I will share my thoughts as I hope every one
will do, more text incoming again.
▶What kind of game are you developing?
Both answers of the first question should
be congruent so the game has more possibilities to success. To know
if you are being congruent, you need feedback from the community. To
have feedback you have to share progress. As I said I know all the
workload you have right now, but I think that to grow the possible player base
and to keep that possible player base interested, you need to share progress at
a constant rhythm, constant doesn’t mean everyday, constant every X time.
▶For what community should the game be?
Short answer: Options for everyone to
give replayability and flavor to the game. Freedom to choose.
Large answer: We are in 2022, the people
that plays MMO at these times is less than it was in 2000s and 2010s, at least
from my perspective, what brings to my mind that this can be due to a lot
reasons, but the first that comes to my mind is that some concepts are
dated, like Classes Lock IMO, feel free to disagree, people these days
likes freedom, freedom to choose, maybe today I just feel like questing
without being interrupted and maybe tomorrow I feel like try Harding in open
world PvP, and maybe the day past tomorrow I feel just casual PvP. So I think
the best option would be options for everyone, I mean its 2022, let me
decide if want to be a Dwarf Necromancer or Dwarf Mage, yeah maybe
Necromancer “don’t fit” Dwarven race, but maybe I’m that kind of person that
doesn’t like to please other people just because the majority say that its
wrong to do something, and I just want to chase my dream of being a
powerful Mage Dwarf. And these days people is realizing that and we like that
freedom to choose even if it is against “the normal”. So yes, options for
everyone.
▶What is a classic MMORPG experience?
For me, A classic MMORPG experience is
that MAGIC, the feeling of exploration, of discovering something new,
finding references to the lore between quests, creating
conspirancy theories about the plot, finding cool gear (visually),
finding gear that’s related to the lore, being able to craft your
own stuff, trading your stuff with strangers, being scammed by
strangers xD and all these while you see other people running around,
watching duels in the main cities, the tension of questing
in Open PvP zones, all the fun exploring a dungeon and getting
lost with other 3 strangers and ending up creating a life time
friedship, that’s the classic experience for me, not the grind 70 hours per
week for 3 months to get something that its going to be useless when the next
expansion comes, not the grind until the RNG shots that stuff that also its
going to be useless when the next expansion comes in 2 weeks. That’s the
classic magic experience for me, and maybe others like the RNG and brutal
grind.
▶How much punishment would you like in the game?
As I said before, options, maybe X%
gold loot and XP loss for the more hardcores, I would like something less
hardcore like the common each PvP or PvE death damages your gear, BUT if
an item brokes you can’t repair it OR if you repair it, it will lose
some stats or quality, like if its purple it will be downgraded to blue. Also
this can be a way to give a bit more relevance to crafting, so you can upgrade
again your item to purple with the needed mats of course. And also 0
punishiment areas of course, sometimes we just want to play and relax.
▶What is hardcore?
Hardcore for me is stuff that punish you
hard for almost every action, death, crime, not playing enough time, and are
high rewards for playing and grinding a lot, killing, etc, what I don’t like
much, actually, those games aren’t for me, I can’t put the game first than my
personal life, feel free to disagree. I would like to point that hardcore
doesn’t mean difficult or skill challenging.
▶What is casual?
Casual for me is stuff with very little
to none punishment for your actions, meaning you can play 30 minutes or 1 hour
a day, or even just 5-7 hours per weekend and still being able to be relevant.
Also I would like to point that casual doesn’t mean easy or no need of
skill. What brought me to the question 7, 8 and 9.
▶What do you prefer for this game casual or hardcore?
I would prefer a mainly Casual friendly with
options for semi-hardcore stuff, that requires SKILL and not eternal
grinds and 0.00001% RNGs, I shouldn’t need the gear from the last expansions to
complete the harder content, I should need SKILL and GROUP COORDINATION
▶What is challenging?
Challenging is stuff that needs skills to be
completed, coordination if its group content, learning mechanics, and of course
X% of the gear, but gear shouldn’t be more than 10-15% of the
equation. Challenging is something that carries an amazing level
design, something that makes me think. Something that allows me to
play and progress at my pace and still being relevant.
▶What is grindy?
First of all the grind is part of the game,
but how much do you want that grind to feel? The same formula most RPGs have
been applying 1000 times, grind gear during 3-6 months, because now
that’s the best gear, but now a new content comes and all that grind was a
waste of time because the new gear is better. Why focusing all the game in the
gear? That “end game” is boring to death for me, adding tiers and tiers and
levels to the gear every time new content comes also is silly and at least I
feel like all my effort and time was wasted, it feels like learning all
the game basic mechanics, understanding the game does not matter at all,
because the only thing that matters is the gear.
▶What do I prefer?
A good balance between challenging and grind, I would prefer 75%
skill challenging and 25% grind