Month: September 2011

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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

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Like Guild Wars 2, For the Very First Time

I’ve played Guild Wars 2 on two separate occasions at PAX East and when I was invited to ArenaNet. I remember the first time I sat down and played the game, but so much of that feeling was muddled because as much as I wanted to play Guild Wars 2, I wanted to meet the makers of the game as much, if not moreso. I miss that feeling now of discovery, mystery, and imagination.

So, it was really nice to read comrade-in-arms, Lewis B’s first impressions post over at Tap Repeatedly. He gives a bunch of facts and feedbacks, but most importantly he writes with emotion. His excitement bleeds through the article. I feel that as more people see actual plays on YouTube and get to see the demo themselves, this excitement period will be lost. At least until launch. Then all bets are off.

–Ravious

A good Glitch

A few days ago, a fairly entertaining little F2P game launched, Glitch. This game has a dev team like one of those interesting dev teams that made me take a deeper look at Rift, so I of course had to check the game out. With a Flikr co-founder and the creator of the wildly fun Katamari on board, it was bound to be fun to look at, if nothing else, I thought.
Continue reading A good Glitch

Coin ‘n Carry

Long time reader and commentator, Muckbeast, who actually has a real name I suppose. Let’s call him “Michael Hartman.” Anyway, turns out he’s in charge of Frogdice, Inc., which has been around for nearly a score, and a Mid-West game developer on top of that! He asked if we could shed some light on their new social web game that “is NOT on Facebook.”

It’s called Coin ‘n Carry, and it seems pretty neat. There is a very thorough tutorial/overview on the game at YouTube, which tech-deficient parents might find useful if they don’t understand how to sign up for things. The basic premise is economy and mini-games. Working with the community is helpful, but Frogdice created the game with those implied Facebook games in mind. In other words, things that are wrong and annoying with Facebook games, like mega-spam, they developed away from.

The game is free-to-play, which is what Frogdice have been doing for their games since when I was a lad. Hartman says that:

“Unlike many other F2P companies, we target the long term with our customers. It is our philosophy that deep gameplay designed to entertain people for the long term will result in players eventually choosing to pay something towards the game. We feel that value proposition works best for all parties in the long run. As a result of this philosophy, a significant portion of our customers on Threshold RPG have been playing for over 10 years.”

Kind of refreshing, actually. And, they have years of evidence to prove it. Anyway, supporting developers on the ‘sphere is a good thing, in my humble opinion. Hence the plug. If you check it out, feedback here is most welcome.

–Ravious

[GW2] Asuran Intricacies

I was a little silent over Asura Week. Usually my goal during those weeks is to find some different angle to push and provoke thoughts along different lines. I just wasn’t finding it with the asura. I wasn’t finding anything of depth. I would easily say they are the most superficial player-race in Guild Wars 2. What you see is what you get. Continue reading [GW2] Asuran Intricacies

League of Legends: Dominion

Also known as League of Legends: Arathi Basin. It is live, a map with 5 capture points instead of three lanes. The overview has information about the new mode. I haven’t tried it myself, but the games should be shorter (~20 minutes).

Of course, quite a few League of Legends games are decided at the 20-minute point, because that is when a team can forfeit, but that’s another story.

Update, having tried it: Wow, that is a MUCH faster game. Team battles start within 90 seconds. I have been ahead 200 (of 500) and lost and behind 200 and won. The map is much smaller, the minions are fewer, and everything just feels very INTENSE NOW GO GO POWER! versus the stately pace of the League of Legends early game with its laning and harassing.

: Zubon

Binding Rituals

The next big thing is Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR), of course. For those that have now just regained internet after some hurricane, tornado, or gopher-pocalypse, the release date is right before Christmas. Chris at LevelCapped pretty much sums up my general feelings on the game. I do hope that the half-million and rising mob of pre-orderers have fun. I look forward to the many MMO blogs on the ‘sphere thoughts from actual play sessions. Story time is the best, don’t you think?

Anyway, the LevelCapped post got me thinking about all those MMO things that we constantly post about when the urge arises. What is an MMO? What is persistence? Which is better F2P or subscription? Etc. et al. Veni, vidi, vici. More importantly (to me and you) I thought about my own game buying in the past few months. The recent ones off the top of my head were Trackmania² Canyon (“Canyon”), Magic the Gathering’s new Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 (“DotP2012”), and Bastion. I’ve also been going full Explorer mode in Minecraft. I’m sorry to say that as of late most MMOs just haven’t caught my interest. I’ve been spoiled silly with my little time playing Guild Wars 2, I guess. Continue reading Binding Rituals

My Dog Ate It

Commenters have raised the issue of lagging out due to a pet’s having eaten the router. They went on to start the real question: how much will this affect performance, and how can we mitigate it?

Is your dog small or thin enough that a wireless signal can still get through? Will it matter if you have a long-haired cat? Are the essential pieces small enough that they could be sufficiently whole after the plastic case has been devoured? And how much battery life does that thing have?

: Zubon

related

Classics as Social Media Games

Oregon Trail is now on Facebook. It is kind of lousy. Take the old game and extend it so it cannot reasonably be completed in one day, to say nothing of one play session. Add in the social media mechanic of a limited number of turns/amount of energy, in this case several separate bars for that. Add in the social media mechanics of items requiring RMT or soliciting the help of several friends. Add in minimal spamminess. Serve tepid.

Civilization is now on Facebook. It is rather lousy. Take the names from the usual game and throw out pretty much everything. Keep the tech tree in a weird form. Keep the resource types. Replace most of the mechanics with a few mini-games. Remove the world map. What guilds are in most games, nations are here.

