Comments on: How MMOs are Killing the Single Player RPG

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:04:47 +0000

The single player RPG is not by any means threatened by MMO’s. The thing is, only a select few developers have ever been significant in the SPRPG genre. You have Bandai/Namco, Bethesda and Square/Enix. Other developers are out there like Sega, Ubisoft, Oblivion, etc. They just aren’t as focused.

With blockbusters like FF 7 being sold used at 150% of their retail price a decade later, it’s undeniable that the SPRPG has fans. Until that changes, the major players will keep on producing. Fans need to relax, though. **News flash** It takes longer to develop a great SPRPG than it does to play and finish it. Something like 3-5 years VS 50-150 hours.

When fans rush developers to write a story and slam out characters, you wind up with a story as anticlimactic and disappointing as FFXII. I.E, Vaan, the main character had no story of his own. Just along for the ride?? I expected SO much more from Square.

RPG’s tend to have no challenge factor. If you level up enough you can walk over anything. So the story is all it becomes about.

MMO’s offer no story. Fans will come to realize this in due time. Much like big tobacco, eventually people realize it’s pointless, expensive and bad for you. So a fresh batch of noobs is required to replace those who quit.

Until the next blockbuster must-play SPRPG comes out, I recommend reading books. I guarantee you can find plenty of great stories to keep you occupied. Or you can pay your dues to Blizzard every month and achieve a whopping nothing.

If you like the multi-player aspect and adventuring with friends, tabletop role-playing is in every way superior to MMO’s. (Unless niether you nor any of your friends can write a decent story. If that’s the case, they would both reach a very expensive tie.)

By: Mansauce

Mansauce — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:18:24 +0000

The MMO genre nowadays is nothing more than a dirty scam.

Not only do you have to purchase the game, but then you have to line the greedy-ass developers pockets each month in order to login and play.

This should be illegal.

By: Sylvine

Sylvine — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:11:41 +0000

“The main trouble with games designed to be played online is that you buy the software, and then you have to pay for the privilege of playing a game you already paid for. This is just another name for theft.”

And THAT is just another name for idiocy.

Server maintenance and server cost, customer support, patches and bugfixes, content updates, elimination of hacks and cheats… if You seriously expect all this to be free, You are delusional. That’s one point.

Second point, no, You do not pay for the game with MMOs. You pay for being able to play it. In most cases, what You buy is game time along with the software, but You could also just download the software and purchase game time on Your own. And even if that’s not the case, consider it a one-time payment for membership plus continous payment to use the facilities of whatever You are a member for.

I see noone complaining about paying an enterance fee for a con and then having to pay for merchandise. Unfortunately, “If You don’t like it, GTFO” actually IS a valid argument here.

~Sylv

By: johnpratt12

johnpratt12 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:22:14 +0000

The main trouble with games designed to be played online is that you buy the software, and then you have to pay for the privilege of playing a game you already paid for. This is just another name for theft.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:13:16 +0000

To the people disagreeing that they are two seperate genres, you are right. But what he/she is saying, is that MMO’s are starting to steal light away from single-player RPG’s. Which is true in almost all respects. I mean, take a look at the GOOD single player RPG’s that have come out in the past 10+ years. We are, of course, talking about quite a few games, the elder scrolls, NWN, BG, Fable, and tonnes tonnes more. But for every one of those amazing games, there are probably close to 5 MMO’s that came out, for each one good single-player game. And for all of these amazing single-player games, you are paying store price (whatever it may be when you buy it), and that’s it (unless you go with expansion packs). Alot of the MMO’s out today (the ones worth playing. also meaning, the ones that cost addition fee’s) are out there soley for one reason. To connect you to millions of other players, who are likely going to start screaming racial and sexual insults at you, because you both “accidently” attacked the same monster. MMO’s are all about competetion, and it wouldn’t be such as bad thing, if human beings were decent people. But 90% of the time, you’re going to have someone harrassing you. And also, when it comes to MMO’s, i’m pretty sure every MMO in the world has an item shop, where they suck real money out of you, for items to make the game less work. So it’s down to “the prick with the most money to spend on pixelated items to boast about his ego on how great he is, and also how stupid because he’s just spent all this money on shit that isn’t real, to make people jealous and make the game easier” spending his money for no justifiable reason.

By: Folles

Folles — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:04:10 +0000

I disagree. MMORPGs are one completely distinct genre in comparison to single-player RPGs. What I mean is that MMORPGs are too limited and have no storyline to follow, not to mention that most MMORPGs simply copy the classical RPG’s basic mechanics (such as having stats, leveling up, etc), but they have absolutely NOTHING of roleplaying, such games are basically online chat rooms.

For example, I’ve been playing Oblivion lately, along with some other single-player RPGs such as Mount & Blade, and I certainly wouldn’t give them up for any sort of common MMORPG out there.

By: Old School

Old School — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:02:53 +0000

I been gaming since early 80’s MUDS were the “Hot new thing” I see a world where we need bot sp and mmo I played WOW for 4 years but i like everyone else needs to feel “submerged” in the story line and truly RPG at times. I get sick of too much social interaction and need my escape to true fantasy wich is the SP rpg for me.

By: Lloyf

Lloyf — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:26:09 +0000

I tend to agree with the guy above that says that if MMO’s kill single player thats not necessarily a bad thing. Even playing MMO’s I mostly play solo, but its nice now and then to interact with a few friends. When I went and played Oblivion after playing MMO’s for years, my first thought was how quiet everything was. Of course I like it that way.

By: mmo's = boring

mmo's = boring — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:16:28 +0000

“Agreed. Mmos are killing single play rpgs, but thats not necessarily a bad thing. People seem to like MMOs more than single player rpgs. Survival of the fittest applies to game genres as well.”

Nothing you just said was accurate. MMO’s aren’t killing single play.. and there are a lot of people (such as myself) who find them to be horribly boring.

By: MMO

MMO — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:34:10 +0000

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