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Barriers to Entry - Right of Passage or Annoyance?
Amathe
Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
How do you feel about not being allowed to enter a zone or an instance until you have completed a prerequisite? It may be a quest or a key - something you have to do before you are allowed in.
On an individual level I like them because being "keyed" for a high level dungeon is an accomplishment. (How much of an accomplishment it is depends on the game.)
But it does become a drag to have to keep doing the same fights over and over and over to "key" your guildmates. For one particular game I believe I helped "key" over 50 people just for one dungeon. (Oh, and then later you get to help "key" someone's 7 alts, bleah).
It's also no fun when you get left out of a raid because you are not yet keyed for it, and no one has the time to help you get keyed.
Should there be open access? Or do barriers to entry have value?
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Comments
I like it better if anyone in the party can have the 'key.' Like you suggested, depends on a lot of other factors, but in general this makes more sense. If you have a physical, magical, or sci-fi (voice recognition for ex.) key, you should be able to hold the door open to let your mates in.
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I absolutely hate it. Its why I quit lotro. The Mines of Moria "zone" fiasco. And there I was thinking I could explore as a low level hunter. Pfft, no content for me, Im not lvl 50.
Bastards.
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
I think games can work either way, and depends a lot upon the specific implementation. For example, there's a hidden barrier to entry in WOW's current highest heroic dungeons: the system won't let you in without sufficient gear. This works very well in conjunction with the dungeon finder, which simply wont' let undergeared players join with you. Really level-limits and gear-limits are the same thing: limits based on progression.
When it comes to literal keys to doors, things quickly become irritating to players.
When it comes to figurative keys to "doors", that's where some better solutions lie. Like having dungeons in Burning Crusade which are floating, and therefore only accessible by players with flying mounts (flight is the "key".)
Not all figurative keys are good though -- if there's a group quest at the end of a solo chain, the key is "complete the solo chain". Mixing group and solo quests in the same questline often tends to rub players the wrong way.
Personally I think LOTRO's decision to only (mostly?) do this in the main questline was pretty solid -- if you're going to mix things, doing it in the big main questline is a great way to ensure many people are around for the group parts. But at the same time, as LOTRO gets older, the mid-level parts of these questlines are going to be done less and less, making it a lot more of a hassle.
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I'm probably in the minority on this one...but I really like it. Having to get attuned or attain the key for higher level content makes me feel like I've accomplished or earned the right to it. Sort of like I'm a card carrying member now.
I really think that many games are trying to cater to everyone now and by doing so they take away a lot of the accomplishments that individualize the game.
I don't mind it at all. I think it's a neat way of making the player feel a little special. However, what I do hate is when MMOs overdo the whole key and attunement thing. Like if it's one, maybe two instances and/or raids require a special key, that's one thing. But once you get to the point where most of them do, it becomes a little too tedious.
I like it. But I don't like it when it is implemented poorly (like the OP's WoW example). To take another example from WoW, i loved how if one person had the scarlet key then the whole group could enter the other dungeons.
Overall I think it is vital to providing a sense of accomplishment and its another decent reward for us players.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
The only key I like is "survival". If I wander in there, will I get out alive...
Got a quest to talk to some guy at the Shadow Labyrinth gate in WoW. Turns out the guy is inside! and I need to get a key to just talk to him!!
------- END TRANSMISSION
I like having to get keyed, as long as it's not anything annoyingly long/hard to find people for. As an example i enjoyed to get the key for Karazhan. I like that you can't just group up with some high level players and just coast along without having accomplished something yourself before.
Thats was a earlyer way of handling the phased idea.
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