Great time to get off the DarkFall fence.

Posted on November 5, 2009 by SynCaine

For those who prefer real MMO gaming over Barbie accessories or playing a fairy, DarkFall transfers go live today, along with a special offer from Aventurine. Full info here, but basically totally new players can buy the game+6 months for $87, while a 6 month sub plan can be purchased for $63. With the combination of transfers, this pricing offer, and the NEW clan on NA to help you learn the ropes, now might be the best time to jump in and try DarkFall for anyone who has been on the fence. Plus by the time you become familiar and comfortable with the game, the next free expansion (patch) will be out, bringing (hopefully) better balance to melee/archery/magic and many great new features.

This post brought to you by Aventurine, who pay me a boatloads of cash to hype their game.

Posted in Darkfall Online, Patch Notes | 47 Comments

How many WoW pets does it take to forget China?

Posted on November 5, 2009 by SynCaine

I guess when the government shuts you out, it’s time to sell some fluff in the pasture. And when the market smacks your stock around the bean counters demand action, and what better way then to charge for Barbie accessories, right? Next stop, true welfare epics.

Posted in Rant, RMT, World of Warcraft | 15 Comments

Dragon Age review

Posted on November 4, 2009 by SynCaine

Dragon Age Origins is out now, and much like I had hoped, it’s RPG gold once again from Bioware. I was cautiously optimistic about the game going in, and had avoided digging too deep into the pre-release hype, really only setting up a character with the free character creator and playing Dragon Age Journeys to get some more backstory. I’m about 5-6 hours in as of this writing, and I’ll warn you now that the below can be summed up as just me repeating ‘that was awesome’ over and over.

First thing I want to mention is my experience with Direct2Drive and my preorder. As readers here know I’m a huge D2D fan (and greatly prefer it over Steam), and their execution for Dragon Age was spot on for me. I was able to pre-download it a few days ago, and thanks to their online countdown widget, I knew exactly when the activation key was being release to allow you to install and play the game. I got the key promptly, the install went smoothly, and in less time than it would have taken me to even put the physical DVD in, I was installed and ready to go. Very happy with this experience overall, as I usually am anytime I’m dealing with D2D.

I was able to fire up the game, download all the pre-order, special edition, and DA Journeys content after logging in to my EA account, get my pre-generated character loaded, and start playing. Just as with D2D, everything here was flawless, and really set the tone of an extremely polished and well thought-out execution. Hats off to Bioware and EA (yes, good job EA).

It took only a few minutes in-game to make me realize I’m playing 3D Baulders Gate, and I mean that as the highest compliment. It really was a ‘holy shit’ moment too, as I had to blink, stop, and just marvel at the fact that in 2009, with a gorgeous game on my screen, I really was looking at Baulders Gate. The adrenaline was flowing at this point as highlights of Baulders Gate flashed in my mind and I could only begin to speculate what Dragon Age was going to offer. Yes, I was hyping Dragon Age in my mind to an almost unfair level after only having played it for about five minutes, but so far it’s lived up to all of it and more.

I have a rather high-end system (especially now thanks to the 295GTX), and the game picked up on this and defaulted the settings to the highest level, which I’ve left as is and not tinkered with. At this setting, the game is just flat-out beautiful. Characters look amazingly real while somehow avoiding the uncanny valley, great details fill every shot, and the animations are both epic and fitting in combat. The engine is this amazing mix of hack-and-slash LOOKING action will PLAYING exactly like a slower-paced, pause-at-any-time, tactical RPG. It really is the best of both worlds here, and an amazing accomplishment for Bioware. The sound, voice acting, and music are all top-notch as well. I’ve had zero crashes or errors in the 5-6 hours I’ve played, which is just fantastic for keeping you in-game and focused on the story.

