Mystic Worlds

Oh No, Not 38 Studios

The first time I heard of 38 Studios was during my first multi-boxing experiment in World of Warcraft. During that time of my WOW career, 38 Studios acquired one of my all-time favorite add-ons, Azeroth Advisor.  If you never used it, you missed something I thought was very special.

Like many gamers, I was pulling for Curt Schilling and his company.  What gaming enthusiast hasn’t dreamt of developing their own game some day?  I sure as hell have daydreamed about it.  Personally, I think that’s one of the reasons MineCraft is such a huge hit.  The sandbox environment is ripe territory for would be game designers to build mini games to share with others. 

Politics and drama about what did or did happen aside, it’s a tragedy all the way around.  People are out of jobs, some after having relocated to work for 38 Studios.  And someone’s dream has died a very public death, one that will be dragged out in the media for years to come. It will serve as a point of reference for what not to do and bear the brunt of tasteless jokes.

The amount of money invested seems staggering.  We know from indie game successes that it is possible to develop a game for much less.  I’m certainly the type of player that appreciates all the bells and whistles but for goodness sake, this scenario seems to have been a slice of Little Caution topped off with Pie in the Sky frosting.   Note to self that if I ever have millions to risk, it would be safer to do a Dollywood version of my Steampunk idea and NOT the MMO version.  *smile*

I was impressed by the number of sales reported for Reckoning (1.3M).  My household contributed 2 to the number.  I wasn’t very interested in playing the RPG.  I considered it paying it forward to get the MMO out the door.  To now read that they needed 3M in sales to break even is mindboggling.  I can only name a couple of IPs I’d expect to have a prayer at that number and an unknown IP isn’t going to be among them.

38 Studios’ sudden demise, so close in proximity to the underwhelming performance of SWTOR and the resultant layoffs, should serve as a warning.  World of Warcraft is an aberration, one that is not likely to be repeated in the MMO space for a long time to come, if ever.  No studio should be banking on millions of subscribers to break even.  Hell - has any subscription MMO of recent history reached 3 million within the first month after launch, let alone retain that many?  Just seems like these budgets are banking on obtaining upwards of 2 million subscriber mark and were financially structured that way but are failing hard.

Sad news all the way ‘round.  I was pulling for this studio and their game.

Next GW2 BWE Confirmed for June 8th

OMG, Just Release the Game

Super excited about the next Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend.  According to GBTV some of my areas of concern are being address such as, parties being taken into same overflow instances, improved key bind options (thank gawd) and stability.  Although I had zero performance issues once I was in the game, changing characters and making new ones, often led to errors that prevented me logging back in for periods of time.  

I can’t wait to delve more into my personal story but won’t be doing that until release. However, I might roll a race I have no intention of playing at launch and try theirs.  I really like this solo RPG element being added to a MMO.  I loved it in Age of Conan and so far, it’s even better in GW2.  As anxious as I am to play more, I won't go any further into the PVE content before launch.  OMG please launch this summer or I might have a coronary.

My Plan for BWE2

I expect the majority of my time to be spent doing PVP, WVW and crafting – especially crafting.  I am still very conflicted about which weapon sets to use.  I wish we could flip through three combinations or at least be able to bind a third by placing it on a hotbar.  From my experiences so far, I will want a different set for PVP versus PVE and I’d rather not have to manually swap out the gear as I toggle between the content types. 

Crafting whore that I am, I MUST be careful not to become completely distracted by the fact that I can eventually choose to master all of them.  The lack of traditional quests and hence quest rewards, I may have to break from my usual top choice, cooking, for something that will provide gear.  My current thought is to do armor and cooking or armor and weapon or armor and jewelry (whatever it’s called).  Part of me is wondering if armor will be readily available for purchase on the auction house whereas weapons, being pivotal to your play style, might be the better choice.

Can’t wait.  Can’t wait.  I CAN’T WAIT!

 

 

Crying on the inside - No GW2 BWE this weekend

Appreciate knowing for sure.  Now I can tell my kids (young adults) to stop asking me every time they see my face or hear my voice.  Having enough trouble containing my own excitment without having to carry theirs too! :-)

Oh well.  *sigh*

https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2/posts/10150882710644209

Journey Back to Gaming

I took a long break from gaming and blogging after my mother passed away. What initially brought me back was the desire to level from start to finish with a gaming friend.

RIFT STILL FELT FRESH

Our game of choice was Rift. A long time WOW player, he hadn't joined the crush of adventurers when the game launched. The character I created would turn into my third to have made it into level 30 content, third cleric and second to max level.

Although the excitement of highly populated zones was gone, Rift's leveling content holds up exceptionally well. The options are diverse and the content so dense, that I never felt bored from having done those levels before.  For me, Rift’s PVE game ranks right up there with the behemoth, World of Warcraft. 

A RETURN TO WOW

After a few weeks being at max level again, my excitement started to wane.  We ran chronicles and quested in Ember Isle, one of the most beautiful zones I’ve ever seen.   However, with no new levels to  be gained, my interest fell off.  I decided return with my friend to WOW and see what I’d missed by leaving shortly after reaching end game in The Burning Crusade.

