Kill Ten Rats

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My resolutions for 2013

(that is, assuming the world does not indeed end on 12/21/12. If so, and this particular game actually shuts down, it’s been a pleasure)

1- If something is fun, I’ll play it. If it stops being fun, I’ll stop.
2- I’ll stop caring about what and how genres should be and instead go back to point 1 when needed.
3- I’ll keep thinking holiday/seasonal content is bullshit. Because it is.
4- There is no point 4.
5- I will post more.
6- I will wear my “Protection from Marketing” charm necklace and in doing so I will avoid being bitten and infected with Hype Disease.
7- I will be more Lawful Neutral.
8- I will continue to meditate on the koan; “The problem is not the carrot, it’s how long the stick is.”
9- I will finally discard most of my Political Correctness armor, and if that ends up breaking the Civility set bonuses, then so be it. I got better stuff anyway.
10- I will not lambast because it’s AAA, I will not support because it’s indie, I will not forget that there are always better ways to do things and I most definitely won’t suffer intentional mediocrity idly.

[GW2] Happy Dragon Hour

I find myself irrevocably drawn to the Dragon Timers used to countdown when big, repeatable world events will start in Guild Wars 2. My favorite is on the weekends when I can leave the website up and do chores and play with my kids until the appointed time. Two hours until Claw of Jormagâ€™s window opens; plenty of time to go outside and deal with more leaves. Most dragons are even nice enough to give me a bit of a notice before swooping down to get bashed good.

Itâ€™s silly in a way for there to be a timer. It takes some of the fun out of it seeing behind the curtain, and yet like a migratory tribe of cudgel-bearing Irish we form up every few hours to kill some dragon dead. A few of us bring munchies. Some of the rich lads bring wee banners to share in their good fortune. There is good natured chatter before the big oaf lands, and all together there is a comfortable community surrounding the clockwork.

I feel this is a remaking of old ground in a new light. Remember Hogger of ages past, says one blogger, thatâ€™s all this is. I agree in spirit that it feels not much different than boss camping. Except the Hogger dragons of Guild Wars 2 feel more like happy hour than a locked gate. Continue reading [GW2] Happy Dragon Hour

[GW2] AMAA Ascended Gear

Chris Whiteside, Studio Design Director at ArenaNet, headed up a lengthy Ask Me Anything (“AMA”) session on the Guild Wars 2 subreddit yesterday. A â€œtranscriptâ€ is also available. The point of discussion seemed to be largely about Ascended items and the apparent destruction of ArenaNetâ€™s â€œno grindâ€ philosophy. This was no accident since Whiteside was a major deciding force in starting the Ascended gear as soon as possible in fragments.

My rage was non-existent for the most part. Unlike many, I simply could not believe that in one swoop ArenaNet would head towards a treadmill-based gear slog based around dungeons, which is heralded in so many conventional MMOs. Instead, their opening move just appeared that way. Continue reading [GW2] AMAA Ascended Gear

[BL2] Colleen Clinkenbeard

Would Borderlands (2) be as much fun without the voice acting? I love both the lines and the delivery on Patricia Tannis, but I’m not sure how well the lines work without the delivery. There are some other performances I cannot cite without mild spoilers (feel free in the comments), so let me add that she was also great as the Firehawk, and I may need to go back and play Lilith in BL1 to hear what she does there. Marcus Mauldin also gives great delivery as the Slab King, and I may need to play Brick in BL1 to hear his performance there. Which is funny, because those two were the melee characters and so of less interest to me.

: Zubon

Colleen Clinkenbeard is the sorceress in the Orcs Must Die! games, also great work. Hey, the OMD warmage is also the voice of Axton? Hmm, I may need to try the BL2 Commando.

Bait and Switch

An established online gaming company with some moderate success in its record released its next generation MMORPG based on a popular fantasy intellectual property. Whatever the initial hoopla, it was pretty quickly recognized as an incremental improvement on the WoW quest-based MMORPG model, with some changes such as a central quest line running through the story from tutorial to endgame, with the early parts customized to your character. One of the notable differences from comparable games was the financial model, which included buying an account once rather than paying a monthly fee; a cash shop provided assorted character boosts and account upgrades.

