Month: March 2014

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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

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Grind Intentional Losses

MPQ I previously used a bit of understatement to describe Marvel Puzzle Quest’s match-making algorithm as unfortunate. “Horrible” might still be an understatement. The game pushes towards asynchronous PvP, and the only way to face reasonable opponents is to intentionally, repeatedly lose. This is not a bug or emergent gameplay; this is how the game is actually designed. If you win, you face opponents who also won. If you are good, you will keep getting better opponents until the level-based numerics make it impossible to win against a squad of level 100+ enemies. You can boost your numbers further by buying boosts, and then get harder opponents, and so on until you run out of money and/or go back to intentionally losing.

Because the game is still live, I presume that a fair number of people went with “spend money.” Because the sheep fed into this system cannot stick around long.

This is an improvement over a period of time when the game did something similar in PvE. If you won a fight in a PvE event, all the PvE enemies leveled up. Repeat unto level 200+ in a game where your heroes mostly cap at level 40-85. Imagine that in your MMO: for every monster you kill since you last died, every monster attacking you gets a stacking buff to damage and resistance. Actually, that could be an interesting challenge for instanced content, except that MPQ left it on for all their PvE events for weeks.

: Zubon

[RR] Memorable Props

The best campaign I ever ran was using FATE, which is a system able to wrangle our group towards more roleplaying. One of the reasons it was so good, in my opinion as the GM of that show, was that each NPC was memorable. Okay, maybe not every single NPC that I threw under the bus (or that drove it), but I worked hard to make each situation memorable.

Coloring encounters will result in a stronger game as the table unifies in the vision of the encounter. Everybody is going to have some picture in their mind of what is going on, but it is so easy to gloss over the details and turn the encounter into a stark distillation. Players will also have different levels of imagination and stock in the game. It is part of the GM’s job to make sure encounters can be colorful.  Continue reading [RR] Memorable Props

[GW2] Season 1 Thoughts

As part of the GuildMag hosted blog carnival, I am writing about the end of Living World Season 1. The tl;dr even in my mind is… I think I had fun? It’s kind of a weird feeling. I know I am a Guild Wars 2 ”fanboi” in the best and worst senses. So we have that. But, then I think I am honestly critical of where I see flaws in my favorite MMO.

I feel with the end of Living World Season 1 like I did after each season or the finale of LOST. It was an awesome journey. There were horrible plot holes, silly episodes, and moments of TV-gold. At each “end” of LOST, it felt like the whole season was just swept away, and all that was left was a fine point. I have great memories I can dredge up about the journey, but the journey is over. Now, I just want to look ahead. I don’t know if I can write this post without trying to look behind. Continue reading [GW2] Season 1 Thoughts

Sneaky Rocks

You fight several rocks in Runespell, ones that you can see from a long ways away and at least one that you challenge to a duel. (While I have never seen Yu-Gi-Oh!, I am led to believe that challenging magic rocks to duels via card games makes much more sense for that audience.) If the rock gets the first turn, the game announces, “You have been ambushed!”

And I’ll be honest, I did not see that one coming.

: Zubon

Your TV Tropes link of the day.

Gaming Goals

I usually post after I’m done playing something, rather than the “Wot I’m Playin'” that some game bloggers do. Trying that out:

  • Guild Wars 2 is coasting. I tend to play every other day for less than an hour. My Engineer is approaching level 80, after which only my Necromancer needs levels. I still get all the Living World meta-achievements, but I have no real goals other than “cleaning up” characters. I have missed guild missions for about the last month, so I think I’ll catch some of those and maybe try to get back into WvW.
  • I have a few other games with daily login bonuses that I log in for, but once a game is on that low of coast status, I tend to quit soon. Marvel Puzzle Quest has teetered on the edge of that precipice since I stopped posting about it, but that game keeps putting out low-hanging fruit, and most days I can enjoy a few minutes’ worth of match-3 gameplay.
  • I will usually get the badge of the day at Kongregate unless it looks like no fun. I also play a few new games there each week, which often leads to having the badge of the day before it becomes the badge of the day.
  • I still play Game of Thrones Ascent daily. Some days I pay close attention and binge, some days I just log in a couple of times to reset timers. I am gradually working through reincarnations there to collect skills. I am most of the way through my “reincarnie army” of gold sworn swords, with a goal of 18 (two of each). The hardcore folks in my alliance can reincarnate twice in a week; I reincarnate every two weeks when I am actively playing, every two months when I am coasting. My alliance is in active competition for first place in the current round of Alliance vs. Alliance, and helping with that is slowing down personal goals. I am part of what I describe as our Friendship Squad: we focus on sending support to our allies, rather than attacks to our enemies.
  • I also play Dawn of the Dragons, although there is not a huge difference between active play and coasting in a game with an energy mechanic. Log in, empty bars, reset timers, all set. Our guild is working on gearing folks for campaigns.
  • My Guild Wars guild has spawned a Steam group, and I am managing that for us. I am starting to get events going there. It is harder to find common ground for many people in a multi-game format, unlike the single-game guild where everyone has the one in common, and I expect to be playing around with more games there.
  • Also on Steam, I have been collecting all the trading cards I can by leaving games logged in. I am about done with that. As a result, I have another small set of games to try since I already have them downloaded.
  • Runespell: Overture.
  • About once a week, I play a round of TF2 MvM with friends who are very into that, like 50 tours into that. I am the lesser partner there, but I am known to be non-horrible.
  • I’m enjoying Plants vs. Zombies 2 much more on the endless levels, where you know you’re eventually supposed to hit something unbeatable

: Zubon