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.

.

Under Da Sea

My first 3D exploration in an MMO was in World of Warcraft.  There were some delicious herbs to be found off of Westfall’s shores.  Stranglekelp was found amidst roaming Murlocs, and when the herb was smoothee’d with some Blackmouth fish oil, my priest could be underwater for in-game hours checking out wreckages, looking for pearls, and generally enjoying the freedom of the z-axis.  There was one area, if I recall correctly, in Stranglethorn Vale where some elite Murlocs were guarding a sunken ruins.  I played an interesting game of agro-Operation trying to swim down to the bottom without alerting the bug-eyed fish-lizards to my presence.  It took a few tries, but I remember being so proud and feeling so clever.  The quest suggested a group of people after all. Continue reading Under Da Sea

The Alt Economy

It’s weird to see the progression of material prices as I scum the Auction Hall. Tier 1 is pretty cheap. Tier 2 jumps about a magnitude in price. Tier 3 is about double in price to Tier 2, and so on… until the last two Tiers where the character leveling curve slows to a crawl. Tier 6 materials only cost as much as Tier 2. That makes most expensive portion for leveling my alt’s crafting the mid-game. The end game crafting experience will be an easy coast downhill towards mastery.

–Ravious
pork bellies

A Year and a Day

Today I will have written at Kill Ten Rats for a year and a day.  It is by far the longest I have ever solidly written for a blog, and I love every minute of it.  I was going to write out some huge what-I’ve-learned exposition, but I like bullet points.  We all like bullet points, right?

  • Never underestimate the power of the words “I think” or “in my opinion.”
  • Getting to know people in the industry is easier than you think, but it requires trust and patience (and sometimes travel).
  • We are not a news site, yet I feel sometimes the need to rush out “hot” posts.  I feel they are my worst ones.
  • Always give credit where it is due.  If another blog jogged your thought process give them a link.
  • I don’t think I could write my own blog.  I need the community and other active contributers here. My writing wouldn’t be anywhere as good as it is today without constantly reading Zubon’s posts.
  • Ethic should write more, especially about Fallen Earth. Otherwise put up a Twitter sidebar because you write there. :)
  • Our commentors are the best.  They are intelligent and keep us honest, especially Bonedead.
  • Write about what you love and want to share.  Don’t write for hits.
  • The best way of letting people know about your blog is to comment on others’.
  • Intelligent armchair quarterbacks are okay, but constructive player opinions and stories are best.  Unless you are a developer, you don’t need to give answers to problems you see.

–Ravious
wear sunscreen

Stupid Bureaucrats

An oxymoron, I know. I was watching one of my favorite shows, The Unit, today and one of the characters said something to the effect of ‘bureaucrats won’t leave a meeting until no one is happy.’  I saw Tobold and Syp talk about the upcoming FTC changes that will affect bloggers that choose to review products, when the reviews are endorsed.  “Endorsement” is the key word to the whole scenario, and while the FTC tries to muddy the waters with their examples, it sounds bigger than it is.

An “endorsement” that runs afoul of the FTC requires an undisclosed material connection, where the material connection caused the speech.  In other words, if an unsolicited copy of a game shows up on my doorstep, and I choose to review it, I am not necessarily endorsing the game according to the FTC (see footnote 21).  Now if the game company kept sending me unsolicited games, and I kept reviewing them… well there might be grounds for that material connection.  If the game company said they would send me a free copy if I review it, then I would be endorsing it, according to the FTC, even if my review was a scalding 2/10.

Blogging is based on trust.  I don’t read blogs very often from bloggers whose quality of thoughts seem bought.   Now, I agree that a blogger should disclose a review in exchange for free product, but I think the FTC is pretty stupid to make that required.  They really don’t have anything else to do with their time than monitor blogs?  Glad my tax dollars are hard at work trying to chill free speech on the internet of all places.

