Dungeons, Raids, and the Like

Post » Thu Dec 06, 2012 4:37 am

So what I've noticed in most MMOs is that certain dungeons and raids are a one and done type deal, and most can be completely ignored. Some games scale dungeons and raids so that you can essentially play through them on a higher difficulty, one that is scaled to your level, but some don't. Either way though, there's little to no reason to complete the lower-tiered dungeons / raids in the first place, since with leveling up (which is usually done rather quickly) the need for new gear arises, thus making what you previously earned only usable for a very short period of time.

The problem(s):
1. Dungeons and raids feel significantly less epic after leveling up and having the option to return to them and just completely annihilate everything.
2. The gear earned in the lower-level dungeons / raids becomes inferior quite quickly, giving players little to no reason to do them in the first place.
3. Shortly after launch (or since ESO will be utilizing a megaserver, let's say a year or so), new players / new characters will have great difficulty in finding a group to complete this content due to the majority of players being fully leveled and engaged in the higher level content.

Guild Wars 2 did a good job at combating this, but something was missing. ArenaNet didn't quite hit it spot on, though it was a start.

I don't believe simply scaling content is the best approach but I'm at a loss for possible solutions to this issue. MMOs shouldn't focus strictly on end-game content but rather, they should focus on gameplay and quality of content from the beginning. This is what GW2 attempted to do, and for the most part, was able to accomplish, but a certain umph was still missing.

Thoughts? Ideas? Just looking for a discussion on how ZOS can / should / is approach(ing) this.
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Bereket Fekadu
 
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