Sunday 6 July 2008

Joysticks at the ready

I originally started playing Star Wars Galaxies fairly early on in its life and pretty much instantly fell in love with what I saw.

No, this isn't going to be a bitch and whine fest over the guys at SOE celebrating SWGs 5th anniversary (Don't even get me started on that one).

It pretty much consumed a lot of my off-duty time. But in October 2004 the game got a whole lot bigger with the release of the first expansion - Jump to Lightspeed.

If you were to flash back about 10 years before that period and you would see the beginings of my gaming addiction taking form, along with my love affair of sci-fi.

When I was a teenager I used to mess around with my dads home pc and often get shouted at for screwing around with stuff he thought I didn't understand. He would get really pissed at me if I installed a game without consulting him about it first.

After a while I learned that my dads overall knowledge of computing wasn't so hot and all I had to do was hide the shortcuts and rename the directories and he had no clue!

And so it was that I had many happy hours after installing TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance. My father remained blissfully unaware of this little addiction of mine until he came home from work one day and I'd forgotton to hide the joystick!

However, I digress as usual.

The Jump to Lightspeed expansion gave players who were so inclined the opportunity to fly many different types of ship (depending on your faction of choice) and enter space combat above the planets they'd been happily exploring for the previous 11 months.

The chance to eventually fly a YT-1300, a Tie Advanced, an A/B/X/Y-wing or even a Firespray Interceptor like Mr Fett used to fly was just too awesome for words.

In addition, each faction had 3 flight schools (for lack of better words) with their own missions and storylines. These schools were the means for progression by both killing a shit ton of enemy fighters and carrying out scripted missions to gain advanced training.

I am quite proud of my accomplishments in SWG space having mastered the Pilot profession 5 times, trying out the Imp (twice), Rebel (twice also) and Privateer schools!

All this mounted up to having almost 2 games in 1. Your friends not online to go hit the Geo caves on Yavin? Fine, head up in to Kessel space and take on the gunboats if you're man enough!

The reason I bring up these painful memories (*sniff* RIP Galaxies) is that, despite the blatant gap in the market for a decent Sci-fi MMO, there have not been any decent space sims on the market for quite some time now either.

...until now.

I may be getting ahead of myself but this looks like a big ball of awesomesauce as far as I'm concerned.



The reports I've read over at Massively indicate that the company behind it (Netdevil) has learned from its previous mistakes with titles such as Auto Assault and is not planning on releasing this game until. it's. ready. - a philosophy that several other game development companies could do well by adopting imho.

I've already applied for the beta and, if space sims are your thing, would suggest you do too. If you have already applied, you may want to take a trip back to their site as they are asking people to re-apply.

Now all I have to do is convince the lady of the house that the HOTAS Cougar is a worthwhile and essential purchase!

If you're looking to read up on more of what they have planned, you can either head on over to the official site or read the reports at Massively or TenTonHammer.

Having read many of the articles released so far, I for one am looking forward to this release.

Friday 20 June 2008

FunComs "After Sales Care"

Alternate title "How to ignore your playerbase"


LAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGG!

1 word.

3 letters (usually).

Such a tiny word, but a word hated by gamers the world over nonetheless.

Unfortunately, lag is a word which is currently being used in reference to Age of Conan a little too frequently for my tastes. The forums are currently rampant with players on both sides of the Atlantic complaining about degraded performance in-game, especially since the most recent patch.

This blogger himself has also had the misfortune to experience crippling latencies which make the game completely unplayable. One minute you're happily cantering along on your damned expensive horsey, off on your merry way to see the trader...

And then you notice it out of the corner of your eye.

That little green bar in the bottom corner of your screen. The one that keeps you happy. Safe in the knowledge that the little packets of information, flitting backwards and forwards between your client and the remote server, are happily reaching their destination.

But it's not little anymore. It's growing.

...and it's getting yellow.

...and then it's red.

Before you know it, your ping hits 8800ms and you travel back in time to 1955!

Or, more accurately, 9834ms ping followed by a disconnect from the game.

This has been a common occurrence for adventurers making their way through Hyborea. But, unfortunately, it's one which FunCom seem inclined to ignore.

If you take the fairly considerable amount of time required to read through the mass of posts on the official forums, you'll notice a lot of irate paying customers who are not getting the answers they need and deserve.

Aside from one of the Dev Team popping on to ask people to submit their Tracert logs from their IP to the AoC server, there has been no further contact between the Devs/CMs and the playerbase except to inform us that they do not believe that the problem lies at their end.

After reading a lot of these threads there does not seem to be any commonality with the players which could link it to anything other than the FunCom side of the chain.

Router firmware, network drivers for motherboards, ISPs, VPNs, traffic shaping. You name it - it has all been discussed.

When all is said and done, the only thing all these people have in common is AoC. Many players also have active accounts in other games and have reported that all is well when they connect to them instead.

Already, throngs of people are threatening to cancel their accounts if their pleas are ignored for much longer. A not uncommon cry from the crowds when situations like this appear.

Despite AoC still being in its infancy, this is a pretty game-breaking issue and when threads on the topic reach the 500 post mark (with only 1 official response included) you have to wonder at the level of customer service being provided.

Especially so when the game has already come under fire for the level of response provided by the in-game petition system.

For now, I'm prepared to give them a fair crack of the whip and stick it out. Despite this issue there is still pure gold under it all just waiting to be given its moment to shine. And I genuinely do want to see that happen.

But I can't deny that I vehemently curse the unborn children of FunComs employees when a lagspike hits me at the worst possible time. It's just another of the annoyances that has plagued every online game at some point or another.

However it turns out, I'll do my best to keep you apprised of any developments.

Saturday 7 June 2008

Middle aged

As my 2 main characters approach and pass the level 40 mark in FunComs 'Age of Conan', I feel that now is the time to pass on my observations about the game so far.

Many other sites have covered the first 10 levels and they have done so very well. So, I will be concentrating on the grind proper; the experiences after you leave the starter isle of Tortage.

There are two ways to leave the noob zone at present. You can complete your class destiny quest, the night time single player mode, or you can speak to your class trainer and ask to forego the whole chain and be magically teleported to your homeland.

After completing the Tortage quests once through, the temptation is to just zoom through and get out of it much quicker the second time around. In my opinion this would be a mistake. Once you have played through the zones once, you get a feeling for how things are laid out, which makes your second and subsequent journeys far quicker.

You learn the most expeditious routes to complete your quests. Combine that with the fact that none of the quests are overly taxing and you can pretty much fly through them with ease and very little time spent.

In addition, 'The End Battle' which, as the title suggests, is the final quest in your beginner destiny chain is well worth doing. If not for the XP alone, for the loot that accompanies it. The drops off the bosses and mini-bosses alike are well worth grabbing, as is the reward for taking down Strom - the Tyrant of Tortage. The weapon you receive is class specific and will probably last you well into your 30s.

After kicking the crap out of Strom, Kalanthes of Ibis greets you once more and sends you on your way to your homeland. If you have read other reviews you will remember that Kalanthes is the first character you meet on your AoC journey when you find yourself washed ashore on the beach back at level 1.

One loading screen later and you find yourself in a much bigger world.

There are three Homelands (for lack of better words) in Hyborea for our intrepid adventurers: Aquilonia, Cimmeria and Stygia.

Those classes who head to Aquilonia will find their homeland vaguely reminiscent of ancient Rome. The architecture and clothing appears very much in the vein of Caesar's era and is beautifully rendered, as are all the maps I have encountered so far.

Its capital city, Old Tarantia, is a joy to walk around. Unfortunately, as it is a central location for players travelling through zones, it can become a bit of a lagfest at certain times of the day/week.

Cimmeria, in contrast, appears to have more of a Baltic feel to it. Cold harsh environments, living in a perpetual winter. The NPCs wear armour which has a Mongol feel to it and the bleak mountains and weather effects there lend a depressing air to it

Stygia, the zone which I have had the most experience with so far, is the homeland I am going to concentrate on for now.

The capital of Stygia, Khemi, seems to modelled on the stereotypical Arabic city. And an amazing job the guys at FunCom have done too. The bustle of activity in the Soukh, the distinct background music and the architecture all add up to a very well designed region.

