Contested content: yea or nay?

This is another topic that is near and dear to my heart as a previous EverQuest, EverQuest 2, and WoW player.

Every fond memory I have of raiding always ends up in a discussion of one of three groups of mobs:

The EverQuest Dragons, Vox and Nagafen

The original Planes of EverQuest (Plane of Hate, Plane of Sky, etc)

Or the Emerald Dragons of World of Warcraft

What do these all have in common, aside from their raid-level epicness?  They are all contested monsters/zones.  They would spawn, and we (the players) would rally our guilds and come charging in to test our metal and gather up some uber loot.

With SoE's poll, they gave us a few options, the important ones are listed below with my thoughts!

"The hardest content/most valuable reward content should be contested."

This option appeals to me, but I know it isn't practical.  To have the hardest and most valuable reward content as contested allows key groups or guilds the opportunity to monopolize the contested mobs.  This leads to a select few guilds increasing in strength while the rest of the server lags behind.  This model benefits a select few, and encourages extreme competition between high end guilds.

As a player that typical jumps into those select high end guilds, I can tell you I'd enjoy a "contested content only" game.  But like I mentioned earlier, it's not practical.

"There should be a good mix of both contested and non-contested content."

This is the obvious choice.  Contested content will allow for generally lower risk, higher reward loot.  It may not be the best in the game, but you won't have to complete a large dungeon to access it.  Contested content is like a $20 bill fluttering across the field at your son's soccer game, it's a near zero risk reward to whoever can get to it first and grab it.

Non-contested content is where guilds can cut their teeth.  They can train, practice, and obtain the majority amount of loot and experience.  The model within EQ2 worked well, where if I had to guess the loot was split approximately 50/50 between contested and non-contested.  Contested and non-contested had similar quality loots, but the contested encounters almost always had a better chance of dropping higher end loot.

"Everything should always be available, not contested.  Players should never have to wait or compete for content."

I don't agree with the way this is worded.  Players shouldn't have to wait for content in a properly built game.  EverQuest Next will have so much going on no one HAS to wait, but they can choose to if they want to remain inefficient or ineffective as a player.  Even in a mix of contested and uncontested content there should be enough going on in the world to keep players busy, they shouldn't rely on contested content to keep them entertained.  Contested content is for the elite or the lucky to grab some extra loot and bragging rights.

Fast Travel in Everquest Next

This Wednesday (September 25th) SoE asked us "Fast Travel in EverQuest Next: love it or leave it?"

I'd like to go through the points and then dive into WHAT and WHY fast travel should or shouldn't exist!

"I want to be able to get to my group within 5 minutes, wherever they are in the world."

This would be very outside the real of MMOs.  I'd relate this more to logging into a game of Counter-Strike, selecting map de_dust, and poof, you're there.  This option is basically there to fill up space as a far extreme on what we'll call the left side.

To be perfectly honest, we don't really need this option.  Just like we don't need the far right side of the poll. We can skip over this option, because it's silly.

"I want a huge world, even it means 30 minutes getting to my group each night."

I think someone messed up, because this is SoE's "far right" option.  But it's not really that far right.  If we dive into the original Everquest, we can see that some players were VERY happy to pop up across the world and spend hours trying to meet up with a friend to slay some rats and bats.  If I was going to redraw the "MMO Travel Line" to incorporate SoE's implied range, it would be this:

The picture becomes clear, that if the range is indeed this way, SoE is already leaning towards very fast travel (or poorly positioned polls).  Those folks that play Everquest, or did, they are WAY out in right field, and won't see a game that fits with their nostalgic play style.  As a former EQ player looking to revisit that style, it makes me a little sad.

"Fast Travel with limitations, such as only via player abilities or requiring you to visit "the long way" first."

Ah!  SoE you tricky little buggers.  I voted for this option because my eyes lit up and I saw "WIZARD AND DRUID PORTS!"  But alas, upon careful observation (and using years of lawyerism instilled in me as a regulatory professional), I can tell you that this isn't necessarily the case.

