Keeping Content Hard and Helping People Learn

[Mawlzy]

Writing such an unhinged rant over someone being nice and encouraging to someone else really speaks for itself.

I completely understand why, in a vacuum, my rant appears unhinged.

But you know better than most the broader context of this debate. I am genuinely sufficiently pissed off with the way non-raiders get abused on these boards that I was moved to go off like that.

Cid's point is that you can do it... if you want to do it!

Yes, I understand that. It's one of the most destructive worldviews I know.

[Carighan]

Yes, I understand that. It's one of the most destructive worldviews I know.

Agreed, someone says the same is true in real life, and this "it's your fault if you can't do something, just believe in yourself" is why MLMs persist, the vast majority of grifts work, why people in dire situations feel abandoned and why billionaires get away with hoarding wealth in amounts really nobody ought to have control over. It is that destructive, yes.

But RL rant aside, I would also say that everyone doing all types of content is not good game design, at least for an MMORPG. Players are different. We play the game in different amounts, we're different kinds of players, we have different RL situations and contexts, we would not want to play the game the exact same way as other people. It extrapolates from this that some content will appeal more to player A than B. And it also extrapolates that some players in mixed-content games such as MMORPGs will value more personal challenge or more mechanical complexity while others will value more group challenge or social engagement. Combine the two, and you will want some content that is "too hard" for some groups of players, while you'll also want content that is "too grindy" for other groups, and so on and so on. This just means the game offers something for everyone, basically!

[Mawlzy]

Agreed, someone says the same is true in real life, and this "it's your fault if you can't do something, just believe in yourself" is why MLMs persist, the vast majority of grifts work, why people in dire situations feel abandoned and why billionaires get away with hoarding wealth in amounts really nobody ought to have control over. It is that destructive, yes.

But RL rant aside, I would also say that everyone doing all types of content is not good game design, at least for an MMORPG. Players are different. We play the game in different amounts, we're different kinds of players, we have different RL situations and contexts, we would not want to play the game the exact same way as other people. It extrapolates from this that some content will appeal more to player A than B. And it also extrapolates that some players in mixed-content games such as MMORPGs will value more personal challenge or more mechanical complexity while others will value more group challenge or social engagement. Combine the two, and you will want some content that is "too hard" for some groups of players, while you'll also want content that is "too grindy" for other groups, and so on and so on. This just means the game offers something for everyone, basically!

Yes, completely agree. I think the conflict between players with different interests gets triggered when the studio starts citing "lack of resources" for why a variety of content is not released.