On the MMO side, I’ve been taking it pretty easy this spring. However, I’ve not been lazy on the game front. Most of my creative juices have been towards revising UNE and also creating two other system- and setting-agnostic TTRPG supplements. One supplement is aimed at quickly creating character histories or downtime stories, and the other one is a GM-emulator. They are nearing draft completion, and I’m going to have art and layout done professionally. The goal is have them up on DriveThruRPG under the pay-what-you-want model.
Guild Wars 2
The only MMO I’ve touched this year has been Guild Wars 2. I’ve slacked off big time since the feature pack. If I sign on it’s either for Tequatl (or the Wurms) or WvW hijinks. I am pretty excited about the upcoming Festival because it seems like a better way to ease back in to the game rather than start Living World Season 2 right away. I do hope that Season 2 starts pretty soon thereafter though. ArenaNet has been silent on that front, except for the mention of potato cooking times and gravy.
Windborne
Windborne has become my zen game. I sign on to putz around with making things. Currently I am working on a desert citadel where you have to jump off a cliff to get to the grand entrance below. I am hoping that the systems for sharing worlds with other Windborne players without them being able to affect the world, or something similar comes this year.
Over at Rooster Teeth they’ve teased the next update, which is coming this month. There are new recipes and pets (naming Woolies). So far the dev has been pretty hush, hush about the update, which I am not very happy about. Speculation builds community in community-oriented games. More or less stonewalling the community on upcoming features undermines a great community-building aspect, but despite being a small developer Hidden Path has been very communicative in all other aspects.
My two top desires for Windborne’s early upgrades are the concepted multiplayer (player’s islands floating by) and Dwarf Fortress-esque interaction with the Jin. These are both listed in the later date features on the store page, and they are main reasons I bought the game. Unfortunately, the community has been clamoring for combat, sigh.
Child of Light
I grew up on Final Fantasy. I would say Final Fantasy 2 (US) and Final Fantasy 7 were among the most played games ever in my teenage years. I beat the Weapons in Final Fantasy 7 for example. However, I have not played a Final Fantasy-esque RPG in a long time. After Final Fantasy X, which I loved, I felt that the series was moving on from what I loved. I had a brief stint with Dragon Warrior to see if that could help me reminisce, but it seemed to be going to a different place as well (handheld and MMO).
I found the game perfect for my video game RPG needs in Child of Light. Child of Light is a budget, artsy Final Fantasy-esque game. It’s only $15 on Steam, which is well, well worth it. It has an active combat similar to Final Fantasy 3, 7, or X, with a neat mechanic to interrupt combatants. The music and art is amazing. The characters and lore are neat. And, it is a very easy to get into RPG.
I would love to see more “budget†RPG titles like this where they aren’t 60-100 hour slogs. Child of Light I could pick up for 10 minutes, and I felt like I had made some progress. Overall, very highly recommended if you want a good, coffeebreak video-game RPG.
Those Other MMOs
I’ve been reading the other bloggers about ESO, which seems to have had its day in the sun quite quickly, and Wildstar, which is the current upcoming biggie.
With ESO, I’m kind of disappointed that a lot of feedback has been on bugs, bots, and customer service. I guess the gameplay is “okayâ€, once you get past a certain point. I haven’t heard much at all about the RvR-type end game.
With Wildstar, I am excited that people are excited. With WoW subscriptions dropping at a decent pace, Wildstar could do pretty well. I will miss launch (10th Anniversary in Provence trip), but I hope to pick it up with some birthday cash later in summer.
–Ravious
If you look hard enough there’s plenty of folks enjoying ESO. Nomadic Gamers is one. That said, I think it speaks rather loudly that a) the general issues from the public are mostly on bugs and lack of social/grouping tools and b) that the lead designer agreed. Syncaine said it best, it works on paper.
Sure, if you look hard enough I can find people enjoying A Tale in the Desert. For a AAA MMO costing dozens of millions of dollars… I would hope the bleed effect of communal enjoyment was more widespread.