Drachensilber

alles was ich in dem bild lesen konnte war "Cockselector"

*IHN?*

:shock: *IHN?*

aha also ist das internet sexistisch

The Heroes of MMO’s are not NPC’s. They are the players.

I’m talking about the the top 10 world ranked DPS on a boss fight, the players who live stream end game PvE and PvP content, have the best in slot gear standing in town, and the top ranked guilds in the entire world. These are the “Heroes” of MMO’s. And MMO Developer Teams don’t seem to realize this anymore.

The indelible fact, unmeasured by any metric that BioWare uses, is that these “Heroes” are a significant part of what inspires players to keep playing their game. And as SWTOR is currently directed towards the casual market, they are missing out on an under utilized tool.

What to know what these tools are that are already in place? Want to know how BioWare could cater to both the hardcore and the casuals at the same time? You know you do. Click on “Continue Reading”.



The Theory

As I can’t give you statistical facts to back this up, we will go with the proper term and call this a theory. But ask yourself this. How many times have you seen someone in game with something that made you stop and say, “I want that!” Whether it was a title, mount, or amazingly cool piece of gear, you’ve probably felt this way at some point and time.

It all comes down to basic psychology. People want what they can’t have. And if a game puts something out there that is difficult to achieve, then that many more people are going to want it as well. Which in turn incentivises players to work (play) that much harder, longer, and often to earn those achievements.

If you look back to WoW, their “hay day” is considered by many to be Vanilla and Burning Crusade. Back when gear wasn’t just recolored and there was more content than you could shake a stick at. And while many resources were spent on content that players never saw, the rewards were seen as gear worn by players. Which pushed many players to play longer than they would have normally (and keep subs active longer).

SWTOR’s Direction

In an interview with Kotaku BioWare recently stated this:


Zeschuk said that a “small percentage” of players have reached the game’s level cap (50), but that “these guys still play a lot.” He says that BioWare is striving to do even more for them. “One of the main thrusts of what we’re doing is a lot of the end-game content.”

While they’ve said that they are adding more end game content, that doesn’t mean that it’s actually going to be what is truly needed. Countless Dev Teams over the years have made promises and fulfilled them, only for the players to later realize that the Dev Team’s version of what the promise meant didn’t equate to what the players needed.

Also, quotes like this seriously raise the question of whether they’re using reliable filters to get accurate information from their metrics. If they’re pulling up all of the characters in game, do they filter out the player who has one 50 and then 5 different alts below 50 like me? Because at that measure, I’d show as 16.67% at 50 and 83.33% below 50.

The Core Concept

People want what they can’t have. And “in the old days when I had to walk a mile in the snow for that Shining Metallic Robe and Maladath” there was always something you couldn’t have. Today you can get whatever anyone else already has. It just might have a different color scheme. Where is the sense of reward in that?

If something is too easy to get, then people lose interest. Not only does something need to be exciting, but it needs to be hard to get as well. And unless BioWare sees that they need to have a top tier of content that is incredibly challenging they will lose their “Heroes”.

The undercurrent from many top end content players is that they are already unsubbing, or will unsub if 1.2 doesn’t add in challenging content to keep them interested. And while these players may only account for a very small percentage of the overall player base, they affect the larger player base more than anyone realizes by inspiring more casual players to achieve the things that they see the “Heroes” achieving.

Operation Fixes (Raids)

SWTOR has three modes of difficulty: Normal, Hard, and Nightmare. Normal mode should be content that is easily accessible for everyone. Hard modes however should actually be hard, designed for your more organized and dedicated groups. This should probably be somewhere between current day Hard and Nightmare settings.

And then for your hardcore end game raider tune up Nightmare beyond where it currently is. You don’t have to add in new animations and art work. However an extra phase with the currently existing animations, a shorter enrage timer, etc…can really change things up without requiring a massive resource investment. Currently Nightmare difficulty is considered to be a joke by top end raiders.

Warzone Fixes (PvP)

It’s more difficult to talk about this one as BioWare has announced their Preseason for ranked Warzones without giving any details. So they may already have a solid fix in the pipeline for the myriad of issues with PvP. And no I’m not going to even talk about Ilum because it’s still so horribly broken that they should just start over.

The current incentives for PvP are rather poor. And once you’ve achieved Battle Master and farmed up your gear there is no further incentive to PvP outside of your enjoyment of it. In addition to that, the inability to queue up 8 people together without access to cross server que’s currently cripples the longevity of SWTOR’s PvP.

All of that said, we are going to have to wait and see what 1.2 reveals before discussing this further.

Gear Fixes

My Sith Marauder Columi and Rakata chest pieces have slightly different graphics. They’re not drastically different, however combined with the recolor it’s just enough to make them look and feel significantly different. My Champion and Battlemaster chest pieces however just have a recolor.

The top tier of gear for each level of content should have slightly different graphics from the bottom two. Meaning Tionese/Columi and Centurion/Champion should just be recolors, and then Rakata and Battlemaster should be a recolor with a few minor graphics changes. While this would take up extra resources for the Art Team, it wouldn’t have to be a monumental undertaking.

When players see the difference from Columi to Rakata for a Sith Marauder there’s that awe factor (for those who like that art style). But when they see the difference from Champion to Battlemaster it’s more of a “meh” reaction.

Gear is the primary “carrot on a stick” for MMO players, so why not bring back that feeling of awe and desire that they yearn for? Don’t just slap on a new coat of paint for the piece of gear that they already have. No one gets excited for a new paint job…

Combat Logs

How in the hell did he find a way to get Combat Logs into this? How many famous players in WoW became famous due to their rankings on World of Logs? With combat logs and damage meters player performance can be recorded and listed for all to see.

And allowing players to see that someone else did 30% more dps than them is going to give them that incentive to play more often and improve their game. This can already be seen with streams, videos, and screenshots of the PvP scoreboards as players ask, “How can I do that much damage and healing?!”

Summation

BioWare has demonstrated an art design to differentiate gear, and they also have the difficulty modes necessary to challenge and reward end game players. And with preseason Ranked Warzones on the horizon, they will round out the end game for PvP as well.

By doing all of this, the casual players will see these top end players in “amazing gear” that looks better than their own, pushing them to achieve those same goals. And the only extra investment by BioWare was small tweaks and modifications to existing artwork.

In addition to this, being able to see these players tackle top end content through videos and streams will push interest further. It’s the entire basis of e-sports. And while SWTOR may not yet be in a place to be an e-sport, it is still a strong enough game that viewing other people playing at top tier levels will inspire people to play more and longer (longer active subs).

What do you think?

Do you believe that these “so called Heroes” really affect players and how long they sub? Do you believe that keeping top end content challenging for end game players can keep them playing? What do you think BioWare should do to appeal to both the end game and casual players? Leave a comment below!