Tag Archives: leveling

12/14/12

Mists of Pandaria: Playing the Hotbar Game

Over the last week, I’ve spent a decent amount time in Mists of Pandaria plugging along at my 88 Death Knight and 12 Monk. I’ve been having good, if not particularly surprising, fun. I love the painterly quality of Pandaland, hate how Disney playing the starter zone feels, and love how efficient questing is. It’s like mainlining XP straight to the vein. (To note, I don’t think I would like the “three quests 100 feet from the giver” model in most other MMOs. WoW gets away with it because the world is openly a means to an end). While many aspects of the game have evolved, the fact that combat hasn’t stands out.

Dodging and movement have become qualities people have trouble living without. Once you have experienced them, it feels odd and off-putting to go back to a game without. Mists of Pandaria has done its best to circumvent this problem by building reactionary elements into the leveling process. This, in fairness, is great training for heroics and raiding but can’t compete with games designed with movement in mind. WoW might reasonably be called a “classic MMORPG” at this point. Its art holds up but its gameplay is quickly becoming something current developers are avoiding.

When movement means so little, ability selection and timing are elevated beyond all else. Optimizing your class comes down to mastering rotation and priority, hitting this flashing ability in the fewest milliseconds possible. What is interesting is that it’s not a deal breaker for me, and given enough time, I actually come to enjoy the groove. I get a sense of tunnel vision towards my hotbars that is anathema to raiding but quite spellbinding for leveling. Of course, it happens that from time to time you look up to see your rapidly depleting health, but hey, that’s why your screen flashes red.

I’m being facetious but it’s true. Most of WoW is a hotbar game. Raiding comes down to doing it with your eyes closed. Leveling is the training session, but ironically, memorizing the steps comes down to doing exactly what you shouldn’t do in raids. Pandaren zones aren’t enough to overcomes all of Cataclysm, all of Wrath, and all of Burning Crusade. Sorry raid leaders.

The fact that this hasn’t turned out to be a deal breaker further solidifies my idea that there is no fundamental problem with the “core attributes” of MMORPGs. Players have just segmented into different audiences. Some people want new systems. GW2 delivered, and that game is so fundamentally different that it doesn’t even feel like the same type of game. Unless you outright hate classic MMO gameplay, Guild Wars 2 will likely fail as any type of “replacement.”

That’s why I believe action- and hotbar combat have to co-exist or, more likely, a blend of the two will arise and trump them both. I don’t find players to be quite so polarized as the Internet would make believe. Most, I think, are probably a little tired of the old but would prefer something “familiarly new.” It will be fun to see where MMOs are two years from now when all of our speculations begin surfacing in actual design.

You know what the new design of WoW really does show? Blizzard must have thought we were pretty inept before now. That a difficulty spike of “occasionally move over here” is worth noting is a pretty telling design attribute.

12/11/12

[GW2] Horizontal Endgame or a Purposeless, Grind-Centric Existence?

I’ve been reading other people’s blogs more than writing on my own recently and one of those posts is about GW2′s horizontal progression over at Professor Beej. He makes a good case for providing progressing out vs progressing up and it leads me to wonder if I’m just not the intended demographic for such a game. I own Guild Wars 2 and like it well enough, but I didn’t find it nearly as sticky as other games even in the leveling up process. So when he and other bloggers cite things like,

There is no “endgame” because the endgame is just the game itself.

I am tempted to reword that into

There is no “endgame”

Now, I don’t mean to pick on Mr. Beej here because he is hardly to first to draw attention to this fact. ArenaNet has actually done so on several occasions. Likewise, a lot of players have shared similar sentiments since August. But the thing is, even pre-launch I expressed concerns at how valid this actually is. If your model for keeping players engaged after 80 levels of leveling is “go back and do it again,” your thinking is inherently flawed. WoW has always given extra gold and reputation for completing old quests but the number of players with 100% completion is minimal. I firmly believe that people do not like to re-tread old ground unless they are forced to and why daily quests are a stop gap for slower development cycles.

Guild Wars 2 is a bit different because of the event system and karma currency. Neither of these do much to encourage me to return to old zones if there is something even remotely interesting at my own level. It is an odd psychological trait, I suppose, that I would rather stay in new zones for hours on end rather than return to others that I haven’t seen in a while, but I am hardly alone. There is a sense of having earned that end-level content, a feeling that it should be the best and most rewarding (a conclusion which is supported by the game in a number of ways) because it’s taken so much effort along the way. Step 2 trumps Step 1 and Step 3 trumps them both.

I will  return, especially to help friends, and the event system is really a boon. I would, any day, rather return to Queensdale in GW2 than Silverwood in RIFT or the Barrens in WoW. No question about it, Guild Wars 2 holds up better. But going back to a zone whose main purpose was leveling when you’re all leveled up really begs the question of what’s the point.