This is actually a good idea that makes sense. CivWorld makes superior use of social media gameplay mechanics, if only there were more of a game underneath. Isolated city-states can be competitive early on, but large and/or organized nations own the late-game; this makes sense, and you cannot “rush” it by wiping out other nations, so the game inexorably pushes towards social integration or failure. Instead of “come back in x hours to harvest,” the game accumulates harvests that you can cash in to make everything produce. There is a hard cap on how much real money you are allowed to spend per unit time. I cannot see much/any reason to spam your friends to do the equivalent of tending your crops. They are being a good corporate partner here, not trying to make up for the horrible game by adding addictive elements.

But the games are still horrible. Maybe there is some depth of whatever, were I to spend a few weeks playing HARDCORE, but they play like the original games fed through a food processor then dribbled over a featureless path that takes two weeks to walk.

: Zubon

[GW2] Stereotypical Guilds in Five Acts

I, Norman the Wary, have cataloged some of the many guilds of Tyria in interviewing so many of the races. I have done my best to transcribe the, shall we say, intricacies of each race as I learned and sought to find a guild of my own.

The Charr

My guild, meat? Are you looking to join us? Well you can’t. Plain and simple. My guild is my warband, and my warband is my guild. We cut our teeth toegther; we will die together. That’s why you can’t join. You haven’t known us for the better part of a decade. We don’t allow outsiders, and our focus and dedication is to the guild. We are going to be the best guild on the field because of it.

You did not see Triok speaking with another guild! No, he would never defect even if they explore more dungeons. It doesn’t matter that he’s allowed to join another guild. He’s not allowed with us. We’re too close for that bull skritt. Go away, meat, I have a Triok to deal with.

The Norn

So, you want to join our guild, huh? Good, the more the merrier. Bring me another drink so we can celebrate you and those other five guys in the guild. Here’s to you six more! Naw, I don’t know how big our guild is. It just is. We’re here just to have fun. Exclusivity? Exclusivity of what? You can be in as many guilds as you want.

Look, our guild is based on ancient norn tradition of “do what you want.” It’s a good tradition too! Norn a plenty, I say. Sure, there are penalties. If you pee in my cask of ale, I probably break your legs and might kick you out of the guild. I don’t know though, some guild drama let’s me sit back and eat this new asura snack. Something like ‘Popp’s butter-injected density-modified kernels.’ There’s probably a few other words I’m missing. So, anyway, I might just break your legs.

The Sylvari

What is a guild? “Guild” is a word. Like “love.” A way of saying “these are the people I play with.” I do not resent the people outside my guilds – I am grateful that they too are part of Tyria. We are all here together, and that is a gift.

You’ve never heard of a sylvari speak of “love”? Oh, “guilds.” No, it is just a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see you wearing guild colors. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection? Then perhaps the reason you’re here is not so different from the reason I’m here. Perhaps we will start a guild too then.

The Humans

This guild here is based out of Queensdale County. We’re good farm folk and bandit-killers. No, that’s the Queen’s Reach Gate guild. They’re located at a different tavern. Look, I don’t mean to be rude, I mean you can join our guild if you want. I just don’t think you’ll understand the nature of our guild. We have deeper roots than just, going to the Mists to beat back the Sparkfly Swamp boys.

It’s just, I don’t know you, and even though I don’t really know Bynn the Breaker over there neither. I know her stock. I know that she knows the taste of Queensdale pork shoulder smoked with Queensdale apple wood. That means a lot around here. Each year we head to a tavern in the Mists for a meet and greet. Like I said, just because I don’t know you, don’t mean I don’t know you. Not, you, I mean… Bynn over there.

The Asura

Why are you wasting my time? Asuran archives already has volumes on the guilds of the lesser races and the mighty asura. What do I think? Well, you’re right, the volumes are probably a bit off from what’s true. Asura build guilds for purpose. It is purpose that binds us; purpose that drives us. For without purpose, our guilds would not exist. No, I am not angry. You stop talking in your angry voice!

Anyway, do the job is what we say. I don’t care about Glikk over there any more than I care about you. I know that he will do what it takes to get the perfect ioniclear crystal amplifier off of some ancient desert king’s grave. and I got his back for it. There is no other connection. When we are done, we part ways.

–Norman the Wary

(This post is for the GuildMag Blog Carnival 2. Be sure to check out all the other entries! I will update this post with the Blog Carnival 2 link when it goes up. –Rav)

Krepost

The krepost in Civilization V is one of the most simple, elegant, nearly hidden pieces of design you are likely to find. Every Civ V civilization gets a special ability and two altered units or buildings. The Roman legions can build roads, the Siamese wat combines culture and science, and the Americans are good at bombing things. The Russian unique building is the krepost, which replaces the barracks. It is a normal barracks plus a 25% reduction in the culture cost to acquire new tiles. Like the barracks, it is unlocked with Bronze Working, an Ancient Era technology.

That one bonus on one building creates a dynamic that simulates Russia beautifully. It encourages you to build a barracks in every city, even for a quasi-pacifist player like me who has no need to build troops in every city. That leads naturally to a more militaristic playstyle. The bonus also facilitates the creation of a large empire with extensive borders. Those borders will put you into conflict with neighbors who object to your taking up half a continent, but those neighbors might be hesitant to mess with an enemy who is prepared to mobilize troops in every part of the empire. And this mechanic starts in the earliest stages of the game, which gives it time to define your strategy and to let those cultural borders expand.

Add one unrelated bonus to one item and watch the entire play dynamic change.

: Zubon