12/14/12

Mists of Pandaria: Playing the Hotbar Game

Over the last week, I’ve spent a decent amount time in Mists of Pandaria plugging along at my 88 Death Knight and 12 Monk. I’ve been having good, if not particularly surprising, fun. I love the painterly quality of Pandaland, hate how Disney playing the starter zone feels, and love how efficient questing is. It’s like mainlining XP straight to the vein. (To note, I don’t think I would like the “three quests 100 feet from the giver” model in most other MMOs. WoW gets away with it because the world is openly a means to an end). While many aspects of the game have evolved, the fact that combat hasn’t stands out.

Dodging and movement have become qualities people have trouble living without. Once you have experienced them, it feels odd and off-putting to go back to a game without. Mists of Pandaria has done its best to circumvent this problem by building reactionary elements into the leveling process. This, in fairness, is great training for heroics and raiding but can’t compete with games designed with movement in mind. WoW might reasonably be called a “classic MMORPG” at this point. Its art holds up but its gameplay is quickly becoming something current developers are avoiding.

When movement means so little, ability selection and timing are elevated beyond all else. Optimizing your class comes down to mastering rotation and priority, hitting this flashing ability in the fewest milliseconds possible. What is interesting is that it’s not a deal breaker for me, and given enough time, I actually come to enjoy the groove. I get a sense of tunnel vision towards my hotbars that is anathema to raiding but quite spellbinding for leveling. Of course, it happens that from time to time you look up to see your rapidly depleting health, but hey, that’s why your screen flashes red.

I’m being facetious but it’s true. Most of WoW is a hotbar game. Raiding comes down to doing it with your eyes closed. Leveling is the training session, but ironically, memorizing the steps comes down to doing exactly what you shouldn’t do in raids. Pandaren zones aren’t enough to overcomes all of Cataclysm, all of Wrath, and all of Burning Crusade. Sorry raid leaders.

The fact that this hasn’t turned out to be a deal breaker further solidifies my idea that there is no fundamental problem with the “core attributes” of MMORPGs. Players have just segmented into different audiences. Some people want new systems. GW2 delivered, and that game is so fundamentally different that it doesn’t even feel like the same type of game. Unless you outright hate classic MMO gameplay, Guild Wars 2 will likely fail as any type of “replacement.”

That’s why I believe action- and hotbar combat have to co-exist or, more likely, a blend of the two will arise and trump them both. I don’t find players to be quite so polarized as the Internet would make believe. Most, I think, are probably a little tired of the old but would prefer something “familiarly new.” It will be fun to see where MMOs are two years from now when all of our speculations begin surfacing in actual design.

You know what the new design of WoW really does show? Blizzard must have thought we were pretty inept before now. That a difficulty spike of “occasionally move over here” is worth noting is a pretty telling design attribute.

10/17/12

WoW: MoP Jade Forest Review and Other Miscellaney

It’s been a while since my last update, so I thought I’d check in and let you all know where I’m at. My main game has been WoW: MoP lately but I’ve dipped my toe into more than one water, so let’s jump right in.

Jade Forest Review

While “review” might be a bit overkill, I’ve played through the zone and feel comfortable sharing my thoughts. I think it’s safe to say that Jade Forest is a very well done zone and provides a great introduction to Mists of Pandaria. Each quest hub now represents a set of six or so quests that give you a nice chunk of story and usually keep the thread of the main storyline going along at a steady clip. This is a nice change from previous expansions where a dozen quests kept the story; this is much more concise and easy to follow. It also allows Blizzard to deliver story in chunks of real movements. For the first time, I found myself questing because I wanted to see what would happen next and not just to kill more furlbogs. I also had a great “wow!” moment at the end of the zone when the Sha of Doubt finally reveals itself. The lead up to that was fantastic and one of the best bits of storytelling ever seen in WoW’s quests.

Unfortunately, quest design didn’t evolve nearly as much as story in that not at all. This is why I think reviewers nailed the game so hard. Quest progression and story delivery have evolved, and even combat has had some shake-ups (while still being a 1, 2, 3, mechanic, button-mash), but what you’re actually doing hasn’t changed a bit. There are a couple outliers, like the sniper quest and other instanced story content, but the open world doesn’t get more exciting than the bombing runs first introduced in ’07. I really hope this improves as I continue through the game.

Still, WoW is WoW, and I’m having fun with it. Jade Forest is a good introduction to what I’ve always said is a good game. At this point, though, it’s an old game and virtually everything in RIFT’s Storm Legion (other than story) is showing it up. Will I stay subscribed after this month? I really don’t know if 90 is worth it when there’s such other offerings on the market.

Guild Wars 2 – No Pressure, No Login?

Guild Wars 2 is a fantastic game, no doubt about it. I like it a lot, but its systems really don’t compel me to keep logging in. There’s just no pressure to do so. While having no quests and (almost) meaningless levels is a good idea, it also means that it’s firmly an “at my own pace” kind of game. I log in here and there to play with friends or do a story mission, but I’m sitting at level 30 and don’t see myself hitting 80 before the end of the year. I’m slow like that.

