The Greenskin

Fallen WoW-killer could rise from the ashes

2009-07-02T08:53:30-04:00

Hey folks. I know I haven't been writing a lot on my personal blog lately. Sorry about that! There are only so many hours in a day and between family, work, play, and my other writing gig, it's been a bit hard to maintain things around here. I'm still searching for that happy medium.

One of the great things about working at Massively is that on top of more traditional news commentary they also want original and interesting features. Many of the best ideas I've had for big posts that could have been written on this blog have actually become posts over at Massively lately. Here's a new one I'd like to share.

http://www.massively.com/2009/07/01/what-audiences-should-mythic-have-targeted-with-warhammer-online/

The basic idea behind it is that I believe WAR really could have done well if they focused entirely on RvR. Unfortunately, putting all their eggs in the RvR basket would have never produced an MMO capable of competing with WoW no matter how good it was (by sub numbers). There simply aren't as many of those kinds of players out there. Instead, Mythic went with the wide-appeal WoW-killer model that tried to perfectly balance PvE and RvR. Unfortunately, trying to please too many people diluted the quality of their feature set because they spread themselves too thin.

I believe WAR can be salvaged in two ways:

- Continue to strive toward the perfect balance of high quality PvE and RvR content (that doesn't mean 50/50 btw). Basically, PvE shouldn't take anything away from the RvR experience and vice versa. Depending on your mood of the evening, you should be able to focus on either aspect of the game (or maybe even both) without feeling like you're missing out. This is the hardest approach

- Totally shun PvE and focus entirely on RvR (i.e., War is everywhere - design the game like a giant WoW PvP server with several refinements). This will totally limit your audience and growth potential, but it will easily make your MMO the most badass PvP/RvR option on the market. Heck, you could even go with a six-way realm WAR model.

In both cases, Mythic should reduce the overall grind so that players don't feel completely locked in to one character. Of course, bugs, performance, blah blah blah need to be fixed too.

The EA/BioWare/Mythic shake-up

2009-06-24T12:42:56-04:00

THIS is pretty crazy.

As a huge fan of WAR leading up to its release and a longtime player of DAOC, I've leveled my fair share of citicisms at Mark Jacobs. I've personally questioned his leadership in the company and didn't agree with a lot of his design directions. I also felt he did a lot of talking but didn't always fully deliver. That said, I experienced a bit of a sinking feeling when I read today's news.

To me, Mark Jacobs = Mythic. They go hand in hand. I have never really known a Mythic where Mark wasn't a predominant factor. WAR may not have succeeded to his or EA's standards but given all his interactions with the community, you kind of got to know Mark, and it's sad to see another human being not reach their full potential. Heck, a lot of us aren't reaching our full potential but we aren't in the spotlight and most of us aren't dealing with those kind of pressures.

I'm not writing this post to drool all over Mark or make excuses for him but there's one key thing we should keep in mind. I'm sure many people are going to be shouting that he got canned or realized he couldn't hack it with the big boys or whatever else, but we don't really know what happened here. Maybe he got canned. Maybe he stepped down. Maybe he got a job somewhere else. Maybe the reasons aren't what you or I think.

Let's just try to show a bit of sensitivity to the guy and wait for a bit more info before being too harsh?

As for the new as-yet-unnamed studio that will be formed by a BioWare and Mythic merge, I have to say, it sounds exciting. Like I said, I didn't really agree with what Mark did all the time so I'm hoping some new, fresh, and awesome games come out of this. It's nice to see a Canadian company (originally) getting more responsibility and spotlight.

I'm also curious to see how this will affect WAR going foward. Here's hoping it's for the better!

My initial impressions of Aion

2009-06-22T13:13:34-04:00

I've had a chance to play Aion closed beta several times now, so I'm starting to get a feel for the game. That said, I only made it to level 13 over the first weekend as an Elyos and level 10 this past weekend as an Asmodian, so there's no way can be considered a review of the game. What I write next will simply be my impressions based on what I've seen so far.

You can read these sorts of pieces all over the web so I'll try keep mine short and sweet and focused purely on what caught my attention.

Character Creation

Character creation is pretty sick in Aion. The basic look for each faction could be considered half-elven and half-human but the various customization tools allow you to look like almost anything that resembles a human. I've seen gnome/halflings, giants, dwarves, humans, elves, and a number of other typical fantasy races come out of the creator. You can't make yourself look reptilian, wolf-like, or cat-like or anything like that because it would break the lore.

My primary concern with character creation as of right now is that you can make your character too small, which will give you a significant advantage in PvP. One could argue that click-targeters are bound to fail at PvP anyway, but it's still annoying to see a tiny sprite of a person run around really quickly. I'm all for giving a smaller person a terrain advantage, but dropping the height and weight sliders all the way to zero makes you really tiny compared to the average size and I have a feeling everyone serious about PvP is going to go this route. That's going to be lame.

Graphics and Performance

You've heard it before. The graphics are stunning. I had all the in-game settings cranked to max and was still pushing 60-90 FPS most of the time. I have yet to test this in large scale battle but a few 4v4 arena fights ran quite smoothly. Hopefully, the Abyss fortress raids run just as good. I wasn't sure if I would like the "anime" graphics initially but the atmosphere, animations, emotes, character models, and anything else you can think of graphically made me a believer.

Classes

There are four basic classes from levels 1-9 that branch off into 8 advanced classes at rank 10. You've pretty much got all your bases covered with these classes. The 8 classes might sound good at first, but based on what I've seen and heard so far, there doesn't seem to be much that will diversify your Sorceror from someone else's Sorceror.

The answer to this is supposed to be Stigma stones. By rank 50, each character will have 5 Stigma slots where you can equip the stones. Each stone grants you an ability of a different class. This sounds neat on the surface and could work as long as there are many different options and no uber stones that everyone will want to wear.

Progression

From what I've see, progression is quite basic and quest-driven. This wouldn't be so bad if the quests weren't of the boring kill-ten-rats/collect-ten-foozles/delivery variety. The stories are interesting if you actually read them, but most people won't. The epic campaign stories are best of all, however, the tasks never stray far from the same boring forumula. Here's hoping they get better at later levels.

Mob grinding is actually quite a viable strategy in Aion. I was getting 3,000-4,000xp per quest and killing mobs that were giving me 700xp each. It may not be terribly exciting, but I'd probably progress faster if I simply skipped all the non-campaign quests and set up camp somewhere to grind.

As for PvP progression, I'm not entirely sure if killing players grants XP or not. The wiki doesn't say it does, so I'll lean toward no. If not, that really sucks. The Abyss PvPvE zone is supposedly an area with the best quests, gear, raids, and PvP combat. You can't enter this zone until you're level 25, so it's going to be a lot of boring and repetitive quests or grinding until you get there.

