Allowing Hardcore gamers and Casual gamers to play together?

[sschrupp]

So as I ponder my predicament of not having enough time to keep up with the less casual gamers I'm reminded of City of Heroes/Villains game mechanic of Sidekick and Mentor. It's the perfect solution for gamers like myself that just can't seem to put in the required time to keep up with our friends.

Besides CoX, though, are there any other games that use this type of game mechanic to allow us casual gamers to still enjoy the rich and deep gameplay of a MMORPG? Even if there are, are the mechanics sufficient enough that a low level player could still stand a chance at being invited to join a higher level group of people? I mean I can envision the mechanics being available, but still seeing higher level groups ignoring low level people simply because they can do just fine or better without the boosted lowbie.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

[roob]

EQ2 i think has a mentor like system. You can bring yourself down to the same level as others and take part in their questing areas, dungeons, grinding etc.
it's been a while since i have played it though, but it was a great way to run through an old dungeon that you normally couldn't get loot from due to being a lot higher in lvl. with so much content in EQ2 there was always quests and stuff that you ended up passing by and could anways go back and do with lowbies in this way.

Recently i have played a lot of Runes of Magic. Although they don't have a mentor system, they do have a dual class system.

Although this isn't the same thing, i was thinking you could save your secondary class for leveling up with your friends when they were online and play your primary when they weren't. each of the two classes you pick has their own xp and talen point pools so your secondary class will not gain in levels unless you set it as your primary.

there's more to it than that and it's a very cool system once you work it out.

oh, it's also free to play


Warhammer Online has a mentor like system in the game in the form of items that you can use to raise your friends up to your level.
It's not permanent and the items are also part of a "recruit a friend" deal or trial program, so not really something the average solo player will have access to.


those are the ones off the top of my head.


-roob

[Falcolas]

Final Fantasy XI has not only a mentorship system, but a multi-class system where you can level up any number of "classes" on one character.

EQ has Shrouds, though I don't know nearly as much about them. Blizzard, pay attention, please.

[Zhul]

You could argue that EVE has something like that built into the game. If you concentrate on learning how to be a fighter pilot in a few months you could be flying with (or against) anyone else in a Tech 2 fighter and hold your own. The trouble is players with more time invested in the game will have a broader range of skills and probably have vast amounts of funding resources if their ship is destroyed where you may not (having concentrated solely on getting up to that level).

Also, big ships do not automatically trump smaller ships. Smaller ships are fast and maneuverable, so the larger ships could have trouble locking onto and destroying a group of small fighters if they are smart and use good tactics.

I have to agree that CoX's sidekick system was one of the most brilliant developments in an MMO I've seen to date. Have a buddy you want to play with but are 20 levels apart? No problem!

[Falcolas]

I agree with you on Eve's system, Zhul. I would even go further though, and say that within a few days, you can have an important (if somewhat limited) role in any PVP group. Of course, it sounds like Darkfall has a similar system, where skill points do matter, but much less than player skill.

[Zhul]

PvP has always bothered me in MMOs for the very reason that Levels > Skill in every occasion. On the WoW PvP server I was on, if you were in a contested area an endgame level character of the opposite faction would undoubtedly come along and gank you for no other reason than it only took two hits to accomplish. In those kinds of situations you have absolutely no chance at winning, so you can guess how much fun it is. Even when characters are all the same level the different classes tend to be divided into a Rock-Paper-Scissors type of mechanic where one class can destroy someone else but never stand a chance against another.

But I digress, sorry to carry the subject off-topic.

I'd love to see some game get the perfect balance of play+reward and still keep characters at an even enough level that would let friends group together freely and work on the same quests together.

[Reoh]

Technically speaking, yes Warhammer has this feature. Unfortunately its restricted to people that have signed up a whole bunch of referrals (that actually started paying to play) so very few (infact I've never met anyone who did) have the ability.

[brohawk]

Guild Wars doesn't have a mentor system that I know of, however the lvl cap is 20 and pertty easily attainable within a few days. Also, top level gear is also pretty easily attainable. So why play? Well GW has a ton of titles (some matter, some are just show) and vanity gear to get. It has a huge assortment of content and to me is just generally cool. Skills you can either buy (at least for your heroes if you have Nightfall or Eye of the North campaign) or you can get from NPCs using the capture skill. There is a title for getting all the elite skills, but it takes a lot of time and in game money. However once you pay for the game, there are no monthly fees and the whole package can be had for $30 American. Pretty good deal to me. I don't play it much, but I always have fun when I do, and there are a lot of people who play. TOG has about 5 or 6 guilds and someone from TOG has always been on when I have been on.

AoC also has a mentoring system, but you have to be within 20 levels to do so. However there are a wide range of characters since everyone seems to have alts. It is also pretty solo friendly.

[Reoh]

Imho these games that keep raising the level cap are going about their game all wrong. Infact, any game with lots of levels to get is doing it wrong. They should focus less time on content which barely gets used (while you lvl up, and out of it) and more on endgame content (where games always launch, and people complain about not having enough). For expansions you can toss in some different sort of enhancement, so old players who come back late can jump in and play with friends right away, but maybe just not have completed some master quest for extra abilities (but their lvl' shigh enough to let them still compete).

[brohawk]

I don't disagree with you Reoh at all, which is why I think GW is a pretty neat game. To the extreme of that, you have games like Darkfall that have no levels, but the "leveling" is in the skills, which is almost the same thing really but to a lessor extent.

I would like a game that has no levels, no skills you have to build up, where crafted items are worth it, and there is plenty of things to do. To be honest, the only game I know of that even comes close is GW. Sure you have 20 levels, but that isn't that bad. You don't get all your skills, but they are generally somewhat easily obtainable, though for the elite skills you will have to kill a boss. I just wish GW had a similar combat system like AoC, and I definitely want fatalities!!!

Of course if someone knows of a better game that fits those specs, I am all ears to hear and will definitely give it a go.

As far as upcoming games, the ones I am most looking at are Champions Online, Global Agenda and my favorite horse in this race, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Honorable mention will be Star Trek Online and I will definitely be buying at least a one month sub to each of the above.