Posting to get some insight if others agree or not with this definition optional content.
- Optional content, to me, means there are multiple ways of achieving a similar or equal result, or the rewards itself are not integral to the characters strength or ability to progress.
For example levelling, you can do it solo or in group, you can do it in various different zones, with different methods, but in the end you'll still get the same result, XP and levels.
Crafting is the same, you can become a crafter and harvester and do it all yourself, or you might just buy the mats, or pay a high level crafter to do that for you, the end result is the same you get an item.
Becoming a keeper is similar to crafting in a way, you can be the keeper and do the perception quests yourself to access locked zones or hidden places, or you can have a friend or pay a player (that's already a keeper) to unlock them for you, the end result, you get access to these areas.
Gearing (if there are no clear all-occasions BIS) is also optional, in the sense of having multiple choices for each equipment slot, the end result you get better items and become stronger.
Grinding a reputation for items, (this is only optional if the items of the rep are not BIS, kind of ties in with what I said above about gear)
Quests that give similar gear rewards to dropped gear. You can choose to do the quests or just farm the gear.
Sub topic of optional things, gear with no stats (cosmetic), vanity pets, titles, quests that give money, none of these improve your characters power or stop him from progressing
- Mandatory/required content, to me, means there is only one way of achieving a specific result, no other player can do it for you (unlike some of the examples above), and the rewards are absolutely indispensable, your character cannot do without them if he wants to progress or be considered effective.
Some examples of mandatory/required content.
Levelling up, you cannot progress to high level zone if you don't level up.
Good gear to fight a specific hard encounter, or resist gear to acclimate to a high tier climate.
A group to do group content.
Class specific epic quests, for those sweet epics.
Not to say mandatory/required content is a bad thing, I quit like the things I mentioned above and as you probably noticed they’re indispensable things for the game to work correctly, giving you a sense of progression, and a general idea of what you need to do in order to progress, even though they’re required they’re basically a by-product of playing and game.
- Content that’s optional, but not really.
This content kind of falls under the mandatory/required category, but players like to call it optional (because you’re not forced to do it in order to progress or access content) even though there’s only one way of obtaining these type of rewards and they’re typically power increases to the characters (aka important stuff that groups or guilds want you to have)
The activities you need to perform to obtain them are not core fundamental parts of the game that you would end up doing anyways, like levelling or upgrading your gear. That’s the main reason I don’t consider them optional.
Some of these things are
Reputation grinds that give BIS items (I like rep grinds for items, but the item rewards for the grind should be on par with the power of other dropped items, so the rep doesn’t become mandatory),
Achievement systems/checklists that reward X% power increases (to damage, healing or defences).
Daily quests/weekly caps (valor points, badges, honor, etc), that encourage logging in everyday, or else you will fall behind and can never catch up with the progression of a player that kept up to date. (I personally hate this in current mmo’s, the time gating nonsense that punishes you for not playing every single day. Make a game where I can play when I can/want and still have something to look forward to, instead of saying you can only obtain X amount this week, stay subbed and you can continue your progression next week…)
TL:DR – I find that something is optional when there are various ways of obtaining the same end result.
Would like to hear your thoughts.
I've generally found using the dictionary definition of words to cause less confusion.
Things could be mandatory in your mind, but others (speaking from my personal POV here) if we don't want to do them, we wont.
That means they may be mandatory... for you, but that is personal preference not actually connotating a truly mandatory state.
@Sunmistress
Dictionary definitions don't mean anything in a group game, if the community considers a power increase essential then you, more than likely, will need to get it, you're playing with others, not by yourself and passing up on the only way of obtaining a substantial power increase is a big FU to the rest of the group or raid.
Also the mandatory examples I used are definitly mandatory. The "optional, but not really" are subject to opinion yes, but in a group game where success is depent of other players performance those things will become mandatory.
Some people refuse to believe that anyone would not do EVERYTHING to get ALL power.
In fact, they are probably more than 50% of the population. Just like raiding, less than 20% do this regularly.
So, stop trying to start an unnecessary argument about what you think is mandatory, when what you believe does not apply to most people.
I will choose the option to compete everything I can, but I am a freak. Most players are not. To them, everything is optional.
Sunmistress said:I've generally found using the dictionary definition of words to cause less confusion.
Things could be mandatory in your mind, but others (speaking from my personal POV here) if we don't want to do them, we wont.
That means they may be mandatory... for you, but that is personal preference not actually connotating a truly mandatory state.
This is pretty accurate, personal opinions vary a lot, what you and others think of something as being mandatory, I and others may not, so it completely depends on the person and the guilds who set these rules in place but they are not to be used as definitive rules for everyone.
I have explained that systems like Progeny and Perception are optional, they are, we don't force you to do them, and your entire guild can ignore them both and still raid at the same level as a guild who did max them both out, so it just comes down to personal preference, if your guild sets a rule to make everyone Progeny and max Perception and you feel overwhelmed or dislike that, then find another guild, please don't turn back to us and try to hold us responsible for providing these optional systems!
I will have to close this as we already have discussions breaking off from the Perception and Progeny threads about this and the answer is the same as I posted here, so please do not take this personally but this needs to stop being analysed so much, anything we call optional will not have a direct impact on your gameplay or impede your chances of progressing your character and being competitive, period.