Best of the MMO Industry

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

I’ve been playing MMOs for quite a while now. It’s become a cornerstone of my recreation, and my work. I’ve played nearly every big name title released in the last several years, as well as some older and more obscure titles, and I think I can safely say I’m fairly knowledgeable on the topic at this point.

I thought it was time to consolidate what I’ve learned and my opinions on the industry, so I’m going to run down a list of some of the most common and important MMO features and tell you which game I think does it best, and why. This will be followed by a post outlining the worst blunders of the MMO industry.

Also, I would like to mention that this probably shouldn’t be considered a definitive list. Opinions of such things are of course subjective, and while I have played a lot of games, I have not played all of them, nor have I played them all extensively.

Questing: The Secret World

Much has already been written about the brilliant creativity of TSW’s investigation missions, and while those do deserve plenty of praise, it’s the other missions in TSW that earn them my pick for best questing.

Quests in most MMOs are brief, meaningless chores. TSW, by comparison, pours an enormous amount of effort into its mission. Every single one is an adventure, often featuring powerful story-telling and unique gameplay mechanics.

There are no forgettable missions in TSW. Every one is a work of art. They’re not mere filler content for leveling players.

Group PvE: World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is by now quite long in the tooth, and it’s now been surpassed in most areas — especially since they decided to can one of their few remaining memorable features by eliminating flight.

However, there’s still one thing WoW does better than anyone else, and that’s traditional group content.

The dungeons and raids themselves are usually of a very high quality, with beautiful visuals, fantastic soundtrack, and interesting fight mechanics.

But what really puts WoW over the top in this category is how accessible they’ve made their group content. Automatic grouping tools and a variety of difficulty settings mean that virtually any player of any skill level at any point in the game can experience the fullness of its content almost effortlessly.

That is a wonderful thing, and it’s downright embarrassing that so many MMOs in this day and age still haven’t followed suit.

PvP: Neverwinter

Regular readers know by now I’m not big on PvP in MMOs. Truthfully, I don’t understand why people would seek out MMOs for PvP when there are so many other genres of game that are so much better-suited to competition.

So maybe I’m not the best person to bestow a crown for best PvP in an MMO, but for my part, Neverwinter is the only game where I’ve actually enjoyed PvP enough to make it a big part of my time in a game.

It’s a combination of subtle things that make Neverwinter’s PvP fun where all others failed. The classes seemed more balanced than in most other games, probably because of how simple they are, and the action combat means gear takes a backseat to skill. Having better gear still makes a big difference, but a lower-geared player isn’t totally powerless against someone in the best epics.

I also found the matches in Neverwinter very volatile, with a great potential for come-backs. This makes it much more exciting for both winning and losing sides, as you never really know who’s going to come out on top until the end.

Story: The Secret World

This one isn’t even a contest. Anyone who knows MMOs will say TSW has the best story.

Sure, WoW and Lord of the Rings Online have great source material, and some interesting storylines. Star Wars: The Old Republic has all the depth we’ve come to expect from Bioware. I even say Aion has some surprisingly good lore.

But TSW blows them all out of the water. It has better writing, better voice-acting, more colourful characters, deeper lore, and a better integration between plot and gameplay than all competitors.

TSW isn’t only the best MMOs for story, but it has some of the best video game storytelling of all time.

Exploration: Guild Wars 2

Exploration is one of those things that most MMOs have as a selling point but which is very rarely interesting. In Guild Wars 2, it’s interesting.

GW2 has the most vibrant world of any MMO, and every corner of every map overflows with activity. You can start walking in any direction and find something fun to do almost immediately. And once you’re done with that, you can keep walking and find something else cool shortly thereafter.

Even putting aside the obvious attractions like hearts, vistas, and events, GW2 is full of hidden goodies — little Easter eggs, jumping puzzles, and hidden troves of gathering nodes. If you like to look into every nook and granny, GW2 is the game for you.

Crafting: The Secret World

This is bound to be one of my more controversial picks. TSW’s crafting isn’t terribly popular, and to some extent, I understand why. It’s a very small part of the game, and there isn’t a lot you can do with it.

To understand why I like TSW’s crafting, you need to understand why I don’t like the crafting in other MMOs. I like crafting in theory, but in practice it’s usually tediously grindy and overcomplicated, and in the end you can’t make much that isn’t worse than items you get through other means. It’s a pointless time and gold sink.

I like TSW’s crafting because it knows its place. It’s simple, easy to understand, and requires no grinding or training whatsoever. It’s all reward and no effort. Thanks to the modular nature of gear and the need for consumables, crafting is always useful, but it’s never something you have to stress over.

It’s not so much that TSW won this category as every other MMO I’ve played lost.

