“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work. .”

-Eden Phillpotts

 When Everquest 2 launched, it brought a relatively new concept to mainstream MMO’s:  spell quality.  You didn’t just upgrade a spell anymore, but actually could have different and varying degrees of a spell’s effectiveness determined by what quality of the spell was inscribed at all.  Starting with Apprentice and then Adept and finally up through the Master level spells, quality matters to spells and combat arts within the Shattered Lands.

You simply buy the upgrades, for the most part.  You can have them made for you, or you might get lucky and find the books necessary while out hunting or raiding, and it’s possible to acquire a Master II through specializations…but by and large, most players buy their upgrades. 

A similar situation exists with most weapons or armors, especially tradeskilled weapons.  You might have a pristine or a shaped version of that feysteel longsword.  You might adorn it or imbue it.  However, as a general rule, most players would hold on to their weapon, eventually upgrading when something better comes along.

That’s the way of things in most MMO’s, really.  You pick up an item or spell, and eventually replace it with something better. 

What if you didn’t replace an item?  What if you didn’t buy upgrades to new spells?

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I’ve made several posts recently which have danced around the subject of being special.  Several others in the blogoverse have apparently been doing the same.  I’ve even had discussions in guildchat recently which revolved around the same basic idea:

Everyone wants to be special.

We all want to be the hero. We want to have the best gear.  We want to have the best guilds.  We want to have the best mounts.  We want to have the best housing. 

The problem of course, is that we can’t all be the best.  We can’t all be special.  Because once everyone is special no one really is.

And therein lies the rub. 

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When the Splitpaw Saga came out for Everquest 2, players spent entire levels in the single player dungeon of Harclave’s.  I believe I gained at least 3 or 4 levels in there myself.

Eventually, the design team pulled back the rewards a bit, and cut back the amount of time you could spend in Harclave’s (failure timers and could only complete the dungeon once per level).  Eventually, few players bothered to go to Harclave’s anymore and even today, Lower Splitpaw is a veritable ghost town.

But there was something to that which spoke volumes about player desires.  Even before re-entry restrictions were applied, rewards in Harclave’s were dramatically reduced.  Yet, even so, players continued to spend hours in there.

It wasn’t the rewards any longer.  It wasn’t any anti-social streak.  I think it’s because of an old maxim I learned years ago:

People are like electricity.  They tend to follow the paths of least resistance.

Problem:  Finding groups in most MMO’s is an excercise in patience.  Not only do you spend time finding players for your groups in the first place, but you then have to spend time getting everyone in the same place, on the same quest, and then sticking around for the amount of time you need to do what it is you formed the group up to do in the first place.

The paths of least resistance:  Don’t form groups.  Join existing groups looking for just one or two players, and solo while waiting.

Problem:  Not enough solo content at certain level ranges.  In games such as World of Warcraft or Everquest 2, the early levelling curve is fairly easy.  Most players can blow through the first 20 or 30 levels in a week or two, even without groups.  There’s a ton of solo content at the lower levels, and (at least in Everquest 2), you’re outlevelling quests faster than you can complete them all out.  But the well starts to dry up pretty quickly in the higher levels, though.

The paths of least resistance:  Switch to another character.  Stop playing.  Try to find a group, any group.

Problem:  Pick-Up Groups have dubious or inconsistent quality.  In most modern games, expecting to find a good pick up group is, at best, a pretty optimistic endevour.  Reputation simply doesn’t have the stigma it once did, and most players would rather deal with a stranger who isn’t necessarily a great player than to wait till a good player actually comes into the group.  Add to that the difficulty in even realizing who is or is not a good player in most modern MMO’s, and how much time is spent just forming groups to begin with.

The paths of least resistance:  It’s easier to just take the group you’ve got, rather than waiting for the group you want.  It’s easier to ignore group chat/actions than to get involved in drama. Finish your goal, then drop group.
 
Problem:  In a group, you have to share.  Many players play to advance.  Most players who only have a certain amount of time to spend in the game would rather spend that time advancing themselves, than some stranger.  Let’s face it, we play first for ourselves most of the time, especially if we’ve only got a short amount of time to spend online (while waiting on dinner to finish, or that load of laundry to complete, or while you’re waiting for a raid to set up, etc.).

The paths of least resistance:  Soloing means never having to say, “declined”.  Soloing means never worrying about someone else dying.  It’s easier to solo than to deal with sharing (loot, experience, time) with other players.

The list goes on…

It’s a form of compulsory design, really.  If you want X, you must group.  The problem is that grouping isn’t always an option, and even when it is, it isn’t always easy. 

The solution for most game studios is to eventually put out a more involved “LFG tool”.  This invariably puts the issue’s responsibility firmly in the hands of the players once more. 

Don’t ge me wrong.  I’m a fan of additional tools.  I’m a big fan of LFG tools.  I use them all the time.  However, most of the above issues mentioned aren’t suddenly alleviated by an LFG tool, now are they?

There’s fundamental design issues at work here that stretch back decades.  CIS students working on MUD’s back in their dorm rooms 10 or 15 years ago had the same basic design ideas:  make content hard to complete without other people and they’ll group out of necessity. 

The problem is that the “requirement” was added without paying enough attention to the path of least resistance.  In my mind, this is one of the (many) reasons World of Warcraft is so appealing to so many casual gamers and why Blizzard managed to expand the market into so many non-traditional sectors.  It’s also why I think you see games such as Everquest 2 essentially redesigning entire chunks of existing mechanics and content around easier soloability.

Personally, I love grouping.  I just hate forming groups.  Tools such as the LFG tool are a workaround to my issue there - not a solution.  The LFG tool is nice, but it’s not intuitive enough.  The basic mechanics in Everquest 2 (and World of Warcraft, for that matter) simply aren’t built around forming groups, in my opinion.  Oh, the content’s designed around groups forming up - but not the mechanics sure aren’t.
 
Personally, I’d like to see hubs getting away from the cities.  I appreciate the idea that Qeynos and Freeport need to feel “alive”.  However, when I’m forming groups, I get tired of forming them around players who are two continents (and 20+ minutes) away.  Teleportation helps, but it’s not always readily available, and certainly players don’t immediately rush to get to where your group is forming up. 

Besides, if you only have an hour online, spending 20 minutes forming a group is just ridiculous - it’s easier to just try to find something to solo for most players. 

I’d like to start seeing hubs based around docks and frontier villages.  Imagine a banker set up at Butcherblock docks…or a broker…or just some tradeskilling equipment, for crying out loud. 

Imagine special NPC’s in Somborn Village who give out random, repeatable, quick solo quests that can be worked on while groups form up for Mistmoore Castle. 

Imagine solo content (instead of heroics) on the steps leading up to Mistmoore castle which gets progressively harder as you advance to a new plateau. 

Imagine a glowing tag or icon which appears over someone’s head when they start forming up a group.  Imagine an option which allows to turn the icon off completely, or to set it to show only when you yourself are looking for groups.

There’s a hundred little things that can be done to make it easier to group than to not group.  All we have to do is remember those paths of least resistance, and work to encourage activities…rather than attempting to force them. 

Then people wouldn’t be so…well, resistant.