Join me as we dive back to the arcades, and journey through gaming history to identify the moments gaming went from being fun, to financial, and ask, what went wrong with gaming?
Special thanks to: Callum Upton for the Assassins Creed 4 footage and DLOW1O for the Fifa footage (twitch.tv/dlow1o)
Thank you to the supporters on Patreon, Youtube and Twitch who keep the channel alive and allow me to make independent videos like this one.
Join me as we dive back to the arcades, and journey through gaming history to identify the moments gaming went from being fun, to financial, and ask, what went wrong with gaming?
Special thanks to: Callum Upton for the Assassins Creed 4 footage and DLOW1O for the Fifa footage (twitch.tv/dlow1o)
Karos is a game where every quest is about killing things and over the course of a few hours you become the defacto god of murder.
some of your quests involve solving the mystery of why the local goblin population are so afraid of the humans, you solve this by killing the entire local goblin population.
i guess the source of the fear will remain a mystery.
In my 'What is Pay to Win' video I made the statement that Dragons Dogma 2 had claimed to be a game without fast travel, and now it is selling fast travel in the shop exclusively.
This was incorrect, the designer claimed fast travel was only needed if the overworld travel in the game was boring, and the majority of the items in the shop are achievable in game.
In this video we will go over every DD2 microtransaction item and see what they do, to clear up the confusion.
Thank you for pointing out my mistake.What is Pay To Win?Josh Strife Hayes2024-03-23 | Josh Strife Hayes Youtooz Plushy! :
Hi, I'm Josh Strife Hayes, I've spent 100 hours adventuring through Norrath as a Shadow Knight, a Necromancer and a Magician, I've played Live servers and Progression servers to see if Everquest is worth playing in 2024.
Does an MMORPG need to have a story? Can it just be a big open world players exist within, or do you need a narrative hook to keep you invested?
In this video we'll discuss the 5 overarching styles of story integration within MMO's, from no story at all, to entirely story focused progression, and discuss the pro's and con's of each.
Look up in the sky! is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's legally distinct man with super powers!
Champions online is a superhero MMO made by Cryptic, our old friends behind Neverwinter and Star Trek Online, and as such it's fun...but my god it's monetised.
I love D&D, but even I can see this game has flaws.
Email sign up issues, overwhelming build choice, barebones tutorial, audio glitches, server lag, forum links breaking, repetitive warehouse corridors, bloated cash shop...
Yet despite all the flaws, DDO is at its very core, a fantastic foundation to build an incredibly enjoyable online adventure on, it's a superbly fun and varied game, just a shame it's coded like a plate of spaghetti.
I could not think of a more generic title if you paid me.
Hero Plus is one of the games ever.
It is the exciting story of a man killing thousands of bandits with a powerful weapon.
I am writing this description as the video uploads and despitre having a spent two days playing the game and a third day editing this video, I cannot remember, or do not want to remember, any of the last 3 days.
Every MMO Youtuber has tried to define 'MMORPG', but we still don't have an agreed upon definition, and I think it's because, honestly...
The acronym 'MMORPG' is really, really bad at telling you anything about what the genre actually is, it's not mechanical, or asthetic, it creates a set of games so broad they can look completely different from each other.
So why is the acronym so bad? Let's discuss.
Thanks as usual to all the supporters on Patreon, Twitch and Youtube who keep the content alive.Worst MMO Ever? - Albion OnlineJosh Strife Hayes2023-03-17 | Thanks to Albion Online themselves for being brave enough to sponsor their own 'Worst MMO Ever' episode without censoring the script, that takes guts.
Albion Online is a sandbox mmo advertised by an old man with a croaky voice, it's a game about crafting and then fighting and dying and losing all your crafting tools and feeling silly while you punch a tree with your bare hands.
It's a sandbox which historically struggle to gain or keep players, but does Albion buck the trend by having JUST enough framework to guide players like me?
Fresh Start servers, or Classic servers of current MMORPG's allow you to relive the glory days of day 1, the initial rush of players, the inception of the adventure.
but, why does a genre famed for being a 'forever game', appeal to so many when it restarts?
Doesn't 'starting again' defeat the purpose of playing a long term consistent MMORPG game in the first place?
