http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/ ... _in_zt.php
ZT Online apparently has some actual game buried in there somewhere, but apparently has mostly degenerated into the opening of treasure chests for a 1% chance of getting top tier gear and a small amount of real money to fund PvP activity.
Oddly enough, the PvP system actually sounds kinda neat. Someone should make a competitive RPG where there is no better gear or abilities, just different gear and abilities. I guess like Guild Wars minus levels plus persistence.
Chinese MMOGing and RMT
Re: Chinese MMOGing and RMT
when I read this I thought of dave....you pagan!...and vinny...the mini pagan!Chinese players always have ways of quickly ascending levels that leave European and American gamers in the dust, and on group missions they do not like to respect the tacit rules of profit division. For those "pedantic" European and American gamers, Chinese players are like fearsome pagans
Re: Chinese MMOGing and RMT
I roll need on epix
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.
Re: Chinese MMOGing and RMT
Finally finished reading this article...was a bit long...but anyway...random thoughts...
In terms of how big the world is, I feel that it's better to have more variety than more open space. Forcing a player to wait X minutes for the next taxi/ship/warp etc to a different zone doesn't really make me feel that the destination is any further than allowing me to teleport there. If it takes me X minutes to manually fly/walk/run to my destination, the player won't take in how vast the jungle/forest/space is...he'll zone out, watch some tv or focus on chat while he autopilots through the zone till he gets to his destination.
In terms of PVP, have instanced dungeons/zones that a player can teleport in to duke it out. The last thing a PVPer wants is to randomly wander a zone for hours just to "ambush" someone by pure chance. Unless the game is extremely popular or that zone has some particular allure to risk random travel, most PVPers would opt to "camp" at choke points where people must go through in order to proceed (ie. spawn points, zone entry points, roads) etc...and because of that people that do need to travel will either risk the "high" probability of encounter or come prepared therefore eliminating the suspense of being "ambushed".
Exploration is overrated! Besides, unless there is some sort of reward to exploring that doesn't seem like a grind (Earth and Beyond had Exploration experience that primarily consisted of visiting generic asteroid A B C in every system just to get some experience points) or some very unique architecture that has some strategical impact in the game (snipe points, ambush points, etc), one can really just take in what to expect scenery-wise in a new "zone" within the first 5 minutes of entering the area.
more ranting to come!
I love games that do this. At the minimum, have something similar to Oblivion, where you have "beginner cities" you can instantly teleport to and other points of interests/towns need to be "discovered once" then you can teleport thereafter. Some would argue that travel is necessary: gives you a sense of how big the world is, or that in order to have an open PVP world you need to force traveling to get a better sense of "suspense" of being attacked or the balancing of reinforcements from neighboring cities when under siege. Others would say that travel is needed for the sake of giving a player a chance to "explore" the world.You do not need to waste your effort to find a NPC to give you a mission; press the F key and a drop-down menu displays character names set out like hyperlinks. Double-click a name and you will automatically be taken to them. If you want to go to a particular location, there is no need to thread a maze. Open up the map, find a place name, click on it, and you will arrive in a moment's time.
In terms of how big the world is, I feel that it's better to have more variety than more open space. Forcing a player to wait X minutes for the next taxi/ship/warp etc to a different zone doesn't really make me feel that the destination is any further than allowing me to teleport there. If it takes me X minutes to manually fly/walk/run to my destination, the player won't take in how vast the jungle/forest/space is...he'll zone out, watch some tv or focus on chat while he autopilots through the zone till he gets to his destination.
In terms of PVP, have instanced dungeons/zones that a player can teleport in to duke it out. The last thing a PVPer wants is to randomly wander a zone for hours just to "ambush" someone by pure chance. Unless the game is extremely popular or that zone has some particular allure to risk random travel, most PVPers would opt to "camp" at choke points where people must go through in order to proceed (ie. spawn points, zone entry points, roads) etc...and because of that people that do need to travel will either risk the "high" probability of encounter or come prepared therefore eliminating the suspense of being "ambushed".
Exploration is overrated! Besides, unless there is some sort of reward to exploring that doesn't seem like a grind (Earth and Beyond had Exploration experience that primarily consisted of visiting generic asteroid A B C in every system just to get some experience points) or some very unique architecture that has some strategical impact in the game (snipe points, ambush points, etc), one can really just take in what to expect scenery-wise in a new "zone" within the first 5 minutes of entering the area.
more ranting to come!