[EverQuest 2] I was at Fry’s Electronics today seeing what games I could get for $9.99. I love those “Value Priced” games. Most of them aren’t that great, but I get my $9.99 worth of entertainment out of them ($9.99 is cheaper than a movie in LA nowadays). I came across EverQuest 2 for $19.99. They had a ton of these things. Some poor purchasing manager probably over estimated the popularity of these things.
DC
I read online forums. Alot of online forums. Not just for MMO’s either, but that is a story for a different day. I have found one constant in the forums about MMO’s. Everyone bitches. They bitch about everything. They bitch about bugs, they bitch about nerfs, they bitch about RMT, MPK and anything else in the alphabet soup of complaints. It gets to the point where I wonder why some people play these games.
In amongst all of this bitching there is the occasional voice of sanity. This is a list of the sane and rational thoughts that I have compiled that, if followed, will likely help to improve everyone’s game experience.
1. Have fun. Seriously, if you are not having fun playing these games then something is wrong. If something is wrong, maybe it’s time to find something else to do.
2. Be nice. Its a pretty simple idea. Don’t grief, gank, MPK, or in general piss people off. I am sure it’s fun at the time (actually, I dont even understand how it could be fun at all), but you are just ruining the experience for everyone else. It’s kind of the American way now to only think of yourself, so I guess it’s the cool thing to do, but almost all of these games are based on some kind of community and if you are not helping the community, then you are just hurting it. Even, if you only care about yourself, then you should still be nice, because no one is ever going to help you if you dont.
3. Dont buy or sell in game currency. What is the freaking point? This is not Doom 2. There is no “idclip” command or god mode. What is the purpose in cheating in an MMO? This one has always gotten to me, I just dont understand the motivation. Do they think that all of their friends will think they are “uber” just because they instantly have “uber” gear? More like they will think that you are an attention whore.
4. Want to have “uber” gear, but don’t “need” it. We all want to have our epic armor, or our rings of doom or whatever, but that doesn’t mean its necessary to have them to play the game. Farm, work, quest, do whatever to get it but dont let it frustrate you that you dont have it.
5. Understand simple economics. Just because things are expensive and they are continuing to get expensive doesn’t mean the economy is broken. A contstant in all MMO’s is that money is always coming into the economy, through farming, crafting and questing, and less of it is going out of the economy, through loss, buying NPC items, etc. This means that there is a constant state of inflation in all games. Inflation isn’t bad, per se, because the cost of the item that you want may be increasing but so is the cost of the items that you are farming. It all balances out.
6. The developer is not out to get you. Blizzard really is trying to fix the bugs. SOE really does want you to be happy when you are playing. Square Enix isn’t out to get you. They have tons of people that are working on the games to make them better all the time. Just because YOU feel slighted because YOU perceive a problem doesn’t mean that it is an actual problem.
So, I guess I just spent a bunch of time bitching about bitching. I know I feel better.
ringthree
[City of Heroes] Remind me, do players complain at great length about every nerf?
City of Heroes has almost no end-game content. You can go through the late-40s content, especially the harder stuff now that experience debt does not matter, but the only Big Thing at the end is the Hamidon. The Hamidon is City of Heroes’ one and only raid encounter, and by now players have it figured out (even after a few changes to it). The zone only instances if there are 200 people in it, so anyone level 45+ with a decent computer can go. When Hamidon drops, everyone involved gets rewarded. The reward is a Hami-O.
For those not part of City of Heroes, you do not get equipment as such. Instead, you get slots in your powers into which you can put enhancements, and each enhancement increases it along some axis (damage, range, accuracy, endurance cost, etc.). Aside from Hami-Os and trial rewards, the best of these are single-origin enhancement (SOs), which boost a power by 33% or 20% in one way. Hami-Os instead boost two or three parts by 50% or 30%. Effectively, this lets you eighteen-slot a power, when the limit is six enhancement slots. Characters with many Hami-Os are rather effective. For example, my Blaster’s Trip Mine has six Damage/Accuracy Hami-Os, and it one-shots groups of level+2 minions.
