Post#80 » Sat Jun 11, 2016 12:52 pm
Well this thread turned out pretty much as I expected it to.
A number of you are complaining about power gaps. I'm going to do something I swore I would never do here and go into full elitist mode.
You're playing an MMO. These games are specifically designed to appeal to the following types of players:
- Socialites
- Explorers (lore fanatics, etc)
- Achievers (vertical progression, collection of gear, etc)
- People who can't hack it in pure skill-based games and deliberately choose games which allow them to have an advantage over other players because they played the game longer.
Please note that this is not an exclusive list - exceptions exist. The makeup of any individual player may also be a mix of all these types. However, these are the main bases for any MMO.
MMOs in general sacrifice heavily depth of mechanics and individual skill, partly because their system of having so many abilities does not mesh well with a fully skill-based control for them, partly because they support so many players at one time that the processing power required to implement intensive mechanics like FPS-style play exceeds the limit of any server that could be economically acquired, and partly because it is in the intent of the design to limit the skillcap in order to create mass appeal.
I'm sure at this point people are going to raise the 6v6 guilds and how they reliably crush opposition. True. I didn't say that there's no skill in the game and that sufficiently organized groups of players cannot reliably exert dominance over others. If you're determined enough, you can carve out a niche in most games. But the fact that 6v6ers are actively denigrated by some segments of the community and told that the game isn't about them (which is true, it isn't) just highlights that the intent of this game was never to appeal to skill.
In short, if you are going to make the argument that vertical progression is bullshit and that MMOs create a crappy situation in which players with more time played have an advantage over players with less time played which is not accomplished by natural improvement in their skill over time? I'd agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, this is an MMO, and it relies upon those bullshit factors to operate. As Jaycub pointed out - the gameplay is not strong enough to stand on its own. If that's not to your taste, and I'll readily admit that it isn't to mine... then there are plenty of other genres around that are based on raw skill and nothing else.
It isn't a bad thing that there are people to whom this kind of design appeals. Play something like StarCraft or Street Fighter and you can get dominated by players that are a little better than you. I won't talk down to anyone who doesn't think that that is fun, or to whom that doesn't appeal. But I think it's very important to be honest about what exactly this and other games like it are, and why they were made in the way that they were. You either make your game to appeal to skilled players first and foremost, or you make it to appeal to a broader base, making sacrifices against the skilled players in order to preserve your main base. Unless you're a development God and have such good matchmaking and design that you can make your game easy to pick up and play yet filled with depth at the top levels - and separate out the skilled players from the casual players using your matchmaking - you have to choose.
