Low-Level End Game Content

Posted by Wolfen in MMO General

Name any massively multiplayer online game and you will find discussion after discussion about the “end game.”  The end game, for those who have never reached it, is that mythical time when your character has reached the maximum level and doing normal adventuring and questing no longer advances you.  To advance, or grow stronger, you and your guild must begin raiding the most difficult encounters in the game.  Many times they include the toughest foes found in the game, which leads to you consuming huge amounts of hours to defeat them.

Many players consider the end game to be the place to aspire to.  Once there, you defeat big and tough monsters and get rewarded very well with very powerful loot.  The accomplishment felt at completing such an endeavor is great and it feels like you have really accomplished something big.  The problem with this is that in many games you must be at or near maximum level to do these things.  You may be required to have special gear or attributes before you are allowed to join others in attempting the raid.  The end game can be extremely exclusionary.

Why can’t there be end game content at lower levels?  In most games, if you reach the end of level 10, all there is to do is continue on the adventuring path.  Instead, I would like to see a dungeon that requires a force of level 10 players to crawl down into the depths and slay a minor dragon.  I’m not talking about single group content, I’m talking about a full-on raid of low-level players.  Do this every 10 levels and you have one heck of an experience as you level up.  It also prepares new players for raiding at higher levels.

Of course, you must make the dungeon encounter interesting, fun, and in the end, very rewarding. Make the loot the best of what they can acquire at that level range.  Make the experience gained worth the effort expended.  Instead of making a player wait until level 50 to experience the thrill of slaying a dragon, show them early on what it really means to raid a dungeon and come out victorious.  All grand battle stories need not come from maximum level zones.

–Wolfen