More stuff from my labor day roundup, this time featuring Rift and other stuff that I'm not playing now. EQ2 should have happened before this, but I was working on the bonus exp weekend over there and I finished writing the below material first.
Rift
Much as I like my level 50 Cleric on paper, I'm thinking I may have chosen horribly in terms of class. Cleric melee is slow and plodding. Cleric casting is powerful, but includes so much passive healing that the content feels trivial. I actually enjoyed Purifier healing, but it seems you don't actually need that level of healing power, and could have gone for something paired with Justicar that does more damage instead. Ironically, the game's relatively open soul system just leaves me wishing I could pick from ALL the souls, instead of merely a quarter of them.
If there is indeed a new parallel leveling path in the expansion, the best bet to hold my interest would be to re-roll with a different calling. The downside would be fifty levels just to get back into the the new expansion endgame content, and there's limited evidence that I actually enjoy soloing in Rift that much.
Others
Ironically, my next major new release may be Borderlands 2. I don't ordinarily play first person shooters, but I got a free copy for purchasing a new nVidia 660 Ti graphics card. I may or may not like the game, but at no cost to me I think I'd at least give it a try to see how it looks with the new hardware.
Guild Wars 2 is a question mark - I like some of the things I've been hearing, but I wouldn't mind seeing how the game holds up as people get out of the newbie areas. Access to the game's beta was unusually structured in terms of how much of the content players could see and how often they'd be allowed online, so I don't think we have any information to judge the game's longevity yet. If I had time, this would be a tougher call, but I don't have time. Ironically, being an MMO tourist makes it EASIER to sit out a major launch, because it isn't GW2 versus "same old" in one game, it's GW2 versus "same old" in eight different games, at least one of which I'm not going to be done with at any given time.
Amongst other MMO's, in principle I can sign back onto Vanguard, but I don't know that the monthly fee was what was keeping me away from that game after trying it out last year anyway. Allods remains vaguely on the list of major non-subscription MMO's I have yet to try.
Finally, the console roundup - I'm currently working on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Other games on my radar if/when I replace the console due to broken disc drive include Infamous 2, Uncharted 3, FF XIII-2, and possibly the two remaining Assassin's Creed games that will be out by then.
Showing posts with label vanguard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vanguard. Show all posts
Free to Pay SOE's Way
SOE often rolls out bonus exp on major holidays, and July 4th was no exception in EQ2. I took Lyriana for a spin through the middle part of the Withered Lands, the game's latest high level solo content. I've used up about 2/3 of the content from this new zone - ONLY playing when double exp is active - but I'm only a quarter of the way to the new level cap.
Endgame EQ2 (not) for the Non-subscriber
That said, I'm not complaining about the quantity of solo content. The idea that leveling content needs to get you to the level cap matters when the player is trying to get to the cap as a prerequisite for doing something (notably group content). If your solo endgame is daily quests, there's no particular reason (until the next expansion arrives and gear resets wipe out all the rewards for the old dailies) why you can't have the player continue to gain exp and levels while doing the daily quests. Meanwhile, this lengthens the exp curve in a way that hopefully left some more room for groups to advance at rates that do not trivialize the cap increase.
Rather, my issue is with SOE's AA slider, which can only be adjusted by subscribers. If I did not happen to have a subscription to the game thanks to some poorly thought-out promotions (I paid about $20 for the expansion and 6 months game time due to Station Cash sales), I would be even further from the cap, with half of my exp going towards AA that barely offer anything to my character.
A non-subscriber in my shoes would also be struggling for the money to pay my mercenary (an "optional" feature from the "optional" expansion, though the new content seems suspiciously designed to make a mercenary highly beneficial) since nonsubscribers are barred from looting a single copper until they are just about broke -under 18 plat. For reference, hiring the merc costs 5 plat, and he takes a quarter of a plat every 30 minutes, and every time he needs to be resummoned due to death or dismissal.
Alternatives to the subscription, or just an extended trial?
Longtime readers will know that I'm not afraid to spend money on my MMO hobby - so far in 2012 alone I've spent money on five separate MMO's (not counting stuff unlocked using cash store currencies that I paid for last year). In fact, I am willing to pay MORE total dollars in exchange for greater flexibility in when and how I can play. Instead of flexibility, however, SOE requires the same old rigid billing cycle that they pretend to be working to change.
Indeed, with Vanguard's upcoming free-to-play change they're not even offering a premium non-subscription tier and the game's producer describes their philosophy as "offering more flexible options for every type of player". How are they offering more flexibility? By determining that it is "in the best interest of our players to eliminate the Silver membership and instead provide primarily a Gold membership offering". If I wanted the flexibility of paying a monthly fee to subscribe to Vanguard, I could have done so without SOE spending however much money on revamping the game.
Ironically, SOE lost this round because it took their accounting people six months to address a Station Cash pricing loophole that was immediately obvious to players the moment it was announced. With that issue fixed, SOE has unified its catalog under a model in which they give away most of their content but refuse to offer a viable non-subscription alternative for continuing to pay for their service. Perhaps this makes me a "content locust", but I'm not likely to pay people who don't offer what I want to purchase, no matter how much stuff they try to give away as an incentive.
P.S. In other news that is going on around the same time, see Wilhelm's commentary on the announcement that Brad McQuaid has been brought back to the Vanguard team.
Endgame EQ2 (not) for the Non-subscriber
That said, I'm not complaining about the quantity of solo content. The idea that leveling content needs to get you to the level cap matters when the player is trying to get to the cap as a prerequisite for doing something (notably group content). If your solo endgame is daily quests, there's no particular reason (until the next expansion arrives and gear resets wipe out all the rewards for the old dailies) why you can't have the player continue to gain exp and levels while doing the daily quests. Meanwhile, this lengthens the exp curve in a way that hopefully left some more room for groups to advance at rates that do not trivialize the cap increase.
Rather, my issue is with SOE's AA slider, which can only be adjusted by subscribers. If I did not happen to have a subscription to the game thanks to some poorly thought-out promotions (I paid about $20 for the expansion and 6 months game time due to Station Cash sales), I would be even further from the cap, with half of my exp going towards AA that barely offer anything to my character.
A non-subscriber in my shoes would also be struggling for the money to pay my mercenary (an "optional" feature from the "optional" expansion, though the new content seems suspiciously designed to make a mercenary highly beneficial) since nonsubscribers are barred from looting a single copper until they are just about broke -under 18 plat. For reference, hiring the merc costs 5 plat, and he takes a quarter of a plat every 30 minutes, and every time he needs to be resummoned due to death or dismissal.
Alternatives to the subscription, or just an extended trial?
Longtime readers will know that I'm not afraid to spend money on my MMO hobby - so far in 2012 alone I've spent money on five separate MMO's (not counting stuff unlocked using cash store currencies that I paid for last year). In fact, I am willing to pay MORE total dollars in exchange for greater flexibility in when and how I can play. Instead of flexibility, however, SOE requires the same old rigid billing cycle that they pretend to be working to change.
Indeed, with Vanguard's upcoming free-to-play change they're not even offering a premium non-subscription tier and the game's producer describes their philosophy as "offering more flexible options for every type of player". How are they offering more flexibility? By determining that it is "in the best interest of our players to eliminate the Silver membership and instead provide primarily a Gold membership offering". If I wanted the flexibility of paying a monthly fee to subscribe to Vanguard, I could have done so without SOE spending however much money on revamping the game.
Ironically, SOE lost this round because it took their accounting people six months to address a Station Cash pricing loophole that was immediately obvious to players the moment it was announced. With that issue fixed, SOE has unified its catalog under a model in which they give away most of their content but refuse to offer a viable non-subscription alternative for continuing to pay for their service. Perhaps this makes me a "content locust", but I'm not likely to pay people who don't offer what I want to purchase, no matter how much stuff they try to give away as an incentive.
