sser
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2011
- Messages
- 1,866,688
Lemme put on my robe and retardo cap.
I haven't played tons of WoW. I picked it up over one dreadfully boring and lonely summer like two or three years ago when I was away for university at the goading of a few friends who had played it for years. I ended up playing a warrior-tank all the way to level 80, IIRC; touching level 80 months later after a re-sub, and then never playing it again (I think I played it two days and then never came back, money well spent clearly...). Last I heard, my character was a Chinese mining bot. No joke. Anyway, I only "quested/grinded" once in a forest-area that had an interesting story -- beyond that, I exclusively did instances because almost everything else in the game was dreadfully boring.
However, one thing I noticed about WoW is that it has some clever boss designs that I just don't really see in single-player experiences. For example, I recall a boss that would throw you and your party into a dream state where you'd fight clones of one another. Other fights had mechanics where you'd have to keep moving or else you would get frozen to the ground. One fight had orbs moving about the room and you had to maneuver the boss away from them or he would go apeshit if they were absorbed; or groups would have to splinter off to fight/kill objects that would do the same. I remember one boss had a fear mechanic where you would go insane if you stared at it too long and at one point the boss could eat you and you'd have to fight your way out of its stomach. Lots of bosses could debuff players and make them extremely dangerous to other plays (bombs, diseases, etc.). Things that make encounters interesting.
And I just don't see much of it in single-player games. Why do single-player encounters suck so bad? It's rare to come across a legitimately interesting encounter. Take Dragon Age, for example. It had one fairly interesting encounter with a rogue-dwarf; she could go invisible about the room and gank, and the room itself was boobytrapped to high heaven -- but you could use that against her. She's the only boss I recall being fun to fight. The rest of the game? Oy... There were two horror/abomination-type bosses, but no fear mechanics. The dwarf blob was particularly disappointing. You just hack away at her fat ass until she dies. Maybe kill a tentacle or two if you're into that. The final boss you shoot ballistas at. Exciting. And all these fights last because they have high HP, and you have lots of potions. That's the kind of game design companies spend all that money for, right?
Risen? Final boss was Zelda circa 1990s. Mass Effect? First one you killed some spider bot. I honestly don't remember. Second game's entire experience/end-boss was so bad that my little secretary babe getting turned into DNA mulch was an actual high point. Anyway, I basically can't think of many interesting boss designs in single-player RPGs. And why not? Why not have huge, elaborate fights? It's dumb to fight an end-boss and realize you're not winning because you're The Hero, you're winning because you brought the true secret weapon -- a bottomless knapsack of health potions. I think this is one of those things that just kinda irritates me about modern gaming more than anything else. Back when technology was so quickly advancing we'd talk about all the wonderful things games should be able to do in the future. But we're getting none of that. Pixels are all maxed out and whatever, but game design hasn't really changed at all. I guess I'm just disappointed that an online MMORPG full of kids has better game mechanics than the edgy drivel dripping out onto the RPG-scapes today.
I haven't played tons of WoW. I picked it up over one dreadfully boring and lonely summer like two or three years ago when I was away for university at the goading of a few friends who had played it for years. I ended up playing a warrior-tank all the way to level 80, IIRC; touching level 80 months later after a re-sub, and then never playing it again (I think I played it two days and then never came back, money well spent clearly...). Last I heard, my character was a Chinese mining bot. No joke. Anyway, I only "quested/grinded" once in a forest-area that had an interesting story -- beyond that, I exclusively did instances because almost everything else in the game was dreadfully boring.
However, one thing I noticed about WoW is that it has some clever boss designs that I just don't really see in single-player experiences. For example, I recall a boss that would throw you and your party into a dream state where you'd fight clones of one another. Other fights had mechanics where you'd have to keep moving or else you would get frozen to the ground. One fight had orbs moving about the room and you had to maneuver the boss away from them or he would go apeshit if they were absorbed; or groups would have to splinter off to fight/kill objects that would do the same. I remember one boss had a fear mechanic where you would go insane if you stared at it too long and at one point the boss could eat you and you'd have to fight your way out of its stomach. Lots of bosses could debuff players and make them extremely dangerous to other plays (bombs, diseases, etc.). Things that make encounters interesting.
And I just don't see much of it in single-player games. Why do single-player encounters suck so bad? It's rare to come across a legitimately interesting encounter. Take Dragon Age, for example. It had one fairly interesting encounter with a rogue-dwarf; she could go invisible about the room and gank, and the room itself was boobytrapped to high heaven -- but you could use that against her. She's the only boss I recall being fun to fight. The rest of the game? Oy... There were two horror/abomination-type bosses, but no fear mechanics. The dwarf blob was particularly disappointing. You just hack away at her fat ass until she dies. Maybe kill a tentacle or two if you're into that. The final boss you shoot ballistas at. Exciting. And all these fights last because they have high HP, and you have lots of potions. That's the kind of game design companies spend all that money for, right?
Risen? Final boss was Zelda circa 1990s. Mass Effect? First one you killed some spider bot. I honestly don't remember. Second game's entire experience/end-boss was so bad that my little secretary babe getting turned into DNA mulch was an actual high point. Anyway, I basically can't think of many interesting boss designs in single-player RPGs. And why not? Why not have huge, elaborate fights? It's dumb to fight an end-boss and realize you're not winning because you're The Hero, you're winning because you brought the true secret weapon -- a bottomless knapsack of health potions. I think this is one of those things that just kinda irritates me about modern gaming more than anything else. Back when technology was so quickly advancing we'd talk about all the wonderful things games should be able to do in the future. But we're getting none of that. Pixels are all maxed out and whatever, but game design hasn't really changed at all. I guess I'm just disappointed that an online MMORPG full of kids has better game mechanics than the edgy drivel dripping out onto the RPG-scapes today.