2012-03-16, 02:59 PM
Whut Wrote:Also, extra levels would just be more wasted time. There's little to do past 160 and nothing to do past 180 other than grind at stronghold, boss or collecting things, so what we need it more 160+ content
So? Anyone who has reached level 200 already clearly enjoys "wasting time", especially when you consider all the useful skills will be maxed much earlier. I mean, once you're dumping SP into something like Rush, Big Bang, Ninja Storm, Illusion Step, etc, you're not really getting a significant boost in strength with each level. Mostly you're leveling for any ranking/achievement purposes, and perhaps the 5 base stats per level, as opposed to the 120-150 era where you're also raising a skill that's either a good passive, buff, or main attacking skill. Granted, going past 200 means no more main base stat (unless that is raised as well), but those who have grinded out 190-200 for the achievement will likely also grind 200-210 for the very same reason if you make 210 the new number.
Anyway, about the community being good or bad or whatever, I think the general age of an MMO has more to do with that than anything else. The first grouping of people who join a game and stay with it (excluding the noobs who jump on the "just released" bandwagon, then declare the game garbage within a week and quit) end up sharing a lot of information amongst themselves as they explore uncharted territory. There are all sorts of shared experiences and stories of conquering challenges for which there is no guide, some of which may actually take a few intelligent people to figure out.
But once that's all fleshed out, you end up with a bunch of identical looking guides saying where to train, how to build your character, and any other hand-holding that could be put into text. Soon after, you end up with a game where pretty much everyone has gone through the exact same experiences by following exactly what the guide tells you to (or complaining and being told they're doing it wrong because they strayed from that path). Also, this invites any idiot with a 3rd grade reading level and a keyboard into the same areas and content that everyone else is trying to make use of, whereas before the guides, those idiots probably would not have found their way to that spot. Then you also get the whole elites vs new players battles and people getting bored and complaining the game is dying regardless of whether it is or not *coughHiMapleCommunitycough*, and everything just rolls downhill.
As a final word, I'm not saying guides are bad in any sense. Shoot, I still have a .html save of a Priest/Saint guide I made for a game (that is no longer in operation), and that thing is thousands and thousands of words, plus animated .gifs of each active skill. Good players and good communities want information too, you know. But that was a real comprehensive view of the entire class, rather than just "The idiot's guide to a 200 Demon Slayer", which features one straightforward build and like, 10 total training spots from 1-200.