Author: Zubon

Blizzard Explains

Why unusable raid items were added:

I’m sure it’s easier to pass that judgement from your well-informed, armchair designing position. Because of the way in the whole expansion is being pushed out, the gap that we are currently in was expected to cause a number of issues. With so much content that is being pre-released, we are going to see a number of inconsistencies that will be resolved on release of the expansion. Plain fact is that this is about production schedules and not about you. This is needed for smooth production of the game, because when expansion hits and people are actually patching the rest of the content, we will have more pressing issues than going back to check some loot tables. This is about putting in order as much as we can as soon as we can, so when serious matters come down the road, we have as many resources available to address them quickly. Issues that, I assure you, will be more important than this. This isn’t about you. It’s about the game. Find something more worthwhile to complain about. This issue will not change until the expansion is released, so railing against me or anyone else on the boards is a categorical waste of your time.

Emphasis added. The thread linked with this has been deleted. If anyone can add some ameliorating context or demonstrate this was a fabricated quote, I will feel better and update.

: Zubon

Hat tip: This is Not A Community via n3rfed

Thank You Blizzard

[WoW] I have been reading a bit about the latest WoW patch. It makes CoH’s recent patches sting less. This is not schadenfreude, just a reminder that even the market leader is not doing any better. Introducing new bugs while rushing to implement nerfs and ignoring test server feedback is one thing (two things). Intentionally switching raid drops to items that no one could even theoretically use? Priceless.

: Zubon

Apparently that was a good change

coh[City of Heroes] That nerf I was not sure about? It must be a good thing, because it is now live. The developers have commented recently (and repeatedly) about how they use data-mining to determine where problems are and whether changes will have good effects. That process must take exactly one week with the population active on the test server, since that is how long the changes were on test. If there are problems with it, I imagine the developers will know in less than a day’s worth of normal play, given live server populations.

Meanwhile the winter event is still on test, salvage racks still crash your client if you try to move the same piece of salvage twice, and the Known Issues page still thinks the test server and live servers are running exactly the same thing. But, you know, priorities.

: Zubon

PS: As is usually the case around new Issues, the old content remains fun! So long as you work around the various bugs and crashes that were introduced, the quality of life improvements are always nice. Except for making all the mission decorations invisible, that’s annoying.

How Shall I Nerf Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

coh[City of Heroes] In City of Heroes, the developers are confronting a problem, specifically the solo power of Fire/Kinetics/Fire Controllers. With the addition of Ancillary Power Pools and Containment, this class gets increasingly powerful and capable of destruction as the number of enemies increases. Loosely, the pattern is: any AE control (they have at least 3 forms), rush in, Fulcrum Shift (hit damage cap), and Fireball to one-shot almost everything. Whatever is left will be cleaned up by the damage-capped Fire Imps that followed the controller in. Under ideal conditions, which should not be too hard to create consistently in PvE, the Controller out-blasts the Blaster while still being a great controller.

The problem is the combination of Containment (double damage vs. controlled enemies), Kinetics (damage cap yourself), pets (three Fire Imps all the time), and AE damage (Fireball). This is only a problem in the late-game, since you must be almost near the level-cap to have all those pieces, but you can then powerlevel others to shoot them through some levels.

Continue reading How Shall I Nerf Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

In Which Zubon Lends Cryptic A Hand

coh[City of Heroes] A while back, I discussed Known Issues pages. Since City of Heroes/Villains has one, I thought I would give them a hand. Because we care. You see, there is a vast array of bugs missing from the Known Issues list, so I assume that Cryptic simply has not noticed them. Or maybe they are ignoring them or lying about whether the game has bugs, but I’ll assume ignore rather than malice.

I would first note that the Known Issues list only covers new bugs introduced in Issue 8, rather than long-standing problems like hostages who do not follow rescuers/kidnappers, base raids still not existing despite being an advertised feature for over a year, or any balance issues. Let us set those aside and just think about what has been broken recently.

Continue reading In Which Zubon Lends Cryptic A Hand

Priests and Bikini Waxes

Today’s MMO economics lesson is about “relationship-specific investments.” These are investments made to satisfy the requirements of a particular customer. Examples might include a skill or spell you learn for a specific friend, a company that makes parts for one auto company, or getting your hair cut the way your significant other prefers. In MMOs, the most common example is that of support classes, those who advance by investing in others.

Should you play a dedicated healer or support class? Should you include them in your game design? Conveniently, people have been thinking through these issues in other contexts for decades, so let’s apply their work to our hobby/industry.

Continue reading Priests and Bikini Waxes

Dating for Gamers’ Significant Others

Watching me play City of Villains, my wife has decided that badges need to be awarded in real life. Gamers are willing to go to great lengths for shinies that lack value even in-game, to say nothing of how much it impresses normal people that you got the Keeper of Secrets badge. Gamer spouses, think of how much effort your gamer will put into getting a purely cosmetic “flaming sword” effect, and how you can harness that power for good.

Some people would immediately think of grinding laundry or yard work. Awards at 100, 250, 500, and 1000 garments folded? I would recommend against an award for hours of vacuuming, since you can just turn that thing on and walk away. If I may give away a gamer secret, we already refer to “wife aggro” and think of time with the in-laws as faction grinding (“Just 200 more brownie points to Exalted…”).

My wife, of course, was thinking about sex. You might think that it is sufficiently rewarding already, but can’t we do more? Rewards should be based on quest completion, and grouping will be required (no badges for soloing). This will be a trophy that every gamer will be proud to show off, although there may be questions about RMT.

As WoW has demonstrated, every gamer wants an epic mount.

: Zubon

Nerfing the Network

When you lower the incentive for something, you get less of it. The amount that you currently have is likely to stay, due to sunk costs and the difficulty of converting resources, but you don’t get new ones.

When an item is nerfed, you stop camping for it. When a quest is nerfed, you stop running it. When a dungeon is nerfed, you stop going there. At least, you stop doing so as much. Same risk, lower reward.

When you discuss net neutrality, you are talking about maintaining current prices in return for less bandwidth being created in the future. You are lowering the possible rewards to bandwidth providers while creating the threat of taking further control of their property away in the future. Also, while you are lowering the incentive to conduct maintenance, you are increasing the incentive to shift funds to lobbying; if the government will determine how (and how much) they can charge, the company will make its money by directing its attention to the government, rather than you.

: Zubon

Thanksgiving Missions

Your mother-in-law tells you, “Take this [twenty-dollar bill] to the [gas station] and return with [a tank of gas]. [Courier mission]

I also helped with some yard work at my grandmother(-in-law)’s house. She and her daughter were having a dispute about whether all leaves should be taken away or whether some should be left around the bases of the trees. Receiving opposing instructions, I thought that “Steal the helpless old woman’s compost” would make a great City of Villains mission, maybe for Westin Phipps.

: Zubon