Must read for MMO Game Devs

[Reoh]

Seriously, all of ya. Go read this article, it'll make that next mmo you create much better.

Quest Based Advancement - Same Grind, More Walking

[brohawk]

That is an excellent article. I will admit that I usually just grind out levels. I did it in EQ2, DDO, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, AA, WOW, SWG (NGE), COx, and probably a few others I forgot to mention.

As a side note, grinding out levels in LOTRO really screwed me because to get to the lvl 45+ area you needed to complete I think it was book 12 and I only completed book 2 and I already had 2 characters at lvl 45 within the first few months the game came out. So I quit that game because I was punished for doing my own thing.

Also DDO was another game that held great promise and to be honest probably my favorite game to date except for the forced grouping which is why I quit that game.

Currently I play AOC, but even there I rarely do quests, just mob bashes on everything and anything that gets in my way. I do quests only if they are convienent but I can level faster using a scorched earth mentality than being the good samaritan.

The game that I think might break this mold is TOR, but to be honest I don't think I care, which may be an even more damning statement on the state of MMOs. I mean does anyone really care how they get to cap? And once you are there, what do you do then? Make another character? Talk to others in town sporting your loot and looking cool?

I also play Guild Wars. Not much of a front end grind to cap since cap is lvl 20 and easily obtainable in a couple of days of gaming. But GW does have a lot of content and while I still hunt the 'red dots' mostly, there is a fair amount of exploration you can do in that game and not have a quest to push you from one area to another if you don't want too. Matter of fact, each area (at least in EotN and Nightfall) has its own rewards (titles mostly but some are very useful especially at the high levels) in their specific areas where senseless killing of mobs is actually rewarded quite well. Not to mention collecting elite skills from the bosses. I actually like GW quite a bit since it is a more open ended game than any other MMO I have played except maybe EVE. EVE kinda breaks the mold on MMO design as well in my opinion and is quite unique.

[merwood]

I hear ya Bro , I too played many of mmo's tha required alot of grinding dark age of camelot was probably the most grinding game i ever played back in it's hey day 7 years ago , And now a days thats why i'm starting to get out of mmo's because of the nonstop grinding .

for the most grinding i have done in mmo's here's a list ranked from 1 to 5

1. Dark age of camelot
2. Star wars galaxies
3. world of warcraft
4 . city of heroes
5.lord of the rings online

Although alot of the next gen mmo's that are coming out i hope do well grinding is usually the biggest concern i have going into any mmo . And glad to see a fellow player who enjoys guild wars

Just go to off topic for a second guild wars is probably the only online game i have enjoyed more then any other game and played it on and off for the last 2 years and just started playing it again and am enjoying it for alot of reasons .

1 it's different you can only have 8 skills and for skills and builds it's by far the most advanced game i have ever seen in hack slash rpg

2. There's alot of content and you can buy all sorts of skills and elite skills to cap and go after all these titles in hard mode which is really challenging in each campaign

3. and the most i enjoy about guild wars is the instanced adventure and quest areas , no worry about camping and also this is a game that you really have to think out of th box in some way

All in all the greatest thing i like about guild wars is that it's unique there isn't really a game remotely as close to guild wars and i think that's what alot of mmo's are lacking .

Their not willing to come up with a unique vision for their game and stick to it simply because they feel that they need make major profit and therefore cater to alot of playstyles .

Don't get me wrong i don't have issues with mmo's to trying to flock to more then one crowd but when you have to takes away things that truly make your game original and unique thats where alot of mmo's go down the tube and nothing stands out anymore imo or hasnt since world of warcraft first came with guild wars imo being the only exception .

Anyways i'm a big fan in some of the mmo's that will be out later in the next few years . star wars the old republic , star trek online , dc universe online and a few others that were just mentioned recently.

But i will probably stop playing mmo's altogether in the next few months simply cause i really disliked the grind and constant camping and often enough the high level caps and such .

Guild wars 2 is most likely the only game see myself playing very actively simply because i love arena.net and what they have done with gw and that it doesnt require a monthly subscription hehe

[Reoh]

Asheron's Call hands down beats any game you can think of for the grind. At least when I was playing, its been a long time (was my first mmo starting last millennium). It had 126 levels, the last of which would take you a week or two grinding mobs non stop for 14hrs/day. Technically though, it didn't stop there because you could keep grinding experience to raise your skills. People made mods to show what your xp would have been, and later they released an expansion that effectively doubled the level cap (none of this 10 levels bs). I had 5 chars (the max per server) at the level cap, btw. hahaha

I don't mind paying a monthly subscription, but I expect extra entertainment value from it. The great thing about Asheron's Call was that every month like clockwork they rolled out a content update patch. The story of the world evolved along major arcs a little bit each month (on top of the seasonal events as well). They wouldn't tell you what was coming exactly, but they'd give you teasers a couple weeks before, and the couple weeks after the fansites would be abuzz with finding out all the new cool quests and stuff.

(maggiethejackcat if you're out there - loved your website babe)

[Sente]

The problems with quest-grinding ties in with many other aspects of the game play. First of all is the notion of using some level-based system which a character supposedly should spend a long time in, gaining a lot of xp to advance in that. Quests have just been a new way to fill that xp gap, rather than look at whether they should keep the healivy level-dependent designs where people supposedly should spend a lot of time.

Guild Wars as mentioned does not go entirely into that trap, the leveling is just going through the newbie stage and after that there are a lot of options to choose from when playing. While the story content is better than most other MMOs, it does lack a bit in sharing that story with others.

City of Heroes/Villains is one of the few others that combines missions/quests and teams in a reasonably good way.

[Reoh]

Yeah and bonus points to CoX for letting players be brought up/down in level to be comparable so youc an go team up and play with pretty much anyone, anywhere. Each game has its own merits and faults though, none of them are without shortcomings.