On the plus side (for me), I've heard that Aion actually forces you to group. Apparently, you can't complete your epic quest chains beyond rank 20 solo because the mobs and encounters are simply too difficult. This supposedly changes the dynamic of the game in the middle to upper half because players must socialize if they wish to advance in the best way.

PvP

I mentioned the Abyss above, which is a giant open PvP zone. I haven't been able to test it myself, but I hear it's the place to be. Also, there is no bolstering effect (Warhammer reference) so you're sure to encounter people higher level and better geared than you. I'm not quite sure how much difference a single level makes in terms of power, but I doubt you could take on someone more than 2 levels above you without a lot of skill, gear, or chance. I actually like this system and wasn't a fan of WAR's bolstering. Call me oldschool if you like, but if you're a lowbie, you shouldn't be artificially boosted so you can compete with the big boys - sorry.

I did get to play in the arena though. The arena is located in your capital city where you and/or your group can fight against others from your same realm. It really puts the organization on the player, which is kind of cool for a change. From what I can tell, it's a total free for all in the arena unless you form groups. That means everyone is an enemy if you go in solo and everyone not in your group is an enemy if you enter grouped. You don't really get much in the arena except practice from what I can tell.

I'm not sure if there's a way to remove auto-follow but attacking a player automatically sticks you to them so you move when they do. This is a bit annoying in ground combat if you try to use twitch movements but it's very helpful for aerial combat because of the extra z-axis you have to worry about. Actually, it's quite reminiscent of the /stick command from DAOC. I used to be a big fan of it back in the day but years of WoW, WAR, and other MMOs untrained me. I could probably get used to it again.

The action is quite smooth and fast-paced but maybe that's because I'm playing a melee char. Casters and hybrids have mana but pure melee characters do not have any form of action/energy to worry about. You have few abilities at the lower levels, so cooldowns are extremely limiting but may become less so as you gain a wider variety of skills in your arsenal.

I didn't do any PvP with my sorceror but my Assassin was killing squishies in 3ish hits if I was lucky with crits. I'm not sure how this will translate at higher levels.

Flight

Flight and gliding are pretty cool and many of the quests require that you use your wings. It does suck that there are a bunch of no-fly zones all over the place, but I guess it makes sense from a gameplay perspective even if you do feel a bit ridiculous running along some long and annoying path when you know you have perfectly good wings that the game is forcing you to tuck away. At least the Abyss has no flight restrictions.

I had a chance to do some mid-air PvP in the arena and it was pretty cool. Using your flight timer strategically will be key to preventing your victims from easily escaping. It was a bit frustrating as an assassin when I was out of points in my flight pool and a Sorceror escaped at nearly no life and began pelting me from the air. Gotta invest in a bow!

Conclusion (for now)

I'm still a bit undecided on whether or not I'm going to really enjoy Aion when it releases. The progression seems like it's on a very narrow railway track with a huge focus on PvE, which might be fine the first time through but not so much when you want to make an alt. The PvP sounds cool but I've yet to give it a good test drive in the Abyss, which is the only place that really interests me. I'm a bit miffed that you can't PvP until level 25 (sans duels and the arena), but I'm not disapoointed at the lack of a scenario/battleground system, which really hurt WAR at launch.

I've heard grumblings that there aren't really incentives to capture the fortresses in the Abyss and I'm hoping they don't opt for too many individual rewards because that really sends the message of "me me me" to PvP players. The PvPvE system seems cool. You basically have two player factions duking it out and a third NPC faction as the (hopefully) great balancer.

My biggest complaint about the game is the total lack of imagination when it comes to PvE. I've only experienced PvE up to level 13 but I found it pretty boring. Kill these. Collect those. Deliver this. Lots of travel time. Rinse. Repeat. Maybe PvE is simply boring, stale, and repetitive to me by its very nature. I could accept that as long as there is some way to progress via PvP. Like I said, I'm not sure if you can XP off players or if there will be Kill X Player quests, but I hope so. At the very least, PvEing in the Abyss should carry some sort of extra risk. Hopefully, that will spice things up. I'd better pick my main carefully though because I doubt I'll have the endurance to make an alt and bring it through the same crap all over again.

I will continue to play Beta because aside from Global Agenda, there really aren't any MMOs on my radar right now. I've still got my WAR account but I have no intentions of logging back into that game any time soon. I just can't handle the terrible bugs and performance issues (over 300 items in the dev tracker since patch 1.3...) and the endgame is completely "meh" to me. I think WAR might be a great game in another 6-12 months. It just isn't there yet for me.

Hold the phone, it's another Rosetta Bone

2009-06-15T22:16:10-04:00

I'm sure everyone has already figured out the cartouches by now, but I received my very own Rosetta Bone package today and figured you might be interested. Very nice effort by Mythic on this blogger outreach/marketing strategy, even if I'm not exactly active in WAR these days.

Here's the transcribed journal entry:

Day 3

Farinelli decided it'd be easier to climb the rocky crags than the desert sands. Why'd I listen to him? We left the river behind 'n have made our way up a twistin' path. It was hotter than a Bright Wizard's piss pot, 'n those birds were flappin' around over our heads. The closer I got, the less I liked the look of 'em.

Phillippi, a bandit at heart, spotted a temple at the top of a nearby ridge. We doubled our pace. The land around the temple crawled with large beetles, so Venezia put in some target practice with his bow. The vermin were harmless enough, 'n we moved towards a nearby platform that crackled with fiery power.

There's nothing to fear says Phillippi, rushin' towards the platform.

The ground in front of him exploded 'n a huge snake made of yellowed bones lashed out. Phillippi screamed 'n stagged backwards. The sound of his agony echoed around the canyon 'n the men stopped in their tracks with their jaws hangin' slack 'n stupid.

What was Phillippi's face streamed blood, with two holes were where his eyes use to be. He screamed again and the snake struck him from behind, pullin' his head off like a drunk pulls a cork from a wine bottle.

The others ran, 'n me with em. Stupid, running into the temple, but I followed anyway. Best to be one target among many than to be alone. On seein what was in the temple, we was soon runnin' again. Least the creatures inside paid us little mind. All withered faces 'n the stink of ancient death. Cursin' Farinelli 'n the fallen Phillippi, we fled back to the rocky desert.

There must be simpler pickin's elsewhere. We'll search to the west tomorrow.

Hope it helps!

There is a beta and I am in it

2009-06-05T14:17:22-04:00

Oh God. Here we go again...

Keep your eyes on Massively because I can't write about my Aion experiences here until the NDA drops. A number of us have press keys though, so we can write about it over there! :)

The MMO Fo' Show - Episode #2 - For the Road

2009-06-01T10:19:08-04:00

One for the money and two for the road;
The MMO Fo' Show delivers information overload.
Syppy sippin' on courvoisier, Snaffy makin' all the dough;
We'll blow your minds with our slick n' sexy rantin' ravin' flow.

Aion's got the angels;
Darkfall's full of gank;
The Matrix got unplugged;
SWTOR makin' Syp want to spank... whut?

