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Theft, Links, and Spam

WoW Insider has a link round-up post that includes our “Daily Quests.” So far, we have received pingbacks from four other sites that have stolen their content and reposted it word-for-word, including the opening words, “We here at WoW Insider…” Plus ads, of course. You don’t get to see those pingbacks, because I mark them as spam comments, but it strikes me that stealing posts with lots of links is the best thing for one of those sites. You get the stolen content to help your Google hits, then any site that leaves those pingbacks is giving you free links that further help your Google ranks.

: Zubon

Guild Wars Funnels (And April Update)

Funneling MMO population is a big deal that can have huge effects on daily online, active players (or subscriber numbers).  The Guild Wars Live Team is doing just that for their game, where population decline is sometimes an issue.  They are doing this in the way of “daily” quests, called Zaishen Challenge Quests.  This information was just released in the Guild Wars 4th Anniversary content preview.

The goal of the Zaishen Challenge Quests was to direct the critical mass of players.  Each day players can go to and grab the daily quest, which features a new challenge for the day.  The challenge could be winning a PvP match, defeating a dungeon boss, etc.  When complete the players get all sorts of goodies ranging from gold and faction rep to Zaishen barter items.  The Challenge Quests are not daily quests, per se, because a player can hold on to them indefinitely (up to 3 at a time), and it seems like they won’t repeat that often.  Regardless, it seems like a great way to get players together.

There are plenty of other features coming like a pet zoo, expanded storage, and a Hall of Monuments upgrade, but I think the Zaishen Challenge Quests are by far the best thing announced in the April update so far to give Guild Wars a stronger heartbeat.

–Ravious
trial by stone

A Legend Passes On…

Tuesday, one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, Dave Arneson, sucumbed to his ultimate battle with cancer.   Mr. Arneson is unquestionably a legend, having in his short 61 years, influenced and touched the lives of millions of faithful fans.  His brain child, D&D is one of the most popular and successful fantasy franchises in history, and the MMO industry draws more from his work than any other source.

Lets celebrate his life and his contributions to our culture by leaving comments related to D&D.  Share a great story or adventure, share how the game influenced you, or just leave a simple Thank You below.

~Cyndre

Daily Quests

Quests available:

  • Workplace Outfitting
  • Afternoon Nap
  • Dinner Preparations

*click*

Workplace Outfitting
Off to work again, are ye? Not just yet yer not! The guards’ll stop ye at the gates if ye try to get by in that get-up. No, this is an infiltration job of the most dangerous sort, and you’ll need to blend with the natives, or end up skewered on a pike!
Objectives:

  1. Subquest: No Two Alike
  2. Subquest: After Nap Time
  3. Subquest: Tie Tie
  4. Subquest: If You Start Me Up

Rewards:

  • Workplace Reputation (200)
  • Effect: Basic Warmth (duration: 12 hours)

Accept — Decline

*click* Continue reading Daily Quests

Gamers don’t want Hardcore

Oh… gamers think they want hardcore.  They even say they want hardcore. But no, they do not want hardcore, or at least not the kind of hardcore that mmo developers usually dole out to appease their requests.

When a gamer says they want something to be hardcore, they mean to say they would like to achieve something and then stand triumphant while those who have not achieved that thing are impressed beyond measure.  It has to be something that they can achieve where others fail. This is where the vision stops.  Players don’t stop to think WHY those who are impressed have failed to achieve.

In SWG, getting a gunship is considered a somewhat “hardcore” space goal.  In order to get one, you have to kill hundreds of fighters of every kind, of every level.  The barrier that keeps most people from getting a gunship isn’t some boss, but rather a huge boring grind. Many of the ships you have to destroy to get a gunship die after a couple hits, but are so weak you could bring your engines to a full stop and safely go to the bathroom during a dogfight.

It should be the other way around.  Hardcore should mean that you have to face very difficult fights where you could easily die against a dangerous opponent.  Instead, your chief enemy in most “hardcore” games is boredom.  * Cough *  Darkfall  * Cough *

When players ask for hardcore, they may expect some twitch-based challenge or near-impossible boss, but they’re really asking for a huge grind.  Hardcore doesn’t = Challenging.

