I'm not really writing this to the 3-5 people who will spend the time to read it. Or to the 1 person who has a dog whose owner's cousin's mother's Hispanic health care provider happened to be staring at the computer screen while dusting the mouse. In truth, no one cares. Not the devs and certainly not the players and I am not so self-indulgent that I believe otherwise.
I'm writing this to myself to finally rationalize as to why since 2001 (November) I am not going to bother any longer. I write this and you can rest assured one person finally broke it off with a relationship that in truth died years before it ever began - even if they weren't ready to admit it even during a viral outbreak and tons of free time.
It's just a rant otherwise, but trust me you 3-4 (one already stopped reading) people and Maria Garcia Esmerelda (and bless you for reading and indulging me a bit more than the game ever did)....but I'm just doing this for my own psychology. Ok, moving on with writing to myself:
So it's a game, right folks? And people are drawn to a game to have fun - and if it's labeled as multi-player, this usually means fun with other folks, or so that's the basic belief. But this is also a game that is governed by people for the people, so to speak. This means that if you want to group with people, you have to try to find them and or join them. Sounds pretty easy, right? I mean, the game has a ton of classes and specs, three realms to choose from, and a constant war between the realms over keep/tower/relic taking. There is a smorgasbord of choice here - and it's unique and appetizing and darn right amazing. Those things alone should be enough incentive to keep a pulse going in this game for most everyone logging into PVE.
But then there's the game as it was built and the players who respond to incentive only and most the population be damned. That thing about massively multiplayer takes a back seat when you're just watching bomb groups run by. So wait, why aren't more folks getting groups? Why do I see endless spam of classes not grouping?
So here's a game with more classes and races and 3 actual factions (not just ESO cosmetic play). Folks need to consider what class spec they want to play (and here's the rub of the issue) and what classes specs folks expect you to play so that they have the most optimal trek to 50. And DAoC's PVE weakness has never been its outdated graphics or clunky UI. Nostalgia keeps folks around despite those issues.
But here's the issue:
It's always been that the game is created (and still is) in such a way as to support a meta method of leveling. Twenty-years after the game's release, it is still near impossible to get a group with 75%+ classes in the game. The smorgasbord of choices I referred to? Might as well be plastic food as you cannot eat it.
The game's design initially errored on certain classes not contributing as much as others in a PvE zone - meaning most classes. Some classes making it a lot faster to xp mean that this game factoid immediately took the incentive away from groups to include a majority of players (outside of nepotism or randomness). And this is still the case - 20-years later.
No developer has ever taken this into account with much thought. Sure, on this server, we see Determination given to hybrids and such, or some PVP boosting or nerfing for certain classes. But the PVE side of this game is glaringly weak and has only been weakened to a point (c item nerf sure didn't help the non-meta player) where the drudgery of the game's leveling experience grows exponentially once people have had a taste of a 3-4 bomb group leveling experience.
For example, and I'll point out the most obvious issue: there's no measurable incentive to ever invite a rogue to a group, let alone a class that's seen as 'ok' for PvE just not omg see how many mobs are dying per second ok. I recall the other day when someone said, "But there's a social x p bonus for inviting a different class like a rogue..." to which I went to LFG and typed: "24 scout LFG for social xp slot! Holding my breath...any takers? Going once...Bueller? Anyone?"
A couple of people responded with a 'lol' in LFG but literally in that time there were 3-4 bomb group LFM bomb requests. It was all so plastic feeling. It doesn't have to be this way but that's just how this has been. Some folks here actually played this game in 2003 and I would bet they remember it being easier to get a group back than as a non-meta than it is now. We still took whatever and hit the Barrows on Alb 30-50. Hib was random groups waging war on CM mobs and Mid was, well...racing for a way to get into a Moderna group because I think they figured out the pbaoe (+aoe stun) thing faster than any other realm.
So what's the reasoning?
Folks want to hit 50 asap. The incentive, therefore, is to only take classes that will make that experience possible. And as we as humans all know, most don't do anything other than measure incentive value before making a choice: Do I want the Super-Sized Double Double Cheese-Burger Meal or the garden salad? Sure the garden salad's healthy, but you'll get full faster on the Super-Sized meal, lol. So, case in point, don't be garden salad if you want to experience this game. Be a gut rending cheeseburger.
