Our Top 5 MMO Complaints

As a long time gamer and veteran of the MMO genre, I've experienced my fair share of ground-breaking ideas that have really made me stand up and take notice. After playing Final Fantasy XI and random F2P games for long periods of time, I'm sure you all remember just how awesome it was to experience World of Warcraft's massive community driven UI modifications. I'm sure most of you can remember the time when you really started to abuse that UI system; downloading every possible modification that wouldn't actually help you, but definitely made the game look nice and modern (honestly, who can say no to an odometer that measures DPS!?). In reality, while most MMOs manage to get in those two or three really cool things that set their game apart, there's the fact that a lot of MMOs also have those design choices that make you want to cry or cause you to throw your hands up in exasperation.

I've decided to name the top five things that really grind my gears whenever I play any MMO. Mind you, this isn't a case of me taking the opportunity to list five things that I hate about a game that has done me wrong ('Ode to all that is Galaxy Online'), but more like these are some of the top five recurring problems that I've found in so many games that it makes my head spin.

5. Kill Ten Rats.

*Shluck* *Shploop*
That's the sound of my brain oozing out of my ears and forming a puddle around my feet in a desperate attempt to escape the monotony that comes with killing these ten damned rats. I realize that all MMOs have attempted to grapple with the 'kill x number of y' quests, and I also realize that there are some dev teams making a conscious effort to move away from this masochistic endeavour. In reality, I don't mind these genocidal quests that fail to take their ecological impact into account, but when I never have fewer than three quests that tell me to kill rats (sometimes mice), ghouls (sometimes goblins) and goblins (sometimes ghouls), you can be certain that a little part of me just died on the inside.

4. Really Weird Looking User Interfaces That Can't Be Changed.

That's a pretty long qualm, but I'm being fairly specific here. Does anybody get a little bit sad when they grab a game that's on the 'cutting edge' of technology, only to find that, tacked on to this graphical behemoth like those really weird scarves that artistic kids hang off of their necks, the UI ends up looking like a cut and paste project from a kindergarten class? Maybe it's just me, but whenever I have to play a game that requires a $2000 computer to display the funky graphics, but the UI looks like a direct plagiarism of an old school Atari game (I'm thinking Pong), my enjoyment of the game diminishes significantly. Maybe I just like having an odometer go up and down in relation to my DPS. Who doesn't?

3. Forced Open World PVP.

To this day I can't think of any game that has properly implemented open world PVP that was fun, accessible, and interesting. Most users will cite World of Warcraft's Blackrock Spire at level 60 as the bygone days of unrestricted world PVP, but I'm certain that for every guy out there frapsing his next PVP video, there were 10 other players who didn't get to take part. Obviously there's the point that unrestricted world PVP gives way too many opportunities for users to 'grief' other players, so PVP zones were put into effect (a la Warhammer's Keeps and World of Warcraft's global PVP objective zones). The unfortunate thing here is that when PVPers get corralled into specific zones... they don't go. Anyone can cite the barren 'PVP objectives' that littered the outlands in The Burning Crusade, and as a PVP enthusiast in Warhammer Online, I remember ranging the PVP zones far and wide only to find one guy who appeared to be AFK outside of my keep - possibly waiting for it to change to his faction's control so that he could get his rewards and continue levelling. In fact, to this day I have yet to witness some really organic open world PVP. In further consideration, however, maybe it's the players and the developers who are to blame for this... Does anyone remember getting a few friends together to smash the guys who were innocently farming for their money? I clearly recall cursing the open PVP system when I was the victim, but man is it ever fun when you can do it to someone else. I guess that explains why we can't have world PVP.

2a. Death Knights.

Oh, sorry. I said I wouldn't be specific.

2b. That Class That Devs Love (And By Extension That Means That They Do Not Love You).

I'm sure everyone gets this feeling whenever they play any game (I'm looking at you Summoner). In particular, I've noticed that even the dude who's playing that Death Kni- errr, overpowered class tends to whine that he's underpowered and that X class (typically the class that counters your own) is really the problem of game balance. While I may be echoing this same form of hypocritical resentment, I'm sure most of the general public can spot when the devs put a lot of time and effort into someone else to the point where you really feel like they've forgotten that guy in the corner. We all have that black sheep class in every game that has largely been ignored every patch day. Alternatively, it's interesting to note that players of this 'forgotten' class can use their inequality as a scapegoat when they lose in PVP environments, so maybe it's not all bad.

1. Bring Me Ten Rat Hides.

In an even more bizarre turn of events, you end up killing more than ten rats to get ten rat hides because sometimes the rats have no skin. Collect ten ogre axes? OK, but remember that sometimes those Ogre Mages have axes, and sometimes those Ogre... Axemen don't have axes. In fact, I'd say you have a 30% chance of finding an axe on an Ogre, regardless if they are wielding an axe at that precise moment. Even better is when games tell their players that they will keep quest drops consistent. What they mean is that if you need ten dragon hearts, you really only need to kill ten dragons (although you might have to kill 11 if you happen to kill the one dragon in the world without a heart). It's funny because now the quest has become 'kill ten rats but with proof,' or, even better, the average amount of rat hides needed grows to make up for the statistical probability of getting ten random rat hides. I suppose your choices ultimately come down to: kill ten rats, kill twenty rats for a good chance of getting ten rat hides or kill twenty rats for twenty rat hides (the quest demands twenty because each rat will drop a rat hide). Awesome.

