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The Daily Grind: Do you like bonus experience systems?
"Rested experience" in MMOs seems like it ought to be a casual player's best friend, right? If you log out for long enough, the game will double your experience gain rate the next time you play... up to a certain point, of course, and only if you log out in the right spot (or only if you're a subscriber). But after a while, you get so inured to bonus experience that playing without any of it banked starts to feel like playing at a huge disadvantage. Double exp becomes the new normal, and old normal feels slow. I can't stand feeling like I'm taking the sucker's bet to play now at half the speed rather than wait. And that always makes me create and turn to a stable of alts to maximize my rested exp, which means I'm metagaming and playing characters I don't really want to be playing. Never mind the annoyance of always having to find a tavern or cantina to log out in, which is a breeze in some games and rather a pain in others! So what about you? Do you like bonus experience systems? 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!
Behind the Mask: The separation of newbie and expert
Last week on Behind the Mask, we got into a little discussion about why Champions Online's Elite difficulty needs to be buffed (and possibly also the very hard difficulty as well). This led to a discussion of whom Elite would be tailored for. I'm sure this is a big issue over at Cryptic right now. If Elite is increased in difficulty, whom should it be designed to suit? I was asked this burning question a few times, and I've made my opinion clear: that Elite should be for the top tier, the tip of the iceberg of player ability. Don't take that to mean Gold players only. There is a sharp divide between an expert Silver player and a poor Gold player. In fact, the poor Gold player is likely to be worse than a bad Silver player. How good is good enough? This week, we'll find out.
