Hello, all.
Do we need a wipe? (Note: I'm not talking about 1.0)
My main character has maxed stats but is still far from being anywhere near the max of any skill, except maybe for mining. I deem that a pretty good position to argue for or against a wipe since I'm equally far from the beginning character and the one that is far developed.
In many discussions with fellow players and some GMs on the topic I have collected a list of arguments on the matter and I admit I have a pretty clear-cut opinion on the subject. I haven't read all of the thread and I'm sure I will be repeating the one or other argument brought forward by others. Nevertheless I don't want to serve the missing bits but paint a complete image as it presents itsself to my personal view:
You don't need skills and stats to roleplay. It is your personality that makes the game fun.
- True. But why are there skills and stats at all? Why are there skills and stats in the "purest" style of roleplaying, the pen&paper? Why did the developers incorporate those in the game? Right, it is not personality that makes roleplaying fun, it is -unique- personality. And part of a unique character is, what the character can do and what it cannot. That's skill and stats, it is an essential part in the representation of a character, that greatly increases realism. How am I supposed to roleplay a battle mage if everybody else is equally good or bad at magic as I am?
Through a wipe we will lose some players but we will gain many more.
- A wipe will make many old players leave (yes, that is going to include me), since they are not willing to start anew, to repeat the process of bringing their character to the point where they want to see it, where they feel it belongs to. People play the game to experience something new, not to repeat the same events over and over, and developing a character is a part of that. New players will come and join as the game grows more popular, whether there's a wipe or not. It might even lose popularity through the wipe because those who leave will probably never again recommend the game to friends.
After a wipe you have the unique chance to develop a totally new character and thus experience something completely new.
- Thanks to the good planning and the flexibility of the game we are able to have several characters. we can always create a new character, with a new race and develop a new personality with new skills. We don't need a wipe for that. We can let people who are content with their characters keep them. Those who are not can start anew with their own, personal little wipe. And for those who were forced to start with a new char - don't you think that "everybody else should have to pay" is a bit of a poor perspective, seen from an interpersonal point of view?
It is unfair for the beginner and people who want to have a new character to be confronted with so many powerful characters.
- Is it? I can't see why. Meeting powerful characters, interacting with them, is as great an occasion for roleplay as is meeting a "newbie" for the old and experienced character. It's difference and only difference - diversity - that makes the game fun and creates dynamic relations and developments between characters. The game's economy even depends heavily on a broad mixture of varyingly developed characters. It is much more realistic for a weapons smith to buy his steel from a professional miner and not mine themselves since all have roughly the same ability on that sector.
The wipe is necessary to bring the game forward.
- I haven't read one argument that really explains and proves that highly general (and - excuse my french: lame) statement. I doubt that bugs will be found by 200 low ranking players after a wipe that are not discovered by 50 beginners without a wipe. And even if: Those bugs that may be found faster after a wipe will be countervailed by the ones that need higher ranking chars to find them. Having a wipe or not will not make any difference to the testing of the game, neither positive nor negative.
We will only lose the power-levelers after a wipe the true roleplayers will stay.
- People who have maxed their character or are contented with their characters as it is, have only one option if they want to continue playing the game. They can roleplay. Even the most convinced power-leveler will either leave the game at that point or become a valuable part of the role-playing, whom we might lose if we wipe the character. The ones who don't roleplay will leave anyway, even without a wipe.
Too many characters are too strong. We need to balance this.
- In a persistent world there is progress. Unless you want the wipe to happen on a regular basis, which opposes the promise of persistency, that many players (yes I know we are testers) who join count on, it does not make sense at all to wipe because of such an argument. Sooner or later the world will come to that point again, where there are as many powerful characters in the world as there are now. A wipe does NOT solve this problem at all, it must be solved within the game dynamics. Leveling can be made harder, skills can be reduced proportionally, there can be harder mobs, new skills introduced, ...
People have only been able to become that strong by abusing bugs. That needs to be corrected.
- It is not as if a bug caused half the players to jump to Crystal Way 150 in a wink of an eye, is it? All of the characters have undergone a process of development, some slower and some faster, possibly quickened through the use of bugs, admitted. But when we ask ourselves and answer honestly, does it really matter for me if someone else used a bug to level somewhat faster? He could aswell have joined the game half a year earlier and played the legal way and would be at the same point relative to others. It's only the most human trait of envy that tempts us to have this "problem" corrected.
Thanks for reading this novel to whoever has had the patience to do so. One final word: When there were wipe-rumours and debates approximately a year ago, the rumours alone extinguished my whole guild. It was a pretty active and well-working group of many people dedicated to role-playing. And within a month it was all gone, people were frustrated by the discussion and the possibility that their characters could be lost. All that remained from many of my in-game friends was the guild's MOTD that I read for quite a few month of virtually guildless playing: "All characters will be deleted soon." - I think this whole business can do a lot of damage to the game (read testing) community.
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