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Bisexual Dragons and Slighted Straight Boys

Yes, this is week-old news, but it made a rather small splash in my portion of the blogosphere, so I hereby rule the topic still available for fresh discussion.

Quick background: there is a game named Dragon Age 2. It includes romantic options. These are not gender-limited. If someone is available as a romantic option, s/he is available as a romantic option, whether you are fe/male, whether s/he is fe/male. A message board thread ensued. There are a few interesting points here.

Continue reading Bisexual Dragons and Slighted Straight Boys

Cognitive Dissonance

If you leave a rat in a Skinner Box for long enough, it will begin to develop theories about the moral rightness of pressing levers and the personal failings of those with fewer pellets. It is somewhat less likely to develop theories that the box and levers are necessary or desirable, because the pragmatic importance of acquiring pellets is self-evident.

: Zubon

Spiral Situation

Test Realm April 2011: Burger King Amulets

Having asked Ethic if I could establish a bi-weekly column, I wasn’t expecting to post again so soon after bashing bubbly on the hull of my Spiral Situation. Then what to my wondering eyes should appear but those magical words: Test Realm Status: ONLINE!

Continue reading Spiral Situation

[GW] Cash Shop Thoughts

The last Guild Wars microtransaction released was the Mercenary Heroes item, where players can purchase mercenary hero slots to fill up with their own alternate characters. In other words, you can have a full party of, well… yous. ArenaNet even made sure to double-up the worth of all those costumes sitting in the wardrobe by making sure the mercenary heroes could be decked out in all the various regalia.

Previously I saw only unicorns and rainbows from this offering. It’s way more personal than elite. I’m the only one that’s going to care if my nearly six-year old man necromancer is in every party I use. It’s luxury, and it feel like it. This ties in with personalization; I can only analogize it to the difference between grilling a chuck steak and grilling a porterhouse. No one else cares what goes in your mouth. Finally, it wouldn’t affect gameplay… Continue reading [GW] Cash Shop Thoughts

Spiral Situation

For about two weeks, Wizard101 players were tantalized by a countdown clock on the patch screen. We quickly deduced that the “something special coming to The Spiral” would arrive on April 1: anyone with a speck of common sense realized it would be something at least slightly humorous.

It was not until the lid was ripped off the surprise that the community realized the limited range of some players’ sense of humor. The big announcement was the arrival of a new pet in the Crowns Shop (i.e. cash shop): KingsIsle’s iteration of that fabled fad of the 1970s, the Pet Rock.
Continue reading Spiral Situation

/Curtsey

In February 2009, I had never played an MMO and had never listened to a podcast. I’d made a living as a technical writer for about 20 years, but freelance work had dried up in the plunging economy. I was a 39 year-old former junkie for fantasy and sci-fi literature stuffed into the stale mold of soccer mom. Except I was driving a 1996 Saturn and sporting ripped cuticles instead of a shiny SUV and weekly manicures.

But I wasn’t bitter or anything.

Now, I subscribe to three MMOs: Wizard101, WoW, and LotRO, and I’ve dabbled in countless others. And I’m on four gaming podcasts, but those are irrelevant here on Kill Ten Rats. Because I came to KTR on bended knee asking to write about my first MMO, Wizard101.

I still drive the 1996 Saturn, sporting ripped cuticles as I grip the steering wheel, to tote my uber-son about town. Said uber-son introduced me to Wizard101,  showed me how to use WASD, and has been my biggest cheerleader every step of the way as I pursued projects related to gaming.

To be sure, I’m still bitter and full of snark. But life has become infinitely more tasty since I ventured into MMOs. Becoming part of KTR feels like extra sprinkles on my whipped cream. I hope you enjoy my contributions to the site as much as I enjoy writing them.

[GW2] Tap Repeatedly Interview

Lewis B over at the gaming blog Tap Repeatedly has a three–part interview with ArenaNet’s Art Director Daniel Dociu. Lewis B took time and care in preparing for this interview, and he even takes Dociu by surprise pulling out Dociu’s quotes from decades ago. For any budding game artist, this interview is a must read.

With regards to the games, there is not that much new except Dociu hints at “next races to be introduced in future expansion packs.” But, given the treatment on the non-playable Guild Wars 2 races (recently the Skritt), amazing races are not necessarily going to be playable. Dociu also gives an interesting take on how they wanted to bring this “painterly” style to the original Guild Wars, yet the company was not ready for such a risk. The design of Guild Wars was played safe in areas, it appears.

Check out the full interview for a ton of other tidbits and insights.

–Ravious

Issue 20

Coming soon to City of Heroes: the year 2000! I kid! City of Heroes is adding raid groups, as opposed to its even older school system of just having several groups fight a big target without the game’s caring that they are together. They are adding two raid trials. Even more of a throwback to 2000, City of Heroes is adding a guide/mentor/whatever-they-called-it-in-your-game system, such that you can flag yourself as a newb looking for guidance or as a guide willing to help newbs.

Continuing the alternate advancement system, four of the ten incarnate slots will be in the new update. I am particularly drawn to the notion of adding debuffs to all my damaging attacks, but the other three slots are occasional big AE attacks, big AE buffs/heals, and pets. Is it a backhanded line from marketing to say, “the long-awaited endgame arrives!”? Just seven years after launch…

In addition to the two trials, there will be two new lower-level task/strike forces. And, of course, quality of life additions. You can read about all of the new additions here.

: Zubon

Guild in Transition

I never fell into a guild that worked well for me in WoW, which is one of several reasons I played for only a few months. I have friends across many servers, which severely limited the network effect, and my refer-a-friend buddy had a busy semester, leaving me mostly alone.

I joined a guild with friendly people I met along the way, but that was just moments before they decided to transition from a family guild to a serious raiding guild. This is possibly the worst of all possible states to be in, neither here nor there. Events were scheduled and failed to happen. Guild leaders angrily reminded people to show up if you sign up (and RSVP “no” on the required plug-in if not). Raid organizers would angrily wonder why they were bothering if people were not going to sign up. And then there were the new people…

You need a certain number of raiders (more if casual, fewer if hardcore) to ensure that you will have your 10 or 25. Getting to that threshold involves recruitment. I recognize that if you are not growing, you’re dying, but rapid growth is not only disruptive but also involves delving deeper into the barrel. I could politely refer to some as jerks with delusions of grandeur. I recall one fellow in particular who immediately announced his intention to be server- or world-first on clearing ICC (said ICC having just been announced). He was the sort to go on at great length about his awesome DPS and how horrible everyone else in all his groups was. Will the copy-and-paste from the DPS meter come before or after the stream of profanity?

My current LotRO guild is flirting with transition. It has absorbed another couple of guilds. The guild raid corps is hardcore and just the right size, which makes it difficult to cycle in folks who are not serious raiders while vulnerable to having a couple of people unsubscribe. Having a core group of just the right size, any second group active in a week is worse than your average PUG, a casual mix of the undergeared and inexperienced. We lack a farm team, but everything is okay so long as nothing ever changes.

: Zubon