Too much metaphor for you?
If your class kills 2-3 quickly but there's another class that kills 8-10 quickly, you're standing in a food line and it's the Great Depression for you, buddy. You'll be in LFG for hours (coming up with snazzy new plasticity ways to try to convince strangers to group you or as to what your class can do for them) and unless someone's just wanting to fill a random (very, very rare) or you have a pal, you will be on your own. Or, you are paying plat (going rate this week is 1-24 for 1 plat)...but that's not fun, and certainly a pretty cruddy time for most players. But there are already few players on this server (not Uthgard few, thankfully, as 17 players is pretty bad...). And sadly there's no apparent effort to do more for the 75% or really, is it more? So if I want to group regularly as someone who can't sit for 14+ hours a day on my computer, then I have to play bomb/heals and sometimes, tank.
This game doesn't do squat for a majority of the classes it advertises we can play. Again with the plastic feel.
So what's the point for people who do NOT want to play a tank (not even needed on Hib) a pbaoe class (even aoe has a hard time) or healing class? If you don't have some nepotistic hookup, you're on your own. Maybe that's just the way this game was meant to be: a very small, niche game serving a tiny community. If that was the goal for these developers who I thought really wanted to improve on the old game, then bravo, I say, as I step away 4-ever: mission accomplished.
What this game should really just read when you first log in is: You can play a healer, a pbaoe (aoe sometimes), or a tank. Everyone else is pretty much on their own. There are career outlooks you can Google, right? Why not here?
Career Outlook DAoC Shard: Phoenix:
______________________________________________________________________________
Large Shield Tank: 75% growth (50% you'll get a group in a given hour - not counting Hibernia)
Healer: 85% growth
PBAO: 95% growth (fastest invite in-game)
Rogues:
3-5% chance per hour (less on Hibernia)
Shield scout (folks know you can only guard 1 person with a small shield, sorry buddy, but MoB 4 with a tea plate isn't gonna cut it) - the only thing worse than this class is an AFK warden who thinks having a 10-second bubble pulse is worth an invite.
Archery: Laughable damage. Even lower than live DAoC was due to personal, developer reasons. Sorry again, lol (or are we?)
_________________________________________________________________________________
I could say more but nobody cares (as one player told my hunter the other day when I said, "I assume you won't take a hunter for a free last slot/social XP, but I thought I'd give it a shot...and the player from the guild <Paranoid> said, "You assumed correctly."
.
If that isn't a prime example of don't waste my time here I don't know what is. Half the time people won't even RESPOND to you if you ask to join. I'd go out of my way with, "Thanks man, but we are full group, or thanks man, but the group wants a bomb for the three bombs we already have."
Seems a lot of folks think it's pretty logical to just /ignore you otherwise: again, the incentive created by the game has led to a very lackluster community to say the least. The effect on the community of needing the fastest killer, the best healer, sometimes even the best tank (Alb paladin)... means folks will treat your non-meta class in the same way minorities and the poor are treated in any given society: like garbage. The problem with that logic is it brings out the worst in a community, it turns the LFG channel into: 'LFM bomb' and sometimes 'LFM bomb + healer' and if you're lucky on a melee 'LFM bomb + healer + shield.'
But that's the game. Everything I said above was why people (arguably) rolled out for World of Warcraft in 2004 like the Hebrews fleeing Pharaoh. To come here or stay here is like going back to that old bipolar girlfriend you once had in high school: she's so much fun when she's got it together, but when her chemistry is off, you're going to be living in hell. Even now you will find a huge community on most WoW classic servers (some are like crickets)...and so few folks here. But again, maybe this was all with intent.
I used to think Uthgard's lead supervisor, Blue, had intended to keep the server as small as possible by doing little to nothing to make it fun to pick a class and play. I think he got his wish in the end.
Take care, all. Good hunting. Oh, and to the 75% who today might be on a rogue or otherwise unpopular class - learn from your experiences, and when you do have your bomb + bomb + bomb looking for bomb group, invite someone who doesn't have a chance in hell in having fun in the once award-winning, tri-realm MMORPG known as Dark Age of Camelot. In truth right now there's a level 25 rogue LFM 40+ bombs for his friend's bomb group, lol. smh...