Gameplay is Baulders Gate. You have a party of four you can switch control of at will, pause at any time, and highlight interactive objects with the tab key. You have a hotbar for character skills and items, there is poison/trap/potion crafting, and your party members will gain/lose respect for you depending on your actions. You loot barrels/chests/sacks, you slay monsters, you talk to NPCs using dialog options, etc. Dragon Age has all the ‘basics’ you would expect, perfectly executed so that they become second-nature within the first hour or so of gameplay. So far nothing feels like it’s missing, and there is nothing that sticks out and makes me wish it was different. This is exactly how I expect a ‘traditional’ RPG to play.

One aspect that brought a huge smile to my face was when I lost an early encounter because I just stumbled into it and got overconfident, and then got defeated again when I went into it with a poorly thought out plan. Dragon Age is no push-over on Normal difficulty, and rewards smart strategy well. The first ‘boss’ encounter took me a few tries before I was successful, and that ultimately made the victory that much sweeter (not to mention watching the jaw-dropping ‘finishing move’ that happens without any loading or switching from the in-game engine. You don’t have a pulse if after watching that the game does not leave you impressed)

The story/setting so far has been very solid. I was half-expecting a Witcher-like world due to the mature rating, but Dragon Age is more NWN/BG-harsh than Witcher-harsh, think PG-13 rather than R. Which is not to say it’s all fairies and rainbows, it’s not, but it has so far lacked that very gritty tension that the Witcher had with it’s theme of racial prejudice and true ‘no right answer’ options, where most choices resulted in something bad happening, with the choice usually being ‘to who’. The Witcher really made me stop and think about some of decisions you had to make, and while the choices in Dragon Age are not always the clear-cut good/neutral/funny (there is never a true evil option) of NWN, I do wish they were a bit tougher/grayer at times. That aside, the story so far has been very interesting and well executed, while moving along at a good pace.

Obviously, I highly recommend Dragon Age to anyone with even a slight RPG interest, as so far it’s played as just one of those games that’s head and shoulders above the norm. I write this while sitting here excited to get back into it, and baring a complete 180 at some point, Dragon Age should put itself among the top RPGs I’ve ever played.

Posted in Random | 26 Comments

Beyond flamebait, why Aion’s struggles benefit me.

Posted on November 2, 2009 by SynCaine

On Friday I tossed out some flame bait with my post about Aion, and while it was mostly posted to cure Friday boredom (and not because I was upset, my sickeningly happy friend:) ), there is a very real aspect behind the whole “your MMO is your religion” people bring up. Go back 10 years, and most MMO fans were just hoping this silly genre would catch on, so ANY win was good for everyone. Today however, now that the genre is very well established and here to stay, the focus shifts from the genre as a whole to its smaller sub-sections.

Think of it like turn-based strategy titles vs first person shooters. Any fan of TBS games just hopes ANY title catches on today so that more TBS games get funding, since the next TBS game might be the last. On the other side are FPS fans, who also follow their game of choice like a religion/cult, because the next FPS game coming out is not in jeopardy, it’s just what kind of FPS gets made. If a realistic shooter sells 5 million, and a horror or comedy shooter sells 100k, guess what direction the genre is going in? Now if you have a blog, and can’t stand realistic shooters, what are you going to blog about?

The analogy of rooting for ‘your’ game being like a religion might be a little off. To me, it’s more like division one college sports. The more successful your team, the more likely top-rated high school prospects will be interested in attending. As the future success of your school depends not only on you winning, but your rivals struggling, rooting not only for your school but also against your rivals makes perfect sense. Even when Ohio State is not playing Michigan, you can bet everyone at Michigan is hoping Ohio State loses every single game.

Going back to MMOs, and specifically Aion vs DarkFall, it’s not hard to see how someone like me, a fan of DarkFall, benefits from Aion’s struggles. For starters, players who left DF to try out Aion might come back now that Aion has failed to deliver, not to mention other Aion players looking for a better PvP MMO. Had Aion been more successful all those players would have stayed, and that’s however many players not paying $15 a month to Aventurine to fund future DarkFall content, content that I clearly have interest in. Aion shutting down has zero negative effect on me, as I was never interested with what it offers to begin with, so it’s struggles only help further my game of choice. In addition to funding future content, those returning players also help populate the world and generate word-of-mouth buzz of leaving Aion and returning to DarkFall.

