MMO Reporter Episode 60 – Game of the Rings

In this episode Chris, Harry and I discuss Fallout’s legal fallout, Queen’s Blade’s social importance, too-expensive swords and more!

What we’ve done in game

• SWTOR: Got to 21, loving the game but it’s most definitely getting more traditional the more I progress. Also: the PVPness is limp.
• LOTRO: Winterhome
• EVE: No time for EVE :-(

• SWTOR  5 characters to level 11. 2 Jedi Knights (1 sentinel, 1 guardian), 1 Consular, 1 Smuggler, 1 Trooper, 1 Sith Warrior (haven’t specialized yet) plus a couple other lowbies.  My highest is 16.  Loving this game – hate what it does to my poor old laptop
• LOTRO – plugging away.  Slowly grinding medallions for top gear (mostly solo/duo with Isanni).  Also Winterhome.

• TOR – Level 31 now, having fun on my Jedi Knight – Guardian. WHY IS SPACE COMBAT SO MUCH FUN????? I was sure I was going to hate it.
• LOTRO – Almost to level 67, going through Volume 3, and chasing those silly rangers.
• Rift – Master mode Darkening Deeps. SOOO HARD!
• DCUO – Miss this game, wish I had more time to play it!
• Free Realms – Ummmmm
• EQII – More fun this time around than my first time. Starting area choice perhaps? Class choice?
• Star Trek Online – Getting ready for F2P. Leveling my commander, trying to get to captain.
• Marvel Super Hero Squad – Fun with kids.

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MMO reporter hosts,

Inspired by Harry Hall’s self-professed MMO cynicism and a recent post on MMORPG.com titled “Swan Song for the Traditional MMO”, I wrote a list of MMO tropes associated with the current generation of MMOs, which has shaped and (misshaped) the genre. I won’t tire you with the entire list, but one item caught my attention, because I could think of no satisfactory reason for why it is such a prevalent idiom.
It is this: why is player interaction with the game world in MMOs, almost universally, based on fighting it?
From a developer point-of-view, combat encounters is a reasonably simple type of content to create. It is based on limited, linear game mechanics, and is easy to mass-produce, as is often done in MMOs. However, that cannot be the whole explanation because it is what players expect, and if they wanted something else, developers would come up with other ways of creating content.
MMORPGs have their roots in pen-and-paper RPGs, which are also often quite combat-centric. However, pen-and-paper RPGs have long ago come up with gane-systems which focus more on other types of interaction. Why hasn’t the same happened for MMOs?
PvE-combat is a way of simplifying interactions with computers, which obviously have limited AI, but even in games with limited PvE, PvP-combat is the norm.
I see no reason to think MMO players are any different from other gamers, but they generally expect combat-heavy gameplay of their games, Combat is an important idiom in single-player gaming as well, but there are plenty of single-player titles where combat plays limited or no role.
Most competitive games/sports can be described as stylised battle, to some degree of approximation, but it doesn’t follow that we create elaborate game play to simulate combat, outside computer games.
Clearly combat is a staple of the MMO-genre, but why? Do we expect too little from our MMOs?

Regards,
Mikkel

Hello MMO Reporter cast,
I am having some trouble. I think I have hit the wall when it comes to MMOs. By this I mean that I simply dont have the motivation to play a MMO. I dont know why either. I want to play one and I have played before. I have played, WoW, DCU, Rift and quite a few other MMOs. I played the TOR beta and I liked it but I didn’t get much time on it and I have a feeling that I would not have been able to continue playing if I got it. Is there something that you guys can recommend to help me with this problem. Please help!

Thank you in advance,
Masaimune