(03-19-2017, 06:55 AM)chatterbox Wrote: I brought this up before in a linkshell, but apparently my reasoning was too outrageous for anyone to calmly talk about it, and instead I was personally insulted by something like 5 people because of having such an extreme opinion on this matter!
Buckle your seatbelts, because after the last time I said what I'm about to say, I got blown out of the water for it...are you ready? Okay.
1) I think that jump potions and MSQ should meet in the middle.
2) I do not think that SE should monetize the game's failings
3) I believe in permanent long-term fixes to problems instead of extreme solutions (everything or nothing in this case)
4) They should just create a streamlined, much shorter series of quests that tell the story of the game, while removing all of the fluff and fetch quests.
5) While doing this, they should bring more emphasis on players doing instanced content via the leveling roulette, and motivate new players to advance through the story and allow them to IMMEDIATELY play with their friends from level 1
The story doesn't need to be skipped, it needs to be improved. What kind of message are we as players sending when we say, "Not only will we not care if you don't fix this horrible, broken, destructive part of the game that drives away new players, but we'll actually PAY you extra money for not fixing it to offset the lost revenue of the players who have quit the game over it!"
Paying SE extra cash to bypass a broken part of the game is just insanity. What motivation do they have to fix the game's issues if they are paid for not fixing them? What other issues will arise that they will simply make a jump potion for in the future instead of fixing those problems?
Monetizing problems with the game is really scummy, moreso than any other possible monetization. I don't believe jump potions should exist outside of the players who have already achieved level 50 and beyond, and instead I believe that a more intricate overhaul of the MSQ is required, as well as an overhaul of the new player experience. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed with a serious solution. Slapping a pricetag on a potion to skip it all is most certainly NOT a solution. Its paying them to avoid making a real solution. Its bad for the game.
This will probably end up getting done in "Expansion 3" or "Expansion 4" (Heavensward being 1, the upcoming expansion being 2), as a side effect of the removal of PS3 support. There'll be benefits to eventually releasing an expansion which is along the lines of WoW's Cataclysm, in which they revamp the ARR game world to take advantage of higher technical capabilities (for example, removing some of the invisible fences, adding the ability to use flying mounts and swimming, etc). They can update the overall story and flow of character progress in the ARR zones, reduce gating, and that'll be their golden opportunity to tighten up the ARR story. This kind of expansion is financially beneficial to the company to do eventually because to a large extent they can reuse existing assets, so the actual cost of development is potentially low compared to the alternative.
I'm betting we'll also eventually see the ability to level-sync upward, in which a character's item level is scaled up to the lower limit of an instance and they get temporary access to skills they'd normally have at that level (setting up their hotbars would be awkward, but maybe they'd have some way to do that in advance of actually queuing for the instance so that everybody else wouldn't have to sit waiting). Along with that, maybe they'd let a player be able to do an instance they don't have unlocked as long as the party leader does have it unlocked. That alone would make a big difference to newcomers, just to be able to immediately enjoy most of the group content of the game with their friends. Probably a good idea to leave that option out of roulettes, though, and restrict it to premades only.
Lydia Lightfoot ~ The Reliquarian's Guild «Relic» ~ Lavender Beds, Ward 12, #41
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
This player has a sense of humor. If the content of the post suggests otherwise, please err on the side of amusement and friendship, because that's almost certainly the intent. We're all on the same team: Team Roleplayer! Have a smile, have a chuckle, and have a slice of pie. Isn't pie great?
