Investigating The Secret World (Part 3)

Alright. Now that we’re at Part Three I’m done giving background,  I’m just going to talk about mostly about the game play and questing in The Secret World. If you want to catch up, just check out Part One and/or Part Two. As I said before, there may be spoilers in these posts.

By the time I got through the starter area, I had a pretty good understanding of the faction I was working for, and each of the NPCs I interacted with were fully-voice acted, and I could ask them a variety of questions such as the state of the secret world, their opinions on the other factions, and themselves. Also, after initially meeting with them you can also check to see if they have any quests. So far, any NPC presented quest would be explained in the form of a cut scene, leading to a switch in perspective for the camera. I would say this does make the quests seem more dramatic than having six other people standing in front of the character with you, and while I wouldn’t say that they blow me away each time, I find the consistency to be a positive improvement compared to what we had in Age Of Conan.

Concept Art: “The Besieged Farmlands”

That said, quests so far rarely feel like the run of the mill quests we have in other MMOs. While it’s possible I may not have gotten in far enough, the closest thing I had to a mundane quest was to lure a group of enemies into a magically protected church. This did in fact consist of me shooting them and then running off, but it was explained to me as a way of testing the magic wards the church had in place. It wasn’t especially complicated, but it was more interesting luring five of them as opposed to merely killing five of them. In another quest, I was supposed to help resupply an isolated town under siege by zombies. Instead of simply marking on my mini map each of the locations, first I had to find a phone book and check the list off addresses there. I would like to point out interacting with the phone book was very thorough, I didn’t just right click it and then have it assigned to my mini map, I actually had the opportunity to look at it; the phone book had actually addresses, phone numbers, and the names of each of the locations. Because I could visit the phone book prior to the quest, this time the important addresses were circled in red. It was only then did my character decide which areas would be best best to investigate. Some areas had supplies, and some had giant monsters waiting to eat off my face. Once I had finished checking out all the buildings I had first circled, my character noticed he did not actually have enough, and I had to find another phone book to figure out what to do next. In another quest, I found myself chasing flocks of ravens and then examining a drawing of a pentagram in order to find the right location to put the raven feathers I had collected to summon a monster.

While the puzzles and concepts I was being introduced to were reasonably simple, from what I can tell there are supposed to become much more complicated: they actually have an in-game browser that connects you to Google so you can do research. I would also like to point out that this browser worked significantly better than the original browser built into EVE Online. Really, this is the first time I’ve ever played a game that outright told me, “You’re not going to figure it all out on your own.”

“Besieged Farmlands” In-Game

Now, let’s talk about the real game play where you kill things. Before you can get to fighting zombies, monsters, and those dirty stick in the mud Templars, you need to pick a weapon (If you’re a Templar, don’t bother. You’re already dead). As you progress through your faction starting area, at some point you will be sent to a trainer that will explain the basics of how combat works. This trainer goes on to explain the fire that you seem to have control over (as mentioned in Part One) is your “anima”. For some reason you are able to project this life energy inside you to be a deadly. As such, the question you have to ask yourself is, “How do I want to control it?” This is supposed to be the defining reason why The Secret World is an RPG progression. Any weapon you choose to use is ultimately a focus object for you to project your anima. You have three categories to choose from, Melee, Ranged, and Magic. These three categories each have three weapons associated with them. Melee is composed of Hammers, Swords, and Fist Weapons. Ranged consists of Shotguns, Dual Pistols, and Assault Rifles. Last, we have Elemental, Blood, and Chaos Magic.  At any one time, you can use two weapons and fourteen abilities associated with them (Seven active abilities, and seven passive abilities). This is explained to you in a video shown via the in-game browser. Let me just say, the announcer manages to make everything sound awesome. He tells you to consider abilities as cards in a collectible card game, and the abilities you choose to use are your “deck”. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t actually sound like something to get you pumped. Maybe you think it’s kind of cool, but you wouldn’t go and call it exciting. At least, not if this was being explained by a normal person. The announcer for this manages to say all of it so seriously when he finishes saying, “deck” I think to myself, “Holy crap, this MMO lets me me pick and choose my abilities like its a deck in a collectible card game!” Chances are this guy could convince me that you should only be able to solo in MMOs and that all single player games should be multiplayer only. Really, that guy could get me to buy anything. That said, while all this freedom is well and good, and I may now have a man-crush for the narrator, it doesn’t actually determine whether or not it’s fun.

