About challenge in MMORPGs

Quirhid

Traditional challenge in games has always been about mastering the game: the controls, the encounters, the rules and such. The game required the player skill to pass through to the next level or get ahead in the game. For example, you have to beat a boss before seeing what happens next. That was the deal. The fact that you've gotten to the end means you have beaten every challenge the game has thrown at you. And that was part of the fun too. To learn new things, constantly improve one's self and challenge one's self.

What is unique to MMORPGs and few other RPGs (for example Final Fantasy and Pokémon) is that you don't have to show skill to prevail. You can simply grind until beating the encounter demands the least amount of skill possible e.g. you know how to operate a mouse and keyboard or a controller.

At the same time, some people seem to think that grind is part of the challenge. That no matter how hard the encounter actually is, if you haven't spent 10 hours on it, there's not enough challenge and this idea blows my mind! I can't wrap my head around how these people might have come to this conclusion.

Almost everything I love about games is the challenge, the learning of new things and skills, mastering things. If I do the same arduous act for hours upon hours it gives me nothing of the above! Nothing else is challenged except my patience. How the heck can someone say that is challenging? Or the opposite: if something is done in 15 minutes it is "easymode". I don't see any valid reasoning behind it.

Quirhid

I thought I cancelled the poll.

Oh well..

Loktofeit

I never really figured in sheer time spent in determining how challenging something is. For me, the level of challenge is determined by 1) the depth of the gameplay and 2) learning/application being the progression path to mastery. 

Kyleran

IMO, it's because mastering MMO gameplay has more than anything else been a measure of a person's perseverance,

"steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement"

In fact, most titles reward people with the greatest amount of perseverance with all sorts of things, better gear, better skills, more gold, etc, etc.

And the interesting thing about this mechanic is what you pointed out, actual player skill is frequently taken out of the equation, nearly anyone can be perseverant  (well almost anyone) and excel as long as they stick with it long enough.

Taken another way, no matter what my actual skill level is in a game, my perseverance and patience frequently gains me some edge over others who lack these qualities, even if they are far more skilled than I, and MMORPG's in particular have rewarded players for being this way.

FP Shooters...not so much.