I had considered calling this NaLevUpMo, but I figured that would annoy the NaNoWriMo people if they found out about it, and it sounded stupid anyway. Not that Levtober sounds any less stupid. I'll have to work on it. But enough on what to call it and onto what it is!
The idea is to start a new character in the game of your choice on October 1 and see how far you can get in 31 days in terms of pure achievement as measured by level (or maxed out skills or AAs or HP/AC or however you measure your achievement in whatever game.) And by "you", I mean me. I am in a mood to challenge myself, so I'll do it whether anyone else plays along or not.
I know, it's all about the journey, not the destination, and I should stop to smell the virtual roses. That's pretty much how I normally play. I am ultra-casual. And I like to roleplay at least some of the time. Worst of all, I further waste time doing things like fishing and raising my Alcohol Tolerance skill. (Hey! That wine won't drink itself, you know!) Just for once, I want to do things differently, just for a change of pace.
Unlike that other month-long challenge I mentioned, I am not putting a specific end goal on this because different games work differently, and different people want different things out of the same game. Maybe one person wants to get to the level cap in a month. Maybe another will finish that in the first two weeks, and what she really wants is a certain set of armor at the end of a month. Perhaps there's a third person who just wants to get to a certain level that will allow him to use a cool ability. Or there could be a more commerce-minded person who is aiming to be an in-game millionaire by Halloween. I won't set the end goal. I'll just throw out the starting rules: New character. 31 days.
So... My plan, as of today, is to play EQ1. My thought is that I will play a Drakkin wizard. That is subject to change over the few days remaining in September, though. I am tempted, but I won't cheat and start early. I set the rules for the challenge, the least I can do is follow them.
There are going to be some things I'll have to work around-- my mom and my kids are going to be visiting, and then there is Halloween at the end of the month. Otherwise, it's not too bad. It's certainly easier to work around than Thanksgiving and the start of all the holiday nonsense in November, when I'll be writing my 50k word story.
I'll be blogging my progress, of course. You can blog yours, if you want, or leave comments with your progress notes. Or you can keep it all to yourself. Whatever you want to do. It's all good.
Ready... Set...
Wait! Not yet!
(No reason for that little thing there ^^ except that I haven't posted any silly images in a while.)
I knw this is counter to your whole point of doing something counter to how YOU usually play; but to me the loot and levels never felt like an accomplishment in the mmo's I've played (maybe since there is so little real risk in the ones I've played)...
but even in "real" rpg's my sense of accomplishment usually has more to do with the actual plot and story - i just find this intersting because this very different concepts of accomlishment (sense of ) drives many of the other discussions i see on MMo's here - and elsewhere.
Thu Sep 27 2007 11:47AMI get what you're saying. I just want to see what I can do when I take the gloves off.
I have always felt a little like the red-headed stepchild on game forums (and in some guilds I have been in) because I level so very slowly, and I'm always coming up with "weird" things to do. I am not much of a numbers person (in terms of the "min/max" playstyle), so I have to admit that I get a tiny bit annoyed when I mentioned that I just finished a quest that I enjoyed and the response is "Why did you do that? The reward isn't worth it!"
re: plots and storylines-- I find, for me, I am happier in games where I can choose how or if I want to interact with the official storyline. Feeling like I am being forced through a series of linear "quests" that are my "partcipation" in a story... Not interested. On the other hand, more open-ended games give me a stage for my own stories. Sometimes I play along with a canned story and enjoy it (for instance, in EQ, there are instanced missions in the new Freeport that are pretty cool) , but mostly the stories I remember are about the adventures my character had in whatever world I am in-- like the story of our wedding in UO (crashed by a PK guild, but all our guests were armed too. A battle broke out. We won. And the marriage went on as planned) or all those crazy "Let's go try something impossible!" moments in EQ. The most important story in a game, to me, is my story, and the most important experience is the one I am having as a person sitting at the keyboard-- if I don't feel like I am there, being part of that world... I play something else.
I suppose I'm off on a tangent here. I do appreciate the comment and the sentiment, though.
Thu Sep 27 2007 12:23PMMost MMOs you can grind to max cap in a period of a month except for few MMOs that don't have a specific cap because of incredibly poor exp ratios between levels. Maplestory, for one, is a huge grind however, you can get to level 60 or 70 maybe every 80ish in a period of a month if you "take the gloves off".
Challenges like this tend to bring out the worst in MMOs. It's basically saying "i'm going to put myself through extreme torture for 31 days". However, if you can stand it, and you can do it, then by all means, please do. This will give you an exceptional sense of accomplishment because if you actually pull through, you can say 'wow, I grinded 31 straight days and got to xx level"
Thu Sep 27 2007 4:55PMHave fun and Good luck!
You know, I might just be a masochist. :)
Thu Sep 27 2007 7:24PMIn re: your comment -
every example you mentioned i would have loved to have been part of. Thoug it is a point for other places; the on-going discussion of PROVIDED contet versus player content is valid.
To me; in theory; either can be IMMERSING; and i think that was really what i was getting at. feeling challenged is a seperate point (and in fact a form of immersion).. I don't think nayone wants to feel "shoe horned" into a story any more than they do shoe-horned into a particular class or role or set of AA's or enhancemenst / skill choices or whatever...
Rather for the purpose of this aspect of the greater conversation...
Whether player-based (ah soap-operas.. how we love them) or static; feeling like you're doing something for a REASON is what i was speaking of. In other places I think I and many others have postedhow poorly most MMO's do in this respect - and i can't help but think this amy have soemthing to do with the often-maligned shift in player demographics...
Fri Sep 28 2007 8:26AMOh, yeah... I've played a few games that I've started feeling pretty quickly a sense of "why am I hitting bunnies with a stick again?" It's not the same to go hit bunnies because they have XP under their fur as it is to be exterminating them because they are eating crops or because you're part of a bunny-hating cult...
Fri Sep 28 2007 8:43AMLOL!
I think the trick is to make the player feel they are doing it for a reason (individual reasons may very; yes ma'am) that keeps it from feeling like a chore (grind)... When you're doing it as a "cost" of doing something else (a level; a whatever) rather than because you WANT to do it for it's own sake ( like; because its FUN? CRAZY TALK!!!)...
that reminded me of your old bunny avatar..which one had to look at carefully to notice it was bloody.
Sat Sep 29 2007 6:50AMMMORPG.com writes:
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