Brand Loyalty (was Re: [MUD-Dev] Requirements for MM (wasComplexities of MMOG Servers))

[Valerio Santinelli]

Rayzam wrote:
> From: <szii at sziisoft.com>
>> From: "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at soe.sony.com>

>> Treadmills are driving players AWAY from the games.

> As Raph pointed out above, many of our treadmills are boring, and
> it's an implementation issue. Yes, players don't want to spend the
> time levelling up a character. But that doesn't mean levelling up
> to the max level in a game. That means levelling up to a point
> where the character has a wider range of abilities, and where the
> content is more interesting.

That's true. I think I fit in the category of players that like to
consume rich content not considering the level of his character.

> Why does that happen? For the content, there seems to be a belief
> in area/world designers that lower level areas must be simpler. I
> will argue as a law even, that any good area concept can be
> implemented at any level.  Even bad area concepts can :) Ex: A
> diabolist is terrorizing a village with demonic sendings, and the
> Elders want your help in eradicating him in his forest
> stronghold. This can be a starting diabolist sending the most
> minor of demons up to someone so powerful it requires a grouping
> the size of a planes raid.

This is the kind of content I always expect when I try out a new
game. It's just like with single player RPGs. You start as a newbie
and you have quests to take and riddles to solve and a rich content
even if your character has just started playing. In my opinion it
should be the same with MMOGs. When I started betatesting DAoC I
found the quests and the tasks assigned by trainers the most
entertaining parts of the game. But they were only a few and they
mainly were about going somewhere and killing a monster or going to
some place, grab something and bring it back to the NPC.

If developers would spend more time on content rather than pure
technology issues I think that MMOGs would be much more entertaining
and even more appealing for casual gamers that do not have the time
to level their characters up enough to enjoy the content that is
hidden until you reach the highest levels.

--
Valerio Santinelli
One Man Crew Gaming Community (http://www.onemancrew.org)
My Lab (http://tanis.hateseed.com)
HateSeed.com Founder (http://www.hateseed.com)
In Flames Italia Webmaster (http://www.inflames.it)



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