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What I said on Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:49 pm
Roann
Platinum Zard
Number of posts: 55
Age: 22
AQW Username: Roann
Registration date: 2008-08-26
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I posted this in the Gameplay Discussion Thread on the AQW Forum.
Before I begin, let me assure you that I fully support AE, and enjoy their creations despite any misgivings I may express.
I've been playing AQ for years, DF for a little less time, and MQ for a total of two hours before I decided I'd rather brain myself than continue for any longer.
AQWorlds seemed so promising at first that I was excited to invest my money and purchase a year's subscription, but slowly, well...
Maybe not so slowly, I've been noticing the similarities between the creation of all these AE games.
Here is my feedback on AQW thus far, comparing to AQ and the reasons I've stopped playing it. Mostly because I have the most experience with AQ.
In AQ, as I've noticed, everything gets increasingly tedious as your character becomes more powerful, it is common to see an increase in difficulty replaced by an increase in tediousness.
For instance, I enter combat against some random dragon.
Random dragon has a bazillion hitpoints, but does about as much damage as a bundle of cotton candy fired from a rubber band gun, which is to say, not much.
But still, my character loses the battle. Why? Not because it's hard, but because it's an endurance match, and quite simply, regardless of the damage my character does, it will never be enough to kill the dragon before it can deal enough tiny hits to take me down a few massive notches.
This is not fun, it is tedious, boring, and a turn off when playing games.
AQ was designed to be a lunch hour RPG, but how can you expect a player to do anything significant within their lunch hour if even the simplest task, such as completing the blade of awe, can take several hours? Some quests HAVE to be done in a single sitting to avoid losing temporary progress, yet take upwards of two hours. Meaning that the casual player might as well not bother.
Even the dedicated player, like I was, who purchases guardian or x-guardian needs to spend needless hours of clicking the same attack button over and over to accomplish a simple goal, like gaining a level. AQ is all about grinding and grinding and grinding, and the repetition is simply not incredibly entertaining.
That all said, AQW at first seemed to shy away from the faults of it's predecessor, boasting what seemed like big changes. But as the game becomes more developed I see some things I don't like.
Before I list them, let me say again that I understand I may sound cynical, but I truly do enjoy what AE does, and the entirety of this message is meant to provide my suggestions as a gamer in what I feel to be the most effective manner.
1. I do not like the length of time it takes to accomplish goals in AQWorlds.
IE: Paladin armor requires 20 graveyard tokens, which takes no less than an hour playing at a reasonable pace. I'm probably undershooting the actual time.
IE: Experience rewards, Reputation rewards, and Gold rewards are all given out in such modest amounts in proportion to the time it takes to defeat an enemy or complete a quest, that it is necessary to dedicate hours upon hours upon hours of play time to do the simplest tasks. As a level 8 character, rank 4 Assassin, I defeated 500(at the very least) jack-O-Dooms, and received only enough reputation and experience to gain ONE level and ONE rank. And that was starting at roughly 50% progress in both. This sort of tediousness is unnecessary and not even remotely approaching entertaining or difficult. It simply takes time. No skill involved.
2. I do not like the scaling of character and monster levels.
IE: A 20th level character takes about as much time to kill most enemies as a 5th level character. Does that seem ridiculous to you?
IE: A 2nd level character should be roundabout twice as powerful as a 1st level character, a 5th level character 5x, 10th, 10x, etc, etc. Maybe not as extreme of a difference between levels, but still, a 1st level monster should be practically nothing to a character over 1st level.
3. I don't like the insane amounts of HP given to monsters. I understand that it's an MMO, so many players will be beating on a single monster at a time, but as I write this, I am farming Reputation points in Noobshire, and we, two 9th level characters, should not have to swing more than one time to kill the Orcish Noobs, it simply doesn't make sense, and seems poorly balanced.
I understand that this game is still in development, which is why I'm being patient, and also why I'm bringing all of this to the open now, as opposed to later.
My suggestion?
Examine popular roleplaying games, Dungeons and Dragons has a fairly well built scaling system for combat and quest rewards, likewise games like Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Shining Force, etc. Have well researched and implemented experience systems that make certain characters gain levels, ranks, and wealth at decent rates that maintain the player's interest, but keep the character at a strength level where the game is still challenging.
Sure, players can power level, but at the loss of story advancement, often not getting the better equipment/spells until later because of their time spent leveling.
What I suggest is to alter the rewards system to allow casual players to experience advancement.
Like with most RPGs, a character's advancement should actually be related to experience points, they are called experience points for a reason afterall.
A player who has completed EVERY quest currently in the game should be awfully close to level 20 (or whatever the highest level area may be) after battling and completing quests, and you might consider making quest completion necessary for players to go to new areas and zones, so power levelers can't gain access to certain things any earlier for all their strengths. That way everyone can play the game their way, and without it being boring, tedious, or unbalanced for anyone.
I probably haven't voiced ALL my opinions, but these are the most grating.
