Dear Asheron's Call Developers and team,
Before anything else, I would first like to say that I have been very impressed with the content and changes introduced to AC in the last few years. While I may not agree with every decision you, as a team, have made, I applaud the time and effort you have dedicated towards the vision of transitioning Asheron's Call into a new, modern age. You have taken many steps in the right direction, and I respect your bravery in making such large changes to a nearly 15-year-old game.
While I could go on and share my views regarding the changes made in recent months, this letter has the purpose of addressing, what I consider to be, the largest problem with AC, and providing a potential long-term solution.
The Tragedy of Wasted Content
Asheron's Call is one of the oldest MMORPG's still running. Patched every month for nearly fifteen years, the amount of content this game provides is simply astounding. And yet, in modern times, the vast majority of this content is untouched. As new content is introduced, old content is abandoned; such is the nature of the MMORPG. Playerbase interest, as such, is limited largely to the extent of current end-game material. Wasted content, in my opinion, is the single largest issue that needs to be addressed in this game.
While some may accuse me of a lack of creativity, it is none-the-less the nature of business for a company to look to its competitors for solutions to a commonly-shared problem. Blizzard's World of Warcraft is the most successful game in the industry, and I believe their concept of an Account-Wide Achievement System holds the key to AC's future.
For those unfamiliar, WoW's Achievement System rewards players for completing content (ranging from simple crafting interactions to epic quest achievements) with Achievement Points. These points are awarded on an account-wide basis, encouraging the progression of multiple characters, and the pursuit of different pathways of content progression. This system is enormously successful because it solves countless problems simultaneously; it puts value in all of the game's content (not just that of the end-game), it encourages and rewards active player time investment, and it provides a virtually-endless means of account progression. There is always something to do, and it is always rewarding and worth the time.
A similar system, I believe, would fit perfectly into the core of Asheron's Call. This game has hundreds of quests and miles upon miles of digital terrain. It has a unique crafting system, an unparalleled loot system, and some of the best lore on the market. I strongly believe that rewarding players for revisiting old content would make AC a stronger, deeper, more interesting, and more popular game.
What would an Achievement Point System look like in AC?
Say one day you're running around aimlessly on your mule character because, let's face it, you're friends are all offline and you have nothing better to do. Somehow you wind up on the hills surrounding Holtburg and come across a pathetic-looking Mosswart. You pull out your age-old academy weapon and put an end to its misery. When you open the corpse you find, to your astonishment, a Peppermint Stick. As a mule, you are obviously famished, so you loot the Peppermint Stick eagerly. As you do, your character is surrounded by a brilliant golden glow. You're first thought is, "great I leveled up!....but why is it yellow?!?" Then at the top of your screen you observe a badge light up, informing you that you've been awarded 5 Isparian Points for "being minty cool". You smile and think to yourself, "perhaps I'll go exploring on my mule more often..."
The next day, you're back on your main hunting at Viridian Rise with your buds. After hours of effort, you finally hop your way across the bridge to the tree and talk to Doriathazaar. Instantly, the yellow glow appears and the leaf-lovin' gromnie congratulates you on "climbing the Viridian Deru Tree", awarding you 50 Isparian Points. You hand over your amber, and get the same level 2 ring spell for the fifth time in a row....but it's all good, at least you got some Points.
That night you're preparing for your daily server-wide Deewain's run when you see a new face amidst the crowd waiting at the jumps. You see him working his way up the rocks, and tell him politely he need not bother, they'd all run to the end together to skip the tedious jumping. But the noob, like every single other person on the bloody server, gets some sort of sick satisfaction from listening to what the quest leader has to say, and then doing the complete opposite. You shake your head and sigh, but then notice that, hey, he's doing pretty well. A few seconds later, he's /drudgedancing at the top of the last jump and messages you "lol gf" and you watch as he is surrounded in golden light and is awarded with 15 Isparian Points. You think, after bending down and picking your jaw up off the floor, "perhaps tomorrow I'll test out my jumping legs."
The point I'm trying to make is these Achievement Points could be implemented to such a wide range of content, and provide players with so much to do, that we would never be bored. New content will still be introduced, with a whole new list of Achievements to do, but there will always be justification to go back to "that place you vaguely remember from '02" and explore all that the game has to offer.
You have worked so hard on this game and built so much amazing, creative, intriguing content; don't let it go to waste.
