Quote:
Originally Posted by tops419
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And just to pose another question for those completely against instanced zones or encounters of any sort...
EQ is probably one of the largest worlds ever created. Yet, do you honestly feel there's enough game to go around for everyone who wants to play on this server? I mean, I understand that many people will respond with "well if they can't hang, then F-them" or "they don't deserve it" or "Thats the fun" or something with that general sentiment. But, the single most important thing to remember is that for a game to be successful, have dedicated devs, have a decent population, and strong financial support it cannot be a game of attrition. There must be some balance struck between offering all players a sense of accomplishment and opportunity and the hardcore players a level of separation and superiority.
If you cannot agree on some middle ground between these two things, you are forever destined to exclusively play on underdeveloped, underfunded, and underpopulated games such as P1999 or Wurm Online or the like.
All that being said. P1999 is a really great, nostalgic experience. Yet, the moment you choose to try to camp some select item you've been wanting, complete an epic, or raid in general; you find that there is not an opportunity for the <20 hour a week player.
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These are legitimate problems with non-instanced MMORPGs. These issues have been largely avoided by the modern incarnations of the genre. But to suggest that instancing is the only way to solve these issues demonstrates a complete lack of imagination.
How large is Unrest
really?. Is the FBSS bottleneck in classic EQ
really the best a non-instance MMO can hope for? Is there something about open world raid encounters that inherently makes them only viable for the most hardcore of gamers? Or is this just some of the problems that exist now that can be overcome...
Instancing, in my mind, always was a lazy fix to a complex problem. Just give them all their own dungeon. No need to ambitiously make a huge dungeon larger than Dreadlands, filled with all kinds of unique mobs and items. We ca just give everyone their own copy of a KC crawl to the boss.
The majority of the industry simply has not been trying. Why would they? Most modern MMO gamers seem to have no idea what they are missing.
Unlike the problems of open world content, which can be fixed simply by providing more viable content (including removing the severe bottlenecks that exist in EQ); the problems with instancing are inherent in its design. Its the difference between a training simulation in the matrix and an actual alternate digital world.