Pacing Yourself

By Darkgolem

The amount of time you play Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO) should be based upon what is the most fun for you. Some people prefer to play a few times a week, some play a lot more. To power-game (level as quickly as possible)--if that is something you wish to do--you have to approach gaming in an organized way, paying attention to key information. To game in a more casual way, you need to play enough that you don't lose a “connection” to the character you're playing. The enthusiasm is part of the fun.

When you look at how much you play, and think about how much you should play, you should consider playing the minimal amount of time necessary to have fun and still progress noticeably in the game. In DDO for me, if I don't see my levels going up occasionally, then I start to miss the feeling of accomplishment that keeps me motivated. I need to play enough that I can accomplish long adventures and quest chains, too. For example, I like to play enough to do all of Delara's Graveyard or all of Tangleroot Gorge, at least some of the time. If I play too much, however, I run through content unnecessarily fast. Really, one should try to go through content as slowly as possible, as long as you have fun and retain the enjoyment and motivation of making progress.

Power-gaming
When power-gaming, you should compare the time it takes to complete an adventure, the amount of benefit you get from completing an adventure, and whether (this is the most important part) your having fun. If it is work to power-game, then don't. If it's boring to power-game, then don't.

Why would one power-game? Sometimes a person is driven to play the higher level content or is tired of lower level content. Sometimes people power-game to do the things that are “neat” about a class--that can only be reached in the upper levels. This is a completely viable viewpoint.

Drawbacks to power-gaming in DDO is that it requires a regular group and that you'll burn through content quickly. You'll need reliable travel companions who have your same desire to play often and long. Otherwise, you'll need to be lucky enough to find good pick-up groups. Some players hit Level 10 one week after DDO launched. Those people had seen almost all of the content available at the time (considering that Dragon's Vault was not released yet). Their choices were to log in and repeat a quest for the hopes of better loot or to roll a new character and do it all over again.

Relaxed gaming
Pacing yourself is a little more difficult to do. It's a contradiction, really. You really enjoy DDO, so you play DDO. But you have to prevent yourself from playing too much, or your enjoyment will be reduced. The best way to figure out the right amount of time to play DDO while keeping it down to a more relaxed pace is to keep track of how long you are playing and whether you are feeling the enthusiasm for the game that keeps you motivated. That is, if you had a good time playing for 4 hours, then try it and see how much you enjoyed a game in 3 hours, or in 2 hours. Find your “happy medium.”

Major drawbacks to a relaxed pace include the fact that your friends could quickly out-level you and that few secrets--if any--will remain in DDO for you to discover. Without crafting or other distractions in DDO, your friends may find it difficult to restrain themselves if they have more free time than you for playing. Moreover, you'll find it increasingly difficult to find a group of people doing a quest for the first time with you. They'll know all of the secrets and locations of monsters.

So, why pace yourself instead of just playing all the time?  Hmm, you see that big, bright thing up in the sky (don't look straight at it, please)? That's the sun. It's good for you. Open that rectangular thingy on the wall of your room, and you will feel this strange, cool, invisible thing moving around. That's a spring breeze. Go enjoy those. It's fun and healthy, and this whole “outdoors” thing has the best graphics you'll ever see.

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