When did we forget the fun of a challenge?

It never fails. Every passing week that goes by brings news of another MMO dumbing itself down to broaden its audience. To widen it’s market appeal. To try and survive against both the savior and the bane of the MMO industry, World of Warcraft. Today I saw word of EverQuest 2 following suit, and it honestly bummed me out.

I understand publishers wanting to step up their game and be competitive. I understand their longing to be the next Warcraft. I get the need to tempt new players to visit long released games. Really though, is making your games easier the answer to this, even when it goes against your fundamental design?

One of the cornerstones of EverQuest, and many traditional online games, is the challenge. It’s about the big raids and epic struggles. Granted EQ2 adopted a much easier level of entry for players than it’s predecessor, but I would never consider the game itself easy. The big draw of EQ has been the challenges, so is SOE looking to change that?

I’ve got news to the publishers out there: making your games easier isn’t going to tempt players to buy your game. In the case of EQ2, you may actually hurt your player base. People looking for a more casual online experience are going to go with WoW, plain and simple. Why wouldn’t they, when their friends, family and half the workplace are rolling Horde? You tweaking the mob XP isn’t going to solve that. So how do you fix it?

Build a better game. It isn’t rocket science. Be innovative, be creative. We’ve got creative game designers coming out the ying yang with brilliant ideas. Know your player base, communicate with them, bounce ideas back and forth, and implement features people want, or features people don’t even know they wanted. Building a loyal player base is critical, especially for aging games like EQ2, and a happy player base inherently breeds a larger one. Friends tell friends, the blogosphere sings its praise, and you get richer for it.

You can’t expect to beat Blizzard at it’s own game. Don’t bother trying. Instead, try something different, something better. EVE Online, while radically different from any other MMO on the market, is a prime example of this. Are they competing with WoW? No. They aren’t even trying. They’re doing their own thing and they seem very happy with their numbers. How about Warhammer Online? It’s getting hyped as a WoW killer, but you’ll notice that they aren’t really marketing themselves as that; it’s the player base and the blogs pushing that idea. Because they really believe it is. I don’t, mind you (I think they excel at a wholly different type of game experience), but it’s proof that a happy player base is the best marketing department you can have.

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Chris Fisher 3 months ago 1 point
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I actually agree with idea of making 20-70 easier, I think EQ2 has reached a point in it's lifespan that most people are leveling alt's and who wants to spend 160 hours doing that? You are 100% correct though about building a better game.

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Evan Sims 2 months ago 1 point
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I don't dislike the idea of improving the XP situation on players who are leveling alts, but I think there are better ways of doing it than simply applying an XP boost or XP-to-level reduction on all players. It's simple enough to check if a player has a character level X or higher, why not give the XP bonus just to players who have met that criteria?

Likewise, I'm not against making things easier for new players who are joining the game to play with friends. That's where mentoring and CoX-style sidekick systems work beautifully.

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