I am too antsy to work. Most community managers on the West Coast aren’t even awake, but it is the first business day of 2011. The 2011. The Year of the MMO. It feels like something should be coming any second, but I have to tell myself that things were not so different a week ago. All morning I have been trying to write this post. What are my baseless speculations on the MMO genre this year?
Author: Ravious
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.[GW2] Four in Shadows Redux
I just want to quickly revisit my Guild Wars 2 profession speculations in light of the Edge of Destiny book that has released with plenty of yummy profession hints. There might be spoilers to the book so press on with forewarning.
Guild Wars Edge of Destiny Review
The second book in the Guild Wars fiction line was officially released yesterday. One can find Edge of Destiny by J. Robert King at most bookstores and e-bookstores. The book was better and worse than Ghosts of Ascalon, and I will get to that. For Guild Wars fans and future Guild Wars 2 players that want a deep background for some of the major NPCs in their Guild Wars 2 personal story, I’d say that this book is worth the read. I think that ultimately the Guild Wars 2 world will be deeper and richer because I read the book.
Okay, now I will try and be spoiler free-ish, but you have to be “spoiled” on one well known fact regarding Guild Wars 2. This book details the formation of the famous guild Destiny’s Edge. The spoiler is… the book also details their separation. Most Guild Wars 2 fans knew this because a large part of Guild Wars 2 will be getting the band back together to rock some dragon face. The “why” is much more interesting, and I will not be spoiling that.
[GW2] Four in Shadows
Four unknown professions remain. We have a few official facts for all those speculating on the final Guild Wars 2 classes.
1. From the official site, we know there are three splats of professions: scholar, adventurer, and soldier. There will be three scholars, three adventurers, and two soldiers.
2. From an ArenaNet tweet: “Remaining four professions: at least one is a returning profession, at least one is similar with a different name, and at least one is new.”
3. Finally, ArenaNet gave us a little extra holiday gift when a community mananger announced the next profession reveal would be in January.
The Rift Beta Tweet
In what really should be a tweet, I present to you my feelings on the upcoming Rift MMO. I would really like to experience more, but need a VIP key to do so (hint hint to Trion). Without further ado:
Rift MMO feels like a polished Warhammer Online with more dynamic public quests. I am going to get it.
Okay, I will shortly expand, but for a better impressions check out Syp’s. First off, the graphics, engine, and art style feel very Warhammer Online like. This is not a bad thing. In fact the game looks pretty good all around. There are a few issues like global cooldown and quest ganking, which is being looked at with a hard eye… but the dynamic content is the centerpiece for Rift.
Sadly, I did not experience enough of it to lay down The Wørd, but the little that I saw disappointed me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t because of the Rift system itself, which is quite awesome. It’s the old world mob tagging and grouping systems that seem to undercut this new world dynamic content.
Why do I have to be grouped to share in kills? Why is grouping not as easy as Warhammer Online? Why do I have to be grouped to even be able to participate in most of the dynamic content? Â I believe these questions need a hard lookin’ at by Trion because I feel if they kowtow to the old ways too much it’s going to put some tarnish on their shiny.
–Ravious
(c) Kevin Siembieda
Tapas Gaming
Anybody that has followed this blog for awhile knows that we tend to have cycles of gaming and writing. I am currently going through a little downtime with MMOs. Perhaps it’s my subconscious prepping me for the intensity of 2011, the year of MMOs. I still have been gaming, even with MMOs. Yet, it’s been very different. I have not sat down for a long 2-4 hour session on a single game in quite some time. The seemingly endless Steam sale is only making it worse.
The games that are still on my short list all allow very quick bites of gameplay. I just beat Shatter’s story mode. It was a great buy for $2.50, and hopefully Steam will put it back up on sale. As that game left the short list, Super Meat Boy took its place. $15 is about $5 too expensive for my tastes, but the $4 I bought it for might as well have been free. The game is a fantastic, high-speed platforming romp. My favorite part is the combined replay of all my failures when I finally beat the level. It’s hilarious to see 10 out of 20 meat boys jump straight in to the nearest grind saw. Friend me up on Steam so you can see how much faster I am than you.