On the surface, you might think that the combat is more of the same. And to be fair, you can see the similarities to “standard MMO” fighting. However, because you don’t level up through a power tree or a strictly linear system, there is a more strategic mindset for when you start picking abilities you want to learn and use, and the combat itself and feel a bit more fast paced and tactical. Having said that, I think it’s  actually really hard to peg it as “fun” or “not fun”, because it all really depends on how you feel about classic MMO combat. If you think that’s fun (or fun enough), this could either interest you as a step up, or turn you off for being too different. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something different, this might be enough to pique your interest, however to some it might still be too much of the same old thing. Personally, I find the combat to be just different enough to satisfy me.

Overall, I would say that my time spent with The Secret World was pretty enjoyable. Because I have the game pre-ordered and have access to the last beta weekend, you can bet I’ll be talking about this game for a while.

Riknas, signing off!

Investigating The Secret World (Part 2)

Naturally, this is a follow up on The Secret World from Part 1.

So, I’m going to skip over a second set of introductions because chances are if you’re reading this you already read part one. That, and if you didn’t read the first part I can’t imagine you caring much about this post either.

One thing I would like to say before discussing my experiences in-game is to say that Funcom has really gone the extra mile in this project, especially as one of the few prominent independent studios left. I never thought the newsletter that I signed up for on a whim would actually come back and entice me the way it has. Their use of the Facebook “social experience” The Secret War managed to make a simple map of our own world seem significantly more mysterious and enticing. Along with that, they kept me checking in on it regularly with offers of in-game items, treats, and guaranteed beta access for those that accumulated an exceptionally large sum of “points”.

Along with that, they continued to string along the conspiracy theorists with unique marketing, sending those who signed up for the newsletter on an elaborate internet chase, trying to unravel two mysteries at once in what people are calling an “ARG” or “Alternate Reality Game“. They have been keeping us active digging through pastebin archives, searching for hidden meaning in songs on Youtube, deciphering secret codes to unlock Live Action videos that bring us one step closer to understanding another conflict occurring in The Secret World. If you want to try and see what I’m talking about… go to www.funcom.com and wait for a few seconds for the site to load. Then hit “33” on your keyboard, and you can see what I’m talking about They are currently on the sixth seal here. See if you can figure out the questions you may have on your own. One would normally think a game rooted in mystery, deception, and espionage would not lend itself especially well to an MMORPG; while I can’t speak for everyone, Funcom has done a damn good job at making it work so far.

And with that out of the way, let me tell you about my experience inside The Secret World. Keep in mind, there may be spoilers.

The first rule of The Secret World is tell all your friends about The Secret World…Wait, what?

Just before the character creator, you are asked to choose between one of three factions, the Templars, Illuminati, and the Dragon. To help you decide, each faction has a simple trailer (click the links if you want to see them). Considering how they have much more elaborate trailers, I’m surprised that they chose to use those ones. My personal guess is that these trailers are easier for the client to run as opposed to the full CG ones, and they don’t want to tax the program more than necessary.

Anyway, while my personal choice was the Illuminati, I decided to try the starter areas for each of the factions. Regardless of your choice, the game opens up with a cutscene referred to as “One Week Ago” in what is presumably your apartment, unless you actually are a squatter or stole another person’s apartment after killing them and throwing their mutilated corpse in their own closet. “Why so specific?” you might ask. Don’t. Worry. About. It. Okay?

As I was saying, you are sleeping in your (alleged) apartment while a radio broadcast mentions investigations into the Japanese government after an unclear accident took place against a certain “Orochi” group. Meanwhile, while this broadcast takes place, one glowing insect and another regular one fly onto your windowsill and slowly make their way across their room. The first insect flies into your mouth, and the glowing one follows right after it. Almost immediately after, your character brings a hand to their throat and sits up coughing. Reaching out for your jacket across from your bed, a blue fire comes from your hand, and you jerk back in surprise. Testing your hand once more, the flame appears once more and you stare in shock. The screen goes black, and we then see ourselves “Four Days Ago”. Your apartment is now a wreck, CDs, books and various objects are strewn across the floor, along with an entire bookshelf toppled over. And then there is you, tucked away in the corner curled up holding your knees to your chest, face distraught. There’s a rumbling in the background, and you find yourself yanked upward as you let forth an explosion around you and are held up in the air while beams of energy shoot out from your mouth and eyes like you were running a laser-light-show for your organs. By the next time skip you’ve decided to use your fire as part of your own break dancing routine as you throw it back and forth between your hands, until you decide to absorb it from one hand, and let the blue energy travel through your shoulders, up your arm, and materializing it once more in your opposite hand. After that, your paths finally diverge based on your faction choice, and a representative of that group shows up at your door. They capture the moods of their respective organizations very well, with the Illuminati man clarifying the playboy/party life you can lead, the Templar woman explains the importance of nobility and your responsibility to the world, and the Dragon sends a monk with lips stitched together, knocks you out with a bolt of lightning to the forehead, has you dragged off, so you can wake up being thrown out of a van in South Korea. For a bit of context, it is heavily implied that your apartment is in New York City. The Dragon are agents of chaos indeed.