The first thing that hits you as you start to wander around is the sheer scale of the game. As a starter zone, Tortage has three instances which give it a fairly big feel. It should not be confused here with the way in which the term 'instance' is used in other MMOs like Warcraft. AoCs instances are more like other zones which have players other than yourself happily running around inside.

After carrying out a few simple tasks in the capital, you are sent off to the main quest zone for that region. In the case of Stygia, this is a zone called Khopshef Province.

The province has several quest hubs scattered throughout the zone which lead you to find the next one through the quests given at the previous. As you level up, revisiting a hub where you have completed all the quests is advisable as more quests become available.

It is very easy to level up from 20 to 30 in this zone alone and, while the majority of the content can be solo'd, there are some quests which require the presence of companions.

For the most part, AoC tries its best to stay away from the 'Kill Ten Rats' philosophy, but this staple isn't always avoidable and you occasionally find yourself killing spotted hyenas for their tongues (apparently their incessant 'yipping' is keeping the villagers awake at night!). Why the poor spotted hyenas are taking all the shit for this is beyond me...I blame the striped ones myself with their all night oasis parties :P

It's worth mentioning that AoC also has instances in the classic sense of the word. The dungeons I have encountered so far are all graphically pleasing on the eye and are fun to run. On entering, you have the option to select 'normal' or 'epic' mode.

This is completely different from other games of this genre in that normal mode is designed for players to head in by themselves and epic requires a group as the mobs inside have approximately 30-50% more health than regular NPCs.

This is a good call by FunCom imho as they accept that not everyone wants to group to get their quests done. Or more importantly, given the time of day that some people are able to play, not everyone is able to find a group.

The only real issue I have had so far with questing is, on completion of a zone, it is not quickly evident where you should be heading to next. On my first time through, I had to rely on zoning into a new region and checking out the level of the local bad guys. While this does encourage you to explore more and get to know your way around, I feel that this could have been better presented.

Fortunately, players are already releasing levelling guides so the process should get easier as time goes by. But for the uninitiated it can cause teething problems.

Overall, when I compare my experiences of AoC with my past excursions into a new MMO, I'm impressed with what FunCom have accomplished. Bugs and performance issues aside, this game has a lot of potential. Given that sales indicate that they have already reached the 1 million copies sold mark, it's now a waiting game to see if they can rival Blizzard for customers.

There have been several gripes on the forums about the lack of end-level content by the addicts who have already reached level 80 (seriously...get a life?) but FunCom have already released a statement of intent for the next few months indicating that they are aware of this and are already working on it.

As long as they don't take too long on this as NCSoft made a similar mistake in Tabula Rasa which has been the sticking point for players over there for some time now. Players of that MMO have already started to highlight their concerns with their wallets - cancelling their subscriptions.

For now, this is a game well worth investing some time in. Every game needs a little time to settle down after the initial rush. So as long as you are able to accept imperfections from time to time, you wont be disappointed.

I'll report more as my characters progress.

Thursday 5 June 2008

The need to MOD

As long as there are MMOs, there will always be people who think that they can do a better job.

Sometimes they're just bitter whiners complaining about a class nerf.

Sometimes though, they're clever, intuitive people who see a way to improve existing code.

I think that the first user interface mod for Age of Conan was out within a week of general release. The fact that the player community in many of todays MMOs can look at a new release and figure out a way to optimise the layout of the interface is both good and bad.

It's good because there are people out there who care about games and want to make things run more efficiently, while being easier to use. It's a bad thing because, quite frankly, the game designers should see these issues and improve their UI before release.

You could argue, I suppose, that the Devs allow the coding to be altered so that people can freely pick their own UI of choice.

However, I digress as usual.

Today I wanted to quickly highlight a UI mod for AoC which has been released and is an absolute godsend. Especially if you are like me and always need more buttons! It reduced the size of the original clumpy buttons and adds a 3rd row for buff options. The latest version adds even more room so I'm in mod heaven right about now!

In addition, if you are familiar with the standard UI, the change to the button size means that you now effectively have about 48 buttons down the right hand side of the screen!

It's called WerikUI and can be found on the developers website here or through the Curse portal here.

Either way, it's a good start and I'll be keeping my eye out for more addons as the months progress.

Sunday 1 June 2008

Tempus Fugit


...and the hours melted into days and the days into weeks.



I don't believe that I suffer from the MMO variety of OCD, but the launch of a new game does tend to engender a type of tunnel vision in me.

At the moment, if I'm at home, I'm either asleep or online in Age of Conan.
If I'm at work. I'm either carrying out the random whims of my Boss or sneaking a peek at the the AoC forums or Massively for my daily fix.

In fact, if I'm honest, I usually have the websites opened up underneath any presentations or analysis he has me working on at the time.

I can see some of you sat here reading this and nodding sagely in agreement, having done the same on a regular basis at your own places of work.

Don't deny it! You know it's true!

Anyway, the one certainty in the launch of a new game is the plethora of bugs that accompany it. I think I've yet to see a brand new game go on general release with a perfect client, stable servers/connection and few to no bugs or glitches.

Emergency hotfixes and patches are so commonplace these days that people very rarely raise an eyebrow when they occurr.

Obviously they reserve the right to bitch and moan, but anyway...

AoC is no exception in this case and, while there can be no doubt that the game does have a high level of polish, the first few weeks have had their share of bumps.

The proof of this can be seen most prominently on the official forums, where fanbois, whiners, 12 yr olds and CM wannabe's alike gather to berate or defend the choices and actions of FunCom and it's this that I wanted to write about.

It's kind of like the Forums version of the Bartle Gamer Psychology results!

I guess I'd be 75% Fanboi 90% CM Wannabe 25% Whiner 10% 12 yr old!

Recently, the general threads have been plagued by people expressing their outrage at FunComs handling of the problems which have been identified in game.

Now I can't deny, I've already had cause to /petition a GM twice so far myself due to broken quests which prevent you from progressing your character past the starting zone of Tortage. When the Games Master finally arrived in all his/her lvl 100 glory complete with shiny armour, the service was definitely above average. They literally appeared to me and discussed the exact nature of the bug and precisely what steps I had taken before taking any actions to rectify it.

The actual problem was solved in about 2 minutes flat and I got a sense of the GM knowing exactly what to do and having a conversation with me - rather than some scripted macro responses that GMs from a certain other MMO are well known for.

That said, some people have had slightly different experiences in this area.

For example, seeing the following in your chatlog is not exactly reassuring:

>/Petition Status
>
> Your petition is currently 195 in the queue

As more problems are arising, people are reporting having waited for over 7 hours in many cases just to get their issue seen to. That's 7 hours of not being able to use your main character.

So what do you do?

You roll an alt right?

Right.

Ok, so there you are running around Tortage...again.

Doing the quests you've finished the previous or the same day...again.

And you decide to test a theory.

>/Petition Status
>
> Your Petition is currently 134 in the queue.

Cool! You can check the status of your problem while playing your alt. That should make things easier. I mean, if you can see how your fault is progressing in the queue while playing a different character, it must be tied to your whole account right? Not just one character.

Surely it must be...

Surely...

So, over the next few hours you watch your place in the queue get closer to the top spot. And then, as you feel the tension mounting, you check one...more...time.

>/Petition Status
>
> You do not currently have an open petition.

W T F ??

You log back on to your main character only to find a buffered message from a GM. "We recently attempted to contact you regarding your petition 'Bugged Quest: Unable to leave Tortage due to quest-specific boss mob despawn', please feel free to resubmit your petition if the problem persists".

/wrist

It doesn't exactly paint a positive image for potential customers. Especially following on from FCs pervious bad publicity of the Open Beta client debacle.

The fact remains that this game is still in its infancy. This isn't an excuse, nor should it be used as one. But I think that some peoples expectations are more than just a little unrealistic. Some gamers are already using the 'screw this, I'm off back to WoW' emo post with a little too much enthusiasm for my liking. These same people are more than likely lashing out in frustration without remembering why they came over to AoC in the first place.

...either that or they are actually Blizzard employees sowing the seeds of propaganda!

I do believe that FunCom could do with a few more GM employees on their books to help in this formative period. Not only would this stop a fair few players from getting quite so pissed off but it would have the knock-on effect that those same players wouldn't then start whining on the forums like little biatches!

