I had a chance to catch up with a good friend recently (the chap who actually got me into Dark Age) we talked about nostalgic gaming, and he brought up how with a couple simple additions, Blizzard's "Diablo 2" is still going strong. Basically they added a big quest to complete the storyline (you go back to the Diablo 1 town, and fight the three brothers Mephisto, Baal, and Diablo.) And, they added seasons that last about 4-6months long I believe, and after that they show the rankings of the uber-nerds, and everybody rerolls to level 1 for the next season.

Apologies as this will probably be a long post.

First of all, across the board, all MMOs are hurting in population. Imagine corporations trying to get a different spatula from the drawer trying to get the last bit of mayonnaise from the jar. Players get addicted to the grind, get to end-game, and get tired. I think the endless sea of expansions and additions to the games worked as a model in 2001 onward, but having "seasons" to nostalgic games is a fantastic model to keep the server feeling fresh, accessible and (especially in Diablo 2's case) populated.

I think the MOBA genre really capitalizes on the fact that at the start to each fight, everybody is equal.

Here is a rough sketch my friend and I came up with for our beloved DAoC & Uthgard.

First of all there would be two types of characters:

Ladder: These characters would be made when the new season starts, and have access to all zones. At the end of the season, they would turn into Classic characters.

Classic: These are what all current characters would be turned into. They only have access to the capitol city, the two adjacent zones to the capitol, and housing. Only on special events (relating to the season) can they return to fight for the realm.

Here's a rough sketch of the seasonal timeline, pertaining to ladder characters:

Reroll day, to week 4, level cap 26. All new characters are given the quest, "Champion of Golestandt" (or the hib/mid dragon, obviously) Which simply states "Acheive Golestandt's favor by attaining realm rank 6"

Week 4-8 level cap 34.

Week 8-10 Level cap 41.

Week 10 onward, level cap 50. This is basically "end-game" time, until the first player completes the "Champion of Golestandt" quest.

At which point, to borrow from Robert Jordan, the "Last Battle" happens. At this point, all Classic and Ladder characters on Uthgard can compete in the frenzy. Say it's an Alb that reaches RR6 first. Every mob in Dartmoor goes friendly to Albs. Hibs and Mids both unite (as in they can buff each other, group with each other, it's now 1 realm against 2) to stop Albion before it becomes too powerful (it's a bit like a zombie killing game...Albs can't win this fight by design) so a portal opens up in Jordheim and Tir na Nog directly to the entrance to Dartmoor. Albs must rally and prevent Golestandt from being slain (Golestandt being slain represents the end of normal game play for the season) But as Hib and Mid is united, and porting directly to Dartmoor, Albs must ride horses from Adribards (don't forget to bind!)

Once Golestandt has been slain, the land falls into peril, the moment the Dragon dies, the sky turns black for 48 hours, and instantly Uthgard becomes a PvP server, no realm guards anywhere, all forts are just vacant. Only the Capital cities and Housing are safe.

After 48 hours the server resets, all Ladder characters become Classic characters, and a new dawn comes to all the level 1s ready to do it all over again.

First problem...

From the time the first player hits rr6....u got maybe an hour before the dragons dead and the seasons over....

10 weeks of slow progress leveling..
3 weeks of rvr to rr6
1 night of killing dragon
2 days of pvp ganking


Meh, seems over weighted on the pve side honestly

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We imagined those first 10 weeks of more levelling up a bit, followed by lots of fun RvR. The level limitation is basically there to give everybody time to level up and get out there and have classic RvR battles. With high xp from player kills, I'd imagine people might just level to about 20 and only PVE if they want to chill out.

Let's talk more about how seasons relate to DAoC.

As for the Dragon quest and timing and all that, that's just details...I'm sure there's a way to balance it out (maybe the first rr6 would instantly get friendly Dartmoor faction, and announce to his/her realm to follow him to Dartmoor...then the army waits in the entrance while the first rr6 gets to solo walk up to Gole and turn it in). Pretty cinematic! Then the world messages go out, and the countdown starts while the first rr6 runs back to meet up with the army and defend.

That's all just detail stuff. I'm amazed at how a game like Diablo 2 still has so many people playing...just from stirring the pot up every few months...seasons and ladders just seem to fit classic mmo's like a glove to me.

DISCLAIMER: this is my personal opinion on seasons and I am not advocating for Uthgard to be wiped on a seasonal basis, in fact I think that is a very bad idea.

Personally I like the idea of seasons, however the problem would be finding a balance between length and content.

It's not too long ago that people started hitting rr10 and it would be ashame if noone was able to achieve that during a season. (Look at people hitting max level in arpg genres and how much stream and forum hype that generates watching people race for it)

Maybe a 1 year season would be a good length in a game like daoc in a format like Uthgard.

I do wonder if a league based system like path of exile could work wonders, with a standard server where all characters are rolled into at the end of a season, that way no one felt the same kind of loss that one might experience with a wipe as your progress would be available on the standard server.

When i read the heading, i thought we would get summer, autumn. winter and spring in all 3 realms.

Where winter would not let you rest regen end and power^^ maybe even moe slower
Summer will not be harrezed by fog and rain. move faster

not sure what to do with spring and autumn, atleast a lot of rain

I think season would be cool! Also along the way I like Hardcore mode and Ironman Mode:
Hardcore = 1 Death only
Ironman = No Trading & No Crafting

Specifically for seasons:
1- DAoC is not fit for seasons because so many class imbalance and realm imbalance
2- Also it takes a lot more time to level (usually) that other games.
3- I would have imagine something along the lines of:
- Person with the most mobs killed as a [class] during Season [X]
- Person with the most exp gained as a [class] during Season [X]
- Person with the most RvR Solo kills as a as a [class] during Season [X]
- Person with the least death as a [class] during Season [X]
- Person with the highest one hit damage as a as a [class] during Season [X]
etc...
All different kinda "achievment" would reward something each season. It would encourage players to focus on one character and to try a different character each season possibly.
This would have to be supported with a nice database and some things can be screenshot based as long as no photoshop is done :p