At this point I think I should stop and clarify, not only were all these introductions very cool, for an MMO the animations were extremely fluid and compelling, and from what I have seen, Funcom has clearly gone out of their way to let us know they can do a lot with their character models. This is made especially clear in the Illuminati section as characters stand up and walk around, sometimes raising their fists and shaking their head, while other times providing slight nods and general gestures. In general, the facial animations are a bit lacking, but overall Funcom has conveyed the feeling of living human bodies very well. Of course, I should point out that I did notice a fair number of flaws in the animations for the Dragon starter area, but it appears to be something everyone is aware and should be worked out by the next release date.

Since this article has turned out (again) to be longer than I expected, I will be detailing the combat and gameplay in Part 3.

Riknas, signing off!

Free Play Reviews: Achaea (Archive)

((The second part of “Investigating The Secret World” will be tomorrow… Sorry! In the mean time, try another Free Play Review by Andras!))

Achaea by Iron Realms Entertainment

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| /_ \ | |—| |— / _\|

| / \ |___ | | |____ / \| I’m sure some of you may be wondering what this mangled creation of bits and bytes just might be. For those of you who aren’t wondering, you should really take more interest in things like that. And for those who have continued to read thus far, you will be rewarded with the knowledge that using slashes and straight lines to form the word “Achea” is not as simple as one would hope. Especially not in this format. But, why did I choose to attempt such an impossible feat in the first place? Because, my naive friend, Achea is a MUD. That’s right, it is a multi-user-dungeon. It’s a text game. Text. No pictures.

There is a certain liberating quality with that since I no longer feel obligated to include pictures in this blog.

Where Does Our Story Begin

\O/

..|

./\

(Andras)

Due to the unusual nature of this MMO, excuse me MUD, I feel I cannot review it in the usual fashion. So different, in fact, that I’m sure my accomplice Riknas made me review this game as some form of revenge for my being so awesome.

Aside from this, I don’t feel it necessary to include any form of background history to this game. It is styled after Dungeons and Dragons. If you don’t know what Dungeons and Dragons is, I have absolutely no clue as to what you might be doing on this site. Since the story is so simple, I think I might as well include the sign up process here in an attempt to save precious paragraph space. (As a warning, expect the following paragraph structure to grow increasingly convoluted). Sign up was almost unnervingly simple, to the point where it did not exist. You simple choose a user name and password, and the character creation starts. Granted, you must register an e-mail account if you want to keep your new faceless creation for more than a day, but it’s nice to be able to sample the game without fear of the spam-horde approaching on your precious inbox. Registering your email was also unnervingly simple, where it can all be done in-game. And since everything in the game was text anyways, I could register without missing a beat. Very nifty.

“Novelty has charms that our mind can hardly withstand. -William Makepeace Thackeray”

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……………………|……o\….

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/\…………………|…….|…..

|.. \_________/……..|….

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..\……._______/…./……

…\____________/…….

(Duckie)

Regardless of your beliefs of the creation of life on Earth, most people understand the general concept of evolution. Evolution in video-games is agiven, we no longer operate 6 bit characters navigating a tri-color world, and most people would agree this is for the best aside from certain members of our society (*cough* Jack Thompson). But sometimes there is a certain novelty in seeing things before grinding and owning had any meaning outside of dance clubs and pimps. Sometimes we like to go back to simpler times.

Unfortunately, those times weren’t so simple. Anyone who has grown used to the ease with which current MMOs can be played (auto-run? pansies) may find a game like Achea disorienting. Fortunately the tutorial system in the game is very well done, making what would be an otherwise dry and abstract concepts simple and practical, since they held your hand a good portion of the way. And, in my opinion, the hand was rather nice. It wasn’t one of those overly firm hands you get when you come across a lawyer, nor the cold clammy hands of a doctor, nor that lose skin one might feel if you come into contact with the elderly. That analogy doesn’t make sense to me, but if it makes sense to you, please leave a comment explaining it.

