I hate being sick. It’s one of the worst times to be a gamer aware of “meta†because when I’m feverish my mind start throwing massive design problems at me. The unsolvable things become nightmarish in my attempt to cool down, hydrate, and overcome the disease. Instead I lie there coming up with ways that ArenaNet could create zerg breakers. I’m now on all sorts of medications so I feel up to sharing! I’ll go in order of sadness.
Mordor or Bust
Seems Turbine is shedding more employees in a layoff round. I’ve only been picking at Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) in the past few months, and I’m still on Riders of Rohan. One of my good friends still seems to obligingly log in once a week or so. I asked him about the state of the game a couple weeks ago.
His response was basically that it had become one of the best solo MMOs available, sadly. The hardcore, which are needed in any MMO, were long since gone. All that remained were soloers and the occasional duo. Everybody was playing the game for themselves. He still claimed there were excellent stories to be had, but it was a personal affair. I asked about the latest expansion with “big battlesâ€. His reply was that they were basically bigger skirmishes.
And, the lines of communication have pretty much gone to copper thieves. The writing is very much on the wall for this MMO, I feel.
Destroying Lion’s Arch
In slightly less bitter news (though possibly as sorrowful), ArenaNet has put up the teaser video of the next patch for Guild Wars 2 due out on the 18th. It appears that Lion’s Arch is going to be burning. Not to worry about all the necessary implements because they are moving to Vigil’s Keep, at least for a time. I think this is going to be karka invasion 2.0 now with upgraded ArenaNet.
So an expansion is still not in the cards according to latest NC Soft shareholder reports. Still, I think ArenaNet’s plan is to continue to show how expansive the Living World is going to be. Here’s my take… what comes with every good expansion? A new hub. Perhaps New New Lion’s Arch will be that hub. Perhaps we’ll start heading outside of the Tyria that we know to something else. It’s exciting either way to think of all the possibilities!
While I want a new hub akin to say Kaineng Center (Guild Wars 1) or Dalaran (World of Warcraft) in a shiny new zone, I think it would be cool to repurpose Lion’s Arch. Scarlet is definitely leading to something bigger, and I would like if the Pact became a little more prominent. Our Personal Story choices could become more prominent. Already the Vigil is kind of making a political play – in the most humble and charitable sense, I’m sure – by relocating all the vital services to their dominion.
Whatever happens, it is going to be blast!
Re-Kick Camelot Unchained
City State Entertainment has reopened Founders and Builder contribution Tier’s on their website. If you were on the fence or out of money when the original Kickstarter happened (as was my case… in both cases), you can still join in on the fun now. The game is slated for release the end of 2015, but you know how that goes. I will say that Mark Jacobs communication on their site and MMO blogs has been refreshing.
With the next three MMO and MMO-likes being pretty much defined in 2014*, I have to say that Camelot Unchained is still the MMO I am most looking forward to. Fantasy EVE or Darkfall Not Done Dumb are simplified, perhaps overly, ways to define what is coming. Still I am excited for an MMO to completely created with one concept in mind: RvR.
What’s really got me excited is that Mrs. Ravious might be on board. Her favorite part in Guild Wars 2 seems to be World vs. World, and I think that we will have a lot of fun in something as deep as Camelot Unchained. MMOs have become our hobby, and I think with Camelot Unchained it can become more sport like.
–Ravious
* ESO, meh. WildStar a zanier, updated WoW. And EQN a voxel’d, grindworthy Minecraft.
@Ravious,
Some people noted how close LA is from the tengu city.
IMHO, LA will be a new Orr-like zone, full with mobs and ruins. But they now have a story for make the tengu a playable race: the tengu decide to fight the enemy at their gates.
Anyway, the tengu city and the tengu starting zone are two zones empty at the middle of Tyria map. Anet will give us that zones sooner or later.
“Darkfall Not Done Dumb”
God how I wish I could argue against that…
Sorry to hear about LOTRO. If they had been able scale the level of the older content back when I was playing years ago, as well as Guild Wars 2 does now, I think I would have never left.
Lotro had tons of excellent dungeons and content that became obsolete after players rushed to get to the end content. Every time I leveled up a new character I wished that I could freeze them at a lower level so I could enjoy the dungeons at that level. But, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because no one else was around. As it was, all there was to do was run the same top level content over and over again. Boring!
In GW2, we still enjoy all the lower level dungeons, indeed the lower level maps too because the scaling still makes them interesting. Also, higher leveled characters, when they join lowbies in those zones, get higher level loot that is appropriate for their character. It works well.
Anet has done a wonderful job introducing interesting new content on a regular basis. Surprisingly I have not cared that I am frozen at top level with no new skills or that they have not released an expansion.
If I had to pick one more significant difference between Lotro and GW2, I would say GW2’s PvP aspects have attracted a sizeable base of paying customers that allows them to fund a steady stream of quality content.
They actually have scaled a ton of the old dungeons (though sadly, not some of my favs). There’s tons of easily accessible quality group content, it’s just that the solo content is even MORE accessible, so I think that’s where the population has shifted, and thus things are not dead- but rather quiet as everyone’s just kinda doing their own thing.
Looking forward to Lions Arch being replaced as the hub. With the easy access from the mists, was almost too much of a good thing. It would make an amazing pve zone, especially compared to how boring orr is.