Let's say you have some angry children (for the sake of discussion, our nostalgic EQ players), and you know that if you give them candy, they'll be happy.  You ask the children, "Do you want candy?  Like the stuff they give out at Halloween?  Chocolate, chips, rockets and raisins?!"  You said chocolate, and the children scream out "YES!" and make for you like a bard on selos.  Fooled them, you don't have chocolate, chips or rockets, you have raisins!!  Here's the raisins, now be happy.

SoE, I want fast travel with limitation, I want fast travel via player abilities or items.  I don't want fast travel requiring me to visit first.  If I wanted that, I'd play Guildwars 2.  But I'm getting off track, I'll come back to this!

"I would like a fast travel network between major cities/hubs only, not outside."

Interesting concept.  We can travel to and from major cities and hubs without exploring them first, just by (I'd assume) clicking them on a mini-map.  If I put on my time travel hat, that would bring me to.... AH HA!  Everquest with the Planes of Power expansion.  Magical little books you could click that would bring you ANYWHERE!  Hell, the book was the background for some of the promotional desktop backgrounds.  PoP was about clicky books!

Behold the next EverQuest Expansion, magical travel books!

And what did that do to the game... hrm.. It destroyed previous social hubs, creating one overly large hub.  I forgot how to get from major hub to major hub, I only memorized how to get from magical little book to magical little book.  Infact, you could summarize travel in Everquest at that point as a series of magical book clicking.

The world turned from this:

To this:

Each number beside a small circle represents a "book" you can click to go to a particular city

Of course, it also increased out mobility, which was awesome!  See, there were zones that were MUCH better for experience and loot, but it took a lot of effort to get there.  Not so much anymore!  We just all clicked the book, clicked another book, and ran for a few minutes.  No longer were we penalized for being across the world, or not near that "good zone".  We just clicked the book.

And it ended up turning zones that "were not the best" into abandoned zones.  Turning areas that promoted grouping and fun across the world (like those below):

I put in many hours on that table.

Into things like this:

This is the same room, fully spawned, because no one wants to go here anymore.

So where does that leave me and my opinion?!?

Glad you asked!  Here's my wish list.

Travel must:

1. Have an inherit risk that makes you think, "Is it worth it?"

I can think of no better "risky travel" than a jog through Kithicor.  It was the "short way" to many areas.

Reward (ie: better exp, better loot) without any risk is a no brainer.  And no brainers involve everyone, even the folks without brains that follow the folks with brains.  This ends up leaving us with largely abandoned zones and areas that are unattractive to the majority of players for multiple reasons, the two largest being: There is better reward elsewhere; I have no one to play with.

2. Require effort.

Even the Shadows of Luclin expansion required we sit in wizard spires for a few minutes to be ported to the moon.

Simply put, even I can just click a magic button to transport me anywhere, then I will always be exactly where I need to be.  Why bother running when I can just click?  I'd be putting myself behind as a player, and would have to purposely hinder my efficiency and effectiveness to "put in effort" when no effort is required.

3. Be restricted.

Druids could port anyone, but if you've evil you better be invisible!  The druid NPCs would attack you soon after being ported.

I don't mean impossible, restricted.  If I have a flying mount and I want to go across the world, I shouldn't be able to grab a flying mount from day 1 and zip across to the far corners of the world. I should encounter obstacles, monsters, or magic that fit with the lore and restrict my travel.  Same goes for running with my mount across the landscape.  I shouldn't be able to take my trusty steed up a 80 degree mountain, and I shouldn't expect to survive a swim across shark infested waters without a weapon and the skill to use it.

4. Require knowledge or exploration.

That first trip to Kunark was so full of exploration (and risk).  Once you learned the area the risk was reduced because of the knowledge you gained.

I'm an avid supporter of learning and knowing a game, especially MMOs.  In EverQuest you took the time to learn a dungeon, because when you were running from a train of frogloks you didn't have time to pull out your trusty EQ Atlas print outs and navigate out.  You relied on your knowledge of the zone!  If you didn't have that knowledge, you were exploring and you knew that it was risky (see point 1).

5. Have a safe place.
Everyone wants to finish up their playing somewhere safe.  No one wants to log into death, or a corpse run, or a mandatory fight for their lives.  If people can always "take their ball and go home" then they are more willing to take risks.

