Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Should More MMOs Revamp Older Questlines To Make Them More Streamlined? | MMORPG.com
System
Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
Should More MMOs Revamp Older Questlines To Make Them More Streamlined? | MMORPG.com
Recently, Black Desert revamped its Balenos quest chain to make it a bit more streamlined for newer players. It got Bradford thinking: more MMORPGs should follow suit.
Comments
I don't like the concept of racing to the end of an MMO and forgetting about past accomplishments, because otherwise why are they there?
A new player should go through the content because it's interesting and relevant to them.
The devs could evolve the experience and this would give a real feel of real life in a game, time has passed so things have changed.
I played RPG MMO because I want to feel like the adventurer are I create and have an experience. I didn't sign-up for loot boxes and speed progression just so I can roll on purples i "end game".
The best example I would use is FF14. In original "ARR" reboot (including all content patches before Heavensward expansion), it had HUGE amount of "fluff" quests, those included low level quests as well as over 100 of MANDATORY quests which you had to go through when you reached level 50. Most of these were very boring, unimaginative fetch quests and a lot of "pointless talking" quests which had very little impact on main story and which were generally very poorly presented. The game was heavily criticized for those, especially by new players (many of which were turned off by the amount of those generic filler quests), and as a person who overall did enjoy FF14's story and presentation - I agree with that criticism. The developers did actually trim some of them, as well as change some instanced content related to ARR to make it more streamlined, but even that is not enough, there's definitely more of those that can (and should) be eliminated.
The only "evolving" developers should do is keep expanding the game with various tools for players so players themselves can create their own fully dynamic content which would keep existing players from leaving the game and would attract even more new players after they will hear about what's possible for players themselves to create. Content like player-held social events (various shows, music concerts, parties), player-created dungeons with fully custom design, player-created cosmetic items (which players themselves can sell through in-game store for real life currency, similar to artists who create and sell items for VRChat users now) and player-created large scale PvP conflicts with meaningful territory control.
Sadly vast majority of MMO developers are too stupid/lazy/narrow-sighted to provide players with such tools.
Depends on what streamlining means.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
The problem with those games is that they add content exclusively to the end game so if you're new, you need to grind like crazy to see the new shiny zones. I think ESO has shown the industry that there's a better way to do it.
BDO is also not really a good example since their quest stories have never really been a strong element of that game - any improvements to their quesing and storytelling mess is a good thing but not really relevant to games like FFXIV, LOTRO, ESO and other games that are already good at that.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
If by "streamline" you mean make relevant again, maybe... but I'd rather see developers make expansions that don't destroy the original game.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
Games are about playing not avoiding play or watching videos.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
If something is not well liked, instead of making it "better" just make it easier, or give them a mount/pet as a reward.
Then you can tout your metrics to the higher ups as though you did something amazing.
If you want new players to be willing to slog through your lower level content, you need to maintain it and make it interesting to play through. Increasing the base difficulty periodically to counteract years of power creep would often be a good start. But that tends to be the opposite of what game developers do.
Due to this, only 1 of my friends jumped onboard and is staying, rest left before getting out of ARR.
so this leaves somewhat of a conundrum..some players will never reach endgame, if they have to read or folllow a long story.
maybe the ones that just wants to run raids and dungeons, should get some tool to speed up or even skip story, but that would leave the rest feeling like they got abandoned, i dont know the solution, i just want to play with my friends
What I don't like was they removed the outdoor ambushes that would place high level mobs in low level zones if someone left an ambush behind. It used to add such danger and the cries for help across the server when it happened. I think it removed an essential method higher level players could rush and help in lower level zones.
Im in the middle of this for the 2nd time now, as a lvl 52 PLD so far, (there was 2 new servers added that give bonus xp and 1mill gil to start anew there, did so a few days ago)
and i agree with everything you said, sadly.
Back then you couldn't pause earning XP and you can level out of some story arcs due to the pre-arc grind.