Quote:
Originally Posted by Danth
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
I haven't played Live in many years. I can't comment on it directly. I can say this: Most stat improvement is little more than an illusion. The stats that actually matter, such as kill rate, tank lifespan, and such things tend to stay the same. Hitting a 1000 hit point monster for 20 is effectively the same as hitting a 100000 hit point monster for 2000. You might feel stronger because you can go back and wreck obsolete content that used to be tough....but it's still no different than going back when you're level 60 and wrecking Black Burrow.
I don't know of any of the Everquest-style online games that have figured out how to control stat inflation. Players expect upgrades with expansions so it isn't an easy problem to solve. As I understand, the problem got so bad in Warcraft that Blizzard actually had to go in and lop off some zeros off everything. Whoever eventually figures out a good solution to the inflation issue might be seen as one of the genre's next big innovators.
Danth
|
As I'm sure we all know, EQ revamped a lot of zones that were becoming obsolete/dated in Velious -- like Fear, Chardok, and Droga. The problem is -- they never really wanted to put too much effort into revamping old content. It was a big deal when CT dropped the new Velious-grade items....fear mattered again. A lot of times they had a habit of introducing content that is interesting/useful, but not on par with current expansion. And it was a small minority of zones that were revamped or updated. This results in zone death and makes it difficult for new players to climb to the current content.
Now stat inflation may be an unsolvable problem. MMOs need new progression for expansions. But that doesn't mean that it ever should have gotten like it was when I tried to roll a war on live PoP. Lets just say -- I barely got 65 and quit when I realized I couldn't tank any good exp zones. They could have continued to scale the old content for newer players.