Author: Ravious

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Aion Engine Revs Up

This weekend starts the publicly announced closed beta events for Aion.  I seemed to have completely missed my chance everywhere to get a key, but I am sure there will be more.  The next couple of months are likely going to be filled with Aion hype.  Its only marketing/release competition is Champions Online, which seems to be the only other “AAA” MMO set for 2009 release.  Plus with the World of Warcraft “boredom” setting in for many and the summer slowdown, I think Aion is in good position for a strong release.

The release is going to be interesting because the game has already been released in some Asian countries, and there Aion is enjoying immense popularity.  The Yanks and Euros will get the game, I believe, nearly a year after Korea’s open beta.  All that polish that MMOs usually require that first few months will already be built in to the core gameplay.  This means that Aion might possibly be one of the smoothest “AAA” MMO launches yet.

I am excited about the game, but not to an MMO degree.  For Warhammer Online, I was excited to an MMO degree.  This meant I was willing to forsake all other games, especially other time consuming MMOs, to play Warhammer Online exclusively.  I would suck the marrow from all that Mythic would offer.  I really don’t feel that way about the current or 2009 MMOs right now.  I am currently playing Guild Wars (mostly casual PvP), Lord of the Rings Online (two Loth rep quests/day, then log), and World of Warcraft (I’ll blog about that later).  This is on top of Mount & Blade (lttp), Assasin’s Creed (yay, Steam sales), and Peggle (I can’t quit yooo).  I think that some upcoming expansions and games will get me back in to the hyper-focused MMO degree of gameplay, but thus far Aion is not quite that far in on my radar.

However, I will still likely play Aion.  I have heard that it can be played very casually (WoW with wings), and if nothing else flying around with very pretty graphics might be worth a couple Jacksons.  I also really like the idea of PvPvE, where enemies to all invade battlegrounds.  I have always thought RvR would be more fun with the addition of NPC enemies, and Aion seems to have taken this idea and run with it.  Hopefully, one of those exquisite beta keys lands in my lap (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, NCSoft ^ ^).

–Ravious
and war broke out in heaven

The Agency E3 Glimpses

I am liking what I see:

*Good use of instancing.  The demo goes from instanced to public to instanced in a flowing manner.

*Reinforces player creativity, instead of shoehorning.  The speaker talks about how using all sorts of skills, costumes (like FreeRealms classes), and allies can change up the whole mission… and they are all about that.

*Smooth, fast combat.  I am sure between now and 2010 there will only be more polish and AI tactics, but it looks pretty good right now. 

All in all, I think this MMO is going to take people by surprise.  What I really want to know, though, is what is the business model going to be?  Lots of rumors on that one.

–Ravious
if it comes down to you or them… send flowers

Needless Buttons, or On Skill Wrongdoings

We become attached to skills, especially the ones that are used less.  We become masters of knowing when to pull at that situational godsend.  Then the developers take it away, or muddle it to the point where our mastery becomes nothing.  Skill balances like this happen all the time, but there are things far worse… and they just happened, again.

ArenaNet made the genius move of splitting skills in PvE and PvP.  Before they did that it was a complete mess.  They would balance the skill, and it would get abused in Guild vs. Guild.  Then they would nerf it to stop the spamming in PvP only to find that they ruined a few PvE builds.  Consequently, boss X became impossible.  It was a balance-puzzle they could never win, especially when nearly each year players got a massive glut of more skills from the new campaigns and expansions.  So great, skills are split.  Now something closer to balance is achieved in both PvE and PvP more easily.  A greater problem occurs when balance cannot be achieved, even with the split, with how the skill can maintain functionality.

Continue reading Needless Buttons, or On Skill Wrongdoings

Chipotle MMO, Redux

Paul Barnett, Mythic’s Creative Director, is front-lining a round of some very interesting interviews.  MMOGamer has a brutally honest interview where the interviewer explains exactly why he stopped playing Warhammer Online.  The piece seems very real and far away from any marketing agenda.  There is also a video interview at Able Gamers, which is quite good.  I love how Barnett explains things.  He should have been in What the #$*! Do We Know!? or Life After People to also give his thoughts on quantum spirituality and mass extinction.

Anyway, in a follow up to the post on a highly-focused Chipotle MMO, I wanted to present an idea that Barnett gears toward in both interviews: asset-light games.  Two snips from the interviews:

We’re getting more casual players, and wider audiences who are less obsessed with the old-school. You’ve got people who want to have their gaming time defined. “I’ve got half an hour before I’m going out. I know playing this game will only take half an hour,” or “I’ve got to put the kids to bed. I know that if I let them play this game, I can say ‘you’ve got one more level’,” knowing that one more level means 30 minutes and you can get them to bed. (from MMOGamer, emphasis mine)

So I think in the modern era you’re going to see more and more asset-light online games.  You’re not going to see as many asset-heavy online games, purely because they cost too much money and I think that that’s how the market is going to diverge.  So you’re going to have people who do things like . . they want to play Fishing online, asset-light.  They throw the rod with their iphone.  They really knock in buy using their little finger and they catch fish and they feel very happy, and it’s a sort of very shallow, very quick game and it doesn’t really take much effort.  You play it maybe for a total of maybe 5-hours in your life but you play it in 2-minute chunks.  There are going to be more games like that . . . fun, interesting. (from Able Gamers, emphasis mine)

 I completely agree with Barnett.  More and more online games are going to be designed for specific activities for a specific amount of time.  I can only imagine what would happen if Popcap (you know, the other game company that prints their own currency) decided to make an MMO, but I would bet my bank account it would be a Chipotle MMO.