P.S. In other news that is going on around the same time, see Wilhelm's commentary on the announcement that Brad McQuaid has been brought back to the Vanguard team.
Three Predictions for 2012
Here are a few predictions on the state of MMO's in the coming year. Ironically, though I hadn't planned it this way, the three topics I came up with address (albeit in a different order) Wilhelm's top three questions for 2012.
Go Big, Go Small, Go Free, or Go Home
The subscription MMO isn't dead, but there are basically two very specific circumstances under which it can work:
The bottom line is that if you have yet another fantasy MMO, you're not solidly in one of the two categories above, and your business plan depends on collecting a $15 monthly subscription - FFXIV and Tera come to mind, along with Copernicus if they're not thinking F2P - you are in for a rough time in today's crowded market. Of course, you're also in for a tough time in the crowded free market, but at least the bar is lower to get potential customers to actually try your product.
SWTOR will have high churn... and high revenue
Both sides of the discussion on SWTOR's longterm prospects tend to assume that the game will be a failure if there is a mass exodus by the 90 day mark. Ironically, there has never been another MMO so well-positioned to handle a high rate of churn.
Yes, the game has guilds and PVP and dungeons/raids, all the traditional MMO trappings that tend to do poorly with high churn. As long as Bioware was spending whatever ungodly amount they spent on this game, there was no reason NOT to support these playstyles and collect the associated revenue. However, the core thing that has everyone raving is the Bioware story. With the past Bioware games, the customer pays once for the box, and maybe once more if the expansions/DLC are worth purchasing, no matter how long it takes the player to complete the game or how many times they replay it. With the monthly fee, EA gets paid every month for every playthrough and replay, regardless of how little or how much content Bioware actually adds to the game in future patches.
With such a focus on a highly replayable single player story, SWTOR doesn't need half a million year-round subscribers. They can get the same effect with 1.5 million players who pay 4 months out of the year when new content is added - or when players choose to replay the old stuff. I don't see how Bioware can lose here - which is probably why they got so much of EA's money to spend in the first place.
Mists of Pandaria Will Ship This Summer, Or Heads Will Roll
Many intelligent people are predicting that Pandaria won't ship until Q4, and there is strong basis for making this call - Blizzard is not known for shipping its products on time. This round, however, I think the stakes are higher.
Blizzard spent 2011 losing subscribers by the millions - to Rift, or wherever else - and SWTOR will not help this situation. No amount of spin about how the lost players are in the less lucrative Asian markets, or how players have returned to WoW after the launches of past competitors, can change the reality that Blizzard will continue to lose customers and money until something changes. A scenario in which the content that was available in early December 2011 is still the only content available in early October 2012 is unacceptable.
My guess is that we will see the paid closed beta phase of Pandaria (courtesy of the annual pass) kick off in May-June, with an aim for an early Q3 release. Delaying this product further is not like delaying Starcraft II or Diablo III, which do not have monthly fees - every month means more subscribers lost from the current live WoW service. I'm prepared to believe that Blizzard might let the expansion slip anyway, but I think that there will - and frankly should - be consequences if this occurs.
What do you all think will happen in 2012?
Go Big, Go Small, Go Free, or Go Home
The subscription MMO isn't dead, but there are basically two very specific circumstances under which it can work:
- Have a nine-figure budget like the reported $100 million in venture capital that founded Trion or the even larger figures that EA is rumored to have spent on SWTOR. Ever notice how the three corporations able to foot this type of bill - Blizzard, Trion, and EA-Bioware - are the ones who are still touting the subscription model?
- Serve an un-filled niche, such as sandbox PVP (see Eve, Darkfall, or perhaps the forthcoming Dominus) or old-school group MMO (see Vanguard, lots of room for a newcomer in this genre). The big-budget one-size-fits-all MMO that includes solo, group, raid, and PVP has to make compromises to fit all these activities under one roof. This makes it possible for a more specialized game to offer something that the big guys cannot. However, as CCP found out last year, this also means that your entire company lives or dies by its ability to continue to keep one segment of the market satisfied.
The bottom line is that if you have yet another fantasy MMO, you're not solidly in one of the two categories above, and your business plan depends on collecting a $15 monthly subscription - FFXIV and Tera come to mind, along with Copernicus if they're not thinking F2P - you are in for a rough time in today's crowded market. Of course, you're also in for a tough time in the crowded free market, but at least the bar is lower to get potential customers to actually try your product.
SWTOR will have high churn... and high revenue
Both sides of the discussion on SWTOR's longterm prospects tend to assume that the game will be a failure if there is a mass exodus by the 90 day mark. Ironically, there has never been another MMO so well-positioned to handle a high rate of churn.
Yes, the game has guilds and PVP and dungeons/raids, all the traditional MMO trappings that tend to do poorly with high churn. As long as Bioware was spending whatever ungodly amount they spent on this game, there was no reason NOT to support these playstyles and collect the associated revenue. However, the core thing that has everyone raving is the Bioware story. With the past Bioware games, the customer pays once for the box, and maybe once more if the expansions/DLC are worth purchasing, no matter how long it takes the player to complete the game or how many times they replay it. With the monthly fee, EA gets paid every month for every playthrough and replay, regardless of how little or how much content Bioware actually adds to the game in future patches.
With such a focus on a highly replayable single player story, SWTOR doesn't need half a million year-round subscribers. They can get the same effect with 1.5 million players who pay 4 months out of the year when new content is added - or when players choose to replay the old stuff. I don't see how Bioware can lose here - which is probably why they got so much of EA's money to spend in the first place.
Mists of Pandaria Will Ship This Summer, Or Heads Will Roll
Many intelligent people are predicting that Pandaria won't ship until Q4, and there is strong basis for making this call - Blizzard is not known for shipping its products on time. This round, however, I think the stakes are higher.
Blizzard spent 2011 losing subscribers by the millions - to Rift, or wherever else - and SWTOR will not help this situation. No amount of spin about how the lost players are in the less lucrative Asian markets, or how players have returned to WoW after the launches of past competitors, can change the reality that Blizzard will continue to lose customers and money until something changes. A scenario in which the content that was available in early December 2011 is still the only content available in early October 2012 is unacceptable.
My guess is that we will see the paid closed beta phase of Pandaria (courtesy of the annual pass) kick off in May-June, with an aim for an early Q3 release. Delaying this product further is not like delaying Starcraft II or Diablo III, which do not have monthly fees - every month means more subscribers lost from the current live WoW service. I'm prepared to believe that Blizzard might let the expansion slip anyway, but I think that there will - and frankly should - be consequences if this occurs.
What do you all think will happen in 2012?
2011 MMO Expenditures and Accomplishments
I'm never quite sure how to handle my New Year's/Canada Day resolution wrap-up for the year - realistically most of them are blown by July in any case, and the discussion invariably bleeds into what I'm planning for next year. This year I'm going to try something different and focus solely on the past; what I spent on each title I played, and what I got for my money.
For the sake of my sanity, I have chosen to bill content/currency purchases (expansions or free to play content packs) in the year that I actually paid for them (even though I may continue to consume it in future years), and to track subscription time in the year it was actually used (rather than paid for). Games are listed in the order in which the accomplishments appeared in my twitter feed.
WoW: $54.40
I signed up for the annual pass in late October - I'm choosing to account this as $16 for two months this year, with $60 for DIII and $80 for 10 months both applied to next year's budget. This will either be a bargain or a budget buster depending on how much use I get out of it. So far, I'm not spending nearly as much time per month under the discounted annual plan as I was when it was costing me $15, but I'm enjoying that time more because I don't feel that I have to force myself to grind day in and day out to maximize the value of the $15 one-month subscription.
Rift: $48
LOTRO: $20 in cash and $10 in gift card (which I value less than cash)
My remaining LOTRO playtime was in content that I paid to unlock via expansion purchases in 2009.
