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[GW2] New Player’s Guide to Cutthroat Politics

Cutthroat Politics is the second release to the Living World centered on Bazaar of the Four Winds. Most of the content builds on the first release referred to in the New Player’s Guide to Bazaar of the Four Winds, which this Guide supplements. This guide is written for those just buying Guild Wars 2 now or returning after a long break. Any level character may participate in the activities below, unless otherwise noted. Continue reading [GW2] New Player’s Guide to Cutthroat Politics

Crossing a Pit in Two Hops

A half-finished project is often worse than useless. A half-built house is exposed to the elements and provides limited shelter despite significant expenditure of resources. The prospect of the completed house and all its amenities drives us forward, but (as when you cross the uncanny valley) the resources become less valuable in an incomplete project.

In the age of perpetual beta, we are living in half-finished houses. Games go online incomplete with the first months’ revenue paying for getting the game into a fully playable state, then ongoing revenue carrying the game into a state that might qualify as “going gold” where the discipline of needing to ship a physical medium forces a relatively completed state. (I am well aware that many “houses” went gold by walling off the incomplete rooms and calling it “built.”)

I have previously commented on Cryptic’s exploration of how early in the development cycle one can ship. City of Heroes launched missing its last 10 levels, then City of Villains did the same, then we had Champions Online and Star Trek Online. Kickstarter has changed the pre-order equilibrium for some games, not shipping early but selling the game before coding has even started. That might actually help things — if you already have the customer’s money, you need not rush to revenue. “You’re only late once, but you can suck forever.”

There are merits to releasing half-finished. But testing always reveals that some of the early ideas were not fun, good, or workable. You are free to revamp those during testing, but if you already sold the game and people are already playing, they are going to feel betrayed when you change a fundamental on them. NGE might have been a good idea in terms of design and the long-term health of the game, but you must survive the painful transition.

As commenters suggested under the “releasing half-finished” link, while you do not want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, you also do not want the marginally-better-than-nothing to be the enemy of the good. “Good enough” is often not good enough.

: Zubon

[GW2] 2013 Plans

Last week ArenaNet posted plans on where they intend to take Guild Wars 2. I wanted a weekend (to eat hot dogs in Chicago) to digest all that the official blog post had discussed. I think for the most part things are pretty good. Some ideas are “wait until implementation to decide” and some are “OMG, I want that now!” Overall, it’s nice to see that there are many plans beyond the bi-weekly Living World releases.

Four Living World Teams Stand Before You

That’s what I said now. I think most Guild Wars 2 fans are blown away with the updates. It is very addictive to get something new so often. Tonight, I know that players are going to be a buzz with the player-decided election in Cutthroat Politics. The goal is for each of the four teams to have four months to design and polish a month of content. I seem to recall that in a Twitch developer livestream one of the devs implied that they were just hitting that four month cadence now, and it really shows. The content seems much tighter in Bazaar of the Four Winds. Continue reading [GW2] 2013 Plans

Rebuilding the MMO Theme Park

Ah, yes, the old MMO moniker, “theme park”. A derided term, not worn as a hardcore badge of honor, like “sandbox” MMOs. A “theme park” MMO has rides. These rides are designed by developers to give the player an experience, that will not much derivate from the ride’s rails. This is not bad game design, especially seen with the way gamers line up for the latest console rail shooter. It can be a lot of fun to quick-time event through a game.

However, the term “theme park” gained its dark stain because it was used as a crutch. Repetition turned the rides in to a necessary activity for the reward’s punch card. The rides lost their thrill as players needed a normalized X more rides to get the shiny they so desired. Rides were populated because of reward carrots, and not because they were necessarily enjoyable activities.

What did players constantly demand? More content. Some updates offered a span of new content, but for the most part the significant content heaps were left to expansions. The theme park’s content would remain stagnant until officially expanded at a press-released ribbon cutting ceremony. I felt MMO players assumed this status quo after a while.

