It starts off well, I find a game that looks fun and load it up. I'm now presented with a variety of races and classes to choose from, I think I'll take the heavy hitter. Now I get to customize him, this is looking promising. Lets see, bald, mustache and a scar, perfect! All is well and I have made my scary little warrior.
Plop! I'm now the latest warrior newb to enter the game, time to get started. So I instinctively walk over the the little old man a few tiles away from me to see what he has to say. "Welcome fellow Warrior, you should start by killing some low level critters to increase your combat skills. Good luck!". Well that was a little vague, guess I should find some critters then...
After several wrong turns I end up in a main town, where a fellow player takes pity on me and points me in the right direction. "Head north towards the Rat Fields. Once you are around level 4, head east a little to find the Plague Rats!". Brilliant, time to get some action on the go. So I do as I was instructed and find the Rat Fields. I set my attack macro and head into battle.
Despite the menial nature of the task, it is still fun. I gain some levels, learn some new moves and gather better equipment. And so it goes, I kill for some quests, then kill some more in order to reach the required level for the next quest. This is when the problems arise.
It begins to creep in, almost unnoticed. The levels are further apart. You begin to notice that the newly acquired skills are just carbon copies of the old ones, with a different coloured icon and a 2% damage increase. It is at this point, you start to get what I like to call "Class-Envy". You get that feeling that every other race/class/profession is better off than you, and that the developers some how have it in for you.
So without further ado, here are a few do's and dont's for you to take into consideration when creating an RPG.
1: DON'T Use Me As Pest Control
I have fought them all - snakes, rats, spiders, toads, beetles etc. And more to the point, I have been killed by them all. I'm tired of this - I know an RPG must have some sense of progression, and therefore have to start small, but let me start a little highe up in the food chain. In real life, I could give most decent sized mammals a good hiding, and I don't have firebolt or whirlwind or whatever.
2: DO Let Me Play How And When I Want
I keep unusual hours. The vast amounts of tea and coke, along with generally preferring to sulk into the darkness, help me with that. So if I'm on your server with only a handful of others at four in the morning, let me have something meaningful and interesting to do. Don't make me team up with someone as abnoxious as I am in order to level. That's just cruel.
3: DON'T Make Useless Classes/Professions
I am drawn to them like a moth to the flame. Without any prior research, I always seem to land myself with the most useless skill/character I could imagine. Please, don't doom your players to the same fate I always endure. Nobody should have the option to level in cooking, firemaking and woodchopping so that they can feed themselves. Especially no when selling your gear from Blacksmithing will earn you enough money to feed yourself for days of playing.
4: DO Reward My Hard Work
Remeber that games are meant to be fun. We all have a lazy bone in us, and I balk at the man hours I'm expected to put in to levelling my character. I understand the concept of work vs reward in games. But I need more reward, and I need it more often. Thi isn't to say that I should become all powerful after a few days of playing, however a nice little piece of equipment suited for my level would be great to slightly ease my training.
5: DON'T Pretend I Can Make A Difference -
Unless I really can. I don't expect my scary little warrior to amount to a hill of beans in this digital world. It's alright to let people do their thing, without impacting the entire structure of the world. I live in the real world, remember? I can handle my own little corner.
Some players resent those who refuse to waste their time grinding. These people miss the point. If the game made this process interesting in the slightest, it would not be a problem. When a game feels more like a job than a game, it's time to quit.
So for all you developers, before jumping on the tradition bandwagon, take a step back to consider the pros and cons.
Nov 11 2008, 5:21 pm
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Duelmaster409
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This is good information here. A good point of view players have on a game. I'll keep this in mind when I'm making my game.
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Yay.
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Every RPG boils down to identical mechanics, and the only difference is how well the developer can veil them. Beginning the game is usually a flurry of new equipment, status points, skills and friends, but it eventually turns into the same thing every other RPG does -- hours of level grinding and kiting bosses. Reward becomes simply a nice thought.
As far as skills go, it should be a requirement to offer the ability to re-spec your character, whether it be the first item available in the item shop or something I have to part with $5 for. By the time you figure out your class, you've always spent points in all the wrong places and end up with a lousy character. I agree with being able to play solo, even if I have to advance ten levels beyond the requirement. It shouldn't be required to bring nine other people with me to kill one damned boss. | |
#1 is what sucked me into Mass Effect so hard. You start out as a high ranking, respected military man. You don't start off killing boring things, you start off killing the main enemies (Geth). None of this, 'you're a crappy dirt farmer, use this old stick to kill space rats, then space pirates, then space aliens, now you've saved the universe' stuff.
#3 is something that gets me as well. If you're going to include cooking, make it an alternative to alchemy. You make good food which deliver buffs in battle. Same thing as potions, going as far as making a food equivalent for every potion. Then I get to choose something based on more then just it's practical impact. I want to buff through items, so I ask myself does it make more sense for my character to learn how to make campfires and cook, or mix potions? The best part is that I get to increase my content without really increasing my workload. | |
Yes, A very good list for starter of Byond. I will remember this list of Pros and Cons when making my game more attractive. Thanks!
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Good points. I used actual commercial rpgs as a ref point in my games. (even though my game is a fan game). Most of those games give you some sort of meanful quest of the start (even though usualy not challenging) and a reward after words to make it feel worth while. You don't have to grind in more rpgs unless you rush though them and find yourself a little behind the curve when the game starts getting challenging, but hey, we all have to do it our way.
The ability to solo the game was my biggest point I looked at when making my game. To keep the game challenging the monsters had to be strong, and strong enough that a group of players would still be challenged. This ment poor solo person at 4 in the morning all alone was in a disadvantage. So like most good rpgs, I set up a system to earn your own party members you could use when partying with other players, or to fill up your team so you could be on an even playing field with those that played during peak hours in full teams. A little having to train here and there is the meat of rpgs, but having to gain 20 levels to do this one task gets old after a while. Esp if that task isnt worth the 3 days of playing you spent grinding to complete it. | |