MMOs these days, questions from a not-even-newbie

[mikeymikec]

For reasons unknown to me, I looked up the startup sequence for Frontier Elite on the Amiga. I then remembered Elite: Dangerous and watched a few trailers for that. I was considering buying it when one of the comments mentioned that it's an MMO.

I have two problems with MMOs:

1 - I played the web-based game "Planetarion" back in the day (2000-2001?). It inevitably resulted in getting pummelled into the ground by people who are willing to spend every hour possible (even waking during the night to make use of the turn-based hourly system it ran on) playing it as well as loads of people ganging up on smaller groups.

2 - When I play a computer game, especially one that is new to me, I tend to play with fairly heavily for quite a while. This is something I can handle reasonable well on a game that has an ending because there's only so much time that can be spent on it before it ends, and also over the years I've learnt to pace myself a bit more.

I guess many MMOs have some kind of ending as the developers eventually stop adding content, so a player eventually runs out of things to do? Do MMOs these days suffer from the kind of problem I mentioned in my first point? Are many designed to give players who pay for extras a significant advantage over those who don't?

 

[shortylickens]

I remember planetarion.

Knew some guys who did shift work and when they werent fixing things they ran that game on an unused office computer. Managed to keep it going 24 hours a day for a month. I never tried to compete with them.

 

[flexy]

I used to play ED (and actually still have it) before it officially went retail. Back then (and I am sure lots has changed!) ED wasn't really an MMO by a long-shot besides that you could choose between their MORE THAN WEIRD "online mode" and playing offline.

One of the things which pissed me off about ED was that many of the people on the forum(s) came off as sort-of anti-social and often argued they don't like playing with others, going so far as to rant off against pirates etc., how bad/unfair it is when they get attacked etc. which contradicted the entire philosophy of the game ( to me).

To me, a GOOD and sensible implementation of online/MMO enriches a game..however ED was anything BUT a good implementation of online play, it was actually horrible in this aspect. The philosophy that players could choose between offline/online at the start of the game (IN MY OPINION) did not exactly benefit the game.

By the way I vaguely remember Frontier on Amiga and that it was a VERY good game but I think I never really got "into it".

As for your last question about "running out of things to do", this again would depend on how well online play/MMO is implemented. If it is really done WELL, in a virtual open world with no rules and with lots of flexibility, "things to do" can never run out since the virtual world, at some point, starts to live on its own simply because of the people playing in it. It would be the players who then start to shape the world and decide "what to do", rather than "rules" that are implemented as fixed code.

An example for this would be an entirely open virtual MMO world where players could do things like "form a gang" and start fighting other players/gangs and then a natural dynamic in the game would develop from this. (Or another example, when I played WoW and I had an enemy at the Horde side who constantly beat me in duels and PvP encounters - where for me often I played merely for the fact that I logged in, trying to ambush and beat the other guy. <---- things which are NOT "written" in code but evolve simply from people playing.) This is what I mean with good implementation of online play, giving people freedom to do such things.

 

[Sabrewings]

Elite's biggest problem right now is a lack of consequences for griefing. I don't have a problem with pirating, it's part of the game. Interdict me, check my cargo, then make your demands or decide I'm not worth it. I enjoy someone threatening me with "10% and there's no trouble" and then I come about and send them running. Or, if they're too much to handle, weathering it until the FSD spools (hairy if I sacrificed shields for cargo). These are all fun methods for PvP.

However, griefers interdict just to kill you in a 250 million credit FDL with heat meta. There's practically no escape. All they get is a fine they can pay off that's piddly change to them. No consequences. You're stuck with a rebuy, lost cargo, and lost time because someone gets off on an easy kill. And, if you do manage to get the upper hand, they do a cowardly lag switch or combat log. What should happen is you can't just pay off your murder bounty. After a few murders in a system, you can't go near a station and anytime you drop out of SC three security Condas are on you. You might even get interdicted just cruising by them.

There needs to be consequences for acting like an ass hat, which you would expect any society to have. I play open a lot, but when player groups like SDC blow up my Asp for the fun of it with a wing of three Anacondas and just say "git gud noob" I do appreciate having solo as an option until Frontier adds realistic consequences for such behavior.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I play ED in offline mode and what is nice about that is if you decide to play online you take your offline mode to online mode...everything carries over. Pretty neat!

 

[flexy]

Well, we can agree that a "real pirate" sort of must be an asshat? I mean, he's a pirate
Here again are we how things would/could be implemented. A situation where a pirate "simply" could attack and destroy your $250M ship shouldn't even come up, UNLESS you chose to do something really stupid. (I can't say how it is in ED currently since I didn't play in ages).
In WoW I also didn't die from Hordes, UNLESS I decided to wander out in the wilderness in Horde territory or decided to do PvP....

 

[Sabrewings]

Well, we can agree that a "real pirate" sort of must be an asshat?

No, it can be done with legitimacy. A pirate would care more about getting cargo and letting the CMDR go. If they randomly blow up people, it attracts more attention from the authorities which then makes it harder to do their business: pirate.

Pirating is not the same as griefing.

A situation where a pirate "simply" could attack and destroy your $250M ship shouldn't even come up, UNLESS you chose to do something really stupid.

True, unless he has a 500 million ship. But you misunderstood my post. It's not my 250 million credit ship. It belongs to the ass hat(s) preying on Adders, Sidewinders, Diamondbacks, etc just for the fun of it with no consequences. If they want to do that and face appropriate consequences, that's fine. But there should be consequences for blowing up ships for no reason just like if you were RPGing other cars for fun as you drove down the freeway. They would come after you, hard and fast.