Drifting back on topic, there is no dipping your toes into a text based game. You can either eye the water cautiously from the comfort of the sun-chair, or start to enter the water slowly only to be pulled in from an overly energetic 8 year old. From that point on, you either are filled with adrenaline at the realization that you are indeed swimming, or drown a horrible and painful death.

Let’s assume you swim.

Chuck Norris Doesn’t Get Wet, Water Gets Chuck Norris

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……./|\……

(Chuck Norris)

So, you’ve made it through the very beginning of the tutorial without exiting from total boredom (the tutorial takes 10-30 minutes). As you could guess, the tutorial is very in depth and covers the majority of the game. So, really, if you play the tutorial and you don’t like it, don’t expect that the REAL game is actually any different. And if you do like the tutorial, you can look forward to a massive, totally free, and old-skool world. Playing the text game was surprisingly intuitive. The game drops hints constantly should you ever feel even slightly neglected, and handles intuitively. I found how to Take Map before I was actually supposed to. The delay in text appearances is a lot less imposing than other MUDs I’ve played that chuck a page of text at you and expect you to read it until (and after) your eyes bleed. There seemed to be a decent amount of depth to stat tracking and equipment setups. But, honestly, I have a hard time reviewing a game whose core concept could very well be foreign to most of you. To those of you familiar with MUDs, you probably already have one that eats away your precious time, but it is still a good MUD as far as MUDs go. MUD isn’t really a flattering term. But take my word for it. About the good game thing.

Once More, With Feeling

[image could not be displayed]

I’m going to try a different approach and try to explain the joys and woes of text games as a whole. In the same way that the invention of the moving picture is not superior to the book (readers will note that the population of books is well in the healthy range) the “moving game” is not entirely superior to the text game. By reading text the player can never complain about graphics, since all that is within the confines of his own thoughts. For the role-player, a text based game is the last haven. You can truly feel you are at the head of your very own journey, with more particle effects than can be handled by even the most well endowed computers. Conversations feel more real as you actually Say “My name is Andras” to the npcs. There’s a large variety of classes available with ample description into the story of each (with combat and stat details sparse) further luring in the RPers. There was also an interesting House (read guild) system designed to group like minded players. It is well equipped to handle fantasizing players.

But, really, that’s about all the game can provide. The combat felt a bit disorienting as I typed Kick Rat, waited for the screen to tell my my body regained its balance, and then typed it again. During this little ritual, the enemy may attack in an unnecessarily long sentence, followed by another saying how much damage I was dealt. While typing and reading, I had no clue if I was winning or losing this epic struggle with my plague infested foe, but eventually the thing keeled over and had the good graces to die. I gave it another kick for good measure. But the whole experience was confusing, and I didn’t feel inclined to go fight anything else. Fortunately, there were a good amount of Tasks (read quests) for me to do that did not involve fighting. I did a few here and there, avoiding any that might involve fighting, only to realize I wasn’t actually having fun. Don’t get me wrong, the initial thrill of typing “North” to go north was great, but quickly wore off. Maybe at later levels mastering the art of fighting becomes easier and fighting epic enemies feels… epic, but from my time with the game I felt stupid and ashamed.

If you play, I recommend bringing a friend who can feel ashamed with you. Maybe you two can even role-play.

And That Means….

(-_-)

(<>)

((( )))

(thing)

My simple recommendation is: If you’re remotely curious about a game played in text, try it out. There’s registration if you like it, and your character is wiped in 24 hours if you don’t. The beginning gives you a very good idea of how the rest of the game goes.

((This review was made in the year 2009 and may not remain faithful to the current state of the game))

Investigating The Secret World (Part 1)

Good afternoon internet. For close to three days, Funcom had its third Beta event “Hell Raised” for The Secret World. This went from which ended last night. The game will no longer be available until June 29th for early access players, or July 3rd for the main release. I happened to be one of the lucky people invited to this beta weekend event, and now I will relay the many things I have seen to you, dear readers. Keep a note, this will not be spoiler free.

