Dungeon Design in MMOs: Time to Reach for a Higher Standard
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While I personally think this was all brilliantly awesome, from a developer perspective it poses a huge issue. Because the quest series was so long, so involved, and so intricate, most people had no idea the Cyclops palace dungeon even existed. Even at the height of Vanguard's popularity, this second dungeon was rarely occupied due to the length of time it took those that didn't know about it to get flagged. As a result, those that knew about it could rarely get a group together and the rest of the population was oblivious to its existence. In other words, someone (or a group of someones) spent a lot of time creating a dungeon, boss encounters, loot tables, etc. all for the enjoyment of only a fraction of the game's players. No matter how cool it may have been to create a (secret dungeon) for players to discover, in terms of business, it was a waste of resources that could have been used elsewhere. Even so, it still remains my favorite dungeon ever so thanks to those that made it!
I want to see dungeons like Trickster's Haven make a return to games. It was exciting, involved, and so exquisitely cool that I can't convey just how much. It's a case of (you needed to be there) (or go there now with a group since the game is free to play) to really understand. At the same time though, as gamers, we need to understand that games are created by companies to make money. The cooler they can make the experience, the better, but there is a limit to how much time can be put into something that only a small percentage of the player base are going to see.
Or is there? The reality is (Of course), but think back to the early days of World of Warcraft raids. There are millions of players that never saw even Ragnaros when Molten Core was introduced. Sunwell saw less that 2% of the game's population ever making it to the final boss. These are some of the reasons why dungeons are more accessible now than they originally were, but I want to believe that some kind of middle ground can be found between accessible and exquisitely involved.