And don’t say “because it’s fun”. Not only is that a parroting of pre-release hype but also because I don’t much think it holds water in this case. Saying the point of retreading old ground is “because it’s fun” ignores the whole context of this MMORPG. In GW2 combat can be mastered in 1/8th of the leveling process and even the dynamic events boil down to reskins of reskins. “Because it’s fun” may be re-worded as “because the combat is fun” in which case visiting old zones is for the change of scenery. That’s simply not enough to support an endgame.

“The whole game is endgame!” also highlights what I believe is one of the biggest misconceptions there is about Guild Wars 2. The game is incredibly grindy. The is horizontal progression with essentially no point. There is vertical progression with little point and incredible effort. If you want to do something meaningful with your max level character, you had better be prepared for one of the worst grinds in years. High level karma gears costs hours upon hours upon hours of  event grinding and an arm and a leg in virtual currency. If you want a legendary weapon, there is no option to acquire it socially. You will do social things along the way, for sure, but what you’re left with is a laundry list a hundred hours long landing squarely on the shoulders of the player. Even getting dungeon sets require dozens of run-throughs before that’s even a possibility.

Guild Wars 2′s gear game is so incredibly grindy it’s nauseating. In a time when there are so many good titles to choose from, MMO or no, why would I ever bother to grind so much for so little? And the fact that no one talks about this is a little troubling. If only LotRO could have gotten the same treatment with its deed grinds.

Critics of this viewpoint are quick to point out that you can easily buy exotics on the auction house. This is true and will allow you to participate in high-level events and dungeons. I would also highlight that you just chopped off the most meaningful progression left for your character. Mini-pets and cosmetics await because map completion, jumping puzzles, and events… well, I’ll put it this way, if you’re still worried about karma gear when the stat boost to your character is so minimal, that item must look really good.

All of this reinforces that ArenaNet really doesn’t expect players to stick around once they’ve hit the level cap and poked a thing or two. Their model is about the ebb and flow, luring players back with holiday events and zone unlocks. For what it’s worth, that’s actually a pretty good model. I enjoy when games update often; it makes me a satisfied customer. As a player, though, it’s a bit disappointing that 2004′s World of Warcraft has proven much more successful at keeping players interested once the leveling is complete.

03/22/11

Questing in RIFT: Not As Bad As You’ve Heard

RIFT’s questing sucks.

I’ve heard this said over and over again. Every time it’s by someone who has played MMOs for the last 3+ years and has completed no less than 50,000 of them. Let’s please keep our objectivity here, because, I’ve got to tell you, RIFT is no worse than any other game out there. It is Kill Ten Rats, Collect Ten Foozles, Zap 10 Badwots with the Magical Badwot Zapper, but you know what? It does it with style. It’s flashy. It’s fast paced. It’s dangerous. Those are three things quests should be. Quests don’t overstay their welcome (most of the time). For the most part, you hit a hub, do some quests, do some follow-up quests, and move on. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a good Epic Story thrown in there.

Sounds familiar, probably.

See, this is what I don’t get. We can rail against RIFT for having “crap quests” and yet cheer it on for being “familiar.” This and a few other double standards somewhat amaze me. Quests are what we’ve seen before. Yes. They are. Does that make the game less fun? Does it make LotRO, or Age of Conan, or Aion less fun? Let’s just do ourselves a solid, right now: Everything pre-Cataclysm sucks. Cataclysm was the tipping point, it seems, because from that point onward big chunks of the MMO blogosphere got done with the questing system.

And that’s really what it is: players are just done with the questing system. To say that RIFT’s quests are so bad completely lacks context. RIFT’s quests would have fit in very well last year. For what they are, they’re fun. They’re not breaking the mold with soul-like innovations, no, but they are standard MMO fare. The people saying questing sucks so bad are the same people who have already played this system in LotRO, and Age of Conan, and Aion. They’re also the same people most excited about SW:TOR, and Guild Wars 2, and Dynamic Content.  They have sampled the sweetest fruits and most varied fruits and found RIFT lacking. Let’s be clear here: RIFT is no worse than those other games and in some ways is better. The ways it’s better are the little details where Trion’s flair comes out. And yeah, I agree, I wish there was more of that.To say that there is some grand difference, that RIFT is “unfun” is a damnation that would better read “I’m SO tired of the questing system.”

