Exchanging Server Communities For Game Communities

Categories:

a. MMORPG

November 16, 2010

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She's hiding because she plays Darkfall

Green Armadillo had an interesting post up yesterday where he discusses the coming battlegroup merges in WoW. He points out that it’s another step closer to global servers and I couldn’t agree more. One of the cons he mentions, amongst several others, has to do with server communities becoming less meaningful.  My first reaction similar to GA’s, a mixture of disdain for the ever lessening meaning of our servers and optimism at the new possibilities these advancements bring to the game. I let it sit, though, and I’ve come to the conclusion that server communities really aren’t important anymore – not just in WoW, but in almost every game – and that we’d all be better off leaving them in the past.

I understand why people want to hold onto them. It’s a kind of identity, the server you call home. You get to know people better – theoretically, anyways – and can make a name for yourself. How you perform on battlegrounds and in open world PvP are meaningful because you start to recognize the key players on either side. More importantly, the community of each server takes on its own identity. In LotRO, Landroval is the RP server because the players have made it so. In WoW, servers build names through leading guilds. Servers very much shape how we experience the game. They’re important.

They’re also divisive and bad for the community. We take on this nationalist vibe for the servers we play on; “Realm Pride,” “Battlegroup Pride.” To be nationalist also means to hold oneself apart from everyone on the outside. Sure, we see melting pots, like forums and the comments sections of popular blogs. For the most part, people want to stay where they rolled their first character and feel awkward anytime they try a new server. In turn, players across the game feel left out when Landroval holds a special event while theirs does nothing. That’s why I left Meneldor; I started to see it as sub-par while the better, more active, servers had better, more fun things going on all the time. $30 later, I’m on Landroval with a new name.

Most importantly, they separate out friends. It’s a royal pain to try to get a bunch of MMO players on the same server.  The companies running the game love that; it’s like built in peer pressure to spend, spend, spend. No one wants to pay $25 just to run a few dungeons with their pals and most people simply won’t – they’d have to leave their own server to do so. And, as GA so rightfully points out, games like WoW now have the technology to overcome this. We can chat cross-server. Surely more is within reach.

The problem is that moving into a single server is frightening. All the sudden, you’re faced with the GAME community instead of the SERVER community. What would it mean for Landroval if it were suddenly combined with every other server? Would that wonderful community prevail or get lost in the midst of all the non-RP servers? How about WoW.  Would the weight of all that mouth-breathing, gear scoring, forum blather suddenly outweigh the honest folks who just want to have some fun running a dungeon?

Honestly, I don’t think so. When I look to the single-server games I’ve played, they’ve all been positive experiences (with the possible exception of Darkfall). Fallen Earth stands out as one of the best, most cohesive single-shard game communities I’ve ever taken part in. Now, I’m not saying that there’s not idiots and jerks in every game – because there are, lots of them – but that players become part of one cohesive unit. When you see somebody on the forums, there’s a chance of meeting that person in the game. When you log in you know that this is it, everyone playing the game is here, with you. It changes the atmosphere. There’s no, friend X is on Meneldor, Y is Argent Dawn, let’s all roll alts on Burning Crusade. It simply is and it aids immeasurably to the sense of world evoked by the game.

So while I appreciate server community, appreciate the great folks who come in and make each game worth playing, I can also appreciate that those same people would be there if servers were dissolved entirely. In point of fact, there would be more of them, all around you, and more accessible than ever before.

The question, when we take technology out of it, is if we feel the community in our games is strong enough to support it. If you ask yourself, would I still play this game if every server was combined as one, and the answer is no, I’d have to ask what that says about the playerbase.

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Dev Insights on FFXIV’s Upcoming Fixes

Categories:

a. MMORPG

November 13, 2010

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FFXIVcore has a great translation up of an interview Square Enix did with Japanese site 4Gamer. It gives a lot of interesting insights into how aware they are of the problems and what they’re doing to fix them. The questions seem like they’re pulled straight from the community and the answers are fairly candid, so I found the interview to be especially interesting.

Here are a few of the more interesting points:

Aren’t fixes for problems that persisted through closed and open Beta tests a little too late to the game?

This is mostly due to prioritization. We had a strict timeline to work with, so unfortunately we focused on certain bugs while being unable to address others. Beyond that, some problems we have only become aware of since early release.

Timelines, timelines. This really seems to reinforce what we’ve all said from the beginning: the game wasn’t ready to launch. Square is doing better this go ’round and they seem to have pulled their heads out of the sand. I guess it happened a little too late, though, because how they thought they could get away with releasing a game so far from what it should have been is beyond me.

I’m sure the bulk of the problems are slated to be fixed in the upcoming updates, but are there any plans to instate a public test server (a la EverQuest or World of Warcraft)?

