Author: Ravious

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The MMO Siren Song

The dirges of 38 Studios and the many employees of BioWare passed me by last week as I lay in bed with a virus that wished it was strep. Thankfully at this cowboy ranch we call Kill Ten Rats, Cyndre was able to get up a heartfelt post for our team. My favorite two posts on the subject were the reawakening of Broken Toys as Scott Jennings penned an ode to the MMO genre, and Spinks hammering out an always amazing link post. A few days before as the virus began its assault on my tonsils, I wrote a few languishing thoughts that set a desperate preview of what was to come.

I’ll repeat part of the much quoted Jennings’ post where he writes “…the incredible amount of money wasted by EA on what was essentially a roll of the dice that came up 2 and 3, and the even more incredible display of massive hubris and utter incompetence on the part of Schilling and his management team, is killing the very concept of massively multiplayer gaming.” I thought a lot about his words as I lay there staring at the ceiling. Continue reading The MMO Siren Song

[GW2] Time Lapsed Tyria

One Guild Wars 2 fan has a really cool site up that compares side-by-side the differences in the world of Guild Wars 1 to Guild Wars 2 called Project Tyria. For instance most of Guild Wars 2 charr country is built directly upon key locations in Guild Wars Prophecies pre- and post-Searing. There is the Barradin Estate:

I admit that I miss a lot of detail through the quick beta weekend playthroughs, and I usually regret not stopping to smell the roses when there is a lore discussion or someone talks about finding a quiet picnic spot with a Yogi-bear vignette. I can’t wait to see how Project Tyria grows after launch. I bet there are going to be a plethora of amazing side-by-sides.

–Ravious

Languished Thoughts

I am withering away waiting for the next Guild Wars 2 beta event. I have dreams of a dagger-charged necromancer or elementalist that I can’t wait to realize. Yet, the gaming world seems to be darkening as the light of the last Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event is receding. I am trying to shake the feeling as best as I can with Steam sales, and the like. Then I hear what is going on in the news.

Scarlet “MMO”

Except for the aforesaid exception, the MMO genre seems to be bleakening. With a gracious nod to Beau Hindman, I would say that this only seems to be the case for so-called “AAA” titles as F2P titles seem to flood across the land like a scute mob. Continue reading Languished Thoughts

[GW2] I Name Thee Greed

The herd has shifted a little with ArenaNet’s rules for keeping names from the original Guild Wars. Basically log in to Guild Wars soon to get your Guild Wars names on the list. The list holds for the three-day headstart period and the day of the launch. After that miniscule time period, it’s fair game. One-word names are fair game from the start. Afterall, only one player in Guild Wars 2 gets to use the sweet, sweet name “Wizardex”.

It might be the most coveted name for Guild Wars 2 at the moment. Greedy name grubbers. It’s amazing that there is so much greed around names. Continue reading [GW2] I Name Thee Greed

[GW2] The Long Game

There are a lot of head scratchers in the halls of ArenaNet. It’s not that things are wrong per se; just that sometimes they are really going against the grain. For example, their dynamic events are incredibly deep as this video illustrated. Yet it took some small amount of effort to find the hidden depth of the dynamic event.

I admit that it can be hard to stop. Just stop. And enjoy the moment. The transitions  between most events are really quick, but the NPCs do take a small chance to talk. I noticed that I have to stop and pay attention. Fiddling with loot, trading post, or remaining enemies usually means I miss a bit of the story action.

I know that when Guild Wars 2 launches I am going to make sure to set up a chat channel for NPC discussions. Still, I wonder if I will train myself backwards to slow down and get the content hit as it happens. I wonder if I will care, or if it will be go, go, go.

Continue reading [GW2] The Long Game

[GW2] Dynamic Events Edutainment

I’ve seen this video pop up around a few places on the net, and think there can be no better compliment than further promotion. CaraEmm shows off the Guild Wars 2 dynamic events in a really interesting way. He provides multiple perspectives of the action, and he is careful to show how a single event chain is all interconnected. It is great that CaraEmm really showed what it is like to stop and smell the flowers because there are things like this everywhere in the game. I completed this event chain over last beta weekend too, but I was busy snowball fighting outside while the kids were talking. I missed that whole part of the story. Anyway, this video is well worth a watch.

–Ravious

Newbie Blogger Initiative – Cowboy Up

Syp at BioBreak is doing the Good Work, and not just in real life. He is working hard on a project called the Newbie Blogger Initative to support would-be bloggers find their legs all the quicker. It’s no secret that good intentions drive people to create blogs every day… a few posts later, and the blog is as good as dead. Most are lucky to have a dozen hits before death.

There’s a lot of questions, and the good veterans of the ‘sphere have already put forth a huge amount of thoughts on the subject. I want to start at the origin. Well not really, the answer to “Why blog?” should just be “to write”. Yet, there are a lot of questions as to whether we are journalists. One idiotic court has already decided mostly we aren’t, and are therefore less protected by the First Amendment than some paycheck’d writer-brethren. I don’t know whether we count as journalists, but I do know this…

We are goddamn cowboys.

Continue reading Newbie Blogger Initiative – Cowboy Up

[GW2] Fast Banking and Faster Markets

Two of the best features of Guild Wars 2 seems to be also one of the least discussed following the beta weekend event. They are the bank and the trading post. MMO veterans will be right at home, but there are small little ArenaNet-style twists added to each. I had a blast fiddling around with both of them, and when the game launches players are going to be much appreciative of the small things that add up really quickly for the two features.

The Bank

The bank starts out like one would expect. In the cities there is a bank structure where a handful of Banker NPCs stand around waiting for players to make deposits or withdrawals. The main features are most similar to the original Guild Wars style as the bank is an account vault accessible by all characters on the same account.  There is also a tab for common crafting items so that precious unrestricted bank space is left free of crafting materials. Good start so far…
Continue reading [GW2] Fast Banking and Faster Markets

[GW2] What We Have Here Is… Communication

One thing that absolutely amazes me is how much the ArenaNet devs are communicating on the quagmire that is the Guild Wars 2 beta forums. For those with beta access here are the forums as account credentials are required to view the forums. Much of it was just reinforcing constructive feedback, but many times a developer went out of their way to discuss the issues. A sampling of some of the responses are below: Continue reading [GW2] What We Have Here Is… Communication

[GW2] Malaise in Melee

I was helping a friend learn Guild Wars 2 last night when he hit level 11. That’s when players start getting trait points for leveling up. For leveling purposes I told him to go with the power trait line or the precision trait line because both would let him kill enemies faster. I explained that for the next 30 levels he would have to branch out to other trait lines though because until level 40 each trait line could only take 1o points. It appeared the obvious thing to do was fill the damage role first.

I went to sleep thinking about the “wasted” trait lines. Were the more defensive trait lines simply going to be ignored in PvE? Would their traits be strong enough to pull players away from glass-jaw nuking? Between all the beta weekends I had participated in, I just couldn’t picture making any of the more defensive trait lines a primary focus.

I woke up, and read a bunch of really good feedback from some bloggers I like (especially Biobreak, Inventory Full, and especially Spinksville with all of the links). Coupled with a few non-Guild Wars 2 forums I frequent, and it seemed there was some ill feeling about melee viability for Guild Wars 2 PvE. Continue reading [GW2] Malaise in Melee