Since there is no other end-game content, people have been raiding Hamidon more or less constantly. Some characters have a Hami-O in every power that can use one. This makes the design of new end-game content difficult: how do you make an encounter good for a new level 50 that is not trivial for someone with 30 Hami-Os? You do not want to make Hamidon raids a required ‘entry fee’ for the rest of the end-game. Also, it has interesting effects on PvP when one character is that much more effective.
The current solution on the test server: a Hami-O will be worth two SOs, instead of 2*1.5. It will boost two aspects by 33% or 20%. Thus, you can still 12-slot a power, but there is no way to cap damage purely off enhancements. If you were using a Hami-O for just one aspect (say, 50% end reduction in Phase Shift), it is no longer useful for that purpose (and an SO will be more effective in that slot, since you can push a SO to level+3, which the CoH players understand and I will not bother to explain for the rest). Free respecs will be given.
To me, this is a sane and mild nerf. Yes, it sucks 1/3 of the effectiveness of something away, which is a large change, put they are still about twice as good as anything out there. I will miss having damage-capped powers, especially since I have several that cannot be buffed by anything other than enhancements, but I will adapt more-or-less instantly. Respec, pull out the ones that are no longer really useful, trade them off to alts who can use them, and we win. I will have some spares kicking around that are completely useless to me, but maybe a future character will need debuffs or maybe I can trade them.
Wow, that is a lot of context for a small observation. As I write this, the official message board thread on the topic has 2,109 replies. We have the usual shouts of doom, whining, whining about whining, mocking of complaints, threats to cancel, etc. Randomly jumping to page 83 of the thread, I see lots of comments about PvP, a parody song, some off-topic banter amongst regulars, some discussion of how this makes characters/the game ‘unplayable,’ and arguments about whether the devs are really great or really suck. The “I’m quitting!” post on that page is not as amusing as some, but it is the first post from someone who registered two days before. We also have two posts on different, milder ways to nerf the powers.
First, as the post title implies, I do not consider it that significant. My level-capped characters have a limit on how obscenely powerful they can be. Wah. It would be nice if this was accompanied by letting us pick which two SOs each Hami-O was equivalent to, instead of random from a specific subset, but I will deal. Actually, for most of my purposes, one nerfed but custom-made Hami-O would be at least as useful as a pre-nerf Hami-O, especially since I have a character who has virtually no use for them.
Second, is it always this bad? I have avoided threads about the latest nerf, but (checking again) 2,115 posts on the thread, and that’s just the official forums. Is there anything new to add to the discussion? Is this just because it is the only change in the pipeline, so the only nerf up for discussion? When the round of Scrapper nerfs went through, there was a lot of discussion, but some of it was actually productive. It involved testing and comparisons and finding what was wrong with the testing environment. There is not so much to discuss here: one category of enhancement is losing some strength. Fin.
Also, anyone care to count whether we have more complaints or mockery of complaints out there? I think complaints used to win, but we get to the point where people complain about people complaining about people mocking those who complain… Wait, no, we passed that point a while back, so now we complain about whining about…
: Zubon
[The Matrix Online] OK, everyone has probably heard about Sony Online Entertainment aquiring the rights to The Matrix Online from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. I played The Matrix Online for a while and I thought it had the most potential of any MMO. But, like the Matrix movies, potential was not realized.
Remember at the end of the original Matrix movie? Neo was stopping bullets in mid-air, beating the crap out of agents, and flying around in full view of the public. You got the feeling that in a sequel with a bigger budget they could do amazing things. Plus you had the very interesting story of how the world (well, those “blue pills” in the Matrix anyways) would react to seeing a flying man. Instead of showing us any of that, in the sequels Neo pretty much just goes around kung fu fighting more people.