The Yapper

Why do we play MMOs?  For a lot of us it’s a game wrapped up with communication.  Humans are highly communicative creatures, and our (MMO players, especially ones that read blogs about MMOs) minds usually love games and game mechanics.  There are reasons that so many things in the 21st century revolve around communication.  In a lot of online games we have or add voice chat.  Lord of the Rings Online has built in voice chat for when you need to party.  In Warhammer Online my guild used a huge Ventrilo server.  X-Box Live uses a lot of voice communication.  Team Fortress 2 has it built in.  Etc. Etc. Etc.  For myself, I am pretty quiet… even when I shouldn’t be.  Even though I am alright at leading groups, I hate to describe how we are going to fight Igash, Lord of the Grand Stairs, with this new group makeup.  It’s not because I am shy (I assure you, I am not), it’s just I’d prefer to let someone else do it.  I just don’t like communicating via voice.  I’d rather type the entire strategy out.  Enter the Yapper…

If you have ever played any online game for a prolonged period of time where voice chat is involved, you must have come across a Yapper.  These people talk in the group like they have not spoken to another human being all day.  Some talk about real life happenings, some talk about world news, and some talk about how much the devs suck.  The thing they all share, I think, is that a Yapper receives some affirmation of life by allowing very little silence.  And, they are crucial to our games.

Continue reading The Yapper

Sets of Sets

The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume Two: Mines of Moriaâ„¢ introduced many quests and deeds that are sets and sets of sets. What does Zubon mean by that, and why does he like it more for deeds than quests?

Take 2.5.5, in which you defend three places in Moria. You get one quest, and the goal of that quest is to complete three sub-quests. You now have four quests in your quest log, and as you complete the first three, it checks off the objectives on the frame quest.

Deeds work similarly but invisibly. When you finish all the deeds in a Moria instance, you are awarded a hidden deed and title for doing so. Hurray, you are a Curator of the Forgotten Treasury! There is a hidden deed for exploring all of Moria; you complete this by completing all the exploration deeds in Moria; you complete these by reaching all the exploration spots listed on those deeds. These are neat little bonuses, and I would like to see previous zones and instances retrofitted with them. But then, I like deeds, and getting deeds for getting deeds is meta-joy. (Was Annuminas the first of these hidden set deeds?)

Why are quests less successful? You can have as many deeds in progress as you like. Quests are more limited. Consider the quests for the six radiance instances. The Twenty-First Hall has two quests to go help people in those instances. Each of those quests is to go help several people with quests in those instances. Some of those quests are to help the person in multiple ways. The Grand Stair is the big one here: if you complete all the quests, you will receive more than half a gold piece in quest rewards because: Alice tells you to help Alice, Bob, Carl, and Dan; Alice wants you to fight fire orcs and their boss; Bob wants you to fight goblins and their bosses; Carl wants you to fight shadow orcs and their boss; Dan wants you to fight orcs and trolls, each of which is a pair of quests to fight them and their boss. All of that is one checkbox on the top-level quest to go help in the radiance instances. In a way, this is neat. In another way, good golly I need more quest space. I decided against seeing if I could cancel the top-level quests and pick them back up for insta-credit after completing the sub-quests.

But back to deeds, you get another quest slot for every 40 deeds you complete. More deed-hunting!

: Zubon

Blast from the past

Bored out of my mind, decided to resuscitate mIRC and open a chat channel for all rat slayers. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s the age of Vent, IM, Skype or whatever it is you whippersnappers use nowadays. There’s something to be said for the old school, and you know I’m all about the old school. So there it is.

You can still get mIRC here.
Log in to any AfterNET server (should be in your mIRC server list). Channel is, of course, #KTR.

So drop by if you’re “staff” or a friend of this glorious blog. Have a little chat, say hi, or just lurk, making everyone else wonder what you’re up to.

We don’t get together very often.