Gaming » The Grouchy Gamer

I'm toast.

Jun 232011

This from Gabe over at Penny Arcade about SWTOR…

“I don’t want to drill down into too much little stuff about the game but there is one feature I have to tell you about because I think it is really cool. If someone in your party is off grabbing quests while you’re selling junk at a vendor you would have to wait for them to share the quest with you later in any other game. In SW:TOR you get a little message that someone in your party is taking a quest and do you want to join via holoprojector. The first time I saw this I actually said out loud “Shit yeah I want to join via holoprojector!” and sure enough your character appears there in all his or her shimmering blue glory. You can interact with the NPC right alongside your partner. It’s a little touch but believe me when I tell you the game is full of smart little bits like this.”

Gabe’s in the Friends and Family Beta for the game and he gave some of his other impressions over here…

Casualties of War? Coming soon to SWTOR

Gaming, What I'm Playing 3 Responses »

Mar 132011

So as many of you are aware, Bioware has opened up guild creation for pre-launch guilds in advance of Star Wars: The Old Republic. One of the ideas is that you can form your guilds and alliances with other guilds. On launch day, they will try to get everyone who wants to be together (both allies and enemies) on the same servers together. It’s a good idea I think, especially in light of what happened with past games like Warhammer and, in most recent memory, Rift. There are often groups that are separated unwillingly because of shifting server populations and other uncontrollable issues (by the players) on launch day.

Darren is going to Blow A Gasket

Business, Gaming, What I'm Playing 4 Responses »

Apr 152010

Forgive me Father, it’s been almost 90 days since my last post.

A while ago, you might remember Darren over at The Common Sense Gamer losing his mind a little when one of the publishers had the audacity to ask for $10 for an in-game horse. Well Darren is going to absolutely flip over this then.

Blizzard is selling a mount on the Blizzard Pet Store. You can get your Celestial Steed now on the Blizzard Store for only $25 US. What a deal, right? I know Tarkheena is looking for her credit card right now. I think they are going to sell a TON of these. What do you guys think though? How much is too much?

I still think that any of this stuff that is not germane to game play is fair game. I don’t need it to craft, or to store items, or to access content. It’s purely cosmetic. As a matter of fact, reports are that the mount will scale to the speed of your fastest mount. So it’s almost literally just a skin on whatever you already possess. I’ll probably end up with one. They are pretty cool looking.

There is some understandable Nerd Rage about this, but I go back to the fact that it’s an in-game collectible, and nothing more. If Blizzard starts asking for money for unlocks, or crafting goods, or bag space, then you will hear more from me. Until then I think I’m going to enjoy seeing what they come up with next to separate us from our money.

Healing the Anitsocial and My Role in it

Community, Gaming, Opinion, What I'm Playing 11 Responses »

Jan 152010

I’ve been making some observations lately in WoW regarding healing and the Dungeon Finder. I’ve been thinking about writing about it for a few days, but Spinks and Syp have both beat me to it.

Spinks article is about “You can’t heal stupid,” which is absolutely correct. Syp writes about the unwritten rules that healers have in “The Secret Life of Healers.”

Both of them allude to or outright point out that most healers in the game (I play a Resto Shaman as one of my dual mains) have a set of rules for healing people, particularly people in Random Heroic Groups. We probably all had rules that we had in our minds from doing PUGs, but not many people did as many dungeons doing PUGs as we do now with the Dungeon Finder. This has amplified our issues as healers and brought them to the forefront of our thinking. Before this I never really thought that much about them but over the course of the last few weeks I have had time to consider this quite a lot.

For the benefit of all the ADHD tanks, fire-and-forget ranged DPS, and don’t-quite-know-they-aren’t-the-tank melee DPS folks out there, here are some things to consider should you be lucky enough to be in a Heroic I am healing. I am willing to bet that there are even some other healers who will agree with these, so think of them as rules to live by.

Is the Shiny wearing off Aion already?

Gaming, Opinion 18 Responses »

Oct 052009

It always starts like this. Hot New Game that everyone wants to play. Lots of people buy the box. First month is getting to know the game. It sure is pretty/authentic/fun. All your friends are playing it. You might have broken down and bought it yourself. It’s a lot like EQ/WOW/Lineage and you wonder if it’s different enough to make you want to play. You unsubscribe from your All Time Favorite game. You say some hurtful things about it as you leave.