–Ravious
I’ll just ask the first sand creature I run into

Hat Tip: Sanya Weathers at MMORPG Examiner

Chipotle MMO

For those blessed to have one nearby, Chipotle is a “Mexican” fast-food eatery.  The menu is sublime.  Customers choose a base (taco, burrito, salad, etc.), a protein (steak, carnitas, chicken, etc.), a salsa, and a few more condiments.  Compared to many Mexican-food eateries, including Taco Bell, the choices are simple, but the comparatively few things that Chipotle offers beats most of said eateries hands down.  In-N-Out Burger and Chik-Fil-A are two more food chains that follow this principle of few offerings that can’t be beat.  This is not a new concept by any means.  America is one of the anomalies in the world that has the restaurants that serve just about everything one could want from pizza to steak to tacos to salmon.  If I had a choice I’d rather go to a hawker court and buy from three separate stalls, and receiving a food item of mastery from each cook who has dedicated his or her career on that one item.

This post brought to you by my tinfoil wrapped carnitas burrito.

I thought about how so many MMOs seem to want to be an Applebee’s.  Combat is central, but not always refined.  There is crafting.  Player housing.  Pets.  Solo PvE.  Raiding.  Quests.  Missions.  Stories.  NPC’s.  Titles.  Traits.  And, all manners of PvP.  They are all over the place trying to dip their hands in to a bit of everything in order to keep your interest (read: subscription).  What if we had MMOs that would rather be like Chipotle?

Continue reading Chipotle MMO

Guild Wars Goblin Market

After the big 4th Anniversary Update, the Guild Wars community is still trying to figure out exactly how the market was affected by the addition of the purchasable items through Zaishen Coins.  The Zaishen Coins are untradable, but the items that are bartered with the Zaishen Coins are definitely salable.  The more interesting market change comes from the roaming market created by Nicholas the Traveler.

Once a week, Nicholas the Traveler moves to a new location and requests a barter item.  So far, three of these barter items will net the player one Gift of the Traveler.  An account can get up to five Gifts of the Traveler per week.  When the Gifts are opened they can net simple things like candy or alcohol, but the Gifts can also net very, very expensive miniatures, pets, weapons, and tonics that can only be found in the Gifts of the Traveler boxes.

This past week, Nicholas the Traveler required three Branches of Juni Berries per Gift, and he was found in the Bukdek Byway.  First thing of note, this was the first week that required two different Campaigns in order to get the Gift.  The second thing was that Branches of Juni Berries could only be gained by completing a repeatable mini-game style quest, which involved a guard-dog crocodile-beast eating weakened enemies.  (I used minions plus Verata’s Aura plus Contemplation of Purity for a ton of hostile easy to kill minions.)  For some people getting the Branches of Juni Berries was a grind and a pain.  For others it was serious fun and profit.

Anyway, this supply of barter items and Gifts and demand of barter items and Gifts’ items creates this type of floating market.  Prices fluctuate dramatically (especially for the barter items), and by the time the market can be said to “stabilize” – mostly due to a sheer drop in demand – Nicholas the Traveler moves off to a new location.  I find this dynamic very interesting, and apart from the Zaishen Quests and title grind, the weekly market gives very good reason to sign on for a few hours every week.

–Ravious
all of your memories before you were three

The Newest Rat Killer

The last to be created in Ravious’ eventual world-conquering rat farming team was born healthy and happy today:

Brynn Yvaine, weighing in at a tank-like 9 lbs., 1 oz. zoned in to the hospital room with full HP.  Unlike her sister contemporary (who gave such fearsome battle cries), Brynn preferred to follow the path of the silent ninja.  All the rats in the surrounding five zones fled, fearing their imminent demise.

Continue reading The Newest Rat Killer

True Buddy Gaming

My buddy and I started really hitting Guild Wars pretty hard again after the update.  It goes hand in hand with us taking a small break from Lord of the Rings Online.  The thing is my guild is pretty dead (my alliance has a low pulse).  His guild has been dead from the start, nearly.  So except for all the intelligent PUG players, it’s just us.  And, it’s wonderful.

The concept of “buddy gaming” embodies the veritable no-man’s land between solo play and full-on group play.  In many EQ-style MMOs, having a buddy to group up with to make things more efficient (read: kill/heal faster) has been around for a long time, but that’s not exactly buddy gaming.  Buddy gaming is more aimed at content designed for a party of 2-3 players than just doing content designed for solo players faster.

Continue reading True Buddy Gaming

Guild Wars – Those Meddling Players

Many players are getting used to the new dailies in Guild Wars, especially the PvP-based daily.  With the two PvE-based dailies, they cannot go on insta-farm mode because of the need to have the mission or explorable area unlocked.  Players cannot just create new characters and attack the mission or boss.  The PvP-based daily allows for insta-farming because players can create new PvP characters in order to redo the quest as many times as they want.

Now the balance lies in the fact that with PvE-based quests, players can complete the daily Zaishen Challenge by using heroes and henchmen and normally PvP-based quests require grouping up with active players, which would feasibly slow down the farming of the PvP-based daily.  The outlier is Hero Battles, which pits one player and three AI-controlled Heroes against another player and three more Heroes, because the only other player needed is the competition.  In a game that touts skill over time played as a banner (and in a perfect world) this would not be a problem… except when devs create “long term” goals that require players to do a lot of dailies, player-driven efficiency kicks in.  (Whether you want to call repeating the varied and different Zaishen Challenges “grind” is too subjective for this post, but the argument is noted.)

Continue reading Guild Wars – Those Meddling Players