I'm sure everyone has their own version of this list but just for kicks I figured I'd put mine up here to hopefully give game developers some possible extra insight on such matters.
#10: My Friends Dislike the game
Especially true in MMO's, if our guildmates don't give your game the thumbs up it makes it a bit less likely that I will play it over something they do enjoy. Almost impossible to cater for everyone's likes but this is the first "flood gate" that usually stops games from even being installed on my PC.
#9: I Dislike the game
Even if my friends aren't playing, I still may go ahead and play your game regardless if I like it enough after testing or researching it (Age of Conan is a good example) - and if I don't like it but they do then I may still put up with it. Obviously if no one likes it, it becomes a no brainer. Reasons I dislike games not only stem from actual game play mechanics but can also be things that don't sit well with me. Payday is a good example there where you can only be the "bad guys" (not even a dark shade of gray). For that reason alone I will never play it.
#8: We Can't Play Together
Another MMO slayer. If we can't play together then odds are high that your game is just going to be looked over or skipped after the initial test run. Region/IP barriers are quite frustrating for a guild with members all across the world. Even non MMO's suffer from this. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombies is a good example. The gameplay is great but trying to get into a session that no one drops out of is like digging through a stone wall with a plastic fork. Worse still is that the person that drops out cannot rejoin a session like in L4D2. Good game, but if I am asked to recommend a co-op zombie shooter Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombies would NOT be on my list.
#7: It Isn't Free
This is probably a unique one for me. You see, I've sworn not to buy games for myself anymore. I still buy them for other people and receive them from my family and friends so that's all cool, however I don't think anyone would ever offer to pay for an ongoing subscription fee for me which is the main reason that World of Warcraft and other MMO's that require or really push for it simply get ignored like the leeches they are. Afterall, the best things in life are free - right?
#6: I've Won The Game
This is an odd one to be on this list because as you might expect that's when most people stop playing games. However a select few such as Diablo and Path of Exile simply just unlock harder modes to the same story that you've already played. Unlockable difficulties has always been a gripe of mine as it just shows for lazy development. Let people play the hardest mode at the get go and I'll have more respect for you. As it stands, after I win once that's it. The end. Unless you have new content (or are that frigging amazing) it's uninstall time for you.
#5: Slow to Patch
Updates to the game are good but there is a limit to what I will deem acceptable. Mabinogi is actually an example for me here because it is notorious for having massive updates which like to fail, and then require a reinstall to repair. Well, I -could- go through all that trouble or I could play a different game that won't give me any hassles to play. Guess which one always wins out? Also having BIG patches (looking at you Warframe) that interrupts my other online gaming really ticks me off, so if I can't finish downloading your patch in the time it takes for me to have a shower then I'll likely NEVER patch, and toss your game into the void.
#4: Frequent Patching
Almost a continuation of the above. Patches are good, but patching every day or even every week just tells me that your developers are shit, don't test, and require to keep pushing out "fixes" which only make more issues to compensate on your unfinished, unpolished, turd of a product.
#3: You Don't Let Me Play It
Guildwars 2 is a unique beast in this category. While I did like to voice my concerns about various parts of it, it was still a game that I would play regularly until I suddenly couldn't because they don't send me the validation email anymore. Checking on their forums the only staff reply to the issue I found was "The emails are going out, check with your email provider." Well, I -could- do that OR I could play a game that lets me play it with no hassles? Anything that causes me hassles just makes me give the middle finger to the screen and move on to something more productive and/or enjoyable. I'm here to play, not talk to tech support.
#2: Work vs Play
Playing games is meant to be enjoyable. The line between work (unfun, unrewarding, repetitive activities) and play exists for everyone and some people can simply take more "work" than others. As I get older I find that "work" line growing more and more over the "fun, rewarding" section because I have less time than I used to. Our last Ultima Online shard really killed it for my brother when it decided to increase the "work" side waaaay too much. The result? Not only did the game get uninstalled but the CD and box was thrown into the garbage.
#1: New Shinies
Christmas time and my birthday are the usual times this happens (given I don't buy myself anything), but wow do I get inundated with stuff when they do! As with all things I will go poke and play with the new shiny games for a bit until I either finish them, or find my older ones more appealing after the initial shine has faded off. Not really anything developers can do to combat this other than make their game the best it can be. :)
Showing posts with label Age of Conan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Age of Conan. Show all posts
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Sunday, 3 November 2013
By the Light of the Moon [AoC]
I got the chance to do the Halloween Quest in Age of Conan a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, compared to GW2 anyway. As an aside, GW2 no longer lets me log into the game (or forums) now. It keeps saying "email authentication sent" but nothing ever gets there. According to their forums "the problem is with my provider" to which I call BS since all other mail gets through fine. Guess ANet are trying to reduce player numbers?
Back on topic, the gist of the story is that a wandering tribe are visiting Conarch village and they turn out to be werewolves. Through deceit you are made one of their number (for very good RP reason too) and awaken in a solo instance wherein you try to save the village from being massacred.
