Three hours

January 17, 2013

In the comments of yesterday’s post, frequent commentator Saucelah suggested that playing an MMO for three straight hours (the comment said five, but let’s work with three, because I think that was my original ask in some post. If not I’m saying three now) is extreme hardcore or niche. I disagree. I’d say that if you CAN’T setup a three hour block to play an MMO, you are in the minority.

Millions of people recently saw “The Hobbit”. Total uninterrupted time needed for that? Over 3 hours. Well over if you have a longish drive to the theater. Even an average movie that runs just under two hours in length is going to take you around three hours total. The cost? Oh, about $15 per person. A number that sounds oddly familiar. Guess movies are for the hardcore only huh?

The NFL is by far the most popular sport in America. Millions and millions watch a game or more each week. Average length of an NFL game? Over three hours. Per week. Watch your team’s game every week, and you just spent 12 hours or more a month. Oh and the NFL also has DLC. Yup, Sunday ticket, which gives you access to EVERY game and special features like Redzone. Cost? About $200-$300 bucks a year. Let’s not even get started on actually going to a game in person, both for time and cost. The NFL, super-niche, yo.

Raise your hand if you have been to a concert that was shorter than three hours total time (driving etc) and cost you less than $15?

I could go on.

So yes, if you personally can’t organize your life to allow for a three hour block of time to enjoy something, you are niche. A sad niche too. L2live noob, you only get one life in this game.

If you CHOOSE not to spend that much time on something that is basically a hobby (MMOs), don’t expect hobby-quality results. Plenty of people show up to Superbowl parties clueless about the NFL, and we can continue to politely smile while tuning you out to focus on the game, while you enjoy the pretty sights and sounds (commercials).

21 Comments | Random, Rant | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

Troubled Witcher, returning to Skyrim

January 7, 2013

Despite trying, I just can’t get into The Witcher 2. It’s a gorgeous game, I loved the first title, and I have time for an RPG right now while waiting for :NDA:, but I just can’t do it.

The main problem for me is the basic interaction mechanic; you can open chest/doors or investigate things by looking at them while your character is near them and hitting F, but this is so flaky that it’s infuriating. The game would be downright impossible without being able to ‘flash’ highlight everything by hitting Z, but what was originally a nice feature I now view as absolutely necessary just to minimize the game’s biggest flaw.

The combat also feels like a lesser version of what the first title did. I can’t say exactly what it is, but it just feels cheaper and more ‘gamey’ in a bad way.

Then there are all of the little things, like the overuse of stats, crafting, and other ‘normal’ things an RPG has that really don’t add anything to The Witcher. The first game was so great because it was focused on what it did really, really well (story), and did not distract from that with tacked on junk. The Witcher 2 feels like the devs had the money, and rather than just make a better Witcher, they made a bigger Witcher instead. Bad choice IMO.

So I’m back to Skyrim, thanks to a final-day Steam purchase of the two DLC packs, along with a slew of new mods. Surprise, Skyrim is still awesome.

Edit: Oh more DLC coming ‘soon’ huh.

11 Comments | Random | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

The Niche is Real

January 4, 2013

Massively has linked to a video about 38 Studios. It’s worth watching. In the comments section, there is a link to an article about the entire thing. I’m pretty sure I’ve read it before, and perhaps even linked it here, but still, it’s worth reading (or reading again).

Not that I want to rehash the entire 38 Studios story, but I do want to bring up how much money was spent to almost-create a game that, by their own admission, was not fun to play. We are talking tens of millions of dollars, if not more than 100 million.

Along those same lines, SW:TOR cost north of $300m, and we know what $300m bought us in terms of MMO gaming or genre progression.

And at least according to EAWare, SW:TOR needed to cost 300m+ because hey, that’s just what MMOs cost to produce. Prior to closing, Curt and 38 Studios would have backed that up.

Darkfall 1 cost 10m or so to make (I’d link to the source video but lazy, find it if you doubt it). Now sure, DF1 did not have special celebrity guests mailing in voice acting, or the 100+ devs 38 Studios had doing… something. But even if you hate FFA PvP gaming, it would be hard to argue that the game did not delivered something that people enjoyed, brought some new things to the table (combat), and sustained itself for 3 years until DF2010 came along and… NDA beta in 2012/13 :grumble:

The thinking that MMOs are always expensive and in order to deliver anything you have to spend $100m or aim for the WoW crowd is not only outdated, it’s just wrong. Everyone (literally, everyone) who has aimed at being WoW has failed; either by shutting down or selling TheOneRing/Hotbars/Wings. And yes, plenty of titles that did NOT aim to be WoW have failed as well, but plenty is still better than all, and the financial impact of Dawntide never exiting beta are not on the same level as SW:TOR’s failure causing a studio to gut itself and the docs in charge to ‘retire’.

