So what am I playing? Well, I’ve stopped looking for the One True Game, the game that will capture my attention for years at a time the way WoW did. Those days are gone. (Games like Civilization and The Sims can still do that, but they don’t have the social element I’m looking for.) Earlier this year I was playing Warframe full-time – which has developed remarkably since I last played it, and we had a lot of fun in it. I have no doubt I’ll be back. We’ve spent some time in SWTOR, and I intend to spend more before the upcoming Shake Everything Up expansion in October, and my WoW guild is raiding again.

Lately, though, my spare time has been going into Skyforge. It’s an action-combat MMO in a magitech setting where you play an Immortal, one of the few people gifted with more than one life, and as your power grows you evolve into a fully-fledged God. Skyforge is level-less (your progression is measured by your Prestige, which is a sum total of the abilities you’ve unlocked and the equipment you’re using) and class-based, although you can unlock and change between classes readily on one character.

There are a few things that stand out about the game:

• The combat is fun and satisfying; it’s not crazily spammy the way some other action combat games are, and although you’re fairly limited in terms of number of abilities, the combat system is deeper than it first appears. Telegraphs are handled by animation, rather than by floor designations, and despite my inexperience with action combat games (because mostly I don’t like them) I’ve found it perfectly manageable.
• The monetisation is not punitive; the premium currency pays for everything (including ‘premium’/VIP status), and can be purchased using in-game money.
• The classes are interestingly varied, with a distinct range of playstyles and variety between the classes. Flavour also varies from medieval fantasy to magitech sci-fi; ranged classes include the archer and gunner side by side, while in melee you’ll find light-channelling paladins and chainsword-wielding berserkers.
• Progression is interesting; you earn various currencies which you then spend on unlocking stat buffs, abilities and talents in a skill web reminiscent of Path of Exile, and this progression then moves you towards earning new classes. It’s hard to explain concisely, but works quite elegantly in practice.

There are some irks to the game. One big obstacle is the pantheons mechanic – pantheons are Skyforge’s equivalent of guilds, and there’s content that only reasonably sizeable pantheons can access. Our little few-person pantheon-of-friends just isn’t going to cut it. The UI is cursor-locked and modal, which makes it controller-friendly but an unnecessary obstacle when you’re a keyboard-and-mouse player. And, being a F2P game, regional chat is lower than the lowest common denominator, and hard to ignore. That said, no game is perfect, and the annoyances certainly haven’t spoiled Skyforge for me yet.

The post I’m back and still gaming. appeared first on Siha Games!.

Four weeks to go! This is gonna be great.

The post Look what just arrived! appeared first on Siha Games!.

A couple of weeks ago, Greenheart Games was all over the news for their indie tycoon game, Game Dev Tycoon. In order to prove a point about piracy, Greenheart’s Patrick Klug seeded a cracked version of the game to various torrent sites, with a twist: the cracked version became unplayable after a certain amount of time, thanks to in-game piracy destroying your revenue. Cute, but ultimately it felt like a bitter stunt instead of a genuine opportunity — it was just an opportunity to lecture people about piracy, instead of looking for a way to convert pirates into customers.

I much prefer the approach taken by Posthuman Studios, publishers of the hit pen-and-paper RPG Eclipse Phase. I’ve talked about Eclipse Phase before, as a setting I’d love to see as an MMO, but it’s also a fantastic (and award-winning) tabletop game. Eclipse Phase is set in a high-tech post-apocalyptic future where humanity has abandoned Earth and spread throughout the solar system, and it covers everything from transhumanism, horror and conspiracy to straight-up sci-fi adventure.

And what makes Eclipse Phase really special, IMO, is Posthuman’s approach to its customers and fans. Eclipse Phase is licensed under Creative Commons, which means that fans can freely hack the game, modify it, post their work online, and even share the entire game with anyone they think might like it. Hell, Posthuman themselves even seeded the full core book to various file-sharing and torrent sites.

And it’s worked. Despite being available for free, with no stigma of piracy and active publisher encouragement to share copies of the PDF, players and fans of the game have been happily handing over their money both for PDF and hardcopy books ever since Eclipse Phase first launched. In the words of Adam Jury, a Posthuman Studios founder,

[N]o publishing company can successfully fight piracy. The RIAA hasn’t, the MPAA hasn’t. Piracy is going to happen unless we say “nope, you can’t pirate our stuff, cuz we’ll just let you give it out!” — and that makes the file-sharers like us and buy from us. I don’t think pirates are evil and immoral people. I know many people who pirate many things and these people also buy many things. They just tend to buy only things they already like. So, of course, giving away your material will only work if your material is good quality!

I’d much rather have someone read our game for free and not like it than buy our game and not like it. In the first case, they’re only out their time. In the second case, they’re out time and money and are more likely to resent us and/or not buy any other games we may release.

Furthermore, Creative Commons isn’t just about “downloading for free;” it’s about giving fans permission to hack our content and distribute those hacks. Permission to do the things that gamers naturally do, without fear of lawsuits or complex legalese or requiring our approval. Our fans have built and distributed complex character generation spreadsheets, customized GM Screens, converted our books into ePub/mobi format, and all sorts of neat things. When they do things like this, that gives us guidance as to what we should be doing: because fans aren’t just saying they want something, they’re putting their time where their mouth is … a strong indication that they and other fans would be willing to pay for those things if we produced them.

This has always struck me as both a smart business decision and a humane one, and Eclipse Phase’s success has proved that it’s the right way to go. Treat people with respect, and it pays off. There is no need for gamers to pay for Eclipse Phase, but they do, because people are willing to pay for what they like.

And this point is proved with Transhuman, the Eclipse Phase Player’s Guide (and next EP release). This is the first Eclipse Phase Kickstarter and it’s been handled with Posthuman’s typical approach to operating their business. Transhuman is in Open Playtesting, so Kickstarter customers can check out the book before they pledge. The pledge rewards packages are generous and well-considered bundles. And one of the early Stretch Goals was to give Transhuman’s freelance contributors a 15% pay raise – a very humane and generous offer in an industry where freelancers (and most creators) earn very little for their work.

It probably comes as no surprise that Transhuman reached its funding goal in twelve hours and is at 530% of its goal as I write this. The success of Eclipse Phase’s business model is a counterpoint to – and lesson for – publishers in any industry. Treat your customers with respect, don’t assume they’re going to rip you off, don’t try to wring every cent out of them, and sell them a quality product: your customers will become fans, and they’ll throw money at you.

