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Reader-less Google

It was not a good morning to wake up to news that an online tool I rely on every day was being put to rest a few days before my birthday. On July 1st, Google Reader is going to be shut down. Syp and the commentators at Bio Break already have said everything I could, but I feel the need to echo it in some sense.

I rely on this integrated tool. Yes, I realize there are decent alternatives, but I have used Reader as part of my Google suite of tools. I have amazing brand loyalty because of these tools. I feel Google is harming this brand far more by shutting this down and pissing off many internet vocal people rather than jut getting some menial data and keeping Reader open.

I guess I have a few months to find a better RSS home.

–Ravious

75% of the industry’s problems…

… in one package, that’s Sim City 5. To wit:

– Overpromise
– Underdeliver (bordering on flat out fraud)
– We still buy a lacking product

It should be put in a time capsule and buried for the benefit of future historians. Sure, a mix of these three issues are common in most games, but SC5 is pretty much close to the ideal. Or as close as we got in years.

(Edit: changed the 4 to a 5, because apparently I can’t tell the difference. Numbers are hard!)

[GW2] In Spite of Community Pressures

Bhagpuss believes Guild Wars 2 is pretty lively from all the open world activities. I agree. I’ve been seeing more and more people running around the open world. There’s another stick-of-measurement to watch. Oh sure, we can all be beguiled by the entrancing smile of Colin as he says numbers are still rising post-launch…. Sigh. Oh. Right. Carry on then. There is also a lot to be said about community tools as an activity meter.

Community tools feel necessary in MMOs, and lively MMOs seem to have lively communities. The movements in the hive eventually produce tools you never knew you couldn’t live without. Guild Wars 2 is still missing a lot of MMO features usually taken for granted, and yet out of the chaos of an MMO community comes spontaneous triumphs. In the words of somebody “you can’t stop progress”. Continue reading [GW2] In Spite of Community Pressures

I Get Press Releases

I have before me an e-mail announcing open beta starting for a game this week. Clicking to their website, a winged woman in most of a bikini is hovering immediately to the left of the game’s name. Immediately to the left of their tagline is another woman who could not afford an entire halter top; she is blowing kisses at the screen, with an animated heart floating from her lips. Someone has reliably informed them that English is written left-to-right, so placing the boobs just to the left of your text makes it a sort of capitalization.

Still classier than the game advertising “one click to a Roman orgy!”

: Zubon

Against Covetousness

I have been playing Dawn of the Dragons, because having just one energy mechanic game at a time is less than gaming. The actual gameplay of any of these tends to be low, but in combination they can be entertaining.

Dawn of the Dragons has lots and lots of items, because grind and cash shop. The crafting tab is where much of the rubber meets the road: a fight has a chance to drop a trophy, and combine trophies to get an item, then combine items and trophies to get better items. They have these for different maps, for raids, for events, for raid events, and so on for three years of development. There are five tabs for crafting, and the longest list has a progress bar dozens of screens high. That is a lot of scrolling to see everything.

This is to be expected after years of development. Following MMOs as I do, I am used to entering at the beginning. Sure, your game may have 1000 achievements, items, or raids, but you started earning them during the pre-order head start. You naturally earned most of the new ones while trying each update, so you have a subset of Things To Do that probably covers 10% of the list, and you know which part of it is relevant to your character. And then you have the new player who must do/get all the things! He joins your guild and asks every five minutes how to get X. It is essential that he gets X as soon as possible, and it is tragically unfair if X was event-related and is available only seasonally or (horror of horrors) not at all anymore.

This is my first time walking into that situation in a long time. It is pleasantly inuring. I occasionally see those new folks (but mostly people with levels in the four-digit range), and I occasionally ask something (but I can type it into Google as fast as I can type it into chat), but mostly I am just enjoying coasting. I got some newbie tips, I am accumulating some things that do who knows what, and I am working in no particular direction except up. If I keep playing, I will someday join those players in the higher digits, and I could start caring and planning. But really? That overwhelming list is somewhat comforting. I would need a lot of time to refill the energy bar to reach a lot of that content. I would need to play for months or more to see events repeat. It helps to get past the false sense of achievement.

: Zubon

Of Horrible Launches

Did you know that Anarchy Online is still … online, 12 years later? Most current MMO players started after its launch, so they missed that debacle. It is polite of current developers to give us a nostalgic look back, acting like it is 2001 and wondering if enough players have dial-up modems to play their always-online games.

: Zubon

[GW2] Lore Thoughts on the Living Story

Hitherby, Spoilers!

The obvious route is never the one that ArenaNet seems to take in their storytelling. This can be both confusing and exciting. Much to the frustration of many lore delvers, whole threads are kept dangling while others are simply snipped, seemingly prematurely. Either way, some will likely never have their complete story told. Yet, ArenaNet keeps pressing forward.

In the current living story arc, Flame and Frost, the dredge are buddies with the Flame Legion. Who saw that coming? A xenophobic ex-slave race teamed up with an abrasive, slave-loving faction. Perhaps dredge found new owners, but that seems unlikely for an “alliance”. Either way, if someone had asked me in December what was the next story to be told it is unlikely I would have thought of either party, much less a combination of the two in a “Molten Alliance”.

Continue reading [GW2] Lore Thoughts on the Living Story

Revolution, Evolution, Variation, Recombination

Before Arkship started, I needed food. I walked until I found a restaurant we did not have back home, which happened to be Fatburger. We do have hamburgers in Michigan, but not that chain, and friends had gushed about the place. It was indeed a quality sandwich and my first time having a hamburger with relish on it. I have had hamburgers and relish before, but not together, and the combination of ingredients was unexpectedly good.

Relatively few restaurants offer anything new. They can offer something new to you, Continue reading Revolution, Evolution, Variation, Recombination

[GW2] Bounty Hunter Hour

Ruminations aside, I did take part in a few Tier 1 Guild Bounty guild missions last weekend. My guild is actually composed of 5 rooms, which are actual Guild Wars 2 guilds. So we were working on making sure that every guild was able to complete a Guild Bounty.

At Tier 1, a Guild Bounty requires that two champions be found and beaten in 15 minutes. Once activated, the guild is given hints as to the locations of the champions they are supposed to find. There are 15 champions total, so it is helpful to be ready with a guide. It is not just that they are in some zone, but they could be anywhere in nearly the entire zone. With our 50+ people (many not being fully responsive) on the Guild Bounties, it took us about 1-2 minutes to find the champion. This was kind of the herd-zerg attack. A group of 10 will likely have to discuss zone search strategy before the hunt, or simply have 10 champions marked before the start of it. Continue reading [GW2] Bounty Hunter Hour

Quote of the Day: This Is Why We Cannot Have Nice Things

Some people will say that it isn’t reasonable to expect an online game to run on release day. I don’t agree with that. Just because incompetence is widespread, that doesn’t mean that customers have to put up with it. The game companies have no problem of charging me either in advance or the moment I buy the game, so unless they are willing to postpone taking my money, I don’t see why I should have to postpone my expectation to be able to play the game.
— Tobold

Tobold writes about incompetence. The first commenter hits the nail on the head for malice: it is not profitable to build enough infrastructure for Day One, so let the players suffer until it settles down, you already have their money anyway. My perspective on Origin has not been improved by this new data point, whatever the explanation.

: Zubon