Getting Started

First, I may as well point out that installing the game went relatively smoothly. While I did have some difficulties with the installer stopping abruptly, this was caused by external sources rather than the program itself. However, while the patcher works adequately, its still slow compared to the other MMOs I have worked with. Each time I tried to boot up the game after having downloaded the necessary patches, it still insisted on analyzing my computer for 10-20 seconds and then going through a 10 megabyte download (each time) before telling me I was ready. I assume it’s just overwriting the same memory file repeatedly, but in the off-chance that is not the case, I will consider myself both distressed and disappointed.

Even then, once I try to start up the game it takes a while, going from 40 seconds to a little over a minute. Hopefully the patcher will be optimized in the last beta weekend or the launch date That said, the wait wasn’t terrible, but it was long enough for me to wonder, “Is this thing working?”

After that the game booted up in Fullscreen, and ran through the usual promotional trailers and branding. One odd thing I noted though is that after that, every other time I tried to start the game it would begin in windowed mode until I went into the video settings to change it back. Again, this was an oddity that wasn’t especially bad, just a minor inconvenience.  If only I could say the same about the character creation…

Character Creation

It’s a neat little thing, giving you what I would call a “moderate” amount of customization. There is no height changes to make but with the full assortment of skin colors along with sliders for various facial features like “eyebrow”, “jaw” etc. There are a decent number of features to make sure you have a character that manages to look different from the next guy. This would be okay, if the character creator didn’t seem to hate me. Although we were allotted three character slots, I made four characters after deleting one, and each time I managed to fight with the character creator. While clicking on skin colors and articles of clothing worked fine, the sliders worked more like rusted levers as I tried to drag it from one choice to another, and god forbid I try to click over to a different part of the slider. No, it was quite determined that I struggle to go through each choice on the way to the one I wanted to see. Perhaps it was trying to encourage me to be more open minded about the other choices, but I certainly wasn’t convinced. This was the first time I just stopped adjusting my characters appearance because it simply wasn’t worth the effort. That definitely needs to be fixed before release.

But, where the character creator really shines is in having a massive wardrobe to go through, giving you dozens of outfits to put together. The ability to dress like a pimp, a business man, a member of the trenchcoat mafia, a homeless man, a golfer, or a homeless man that looked like he found some dress shoes are all at your finger tips. Really, it’s an excellent number of choices, and there are plenty more outfits for your character to buy when you get out in the real world.

Because I have less time than I would like to write this, I will be detailing the in-game experience in part 2.

Riknas, signing off!

Free Play Reviews: Runescape (Archive)

Runescape by Jagex

What’s this? Do I, Andras, dare to take on the monolithic giant that is Runescape? And no, I don’t actually expect you to answer that. Speaking into your computer would be stupid. Don’t do it. Seriously.

What You Say?

The history of Runescape is not what you would typically expect from a game of Runescape’s stature, and is only referenced slightly during my time with the game. The complete expanse of their knowledge can be found within the lore section of the website. If you want the most brief description of the story possible, I can give it in 6 letters. MMORPG. That’s right, yet another fantasy based online role-playing game. The lore wasn’t serious, mostly comprised of small humorous few of which actually add to the universe. This is forgiven, since the game does not seem to take itself seriously, and sees most of its own actions as a joke. The few of you who enjoy the “role-playing” portion of role-playing games should be warned.

Where do I sign?

As I am sure most of you readers know you must sign up for an MMO in order to play it, if you don’t know this you should stop looking over daddies shoulder while he is trying to read this magnificent blog. Signing up for Runescape was THE least painful experience of any of the MMOs thus far. The only information it asked for was my date of birth, the username I want, and the password I want. No email address was required, or even politely requested. During the registration process it provides you with a link on where to go to start playing. From the time I accessed the site to the time I actually started loading up the game took a grand total of 58 seconds. Bravo Runescape, you crazy jackal, bravo.

The Pointy End Goes in the Bad Guy

So, you’ve just spent a record breaking amount of time creating your account, now you want to put it to good use and start your grinding/leveling cycle. First it is important to note that Runescape now comes in 2 different visual modes. The “advanced” mode has very impressive graphics considering it is a browser based game and extremely low system requirements. The low mode is very drab and dull, but honestly if your computer is so hopelessly outdated that it needs to use this mode you should be happy if your mouse can move from one end of the screen to the other without lagging, let alone playing an online game.