Yet, to simply say “this, the biggest part of the game, the one you’ll be stuck in for the next 49 levels, is unfun,” is tantamount to saying “don’t bother.” That’s what bothers me. RIFT is one of the best PvE MMOs to come out since 2004 WoW. It doesn’t break the mold in the most practical areas. It’s a lot more subversive than that. After you get used to the class-freedom, the constantly changing environments, and perpetual sense of danger, how do you go back to the static worlds of yesterday? How does WoW not look like the sleepy-eyed giant with the safe and secure playground? That’s it, right there. That’s why players should bother and take notice, because, make no mistake, whether you say RIFT is dynamic or not, it changes things. It’s the first shot in the war against staticism (yeah, I made that up). Fans of the genre need to perk up and listen, because this is the first real movement towards next generation’s MMOs.

I’m not saying RIFT’s questing is perfect. It is a weak point in the game. It’s grindy, like all questing systems, repetitive, and, most importantly, un-innovative.  Where they’ve subtly but meaningfully evolved other aspects of RIFT, their questing system remains firmly in The Burning Crusade era of MMOs. It’s easy to see why people would be let down. But what it does, it does well. Quests are interesting and varied; quest text is worth reading for this reason alone. Spell effects are intricate, colorful, and flashy. Quest hubs are designed for the 2011 player: objectives are clearly marked and close together. There’s very little “take this package to Timbuktu via horse and buggy.” That makes quests quick and easy to complete.

What we need to address is the root of Character Power Progression — or CPP as Nils puts it. Whether experience comes from scripted quests, scripted rifts, or scripted events, it all comes down to the same thing: kill the guy, get the stuff, complete the quest. Every way we know it can get old. That’s human nature and one of the top few areas that MMOs are growing stagnant in.

The industry NEEDS innovation, but let’s not lay all the blame at Trion’s feet. They simply had the misfortune of releasing in a time when most of us were ready to move on from 10 Foozles and Badwot Zapping.

08/3/10

Rewind: So You’ve Decided to Go Casual

The following post was original published here on September 30th, 2009. When the blog turned a year old, I noticed that it was one of the top posts on the site (along with being one of my personal favorites). Except, when I posted it, a lot of you hadn’t discovered us yet.  So, here’s a blast from 11 months ago that, for as long as MMOs stay the same, should always apply. Enjoy!

stick-bundleGreetings fellow casuals and welcome to your first lesson in the wonders of casualhood. It’s a strange game we play, you see. Some feel that we’re “doing it wrong” or “wasting our time” or that we should “go back to WoW.” To these people, we flip the bird. Seriously, they can screw off.

You see, you and I have a secret, an equation if you will, that they can only guess at. It goes something like this: real life + family + money = important. Let me break that down, we don’t live with mom and dad. Heck, most of us probably are moms and dads (except me, I don’t have the hips for it) and that means we’re stuck at work before we can get online. Or maybe we’re married and the other half gets pissed when we yell obscenities at our incompetent group mates. That’s life. C’est la vie or some crap.

But we still want to play video games! I mean, what do you think we are, grown ups? To hell with that. We grew up in the video game age and will die with a paddle in our hands. As my dear grandmammy would say: fiddlesticks’ll fry.

So, now that you’ve got your bindle stick packed, slung, and ready to roll, let’s go over a few of the most important facts of life every casual must eventually face.

You’re going to fall behind

It’s true. There’s about no chance of you ever being on top again. You’re raid ladder is now the corporate ladder and Onyxia is now something you read about when you should be working. As your guildmates level up and start raiding and PvP’ing, you’re probably still going to be grinding through Thousand Needles and mining copper. My suggestion? Learn how to fly solo and only turn on vent when you want inspiration. They’ll tell you all about what you’re missing, rest assured.

mock_accident

This kid thought he was hardcore.

Grouping is for sissies

Yeah, you heard me. Here’s the guy who just wrote an article about how he likes grouping telling you not to group. Well, I have a confession. Sometimes I like to wear high heels too but it’s still not socially acceptable. You’re a casual and grouping is for people a little more hardcore than you. Those guildies are just going to out level you anyways.

I should probably make myself clear here. I’m not telling you not to group. I’m telling you not to plan on grouping. That clever one liner about your guildies out leveling you? It’s probably going to be true unless you find someone equally as casual to play with. In which case… L2P noob.

It’s best not to fight it

That’s right. Take it in stride because if you don’t, well, you’re a lost cause. If you’re casual, it’s because either you want to be or you need to be. There’s no in between. If you want to be, then you’re probably already self-actualized, in which case, why the hell aren’t you writing this article? If you need to be, it’s because be happyyou have priorities that are more important than gaming. Too bad. Real life kicked in and this is the hand you’re dealt. Move on, grind boars, and smile. In the words of Bobby McFerrin, don’t worry, be happy.