–Ravious
the death of all sound work

Learning the Watcher

My hardcore casual kinship started Squiddy Saturday’s last weekend where we are learning to take down the 12-man Watcher in the Water raid.  Most of our core officers were present to learn from a benevolent Loremaster saint.  We were running button hooks and other maneuvers just outside the Vile Maw’s door.  I imagine it was a humorous spectacle to the hardcore groups that passed by.  After almost 2 hours of discussion, we went in… and died.

Our benefactor said that the raid was rife with random occurrences some that are nearly impossible to overcome.  Our first time, someone got hit by a dangler (a tentacle that grabs a player and hangs them in the air until it is killed) next to a first stage tentacle.  The Watcher screamed and half the raid died.  Two runs later we almost beat the second phase.  This time the other captain got hit by a dangler in the shark pool (insta-kill roaming tentacles people lovingly call sharks), and I mistimed a shark while trying to free him.  The patron Loremaster was still pleased with the progress, and so were we.

This is my first time really learning a multi-phase boss fight, and during our two hour lecture I kept wondering what I got in to.  In the end it was quite fun to have multiple strategies and stages.  Our benefactor believed that we might be able to down him next weekend with discussion and practice.  Now our only problem is finding ~12 people to meet consistently on Squidurdays.

–Ravious
but you still have Zoidberg

SoM(e) Valuation

Release news of the next buyable offering for Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online MMO hit the ‘sphere pretty hard yesterday.  The global chat was endlessly looping all night with one person flashing the newly received Harbinger’s Cloak by diligently buying something the day Turbine offered it, and then multiple people asking whether that person also got his goat.  I kid you not, the loop recycled every 15 minutes with brand new actors. (Customers will not get the goat or character slots until Siege of Mirkwood is launched.)

I heard the news first from a friend.  He copy/pasted the entirety of the multiple options in to my tiny Google chat.  I read through the many options, scratching my head a few times.  I had to make sure I knew which class of customer I was, and that I would be able to buy what I wanted.  The weird part was that what I wanted to buy was Siege of Mirkwood for about $20.00, but I couldn’t.  I had to buy the Adventurer’s Pack to actually receive what I wanted to buy in the first place.  The whole pricing scheme felt like a huge gimmick.  Admiral Ackbar kept screaming in my head until I told him to shut up. Continue reading SoM(e) Valuation

Massively on Massively

We’ve done a case for the term “massively,” and it seems Massively decided to take the exploration to a higher level by asking a slew of devs about the term and what “MMO” means anymore.  My favorite blurb comes from Turbine’s Jeffrey Steefel:

Players don’t want to ‘play’ with thousands of people, they want to play with a small group in the presence of thousands. It’s like an old-school arcade. You don’t want to play pinball with 10 people, but playing by yourself in a crowded room is a lot more fun.

Which is why we sometimes talk about Team Fortress 2, and I think Borderlands and Diablo 3 might also be subjected to our own… explorations.

–Ravious
from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty

Guild Wars 2 Art Book

The Guild Wars 2 Art Book is now available for sale for all of us unfortunates that could not make it to PAX (unfortunate, yet PAX flu-free).  It is a beautiful hardbound treasure filled with art from ArenaNet’s award-winning concept artists, and for once I do not have to buy the collector’s edition for the art.  I don’t understand why game companies, especially MMO companies with very loyal fans, do not constantly utilize these generated assets.  I’ve seen some beautiful Aion Online and Lord of the Rings Online concept art in video presentations, and I fear I might never see it again.  Like music, I see no reason not to double dip.

–Ravious
logic and common sense will only interfere

EDIT: This book will not be included in the Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition.

Guild Wars Interview

Thanks to the fine folks at ArenaNet, I had a chance to ask Linsey Murdock and Isaiah “Izzy” Cartwright some questions on the Guild Wars series.  Linsey is the current lead designer for the Guild Wars 1 Live Team, and Izzy is hard at work on Guild Wars 2.  The interview gives some good insight for what both may have in store for the future. Continue reading Guild Wars Interview