[jilena]

I think there are still quite a few gamers out there who want something new that's more like something classic. P1999 is just a small subset. You also have a lot of players from Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, hell even Vanilla WoW who all feel like something is missing from more modern games. People are already capitalizing on that with the crowdfunding excitement. Just look at Shroud of the Avatar, Camelot Unchained, Pantheon, Crowfall, etc. You could even count the ridiculousness of Star Citizen as a result of people who want a modern take on a classic experience.

Will they get it? Not entirely. Nostalgia tends to paint all of these older games in a much better light than they deserve. Even if any of them manage to create a similar experience I think something will still be lacking just based on how the players have aged and experienced more of life. That said I think they could still make some pretty great games.

The things I think are missing from modern games are pretty simple really:

- The vast majority of content should not be easy to complete alone. You have to talk to other people. You want people to keep playing your game after they have every upgrade they can possibly grab? Make it a requirement for them to make friends. They will feel obligated to maintain those friendships and log back in.

- There should be no requirement for direct balance between classes. Some classes may be awesome at soloing, some may be awesome in groups, some may have very niche roles that they perform exceptionally well. You want to capture all playstyles you have to do this. Making every class "different but equal" or making every character capable of doing every thing makes every character boring.

- Loot should be unique and/or interesting. Loot should never have any sort of planned equality of stat distribution. I want to have a chance to pick up some item at level 10 that is still awesome when I am 50. Tiered item upgrades are fucking boring. (see WoW or EQLive) I want to luck out on an FBSS roll and have my character get a significant boost. Spending an hour running through a dungeon for a 25% chance at a 1% upgrade is boring.

- Pace. The game needs to have a pace that is conducive to conversation. If your whole group will die because you decided to spend 15 seconds typing a sentence into group chat the game is too fast paced. I want actions to take a bit of consideration and have a significant impact. I don't want to have to have lightning reflexes to play well. If I am playing an MMO I plan to be playing for at least a couple of hours. I don't want my hands to be tired from pressing an endless cycle of the same 5 buttons every 4 seconds. I want to be able to relax and talk to my groupmates.

- No cash item shop even for cosmetic items. You want to look amazing, earn it in the game. You want to level faster? Play better. You don't like your character name? Reroll. You picked the wrong stats? Reroll or balance it out with gear.

That's it. All of this about slow leveling, painful death, etc while I think can have an impact I don't think it has nearly as much of one as people think. To me all the "harsh lifestyle" of EQ can be avoided by any combination of a.) having a lot of time, b.) not being bad, or c.) having a friend with a cleric. If you can circumvent all of the punishment the game inflicts doesn't it sorta lose meaning?

Anyway, too much typing but my original point is just that I think there is an audience for this type of game. It's not a OMG WE JUST TOPPED WoW'S NUMBERS audience but I think there is definitely enough of one to make a profitable game. The problem is that it can't be a really shit tier game.

I don't want to see another Shadowbane. Shadowbane was super fun even being a completely shit tier game. Yet it failed (mostly for being a shit tier game imo) and everyone is like SEE THE ONLY WAY TO DO THE PVP IS BORING RVR LIKE THE DAOC. I see the same thing happening here. Someone releases a terrible game that has a long grind and painful death, claims it is the ultimate classic experience, fails miserably cuz their game is like Rubies of Eventide or some shit, and then everyone is like SEE NO ONE WANTS TO PLAY A CLASSIC GAME. Please don't do that Brad McQuaid.

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