Profile: ironore
Send PM  Forum Posts  Forum Topics 

Recent Forum Posts [more...]

• • Material Attachment to Virtual Property

  • I agree with Cactusman that items should not be the focus as in most games, but as Midnitte says, I would really like to see the developments of having items exchange hands in a variety of ways, looting included.

  • Posted: 11/28/08 1:09 PM
    Developers Corner
• • Material Attachment to Virtual Property

  • I'd also like to ask how people would like in-game property to be handled as far as acquisition and loss.

    Think of it as a spectrum:

    On one end basic and useful items/equipment are relatively easy to obtain but can also very easily be lost by looting, etc. from inventory or even wherever you stored them because nowhere is 100% secure like most banking or storage systems in games.

    On the other end of things, you see what we usually have where you grind for the decent stuff and then you really can't ever loose it until you level to the point where it is useless to you and you get rid of it.

     

    So with the first option a see a few possibilities.  People will continue to spend out of game money if they want, but it doesn't give them all that much of an advantage since the same things could be reasonably acquired in-game, and in fact it with some planning it could be taken from the person that just bought it with real money.  Perhaps this wouldn't deter some, but others would simply not see the point in spending money on something they could just as well get in-game with a little effort and not risk real money on it.  If the design were done well enough it should actually be enjoyable to play the game, and gathering up basic equipment would not be tedious and would be part of the enjoyment.  In the old single player RPGs, I don't recall having to grind forever to get some good stuff when I wanted it.  There were many things to do to earn some cash, and then you just had to shop around and make a few decisions to get what you needed.

    With the other (more traditional option) where advancement is a time sink, it is no surprise to me that many are willing to spend money to save that time.  People see the end-game content as much more enjoyable than leveling up, and since there is such an advancement curve, why shouldn't they want to catch up with their friends who just happened to start playing a couple of weeks before them?  Since most games don't even have looting in any form anymore and storage is 100% secure, it makes perfect sense to spend money when it suits you.

    I suppose you could also have items hard to acquire and easy to loose, but that might be a bit too frustrating. You could also have things easy to get and impossible to loose, but what's the point?

    So I suppose I have my opinion on the way I would like to see things, but what's your take on it?

    (Remember this question is not for what you usually see in the games you have played, but for how you would like to see things handled in a game, even if you've never come across it.)

  • Posted: 11/15/08 10:57 AM
    Developers Corner
• • Material Attachment to Virtual Property

  • Thank you for participating.

    Please post any comments this poll brings to mind, or reasons for answering the way you did.  Also any suggestions, etc. are welcome.

    Since this is the Developer's Corner forums, perhaps you could post your view on spending as related to these questions.  In fact, it would be great to paste in some of the answers from the poll that align not with the way it was in most games you have played (as the question asked) but how it would be handled in the game you would like to play or design.

  • Posted: 11/12/08 9:20 AM
    Developers Corner
• • Material Attachment to Virtual Property

  • What would affect your spending the most out of the following items?

  • Posted: 11/12/08 9:16 AM
    Developers Corner
• • Material Attachment to Virtual Property

  • Assume a different progression plan than standard MMORPGs. The attainment of levels/skills is less of a grind/time-sink, and the acquisition of basic and usable items by most players is not too difficult. However, items/currency are not at all secure. There is a substantial possibility to loose a character, and skills simply decrease if not used on a reasonably regular basis.

     

     

    How would your spending change if the above were true?

  • Posted: 11/12/08 9:15 AM
    Developers Corner