In my post of incorrect summer 2011 convention predictions, I actually got a few points right about EQ2's forthcoming expansion. The game will indeed be getting Beastlords, and there was no increase to the level cap, but the expansion will arrive in November 2011; way earlier than my May 2012 prediction. I correctly assumed that SOE could not possibly finish the promised Velious content updates and also create as much additional content as they have shipped in previous expansions anytime sooner than May. It just never occurred to me that they would go ahead and release a paid expansion anyway, without additional content and a mere nine months after the last time they hit players up for $40.
Producer David Georgeson has a roadmap for the game which actually includes a fair amount of content and features between the February 2011 launch of DOV and the presumptive launch of the expansion after Age of Discovery in November 2012. Georgeson says that he would like to transition the game to quarterly updates with new features and content arriving in smaller chunks as it is ready, rather than saving it up to bundle together in a large box. The material he is proposing is well suited to this model, but his publisher does not appear willing to take the chance that players will decline to pay for stuff they don't want.
I might be okay with the business model decision, except that it creates pressure to pick the flashy sports car that does not have enough seats for your family over the less exciting car that actually gets you where you need to go. Reaction to the new class, which Wilhelm nailed years ago apparently, seems positive, but consider the opportunity cost. Developing an ambitious pet system, with taming, talents, loyalty, and advancement is going to take a large amount of time, as will attempting to find a niche for the new class amongst EQ2's crowded field of 24 existing classes. Meanwhile, the benefits will be confined to a new class that no one currently plays, at the expense of the twenty four classes that represent 100% of existing characters.
I don't think this makes much sense as a development strategy for a seven year old game, but SOE apparantly thinks it's a good strategy for selling expansion boxes. And, if that doesn't work, there's always the increased AA cap to force players to pay for the annual expansion, even if the new AA's are just passive increases to DPS that further inflate the time it takes for new players to prepare for endgame. As someone with no interest in re-rolling as a Beastlord and limited interest in NPC Mercenaries who will probably lack the AI needed to help with the heavily scripted instances of the last three expansions, I'm not feeling especially excited about paying for the features in this "feature" expansion.
Counterproductive Death Penalties
The prolific Nils has a few things to say about MMO death penalties. At the risk of trivializing all that work, there's one idea I want to focus on (which Nils himself pullquotes) - the concept that an ideal penalty is an effective deterrent without actually harming the player or the game experience in the long run. It's a great idea, but one that I think is tough to implement in practice.
I've argued in the past that basically all death penalties that anyone has implemented in an MMO, whether gold, exp loss, gear decay, or even permadeath, can be described as a loss of the time it will take to get back to the state you were at before your untimely demise (whether that means killing a few mobs or re-rolling from level 1). In principle, developers could tack on a monetary component - for example, branding all future characters on the account with the scarlet noob label, so that the player would have to pay for a new account to escape their reputation - but I suspect that this option would not be tolerated by the overwhelming majority of the market.
An Example in ROM
Of the MMO's I play, the harshest death penalty is probably in Runes of Magic, where you suffer 5% of your next level in exp debt. A third of this amount is forgiven if you loot your tombstone, which does not expire, even if you log off and don't come back for months, so there's no irresponsible pressure to stay logged in to collect it at that moment. Assuming that you did not die due to a bug or a quest spawning an elite mob on top of you with no warning, the system is fair, and only requires the player to continue doing something that they enjoy doing anyway (obtaining exp). The problem is that the system is telling me that I should play the game in an overly cautious manner that ultimately makes the game less fun.
At the moment, my level 52 druid is looking at about 9 million exp for her next level, which means a bit over 300K per death in debt, assuming that I recover my tombstone before dying again. A typical daily quest is going to award somewhere from 40-70K exp, so I'm looking at a full day's worth of daily quests to pay off the debt. (Another option is to join a guild with a library in its castle, which forgives about 100K/hour of AFK time at my level, if you have something else to do in another window or offline while you wait.) The message is clear - stick to easy stuff with zero chance of failure or spend hours of time paying for your ambition.
As I've said repeatedly since I've revisited ROM, there are times when no risk, low rewards gameplay is vaguely amusing. The real fun, though, is pushing the envelope to see what exactly I can pull off. In general, at 52 I can beat level 47 elites and I can't beat level 48 elites, but there's no way to be sure unless I try. If I do try and I'm wrong, I'm out 300K exp and faced with a choice of whether I want to risk doubling my losses. If I don't try until I've gained a few more levels, it's likely that the eventual victory will end up not being all that challenging.
The bottom line is that I do less of what I enjoy about the game because of the penalty structure, and I ultimately spend less time playing the game as a result.
