A post by Justa got me to thinking...

How to walk the tightrope between making things easy or be a grind, coupled with risk vs. reward.

The goal, is to get our daring tightrope walker to the middle of the highwire. There, they must turn flips, balance chairs, or whaterver they can do to hold our attention.

The risk of course, is that they could fall... be we don't really expect that though.
The reward, it that of entertaining us for a period of time.

Now, if you only goto the show one time, everything is new and bright. But, go to this show 20 times, and watching him balance a chair on his chin, will become a boring grind. If however, he balanced something new each show, you would come back over and over to see what he would balance next.

Take this analogy, and apply it to a MMORPG like Horizons.

Grind does not have to be bad, as long as there is some new aspect introduced as we move forwards. Hiding grind ( since grinding to some degree is a prerequisite ) is often commented on as vital in a game like HZ. However, what if there were new things introduced as we went along?

Like bonus resources that were actually worth something to crafters... "while out mining cobalt today, Smitty Gindalot found a long lost piece of what appears to be a gnome contraption. What it's purpose or function is is unknown, but Smitty says he will keep looking for more pieces" Now, the mindless grind is replaced with anticipation. Once a new piece is found, all memory of the 10 disk loads of ore to find it are forgotten.

Or for adventurers, as they fight certain very hard mobs, they have the potential to drop reklar pieces or forms? ALL persons that fight a mob get a chance at looting and getting a drop. No more camping, no more bickering over who did he most damage, or who tagged the mob first.

If the loot was worth having, and was not attuned, then players would be very busy collecting parts and whatnots, and would have little time to complain. A market would develop for the parts, and they would be sold or traded. By all means, attune the final product of multiple parts, just not the pieces. As the months pass, add new parts to the mobs and retire previous parts. Now you have a constant addition of new items that add the most important element... FUN!

Reward for risk is another aspect that needs attention. If a players takes a big risk, and pulls it off, then they should get a good reward. When a player solos a named mob like Mhedon, they sould not get junk for loot. However, if 5 multilcassed AR 140+ players take down Mhedon, then why would they get good loot, when there was no risk? To make this work, the number of players attacking a mob must be considered. Then, the greater the risk, the higher the percentage should be for drops or good loot. One player attacking, should be the highest percentage, with it falling to zero when there is no risk.
Realize I'm ONLY speaking about loot. This should NOT affect exp or comp drop rates.

Reward should ONLY come from taking a risk. I have been here since release, and sure don't think I deserve anything simply be being here a long time. If I'm not willing to take chances and risk, I don't deserve anything.

Perhaps you agree with all this, or only part, or not at all. These are just my views.