I was a little silent over Asura Week. Usually my goal during those weeks is to find some different angle to push and provoke thoughts along different lines. I just wasn’t finding it with the asura. I wasn’t finding anything of depth. I would easily say they are the most superficial player-race in Guild Wars 2. What you see is what you get. Continue reading [GW2] Asuran Intricacies
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.League of Legends: Dominion
Also known as League of Legends: Arathi Basin. It is live, a map with 5 capture points instead of three lanes. The overview has information about the new mode. I haven’t tried it myself, but the games should be shorter (~20 minutes).
Of course, quite a few League of Legends games are decided at the 20-minute point, because that is when a team can forfeit, but that’s another story.
Update, having tried it: Wow, that is a MUCH faster game. Team battles start within 90 seconds. I have been ahead 200 (of 500) and lost and behind 200 and won. The map is much smaller, the minions are fewer, and everything just feels very INTENSE NOW GO GO POWER! versus the stately pace of the League of Legends early game with its laning and harassing.
: Zubon
Binding Rituals
The next big thing is Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR), of course. For those that have now just regained internet after some hurricane, tornado, or gopher-pocalypse, the release date is right before Christmas. Chris at LevelCapped pretty much sums up my general feelings on the game. I do hope that the half-million and rising mob of pre-orderers have fun. I look forward to the many MMO blogs on the ‘sphere thoughts from actual play sessions. Story time is the best, don’t you think?
Anyway, the LevelCapped post got me thinking about all those MMO things that we constantly post about when the urge arises. What is an MMO? What is persistence? Which is better F2P or subscription? Etc. et al. Veni, vidi, vici. More importantly (to me and you) I thought about my own game buying in the past few months. The recent ones off the top of my head were Trackmania² Canyon (“Canyon”), Magic the Gathering’s new Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 (“DotP2012”), and Bastion. I’ve also been going full Explorer mode in Minecraft. I’m sorry to say that as of late most MMOs just haven’t caught my interest. I’ve been spoiled silly with my little time playing Guild Wars 2, I guess. Continue reading Binding Rituals
My Dog Ate It
Commenters have raised the issue of lagging out due to a pet’s having eaten the router. They went on to start the real question: how much will this affect performance, and how can we mitigate it?
Is your dog small or thin enough that a wireless signal can still get through? Will it matter if you have a long-haired cat? Are the essential pieces small enough that they could be sufficiently whole after the plastic case has been devoured? And how much battery life does that thing have?
: Zubon
Classics as Social Media Games
Oregon Trail is now on Facebook. It is kind of lousy. Take the old game and extend it so it cannot reasonably be completed in one day, to say nothing of one play session. Add in the social media mechanic of a limited number of turns/amount of energy, in this case several separate bars for that. Add in the social media mechanics of items requiring RMT or soliciting the help of several friends. Add in minimal spamminess. Serve tepid.
Civilization is now on Facebook. It is rather lousy. Take the names from the usual game and throw out pretty much everything. Keep the tech tree in a weird form. Keep the resource types. Replace most of the mechanics with a few mini-games. Remove the world map. What guilds are in most games, nations are here.
This is actually a good idea that makes sense. CivWorld makes superior use of social media gameplay mechanics, if only there were more of a game underneath. Isolated city-states can be competitive early on, but large and/or organized nations own the late-game; this makes sense, and you cannot “rush” it by wiping out other nations, so the game inexorably pushes towards social integration or failure. Instead of “come back in x hours to harvest,” the game accumulates harvests that you can cash in to make everything produce. There is a hard cap on how much real money you are allowed to spend per unit time. I cannot see much/any reason to spam your friends to do the equivalent of tending your crops. They are being a good corporate partner here, not trying to make up for the horrible game by adding addictive elements.
But the games are still horrible. Maybe there is some depth of whatever, were I to spend a few weeks playing HARDCORE, but they play like the original games fed through a food processor then dribbled over a featureless path that takes two weeks to walk.
: Zubon
[GW2] Stereotypical Guilds in Five Acts
I, Norman the Wary, have cataloged some of the many guilds of Tyria in interviewing so many of the races. I have done my best to transcribe the, shall we say, intricacies of each race as I learned and sought to find a guild of my own.
The Charr
My guild, meat? Are you looking to join us? Well you can’t. Plain and simple. My guild is my warband, and my warband is my guild. We cut our teeth toegther; we will die together. That’s why you can’t join. You haven’t known us for the better part of a decade. We don’t allow outsiders, and our focus and dedication is to the guild. We are going to be the best guild on the field because of it.
You did not see Triok speaking with another guild! No, he would never defect even if they explore more dungeons. It doesn’t matter that he’s allowed to join another guild. He’s not allowed with us. We’re too close for that bull skritt. Go away, meat, I have a Triok to deal with.
The Norn
So, you want to join our guild, huh? Good, the more the merrier. Bring me another drink so we can celebrate you and those other five guys in the guild. Here’s to you six more! Naw, I don’t know how big our guild is. It just is. We’re here just to have fun. Exclusivity? Exclusivity of what? You can be in as many guilds as you want.
Look, our guild is based on ancient norn tradition of “do what you want.” It’s a good tradition too! Norn a plenty, I say. Sure, there are penalties. If you pee in my cask of ale, I probably break your legs and might kick you out of the guild. I don’t know though, some guild drama let’s me sit back and eat this new asura snack. Something like ‘Popp’s butter-injected density-modified kernels.’ There’s probably a few other words I’m missing. So, anyway, I might just break your legs.
