Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) It's not how fast you gain skills that's important, it's WHAT YOU'RE DOING. If you're standing in place waiting for a skill timer and doing NOTHING EXCEPT STARING AT THE SCREEN then what're you doing? Nothing!Skills could grow agonizingly slow and the game could still work IF we were actually doing things and not doing too many of the same things. Doing too many of the same things is exactly like doing nothing.See, it's not any single thing that kills it. It's the WHOLE formula.If skill gain is too slow then a player is left to do the same thing over and over...If skill gain is too fast then a player is not using the content in the game and thus doing nothing...Let me explain this more precisely...Lets say that you're hunting in a forest. And lets say that skill gain is slowed down so much that players have to play 10 times longer than they previously needed. This means that a new player in the 1-20 FS range will have to fight the same types of creatures and this restricts them to certain areas where there're low level creatures. They'll have to do this ten times longer than before. So they'll end up killing the same types of creatures in the same area over and over and over. It might work at first, but sooner or later nothing will be new anymore.In a contrasting scenario, everything is the same except that the player gains skill 10 times faster. This means that they'll kill low level creatures and explore low level areas so fast that they don't even get the chance to enjoy it. They move on because there's much less need to stay in those areas. They don't get to see the areas or learn about their history or learn about the creatures or anything. That's the game right there and they just skipped it.We gain fighting skill because it's a challenge we place on ourselves. We have to figure out how to fight well in different environments and how to survive our wounds and work well with other players to maximize our effectiveness. When we get 20 FS and 40 FS and 60 FS, each achievement is a sign that we've steadily moved up the ladder and we MADE IT. Scoring systems are used because they're a measuring device and from them we derive a certain amount of pride in ourselves. If you remove the scoring system and everyone gets maximum skill on day 1 and even maximum gear then you remove the sense of accomplishment that a standard scoring system gives and replace it with a cardboard cutout that doesn't allow us to appreciate what we've done.Now, scoring systems can be implemented badly. They can make it so it's not fun to earn your points. if fighting ever becomes too much of the SAME THING then the game is not succeeding at its goal to keep us interested. Doing the same thing over and over is mostly drudgery - it's only a minor accomplishment at best for the most long lived - and is not fun by itself. We want a challenge that's worth fighting for. And achieving things without lifting a finger or without a respectable level of danger and tactics and presence is equally bad and not worth it either unless you're not naturally competitive. Anybody can press a button, but not everybody can make good choices. And that's why we value smart choices and tactics and awareness of things because they're a sign of accomplishment. Scoring systems have to keep all this in mind when they're implemented or they can break the game and make it so it's not worth fighting for.Content can be the environment you fight in or play in, like the trees and the weather and the non-players you talk to and the stories you read, but content is also in the diversity of skills and the mechanics and the strategies you employ and the details in items and in things you build. Content is the thing that makes the points worth earning and engages us. It's like football, as opposed to the score you get playing football. It's the meat and potatoes. It's the flesh and bone of the world and the game-play. Ideally, content is so diverse we rarely do the same thing twice.Content and rate of progression and scoring systems combine with each to make something unique. There's no guarantee that whatever they make works as a game. It's hard to judge what exactly is broken, I think. Just like how it's hard to understand the human mind; complex as it's. Judging what's wrong can be subjective based on your audience. There're many shows on TV that I hate and a few others I love. I'll never understand why people watch the ones I hate. I can't be trusted to fairly judge those shows because I simply have different desires and interests. Similarly, I don't much like football or tennis or soccer or other sports. If it were my choice, I'd probably start changing the rules and style to make those sports more interesting to me, but I'd ruin it for the people who currently love them. So when we all come to the table to judge a game and figure out how to fix it, we have to be careful.My opinion is Wurm Online has a LOT going for it. I'll say right here straight from the man himself (??), this is the most immersive game I have ever played. The feeling of danger when I entered this world was as real as it had ever been in any game in my life if not more. I was IN THAT WORLD. I could almost touch it. I will always remember that moment when I left that small player village and came up the hill at night and was in the clearcut area and looked up at the stars and could hear the breeze and thought "I am up in the hills and.... this feels almost real." I realized in that special moment that Wurm Online wasn't just a game, it had come across the valley and was becoming a world.Wurm Online is stuck on me. Nothing out there that I know of eclipses it.But there's some drudgery and holes in the game. It has to be changed smartly, not with a sledgehammer, but with a comb and a slide rule. The idea is not how fast a number goes up or down, it's whether that number and how it changes coincides and compliments the content in the game and the scoring system that caps it on top like the cherry on whipped cream on a sundae. This requires brains to figure out and is very delicate. Edited November 8, 2012 by Lightonfoot Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 8, 2012 And I thought I was verbrose... Seriously though, nice post!What it always comes back to, you either like it/get it, or you don't. OP appears to be in the second camp, nothing wrong with this. Well, unless they mind us going to the games they do like and asking for a more Wurm style gameplay...Can see it now.. Wurm-Strike.. have to grind the .22 to get the .38.. and you don't start as a Counter-Terrorist or Terrorist.. You're a cadet or a random citizen..Or WurmCraft.. oh wait.. last few MC updates have introduced things like anvils and skills/leveling systems as part of the core game... hmmm.. that's rather telling... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 8, 2012 -1000000The games speed is fine as is. What you are wanting would just make the game boring after a week. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2012 As usual the old-timers fail to accept the reasons why new players don't like Wurm. Even if it was just a separate server I'm sure there would be a lot more players.Wurm has potential beyond belief and I can feel it screaming and clawing for success when sadly the only thing holding it back is pure stubbornness from both parties.I don't have to accept why some players don't like Wurm, I really could care less why they don't like it. I like it as it is, slow and grindy. I do not need instant gratification in a game, I like that everything takes time to accomplish. If you don't like that, it's ok, there are many games you could find that are more your pace. Just stop trying to make this game into one of the others, I like this game as it is and don't play the others for a reason. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2012 (edited) You have to wonder, with all these recent "I don't like this game" made by "new" accounts.. wonder if we looked at the network traffic and back tracked their IP.. how many are from companies either actively competing with Wurm, or are planning to be in the near future.I mean, there are a lot of new games expecting to hit soon.. wouldn't put it past some of the teams (or their fans) to try a backended way to muddy the waters as it were...::edit insert:: This was a line of thought started after considering the OP was last active on the same day they started this topic. While it is likely just a person looking to troll, does make me wonder sometimes Edited November 9, 2012 by Hussars 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 9, 2012 Due to popular demand i am locking this thread, it run its course. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
