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Original post by Trinavarta Lets say you design your game to need approx. 30minutes per day. Everyone who wants to play less will still be behind.

You could mitigate this by having the player's choice of server determine how much time they get per day. That way, if I want to invest 15 mins a day, I can play 15 mins a day without others getting any edge on me just because they have no other life to speak of.

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And everyone who wants to play more will get bored.

That's a very misleading term because nothing is stopping them from doing something else in the meantime. Frustrated, maybe, but not bored. No one would claim movies bore people just because the theatre isn't open 24/7.

What actually does bore people is when they have to play more than they enjoy playing.

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Original post by Stroppy Katamari Quote: Original post by Trinavarta Lets say you design your game to need approx. 30minutes per day. Everyone who wants to play less will still be behind. You could mitigate this by having the player's choice of server determine how much time they get per day. That way, if I want to invest 15 mins a day, I can play 15 mins a day without others getting any edge on me just because they have no other life to speak of. Quote: And everyone who wants to play more will get bored. That's a very misleading term because nothing is stopping them from doing something else in the meantime. Frustrated, maybe, but not bored. No one would claim movies bore people just because the theatre isn't open 24/7. What actually does bore people is when they have to play more than they enjoy playing.

You are right, you can never say that players will react in one or the other way or that there is no "work around" to please more players, but what I wanted to state with this sentence is that a rule like this can scare many players - Even the ones you made this game/special rule for.

So I think it may be a better approach to weighten playtime different. (Like mentioned before). If the first hour of playtime each day equals the next 4 hours in terms of time/reward ratio. Then you wont scare many people who want to play your game, but on the other hand you reduce the might of full time players over casuals. Just change this ratio to your needs, a 1:100 ratio is still better then to prohibit someone to play the game (imo).

Just imagine you bought a dvd with the full season of your favorite tv series and after you finished watching the first episode a popup tells you that you can watch the next episode tomorrow. ;)


Just to clarify, this is just my opinion - no one has to agree with it. :)

best regards

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Original post by Trinavarta So I think it may be a better approach to weighten playtime different. (Like mentioned before). If the first hour of playtime each day equals the next 4 hours in terms of time/reward ratio. Then you wont scare many people who want to play your game, but on the other hand you reduce the might of full time players over casuals. Just change this ratio to your needs, a 1:100 ratio is still better then to prohibit someone to play the game (imo).

I wasn't really thinking that players need be kicked out - only that their time-based gain (such as XP) be cut off. In your terms, this is ratio 1:infinite.

For instance, a fantasy football MMO might allow you to play seven ranked matches a week, and an unlimited amount of practice matches which do not alter any stats.

Of course for that to make sense requires the game to actually be entertaining instead of a mindless grind.

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Just imagine you bought a dvd with the full season of your favorite tv series and after you finished watching the first episode a popup tells you that you can watch the next episode tomorrow. ;)

That is a totally arbitrary limitation, with no benefit to the viewer. Not a meaningful comparison.

Interestingly, many people are fine even with the much harder limitations of TV, which also tells you at exactly what time you must return to it in order to see the next episode.