In all of these years, I’ve never once hit the level cap.

Oh sure, I came close on World of Warcraft (67 priest I think) and I often wonder why I’ve never once accomplished this dubious honor. Well, after much meditation on this subject (minutes and minutes, in fact) I think I came to the conclusion. Instead of blaming my own resolve, I think I’ll do instead what comes instinctively to humans as a species: I’ll blame someone else. MMORPG developers, all of you, pull the old bait and switch on your consumers. At first you mask grinding with quests and other shit but by the time you’re painfully close to the level cap all pretext of distraction is removed. Fuck you, you’re grinding. I suspect the reason they do this is because they reason they already have you paying, and you’re already that close, so you’ll surely endure those last few levels of pain because the glory of a maxed character is forever.

Well they’d be dead wrong. I can appreciate trying to mask the grind, which all MMORPGs do to at least a degree of success. Games like World of Warcraft mask the grind well in theory, because it takes relatively little time to grind your character from 1-70 and I assume to 80 now, but the fact that with every expansion your previous achievement is immediately negated by the crap you find floating around in the first 5 minutes of the new content pretty much makes all you just did meaningless.

I suppose one might argue  that the point of video games and all games in general is to have fun, but there you’d be dead wrong. Tell me, what was the best part of leveling in World of Warcraft? Final Fantasy XI? Yeah, let’s talk about Final Fantasy XI’s leveling. What was the best part of that? Was it killing the snippers, clippers, or one of their ten thousand reskinned cousins? Or perhaps it was the worker crawlers and their reskinned brethren. I challenge, nay, dare, anyone to name one objectively good thing about grinding in MMORPGs.

At this point some might be wondering why I play these games at all when I clearly don’t have fun with them, and there you have a good point. I suppose what I enjoy most is the odd sense of accomplishment at finally hitting a new level, getting a new piece of equipment, et cetera. Games that convince (lie) most effectively that what I did was indeed challenging and worthwhile I tend to stick with the most. Final Fantasy XI’s tedious grind scheme meant each level actually felt like it had meaning, compared to World of Warcraft’s smooth, easy clip. However, the illusion of progress is shattered in Final Fantasy XI when I’m level 41 and still can’t effectively solo enemies 15 levels below me, and in World of Warcraft it’s shattered when everything I had collected previous is immediately rendered meaningless by Blizzard’s latest expansion.

So, to make an already TL;DR post even more TL;DR: MMORPG developers, please learn how to lie to me better. Blizzard, you don’t have to throw new shit my way the second I step into the new expansion’s first zone. My gear can keep until, say, 73. Square, let me solo the banshee. It’s okay. I guarantee I won’t figure out a totally awesome, game shattering scam by being able to kill it without back up. Trust me, I’m not that smart.

Despite all that I’m about to say, I want to make it clear that I’ve played my share of MMORPGs (and still do.) I do not dislike them, I do however see many, many flaws in them. I would like to outline a few popular MMORPGs with established (or not so established in a few cases) playerbases so that you– the gamer- can decide what is worthwhile and what isn’t. The first thing this gamer can advise however, is to avoid any free or web bases MMO like the plague (you’re going to get exactly what you pay for.) So what’s good? What’s bad? What’s just plain laughable? Well it all depends on what you’re looking for. Let’s start out with the most popular and work our way around from there…

World of Warcraft – “You want a cookie? Here, have one.”
Release Date: 2004
Expansions: 2

The Good:
-Large playerbase
-Very casual ‘pick up and play’ gameplay
-Established communities

The Bad:
-Until late in the game, it’s not very multiplayer oriented (kind of the idea behind the genre…)
-A bit too easy
-The average player usually isn’t helpful, intelligent or nice

The Ugly:
-*Gank*
-Endgame

Alright, so here we have it, the big cheese of MMORPGs out there. So why so big and addictive? Anybody from your mom to that basement dweller next door can play it and get into it. The casual factor is a major selling point in any market, and WoW nails it right on the head. By all means it’s a wonderful waste of time if you want one, however it does come off as awfully easy. With the average quest being ‘kill 10 of X monster’ and money being easier to earn than the affection of a dying kitten, the game turns more into a reward simulator than anything of a challenge. PVP can vary wildly depending on what class you are (read: unbalanced.) For all it’s worth however, the world is beautiful and it’ll keep you entertained for as long as you want it to. While the art direction does feel oh-so-right most of the time, every now and then the comically oversized weapons, large variety of funny looking mounts and armor that trails pixie dust give an ‘over the top’ feel.

Moving into our next most popular RPG, I’d like to note that while you might not consider it to be a big player in the market, it’s Japan’s number one most played MMO and it has a very large following in the United States. It doesn’t get mentioned often enough for how large of a playerbase it -still- carries, so let’s move on to…

Final Fantasy XI Online – “You’re going to work for this cookie.”
Release Date: 2002 (JP)/2003 (US)/2004 (EU)
Expansions: 4

The Good:
-Established servers
-Party based leveling and gameplay
-Friendly–but Wapanese-players
-Large class selection with defined roles
-Story
-Global and cross platform servers

The Bad:
-Large learning curve
-More restricted gameplay elements (read: no jumping)
-Forced group interaction in most aspects of play
-Extremely restricted PvP

The Ugly:
-Archaic game interface
-Unnecessary waits on everything from fighting to healing that make the game even more of a time sink than it should be