EQ2: $85
I was expecting to spend about $20+ to unlock my character after the free to play switchover, but SOE's decision to grandfather in existing characters meant that I only had to pay to unlock my current gear, which I was able to do out of my remaining promotional SC balance. That said, I did decline to purchase the year's second expansion box, along with the $20 paid add-on race that arrived with Velious. This game would have been exceptionally expensive for someone who actually stayed with it the full time and paid full price for stuff as it was released, were it not for all the freebies for being hacked and for changing the business model..
Runes of Magic: $15
Vanguard: $5
DCUO: $10
Note that some of this balance may eventually get spent on EQ2 instead of DCUO, such is the perk of SOE's unified account system. I will also tip my hat to SOE for allowing players to purchase currency in any increment of $5, without getting hit with funky/punitive exchange rates.
DDO: $0
No additional expenditures this year. I spent $100 in 2010, and spent about $70 of that on unlocking the content and character options I continue to use sporadically.
Kingdom of Loathing: $0
No additional money spent, I did sink something like $20-30 in this game back in 2007-2008 or so.
PS3/PSP
Grand Total
All told, I spent basically $240, not counting the $10 gift card, the PS3 games or the $140 committed to Blizzard products next year. (Nor, I suppose, do I count the amount of patience and attention it takes to await and grab some of the more substantial deals I got this year.) When you consider that a single subscription MMO with a $40 expansion box and $15 in monthly fees will run you $220 annually, that's really not bad for what I'm getting for my money.
Speaking more generally, 2011 was the year when I actually learned to take advantage of non-subscription gaming models. I spent a fair amount of time in non-subscription games in 2010, but I continued to play them the way I would approach a subscription game - focusing on one game at a time, playing it until I had completed everything I was aiming for and moving on. As increasing numbers of games that I wanted to play anyway are offering more flexible options, I'm routinely logging into 3-5 games per week, and on rare occasions even per day.
Ironically, this hasn't blown my costs through the roof the way I wondered that it might when I started tracking what I was spending this year. The "all-inclusive" subscription model has never included either the initial account nor the paid expansion boxes. I'm definitely spending more on content than I was - and sometimes I'm putting up with irritating restrictions because I don't feel like paying to remove them - but I'm not then turning around and paying again to continue accessing the content I have paid to unlock. I may or may not be paying more, but I'm certainly getting a lot more.
Looking ahead to next year, my totals will almost certainly be higher - if you budget the payments to Blizzard and likely boxes for both SWTOR and Pandaria, I already have about as much in total MMO expenses for next year as I did for this year. Several of the non-subscription games I paid into this year may not require additional funds next year (in particular, EQ2 should be way down), but the fact that I'm already down for $60 on DIII - more than I spent on all but one MMO I played this year - is already looming as the potential difference between the budgets. Guess we'll find out how this goes next year.
For the sake of my sanity, I have chosen to bill content/currency purchases (expansions or free to play content packs) in the year that I actually paid for them (even though I may continue to consume it in future years), and to track subscription time in the year it was actually used (rather than paid for). Games are listed in the order in which the accomplishments appeared in my twitter feed.
WoW: $54.40
- Completed a tour of the newbie zones post-Cataclysm
- Advanced my mage the last level to 85, completed all Heroic dungeons (both Cataclysm launch and patch additions) at least once, still working on rep and gear but qualified for the looking for raid finder.
- Advanced warrior from level 82 to level 85, completed all of the holidays through mid-summer to obtain my second violet protodrake
- Actually healed some PUG 5-mans on a mid-level priest alt.
I signed up for the annual pass in late October - I'm choosing to account this as $16 for two months this year, with $60 for DIII and $80 for 10 months both applied to next year's budget. This will either be a bargain or a budget buster depending on how much use I get out of it. So far, I'm not spending nearly as much time per month under the discounted annual plan as I was when it was costing me $15, but I'm enjoying that time more because I don't feel that I have to force myself to grind day in and day out to maximize the value of the $15 one-month subscription.
Rift: $48
- Playtested a bunch of alts during the paid beta phases
- Settled on Cleric, leveled from 1 to 48 (and 3/4).
- Leveled alts to the 10-19 range on the other three callings.
- Actually healed some PUG's using the dungeon finder
LOTRO: $20 in cash and $10 in gift card (which I value less than cash)
- Comleted solo-ified Volume II
- Currently working on Enedwaith and associated book of Volume III
My remaining LOTRO playtime was in content that I paid to unlock via expansion purchases in 2009.
EQ2: $85
- Completed Lyriana's enervated mythical
- Advanced from 191 AA's to 267
- Beat first seven dungeons in the Velious progression, obtained about half of my T2 armor
I was expecting to spend about $20+ to unlock my character after the free to play switchover, but SOE's decision to grandfather in existing characters meant that I only had to pay to unlock my current gear, which I was able to do out of my remaining promotional SC balance. That said, I did decline to purchase the year's second expansion box, along with the $20 paid add-on race that arrived with Velious. This game would have been exceptionally expensive for someone who actually stayed with it the full time and paid full price for stuff as it was released, were it not for all the freebies for being hacked and for changing the business model..
Runes of Magic: $15
- Advanced from 30 Druid/30 Rogue to 57 Druid/53 Warden/50 Rogue
- Test drove a bunch of alts into the 20/20/20 range
Vanguard: $5
- Escaped the generic Isle of Dawn
- Leveled character to 11 Disciple/10 crafter/12 Diplomat
DCUO: $10
- Reached level 30 on a hero, completed solo campaign
- Experimented with some alts on both factions, platforms
Note that some of this balance may eventually get spent on EQ2 instead of DCUO, such is the perk of SOE's unified account system. I will also tip my hat to SOE for allowing players to purchase currency in any increment of $5, without getting hit with funky/punitive exchange rates.
DDO: $0
No additional expenditures this year. I spent $100 in 2010, and spent about $70 of that on unlocking the content and character options I continue to use sporadically.
Kingdom of Loathing: $0
No additional money spent, I did sink something like $20-30 in this game back in 2007-2008 or so.
PS3/PSP
- Beat Portal 2 ($35)
- Beat Infamous 1 (PSN hacking debacle freebie)
- Beat Uncharted 1 (Christmas present in 2010)
- Currently working on Assassin's Creed 2 ($10)
- Currently working on Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP, Christmas 2011 present)
Grand Total
All told, I spent basically $240, not counting the $10 gift card, the PS3 games or the $140 committed to Blizzard products next year. (Nor, I suppose, do I count the amount of patience and attention it takes to await and grab some of the more substantial deals I got this year.) When you consider that a single subscription MMO with a $40 expansion box and $15 in monthly fees will run you $220 annually, that's really not bad for what I'm getting for my money.
Speaking more generally, 2011 was the year when I actually learned to take advantage of non-subscription gaming models. I spent a fair amount of time in non-subscription games in 2010, but I continued to play them the way I would approach a subscription game - focusing on one game at a time, playing it until I had completed everything I was aiming for and moving on. As increasing numbers of games that I wanted to play anyway are offering more flexible options, I'm routinely logging into 3-5 games per week, and on rare occasions even per day.
Ironically, this hasn't blown my costs through the roof the way I wondered that it might when I started tracking what I was spending this year. The "all-inclusive" subscription model has never included either the initial account nor the paid expansion boxes. I'm definitely spending more on content than I was - and sometimes I'm putting up with irritating restrictions because I don't feel like paying to remove them - but I'm not then turning around and paying again to continue accessing the content I have paid to unlock. I may or may not be paying more, but I'm certainly getting a lot more.
