How much does setting matter for you?
When I was playing the open beta of The Secret World, I was killing zombies in Kingsmouth in exactly the same mindset as I was killing zombies around Brill in World of Warcraft years ago. And whether I'm killing monsters in some cave with my troll fighter in WoW or with a jedi knight in SWTOR isn't any different to me. But I know for others the setting of a game is of bigger importance.
I was thinking about that because I came on the reverse problem: Same setting with very different games. As I'm currently having a lot of fun with Dungeons & Dragons, I thought I'd try Dungeons & Dragons Online again. That turned out to be a disappointment, because what I like about 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons is *not* the setting, but the gameplay: I like turn-based tactical games with miniatures/tokens on a grid. D&DO doesn't offer that. In spite of having a lot in common with pen & paper D&D in terminology and settings, D&DO is a very different game regarding gameplay. There simply isn't enough intellectual challenge for me in clicking on monsters to kill them as opposed to having to think about positioning and what powers and tactics to use.
Being fixated on gameplay like me has serious drawbacks. For example of all the MMORPGs I played, the *setting* I liked best was that of Lord of the Rings Online. Adventuring in the Shire as a hobbit (and on a roleplaying server) was just great. Unfortunately I don't like the LotRO-specific implementation of the hotkey based standard MMORPG combat very much, with its long delays between pressing a button and that actually resulting in your avatar doing something. Thus I ended up playing games with a much blander setting, like WoW, where the gameplay was better optimized and suited my needs. Now that MMORPG gameplay has either stopped evolving, or only evolves at a glacier's pace, I pretty much can't stand *any* MMORPG which is based on quests and hotkey combat any more. But it is the gameplay I lost interest in, not the setting or the stories. I found the stories in SWTOR quite well done, and I liked the modern setting of The Secret World. But due to a lack of something more resembling a turn-based tactical game, I'm not playing any MMORPGs at the moment.
So what is the important part of a game for you? Setting or just gameplay? What settings would you like to see for MMORPGs? And would it be okay with you if the gameplay was very much like in World of Warcraft as long as the setting was very different?
I was thinking about that because I came on the reverse problem: Same setting with very different games. As I'm currently having a lot of fun with Dungeons & Dragons, I thought I'd try Dungeons & Dragons Online again. That turned out to be a disappointment, because what I like about 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons is *not* the setting, but the gameplay: I like turn-based tactical games with miniatures/tokens on a grid. D&DO doesn't offer that. In spite of having a lot in common with pen & paper D&D in terminology and settings, D&DO is a very different game regarding gameplay. There simply isn't enough intellectual challenge for me in clicking on monsters to kill them as opposed to having to think about positioning and what powers and tactics to use.
Being fixated on gameplay like me has serious drawbacks. For example of all the MMORPGs I played, the *setting* I liked best was that of Lord of the Rings Online. Adventuring in the Shire as a hobbit (and on a roleplaying server) was just great. Unfortunately I don't like the LotRO-specific implementation of the hotkey based standard MMORPG combat very much, with its long delays between pressing a button and that actually resulting in your avatar doing something. Thus I ended up playing games with a much blander setting, like WoW, where the gameplay was better optimized and suited my needs. Now that MMORPG gameplay has either stopped evolving, or only evolves at a glacier's pace, I pretty much can't stand *any* MMORPG which is based on quests and hotkey combat any more. But it is the gameplay I lost interest in, not the setting or the stories. I found the stories in SWTOR quite well done, and I liked the modern setting of The Secret World. But due to a lack of something more resembling a turn-based tactical game, I'm not playing any MMORPGs at the moment.
So what is the important part of a game for you? Setting or just gameplay? What settings would you like to see for MMORPGs? And would it be okay with you if the gameplay was very much like in World of Warcraft as long as the setting was very different?
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