this cristmas i woke up

[Meetshield]

It just sounds to me like you want an ending point. I call games like AO more immersive because they arent linear, and there isnt some tangable point, other than taking the role of a citizen on this planet in the middle of a conflict. Its more real to me, then blasting through endless mobs to beat the boss and win the game. There are no winners or losers in AO, just like in life. Its a different paradigm for gaming than most types of games. MMORPGs are also different from standard RPGs.

The game basically just sticks you on this world and says, ok you are a citizen of RK - go out and live your life.

To me, MMORPGs dont need to have "points" to be fun. I like the idea that I can become a citizen of Rubi-Ka and live a life there.

I understand what you are saying, I just think you are missing the "point." You want to make MMORPGs into something they arent - if you dont dig them, then cool, move on, there are other games to play.

Now are there things that Funcom needs to do to fix things? Definitely. But there is a story line, and just because funcom doesnt come to your house and hold your hand through it doesnt mean it isnt there. Have you been reading the news feeds lately?

[______________Xombie]

It just sounds to me like you want an ending point. I call games like AO more immersive because they arent linear

Indeedely. That's what I hate about alot of FPS games. They don't ever give you choice beyond "crouch or strafe". Which is why I love Deus Ex so much. It has some linear parts to it (I won't name them since you haven't played it yet), but the choices you make affect what happens later in the game. I think the DX2 team is trying to make it even less linear.
I know the post wasn't directed toward me, but I'd like to reiterate that I wasn't talking about action games as a whole. I was talking solely about the combat systems. There's nothing about automated combat that helps RPG games, unless it's an AD&D title (where it is meant to be like a visual version of the pen and paper games). There's nothing in the game that is compromised if there is FPS combat, and it just makes the game more involving. It can combine the best of both worlds.
Play DX, and you'll understand what i'm talking about

But once Neocron comes out, I think it will set a new standard in MMORPG gaming. It's just too bad that so many people who are too stubbornly elitist refuse to play it simply because their psyche automatically relates FPS combat to completely linear games and rhetoric like Quake 3.

I agree with sonicdisco, somewhat, in what he is saying. He's not asking for a beginning, middle, and end. He's talking about the players being involved with the actual gameworld. Things like quests, endorsed player events, etc. Of course there is simple roleplaying, but you could do that in any multiplayer game whatsoever. Hell, i could make a mod in Quake3 so that the characters have couches and can sit down, and I'd be able to roleplay.
But the thing about RPG's is that your actions are supposed to effect the world around you. Funcom agrees. I know that Funcom intends to do this, but the problem is that they haven't yet.

[Mharc]

Deus Ex remains my favourite game of all time, although I've not nearly spent as much time playing it as I am playing AO. The game just grabs you from the first second. Anyone know when DX2 will be released?

[______________Xombie]

An update in CGW says that they've pretty much finished DX2 graphically, and are currently working on the scripting and animation and such.