Stabby time.
I know I've mentioned before that this is a strange single player MMO at times, but after seeing the zerg fest alternative I don't mind it at all. Apart from the obvious advantage of not having to rely on anyone else, enemies are scaled to your level (which lets everyone participate), and there are a few branching optional paths with mini-bosses that drop extra loot. The presence of friendly tough but mortal guard NPCs and panicked villagers that distract the werewolves really adds to the atmosphere and the boss fights have simple mechanics to learn, but are forgiving enough to let you learn them without killing you over and over in the process. The rewards are decent too, even if they are just aesthetics you can sell them for decent amounts of currency if you don't like them.
After defeating the alpha you are then sent to cure yourself which entails a small grind of killing 30 of anything, which still a lot less than the GW2 grind since 30 bunnies is valid, then go into another solo instance wherein you fight your wolf self. The way this small plot is written is great and really involves the player, you get that sense of "I need to do this" that doesn't really come across as well when Trahearne is just handing you another mission. Lore wise it works too, there are werewolves in the game near Conarch village and you can go fight them - it's not like they made up something out of thin air with nonsensical requirements to achieve (like acquiring GW2's candy corn elemental, yeah that made sense).
Maybe part of the reason is the scope of the tale. Most of this takes place in just one night in one village, and then the fields nearby. It's not really a world impacting event involving grand scale armies that you either have to fight off or be a part of to defeat a zone threatening foe. Maybe because the focus wasn't so wide we didn't lose sight of our own character and that our actions are more impactful when we don't have anyone to cover our weaknesses.
Back on topic, the gist of the story is that a wandering tribe are visiting Conarch village and they turn out to be werewolves. Through deceit you are made one of their number (for very good RP reason too) and awaken in a solo instance wherein you try to save the village from being massacred.
Stabby time.
I know I've mentioned before that this is a strange single player MMO at times, but after seeing the zerg fest alternative I don't mind it at all. Apart from the obvious advantage of not having to rely on anyone else, enemies are scaled to your level (which lets everyone participate), and there are a few branching optional paths with mini-bosses that drop extra loot. The presence of friendly tough but mortal guard NPCs and panicked villagers that distract the werewolves really adds to the atmosphere and the boss fights have simple mechanics to learn, but are forgiving enough to let you learn them without killing you over and over in the process. The rewards are decent too, even if they are just aesthetics you can sell them for decent amounts of currency if you don't like them.
After defeating the alpha you are then sent to cure yourself which entails a small grind of killing 30 of anything, which still a lot less than the GW2 grind since 30 bunnies is valid, then go into another solo instance wherein you fight your wolf self. The way this small plot is written is great and really involves the player, you get that sense of "I need to do this" that doesn't really come across as well when Trahearne is just handing you another mission. Lore wise it works too, there are werewolves in the game near Conarch village and you can go fight them - it's not like they made up something out of thin air with nonsensical requirements to achieve (like acquiring GW2's candy corn elemental, yeah that made sense).
Maybe part of the reason is the scope of the tale. Most of this takes place in just one night in one village, and then the fields nearby. It's not really a world impacting event involving grand scale armies that you either have to fight off or be a part of to defeat a zone threatening foe. Maybe because the focus wasn't so wide we didn't lose sight of our own character and that our actions are more impactful when we don't have anyone to cover our weaknesses.
Thursday, 31 October 2013
NBI 2013 - Aftermath Eternal
With the dawn that ends Halloween, so ends the Newbie Blogger Initiative this year... or does it? It has the structure to continue going despite the end of its term but I guess that's more a decision for the organizers. I'm pretty glad I joined in, as it spawned a few of the blog posts I had this past month.
It also got this site a number of links, boosted those graphs and numbers I'm not meant to be looking at, learned a few things, and given me a whole bunch of new blogs to follow and comment on myself (you can see from the extensive "paths I travel" on the right. If I missed yours or you just want to be added - let me know)!
Lastly, if you are or know of a newbie blogger then I strongly suggest visiting the site, regardless if it's on-going or not. Lots of tips to be learned and easily built bridges to be made.
Also I thought that for a change I should put down what things you might see appearing on this blog during the upcoming month. Can't make any guarantees but if it's in the game plan, there's a good chance I'll blog about it!
It also got this site a number of links, boosted those graphs and numbers I'm not meant to be looking at, learned a few things, and given me a whole bunch of new blogs to follow and comment on myself (you can see from the extensive "paths I travel" on the right. If I missed yours or you just want to be added - let me know)!
Lastly, if you are or know of a newbie blogger then I strongly suggest visiting the site, regardless if it's on-going or not. Lots of tips to be learned and easily built bridges to be made.
What the picture doesn't show is the wealth of information and community that dragon is sitting on.
Also I thought that for a change I should put down what things you might see appearing on this blog during the upcoming month. Can't make any guarantees but if it's in the game plan, there's a good chance I'll blog about it!