On a higher level, Aion failing has possible future impact on the type of games being offered in the MMO space. As readers here know I’m a huge fan of sandbox MMOs over themeparks, especially the recent trend of super-easy themeparks where instant gratification rains from the sky. The more themeparks that struggle, and the more sandbox games that see success, the more likely this trend is going to shift (if only slightly) and more attention will be given to games that interest me. Because at the end of theday, this is all about what’s best for me, everyone else be damned.

Posted in Aion, Darkfall Online, MMO design, Rant | 45 Comments

Monday Morning quick thoughts

Posted on November 2, 2009 by SynCaine

This is a good read from a returning player to DarkFall, with the most important point coming in the comments: just like in any good sandbox game, you have to go out and find the fun rather than wait for it to find you. Once you find it its great gaming, but just sitting around wondering why you are not having fun is not the way to play a sandbox. I don’t think any amount of design changes will ever overcome this simple fact: either you are someone who goes out and gets it, or you are not.

Aventurine is opening up EU to NA transfers soon in DarkFall, which should create some massive chaos on NA shortly. I know many players have been sitting on the sideline waiting for this event to get back into DarkFall, and it will be interesting to watch just how many new/returning players will be wandering around in Agon. Pure speculation here, but I think the plan is to see how transfers play out, release the expansion and stabilize it, and THEN release some kind of trial/buddy program. The next few months will be crazy enough in DarkFall without a trial, and when you do launch one you want your game in at least decent shape. At least, most studios do.

Finally, Dragon Age comes out tomorrow and Direct2Drive allows you to download the game now to avoid the launch day rush and start playing right away at 10am Tuesday. Nice move on D2D’s part, and just one more reason to go digital over a box copy. Very cautiously optimistic about this game, hopefully it blows me away.

Posted in beta, Darkfall Online, MMO design, Patch Notes, Random | 14 Comments

Aion: Eminem’s “Kim” track, final verse, final line.

Posted on October 30, 2009 by SynCaine

Watching Aion bleed out in record time is, to be honest, enjoyable for me.

Part of that just comes from my general dislike that the genre of gaming I enjoy most has, on the AAA level, gone from persistent worlds and virtual communities to candy-covered themeparks full of solo-heroes. I know Aion failing won’t completely change that around, but it can’t hurt either.

Another part of the enjoyment is watching what is an obviously flawed PvP setup (forced two-sided gear-based PvP with an exploitable PvE element that gives PvP rewards) fail in dramatic fashion. How anyone can think a setup like that will just work itself out in 2009 is beyond me. 1998, sure, but we have over 10 years of MMO history to look back on now; did NCSoft learn NOTHING from UO/AC-DT/DAoC/SB?

And finally, on a more personal level, many of the fools that left DarkFall for the pretty pastures of Aion PvP are now rapidly flapping their fairy wings and flying back. While it may be rude to say “I told you so”, it does still feel good to say it. Welcome back to Agon fairies, rebind your tab key.

Posted in Aion, Darkfall Online, MMO design, PvP, Rant | 60 Comments

DarkFall: Bounty Hunter event aftermath.

Posted on October 29, 2009 by SynCaine

Last night the NA DarkFall server saw its first major player-driven event, a bounty hunter chase that went off very well considering it was the first of its kind in DF. I was able to log on just after the start, and Apollo already had a group together ready to rumble. Most of the server’s big names showed up, and the center of Agon became a PvP hotspot for a few hours on a Wednesday night.

