Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 55

Tyler Versus the MMO Trinity, Part Two: Life Outside the Trinity

We come now to part two of my trinity trinity, a trio of posts on the tank, healer, DPS triad of MMORPG group rules and how I’d really like to see the genre break free of it. Catch up on part one if you missed it.

Today I’d like to highlight some of the best experiences I’ve had without the trinity, or at least with a modified version of it. Interestingly nearly all of these are from games that theoretically do subscribe to a rigid trinity, though I imagine that’s just a coincidence.

I hope to accomplish two things by doing this. First, it offers more insight into where I’m coming from when I talk about alternatives to the traditional trinity, and second, it further debunks the notion that a rigid trinity is necessary for interesting group content.

Two Sith walk into a bar flashpoint:

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s tactical flashpoints are a fascinating ground for experimentation with MMO group roles. The game builds a full group for these, but it does so agnostic of roles, and the content is tuned accordingly. Usually this means you end up with full DPS, or three DPS and a single tank or healer, but sometimes stranger things happen.

Such was the case a few weeks ago, when I had one of the most fun group experiences of my MMO career.

I queued for my first dungeon on my Sith inquisitor, who I’m building as a tank. I fully expected to be the only tank in a group of damage dealers, but I wound up matched with another tank of the same class alongside two ranged DPS. The responsibility usually placed on a single individual became spread between half the group.

It was glorious.

All that social pressure, all that fear of failure, melted away. I had all the fun of tanking and none of the downsides. I waded into combat fearlessly, imposing my will on my enemies, without fear that a wrong move would doom the group. The other tank and I worked together, taunting mobs off each if one of us ever became overwhelmed.

The trinity is often held up as a shining example of team work, but really, everyone is kind of doing their own thing. My fellow Sith and I felt more like a team — in a random PUG with minimal communication — than most hard trinity groups I’ve been a part of.

Even aesthetically, it was a major improvement. My comrade and I formed a wall of armour and blazing lightsabers, holding back the enemies from our softer team mates. There was no breaking of immersion here; it looked and felt like a real battle.

I cannot overstate how fun this run was. I long for a time when experiences such as this might be commonplace in MMOs. This is how it ought to be.

Never say Neverwinter:

Neverwinter does have a traditional trinity, but of all the games I’ve played, it has the best take on it, at least if you ask me.

Neverwinter may have the trinity, but if you’ll pardon the pun, it’s not religious about it. I’ve done high-end dungeons with no tank and done fine, and the roles are a bit softer. Tanks generally don’t hold aggro on everything all the time, and DPS can survive a few hits. Both tanks and healers still do decent damage, though less than their damage-oriented comrades. Heavy use of healing potions helps balance the responsibility of player survival.

The most fun I’ve had as a healer in an MMO — at least in terms of core mechanics — was as a devoted cleric in Neverwinter.

In Neverwinter, healers aren’t just slaves to HP bars. They’re more like Swiss army knives, utility characters adapting on a moment to moment basis. Sometimes you’ll be healing, but other times you’ll be throwing out buffs, and if nothing else is needed at the moment, you can put out some respectable damage.

I like this because it’s not forcing you into a narrow box the way the trinity does. I get to experience a broader wedge of combat without having to change character or specialization. To borrow the metaphor from my first post, it might not quite be a peanut butter sandwich yet, but it is at least toast with peanut butter.

…Hopefully I won’t get in trouble with the Hague for torturing that metaphor so much.

Old school oddness:

There isn’t much I miss about life before dungeon finders, but one thing that I do have some nostalgia for is being forced to come up with odd, random group compositions out of sheer desperation.

The tank left? The warlock is pulling out his voidwalker. Healer ragequit? Well, the shadow priest is gonna throw out some heals, and the rogue has some bandages, and the mage is praying to every deity in the book that we finish this.

It didn’t always work. It often failed miserably. And it wasn’t sustainable. We were able to bluff our way through some leveling dungeons, but you couldn’t do challenging, endgame content that way.

But it was interesting to stretch your toolkit that way. It required a lot more thought than a rigid trinity does, and again, you weren’t being forced into some narrow role. That voidwalker wasn’t going to hold aggro on everything all the time. That shadow priest wasn’t going to save you if you didn’t make good use of your own survival tools.

It offered respite from the stifling order and choreography of the trinity.

Double D:

I was always surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed instanced group content in MMO shooters like Defiance and to a lesser extent The Division.

Now, I’ll be honest. It’s pretty mindless. It’s not exactly every man, woman, and rogue Castithan for themselves, but teamwork is much less than you’d find with a hard trinity.

But it’s fun. There’s a joyful chaos to running in, guns blazing, and watching the bodies hit the floor.

Games are meant to be fun. They don’t always have to be super serious, or intellectually stimulating, or brutally challenging.

I wouldn’t want all games to devolve into mindless anarchy with little team play and no roles, but there is a place for that. Again, I want variety. Mindless slaughterfests should be part of a balanced MMO diet.

* * *

Next time, in my final post on the MMO trinity, I will outline my plan for how I would “fix” the trinity.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Defiance, epic nerd rant, Neverwinter, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Division, video games, World of Warcraft

Human Again Is (Finally) Available on Amazon

After what even I will admit is a fairly ridiculous delay, the third installment of my World Spectrum trilogy of science fantasy epics, Human Again, is now available on Amazon.

Though humanity hails her as a hero, Leha is haunted by the ghosts of those who died because of her recklessness. The weight of her mistakes crushes down on her.

Things are about to get much worse. A great force is sweeping through the spectrum of worlds, blurring entire realities together, and it will send Leha face to face with the proof of her failures: a universe of worlds ruined by her gambles.

But the greatest torment will come not from the countless worlds where everything went wrong, but the one world where everything went right.