As a postscript, I encourage you all to check out the Transhuman Kickstarter. If you’re interested in pen-and-paper games or simply good science fiction, a twenty dollar pledge will net you the Eclipse Phase RPG and the Transhuman Player’s Guide in PDF format, and there are a range of other pledge rewards offering more of the Eclipse Phase product line as well. Frankly, I’d have given them money even if I weren’t a fan of Eclipse Phase, because I strongly believe that their approach to business is the right one, and I think that deserves my support. And the more success enjoyed by Eclipse Phase and other games like it, the more likely other publishers are to sit up and take notice, and accept that you don’t have to treat your customers like criminals to make money.

Note: There’s just over four days left on the Transhuman Kickstarter as I write this, so if you’re interested, don’t forget to check it out this weekend!

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Contents

• Part 1: The University Experience
• Part 2: General Content
• The Smartphone
• Social Groups
• New Skills
• Science
• Social Networking
• Street Art
• New Careers
• Game Designer
• Art Appraiser
• Sports Agent
• New Traits
• New Lifetime Goals and Rewards
• New Supernaturals
• New Items
• Sims University Map

New Content

The University Life expansion introduces a whole lot of new content for general gameplay, even if you never send a Sim to university. Here’s a look at what it includes.

The Smartphone

The familiar Sims 3 cellphone has now been replaced with a smartphone. You can access this in the same way as your old phone, and it offers all the same features as well as a range of new ones.

• Student Sims can use it to study.
• You can use it to check your Sim’s Social Group standings.
• Sims with the Social Networking skill can use it to text their friends, make blog posts, and perform other Social Networking skill abilities.

The smartphone starts out in basic black, and raising your Social Networking skill will unlock new skins for it.

Social Groups

Social Groups are a new feature in University Life. Most Sims now have a Social Group affiliation, which is a trait you can see when you hover over them – you can see whether they’re a Nerd, Rebel or Jock, and their standing within the group.

As you perform normal activities within the game, you’ll accrue standing with one or more of the social groups, depending on what you’re doing. You can see a list of activities for each social group within the smartphone interface, as well as your friends in that social group, your current standing and title, and other related stats.

Each social group unlocks a range of benefits for your Sim as they increase their influence. This includes a number of new social interactions (for instance, nerds can issue trivia challenges, while jocks can take selfies with the phone camera). Additionally, at level 8 you unlock an extra trait slot (which is in addition to the trait slot for graduating with a degree, for a total of 7 traits), and at level 10 you are offered a new career.

The main influence activities for each social group are below. In addition, hanging out with prominent members of a social group helps gain influence with the group, as does completing Opportunities for that group. Certain social interactions seem universally popular – chat, gossip, telling stories, telling jokes, giving compliments, pick-up lines, and gossiping about roommates – and should please members of any group. Some of these activities are specific to University, while others can be completed anywhere in the game.

Nerds

• Talking about degrees with other Nerds.
• Showing other Sims gross videos on your phone.
• Playing arcade and video games.
• Performing scientific research, group science projects, solving equations on whiteboards, and throwing things into bonfires.
• Talking about computer games, comic books, etc.
• Using the Cerebralizer Brain Enhancing Machine.
• Issuing and participating in Trivial Challenges.
• Berating ignorance!

Rebels

• Goofing Around with other Rebels.
• Daring other Sims.
• Organising protests, making speeches, riling the crowds at protests, handing out protest flyers.
• Adding herbs to recipes; burning herbs in the fireplace.
• Drinking at the Barista Bar.
• Using a megaphone to rant or proclaim love.
• Dumpster diving.
• Graffiti – tags and murals.

Jocks

• Goofing Around with other Jocks.
• Take self-photos and pics with friends using the smartphone.
• Play collegiate sports at the stadium.
• Play sports: table tennis, bowling, frisbee
• Playing Juice Pong and doing Keg Stands.
• Attend bonfires and parties; host Bonfire Parties and Juice Keggers.
• Perform the School Cheer.

New Skills

There are skill books available for all three new skills from your town’s bookstore.

Science
The Science skill assists the Science and Medicine careers, and allows you to perform scientific experiments. You’ll need scientific equipment to work on, and you can get a science research station for your home in buy mode.

You can analyse collectable materials (plants, rocks, fish, and so on) to create samples, and then perform research on those samples to achieve scientific breakthroughs. At higher levels you can Correlate Scientific Data at your town’s Science Facility, and you can also make money by selling scientific samples.

There are two Skill Challenges for Science: Free Range Scientist comes from analysing 100 samples, and reduces the cooldown time before you can Correlate Scientific Data repeatedly; Experienced Experimentalist is awarded for completing 100 Experiments, and it rewards you with an achievement plaque and cash prize.

Social Networking
This skill allows your Sim to use their smartphone to make blog posts, take photos for their blog, text their friends and acquaintances, and browse the web and watch videos to entertain themselves. Increasing the skill level unlocks decorative smartphone skins, and will allow you to write more lucrative blogs. (You can only run one blog at a time, but when it’s sufficiently popular you can sell it and start a new one.) Bloggers also get donations from their followers, and at higher levels they can ask their followers for academic help.

The Social Networking skill unlocks the “Sim Finder” smartphone app. This allows you to define a range of search parameters to find Sims meeting the criteria of your choice – the perfect way to meet Sims who share your interests. At higher levels, you can also use the Relationship Transmogrifier to adjust the relationship status between any two Sims. You can create instant friends for yourself or any lonely Sim you meet.

Social Networking has three skill challenges. Blog Baron comes from selling the rights to five different blogs, and gives more donations from blog followers. Professional Greeter is achieved by meeting 25 different Sims with the Sim Finder and grants the “Excited” buff when you meet new Sims via the Sim Finder in future. Match Maker requires using the Relationship Transmogrifier to change 30 different relationships to Romantic Interest or Partner, and unlocks the ability to use the Transmogrifier’s “Best Friends Forever” option.

Street Art
You need a Street Art Kit to work on this skill. You can find Banky’s Street Art Kit in buy mode; sort by function, Entertainment > Skills. You can create ground and wall murals, and tag walls; first you reserve an area, then you decorate! You can also have a number of areas reserved at one time. Street Art can be cleaned away, and be careful when tagging outside the home – you may get caught by the cops.

Street Art has three skill challenges. Always Wanted comes from completing 5 masterpieces with Street Art, and allows you to create street art anywhere without permission or getting in trouble. Master Muralist requires completing 10 murals and increases your chance of future murals being masterpieces. Precision Sprayer requires completing 30 projects and speeds up future street art projects by 15%.

New Careers

The new careers are unlocked by reaching the top rank of influence with the relevant social group, and after you’ve unlocked them you can join them from the appropriate workplace rabbithole.

Unfortunately, the new careers don’t actually seem to be associated with any of the new degrees, despite being perfect for them. So graduating with a University degree is unlikely to give you any kind of boost in the new careers.

