First of all, great article ! And I apologize if my English seems awkward from time to time
but here's what I wanted to say.
There's one thing I'm totally agree with. I'm not sure we can put all the players in the "Character Development and Competition" box. Maybe I didn't well understand, which is quite possible
, but for you it seems linked.
I'm pretty sure a lot of players don't care about their rank in a list or in an other.
I think it's more a question of culture than anything else. Some players like that some don't care.
Where I am agree with you is that we are indeed talking about RPG, which all about character development. And the journey is far more important than the destination... this is absolutly right.
And we don't have to reach the destination quickly. Let us play the way we want and at the pace we want... MMOG shall be all about freedom and not linear progression...
The problem with character development in a multiplayer environment is there will always have people who will seek to be the first in everything... The first to find an item, the first to be the max level in a class, the first to be the first in all things... well, it generates competitiveness...
As I am not a competitor, it always bugs me a little
but well, like I said I think it's more a cultural thing than anything else... and everyone should find his place in a MMOG !
But character development is also a way of building a character not only in term of statistic... In EQ, I guess we were more "attached" to our character than in any other game... I'm not sure if it's the same thing for the others but that's what I'm feeling now...
I didn't care to cancel my account of EQ2, Neocron, Ryzom and so on... But how difficult it was to cancel my EQ account even when I didn't find anymore pleasure playing the game...
Why ? because my character had such a background ! It was a difficult game but it built my characters... There were more concrete than ever... I'm missing those feeling...
Anyway, the problem is... one day... (it can take weeks or years (speaking for myself here
)... we will reach the destination...
AAXP was a good idea but still a subtle way of providing progression...
I think that the content must be here to allow us enjoying playing our characters.
There must be some room for creative ideas and let the player just experience new things... Be at top level could mean that as well...
The reward is to experience thing others can't at the moment... It could be raid stuff, it could be something else... Don't ask me why, I didn"t think about it...
However, what I like in Vanguard is that it obliges us to rethink the way we played MMOG... The adventure sphere bring some new ways of playing our character... but the 2 other spheres and especialy the Diplomacy one bring new ways of developping a character in a massively multiplayer context...! Even the crafting sphere seems challenging !
Of course, there is always the "level" feature to represent our development, so it will generate competition among a certain population of players but well, it will be great to at last experiencing new feelings of achievment !