The game had immediate appeal Explorers and Socializers, and frequent events were a big draw that gathered players together, although it did split them into multiple instances of the zone which could be inconvenient. The PvE was relatively relaxed, the community was more positive than average. There was a lot of play and exploration below the level cap, and the endgame content was structured around single-group dungeons, although content did exist for larger groups of characters to tackle together, if you were up for fighting a dragon. It also had a draw on Achievers with its take on achievements, which linked back to Explorers given the range of achievements available. As much as the game tried to advertise to Killers with its PvP area based on taking keeps and sieging the central castle, it was mostly a PvE playground.

For its first expansion worth of content, it added a new tier of items, along with a new mechanic whereby dungeons would be more difficult unless you had run the dungeons enough to get equipment that countered the debuff mechanic. This new equipment also had the best stats in the game. You are familiar with the sort of forum wars that erupt when you put the best equipment in gated group content, but the Lord of the Rings Online got past it, and the game is still available with 4.5 years’ worth of updates if that is the game you are interested in playing.

: Zubon

More Gaming Metaphors From My Cat

She will whine at great length and volume about any closed door or other obstruction to her freedom of movement. She has high expectations about coming attractions and how responsive to her desires others should be. Once past an obstruction, she will do exactly the same thing that she did in the previous room.

: Zubon

[BL2] Getting the Tone

The Slab King is probably the single best character for exemplifying the setting of Borderlands 2. He is needlessly violent, friendly and silly, occasionally profane, psychopathic, and devoid of introspection. He has cheerful stories about people he has killed with his bare hands. He shouts rants against Jack. He fails to understand worldviews beyond his own amusements. His plans involve punching people in the face, blowing things up, or ideally both at once. He will call you during missions with advice on how to look like more of a badass. He seems to view existence as an action movie, and the world supports him; after you follow his advice, someone immediately recognizes how badass that move was. He happily reminisces, “I’ve killed a lotta people.” He is brutal, petty, helpful, and loves dogs. He is too bloodthirsty for what passes for polite society in a bandit-infested wasteland, someone who thinks nothing of the deaths of his closest allies, one of your loyal allies, and one of the last hopes for the world.

It’s that kind of world.

: Zubon

You could expect some spoilers in the comments, except that we do not get comments on the non-MMO posts. I seem to write these for my own amusement.

The Test of the Obelisk

Returning to the topic of simple mechanics with big impacts, consider the Test of the Obelisk in A Tale in the Desert. Most of you have never played, so let me explain. Some particulars may have changed between Tellings, so I am going with the one I remember best, from the original ATitD.

To pass the Test, you must build an obelisk. It must be at least 7 cubits tall, and it must be at least 1/7 larger than any obelisk within 1000 yards, and it must remain the tallest for a week. The building cost of an obelisk increases geometrically, mostly in bricks and boards but also involving ash, linen, and other materials.

It is the first and simplest Test of Architecture. The devil, as ever, is in the details. Continue reading The Test of the Obelisk

[BL2] Dark and Wacky

Borderlands 2 is silly but also darker than the first one. Most things are, upon a moment’s reflection, at least creepy and sometimes horrifying. There is lots of comedic sociopathy and black comedy that usually works best when it crosses the line twice. You may be distressed if you pause halfway or reach one of the moments when the game looks back.

For example, Tiny Tina wants to have a tea party. It involves luring a psycho into a trap and torturing him to death … while having a tea party with some dolls. The psychos are goofy insane, and we have a little girl who talks like the internet going over the top, so it’s funny. Did you notice the little name cards at the table, indicating that this psycho got her parents killed? How about that sidequest later on where you get recordings of their deaths when they were captured as test subjects for medical experiments? Or the other recordings from that quest?

On the creepy side, there are Moxxi posters in one (?) of the bandit bathrooms.

The tone is usually pretty light, and the game rarely dwells on these moments. Keep it moving, before the players dwell upon what happened there. Did you notice at the start of the game that all the Vault Hunters were on that train? All the survivors are in your group. Based on my Steam friends, it looks like most people are playing BL2 solo. You may have noticed the similar fate of all but one of the Claptrap units on the planet. Okay, next joke and/or explosion, go!

: Zubon