Rift is in alpha/beta mode. Guild Wars 2 has an new demo on the way, and that there BioWare game is secretly in alpha… we think. Even for those not playing any of the three upcoming games, they are all having some effect on bloggers and mortals alike. It is simple fact that by now a beta is as much a marketing tool as it is an engineering one. So how are they being handled? Ardwulf takes a few blogger samples and finds that the hype is staling or souring for Rift. He believes that Rift is teetering on overexposure, worries about the end game hidden away in alpha, and even compares Rift’s trajectory to the abject success of Warhammer Online. Killed in a Smiling Accident maybe responds by asking for just the facts, ma’am. Leave the emotional opinings at the doorstep. Continue reading Alphas, and Betas, and Demos, Oh My!
Author: Ravious
.
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.
.[GW2] To Err Is…
It’s human week for Guild Wars 2! KillTenRats was able to sneak in this tasty morsel last week, but now it’s officially begun with a week-long menu for the Tyrian race. Humans in the Guild Wars 2 world have an interesting story. They were the strongest race in the world, but their light was quickly fading by the time of Guild Wars. In Guild Wars 2, they have been pushed back to a single nation on the continent of Tyria. As Jeff Grubb often says, “they’ve been knocked back but not knocked out.â€
Their history is rich, and unlike the other 4 playable races, humans might be the only race not native to the world. Yet, the gods that may have brought them to Tyria, have taken the training wheels off and simply walked away. Well they aren’t doing that well now that the half-dozen divine training wheels are off. I am looking forward to this kind of treatment for all the races in Guild Wars 2, especially in a week-long blitz!
–Ravious
to arr is pirate
[GW2] Tear the Roof Off
ArenaNet must feel like spring is in the air despite so many of us being crushed by snow. Either that or they are just getting antsy. Once the guardian profession was revealed ArenaNet has been dropping quite a bit of other information through interviews, fansite forum posts, and official tidbits.
[GW2] Book of Style
There is a great post over at the ArenaNet blog about Guild Wars 2 professions (i.e., classes) as playstyles rather than roles. Peters writes that they designed the profession and combat system so that each player can fluidly adapt to the battlefield in order to support allies, control enemies and the flow of combat, and simply damage enemies. He presents a great analogy:
In a first person shooter there can be a variety of weapons, from sniper rifles to rocket launchers to machine guns and shotguns. No one looks at these weapons and says, “They’re all the same, they all just do DPS.†Why should an MMO be any different?
I was playing Team Fortress 2 last night, and I thought nearly the same thing. We were playing Hightower, and two enemy engineers decided to really shake up the battlefield by planting mini-sentry guns all over the map and then attacking aggressively with the crit-laden Frontier Justice shotgun. In a role system, the engineer is supposed to be on defense sitting behind whacking his sentry and shooting at anything looking like a spy. Yet, the loadout system in Team Fortress 2 lets each class respond to the battlefield. For the engineers last night they wanted to own the battlefield until the opposing team responded. As we were on a public server, those two engineers used that tactic for quite some time successfully before we slowly and stupidly responded.
[GW2] Guardian Sanctuary
Post release of the new guardian profession there have been so many really cool tidbits floating through various interviews and discussions. Some help players understand the guardian a bit more, and some even help players understand the game as a whole. There was one huge bomb that I think many people overlooked. We’ll start there.
In an aggressive interview with Jon Peters, one of the Guild Wars 2 game designers, OnlineWelten asked about the use of guardian skills targeting allies. Peters said that there are no ally targeted skills in Guild Wars 2. No ally targeted skills. That bears repeating. That may be the “flash of genius” that changes the MMO industry. They are making systems so people play together more seamlessly and simultaneously taking away the mortar that has held together all other groups in prior conventional MMOs. There should be no reasonable doubt that the holy trinity is dead in Guild Wars 2. Another big effect is that almost all of the attention by players will be on the battlefield instead of party UI.
