My Life As A Gamer: How To Gate Normies From Gamer-Tier Content

This post follows on my Normies In MMOs series. Check the date on this video; it's from 2015.

That's right, there were two glorious years where the most minimal of gates kept a lot of Normies out of entirely optional instanced content in Game of Gankcraft.

The reason it went away with the next expansion was because (a) the Normies got mad and (b) it turned out that the raids and dungeons in question held the top end of power and prestige in the game and thus was only formally optional and not in practice- there was no other way to the same end.

This is not the case now. The game in question does have other routes--introduced in the very next expansion--that can be brute-forced with sufficient time, skipped otherwise, and thus those Normies are--were--retained.

But it's still a worthy concept, and it should be implemented in any MMORPG worth a damn.

And, as I said previously, it needs to be explicitly stated with all the subtitly of a brick repeatedly smashed into your face that you need to pass this competency check to gain access to this optional content at all.

Such a Proving Ground system would requir you to demonstate mastery of your class, your specialization within that class (if applicable), and role in the party to meet that mentioned standard; you could not overlevel it or overgear it, and you had to learn and master mechanics--you had to have actual skill at the game--to pass the check.

Dungeons, raids, etc. can therefore be split into Normie and Gamer.

The main plot, the core of the game's narrative experience, is Normie-tier in difficulty. It is the roller-coaster thrill ride with minimum and standardized mechanics that Normies demand from their entertainment.

The optional stuff, what goes on after the narrative concludes (i.e. endgame) or as irrelevant sidestory content, gets put behind the Gamer gate; you have to prove that you're willing and able to put in work to pass the check, and you can't brute-force them.

One such pass/fail gate per role in a group (if you use such), focused on tight mechanical execution and adaptation to non-standard encounters; boss fights are assembled from a pool of at least a dozen unique mechanics, at least half of which are not in Normie-tier content, so you can't just watch a guide and cheese it. (PVP has this sort of thing as an inherent quality.)

Yes, keep the Normies out of Gamer-tier content. Let them use long grindy questlines as well as crafting and gathering--economic activity--to get the same gear (i.e. power), and leave the prestige to the Gamers. Make it clear to the Normie that they will have to put in work to pass the gate, while providing another route that caters to Normie sensibilities, and they will accept exclusion just fine.