Items are content and cost a lot to put in MMOs. So this kind of thing, which services a tiny minority, just isn't worth it from the devs point of view. And immediately you start putting fancy items in games everyone is going to want one too and will get pissed when they can't get one doing whatever type of gameplay they prefer.
Oh, I know the mainstream audience wouldn't be comfortable with such a design - certainly not from the get-go. Well, depending on how it was executed. But no one big would want to finance such a game - because there's no precedent for success.
But then you just create a double whammy - not only are "better" players better, but they also have better kit. This is another of those thorny dilemmas for MMO designers. Besides it's a very good way of alienating almost your entire player base who will mostly have pretty average skill, however you judge what "better" means - Usually in a PvE game more persistent grinder would be most accurate.
It depends. "Better" players in this case would be about more than pure skill. It would be about creativity and there would be avenues of success that went far beyond just getting better items.
I'm not surprised it's hard to imagine, because no game has ever done anything even remotely like it.
I don't believe in catering to mediocrity - and I'm a strong proponent of having a far horizon - that everyone can aspire to.
There's a reason WoW was played by millions even in the beginning, when only a tiny minority had access to the high-end content.
I consider the whole "casuals need to be force-fed" ideology exaggerated and largely wrong.
If a game is sufficiently good in all the important ways - people will adapt, because they want to play the best game there is.
Again, that's why WoW became a success with the casual audience.
The changes Blizzard have made since are not proof that the vanilla design was all that bad.
that would be a *very* niche game and the dev forums wouldn't be lot of fun either
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I don't agree it would necessarily be a niché game if handled correctly.
However, it's more than likely never going to be created - so we'll never actually know.