Sol Invictus
Erudite
I copied/pasted this from a reply I made to a thread pertaining to the 'slowness' of combat in WOW on the WOW forum:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a ... dID=252382
Here's the post I'm replying to:
and
People, these are what's known as timesinks. Combat's harder, so you'll need skills like First Aid (which has been slowed down) and Alchemy for potions in order to make up for the increased difficulty.
In practical terms, all these things merely represent are time and money sinks. It takes time to raise your skills and money to get the ingredients. You can hunt for the ingredients on your own, but that takes time, and thus reduces the money you accumulate when you actually hunt.
All MMORPGs are made this way, with the sole exception of Guild Wars (which bills itself as a CORPG), in which healing is nearly instant and mana and health regenerate completely to full in 5 seconds outside of/between combat situations.
Timesinks exist for a purpose: to keep people playing at a very slow rate in order to extend the 'length' of the game, or the amount of time it takes to reach the end-game, which Blizzard has not yet completed. Ultima Online never had this when it was first implemented but during EQ's development, SOE/Verant decided it was a good idea to keep people playing for as long as possible before they hit the endgame. So rather than being able to play the game at a fast pace and creating multiple characters (like UO and Diablo 2) people would be more inclined to stick to a single character, invest time in it and eventually become so attached to it (like a second skin) to a point which they develop a psychological bond with their character, that they would never, ever abandon it. Not even after years.
You'll notice why the SOE forums are generally populated with posts concerning poor/boring gameplay mechanics but none of these issues are ever addressed, because the players who are way too attached to the game will never quit and provide a constant flowing resource for SOE, like how drug addicts provide their dealers with a constant source of income, even as much as they grow to dislike what they're doing.
Most people are generally too intellectually shallow to realize how addicted they are to the game until it's too late. By then, they're already hooked.
Thoughts?
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a ... dID=252382
Here's the post I'm replying to:
and
People, these are what's known as timesinks. Combat's harder, so you'll need skills like First Aid (which has been slowed down) and Alchemy for potions in order to make up for the increased difficulty.
In practical terms, all these things merely represent are time and money sinks. It takes time to raise your skills and money to get the ingredients. You can hunt for the ingredients on your own, but that takes time, and thus reduces the money you accumulate when you actually hunt.
All MMORPGs are made this way, with the sole exception of Guild Wars (which bills itself as a CORPG), in which healing is nearly instant and mana and health regenerate completely to full in 5 seconds outside of/between combat situations.
Timesinks exist for a purpose: to keep people playing at a very slow rate in order to extend the 'length' of the game, or the amount of time it takes to reach the end-game, which Blizzard has not yet completed. Ultima Online never had this when it was first implemented but during EQ's development, SOE/Verant decided it was a good idea to keep people playing for as long as possible before they hit the endgame. So rather than being able to play the game at a fast pace and creating multiple characters (like UO and Diablo 2) people would be more inclined to stick to a single character, invest time in it and eventually become so attached to it (like a second skin) to a point which they develop a psychological bond with their character, that they would never, ever abandon it. Not even after years.
You'll notice why the SOE forums are generally populated with posts concerning poor/boring gameplay mechanics but none of these issues are ever addressed, because the players who are way too attached to the game will never quit and provide a constant flowing resource for SOE, like how drug addicts provide their dealers with a constant source of income, even as much as they grow to dislike what they're doing.
Most people are generally too intellectually shallow to realize how addicted they are to the game until it's too late. By then, they're already hooked.
Thoughts?
