DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from -Re: [MUD-Dev]SOC:Willcompany sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity?

[John Buehler]

cruise writes:
> John Buehler spake thusly...

>> If such a thing were done such that the one big monster were just
>> something that required everyone present to mass attack it, then
>> it would make more sense.  It would be a variation on the
>> entertainment of killing the monsters in the field instead of a
>> suspension of that entertainment.  Players would have to wait
>> until a highbie could be called in or a player was willing to
>> swap out to an alternate highbie character.

> Agreed. Having it killable by a big enough group of lowbies would
> make much more sense. A mini-raid type affair.

> Which brings me to another question. Why is it that most raids are
> "high-end content" only? What's wrong with having raid-worthy
> stuff all the way up? Or take the route CoH did with it's Giant
> Monsters, making them con the same to any level - so whether
> you're 5 or 50, it's always the equivalent of fighting a +4
> mob. Anyone can help, everyone can join in.

I'm sure there are many opinions and theories.  I'll offer two:

  1. Keeping it as high(er) end content provides an incentive to
  continue to play the game.  Provide everything to level 5
  characters and players will only play to level 5 and then do
  everything that the game has to offer.  I think this is a screwy
  mindset, but one that would take hold for anyone who had created a
  maze.  If I created a maze, I'd want people to experience all
  parts of it.  I wouldn't want them to just sit at the entrance.
  "They'd be missing out on so much!"

    As I've said in the past, I'd just as soon leave out levels as
    an integral component of gameplay.  Keep achievement as a means
    of entertainment, just not as integral as it is today.  When
    that happens, 'raids' would become a stock element of gameplay,
    and inclusion into a raid becomes more of a social issue or
    game-context issue than a level issue.

  2. Novice players often are unable to coordinate effectively in a
  raid environment.  Raids can be very touchy, confusing, and
  require strict adherence to rules.  Those who deviate from the
  'raid rules' can produce a real mess, pulling a monster
  accidentally, ruining a sequence needed to reach an area, killing
  a wandering monster that won't normally get aggressive, etc.

    Dark Age of Camelot had content suitable for raids that included
    level 35+ as I recall.  Player guilds, God bless them, would
    organize regular, open, lower-level raids into these areas,
    giving novice raiders an opportunity to get used to the raid
    environment.  I noticed that there were always lots of questions
    about what was going on, who was doing what, what items were
    dropping, what "I" should do, and what "I" might get at the end
    of the raid.  The chat structure is difficult to work with when
    many people are trying to gain situational awareness.  Going
    through that a few times would discourage most from trying to
    run a raid laden with many novices.

JB
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