Some MMO players may recall a time when instancing pretty much didn’t exist. If you wanted to go after a raid mob you had to compete in the cut throat world of high end gaming. Sometimes you’d……

I don’t know if people follow consoles or not, but that is why XBox 360 is killing everyone out there because they have achievements; along with downloadable content. They were the first to release this idea for consoles and everyone else is playing catch-up. I can personally tell you I will always buy a multi-platform game on the 360 over other systems because of this “tracking” ability.

I am all for this type of idea. I would venture a guess that most people would like this aspect of tracking as well. What you describe is what people crave for in most aspects in life. You want to work hard and hopefully receive a memorable achievement for it.

I do have to point out that there are games out right now using the system you describe in EQ2. One of the games is Vanguard SoH. Unfortunately, VSoH has been plagued with a mediocre launch and a horrible support crew after the layoffs and buyout from SOE. Vanguard has a personal blog site for your toons and guild information. In addition, VSoH would have trumpets and fanfare play when you did discover something. It would alert all the group members, guild, etc. Also it would take an auto-screenshot and make a post on your blog of all the contributors. I thought it was a great feature.

The other game out right now is War:Online they have guild trophies but guess what they haven’t implemented them. I don’t understand why they even have the tab to display it either. Also there is no mention for future release either. I must say this is very disappointing. They have a guild rank feature but I personally think it’s completely useless at this point.

If you look at the earlier information that was given when the game was in development there was supposed to be relics that you controlled that would add element to the “widget” effect but that has never surfaced. I don’t want to get off on tangent about the gaming industry and their “bait-n-switch” tactics that everyone seems to be employing because that is topic for another day perhaps.

These games are very good in their own right I think, but they lack support and vision it would seem. However, I am not going to cast disparaging comments about the developers of these games, because as I get more involved in the creation aspect of gaming design I find the “bean counters” are the ones ruining peoples gaming experiences because they are focused on a lifeless pie chart.

However, I can see the point of your post and it seems like a pretty decent compromise for the new generation. I’m referring to the 2 group instanced content and so forth .

I really like the EVE API, and I have high hopes that all MMO’s will include similar functionality in the future. When you combine the data tracking capabilities of EQ2 with a decent public API – that’s when life starts getting good

I pretty much agree with you. It’s still a matter of alternatives. Reward competition but don’t punish for not participating. Too often players who have no interest in competition will be denied content or will not have access to rewards(“punished”). Rewards like you suggest does sound like a nice idea.