I still browse RIFT forums mostly to see what is going on. Not to mention that a lot of good topics from that game and WoW can be applicable to other games in the genre.
One of the bigger topics going on recently are changes to how stats work for warriors. For those unfamiliar to RIFT, warriors are currently stacking Dexterity rather than Strength (supposedly their primary stat) simply because Dexterity scales better. Most warrior abilities work so much better with higher critical strike chance than higher attack power and, while I won't go into specifics, it is certainly understandable when a lot of abilities/talents give extra benefit with critical strikes.
The downside is that warriors are preferring leather items or things with high dexterity over plate or anything with high strength. Trion attempted to stem this behaviour by providing a lot of critical strike chance to plate gear but the leather counterparts were still simply supperior. Trion's latest attempt on the test shard was to half the effectiveness of Dexterity for warriors. It has since been reverted due to, as Trion said, not being the right time to make such changes, but the furor on the forums was hard to ignore.
The same thing was done with clerics and Intelligence/Wisdom and the response and result were the same.
What interested me was not the actual changes, but the reaction. The main complaint I've seen was that people are forced to take time to re-gear. I'm not saying that that is not the case, I'm just saying wondering why it is a problem.
If you are a raider, hardcore or otherwise, you would be doing this anyway. Gearing has never been really static. Everytime a patch introduces changes, raiders will always see how it affects them and make changes appropriately to maximize their effectiveness. This is the same reason raiders will endure the grinds to get best in slot enchants or patterns no matter how long it takes. Recent memory in RIFT brought dual-weilding warriors to the top of the DPS charts and had them scrambling to get two good weapons to the chagrin of rogues. Changing the stat weights won't be any different, and you'll end up doing it no matter how much you complain.
If you are not a raider, it's not like they would be removing the stat's usefulness. There is no need to min/max stats if the extent of your play is solo or the occassional dungeon run. With this kind of pace, re-gearing will come naturally in the process of your daily routine and, like I mentioned, your current gear would be far from useless.
There are no MMOs that promise nothing will change from launch. In fact, the changes are what helps keep the game fresh, even if it does get inconvenient for players. When there is nothing new to learn, or no new goal to reach, games will get stale and players will move on. Change will happen, no matter how loud you complain. Best options are to deal with it or move on.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
World of Warcraft: 4.3 - Back to the Story!
MMO Champion has posted some really interesting info on the upcoming 4.3 patch. It's already known that the patch is a big one, but I guess it's only recently that we can grasp the full scope of this update.
This also is very interesting to me because, despite being jaded with WoW and MMOs in general, I am quite excited about this patch. Yes, it's a new tier of gear, more profession recipes, and a set of dungeons to set up the raid's story just like at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. Same old recycled concepts, right?
I guess my main excitement comes from knowing that closure is at hand. One of the reasons I was so hyped up about Cataclysm was that the world was going to change and is on the brink of destruction. With the epic changes in the world would come an epic journey to defeat the Aspect of Death. Several months later, Deathwing has hardly been seen. For max level players, you only get to see him twice as part of a quest. More if you get breathed on during one of his zone excursions.
Deathwing's absence left a huge gap when it comes to immersion in the game. While the level 80-85 game had several references to him and the Twilight Hammer is rampant, we do not actually get to feel his presence. After being able to survey the changes, the impact becomes increasingly muted as it becomes a normal thing.
In order to get a feel of how dangerous Deathwing really is, one would need to go back to do low level quests and not everyone is willing to do it. Heck, I would not have even known about the story of the pure black dragon if my guildie did not link what she got from the quest chain.
It was completely different from Wrath of the Lich King where Arthas was practically everywhere. You see his involvement in many quests and culminating in direct confrontation. It was a story that was paced well and a villain with clear motivations. Even if the methods were not at all that clear, we do see Arthas at work. We also get to see Arthas at his points of weakness and strength, a villain that has a personality. Hate him or love him, he needed to die.