So listen to the podcast;
And let it entertain.
50-minutes of your life;
You'll never get it back again!

Podcast main page!

Hosts

The Big Three (MMO news commentary)

Aion CE, preorder, and system requirements released
Darkfall getting US1 server this July
The Matrix Online kung-fu hustles outta here

PSA (The more you know...)

Don't get your gf involved in your MMO

Rant and Rave (Let's get it on!)

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Hoggle's Bloggles (Keeping our stinkeye on the community)

A warning to fellow gamers

Please leave us a comment to let us know what you think! The only rule is that you need to rap it!

Weekend update: TF2 and BioShock

2009-06-01T13:08:48-04:00

With the wife out of town I had a bit of time to play Team Fortress 2 and BioShock this weekend. Here are my impressions.

Team Fortress 2

I hadn't been receiving notice when I picked up new special items for some reason, so I was a bit surprised when I checked my inventory and found a Huntsman's Bow and Jarate for my Sniper and an Ambassador and Cloak and Dagger watch for my Spy on Friday night. I've picked up a Backburner for my Pyro, a new rail gun for my Tank, and a new shotgun for my Scout (sorry, can't remember the names). These new items truly add a new dimension to the game and I'm quite enjoying them.

I really am an alt-aholic in TF2 and usually jump on to what's most needed or just flip characters when I get a string of frustrating deaths. My favorite character is the Spy by far and least favorite is probably the Engineer. I realize they are extremely necessary and powerful when played well, but I don't like being confined to a particular space. I play TF2 for the gratuitous action and violence, not lay and pray.

I really like the new Lazytown Lazynite map but to be honest I haven't tried all the new ones yet. And yes, I'll admit that I did spend about 10 minutes on an Achievement server lamely boosting up a bunch of achievements on my Spy and Sniper. I didn't fully exploit it, but I did unlock about 12 new achievements as a result.

More on this game later.

BioShock

The game has been out for like 2 years now but this weekend was my very first experience. So far, my feelings are a bit mixed.

I like the story so far and it is definitely challenging on medium difficulty. The graphics are cool and atmosphere is totally creepy when playing late at night. My only complaints are the interface and the motion sickness I numbly feel while playing.

Granted, I haven't actually looked throught he manual but some of my character attribute menus aren't very intuitive. Also, I find it strange how some FPS games give me a headache while others cause me no issues at all. BioShock is unfortunately one of the former games, and it's a bit of a struggle to play it for long sessions. It may be a result of playing TF2 first and BioShock second.

Most of this weekend started with me playing TF2 for an hour or so and then jumping into BioShock after only a few minutes break. Maybe there's soem sort of pacing and graphical issue. The graphics in BioShock are much more rich and detailed so I tend to focus in on them a lot more (looking for clues, items, etc.). In TF2 I barely notice the object textures at all because I'm so focused on the enemy. Also, I find the movement pace and combat speed in BioShock a bit different than it is in TF2 - almost faster, which is a bit strange considering one is PvE while the other is PvP. Usually, it's the other way around.

I don't know how many hours I put in this weekend but I just recently killed the surgeon boss. I fought him once and used a tonne of ammo because I accidentally let him get healed by the basement healing station. I reloaded and tried again killing him with two telekenetic throws of the propane tanks. Much more efficient! :P

I also just "saved" a Little Sister rather than take all her Adam. I was going to go all evil but the animation of her scurrying away from my outstretched hands made me feel reeeeeeally weird and creeped out, and I just couldn't do it. The very last thing I did before logging out was I got steamrolled by one of those tank guys that protect the Little Sisters. Any idea how to kill him? I noticed some sort of tank on his back, so maybe I need to electrify him shoot that part of his body with armour piercing handgun rounds?

So that was it for my weekend. How was yours?

Oops!

2009-06-01T10:21:49-04:00

Bah! I uploaded the wrong podcast audio file last night. I'll have our new episode published when I get home from work!

Please disregard the previous RSS feed entry. :P

Aion Collector's Edition Details

2009-05-28T08:34:54-04:00

This was up on AionSource but NCsoft asked them to taken them down... I'll keep it up here until they ask me to take them down too! ;)

Standard Edition box art

Collector's Edition box art

Asmodian Gladiator figurine

Special Asmodian and Elyos wings

Deep purple dye (before and after)

Special CE earrings

Special emotes

YouTube - Aion Collector's Edition Emote: Seductive Disco
YouTube - Aion Collector's Edition Emote: Hip Hop Mania

All this stuff looks pretty pimp and I'm sure there's even more to come. Chances are, each online retailer will offer up a special item as well. So, if you buy it from Amazon you might get Ring X and if you buy it from Best Buy you'll get Ring Y.

Is the ToK hurting WAR?

2009-05-27T09:32:18-04:00

Ahh, the Tome of Knowledge. Such a cool feature with loads of groovy information. Unfortunately, the more unlocks you have, the longer it takes for you to log in.

I have determined that the cause of my extremely long load times is linked to Tome of Knowledge unlocks. I performed the following tests on a fresh install of the game at default settings by loading into Altdorf from the load screen.

40 Engineer (~2600 unlocks) - 135 seconds
40 Swordmaster (~1200 unlocks) - 34 seconds
5 Warrior Priest (~120 unlcoks) - 17 seconds

I have seen similar results on other PCs. The bulk of the load time is spent with the animation on the loading screen frozen. The zone loads quickly once the game stops being frozen.

Here's what Carrie Gouskos, Tome Producer, had to say:

Hello all,
Sorry to hear about how much trouble the tome is causing your loading times, believe me it is in no way our intent to make you not want tome unlocks. That being said, we've tracked down a fix and are attempting to expedite it.
You should hear more soon.
-Carrie

I always wondered if the ToK was actually responsible for many of WAR's performance issues as well. Let's face it, the book is filled with tons of information that is constantly server-checked after nearly every action you do or is done to you. It tracks your critical hits, the number of High Elves you've killed, your fall damage, and even whether or not you perform a crafting action in water. Those few examples are like half of a half a percent of what this thing tracks.

Can it actually be causing more problems than just load time lag?

Let's pretend the answer is yes for the sake of argument. What would you do? Obviously, the Tome is a huuuuge part of WAR, ingrained in almost every facet of the game from live events to influence to titles and much more. Would they actually disable it? Hell no. Should they? I don't think so, because it would feel like WAR was missing something without the ToK.

So what option does that leave? Fix it, duh. Do I have much faith that they actually can fix it? That's another "Hell no" unfortunately. Oh, I'm sure they'll get the load times under control, but that's very minor compared to the issue of it possibly causing poor performance while you're playing. There are simply too many pieces of data flying around for them to get this under control without completely disabling it.

