| If you want players to feel Heroic, create a world in which they can do that. Other than EQ, I've yet to really see a "hard world". Doubt we ever will again unfortunately, but as others have stated we are in the age of entitlements now where everyone must be equal and be able to do/get anything anyone else can/has. The world was harsh and unforgiving, but it also made you feel damn heroic when you accomplished things. It also fostered a great community because you *had* to work together to accomplish things, be it grouping, raids, epics, etc. Only reason to get together these days is to run raid instances /yawn
I've never seen a game where it's the players vs the world, where the game world actually PUSHES BACK. Where there is something so powerful actively fighting against the races of the PCs that they must be active... or suffer consequences. What if cities were attacked on a somewhat regular basis, unless the players actually went out and prevented it. Boss_01 is going to send his army at a lesser elf city unless the players either defeat him (the army is delayed a week or two) or the players defeat said army attacking the city (resetting the attack again in 5-7 days unless boss is defeated - rinse and repeat). Make the attacks last say, 12 hours with a certain # NPCs killed to repel the attack. Such a window of time allows many people to participate. Should the players fail or not bother trying, you spawn a version of the city in ruins, overrun with these bad NPCs that you kill to take back the city. Dynamic world (on the cheap).
As the population bulge rises in level, adjust these timers for longer durations so lowbies aren't losing their merchants and skill trainers in convenient places because no one is around to keep the evil hordes back. The higher level players can come back for some stompage of greys or such, yet still gain some reward from the higher level "good" NPCs who recognize that these high level people spent time helping out with something they really needn't have. Hell, stick in code that if these high level guys do show up, then one or more level-appropriate mini-bosses spawn. Give a reason for the higher levels to help out the lower levels. Talk about feeling heroic.
Hell, just tie in higher level events such as these that by defeating slow down the attack timers of lower level stuff. Have multiple of these events run concurrently, all on their own timers, so every day or two something new is happening. You just make a large starting city or two perma-safe so there is always at least one base to push forward from no matter what happens.
There are a lot of ways to keeping a world like this somewhat "fresh" by cycling events and adding in smaller effects. No group has killed miniboss_04 in that corner of the zone so every downtime another spawn grouping changes from native animals/NPCs to whatever the enemy is (which could suck if the only way to get some TS component is from those mobs that are being replaced). On the other hand, the further the players "push" back (by zone control, killing bosses, etc) the influence of the enemy, the harder and harder said enemy NPCs and bosses get, to the point of impossible to kill (after all the enemy can't ever truly be defeated or... what's the point of the game?).
I can go on all night about a world like this, but you get the idea. I can't think of anyone who's even tried anything like this. Talk about bringing the community back to mmorpgs (something missing since EQ). Or even server competition/bragging rights.
(sorry for getting so far off topic) | 