It’s not all bad…

I don’t want to send you away thinking your MMO career has gone carebear. It hasn’t. Even though you’re no longer “hardcore” you still have some “core” left in you. Your games are going to last way longer for you than they ever have before. Seriously. That 1,500 hours you dropped into your first three toons? That’s like 5 years for you now. Think of it this way, playing MMOs can now be in your 10 year plan and if that’s not some kind of “core” I don’t know what is. You’re hardcore with an outlook…

And that’s it for our first lesson. There are your three key things to know before you continue on in Chris’ School of CasualCraft. And yes, we’re calling it CasualCraft because if Crimecraft can do it, so can I.

Congratulations recruit, you’ll never have to worry about burn out again. We’ve moved you from the Mustang to the Oldsmobile of MMO gaming, from the passing lane to the carpool lane, so sit back and enjoy the ride. Ahh…. that sweet, sweet, leg room.

old car

07/16/10

Guided Experience: How Much Handholding is Too Much Handholding?

Over the course of my last couple years MMO hopping, I’ve noticed a great divide in how some games approach progression. Effectively, your time in a game can be broken down into a series of micro activities and macro activities. Micro activities would be things such as questing, crafting, and exploring the zone you’re in. Macro activities are those that effect the larger scheme of things: level progression, zone progression, and story progression.

Each of these impacts how a game translates into the MMO market, which is why it’s striking to me just how many games feel the need to keep you on a rigidly defined path. Yet, there are others who do very well with only the smallest amount of handholding. My recent trip into Vanguard made me question my own expectations. What better place to do that than here?

Micro

The Aion quest log - ready with hyperlinks!

If someone were to ask me what I felt was the most important part of a traditional MMO, I would say the leveling experience. Over the years, we’ve seen a huge boom in devs trying to guide the player from point A to point B, with no downtime in between. This is very different from even two years ago, when most games required players to read quests for clues on how to complete them. Today, there is almost a built in expectation that, if you’re a theme park game, you’ll include some form of Quest Helper. WoW has it. LotRO has it. Aion REALLY has it.

Now, there’s something to be said for this. I don’t enjoy having to search a zone for my entire playtime in the vain hope that I’ll find the mob spawn I’m looking for. These systems evolved out of player demand. For the most part, I appreciate them and use them regularly.

But, look at a game like Aion. That game will not only tell you where to find your quest target but also comes with a series of hyperlinks to help you pin it down. They may as well have included a wiki, right there in game.  In my opinion, that’s a bit much.

The problems with each of these are obvious. The first, while nice, instantly sends the impression that quest content is to be rushed through instead of enjoyed. That’s sad but alright, if you’re an end-game focused MMO. The second simply removes too much thought.

At this point, I think I’m beyond wanting to search out every single quest. I like being told the general vicinity of what I’m looking for. Stepping into Vanguard, I’ve found myself at a bit of a loss going without. Sometimes, “the hut to the west” is just a little too vague to pin down. But, when I play a game like Aion, I feel rushed. Questing is a series of explosions – BAM, BAM, BAM – and hope for a ding at the end of the night. Before you know it, you’re at a point where questing becomes boring and you’re left with the remains.

My thought: pinpoint locations are too much. LotRO has it right, I think, in outlining their map. Not every quest is tracked, too, so I never feel dependent on it. Many folks will say that working around handholding is as simple as not using the tools provided by the game. I’ve been there. I’ve tried it. The result is always feeling like you’re doing things the hard way – not playing as intended – and that’s just not much fun. This is an issue that needs to be designed around not compensated for.

Macro

No one can question the narrative of LotRO

And then there’s the larger picture. This is where the terms “theme park” and “sandbox” come into play.

In my opinion, if your game has a story the player is supposed to care about, it is absolutely the responsibility of the designer to guide the player through it. Dropping a series of narrative arcs into ten different zones and telling the player to have at it is simply bad storytelling. Now, that’s not to say giving the player multiple entry points is bad – it’s actually the opposite – but those same points must be guided. Otherwise, it’s like giving a reader the chapters of a book out of order. It doesn’t work.

Theme park games, right. That’s what we’re talking about in the above and, for the most part, the current crop of MMOs do well. In most games the story guides the player towards the zones appropriate for their level.

Then, you have sandbox games like Darkfall. Story means absolutely zero in DF, which is to its advantage. The same thing applies to EVE. You do what you want when you want and craft the world around your play experience. The problem with this type of game is that it leaves the player out to dry. They become dependent on other players and certain key missions to tell them where to go and what to do. Frankly, they scare people off as their design flies in the face of most games that have come out in the last 20 years. Sandboxes have existed, sure, and the only ones that don’t fall into a niche are those that make story paramount.

