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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.

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Work in Progress

More than other games, MMO experiences have a time stamp because the game itself changes and our experiences with the “same” piece of content might be radically different.

This is especially true in the early days. Yesterday’s dungeon discussion had some sharply divided experiences, and those could be caused by class, gear, strategy, or the dungeon’s having been updated a half-dozen times in a month. I finally tried WoW so I could see how the zones looked before the Cataclysm revamp only to find that the veterans’ experiences were radically different due to other changes that had accumulated over the years. My trip through Guild Wars: Prophecies included heroes, lots of elite skills, and PvE skills, which changed everything even if none of the Prophecies content had changed.

As a LotRO player, I recall approaches to Moria boss fights that went from “standard practice” to “exploits we patched away.” Sometimes you need the good bugs to get past the bad bugs. Some grognards talk about how hard X was during their day, and some of them did Y while it was easier, broken, bugged, etc.

The population shift is also a big change over time. The original wave of Warhammer Online players experienced public events 1.0 as intended, but as early as a month later many zones were ghost towns and you never saw the last event phases. In September 2012, players bemoaned that the Guild Wars 2 economy was broken because scraps of jute were very expensive. Come September 2014, players may bemoan that the Guild Wars 2 economy is broken because craps of jute were almost worthless. It seems to be a rare event for a game to maintain a steady population spread rather than having huge clumps at the top and bottom levels.

“Trammel” and “NGE” are extreme cases you need not mention. Everyone knows to distinguish between before and after those chasms.

: Zubon

[GW2] Arah

This weekend, I played The Ruined City of Arah in story mode. This is GW2’s final dungeon, where you and the reunited Destiny’s Edge fight Zhaitan itself. It is probably the worst instance I have ever run, second only to the collective, multi-hour pain of the City of Heroes Shadow Shard task forces that spanned entire zones. The two big problems I see are balance and boredom.
Continue reading [GW2] Arah

[P101] Pirate 101 Sneak Peek Event

For fans of Wizard 101, the spiritual-ish sequel Pirate 101 is dropping later this month. Currently it is in closed beta, and if you pre-purchase the game you can start playing October 8. The rest of us rabble including crown users and “free” players have to wait a week later. Anyway, if you want to try the game out early they are having a 6 hour sneak peek event.

I won’t be able to attend the event (work), but this is an MMO I am looking forward to playing with my young gradeschooler. I liked the style and simplicity of Wizard 101, and in a fantastic actual play of beta Pirate 101 I saw of longtime MMO blogger and ‘caster, Beau Hindman, I was pretty impressed with the additions and maintained style.

–Ravious

Project Gorgon Kickstarter

Kickstart here.

You have probably reading about the really indie MMO development of Project Gorgon at Elder Game, friend of Kill Ten Rats. The latest update was about randomly generated weapons that give animals emotional problems. Previous updates have discussed cow PCs (and milking them) and other fun quirkiness. Calligraphy is an important skill for improving your swordsmanship.

The developers (both of them) worked on Asheron’s Call 2. Give them money.

: Zubon

[GW2] High-Sodium Minipet Packs

I’ve dropped a bit of extra money on Guild Wars 2 for character slots and bank slots. I haven’t really needed any of that yet, but I also felt like ArenaNet earned more support from me. I was having a grand ol’ time. When gems were much cheaper on the exchange, or when I had some extra gems left over, I bought mini packs from the gem store. I wanted to collect a complete set, which was one of my accomplished goals in Guild Wars 1. I set out to do so at the cost of having worse gear, worse crafting, etc. and only now do I finally understand the minipet collection game. In the spirit of a unique college friend, boy, do I feel salty. Continue reading [GW2] High-Sodium Minipet Packs

Useful Loading Screens

Most loading screens I see have tips these days, occasionally trivia. These are generally useful for your first few weeks, then you have seen them all or already know everything in them, then you start tuning them out or mocking them. Until then, they can be quite helpful in highlighting non-obvious things, like a game mechanic or a subtle menu option.

Customization could make these more useful. Add some variables to your canned responses, then tune them for the character or player. Torchlight 2 has a great example: the “spend your level-up points” indicator is subtle, but when you zone, the top of the loading screen explicitly says how many points you have to spend. Team Fortress 2 has standard tips on its loading screens, but its death screens have friendly congratulations about how you did that life.

The game does or can track lots of things. Plug those into your loading screens. Continue reading Useful Loading Screens

[GW2] Weekend Resonance

These are my tales and thoughts from the weekend of playing Guild Wars 2. Everything from the achiever drive to possibly new content to momentum in the end game is on the butcher’s block.

100%

My immediate goal is to get 100% world completion on a single character. I am a zone or so over halfway. Not only do I eventually (years) want to get a legendary, but since my main character has the most momentum, this is a great time to get that achievement completed.

Last night on my level 80, I completed the charr starter zone Plains of Ashford. Never did it feel like a waste of time to check off some achievement that the achiever portion of my brain told me I had to, or it would itch. I was getting materials for future crafting, which would help alts rocket up to higher levels. I was completing my daily, which netted me a mystic coin and a repair canister. Every dozen kills would net me an item around my level. Each event was giving me a silver and some change. Sure, this was not going to net me as much gold as running Orr for the same amount of time, but I was not making some copper per hour pittance either. Continue reading [GW2] Weekend Resonance

Quote of the Day

At Bio Break:

A lament I’ve often heard over the past few years from MMO vets of the early generation of titles is that people don’t talk to each other in game any more.  They say that with a sorrowful tone, recounting days when MMOs had such slow, gradual gameplay that they were often a colorful overlay for a chat window.  People talked more back then.  They bonded more.  Communities meant more.  Now?  Now it’s just a bunch of helter-skelter madmen running amok with no interest in any social connections.

Pardon me, but that’s a load of horse apples.

When I talked to a stranger in the open world in a conventional MMO, that was breaking the ice. When I talk to a stranger in Guild Wars 2, we have already communicated plenty through interacting gameplay. Further verbal communication just reinforces our prior non-verbal communication. A subtle difference that changes things in drastic ways.

–Ravious