The more news I read about Paragon Studios, the more I think they've lost the thread of the plot somewhere, in terms of offering options and customisation. The latest media blitz about the game is their vaunted I21.5 wherein yet abother iTrial is being released, and more "breadth of choice" powers for the different iSlots.
So we get to choose between 6 flavors of en masse cat herding, to increment the same (or similarly functioning currencies) to buy various powers (which you very know means players will want them all)?
This strikes me as a grind gimmick. An addictive, facebook-y, WoW-level gimmick.
Now gimmicks are all very well in the short term. Especially if you can recognise and consent to being temporally fooled by it, such as in the case of Glitch, which seems to fill a certain brain-off time-to-vege-out-and-harvest-nodes niche for me. And in the case of people who really love the fun of big group iTrials, it would be a gimmick they can consent to as well.
But in the case of a mainstream MMO, I wonder if it's not a little unwise to offer a surfeit of choices within a narrow gameplay style niche. I suppose WoW gets by fine, but I have to point out that WoW actually balances a spectrum of playstyles between three very-different game areas. The level game caters to solo casuals (used in the sense of both being less committed to a game, and also desiring less structured scheduled times for gameplay). The pvp endgame of battlegrounds also catches the solo casuals. The raid game and arena tournament pvp catches the hardcore groupies.
The LFG dungeons and raids straddle the divide, attempting to encourage the solo casuals along the committment path to hardcore groupie, to varying degrees of success. Developers have often thought of this as a player development path, but there may be some evidence to suggest that the players remain on one point of this spectrum for long periods of time, and it's not a one way progression either.
I am generalizing terribly by just naming the two extreme ends of player preferences, but you get the idea. There's viable goals for everyone to strive toward.
Take Guild Wars, a game I have been recently re-addicted to playing. Solo and group options abound. You -could- do the Domain of Anguish in a group, and get it done in 15-45 minutes with about twice to four times the reward, and many people do. You could also, like me following the footsteps of others on youtube, attempt it with heroes. GW also recently opened out 7 hero builds, allowing players like me a chance to see those high level areas for the first time ever. This is not to say that one is making it easymode.
Hell, no, I've been having my own solo raid experience in the Domain of Anguish this week. I've had to read up, copy, adapt and test builds. I've gone so far as to farm for materials, in order to buy consumables, just to supply my "raid" attempt at DoA. I've had to learn the thing in parts, practising each stage and experimenting with proper positioning aka hero flagging and appropriate places to pull. I've wiped and restarted multiple times in this learning process - including one unspeakable portion called the Foundry of Failed Creations, 15 times and still increasing, I've not completed it yet either.
But two clever pieces of design allow me to get past the pain and frustration without rage quitting. One, I'm alone. Some research suggest that females prefer to learn and make their mistakes in private, away from the public eye. I don't really think it's a gender thing, it's probably a player preference thing. I just don't want to affect or impose on anyone, or have them think less of me for screwing up. Especially if they have to die while I learn, that's too much pressure. There's no long term costly death penalty in Guild Wars, no crippling repair bills, and the Hero AI doesn't really care if they are standing or eating dirt (sometimes to my frustration, that lack of self preservation, but hey, no tantrums.)
Two, the "trash mobs" have a low chance of dropping the same end reward as completing the instance. Theoretically, this means you could farm the mobs, but if you can complete, it's far more guaranteed and worth it. Each instance is also split up into about 3-4 quests, so you can achieve partial success and feel some accomplishment at the progress that way.
It is my understanding that the iTrials also have rewards for partial completion, but you know where the failure of design lies? The random group nature of it. One iTrial you may make it to Stage 3, another Stage 4, and one wipe and disintegrate even before Stage 2 completes, let's say. And you were doing the exact same thing. Where is the feedback and learning opportunity in that? You cannot control other people's behavior, only your own.