I won’t bore you with the details of the bureaucratic nonsense that delayed this so long. The important thing is it’s finally up.*

If you’re just hearing about the the World Spectrum series, you can learn all about on the official site.

*(…That’s what she said?)

Filed under: My writing, World Spectrum Tagged: books, fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk, The World Spectrum, writing

Tyler Versus the MMO Trinity, Part One: The Groundwork

I think there’s a rule somewhere that if you blog about MMORPGs, at some point you need to do a rant about the “holy trinity” of group roles (tank, healer, DPS). For or against, it doesn’t matter. You just have to do one. I have decided, if only out of a sense of obligation, that it is time for me to undergo this time-honoured rite of passage.

This is a very complex topic, and I wish to be thorough, so I will be doing this a series of no less than three posts.

Oh, yeah, I’m milking this one. Milking it dry, baby!

Introduction:

To start with, I’m going to lay out the basics: my view on the trinity and its flaws.

If I had to pick a side in this endless debate, I would go with the “against” faction, but really my view is more nuanced. There are some people who truly hate the trinity, who want it dead and buried, but I’m not one of them. I’m not a particular fan of the trinity, but it’s a functional system that has been well-polished over the years. I play plenty of games with the trinity, and I enjoy group content in these games well enough.

What does bother me is when people start to treat the trinity as be-all and end-all, the only system under which you can have interesting group mechanics.

This is of course nonsense. The vast field of non-MMO multiplayer games without the traditional trinity (at least as we see it in MMOs) quite thoroughly debunks such a notion. ARPGs like Diablo are an especially good example — they share much of the same DNA as MMOs, have nothing resembling a rigid trinity, and offer fun and satisfying group play.

What I am sick of is the trinity being the default setting. I don’t mind that it exists, but I do mind that there’s almost no escape from it. It’s one option among many, and it doesn’t need to be as stiflingly omnipresent as it is. If you take nothing else from my trinity of trinity posts, let it be this: I want variety.

That’s not to say the trinity doesn’t have its virtues. The biggest, in my mind, is offering a variety of playstyles. It gives classes and builds clear identities and sharply distinct ways of operating. That’s a good thing.

But the trinity also has many flaws. Let’s go over some of the biggest:

It spreads responsibility disproportionately:

This is possibly the biggest issue. Under the traditional trinity, there is a wild disparity in the responsibility placed on different roles.

With only a single tank or healer in the average group, those two individuals face tremendous pressure. A single mistake by either can not only get themselves killed, but the entire group.

And the MMORPG community is not forgiving. One mistake, and you run the risk of being verbally raked over the coals and/or summarily kicked from the group. Even when things are going well, the pressure is constant. It’s very hard to relax while playing as a tank or healer, and that’s not a good thing for a game, or any form of recreation.

Meanwhile, damage dealers have no such worries. It’s possible for them to screw up badly enough to wipe the group, but the odds of that happening tend to be a lot lower. If a DPS dies, it’s an inconvenience, but rarely crippling. It’s far less stressful.

I firmly believe this is the main reason why DPS tends to be overwhelmingly the most popular role. I know it’s why I spend so much more time playing DPS than anything else, even though I like the mechanics of the other roles.

This ties into the next issue…

It makes finding groups difficult:

We’re all familiar with this. Because DPS outnumber tanks and healers so utterly, it makes finding groups as a DPS far more difficult. You can end up waiting twenty minutes or more, and that’s if your game has auto-grouping. Heaven help you if it doesn’t.

Meanwhile a tank can find a group as quickly as they click the queue button or type the words, “Tank LFG.”

It’s unrealistic:

Immersion is very important to me. It’s the great strength of the RPG genre, the ability to fully inhabit another life, another world. The trinity, however, is an absurdly gameified system that shatters said immersion. It could not be more divorced from real combat, and it rips you right out of the experience, forcibly reminding you this is merely a game.

The purpose of the trinity is to bring order to combat, but combat isn’t orderly. It’s anything but, especially in a pseudo-Medieval setting. Do you have any idea how often soldiers in the old days ended up stabbing their own allies because things were just that chaotic?

“But they’re fantasy games! Realism doesn’t matter!”

Yes, and no.

Nobody’s expecting a highly realistic experience from an MMORPG. I doubt anyone truly wants one. But there is the issue I love to raise: verisimilitude. A game need not be true to life, but it should create a convincing illusion of truth. I should be able to suspend my disbelief.

I can’t suspend my disbelief for the trinity. It’s too ridiculous. Every enemy develops tunnel vision on the one person who presents the least threat, magically ignoring everyone else, who just stand around doing their thing unmolested.

It doesn’t even make sense within the fantastical absurdity of a fantasy setting. There is no lore justification for the trinity. Imagine the initial Dark Portal cutscene from Warlords of Draenor under trinity rules. The entire Iron Horde dog-piles Maraad while Thrall stands in the background spamming chain heal and Khadgar just sits perfectly still firing off arcane blasts with impunity.

That would have been one crumby cinematic.

The other thing is that the point of unrealism in games is to make things more exciting than reality. Is it realistic when Anjali leaps into the air and crashes down on her enemies in a blaze of holy fire? Hell no, but it’s awesome, so who cares?

The trinity isn’t awesome. It’s functional, but not awesome. There’s nothing about the trinity that heightens the thrill of battle. Its artificiality is an unpleasant side effect, not a desirable feature.

It compartmentalizes combat too much:

Under the trinity, you only experience a narrow sliver of combat at a time. Only tanks directly interact with enemies, only healers directly interact with allies, and only DPS make a real impact on enemies and have the satisfaction of those big, juicy numbers.