As expected, leveling content was good, instances great, crafting worthwhile and an active economy.  It also didn’t hurt to have a wealth of alts to choose from all of whom had decent trade professions to help me along the way.

Although I can't imagine WOW ever being my full time MMO again, I see why and how, many long time players return after completing the leveling experience in other games. You can't rely on keeping your player base at max level by being as good as or comparable to WOW. You have to be BETTER THAN and MORE DIVERSE THAN whatever I came from before. Otherwise, why should I restart the end game treadmill in your game, when I can return to another game where I may have a staple of characters, trade-skills, long time guild mates and in some cases, player houses and guild halls at my disposal?

Many of the so-called WOW tourists aren't that intentionally. I think they want to invest in a new game but get to the end/top and realize they've done this all before and a new skin on isn't enough to keep them around.

UP NEXT IN GAMING

Guild Wars 2 will be my main MMO home for the foreseeable future. Other than time commitments, I know I will be there for the ride to max level. I knew from the beta that I enjoyed Rift enough for a jaunt through and was excited for the launch. The enthusiasm I feel for GW2 is leaps and bounds above what I thought of Rift before launch. I can hardly stand the wait much longer.  ANet please don't break my heart. I need GW2 this summer!!

GW2 BWE - Needs Improvement List

Now that the heady pleasure of finally getting to play a bit of GW2 has worn off here are some additional improvements I’d like to see implemented. 

More Explanation of Basic Mechanics
I know GW2 is about a non-linear, experimental, free roam and exploratory experience.  However, there is so much that it borders on too much for the introductory experience.  I’d like to see the personal story cover some of the new/unique GW2 mechanics.  You’re set in a very immersive setting.  A bit too much has to be known going in or looked up somewhere external while you’re playing, which immediately breaks immersion.  Confusion is not entertainment. 

More Options for Key Binding
Increased key binding options – Doesn’t support alternative key settings or using multiple keys which means using CTRL or ALT + another key is out.  As someone who relies almost exclusively on the keyboard, I found this too restrictive. 

Set Default Left/Right to Turning
Reverse the default key settings for left/right movement interaction.  By default it’s set to strafing.  People who know how to strafe are more likely to be aware of options for setting up key bindings.  Whereas players who use the default game settings, have no clue about how to change them, which means they won’t know how to activate turning left/right.  Repeating it in local chat got old quick and these are proactive players since they obviously had been following GW2 enough to pre-purchase it and participate in BWE yet didn’t understand the issue and how to fix it. 

More Variety on Karma Vendors
Karma vendors in the game world had little to nothing I would see myself buying.  Dinging is great as a reward but with very few formal quest rewards, I’d like more desired items for purchase on these vendors.  It doesn’t have to be gear.  I’m not looking for huge, OP or “I win” items but something of interest. I’d be happy with fluff and cosmetic items.  I’d hate to find that all I want from the Karma is to be saving up for the 9.6K to 60K+ per item gear options I saw on three vendors in Divinity’s Reach.   I’m helping out the locals.  That NPC has been put there with items for sale.  I hope there are plans to increase the variety. 

Improved Introductory Experience
I’ve heard more complaints about the starting experience, especially the inability to get all of the weapons at the lower levels to see how a profession play-style and skills change.  The Garrison in the human zone had a really nice setup for this but you had to figure it out.  You could participate in the Garrison event plus there was skill point NPC.  The event starter NPC also sold all of the available weapons for coin.  He leaves as part of the escort event.  So if you don’t see him near the waypoint go out and join the event until he resets back to his idle location.  I really favored this location for all of the professions I tried after figuring it out.  It’s viable from level 3 to 7.  

Explain or Provide Feature for Moving across Instances of Zones
Absolutely no explanations how to get into the same content instance with members of your party who may have been were split across the overflow copies of a zone.  We attempted looking for features similar to other games such as EQ2 and AOC to no avail.  Eventually, we were successful by sending people back into the capitol city and exiting again, in which case, the game determined it would make sense to put you in the same instance.  

Raise Awareness of Lion's Arch
Early on, the content should include something that encourages players to visit Lion’s Arch to see that there are portals there to access the other racial zones.  Friends creating characters from different races didn’t know how to get to each other to play. 

Map Missing Iconography when outside your Racial Zone
You can complete the content from areas outside of your racial zone however, the map iconography isn’t displayed – hearts, skill points, points of interest, etc.  This might have been a bug. 

Provide Speed Buff or Mount for Exploration
So much to see in GW2 and it’s absolutely gorgeous but I want a mount.  Fast travel via portal is fine but when I want to roam to see all the wonderful and detailed areas – explore, I’d rather do it at some increased movement speed.  You can get a small speed buff inside Divinity’s Reach which helps navigating inside the city.  We need an increased movement speed outside as well.   I’d be perfectly happy if you’re dismounted inside the cities.  And honestly, with the technology on display thus far in the world, I can’t imagine they’d be hoofing it everywhere. 

Short list and no deal breakers but improvements in these areas would enhance my overall player experience.  I can hardly wait to play more.