Topic

Wondering about the end game...

Been working through quests and learning skills. Haven't done too many construction projects (always show up with the wrong mats *darn*). But I'm wondering what the traditional MMORPG refers to as end game play equivalent will be in Glitch. What happens after you've learned all the skills and worked on opening several streets. Is that enough or will there be something else we heretofore haven't seen?

The traditional approach (well at least WoW) is end game guild raiding or PVP status battles. With PVP out by the design of the game and raiding not exactly a good fit for Glitch either (at least from what I've seen), what do you think / anticipate / want to happen after level 25 or 40?

Posted 23 months ago by Smackem Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • i think building businesses, cities, nations, kingdoms. that sort of thing. part of the "end game" at least.

    probably as part of larger groups, but sometimes as a mega-wealthy individual.

    sort of like playing the designer role in sim city, except with real people running the sims that dart around the city or cities you've designed, and getting mad at you when you make mistakes until eventually they are powerful enough to make cities of their own.. at which point you might want to trade with them and they'll give you the cold shoulder : ]
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • yuck.
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Forgive me for repeating myself, but I surely hope that the later stages of play in Glitch involve less metropolis building and management, and city planning, and more alternative realities to be explored. And by that I don't mean super trippy Rainbow Run/Palindrone type streets. I mean taking the environment that players have successfully navigated for 30 some odd (or higher) levels and turning it inside out on them.
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I mean, not to trash on world building or anything, but it's just not what I would enjoy nearly as much.
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would actually like the world building aspect, but it alone wouldn't be enough for an end game.
    Posted 23 months ago by Cainunable Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wouldn't it make sense for very high-level players to become giants? They have, after all, imagined a lot of the world at that point.
    Posted 23 months ago by Plurp Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If achievements were eyeballs, giants would clearly have to be high level players.
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • nanookie, turning the game inside out on itself isn't sustainable end game.

    if you're talking about going through the entire game a second time as a pig, there's just not enough content available to make that compelling over a multimonth period, which is what the end game is in the context of MMOs... it is what you do when you run out of content, since content creation is almost inevitably slower than content consumption.

    for example, being a pig instead of a humanoid isn't going to be compelling for long periods of time unless there are piggy quests, piggy homes, piggy projects, piggy everything .. and that's ultimately new content.

    not that I have anything against playing as a pig, but I don't think that's really end game play as the OP describes it, it is more like a further extension of the base game narrative by way of the devs adding stuff all the time. it isn't like raiding or PvP where player interaction in effect creates player generated interaction/content within an established framework, or like worldbuilding where existing content components can be arranged and reconfigured in an almost endless number of configurations without the developers having to add stuff at the speed at which it is experienced.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • btw, I should also make clear that "designer role in a sim game" doesn't necessarily have to mean building metropolises or nations.

    it can also mean being on the neighbouhood council, figuring out where the streets go with just a handful of close friends in the hood. organizing the local volunteer fire department with your buddies, putting together a monthly calendar of cultural events where you and your buds put on parties and performances for yourselves or visitors. choosing which trees to plant in the village square.

    all of that stuff is still technically "world building", it just has greater attention to detail and is on a smaller scale than the clash of empires stuff I first described.

    you can even distill the mechanic down to just customizing your house a bazillion different ways with different combinations of pre-built components ... and then doing it all again every time you get bored or have company over or decide you want a castle instead of a farm. sort of ongoing creative expression through diorama building, except people end up actually living in the dioramas.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • St. striatickus, I am not proposing re-playing the entire game as a pig--just a brief part of it. You get to be a chicken though, and become one with your flock.

    I think what you are describing makes a lot of sense, and is certainly more feasible than "turning the game inside out" as a second or third phase for a player. Especially since I can't explain what that means with as much eloquence as you can muster.

    I guess I just don't want to play that game : /

    Thinking about checking the cultural calendar in my neighborhood association's club house, or re-decorating my house umpteen times makes me feel itchy....gee, I hope I get bills to pay and college educations to save for too! And I am having immense trouble thinking of all those adorable avatars standing around scratching their tushies while the players plot subway routes and tree planting schemas for an entire city. There's something really dissonant about the visual and the mental scope of that.

    Maybe I just need to start smoking weed again. That would turn the game inside out. Wouldn't it? I don't know anymore, it's been a *really* long time.
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Which begs the question... why is there no weed in Glitch??
    Posted 23 months ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • well, the game should be turned inside out. that's a cool idea. it just isn't end game.