So as we roll ahead in 2013, I’m expecting/hoping we seem more titles in the 10m range. Titles that don’t feature add-nothing IPs, content designed for ‘everyone’, or the attempt to be WoW but with X (but yes, this will still happen, and the results will be the same). Rather, we’ll see titles that aim to get one thing REALLY right, and attract and retain fans looking for exactly that.

Furthermore, a return to titles that are actual MMOs. Games not designed to be consumed and discarded like far too many ‘MMOs’ today that wonder why no one stuck around after the first few months/weeks. They don’t need to demand 100% of your gaming time, but they do need to offer you limitless entertainment. No more ‘personal’ stories with a final boss. No more zones that you move on from after X hours. No gear tier X that is current for a few months until it’s replaced by Y. All of those things are anti-MMO design, and just because one titles remains profitable DESPITE them, does not mean they work or are needed. (Or make that and do what Anet did, just sell the box and call it a day).

I think Kickstarter is showing that such interest/demand exists. Whether anything of substance comes from Kickstarter is a separate issue, but what is fact right now is that not only are people showing interest, they are showing it in a very real way (with their wallets). This is not Turbine announcing 4m characters created as a metric for success; this is some indie title that has little chance of ever becoming a game getting a million dollars of support thanks entirely to word-of-mouth.

It’s far too early to tell if all of this is some fad and nothing will come of it, or if this is indeed the first step to getting the MMO genre back to what many of us remember it being (and when it was actually working). That said, it’s encouraging to see people attempt it, and even more encouraging to see many others support those efforts. Maybe as we begin 2014, we will be talking about which little MMO we are playing, rather than which dream might actually happen as we uninstall some title we just finished that called itself an MMO.

11 Comments | Darkfall Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Random, SW:TOR, World of Warcraft | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

Honest Pay-2-Win

January 2, 2013

Quick note before I get to the topic for today: Is it just me, or is The Witcher 2 freaking hard? I have the game on Normal after doing the tutorial, and I’m getting my ass handed to me every second fight. It’s to the point that I’m mashing quick-save more often than the attack keys. More thoughts on the game later (very solid so far), but anyone else find it much harder than the original?

Today I want to talk about F2P games, specifically P2Win titles. At a high level, I’ve noticed that there are two types of P2W games; blatant and hidden.

Blatant titles are those that very clearly sell power in the cash shop, and most if not all updates revolve around new content being added that further pushes you into the shop to keep up or at least play at the highest tier. Korean MMOs like Atlantica fit the bill here, as do the slew of iPhone games with cash shops.

Hidden P2W titles will attempt to hide the selling of power, either by making the connection to power less obvious (cash = gems = energy = gametime = power, compared to the obvious cash = BiS item), or by making the power not absolute. The cash shop sells items, but they are not BiS (just second-best, and the BiS is nearly impossible to get). Or the cash shop sells ‘optional’ boosts (and without those boosts, you can’t get those BiS items).

What has surprised me is that I personally don’t mind the blatant P2W model. Not because I spend and win, but because not spending and still doing well is its own game, and a very enjoyable one at that. Plus there is a certain kind of honesty with the model; the devs don’t pretend they aren’t selling power, and you don’t get the smoke-up-the-ass PR releases that come from companies like Turbine.

When you are online with thousands of others, those who are also playing the “don’t pay but play” game also tend to band together, and this in turn gives you more ‘content’ or at least camaraderie.

Finally, when you do spend, it’s not because the game finally twisted your arm and made the ‘convenience’ items (hotbars, bag space, travel speed) so damn inconvenient to be without that you caved, but because you are have enough fun playing for free that spending a bit is justified and just gets you more of what you already liked (power), vs just filling in a hole left in to take your money.

11 Comments | Atlantica Online, DDO, Random, Rant, RMT | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

This Steam sale…

December 28, 2012

Is it just me, or is this Steam sale a bit weak? A lot of titles are still at their original prices, and at 50% off they still come out to $20+. Plus other than FTL (awesome), I’m not seeing anything that I really want.

12 Comments | Random | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

Eador – Genesis: How deep is the deep end?