Each career also requires social group influence as one of its performance metrics, and some people have commented that this is a bit odd as you need the influence to unlock the career in the first place. However, be aware that influence will decay like relationship status if you don’t keep maintain it; you can’t just max out influence to unlock a career and then never do anything for that social group again if you want to advance in your career.¹

Also note that if you leave one of these careers, the game doesn’t appear to let you rejoin it afterwards. This may be a bug.

Art Appraiser
This career is unlocked by reaching Rank 10 with the Rebels, and its workplace is the Warehouse.

Its core metrics are Rebel Influence and Mood.

1. Eager Artist, $30/hour, Mon-Fri, 0900-1500.
2. Savvy Scanner, $40/hour, Mon-Fri, 1100-1600. Adds Artwork Scanned as a metric. (See below for details.)
3. Junior Consigner, $42/hour, Mon-Fri, 1100-1700.
4. Transporter, $60/hour, Mon-Fri, 1300-1800. Adds ability to pick up Side Jobs from the warehouse. These are career opportunities which reward Simoleons and increase career performance. They’re a good way to make career progress on weekends.
5. Master Transporter, $70/hour, Mon-Fri, 1300-1800. Artwork Scanning obligations double at this point.

At level 6 you can choose between Appraiser and Counterfeiter. Both paths still use Mood, Rebel Influence and Artworks Scanned as metrics, and both add Painting. Street Art may count for the Painting need; this is not confirmed.

Appraiser
6. Apprentice Appraiser, $80/hour, Mon-Fri, 0900-1500.
7. Snooty Surveyor, $175/hour, Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri, 1000-1400. Offers “Advanced Art Training” at the warehouse – see below for details.
8. Conservation Specialist, $250/hour, Tue/Thur/Sat, 1000-1400.
9. Authenticator, $404/hour, Mon/Wed/Fri, 1000-1300.
10. Master Authenticator, $637/hour, Mon/Wed/Fri, 1000-1300.

Counterfeiter
6. Apprentice Counterfeiter, $80/hour, Tues/Wed/Sat/Sun, 1400-1900. Includes a free artwork. Also seems to have the “Advanced Art Training” option.
7. Cartoon Counterfeiter, $175/hour, Weds/Thurs/Sat/Sun, 1400-1800. Includes a free artwork.
8. Signature Sneak, $264/hour, Tues-Fri, 1400-1800.
9. Forger, $386/hour, Tues/Sat, 1000-1500.
10. Master Forger, $526/hour, Weds/Sun, 1000-1500.

Scanning Artworks
After your first promotion you’ll need to start Scanning Artworks as one of your job performance metrics. The promotion gives you the ability to “Scan Art” using a Scanning Wand – this isn’t an inventory item, it just appears when you invoke the ability. Be aware, though, that there’s a cooldown after each scan while the scanning wand recalibrates. It takes about 15-20 minutes of game time to perform a scan, and the cooldown seems to be about 15 minutes of game time; it takes about half a dozen items (ie about three hours of scanning) to get your Scan metric up to maximum. Each promotion resets your Artwork Scanned metric back to the baseline, so you’ll need to scan again after each promotion.

You can scan various pieces of decorative furniture, such as screens, potplants, flower vases, etc. You can scan items at home as well as out and about, and you can even scan half-completed paintings that are still on their easels. Street Art murals and tags are also scannable.

Advanced Art Training
These are a series of opportunities requesting better and better paintings, available once you hit level 7 of the Art Appraiser career. You get them via an option at the Warehouse. The first asks you to paint a large picture worth 1000 Simoleons or more, and simply pays 2000 Simoleons in return. However, a new opportunity will immediately appear after you complete the first one, asking for a Large painting worth $1200; this rewards career performance as well. Once you’ve completed that, you’re immediately offered the opportunity for a Large painting worth $1500 – note that this is called “Masterpiece”, but the painting itself does not have to be of Masterpiece quality. This also rewards career performance as well as cash. The painting value refers to its original value, excluding any appreciation over time.

These opportunities are well worth doing if you have sufficient Painting skill. Each opportunity gives enough career performance to max out your bar from neutral before you even set foot in the door at work. For the most efficient use of these opportunities, carry the paintings in your inventory when you go to work; then you can hand one in after you’ve been promoted and top your performance bar back up to maximum again ready for the next day’s promotion.

Sports Agent
This career is unlocked by reaching Rank 10 with the Jocks, and its workplace is the Stadium.

It starts with the sole core metric of Mood.

Note that some of the Sports Agent actions which increase job performance don’t seem to properly update the meter immediately; the meter should be correct after a save and reload, and some other state changes will also force a meter refresh. If you’re performing an action that you think should improve career performance and nothing’s changing, try saving and reloading. Going to work also seems to refresh the bar, but that only works on work days, of course.

1. PR Assistant, $30/hour, Mon-Fri, 0800-1400.
2. Sports Analyst, $38/hour, Mon-Fri, 0800-1400. This is supposed to unlock the ability to Analyze Sports Statistics on your phone, but it’s actually found by clicking on your Sim. This also seems to improve your career performance.
3. Recruiter, $50/hour, Mon-Fri, 0900-1500. Adds Relationship with Clientele as a metric.
4. Assistant Negotiator, $71/hour, Mon-Fri, 0900-1500. Adds the option to “Negotiate Contract” when clicking on your Sim, which improves career performance.
5. Agent of Truth, $110/hour, Mon-Fri, 1000-1530.
6. Contract Shark, $182/hour, Mon-Fri, 1000-1530. Adds Charisma as a metric.
7. Clientele Mastermind, $273/hour, Mon-Thurs, 1100-1630.
8. Sports Host, $350/hour, Mon-Thurs, 1100-1600. Adds Social Networking as a metric.
9. Legendary Sports Host, $400/hour, Mon/Tues/Thurs, 1200-1700.
10. Team Owner, $810/hour, Mon/Tues/Thurs, 1200-1600.

Video Game Developer
This career is unlocked by reaching Rank 10 with the Nerds, and its workplace is the Office Building rabbithole.

Its metrics are Nerd Influence, Mood, and Playing Games.

Note that the Playing Games metric can be a bit tricky, and appear to be bugged when it isn’t. Put simply, there are actually two types of video games in The Sims 3, with two separate hidden skills. Arcade Games include freestanding arcade machines like Synaesthesia and Captain Starplanet, as well as playing games on your computer or laptop. Video Gaming, on the other hand, comes from using consoles like the Maxoid Game Simulator 2 1/2, the GUGA JoyToy 3 or the SimLife Goggles. Arcade Games (including computer games) do not count towards this metric; you need to play Video Games (i.e. consoles) instead.