Now it’s a month or two later and you are starting to notice your Hot New Game has a few warts. It’s still the Shiny though, and you try to ignore them.

Then it starts.

First, it’s a couple of blog posts or a tweet. Um, it’s not as cool as we though. A couple of people defect and go back to their All Time Favorite. ATF takes them back because it always does, and in a month or three their account goes inactive and they try not to think about it any more.

Then there is a small swelling of people saying that the emperor has no clothes. They are pointing out legitimate concerns with the game. Some of these people are the ones who should love the game, it’s purported target audience. Yet they begin to second-guess the game and where it’s going. This is where Aion is right now. Some of the people whose opinion I respect that should be the target audience are starting to slough off the game’s subscription roles.

Champions: See you down the line...

Gaming, Opinion, What I'm Playing 5 Responses »

Sep 302009

This week I decided to go ahead and cancel my Champions Online account. I think there is a general malaise at my house when it comes to MMOs. So I guess I have to tell Champions; “It’s not you, it’s me.” I need to see other MMO’s.

Champions is a fun game and I think that there will be a time in the future that I resub. For now though, there are a few things about the game that make me want to put it down. First, there is the lack of polish and finish to the game. Depending on the encounter, a mob near your level might be an appropriate challenge or it may not. This is especially true in boss encounters. Some of them are major undercons. This betrays a lack of balance that permeates the game. Second, there is the quest driven nature of the game. Now before you think I’m going to bash quest-driven games, know that I like that style of game just fine. You (game designers) just can’t let me run out. As my main character reached his mid-twenties he started falling farther and farther behind the quest curve. For example, when he was 21 he only had quests that were 2 levels higher than him available. He was still able to do them, if not able to use the rewards immediately. As he leveled through his twenties this problem became worse. I could probably grind though it but mob experience is weak, and I’m not inclined to do so.

Blizzard: Game Development-Just Slow Down

Business, Design, Gaming 5 Responses »

Sep 192009

All of us love our games (I assume you do too, and that is why you are here) and most of us want exciting new games to come along. We want them fun, we want them nuanced, we want them polised. Oh, and we want them right damn now. Why does it take so long to develop a game anyway? While I suspect that most of us have ideas why games take so long, I think that most of us don’t really think about some realities that govern whether a game is polished (seemingly a large yardstick for measuring the success of a game), fun, and attractive to us. I don’t think most of us have any idea of the scope of these games or the resources required to develop or operate and manage them.

During AGDC this week during 2 separate events Blizzard Entertainment shared what they think makes them unique in this regard.

The first, a Gamasutra interview with Blizzard lead content designer Kevin Martens is relatively simple: Iteration. Taking something and playing and testing it over and over. Tweaking it and playing and testing it over and over again. I suspect that many of us would expect that this is the essence of “polish”. How can something be polished without lots of testing and lots of adjustments from what you found while testing? Of course all of this iteration costs money, so that excludes some studios who may be operating on a shoestring or are under time-pressure to release a game. It’s also clear that this is why Blizzard takes so bloodly long to get anything out.

Amazing Accomplishments of the Daft

Gaming, Opinion, What I'm Playing 1 Response »

Sep 142009

Among the great things that are accomplished by people every day, I have always pointed out that doing so is easy when you are smart.

Accomplishing things when you are an idiot requires some effort and determination. Many of the things I have accomplished in my life are heroic in nature because at the very core of my being, I’m an idiot. I pointed this out to some of my fellow bloggers and guild members in our Champions Ventrilo channel the other night. To my dismay, they tacitly agreed. As a matter of fact, they tactfully tacitly agreed.

Here’s the latest example of my bumblehood;

Now, in reality, I’m a relatively smart guy. I get it, more often than not. But lately when it comes to gaming, I’ve noticed a trend. For example, I’ve been playing Champions online since late beta. Admittedly, not a terribly long time. During this time, I have experimented with many of the pre-made power sets if not nearly all of them. During that time, I managed to completely avoid slotting a single defensive ability. I think it’s fair to say that I died. A lot. I knew something was wrong, but I was having fun and the death penalty is so small in CO. So I kept dieing. And dieing. Sometimes it was so often that I felt a need to apologize to my teammates. I’ve often used the saying that “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.” Or the southern version; “If all you do is all you’ve done, then all you’ll get is what you got.”

