This is a reply from Mechanita in another string. I'm bringing it to the foreground as a New string because I'd like some attention drawn to it. In digression of my earlier "Angry at Funcom?" string, this post cleared up a lot for me.
Mechanita's Words:
This looks like the perfect opportunity to introduce my own rant, so bear with me while I harp on at length. Forgive me for being in no danger of getting to the point any time soon.
Personally, I think FC have done a good job of getting what we have to us with the resources they have. No-one is ever going to be completely satisfied, and it is the nature of these things that the vocal ones (forum inhabitants) tend not to be represntational of their player base.
What they've given us is indeed a stage to act upon, and I wholeheartedly agree that there are lots of fun RP things that can be done on that stage that don't involve missions or hunting or PvP or anything of the sort. Like you, I'm sick to death of the level mill, and I'm only level 50!
So if there is so many other things to do, why do people constantly complain about a lack of content? Answer: reinforcement. The game as it is reinforces doing missions and hunting and pvp. When you do a mission you get tokens (if you're not neutral) and you get xp and cash and loot. Hunting is the same, only without the tokens. PvP gives you titles. Role-play gives you... ? The glib answer is it gives you a nice feeling of having had fun, but to be honest so do all the other things and they give you an additional reward too.
The problem is something that I reckon SWG will have as well, and almost any other MMORPG out there at the moment: levels. Skill levels, character levels, whatever-they-are levels - when you have levels, you have a reward structure that is based around the actions that the levels promote. And it is impossible to come up with a system that is non-abusable and properly rewards role-play. So the game is immediately discrimatory against such actions.
It takes someone with a very particular mindset to role-play in the face fo such game conceits. To be honest, of the MMORPGs I've seen AO does the best at promoting this. Why? Because there is a well-thought-out conflict. Because there is something worth talking about, and different people with different views. I can have a debate about the points of view of various clans, or the position of ICC in all this. I can utilise these various factions and power groups within my own stories, limited in scope they may be.
The difference between a single-player and multi-player games is the player. In the former, the game designer caters directly to them. They can offer just rewards for 'role playing'. In the latter they cannot, for one player becomes thousands - all of whom want to be the hero.
Are MMORPGs in general flawed? Possibly. We always have to remember that at heart, this is a game. And in a game most people don't want to be the streetsweeper. They want to be the hero. It's escapism. That's why we have NPCs. We want to be something other than our real life selves. Someone more important, or more powerful, or more respected. Even something different. The key is something ideal.
The fundamental problem with an emergent player-run system is that most people have to play the masses in order for some people to play the heroes. That's not what I want in a game. I get that in real life- I'm a member of the masses. I'm not a rock star, I'm not a vice-president, I'm not a secret agent. So I play something that allows me to be these things in a game.
UO got it wrong when they suggested you can play shopkeepers. Playing shopkeepers is actually no fun. It is a giggle for a bit, but the effort of getting stock, pricing, selling, buying and wotnot loses its appeal. Anyone who gets a kick out of that kind of thing soon realises that it is just as fun in real life, and considerably more profitable.
So why is this a rant? It's a rant because I have no solution. I cannot put my finger on the source of the problem. Is it Funcom? Us players? Some mix? MMORPGs in general? Society? Our parents? The internet? TV? Soda-pop? I have no idea. I have no answers, and I have no firm grasp of where the problem lies. But there is a problem, otherwise we wouldn't be discussing this on so many forum threads and generally getting so worked up about it.
How many people want to tell a story? And how many want to hear a story in which they are the main character?
Don't confuse virtual reality with ideal reality. As soon as you make a game multiplayer you introduce the single biggest barrier to ego: other people.