Week three or four, can't remember which, of playing Anarchy Online. So it's time I put digit to keyboard and proffered my thoughts so far. Apologies if this is in the wrong place but I'm not a great fan of message boards.
Firstly, I'm a massive fan of the concept of virtual gaming worlds, which is why I'm playing AO. The thought of a living, breathing world which grows and evolves while playing within is a real pull. After these weeks though, I'm beginning to get a feel for what Rubi-Ka is actually all about.
When it comes down to it, it's one big dungeon, punctuated by skirmishes set up by PvP encounters (encouraged by players, naturally and not a normal AI controlled event). Obviously after so short a time of playing, I'm no doubt missing some of the big picture elements of the game, but so far AO is shaping up to be a bit of a disappointment.
I had envisioned RK to be an evolving world, changing irrespective of my own actions or the actions of groups of players. Having said that, I was also expecting to see an element of cause and effect taking place in the game but despite player interaction with the world, the backdrop remains static (i.e. raids on enemy territories)
For example, cities are populated by a 'cast of thousand' extras - they're just there to fill up the cities with no real purpose or direction - the only useful extras are the guards. Another example are the cities, which again seem to serve merely as a way of breaking the monotony of a constant background. No buildings have specific purposes, with the obvious exceptions of shops and a couple others, such as Baboons.
There are no 'critical' buildings which require upkeep or guarding or are essential to the running of a city/op/whatever. Such facilities would make for an obvious target by the enemy, enhancing the 'them and us' conflict. After all, hitting the enemy where it hurts makes news and gets the message home that they are vulnerable.
It would seem that buildings are invulnerable to attack - our weapons are useless in this respect. So we're left with hunting parties and missions. And while hunting is a quick way of levelling, it gets repetitive very quickly, as for missions, soloing is okay, but preferable in groups. Yet this isn't enough for a pay per month game, in my humble opinion, of course.
I recently read the GDC workshop on mmopgs on gamespy and it was an interesting read, so I wonder if anyone from Funcom either attended or read the article and would like to offer their thoughts on where AO is going?
So, there you go. My thoughts and gripes so far.
I'll leave the barbeque on so you flamers can get started...