If this is the case, I wonder if Mythic actually knew about this beforehand. Performance was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better in beta and that's when the Tome wasn't fully fleshed out or really activated. They must have done a cost-benefit analysis against this and figured the Tome brings more to the game than the issues it causes (if it is in fact causing issues, and I truly believe it is).

How do you feel about that? Would you rather have better performance or more unlocks and number tracking?

Hold-Me Over Game(s)

2009-05-25T10:16:47-04:00

I haven't played WAR in ages and don't see any reason to log in until 1.3 launches. Once it does, I still don't see it holding my attention for long, so I've pretty much resigned to choosing a new primary MMO. The trouble is, I have no interest in any of the current MMOs. I am interested in a few upcoming titles, but they're still months away from release. This leaves me in a position where I'm looking for a hold-me over game.

Here are the options I'm considering and I was hoping for your input:

Team Fortress 2 - Lots of new updates lately and I know several other people playing. I find the game fun in short bursts (like 1-1.5 hour sessions) but that's about it. Chances are I will lightly play this game regardless.
Guild Wars - I can get this game pretty cheaply on Steam right now ($20) and a friend has assured me the random 4v4 matches are pretty entertaining. My only issue is that I can't take it much beyond that since I don't have an active 8-person guild. Also, I haven't heard anything too special about the "story mode" campaign.
Mass Effect - I have never played this game. Shameful, right?! My only issue is that it's not an MMO but that said, I don't really have any other MMOs to divert my attention, so maybe I can handle the 1-player mode from start to finish. Every respectable gamer should play this game, right?
BioShock - Since I'm considering Mass Effect, I may as well consider this game too right? If you could only pick one, which would you choose? If you could play both, which would you play first? Both games are $20 on Steam right now. How long will it take to complete each one?

I will be able to put in some serious gaming time this weekend, so I'd like to decide by then. I see no real purpose getting invested in another MMO because it will take me 2-3 months to reach cap and by then I'll want to be playing games like Aion, Champions, Jumpgate, and hopefully Global Agenda. I recently tried Age of Conan and EVE Online and while they were decent, I couldn't be bothered with the amount of work I'd need to put in. Neither game looked like it was going to be particularly fun in the low-mid range.

The MMO Fo' Show Episode #1 - A New Dope

2009-05-23T18:31:22-04:00

We recorded our very first episode of The MMO Fo' Show on Thursday night, so here it is. The podcast is your run of the mill general MMO podcast covering news, blogs, and other topics we want to comment on. That is, until you play it backwards... Our personalities really shine in reverse and the 5th letters of every 90th word combine to reveal secret government codes that can be used to receive discounts at some of our favorite online retailers.

Hosts

The Big Three (MMO news commentary)

Champions Online delayed
Free Realms and Runes of Magic top 1M players
Eurogamer vs. Darkfall: An epic e-peen tug-of-war

PSA (The more you know...)

Ninja Looting

Rant and Rave (Let's get it on!)

Warhammer Online

Hoggle's Bloggles (Keeping our stinkeye on the community)

Leave us a comment to let us know what you think! I'm pretty sure the audio levels need a bit of adjustment, so I'll make sure the podcast quality is better next time.

F2P/RMT Valuation: The 89/10/1 Rule

2009-05-23T16:46:55-04:00

I was working on a post for Massively and came across this interesting bit of information I had not heard of before, called the 89/10/1 Rule:

Many of these sites, like SuperSecret.com, are free-to-play, but rely on something called the “89/10/1 Rule,” says John Davison, co-founder of WhatTheyPlay.com, a Web site that helps parents navigate the many game choices for their kids. This rule, Davison says, assumes that 89 percent of your audience is playing for free, 10 percent is paying for something and 1 percent is spending a lot of money, buying new clothes or convenience items for their avatars.

The big word in there is "assumes," however, the ratio seems pretty realistic to me. I can't believe I haven't heard of this rule before. I mean, I know F2P game developers must use something like this to pitch to their investors, I just haven't seen this rule come up before. Maybe it's because I don't really follow the F2P scene.

Just for fun, let's assume the rule is true and that Free Realms, Runes of Magic, and Wizard101 are achieving it. Let's also pretend the minimum monthly fee is $5 and the big spenders drop at least $15 per month, which isn't unreasonable.

Free Realms (1M accounts): 100,000 are paying $5 ($500K) and 10,000 are paying $15 ($150K) = $650K/month
Runes of Magic (1M accounts): The same as FR, which is $650K/month
Wizard101 (2M accounts): Double FR and RoM, which is $1.3M/month

Now let's compare the numbers to two subscription-based MMOs, WoW (5,000,000 accounts in NA/EU) and WAR (300,000 accounts in NA/EU). We're not going to get overly picky about exchange rates or exact numbers since this is a basic example for comparison.

World of Warcraft ($15/month sub): $75M per month
Warhammer Online ($15/month sub): $4.5M per month

As you can see, even with only 300,000 accounts, WAR is bringing in 3 times as much revenue as Wizard101, which has nearly 7 times as many players. World of Warcraft... well let's not even go there because it really is an aberration compared to other MMOs using the subscription model. It's making a mint.

There are four things I think we should consider.

Accessibility - A free MMO will almost always have greater accessiblity than a subscription-based MMO, which is why you see quite a few F2P MMOs with account numbers in the millions and WoW as the lone subscription-based wolf. Actually, WoW has become so successful because of a different kind of accessiblity - ease of entry, which is something many other subscription MMOs face plant on. Due to both types of accessibility, I believe the growth potential of F2P MMOs is a lot larger, even though they may not make as much money as a result.

Demographics - I haven't checked recent global statistics but I'd wager the amount of kids in our world (aged 5-13) is a lot higher in population than the 19-34 male gamer demographic. Most F2P games go after kids while most subscription-based MMOs go after the latter for the simple reason of economics. It's much easier trying to hook a kid by giving him or her a zero entry barrier F2P game than immediately asking for $15 plus the cost of the box. Once the kid is hooked, it's off to mommy and daddy begging for the RMT goodies. Parents want to keep the kid quiet (let's be serious, most do...). Cha ching. Easy sale!

Development Costs and Quality - I think these two go hand in hand. The more you spend on an MMO during its development, the more quality you're likely to get. You don't always get top-notch quality in games that are expensive to make, especially at launch, but chances are your graphics, sound effects, feature set, expansiveness of content, and other things are going to benefit from it. Most subscription-based games have higher development costs. I believe WoW was $60M to make and WAR was $80M+. I hear Free Realms was $20-30M, but that is probably the most expensive F2P MMO ever made. I can't imagine the development budgets of most other F2P titles costing much more than $10M. Subscription MMOs make more but owe more. F2P MMOs make less but owe less.

I don't think we really have enough information to predict whether or not F2P will overtake the subscription system any time soon but this rule makes it pretty interesting to do comparisons and estimate where various F2P titles are at given their development costs. Personally, I see no problem with having both types of MMOs in the space. I do find it interesting that while most things around us are inflating in price, MMO subscriptions haven't really done so lately. Do you believe this is because of competition from F2P entries in the genre or because $15/month is lucrative enough, even when you only have a few hundred thousand people playing your MMO?