[They essentially say no, cite problems with doing the same on the PS3, before following up with…] RMT (I imagine everyone is familiar with the term) would know which new items would be most profitable to farm and could in turn control the market on those.

Really? I don’t see what the big deal is about separating out how they handle the different platforms of the game. They don’t need the same UI and they don’t both need access to the test server; if they do, they can install it on the PC since accounts aren’t platform bound. Citing RMT is a weak excuse and ignores the spammers already in-game.

I want some way to confirm beforehand what I’m throwing away when my inventory is full. Also, do you plan to provide some kind of notification via the UI when i reach that dreaded 80/80?

A: The real issue is how easy it is to reach capacity in the first place. It is also hard to keep track of when that happens, so we plan to add something to help with that. We will increase inventory size, but that still does not address the problem that the variety of drops is needlessy large. We are considering color-coding items based on region, making searching for particular items a little bit easier. Another issue is with high quality versions such as +1-3. Combined with the regular version, that’s a potential four slots taken up by one item. We are considering phasing out +1 and +2 via drop rates, leaving only the standard and +3 versions.

This is a great move. When I first started the game, I saw the 80 slot limit and figured I’d probably never hit it. When you begin to play different classes, however, it fills up remarkably fast. I don’t know that phasing out items that make loot tables “needlessly large” is the best way to go about fixing the problem, but it’s a step. I also like that they’re considering dropping the +1, +2 stuff. The game doesn’t explain that system very well and it winds up making things more convoluted than needs be. Cutting out those extra pluses should definitely help cut down on inventory clutter, too.

Everyone loves it when the monster their fighting continuously runs away and regains a large chunk of it’s health (I personally love it to death!). Is this intentional?

A: This has to do with the pathing of said monsters; they aren’t designed to follow players outside of their “comfort zone.” We will continue to work on these pathing issues, particularly deciding how or when a monster has left its particular “zone.”

Honestly, I didn’t know this was a bug. What happens is that, when you’ve killed all but the last mob on a leve, they run away and regroup with some friends to make the battle more challenging. I liked that mechanic but every now and again mobs would run, literally, from top to bottom on the map. When they got too far away their node would also stop showing on the mini-map leading you to wander aimlessly. Quirky, yes, but now that I know this it a bug and not just deliberately time-intensive, I welcome the fix.

I have to rely on third-party sites for recipe lists, since recipes themselves are so complex. Would it be possible to select an item which I’ve learned via completing a Local Leve, which would then automatically pick the ingredients from my inventory? Also, isn’t the process of starting each synthesis a bit too circuitous?

A: We have our sights set on such a feature. The mid-December update will incorporate things such as a synthesis history and recipe memo, which will list your eight most recent synthesis items. Choosing something from the list will select the ingredients automatically. We also intend to streamline the steps needed to start synthesizing. For the next update, we’re looking into allowing players to browse their entire (entire??) synthesis history.

Woot, woot. Up until now I’ve been writing my most common recipes down in the CE journal to keep from having to run in windowed mode (alt+tabbing in fullscreen closes the game). I don’t know that an entire history is necessary but it couldn’t hurt.

I get the feeling players don’t really know what to do with themselves right now. From my experience, it seems like ranks 1-20 are just a tutorial.

A: Indeed it is intended to be a tutorial of sorts. However, the trek to 20 takes longer than we would have liked, so people aren’t getting to the class quests as quickly as desired. Therefore, we’ll be speeding up the trip to rank 20. Also, we will be adding more content for various levels in order to flesh things out. We also want to tweak guildleves and faction leves and have a few things planned for that, keeping crafters and gatherers in mind, as well.

Good, more variation and faster leveling. So far, I haven’t had much problem leveling up my physical level since everything you do contributes XP towards it. Class ranking is a lot slower after level 10 and could use the boost. I’m hoping they also add in traditional quests, separate from just guild leves. Our GL has a friend within SE and claims they’re coming. How soon is yet to be seen.

I want to try something on to see how it looks before I buy it from a bazaar.

A: You will be able to have your retainer wear the things you are entrusting to them, allowing for players to get a quick glance at what they’re buying.

Eh, I’m partial to the ctrl-click method used in LotRO and WoW. With the way their menu system works, and the limited places you can summon your retainer, I doubt I’ll make much use of it.

A comment to our readers, if you would be so kind.

A: (Director Komoto) I want to let everyone out there know that we are listening. We highly value your opinions and wishes and are constantly in touch with management about how to best address them. We are working on getting fixes for those big problems out as quickly as possible.

The development team is hard at work addressing as much as possible in the late-November version update, in particular the areas that need fine-tuning. Before the end of the year, we will see the introduction of Notorious Monsters as well as addition of new market features. I hope these will give players some clear goals to aim for. We also have some things we’re working on behind-the-scenes as well much more I haven’t mentioned. I’ll let you all know more as soon as I can.

