Month: July 2009

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Does Wizard 101 Gameplay Get Good?

Over the past couple of nights, I have run through all the free content in Wizard 101 (my apologies for not asking for a referral beforehand). Is this pretty much what the entire game is like? There are a few buffs, heals, shields, pets, etc., but most of the time is spent with attacks that have a summon animation. There are some tactical options, but mostly it is hitting an attack and waiting out the 5-10 second animation that you have now seen a couple dozen times. Most things drop in a few attacks, absent the fizzles, so it is slightly more than the standard MMO 1-2-1, but it takes 30 seconds for those few clicks.

My problem might be falling in that age range between playing Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh and having kids who play Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Even a few years of playing Magic: the Gathering will not banish the stigma of “what those annoying adolescents were doing just after I stopped being an annoying adolescent.”

: Zubon

Grumishing

Going off my short burst play tangent, last night I had another great experience in Wizard 101.  Below the Krokosphinx there is a hub that leads to four other areas.  However, in that area is a boss named Grumish Greataxe.  Grumish can only be summoned by players that have completed a quest chain, but once summoned anybody can join.

I signed on excited to get to the third and final hub in Kroktopia, but people were fighting Grumish.  So, I joined them because joining a boss fight can only make things better for all.  We beat him pretty good, and I got to flex my mighty-Potter pythons with lightning versus the myth boss (lightning beats myth, fire beats ice, etc.).  During the time we smacked the minotaur around a small crowd had gathered, and people in the crowd were rearing to take the boss on as well.  So, I joined again.  Then again.  I never made it to the next hub.

It was just a blast to fight this boss with a rotating group of other people knowing that I could leave at anytime between fights without anyone batting an eye.  While there is good and bad to the transient nature of grouping in Wizard 101, the emergence of this pick-up style play will rarely happen in a more traditional MMO.  I think the only other time I was this excited to just play with people at a whim was in the early days of Warhammer Online where public quests were actually populated.

I hope that true pick-up play will occur more often in the MMOs of the future.

–Ravious
a burrahobbit?

You Are Running on Defective Hardware

Part of the transhumanist cause is based on the failures of the human brain. The wetware running “you” is whatever evolution cobbled together over several eons. My new favorite example? Blue and green. Just click and look, because I cannot explain it any better. I even double-checked the graphics myself.

Your brain does not work correctly. Upgrade as soon as the technology is available.

: Zubon

Link via Volokh, and see also.

Copy / Paste

New MMORPGs are accused of being rip-offs of WOW. Before that people compared MMOs to EverQuest. New MMOs always copy what they think is working and slap on a new theme and and tweak a few mechanics. We could say that the developers are greedy and want a piece of that WOW pie, but I hardly think that’s all there is to it.

I used to play Muds, and every mud I played was a rip-off of some other Mud. I don’t just mean they copied some game-mechanics or ideas about leveling, I mean they copied entire zones and sections of code. I played Vampire Wars, which was a rip-off of God Wars, which was an altered version of Merc, which was a modified version of DikuMud. I coded for Cythera, which was a split off from World of Carnage, which was a heavily modified version of CircleMud, which itself also derived from DikuMud.

To this day, slash commands like /bow from early Muds are still used in the most modern of MMOs. We still have hit points and mana points and we still work on getting better gear when we’re done with leveling. We still have these things because they work. Why fix what isn’t broken?

League of Legends: Free

You know how rarely I link to game companies’ press releases. This is an interesting announcement: League of Legends (DotA: the next generation) will be free.

RMT shop? Yes, of course. The stated intent is that the paid-for options will be cosmetic, convenience, or quicker access. You pay for options to be unlocked that you would otherwise need to earn. This could be done perfectly properly. This could also be done by making the non-pay option a ridiculous grind. City of Heroes intended the paid-for packs to be mostly cosmetic; each has included a very nice but not overly devastating power, and you mostly pay for costume pieces and travel convenience there. I reserve judgment until we have details (some to come Friday).

The most important developer quote:

Yes, the person who plays a lot and pays us $0 will have everything that the guy who pays us money but plays a moderate amount does except:
1) He will be missing some champion SKINS (not champions, but goth annie, black minotaur, plus more to come).
2) He may be missing a few minor convenience features.

What they will have in common at that point is:
1) Access to all champions
2) Access to all runes (the hardcore guy who pays $0 may have access to more realistically)
3) Max level summoners
4) Access to the new maps, matchmaking modes, etc as they come available.

: Zubon

Another Dip Test

Sometimes people make pretty quick judgments.  A dip test.  That’s why the starting areas, quests, music, etc. of an MMO have to be polished to near-blinding.  What about a dip test for the game in the middle?  Many times gamers lie awake at night – not “tired” –  thinking about games.  There is some amount of activation energy required to roll out of bed, log on, and play in a way where it was meaningful to roll out of bed in the first place.  A midnight dip test.

I was also not “tired” the other night, and I wanted some quick MMO play to calm my furied mind.  Wizard 101 was the easy choice.  I could log on, warp close to a play area of choice and run there in under a minute, and log off within a 15 minute time span.  I opted, actually, to play the mini-games to refill my potions and see how high a level I could get.  Games like Wizard 101, Puzzle Pirates, and Guild Wars rule at this quick guilt-free amount of play where activities that occur are meaningful. Continue reading Another Dip Test

The Dangers of Self-Insertion

Quite a few writers and artists have abused the fourth wall by putting themselves in their works. By sheer mass, the majority must be fanfic writers. Some use veiled substitutes for themselves or idealized versions (see Atlas Shrugged and Twilight), but others go right ahead and dive in. The wisest have done so in works under their exclusive control.

There is no way that Statesman “is” Jack Emmert in this sense. That was his handle and a role he played occasionally, and it can be unfortunate to put something you think of as your character under someone else’s control, but few people think they are killing Jack Emmert by proxy in the Lord Recluse Strike Force. Are Guards Black and Moor closer to the (now) 38 Studios employees? I really don’t know that they have any background, just a reference someone mentioned to me.

I mention this because Chris Sims, your friend and mine, points out the odd case of Grant Morrison. He wrote himself into an Animal Man comic, which means that he is an official, in-continuity DC character. (One can argue about whether DC can claim copyright on his person or likeness, make action figures, etc. This is not my point today.) Another writer took advantage of this and used Grant Morrison as a villain in his comic, killing him off quickly.

: Zubon

As of now, Kill Ten Rats is the only place on record in the entire universe (well, Google) as using the phrase “see Atlas Shrugged or Twilight.” It takes a rare sagacity to put those words together.