Instead of one agent he takes on hundreds, plus two ghosts for good measure. We don’t learn how the world reacts to flying Neo or seeing Morpheus swordfight on a moving truck. By the time the third film came along, they basically gave up everything they set up at the end of the first film and focused on the real world (Zion). I actually enjoyed the last film a lot and I think the people making the new Superman movie should watch that final fight between Neo and Smith. The second film actually isn’t that bad either if you try and ignore all the pretentious pseudo philosophy talk. However, neither film lived up to the potential of the first one. Why is Neo even worried about agents when he could stop bullets and easily defeat them at the end of the first one (the answers is probably because they didn’t want to make him too powerful, which would be boring to watch since he would never be in danger)? Well, the game pretty much suffers the same fate as the film series.
The game is based on a great premise that it never really lives up to. Maybe I’m just missing the whole techno punk aesthetic, but the game is very depressing to play. The gloomy, green tinged cityscape aside, the central concept of the game is to maintain the status quo. The three factions (Machine, Zion, and Merovingian) have a peace which you must maintain although you spend much of your time killing operatives of the other factions. While it makes no real difference which side you choose in the game, if you look at it logically, why would anyone side with not Zion? Before you point to Cypher, who betrayed everyone and worked for the Machines in the first film, realize that in that film the Machines agreed to let him re-enter the Matrix and live a happy life with no knowledge of the real world. Which mean the motivation (storywise anyways) for joining the Machines in game is to… one day not have to play the game? Maybe I’m just taking the story aspect too seriously. Some people probably just get a kick out of working for the Machines, but for me I must be emotionally invested in the story to enjoy the game.
In WoW I truly have moments when I feel bad for the Undead and want to kill those Scarlet Crusade bullies picking on them. In MxO the most sympathetic faction is Zion, but they admittedly cannot win and their goal is to only maintain the status quo, which isn’t exactly the most exciting of motives.
MxO was probably designed to have murky motives that might appeal to some. The incredible ammount of customization of wardrobe and abilities would definately appeal to more hard core gamers. However, the game suffers from more than just a tedious storyline. The finished game just wasn’t polished. It was confusing as hell and it was harder to get into than Guild Wars. To be fair, I did not experience any of the live events that MxO is know for. Friends who have told me those really shined and alone are enough to justify the monthly fee. If they are as fun and involve as many famous actors from the film as I’ve heard they are, I would agree. (BTW, what ever happened to those elemental attacks promised in the last, last WoW patch?) I love in game events. I even liked the lack luster Children’s Day WoW had a while back. It was lousy, but at least it was something new.
Getting back to MxO: under Sony I’m not sure the special events will continue. They were probably the main reason to play to game to anyone outside die hard Matrix fans. Over the past few years Sony has actually gone from electronics company to major media player. They bought out Columbia Pictures and are now a major Hollywood player. I would imagine that they could definately continue putting out decent MxO events. They got Heather Graham for EverQuest 2 so it isn’t as if they haven’t involved famous actors with their online games in the past. I’m just not sure MxO will be a huge priority for them. The game doesn’t have huge subscription numbers and their flagship title is EQ2, which has had live events as well, although, by all reports, not as fun as the MxO ones.
It’ll remain to be seen if SOE is commited enough to continue producing live events for MxO. Remember, the MxO live events involve must be approved by the studio (Warner Bros. would probably not be happy if they had a live event where everyone dies and they can never make another sequel), the creators (who have been said to have wanted to continue the Matrix storyline in the game and were active in the games development), and actors (who would get hefty paychecks and some creative input). How difficult will it be for SOE, which is owned by Sony Pictures, to work with Warner Bros., a rival studio? Then again, SOE seems to get along fine with Fox, which owns Star Wars, but everyone knows Lucas really owns Star Wars.
I was going to write about SOE aquiring the rights to a DC Comics MMO set to be released in 2007, but didn’t realize that I’d write so much about MxO. I’ll do the DC Comics thing later this week. For those keeping score: DC Comic is at Sony Online Entertainment. Vivendi Universal has the rights to a Marvel Comics MMO.
DC
[World of Warcraft] Battlegrounds has been around a little over a week now. Most blogs seem to be blasting the system, but I’ve been a big fan of it. Yes the system has a lot of flaws that I will get to. However, battlegrounds has done what new raid instances (which cannot be experienced by anyone who is a casual to moderate player) never could. Battlegrounds has brought people who had stopped playing and considered cancelling their subscriptions back to the game. During the past week or so I have been seeing a lot of people that I quested with way back when. Admittedly, many are there just to see what the fuss is about, but those who have gotten into battlegrounds, like myself, are pulling all nighters again just like the first week we had the game.