Peace - I'm breaking up with you, bipolar high school girlfriend. I'd say it's been great, but it hasn't.
I'm writing this to myself to finally rationalize as to why since 2001 (November) I am not going to bother any longer. I write this and you can rest assured one person finally broke it off with a relationship that in truth died years before it ever began - even if they weren't ready to admit it even during a viral outbreak and tons of free time.
It's just a rant otherwise, but trust me you 3-4 (one already stopped reading) people and Maria Garcia Esmerelda (and bless you for reading and indulging me a bit more than the game ever did)....but I'm just doing this for my own psychology. Ok, moving on with writing to myself:
So it's a game, right folks? And people are drawn to a game to have fun - and if it's labeled as multi-player, this usually means fun with other folks, or so that's the basic belief. But this is also a game that is governed by people for the people, so to speak. This means that if you want to group with people, you have to try to find them and or join them. Sounds pretty easy, right? I mean, the game has a ton of classes and specs, three realms to choose from, and a constant war between the realms over keep/tower/relic taking. There is a smorgasbord of choice here - and it's unique and appetizing and darn right amazing. Those things alone should be enough incentive to keep a pulse going in this game for most everyone logging into PVE.
But then there's the game as it was built and the players who respond to incentive only and most the population be damned. That thing about massively multiplayer takes a back seat when you're just watching bomb groups run by. So wait, why aren't more folks getting groups? Why do I see endless spam of classes not grouping?
So here's a game with more classes and races and 3 actual factions (not just ESO cosmetic play). Folks need to consider what class spec they want to play (and here's the rub of the issue) and what classes specs folks expect you to play so that they have the most optimal trek to 50. And DAoC's PVE weakness has never been its outdated graphics or clunky UI. Nostalgia keeps folks around despite those issues.
But here's the issue:
It's always been that the game is created (and still is) in such a way as to support a meta method of leveling. Twenty-years after the game's release, it is still near impossible to get a group with 75%+ classes in the game. The smorgasbord of choices I referred to? Might as well be plastic food as you cannot eat it.
The game's design initially errored on certain classes not contributing as much as others in a PvE zone - meaning most classes. Some classes making it a lot faster to xp mean that this game factoid immediately took the incentive away from groups to include a majority of players (outside of nepotism or randomness). And this is still the case - 20-years later.
No developer has ever taken this into account with much thought. Sure, on this server, we see Determination given to hybrids and such, or some PVP boosting or nerfing for certain classes. But the PVE side of this game is glaringly weak and has only been weakened to a point (c item nerf sure didn't help the non-meta player) where the drudgery of the game's leveling experience grows exponentially once people have had a taste of a 3-4 bomb group leveling experience.
For example, and I'll point out the most obvious issue: there's no measurable incentive to ever invite a rogue to a group, let alone a class that's seen as 'ok' for PvE just not omg see how many mobs are dying per second ok. I recall the other day when someone said, "But there's a social x p bonus for inviting a different class like a rogue..." to which I went to LFG and typed: "24 scout LFG for social xp slot! Holding my breath...any takers? Going once...Bueller? Anyone?"
A couple of people responded with a 'lol' in LFG but literally in that time there were 3-4 bomb group LFM bomb requests. It was all so plastic feeling. It doesn't have to be this way but that's just how this has been. Some folks here actually played this game in 2003 and I would bet they remember it being easier to get a group back than as a non-meta than it is now. We still took whatever and hit the Barrows on Alb 30-50. Hib was random groups waging war on CM mobs and Mid was, well...racing for a way to get into a Moderna group because I think they figured out the pbaoe (+aoe stun) thing faster than any other realm.
So what's the reasoning?
Folks want to hit 50 asap. The incentive, therefore, is to only take classes that will make that experience possible. And as we as humans all know, most don't do anything other than measure incentive value before making a choice: Do I want the Super-Sized Double Double Cheese-Burger Meal or the garden salad? Sure the garden salad's healthy, but you'll get full faster on the Super-Sized meal, lol. So, case in point, don't be garden salad if you want to experience this game. Be a gut rending cheeseburger.
Too much metaphor for you?
