Recent Decline In Population

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by Aadill [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Honestly the idea of at least time locking the expansion progression staves off the inevitable, and the player base has the right to choose to hold off on releasing the next expansion. That lends some credence to the idea but the way the dev team on P99 is working makes it seem more like a, "Jeez I just heard of this new expansion coming out I wonder when they'll give us more information!" like it was in classic rather than the voting system Fippy has where it's simply, "Kill these mobs and let's vote to have the next expansion released in 90 days so we can get to bigger targets."

P99 at least leaves some appeal to exploring the world on alts or even on mains, regardless if you're raiding targets. For those that get bored and want ultra fast progression right back up to live, Fippy is a good idea.

The thing this all underlines for me is the importance of redefining what progression means in games so that it includes all of the content on more equal terms. Too many games mudflate and anything older than a year or two is left to rott out back in the shed. The problem with this is that progression players, the ones that want to see older content because they haven't yet, have to slog through cobwebs and trash to experience it. What's going on is little to no attention is given to this gameplay style. What they do is make a progression server, IF you're lucky! And it's an afterthought. What I want to see is a real effort to define the progression play-style and to implement it in an inclusive kind of way that doesn't alienate sub-populations.

Looking at EQ2, I see some positives. For example, it's easier to do older content than it once was. You flip on AA's and your power increases. This is a necessity because fewer people will be doing it. But the problem is that a lot of it still has not been adjusted to reflect this new reality. For example, if 4 people were needed back then to pull a lever or to spawn a named, this constraint STILL remains. So they need to find some people to help them do it, which defeats the whole purpose of making older content easier for progression players to experience it. Another example are tradeskill items or quests that might need particular items that drop randomly from somewhere. The problem emerges whne you realize there's no economy for this older content so you either have to grind for the item or just give up. The drop rate or the mechanic used needs to be changed. So making the content easier is not the silver bullet because it won't address little things like this that can hold back a progression player. If the content is detailed and diverse you have to go through it with a fine tooth comb or you have to plan ahead so sh** like this doesn't happen.

And HOW you make content easier is important as well. For example, you can offer super items that make it easier in the latest expansion, for new players. YOu can make it drop on trash in all expansion, like defiant armor in EQ1. Then they go back to the older content and mow everything down like Rambo. This problematic and miserable because it ruins the sense of reward a player gets when they succeed. They find out that the reward is worse than what they have! Increasing defense/offense in certain content or at certain levels with each new expansion is probably a better method since players can still do the older content but they can find a useful purpose for the rewards as well which will be a nice touch and not ruin the reward.

Even WoW is mudflating. I've read about it here and there. I know that they tried to revamp some content which was a great sign. But even they have a bottom line and content that was once doable and purposeful is not anymore. They're turning a blind eye to it. This problem is industry-wide.

Just a imagine a human body that's slowly shedding body parts because it can't circulate enough blood to keep it all healthy. What's going on is our current methods in the industry are not solving this problem or they're not looking ahead far enough. My feeling is that they're centered on the latest and shiniest, but anything else is on the back burner. This is where it all falls apart. Progression players are left behind in the dust and bitter decay to crawl among corpses and broken remains looking for the game.