MMO's have different requirements than single-player or table-top RPGs as well. Time within an MMO will likely never match up to your PnP standards. Another mandated goal of the game is simply fun. Finding every single way where a game does not match up to an envisioned ideal does not count as such. For most of us, anyway.
It escapes me where having a proper game time removes
fun of game play. PS' mandate, as understood by me, is to create the best Role Playing environment as possible. Without a proper use of game time that goal will never be reached as further corners will be cut.
For example, there are threads out there bemoaning the grinding of some characters. Employing game time to give logic to such advancement would go a long way to give real
in game RPed explanation. There are many other areas where a
real game time could be employed. Again, this does not seem to make any distraction from
fun of play; indeed to many real Role Players it may well increase it.
When one goes to a class or teaching that is the first step in ones studies. One then goes home and practises. Game Time could be used in that way; so that when a player logs on they are given the current game time and their characters game time and asked if they would like to
pracrise anything which they have
trained. Doing this would then increase the stats and skills in the areas which they had
trained while moving the character forward towards game present. Of course the option should be given to simply move the character directly to game present as well.
The present settings of Game Time gives me great pause about PS and its possible direction. If the goal is to be like all other MMO's then a great niche will be missed with no hope of a non-profit development team keeping abreast of all the other cloned MMOs.
In RP game time is a very important factor. The present Settings being suggested on this thread is a farce in the face of IC RP.
- Nova
[Edit - It should be noted that my character currently has 14,464 pps. They seem to continually accrue do the fact that learn by doing is employed as much as possible. If players were allowed to use up such surpluses of pps while moving the character forward in game time; it seems to me that the mechanics are almost in place to support a
real game time strategy in the skills and stats based training. It could also be used in other skills as well; assuming that one character's cooked, stitched gloves or whatever during the time between last log in and the present game time; (p.p.s) which sounds like a lot more
fun to me than having to do the learning all real time.]
[Edit - Since posting this note two days ago and advancing 4 levels in various armour types and one in sword my pps total is now 19333. If those could be used to represent practise done to catch up in game time then advancement would be much less painful to players while having the restriction of time movement so that it could not be abused.]
[Edit - There must have been an error on my part reading the first 14,464 pp total. Although a number of monsters have been killed in that period which earned me 12,500+ experience; they only gave 64 pps each. So please just take the example to be that pps continually increase even with intense training while using learn by doing with a toe in a new level.]
