Garrett Fuller: End-Game content has always been a touchy subject for gamers and developers alike. Many RPG video games have been based on leveling or questing to the end and defeating the big boss. MMOs are different; you level or build skills to reach a point where you can not advance any further unless the developers add new content. Right now raid content, player built areas, and PvP all run the end-game of the most popular MMOs on the market.

I do like PvP as an end-game resource. It can be ever changing and fun to always compete against other players. The key is for developers to come up with new fun scenarios for people to take part in. Raid content is one huge pain in the ass. I do take part in raids on WoW, but mainly because there is little else to do. Doing a raid one or two times is not so bad, but having to repeat the process every single week for months is just plain boring. What happened to the open world of MMOs? Where players could run around out there and find great things to fight or encounter without having to carry on a huge raid.

Frank Mignone: Ah, I knew we’d get to this topic eventually. End-game content…if that is not a contradiction in terms, I don’t know what is! For me, when you reach the ‘end’ of the game…move on to another game, a new adventure, make new friends, or bring the old ones along. I think people don’t know how to break up with their MMORPGs once the love is gone.

That being said, let’s talk of what this should be as an event that rewards the player for their loyalty in playing the game so long to reach this point. Frankly, I play Single player RPGs for the player-centric story that cannot be found in an MMORPG, which is not centric to any one player by its nature. If I get to the end of your MMORPG, give me some story. Actually, give me a LOT of story, and make me feel really important in my achievement by making me the center of attention. With Final Fantasy XI, there were lots of missions that has cut-scenes that did exactly what the single-player games did, put me in the center of the story. Unraveling the story was a big motive for me to level my character, so I could access harder missions and learn more of the story.