I finally completed about everything I could do at my level (except maybe the School instance) in Eregion. I had a blast with that new content, but now I was heading into the crown jewel of Lord of the Rings Online’s first expansion. At first, I really didn’t like it… but that changed. Continue reading ‘Moria Impressions’
Author Archive for RaviousPage 2 of 6
This is not recent news (the NCSoft conference call was held on, I believe, November 12, 2008), but I had not seen this on the ’sphere or Guild Wars fansite forums. Thanks to Sente for the tip on the Guild Wars 2 tidbits in the conference call. Continue reading ‘Guild Wars 2 Crumbs: NCSoft Conference Call’
Second, in my humble opinion, only to the Guild Wars Halloween event is Guild Wars Wintersday. It starts this year on December 19th, and it ends next year on January 5th. It’s a great event with new items, Wintersday quests, and of course, Dwayna Vs Grenth snowball PvP.
The Guild Wars Live Team has been pumping out content and updates and a terrific speed, but even after their megalithic updates from November, they continue to impress with all the new goodies coming to Wintersday 2008. This year the Eye of the North will be decorated in Wintersday tradition, and one of the Ebon Vanguard’s soliders will have a new quest line to participate in.
Hopefully Guild Wars 2 news is just around the corner, but for now, ArenaNet keeps giving plenty of good reasons to return to the original Guild Wars.
–Ravious
You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.
Like a good (wannabe) blogger, I try and follow the major MMO news sites, and I usually watch Ten Ton Hammer pretty closely. It seems, though, that I completely missed a donation drive they are doing.
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, as of this post, according to this website, has not paid their employees in 28 days. They are the developer of the upcoming MMO based on the Stargate IP. Ten Ton Hammer got in touch with a few working parents at the company, and the staff are doing their best to help these parents put a few presents under the tree for their kids. It’s only $5, and you can donate here. On top of that, if Cheyenne Mountain can figure out a way to pay their employees before Christmas, all the donations will go to the Ronald McDonald House, an excellent children’s charity.
The drive ends December 15. Now back to our cynical, yet constructive, regular programming.
Mythic is dropping a pretty significant update to Warhammer Online today. There is nothing truly exciting, but everything in the update is good. Things are going in the right direction.
The biggest change, I believe, are the beginnings of a better funneling system to get people to play the game for what it was made for: open RvR. The main change is the addition of a Influence system, where players are guaranteed some loot in the same manner as the PvE Chapter’s Public Quests Influence system. This and correct open RvR contribution rolls should give the beginnings of an open RvR system that feels rewarding for the time played in comparison to Scenarios and grinding PvE. I also am very happy that they have made defending open RvR objectives more rewarding (down with WAR-oboros).
I still think they need to work on getting solo or buddy groups into open RvR land with things to do. But, Mythic states that this is just the beginning… again. Seriously though, I am happy with the direction Mythic is going.
–Ravious
The deserter hiding out in the middle of a battlefield.
EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a recent conference call that the upcoming BioWare MMO is a mid-session game, which are microtransaction based. This caused quite a wave throughout the MMO news sphere, but EA came back to claim that their CEO is full of misunderstandings.
I tried to do a Google search on “mid-session game,” and it truly seems to be a lexicographic frankenstein creation of EA used to tell their stockholders things. Honestly, I find the term not catchy and kind of not descriptive of what they are trying to sell. From my understanding, a mid-session game is a microtransaction game that may also have a nominal buy-the-game fee or small subscription fee.
Mid-session evokes none of that. I realize that EA might be trying to get away from the stigma attached to the filthy “microtransaction” word, but they can do better. Mid-session seems to imply some sort of break in a gamer’s playing time. “It’s mid-session. Deposit 25 cents to continue playing.” Even if Riccitiello is in the dark on his own company’s business models, I am excited with the possibility that another game might break away from the $15 flatline. I honestly was not really interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but now I am. The only thing I know about the game is Cloud-sword sized lightsabers, but I would pick it up on only that knowledge (and BioWare’s reputation) if it followed some rough equivalency of the Guild Wars business model.
Now “medium session game” makes sense, but that is just following the crowd. Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft are both becoming “medium session games” where gamers can knock off a few solo quests or do a complete dungeon run in an hour or so. Warhammer Online let’s players jump in and out (as long as there is ongoing PvP action) in an even shorter time. So, the amount of play required is not really determinative of whether the game is a subscription-based game or not. Therefore, EA, with all your money, and lawyers, and English major marketing execs… create a new term.
I hope that whatever alternative business model they do, though, it is right for our (read: my) Western MMO payment schedule culture, and they are not stupid or greedy in adding microtransactions to a game.
–Ravious
And best of all kids, I am liquid.
I don’t know where /dance started, but I am guessing Everquest. Regardless, dancing in MMOs has become such a critical feature that if an MMO developer decides not to add the emote command they have to proactively defend their decision. It is a big deal to dance in MMOs. Continue reading ‘The /dance Function’
I really like Warhammer Online. Sure, it has its problems, but Mythic seems truly dedicated to the game (unlike some other newer MMOs). It has some level of PvE, but I have Lord of the Rings Online for PvE. Public Quests, I hope, will shape the future of MMO PvE content, but Mythic has laid down the charge that its focus is RvR. So, I really only use the game for MMO PvP. And, that’s the problem. I am subscribing to a PvP MMO. Continue reading ‘A PvP MMO Subscription’