They definitely did go that way, but you'll also notice that no MMO can be pay for subscription, and none seem to last very long. Basically, as it would appear, WoW killed the spirit of the MMO. They'll never have real appeal. It's not so much of difficulty, but simply a matter of being solo vs group oriented, and to get rid of the automatic group formation queues, especially cross server queues. Having a list of people looking for groups was good, having groups automatically formed took out a particularly important social function. Because so many easy options exist, it'll be hard for the ones that would have real long lasting appeal to exist.During Vanilla EQ, I remember thinking, "we all deal with how hard this game is because it's amazing - but we put up with this because it's the only option. I suspect the next MMO's will see a market opportunity by making it easier, and players will jump on that, and early ones will have to get easier to compete, and MMO's will continually get easier because of that." I think I was right.
A tradeoff of course was a lessening of community; and of excitement.
They became just 'queue for a quick dungeon with some strangers to grind for gear and faction.'
Looks like they understand the problems I and a lot of others see in todays MMO's. Hopefully they can execute their vision, and get a good player base. If they succeed, I'll be interested.Looks like Brad McQuaid is making a new MMO based on challenge creating community, just saw this today:
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/
At Visionary Realms, we believe that the best of MMORPG design is yet to come. We understand how healthy challenge in a game promotes teamwork, often blooming into profound relationships and enduring memories. We focus on these poignant elements of design and aim to provide our players with environments conducive to building reputations, friendships and alliances--as well as rivalries and notoriety. Visionary Realms resumes where past MMORPGs left off with these elements, and is excited to see the genre re-emerge.
Our team comes from the players, as we are players ourselves. We all share the same passion to create meaningful experiences through MMO games. We come from all over the world and have united to answer the call of the gamers who have been searching for a challenging and socially-charged game. We have been searching for it ourselves.
Among us are seasoned industry veterans who have worked on globally celebrated titles like EverQuest, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and Star Wars Galaxies to name a few of the dozens of titles in our collective repertoire. We have personalities who have come from some of the top MMO gaming websites. We also have talented newcomers who have fresh ideas and unique insights. Together we are a highly diverse and driven team, ready to push into the next era of MMO gaming.
Ah, well, I'm not into microtransactions. If they are only superficial, I can live with that. If they change the game play, that's a game breaker for me.What I mean by the last thing is that Shroud is selling a ton of in-game items including housing that can cost several thousand dollars.
This brings back a memory for me, I had a War back then, ran him as fury (sword and board if I had to offtank though). Got two lifedrain axes from the last boss in old ZG (Hakkar?), threw lifedrain enchant on each after gathering the mats because I was a poors. With 4x lifedrain procs, could actually generate health while fighting 1v1s of equivalent level stuff, was pretty amazing back then.Nope, you don't remember correctly. Or more likely, you never knew how it worked. Don't worry, you were not the only one.
Fire resist gear did 2 things.
1) It reduces the chance you get hit by a fire spell. This worked in fixed amount, 0% chance to not get hit, 25%, 50% and 75% to not get hit.
2) When you do get hit, it reduces the amount of damage that got through. The amount was in proportion to how much FR you had.
So yes, even if you have 100 FR and the other rogue had 140 FR, and both would make it so that your chance to get hit by fire spells was 50%, the other rogue would still take less damage.
I've played a rogue in WoW. Doing high dps was the only thing that mattered. I've seen enough other rogues bragging about how high their dps was and how they really didn't need much FR gear. But you know what ? Killing bosses is all about all raid members learning how not to die. That's the only trick. Don't die. And I remember many many boss-fights, where in the end, when the boss was dead, I was standing and there were a whole bunch of rogues and warriors lying dead besides me. And when you look at the damage meters, I would always outdamage the rogues who didn't wear any or much FR gear. Because I had 100% dps-time, and the other melee died halfway the fight.
Ragnaros. But FR was also useful at Magmadar,Geddon and Golemagg. It would allow you much more dps-time.
In BWL at Broodlord Lashlayer I would be guaranteed to out-dps all other melee. Because higher FR would make you resist applications of the boss's debuf. And therefor you need to hide around the corner much less. And if you make a mistake: poof, dead.
Onyxia with FR gear would also be much easier. And much safer.
I loved AQ40. I was in a crappy guild. Very fun, but not with good results. At one point I joined the top Horde guild on the server. Still nothing special, but they were in AQ40 while most guilds couldn't get past the first 1-2 bosses in BWL. The reason they took me in was probably because I had farmed Nature Resist gear on my own. I went into 5-man dungeons and farmed level 40-60 NR-gear solo. (There was quite a bit in Maraudon). When I applied for that guild, I already had 200 NR. And even if that's all shitty gear, it would allow you to be effective in AQ40. WIth no NR-gear, you wouldn't stand a chance against Princess Huhuran.
I loved having a significant number of resist fights. In Vanilla. It would allow you to outsmart other players. Be prepared better. I would give you something to do: acquire more sets for raiding. I remember wandering around solo in BRD. Farming Dark Iron, smelting Dark Iron for guildies, etc. My FR-gear would allow me to solo the fire-elementals. (Remember those ?) Mobs that could easily wipe a 5-man group. But with the right gear, they would be easy.
Later, in TBC and WLK, the best resist gear all came from crafter gear that would require drops from raids. In other words: you could not gather that resist gear yourself, you had to wait for your guild to hand you the materials. That ended the fun of resist gear for me.
Great fun.
I spent a few years of my best gaming years playing WoW.
Too bad Blizzard totally messed it up.
I played Vanguard.Looks like Brad McQuaid is making a new MMO based on challenge creating community, just saw this today:
I played Vanguard.
Brad McQuaid was lucky to be at the right place at the right time. When he worked at Everquest. However, his later work showed he has no clue what he is doing. He's a liar. He's a conman. He should go find a job in finance, or shovel shit on a farm or something. He should not be let near a new game. Ever. Never trust a heroin junkie. Fuck Brad McQuaid.