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Post by greendragoon on Sept 13, 2011 10:00:17 GMT -5
First off let me preface this by saying that this is a totally hypothetical idea and I'm not actually sure if this would be practical, let alone should be implemented. However, it was shuch an off-the-wall idea that I just had to share.
I've been following the STO f2p transition closely, and I was listening to one of the STO podcast, Priority One. They had brought on an MMO expert who was going over the origins and variations of f2p that have sprung up in recent years. He was talking about some Korean f2p MMOs and how the gold members would kind of share the wealth with silver members to gain a sort of social standing.
We'll I though, "Those weird Koreans." and moved on. But last night I was sidekicking with a friend and it suddenly hit me, "Would something like that work for CO and silver freeforms?"
Wait, here me out.
Right now, archetypes are basically licked into a single framework with about 3 powers shy of a FF. What if in order to fill in those 3 extra powers, a silver had apprentice (i.e. become the side kick of) a gold level freeform. The silver could choose to start learning one of the skills the gold player knows. The silver would have to spend a certain amount of time running missions, (probably measured by exp) during which the gold takes a cut of any resources he earns, as well as gets additional credit for kills. There would also be a mandatory "Sidekick of [Insert gold here's name]" title.
Once the silver has completed learning the skill, he can choose to leave off on his own or stay and learn another skill. The silver can choose to unlearn any skill he's learned, but must repeat the process to learn it again. There could also be additional features such as the gold player can request to summon the silver to give him a hand on a mission.
This would definitely increase social interactions, plus give super groups the important task of playing match maker. You could even have titles for gold members such as Sensei and Master Teacher.
So, what do you think, a spark of genius, or the ravings of a madman?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2011 10:21:19 GMT -5
Some would view it as forced teaming for very little benefit. And you know the extra powers that would be available via this system would be hand picked by Cryptic to fit within the theme of the player's AT. So ideas of gaining a self heal might be met with even more damage abilities or a utility power.
I don't see this as a viable system for CO.
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Post by supercollide on Sept 13, 2011 10:41:42 GMT -5
An intriguing idea. I've seen it used to good effect in a few games.
BUT I kinda agree with Honor Guard in that it's unlikely Cryptic would adopt it, especially as they've set the ATs like that for a reason.
And as someone who runs a Gold & a Silver Account I know it would be open to abuse by folks 'dual-boxing' (running both accounts at once).
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Post by greendragoon on Sept 13, 2011 10:45:33 GMT -5
Some would view it as forced teaming for very little benefit. And you know the extra powers that would be available via this system would be hand picked by Cryptic to fit within the theme of the player's AT. So ideas of gaining a self heal might be met with even more damage abilities or a utility power. I don't see this as a viable system for CO. So I'm going to fully admit that my own inexperience with the intricacies of the freeform system, so I'm going to ask you to elaborate. Do you think that forced teaming is a bad idea in general, or that the reward simply are not enough? You mention that you think Cryptic would limit skill selection, why would that be? Would allowing silver to slowly swap out archetype defined powers be a more appropriate reward instead of limiting them to only three extra skills? An intriguing idea. I've seen it used to good effect in a few games. BUT I kinda agree with Honor Guard in that it's unlikely Cryptic would adopt it, especially as they've set the ATs like that for a reason. And as someone who runs a Gold & a Silver Account I know it would be open to abuse by folks 'dual-boxing' (running both accounts at once). I don't know, Cryptic seems pretty open. They worst they can do is say no. As to dual-boxing, I'm not entirely sure what that would get someone, but the idea is that there would still be a hefty grind to getting custom skills.
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Post by KenpoJuJitsu3 on Sept 13, 2011 11:21:30 GMT -5
As to dual-boxing, I'm not entirely sure what that would get someone, but the idea is that there would still be a hefty grind to getting custom skills. Dual-boxing would get them whatever skills they want on their AT without the social interaction requirement of your suggestion. I could go Gold for a while, dual box and set my silver AT to follow. Then just crush everything with the gold until I go through the requisites to put the powers I want on the AT. Example: Sub gold, pick a blade AT. Dual box. Get my blade to learn evasive maneuvers, bountiful chi resurgence and Unbreakable or Ego Surge. Un sub. I now have what is essentially a freeform level AT and I wouldn't need anyone else's help to do it.
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Post by not1stepbackwards on Sept 13, 2011 11:26:06 GMT -5
Hi OP, you really sparked my interest in this. I used to work for a Korean game company (with just 1 international browser-based game at the time) and what you said made me flash back to...not just the game, but the company culture as well.
