Probably not what you are looking for, but definitely staying interested in playing past the first couple days or weeks. The hand holding of the last decade of MMOs, probably starting with EQ2 and WoW (and just getting worse from there), really is a major turn off. My gaming personality is one that enjoys challenge and discovery, and in retrospect, I think the original Everquest was the most enjoyable new player experience for me because it just dropped me in the world and left it up to me to figure out what to do and where to go. So, as someone that does not enjoy PvP nor enjoys themepark quest driven MMOs, my toughest challenge with recent new MMOs is simply wanting to log back in after the brief initial novelty wears off.
Which class to pick, there are often so many interesting and exciting options.
Pantheon is definitely the hardest so far; I've normally got it narrowed down to at least one archtype, in Pantheon I'm still considering all four.
Back in they day? Managing to stay up night after night to play as much as I wanted (and still hold down a job!).
The last decade of modern MMORPGs? Managing to stay interested. Finding anything challenging enough to need to play with others. Bearing the childish art/design/atitudes.
This is me putting on my game launch hat point of view:
I would say server population and stability. Deciding ahead of time what are the max number accounts vs concurrent logins that is right for the server to be healthy with regard to population and stability. This will have a big impact on "feel" of activity/population and player interaction and it will have an impact on server stability to a degree. This will also impact how many servers that VR thinks it needs to service account subscriptions. Additionally it will impact the company bottom dollar, at least at launch until the overall game population stabilizes. This in turn will impact potential server merges that may be needed in the future as the initial rush of players slows and server populations reach some form normality.
As a few others have said, getting and staying interested. The most immersive environments are those that don't hold your hand. They drop you into the world with a "good luck!" and no clue what you should do. They don't provide quest journals, map markers to "connect the dots", big billboards over NPC heads or other things that lead you through the world. They let you make your own way, figure things out yourself and explore cautiously. Hard-earned lessons "stick" better and provide the player a feeling of investment. Investment in the game drives long-term subscriptions.
Don't overdesign the game. By definition, you cannot design for emergent gameplay. You can avoid preventing emergent gameplay in your design but "emergent" literally means "arising unexpectedly". Provide lots of seemingly disparate systems and players will find symbiosis where it wasn't intended or designed (don't even attempt to design in that symbiosis and hide that you did). Let the players decide how to play the game and don't force us to follow some prescribed path.
There are many ways to screw this up and only a few to get it right. Despite how anxious I am to get into the world of Pantheon and play, I am most anxious about whether all this wait will be rewarded with an immersive world or just another cookie-cutter MMO that will bore me in one or two play sessions. So far the gameplay footage hasn't leaned either way.
Akilae said:As a few others have said, getting and staying interested. The most immersive environments are those that don't hold your hand. They drop you into the world with a "good luck!" and no clue what you should do. They don't provide quest journals, map markers to "connect the dots", big billboards over NPC heads or other things that lead you through the world. They let you make your own way, figure things out yourself and explore cautiously. Hard-earned lessons "stick" better and provide the player a feeling of investment. Investment in the game drives long-term subscriptions.
Don't overdesign the game. By definition, you cannot design for emergent gameplay. You can avoid preventing emergent gameplay in your design but "emergent" literally means "arising unexpectedly". Provide lots of seemingly disparate systems and players will find symbiosis where it wasn't intended or designed (don't even attempt to design in that symbiosis and hide that you did). Let the players decide how to play the game and don't force us to follow some prescribed path.
There are many ways to screw this up and only a few to get it right. Despite how anxious I am to get into the world of Pantheon and play, I am most anxious about whether all this wait will be rewarded with an immersive world or just another cookie-cutter MMO that will bore me in one or two play sessions. So far the gameplay footage hasn't leaned either way.
This.
There are things I still remember vividly from EQ because I had to discover and learn it on my own.
Where as many other games I can barely recall even starting the game, I just clicked on the the things they told me to, killed the mobs they directed me to, and moved on to the next link in the chain. All without really taking it in because it was more like and arcade game than a game world.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - What are some of the toughest challenges you face when starting a new MMORPG and why? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
The release of a game is almost always my favorite time. To me, it is when the balance is most calibrated. There are always balance outliers but they are often easy fixes blown way out of proportion by the community. For the first few months the game is closest to the true heart of the design team and by the first half year mark all the most troubling balance issues and bugs are usually resolved.
Shortly after that in my experience, MMO's have fundamental foundation shifts as the title starts to try to morph into a different game. There are many catalysts for this shift and I can't really talk about them in detail without being negative. But suffice it to say that people who wish the game was something it isn't, people who aren't prospering in the game, and people who don't appreciate the game for what it is vastly outnumber their counterparts.
