Many of the MMOs have shifted over the years in terms of target audience and "Generation"
For instance, in games like Ultima Online and Everquest there was a ton of grinding. Not Korean levels mind you but grinding that required one to "Live in a parent's basement" type of grind. Everquest was the king of that idea for Westerns and Ragnarok online. The games were made to make you work and earn things for it.
Then when Blizzard announced World of Warcraft (which I have been playing since 2005 and still love it besides Cataclysm...which had a nice, promising start but ended in a bland way) people were wondering if it even had the muscle to knock the king of MMOs off it's throne at the time.Â
What blizzard did from the beginning is make it less of a chore and more appealing to the casual market. Don't believe me? What was the highest kill quest count that didn't require you to use an external vehicle? 25 mobs. Everquest had some quests grind out well over 50 by yourself.Â
Attunement quests? They removed the monotony of requiring to do over a hundred things to get into one raid and wow cut that in half as well (WE WILL NEVER SPEAK OF HORDE SIDE ONY CHAIN! > : ( ).
Again, it was easier to get attuned to Molten Core, Upper Blackrock and Nefarian. While UBRS required you to put together a small item, MC and Nef was more or less touch a certain object. I remember running guildies through Blackrock Mountain and jumping the lava pits to grab that firestone to attune them to the core...and it took not even 15 mins.
The third thing was quests that actually rewarded you items. Early in wow there were not a lot of "Quest Items" as there are now since Cata but they were more frequent than Everquest. And since BC, you would get a new item every 2-4 quests. Not chains either. I've leveled enough through the old version of 1-60 before the revamp to make sure.Â
So what was the key defining thing Blizzard did? Make it accessible to a more broader audience. They did something not only so ballsy but because it was a Warcraft Game (Being a warcraft nerd myself mind you) there was an established fanbase before. On launch and well into one year of wow the servers were unstable and lag was everywhere. There were more players in wow than what Blizzard anticipated and it grew ever so more over the years to their current world record of about 7 million subs.Â
While i played the game since High school, I remember it changing a lot for me and what everyone's expectation of an MMO sub game should be (or be close to).
So when other MMO games attempted to steal it's thunder (by calling themselves Wow Killers and ending their lives) they soon fell under and became Free to play games. Some of those games were more complex than wow...and players were put off by that simply because they were afraid they couldn't be even with everyone.
Why am i saying this? It's because that since i returned to FF14 ARR for the time (scheduling to be Fri/sat/sun affairs for RP inbetween raiding) I noticed they changed a lot and made it more accessible than at launch.Â
At launch, the idea of grinding a dungeon that offered no actual items but stones that you used to buy items was similar to the badge system...with one downfall. They made the items Ridiculously expensive for one piece. You would have to complete a run of a certain dungeon by speeding through it all about 20 times to just get one little piece of gear. Not only was it unappealing but because of my gear at the time, I felt like a dead weight to everyone.Â
So i didn't play it for six or more months until they fixed it. And they did, but it still not appealing in the idea of Endgame so much.Â
FF14 ARR to me is better as an RPer's MMO (Due to the details of characters actually showing rings, wrists and necks while having a variety of emotes) than a game game to me. That and their combat idea seems kind of boring, and i play a Mage on wow.Â
I have tried other MMOs and especially Free to play stuff for a while, and even then I keep going back to World of Warcraft because of how simple it is and easy to get back in the mindset.
Wow is not the best MMO, far from it...but it's the most popular and the one everyone is playing because of how accessible it is. There is even a popular review on an 80 year old granny who RAIDS IN WOW!Â
Also blind and deft people.Â
The only big negative wow has at this moment is it's community sadly. Especially the RP community. They are full of asshats in public who godmod and break the lore constantly to a key.
So far i have seen some more well mannered RP in FF14 than WOW to me.
Ok i'm done rambling. What was i getting at?Â
Until there is an MMO that can indeed knock wow completely off it's throne, I will be going back to it for the pals/guildies/raids and because I can easily remember how boss fights work without a wiki and know how to play a class by just getting in it's chair and placing the buttons.
That and gearing is pretty simple now.
