NWO: Cryptic Abortion

It's too late in the evening to post one of my current running stories, so I thought I'd instead talk about how Cryptic is continuing to "Abort" it's baby Neverwinter Online. They certainly love taking things out of the game.

A: Foundry is too hard to support, lets get rid of that.
B: I know, lets remove some dungeons! Yeah less content is awesome!
C: Oh, and the Sword Coast Adventures! Yeah, no one plays that.
D: What the game will be if this continues: Broken and Dead.

To me, Cryptic has more than a few problems as of this posting which I feel like listing out right here and now.

1) Serious connection flaws on their end prevent me from playing when I want to play. If I could connect right now I would but instead, here I am listing their failures.

2) Greed. More and more things that help players progress either keep getting removed, or put behind a paywall or an incredible grind. Also comparing their real world money conversion into ZAX to say, Mabinogi's Nexon cash is a real eye opener on how much of a premium they put on their pixels.

3) They like lying. Often blaming the slow abortion due to bots, or reclassification of bugs or whatever else. It would probably better if they just went "We need more money". At least that would be honest. There are those also still waiting on the promised reduction of stronghold influence since... last year?

4) They don't listen to their player base. If you saw that 48+ page post I linked to of people raging against that change, or the numerous calls to reduce the required amount of influence (or add methods to gain influence) for Strongholds, I think we're out of luck.

5) There is a disconnect between content designers and D&D. This is one that really pisses me off. A repeatable fishing quest in a level 70 zone and more fishing in a level 70+ zone? So you are sending characters who have likely defeated Baphomet, Orcus, Tiamat, a number of Balors and armies of who knows what else off to catch (regular) fish? If this was a table top session how would you swing that and keep people interested?

6) There is obviously a disconnect / lack of communication within their own company too. The latest module features Frost Giants who seem to enjoy throwing boulders that they pick up from the ground. That's cool and looks neat. But then you fight around 33% of said Frost giants ON WOODEN SHIPS. Of course they retain the boulder throwing attack which is idiotic.

7) They abandoned the one thing that made them stand apart: the Foundry. As a foundry author myself, that really upsets me.

8) Cryptic encourages Elitism. Those new dungeons / zones require some pretty high levels of gear to participate in. I'd personally always favor inclusion over exclusion but I have to let it slide because people asked for it and apparently the few metrics I can see also make it valid in the "majority rules" sense.

Anyway, enough venting for tonight. More regular content will continue tomorrow.

Skyrim: The Arbiter

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

I suspect you are the boss... the huge glowing circle kinda gives it away.

Fortunately the radiation didn't extend under the dome and inside waited a single man (possibly a dwemer): the Arbiter. Creator and enforcer of the Dwarves Law. He seemed pretty knowledgable about me too, about my affiliations, penchant for killing, stealing, and that I was from the future. With careful choices of responses I came close to convincing him to ending his law, showing that it was flawed since Metellus had outwitted him.

Alas, my greed got the better of me at the last prompt. Instead of saying "End your law and send me back to my time," I opted for "I'm not leaving empty handed."

His reply was simple: "Then you shall not leave at all."

The freak certainly enjoyed using lightning spells in combat but once he started failing his saving throws against my paralyzing bow he was screwed. I let him hobble around near the end, listening to him whimper about it being "Impossible". Then I took my sword and beheaded the f***er (you can tell he's an awesome bad guy to generate such hate!), and looted his neat helmet as my reward.

That explains his affinity with electricity.

Of course this means I had to potion my way back topside, where all the robots were torching everyone alive - again. I spotted Metellus running for the Lake house once more but this time decided to make a detour. Fortunately my amazing sneak skill let me slip past the angry robots and reach the burning body of the paranoid psycho to loot his piece of the Immaculate Dwarven Armor before shadowing back to the Lake house for take three.

Star Trail: It's an Axe

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

Staggering out of the bar the team begins their quest, but quickly find that Zubon and Wolfy have inexplicably lost their pants. The local townsfolk react accordingly.

How the pants disappeared remains a mystery!

Fortunately the market is currently in town so after buying new leggings for the two as well as other adventuring supplies which Paeroka successfully haggles down the price for, the team decides to nap at a local inn before heading off. There, a strange burglar breaks into their room but instead of stealing anything he requests the group to recover the magical throwing axe named Star Trail and return it to the temple of Phex, from where it was stolen. It's quite ironic that the god of thieves keeps getting stuff stolen from him.

With two quests to do now it's finally time to leave the city, following the main road South. They don't get very far before running into a warrior who had also been looking for Star Trail, but had grown disillusioned with the quest. While he doesn't really give any hints as to its location he does mention that some lizards have been turning towns of elves into orcs? Not sure what's up with that.

Greed, the ultimate adventure hook. :P

NBI Talkback #4: Seven Gaming Sins

I suppose as the silly person who thought up this questionnaire I should be one of the first bloggers to answer it, though it looks like Knifesedge has already got the ball rolling! :)

Lust - Do you enjoy games more if they have scantily clad and "interestingly proportioned" avatars? Do you like playing as one of these avatars?

While I always prefer to play as my main male character (the same guy in every game), I certainly enjoy the worlds more when they give players the option to run around as under dressed hookers. Key word there is option. If the onus is on the player on how to dress then you can't really blame the designer. The reason I enjoy it is simple: it lets people be however they want to be. I quite dislike the notion that mandates that x type of people can only wear x type of gear. It's all about individuality.

