[Endrance]

Originally Posted by Shmak

First off, I had no idea that MMOs weren't worthwhile! Guess I'll have to stop playing them.

Such a brilliant joke. Did you come up with that all by yourself?

On a side note, your opinion about MMOs in general casts a weird light on your glowing posts about FFXI... Perhaps you don't know how to lose an argument gracefully?

Give me one example of a glowing post from me about FFXI. I consider FFXI as the best MMORPG on the market. I never said that it's a good game as itself. I might even say that it's the worst Final Fantasy I've ever played, although when looking at your upcoming sentences, you'd probably come up with this "you cannot compare MMORPGs to normal offline RPGs" gibberish for strange reasons, so I rather don't.

You are right about the fact that people play MMOs to interact with other people, and that, in general, the gameplay can get lackluster.

First off, people have different intentions about playing MMOs. It's not like it is with RPGs, where you really just play cause of the game. Many people play MMOs, cause they want to run away from the real world, which is a task that is doomed to fail anyway.

However, the fact is that the sociological aspects of the game weigh very heavily on the gameplay, and separating the two is virtually impossible.

Seems like alot of stuff is impossible to you. That's fine, but you should think about your sentences before posting them next time, since no one ever said anything about separating gameplay and sociological aspects. In fact, it's way more complicated than just separating them (which is easily possible as a side note and has already been done in many kind of games - why wouldn't it be?). I don't see any rational reason why it shouldn't be possible to make another Secret of Mana with better graphics, more and newer features and a bit more social interacting.

Lets make an example out of a game that we are probably all familiar with; FFVII.
As Cloud, the player is driven forward throughout most of the game, with limited options in terms of where to go and what to accomplish next. You cannot choose not to get on the train in the beginning. You cannot choose to invade Shinra HQ instead. This is ok for most players, as one of the main player motivations is finding out what happens next. Story driven play is impossible in an MMO, because everyone playing the same story is pointless and creating an individual story for each player is impossible. Therefore reaching catharsis and climax in a traditional storytelling manner is impossible.

Um, but that's exactly what FFXI did. And it actually didn't feel pointless at all. By posting this weird example, you've just proved yourself wrong.
But let me ask you this question anyway: Why should it be pointless if people play a story together?

In terms of gameplay, the devs of single player games have a huge advantage. When you fight the Midgar Zolom for the first time the devs know EXACTLY every item that you can acquire to that point. Encounters in MMOs are designed to be for a certain level, but there are often so many items available by the time the player approaches halfway to the cap, that balancing these encounters is way more difficult. In the end game, there are so many possible combinations that exploits are bound to happen. Not to mention the fact that you never have to fight another Cloud, who's combination of gear in relation to your combination is an exercise in chaos theory.

So, there's a difficulty about balancing the more complex you make the game. Sorry to disappoint you, but I already knew that. Anyway, your post is just a poor example of someone trying to prove something that hasn't been questioned in the first place. I was saying that MMORPGs are completely designed for people to accomplish tasks inside of their community. There's no rational reason why MMORPGs should be less designed on that, but more on actual storytelling. Since that actually does make sense (it's possible to literally implement art through this, which makes everything way more interesting and if done good, even useful), while that other thing is just a poor compensation of trying to be successful in a world that doesn't suit humans. Pure waste. Not worthwhile at all.
It's not cause it's impossible, but because it costs money. More money than a cheap grinder with features does. Both work, but just one does in terms of huge profit.