Comment Re:Fix LevelTreadmill have Permanent Character Dea (Score 1) 74
Lets start out with the idea of taking 6 months to level up a character. They key problem is having a 'character' that you have put effort into die 'some idiotic death'.
What MMORPG's producers are selling, is a sense of character, whether game producers, or players even realize it. Your own example of levelling up a 'character' for 6 months, then getting pissed becuase they died 'idiotically' illustrates the point perfectly. The idiotic death was not consistent with the hypothetical character you were creating, and hence you got pissed and quit. The loss of a character, measured in levels is frustrating. The levelling environment itself is frustrating, that is the point of this whole thread.
Non-permenent death prevents character building because character is by nature a limitation, a punctuation, the period at the end of the sentence. The 'reality' of fantasy is that people engage it in to explore their own 'character creations'.
You are correct about commercial MMORPG's wanting income, but you are stating the obvious, and the current levelling treadmill MMORPG income stream is starting to look grim and unreliable to those 'large commercially driven MMORPGs'.
Could it be that the fledgling MMORPG consumer market has started getting very fussy about their tastes, and are getting bored with treadmill gaming environments ?
As to the MMORPG's being a complete waste of time, well that 'other topic', so easily glossed over, is THE WHOLE POINT! Whether your character dies a permanent idiotic death, or whether they become fantastically successful, getting all the levels and phat loot, the bottom line is the experience of saying, after logging off, what do I have to show for it. The answer for almost every player is; unless their selling their in game loot on eBay, not a whole lot.
There is no self discovery, no storytelling and often very little else that survives retiring from a game, when that game is based purely on levels. I'm not saying levels shouldn't be in the game, but in a non-perm death environment, levels are the only measure, and character is limited to the color of the armor, or robe that you wear.
While there are examples of dedicated players that play in character, or that have a lot of character in their playing style, these players are more rare, and are often people who, having demonstrated a mastery of the treadmill game environment, are now dabbling in playing magnanimously.
Whether EQ loses their player base doesn't concern me, what I am concerned about is whether MMORPG gaming is a flash in the pan gaming genre, or something that can mature into more serious entertainment medium.
What MMORPG's producers are selling, is a sense of character, whether game producers, or players even realize it. Your own example of levelling up a 'character' for 6 months, then getting pissed becuase they died 'idiotically' illustrates the point perfectly. The idiotic death was not consistent with the hypothetical character you were creating, and hence you got pissed and quit. The loss of a character, measured in levels is frustrating. The levelling environment itself is frustrating, that is the point of this whole thread.
Non-permenent death prevents character building because character is by nature a limitation, a punctuation, the period at the end of the sentence. The 'reality' of fantasy is that people engage it in to explore their own 'character creations'.
You are correct about commercial MMORPG's wanting income, but you are stating the obvious, and the current levelling treadmill MMORPG income stream is starting to look grim and unreliable to those 'large commercially driven MMORPGs'.
Could it be that the fledgling MMORPG consumer market has started getting very fussy about their tastes, and are getting bored with treadmill gaming environments ?
As to the MMORPG's being a complete waste of time, well that 'other topic', so easily glossed over, is THE WHOLE POINT! Whether your character dies a permanent idiotic death, or whether they become fantastically successful, getting all the levels and phat loot, the bottom line is the experience of saying, after logging off, what do I have to show for it. The answer for almost every player is; unless their selling their in game loot on eBay, not a whole lot.
There is no self discovery, no storytelling and often very little else that survives retiring from a game, when that game is based purely on levels. I'm not saying levels shouldn't be in the game, but in a non-perm death environment, levels are the only measure, and character is limited to the color of the armor, or robe that you wear.
While there are examples of dedicated players that play in character, or that have a lot of character in their playing style, these players are more rare, and are often people who, having demonstrated a mastery of the treadmill game environment, are now dabbling in playing magnanimously.
Whether EQ loses their player base doesn't concern me, what I am concerned about is whether MMORPG gaming is a flash in the pan gaming genre, or something that can mature into more serious entertainment medium.
