Thoughts and Suggestions from a 20 Years MMO Player
N30H
Member
I’ve been playing MMOs for nearly 20 years and have played almost everything out there. I’ve spent some time thinking about what has kept me engaged with certain games and what has made me leave others. I’d like to share my thoughts and perhaps contribute in a small way to your development.
1. Explanations and Tutorials: One of the most important aspects of MMOs for me is clarity and explanation. If I’m playing a game or returning after a long break, I shouldn’t have to resort to YouTube to figure out how to do something. Reading long guides has always been a no-go for me. The best approach, in my opinion, is an in-game video explanation. In every window where you can perform an action, there should be a small question mark in the corner that offers a short and concise video explaining how it works.
2. Intuitive Item Farming: Farming items should be intuitive. If I need a specific item, it should be easy to find by clicking to see where it’s available and what level those areas are suited for. If I have to search through five YouTube videos to find the best guide, it really kills the fun for me. Additionally, it would be great to have the option to mark items I need and have them displayed as an overlay, like a quest window, showing how much I’ve already farmed. I’ve often needed 15 different items and had to constantly check where they were. This can be really exhausting. I’m sure that if you make this more streamlined, it will increase player retention. Players could log in, see what they want to accomplish that day, add it to their list, and farm it one by one. It’s a dream come true because it’s so satisfying to see and track your progress.
3. No "Best Way" to Level: There should be no “best way” to level up. I think this limits the preferences of different players too much. Whether you want to pull and grind mobs, run dungeons, craft, fish, PvP, or focus on the story, leveling should have a certain balance. I’ve often taken the fastest route but ended up doing things I didn’t enjoy. I believe everyone has a desire to express themselves in their own way. Ashes of Creation can have different communities within the game that enjoy different aspects. Everything can flow together or at least not penalize players for focusing on one thing. Personally, I love dungeons and PvP. Crafting and fishing aren’t for me. Please give those players the opportunity to access everything as well. This way, it’s truly fun to do what you want without feeling like you’re falling behind if that’s important to you. “A mob group? Nice, let’s dive in! An open-world event? Awesome, let’s participate!” It gives you the feeling of exploring the world and experiencing new things.
4. Increasing Drop Rates: Drop rates should increase gradually. I don’t think there’s anything worse than running a dungeon 100 times and not getting the item you want. If you’re farming something, the drop rate should gradually increase and reset once you get the item.
5. Individual Cosmetics Configuration: Cosmetics are an art form for many people, where they spend hours, just like you do in development. There are games like Warframe that allow you to customize your character’s colors, armor, and weapons in various ways. I’m a big fan of this and love expressing myself creatively through my character. I think it would be great for the game, so not every warrior is running around with the same helmet, and it would also appeal to the creative players among us who might have specific color preferences. I was once in a guild where we all dressed in black and gold, and when we ventured out together, it felt like being in a movie.
6. Returning Player Experience: When you take a break from the game and return, it can be overwhelming. You don’t remember where you left off, what gear you have, or what you should be doing next. When returning to the game, it should guide you from the point where you left off. This should be kept casual. What content was added when? If I come back, there should be some tagging system to show what’s new—for example, a dungeon symbol on the map with a “new” tag above it. Once you’ve run it, the tag disappears, and it’s mentally logged. This way, when you log back in after some time, you feel excited to explore everything again and have a clear overview without having to search for YouTube videos that don’t quite explain what you’re looking for.
I believe one of the most important things is that the game should be intuitive, allowing players to accomplish tasks without too much research. This reduces friction and mental effort, making the game more enjoyable and leaving more time to actually play.
There are certainly more things I could say, but I’ll leave it at that for now. If you found my suggestions helpful, let me know, and I’d be happy to write another detailed message whenever something else comes to mind.
Best regards, you guys are the best!
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Comments
Specifically on number 3 No Best Way To Level. Some of the biggest turn offs from a game for me has been when I get railroaded into playing a certain way. Especially when it comes to other players literally painting out to you that why would you purposely gimp your character doing that activity. You should be over here with all of us grinding through this dungeon. To have to run the same material 50 times with the same group just to accomplish something. It sucks so bad that once I figure out that's what's happening I will immediately quit a game at that point.
And number 6 Returning Player Experience. Coming back after a long break is almost more difficult than just re-rolling and starting over. But why should I because I already have done that content and have this progressed character. Except I am standing in the middle of an empty zone, there are new abilities that I don't have any awareness of, points of interest have changed. Economics changed and the flax I have is completely useless because it's been replaced by a different resource. It can all be so overwhelming that I have rarely lasted more than a day or two in a lot of games I came back to after a long break. Especially in games I left because of number 3
I am a huge fan of this. I also like when there are offline help functions and tutorials that players can review when servers are down, or waiting in queues, or just downtime in general. Something where you can log in a character to experiment/practice in a tutorial/training setting when there is game downtime for whatever reason.
This ties into the first point as is also something that i've found in games. Typically with single player puzzle RPGs that I never finish, which is like all of them. I tend to binge on them for a few days, then get distracted by life, and by the time i come back I cant remember where I was or where I'd been. All the old clues from earlier are forgotten, and I might as well start over.
Since Ashes doesn't really have a quest logging system or storyline to progress, it does remove this particular aspect of the problem. Also, with the way Ashes is designed, the intent is to log in an "discover" what dungeons and content is available. The world should be constantly changing, so even from day to day or week to week we wont find the same dungeons regardless of breaks.