Clearly, I’d lost my effing mind.

Champions Makes a Good 2nd Impression

Design, Gaming, Opinion, What I'm Playing 2 Responses »

Sep 072009

So when the PileFlanet (Yes, I did that on purpose) beta came out for Champions online, I took advantage of the membership I’ve inexplicably maintained for the last few years and downloaded and installed the game. I got my key, activated my account, patched (I won’t bitch too much except to say that didn’t go well) and tried it out. I made a few characters, cool, and tried to play. Meh.

Pete over at Dragonchasers and I exchanged tweets about it, and we agreed that the main problem with Champions is that it’s got a first-impression problem. Now, the game might not be for everyone but everyone I have spoken to has agreed that the game is better than the first impression it gives. And that’s a problem for Cryptic. I almost didn’t come back to the game. In fact, I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the fact that Brent over at A Wall of Text commented that he was really digging it. Given that he and I seem to like some of the same stuff, and when we play together we often have the same likes and dislikes, I decided to give it another run. I’m glad I did.

I’m not saying that I’m going to cancel my WoW accounts (I’m not) or that it’s going to be a game that I’m going to be playing 5 years from now (it almost certainly isn’t) but it’s a lot of fun. Tarkheena and I are enjoying it.

Win

Community, Gaming 3 Responses »

Aug 172009

If you watch the online video series The Guild, or even if you don’t, this is a win on several levels. If you don’t watch The Guild, you need to head over to WatchTheGuild.com and get caught up. Until then, check out Felicia Day and the rest of the crew from the show in this new music video. I know this is probably going to break my stylesheet, but I don’t care.

If you liked this, go over and buy it on iTunes. As of today, it’s the #1 music video there. Tell Felicia that Genda sent you.

Noah, party of 2 please...

Gaming, Opinion, Prediction 5 Responses »

Jul 072009

Hi everyone. Genda asked me to take a few moments and post some thoughts on the end of the world as we know it. No, I’m no a preacher with a wooden sign over my shoulders screaming about Armageddon. No, I’m not talking about people paying 5 grand to watch Kobe Bryant talk at Michael Jackson’s Memorial (And really, Kobe? why?). And no, I’m not talking about Star Wars The Old Republic’s release date (which we all know we’ll be clamoring for).

No, I’m here to talk about The Cataclysm. Not “A” Cataclysm. THE Cataclysm.

The cataclysm is the Greek expression for the Deluge, from the Greek kataklysmos, to ‘wash down’ (kluzen “wash” + kata “down”)* – Source Wikipedia.com

This past week, Blizzard decided to file for copyrights to the name regarding computer games, paper based products, and, lo and behold, online entertainment services. COUGH wow COUGH. Everyone knows with Blizzard you take it as it comes. Some people have already looked at this as the name of their next Generic MMO, rumored to be working on the Xbox. Others have seen it as something to do with Daiblo III or potentially Starcraft II.

One smart guy though saw this… and said, oh wait…

Swirlies for the win... or complete wipeout

Swirls for the win... or complete wipe-out

Yup, that’s the center of the map from your friendly neighborhood WOW MMO. It’s been like that since pretty much day one. Speculating that this is truly the name of the next WOW expansion, and taking into consideration some facts about WOW Lore, here’s the short run down.

WoW H8 and Shaman Love

Design, Gaming, Opinion 3 Responses »

Jun 182009

So WoW it coming up on another major sub-version upgrade to 3.2 soon. At the same time that there are critics about what the patch will or won’t contain there is a growing sentiment in the blog community that the thing is just getting old and tired. Some of this is fueled, I believe, by one of the most influential bloggers out there (Tobold) giving WoW a rest. Cries of ONOES! were heard.

I say that the news of WoW’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.

Older Entries

The Grouchy Gamer

I'm toast.

Casualties of War? Coming soon to SWTOR

Darren is going to Blow A Gasket

Healing the Anitsocial and My Role in it

Is the Shiny wearing off Aion already?

Champions: See you down the line...

Blizzard: Game Development-Just Slow Down

Amazing Accomplishments of the Daft

Champions Makes a Good 2nd Impression

Win

Noah, party of 2 please...

WoW H8 and Shaman Love

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