But, there are a lot of games that fall somewhere in-between. Fallen Earth, for example. There’s a story there. But there’s also a sandbox. Thankfully, the quest system is done well and keeps players moving where they need to go. Then there’s Vanguard, which I feel doesn’t guide the player well enough for a game so large.

These in-betweens face the unique problem of lacking a true identity.

For myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that if you’re game has a story I should care about, it should guide me along its path. That means never feeling lost or unsure of where to go to continue. There should be freedom built in there, lots of it. We don’t want another Tortage from AoC. But, the only games who get a pass on guiding their players are those where being guided simply doesn’t matter. There’s not many.

I guess that, overall, I prefer to have my hand held. That sounds bad but it shouldn’t. The truth is, I think that’s what most of us want: to follow a quest line, to have a goal, and a means to achieve it; to never feel lost or without something to do. Hand holding is a cavalier way to say guiding – and, there’s a definite difference between guiding someone and telling them exactly where to go and what to do.

At its center, perhaps the question has more to do with the type of game you prefer to play: no guiding or limited guiding; theme park or sandbox; EVE or LotRO.

More importantly, how much challenge do we really receive  – or want, even – when we play?

–

I’d like to end this week with a message of welcome to all the new faces around here. It’s true what they say about comments being like blogger currency and it delights me to see new ones popping up every day. THANK YOU to everyone who’s taken the time to say hello and share a thought. There are a many that stay silent and I thank you for reading still. It’s immensely satisfying to know that people are reading and responding to what you write. I only hope that I make it worth your while to stop by. The same thanks goes out to all of my fellow bloggers who link back here on their sidebars and in their posts. The MMO blogging community is one of the most welcoming and kind in all of gaming. I am happy to be a part of it and happier to link back to you — so, if you’re not on the sidebar and would like to be, email me!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

06/28/10

Full Voicing Might Be a Bust

As a rule, I’m pretty skeptical of full voicework in RPGs. When it’s done right, it can be great and add to the immersion and storytelling. When it’s done wrong, though, it’s the exact opposite and the entire product winds up feeling cheap and under-produced. So, I have my reservations about SW:TOR.

The first, and most recent, comes with the news that every character will have their own voice. This just seems problematic to me. As a matter of fact, lead designer Daniel Erickson lays out some of the biggest concerns.

Daniel Erickson

“Our player characters were not going to be voiced because it’s a massively insane expenditure and hugely complicated to do. You have to cast 16 of the best actors ever and then hold them for eternity.”

Add to that the fact that your character, and thereby that voice, is your gateway to immersion and you have a pretty big risk. The worst thing a game can do is remind you that you’re playing it. Just like good literature, games are  more fun when we can sink in and experience the game, rather than play it. There’s also something to be said for being an individual, which Bioware  hasn’t spent much time focusing on (other than talent trees).

I’m not the biggest fan of Dragon Age’s voiceless conversation system but I like it better than Mass Effect’s. Mass Effect plays like a movie, Dragon Age plays like an RPG.

Second, and I’m surprised no one has mentioned this, is exactly how long will it take to release new content? If every quest has to be recorded and then re-recorded with the different conversation options, you’re adding a huge amount of development time onto each content patch. If it’s good, and big, maybe it will be worth the wait and keep people satisfied. If it’s rushed, then you risk having the patch fall flat on its face. It’s a tricky medium.

Like most of you, I’m excited for TOR. Believe me, I hope that this game is all that we’ve waited for and more. If Bioware can live up to their reputation, it very well may be. I’ll play it until I’m cheek to the keyboard asleep, if that’s the case.

One thing is for sure though, TOR will change how we perceive the MMO. The question is, will push the traditional MMO design forward or blend single-player RPGs into the online space? It’s an exciting time.

03/29/10

The Multiverse – Episode #12 “Guest Starring: Jon of Drunken Legacy (the Raidisode)

Our first raidisode!

Happy Monday Folks,

And you know what that means; another Monday means another Multiverse! We’re up to Episode 12 now and we brought a guest along to join the fun. This week Jon (Maxivik) of the Drunken Legacy guild joined us to talk about raiding. As a long time member and officer in a leading WoW guild, he knows his stuff and it shows in the discussion. Thanks Jon, for joining us. You’re welcome back any time.

That’s not all though. Since we took a week off, we got to save up on some of the biggest news stories from the time in between. We talk about Derek Smart and Alganon, EA an SW:TOR, and Bill Roper stepping down from Champions. Was he made to step down or was it time for him to move on?

Thanks again for joining us. If you get a moment, we encourage you to participate in the show by dropping us an email or leaving a comment below. And don’t forget how much we love 5-star reviews on iTunes! They melt my pudding. Seriously.

