[MUD-Dev2] Reasons for Play [was: City of Heroes tangent]

[cruise]

Thus spake Michael Hartman...
> The presence of a levelling grind badly exposes the lack of variety in
> gameplay in CoX. Grinding out your 400th warehouse mission in a row is a
> lot more glaring of a problem when it is what you have to do in order to
> make that next level. Pursuit of badges and completion of task
> forces/strike forces would be a more rewarding element of the game if
> you didn't have to worry about grinding xp.

I think this is the reason we disagree, and is something many MMOG's 
have lost sight of.

I'm not playing through my 4000th (no typo :) warehouse mission for that 
next level.

I'm playing through it because it's fun. The actual activity involved in 
"subduing" the various opponents is, for me, inherently enjoyable. I 
couldn't care less about the XP. I still play my maxed level 50 in 
simple zone sweeping. Purely because it's fun, even after 3+ years.

I'm not motivated by achievements; goals do not make me play if the 
activity required to achieve them is uninteresting.

Players have become trained in CRPG's to treat the reward as the reason 
for playing. There was a thread recently on the CoX boards asking for an 
XP boost for a certain class of enemy, because fighting them is (and I 
do agree here) somewhat dull, and they're being ignored.

Surely the correct reaction should be to want the fight to be interesting?

Current games are focused entirely on the rewards, without making the 
actual gameplay itself satisfying, and players are now apparently 
educated to expect this type of game.