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How about an MMo where your character actually has to improve himself mentally and physically….? Now that would actually be interesting.
Amen to that! The various ‘personal stories’ are a timid (and quickly redundant when you play Alts) attempt in that direction. But they are superficial. The core of the game remains within the general framework popularized by WoW and others.
This said I do not know how difficult it would be to code ‘progression’ differently – I’m no programmer. What I do know is that gear stats has to be the quickest and easiest way to do it – therefore the least expensive way…
Personally I would do away with leveling altogether. As I would dispense with the reductive concept of ‘endgame’ – as if the entire world offered was nothing more than a prelude for countless dungeon runs once one hits max lvl. On the contrary, there should be content for of all players (from novices to heroes) in every zone thus keeping the population relatively stable in each.
What if the experience you gain doing whatever it is you choose to do was the currency with which you ‘barter’ for whatever skill you choose to get? Not in the current automated manner of reaching lvl X – unlocking skill Y – but rather in a personal way – where you’d deplete a portion of your accumulated XP to get this or that trait?
For example if you accumulate say… 500XP in 2 days of play you could spend 300 for one skill which would bring you back to a pool of 200. Since the next skill you want costs 800 – you’d have to occupy yourself however you want and accrue 600 more XP before you get where you want to go. Other prerequisites could be added as you – oh look at that – progress; things like karma\fame\clout – whatever you want to call it. Or things like a particular event chain. Or one time events. Or gold. Or procuring/crafting certain goods/artifacts. The same economy – or management of resources – could be used to determine a character’s progression. For instance going from ‘Novice’ to ‘Regular’ might require:
- having accrued a certain amount of XP;
- having accrued a certain amount of karma;
- having visited X numbers of POIs;
- having viewed X number of vistas;
- having participated in X number of a certain type of events;
- meeting the relevant authorities in your chosen field and passed whatever exam they have for the qualification.
Then and only then would your status/rank change. A which point you could go back to the started zone and tackle monster/foe/specific event which you couldn’t dream of doing before. I presume ANet tried to achieve something like this with the dynamic events and the ‘downscaling’ mechanics – but it fall short since the zones have been designed with level segregation in mind.
Another thing I find lacking is the absence of other… paths one can choose from. We keep returning to the tired old combat professions – as if there was nothing to do in the world than go from one killing spree to the next. Again this was partly simulated with the heart quests/tasks – but once they’re done – that’s it you’re done with them. While crafting exists here – it is nothing more than an adjunct for whatever combat profession you chose. You craft to get the gear you need – because your ‘value’ in combat is contingent to what you wear…
Personally I want to be able to do other things than fighting in Tyria!
G.