This is pretty much as far as I got in ArcheAge when I attempted to peek in and see where things were at. I’ve mentioned this before, but a lot of games out there do an absolutely horrible job at welcoming a returning player back to the game. I’m not talking about the little goodie bags that were waiting for me – but there was no indication as to what I had been working on, what I needed to be working on, what had changed since I had been away, or what I should work towards next. What I did know was that my character was level 40, she had a bunch of quests on her, and 700 gold plus relatively full bags that seemed to be mostly consumables.

I know that in order to get back into a game your best bet is usually not to revisit your old characters but to create brand new characters and get familiar with all the ins and outs – but I rarely ever want to start from scratch, and I don’t necessarily feel that players should have to. What I’d like to see is some sort of special UI that pops up for players who have been away from the game for XYZ amount of time, with options on revisiting skills, quests, what’s changed, what’s new. Maybe an in-game browser highlighting the very important changes. If it could somehow take a peek at your last logged in date and calculate notes from there, that would be simply amazing and would be a great step in getting me to re-join your game. As it is now, there are very few games I can pick up from where I left off and know what the hell is going on.

I did have a lot of fun logging in my pirate character. As you can see by the character info panel on the left hand side, she has almost 1,000 crime points. She hasn’t been killed in PVP though so she hasn’t had to go to trial. Most of her crime points (OK, all) are from stealing crops that were not on farms, and for uprooting other players crops (also not on farms). She’s my “evil” character, if that’s still a thing. Unfortunately, just like my main character I had no idea what I was doing or where I should go or what I needed to do. This second character is level 32, and I remember zero about her class. That being said, logging in is pretty  much all I did before logging right back out.

I suppose that’s just a hint for me to start over if I want to re-learn anything about this game..

Not too long ago I was playing ArcheAge and I was convinced that this was ‘the game for me’. I purchased a multi-month subscription and leveled my main up to 40-something; where I promptly logged out one day and then never logged back in (minus one exception, I did log in when there was a promotion ongoing, I wanted the mount). What is it about games that draws me in? What changes about them that makes me question why I even began playing?

The first question is quite easy. I love a robust world. I love being able to explore, doing quests, and a crafting system. I love player housing and player created content. What I don’t like is end game, and the closer I get to that end game the less likely it is that I’ll continue playing. What changes about the games that makes me stop? Well, it’s not something about the games themselves so much as the fact that as I continue to play I get closer to the ‘end game’ whatever that may be. In most cases it’s a world that I simply don’t want to participate in. I have no interest in raiding and it’s rare that I want to group. I’m tired of running daily quests, and I dislike that dailies have become the crutch most MMOs use to convince players to log in each day. What I need is something to convince the casual player (me) to continue playing so that it doesn’t feel like a grind. In most cases this ends up being either 1. alts, 2. crafting, or 3. Some sort of mini-casual end-game like housing, collecting pets, mounts, or achievements. Problem is, there’s so much competition for these things that I can easily log into 5 or 6 other MMOs and find the exact same things in a world where I’ve already established my characters.

Lets look at ArcheAge in specific. I really disliked the whole idea of having to constantly log in to make sure that my plot of land wasn’t going to vanish. It made it seem like a task, and I worked really hard to get that piece of land when there were so many others trying to get land, so the idea that it could vanish so easily was quite upsetting. Then there was the fact that I couldn’t purchase more land unless I camped it and battled other characters to earn it, or spent a huge amount of money to purchase it. I didn’t want to have to wait months down the road for content that I wanted to do ‘now’. Add to that, labour. If I was ever at the cap for labour I felt as though I was wasting it, and that I must log in to use it up and make sure that I was always optimizing my character in that regard. Eventually it just became draining. Finally, there was the fact that I was quickly approaching end game. I felt that I was ‘behind’ everyone else, that I was constantly going to have to play catch-up, and that there would be little to no ways for me to actually catch up unless I participated in those tasks which I decidedly did not enjoy (grouping).

So I stopped logging in. Once I lost my plot, it was easy to cancel my subscription and stop playing. Take away one thing that I felt like I had ‘earned’ and the lure of the game goes down drastically. Make me feel obligated to log in (muck like work) rather than excited, and I’ll be less likely to log in. Make it seem like a chore, instead of fun. That’s what these systems did to a casual player like me.

That’s not to say I won’t ever be back, I did log in a few days ago because a lot of friends on twitter were excited about the game and I of course wanted to feel like a part of that excitement, but the instant I logged my characters in and realized they no longer own land, no longer have extra storage, and were so far behind that it would just be a lot of work to ever get caught up, I logged right back out.

That’s not how you keep me playing your game.

What ever happened to ArcheAge? It released not even three full  months ago, and already there are far less players than when I first started out. Since I still have patron access thanks to being a beta supporter, and a friend was talking up the game over the weekend, and I actually had time to game for once, I decided why not explore once again. I had previously lost most of my desire to play when the guild I was in decided to implode due to a whole lot of drama. This time around I was starting fresh on a new server, and though I miss my old ‘mains’ (a lot, I really wish we had character transfers) at least there were some good friends around.