As usual a massive thank you to the supporters on Patreon, sorry I've been away for a while, had some stuff to deal with :)Why do people play MMOs solo? [MMOPINION]Josh Strife Hayes2022-10-16 | Thank you Guild Wars 2 for sponsoring this video! So excited for the Steam launch. Use my link to get an XP boost pack and mini pet for your new character: inflcr.co/SHEr1
Just because the 'MMO' bit means massively multiplayer online, you don't always want to play with other people, you sometimes want to adventure SOLO.
But why do people want to do this, the entire point of an MMO is to play together, to team up, to become part of a community, right?
Let's examine the reasons people play solo, and then we'll look at and see how solo play has always been supported, even back in everquest.Everquest - Livestream part 1Josh Strife Hayes2022-10-11 | Vid starts at 00:04:55
Many new MMO players like to talk about the 'GOOD OLD DAYS!', so let's see how those good old days were...Horizontal VS Vertical Design [MMOPINION]Josh Strife Hayes2022-09-17 | Thank you Guild Wars 2 for sponsoring this video! So excited for the Steam launch. Use my link to get an XP boost pack and mini pet for your new character! inflcr.co/SHE3Q
Do you want more power, or more experience, do you play to win, or to explore, are you a vertical player, or a horizontal player?
MMO Design falls into 1 of 2 broad styles, Vertical, meaning its about more power, higher numbers, better weapons, climb the ladder and be above everyone else, or Horizontal, more experience, more choice, equal but situationally different numbers, be as powerful but built differently.
Dungeons and Raids are some of the best multiplayer focused MMORPG content, and the fact they're reserved for the long term players means you're preventing the new players from experiencing a fantastic part of the MMO experience.
If your game becomes about dungeons and Raids, it should lay the foundation of that gameplay very early, and training the player to become good at it from the start.
Not Bless, or Bless mobile, or Bless Online, or Bless Remastered, or the first version of Bless Unleashed, no this is the Unreal Engine 4 version of the Bless Unleashed remake on steam. See, not confusing at all.
Join me as I punch a wolf, clip inside a tree then endure 10 hours of Bless, one of the most mediocre MMO's ever made.
Also at level 30 there's forced PVP but you can pay real money to not be attacked, so that's nice.
Episode 2 of the new series 'Dev Log', talking to game developers about game development!
I sat down with Mod Kieren and Mod Elena from the Old School Runescape team and asked some difficult design questions, about nostalgia, how you design for a broad level range, when emergent gameplay becomes player created extortion and how you bring raiding to a game which never had it.
Thank you to the Patreon supporters and Twitch subs who keep the channel alive.
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00:00:18 – intro 00:02:20 – Was OSRS ever meant to succeed? 00:05:06 – Why does the Nightmare zone have a cow? 00:06:06 – how does OSRS design around Runescape 3? 00:12:54 – how do you bring raiding to OSRS? 00:17:07 – was the 'evolution of combat' a good idea? 00:21:10 – Removing the wilderness in 2007, was it the right call? 00:25:05 – Revenant caves and 'emergent gameplay vs extortion' 00:28:50 – how do you design content to be played and not avoided 00:34:45 – Microtransactions, how will OSRS avoid them? 00:41:18 – Large expansions vs smaller constant content updates 00:47:20 – How do you balance the OSRS economy? 00:52:01 – how do you balance raid rewards to avoid inflation? 00:54:40 – Ironman and other limitations, which are worth designing? 00:59:00 – is OSRS a single player game in a multiplayer world? 01:01:20 – OSRS in popular culture 01:04:25 – Why is OSRS so perfect for 'challenge accounts' 01:06:10 – Snailman mode? 01:08:02 – The community content vote, what are the downsides? 01:15:30 – What one thing would you change about OSRS? 01:19:20 – designing for mobile vs PC 01:23:55 – why are 3rd party launchers so popular? 01:29:35 – the lv3 jad kill, what other crazy stuff have players done? 01:35:20 – Designing for the elite vs designing for the masses 01:42:06 – Leagues and Deadman, are they for Youtubers / twitch streamers? 01:47:20 – How are you avoiding Power creep? 01:54:30 – What does the future hold for OSRS?
We WANT you to make MMORPG content. But we also need you to know the reality of what that means.
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Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 03:35 – Part 1 – the audience size of MMO fans 13:33 – Part 2 – the toxicity of enfranchised fans 26:51 – Part 3 – general channels vs specialist 43:07 – Part 4 – MMO's take a long time to finish 59:47 – Part 5 – focusing on speed over depth (not evergreen content) 01:17:04 – Part 6 – Early game VS endgame reviews 01:27:20 – Part 7 – playing for fun vs playing to critique / entertain 01:43:50 - Conclusion
Episode 1 of the new series 'Dev Log', talking to game developers about game development!