We can tell you’re listening and it’s much appreciated. I wonder how many people, once seeing how drastically different XIV is from WoW-type games, will bother coming back, though. Myself, seeing how much is on the horizon, am even a little hesitant to invest too much. These fixes, the November-December updates, in my mind, make up what the game should have been at launch. I find the game fun now. I enjoy it a lot. But I can’t help shake the feeling I’ll be paying for a beta if I stay subscribed once my free time winds up.

I’m happy to see all of this stuff and I greatly enjoyed reading through the interview. It’s nice to see them respond and come forward. The hard truth is that they didn’t do this when they most needed to and the fallout is a result. I’ll keep playing for the next week, but, after that, I’ll be watching from the sidelines until post-December.

Keep an eye on it, guys. It’s getting better. Can’t say I blame you for leaving, though. This is what happens when you force a game out the door too soon. Lesson learned, Squeenix?

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PS3 Glitches, Lag Drag Down Black Ops Experience

Categories:

b. Console

November 10, 2010

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I picked up Call of Duty: Black Ops on launch day within an hour of when the store opened. I’ve taken two half-days since then to devote to getting leveling up and learning each map. I even invited a friend over this afternoon to spend a good few hours with it. Let me be clear when I say that, though the single player campaign is fantastic — MUCH better than Modern Warfare 2 — the online is an absolute nightmare right now.

It pains me to say this, but there is no way I’d recommend anyone go buy this thing, at least for PS3; reports have it that the 360 isn’t face such drastic issues. Connection issues, lag, terrain bugs. It’s a problem and FAR under what most of us expected the game to be.

I’d also be lying if I said the graphics being MW1 era doesn’t bother me a bit too. I can get over it but this is a sequential release, players expect refinement and are right to do so. It almost strikes me as a half job, because some things, such as terrain and select weapons, are improved. Others, the very first assault rifle (the M16) for example, look half textured. The iron sights are great: scraped, metallic, they look real. The M16’s body, however, doesn’t even look like it has a texture on it at all. Some guns also seem to sight awkwardly in the hand, similar to how MAG’s did.

But, again, they’re graphics and, though disappointing, aren’t a game breaker.

The real problem is with connections. Now, I get that, as of this post, there’s about 240,000 players in TDM lobbies right now. Even still, the problem seems to run deeper than that and is rooted in the player-hosting system. I’ve been in around a dozen games where the host’s connection literally breaks the game. In these cases, the nearest I can figure is that bullet/knife detection gets totally thrown off. You can literally be right on top of someone, knife, and miss only for theirs to hit you instead. The last match saw the host with 28 kills and 3 deaths on one of the most compact maps in the game, Nuketown. It reminds me a lot of how instances in Vindictus would sometimes be when the host was laggy.

Connecting, and staying connected, to a game is another huge problem. It’s not uncommon for the game to hang when trying to join a lobby, so that you have to back out and try again. Nearly every game boots you from the lobby as soon as its done. Many simply disconnect or try to migrate halfway through, which, to note, has not once worked. Migration means a disconnect. Another small issue has been happening quite a bit is temporary freezing when games conclude (disconnect or naturally). The PS3 will totally freeze up — no sound, no animations, no response — for a good 15 seconds until it boots you from the lobby.

Do you guys remember the FMJ in MW2 and how it would let you shoot through drywall and sheet metal? There’s no FMJ in this game, but terrain glitches essentially eliminate the need in many maps. The Silo map is especially bad. Throughout there are missile hangar doors that open and close; they’re a good six inches thick, at least. Pistols have no problem shooting through them. That same thing goes for storage bunkers (those big tractor trailer looking things) and, in at least one place, concrete flooring. In another, that host I mentioned above, managed to shoot me through a wall and the upstairs floor, after which I promptly fell through the floor.

Black Ops has a lot going for it. The customization is great, the wager matches are a ton of fun, zombies and the campaign are wonderful. That bears repeating: the campaign is an absolute blast. They’ve improved on so much that it’s a shame to see basic technical things drag down what should be an awesome experience. I’m sure that they’ll patch up their problems but, until then, I’d wait on dropping money on this. Modern Warfare 2 will offer a similar enough experience without nearly as many headaches.

When it works, it’s great; really good stuff. It’s just too bad that’s not happening nearly as often as it should.

Anyone else having problems?

