Don’t like non-consensual PvP where max-level characters can kill you and all the NPCs you need with near impunity? Then why did you roll on a PvE server? noob
: Zubon
Archive for the 'World of Warcraft' CategoryPage 3 of 34
I have mentioned before that second-best might demand movements further away from first-best. That is, if you cannot get exactly what you want, the next best thing might be something very different rather than something close. You might prefer PB&J to a ham sandwich but prefer ham to jelly alone, so if you have no peanut butter you can improve your situation by moving further from PB&J.
This weekend, the top two US movies were High School Musical 3 and Saw 5. Thought completes itself, including that proviso.
If I might surmise about the preferences of many WAR players, open world RvR at its best is better than scenarios at their best, but scenarios as they are available are better than open world RvR as it is available. If I might surmise about the preferences of many former WAR players returning to WOW, WAR RvR at its best is better than WOW PvE at its best, but WOW PvE as it is available is better than WAR RvR as it is available. For those people, for both, respectively.
Or, if you are a CoW, open RvR rocks.
: Zubon
The HSM3 note reminds me: I recently learned, through no fault of my own, who the Jonas brothers are (don’t Google it). If reality betrays me like that again, I may never leave my basement.
For those of you looking forward to an expansion pack: do you like item/treadmill resets in general, or just the idea that you can run a bit longer on this one? You can just make an alt if you want to grind again.
I am not fond of rising level caps. I already have the option of paying extra to start over.
: Zubon
The Azeroth Advisor is, according to their FAQ, “an electronic newsletter that is personalized to your World of Warcraft characters. It is automatically delivered to you by email, customized to your character’s current level and status. Our idea is simple: give you the information you need when it’s relevant to you. The Azeroth Advisor is not a cheat guide or a set of walk-throughs; it is insightful guidance that helps you make informed decisions throughout the game.”
This service used to come at a cost, but now that 38 Studios has purchased it they have made it available free of charge. Very generous of them, considering that they are making an MMO to compete with World of Warcraft. So why would they do this? Seems obvious to me. They plan to offer this same service to players of their game when it goes live. Smart move on their part. This sort of value-added bonus for their future subscribers shows the forward thinking that is going on over at 38 Studios. I applaud them for this move.
Make sure you watch the Wizards vs. Cyborgs video.
- Ethic
Some games require grouping. We hate that, especially when certain classes are required, because you can easily spend half your in-game time looking for group members. Some games encourage soloing. We often like that, but single-player games deliver a much better solo experience. Some games discourage grouping, often as an accident of game mechanics, which is just poor. Some games encourage and reward grouping without requiring it, which is the best of all possible worlds.
I have a very long version with many examples after the break, but that is the core of my message today: encourage grouping, do not require it, and make sure the game mechanics really do encourage it.
You encourage grouping by increasing rewards for groups and adding abilities that require groups to take full advantage of them. You require grouping by giving enemies ridiculous numbers of hit points, failing to scale encounters for different numbers, or making encounters that demand (or all but demand) several specific abilities that are spread across the classes. You discourage grouping by making quests difficult to do together and failing to scale encounters for different numbers. Yes, a lack of scaling can both require and discourage grouping.
Storage is broken in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™. It works, as in I have rarely heard of its losing folks’ stuff, but as a game mechanic it is broken. This is not true for everyone: if you are not a crafter, collector, or social player with several outfits, and you are past level 30, you are fine. Turbine has done some good things to alleviate problems, such as simplifying the crafting items and increasing stack sizes. Once you save a cosmetic outfit, you can get rid of the items. Still, forum discussion directed me to what WoW is planning. Even before that, it would be nice if a game took advantage of the gameplay innovations from previous games. Keyrings, for example, should be required if you have keys. The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ lacks keyrings.
Note in the WoW plans “Pet and mount tabs” and “currency user interface.” That is, don’t store mounts in the vault, and track all those barter/reputation items the way you track money.
So, WoW finally opened up its Latin American servers this past 25th, and made available a localization and language pack to go with it (optional, though. you can play just fine on Latin American servers with the good ol’ vanilla English client and launcher). Being the native Spanish speaker that I am, I decided to give it a whirl. See if I could get in touch with a few friends from really down south and get together in-game.
But nothing could prepare me for the translation to Spanish. How do I want to put it? Okay, let’s try this: It’s repugnant. How about that? Need more qualifiers? Happy to oblige: Obscure, Nonsensical, halfway between machine translation and surrealism.
I won’t make a laundry list of all its sins. But having done a lot of translation work in the past myself, I had to switch back to English before my liver gave up the ghost. I can mention a few things, though:
Jeff Freeman discusses pricing models and ponders gaming one-night-stands.
Brian “Psychochild” Green (I think he legally changed his name to that, complete with quotes, since I never see him called anything else. I forgot to check his license at IMGDC) spoke of the early stages of MMO development. This one is good enough to come back to single time, but I’m telling you now so that you can read it a few times before we discuss it. (via)
Alex Taldren suggests that Princess Peach should get a job.
Alex also suggested that MMO Gamers are lazy and not really gamers.
Should this t-shirt remind me of Scott Jennings?
Saylah at Mystic Worlds discusses We We Solo in MMOs. (Okay, that was April, but I read it in May.)
How about (the apparently nearly most influential person in the MMO world) Scott Hartsman on being organizationally broken? Bonus chance to hate on Dell, if you like. I have commented previously on an outsider’s view of organizational failures in MMOs.
“The Midnight Squad” trailer from City of Heroes is pretty good. I have some editing disputes, but their call. The other one for Issue 12 is less entertaining, but it has some fun with costumes in the crowd. If you missed the magic and Rikti connection in Issue 10, this is a good time to hit that part of the story again.
Many people reviewed Age of Conan. Many many many, too many for me to remember whose I’ve seen. Here are Ethic, Saylah, Keen and Graev, ferv0r, and pretty much all of Tobold and Bildo’s sites for late May. Need a leveling flowchart? Jalum’s review that I linked earlier is probably non-relevant, especially since the miracle patch(es) seems to have miracled pretty well (by varying accounts). I hear a strange mix of “great launch,” “meh, yet another WoW clone with 5% difference,” and “game-breaking bugs and exploits” (to say nothign of the early launch).
Are you reading Ding!? Also pre-May (February), but I think it is a recent addition to our blogroll. WoW-themed webcomic from Scott Kurtz.
Another new friend on our blogroll: The Battered Shield. He has some interesting stuff to say.
Ending off-topic, Greg forms words to list 100 Must-See Movies.
: Zubon