Stop the Grind-to-the-Endgame madness!

[Jynx]

I'd love for the game to make every level a milestone that you mark on your mental map of your time with the game. Sadly I can almost guarantee that's not the way they want the game to develope.

[Squiggles]

this is what drew me to perfect world BEFORE it went cash shop crazy, is that there was a story quest line leading to each new hub, and an instance tha gave you access to your next tier of skills and upgrades to ones you currently had. each of the stories were wonderfully crafted, and or involved bosses that you could fight with friends and allies.

one of my favorite quest lines was for choosing which side of light or darkness you wanted to be part of, you investigated the corruption and rebellions of the god of thunder, or the demon lord of fire depending on which side you picked, and eventually went to where the beings they originally sealed away are, to do battle and destroy them and their corruption.

one of my favorite dungeons was called seat of torment in the celestial world, and it just evoked a feeling of dread upon entry.

regardless, also on the side, @ level 60 you could start doing story based dungeons to farm materials for crafting gear, to learn about the ancient twilight empire, and the story was deep and pragmatic, always a blast.

in any case, i agree with OP, as it brought me joy in one of my old favorite MMOs of all time. there was no rush to cap, and an adventure along the way.

[Velhart]

He already said in an interview that simply grinding on monsters won't be the best option for gaining levels in 2.0. Questing and Content Finder will be your "go to" content for leveling up.

[Shurrikhan]

He already said in an interview that simply grinding on monsters won't be the best option for gaining levels in 2.0. Questing and Content Finder will be your "go to" content for leveling up.

That doesn't necessarily mean that it will be any less of a "grind", though I'd be defining it that as a tediously repetitive steam of activity whether it involves endless pulling and killing or not. I can't honestly see WoW's quest-to-quest-to-quest leveling as more interesting than the leves and grinding we have now. The same applies to the endless rerunning of dungeons for quick xp.

Until the game actually brings up something truly original or at least definitely enjoyable, leveling will remain basically unprogressive in its feel. Functionally speaking, there will be the levels remaining we trudge through (be it 3 or 30), and there'll be the finish. Just those two.

[Tonkra]

This will be a short one. I long for a game in which the steps forward are packed with excitement and opportunities for fun. Not a rat-race to the end; the end being the only place where you will be considered someone by your fellow-players. End anti-newbie discrimination, make every level count. Slow down the pace of advancement. Smell the flowers. Struggle with difficult mobs at every level. Enter awesome events at every step.

This is actually more casual-player-friendly than accelerating and stultifying the game, so that almost anybody can get to the "fun-filled end."

End-obsessed game design fosters fascistic behavior in the community. Plus, it rewards the slacker that doesn't want a life, whereas it penalizes the player with the regular life. Making the advancement mechanics super-easy, the way the developers of this game sometimes seem to believe they should, does not improve the chances for anybody: The "Über" get to the end and get bored too early, the casuals never catch up, and are still discriminated.

Fill the world with one thousand Shposheas, only more complex and more attractive; make getting to level 10, 15, 20, 30 real challenges away from the repetitive levequests, and gratify us with oportunities that open up at every stage: Environmental puzzles, mysteriously coded scrolls, incomplete maps, a bit of Myst in Eorzea.

R

you really come late with this thread..


Yoshida about 2.0. :

"you will get the key to level up your character, so completing content is a key to leveling up in 2.0 version.

Completing the quests, getting rewards, huge experience points, or completing a dungeon and getting experience points, that's going to be the key thing to level up your character, not like at the moment where you have to do monster camping or farming, that's not going to work in 2.0."


one standard quest from the screens:

"Hyrstmill wasnt built within a day - deliever whaterwheel parts to hyrstmill"

(on the righten side)

[Babydoll]

We will. They need enough quests to make leveling through it viable, so...

noooooooooooooooooooooooooo ; ; what is next...auto map running??

[fusional]

1. MMOs without engrossing endgames rapidly die, no matter how much hype they ride in on and no matter how many other good things they have going for them. see: rift, swtor, etc

2. the journey is important, but if you aim to focus on the journey *primarily* then you're basically describing an offline RPG with pretty online chatroom elements. i don't disagree that this game rushes people to the end a bit too fast, but to imply there really shouldn't be an endgame or that an MMO shouldn't advance toward one is completely silly. there must be a balance between the two.

3. why do people who don't have time to play the game feel entitled to as much or more than people who do have time? that doesn't even make sense. it's not logical whatsoever. it's tantamount to me expecting to earn the same yearly salary as you while putting in 1/10th of the hours (or none at all).

anyway, i've said it before and apparently need to say it one hundred thousand times more- as a hardcore gamer, i don't begrudge *you* content. you should have content that caters to you. you should have content that you find engaging, that makes you happy, that makes your gameplay experience feel worthwhile.

but why do you begrudge *me* content?

perhaps i'm misunderstanding the intent of this thread, though.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Honestly I wish MMOs would offer both routes as equally viable.

In SWTOR you quest grind your way all the way to lvl 50. While the quests are fun and interesting, they are still just as monotonous as leve or mob grinding.

My real problem with SWTOR us that there is no real incentive to socialize. I leveled my first character all the way up to 50 just playing with my wife. Now I'm leveling a second toon and I'm skipping the flavor speeches and just leveling, but it is STILL a grind.

The most fun I ever had in a game was still back in Tanaka's era and people would get massive grind parties together to grind on raptors or piestes. Even when leve grinding took over, at least people were social and you could sit in a group of friends and just bs while completing your leves.

I wish there was a game where a group of 8 players could get just as much xp for grinding mobs as they would soloing there way through 50 levels of quests. That way you could choose your own experience in the game.

[Limonconcon]

Honestly I wish MMOs would offer both routes as equally viable.

In SWTOR you quest grind your way all the way to lvl 50. While the quests are fun and interesting, they are still just as monotonous as leve or mob grinding.

My real problem with SWTOR us that there is no real incentive to socialize. I leveled my first character all the way up to 50 just playing with my wife. Now I'm leveling a second toon and I'm skipping the flavor speeches and just leveling, but it is STILL a grind.

The most fun I ever had in a game was still back in Tanaka's era and people would get massive grind parties together to grind on raptors or piestes. Even when leve grinding took over, at least people were social and you could sit in a group of friends and just bs while completing your leves.

I wish there was a game where a group of 8 players could get just as much xp for grinding mobs as they would soloing there way through 50 levels of quests. That way you could choose your own experience in the game.

Lol that game is FFXI and its a party of 6...
Its wat all of us have been asking...

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Honestly I wish MMOs would offer both routes as equally viable.

In SWTOR you quest grind your way all the way to lvl 50. While the quests are fun and interesting, they are still just as monotonous as leve or mob grinding.

My real problem with SWTOR us that there is no real incentive to socialize. I leveled my first character all the way up to 50 just playing with my wife. Now I'm leveling a second toon and I'm skipping the flavor speeches and just leveling, but it is STILL a grind.

The most fun I ever had in a game was still back in Tanaka's era and people would get massive grind parties together to grind on raptors or piestes. Even when leve grinding took over, at least people were social and you could sit in a group of friends and just bs while completing your leves.

I wish there was a game where a group of 8 players could get just as much xp for grinding mobs as they would soloing there way through 50 levels of quests. That way you could choose your own experience in the game.