WAR Suggests You Kill and Kill Again

If you've haven't done so, you should head on over to WAR and listen to the newest podcast about quests.  I heard something that set my interest on fire.  Finally, I can be rewarded for the way "I" level in games! Woot!

Crazy as the Mad Hatter though it may seem, I actually prefer to level by - well, killing shit.  I don't like being sent on errands and I despise being sent to look for specific locations.  I do quests when I'm in the mood to quest, but more often than not, I like to pick out mobs and kill them over and over.  Most people call that grinding and it is to a degree.  However, it's what you're going to end up doing anyway and I find it more satisfying to do it on my own terms.  I pick the scenary and the mobs, both of which I use to my advantage to further secondary needs like gold, professions, reputation or the need for a challenging encounter.

You can keep it fresh an interesting by exploring new zones and trying your hand at killing things alone, that you shouldn't be able to solo.  By selecting interesting zones and creatures, I can use my own ingenuity and strategy to beat the game in small spurts, creating my own little mini games.

I'll do dungeons and instances when I can.  I actually enjoy doing them or I did before the shear masses of idiots in WOW made doing a PUG like chewing glass. Back in my AC2 days instances were a mainstay of my existence.  I all but skipped the quests and did my solo grinding in between instance groups, and my tendency to prefer that style of play hasn't changed much since then.

It seems that WAR has realized that people who play by slaughtering would like to be rewarded too.  They've implemented a system where  killing mobs before you even have a quest that asks you to kill them, will track those kills and allow you to be rewarded for those kills, when you run across an Quest-Giver who was only going to ask that you kill something you've already killed in the past.  Sweet!  Without worrying about missing out on quest rewards, I can go about my solo hacking ways. If and when I run across the NPC with a quest for those kills or items I collected, I can instantly turn them and be rewarded.

The only problem I can foresee is massive camping and combing of the landscape to kill any and all creatures in sight, hoping that at some point there's a Quest-Giver that will reward you for the work.  So either they're planning on populating more creatures in a landscape than we've yet to ever seen in a game or we'll be stepping through a landscape of carcasses waiting for re-spawns.  I hope it's the former and am even more excited now.

Another interesting element is that the storyline is going to progress through chapters which sounds similar to what LOTRO has done too.  I like this idea.  I want to feel like I'm immersed in a story, something I don't feel very often in WOW, where unless you've looked into the lore on your own, it's very much in the background as far as game-play is concerned.  Thus far, Turbine's implementation of the storyline in AC2 remains the best that I've ever seen.  Beyond the books and tomes you could find or be given as rewards, they had amazing vignettes throughout the game that revealed the storyline.  I miss that and it sounds like WAR might be a little heavier in pushing the story into the game.

Lastly, WAR will be rewarding random and spontaneous exploration!  Whatchu talkin' 'bout Willis?  That's right. Now people who like to wander the game at their own pace, letting their own instincts and desires guide them, have the opportunity to find exploration quests and rewards.  Hmm, imagine that - you can actually explore on your own and be rewarded instead of only when NPCs send you off to "explore".  When you think about it, it makes so much sense, that you wonder why this isn't already in most games? WOW does this to a degree by giving you small amounts of XP for uncovering new areas but the reward is minimal and it's just for entering the area on the map, not really exploring it.

This most recent WAR podcast has just refueled my anticipation of this game, as I now have two elements that address my exact playing style: self-directed slaying and exploration.  And it sounds like my hunger for more tangible evidence of the game storyline is a focus as well.  Better and better.  If you're even just thinking about playing WAR you need to check out their newest podcast.

Comments

[JoBildo]

Good to have you back. :)

I'm right there with you actually. I don't much feel like logging into LotRO lately, because I've already been playing it for a year. But I still do occasionally, because at least it's new.

I wish Gods and Heroes, or Pirates, two games I'm sure to enjoy even for just enough time up until Conan or WAR would come out already... darn developers taking their sweet old time.

[Saylah]

Hi Jo.

I suppose we're in the summer slump. I can't recall what I was playing last summer besides WOW. I don't think it was EQ2 but I must have been doing something?

Besides WAR, I'd like to play something EVE-like without the months of training to get into the meat of things, but I dont know of anything even close. I'm not reading great things about Spellborn so that's dropped off my list. Plus their website is crappy to me and loads like a cement block, which makes me wonder if you can't do this very well, I wonder about that game?

[Keystone]

It's good to have you back, I enjoy your blog. ^^

I'm not too impressed with the MMOs about to come out. I started with Ultima Online and I haven't seen a game that allowed the players to police themselves like UO did.

I know UO didn't have much of an incorporated story like AC2, or even the interface of all modern MMOs, but it felt like a world. I know Vanguard tried to accomplish this, but they failed. I want an MMO that's non-linear, and has tons of things to do.

I want to roleplay in a virtual world, not play in an online game.

I'll try WAR, but I'm really waiting for Darkfall Online.

[Saylah]

I agree with you Key, regarding WAR. I'm not expecting a virtual world, role-play, immersion or any of the endearing things that still mark AC2 as my favorite MMORPG. I'm expecting the riotous fast-paced killing spree that is WOW, with character progression, professions and loot. At this point, I'm willing to settle for a new WOW. I need a change that goes beyond what an expansion, no matter how well delivered, can provide. Yes, I'm lowering my standards for now. I need something like WOW but not WOW.

As you've said, I see nothing on the horizon yet that's going to deliver a virtual world in a fantasy setting, a place where we can carve out our own little identities within the larger story. I keep looking and hope that at some point someone will deliver it.

I think the impact of WOW looms largely against such an MMORPG. The people have spoken and the masses want a WOW-like experience, not so much the same experience that some of us want - a sense of a personal journey and exploration in a virtual world. So for now I'll take a new WOW unti something that suits me better comes along.

Thanks for missing me!!