1. Game Button Tester, $26/hr, Fri-Mon, 1000-1600.
2. Assistant Concept Artist, $35/hr, Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri/Sun, 1300-2000. Gives a discount at Barista Bars.
3. Quality Assistance Manager, $42/hr, Mon-Fri, 0700-1500.

At level 4 you can choose between Game Artist and Engineer. Both paths use Mood, Nerd Influence and Playing Games as metrics. Game Artist also uses Painting; Engineer uses Logic. (It’s been claimed that Street Art can substitute for Painting for Game Artists; my testing indicates that this doesn’t seem to be the case.)

Game Artist
4. Pixel Pusher, $51/hr, Mon-Fri, 0900-1700.
5. Character Modeler, $68/hour, Mon-Fri, 1000-1700. Issued a free laptop; can work from home.
6. Senior Animator, $104/hour, Mon-Fri, 1100-1700.
7. Art Director, $147/hour, Mon-Fri, 1200-1700. Discounts on purchasing electronics.
8. Lead Designer, $223/hour, Mon-Thu, 1000-1500.

From this point onwards, Painting is removed as a metric and replaced with Writing.

9. Executive Producer, $396/hour, Mon-Thu, 1100-1500.
10. Game Studio Head, $990/hour, Mon/Wed/Fri, 1200-1500. This gives the option to “Hold Video Game Convention” at the Theater rabbit-hole, which takes several hours of gametime and rewards money.

Engineer
4. Code Monkey, $51/hr, Mon-Fri, 0900-1700.
5. Game Programmer, $68/hour, 0800-1500. Issued a free laptop; can work from home.
6. Senior Engineer, $104/hour, Mon-Fri, 0800-1400.
7. Technical Director, $147/hour, Mon-Fri, 0900-1400. Discounts on purchasing electronics.

From this point onwards, Logic is removed as a metric and replaced with Writing.

8. Lead Designer, $223/hour, Mon-Thu, 1000-1500.
9. Executive Producer, $417/hour, Mon-Thu, 1100-1500.
10. Game Studio Head, $1011/hour, Mon/Wed/Fri, 1200-1500. This gives the option to “Hold Video Game Convention” at the Theater rabbit-hole, which takes several hours of gametime and rewards money.

New Traits

University Life introduces three new traits:

Avant-Garde: is a mental trait. Avant-Garde Sims will increase their Street Art skill faster, their paintings and sculptures are worth more, and they will sometimes “feel important” after critiquing other Sims. They also get two extra genres – Poetry and Satire – for Writing, at levels 2 and 4 respectively.

Irresistable: is a social trait. Irresistable Sims improve their relationships faster and are rarely rejected when they ask for favours or dates. This trait also increases other Sims’ desire to socialise with you.

Socially Awkward: is a social trait. Sims with this trait may have awkward moments when socialising with other Sims, and may ruin joke punchlines.

New Lifetime Goals

There are several new Lifetime Goals in University Life.

New Lifetime Rewards

There are four new Lifetime Rewards in University Life.

Jock/Rebel/Nerd Influence: Costs 2,000.
There are three different rewards, one for each group, and each one rewards “a substantial amount of influence” with the relevant group. This reward can be chosen repeatedly. When they say substantial they’re not kidding; you can max out your influence from zero with about five of these.

Honorary Degree: Costs 50,000.
This rewards an honorary University degree without actually having to go to University. The honorary degree only counts as a “B” average grade, so you’ll only get career entry at level 3 instead of level 4, but it’s a way to get a leg up in a new career without spending several weeks at University.

New Supernaturals

There’s one new Life State in University Life: PlantSims.

You can’t create PlantSims through Create-A-Sim. Sims who take part in science experiments have a 20% chance to become a PlantSim, and a Sim can also become a PlantSim by planting a Forbidden Fruit and eating it. (If a PlantSim plants a Forbidden Fruit and picks the fully-grown result, it has a 50% chance of creating a baby PlantSim.) Forbidden Fruit seeds can be created by PlantSims, and by scientific experimentation.

PlantSims have slightly different motives – they don’t have Hunger or Bladder motives, for starters. Their Hygiene motive is replaced with Water, which is satisfied by coming in contact with water (swimming, showering, hot tubs, etc). Their Energy motive is met by Photosynthesising outdoors during the day; they don’t need to sleep.

Roommates

Roommates are a new form of relationship in Sims 3 University Life. You’ll have roommates automatically if you move into one of the dorms at University, but you can also choose to have roommates in your normal town if you wish.

Roommates share a house with you, but you can’t control them like you can with other household members. You can invite a specific Sim to be your roommate if you have a good enough relationship, or advertise for general applicants via the phone. Roommates will pay you rent weekly based on the size of your lot and the number of people sharing it.

You can ask roommates to do things using the “Ask Roommate To…” social (eg clean up, cook dinner, etc). Of course, since you don’t control them, they may choose not to, so it’s generally a good idea, just as in RL, to choose Sim roommates with complementary traits. You can set bed ownership for each roommate, and lock your bedroom door with various settings. And you can, of course, kick a roommate out if they’re more trouble than they’re worth.

New Items

As always, there are a range of new items for furnishing your home, and new styles and options in Create-a-Sim. Cataloguing them is beyond the scope of this guide, but here’s a quick look at several of the important new items. Many of these are important for Social Group influence or University class activities.

Cerebralizing Brain Enhancing Machine 1.0 and 2.0 is (in its 1.0 incarnation) the special item for Technology students. The 2.0 upgrade has a lot of extra options, including viewing other Sims remotely.

Frequency Fun Mobile Radio Station is the special item for Communications students, and you can broadcast radio shows using it.

Internal Reflections Sketchbook is the special item for Fine Arts students. It’s a portable Painting item.

“Them Bones” Anatomy Skeleton is the special item for Science & Medical students, and also for Physical Education students.

Workforce Warrior Business Planner is the special item for Business students.

Banky’s Street Art Kit is required for creating Street Art tags and murals.

Salutary Speakers Podium can be used to step up and rant about the world, which is great for Rebel Influence.

“Me Too!” Megaphone allows you to take your angry Rebel rants out and about.

Instant Inspiration Whiteboard can be used for solving equations, drawing diagrams and giving presentations.

ZRX-9000 Science Research Station is almost essential for the new Science skill; it allows you to analyse samples and experiment on them, up to and including cloning.

Sports Equipment
There are a number of new pieces of sports equipment, starting with a frisbee and a hacky-sack. There’s also a soccer ball, table-tennis table, bowling lane, pool table and foosball table.

The post The Sims 3 University Life guide, part 2: general content appeared first on Siha Games!.

