» Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:31 pm I've been thinking about this LOADS recently, talking with my friend who always gets misty-eyed when he mentions "the golden days of WoW", and I thought it would make an interesting point of discussion. Basicly as I understand it, it USED to be that it took months to unlock end-game content and required raids of 40+ high level players, and so end game content was rare. When someone walked into town with purple items, they felt like a hero, and lesser mortals would crowd around them and check out their gear. It created a real sense of community and even playing a low level character was more fun because of this experience of fawning over high level gear. But everything changed when the casual nation attacked...
To accommodate a larger audience that has less time to invest in the game (job, family, extra job, mistresses, we are busy people damn it) everything was scaled back- less people needed in raids, levels came quicker, items were found easier. So instead of taking months playing everyday, it took months of playing once a week. This meant the allready existing fanbase that was playing every day had these items in weeks- they weren't rare any more. The sense of awe was lost- to quote The Incredibles, "when everyone is special- nobody is". You couldn't put your foot down without stepping on the tail of an epic flying mount or bumping into someone wearing full purple gear. No longer were the pro's heros, and no longer did they generate excitement. You didn't even need co-ordination and teamwork to get what you wanted and suddenly, everything was just a bit lonelier and more self-centred.
I'm sure zenimax are considering this and coming up with their own counter measures, but what does everyone think of this, and what would be peoples solutions?
I thought of something that I haven't heard of done before; I thought it was a good way to accommodate casuals without lessening the experience for people who want to invest time into the game. (there isn't much point in just pining for the "golden age" and casual-bashing I think because Zenimax want dolla, and casuals got dolla)
I shall put it in spoiler tags, just to avoid TL;DR effect (and because I'm more interested in seeing a thread full of ideas than a thread about my own)
Basicly, lets say it used to be that players had a 100% experience point rate and it took a long time to get high level content. You would play every day for months before acquiring it. To accommodate casual, they change it to a 150% experience rate; now, it took months of playing once a week to get high level content. This means though that players will a lot of time to invest get the equipment in a matter of weeks and therein lies the problem.
It seems stupid to me to rely on a system that applies the same rules to everyone. Lots of people talk about separate servers, and segregating causuals and hardcoes, but that seems like a cop out and won't be in ESO for obvious reasons. So how about this:
Everybody by default has a 100% experience rate. Now, create an option for casual players so that they can only play for a set amount of time each week, (they are literally locked out of the game once that time is up) but they get 150% experience rate during that time. Obviously that is a placeholder value, and it would be calculated with much more accuracy if used. You could even choose exactly how many hours a week you wanted and have the experience rate dynamically adapt! Once you have chosen how much time a week you want to be playing for, you are unable to change it for a fair period of time- this means that you can't quickly add 12 hours when you get a sick day, then set it back the next week. If you want to play through your sick day, then the next couple of weeks you will have a reduced experience rate.
This way, you still have to put in the same ratio of FREE TIME as everyone else, and the system can't be abused if you are literately locked out once your weekly amount is up. This would mean that players with high level content would become rare again, but casual players had a hope of achieving end-game content. Lets say your lifestyle gives you saturday and sunday to kill, but no energy to spare during the week. So you give yourself 24 hours or so of gameplay a week, and you get your exp rate set accordingly. That way it still takes months to get what you want- but just as long as someone playing every day. You don't feel disadvantaged, and what content you have accessed to is no longer about your lifestyle choices, but about your dedication to the game. Rare items become rare again, and I think someone who has to work 2 jobs to feed his kids but plays his heart out at weekends deserves as much respect from players as someone who has weeks of time to invest.
There are a number of drawbacks to this I already see. I shall put these in spoiler tags again to avoid TL;DR syndrome...
Secondly, people would probably feel edgy about having to allocate time for themselves. (not that they DO have to allocate time for themselves). And if you have more time than you thought you did, it would really svck to not be able to use it, if you have given yourself the bare minimum of time for max EXP. I guess one way around this would be to make it that you CAN play outside of your given time, but you receive a MASSIVELY nerfed exp rate- like 10%. This means if you get your time wrong or just end up with more free time, you can still feed the addiction, and hopefully the system can't be abused still.
Thirdly... multiple account farming. Lets say someone has all weekend to spare. Instead of creating one character with 24 hours, they create two with 12- they level at the same rate, and he can sell one off later to some smhuck. I think the best way around this would be setting a fairly low maximum exp rate bonus to about 150%. (basicly, whatever the rate was when they made WoW casual, though I don't know what rate that would be) This way, account farming is still more effort than it's worth, and essentially people who go out of the way to abuse the system are just creating (in a very small way) the same issue that WoW currently has all across the board. It could even be fixed by having the time locked to your IP address. This means that people who have like, 12 hours of their week to spare are going to indeed have to invest far more of their free time into the game, but I feel that is fair enough.
So what do people think of that idea, and what would be their own solutions? Is it even a problem? I haven't even mentioned business models, what are peoples opinions there! I'm sure this topic has been here many times before, but I don't think it's something that can be discussed enough; I think that handling this issue well could give ESO a real place in an over-saturated market, and I hope they do listen to what people have to say on the matter.
Mysterious Mr. Bear
