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What is "Content" to you?
metalhead980
Member Posts: 2,658
I see it a lot on the forums.
Players try a game and then complain about a lack of content.
For me when I play a MMO when I think of a games content im thinking a world populated with mobs,Tweaking spells or a skill system, shit to explore like caves/ruins maybe some dungeons and a hard raid boss wandering the world to fight. Maybe a reason to pvp and some optional quests.
To me that's content.
What is content to you guys? is it quests at every turn? Dungeons at every level or in every zone? Pvp objectives? instanced stuff like mini games? Is crafting content to you guys? What about tweaking spells or working on a skill system?
What is content? When you start a game what must a MMO have for you to not say "this game has no content!"?
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Comments
Basically a feeling of being able to do something different and exciting as often as possible. No matter what your level (to use linear as an example)
Bored of questing? Try grouping for a wandering boss or dungeon. Bored of that ? Try entering an enemies territory and engaging in pvp? Bored of that? Try engaging in meaningful/intuitive crafting?
Keep throwing stuff at the player for them to do, let them power up items, collect nifty little things, gain titles along the way, engage in the unknown, sudden pvp, allow them sometimes to quickly slay a mob or slay a mob in a 'cool' fashion (AoC comes to mind)
Give them stuff to break up the monotony of grinding! A bit of excitement like 'oh cool look what dropped', 'shit an enemy player is attacking me', 'I just chopped off that mobs head with a big crit'.
Too many games get stuck in level grooves where there is far too much repetition.
When it comes to content the more, the better!
O_o o_O
Good post, Now let me ask you should all of that be thrown at the player or should it be found by the player?
I see posts of players that play games that offer all of that stuff yet people need to actively seek it out and in turn will get frustrated and say a game lacks shit to do.
What do you think about that. Should everything just be easily put in front of you?
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Good content to me is a good comunity and the ability to do little pointless things.
Example.. You can make all the raids in the world and all the loot in the world to drop. But if its not fun OR the community sucks so you don't want to join partys then the content is not fun. and not really content.
But if I can chill outside of a town chatting with 4 diffrent people having a awsome time, while crafting little gadgets and just messing around. and it is fun, then that is true content.
....at least to me
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Content to me is always having something to do that can actually be qualified as character progression by yourself or in a group.
I'm retarded and I find myself only having fun when I'm actually advancing my character in some way (unless I'm role-playing or doing something else not programmed into the game specifically).
I don't do dungeons if there's nothing in it for me unless to help friends.
I don't farm gold because I likely don't need gold.
Et cetera.
So what I'd like is a game in which you can always do something, whether it be crafting, hunting for rare monsters, doing dungeons or otherwise that can actually advance my character's skills, abilities and stats whether I'm alone or in a group.
Objectivity is delivered with a lack of personality made for the mainstream but never used for the mainstream.
Content is meant to imply almost anything a user can interact with in a game. Questlines, instances, items, etc.
At its most basic however, i would say it almost always includes varied models and attack routines for mobs. This is the one pve element people interact with the most.
Just to make things clear...
I speak for myself and no one else, unless i state otherwise mine is just an opinion. A fact is something that can be independently verified, you may challenge such but with proof. You have every right to disagree with me through sound argument, i believe in constructive debate, but baseless aggression will warrant an unkind response.
Who here thinks that the notion of Content embrace Features/Systems?
If you think that an a feature like "Auction House", or "Mail System" can be considered content, than we open the window to pretty much anything being considered content.
Content is anything that can fill something that was otherwise empty.
In a functional sense, content is anything "new" that adds longevity to the game (longevity being the proccess at wich player interest and curiosity is sparkled or refueled).
Its can be related to character progression (vertical or horizontal), lore/story of the game, but not necessarily.
It also can relate to any stage of the game, not just to the stage known as "end game" (in linear games).
In Sandbox games, the notion of content is much more open ended, and it can really embrace features or systems, such as a housing system, harvesting system, crafting system, territorial control, systemized social structures (guilds/clans/nations/etc).
Anything that can be used by the players as tools for their own entertainment can be considered content.