Updated to Include: Two other pretty huge issues I forgot to mention that drastically drop the experience and need tweaking: sub-machine guns are woefully overpowered. They can literally shoot as far as a sniper rifle without losing any damage. They’ve become the standard for most players and I’ve seen more than a few put an AGOC Scope on them and use them as sniper rifles. Add into that their extremely high fire rate and damage and you can kill people WAY faster than any single other weapon. The other issue is with spawning points. There’s a big problem with spawning extremely close to enemies or having them do the same thing to you. You’ll also find yourself spawning in the same spot repeatedly. This makes it so your time alive is drastically reduced unless you camp. The more I play, the more disappointed I become. They really need a big patch to fix these problems.

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[Quotes] Are Video Games Harmful?: A Book in My School’s Library

Categories:

a. MMORPG, b. Console

November 9, 2010

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I got called in to sub this morning and, by an unfortunate miscommunication, I wound up with a good hour to spend in the school library. Now, I grew up in a library (my grandmother was a librarian) and I absolutely LOVE them. I can spend hours just perusing through and checking out whatever happens to catch my interest. Having a good block of time to do just that, I happened across a book from the “IN CONTROVERSY” series entitled, Are Video Games Harmful by Hal Marcovitz. I’m familiar with the series — or ones like it, anyways — and eagerly picked it up expecting to find a series of point-counterpoint essays on the topic. Instead, it read more like a light text book for 9-12-year-olds — not a crack mind you.

As I read, I couldn’t help but be a little bit floored at some of the statements they made. I thought I’d pull some of my favorite quotes and share them with you. Remember, this is a non-fiction book written with an air of authority. It was this year’s edition too, so no “outdated” excuse here:

Oh, and we’ll pick these up right after they criticize Grand Theft Auto for how a 6-year-old might interpret it.

“Women are often featured as victims who are included simply to give the players innocent characters to assault.” (p.20)

“As video games moved into the 2000s, women were depicted less as scrappy heroines … and more as prostitutes and victims of sexual violence.” (p.22)

I don’t know about you but I’ve never seen a game allow “sexual violence” in any context. Not in the United States anyways, but they do make a point to mention the disturbing Japanese game RapeLay. I find it a little misleading that they don’t mention how players are free to attack male characters too. Sidewalk driving in GTA doesn’t discriminate.

“Earlier in the evening, the boys had been home in their basement, playing Grand Theft Auto III. It was Josh who came up with the idea: Instead of shooting at virtual cars, why not shoot the real thing?” (p.25)

OMG, I have a great idea. Instead of killing internet dragons, why don’t I go stab an alligator?! GENIUS. Seriously, two teenagers and neither of them had enough common sense NOT to shoot a .22 at the highway?

“The whole episode [at Columbine] had the eerie feeling of a video game.” (p.26)

“Members of a gang known as the Nut Cases played Grand Theft Auto III, then patterned their crimes after the violent acts they committed on-screen. During a 10-week crime spree in late 2002, 6 members of the gang are alleged to have committed 5 murders and dozens of robberies.” (forgot to mark the page, somewhere around p.27)

Because murder and theft are new to the gang scene. You know a good place to look, rather than at video games? What was the poverty level where these crimes occurred? How many of the gang members had prior records? How is gang activity and overall crime levels OUTSIDE of the Nut Cases. By the by, that’s a pretty poserish name too, don’t you think? Word has it they wanted to be the “Bloods” but someone had already taken it.

“Devin Moore admitted to shooting two police officers and a police dispatcher, leading investigators to believe he was inspired by the action in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.” (p.28-29)

Note, the author provides no additional information as to why they might have thought there to be a connection. Just “kid kills cops, cops blame games.”

Paraphrase: Do video games lead to addiction? An EQ player committed suicide. That must mean yes. (p.39)

“Some refer to it as Evercrack, believing it to be as addictive as crack cocaine.” (p.39)

Anyone who literally believes this has never tried crack cocaine. Three words: Tongue-In-Cheek.

“People will play … an hour of [World of Warcraft], let’s say, but then, after that, it’s no longer making them high. They want more. And so they play more. And they develop tolerance over time. … Just over a matter of weeks and months, people can end up with a severe addiction.” (p.42)

Blame the addictive personality, not the game. Seriously though, meet me behind the bleacher with your laptop.

“In Roxbury, Massachusetts, a mother woke one morning at 2:30AM to find her 14-year-old son playing Grand Theft Auto. When he refused to turn off the Playstation and go to bed, she called the police — it was the only way she could convince him to stop playing the game.” (p.43)

Okay, it was at this point — well, not really — that I started to question the author’s common sense. You know what, next time my wife insists on watching Grey’s Anatomy, I’m going to call the POLICE on her arse. Oh no, there will be no “reasonable resolution of conflict” under this roof. Thank you GTA Mom for giving me the courage to do what’s right.