[GW] A More Divine Wintersday
As with other MMOs, Guild Wars winter holiday celebration has arrived. Wintersday 2010 is here until January 3. This year there are two significant additions to the festival, and the Hearts of the North chapter in Guild Wars: Beyond wraps up. I have to say that I am pretty impressed with the amount of content the Live Team is getting out. I know there was a big hiccup during con season, but I hope this is more akin to the steady pace we might be seeing in the future.
First off, there are new buyable costumes: Agent of Balthazar costume and the Disciple of Melandru costume. One enterprising fan at Guru actually found the concept art for the costumes stuck in with a Guild Wars 2 concept art bunch. Anyway, they are pretty cool. I really like the Balthazar one, and I am considering picking it up. The Melandru one is a bit too… alien or Sylvari-ish for me. I guess I prefer spikes and horns to leaves.
‘Tis the Indie Season
EDIT: Seems the Humble Bundle #2 just went live, and the Puppy Games latest, Revenge of the Titans, is included. Braid and Machinarium I can wholeheartedly recommend. Definitely check it out, and be generous.
There are always lots of great games to be had, but this season I seem to be on an incredible indie kick. Steam is definitely helping with their ongoing sales, and I think they are absolutely amazing in getting an audience for indie devs. Rock Paper Shotgun and to a lesser degree Penny Arcade are also big sites that definitely give indie games some of the limelight. I want to share some of the games that have caught my eye.
First, Minecraft. In a few days the “lifetime” update subscription is evaporating as the game heads to beta. Oh, and the price will go up. Notch says that when the game hits beta he and his crew are going to be working more on content. So, Minecraft will eventually have perhaps a full story. For now, it’s 10 euro pricetag is possibly the best value for the money this year. Even if you haven’t grabbed it yet, you might want to pick it up now just to have an alpha account.
[GW] Mystery of the Lost Love and Content
Between cursing at Steam and Shatter, I put in some good time with the next Guild Wars: Beyond chapter, Hearts in the North. I know I am a little late to the party since the content dropped nearly a month ago, but I had to take a small break after vanquishing Elona and getting my Hall of Monuments past 35. I have plans for 40, but it does feel like work sometimes. Thankfully, I have plenty of fun available in my gaming stable. (I want to take a moment to curse at Shatter’s Bonus Mode again. Thanks.)
This next small chapter in Guild Wars: Beyond is a great break from the grind involved in working on the Hall of Monuments. Instead of running around in a party of 8, players take the reins of Keiran Thackeray, an ally of the Shining Blade that went MIA in the beginning siege of the White Mantle on Lion’s Arch. Keiran gets his own skillbar, and the gameplay is balanced for him and his sidekick, Miku, to stand against hundreds of White Mantle.
The Opposite of Grind
Timeless MMO topics are worming their way, yet again, around the ‘sphere. Oh, I can definitely take part of the blame since I strongly dislike subscription games, and what I feel they entail. Clearly, I am neither alone, nor am I objectively correct. Julian, KTR lurker in the threshold, threw down an excellent comment, which in part reads:
The question is why are we seemingly unable to, after 10+ years of designing these things, to avoid the grind? It is generally accepted as un-fun. It’s been a major player complaint since forever. Why are we still operating under the design assumption that grind is somehow “needed†or “part of the flavor of the genre� Why are we unable to come up with something better?
Which made me think, okay, grind equates to gameplay, but we hate it (mostly). So, what else is there?
“Content,” is what one of my little resident voices said. If defined in such a way, content is the opposite of grind. (Random Google’d website Wordhippo tells me the opposite of “grind” is “joy.”)Â Yet, from another standpoint grind is content. Our blog would have a completely different name if that weren’t the case.