There is the media buzz in the air again about game systems without levels such as the now in production “The Secret World”. The time is extremely ripe for such efforts. But it is not like this hasn’t occurred in the past with games like Eve Online or Star Wars Galaxies Pre NGE just to name a few. Both have hit a nice numbers of subscribers in their separate parts of history. SWG was at its peak Pre NGE proving the skill model was the sweet nectar and Eve Online…well Eve Online just keeps growing. We are at a stage where our second generation in the time period of MMORPG gamers is feeling less challenged with the standard and easy World of Warcraft instant gratification design, or the standard quest assignment kill ten rats and off you go mentality. We are back on the crossroads for a new change which I hope will stop the “dumbed down assault” on game design for MMORPG’s or even stall it for quality.
Maybe it is me but I was under the impression that MMORPG’s used to be for the type of gamer that wanted the challenged lifestyle of gaming. That step above the rest. It was the chance of living a video game as your life behind a keyboard and mouse. It was immersion. It was the blend of all games in concept that could suck you into a world of dice, exploration, crafting, mini games, player vs. player, but with all the mechanics of the day enveloped into one game. And the more you played the more your vision of that virtual world increased forcing you to become virtually socialized. There were challenges and difficulties to gain access to the Dragon’s chamber that could take, wait for it, a few weeks to gain access because of the quest chain before claiming the thrones moment on the server. Apologies Spartacus for the sarcasm but someone needs to bring up the point that we have become wussies. There was a day when you could stand proud of that fact that hours were put into your character and everyone knew it based on your 100.00 Tamarian Tiger or your Faction “earned” Tamarian Tiger. Stop the dependent self-entitled mentality.
But in a world of levels why go there. I say abandon it. Create worlds that the player decides to go out into with an abundance of content. How do you do this? Why use your “imagination “of course and get those software tools so that they are grinding out the content!
Until the next Mind Ray hurts my brainzZ- have fun storming the castle this week.
~Lateris~
MMORPG.com writes:
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