Social MMORPGs Are Ridiculous

I tried playing one of those social MMORPGs the other day. I think it was Secret Builders and the game was so bad it’s ridiculous. There are so many browser based MMORPGs out there with an emphasis on social interaction. Games like Littlest Pet Shop Online, Habbo and OurWorld for example play almost exactly like Secret Builders. Players simply walk around and, get this, chat. That’s it. All of these games rely on people interacting and chatting with each other. I mean, the game has a cool historic component to it, where you can learn history by completing quests, but I predict no one actually cares about this bit.

I can’t believe so many people play these games. When I played Secret Builders, the game was absolutely packed. Every single map in the game had players in it. Think about Secret Builders is, it’s not really a game. In 3D MMORPGs like Soul of the Ultimate Nation from ijji and Rappelz from gPotato, you can at least kill monsters and gain levels in standard MMORPG fashion. In these social MMORPGs though, the only thing you can really do is talk with others. Unfortunately, since these games are designed simply for chatting, most guys look for girls to talk, but these people don’t realize that there aren’t any girls on the internet, so they’re just wasting their time.

I wouldn’t mind these games so much if they had more things to do. At least social MMOs like Gaia Online and eRepublik have a purpose. Same with ShowUp from Snail Games. It’s a dancing MMO but with a social component – not a social MMO with a bunch of crappy flash games on the side. I guess on the positive side Secret Builders has a housing component to it same as OurWorld, which is a good way to stay busy, but I feel these games don’t offer enough to “do”. I gave both of these games a sincere attempt, but I couldn’t stay hooked on either. I’m not condemning these MMOs, as they do have larger playerbases, so people clearly see things in these social MMOs.

If you have any social MMOs – enlighten me. What am I missing? Why do you guys play these games?

Chat Room MMORPGs

Just the other day I found a new MMORPG – Oz World. Now, Oz World isn’t exactly a new MMORPG, but it’s new to me, as I’ve never played it before. After downloading it and playing it for five minutes, I was quite disgusted. Apparently, the entire game is just a 3D chat room. So it’s basically a social MMORPG. Now, this wouldn’t exactly be a bad thing if the game had some decent visuals and smooth gameplay, but that isn’t the case. The graphics are quite bad, worse than Priston Tale, which came out in 2001. I probably would have played the game a bit longer than five minutes, if I had seen other people in the game, but I only saw like four or five people in the entire game, and they were afk somewhere fishing.

Now, It’s not that I don’t like social MMORPGs, but I want something a ‘bit more’ from my games, as I tend to like action MMORPGs. One example of a social game with a little something ‘extra’ is 5Street, as it’s a dancing game with a large social component to it. Neopets and Gaia Online are more examples of social games that offer more than just a social experience. Both Neopets and Gaia have minigames in them to keep things fresh. The concept of a 3D chatroom is pretty lame, if that’s all it is, as there’s nothing wrong with regular chatrooms.

Oz World was made by a company called OnGamePort, they also publish another terrible game called Deicide Online. One company, two bad games. I actually played Deicide before, and should have known any game published by the same dudes that made Deicide would be bad.

What do you guys think? Are chat room MMORPGs fun? Bad? Let me know!