[RIFT] Soothing Subscription
Anybody who has read a mere handful of my blog posts since I started writing here knows that I am a zealot in the war against subscription MMOs. I hate subscribing for content. This is a highly debatable subject, but my belief is that most subscription MMOs barely qualify as a service anymore than say a working single-player game. I feel that my subscription fees should pay for reaction and growth in a sustained manner. Yet, there are so many differing opinions on what the customer is owed when paying the monthly fee. Some people are simply happy to shell out a subscription fee as an access fee regardless of the stagnation of the game’s content (until a buyable expansion releases, anyway). If that’s how they want their money to talk… more power to ’em.
Initially I had written off Rift because it was a subscription game, and, once again, I didn’t want to pay a monthly fee for a theme-park ride of content. I decided to play in the beta because it was a free sneak peek, and first impressions were “more of the same.” There was a fervor in the MMO community that had me come back to try it in a different light, and the result was glorious. Now, I am really looking forward to picking Rift up in March, and I am looking forward to paying them a subscription fee.
There is one big reason (besides, of course, having a fun game), Trion Worlds is so far showing potential customers that they intend to provide a Service. They will respond in a timely fashion to players’ feedback, and continue to expand the content. They will not simply collect a monthly access fee to pay for bandwidth and servers. Rift now has a public grouping system, a streamlined character sheet, itemization changes, and so much more. It’s like a breath of fresh air to actually see change during the beta when so many betas before simply accepted the feedback. I’ve also noticed that they are continuing to refine and expand the invasion content, and they are hinting that invasion events are just the start of their dynamic content features.
I know that what they have done in this beta crunch time may not be indicative of the level of service Trion Worlds will provide at launch, but they have a customer right now. Keep it up Trion!
–Ravious
[GW2] Guardian Profession
After a long duration of profession release silence, ArenaNet has overcome the half-way point hump to release the guardian profession. This new profession at first glance is a spell-casting melee fighter with a huge amount of battlefield control. This second, and last, soldier profession will turn a lot of heads, especially for those already considering a warrior main.
[RIFT] Untethered from the Group
Last night was a very wonky night in RIFT. The servers were going crazy, whereas in prior betas they ran pretty well. Many wise voices in chat kept repeating that this was beta, and this is the best time for Trion to optimize servers. So, my playtime was constantly interrupted, and I didn’t get to play in a big event. I did get to play in a few small invasion events, where I was able to test two new features.
The first was the open grouping feature. It is pretty good, but I wonder about whether it is an artifact, rather, of the decision to keep conventional MMO grouping mechanics in the open world.
Bloggers & Breakfast at PAX East!
Going to PAX East? Want to meet celebrities, legendary developers, and be waited hand and foot on by the Cookie Brigade? Me too! Sadly, those doors don’t open until 10 AM on a sweet Saturday in March. (Possibly some of those doors are closing for me right now too.) But, if you want to meet some awesome bloggers, Syp, at BioBreak, and I are hoping you’ll come join us for a relaxing meet’n’greet at 8:00am through 9:30ish on Saturday, March 12th at Flour Bakery + Cafe at Fort Point. Head on over to the signup post at BioBreak to let us know if you are coming.
–Ravious
Quote of the Day
Yeeno Fernbottom reacts to another blog post on the acidic reaction to Cataclysm:
More to the point, what really mystifies me about some MMO commentators is that once they decide they don’t like a game, they can’t seem to get past it. They act like a jilted lover, or the victim of a war crime. For ever after whenever a particular MMO is mentioned they can’t help but pipe up about how “sucky” it is. If the MMO that burned them happens to be something popular like LoTRO or WoW, they may even concoct all sorts of bizarre explanations as to why a game that “obviously sucks” can be entertaining to so many players. Usually it boils down to something along the lines of “I simply have much better taste/ am a much better gamer than the mentally deficient masses that inhabit that shallow carnival ride.” So endearing, not at all arrogant…
This is a point that is so core, in my opinion, to being a well-rounded blogger. There are so many people playing all the games you ignore or don’t like. Must be a reason, hmmm? Another reason to make comments in first person rather than making a statement for everybody.
–Ravious