MOP reader Leiloni recently alerted us to an interesting discussion over on the Ashes of Creation forums, where Intrepid is trying to get the measure of the community on enchanting systems – that is, the sort of system by which a character can dramatically increase the power of a piece of gear in a secondary type of vertical and horizontal progression.
I’m not really a big fan of these types of systems, frankly. I prefer to see power vested in the character itself, rather than gear, which is so often discarded over the years and crawl of content. I’ve seen plenty of MMOs add enchanting-esque systems and go waaaay off the rails in terms of power creep, which is always ironic as usually the initial goal was to avoid more vertical power creep. But there’s more to it than that; I also don’t love the way these types of systems can be twisted up in exploitative monetization schemes. And don’t even start me on upgrade systems with whiffs and failures (that you also then have to pay for in time, money, or both). I’m just not sure I’ve seen one done particularly well.
Are there any MMO gear enchanting systems you do like – that don’t fall into any of the traps? Which MMO gear enchanting system is the least annoying?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