Enter FFXI. Ready to feel even more stupid for being an American? They say patience is a virtue– so get ready to be more virtuous than a saint. Viewed from a typical WoW player’s eyes, this game is going to seem challenging, slow and painful (and they’ll be mostly right.) So here we have a game where the primary mode of leveling isn’t quests (in fact there are only a small handful that even give an EXP reward,) but rather forming 6 person parties and grinding on monsters 10 levels above you. This has both positive and negative effects, one being that leveling is PAINFUL. On the bright side however, you will actually interact with players (albiet forced) and you will either learn to play your role correctly or be crushed under the weight of your own dimwittedness. This doesn’t mean everyone is a pro at their class however, since you can change your class at will in towns. So if you don’t lose your mind from leveling or not being invited to parties by Japanese players, you’ll feel a pretty good sense of accomplishment– you’ll need it, because it’s all you’ll have left.

Our last little stop on our journey brings us to a recent release. One that’s had more hype than Duke Nukem Forever and has burned out just as quickly…

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning – “COOKIE! WAAAGH!”
Release Date: 2008
Expansions: 0

The Good:
-Warhammer art and story
-PvP based gameplay

The Bad:
-Much work to be done in balance and game issues
-Quests carry much less weight midgame, turning leveling into a PvP based chore

The Ugly:
-A completely unoriginal UI, interface, and quest system that looks oddly like a game we’ve all seen before…

Welcome to World of Warh– err, Warhammer Online! A game we all waited for with more anticipation than a crack fiend with a roll of money, ready for his next fix. This game is a shining example of how an awesome game idea can go astray when developers fear to stray from the WoW design. WAR brings up fun and interesting concepts like Public Quests (where whomever can just run up, join and get some quick rewards,) detailed PvP scenarios and a nifty little tome that puts the Bible to shame. The art is a tabletop gamer’s wet dream of a dark and war filled world. So where did this all go wrong? Unoriginallity. Now before you say anything, I’m not speaking of the art, monsters, classes or story; I speak only of the interface design. From the minute you start playing, you’ve never felt like you left WoW– and this really takes away from the immersion. Many people also complain about the many fixes, bugs and updates, stating that the game was released unfinished, but you have to understand that this is typical of any MMO on launch. Despite what has been said, a major fan of the Warhammer series is not likely to be turned off by all this games flaws.

So there you have it. A simple analysis of a few established MMORPGs. I leave it up to you, the reader to decide which games are worthy of your money and time. Today’s MMORPG market will never get better until you, the consumer, put a little time into what you’ll pay for.

Apparently, WoTLK sold over 2.8 million copies within 24 hours of launch, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. And it has gone from strength to strength, having sold 4 million copies total in its first month.

“We’re pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game’s global community has continued to show,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to providing all of them with an excellent entertainment experience for a long time to come.”

Originally, Bilzzard had titles prepared for those who hit 80 first with each player class. This would be extremely unique titles – only one person per server could have each. The community went completely up in arms about this, as almost every player complained about the repercussions of such an attempt. By giving a reward for being first, Blizzard was promoting the fact that people were cutting class and calling in sick to work to play the new expansion. That people would be getting physically sick by not sleeping for days to get these titles. Or so, this is what players complained about. The complaining worked, and Blizzard pulled the titles, making them unavailable to everyone. They left in the “Feats of Strength”, or so they’re called – these are achievements that reward nothing. Nothing. At all. You get bragging rights – that’s it. Most players would be completely turned off from these. They’d think “well, what’s the point?” and move on to something else.

But not all players thought this way. These two players are Athene, a human female paladin, and Nymh, a human female warlock. There has been a rather big debate over who is the first level 80.
Nymh’s plan was rather simple: She joined up with a healer friend of his, Pavelomm, who stayed out of the group and got no XP for anything, sacrificing his time for his friend, so she could be the first 80. Then, they camped the crypt in Drakil’ji Ruins for 27 hours. For over a full day, they sat and killed enemies over. And over. And over for 27 straight hours. Officially, she was the first level 80.

However, some players consider Athene as the first level 80. He hit level 79 in 13 and a half hours. So, how did he lose? After all, it couldn’t have taken another 13.5 to get from 79 to 80, right? Well, I’m glad you asked! It’s simple, really.

He was banned for cheating, and had his character reset to 70. His tactic was a bit shadier. His tactic was to join a group with four of his guild mates. He would enter an instance with them, then leave the group. He would then have 60 seconds to attack enemies, or the game would remove him from the instance. This would “tag” them to his group – but since he left the group, only he was considered to “own” that enemy. He would then rejoin his group to reset the removal timer, then kill the enemies. Since he was out of the group when they were first hit, his group members had no claim to the enemies, meaning Athene earned ALL of the experience instead of having to share it with his group mates. Using this idea, he was able to sky rocket to 79 within just 13.5 hours. To the right is a screen shot that Athene claims was from a GM, who confirmed that it would be okay for them to do this, that there was no chance of getting banned. However, on the left is a screen shot of a different GM banning them.

Is this an exploit, or is it just clever? Either way, one thing is certain: Nymh is the first level 80. Some argue that Athene should have claims to the “world first” level 80, because he got to 79 the fastest and would have been the first 80 by literally hours was he not banned – but others counterargue that it doesn’t matter if he would have, because he wasn’t.