Having fun just isn't rewarding enough on its own

by Seraphina Brennan Jan 12th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Warhammer Online, Opinion

Regis over at the Wizards and Wenches blog brings up a good point when it comes to both having fun and getting your levels in -- sometimes you just can't have it both ways. Regis wants to spend more time in Warhammer Online's open Realm vs. Realm combat, enjoying the live PvP and the crazy times it produces, but feels that it just doesn't provide enough incentive past the fun aspect.

One could easily level faster via questing and PvE opporunities, or scenarios and questing simultaneously, but both can get extremely tedious after a while, especially when you're getting close to the maximum rank. On the other side of the fence you have RvR, which is a more varied activity when compared to questing and scenarios, but just doesn't pay out the experience points and feels more like a guilty pleasure that wastes time.

Check out the full story over at Wizards and Wenches to get the full gist of what's going on in Regis's mind when it comes to this sticky situation.

Tags: experience, fun, level, mythic, mythic-entertainment, open-rvr, orvr, pve, realm-vs-realm, rvr, warhammer-online, wizards-and-wenches

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Vulturion said on 11:45AM 1-12-2009

I assumed that the article was going to be a grumble about the pitiful itemisation, absence of any visual variety and snoresome distribution of advancements after R15 in WAR... but clealry I am just an embittered minority in that position. *sigh*

With regards to plain ol' XP & Renown, I actually found those to move in a timely fashion in WAR - so long as on a populated server and ideally one with the incentive bonus for your realm - so I cannot say I am in sync with the article there.

Brian! said on 11:42PM 1-12-2009

From WoW, WAR item sets do seem limited. They were more limited in WoW the first year too.

I can't say that it bothers me all that much though. I also thought Guild Wars was a really fun game, and loot is far more simplistic there. Then again, I also loved UO where, again, loot was disposable (your going to loose it anyway from gankers, even if your a ganker).

I don't think items = fun in MMOs. But I do think that they are a number of advancement systems that are fun (items can be that for sure) and WAR does need to smooth out their reward systems a bit.

Meanwhile said on 2:03PM 1-12-2009

I have always felt that, yes, fun IS its own reward.

I will never understand the mindset that just because you aren't grinding max XP, you are somehow "wasting" time.

Purkit said on 6:50PM 1-12-2009

Its nice to see people are really having fun in ORvR. WAR shows you don't have to be at the end of the game to have fun. Epic battles can be had from your first day. One of my guildies commented yesterday he was having so much fun in T1 with an Alt he couldn't believe he power leveled past it the first time round. Personally I'm upset when I finally level out of a Tier and leave my lower level comrades behind.

Fun is most certainly its own reward, rushing to get to the end game is pointless without enjoying the journey.

Vulturion: Personally I like the overall look of WAR, I'd be happy to see more clothing and trophies in the game, but its not exactly the number one issue.

sc2071 said on 3:34AM 1-13-2009

I sure hope that the WAR community doesn't turn into the WoW community, where it seems the majority of players ONLY play battlegrounds to grind honor points.

I had such fun in Alterac Valley when we'd actually defending towers and such. However, the games would run longer and many would start complaining about the "effiency" in chat. Talk about killing the fun!

Tasogare said on 6:00PM 1-13-2009

I'd be with you 100% if I didn't remember 8 hour AV's. I too dislike the whole honor "grind" idea, but I like it far better than spending that much time in a turtle-fest.

ScytheNoire said on 9:16AM 1-13-2009

I always enjoyed the Scenario's in WAR, except that it would always be the same one's popping up over and over, and once you move to the next tier, they take away the chance to play the previous one's, some which are a lot of fun.

WAR has a lot of flaws, it was way over-hyped for what was delivered.

And their PvE content just wasn't very good, at all. It was pretty bland and boring, and when I compare Wrath of the Lich King PvE to Warhammer Online's PvE, it becomes very apparent how bad WAR's is.

I hope they can fix things up, but I think they made some major key design flaws from the start, beginning with including PvE and the Tier system.