My interest in games over the past 12 years has been occupied by an on-going quest. Something I've been constantly striving to find amidst all the other games I've played over the years. It's my Holy Grail, my Fountain of Youth, my Three-Eyed Raven. It was something I was determined to find and I knew had to be out there, despite the constant slog through ones that, to me, were simply inferior.
My quest to find this "Perfect MMORPG" most certainly stemmed from my love of the .hack franchise, set in a fictional MMORPG known as "The World." My love of the series, which has had some rocky moments, is still alive and well to this day. In my freshman year of high school I became enamored with the franchise, with the introduction of the anime, .hack//SIGN and the first four video games in the series. It had all the elements I craved from something like this: good story, memorable characters, good music (more so in SIGN than the games) and good, solid gameplay. I had never played an RPG that didn't have turn-based combat, but I thought the games accomplished it well. I loved still being able to make use of strategy during the combat sessions while having the real-time pace.
But I'm getting off-topic. Why did this spark my quest to find an MMORPG that, to me, was sheer perfection? Well, I fell in love with the setting. The World, at least as how I saw it through the design of the anime, the games and the manga of the .hack franchise was a beautiful place to be. As long as you excluded the countless coma victims, maliciously sentient AI and so on. But the in-game MMORPG, The World, was one with an interesting lore, unique character and world aesthetics and several events that made me wish it was real so I could play it.
This was semi-satisfied by an MMO of The World actually being made, but the screenshots I'd seen left something to be desired. On top of this, to my disappointment, it was only released in Japan. The game was also only playable for 6 months, but they later lengthened it to a full year before shutting the servers down. So clearly that was not going to be an option for me.
But in that interim time, I tried out any MMORPG that I could in search of one that could give me that same feeling The World did, but with a real one as opposed to the simulated variety. It began with Ragnarok Online, around 2003. Ragnarok Online, my first introduction to actually playing an MMORPG. I don't fully recall my experiences. I didn't play for that long. At most, I had played the game for a month, a month and a half at most. It certainly had the aesthetic I was after, but it just didn't cut it for me. I didn't feel like I had a good world to explore or any exciting adventures to have.
Keep in mind, I don't mean to imply Ragnarok Online is a horrible game. I was going in with unfair expectations, given the technology of games at the time. What I was after simply wasn't possible in RO.
I wouldn't move on to another MMORPG for another few years, until I landed my first job and was able to pay the monthly fee for my own. In this time, I had settled on World of Warcraft, missing out on Final Fantasy XI. World of Warcraft seemed to be precisely what I was looking for and it is certainly one of the MMORPGs I stuck with for the longest time. When I found myself in places like Booty Bay or the Un'Goro Crater, I certainly fell in love with the aesthetic of these locations. I felt I could easily spend my time here and make worth the invested hours.
But when it came right down to it, the lore of the world wasn't interesting to me. It didn't feel like a real place most of the time. The factors I didn't like began to outweigh the ones I did. I became more accustomed to seeing the more irritating side of the community, being killed by higher level players I didn't stand a chance against and being told to learn to play the game properly. It never felt like a welcoming one to me unless I played with a friend of mine. I only knew one friend who played it at the time and they later quit the game to focus on school, so I was left to play solo. I was fine with this, up until I had the realization I was only enjoying myself playing before because I was playing with them.
Eventually, I gave up my subscription and went on to look for greener pastures. I certainly saw some other MMORPGs that looked promising, such as AION, but I simply lacked a computer capable of playing that one. I ended up testing the waters of two other MMOs since that time: DC Universe Online, City of Villains and Ryzom. DCUO and City of Villains, for me, quickly fell into the same trappings of World of Warcraft. I can't say I had a good vibe from the player community there and while I'm not opposed to superheroes or even playing as a more villainous character (I was certainly proud of my fire-based ninja girl), it still wasn't what I was after. It didn't have a good game feel for me, personally.
