06-28-2004, 06:20 PM
I read your post, but I just don't get it. The notion just doesn't make sense to me.
In the case of Alex, Bart, Charles, and Diana, let's think about this. If they are just questing together, how is Alex getting ahead? He is just grinding monsters on his spare time? Why would he do that, when he knows the group can't keep up with him? You said the group can always play together, but obviously they *aren't* always playing together if they are so far apart on levels. He could play a character with this group 10 hours a week, and play another character on his own (or with pickup groups etc) for the other 50 hours. That is essentially what the ork group here is about, for example.
I don't see how this is different in MMORPGs from any other RPG. In Diablo, when you wanted to coop with someone, you found characters of similar levels and powers who wanted to play in the same area. In Diablo II, even moreso. If that prevented you from ever reaching level 50, or level 99, then so be it... you were having more fun playing in balanced parties than you would have had grinding to the end game.
So then we get to this point: The power levelers will always be stronger than the Charlies and Dianas of the world, by a serious order of magnitude. By playing, say, 3 times as much, even if they donât have 3 times as much experience, theyâll have 3 times as much gold, 3 times as much treasure ⦠theyâll always be significantly ahead. So then, what is the point in having a rest state again? You are saying right here that Alex will always be much stronger than Diana. Furthermore, Diana will never even see most of the quests in the game. For every 5 quests Alex is doing in his spare time, Diana is only seeing one. So, she is still not powerful enough to keep up, she completely skips most of the game as she goes, and eventually she will want to do some quest the rest of the group has already done on their spare time so it will still be boring for everyone else.
And that's assuming that the rest state would come even close to keeping this group together level-wise. Based on the first two versions, it won't be nearly that powerful. This group won't be able to keep together for more than a week, with or without the rest state. Alex is not going to have fun doing Goldshire quests with the group when he has already killed ever monster in the entire zone, three times, in his free time, and probably turned all the quests in already.
I think you are missing the point about "fairness". It is not really important from a competitive standpoint for this "fairness" to exist, because the heaviest powergamers will always stay ahead no matter what. Where it is important is in how the game plays out for each individual player. In the alliance phase with no rest state, there was a sense of balance between the amount of quests available and the level of a character who didn't grind for experience. This is especially important in the low level zones. What is happening with the rest state is that it is changing the way each player has to play. A power gamer has to either grind mobs (hmmm, wasn't one point of rest state to discourage power gamers from grinding mobs?) or jump all over the world looking for quests to do. The casual gamer will find themselves overwhelmed with unfinished quests, and have to choose which ones to do and which ones to skip. And if both gamers somehow do end up back on the same quest at the same level, the power gamer has much better equipment from doing so many more quest/ killing so many more mobs. The power gamer may also be ahead on skill points, trades, and skill development. These are balance issues. To me, it's capable of making the game less fun for both groups.
In the case of Alex, Bart, Charles, and Diana, let's think about this. If they are just questing together, how is Alex getting ahead? He is just grinding monsters on his spare time? Why would he do that, when he knows the group can't keep up with him? You said the group can always play together, but obviously they *aren't* always playing together if they are so far apart on levels. He could play a character with this group 10 hours a week, and play another character on his own (or with pickup groups etc) for the other 50 hours. That is essentially what the ork group here is about, for example.
I don't see how this is different in MMORPGs from any other RPG. In Diablo, when you wanted to coop with someone, you found characters of similar levels and powers who wanted to play in the same area. In Diablo II, even moreso. If that prevented you from ever reaching level 50, or level 99, then so be it... you were having more fun playing in balanced parties than you would have had grinding to the end game.
So then we get to this point: The power levelers will always be stronger than the Charlies and Dianas of the world, by a serious order of magnitude. By playing, say, 3 times as much, even if they donât have 3 times as much experience, theyâll have 3 times as much gold, 3 times as much treasure ⦠theyâll always be significantly ahead. So then, what is the point in having a rest state again? You are saying right here that Alex will always be much stronger than Diana. Furthermore, Diana will never even see most of the quests in the game. For every 5 quests Alex is doing in his spare time, Diana is only seeing one. So, she is still not powerful enough to keep up, she completely skips most of the game as she goes, and eventually she will want to do some quest the rest of the group has already done on their spare time so it will still be boring for everyone else.
And that's assuming that the rest state would come even close to keeping this group together level-wise. Based on the first two versions, it won't be nearly that powerful. This group won't be able to keep together for more than a week, with or without the rest state. Alex is not going to have fun doing Goldshire quests with the group when he has already killed ever monster in the entire zone, three times, in his free time, and probably turned all the quests in already.
I think you are missing the point about "fairness". It is not really important from a competitive standpoint for this "fairness" to exist, because the heaviest powergamers will always stay ahead no matter what. Where it is important is in how the game plays out for each individual player. In the alliance phase with no rest state, there was a sense of balance between the amount of quests available and the level of a character who didn't grind for experience. This is especially important in the low level zones. What is happening with the rest state is that it is changing the way each player has to play. A power gamer has to either grind mobs (hmmm, wasn't one point of rest state to discourage power gamers from grinding mobs?) or jump all over the world looking for quests to do. The casual gamer will find themselves overwhelmed with unfinished quests, and have to choose which ones to do and which ones to skip. And if both gamers somehow do end up back on the same quest at the same level, the power gamer has much better equipment from doing so many more quest/ killing so many more mobs. The power gamer may also be ahead on skill points, trades, and skill development. These are balance issues. To me, it's capable of making the game less fun for both groups.