The biggest problem was the degeneracy once it was "solved", instead of organizing around social circles. It led to people feeling like cogs in the machine and skewed play patterns and motivations.
I haven't really given it any serious thought but I'd likely start with trying to more strongly codify the good parts (incentivizing smaller circles inside of the larger structure, making systems for patrons/vassals to play together in more meaningful ways, etc) while highlighting the positive actions that players could do / benefit from. I don't want to say AC was TOO opaque but a lot of it definitely suffered from being over designed for a very hardcore market.
It eventually ended up being a straight line where you could add yourself lower and higher in the line with two different characters, and turbo feed the xp upwards (there were loyalty stats to push up and receive more xp). It peaked with a prevalence of bots that would be parked at the bottom feeding the line 24/7.
Loved AC. Bots kind of killed it IMO (something I feel bad about contributing to), but also new MMOs (WoW decimated the competition when it came out). I remember a portal / recall trick with two vendors, where one would sell a specific thing cheaper than the other would buy it. This was before eBay cracked down on virtual goods. Interesting times.
I was in from beta until about 2004. Lots of fond memories! Closest I've come to feeling the same way I felt playing AC in recent memory is actually Valheim. Can't quite put a finger on why, but there are very few games that hold such an important place in my heart. I was a high schooler when it came out. Some days I regret not going into game design, especially with the current wave of VR games. Some days I'm tempted to quit my major tech company job and try to create that magic myself in a VR MMO.
But that would be something only a crazy person would do.
Yay! The first time an MMO lands for someone, it definitely makes an outsized impression. The combination of social outlet with a huge amount of free time is a recipe for something great.
It's funny you mention Valheim - one of my groups in had a core of people who I met back in the AC days and their friends. We got to some real old man gaming that probably annoyed their friends with all of the "back in our day..." stories while we were running around the landscape, running from trolls, etc.
I posted above briefly about my experience with a TES device.
While my usage was occasional, I did have a very unique perceived response to a session, and it wasn’t dissimilar to stimulants prescribed for ADHD.
However, that response didn’t last much longer than a few minutes after removing the device. I also didn’t feel the mild pseudo-euphoria I commonly experience with ADHD medication, which seems a significant element of resolving ADHD symptoms.
> I also didn’t feel the mild pseudo-euphoria I commonly experience with ADHD medication, which seems a significant element of resolving ADHD symptoms.
This is more of a side effect, which disappears over time. Relying on the euphoria of stimulants to get work done is a dead end, so be careful with this assumption.
yeah, ADHD is a terrible life-destroying menace and it would be nice to have something that could motivate me to eat food more than once every few days.
(I'm referring to the fact that it made us drop out of school and lose 3 jobs. It has, objectively, made our life absolute hell. And we thought we were just lazy or stupid for over a decade until we found out about ADHD. Stimulants don't help us.)
Or in my case cook the heathy, cheaper, food that I actually enjoy eating rather than the ultra-processed, pre-made, food like substances that make my stomach ache.
Have you looked at other similar medications? I'm on Vyvanse, which is very similar except that it only comes in a time-release form. Adderall has a time-release version, but you may not be on that. If it seems to wear off after 4-6 hours, you're not on the time-release version.
I find that i feel the effects of my Vyvanse nearly all day, and it's only for the last few hours of the night that it fades. So though I do have to be a bit careful then to similarly restrict eating, if I can trick myself by like, brushing my teeth early or drinking a lot of water before it wears off, that can help with (though obviously not cure) the binge eating.
