11-06-2006, 10:32 PM
Quote:Hi,
Exactly. Operative phrase, "the vast majority". If anybody can do it, then where's the challenge? That's where difficulty levels should come in. They should be a way for the less capable player to see all the content (playing at 'easiest') while still giving a good, experienced, player a challenge. Since the game companies no longer seem to care about the gamers that want more than mental masturbation, then those gamers have to figure out their own ways to enhance the challenge. And if the enhancement makes the game impossible, so much the better. That's what makes you think. That's what makes you devise new strategies and tactics. And that's what makes you a better player and the game a better game.
Precisely. This is exactly what is needed in most games. And if you take it in the form of a treasure-hunt dungeon-crawl, the ideal way to implement this "hardcore" mode, for lack of a better word, would be to elliminate all rewards, or at least scale them down to match the lower difficulties. That way you won't get the general public complaining about how they can't get the powerful stuff, and they'll leave us caffeine-addicted crotchety hermits to our self-mutilation.
Once again, I shall cite Guild Wars (Because I'm addicted, because I know it well, and because I'm becoming a walking advertisement), which has come closer to this than anything I know. Since items are largely irrelevant, and a perfect upgrade obtained on a shoddy sword can be put into whatever sword you desire, there really isn't any point besides cosmetics to go into the hard areas, especially if they contain no unique Elite-bearing bosses. So what you essentially have is people completing these areas because they CAN, no because they might get a Zod rune. None of these guys is ever complaining that he isn't getting anything out of it, because simply going there and surviving is enough. Now if only the cosmetic factor would go away as well...
--me