After selecting which mode you want to play in (please god let it be advanced) you can create your personal character. The formula for it is fairly standard, choose one of a half dozen hair types and hair colors, and clothing and colors. I found the selection to be reasonably good, and my emo/ancient bearded wizard was well on his way. After popping out of this virtual womb fully grown and clothed, you discover that your “hospital room” is nothing else but a dragon infested cellar. A nearby white knight initiates your tutorial by asking help fighting off this dragon. As far as tutorials go, this one started off fairly exciting and creative. It should be noted, however, that after this sudden burst of total creativity the developer in charge of it must have had his head explode, for after the initial engaging bits it all turns very bland. The tutorial quest is comprised entirely of you running around town meeting various trainers who then make you demonstrate the different content in the game. It is all very informative, but also very long taking well over a half hour for me. There isn’t even any option to skip the tutorial since all of the buttons and abilities of your character are hidden until the game has had the time to give you the full lecture on it. So, while it is a bit more entertaining than reading a tutorial page, I personally would have preferred just being able to read it all.

So About this Game…

So the few of you who have not already played Runescape are probably wondering how the game handles itself. My response would be that this MMORPG handles itself like an MMORPG. This is a nice quality of the game, since it seems well aware of its condition and place and makes no attempt to be something it is clearly not. This game has plenty of grinding, but each skill has its own individual grind. If you want to be good at tree cutting you have to cut trees, which all makes sense. Grinding combat is, surprisingly, a little less fun. Combat with a sword consists of a game of whack-a-mole. Only, unlike most games of whack-a-mole where you are required to whack the mole, hence “whack-a-mole”, the game thinks you’ll be content watching the moles whack each other as if there were some mole civil war. Magic can be a bit more fun, but getting the necessary runes to grind is a grind in itself. True, there are different fighting types for each weapon (accuracy, power, etc.), but really, once you find one you like you can keep with it and no one will call you out on it.

All this would be forgivable if you at least had a friend to keep your mind off of the monotony. While the game does allow a friends list and guild membership, there is no party system whatsoever. Furthermore, two players cannot attack the same creature. This means if you want to play with a friend, you can’t actually help each other in the way of combat. In fact, most of your player to player interaction would be in the way of the market. This lack of grouping, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of the MMO. This game could just have easily been released as a single player game and it would have made very little difference.

That’s not to say that this game isn’t fun. It is fun in the way that it is so incredibly massive, like walking down a New York city street if you come from the country. Really, all you’re doing is walking with an increased chance of getting mugged, murdered, and/or raped, but the city is simply so massive that treading its side-walks is entertainment in itself.

Internet Highwaymen?

What’s the catch here? Really, it is pretty simple. There is an optional subscription, at $5 a month, which gives you more of the same. You get 100 more quests, mini-games, more skills, more lands, and regular content updates. Considering the price is one third the price of a regular MMO, it isn’t a bad deal. However, unless you have a powerful yearning to be the next greatest farmer, it would be worth it to wait until you have exhausted all of the free game’s quests before whipping out your credit card.

Fin

Basically, it is a dumbed down version of World of Warcraft that comes free of charge. But considering how dumbed down it is, where the very combat system seems out-dated, you might find a better MMO elsewhere. That is, unless you enjoy the grind, in which case this game will easily fill your cheapskate appetite. I just want to throw in that this is one of those games you may not want to tell people you play, otherwise they might pick you up by your power-ranger’s underwear and hang it over that red mailbox you have and while you’re wailing and wailing for your mommy a car comes by and throws a bear bottle at you and it cracks on your head and your so miserable that you spent the rest of your life sitting in front of the computer… or so I’ve heard.

((This review was made in the year 2009 and does not remain completely faithful to the current state of the game. Review by Andras.))

The Stigma System (Archive)

You Had No Idea, Did You?

No, I’m not talking about the system Aion uses. As I might have mentioned before, I’ve recently been playing Champions and what began a quick play session has since transitioned into a self-induced addiction; that is not what I’m trying to convey. To some then this may appear to be a misleading non sequitur, however I will have you know it will tie in once I’ve gotten the rest of my ramblings out of the way.

If you recall, you may remember how the internet was set aflame time and time again as the Age of Conan and WAR audiences duked it out, both intent on destroying each other. This is not an uncommon situation, and it makes perfect sense that brand loyalties would develop from hype while fighting over a finite audience. As I observed the two communities, many insisted that they would never go to that other game. Again, this irrational hatred of their “enemy” MMO makes enough sense that you can think your way around it and accept the logic. This is of course at the same time while players angrily swear off the game that dared to make them so excited for the release, only to ultimately disappoint them. There they would write on and on about what the developers did wrong and tried to mislead us, saying they would never play one of their games again and would be hiring Jack Thompson to try and bring their game down; As well as sending letters to their congressmen to ban bad games like that one and put a curse on their building so every employee who worked on this horrible game would lose their first born and be condemned to the ninth ring of hell.