Sunday 18 May 2008

A whole new world



Up until last night I had been on an endless stream of 13 hour night shifts. I'm not after sympathy here, far from it. I say this to give you an idea of how tired I was at 2am this morning when I finally logged out after my first session of Age of Conan!

I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get into the early access program and have therefore been happily running round DoT'ing things with unholy necromancer goodness!

Anyway, I figured that while my server was down for 2 hours maintenance, I could jump back in here and give you my impressions of the first 20 levels. I'm not going to go into too much detail as other websites such as Massively have done a far better job.

Overall, I'm pretty damned happy with the game.

OK, next topic.

Just kidding!

If you've read my other stuff, you'll know that quests are a bit of a gripe of mine. I always get a bit disheartened when venturing into a new game only to be confronted by some farmer who has a real issue with boars eating his fucking turnips etc.

But so far, FunCom has done a pretty good job with the interaction with quest givers. Instead of the standard accept/decline option, you have the ability to actually converse with your target much like the response options in the Knights of The Old Republic games. My particular preference at the moment is using the sarcastic options and being generally rude to the NPCs! I know they don't have feelings etc but it's nice to break from the standard format and be given a free reign.

The starter quests, up until you reach Tortage (the first multiplayer town zone), are nicely simple and introduce you to most of the common UI features. The first NPC who introduces himself to you upon your arrival on the beach also starts you down your personal storyline, a feature similar to LoTRO epic quest chapters. The main difference between these two being that, in AoC, you carry out the personal story in singleplayer mode at night time and are unable to receive help from your friends.

But by far the happiest point on this subject so far is that there have been decidedly few 'kill ten rats' quests.

/happy dance!

The combat system is fairly straightforward and doesn't take long to get to grips with. My friends seem quite happy with the melee side of things but I can only comment from a caster perspective. Each class has their mainstay spells and attacks which will all seem and look fairly similar up to about lvl 17.

Don't get me wrong here, they do look good. But I'm kinda waiting to see how spellweaving turns out, so stay tuned for more on that as I progress. You can't really expect a game to throw out their best stuff in the first five minutes of a game or you wouldn't be quite so impressed later on...or willing to journey there to find out what's waiting.

My only real grievance here so far is the UI. As well laid out as it is, there are a few tweaks or options which could have made things better imho.

Firstly, your bottom hotkey bar is quite blocky and takes up quite a bit of space. It has a similar sort of feel to the GuildWars design but you aren't limited to sticking with a set choice of spells or attacks.

Because you use the first 3 boxes for your melee attacks, you are effectively only left with 7 spaces to assign to spells/attacks. Now, even though you have other spaces you can assign to your other attacks, I always prefer to have everything close together so that I don't have to move my cursor around too much when I'm in a fight. You can see what I mean from my WoW UI below.



Regarding the melee attack buttons, although it is possible to move them, they are bound to the 1,2,3 keys which makes it really easy to use them if you are an old WASD user like myself. Hence you don't really want to bother moving them.

Second, there are 2 other rows that you can use but they aren't positioned in the most ideal place. Couple this with the fact that a misclick can make them re-align themselves horizontally (as default they are aligned vertically down the right-hand edge of the screen) and half your spells are now somewhere off screen!

But then you take a look at the distinctly non-cartoony graphics, the lush detail in the environment, the vast openness of the zones and you don't mind quite so much.

The one bit of praise I still have for Blizzard is in one of the few things I hope that FC will decide to follow and allow users to design mods for the UI. If we are eventually able to alter the UI to our own preferences then this will be a serious contender in my eyes.

Anyway, the servers are coming back shortly so I'll sign off for now. But keep checking back for updates.

Monday 12 May 2008

Just don't

Seriously.

Do NOT click this link:

D T D

Don't say I haven't warned you.

This blogger and website accept no responsibility in whole or part for any loss of individuals' time or sanity incurred through clicking this link.

3 hours today...gone...just like that. I think it appeals to the obsessive compulsive in me!

Sunday 11 May 2008

Beta =/= Free Game

Massively recently reported on the current use of Beta testing with regards to upcoming game releases; in particular several big name game developers using this period in an MMOs life as a kind of publicity campaign instead of the 'intended' usage.

Now, coming from a non-advertising background as I do, I can see a certain amount of logic in this decision. What better way to get free publicity than to allow hundreds of adoring fanbois early access to your game to see all the shiney new concepts you've incorporated?

Clever huh? All those forums and fansites, eager to get news of your latest product. Let them in, let them drool and let them run off to talk to their friends.

...NDA or not.

On the other hand, what if you've not done as well as you thought?

What if your game doesn't have quite the impact you'd hoped it would?

Kinda shot yourself in the foot there, huh? I suppose at this point, the 'it's only Beta' defence would come out to play. But let's not get too far off track here.

The point of this post is, not just to bitch at these companies, but to highlight the growing trend of 'Beta Freeloaders' as I've come to call them.

If, like me, you've ever spent some time in the aforementioned testing, chances are you've met these people - they're quite easily recognisable.

Let us discuss their defining characteristics to allow for ease of identification in the future...

1) General Whine-a-lot
/1 OMFG WTF, WHY DONT THE CRAFTING STATIONS WORK...THIS CLASS IS SO BROKEN...GODDAMN PLACEHOLDER QUEST REWARDS AGAIN LOL...FFS I'M STUCK IN THE TELEPORT PAD AGAIN...WHERE IS MY CAPSLOCK KEY?

This person has an incessant need to highlight every...single...fault they find in game using the power of General Chat. God forbid they actually figure out what the /bug or /report functions are for.

And use them.

Christ, if they actually ever did what they were supposed to, games would ship in near-mint condition!

2) Mr Experience
"When I was in 'X' MMO Beta they totally did things different, these devs are like sooo behind the times"

Bow to the wisdom of this tester. If you spend more than 5 minutes listening to him/her, they'll have you believing that they are single-handedly responsible for helping to solve 85% of the bugs in all the previous MMOs they've been involved in.

Gets all their info from reading other forums.

Has never tested before.

Has probably only ever played WoW.

3) The 'Rival Game Developer'
"FFS, are you kidding me? A memory leak? This shouldn't have made it out of Alpha. It'll never release on time. You guys heard about the new Bioware MMO?"

This guy is like a nerfed version of General whine-a-lot but more insidious. Instead of highlighting a blissful ignorance of testing by spamming the chat channels, he/she seldom speaks except to make pointedly relevant but negative comments. His understanding of game mechanics means that his comments occasionally carry some weight with those who notice.

His manifesto consists solely of killing the game before it even launches.

Probably works for Blizzard.

4) The uninformed Beta Virgin

"Well, doesn't look like I'll be buying this...too many bugs *sigh*. When does Warhammer come out, LOL"

Actually thinks that the game will ship in it's current form.

Unfortunately, he/she is probably right.

It's this last character that we should dwell on for a second as it's the crux of this issue. As much as developers are prepared to take the risk of using Beta as a publicity exercise and as much as they are prepared to let as many people into their game in its final round of testing as possible, this practice is hurting them far more than it's helping them.

By using this system, they are encouraging more and more of a certain type of gamer into their Beta stage. The type who are using that period to decide whether or not this is a game that they might like to spend some money on.

A place where they could settle for a while.

Unfortunately, these people are just playing a demo as far as they're concerned. They are looking at a game with a very narrow view. Instead of trying to break the game and help the developers by highlighting faults and bugs, they're just doing the normal run of the mill stuff like questing and grinding.

The knock-on effect is that many of the faults experienced by players, who actually go out and explore, will never have been reported to the devs prior to the general release.

I'm not saying that developers should screen their testers, I mean that's not even practicable...is it?

*mental note to self: consider drafting a 'Tester Tard Test'*

Even hiring a team of 'button-mashers' wouldn't help your cause either. No, what you do want is a tester who goes out and tries to do the stuff that you aren't supposed to be able to do.

The player who wall-walks entire zones just to try and find a way to drop through the world.

The player who tries to make objects and items do things they were never designed to do.

The game-breaking type of stuff.

