Custom content - how much is too much?

[fadetree]

Originally Posted by Maciver [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Make the content the reason to keep playing, not the grind for more levels or loot. Sure there should be interesting items to obtain, but nothing that scales up past velious level gear.

The trouble is, that is really, really hard to do. There are only so many ways you can add 'difficulty' to an open world MMORPG, and whatever form you pick will be hated by half of your target audience. Adding 'interest' is even harder, because that is even more subjective.

Anyway, I think that's what they tried to do in PoP, and I think they did a great job. That whole progression was super interesting and it was difficult in the time-sinky way that you have to go with in these games. They did add some pretty good raid fights, and were starting to get away from the old AOE vs. tank and spank mechanics that earlier raids were like.

For instance, your example had a PERSON running the 'interesting development' for a week. Good luck scaling that kind of thing up. Bring back player controlled monsters so the players 'create their own content'? That's fine, but too many are tards that just want to annoy people, and it's effectively a PvP server.

[Maciver]

Originally Posted by fadetree [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The trouble is, that is really, really hard to do. There are only so many ways you can add 'difficulty' to an open world MMORPG, and whatever form you pick will be hated by half of your target audience. Adding 'interest' is even harder, because that is even more subjective.

Anyway, I think that's what they tried to do in PoP, and I think they did a great job. That whole progression was super interesting and it was difficult in the time-sinky way that you have to go with in these games. They did add some pretty good raid fights, and were starting to get away from the old AOE vs. tank and spank mechanics that earlier raids were like.

For instance, your example had a PERSON running the 'interesting development' for a week. Good luck scaling that kind of thing up. Bring back player controlled monsters so the players 'create their own content'? That's fine, but too many are tards that just want to annoy people, and it's effectively a PvP server.

The encounters in pop were fun, but the flagging system was shit. Go afk a couple of raid days and it sucked. Even with the few extra you could drag along. I'm all for time sync progression - I enjoyed farming emp keys and weapons in luclin with my guild mates.

Not player controlled, GM controlled, you wouldn't give players access to this, thats asking for trouble.

Edit: Adding complexity goes a long way in adding interesting, and difficulty. I'm sure people could come up with idea's all day in this regard.