Calimero wrote:So, dont take it bad but from the point of view of a 90 mage who soloed everything with wands since level 1 :
- you did choose the easiest way of leveling by using spears ;
- you are gonna have a hard time dealing with your new weapon of choice once you will be done restating ;
- and you have rushed trough the levels way quickly than you would have normally done with wands, which is gonna make you bored of the game sooner cause like you said, once you reach max lvl, there isn't much stuff left to do.
Isn't that a bit contradictory with complaining of leechers who choose to level easily as well, will not have a clue how to play properly once they become high lvl and will become fed up of the game more quickly than they would have normally done by leveling by themselves ? Where is the challenge you were speaking of if you did choose spears to level with ? Not that there is any challenge to level with wands anyway, you can do fine by fireballing everything 95% of the time.
I should mention this: there's a difference between challenge and publisher's cheap walls. I don't know how many mmos you played, but in my experience, no game publisher wants you to go playing forever without spending some money on their game. I personally take that as the first challenge in every f2p but p2w mmo.
Now I'm gonna explain my class decision (if you're really interested):
Initially I wanted to be a mage because not only it was the least played class, but also for the playstyle that I personally liked. However I noticed a very slow dungeon grinding early in the levels compared to other classes. Continuing would make me feel bored of the style quite fast (I'll explain this topic later).
Unfamiliar with the glass cannon efficiency, I took spear as main weapon with the premise of tanking with a bonus added from the feedback of the community saying that's easier to
solo with it.
Regarding the underlined word, I should mention that I'm a lone wolf type of person who doesn't like spending too much time with people around (this also applies to real life). And if I spend it, I'll be doing the job nobody wants just so I can be helpful. However this premise of being the tank was shattered after lurking some more. I was already level 50 and already lucky with some koropon rolls so I decided to keep playing with my main char.
Another reason (that has more priority than the soloing) was, again, the publisher's business mentality. I don't think any twin swords or sword user can level without Thunder Beast. Every class is dependent on some skills for efficiency, and spears where the perfect one for the "I refuse to pay real money" type of people. At least early game. The new years event helped with my mage plan even more than my original one.
Basically I had to take a decision between making my play time at easy difficulty (leeching), medium difficulty (soloing as a spear user), or very hard difficulty (soloing as a mage).
Oh and don't think it's easy to manage a spear user that's gonna change class. I gotta keep those reset buttons that I hoarded. And I gotta level with what I have. I can't make my Dragon Spear +100 like every other spear user.
By the way, I played Monster Hunter in my childhood until the Wii version. It was my life. I spent thousands of hours on them. And if you're unfamiliar, I suggest you check the franchise. A really challenging and fun series.
Also I played a lot of mmorpgs, and I always picked the most unused class. This led me to my overall "dedication willpower" to diminish by a lot. So I admire that you have it. I wish I could get it back.
This is why I didn't continue with hardcore solo mage difficulty.
Calimero wrote:I used to think that all the leeching was a bad thing but now i dont really care anymore, its not like it is bugging me in my dungeons anyway. Thats why i did choose an instances based game, to not be annoyed all the time by the habits of other players again. Now i am more, like you said, "Let people enjoy the game the way they want!". We are all the leecher/incompetent player/cash shop whale/noob of someone else, if leechers are having fun watching and doing nothing thats fine for them, if you have fun leveling with spears to change at the end its fine for you, if whales are having fun reaching 115 by buying tons of xp boosts thats fine for them, and if i have fun fireballing ton of mobs one by one instead of aoeing them like a pro with 4 ougis thats fine for me.
This mentality of leeching is corrupting the overall communities of many games. And the majority follows it. I can't find people that I can relate to compared to the past. That's why It's bugging me. If leeching would be seen as the lamest way to level, maybe people would think twice about their reputation.
Instead of having the occasional fun with other people (as I used to in the past), I'm forced to stay single player in an mmo.
Calimero wrote:Plus if the high level content is challenging enough you are not gonna see any leechers past a certain point, nobody is gonna continue to powerlevel them if one guy inactive in the group means a wipe. In the end its up to the dev team to prevent the leeching by taking appropriate measures, its not like we can do anything against it (apart from refusing to powerlevel them all... Oh wait, since there is more xp to be gain by doing that there is always gonna be someone else to do it).
What becomes mainstream is what affects the publisher's sympathy over what "group" of players. If everybody follows the trend of "I leech out from high level people", then this becomes the norm and the publisher will try to make that community happy. This has the potential to remove the "challenge" factor of the game.
The people might not affect you, but it will affect the content of the game. Remember that.
Example of a game: Mabinogi
It started as a unique action mmorpg with immersive world and tons of stuff to do. The publisher started making cash shop clothes. The lazy people of the community became the so called "Fashionogis". Long story short, in time people started to become fashion oriented rather than grinding oriented. In consequence, the game became MUCH easier with tons of outfits for your character. Nowadays it's more of a social game.
Calimero wrote:I dont think its a bad point having people chatting in a zone available to low levels. On my old game they have a very hard time getting new players because among other things all the low lvl maps are deserted, and that nobody is staying long on a game that seems dead. Plus what i can read in the rift is way better than having nobody speaking at all or people always insulting each other all the time.
This is something I can't really make a good judgement without including heavily personal opinions. Like, for example, the fact that people try to be japanese in a "cringy" manner, also known as "weeaboos". I'm not gonna go too in depth with this topic, and will abstain myself from discussing the "social" aspect of a game.