My to do list for November (no particular order):
See the Tower of Nightmares for myself in Guildwars 2.(can't log in)Investigate the werewolf attack on Conarch Village in Age of Conan. (done)- Complete all missions on Warframe (only around 50% done).
- Finish that second quest in the Neverwinter Online Foundry.
- Write the first part of my guild's history, it's NanoWrimo afterall.
Check out Path of Exile as suggested byDoone.(done)Check out Atlantica Online as suggested bySynCaine. (done)- Finish mapping the Aria Reservoir in Wizardry Online.
Monday, 14 October 2013
NBI - Armchair Game Designer
[Part of the Newbie Blogger Initiative: Talk Back Challenge]
[Part of my MMO Design Folder]
Armchair Game Designer: Take the parts of current games you like, listing the specific features. Make a game out of those features, any type of game, any genre. You could also mention features that you would never use under the same criteria.
Lyledark has a neat little list that he'd like to see where as Liore specifically targetted designing an MMO player economy. Some good ideas on both, and for kicks I decided to make a list of my own... which turned out to be quite long... :P
I might be doing this wrong because of the "current games" section of the brief given most of these come from either Ultima Online, Mabinogi, Knight Online, Wizardry Online, Neverwinter Online and Guildwars2 with some original ones thrown in the mix. Anyway this would be my (undoubtedly incomplete) list of things I'd want to have, starting with the ones that need little to no explanation (or I've talked about them previously):
- No Pre-determined Classes, no over-all levels. Each skill gains through individual study and use.
- School to learn combat and life skills.
- Exams to attain higher levels of skills.
- Gear will break, ammo runs out, hunger must be catered for
- Text bubble above the head of who is talking, not disembodied chat window
- Emote window for ease of access to all character animations and dancing
- Typing a smiley face would actually put that expressions on your character's face
- Crafting and skill mini games
- In-game supported voice chat in a party or squad channels
- Musical instruments, freedom to compose your own music and jam with other players (possibly using MML)
- Open world Ship travel, people can join for the ride and you manually steer where to go
- Non-territorial Enemies have no leash, they'll chase you to forever.
- Mounts! - Shared mounts (two people on a horse)! Flying mounts! Mounts (and pets) that can fight!
- Customizable and useful housing/homestead items.
- Interactable furniture. I like chairs I can sit on.
- Dangerous Traps can be avoided by just knowing what to look for, or disabled temporarily via minigame
- Open world quests / Dynamic quests - anyone in the vicinity can join
- Open world dungeons with "boss" chambers instanced (long cool-down per player to prevent spamming).
- Foundry, player made content!
- Guild Management Tools that let you see the last time someone was on, and lets everyone leave short messages
- In-game Calendar so people can see when the next releases are due, what events are on and for how long they go.
- Magical gate travel to cities only. All gates travel to one target city which changes based on moon cycle.
- "Summoning" Spell/Scroll to summon one party member to caster's location (lengthy cool-down).
- No return to town spell, or return to wherever unless a mage is summoning you.
- Blacklist feature. Always handy.
- No auto maps/radar. Cartography as a skill can make map items for the local region you are in.
- Story Instances. Can be added by patch yet are "permanent" in that all characters can then run them once.
- Content geared primarily for solo play. Scales up (instead of gearing for group and scales down).
- Each character can only join one guild at a time.
- No auction House. No gold. Barter system all the way. Even with NPCs!
And now for the ones that need more text...
- Not so Diverse races.
This is more of a money constraint (I'm designing on a budget :P). I like Neverwinter's races where a dwarf is a short but stout human, an elf is a slender human, a tiefling is a human with red skin and a tail etc. Apart from minor facial differences (horns/pointy ears and what have you) the bulk of each character is basically the same, just scaled differently. Why? It's easier to release new armor and clothing items for just one model. Compare it to Guildwars 2, where the races -are- quite different. Ever wonder why most of the living story rewards are either weapon skins or back items?
- No voice actors.
Again more of a money constraint. While I can put near limitless text on the screen, if I then need someone to read out the lines that's going to be painful on the budget. More so if it's multiple VAs doing the same lines (numerous protagonists). If there are no VA's the development staff will get more money to produce more content, and it will be slightly faster to roll out (and be a bit smaller file size too). To compensate, must have a fantastic music score (that can be reused more easily). Age of Conan level or better. :D
- Dangerous combat relying on Player skill over Character skill.
Isn't all combat dangerous? Well, Mabinogi takes the cake for me here and I'd love a version of their rock-paper-scissors-shotgun combat system in my MMO. Most battles are very short but not in the fast paced way. Either you use the right skills and curb stomp your enemy or you screw up and get curb stomped in return. My character is over level 2000 yet a regular skeleton can still kill me in 4 hits (or less) if I mistime my moves or use the wrong counters. In comparison a skilled player can beat the same skeleton with a week old character, if the player behind the screen fights well. It just may take them longer to win.
