Author: Ravious

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[GW2] Guild Score

ArenaNet has called guilds in to question. Not all guilds. The very active, very big guilds are having no issues plowing right ahead to unlocking all the mission types at the pace of a few months (or less!). It’s the small guilds that are having problems. It’s the small guilds that feel threatened. It’s the small guilds that are now forced to reflect on whether their community actually reflects ArenaNet’s mechanical definition of a guild.

So what is a guild? Well I would say Guild Wars 2 has two definitions. The first is the objective definition, where players can open the “G”uild menu and click “Create Guild”. Voila, a new guild is born. Yet this is the lowest common denominator of a guild. The subjective definition is whether the guild contains activity to generate Influence, the guild resource, to reasonably progress along ArenaNet’s guild progression track. Continue reading [GW2] Guild Score

[WS] Arkship 2013 Demo Telegraph’d Combat

Continuing my thoughts on my play experience at WildStar’s 2013 Arkship, I also want to discuss the thing that is most core to most MMO’s: combat. The most prevalent MMO combat style is the stand-and-deliver style found in World of Warcraft et al.  The other extreme is something along the lines of Vindictus, with button-mashing, arcade-style combat. WildStar is neither of those, but it takes elements from both. Like its content design it appears to place itself comfortably in a middle.

From a high level view, the easiest thing to discuss in WildStar’s combat system are combat telegraphs. In WildStar’s system enemies have normal, attrition-ish attacks, and they have the big attacks that should be avoided. When an enemy winds up a big attack the ground becomes shaded where the attack would affect players. Honestly I was skeptical at how much the “don’t stand in the poop”-mechanic could really make combat interesting. Continue reading [WS] Arkship 2013 Demo Telegraph’d Combat

[GW2] Slow-Release Storm

The February patch for Guild Wars 2 dropped yesterday. March is going to be the month where all of the content of that patch slowly unfolds. I think it’s hard to fathom for some players that each patch ArenaNet is trying to extend the game’s life in the long term. The expectations seem to be set for a content dump. Instead ArenaNet seems to largely focus on foundational issues and long-life new features. There is of course immediate content to be had, but even there ArenaNet is working on a slow-release.

Dailies

The most apparent change was how daily achievements work. Players that logged on saw all new achievements, do a group event, complete a story step, sacrifice things to the Mystic Forge, or make a couple steals in Keg Brawl. I spent a good amount of time last night in Wayfarer Foothills, and I was amazed at some of the questions. “What is the next story step?” “What is a group event?” Continue reading [GW2] Slow-Release Storm

[WS] Arkship 2013 Demo Content Design

We were allowed to write about our play experience amidst the NDA of WildStar’s 2013 Arkship. The demo was kept to the Deradune zone, which is the open-world starting area for the draken and another race, an Exile I believe. I feel that there is so much more to learn about the quest and combat design in WildStar, but I also feel, given my play experience with many, many MMOs that I have a pretty good feeling where WildStar is heading. This post will be about my thoughts on WildStar’s quest and content design, with another following on the combat design later this week.

WildStar is going to have quests. It will be a “quest-oriented” MMO similar to World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online, but it plays more like Guild Wars 2, the “questless” MMO. Last year’s Guild Wars 2 focused on iterating on the social aspect of open world PvE and Star Wars The Old Republic and The Secret World focused on the story aspects. WildStar is iterating on the basics of quests. Like the name of the game implies, Carbine wants quests to be free in form. Continue reading [WS] Arkship 2013 Demo Content Design

[GW2] Calling Out Content

This month five events had to be completed to finish a daily achievement regardless of the day of the week. A lot of people, like myself, flocked to zones packed with events, such as Queensdale. Yet, the increased population for people looking to knock out the daily achievement was not the best part. The best part was that people were creating a community culture centered around the storm chasing of events.

Group Events

Guild Wars 2 shines when players shock the zone with communication and activity. My favorite zone is quickly becoming Malchor’s Leap. Since the repolishing of Orr, the whole region feels better, and I love the flow of the zone. The Cathedral of Eternal Radiance has got to be one of the most magnificent structures I have seen in any game. The view of the Cathedral from Pyrite Peninsula to the east is breath taking. Tangent much? Continue reading [GW2] Calling Out Content

[WS] Arkship 2013 Non-Disclosed Feedback

I flew in to WildStar’s Arkship 2013 with a preconceived notion that had been implemented by Guild Wars 2 Fan Day. Fan Day was an event where there was no NDA, and we were asked to discuss/ Tweet/ blog/ soapbox-on-an-NYC-street-corner just about everything we had seen. Arkship was different. We weren’t there to advertise anything to the community. We were there because Carbine wanted to get to know us, they wanted us to network with each other, and they wanted our constructive, helpful, and brutal feedback on systems that might not be ready for public consumption. It took me most of Friday night to realize this. Continue reading [WS] Arkship 2013 Non-Disclosed Feedback

[GW2] Expansion Calculus

That Korean Investment firm, KDB Daewoo Securities, is talking Guild Wars 2 expansion… again. They are really keen on it happening the second half of 2013. They probably use models, stock discussions, and neuromantic rituals to determine it among all the other NCSoft happenings for 2013. Let’s make this simpler.

ArenaNet says their Guild Wars 2 Live Team is 15-20 times larger than the live team of Guild Wars 1.  The Guild Wars 1 Live Team is about 5 people. ArenaNet staffs over 300 people. That leaves 2/3 of the studio working on something else. Take away business, pure tech, etc., etc., that still leaves a big chunk working on… something else. Enough to make KDB Daewoo bring it up a second time. Continue reading [GW2] Expansion Calculus

[WS] “D”ominion Bags

WildStar is going to be two-factioned. That’s a discussion I want to have with Carbine, and the merits and flaws are better saved for another post. Regardless, the limelight has fallen on the evil empire, and they are turds. World of Warcraft had vanilla versus monsters. Rift had religion versus technology. Star Wars The Old Republic had yin versus yang. WildStar appears to have rag-tag rebel hippies versus a pretentious, self-loathing evil empire. And right now, the Dominion is who I would choose to play. Continue reading [WS] “D”ominion Bags

[WS] Ark Questions

Like I said last week, Zubon and I are heading off to sunny California to participate in Arkship 2013. Arkship 2013 is going to be a pretty big gathering (30-40 people) where we will get to play the upcoming MMO, WildStar, and participate in dev panels on specific topics. There will be an NDA, but after the event, we will be able to talk about a lot of our experiences.

There was a crush of press feedback last week, and since today is WildStar Wednesday there might be another one today. I highly recommend checking out some of the links compiled by WildStar Central. If you just read one, I recommend Ten Ton Hammer’s write up From Beak to Butt.

Anyway, if you have questions regarding anything about the game. We will do our best to get them answered. Or let us know if there is an aspect of the game that has your attention. I think we are going to get a good amount of play time so we could try and focus in on that aspect. Either way, I am sure next week, and following, we will have plenty to say about WildStar.

–Ravious