Disguising the grind
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Age of Conan, EverQuest II, Culture, Game mechanics, Lore, MMO industry, Quests, PvE, Opinion, Hands-on, Virtual worlds
Believe it or not, grind is an essential part of an MMO and we might be pretty lost without it. Repetitive content is the cornerstone of the MMO genre but it’s not all just smacking monsters over the head for hours on end or completing yet another “kill ten rats” quest. The repetitive elements in an MMO give us predictable gameplay in a form we can digest. We don’t feel lost when we pick up a quest because it uses similar mechanics to previous quests we’ve done. From a development standpoint, the amount of time it takes to create new and unique gameplay for an MMO is quite large and it’s just not feasible to churn out unique gameplay with every new piece of content. Instead, developers are forced to re-use the same gameplay mechanics over and over again. So if we genuinely appreciate predictable, repetitive gameplay and it’s not feasible to do otherwise, why are we always so up-in-arms about the evils of grinding?
In this probative opinion piece, I look at why we need repetitive gameplay in MMOs and the various ways developers disguise grind to keep the game entertaining.
Update: Link to page 2 fixed. Thanks Brian!
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Disguising the grind originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Funcom implements PvP XP rollback in Age of Conan
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Events, in-game, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, PvP
Funcom has sent a clear message to the number of Age of Conan players who’ve been exploiting a flaw in the PvP XP system: START OVER. Oliver ‘Tarib’ Kunz, Senior Community Manager for Age of Conan, addressed Funcom’s recent decision to roll back the experience gained by some players who unfairly saw a meteoric rise in gains, as confirmed in a player-by-player investigation.
Kunz stated, “We have then taken what we consider to be appropriate action against those players by reducing their PvP Levels to what they were before it was possible to take advantage of this flaw and removing all PvP Gear.” Of course, Kunz says, Funcom is open to discussing the removal of experience and gear from those who believe they were unfairly targeted, and have stated that if they’ve misidentified an exploiter, the character(s) in question will be restored to their former status.
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Funcom implements PvP XP rollback in Age of Conan originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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