You Can Feel Their Malice

I do actually believe I could hear the sounds of children screaming every time I finished reading that post. I shudder to think of what the dark thoughts of Daikatana players must have been like. I would put in an image to try and display it, but I would no doubt actually be banned by the internet itself for crimes against humanity. Moving swiftly along, I now point out Star Gate: Worlds (Now confirmed dead) which has been classified as vaporware several times over, to which the team typically throws screen shots up at MMORPG.com to let them know they are (supposedly) still working on it. Commentary from the community was more or less consistent; People were unimpressed and ridiculed it for one reason or another, rarely actually pointing out what they thought of the graphics; Rather comments consisted of pointing out what an awful game it must be and how it should just hurry up and die. Then, on occasion someone might say they like the screen shots, followed by the ridicule of that person for having such an idiotic thought.

Again, while irrationally argued, there is sense to this. Screenshots typically mean very little to me, since they rarely show how good the game play actually is, or how well it runs. I can also wholeheartedly agree with the people who pound on Aion and AoC, who in their latest updates have been dancing around their issues of lack of content with fluff and marketing that typically equate to, “Look at the shiny!” as if they were trying to convince us we were not actually reasonable human beings. Instead they desperately want us to start to think like an ADD child who had been deprived of his Ritalin. However, the farther in we go the more frequent the inanity of the anger is, and we start to revert back to the beginning of pure hatred rooted in disappointment and the differing of opinions. What I find most surprising is the amount of backlash that comes from even positive news. When supposedly Age of Conan had fixed many of its bugs and added new content (Even going so far as to give people two weeks free to prove it,) people still rallied and shouted it down for having been such an awful game, and is made of lies. Not that they saw that it wasn’t true, or that they were skeptical, but simply statements of “It’s still a bad game” with only their supposed Spider-senses that allow them to know when something is full of suck. On a side note, I have a similar ability to know when you are full of stupid.

I Can Tell When That Loser Is You

And don’t you forget it! It was actually just today that I read up on what are most likely to be the next set of additions to Champions, and most things I read were pleasing. In fact, the latest update was on trying to put in more things that the game was criticized for; lacking group content and lack of endgame. And yet, although that is the official goal (along with mastering the feel of being a super hero) I still see seeping anger and dismissive posts, actually demanding that the only thing the game can do is shut down because the game has no end-game and there is no group content. To that I ask, “Um, what?” Desperately I searched for the reason I could be reading so much stupid. Not even Age of Conan had garnered such concentrated desires to see that it simply end. Did they even read the article? Ultimately, I had to conclude that actually, none of these posters could read. In fact, they just happened to be illiterate and accidentally ended up on MMORPG.com, and in their attempt to find what they were originally looking for, had instead managed to, (by pure chance) end up on the forum thread for the article and accidentally typed in complete sentences, blissfully unaware that instead of exiting they were writing something horribly ironic that reeked of stupid. Therefore, I should hold nothing against these individuals and instead I should feel bad for them because they have such rotten luck and managed to say something that would allow intelligent human beings to look down on them since they are not guaranteed to be as understanding as I am.

Is stigma so strong that we only believe in what’s convenient to our current thoughts, and anything else to the contrary is actually just a lie? Brilliant.

Raising Hell

Funcom recently announced their third beta weekend… Hell Raised that will be taking place from June 15th to June 17th. Today I just thought I would let you all know that I will be participating in this event, and will be reporting on it soon… I hope you’re looking forward to it, because I know I am.

Riknas, signing off!

The Free Trial (Archive)

HEY IF WE MAKE IT REALLY BRIGHT AND SPIKY WILL YOU BUY IT?!

Hello once more, this is Riknas speaking! You guys remember free trials right? It was that thing that we used a lot before Dungeons and Dragons Online and Warhammer started their “FOREVER FOR FREE” trial where the page designer jammed his hands on the caps-lock key and we all said “THIS IS THE NEW ERA”. I’m going to be honest. This is going to be an issue.

First of all, people are still using free trials (as well as one paid trial). That said, this isn’t to say no one else has fallen in line to try unlimited plays. Funcom has finally given all of Tortage for free in their unlimited trial; just as well, so has Cryptic with Champions Online. Now if you’ll bear with me, let’s focus on one specific word Champions used.