If your class kills 2-3 quickly but there's another class that kills 8-10 quickly, you're standing in a food line and it's the Great Depression for you, buddy. You'll be in LFG for hours (coming up with snazzy new plasticity ways to try to convince strangers to group you or as to what your class can do for them) and unless someone's just wanting to fill a random (very, very rare) or you have a pal, you will be on your own. Or, you are paying plat (going rate this week is 1-24 for 1 plat)...but that's not fun, and certainly a pretty cruddy time for most players. But there are already few players on this server (not Uthgard few, thankfully, as 17 players is pretty bad...). And sadly there's no apparent effort to do more for the 75% or really, is it more? So if I want to group regularly as someone who can't sit for 14+ hours a day on my computer, then I have to play bomb/heals and sometimes, tank.
This game doesn't do squat for a majority of the classes it advertises we can play. Again with the plastic feel.
So what's the point for people who do NOT want to play a tank (not even needed on Hib) a pbaoe class (even aoe has a hard time) or healing class? If you don't have some nepotistic hookup, you're on your own. Maybe that's just the way this game was meant to be: a very small, niche game serving a tiny community. If that was the goal for these developers who I thought really wanted to improve on the old game, then bravo, I say, as I step away 4-ever: mission accomplished.
What this game should really just read when you first log in is: You can play a healer, a pbaoe (aoe sometimes), or a tank. Everyone else is pretty much on their own. There are career outlooks you can Google, right? Why not here?
Career Outlook DAoC Shard: Phoenix:
______________________________________________________________________________
Large Shield Tank: 75% growth (50% you'll get a group in a given hour - not counting Hibernia)
Healer: 85% growth
PBAO: 95% growth (fastest invite in-game)
Rogues:
3-5% chance per hour (less on Hibernia)
Shield scout (folks know you can only guard 1 person with a small shield, sorry buddy, but MoB 4 with a tea plate isn't gonna cut it) - the only thing worse than this class is an AFK warden who thinks having a 10-second bubble pulse is worth an invite.
Archery: Laughable damage. Even lower than live DAoC was due to personal, developer reasons. Sorry again, lol (or are we?)
_________________________________________________________________________________
I could say more but nobody cares (as one player told my hunter the other day when I said, "I assume you won't take a hunter for a free last slot/social XP, but I thought I'd give it a shot...and the player from the guild <Paranoid> said, "You assumed correctly."
.If that isn't a prime example of don't waste my time here I don't know what is. Half the time people won't even RESPOND to you if you ask to join. I'd go out of my way with, "Thanks man, but we are full group, or thanks man, but the group wants a bomb for the three bombs we already have."
Seems a lot of folks think it's pretty logical to just /ignore you otherwise: again, the incentive created by the game has led to a very lackluster community to say the least. The effect on the community of needing the fastest killer, the best healer, sometimes even the best tank (Alb paladin)... means folks will treat your non-meta class in the same way minorities and the poor are treated in any given society: like garbage. The problem with that logic is it brings out the worst in a community, it turns the LFG channel into: 'LFM bomb' and sometimes 'LFM bomb + healer' and if you're lucky on a melee 'LFM bomb + healer + shield.'
But that's the game. Everything I said above was why people (arguably) rolled out for World of Warcraft in 2004 like the Hebrews fleeing Pharaoh. To come here or stay here is like going back to that old bipolar girlfriend you once had in high school: she's so much fun when she's got it together, but when her chemistry is off, you're going to be living in hell. Even now you will find a huge community on most WoW classic servers (some are like crickets)...and so few folks here. But again, maybe this was all with intent.
I used to think Uthgard's lead supervisor, Blue, had intended to keep the server as small as possible by doing little to nothing to make it fun to pick a class and play. I think he got his wish in the end.
Take care, all. Good hunting. Oh, and to the 75% who today might be on a rogue or otherwise unpopular class - learn from your experiences, and when you do have your bomb + bomb + bomb looking for bomb group, invite someone who doesn't have a chance in hell in having fun in the once award-winning, tri-realm MMORPG known as Dark Age of Camelot. In truth right now there's a level 25 rogue LFM 40+ bombs for his friend's bomb group, lol. smh...
Peace - I'm breaking up with you, bipolar high school girlfriend. I'd say it's been great, but it hasn't.
Your groupmembers will leave faster than if you had wiped.