I sincerely think that one of the main reasons so many games in recent years have been released with questionable content and problems comes down to inadequate testing. Developers are resigned to the fact that the majority of bugs will make it through the Beta phase and will be dealt with on general release.

I'm not for a second saying that the publishing/distribution companies behind the game don't play a fucking HUGE part in this equation, but that's an extra can of worms I don't even want to consider opening right now.

Gamers in a lot of MMOs lately have effectively been paying to Beta test for the first few months in the life of a new release. I'm not going to point fingers at any game in particular but I'm sure quite a lot of you already have a game or two in mind.

I know I do.

But the bottom line is this: companies need to realise that releasing substandard products is not an option. Players need to realise that if they're going to apply for a slot in testing, they need to actually test the game...not test-drive it.

After all, the future of the game you are testing now is firmly in your hands. If the game launches and fails and you didn't give 100% to reporting glitches, bugs and crashes, you are at least partly to blame for its failure.

All I ask is that you think on this for more than 2 seconds before you eSign that next NDA.

/2cents

Thursday 8 May 2008

As time goes by.

So, as I count down the final days until my pre-order code from Play.com arrives (allowing me to get into Hyboria on the 17th instead of the 23rd!), I've been sat at my keyboard twiddling my thumbs.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I am literally bored shitless online.

If you've bothered to read more than a few articles back from this point, this should come as no great shock to you.

I'm not gonna sit here and moan about Blizzard's recent attempts to keep their players happy til the expansion. Nor am I going to whine about how annoying it can be in Tabula Rasa when every single mission reward comes from a pool of about 8 items.

Besides, that would be too easy :P

After night shift the other day, I came home from work and sat staring at the shortcuts to all the different games on my desktop. In the space of about 5 minutes I'd logged into WoW to check my bank characters mail, logged into TR to see if any of the guys I quest with were on, checked 4 different ventrilo servers I happen to frequent and opened up several tabs for the different forums I troll.

Then I booted up Steam and went on a rampage with the 'zero-point energy weapon' in HL2 Ep2.

Patience.

Patience is the only thing keeping me from smashing my head against the wall in frustration at the moment.

Patience born of the knowledge that something good is right around the corner.

My friends in the AoC beta have kept me up to speed on the last few days of the open testing and I'm looking forward to joining them when the servers go live. But, as much as I'm looking forward to its release, there's a part of me that is craving something else.

For too long now have Elves, Dwarves and Orcs dominated the MMO environment.

Something has to give soon and, in the absence of Star Trek Online, there is only one contender remaining.

Whether Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat is something I look forward to finding out. The fact remains that there has been a disturbing absence in the MMO market now for a while.

...and it's time it made a come-back.

Please do not think for a second that I'm speaking disparriagingly about titles such as EVE etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I guess it would be fair to say that I'm still looking for a replacement for SWG. A good expansive MMO with good character progression, a large, dedicated community and great content.

I believe that, given the popularity of the Stargate series at this time, the title has a fair chance of scoring with the many fans of Sci-Fi. When people don't get exactly what they want, they tend to make do with whatever they can get...the best of what's left.

My feeling is that this reflects the current state of play for lovers of my favourite genre. Hence why so many people are currently running heroic Magisters Terrace rather than pining for an energy weapon and starfighter cockpits.

If you are curious to see what is currently brewing over in the Stargate encampment, head on over to the forums. As with most game forums prior to the release, there is a mass of speculation. But if you sift through some of it, you'll stumble across an interview with a conceptual artist here, a gameplay developer there and so on.

If what I've read is any indication on what is to come, the future is looking a little brighter as far as I'm concerned.

All they need to do now is get themsleves sorted, plan a space sim expansion for about a year down the line complete with capital ships and fighters and you wont see me for dust!

Thursday 1 May 2008

Unstoppable Force Vs Immovable Object

I spent a considerable amount of time last night reading and re-reading an article hosted by Warcry.

The article documented a meeting where a number of notable persons from leading game development companies recently got together to discuss the ‘current state of the MMO’.

If you've found your way here and are still reading this then I'm sure you'll agree that it's a noble and worthy topic.

During the course of what I’m sure would have been an interesting conversation to eavesdrop on (I would love to read the unedited highlights!), more than just a few references were made to World of Warcraft.

This worries me somewhat if I’m being completely honest.

If you look at any of the reviews written on MMO’s released in the last few years, you’ll notice a disturbing trend of comparing them to Blizzard’s behemoth. Seriously, go check out PCGamer, PCFormat and their ilk.

The genre or style of the new release could be galaxies apart from WoW, but still it is rated on whether it may have the potential to topple Blizzard from its ivory tower.

When CEOs of major companies start making these comparisons and express hesitance and even negativity at the possibility of outdoing WoW, God kills a LOLcat!

Now, on the one hand, I can see that it’s a fair enough standpoint to take. If you consider the sheer number of people playing WoW, it means that any comparisons made will be understood by more people who now have a benchmark against which to measure.

But is it necessary? Can a game not be judged on its own merits?

Blizzard took tried and tested formulae and created an MMO that was easily accessible. They made a world which appealed to gamers who had never considered MMOs before with its easy user interface and 'kill ten rats' system.

But, with the exception of their scripted raid encounters, what did they do that was new? Ok, so they made the core graphics of the game accessible for people running on lower end systems, which gave them an even larger playerbase to get their greedy paws on.

But what else in the way of 'groundbreaking'? I would say 'very little' tbh.

The whole argument for innovation in upcoming releases is fairly self evident. The market is currently stagnating with old ideas dressed up to look new and exciting. Something needs to be done to jumpstart MMO gamers back to life. A responsibility which lies solely with the latest generation of devs.

In laymans terms, what the gaming world needs is a steel toe capped kick square in the family jewels.

WoW is causing developers to think twice about taking them head on in the fantasy genre due to the failures of recent releases. The choice between fighting for a share of Warcrafts paying customers or carving out a niche corner in the market is becoming less of a decision and more a foregone conclusion.

Will AoC change that? Stay tuned to find out.

Even companies which have gained access to the intellectual property of a well known brand are not always granted to produce dead certs these days. One only has to look as far as Lord of the Rings online to see how things can turn out.

And then there's the payment method and the microtransaction vs subscription argument. But that's a whole other can of worms.

Basically, it is going to take a company with a decent bankroll to produce something remarkable enough for people to sit up and take notice...and a fairly large pair of balls to stand up and say “WoW, your days are numbered”

I have my ideas on what is needed and I’m sure you do too. All we need now is someone brave…a visionary…to take these dreams and make them a reality.

No, Richard Garriott, not you.
Go sit in the 'naughty corner' and Shh!

Anyway, the source post can be found here. But before I sign off for this entry, I wanted to share one thing with you that really caught my eye in this article.

To say that I almost fell off my chair laughing when I got to this point would be like saying that the Pope is just a little bit Catholic!

I quote Mr John Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment (the people responsible for Star Wars Galaxies):

"We have the job of making great games, running great games and innovating. I think you have to balance it. If you go too crazy with innovation, you might drive your loyal customers out."


Am I the only one who finds this ironic?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Mr John Smedley…

/tumbleweed

/golfclap

The ‘balance’ and ‘enhancements’ made to Star Wars Galaxies in the name of innovation were single handedly responsible for driving away loyal fans of the game by the hundreds and thousands.

Either he is finally realising his mistakes a few years too late or he really needs to practice what he preaches!

A casters wet dream

During my shift last night at work, I was aimlessly drifting through my route of favourite sites as usual, looking for a juicy morsel of MMO related news when I saw a shining light off in to the distance.

It beckoned me ever closer, begging to be /inspected. On closer examination I discovered that the report staring back at me from the monitor was nothing short of manna from Heaven.

Before I go any further, take a gander at this...



Yes, that's really a player controlled character.

Yes, it does look totally awesome!

If you take a look at any current MMO which has a caster class or two, what do you see? Yet another glass cannon who wiggles his or her fingers, before unleashing a bolt of fire/ice/shadow/lightning.

What if you could do more?

What if you could enter a casting state where energy and magic continue to build, throwing more and more spells into a giant melting pot before finally being unleashed?

Now you can.

The future is bright...

The future is Spellweaving.

