Author: Zubon

Sorry Frodo

lotro [The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢] Barring unexpected change, I will not be pre-ordering, which in this case means that I am never subscribing.

Discussion about LOTRO seems to revolve around three points.

  1. How much is LOTRO like WoW? To me, similar enough that if I want to play YAFMMORPG, I can play the better polished one.
  2. How true is LOTRO to Tolkien? I care more about the quality of the game, since I have never dreamt of playing a side quest while Frodo goes to Mordor.
  3. Wow, lifetime subscription rate! This is perhaps the biggest topic of chatter I have seen, and that is a bad sign. You want people to be talking about fun or revolutionary gameplay or breathtaking visuals, not pricing plans.

Another extended discussion follows the break, without major revision to my previous post. If you like EQ or WoW but want a new one, pre-order at take the $10/month until you go to the next new thing.

Continue reading Sorry Frodo

While I’m Asking for Game Features

[Eternal Lands] Yesterday, people were lining up to tell me that a feature I always wanted in a game already exists in various forms and is slated to be implemented fully this year. Later that day, WorldIV pointed me to a game that has another feature that I have always wanted.

killsheet.JPG Eternal Lands is a bagatelle of an online game that is in beta and feels like it. It has some interesting ideas, insane lore, and graphics akin to ATitD; I can review what I have seen if there is interest. What excited me is that it has a kill sheet.

Continue reading While I’m Asking for Game Features

We Are the Barbarians At the Gates

Since I played a lot of Warcraft 3 tower defense last week, I got to wondering why MMOs are not like this. The bulk of MMO play is attacking hapless, inoffensive enemies. We are the aggressors. The only things we build are characters and weapons for destroying things. Where is building and defending?

I want PvE enemies who will bring the fight to me. I want to build my own castle, hire NPC archers, and defend the battlements. I want to band together with my friends in defense of our community, not just to go blow up someone else’s community. Give me a little bit of Civilization and SimCity in an MMO. At least that is what I want this week; players are fickle.

Continue reading We Are the Barbarians At the Gates

Thoughts From a LAN Party

Roughly sequential musings from a gathering of friends this weekend:

  • It is nice to see people in meatspace. I have never met anyone from my City of Heroes SG, but I still talk to people from Morningthaw (Asheron’s Call).
  • My stuff packs nicely if I don’t need to carry everything. Monitor, case, and everything else in a bag. Other people travel light by attaching a handle to the case, having a tiny case specifically for LAN parties, or having a high-end laptop.
  • Dell XPS laptops: sexy. A contractor loaned one to a co-worker of mine to show off a web site. A web site. This thing is a high-end gaming machine being used to show off a web site. My computer: utilitarian. Not sexy. Continue reading Thoughts From a LAN Party

More/Fewer Options = Greater Diversity?

Which leads to greater character diversity: more options or fewer? There are several moving parts there: the number of choices, the number of options for each choice, the importance of those choices, and the ability to change them. I should note that I will be considering the majority or the people who care; there will always be people in the tails of the bell curve who are trying to make the worst possible choices because of contrariness or a character concept.

The importance factor seems the easiest: the more important a choice is, the less likely there is to be diversity. If something really really matters, there will be one best way to do it or a few best combinations; even if you give me more options for that choice, anything less than the best means gimping the character. Contrarily, if the decision has no practical importance, the distribution will be random, and more options will lead to even greater diversity.

Continue reading More/Fewer Options = Greater Diversity?

You Aren’t Hardcore Enough to Grow Flax

[A Tale in the Desert] Interestingly, a discussion about yet another thieving brigand in EVE has garnered more comments than anything else I can recall on Kill Ten Rats. Let me just say that you are all a bunch of wusses for not playing a real PvP game like A Tale in the Desert.

If you see it as a fancy trade skills game with a lot of cooperation, you are missing the point. Egypt exists to cause strife and conduct evil sociological experiments, and if the players are not generating enough drama the developers will cheerfully provide new ways to strike at your neighbor. What Pharaoh considers the most perfect part of the game is a test that encourages bribery, pandering, manipulation, backstabbing, and wasteful ostentation, and it requires that many lose for anyone to win.

You see a lack of violence and think there is no PvP. I see a game with every other way to hurt someone and make his life miserable, but you can never kill your tormentor. Oh wait, you can take your case to the ballot box or the right test-winner and have your enemy exiled or executed. You blew up someone’s spaceship and little egg? Big deal. Egypt has permadeath. There is no respawning.

When your players have a chance to destroy all life and end the game, come back and tell me how hardcore you are.

: Zubon

It Is Not WoW

Why do so many people have the gall to compare new products and services to existing ones you could buy instead?

We were trying a new coffee bar recently, and for some reason my friend kept comparing it to Starbucks. I mean, hello, they are trying to do something entirely different with coffee here. They have some new flavors, and the logo on the cups is not the same at all. It’s not like Starbucks invented ground beans or was the first company to use those little insulating sleeves. If Starbucks is so much better, why are you still drinking your coffee?

Continue reading It Is Not WoW

Wife’s First Impressions

lotro [The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢] My wife gave the game a try. Some comments:

  • She likes being an elf.
  • The world is pretty, but her character is not. Also, she cannot change how it looks much, like giving her a nice skirt or making her outfit blue. Meanwhile, she is right now repeating how pretty her Second Life avatar looks in her new dress while wondering if she has some knee-high socks to go with it.
  • Killing goblins is one thing, but why does she need to beat up all these poor animals? She is going to be so traumatized when she takes out her first bear.
  • “Can I go any faster?”
  • Needing to face your target is a huge bother.
  • She wants more location help on quests. Yes, the quest text says explicitly where to go, but she likes the City of Heroes arrow pointing to the spot. She does not like following maps.
  • “I just played for an hour and a half. I know that’s not a lot in gamer time, but it is for the rest of us.”

She liked it but was not exuberant.

: Zubon