- Death is to be Feared
Upon dying you become a ghost who can no longer see the living (or undead) nor interactable objects like levers, doors and buttons. You can only see other spirits (dead players), NPC healers and statues that will ressurect you if you manage to run back to them. If you make it you have a 100% chance to be revived. Wait, -if- you make it? What's stopping you?
Yep, the reapers from Wizardry Online. They chase you and will try to permanently end your existence - the only thing you can do is run. Each time you are "caught" you are returned to your body and the chance of your revival drops by 10%. If you fail your revive roll then your character is gone (seriously, they become a tombstone).
That's in Wizardry Online, but I know most people don't like permadeath so in my version - the % is how much of your skills are retained on revival, so if you got caught 3 times then all skills drop by 30%. You'll have to go retrain them. Oh, there's also still a "roll" on the % too. A fail means all your equipment is obliterated, but don't worry - there's no character elimination whatsoever (though losing 100% of all their skill puts them back as a newbie anyway). See, I can be a nice guy. ;p
[Part of my MMO Design Folder]
Armchair Game Designer: Take the parts of current games you like, listing the specific features. Make a game out of those features, any type of game, any genre. You could also mention features that you would never use under the same criteria.
Lyledark has a neat little list that he'd like to see where as Liore specifically targetted designing an MMO player economy. Some good ideas on both, and for kicks I decided to make a list of my own... which turned out to be quite long... :P
I might be doing this wrong because of the "current games" section of the brief given most of these come from either Ultima Online, Mabinogi, Knight Online, Wizardry Online, Neverwinter Online and Guildwars2 with some original ones thrown in the mix. Anyway this would be my (undoubtedly incomplete) list of things I'd want to have, starting with the ones that need little to no explanation (or I've talked about them previously):
- No Pre-determined Classes, no over-all levels. Each skill gains through individual study and use.
- School to learn combat and life skills.
- Exams to attain higher levels of skills.
- Gear will break, ammo runs out, hunger must be catered for
- Text bubble above the head of who is talking, not disembodied chat window
- Emote window for ease of access to all character animations and dancing
- Typing a smiley face would actually put that expressions on your character's face
- Crafting and skill mini games
- In-game supported voice chat in a party or squad channels
- Musical instruments, freedom to compose your own music and jam with other players (possibly using MML)
- Open world Ship travel, people can join for the ride and you manually steer where to go
- Non-territorial Enemies have no leash, they'll chase you to forever.
- Mounts! - Shared mounts (two people on a horse)! Flying mounts! Mounts (and pets) that can fight!
- Customizable and useful housing/homestead items.
- Interactable furniture. I like chairs I can sit on.
- Dangerous Traps can be avoided by just knowing what to look for, or disabled temporarily via minigame
- Open world quests / Dynamic quests - anyone in the vicinity can join
- Open world dungeons with "boss" chambers instanced (long cool-down per player to prevent spamming).
- Foundry, player made content!
- Guild Management Tools that let you see the last time someone was on, and lets everyone leave short messages
- In-game Calendar so people can see when the next releases are due, what events are on and for how long they go.
- Magical gate travel to cities only. All gates travel to one target city which changes based on moon cycle.
- "Summoning" Spell/Scroll to summon one party member to caster's location (lengthy cool-down).
- No return to town spell, or return to wherever unless a mage is summoning you.
- Blacklist feature. Always handy.
- No auto maps/radar. Cartography as a skill can make map items for the local region you are in.
- Story Instances. Can be added by patch yet are "permanent" in that all characters can then run them once.
- Content geared primarily for solo play. Scales up (instead of gearing for group and scales down).
- Each character can only join one guild at a time.
- No auction House. No gold. Barter system all the way. Even with NPCs!
And now for the ones that need more text...
- Not so Diverse races.
This is more of a money constraint (I'm designing on a budget :P). I like Neverwinter's races where a dwarf is a short but stout human, an elf is a slender human, a tiefling is a human with red skin and a tail etc. Apart from minor facial differences (horns/pointy ears and what have you) the bulk of each character is basically the same, just scaled differently. Why? It's easier to release new armor and clothing items for just one model. Compare it to Guildwars 2, where the races -are- quite different. Ever wonder why most of the living story rewards are either weapon skins or back items?
- No voice actors.
Again more of a money constraint. While I can put near limitless text on the screen, if I then need someone to read out the lines that's going to be painful on the budget. More so if it's multiple VAs doing the same lines (numerous protagonists). If there are no VA's the development staff will get more money to produce more content, and it will be slightly faster to roll out (and be a bit smaller file size too). To compensate, must have a fantastic music score (that can be reused more easily). Age of Conan level or better. :D
- Dangerous combat relying on Player skill over Character skill.
