Artifacts - How to keep something rare and special while making it accessible and fun for everyone

This is a comment I posted on Chris blog about the role of artifacts in MMOs:
"How can developers reconcile the rarity (or uniqueness) of an artifact with the desire of players to own it?"

My answer starts in the specifics but then opens up to criticize the current solutions in other game and explain some more my idea behind the "dream mmorpg" that I keep shaping up from time to time. It's another recurring topic in mmorpg design and another of those with the most awful answers till now. So worth looking at to see if there's a space to improve and bring something new to the table.

I guess I should rewrite it to pull a better and more complete and readable analysis, examining all the different cases to see where they worked and where they didn't to conclude with general considerations about the viable, better paths that could be available. But that would require time and commitment. But right now I find harder and harder to even put two lines of text together and even if I managed to do that I'll just finish a comment too long that noone will be interested to read. So the comment will remain a rough shape of the same ideas.

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Is this coming from our discussion or you are just gathering ideas freely?

Of course this interests me since it's one of the systems I was tinkering with. The design questions you made at the origin are the same, but I found different answers in order to adhere better to the rest of my plan.

Some of your ideas sound rather interesting even if I see some problems here and there that won't be that easy to solve. For example it would be rather hard to even code the pathing in the right way in order for the guardian spirit to chase the players along all the world and with his minions. Considering all the problems WoW is having right now with the train of mobs (like Lord Kazzak invading Stormwind) I also fear that the whole mechanic could become more fun as a creative exploit than for the actual use of the item. And, of course, this doesn't look nice.

I personally don't love too much the idea of countdowns and "at loss" situations. This directly aims for the pure catassers that will have the guild support to gain and keep up the artifacts and its "requirements/side effects". And this isn't really appealing as it should be.

So what I don't like is the actual mechanic of the guardian chasing the player and the negative, progressive side effects. But you also suggested me new elements that could be fun to develop and expand.

My own idea remains connected the "design" purpose of an artifact (not the "lore", just the design pattern):
- A rare, special item to offer a substantial (unbalanced) power up that shouldn't become a direct requirement.

In a PvE environment this type of tool could be a "key" to solve a particular puzzle (like the special magic item that can slay a particular mob), but it's in PvP that the design comes to the surface as an unbalanced power. As I commented in our discussion I think that the unbalance is an interesting mechanic, in particular in PvP (another of my heresies). This is why it should be used instead of feared and this is also why my answers to your questions pivot around the PvP.

Artifacts are unique -> they can be gained through instanced PvE but they have no effect till they are pulled out to the persistent world (where PvP happens). Once this passage is complete only "x" number of artifacts can exist. In the persistent world they become persistent items. Let's say that they "solidify". They are unique or rare based on the type.

Note: The artifacts cannot be used to access other instanced PvE content since the artifacts banish the player from the access of portals. So they are exclusively PvP tools and this because of another design reason. In PvE an overpowering tool just begs to become an exploit tool and will be used directly to bypass the difficulty that the devs have planned for a specific encounter. I believe that overpowering tools in PvE do not offer anything that is fun or interesting, they just become pattern-breaking tool, hence they should be put aside.

Artifacts are powerful -> They are. They are directly planned to transform a player (along with bonuses for allies) as a "raid encounter" himself. Veguely reminding the old ideas of players playing as mobs. In a 3D graphical game the wielder of an artifact will become a demon, graphically. The size will increase, it will use different powers, attributes and so on. The player with an artifact becomes "content" for the players of the opposite faction. A goal. A target. (I explain later the actual "reward" the encounter represents)

Since the artifacts cannot be traded or dropped and since they banish the player from accessing the PvE instances, the player won't be able to get another artifact. So the problem of stacking these tools is solved at the root without developing specific systems.

The important point, though, is nested in your first question: "artifacts need to have a mechanism to regularly leave the character�s hands."

That's the core and that's also what matters if we discuss the design problem that every game shares: how to add powerful items that are accessible and desirable by everyone but that still remain rare in order to not become a general requirement/timesink? How to mantain a "special" status without trivializing it?

The answers we had till now all pivot around the time dedication as in the EQ and DAoC examples (and hologrind, first version). These items are rare because they require an insane dedication. But they are also not limited so this dedication becomes a requirement for everyone in order to reach the new standard "platform" (in particular in PvP). These items, after some time, become requirements and lose their special status. They become common. Standards with insane timesinks. This is when they are nerfed to be put in line with the rest of the content or made easier to become part of the standard treadmill.

You can address these problems by building some sort of "first come first served" policy like SOE did with the last Jedi system reiteration but it's obvious that the system itself is begging for one core idea: a recycle. Not a differently planned threshold and access, but a dynamic process that keeps moving between the players without becoming a constant.

Your proposed system grants a "loss", but it doesn't grant directly a recycle and a possibility for all the players.

These items can be special and rare but they must keep moving. At the same time you cannot achieve this by reverting the same model of the "achievement through dedication". Here is where WoW failed with the Honor System. In order to maintain what you get, you have to keep up with an insane race that looks nowhere fun. It's a goal that keeps slipping out of your hands and really not fun to chase. It's the actual death of the "achievement" as a fun process. It goes directly *against* the basic gameplay of a mmorpg, it's counterproductive. Revolutionary in a negative meaning. You are always losing. Always struggling to "keep up" to not lose what you earned. This mechanic is directly frustrating because the pattern (as for Raph's description) is always out of your reach, out of your control.

"When we meet noise, and fail to see a pattern in it, we get frustrated, and give up."

This is also why the large majority of the players will just learn to not bother at all with the system. It's a goddamn CHORE. And noone likes chores in a game that is supposed to provide a compelling endgame.

So, how to keep these "statuses" (because powerful tools represent, at the core, different statuses for the players) moving without becoming common, without triggering insane maintenance patterns and without sticking to just a selected group of elitist players?

My solution is to achieve the goal through PvP. These are PvP tools, if a sword is supposed to cut, an artifact is supposed to be used in PvP. So the maintenance system won't become an increase cost to fulfill desperately, but it will be just a basic guarantee so that the item is used actively.Employed in PvP. A "flat", accessible upkeep to grant that the item isn't hidden and protected somewhere without becoming the "content" it is supposed to be.

The fact that the item is being used also means that the the player using it is exposed to a "risk". So a possibility to die that here is tied to the *loss of the item* itself.

The circle is complete. The artifacts are powerful items, rare. They require the player to expose himself to a risk. Concrete and visible and not based on abstract points that the player cannot track and follow (like in WoW), so that he cannot identify as patterns to optimize and play with. At the same time the artifact drops on the ground if the player dies, so we have the loss. The artifacts drops and can be taken by someone else. And here we have the recycle process.

This mechanic allows the artifacts to become special content that isn't reserved to a small group of catasses since everyone will have an occasion to see the artifact fall on the ground and pick it up. It's an open possibility. The fact that the tool is used in PvP, an environment where the death is a common element, means that the recycle process remains dynamic and not a permanent tool of power in the hands of a small group.

This is how these artifacts become tactical elements in PvP. Becoming "content" and "context" themselves. Exactly following the myth of PvP as an always self-renewing type of content that doesn't need continue development to maintain the novelty.