[MUD-Dev] Removing the almighty experience point...

[HRose]

Matt Mihaly wrote:

> Why is killing a mob in order to fulfill a quest to get xp a 'good
> reason' but skipping the middle bit and just killing a mob to get
> xp not a 'good reason'?

(It was about World of Warcraft)

A lot. Not much to your eyes because you are isolating a mechanic in
the game that isn't isolate at all. There are a lot of interactions
around this quest-based grind and the concrete results on the
players are completely different. I've wrote on a forum a message
listing all the "good" implications of the quest-based system but I
cannot find them.

Just to underline a few of the points I remember now:

  - The quests give you temp-goals that you can achieve in brief
  playsessions. The gameplay is segmented and it provides
  exit-points as well as reasons to go on, continuously

  - Having a "purpose" behind your actions helps a lot to give you
  the impression of achieving and completing something. For
  achievers and completist (or what is the word) players this is a
  big plus

  - The PvE world is mantained alive, both now and in the
  future. PvE games have the problem of "Mudflation" or the
  cannibalization of content. In the risk vs reward scale the
  players will finally find the "best spot" to camp and the real
  game everyone plays finishes to be 10% of the overall content, the
  rest is obsolete, replaced and forgotten. In WoW we have a
  complete revolution. The world is handrafted in every tiny spot
  and every zone has its own story that you can discover. The quests
  will push you to move around and discover all the content and all
  the spots, it will push you to discover new zones and new things
  to do. While in a "grind-based" game the content just become empty
  (the background while you climb the treadmill), in WoW the content
  is again the subject, because the treadmill becomes the
  *consequence* of your gameplay and not the cause

It's not perfect but this model is a leap forward for a PvE based
game. The content here is the focus and all this adds to a PvP
system that is built INSIDE the PvE. This helps to really craft a
world with its own depth and not just an exuse for an infinite
treadmill. The real difference is that you play *now* for the fun
you are having now. While other games seem just a "delay", hinting
the fun just around the corner but without never really reach it.

-HRose / Abalieno
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