Contested content: yea or nay?

As a person who played hardcore for a decade, and then took a few years off to play casual, all I can say is that I really hope there is a balance. Casuals need to be able to see everything so using a "heroic" or "legendary" system for runs and raids that have to be unlocked by the hardcore players is a good way to do this. I dont want to see casuals running around with the same graphics of some uber epic shiney mythical loot just because they ran the easy version, but I also dont want casuals to miss the content of the story. Personally I am looking forward to this game more than any game in many many years and I am already feeling the drive to go back to hardcore gaming mode so I hope there is some contested content hidden away in there somewhere.

I think a mix is the best way to go, with a bigger emphasis on contested content over instanced.

I've played many MMOs over the years, and whenever a game focused on one aspect and ignored the other, it created problems. Even in the original Everquest there were a number of times where I would be in a group and we'd go to a dungeon only to find that all the camps were taken and either had to wait for something to open or take the time to travel to another dungeon and try there. There were also days where my guild had raids scheduled only for us to do nothing because nothing was up.

On the other hand, if everything or nearly everything is instanced, the world starts to feel emptier and more artificial. Nothing really feels like it matters since everyone is essentially in their own bubble doing their own thing.

If the emphasis is on contested content it should keep the benefits that come with it, but have some sort of instanced content so that players aren't forced to wait around with nothing to do in very busy areas. Instances should be kept to a minimum but kept as an option. Players should want to group up in contested areas before considering instances.

Since there's so much we don't know about EQN, especially how the Emergent AI will work in practice, it is possible that could have a big influence on things as well. If you can make it so that a group of players can have access to the type of content that they'd like without having to resort to instancing, I think that would be ideal.

The "every area is contested" model died long ago. It worked for EQ initially due to moderately low server populations and it instilled a sense of community due to constantly coming into contact with other players, but long gone are the days of "sharing spawns". I enjoyed contested spawns in EQ, but mostly due to the my guild claiming 99% of all contested spawns. I don't think I'd enjoy an all or nothing Norrath though, so I'm all for a nice blend between the two.

I want to reiterate my earlier comment, just in case I didn't misunderstand the first time.

Please don't force us to PVP to get stuff on non-PVP oriented servers. I won't PVP, period.

So in case by "contested" you meant something like Wintergrasp in Northrend. Please, definitely, do not make a lot of PVP contested areas. That might be fun for PVP lovers, but the rest of us... not so much. I don't want to be forced to PVP and I'll just not play if it turns out that way.

the problem with open tapping is that it kind of kills the pride that goes with finally completing those crazy quests and being able to show off the loot that you camped and fought so hard for. I know it was frustrating, and more than a few times I would throw papers packs of cigs across the room when somebody "stole" my camp, but nothing beat the feeling of finally getting that damn thing done and showing off what I had.

Mm.. I think it depends, really. You'll hunt for things, sure. But you'll also have a good idea of where something might be. I mean, you can logically assume the King of the Orcs is going to be on the throne in Crushbone, or at least in his palace somewhere. Perhaps not always, but that's part of the fun. It's a matter of there being enough content that you can wander wherever and find group, raid, solo content or whatever you're looking for. But yeah, people really need to get over the idea that there will be static spawns.

Making a game with extremely high accessibility (implying no contested content) yields these problems. Here, read this article written by one of WoW's ex leads

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/feature/7540/Mark-Kern-Have-MMOs-Become-Too-Easy.html

Anything to avoid camping and griefing, I say.

I am fine with instancing if there's a workable lock-out system. Nothing suck quite like going to do an instance with your favorite group and finding out someone's locked out OR we all have to go once for each person who needs the quest/drop.

But I am curious, do you actually mean CONTENT or LOOT?

it makes a difference...

I wouldn't worry about this too much. They have some exciting ideas for PvP they've said, but they've also never strictly catered to the PvP set, and they haven't billed EQN as a hardcore PvP game like DAoC or Darkfall and such. *shrug* There will be PvP content, but I imagine like everything it will be optional. EQN is about options, after all.

