Going once, going twice... go to Hell!

I know I'm a bit late to jump on this bandwagon but an illness managed to stay my hand from posting... till now!

Finally, one of the stupidest design decisions EVER is going to be undone - Diablo 3's auction house is to be removed next year, coinciding with the release of new expansion to the game. Whoever thought it was an inspired idea at the time must have been inspired by the lord of hell himself because that was one game breaking mechanic, especially in a game where half the point is to grind for gear. It certainly lowers the shelf life when you can just buy said gear at will if you had the gold to do so,  a method which I certainly used to trivialize the whole game pretty much. Pay to win, right there. Don't even get me started on locked difficulty modes, for me that's the next thing that should be changed.

Away with thee, spawn of Satan!

With that auction house being sent back to the flaming abyss that spawned it I can only hope similar ventures in other games follow suit. Looking at you specifically, Black Lion Trading Company of Guildwars 2. You and your false manipulated market. Player manipulated? That's to be expected, but you take a step further with GM manipulation. Oh... there's a surplus of item so and so huh? Time to change the loot tables! Sad part is, I'm not even kidding about that.

Anywho, I'll leave you all with an unrelated, warming tale of a griefer being beaten at his own game.  A story that should bring a grin to many - especially those who played table top Warhammer 40k. This is rules lawyering to the max!

Aspects of Fun

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

After a nice break where in I got to do other stuff (including exploring a vertically challenging aetherblade base within a holographic mountain) while the rest of the populace helped capture Aetherblade Captain Mai Trin in her dungeon, I returned to news that a bunch of flying merchants had docked at some difficult to reach cliffs to display their wares. I like exploring places so I headed on down via ship to visit the spectacularly beautiful (yet deviously deadly) Labyrinthine Cliffs where these Zephyrites had parked. Not only do they have interesting goods (most of which are dangerous - where do they get this stuff and more importantly why are they selling them to unsuspecting folk?), they also have developed a form of travel using aspect crystals to either dash quickly, jump high, or jump far and pray to god you don't end up as a splat on the ground as you climb higher up the dizzying heights. Being sadistic bastards they also setup a scavenger hunt for sky crystals in the zone to encourage self-termination via gravity.

Insane and Insanely Pretty!

High atop their anchored sky ship (which have diving goggles on the prow... as I said, these people are psycho) you can participate in their "aspect training" which comes in the form of a race. A very fun yet very annoying race. Took me 28 tries before coming first, mainly due to aspect lag (a skill ANet didn't forsee nor cater for). I did come up with a short list to help others overcome it though. The Zephyrites were also victims of robbery, not just from random Aetherblade raiders but from skritt running off with a bunch of their kites. The bastard rats even took the time to hide in various jumping puzzles, one within a fractal and one in the PVP Obsidian Sanctum.

Ofcourse I did all the above and kind of regret not chasing down the Aetherblade Caches in the other JP's and mini dungeons previously because I forgot how much fun they were. My favourite was the final kite at Obsidian Sanctum. Upon entering the Eternal Battlegrounds to find that an enemy server, Drakkar Lake, had complete dominion over it (them Germans are good at war). I had to aid my Gunnar's Hold compatriots in violently capturing our low lands corner including three nearby towers and the keep before making my way into the puzzle proper itself, solo. Inside I encountered maybe ten more Drakkar Lake players (in various small groups), any of whom could have really ruined my day but through salute/dance truce (opposing servers cannot hear chat; you can only communicate through action) I freely passed all of them without any aggression whatsoever.

With a boost in achievement points which will help my later achievement unlocks I also was rewarded a permanent quartz node as a symbol of my awesome ambassadorial skills (I don't recall doing any ambassadoring though). Plotwise the newly appointed Captain and ineffective ex-Lionguard Investigator/Policewoman Ellen Kiel is going head to head with Black Lion Company founder Evon Gnashblade. Both trying to secure a trade agreement with the flying salesmen to help their claim to the vacant council seat, made that way from the events last month. I didn't really pay attention to the politics. There were cliffs to be climbed! :P

Flame, Frost and Donkey Kong

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

ArenaNet has been pushing out its Living Story the past few months with all the pace of a sun-bathing glacier. Basically the proud Norn and warlike Charr are getting their butts kicked by a Dredge and Flame Legion alliance (aka "the Molten Alliance") so badly that they are mostly withdrawing not just to their capitals, but all the way to the karka infested isle of Southsun Cove. Well, supposedly. Sure, the molten dudes are popping out from magic portals and APCs here and there but there are still lots of towns out there that haven't noticed this supposed on-coming force; Butcher's Block is still in endless party mode and that place up in Wayfarer Foothills where they cook wurm eggs and have dozens of snoozing patrons hasn't changed one bit. Maybe they're just too drunk to notice anything wrong? Seems the only people actually affected come from previously unknown areas and I suspect part of the reason they are so pathetically weak is due to their unnatural clumsiness.