There is another model that some mainstream MMOs follow. And I wish CoH would ape their footsteps. It is the "something-for-everyone" approach per patch. I'm okay with "It's not meant for me" as an occasional thing, as long as I can find something else meant for me at the same time.
LOTRO releases a raid, sure. It's not meant for me. Hell, I have to pay a microtransaction to unlock it if I'm not VIP. They also release a small group dungeon, or a few scalable skirmishes at the same time, that one might have to pay for as well. Oh, okay, so I can't raid, but I -could- play in a new skirmish. Or explore the new quest zone. /Different/ options. Not, hey, we have been focused on churning out 5 brand new quest zones, look at all the choice we're giving you! Raiders and pvp'ers would scream bloody murder, and in the interest of fairness, I would have to agree that one would lose their business as a result.
Ditto RIFT. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. We have world pvp rifts for groups (PUGs okay), and solo/duo dungeons, and here's the raid content. No, I'm not ever seeing the raid. I'm probably not going to world pvp either, but I -could- if I wanted to. But hey, solo dungeon, and this here shiny mount, I'm happy. It also helps that the solo dungeon allows one to earn the same currency for dungeon equipment, just at about half a slower pace. That's fine. That's commensurate reward. Not impossible-to-attain reward.
Unfortunately, with the pace of content updates, I get the feeling that the size of CoH's team is about maybe Age of Conan's size or Warhammer Online's size, maybe just a bit bigger. Still a skeletal live team. It's like they can only focus on one or two things at a time. I also get the feeling that the current Incarnate design team chooses not to recognize the solo playstyle as a viable option, which of course leaves a distasteful taste in my mouth. Why should I choose to play a game that makes me feel like a second class citizen?
Besides pre-existing brand loyalty, avatar identification and interest in the lore, I can't really think of any good reason. And lore, well, there's Paragon Wiki for free.
Mostly avatar identification standing in the way. I relate to my CoH characters better than most other MMOs. I view most of the other MMO avatars as tools, whereas by co-creating the design in the extensive editor and naming them after a certain concept, the CoH avatars are more extensions of self, Mary Sues, in a sense. This, of course, yields problems when it comes down to wanting the best stuff for them, because in one's imagination, they can do no wrong.
Ah well. Anyhow, I have resolved not to resubscribe until a viable solo Incarnate option is released, if ever. I'll buy the content via points if I really feel like trying it out, but past the Freedom hype, even the allure of First Ward is fading, and the first thing I felt when reading about Media Blitz was, phew, thank goodness I haven't given them any money yet! Which suggests that as of this current moment, I don't feel the game at present is worth paying for.
What is now difficult is figuring out what else I -do- feel like paying for. I'm currently on a Guild Wars kick. Every now and then, I entertain the insane idea of buying all the skill packs for fifty bucks, but it's kind of like buying all the card unlocks for the Magic: the Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers game. Part of the fun of the game is to strive for the unlocks, no? It would be like paying to skip the fun and satisfaction of the little pop up that says "achievement unlocked" or "skill unlocked" just to hurryhurry to another portion of the game known as formulating optimal builds. And one could do that on the wiki, just more inconveniently. (Why hasn't anyone come up with a Mid's for Guild Wars, I wonder? Hmm, I'm sure they exist, I must just google-fu for them.)
I'm still waffling between LOTRO and RIFT. Both feed different desires. The world of Tolkien is a lot more laid back and fun to just ride around in the landscapes. I'm more an immersive roleplayer sort in LOTRO, though I don't actually talk to anybody, I just like to imagine it in my head. The world of Telara is more game-y, there's more stuff to do, there's more to achieve and strive for, it's sort of like the WoW 2.0 I've waited for patiently for years. The best lessons taken away to form a really refined WoW clone experience. And they support multi-boxing! Which is exceedingly awesome and keeps making me think I should aim for five boxing dungeons some day - crazy, but achievable in the long term, and probably quite fun.
Waffle. Waffle. In the meantime, Guild Wars is doing okay.
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