[MUD-Dev] [News] Virtual goods--Oh, the controversy!

[John Buehler]

Brian Miller writes:
> Amanda Walker wrote:
>> On Apr 12, 2004, at 11:53 PM, Paolo Piselli wrote:

>>> IMO, a player who has 'purchased' their character with logged
>>> time is more likely to contribute to the long-term health of the
>>> game in many ways.  OTOH, it is concievable that a player who
>>> has 'purchased' their character with money is more likely to
>>> grief play, demoralize players who cannot afford to buy power,
>>> and otherwise negatively impact the long-term health of the
>>> game.

>> On the other hand, many non-griefers want to play with their
>> friends.

>> I quit both EQ and DAOC because, despite having many friends in
>> the game and on the same server, I could never overcome the 3
>> month head start they had.  I would have been a much more loyal
>> customer of both if I'd been able to enter the game at a higher
>> baseline.  Sure, I wouldn't have known as much about how to play
>> the game, but I'd have been able to let my friends teach me the
>> ropes instead of soloing for months in Faydark or Hiberbia before
>> giving up in complete boredom, while hearing my friends talk
>> about all the fun they were having that was closed off to me
>> simply because I arrived later.

> City of Heroes has a very interesting solution to this problem.
> One character of at least 10th level can take on another character
> as a 'sidekick'.  The sidekick is able to perform at a level only
> slightly less than his mentor as long as they remain within a
> certain range of each other.  This enables the low level character
> to be useful in combat and contribute to the success of the team.
> It does have the problem that although the lower level player's
> skills are enhanced they still have the same amount of health so
> the first time one of the high level enemies connects with an
> attack the sidekick is most likely dead.

I've always thought that level grind games should be structured such
that disparate level characters could group in a way that keeps
things interesting for all concerned.

One way is to take the level of the lowest character in a group.
All characters in the group then have their abilities reset to that
level.  So if a level 50 groups with a level 1 newbie, the level 50
fights like a level 1.  Each gets experience appropriate to their
level, but the material rewards remain appropriate to the monster.

Alternately, a character at a certain level can function at any
level below its maximum level.  The experience that the character
receives is appropriate to their level, and according to the
difference in their level and the monster's.  An example of this is
to take a level 40, and artificially drop its level to 30.  When the
character attacks a level 1 rat and easily wins, the character gets
no experience - just as a level 30 would get no experience.  If he
kills a level 25 monster, which is of minor difficulty for a level
30 character, he is awarded the experience appropriate to killing a
monster of minor difficulty for a level 40.

In brief, a player can cause his character to masquerade as a lower
level character and still reap the experience reward. However, that
masquerading is going to either eliminate or reduce the efficacy of
spells, armor, weapons, etc.

Another alternative is to permit highbies to 'donate levels' to
lowbies that they are grouped with.  Five level 50s can then donate
8 levels to a level 1 newbie friend while they are grouped. That
brings the newbie up to level 41 and they are dropped to level
42. As before, spell and equipment efficacy is either boosted or
reduced according to level changes.  The group goes off and kills
level 42 monsters.  The level 1 gets level 1 experience, quickly
advancing to level 42, and the level 50s get level 50 experience.
All material rewards from the monsters are again kept appropriate to
the monster.

The net result of all this is that a level N character can 'use' all
content geared for level 1 through N, and level 1 characters can
'use' any content that friends or random groupmates help them to
achieve.

Yes, this means that annoying newbies will be spamming people for a
high level group that will loan them levels.  Such is life.  But it
does permit high level players to revisit low level content, and it
solves the problem of friends who get ahead of friends in the level
grind.  Something that I also find frustrating.

JB
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