Click the image to see a bigger version of the image (1280*720), or download a 1920*1080 version here.

The Sims University sub-neighborhood features new versions of many community lots and adds a few more as well. However, you won’t find many of the usual rabbit-hole buildings like the hospital, office building, city hall, and so on.

Here’s what you’ll find at Sims University:

Residences

• Tri-Fruhm Sorority
• Urele-Oresha-Cham Fraternity
• Three mixed-sex dormitories: Malan Hall, Henry Hall, De Anda Hall
• Various rentable houses

(Note that there are also a number of empty residential lots if you wish to take the time to build your student Sim a house.)

Rabbit Holes

• 25 Frames Cinema (Theater)
• SimBurger (Bistro)
• Night Owl Foods (Supermarket)
• University Bookstore (Bookstore)
• Schmidt Memorial Stadium & Annex (Stadium with some extra services)
• St. John Administration Center
• University Seminar Buildings: Busche School of Science, Thomas School of Art, Nichols School of Business

Community Lots

• Dive n’ Splash Pool (Pool)
• Pump You Up Gym (Gym)
• Howard Memorial Library (Library)
• Keith’s Komics (Nerd Shop)
• B’s Bowlarama (Arcade)
• The Grotto (Rebel Hangout)
• Roasted Toasted Beans Coffee Shop (Java Hut)
• Connors Student Union Building (Student Union)
• University Quad (University Hangout)
• School of Science Proving Ground (Group Science Park)

Nature Lots

• Championship Lake (Big Park)
• Just-a-Park (Small Park)
• Senior Lake Park (Small Park)
• The Point (Small Park)
• Woodland Park (Small Park)
• Llama Beach (Beach)

Hope you find this useful!

The post The Sims 3 University Life: Sims University map appeared first on Siha Games!.

Updated March 11 2013: Added sub-neighborhood map with full legend. Part 2 of the guide is still in the works!

Contents

• Part 1: The University Experience
• Preparing for University
• Getting to University: Enrolment and the Aptitude Test
• Getting Results on the Aptitude Test
• The Aptitude Test’s Benefits
• Hidden Skills and the Aptitude Test
• Arriving at University
• The University Term
• Academic Success
• University Degrees
• The University Sub-Neighborhood
• Part 2: General Content
• Sims University Map

Official Site: This is EA’s official page for the expansion, covering University Life’s new features, gameplay and content.

The University Experience

Sims University is a sub-neighbourhood like the three vacation destinations from World Adventures. When you send your sim off to University, time stops in the real world. However, unlike the vacation destinations, attending University has no visa restrictions and no cooldowns – as soon as you complete one term, you can go straight back if you wish. Sims younger than Young Adult can’t attend University; Adults and Elders can also enrol.

There are six degree programs in University Life: Business, Communications, Fine Arts, Physical Education Science & Medicine, and Technology. Graduating with a degree will give you an extra trait slot for your sim (so you can have six active traits), and will give you a headstart on careers related to your degree — if you graduate with a perfect GPA, you can enter a related career at level 4 instead of level 1, and your pay will be much higher than the equivalent level without a degree. If your Sim is already entrenched in a relevant career, graduation will give them an instant level boost and pay rise.

Preparing for University

If you’re creating a new Sim to try out the University experience, you may wish to tailor your traits appropriately. Some traits affect the University experience in general – for instance, the Ambitious trait helps Sims do better academically – while other traits affect a Sim’s suitability for a specific course of study. See the University Degrees list below for details of which traits affect each degree.

Getting to University: Enrolment and the Aptitude Test

You can enrol at any time from your computer or smart phone; once you’ve enrolled, a moving van turns up and whisks you away to the University sub-neighbourhood for a week or two. (Note that arriving at University also resets your moodlets, mood, and needs.) You can enrol for 6, 12 or 18 credits per term, and one or two terms at a time.

However, it’s worth taking a University Aptitude Test first, as this can offer you partial credit towards your studies, and a scholarship to pay for tuition and living expenses. The test is optional, and you can repeat it any time you’re not actually at University.

You can find the Aptitude Test as part of the University Welcome Kit. This should be distributed to eligible Sims within a game day or two — it’s delivered by the University mascot, a llama called Ian. (Well, okay, it’s a guy in a llama suit.) If the llama never shows up, you can buy the welcome kit in Buy Mode instead – Sort by Function, and it’s under Entertainment > Misc Entertainment Items.

Getting Results on the Aptitude Test
Your results on the Aptitude Test are determined by your Sim’s work experience, skills, and childhood education. I don’t have concrete information on how childhood education and work experience affect test results, and traits do not appear to affect the results at all. However, skill ratings affect test results as follows.

Each sub-score can be improved by your level in one or more skills:

Business: Charisma, Mixology, Social Networking
Technology: Logic, Handiness, Inventing
Science & Medicine: Alchemy, Fishing, Gardening, Science
Fine Arts: Painting, Cooking, Guitar, Piano, Drums, Bass Guitar, Street Art, Sculpting, Nectar Making
Communications: Writing, Photography
Physical Education: Athletic, Martial Arts, Riding

Each subject is scored out of 400; the base score is 100 and each level in a related skill will add 27 points to your score in that area. A starting Young Adult Sim with no work experience, no relevant traits and no skills will still have some extra points in some subjects. They start at 932 of a maximum 2400 points, with three subjects at 100 points, two at 183 and one at 266, though which score goes to which subject seems to be randomly assigned per Sim.

However, note that any points above 100 that aren’t derived from skills get “soaked up” when you start levelling skills. As an example, take a skill-less Sim who starts with 183/400 sub-score for Business; when she starts learning Mixology, her Business sub-score will remain 183 until she’s earnt more than 83 points from skill gains. Her first three levels in Mixology won’t increase her sub-score past 183, but when she hits Mixology 4 her Business sub-score would go up to 208 (100 base plus 4 levels at 27 points each).

The Aptitude Test’s Benefits
These are twofold: excelling in a particular sub-score will give you credit towards a degree in that subject, and excelling overall will give you a scholarship which pays some of your University expenses.

• At approximately 260/400 in a sub-score, the Sim receives an Apprentice (Subject) Medal, which will give 6 credits towards a degree in that subject.
• At 370/400, this becomes a Distinguished (Subject) Medal, which gives 18 credits towards a degree.
• At approximately 1200/2400 overall score, the Sim is granted a Partial Scholarship, which pays 1000 Simoleons per term.
• At about 1800/2400, this becomes a Full Scholarship, which pays 2,500 Simoleons per term.

it’s worth getting the Distinguished Medal for the degree you wish to study; this will substantially cut down the number of terms you need to attend. This will take you 10 skill levels, but you can spread those around the relevant skills – it’s a lot faster to get level 2-3 in four skills than it is to max out a skill to 10. This will also get you close to the Partial Scholarship, so it’s worth picking up a level or two in a skill attached to another subject for the scholarship, if you haven’t already acquired this just from normal life. (Degrees cost $500-625 per term, so a scholarship will leave you several hundred Simoleons to pay rent and living expenses for the week.) Unless your Sim is really broke and you need the full scholarship, the Partial Scholarship should be enough, and it saves you from having to do an extra 34 skill levels before you’ve even gone to University for the first time.