Isn't all combat dangerous? Well, Mabinogi takes the cake for me here and I'd love a version of their rock-paper-scissors-shotgun combat system in my MMO. Most battles are very short but not in the fast paced way. Either you use the right skills and curb stomp your enemy or you screw up and get curb stomped in return. My character is over level 2000 yet a regular skeleton can still kill me in 4 hits (or less) if I mistime my moves or use the wrong counters. In comparison a skilled player can beat the same skeleton with a week old character, if the player behind the screen fights well. It just may take them longer to win.
- Death is to be Feared
Upon dying you become a ghost who can no longer see the living (or undead) nor interactable objects like levers, doors and buttons. You can only see other spirits (dead players), NPC healers and statues that will ressurect you if you manage to run back to them. If you make it you have a 100% chance to be revived. Wait, -if- you make it? What's stopping you?
One of the most terrifying NPCs in all my MMO adventures.
Yep, the reapers from Wizardry Online. They chase you and will try to permanently end your existence - the only thing you can do is run. Each time you are "caught" you are returned to your body and the chance of your revival drops by 10%. If you fail your revive roll then your character is gone (seriously, they become a tombstone).
That's in Wizardry Online, but I know most people don't like permadeath so in my version - the % is how much of your skills are retained on revival, so if you got caught 3 times then all skills drop by 30%. You'll have to go retrain them. Oh, there's also still a "roll" on the % too. A fail means all your equipment is obliterated, but don't worry - there's no character elimination whatsoever (though losing 100% of all their skill puts them back as a newbie anyway). See, I can be a nice guy. ;p
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Disquiet Week
Been pretty silent on the blog this week (mainly for one reason below) so I thought I'd post about a few other games I've come across on my travels.
Ultima Forever
Being a big UO fan I was keeping my hopes up for this one, despite the changes to the realm and the simplification of the game. Now it is finally out and guess what? I can't play it. Yep, they decided to not release it for PC instead going for mobile devices. That's nice, except I don't play games on anything BUT PC. Guess I'm the minority now. Oh well - I suppose it was just not meant to be.
Age of Wushu
After my previous write up (featuring castration!) I decided to give the game the benefit of the doubt and downloaded it via a painfully slow link on their website. What's up with that? It's like they don't want people to play. Age of Conan was a bigger download but finished faster? Anyway the first few screens leave a truck load to be desired. Mabinogi has a better login screen, seriously (Mabinogi also recently got guns... and vespas! o_O). On to the game itself and the graphics and animations seem to be pretty good if you can get past all the people flying around (age of wire-fu). The skill system which is much like Mabi where you train them individually would probably work well too.
However I just couldn't get into it. Maybe because the screen is cluttered with names, clunky controls, or maybe because everything is so reading intensive - even skill names and stances are almost small sentences like "Swallow the Whale". It didn't help that latency is an issue as well. One of the tutorial quests is to learn blocking. Basically you tell an NPC you are ready and press right mouse to block. He punched me three times in the face before it registered that yes, I was -actually- blocking already. I'll try it out a bit more sometime to see if it improves but my first impressions aren't good.
Age of Conan
I've occasionally been posting about this and it seems I've run into the forseen lack of content (solo content anyway) to do at higher levels. Not really a bad thing since it IS an MMORPG after all, but being a loner on a free pvp world does make it a bit more challenging to do group content. They don't joke around about group content either. One of the early ones past Tortage is to defeat a Cock Handler (as in chickens and roosters you gutter minded people). He's only around the mid level 20's. I still can't beat him with my level 51, which is where I think I'll leave my "test"(?) character for now. Should be interesting to see if I get a free level 50 in a few months.
Card Hunter
Tobold has been championing this browser based, tactical game of nostalgia for awhile now. Sorry to say it's not really my cup of tea, but hey it works and it's free. Just don't expect XCOM quality stuff from it, nor any meaningful story to tie all your battles together.
Meanwhile, back at the Queen's Gauntlet in Guildwars 2... "DAMN YOU LIADRI!!!!!" >.<
Ultima Forever
Being a big UO fan I was keeping my hopes up for this one, despite the changes to the realm and the simplification of the game. Now it is finally out and guess what? I can't play it. Yep, they decided to not release it for PC instead going for mobile devices. That's nice, except I don't play games on anything BUT PC. Guess I'm the minority now. Oh well - I suppose it was just not meant to be.
Age of Wushu
After my previous write up (featuring castration!) I decided to give the game the benefit of the doubt and downloaded it via a painfully slow link on their website. What's up with that? It's like they don't want people to play. Age of Conan was a bigger download but finished faster? Anyway the first few screens leave a truck load to be desired. Mabinogi has a better login screen, seriously (Mabinogi also recently got guns... and vespas! o_O). On to the game itself and the graphics and animations seem to be pretty good if you can get past all the people flying around (age of wire-fu). The skill system which is much like Mabi where you train them individually would probably work well too.