I expect there will be far more contested than non myself. It's just...you know, how things end up, but it's not going to be in any classical sense. There should be far more public questing opportunities than not in this game.

I think they should have released more info about the EAI system and how it works before asking this question. We have many old school EQs (including myself) having only EQ as a real reference for contested stuff.

As long as they make it so 90% of the player base isn't cut off by 1-2 guilds from content, i can deal with some contested stuff. They could also make the graphics of the weapons/armor from those contested mobs really awesome and only place you can get them, but not make them awesome. Maybe a bit better for the min maxers but not a game changer.

There should be a Balance between the 2. contested mobs need to be there for the greatest feel of risk vs. reward with that being said you should have things to do with your friends and guild that you do not have to worry about a guild hoping on as your setting up groups and what not. There should always be something you can take your guild to go do everyday if that is how you enjoy playing without the worry of lockout timers or other guilds getting involved and so on, however thee should also be alot of boss type mobs and raids that you would wish you seen pop up before someone else does. the emergeant AI is going to play a big part in this. A very rare mob may just pop up some where because you and your friends were slaying all the Skeletons in an area and you should have to worry about another gruoup getting in and killing that named because you were too slow to, and because you were to slow well now you have to kill all of em again if he will even spawn the second time.

Sounds like they're just talking about content to me. Loot is a whole different story, and would really needs it's own separate, specific question if they wanted to bring it here. The problem with instancing, too, is it kills the feel of the world. It makes you feel like you're in a game instead of a living, breathing place. Personally, I always liked running by other groups in dungeons, or as I wandered around and such.

THE ONLY REASON THAT HAPPENS Is because games like GW2 who have things like this.

I will be frank, I played GW2 for the entire year, and this is why it is happening.




NOTHING IS RANDOM, EVERYTHING IS STATIC AND THE GAME tells you EXACTLY where to go.

This is why there is MASSIVE zergs, static events that happen once every 2 hours and events that tell you exactly where to go and what to kill. THERE is no hunting for anything, everything tells you what to do and you have to do it.

*shrug* We also don't really know how gear itself is going to work. We need to not focus on loot, and focus on the content - the question they're asking. Loot isn't relevant. We -do- know gear isn't going to have attribute stats on it. I'm all for open world content, and frankly with the way the EAI system seems to work, with nothing being static and the world ever changing.. I don't think 1-2 guilds will be -able- to hold a lockdown.

That's good to hear. That was where my mind went first, since it didn't really compare in the question contested versus instanced (they're repeatedly said it wouldn't be a lot of instancing, so I went PVP instead).

I do think they could have done better with this question.

I really don't want to go back to the days of Guilds setting up calendars for rotation. I think the top 5% of the endgame should require 100s of people trying to kill the mob. Let's just do away with the competition and let people play. There is also no reason to reward those who put in the time and effort into showing up for the raid. A chance at loot and a token that will get you on the road to that epic piece of phat lewt!

I guess I'm just more casual now a days...

Maybe an idea would be too have the normal contested type mobs and of course some to be instanced but all of the contested mobs drop an item lets say a hardcore player would defina

Contested usually refers to non instanced zones. The vast majority of Everquest was contested with raid bosses on 7 day respawn timers. Dungeons were also contested so there would be set camps for mini bosses, etc.

When I read this poll, I see it as being a choice between the old EQ1 model and the newer EQ2 model of a blend. I fully hope for a nice blend between contested and instanced areas and content.

As a former Vallon zek player (pvp server) i've never actually liked pvp, but liked the feeling of never be secure. or that i really needed to sneak my way to crushbone to get what i needed there. (I was a dark elf) So yes to zone under enemy control.
and with the new monster AI, I want to monster to Contest my content also.

Contested content only become a problem when what you need is under control persistent enemy control. I believe we should have multiple ways of obtaining what we need rather than making it easy to obtain with instances.