LoL: Nitpicking Riot

Posted on December 20, 2012 by SynCaine

I like Riot a lot. I think they are basically the only show in town that does F2P right, and LoL has been the best game out for the last few years. I’ve spent more money on LoL in the last two years than any other game (by a solid margin), and I consider every single dollar spent well worth it.

So with that said, I’m a bit disappointed by this post. I get the need to increase the IP cost for a new champ. No big deal. Reducing the price on older champs is a nice change too. I even understand the need to slow the release rate for new champs, and agree that spending more time on them is ultimately the right decision.

Here is the offensive part:

as well as increasing the time you have to earn IP between champion releases.

Don’t treat your players like children (even if many of them are or act like it). The reason you won’t be releasing new champs as quickly has nothing to do with being nice and giving your players more time to earn IP, so why frame it that way?

You have a solid product, a fair business model, and exemplary communication, so with the bar that high, these (notably minor and infrequent) instances stick out and tarnish that stellar reputation.

Posted in League of Legends, Rant, RMT | 6 Comments

Darkfall: Unholy Wars – Voicing the Manifested Vision in White Shades

Posted on December 20, 2012 by SynCaine

Darkfall is under NDA right now, so while I’m writing about it, I can’t post details until the NDA is down. Whenever that happens (current date I have is Dec 27th) expect either a long post, or a bunch all in rapid fashion.

Without breaking NDA, I will say that DF:UW is indeed a sequel to DF1, rather than the suspected ‘large patch’. It’s also already provided a single high point above anything in my one month trip to 80-ending in GW2, and done more to encourage grouping than any ‘fix’ to the formula that Anet aimed at. Wish I could say more, but ‘soon’.

I’ll be deleting any comments that break NDA here, so save me the clicks and don’t if you are in the beta.

Posted in beta, Darkfall Online, Guild Wars, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, PvP, SW:TOR, Vanguard, Warhammer Online | 5 Comments

Darkfall Hobbit

Posted on December 17, 2012 by SynCaine

Waiting for the Darkfall beta to start is like watching The Hobbit; way too long, way too much focus put on the stupid filler you forget the moment it’s over, and everyone already knows the ending so just get to it already.

Posted in beta, Darkfall Online | 5 Comments

Darkfall: Unholy War pre-order is here

Posted on December 14, 2012 by SynCaine

Pre-order Darkfall: Unholy Wars here.

Sadly no referral program yet. Not sure how I’m going to fuel up the Ferrari without one, so hopefully AV gets on that ‘soon’. The bank account that DF1 funded is running dangerously close to falling out of the seven digit range, and I’d hate to drop my standard of living back to something like you people endure. :shudder:

Edit: Just your average MMO combat.

Elementalist vs Skirmisher

Elementalist vs Skirmisher (click for full size)

Posted in beta, Darkfall Online | 7 Comments

EVE is a vampire

Posted on December 13, 2012 by SynCaine

So is EVE growing to 450k+ subs, or slowly bleeding?

I believe it’s both.

Unless you want to outright claim CCP is lying about having 450k+ subs, then they do. Which is a lot of subs for anything not called WoW. And this for a ten year old game. Not bad, and likely very profitable. The king of the niche really, if we define the niche as any MMO not called WoW (which is how we should define it).

I also think Jester’s numbers are correct, in that I don’t believe he made a mistake in collecting them and that what they show is in fact true; the average number of players logged in today is similar to the amount back around May 2009.

So again, is EVE growing, stagnant, or bleeding? How can subs be up but player activity be down?

Because EVE today is a more casual game than it was back in 03 (launch), or 06 (start of Jester’s graph), or 09 (Apocrypha). From the game itself getting friendlier (the UI improvements, the new players experience), to what I believe is a (slowly building) trend amongst MMO gamers looking for something closer to a virtual world than a themepark, EVE today is made up of a far more casual crowd than before. Now don’t get confused, the average EVE player is still a few steps more serious than the average MMO player, but the gap is closer today than it was in the past, and EVE itself is no longer filled with the purest of diehards.

Casual players don’t log in as often or for as long, which drops your concurrency numbers. Luckily for CCP, they still pay the same $15 a month (and use less bandwidth, yo).

To use an extreme example, what would Jester’s graph look like if only bots played EVE, with their 23/7 schedule? Average logins would look massive, very close to that 450k number. Now what would the numbers look like if all 450k subs only played once a week? The number would be pitifully low. In both cases however, CCP is collecting $15x450k.

