Questaar said:...This idea that somebody might level by doing easier things just ruins the whole game? /Boggle
I snipped out most of the quote just to keep this from getting super long, but you bring up a good point.
Let me start by saying I think that the right answer is *always* in the middle. Should the entire adventuring progression be defined by camping on zone walls and pulling blue mobs to slaughter with AoEs as quickly as possible, over and over? No, of course not. But neither should the answer be having a sea of quest markers floating above NPCs in every town, city, and campsite.
Most of us have the opinions we do because we've seen things like dailies taken to an extreme, and that turns us off on the concept. Most of this thread is people saying "hey don't do this thing because it leads to anti-social experiences, which is the opposite of what we want". However, I think all of us probably realize that going all the way the other direction could be just as bad, in different ways.
Finally just a comment on the last part of what you said, that I quoted. None of us plays in a vacuum. All of us are subconciously aware of how others players behave in the game and the vast majority of us will feel a little unhappy or upset if we perceive that the majority of them are playing differently from we are. No one wants to feel like they're slower or less efficient than others, and everyone wants to reassure themselves that the way they're doing things is the "right" way. No matter how much we want to believe otherwise, all of us are affected by this to some degree. This doesn't mean that we're all terrible people. It just means we're normal. This is human nature, and psychologists and sociologists write books about this kinda stuff. We all react to it differently - some people give in to the perceived peer pressure and do things they wouldn't normally want to do. Others stick to their guns and try to get everyone else to change. The people who do neither, and who are truly content to go their own way and let others go theirs, are few and far between, although a lot of us will do our best to pretend that the gap between us and others doesn't bother us. This is why in every MMO ever created we get conflicts between raiders and non-raiders, adventurers and crafters, hardcores and casuals, questers and grinders, or any other set of labels you care to name.
The game can't stop us from doing this, and attempting to get us to all agree would be worse. Trying to cater everything to one side of the spectrum will always alienate the opposite side. Do that enough, and the game loses potential players, as you suggest.
So like I said at the start of this reply - the right answer is in the middle. For me, what I desire is that quests and content be meaningful. That means I don't want "dailies" that are essentially just a camoflauged grind mechanism to be the most efficient means of progression, and I also don't want straight-out mob grinding to be the most efficient means of progression. What I want is for people to be encouraged to gather togethr and go on real adventures, and be rewarded with progression. Whether that's going out hunting for specific drops and getting experience along the way, or assaulting a camp of monsters because it's there, or exploring a dungeon because you picked up a quest and the thing you need to retrieve is in there...somewhere... that's all cool. Spending an hour and a half every day doing a rotating set of 5 quests from the same NPCs, or spending that same hour and a half sitting in one spot playing whack-the-gnoll to get experience, not so much.
My opinion :)
Nephele,
I definitely agree, that I don't want question marks above NPCs. I don't want to follow golden trails. My thought on "dailies" is first of course, grouped. VR has said many times this is mainly a game for groups and some more social gameplay. I am talking about some kind of play where you have an encounter, that is designed for a couple of hours of time and there is experience and plat. Something new every day. I'm specifically not including drops, because I think that is to far out of what VR will do. From my post I was trying to say "some" experience, not the "best" experience. I also, don't want to see whack 10 gnolls being the best way of advancing levels. But I do see a lot of posts that don't want a game on rails designed by VR, but they want a game on rails designed by the players. There's only one way to play the game, and that's their way. How is pulling 3 blues to a wall an unacceptable way to play compared to FD pulling one mob yellow mob at a time. There should be options for both. I see posts of I want my guy to be special with the "silver sword of slaying" and no one else/only my guild can have it type of comment. I see whole guilds formed with the idea of every DPS must have a certain best in class weapon/armor set, and be open to criticism/explanation of how to best play your class. Good god what an awful concept that is to me. You must cast spell X at time Y while holding weapon Z. The game has just become a job. I definitely am not a match for that guild, or even that group. I like grouping with 3 tanks, a dps, and two shamans, if that's what's around. If you're going to bounce my shaman from the group because I'm healing to much and your dps meter says I'm not carrying my weight, I'm not right for you. I definitely agree with what I think you said in your last paragraph. There must be a range, and people should have options. But once again the idea that the style of play that person X wants, has to be the best way to advance boggles my mind.
If you have a number of different goals you plan to achieve eg. work on getting all pieces of fire set, get attuned for frigid environment, get friendly with ogre faction, reach level 20 this week, gank Aradune etc. then you don't need some tedious 'daily quest' to keep you entertained which is exactly what dailies don't do.
Let's face it, dailies are nothing more and nothing less than time wasters.
Worse, at least for me, dailies ultimately feel like something I have to do BEFORE I get to start playing the game... not something I'm doing WHILE I play the game. Things I need to get out of the way before I actually do something I want to do.