Do You Play MMOs?

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:47:04 Post Subject:

I know little about MMOs, so I was curious about how popular they were.

How about when it comes to system building... Do these games drive the selection of hardware? It generally seems to be FPS games that people talk about when reviewing video cards, motherboards, processors... Do the MMOs require the same type of horsepower?

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

FOr the majority of MMOs, yes. Hardware plays a MAJOR role in MMOs.

I think WoW is the exception to the rule. It has low system requirements to get good performance, but is also the largest MMO to date (imho it's because of Blizzards name, low system requirements, and Warcraft history). It sucks IMHO, but that's just me Grin

When EQ2 came out, no systems could run it on highest settings without getting 1-5fps. Same was for many others, and is the kiss of death for most of them.

It's because of the massive numbers of textures and "realistic" graphics that they have, compared to the realitive "comic/animation" graphics that WoW has.

Probably not talked about in reviews because they generally have so many different things that could be the cause of the low FPS. It would be hard to really give a good review of it, unless it was over a long period.

Kilamon · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 811

It really depends on the MMO. Hellfire is right in that EQ2 has higher requirements because the world environment has more realism and aims for a beautiful location with all the bonus features that something of that nature would entail. What you wind up with is something like a fantasy MMO that has an immersive visual quality. Other MMOs like EQ1 retain their lower requirements for hardware and that means lower polygon counts. Still others aim higher and from what I can tell, the Stargate MMO will have the highest requirements to date. WOW's requirements are indeed low and they create a similar immersion by avoiding a realistic look and obtaining a look that is more like playing in a cartoon, which I feel is almost a parody of the genre; the gnomes are more gnome-like, the elves have 3 foot long ears, troll tusks are extra pronounced, etc.

As far as reviews go, you'll likely never see the same results for any 2 reviewers, even on the same hardware. This is due to some MMOs being processor bound, like EQ1 and 2, which requires them to use shedloads of CPU to handle the work of placing players in their places, the logic for weapons, monsters, spells, etc, and of course the networking and other requirements. Other MMOs are not as processor bound and allow the centralized servers at the farm to handle that work, both reducing the load for the client stations and increasing network requirements. This is especially true for Blizzard's implementation as they attempt to stop players from cheating and scanning their systems for running applications, a tactic attempted by Sony several years ago with EQ1 and subsequently abandoned after the community found out and lashed back with various applications designed to thwart this. Blizzard is now seeing this same thing occur.

Finally, the reason you'll always see FPS games used as a benchmark is because they never change. You will always see the same enemy creature walk that same path until you do something to force the AI to change it. This is true for an MMO as well, though your FPS won't have competition for that spawn point, multiple people fighting in the area, etc. You can record and play back a fight in a FPS and all the same calls can be made to the AI and environment without anything changing. You'll never get that in an MMO.

BTW, I play EQ1. I've played EQ2, WoW, LoTR and Arch Lord. I was never impressed with any as much as EQ1. Although it's graphics are dated and not as pretty as the newer ones, it has an amount of content that cannot be beat, especially since there's over 450 zones. My only real complaint is the current lack of players, though I can't determine how many are on a server any more as SOE removed that feature.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:44:15 Post Subject:

I tried EQ, and it just didn't do it for me. Never tired WoW, and I really wanted to but when it came out the thought of spending $15 a month wasn't appealing. Now, it just looks dumb to me.

I know DDO isn't all the popular, which is really sad. I think it's game play is better than any other MMO I have tried, and a lot of non-MMO's as well. It's visually appealing, and it ran with out problem on a AMD Athlon 3000+ with 1GB of RAM and a ATI 9600Pro video card (Now it's got 1.5GB of RAM and a ATi x1950). The problem with DDO is they are a little too slow on the content, and little to no advertising.

LoTRO... well from what I've been told is a lot like WoW, and I didn't enjoy it at all. Played for a bit in Beta and just the game play was HORRIBLE, specially compared to DDO. So if it's like WoW, then I'm glad I missed it.

Guild Wars is ok, graphics aren't bad and there seems to be a lot to do. To me it seems like DDO lite, and with out the monthly due's.

As for hardware, yes we do make decisions based on MMO's. I don't belive they are as GPU intensive as is FPS, but they still require some horse power if you want to get the most out of them. Like has been said though, the reason they aren't used for reviews is there are too many variables to use it for benchmarking.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:40:39 Post Subject:

Deathstar has posted a bunch of free MMO links in here... Anyone ever checked them out? Worthwhile?

http://www.bigbruin.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15983
http://www.bigbruin.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15868

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Not 9 Dragons, but did try Dungeon Runners once and couldn't stand it. Then again, it was in beta and they could've changed things.

At CES, I did see a demo of Entropia Universe. Looked pretty cool, was thinking of checking it out sometime.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:29:03 Post Subject:

No I haven't tried those. They look pretty cartoonish/kidish for me.

microcheap · Rated PG-13 Joined: 28 Dec 2007 Posts: 37

Yes I play MMO's during my pastime. I usually play Freestyle.

Asthetic · Posted: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:35:51 Post Subject:

I suggest World of Warcraft. Its the Best MMO that I have ever played. Blizzard always tries to keep its customers happy too, I have never had a problem they could not fix. Right now Im trying to level a resto druid so I can start raiding. Plus you don't see people making songs about any other MMO do you? Best ever.