Looking ahead to next year, my totals will almost certainly be higher - if you budget the payments to Blizzard and likely boxes for both SWTOR and Pandaria, I already have about as much in total MMO expenses for next year as I did for this year. Several of the non-subscription games I paid into this year may not require additional funds next year (in particular, EQ2 should be way down), but the fact that I'm already down for $60 on DIII - more than I spent on all but one MMO I played this year - is already looming as the potential difference between the budgets. Guess we'll find out how this goes next year.
Crafting a Role for Crafting
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| Through the wonders of Archeology, I can actually make my gnome smaller (as well as trapped in the block of Amber for 5 minutes, or until I click off the buff). |
Archeology is an odd gathering profession where very little of what you gather can actually be sold to anyone - you will sometimes harvest tradeable "keystones" that allow you to spend fewer of your soulbound fragments on soulbound (or sometimes account bound) items. For the most part, though, it's a crafting profession without either the crafting (there are no choices, your fragments can only turn into the next item the RNG offers you) or the profession (due to the lack of stuff to sell).
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| Today, I get to use my fragments on a "rare" item. Note the option to use up to three keystones to remove the need for 12 fragments (1-2 harvests, with three harvests per node) each. |
Overall, my LOTRO character is looking much smarter. Allarond has been an avid crafter, mining various metals, placing them on the auction house, and turning the resulting gold into a wider variety of items than he could possibly craft for himself. There are some games where at least we see quest storylines that can be solved via crafting - EQ2 and maybe Vanguard probably take the top honors in this genre. SWTOR has tried to spice it up a bit by outsourcing your crafitng labor to your NPC companions, which I suppose at least puts some story behind the endeavor.
As is, I suppose the modern crafting system is something of a form of alternate advancement, whether actually tied to stats (as in WoW), content (as in EQ2), ways to counter the random number generator (as in DDO), or acquiring achievements/deeds/etc (all of the above). Sometimes (again, as in EQ2) a game will physically force players to seek out crafter intervention in the course of obtaining an item, but this just gives the crafter a cut of the economy, which has little to nothing to do with the actual crafting of stuff.
Overall, it feels like MMO crafting systems could stand to craft themselves a better role in their games.
F2P Assault on the Hard Drive
Yesterday, I posted a full run-down of five separate free to play games that are currently installed on my computer: LOTRO, DDO, EQ2X, Runes of Magic, and now DCUO.
In addition to these, I have clients for WoW (annual pass subscription), EQ2 Live (yes, this requires a separate full client install) and Rift (the latter two of which I do not want to uninstall because I want to be able to patch up quickly for free retrial weekends).
The net result of all these clients, all of which I could potentially use on short notice, is that my hard drive is 77% full and climbing rapidly. Already gone from the hard drives of this and my previous machines are various games that I'm not actively playing, including Age of Conan (tried sometime last year pre-F2P, did not feel any particular desire to return), City of Heroes (tried back in 2007 or so), FFXI, Guild Wars, Torchlight, Warhammer, Free Realms, Vanguard, and Star Wars Galaxies (soon to be a moot point). This does not include betas or test server clients (none of which I currently have.)
In addition to all of the above, my post and the following comments identified half a dozen high quality F2P or formerly paid games that I have never played in any form, including: Champions Online, soon Star Trek Online, Fallen Earth, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Allods, and Wizard 101. (Honorable mention to the soon to be closed Lego Universe.) I'm sure there are plenty I've missed in that number, feel free to post shout-outs in the comments.
A year or two back, I remember someone mentioning on a podcast that they had installed an MMO to an external hard drive and thinking that this was a weird call. Now I'm vaguely considering whether I should add an external drive (perhaps SSD?) to my Christmas list, as hard drive capacity is about to become a limiting factor in my ability to try additional games.
Is anyone else's hard drive buckling under all the MMO clients, now that it is increasingly both possible and desirable to have so many at your disposal? Any suggestions on creative or high quality external storage solutions?
In addition to these, I have clients for WoW (annual pass subscription), EQ2 Live (yes, this requires a separate full client install) and Rift (the latter two of which I do not want to uninstall because I want to be able to patch up quickly for free retrial weekends).
The net result of all these clients, all of which I could potentially use on short notice, is that my hard drive is 77% full and climbing rapidly. Already gone from the hard drives of this and my previous machines are various games that I'm not actively playing, including Age of Conan (tried sometime last year pre-F2P, did not feel any particular desire to return), City of Heroes (tried back in 2007 or so), FFXI, Guild Wars, Torchlight, Warhammer, Free Realms, Vanguard, and Star Wars Galaxies (soon to be a moot point). This does not include betas or test server clients (none of which I currently have.)
In addition to all of the above, my post and the following comments identified half a dozen high quality F2P or formerly paid games that I have never played in any form, including: Champions Online, soon Star Trek Online, Fallen Earth, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Allods, and Wizard 101. (Honorable mention to the soon to be closed Lego Universe.) I'm sure there are plenty I've missed in that number, feel free to post shout-outs in the comments.
A year or two back, I remember someone mentioning on a podcast that they had installed an MMO to an external hard drive and thinking that this was a weird call. Now I'm vaguely considering whether I should add an external drive (perhaps SSD?) to my Christmas list, as hard drive capacity is about to become a limiting factor in my ability to try additional games.
Is anyone else's hard drive buckling under all the MMO clients, now that it is increasingly both possible and desirable to have so many at your disposal? Any suggestions on creative or high quality external storage solutions?
What I'm Working On: Vanguard
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| Tell that tree that I've had enough of its amateur shenanigans! |
I was finally able to get off of the newbie trial island, hitting level 11 in both adventuring (Disciple) and Diplomacy. The last quest area would have been very tough to solo, but was fine with a second person - fortunately, there are people running around the temple during peak hours.
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| The Lucky Charm bracelet, for completing the newbie adventuring line. The item is much prized because it goes on your diplomacy outfit but gives you adventuring stats, and cannot be earned in any other way besides completing the newbie island as a new character. Also note that it will be sent into your diplomat bags automatically if there's room - I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out where it went when I obtained it. |
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| Triumph of the horse that let me choose the color of its saddle-blanket equivalent. |
Intercontinental travel is handled by a system of teleport crystals - for a very small fee, players can teleport to the location of their choice, and the NPC's will even offer breadcrumb quests to all the level-appropriate locations in the game. Once you're actually in the zone you want, though, your only guide is a compass that does not indicate altitude, or even whether you're on the right continent.
The second diplomacy quest once you're off the newbie island points players at one of the game's major cities, which I had never heard of and was not located on the continent I was on. First, I went to the correct coordinates, which were clearly indicated on my map even though they were on the wrong continent. Then I somehow missed a turn and ended up in the city docks, trying to figure out why I couldn't get to the coordinates which were up above on top of the cliff. A few steps later, you're sent off to another city on yet another continent, and again it took me a while to figure out that the new location was not actually in the place the compass seemed to be pointing to.
Fans of the sandbox and immersion may argue that this system is realistic (real people may assume that you know approximately where famous cities are) and leaves more for the player to figure out on their own. Fair enough, and perhaps this would have impressed me back in 2005. Today, the fact that it takes 5-10 minutes to ride my horse from the teleport point on the outskirts of town to a Fed-Ex quest objective that I actually know how to find (and will immediately leave for the next mission) is a dealbreaker by the second or third time it happens.
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| A shiny flight beacon, for a "how to use the rental flying mount" tutorial. |
And so, I wandered off without much fanfare. Not because I was out of things to do, or because I hated the game, but simply because there were other things that I would rather spend my time on. I guess that's a mixed review, but I don't especially fault the game for it, and I hope it sticks around for people who enjoy it.
Further Trials of Telon
I've been continuing my unlikely trial of Vanguard and I'm definitely seeing some things that I like, but also some things that I don't. A few comments at the two week mark, which would probably be the end of the line for me if I had to pay the full $15/month to continue:
Fortunately for my little goblin, I was heading back to EQ2 Norrath anyway, and I decided that I could somehow eke $5 worth of entertainment out of upgrading that subscription to the SOE-wide Station Pass. My guess is that quality of life for solo players will start to outweigh the novelty of a new, old-school open world to explore, but I'd like to at least get off the darned island before I make that call.
