class="MsoNoSpacing">style="width: 620px; height: 388px;" alt=""src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253784">

I

have a confession to make. It may come as a surprise

for some and a shock for others. Either way, be sure you’re

sitting down for

this one. Here it goes. I hate gear progression end-game

solutions… with a

passion. Rather than thinking millions of players disagree with me on

the basis

they love gear progression (in view of all those World of Warcraft

players), I

think they may just not be aware of the alternatives.

Before

WoW released, the top MMO of all time was

EverQuest with a stated peak of 500,000 players. World of Warcraft then

came

along and shattered that record, bringing millions of new MMO players

into the

fold. As a result, many player’s first experience with any

type of end-game was

WoW’s version – gear progression dungeon raids.

Just like virtually everyone

else in the States, I had multiple friends that had zero interest in

EverQuest,

Ultima Online, or Dark Ages of Camelot, become completely obsessed with

World

of Warcraft and its raiding system.

For

those unfamiliar with the phrase, a gear progression

dungeon raid system can be explained pretty easily. Players reach the

max level

of the game and then proceed to gather raid groups to enter dungeons

that have

difficult boss battles and very limited loot drops. These dungeons are

split

into various tiers, with players needing to get a significant portion

of each

tier’s armor sets before being able to progress to the next

tier. This is

accomplished by beating the various bosses within a specific dungeon

and

running that same dungeon over and over until they eventually get the

weapon and

armor upgrades they need.

class="MsoNoSpacing">

style="width: 620px; height: 388px;" alt=""

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/252960">

As

I said, I’ve got plenty of friends that went nuts over

the game and raided regularly each week, often multiple nights during

that

week. Eventually (and by that, I mean it normally took a month or

three) they

were able to finally move up to the next dungeon tier and start the

whole

process over again. I congratulate them on their tenacity and

perseverance.

Personally, I can’t stand playing content more than a few

times. Doing the same

dungeon 20, 40, 50 times and praying that not only does the piece you

need

drop, but that you’re the one that actually ends up with

it… I can’t do it.

In

every game that has a gear progression system (or PvP

for that matter) as their end-game, I follow the exact same pattern. I

hit the

level cap and either quit right then or I may start an alt and horse

around for

a while before quitting. Despite what many players think though, this

gear

progression thing doesn’t need to be the way of the land.

Whether

it was because they thought it would be something

cool or realized early on that players were able to go through content

far

faster than they could produce it, the developers of EverQuest

eventually

introduced a new concept called the Alternate Advancement system.

Players may

not have been happy with gaining access to the moon of Norrath with the

Shadows

of Luclin expansion, but they were thrilled with the AA system when it

was up

and running. As characters over level 51 progressed, they could earn AA

points.

The player was in control over how much of their regular experience

went

towards this new XP pool. They were then able to spend those points on

a staggering

variety of added abilities

and character upgrades.

class="MsoNoSpacing">

style="width: 620px; height: 388px;" alt=""

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/252817">

This

allowed those players under the level cap to expand

the abilities and uniqueness of their characters as much or as little

as they

wanted. Once players reached the level cap, they’d shift 100%

of their XP

towards earning AA points. This meant that players could still run the

exorbitant

amount of content that was scattered all over Luclin and Norrath

without

feeling as though it was for nothing. Rather than pigeonholing players

into playing

non-dungeon content for nothing, it allowed players to continue to play

as they

had been.

One

of my biggest complaints about gear progression

end-game systems is that at their root, they’re changing the

rules of the game.

Once a player reaches the level cap, they no longer progress at all

without

running raid dungeon content. For some, this may not be an issue. For

me, it’s

a huge one. Don’t let me play a game for 50 levels the way I

want (wandering

around the land, doing some quests, grinding out some mobs when the

mood hits

me, hitting the occasional 5-man dungeon) and then when I reach the

level cap

tell me there’s no point in doing that anymore.

Don’t

get me wrong… for those that want to do nothing but

raid the same dungeons over and over as you eventually eke your way

into the

next one, go for it. I understand the thrill players get from large

scale

fights that require an extreme amount of skill, coordination, and

teamwork. I’m

not seeking to take any of that away from players either. What I do

want to see

happen though is for more companies to add some form of an alternate

advancement system so players like myself aren’t forced to

suddenly quit

playing or conform to the new rules at level cap.

What

do you think? Am I just a cranky old

bastard that refuses to let go of the past or is there room for both

systems to

breath in games today? Let me know in the comments below or href="https://twitter.com/Dalmarus">hit me up on

Twitter!



