TUN: Un-Ruining the MMO

Everyone who played MMOs talks with utmost fondness of their unforgettable time in their first MMO. Be it Everquest, Ultima Online, Runescape or WoW, it seems no other genre in video gaming elicits such fondness, or reaches immersion levels so deep as the MMORPG. The immense potential in having a virtual, persistent world inhabited by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people, with the virtually inexhaustible possibilities of gameplay that arise from people inhabiting a shared, persistent world, make the MMORPG the king in this department: immersion and fan dedication. Yet it seems that this doesn't happen anymore, that the cosy world of Ultima Online or Runescape 2006ish doesn't exist anymore. MMORPGs have found it more profitable to engage in a variety of design choices that, ultimately, destroyed what MMOs were about. The open endedness of Ultima Online, the thoughtfulness and deep worldbuilding of quests in Everquest, the charming aesthetics that left just the right amount to imagination, just like a book, of Runescape, all that was replaced by high action, cheap thrills, and a lot of shiny particle effects everywhere (and of course microtransactions, because why not). The charming, cosy, vast, deep world people remember from Vanilla WoW doesn't exist anymore. Now you got a conveyor belt to level cap and cheap end-game content. For anyone interested, this is one of the most insightful videos I've seen lately, and it addresses this issue: this video

> If you find mining asteroids or mission running enjoyable, all the power to you. most new players only find out about this aspect of EVE - running grinding missions for petty coin etc - because they've been conditioned by the stereotype of World of Warcraft (and its myriad of copycats). If you have a few minutes, have a watch of this video - it's one of the best videos explaining this concept.