- Vanguard is not afraid to kick the solo player's rear. My Disciple is supposedly one of the tougher solo classes out there, but I've died in quests as early as level 5 because quests will not hesitate to swarm players with additional mobs. On the good side, it's nice to be challenged, and this increased difficulty can help encourage players to actually group while leveling. On the downside, even when making rapid progress I've occasionally been ganked by rapidly respawning mobs, which could start to get frustrating when the death penalty (exp?) kicks in at level 11.
- Interestingly, Vanguard does not appear to be that hardcore about travel. I'm supposedly going to have access to a mount shortly after I get out of the newbie Isle. There are also flying mount rentals - in lieu of the AFK-autobird, players can rent a gryphon with a five minute duration. Arriving safely and within the time limit remain the player's responsibility. There also appears to be some sort of teleport system, though I can't use it yet. Whatever the case, I think they've got a good balance between trivial travel (like we see in WoW these days) and prohibitive travel (where you might not be able to do what you planned to solely because it would take you all night to get there).
Even the newbie zone has rental flying mounts. - I'm really enjoying the non-combat questing options; Vanguard offers both crafting and diplomacy quests, and it's always refreshing to see a game where not every problem is solved with a sword. That said, neither is perfect. The Diplomacy minigame is just involved enough to keep me focused on the actual gameplay, and away from the text panel where the actual conversation is going on. I'm also often struggling to actually find the NPC's I'm supposed to talk to, which is by design but which also gets old.
The crafting is better, though I definitely feel that there's a lot I'm learning by trial and error. Unfortunately, one of those things is that I appear to have chosen the wrong specialization, Blacksmith, under the mistaken impression that my Disciple wore heavy armor. I'm probably going to stick it out to crafting level 10 as a blacksmith to complete the newbie storyline and then either start over with writs on the outside or leave the crafting to the profesionals. - The quest system is definitely more like what we had back in 2009 than today. Questgivers do have punctuation over their heads, but their locations are not automatically tracked on the minimap. Instead of brightly lit highlights of exactly what to kill on each point of the map, players can expect a compass heading to the correct general area at best, and sometimes no guidance at all. On the less fortunate side, quest items on the ground are often small and hard to see. I suppose this contributes indirectly to difficulty, since you may be around longer looking for stuff and therefore have to fight more mobs, but overall you're fighting the camera more than the mobs.
Fortunately for my little goblin, I was heading back to EQ2 Norrath anyway, and I decided that I could somehow eke $5 worth of entertainment out of upgrading that subscription to the SOE-wide Station Pass. My guess is that quality of life for solo players will start to outweigh the novelty of a new, old-school open world to explore, but I'd like to at least get off the darned island before I make that call.
Early Vanguard Trial Impressions
Vanguard - despite its reputation as a harsh, old-school game with a dwindling population - has been vaguely on my list of things to try someday for a while now. I'd been hoping for a free-to-play relaunch, but SOE has taken that option off the table, and honestly I may be better off with the $20 Station Pass offer anyway; if it's not worth paying $5 more than I'm already paying for EQ2 many months, it's not worth my time, and this way the game doesn't get hit with all of EQ2X's cash shop antics.
The game's free trial is back online now that the dust has settles from the SOE hack, so I decided to take it for a spin.
Searching for character
I wanted to try out a class with a good reputation for soloing to mitigate the difficulty, since I don't expect to be grouping much more than I do in other games (read: not all the time). My first attempt was a Necromancer, your typical ranged DPS with pet. I somehow keep forgetting that I hate to play ranged classes with pets because I end up feeling like my job is to watch the NPC do the work of actually fighting mobs, and this lasted about four levels.
My next attempt is Disciple - a melee healer, with normal mana-based heals supplemented by heals on a melee combo point-like mechanic. This is going much better, and it's moderately likely that this second character will stick, if for no other reason than because I'm not prepared to spend the time it takes to test drive all of the game's classes. (Many classes don't get key abilities until a good way through the game's level curve.)
It's worth nothing that Vanguard classes appear to be ahead of their time - DPS healer archetypes like the Disciple and the Blood Mage are increasingly popular in more recent games like Warhammer and Rift.
Complexity for its own sake?
On the one hand, I can definitely see what appeals to players who miss the old school days. Vanguard has a crafting system like EQ2's, only this version features more steps, components and subcombines. There's also a "diplomacy" minigame in which a number-based card system is used to model players negotiating with NPC's. Adventurers can expect a group dungeon before they hit level 10. On the other hand, some of the complexity feels redundant.
Almost anything the player does advances multiple skills, factions, diplomacy standings, etc. Characters have four separate sets of gear, stats and exp (adventuring, harvesting, crafting, and diplomacy, with an extra tab for your mount and appearance gear), each of which can be further equipped with containers of varying types. I failed a crafting combine early because I got an error message saying that I needed a "rigging tool" to fix something that had happened, and I made the mistake of buying a second toolbelt to put the missing device into. Apparently you can have more than one belt, but you can only use the tools from one belt in a single crafting effort per combine, - I ended up losing my materials because a tool I needed was in a belt I didn't realize was inactive.
Some of this stuff isn't more challenging or more strategic, just complex for the sake of complexity. One wonders if the game's notoriously rough launch might have gone a bit smoother if someone had asked whether some of these stats and tabs and mechanics were really adding to the game.
Does the trial play to the game's strengths?
On his new Vanguard podcast, Ardwulf suggests that the game's "Isle of Dawn" free trial area demonstrates how the game plays, but fails to capture how the game feels. Having started the trial, I definitely see what he means. The starter quest series (one each for adventurers, crafters, and diplomats) are linear and just like every other quest-based MMO out there these days. The confined trial approach locks players out of the open sandbox world that Ardwulf and Quert claim is the game's best feature, instead putting a generic questing experience with somewhat generic lore (all of the game's races, which have lore of their own in their subscriber-only starting areas, have to be willing to take these quests) front and center.
I'm probably going to spend a bit more time with the trial before making any decisions, but it looks like players need to upgrade to a real account to get a real view of Telon. That's an unfortunate situation for a game that is looking to attract more players.
The game's free trial is back online now that the dust has settles from the SOE hack, so I decided to take it for a spin.
Searching for character
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| The refreshingly varied list of character races include cat, wolf, and fox people, along with goblins, giants, and other fantasy staples. |
I wanted to try out a class with a good reputation for soloing to mitigate the difficulty, since I don't expect to be grouping much more than I do in other games (read: not all the time). My first attempt was a Necromancer, your typical ranged DPS with pet. I somehow keep forgetting that I hate to play ranged classes with pets because I end up feeling like my job is to watch the NPC do the work of actually fighting mobs, and this lasted about four levels.
My next attempt is Disciple - a melee healer, with normal mana-based heals supplemented by heals on a melee combo point-like mechanic. This is going much better, and it's moderately likely that this second character will stick, if for no other reason than because I'm not prepared to spend the time it takes to test drive all of the game's classes. (Many classes don't get key abilities until a good way through the game's level curve.)
It's worth nothing that Vanguard classes appear to be ahead of their time - DPS healer archetypes like the Disciple and the Blood Mage are increasingly popular in more recent games like Warhammer and Rift.
Complexity for its own sake?
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| The character sheet has six panels, half of which have multiple tabs, and some of which aren't where I expect to find them |
On the one hand, I can definitely see what appeals to players who miss the old school days. Vanguard has a crafting system like EQ2's, only this version features more steps, components and subcombines. There's also a "diplomacy" minigame in which a number-based card system is used to model players negotiating with NPC's. Adventurers can expect a group dungeon before they hit level 10. On the other hand, some of the complexity feels redundant.
