As long as it's done with sustainability in mind and with respect for the animal! ;)
For that matter, I never understood why "progress" in MMOs is so inextricably tied to combat and killing. Whether it's a PvE or PvP MMO, it's always the same; go kill X monsters, go capture Y castle. Asheron's Call's Allegience system is, at least in my opinon, one of the most innovative progression systems in MMOs. For those that don't know, it was a system that allowed players to swear "fealty" to one another, sharing experience gains, advanced through skills of Loyalty and Leadership. It was pretty basic in its implementation, at its core the game was still about killing monsters, but the Allegiance system added a dynamic to player progression that no one has really tried since.
A bit of a tangent, and I'm not saying I want to see an Allegiance system in Pantheon- the last thing the game needs is another core system to push the release back. I guess thinking about hunting made me think about why combat and killing are always such a core focus of the genre.
In WoW, not that I was much of a WoW fan, they had several series of hunting questlines. One of the expansions added a quest hub where you got quests to kill the hunters given by an organization with a name similar to PETA. I never missed those quests - to atone for my earlier thoughtless evil in helping the hunters.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - Are you a fan of hunting in MMORPG's? If so, please explain why. #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
Are you talking about actual "hunting for specific monsters", like the hunts in FFXIV (where you can accept quests to find and kill specific named monsters, then collect a trophy from them and turn those in to complete the quest)? Or hunting specifically animals for furs, hides and meat (or just exp)? Or do you mean the general context of fighting/exping in outdoor zones?
If the first, I didn't care much for it. Did a few of those quests but since they often revolved around waiting in a specific zone until the mob spawned, I found them rather uninteresting.
The second kind I like to do. A good croc hunting group in South Ro was great for exp, and solo hunting was possible as well (although much slower).
The third kind I also like. Outdoor exp groups are a nice difference, and with good spots could be a nice alternative to dungeons. Think of The Overthere for example.
The ranger has always been my favorite class, although they've always felt underappreciated in the MMOs I've played. So yes, I'd enjoy hunting.
However, I can't imagine why it would be worthwhile or realistic for many classes to hunt. Why would a cleric or a wizard spend time running around in the woods killing animals?
As a side note, I'd find it interesting if certain animals were made sacred to certain player races or classes. Killing those sacred animals could result in loss of faction with your own race/class.
I enjoy hunting. If it's in an area that has no clear overviews of the terrain. If the hunted mob flees or can actually kill me, that's even better.
Hunting is interesting if it's a true achievement. Hunting 20 rats in a rat infested area, is not much fun. It's feels more like a guided grind.
I'd be one of those players that seek to complete the entire rare hunt questline/achievement. I don't put hunting on par with grinding mobs.
Tasks can demand to kill X amount of Y. A hunting quest or party...now that's specific, less frequent (at least that), challenging. With a higher risk of failure or time consumption.
Not sure what you mean exactly. If you mean slaughtering lvl 1 rabbits/deer/etc to make soups, I see them as mobile resources. Necessary for controlling prices. Little difference between them and a vein of ore or going fishing. If you mean hunting as in farming bears around your level so you can skin them, then yes that is great. That is the best way.
If you mean hunting as in I turned the rare Albino Crocodile into a new pair of boots then yes, I love crafting drops from named NPCs when they are the main peice. I don't want 30 lore rare npc drops, but one big one is cool.
I don't mind hunting if the rewards are worthwhile. It is a nice change of pace to try to hunt down some rare animal for it's meat and skin.
It probably doesn't quite count as hunting, but I had a lot of fun hunting crookstinger in eq1 because I could do it at low level, without a ranger's help. The modest sum from his drop (crookstinger) was good to get started on trade early.
But in an mmorpg I feel like it would be hard to make hunting worthwhile for everything and yet not too worthwhile for ranger/druid type classes. Or, if you went the other way and made it only for ranger/druid, you'd be making a whole system for two classes, which is iffy.
You could compromise and just give ranger/druid a lot of class specific hunting type quests, and everyone else a few as well. Then put in some enemies like crookstinger from eq1 who wander around somewhat randomly and spawn pretty rarely.
I think trophy hunting could be interesting. Looking for that rare animal with a particular hide pattern or something along those lines. The visual element would be important rather than just tagging it as the correct animal with an icon. Killing hundreds of deer for their pelts hoping to get an occasional rare is pretty boring but standard fare.
I'm not a real fan of farming animals or monsters in general because it is anti-immersive to have a village with maybe 10 NPCs in it asking 50 adventurers to all go out and hunt deer for meat, but the deer population is never affected.