P.S: Wow has some heavy grinds in the game as well. One of which is collecting 9,999 bones on Isle of Giants from elite dinos that drop anywhere between 1-40 a pop...and you currently can't solo the giant ones. So it's the 8-10 bones a drop for you
For instance, in games like Ultima Online and Everquest there was a ton of grinding. Not Korean levels mind you but grinding that required one to "Live in a parent's basement" type of grind. Everquest was the king of that idea for Westerns and Ragnarok online. The games were made to make you work and earn things for it.
Then when Blizzard announced World of Warcraft (which I have been playing since 2005 and still love it besides Cataclysm...which had a nice, promising start but ended in a bland way) people were wondering if it even had the muscle to knock the king of MMOs off it's throne at the time.Â
What blizzard did from the beginning is make it less of a chore and more appealing to the casual market. Don't believe me? What was the highest kill quest count that didn't require you to use an external vehicle? 25 mobs. Everquest had some quests grind out well over 50 by yourself.Â
Attunement quests? They removed the monotony of requiring to do over a hundred things to get into one raid and wow cut that in half as well (WE WILL NEVER SPEAK OF HORDE SIDE ONY CHAIN! > : ( ).
Again, it was easier to get attuned to Molten Core, Upper Blackrock and Nefarian. While UBRS required you to put together a small item, MC and Nef was more or less touch a certain object. I remember running guildies through Blackrock Mountain and jumping the lava pits to grab that firestone to attune them to the core...and it took not even 15 mins.
The third thing was quests that actually rewarded you items. Early in wow there were not a lot of "Quest Items" as there are now since Cata but they were more frequent than Everquest. And since BC, you would get a new item every 2-4 quests. Not chains either. I've leveled enough through the old version of 1-60 before the revamp to make sure.Â
So what was the key defining thing Blizzard did? Make it accessible to a more broader audience. They did something not only so ballsy but because it was a Warcraft Game (Being a warcraft nerd myself mind you) there was an established fanbase before. On launch and well into one year of wow the servers were unstable and lag was everywhere. There were more players in wow than what Blizzard anticipated and it grew ever so more over the years to their current world record of about 7 million subs.Â
While i played the game since High school, I remember it changing a lot for me and what everyone's expectation of an MMO sub game should be (or be close to).
So when other MMO games attempted to steal it's thunder (by calling themselves Wow Killers and ending their lives) they soon fell under and became Free to play games. Some of those games were more complex than wow...and players were put off by that simply because they were afraid they couldn't be even with everyone.
Why am i saying this? It's because that since i returned to FF14 ARR for the time (scheduling to be Fri/sat/sun affairs for RP inbetween raiding) I noticed they changed a lot and made it more accessible than at launch.Â
At launch, the idea of grinding a dungeon that offered no actual items but stones that you used to buy items was similar to the badge system...with one downfall. They made the items Ridiculously expensive for one piece. You would have to complete a run of a certain dungeon by speeding through it all about 20 times to just get one little piece of gear. Not only was it unappealing but because of my gear at the time, I felt like a dead weight to everyone.Â
So i didn't play it for six or more months until they fixed it. And they did, but it still not appealing in the idea of Endgame so much.Â
FF14 ARR to me is better as an RPer's MMO (Due to the details of characters actually showing rings, wrists and necks while having a variety of emotes) than a game game to me. That and their combat idea seems kind of boring, and i play a Mage on wow.Â
I have tried other MMOs and especially Free to play stuff for a while, and even then I keep going back to World of Warcraft because of how simple it is and easy to get back in the mindset.
Wow is not the best MMO, far from it...but it's the most popular and the one everyone is playing because of how accessible it is. There is even a popular review on an 80 year old granny who RAIDS IN WOW!Â
Also blind and deft people.Â
The only big negative wow has at this moment is it's community sadly. Especially the RP community. They are full of asshats in public who godmod and break the lore constantly to a key.
So far i have seen some more well mannered RP in FF14 than WOW to me.
Ok i'm done rambling. What was i getting at?Â
Until there is an MMO that can indeed knock wow completely off it's throne, I will be going back to it for the pals/guildies/raids and because I can easily remember how boss fights work without a wiki and know how to play a class by just getting in it's chair and placing the buttons.
That and gearing is pretty simple now.
P.S: Wow has some heavy grinds in the game as well. One of which is collecting 9,999 bones on Isle of Giants from elite dinos that drop anywhere between 1-40 a pop...and you currently can't solo the giant ones. So it's the 8-10 bones a drop for you