Ryzom was the lowest point of my journey through the world of MMOs. Most of them, I try to play for at least a few hours to get a sense of the game. The moment I began Ryzom, I knew this was not going to be the one for me. None of it even met the bare sense of my criteria. I felt no obligation to be social in this dull, muted-color setting of the game. Any players I did attempt to be social and speak with was met with general silence. It quickly became a group of people wandering around the beginners area completing ultimately bland quests. It was a rare moment I was instantly dissatisfied with a game.
I was admittedly beginning to lose hope. I felt I tried every MMO that was available to me that looked as though it had potential to be what I was looking for, but none of them lived up to it, even in the most basic sense. I often wondered if I was setting my expectations far too high. Did I simply decide to use a fictional MMORPG as my basis for what made a good one in a fit of youthful arrogance? It was sure starting to feel that way.
But then, I saw Final Fantasy XIV. Seeing screenshots and videos of this being released to the public gave me that sense of excitement. It was the most promising thing I'd seen that just might live up to my expectations. I found myself waiting far too long for it. There was most certainly some overlap in my waiting for this game and my time spent trying others. It was frustrating, seeing something with this much promise to me and having to constantly push it to the back burner.
Then there was the constant complaints about the game. Reports from players all over the world about how broken this game was and even hearing stories about how no one was being charged for the game for months on end and compensation for how poor the gameplay was. That was something unheard of to me. But after months of hearing these justifiably slanderous reports, the entire game was rebooted as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and, now that I possessed a system able to play it, I quickly snatched up the game.
And it was everything I wanted it to be. It's not to say the game doesn't have it's problems or it's bad seeds in the community. I've certainly had some bad experiences with obnoxious quests and obnoxious players who don't seem to handle themselves well in the dungeons. Though, I was that way with my first time making my way through Satasha, the earliest dungeon in the game, so I can't entirely criticize.
But it hit everything I wanted. I found myself caring about the lore in this game and the aesthetic of the world and the characters is exactly what I was looking for. I have yet to witness many events, but I've certainly liked the ones I've come across. The event they put into action around Halloween was one that I enjoyed the most, especially seeing Limsa Lominsa decorated with all kinds of jack-o-lanterns and hanging bats. I enjoy battling and questing in the game, but there are times when I simply love walking around in the world, through its various beaches and forests and deserts and snowy mountains.
But I suppose this begs the question...why does this matter? Why is this so important to me? Why did I spend so many years trying to find just the right one with my admittedly high expectations? I mean, it's a game, right? Who cares about the lore and the setting when the game itself is fun? I know there are people who might be confused by this approach to it, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. In the end, the gameplay is what matters the most.
But when it comes to MMORPGs, more so than in other games, the setting does need to feel rich and alive. MMORPGs are a method of escapism. It's taking a break from the world you live in and spending time in another one. It needs to feel alive and like it's a real place with a thriving culture and people and just an overall sense of character. I never found that in any of the other MMOs that I've played until this one. George R.R. Martin wrote that "[f]antasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real...for a moment at least....that long magic moment before we wake."
The stress for a good setting with a good lore is a priority for MMORPGs. The players are going to be spending money on a monthly basis to spend several hours at a time in this world. While it doesn't matter to some, those who like to play the game for the roleplaying aspect need to feel like they have a thriving world to play their roles in. If the lore doesn't feel fleshed out or is even just boring, pure and simple, you lose the appeal for that brand of players. For those players, that is a major part of it and you won't hold their interest if you don't keep that in mind. There may be no surefire way to tell what will work with certain players in terms of the setting and what won't, but it will make or break the game for them all the same.
When it comes to creating a fantasy game for an MMO, the world needs to feel alive and real as well as being fantastic and unlike our world at all. This may differ from person to person. It's just as possible that people will fall in love with the world of Ryzom or World of Warcraft. But for me, Eorzea is the most realistic place I've been to in an MMORPG. I feel more driven to explore, see new places and meet new people. I feel I can say with certainty that, after many years, I've finally found the game that was what I was personally after and one I will feel comfortable staying with.
At least, until I'm able to play The Elder Scrolls Online. Tamriel is a hard place to resist. I can't see myself abandoning Final Fantasy XIV in favor of it, but I suppose I won't know until I get there.
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