Having said this, the biggest challenge I face when starting fresh in an MMO is the mad rush to experience as much pristine frontier as I can before it is ruined. I want to explore as much as I can before it is spoiled. I want to conquer as many fights in their true form before they are "tweaked". I want to learn every mechanic I can before they are re-worked and gift wrapped. I want to absorb the artistic integrity of the designers before that voice becomes convoluted and incongruous. My great challenge is to experience and savour this snap shot of reality before it is gone forever.
-Gottbeard-
Trying to convince myself that killing over and over and over again, spawns that seem to have no other purpose in life than to stand in the same spot all day long or spawns that are just following a path for no other reason than to just repeatedly follow a path, is not somehow mind numbingly boring.
Trying to convince myself that staring, for the majority of my time in combat, at spell and ability icons that are in the process of refreshing, rather than at the combat itself, is not somehow mind numbingly boring.
Trying to convince myself that a game that does little in the way of testing a variety of my own abilities rather than just my character's, is not somehow mind numbingly boring.
Trying to convince myself that the sound of my characters footsteps is not having the same physiological effect that fingernails on a chalkboard does.
Trying to convince myself that NPC vendor prices for a given item that are more or less identical across the entire game world is somehow stimulating.
Trying to convince myself that putting up with the drama that often goes along with being in a guild is not negating the reason that I am playing the game in the first place.
Trying to convince myself that voice chat does not break immersion.
Trying to convince myself that receiving gifted items from other players does not sour my sense of accomplishment.
Trying to convince myself that having various types of experience constantly thrown at me does not water down the overall sense of accomplishment in leveling a character. "Here, have 100xp for logging in." "Here, have 100xp for finding your house." "Here, have 100xp for locating your shoes in your house." "Here, have 100xp for putting on your shoes" "Here, have 100xp for donating your shoes" "Here, have 100xp, because it's have 100xp day.."
Trying to convince myself that the over-the-top super mega cartwheel, explosive death scattershot, universal studios, adrenalin junkie, I can take on 50 mobs at once, spells/abilities on my hot bar should be eliciting in me some sort of "oh, wow" response.
jeffjeffjeffh said:Setting up the interface and macros.
Definitely, +1 here.
We all forgot how paralyzed we were when entering for the first time EQ or WoW. Which button to press, how to make useful or vital keybindings, how to write our first macro, knowing where and what to click. Mastering an UI to the point clicks become reflexes is not as fast as one could think and it is probably the biggest obstacle for a newbie (focusing on learning the UI leads you to make mistakes or to react too slowly ingame).
Kilsin said:Community Debate - What are some of the toughest challenges you face when starting a new MMORPG and why? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
1. Finding that optimal path for leveling, earning money and getting items
2. Exploiting the bugs and errors the devs never bothered to fix during alpha/beta (even though they were told time and time again they needed to be fixed) before they actually realize they must be fixed and patch them.
3. If I'm doing tradeskills, getting skilled up fast enough to corner the market on some items to maximize profit potential before the market crashes.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - What are some of the toughest challenges you face when starting a new MMORPG and why? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
The toughest challenges always seem to be the simplest things that make you rage to no end. Like find a super small randomly spawning mushroom somewhere in the forest. You want to give up but the past 13 quests lead up to this! Its gotta be here somewhere right?
The funnest challenges are usually trying out of the box solutions only to find they actually work. Like figuring out NPCs will say different things around your mind controlled pet while you see and hear everything through it.
Jealousy: Why is that person talking to that NPC?, are they finding out something important?! shoud I be talking to that NPC? why didn't I go there first! I was here first!- or- I was LFG, I know they ehard me, im a shaman/tank/caster/healer how come they didnt pick me? I can speak their language too!
Envy: How did that person at my level get such a nice ring! they would have had to go all the way to avendir and back, through areas with much higher monsters, I woudnt dare go yet. ooo!
Pride: You know, I've been through this cave a bunch of times and I told you there is a lion behind that bend and to watch the add from the mate. We've done this three times and the chanter and the rogue seem to be staring into the sun. I mean, I don't mind dieing but this is the entrance! No, what I mentioned eariler was just a bit of RP to lighten the mood. So, this time, before we start- don't pull yet, wait till.... *urk*...Fine sorry guys I have to go, have chores to do, yeah kind of sudden, RL you know how it is, bye.
Non-judgmental self depreciation: Hey! good to see you on! what're you up to? ....oh... Yeah! no problem! :) so...I was thinking, I mean we had - I thought those were some good groups, remember that time we almost died and you did that thing and that was so clutch! and that other time when I did that thing and that turned it around, or that one time when that other guy did that thing and it saved us all! yeah. so. like if you ever need a mage? just...lmk, ok? *a few days later* Hey! I was wonderig if you could help me with...oh got a group? whereaboouts? sounds cool- don't die! ok, np. talk to you soon!
I like to meta game even though I don't usually make it to ultra late game type stuff, so my biggest challenge usually involves making and remaking characters until I get something that is both fun and powerful.
Though it is challenging, I can't say it turns me off from games too much.
