Please forgive my LONG ASS rant but I feel this is very necessary after spending several days reading posts.... (and yes this is the right place for this post) I get to my point eventually (you can skip to that part if you wish. I just hope someone up there will here me.
I still consider myself a little new to the world of AO(lvl 36 agent), but not to that of mmorpgs. My friends and I dreampt of a day where games similar to this would exist. Back in the days of BBSes, 2400 modems and games like Land of Devastation (aka LOD). We created a game, much to that of AO, but had elements that would make our game much larger, but workable (from a dev and prog POV). Things like our economic system was extremely complex, but easy to implement based on a supply and demand structure. The world we created was so complete that you (the end user) would be an individual in the game, you could effect the whole storyline impacting not just established players, but noobs as well. You would fill your profession, whether owning a store and selling supplies and developing new weapons, to chasing down leets attacking your children, to even massing a small army of NPCs and your friends, controlling a large flying vessel and taking over the enemies' HQ or even a whole city (logistics withstanding).
So here is my question, what makes this game any different from games like everquest or dark ages of camelot? These online games seem ONLY about killing, raising and exp. But where is the outcry for something not so mind-numbingly stupid, what's to gain from doing mission after mission, killing bosses and completing computer generated missions? AO seemed to me to promise this. But the more posts I read and the longer I play I am beginning to be quite disenchanted by super-imposed reality.
Why is it that our voices are heard only to a small degree? True dev and progs are limited, speeds of computers are limited, money is limiting and it is impossible to please everybody. Exploits exist and the smart survive... protections need to be set in place in order for order to reign... but isn't this ANARCHY? the massive uprising of the suppressed demanding a new government, with no one in control but the small guys with all the weapons?????
So MY POINT? This storyline.... yes very cool, unique to a certain degree (in that it is different then the others out there.) But the story line evolves..... doesn't it? There isn't a single quest we go for to "end the game", is there? So whats the point in playing there is no end... But that is why I play, there is an underlying factor in this game that lets me be an agent, or a nanomage or even a crat... But does the crat act in a government that affects the game... does he have the ability to listen to the people and vote for things that change? Can the agent really get a mission to try to assassinate another crat, becoming like the wind and change the course of the game (I know cheesy analogy), or heaven forbid acting as a double agent?????? Instead of concentrating on a "pre-written" story to dictate future "addons" to the game, why not let the end-user write the story with his/her own actions in the game. And another player write about it, after all this is what we're might be led to believe about the AO right? (I hope so at least)
Bottom line: Make the game truly interesting with not a new "storyline", but by letting the lives of citizens advance a story in a way, so that a random lvl 20 adv could go out and discover something (thats what adv do right explore and map the world?) another player say a clan was creating (possibly building a HQ???). And say the adventure returns to his fellow omnis and a skirmish starts and which ends up destroying the complete buildings, ending up in a massive retaliation leveling parts of Rome.
Will the game be implemented enough so game impacting events could happen without the knowledge of the progs and devs. Yes I know this is wishful thinking. A game like that would led possibly to an ANARCHY among the players and an established system of omni-domination and clan-suppression would disappear...
This game is supposed to be an alternate reality (aka virtual reality) so why can't we live our lives here as well? The social aspect exists, but the world doesn't seem to have the possibility of bigger randomly changing events that allow us to get out of the dungeons, killing generated bosses and delivering imaginary items to imaginary companies that don't impact anything except our pocket book, and some ip. <- BORING!!! Lets do something different for a change, I'm tired of the same quests and the struggle for the next level. I want my player to get out and impact something, maybe nothing world-changing but at least something new, something I could do differently... This game is supposed to let us impact it... will it or am I under some diluted reality that I will never see.
Will our voices cry out? Will it be heard? After all I spend what around $10 a month to pay for a game I want to play... Not a game that I think maybe may live up to its expectations.
But I still play, I have faith in this game, it seems to have at least the potential of becoming one of greatest of the MMORPGs. I don't play any others now... just this one. Let's see what happens. What's your voice for the direction of our lives? Will it be heard?
-The Mystro
"You try to sneak, but you fail miserably and will never amount to anything other than a pathetic leet."
P.S. I know this is a long shot, but if you devs are watching... I would like to be contacted... I, like everyone else, have some great ideas..... :-)