Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Cataclysm Beta to begin next month
According to MMO-Champion, who is normally spot on regarding these types of things, the beta for Cataclysm will start some time in April.
If I could make SWTOR
With all this talk about SWTOR lately I've been spending a lot of time considering just what I would like to see in it. As virtually no real information has been released yet it serves as an interesting topic to consider. Right now I'm building SWTOR in my mind!
Overall I'd like to see SWTOR function as a "theme-park" with a traditional “end-game”, although with some sand-box elements as well. I wouldn't be looking to develop my SWTOR as a breakout MMO, but rather would seek to stay within the traditional space. I think the selling point of SWTOR should be the IP itself and good game design. Fun. In my SWTOR the central theme would be about character development, which I would express in terms of "progression" and the "moral decision making" I've mentioned previously I was intrigued with. In my version however I'd choose to construct a passive system that tracked my morale decisions in some way creating an "alignment" for the character over time. The alignment would affect my character in game in various ways but I'd want to make sure that the system was thought out sufficiently and that it reflected as best as possible, the true play style of the player. I wouldn't want an alignment system that caused players to play in artificial ways as that would be counter-productive and serve as a brake on progression and long term gamer satisfaction.
I'd also stick with the class-based game design, though I'd probably tie the alignment system into it in some way so that alignment affected classes, faction, and perhaps even class bonuses. I don’t like the traditional system of class usage that limits healing to a specific set of classes, creating a symbiotic relationship between the “tanking” and “damage dealing” classes and the “healing” classes. This lack of healing has been the bane of many DPS classes in that they have “down time” in between fights while they regenerate. And on the opposite side of the spectrum are healers who can heal but typically have limited damage capabilities. Instead I like the idea of all the classes having an ability to heal themselves to one extent or another and having damage abilities to one extent or another as well. In group content this would mean that each player could heal themselves, but could also be healed by others. And it would mean that all players could contribute to the successful completion of the content in a direct way instead of the more traditional way of the “tank” holding agro, while the DPS players kill it and the “healer” keeping everyone alive. In my SWTOR all characters would potentially be a “tank”, “DPS” or “healer”, though I think there are obvious factors that need to be taken into account. A ranged class like the Imperial Scout would not, in my view, make for a good “tank” in a melee centric fight but could possibly be a good “tank” in a ranged-centric fight. This would tend to encourage a broad group composition. Otherwise I think we’d only see Sith Warriors/Inquistors and Jedi/Counselors.
I like the idea of the game having a solid questing system with regularly updated content as I think WoW has shown fairly convincingly that games constructed thus can have wide appeal. I am not opposed to the "fourth leg" that Bioware has focused on as the selling point to SWTOR, though I would choose to keep it in its traditional sphere in that it would be used as a means to level to end-game. And at the end-game would be used to further develop the character. Again, I like very much the though of the alignment system, and I can see a vast sea of ways to tap into that at the highest levels in the game. Including epic (and I mean truly epic, as in requiring months to complete) story-arcs – both character and class specific, but also factional specific quest chains that also earn the character something tangible in-game.
I think the "phasing" technology that Blizzard began using in WotLK could be used to great effect in SWTOR as well. Think of how many “mini-games” could be had by leveraging phasing technology. Everything from love interests to vendettas and everything in-between could be created and tapped through the use of phasing.
At the “end-game” I would implement a diverse array of content. My SWTOR would encourage far-reaching world PVP. I like the idea of players being able to plop down factional assets (bases, etc) and those becoming central elements in world PVP. I' definitely thinking Star Wars Galaxies, though long term readers will know I stopped playing SWG the day CU was unleashed on the game in March 2005. So however factional warfare changed post-CU is unknown to me. But in my day bases were the focus of PVP and factional warfare and I would very much like to see something akin to that in my SWTOR, even if it were not exactly identical. World-PVP would have to encourage hard-core and casual alike, as healthy world PVP relies on high population. But I would also likely institute a series of "pvp zones" like Wintergrasp in WoW right now. Perhaps a single zone on each planet, or a small number of planets, with the zone becoming active on a rolling basis. Winning the battle would grant some faction-wide bonus and also grant a more specific bonus of some kind to that planet. Tie that into the world PVP and I think you'd have a terrific basis for sustained world PVP.