    "I guess I just don't want to play that game : /"

    lots of people play WoW without playing much "end game WoW". they'll play the game until they max out their character to their satisfaction, get bored, maybe raid with people for a bit .. and then largely quit the game.

    ... until an expansion pack with a ton of new content and character classes will come out, and they'll play that and repeat the cycle again.

    "gee, I hope I get bills to pay and college educations to save for too!"

    who said anything about that kind of stuff? there's a massive difference between building stuff and being creative about it than grinding all day to pay bills. i think that's a massive departure from what i was talking about.

    "And I am having immense trouble thinking of all those adorable avatars standing around scratching their tushies while the players plot subway routes and tree planting schemas for an entire city."

    you mean visually? like, it'll literally be like Sim-City and we'll all neglect our avatars and play in some kind of top down "god mode" that bifurcates gameplay into two distinct interfaces or something? no, and i don't think anyone suggested that specifically.

    i'm thinking probably something a bit more like Minecraft, without being quite so hard-core, that naturally grows out of the current gameplay. players will still be going around, doing stuff primarily by hand using the skills they've learned. i imagine that even the highest level characters with the most resources are going to be running around the game world helping out construction, meeting new players, exploring new areas .. i mean why not? even if they could stand back and pay other players build a nation on their behalf, why on earth would they want to? even from a purely financial perpective it'd make sense to do a lot of the work yourself. one less person to pay, and you'd have a ton of valuable skills at your disposal.

    still lots of running around meeting people and doing stuff, just with a lot more people on a larger scale, with more control and customization of the result.

    visually it would probably look more like the Doozers from Fraggle Rock having Fraggle-like conga lines between shifts for kicks than it would look like a Sim-City overlay atop a bunch of glitches standing still and scratching themselves.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OK maybe if i was building a monorail from groddle to uralia i'd go to groddle, go into an interface for a little bit and decide on the station style i wanted, pay for the blueprints and send off my permit, and pick an "end point" station on the map .. start gathering people and resources and building stuff .. then run off to uralia and do the same ..

    so maybe my avatar would be standing still and scratching its ass while picking the station style and the end point for a few minutes.

    but that isn't really any different from avatars standing around scratching their butts while they read their quest log to activate quests. not that different than standing around with an awesome pot in a looped animation in a thought balloon over their head while they cook, either.

    there's plenty of ass scratching that already occurs.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't have a problem with ass scratching per se...I do it all the time. But I see you see what I mean.

    If that medical marijuana thing doesn't pan out, I guess I could always join the Glitch survivalists. I live in Texas, so there's a seminar every weekend on them.
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There is actually a fair amount of weed in Glitch, eggy.
    Posted 23 months ago by eric Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Eric woot! I guess I just have to find the right connection (street spirit?) and I'm set!!!
    Posted 23 months ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hmmmm, lots of good ideas there people! It's a well worn narrative technique for the storyline to come full circle and re-emerge as a new cycle. I'm just not sure what paths that should follow given the Glitch mythology. Perhaps we borrow deep into the Giants subconscious, a level devoted to a vast internectine struggle of primal urges (cue 'the rooks'), emerging to be reborn as a level one except we're all shiny this time around. The recursive path holds some fascination for me - don't know if that's workable though.

    Sleep faster we need the pillows!
    Posted 23 months ago by Smackem Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree about an end game. It might be cool to have some sort of common enemy or goal to work toward. Toontown has a great model for that. I know quite a few adults who play that game and are addicted to it. The whole big evil monster thing may not fit in well with Glitch, and I can't really come up with something better, but I'll muse on it and get back with you.

    Also, as a side note, I don't like learning stuff automatically. You should have to do something to learn skills or at least do something with the skill once you learn it before you can learn the next skill in that category.
    Posted 23 months ago by Brinraeven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I really hope it doesn't turn into "the cool kids with the most tokens get to run things." I don't have the sense right now that there's a really strong narrative or conceptual world behind all the cute graphics. They could learn some lessons from Echo Bazaar, though EB could learn from Glitch in terms of game play. Although I could very quickly get tired of walking back and forth collecting gems. I'm hooked at the moment, but if this is all there is I think I'll get bored pretty soon
    Posted 23 months ago by Tradescantia Subscriber! | Permalink