Interactive items in the world

Chandler

Perhaps this has been addressed, and I haven't seen it.

I always find a world so much fun when there are not-quite-easter-egg items. For example, you're doing a random quest near a wrecked ship, and you see there is a clickable barrel that provides a "strange mead". Once you consume this mead, you grow 20% in size. It has no advantages other than being fun and sort of ridiculous. This item was hidden from plain sight, perhaps underwater, in an air trapped cell within the bottom of a wrecked ship.

I believe fun things like this add depth to the world and make you feel like you "found" something that a lot of people probably haven't.

The only issue I see is that my example (20% in size) would add an almost too ridiculous element to the game. Perhaps a better one would "enchants nearby creatures to follow your scent" and the next thing you know there are snakes, squirrels, and little mushroom things following you. Again, no advantage, simply kind of ....strange.

I hope I got my point across!

Respectfully,
Chandler

Jirue

Have a few memorable moments from GW2 for that kinda stuff. Climbing up the lighthouse in Lion's Arch to find an interactable to put on swimming gear and then diving off the lighthouse into the water, for example. Little touches like that can be fun, I agree. Granted, things like this are secondary to securing the primary gameplay loop (combat in this case) but it can be fun to daydream of fun little side activities like this.

Chandler

Jirue wrote: »

Granted, things like this are secondary to securing the primary gameplay

Totally agree with this! Sometimes I forget how early we are in the development that I talk about things that aren't even on the drawing board!

Jirue

Chandler wrote: »

Jirue wrote: »

Granted, things like this are secondary to securing the primary gameplay

Totally agree with this! Sometimes I forget how early we are in the development that I talk about things that aren't even on the drawing board!

No worries mate. I understand the appeal of daydreaming about the potential of a game, which is easy to do when you don't have much tangible to interact with and refine your talking points at this point in development. Had the same discussions with people in past for a game called Firefall on it's forum. Hopefully people can understand discussions like this would be in the context of "this would be nice to consider and bounce ideas back and forth on" rather than a "this is something that needs to be prioritized".

Jirue

Back to the topic on hand, side activities like this can be nice to help round out the interactive nature of a world and I won't hold it against the devs for putting it in since it's usually a quick turn around on this kind of fluff development wise. Personally I like stuff with a bit of challenge/goals built into it though... taking your creature following example, having to lead those creatures to certain points or maybe collecting as many as you can for an NPC.

tautau

OP, I agree, it is fun to have those things in the game.

Fun, perhaps, IS the "primary gameplay loop". Some might see pvp as the loop, because for them pvp is FUN. Others see crafting, or advancement, or role play, house decorating, or whatever as the "primary gameplay loop" because for them, those activities are FUN.

So we each have FUN in several differing ways, but we play to have fun, and I think AoC is going to accomplish this well.

Jirue

tautau wrote: »

Fun, perhaps, IS the "primary gameplay loop".

Sorry mate, but that's a misunderstanding of what a "primary gameplay loop" is. Fun is a goal, not a gameplay mechanic loop, and you're talking about secondary and tertiary mechanics with your examples. All those systems you described are motivators and influencers to the primary loop that is combat.

Crafting is a mechanic to create tools and gear for combat.
Advancement is a mechanic to create diversity in combat.
Role play is a offshoot social interaction determined by lore and visuals which were created to give context to combat.
House decorating is a mechanic to give long term goals for combat (collecting currency and materials which is done by engaging in combat).

Combat is the core of this game, with every other mechanic acting as context and variability for combat. This is why it's important to have solid combat in MMORPGs because it's typically the primary core of these systems that all the other systems exist to help serve, influence, or give context to.