Please take it all with a grain of salt, and hopefully, I see some of the aforementioned being taken into account.
As always,
BATTLEON!
Before I begin, let me assure you that I fully support AE, and enjoy their creations despite any misgivings I may express.
I've been playing AQ for years, DF for a little less time, and MQ for a total of two hours before I decided I'd rather brain myself than continue for any longer.
AQWorlds seemed so promising at first that I was excited to invest my money and purchase a year's subscription, but slowly, well...
Maybe not so slowly, I've been noticing the similarities between the creation of all these AE games.
Here is my feedback on AQW thus far, comparing to AQ and the reasons I've stopped playing it. Mostly because I have the most experience with AQ.
In AQ, as I've noticed, everything gets increasingly tedious as your character becomes more powerful, it is common to see an increase in difficulty replaced by an increase in tediousness.
For instance, I enter combat against some random dragon.
Random dragon has a bazillion hitpoints, but does about as much damage as a bundle of cotton candy fired from a rubber band gun, which is to say, not much.
But still, my character loses the battle. Why? Not because it's hard, but because it's an endurance match, and quite simply, regardless of the damage my character does, it will never be enough to kill the dragon before it can deal enough tiny hits to take me down a few massive notches.
This is not fun, it is tedious, boring, and a turn off when playing games.
AQ was designed to be a lunch hour RPG, but how can you expect a player to do anything significant within their lunch hour if even the simplest task, such as completing the blade of awe, can take several hours? Some quests HAVE to be done in a single sitting to avoid losing temporary progress, yet take upwards of two hours. Meaning that the casual player might as well not bother.
Even the dedicated player, like I was, who purchases guardian or x-guardian needs to spend needless hours of clicking the same attack button over and over to accomplish a simple goal, like gaining a level. AQ is all about grinding and grinding and grinding, and the repetition is simply not incredibly entertaining.
That all said, AQW at first seemed to shy away from the faults of it's predecessor, boasting what seemed like big changes. But as the game becomes more developed I see some things I don't like.
Before I list them, let me say again that I understand I may sound cynical, but I truly do enjoy what AE does, and the entirety of this message is meant to provide my suggestions as a gamer in what I feel to be the most effective manner.
1. I do not like the length of time it takes to accomplish goals in AQWorlds.
IE: Paladin armor requires 20 graveyard tokens, which takes no less than an hour playing at a reasonable pace. I'm probably undershooting the actual time.
IE: Experience rewards, Reputation rewards, and Gold rewards are all given out in such modest amounts in proportion to the time it takes to defeat an enemy or complete a quest, that it is necessary to dedicate hours upon hours upon hours of play time to do the simplest tasks. As a level 8 character, rank 4 Assassin, I defeated 500(at the very least) jack-O-Dooms, and received only enough reputation and experience to gain ONE level and ONE rank. And that was starting at roughly 50% progress in both. This sort of tediousness is unnecessary and not even remotely approaching entertaining or difficult. It simply takes time. No skill involved.
2. I do not like the scaling of character and monster levels.
IE: A 20th level character takes about as much time to kill most enemies as a 5th level character. Does that seem ridiculous to you?
IE: A 2nd level character should be roundabout twice as powerful as a 1st level character, a 5th level character 5x, 10th, 10x, etc, etc. Maybe not as extreme of a difference between levels, but still, a 1st level monster should be practically nothing to a character over 1st level.
3. I don't like the insane amounts of HP given to monsters. I understand that it's an MMO, so many players will be beating on a single monster at a time, but as I write this, I am farming Reputation points in Noobshire, and we, two 9th level characters, should not have to swing more than one time to kill the Orcish Noobs, it simply doesn't make sense, and seems poorly balanced.
I understand that this game is still in development, which is why I'm being patient, and also why I'm bringing all of this to the open now, as opposed to later.
My suggestion?
Examine popular roleplaying games, Dungeons and Dragons has a fairly well built scaling system for combat and quest rewards, likewise games like Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Shining Force, etc. Have well researched and implemented experience systems that make certain characters gain levels, ranks, and wealth at decent rates that maintain the player's interest, but keep the character at a strength level where the game is still challenging.
Sure, players can power level, but at the loss of story advancement, often not getting the better equipment/spells until later because of their time spent leveling.
What I suggest is to alter the rewards system to allow casual players to experience advancement.
Like with most RPGs, a character's advancement should actually be related to experience points, they are called experience points for a reason afterall.
A player who has completed EVERY quest currently in the game should be awfully close to level 20 (or whatever the highest level area may be) after battling and completing quests, and you might consider making quest completion necessary for players to go to new areas and zones, so power levelers can't gain access to certain things any earlier for all their strengths. That way everyone can play the game their way, and without it being boring, tedious, or unbalanced for anyone.
I probably haven't voiced ALL my opinions, but these are the most grating.
Please take it all with a grain of salt, and hopefully, I see some of the aforementioned being taken into account.
As always,
BATTLEON!
I hope this helps.
