General Discussion

Let's face it, we play MMOs for the sense of adventure and excitement they bring to our lives, even though it's only imaginary adventure.  The reason we explore, fight and advance is because we want to see what's out there.  Granted we also want to make our character the biggest, baddest guy on the block, but we do that so we can get to tougher places so we can do even more adventuring.

This thought came to me when I read glord's post on making a game that will last a lifetime.  Although that's an impossible and impractical goal, one thing I want from an MMO is a way to keep having fun after you've advanced your character as far as you can and dressed him in the best gear money can buy.  Maybe not forever, but at least for a few months.

There has been many posts about the "endgame" and I guess this is another one.  Anyone have any good ideas about what devs can do to allow you to keep having fun after you've advanced and acquired everything or does boredom become inevitable at that point?

Campaigns a la Guild Wars, or missions a la FFXI would be nice with good enough storyline and cut-scenes. In both games, it was pretty normal to reach level cap before 'finishing' any storyline/campaign. Keeps me entertained, and not enough MMORPGs do it!

I was also entertained in Guild Wars, after hitting the level cap, with unlocking massive amounts of titles, items, spells... Unlockables! Gotta catch em all, ya know.

So maybe it doesn't appeal to the perfectionists who dig story mode gaming.

That assumes, wrongly for some of us, that we have any interest in making our character the "biggest, baddest guy on the block".

I couldn't care less.  My  goal in playing is personal enjoyment in a setting that sparks the imagination.  I don't care if I'm a level 70  badass, in fact I have little interest in that at all.  I do what I do because I have fun doing it, not because I'm trying to overcompensate for something. 

Originally posted by Zindaihas

Let's face it, we play MMOs for the sense of adventure and excitement they bring to our lives, even though it's only imaginary adventure.  The reason we explore, fight and advance is because we want to see what's out there.  Granted we also want to make our character the biggest, baddest guy on the block, but we do that so we can get to tougher places so we can do even more adventuring.

This thought came to me when I read glord's post on making a game that will last a lifetime.  Although that's an impossible and impractical goal, one thing I want from an MMO is a way to keep having fun after you've advanced your character as far as you can and dressed him in the best gear money can buy.  Maybe not forever, but at least for a few months.

There has been many posts about the "endgame" and I guess this is another one.  Anyone have any good ideas about what devs can do to allow you to keep having fun after you've advanced and acquired everything or does boredom become inevitable at that point?

The only thing is content. There is no other way. Even PvP will get boring after a while if you are doing it with the same equip in the same place.

Best thing about EVE is it is not on this typical MMO formula. They are not afraid to break the mold of the WOW formula. No offense to WOW's success but I really hate what it has done to MMO's.

IMHO, this is the major flaw of the linear, static, themepark design.  The entire game is built around character progression and content that only serves the purpose of assisting character progression.  So, once you finish progressing, theres not really much left other than "endgames" like raiding or PvP. 

In contrast, think about games like GTA or Oblivion.  Why dont you feel like youre finished once youve gone through the story line in those games?  Because, theres a living, breathing (to an extent) world out there to interact with.  Ok, technically neither of these is a full-on sandbox game, but even just a little of the "living world" element goes a long way.

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Originally posted by Shohadaku
Best thing about EVE is it is not on this typical MMO formula. They are not afraid to break the mold of the WOW formula. No offense to WOW's success but I really hate what it has done to MMO's.

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-- Brede

There still a lot of things that you can do when you reach the max level. You could very well participate in guild wars, raids or hunting party for the guild. The fun starts at your max level :P

sounds as thopugh you may be a fan of eq2 if you have not played it already, everytime i got my game to end level in eq2 they came out with another expansion, or mini expansion that enabled me to do even more adventuring, also they have a nice charecter building thing going on that keeps you doing something to tweek yer toon long after you hit max lvl and are between expansions, as well as the mentoring system, you can lower yer toon to another level of a friend and do quests you passed over or grew out of , and there is lettle things you can do for yer guild in eq2 that will last far beyond yer max lvl and thats lvling yer guild ansd if you fear you are going to reach end level too fast or faster than you want too you can turn off yer xp completly and search each area by level w/o blasting through some of it and outgrowing most of it.

Its for that reaso alone I look for solid PvP content in all MMORPGs I play

Torrential

If MMO's are level based, then it'll usually end up being boring. Games like UO where you use skills and how good you are is determined by skills gives you more of an endless adventure. Because it is skilled based, you're not stuck to being a certain class. You can become whatever you want whenever you want as long if you skill that certain area up. If only there were more modern MMO's that are skill based...