The Pros of "New Blood"

[Bronxman2012]

Hello, all!

I have been reading several posts on the forum as a way to take a break from coding. Believe it or not, looking at lines of code for hours on end is not as fun as it seems :)

Anyway, I noticed that several people are not happy about the new XP system because of all of their hard work to acquire their coveted levels. However, for those of you who agree with this point of view, I would like to present another perspective.

Any game is only as good as the people who play it. If you ask any developer, they want as many people to play their game as possible. By lowering the XP to ascend to a level, Pocket Legends is more appealing to more people. The result of this is going to be an increase in revenue, which in turn will result in even more areas being created more quickly.

However, to show that the reverse is also true, I would like to point out two examples:

One game in the late 1990s that was popular was a MUD (multi-user dungeon). I'm not going to mention the name of the game, but at any one time, there were hundreds of people playing. There were 100 levels, and on level 101, you ascended from being a mortal to an immortal. At that point, you no longer acquired experience. However, because the leveling system was changed to be aggressive yet achievable, word of mouth spread and new players came in droves (sound familiar?).

Then, a few "experienced" players felt that this was not fair. That their hard-earned XP should be worth more than XP of newbies. Unfortunately, the administrators listened to these players and came up with some goofy reacquisition formula. So, those who joined earlier kept their top-level status, but XP for newer users were downgraded. So, people who were level 101 through the new XP system were now level 30 or 40.

Needless to say, people were incensed, and within a few months, the game had fewer than 10 active people playing at any one time.

Here is my point. The new XP system is fantastic. It is enticing to newer players who want to be part of the Pocket Legends world. More and more people are going to play. As for the veteran players, not only are you the forefathers (and foremothers) of the game, but you also have a plethora of advice and wisdom to offer some of the newer players (such as myself). And when the next campaign is created, you will also be able to level a lot easier.

Just my two cents,
Bronxman

[Whirlzap]

I honestly can't really care anymore.
It was pretty much already like this EXP event being permanent with 4x EXP elixirs.
There's not much that could be worse, so I couldn't care less about this EXP event.

[mackjack]

To me, lowered xp is a double-edged sword.

Good: it makes leveling up faster and thus holds players' attention longer
Bad: it makes leveling up faster so you get to high levels with crappy gear and very little gold

Let's face it, hardcore farming for lower level gear probably isn't appealing to the casual players, and since it's now so easy to level up but the pink drop rate is low, you don't acquire good gear/much gold along the way.

Up to AO3, you can get by with whatever drops that you get; from AO3 and on, though, using sub-par gear isn't exactly an enjoyable experience. Unless STS makes drop rates better, or make non-pinks more useful (like the orange drops from Sewers), lowered xp does not make an enjoyable experience at end-game.

I think that lowered xp and short time between campaigns but without a corresponding upgrade to drop-rate/gear is yet another ploy by STS to encourge plat elixir use.

Don't believe me? Go make a new toon with 0 gold/0 pots/0 gear transferred from your end-game toon and level normally (i.e. without elixirs, without being powered leveled by your buddies, and without locking your xp). See how much gold and gear you accumulate and how high of a level you get before you feel frustrated because you are getting one-shot killed all the time. Now all of a sudden that combo elixir looks mighty tempting, doesn't it?

A word of advice to players that are just starting PL: lowerd xp makes faster and funner game play up to level 48 or so. After that? It's good for STS's pocketbook because you're gonna be tempted to buy that elixir.

[MightyMicah]

@bronxman2012 Not that it's worth anything but, my respect for you just went up immensly. This is a good thread! I like the way you showed what happened in the past and related it to now. Very well written.

[Shellkaz]

I agree with Bronxman. Very good post. However if the goal is to bring in more players, then the lower tier of pinks and purples need to drop more frequently and be worth it as usable gear in fang and nuris. In Fang I've actually seen fewer purples than I have seen pinks. And I saw no purples drop at all in Nuris. People will leave the game if they can't get/afford the gear necessary to survive at higher levels. And with lowered xp rates the chances for getting those good drops is correspondingly reduced. As my daughter says, "just throwing that out there". :-)