omg I won EQ2!!!

Again!

I finally got my little provisioner to level 70. I now have a level 70 inquisitor (okay, I cheated there and leveled her up to 68 as a templar, first, but it counts!) and a level 70 provisioner. I've finally reached the end of the... what? My defiler? My tailor and alchemist?

Hell.

So much for being done. Evidently there are still more things to accomplish and goodies to accumulate. So, why is that I'm willing to go through the whole thing all over again? Cause there's stuff I want.

That's a major reason these games suck us in and keep us playing. Goodies. Or if you wanna be fancy about it, incentive. We stick around for that next shinie, that next level, that next piece of class armour in our neverending quest for a matching set of armour, that uber spiffy weapon... whatever. Even the people that we play with.

It doesn't matter what it is, but it's there for everyone. A bit of carrot to keep us coming back and striving for something.

The problem of course comes from balance. If it's too easy to obtain, we won't want it (unless you're one of those lame arses who buys their crap for real world money because you're just too damned lazy or have too much disposable income for your own good). Conversely though, if it's too hard, we'll lose interest and go elsewhere.

From a player's perspective, I would think that this would be the biggest obstacle facing a game designer. How do I make the game challenging enough to keep people wanting to play without making it so hard they give up in frustration. How do I make it easy enough that the lazy, instant gratification tossers will stop their whining or go play WoW. How do I balance the classes just right so that no one feels too anally violated or too godlike (yeah that one is a real kick in the pants).

They walk a fine line, that's for certain. In the end, you're going to have some stuff that most people aren't going to want to bother with, like raiding, and you'll have a small percentage of the game population striving for that aspect. You'll have people who go the easiest routes possible. Then you'll have the majority of us who dabble in all aspects of the game (dear gods soloing with a defiler is an exercise is masochism).

Whatever that undefinable thing is that draws people into a game (alright, so it isn't really all that undefinable, but damnit it sounds better my way!) EQ2 holds it for me.

So I'm off to try and win EQ2, again, on my defiler and tailor. Too bad they aren't the same character * sob *