Quote:
Originally Posted by cerotoneN
Honestly, I wonder what company will develop an MMO that steps away from this chore system - it's stupid pathetic boring.!
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I played EverQuest from shortly after the release of Kunark up to the release that introduced the Berserker (I believe it was Gates of Discord). At the time I was under the age of 16, legally couldn't get a part time job, and had no source of income. I couldn't afford to buy all the expansions so I was always really far behind. I only ever had: Classic, Kunark, Velious, Luclin and Planes of Power. Ruins of Kunark is my favorite game of all time. That continent was just so perfect to me. Ya it was an EXP Grind in oldschool EQ but it always felt rewarding to play EverQuest and to get levels in EverQuest. If I was able to kill something I felt I shouldn't have any chance of killing, it felt like a reward.
I later went and played Guild Wars after I quit EverQuest and I have to say that I completely agree with your assessment. In EverQuest you could stumble onto a quest, or look it up online, either way it still turned out to be epic. You would be travelling across two or three continents to get all the pieces (even for mid-level) quests. To me that made it so exciting. In Guild Wars NPC that gave out quests have gigantic floating exclamation marks above their heads. You are then given direct way points that will lead you directly to where you have to go and you have the ability to travel just by clicking buttons on your map. Quests were terrible in Guild Wars and there was no reward to them.
The opinions on the state of MMOs always seem to be straight down the middle it seems. Some say grinding is terrible and a waste of time, others say grinding is part of the experience and they need something to keep them interested. To me the entire problem with the current state of MMOs is due to instancing. That was the worst decision ever. Some of my favorite moments in EQ were rushing to get camp position in a zone when you were racing another group. You start to set up a raid and another guild comes to set up a raid as well. Even dealing with people trying to steal your named spawns, was fun. It was all interaction, got you fired up and made it INTERESTING. Instancing took away that interaction with opposing groups which is sad in my opinion.