As mentioned earlier, while I personally enjoy Battlegrounds, some people are put off by the many bugs and poor design choices. The top 3 seem to be:
1) Lack of any organization: I mentioned this in my previous posts. When you enter Battlegrounds you are not placed into any sort of group unless you were already part of a group when you enter. I’m not sure if its laziness or selfishness, but most people seem content to just kill things on their own or with a small group. Even when a raid group gets going, you can be sure that about half of the people on your side in the instance will just continue to go about doing their own thing. When you do get a decent sized group, it is another monumental feat to get more than 3 people to charge with you. Despite the lack of any penalty for death (aside from a walk from the graveyard) a lot of people aren’t willing to put themselves on the line.
2) Queues/Game time: They can’t really do anything about the wait times, but I agree that the games take way too long sometimes (more so Alterac than Warsong). This is a problem because certain NPCs in Alterac that give side quests do not respawn. On our server we’ve had a battle going on its third day now where the Alliance has not lost one bunker and have been at the gates of Frostwolf Village since day one. To win and reset the instance they must kill our leader in Frostwolf Village. They’ve summoned their calvalry and elemental and yet the Horde have held them off for 3 days. The Horde’s chances for victory, with the Alliance still having all their bunkers in tact, is slim (although it has been done on our server under similar conditions before), but those who need to turn in quests to dead NPCs are pretty much out of luck until one side finally wins.
3) Imbalances: Alterac seems fairly balanced as far as player classes are concerned. Warriors are still getting most of the killing blows, but I’ve gotten quite a few and I’m a priest. The map is, I think, a bit unbalanced, although I think that may be part of the design. In my experience the Alliance base has been very difficult to get in to (without an elemental anyways), but once we took out the two bunkers and crossed the bridge, it has fallen easily. The Horde base, on the other hand, has been breached many times by the Alliance, but getting to that final room where the Captain is has been difficult for the Alliance. In Warsong, the map is balanced, but both sides must employ a different style of play. The Alliance has the paladin, who, when paired up with a priest or two, is a pretty unstoppable flag carrier. When a guy who wears plate armor, can heal himself, can become temporarily invincible, and can cure himself of damage over times gets the flag, it is pretty hard to stop him. While the shaman’s ghost wolf form is useful, the shaman is much weaker than a paladin and must rely more on the team’s ability to keep enemies away while he makes a run for it compared to the paladin who is more of a walking tank.
Well, that’s just my two cents on the issue. I’m sure I’m wrong about some of it and there’s probably much deeper problems out there that I missed, but for me these have stood out. Despite this, I am a big fan of BG and they have reignited my interest in the game. Blizzard will be getting my $15 for at least another month. More are said to be on the way (hopefully one with the Undead as faction leaders), plus siege weapons are in the planning stages.
In EVE Online, I have started my attack on the asteroid fields of my corp system, having setup camp in the system and am now starting my full scale operation on mining the pyroxeres there. This is yielding me 10 million isk a day and I’m working most of my free time mining. This of course means I won’t be playing World of Warcraft any longer.
I’m finding WoW to be more boring everytime I log on. Less to do, feels more repetitive, more grind, and more PvP induced lag. I’m done with WoW until blizz gets a grip and trashes the honor system. They have 2 million players but I’ll see how long it takes for them to lose those subscriptions as more and more people put the can on thier accounts.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of WoW, but with all the PvP going on in the PvE server, it’s become so laggy it’s not even bearable and my level makes me absolutely useless in PvP combat.
So as far as EVE goes, I’m nearing 100 million credits, standing at 80 million now. Since the war is over and my self proclaimed war on the pyroxeres has left me with great income and around my system I’m known as “Zxyrox the Pyrox King”, I go out and mine 2 fields of it every day =).
