Things that could be better.

I am an avid lover of this game. I think they have several things right in this game. I hope in this thread others can comment on my thoughts, but more importantly, game designers can possibly impliment some of these changes to maybe make things better. This is not a gripe, whine, or cry. Just things that I think could be improved upon. There are several of these things that may already be on the way due to the fact that this IS still in beta over here, and when they final release it ... these problems may be gone. Others have been problems for even the other "world versions". Take them as you will.

I have played many online games ranging from Battlefield, Final Fantasy, PWI, WOW, Everquest, Guild Wars, and several others. In most games they have the basic concept down, .. it's the little things that get screwed up. In any online game it is very easy to change a game from one geared towards nice, happy people playing together, .. to mean spirited, farmers and gold diggers biting each others heads off. The changes that bring this about are small, but important. I wish to highlight on several of these.

1.
One such thing I have seen is venomancers "rare pets". Now lets PLEASE not turn this into another forum about rare pets as there are ALREADY too many. This is mearly a brief statement about something that could be done to better the game for everyone. In WOW for example, rare pets weren't really "appealing" per-say. They had raised stats (defense, magic defense, atk pwr, etc.) but their looks were mediocre at best. Therefore people who aimed at these pets were intelligent people, and usually wanted to better themselves as a hunter by getting them. Getting these pets made them harder to kill, made leveling easier, and ultimately made the game more fun. The drawback was only that they didn't look that great and were hard to find. But due to the fact that their looks weren't awesome, . people usually didn't camp the spots. People who wanted them went and got them, often times having to wait for days, but with no real grief. Even though waiting was sometimes long and arduous, .. rare pets ultimately caused no fights, or griefing in the game. They were a good thing to have, and were well worth your time. Ultimately, .. a great addition to the game. Here is where I think PWI went wrong. The rare pets aren't really much better than any other pets, so one would think their demand wouldnt be that high. No grief, no fighting, no problem. But they made the single most desired things in the game (pets that looked good AND pets that anyone can carry) link to the hardest things in the game to get. From what I see, all it seems to do is encourage anger, bitterness, gold farming, griefers, and forum clogs to occur. There are several ways to cure this that are mentioned on the forums but ultimately none of them sound right. Making the spawn times shorter takes them being rare away. Making them bound to you or taking the ability to sell them away also may make them less rare and ultimately ruin the rare pets altogether. So how do you stop the grief, without ruining the idea of rare pets? There are several possible ways I can think of.

A. Make the "rare pets" be ones of use, not desire. Really, cutting down on in game fights just means happier users, less people leaving game for dumb reasons, and less farming. Ultimately, more users = more money to the game itself. Every veno wants a bunny, kitten, baby bear, .. why? Cause not only are they cute and cuddly, but also tougher than the average pet. If they were cuter, but less useful (low HP, defense, atk pwr), people wouldnt want them as much. I.E. - less fighting.

B. Don't make these "rare pets" that are already hard to get ALSO link to pets that you need several of to get a pet that any class can use. This is what causes farming, gold digging, and griefers. It is unfair to ask that one person be able to take a pet 5 times just so they can have 1 pet when 5 people could have had a pet for the same cost. Make it cost a fortune to CONVERT the rare into a normal pet. Still makes them rare, but not so many farmers and griefers.

C. If you do either of these, they may not be so well wanted, .. so make more "tough rare pets" and spread them around. Heck, in WOW there were pets that looked identical in form to others around them, but had special names with higher stats. You wouldn't even have to design new skins. (Ocassionally I saw just a slight color change) Or, with the slightly lowered demand, .. lengthen the spawn timers. Some people may say, THEY'RE TOO LONG NOW, ... this may be true, .. but people would go, .. "meh, .. im not waiting for that, it's really not that great anyways", and leave. Keeping them rare.

D. I don't think taking the selling aspect away from them is a good idea. Even though sellers would still cause farming, this is what would keep them rare. The up-side is though, with the decreased "usefulness" of the pet, they wouldn't sell for as much, so less farmers would be willing to waste the time. Less fighting.

