Epic Slant is pleased to host differing (or similar) opinions from other players and guest articles. As always please allow me to dispense with the necessary disclaimer. The following article and author’s opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions and/or views of Epic Slant, Ferrel, or any staff writers. -Ferrel
Hello all! I have known Ferrel for many an epoch and I wanted to help him shed light on video games. Whether the focus be on the industry, current games, or even past games; I will shed an unfiltered and of course bias light on my thoughts in regards to these topics listed and many that aren’t. I hope to bring to the table a bimonthly news feed on what I think is hot and what is not.
Many people who know my tag name, Anarchous either love me or hate me. Well, I guess there are also people that do a little of both. I am known to bring information to the forefront whether people like it or not. I prefer not to beat around the bush, when I can drive a lawnmower right through it, lol. However, I must digress and get down to business. As I stated before my tag name is Anarchous and though it only fitting to call this and my future posts Anar’s Roast -n- Toast™. Here I will pick a subject and either toast the idea or roast it. I keep it respectful but I definitely won’t hold back any punches.
The topic on my, “plate of fate” today is in-game loot. First I will discuss what I think loot is now in the MMO world and then what I think it should be.
Loot is the reason why most play MMo’s. I understand wanting to play with your friends or people who play to have a chat room with toons to run around with. However, at the end of the day people want phat lewts! Everyone wants that new shiny that does great damage or provides wondrous protection. As a result, most MMo’s out now perpetuate this carrot leading a donkey fix by creating end-game loot. Your days online consist of endlessly trying to amass and outfit your guild with the best loot.
This is where I see the gaming industry as a whole right now. The things that you can choose from are the following: Armor that will be tailored to the generic Archetypes and offer some protection spec’d in a teeter-totter fashion. Meaning you scale something great but you will lose something also equally great. In most of the games the gear all looks the same, which is a very bad thing. If you spent a good amount of time trying to get this gear then it should look like it. I don’t understand why you venture through the worlds of any said game and the NPC’s have better looking gear than you.
Next you have Weapons that will also be generic for the Archetypes and then branch in different directions according to your play style or class specific need. I am trying to be as broad as possible to try to embody the games out now and the past ones. Unfortunately weapons in the last couple of games have seemed to have no thought behind them at all. It would seem that the spec’s put on the weapon where done by a randomizer from a computer program and not even being checked afterwards. In other words, it seems the gear was made on a Monday morning or Friday night before closing.
I could go one for hours about what is wrong but I don’t think that solves anything. I believe if you have a problem then you should focus on the solution and not only the problem. I also have to point out there are games out right now that do have some decent gear but I don’t think it’s nearly enough. For example, in War: Online the gear for melee types is utter crap. I don’t understand why I have end-game weapons and it has about 1-4 DPS more than a low con comparable weapon. The extra stats are usually so off the scale and don’t matter it’s pretty obvious that no one was looking at the gear after it was made. For heaven’s sake, why would a melee class need Willpower on their weapon?
Ok so how do I fix it smart guy, you might ask? I would suggest that gear be specifically designed for the end class type not taking the easy route and making the gear general then class branches afterwards. You can do this by having plans for the gear drop of a MoB. After that then you could hunt for the materials from nodes, MoBs, or just random finds in the world. Finally, you could have a NPC crafter that you have to quest to find or receive complete the weapon or armor. I think quest line should be long but then rewarding at the same time.
Also I would like for games to bring back the specular lighting effects on the weapons. How many people remember their epic weapons/armor from yesteryear that glistened or had a cool effect to them. That effect alone set you apart from people. I remember people sitting in game with their toons shining in all their glory just to let people know they completed a great mission.
What I am trying to convey is that people want challenges but they also want rewards. However, the rewards can’t all be the same; they need to have some Uberness to them. Gamers are craving, I think, for the next game that will challenge them in a new way. Not just a new gimmick of innovation. I would suggest that people dig in the crates of the old school games and see what made their gear great and not so great. Then take that information and compile it into a new gen MMO. I don’t understand what the cry for balance in gear is all about in the end-user community is all about. In my experience the people that whine about balance are just lazy players 90% of the time. However, balance issues are an altogether another issue to tackle.
Please let me know what you think. Am I totally off my rocker with this post? Do you agree with me? Also what games did you think had it right or wrong? Roasting -n- Toasting is no fun by yourself; so join me in either a BBQ of ideas or a swill of great gaming mead.
