I have been playing mmo's for a while now from eq1 to random titles both f2p and p2p, and have done instances that take 30 minutes up to 3hrs for the average group to complete. IMO, 1hr is the perfect time for an instance. Again that's my opinion. If it's longer then that then it goes from playing for fun to being on the verge of work. When the dungeons take 2hrs or more I find myself logging in, bang out a dungeon, log back out.
What do you guys think the best time is to take to run a instance dungeon? ( take into consideration that the time is for an average group, not a tier5 raid group lol.)
70 monk eq1
80 bruiser eq2
43 druid wow
Currently playing : rift
Comments
I like variety. Your game needs both kinds.
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I'm good for an hour or a bit more. I really don't mind half-hour dungeons, especially at lower levels. Anything less than that sort of becomes a waste of travel time to get there.
I think instanced dungeons should be very short.
In fact, I think they should last no longer than the passing of a brain fart.
Once upon a time....
No more than three months long. That's a pretty typical subscription length for an MMO.
(Yes. Yes, I'm totally advocating a dungeon where a whole massive guild is needed to do it, rotating in and out of it on shifts, slowly delving further, taking three months of non-stop gameplay to finally reach the epic ending. (Which, I assume would be a mushroom person NPC telling you that the princess is in another dungeon.))
C'mon. You know that would be entertaining. Guild members could belly up to the bar in their off time and compare how far they've gotten in conquering the super-epic dungeons 'Yeah, my guild is on level 562. We're having some problems keeping ten people on for two days straight to finish this one boss, though.'
It could create a whole economy... guild people hiring low level players to collect materials so guild crafters can create new equipment, then have some guild members just ferrying new armor, weapons and consumables down to the people at the lower levels, and bringing back the piles of gold and treasure.
Not easy question.
It depends on total amount of instances in game ,esp. end game if game is level system based, if there are other activities in game beside instancing.
Problem is that with many games running instances (and raids) is only activity in so called "end game" and if developers cut average time of instance run and decrease difficulty which both lately happens ,they frequenty increase amount of instance runs needed to get what you want from instance (loot, tokens ,medalions).
So really answer to OP question imho is dependant on what game it is and how difficult instances are.
Besides that imho instances should not be standarized and they should have diffrent run time. So both short and long ones I guess.
Though 3h for normal instance is way too long imho.
Dungeons should be up to one hour in length including the time it takes to organize the group and travel to the instance. That keeps the game compatible with not logging on for more than an hour at a time, and hence playable by people who can't or won't schedule long blocks of time to play the game continuously.
And yes, if it takes half an hour to get a group and then another half an hour to get that group to the instance, that caps instance length at zero. Because if that's what your game entails, then it's a bad game already, and what is in the instance doesn't matter.
I think this question only really makes sense if you have linear dungeons. I'm all in favor of giving people options. Like if you have a dungeon with multiple wings, each one might only take an hour. If that's all the time you have, perfect. If not, your party can run one of the others.
Or instead of even linear wings, just have a big open winding crazy dungeon with bosses all over the place. You can just head towards whichever you want, possibly even finding a key to the back entrance or the gate which lets you skip the first half. That's the kind of thing that I think is welcome to a lot of gamers. The big dungeon is awesome the first time, but having to grind your way to the last boss gets old.
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Me is going to say 1 hour to 1 hour n 30 minutes at most. o.o
Edit :
Like quizzical, mine includes gathering ppl for the team and getting started n stuff.
Also pinkified text now that Im on pc @_@
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IMO 1 hour is maximum or party start to fail as people may need to do stuff in real life etc.
Main problem is dc also, so I'm against long dungeons, but they can sure have many short wings.
try before buy, even if it's a game to avoid bad surprises.
Worst surprises for me: Aion, GW2
I would say 1h, i can do 30min dungeons in wow since its very easy to get a new group and do it again. But in most other mmo its to much hassle to get a group up and running to just spend 30 min in a dungeon.
In Aion i spent 3 and a half houre in a dungeon and that was way to long, i realy hated that dungeon.
Tight.
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The question is wrong.
Dungeons are not a McDonnald meal where you have to finish it in one setting. Dungeons are a part of the world and are not a mini game. They should be as big as they should be. Whether too tiny or too big or in between. It all depends on the lore and what the dungeon is.
Dungeons should never be consumed as a whole. Dungeons should be a mysterious place with many dangers lurking inside. They should never be linear and you can always choose to tackle one part of it. They should never be designed to be some sort of a theme-park ride where every ride is the same with a linear path towards the end.
Leave the box we're living in. Let's think outside the box. Dungeons should be surprising with some safe spots where we can camp or rest and continue another day if we wish to. They should have various level monsters. You can come back to them to do the harder content if you wish.
They should be multi-level with more rewards the deeper you go and of course the harder it gets. There should be several dungeons which are very big that it can occupy 10 groups of 6 players doing different part of it and probably might cross the roads saying "Hello fellow adventurers.. good luck to you!" maybe they can even do some trading together or exchange buffs.
70 monk eq1
80 bruiser eq2
43 druid wow
Currently playing : rift
I agree with the bunny.
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