I was reading a post about BioWare designer Damion Schubert who was speaking about the need for solo play in MMOs.
http://www.gamershq.com/forum/mmorpg-games/4061-old-republic-dev-discusses-massively-multiplayer-loners.htmlIn the discussion the term 'hollow earth' came up:
Quote:He also talked about "the Hollow Earth problem," where the later in a game's life span you start it, the more likely you are to enter a long-since-abandoned area intended for lower-level players. In such places, it's easy for a solo player to get stuck when quests expect a number of lower-level players to team up to take on more-powerful enemies.
I know that I have personally been stuck in this hollow earth place. I'd roll a new toon and head to Everfrost with all those Heroic quests and no players to be found to party with.
So the question I have is this, from a game developers perspective what could be done to reduce this hollow earth issue?
It seems like mentoring is an attempt to tackle the issue but I'm not sure its effective.
Games like Guild Wars have a very low max level so their is less chance of a hollow earth developing. Other games like Entropia Universe have no levels (skill based) so you group with any player and still benefit from skill gain.
So, aside from designing a game without levels, what can be done to reduce the chances of a hollow earth developing in your MMO?
