General
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.
.There will never be a “WoW Killer” simply because WoW itself was unable to kill any of the big MMOs in existence when it launched. If big bad WoW couldn’t kill when it launched, why would we think something new would be able to kill WoW? And why do we want to kill WoW anyway? I like to have options.
– Ethic
Why are our options “broken or not at all”? I’m thinking of various specific examples, but you don’t need them, because you have seen it in almost every game. I have seen explicit developer statements that if the new stuff has no game-crashing bugs, it will go live, even though there are large known bugs. Because you can just eat the parts of your dinner that have no cockroaches.
We can fix balance once it’s live and we see how the players are using it. There are some exploits, but we’ll just suspend accounts if people use them (also, don’t tell people what not to do, because then everyone will know about the exploits). Let’s release the content even though it is literally impossible to complete it, because we can probably fix that before too many people get to the completely broken parts. Nah, don’t bother to update “Known Issues” on the website, I’m sure we’ll get to it quickly.
Fast, cheap, good: I wish we could get two. I read Scott’s comment as saying we demand all three and sometimes get zero. Quite often, we are getting one, and it is usually cheap. Hey, for $15/month, you would have trouble finding any better outside a public library. But updates come late and are still buggy after the patch to fix the bugs caused by the patch to the update. You’re paying for crap and you’re getting it. You’re paying $50 for crap when a new box of it comes out, and you knew from the beta that it was still buggy crap.
I suppose we can compare the industry to baseball. There, you are a great hitter if you only fail two-thirds of the time.
: Zubon
Wednesday’s post reminded me that I have not poked my head into Kingdom of Loathing for months. I took a break before NS13, and I never really got back into it afterwards. I just found the level 11 and 12 quests to be a drag, a grindishly long haul. Your character even comments on that during the level 11 quest. After NS13, there was a pause in the Tuesday updates, well deserved, but I wandered off.
We can look at the updates, but is there anything you’d really like to say to sell the game? Something with awesomeness that needs expounding? Is doing a set of Bad Moon runs super-fun? How about those new zones? If you are a current player, consider this an open thread to hype, brag, and recruit. If you are a former player, consider this an open thread for reminiscing about what fun you had. Or rant about how it has all gone down the tubes since they introduced the Astral Badger, whatever.
: Zubon
You didn’t feel like working today, did you? Wouldn’t it be more fun to talk with your friends about this summer’s comic book movies? It has been a good year for them. Let’s have a lively comment thread for Friday, and let’s just put everything below the fold. Continue reading Summer Comic Book Movies
I decided to cancel my Warhammer Online Collector’s Edition pre-order today. It has nothing to do with my feelings about the game. It has everything to do with thinking about my past CE purchases. Did I get value from them or was it just excitement about the game? I decided, even in the case of World of Warcraft, that is was just about getting something that makes my character a little special or unique. Yes, the lovely in-game items.
All in all, I do not feel it was money well-spent for me. Sure, the art books are cool and the soundtrack is nice, but I have not looked at the art book more than once or twice. The big giant boxes also need to be displayed somewhere, I can’t bring myself to toss them out. So, I ask you: Are Collector’s Editions worth the extra money to you? Why or why not?
– Ethic
I am beginning to see the appeal. It would be nice to run instances and raids where the majority of the people knew what they were doing. I would like to do anything without needing to explain it, rather than its always being someone’s first time. I would like everyone to have voice chat on, and for those with voice chat on, I would like them to be using it; I see six people with voice chat enabled, but only two can hear me; and as a side note, if everyone except you can hear me, the problem is probably on your end. I would like to spend less than thirty minutes waiting on people. I would like there to be no wipes on the way there. I would like people to be familiar with the game mechanics.
While I’m at it, I would like a pony.
: Zubon
There are few improvements to be made on EVE Online’s economic tools. The more your system resembles that, the better.
Buy orders are a key feature. Most systems lack this, but it is the “Buy It Now” equivalent for the seller. It would improve economic efficiency enormously. Creating a market is hard, and letting either buyers or sellers make the first offer will encourage more use.
Can you identify the hardest-to-get weapons in your game? How about the tiers of armor for your class? Can you tell how far someone is into the endgame based on what s/he is wearing? This is the standard item-based model of character (appearance) customization. There may be options to make your orc 5% bulkier or give your elf fourteen shades of blue or green eyes, but it will be covered by equipment anyway. Making yourself look interesting is almost always a result of making yourself powerful, and your appearance suggests your capabilities. The guys in those robes heal, and the guys in those robes blow things up, and the guy in that hat is obviously very experienced. Looking good is a reward worth working for, and it immediately commands the appropriate respect from the knowledgeable (and often wonder from the ignorant).
Or is form radically separate from function? City of Heroes gives you almost all the costume items up front. Norrath and Middle Earth have cosmetic tabs for equipment to cover your mismatched raid gear (a half-measure to let you lock in your favorite achievement-based appearance). In a world where the same gesture might be a sword-slash or a fireball-toss, there is no need to connect how something looks to what it does. This allows the maximum of customization and individualization, and it can come as early as you like. I have seen swordfights somewhere between a feline hominid and a lightsaber-wielding lesbian mermaid slave; spectators included several librarians, someone in an oversized cowboy hat, and a robot-thing with a cow levitating over it. None of these had special abilities.
You can cross the two a bit. Item-based systems have dyes for customization, although the colors can still signify wealth levels. Function-free systems can have unlockable pieces or categories, like City of Heroes auras that are available after level 30, costume sets reserved for long-time subscribers, or weapons that require certain badges (and you can bet I show off my Rikti Axe).
Is one better, or is it a matter of taste? I often enjoy a connection between form and function, such as making the meaner monsters bigger. You can even reverse the two standards: have item-based play that does not affect appearance (like Diablo II sockets or City of Heroes enhancements) or non-item play that ties appearance options to accomplishments.
: Zubon
Yeah, I keep citing City of Heroes here. I have played a few years of it, and its costume designer is still the industry benchmark.
I want to ask if some people in my guild are non-native speakers. I was thinking of going with “where are you from?” and hoping the answer is Germany (or such). Maybe ask about a time zone.
I think it would cause unnecessary unhappiness in guild chat if I were to ask directly. If the person is a native speaker, his natural follow-up question is, “Why do you ask?” My other guesses were “small child,” “illiterate,” “stupid,” “lazy,” or “family pet”; “foreign” seemed like the most charitable assumption.
: Zubon
(“Foreign” is not a bad thing. It is an explanation for why they cannot speak English very well. My Spanish isn’t so good. They have worthwhile thoughts that they have trouble expressing. If he is just stupid, that is really the best I can hope for.)
We are approaching the end of the first presidency since the invention of lolcats. The idea struck us: why don’t we write a visual history of the administration in lolcat? Maybe start with a cat dangling from something “hai im chad”; segue into a picture of Justice Scalia with “u can has presidency.” “Invisible WMD” on a map of Iraq seems obvious. Then the problem arose: is there any tasteful way to make a 9/11 lolcat? “Oh noes” just doesn’t seem to cover it.
: Zubon