I want…

Jeuj !!

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/Game.asp

I can’t get past medium level, yet…

their 3rd expansion the amount of active subscriptions is still raising.

The principles of WoW and AO are exactly the same, the content and story is different. If you never played it, I cannot imagine why it’s a must to at least give it a try unless you are very sensitive to online addictions, the concept is simple: You start a character, do some stuff (kill stuff, do a quest, gather money and wealth) get some Experience by it and level it up. Once you reach the end-game level (highest level) you start gathering gear and getting better and better gear until they release an expansion and you start all over again (as they will probably raise the level bar once more). It is very addictive, but not the true power behind these games. The reason I like to play it: It’s far more relaxed then a FPS (coming from Q2, MoH:AA and Call of Duty) you can play longer without getting burned out, it requires more strategic planning (what to buy, when to buy) to advance in the game but most of all a couple of my friends played it allot. And that’s in my opinion the most important thing about it; you get to play with your friends, get jealous about their insane gear (as they obviously have no life and spend 10 times as much time in the game as me) and have some fun with them. It’s also why World of Warcraft continues to grow; it is the only and biggest MMO out there. All your friends play it so why bother spending 6 months of leveling in a different environment but same type-of-game with only significant changes? Then again, Blizzard does a nucking futz job in adding content and keeping the game very interesting.

The leveling for XP is in my opinion the biggest flaw in the ever so popular MMO concept; my friends spend more time in it and hence have far more cooler gear and stuff they I do. And they bloody should! It wouldn’t be fair if I could obtain the same stuff with only a few nights per month. But it does bring a new gap, it doesn’t matter if you’re all in the end-game, but with leveling they advance much faster than I do and obtain the coolest stuff already long before I ever get close to it. Now there are MMO’s who have a different concept: EVE for example is a strong one, this is a space MMO you have a space worthy vehicle and you find yourself in a 3D space environment. Instead of killing something or questing for XP you spend Time to build and learn new things to your space-craft. Now this is definitely different than others, the Time building it even continues to tick once you log out. And this is a very strong concept; however it has the same problem. There is a gap between hardcore players and those with a lesser amount of available game time. I can understand there is a need for difference, if you spend allot of time it you should get rewarded, but it should automatically assume I need to spend the same amount of time to join my friends in a MMO game! I like to play with my friends and they like it if I join them from time to time, with a FPS this was never a problem. Sure I might not be so good when playing a FPS war, but it didn’t lower the amount of fun with could get out of it. Sometimes even was funnier to play less serious or them teaching me how to improve.

So, to finally get to the point: Is there a better concept? Can we think of something that would allow hardcore and casuals to play a like, side by side? But still remaining the rewards in equal ways, the hardcore players should have access to higher and better stuff, since that is one of the main principals behind an MMO game: spend time <> get reward. Let’s first break down the problem, in my opinion it is not the XP for doing something (kill mobs, complete quest, slay the opponent) but it is the amount of time you need to spend into the game to reach the End-game content. B’Cause that is where the true fun starts, I don’t care that my friends are fully decked in epics at the highest level. I do care that they can join in the same instance or in the same battleground and so that they can laugh at me dying or sucking because I am less geared. That is probably the same as if I would join a FPS war game and I miss everything while they drop head-shot after head-shot. What is probably annoying is the amount of time I need to spend into the game to get to the same end-game level, Blizzard is not solving this but pushing the problem forward by making leveling easier, more XP per quest, easier quests and less XP per level. In some way leveling is also needed, to learn your class’ abilities and a sort of step-by-step introduction of your character. Don’t get me wrong, but MMO’s are complex, most characters have allot of unique abilities that require allot of time to understand and not to be compared by a FPS (gun, shoot, done)

