Koki on 14/8/2008 at 06:45
So supposedly there's a new boss of the Internet. He's called Pandemonium Warden and he's from Final Fantasy XI.
Guild "Beyond the Limitation" decided to take it down once and for all. And they failed - not because they were all killed, but because (
http://petfoodalpha.com/?p=1055) after eighteen hours(Yes, that's 18) of non-stop fighting the boss was still alive. They backed out because some of the members were throwing up from exhaustion.
Wow.
Normally I'd jump at the opportunity to point out what inhuman grindfest FFXI is(Even when compared to other MMORPGs), but the thing which caught my eye was that the Pandemonium Warden, during eighteen hour long battle, changed it's form(and thus attack patterns, skills, maybe also weaknesses, etc.) twenty times. And that got me thinking, because obviously a lot of effort went into the boss' creation - it's not like Square just drew a pink blob in MSPaint and gave him buffed stats with five trillion HP(
Which they tend to do in Final Fantasy series). And I think I see the genius in this madness.
I have no idea how many people play FFXI, I have no idea how populated an average server is at any given time, and I don't even know what server was this all happening on. But assuming a rather safe number of a 1000 players at the peak, that's a lot of players. Can you see where I'm going with this? It's a MMORPG - MASSIVE Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. And that boss is an end-game content after
four expansions. It's probably most end of all end-game contents ever made.
So is it really that bad that one guild couldn't take it down? Imagine not one, not two, but
all guilds on the server banded together just to kill a boss. Wouldn't that make much more sense in a MMORPG? Wouldn't that be all that MMORPG is in fact about? Forget twenty-people battle fights of WoW, here you have two hundred people battle. That would be fucking
epic. I think that, in fact, Square just "redefined a genre". A bit.
Of course I might be totally wrong. The battle could as well be instanced and Square could just be a bunch of humongous dicks.
Ulukai on 14/8/2008 at 08:24
Whilst on one hand it sounds awesome that it requires a battle of epic proportions to take down this guy, I think eighteen hours is way too long.
Back when I used to play WoW and we were doing 40 man raids that would take two to three hours, by the end of it I was titsed off and ready to do something else. Eighteen hours fighting one boss? Get outta here. Even assuming they had twice the people I get the impression it wouldn't be over in a few hours.
I'm all for putting the M into MMORPG, but don't you think Square have have grabbed the bull by the horns and run to the moon with it?
200-people battles? Hell yes. 18 hours? No thanks,
june gloom on 14/8/2008 at 08:38
This is precisely why I don't play MMOs- they're timesinks. I rarely play games more than a few hours at a time- 6 hours at most, and that's if it's new and really engaging, otherwise it's more like 4 hours. More often than not I tend to take breaks every couple hours or so- the problem with MMOs is that even if I wanted to take a break, I can't- I'm obligated, forced- to keep going, otherwise I'd have to start all over again and/or risk my guild getting pissed at me.
With school, work, and other obligations, who the hell has the time to blow 18 hours on a game? God, if you're going to play until you're sick then I think you need to find a new hobby.
Koki on 14/8/2008 at 09:52
Quote Posted by Ulukai
Whilst on one hand it sounds awesome that it requires a battle of epic proportions to take down this guy, I think eighteen hours is way too long.
But that's the point; it was one guild. If it was two guilds, it would be nine hours. Three guilds - six hours. And so on.
Just like your 40-man three hour long WoW raid could be done in 90 minutes with 80 people(Except you can't do that because of instances).
dethtoll, your problem with MMORPGs is not that they're timesinks because I never heard about anyone complaining that a game they like is too long. You just don't like grinding.
Ulukai on 14/8/2008 at 11:28
Point taken, but I still have doubts in other areas about the reaslistic feasability of this.
Assuming you could get together enough people to achieve your goal in a reasonable amount of time, I know from experience that trying synchronise attacks involving large groups of players online can be a downhill, and often nigh impossible battle, espeically when there are several inter-guild spats going on and inevitably the one player who accidently triggers some kind of firey annihiiation because his cat ran across the keyboard and Ultimate Satan didn't take kindly to having Engorge Hamster Parts cast on his weener. (Or Similar :cool: )
And don't even get me started on the arguments that are likely to erupt between 100 people about who gets the phat loot.
Although not at all similar, I think EVE is the best MMORPG at handling 'epic scale' battles as players can pretty much come and go as they please. There's then just the lag monster to contend with...
Volitions Advocate on 14/8/2008 at 13:23
Quote Posted by Koki
dethtoll, your problem with MMORPGs is not that they're timesinks because I never heard about anyone complaining that a game they like is too long. You just don't like grinding.
Final Fantasy 1.. that was grinding. Get your player up to speed to meet the next challenge. In other words.. gain a few levels. Classic RPG stuff. Phantasy Star II is one of my favorites.
But when you inflate that.. I agree with Ulukai. The only game I ever bought for the sole purpose of playing Multi player was Diablo 1. and it was fun. But back then it was all about everquest. and guys were dumping their whole lives on that game. selling their characters on ebay for 100K and crap like that. The grind is levelling up a few levels. Not levelling up a few scores of levels. Thats why I never played Diablo 2 much. My friends were playing it and getting sucked into the everquest trap. "gotta get my lvl 60 barbarian" but to do that they did this endless questing for days at a time. Dethtoll is right. its a complete time sink.
Quote:
With school, work, and other obligations, who the hell has the time to blow 18 hours on a game? God, if you're going to play until you're sick then I think you need to find a new hobby.
Voice of reason as far as I'm concerned.
rachel on 14/8/2008 at 15:37
Quote Posted by Ulukai
...I know from experience that trying synchronise attacks involving large groups of players online can be a downhill, and often nigh impossible battle, espeically when there are several inter-guild spats going on and inevitably the one player who accidently triggers some kind of firey annihiiation ...
Ulukai on 14/8/2008 at 16:32
Oh yes.
Didn't want to mention the Leeroy vid because it's such a cliche these days...doesn't stop it being oh so true, tho' :D
catbarf on 14/8/2008 at 17:38
Do these people have jobs?
I'm not one for instant gratification, but doing the same thing over and over again for hours on end is skullfuckingly boring.
When I play a game, I want to be entertained. I don't want to be able to kill anything from the get-go, but I want the struggle to be enjoyable. I don't want to pay someone else to get the privilege of work.
Koki on 14/8/2008 at 18:03
Having your avatar gain levels, points and equipment is enjoyable.
Why is do you find it so hard to believe?
