Okay. In advance …I absolutely hate the idea that my first ever post on this board is going to be a huge and boring rant. Still worse, it’s a post that doesn’t really contribute anything to the conversation (except flame fodder), but here goes…
I hope that Paizo doesn’t sink too much energy into this. Well, let me clarify: I hope that this doesn’t become a distraction from what Paizo has been doing very well so far, which is –for the first time in a long time- making D20 not suck.
More than a decade of high hopes is all I’m willing to give any concept. No -I do not have high expectations for PFOL. I don’t have high expectations for any MMO. Here’s why:
1) PnP mechanics do not work in the MMO environment.
PnP game mechanics work with PnP, because PnP games are abstract, and because there is a neutral arbiter (the GM) to guide gameplay. It is hard enough even in PnP to develop game mechanics that do not implode upon themselves at some point in the character development arc. Taking them into the electronic arena is like trying to build a house out of hammers and saws using lumber for tools. The thing quickly becomes something that is unrecognizable to the original concept, and all you can try to do is keep it balanced. Eventually, even that becomes impossible.
Even if you were to cede the idea that the rules are there to mimic “reality” (gravity makes the rogue go “splat”) and take them for what they are (shuffling numbers around on a spreadsheet to make a* x < y/61), the little holes in the fabric of the game make it impossible to balance. Try to balance an overpowered class for raiding castrates that class for PvP. Removing a class’ PvP exploit makes it play like a sack of wet garbage in PvE. Why does this happen in every MMO? -Because the mechanics that were imported as the building blocks of that MMO are inherently “broken”. To exacerbate the situation, designers put more levels in. They like to think it adds a finer graduation to the mix. What it really does is exaggerate all of the flaws. Every class gets to hold the “awesome button” for a patch or two until they give it to someone else, and the cycle never ends.
Which brings me to levels. Here is a concept that is, if not perfect, then at least perfectly tolerable in PnP RPGs. Move it into the electronic format and it devolves into nothing more than a tool to ration out content. And hey, why not? This is a massively multiplayer game, after all. What would a massively multiplayer game be without a universal mechanic designed to prevent people from playing with one another?!
2) MMOs are excruciatingly and mind-numbingly boring.
Static mobs, static NPCs, static quests. …The whole damn way. It’s a 17 of 100 orc knuckles collected so far snooze-fest from beginning to end. Once the exploration and initial immersion wears off, it’s doing laps on the hamster wheel. Moving the grindstone one more revolution. Gotta get that next set of gear! Why? Well, to grind out the next set of gear, of course!
Why is it that every company goes to great pains to hand script every NPC, spawn point, tree, and rock into the game -every quest text with every cute little obscure pop culture reference, only to have the players carve a ravine straight through the path of least resistance. Why do the players do this? Because the only manipulable element to the whole damn experience is your toon is why!
Is it that hard to make a game that can spontaneously and conditionally generate persistent content or -God forbid -get the hell out of the way and let the players generate their own content? Instead of hand coding the thing one brick at a time? Seriously?
Which is easier in the long run: hand making ten million nails, or building a machine that makes nails? How about building a machine that builds nail-making machin- …Okay, you get the point.
“Hey, how about a dynamic and fluid faction system that interconnects players, guilds, and NPCs?”
“ Hey, how about a quest system that gives out tasks according to demand in the economy or based on the current threat?”
“Hey, how about an AI system that can, depending on how bad a players reputation is with a faction, send mobs to track the player’s toon across zones …maybe give quests to opposing players to hunt the player down?”
-“No, we can’t do that! We’re all so terribly busy picking up every pebble in the river and painting it -one at a time!”
3) MMOs have little to no challenge.
Just about every game out there relies too much on gear and level to determine success and too little on your actions or decisions in the moment. What’s worse is –should you actually fall asleep and manage to pass out on the wrong macro and get killed, you can sleep like a baby. There is usually no penalty for failure at all. Get the right stats …autopilot. Stare into your monitor for long enough and a piece of raid gear pops out.
And here comes the brainwashed cookie-cutter response… Ready!?
“Endgame!”
Endgame is where it’s at! You don’t really learn your class until you hit cap! You don’t really start playing the game ‘till ya hit sixty… I mean seventy… erm …eighty ...five! After spending quite a bit of the last ten years at “Endgame” …wherever that is, all I can say is poppycock!
True, it is somewhat challenging –but it’s the ten year-old trying to do the hokey pokey on rollerblades kind of challenging…
Ya put yer deeps in!
Ya get yer healz out!
Ya stop ta wipe yer aggro and ya shake it all about!
Ya do the hokey pokey and more pointless crap drops …again!
…That’s what it’s all a-bout! …ZZzzzZZzz
Okay. I’m exaggerating . It wasn’t that bad. Still, are we all sold on the idea of paying $50 +fees on a game which is kinda-sorta okay and might turn into something at cap –at least until the next expansion?
I remember a conversation I had with a random guy in Everquest, both of us plying our wares at 6 A.M. one Sunday morning. We were talking about the untapped potential of online RPGs and he said “Yeah, as a social playspace, EQ is kinda cool. As a game, it kinda sucks.”
Hey, at least EQ had the decency to be a little bit challenging. At least it respected you enough to grief you a little when you did something really dumb.
…And look how far we’ve come since then! We’ve rolled up our sleeves, dove right in there and dumbed MMOs down so much that we’ve created an entire culture of loyal lobotom- I mean "customers" who will gladly pay every month to stare into their monitors until shiny stuff appears –groaning and griping when it isn’t handed to them on a silver platter.
Alright, I’ll have to confess. In their current state, MMOs are just not my thing. I’ve tried a ton of ‘em. I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I have lots of friends that still play, I just don’t see what they get from it. I sincerely hope you all get something that you enjoy.
I wish Paizo and Goblinworks the best too! Heck, Blizzard made that colossal abortion that they dare to call an RPG, but it made them a ton of cash. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic and PFOL will be a real genre changer. I have to admit, when I saw “sandbox” slipped into the tag line, I felt a little glimmer of optimism. It lasted about as long as it took to read the top few posts, though.
Okay, how about meet me halfway. Have a permadeath server as an option (and game mechanics that can accommodate such a thing), and I’ll give it a shot! Just don't let it distract you from doing what you are doing right now. ;)
Oh ...and sorry for the rotten punctuation! :D