The event showed me two things. First, the DF player base on NA is very willing to get behind community-driven events like this and things like the NEW clan initiative. I think everyone playing DarkFall is just happy to finally have a real fantasy PvP MMO not crippled by technical shortfalls (ShadowBane), and so are willing to pull together and make things happen for the good of the game. When server moral counts so much because your game is so reliant on word-of-mouth promotion, it’s interesting and encouraging to watch the players (with some GM support, which was nice to see) step up and provide some content to mix things up.

The other thing such an event shows is just how much potential a sandbox MMO has when it comes to player-generated content. The best aspects of DarkFall (PvP, huge world, zero instancing) were all on display because a few players decided to pool some funds together and have the entire server hunt them. As it was just the first such event, no doubt future events will not only be more creative, but also more tightly executed and with more refined twists and surprises. Plus like any good sandbox, such ‘content’ will never become obsolete because a new patch brought the next tier of shiny suits to collect. If anything, more options will be added as Aventurine adds more tools for the players to use as they see fit. This event was made possible, in part, because a crafters name shows up when you make an item. That simple feature, along with items never being bound, allows for a bounty hunter event to take place. You don’t need overly complicated systems and hard-coded motivational factors to get the most out of your game and player base in a sandbox, just some creative players and community support behind them.

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online, MMO design, PvP | 6 Comments

DarkFall’s version of EVE University

Posted on October 28, 2009 by SynCaine

As frequent readers here know, one of the reasons I greatly prefer a sandbox MMO over a themepark is the amount of control players have in shaping their game and the world around them. While that control is a double edged sword (EVE University vs Goonswarm), I’ll take that risk over a foam sword (themepark) any day of the week.

And much like EVE Online has the player-created and run EVE University to guide new players, DarkFall on the NA server now has NEW. Similar in idea to its Ultima Online Siege Perilous forefather, the idea behind NEW is to give young DarkFall players a chance to learn about the game without getting constantly rolled while trying to solo kill goblins. It is, in a good way, UO’s Trammel. In a good way because its player controlled, it’s not absolute (30 day time limit until players are kicked from NEW), and other players are free to raid NEW’s city of Hammerdale (Yes, Apollo’s old city. In a way we did our part by building it up for all the new guys. At least that’s our story damnit!).

It’s those raiders that, IMO, will really draw those younger players into DarkFall. They will see PvP firsthand, and assuming NEW grows to a reasonable size, they won’t always be sitting ducks. Add in the fact that many of the server’s biggest alliances support the idea, and Hammerdale itself is perhaps the safest city in the game in terms of being taken in a siege, which will help to prevent the previously common ‘city loss ragequit’. And with the city being a well-known location for player activity, that will just make it a natural hotspot, be it for PvE, trade, or PvP. All of these factors added together create an almost perfect environment to show the best of DarkFall, and that’s exactly what you need to get those MMO hooks into someone. Now about that free trial Aventurine…

edit: Oh and speaking of AV, good job for quickly making the NEW thread a sticky and writing a Spotlight piece about it as well. That shows everyone they are paying attention to what is happening in their game, and that they clearly support such player-driven ideas. Also in the Spotlight a few days back was a player-run Bounty Hunter event. Between this and the hints of GM-run events, I’m feeling good about AV’s involvement in DarkFall beyond just adding more stuff and tweaking balance.

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Housing | 13 Comments

Dragon Age does hype the right way

Posted on October 27, 2009 by SynCaine

My anticipation for Dragon Age has been slowly ramping up, and not in the usual ‘watch ever movie/screen shot asap!’ way. I actually made it a point to avoid all that in order to keep the experience of playing the game as spoiler-free as possible, and so my expectations going in are ‘It should be a quality RPG experience’ and nothing more. But two unique pieces of ‘hype’ have managed to get my all fanboi’ed-up this past week. First was the release of the character creator, and now Dragon Age Journeys, two very different tools to get people excited about an upcoming title.

