Comments on: Anar’s Roast -n- Toast

By: Anarchous

Anarchous — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:25:14 +0000

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.

By: Buuncha

Buuncha — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:44:23 +0000

How do you create a solo challenge that even comes close to the challenge of a raid?

By: Gareld

Gareld — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:01:50 +0000

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.

By: Devilicus

Devilicus — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:49:53 +0000

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 =)

By: Glen

Glen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:57:14 +0000

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.

By: Anarchous

Anarchous — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:56:30 +0000

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.

By: Gareld

Gareld — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:46:06 +0000

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.