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Draciane -> RE: MQ's Low Popularity (5/19/2010 10:50:45)
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I came back recently after a 6 months break (no kidding). When I left I was level 35. Here's the things I noticed that didnt helped me really get back to it compared to all others AE games I've played and payed (exception for ED, that's where I draw the line in stopping following AE games).
-Slow and small releases: I talk about REAL release. Having 2-3 new mecha to me does not give me a lot of content to try. I talk about quests, planet, etc... My point is I was away for 6 Months. 6 long whole months. During that period, I missed the end of Westion saga, the new Vampire planet, some events like the new war on Lagos and the start of the start of the Dragonoid Saga, leading to Yokai. 6 months of release, I thought it would keep me busy for a while...I started last saturday getting up to date. I was done later that day...this left me a big feeling of emptiness. If I can do 6 months in 1 day...I can't imagine how people must feel when they see the weekly release and are quickly done with them. Of course they will go to the others games.
-Bad way to boost the time of a release : this is here since day 1 of MQ (almost Day 1, let's say since we got to Soluna, with the Pizza quest). How can we make a very small release last longer? Well we make them repeat the quest over and over again to gain rank which will unlock shoip with items. Quite frankly, like I said, the items to me are not what will keep me focused on MQ. The actual content (in-terms of "different" things to do) is what matter. If a release make me do the same 2 minutes of content in a loop, of course I'll get quickly bored.
-Grind, grind, grind : I'm not hiding the fact all AE games are about grinding at one point. But if we talk about level grinding, MQ surely has the slowest curve of leveling rate I've ever seen in a AE game, and this has been that way since a loooong while. Of course, the ennemies always stay at your level, so you should not worries, and hardcore MQ gamer will tell you either "You're just impatient" or "It's not necessary"...BUT for people to enjoy a game and a RPG in particular, some kind of progression must be felt in its character developpement while playing the game normally and casually. Here's a fact, in the one day I've played, and did 6 months of release, I've started at LV35. When I was up-to-date, I was still at LV35. There's a problem right there, because I didnt feel my character was really gaining anything, and if to access some of the items I want, I need to play non-stop just to gain 1 level, of course I would quit. I say "I", but I admit that I enjoy grinding, so it's fine with me...BUT I'm not so blind that I can't see that this is a problem. When people talk about MQ, most of the times, you'll hear them say how much this is just about grinding, and everything is long and tedious. Unfortunately I can't say they're wrong.
I love MQ, not as much as I love DF but this is my second favorite AE games.But still this is a very good game, with great storyline, very structured (best structure in an AE games for me), with a lot of customization, awesome animation, great mini-game to relax between battle. But even with all its quality, some of the flaws that I talked about above bring the game down...A LOT, to a point where it's sadly on of the most unpopular AE games. Many will tell you that it'S because its "Sci-Fi" and not "Fantasy", but this is not a real reason to dislike the game, the mentionned reasons above are though, and they should work something, else people who try the game would indeed be bored quickly. The hardcore players will of course always defend the game, and call me crazy. But some of you know that I'm right. This is not bashing, just a fair point of view and criticism about the situation from someone who left the game for those very reasons, came back many months later to see not much have improved. I read in one of the previous DN staff are maybe short-handed, even more in terms of coders...maybe this may explain why things have not evolved more. If so, I really wish the AE team could give some of their staff from others games (mostly AQW) to MQ to make it better. It deserves to go high in the star, and I guess like all their others Single-Player RPG, it suffers from the popularity of their boring (IMHO) MMORPG...but MQ took the worst hit. So it needs something or someone...and fast...
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