Since I didn't really play HOrizons except for in the beta, I asked a friend what he thought of it. He gave me a very indepth answer. Not only did he talk about what was wrong with Horizons, but he talked about what was wrong with the whole genre. It's definately worth posting here.
I played for about a week. Thats all it took for me to be disgusted. I tried
a dragon, should have known better but I wanted to try their selling point.
If they couldnt make the dragon game interesting I knew the rest would be
the same old.
Your article hits it right on the head. Though I wasn't looking at the
"home" aspect at the time, I was noticing the same old when it came to
stupid monsters littering the countryside waiting to be harvested. The
cities being just stupid big empty places you teleported to in order to find
your one type of trainer. They werent places you visted to find the hustle
and bustle of civilization, they are just drive-thru perscription pickup
centers. In fact, the cities of horizons arent even a step above the
original eq ones, AC1 cities are better.
I've read through your page a couple of times, its really good and sad. I
gave up way before you did on horizons but I knew how much you kept putting
into it. I'm still activing in posting at mmorpg boards but not like you
were active. You've always been positive, creative and inspirational to
others. I go there to tear dev's and fanbois down.
I recently made a post at CoH about role playing and what it meant. I became
so tired of the "new breed" of mmorpg'er who never played a paper and pencil
rpg and completely misunderstands the concept of rpg completely. These
people dont think beyond the treadmill. They don't think beyond competition
in accumulated items and levels. I started out by saying people who think
role playing is "talking in character" are mopes and those who say "the
dev's don't create an rp experience, they just give us the enviroment to rp
in IF we choose" are even worse. Surprisingly I had quite a few people who
not only understood my point but agreed with me. We had the thread going for
a decent time but those who are too thick to comprehend beyond "you dare say
I don't know how to rpg" outnumber common sense like zombies outnumber the
living.
What you said about homes goes right to the point i was making in coh. The
mmorpg has to do half the work WITH you. Give you a home, make you defend
it, make you be part of the community. If it just throws you into a lifeless
world with town halls and brainless enemies and then says "now go out and
pretend with your friends that you are making a difference" well.. I can do
that in irc and skip paying the $15 a month now can't I.
I'm tired of these sissy gloves every mmorpg puts on. "We don't want to
FORCE the players to play this or that way. We are OPEN to ALL play styles
so no one should feel left out or pushed away." Well la-dee-da lets all live
in shangrala and be happy go lucky hippies hugging trees. If you don't take
a stand with your game and try to actually have a goal then you end up
attracting no one instead of everyone. Look at AC2 now with its 4 total
servers condensed from like 12 and 1000 total players from who knows how
many there used to be. Look at the immediate joke swg became.
The technology for the things you talk about exists. Instanced homes are no
big deal. And towns that players defend from actual enemies is hardly ground
breaking considering the sieges and the like that mmorpgs already use. But
that would require direction, that would require pushing characters to play
a certain way and be penalized for failures. Two untouchable third rails of
mmorpg'dom.
My biggest pet peeve with CoH is this. The origins mean NOTHING. A magic
based character has exactly the same powers and abilities as a natural based
character, or a science based. They have no different powers, no different
weaknesses (no one has weaknesses actually) no different missions, no
different outcomes. The only difference... your STARTING enemies you face.
Yes this is exactly like having different starting towns in eq or every
other mmorpg. Oh, wow, different starting towns. Woopee, places I start and
then forget about and never revisit because in mmorpgs there is no sense of
belonging to the game world, no sense of home or kinsmen. Just which player
type kicks the most butt and groups want the most. I mention this in CoH and
people yell at me "that is better, it means we can RP our origins however we
want! Its OPEN ENDED!" hahahah. What delusional fools. No one will be rping
anything in 6 months when all an origin does is grant you different item
drops. Just wait and see.
What I would add to your articile is this. The most important thing an
mmorpg should offer is real difference. Real difference in character roles,
real difference in player choices. You don't even need to get into pvp to
get there. If I want to be a healer it should mean that I cant fight at all.
That im a pacifist and without a group to protect me I couldnt even venture
out into the wilds. If I want to be a craftsman it should mean i never have
to fight. If i'm a mage then half my time should be spent in study and
conversing with powers and being that other mundane player characters never
even see. My mantra is "if your going to make a mmoRPG make bloody ROLES to
play." Different types of characters and players should play different games
in the same world.
That was my original draw to horizons. That crafters would craft. That
explorers would explore. That dragons would horde and goblins skulk about.
That lizardmen would be slow and weak in the cold but dynamos of destruction
in the heat. Not yet another "choose what character model you want to LOOK
like but don't worry, none really grant any advantadge or dissadvantage over
any others, you will all be doing the same things anyway."
Thats what I thought of horizons. A place where everyone plays the same
booring game of "kill the mobs". I can't even credit it for having great
crafting since the crafting isnt help to drive a dynamic game world.