Content can be a lot of things, but it is not mindless collection questlines that exist solely to disguise a grind. Meaningful quests with well-written dialogue and challenging components are absolutely content. Meaningless quests that don't need to be read and that highlight a portion of your mini-map and tell you exactly what to do and where to go are not content. They are no different from grinding mobs except you have to run around more (and it's usually more efficient due to poor game design).
Those kinds of quests are indeed content, just incredibly bad content.
Content when used as a word specifically relating to MMO's is any activity or enabling of an activity that allows for character progression of some kind (gear, stats, skills, or even just a place in a competitively ranked bracket).
Content can be also considered as "features" in mmos
giving players different options in playing, like aside from grinding, players can participate in pvps or play minigames in mmos
the reason some players complain in other mmos that have lack of content is becuase the game is getting repetitive, or there are no end-game features that encourages players to continue even on max levels or maybe it's just that the features are just the same from other mmos
In the functional sense...
Content function, or effect, so to speak is
add longevity to the game, (it is a counter to people reaching the end of the linearity of the game and becoming bored)
So in linear games, strategies such as artificially hyper extending the time and effort necessary to progress the character (because in linear games, its pretty much where its centered, character progress),
such as systematically creating more "quests" that are nothing more than an excuse to force players to sacrifice time and effort, because the mechanics behind it are the same (kill x monsters, kill monsters and retrieve x items, find and gather x items at certain place but in this time you dont have to kill monsters, etc... and slight variations of those)
or worse, when the game purposefully has a "cap", either level cap, or skill cap, etc... just so those caps are slowly released later on to give a false sense that something new was created, when in reality, its just more of the same.
or when the games re-texture or re-skin or re-color or re-size items, areas and monsters and sell it us as new.
or when they reduce drop rates, xp awarded per kill, or the increase the xp needed to level up or any type of "nerf", in an attempt to hinder player progress through the linearity of the game, trying to increase their game longevity with it. (in linear games, developers auto imposes themselfs deadlines for new content, so the more "grind" they add, the more time they get before the "deadline" when players will get bored, complain/whine and quit their game) It happens on games that has too much flesh, but no substance, the day to day gameplay is not fun enough and players have no freedom or tools to make their own entertaining adventures/goals.
For me, anything that was cheaply made without minimum time, effort, creativity and investment by the developers shouldnt be considered content. Because they dont change the mechanics, it doesnt add new physics, or animations, or gameplay styles or anything that the player legitimally feel compeled to experience.
In the functional sense...
Content function, or effect, so to speak is
add longevity to the game, (it is a counter to people reaching the end of the linearity of the game and becoming bored)
So in linear games, strategies such as artificially hyper extending the time and effort necessary to progress the character (because in linear games, its pretty much where its centered, character progress),
such as systematically creating more "quests" that are nothing more than an excuse to force players to sacrifice time and effort, because the mechanics behind it are the same (kill x monsters, kill monsters and retrieve x items, find and gather x items at certain place but in this time you dont have to kill monsters, etc... and slight variations of those)
or worse, when the game purposefully has a "cap", either level cap, or skill cap, etc... just so those caps are slowly released later on to give a false sense that something new was created, when in reality, its just more of the same.
or when the games re-texture or re-skin or re-color or re-size items, areas and monsters and sell it us as new.
or when they reduce drop rates, xp awarded per kill, or the increase the xp needed to level up or any type of "nerf", in an attempt to hinder player progress through the linearity of the game, trying to increase their game longevity with it. (in linear games, developers auto imposes themselfs deadlines for new content, so the more "grind" they add, the more time they get before the "deadline" when players will get bored, complain/whine and quit their game) It happens on games that has too much flesh, but no substance, the day to day gameplay is not fun enough and players have no freedom or tools to make their own entertaining adventures/goals.
For me, anything that was cheaply made without minimum time, effort, creativity and investment by the developers shouldnt be considered content. Because they dont change the mechanics, it doesnt add new physics, or animations, or gameplay styles or anything that the player legitimally feel compeled to experience.
You just had to make this "linear" vs sandbox, didnt you? ill agree cheap tricks dont really add to content but that works for sandbox elements as well...
Just to make things clear...
I speak for myself and no one else, unless i state otherwise mine is just an opinion. A fact is something that can be independently verified, you may challenge such but with proof. You have every right to disagree with me through sound argument, i believe in constructive debate, but baseless aggression will warrant an unkind response.
