Quote Originally Posted by AfuroNubyaan View Post
So I've just come out of a 4 hour party built up of 4 people. The plan was to go around to the beastmen strongholds and get the Key's off the NM's that we could handle. We figured we could get the chest items that we wanted for all four of us. I wanted it to be a 4 man party because its bad enough with a party of 8 guys, all wanting a drop.

2 of us got the ring-band they wanted. Me and another guy, didn't get anything after an obscene amount of tries. I already know that Final Fantasy is notorious for low drop rates. I learned that in my days of FFXI. But when the party came to an end, (due to a link, wipe and disconnection) I realised I had grinded through hoards of enemies for 4 hours only to walk away with nothing. One could say that there is a satisfaction found in seeing my party members gain a drop, but the taste quickly becomes bitter once you don't get anything for yourself. At the end of the day, you sat there for four hours with nothing to show for it.

I can understand that a tight knit Linkshell could be willing to put up with this to fully equip the endgame team with dope gear but what of those who aren't deep into the game like that?... It's really made me question the whole ethos of an MMO. Let's not kid ourselves, we all know these games are designed in a way that demands repetition, time and luck. If this wasn't the case, then people would stop playing much sooner which would result in canceled subscriptions and loss of money for the company. They have to keep our interest and that hunger to be stronger so they cast Time Sink in order to keep us trying, playing, hoping, wanting, etc.

tl:dr below

My question is, do you think it's possible to design a super successful MMO without it being a time sink? Is it a better idea to have a super hard monster let go of its rare drop 100% of the time in order to reward the players for simply defeating it in the first place? Because in reality, the way these games are right now, every piece of awesome rare loot that we own is not because of our "hard work", "great strategies" or "skill". It's only because we had some time, a bit of of trail and error, a pinch of dedication and a whole bottle of lucky sauce.

Those Unique/Untradable Pair of Boots that are keeping you warm at night is more thanks to your lucky stars than it is to the great team you assembled. Because if it hadn't dropped, your competence as a strategist wouldn't have made a difference.

Some may not agree with that, but honestly, it's the truth... In my opinion...

What do you think?
The reason why there are time sinks in MMO is exactly what you described. For pay to play MMOs, the game needs to keep players playing and paying month after month to keep subscriptions active and turn a profit. Without time sinks and carrot on the stick type designs, pay to play games will not succeed.

What you are asking for is exactly what Guild Wars 2 is like. You are rewarded for everything you do, there are no time sinks in the general sense. There is no carrot on the stick mentality.

Keep in mind, GW2 will be released as a buy to play game, no monthly fees. It won't be advertised as an MMO that you'd spend month after month playing, simply because they don't need you to play every single month between expansions. They make their profit from initial box sales, plus a little extra from a cash shop (most likely just vanity items).

Because of this, they don't expect people to play it like pay to play MMOs. If you play for a few months, achieve everything you wanted to, then stop until the next expansion, that's fine with them. As long as you had fun during those few months they know you're likely to buy the expansion, generating more revenue for them.

So it's up to you to make the decision. Do you want to play an MMO that keeps you busy indefinitely or do you want an MMO that you can essentially "complete", put it down for a few months, then continue after an expansion releases?