Almost anything the player does advances multiple skills, factions, diplomacy standings, etc. Characters have four separate sets of gear, stats and exp (adventuring, harvesting, crafting, and diplomacy, with an extra tab for your mount and appearance gear), each of which can be further equipped with containers of varying types. I failed a crafting combine early because I got an error message saying that I needed a "rigging tool" to fix something that had happened, and I made the mistake of buying a second toolbelt to put the missing device into. Apparently you can have more than one belt, but you can only use the tools from one belt in a single crafting effort per combine, - I ended up losing my materials because a tool I needed was in a belt I didn't realize was inactive.
Some of this stuff isn't more challenging or more strategic, just complex for the sake of complexity. One wonders if the game's notoriously rough launch might have gone a bit smoother if someone had asked whether some of these stats and tabs and mechanics were really adding to the game.
Does the trial play to the game's strengths?
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| A familiar looking quest system |
I'm probably going to spend a bit more time with the trial before making any decisions, but it looks like players need to upgrade to a real account to get a real view of Telon. That's an unfortunate situation for a game that is looking to attract more players.
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| An early quest calls for players to loot a toolbox. If you were there in the real world, it would be easy to see (and you'd also be free to mistakenly bring the questgiver any of the other abandoned tools in the area). In your standard 3rd person MMO interface, the primary challenge in this quest is figuring out which small part of the landscape will accept a mouse click. |
Canada Day Resolutions For 2011
It's July 1st, which means it is once again time to hono(u)r our neighbors to the north with PVD's annual Canada Day Resolutions. How have my New Years' Resolutions been going so far? What's on deck for the rest of the year?
WoW Resolutions
Revised Resolutions are:
DDO/LOTRO Resolutions
EQ2 Live/Extended
Revised Resolutions:
At the start of the year, I had no plans to return to ROM. Probably the biggest thing I did to improve my experience was to stop worrying about keeping my secondary class up to date. Focusing on the druid side, which is the side that I really enjoy anyway, literally halves the grind, and the result is a level that I can enjoy as a pleasant non-subscription diversion.
Revised Resolutions:
The original plan here was to sightsee in DCUO and pick up some misc single player games. Unfortunately, the more I've heard about DCUO - including today's half-hearted introduction of a cash shop - the less impressed I am. I may eventually pick this up on the PC if the price gets low enough, now that the station pass upgrade costs only $5 more for EQ2 subscribers. On the single player side, I've beaten Portal 2 and Infamous, and now I'm working on Assassin's Creed 2.
Rift Resolutions
I had planned to take a pass on the launch rush, but relatively reasonable pricing ultimately tipped me in favor of signing up at launch. I let my sub lapse at the 30 day mark, I haven't been back, and I can't really articulate a rational reason why; I just didn't feel like sticking with the game over the other options. Though the launch went exceptionally well by all MMO standards, there were some rough edges that got balanced out, for better or worse, over the last few months. I figure that the game that I will eventually return to will be better than the one I declined to pay for back in April, so there's no hurry, especially with how quickly Trion releases new patches.
Revised Resolution:
At the top of the year, I said that I'd consider Vanguard and STO if they went free to play. The buzz on Vanguard has since gotten interesting enough that I will likely take it for a free trial spin, even though no business model change is in sight. I remain not so interested in SWTOR or GW2 because I didn't care so much for their predecessors, and I don't feel like there have been enough hard details about TERA for me to say much about the game.
The other game I'm vaguely curious about is Allods, which a lot of people seemed to enjoy until they discovered that the publisher intended to make money on the product, and which is supposedly adding its own take on dual/multi-classing. That said, time is really the limiting factor in trying any MMO's I'm not currently playing, and I'm just not sure that Allods or anything else is going to fit in the calendar.
The Blog
As I predicted, I'm limping along at around three posts per week due to limited gaming/blogging time. Some weeks, I've had so little time that I realize it's been several days since I posted anything. Others, I've got something to talk about every day. It's not ideal, but it's what I've got for now.
As always, thanks to my readers for sticking around, and we'll see how these resolutions fare in six months.
WoW Resolutions
- Get both my Gnome mage (currently 84) and my Tauren warrior (82) up to the new level cap of 85.
My mage came up just short of hitting the milestone this year for reasons I've discussed. - Complete every normal and heroic 5-man at least once on both high level characters.
- Explore some of the revamped old world on new alts.
Currently, I'm a bit over halfway through a tour of the newbie (1-12) zones with a small army of new alts. My favorite lowbie specs right now are Subtlety Rogue, Survival Hunter, Destruction Warlock, and Discipline Priest. It's possibly telling that none of those are traditional leveling specs, which tend to make life too easy.
Revised Resolutions are:
- Finish the heroics (including new ones) on the mage.
- Check out the new daily campaign in 4.2.
DDO/LOTRO Resolutions
- Actually get a character into the mid-high levels. [DDO]
- Complete the Vol 3 Book 2 content in Enedwaith (added during the F2P switch)[LOTRO]
- Await Isengard [LOTRO]
EQ2 Live/Extended
- Write fewer news posts about the EQ2 business model.
- Either find a Velious bargain or skip the expansion entirely
Revised Resolutions:
- Wrap up the Velious solo timelines, including any new content as it arrives.
- Complete each heroic dungeon at least once (I've currently finished the first six, leaving the three KD zones and the new ones in Drunder), and try to finish up the major dungeon questlines.
At the start of the year, I had no plans to return to ROM. Probably the biggest thing I did to improve my experience was to stop worrying about keeping my secondary class up to date. Focusing on the druid side, which is the side that I really enjoy anyway, literally halves the grind, and the result is a level that I can enjoy as a pleasant non-subscription diversion.
Revised Resolutions:
- Advance towards the level cap on the druid (or as close as I can get before the grind and/or the need for gear kills it)
- Pick my third class (probably either Warden or Warrior, leaning Warden if they improve it in upcoming patches) and take some of the additional options for a spin.
The original plan here was to sightsee in DCUO and pick up some misc single player games. Unfortunately, the more I've heard about DCUO - including today's half-hearted introduction of a cash shop - the less impressed I am. I may eventually pick this up on the PC if the price gets low enough, now that the station pass upgrade costs only $5 more for EQ2 subscribers. On the single player side, I've beaten Portal 2 and Infamous, and now I'm working on Assassin's Creed 2.
Rift Resolutions
I had planned to take a pass on the launch rush, but relatively reasonable pricing ultimately tipped me in favor of signing up at launch. I let my sub lapse at the 30 day mark, I haven't been back, and I can't really articulate a rational reason why; I just didn't feel like sticking with the game over the other options. Though the launch went exceptionally well by all MMO standards, there were some rough edges that got balanced out, for better or worse, over the last few months. I figure that the game that I will eventually return to will be better than the one I declined to pay for back in April, so there's no hurry, especially with how quickly Trion releases new patches.
Revised Resolution:
- Get to level 50 on my Cleric, PUG some dungeons to see how the experience compares with WoW and EQ2.
At the top of the year, I said that I'd consider Vanguard and STO if they went free to play. The buzz on Vanguard has since gotten interesting enough that I will likely take it for a free trial spin, even though no business model change is in sight. I remain not so interested in SWTOR or GW2 because I didn't care so much for their predecessors, and I don't feel like there have been enough hard details about TERA for me to say much about the game.
The other game I'm vaguely curious about is Allods, which a lot of people seemed to enjoy until they discovered that the publisher intended to make money on the product, and which is supposedly adding its own take on dual/multi-classing. That said, time is really the limiting factor in trying any MMO's I'm not currently playing, and I'm just not sure that Allods or anything else is going to fit in the calendar.