“At first Ruya played occasionally, but she eventually found herself playing as much as 20 hours of World of Warcraft a week. … Soon World of Warcraft turned into Ruya’s whole world — she dropped out of school, stopped seeing friends and family, gained weight, and even stopped bathing.” (p.43)

Okay, I’m sorry, but doesn’t this just remind you of the South Park Make Love, Not Warcraft montage, where the kids all get fat and pimply to Eye of the Tiger? That’s pretty much what they say happened to this girl; she descended down into a little green cloud of elves and twinkie wrappers, dreadfully bereft of any kind of mirror or textbook. Again, ask yourself, are video games harmful? Watch out! WoW is casting it’s net at your right now! Sorry, I call BS. This is literally every bad stereotype rolled into one small paragraph. Plus, name me one girl that would admit to giving up bathing for the sake of her e-fame. Right, me either.

“A 28-year-old man was found dead, after spending … seven days straight playing the MMORPG Starcraft.” (p.46)

Clue: tighten up your research, buddy. Starcraft isn’t even close to being an MMO.

“A 15-year-old boy in Sweden suffered an epileptic convulsion after playing World of Warcraft for 24 hours straight.” (p.47)

“Chapter Four: Do Young Gamers Risk Their Health and Well-Being?” (p.52)

“Brian Allegre often allowed himself no more than 30 seconds for a bathroom break before rushing back to World of Warcraft.” (p.51)

5-mans or the health of your sphincter? Definitely 5-mans.

“Allegre finally learned about the harm he was doing to himself when, three weeks before his senior project was due, he suddenly realized he had not even started work on the project.” (p.52)

Okay, as someone who spends every day in a school, let me just tell you, this kid did not “suddenly realize” anything. Most schools remind their kids all the time about this kind of project since, you know, you can’t graduate without it. He put it off, probably didn’t care, and then used WoW as a scapegoat to cover his own laziness. Again, you have to question the author’s common sense.

“Research indicates that … the average young person is spending 4 to 5 hours a day inside on video games, television, & the internet” (p.60)

Should definitely add blogs to that list.

“Many studies have looked into video game use and concluded that gaming contribute to obesity.”

Maybe, but I think that IV feed of liquid fat coming from fast food, soda, and junk food pumping into kid’s arms might have something to do with it too.

—

To be fair, they do have a good chapter and several sections within those previous that talk about the good aspects of video games. The overall impression I got, however, was that the author knew what he wanted to find going in. The whole thing reads like a longer version of a college junior’s research paper. He picked and chose his topic and quotes to push his own viewpoint, only giving lip service to the other side of the argument. This was a far stretch from the “Equal Perspectives” books of my youth.

What bothers me about these kind of books is that they characterize gamers as some smattering of mindless drones with addictive personalities and little to no self-discipline or moral compass. They would have you believe that games so desensitize us that we equate the value of human life to the inanimate. Here’s a clue, I can’t break blocks with my head. Even if I could, coins wouldn’t pop out. And if I ate a green mushroom, I’d probably get sick, not grow three feet. Games are not real, are not close to real, and 99.9% of the people who enjoy them realize this. Moreover, as the ranks of gamers grow and take in new demographics, we’re also breaking free of the stereotypes that once relegated us to the outskirts of the main social circles. Gamers are successful, educated, family men and women. We don’t all live in our parent’s basement like some blind albino gecko. Sure, some people may, but shouldn’t that cause us to question the personality and mentality behind such an individual rather than the hobby with which they choose to spend their time? Games may act as an enabler, this much I can agree with, but only one amongst many and never a sole impetus for one’s own destruction. At some point, actual people need to take responsibility.

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The Multiverse – Episode #31: “They’re Barely Even Games”

Categories:

a. MMORPG, b. Console, d. Everything Else

November 8, 2010

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Happy Pre-Black Ops, Folks!

Don’t let that mislead you. We don’t talk about Black Ops on this show; I’m just excited.

There was a lot of great news this past week, MMO and gaming in general, so we thought we’d take a show and break it all down for you. There’s lots of great MMO talk from the headlines we picked, so buckle in and get read to hear about:

Most of the conversation focuses around the three major stories, but we spend some time talking about Fallout New Vegas too. Come Fly With Me, Internets.

Enjoy it and don’t forget to drop us an iTunes review. Share the love, gamers!

Oh, and PS: Last week’s show, though discussed through for the full hour was lost, once again, due to the Skype recorder we previously used. We’ve switched to something new, improved, and much more reliable. Please let us know what you think of the quality!

We also welcome your email at multiversepodcast@gmail.com.

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[audio: http://vagary.tv/multiverse/episodes/multiverse31.mp3]

UPDATE: Whoops! Looks like editing something at the end threw off the track alignment in the beginning. We’re reuploading a fixed version now. Sorry about that!

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Black Ops: My Second Midnight Launch Ever? Help Me Decide!

