» Sat Mar 30, 2013 1:58 am Every recent MMO that has hit the market since WoW has tried to cater to the casual masses and they have all flopped. The problem is that the masses are idiots, no offense, and they don't actually know what they want. They think they want a game where you get to max level in a week, has lots of quests, crafting, pvp, and face roll dungeons and raids. However, every time a new mmo hits the shelf with all those features the playerbase and quit within 6 months, and they move onto the next mmo. That model has no staying power at all. The game has to have some form of challenging dungeons, and raiding to give enough of a buffer to create additional content. Without this the game has no hope of truly succeeding, and will be doomed to free to play hell.
I actually think this game has the potentially to be a rival to World of Warcraft. It has all the necessary components, except raiding. So please give some serious reconsideration on end game content for all.
I have hardcoe raided and played games without it.
The thing I don't like about raids is the leetism and the fact thet they can be set up to effectively allow only a small % of the playerbase to do them.
The guild-focus and sense of acheivement from challenging raids is a good game element though - one subsequently usually ruined by the need to grind farm-status bosses, but fun whilst you are learning the ropes.
I think raids have a place and should be put in with the following caveats;
1. The gear they give is the best in game - but is matched by solo, small group and craftable routes
2. Gear and other rewards come in a medium term timeframe so as not to require endless farming
I mean why not have the way in which raiding works change to get rid of the bad and keep most of the good?
It really shouldn't be about either/or...
What do you do about casual players demanding to be able to do the higher difficulties, even if they aren't really good enough to do it.
Have a standard and hardmode for each raid.
There are a succession of bosses or fights whatever which gradually increase in difficulty, but above what might be seen as puggable, harder alternative modes of takedown appear - which you can choose to follow or not on a case by case basis.
Those that follow the easier standard route with 'help' from the game (or simply less adds, HP or whatever for the bosses et al) get a quarter of the gear tokens the one who opt for the hard mode get.
Also -hardmode takedowns give tabards or skins or whatever - soft rewards which allow visual differentiation without the gear etc. being different power-wise.
This has various advantages;
1. From pugs to hardcoe raiders - no-one is denied the content
2. With the right starting diffculty and ramp-up of challenge, every raid of any ability get some action and some satisfaction for their time and effort.
3. The challenge profile is customisable by the raid leader during the raid - so it's a choice as to whether on any particular raid night they want to go for hardmode, and on which bosses etc.
4. Everyone eventually ends up withe the same rewards power-wise - the puggers don't get frozen out and the hardcoe raiders get theirs quicker and with visual differentiation or guild reward fluff - for the bragging rights.