Player housing: WildStar

I don’t have an enormous amount of experience with player housing as a feature, but there’s only game that actually made me care about it, and that’s WildStar.

Too often, housing is a meaningless fluff feature with little or no connection to the rest of the game. It may be fun to design the virtual home of your dreams, but once construction is finished, there’s not a lot of gameplay there.

WildStar’s housing still has great potential for creativity and customization, but it also has practical benefit and actual gameplay. Visiting your home regularly nets you buffs and free loot, and you can install activities on your housing plot.

Unfortunately, the housing was the only part of WildStar I liked, but now I find part of me hopes other, better games will replicate WildStar’s excellent take on housing.

Business model: It’s a tie!

I can’t really make a pick here. Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World both offer incredibly lenient, player-friendly buy to play business models that the entire industry should take after.

Time was I’d give the advantage to TSW for its lack of lockboxes, but that particular promise didn’t stand the test of time. While its lockboxes are less in your face than GW2’s, they also offer fairly powerful rewards, unlike the fairly irrelevant GW2 lockboxes, so it balances out.

I’ll also give a shout-out to Defiance’s incredibly relaxed free to play model. It’s as close to truly free as any game can ever be.

Character customization: Aion

There’s not a lot to say here other than that no other MMO gives you quite as much control over your character’s appearance as Aion. Virtually every aspect of their body can be manipulated in minute detail.

Of course, some people use this to make grotesquely disproportionate freaks just because they can, but for those of us who aren’t eight, it’s a great way to create a hero that exactly matches the image in your mind.

Combat: The Secret World (but really it’s a tie)

I’m giving this one to TSW because its combat gets a lot of totally undeserved hate, but honestly, there are a lot of MMOs with combat I love, and I can’t decide between them.

I love TSW’s combat because it’s epic and challenging, providing the perfect balance of action combat and tab target mechanics. I love TERA’s combat because it’s visceral and engaging while still requiring a healthy degree of thought. I love Neverwinter’s combat because it’s frenetic and intense, and the rag doll physics are hilarious. I love Dragon’s Prophet’s combat because of its stunning visuals and engaging yet forgiving combos. I love DC Universe Online’s combat because it’s intuitive and gives you a real sense of power.

Events: The Secret World

TSW puts more effort into their events than anyone else. In most other MMOs, events are more or less the same every year, and they tend to be carbon copies of real world holidays awkwardly shoe-horned into the game worlds.

TSW takes the care to have all of their events tie-in with the lore of the game, creating content as high quality as we get in normal content updates, and they add new story arcs, missions, or bosses to the events every year. At the same time, they bring back all the old events, so people who missed them in the past can enjoy them.

Events in MMOs also tend to be terribly unrewarding, but in TSW, you can expect to be buried in an avalanche of loot both cosmetic and practical.

Tempted to Return: Neverwinter: Elemental Evil

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

Recently, I talked about how the announcement of an expansion for Guild Wars 2 has me tempted to give the game another go. But there’s another game I enjoyed in the past and am considering a return to, with a new update coming down the pipe to sweeten the deal.

That game is Neverwinter, but in this case, things are a bit more complicated than they are with GW2 and Heart of Thorns.

As regular readers know, Neverwinter is a game I find very fun — with great combat and the best ranger class in the industry — but I feel terribly directionless in it. Once you’re at endgame, there’s not much to aim for that doesn’t involve massive grinding or a significant outlay of cash. This even throws a damper on my normally obsessive need to level alts, because once they get to endgame, what am I going to do with them?

As with Guild Wars 2, Neverwinter is also a game that lacks “stickiness.” There’s not a lot that compels me to keep logging in. For example, usually a good story is the best way to do that for me, but while the Foundry scratches my story itch in Neverwinter, the fact that Foundry missions are all standalone means there’s no hook to keep me coming back for more.

I may not be motivated by the traditional gear grind or similar systems, but I remain fairly goal-oriented as a gamer, and Neverwinter and Guild Wars 2 are both games that failed to provide me with goals I find compelling. But while GW2 has a big sexy expansion to call me back, Neverwinter has a harder road to travel.

But first, let’s back up a bit. You see, I’ve already made a return to Neverwinter not too long ago, and it didn’t take very well. I meant to cover on this blog before then, but I became distracted by other things — which is really a beautiful metaphor for my relationship with Neverwinter in general.

Abortive alts:

A few months back, Neverwinter released its seventh class, the scourge warlock. As I’ve said in the past, a new class is always a good way to get my attention, and I’m fairly fond of the dark arts, so I decided it was time to return to the world of Neverwinter.