Personally, I don't see it going up any time soon.

MMORPGs versus SPRPGs

2009-05-21T08:29:54-04:00

I wrote up a Daily Grind question over at Massively this morning but I thought it might be fun to discuss the same idea from a slightly different angle with you. My question to our readers was "Once you've played (and enjoyed) MMORPGs, can you ever go back to (and enjoy) single-player RPGs?"

When I look at both RPG-types, I see three S's and three C's that differentiate them:

SPRPGs emphasize story, stats, and strategy
MMORPGs emphasize community, collaboration, and competition

Due to their more limited focus, SRPGs tend to really excel at the three S's. Have you ever had the story in an MMO actually bring tears to your eyes or really evoke any other strong emotion (other than anger and frustration due to bugs or imbalance)? SRPGs really let you dig into your character as well, micromanaging stats, abilities, and characteristics to a greater degree than most MMORPGs. Finally, the PvE strategies for boss fights generally trump those found in most MMORPGs, however, I might call this a draw if the MMO supports PvP/RvR and PvE (e.g., WoW).

MMORPGs have all three S's found in SRPGs, but usually to a lesser degree. To make up for this, they focus on three C's. Your only friends in an SRPG tend to be NPCs whereas MMORPGs give you real live players to interact and bond with in game and out (e.g., guilds and alliances). Collaboration takes this a step further by allowing you to actually work with others towards a common goal. Competition allows you to take your stats, strategy, community, and collaboration and test it out against others, while the only competition in SRPGs tends to be against yourself (e.g., beating FFVII in 45 hours vs. 70, while unlocking entirely new zones, summons, and chocobos *bwwwwark*).

Another major difference is a sense of accomplishment versus a sense of the "Neverending Story." It felt great beating a game like FFVII but I also felt like I had wasted an immense amount of time because I completed it completely alone in my parent's basement (hey, I was a teenager!). There really is no end-game in an MMORPG and any time you reach the cap it is usually only temporary as they unlock new content and challenges for you to experience. Don't take that comment to mean I'm a fan of vertical progression/mudflation as an expansion strategy, because I believe you can accomplish the same thing with horizontal expansion.

This is all basically coming down to the same conclusion as my Daily Grind piece, which is that I really can't bring myself to play SRPGs now that I've experienced MMORPGs. It's all fine and good until you consider the final difference I see between both game-types. MMORPGs always seem to suffer from polish issues, which I see as a huge flaw with the genre. I realize the complexities of MMORPGs, but I still believe we can improve in this area by leaps and bounds.

I think there will always be a place for SRPGs but as more and more folks get online, I predict MMORPGs will eventually take over as the dominant form. The only thing really holding them back right now is story and polish, but once developers can crack that nut, I think the floodgates will open. As instances, zone phasing, and solo viability become more mainstream in MMORPGs, why would anyone but the most introverted "hardcore" person bother playing an SRPG anymore? Heck, I'd even call myself pretty introverted and a mostly solo gamer and I still play MMORPGs over SRPGs.

I'm looking at you to prove me right, BioWare! *cough cough*

Warhammer Online's greatest design flaw...

2009-05-19T09:01:07-04:00

Many people have been saying it since launch, but I must reiterate it because Keen brought something to light I meant to post about the other day after a telephone call with a friend: WAR will always suffer without a third realm.

We were chatting about The Land of the Dead and really couldn't come up with too many positives about it. The videos look pretty and the developer commentary sounds spectacular (when doesn't it, right?) but I've seen too many great Mythic ideas nosedive to take either of these at face value. Aside from the potential for bugged encounters and horrible performance, The Land of the Dead will likely cause major RvR problems due to the lack of a third realm.

Let's break it down. What happens when a city is being sieged? All the RvR lakes freeze for 2 hours and RvR outside the city becomes non-existent. What happens with a city is taken? The same thing, except there's no RvR for 16 (?) hours.

What will happen when LotD comes out? Since it's so new and fresh, almost everyone from the winning side will enter it. This may die down after a few months, but given everything Mythic has put into this, LotD will draw in almost everyone who meets the rank requirement. That wouldn't be so bad except that the losing side won't have anyone to fight. What will they be left with? RvE. Yaaaay, back to RvE again. You're basically left with the same situation as a city RvR lockout.

Keen worries that that losing side might never be able to gain enough resources to get back in, but let's be slightly more optimistic and pretend for the sake of argument that they can. What's that mean? It means the only real RvR that will take place will be every 30-??? minutes when the other side sweeps in. Keen is totally correct in pointing out that this wasn't so bad in DAOC because there was at least a third realm (aka second losing realm) for you to fight when the other side controlled Darkness Falls. This won't be an option in WAR.

I have little doubt the RvR battles inside LotD will be great and fun (barring performance issues), but it shouldn't be the only exciting and meaningful RvR in the game.

I know this might sound hypocritical because I and many others have been begging for a DF equivalent in WAR since launch but I honestly hadn't considered how bad it could be without a third realm to keep on fighting outside the dungeon until Friday night's phone call. I also realize that there is little to no chance of Mythic adding a third realm to WAR given all the current zone layouts, class balance issues, and amount of work it would take to overhaul the game, but I'm still baffled as to why they didn't realize a 3-way system is much better than a 2-way system from the get-go.

Here's a tip for anyone trying to make a meaningful RvR/PvP MMO in the near future: Good things come in threes. Three stooges. Three Muskateers. Three Amigos. Ole!

Snaffy's new digs

2009-05-15T15:48:39-04:00

Welcome to Snaffy's Playground!

If the name Snafzg sounds familiar, you might have heard about my Warhammer blog, TheGreenskin.com.

You might also be wondering why I have a new blog... well, I'll tell you! Grab a cup o' joe and a bull whip because this is going to be long journey full of snore-inducing commentary and perilous crevasses.

TheGreenskin blog was solely dedicated to WAR, but I as a writer and gamer am no longer playing WAR very much these days. Actually, if you were to average out all my WAR play-time in 2009, you would probably come up with the number six. As in, six hours per week.

There are many reasons for this. First is my writing gig over at Massively, which takes up an hour or so per night of writing and research. Second is an increased emphasis on more things RL-related. Finally, I just don't enjoy WAR very much. I mean, I want to. I'm not just saying that to be nice. Seriously, have you ever known me to be nice for the sake of appearances? I call it as I see it, damn it!

Here's my online gaming history spanning over a decade:

1996-2002: MUME
2002-2005: DAOC
2004-2007: WoW
2008-present: WAR

You could toss in a few brief stints in EQ1, SW:G, and EVE but I wouldn't really consider those important since I never played any of them much longer than a month. If you noticed the time gap in the above list, it's because I took over a year off from MMOs between 2007 and 2008 due to burnout and a bit of anger toward WoW. I was naive to believe that getting to the endgame would allow me to engage in fun, balanced, and meaningful PvP (even on a PvP server). Mudflation played a huge part in it as well.