Lastly I'd love to see the ultimate in world PVP being factional raiding. Make the Jedi Master and Sith Emperor targets. Killing either should grant bonuses to the opposite faction and simultaneously grant debuffs to the other. Obviously world PVP and especially factional raiding would be affected by factional population balance/imbalance so either scaling would have to be carefully implemented along with the system, or some other means to enforce equalization would have to be put into place.
In addition to the world PVP I would want to see a deep system of raiding. Perhaps not in the 10 or 25-man level variety, but 5 or 10-man group content would be great. Perhaps even enable content scaling so that it could accommodate those 25-man groups. The imagination is the limit for this type of small-scale group content, ranging from space-based fights, to ship boardings, base defense, and chance encounters. Integrate these "raids" with the epic quest chains and character develop I spoke about earlier and I can't but see this as anything but a huge hit.
Overall I'd want combat to be fluid and fast paced but afford players opportunity to be able to counter attacks in some regard. I'd want to see players able to unleash devastating attacks but certainly wouldn't want individual fights to be over in mere seconds. If all things are equal I'd envision individual combat taking something like 30 seconds and more to occur. And above all, balanced. I'd make it a point to ensure that no class has a clear cut advantage over others, though that is something all together difficult to do. After all, how many MMOs have said this and failed? Too often we see melee classes being able to dominate ranged classes because ranged classes have limited melee abilities. And vice versa, we see ranged classes dominating at time as they're given buffs to counteract those melee classes. The key is to give all classes a little of both worlds. There wouldn't be a strict ranged class or a strict melee class in my SWTOR. In my SWTOR every class would favor one or the other type of combat, but would have some array of the other as well. Ranged would not be able to kite melee classes forever, and melee would not be able to close and pummel ranged classes completely either. All classes should be tailored and expected to have to fight at disadvantage some times.
I spoke about wanting to see sand-box elements included earlier. Those elements would include a player controlled economy and crafting system. Craftable items should include weapon and armor upgrades and replaceable modules that degrade over time, as well as consumables (food, stimulants, etc). I wouldn't want to see strictly crafting or business classes, however I'd institute professions and professional capabilities through skill points. And as with the previous topics I've already mentioned, I'd very much would like to tie acquisition of skill points and capabilities into story-arcs/questing/character development. Everyone should start with an ability to use the auction facilities for instance, but you should be able to increase your capabilities over time. Like-wise everyone should start with some limited ability to create some basic consumables and should have some limited gathering ability but those should abilities that can be increased over time as well.
Bring the war in Star Wars to the MMO, and enable deep character development that isn't solely based on questing alone and that is a game I would love to play.
Overall I'd like to see SWTOR function as a "theme-park" with a traditional “end-game”, although with some sand-box elements as well. I wouldn't be looking to develop my SWTOR as a breakout MMO, but rather would seek to stay within the traditional space. I think the selling point of SWTOR should be the IP itself and good game design. Fun. In my SWTOR the central theme would be about character development, which I would express in terms of "progression" and the "moral decision making" I've mentioned previously I was intrigued with. In my version however I'd choose to construct a passive system that tracked my morale decisions in some way creating an "alignment" for the character over time. The alignment would affect my character in game in various ways but I'd want to make sure that the system was thought out sufficiently and that it reflected as best as possible, the true play style of the player. I wouldn't want an alignment system that caused players to play in artificial ways as that would be counter-productive and serve as a brake on progression and long term gamer satisfaction.
