WAR for Christmas?

Posted on by Nimgimli

Ahhh. Feel that? It’s normalcy. Today is a normal day (well, quasi-normal anyway). Which means a lunch break. Which means pontificating!

So Angela is gone for the weekend and a major snow storm is rolling in. That means lots of potential gaming time. Next week I have 3 days of work than a solid 11 days off, between holidays, weekends, and spending my accrued vacation time. So even more gaming time!

My plan had been to activate Warhammer using that 60-day timecard I bought at Black Friday. I’ve heard good things about patch 1.1 and now there’s some kind of bonus experience thing happening. So it seems like the perfect time to do it: in-game perks and out-of-game free time.

And yet I find myself hesitating. I know that if I go back and War isn’t fun for me this time, that I’ll probably never go back again. So that’s part of it, but that kind of hesitation will be there no matter *when* I go back. There’s always another patch coming, right?

But another part of it is my fellow bloggers. I’m not seeing a lot of Warhammer excitement on blogs these days, and my two biggest bellweathers, Ysh and Bildo, *seem* (and I could just be reading them wrong) to be suffering a bit from the Warhammer Blahs.

And the last part is that I’m afraid my expectations no longer match the game. I continue to read and enjoy the Gotrek & Felix novels and I want to know: where are these great adventures in the game? Are they up there in the higher tiers? Will we fight vampires and giants and travel the paths of the old ones and visit Albion and those strange people? Or are we limited to mostly fighting the armies of the other pairings?

I don’t suppose there’ll ever be a better time to go back, but I feel like I should be more excited about the prospect. Am I just setting myself up for disappointment? Or do I just have cold feet that are keeping me from having a grand old time in War?

MIA

Posted on by Nimgimli

My deepest apologies for starting conversations and then disappearing on my readers. It wasn’t planned but neither was it really avoidable. If you happen to follow me on Twitter then you probably had an idea that the week wasn’t going exactly swimmingly. Lots of work (literally from the time I got to the office until the time I went to bed, with an hour off for dinner), a bad financial crisis, a savaging of company morale, and some sudden changes in travel plans… I couldn’t manage to keep up with my RSS feeds, let alone find time to post.

Mother Nature appears to be coming to the rescue though. School closings have already been announced for tomorrow in this area, and some of my friends at other companies in the area told me they’ve already been told the office is being closed.

Of course, my company said “We care deeply for the safety of our employees, but short of a National Emergency, the office remains open.” That said, my intent is to take half a vacation day. Last year there was a storm that made my normal 20 minute commute into a harrowing 6 hours on the road, and the weather service says this is going to be the same kind of storm. Specifically they said:

“At this time…travel is not recommended anytime Friday afternoon and evening…as we expect heavy snow treacherous road conditions during this time.”

No way I’m risking another ordeal like last year!!

Anyway, hopefully I’ll be back on my feet and posting again soon. Thanks for sticking with me through this dry spell!

Class vs Skills

Posted on by Nimgimli

Yesteday’s post about levels has spawned an interesting and long running conversation.

Today I want to look at a related issue. Class-based vs Skill-based character systems. This question dovetails nicely with some of the side-conversation of the levels discussion.

The first “mainstream” graphical internet-based MMO was Ultima Online, and it uses a skill-based system. In case you never played it, and going from more ancient memory, every character had the same bunch of skills, all level 0 when the character was created. By doing stuff, the character would improve the skill related to that activity. So fighting with a sword would increase your sword-fighting skill a lot, and your strength skill a little. Casting spells would improve your magic skill a lot, and your intelligence skill a little, and so on. The catch was, a character could only have a set number of skill points (I want to say it was 300). A skill maxed out at 100, at which point you would be a GrandMaster of that activity. If you were a grandmaster swordfighter then spent a ton of time doing Carpentry to get that skill to rise, your swordfighting skill would slowly drop (though they later added the ability to “lock” a skill so it would never atrophy).

This was a great system because everyone could be who they wanted to be. If you wanted to be a healer/archer, you could do that. If you wanted to be a Grandmaster Carpenter and Swordfighter, you could. But you could never be Grandmaster at more than 3 things, and realistically you could only be GM at 2 things (you needed some “extra” points for other stuff, like Magic Resistance).