0. Kill Ten Rats As Part Of The Storyline.

I'm sorry, I know there is no number 0, but I just remembered this. If you kill ten rats, what difference will that make on the rat population!? Why ten in particular!? What if you kill eleven!? Why do you need me to kill so many things in multiples of five just to appeal to your arbitrary rules!? Why can't I lie in this MMO and just tell you that I killed ten of these things!?

*Cough*

Alright, that's all I have for this list. I'm sure all of you can fill in slots -1 to -300, so feel free to post more underneath. Venting is therapeutic! Now bring me ten rat hides!

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom
Editor
ZAM.com

Tags: Editorial

Comments

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things I hate
# Apr 06 2009 at 8:00 PM Rating: Decent
Funny, but I have a slightly different hate list:

1) People who complain that a class (any class) is over or underpowered.
2) People who complain about a game, but play the game anyhow instead of putting their money where their mouth is (or not putting their money...)
3) People who complain about PvP, but still play on PvP servers.

Yes, my hate list does not revolve around MMOs, but around hypocritical people who complain but don't do something about it by voting with their wallets.
MMO's done wrong
# Apr 05 2009 at 9:28 PM Rating: Decent
I'd agree with all that you said above, the one that just makes me want to hire a hit man from another game to take out some the Dev's who come up with some the dumbest things.

Take for example zoning into different zones that you can see, say you are are on the far left side of zone A and are zoning into Zone B. Why the hell do you wind up in the middle or on the far right side of Zone B. If it is in sight it should be in the area that you were in. If it's a door or portal then I have no problem.

How about the fact that no xp is ever gained from hitting something that's not within your level range. Hell it's called experience if I kill that lvl 1 rat then give me at least 1 xp for it. If that means someone has to hit 1,000,000,000 rats to level then more power to them. Experience is ongoing it doesn't end.

Another really stupid idea has been the no-trade items that some games have. Give me a break if I can hold it in my hands then I should be able to trade it to someone, even if it's worthless.

I could go on and on about other really moronic things MMO's have done, and continue to do (ie.. lying to customers, make items available for real life cash when the game never had them before. - if it began that way not a problem. ... you get the picture.



If it's not rats...
# Apr 05 2009 at 2:39 PM Rating: Excellent
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52 posts
...then it's wolves. Replacing "Crappy Local Wildlife A" with "Crappy Local Wildlife B" does not make doing this ok. Sure, we expect a certain amount of "Kill 10 of THESE" quests in MMOs, but what good MMOs manage to do is to make it not feel like we're grinding and to spice things up with different types of quest as well.

Although by "different types" I don't mean "Go here and talk to this guy... who'll ask you to kill 10 black rats".
meh
# Apr 05 2009 at 11:31 AM Rating: Decent
Quote:
4. Really Weird Looking User Interfaces That Can't Be Changed.


I'm no expert programmer, but it seems to me allowing scalable UI chat boxes wouldn't involve much coding effort. It may be that WoW's customizable UI spoiled us, but these days I consider resizable, movable chat boxes a MINIMUM. Last week I picked up battleforge, and it gives you two small boxes in the corner which cannot be moved and cannot be resized. What a load of crap.

I'm sure it will be patched eventually, but these things should not happen in the first place. At least not in a game you pay money for.


Quote:
To this day I can't think of any game that has properly implemented open world PVP that was fun, accessible, and interesting.


I present exhibit A: Dark Age of Camelot. Even warhammer, which was arguably made by the same company, has pvp that pales in comparison to oldschool DAoC. It worked as follows.

On the normal servers, there was the questing/grinding area of the world and then there were the frontiers. The separation of these two areas took the form of a wall with uber, uber guards that potentially one-shot max level characters. There were three 'nations' you could align with, all at war with the others. For each side there was a frontier, which contained 7 keeps and 2 relic keeps. The relic keeps had legendary items in them that buffed your entire nation (ie, +10% all melee or magic damage). The other nations could attack the relic keeps and take your relics, thus stealing your buffs. The keeps were tied to the very strong npc guards that defended the relic keeps. If all seven keeps fell to the enemy, all the seven squads of uber guards at the relic keeps disappeared, at which point only the regular, solo-able guards defended (along with players). The uber guards at the relic keeps could be confronted without taking any regular keeps if you had a large enough force. Thus it was a choice of which to defend or attack, with large incentives for victory on both sides.

