The Common Sense Gamer

…sorry..this is awesome:

Very interesting pieces about Warhammer out there right now…all with the same theme.

First up is Massively:

Like I said before, Mythic screwed up royally in implementation. By broadening their appeal to too many people they diluted the quality of their feature set and in the process made some really odd design decisions (e.g., Let’s ramp up this huge RvR campaign and then put a bunch of city PvE at the end of it - an attempt at balancing RvR and PvE content that failed abysmally).

What are the two biggest complaints leveled at WAR by ex-WAR players? One: The RvR endgame is meaningless, boring, and repetitive. Two: The exact same thing can be said about PvE - except all the way through.

How can you make RvR the main focus of your game without pissing off PvE folks and vice versa? You can definitely try and balance them 50/50, but let’s be real here. Mythic can barely balance their classes, let alone entire aspects of an MMO. Let’s also be fair — it’s a pretty damned hard task to achieve.

Second one comes from Snaffy’s:

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.

The message here? WAR still suffers from an identity crisis. Take note of #1 prediction for 2009:

“Warhammer will continue to have it’s audience shrunk. This will not be a bad thing because they will also find themselves and start really coming into their own as an RvR (…not PvE…) alternative to WoW. They will fall into the same issues as Planetside does for new players.”

It’s not going to be a good summer for WAR as they continue to figure out what audience they want to appeal too. The recent shake-up and grouping with Bioware will hopefully help in this area, but time is running out due to the upcoming titles that might just have a better sense of self than WAR does.

Really, they need to go as niche as possible with WAR. Sure, the money is in the big WoW market but..seriously..this is about being realistic. Eve is a great template on how to stay niche, and then build an audience from there. Darkfall is kind of in the space where WAR should be. Mythic should go head to head with those guys…and they would win hands down. It’s not too late. It wouldn’t take much to turn WAR into an Eve-like game where PVP and PVE are in a healthy(-ish) balance with one another. Oh oh oh….here’s a nice little feature list. Cause we all like lists.

- Remove tiered approach to RvR. This is gating your community and you don’t need to do that. Open the world up. Make it dangerous.
- Make PvE support PvP actions. People want to build or repair a city…you need PvE people and the market to do it. You want weapons…yeah…PvE crafters will be needed.
- Despite opening the world to RvR, you need someplace where PvE players feel safe “doing their thing” to support PvP. Like in Eve, give it to them. Don’t you dare instance anything.
- Let players loose it all for high risk/reward scenarios.

I really think that there is a market where Darkfall is trying to land, but is missing. I think WAR can nail it.

D out.

Good gawd guys:

In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services.

Virtual currency, as defined by Chinese authorities, includes “prepaid cards of cyber-games,” according to a joint release issued by China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

“The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services,” the Ministries said.

Yes. The Great Firewall of China continues to be build brick by digital brick. It seems that the Chinese never learned their lessons the last time they tired to keep the nomadic hordes from invading their country. Interesting to notes from that:

Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600. Under the military command of Yuan Chonghuan, the Ming army held off the Manchus at the heavily fortified Shanhaiguan pass, preventing the Manchus from entering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644, when the gates at Shanhaiguan were opened by Wu Sangui, a Ming border general who disliked the activities of rulers of the Shun Dynasty. The Manchus quickly seized Beijing, and defeated the newly founded Shun Dynasty and remaining Ming resistance, to establish the Qing Dynasty.

I know. Can’t help but wonder who the Wu Sangui is going to be in this modern story…eh? Only a matter of time.

D out.

I found the answer: I was grumpy or in some weird state when I first fired up Runes of Magic. The game is actually quite good. It’s not original in any sense of the word, but it is good.

My original thoughts regarding UI and graphics remain, i.e. those are a direct rip-off of WoW and they could have done better. But, if you put everything else “into the pot” and just play, then you come out with a pretty good experience. Right now, my character is a level 10 Scout, level 6 Mage….which means I rain death from a distance. Quests focus on the trilogy of “kill 10 rats”, “go deliver that to there” and “go find that over there”. Crafting is really nothing special that I can see so far, except that you can be any and all crafting professions. I have not participated in the RMT yet, but I plan to in order to see how they’ve done it and how what the value is.

The most unique part of the game up to now has been the dual class system. With my Mage class up to level 6, I now have access to some spells as a Scout…like Fireball. So, I usually throw down a vampire arrow (DoT), then a Fireball and maybe another arrow shot if the thing is still alive. Usually, most mobs don’t even get to me before they drop. You can change your class in your house. Simply talk to your house maid and select which class you want to be your Primary and which one you want to be the secondary….and off you go.

PvP. I did do a 1 v 1 PvP match as well and I kind of dominated the whole thing ;). It was against a Rogue and he was a very good sport about me shoving my arrows up his ass for the better part of 15 minutes. Again, same as in WoW, you get Honor points for winning PvP matches. Up to now, I have no idea what you use them for…probably for equipment.

