountains of solo
content, essentially making the bulk of the game soloable, perhaps
other solutions need to be looked at. Maybe it's time to start veering
away from class reliant content, and start looking at ways that get
people playing together, socializing, and ultimately having fun. No
one's going to go away from a game saying "Wow, I remember when I was
soloing a quest to kill 10 spiders," but rather they'll remember "I
loved that group I had one night that just clicked. We never met each
other before, but everyone was on the ball. I made friends that night."
I play Aion on an "official unoffical" roleplaying server. I played
Warhammer Online on a roleplaying server. I played WoW on a roleplaying
server. The reason I do that is because I find that the type of players
that are drawn to these servers tend to be a more social, fun crowd.
With some exceptions, obviously, most people I run into in game are
helpful, courteous, and just plain fun to be around. I find there is a
lot more grouping on these servers, and a lot more opportunities to
socialize and enjoy the content. That's why I play MMOGs. I don't play
MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER games to see who out of the seven people standing
around a spawn point can get the kill first. I want to meet people, and
I want to have fun doing it.
To this day, EverQuest Classic still stands as the most fun I've ever
had in a MMOG. I've played other games all the way through to the end
game as well - EverQuest 2, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Age of Conan,
World of Warcraft and a plethora of other games I didn't play through
to the end game. What made EverQuest stand out was that it was the only
game where grouping was not an option - it was a requirement. Sure, I
had plenty of days of frustration waiting for friends to log on, or
trying to find a group, but ultimately it was being pushed into
grouping and into the community that made the game the most
entertaining, immersive and appealing game I've played to date. The
reason it was such a valuable experience is that I made a lot of
friends with a lot of people I would have never otherwise met. Several
of these have become life-long friends outside of games.
I'm going down to Las Vegas this month, and will be spending a
week with one of my best buds. We haven't gamed together in about four
years now, but we became such close friends during the EQ days that our
friendship transcended beyond the game and into our lives away from the
PC. We've always stayed in touch after that, visiting each other when
possible, or just calling each other every once in a while to say
"hey." We do what all friends do - share our ups and downs with each
other and offer support when the other is having a hard time, or
celebrating together when life takes an upswing.
That, to me, is what makes a game great. It's not about who can put
together the most efficient macros. It's not about who can clear ToC
first. It's not even about the IP or story of the game. For this gamer,
it's all about the community, and whether or not the game even helps me
to meet any of them.
I send out my plea to devs, to bring back the community to our games,
and get us into a situation where we can make more life-long memories.
Join me in the plea on our forums.
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589">Aion
General Discussion Forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46915">Incoming
Updates to 1.5 (XP Boosts) 'sigh :(
If
Khalus, one of our community members, is interpreting the Korean charts
correctly, there's a significant boost to experience gain coming to
Aion's post-25 levels. Which means you'll level faster. Which means, at
least to Khalus, that NCSoft has caved in to the moanings of
its
western player base who complain that the leveling curve is way too
steep.
Khalus likes the leveling curve where it is--he doesn't
want Aion to become "as easy as WoW." Do you agree with him? Should
leveling stay as it is, or is it too much of a grind at higher levels,
as some players contend?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46915">Discuss!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"Umm... Khal, 30-40
range is a
mind-numbing grind, even with quests from what Ive heard. If NC Korea
is pushing this through then there is something going on in Korea that
prompted this. Not NA whiners that made NC push this through."
- kitsunegirl
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
Today's New MMO Coverage and Features
'NewHottest Content:
EVE- Benjamin J. "Machail" de la Durantaye and the Ten Ton Hammer
team