Gluttony - Do you have a game backlog of unfinished games but still buy new games regardless?

Nope. Since I very rarely (closer to never) purchase digital games for myself my backlog is quite under control. I simply get gifted enough games and know that there's a large multitude of free to play titles out there that can keep me entertained for a long time. I do still buy games for other people, but their backlogs aren't my problem. :P

Greed - Do you enjoy hand outs in game? Have you ever opted to NOT do an action in game activity because the rewards to yourself were lacking?

Oooh I'm definitely one greedy player. I like getting hand outs sure, who doesn't but the question should be Do I give hand outs? Maybe to friends, or allies or people I decide are "good natured". I don't consider those handouts though - that's more just sharing resources. I absolutely hate in-game beggars.

Real life beggars I can support on occasion, but people asking for pixel gold or pixel gear are simply lazy. Have I ever opted to NOT do an in game activity that isn't rewarding to me? YES. Especially when I'm playing solo! Like most gamers, I look for the path of least resistance, that is the shortest path with the most profit. Why? Because time is valuable, and must be managed efficiently to achieve a balance of fun and progression.

In a party, I don't mind doing non-rewarding activities as usually the party makes the experience more fun. :)

Sloth - Do you ever leech or AFK in a party? Do you discourage others from attempting things that you feel are difficult? Have you ever seen someone that needed help, but decided not to?

I never leech or AFK in a party, unless it really is a "down time" moment where everyone is resting. Leechers kinda fall into the lazy pixel beggar category above for me, so I definitely don't want to be one of them. Do I discourage others from attempting things that might be difficult? Hmm. Not really. I'm usually always up for certain death missions "just for the lulz", though I do mention that fact ("we'll probably be caned :D") before undertaking it.

As for helping people that need help it really depends: as I mentioned above I always decide not to help pixel-beggars. People that are getting slammed by monsters though (who I see are actually losing) often prompt me to jump into the fray - even if it just means I get killed too. I'm supposed to be a hero damnit, so of course I should be heroic (though slightly insane)! :P

Wrath - Ever get angry at other players and yell (or TYPE IN CAPS) at them? Have you ever been so angry to stalk a person around in game and / or in the forums?

Yelling at things: YES! I try not to yell at people though. Not directly. I do quite like to talk & threaten & sing to monsters, NPCs, and myself. This is quite funny when I do it on voice chat as people think I'm crazy.

I've not gone player stalking for many years. Really, the only time I stalked someone out of anger was on a free shard of UO after some PKs ambushed our guild. I suspected that one of the PKs was actually using a game master account to spy on our movements and equipment to know when to hit us, so having a game master account myself I tailed the bastard and sure enough matched his IP to one of the newly recruited GMs.

I also caught him doing it again to another group and got screenshot evidence of the whole matter. Turns out the "mortal" guy also had a hacked ring which made it very hard for him to die. It felt good bringing all of this to the higher ups who then came with me to confront said "corrupt" GM face to face, stripped him of his powers, killed him in a public spot, and banned his account (it's why I quite like that ban hammer GW2 video). Alas the "mortal" only got his cheating ring taken away as punishment. I still took it as a win.

Ohhh yeah, then on another free shard there was another "bad" GM who liked killing players by popping tough monsters on top of their head. I didn't have a game master account there but I simply used all the tricks I had learned from before, figured out who his mortal was and then found proof of him being a scum (setting up his own tournament so that he would win and rewarding "himself" with a legendary weapon). I also found proof that on the previous shard he played on before he was kicked out for cheating. Bad example for one of the eight seats of virtue huh? Got him banned and then one of our guild mates took his place on the council.

Good times, good times. Haven't needed to go through those lengths to cane someone for a long time now though. Maybe I'm just mellowing out in my old age

Envy - Ever felt jealous of players who seem to be able to complete content you can't? Do you ever suspect they are hacked or are simply unfair?

Yes and Yes. I am both thrilled and envious when I see those videos of one dude soloing a five man dungeon, but because of all those bad experiences (see Wrath, above) I always, ALWAYS think they are cheating in some way. Maybe not even in an "illegal" way. Perhaps they just pay to win or use out of game voice chat or use more people to their own ends or use ANY form of mod outside of the BASE GAME (for me any who use those ARE cheating - even if its just UI organization, no question about it). Even if it just is a matter of skill I always think they are hacked first. It's just been ingrained in my nature.

Pride - Are you one of those people that demands to party with other "elite" players? Do you kick players out of your team who you feel are under performing?

Nope and Nope. Hell, "elite" players probably wouldn't want to party with me anyway. I'd be on the receiving end of those "kick" votes. As I mentioned before, yes, I like being efficient -when I'm playing solo-. When others are around that's just a bonus for me (as long as they ain't leechers). I don't really care how well or how poorly they do, as long as we are all having fun. I try to remind myself that regardless of the team, the only one I can truly rely on is me so if everyone else dies it's not really their fault. -I- should be better!

Now this changes somewhat if the team actually starts caring about winning. Then I start getting annoyed when they do badly, because they aren't having fun. Which means I am not having fun. What's the point in doing an activity that you do not find fun? Hope it's rewarding? Pixel-rewards kinda suck in the grand scheme of things. Just saying.

Other on-going NBI activities:
Please join the NBI 2015: Poetry Slam!
Murf's Screenshot Safari