I played UO at the start, and Dark Age of Camelot, and WoW at the beginning.
Initially with UO and DAoC, there was an air of mystery. You had to ask other players on how to do things, or have friends in real life to tell you where to go. You also had to form informal bands and find methods of speaking to the other players (phone calls or messaging.) UO allowed you to do anything, and it was up to you to figure out what was useful and what wasn't. Actually, it was ingenious. The fun was in learning things and discovering mysteries. There were runes in Britannia in some areas, and I always wondered if there was something to them...
WoW launched with the same air of mystery. There were literally millions of people all playing at the same time, servers were clogged, and people started the game taking random crafting or other skills. Then we all leveled to 60 and found the dungeons we liked best, we participated in events, and ganked. There wasn't as much mystery, but there were lots of ways to get an edge and unique builds for each class. So, you could really get specific in your build, but the age of "the one ultimate build" wasn't upon us.
Fast forward to now. Everyone googles everything about a game, folks play with maps open or mods, they look for drops by researching their chars, they ignore the scenery and go directly to the next power-up. Every class has a specific build that others want. There are players playing 10+ hours a day, sites with every bit of detailed information, and volumes of information on every subject on a game.
Imagine playing D&D in the 80's or so. The DM is setting up the table, and one of the players pulls out tonights module and reads it before the DM starts then directs everyone what to do, what is behind each door, where each trap is, where the key to the next level is. To some, they want to finish the module and get the loot... the rest of us, well, the fun is in finding out what is around the corner. Unfortunately, EVERY MMO is the party with that one guy.
There was a small window where MMOs could fulfill the tabletop experience but that day is past. The internet (and Day 1 game guides) killed it. If folks think the problem with MMOs is being locked into a specific class, well, you are high. There is too much information out there on games at release that nobody is in the dark unless they choose to be.
Initially with UO and DAoC, there was an air of mystery. You had to ask other players on how to do things, or have friends in real life to tell you where to go. You also had to form informal bands and find methods of speaking to the other players (phone calls or messaging.) UO allowed you to do anything, and it was up to you to figure out what was useful and what wasn't. Actually, it was ingenious. The fun was in learning things and discovering mysteries. There were runes in Britannia in some areas, and I always wondered if there was something to them...
WoW launched with the same air of mystery. There were literally millions of people all playing at the same time, servers were clogged, and people started the game taking random crafting or other skills. Then we all leveled to 60 and found the dungeons we liked best, we participated in events, and ganked. There wasn't as much mystery, but there were lots of ways to get an edge and unique builds for each class. So, you could really get specific in your build, but the age of "the one ultimate build" wasn't upon us.
Fast forward to now. Everyone googles everything about a game, folks play with maps open or mods, they look for drops by researching their chars, they ignore the scenery and go directly to the next power-up. Every class has a specific build that others want. There are players playing 10+ hours a day, sites with every bit of detailed information, and volumes of information on every subject on a game.
Imagine playing D&D in the 80's or so. The DM is setting up the table, and one of the players pulls out tonights module and reads it before the DM starts then directs everyone what to do, what is behind each door, where each trap is, where the key to the next level is. To some, they want to finish the module and get the loot... the rest of us, well, the fun is in finding out what is around the corner. Unfortunately, EVERY MMO is the party with that one guy.
There was a small window where MMOs could fulfill the tabletop experience but that day is past. The internet (and Day 1 game guides) killed it. If folks think the problem with MMOs is being locked into a specific class, well, you are high. There is too much information out there on games at release that nobody is in the dark unless they choose to be.