Old content should stay relevant

[Morreion]

The Soapbox: Old content should stay relevant (Massively)

MMOs offer a variety of different ways to reach the level cap, from quests to dungeons and PvP. By the time you reach endgame, chances are that you haven't experienced everything on offer during the leveling process, so you'd have to roll a new character to enjoy this content at the appropriate level. At the same time, you're sure to have come across a few favourite stomping grounds that you really don't want to leave just because a number on a progress bar dictates it. Linear progression often forces us to move on and ship out of zones as our level increases, whether we wish to or not.

I agree with this- it is inherent in level-based design. GW2 allows you to 'level down to' lower zones which is an excellent mechanic- this is one solution. However I always preferred UO's method- each 'zone' had a variety of 'levels' of mobs because UO was a skill-based game where zones never were outleveled. This keeps all of the painstakingly created areas perfectly viable.

[Regolyth]

Agreed as well. It seems some of the writer's problems could be solved with less dependency on gear. That seems to be a reoccurring roll in MMOs today. Also, I didn't know Everquest had servers like that. That's really cool. I don't know that I would ever play on one of those servers, but it's a cool thing to offer.

Apr 17, 2014 17:43:19 GMT -5 Morreion said:

However I always preferred UO's method- each 'zone' had a variety of 'levels' of mobs because UO was a skill-based game where zones never were outleveled. This keeps all of the painstakingly created areas perfectly viable.

The only reason to not go to a particular area in UO was PKs were waiting or someone lead a Lich Lord into the bull taming area. LOL

Another example of UO solving modern game dilemmas 15 years ago.

[Morreion]

Probably the biggest mystery in MMO gaming is: why hasn't there been a UO 2? The original game has so much worth copying!

[Regolyth]

The of the world's mysteries... hehe.

Seriously though, they knew there needed to be one, they started it even! I'm still not entirely sure why it was scrapped though. I think because gamers (those who played UO) spoke out against it and didn't want to lose the progress they had in the current game.

Still though, that aside, why hasn't more games copied what made UO great? I think a few games might have taken one item from it for their game, but not enough was stolen (weird to say). I think once WoW hit and their numbers grew so large, people forgot about UO and started trying to create WoW instead. I think that's the reason for no one producing anything UOish now-a-days. It's funny to see some features come out in today's games that existed in UO (to some degree) and be called "innovative" or "new." Hopefully Shroud of the Avatar will be the new UO. Lord knows though, I can't invest that amount of time in it again. LOL