Quote:
Originally Posted by ChaosSlayerZ
To add to this discussion, here is a very interesting article "The Kunark Problem" written years back, by member of Afterlife - one of the top EQ guilds of all time.
It underlines some of the core problem in initial EQ design:
http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/kunark.php |
It's an interesting read. Everquest is certainly known for introducing rather suspect mechanics to simulate "content".
The problem I see is that there are multiple different mind sets of players, and you need to know which one you want your server to cater too.
There are some who's attitude is "the game begins at max level". These people don't care what you have done to make the leveling fun and interesting. They don't care about low/mid level custom content. All they care about is your XP modifier and how quickly they can max level and start gearing.
Then there are those who enjoy the journey. They don't care if it takes days to level, provided there is new and engaging content they can explore while doing it. This ties in well with what Thott wrote in the article linked above. If there is content to consume, they don't mind that it takes days to level.
I have seen a lot of servers and devs in particular who only want to focus on end game content. They want to make raids, they want to make "uber" gear, they want to modify max level skills/spells/AA's. There is nothing wrong with this approach at all, but you need to make sure your XP modifier reflects it.
The classic leveling path has been done to death, creating a "live-like" leveling experience without custom content forces people into spending "an eternity" in these old zones which can contribute to the burnout described in the article. While there are plenty of people who enjoy this old content (and there is definitely a lot of it in Classic, let's not forget that!) eventually it gets stale. Doing it over and over on server after server just encourages the "end game starts at max level" mentality.
Personally, I am one of those "enjoy the journey" people. I love working my way through it, but it has definitely become stale to me. I have now done that 1-60 leveling path so many times in Classic->Velious/PoP the only way to make it fresh is to self impose certain challenges. For instance I have to tell myself "no more than 2 levels in each zone" or "in era gear only" or things along those lines to force myself to enjoy it.
This is no fault of the dev's, but is something that many should consider when thinking of designing and releasing their own server. Do you want a complete package where leveling and exploring is part of the fun, or do you want to focus on end game content? You need to adjust and match your XP modifier and the early game to match your vision.