Until recently I have only ever really dabbled in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, and I’ve watched others play them with a careful eye. But I’ve never stuck to any of them for more than the introductory first few hours. Those I tried are Elders Scroll online, Star Trek online and DC online, and I have watched at first hand people play Warcraft and City of Heroes.
I have always wanted to get into Warcraft but I’ve never had a PC that could run it, and last summer I had the sudden urge to play an MMORPG. For some reason I wanted a game that could give me a richer experience than those I was playing at the time, which is where I discovered Final Fantasy 14. I had heard of it before, but for whatever reason I took little notice of it, probably because no one I knew was playing it.
But from what I'd read and seen, it looked like a good alternative to Warcraft, and I was able to play it on my PlayStation 4. So I bought the base game and expansions all on one disk. After a solid month of playing, where at one point I kind of became addicted, I stopped playing because although the experience was enjoyable for the most part, it eventually became unfulfilling for several reasons.
I’ve been wanting to write this blog for a while, and I only just recently returned to the game for a fleeting moment, hoping that perhaps I might find something that wasn’t there before. But I’m still getting the same feeling I was when I first played it, and I can’t see myself holding out for long, but we’ll see.
So in this blog I write down some of the good and bad points that playing an MMORPG gave me. Although this is drawing a lot from my experience of playing FInal Fantasy 14, I think it can also be applied to others as well.
The good
- Plenty of content:
Role playing games are generally quite meaty in terms of length, it’s one of their appeals, and that is no exception for massively multiplayer ones. With the online functions included, the amount of questing and side activities is breathtaking. The questing is linked with not just the story, it’s also linked with levelling up, grinding, hunting, as well as crafting.
The social aspects enhance the content as well, there’s one thing playing with strangers, but playing with friends can add a lot of laughter as well as tension. It also helps that you can coordinate your way through dungeons much easier.
- Social
MMORPGs can be a great way to meet new people, the chances are you’ll be on a big server with thousands of active players. There are great ways to meet new people running dungeons or raids. But the best way to meet new people is by joining or setting up a guild or free company (which is the case in Final Fantasy 14).
These are places where a set of players can be part of the same community, in a free company you can share the same house. In the house you could have your own room and decorate it how you want, as well as sharing and storing items with your fellow players.
It allows the player have a sense of belonging in the world instead of it just being a passive background to the game’s narrative.
- Progression that’s organic and diverse
You can create your own character from the beginning, and you'll also be able to pick a character class you wish to play as. For example you might have the choice of playing as a healer, a tank or a damage per second role. This is just an example from my experience, different games will have different roles that you can choose from, but there should be a choice of picking a role that you’ll enjoy best. In Final Fantasy 14 I played as an Archer, a ranged DPS.
As you progress you’ll be able to customize your character in even further ways, this can be both in the way that you fight in combat and the way that your character looks. From experience, Final Fantasy 14 is fantastic at doing this.
- A place of being
As I said previously, a good MMORPG will suck you into its world and make you feel like you’re living in another alternative reality. There are downsides to this which I’ll get to later, but the possibility of striking up virtual friends with other people, and creating your own little virtual home can be really addictive and fun at the same time.
The world can be a very grim and depressive place, and all forms of entertainment are an escape from it. An MMORPG has so much to escape into and become an actively involved participant, rather than just being passively involved for short term gratification.
The bad:
- Tedious questing and grinding
On face value, having loads of content is a good thing, as long as the content is of good quality and the grind is worth the reward. From my experience, MMORPGs are a mixed bag. Nearly everyone one I have played has moments of inconsistent quality in terms of questing. Be prepared to have to do plenty of fetch quests of going here, delivering this, go here and talk to this particular person. A lot of it can get very tedious and feel insubstantial in terms of game-play agency.
Some people will like this, but I’d often come away from a session of playing Final Fantasy 14 and wonder whether I actually did anything that I really enjoyed. You’ll find that a lot with the genre, they are addictive but not particularly fun for long sections of your play time.
- Time suckage
To get the best out of an MMORPG will require a lot of dedication, especially if you’re playing catch up having come into the game late, as I did. This can be a problem because you might find yourself exploring locations with very few other players, and having to wait a long time for other players to join you when you want to go through an early dungeon.
Because the games in the genre are designed to be addictive, they have a way of hooking you in, no matter how much little or to no enjoyment you're actually are having. There’s always a relentless amount of content to drill through, of course you have the choice not to pursue all these endeavours, but if you don’t the games can make you feel like you’re not getting the best experience.
- Toxic communities
As with any online game you'll get people who are absolutely toxic, and by that I mean people who will needlessly either gloat or abuse a particular mechanic in the game. Gloating in certain games is okay, some even encourage it, such as For Honor. In MMORPGs, the toxicity comes when you’re a running a dungeon. Because each player will have a class that has a particular role to fulfil, other players might criticise you if you’re not playing to their standards.
On some occasions they will try and help you, which is always nice, but more often than not they will flatout abuse you, and I’m talking swear word abuse. For new players this might stop them from playing the game, it certainly had that effect on me for a short time.
There are also players who aren't social when it would be best if they were, for example when you join a guild or a free company (which are more or less meant for the purpose of creating a community), there will be players who will not take part in any of the social activities, or simply refuse to communicate with anyone else. This issue is a minor gripe that I have because I’ve not always wanted to be chummy with other people.
So should you play an MMORPG?
If you like doing tedious quests but want to feel like you belong in another world for a potentially rich experience, MMORPGs could be just for you. It comes with its caveats as I have outlined in this blog. If you have never touched one but you've always been curious, my advice would be to try one when you have nothing to play and little in the horizon that you’re interested in. The same way that I first started playing Final Fantasy 14.
The gaming scene at present is quite dry until September, so it’s the perfect moment to get stuck into Final Fantasy 14 for a month or so. If you play for just an hour or two each day, it should be enough time to let you know if you want to stick with it.
