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[GW2] The Crab Grab Hustle

Temporarily, the crazy refugees of Southsun Cove have come up with possibly the most masochistic game in Tyria. Surrounded by hostile wildlife that is attacking each and every settlement (at least the omelet-free ones), the free peoples have decided to design a game around a small Succulent Crab, which seems like one of the favorite foods of the karka. A mad game of solo keepaway ensues with planks, fishing poles, mad karka hatchlings, and giant rolling karka. Life imitates art, and the insanity of this game bleeds through to the Guild Wars 2 player.  Welcome to Crab Toss. Continue reading [GW2] The Crab Grab Hustle

[GW2] Secret of Southsun Impressions

There are many ways to view the Secret of Southsun update. The most objective is ArenaNet has added an hour or so of content, and then you are done. This is the worst way to experience Guild Wars 2. In another view, it’s easy to see that Southsun has become the de facto hotspot for some time. Ignoring the checklist-type content, this zone is alive with players now. Finally, Southsun has received a much needed injection of life, love, and polish.

Guild Wars 2 continues to use achievements to replace quests. For Secret of Southsun players are tasked to explore the updated areas, talk to a few key individuals, and find a bunch of samples around the island. I find it to be a poor guide especially given the dozens of achievements in the Secret of Southsun achievement category. The mail sent to all players tells them to get to Southsun to talk to the Inspector, but the real guide to the content is the achievements. I feel that if ArenaNet is going to continue to focus on achievements as the quest-like director for new content serious iteration needs to be done to make it a better means of communication.

Anyway, savvy players seemed to burn through the quest-like content pretty quickly. I would not suggest focusing on the achievements to such a narrowed degree. Might as well enjoy the passion fruit flowers on the way. Continue reading [GW2] Secret of Southsun Impressions

[GW2] Scope of Flame & Frost

Before the mob’s attention is diverted to Southsun, the vocal players on the Guild Wars 2 forums appear to be unhappy with the ending of Flame & Frost. It distills down to “4 months and we just get a few bonfires”. That’s a lot of distillation, and even in the final hours of Flame & Frost, it is not very accurate. Still I think a big issue is the handling of the scope of Flame & Frost.

Flame & Frost revolved around the Molten Alliances assaults in two zones. In the norn starting zone, Wayfarer Foothills, the Molten Alliance took roughly the northeast corner quadrant, and in the second charr zone, Diessa Plateau they took a large chunk of the west-central side. This is where the action was. This was where the yellow sunbursts were yelling at me to go. It became such a focus to players, yet it really wasn’t a focus to the world. Continue reading [GW2] Scope of Flame & Frost

[WS] Dat Double Jump

WildStar has a column going on called “DevSpeak”. The latest clip is about movement. “Movement?” the hardened MMO veteran in you says, “what a silly thing to advertise for your game.” In a way it is silly, but like Mr. DevSpeak says “it plays a major role in every part of the game.” (I will say whoever wrote and voiced this first episode did a fantastic job of keeping it informative and snappy. Definitely looking forward to more.)

Poor movement can harm a game. Take Guild Wars for example. It doesn’t matter how great it was in some parts when gamers couldn’t get past the fact that they couldn’t jump. I admit every time I play Guild Wars it feels like there is a ceiling pressing down. I also do not care for how movement feels in The Secret World, especially when they add don’t-stand-in-the-evil-circle-of-forthcoming-evil effects that I have to dodge out of. In both of these MMOs I can look past it, but some gamers can’t. Continue reading [WS] Dat Double Jump

[GW2] The Molten Function

Jeromai and I must be on similar wavelengths, even though I know I do not have anywhere the gumption required to solo a dungeon. He writes this morning on how in six days that was all it took for the community situated around the Molten Facility to distill down to “mostly tired, lazy or focused on getting as speedily to the end as possible”. I was thinking the exact same thing over the weekend where I ran it one more time and decided I was likely done with the dungeon (especially since our guild is unlocking guild challenges this week).

Six days, indeed. Continue reading [GW2] The Molten Function

[GW2] Speed of the Chook Run

My guild has started doing guild missions every day. Guild bounties are still the basis for things, but we have guild treks and guild rushes unlocked too. Yesterday we did a few bounties, wiping on the first bounty thanks to bear vs. 2-MULT, but I felt the main event was the Chicken Run guild rush in Fields of Ruin.

