I’ve been seeing a lot of different MMOs over the past 2 years crop up and fall to shit simply because there’s no innovation. Everything seems to be copying the same model and trying to throw own different little gimmicks that don’t ever mesh well with the trinity of MMORPGs (Healers, Tanks, DPS). I won’t go on listing the titles here but safe to say that juggernaut World of Warcraft is the only title that seems to have done things right enough to continue fielding new players and rake in the cash.
All Points Bulletin really has my attention. It had it a while ago during it’s announcement and even now it’s managed to go up a few notches. I’m already pretty cautious after the complete fucking failure that was Aion (let’s hope NCsoft changes things and give players more incentive to give them a second chance) so the idea of yet another MMO-type game has me leery.
Concerns not withstanding, APB looks like an interesting game. Here’s their latest podcast where you get to actually see some of the story behind the game, the lore if you will.
dude, i hate to break it to you, but almost all MMO’s are the same damn thing. the only thing that changes is the setting. Its like FPS’s. the genre is saturated and is fixed in its ways. you want interesting gameplay from an MMO? look at this game called LOVE, from an indie developer. Is it beautiful and perfect? no, but its interesting and not the massive grindstone most rpgs are.
You know what will fix mmo’s, or least giving it a different taste? pulling away from both the medieval fantasy and leveling. Ultima Online never had leveling at the beginning. One day you decided you were gonna go from warrior to wizard and you switched your talents a bit and began the skill grind toward wizardry. simple. elegant. quick.
I don’t think there’s leveling in APB though. It’s apparently an online sandbox, think GTA4 if there were 100 player controlled characters per district. I’m still trying to learn more about it but you’re right, the grind MMO is fucking ridiculous.
I can say that Aion lied at the start saying it’s not a grind, then you get to level 20 and you’re grinding nonstop with nothing innovative or fun (and the biggest selling point of PvP is pretty much a fucking mess). WoW at least does an amazing job of making the grind varied enough that it only feels that way if you’re just hardcore powering through a profession or faction reputation.
FPS’s with the exception of Half Life and Bioshock are essentially all the same shit (which is why I’m not that excited about MW2) but the selling point for an FPS is the multiplayer.
The new FFXIV MMO in production has me interested as they say “no leveling at all” but I’m calling bullshit until I see it first hand. Star Wars: The Old Republic looks pretty fucking strong right now and I have A LOT of faith in Bioware as I do in Blizzard and 2K Games.
Star Wars does have some amazing potential, along with all the lore you could ever need.
I am very excited, even though it is ridiculously far off.
At the risk of sounding like a tosser, think about this, do we really want mmo’s to change THAT much?
for me, one fo the biggest draws of an mmo is the levelling process, you see you character get more and more powerful. No mmo will ever cut out levelling. even if there is no ‘levels’ there will always be something you need to grind to get better. to take that out would be to melt the genre completely, as then everyone would be at the same place, people just joining the game would have the same recognition as people playing the game for years. when this starts happening (if gear is still used at a marker in such a watered-down genre) why no start people off with all the same top-class gear? where does it stop?
i have to say, the moment they take levelling out of the genre is the moment i stop playing.
I can relate to you there Alex as leveling actually is my favorite part of MMOs, but grinding isn’t and there’s a very fine line between something fulfilling and rewarding like leveling and such, and then the soul crushing buttfuckery that is grinding.
Vanilla WoW had its flaws and wasn’t the most perfect game, but not once did I ever have to grind for hours simply to level.
As far as APB goes, i’v been following it like a hawk since i heard you make an off hand comment about it on your pod cast which made me look in to it. From what i can tell, there is a ‘leveling’ system…kinda, But its nothing a person would need to grind out. Its a number above your characters head that represents how good you are at the game which is based off of player skill i’m assuming.
So, there is a ‘leveling’ system but not as we MMO players have come to know it.
watch all the podcasts that they have out and you’ll be up to date.
I like the fact that you can stream in your own music from your PC if you don’t want to use their MASSIVE library of tunes. Also that the presence of NPCs is somewhat minor and the players themselves are the main characters.
All games need a time sink, which usually takes the form of a “grind”. Games fail when they force people into grinds they don’t want to do, to enable them do what they like. Levelling always had that light at the end of the tunnel for me (the fact it would eventually be over) that kept me going. Raiding is the end game in wow, and raiding is the grind, but it’s also why I play. If I want to log on – raid – log off, I can get away with that. If I had to grind in order to raid I probably wouldn’t do either.
To eliminate character progression you need to raise the skill cap, this is why FPS’s succeed despite starting in “endgame”. Johnny freekill that just logged in for his first time doesn’t stand a chance against a hardened veteran, despite the even playing field. Players need to know they are progressing whether it’s through your “levels” in the game, or your skill in dominating opponents. Stories are icing on the cake, but when all is said and done the stories in wow were dead and gone long before I racked up my 2000+ hours play time (It just occurred to me that if I got paid for it, I could have put a deposit on a house, or bought a boat).
This is the first I have actually heard of this game but it certainly looks interesting, im just wondering what their plans are for the almost required, end game “time sink”. I think wow succeeded because it made the grind (raiding), the game and it did it really well, if you want to grind a few buffs to increase chance of success you can, or collect a few pets, but it’s not an absolute requirement. This is obviously from a raider’s perspective, I realise someone people want nothing more than to collect vanity pets, which is cool (well its not, but whatever…),I really hope APB has good answers to this.
May have to look into it a bit further. It has definitely sparked my interest.
whoa…that turned into a wall of text
Interesting concept… i like the comics style drawings. LIke borderlands a bit, nice, nice.
We will wait and see what comes out of it.
Thanks for the heads up Spoon