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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

[TL2] Removed Functionality

Last night, I decided I was done with my first Torchlight 2 character. I had beaten the game, messed around with the Mapworks a bit, and I was ready to retire and start a new character. I had started on “normal” difficulty, and as Tycho says, that is not a satisfying fight. “Right click to kill the five nearest monsters.”

The retirement system from Torchlight 1 has been replaced by New Game Plus in Torchlight 2. That is surely documented somewhere, but it had not even occurred to me to look for it. I liked retirement, I thought it was a good system (cash in your current character for a small boost to your next one, cumulative across generations), and it did not strike me that leaving it out was an option. This usually happens at some point when you upgrade systems and/or programs, but it is always a disappointing moment when a tool you occasionally deployed is no longer in the toolbox.

I wonder if a mod will bring it back.

: Zubon

[GW2] Quiet Places

I think more and more players are beginning to find rhythm with Guild Wars 2. This means that launch concurrency is dropping, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact it’s quite good.

Last night I was in the Straits of Devastation with a friend that was helping me explore the zone. We picked up another player along the way who enjoyed hanging out with us along the southern and western skill points. With launch concurrency it would’ve been hot-pocket zergs at every skill point and event cluster. Instead it was a really challenging and fun zone.

We found a champion risen pirate. Champions are built for around five players to take down. We were three. It was an epic boss fight. The elementalist trying to support and take down adds. The engineer going through tons of kits trying to bat out flames, whether that was adds, player’s downed, or an uncontrolled champion. I kept as much pressure on the champion as I could with my condition-based necromancer, juggling between champion control and bleeds as best as I could while playing peek-a-boo around the corner. At the least moment when it was clearly going to be down to the wire a charr warrior leaps in and helps us pummel the boss to the ground. This could not have happened with a hot-pocket zerg where the champion risen pirate would become ashes in a few seconds. Continue reading [GW2] Quiet Places

Dear Bookah

I threw my arms wide and the lab’s defenses deactivated before me, making this rough place for science. I transferred my belongings from the college at Rata Sum and tried to live here instead. It was steamy at night and the jungle cries bounced through my force windows. To gain infinite renown, I must first venture even deeper into Metrica, where the interfering signals are blocked altogether. Only then will I understand them, when I stand in the heart of things and they flow into me, uncorrupted.  Continue reading Dear Bookah

[GW2] Weekend Money

I’ve been following The Guild Wars 2 Trading Post fan-blog, written by Markco, for awhile. The posts are not rocket science, but they are great ideas for entering the world of trade in Guild Wars 2. Anybody interested in toeing the markets, or those already swimming in the deep end, should take a look at this blog for some great thoughts and suggestions. While not all of his ideas “work” all the time (e.g., up-forging materials only works for gossamer, which costs more than 15 times the cost of the previous cloth tier, silk), he does try and emphasize using his ideas only as training wheels. Here’s some of the things I did over the weekend regarding the Trading Post.

Flipping Velocity

The easiest thing to do is find a market discrepancy and flip. I did this all weekend instead of letting gold sit in my pocket. I did this with dye, although sigils, rares, and exotics are all good markets. I watched for a comfortable buy at price, and made a dozen or so buy orders. Then when I would receive the items, I’d turn them around at the sell price I knew would sell in a reasonable amount of time. 85% of the sell price had to be above the buy price. I would say roughly keeping 10-15 buy/sell orders going at a time I made about a gold. Continue reading [GW2] Weekend Money

[GW2] Currency Count

At launch (and these tallies generally go up), Guild Wars 2 has:

  • coin for merchants
  • gems for the cash shop
  • karma for events
  • influence for guilds
  • glory for SPvP
  • badges of honor for WvW
  • 8 different dungeon token types

There is also supply in WvW, skill points become a sort of currency with a few vendors, and mystic coins could be considered a 9th token type. You also have an achievement point count. Some of these are inventory objects, others are just variables attached to your character/account.

Since I complained at length about the need for a LotRO barter wallet, which was implemented years later through the cash shop, I thought I would take stock as GW2 started. WoW and CoX were also noted for their problems with proliferating currency types. Let’s see how ArenaNet handles this.

: Zubon

[GW2] This is not the Ferrari you thought it was

Reaching the month mark is a pretty good time (as good as any, really) to start throwing down real solid opinions. Opinions that at least had have some time to stew and cook properly in the crock pot of your head. Keen has given his, and I find myself in agreement with most of his points.

Thanks to Netflix I’ve been watching a lot of old episodes of Top Gear lately (as an aside, if you haven’t already do yourself a favor and watch their yearly specials where they go all over the world for shenanigans. It’s great TV). Jeremy Clarkson is a huge Ferrari fan and when you watch his road tests you can, right under the humor and his snark, hear the disappointment in his voice whenever the Ferrari he’s driving doesn’t feel up to par. You can see the letdown in his face. It’s personal for him; if the Ferrari doesn’t feel right, he just can’t connect to the car, and it has nothing to do with the car’s top speed, gadgetry or, Cthulhu forbid, fuel economy. It has everything to do with his feelings and expectations of what driving a Ferrari should be.

Which, naturally, somehow, brings us to Guild Wars 2. Somehow.

Continue reading [GW2] This is not the Ferrari you thought it was

[GW2] Cherry Tree

Trahearne is not the most beloved character in GW2, but Sieran is a strong competitor. For those of you who have not tried the Durmand Priory personal story arc, try the Durmand Priory personal story arc. Magister Sieran is your guide, and she is the happiest adventurer around. “Cherry!” (or sylvari cursing: “Thorns!”) We’re going into certain death: “It’ll be an adventure!”

Everyone gets the lesser version in the Pact story arc, Carys, who is enthusiastic about running in and whacking zombies with a big hammer. I tried this on a sylvari guardian, and it is indeed satisfying to whack zombies with a big hammer, so I can see why she is in such a good mood. Still, Sieran is the full version, the physical incarnation of joy and enthusiasm.

: Zubon

[GW2] Stories That Should Be Told

There are interesting views about stories stemming from open world PvE in Guild Wars 2. Tobold disavows using “themepark” to prefer the slightly broader rendition of the term “guided gameplay”. Guild Wars 2 is guided gameplay, but I’ve always felt it edge much closer to a “sandbox” form because it always wasn’t clear what I would get in each play session. I liken Guild Wars 2 with events and very cooperative multiplayer PvE to more of a zoo. Never know what the animals are going to do.

Jeromai has a Spink-stamped Quote of the Day regarding the stories that stem from Guild Wars 2. Spinks notes that Jeromai’s anecdotes might be more interesting than a lot of sandbox stories. That’s the thing. The best sandbox stories, sometimes spanning month’s of work and play, are among the best MMO stories, but they gloss over those hours and hours of scanning, waiting, or running “guided” content to pass the time. Continue reading [GW2] Stories That Should Be Told