Nefchast’s Gaming Blog

So, was thinking about the beginnings of MMO’s–not their developmental beginnings but the player’s beginning. What makes an MMO attractive to the new player? What makes them stick with it? First impressions are everything and that holds quite true with MMOs. WoW is the biggest at the moment and when I thought on my time there and the beginning of the game it was pretty obvious why. The start of WoW is simple, familiar (to any veteran MMO player) and quick. The player levels fast, the quests are easy and if the player had never played an MMO before they can figure everything out in the first couple of levels. Now, I figure the time to reach level 10 in WoW is something like 4 hours (for a mean at least), the time is important because it helps people stick around longer at the beginning–if you level too slowly at the beginning people will find it too hard or slow, you level too quickly and while it may attract some people others will find it too easy. So, 4 hours is a pretty decent amount of time, I think. Getting to the teens is pretty important for another reason, it begins setting the player attachment to their character–this is why it is good to not make the leveling too fast, if the leveling is just slow enough to make the player feel a bit of a challenge to get there so they will be less likely to simply start over on another character–alts are great, but I really think (thinking like a designer) that I’d want the people to get a character leveled first so they have a solid attachment to the game. Having a bit of a challenge to level should be good for other reasons, as well, players like a challenge and will feel some accomplishment for it. Now, most leveling (WoW included) feels less challenging and more grinding, but that’s a thought for tomorrow (or later tonight?).