[imported_ScareCrow]

[WARNING, LONG POST AHEAD]


Hey yo!

I'm Jakko, EX admin of xuo(sphere) and I have been playing on this shard for a little while now, and I must say I like it.
Nothing is perfect, but this shard comes pretty close, good staff, dedicated admins and a playerbase that would make most other admins jealous.

The playerbase is so big, because this shard is a merge between two completely different servers, IN and XUO.
IN used to be a more RPish and "challenging" server the way I see it, while XUO was focussed on PvPing, and trying to get all players to join in in the PvP as quick and as much as possible.

Lately I have been reading the forums, and it seems to me that some XUO players have suggestions and complaints having to do with the changes involved in the merge. Many IN players reply to these issues by saying we are not a carebear server, and things shouldn't be too easy.
Some of the subjects leading to this typical discussion:

pits runes at dungeon entrances
fizzling taking mana
monster loots
accessability to rare weapons (xtreme dragons)
PK bounties
skillgain speed

To me it seems a few things are mixed up in this discussion.
Of course any UO server, either PvP or RP or both, should not make it very easy on the players. This would lead to boredom and a decrease of value that players assign to items and skills in the game, essentially making the entire game less important. (if everything is instantly achieved, what's the point?)

On the other hand, a server shouldn't make it too hard for the player either, too hard being that gameplay becomes less fun due to certain mechanics that block or slow down the player to the point the player feels like logging off.

The shard should be offering challenges instead of annoyances.

For example pits runes at dungeon entrances...

Does the lack of these pits runes make hunting more challenging?
Is being stuck for some time untill one of your friends logs on to gate you out very challenging?
No, it is annoying, and it blocks your gameplay.

Challenging would be if it is hard to kill certain monsters, hard to stay alive or hard to obtain a certain item. Challenging would be if certain encounters require strategy, teamwork and quick responses.

Carebear servers are not challenging. They let you kill an entire dungeon with one EV, and every monster will drop insane amounts of gold.

This server however, is currently in several ways beyond challenging, making certain aspects more of an annoyance, than a challenge.

Again, there is nothing wrong with things being hard to get, hard to achieve, or hard to undertake, but there IS something wrong with having gameplay mechanics that block the player and stop the players gameplay completely for some time.

Why?
Because there is always a better, more elegent way to make gameplay more challenging, than to make a player get stuck.

This also why I am in favor of pits runes at instance entrances.
If you think this makes hunting too easy, you should try to realize why hunting is easy. You will probably come to the conclusion that hunting is easy for reasons that have nothing to do with being or not being stuck and lost when you die.

They have to do with PvE requiring no equipment, strategy or teamwork whatsoever, only EV reagents (something Taran and Maka were made aware of, and are thinking about)

So in future discussions about how hard/easy certain mechanics are and should be, let's keep in mind that something doesn't have to be annoying to be challenging.

Good post, finally someone comes out n says the truth. I agree Jakko.