Our Corp will also begin construction of our POS (player owned structure) this weekend, if all goes well we should be making it tomorrow. Today we did some ice mining, a long process but fun none the less. More info later, gotta go mine more ice. :)
-Zxyrox
[EVE Online] You know, honestly, I don’t like blathering on about an MMO that I am actually enjoying because I have been here before. Sooner or later (and recently it is always sooner) I grow tired and bored and start to lose interest in playing. The magic fades away and the mechanics are all that is left. Going through the motions is not fun and “The Cancel” soon follows.
But here I go again.
EVE is scratching me in all the right places. The latest itch is classes. EVE does not technically have classes, but you can fill the role of most traditional classes. You can fight, craft, tradeskill, work the market, support, etc. You can be any or all of those. To change class, most of the time all you need to do is switch to a different ship.
Let’s say you are out mining ore because you want to make some money when out of the blue your friend says he needs help with a mission. You fly back to the station and switch into a ship set for support. This ship has devices on it capable of remotely boosting shields and power on your friends ship. After the mission’s battle ends, you return to the station and check the market. Seeing that your ore is more valuable 4 systems away, you get onboard of your transport ship and load all the ore. Off you go to make some extra cash just for making a little trip.
Upon returning, another friend is out mining and there are pirates bothering him. Hop into your sleek fast fighter and go get them off his back. Loot their goods and collect the bounty and you are making money again. I could go on but I think you get the point.
Now you’ll have to excuse me, there are some “rats” out there with my name on them.
– Ethic
[Final Fantasy XI] The game that loves to be neglected is giving you more and more. And they do it without promising it 6 months before release and finally patching it in 6 months after. Looks like Final Fantasy XI is getting more named mobs, and all the yummy items that entails in the next update. These will be quested mobs (to prevent over camping) or instanced mobs that are available through the Chains of Promathia storyline.
From the official site:
The FFXI development team will soon add a slew of notorious monsters! These monsters may be challenged in several areas, and others may be discovered during all-new quests! As if that weren’t enough, brand-new battlefields await, including rematches with formidable opponents from Chains of Promathia! Keep your eyes peeled for this exciting new update!
One eager FFXI player that can’t wait for mid-July!
-ringthree
From Corpnews I found this evidence that people are broken:
A thoughtless couple in their 20s who left their four-month old daughter at home while they played Internet computer games at a nearby PC café have been booked by police after the child died.
According to Incheon Police Station on Tuesday, a 29-year-old man husband identified by his family name of Yu and his wife put their four-month daughter in the bedroom of their home and went to a neighborhood PC café at around 4:00 p.m. on May 24 to play the online game “World of Warcraft”.
Time flew by as the couple lost themselves in the game, and when they returned home at 9:00 p.m., their daughter was lying on her stomach, dead of suffication.
Read the rest here.
If it wasn’t an MMORPG, it would be a quick drink at the bar or just running to the store for a “second”. Something is wrong with these people. Something is very, very wrong with these people.
Wake up, real life is happening all around you and you aren’t even living it. Focus on what is important. A game is just a game, it is entertainment. Don’t make it out to be something more than that. Nobody cares if you have a level 60 Rogue, it just does not matter. If you are looking for respect, love, accomplishments, or fame, try life out – there is a lot of room for more good people doing good things. It may seem like you get those from a game, but the reality is that you don’t.
Whatever your obsession is and for whatever reason you turn to it, try to remember what is really important and not let your obsessions run your life.
– Ethic
[Final Fantasy XI] Square Enix posted on the Final Fantasy XI main page that the new update will be available in mid-July. As usual, the update will include new quests, equipment and mobs. It will also include the conclusion to the Chains of Promathia storyline which, if it is handled the way the Rise of the Zilart storyline was handled, may indicate that the next expansion is around the corner. My guess? It will be released with the Xbox 360 version.
The development team is currently working on the next version update, which will include all the usual goodies–new quests, new Notorious Monsters, and various system additions and improvements–as well as the thrilling climax to the Promathia story. Watch this space for the latest announcements regarding update details.
The next version update is scheduled to take place in mid-July.
– ringthree