this is how D3 was supposed to be like
" Lots of content? I played Runescape when it first came out, got the party hats and all to prove it. Runescape wasn't that big, the only reason it seemed big was because of how slow the game moved. If it moved as fast as it moves now, I easily could have completed the entire game(quests and all, get all the best gear and shit) in just over 10 hours. Would I be 99 in all skills? No, but that's grinding. Grinding is not content. But I'm just saying, Runescape got lucky, it wasn't really known for it's huge amount of content back then. It was the right game at the right time, although NOW it has a ton of content | |
" Gameplay is key. Minecraft has simple 8-bit style graphics, but a huge player base because of the gameplay. If you make gameplay addictive, people will keep playing it, no matter what it looks like. Path of Exile is going for the addictive hack and slash gameplay of D2, with constant item rewards to keep you coming back for more :) I put the romance in necromancer <3
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" The first version of Runescape was released in 2001. The game did not really make it big until 2005 though and by end of 2007 (the time period I referred to) Runescape had heaps of content. Then in January 2008 Jagex killed free trade, staking and pking to stop real world trading. Now, however, in 2011 they are holding a referendum where players can vote for the return of all these nerfed features. Over 1 million votes so far and 90% want them back, 7% want them gone, and 3% don't care. I think the history and turn of events in Runescape is a very telling story that many game developers can learn from. |
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" Sure finding items is great fun but it quickly gets old. That which keeps you coming back for more in the long run is not the finding of the items so much as how they change your status relative to the other players. Respect from other players is the highest currency and the ultimate scale for measuring accomplishment. To capitalize on this as a game developer you must keep the item drop rates very low, even for shitty items and make truly good stuff virtually impossible to get. Combined with pking and more or less full loot you have the recipe for a very thrilling and addictive game. Games like Titans Quest and Torch Light fail miserably because there is such a ridiculous abundance of items dropping in front of the player. Games like wow also fail at this because everyone runs around in the same soul bound top-gear. Diablo 3 is likely going in the same direction as well with the best stuff being soul bound and probably readily available. Where is the respect, the thrill and the sense of accomplishment? It is all in the rarity of good items, the risk of losing them to and the ability to trade them with other players. |
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" While I agree with some of your premises I'm going to have to disagree with you here. WoW is one of the most successful MMO's in existence right now, I highly doubt WoW has failed at anything. This is strictly from an observational standpoint, but you're going to have to re-think exactly what you're saying if you want to be correct in your assumption about soul-bound items. All items have a certain drop chance. That chance can be as low as you want it to be but the fact is that with enough people playing the game the item will eventually start to saturate the market. This causes the price of the item (and thus the rarity) to deflate quite dramatically. Your sense of respect goes out the window now, because literally every player even new players now have access to gear that was once rare but now can be found in over-abundance. The only way to make this right is to wipe the economy clean. Soul-binding, however, mostly negates this effect. Binding on equip is probably the most effective way to reduce the number of items in the market (barring a complete economic wipe) and thus keeping the price of the item relatively high and stable. Also, those that find the item get the respect they deserve, because they can either trade that item or wear it. Unfortunately the ultimate goal of an ARPG is to deck one's character out in the best possible gear and to have the best possible skill set-up for one's style of play. This is generally everyone end-game goal. It would be pretty rude not to expect each and every player (that dedicates themselves) to attain the best possible gear. In the end, Bind on Equip items are a far superior way of controlling inflation and that is why WoW and eventually, Diablo 3, will be very successful. I wish the same for GGG but there's a reason to the madness. Happy Days Abound.
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" Sorry but you have no idea what you're talking about. Blizzard has in-house experts on economics and they're who the Diablo 3 team refer to on how to set up an economy that doesn't fall so far into the shitter that they literally have to reset everything to fix it. And you used Titan Quest as an example of an abundance of items? Do you know how difficult it was to find a legendary item in that game? I played through the game 4 times on all 3 difficulties and had double the drops with triple the chance of finding a rare item(simply because I don't actually have enough time to grind for all the items and I wanted to see all the cool shit they had to offer) and through all 4 playthroughs of all 3 difficulties I was still finding items I had never seen before, and I still haven't found all of them. I can't imagine how many times I'd have to play the game to find a legendary item if I didn't have those loot boosts. Titan Quest wasn't received very well because it's system requirements were ridiculous(it was released in 2006, so their requirements at the time required a completely top of the line computer), and the internet service sucked. You know what those things have in common? It wasn't accessible enough. And Torch Light failed? They're making a sequel and have a planned MMO for Torch Light, how is that a fail? Lots of people seem to enjoy it despite failing at whatever the fuck you're talking about. Respect from other players in an online video game... pffft. | |
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Yeah, gotta agree with the post above on this. There is no respect online, well there is a sense of "Awe" from completely new players when they see someone in Tier 387 gear walk through town. But even that sense of awe quickly evaporates as that same player notices that every (insert class level here) warrior has the same gear.
Thats why I hope PoE has few purples (or whatever color code they use I like orange actually) . No way you can call a sword "epic" when 30k people have it. "the premier Action RPG for hardcore gamers."
-GGG Happy hunting/fishing |
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" You are totally missing the point. These games have too much loot dropping from the mobs. You are spending your time wading and sifting through items instead of actually playing the game, item filters or no item filters. Sure, players enjoyed them as a single player experience but that is despite the loot, not thanks to the loot. How they would fare as persistent multiplayer games is yet to be seen but I would not get my hopes up if I were you. As for respect online you communicate quite clearly how foreign a concept that is to you. Your true self is showing in your online persona and in your case it is not pretty. Grow up and learn some manners. |
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" Too much loot? I very rarely EVER had a full inventory in either of those games. Unless you're talking about the few people with downs syndrome playing the game who pick up gray and white items(aka the items nobody uses after level 1.) You're really just talking complete nonsense, I don't think you even played Titan Quest or Torch Light, you just watched some gameplay videos and drew all of your conclusions from that. I'm assuming so because you don't seem to know anything about either of those games. Haha, I need to grow up and learn some manners. I've only heard that about 500 times from 14 year olds trying to appear mature on the internet. FYI, me slathering my posts in sarcasm gravy isn't my online persona, it's how I communicate with people I think are stupid. | |
" I won't deny that you have a point somwhere in there, but I was talking about the popularity of the game, not the inflation of the economy, and WoW's popularity does not have anything to do with soul-bound items. There are many many good things about WoW but the player economy is not one of them. It is stifled, nerfed and strangled. The reason for the soul-bound design is certainly not to prevent inflation because why then would Blizzard increase the drop rate of gold? And why does the price stability of an item matter if it is can't be traded between players in the first place? Soul-bound items are obviously a measure taken against real world trading - the very same rationale that lies behind the increased drop rate of gold. Blizzard does not want real world trading, theft and scams so they hamper with trade, loot and pking to make the players more self-sufficent. Personally I think player interaction is the whole point of an mmo and that real world trading is a good thing as long as there are no bots or dupes involved. Speaking of economy, there is a far better measuring scale for the success of a mmo than player numbers and that is profit. Blizzard would make many times more money off of WoW if it was based on micro-transactions instead of subscription. The subscription model is clearly not ideal. Not only does it gear the game in the direction of endless and senseless unsocial grinding, it also fails to tap the rich players of all the extra money they would spend if they had something to spend it on. Most mmos will go in the direction of micro-transactions sooner or later. |
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