The KGB Oracle Forums KGB National Announcements, News, and Help The KGB Sentinel Are we doomed to mediocrity?

The more and more I hear, the more discouraged I get. We have some friends out in the world in the different Beta programs for games like Age of Conan and Warhammer. The reports I am getting are not encouraging.
Many of us in KGB are all grown up now and much more discerning with our time. This means that we need something really spectacular to motivate us to invest the HUGE amount of time it takes to be successful in a current MMORPG. There are many game worlds on the horizon, but as they get closer and closer to release, it seems that the "GREED" factor of the development companies forces the risky and pioneering features we all crave to vanish in support of the "WOW" make as much money as you can factor. What you end up with is a game where everyone can be the Hero, not matter the difference in skill or time invested. This sterilized environment is optimized for the masses and exactly not what a group like KGB is looking for.
For a game to be fun, there has to be some real risk, some real excitement that is brought about by that risk. I for one enjoy playing against PLAYERS and not some re-spawning artificial intelligence that has become known as the "Grind".
In the renaissance period of UO that people love to talk about, UO was the only game out there. It was there way or the highway. When RPK's were bent on ruining the experience for others, the players formed organizations like KGB, to combat the problem. There was no need for the programmers to enact artificially limits. Ultimately though, this is what ended up happening, the masses were pleased, and the game fell into mediocrity because the challenge was gone.
I was so excited about the development of Darkfall. It seemed like a game that was going to create a real challenge. One that offered a game for all types of players, and one that our organization was looking for. Years have passed and it seems that to get published, you have to start making compromises to the big companies. We have all watched the promises of AOC and Warhammer slowly fade into mediocrity, possibly making the games into just another "WOW" clone. We will have to wait and see.
I for one still hold on to hope that someone will see the potential in a game that offers real risk and challenge. Because since those early days of UO, and the trill it game me personally, I have never invested as much time and loyalty into any game. From a profit standpoint. I owned 4 accounts at 9.99 per month for just over 5 years. I would hope that someone in the market can realize the potential in the kind of world we all long for.

Well, think about how often a truly ground breaking game comes along. UO was revolutionary when it first came out. Everquest was equally successful, but appealed to a different audience. Most MMOs that followed were everquest clones, and it wasn't until WoW that a game really dominated the MMO market. First Person Shooters followed a similar pattern.

Now, everyone is making WoW clones, it seems.

There is a lot of money being thrown at games, and the price of producing them is getting higher and higher as consumer tastes get more sophisticated. Sooner or later, one will click. Until then, we will just have to make do with the best that is available.

It may be premature to render a final verdict on AoC or WH quite yet, but other games will be watching how they perform in the market. If they tank, sooner or later, some enterprising company will figure out that providing just more of the same is not going to hack it any more, and hopefully, some companies will start taking some risks.

Yeah Owain is right, eventually some companies decide to take a risk and break the mold. When this happens you end up seeing games like EVE online get developed. EVE is completely different than any other game on the market, yet it has worked. It is one of the only games to have ever had its subscriber base GROW throughout its lifetime rather than slowly dwindle. Adventurine seems to be like the only company ballsy enough (or with little enough to lose) to actually do this at the moment, but as everyone points out, their development cycle is as slow as molasses.

It's real easy to poo-poo a beta.

Just today I was reading about people really enjoying PvP in AoC.

I also agree with Owain, to some extent it also comes down to the perspective of each individual gamer or the guild he is in also. You make what's best of a bad situation, I've noticed many of the guilds that I communicate with or watch are taking the lack luster games of this period and making the best of it. That is to say, the game they've chosen to play (regardless of how bad it truely is) and become the best in it holding said titles and honors as long as possible, or continuing to evolve and change as a guild learning new tactics to better take advantage of the game.

KAAOS for instance has done this with Planetside and a few other games since these gaming dark ages (thanks to EQ and WOW)began. They are very respected and feared in that game and have quit and gone back several times thus far, each time retaking what they lost with enhanced tactics and new ways of playing.

So in closing while the games are mediocre that doesn't mean KGB has to be.

I know i'm a relative stranger here, but couldn't help but add my 2 cents. KGB has, and will always be, dominated by the herd mentality. What people enjoyed, from what i suspect, from KGB is the structure that it provided in worlds that provided little to none, namely UO and SB.

The problem is, the mainstream MMO player these days have WoW to go back to, and as much as people tend to hate that game, it will be the basis for mmo's for a long time, unless DFO proves to be as ambitious as they claim to be, which i'm sure all of us have doubts of.

You guys have a good mainstay of members, all of which seem to be gaming in different worlds. Don't you think it's time to make concessions and pick a game for the sake of unity? God knows my old guilds from DAOC and SB have fallen apart due to the old, age trap of "We're waiting for the perfect game." Would hate to see KGB as the final casualty of the UO guilds.

There will probably never be another UO, or EQ for that matter, because people have the choice of other, easier to learn, games. It's like women, if your standards are too high, chances are you'll never find that special one.

-Syloc

I don't think forcing people to play one game is the way to go. If you force people to play a game they don't wan to or leave the guild, they'll simply leave the guild. It's not like they have guns pointed to their heads. On the other hand, if a game is good enough, people will flock to it without needing to be told to do so.

The past few years weren't great for games, there are a few games on the horizon that say they're going to offer an alternative to what's currently available... we just have to wait and see if they actually do.

For me at least it's not about waiting for the perfect game, it's just waiting for a game I actually feel I can play for about a year if not more. I tried a Vanguard trial, didn't really feel it was the game for me, and didn't buy an account. Tons of people on the other hand did, they enjoyed it for a few months, and have now moved on.

As Jet pointed out, the KGB is maturing, having kids, getting jobs, going to college, whatever each individual's case. At the moment many of us are choosing to tackle real life while there's no game to play. I for one have a pretty tough semester (6 weeks until it's over though I think, can't wait,) and am only playing an hour or so of Team Fortress a week. I'm sure though that if a great game comes out, I'll be able to find a little bit more time to invest in a game.

I'd love to find a game to dominate, even if it's not a fantastic game, or if it's not an MMO, and dominate it well. Realistically speaking though, I don't really want to shell out any money just for a placeholder game, and even games I have such as TF2... I really don't see me logging into Vent to get real coordination going on.

Who knows though, if there were always a vent channel full of people playing, I guess it would take little effort to spend my one hour a week in a server full of KGB instead of a random server. And it doesn't necessarily have to be TF2, that was just an example, I know there are other games that far more of us have. If people want to talk about that though, that's probably best left for another thread.