Hidden Skills and the Aptitude Test
As you may or may not know, there are a lot of Hidden Skills in the game. These act like normal skills, but you don’t get a progress meter for them, you can’t see them in your skill journal, and you can only increase them by practicing (no skill books or classes). If you’re curious, you can see a comprehensive list of Hidden Skills here. Mods exist to view your Hidden Skills’ progress meters and in your journal; if you use mods, I recommend Hidden Skills Unhidden for this, which does work with University Life. Note that not all hidden skills go to level 10; Dance, for example, only goes to level 3.

It’s going to take a lot of work to identify which hidden skills affect your subscores and which do not. So far, here’s what I know:

• Arcade Games: does not affect scores.
• Dance: does not affect scores.
• Hacking: does not seem to affect scores.

(While testing these three skills I was able to get a one-off +75 increase to my Technology sub-score, but I have not been able to replicate this on other Sims.)

Arriving at University

Once you enter the University sub-neighbourhood, you’re stuck there for the study length you chose. You can choose where to live for each visit; dorms, fraternities and sororities are free for enrolled students, while there are also small houses available to rent if you can pay up-front. Dorms are co-educational, while fraternities and sororities are single-sex. The game refers to all three types of communal living as dorms, so I will too.

You’ll arrive at your residence, which acts like a vacation base camp — it has a kitchen, bathroom, recreational facilities, bedrooms for the resident(s), and a job board out the front which also acts as a mailbox. On the jobs front, you can get a part-time job as a student, but you can’t keep working at a normal career. If you’ve chosen a dorm, your roommates will also be standing around out the front, which is a handy chance to identify possible friends and meet some new people. You can also use the “Set Bed Ownership” feature to claim a bed if you’re in a dorm.

Like the World Adventures sub-neighbourhoods, you can’t visit or physically interact with your friends and acquaintances in your home town — you can still call them, though, and with the new smartphone in University Life you can text them, too.

The University Term

Once you’re at University, the Academics panel replaces the usual Career panel. It shows your chosen degree, your class schedule, your responsibilities, and your previous qualifications and current progress. Each term of study takes one week of game time, and your student obligations are heavier the more credits you choose to complete per term. You can’t complete a degree in a single term, even if you manage a perfect aptitude test for extra credit.

Much like a real student, your Sim has scheduled activities to complete.

• You’ll arrive on a Sunday morning, giving you a day to settle in and meet people.
• On Mondays you have seminars; each 6 credit increment adds an extra seminar to your schedule. Seminars are rabbit-hole activities.¹
• Tuesdays are “class activities”, where you take a subject-specific item and use it in a specific place. For instance, as a Technology student, you use the Cerebralizing Brain Enhancing Machine at Keith’s Komics.
• Wednesdays are more seminars (rabbit-holes).
• Thursdays are an interactive lecture for two game hours.
• Fridays are exam days (rabbit-holes again).

Academic Success
Managing academic success is really just like managing career success: you need to juggle all the requirements to meet your Sim’s needs, and put the rest of your effort into the specific activities that will improve your academic performance. Those activities are: going to your seminars and lectures, doing your class activities, using your degree-specific item, improving the skills relevant to your degree, and studying outside of class time. There’s an academic performance meter, just like the career performance meter, so you can keep an eye on how you’re doing. Rabbit-hole activities have a range of tones from working hard to slacking off, so you can choose how good a student you wish to be.

Exams are on Fridays, and your results are based on your academic performance during the term. You can also cheat by creating a Cheat Sheet for exams, and by having other Sims do your homework and go to class for you, but there’s a risk of getting caught. It’s rumoured that the “Rebellious” trait helps you get away with cheating, but I don’t have confirmation of that yet. Graduating with perfect results (an A) will let you enter a relevant profession at level 4; less-than perfect results will yield less of a pay boost and a lower entry point. For instance, a B on your degree offers level 3 career positions.

In general, try to avoid taking a part-time job while studying unless your Sim is really skint; you’re better off securing another source of funding such as writer royalties, hacking or gambling. Hacking is somewhat risky as its time restrictions may make it hard to stick to a daytime class schedule unless you’re scrupulous about managing your Sim’s sleep schedule; however, hacking does synergise nicely with the Technology degree path, so if you’re careful it can pay off. The Steel Bladder and Dirt Defiant lifetime rewards also really come into their own for busy students.

University Degrees

Regarding the “associated traits”, this is based on the information provided in Create-A-Sim mode. (Traits listed in brackets are extra traits recommended on the University Aptitude Test screen.) It’s not yet clear whether a “helpful” trait actually affects your academic performance, or whether it just provides synergy. For example, does the “Charismatic” trait actually help your Business grades, or is it just recommended based on the fact that the careers related to a Business degree are generally those where Charisma is helpful?

Business
Careers: Business, Criminal
Associated Traits: Charismatic, Evil, Frugal, Genius, Mooch, Perceptive, (Born Salesman), (Workaholic), (Ambitious)
Harmful Traits: None listed
Associated Skills: Charisma, Mixology, Social Networking

Technology
Careers: Law Enforcement, Military
Associated Traits: Brave, Computer Whiz, Daredevil, Handy, (Genius), (No Sense of Humour), (Good), (Eccentric)
Harmful Traits: Coward
Associated Skills: Logic, Handiness, Inventing

Science & Medicine
Careers: Medicine, Science
Associated Traits: Angler, Gatherer, Green Thumb, (Genius), (Bookworm), (Perfectionist), (Socially Awkward), (Perceptive)
Harmful Traits: None listed
Associated Skills: Alchemy, Fishing, Gardening, Science

Fine Arts
Careers: Culinary, Film, Music
Associated Traits: Artistic, Avant Garde, Natural Born Performer, Natural Cook, Savvy Sculptor, Star Quality, (Genius), (Virtuoso), (Rebellious)
Harmful Traits: Can’t Stand Art
Associated Skills: Painting, Cooking, Guitar, Piano, Drums, Bass Guitar, Street Art, Sculpting, Nectar Making

Communications
Careers: Fortune Teller, Journalist, Politician
Associated Traits: Bookworm, Schmoozer, Social Butterfly, Workaholic, (Genius), (Charismatic), (Irresistable), (Flirty)
Harmful Traits: Loner, Loser, Shy
Associated Skills: Writing, Photography

Physical Education
Careers: Professional Sports
Associated Traits: Athletic, Disciplined, (Genius), (Loves the Outdoors)
Harmful Traits: Clumsy, Couch Potato
Associated Skills: Athletic, Martial Arts, Riding

General Traits
Helpful: Ambitious
Harmful: Absent-Minded

• Night Owl isn’t mentioned one way or the other, but it may count as a negative as it could make it hard to get to morning classes.
• Photographer’s Eye may help with Social Networking-based characters, as bloggers can post photos to their blog using the Photography features introduced in World Adventures. Taking photos for your blog does improve your Photography skill.

