This is exactly the problem with basing something around levels.
Don't talk about community in an ingame context for a 'game'. EQ is a game
- you can 'win' - rather, 'finish' it. Communities spring up in virtual
worlds - there is no winning in a virtual world - the focus is on living in
said world.
What tiny bit of community among groups that might try to blossom gets
squished by exactly what you described - folks getting out of grouping
synch with each other.
EQ learned a lot from UO - but they totally dropped the ball when it came
to what makes a virtual world - how and what communities need to form, and
providing endless entertainment for their customers. They are stuck trying
to reinvent the world - to keep the elder players happy. Given the proper
framework - the players themselves provide their own entertainment and
reasons to be there.
At 02:51 PM 12/2/99 -0600, you wrote:
>From: James Schuldes <jgs@...>
>
>Well, they had to slug through a lot of other problems making the whole
>world come together - and making it work on 15 or 20 servers all synch'd to
>some kinda version control system. What I think happened is that what they
>saw in beta was incorrectly interpreted:
>
>some gamers find stuff and use it to gain xp = "oh they are exploiting we
>will fix that"
>nerf
>
>some gamers find new ways to use tricks to gain xp = "oh they are exploiting
>we will fix that - normal players will never do that"
>nerf
>
>rinse, repeat
>
>"ok, beta is over folks - thanks for all your help! say good bye now cus we
>are gonna delete your chars (again - hehe)"
>
>commercial release
>
>some gamers find stuff and use it to gain xp - post it on their web site and
>everyone does it = "oh they are exploiting we will fix that"
>nerf
>
>some gamers find new ways to use tricks to gain xp - post it on their web
>site and everyone does it = "oh they are exploiting we will fix that -
>normal players will never do that"
>nerf
>
>rinse, repeat
>
>They did not or maybe even could not have anticipated the success of their
>product and the desire for the player to "win" even as it means enduring
>endless hours of boredom. And it's this boredom and the needless 'hell'
>levels that will turn away the casual to medium level players. At some
>point, if you develop a game where the players compete against AI, you need
>to decide how many people you will allow to win.
>
>I contend as I have in the past that they should not make it harder to get
>to level 50 - but they should make it more fun for everyone to get there.
>That is if they want to maximize their their player base retention. If
>their model is: get to 50 or get frustrated and get out - then what they
>have is just fine. Right now its real hard to break thru 35 and keep going
>on my server - one because of the game design itself and how hard it is to
>get xp without hours and hours played. And two because there is a big bunch
>of player right at or near my level (mid 30's) Lower Guk on a popular night:
>70 players vs 40 or 50 froggies? Solb - same deal. Kith was a good try but
>has been kinda fizzled becuz of too much insty-death situations although I
>have not been there in a week (becuz nobody else was in the zone to even get
>a group going).
>
>What the heck is so hard to understand: make the game more fun and people
>will play it more - and pay. Make the game harder and more frustrating and
>people will leave - in droves.
>
>Here is a run down:
>
>Azmo - 35 frustrated and stopped cus he cant get decent xp in 2 hours a
>night
>Aejis - Azmo's friend quit now too cuz his friend is not there to play with
>Bate - cut back cuz Azmo and Ae are not on - so he is roughing it with
>pick-up groups
>Skwid - quit a couple months ago after a nerf that made his war get less xp
>- also a casual play for an hour or two type
>"mr x" - raised a player to 20's and got frustrated with slow xp for casual
>play - bought an ebay account - not playing either one much - prolly bz
>working
>thrifmir - raised a wiz to mid 20's - went away on business for 2 weeks and
>came back to most of his friends too high to group with - so now hes not
>playing any more
>sylly - still here ;p
>nadare - level 48 enchanter
>xaera - level 50 SK as of 2 days ago
>moods - level 50 Cleric as of 3 days ago
>
>So out of 10 - 3 make the end by hard core power gaming, 1 or 2 struggle on
>and the other half quit? What kind of ongoing community will you have when
>you suffer a 50% loss getting "winners" and then have huge loss rates among
>the "winners"??? "Welcome to level 50 - the level of nothing to do!"
>
>These are issues that they did not seem to think of - I can understand that
>they had their hands full with lots of other issues building the world and
>the game but I do have some fundamental concerns.
>
>In the mean time - I really need to get level 38, 39 and 40. Really.
>
>Sylly Songsynger
><Spirit of the Moon>
>Bard of the 37th song
>somewhere on Innoruuk
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Renee Cole [mailto:nat_ive@...]
> Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 2:09 PM
> To: eqbards@onelist.com
> Subject: Re: [eqbards] Twinking Causes a Crisis of
>Faith
>
> From: "Renee Cole" <nat_ive@...>
>
> Still and all, I wish Verant would have given a little more
>forethought to
> what would happen down the road to the high end players. I
>suspect many
> more ppl will leave the game in the coming months.
>
> -Treehugger and Songmaker
>
>
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