Accumulation

[Callan S.]

I've been thinking, alot of mmorpgs or pbbg are really founded on accumulation of resources. Would ya'll agree?

Now one thing is I don't want to design a game that so good that even if your FORCED to play it repeatedly to get enough resources, it's still fun.

To that end I'm thinking that each day your resources accumulate some resources, either automatically, or from just logging in, or from completing a short activity.

Of course IF you play more you will get even more resouces faster.

But in that case your not being forced to play for those resources, your choosing to. You have the choice of just waiting for resources to accumulate as well.

Does this sound like sound logic for games based on resource gathering.

[Jackolantern]

Interesting idea. Kind of like MMORPG welfare You are given what you need, but you can work for more of what you want. Not a bad idea. The only thing I worry about is that the dole will just create a new "default bottom" for the playerbase, and that will just become the new poor, therefore making the system basically moot.

EDIT: In the end, I believe it must be a minority of MMO players who are against "accumulation of resource"-based designs, because almost every game is that way and millions of people play. I think many players take pride in their large pile, and new players hope to attain a large pile. It keeps about 99% of MMORPGs running like well-oiled machines.

[PaxBritannia]

Most if not all MMORPGs are accumulation based.

By definition, MMORPGs and PBBGs are persistant, and accumulation is a defining part of the game genre. Without accumulation, then the game's gameplay changes completely and becomes more like a arcade game or a shooter, etc.

In that sense, I would assume that most people who play are fine with it being accumulation based.

Having a player get resources everyday they login is just another tactic to keep players coming back for more. I wouldn't classify it as a part of accumulation as much as I would classify it as a part of marketing.

pax.

[Callan S.]

Hi Jack,

I'm not sure what you mean by the poor?

Basically I didn't mind the combat in WOW when I played, for example - slaying a few monsters was a bit of fun. It was just that slaying hundreds and hudreds got real boring and even irritating - after all, that's why the term 'grind' was invented. So why do it? Why not let the player just play a bit, get a big reward but spread over a long time (24 hours?) and they can play more if they find it fun, rather than they are required to to advance.

Indeed I heard age of conan gives out a level every five days or something, that you can apply to any character. So they are already ahead of me. And wow even had the rest system which was a little toward this idea.

I agree on accumulation of resources. Perhaps even the minority who are against it simply don't have a tollerance for any grinding (which I can understand - that's why I had this idea).