The MMO Mindset

I was discussing what caused EQs downfall, what specific thing or group of things did it. And why did the developers do it if it was going to cause that downfall. We discussed when it happened, what changed, who changed and so on. I came to the realization after much studying of others thoughts on the issue and I noticed something. Everyone had a different opinion on what exactly caused it, but they all agreed it had fallen. It was then I noticed they all were considering only the content side of the equation. They were not looking inward. It dawned on me what caused the ruin of EQ and the MMO genre.

It was our Mindset. At some point, EQ became about loot and levels. All other forms of character advancement seem to fade away. WoW picked up on this and it too was all about loot and levels, all other MMOs to date seem to follow this same strategy. Moreover, that is what has become the MMO genre.

So what? What was lost? The saddest part about this mindset change was not the product, but the fact that people didn't know what it was they had lost. I have talked to many who try to put a finger on it and they all come up with one thing. Community. This is their answer, and it is indeed a potent one. For we did loose that sense of Community that EQ had. However, this would be incomplete to say the least.

The truth is, what we lost was far greater then just the word "Community" we lost our existence. Think on this for a time. Who was missing in Later EQ?

The Role Player. This one is probably the most missed. Later on in EQs lifespan, you rarely saw an RPer? Why? Because people considered it silly with no point to it. And why was that? Because it didn't help them get loot or levels.

Alternative style players. In early EQ you saw many who would spend their time just helping people, brokering deals in East Commonlands, making alts and writing stories. They were in no hurry to get "phat lewtz" or to gain any arbitrary number of levels. They logged in to do what they thought was fun, not what the developers told them they should be doing.

The Serverwide hero. This one, more then any other should not be over looked. In EQs first months, the people who made it to max level, or conquered some dragon or mob were well known and respected. You would hear names whispered in groups or shouted across a zone. Names of guilds and individuals. Fires of Heaven, Furor or your own servers heros. For my server it was people like Roman, Pouty, Vabtoo, Arwyn, Shadron. Names I remember as being larger then life. Why? Because people spoke about them. It's not what they did, but who saw them doing it that mattered.

When a guild took down Nagafen for the first time, it wasn't just the competition and friends of the guild that heard about it. Often someone would go running through zones, shouting of that accomplishment. Hard to believe now that anyone would waste their precious "grinding" time to go around shouting. This was how I heard of Nagafen for the first time. A guild took him down someone shouted it in the zone I happened to be grouping in at the time.

Where is that now? Where are the criers? Where are the Heroes they were crying about? Where are the Role Players? Where is the individuals definetion of fun?

They have been erased from our minds. We as a whole no longer think any of that as a viable way to play. And sadly neither do the developers. They give us content to conquer but no real reason to other then our own e-pride. And this is truth as well, we haven't given them a clear answer on what we want.

We say community. We say difficulty. We say lore and backstory. But none of that is clear, or to the point. It has not been filtered down into what developers need to see and understand. Developers can't engineer a community, we have to do that. Difficulty for the sake of difficulty just pushes people away and they won't do that. Lore and backstory is just a start of what we want, a foundation, but not even close to all we need.

Loot and Levels. That is the MMO mindset of today. That is the corrupted thinking that is dooming one MMO after another. Developers up until this point have been designing new and innovated ways to give players those things. Design and balancing looks at how fast they are being given and what do they need to do to make sure the player is happy with the rate at they are given. But this is all wrong. It's not about how fast, how much or how often you give us that carrot, it first has to start with us wanting that carrot.

If a game is about advancing your character, then I am asking all developers to help engineer back in that one advancement that has been missing in all these games since EQs first few years.

Social Advancement.

Norrath was originally built as a world to exist in, not a world to conquer.

What happened to Factions... to Languages... to Character Background stories... to social interaction when buying and selling... what happened to having locations to just sit and chat... to grouping... to the guild of nothing but one class/race... What happened to letting the player define the game, instead of the developers defining it for them.

This last one is tricky. As if you just let players define it, they will choose what they know. I do believe that if you want to redefine the genre, and make a innovative and successful game, You will have to shy away from the current interface offered and instead either return to a style like that of older games, or come up with a new and innovated UI.

In the end, I hope someone out there sees this and listens. If you are a developer, makes tools for non-loot n' level players. If you are a player, try to play games in a different way, instead of just grinding out the next level, try to write out a characters backstory, or just buff some newbies or something, whatever you game allows. Together we can change this mindset, and create a world to exist in, instead of destroy.

I very much agree with you.

The biggest change happened at a siminar that took place with a big handful of game companies in attendance. I've mentioned this before, as I did to my "Family" (guild) then, that it was the beginning of the end for our "life styles" as we had known them in Norrath.

I've been trying to do a little research but so far not finding what I'm looking for. It was either in 2001 or 2002 that this occured. It was definitely the "there goes the neighborhood" time for gaming; at least for those of us who didn't like hearing the ubers /shouting and /ooc'ing about all their personal accomplishments and such. Our Family used those channels to invite others to group language lessons or newbie events where we'd give them a task and repay them with a age appropriate weapon or some piece of armor or coin. We never gave them something for nothing!

The "heros" were wonderful, whether person or guild. Most of them delighted to help another learn their skills or give tips on how to accomplish something, but they didn't do it for them! Many of my guild will never forget Tribal Faith or Doffo, Wirtt, Gusto....the things that you'll always remember from premium interaction in a game.

