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!

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!

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...

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.

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.

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?!