The Sylvari
What is a guild? “Guild” is a word. Like “love.” A way of saying “these are the people I play with.” I do not resent the people outside my guilds – I am grateful that they too are part of Tyria. We are all here together, and that is a gift.
You’ve never heard of a sylvari speak of “love”? Oh, “guilds.” No, it is just a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see you wearing guild colors. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection? Then perhaps the reason you’re here is not so different from the reason I’m here. Perhaps we will start a guild too then.
The Humans
This guild here is based out of Queensdale County. We’re good farm folk and bandit-killers. No, that’s the Queen’s Reach Gate guild. They’re located at a different tavern. Look, I don’t mean to be rude, I mean you can join our guild if you want. I just don’t think you’ll understand the nature of our guild. We have deeper roots than just, going to the Mists to beat back the Sparkfly Swamp boys.
It’s just, I don’t know you, and even though I don’t really know Bynn the Breaker over there neither. I know her stock. I know that she knows the taste of Queensdale pork shoulder smoked with Queensdale apple wood. That means a lot around here. Each year we head to a tavern in the Mists for a meet and greet. Like I said, just because I don’t know you, don’t mean I don’t know you. Not, you, I mean… Bynn over there.
The Asura
Why are you wasting my time? Asuran archives already has volumes on the guilds of the lesser races and the mighty asura. What do I think? Well, you’re right, the volumes are probably a bit off from what’s true. Asura build guilds for purpose. It is purpose that binds us; purpose that drives us. For without purpose, our guilds would not exist. No, I am not angry. You stop talking in your angry voice!
Anyway, do the job is what we say. I don’t care about Glikk over there any more than I care about you. I know that he will do what it takes to get the perfect ioniclear crystal amplifier off of some ancient desert king’s grave. and I got his back for it. There is no other connection. When we are done, we part ways.
–Norman the Wary
(This post is for the GuildMag Blog Carnival 2. Be sure to check out all the other entries! I will update this post with the Blog Carnival 2 link when it goes up. –Rav)
Krepost
The krepost in Civilization V is one of the most simple, elegant, nearly hidden pieces of design you are likely to find. Every Civ V civilization gets a special ability and two altered units or buildings. The Roman legions can build roads, the Siamese wat combines culture and science, and the Americans are good at bombing things. The Russian unique building is the krepost, which replaces the barracks. It is a normal barracks plus a 25% reduction in the culture cost to acquire new tiles. Like the barracks, it is unlocked with Bronze Working, an Ancient Era technology.
That one bonus on one building creates a dynamic that simulates Russia beautifully. It encourages you to build a barracks in every city, even for a quasi-pacifist player like me who has no need to build troops in every city. That leads naturally to a more militaristic playstyle. The bonus also facilitates the creation of a large empire with extensive borders. Those borders will put you into conflict with neighbors who object to your taking up half a continent, but those neighbors might be hesitant to mess with an enemy who is prepared to mobilize troops in every part of the empire. And this mechanic starts in the earliest stages of the game, which gives it time to define your strategy and to let those cultural borders expand.
Add one unrelated bonus to one item and watch the entire play dynamic change.
: Zubon
Appropriate Blame
In a recent survey of FPS players, 8 out of 10 deaths were caused by “lag,” “laaaaaag,” “high ping,” “damn hackers,” and “those idiots on my team.”
: Zubon
Storybricks Demo and Interview
Who would I talk to if I was building an MMO on story? I’m not talking about a single-player story, even one as satisfying as Mass Effect, tacked in a phased/instanced manner on an MMO. I’m talking about making real stories that the whole server takes part in. Stories without a connect-the-dots type solution. Stories that I can create and share. Stories that I can mess up.
I would do what Namaste Entertainment did for their Storybricks tool and go to GenCon and talk to table-top roleplayers. (PAX too; afterall Tycho is of the old school.) Table-top roleplayers are used to that collaborative effort, imagination requirement, and undefined path to get through a good story. Video gamers, I would argue, especially conventional MMO fans, have been trained to receive story in a linear format more similar to books and movies. They just wouldn’t understand as quickly.
I had the pleasure of having an online demo with Namaste’s Kelly Heckman (Community Manager, who says I have some “design chops”) and blogosphere favorite Brian “Psychochild” Green (MMO Master, actual title) for their upcoming Storybricks tool and the first rays of light of their MMO that will use the tool. This is that story. Continue reading Storybricks Demo and Interview
On Asking for Money
I’m happy to help a friend in need so long as I think it will make a difference. You have some friends whom you would gladly lend money or your car. You have other friends who constantly need to be “lent” money, and you know it is going down a bottomless pit. They have back-to-back Facebook posts about how much they love their new iPhones and how they can’t afford to buy books this semester.
I feel the same about game developers. I want to keep afloat the companies that make products I enjoy, but I am immediately disinclined to contribute to someone who always has his hand out. I presume that the latter brings in more revenue than it drives away, but I am one of the driven away. I don’t mind a cash shop ad at log-in plus a link somewhere on the UI. I do mind if the most visible (worse: and flashing) UI element is a shop ad, along with a constant stream of pop-ups and item descriptions that ask you to spend money.
There is an old one-liner about how banks will only lend you money if you don’t need it. Close, but where a good banker makes his/her money is being able to distinguish between an investment that will pay off and a black hole of endless “need.” In life, try not to resemble the latter.
: Zubon