I’m nearing level 19 at the moment, and managed to find a spot for my small farm right away. Prices for items have skyrocketed to a degree that I would have never guessed. Just last month APEX were selling for 40 gold, those are now 200 gold. 16×16 plots of land were 300-500 gold, and those are now 1200-2000 gold depending on location. Even the 8×8 plots of land are going for huge amounts of gold, and it seems like only a small percent of the population controls the housing areas. I would still love to see all patrons be granted 1 16×16 and 1 8×8 – and then leave open spaces where people could battle for extra land. In any case, I was glad to get my small piece. I’m not sure what the chances are for me ever obtaining a 16×16 (especially not if I have to pay for it) but the 8×8 will suit me for now. Instead of picking up on a specific craft, I have just been harvesting and selling my goods on the AH. I’ve got a nice little store of coin, and I’m hoping that as I level up I can make use of that for gear and weapons.

I started out as a daggerspell, but at level 17 I decided I wasn’t really enjoying myself and I swapped over to a templar which has been my class of choice so far. I completed a few trade runs, and things are very much as they were when I stopped playing approximately a month ago (aside from the rise in prices). How long I stick things out this time will depend on a number of things (like how long my friends are around for) but I wouldn’t play at all if I didn’t have at least some fun doing it. I enjoy the world and the quests, I just don’t enjoy the mad property dash that seems to dictate every action in the game.

Even a few weeks into the game, on Naima (my server of choice) finding 16×16 plots, or larger, is still difficult. That being said, I have spotted a LOT of 8×8 plots, so I imagine that with time and a bit of luck, maybe the larger ones will open up.

In the meantime all is not lost! I decided to give up the hunt for a 16×16 plot for a while, and found a solution that works great. I decided since my alt is a tailor, and I’m constantly running to machines / mailboxes, I would buy a design for a private loom (your alts can also access it). The design was 30 gold, so I used cash instead of gilda, as I’m still saving those up for a future project. The materials to build this were far cheaper than what I would have needed for a house, requiring only 1 fabric pack and one stone pack. Done and done. The best part? You can place housing items on these lots. Behind my loom is a storage chest (you can have two of them), and a mailbox out front. With my farm close by, there’s no real need to have a 16×16 house taking up real-estate. The only down side is the fact that these small gazebo-esc homes don’t come equipped with a fireplace to port ‘home’ to, so you may want to build relatively close to one or have a friend close by who has a fire you can create the port to.

Plus they just look really neat.

I decided to splurge, and made myself a set of level 30 plate armor, along with a new shield and weapon. Crafting is expensive – unless you farm everything yourself, and if you farm everything yourself, it’s lengthy. I rarely have labor since I use it all for crafting, and I now see why people tend to focus on just one craft at a time.

Unfortunately I have never been good at that.

Blesse, my main, is almost level 38. I had my first taste of PVP zones, as my quests took me to Cindermoor. Despite the fact that it was war time I only had one incident, and that was from a same faction player who decided to bloodlust on me. I’m not much of an opponent when compared to a level 50 player, and I was in combat with mobs at the time as well, so I doubt they got that much satisfaction from the ordeal. I didn’t let it deter me though, I went on my way and continued to quest once reviving at the statue.

I’d like to reach level 40 (and of course 50) within the next few days, but I have a pretty bad cold, so we’ll see how that goes. I keep hunting for a thunderstruck tree, but haven’t had any luck. I think I’m going to save mine for a future project instead of trying to get a farm tractor.

Property wise I am doing alright with 1 small house, 1 16×16 farm and 1 8×8 farm. I would love to own a larger home at some point, but I’m not going to hold my breath, and I’m content with my current set up. What I need to do (again, I have mentioned this before) is focus my efforts. So far that is easier said than done, at least for me.

At level 30 you’ll be presented with a short series of quests from the honor NPC that awards you with the ability to serve on jury duty. Perform this task 5 times and you’ll get a cloak opened up to you. So far I’ve served on jury duty twice, with my third time upcoming at the time of this post. Jury duty is neat and annoying all at once. The quests to qualify were simple enough, you get to solve a murder mystery and do a bit of running around.

Then comes the longest part of jury duty, the waiting. You automatically wait in a queue (which you can turn off in options by auto declining jury duty) with your peers while players go to trial. There’s even a courthouse, where others can watch the proceedings (in fact it’s bugged right now, if you sit in a pew you won’t get kicked from the AFK timer).

A queue for jury duty only moves as fast or slow as the server does. On the weekend I’m often at 1500-1800 players ahead of me, which can easily take 8-12 hours to reach the front of. If you’re used to shorter play sessions (I tend to semi afk while I farm and do things on my other monitor) you may not ever see jury duty until the queue of jury members drops a bit. It’s also based on how many people happen to have crime points and how many of that group is engaging in PvP and getting killed. Remember the only time you’ll actually get sent to prison is if you have 50+ crime points and you get killed in PvP. I’m not a fan of this system because it promotes players to using lower level characters to grief, where they’re safe within the beginner zones. Evetually they’ll earn their 3,000 infamy and become pirates, but it takes some time.

The jury duty process itself is pretty neat. You’re presented with a screen of infractions from the player, complete with their personal details such as how much time they have spent in jail total, how many times they have appeared before the court, what guild they’re in, etc. All of these details help determine what judgement you want to pass. When the jury members have been ported to their seats, the defendant has time to voice their case. Most of the time it’s just simple jokes or insults because hey this is an MMO after all, but every so often you’ll recognize that a player is innocent. You’ll be presented with a selection of judgement options to choose from, make your selection, hear the verdict, and then get ported back to where ever you came from. Pretty simple.

The penalties for crimes are pretty lenient. Pirates who have been there many times before may face longer jail times (the most I have seen someone sentenced to so far has been 4 hours) but over all I like the system. Plus it’s just plain fun.