Author: Zubon

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On Politeness

It is very important that you speak well, especially online, where text is your voice. Whenever possible, you should type in full sentences with correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Be polite, being sure to spell out “please.” Avoid profanity. Be seen to express courtesy and give others the benefit of the doubt. Avoid not just “drama,” but dramatics of any sort that might distress others or give them the impression that you are an immoderate person.

That way, when you call someone a stupid douchebag, it will mean something.

: Zubon

Quality of Life

Little things make a big difference in your enjoyment. You would not list “cup holders” on your make-or-break features for a car, but you will notice fairly often if they are missing or sub-optimal. If they are really good, you might never notice.

In World of Warcraft, when you mouse-over a monster, the box mentions if you have a quest to kill it. This is very nice if you forget what you are doing with two dozen quests active or are not sure whether you need Prowlers, Young Prowlers, Mature Prowlers, or some or any combination of the three. In World of Warcraft, you carry quest items in your bags. This is not very nice with two dozen quests active or if you need different parts from Prowlers, Young Prowlers, and Mature Prowlers.

In World of Warcraft, you can talk to NPCs from horseback. Mounts are treated as skills, not inventory items. (The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ will be getting both of these in Siege of Mirkwoodâ„¢.) You are not dismounted by puddles or nipping wolves.

World of Warcraft has a currency tab. I have read that there are too many currencies with all the various points, badges, and whatnot you can get. Now imagine that problem when the currencies are treated as barter (inventory) options. Would you like to see the variety of tokens in my vaults for The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢?

World of Warcraft treats inventory space as yet another kind of achievement. You buy bags, and bags can be of various sizes. You buy vault slots, then you need to buy the bags for them. Non-tiny bags cost more than you can afford on your own. Unless someone sends you some nice late-game bags, you will spend most of the leveling game with most your inventory full of quest items and basic supplies. The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ starts everyone with 75 inventory slots, but the only way to increase your space is to buy more vault slots (bag included in the price) or housing. World of Warcraft has no housing. World of Warcraft also has no default button for “open all bags” that I have stumbled upon.

Putting NPCs on platforms, podiums, and stages makes them much easier to click in crowds.

: Zubon

Too Many Tales of One Mid-Game Experience

I have completed a run through what was the mid-game of classic WoW, levels 20 to 40 Alliance side. our last installment ended around level 22. That would make 40 to 60 the classic late-game, with content at 60 having been the endgame back in the day. I suppose the mid-game has shifted to where I am just entering, but until I add Burning Crusade, I am playing classic WoW, darnit. Except for my frostweave bags, many huggles for my frostweave bags.

When we last left the Paladin, she was exulting in having gone from very strong to overpowered with the taunt/Exorcism pull combo. (Our friend Tobold has just entered there.) It gets more extreme in the 20 to 40 range.

Continue reading Too Many Tales of One Mid-Game Experience

King of the World

Your song of the day comes from Jason Robert Brown’s “Songs for a New World,” in which “King of the World” is one of the two best songs, although I don’t know how much of that is Ty Taylor’s stellar performance. Today, it reminds us of all those times a boss fight was patched due to “unintended behavior.” They did not mean for you to win that way, and sometimes developers will also pass around bans on the grounds that you should have known better. (More often, everyone who used the exploit gets to keep the loot, even after rushing to use it between the announcement of “unintended behavior” and its removal. See: Mines of Moria radiance armor.) But we will go back and find new ways to defeat them, possibly starting the cycle again.

Why are we punished for wanting to explore?
Why am I sitting in this cell?
I was not challenging the system,
I was working for the people –
I just wanted to be better.
Why are we punished for wanting to survive?
Why am I locked behind these bars?
Tell the children I’ll return to them – tell them!
Someone! Let them know I will be free!
I will not be defeated!
I will stand like a mountain!
And the road will stretch before me,
And they’ll know it’s time to follow
And we’ll lift our eyes
And raise our heads
And face the sun
And tell the future

I’m king of the world
…
At least I used to be…

: Zubon

Airlocks

Continuing through classic WoW, the zones have great diversity between them but little within. You notice that each zone has its own palette, although it may take some reflection to notice how thoroughly and well that is done. I will get back to within-zone sameness another day, but let’s discuss for a moment how you execute the palette swap.