That year-long break from MMOs is important to note because WAR was the first MMO I actually allowed myself to become fully engaged in after quitting WoW.

I started getting into WAR in November 2007 because a friend of mine was in beta and had some cool things to say about the game. Also, the game was set to launch very soon. I had a shadow priest / general blog during my time in WoW but didn't take it very seriously. The friend suggested that a good way to get interested in WAR would be to blog about it, and considering how few WAR blogs there were around at the time (none dedicated), we thought I might get a lot of attention.

Within a month or two of starting the blog, everyone learned about the delay until June 2008. No biggie, I thought. I'll just keep blogging. As I started getting more and more plugged into the community, I started hearing negative rumblings about the beta test. Basically, major parts of the game were being totally redesigned. People were having their faith in the game shaken because it didn't appear that Mythic knew which direction to take.

I won a contest in February that got me into the WAR beta around April 2008. "WOOHOO!" I thought. Finally a chance to see the game a couple months before release. My brain went into overdrive thinking about all the exclusive goodies I'd be able to get for my blog once the NDA finally dropped. Considering how I wanted to eventually monetize my blog, I also saw this as a bit of a business venture. What's that saying again? "Don't mix business with pleasure?" Hmmm...

That might actually be something for all game designers to think about. Actually, let's save that for another post.

Anyway, suffice it to say, the game wasn't the blood-soaked poppy field I had envisioned. Things were clunky. Out of focus. Unbalanced. Unstable... But hey, this is beta. Things were also changing at an extremely rapid pace. The UI would be completely overhauled every week getting better and better. We had something completely fresh and interesting to focus test every other week too. Over time, however, I started asking myself some important questions. Why haven't we tested this feature or mechanic yet? Why haven't we seen these classes? Why aren't we allowed into other tiers, zones, or dungeons? Simply put, I was starting to see just how far behind schedule Mythic really was.

It came as no surprise that when June approached Mythic announced another delay, this time until the upcoming Fall. I actually welcomed it. WAR would have completely bombed if they had released it in that state. Beta testing from May until late August was more of the same. Focus test this. Focus test that. The scariest part about the entire beta process for me was how totally focus-driven it was. We were never at any point allowed to play the game as it was meant to be played, tier through tier, start to finish. What a horrible mistake that was. "Take the time and do it right," was the cry of many beta testers but it went unheeded.

The "We're cutting content," announcement came some time during this period. 4/6 of the cities gone. 4/24 of the classes gone. Anyone reading my blog at the time will know that I kind of blew a gasket here. Obviously, I couldn't give everyone the full scoop because I was bound by the NDA, but this was the very moment I became 100% certain WAR would not become the success it was hyped to be. Combine that announcement with the shaky state of beta at the time and many testers were pretty much certain that Mythic was going to release an unpolished turd because they were being driven to make the next launch date no matter what.

Some will blame EA for this, but I don't think Mythic should get a free pass here. They had a vision for their game in 2007 and then went a completely different way in 2008. They were not originally making a game most of their testers wanted to play. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if they stuck to their guns and pushed ahead with their original vision. You should listen to your players, but you shouldn't bow to their every whim, right?

Anyway, as September was quickly approaching, I wasn't in a happy place with WAR. While it can be fun to be in the inner circle or boys club of a beta, I don't think I have the personality for it. I played WoW closed beta for a couple months before release and it was kind of the same but to a lesser degree. I value polish above nearly everything else in a game. You aren't going to find much of that in a beta for obvious reasons.Hell, by current standards, you won't even find it in most MMOs several months after release.

The game launched in September 2008 against the advice of many beta testers including myself. WAR needed at least three more months of testing and polish if it really wanted to capture people, but obviously WotLK was launching around then and EA/Mythic saw this earlier period as an opportunity to make back some money and try steal customers away from the reigning king of MMOs.

They obviously failed. Well, I shouldn't say it like that. 300k is a very respectable number even after registering 750k initially, but given all the hype and hoopla and developer interviews, everyone knows they wanted a much bigger piece of the pie. We're now in May and it could be said that while the game is still improving, it has a long way to go before actually meeting the pre-release expectations.

I know for me personally, it still has a long way to go. I'm beginning to wonder if Mythic's window of opportunity is slowly shrinking. It could be said that Mythic isn't making WAR for me and that is completely acceptable. Unfortunately, all the way along everything I was reading led me to believe otherwise.

I'll save a lot of my current WAR commentary for future posts, but long story short, I no longer play much nor am I really that interested in WAR to have a blog dedicated for it. Massively allows me the opportunity to keep up on and write about WAR news and for that I am grateful. I will always follow WAR and be one of the first staff-writers to post about it because I still have enough insight to make the posts semi-interesting and I am actually interested to see where it goes and want it to succeed even if I'm not participating very much.

My account will remain active and I will pop in from time to time. Snafzg is rank 40/44 in decent gear, which isn't terrible. He allows me to quickly jump in and out for a bit of instant RvR action whenever I feel the itch. I can't imagine I'll ever roll another character in the game again because I'm simply not that interested, but for me, WAR is what it is. It's an easy-acces game that you don't need to take too seriously (if you do, you'll be disappointed). It isn't all-consuming nor overly exciting. I don't have a burning desire to log in because I need to get the next thing accomplished. Given Paul Barnett's commentary all along about making a casual experience instead of one so engaging you wouldn't realize your house was burning down, I suppose they totally nailed that design aspect of the game. Props where props are due.

So, back to the blog then! As I said, there's no way I play enough to dedicate my writing solely to WAR. There are other upcoming MMOs, however, that look very appealing. Champions Online. Jumpgate Evolution. Global Agenda. Aion Online. I can't promise this new "general MMO blog" will be updated with multiple or even just one post per day like TheGreenskin was in its heyday, but by expanding my options, it should at least give me more things to talk about.

I really do enjoy having a creative writing outlet like a blog. Hopefully, you'll stick around for the ride. I'm working on another secret project that I'll reveal later this summer depending on a certain MMO's release date. I'm also developing an interesting MMO comedy podcast with Syp of BioBreak, which should be somewhat entertaining. The first episode will hopefully be out soon.

Finally, there will be no ads on this site. I would have shut down TheGreenskin months ago but I had advertising obligations. As I said above, mixing business with pleasure isn't always the best idea. One will usually dominate causing the other to suffer.

Stay tuned! :)

Finally, something to cheer about!

2009-05-11T10:49:38-04:00

Courtesy of Massively's Land of the Dead overview from Baltimore Games Day.