Anyway, after UO came EQ and that was a class-based system. And so the epic battle between skill-based and class-based MMOs began. Back in those days, the proponents of Class Based systems said they were better because they limited players (I chaffed hard against the Class-based bit back in those days) which forced classes to work together to make up for each others’ deficiencies and to prevent everyone from Min/Maxing their way to cookie-cutter characters. The forum battles were bloody, bitter fights.

Fast forward a decade or so, and it feels to me like the pendulum is starting to swing back and that folks are getting tired of class-based systems (in part because class & Level – with a capital L – tend to go hand-in-hand) and starting to want skill-based systems.

So far I can’t think of any pure skill-based MMOs beyond UO. There are MMOs with Classes which contain sets of Skills that let the player sculpt a character within pre-set parameters, but have there been any other completely classless MMOs in recent years?

Should there be? In UO, the only way to determine if you could best an opponent (be it Mob or Player) was observing gear, engaging in battle or asking people how tough an ettin really was. Nothing had Levels and I don’t remember there being any kind of Con system (though maybe I’m forgetting). And since dying meant potentially losing everything (anyone coming along could loot your corpse) the world felt very dangerous indeed.

Are we ready for that again? In a purely skill-based system, how do you determine relative strength? If you’re a master swordsman and I’m a decent swordsman and a very good mage, who wins? Do we even *need* to know this ahead of time?

Runes of Magic client download woes

Posted on by Nimgimli

So I won’t be trying that Runes of Magic beta right away. The only 1-part d/l service is the aptly named Gamershell. D/Ling the client was going to take me over 24 hours! Alternative was a 5 part download from a European server, then stitch together.

Too many other shiny things to distract me. Runes of Magic can wait until they can provide a reasonable way to d/l the client.

Levels, what are they good for?

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’ve noticed a growing contingent of MMO bloggers that say levels are an out-dated concept and should be gotten rid of. “Everyone races to cap anyway,” they say, “so levels are just a way for developers to slow us down and suck more money out of us.” “The real game doesn’t begin until cap anyway,” others say, “so why not let us just start at cap?”

I thought it was time I stuck my oar in for the opposition. I play these games for the levels (and my ego isn’t big enough to believe I’m unique in any fashion, this point included). There is something primally satisfying about gaining levels; its a way of building a character, and I enjoy building things, both physical and virtual. I enjoy in-game crafting too, and I wonder how much correlation there is between people who enjoying “leveling up” and people who enjoy crafting.

I should pause to point out that this is a different argument from the one between class-based and skill-based systems. I’m fine with skill-based systems, where instead of gaining levels you gain skills… same difference for the sake of today’s argument: you’re still progressing a character from weak to mighty.

This weekend in EQ2 I gained 4 levels on one character, which really clarified some of the reasons I find leveling so much fun. We generally start using skills in distinct patterns as we play these games (hypothetical example: we use a skill that debuff’s the target’s fire resistance, then follow it up with skill that buffs our fire offensive rating, and then finally a fire attack on the target) to the point where some folks actually make macros to do the same sequence of skills over and over again. But what happens when you level? You gain new skills. And that means you need to re-evaluate your ‘combat patterns’ to see if there’s a more efficient way to use those skills. It mixes things up and keeps the game interesting.

Then there’s the aspirational issue. We see dragons and giants and we’re, yeah, killing ten rats. But to me, that’s a huge part of the satisfaction of these games. I can’t fight a dragon *now* but if I keep at it, I’ll become strong enough that I can finally get out there and fight the big dramatic creatures. If I could fight dragons the day I created a character well…that wouldn’t feel all that special.

The MMO[not-RPG] blogging community might be yelling for a revolutionary change to the DikuMUD leveling scheme in the games we play, but there are those of us who *like* things the way they are. I do believe there’re enough players to support both the evolutionary products and some hypothetical revolutionary ones, but I’m going to hazard a guess there are a lot of rank & file, non-blogging gamers that are delighted by the systems they’re enjoying today in LOTRO, EQ2, WOW, and a host of other level-based, aspirational-driven games.