Deathwing, in contrast, is a dormant villain. We do not have any clear idea of what his main goal is. Sure, it could be the complete destruction of Azeroth, but then again, it could not. The damage to Azeroth has been mostly collateral. As far as we can tell, he broke out and headed to Stormwind to ... torch the park? Other than perceived insanity, we have no idea of what his motivations are.
He does not even appear in any of the 4 raids that are currently live. Not even a quick cameo. Sinestra is probably the closest thing to Deathwing's involvement and she can only be accessed by top end guilds. Not exactly how you would imagine a story around a world destroyer.
So I look forward to see how they get Deathwing back to the forefront and our climactic battle to beat him. Lets hope it is as epic a journey as it is hyped out to be.
This also is very interesting to me because, despite being jaded with WoW and MMOs in general, I am quite excited about this patch. Yes, it's a new tier of gear, more profession recipes, and a set of dungeons to set up the raid's story just like at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. Same old recycled concepts, right?
I guess my main excitement comes from knowing that closure is at hand. One of the reasons I was so hyped up about Cataclysm was that the world was going to change and is on the brink of destruction. With the epic changes in the world would come an epic journey to defeat the Aspect of Death. Several months later, Deathwing has hardly been seen. For max level players, you only get to see him twice as part of a quest. More if you get breathed on during one of his zone excursions.
Deathwing's absence left a huge gap when it comes to immersion in the game. While the level 80-85 game had several references to him and the Twilight Hammer is rampant, we do not actually get to feel his presence. After being able to survey the changes, the impact becomes increasingly muted as it becomes a normal thing.
In order to get a feel of how dangerous Deathwing really is, one would need to go back to do low level quests and not everyone is willing to do it. Heck, I would not have even known about the story of the pure black dragon if my guildie did not link what she got from the quest chain.
It was completely different from Wrath of the Lich King where Arthas was practically everywhere. You see his involvement in many quests and culminating in direct confrontation. It was a story that was paced well and a villain with clear motivations. Even if the methods were not at all that clear, we do see Arthas at work. We also get to see Arthas at his points of weakness and strength, a villain that has a personality. Hate him or love him, he needed to die.
Deathwing, in contrast, is a dormant villain. We do not have any clear idea of what his main goal is. Sure, it could be the complete destruction of Azeroth, but then again, it could not. The damage to Azeroth has been mostly collateral. As far as we can tell, he broke out and headed to Stormwind to ... torch the park? Other than perceived insanity, we have no idea of what his motivations are.
He does not even appear in any of the 4 raids that are currently live. Not even a quick cameo. Sinestra is probably the closest thing to Deathwing's involvement and she can only be accessed by top end guilds. Not exactly how you would imagine a story around a world destroyer.
So I look forward to see how they get Deathwing back to the forefront and our climactic battle to beat him. Lets hope it is as epic a journey as it is hyped out to be.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
SWTOR: How Long is too Long?
Star Wars: The Old Republic (or SWTOR) is arguably the most anticipted MMO right now, with Guild Wars 2 being the other game out there making the MMO fans wait excitedly. But news for SWTOR has been relatively light considering the potential release date window closing in. I say "potential" because EA/Bioware has so far refused to give out their target release date. The best they have offered is "holiday 2011".
Considering that, as of September 2011, the game is still in closed beta, that likely means a December release, but that is only speculation at best. Now there is news that the game might be pushed to 2012. Naturally, online comments about this haven't been too kind.
But it hasn't really been so long since the game was announced, only a mere 3 years. World of Warcraft took that long from announcement to live and it grew to be the biggest game of it's time. Wouldn't it follow that SWTOR would go down this same path? Is it wrong to say that this waiting has gone for too long?