We EARNED loot and levels. We WORKED for it! Some of us didn't use Allakhazam to figure it out. We got help from others who had blazed the trail, of if they had used the "cheat" sites, they would keep it a secret and make it of special significance. You felt special when you figured something out or got all the shards for the cleric epic after bribing a bard and hours and hours of chasing wurms around for them. THEN to camp the dragon with a full compliment of your guildmates and friends to achieve that ever-so-epic....Epic! A guild that had a cleric with a water sprinkler...the glory it brought! The pride of having helped a friend achieve...it was wonderful!

Remember when guild leaders kept in touch about players that would just join for the loot? We had an actual grape-vine that would warn of such. We were picky about who joined our guilds and the reps that they caused. The guilds that we stayed away from because of their reputations (like FoH) or...can't remember the ones in particular that even the GMs tried to get rid of, but they were infamous! They acted like SoE owed them something, like their own server. Seriously!!

It drives me bonkers to just walk over an imaginary line (in EQ2) and gain a level because I found a new area! NOT zone...area! That's just not right. I didn't earn that!

And then there's the GMs. Some of you know this is my pet subject: Ingame Customer Support! *hears trumpet fanfare*

I've done a lot of writing for years on this subject and had the pleasure of actually writing things that the GMs would like to get out to the public and/or see what their thoughts were on those subjects. Every job I've ever had involves CS work and it's so important to me! When SoE turned most of their CS over to GMs overseas, down went the reputation of the GMs and the ability to converse in logical ways and get answers. Well, and the fact it took jobs away from VERY competent and beloved GMs stateside and a few in the UK (but that's a different subject).

A company that actually cares about the customer is what we need. Not someone that just wants that income and "other than that you can go hang until we get every last cent possible and still not help you out with your issue." /shudder

"Working as intended! Move along."

Right....

Anyway, yes, you have some very good points and it's nice to hear someone else bring them up. Thanks!

It's a chicken-or-the-egg thing, as you both illustrate very well. The community's mindset has changed, the games have changed...Who's fault is it? I think it happened a little at a time and nobody on either side really understood fully what was happening.

How do we reset? I don't think the community can do anything more than we already are. We're sitting around waiting, explaining over and over, discussing the same things on and on... somebody's just got to hear what we're saying and act on it. Well, that and we should probably stop spending our money on games we really don't support. As long as the instant-gratification amusement park games get subscriptions, the mindset will continue among developers that they are the way of the future in the genre.

How do we get back a community that values achievements and works together? We need a game that doesn't hand us everything. We need a game that's a world first. We need failure to be a game mechanic again. Before people will respect and become immersed in a world, it has to have depth, challenge, and internal consistency.

I think the right game could do that...could bring back the community. I think it's almost happened several times since EQ's hayday...but the developers so often loose their nerve at the last moment, and very often budgets, management, and time constraints end up dooming years of valuable work. It's certainly not going to be easy.

Great post

I think what I miss most about old EQ is the open ended/sand box world. Modern MMo's all , however skillfully and enjoyably, seem to channel you from one area to the next. And you know that the next area will only have level appropriate mobs in it.

Old EQ, you were dropped in rags with a rusty weapon outside a town. Your only clue was a scroll sending you to your class trainer.......Newbie areas regularly had high level roamers, NRO with sand giants and of course the Commons with both griffs and hill giants roaming around. Which later on when you could kill was so much fun to show the lowbies how it was done Used to hit WC regularly with my 50 dorf pally and solo giants for the fun.....and of course pass out good buffs

While there were certainly plenty of quests, they never channeled you as much the modern games do.

Your comment about alternative play styles struck me, had a friend with alt-itis...don't think she ever got a char over 25 But she thrilled in having a thriving milk and muffins business going into South Karana.....and believe you me, she made some serious coin doing that..... But that of course is because the game actually required you to eat periodically. She used to clean up on change/food runs to Unrest too

EQ in many ways was a living ,breathing world that was ours for the taking. Modern games seem to have gone more scripted. The devs craft wonderful stories and quests but if you deviate from the questline, you are effectively gimping yer char. EQ's attitude on the other hand, at the beginning anyway, was "Here, you want this Uber Sword of Evil? Go talk to this guy....oh and he likes his ale " But that quest hasn't become an integral part of advancing your char..... You can choose to do that, or just go out and explore the world and level up that way .

Trains and static camps..... I miss them I truly think that is what built the EQ community.
Trains because of all the people that would come together to try to control them. Think Karnor's zone line back in the day, probly 10-15 people just hanging waiting on a group and a train rolls in....grouped or not every one tries to kill it off if they can. Or yet again the open world thing where you can go back as a 50 chanter to Blackburrow and grav flux trains to the cheers of all the lowbies
Static camps, because you got to know people. Modern games are so fast paced you have no time to chat anymore. I am still in touch with people I met in EQ because of all that time camping whatever. I remember a Ragefire camp, when it was still in Naggy's lair. I was working nights then so got the late night shift for our guild cleric going for her clikky stick.....Was I think a 4 or 5 day camp, we got lucky But we had the best time at 3 or 4 am with a group and a half or 2 holding the camp and keeping amused. One night we had a monk actually pull the Efreeti all the way up us in the Lair It was a blast just hanging out and killing whatever you could... and bs'ing in between. Drunken dueling Good times....

I can honestly say I've never really kept in touch with anyone from any other game after I stopped playing it. But I still have many people I keep in touch with from EQ even now and I stopped EQ in 2004

I could go on and on but I think it comes down to having an open and challenging game world....

Amen to you both!! Well said!