The real danger here would be if player activity on the server dropped below the critical mass needed to make an MMO something other than a solo game you have to log into. EVE has a massive edge here over every other MMO (including WoW) because everything takes place on two (China and everyone else) servers, rather than dozens or hundreds. That said, New Eden is a big place, and places like Jita are what they are because thousands of pilots visit daily, so in-game activity does matter.

Not that CCP should get comfortable now. Just because they have the best MMO out (for what that’s worth, given the current state of the genre) does not mean the game is finished, or that more can’t be done to further extend the appeal of the game. And as that appeal gets broader, the amount of time spent playing per account will continue to trend towards a more casual number, whatever that might be.

Posted in EVE Online | 8 Comments

On second thought, the hobby horse seems very reasonable

Posted on December 13, 2012 by SynCaine

Pay to Travel, Turbine style.

It’s going to be a really sad day when LotRO shuts down, because this kind of entertainment is almost priceless, and I’d hate to rely solely on SOE to provide it.

(This is the part of the post where I mockingly predict the next ridiculous item Turbine will sell, but I just can’t do it. After a $50 hazing implement and P2Travel, what’s left? BiS gear sets for $7000? $5 Hotbars? $6 for a token that promises not to sell your credit card info to shady Russians?)

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online, RMT | 7 Comments

Time to shut it down, EVE is dying

Posted on December 12, 2012 by SynCaine

In other niche game news, Tobold was right, CCP has declared bankruptcy in 2012.

If your definition of bankruptcy is hitting 450k+ subs with a 10 year old MMO. But yea, totally bankrupt, yo.

(Cue China does not count, WoW really had 12m subs, and still has 10m subs.)

(Double cue EVE is played by one guy with 450k accounts, who pays nothing because he uses PLEX.)

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media | 28 Comments

Darkfall: Beta blues

Posted on December 12, 2012 by SynCaine

Darkfall Delay; part 72,343.

First off, massive points for announcing the delay minutes before you are set to go live. There is trolling, and then there is AV. Just next level stuff that gets forumfall to exactly where it needs to be; on the bleeding edge of suicide (get it). The delay sucks, but at least beta is going to start Monday (hahaha).

Having the beta sucks a lot more though. We live in a world where everything in an MMO is known and well documented before the game even comes out, so it would have been fun to have everyone go in blind for DF:UW. Especially because DF is a virtual world rather than a generic themepark, so things like city locations, farming spots, and builds matter more here than knowing the layout of the next zone in something like GW2.

Having this beta and letting organized guilds pre-plan everything is also going to take away some potential fun. Pre-beta, everyone was going to scramble and take cities they believed would be worthwhile, but that very well could have ended up with powerhouse guilds in below-average cities. That would have resulted in motivation for sieges and conflict. The pre-release meta-gaming was already great fun, with alliances spreading misinformation about their plans and where they will go.

With beta, all of this will be known, and so the most powerful alliances will grab the best locations, while the have-nots will have to settle for lesser spots. That right there will reduce conflict, at least initially. A pity.

Another pity is what day one will look like now vs in a no-beta state. Without beta, day one would have been a wild scramble with unpredictable results. With beta, organized clans will be following a tight script for success, while those less organized will instantly fall behind much further than they would have otherwise. The scramble would have been a chaotic mess of fun. The script execution will be doing what needs to be done, which is important and ultimately leads to what we want (winning), but short-term is a lot less fun.

Of course things could be a lot worse. Instead of a delay, Aventurine could announce that they plan to sell UI elements for $5 apiece in the cash shop, or mount skins for $50. They could have announced the addition of a new race, the pink anime bunny from outer space. Or a RM auction house. Or that they plan to add a new gear tier a week after release. Or that they have downgraded their graphics engine to EQ2-quality. Or just done basically anything that SOE has ever done.

Now that would be worth raging about. A delay? Welcome to Darkfall.

Posted in Allods Online, beta, Darkfall Online, EQ2, Guild Wars, Inquisition Clan, Lord of the Rings Online, RMT, SW:TOR, World of Warcraft | 2 Comments

Eador – Genesis: How deep is the deep end?

Posted on December 11, 2012 by SynCaine

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.

Posted in Random | 5 Comments

I’m playing Darkfall right now

Posted on December 10, 2012 by SynCaine

F5, F5, F5, trolling internet, F5, F5, F5.

It’s like DF1 launch all over again!

Posted in Darkfall Online | 7 Comments