I'd also stick with the class-based game design, though I'd probably tie the alignment system into it in some way so that alignment affected classes, faction, and perhaps even class bonuses. I don’t like the traditional system of class usage that limits healing to a specific set of classes, creating a symbiotic relationship between the “tanking” and “damage dealing” classes and the “healing” classes. This lack of healing has been the bane of many DPS classes in that they have “down time” in between fights while they regenerate. And on the opposite side of the spectrum are healers who can heal but typically have limited damage capabilities. Instead I like the idea of all the classes having an ability to heal themselves to one extent or another and having damage abilities to one extent or another as well. In group content this would mean that each player could heal themselves, but could also be healed by others. And it would mean that all players could contribute to the successful completion of the content in a direct way instead of the more traditional way of the “tank” holding agro, while the DPS players kill it and the “healer” keeping everyone alive. In my SWTOR all characters would potentially be a “tank”, “DPS” or “healer”, though I think there are obvious factors that need to be taken into account. A ranged class like the Imperial Scout would not, in my view, make for a good “tank” in a melee centric fight but could possibly be a good “tank” in a ranged-centric fight. This would tend to encourage a broad group composition. Otherwise I think we’d only see Sith Warriors/Inquistors and Jedi/Counselors.
I like the idea of the game having a solid questing system with regularly updated content as I think WoW has shown fairly convincingly that games constructed thus can have wide appeal. I am not opposed to the "fourth leg" that Bioware has focused on as the selling point to SWTOR, though I would choose to keep it in its traditional sphere in that it would be used as a means to level to end-game. And at the end-game would be used to further develop the character. Again, I like very much the though of the alignment system, and I can see a vast sea of ways to tap into that at the highest levels in the game. Including epic (and I mean truly epic, as in requiring months to complete) story-arcs – both character and class specific, but also factional specific quest chains that also earn the character something tangible in-game.
I think the "phasing" technology that Blizzard began using in WotLK could be used to great effect in SWTOR as well. Think of how many “mini-games” could be had by leveraging phasing technology. Everything from love interests to vendettas and everything in-between could be created and tapped through the use of phasing.
At the “end-game” I would implement a diverse array of content. My SWTOR would encourage far-reaching world PVP. I like the idea of players being able to plop down factional assets (bases, etc) and those becoming central elements in world PVP. I' definitely thinking Star Wars Galaxies, though long term readers will know I stopped playing SWG the day CU was unleashed on the game in March 2005. So however factional warfare changed post-CU is unknown to me. But in my day bases were the focus of PVP and factional warfare and I would very much like to see something akin to that in my SWTOR, even if it were not exactly identical. World-PVP would have to encourage hard-core and casual alike, as healthy world PVP relies on high population. But I would also likely institute a series of "pvp zones" like Wintergrasp in WoW right now. Perhaps a single zone on each planet, or a small number of planets, with the zone becoming active on a rolling basis. Winning the battle would grant some faction-wide bonus and also grant a more specific bonus of some kind to that planet. Tie that into the world PVP and I think you'd have a terrific basis for sustained world PVP.
Lastly I'd love to see the ultimate in world PVP being factional raiding. Make the Jedi Master and Sith Emperor targets. Killing either should grant bonuses to the opposite faction and simultaneously grant debuffs to the other. Obviously world PVP and especially factional raiding would be affected by factional population balance/imbalance so either scaling would have to be carefully implemented along with the system, or some other means to enforce equalization would have to be put into place.
In addition to the world PVP I would want to see a deep system of raiding. Perhaps not in the 10 or 25-man level variety, but 5 or 10-man group content would be great. Perhaps even enable content scaling so that it could accommodate those 25-man groups. The imagination is the limit for this type of small-scale group content, ranging from space-based fights, to ship boardings, base defense, and chance encounters. Integrate these "raids" with the epic quest chains and character develop I spoke about earlier and I can't but see this as anything but a huge hit.
Overall I'd want combat to be fluid and fast paced but afford players opportunity to be able to counter attacks in some regard. I'd want to see players able to unleash devastating attacks but certainly wouldn't want individual fights to be over in mere seconds. If all things are equal I'd envision individual combat taking something like 30 seconds and more to occur. And above all, balanced. I'd make it a point to ensure that no class has a clear cut advantage over others, though that is something all together difficult to do. After all, how many MMOs have said this and failed? Too often we see melee classes being able to dominate ranged classes because ranged classes have limited melee abilities. And vice versa, we see ranged classes dominating at time as they're given buffs to counteract those melee classes. The key is to give all classes a little of both worlds. There wouldn't be a strict ranged class or a strict melee class in my SWTOR. In my SWTOR every class would favor one or the other type of combat, but would have some array of the other as well. Ranged would not be able to kite melee classes forever, and melee would not be able to close and pummel ranged classes completely either. All classes should be tailored and expected to have to fight at disadvantage some times.