The Blog
As I predicted, I'm limping along at around three posts per week due to limited gaming/blogging time. Some weeks, I've had so little time that I realize it's been several days since I posted anything. Others, I've got something to talk about every day. It's not ideal, but it's what I've got for now.
As always, thanks to my readers for sticking around, and we'll see how these resolutions fare in six months.
G&H, ROM, and Station Access
I don't often do posts of random odds and ends, but that's what I've got today.
- I got some comments from the Gods and Heroes Team on my post about my brief visit to the game's beta. I chose to play the game as a level one player would experience it at that point in the beta. Massively's Beau Hindman went the opposite route, accepting a higher level character so he could get a better sense of the game's high end potential. It hadn't occurred to me that you could get non-human minions, and that does indeed sound amusing. In a few short weeks, we'll find out whether players are prepared to accept the possibly rough-around-the-edges experience in order to get at the more interesting potential at higher levels.
- It was another bonus weekend in Runes of Magic - triple exp AND TP this time - and I got in a few levels on my Druid (who is now 52 Druid/43 Rogue). I've cleared out the solo quests of Dust Devil and I'm part of the way through Ravenfell. I'm also slowly working on getting the Rogue side up to 45 so I can add the 45/45 Elite skill to my spellbook, since it has a marginally useful passive benefit. (The 50/50 requires a questline that I am unlikely to complete anytime soon.)
- Sony also announced a cut in the price of the Station Pass, which now costs $20/month. One can only speculate that relatively few players are actually using the service at the old price (and it's possible that many are/were EQ2 players who are only paying for the upgrade to rent extra character slots back when you could not purchase them). For me, that means $5/month for any second game in addition to EQ2, which makes some of the other options in the SOE stable more interesting.
I wanted to play DCUO on the PS3, but the PC version is so much cheaper - $40 for the box to start with and then effectively $5/month with this Station deal compared to $50 for the PS3 box and the full $15/month on the PSN - that PC version is starting to look like a no-brainer by comparison.
There's also the curiously en vogue Vanguard. I've been feeling under-challenged by solo games of late, so it's possible that a game that's aimed more at small groups would actually be refreshing. I would definitely play Vanguard differently than other MMO's - I don't think the game is going anywhere, but you can't be certain given how much population has dwindled, so my willingness to tolerate any less-fun segments of the game as an "investment" to get at more interesting high level content would be basically nil. That said, for a low enough price point and some bonus blog topics, it might be worthwhile. (Incidentally, does anyone know whether Station Access holders need to pay for an account key, or can you just download the client and go?)
Belated 2011 Predictions
Many bloggers spend late December and early January making predictions for the new year. It's a time-honored tradition that creates filler topics for next year's holiday season about how badly our predictions fared. (If we were good at this sort of thing, we'd be placing our bets on MMO company stocks instead of posting them.) A few of us have even moved beyond predictions - a nefarious character known to Wordpress only as Wilhelm2451 issued a series of demands to MMO studios earlier this month.
Personally, I haven't done predictions in the past, saving my comically inaccurate guesses for Blizzcon. This year, though, a few things I've read and heard in OTHER peoples' predictions have convinced me to write a few of my own.
Surprise new MMO announcement
MMO Reporter's prediction episode had a category for announcements of new MMO's, but the round table somehow missed a big possibility: the rumored Turbine Harry Potter MMO.
Now that the MMO studio is owned by the movie studio responsible for releasing the final film this year, I don't see any way that this project - if it exists - stays un-announced. Even if J.K. Rowling eventually decides to break down and write more books, I doubt that the hype on this series will ever get back to where it will be as the final film of the original series hits theaters. Announcing this project - which some conspiracy theorists suggest is why WB decided they wanted to own Turbine in the first place - would naturally benefit from the film's advertising campaign. Announcing it in 2012 or beyond will have a feeling that it's old news.
Incidentally, with respect to Turbine's accomplishments, I'm not sure that this particular IP is well suited to "kill 10 death-eater" quests. If I were choosing a current MMO to copy paste Harry Potter into, I'd go with Eve. Restrictions on the use of magic, especially where muggles can see, could mirror Eve's high/low security divide nicely, and it's not like there's a shortage of potential factions for players at Hogwarts.
Free to play switchovers and shutdowns
Syp asks which MMO will go free to play and which will shut down this year. In the comments, STO is the leading contender for the former, and Vanguard has a decent number of votes for the latter.
STO is an obvious candidate for F2P because the backend is already built for Champions. On top of that, so many people EXPECT the game to go F2P that it's current state of NOT being F2P may actually be harming it, as people wait for the switch to happen. If I had to bet money on this question, I guess it's hard to argue with that logic.
Then again, STO is widely regarded as more successful than CO, which means it has more to lose if existing subscribers find a way to play for less on the cash shop model. If Cryptic makes the popular weekly "episodes" into DDO-style cash shop purchases, this could very easily happen. I don't see a good way for this particular game to go F2P right now, though that hasn't stopped others from making the same jump.
As to Vanguard shutting down, I'm even more puzzled by that assertion. It costs comparatively little to keep a single server running, and it isn't a licensed IP that costs Sony additional money (like Matrix Online, the major SOE game to be axed so far). I could see the game going without any updates, and sadly I can't see the game going free to play this year (unfortunate, because I'd be interested in trying it, but not for its current price in the same tier with WoW, EQ2, Rift, et al), but I predict that Vanguard will survive 2011.
WoW going forward
My tongue in cheek public quest reaction aside, Tobold's unambitious WoW expansion predictions deserve attention based on his track record.
I don't think that public quests as implemented in Warhammer and Rift (and rumored for EQ2) are a direction Blizzard wants to go in. Players complain about how no one spends time in the open world anymore, but players complain even more when something like Wintergrasp actually happens in the open world, bringing enough players into one location to crash the servers. Everything that Blizzard has done since 2008 suggests that they're NOT looking to invite this kind of strain on their hardware.
Though PQ's can make the outside world more populated, the real selling point to the system is to offer the same group play experience typically found in dungeons, but without the logistical hassles or time commitment of traditional group play. If queue times are manageable, the dungeon finder accomplishes these goals
As to the second half of 2012, that's another conservative bet that will probably pay off, though I wouldn't be shocked to see it come out earlier, perhaps as soon as May 2012 (which I guess is almost "second half") if they do stick to their plan of releasing only two content patches for Cataclysm. There's not much point in going to the effort of making heroic dungeons more difficult if they're going to be trivial for a year or more between patch 4.1 and the next expansion.
Either way, I predict an expansion announcement at Blizzcon 2011 (they basically confirmed that they will hold one every year, major announcements or not), with no more than five additional levels (why go to so much trouble to reduce the talent trees only to add more points?). Just to make extra sure I'm wrong, I'll predict that Nozdormu and the Infinite Dragonflight will be the major villians of the expansion. There will be minor changes to Outland and Northrend to indicate that characters are now actually traveling to the past to prevent the Infinite Flight from altering the campaigns against Illidan and Arthas (nowhere near on the scale of the Cataclysm revamps).
Cheating horribly to improve my accuracy rating
DCUO will release as scheduled on January 11th, 2011. In other news, at least one thing that I've written in this post on January 14th will actually have occurred in 2011. :)
Personally, I haven't done predictions in the past, saving my comically inaccurate guesses for Blizzcon. This year, though, a few things I've read and heard in OTHER peoples' predictions have convinced me to write a few of my own.
Surprise new MMO announcement
MMO Reporter's prediction episode had a category for announcements of new MMO's, but the round table somehow missed a big possibility: the rumored Turbine Harry Potter MMO.
Now that the MMO studio is owned by the movie studio responsible for releasing the final film this year, I don't see any way that this project - if it exists - stays un-announced. Even if J.K. Rowling eventually decides to break down and write more books, I doubt that the hype on this series will ever get back to where it will be as the final film of the original series hits theaters. Announcing this project - which some conspiracy theorists suggest is why WB decided they wanted to own Turbine in the first place - would naturally benefit from the film's advertising campaign. Announcing it in 2012 or beyond will have a feeling that it's old news.
