Question time: The Stuff you Build (UGC)

Now that I'm really getting back into the Neverwinter Foundry a question has popped into my head in regards to other user generated content, specifically for the EQN Landmark people. After you build your house or statue or castle, do you hope that people come to visit? Do you hope that whatever you built will be ported into Everquest Next and used as part of the world even if say it is set on fire, destroyed, and maybe inhabited by evil creatures?

Just curious.

In NWO I'm finding that the biggest challenge from before is still there - getting people to play my maps. As I thought, making a shorter quest really helps the number of plays. My first quest which has been out for months and goes for one hour has a total of nine plays. My second quest which runs for around 17 minutes and has been out a week or so is up to 30+ plays and is eligible for the daily foundry mission reward.

It's not surprising then that there are "farm" quests that become so popular. Quests with literally no story, just a premade or blank map and a truck load of enemies to kill for the EXP or loot. I'm really thinking of doing a crusade against these (ranking them low or reporting for TOS violations) as they push down the better designed, more story orientated user content.

A Tale of your Own

Keen posted an interesting article about MMOs having a story. The short version is they prefer games that don't give them one, like Everquest or UO as opposed to the rise of the "commander" in GW2 for example. To some extent I tend to agree. Sure the first time you run the main plot it's great, but I'm not so enthused about doing it all over and over for my alts (so I haven't, I'm not really an alt heavy user). The good thing, at least in GW2, is you don't have to. There are plenty of other activities to keep you busy, if you so chose. The Living Story is another example of this. The previous release I loved tremendously so I participated a lot, this time around it's not my cup of tea so I just do dailies (if I remember) and log off.

It's a similar case in Neverwinter Online now that I've finished the main quest story and am sitting on level 60. What's left to do other than raise professions? Well, I CAN'T run the skirmishes I missed (all of them) without making an alt, which I think is bad design. I can still go do the dungeons I missed though which is good, and I can still do foundry stuff though I prefer to make quests as the incentive to play them (especially solo) is a bit ... meh. That leaves the "epic" level dungeons. The catch? All the epic level stuff is behind a gear check wall. I'm currently around 4000 points short there to be eligible to run the last dungeon (Castle Never, which has no normal mode. Epic only) which means it's hamster wheel time if I want to reach there.

Guild activities are always fun though!

Now would I rather grind gear score in NWO or do the living story (currently Cut-throat Politics) stuff in GW2? It all comes down to the one that gives me the most sense of progression and fun. In this case neither since I stumbled back into Age of Conan this week with my supposedly "test" character on the wrong (pvp) server. Why? Because things are still new to me and there are some really pretty sights and music, despite people trying to gank me. ^_~