What does this say about the game, though? I mean, my own experience aside, lots of people have stated similar opinions whether they’ve capped out or not. I have to think ANet isn’t exactly happy that so many people have fallen off when this was, relatively speaking, THE game of the last few years. Then again, they got their box price, so maybe it means more to us than them. I’m more worried that this will mean less content updates and more boxed expansions, similar to Guild Wars 1.

And maybe someone can explain this to me. GW players say that the game had great support. Every time I checked their site, I’d see balance updates and maybe a chunk of content for a holiday. The once and maybe every six month quest pack. Did they just not update their site enough? Bury real content additions under layers of “Buy Guild Wars” banners? I don’t really consider balance patches and holiday events as content. That’s more… “we’ve got to give them something, plus PVP!” type stuff. If they do that with GW2, they will fail.

Other Games, Other Gigs

I’ve been playing a handful of other games recently. Borderlands 2, Dishonored, War of the Roses, BF3: Armorer Kill… lots of stuff. And another game I’m not allowed to tell you about yet (but it features zombies and is a lot like a mod you might have played… stay tuned). Suffice it to say, all of the above are excellent, especially Dishonored. If you liked Deus Ex or Bioshock, you need to play that game. It’s GOTY material.

I’ve also picked a couple other gigs. I’m back at Vagary for one — I took a LoA earlier this year to handle some personal issues. I’m also writing for Hooked Gamers now, too, as a PC Reviewer. Here are two recent reviews: Cortex Command (bad) and War of the Roses (good). It’s likely that my work for those sites will take up more of my time, but I’ll be keeping up here as well.

Hey, you know what game I haven’t been playing? RIFT. Despite an extremely generous offer from their team to get a tour of the expansion, I’ve been staying away in preparation for the expansion. Now I’m in lull mode, the calm before the storm, you might say (bada bing!). It’s going to be good, guys. I just don’t want to spoil it for myself and knowing it’s just around the corner is keeping me at bay until it’s finally here. You get that way? You want to play the new version of something so much that the current version just doesn’t seem good enough (when it really is)? You’ve got to give it to them for community outreach. Trion is really something special. Shout outs, Elrar!

Anyways, that about wraps it for now. Stay strong, internets. November isn’t long!

05/26/10

The Case for the Hero Class

I’ve been gone from World of Warcraft for some time, but, since returning, I’ve found myself reminded why I fell in love with WoW: the dungeons. Tonight, it was Violet Hold. Though exceptionally quiet (not a word spoke until the final boss was downed), it was a good run; quick and easy. I was able to keep threat the whole time, and only stuttered when I accidentally alt+tabbed out of window meaning to hit my alt+1 skill. I don’t think anyone noticed, though, because we got through it, pew-pewing our way to glory, and had the good time only a smooth, uninhibited run can provide.

The Arch-Druid should be the next Hero Class

Yet, even though I enjoy playing my mage arguably just as much as my Death Knight, I haven’t played him for more than a few minutes at a time. Why? Because I’m perpetually stuck waiting 10 minutes or more fun a dungeon. That’s not to say that there’s nothing to do on him, I could always quest, after all, but these experiences have really evidenced one of the biggest remaining problems in World of Warcraft: the proliferation of DPS classes.

But, I have to ask, why is that a problem? DPS is fun to play and I blame no one for taking it up over tanking/healing. There’s no responsibility (usually), so every run turns into a minigame to see how high you can push Recount. Every dungeon is a chance to see how powerful you are. Does tanking and healing do the same thing? No. At least, not in a way that appeals to the majority of players. Tanking is pass/fail and failing results in embarrassment. Healing gives the numbers but relies on the player being more of a helper than an ass-kicker.

The tank shortage was largely addressed when Wrath came out. If you played during TBC, you know how bad it got. I remember sitting in groups, using the LFG channel, and waiting for hours for a tank to respond. And then, the group had to live up to their standards or else they’d move on. Tanks being commodities, back then.

WoW’s first Hero Class made tanking easy and fun. Granted, the numbers game still isn’t as satisfying, since no one is competing with you, but the ease with which threat is kept emulates a great sense of power. DK numbers spiked initially and have since leveled out. We’re no longer in a situation where every dungeon would net you a DK tank, but it’s not uncommon, and the addition of more tanks into the pool help keep groups supplied.

And yet, here we are, almost two years out of the gate, looking down the aisle at Cataclysm, and there’s no additional Hero Class on the horizon. Why? Certainly, the great success of the Death Knight should have sent the message that we enjoy the additional options HCs provide.

The way I see it, there are a few possible reasons.

They don’t want players skipping New Azeroth; or,
They don’t mind DPSers waiting 15 minutes for dungeons; or,
They’re holding it for future expansions.

Death Knight in a cow suit! Wait...

Out of the three, I’d put my money on a combination of 2 and 3. It doesn’t make much sense to avoid a new class to keep people in Azeroth when thousands of players will go right into the 80+ content anyways.