Yes, you can play multiple roles to get the full experience, but you’re still only seeing one part at a time. In a discussion about this on another blog aways back, I said it was like eating a piece of bread, then a wad of peanut butter, then another slice of bread. It’s the same meal in the end, but it’s more enjoyable in the form of a peanut butter sandwich.

It doesn’t mesh with solo play:

The interesting thing about the trinity is that it can screw things up even when you’re playing alone.

Soloing as a tank or healer is infamously painful, which is probably another reason they tend to be relatively rare. Games have gotten better over the years at making questing as a non-DPS less Hellish, but it’s still significantly sub-optimal.

Similarly, tanking and healing can’t exist outside of a group. You’re essentially a crippled DPS at that point. This is especially true of healers; at least there’s some overlap between tanking in a group and playing as a tank solo.

This means tanks and healers can never really practice their skills without risking a whole group of players. Coupled with the social pressure mentioned above, this presents a massive barrier to entry for these roles. DPS may not play exactly the same in groups as they do solo, but the basics are the same, and if you’re stepping into early content, you can pretty much just do what you would when questing and at least do okay. Tanks and healers have no such luxury.

* * *

So those are the main problems with the trinity, at least as far as I’m concerned. Next time, I’m going to look at some of the best group experiences I’ve had without the traditional trinity to help illustrate that things can work and work well without it.

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, video games

SW:TOR: Agent Story Completion and the Switch to Preferred

Last night, I at last wrapped up the Imperial agent class story in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In the end, it did actually manage to live up to the hype that has surrounded it for so many years. It’s definitely going down as one of my favourite Bioware stories to date.

It’s very much a slow burn story. There’s not necessarily any point of it that’s boring, but it does take a long time to get to the stuff that’s truly memorable. But once it finally hits its stride, it’s well worth the wait.

I don’t know how the agent story compares to the other class stories, but I have to say this didn’t feel like just a class storyline to me. It felt like the main plot of the game. It wasn’t pared down or seemingly unfinished or otherwise lacking the way class or faction-specific content in other MMOs tends to be. The Imperial agent storyline could easily have worked as a standalone RPG.

As always, Bioware’s skill with character writing shone through. By the end, I was reflecting on how attached I had become to Vector, Lokin, and Temple (I’m still airlocking Kaliyo and SCORPIO at the first opportunity), but what was even more impressive was the deep, violent hatred I had developed for my enemy.

It has been a long time since a villain or group of villains — in any medium — has inspired such a depth of loathing in me. Maybe Adrian Zorlescu in The Secret World.

Bioware’s excellent character development really does go both ways. They can make you absolutely adore a character, but they can also build a character who is so vile, so insufferably smug and irritating, so utterly despicable that it’s all you can do not to punch your monitor every time they appear.

I also found the ultimate conclusion of the story immensely satisfying. Looking online afterward, I was surprised to discover just how many different variations on the ending there are, but it looks like I got the best one. The best for my particular head canon, anyway.

It does make me a bit sad that Bioware didn’t have the resources to continue the class storylines, but it’s obvious they never could have. Even WoW doesn’t have that kind of resources. It can’t be done — they simply bit off more than they can chew.

I hope I at least get to see Keeper again. I like the cut of her jib. Would love to see her become a full companion somehow at some point. I know it’s not too likely, but a man can dream.

Speaking of companions, that is one minor blemish on the experience. Companion stories could have been handled better.

Let me summarize the climax of every companion story for you:

Companion: “I’m going to do a cool thing.”

Me: “Can I come?”

Companion: “No.”

Me: :(

And then the camera fades out briefly, and the companion returns to tell you of their adventure. I imagine it’s another resource issue, but there were companion missions in the early game that let you go out and do things. You’re telling me I have to trek to the ass end of the galaxy to help Kaliyo get revenge on someone who talked back to her five years ago, but I can’t be there for my boyfriend on the most important day of his life?

It’s not right, man.

The layout of companion content is odd, too. New conversations are relatively rare in the early parts of the game, but near the end, they’re popping up after nearly every mission. I don’t know why they couldn’t have been spread out more.

Same deal for unlocking companions. I was stuck with nothing but Kaliyo for a huge stretch of time, but I acquired SCORPIO so late I’m not sure why they bothered including her at all. Why couldn’t they space those out better?

Still, this is on the whole a minor nitpick that doesn’t much detract from an otherwise excellent experience.

Of course, there’s still plenty to do. I still have expansion content awaiting me on my agent, though as I’ve said before I’m not in any rush to do so. I’m not sure my patience will last, but right now what I’d like to do now is finish one or two more class stories (at least consular to see the Republic side of things, and maybe inquisitor as well) to get a full view of the launch story before moving on to expansions.

I may also end up playing other alts down the line, too. Both knight and warrior have companions I want to get to know, and I’m still somewhat intrigued by the trooper story, even if the class itself didn’t impress me much. Bounty hunter is tempting as well, purely because I’m a Grey DeLisle fanboy.

I don’t think I’ll be done with SW:TOR anytime soon. This is why I followed through on my original plan of cancelling my subscription and buying enough cartel coins to eliminate the worst restrictions. Which brings me to…

Making the switch from sub to preferred:

As I wrapped up the agent story, I was also getting used to life as one of the unwashed masses without a subscription.

On the whole, it hasn’t been too bad so far. It’s very different from what I had been expecting; either the information I had read was out of date, or I had misinterpreted it. Probably a little of both.

Firstly, action bars. I had been led to believe I would lose access to some of my action bars after the switch, but this was not the case. Nothing changed. Granted, I don’t use the full compliment of action bars, but at the same time, I can’t imagine why you would need to, even considering SW:TOR’s outrageous case of button bloat.

Similarly, I had been led to believe I would be limited to six character slots, which would force me to decommission one character (likely the level 60 smuggler I made purely to farm Gree reputation), but I actually have eight, which allows me to have one of each class. Will come in handy if I ever decide to make that bounty hunter.

