Rest State

[JustAGuy]

But how could the casual players find the rest state makes the game less fun? They can't have a problem with the bonus. Is it the idea of inns that they would find disagreeable?

The only thing I can think of is that the bonus is not enough for the casual players.

The feeling that I got, that I hadn't pinpointed until you asked this question, was that from a casual gamer's point of view, I wasn't getting enough experience for the time invested. The rest I put in wasn't giving me enough experience back.

The rest state gives me, speaking as a casual gamer, a slap in the face when I decide to play for some amount of time considered more than casual. I don't play all day long, I only play a few hours when appropriate. Sometimes, I get a block of free hours and I play; sometimes I get a couple of blocks of hours to play. The problem with the latter situation is that the rest state bonus has worn off and it feels as though my play in the second block of time is wasted, or less productive. If you are lucky to get consecutive blocks of play time, to the casual player, it's almost not worth playing. That is, if you're main concern is getting maximum experience for play time.

From the position of being a part-time power gamer, this is very frustrating. A power gamer would play everyday, all day, getting to level 45 in no time, despite the "Tired" rest state. The experience gains are constant, albeit "reduced". The true casual gamer, i.e. that person that plays an hour a night, or a few hours every few days, gets the bonus for most, if not all, of their playing time and gets their character higher than they normally would have, thus giving them that feeling of accomplishment that makes them want to continue playing. The "power gamer in disguise", that third, middle-type of gamer, is one that acts like a power gamer but in sporadic instances. Sometimes called "Marathon Men (or Women)" or "Weekend Warriors", these are the gamers that are hurt the most by the rest system. They want just as badly to get to level 45, but can't, due to time constraints or what-have-you, and when they do run into some free time, are penalized for wanting to level up. The system should work, in theory, but right now the bonuses are being cut off too early.

Possible solution? Rest taken should be proprtionally equal to play time.

Should the gamer be entitled to play his character's entire career in the "Rested" state? All types of gamers would ideally want to say "yes", but supposedly, those entitled to it would be the casual gamers (because they "need" it, to be competitive or whatever). The power gamers should be in the "Tired" state all the time, and the Marathon Men would be in the "Normal" state.

Potentially, with the system as it used to be, you could play your character in the Fully Rested state all the time. You play until "Tired", go to bed, and play again the next day "Fully Rested". Once the character hits rock bottom, he can't go any lower. Once he regenerates, it's like turning the timer back on and counting down to the "Tired" state. As it stands now, the bonus is almost negligable after the first expenditure. Once you spend all of your bonus exp early on, the bonus practically doesn't exist, no matter how long you rest in the future. Your first few hours are great, then they become worse, and then killing monsters for exp becomes a grind. If you hit "Tired", then go to bed, and come back, he's "Normal". If he happens to be "Fully Rested", then he's "Normal" within a few kills. I just rested 12 hours, how is it that three kills makes me "Normal" again?

I see and understand the need for the rest state. It's not to make groups such as the one you described above more able to play together, but rather it's a financial decision. The group described above wouldn't necessarily be able to level together once they pass a certain point, because of their level difference. Take for example, four players start out questing all at the same pace and all reach level 12 by the end of the first session. In the second session, one player is busy and can't play. The other three continue to level up. They are level 15 by the end of the second session and the level 12 is still left behind. As it stands now, the level 12 could join then, but would be behind in all the quests, and would be making little experience from their kills. The rest of the party would be making a very poor amount of experience per kill and wouldn't be progressing in their own quests. The level 12 is still level 12, and once that experience bonus fades, he'll be level 12 for a while to come. Eventually, all of the players will succumb to the experience "penalty" and the party will begin to finish quests (if possible) and end up being well below their level for the quests in their log.

Now, from a single player viewpoint, it doesn't matter if you have friends that are playing or not. You just want to get your character up, and you'll throw in with anyone at anytime, depending on the situation. Your main objective is to level up and improve your skills. Get kills so you can get skill points, etc. A player puts in, say, 10 bucks a month to play. A casual gamer puts in maybe 6 hours a week. The hardcore gamer puts in 40 hours a week (how they do that, I don't know, but I know they do!). For 40 hours a week, the power gamer is playing more, using more system resources, and seeing more returns for his 10 bucks a month. The more he puts in, the more he gets out, so to speak. For 10 bucks a month, the casual gamer gets very little, putting in as much time as he can, but still only doing little. The most capitalistic situation would have the power gamer being the most successful, since he has the most time to dedicate to the game, and the casual gamer being least successful. If success at the game is was keeps gamers interested, the power gamer would be there until interest fades, and the casual gamer would play until discouraged; he's not getting anything back for his investment, when compared to the power gamer. The power gamer sullies the experience for the casual gamer, making the casual gamers leave early. Once the power gamer has done all there is to do, he leaves as well. No more money to be made!

The solution? Rob from the rich and give to the poor. If you can keep the casual player interested by bolstering their accomplishments, you'll keep them around for longer, thereby making more money. By penalizing the power gamer, you slow their pace down, keeping them around for longer (albeit, not much longer). If the power gamer is so turned of by the penalites, they leave, but probably not too soon before they would have already.

It's like your money buys you a block of experience to be gained within a month. If you put in minimal
effort, you still paid 10 bucks, so you'll still get proportionally as far you were "supposed" to. The theoretical difference being imposed by this rest state is that the power gamer plays out the potential experience (realizing it, although facing diminishing returns near the end of the 10 bucks), and the casual gamer buys the potential experience (and may or may not realize the potential).

The system should work, but it just needs tweaking. Unfortunately for the power gamer, he's going to have to decide how much of a power gamer he wants to be. If he wants to truly play all day and make the most out of those 10 bucks a month, that's a decision he'll have to come to by himself. The rest system promotes a more healthy approach to MMOGs; don't play all day every day, there's nothing to be gained by doing so, nothing more than you can accomplish in half the time anyway. If he doesn't decide to go hard-core, he gets in my situation; waiting for the rest state in order to starting power gaming again...

EDIT: Typo, and grammar.