So how could we avoid this dreading ‘leveling’ process? Simply by removing it, what you say? You’ve heard me right. So how do I see it?
You start a character, this brings it a classic starting zone where you learn the core abilities of the class and race chosen as the classic MMO does. However once you’ve learned it’s basics you get to the (what would be considered end-game) default level. Now to start gaining skill points by playing the game so for example if you kill a beast you gain points and these points you can then spend on you character (raising stamina and attack power for example dependant on your class and attack type). By gaining money (loot, quest, trading) you should be able to access higher spells/abilities, these you can buy but have a dependency on your skill points (based on what you kill and not kill). This is still all the same as the ever classic MMO concept. However, there should be tiers to gain, tier 0 is the starting tier and you can go higher by spending more time rewarding the hardcore players by accessing high tiers. With these high tiers they should be able to access higher gear separating them from the casuals. Still all quite the same as leveling, however now comes the new part, if you stop playing the game for an X amount of time your character drops in tier level due to laziness. Same as in real life isn’t it? If I stop sporting for a longer amount of time I get less good at it, so why shouldn’t it be the same as in a MMO? If you pause killing animals/players it should be harder to kill them once you been idle for a long amount of time. Now this is where you can narrow the gap between new players, casuals and hardcore players. Making it relatively easy to get to the mediocre tiers and making it simple for even the high hardcore players to help out their friends by joining in the same instance, rewarding both for the same amount of time they put into it.
But if you drop in tier, what should happen? It shouldn’t render your high gear unworthy, even though it should be. It should still be visible that you once where a hardcore player – distinguished, but the character shouldn’t be so gear dependant. But skill dependant, by dropping a tier your abilities get narrowed or less powerful, maybe dependant on the skill points spent as they go down it should also lower your ranks of that nasty fireball. Because you got lazy and have less strength to wield the power of that almighty high ranked fireball. Breaking the link between power <> gear and making a link between gear and ability ranks. So your tier 5 chest armor only boosts your rank 5 fireball, these should be parallel. So how should players be rewarded aside from gear? By money, mounts, player cities etc. And of course by mounts/vehicles and other status rewards. Showing you’re a rich and wealthy man.

So for the hardcore players they should be on a sustained tier, even sometimes making it challenging to reach 1 higher or the highest tier. Rewarding them by items and money. The instance should be based on the average tier level of the group, making it interesting for higher players to help their low level friends and vice versa. And if you stop playing it for a short amount of time the tier’s of your character drop, high tiers drop in a short amount of time but lowering the drop rate as you go down, this is the same as up. Gaining the mediocre tiers should go relatively fast but gaining the higher ones should soak up more time as you tag along the game. These tiers should not only be rewarded by doing that big instance, but also by solo content (quests, gathering, mobs) and also by Player vs. Player battles. One key component is player city battles, attacking other player cities from your faction. Or by participating in the battlegrounds (which I find very amusing in WoW) or by playing the arena matches. This should narrow the gap between PVP and PVE, allowing every player to gain higher tiers by participating in both type of content. They key of PVP is to keep the numbers relatively small, a tier 0 player should of course be no match for a end-tier player, it’s a newb for all sakes. But a mediocre tier player should stand at least a chance against a higher tiered player and not get one-shotted. The common thing at games like WoW is where the lower player has 200 hp and the end-game hardcore player 35 000 hp, of course this is nonsense but normal in the leveling type of concept. Keeping it smaller, like 100 for the starter, 250 for the mediocre player and 350 for the hardcore player. This is of course all relative to the sustained amount of damage coming from each player. But just to give an example to not excess these differences.

Of course this ‘theory’ needs to be thought out on allot of sides, it isn’t balanced out in any way and it’s just me thinking out loud. But in my opinion the easiest way to making the game available for both the casual and the hardcore player. And yes heavily based on the classic concepts of today’s available MMO’s. Never the less I am very curious on where the drift is taking us, what new good stuff will come from the king-of-games named Blizzard? I don’t know, for now I just bite the sour apple of leveling to 80 and then enjoy my friends in the WoW world after spitting out this article.