I had also been led to believe my cooldowns for quick travel type abilities would go up significantly after I let my sub lapse, but they didn’t change at all. With full legacy perks, this means I have no cooldowns at all on quick travel and the fleet pass.

But one thing I had never seen mentioned is that I can no longer use my stronghold to reach the fleet or my ship. The good news is the legacy perk to teleport to my ship isn’t too hard to get, so it’s not the end of the world.

In the end I had to buy less unlocks than I expected to. Kind of frustrating that I bought more cartel coins than I needed to, and I’m not sure what to do with the leftovers. I bought some extra legacy perks (rocket boost FTW) and stronghold decorations, but I’ve still got over a thousand left. Despite having some of the most aggressive monetization in the industry, SW:TOR has a surprisingly unappealing cash shop. Usually I buy clothes in these things, but most of the outfits are less interesting than what I already have, or too expensive.

My agent has been max level for ages, so I can’t judge the impact of the reduced XP until I spend more time with alts, but as a subscriber I was always well ahead of the level for each planet I was on, so I can’t imagine it’ll be too problematic.

The one thing that is bothering me, surprisingly, is the credit cap. I’ve never been very wealthy in the game, so 350,000 credits seemed like a nice high ceiling, but turns out I hit it quicker than I thought, and the warning messages about approaching the limit are far more insistent than I realized. It’s irritating, especially as I slowly run out of things to buy.

Still, on the whole, life as a preferred player isn’t half as bad as I had feared. So far, anyway.

This ultimately only further baffles me in regards to Bioware’s decision-making. Supposedly the point of their free to play model is to offer a free trial and then entice people to stay subscribed, but it doesn’t work. The absolute worst experience you can have in SW:TOR is as a new, level one player who hasn’t paid before. The later in the game you get and the more you’ve spent in the past, the less reason there is to keep spending.

It’s like the world’s wonkiest buy to play model.

Filed under: Games Tagged: sci-fi, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Gaming: The Love/Hate Developers

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll note that there are some game developers towards which I have, shall we say, very intense feelings. You’ll often see me going on epic rants about their blunders or casually putting them down. Yet paradoxically I’ll play virtually anything these companies produce, and I remain rabidly passionate about their games. It could be pretty confusing to a reader.

For all their flaws, though, each of these developers brings something special to the world of gaming, something exquisite that keeps me coming back for more. I thought it would be interesting to look at these companies and explain why I am so loyal to them, despite everything.

Up until relatively recently, only one developer would have fit his category, but these days the number has grown. No prizes for guessing that the original is…

Blizzard Entertainment:

I have been playing Blizzard games since before I knew how to spell my own name, and they remain a company to whom I am so loyal that I often joke they “own my soul.”

But that doesn’t mean I think they’re perfect. Far from it. In fact, they faceplant with alarming regularity, and their games are almost never without some significant flaw.

I think Blizzard’s brilliance and their blunders both stem from the same source: passion.

Have you ever seen Chris Metzen talk about the games he’s worked on? He’s the living embodiment of childlike joy and enthusiasm. He has so much passion for Blizzard’s games it’s like he could spontaneously combust at any moment.

And I think that’s true of all of Blizzard to some extent. They love games. They love making games. They have fantastic passion for everything they do.

And therein lies their folly. I think much of Blizzard’s mistakes come from them being so caught up in their passion and excitement that they don’t take the time to pause and think if what they’re doing is really a good idea.

I think that’s how we got the trainwreck that is Warlords of Draenor. They thought, “Hey, I bet it’d be cool to bring back all the old Horde characters,” and never considered much beyond that. If they had, they would have realized what a powerfully dumb idea that is.

I don’t know if this preference for passion over common sense can explain every one of Blizzard’s mistakes, but I think it’s one of their most core flaws and the reason why their plots are often a bit shallow, their continuity nonexistent, and their games rough around the edges.

But that same passion is what makes their games irresistible. Blizzard are so colourful, so larger than life, so bombastic and beautiful and unabashedly fun that nothing else can compete. I often say that Blizzard games may be popcorn movies, but they are the absolute best popcorn movies around.

Their passion means that when Blizzard gets something right, they get it so right. Legacy of the Void was a breathtakingly epic experience and an absolute joy from beginning to end. Ditto for Reign of Chaos, Reaper of Souls, and to a lesser extent Wrath of the Lich King and Mists if Pandaria.

At their best, Blizzard games are the perfect embodiment of the entire concept of “superior realities” that this blog is based on, an utterly engrossing vacation from anything resembling the real world.

Bioware:

I’ve often said that Bioware makes great choose your own adventure novels, but no one told them they’re a video game company. This is my way of saying that they’re good at story-telling, but that they seem to put no real effort into compelling gameplay.

Of all the Bioware games I’ve played, Inquisition is the only one where I’d list the combat and general game mechanics as a mark in the game’s favour. And even then, Inquisition’s combat isn’t great. It’s just decent. And I’m not sure I’d feel so good about if knight-enchanters hadn’t been so crazy overpowered.

That leaves story-telling as Bioware’s strength, but even that isn’t entirely true. The main storylines in Bioware games are, at best, hit and miss. The only ones that really impressed me on that front are Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 (yeah, I’m a freak). Origins’ story was just weak, Inquisition and ME2 had potential but became entirely too bogged down with irrelevant side missions, and ME1’s story was okay but not exactly mind-blowing.

Bioware is also, ironically, one of the worst developers out there for marrying story and gameplay. As in they don’t even try. The story is told through scripted cutscenes that are entirely divorced from the actual gameplay. Game mechanics are almost never used to heighten or enhance the story being told. Part of the reason I was so impressed with Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC was because they finally did start using game mechanics to enhance the story (IE the mark going crazy).

