Hello ^^
Lastly i've had few discussions where i've had this idea, so here are some of my personal thoughts.
I think that huge majority of us keep playing this game mainly due to its combat design. There is just no other MMO game where the combat feels so good. The reason to it is that it offers a lot of personal input, meaning that what you click and how you click it - makes a difference. Also there is no cooldown limitation
(not including SP skills), but rather a combo build-up system which is much more similar to real life in terms of mechanics and allows for more personal control/design.
All of it makes this game much more dependent on player's performance and his personal skills - which means that we could use this as main drive force to the game.
RPG system regarding stats/equipment is an old idea... which in my opinion is outdated. It is meant to imitate progress of your character as 'you', but in fact it does nothing but changing numbers on your screen. With Vindictus combat, where we actually have a way to progress
in real way (personal way - improve ourselves), it is not needed anymore... and in fact i think it's actually disruptive and that it affects the game negatively.
People who play this game and stay, do it mostly because of the combat design
(i think so at least), which means that they actually enjoy this personal progress, even if in part. What this means is that by having equipment depending, we make this game less attractive regarding its main asset - combat.
In a game where combat should be the deciding factor of who performs better, equipment depending destroys this whole idea, because in a moment when
your performance should make a difference - it doesn't, simply because there is some other casher or die hard farmer with some OP equipment/stats.
Ok, ok... i know what you're thinking.
How do you make such drastic transition? How Nexon will earn money? What will keep players in game?
I have answers to all of these.
So firstly... i think that people who play this game for stats/items are... well, you know what i want to say in here
.
All this system is fake and the reason it works at all is only because people believe in its meaning. It's the same as with money... we all basically just trade numbers/papers/metal coins... which don't really posses the value they represent, we only believe they do because it is better, more comfortable this way.
In case of Vindictus it's rather enforced on us, since stats make a difference in 'damage' which affects whether you finish battle faster or not, etc. but nevertheless, stats are just numbers on your screen - nothing else. So in case of Vindictus i would describe this idea as 'rat race'
(it seems to be the best analogy).
1. Ok, so how would Nexon earn money?
a) Fashion
(avatars, dyes, etc.) fashion system should receive more adjustable interface which would allow for more changes according to personal preferences - for which then Nexon can charge people.
b) Pets - also advance their role, for example make them grow from little 'puppies' to big animals... add more life-like features which would give them more meaning + possibility to customize their appearance - again, add items that can be purchased with real money.
c) Advance social features/housing system/guild system - and then add possibility to purchase items with real money to customize all this stuff, like for example new couch to your house or whatever
(i think you get my point).
d) Etc.
When game is more 'player-friendly' and less 'cash-based' it attracts more players = even with less income from single player, you get more overall income because many more players spend money on your game. It's like you would for example make a game, and wanted to sell it for 1000$ to each person, you wouldn't earn much money because people couldn't afford on it, or simply wouldn't even want to spend so much money, which means that you would have maybe few people who would pay as much and that's it. Now, if you'd sell that game for 5$ for example, and instead of few people, there would be 100,000 people who would buy it - you would earn 500,000$ instead of just few thousands.
Just look at League of Legends, they have no cash-based systems that affect your gameplay, meaning that you can't spend for example 100$ to deal 5x more damage to another person, which makes this game much more player-friendly. They earn money mainly from skins
(which would be avatars in Vindictus), and because the game is more player-friendly and allows for personal progress in terms of team-tactics, co-operation, etc.
(it gives to people 'a purpose' based on real progress) - they have enormous playerbase and they earn tons of money.
So what i'm proposing for Vindictus is basically what League of Legends has.
2. What would keep players in the game?
a) Well, it is partially answered in previous statement. With new social/guild/housing/etc. systems, people would have more things to do in game. People play MMO games mainly
because there are other people who they can play wtih. So it is important to advance systems that improve and give more possibilities for social interactions - that's one thing.
b) Second would be adding achievements, like in Einrach for example, rankings, etc. as mentioned at the beginning - making the personal progress in terms of combat as main drive force to the game, which means rewarding your personal progress with 'achievements', something to share with other people.
c) Another thing is, that with current system where items 'matter', players skip most of the content just to get to the newest battles - because they are profitable. Equipment depending makes most of the content that developers made unattractive and therefore it becomes useless, more like a 'struggle part' of the game which everyone has to do to get to the 'real game' at the end. Removing equipment depending would allow players to enjoy all areas of the game, because they wouldn't be dependent on 'items' anymore, and bosses of all areas could be adjusted to be challenging to players - so people would play the game as they like, and expierence it without any rush towards ending, discover the world with their own preference and speed.
d) Focus on development of PvP finally, it is also very essential part of the game, because players interact with each other and create 'content' for each other... which means that developers don't have to spend as much time on it as on PvE
(where they have to design and create new maps/graphics/boss moves/etc. all the time). All they need for PvP system is to make a map, make proper combat/matching system
(once but properly) and then people will just keep playing it. PvP offers much more diversity in terms of combat than PvE which makes it less monotonous, and doesn't require as much workload from developers as PvE.
