So.. I want to apologize up front for the fact that this is gonna come across like a book to some people. But reading is good, and if im gonna make an argument, then d*** it, its going to be a good solid argument.
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A couple things happened over the last few days that prompted me to write this. I've been thinking it for a lot longer.
First off, the other night, a few faction mates and I showed up at Tab W, and I heard someone comment "The Daniel Institute is still alive?" To this I basically responded "yeah we are... and how many of any other one faction do you see these days?" I basically feel like a lot of factions are running pretty thin on ranks, as is this game in general.
The second thing happened this morning. I was helping a lower level mate mission. We ran two mishes and he basically said. "Ok I'm gonna mish by myself now for a while... This is boring. I'm not doing anything."
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So.. with those events fresh in mind, and a thread on population just below, I'm gonna go off for a little while on something I think is a real problem in this game. Despite the general positivity about the nice little community we have here, there is no doubt in mind that the community is shrinking. While I like our little community, I think it could stand to be a little larger, ya know, large enough to actually get a team together, or get some pvp going. The last few weeks have been, well, dead. Let's face it.... These games are more fun when more people are playing them. Yeah, we don't need 8 million players.. but, we need more than this!
So why is noone playing? This is a GOOD game, imo. Maybe not perfect, and maybe a little antiquated, but it has some good things going for it. I see several related problems that are affecting this game, and one major solution (that most likely no one will agree with, but that's why this is in General Discussion, so that it can be discussed.
The major problem with this game is the fact that it's a little old. The Matrix is not fresh out of the theatres, and the game has run down from its initial heyday. Look around, there are dozens of MMORPG's available, not to mention all the online action titles PC and PS and Xbox, and more games every day. People play video games TO BE ENTERTAINED!! MxO has a LOT of competition. If people aren't being entertained, they are going to go do something else.
MxO can be entertaining... the setting is cool, the story is cool, the clotehs and gear are cool, the combat system is VERY cool, for an RPG. But it only works if people are playing. You cant PvP yerself! AND......
You can't really PvP till you hit fifty-_-
And hitting fifty is a CHORE.. ITS NOT FUN. My faction has easily had twenty or more recruits in the last six months... almost all of them stopped playing somewhere in the lvl30's. Only two are now in their forties. Now, admittedly, part of that might be that we are a small Faction, so theres not always someone to help, but then, that's part of the cycle, and part of the crux of the problem.
It's a nasty little cycle... This game is rigged to make leveling on your own virtually impossible. You must have help form higher levels to advance. But higher levels don't want to spend all their time leveling lower level players... IT'S NOT FUN! So they put them off, or don't recruit at all. Few new players reach 50. And those that already are often move on to other games, RL, etc. The population thus shrinks, amplifying the cycle. Even if a level 50 DOES make the effort to help lower players, many of them are like my mate above... THEY'RE STILL NOT HAVING FUN! Which leads me finally to the title of this topic.
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The bottom line is, if we want more people in this game, the leveling process needs to be fixed. The leveling process we have is based on old notions about MMO's. That old notion, is that if you make a game impossible to play on yer own, it will force you to recruit yer friends to play with you. Im sorry, but this
DOES
NOT
WORK
!!!
Its not 1999... and MxO is not the only game to play. What worked a decade ago for EQ is not gonna cut snuff in 2008. IF MxO is going to survive, it NEEDS TO BE FUN, which means it needs to be more playable.
The only two people in my Faction to hit 50 in the last year were both UNEMPLOYED at the time ( that, btw, includes me >.<
and it took us several months of playing the game nearly all day every day to get leveled. Honestly, I was bored, had no money, and nothing better to do, and was willing to do a lot of leveling on my own.
How many players are like that? Do we really WANT a game population of the unemployed, and how is that population going to stay stable? It can't. This game need s to be able to appeal to people who only have maybe 5-10 hours a week to play the game. Those people need to log in and have FUN, not slave away on 30,000 missions or whatever it is it takes to get leveled ( I should have counted L) If players could hit 50 in a reasonable time and start enjoying the game, maybe they would stay. Or at least log in occasionally. And maybe if there were more, the 50's already here would have more incentive to stay too.
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Whew, so for all that ranting, ya know, id better have some solution, yeah? Well I do (and I think it's a reasonably good one, if I do say so myself). Leveling needs to be faster, and I see two main ways to do it.
1) the XP value of NPC's should go WAY up... I mean hugely, tremendously, exponentially even, maybe. Think about it... what is the primary thing you do in this game? Yes, that's right combat. Its what people are here for. Yes, IC im a peacenik, but seriously, im not playing to stand around and gab. I want some action, and so does everyone else. So... wouldn't you think that you could get XP from fighting? Isn't this, like, yaknow, Experience? Isn't that what the X stands for? So why do I get way more XP for standing in an elevator than I do for actually fighting an NPC five levels higher than me?
Yeah.. that's my point here mainly, and it's the point of my friend who was bored. Since lower level players are often (realistically) going to level on their own, and often WANT to, because its more fun and they learn more, Shouldn't they be rewarded with Experience? The best way to fix this is to make Combat a BIG source of XP. This would make the game SO much more fun and playable. It would make it worthwhile for lower level palyers to actually farm the lower level gang items, the archives, the new box content. At the present that stuff is wasted! It might take like 5 minutes for a level 25 to beat Tengu ONCE.. and get like 60000xp... in the same time, they could stand in a lobby with a 50 and earn 4 or 5 times that. Since they know that, who's gonna bother? And if a 50 is not around to help, they're gonna feel like they are d***in around getting nowhere.
So yeah, that's my first big step. If you got a REAL amount of XP from combat, it would make it more fun, as well as being a lot faster to level.
2) Remove the penalty for leveling alone. Cuz that's what it is.... A penalty. If you mish alone at low level, it takes three or four times as long, and you get less XP. Again, how are you gaining MORE experience by letting someone higher breeze thru the mission for you? That's just... gah! So, my though is that ALL mishes should pay out NORMALLY at the rate they now do if a 50 is with you. Always. The benefit of having a high level along should only be that they make it easier to do the mish, NOT that they boost the XP output.
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To me, these things work on a lot of levels, but the primary points are these. If they could level on their own, without help, more low level players would stay with the game. If they were having fun kicking NPC a**, AND getting Xp for it, more players would stay in the game. If more people stay in the game, then more people play the game. We get a POSITIVE cycle, instead of the negative one we currently have. Furthermore, if level50's could enjoy being level50, and not have to worry about running around helping all the new people, THEY would have more fun, and would stay with the game.
And this is basically what I want to see.. MORE PEOPLE.. HAVING FUN!
Are we ever going to be WoW? God I hope not, but it would be nice to have something of a population on more than one server.
So with all that said (finally, they all groan), some FEEDBACK!! Tell me to "F off" or "amen" or "I got a better idea" Please? So that maybe this will reach the consciousness of the Power's that Be. I realize its kind a long shot, but I just think this game needs a stiff shot of health booster, and this is the main problem I see. Thanks for hearing me out
psilody