I spoke about wanting to see sand-box elements included earlier. Those elements would include a player controlled economy and crafting system. Craftable items should include weapon and armor upgrades and replaceable modules that degrade over time, as well as consumables (food, stimulants, etc). I wouldn't want to see strictly crafting or business classes, however I'd institute professions and professional capabilities through skill points. And as with the previous topics I've already mentioned, I'd very much would like to tie acquisition of skill points and capabilities into story-arcs/questing/character development. Everyone should start with an ability to use the auction facilities for instance, but you should be able to increase your capabilities over time. Like-wise everyone should start with some limited ability to create some basic consumables and should have some limited gathering ability but those should abilities that can be increased over time as well.
Bring the war in Star Wars to the MMO, and enable deep character development that isn't solely based on questing alone and that is a game I would love to play.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Official Bioware SWTOR forum is the place where logic just doesn't exist
I don’t often visit the official SWTOR forums, though I did over the weekend. I’ve said in the past how I felt it being actually being counter-productive for developers to build “community” on games 2-3 years out from release. But it is particularly so when there is an expectation that takes hold that said game will be released in the given year, then it’s discovered through a quarterly investors meeting that the anticipated date is not even on the table. Leads to a grumpy community. In any event I visit the official forums only infrequently because to be honest, the real news from Bioware is very infrequent. And that largely relegated to the beginning experiences of the game. So far all we’ve seen or heard is about the PVE story-lines, touching on the limited grouping that can take place in regard to the larger group story-arcs. And we’ve seen brief glimpses of limited game-play during those beginning experiences.
Yet if you were to visit the official forums right now you’d find boards full of posts from hundreds (or thousands) of potential players who proclaim the game the best to have ever been released. Despite the fact it hasn’t been released and despite the fact that we virtually know nothing of the game at all. I’ve mentioned this all before. But it still strikes me how anyone can become this attached to a game that for all intents and purposes, has even yet to be made. Recent interviews with Bioware at the Game Developer Conference 2010 (GDC10) are very clear that much of the game has yet to be finalized, and you can read between lines that a lot of typical MMO components are still in the consideration phase.
Those who mention sticky little problems like that on the forums are usually castigated as WoW fanbois and ignored. There simply is no point in trying to speak in logical terms to a bunch of people who are bent upon SWTOR being the best game ever, no matter what. Not that I don’t want it to be too. I’m just a little too jaded to take anything at this point, for granted. I wish there was one location where you could go (you mean, like the Bioware SWTOR website??) where all the available information on the game were available without all the headache of the horde of player zombies to muddle up the information. Because if there were, I'd probably visit it regularly.
Yet if you were to visit the official forums right now you’d find boards full of posts from hundreds (or thousands) of potential players who proclaim the game the best to have ever been released. Despite the fact it hasn’t been released and despite the fact that we virtually know nothing of the game at all. I’ve mentioned this all before. But it still strikes me how anyone can become this attached to a game that for all intents and purposes, has even yet to be made. Recent interviews with Bioware at the Game Developer Conference 2010 (GDC10) are very clear that much of the game has yet to be finalized, and you can read between lines that a lot of typical MMO components are still in the consideration phase.
Those who mention sticky little problems like that on the forums are usually castigated as WoW fanbois and ignored. There simply is no point in trying to speak in logical terms to a bunch of people who are bent upon SWTOR being the best game ever, no matter what. Not that I don’t want it to be too. I’m just a little too jaded to take anything at this point, for granted. I wish there was one location where you could go (you mean, like the Bioware SWTOR website??) where all the available information on the game were available without all the headache of the horde of player zombies to muddle up the information. Because if there were, I'd probably visit it regularly.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Detrimental impacts piling up
The law of unintended consequences can be the bane of existence to many. Such might be the case for Blizzard, as with the release of patch 3.3.3 on Tuesday a fairly big one is now upon us. Except I'm not all that convinced it was "unintended".
