9. Multiplayer Environment
MMOs sell themselves as essentially an episode of .hack//Sign, where players are completely in character taking the fantasy world seriously (hold on while the average WoW player finishes their laughing fit), this is marginally not the case. Not just in the way the players choose to play the game, but in the way most MMOs are basically designed. Sure there is a basic area or zone that varies in size where players can congregate and then proceed to spam obscenities, racial epithets, and out of character game instructions and hacks, followed by the overwhelming amount of complaints about how bad the game sucks (told you). But youd have to look very hard to find anyone actively role playing in a role playing game. Also, character levels typically decide access throughout the game, so if a player and a buddy want to travel together they had better be on the exact same page or it will either result in an error message or instant death. This, were all playing the game together idea is immediately destroyed when it becomes clear that every single player is experiencing the game's story from their own singular perspective, and what another player does has no bearing on what they experience, none! Thats why everyone gets a chance to kill the Lich King, never mind the idea that even when the player is in a party, they are literally alone in a crowd, of sometimes evil, racist trolls who hate sunlight.
Shock Value: False advertise much? There are many ways in which to market an MMO that actually depicts what the player will experience. How can they call it a RPG when RPers are typically relegated to an Unofficial RP Server (which means thats just where a bunch of them decided to set up shop) and are often times ridiculed by other players? After several conversations with RPers and regular players its clear that players generally feel that MMOs (including MMORPGs) arent designed to accommodate role playing. Try selling a car that doesnt accommodate driving.