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Why are the Bard class and houssing so rare in mmos?

LoukaLouka Member, Alpha Two
That's a real question !

Why are Bards never or very little represented in MMOs?

I would like to know if Ashes is going to do it, because that would be a really good idea.

And that would change us from the usual, shaman, druid, priest etc...

I remember playing a very long time ago, a "free" MMO.

There was the bard class in it.

And quite frankly, if the devs manage to do it, it would make a hell of a pub to the game.

In addition a support class is always good.

The bard was used in this MMO to literally "ignite" the scene (the enemies), give speed buffs with catchy music, healing with hymns and other, MC with captivating music and "silence" with the spell of cacophony.

It was super fun to play and it was fun to play.

And for houssing this free mmo game had one too.

we could organize "banquets", parties etc. and people came, discussed, sat on the furniture that I had to place myself.

And once the party was over everyone had a power and exp buff.

I'm not saying that this game was perfect because, if you used your bank card, you could be full of stuff and kill everyone very easily.

But there were good ideas.

That no large group like blizzard has ever taken into account.

Must say that their dev 'do not play their own game, how do you want to see the faults?


Finally here, I hope that the devs of Ashes will try to get out of the lot of MMOs dominated only by WoW which is getting worse from year to year because there is no innovation, since there is no competition .

Thank you for reading me and good luck to the devs of Ashes, I place a lot of hope in this game!


a french player

Comments

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  • Taleof2CitiesTaleof2Cities Member, Alpha Two
    Lost Ark did pretty well on the Bard class ... enough for it to be my main anyway.

    Based on the development updates, Intrepid seems to care enough for attention to detail and player feedback.

    Those two alone should give you some hope on housing, @Louka.
  • StreviStrevi Member
    edited October 2022
    Louka wrote: »
    Why are the Bard class and houssing so rare in mmos?
    That's a real question !

    Why are Bards never or very little represented in MMOs?

    Because MMORPGs built upon these roles, have to offer a relevant activity to deserve that "bard" name.
    And players end up willing to play the riskier aspects of those "roles".
    So a bard which entertains others, if eventually runs out of audience, will end up having to steal. It becomes more a thief than soldier. And ends up selling stolen stuff which pushes him toward trading too.

    What else can a bard do to justify it's existence? To be a source of information? They could be the ones who travel from town to town and bring news. But in such games everybody travels. Nobody stays to "live" in their village, waiting for an entertainer to pass and bring news.

    Then houses have little meaning in such games as they are instanced. Nobody can break into them to see what you have inside. And they appear where the developer allows, not where you want to build them.
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  • maouwmaouw Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I think a lot of it has to do with the roots of the Bard class in DnD.

    The best players (my opinion) usually have a playstyle that's all about pulling off ridiculous diplomatic solutions to a given situation instead of outright combat (e.g. seduce the ogre, settle a fight via riddles, pretend to be an authority figure to bypass prison guards, etc.) Dramatic entrance, quiet exit.

    This doesn't leave much root material for bards in terms of combat. Not to say there isn't any, it's just not the focus of the class in traditional RP.
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  • VeeshanVeeshan Member, Alpha Two
    Bards dont tend to sit in the heal dmg or tank build, same deal with enchanters which i miss from the old EQ days.
    offence and defence support classes tend to get left out because there not a DPS Healer or Tank so doesnt slot with holy trinity normally. bards ive seen in games tend to be healers or dmg dealer but not realy support role.
  • SongRuneSongRune Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited October 2022
    Louka wrote: »
    That's a real question !

    Why are Bards never or very little represented in MMOs?

    I would like to know if Ashes is going to do it, because that would be a really good idea.

    And that would change us from the usual, shaman, druid, priest etc...

    I remember playing a very long time ago, a "free" MMO.

    There was the bard class in it.

    [...]

    And for houssing this free mmo game had one too.

    we could organize "banquets", parties etc. and people came, discussed, sat on the furniture that I had to place myself.

    And once the party was over everyone had a power and exp buff.

    I'm not saying that this game was perfect because, if you used your bank card, you could be full of stuff and kill everyone very easily.

    But there were good ideas.

    That no large group like blizzard has ever taken into account.

    A lot of big names have Bard classes.

    Square-Enix, for instance. FFXI (bard, housing, housing related buffs) and FFXIV (bard, housing) both have both of these things, and FFXIV has 27 million players.

    BDO, too, has both housing and bards (though they have a different name (search "Awakening")), but then, BDO has a lot of unusual class names.

    It looks like Bards can also be found in Lineage 2, and you can get housing in ArcheAge, as well.

    I certainly accept that a lot of games don't have a Bard class, and (as a biased bard) they definitely should. But these aren't exactly un-heard-of names in the MMO world, so it's a bit of a stretch at least to say no large group (see: Square-Enix) has ever done it.

    EDIT: Updated the statistics on FFXIV player count. I get the impression that this site's statistics are a bit inaccurate, given the 29,000 daily active players listed for Ashes of Creation...
  • IskiabIskiab Member, Alpha Two
    edited October 2022
    In the early MMOs bards were required for raiding, support classes were very powerful but not a lot of people played them. This led to MMOs trying to relax group comp requirements so it was easier for people to group.

    WoW got rid of support classes and spread their abilities amongst other classes. WoW was really popular, so most MMOs copied WoW and got rid of support too. The issue is early MMOs got their class ideas from D&D, so people kept asking for bards to be implemented in games.

    The interesting thing is what a bard is evolved over time too, DnD changed bards into healers taking the idea from MMOs, and now that's what a lot of people think of when they think of bards. Bards in games like EQ had zero healing abilities.

    I have no idea what bards will be in ashes, they could be healers or pure support. I'm thinking they'll be more support and priests will be the healers. If they want 1 of each class per group that would make sense to me, there shouldn't be too much overlap
  • LoukaLouka Member, Alpha Two
    yes but i mean, if all mmos have all the same classes, it's super boring.

    it's like in wow. People all play the same class or spec, 'cause the game was coded by a monkey. And the balancing sucks.

    it will be the difference between developers who play their game and those who make a game just to squeeze a license to the last drop
  • Pretty much all mmorpgs except WoW have had Bards so i can guess which game OP comes from :P
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  • SongRuneSongRune Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Selo wrote: »
    Pretty much all mmorpgs except WoW have had Bards so i can guess which game OP comes from :P

    Or, you know, ArcheAge, one of the primary inspirations for Ashes of Creation, and a game many forum-goers may be familiar with as a result.
  • VaknarVaknar Member, Staff
    Why are bards not in every MMO? I don't know.. However, I'm certainly happy they will be present in Ashes of Creation! I myself can't wait to play a Bladedancer :)
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  • NoaaniNoaani Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    SongRune wrote: »
    Selo wrote: »
    Pretty much all mmorpgs except WoW have had Bards so i can guess which game OP comes from :P

    Or, you know, ArcheAge, one of the primary inspirations for Ashes of Creation, and a game many forum-goers may be familiar with as a result.

    Archeage had Songcraft. Paired with Auramancy, you could be basically what anyone would call a Bard - it just wasnt called "a Bard".
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