Simple question today, and one that most MMO devs assume the answer is "Yes" hence the hamster wheel for experience or items. I just want to see if they are correct. After working hard to level up your character to become the most powerful he or she can be, do you then quit the game or would having a god like character actually keep you playing?
"Absolute strength is boring."
Saitama (One Punch Man) art by Lee Woo-Chul
I don't know, I think absolute strength would be fricking amazing. At least I'd get my dailies done faster, and maybe I'd even try the other content I'd usually avoid due to it being too long or too annoying. If I had a character that can one hit Tiamat, I'd definitely play Neverwinter Online a lot more, not a lot less - especially if more updates kept coming in, without any more hamster wheels to run.
What about you? Do you end or reset the experience as soon as the game no longer poses a challenge?
Depends entirely on the MMO and how it's designed. I love leveling so often I park characters at max level and start leveling up another, using the max level ones mainly to service the ones coming up. In GW2, however, I have fourteen or fifteen max level characters, all of which I played regularly until HoT, when I consolidated to playing mainly one account, meaning I now play ten max level characters regularly.
ReplyDeleteAs for having an uber-powered character that could do everything - what would be the point? If there's no further progression for your character and no threat or challenge in the gameplay, one you've ripped through all the zones/maps/instances just to see everything, why would you carry on?
Wow, that's a lot of alts Bhagpuss! :D
DeleteTo answer your question of uber-power I'd probably use mine to help others much more effectively than I do now. Either through helping them get through content and/or giving goods away for free - or as rewards for quests I come up with!
That's even without using things like the NWO Foundry. :)
Yes. Once I hit max level, I generally don't see any real need to keep playing. I mean, you could keep upgrading your character through daily grinds, or group content, but I'm not a fan of group content or grinds. Especially when the power upgrade is small, in relation to the previous level upgrades.
ReplyDeleteThe caveat is if they come out with new content and story to play. Then I'll use my max level character to play it until it wants me to grind again, then I'll put my character back into mothballs and come back when there's something new.
Power in a character is relative, too, and is not necessarily a good thing. If your character is much more powerful then the content, the content becomes trivial and stops being fun. Gearing up at max level, then, just widens that power gap, and makes the content around you even *more* trivial. For those of us that enjoy a challenge, loot and gearing up work counter to our enjoyment.
Yah, power is quite the irony at the moment in NWO. Wallet warriors are complaining that things are too easy and I'm just quietly wondering why they spent money to gear up in the first place just to be bored.
DeleteThis is why I am an "alt-oholic" -- it's not that I particularly care to play all the various classes (though it's usually fun to do) it's that once I hit max level I feel like I've "won" even without getting all "best in slot" gear, so I re-roll an alt and do the leveling hamster wheel again, becuz I find that to be a lot more fun that grinding out gear.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I generally do have a "main" that I will focus on a lot more than any other class/job and I will usually poke around at gearing it up a bit. Not to raid levels or anything like that, but to be able to be comfortable with whatever content I may still be doing on that character or job.
As an example, I just hit 60 with all of the combat jobs in FFXIV. I consider the Summoner job to be my "main" so I am running a daily dungeon to cap out on the token currency each week that is used for the highest level gear you can currently get, but due to the cap it takes 2-3 months to gear up 1 job, so there's no feeling of urgency to it other than that 1 dungeon per day. and now that I've got all the alt-jobs leveled up, I don't really feel the need to do anything other than that 1 dungeon per day either.....
That's true that max level can be seen as "winning". Something I didn't consider before! Thanks Magson!
DeleteIt depends on what there is to do. I love the idea behind FFXIV that you can learn new classes, and I would happily stay in a game like that doing that. Except I don't like the look and feel of FFXIV. If that was in WoW, I may be a subscriber still.
ReplyDeleteHehe, so basically as long as there are "new" things to learn and do it's ok? :)
Delete