Vitality systems, rest bonuses, free levels – WHATEVER!

You probably know about the recent spin of EverQuest 2 on the solo aspects of the game.

The fun is those links that continue to show up between apparently unrelated “happenings”. Just here below I mock sarcastically Mythic because they keep copying directly game elements and design ideas from World of Warcraft (which, again, isn’t bad). I underlined that it’s not about the last patch, in fact I provided a link to show that this is more like a trend than an isolated episode. But then, thinking more about it, it’s really not just that. Around May Mythic implemented non-combat pets to carry around, about one month after they were patched in World of Warcraft. Their “free level” mechanic also arrived at about the same time, to counteract the rest system that Blizzard introduced in the genre a month before. The changes to the interface “borrowed” from Warcraft aren’t limited to the onscreen messages appearing as you complete parts of the tasks, the messages appearing when you enter a new zone, the new mouselook mode, the keybind with ALT, SHIFT and CONTROL, the tooltips on icons and the graphical marks on the quest NPCs. No. They also implemented a new, in-game map system. Something that they always refused to do because it was going against their plan. Because it was part of the discovery. But Warcraft set the standard and now the map system is included in DAoC. For this February they’ll instance the RvR, maybe anticipating Blizzard this time, but following a path that for sure isn’t their own. Again Mythic kept negating the possibility to instance the RvR till two months ago because it was a design idea not matching the purpose and structure of the game. Is it all? No there’s a lot more. In fact, aside World of Warcraft, they “pillaged” City of Heroes too, “borrowing” the sidekick system. Just as an example.

Hell! They even copied the SUBSCRIPTION FEES!

In most of these cases the orginal idea and implementation is way more stonger, polished and consisten than Mythic’s bleached copy and adaptation. This message isn’t a critic to the design, this time, but for sure it gives hints about why DAoC feels so much like a patchwork.

Maybe Richard Bartle was right?

So where are these fancy links that I see so obviously? Here.

Mythic is in the first position to smell chase the ass tail of World of Warcraft but this trend isn’t their exclusive.
EverQuest 2 seems determined to copycat at least by the same degree:

How Vitality Works

All characters gain a chunk of Vitality every hour, on the hour, and keep accumulating it until the maximum amount is saved up. Each time characters gain experience, they use up a portion of their Vitality and receive a bit more experience than usual. When the character runs out of Vitality, he or she no longer receives bonus experience.

A plurality of views and ideas. Indeed.

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