tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3352155589322140093.post3833609180134562914..comments2015-08-13T13:23:23.270-04:00Comments on That's a Terrible Idea: From Camps to Quests and Back: Building Better Treadmillsmotstandethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06296441082624422375noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3352155589322140093.post-68238157439157527822010-06-08T02:38:23.834-04:002010-06-08T02:38:23.834-04:00How about EvE's system? Missions exist for oth...How about EvE's system? Missions exist for other benefits, mobs exist for the bounty and parts, but character progression takes place through time instead of effort, changing the grind into a wait.<br /><br />Although I did hate seeing a skill I really wanted completed report it would take a month to finish.Hexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3352155589322140093.post-85192877383188202132009-06-21T12:34:51.452-04:002009-06-21T12:34:51.452-04:00Stargate Worlds claimed that it would have some so...Stargate Worlds claimed that it would have some sort of diplomacy minigame that would allow non-combat characters to talk their way out of encounters with the natives. That said, I'm not sure how different it actually is if you get exp and the ability to move on to the next encounter via a conversation minigame instead of the more traditional combat not-so-mini-game.Green Armadillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3352155589322140093.post-28246790192710148802009-06-21T01:09:06.702-04:002009-06-21T01:09:06.702-04:00And what you mention is so because MMORPGs have on...And what you mention is so because MMORPGs have one method of conflict resolution: a competition at poking repeatedly with swords. They just occasionally change the "poking" to "slashing" or "blasting" and "swords" to "other pointy things" or "magic".<br /><br />MMORPGs that have more means of conflict resolution at different levels of abstraction will be the future and will keep players more interested for longer. I'm trying to design such a game. It's not easy, but innovating almost never is.evizaerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09836136474835816824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3352155589322140093.post-25153015916773818782009-06-19T15:42:33.179-04:002009-06-19T15:42:33.179-04:00Part of the problem here is with the underlying ga...Part of the problem here is with the underlying gameplay. The only real verb available in most modern games is to kill enemies and loot their stuff. Quests do a better job at hiding that fact than chain pulling to grinding camps did, because quests motivate players to keep changing scenery. Scripted events, instanced or otherwise, do an even better job than "kill ten rats" or "loot 10 sparklies" of making it appear that something is happening, at the cost of being even more time intensive for the developers. The problem that the devs haven't solved is to actually find a fundamentally different activity. <br /><br />They can add new buttons that kill the enemy in different ways, they can add new items that allow players to look cooler while killing the enemy, and they can add new enemies and new stories surrounding them, but the end result ultimately boils down to "go here, kill stuff, loot, move on". There are limits to how many times that will remain interesting before players move on. This outcome would be fine, but now the problem is that the games that players have moved onto are offering only slight variations on the theme.Green Armadillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.com