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Quote of the Week

From Moorgard‘s friend Kohath:

“You guys have an uphill battle differentiating yourselves from all the other MMOs that no one cares about.”

And there are good reasons not to care about lousy MMOs. And there are a lot of them. A lot. And more coming. And Raph is helping people make their own at home. I can only hope that Sturgeon’s Law is not too optimistic.

: Zubon

Red-Shirt Data Analysis

While the game itself seems to be wearing a red shirt, the makers of Star Trek Online (in whatever final form it may appear) may want to read this presentation on the deaths of Star Trek red-shirts. The canny player might be tempted never to put his crew in red outfits, but that is obvious cheating that is just asking for karmic revenge; you want the enemy to focus fire there, rather than hitting valuable bridge crew members. Instead, note the bit showing that Captain Kirk’s sex life is a primary determinant of whether crew members live or die. Now I’m not saying that there is any cause-and-effect, since Kirk was not one to seduce fanged tentacle fiends, but a noble PC captain must be willing to take one for the team. Age of Conan is trailbreaking this gameplay, so be sure to earn your crew buff on each new planet.

: Zubon

H/T: Mark Krikorian

Speculating on WoW’s successor

Tobold posted some musings about what Blizzard will eventually do with their next MMO that got me thinking.

Tycho over at Penny Arcade speculated a few weeks back that Blizzard’s new MMO project will simply be an engine update for WoW, but I don’t think this will be the case. It seems inevitable that someone will eventually come out with something better designed, more accessible, more fun than WoW, just as WoW did the same for Everquest. And of course Blizzard would like that “someone” to be them.

I’m also not convinced that “the next big game” will be significantly more advanced than WoW, graphically. When you get into the sort of subscriber numbers that WoW has, you’re reaching far beyond the market segment of hardcore gamers, which means you’re targeting people that don’t make a point of upgrading their PC every 2-3 years. So you’ve got hardware limitations to deal with.

I’m also of the opinion that graphics technology today is already “good enough.” It can (and will) continue to get better, sure, but the main thing that distinguishes WoW for me visually is not the graphics technology, it’s the aesthetic. The art, the architecture, the style and spirit that goes into the world is something I find beautiful. I think it’s wonderful that graphics technology is advanced enough so that artistic beauty is finally the biggest differentiator in terms of a game’s visual impact.

– James

Fellowship Improvements

The Lord of the Rings Online Book 13 patch will be improving the LFG and quest log UIs, which I already felt was some of the best out there. Currently, when grouping it is easy to see what quests your other group members have. No need to ask what quests everyone has, just look at the quest UI and you can see an icon for each member with the quest.

In Book 13, they will be adding several new features and it looks impressive. Here are some of the highlights:

  • More prominent filtering options for your list of quests lets you look at just solo quests or just fellowship quests or just the quests you share with your fellowship members.
  • We expanded shared quest status beyond just showing who has the same quest – we tell you where each member of your fellowship stands relative to you for each quest.
  • You can see who among your fellows is behind, or ahead, or even done with the overall quest chain-easily find out who needs to get caught up so that you can tackle that instance or group challenge together.
  • You can see when your fellowship members are ready to turn in a quest-much easier than spamming fellowship chat asking if everyone is done collecting 10/10 boar stomachs!
  • Sharing a quest can now share earlier quests in the chain-if you’ve done a couple of quests in an epic book and your friends haven’t started, you can share the quest you are on and they will get the first quest in the chain!
  • No more blind fellowship invites-when you’re invited, you see the name, level, class, and location of everyone in the fellowship.
  • “Find A Fellowship” button comes in. It’s a new button on the Quest Log that works a little like the “Add to Tracker” button. You can mark one quest for Find A Fellowship. That automatically opens the Fellowing tab of the Social Panel and fills out all the relevant information. You’ll see a list of players who also want to work on that quest (and those players can now find you, too).

    • To top it all off, they are adding “Mustering Horns” at campsites across Middle-earth. These allow you to summon the distant members of the group to the campsite. Very nice, Book 13 is looking to be another excellent addition to an already satisfying (at least for this explorer) game.

    – Ethic

    Extra Slots Implementation: For Your Discussion

    As previously contemplated and announced, City of Heroes is selling extra character slots. The official implementation is here. (2 free for current subscribers, 1 free per year that you are subscribed, one time fee of $6/$10/$20 for 1/2/5 slots, add up to 24 per server) I open this for your comments, as I am curious about what you think of the option, pricing, likely staff time needed, the limits placed, other options that could be viable, etc.

    Kicking it off, I note that you are buying one slot for one server, not one slot per server. Also, if you want your cap of 36 slots on a server, that will cost ~$100, or $80 if you are a two-year subscriber who puts all the free slots there.

    I predict many people returning for at least one month for Issue 12: two free slots for being a current subscriber, plus new archetypes and power sets to play with. Lots of new characters will be made to play with those, so it is a good time to start too. Great marketing item, definitely worth e-mailing to former players with the “$10 value!” note. Of course, that is still at least a month away, so keep your powder dry. I am on-break from CoX until then.

    : Zubon

    EVE Online Client Source Code Leaked

    According to TechSpot, as well as several other sources, the source code for the EVEOnline client program has been leaked and is merrily making its way around the torrents right now. This, by itself, would be pretty big news. Even more interesting, however, are allegations that CCP, understanding that a bell can’t be unrung, is instead seeding torrents themselves, then taking a banhammer to any IP address that they find downloading the source.

    D&D 4E quasi-bleg

    Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition is available for pre-order at 40% off. That is pretty tempting for me, what with my bookcase of gaming books. I feel reasonably certain that I will buy at least the PHB, but buyer’s remorse on many other products makes me hesitate to pre-order. I avoid pre-ordering anything these days unless I have direct experience with it, which seems unlikely to be available here. On the other hand, there is lots of info at EN World and DnD4.com.

    So basically I am asking if you have any advice, comments, leaks, etc. I am leaning towards it, so I don’t need a big shove, but I remain worried about getting another RPG book/system that I will never use, a failure of both fluff and mechanics.

    : Zubon