I was out of character slots, but I had spent enough time in Neverwinter in the past that I didn’t mind dropping a little extra money for more slots. As it turns out, character slots are surprisingly cheap, and they’d recently begun a program rewarding people who spend on the game with a unique companion, an additional character slot beyond what I paid for, and various other perks — a rare act of generosity for Cryptic. So that was a good experience all around.

I played the warlock (a Tiefling because I apparently lack all creativity) until around level fifteen. I enjoyed it, though it was not quite as fun as my ranger or my warlock in World of Warcraft. But hey, I can rip out people’s souls and enslave them. That’s always fun.

It also interested me that warlocks have the potential to be a healer class akin to atonement priests in WoW or assault rifle healers in The Secret World — that is, they heal through damaging enemies. I haven’t looked into how viable this build is, but it intrigued me greatly, and my tentative plan was to play the warlock as a healer.

I was curious about healing in Neverwinter in general — I had never healed in an action combat game before — and I now had character slots to burn, so I decided to also give a devoted cleric a whirl, making her a Half-Elf.

Again, I enjoyed it. It’s a little tedious to solo with, but not as bad as I expected, and being a healer in Neverwinter turns out to be incredibly fun.

It’s not at all like healing in other MMOs. You’re not a mindless slave to health bars. You’re more of a Swiss army knife, a utility class trying to fulfill whatever need your party has. Sometimes that means pouring heals onto a wounded player, sometimes that means maintaining debuffs to support your party, and sometimes that means going full out on damage if no one needs healing. It’s very versatile.

If more games were like this, I wouldn’t mind the trinity system so much.

Again, I made it to about level fifteen. I wasn’t sure where to go from there, though, since soloing isn’t the most enjoyable option as a cleric, and group content seems to be a very poor way to level in Neverwinter.

While tinkering with my warlock and cleric, I also spent some more time with my max level ranger. They had undergone a major overhaul since last I played, and I was worried they might not be as fun, but if anything it was more frenetic and powerful than ever.

I love that class so much.

But yet it wasn’t long before I once again left Neverwinter behind. This wasn’t a conscious decision; nothing made me ragequit. I just lost the motivation to keep logging in.

And that brings us to the now.

Elemental Evil:

Neverwinter has recently announced their next major content patch, Elemental Evil, and that’s got me thinking about the game again. Once again, I’m tempted to give it another go.

There’s another new class in this one, the oathbound paladin. Not a lot of info about the class is available right now, but judging by its giant shield in the preview, I’m guessing it’ll be a tanking class.

I’m not the biggest paladin fan in the world, but it’s an archetype I sometimes enjoy, and tanking in an action combat environment is something else I’d like to try. So that holds a certain appeal.

There were also reports that Elemental Evil would include the stronghold system, a form of player housing, but now I’m hearing that might be pushed back until later. It’s also unclear whether this is a guild hall system or whether there will be personal player housing as well.

If the former, I don’t care at all. If the latter, it might be worth a try. After playing WildStar, I have begun to see the potential in player housing, but it tends to be pretty uninteresting in most games, and knowing Cryptic, it will probably require many real money purchases, massive grinding, or both in order to get anything from the system.

On the downside, Elemental Evil will also bring a level cap increase and a gear reset. My gear isn’t exactly top of the line, but it’s pretty good, and it took a fair bit of effort to acquire. Invalidating all that effort and making me start over from scratch doesn’t exactly endear me to the game.

Conclusion:

Unlike with Guild Wars 2 and Heart of Thorns, I don’t rate my odds of returning to Neverwinter terribly highly. I’m not ruling it out, certainly, but the chances aren’t great at this point. Even if I do, I’ll probably just level a paladin to fifteen and then lose interest again.

And that saddens me a bit. It’s very strange. Neverwinter is a very fun game I have almost no desire to play. I almost feel the problem lies more with me than with the game. I just can’t seem to find a goal or a hook to keep me coming back. If someone has some suggestions, I wouldn’t mind hearing them.

Again, it might help if I had some friends who played and I could adventure with them, but I don’t, and I’m not a particularly outgoing person, so I don’t see myself seeking someone out just to play Neverwinter with them.

So the impasse remains. I am eternally tempted to give Neverwinter another go, but I can never quite get myself fully engrossed in the game. It’s rather vexing.

* * *

By the way, if you’re wondering why every single one of my Neverwinter characters is female, it’s because I find the male character models in that game just don’t look right — some weird uncanny valley thing that creeps me out. The females have it too, but not as badly. That game’s graphics are odd in general.

Well, that plus all the reasons I usually roll female characters. But this is the only game where I exclusively play women.

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Best of the MMO Industry

Tempted to Return: Neverwinter: Elemental Evil