Sincerely,
Air of Darktide, and, more recently, Thistledown
Before anything else, I would first like to say that I have been very impressed with the content and changes introduced to AC in the last few years. While I may not agree with every decision you, as a team, have made, I applaud the time and effort you have dedicated towards the vision of transitioning Asheron's Call into a new, modern age. You have taken many steps in the right direction, and I respect your bravery in making such large changes to a nearly 15-year-old game.
While I could go on and share my views regarding the changes made in recent months, this letter has the purpose of addressing, what I consider to be, the largest problem with AC, and providing a potential long-term solution.
The Tragedy of Wasted Content
Asheron's Call is one of the oldest MMORPG's still running. Patched every month for nearly fifteen years, the amount of content this game provides is simply astounding. And yet, in modern times, the vast majority of this content is untouched. As new content is introduced, old content is abandoned; such is the nature of the MMORPG. Playerbase interest, as such, is limited largely to the extent of current end-game material. Wasted content, in my opinion, is the single largest issue that needs to be addressed in this game.
While some may accuse me of a lack of creativity, it is none-the-less the nature of business for a company to look to its competitors for solutions to a commonly-shared problem. Blizzard's World of Warcraft is the most successful game in the industry, and I believe their concept of an Account-Wide Achievement System holds the key to AC's future.
For those unfamiliar, WoW's Achievement System rewards players for completing content (ranging from simple crafting interactions to epic quest achievements) with Achievement Points. These points are awarded on an account-wide basis, encouraging the progression of multiple characters, and the pursuit of different pathways of content progression. This system is enormously successful because it solves countless problems simultaneously; it puts value in all of the game's content (not just that of the end-game), it encourages and rewards active player time investment, and it provides a virtually-endless means of account progression. There is always something to do, and it is always rewarding and worth the time.
A similar system, I believe, would fit perfectly into the core of Asheron's Call. This game has hundreds of quests and miles upon miles of digital terrain. It has a unique crafting system, an unparalleled loot system, and some of the best lore on the market. I strongly believe that rewarding players for revisiting old content would make AC a stronger, deeper, more interesting, and more popular game.
What would an Achievement Point System look like in AC?
Say one day you're running around aimlessly on your mule character because, let's face it, you're friends are all offline and you have nothing better to do. Somehow you wind up on the hills surrounding Holtburg and come across a pathetic-looking Mosswart. You pull out your age-old academy weapon and put an end to its misery. When you open the corpse you find, to your astonishment, a Peppermint Stick. As a mule, you are obviously famished, so you loot the Peppermint Stick eagerly. As you do, your character is surrounded by a brilliant golden glow. You're first thought is, "great I leveled up!....but why is it yellow?!?" Then at the top of your screen you observe a badge light up, informing you that you've been awarded 5 Isparian Points for "being minty cool". You smile and think to yourself, "perhaps I'll go exploring on my mule more often..."
The next day, you're back on your main hunting at Viridian Rise with your buds. After hours of effort, you finally hop your way across the bridge to the tree and talk to Doriathazaar. Instantly, the yellow glow appears and the leaf-lovin' gromnie congratulates you on "climbing the Viridian Deru Tree", awarding you 50 Isparian Points. You hand over your amber, and get the same level 2 ring spell for the fifth time in a row....but it's all good, at least you got some Points.
That night you're preparing for your daily server-wide Deewain's run when you see a new face amidst the crowd waiting at the jumps. You see him working his way up the rocks, and tell him politely he need not bother, they'd all run to the end together to skip the tedious jumping. But the noob, like every single other person on the bloody server, gets some sort of sick satisfaction from listening to what the quest leader has to say, and then doing the complete opposite. You shake your head and sigh, but then notice that, hey, he's doing pretty well. A few seconds later, he's /drudgedancing at the top of the last jump and messages you "lol gf" and you watch as he is surrounded in golden light and is awarded with 15 Isparian Points. You think, after bending down and picking your jaw up off the floor, "perhaps tomorrow I'll test out my jumping legs."
The point I'm trying to make is these Achievement Points could be implemented to such a wide range of content, and provide players with so much to do, that we would never be bored. New content will still be introduced, with a whole new list of Achievements to do, but there will always be justification to go back to "that place you vaguely remember from '02" and explore all that the game has to offer.
You have worked so hard on this game and built so much amazing, creative, intriguing content; don't let it go to waste.
Sincerely,
Air of Darktide, and, more recently, Thistledown