However, there are two things about Bioware games that are truly special.

One is the choices they offer. Even if Bioware’s stories aren’t always stellar, they’re engaging because it’s your story. There’s a tremendous satisfaction to being able to react as you choose to the situations the game throws at you, and it allows you to become so much more deeply invested than you otherwise might be.

I was reflecting recently that I almost never make the “evil” choices in games, but I’m glad they exist, because it makes the “good” choices feel far more meaningful. Sometimes being the hero isn’t about saving the world so much as it is about simply not clicking the button that says, “[Torture him]”.

It appeals to me as a writer, too. All the hard work of building a world and characters is done for me, and I can go nuts telling the story I want to.

Even then the choice system is often very imperfect. If I had a nickel for every time in a Bioware game I made the wrong choice because of a misunderstanding…

But very few games offer this kind of experience on this scale, so Bioware kind of has a monopoly.

The other thing Bioware does better than anyone else is creating amazing characters.

I’ve often tried to explain to non-gamers in my life what the characters in Bioware games are like, but words can’t do it justice. They feel real enough to reach out and touch. Going back and replaying a game feels like a family reunion. I genuinely miss talking to characters like Sera, or Tali, or Thane, or Merrill.

That’s not to say I always like the characters in Bioware games. In fact, every game has had at least one cast member I’d happily shove down a flight of stairs: Alistair, Isabela, Vivienne, Zaeed, Jack, Kaliyo…

But even there, the depth of hatred I have for these characters speaks to their quality and realness.

Dontnod:

It might be a bit early to add Dontnod to the list, since they’ve only put out two games so far, but already they have all the makings of another company I love and hate in equal measure.

Life Is Strange and Remember Me were both brilliant games with serious flaws. On the whole, I found Remember Me was good enough to forgive the flaws, but Life Is Strange not so much. I know the general consensus is the other way around.

But what I respect is that both were games with big ideas, big ambitions. They tried to not only be good video games, but works of art, as well, and largely succeeded, despite their stumbles. I’d rather games that shoot for the stars and fall a little short.

I’m already kind of excited about Vampyr, and I don’t even like vampire fiction.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Diablo, Dragon Age, fantasy, Life Is Strange, Mass Effect, Remember Me, sci-fi, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Starcraft, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Cheating on WoW: The Division Beta

The Division hasn’t really been a game that’s been on my radar. Shooters have never been my favourite genre, and I just hadn’t heard anything about the game that made it sound particularly appealing to my tastes.

But when Ubisoft decided to thrown open the doors for an open beta, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying it.

I’ve done a full write-up on my experiences in the beta on MMOBro: The Division Beta Is Mostly Empty (But Maybe That’s Okay).

I have to say I was surprised by The Division. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to, and given my preferences, it’s even more surprising that I enjoyed the exploration and side missions more than the main story content.

I’ve given serious thought to actually buying it, but between my glut of games to play and the game’s whopping $80 price tag, I think I’ll hold off until the next Steam sale, at least.

* * *

While at MMOBro, consider checking out my other recent articles on why high fantasy MMOs remain so popular, and the most visually appealing MMOs.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: sci-fi, The Division, writing

Review: 300: Rise of an Empire

300 is a movie I have a lot of fondness for. It’s the ultimate guys’ movie, heroic bombast at its finest. And yet not entirely a mindless slaughterfest, either. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest movie, but it was smarter than it needed to be, and maybe it wasn’t the most heartfelt movie, but it put more feeling into the story than it needed to.

So I was eagerly anticipating the sequel from the moment I heard about it.

Of course, it’s an old story by now: I missed it in the theatre because Real Life was in the way at the time. But now it’s made it to Netflix, so I was finally able to see it.

Rise of an Empire takes place mostly concurrently with the events of 300. While the Spartans seek to hold the Hot Gates, the Greek fleet, led by the Athenian general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton), battles the Persian fleet at Artemisium and Salamis.

Themistocles’ rival is Artemisia (Eva Green). Greek by birth but with a profound hatred of her homeland, Artemisia is Xerxes’ most loyal adviser and most ruthless commander.

Over the course of the film, Themistocles and Artemisia vie against each other across the open seas, resulting in no end of spectacular and ridiculously gorey battle sequences. Whereas Xerxes was a minor prop in 300, Artemisia has a much bigger role with much greater development, and Eva Green does a decent job as the ruthless femme fatale.

However, while much of the same elements are there, I didn’t find Rise of an Empire as compelling as its predecessor. There’s all the same bombast and gloriously absurd violence, but it feels hollow somehow.

Part of it is that Sullivan Stapleton’s Themistocles has none of the charm or charisma of Gerard Butler’s Leonidas. On the whole he’s just not very convincing as the famed hero of Athens. At least they did justice to Themistocles’ brilliance as a tactician.

Lena Headey puts on another strong performance as Queen Gorgo of Sparta, but her role is too small to have much of an impact on the film as a whole.

Also — and I realize this may seem a ridiculous problem to have — it did bother me how many historical inaccuracies were in Rise of an Empire.

Don’t get me wrong. I know these aren’t documentaries. I wasn’t expecting a perfect adaptation of history. But 300, for all its cartoonish extravagance, stayed surprisingly true to the story of the Battle of Thermopylae. Its biggest departure was the implication that only three hundred Spartans fought at the Hot Gates, when there were also several thousand soldiers from other Greek cities present. Otherwise, you’d be surprised how much of 300, including much of its more memorable dialogue, was ripped right from the pages of history.

Rise of an Empire takes much greater liberties. Darius didn’t die by Greek hands, not at Marathon or anywhere else. There was a Queen Artemisia who served in the Persian navy, but the character in the movie bears little resemblance to the historical figure beyond that.

