The One About Level Playing Field
I remember having this discussion with a friend of mine a few months ago when we were playing a trading card game. I asked him,"Why is it you would rather play trading card games as compared to MMORPGs?"
He replied,"That's because I hardly have the time to train my characters and I don't like it that if someone has more time to play, he can easily pwn me with his higher level character. It's a given fact more time = higher level character = definite pwnage. I may be a better player skill-wise but I will always lose out to someone who has all the time in the world."
That certainly gave me a lot of food for thought. The GE RAID party 2v2 PvP Finals Tournament was designed in such a way that skill will triumph over 'who-has-the-highest-level character'. The finalists will all be able to compete on a level playing field since they get to choose from a suite of pre-made characters to form their team of 3 for the duration of the match - this includes both stock (basic classes) characters as well as selected RNPCs. These pre-made characters will have their levels maxed out to veteran Lvl 100 with all available stances and skills maxed out.
I'm really excited about this. It reminds me of the arcade games I used to play back then where you get to choose from a series of characters to fight for you. Finally a chance at level playing field in an MMORPG! Here's a little teaser of what the real life battle scene would look like that day...
On a sidenote, it is definitely time to give that friend of mine a call and tell him about Granado Espada... ;)
Friday, May 25, 2007
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2 comments:
There are a couple of bugs in the game as in the King's garden Pioneer Memorial, after clearing 3 of the 4 quests available, there is an error message. Of course reporting of such bug should be done at the GE Website but there is another bug in the GE Website, at the link for game feedback selection. It leads to a login page after logging in it leads to Http 500 internal error. {Please Advice.} Thank You
You want an opinion? Your friend is absolutely correct in his assessment. MMOG does reward the players who spent the most effort on it. How much time the effort is spread over is a related issue.
In MMOG terms, it's absolutely imperative for game companies to reward players who put in a lot of effort. They're the ones who drives the in-game economy and actually pays the company to continue the maintenance of the infrastructure, so it's only reasonable.
The main difference is this: Most MMOGs do not reward you for passive participation. MMOGs tend to reward players for active (in-game) participation, which is what your friend is really talking about.
So, what your friend is actually saying is: "Since I have other hobbies which I value over MMOG, I do not want to spend so much effort on MMOG. As such, I cannot reasonably expect to have a good character in the MMOG, against someone who places a higher emphasis on the game." Nothing really wrong with this, it's just a personal sense of priority.
The tricky part is this: Should a game company make a MMOG that's more level across the board (between active players and passive players? It's possible but not healthy; it encourages passiveness which doesn't sit well with company reports, and companies do need to reward more active players. But this hurdle is something that the SG MMOG community/ industry needs to consider.
If you can, take a look over at EVE-Online. It's got an interesting way to reward passive participation. I'm no longer actively on the game but I do like the system.
At the end of the day, I feel Korean MMOGs aren't really appropriate for the SEA crowd -- my understanding is that Korean MMOGs are more built as a social engine (where the players are RL friends who hangs out at Internet Cafes together and delve a dungeon), nor are US MMOGs appropriate (though it certainly is more relevant to the westernized tastes of SG teenagers). At the end of the day, I hope SG can come out with its own MMOG, and that I actually can be part of the creative process.
Back to your friend.. the irony is that in his TCG world, it's exactly the same thing. Players who are willing to expend the resources (cash and time-wise) to build decks often will pwn newer/ less dedicated players. It's the same situation, but with different items and different game genre, is all.
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