The University Sub-Neighbourhood

Note that in buy mode, you can edit the entire dorm you live in, not just your room. You can also edit the town as a whole and add custom dorms, new houses and so on, just like any other town.

Here’s a map of the sub-neighborhood. More distant areas look somewhat warped, due to the way the Sims 3 map view works. Click the image to see a bigger version of the image (1280*720), or download a 1920*1080 version here.

See the Sims University Map post for a full list of the Sims University community buildings and rabbit-holes.

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Warframe’s setting is our solar system, at some future point in time. You play a Tenno, a member of an ancient warrior race, and for various reasons the Tenno are seeking to establish a foothold in the area. The game starts with a brief tutorial, teaching you how to use your weaponry — each Tenno carries a main firearm, a secondary firearm, and a melee weapon. The game itself is a third-person shooter and supports both solo play and co-op missions for up to four players. It’s worth noting that adding and removing friends from a solo play session is pleasantly smooth — if you log in to find a couple of your friends are already playing, you don’t have to wait for them to finish their mission; you can just “join session” from your contacts list and you’ll warp into their combat mission right at their heels.

Once you’re through the tutorial, you’re presented with a solar system to explore by way of doing combat missions, which usually send you to an enemy facility or spaceship to conduct sabotage, raids, thefts, assassinations and exterminations. Completing each mission unlocks the next, and as you progress you’ll unlock multiple mission branches, so it’s not entirely linear. The missions can be replayed, and although the objective remains the same the mission area layout changes each time, so even ‘farming’ low-level content can remain interesting.

Character progression isn’t hugely revolutionary, but it’s well suited to the style of game. Your warframe (body-hugging power armour, basically) levels up as you gain XP, and as it levels up you can spend points unlocking new abilities and boosts to your stats. Each warframe has four thematically-appropriate powers – for instance, the Mag frame (which I’m playing at the moment) gets:

• Pull – pulls enemies to your melee range
• Shield Polarize – refills an ally’s shield, or depletes that of an enemy
• Bullet Attractor – makes a hostile target virtually unmissable for a short time
• Crush – “magnetizes” the enemy’s bones (neat trick!) to inflict horrifying damage on them

Your other equipment improves in a similar way, although new abilities only come from your warframe. All of your equipment can also be upgraded by adding mods to unlockable mod slots; mods are looted in game, and add extra damage or crit chance to your weapons, and extra defensive stats to your armour. You can upgrade and equip gear at will between missions; new equipment can be acquired via crafting, in-game currency, or the cash shop.

It’s definitely still a beta — just last night, in fact, we encountered a mission that we couldn’t beat because the end-boss kept knocking people into areas where they’d get stuck. But the development team is quite active with patches and fixes, which is all one can really ask for.

The best thing I’m finding about Warframe is that it’s quick and easy to start having fun. Within 30 seconds of firing up the game you can be in a solo mission shooting Corpus crewmen or joining your friends’ session to help them exterminate a ship full of the Infested. There’s little overhead; it’s instant fun, with enough progression mechanics to keep one coming back.

Wait, I lied. The best thing is the mobility and movement system. Tenno warframes are agile and limber, and the engine allows you to scamper up vertical surfaces, wall-run across bottomless caverns, and zip-line from platform to platform. I’m adding it to the very short list of games (along with DCUO and Firefall) where just getting around is half the fun.

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Path of Exile
This MMOaRPG just entered open beta. It’s a very well-done Diablo clone with a massive skill progression tree, from an indie development studio in NZ. If DIII let you down, PoE might be what you’re after. I can’t speak to its entertainment value any more than that, as I’m only five levels in, but development seems active and it looks promising.

Warframe
This also just entered open beta as of last weekend. (Or, at least, everyone who was in last weekend’s open beta weekend gets to stay in the beta.) It’s a lobby-based third-person shooter with solo and co-op mission-based content; I’ve been playing it with friends, and it’s surprisingly fun. Like Firefall, you can change your “class” just by buying a new suit of power armour, although unlike Firefall a lot of the gear is locked away behind either a long grind or RL money pricetags. The Founder Pack program is still running until March 16th, and if you’re enjoying the game it’s quite good value.

Defiance
Defiance is an MMOTPS (third person shooter) currently in closed Alpha, with closed Beta weekends, due to launch in April. It’s by Trion Worlds, in tandem with a SyFy TV series. Reports from beta testers say that it’s a third persion shooter, console-compatible (with the associated UI limitations), and mechanically similar to Borderlands. It’s mission-based with a massive world and dynamic events called Arkfalls (much like RIFT’s Rifts), with some (consensual?) open-world PvP thrown in.

Neverwinter
This MMORPG is currently doing closed Beta weekends. You can get beta access by buying a founder’s pack, otherwise they’re scarcer than hen’s teeth. It’s the MMORPG followup to the very popular Neverwinter Nights; it’s based on the 4th Edition D&D ruleset (in the same way that NWN was based on 3rd Edition) and seems to be quite a good port of tabletop rules to an MMO environment. It comes from Cryptic; I suspect they got the license because they have experience with player-created content from the Star Trek Online Foundry, and player-created missions are an integral part of Neverwinter’s heritage.

WildStar
WildStar is currently accepting beta signups, although I don’t think the beta has started yet. They’re aiming for a balance of themepark and sandbox content, with variations to suit different playstyles. It’s an MMORPG, with a steampunk/fantasy flavour, from NCSoft’s Carbine Studios. Looks fun.

ArcheAge
A Korean MMORPG from the creator of Lineage, ArcheAge has been in closed beta in Korea for a while, and Trion has signed a deal to bring it to Western markets, hoping to launch it later this year or early 2014. It’s another sandpark game, with a fascinating and complex class system (it’s a bit like Rift’s “souls” system, except there are a ton of souls and you can mix and match any of them, not just a subset of them).