Now the balance monkeys out there will probably already be shouting 'NERF!' but I say 'slow down there monkey boy'. What if, although the power of the spells were drastically increased, the chances of doing lethal damage to yourself was also a large factor for consideration?

Clever huh?

The information released by FunCom to IGN goes on to say that, once the caster enters the spellweaving state, it progresses through 6 stages.

According to Andrew Griffin, FunCom's senior systems designer, each stage will grant an increase to passive spell buff damage but will also have the chance to land a harmful or helpful effect to the caster.

As far as I am aware, this is a fairly revolutionary concept when it comes to empowering us of the 'squishy persuasion'. The ability of players to mix up different spells to create unique attacks based on their adversaries is an innovative move.

Granted there can only be so many combinations available, but when you mix in the chance of a helpful side effect kicking in, it adds that extra spice to make things interesting.

I'm sure as players progress and their characters become more powerful, we will see casters throwing out FOTM nukes at poor unsuspecting healers in PvP. That is all but inevitable. But it gives me hope.

Hope that, some developers are starting to realise that gamers aren't just going to sit back and take badly written code and rehashed quests thrown at them anymore . We need advancements in concepts and storylines alike to keep our interest alive.

Instead of choosing to bank on old tried and tested game mechanics, developers should be constantly trying to push the virtual envelope.

Those who disregard this simple fact will see the gaming community vote with the only weapon they have available.

Their wallets.

Anyway, before I go off on a tangent, head on over to IGN.com for the full source post . It will give you a more in-depth view on how it will all work and save me the effort of plagiarising the article!

...And over here to the right

Now that I appear (to the untrained eye) to be getting into the swing of this blogging malarky, I've decided to get a little adventurous and start adding new features.

In the column to the right you will now find links to the work of one Mr Durgan Kael - the aforementioned Star Wars Galaxies, PvP aficionado.

In his spare time, he presents a news broadcast on all the news thats new and approved (and occasionally morally questionable) about his beloved MMO.

Anyways, I hope you like the show, courtesy of SlamCentralStudios and hosted by Youtube.

Wednesday 30 April 2008

Oceans apart

The first piece of discouraging news has made it to my doorstep regarding the eagerly anticipated Age of Conan.

If reports from the official AoC forums are to be believed, FunCom has made the all too common (poorly informed) decision to separate their playerbase according to location, much like WoW.

Rather than giving players their leave to choose from a multitude of servers and allowing them to create their characters on servers all around the world, FunCom will be releasing different client version for the different regions.

Four of them...

I still don’t know why developers insist on carrying out this archaic segregation. The majority of gamers, myself included, will doubtless have met many people from all around the globe who they regularly share their online time with.

The knock-on effect of this decision is that many guilds who were formed in different games may split due to not being able to reunite in Hyboria.

I know there are workarounds for this. People can simply go out and buy a different client from such sites as Play.com or Amazon. Again, this would take some co-ordination between existing guild members, but there are other factors to consider here.

As I understand it, current German politics do not allow for certain types of violence to be portrayed in their multimedia. As such, they have been given a client version all of their own which will not show a certain number of death effect animations.

I don't wish to get into the political side of this as I have my own opinions about the impact of gaming on society. The belief that some individuals harbour that, just because people play Grand Theft Auto, they will get the inclination to go out and 'pop a cap in yo ass' before stealing your car.

I mean...come on...are you serious?

Germany has their laws and that's that. In addition, it is my understanding that German citizens caught using software or media which breaches this edict are liable to prosecution. (Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this point).

Ok, so that's a reasonable cause to ship a different client to Germany. I feel your pain over there. I sincerely do.

But what about everyone else?

Is there any logical reason to prevent Brits, Americans and the rest of Europe playing together? I think not. In fact, both SWG and Tabula Rasa both gave players the option to choose where they wanted to start out. I, myself, played happily on the Sunrunner server in Star Wars Galaxies for several years. My average ping was about 185ms but it never made things unbearable. The fact remains that the system worked, people settled where they wanted and went on to play happily ever after.

Admittedly, latency can cause problems for some people and may prevent them from staying too long on a particular server. But from the reports I've received, players in the UK have managed a 140 ping to East Coast US servers. Not amazing, I grant you, but hardly unworkable.

Either way, people who really want to play together can reach a compromise. Mr California and Mr London can get together on a Chicago based server for example. I'm not even related to the games industry in any other way than as a consumer and even I can see the logic in that argument.

I guess my disbelief stems from the fact that, in this day and age of global communication, I don't understand why companies would try to keep people apart.

Come on FunCom...we wanna be together!

Monday 28 April 2008

Permission to launch




As I mentioned in a previous post, I am in fairly regular contact with one of my friends from my Star Wars Galaxies days. We've discussed many things over the course of the years, especially our mutual appreciation for MMOs.

It turns out that, this conversation we've been having recently about what makes a truly amazing MMO has spiralled out in different directions. It is now being discussed in various other forums and suchlike around our respective communities. I don't for a second allow delusions of grandeur to seep in, letting me think that we are responsible for the birth of this topic. But it's nice to see people actively using their imaginations and spilling forth with what they want to see. We may not always agree on what makes these games so addictive but that just adds to the mix of opinions presenting themselves in these threads.

So without further ado, I'd like to present to you the ramblings of man who has probably forgotten more about PvP in Kessel space than you will ever know!

"As gamers we're in a persistent dilemma when it comes to MMOs and which ones are worthy of us investing the amounts of time necessary to really get established. The problem is that every game will get some things right, other things wrong, and just never be flat-out "perfect". Instead, we get a slew of games that we end up trying out or drifting between based on our own boredom.

We'll never see a game that offers all the elements we want, much less enough content, depth, and replayability to keep us playing it exclusively forever. But what elements have you seen that you've liked, and in what kind of combination would they create a game that you'd drop everything else for?

I'd like to see something (obviously sci-fi, not fantasy) with...

~ The ground combat of Unreal Tournament 2004
~ The character appearance customization of SWG (or better)
~ The space vastness of EVE Online (yes, complete with the travel times) with...
~ The planetary vastness (and inhabitability) of SWG.
~ The open-ended, player-created factions and territories, along with the quieter "starter/NPC-controlled" regions, of EVE Online
~ Also the capital ship combat of EVE Online, but with...
~ The fighter ship combat of JTL playing a serious role as well.
~ A mix of all these combat systems playing a crucial role in every territorial engagement (soldiers storm stations, capital ships lay siege, fighters assist the fleets). An alliance that doesn't grow and specialize in all aspects would never hold its territory.
~ A complete abscence of any force, magic, or crossbred fantasy/anime weirdity."


I'll jump back in at this juncture to expand on some salient points brought up by the honourable gentleman.

First off, I'll start at the end. The author is steadfast in his dislike for the Jedi class. He has his reasons and can hold an informed debate on the subject. I may even bring him on here sometime in the near future to discuss his viewpoint on the matter. He simply has 'balance-envy', a common afliction from veteran SWG players.

Secondly, although he has played WoW amongst others, Sci-Fi is his genre of preference as opposed to Fantasy.

I know.

Hard to tell, right?!

Anyway, I'll let him continue...

"Basically, I think on a large scale, EVE Online has the idea of a galaxy and how it's controlled by numerous entities mapped out perfectly. I just don't like that all of the combat is large-scale oriented (many people, it seems, get suckered into the game thinking they're going to be "flying," when they're actually going to be commanding ships. It's not a bad combat system. It's just not what they're expecting).

A really appealing game to me would expand the combat to include much more, and in the process, also integrate other concepts (player-built stations and planetary cities).

So, in short, let the dicerollers have their traditional RPG play with the capitals system, the flight sim buffs have their furball combat with the flight system, and the FPSers blow stuff up the way they know best...but make all three playstyles rely on the other two for true success.

But EVE's greatest triumph is in truly letting players decide what they want to do, and in letting the results of those decisions impact them. You can be a mercenary force hired on by a larger alliance...and your performance and loyalty while hired by them will determine your chances of being hired by others. You can be the largest, most powerful alliance in the game...but the way you interact with your neighbors will determine whether or not they put their differences aside long enough to deal with you. Hell, you can even be a pirate or smuggler, running goods through systems that don't like your presence. How good you become at it could determine how many people seek you out for help...and how much they're willing to pay. It's all there"


Now, as a player who migrated to the fantasy genre and recently returned home only on the promises of Richard Garriott's crew finally making some important changes, I can understand where he is coming from.

