Quote:
Originally posted by smanifesta
I used to, but really, I don't really enjoy them as much as I thought I would. Despite being interested in looking at the development of recent MMORPGs (particularly Horizons & FF) I just...I don't know. I get on them and feel a) lost, b) at odds with other players (I want to play and explore and really get in depth in a world, not chat with others). |
Yes, there is a certain impersonal quality to MMORPGs, unless you quickly find a small party of friends, preferrably with an veteran of the game who's starting up a new character. I watched one particular MMORPG go from a nightly height of 100 players (in DOS days) to 17000 players, and all sense of community was gone. Instead, most of the people you ran into were no longer RPGers, but simply 1) powerplayers, 2) daddy's little sociopath, looking to vent at people who couldn't ground him, or 3) chatroom folks who liked talking in nice environments.
If you want a sense of personal involvement, you could always try one of the many text-based MUDs and MUCKs that are still online. It might take a lot of time to find one suited to your needs, though; and why bother?
Also, keep noticing that the trend is to more online content. Do you think that we'll loose the one-player only RPG format in the future?
But at some point you reach market saturation; and at some point, too, the MMORPG experience degrades for the player who's used to singleplayer RPGs or P&P RPG group games. I don't see any indication that singleplayer games are becoming less popular--if there was, then KotoR would never have been developed.