Demo. Interesting word, in my opinion at least. This is most often used in single player games, if anything. And yet, it seems brilliantly fitting in this situation. Here, is where I believe that we are able to finally draw the line between a Free to Play game and a Pay to Play game. Transcending past the concept of a box price, how much of the game are you able to play before they tell you to start paying? Both AoC and CO really use a demo, and the same goes for Warhammer (I’m not clear enough on DDO). They have set a bar in their game. This is the defining factor between a game with an optional subscription and an unlimited free trial. These games didn’t go Free to Play, they just offered a wider opening to try the game and get people to start paying. “FREE TO PLAY FOREVER!” Get over yourself, this is just a demo to see if the game is worth buying. While hardly shifting the way games are made, “demos” for MMOs may be a better model then hoping they’ll buy your game after a week or two.

 
((This archive post has been edited to remain more accurate in today’s market))

Credit Where It’s Due (Part 1)

Good afternoon, readers. Or good evening if you’re reading this rather late. Of course, “Good morning” might be more appropriate for some of you. And for those of you reading this at 2:30 AM, I recommend you simply stop reading this, and turn off your computer to get some rest. Staying up that late can be detrimental to your internal body clock, you know. Unless of course, you work a night shift, then I suppose it can’t be helped. In which case, hi.

Moving swiftly on…I wanted to elaborate on something I very briefly touched upon in my previous post, “Funcom’s Still At It“. Now, don’t be mislead by the title, the topic today is not specifically about them. Rather, I wanted to point out the extreme ruthlessness that we have seen in the MMO market, and the few groups that have fought against that.

If you note Syp’s  comprehensive MMO Timline, you’ll see that a Massively Multiplayer Online Game has been shut down every year since 2007, and in much greater numbers than before. In the year 2009, a total of four MMOs were shut down, namely Hellgate: London, The Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, and Shadowbane. Three of which were intended to be the “Triple-A” MMOs when released. NCsoft is especially guilty for cracking down on their western development teams, shutting down Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Dungeon Runners, Exteel, and the North American “Lineage” servers in rapid succession. Sony has also seen hard times, finding themselves unable to support The Matrix Online or Star Wars Galaxies. Along with that, the surprisingly long lived Everquest Online Adventures game for the PS2 shut down this year, and the long awaited spy MMO “The Agency” has been canceled, and likely will never see the light of day.

Explode…into what, exactly?

Now consider the fact that because of these game closures, literally thousands of gamers have actually lost the game that they dedicated themselves to for months, or even years. Gamers without their MMO-homes to go to. We are talking about MMO-homeless people. A tragedy if I’ve ever heard of one. Even now, Planetside, which originally held six servers, now hobbles about with only one (of course, there is still a ray of sunshine knowing that they are working on a Planetside 2), how long can that last?

Despite that, a small number of developers stand out as MMO protectors, staying strong against hard economic times, low server populations, budget cuts, and the competition of other online games trying to crush them; online companies that remained in a positive light or were not discouraged for being unable to conquer the MMO market like so many claim to be their goal. Because I have spent more time on this post than I earlier expected, I will be detailing the second half of this topic in Part Two.

Riknas, signing off!

Part Two

Funcom’s Still At It

One of the earliest screen shots for the new engine.

Hello once more! No, this isn’t a Secret World post just yet. Rather, I wanted to draw attention to something else, especially knowing that The Secret World is on the horizon.

While Funcom is currently more well known for the development of Age of Conan, and the aforementioned Secret World, we can not forget their first online game, Anarchy Online. Despite the tremendous difficulties that Funcom has dealt with their debut MMO release, Funcom has continued to support it in a way that we normally expect from a single-MMO developer such as CCP or Aventurine.

Back in 2007 (three years after the game had become Free to Play) they had announced their intention to revamp the game’s graphics engine and “release it fresh”. Many of us had long since discarded the change to be vapor ware, but after the release of Duke Nukem Forever, we know anything is possible.
That said, five years later they have continued to develop this new engine, and went so far to say in a Massively Article that not only is there going to be a graphics overhaul, but an overhaul to the entire game, changing the starting experience and even going so far as to change the system mechanics and “content interaction”. While many would say the graphics update is long overdue, I think the extra time spent to change the rest of the experience is definitely worth it. Not only that, with the Online Gaming in such a negative spot right now, this might be the perfect time for Anarchy Online to try and make a comeback.

 
Riknas, signing off!