In patch 3.3.3 a series of changes to the honor you receive in PVP were put into effect, such that it is now the norm to receive in the neighborhood of 5-7k honor from your first daily random battleground, to 3-5k honor from others thereafter.
With that amount of honor it doesn't take long at all to get to the honor cap, and doesn't take long until you have a full suit of Furious, Relentless, and Wrathful pieces. The question is what do you do with all that honor. If you are a serious PVP'er you buy a full set first. For a more casual PVP'er they might buy a few pieces here and there, especially since you can buy all the main Furious pieces with emblems of Triumph. But you might use your honor for other things as well. Serious PVP'ers will certainly, after they've got their suit, but even casuals are using excess honor to purchase epic gems. And have been for months now. The rate at which you earned honor prior to patch 3.3.3 didn't enable a glut of epic gems on the AH, but that isn't the case now as prices on the most popular epic gems are now 50-75g lower than they were just last weekend. Today, anyone that can run two battlegrounds a day can purchase an epic gem and sell it. So can you imagine how much honor a PVP junkie earns on the average day? Let alone on the weekend?
I can answer that. I'm somewhat a PVP junkie myself, and I do most of my PVP on my Druid. Not only do I have a full suit of resto gear (head, shoulders, chest, legs are furious, with everything else being relentless and wrathful), but also a full Balance suit, and a full Feral set (deadly/furious) as well. I have no idea how much honor that amounts to as I've never attempted to add it all up in terms of honor, but I know it's a lot. And I have 61k honor at the moment with nothing to use it on, unless I want to upgrade the feral set. As I was getting 10-20k of honor a day this week and since I pvp a lot on the weekend, I'm getting 50-75k per day it's not hard to envision hundreds of additional gems per week being put up on the AH. And this is just the first week of the PVP changes.
Although not an unintended consequence, as it was very clearly intended, the change in patch 3.3.3 that enables purchase of Frost Lotus with Frozen Orbs and the previous enchanting changes that enable anyone to access DE'd materials on Dungeon runs where there's an enchanter has to make one wonder if the unintended consequence is actually unintended. I'm becoming more convinced that these changes are part of a longer term, larger Blizzard goal to scale back the amount of gold players can make. And focusing more of the earning power on daily/weekly quests. If you realize that a series of gold sinks are a requirement in an MMO, and that Blizzard has swung developmental efforts very far to the "casual" side of the spectrum and those casual players will generally play fewer hours and have a lower earning potential, there probably needs to be a higher level framework in place to limit overall earning power or else gold sinks would necessarily impact casual players to a higher degree than it would less casual players.
Makes one wonder, does it not?
In patch 3.3.3 a series of changes to the honor you receive in PVP were put into effect, such that it is now the norm to receive in the neighborhood of 5-7k honor from your first daily random battleground, to 3-5k honor from others thereafter.
PvP
- The amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill has been increased by 100% for characters of all levels. This change will effectively double the amount of Honor received from Honorable Kills, or for completing Battleground and Wintergrasp objectives; however, the amount of experience gained from completing Battleground objectives and the amount of Honor rewarded for completing each Wintergrasp quest remain unchanged.
- Battlegrounds
- The Random Battleground system has been added! Similar to the Random Dungeon system in the Dungeon Finder, players can now queue for a random Battleground.
- The Random Battleground option can be found in the Battleground tab of the PvP frame and is only available for level 80 characters at this time.
- If this option is selected, players may not queue for specific Battlegrounds and a random Battleground simultaneously.
- Similar to the Random Dungeon system, players will not know for which Battleground they are chosen when selected from the queue until they zone into the Battleground.
- The Random Battleground option will only allow a group size of 5 players to queue together.
- Bonus rewards will be offered for choosing the Random Battleground option.
- Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
- Winning additional Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- Losing a Battleground using the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- Daily Battleground quests have been removed in place of the Random Battleground option.
- Battlegrounds will no longer award Marks of Honor.
- Players with existing Marks of Honor can still turn them in to their respective faction's quest givers, including individual marks for those who may have more marks for one Battleground than another.
- Items which previously required Marks of Honor will have their costs adjusted to remove these requirements.
- Whenever a Battleground has the holiday bonus active, it will now be referred to as "Call to Arms" in the Battleground tab and Calendar. In addition, Call to Arms Battleground Honor rewards have been changed.
- Choosing a specific Battleground with the Call to Arms bonus active will yield the exact same rewards as when choosing the Random Battleground option.
- Winning a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency and 25 Arena points.
- Additional Call to Arms Battleground victories after the first win for a player that day will award them with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- When using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive additional rewards if the Battleground chosen under the Call to Arms bonuses. In addition, the rewards for the first victory of the day cannot be earned more than once, regardless of whether or not it is obtained from the Random Battleground system or the Call to Arms Battleground.
- Wintergrasp
- The internal balance system now only changes when a faction achieves 2 consecutive defenses after an initial capture of Wintergrasp, up from 1. More details can be found on our PvP Discussion forum.
With that amount of honor it doesn't take long at all to get to the honor cap, and doesn't take long until you have a full suit of Furious, Relentless, and Wrathful pieces. The question is what do you do with all that honor. If you are a serious PVP'er you buy a full set first. For a more casual PVP'er they might buy a few pieces here and there, especially since you can buy all the main Furious pieces with emblems of Triumph. But you might use your honor for other things as well. Serious PVP'ers will certainly, after they've got their suit, but even casuals are using excess honor to purchase epic gems. And have been for months now. The rate at which you earned honor prior to patch 3.3.3 didn't enable a glut of epic gems on the AH, but that isn't the case now as prices on the most popular epic gems are now 50-75g lower than they were just last weekend. Today, anyone that can run two battlegrounds a day can purchase an epic gem and sell it. So can you imagine how much honor a PVP junkie earns on the average day? Let alone on the weekend?
I can answer that. I'm somewhat a PVP junkie myself, and I do most of my PVP on my Druid. Not only do I have a full suit of resto gear (head, shoulders, chest, legs are furious, with everything else being relentless and wrathful), but also a full Balance suit, and a full Feral set (deadly/furious) as well. I have no idea how much honor that amounts to as I've never attempted to add it all up in terms of honor, but I know it's a lot. And I have 61k honor at the moment with nothing to use it on, unless I want to upgrade the feral set. As I was getting 10-20k of honor a day this week and since I pvp a lot on the weekend, I'm getting 50-75k per day it's not hard to envision hundreds of additional gems per week being put up on the AH. And this is just the first week of the PVP changes.
Although not an unintended consequence, as it was very clearly intended, the change in patch 3.3.3 that enables purchase of Frost Lotus with Frozen Orbs and the previous enchanting changes that enable anyone to access DE'd materials on Dungeon runs where there's an enchanter has to make one wonder if the unintended consequence is actually unintended. I'm becoming more convinced that these changes are part of a longer term, larger Blizzard goal to scale back the amount of gold players can make. And focusing more of the earning power on daily/weekly quests. If you realize that a series of gold sinks are a requirement in an MMO, and that Blizzard has swung developmental efforts very far to the "casual" side of the spectrum and those casual players will generally play fewer hours and have a lower earning potential, there probably needs to be a higher level framework in place to limit overall earning power or else gold sinks would necessarily impact casual players to a higher degree than it would less casual players.
Makes one wonder, does it not?
