MMOs: Zone Population Balance

[Part of my MMO Design Folder]

Casual Aggro has a post where he questions the point of GW2's up/down levelling. Basically he wonders why it's there at all because as a low level character (up levelled) you still get caned by high level mobs while at high level (down levelled) you can still curb stomp everything. One might argue that if you are at max level, being defeated or having a really tough time fighting the level 0 chicken or bunny in the starter zone would kill any sense of progression you may have had. I'd prefer to look at the "why" they included that system to begin with.

It'll chop your head off.

In a standard MMO (without scaling) the higher level people would gravitate to the higher level zones as that's where they would still be able to achieve or earn something. Usually if they returned to the beginner areas they wouldn't really gain much in the way of advancement. This creates a ladder where slowly but surely those high end zones are getting more and more packed and veterans were less likely to return to help the newbies. The GW2's scaling system was supposed to reduce this, so that high levs could return to the other zones and still be rewarded for their efforts, and in a way it worked. However since players prefer the path of least resistance now the high levs camp both the top and bottom tier zones leaving everything in the middle mostly empty, save for when events happen there.

How would I fix it?

While this would be easier to accomplish in a new venture, for GW2 first I would add more currency. Yep. Karma doesn't cut it. This currency would be called "Fame", and would be tracked individually per region. Unlike other currencies, fame is fickle and will decay after sometime (even if you are offline) back to a value of zero. Then I would add a new tier of items (or rework legendaries). Purchasing said gear requires fame from multiple regions. Furthermore, the more fame you have across the lands, the more powerful those items would be. They can potentially be the most powerful equipment in the game but if you don't maintain the fame (in ALL the zones) then they will be as weak as starter "whites". This will encourage people to log in more often, and to run around all the maps to maintain their strength.

You can even make another set for WvW which increases in power the more people you kill, but that counter decays too so you'd need to be constantly killing to be at maximum power. Those are just rough ideas but I believe they would work. In short, without the threat of decay I don't think anything can really flourish.

NBI - Guilds: What For?

[Part of the Newbie Blogger Initiative: Talk Back Challenge]

Guilds: What For? What functions do guilds serve in games and what kind do you prefer? You can talk about your experiences in guilds, what attracts you to them, and their role in the games you play.

Ocho at Casualaggro suggests it is possibly for selfish reasons that people guild, especially those whose main aim is to reach the "upper echelons" of the game. Lonegun from Away from Game echoes this somewhat, finding that while the raiding guild he was part of taught him a lot about stats and his role, he had a more fun time when he switched to a less elite, more casual crew - a theme I'm continuing with this post, though I think I go off tangent a little!

Despite the functional merits of being in a guild, such as shared resources and ease of communication through guild chat channels, the best part about guilds for me is simple: The people! Not only do they provide you with a "regular gaming group" but depending on your circumstances and goals they can quickly become your friends in and out of the game.

In all my years of MMO playing I've only been in three guilds. One I'm not so active in Wizardry Online, one I'm a rare guest in GuildWars 2 (as it is run by a friend), and lastly my main guild. The one I've been part of for thirteen years and counting.

That guild doesn't exist in just one game. It doesn't exist in just MMO's. It's wherever it needs to be. It is a bit particular in who can join though, but not based on how skilfully you play, what rank you are, or how powerful your gear is. Just the quality of the person behind the screen. What's the goal of such a guild then? Both silly and simple at the same time. Though the code is a bit more long winded, the basic bare bones of it is "to be good". That's it. Help people that need help. Cheer people up who are down. Make people smile. Obviously we're not really into PvP huh?

As you can imagine, it's a very small and diverse group of people that find themselves in our ranks - but they're no longer just characters on the screen. They're the twins from Canada, the mom and daughter in Ohio, the Belgian lizard lover, the Israeli guy who was drafted into the army (hope you are ok), the absent-minded doctor who literally falls asleep at his keyboard, the Londoner terrified of zombies, the mysterious dude in Holland who seems to have high level characters everywhere, the guy in Thailand that works with glass sculptures, the miner in West Australia who is now a dad, the closet-gamer who only plays when he's not preparing for boxing or iron man competitions, the little girl who is a bit -too- skilled at shooting things in the face and so on. We've had some visit from overseas and we've traded games with others. It's all very cool.

My most memorable activities in MMO's have always been with the guild, not doing solo content and not doing stuff with a bunch of randoms (as much as I like doing both). I've always wanted to share our story (or my version of it anyway, where I look awesome *cough cough*) but was having trouble finding the right medium. Flash cartoons take way too long, involve too much work, and my pacing is shocking. Should be something where I can type a lot and throw in a picture or two... like... like this blog? Hrm, didn't think of that till now actually.

Anyway, getting side-tracked. So, in short I like my guild(s) - and that's most likely because all of them have no intense "we'll be the best" charter or rigid scheduling of social interactivity which can cause problems. We don't fight for the best loot after a mission is complete, we just pool all the treasure and divide it by who needs what, and we never really have had any conflicts about it. We just go with the flow and enjoy each day as it comes.

I'm sure there are many more like us out there. You just have to look! :)