I had an absolute blast with my first ever guild rush. This, this is where I think guild missions should have started. Guild bounties are work. It seems I am cursed to randomly get Prisoner 1141 on almost every guild bounty, and that is a frustrating 15 minutes trying to tag down the speed demon, and communicate it. There is confusion in communication, especially since I did not have a mic ready for Raidcall. Don’t get me wrong. Guild bounties are a good challenge, but guild rushes are more about fun. Continue reading [GW2] Speed of the Chook Run

Alas, Camelot

Mid-week, I watched as Camelot Unchained’s kickstarter neared its goal of $2 million. Seeing as how the man Jacobs had already brought in $3 million contingent, I had a feeling that somehow the kickstarter would not fail. Was Camelot Unchained a sure thing? Heck no, and by appearances it got through by the skin of its teeth.

I am pretty relieved that it got through the finish line, but this was not best game to lay across as the poster boy to anti-publisher’d MMOs. It’s niche, and unlike say the next Jim Jarmusch film, significant effort has to go in to the game to get back enjoyment. (Okay, so significant effort sometimes has to be put in to understanding a Jarmusch film too, but at least you only lose an hour or two.) I do not think Camelot Unchained is going to be a very casual-friendly popcorn MMO, which in my conjecturish opinion many Dark Age of Camelot players have grown to love.

One article at onrpg.com had fellow blogger Spinks up in arms. I tend to agree that the article was filled with too much hyperbole while ignoring plenty of non-AAA MMOs that have thrived (e.g., all of onrpg.com’s site). The developers of Storybricks replied that onrpg.com had the right idea (perhaps wrong words?). Camelot Unchained’s kickstart will make it a smidge easier for any MMO developer to get funding. However, it is really hard to back an indulgent cause while not being interested in the luxury product.

I am glad that it was a success, but whether it was or not, now it is back to silence. It’s going to be 2 years until Camelot Unchained is going to make those kinds of waves again, and it might be 4-5 before there is any noticeable ripple effect in the world of MMO development. Congrats to the City State team. I’ll be looking forward to their future developments.

–Ravious

[GW2] Disconnecting the Molten Facility

The Flame & Frost arc in Guild Wars 2 is capped off this month with May being split in to two parts. The first part revolves around the attack on the Molten Weapons Facilities (plural) with a 5-man dungeon and a finale to revolve around a celebration of burning stuff in the city streets. Then the second half of May is… absent Flame & Frost? The dungeon, being a dungeon and not soloable, is only available for the first half of May, and this has caused a little inferno of rage from many.

Regarding it being a dungeon, Jeromai covers the inclusivity aspect of the Guild Wars 2 activity du jour. He does it with science, and I tend to agree with my personal experience below. ArenaNet’s response is that they like people playing together. Regarding the time-limited aspect, while I do enjoy ArenaNet’s monthly focuses, two weeks just seems… scant. People have been crying for new fractals, zones, events, etc. since last year, and the biggest piece of story content this year is a dungeon that will go away. In fact it’s all going to go away on May 12th it seems since players will no longer be able to earn achievements from previous chapters of Flame & Frost. May 16th is when the city guards tell people to stop throwing stuff on the bonfires and go home. The war is won.

Anyway, the dungeon itself. Let’s talk about that. Continue reading [GW2] Disconnecting the Molten Facility

Distillation

The last half of April felt different. Something in the air had changed. Maybe it was that Spring was bringing hints of outside time and Summer. Things were different now.

Guild Wars 2 took a backseat to other games, of which were there many. I still have plenty of goals and playtime left in the game, but Guild Wars 2 became part of the rotation instead of owning it. This was ironic because my wife became full blown addicted to Guild Wars 2. Most of my time in Guild Wars 2 was spent with her or my guild doing focused activities like completing the dailies, doing guild missions, and helping Mrs. Ravious with a tricky skill point or vista. The weekend felt nice though since I completed Super Adventure Box and the monthly. I am prepared for tomorrow’s patch, but not frenetic. Continue reading Distillation

Alarming Prospects

Roast Pheasant Bringing together the topics of design slippery slopes (particularly with cash shops) and Game of Thrones Ascent, we have this frightening picture. It may be a little hard to see (it is grayed out because nothing in-game calls for it), so let me explain what you’re seeing there. This is the sort of game where you send a knight on a mission and wait for him/her to finish. A Roast Pheasant is an item that will speed that by 28 hours. They do not have anything in-game yet that takes 28 hours to finish, but they have already built the infrastructure for it. And you can auto-complete a 28:05 mission for just $9.50 (or a 56-hour mission for just $19). And hopefully you succeed, because you can fail those things, and I have failed three 80+% chances in a row.

: Zubon