Things to do.
content is was makes the playing interesting and keeps you coming back.
good game content dont forget all the player types, and gives the same reward to those types depending what they do.
one good note that comes my mind now is from vanguard and the diplomacy minigame thats a hellagood bonus content for game.
cheers,
I don't understand this discussion, how can anyone say that content cannot considered as such just because someone doesn't personally like it?
Content is simply zones, mobs, npcs, items, quests, and is not defined based on how they're arranged.
Anyone who says "this game has no content!" must be staring at a blank screen for that statement to be true. We don't need to redefine content just because some people like to exaggerate.
"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun."
Content describes the breadth of pattern variation in a game. Typically the magnitude too (because 100 different kill quests isn't particularly diverse pattern variation.)
"Pattern" constitutes the entire range of gameplay patterns, from seeing sights (cities/monsters) to doing activities (combat/crafting/dialog) to things devs have less control over like socializing with other players. All of these are different forms of content.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
This is a really good thread with some surpisingly good posts.
I'm going to let this ride and see what this turns into.
As for me I consider Content to be everything in a game from the gameplay to those little systems in the game.
I'm just as happy messing with a spell customization system as I am running a dungeon or messing with a crafting UI.
Thank you for the posts everyone.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Theres developer created content and player created content. Dungeons, quests, gear, spells, battlegrounds, mini-games, things to collect, zones, ect...all content created by a developer for consumption and completion. Something player generated is harder to define. Although I don't consider walking around in a zone or killing mobs content anymore;) It USED TO BE content though. A zones existence isn't really content unless theres something actually to do there. Quests, territory control, or dungeons. If its just whacking moles or gathering minerals or mining in empty, generic forest #47 or flat desert#19, its hard to call that content.
Most player generated content is based on RPing and I wouldn't call RPing content since its mostly about chatting, or diplomacy, which is still just chatting. Random PvP ganking isn't exactly content. But being able to control fortresses and castles is.
To me if you can't win it, complete it or obtain it, its not content.
content = shit to do. when i level without realizing i've been trying to level because i've gotten carried away doing all this content.
Content to me is choices.
Choices to do what you want to do obvious fitting the game, I want combat choices, I want none combat choices, I want content that can be explored/discovered instead of it being handed to me, I want crafting to matter, I want combat to matter, I want questing to matter, I want exploring to matter, I want discovery to matter but at the top of the list I want social community feature's to matter most within this genre and that alone can generate so much content (player created content but please not only combat oriented), Oh and I want more freedom in movement/animation which also can creat allot of new content. But even thought I want it to matter I still want it all to be choices and should not be requirement for every player to get involved with. If a MMORPG lacks choices or like I feel many AAA-MMORPG's are very limited that they totaly focus on combat where everything else I mentioned is a afterthought then I would consider such a game to lack content.
Content is a fully realized world that you can become wrapped up in.
To me, content in a mmo is continual progression of your character, whether through gear, skills/levels/both, stats, etc. I can play any single player or non-mmo multiplayer game for dungeon encounters, it's the persistent progression that makes mmo content to me. I'd rather run a few dungeons for gigantic loot tables of gear than run a new dungeon every few months for a new set (ala wow). But that's me. I've accepted I'm a minority in this view.
Good post, Now let me ask you should all of that be thrown at the player or should it be found by the player?
I see posts of players that play games that offer all of that stuff yet people need to actively seek it out and in turn will get frustrated and say a game lacks shit to do.
What do you think about that. Should everything just be easily put in front of you?
Half and half I would say, some things like crafting and pvp should be found by the player but accessible whenever they want, none of this wait till Level X nonsense. To me having to wait till a certain level to have access to 'core' elements is poor/missing content (Aion pvp comes to mind).
Other things should be thrown at the player, things that make the player feel like he is having an affect on his character not just doing all the motions.
O_o o_O
Quests, quests and more quests
Dungeons with scripted boss fights
Items (crafted or drop)
New areas & mobs to fight
A feeling that you are interacting with the environment of the game instead of just being there. the ability to know that if you don't want to follow the strait path you don't have to. Quests are good, and item crafting, as well as community interaction are a must when I look at what a game will provide me for content and a will to play it.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
Killing mobs, or other players.