MMORPG players I think is perhaps the only genre that complains about "Grinding" wholesale. I've been a bit bitchy too so not pointing fingers from a pedestal.
Let's be brief: When is Grinding Too Much? How can Game Developers tweak this mathematical property to be more enjoyable for us?
The responses will be different depending on the gamer's preference. PVPers enjoy quick ramp up in order to combat effectively on the battlefield.... PVE'ers feel the "grind" when the content gets too repetitive. Socalizers / role players seem too me to be happy as long as they have a good chat interface and friends to enjoy the game with (I'm raising my hand here I love being in a Guild I seek them out ASAP).
I think this problem is unique to mmorpg space because of the "global" ruleset. In a single player RPG, like Mass Effect, we usually don't feel any grind because we dont feel pressured to hit Max Level and there is a good storyline that keeps us going. In FPS, I dont feel pressured to hit Max Level because if I'm missing a few skills no big deal. In Guild Wars I've never felt pressured to hit max level post "Faction earning patch" because I could create an avatar at max level and unlock any skill from PVP.
There really is no magic button here. Without a bit of progression we might not feel like we're going through a "journey". Plus, progression can make effective use of "gating" slowly unlocking branches of development as you progress. That's a topic in itself that I'll cover later
Warhammer Online / Mythic anwser is to allow PVPers to pvp Day #1 and progress that way. That might work really well I think it might be fun for gamers that enjoy linear-type MMOs to really enjoy at launch. There might be a few risks here and there that is beyond the depth of this article but if they maintain a steady influx of new characters (whether rerolls or new blood coming in) I think they'll be okay. We will have to see though its not here yet....
I'm not too sure what to do about pure PVE'ers. I'm a mix myself. City of Heroes tried "Sidekicking" for PVE which works okay but because of the firm use of "Gated" content in CoX, sidekicks are still missing critical powers. So we never really brought nubs to high level content unless we were helping them level up (powerlevel to be frank).
User Comments
I always want MORE levels. I always smile and accept smoother curves and less levels for the sake of inclusion...
Sidekick works marvelously wells. You don't bring a random nub to highlevel content. But friends, RL peoples, you do. Examplar never really works, they need to figure something for that.
I agree Anofalye but when it came to the serious raids my guild didnt want to sidekick me. I suppose I just had bad luck there.... I also didnt want to do the Hamidon raiding stuff anyway
Yeah I'm with ya on infinite progression. If questing is fun then why does it have to end? If its not fun, then that leads to other difficult questions heh
I agree with your point about feeling "pressured" to level. You'd have to say thats one of the biggest contributors to the grind.
It's a big reason why I just cancelled my two subscriptions (CoX & EvE). I just dont have the time to invest anymore into these games. I work fulltime and go to school for 9 hrs this semester, frankly that doesn't leave enough time to put into either of those games if you really want to get anywhere quicker than a snails pace. Although I can still pickup my consoles (360 & Wii) for that quick 30 min tidbit of fun in my hectic schedule. Hopefully, in the future I will be less busy and the dev's can find a better way to let players advance that doesn't require as much of a time sink, of course unless you get that just because you enjoy playing too much, not because its needed.
I currently play LotR and find its xp bonus based on how long you haven't played helpful. I do remember my EQ days though when the high lvl guildies wouldn't take me along on the big raids cause I wasn't high enough lvl. Sidekicking in CoH and EQ2 version seemed like a nice compromise. I loved DAoC when it first started and there wasn't lvl restrictions and I could get pl'd by higher guildies, then they nerfed that then brought it back years later. I wish I could come up with a great idea to make MMO games feel like I was playing a game versus having to go to my "other job". Sometimes I would roll a new toon just so I could feel like I had accomplisments that day. Maybe game designers need to provide "big raid" environments at various lvls of progress versus just putting the big mean dragons at the end game. Maybe let players raid baby dragon lairs. ;)
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