Author: Ravious

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[Rift] A Spam Contribution

Trion Worlds has a fantastic game going into early access launch this Thursday (1 EST), but they still have a lot of work cut out for them. Likely the biggest issue is going to be massaging souls (classes) to get them where they work. I am not worried about balance for each soul, but I expect that Trion will work out a strong niche for each calling. I’ve been reading balance issues all over the board, but then again even the longer-toothed World of Warcraft is still fiddling with classes.

The one challenge I hope Rift can make work is the contribution system for the dynamic content. Right now, quite frankly, it sucks.

Continue reading [Rift] A Spam Contribution

[GW2] Necromancer: The Gambler

(Note: This post was written for the GuildMag Blog Carnival Event. Be sure to check out the other great articles!) http://www.guildmag.com/blog-carnival-event-bring-the-popcorn

The necromancer in Guild Wars has a handful of iconic builds, those that rise like cream. The necromancer is a lord of hexes and conditions, yet arguably it’s heart, it’s purpose is to be a minion master. The minion master’s purpose is to quickly convert bodies into undead slaves as quickly as possible. Unlike a pet oriented class, such as Guild Wars ranger or the pitiful necromancers in other MMOs, the minion master cares not about a single creature it creates. It sends them on their way in to the meat grinder hoping their death even brings destruction.

After 250 years, the necromancer profession has changed and evolved. Legend says it was a sylvari that asked the simplest question of all, which would change the minion master forever: “Why do we need bodies?”

Continue reading [GW2] Necromancer: The Gambler

[GW2] Preparing for Norn Week

I’ve been officially told, norn week starts next week (with norn-sized versions of the tasty snacks human week brought us), and that gives us all plenty of time to get prepared this weekend. These shape shifting half-giants want to live life to the fullest. Their goal in life is to live eternally in legend. A skaald telling tales of a norn’s life is one of the highest pinnacles of achievement for anybody. At least that’s what the norn think. Their tale is an interesting one. Are they fallen kodan or half-human? Are their totem spirits splinters of the same gods the human’s worship? Does it matter? They are norn. And that’s that.

Still, over this weekend, we can prep for the Viking-like Guild Wars 2 race. Here’s a list of movies to get started. Feel free to add your own movies, music, books, or games in the comments below.

Troy – while this movie has little do with Viking, the entire movie is based on the need for a hero to create a legend to the point of disaster. This might be a starting point for many norn characters, a great hero without a legend.

13th Warrior – keeps up the legend vibe of Troy, but it also has the much needed Viking vibe. Replace the Wendol with the icebrood, and Antonio with an asura, and it’s nearly Guild Wars 2 – Norn movie.

How to Train Your Dragon – mostly a kid’s movie, but their humorous take on stubborn, heroic Vikings can’t be beat. The Viking in the opening scenes picking his teeth while dragons attack all around him makes me think of the norn every time.

Erik the Viking – norn life is one of hardship and tragedy, and that’s why norn make such light of it. For every tear there is a joke. For every blood-stained burial there is a beer-stained party. For every Beowulf, there is an Erik.

–Ravious
the wind that smells fresh before the storm

[Rift] Starting Soul Guide

There is actually one little big issue with Rift that I believe could have been dealt with in a different way. The problem is that the soul system is shoved in player’s faces in full. Of the 4 classes (warrior, rogue, cleric, and mage) each has 7-9 souls, and for the first 13 levels, players will be locked in to their three first choices. The soul tree system makes it a little easier because players aren’t really given the ability to choose bad skills, but initial soul selection is meaningful.

Now, I say this is a small issue in one light because no matter which three souls are chosen, players will get to the point where they can freely build from all the souls without much difficulty. However, it can be frustrating to choose a soul that is more oriented towards heavy group content or PvP without even realizing it because the player didn’t spend a good hour looking at the various soul trees. The game gives some guidance with a brief description and a note on which other two souls have the most synergy with the chosen soul. Still, I think with a little more narrowed path, players will have a lot more fun playing a “good” build right away.

Continue reading [Rift] Starting Soul Guide

[RIFT] Faction Cool Factor

Open beta began yesterday with Rift. I am heading to the Guardian side initially at launch after I have spent most of the invitation-oriented beta on the Defiant side. The Defiant are a cool, god-forsaken magitech alliance. They comprise three different “new” races, lots of cool lasers and devices, and a total sense of independence. In their tutorial, the Defiant oppose fate and time by building a time machine to change the past for heaven’s sake. Then, we have the Guardians.

Having only experienced the Defiant side, I believed that the Guardians were going to be this boring vanilla faction. The Defiant have races with cool names I can’t even remember, and the Guardians have humans, elves, and dwarves. The Defiant are rebellious, and the Guardians are just part of the system… man. I also saw my prejudices confirmed in various forums on Rift. It seemed that everybody was excited about the Defiant, and “mature” guilds were considering rolling Guardian side just to get away from that immature crowd.

Continue reading [RIFT] Faction Cool Factor

[BioWare] No Good Deed

EDIT: So BioWare it seems is pretty swift with making sure this is made right. They sent me a copy of the email, which I am not authorized to share, but it does break it down in a pretty “plain language” format. I still think they are a little bully-ish because it starts out with mention of the “binding legal contract,”  which can set the reader to defensive right away. But, the crux of the email is “we want to promote you guys!” The email even discusses the need to pay for server costs, etc. vs. the benefit of being promoted. Thanks to BioWare for the clarification.