And how does this fit into my wants for EverQuest Next?

We have to understand that EverQuest isn't a typical MMO.  There is no levels, and as per our understanding most players can "unlock" a classes abilities within a few days.  That being said, we can assume that everyone would be able to unlock a druid or wizard in a relatively short amount of time.

Limiting quick travel to a class ability would be silly.  Everyone would basically be required to make one of their classes a Wizard or a Druid in order to port where they needed to be.  It would become a requirement for high end guilds and overall effective & efficient playing.  So I can safely say that porting should not be a class ability, based on our understanding of the current class system.

What about way points?  Using a "travel there first the long way" system we spend more time looking at our maps and less time actually exploring.  I think Guild Wars 2 offers the best example of this.  Look at a zone like Lion's Arch (below).

It's a very cool looking zone.  But I don't look at the zone, I look at this.

I found the way points once (those little diamonds), and I don't need to find them again.  If I'm going to the back, I click the way point beside the bank.  But what about zones outside the city, they don't have way points at the same density.  That's true, those maps look like this (with my route clearly marked as little circles):

Notice how I've selected the way point and then just ran straight to where I was going?  That's how it works.  Sure I could loop around like a bee, but then I'm making myself inefficient and uneffective in my loot finding and monster killing.

This leads me to my next example, maps.  Maps are great, these maps are incredible!  Based on the kind of game EverQuest Next is going to be, I think it would be a better fit to create, make, or loot maps than it would to just pop-up with a full map available once explored.  In the original EverQuest when maps came out, I found myself zooming out, lining up with where I wanted to go, and pressing NUMLOCK (auto run).  Who needed to explore when I could just look at the map and keep myself pointed in the right direction.  Again, I was spending more time looking at my map and less time looking at the actual game!

So I'm anti-detailed-map, anti-class-specific-ports and anti-way point, what do I want?

I believe there isn't enough information out yet for us to actually answer this.  But, if I had to throw out an ask based on my understanding, it would be this:

Give EverQuest Next city to city (or rally point) travel via ship and caravan.  Have roads between cities that are patrolled by guards, with guard houses posted at specific locations.  Encourage the travel of players overland in groups.  Players will learn the lay of the land and the paths associated with such travel.  Have faster paths of high risk, and slower paths of low risk.  It could be "travel through the spider lair" to get from City A to City B in 5 minutes, or, travel overland on a donkey with a traveling merchant caravan in 15 minutes.  Players should not be able to zip consistently across the world in 5 minutes, however, they should be able to travel from neighbouring city/hub to city/hub within relatively modest time frames (15minutes).

Allow players to have a home, and the ability to quick travel there.  I'm not talking player housing, I'm talking a bind point inside a city, a town, or some sort of community.  Give a lore reason for them to be able to quick travel there on a very infrequent basis (like a hearthstone).  People need the ability to get somewhere "safe" when they are done playing.  The one thing EQ did wrong was it KEPT YOU PLAYING UNTIL YOU FOUND A SAFE SPOT.

Reward travel.  Have the chance to save a rich merchant from bandits, or help a traveling party reward you for safely escorting them to their home.  Help repair the wheel of a traveler, or sober up a lost drunk in the woods.  Whatever it is, make sure that these rewards are only found by those that travel through various means without the use of quick travel.

In short:  Don't put way points all over the map, regardless of how they are accessed or used.  Don't give us free fast travel everywhere or anywhere.  Make it risky, make it rewarding, make it part of the game.

Thoughts to paper....

I've been an avid MMO player for as long as I can remember.  From the age of 12 I was slaying gnolls in Everquest, camping cross roads in WoW, Riding magic carpets in Everquest 2, and clashing light sabers in SWTOR.

Everquest has, and always will, be an important part of my gaming life.  I put in many hours, made many friends, and have experienced many styles, classes, zones, and play styles.

I felt that my thoughts were quickly being covered up on the incredibly popular Everquest Next Forums, so I sought out somewhere I could share my thoughts and ideas.  I want nothing more than Everquest Next to succeed, and become the game that I play for many years to come.