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What was unique in NWO seems lost in MOD 6
agnaetha
Member Posts: 14 Arc User
I think Cryptic and developers have misinterpreted an important nuance in who plays NWO and how they go about it. In so doing, they have so changed the play mechanics within MOD 6 and have inadvertently alienated a large portion of the player base. MOD 6 is such an abrupt about-face in play style accommodation that it has changed accessibility to the game for many players. It leaves no middle ground after level 70 whereas previously there were play style choices at the top level, now there are none.
First and foremost, people play online for individual entertainment, no more no less. How they play is the nuance. What has made NWO extremely successful is that it accommodated a variety of play styles. One could be very successful and play a wide variety of content totally solo. In fact, most players will tell you they leveled up countless additional characters just that way, solo. Additionally, because the game was so well adapted to solo play even high end content became available to the solo player through the game mechanic employed by Cryptic that allowed large groups of players to mass in a zone either solo or in groups to achieve goals and rewards. I am referring to the Well of Dragons and Tiamat. These zones allowed solo players to work together, ungrouped, to complete quests and to achieve some of the best available gear in game. The variety of play styles these zones accommodated was almost unique among MMOs. This was the gold mine that Cryptic has turned its back on in MOD 6.
Someone powerful in Cryptic has decided that not only MUST top quality gear require groups to achieve, but that even interim quality gear, like blue gear now in DREAD RING must require groups to obtain. An adequately geared player (2000+ IL) cannot solo the mobs in DR without a lot of timing luck and a great deal of skill (and if you get a lag spike, you can kiss it goodbye). WoD is no better.
I've played this game since BETA and have spent far more $$$$ in zen that I would ever care to admit. I have been playing computerized games since 1982 and I have been playing online since EQ came on the scene. I am totally honest when I say I am beyond tired of having to group to be successful in an online game. (I can remember week nights in EQ staying up to 2 a.m. just to group for boss mobs, getting little of no gear, then heading to work at 7 a.m. next morning and coming back to do it again 2 nights later.) Now my play time is mine, I pay for it with either a monthly fee or in-game purchases. I want to play when it is convenient to me, not when it is convenient for others. MOD 6 has changed my ability to control when and where I want to play. Grinding gear solo, on one's own terms is one thing, grinding in ever-changing groups is quite another.
Cryptic has been listening to the guild leaders, guild members and group players who distain the solo player because they cannot hope understand them. These players feel that to make a game good the challenge must be to and for the group not to the individual. From their perspective solo players should not be allowed in their part of the game i.e., end game. In listening to them, Cryptic has alienated probably one-third of the player base if not more. We choose to play alone for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the difficulties of dealing with PUGs and personalities. To expect us to suddenly change our attitude, our play style, after accommodating it so strongly and so well in MOD 5 is unreasonable.
Cryptic seems to have turned its back on the solo player, and if solo players cannot progress in game with a play style previously supported and nurtured by Cryptic, then solo players are very likely to turn their back on NWO and Cryptic.
First and foremost, people play online for individual entertainment, no more no less. How they play is the nuance. What has made NWO extremely successful is that it accommodated a variety of play styles. One could be very successful and play a wide variety of content totally solo. In fact, most players will tell you they leveled up countless additional characters just that way, solo. Additionally, because the game was so well adapted to solo play even high end content became available to the solo player through the game mechanic employed by Cryptic that allowed large groups of players to mass in a zone either solo or in groups to achieve goals and rewards. I am referring to the Well of Dragons and Tiamat. These zones allowed solo players to work together, ungrouped, to complete quests and to achieve some of the best available gear in game. The variety of play styles these zones accommodated was almost unique among MMOs. This was the gold mine that Cryptic has turned its back on in MOD 6.
Someone powerful in Cryptic has decided that not only MUST top quality gear require groups to achieve, but that even interim quality gear, like blue gear now in DREAD RING must require groups to obtain. An adequately geared player (2000+ IL) cannot solo the mobs in DR without a lot of timing luck and a great deal of skill (and if you get a lag spike, you can kiss it goodbye). WoD is no better.
I've played this game since BETA and have spent far more $$$$ in zen that I would ever care to admit. I have been playing computerized games since 1982 and I have been playing online since EQ came on the scene. I am totally honest when I say I am beyond tired of having to group to be successful in an online game. (I can remember week nights in EQ staying up to 2 a.m. just to group for boss mobs, getting little of no gear, then heading to work at 7 a.m. next morning and coming back to do it again 2 nights later.) Now my play time is mine, I pay for it with either a monthly fee or in-game purchases. I want to play when it is convenient to me, not when it is convenient for others. MOD 6 has changed my ability to control when and where I want to play. Grinding gear solo, on one's own terms is one thing, grinding in ever-changing groups is quite another.
Cryptic has been listening to the guild leaders, guild members and group players who distain the solo player because they cannot hope understand them. These players feel that to make a game good the challenge must be to and for the group not to the individual. From their perspective solo players should not be allowed in their part of the game i.e., end game. In listening to them, Cryptic has alienated probably one-third of the player base if not more. We choose to play alone for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the difficulties of dealing with PUGs and personalities. To expect us to suddenly change our attitude, our play style, after accommodating it so strongly and so well in MOD 5 is unreasonable.
Cryptic seems to have turned its back on the solo player, and if solo players cannot progress in game with a play style previously supported and nurtured by Cryptic, then solo players are very likely to turn their back on NWO and Cryptic.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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However, I can solo mobs in DR and Shar without luck. All I did was buy cheap level 70 blue gear on the AH and upgrade my free artifact weapon and offhand to purple.
You just have to dodge/block a bit more than before and change some of your encounter and daily powers. It's all about a pretty significant revamping of strategies and gear, because the old stuff doesn't work well anymore.
Cheers!
myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!"
pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all."
looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
I definitely agree with the opening post, though, and wish to add the loss of bandwidth to the list. Unless one really, literally, dumps a four-digit sum into the game, multi-char gameplay is massively restricted - even with swapping of top enchantments already in the balance. Which - chaange aside - makes the game a lot more boring for me: Before I could keep five chars up to fighting trim and make some meaningful progress with any of them according to my day's tastes ot preferences, or the needs of the party. Now... ...two can be kept up to scratch. A third and fourth can be kept in a state where they can be readied on half an hours notice. And the progress is slow and tedious.
No, I'm not calling for a reroll to Mod 5 ease, but mod 6 difficulty has simply overstretched it...
Please don't take this in a negative manner, I'm stating it as more of a factual basis: Mod 5 was facerolling easy. The word 'Difficult' doesn't belong in the same sentence as 'Mod 5'.
That being said, Mod 6 can use some tweaks for solo playing, and I agree it's something the Devs should look into. However, over all, I am a huge fan of the difficulty increase.
We can agree to disagree, and that's cool... Just stating my counter point.
But not more in M6. Now equip is all, if you want to make T2 legit. I remember the good old times, when new players done the spellplague dungeon without SF.