However I just couldn't get into it. Maybe because the screen is cluttered with names, clunky controls, or maybe because everything is so reading intensive - even skill names and stances are almost small sentences like "Swallow the Whale". It didn't help that latency is an issue as well. One of the tutorial quests is to learn blocking. Basically you tell an NPC you are ready and press right mouse to block. He punched me three times in the face before it registered that yes, I was -actually- blocking already. I'll try it out a bit more sometime to see if it improves but my first impressions aren't good.
Age of Conan
I've occasionally been posting about this and it seems I've run into the forseen lack of content (solo content anyway) to do at higher levels. Not really a bad thing since it IS an MMORPG after all, but being a loner on a free pvp world does make it a bit more challenging to do group content. They don't joke around about group content either. One of the early ones past Tortage is to defeat a Cock Handler (as in chickens and roosters you gutter minded people). He's only around the mid level 20's. I still can't beat him with my level 51, which is where I think I'll leave my "test"(?) character for now. Should be interesting to see if I get a free level 50 in a few months.
Card Hunter
Tobold has been championing this browser based, tactical game of nostalgia for awhile now. Sorry to say it's not really my cup of tea, but hey it works and it's free. Just don't expect XCOM quality stuff from it, nor any meaningful story to tie all your battles together.
Oh no. A 2 dimensional dragon.
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
A Tale of your Own
Keen posted an interesting article about MMOs having a story. The short version is they prefer games that don't give them one, like Everquest or UO as opposed to the rise of the "commander" in GW2 for example. To some extent I tend to agree. Sure the first time you run the main plot it's great, but I'm not so enthused about doing it all over and over for my alts (so I haven't, I'm not really an alt heavy user). The good thing, at least in GW2, is you don't have to. There are plenty of other activities to keep you busy, if you so chose. The Living Story is another example of this. The previous release I loved tremendously so I participated a lot, this time around it's not my cup of tea so I just do dailies (if I remember) and log off.
It's a similar case in Neverwinter Online now that I've finished the main quest story and am sitting on level 60. What's left to do other than raise professions? Well, I CAN'T run the skirmishes I missed (all of them) without making an alt, which I think is bad design. I can still go do the dungeons I missed though which is good, and I can still do foundry stuff though I prefer to make quests as the incentive to play them (especially solo) is a bit ... meh. That leaves the "epic" level dungeons. The catch? All the epic level stuff is behind a gear check wall. I'm currently around 4000 points short there to be eligible to run the last dungeon (Castle Never, which has no normal mode. Epic only) which means it's hamster wheel time if I want to reach there.
Now would I rather grind gear score in NWO or do the living story (currently Cut-throat Politics) stuff in GW2? It all comes down to the one that gives me the most sense of progression and fun. In this case neither since I stumbled back into Age of Conan this week with my supposedly "test" character on the wrong (pvp) server. Why? Because things are still new to me and there are some really pretty sights and music, despite people trying to gank me. ^_~
It's a similar case in Neverwinter Online now that I've finished the main quest story and am sitting on level 60. What's left to do other than raise professions? Well, I CAN'T run the skirmishes I missed (all of them) without making an alt, which I think is bad design. I can still go do the dungeons I missed though which is good, and I can still do foundry stuff though I prefer to make quests as the incentive to play them (especially solo) is a bit ... meh. That leaves the "epic" level dungeons. The catch? All the epic level stuff is behind a gear check wall. I'm currently around 4000 points short there to be eligible to run the last dungeon (Castle Never, which has no normal mode. Epic only) which means it's hamster wheel time if I want to reach there.
Guild activities are always fun though!
Now would I rather grind gear score in NWO or do the living story (currently Cut-throat Politics) stuff in GW2? It all comes down to the one that gives me the most sense of progression and fun. In this case neither since I stumbled back into Age of Conan this week with my supposedly "test" character on the wrong (pvp) server. Why? Because things are still new to me and there are some really pretty sights and music, despite people trying to gank me. ^_~
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Changing the Game
Missing content seems to be a big issue on the GuildWars 2 forums lately with all the "temporary" content that comes and goes so some people are angry that they have to actually make time to play the game or miss out (this is actually common in many MMORPGs). Some have suggested being able to "replay" missed content which is ok I guess, but GW2 doesn't seem designed in lore or in practicallity to handle that so well unlike Mabinogi which caters for it splendidly for main arcs, however even there there are hot-time events and most things only also run for two weeks. Someone likened the experience to watching Game of Thrones, but missing an episode which was then destroyed forever because it is temporary content. My counter was this:
"I can just imagine Rickon Stark (youngest of Eddard’s kids) being annoyed that he can’t take part in the final part of the Baratheon rebellion against the Targaryens because he hadn’t made his character yet when those events took place and now argues with the old gods and the new to make a time loop so that that battle can continue to happen, along side the day to day life at King’s Landing, the numerous weddings, and the battle of the Blackwater at the same time so he can take part in all of them, knowing that no matter what he does it won’t change the outcome but he doesn’t care. At least this way he gets to experience it. Reading about it or being told about it afterwards isn’t good enough you see. He has to live it."