We also can’t forget that, though she’s aging gracefully, WoW is getting pretty old. There’s still a lot of life left in the ol’ gal, but, let’s face it, the game hasn’t shown much growth in the last two years. Players are shifting in and out, and I’m sure it’ll spike with the expansion, but if Blizzard hopes to continue pulling old players back, they need to keep having exciting additions to offer. A new Hero Class certainly falls under that heading, and will be well received in the expansion after Cataclysm. As I mentioned before, I don’t think Cataclysm is going to last as long as Wrath. Blizzard will have a harder time pulling players back the more time goes on, this might be an ace they’re keeping in the hole.

Yet, I can’t help feeling we’re missing out on a good opportunity by not making new Hero Classes a standard expansion feature. I mean, let’s get the tank and healing classes out of the way first, and then bring in the more fun and creative ones. They’re giving all of the old world an overhaul, providing HC versions of existing classes would be like applying the same philosophy to every role. It’s an area of the game full of potential for exciting new ideas.

I’m not expecting any word on a new Hero Class anytime soon, so maybe this is all just a lot of wash. Still, it’s fun to think about what the future might hold. What about you, does WoW need more HCs, and healers at that?

Anyhow, I’m off to teach fourth grade. Happy Hump Day, folks!

05/19/10

Why WoW is like an old Shoe

That might sound derogatory, but I promise it’s not. As I mentioned a while back, I re-upped my subscription to WoW for this month. My re-entry into the game has been a bit hap-hazard, I’m afriad. My original plan was to work on my Death Knight and pull him the rest of the way to 80 (he’s 75 now). Yet, on that first night, I was bombarded with error messages and a UI gone bonkers from not having played in six months. I blame Curse; no better than a common peddler, I tell ya. So, I got annoyed for an evening, distracted for the couple days that followed and came crawling back to the Curse Client for my fix of fresh addons.

But, once I got in is when the real fun started. I have a problem. I always feel like I know exactly what I want to do until I get the chance to do it, then I get the urge to start on something else. So, when I came to the character select screen, I threw caution to the wind and changed realms away from my DK. No, it was a night for my mage to melt face. Except, when the time came for face melting fun, I was immediately ganked before the zone loading bar even finished for me. But, hey, I had a plan and I was going to stick to it. I flew back to my corpse (having died in Icecrown), rezzed, and queued up for a random dungeon. Word on the street says that you can get more gear through tokens than you could six months ago. So, queued I did.

That’s when I saw it. Approximate wait time: >12 minutes. TWELVE minutes?!? What was I supposed to do for twelve minutes? Questing was out of the question due to Ganky McGanksalot. I’m absolutely horrible at mage PvP (I still contend Blizzard put a target on my back that only I can’t see), so that was out too. Dailies? What am I, a vending machine; push the button for random thrusting motions? No. I wanted my loot pinata. Give me dungeons or give me death.

So, I caved and logged out back to the character creation screen. Hmmm, I thought, perhaps this is a good time to get ready for Cataclysm and roll an alt on Emerald Dream (my home server). Yes, a new plan was born. I looked into the races and classes coming with the expansion, saw that Goblins couldn’t be druid and decided it was the time. I was finally going to be an owlbear. And a cow. I made the biggest, ugliest, milk cow you’ve ever seen. And, in honor of my co-hosts on The Multiverse, I named him after both of them; Rikel (Riknas + Ferrel = Rikel) was born. As it turns out, leveling up seems to be easier in the beginning. I felt powerful right off the bat and didn’t run out of mana once. Still, killing ostriches only goes so far. I logged out again.

Now, I’m back at character select and steadfastly determine that it was time for the fix to be itched, and the scratch to be fixed. I logged into my DK. My tank. My undead Ken doll. My LFD popper; and, a strong popper he turned out to be.

Within two minutes, I was in Old Kingdom killing spiders. And, to my surprise, I was doing pretty good at it. Having not so much as thought of my rotation since the last December, I was expecting to have some trouble. After the first pull, I was back into it like I’d never left. 4,5,3,3,9,0. Just like that, Tank-Zilla. The only hiccup we had was when the hunter decided to run back through the instance to pull a pat we’d snuck past. Crazy hunter, hopping his way to heals like that.

The whole experience really reminded me of what’s so nice about WoW. You get into this nice little groove and everything begins to feel really familiar. You get to sense exactly how close to mobs you can get before they attack; you know the architecture before it ascends the horizon; you can alliterate all of the appropriate words until the game really starts to feel like home.

It reminded me of a pair of sneakers I own. I actually have two pairs that I wear often. The first is newer, cleaner, and all around better looking. The other I’ve had for three years; they’re old, stretched, scuffed, and generally just a lot more worn. But, they’re also really comfortable. They’re the ones I can slip on and off at a moments notice, for just about any purpose, and think nothing of. That’s WoW for me: comfortable, worn, and easily slipped back into. I like that familiarity, and that, for the last four years, WoW has fundamentally been the same game throughout.

Sometimes I don’t feel like wearing those old shoes, and sometimes I don’t feel like playing the old and familiar. But it’s nice to be able to slip back into those old familiar feelings– even if they’re often laced with indecisiveness. At the end of the day, it’s always satisfying because I’ve gotten what I expected to. When that stops happening, it’s time for a break.

The return is sweeter for it.