I thought you might have some good game design insight, until you started using the word "grind" as relating to something you proposed continueing.
My fix:
I get paid a large salary to patrol the server as some kind of god, giving XP to people who roleplay well. There is no XP for combat as such, but I'll go looking at interesting things, so if you capture empty keeps, I won't be watching.
I have deputies for when I want to do other stuff than lurk online for money.
"My first fix would be to remove levels and gear from the game."
No grind. I'm not sure where I said I want to continue it; point it out and I'll correct it! Planetside represents an ideal in player reward schemes, I think (broad skill tree, not deep, and free respecs). What I want is to kill people. I'm aware that some people play to grind (I've never crafted and never will, that is anathema to me; but some people do it and even appear to like it). Whilst people hold onto the renown creeping-death bar notion (and it really does make very little difference at all to a character), at least incentivise them to fight as they grind it.
Ah, I think I understand. "Renown" is the carrot. People are chasing it. The way they chase it currently makes no sense, because it does them no good (it doesn't really do any good anyway) - it's just a number to see go up, to trigger the reward centres.
If that mechanism remains - any why not? it mirrors life after all - then I would at least shift the incentive scheme so that it rewards stuff that is remotely interesting. That's what I'm gettin' at.
The other objection I'd raise here is that I don't want to roleplay - well or otherwise - online. Most people don't match 100wpm and it's incredibly frustrating. I want to kill people over the internet as part of a well-oiled (or at least slightly greased) war machine; that is all.
You are describing a completely different game here, and one that I don't believe would work very well on the scale required in the case of Warhammer Online - you've got up to 1,000 players per server, how could you, or a team of people, possibly monitor all of them for good roleplaying?
Also your reward system would be entirely subjective, open to abuse and favouritism. And it would cost a fortune for the people running the game.
Finally, as gedhrel says later, some people just want to kill stuff, not roleplay. The holy grail here is a fantasy Planetside.
see Narfell in NWN or any of the persistant worlds for the outcome of a volunteer DM driven world. Don't get me wrong I still like it and enjoy it as a counter point to the straight out stabbity that is WAR.
My fix:
I get paid a large salary to patrol the server as some kind of god, giving XP to people who roleplay well. There is no XP for combat as such, but I'll go looking at interesting things, so if you capture empty keeps, I won't be watching.
I have deputies for when I want to do other stuff than lurk online for money.
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No grind. I'm not sure where I said I want to continue it; point it out and I'll correct it! Planetside represents an ideal in player reward schemes, I think (broad skill tree, not deep, and free respecs). What I want is to kill people. I'm aware that some people play to grind (I've never crafted and never will, that is anathema to me; but some people do it and even appear to like it). Whilst people hold onto the renown creeping-death bar notion (and it really does make very little difference at all to a character), at least incentivise them to fight as they grind it.
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If that mechanism remains - any why not? it mirrors life after all - then I would at least shift the incentive scheme so that it rewards stuff that is remotely interesting. That's what I'm gettin' at.
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Also your reward system would be entirely subjective, open to abuse and favouritism. And it would cost a fortune for the people running the game.
Finally, as gedhrel says later, some people just want to kill stuff, not roleplay. The holy grail here is a fantasy Planetside.
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