Saturday 28 February 2004

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Trials of DAoC

When the online game Dark Age of Camelot was released, it became an instant hit. It was rock stable, the graphics were comparable to the newest expansion for EverQuest but ran on cheaper hardware, and the "realm war" concept provided a mix of safe zones and war zones on each server. The game mechanics virtually eliminated "griefing" and "twinking", two scourges of massive multiplayer games.

Over the next year, the game expanded into Korea and Europe, where it was translated into French and German. New content was added regularly. When the first expansion pack was released after a year, it was widely acclaimed as "a true expansion rather than a glorified patch". Game balance was preserved among the realms, and owners of the Shrouded Isles expansion were only marginally more powerful than those who stuck with the original; they did however have more ways to get to that power, since they could choose among more races & classes and level up in more zones.

The game remains popular despite the release of several highly anticipated competitors. It may no longer be growing much, if at all, but it holds its own. At least it did, but lately resentment is growing. A large part of this is due to the second expansion pack, Trials of Atlantis.

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Unlike Shrouded Isles, the ToA expansion focuses squarely on high-level content. Where SI added newbie and intermediate zones as well, Atlantis is for those above 40. Completing the "trials" gives rewards that makes the character superior to those who don't have the expansion. Magical artifacts and permanent new abilities lift the new Atlanteans above their former peers; in a duel, there is no suspense as to who will win.

Somewhat belatedly, Mythic has realized that they may have gone too far. They are now reducing ("nerfing") the new superpowers, which of course breeds resentment in those who had them. Yet, they will still be somewhat superior, so it is far from certain that the rest of the players will be happy either.

The way I see it, the game has started to split. There are now two distinct types of players: The casual and the serious. Casual players won't be willing to spend the money for a high level expansion and the time and energy involved in the long, complex, group-requiring Trials. The price for this is that they will always be inferior to the serious players, and as such it makes no sense for them to take part in the realm wars. Since the realm vs realm play is the defining trait of DAoC over any other game, their brand loyalty will be that much less.

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The serious players, on the other hand, have much to stay for. They have invested both time and money in the game. Many have two accounts, some even more. (The second account is usually used for a "buff bot", a healer class character that has powers to enhance fellow players. Except in this case he uses all his powers to enhance the main character on the owner's first account.) The serious player also often has his own in-game house, available with the free downloadable housing expansion Foundations. A house costs quite a bit of in-game money to buy, and some for upkeep, but offers various services that otherwise may be scattered around the main city or even further away, such as crafting merchants.

Yet another way in which Mythic clearly cares for their "frequent fliers" is the /level command. A player with at least one character at the maximum level (currently 50) can elect to start his new characters at level 20, or in special cases level 30 (in realms that seriously lack manpower for realm war). This allows the serious player to more rapidly build a "tool box" of high level characters from different classes, for different needs.

The net effect is that the population is very stable these days. But there are really few new players. When you stroll through the traditional newbie areas, you may see a couple junior characters. But as you walk into the first level 20 dungeon, the place is so crowded you may have to wait your turn to whack at a monster. This is, to my eye, a pretty clear sign that the hobby players have fled ship and left the "pro" players pretty much alone. Perhaps that's OK for Mythic. After all, the money is not in growth. Growth requires new servers and new employees. Having regular players that pay their rent every month and require very little support is financially beneficial. On the European login server, you can often see that one or more servers are labeled "full". The European distributor simply doesn't deem it worth the trouble (and expenses) to set up a new server until all existing servers in that language are full.

I guess I'm somewhere in between the two player groups myself. I have three DAoC accounts, actually ... one in America and two in Europe. I have also resolved to buy at least one copy of ToA once it becomes available in Norway, although that is more for the improved graphics than for the actual trials. But I don't have a player house, I'm not much involved in guilds (none, these last months) and I don't do realm wars. Perhaps this "standing on the bridge" is why I perceive the difference so strongly. And I wonder what way the game will go from here. And whether I will continue to play it.