The Repopulation
This is a sci-fi sandbox MMORPG currently in alpha, from indie devs Above and Beyond. It looks like it’s going to be focused on a lot of non-combat play – which isn’t to say there won’t be combat, but there will be meaningful non-combat stuff to do too. Honestly, it looks like they’re trying to hit the same notes as the original Star Wars Galaxies, which would suit me just fine.

Pathfinder Online
This is the upcoming MMORPG based on Paizo’s hugely popular RPG spun off from D&D 3rd Edition. Again, they’re going for the ‘sandpark’ balance, with a crafting economy, player settlements, offline skill training… you know what; it sounds like they’re trying to make Fantasy EVE. Whether or not it works is yet to be decided, but if it works, it’ll be glorious.

So that’s what I’m keeping an eye on. What about everyone else?

The post Antici…pation: the new games I’m waiting for appeared first on Siha Games!.

I’ve got a few posts brewing on RMT, F2P and related subjects, but the Cliff’s Notes version: I don’t actually have anything against microtransaction-funded gaming when it’s done right. The problem is that in the case of EVE Online, it removes the point of playing the game, at least for me.

I was first introduced to buying ISK, via PLEX, not long after I first subscribed. Naturally Kris mentored me through my introduction to EVE, and as someone with disposable income and less free time than he’d like, he’s the target market for in-game cash shops and RMT. As Dee once put it,

8. People who are time-rich-cash-poor can “afford” to spend in-game time grinding for benefits and bonuses. People who are time-poor-cash-rich don’t have this luxury.
9. People who are time-poor-cash-rich can “afford” to spend real-world dollars for benefits and bonuses. People who are time-rich-cash-poor don’t have this luxury.

Or, as Kris puts it, “I could spend hours and hours mining or running missions for forty million ISK an hour. Or I could spend half an hour’s worth of my pay and buy a PLEX worth half a billion ISK, and spend those hours doing something more fun than grinding for money”.

It’s hard to argue with that logic, if you’re cash-rich and time-poor, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

So what do you do instead of grinding for money? Well, in most games you’d spend your time doing something satisfying – something that gives you a sense of progress. Unfortunately, you can’t spend time making progress in EVE, other than accruing resources or fighting other players. All your character skills are trained in realtime and nothing you do in-game affects them. Very little is gated by your corporate standings¹, other than access to Jump Clones², and everything you could buy with Loyalty Points³ you can buy on the market with ISK anyway. Of all the (PvE) things you can do in EVE, almost all of them are rendered pointless if you have the money to buy the ISK you need.

I’ve played other games with legitimised RMT – Guild Wars 2, for example, where you can buy gems with RL money and sell them on the Auction House for in-game gold. That didn’t break the game, because you couldn’t buy XP or reputation or Karma or any of the other “progress” mechanics in the game.

And I’ve played other games with offline skill training – Glitch, for example, where your skills trained in real time just like in EVE. That didn’t break Glitch, though, because you still had to play the game to accrue currants ⁴ and imagination and crafting materials and all the other resources in the game.

But that doesn’t work, in EVE. If I’ve broken the seal on buying ISK with real money, and there’s nothing I can do in-game to “skill up” my character, then there’s little left for me to do, and thus little reason for me to bother logging on. I’m not a PvPer, either by inclination or by ability, and anything I can do in PvE is rendered meaningless — if it weren’t for that offline skill training, I really would have no reason to remain subscribed. And sooner or later, the appeal of paying money to improve my characters in a game I have no incentive to pay is going to fade entirely.

Legitimate RMT? Fine by me. Offline skill training? Sure! Just not together in the same game, please.

My apologies for the six weeks (ugh) of radio silence. My work arrangements changed just after Christmas, and with a long commute and a busier week than I’ve been used to, I’ve had very little time or energy for personal projects. Hopefully things are back to normal now, or what passes for normal around these here parts…

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For the past three expansions, Blizzard has been solving all the problem elements of low-pop servers except the one that matters: the server itself. Play BGs with everyone else, run dungeons with everyone else, raid with everyone else, and now even quest with everyone else. Isn’t it about time you let us be with everyone else?

As Azuriel points out, Blizzard’s been putting a lot of work into normalising player populations, easing the strain on overcrowded servers and providing playmates for underpopulated servers. Unfortunately, it brings as many problems as it solves.

Personally, I don’t like cross-realm zones because I like having the opportunity to farm for resources or rare spawns in peace, and because they’re fundamentally unnecessary. WoW levelling rarely requires the assistance of another player (unlike, say, GW2 dynamic events, RIFT dynamic events, SWTOR heroic quests, etc) so the lack of players in levelling zones isn’t a handicap. And, on the flipside, overpopulation is rarely a problem outside the two-week period immediately following an expansion. Cross-realm zones are a drastic solution to a problem that doesn’t even exist for 102 weeks out of every 104.

And they have costs. As others have pointed out, WoW’s model isn’t set up to accommodate lots of competition for mobs or resources. Guild Wars 2 highlights the opposite model, where everyone can harvest the same resource node and you can still get quest credit and loot from mobs ‘tagged’ by other people. In this model, cross-realm zones work fine; in WoW’s selfish “everyone get your own stuff” world, CRZs just make peoples’ lives harder.

Add to that the impact on the community. During the most recent Darkmoon Faire, Goldshire on my server was suddenly a hotbed of ERP and idiot epeen-swingers when it had never been like that before – because it wasn’t my server any more, it was a generic server with people from anywhere and everywhere. Talk about destroying one’s sense of community. CRZs really fall apart when you’re looking at areas where players stand around and chat instead of get on with the business at hand, because the more you weaken peoples’ ties to their community, the less incentive they have not to act like jerks.

Unfortunately, I think we’re out of luck. As Azuriel says, “Blizzard isn’t ever going to bite the goddamn bullet and put realms like Auchindoun out of [their] misery.” And we have ourselves to blame for that, because of the way that the MMO community reacts to anything other than constant growth. Server closures and server merges are the number one sign, in most peoples’ minds, that a game is struggling, and Blizzard can’t afford to be seen as struggling, given its position at the top of the pile. Most games are forced into server closures and merges anyway, by the necessity of providing a playable environment for their customers, but Blizzard have had the resources to develop technologies that prop up ailing servers without merging them. It’s logical that WoW would have some underpopulated servers, after eight years and waves of growth and shrinkage. In their case it wouldn’t actually be a sign of failure to consolidate lower-population servers; it’s fairly clear that WoW may not be the only game in town any more, but it’s not even remotely in trouble. But WoW has a special cachet as the constant success story in an otherwise marginal industry, and I suspect that Activision-Blizzard aren’t willing to sacrifice that for the sake of player satisfaction.

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