Is there a way to design end game content that doesn't lead to a caustic community?

[Arklyte]

I'm of the opinion that end-game design isn't the solution to preventing caustic communities, nor any of the content preceding it. As stated by previous posters, you can have a game about traversing fields of flowers and still have a caustic community.

I believe the solution relies upon giving the community the tools to protect itself. What I mean by "tools to protect itself" is that every player is given the ability to selectively disengage with another player with a couple conditions. The first condition is that both players must be affected by this, but minimally so (ex: one player blacklists another, they both will never encounter each other when using party/duty finders.) The second condition is that both players must not be barred from content (quests/dungeons/crafting) or systems (duty finder/party finder.)

The net result is that people will find themselves interacting with chiefly, people of similar schools of thought and ideology.

[Jonny_Tapas]

I've been thinking about this topic for a long time yet scared to touch it.... Too easy is not fun... and very challenging leads to elitests, anger and rage.

Truth is, much content is designed so that if someone makes a mistake or too many mistakes... Everyone has to loose rather than just the problem child. This is where the anger comes from. Players with a lack of patience loose because of someone else.

If you want content designed to eliminate this but still remain challenging. Each piece of content needs various difficulty roles built in. Although KB in the Crystal Tower is not that challenging... it is a good example of what I'm trying to say.

Super Easy: Push the button to keep the tower cool.
Easy: DPS the mobs with proper priority.
Easy: Tank KB
Challenging: Pending the overall group performance... Healing!
Challenging: Properly pulling and tanking the Iron Giant.

If all content was designed so that the bad asses can carry and play the more difficult roles... while there were still important things that needed to be done but didn't really require a high amount of skill... (maybe not as boring as pushing the switch over and over) and all these mechanics were tied into each large battle. I think the community would settle a bit.

[NefarioCall]

The internet is like the freeway.
A few people are nice, but most tailgate and weave like douche-bags.

[FoxiLady]

When game designers make and create games and then release them mostly completed it kills games.

Release the game with a lvl 30 cap and the exp lvl be high enough so that it takes a lot more than 24 hours to reach lvl 30.
3 months later update and raise the lvl cap to 50 with all new stuff to do and again don't make the game so easy it can be capped in a few days.
6 months later update and raise the lvl cap to 75 with all new stuff to do and again don't make the game so easy it can be capped in a few days.
9 months later update and raise the lvl cap to 100 with all new stuff to do and again don't make it so easy it can be capped in a few days.
Continue this format to whatever the lvl cap is going to be eg: 200.

This worked in the past and was the system that kept us interested in games for years not months. This system also meant we made long term friends and were very social.

When all these things were removed from games and everything became so streamlined with dps meters etc and everyone wanted everything done yesterday the game life dropped from years to months. Plus people themselves have changed with people like Dr Phil telling all the bad behaved rotten kids in the world its their parents fault for trying to teach them life skills. Take away all the life rules that come with discipline and learning respect and you get communities like we currently suffer.

[Simaril]

I think the Atmos battle in CT is a great example of the best and worst in MMO players;

The worst:
If everything goes well, people flex their epeen, and call out the 'slow' group.
If something goes wrong, there's lots of blame often inaccurately assigned (the group that died due to antoher group not being on the pad, or the group not on the pad because there was no 'ready check')

The best:
I was in a group last night, and one of the groups 6 manned it (1dc 1 afk). They took forever, and apologized immediately, but most people were very thankful and appreciative that they made it work


I enjoy situations where you have to deal with suboptimal conditions and succeeding seems like a great achievement... whereas something like Titan HM, anything less than adequate performance simply doesn't work and leads to blame.