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.
May 252010
Last week, Wolfshead’s thoughtfully written and nicely crafted article about Why the MMO Industry Needs a Real Cataclysm set me to thinking. First of all, I don’t have nearly the industry pedigree that he has. Second of all, he took an idea from mid air and fleshed it out with cogent arguments. Third, it was thoughtful and passionate. Good on him. Let me tell you why he’s wrong.
He’s not wrong for the same reason Tobold says he is in his rebuttal Blizzard and McDonalds. Tobold’s rebuttal is also well written and uses an analogy that is very apt to rebut the ideas that Wolfshead presented. Don’t misunderstand, Tobold is right on, but his analysis is different from mine and is largely from the company’s point of view.
I wanted to address this even before Tobold did, but his article got me wanting to post.
Let’s look at this from a player’s point of view first. Then I’d like to address the evident contempt that is out there for Blizzard from others in the development community.
First Wolfshead starts out with a section called The Farmville Curse. I couldn’t agree with him more on that point. Those aren’t “MMOs” and I think I would say that Facebook games in general are pushing the definition of “game” to it’s limits. I have no argument with him there.
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.
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.
So on the Casualties of War (CoW) (www.casualtiesguild.com) forums the other day I noticed that a few of the folks in there were interested in getting going in WoW again. And I said to myself; “Self, YOU are playing WoW. Wouldn’t it be great to get a CoW group together again over on the Rexxar server?” So that is what we are doing.
Daevilchylde, whose idea it was to get going again in the first place, has graciously allowed the reigns of the Casualties guild over there to be thrust upon him.
We would love for anyone who is playing WoW or is thinking about playing WoW who has had anything to do with CoW or The Grouchy Gamer or I’m Talkin’ Games to get over there and help us get stuff running again.
So what are you waiting for? Make a character (or fire up an old one) and do a /who casualties and see who is on (there aren’t many of us yet) and ask for an invite.
Let’s find a way to play together again! Looking forward to seeing more people on in the near future!
Nov 052009
I may have used that title before, because let’s face it.. In my case it’s pretty recyclable.
I’ve ranted here before about microtransactions, and the negative effects of RMT on today’s games. I’m not a big fan. But what I don’t like is the type of MT that gates or changes game play. So when Blizzard announced this week that they were adding the Pet Store to their Blizzard store for use in WoW, you might expect that I would have a problem with that as well.
Instead, as you can see here, I now own one. It’s actually fun, as people can come up and bow to him, and he will bow back. He’ll also do some animations that are kinda fun.
I’m still not a fan of changing game play with MT. Even the moves that SOE made this week rubbed me the wrong way, converting Free Realms from a Free To Play to a Fee to Pay. But to me, cosmetic things like this are harmless. If you think they are stupid, you don’t have to buy one to remain competitive or able to play. So you are free to take a pass. To those who say that they are too much money, I say the same thing. If it’s too much money, don’t buy it. You don’t need it to raid/crawl/craft or whatever you like most in the game. It’s really something you can ignore if you think it’s overpriced.
Me, I’ve already got my $10 worth out of the little guy. Had some fun parading him around Dalaran tonight and watching others interact or try to interact with him.
I’m interested to see what else may come along for this kind of thing. Armor dyes, color swatches to match up all your armor, other pets? All of this kind of thing are the least objectionable form of MT to me. The first time they ask me for cash for a key to a dungeon or the like I’m gone though. How about you guys?
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.
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.
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.
All of the rumors turned out to be true.
It's a Cataclysm
Which means they weren’t rumors at all. That means someone seriously stole Blizzard’s thunder by leaking that information. We reported it here a few weeks ago, and MMO-Champion took the report to a level of detail that turned out to be very factual. They claimed that people found this by data mining, and some of that might be true, but it sure looks like they got some inside information. It’s turned out to be true, almost verbatim.
So what does that mean for WoW players? In my opinion it creates what has to be the most exciting expansion yet. But this expansion is certainly not without risk.
When the news broke officially today I was at work without access to the Blizzard web site or this one. Of course, I had to comment so I did what everyone else seems to be doing today and turned to Twitter. Here is what I said;
We’re all excited about Cataclysm now. What’s the over/under on the date that people will call for “classic” servers?
You know how we are. And when I say “we” I mean us MMO gamers. We clamor for something when we like the romantic notion of it, but we don’t necessarily like it when we get it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this one is going to be a little different. I do believe that there will be those who long for the “old” Azeroth once it’s gone. I can totally see Branyanu and I running around somewhere in the old world the last days before the patch hits, soaking it in one last time. We did that at the end of beta, parking our favorite beta characters up on the top of a mountain as we watched the server click down to the end, never to see them again. I’m sure that nostalgia will strike again.
But in reality, the old zones have served their purpose, and now lie mostly dormant. The ones that don’t are often the scene of level 80′s murdering level 30′s. Maybe in the post-Cataclysmic Azeroth there will be mechanisms that make that harder to do. If you’ve read this blog for a while you know I’m no fan of Wolf vs. Sheep PVP. But I digress. The old zones will now be filled with new scenery, monsters, and challenges. Blizzard has already said that the monsters are “leveling up” as we speak. Sounds like they are planning on shaking up the old bestiary too, at least on how tough they are.
I’m not going to report all the new features, you all probably already know them. If not click the graphic of the new logo above to be taken to the Cataclysm official site.
Are you guys looking forward to this as much as I am?
May 232009
I don’t usually post my personal achievements here on the blog because I don’t want to bore you guys any more than I usually do. But after being retired from WoW for almost 2 years I’ve finally gotten my original day-one WoW character to 80.
Ding!
I had leveled this Shaman to 60 LONG ago, and had run most of the Pre-BC dungeons. He was all dressed in Purple. I quickly found that was irrelevent upon my return to him a little over a month ago. Now, all in Blues, he’s got 4x the hit points and I can’t comprehend how much more powerful he is. Having dual spec available has made him SO much more fun to play. He’s Elemental when he’s soloing or running dailies. Dungeon run? Quick flip to Resto and I’m ready to heal the raid. Done with that and I’m back.
Anyway, don’t want to make this a long post, the guild is waiting for me to run the Heroic Daily.
Talk to you soon!
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