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Grinding Time - On MMORPG Character Advancement

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the hours-and-hours-and-hours dept.

An anonymous reader alerted us that "Starglade has an editorial about character development systems, where the author discusses the two most common types of character improvement (classes & levelling, and skill based improvement), and makes some suggestions for future systems in MMORPGs."

3 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. my reply by Arngautr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not much here that isn't already in any gaming forum, though ussually less verbose. His ideal solution to gaining skills is to set a goal for your character when you leave and when you come back your character has made some progress, (reminds me of ... well I can't remember the name...little help .. not everquest but ...? ). Other methods of achieving this include World of Warcraft's "rest points" which punish players for playing too long by giving them fewer experience points on kills (Blizzard's euphamism:they'll tell you its a reward taking beaks).

  2. Re:The level grind by Elsebet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Personally, I don't get why people would play a MMORPG and then spend most of their time solo; if I

    You do realize, some people want to play FFXI because they played every single other game in the series, but they don't have the multiple hours to invest in one sitting that organizing a party requires? I have heard many horror stories of people waiting HOURS to find a group that would let them in. Hours of sitting doing nothing is fun?

    What if said person wants to level their main job, not do a quest or start a sub-job, but no groups are available?

    Ever think of time zone issues, where they might play on off-peak times where the server population is lower?

    As a game ages and the average population's level range is higher, who are latecomers going to group with?

    I'm not flaming, just there's a lot of downside to the "you have to have the perfect group to advance" style of MMORPG that I thought would die with EverQuest but was reborn in FFXI. If all conditions are perfect grouping is wonderful, but how often does that happen? Having no other option is, in my opinion, terribly narrow-minded design.

    --
    Sacré-bleu! Where is me mama?
  3. Re:You Say You Want a Revolution? by Babbster · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It sounds to me like you just prefer FPS games to non-twitch RPG games. That's cool, but they're apples and oranges for a reason.

    I think your main point is invalid on its face. Specifically, you seem to denigrate the fact that to get to high levels in an MMORPG requires many, many hours of work while playing down the fact that in order to get "mad skillz" at Quake it takes many, many hours of practice. I could turn it around and complain that when I tried to play Quake 3 multiplayer I got my ass handed to me over and over again because other people had so much more time to dedicate to playing the game - since I don't have that kind of time, I can't enjoy Quake 3 online.

    Believe me, if the revolution is to turn MMORPGs into games more like first-person shooters, it's not going to expand the audience. It will simply eliminate the current audience and force the development of a new one.