Here are this week’s notes:

Vagary Homepage
Subscribe to the Show
iTunes Feed
Download Here (right click, save as)

Listen Here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Introduction:

  • Welcome Jon!
  • What have we been playing/where the heck were were last week?

Discussion:

  • News – Derek Smart and the head that’s about to pop, Bill Roper stole our little dog too and leaves Champions, and EA sets RIDICULOUSLY LOW goals for SW:TOR. Come on guys, get some ambition already.
  • Raiding – What is it really, and why are we crazy enough to do it.

Shout Outs:

Contact Info/Host Sites

03/19/10

Will Cataclysm Last Long Enough?

Heading into the weekend, I like to leave us with a bit of speculation to mull over. Everyone’s excited for Cataclysm, right? It’s Blizzard’s most ambitious expansion yet and plans to reshape to legacy game we’ve come to know so well. It’s also planning on adding five extra levels to the end game and launch with more raid content than any expansion that’s come before it.

And that right there is the crux for me. Will Cataclysm be enough to keep players satisfied for the next two years? Based on this, I’d say no, probably not.

Five Levels

I’ve talked before about ten levels per expansion being a little bit much. Yet, as I’ve thought about the trek from level 1-85, the more I’ve come to realize that if you’re halving the leveling content, other things need to step up to fill in the void.

Big questions come out of this. Namely, how long will it take to hit 85, and how will they balance progress/activity to prevent it from becoming a grind? If it’s too quick, players will feel jipped. If it’s too slow, they’ll become frustrated.

The psychology behind it is important. By halving the amount of levels to be gained, a perception of less content is created. Or, alternatively, a perception of more grind takes its place. In either case, the end-game needs to be there for every single player more than ever before. It needs to shine to compensate for that change in psychology from previous expansions. And that’s true for everything, not just raiding which they seem to be aware of.

Heroics

Marwyn - Halls of Reflection

Now, we all know that leveling is really just a barrier before players hit the end game. Eventually, everyone will hit 85 and go about their business. Before anyone hits the raid content, however, they’ll have to begin with heroics which, I believe, is probably the biggest issue.

With 5-levels less of a range to work with, I think that we’ll probably see fewer heroics than in previous expansions. Red alert. Fewer heroics might lower the barrier to raiding but it also lowers the barrier to burn out. Nothing will wear people out quicker than forced repetition. But, maybe I’m wrong. Yet, that would seem to raise a totally different issue.

With only five levels to work with, it’d be a lot harder to itemize for the same amount of heroics. With less of a progress, we enter into the realm of lateral upgrades. I don’t know about you, but I don’t get too excited about the option of +2 int or +2 stamina. What does it really matter? Yet, providing better itemization for some dungeons and not others, in the same level bracket, will only mean the worse ones get ignored.

The main issue is that less heroics equals quicker burn out. We all run them, raiders or not, so this is a big issue. I remember being concerned about burn out when WotLK launched with fewer 5-mans than than TBC. Sure enough, people got tired of it quicker. Cataclysm? If you’re a non-raider, it looks like the end game might just wear out a lot quicker for you.

Rolling an Alt -or- Raiding

The answer, of course, is to roll an alt and experience the new content. Personally, that’s the first thing I’m going to do; I can’t wait. But, not everyone enjoys leveling. Actually, by now, most dedicated players will probably have numerous level 70-80 characters. So, unless those players can “do it all over again” or they’re out of luck.

Raiding is the next best answer, after leveling and heroics are worn out. But, the fundamental problem that plagues not just WoW but every raid-centric game, is that it’s an activity not allowed on the player’s own terms. If you want to raid, you have to find and align yourself with a group of players in similar circumstances to your own. For a lot of players, that is the insurmountable barrier that has and will continue to keep them from progression raiding.

My Prediction

Which brings me to my most optimistic point in the article, there is an answer. There’s an answer for all of it: open the doors of raiding to players on their own terms. And how?

A Cross-Server Looking for Raid (LFR) Tool.

The success of the Cross-Server LFD tool has clearly shown Blizzard that this is the way forward. According to The Instance #181, they’re even planning on bringing the tool (single server, of course) into guild recruitment. Which begs the question: where is the Looking for Raid tool? You know it’s coming.

And my prediction is that, this technology, the one that will literally blow any non-gear barrier off the face of raiding, will come with the expansion with more raid content than ever before.

That’s the only solution in my mind. Of course, raid ID’s will need to be worked out. But, we have to be honest: you know, I know, and Blizzard knows that World of Warcraft is not the powerhouse it used to be. It hasn’t grown in two years. Letting players burn out on the end-game quicker than ever before will push it to a decline, and who wants that?