Here’s the thing. Runes of Magic is just different enough from WoW for bored WoW players who tire of that world. It doesn’t shock the system and pretend to be something its not. It is a WoW clone on the surface with some tweaks in gameplay that make it fresh enough to stay. I played almost all day yesterday and I plan to keep playing.

…shame on me for being grumpy.

D out.

It was bound to happen…a price war. For shuttles no less.

Somebody, in my target system that has been really lucrative for my shuttle business has come in and started to undercut me. When I first saw this, I kind of just said, “damn”, and listed the price a couple thousand below his. No biggie. I have plenty of headroom with the price I’m charging as it is a price for the convenience of shuttles actually being in that particular system. The price stayed roughly the same for the last 3-4 days and just as I logged in this morning I noticed that he did it again. He’s just listing the price 1000 ISK below mine each time, so he’s not aggressive…but he is poking me. I’ve got a strategy in mind so we’ll see how it goes. The drone business has not been touched. Nobody has come in to my targeted systems to try and undercut me…but it’s coming I’m sure.

In the meantime, thoughts continue on how to expand my industrial empire. mmmmmwwwaaahahahahahaaa!!

: )

D out.

ummmm…ok?

Today we have important news to share with the community. EA is restructuring its RPG and MMO games development into a new group that includes both Mythic and BioWare. This newly formed team will be led by Ray Muzyka, co-founder and General Manager of BioWare. With this change, Ray becomes Group General Manager of the new RPG/MMO studio group. BioWare’s other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk will become Group Creative Officer for the new RPG/MMO studio group. Rob Denton will step up as General Manager of Mythic and report to Ray. BioWare’s studios remain unchanged and continue to report to Ray.

Mark Jacobs, current General Manager of Mythic will leave EA on June 23, 2009. We thank Mark for his contributions at Mythic and wish him the very best going forward. Mark played a major part in the success of Mythic with his contribution as General Manager and Lead Designer of WAR.

Mythic retains a strong team led by Rob who co-founded Mythic in 1995. Rob played a critical role in the development of Dark Age of Camelot. In his previous role as COO, he was responsible for all day-to-day management of the studio including all development, operations and support.

Please join us in celebrating the union of these two award-winning studios.

D out.

First off…thanks everyone for the thoughts from the last post. Very much appreciated.

Hard to segue from that, I know…but I’m going to anyway.

Eve Online. What has been going on there? Well…Johanthan and I have been playing pretty regularly and we’ve mostly been doing mining together. A couple days ago, we managed to pull in about 10 million ISK in ore…each…with his Hulk and my Retriever. That is not bad at all. Most of the trit from my half went to production of drones and shuttles, which will turn into way more than 10 million ISK at the end of the day. The other great news is that my Mammoth can now fit a whole can of ore, so we are well set up for mining operations right now…but we have lots of room to grow and that is what this post is about.

Up to this point, my training has been about beam cross-training with the focus being a kick-ass Harbinger. With only a day left to go in that training cycle, I can now start to think about other things. I don’t know if I’ll buy are Harbinger just yet…but at least I now have the option to do so when the mood strikes.

I now realize, after the last mining op, that I will have to start the training plan for the Hulk. Looking at EveMon, I have about 23 days to look forward to for that. That gives me more than enough time to save up enough ISK to pay for the thing. After that, we’ll have two Hulks tearing up our (…new…) secret mining spot. The trit…at that point…should be just flowing and then I can start to really ramp up the production side of things. I think that is the way to go….until something more shiny comes along. We are also looking at the Orca as well to replace the Mammoth as the dump truck of our little operation.

I talked a bit about production, so what’s the status and plans for that. Well…so far, my production has been limited to drones and shuttles. I’ve been thinking of expanding the ship making aspect of this by trying Badgers or getting into the ship component side and trying Invul Fields. Both of these have been recommended to me, but so far I haven’t moved on it. Right now, it’s a question of getting a good supply of trit going and I think I might be over-reaching if I put something else in the hopper. Once the other Hulk comes online, then I will probably be in a good spot for expanding.

So…Eve keeps ticking away and the plans of what I need to do keep piling up. All systems normal

D out.

Got the phone call last night that my grandma (…on my father’s side..) passed away, so I just wanted to write a bit about her for today.

Eggnog. That’s the memory that sticks out the most when it comes to her. We went there one Christmas and she introduced me to Eggnog. Man…I must have drank gallons of the stuff at the time because I can’t drink it anymore. I think I drank a lifetime supply at the time

Family reunions were also quite big back in the day. There is a ferry that use to take us across the bay from Manitoulin Island to Tobermory to these reunions, which is one hell of a ride if the wind is high (….read: Darren got sea sick…). During these family reunions, I remember Grandma making lots of bacon and toast for some reason. lol….you wonder where I get it from.