Similarly, 300 presented a very rich — if somewhat simplified and exaggerated — depiction of Spartan culture, but Rise of an Empire does not do the same for the Athenians. They’re just random dudes with swords. How did they make a ninety minute movie about Athenian soldiers and not mention the goddess Athena once?

300 was like an enhanced version of history, painted in broad and dramatic strokes to heighten the story. Rise of an Empire is just an action movie loosely based on historical events.

Overall rating: 6.8/10 Rise of an Empire lacks the spirit and vigour of its predecessor, reducing it to naught but an empty bloodbath.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: 300, fantasy, movies, review

Many Games, Handle Them

It is well-known that I enjoy playing multiple different games from day to day. I bore easily, and there’s just too many good games these days to limit yourself to one at a time.

But over the last few months, I think I may have bit off more than I can chew. I’ve been juggling so many games it’s starting to give me a headache just trying to find time for them all (first world problems). It’s at the point now where I fear something has to give.

I thought I’d run down the games I’ve been playing (or trying to play) over the last few weeks, and what concessions I’m willing to make to lessen the load.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I’m still chugging along in SW:TOR. The “new game smell” has started to wear off a bit, but on the whole I’m still enjoying myself. I’ve nearly finished the agent storyline, and I continue to putter around with my various alts, mainly my sage and assassin.

I do think this game will be a long-term — though not necessarily permanent — investment, but I’m little unsure how to proceed for the immediate future. I plan to play through the various expansions, but I’m not in a rush to. This is an older game with a lot of content, and I intend to take my time working through it all. I had considered focusing on alts to see more of the launch story before moving on to expansions, but I’m not sure.

I’m also undecided as to whether I want to keep subscribing. I don’t want to keep subscribing indefinitely, and I’m definitely starting to chafe under the psychological pressure to play it creates, as I always do, but I’m not eager to give up my subscriber perks.

Raids are also a stumbling block. I don’t plan to make raiding a major activity in SW:TOR, but I’d at least like to do them once for the story. Non-subscribers can’t access raids at all, as far as I know. That’s vexing.

The Secret World

I’m in an odd spot with TSW right now. I’m extremely happy with the state of the game, but after three years and ~700 hours, there isn’t a whole lot left for me to do. My Dragon and Templar have finished Tokyo and are well-geared. My Illuminati is moth-balled indefinitely. I do mean to continue leveling my other Dragon at some point, but I’m no rush.

I try to do my daily dungeon run when I can, but I’m often distracted by other things. I still need to do the new Tokyo dungeons at some point.

A lot of people are very excited by the new subscriber perks, but I was fine with the old system, and the new cosmetics aren’t really to my taste. I have nothing against the new system, but it doesn’t do much for me — though the bonus bullion is nice, I grant.

So TSW isn’t doing a whole lot to crowd my gaming plate, though I wouldn’t mind spending a bit more time with it if I could find the time. It remains my favourite game of the modern era.

And since I haven’t evangelized it in a while, I will once again encourage all and sundry to try this game. It’s the perfect marriage of the best of both single-player and MMO elements, equally enjoyable solo or with others, and it features some of the best-storytelling and most inventive gameplay in gaming history. I still have plenty of trial keys — just send me a note through my contact page if you’d like one.

Edit: I have just learned that Funcom has discontinued the buddy key system. There is currently no way to try The Secret World for free. That… sucks.

World of Warcraft

I had intended to play a lot more WoW this month. Don’t want to waste subscription time, even if I paid with gold and not real money.

But once I got my moose, I pretty much stopped logging in but to kill Kazzak once a week on my two max level characters and do my daily garrison chores.

I keep saying I need to put at least some effort into leveling my monk. I do want her ready for Legion. But I didn’t particularly enjoy Draenor the first time, let alone the third time, and with so much else tempting me on the gaming front, WoW keeps getting passed over.

Sooner or later I’ll need to get back to it earnest. I want my monk ready for Legion. There’s the pre-launch event. And the expansion itself, though I still haven’t decided if I want to buy it at launch or wait a while.

Heroes of the Storm

Rationally, Heroes of the Storm would be the best choice for me to abandon. It takes up a lot of time while offering none of the features that usually attract me to games — no story, no artistry. It’s just a mindless slaughterfest.

And I admit I don’t have the best headspace for competitive gaming. I don’t cope well with defeat, especially if I’m already in a bad mood from my real life (which is usually the case). At least I don’t take it out on the other players as so many do.

Yet I do not wish to stop. For all its frustrations, winning is a thrill. Just in the last few days I’ve had some incredibly exhilarating, highlight-reel worthy plays. An hour or so before writing this, I watched my team’s Falstad fly into a bush, watch the enemy team kill the boss mercenary, and then use his gust ultimate to push them all out of the way at the perfect moment, allowing he and I to capture the boss right out from under the enemy team.

Nothing beats the adrenaline rush of stuff like that.

And the constant stream of new heroes and content makes it a game that always feels fresh.

So perhaps I should give up Heroes, or at least put it far on the back burner, but I don’t think I’ll do either of those things.

Also, as a reminder, I’m still looking for people to recruit via my referral link if anyone wants to try it. I might even give some coaching or newbie tips if you’d like some.

Elder Scrolls Online

And there’s Elder Scrolls Online, a game I have been slowly plugging away at for months now. Thanks its glacial pacing, I’m still nowhere near level cap.

As much as it pains me to say it, I think this is the game I’m going to leave by the wayside to stop my head from exploding. Not because it’s a bad game — it’s a pretty good game — but of all the games I’ve been trying to juggle, it grabs me the least. It may offer little cause for complaint, but there’s also little about it that truly impresses me and makes me go, “Wow.”

I had thought of at least playing long enough to finish the main story and wrap up the Aldmeri Dominion storylines — I have grown rather fond of Raz and Ayrenn — but with how slow this game is, that could still take me many weeks.