Incidentally, with respect to Turbine's accomplishments, I'm not sure that this particular IP is well suited to "kill 10 death-eater" quests. If I were choosing a current MMO to copy paste Harry Potter into, I'd go with Eve. Restrictions on the use of magic, especially where muggles can see, could mirror Eve's high/low security divide nicely, and it's not like there's a shortage of potential factions for players at Hogwarts.
Free to play switchovers and shutdowns
Syp asks which MMO will go free to play and which will shut down this year. In the comments, STO is the leading contender for the former, and Vanguard has a decent number of votes for the latter.
STO is an obvious candidate for F2P because the backend is already built for Champions. On top of that, so many people EXPECT the game to go F2P that it's current state of NOT being F2P may actually be harming it, as people wait for the switch to happen. If I had to bet money on this question, I guess it's hard to argue with that logic.
Then again, STO is widely regarded as more successful than CO, which means it has more to lose if existing subscribers find a way to play for less on the cash shop model. If Cryptic makes the popular weekly "episodes" into DDO-style cash shop purchases, this could very easily happen. I don't see a good way for this particular game to go F2P right now, though that hasn't stopped others from making the same jump.
As to Vanguard shutting down, I'm even more puzzled by that assertion. It costs comparatively little to keep a single server running, and it isn't a licensed IP that costs Sony additional money (like Matrix Online, the major SOE game to be axed so far). I could see the game going without any updates, and sadly I can't see the game going free to play this year (unfortunate, because I'd be interested in trying it, but not for its current price in the same tier with WoW, EQ2, Rift, et al), but I predict that Vanguard will survive 2011.
WoW going forward
My tongue in cheek public quest reaction aside, Tobold's unambitious WoW expansion predictions deserve attention based on his track record.
I don't think that public quests as implemented in Warhammer and Rift (and rumored for EQ2) are a direction Blizzard wants to go in. Players complain about how no one spends time in the open world anymore, but players complain even more when something like Wintergrasp actually happens in the open world, bringing enough players into one location to crash the servers. Everything that Blizzard has done since 2008 suggests that they're NOT looking to invite this kind of strain on their hardware.
Though PQ's can make the outside world more populated, the real selling point to the system is to offer the same group play experience typically found in dungeons, but without the logistical hassles or time commitment of traditional group play. If queue times are manageable, the dungeon finder accomplishes these goals
As to the second half of 2012, that's another conservative bet that will probably pay off, though I wouldn't be shocked to see it come out earlier, perhaps as soon as May 2012 (which I guess is almost "second half") if they do stick to their plan of releasing only two content patches for Cataclysm. There's not much point in going to the effort of making heroic dungeons more difficult if they're going to be trivial for a year or more between patch 4.1 and the next expansion.
Either way, I predict an expansion announcement at Blizzcon 2011 (they basically confirmed that they will hold one every year, major announcements or not), with no more than five additional levels (why go to so much trouble to reduce the talent trees only to add more points?). Just to make extra sure I'm wrong, I'll predict that Nozdormu and the Infinite Dragonflight will be the major villians of the expansion. There will be minor changes to Outland and Northrend to indicate that characters are now actually traveling to the past to prevent the Infinite Flight from altering the campaigns against Illidan and Arthas (nowhere near on the scale of the Cataclysm revamps).
Cheating horribly to improve my accuracy rating
DCUO will release as scheduled on January 11th, 2011. In other news, at least one thing that I've written in this post on January 14th will actually have occurred in 2011. :)
New Year's Resolutions For 2011
With another year over, it's once again time for New Year's Resolutions here at PVD. I have somewhat of a mixed record at this activity (usually all the resolutions that are going to happen are done by Canada Day), but I find the exercise worthwhile for planning out my year. Without further ado, here's what I think I'm going to be up to in 2011, along with some comments on why I'm interested in things and/or how far I've gotten already.
Post-Cataclysm WoW
Best wishes to everyone for a happy 2011!
Post-Cataclysm WoW
- Get both my Gnome mage (currently 84) and my Tauren warrior (82) up to the new level cap of 85.
My mage came up just short of hitting the milestone this year for reasons I've discussed. - Complete every normal and heroic 5-man at least once on both high level characters.
- Explore some of the revamped old world on new alts.
Currently, I'm a bit over halfway through a tour of the newbie (1-12) zones with a small army of new alts. My favorite lowbie specs right now are Subtlety Rogue, Survival Hunter, Destruction Warlock, and Discipline Priest. It's possibly telling that none of those are traditional leveling specs, which tend to make life too easy.
- Actually get a character into the mid-high levels.
My highest is currently level 7 (out of 20). This doesn't bother me, since I'm having fun with the chronic re-rolls, but it might be nice to eventually see some of the new mid-level content as it arrives.
- Complete the Vol 3 Book 2 content in Enedwaith (added during the F2P switch)
- Await Isengard
LOTRO has never been the game I go to for dungeon grinding, and new dungeons are the only announced content between now and next fall.
- Write fewer news posts about the EQ2 business model.
Every studio spent 2010 experimenting with new ways to charge players more, but SOE has really managed to make me feel like I'm getting less and less for my money with EQ2, as the "missing" resources go to the game's cash shop or the studio's other offerings. Though I believe my coverage to be accurate and informative, I feel like I've said what there is to be said here. I'd like to pare back my posts about this game to the (currently minimal) time and money that I actually spend on it. - Either find a Velious bargain or skip the expansion entirely
We won't know until they lift the NDA, but nothing that I've heard about this expansion makes me excited about spending money on it. Right now, the only way I can see myself paying for Velious is if I can get an extreme discount on a surplus unsold retail box later in the year. If that happens, I might pay to copy Lyriana, my main, off of the left-for-dead Lucan D'Lere server and over to the Extended servers so that I can enjoy this and future content at my leisure without paying for a subscription.
- No current plans to return to ROM
I would not be opposed to paying money for this game, but they would have to actually deliver an experience that's better than what I could get for the same amount from other games. I'm at level 30 now and already feeling that the exp curve is balanced around grinding with exp pots and paying for daily quest limit reset tickets to keep both my classes leveled appropriately. This just doesn't strike me as fun.
- DC Universe Online: Sightsee for a month, maybe return for a month at a time as content is added
If I find enough to have it be worth paying for two additional months (beyond the month that comes with the box), I'll consider this exercise a success.
- Check out followups to games I've enjoyed, including Uncharted 3 (Nov 2011), Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 (a.k.a. Gotham City?), and one or more Assassins' Creeds. I'm also vaguely interested in the supposedly forthcoming Tomb Raider collection, and perhaps Red Dead Redemption.
- Probably visit this game for a few months
Depending on what else I'm up to when the MMO-siah of the moment arrives, I might wait and see what people are saying at the 30 day mark. Telara sounds promising, and it might be unfortunate to miss the launch crowds because these will spawn massive invasions, but I remain concerned about the long term.
- F2P Watch: Both Vanguard and STO have been discussed for potential F2P conversions. I would try both of these if/when they lose the monthly fee.
- My interest in SWTOR is currently extremely low after not having liked any of the past Bioware games I've played. Also, this may or may not even show up in 2011 anyway.
- Though I try to keep an open mind about these things, I've also got limited time if anything else (or even everything I've listed above) is going to get my attention.
- Though I did manage 200+ posts this past year, my work schedule has made 3 posts per week about what I'm capable of handling these days, which would put me more in the 150 range. Unfortunate, but I'd rather not feel compelled to post stuff I don't enjoy writing just to make an arbitrary posting quota.
- As always, thank my readers for sticking with me for another year.
Best wishes to everyone for a happy 2011!
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