The biggest problem I have with SWTOR and the wait is that the hype machine is not exactly doing it for me. Somehow, I feel it is simply lacking. Anticipation for the game was high when it was announced but there has not been any increase in activity since then. Videos and announcements seem to have been released in small doses. If one is not lucky enough to have attended PAX, E3, or similar expos, there is no chance to even get a feel for the game other than short glimpses.
Beta weekends were the biggest thing to happen to get anticipation high about the game and probably the biggest news since it's annoucement. Not only did it get the fans all excited about getting an invite, but it provided a sense that the game is just around the corner. Finally, we had thought, the waiting is coming to an end. Then, after what EA/Bioware indicated was a successful beta weekend, they announced the next weekend would be cancelled. While I know they probably have a good reason for it, it certainly does not bode well for the fans and slows anticipation to a crawl, if not stop it in it's tracks altogether.
Coupled with the news article linked above, one has to wonder what is really going on. If release is slated in 3 months, getting more people into beta would make perfect sense. There should be an increase in anticipation for the game, not more of the same small stream of videos and art previews. Whatever happened to things like the timeline videos or webcomics? Anticipation built up just from the IP is strong, but it will not just be the IP that will keep it strong for the game.
Maybe I'm just impatient. Maybe I'm just reading too little in between the lines. But right now, Guild Wars 2 is becoming more and more interesting with all the info they are putting out and, if EA/Bioware don't do anything soon, may eclipse SWTOR even before either game is released.
Considering that, as of September 2011, the game is still in closed beta, that likely means a December release, but that is only speculation at best. Now there is news that the game might be pushed to 2012. Naturally, online comments about this haven't been too kind.
But it hasn't really been so long since the game was announced, only a mere 3 years. World of Warcraft took that long from announcement to live and it grew to be the biggest game of it's time. Wouldn't it follow that SWTOR would go down this same path? Is it wrong to say that this waiting has gone for too long?
The biggest problem I have with SWTOR and the wait is that the hype machine is not exactly doing it for me. Somehow, I feel it is simply lacking. Anticipation for the game was high when it was announced but there has not been any increase in activity since then. Videos and announcements seem to have been released in small doses. If one is not lucky enough to have attended PAX, E3, or similar expos, there is no chance to even get a feel for the game other than short glimpses.
Beta weekends were the biggest thing to happen to get anticipation high about the game and probably the biggest news since it's annoucement. Not only did it get the fans all excited about getting an invite, but it provided a sense that the game is just around the corner. Finally, we had thought, the waiting is coming to an end. Then, after what EA/Bioware indicated was a successful beta weekend, they announced the next weekend would be cancelled. While I know they probably have a good reason for it, it certainly does not bode well for the fans and slows anticipation to a crawl, if not stop it in it's tracks altogether.
Coupled with the news article linked above, one has to wonder what is really going on. If release is slated in 3 months, getting more people into beta would make perfect sense. There should be an increase in anticipation for the game, not more of the same small stream of videos and art previews. Whatever happened to things like the timeline videos or webcomics? Anticipation built up just from the IP is strong, but it will not just be the IP that will keep it strong for the game.
Maybe I'm just impatient. Maybe I'm just reading too little in between the lines. But right now, Guild Wars 2 is becoming more and more interesting with all the info they are putting out and, if EA/Bioware don't do anything soon, may eclipse SWTOR even before either game is released.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
When Copying is a Good Thing
I've said this before, but I guess it does need it's own post : a game being like World of Warcraft is not a bad thing. Many times, a game is labeled by people as a "wow-clone", and usually as a derogatory term. To me, this does not make much sense. World of Warcraft is a nicely designed game. It has it's faults for sure, but so does every other game. To not look at what made it a huge success would simply be foolish.
Of course, World of Warcraft itself used to be coined as an EQ-clone, and again as an insult. But because of it's resemblance to EQ, people did flock to the new game. It was familiar, intuitive and, most importantly, accessible. While one can argue that the extreme popularity of the Warcraft RTS is what really boosted the MMO, the fact is that the games do not have much in common other than the intellectual property they are based on. There had to be something that went from launch to being the behemoth that it is today, and that's what the competitors are looking at.
