Some might get upset because these are subjective opinions. I’m not offering anything revolutionary. Just, for me, these are the 3 most important topics for an RPG. It’s just a summery and generalization of suggestions for a popular and long lasting game.
Bots are the worst problem for most games.
I’m surprised few companies prioritize it. Hardcore players don’t want to compete with a bunch of botter-farmers. A lot of people don’t understand how detrimental bots are to these games. I’m surprised more people aren’t more outspoken about this problem. On the other hand, a lot of people think bots are no problem. Sometimes they’re pleased that it makes the gear ‘cheaper’ (don’t ask me…). Some will even suggest bots are good! Other times people claim bots are impossible to stop, therefore trying is total waste of time. Well, it’s difficult to stop. There are ways surely, and an effort goes a long way. Removing bots should be the first priority. There’s probably a million ways to catch the bots fast. One thing’s for sure, most botters will never give up.
Items are important.
New, more powerful items is power creep and a nerf. By creating new more powerful items over time, a majority of players receive a new chance to catch up to the players with better gear. You’re actually nerfing the existing items in a round about way. A developer might even think this is good, appeasing a majority and punishing people with the existing items. ‘If we can motivate newer or weaker players, that’s a good thing’, they might think. Or maybe the developer thinks they’re creating new content by adding the more powerful items. Content after all, is what players often demand. But introducing new items over time undermines one of the most important aspects of the game - item collecting.
Having the items immutable/timeless from the beginning is important. Random rolls of varying stats and attributes. That is, each item is pretty unique on it’s own. A ‘perfect’ item should be intensively impossible. It’s important that players can be proud of their gear. Any update shouldn’t add fundamentally new and more powerful items to ‘seem’ like progress/new content. Does anyone think new more powerful items will make the game more challenging and fulfilling? Or maybe they think it’s just a reason for existing players to do the new content? New content without new items is a difficult proposition. I guess someone needs to figure that out. I don’t like to see the value of an existing item system undermined for the sake of new PvE content. I think item’s potential power should be immutable from the beginning.
PvP is important.
A lot of people don’t like PvP. For others, it’s the only reason to play. Some will say FPS games are for PvP, so it’s unnecessary in an RPG. Someone that appreciates the PvP in an RPG knows about the importance of having good items too. An RPG doesn’t have to be purely skill based, like a FPS. The PvP depends a lot on builds and items. The PvP isn’t inherently worse because not everyone is on even ground, and for some, it’s what makes the RPG more fun. The PvP can involve a bit of character build, items and some skill. In the end, the more ‘skilled’ player won’t probably beat someone with just 10% better gear, all else equal. So what though?
1v1 duels are ok, but lacking. Team duels are really fun. Characters that can offer synergy to each other is nice. Something like real teamwork. There’s so much that could be done, a variety of modes, and even stat tracking. A lot of RPG games are just bad at PvP. Not many use things like an area with some terrain. Maybe even randomly generated to mix it up, IDK. One thing that doesn’t work well, is if everyone just piles on top of each other totally spamming everything they’ve got in proximity. Somehow, the PvP needs to feel tactical at least.