On the pvp servers (mordred), anyone could attack anyone. You got large amounts of experience for soloing someone your level. At high levels the large guilds effectively ran the server, saying who could do what. Mordred had one large, strong guild that ran most of the server for a long time. It might seem unfair but that's tough. Make your own guild and fight them if you desire, or roll pve.


Quote:
That Class That Devs Love


In the vast majority of cases, things are not as bad as people claim them to be. There will always be people who whine about this and that. Balancing classes perfectly is impossible without making cookie-cutter classes. Things will swing for this class or for that class, and back again when another patch comes out. I am of the opinion that most complaints are invalid, and are an excuse for someone to not take step back and analyze WHY they always lose. If pressing keys 1, 2, and 3 doesn't work against one class it doesn't mean that the class is overpowered. It means you cannot use the same strategy against every class. That's how it should be.
My Complaints
# Apr 04 2009 at 2:09 PM Rating: Excellent
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76 posts
I'm someone that's big on the story. I know I'm in the minority, perhaps a very small minority at that. So I know that my opinion on MMO stories probably doesn't mean a whole lot to the majority of players. But that said, I hate how shallow the stories of MMO's are. Square is known for great stories in their console RPG's but FFXI has a very weak story if you ask me. Warcraft has a some great novels and even Warcraft III had a good story to it but WoW has a weak story. I know that devs don't want to force stories or lore on players but that doesn't mean that they have to give a half hearted effort when they're creating story lines for their MMO.

To expand on one of Pwyff's points. Why are we even killing rats at all? Or delivering packages to people or gathering stuff for people or other mundane tasks. Aren't we supposed to be playing heroic characters? So why are we doing stuff that makes us look like nothing more than glorified errand boys/girls? It's one thing to do that stuff in the early levels. Even heroes have to go through trials or training or whatever you want to call it, before they're heroes. But that said, there shouldn't be any quests like that once you've proven yourself as a hero. Personally, I would like to see an MMO without any of those type of quests whatsoever but I can at least understand them at the early levels.

One thing that I like in WotLK is quests that actually have an impact on the area that you're in. For example, when you defend the banner at Crusader's pinnacle in Icecrown, that little part goes from being scourge territory to argent crusade territory. Or when you complete the quests where you help the Knights of the Ebon Blade take control of the Shadow Vault from the scourge. I like quests like that because they're meaningful. They have an impact on the area as opposed to those "kill x number of y mobs" type quests that don't have any impact whatsoever because the mobs just respawn. So I would love to see a game full of quests that have a real impact on the world.

Something I would like to see is multiple ways to complete quests and multiple ways to finish raids. When people are so familiar with a raid that they're pretty much on autopilot it just makes raiding boring. I'd like to see a fresh, new raid system that allows for multiple ways to complete a raid, sort of like those choose your own destiny books, where each method produces a different outcome that has a unique impact on the world.

And while I'm on the subject of raiding. Why are we always raiding the enemy? Why don't they ever raid us? How much of a threat can the enemy possible be if they're just sitting in their dungeons all the time? I'm not saying that there should be ogre invasions everyday but random enemy invasions would be fun. If the players successfully defend their city against an invasion then it would make the enemy weak to a counterattack. If the enemy invasion is successful, IE the players fail in their defense, then the enemy gains control of that city and grows stronger. The former citizens of that city would be forced to flee to another area, living in the wild if necessary but most likely trying to make their way to another friendly town or city for refuge, while the enemy wouldn't just start fortifying their position in the city they just conquered but also expand their camps in the areas around that city.

So obviously my theme here is meaning. I want to see an MMO where everything that we the players do, has meaning. I want to see an MMO where all of our actions have a real impact on the environment. And of course some well written/well designed story lines, but a lot of that would pretty much take care of itself with meaningful quests, raids, enemy invasions etc.
My Complaints
# Apr 28 2009 at 8:56 AM Rating: Good
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71 posts
Everquest did this one year. I can't recall exactly why, other than the Trolls were taking back their home. So there were fair sized armies of trolls, orcs, DEs, barbs, etc all over the place. Part of the issue with that was, not enough high level players were around to properly defend cities and whatnot--at least on my old server. Rather, word would get out "such and such mob is dropping a bright shiny!" and so all the high levels showed up, camped said mob till they got their trinket and moved on.

[quote=Nimrook

And while I'm on the subject of raiding. Why are we always raiding the enemy? Why don't they ever raid us? How much of a threat can the enemy possible be if they're just sitting in their dungeons all the time? I'm not saying that there should be ogre invasions everyday but random enemy invasions would be fun. If the players successfully defend their city against an invasion then it would make the enemy weak to a counterattack. If the enemy invasion is successful, IE the players fail in their defense, then the enemy gains control of that city and grows stronger. The former citizens of that city would be forced to flee to another area, living in the wild if necessary but most likely trying to make their way to another friendly town or city for refuge, while the enemy wouldn't just start fortifying their position in the city they just conquered but also expand their camps in the areas around that city.[/quote]
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