Game devs, let us keep growing our characters! That’s where all the fun is!!

Frostfell Loot

Posted on by Nimgimli

So its been a very Frostfell Weekend for me. Riowa the ‘zerker made four levels and actually ran out of Vitality for the first time ever.

He got a shiny new sword:

And check out the detail, which is almost impossible to see unless you use a ‘dressing room’ mod (Angela’s Templar is showing if off here):

And a Bauble:

And this axe, which just looks pretty but isn’t that impressive in use:

And two trees:

And Frostfell has just begun! Happy {insert your game’s live holiday event} Everyone!

Frostfell Madness

Posted on by Nimgimli

I was settled in to get back to The Witcher tonight (I live ever in danger of leaving that game so long that I forget how to play it) when the frustrated grumbles from across the room got persistent enough that I asked what was going on. Angela was having trouble finishing a Frostfell quest with one of her alts. Her main had been able to solo the quest, and since things scale she assumed she’d be able to solo it on her alt, too. But she’d died a bunch of times trying.

So, just to be a good boyfriend, I logged into EQ2. Even her alts outlevel me, but we grouped up and she ‘mentored down’ and off we went (the quest scaled to my level that way). We blew through it without too much trouble and earned some tokens that you can trade in for all kinds of fun stuff, including gear.

I sorta skimmed through the list without paying much attention. Then I wondered how one would get more tokens, so I went back to the instance and got another quest to basically ‘re-clear’ the place. Angela came back, re-grouped and re-mentored, and we did it all again. Next time at the vendor I paid attention and wow, there’s some great stuff available. A lot of it is good *unless* you’re fighting something that does heat damage, in which case you’re pretty screwed. But there are some nice all-around items, and Riowa got a spiffy new sword that was a huge upgrade from what he was using. And I spotted a “Charm Slot” item that I now MUST HAVE. So back we went for a third time through!! Still need more tokens, but the hour is getting late.

In the meantime, Riowa made a level fighting and doing these quests, and was about 50% of the way to 44. There’s a Frostfell Collection Quest too (collect frost-bitten toes!) and when he turned that in, WOW! He went from 43.5 -> 44.25 or so. Huge experience for that. By the end of the night he was about 80% of the way to 45. Leveling like mad thanks to both Vitality and Mentoree Experience.

And have I mentioned that all this time the two of them (Riowa the hulking Barbarian and Angela on her Kerra Defiler — that’s the cat-people for non-EQ people) were wearing crowns of snowflakes and in Riowa’s case, a cloak that made him look like a giant Christmas present. 🙂

As quest rewards we took home goblins frozen in ice to place in our homes, “baby ice dragon plushies” and some frosty-cold looking floor lamps. All in all, an unexpected good time.

It seems that every year Sony adds new Frostfell content while refreshing the old stuff, so the event becomes more elaborate every year. There’s much left for Riowa to do! So much fun. Every time I come back to Everquest 2 it draws me in a bit more. Earlier this morning my alchemist made a few levels as well, and he’s getting high enough that he can contribute status to the guild (as well as keeping abreast of Riowa’s level, so he can continue to make Skills for the Berserker.

Catching up

Posted on by Nimgimli

We had a big ice storm here in New England during the Thursday overnight. Friday morning our power went out, so I couldn’t post before work. At lunchtime I came home to check on things, making sure neither Angela nor the guinea pigs had frozen to death, so no lunchtime post writing. By the time I got home, power was restored. My heart goes out to the many people who will be without power for several days; high today will be in the 20’s so its going to get terribly cold in all those houses. One of my co-workers had to leave the area to go stay with family; they had no heat, it was getting cold, and all the hotel and motel rooms are booked. I guess some of the schools have been set up as shelters for those without the means to get out of the area.

Funny thing about electricity is how much you don’t notice it until it isn’t there anymore.

Anyway…

Thursday night before all this started I got my first taste of this year’s Frostfell celebration in EQ2. I can’t remember if my account was active for Frostfell last year, but if it was I didn’t pay much mind to Frostfell because there’s a lot of stuff new to me that I’m told isn’t new this year. For my first outing I aided Queen Bunny in her fight against the commercialization of Frostfell. It was a fun little quest, solo (and it scales to your level) and it took me to the Steamfont Mountains, an area I’d never visited in EQ2.

