The Daily Grind: What sort of challenges feel fair in an MMO?
When I was younger (so much younger than today), I decided that it sounded like a fun jaunt to play through Devil May Cry on the hardest difficulty setting, appropriately named "Dante Must Die." For those who have never experienced this particular joy, playing the game at that level requires an insanely precise level of timing and movement, with several fights ending in instant death if you dodge left instead of right. The game's strategies weren't difficult, but the challenge was all in the execution. Of course, that sort of model can be problematic in an MMO, where a second of lag can turn a successful execution into brutal failure.
MMOs have always used a wide variety of different challenges. Guild Wars asks players to make use of positioning and timing to overcome challenges, while Final Fantasy XI's endgame is much more focused on encouraging a good strategy and good team synergy. What sort of challenges do you think are best suited to the group environment of an MMO? Conversely, what sort of content design feels like an unfair challenge in context?
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
