In DAoC you have already a hint of this. The focus (supposedly) is on the realm and in what you do in a wider context. Your power as a single character is still important but it’s not the main and ONLY focus. You aren’t there to brag your loot or to grief-kill less powerful players. You are there playing in a simulated world where your actions have a purpose on a wider context. A context where there is competition (against other realms). But is excused competition. A contextual presence in a simulated world, with actions and consequences. Not narcissism.

Reasons inside the game, as a world. As an attempt into involving you with something valuable.

You don’t have to feel better than anyone else. I consider that need STUPID. Both in a game and in real life.

That just exploits the geeks with huge problems with dependences and egos.

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I’m not writing about advancement here. I’m writing about the competition, both in PvE and PvP. It’s simply the same stuff done differently.

The advancement is another whole matter. About the advancement I think it must feel FUN. And I think that the fun revolves around the ability to learn. Learn is about the “new”. And the new is about the content we all speak about.

Hard games? No sorry. I don’t see hard games. Being logged for 11 straight hours isn’t an hard game, it’s simply stupid design.

The difficulty implies the possibility to *learn*. If learning a game is fun you have a winner. It doesn’t matter if that process asks you millions of hours, the more the better. That’s gameplay, you can go through the gameplay with your own pace. Slowly or fast depending on your resources.

The fact is that “uber” designed mmorpgs have nothing to do with the difficulty, nor the gameplay. They are just timesinks to put a limit between a part (casual players) and the winners (your uber players). The difference is that if you are lucky you have access to a part of the game, if you are unlucky you cannot. And that “feeds” the fact you are uber and others aren’t.

You cannot build a game where everyone can do that or the difference between you and others will be wiped, the fact of you being uber could be revealed in its idiocy. The game will break.

“Uber” designed games are the plague of the genre along the grief-PvP. They exploit a part of the playerbase to make the other part feel powerful and important. Boost the egos, nourish the catasses.

It’s exactly the unhealthy meaning of competition. Fighting against each other for an empty value.

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It’s not even about the opportunity.

The basic idea of being “uber” is that someone can, someone else cannot. They CANNOT offer the possibility to everyone, they need a way to prevent that. For now the path to produce this, in the RPGs, has been the *time*.

The time is the gameplay element that makes someone powerful and someone else not.

Other games, like FPS, don’t use the time but use your skills at moving the mouse, the power of your videocard and so on.

I consider both lame.

As an example DAoC’s PvP has a more proper competition focused around a realm and a common purpose, instead of a strict (and pointless) 1vs1.

The path to produce a successful game isn’t anymore the EQ-dependence that asks you a complete dedication. It’s time that these games become more accessible and fun right out of the box. I don’t want to play for months to be able to reach the core of the game like EQ high-level raids or DAoC PvP. I don’t want the players and my friends to be segregated on a stupid level system.

You need to address all those issues. This doesn’t mean that the game’s structure needs to be bland, it just means that the mechanics must revolve on different elements. Strengthen what has been interesting and address the real issues to allow everyone to experience the fun that till now has been accessible only to a “lucky” few.