Please don't make game easy mode like most MMO's!

[Bluegobln]

I'm sure the biggest question on everyone's mind reading this thread is: why the hell does it need to be easy / hard?

What I care about is whether the game is FUN. Honestly, if you can't have fun unless the game is specifically easy / hard to your exacting specifications you need to try expanding your gaming experiences.

Some games I play for the story. I play them on the easiest difficulty setting. Sometimes those games also offer a very well designed hardcore difficulty type setting (typically called "Hard", "Inferno", or "Insane" modes). So if I am in the mood and I find the game FUN <--- key: I also play it in the hard difficulty setting.

Examples include but are not limited to: Halo series, Mass Effect series, ARPGs like Diablo 3 and Path of Exile, even MMO's like World of Warcraft.

So while I feel that having a good variance in difficulty is part of good game design, I also feel that in the end you should still consider whether the game is FUN as more important by a huge margin. I fully expect to at some points during this game (or even maybe all points) shoot and kill many enemies easily. It will make me feel like a badass. While I will also appreciate when I struggle with one enemy, or even feel overwhelmed by multiple enemies, I expect it will be fun either way and as long as it remains fun I will continue playing.

So my advice is stop worrying about whether the game will be too easy, too hard, or the "wrong" mix of the two. Focus on whether its fun for you. If that is not enough, hey, you can always come up with ways to make it more challenging for you personally. Put in your own specific limitations (such as not allow yourself to use your EGO, or remove your shield, etc). If the game is too difficult, rely on good friends as teammates, focus on the group aspects of the gameplay or take the time to research mission difficulties and try to avoid the tough ones.

There's always a way to tailor the game experience to your preferences if you get a little creative. Or you can do like I do and tailor your expectations and your preferred experience to match the game.

[Amonkira]

Just make it so that if you die, you would loose some xp (yes I didnt play BETA, so I guess I should call it XP - perhaps loosing a yellow bar or two upon death?)

Also, you could do as in a few other MMO's: Give a debuff upon death, that stacks...giving you less and less HP / dmg output.. and the way of removing this, is to go see a doctor somewhere, or get a med specced (perk perhaps?) player to help you?

[Shinji Ex]

Died plenty of times

Game will kick your *** if you slack off

[Vanwaros]

Ah, this thread. It feels like every MMO ever now! Right at home.

[Amonkira]

You can suggest it, but the game is what it is. To appeal to the widest possible audience, developers want to make everyone feel like an invincible juggernaut. In the process, the game becomes simple. Showering players with constant gifts (loot) makes players feel like they've earned something. Many players can't get enough and would love a free Scrooge McDuck virtual money bin gifted to them instead of actually earning it.

I don't like it, but that's just how the industry is these days. Once in a while a game comes along requiring an IQ greater than that of a gnat to do well in, but it's a rare bird.

Ever played EverQuest?

[Moose Of Woe]

Ever played EverQuest?

Twelve years ago, yes.

This is how the industry IS, not how it was. That was before WoW came and everyone saw the market it brought. Most MMO companies try to get as big a bite of that pie as they can, and the ones that try for that pie always fall short of what WoW is. Some still do well enough to rake in the dough, though. None of them exceed it, and if they keep trying to follow in those footsteps they never will. They don't have to...they just need to make a profit and take as little risk as possible.

As we've seen, post WoW games like Everquest II, EvE, FFXI can still do extremely well without trying to appease from the bottom up. (Player ability wise.) However, no modern (past 5 years) AAA budget MMO tries anything off the easy peasy beaten path anymore. Especially free to play games where they don't need to maintain subscribers. If people plow through the content it doesn't matter...just so long as they come back long enough to purchase DLC.

That's just the way it is. Not only for MMO's, but most games in general. The most notable exceptions are Dark/Demon's Souls, Ninja Gaiden, and curtain shooters like Touhou. Even then, the Souls games aren't hard and can easily be farmed/cheezed through. Compared to the drivel that gets shoveled out these days, people think they're some hellish abomination if only because a giant arrow doesn't point you to the next objective. It's pretty sad, really.

[SphaZ]

I still miss EQ. Nothing like losing your corpse down in LGUK and having to find a necro to summon your corpse and losing your level so you couldn't cast that cool new spell anymore.

I miss those times a lot, but am glad games aren't like that anymore because I don't have 10 hours a day to game anymore.

[Amonkira]

I still miss EQ. Nothing like losing your corpse down in LGUK and having to find a necro to summon your corpse and losing your level so you couldn't cast that cool new spell anymore.

I miss those times a lot, but am glad games aren't like that anymore because I don't have 10 hours a day to game anymore.

Haha oh man - LGUK was beasty... Remember Kithicor Forest? place was freakin scary at night..

Yes, that game actually made you afraid of dying - you could loose your items, if you didnt loot it fast enough. And your xp, if you didnt get rez. Maan... I miss it..that game had a HUGE sense of achievement.

Still remember when I got my leafblower (druid epic) after 1 IRL year of camping, questing and such for the items...

Cant wait for EQNext!

[Moose Of Woe]

Haha oh man - LGUK was beasty... Remember Kithicor Forest? place was freakin scary at night..

Yes, that game actually made you afraid of dying - you could loose your items, if you didnt loot it fast enough. And your xp, if you didnt get rez. Maan... I miss it..that game had a HUGE sense of achievement.

Still remember when I got my leafblower (druid epic) after 1 IRL year of camping, questing and such for the items...

Cant wait for EQNext!

I look forward to the day something like that comes around again. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see another AAA MMO with a learning curve, challenge, or outstanding immersion factor for a very, very long time. If ever.

I'm not even saying it has to be permadeath or full loot or anything, just SOMETHING to give the predator (the game) some TEETH to bite back with.

[Amonkira]

I look forward to the day something like that comes around again. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see another AAA MMO with a learning curve, challenge, or outstanding immersion factor for a very, very long time. If ever.

Unfortunately, I think you are right... carebears and kiddies have ruined the *hardcore* mmo genre...

Heck the PvP in EQ was: You could actually LOOT your dead enemy player for his items...