Why Dungeons? (EPs vs LPs 1/2) [1/11/24]
I’ve been playing MMOS since I was about 9 years old when I first discovered RuneScape, which means here at 29 I’ve been doing so for about 20 years. Over that 20 years I’ve always loved seeing how different games treat the multiplayer focus, especially when it’s cooperative. Traditionally. the two primary forms of this content come as either Dungeons or Raids.
Personally I’ve always enjoyed dungeons a bit more than raids, but when it’s possible to have a weekly group for progression; raids can be way more fun and fulfilling. That being said I think they both have interesting lessons to teach us about how these sequences of gameplay provide vastly different experiences.
The first distinction that I’m going to make is that Dungeons are essentially tales of a singular adventure while raids are a collection of adventures and feats that create an umbrella event. I’ve always loved how especially in World of Warcraft and Destiny 2, dungeons are singular missions that happen in a fairly short period of time and have heavily themed bosses that share a single story.
Even in WoWs Mega-Dungeons like Mechagon or Dawn of the Infinite that can include 8 or more bosses, every boss encounter of the activity is directly related to the context of taking down the final boss. This is not always to be said about raids where even in the most recent example, there are eventually 2 or 3 different enemy factions involved all aiming to accomplish different things. The raid is then defined by the combined achievement of defeating all the threats as well as the final encounter.
I think the best analogy for this difference is to compare EPs and LPs in the world of music. Both are a collection of songs, both probably have singles, both probably have themes or elements used repeatedly for the sake of making sense to as many listeners as possible.
That being understood; the major difference in experiences comes from the LP covering a wide breadth of styles and techniques from an artists catalogue, while the EP is mostly likely a derivative product of something’s they’ve already made or a specific idea they can’t realistically fit into an LP or Single. Personally, I tend to lean towards Dungeons(EPs) because I enjoy the quick but closed experience of working with a set number of other players to complete an easy to understand but difficult to execute objective.
Dungeons and Raids are really interesting to me. One is Simple but Difficult, the other Complex; yet Easy with good communication. World of Warcraft has tested out smaller and larger forms of content throughout the years, and the team seems really confident that their new Delves system will be a good addition to the overall game. Other games have tested with adding new forms of PvE to their core mix before, like Destiny 2 with Gambit, but I’m very interested in seeing where Delves land and how that alters the resting place of Raids and Dungeons in their wake. Part two of this discussion will drop in a couple weeks with a focus on how players organize their games around different forms of content and what that means for Delves in World of Warcraft.