Wards will now be pieced together to form character-centric sigils, which are placed inside of the Tome of Knowledge instead of on the armor itself. These sigils are always active, no matter what armor you're wearing, eliminating the need to carry the right wards on the right parts. Prior players who are loaded with ward gear, do not fret! Your wards will combine together to form sigils right off of the bat, so you won't be outdated when the new system hits. Even if you don't have the right wards to get a sigil, you can now unlock "pieces" of the ward by completing achievement objectives, like defeating a boss that would give you that piece of ward armor X times. So even if it never drops for you, you'll still get it eventually.

Holy jumpin! Let me know if I'm reading this properly of not. Kill a boss X times and you will actually get the PIECE OF WARD ARMOUR? Or is it just the sigil?

If its the former, let me shout out a huge hallelujah! If it's the latter, I think I'm going to have a brain aneurysm out of frustration.

If I were Mark Jacobs: Quality vs. Quantity

2009-05-08T12:41:51-04:00

Welcome to the second installment of If I were Mark Jacobs, a series I'm dedicating to the major issues I have with Warhammer Online and what I would do to fix them if I had the power.

Quality vs. Quantity

No-one can deny that there is a crapton of stuff to do in WAR. Solo quests. Public quests. Instanced dungeons. Scenarios. Open RvR. Exploring the Tome of Knowledge. Crafting. Expanding on that, there are there is a huge variety of options to choose from when doing these things. There are three pairings, each with hundreds of solo quests and dozens of PQs. There are at least 6 instance dungeons accessible from ranks 15-40. Players have plenty of locations and setups when participate in scenarios and ORvR. The ToK is huuuge. Crafting currently supports 2 production and 4 gathering skills (not too many but not too shabby either).

The problem is that I feel Mythic has sacrificed quality for quantity.

The solo quests in T1 are quite good for the most part but they feel repetitive and grindy from T2-T4 because they never really change get any better. In many cases, they get worse, resulting in the generic kill 10 rats formula. WAR is not a PvE-focused game, but if you're trying to make a mass market MMO to compete with a PvE behemoth like WoW, you must deliver the same kind of quality.

Public quests are a brilliant innovation in WAR but has Mythic not heard the saying "You can have too much of a good thing?" PQs are freakin' everywhere in WAR and very few break away from the basic formula of Kill XXX easy mobs. Kill XX harder mobs. Kill miniboss. The ones that do are a stroke of genius. Mythic made PQs filler content for the most part when they could have had far fewer that were much more epic.

Instanced dungeons are hit and miss in WAR. The first city dungeons are absolutely terrible. Gunbad and Bastion are decent the first couple times though but don't offer much entertainment value beyond that. The rank 40 city dungeons are great your first time through as well, but suffer the same fate. I haven't been in Lost Vale yet, but I hear it is good too; your first time through anyway. The problem with instanced dungeons in WAR is that you are forced through them so many times to get the gear you need and they get old fast. All dungeons also suffer from bugged encounters from time to time that just gets frustrating after your second wipe for no good reason.

Scenarios aren't bad in and of themselves but they really highlight issues like career and population balance. They were originally too rewarding, so they were the only thing players did. Players became burned out and unhappy. Mythic decided to boost rewards in oRvR and now you're unlikely to see more than one or two scenarios pop in a three-hour gaming session. Scenarios now take a back seat to most everything else in WAR.

Open RvR can be amazingly fun one day and then just brutal the next. Like scenarios, oRvR puts career and population balance under the microscope and to be honest, neither is very healthy. Every BO and keep siege plays out the exact same way because the content isn't dynamic enough. The old zone control mechanic resulted in too few zone locks. The new control mechanic results in several city sieges per day on some servers. Mythic still hasn't found a middle ground. Add on top of that zergs and performance issues from keep to fort to city siege and you have an even bigger mess. Tokens are a great idea but still drop too slowly. Let's not even talk about poor city siege designs (e.g., can't attack unless players are defending, can't actually win stage 2 of phase 1 if people are defending, etc.)

The Tome of Knowledge is a really cool feature with lots of potential but it still falls a bit short. Most people get ToK unlocks purely by chance not because they were actively seeking them. A major issue with the ToK is that it is reactionary rather than giving players opportunities to be proactive about their unlocks. Without addons like Tome Titan and Dammaz Kron, the ToK wouldn't be much more than a way to unlock new titles. How many people actually have and benefit from Tome Tactics anyway?

Crafting in WAR isn't exactly complex or interesting, even if the items gained from it are actually quite necessary. You are gimping yourself if you don't fork out cash for talismans and potions/liniments. Considering how easy all the crafts are to master, it isn't exactly hard to make the items yourself, but it is time consuming. That said, given the cheapish market for such items, I'd much rather pay for the items than make them myself. Comparing each of the gathering skills you'll also find that Scavenging is better than Salvaging and Cultivation trumps Butchery.

Solutions

Solo quests - Look at WoW and aim for the same quality and feel. I hate to say something like that, but if you're going after WoW players you need the same quality of PvE content. Even if you aren't going after WoW players, WoW does it better than you, so why would you waste your time developing something inferior? Go big or go home.

Public quests - Less of the same boring crap. More of the awesome PQs. Do we really need more than one or two PQs per chapter hub? Considering PQs were used as content filler, take the opportunity to introduce more interesting and exciting solo/group quests in these areas once you free up the space. Basically, more scripting all around.

Instanced dungeons - Why do we have a three day lockout on some of these dungeons when cities are being sieged nightly? Why are you forcing us to run these dungeons 3-20+ times depending on our luck? There has to be a better way here. Instanced dungeons should give you gear that lends itself more towards PvE encounters. It boggles my mind that some of the sets gained in PvE are more viable for RvR than the RvR sets. Do an itemization pass and gaining gear from PvE won't have a huge impact on RvR. Doing so will still make the RvR sets more desirable. Oh, and for God's sake, add a token/influence system for PvE dungeons.

Scenarios - The people have spoken. Open RvR should be more interesting and rewarding than a instanced RvR. That said, the are opportunities to make scenarios fun and rewarding again. Keep up with the special scenario weekends. Those are cool. How about this new brainwave? Run weekly or monthly "arena" style tournaments in the scenarios. You don't have to reward us with with oRvR quality set gear. Renown, titles, unique items skins, dyes, non-combat pets, mounts, trophies, pocket items, emotes, etc. would be cool enough to entice players to participate. This will really appeal to the guild groups of old (circa DAOC in its heyday). Wrap it all up in a neat little package with an online ladder system on the Realm War site and special mentions on the Herald.

ORvR - Performance, performance, performance. That's your number 1 priority. Next, you should focus on adding some tactical diversity by expanding the siege system. I don't think I'm the only one that believes an oRvR system based on keeps and BOs should be on par or better than the one in DAOC. Towers? Milegates? Bridges? Destructible walls? Also, people should be directed out into RvR lakes for purposes other than just RvR. The recent live event proved that even a boring zone like Thunder Mountain can be made fun with a bit of PvP over PvE resources. I was a fan of the RvR dungeon entrances in DAOC.