For the most part.

These are the sorts of concepts that would strike at the heart of any Sci-Fi lover. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to be able to carry out a huge fighter sortie against a battle station (of the non 'Death Star' variety) and be able to land and help try to capture it?

On his advice, I attempted to take up EVE towards the end of last year. The screenies were alluring and, with the whole left in my gameplay due to no longer having access to the JTL expansion of Star Wars, I thought it might be my thing.

Again, how wrong can one guy be?

Are we noticing a trend yet?

I think if a game were to come about which incorporated the ability to command or pilot ships into battle, but also had a strong land-based element, you wouldn't see me for dust.

SWG made a bold move by adding a spaceflight sim to their MMO and, although it attracted a smaller percentage (initially) than they had hoped, it brought something to the MMO community which hadn't been seen previously.

I have a dream, that one day, game designers will listen to the people that matter. Let them understand that progress for the sake of progress isn't always a good thing. Before they start jumping ahead to try to make the next ground-breaking discovery in MMO concepts, take a look back at what has gone before.

Learn from the mistakes and advance from the success stories.

Someone wise once said "Those who fail to learn from History's mistakes are doomed to repeat them".

Although they were words intended to reflect on loftier ideals, they can equally apply in this case.

Here endeth the lesson.

So...




I logged on to Emerald Dream today to check my characters mail.

I stayed online in Azeroth for a grand total of 3 minutes 19 seconds.

That's gotta be some kind of record!

It's also a sign that Blizzard have finally managed to help me (read: bore me to tears) in breaking my addiction.
GJ guys, I'm a free man!

Well...until the 23rd of May when Conan gets installed!

To make matters worse, Tabula Rasa is currently down for patching and I only have 3 hours before I have to get ready for work.

I even contemplated re-installing Hellgate London, but that thought only lasted a few seconds before I burst out laughing and put the case back in the cupboard!

...and for those of you who insist on getting picky, I know the picture was technically taken in Outlands. But it's the principle!

Thursday 24 April 2008

To stab or not to stab...



Like most players, as the release date of a new game approaches, I start to ponder on my choice of which classes to role. Unless you are one of the people fortunate enough to have been given access to the Beta, your only recourse will be to troll the official sites and pick up tidbits of info off any unofficial forums you can find.

As my previous posts have alluded to, I'm pretty excited about Age of Conan but a fair amount of that comes from the fact that it will reunite a lot of my friends who are currently scattered amongst different games and different servers around the world.

At the same time, I've just received my signup email for Stargate Worlds Beta which is kinda exciting as I can't wait to see what Cheyenne Mountain Games have come up with. I've always been a big fan of SG:1 (and more recently Atlantis) so I hope they can live up to their fans' expectations. That said, if I get in, the NDA becomes applicable so i can't even tell any of you what a good time I'm having trying to break it for them :P

Anyway, back to classes.

Detailed information on SG:W is decidedly sparse at the moment, but AoC has released a full overview on all their classes. Look a bit further down the page for the link if you haven't seen it yet.

Having spent the last week or so deliberating, I've settled on a choice - the decision of which I will share with you in due course.

I will tell you straight away, however, what I WONT be doing.

I will NOT be picking up a sword as, for some reason, I can't do melee.

It's official.

I'm a swordtard.

I couldn't hit the side of a bus with a halberd, even if my characters life depended on it.

My first foray into the world of melee was back in Star Wars Galaxies. Once an old friend of mine had explained the mechanics and recommended templates for levelling up, I rolled a Swordsman / Doctor. A truly great combination, capable of decent damage and healing. The fact that Master Doctor buffs also sold for a decent wedge and made you instantly rich in godlike proportions was just a bonus.

An '8 digit personal credit balance' bonus!

Now, the thing is, SWG made it all seem fairly easy and I ended up staying with that spec until the time I decided to grind out my Jedi...

*baaa baaa*

Yeah, I'm a sheep. Shut up.

At least I got mine before it became a class you could pick from the character select screen, ok?

...but having spent quite a bit of time with whacking squills on Tatooine with sharp pointy metal things made me think I could play a rogue or fury warrior when I left like a sheep to play WoW.

How wrong can one guy be?

Very. Trust me.

If any of you have had the misfortune to come up against a good rogue in a Warcraft battleground, you'll know where I'm going with this. I can fully appreciate the timing involved in getting certain attacks off and removing the ability of your opponent to even get a single shot off.

I just cant do it.

I see these players flinging their rogues around, jumping around like a kangaroo on amphetamines and know that it's just one class I will never be able to get to grips with.

Now, give me some cloth robes and the ability to fling fiery balls of death at unsuspecting rabbits as I wander around Elwynn Forest and we're talking business!

I am a caster.

I will ALWAYS be a caster.

I want to rain fire/ice/disease/the occasional flaming rabbit down on my unsuspecting foes.

I want to curse my foes so vehemently with dark magicks that they curl up in a withered foetal position begging to be taken to their mommies.

/Dutch Accent
"It's just kinda my thing ja?!"

So, all that said, feel free to take a look at this selection here and take one guess which piece of juicy evilness I will be opting for.

Not difficult is it?

I'll give you a clue "They summon and command the undead, and they are legion. Their ghoulish minions are capable of tearing men apart or casting their own death magic."

I'll give you another clue, 'cause I'm nice like that: The class rhymes with Kekromancer!


"The dark magic wielded by necromancers ranges from the unholy to pestilent corruption and the freezing touch of death. Through careful study they can develop the ability to call corpses from the earth to rise up and surround a foe or even attain lichdom, turning themselves into terrifying undead archmages."


Y'see? I don't know about you, but there's just something inherently satisfying about 'flinging poo' at your opponents (as my friend Ben calls it). The ability to DoT them up SOOOOO bad that their character logs itself out for half an hour without their permission, just to recover.

Now I hate to compare any game to WoW, especially as so many people tend to use it as a benchmark these days, but this Necro class seems to be a perfect amalgam of mage, warlock and shadow priest. Having only had the chance to speak to several friends (who are currently enjoying their last month in the testing of AoC) as opposed to sampling it firsthand, I can only go on what they are telling me. Their impressions are honest but favourable and it seems that my suspicions about the Necro class are pretty much dead on; fairly squishy early on but they come into their own in their later lives...like most caster classes.

Either way, I think I may have one less dilemma to worry about when I finally reach the character creation screen.





Now...what to call him?!


I think it's time for the return of...

Monday 21 April 2008

Lightsabres or magic wands?



My father always told me that "opinions are like arseholes, everyone's got one. But it doesn't mean you have to go sharing it".

Smart man, my father.

Opinions are formed through our experiences, be they good or bad. As we grow in years and our horizons broaden, we consider ourselves more and more capable of reaching conclusions based on these experiences.

Gamers are no different in this respect, especially when judging the latest releases. From your formative years, whether you were weened on Spyro and Sonic or Mario and Manic Miner, your first foray into the grown-up world of today's MMO's generally coincides with an interest in a genre.

I myself have been a Star Wars fan since I was about five. Christmas without Star Wars was like burgers without ketchup. Twenty-eight years later and I can still recall my father taking me to see Return of the Jedi at the old three screen cinema in my hometown (those were the days!). I can still happily sit in front of the television and watch those films with a quiet appreciation and not just a little bit of love and nostalgia.

...except episode 1.

Just don't...seriously.

I had to have counselling after that debacle.

...and don't even get me started on Jar Jar Binks.

/shudder

Anyway, it should therefore come as no surprise that I spent several years in a love affair with SOE's MMO set in George Lucas' brainchild. Having firmly established myself in your eyes as a lover of all things sci-fi, I'll get to my point.

I recently had an email conversation with a good friend of mine about gaming.

I know...shocker, right?

After several replies back and forth, he came out with a comment which kind of stuck in my mind and is particularly relevant to this post.

We gamers are nomads. We have no home, only temporary accommodation as we constantly journey along the virtual highway in search of the next big thing.