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Blizzcon 2010 -- Oct 22-23
Blizzard officially announced Blizzcon 2010 today, which will occur in Anaheim 22-23 Oct. Blizzard hasn't announced their plans for streaming yet, but I'd be very surprised if they didn't handle it in a very similar way as was done in 2009. The bigger question in my mind is, will it be the same humdrum I saw in 2009? Or will it be a little more vibrant as it was in 2007?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Yes, let those grizzled old developers do what they do
Lum it seems, is not a big fan of SW:TOR. Or more to the point, not a fan of huge developmental budgets and the effect that has on the market. Can't say I disagree with his assessment, however, I for one think that fewer choices on the market is exactly what we need. Back in October I ruminated about the abysmal performance of new MMOs, and that I thought there were far too many options in the MMO market. The players are horribly fragmented across dozens of games, and with the advent of free-to-play games, and apps from social networking sites, the player base might be broadening, but it's also further fragmenting from the continued onslaught on MMOs either already released, or slated to be released soon. SWTOR is just one of those.
Maybe it's not the budget that causes the problem. Maybe its the real problem that causes the budget. Not to mention the silly developmental decision making.
Maybe it's not the budget that causes the problem. Maybe its the real problem that causes the budget. Not to mention the silly developmental decision making.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
I might have to play Alganon!
You know, I know nothing about Alganon, but with Derek Smart of the case who the hell has to know anything? I'd love to say I know everything that was going on, but I'll just let Derek say it all himself.
HERE and HERE.
HERE and HERE.
More SWTOR info from GDC
I'd blogged about my single greatest fear in regard to SWTOR -- that being it is really only an RPG in MMO guise. This week's Bioware's Friday special includes links to several articles about SWTOR from the GDC including several that have some very insightful comments about the fabled story-driven aspect Bioware has been talking up. First, I really can not say enough how I loathe buzzwords. And Bioware is trying to create their own with this "story-driven" "fourth leg" non-sense. "Story-driven" is nothing more than questing and I wish they'd just stick with that. Compare apples to apples, and don't try and make people think what you are really doing is comparing your Orange to Blizzard's Apple. But then again if I were under the gun and had to ensure I was drawing in and keeping 2 million subscribers, perhaps I'd feel compelled to cheat the language a bit too.
Don't get me wrong, I like PVE as much as the next person does. But I'm not sure that a game that has it's very back-bone built upon such an in-depth PVE questing system with interactive discussions and voice-overs, will feel as much like an MMO as people expect their MMOs to feel. I don't want to be constrained within a questing system when Bioware knows well that what I really want is the end-game. Lets face it, despite what anyone says to the contrary, we all want the "end-game". I don't want to have to spend weeks of questing and desiring nothing more than to wring some NPCs neck while he forces me to entertain his interactive chat. Instead I'd prefer a more traditional questing system with clear-cut objectives. I'm intrigued by the "moral decision making", but then again I'd be just as happy with that if that were a passive part of the game that tracked the things I did while I traipse through it. Such as killing critters making me darker, or stopping to help vagabonds making me not so dark. I very much like the idea of my "alignment" being determined over time but Bioware has that wrapped up in the interactive chat system and I already know I'm not going to like it.
How do I know I'm not going to like something before I try it? I guess I'm just that good. I guess I just know my gaming interests and what I typically find to be fun, and what I typically find to not be so fun. And I already know from all the MMOs I've already played that I haven't the slightest interest in having to read quests that are books. And having to sit and listen to a discussion that I can't even skim is going to annoy me to all ends. Many MMOs have proven they can implement immersive story-telling without going to the lengths Bioware is and I see no reason to fix something that simply isn't broken.
So where's the beef? Here's where I think it becomes most telling and explains why we haven't seen more information about the MMO in this MMO.
All that's bad enough, but once you understand that they haven't released any details on the MMO parts of the MMO are because they haven't made them, it makes you want to scream while pulling that hair out.
I want this game to to happen. I want it to be fantastic because not only am I a super Star Wars fan, but also because I love Bioware. I just want an MMO, not an RPG with coop play. I might feel better if they'd actually release real, in-depth information on what would make this an MMO but I'm beginning to see the bridge down at the end of the road... and you know... I'm not sure if I can see the other side!
