Go look at the guild recruitment pages for the raid guilds of current MMO, i.e. - the section of the playerbase that is likely to put in the most time online in continuous blocks. Typically, raids are 2-3 nights per week, around 9-12 at night, in the time zone of the guild's majority. That's the uber guilds of each server...9 hours per week on the grindiest content.
If you use max level, full group exp on dark blue mobs in EQ, right now that's about 0.25% of a level per kill, and a good group kills maybe 40 times an hour. So figure 10% of a level per hour, at worst. Since most games hook you into an exponential leveling scale, let's use a random exponential scale that starts at level 1 needing 10 kills to hit level 2 and from 49 to 50 takes 400 (0.25% per kill), that comes out to roughly 8,000 kills to go from 1 to 50 (assume a beginning max level of 50). Using EQ full group speed for pull, kill, loot, repeat of 90 seconds minimum, that equals 200 hours of straight killing in a full group.
So go back to our "only play a couple nights a week when wife/kids are sleeping", say you manage 10 total hours per week, and half of that total is travel, /lfg, setup, banking, character maintenance, etc...you are still looking at 40 weeks to max a t00n in a group centric game with kill speeds as slow as EQ1, playing super casual 10 hours total per week which is nothing for an MMO player.
Yeah, the excuse is bunk. Other interests besides video gaming? Sure. Just don't feel like devoting 10 hours per week to one hobby? Sure. But "don't have time" is not an excuse, nor should that deter the VRI folks from making a group centric game in order to try and siphon off the ADHD crowd of WoW. Even back in old EQ, the hardest part was finding the group. Once you did, exp was not hard to come by, and it still isn't. Having Foh/Afterlife uber gear for your whole guild...sure, that took some time investment, but even then, that was the top two guilds in the game and over years those guys did all that. I was never in either and managed to enjoy the hell out of EQ1, and I still do, in my guild of 11 people.
I don't have the same free time I did when playing EQ but I do have more time now then say two years ago, like most other people I have a family and a job that requires my time. I basically have 5 hours after getting home and eating dinner before going to bed. My daughter is in fifth grade and spends the majority of her time on her computer either playing Minecraft, WoW, or drawing something. My wife sits next to me on her laptop (large desk) and we talk while gaming or just browsing the web.
So do I have the time to play like I did in EQ, no but I do have plenty of time imo to play and have fun. For awhile I thought along the lines of 'I don't have the time for an old school MMO', but then after playing newer one's that require little time investment I found myself not enjoying them and missing something. That is why when I first heard about this project before the kickstarter I was excited. And its why I still am.
Family time can come in many forms, I happen to be lucky that both my wife and daughter game. And with Pantheon being free for a few select levels it will allow them to play with me if they choose to. And there really is no difference in spending your family time playing video games, as say playing a board game or watching tv. Your doing something as a group and bonding in any of those examples.
So yes there will be people that say X mechanic is too harsh because they don't have the time, but hopefully if they want to play this game they will just have to deal.
jimm0thy said:
I don't have the same free time I did when playing EQ but I do have more time now then say two years ago, like most other people I have a family and a job that requires my time. I basically have 5 hours after getting home and eating dinner before going to bed. My daughter is in fifth grade and spends the majority of her time on her computer either playing Minecraft, WoW, or drawing something. My wife sits next to me on her laptop (large desk) and we talk while gaming or just browsing the web.
So do I have the time to play like I did in EQ, no but I do have plenty of time imo to play and have fun. For awhile I thought along the lines of 'I don't have the time for an old school MMO', but then after playing newer one's that require little time investment I found myself not enjoying them and missing something. That is why when I first heard about this project before the kickstarter I was excited. And its why I still am.
Family time can come in many forms, I happen to be lucky that both my wife and daughter game. And with Pantheon being free for a few select levels it will allow them to play with me if they choose to. And there really is no difference in spending your family time playing video games, as say playing a board game or watching tv. Your doing something as a group and bonding in any of those examples.
So yes there will be people that say X mechanic is too harsh because they don't have the time, but hopefully if they want to play this game they will just have to deal.
This is so true, family time is family time regardless of the activity! What is the difference between movie night and Pantheon night? well Pantheon would be a bit more interactive than the movie is to be honest...so its a win!
what I was meaning by my earlier statements is that while during my EQ1 days, I was part of the community that the guild officers had my home phone so they could call me any time day or night if X mob spawned (and they did, UGH), I would never go back to that extreme again, so this is my rift, whilst its cool to develop a game that actually does that again, I think the game should also consider ways to break that down a bit into a more casual setting, I find it hard to believe that we want a repeat of the divorce rate of EQ1.
hence my suggestion of multiple instances of a zone etc
if zone 1 of highkeep is full all camps are taken? zone to zone 2 of highkeep and then snag a camp there, etc, I really dont think the waiting lists we had in EQ1 are going to be beneficial to Pantheon