[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Character Growth Models (Was: Removing the almighty experience point...)

[cruise]

Thus spake Aurel Mihai...
> An example of this:  A person joins a guild, and gets the quests to work
> towards maintaining and manning a communication channel for city
> defense. A second player gets attacked on the edge of town, and appeals
> to the people on the defense channel to join him to extend enough
> synergy combat bonuses (shieldwalls, massed fire, dogpile style
> grapples, group channeled spells, etc) to overcome the individually
> powerful achiever who is doing the ganking.

It's not PvP, but the current "Alien Invasions" in CoH have this kind of 
feel - an attack is announced on a global channel, and the mobs are 
"unleveled" so anyone can pile in to fight off the invasion.

> This sort of thing needs to happen spontaneously and frequently so that
> anyone logging in at any time can hop into the action. The mechanics of
> the game need to support this in a fun way too, to make up for the fact
> that you have very little or no achievement points (experience, gold,
> whatever) to show for the time spent.

CoH offers badges for defeating a certain number of the enemies in these 
invasions. Perhaps a messageboard or monument in town that lists the 
players who have contributed most to town defenses - it's a social 
activity, so the reward should also be social.