sciencestick

IMO this is a logical and even predictable consequence of MMO's trying to capture "mass market" lowest common denominator player bases. Speaking from experience MMO's have lost hard core gamers to cater to casual gamers. But like anything with mass consumer appeal, you lose the core audience, and the fickle masses always move on to something else.

Most MMO's these days have completely thrown out the idea of role play, immersion, and suspension of disbelief ( such as rich true to the subject matter Fantasy worlds, RPG's with believable and sensible game mechanics, with abstractions that don't jar you out of suspension of disbelief) to capture an audience that doesn't want to "travel" to a quests, be challenged, face adversity or ever fail a quest. The players they have cultivated want to line up like it's a roller coaster ride at Six Flags, they want to buy their tokens and have their pick of the prize on the wall behind the carnival barker...

So the games are dumbed down, the rules are constantly twisted and morphed (nerfed and buffed) to try and manipulate HOW THE PLAYERS PLAY THE GAME, to make the game play more simple and easy and appealing to people who aren't particularly good at games. like some strange pavlovian social experiment... Wacky sounding (and working) play mechanics abound in every MMO, they proliferate and even eventually have become new "standards" of how to design a game for a lot of people to play... even when those new mechanics jolt hard core gamers out of the sense of immersion and ultimately the fun and the overriding reason to ever play an MMO in the first place (think living their long term heroic fantasy(& Sci Fi/Comic) alter egos).

Yes MMO's bear a striking resemblance to amusement parks and carnivals. Play DDO (it's free) some time... that's not D&D... it's a D&D themed virtual amusement park. There's a quest barker on every corner. Same goes for every other MMORPG out there From the first to the latest, UO to Rift (whatever). They aren't great games any more, they are game-like rides designed to get you to buy the most tickets/tokens and overpriced hot dogs and funnel cakes before you leave feeling queasy and wondering what you spent all your money on.

Raid timers, gear scores, 8x8'ing, Power hour, gimp and uber, Dungeon Alert, PVP, PVE, Stat loss, level cap, combo's, Buffing, Raiding, Nerfs, microtransactions... and a thousand other terms that never would have entered our lexicon if creative and talented game designers and their core gamer audience hadn't given way to mass market lowest common denominator...

@(Unverified)

DDO you can literally cap toons without buying a thing

hey whats this on the wall over here: hmmm seems to be some writing... looks like it says:

yeah don't get your hopes up to actually play it on the Vita

what risk? sounds like a plug and play gamer PC for console types who want a gaming PC but aren't savvy about tech specs (intimidated by all the hardware options) or building their own. Or for PC gamers who don't have the time or are burned out on trying to keep up on all the latest tech.

Basically Valve is trying to capture part of the market that is inclined to buy an "easy" out of the box console, but who might find the power (ultra high res wide screen modes) variety and potential or flexibility of PC games (for example playing FPS's with a real Mouse + KB) or other things like free to play MMO's, real sims (Flight, air combat) and the generally more mature subset of games available on the PC. Consoles might be king in terms of numbers, but lets not forget the very real limitations they have, that PC's don't.

Heck at this point all the top consoles are is a stand alone PC with a budget GPU/CPU/Ram. and proprietary design.

@LittleMofreaky

I beg to differ: not reading the article, and then not typing a comment, would exhibit far less caring.

"doesnt look like a moose to me"

Thats good because it's an Elk.

Now why is he sneaking up on George Washington

@Doctor Who I think the issue is you were replying to sarcasm by taking his post as serious and assuming a political agenda where none was obvious.