In game terms, "network effects" - this is a generally understood concept, I'm just using the term used by economists. Simply put, the more the merrier. 1 guy playing a game has an okay time, but 2 friends playing the same game together has more fun. In fact, that's the basis of any MMORPG and what you're suggesting is like a deeper relationship, making those bonds stronger. As long as 1 guy continues playing, he can keep his other friends involved in the game.
In cultural terms, "networking" - I'm Chinese and I've observed that "relationships" generally play a more prominent role in the East than the West. We call it "guanxi" or "face" or other names, but it's really just networking, "who you know not what you know"...an universal concept. Asian business management gurus tend to make it more exotic than it is. That said, I did notice Koreans value that even more highly, and it's exactly like what you described! They have this mentor/disciple (or Jedi/Padawan or sempai/kohai) thing going. What I saw is when someone left the company, it's socially expected his apprentice would follow him, regardless of the risk to his own career (I'm not sure how prevalent this is, but I saw 2 cases like that and it stuck in my mind as "wow, that's old skool loyalty"). It's so fascinating they have a game mechanic that really mirrors such social practices!
So when I read your idea, at 1st I was like, "that's interesting", but then I went sort of "well, that actually makes a lot of sense in perhaps such a cultural context".
Then I thought, just hypothetically, if it's worth implementing something similar to CO. But that's when I realised we already have something like that in Supergroups and Forums.
Supergroups - with things like the Supergroup vault, already Gold members or just veteran Silvers share resources. Moreover, members help each other level and share experiences. It's like there is a mentor/disciple thing going on (we even have ranks to reflect this), but simply a little less 1-to-1.
Forums - IMHO, I believe in "who I know is what I know". Everyone here is my mentor. And I found knowledge to be the most valuable commodity...just advice on which powers to select or how different Archetypes measure up is as useful as actually buying a Paid Archetype.
In short, I think it's brilliant concept, not a crazy idea at all, but we also have something very similar IMHO, so it's probably not worth reinventing the wheel. But seriously, I think that's so interesting and really appreciate you raising the topic.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2011 12:51:07 GMT -5
Some would view it as forced teaming for very little benefit. And you know the extra powers that would be available via this system would be hand picked by Cryptic to fit within the theme of the player's AT. So ideas of gaining a self heal might be met with even more damage abilities or a utility power. I don't see this as a viable system for CO. So I'm going to fully admit that my own inexperience with the intricacies of the freeform system, so I'm going to ask you to elaborate. Do you think that forced teaming is a bad idea in general, or that the reward simply are not enough? You mention that you think Cryptic would limit skill selection, why would that be? Would allowing silver to slowly swap out archetype defined powers be a more appropriate reward instead of limiting them to only three extra skills? An intriguing idea. I've seen it used to good effect in a few games. BUT I kinda agree with Honor Guard in that it's unlikely Cryptic would adopt it, especially as they've set the ATs like that for a reason. And as someone who runs a Gold & a Silver Account I know it would be open to abuse by folks 'dual-boxing' (running both accounts at once). I don't know, Cryptic seems pretty open. They worst they can do is say no. As to dual-boxing, I'm not entirely sure what that would get someone, but the idea is that there would still be a hefty grind to getting custom skills. The idea and concept of teaming up isn't a bad thing in iteself however when you can only get your AT the three extra abilities via teaming up then some people will feel "forced" to do it while others will gladly team up. Another thing is finding a Gold player to team up with. What's in it for them besides a portion of the resources and credit for kills. These are already things that occur while running a lair or other indoor mission while teamed. Resources are split and kill credit is group wide. Cryptic would indeed have the final say in which abilities an AT would be able to obtain via this system. If the ATs are meant to stick with a pre-determined theme(framework) then why would they allow them to obtain powers outside of that theme? If you allowed them to swap out already obtained abilities for something else in the same framework then you'd still have problems. For instance, you'd run into PvPers crying foul because they'd feel forced to team up and do PvE to grind out levels with someone in order to stay competitive in the Hero Games. There's a plethora of problems that this system would introduce into the game.
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Post by Pion on Sept 14, 2011 13:29:25 GMT -5
I think it's a really clever idea and would be pretty neat in an ideal world, but with human nature thrown in you can bet some people would feel cheated because they enjoy a solo game or insulted because they have to be a sidekick for someone who's only merit is, essentially, they bought power.
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