A year or two ago, I would have told you that the future of theme parks was incorporation of sandbox elements, such as scaling events or content with some procedural randomness. I did not expect that the MMO developers would actually embrace the theme park nature, and advance it. Continue reading Rebuilding the MMO Theme Park

Witchin’

The Steam summer sale reminded me that I own and installed The Witcher 2, so maybe I should try it out sometime? Trying it out reminded me of the two things in general circulation from review at the time: it is reportedly one of the great PC RPGs out there, but good luck playing it because the game features difficult combat involving many abilities with little to no explanation of how to use them. Penny Arcade had it about right: Continue reading Witchin’

Premature Climax

Many of my multiplayer gaming frustrations can probably be attributed to the excessive deployment of high variance tactics. Gamers take outrageous risks where they would normally not be warranted. If the risks pay off, they win big and feel awesome. If the risks do not pay off, they lose quickly, call something OP, then get another round to try to win big. After all, the downside of losing an online game is not that huge, especially if you down-weight the negative.

If you are the sort of person who plays Civilization on settings like “epic” and “marathon,” the idea of “win big or lose fast” is probably anathema. Whatever game you are playing, you are planning to settle in, focus on the fundamentals, operate efficiently and perhaps aggressively, and build to a satisfying climax. And then this twerp decides to throw absolutely everything at his first attempt, either failing miserably and quitting (smack talk on exit optional) or winning and declaring himself the best player ever (smack talk required).

This is where I place the distinction in an RTS between “rush” and “cheese.” Continue reading Premature Climax

[GW2] New Player’s Guide to Bazaar of the Four Winds

Much of the Living World updates in Guild Wars 2 are designed so that characters of all levels can join. Bazaar of the Four Winds is no different, and this guide is written for those just buying Guild Wars 2 now.

The Core

If you play normally, you will run across Zephyr Sanctum Kite Baskets located throughout the world. Looting these advances an achievement and gives the new crafting supply, quartz, and a rare chance at some other goodies. Enemies will rarely drop Kite Fortunes, which can be cracked for a short buff and Fortune Scraps.  Fortune Scraps can be amassed to buy the exclusive skins at the new zone.

What Will I Miss?

If you do ignore this Living World update, it is believed that in early August the small zone Labyrinthine Cliffs will become unavailable. This will also make the Sanctum Sprint minigame, a Mario-Kart-parkour-type race, unavailable. You will also miss the rewards for the meta-achievement to get a personal quartz resource node. Continue reading [GW2] New Player’s Guide to Bazaar of the Four Winds

Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

The most ancient and wise Wilhelm Arcturus says a lot of words on the apparent status of the MMO blogging community. He seems to wonder if the golden age of MMO blogging, where the ‘sphere was a thing, is fading or gone. Things used to be so good… then, he says.

Wilhelm references the New Blogger Initiative, and I want to reference my post on the subject as well. A few people got it, but using a cowboy as a metaphor for a veteran blogger of the MMO ‘sphere speaks on many levels.  Maybe Wilhelm got it too since he spoke of not getting worked up at the latest drama rodeo. Continue reading Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

[GW2] Bazaar of the Four Winds Impressions

ArenaNet has been inviting fan sites and journalist sites to preview the new content the weekend before it drops. I really appreciate all the work the team is doing for this because it gives the sites time to think, write, and develop well-rounded impressions and guides. This is the first time I have been able to join in on the preview, and for the content coming July 9, we checked out the Bazaar of the Four Winds.

New Map, Labyrinthine Cliffs

Although kind of unspecified in the official site’s Bazaar of the Four Winds page, the majority of this content update takes place on a brand new map called Labyrinthine Cliffs. It’s about the size of Rata Sum, or a small capital city, but it does have some enemies to combat. Labyrinthine Cliffs is located east of Mount Malestrom, and it is beautiful. Kites are the theme, and the sense of wind and freedom permeates the map. All the artists have done a remarkable job, as usual. It is also where the giant, nomadic airship – the Zephyr Sanctum – docked. Continue reading [GW2] Bazaar of the Four Winds Impressions