RIFT is a fine example of taking another game's ideas and molding it to their own thing. There are many things RIFT has that WoW doesn't, but at the core, they could be considered the same game. And there's nothing wrong with that.
That was the amazing thing about RIFT. On first playing it, it was incredibly familiar and new at the same time. Considering the target of RIFT's advertizing (hint: We're not on Azeroth anymore), they wanted to get veteran MMO gamers in and hooked. I still hold to the theory that their beta tests were a mere marketting ploy to get people to pre-order the game. And it all worked. It is one of the most successful MMO releases in a while and one announcement indicated that RIFT hit the "1 million customers" mark.
It will be interesting to see where the games of 2011/2012 will take us. But one thing is sure, if one or more ends up being called a "WoW clone", that is going to be a great compliment.
Of course, World of Warcraft itself used to be coined as an EQ-clone, and again as an insult. But because of it's resemblance to EQ, people did flock to the new game. It was familiar, intuitive and, most importantly, accessible. While one can argue that the extreme popularity of the Warcraft RTS is what really boosted the MMO, the fact is that the games do not have much in common other than the intellectual property they are based on. There had to be something that went from launch to being the behemoth that it is today, and that's what the competitors are looking at.
RIFT is a fine example of taking another game's ideas and molding it to their own thing. There are many things RIFT has that WoW doesn't, but at the core, they could be considered the same game. And there's nothing wrong with that.
That was the amazing thing about RIFT. On first playing it, it was incredibly familiar and new at the same time. Considering the target of RIFT's advertizing (hint: We're not on Azeroth anymore), they wanted to get veteran MMO gamers in and hooked. I still hold to the theory that their beta tests were a mere marketting ploy to get people to pre-order the game. And it all worked. It is one of the most successful MMO releases in a while and one announcement indicated that RIFT hit the "1 million customers" mark.
It will be interesting to see where the games of 2011/2012 will take us. But one thing is sure, if one or more ends up being called a "WoW clone", that is going to be a great compliment.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Rift: A Fond Farewell
In my beta review, I did mention it was hard to justify pre-ordering the game, but some friends ended up playing so I decided it would be fun to join them. The game had several good moments in the leveling process and I did enjoy myself immensely.
The first blow to my enjoyment was when my friends decided to quit Rift. Names in my friends list stayed grey as no one bothered to log on anymore. But I was a different breed of player and I stuck it out to make friends in the game. I did want my cleric to be the best it could so I vaulted to 50.
The next blow came with the notoriety nerfs. In one patch, the time it will take to grind faction rewards tripled. And since the runes are pretty much the only thing I would want from the quartermasters, i would have to go all the way to glorified. It started going downhill from there.
RIFT is a great game, no one can doubt that. But it just ended up not being entirely compelling. I still play the gorilla that is World of Warcraft and there's just a lot of time and effort invested in my character and I do still have fun in that game. Because I am not at all disgruntled with WoW, RIFT just had no lure for me to switch and set aside time to raid there. This long at 50, there is just nothing that would make me give up other games. Heck, days when I'm bored with WoW, I just play Dragon Age 2 and not RIFT.
The content patches also did nothing for players like me who are past the expert dungeons but don't raid. The first event was actually kind of fun, then the next event was fun, but looked the same as the one before. By the third event, I just didn't bother doing the dailies or try to collect the "currency of the month". There is only so much you can do to recycle this kind of content.
It came to the point where I would log on, but don't feel like doing anything. I did try PvP, got a ton of achievements, then got bored. I tried hunting for artifacts, which got so tedious I just gave up and played Dragon Age 2. It's one grind after another and I simply do not have the time or will to do all that.
So thanks Trion for the great experience and my time in RIFT is certainly not wasted.
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