The problem is non-trivial. The seasons change as you cross onto a new map, but few comment on the walk from the perpetual winter of Dun Morogh to the perpetual spring of Loch Modan. You must have noticed at some point, but did you notice when the transition happened?

Some of this is gamer suspension of disbelief: we are used to having everything change when we get to a new level of the game, and moving to a new zone is the MMO equivalent. The game environment also facilitates this the same way it keeps you on the theme park quest path: channelization. How many zones have wide-open borders that you can traverse, rather than walls of impassable mountains with narrow openings?

Those openings can become rather like tunnels for about a draw distance, so that you see big rocks covering the transition point. The transitions to and from Loch Modan really are tunnels, enclosing you so that you cannot see the set being swapped, like taking an elevator in Portal. In other zones, see bridges and rivers serving a similar purpose. You may note this as a problem at the border of Westfall: river and bridges, yes, but it is brief enough for you to see the transition. On the way in, there are quest-givers to distract you, but Duskwood makes it look like the world ends across the river.

Touring through some other games of my acquaintance: City of Heroes does the same thing, complete with loading screens. Asheron’s Call never does, since you can run everywhere from anywhere, and there are large areas over which you can watch the land change. The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume One: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ is mostly open, with channelization into the lategame zones and the ones added post-release. The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume Two: Mines of Moriaâ„¢ channels everything, but it is set in caverns anyway. Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates has separate islands, with boats as loading screens (WoW does the same at points). A Tale in the Desert takes the same approach as Asheron’s Call, with some really impressive geography reflecting years of effort from volunteer world-builders.

: Zubon

Impassable hills are also good for hiding the Potemkin village nature of most of the landmass. Cataclysm needs to re-do the whole landmass anyway so flying mounts cannot show that there is nothing behind the backdrops.

Horizontal Progression

EVE Online is a PvP game where you can never catch up to players who started earlier. Skill points are time-based, the older characters have their attributes and learning skills maxed, and someone starting today will always be millions and millions of points behind veteran players. How do you avoid bleeding newer players under these conditions?

First, it is a big universe. Who has the time or interest to go swat newbies? The most powerful players are effectively dragons, out there in the reaches of 0.0 space, waiting for dragonslayers or fools loaded with coin. Or perhaps they are corporate managers, working safely in corporate space, more likely to exploit your labor than destroy your ship.

Second, even if you are in direct conflict, only so much force can be brought to bear. All those points in Caldari ships only matter if you are flying a Caldari ship. Those millions of points for flying your Iteron V (a hauling ship) do not do you much good in combat, nor do your trading or research skills. Furthermore, each skill has five ranks, further limiting the force available. Each rank of a skill may be worth the same bonus, even as each successive rank costs many times what the previous rank did.

You can be 100 million points behind but only 5% down in this particular combat. As long as you have the relevant skills maxed, you are on equal footing. Sure, he is equally good at flying a dozen different ships, but he can only fly one at a time. Of course, all his mining and production skills let him build ships faster than you can destroy them, but that’s his reward for having spent $500 more than you on the game.

: Zubon

A Tale of Three Early Game Experiences

Starting WoW, my intended main character was a Night Elf Druid. Good damage, heals, and tankability, I had read. They turn into bears and cats and sea lions and trees, which is all the awesome I need. I connected with my triple-xp partner, and we rolled to Darnassus the first night. I messed with trade skills, then we rampaged across Darkshore later that week. The weekend saw us questing to the Deadmines, where we hit a technical outage. That was almost enough to cancel my account, not because I was outraged about inconvenience, but because it stopped the forward momentum. If the game does not get a chance to sink its claws into you, you never form the habit, and I have a dozen “meh” options before me. I always harp on the new player experience because it is essential to hook new players now. As it is, his courses re-started and he has not logged on for a week. If I had been depending on that, I would be done with WoW by now. She is parked at level 22, waiting for her sempai.

My intended alt was a Gnome Mage. I already had my support class covered, so I could go with my other great love: ranged damage. Let’s be direct: Mages are horrible at low levels right now, and Loch Modan is a horrible second zone. Continue reading A Tale of Three Early Game Experiences