12-27-2011, 08:47 AM
Yea, I think you're on to something there.... Has to be plenty of content.
Ill use WoW as an example of people playing a PvE game for so long.
When you hit the cap, your item level might be 300. You can queue for random dungeons (3), and pick up item level 320 gear. As you're getting your gear from drops or spending your Justice points at the vendor for gear upgrades, your personal item level (sort of an average of the item level of all your gear) starts to go up. When your personal item level hits 340, you can now queue for Heroic dungeons. Might be another 3 or 4 different ones. Some are the same as the non-heroics just stronger mobs. Same thing, you start to loot item level 340 gear and spending your points on new gear and eventually you can queue for the troll dungeons when your personal item level hits 350. You then repeat the process..... All the while you're advancing. Whether you're getting drops or spending your "points" at the vendor, you're constantly upgrading gear until you can finally queue for the newer content. This is the path that you go til you're eventually caught up with the newest content and you're at the highest item level.
At this point, I seem to see a lot of "alt runs". The major PvE guys cap out their loot at the highest level and start to run alts through the earlier content trying to cap them out. Eventually, new content comes out and they repeat the process. All the while jamming their 15 bucks a month into the game.
Hard to say what it is that actually makes people go through the cycles. Perhaps new content, perhaps the loot advancement. Whatever it is, there is a key there to keeping people subscribed.
As I can see from the games you listed, it wasnt so much that you quit these games because you didnt get the sense of advancement, you quit because the gameplay itself wasn't up to par.
Going back to that WoW method, maybe its the plateaus and goals that are set for people which make them keep pushing onward. When you hit the level 85 goal, we set the new item level 340 goal. When you hit the item level 340 goal, we have another bar set for you.
Is it perhaps something of that nature.... reintroducing a goal.... that keeps people interested and paying?
Ill use WoW as an example of people playing a PvE game for so long.
When you hit the cap, your item level might be 300. You can queue for random dungeons (3), and pick up item level 320 gear. As you're getting your gear from drops or spending your Justice points at the vendor for gear upgrades, your personal item level (sort of an average of the item level of all your gear) starts to go up. When your personal item level hits 340, you can now queue for Heroic dungeons. Might be another 3 or 4 different ones. Some are the same as the non-heroics just stronger mobs. Same thing, you start to loot item level 340 gear and spending your points on new gear and eventually you can queue for the troll dungeons when your personal item level hits 350. You then repeat the process..... All the while you're advancing. Whether you're getting drops or spending your "points" at the vendor, you're constantly upgrading gear until you can finally queue for the newer content. This is the path that you go til you're eventually caught up with the newest content and you're at the highest item level.
At this point, I seem to see a lot of "alt runs". The major PvE guys cap out their loot at the highest level and start to run alts through the earlier content trying to cap them out. Eventually, new content comes out and they repeat the process. All the while jamming their 15 bucks a month into the game.
Hard to say what it is that actually makes people go through the cycles. Perhaps new content, perhaps the loot advancement. Whatever it is, there is a key there to keeping people subscribed.
As I can see from the games you listed, it wasnt so much that you quit these games because you didnt get the sense of advancement, you quit because the gameplay itself wasn't up to par.
Going back to that WoW method, maybe its the plateaus and goals that are set for people which make them keep pushing onward. When you hit the level 85 goal, we set the new item level 340 goal. When you hit the item level 340 goal, we have another bar set for you.
Is it perhaps something of that nature.... reintroducing a goal.... that keeps people interested and paying?