Or maybe they were also just drunk?

With their meager possessions (being refugees) lots of them still manage to "misplace" them along the various routes they took to run away while defacating themselves like the cowards they are. One of the tasks given to the COMMANDER OF THE FIRE-TRUCKING PACT is to go poke the mounds of dirt and feces left behind by these losers to retrieve them. Yep. For some reason this is one of the "highlight" activities of this story arc. Shovelling shit. Thanks ANet. As for the molten alliance themselves there are hints laying about in another scavenger type quest that indicate it's not Primordus driving these two armies together but something else. Popular theory is it is the Consortium, the competitors of the Black Lion Trading group. Their previous actions included happy things like letting the karka invade the mainland and opening the irritating and unstable fractal dungeon which now requires eternal vigilance lest it destroy reality. Far as I'm concerned all these pirate scum should die. May as well wipe out the barbaric Charr and soulless Sylvari while I'm at it too.

What's that? The Asura? No I love those little goblins, especially since part of the April release was the Super Adventure Box! Personally I feel this is ANet's best content since the Mad King (I did miss Wintersday so maybe that one was good too) which is ironic given all of its 8-bit Mario-ness. There's definitely a certain charm in the nostalgia, and for someone who absolutely dislikes the dungeons in this game I find the Super Adventure box to be awesome. No idea why, but it's a strong enough reason for me to get back into GW2 for a bit. Hopefully it sticks around and doesn't vanish at the end of April like ANet has said, because if it did - they really would be April fools.

Belated Happy Easter too! :)

Stockbroker Wars II

[Part of my Explorer of Tyria Journal]

One thing I dislike in MMORPGS are trading platforms where people can trade stuff to each other for currency remotely (ie. not being logged on, or on the same server etc). "What? But that's a feature!" I hear you exclaim, and yes it's true - all those shiney things we pick up from the floor or steal off dead corpses have to be good for something other than be shiney and collectable. My argument is they shouldn't be there in the first place and that players should instead only be able barter face to face with goods, consumable goods preferably. Herbs for a healing potion for ore to make a sword for example.

Sounds like a pain in the ass doesn't it? However compare it to say, Guildwars 2 where you have the Black Lion Trading post. You can put up anything you want for whatever price and the system will automatically handle searches and best deals for anyone looking for that particular item. Sounds like something that should exist only in space MMO's like EVE Online maybe. Even more, there are sites dedicated to tracking the rise and fall of the markets. Indeed, where previously you had to go delve into dungeons for riches or sell goods or services for coin now you can just leverage supply and demand your way to fortune. Indeed, if you are given some starting gold (in GW2) you could very well become extremely rich without ever levelling or interacting with any other player. Ever.

All these people are actually just playing GW2.

This is great for those who like playing the markets, but to quote one of the GW2 market devs: "Think about the total supply of money". Money is being created out of digital air everytime someone completes a quest, kills a critter (possibly), opens a chest, etc. As time goes on this means the value of money just drops and drops and drops as more of it enters existence. In response to supply and demand, a weapon on the trading post once being sold for 50 gold may now be going for 5000. Makes sense.

Now imagine being a newbie to the game, coming in when things are being sold for those exorbitant prices. The amount of coin dropped from critters, chests and quests haven't increased which means you have to work at an ever increasing pace (or get lucky with a super rare drop to sell) if you ever want to catch up to the status quo again. This actually hurts more if the new guy isn't a market player, because that means he's going to grind himself years into non existence until he either gets everything he requires by himself or enough gold to buy what he needs from the trade post. Ofcourse useful, important stuff isn't in npc stores. :P

Compare this to Ultima Online. There's probably enough gold in circulation there to drown all of Britannia by now, but inflation is not as bad because it is simply harder to find people so sell or buy from, and in my opinion - that's the way it should be. So in summary here are things I'd wish future MMO's try to do in regards to economy:

-less hand-held trading, no automated crap like the GW2 Black Lion Trading post
-controlled amount of gold at any one time
-or no gold at all, barter system only