A mind-blowingly fantastic feature, and yet one still seen all-too rarely in modern games, is the concept of the sidekick. First introduced in City of Heroes, sidekicking allows players to adventure together even if there's a disparity in character levels. Lowbies can hook up with high-level players, while endgame players can 'slum' with the newbies. It's a crazy mad world where fun and community matters more than the number of experience points you've acquired. Wacky! EverQuest 2 uses a system similar to this called the mentoring which allows high level players to drop down and participate in lower-level gaming. The reverse isn't true, unfortunately. And these two games are almost the only titles in the modern MMO space that allow for this degree of play flexibility. It seems like most designers still just can't let go and accept the idea that playing with friends is the number one priority.
City of Heroes
12/03/08
Add your comments (Page 1 of 5)