Categories:

b. Console

November 8, 2010

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Tonight should be interesting; I’m still not sure what I’m going to do. For the non-initiated among us, Call of Duty’s next iteration Black Ops releases at the stroke of midnight in Gamestop’s across the country. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this game for at least three months and now that it’s here I’m really considering breaking my “no midnight release” rule. It’s so hard to wait knowing that I could get it – in what I consider – today! This is game excitement at its worst.

Modern Warfare 2 was my first true step into competitive online shooters and I absolutely fell in love. Like everyone, I was bad at first, but got better after a while. What started as frustration turned into real competitiveness. In fairness, the incredibly flip flop nature of the game makes for some very frustrating experiences as well. Some matches are just an exercise in futility; you have players that have hit 70 (gone prestige) ten times and are insanely fast. It’s also easy to get steamrolled when one team has even a single player who breaks the twenties in kill count. Still, I’ve put upwards of 300 hours into the game, killed about 7000 people, and got up to a respectable 1:1.2 kill-death ratio.

As the game has grown and approaches its first birthday, however, that frustration factor has gone way up and MW2 has lost a lot of its initial shine. People min-max here, just like they do in MMOs, and the best weapon/perk combinations, attachments, and even terrain glitches have been found and exploited dramatically. The other factor adding to the difficulty is how grenade launchers have become the defacto standard for any kind of assault rifle. It’s pretty much a given that the majority of the game’s sound will be explosions these days. As fun as it can be to blow people up, it’s still pretty skillless and pretty cheap gameplay.

Black Ops, however, is really looking to breathe fresh air into what’s becoming a somewhat long in the tooth franchise. It’s pulling itself from its WWII and Modern Era roots instead taking on Vietnam. There will be new weapons and maps and, of course, another 6ish hour campaign. But, let’s be honest here, I probably won’t touch the single player campaign for a couple months anyways.

It’s also set to bring a few exciting new game types and new elements. I’m a Team Deathmatch guy, but I’m really looking forward to Gun Game. Basically, every time you kill someone you move up to a new weapon. The person who kills someone with all 20 tiers is the winner. For some reason it reminds me a lot of Goldeneye 64, probably because you could pick up a wide variety of weapons by running around the map.

The new elements are based around a money system where you buy new weapons and customization unlocks. Wager Matches should be interesting but I kind of feel like letting players buy the best weapons will cut down playtime. If you only buy the guns you’re really interested in, instead of leveling up for them, you wind up getting what you want and burning out sooner. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope so.

Either way, I’m really looking forward to playing the game. I’m a little cash strapped (darn schools and their extended pay periods), so I’m trading in Just Cause 2, the God of War Collection, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep towards it, three great games that I played for maybe an hour each and planned to get back to (but never did). I’m disappointed that I’m trading-in but I’m getting upwards of $50 in credit for a game I know I’ll play more than all of them combined, so I guess it’s alright.

To the question though: should I midnight release it? I didn’t get MW2 on launch day, so I don’t know if I should expect the servers to be unstable or not. My main gripe is that I’ll wind up sleeping late and thereby lose potential playing time if I do. Then again, well, it’s a big game, I’m a gamer, and I’m ready to roll. What do you guys think? If you don’t think I should, I’d love to know why.

[polldaddy poll=4055098]

 

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Disassembling Good Quest Design

Categories:

a. MMORPG

November 8, 2010

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As I’ve gotten more involved with LotRO again, I’ve started to think more about what makes a good or bad quest. As I mentioned in a previous post, when I first came back I was deep within the reaches of Angmar, what was at one time considered LotRO’s end game. I couldn’t stand the zone – I tried and burnt out on it twice – so I decided to pull up stakes and head to Forochel. The difference in design becomes apparent right away; it’s akin to going from Vanilla WoW to Outland. The layout of everything from quest hubs, to horse trails, to the intricate overlay of quest objectives seems to shout “this is what we’ve learned, this is the revamp.” Also like Outland, it highlights good quest design. The similarity isn’t surprising since both pieces of content were added after the initial zones had time to settle and the companies recognized what their game’s needed most. Rather than focus on singular quests, I’d like to look at what I believe makes a good questing experience.

A good quest experience is never majority “kill ten rats” or “gather ten herbs.” The monotony of repeating content, differing mobs aside, makes for a boring experience unless you enjoy grinding. In Angmar, and several regions before it, players are handed numerous excuses to slay wildlife in rapid succession. While there may be fun to that at times, it’s also uninspired. Quests for the last decade have followed that same formula, predating graphics, and it’s a tired, if somewhat necessary trope. The collect/goto variety is usually interspersed within and follows the same principal.