Wait a minute. So BioWare contacts Star Wars: The Old Republic fan-sites, those that are exclusive to their game, and reminds them that if they are making money on their fan-site, then according to a two-year old click-through agreement, BioWare cannot promote the fan-site. And, this is controversial? Did I miss a takedown notice or Valentine’s day sacrifice of a goat force fed chocolates to death on BioWare’s steps?

To be fair (and given that I have not seen this offending email), it seems that BioWare’s intention to promote community backfired. It seems to me that BioWare wants to promote fan-sites, and are trying to remind the fan-sites that BioWare can only do so if the fan-site follows some reasonable terms. This of course blew up in their face, as most things do, when a simple request is inundated with legalese to a ridiculous degree. Of course they came off as bullies when using language that normal humans don’t speak. Even my wife [constantly] reminds me of that!

Lawyers should not be contacting fan-sites unless they intend to sue them. If all BioWare wanted to do was hope to promote more fan-sites a short, simple email from a community manager would have sufficed. Don’t fire the Death Star when a simple psychokinetic strangling will do the trick.

–Ravious
the first one’s free

Hat Tip: BioBreak

[GW2] Humans – Can You Hear the Thunder?

The most interesting part, in my mind, of the Guild Wars 2 human week was not what was told. That is not to say I wasn’t incredibly impressed with the setup and delivery. It’s just that if I were to choose a human as my main character, I might want to look at what they aren’t saying… Where the focus wasn’t.

For good reason, Guild Wars 2 is narrowing the scope of the world back to the continent of Tyria where the first Guild Wars, Prophecies, took place. There are five playable races, of which all but two are believed to be native to the Tyrian continent. The charr and the sylvari are definitely native. Asura came from beneath the Tyrian continent, and have never spoken of being in other places in the world. Finally, the norn’s origins are unknown, but their are theories they might be half-human anyway (given that they… might be the same species in the most copulatory sense). This leaves the most decidedly non-native humans.

Continue reading [GW2] Humans – Can You Hear the Thunder?

[GW] A Whirling Change

The Nightfall professions in Guild Wars always felt the most separated from the core professions. There were definitely times were the paragons and dervishes were some of the most powerful entities on the battlefield, but they always felt like some mirror-world offspring of the core warrior profession. Well ArenaNet has been working hard on two huge updates, and last night the valiant leader of the Guild Wars Live Team posted a huge preview for the dervish changes. The goal of the dervish update was to give it’s style of play more meaning and to cultivate the essence of a dervish, rather than having an enchantment heavy warrior.

Continue reading [GW] A Whirling Change

[GW2] NCSoft 4Q Conference Call and Release Date Speculation

In the midst of the Guild Wars 2 human week, many fans are experiencing some other very real human emotions. Thanks to GigaShadow, the contents of the NCSoft 4Q 2010 Conference Call have been picked for any Guild Wars 2 information. It seems that Guild Wars 2 (and Blade and Soul) are objectively set to finish development by the end of 2011. However, NCSoft is ready to put both games at a later launch to make sure they are able to fully react to the very subjective open and closed beta feedback.

This is not to say that a 2011 release for Guild Wars 2 (and Blade and Soul) will not happen because NCSoft says they have scenarios already planned for such a release. However, they warn shareholders that 2011 revenue might not be impacted by the games. This, of course, explains why ArenaNet has refused to say Guild Wars 2 will launch in 2011 because they aren’t even 100% sure.

I think this is bittersweet. Of course I want Guild Wars 2 now now now, but I also want it to be a mindblowing game. In a recent Rift interview, Trion Worlds said that the game is on such a stable base that the devs are actually able to work on requested game improvements that are received through beta feedback rather than trying to plow through work that should have been done before beta. I hope that this is where Guild Wars 2 will be when they start the beta process.

–Ravious

[GW2] Peace and Carrots

The content of Human Week started with an audio-filled blog post on the ArenaNet blog, which is a nice human-centric follow-up to an earlier post on these types of sounds. The sound bites aren’t combat grunts, death taunts, or NPC story time. Rather, they are the sounds a player would hear just running along the streets of the human capital, Divinity’s Reach. People talking about marriage, religion, strife, politics, war, and love all are included in this ear-filling offering. These additions are really a bittersweet symphony.

On the good side, they blow the game’s immersion levels through the roof. I can only imagine running along and actually stopping so I can hear the end of the conversation. The sound clips available in the post are really well-written and well-spoken. Some are very witty, and some are very interesting. Plus, if they are sprinkled with exciting tidbits that actually lead to something. “Wait, what?” you think, “The human hero dude got in a fight with evil politician’s guards.” Tell me more!

Yet, this huge immersion groundswell also makes me nervous. It’s a huge undertaking, and it will continue to be for every future expansion. Either that or expansions won’t have that level of detail, which would be a nice glaring hole. ArenaNet also has to be extremely wary of repetition and temporal stasis. I don’t want to hear about Minister Caudecus’s brilliant oration in Senate for the fifth time after I found out Caudecus was going to be the next Lich and slew him verily. Additionally, I hope that they have subtitles or chat bubbles for these asides for both the hearing-impaired and those that have to be listening to their wife.

Back to the good, this is a beautiful master stroke against quest text. All that background, lore, and hints at movements far larger than a character’s own can be hidden in these aural gems. The “quest” text can be left to something quickly and simply read. “Centaurs are burning my farm! Stop them!” is all we would need, instead of 200 words leading up to the climax of player action. All that stuff about why the centaurs are burning farms, taking breeding horses, Farmer Beau’s “grass,” and their northerly attitude can all be told elsewhere.

–Ravious
we goes together