I sat down with Chris Wilson from Grinding Gear Games, the team behind Path of Exile, and talked about the new player experience, narrative versus mechanical design, how you respect a players time, and how you keep a game stable after 30+ expansions.
The old Republic is a Star Wars MMO by Bioware, the studio behind Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic.
So we know they can make RPG's, but can they make MMO's?
eh, kind of, they've basically put an RPG online, and it's...pretty good.
how about, older games had more adversity within them and there was less player choice so you were forced to overcome the adversity and gain the personal success and satisfaction of overcoming it.
The paradox of Adversity, you want a difficult game so the players feel pride when they do succeed, but players leave difficult games before they succeed.
I'm sorry I didn't spot this extremely sneaky trick in the first video.
The 'free to play' experience on Diablo Immortal actually rewards slightly different 'Legendary Crests' to the cash shop, it's a minor change, but a major gameplay difference.
As usual, a massive thank you for your support on Patreon and Twitch.The Immoral Design of Diablo ImmortalJosh Strife Hayes2022-06-10 | Addendum: Legendary Crests are even worse than we thought: youtu.be/YF--ytWn8mU
Diablo Immortal is a mobile and PC game based on Blizzard's long running Diablo series, it's basically a gacha game with a Diablo skin, it's undeniably fun, but the monetisation, is something else.
If you're not playing it, why not? Don't you guys have phones?
Lord of the Rings online is an MMO from 2007 which is still going, and has recently received a huge amount of free content, a graphical rework and a surge of new interest due to the amazon TV show, but, is it still worth playing?
Wurm Online is one of the earliest Sandbox MMO's, created by Notch, the guy who went on to make Minecraft. it's extremely deep, but incredibly obtuse to actually get into.
Budget breakdown: graphics: a lot gameplay: some voice acting: none
Swords of Legends Online is a major eastern franchise ported to the west by our old friends Gameforge, it is potentially the worst voice acted MMO on the market.
From a major hype marketing campaign to less than 1000 daily players on Steam, this game failed, and it failed hard.
Many people commented about my original 'Realm of the Mad God' video, saying it felt lower quality than my usual content, I agree, watching it back it was apparently I hadn't taken the time and care I usually do.
This is not acceptable, you as viewers deserve the best content I can make.
Being a youtuber is a strange job, there's no one sat next to me keeping the standards high, thankfully I do still have a boss, you, and as of this video that means I have roughly 440 thousand bosses. You let me know I can do better.
After reading the feedback for the 'Worst MMO Ever? - Realm of the Mad God' on YouTube, discord and here, I have re-watched the video and critiqued it as I would any of the games I play.
Many people said it seemed low effort compared to my previous work, and pointed out several straight up bits of wrong information, or parts edited with less care than usual, this is correct, I feel this video not only falls below the standards I expect of myself, but doesn't show Realm of the Mad God in a fair light to potential players.
If I critique games and expect companies to listen to that critique, I must be willing to listen to critique of my videos. I will play more, update and research more, and release an addendum, calling out my mistakes and giving the game the time it deserves. My focus is the entertainment of the audience combined with the care of the playerbase, and honesty to both, and while the video was entertaining to a non-player, I do not feel this video was fair to the RotMG player base.
Thank you for the feedback, it's never easy to improve on your mistakes, but if I can dish it out, I have to be prepared to take it. I do not want you as a viewer to blindly support me, especially if you feel I am not producing content of the quality you have come to expect and deserve. If I am going to call out the MMO industry for their falling standards or complacency, I expect, and indeed actively encourage, you, to do the same to me.
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MMO RPG Rogue-like Bullet hell top down pixel based hack and slash looter.
Trove is a melted mix of cubist block builder, hack and slash rogue like, social MMO and open world adventure, it takes elements from other better games and ends up being fun, but not as much as each of the individual elements.
Trove is a perfect example that adding in 'good ideas' doesn't always work if the 'good ideas' don't relate or work well together.
Nostale isn't a bad idea for an MMO, it's just a bad presentation of those ideas. It's built up of all the correct things, simple plot, simple character creator, varied in game classes and builds, varied skills, instanced dungeons, but they've failed to polish any specific element into a genre defining masterpiece.
That and the 'time-space' dungeons are all exactly the same.