Don't get me wrong, I like PVE as much as the next person does. But I'm not sure that a game that has it's very back-bone built upon such an in-depth PVE questing system with interactive discussions and voice-overs, will feel as much like an MMO as people expect their MMOs to feel. I don't want to be constrained within a questing system when Bioware knows well that what I really want is the end-game. Lets face it, despite what anyone says to the contrary, we all want the "end-game". I don't want to have to spend weeks of questing and desiring nothing more than to wring some NPCs neck while he forces me to entertain his interactive chat. Instead I'd prefer a more traditional questing system with clear-cut objectives. I'm intrigued by the "moral decision making", but then again I'd be just as happy with that if that were a passive part of the game that tracked the things I did while I traipse through it. Such as killing critters making me darker, or stopping to help vagabonds making me not so dark. I very much like the idea of my "alignment" being determined over time but Bioware has that wrapped up in the interactive chat system and I already know I'm not going to like it.
How do I know I'm not going to like something before I try it? I guess I'm just that good. I guess I just know my gaming interests and what I typically find to be fun, and what I typically find to not be so fun. And I already know from all the MMOs I've already played that I haven't the slightest interest in having to read quests that are books. And having to sit and listen to a discussion that I can't even skim is going to annoy me to all ends. Many MMOs have proven they can implement immersive story-telling without going to the lengths Bioware is and I see no reason to fix something that simply isn't broken.
So where's the beef? Here's where I think it becomes most telling and explains why we haven't seen more information about the MMO in this MMO.
Like the Inquisitor demo, it's a strictly single-player experience. We all play offline in separate instances of the same mission. As RPG gameplay goes, it's slick, accessible, pacey and enjoyable - but in common with everything LucasArts, EA and BioWare have shown of The Old Republic so far, there's nothing massively-multiplayer about it. They've shown an appealing and obviously high-quality game, but they simply haven't shown us an MMO yet.They made the decision to intentionally differentiate themselves in the market by focusing on "story" rather than using tried-and-true developmental strategies and letting the IP differentiate. When I read stuff like this it makes me want to pull hair out. It's the sort of thing Lum talks about in his blog from time to time, as he regales us with what passes for judgment in the gaming industry.I quiz Neri about it. What does LucasArts - which has already had its fingers burned in this genre with the under-performing, U-turning Star Wars Galaxies - want from an MMO using its most precious intellectual property?
"I think what we wanted to do was create an amazing story-driven experience," he answers. "We believe, as a company, in story. We had great success with BioWare in the past with KOTOR [Knights of the Old Republic] and we wanted to continue that. We wanted to deliver a smash in the space, for sure.
"I think, first off, in order to enter the space in any sort of serious manner I think you need to be different than what everyone else has done. I think that's probably the reason why we believe so much in story."
All that's bad enough, but once you understand that they haven't released any details on the MMO parts of the MMO are because they haven't made them, it makes you want to scream while pulling that hair out.
"We haven't talked a ton of details on in-between activities," Neri says, truthfully. "We've just said that we do understand that in this type of game you do need to have that type of secondary behaviour, things like crafting, harvesting systems, things like that: mechanics that players can draw themselves into when they're not fighting. So, not too much detail on that right now, but we understand the expectation and we're going to make sure that the game supports that type of behaviour as well."Get that.. the things that make an MMO, an MMO -- like:
a structure for player-versus-player combat, a broad spread of challenging content for groups, social areas, trading, crafting and the wide spread of relaxing ancillary activities best described as "downtime"are secondary activities. Trivial even. Unbelievable.
I want this game to to happen. I want it to be fantastic because not only am I a super Star Wars fan, but also because I love Bioware. I just want an MMO, not an RPG with coop play. I might feel better if they'd actually release real, in-depth information on what would make this an MMO but I'm beginning to see the bridge down at the end of the road... and you know... I'm not sure if I can see the other side!
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Raven God finally smiled upon me!
I can't tell you how many times I've killed Anzu because the achievement tracker doesn't track that boss and I lost count a very long time ago. But I've been farming for this boss for a long while. Finally got it today -- the best looking mount in the game!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
World first Shadowmourne
MMO-Champion is reporting Modk from Mal'ganis is the world first recipient of Shadowmourne. As I'm also working on the Shadowmourne quest I'm of course jealous! But congratulations to Modk all the same!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