Let me be clear here, though. I love WoW. I always have. It is a good, fun, game, and I plan on leveling one, if not two, new characters through the reshaped Azeroth. As a non-raider, though, and one that wants to raid, less end-game on my end only means I’ll take my leave of WoW quicker. A raid tool like this excites me and answers all of my concerns. Here’s hoping it comes.

I’m very interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. I’m going to call out a couple of bloggers directly, though, since they have more insight than my own. So, Spinks (latest post) and Tobold (latest post), what do you think about this – will Cataclysm be enough to last another two years until the Emerald Dream expansion four?

Have a good weekend everyone!

PS: Ah, what the hey, it’s Friday. SynCaine (latest post), what do you think Cataclysm will bring?

03/10/10

Breaking Free of the End-Game

Unlike a lot of gamers, I really like to level. Questing is fun and seeing that golden ring light up around you character as you ding is satisfying like nothing else I’ve experienced to date. Heck, I liked leveling up before I even knew what questing was. Each new ding was a mark of power. I was getting somewhere.

Today, the goal of all of that isn’t to look forward to more leveling, but rather for it all to stop. The “real” game begins once you cap out. That’s an interesting sentiment because it implies that everything that comes before is just filler, to slow us down from getting there to quick.

Level Filler

Kill Ten Koala-Bears.

Now hold on a second. I take umbrage with that idea because it implies that what I enjoy the most is shallow. More than that, it implies that all MMOs before WoW were shallow. Doesn’t that seem just a little bit screwballed?

Let’s forget for a moment that WoW is, at its core, one of the most simplistic MMOs out there. But, believing that the raiding treadmill design philosophy is the best totally ignores everything on which it was based.

Take Ferrel, for example. He blames himself, for being one of the rare “super elite” that would raid competitively before WoW came along. He acknowledges in that post that most players did not ever get to the level cap. Yet, if you asked them, most would look back on their EQ days more fondly than anything that came after.

This idea that the leveling game is filler is a new one and, really, undermines what it’s all about.

The End-Game, As We Know It.

It’s kind of ironic then, that the game that propagated the idea of throwaway levels, is also the game that delivers them best. WoW has some of the most fun quest content and polished dungeons out there. Their design is self-defeating, however, because they constantly push people past everything they’ve worked to create.

More DOTS!

Everything under the umbrella of a raiding treadmill is about defeatism for the designers. At best, they can hope for 4-6 months of a raid-zone getting used. A year for 5-man dungeons. Every patch and expansion kills off the great work that came before it.

The Answer

While there’s something to be said for the revolving door end-game play provides, it’s pretty obvious that the design philosophy is flawed. End-game play forces vertical expansions. It forces gear resets and stat inflation. It creates a barrier to any new player coming into the game. If that player still chooses to climb the mountain of levels, they then have to overcome the rampant equipment segregation that’s proliferated since before they began.

Ferrel and I agree, the answer is in slowing down the leveling process.

He would choose to do this by bringing back grinding but I don’t think that’s necessary. The answer, in my opinion, is to drop the amount of XP you get from quests, increase how many of them there are, and give more XP for every mob killed. Couple that with needing more experience to level into the 40’s and onward, and you have a system that will keep people lower, longer. This system also gives people the option of whether they’d prefer to quest or grind, while flattening out the level curve.

A lot of people dislike questing but that is the option most preferred to gain levels. The dev. team of WoW has said so themselves, WoW got quest driven because that’s what we asked for.

Why Should We Do That?

The big question here is why? Why should be segment the community and make getting to the highest levels a chore?

Simple: MMOs are about the journey more than the destination.

When we focus on the moment, we enjoy ourselves more. Mid-game play means a lusher, better built game world. It means being free from min-maxing. It means being free from the trappings of current MMO design both for the players and for the designers.

Think about how it must be for them. The bulk of your efforts must always go towards creating things for the highest level player. Everyone you design for is at the glass wall. You’re limited into a constant cycle of upward evolution. Since everyone gets to the level cap, your creativity is shoe-horned into a corner. As a business, the smart choice isn’t to flesh out the world and do cool things in the getting there, it’s to make create things to do when they are there.

When you think about it, it’s no wonder the concept of building virtual worlds has disappeared. The world, the leveling, all takes a backseat to the end-game. It all comes down to hitting a middle-ground of acceptableness where players don’t see the questing as crap.

Final Thought

To close, I’d like to hand the mic over to Spinks of Welcome to Spinksville. She’s a raider in WoW who just recently hit the level cap in LotRO. Like me, she didn’t know much leveling her character through Middle-Earth and, as a result, didn’t fall into the same trap that WoW players do. She’s 65 now, looking at the game world in a whole new light:

“It’s amazing how free you feel once you decide that you don’t want to get tied into the endgame grind.”

