But honestly I don't think it shortens the game at all...not if you don't want it to. People are always free to opt out of leveling via F7 as the previous ways of leveling still exist, and personally I don't think that the time spent on leveling your character is absolutely reflective on how well you play your character. Some people can pick it up easily, some people can play it for months and still be a super baddie (like me).
On the other hand though, I definitely am not that competitive in terms of games like these so it doesn't really bother me too much that there are easy ways to level. I think as long as the person is enjoying the game, then the game is doing its job. :x
I do like F7 though, I love tower defense kinda stuff
I could use starting equipment only, not job change, not run f7, not drink exp pots, and not allow my character to get leeched if I wanted to drastically prolong the game, but I don't see much of a reason to restrict myself like that in an MMORPG. I probably wouldn't even consider those type of restrictions to be challenging, aside from testing my patience. I mean, if you want to see everything in the game and opt out of f7, that's fine, but there is no progression based reason to explore all of the content, and I feel that is a problem.
Exploring all the content and purposefully leveling slowly is akin to going on a road trip and taking a scenic route, while all your friends ditch you, go to the airport, and fly to your destination in a couple of hours. Sure there is a ton of stuff you could do, but most of the linear progression in the game, moving from one area to the next and leveling, is lost after level 42. Imo, the fast leveling and ease of f7 cheapens the rest of our content and the accomplishment of hitting the cap. You can pretty much use the same strategy for every single f7, and the amount of experience you get per run won't be increased at all for going past elluman. What is the point in having so much content if, for the most part, players aren't encouraged to use it? Of course, I'm not saying that this issue started with f7, but it really does make it more evident. In the past, maps like Elluman, Burlune, and Pythanous were not very popular places to grind f4 because of the lower amounts of experience relative to other f4 missions.
As it relates to the topic, I just really don't think of tower defense as something that should be in an mmorpg, at least as more than a minigame. It's fun at first, but once you figure out the strategies to use, you really don't have to do anything.
What f7 means for players:- No need to upgrade equipment
- Barely have to attack
- Solo > Partying
- No need to learn combos or avoid attacks
- hit level cap in half the time it used to take
- Towers kill everything while players talk or afk
Tower defense to level in MMO = NO!
It's pretty damn fast.
Way too fast. Hardly any pleasure at all. QQ
Edited by Maronu, 28 April 2011 - 10:22 AM.