That's the sort of the logic that people who want replayable content to follow, and in some cases it simply just doesn't work. Then ofcourse there's the content which no one would replay anyway - I'm specifically talking about their latest release involving a solo enemy dungeon where instead of being able to use all those skills the rest of the game was encouraging you to get better at, you need to pickup an "everyman" tool to defeat him with gimmicks regardless of who your character is. When you alter the game in such a way, it should always be "more fun" than the standard. The Super Adventure Box did it. Hell even Bloodrayne did it in one level instead of slicing and draining everyone dead she was in a nazi-mecha (though the video poster disagrees with it being "fun"). :P
To be fair, there's not a lot Bloodrayne can't do.
One thing GW2 and Mabinogi have going for them though is that they clearly state what and when content is going to appear/vanish. As a contrast Age of Conan celebrated it's fifth year anniversary by having five days of giant bosses attacking random parts of the world. They didn't say where or when. I logged in to see if I could find them and the short answer was nope. I wouldn't have even known I missed anything if they didn't put the announcement up. Did it matter in the overall scheme of things? Not really.
Meanwhile in Neverwinter, where most of my time is spent creating my campaign in the foundry (only like 5% done >.<), my character just logs in for the shortest amounts of time to pray and send his mercs on missions. Both of those actually generate a bit of XP and some coin which I find interesting, given that I'm not actually "playing" the game. Ofcourse I was slightly surprised then to learn that I had out levelled some instanced quests that I was waiting on my guild to do, and could no longer participate in them. Odd given that all the foundry quests can already adjust to party level that their main content doesn't but it isn't really a big deal though because I like the thought that my dude's too busy to handle every little problem that occurs and that he wisely lets others take care of garbage that's unworthy of his time. If only more people viewed their MMORPGs the same way, maybe there'd be less complaints about missing content.
As a last bit of wisdom/common-sense: Real life > In Game. There's no amount of MMORPG gold, exp, monster slaying glory that can compete with experiences in real life. Just remember that kiddos! ;)
"I can just imagine Rickon Stark (youngest of Eddard’s kids) being annoyed that he can’t take part in the final part of the Baratheon rebellion against the Targaryens because he hadn’t made his character yet when those events took place and now argues with the old gods and the new to make a time loop so that that battle can continue to happen, along side the day to day life at King’s Landing, the numerous weddings, and the battle of the Blackwater at the same time so he can take part in all of them, knowing that no matter what he does it won’t change the outcome but he doesn’t care. At least this way he gets to experience it. Reading about it or being told about it afterwards isn’t good enough you see. He has to live it."
That's the sort of the logic that people who want replayable content to follow, and in some cases it simply just doesn't work. Then ofcourse there's the content which no one would replay anyway - I'm specifically talking about their latest release involving a solo enemy dungeon where instead of being able to use all those skills the rest of the game was encouraging you to get better at, you need to pickup an "everyman" tool to defeat him with gimmicks regardless of who your character is. When you alter the game in such a way, it should always be "more fun" than the standard. The Super Adventure Box did it. Hell even Bloodrayne did it in one level instead of slicing and draining everyone dead she was in a nazi-mecha (though the video poster disagrees with it being "fun"). :P
To be fair, there's not a lot Bloodrayne can't do.
One thing GW2 and Mabinogi have going for them though is that they clearly state what and when content is going to appear/vanish. As a contrast Age of Conan celebrated it's fifth year anniversary by having five days of giant bosses attacking random parts of the world. They didn't say where or when. I logged in to see if I could find them and the short answer was nope. I wouldn't have even known I missed anything if they didn't put the announcement up. Did it matter in the overall scheme of things? Not really.
Meanwhile in Neverwinter, where most of my time is spent creating my campaign in the foundry (only like 5% done >.<), my character just logs in for the shortest amounts of time to pray and send his mercs on missions. Both of those actually generate a bit of XP and some coin which I find interesting, given that I'm not actually "playing" the game. Ofcourse I was slightly surprised then to learn that I had out levelled some instanced quests that I was waiting on my guild to do, and could no longer participate in them. Odd given that all the foundry quests can already adjust to party level that their main content doesn't but it isn't really a big deal though because I like the thought that my dude's too busy to handle every little problem that occurs and that he wisely lets others take care of garbage that's unworthy of his time. If only more people viewed their MMORPGs the same way, maybe there'd be less complaints about missing content.