I spent some time considering this point long after we had called it a night/morning (he's on EST, I'm on GMT). Essentially he is right. As graphics engines improve and we come to demand more and more from the developers, we will eventually leave our current homes and move on to the next.

Here's the thing though, although gamers will occasionally stray from the sci-fi or fantasy path they started down, 9 times out of 10 they will get the craving to return to what they know and love sooner or later.

As I've previously mentioned, I left SWG when I lost faith in the SOE devs' ability to give a shit about what their playerbase wanted, ignoring their outcries as the new 'enhancements' were outlined. After returning from 4 months working abroad, I spent several more months looking at alternatives to SWG. I ended up dismissing several other recommendations as they either didn't measure up or give me the same buzz I used to get from the game I'd come to know and love before its premature demise.

One fateful day, on the recommendation of a work colleague, I decided to stray from the one true path and give WoW a shot (go ahead, crucify me!). I found, to my surprise, that I actually enjoyed it.

Looking back now I can clearly see that, at first, it was the community I found that got me considering staying longer than a few weeks in Azeroth. The aforementioned work colleague introduced me to a great bunch of people in a clan known as the Old Aged Pro's which were involved predominantly in CSS and WoW (in addition to several other lesser known online games, which they themselves hosted).

Now, 2 years on and 3 guilds later, although I am no longer a part of that clan, I am still in touch with several of those members and am glad to consider them my friends. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have stayed in Azeroth half as long had they not been around to quest along with me and join in the formation of my first WoW guild.

Anyway, after 2 + years in Warcraft I've started to get this craving for a more futuristic based MMO again. Hence why I find myself currently logging into Tabula Rasa instead of doing the dailies for obscene amounts of gold courtesy of the Shattered Sun Offensive.

In my previous posts you may notice my eager anticipation of the upcoming release of Age of Conan.

"This is not sci-fi" I hear you cry.

...and you would be correct.

Obviously.

"Then get to the point"

Almost there.

Promise.

I make no qualms about the fact that I do not consider TR to be my next temporary home. It's a great concept and has some almost groundbreaking game mechanics which make it worth a second look. But with no current endgame it isn't a place to go putting down your virtual roots.

...at least not yet.

It's a great game for when you have a couple of hours to kill. Hell, even four or five hours! A lot of the instances are soloable at the right level and you can still get decent XP and some decent loot from them. Compared to WoW, where you can sometimes end up logging in just to wait for over 45 minutes just to get a decent group together to get anything accomplished*. The game plays well to either the solo player or the social player with XP modifiers given to players in groups.

(*Disclaimer: server PUGs may vary in quality and wait time).

However, TR is a great stop-gap measure if you take it for what it is.

However, these aforementioned friends from both SWG and WoW currently feel the same as I do and are currently getting ready for an almighty push from the oceans of Azeroth to Hyboria in Omaha Beach Landing proportions.

Given the options currently available, it's not hard to see why. (I already have designs on raining down Necromancer related destruction on all who stand in my way...eventually!)

Although it means settling in for another serving of fantasy (albeit a bloodier, child-free portion of fantasy. Seriously, have you seen the decapitations?!), the alternative of waiting it out til the announcement of WotLK's release date doesn't even bear thinking about.
And with the exception of Stargate Worlds and Star Trek online, neither of which look set to grace our screens anytime soon, the options available become decidedly slim for our beloved sci-fi geek.

I was originally going to launch into a tirade about BioWare's rumoured MMO project which is apparently based on KotOR as the core of this post...

/happy dance

...but there has been no news on that front for a while.

Unfortunately. *sniff*

Anyway, I guess what I'm driving at is that you make do with what you've got available at the time.

As much as I'm dying to get back behind the yoke of a starfighter, before landing on some backwater alien planet to whack some poor indigenous semi-sentient creatures with a laser sword and a blaster, I guess I'll have to settle for casting fireballs and DoT'ing the hell out of heathens.

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

Sunday 20 April 2008

World of what?

This year is set to be an interesting one when it comes to the launch of new games.

Blizzard has pretty much held the monopoly on MMOs for a while now due to their tactic of making their product accessible to the masses. But things are about to change...I think.

One of the key factors which will decide how successful any MMO game is going to be is its depth. In my humble opinion, this factor often separates your audience.
By depth in this case I mean the complexity, how easy it is to get started and how long it will take for you to progress. WoW gave people who had previously not bothered to get in to MMORPGs an entry level game to cut their teeth on. The learning curve was not so steep that a little time invested would see a good return.

These same people who found WoW enticing would not have been quite so enamored with a game like EVE for example which can seem very daunting to the uninitiated (myself included). Indeed, Star Wars Galaxies even fell prey to this concept in a way. In the beginning, they had a game which included 32 distinct classes to choose from. Players had the ability to invest skill points in such a manner that you could master two professions and dabble in a third. The possibilities for creating unique characters were limitless (well...almost!).
Obviously, like any game, there were the cookie cutter FOTM specs which were over-used. This was seen especially with the players who had unlocked their Jedi.

However, fast forward to current day and Sony Online Entertainment have 'dumbed down' the game to nine 'iconic roles'. In interviews given around the time that the 'New Game Enhancements' went live, SOE officials cited that they believed that the previous system was too complex which was, in turn, driving away players who didn't have the time to invest and learn the nuances of the game.

I would love to spend some time discussing the crafting system of SWG in this post but it deserves more than a couple of lines so I will save that for a later post dedicated to my line of posts on what makes the perfect MMO.

Either way, I digress.

To return to the point made in my opening paragraph. This is going to be an interesting year.

Currently Blizzard are doing their best to keep players occupied until their expansion is launched later this year. They have released the Sunwell Plateau patch in attempt to entice players with the promise of one more instance, one more raid and a shitload of dailies to complete.
The five man dungeon is pretty much a rehash of bosses seen in other instances all thrown together, such as Moroes and The Curator. The only new encounter there for most casual raiders is the fight with Kael'thas and even that's not so difficult. I can't speak for the raid instance, however, as my current guild is nowhere near able to pull it off.

The dailies seem to be a subtle way to combat the RMT business that is rife in WoW. Upping the maximum to 25 daily quest per day means that the average player can earn 250 - 280 gold per character/per day if he or she chooses wisely. The impact on the RMT trade is fairly self evident when you look at the how much prices have fallen on most servers (based on observations from EU servers) in recent weeks.

If you stop and think for a second you may see where I'm going with this. Lord of the Rings online and Hellgate were both cited as being WoW killers prior to release. Anybody who dug a little deeper could see that this would never happen. Admittedly, LotRO had a niche following which could entice Tolkien fans and Hellgate London promised a new environment not often seen in MMOs. But they didn't offer much in the way of gameplay that hadn't already been rehashed several times in other games.

Blizzard stated that they intended to release expansions on almost a yearly basis. Information on the Beta for Wrath of the Lich King has been scarce and rumours abound that the Alpha is currently underway. We are now well into 2008 and over 16 months since The Burning Crusade was released and yet a lot of people are sitting waiting for concrete dates for WotLK other than Q4 2008.

This year we have two rather large and eagerly anticipated MMOs in the form of Age of Conan and Warhammer Online.

This latest patch smacks of a hastily implemented plan to keep players from straying too far from Blizzards playground. Especially when these two new fantasy-based MMOs are due for release. Given that many new players have now gained experience through their exploits in Azeroth, a new game which may be slightly more complex suddenly doesn't seem so daunting anymore.
Plus, the fact that AoC has been given an 'M' for mature/18 rating will probably do much to convince players who are tired of kiddies and 1337-speak that it's worth a look.

As soon as the new expansion is released, many players will probably return home, if only to improve their gear and experience the new content.
Indeed, I have spoken to many friends who fully intend to log their mages and shamans out at their Inns of choice and let them get some rest. Then, once the initial zerg of players heading to Northrend has passed, they may well venture out themselves to see what all the fuss is about.

Is Blizzard scared? Probably not.
Is their crown about to be stolen? Only time will tell.

Either way, a bit of healthy competition might kick Blizzard into gear and help them produce some better work and come up with some new concepts. This can only be a good thing in my opinion. I think for now the future is looking to be a brighter place with new opportunities aplenty.

