I am tired of Hack and Slash!
When will we see more out of MMORPGs? that is the question sitting firmly on the lips of every serious MMO gamer. Since the launch of Ultima online over 10 years ago millions of gamers have moved away from their standalone games to join the fray with other players in the various virtual worlds that have popped up since. As a gamer myself I am part of that group and have faithfully donated $14.99 per month to allow me a spot in the hack and slash phenomenon for the last 7 years...I got in at Everquest:) We have all had our fun over the years pummeling , roasting and dominating the various "MOBS" we have seen, but alas it is getting terribly boring. I have tried power leveling and bought Everquest currency many times.
We need a change desperately all of the MMOs out there are stale and inevitably painfully boring. It seems that game developers are continually targetting the teen audience though the average gamer age is supposedly 30 years old. That being said games like WOW have been able to work on some regular features of every game out there and through good old fashioned "Keep it simple stupid" have been able to capitalize on the market. Blizzard did a fabulous job of taking simple graphics and prettying them up a bit with a comic edging this made the game extremely attractive visually. They also went a long way to target the casual gamer to allow low effort to get big reward.
These 2 ideas combined allowed for World of Warcraft to become a epic sucess, cudoos to Blizzard.
I have personally played WOW for only a couple of years on and off and I like to go back to the simple unchallenging world every once and a while. It just doesn't hold my attention for long after a hour or two I am extremely bored and turn it off, then I move on to the next MMO I have and the same thing happens. Each game may look different and some may offer some different classes, skills, pets, but they are all the same thing with different graphics, hack and slash.
There is light at the end of the tunnel though as developers are finally taking note of this. New games are coming in the next year that promise a litte more then simple hack and slash. Age of Conan for example is developing a combat system that is not automated like everything else out there where you target a mob and hit the various premade macros to get a certain attack or spell to activate. In Age of Conan you will actually be dealing with real combat engine. A multi-point melee system allows the players to swing their weapons where they direct it, in real-time,completely different then the formulaic nature of online RPG combat. Vanguard saga of heros a new release and my personal new game has implemented true flying mounts , very indepth tradeskill system where you can work in groups to better produce higher grade items. Vanguard also sports a seemless enviornment no instance loading just a big open beautiful world where if you can see it you can go to it.
These are the fledgling steps to the future of MMOs, developers need to put more time into original thought and less into mimicing another game and making it prettier. I feel I speak for a large part of the massive player base out there. We want more , we need more, without more we just keep moving on to the next game and the next.The cycle of bordem continues someone out there has to impress us soon.