Maybe I’ll be back at some point. I certainly won’t rule it out. But even if I’m not, I definitely got my money’s worth.

I got as far as the end of Greenshade, and I know one of my readers was curious what I’d think of that zone, so I’ll just cover my thoughts on it briefly.

Greenshade was decent — possibly my favourite zone to date, though definitely not by much. I really liked the early bits with the Wilderking. It was the first time I’ve seen ESO cast off its low fantasy shackles and make me feel like I’ve truly come to a world of magic and mystery.

But that was also over far too quickly. And that’s the problem with Greenshade. It has, like, three different storylines that are only loosely connected, and none of them really get enough time to be fleshed out as they deserve. On the whole it’s still a solid zone, but I definitely wouldn’t rate it as anything special in the greater scheme of game stories. It maintains ESO’s standard quality level when it comes to storytelling: okay, not great.

And more

And that’s just what I’ve been able to find time for. There’s other things I’d like to play but can’t find the time for, and even putting ESO aside, I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to get to in the immediate future.

I still have a few unplayed games sitting around in my Steam library. Particularly I still haven’t gotten around to loading up the remastered Age of Mythology, and now that they’ve put out a new expansion (seriously), I really need to make time for that.

I’ve also been meaning to get back to Defiance for what must be around a year now. Now that the show’s gone, I would like to experience what the game has to offer while I still can. Though at the same time part of me wonders if it’s even worth investing in the game now.

Part of me would like to get back to Star Trek: Online at some point. It’s a very rough game, but I was enjoying the Romulan story. It might be worth another shot someday.

Then there are co-op missions in StarCraft. Wish I had a regular partner for those, but even without one, they’re decent fun, and I’d probably do more of if I had the time. Plus I want to play through Legacy of the Void on brutal and get some more achievements at some point. And there’s the upcoming Nova DLC.

Then there’s Diablo III, the (perhaps faint) hope of an Overwatch beta invite, and sometimes I have to try new games for work.

Really the list is just endless. Going forward, I’ll have to make more careful choices about what games to play. Go less mad on Steam sales.

You know, I always thought Syp over at Bio Break was a bit mad for his strict game rotations and schedules and the like, but these days I’m starting to see the method to his madness.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Defiance, Elder Scrolls, fantasy, Heroes of the Storm, sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Trek Online, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Starcraft, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Secret World, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Regrets of an MMO Lone Wolf

By now I think it’s well-known that I’m one of those oddballs who plays MMOs, but prefers to do so in solitude. I play in PUG groups when the mood strikes me, and I will occasionally chat in public channels (especially in The Secret World, where general chat usually won’t make you lose faith in humanity), but for the most part, I tend to keep to myself.

I wasn’t always so anti-social. I used to belong to a small but tightly knit guild in World of Warcraft, but once it fell apart, I embraced the loner lifestyle with open arms.

And for the most part I’m content with that decision. It makes the most sense for my playstyle, and humans and I have never mixed particularly well.

Still, every decision has consequences, and this is no exception. There are definitely some things I miss out on by being a virtual loner.

For instance, I’ve been putting a lot of effort into my stronghold in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. But I can’t help but feel a little depressed that, in all likelihood, I’m the only person who’s going to see it.

I could post images of it on this blog — and I do — but it’s not the same.

All issues of vanity aside, it’d just be nice to have an excuse to spend more time hanging out there — there’s just not that much to do in a stronghold on your own.

Similarly, going to more diverse events in-game might give me an excuse to use more of the many different costumes I’ve collected in my various games.

There are also the occasional grinds that would benefit greatly from some company. Right now I’m procrastinating about leveling my monk in WoW. I really want her to be 100 to be ready for Legion, but boy, I do not want to slog through Draenor again. It would be much more appealing if I did not have to travel alone. Just having a friend to chat with would help.

Then there’s the fact that I still haven’t found four people to recruit in Heroes of the Storm…

And sometimes it’d just be nice to have someone to share experiences with. Someone else who gets excited when TSW launches a new issue or something. The blog somewhat fills my need to gush and flail, but still.

Of course, there are some things I just can’t do on my own — like raids in TSW or dungeons in Elder Scrolls Online — but honestly, that doesn’t bother me nearly as much as you’d think. It’d be nice to do those things, I guess, but it’s not very compelling.

Which is perhaps an interesting lesson to take from this. Of all the reasons I sometimes regret playing alone, forced group content is at the absolute bottom of the list. Mostly I just sometimes want company for things I’d do regardless.

Take heed, MMO developers.

Of course, I could reach out more. I could try to find more people to spend time with in-game. But I jump around between games so much I doubt any guilds would want me, and again, me and humans don’t mix well.

So, yes, I’m comfortable being alone in the virtual crowd, even if it has its downsides.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, Heroes of the Storm, sci-fi, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, video games, World of Warcraft

WoW: On Change and Impermanence

World of Warcraft is famous, or perhaps infamous, for change, for constantly reinventing itself. Classes change, often radically, with each new expansion, and the game’s systems and content are in a constant state of flux.

There was a time when I tolerated, even welcomed, this level of change. I enjoy the idea of an ever-evolving virtual world, and I respect Blizzard’s desire to be constantly tweaking, constantly looking for a better way.

Indeed, change is a necessary part of any online game. Change too little, and the experience becomes stale. Minor annoyances become intolerable over the course of years. I’ve spent a long time complaining about the lack of change given to the rogue class, and I’m overjoyed we’re finally getting an overhaul in Legion.

Still, I am now reaching a point where I believe World of Warcraft is changing too much. Or, perhaps more accurately, it’s not offering enough permanence.

