In response to:Do Subscriptions = Profits?

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:18:54 +0200

ok so you made up a bunch of figures to make a point that might or might not be true? This is garbage dude

In response to:In Defense of Instancing

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 22:39:19 +0200

>There is nothing more boring or disenchanting than having some free time on a Saturday night to get together with some friends in-game and finding a dozen or more other people working the same quests as you

First, there are plenty of things more boring or disenchanting than this.

Second, you've identified a problem but not looked for any other solutions. You take the existence of quests as a given; you take the shortfall in number of quests as a given; you take the limited size of the world as a given. If quests were dynamic rather than static; if there were enough quests for everyone to do different ones; if the world was large enough that you didn't trip over people everywhere: then, you'd solve the problems you see and have a better world, too. Yet you don't look at any other possible solutions, you just go with instances. Why?

>Having that immersive dungeon crawl experience is next to impossible without instancing.

And yet we had highly immersive worlds for a couple of decades before instancing came into vogue. Go figure.

>I do not want something like Deadmines in WoW to be a competition between my group of friends with appropriate level characters trying to have a real dungeon experience and a seemingly endless train of level 60’s rushing their low level friends through to VanCleef so they can get some spiffy piece of rare equipment which they probably will barely use in their headlong rush to level 60.

Well of course not, but if you had a choice of 50 places to go with your buddies instead of just 1, would that help? Or if 60s approaching the area attracted the attention of dragons that swooped down and gave them a different kind of content than the standard run? There are many ways to address your concerns without resorting to instances: why don't you consider those?

>A traffic jam in a dungeon is not immersive.

And traffic jams are inevitable because why?

>That spirit should be more Lewis and Clark and less Disneyland’s Jungle Safari ride.

I agree, but with instanced dungeons you always get the same ride, just like at Disneyland. You get your own 5-person jeep and you never get to meet anyone else.

>The lonely dungeon crawl with just you and your friends represents how things ought to be

Fair enough, but that doesn't imply instances. You're acting as if instances were the only solution here.

Besides, where do those friends come from? As you say, it's much easier to make friends when people aren't sitting in their little fixed-size instance capsules. If your guild breaks up during the elder game and you want to join a new one, how do you make new friends if everyone is off in an instance?

>But are they worth the price of giving up instancing? I do not think so.

It's only not worth it if you can't see any alternatives to instancing.

>There is time and opportunity for that in the rest of the predominately un-instance world, which is where I spend most of my time anyway.

So if you spend most of your time there, it can't suck completely. Can you think of ways by which the things instancing gives you could be provided in an uninstanced fashion? Then you get to keep the random social interactions that can lead to fun and friendship, which is what you lose if you go with instances.

>being in a world that is live, vibrant, and full of people who are kind, annoying, helpful, obnoxious, dull, wise, clueless, witty, and every combination in between is the real addictive part of MMOs.

It is indeed. This is why when you abandon it and play in a world with just 4 other people, you're heading for long-term malaise.

>Of course, this might brand me as a noob… but I never claimed to anything else!

You say "brand" as if being a noob were a bad thing.

Richard

eq2 online

In response to:Do Subscriptions = Profits?

In response to:In Defense of Instancing