2.
The auction house is basically useless as-is. When looking on the AH i notice that there is less than 200 items accross the whole dang thing. In most other online games I played the numbers were near 50 thousand or higher. The reason for this is the ability to set up your own personal shop. I kind of like that idea except that all it means is that every person and his dog sets up a shop in archosaur and the lag times spike to unbearable levels due to overpopulation. If the lag is unbearable, people leave the game due to aggravation. People are fickle, to keep their attention and keep them happy .. it's the little things that make all the difference. Why so overpopulated? Because everyone has set up a shop, minimized their game and walked away. Leaving their toon to take up a server spot and cause lag. In the end, the shops do not do any better than the AH would, they just dont cost money so people think it's a good idea in the game. But in the same breath, how likely is it the person that wants your item will find your shop when its in the middle of 13 thousand other cat-shops. If it was easier to find in an AH, .. higher chances to buy. Yes, it may cost a small amount of coin, .. so, .. raise your price slightly. Problem solved.

3.
Kiting seems to be semi-common in this game. I understand that it is against the T&C so if people get caught doing it, they could get a ban, temporary or permanent. But the only reason people can even do this is because you have designed the game so elites (whatever theyre called in this game) won't stop chasing you unless you die, or you kill them. Kiting existed in games like WOW, but it was considerably harder, therefore, happened MUCH less often. If you just remove that from the elites, people would have to work MUCH harder to keep hitting the mob to kite it. Harder to do = jerks stop doing it. Mean spirited people (im sorry but it's true) tend to have a short attention span for doing mean things. If it takes a lot of work and concentration, they would just assume not do it. "This is too hard, let's go kill some rare pets."

4.
The guild interface probably needs some revamping. Again, not sure if this is coming up in the final release or not, but just a few suggestions. The guild interface in WOW was awesome for a few simple reasons (maybe you could steal some lol).

A. Adding, removing, and renaming ranks. There was a maximum of 10 ranks in the guild system but only 5 really leaves some to the imagination. Not to mention the obvious fact that has already been mentioned on other forums about how the names of the existing ranks are horrible. They make reference to police, military, government, and professional ranking systems all at once. They have no structure, therefore, confuse and annoy. Being able to name the ranks yourself merely makes people more comfortable in the game and makes their experience more personal. Some for of controling what having rank does would also help. As it sits, it seems to do nothing, .. just give you a new rank.

B. Guild names are WAY too short and strict. It leave the naming of guilds sad and repetitive. People end up with names like "MyGldOwns" and "TufGuys". It's sad.

5.
I realize that this one may be really hard, that's why it's just a suggestion. The chat system is like running DOS. Typing a command line before every comment makes me feel like im in Jr. High all over again. There has to be a way to click on the chat you want and type in it without command lines.

6.
This last request is one that may never get answered. Point and click is just sad. The UI in this game is awesome. Being able to move virtually ANY window around to suit your play style and needs is great, but the one thing that people like about MMORPG's is the fighting. The fighting is extremely hard due to the point click interface as well as the fact that you can't remap ANY keys EVER. This is something that in future versions I HOPE is under serious consideration to change.

The last thing that I HAVE to say is that this game is GREAT. Any people that hate it need to just walk away because not everyone will like every game. There is nothing wrong with a difference of opinion, but this game is, without any doubt, one of the best free games available (and I've played several). The Boutique and the things you can buy are awesome. The fact that you accept and even condone (through your AH system) gold trading is incredible. If somebody wants to buy the gold and give it away .. let them. The people who buy it only in game would likely not ever spend a dime anyway. Having someone spend it and give the gold to someone in game is better than nobody spending it with your company. I really would like to have some form of response from the real game people to see what they think, but any feedback is appreciated.

AGAIN, .. this is merely a few thoughts of things that could make the game a better experience for everyone. Please do not attack me for I have attacked NOBODY here. I want this forum to maybe help the game designers with a few ideas, and maybe help a few other players voice their opinions as well. Thank you for your time and attention, and thank you PWI for making such a great game to distract me from the horrors of real life, lmao.


"Immitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism" - Jim Carrey