The Weekly Raid: Do You Always Choose The Fastest Leveling Method In An MMORPG?
MMORPGs are famous for overwhelming amounts of content. It's one way developers create the illusion of a living world: too many activities for one person to conquer. Quests sit outside every village hut, asking players to collect berries, deal with ravenous wolves, and steal candles from confused Kobolds. More isn't always better.
If accepting and completing every single quest isn't the fastest way to level why bother? If you're not engaged by NPC dialogue or a narrative subtly hinted at by the town sheriff is there a reason to wake up lazy peons when grinding the killing fields will level you up faster? Sure, a game may have tons of content but if completing content isn't the best way to progress is there any reason to do it?
The completionist is motivated by a desire to unearth every aspect of a game world so they may complete every quest just to satisfy their exploratory urge, but the average player may only be concerned with min/maxing, so they skip the bulk of a game's content until the brick-wall dubbed end-game meets them.
To be brief, there's a similar issue with skills. I may have twelve fantastic and well-thought out skills, but if I only need to use one what's the point of the rest?
If developers don't force players to experience content is there any reason to engage with it?
Do you always choose the fastest leveling method? Let us know in the comments below!
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From Mega Man II to Ape Escape, I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. I've spent months killing porings in Ragnarok Online and more recently lived a second life in Eve Online. I usually play as gUMBY, gUMBLEoni, or gUMBLes in-game.
