I find myself, as time goes on, getting more and more frustrated with
EverQuests reward structure.I find myself, as time goes on, getting more and more frustrated with
EverQuests reward structure.
When I was young, even in this life, the game already 6 months old, I had to fight for each piece of equipment and win it fairly.
Every kill early in life was one closer to that new piece of leather armor. Each and every kill had value and meaning.
As you progress into your mid teens you start going into the dungeons. Rewards become special loot that may or may not spawn. They are usually of fairly low value so people don't always argue too much about them, and if the Fair Loot Rules are used, people are often happy.
In your 30s things become further restricted. Items which drop are super rare happening once every few hours and worth a few hundred to thousands of plat. The stress builds. Each bubble of experience is now taking 4 hours, sometimes more, and plat per kill is now almost totally meaningless.
Beyond 40 you can start do to the really big events. Giant or Dragon raids, past 46 plane camping and Gods. Here is where the really stress begins to become unbearable. Now things are being fought over which drop maybe once a month, on things that spawn anywhere between one time per eight hours and once every eight days.
Summary / Solution / Truth
The player economy really hurts us more than helps us. Early in life you have gain at every kill. People share loot freely, and may even lend some to friends who they group with often so they can buy that armor or spell sooner. As life goes on items become the focus of nearly everyone's life. The only thing which has meaning rapidly becomes that special rare loot.
Today I check certain E'ci boards for information. Nearly every week there is a post which averages 12 - 25 replies on how a certain class needs to change the way the divide plane loot.
All of this competition is what Verant wants. What I think they don't realize is all this competition will destroy them in the end. Plane and God loot is already causing massive hatred and competition between players. Some just don't care and 'ninja loot', others devise 'loot plans' which make it 'fair' to their class, yet actually just makes it more difficult to get started gaining that type of loot.
I don't really know what the answer is, other than abolishing the player economy all together for a no drop system where spawn rates are quadrupled and there are reasonable level limits placed on items. (Which I for one would be all in favor of.)
I find it really sad to think back to my youth. Think how much I gained with each kill, and how happy and excited I was to be one step closer to gaining that leather or new spell. As life progresses that solid reward disappears. It's replaced with greed and bickering about who 'deserves' what more.
Don't even get me started on the 'twinks'. While they did earn the stuff they wear somewhere along the road, there is even less reward for them to live the life.
Where does the reward go? It seems Verant is saying the reward is in the item accumulation, yet later in life that same structure becomes the source of may people becoming so bitter and angry they leave the game.
I don't think Verants current reward structure will pass the test of time. Each day the easier to get things become more and more worthless, that one day were the thing to have. The average player's hunger for a new thing, almost completely insatiable.
I can offer you this. The reward that always lasts is the reward you give yourself by helping others achieve. To know how happy it makes them to gain a certain thing, or new level. Don't become so centered for your own gain. Gaining for self has little meaning, or impression on your memory, but when you help others, or others help you, that is where your reward will come from.