But it’s not these objectives that make a quest fun or not, it’s how they’re all connected. Throughout a decent chunk of LotRO, you’re asked to kill wolves in the east side of the zone, travel to the west for flowers, and then run across the world to deliver a message to some arbitrary NPC. In Forochel, however, quests are in much closer proximity to one another and usually not far off from the quest giver. There’s little running and you’re often able to go from task to task to task only stopping to eat or regen. Essentially, for all the beautiful world Turbine has built, it’s simply more fun to stay in a small circle and get things done.

When I’m questing in Forochel, I feel like each piece of banner collected or each polar bear slain is a little bag of XP. I greedily collect them, like Scrooge McDuck does gold coins, and look ahead to the next quest only a short run away. In Angmar, North Downs, Esteldin, and the Troll Shaws, I feel like a courier doing my rounds, like a UPS man stopping between towns and delivering little brown packages to Rangers and Hobbits.

Then there’s the challenge. Good questing isn’t hard, but it’s not pushover easy either. It’s really about roadblocks. Take for example a quest I had last night. I was asked to collect pieces of a broken banner and rebuild it as a beacon upon a snowy hilltop. Easy enough. When I arrived, I found the pieces in an open field, close together but surrounded be three varieties of mob. The mobs were so close as to fight for each of the 15 pieces I needed but so that I couldn’t avoid it and hope to succeed. The variety was good enough to keep me on my toes; some tank and spank, some benefiting from advanced movement and positioning.

I appreciate challenging mobs, as I do simple ones on routine errands. The problem is that quest design often challenges us to kill many of the same creature in a row. What is once challenging becomes annoying, and the repetition of progress outlines that bad quest in our minds. Variety is the key, I think, and the most fun quests always offer a good mix of challenge and speed, be that through multiple enemy types or simply multiple skills on each mob.

Then, finally, there’s travel time. No need to beat a dead rat here. It should be short. Multizone runs are no fun, a drudge, and only work if done rarely and for good reason. Ouests should overlap. Travel is downtime by another name and nobody likes that when they’d rather by leveling.

Conversely, the design of intuitive quests is probably why no one bothers to read them anymore. Everyone expects to follow a waypoint or quest marker. I caught myself wanting to click through last night because I knew enough what to expect. When designed with progress in mind, it removes the need for context and reasoning tends to fall by the wayside. Thankfully, games like LotRO and Guild Wars give us good reason to read quests, like a hidden treat for players willing to invest a little bit more of themselves. It’s a shame that WoW doesn’t offer more in their quest text, as it has some of the best questing in the genre; then again, each expansion has offered little gems of quest lines, great and interesting pieces of lore and self-enclosed story, that only few players ever really appreciate. Such is the fate of elevating reward above reason, but at least the “getting there” is quite fun.

Is Moria anything like Forochel; did they apply these same lessons there? I was honestly a little worried about going forward, fearing I didn’t have another 500 old-world quests in me. If it keeps up this way, however, it may just be that the game doesn’t last long enough.

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WAR’s Purchase Packs are the Heralds of F2P

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a. MMORPG

November 4, 2010

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Important Update: From the FAQ, it appears that the level up item can only be redeemed once per account. I’ll be interested to see if there’s a catch of some kind but, by the looks of it, it’s not as bad as it first seemed (thanks Werit!). I hope they update the product page soon to avoid any more unnecessary grief.

Okay, I can’t help myself. The internets conspire to end my blog-cation early.

In case you missed it, EA Mythic just unveiled their new Personality and Progression Packs. You might recognize these packs from such past experiences as the WoW Sparkle Pony, Allod’s Rune Stones, and Oblivion’s Horse Armor. To put it succinctly, the Personality Packs give you fluff pieces like dyes and trophies, and the Progression Pack, well, helps you progress and even lets you buy levels. I find it a little funny that they didn’t put that last point in their patch highlights. Quick, gloss over it, guys, gloss over it!

Frankly, I find this all a little stupid. Don’t get me wrong, short of the buying levels thing, I don’t have a problem with any particular item they’re selling. But, come on. They are literally selling power here. In a PvP game. On top of that, the new RvR zone allows Renown Rank (RR) players level 80-100 fight in the same zone. Anyone who wants to be competitive will buy this pack; they’re essentially being herded into the cash shop of their subscription, “don’t worry, we’re NOT going free to play”  game. Give me a break.

Someone needs to tell Mythic — or better yet, the money-strapped EA, since I’d bet this is where this is coming from — that pretty much everything about their progression packs is a bad idea. Go ahead, sell fluff, that’s optional. It seems clear that the point of this progression content is that it’s NOT optional for anyone who cares enough to level out anyways. Telling your core playerbase that their monthly subscription isn’t good enough, these players who have kept you afloat, is boneheaded and short sighted. Then again, I’d have to wonder how many of their total players are actually leveling outside of free Tier 1 anyways.