Saturday 19 April 2008

Past, present and future




So I guess I should tell you a little about me...or at least myself as a gamer.

I've pretty much been addicted to MMO's since I first walked into the Mos Eisley cantina with an 8ft wookiee back when playing Star Wars Galaxies used to be fun.

Before the dark times...before the NGE.

Since I retired my big furry Jedi several years ago I've been looking for an online place to call 'home'. I'm not ashamed to admit that WoW has occupied a fair amount of my gaming time as has LotRO and I'll even admit to having tried Hellgate London (/shudder). I've even enjoyed them too, some more than others. But like anything, all good things must come to an end.

...or should I say all temporary measures must eventually be replaced/superceded/upgraded.

And so it was that I started my journey in pursuit of another planet/faction/galaxy/class*

(*delete as applicable)

During a period where WoW was really begining to bore the life out of me, I stumbled across adverts and reports in several gaming mags about TR. Could this be the Sci-Fi MMO I'd been waiting to replace my craving for SWG?

I was fortunate enough to get involved in the Beta and fell in love with the Ranger class. I should point out that, at that time, the Tier 4 classes hadn't been fleshed out quite so much. Even after I hit lvl 30 I pretty much still felt like a Ranger with a few extra abilities.

As the launch date approached I observed that many of the same bugs that had been reported for a long time on the beta forums were still present with little sign of being fixed (*cough*memoryleak*cough*).

As most of you will probably know, several hastily added patches were brought in to help with class balance amongst other things (netguns, anyone?) but the main issues were left unanswered.

I lost faith in the devs to take care of the issues that mattered and decided that I would give WoW another chance, while at the same time keeping an eye on FunCom and seeing if they tried to dig themselves out of a hole.

Fast forward 6 months and my ability to remain interested in WoW had started to wane again at record level proportions. I found it increasingly difficult to log in again and the idea of running another Karazhan raid made my skin crawl.

Part of me would dearly love to settle in Tabula Rasa but I have no intention of leaving WoW altogether given the time I've put into my characters. I'm still unsure if the TR devs are capable of finishing what they have started here. But for the meantime, my family of characters is right there on the Centaurus server and they're gonna see what develops.
I recently formed a clan with a few other disillusioned WoW guildies as a loose affiliation of players who just want to run instances, finish quest chains and yes, maybe defend a few CPs.

I wont say that Age of Conan isn't beckoning me at this point. What with its dirty PvP goodness and its sickeningly sexy city creations/defence/assault.

But for now I'm here. Happily frolicking through Concordia Palisades.
>>Ranger for hire<<>

A new direction

Thanks to the wonder that is the MMO, I have been fortunate enough to meet some great people from all around the world. The games I play may change but I always stay in contact with these people I'm proud to call my friends.

We share laughs, raid wipes, discussions about RL drama and the simple enjoyment of playing the occasional prank on a hapless newb.

There was this time back in SWG when a friend and me used Jedi Force invisibility and a couple of astromech droids and fun with a really gullible newbie...maybe another time

...besides, everyone has an evil streak they like to let loose from time to time.

Right?

Right!

We also share opinions on what makes these games so awesome. We don't always agree, but more often than not our thoughts cross paths and reach a consensus.

I'd like to share with you some thoughts on what I think makes a great MMO over my next few entries. I don't expect you to agree with everything, but maybe there are some points you'll sit and consider. So, today, I bring my spotlight to bear on the humble quest.



Quests are an integral part of our addiction but how many times can you kill ten rats?

I mean really...why rats? or quenkers? or gnolls? or warnats? or demons?

And why 10?

If the RSPCA got their paws on these games and saw how often we systematically work our way towards eradicating several animal species I think they'd suffer an emotional breakdown. Now obviously, these critters don't stay dead for long and will happily respawn moments later to be whacked by some other passing adventurer. But that's not the point.

My issue isn't the killing of poor defenceless animals, bugs or half-sentient creatures, god knows I've slaughtered my fair share. My point here is why developers always seem to fall back on this mainstay concept.

As I've recently started spending more time in Tabula Rasa, I'm going to spend a second waxing lyrical on something that is seen far too little in MMO's today but has started to emerge right here.

Consequences...


Daughter Furbolg: "mommy, when is daddy coming home?"

Mommy Furbolg: "daddy will be home from work soon honey. You know he is busy with his new job as a henchman with the new evil faction of furbolgs, bent on world domination"

Daughter Furbolg: "I miss him mommy"

Mommy Furbolg: "I know you do sweetheart. I'm sure he will be home soon"

*ring ring*

Mommy Furbolg: "hello?...he's what?...*sniff*...how did it happen?...mind-controlled off a cliff by a shadow priest?...well, thank you for letting me know"

*click*

*cry*

Daughter Furbolg: "what is it mommy?"

Mommy Furbolg: "I'm afraid daddy wont be coming home tonight honey"



MWAH HAH HAAAA!!

Sorry, couldn't resist!

No, not those type of consequences. I mean quest chains which give you decisions to make. Do you help the guy who is passing out stolen medical supplies to the troops who need it or do you turn him in to the authorities? You can only save one person from certain doom, do you pick the wise honourable old shaman who is getting on in years or do you pick the fresh young warrior who has never seen battle but has his/her whole life ahead of them?

Quests shouldn't always be about which is the best loot for your current character...

ok sometimes it should!

But from time to time they should make you think about your actions. The decisions you make during the course of a quest should affect your choices later on in the life of your character. The NPCs you helped in your formative levels could re-emerge later on to assist you with difficult campaigns if you made a particular choice during the course of a quest chain.
Likewise, choosing the alternate path and reporting the 'dealer' to the authorities could give you access to covert missions by Commanders later on due to your reliability, but you wouldn't have the trust of the squad you are leading into the danger zone.

This leads on logically to the possibility of choosing between good and evil. KotOR had this concept and a lot of the options hinged on your light side/dark side choices. Why other developers have failed to consider this avenue is beyond me.

In the interim, I live in hope that, one day soon, game designers will hire scriptwriters with a bit more imagination. That they will let these writers work closely with the designers to give us an environment which makes you stop and think. Where senselessly killing 20 boars just to get a few livers for a pie is a thing of the past.


...and don't event get me started on that genocidal Hemet Nesingwary chap from WoW - that guy is a fucking psycho!

In the begining

If this blog were an MMO, this post would be the character creation screen. The entry into a new domain. You find yourself beset with so many important choices before you can actually get out there into the big wide virtual world.

The blog title (which came to me as I recalled a recent exchange between my wife and I when I was informed that dinner was ready) could be viewed as the 'name your character' category. That important part of starting any online game where you discover if someone has pipped you to the post and chosen your favourite identity, the one that you've used in every game previously. That name which, unbeknownst to you, is also the same favourite name used by hundreds of other players across the globe

...yeah, in cyberspace, you're not as original as you thought!

Go figure!

Naming can be a tricky thing. Some people go with a name that seems amusing at creation. 60 or so levels down the line you might be feeling like a bit of a tit for not having thought things through more before hitting [enter].
Likewise, picking something based on an obscure topic might make you think that you appear knowledgable when all it actually makes you look like is a bit of a twat.
In the end, simplicity and a little imagination are your friends. Pick something that you can relate to, something relevant.

Something that you wont come to regret later on.

Then you're off, taking your first steps into the newb area, butchering the local wildlife for some measly armour and a few credits...

I think that's pretty much where the similarity between blogging and gaming ends, to be honest.

And so it is that I find myself here in my very own starter area, staring at my first post. Peering into the chasm of a project that could prove to be too big for me. But I guess you never know unless you try, huh?

As you may or may not have guessed by now from the incoherent ramblings above, my focus for this blog is online gaming. Be it the games themselves, their communities, the developers or just humble, unbiased (for the most part) opinions based on my experiences.

I hope you'll join me on my journey through Foreas / Azeroth / Hyborea / Tatooine etc. and chime in every now and then with your own thoughts.

I think it was Arthur C. Clarke that said "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible". Although this endeavour seems a tad daunting at the moment, hopefully it will allow me get down in writing the jumbled thoughts that fight for consideration in my mind.

Everything from gaming to life in general.

Welcome to my world....

at least you can log out, right?!