The release of the character creator is genius for a few reasons. One, it’s very cheap promotion for the game, since it’s already been created and I’m guessing it’s not very difficult to cut it from the full game and release it as a separate download. But the real genius is that usually having 300 different face options in a game is more of a pain than a plus. I mean I’d rather actually start playing within the first 5 minutes than continue to tweak nose sliders to get my character ‘just right’ (and since I’m talking as an MMO fan here, I think we all know exactly how far we are willing to go to get little crap just right). But on its own, with the game not out yet, hell yea I’m going to sit there for 30+ minutes tweaking every last slider and option, and you better believe I’m damn ready to play the game when I’m looking at the best damn RPG hero EVA! Like I said, genius.

And now that I have my character created and ready, along comes Dragon Age Journeys to not only provide a fun turn-based strategy/rpg, but also to give me additional backstory/lore about that created hero’s world. And much like the character creator, when the real game is released you want to play RIGHT NOW, so you might skip some of the background stuff just to get into the meat of things (and in turn you might miss some of the detail of the world/story), but when the games release is still weeks away, even little bits of lore or story will get eaten up. Genius part two.

And so here I sit, exactly one week away from release day, Direct2Drive pre-order waiting, and without having downloaded every video or read every dev log/forum, I’m hyped for Dragon Age in a somewhat natural (if we can call it that) way. I know enough of the story/world to look forward to it without feeling like anything has been spoiled, and I have a character which I’m excited to play rolled up and ready to go. Nov 3rd can’t come soon enough now.

Posted in Mass Media, Random | 8 Comments

More Aion vs Fallen Earth observations

Posted on October 26, 2009 by SynCaine

The trending examples provided by the recently released Aion and Fallen Earth continue, and some interesting if not entirely unexpected observations can be made. Today’s topic is player reaction, and how it differs when comparing a niche game (FE) versus a mass-market (Aion) game.

The quick take is this: An average mass-market game is a slow burn, while a niche game is a black/white type of deal.

Niche games are niche for a reason; there is a small group of people who really, really like what the product offers, and then everyone else looks at the same thing and goes “wtf is fun about THAT?” That’s the black/white aspect of it, as very few people will look at a niche product and just go “eh, that’s just ok”.

On the other hand, a mass-market game is DESIGNED to appeal to as many people as possible, and the best way to go about this is to play it safe and avoid any black/white reactions. Some people may dislike generic questing, but very few players will outright avoid a game because its leveling gameplay is focused around MMO-style questing, and many players will feel ‘comfortable’ progressing in that manner. Mix together a few ‘safe’ gameplay styles, hope it comes together, and bam, mass-market MMO.

And now, a few months later, we are seeing how the two styles progress. The ‘slow burn’ is starting to sink into some Aion players, as what was initially considered comfortable is now ‘more of the same’. Executed at a top-notch level, ‘more of the same’ might be good enough, but anything less than spectacular and the feeling of burnout is only accelerated. Since you drew from a mass market audience, the majority of your player base is not heavily invested in what you specifically offer, and so even the smallest excuse to leave might be taken. If you are bothered by something in Aion, you always have WoW, LotRO, WAR, EQ2, AoC etc to fall back on. Sure each game is a bit different, but all more or less achieve the same thing, just in different flavors.

On the other hand, for the niche that Fallen Earth caters to it’s basically the only game in town. Sure the jump animation might not be spot on, or you might run into a bug or three, but if you are part of the niche, you will take that bug and ten more before you leave FE and make the switch to a mass market game. FE would have to do something drastic (Trammel, NGE) to push away those it caters to. At the same time, those who are just now trying FE (for free) are having a tough time seeing what all the fuss is about, having read blog after blog gushing about it (it also does not help that the niche is likely highly represented among bloggers). That’s natural, because remember we are talking about a NICHE product, and its niche because only a small subset of the gaming population finds what it offers appealing. That the majority will find a product like Fallen Earth lacking is not a shot at the game (directly anyway), as they never were the intended audience anyway. When your niche starts taking shots, well then you better start listening.

Posted in Aion, Fallen Earth, MMO design | 33 Comments