Which leads me to this: WAR is preparing to go free. That’s the only thing that would explain this and make it somewhat understandable. I mean, who are they marketing towards, anyways? The only people who would see this as a good thing are the free-to-players since buying content by the piece is normal for them. I can’t see any dedicated P2Per being happy about this. Just like everyone nailed Blizzard for “testing the waters” with the $10 pets and other not-so-micro transactions, Mythic is doing the same here.

I understand that Mythic needs to make money for WAR to stay open, I really do. In that, I think going F2P would be the smartest thing they could do. The game is simply not up to par with many of the other sub games it’s compared to, and I tend to agree with Keen that F2P is the Plan B for under-performing AAAs. This kind of stuff simply wouldn’t be happening if they were making enough money, they wouldn’t be going this route. Selling vanity stuff, maybe. Selling levels, no.

In August, only three months ago, Carrie Gouskos said that they were “learning lessons” from micro-transaction driven games but that they weren’t “interested in directly selling things like armor progression or other piecemeal power options.” Considering that — money aside — you can buy your way to the level cap, it sounds like they learned the wrong lessons.

Then again, if we give them some credit, they’ll head F2P and it will be a non-issue.

I haven’t played the game in a year so what do I know. You guys probably know more about the impact of this change than I do, so what say you: Purchase Packs, good or bad; WAR F2P or boneheaded sub game?

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LotRO: She’s Kind of Like THAT Ex, Isn’t She?

Categories:

a. MMORPG

November 3, 2010

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I’m returning from my mini blog-cation to bring you this sexy, sexy post. Now, back to that shadowy corner by the fire…

Take a look at the banner up top. See that burly guy talking about zombies or some such? That, my friends, is a dear old friend of mine born from the lands of Middle-Earth. I rolled him a little over two years ago, took up a Guardian’s axe because it looked fun to whack things with, and went out to seize an orc by its throat. Somewhere around 1000 birds later, I found that orc and seized him good. Then his buddies might have killed me, or another one of those damned birds, but, the point is, the process went on for the next 44 levels.

Until about eight months ago when WoW decided to seize me good and pulled me away from all the progress I’d made. WoW’s kind of a jerk like that. It demands monogamy – at least from those of us who have trouble sticking to “just one game” – and will slowly suffocate out its competition with promises of “phat lewtz” and “lengthy epeens.” So, try as I might, I left my dear friend all alone in the reaches of Angmar surrounded by the undead, shady dudes in robes, and even eviler birds.

Even after I left WoW, I still didn’t go back to LotRO. I mean, I tried. The problem is, that dwarf somehow became like “that” ex-girlfriend. You know, the one where you left on good terms but it’s still really awkward when you meet in the grocery store. Yeah, like that. So, I’d log in and notice weird things, like he attacks slow or shouts too much (seriously, there are zombies RIGHT over that hill). Before too long, I’d leave him right in the middle of the fruit section action, looking around wondering what he did wrong.

This is where FFXIV would come in: my main squeeze, baby, I’ll never leave again xoxoxoxo, but I’ll spare you all that. I am not a one game man.

That last time bothered me, though. We actually had some fun again. He killed this, I meta-gamed that, it was like old times; the spark was flickering. Before I knew it, I was starting to feel hopeful. Except, as those old familiar feelings started to wash over me, so did another familiar sentiment well up:

OMGIHATEBROWNZONESWHATTHECRAPISITWITHYOUANDBROWNZONESTURBINEREADMYLIPSB-O-R-I-N-GWTFBBQOKAIYOUHEARMENOW?!?!BLARARARAGH!

Good. I acknowledged it. Now we can move on. Acceptance is the first step to recovery.

So, I’ve decided to pull my old Rule of Three out of the closet. I came up with this rule a while ago because it always seems like I have trouble getting back into LotRO once I’ve been away a while. To be honest, I’m more prone to pick it up, play for five minutes, and walk away again, than give it a fair shot. But, once I’m back into it, I love it. Strange, right?

The Rule of Three says to give the game either: three straight hours; three days of consistent 1 hour or more sessions; or three weeks where it’s your main MMO (3+ hours a week). My biggest hurdle has always been getting over the re-entry and tapping back into the core of what makes LotRO fun. It’s all about time. Every time I’ve applied this rule, I’ve been able to get back in and find that same sense of adventure I’d known before. From talking to other bloggers, it sounds like I’m not alone in my challenges here, so give it a shot if you’re having trouble getting into the game – from a break or for the very first time – and I bet it helps.

*Raises his Right Hand* For the rest of this week, I solemnly swear to make LotRO my main MMO. I may not be able to be monogamous but, damn it, there’s enough of me to go around. Even if LotRO is a bit… free with herself these days.

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

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