Unpopular Opinion: Dungeon design has been bad for a long time

[ApolloGenX]

As much as I agree with the first post, I'm not so sure they'll change the formula. Their design philosophy with dungeons is that they are made to look pretty and be devoured as fast as humanly possible. To introduce even the slightest of roadbumps would elicit untold rage from a good chunk of players, I imagine.

And to be clear, yes, I'm all for a dungeon re-design to make them perhaps longer, perhaps harder, perhaps more mechanically interesting. I just don't think it's happening anytime soon.

Well, why put roadblocks in as artificial time sinks, anyway? The game design is to rerun the same things over and over ad nauseum - not because they have any value, but to farm tokens. People that are asking for more challenge in dungeons are just asking for artificial time sinks... you can get that from MSQ dungeons now. Instead of artificial time sinks, more challenging dungeons and more relevant rewards would need to go hand in hand- and that would be a big change to the theme park token pharming design.

[Hazama999]

Well, why put roadblocks in as artificial time sinks, anyway? The game design is to rerun the same things over and over ad nauseum - not because they have any value, but to farm tokens. People that are asking for more challenge in dungeons are just asking for artificial time sinks... you can get that from MSQ dungeons now. Instead of artificial time sinks, more challenging dungeons and more relevant rewards would need to go hand in hand- and that would be a big change to the theme park token pharming design.

Who is asking for an artificial time sink? We're asking for an enjoyable, challenging, and "thrilling" experience in dungeons.

[AnakhaSilver]

Who is asking for an artificial time sink? We're asking for an enjoyable, challenging, and "thrilling" experience in dungeons.

And you'll be tired of it after four runs.

[ApolloGenX]

And you'll be tired of it after four runs.

This.


/10 chars

[Hazama999]

And you'll be tired of it after four runs.

"You think you do, but you don't."

[AnakhaSilver]

"You think you do, but you don't."

No, I know this from observation. They try to throw interesting mechanics, and the playerbase phase skips. They don't go into side rooms, they go the shortest path known. This is pretty clear just from playing the game.

[Kanitezz]

A lot of people say the content is too hard. Some of them being older people who have a hard time doing certain content and just want to experience the story. I empathize with them.

[SendohJin]

And to be clear, yes, I'm all for a dungeon re-design to make them perhaps longer, perhaps harder, perhaps more mechanically interesting. I just don't think it's happening anytime soon.

you have to start with how to make us players feel it's worth the extra time and difficulty.

[Hazama999]

No, I know this from observation. They try to throw interesting mechanics, and the playerbase phase skips. They don't go into side rooms, they go the shortest path known. This is pretty clear just from playing the game.

Fair. I'll speak only for myself, then. I know I'm in the minority from just the dungeon design alone.

[Zelent]

To be fair, dungeons in EQ were a LOT more dangerous, had loot that was useful...was generally part of large quests..and at the appropriate level was VERY hard to get to the end... and respawned.

Nothing in this game is anything like that...that was total sandbox dungeon crawling... sometimes even raiding. This is theme park design.

Actually, Eureka and BA were pretty close (or at least, as close as you can get nowadays) to this design philosophy.
And to be completely honest, I really enjoyed. Never had so much fun in an MMO since Vanilla WoW.

This type of content is not suitable for leveling, but I'd love to see more of it as side or end-game activities.