Grandma had a very dry sense of humor that would just floor you…and, she was a tough bird as well. She was 85.

Pippen:”I didn’t think it would end this way…”
Gandalf:”End? … No the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path… one that we all must take. The grey rain curtain rolls back and all turns to silver clouds…. and then you see it.”
Pippen:”What?… Gandalf? See what?”
Gandalf:”White shores…. and beyond… a far green country under the swift sunrise.”
Pippen:”Well… that isn’t so bad.”
Gandalf:”No…. no it isn’t…”

D out

There are a couple things that caught my eye this morning as I tried desperately to wake up.

First up would be Star Trek Online. From a pure theoretical standpoint, I think that they are on the right track when it comes to combat:

Starship navigation in Star Trek Online will allow for a range of movement but it won’t be possible for ships to dogfight. (And honestly, should these massive ships really be pulling barrel rolls in combat?) But even the smaller vessels with very different attributes will be subject to limitations in movement, so “there’s no strafing, no moving backwards and shooting (kiting)” says Zinkievich. He clarifies this by saying that ships can move in reverse, but doing so wouldn’t be useful in combat. So apparently the game will not have Jumpgate Evolution-type scenarios where smaller ships move with blazing speed and agility, as STO combat is by design a more tactical experience.

Just as important as maneuverability (via WASD, with E and Q for throttle up and down) in Star Trek Online’s space combat is positioning. Zinkievich says, “I don’t want to say that the class of your ship has nothing to do with combat, but positioning is HUGE. Making sure that you get to your target’s weak side and protect (shift shield energy to) yours is gigantic. Movement and positioning is probably the single most important part of combat.”

Most Star Trek fans are very aware that combat within Star Trek is rooted deeply in Naval combat. It’s not quick. It’s not about balls to the wall pwnage. It’s about movement and positioning in order to bring the maximum amount of firepower on your opponent. Not only that, it’s about hitting them where it hurts the most while denying them the opportunity to do the same to you. If they even hint at bringing in twitch combat into STO, then they have failed the IP. So far, it looks like they are doing the IP justice. Now, we just have to hear more about the non-combat options in STO because we all know Star Trek is more than just phasers and photon torpedoes.

The second piece of news was this story about Darkfall. What really caught my eye was this:

Darkfall could have been a great game, but never have I seen so much exploiting and cheating in an MMO from day one onwards, not even in most Korean games has it ever been on this scale. If you like cheating, then you’ll love Darkfall, the code is so weak in it that it practically begs for it to be a hacker’s paradise. A shame too, the ideas behind the game were brilliant, but the players have turned it to a pile of crap, really fast.

The game was supposed to have way more depth then that but this is what happens when you put a bunch of people in a game that have never played UO or any other non-easy-mode game. This isn’t UO-esque at all, like it was marketed to be.

Darkfall is shaping up to be one of those games where a certain type of player has taken over the game completely. What happens next one of two things: devs do something about it to plug the number of holes that asshats can exploit….or….this game bleeds to the point where Aventurine can no longer support the game. Remember, Darkfall is Aventurine’s only MMO product…so they can’t afford to bleed players for stupid reasons like code exploits. It’s a question of numbers and momentum for this game and both are trending in the wrong direction and need to be addressed in order for it to be a viable PvP alternative to games like WAR or EVE. It’s got potential to do that, but you just have to ask the drunk, loud, obnoxious uncles to kindly leave the family BBQ to get there.

Last, but certainly not least is Aion. Remember that Simpsons episode where Lisa goes up against Mailbu Stacy? There was that one scene where Lisa was in front of a crowd waiting to buy the new Mailibu Stacy doll…oh…here is a nice description of the scene:

A crowd of little girls wait anxiously for the opening of the toy store
so they can be the first to get Lisa Lionheart. Smithers waits with
them, too, greedily anticipating the joy. When the doors are opened,
the crowd stampedes in. “Look,” cries one girl, “it’s Lisa Lionheart!”
Another encourages them, “Keep running! We’re almost there!”

They almost make it, except an employee pulls a cart full of Malibu
Stacy dolls “with NEW hat” in their path. They all stop: “They changed
Malibu Stacy!” one exclaims. “She is better than ever!” says another.
Lisa tries to point out that the only difference is her stupid cheap
hat. “She still embodies all the awful stereotypes she did before!”
Smithers is quick to point out, “But she’s got a new hat.” This is all
it takes for the girls to ignore Lisa Lionheart in favor of the cheap-
hatted dolls.

…Aion apparently has a new hat…

D out.

I’m feeling like a shit disturber today. So, in the spirit of shit-disturb…dom, here is the difference between “carebears” and “hardcore” players. I’ll leave it to all of you to determine which is which:

Family+guy+Hummer+skit

/runs and hides.

D out.