However, it’s always dangerous to apply our standards to those we imagine other people have. I have a twin brother. We’re false twins. He never cared much about gaming. He is the casual, low skilled gamer who plays on weekends.
I can guarantee you are a freaking ace compared to him. You would look like a true pro.
Times had changed.
Back in the 80s and 90s we had these arcade machines and most games on home computers were ports of these games. And these games were designed to be hard.
So there was simple division, there were gamers, and there were the ones who did not game, as it was too hard for them, frustrating or just non their thing.
But the word ‘gamer’ described someone with a skill, who was constantly improving these skills to beat the new games. There were no girl gamers (trollface) in these ancient times, as there was no Sims, and no Unicorn game. There was Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Final Fight, Double Dragon, Golden Axe, hard shooters, fast racers, difficult platformers, demanding strategy games. All these games were never fully completed by 99% of those who attempted to play them. Only the few could brag I have beaten 10th boss in X…
There was a learning curve, you had to become good, practise, learn.
There was a mountain to climb.
New games are no longer like that.
Now (especially) aging games like Conan are being redesigned by the studios to be inclusive for casual players, they want the game to be most accessible so anyone can come here, play the game, buy crap from Bazaar = goal has been reached, we got the money. They want to milk the most from the game before it dies.
The question here is that if I were to apply my standards to the game, most of you would be royally fkd.
Sometimes, good players have it hard when evaluating the difficulty of others. You think you suck at combat, but probably you are well above the average. So, it’s risky if you decide to tweak the game to your standards and assume you won’t harm the fun of others.
Where does that leave us? There has to be some sort if compromise, right?
No?
I don’t care about others, I paid for the game, it always has been easy as you noticed, but 3 years ago it was acceptable, while today it’s turned into boring garbage.
I have my base at Godsclaw and for years I used to ride my horse from camp to camp and fight these NPCs there, just for fun and to relax after work.
Guess what, now when you enter the camp they cant see you anymore…
Anyway it is what it is, I stopped coming to this forum as I gave up on this game.
That new poll they posted on FB made me return to see if anything is about to change.
Why other games don’t have this kind of problems?
Because other games have noob river for noobs, desert for intermediate to advanced players, and north for those in the endgame stage, looking for challenge and glory.
In Conan devs for some reason decided that endgame area must be easily accessible for noobs and the game must be clearable in a week maximum.
Just make these biomes designed from the most easy one to the hardest one - and redesign NPCs there accordingly.
As at this moment the endgame area challenges are just temperatures - I am going to the frosty place, I need to cook some chili desert style. Today I’m going to the volcano, must remember to pick up some ice on the way…
They need to blow up that chaos, sit and look at the map, and redesign challenge levels from scratch.
Again, what I had said on this forum multiple times - look at MMOs, they can cater in the same game both to the esports players and to those who barely can operate mouse and keyboard at the same time.
Or even games like Diablo, you enter the dungeon on level 1 and fight stupid skeletons, you go deeper and see some monsters, finally demons and sorcerers casting missiles… it becomes more difficult with every level, last level is hard, but still the game is newbie friendly, exciting and fun.
Let’s not fantasize about our expectations, let’s make Funcom design this game properly, which does not mean that any of us gets excluded. Make each biome more difficult the further it is from noob river.