...(continuation in next post, since i've reached limit of allowed characters xD)...
Comments
3. Transition... now this would be the hard one.
Honestly, i personally doubt something like this would ever happen to Vindictus anyway, so it's more like an idea to discuss on forum... a way to imagine how great it could be ^^. But let's say for the sake of discussion that Nexon would consider something like this.
There are few ways to achieve this, however the best option would be to go step by step (to make transition easier).
Add more features which aren't based on equipment, slowly making it less and less equipment dependent (like Einrach for example). At the same time start adding all those new features, like social features, guild features, etc. (as mentioned in previous statements). At some point players will get use to this new system already and that's when equipment/stats could be completely removed from the game. At the same time i would increase advertising for the game to inform world that Vindictus has become a 'new game', something that could interest many new players to join.
At this stage, population should start to increase and we should have snowball effect.
Another option would be to create separate server, which would be basically the same Vindictus but without equipment/stats and see which one would be more attractive to people, which one would be a better option for the future of this game.
Well that's all in general i guess xD.
Now i would like to know your opinions. Let's discuss!
I think keeping personal gear progression in the game is important because it's part of the thrill for many players, especially the ones that come from rpg/mmorpg/mobas. It's different from leveling up a stat through playing because people feel like their gear and stats is theirs through and through, rather than something everyone gets eventually. I could sit here all day telling people who ask "is this game worth coming back to" that it's worth coming back to to have fun and hone their skills, but they usually really mean to ask "how hard is it to catch up on the months/years of gearing and content I missed" or "is upgrading gear still rng with equipment destruction" as though that's all there is to it. It's just all that some people care about and I'm not going to bother trying to convince them anymore.
You have a lot of good ideas here but I just feel like the main overhaul would just be an extremely long term and risky goal that wouldn't be worth investing in to them. At best I could see them making a separate game - not another version of Vindictus where gear isn't a thing, but some dinky little mobile game. I'm sure phones can handle something like a "Vindictus Lite" where you play alone, as one of a few characters with fixed stats, with a small selection of bosses. It's sad but I don't expect much from asian game devs these days, haha. At least something like that might draw in new players for the main game in all regions where it's available.
This post was a bit scattered so I'll narrow down my points
-uniform stat battles for groups of players are cool
-avatar strength and player strength both need to exist in this game due to the audience it's advertised to
-unique gear has "personality"
-overhaul is a huge and risky investment, game isn't alive enough in any regions to live without the scam that is our rng gearing system
-lol, mobile games
Think for a moment, when you play Einrach, do you play for drop or do you play for achievement? I bet you try to get gold medal and you practice, repeat the battle until you get it, or surrender ^^. If people would play it for the drop, they would just do it once, no matter of medals they get, and they would be done with it.
That's the kind of progress i'm thinking about which would work as drive force to the game.
Also, removing 'equipment depending' doesn't mean 'removing items'. The idea is to remove stats from items, but bosses can still drop some items... which in this case would have a purpose of avatar customization for example. The whole idea is only about removing 'stats' which don't really have any meaning and only cause inequality.
There are many ways in which the 'drop' from bosses could be customized, for example there could be some rare drops for special avatar items, or some ornaments/badges/wings/shiny armor/whatever that represents achievements, etc. Also if they create new features as i mentioned in main post, like housing system, social features, guild features, pets, etc. - those will also require some items for customization or whatever (depending on the feature), so all those items could drop from bosses.
Think of it this way too, is there anything wrong with having stats on gear and gear upgrades if everyone could get it easily? We're almost at that point with the seal shop update and the events pelting us with free scrolls and runes anyways, with the rng being the only thing really ruining it. And there, we're back at the same point of whether or not this game should have rng as part of the upgrading system. Full circle, man.
edit: I don't even know what I was getting at there but I'm leaving this post as it was so I can laugh at it later.
But judging on the reactions from random people about stories from Einrach, it really tells you that not many really wanna bother with it.
I don't know if it's due to incentive, to me I initially was in it for the stat bonuses but I just ended up enjoying most of it more and the stats became secondary.
I do like the customization aspects you're suggesting, but I still think it would help more if gears were still in the game - though the process being heavily modified to not be so annoying and frustrating.
The current system makes it so that trying out new things is incredibly frustrating and expensive. Heck I can't even make a fun build without spending a gorillion gold on it. Don't get me started on alt gearing, where I just don't bother with some characters I'm slightly interested in just because of the massive gold/time investment.
It's a Korean publisher and game developer, and those specialize in grindy cash-shop centric games. Accept that things won't change
(Although I do agree that having a separate mode where your bal/crit/att/m.att is a fixed number and aspd is set to 60 or 70 would be neat, though running that has no benefits unless you compare yourself to someone else to see if you deal more damage)
Even if they make +15 they ended up quitting thinking they're done.
Or get all rare outfits, having lots of clothes-mixing to be a true fashionista...
Or simply minmaxing all your gears with fully limit breaking and damage reflection...
Ferghus is just cheap.
and make salty face when I get 2nd in DPS
LIKE THIS
( 丼 o皿O)
only a jug of brandy
and dandy kaiwould appease my frustration