One thing I learned while doing this quest is how badly equipped Riowa is. I was taking a lot of damage which made me think to check his gear and it’s all level 30-32 (and he is 42)! One of my “problems” with EQ2 is that I’m perpetually doing “gray” quests because my quest log is perpetually full. So I always log in to ‘knock off some of these gray quests’ and end up leveling in the process, making even more quests gray. I’m anal about going from A to B to C (in everything I do, not just EQ2) so I take every quest I see, and what I’m learning is that there are too many quests for any one character to do and still maintain some level of challenge. Not sure what to do about that… the A-B-C thing is pretty deeply ingrained.

Anyway, Friday night I was so totally spent that I mostly watched TV. I jumped into WoW a bit to use up Rested Experience on my baby Rogue on Rexxar, but I have to be honest, WoW just isn’t engaging me. It was fun for a week or so but now it’s just the same old same old again, even with the added benefit of CoWs. My account is up for renewal on the 23rd and I don’t think I’ll renew. Winter’s Veil starts on the 15th so I’ll probably play around in that a bit then be done with WoW.

In LOTRO the Yule Festival has begun, and I’ve read there’s a quest in the Shire that earns you a Christmas Tree for your yard, so I need to do that this weekend. I’m wondering if I can get my Champion to 35, get a decent horse, and win one of the Festival Races to get a better horse, all in the course of one special event. But there’s Frostfell fun to be had, too! So many choices! I managed to snag the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s off, though, so I’ll have some extra gaming time. On the other hand, next week is going to be hell week (launching a new web site at work) and I don’t imagine I’ll be getting much gaming dune.

No place like Home

Posted on by Nimgimli

The only “gaming” I did last night was running around in Playstation Home, since it was announced that all the free junk in beta would turn to “paid for” junk in Open Beta. I fervently hope this isn’t true, because if it is I think Sony is in for a big surprise.

Would you pay real money for a virtual ottoman for your virtual apartment? I know I wouldn’t, and I hope a lot of these ‘basic items’ remain free.

Overall, to say I’ve been underwhelmed with the Home beta would be an understatement. I think its a train wreck, and this coming from a Sony Fanboy. I greatly prefer the PS3 over the XBox 360 or Wii, but this…service. I don’t get.

Everyone gets a big sterile empty apartment that they can decorate and do nothing in. Or you can go to the Central Plaza, which is a big, sterile open area for you to do nothing in (though I understand they’ve added a game to this area in today’s update). You can go to the mall to shop for the aforementioned virtual items, but when you attempt to pass through the doors into a store you get a big menu pop-up. There is no actual store to walk around in. There’s a movie theater that, for me at least, takes longer to download the “movie” (trailer, really) than it does to play it.

And there’s the bowling alley, the one tiny pocket of fun in the service. You can play pool there, or bowl, or access an arcade machine. I’ve only done the latter and it was ok.

As for the avatars, they are universally creepy, in that “uncanny valley” way. Also they all feel completely generic. You have a ton of analog controls to set cheek height and mouth width and brow protrusion and on and on, but everyone still ends up looking like a 20-something mallrat dweeb. I feel that both the XBox Avatars and the Nintendo Miis allow a better “reflect my personality” experience with their virtual creations.

The bright shining hope for Home comes from Red Bull. There’s a Red Bull Pavillion that’s going in (maybe today?) that, from the previews I’ve seen, looks visually interesting and has some activities to do (flying a stunt plane). But the ‘out of the box’ content for Home is sterile, boring, and pointless. If it had just showed up it would’ve been fine (given that its free, after all) but after the months and months of hype, launching this is just another example of Sony shooting themselves in the foot.

But everyone is getting it, so I’d love to hear what I’m missing. Please leave a comment telling me what you’re enjoying about Home.

Here’s some footage from the Red Bull sponsored area. More areas like this one would make Home a fun and exciting product. I really hope this is in for launch.