The Tarnished Path
I admit it. I don’t know the first thing about this so-called “Golden Path” that SOE is implementing in EQ2. I haven’t been keeping up with news, developer notes and chats, patch notes, and all that good stuff. I haven’t even been reading gaming blogs all that much and I certainly haven’t been in game much, so I honestly don’t know what exactly is going on.
Being completely clueless and totally out of the loop sounds like the perfect invitation to throw out my 2 cents.
Over the years, I have heard a lot of people saying that the level grind in EQ2 needs to be simplified. My guild leader has always been a vocal proponent for easing the leveling path.
I disagree… not because I’m some old cranky fuggar waving my cane in the air and screaming, “Back when I was a young adventurer, we walked to our quest hubs barefoot… in the snow… both ways… and we LIKED it!” I disagree because the leveling grind is already stupid easy. It isn’t hard. What it is is tedious… and there is a difference.
Now I realize that different people play in different ways and have different things that they enjoy. When it comes to the newbie stuff, I personally prefer the original (revamped) newbie islands. I’ll freely admit that I probably prefer them due to nostalgia, but I was pretty disappointed when I heard that they were getting rid of those islands completely. “It’s confusing to newer players.” Well, here’s a thought. Rather than burning down the entire building because you found a mouse, why not add a message to character select? If you pick to start in Qeynos or Freeport, have a message that pops up warning new players that this path might be more difficult and point them to your vaunted golden path? When you start eliminating options in an MMO and replace them with a connect-the-dots approach to playing, the game is no longer a free-world MMO. It’s a standalone game with a chat client.
I don’t know what all they are planning to remove with the next game update. I don’t know if it is just the newbie islands or if all of the little zones off of the hamlets will be removed as well. I’m hoping it is just the newbie islands.
One of the problems that I see in a lot of the newbie stuff they have released with various expansions and updates is that they seem to be losing sight of what makes the MMO experience so enjoyable for so many people. The original content came with newbie dungeons. I don’t remember if they were there at launch or added later, but you have the Wailing Caves (I think that is the name) in Qeynos and the Sunken City (again, I think that is the name) in Freeport. Get a few more levels and you get the Down Below in Qeynos and a comparable zone in Freeport. With Greater Faydark, Darklight Woods, and Timorous Deep, there are no dungeons to experience at lower levels. Instead, there is a straight course, follow the path quest structure that leads you around by the nose.
I guess even that wouldn’t be so bad if there was any substance to the quest lines. The trend for the last while seems to be to make the quest lines very verbose using tons of text in a poorly disguised attempt to make you forget the fact that yet another NPC is sending you out to kill ten rats. They might throw in a weak attempt at presenting an actual story by concocting a completely unbelievable tale of woe about how “rats killed my father,” but it all boils down to lazy quest design and poor writing skills.
Even the newer heritage quests, which have always been quests where you could count on getting some pretty decent storied tie-ins to EQ and pre-shattered Norrath, have become laughable in the laziness with which the developers approach the quests. There isn’t even an attempt at continuity any longer and the “new and improved” storylines come across as pathetic attempts to hide the fact that there seems to be little creativity left these days.
The worst part is that the problem appears to be getting worse rather than getting better. Rather than putting in an effort to make leveling fun, exciting and immersive, Sony has decided to instead do all they can do to take leveling out of the game completely by providing a clear-cut path. Just follow the numbers in order and you get to max level with minimal effort.
I guess we as gamers are simply too stupid to be given choices so from now on the game companies are going to tell us how to play, how to level and how to raid. Maybe they will also install a pop up message that will inform us of when we are having fun so we’ll know that as well.
You know, you don’t have to follow along, the golden path is merely a guideline for someone like my sister who just started the game and really has no idea what to do. Jaded 1st gen MMO players may take insult, but really, it’s helping keep our game alive.
Like I said, I don’t know squat about it. I haven’t seen it or tried it. And I’m not opposed to the idea of having it in there. What has me annoyed is the removal of options. Put in the new path, but where is the harm in leaving the old? If you are afraid new players won’t know which is the easy road, put in a message during character creation.
My only point is that you don’t have to remove the old to introduce the new. A simple message explaining the “best” experience for new players is all that was really necessary to accomplish the same goal you are talking about.