As a last bit of wisdom/common-sense: Real life > In Game. There's no amount of MMORPG gold, exp, monster slaying glory that can compete with experiences in real life. Just remember that kiddos! ;)
Thursday, 11 April 2013
Age of Conan: the Single Player MMORPG
My brother was toying with the idea of trying out this game since it is free to play now and just for the hell of it, I decided to download it for myself to check it out and put my findings here. You start out as an amnesiac slave/prisoner (just like all the Elder Scrolls games eh?) and the opening cutscene is basically your character drowning to their death. Sort of. I won't spoil anymore but the story seems to be pretty solid from what I've seen so far anyway and you will be bombarded with quests of a non-repeating variety through mostly voiced conversation (no wonder the download is huge). I've read that after the first zone not everything is voiced as per MMO standard but even so it's very well done in that you don't actually -feel- like you are grinding for EXP. Better yet, if you need to collect bits from foes you don't have to kill 10 frogs to get 1 frog eye for example (damn you Wizardry Online :P). Provided you have a relevant quest, each (and every) critter will drop exactly what you need until you get your quota.
I don't need friends!
Some quests are even single player specific, taking you into the nighttime instances of an area which is basically solo mode. Daytime is the default multiplayer sandbox, but from what I've seen there has not been a good reason to team up with anyone else (possibly because it is not grindy). Sure it helps when other people are in a zone killing stuff that would get in your way but given the quest structure it would be rare that they would have the same goals you do. This is perhaps the biggest question mark for me as basically Age of Conan feels like a single player game that happens to have other people running about.
The graphics aren't as crisp as GW2 but they are pretty good, and the draw radius for the expansive zones is awesome - they just blur as they get farther. When you get to the Acheronian Ruins valley and are told "you have to get to the top of the temple", you can actually see where that is from the very distant opposite side which I find very cool. The mechanics of climbing and sneaking about are also passable with a little "light" gem ala the Thief Series to indicate how stealthy you are. Climbing is also fun (and mandatory later on) though my character doesn't actually use the hand and foot holds provided, instead preferring to climb the air 1 foot away from the wall. It looks silly but it's minor and is preferable to clipping inside the wall.
But it's an MMO? Looking for Party!
Combat is a bit clumsy with button mashing to the max (it is about a barbarian after all), wherein you are trying to attack your opponent on their least defended side (indicated by shield arrows) to do more damage. There are evasive sideward hops like in Wizardry Online but so far I've found it to be a it's a useless mechanic in this game. Death penalizes you with stacking gravestones that make you weaker for a penalty time, unless you can get back to it and tap it. A nice feature for me is once you are a set number of levels over the local monsters they become "white", meaning they give you only 1 EXP when slain but that they will also not bother attacking you anymore (at least not without aggressive friends) as they know they will lose. It also pushes players into harder areas since they can't grind the popcorn mobs.
I think the main multiplayer aspect is meant to come in the form of guilds in the end game (max level 80), wherein groups fight for territory, gold, fame and probably most of all out of boredom. I could be wrong, but if the story is as good as I think it is then it should have a proper end. Still, it looks like a nice ride to get there though - and apparently the titular character himself is in the game somewhere. Afterall, this is the age where he is King.
I will governate you.
I don't need friends!
Some quests are even single player specific, taking you into the nighttime instances of an area which is basically solo mode. Daytime is the default multiplayer sandbox, but from what I've seen there has not been a good reason to team up with anyone else (possibly because it is not grindy). Sure it helps when other people are in a zone killing stuff that would get in your way but given the quest structure it would be rare that they would have the same goals you do. This is perhaps the biggest question mark for me as basically Age of Conan feels like a single player game that happens to have other people running about.
The graphics aren't as crisp as GW2 but they are pretty good, and the draw radius for the expansive zones is awesome - they just blur as they get farther. When you get to the Acheronian Ruins valley and are told "you have to get to the top of the temple", you can actually see where that is from the very distant opposite side which I find very cool. The mechanics of climbing and sneaking about are also passable with a little "light" gem ala the Thief Series to indicate how stealthy you are. Climbing is also fun (and mandatory later on) though my character doesn't actually use the hand and foot holds provided, instead preferring to climb the air 1 foot away from the wall. It looks silly but it's minor and is preferable to clipping inside the wall.
But it's an MMO? Looking for Party!
Combat is a bit clumsy with button mashing to the max (it is about a barbarian after all), wherein you are trying to attack your opponent on their least defended side (indicated by shield arrows) to do more damage. There are evasive sideward hops like in Wizardry Online but so far I've found it to be a it's a useless mechanic in this game. Death penalizes you with stacking gravestones that make you weaker for a penalty time, unless you can get back to it and tap it. A nice feature for me is once you are a set number of levels over the local monsters they become "white", meaning they give you only 1 EXP when slain but that they will also not bother attacking you anymore (at least not without aggressive friends) as they know they will lose. It also pushes players into harder areas since they can't grind the popcorn mobs.
I think the main multiplayer aspect is meant to come in the form of guilds in the end game (max level 80), wherein groups fight for territory, gold, fame and probably most of all out of boredom. I could be wrong, but if the story is as good as I think it is then it should have a proper end. Still, it looks like a nice ride to get there though - and apparently the titular character himself is in the game somewhere. Afterall, this is the age where he is King.
I will governate you.
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