I fully grant that this is not a black and white issue; the line between too much and too little change in an MMO is incredibly blurry and probably different for every individual player. But I’m still going to attempt to make the argument that WoW is now in too much flux.

Class war(craft):

I really don’t want this to be a post about my own personal gripes with current class design, but I must bring them up at least a bit just to give an example of what I’m talking about.

Although my main is a rogue (in so much as the term “main” has any meaning for an altoholic like me), I also play a warlock quite a bit. Now, for the second time just since I started playing one, warlocks are being rebooted as a radically different class. I rather liked the first reboot, but this coming one is tickling my fancy much less, to put it mildly.

I find myself with little enthusiasm to muster about the warlock class as it will exist in Legion. For that matter, I’m also none to keen on the changes planned for monks — windwalker spec aside.

This has me wondering if checking out some new classes might be worth it. Demon hunter is obviously tempting, but with the current state of alpha, it’s hard to say how much I’ll enjoy it.

Hunter, on the other hand, is intriguing. Hunter class mechanics never quite clicked for me, but I love archer classes as a rule, and their changes in Legion look very appealing.

In particular, the dark ranger talent has perked my ears up. I’ve wanted to play as a dark ranger for years, archery and shadow magic being two things I love. It’s the chocolate and peanut butter of class design.

Yet I have to wonder: Is it worth getting invested in a new class when all these new toys that excite me might be thrown out later? Perhaps Blizzard will later decide to add an actual dark ranger class and remove those abilities from the hunter — they’ve already proven themselves willing to gut existing classes to build new ones.

That would make all the time I spent leveling, gearing, and growing to love a hunter a waste.

Constantly trying new classes used to be one of the main things that kept me playing WoW, but now I struggle to find the motivation. Class design now seems so mutable that there’s not even any point in getting invested in something new and exciting.

And yes, I’m looking forward to the upcoming rogue overhaul, but I imagine there are more than a few who are upset by how much their class is changing — almost into something unrecognizable — and I can’t say I blame them. While these particular changes appeal to my tastes, the truth is we probably didn’t need change on this scale. All we rogues ever really wanted were some quality of life tweaks, better animations, and one or two cool new abilities.

Plus, I do wonder if it’s even worth getting excited about the new rogues when there’s a good chance all the things I like are going to be thrown out and replaced in an expansion or two anyway.

Again, I don’t want this post to be about my personal gripes. You might not agree with my complaints about Legion’s class design. But I wager most people who’ve played WoW for any length of time can think of at least one example of a class they loved changing into something unrecognizable that they no longer enjoy.

Fleeting features:

Ever-changing class design isn’t the only issue, though. I’m also growing increasingly distressed by Blizzard’s new policy of adding features that are only used for one expansion, such as scenarios, garrisons, and now artifact weapons.

This, to me, just seems asinine on so many levels. I’ve always felt that the point of an expansion — what justifies the price tag and separates it from a content patch — is that it expands the game. It adds new features and avenues of play that we’ll continue to enjoy for years to come.

I still miss scenarios. A lot. They were fantastic story-telling tools, they were a lot of fun, and they fit perfectly into the ecosystem of WoW’s endgame. I loved how I could queue for a scenario, a dungeon, and a raid, and have each pop as I finished the previous, with no wait times.

Garrisons got a lot of hate, some of it deserved and some of it not, but I still believe they were a feature with incredible potential. To see them abandoned is a great disappointment. Here’s a case where Blizzard’s endless tweaking would have been most welcome. We were so close to a compelling player housing system that would have fit well with the personality of Warcraft, but now it seems WoW’s hopes for true player housing have been dashed forever.

I’m excited for artifact weapons in Legion — they fit very well with my own ideals for how RPG progression should work — but we already know they’re not going to be sticking around after Legion.

Just think about that for a minute. Imagine how much it’s going to suck to take the bloody Ashbringer and stick it in your bank, where it will gather dust and never be seen or used again.

So, again, I struggle to find motivation going forward. Why should I bust my hump to upgrade and max out an artifact that I’m just going to replace with a quest green three days into World of Warcraft: Still Not an Azshara Expansion Because Screw You That’s Why? I can tell you knowing garrisons aren’t being supported going forward killed a lot of my motivation for alt play in WoD, since garrison and character progression are so strongly linked.

It’s supremely hypocritical on Blizzard’s part, too. We’re constantly being told that we can’t have X feature or Y improvement because of limited resources (the “cost us a raid tier” meme), but yet they can find the resources to design massive, intricate features that are simply thrown away after one expansion? That’s mind-bogglingly wasteful.

I can see pitfalls for the idea of carrying things like garrisons and artifacts forward — for example, some people might not like being stuck with a single weapon forever more (though I’d be fine with it) — but I certainly don’t think these are problems that can’t be solved. To use the artifact example, Blizzard could add more artifacts to compete with the old ones, or create a system where artifacts and drops are both valid choices.

This can even tie-in to my favourite ranting topic: Blizzard’s attempt to remove flight in content going forward. Though they eventually backed down (partially), they had no problem invalidating mounts that players had spent months or years grinding for.

Why should I pursue any goal in this game when Blizzard has so little regard for the effort I’ve expended? I like collecting transmog gear, but should I even bother? Who’s to say Blizzard won’t try to remove or severely limit transmog at some point? Makes as much sense as their attack on flight.

* * *

Here’s what it boils down to: I can live with the current changes, even if I dislike some of them, but I have so little faith left in the game’s stability going forward that it’s hard to become invested in anything where WoW is concerned. It’s not the current round of overhauls that bothers me so much is it is the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that.

Change is a key part of an MMO, but so are investment and permanence. Change is only good so long as it doesn’t overly threaten one’s desire to build and develop a character over months and years.

After all, why build a house on sand?

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, fantasy, Warcraft, World of Warcraft