Hello folks,
I hope you all have a fantastic year ahead, except 'nomes of course, because they are just fodder.
I wanted to speak about the general sens of progression that hooks people in a game like Pantheon, and what you think are the ways to achieve that.
The question is, not for those that have pledged and that are going to stay anyhow, but for an average MMO player that wants to like the game, but still needs to get hooked.
At the very base, you have three hooks that are somewhat contradictory:
I know I am oversimplifying a bit, but feel free to give other criterii that you think makes you feel a sense of progression.
So what do you think about the fine balance that is required to get a satisfying sense of progression that can hook your average future Pantheon player?
I mean that is pretty much the core of why people are excited about Pantheon.
By todays standards Pantheon will be a grind due to slower leveling and loot slowed down to match at a minimum and likely even slower so people are pushed towards crafting.
Exploration is multiple "alpha" points as well as a few possible extras. Climbing, Swimming, the Keeper system, and possibly crawling (since we can do it while near dead I imagine the locomotion would be easy to implement to crawl into tight spaces finding secret paths and hidden spots)
Pantheon agro system even gives everyone a form of stealth which may or may not overlap with the rogues ability to overhear conversations. Crouching reduces your agro range and I hope it means it can allow everyone to participate in eavesdropping around corners or in bushes etc. Overhearing secret conversations is another form of exploration that at least the rogue proper stealth can do.
Languages may or may not come up as well. That hushed conversation may just be in elvish, hopefully you learned it.
I think the biggest hook is Pantheon's approach to leveling which makes the fun of the game the journey instead of the destination.
Slowing down leveling while also making it challenging so that it's engaging will encourage the desire for more loot and exploration in a natural way. If going from level 15-25 will take 5 hours, I'm not spending 2 hours trying to get gear for lvl 15 when it'll be obsolete by the next day or two. However, if level 15-25 takes 20+ hours, now that 2 hour investment looking for loot is way more worthwhile.
The same with exploration. If a place feels too crowded or I feel I've seen a little bit of everything in a zone, I will start to look for other zones with similar level mobs. However, if I'll out level the zone in an hour or two then I'm going to stick it out. I'll do way less exploring when I those other zones are now way lower level (loses the challenge, fun, and sense of progression).
This is all based on me and my experiences of playing MMO's. Others will likely see this very differently and prioritzie other hooks as their reason for playing.
Feastycentral said:I think the biggest hook is Pantheon's approach to leveling which makes the fun of the game the journey instead of the destination.
We agree, but that is a goal, not a way of achieving it.
Feastycentral said:Slowing down leveling while also making it challenging so that it's engaging will encourage the desire for more loot and exploration in a natural way. If going from level 15-25 will take 5 hours, I'm not spending 2 hours trying to get gear for lvl 15 when it'll be obsolete by the next day or two. However, if level 15-25 takes 20+ hours, now that 2 hour investment looking for loot is way more worthwhile.
I am not sure I agree completely with you here. Slowing down leveling means that your sense of progression does not come from leveling, or at least not rapidly. Each level obtained will be an achievement but in between, you need to make it so that it doesn't look like a grind fest as some asian MMOs used to propose. When a level lasts longer, gear will last longer but then it means that you will need more time to get said gear or otherwise you will loot multiples armors pieces during your level that you already have. So you basically have to slow down the drop rate of gear, which again means that the sense of progression is slowed down. Your character won't progress in a very meaningful way through leveling or gear. I don't say it can't be fun. I mean, investing time in your character to get the levels and gear is in some way a hook, but the question remains: why would a player invest time?
Feastycentral said:The same with exploration. If a place feels too crowded or I feel I've seen a little bit of everything in a zone, I will start to look for other zones with similar level mobs. However, if I'll out level the zone in an hour or two then I'm going to stick it out. I'll do way less exploring when I those other zones are now way lower level (loses the challenge, fun, and sense of progression).
This is all based on me and my experiences of playing MMO's. Others will likely see this very differently and prioritzie other hooks as their reason for playing.
Here we agree. But again the "I will start to look for other zones with similar level mobs" is not completely natural. It supposes that mobs of all levels are somewhat spread out. It seems that is the plan here, but admit that it is not the case in most MMOs.