Tome of Knowledge - Again I pretty much stated up top that I feel the ToK should be more useful for players who wish to seek out their achievements rather than stumble upon them by accident. I'm not a huge explorer but I'll share a quick story from my second week in WAR to illustrate my point. There I was killing dwarves near this tower and I stumbled upon a big pile of dirt. My ToK alerted me that this pile of dirt was important but the description was so vague I had no idea what to do next to uncover more of the story. I spent over an hour talking to people and researching in-game and online but gave up in frustration. That simply shouldn't happen.

Crafting - Butchery and salvaging need a boost imho. I don't mind having to butcher non-sentient mobs as long as I'm well rewarded for my time. WAR is full of NPCs but at least 75% of them in my estimation are humanoid. So if I want to farm items for my strength potions in Dragonwake for example, I need to spend 10 minutes running to the nearest bear spawn. And when I get there, the really good ingredients don't drop at a high enough rate. Not cool. Salvaging is great in threory but suffers due to all the BoP gear in WAR. One solution would be to allow us to salvage BoP items from a trade window. Also, I think it's time for a new tradeskill or two. How about trophy/pocket item with very minor stat boosts to make them desirable? Mount taming? I'm guessing armour/weapon crafting will open up a whole can of rotten worms, won't it?

So there you have it. WAR doesn't suffer from a lack of content imho, just execution. I think all these changes would help make the game more fun to play and more accessible for new players to join. People say WAR is an RvR game, but I see no reason why it can't feature impeccable PvE content as well. As long as the rewards from PvE don't trump those gained in RvR, you can provide an excellent experience for both gamer-types.

Also, I'd really like to pitch my idea for scenarios. I think it would bring an amazing new dynamic to the game without ruining its original flavour. Actually, it will pay greater homage to WAR's roots. My idea for scenarios would be a huge shout-out to the setup of GW's tabletop game.

If I were Mark Jacobs: Gear grinding

2009-04-30T21:10:32-04:00

Welcome to a new semi-quasi-sorta-regular series called If I were Mark Jacobs.

Someone told me to use my blog to suggest changes I'd make to WAR rather than keep on saying that I'm on my way out of the game. Sure, let's give it a try. Each part in this series will take an aspect of WAR that basically pisses me off and then suggest an alternative solution.

Gear grinding

I hate gear grinds in any MMO, not just in WAR. Gear is a tool that should give you an advantage in battle but I don't believe your entire progression and incentive structure should revolve around it. Unfortunately, WAR in its current state is all about the gear, wards, and sets.

This post isn't about the gear itself (I'll save that for another day), but the grind Mythic forces us to go through to get it. To save some space in this post, please read Nazgum's latest entry. I agree with him completely that gear is simply too difficult to get right now.

Why is it so hard to obtain? The answer is obvious. Gear is the carrot on the stick. Gear is the only real motivator Mythic thinks will keep you logging back in. Gear is a key, not really any different than a faction grind, that unlocks more difficult and interesting content.

I don't agree with this at all and I think it is a ridiculously stupid motivator for an RvR game that is supposed to be about teamwork, realm pride (whatever that is these days), and fighting other players. The only real difference between the gear system in WAR and the gear system introduced DAOC with TOA is that you were forced into PvE to get the gear in DAOC. You're only half-forced in WAR... but that doesn't mean it's any less grindy. Since launch people have found it a more efficient use of time to gain gear from PvE than RvR. That's just freakin' wrong.

The solution

Have a little confidence in the game you built and put a little trust in your players that they will make alts. And of course, cut the grind by at least 50%!

Warhammer is theoretically an alting paradise. There are 12 careers in each realm and they all play very differently. The tier-based system and scenario variety that Warhammer is based upon lends itself to alting as well. Back when WAR first released, previous zone control meant a lot more than it does today. Why did it change? No-one was really alting. Why? The grind! Not just a gear grind of course, but a gear + renown + influence + XP grind. Yay, ideas for future posts in this series...

Why the heck would I want to make a new character when the one I've been playing for the past 7-months isn't even remotely close to the end of his gear grind? Gear isn't as important as it is in other MMOs, but a rank 40 in PQ-gear doesn't stand much of a chance vs. one in Conqueror gear and that's only two levels of quality up. Also, as Nazgum says, the chances of you getting into even Annihilator gear are much lower today than they were back when WAR first launched. Back then, there weren't 2-3 warbands taking each keep.

And let's not pretend the new token system is the savior here. It's just another grind and Mythic even admits that it is only supposed to supplement your gear grind. The prices are waaaay out of whack.

WAR is supposed to be game of perpetual war. Rather than focusing on a vertical progression model, focus more on the horizontal. People will still play their fully maxed characters because they will still have an edge. People still play FPS games and their characters don't progress at all! We will be more willing to roll a new character and experience your game from another perspective. Think for a moment about Team Fortress 2. Once you've mastered the Tank you start playing a Spy.

Options = fun. Locking someone into one role because it isn't an efficient use of their time to play anything else is not.

Think about it, Mark.

One miiiiiillion blog views

2009-04-30T15:29:04-04:00

Here's a milestone most bloggers don't get to. :)

As you can clearly see, traffic has been falling off since Warhammer Online's release, which isn't a surprise all things considered. Still, I'm quite happy to surpass 1,000,000 pageviews since that was the main traffic goal I set for myself when I started TheGreenskin back in November 2007. It took me 18 months; not bad since this is a one-MMO focused blog and WAR was in beta for over half its lifespan.

Much like the line graph above, my interest and excitement over WAR has risen and fallen. I'm basically sticking around until The Land of the Dead. Hopefully, that will be enough to sustain me a couple more months until games like Aion, Global Agenda, and Jumpgate Evolution establish themselves. I'd still very much like for WAR to be my one and only MMO, but given the current situation, I'm a bit pessimistic at that happening.

The biggest praise I've gotten as a blogger is for my writing style and quality. In case you can't tell, I'm a bit anal about polish in almost everything I do. Server crashes, lag, sticky terrain, a swinging pendulum of career balance, and other annoying things WAR is famous for drive me bonkers. I'm starting to think that Mythic and I have very different views on how a game should be devloped and delivered. I'm cool with less features as long as they're impeccably implemented. Based on 18 months of observation, it seems Mythic would rather throw more content at players to gloss over quality issues. It's the classic struggle of quality vs. quantity.

I am hopeful! Not naive, but hopeful Mythic will finally come around.

What's the best advice I can give them as a player? After Land of the Dead, I don't want to see a lick of new content until you finely tune your current content. Honestly, I don't even want to see a new live event! If the core of your game is working properly, it will sustain player interest for years! Once you have it working, new content can be brought in to enrich the experience. No more smoke and mirrors please.

Thanks to every single person who reads and comments on this blog. Obviously, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun doing this without you.