Old school character development
Many Asian MMORPGs rely on comparable systems for character development:
- You obtain a basic setup of your equipment and upgrade it until you reach a certain cap. Then you need the next basic set, which you must again upgrade over several levels.
- The equipment pieces that drop can often have different value combinations, forcing min-maxers to take a long time to farm (or buy) the equipment with the best possible stats.
- Additionally, upgrading the items is often tied to an element of luck regarding the upgrade success. If the upgrade attempt fails, frustrating penalties may apply, including the loss of the item.
This is often accompanied by various other progression systems that also require a lot of farming, tinkering with countless currencies or materials, and ultimately some luck.
The latest trailer for Aion 2:
Many Western players find all of this, in combination, to be too luck-dependent, frustrating, grindy, complicated, and demotivating. Plus: Many RPG fans love to find regular upgrades for their equipment. Materials for upgrades often feel somewhat lackluster as rewards.
This is exacerbated by the fact that the obtainable basic armor sets from Asian MMORPGs often offer little visual variance. The underlying idea: If you want to look particularly cool and stand out from others, you should spend money in the shop or the battle pass.
Asian developers absolutely need to find a better balance between obtainable and purchasable content. The visual and gameplay progression of the character has to feel motivating for every player. Otherwise, the genre fans who cannot or do not want to spend money regularly in the shop will quickly drift away. Without this base, players will soon be lacking. Server merges will become a topic. The game will be stuck in a downward spiral…