December 11, 2012

Eador – Genesis either borders on the obscene in terms of options, or crosses that threshold and goes a few miles beyond. I’m not sure right now because I’ve yet to piece everything together, but so far I’m loving the game.

In many ways Eador presents things like you would expect from a game like Heroes of Might and Magic. You start with a town to build up and recruit from, and with a starting hero you aim to expand your kingdom and eventually knock out the other lords. Except that unlike HoMM, where you quickly expand and cover huge chunks of the map (in a generally one-and-done fashion), here expansion is slow due to the quickly ramping difficulty of adjacent territories. The areas in direct contact with your starting tile should be doable, but go even one jump further and you will hit a roadblock. Go one further, and you will need a seriously beefy army and hero.

The result is you start and live in a small-ish kingdom for a good number of turns (20-30?), all while planning where to go next. But don’t worry, you won’t be bored. Each area has a slew of locations to discover, from troll caves to undead ruins, and the difficulty of those locations varies greatly as well (in my current game my starting location featured a dragon’s den, which even after 50+ turns I can’t handle). Successfully defeating the monsters in these locations gives your hero and your units (yes, units can level up as well) XP, gold, and items. Units that die in combat are gone, poof, so protecting them is important as well. Heroes can be resurrected, for a cost related to their level. Gear also wears down and needs to be repaired, with a cost related to the power of the items. Crazy depth.

If this game or its upgrade get internet multiplayer, I could see myself spending a lot of time playing with friends. The current game does have hotseat at least, which means next time my buddy is over we are likely not getting much sleep.

As I continue I’m curious to see if all of the options and depth result in a lot of variety (like in Civ V), or if it all ends up being an overly complex puzzle that is eventually ‘figured out’ and there is a clear path to victory. Again though, for the price, it’s impossible not to recommend this game to strategy fans.

5 Comments | Random | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

Eador – Genesis

December 9, 2012

Eador – Genesis is available on GOG.com now. I’ve only played it for about 8 hours, but unless this pulls a GW2-at-80/AC-Tortuga, it appears to be a ridiculously deep and creative take on games like Heroes of Might and Magic. Turn based, hexes, finding magic items, battling monsters and other leaders, leveling heroes, building up towns and areas, etc. The graphics are primitive (think SW:TOR on high settings), but they get the job done.

If you are at all interested in this style of game, at 1/10th of a hobby horse, you can’t pass this up.

Only word of caution is that on my system I had to turn my CPU down to 50%, otherwise the game would lag (would love someone technical to explain to me how that’s possible. CPU just too fast for the game?). Still once I did that (Google it), everything is 100% smooth. The GoG forums have other technical workarounds for netbooks and such.

Also Greenlight this. Looks like an updated version.

3 Comments | Random | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

Perception of the in crowd

December 4, 2012

Question for raiders and non-raiders today.

For raiders: Is any of your motivation around raiding being able to show off gear the average player can’t get?

For non-raiders: Do you think raiders are motivated by gaining gear you can’t get?

As a former raider, I can safely say that the opinion of non-raiders was never a factor for me. We competed against other raiding guilds for server and faction firsts, but mostly it was just about gearing up and progressing to move our guild forward and provide our members with stuff to do.

We had an inside joke that I only talked to people with full epics in WoW (back when epics were something you did not start a character with) because that’s how little it mattered. If anything, the /tells we would get from people asking us how we got an item were more distracting than anything else.

As someone who does not raid now, I could care less what epic pony the latest boss drops. In GW2 the legendary grind was foolish to me, and I never looked at someone with one and felt jealous. It would be like looking at a 2000 ELO LoL player and being angry at them for having a higher rank. Bizarro world, or just me?

51 Comments | Random, World of Warcraft | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

Pre-Darkfall filler

December 3, 2012

With the (first?) delay of Darkfall 2, I’ve had some unexpected free time in terms of gaming, and I’ve tried to fill the time with a few different titles. Perhaps the “I’d rather be playing DF2” effect is kicking in, but nothing has really grabbed me of late.

Planetside 2: I picked this up mostly because a few Inq members are playing, despite the fact that it’s an SOE game. KTR covers the first impressions of the game well, and I fully agree. Additionally, I think the game looks atrocious for a shooter. Just something about the character and weapon models looks so off to me, especially in a genre where Battlefield 3 exists. Unfair? Maybe, but there ya go. The draw distance is pretty good, so it has that going for it.

