Comments on: Quest Grinding, You Are in Denial

By: Muckbeast

Muckbeast — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:22:13 +0000

Perfect balance is impossible. Approximate balance is all you really need to attain.

If quest and mob grinding give about the same xp/hour, then you are fine. The same goes for different classes. Further, its ok if some classes are better at solo grinding xp, as long as the ones who are not good at it have strengths in other important areas.

By: mage guide

mage guide — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:48:41 +0000

When I read your article I realized that you are very right.

When you can choose between grinding mobs and grinding quests, I prefer the quests though. I guess the problem to your mentioned alternate paths to leveling is the balancing. In most games one class is better in grinding mobs for example. Will this class level faster than the others?

By: Muckbeast

Muckbeast — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:12:37 +0000

Blue, why is it a choice? Making quests is extremely labor intensive and costly. Supporting grinding isn’t. So if you already spent a ton of money paying people to craft 5,000 quests, investing a little time to have a viable grinding option is a drop in the bucket.

And I do not think it can be ignored how quest based gaming affects the virtual world aspects of games, the exploration aspect, etc. There is no point in exploring in a game when nothing will happen unless you had the quest in advance from some hub. Or as Serith notes:

“The OP mentioned quest heavy advancement discourages players from going off the beaten path. In my experience it’s worse then this there IS little to nothing to find off the beaten path…or if you do find something it’s useless unless you have the quest for it.”

By: serith78

serith78 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:48:46 +0000

After some thought, I came to the conclusion that quest based advancement has a higher cost in terms of MMO games then I first thought. The way most MMORPGs are designed it pretty much costs you any feeling of a real “game world”.

All the traditional MMOs I’ve played on don’t even feel like worlds, it seems like the space was designed around “we need x quests in y level range + 30% white space”. And the feeling of one “world” is really a huge part of what drew me into MUDs/MMORPGs in the first place.

The OP mentioned quest heavy advancement discourages players from going off the beaten path. In my experience it’s worse then this there IS little to nothing to find off the beaten path…or if you do find something it’s useless unless you have the quest for it.

By: Blue Kae

Blue Kae — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:53:47 +0000

If I have the choice between a game with EQ-style MOB grinding or WoW-style quest grinding I’ll take the quest grinding. Primarily because the quest grinding gives me more of an illusion of progress. I can play for 30 minutes, finish a quest, and feel like I had a productive play session. With MOB grinding, playing 30 minutes and killing X number of creatures may net me the same XP gain but I don’t get the same feeling of accomplishment.

That said, you’re on the right path calling for multiple paths of advancement. The games I enjoy most are all about having options, option, and more option. If I have time, I want to group, but if I don’t I want to solo. Once I hit max level, I would love to be able to roll and alt and progress through the whole game on an alternate (but new) content path.

By: What is missing in our games? | Adult Blog

What is missing in our games? | Adult Blog — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:09:05 +0000

[...] made the loot and level upgrade treadmill as slick as possible to get you on and keep you going. Some would say it’s designed to be so slick you don’t realize that you’re on just another [...]

By: Muckbeast

Muckbeast — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:05:52 +0000

That’s encouraging Adele. I have heard that Aion is basically group required if you want to earn xp at any kind of decent rate. I wonder if that is full groups, or do duos and trios count. I really miss games where even a duo was considered a “group” and could find fun, challenging, and rewarding stuff to do.

By: Adele

Adele — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:57:07 +0000

Aion is doing well in this. You can advance equally well with either questing or grinding mobs.

By: Gambios

Gambios — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:32:27 +0000

When it comes to Quest Grinding, I believe you are in denial. Discuss! Quest Grinding, You Are in Denial

By: serith78

serith78 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:22:35 +0000

Longsac: Yep I totally agree, horizontal development can go a long way towards making any game more interesting. That’s one of the areas I reference MMOFPS type games as a success.

Muckbeast: Exactly, I think there’s probably more players interested in large multiplayer games with persistence then there are interested in traditional “MMORPGS” but as you said they are divided into niches.

So yes you won’t have 500k players odds are, but those niches aren’t really developed yet. Better odds then competing against the likes of WOW or legions of F2P games. Aside from traditional subscriptions, I can see a station pass style system or what guildwars did working well with “alternative” MMO style games.