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- Stigg
MMO Developers: Too many choices!
Let's count the classes that Warhammer Online released with. For Destruction there are:
Chaos
- Chosen - Tank
- Magus - RDPS
- Zealot - Healer
- Marauder - MDPS
Greenskins
- Black Orc - Tank
- Squig Herder - RDPS
- Shaman - Healer
- Choppa - MDPS (Coming soon)
Dark Elves
- Black Guard - Tank
- Sorcer - RDPS
- Disciple of Khaine - Healer
- Witch Elf - MDPS
Now, let's look at Order!
Dwarves
- Ironbreaker - Tank
- Engineer - RDPS
- Rune Priest - Healer
- Hammerer - MDPS (Coming soon)
Empire
- Knight of the Blazing Sun - Tank
- Bright Wizard - RDPS
- Warrior Priest - Healer
- Witch Hunter - MDPS
High Elves
- Swordmaster - Tank
- Shadow Hunter - RDPS
- Archmage - Healer
- White Lion - MDPS
So, count all of those up. That is 24 classes, but the two sides are mirrors. The Swordmaster and the Black Orc are relatively similar. The Chosen and the Knight of the Blazing Sun are relatively similar. And so on and so forth. So 12 effective classes. What's my point? That's too many. Way too many.
Consider that you are a new player at launch date. You'd have a rough idea of what you wanted to play and you would be investing a certain amount of time in learning how to play that class, seeing if it fitted you. And that usually means you need to play the class for about a quarter of the maximum level range to see how well it did. But you wouldn't know how viable they were end-game, how desirable they would be and you could be investing yourself in a character that was nor working all that well.
Newer players joining now have the advantage of a lot of theory crafting and forum discussions, so they can make more informed decisions. But even so, that is relying on other players' experiences and being guided by their feelings on the classes. It's better, but it is still imperfect.
So, here is a request for MMO developers. I understand you prefer it when people play for a long time, that makes you more money and it's a good goal. I have no complaints with that. However, it would be a very neat feature if you could trial classes.
As an example, when you hit character creation have a "Trial Class" button when I select one. If I click that, give me a choice (Or not) of:
- Level 10
- Level 20
- Level 30
- Level 40
When I pick that, I get a templated character and allow me to assign a name to it. Equip it with what you would consider to be standard, green quality gear. Do not give the class any money, don't allow it to participate in loot rolls, don't allow it to loot, use mail or the auction house or anything like that. But do allow it communicate, join groups and trial the class. Expire the use of that character after 7 days or 14 days or whatever time is applicable.
This gives players the opportunity to test a class without having to level it, but does not allow them to use it forever. They can PvP with it, run some PvE or Raids with it and generally get a feel for it. Then they can make an informed decision and I'm guessing will be more likely to stick with a class and play it through to completion.
The biggest problem I see with this is spambots for gold sites. These are perfect vehicles for reaching the higher level zones, which they typically might not depending on the game structure. But, given the tools at player disposal and the efficiency of modern MMOs in tackling this problem it seems like an acceptable trade-off for me.
In any event, I think this would make a nice feature. What do you guys think? Poke holes, please?
Comments
Not a bad idea at all. Except, make it only available once per class and limit it to 1-2 days. That way people don't use it as a healbot for their other account's level 40 or whatever.
I am still waiting for a game that has four classes. Tank, healer, ranged dps, and melee dps. I don't see why there is much need of anything else.
Where's the time sink? What if you decided you didn't like the class at 20 or 30? naw the devs wouldn't do this because they want you to spend the time, and the potential for imbalance at specific levels that may not give you a good OOBE :)
The time sink is trying the classes to a set level, then discarding them if they do not fit what you want to play. I realize they want that, because it results in higher revenue.
But I also wonder how many players will try four or five different classes before giving up on the game and just moving to the next new thing? Flip to a different MMO. Could doing something like this increase player satisfaction with their gaming experience?
From a personal perspective, yes! I spend most of my gaming time trying out classes, seeing what I want to play and never actually end up playing anything through to end-game. It's frustrating and invariably means I end up not playing the game because I'm not getting to end-game. Boredom sets in, alticitis takes hold and before I know it I'm moving on to the next game.
Tabula Rasa did this very well with the clone system. They gave you an easier progression path to try different aspects. If you knew you wanted to play a support class you could clone and try different options. You knew how that worked and I think that was a brilliant system. In fact, much better than what I have written down here. But it needs the game to be designed around that type of character progression, rather than class progression.
With class progression games a "preview" at different level spots would be useful, I think. Anyway!
That all speaks more to the personality that plays the game. I know a few people that are raising... one of every class to max level, and that's in WoW with less classses.
That boggles me. I have my main character, and my alts languish for a long time, because it is actually stressful for me to have alts - that is my goal oriented play at work in this case. Having characters with unachieved goals causes me angst.
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