- Spinks

And it’s amazing how much your values change as an MMO gamer.

For someone that’s only known game design as we now find it, or is thoroughly enveloped in the treadmill, it might be hard to imagine a game world where most people don’t hit level cap.

Think about it though. What would have to be there to supplement that? A better game.

02/15/10

Six reasons I’m excited for Final Fantasy 14 (FFXIV)

I got my PS3 for one main reason: Final Fantasy 14. The funny thing is, when I’ve told people about this, a lot of them think I’m crazy. On friend even asked me if I hated myself that much. Considering the reputation FFXI earned, I’m guess I’m not surprised people would be skeptical. Yet, at the same time, when I consider everything 14 promises to be, I’m a little baffled.

FFXIV is a whole different beast than XI. A lot of what makes people skeptical from the first game is gone and almost all of what made the game great, and more, is being put in. XIV is up with the times and looks to push us even further into the future.

We spend a lot of time focusing on what games do wrong or could do better around here. Today, I thought it’d be nice to look at what has me excited for this game. It doesn’t get a lot of press (not helped by their glacial pace of releasing news in the US), but here are some things you may not have heard about that I think are pretty cool.

1. It’s designed for the times

Final Fantasy XI was designed with Everquest in mind. That’s not the case with FFXIV. Since the game has been in the works, numerous releases have come out to show not only Square Enix, but the whole industry, that there’s a whole market of casual players out there. Not only would it be crazy to ignore these players, they’ve said numerous times that the game will have many options for those of us who don’t or can’t group. We’ve moved past Everquest design, so we don’t need to be afraid of the antiquated in FFXIV.


2. No Classes/No Levels

Just like FFXI, players aren’t going to be tied down to a single class. Instead, your “job” will be based on what weapon you choose to use. Want to be a tank? Wear your greatsword. A blue mage? Grab your staff. Along with this, they’ve done away with the experience system. We don’t know exactly what’s going to replace it but it’s safe to say it’ll be based on a skill system.

I’m a big fan of this, first, because open classes are are dynamic and give depth your game and character, and, second, because it’s another move towards making it casual friendly. It will be that much easier to find a group, compared to other MMOs, when you’d like to do a dungeon or raid.


3. Player driven economy

All items can degrade. Even the best piece of dungeon gear will need repairs or else, eventually, it will fall apart. That’s where your fellow player comes in: repairing, and yes, making excellent gear. Square has said that they plan to give certain NPCs repair abilities, in case a player isn’t around, so you’re not disadvantaged. Actually, like EQ2, crafting and gathering are their own distinct jobs in FFXIV, so if you don’t want to be a fighter, you don’t have to.

I like it when game companies give players options. Not having to fight to be successful is a good one. Fallen Earth has also shown me that making crafting a distinct path all its own can result in a lot of fun. This type of set up helps create a good community too, since a jerk might just find themselves blacklisted if they make themselves known.

Moveable interface

Moveable interface

4. Seamless, persistent, and beautiful, world

The game is being designed with an “open” philosophy. Loading screens will only occur when changing between major regions (think Kalimdor to Eastern Kingdoms), with everything else being seamless.

Not to mention, this will be the first MMO to be capable of HD output. At release, the game will have the ability to output at 720p. If you’ve seen any of the visuals, you’ll know that this game already looked great. HD will only make it better.

5. Global servers

Call me crazy, but I like the idea that we won’t have to be separated by continent anymore. Players from all around the world will be connecting to the same servers, allowing us to come together in ways rarely seen in AAA releases. The game is coming packaged with an auto-translator (of which, I’m still skeptical), so we can all communicate.

I’m excited about this change because it exemplifies what it means to be a global community. I’m worried about bigotry, but I’m keeping faith in we as a community. There are bad apples in any bunch but this is the type of move that will help level the horizon from East to West and let us see each other for what we are.

6. It’s the first, and biggest, current-gen console MMO

With the bevy of MMOs being developed, FFXIV being the first big one to make an attempt at consoles makes it an important game. Not only does it open the MMO door to a whole new generation of gamers, it can also set the precedent for future games to appear on home consoles. In my opinion, having this game release on consoles is only a good thing.

Plus, I can play it from my couch. Wireless keyboard and lap desk? You better believe it.

This is all really just the tip of the iceberg. In all actuality, we know very little about the game. The above generally comes from translated magazines from the excellent teams at FFXIVcore and Eorzeapedia. If any of this intrigues you, I encourage you to check out either of those sites and join in the community. Square is the sleeping giant of MMO design and they’re giving us just enough to keep us salivating until the game’s 2010 release.