EQ is like a person dressed up in bandages, stapled together and barely walking. It can still be a fun game at the higher levels, but it's just so patchwork. I'm thinking about EQ2 too if only for the fact that's part of the EQ franchise. Can't believe I haven't played it. The one thing I'm worried about most is not being able to enjoy the old content. One of hte things I hate most about MMORPGs is hte mudflation. I don't want everybody to be stuck in the first expansion, I just want to be able to do the old content without needing a large group or a raid like was needed originally. People who do not understand it think that I want it all handed to me. They don't understand that old zones are empty. The only way to make them worthwhile again is by making them doable by smaller groups or by soloers. It's a way of combating mudflation and preserving the content.
What we need is an extensive review of mudflated content in games. We need to figure out how to resolve it without breaking the game or ignoring a portion of your customers. I don't think progression servers are the answer. I think a whole subgame needs to be developed for progression players on EVERY server. It needs to be something that is optional but available. Maybe all that's needed is a little tweaking to make older content easier, but it could be something as far out as a progression flag on your character.
It's basic risk vs reward. If content B is easy and rewards X+1 and content A is easy and rewards X then most everyone will go to content B. If content B is moderately challenging and rewards X+1 and content A is easy and rewards X then you have a working progression path. What happens i think is that the system becomes ignored and is no longer balanced. So people start avoiding certain content when they're leveling up or doing alternative advancement. This made a large chunk of EQ1 mudflated/broken. So probably 60% or more of the game was worthless content. If one was ignorant of this, it's bareable, but who wants to be dumb?
To be honest, there're a lot of things about classic EQ that I do not like. I've gone over that in other posts. But there're a lot of things that I like that I do not see much of in some modern MMORPGs. I wish more RPGs would script the non-players so they move around more like how some non-players in EQ1 will go from qeynos to highpass hold even (i think). In a lot of them they're just standing still in one place and never move. And I also like to type my messages to non-players. There's not a lot of that in modern games. And it's nice how non-players in EQ1 will say things randomly and you can overhear them. I wish there was more of that in modern MMORPGs. In fact, i wish the whole idea of a non-player WORLD was expanded on and developed like it mattered. Factions as EQ1 made them might be too grindy, but the whole idea of factions shouldn't be abandoned just because someone doesn't like how it might have worked in EQ1. There's a lot of that in all genres. There's so much awesomness in games that're up to 20 years old that's forgotten. People forget that when they focus on all of the things we've improved. They just don't have an appreciation for it.
One thing I imagine is .. take for instance Qeynos .. lets say that there's an appearance tab (some modern games have htis to change how your items look). Now you switch into clothing that's appropriate for the city that you're in. BAM you see this on your chat window, "You have gained +15 social awareness." Lets say that you walk instead of run on the paths in the city, so you see, "You have gained +10 social awareness." Etc. These things wouldn't give you more money or anything, they would just improve a temporary stat so that other non-players would be more talkative or friendly towards you. It wouldn't impact quests or anything. It would be purely for roleplaying. So you'd enter a tavern and sit down. BAM you get a social awareness bonus. Then you order a beer. Another bonus. The more that you roleplay the higher your awareness gets. At the highest rating other non-players start to make comments about you. A few of them even become your friend and remember you whenever you visit. Etc. Etc. As long as these things don't give you money or make quests easier or have a tangible impact on the actual game then they're fun side-games that could be expanded just simply for the hell of it. Call it fluff, what you will, but I think it would be fun to every once in a while roleplay a citizen and walk around like I should and not run around like a madman like most players do like they're invisible or something to everyone else. I want to 'play' being polite and aware of customs! A new game is not needed for this.
We should be able to play games multiple ways too. Not just combat and quests and tradeskills. I should be able to write books and become a famous writer. I should be able to become a true bard and simply go from city to city telling stories at the taverns and causing general chaos in the rumormills. I should be able to join government and exist there alone, maybe working as an envoy. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want and still be able to get max level and get money. There needs to be more ways to play these games. They're still stuck in the D&D combat-oriented gameplay. There's a big opportunity for games to expand elsewhere.
There're too many things for me to cover. I'll leave it here.
|