I wrote a post on Secret World Legends a couple of hours ago and @liberosist mentioned he was not into MMOs but that he thought my review was how they should be done. Thank you for that, as I do believe that may be my first game review.

This really isn't that. I actually want to talk about what @liberosist said because, "I agree". I've been around and active in gaming both as a player and a developer since the term MMO first came out. I know there were earlier versions of games that were technically MMOs (especially MUDs) but the first I saw the term applied to was Ultima Online which I beta tested. That game was brutal, and I loved it until I moved somewhere with very poor internet connectivity so I missed out on it and the many that came out after it such as Everquest. I kept an ear to the ground, read reviews, etc. I just couldn't play them.

Years later I would have the internet required and I'd finally give World of Warcraft and the many games people seemed addicted to a try.

I quickly lost interest. There are things I completely despise about them.

I realized I really like the concept of Massively Multiplayer Online games (aka MMO) but in execution I dislike them a great deal.

There have been a few exceptions. Yet I want to state the things that make me loathe MMOs in general.

Immersion killing story lines and quests that don't fit an MMO environment: One of the biggest flaws I see with MMOs is the level designers, writers, etc often design the story line and quests the same way they would a single player game. Guess what? If it was a single player game this would work well. In an MMO it truly makes for an immersion killing experience. An example I give of this is an experience I had in Star Wars the Old Republic though it is by no means unique to SWTOR, it is actually VERY common in MMOs. I am some Jedi and I speak to a guy wanting to give me a quest. He tells me they have found an ancient temple and no one has been in it and that I should go check it out. So off I go. Soon I get to this temple and am at is door, and some other player comes running past me from inside. "Was that Indiana Jones, did he loot the place before me? Should I act like the natives outside the cave and try to kill the looter?" No such luck. That would actually fit. I run inside and pass a few people on the way in, and eventually find some artifact (pretty sure the quest giver told me to retrieve this, but it's been years since this happened) and I get the artifact, and run back out. On my way out I pass other people and I feel the urge to shout "There is nothing there, I already have it!" but this too would be a lie. I go back to the snake oil salesman, OOPS I mean quest giver and hand him the artifact. He proceeds to tell me how awesome I am and that no one has seen this artifact in eons, as I watch another person being dispatched by him to fetch this same artifact and I think about the many people I passed going into the dungeon. This KILLS immersion for me. I hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

Now some games try to address this with either instancing. Where the dungeon itself might be a private instance and I won't see anyone else in there. It for a moment becomes my own single player game. This does help. Yet depending upon where they put it, you still see odd things at the entrance, or at the quest givers location. Some games try to address this by introducing something called phasing. The game area will actually look different to players depending upon what stage of a quest they are in, which have been completed, etc. This can help a lot if it is done properly.

Yet, there is an easier way to address this. Stop writing the story like it is for a single player game. Design it with the idea that it is not. If you need some single player moments then properly instance and phase them and you should be good.

IT DIDN'T MATTER: I have a problem with MMOs in that what I do typically doesn't actually matter. The worlds tend to be very static. If I complete some amazing quest that should change the world, the world doesn't actually change. In fact, it looks like I didn't do a damn thing. Some games will try to address this to a certain degree. I used to give WOW players an example of something I saw them do that actually DID something. This Stitch Golem quest when people completed it would release a hostile golem into the world, and it would impact other players and the world. The quest actually did something. Most MMOs avoid this. They are more like theme parks.

Balance: The games are usually way to fixated on balance. For PVP (Player vs Player) elements that may matter. The rest of the time it can be stupid. So I am a new warrior and I walk into a village and the villagers are all my level. I won't want to just pick a fight with a farmer as he might actually be able to kick my ass. Time progresses, I am supposedly a pretty amazing warrior. I am in a new area. Guess what? I better not mess with the farmers here, because they too are bad ass. It is almost like all of my training was meaningless. The farmers could just farm and magically they are as skilled as I am. This is a staple of most MMOs. They keep leveling up and increasing the power of NPCs that should NOT be increased. You can offer challenge in other ways. Why do they do this? It is easy. It is easier to level of the NPCs and keep the difficulty going than it is to put forth more effort and make it be more like it should be.

Now Balance issues are not just of that type. For some reason they think the 1st level Wizard character should be just as powerful and able to hold his own against a 1st level warrior. Please... throw that idea in the trash. Not all classes need to start out equal. Then you have a game that has easier classes for people that complain it is too hard, and you have classes for people that like challenge. If any of you played old 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons you likely had A LOT of dead wizards. Why? They were weak as could be. Cast one spell per day, then pull out their dagger, while they have max 4 hit points and can't wear armor. They died, and died, and died... Yet, eventually one might survive. If they could reach 10th level which is where the 3rd level spells opened up they started to become scary. In later game if you encountered a high level wizard they were a total bad ass. They were almost god like and could lay waste to comparable level warriors. Yet it was VERY tough to get them to survive to there. It offered a sense of accomplishment and an opportunity for those that like more challenge to play alongside those that do not. This wonder and opportunity is LOST on MMOs.

KEEP IT SAFE, KEEP IT SIMPLE: MMOs are very expensive to make, and to operate. For this reason people making them seem to have a fear of too much innovation. They like to play it safe. This means they keep copying what previous MMOs did before them even if those things kind of suck. MMOs as a genre I think tend to innovate slower than almost any other type. I believe this is mostly due to not being willing to take a risk due to how expensive they are. Yet, this lack of risk taking is making MMOs mostly boring, and less appealing.

Exceptions

I mentioned Ultima Online. It was brutal and was treading ground no one had ever done before. It was brilliant in many ways. It was harsh though and some people likely couldn't handle it. Many of the wonderful things about it died and were not carried over into future MMOs.

Eve Online: - Eve Online actually doesn't have ANY of the problems above. It is complex, it is deep, and it is almost completely player driven. It is a unique approach to the MMO genre and it certainly is not going to be for everyone. It is space faring where you as a character are the pilot of a ship, potentially member of a corporation, and alliance, a pirate band, etc. I like this game quite a bit, though I've never experienced the parts that people say make it truly wondrous.

The Secret World / NOW: Secret World Legends: This one is unique in that it's setting is different from not only any MMO, but really any game ever made. It also has a very good explanation for why the players are doing what they are doing. It does have some of the problems above, but they do a good job of hiding most of them. It can be played almost all the way through solo, and it is fun solo. The new revamp with SWL they are supposedly trying to make it more instances, etc such that it becomes less MMO like and more smaller Multiplayer experience like with the option to play Single Player without it quite feeling fake. They also have intelligent puzzle solving quests that can really test you. I guarantee for many of those you'll likely be hitting Google. That's okay, they have a built in browser for that reason. Unless you are a professor of ancient history, and esoteric topics you will NEED to look things up. It's okay, it fits with the story. That is what they did brilliantly. Their story works. There are still parts that really another person doing it while you are there is OFF and immersion killing, but they manage to avoid that more or conceal it. It is worth it just for the totally unique atmosphere and story line.

@liberosist thanks for the inspiration... It was something I decided to share.