A Positive Review of Wyvern's Magic Item Usage

[igorith]

I have played alot of computer games in my time, and alot that were not so good. Games like Lord of the Rings Online, Demigod, and the Fallout series were among my least favorite, whereas Sryth, World of Warcraft, and Runescape are among some of my most favorite. However, there is one seriously bad re-occuring problem in role-playing games: overpowering and spoiling players. Much in contrast to some of the big-name titles like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings online, Wyvern does a VERY good job of NOT spoiling the small amount of players they have.

That is among one of my most favorite things about Wyvern. The wizards are extremely stingy on magic items. If you look at some of the big-name titles in comparision to Wyvern, like WOW (World of Warcraft) or LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online), Wyvern does a great job of maintaining a balanced game, especially considering the small player population (both in overall players and in people online). I know from experience that the bigger games (especially WOW) have a terrible problem with spoiling players. In World of Warcraft, at level 85 (current level cap), you get the same amount of money for walking across a field and saying something to an NPC that you used to have to spend days or even weeks working for. Whats worse is that while mounts used to be a very rare and hard-to-get thing on WOW, now they hand them out like candy. Most WOW players (myself sometimes included) don't know the value of working hard for a good item.

Now, this is all given the fact that bigger games tend to have much more publicity than Wyvern does, but even so the Wizards of Wyvern do a good job in keeping ther players interest and keeping the economy stable. You may think its almost backwards thinking, but I would much rather have very little magic items and savor what I have than have too many magic items and throw away whatever I don't need. Honestly, I would compare Wyvern's overall stability to that of World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online; for such a basic design and small player pool, Wyvern does a great job of player managment on both a small-scale and large-scale basis.

[Teshuvah]

I just have to add, that the gaming world in general is dumbing down gamers terribly.

Today I see a level 1 with a motorized vehicle and a pet they don't have to feed?!??! This is how they start out...a goblin no less!!

It's really, really sad.

*Shakes head and walks away mumbling*

[Valkon]

*starts quest*
*does not bother to read the quest description, but follows the quest arrow instead*
*starts killing and looting monsters until quest complete appears*
*follows quest arrow again*
*looks for yellow question mark above NPC*
*selects best/most expensive item*
*moves on to next quest*

*yawns*

[igorith]

Haha you both have that exactly right about WOW. Its pretty pathetic.

[Irlazy]

Haha I played a game once that all I had to do was look at the screen practically. I clicked on the quest object and it runs me to the monster/item/location and from there i just keep hitting the '1' key and it keeps killing the monsters or whatever. Anyway yeah I agree I commend the wizzies and R for all the good work on making a game that doesn't cater to the players. I bet on average we die several more times on this game getting to HoF then most games have PERIOD! Some of us even embrace it *coughlogwadcough*...

[Durango]

I agree it's a nice challenging game. I just wish I could get my friend into it. She's made a character on wyvern twice now. The last time was about a year ago I think and she went through the tutorial and I thought she might like to try a quest. So I told her she should do garignors amulet and she ended up dying someplace looking for the quest. The first time she tried a pixie and I told her it might be hard so this time she made a halfling.

Any advice?

[Teshuvah]

Originally Posted by Durango

I agree it's a nice challenging game. I just wish I could get my friend into it. She's made a character on wyvern twice now. The last time was about a year ago I think and she went through the tutorial and I thought she might like to try a quest. So I told her she should do garignors amulet and she ended up dying someplace looking for the quest. The first time she tried a pixie and I told her it might be hard so this time she made a halfling.

Any advice?

I believe the player manual recommends a Rak or Dwarf for a first timer.

[Infinimo]

And yet WoW has 11 million subscribers and Wyvern only has... 100 players? 50?