I can’t really get into the game though. Solo its 100% pointless, even by FPS standards. In a group, its better, but then everything is better in a group. It’s still 99% pointless though, as objectives change hands quickly and other than personal progression, what exactly are we fighting over? Maybe it’s because I expected a little more MMO in PS2, when really it’s just a bigger Battlefield with a cash shop? Expecting to uninstall this the day DF2 is out.

Legend of Grimrock: Bought this on a Steam sale for $3, so in terms of value I’m already there. I liked this title for the first few hours, as it’s nice to play something old-school just with a few modern upgrades to graphics and sound. The game has lost me at about the midpoint however. My biggest grip is the combat; rather than RPG tactical pacing, where deciding what to do is more important than how fast you click, LoG instead expects you to ‘exploit’ the game by moving back from mobs after you quickly click your attacks but before the mob can react. I know that’s “working as intended”, but it feels off and rather dumb. I’d like the game far more if it was turn-based.

Along that same line, the difficulty of the game feels wrong to me. The puzzles are fine, a few are a bit too vague, but most are solid and you feel good when you solve them. A few are annoying along the same lines that the combat is annoying, they are more timing based than logical, and LoG has some questionable (at best) controls. If you have sloppy controls, don’t design your game around precision movement or timing.

Finally, most of the secrets lead to great loot. This is somewhat typical, but with the combat difficulty being what it is, it feels like if you don’t get all the secrets, the next level is extra annoying. Not hard, mind you, just annoying thanks to the combat ‘dance’ style. Less loot, more/longer dancing. Zzzzz.

Legend of the Cryptids: P2W card-collecting grind game for the iPhone. Normally I would not mention these because they are all the same and all terrible, but LotC is a giant waste of talent. First off the artwork in the game is amazing. Some of the coolest monster drawings I’ve seen, with good takes on traditional stuff. The special effects are also entertaining while being brief enough to not get annoying. The UI is really solid for an iPhone game, and performs very well.

The problem is there is basically no game here. It’s just click this, see something happen, click again. You upgrade the monsters and such, but it’s never a choice beyond “upgrade everything, eventually”. You can’t lose, just get slightly delayed, and of course you can always pay to move on anyway. The multiplayer aspects are the typical bother strangers and trade stuff for stuff blablabla Farmville.

Again, I only mention it because LotC would be a really solid product if there was a game underneath the beautiful exterior. As it stands, wasted talent/potential.

13 Comments | Inquisition Clan, iPhone, Random, RMT | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

The ever not-changing MMO genre

November 16, 2012

A second post based on a game I’ve never played or even know much about. You’re welcome.

The reaction to Glitch closing has been interesting, and very telling about the MMO genre and the average/casual/whatever fan. If I had to combine everything into a single comment or two I’ve seen it would go something like this: “I played it a little, loved the concept, could never really get into it, so sad that it’s closing”. Or “Never played this, but so sad that a really unique MMO is closing. This will only encourage more generic MMO games. :sadface:”

Again, most people lie to themselves about games. Or are just delusional in general. “I hate trash reality TV” as reality TV continues to get crazy ratings because you watch it. “I hate stupid movies” as Skyfall debuts at #1 (spoiler: Skyfall blows). “I hate pop music” as pop music continues to be… pop-ular. Hipsters being ‘different’ with Apple products. Occupy whatever using $500 phones to document their ‘struggle’ on Google-owned Youtube. I could go on. For a while.

Glitch is just another small local restaurant that you pretend you love supporting while passing it to go to McDonalds.

Not that any of this is new of course. Nor will it every change.

What should change is the expectation that there is this group of MMO players who just want a non-PvP EVE, or that would love to play Darkfall on a PvE server. Or that you need Trammel in UO to make it work. Oh wait, that already happened and we know the result.

This group does not exist. Glitch might be proof. ATitD being so tiny is proof. EVE being the second-biggest sub MMO ten years after release and still being called niche is proof of the perception. Former bloggers believing an MMO that succeeded for three years and will continue to succeed (very likely at a higher level) being in trouble while something like SW:TOR is cashing out one last time is proof.

How many times is some dev studio, large or small, going to run head-first into the brick wall before it becomes an accepted fact that head-into-wall is a bad idea? You can’t build a complex MMO for casuals and expect them not to be casuals. You build Farmville because Farmville is what casuals understand. You can’t build something that is a one-time meal and roll out with a business plan around players feasting for months.

The players, for the most part, won’t change. Isn’t it time most devs do?

50 Comments | MMO design, Random, Rant | Permalink
Posted by SynCaine

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