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Totally agree on the part about good itemization and gear that looks great.
In another way I also think it’s kind of obvious. Most developpers when you read what they write pre-launch or talk to them says the same thing you just write.
The problems seem to be rather how to implement said dream system.
“I don’t understand what the cry for balance in gear is all about in the end-user community is all about. In my experience the people that whine about balance are just lazy players 90% of the time.”
I cringe when I read a generalisation such as 90% of players who complains are lazy. If you have a 100 players can you really say you know each and every 100 of them. Maybe 10 of the 90 complainings have really found a problem with class balance. Another 30 could be new players to the game who get hammered in pvp by players who far outger them, having played longer. 5 found an exploit in the game and are abusing it. And finally 10 others don’t really understand the game mechanics and are blaming the class balance when in fact its another problem altogether. So if you dismiss all of these with a wave of the hand you just missed 45 legit concerns you could work to improve. Sounds like a surefire way to get out of touch with the player base and be pointed as yet another company who made a crappy game.
Why do people complain?
Because players want to know they have a chance every fight. Better gear should give a player an edge but not outright determine the winner. No one wants to get into a fight where skill doesn’t matter and only gear does. If I just got to max level and want to gear up for pvp for example I expect it not be easy, but I also want it to be possible. If to gear up I need to win and I can’t win because mostly everyone outgears me(they started earlier), then at some point I’ll get angry.
I do think you have a valid point Gareld, and yes you did catch me using generalized broad strokes. I did this more for effect then anything else and to get a dialogue of ideas going.
I also agree with your stance on gear progression. However, it would seem the last few games that I have played of late are lacking in depth to that said gear. It is almost as if the developers in charge of items got a little bored with the numbers after the first 20 levels of great gear.
People want uber but not a grind. They want unique but they dont want no chance of getting it. Its contradictory (and probably unsolvable).
Personally I think need to listen to the people less when it comes to gear. The cries of MORE MORE MOOOOORE can never be satisfied.
I miss the days of Epic Quests in games like Dark Age of Camelot. Not only did that quest yield a great weapon for the class, but it took time and levels and you could do a majority of it solo or with some help from a few friends. I liked how the weapon had a unique look to it (for my Paladin is was an awesome Golden 2h slasher) and people knew you were weilding an epic piece of gear just by passing you on the street.
Everquest and Everquest 2 both had similar types but the biggies required huge forces or a few groups of really good players to get to the end result. This is nice for those people who have a large group of friends or a good guild to rely on, but not so much for those more casual players who only know a few people. The thrill of killing a raid mob to get your Prismatic or your beloved 8th Shawl is so nice, but the thrill of being able to do it no matter what type of player you are is also nice.
I think raid gear type epics should be the best of the best, where as epics that you can quest for solo and with a max of 1 full group should be hot enough to set you apart from the average MMO Joe. I miss my DAoC days at times. It was my first MMO and things seemed much more simple back then =)
What do you want to reward? Challenge , luck or being able to spend a lot of time in the game?
Everyone will say challenge right off the bat. So if you go from there the bigger the challenge the better the reward should be. The thing is that most games will put the greater challenge in raids, where the other two aspect I mentionned are as important to success as the challenge itself.
If someone who plays solo if offered a solo challenge as hard as the hardest raid encounter he should get same rewards no? After all equal challenges should be rewarded equally. When Ferrel talks about microcore it’s also the same thing. If they can do something with a smaller group but as hard as the original challenge he should get the same kind of reward.
What we need is a company who will have the guts to challenge the whole Raids are the superior activity in MMOs. It’s been that way since EQ and it’s time for a change.
How do you create a solo challenge that even comes close to the challenge of a raid?
First I am glad to see a good dialogue coming from this post, which I am thankful for.
I think everyone is making very vakid points here. I do believe with challege a reward should be equal. However, my times than not we allow for medicore rewards in hopes that the next expansion will yield more fruitful items or content.
I want a game that players really want to play and amass things for. Let’s face it, I think it might be safe to say that we play games to see what type of gear and skills we can display, to our friends and our enemies.
I for one will hold out hope for this type of game to be displayed in the games like SW:ToRP, JumpGate, and Copernicous. I have the hope that maybe for once the focus will be on game play and content, and not on how many scripts or gimmicks they can promote.