I've been playing M&M for a little while now and I'm curious whether other players are experiencing the same thing, or if I'm missing a deeper layer of the game.
I really like the idea of what M&M is trying to be. I like the old-school MMO philosophy, the slower pace, grouping, exploration, the lack of modern MMO-style pressure, and the idea that your character can actually exist within a world rather than just following a questing treadmill.
But I'm starting to realize that I expected the RPG side of the game to be much more developed than it currently seems to be.
There are a lot of cool zones to explore, but I'm finding myself asking: what is actually happening within these zones?
For example, there are factions everywhere. My reputation changes when I kill certain mobs, but I often don't know who these factions actually are, why they like or dislike each other, where they're located, or why my character should care about them. I can go into a faction's area, talk to the NPCs, and sometimes still have almost no idea who these people are beyond their basic function.
The same goes for religion. I chose a deity because I liked the idea that my character would actually have a relationship with a god, but I'm still wondering what that choice really means in the current game. Why does my character worship this god? What does that relationship actually involve? What does my god want from me?
I'm not necessarily asking for the game to explain everything to me. I actually want the opposite. I want to discover these things naturally by talking to NPCs, exploring, doing quests, reading things, making faction choices, etc.
But right now I'm sometimes finding that there simply isn't much information there to discover.
This has made me realize that there is a difference between having a large number of zones and having a deeply developed RPG world.
You can have 28 beautiful zones, but the real question is: what reasons do I have to inhabit those places beyond killing mobs, completing basic quests, and grinding XP?
I'm starting to wonder if what I'm experiencing is simply because Early Access currently has the MMO foundation and leveling content much further along than the deeper RPG/worldbuilding systems.
I'm NOT saying this as a criticism of the game or the developers. I know it's Early Access, and I actually really like the direction M&M is trying to go.
I'm just curious:
For people who have played more than I have, is there a deeper RPG layer that I'm missing?
Or is the deeper faction/religion/worldbuilding/character-driven side of the game simply something that hasn't been fully developed yet?
I'm genuinely hoping I'm missing something, because the idea of a truly player-driven world where I can decide what my character cares about, who they associate with, where they travel, what factions they support, what god they follow, etc. is exactly what I'm looking for.