I've argued in the past that basically all death penalties that anyone has implemented in an MMO, whether gold, exp loss, gear decay, or even permadeath, can be described as a loss of the time it will take to get back to the state you were at before your untimely demise (whether that means killing a few mobs or re-rolling from level 1). In principle, developers could tack on a monetary component - for example, branding all future characters on the account with the scarlet noob label, so that the player would have to pay for a new account to escape their reputation - but I suspect that this option would not be tolerated by the overwhelming majority of the market.
An Example in ROM
Of the MMO's I play, the harshest death penalty is probably in Runes of Magic, where you suffer 5% of your next level in exp debt. A third of this amount is forgiven if you loot your tombstone, which does not expire, even if you log off and don't come back for months, so there's no irresponsible pressure to stay logged in to collect it at that moment. Assuming that you did not die due to a bug or a quest spawning an elite mob on top of you with no warning, the system is fair, and only requires the player to continue doing something that they enjoy doing anyway (obtaining exp). The problem is that the system is telling me that I should play the game in an overly cautious manner that ultimately makes the game less fun.
At the moment, my level 52 druid is looking at about 9 million exp for her next level, which means a bit over 300K per death in debt, assuming that I recover my tombstone before dying again. A typical daily quest is going to award somewhere from 40-70K exp, so I'm looking at a full day's worth of daily quests to pay off the debt. (Another option is to join a guild with a library in its castle, which forgives about 100K/hour of AFK time at my level, if you have something else to do in another window or offline while you wait.) The message is clear - stick to easy stuff with zero chance of failure or spend hours of time paying for your ambition.
As I've said repeatedly since I've revisited ROM, there are times when no risk, low rewards gameplay is vaguely amusing. The real fun, though, is pushing the envelope to see what exactly I can pull off. In general, at 52 I can beat level 47 elites and I can't beat level 48 elites, but there's no way to be sure unless I try. If I do try and I'm wrong, I'm out 300K exp and faced with a choice of whether I want to risk doubling my losses. If I don't try until I've gained a few more levels, it's likely that the eventual victory will end up not being all that challenging.
The bottom line is that I do less of what I enjoy about the game because of the penalty structure, and I ultimately spend less time playing the game as a result.
Early Firelands Daily Quest Impressions
I was out of town for July 4th, and didn't get much gaming in, but I did finally get around to starting off the new Firelands daily quest series that was added in patch 4.2. The initial phase in the campaign, which can be done in a single day, introduces the campaign by the druids of Hyjal against the minions of Ragnaros. These quests are, like all of the Cataclysm content, well implemented, high production value, and were actually pleasantly a bit more difficult than your average Cataclysm fare, to the point where my partially-dungeon-geared mage was occasionally using cooldowns to survive.
After completing the introduction - and unlocking a vendor with an epic ilvl 365 neck for a trivial amount of gold - players begin a series of six phases of daily quest token grinding. Blizzard definitely spent an above average amount of effort on this project - each phase adds a new set of dailies, and each set offers a randomized selection from a pool to ensure that players don't get bored - it also appears that recurring NPC's will turn up during the festivities.
Firelands Outlook
Unlike the Argent Tournament of the Wrath era, there is a definitive beginning, middle, and end of the event. Quest tokens are not used to actually purchase the rewards, so players are not obligated to return once they've completed the quests. (It does appear that the quests stick around, for those who want to revisit them for gold or rep.) That said, one thing that I'm kind of on the fence about is that the number of quests available ramps up during the successive phases, as the new phase events are added to the previous pool.
It's theoretically possible to finish the series in a single month, but that means not a lot to do in the initial phases and probably more than I want to do in a single day as more phases unlock. The good news is that players can be increasingly choosy about the quests they don't like as the campaign advances, at the cost of making this a several month-long project.
Personally, daily quests in WoW tend to be something that I do while waiting for the dungeon queue to pop. At that rate, it will take forever to complete the campaign, and I will have long since gotten similar or better gear from the dungeon vendors. I will probably try to work on the thing just so I can see the content, but it remains to be seen whether my patience holds out as it becomes less and less meaningful to actually finish.
After completing the introduction - and unlocking a vendor with an epic ilvl 365 neck for a trivial amount of gold - players begin a series of six phases of daily quest token grinding. Blizzard definitely spent an above average amount of effort on this project - each phase adds a new set of dailies, and each set offers a randomized selection from a pool to ensure that players don't get bored - it also appears that recurring NPC's will turn up during the festivities.
Firelands Outlook
Unlike the Argent Tournament of the Wrath era, there is a definitive beginning, middle, and end of the event. Quest tokens are not used to actually purchase the rewards, so players are not obligated to return once they've completed the quests. (It does appear that the quests stick around, for those who want to revisit them for gold or rep.) That said, one thing that I'm kind of on the fence about is that the number of quests available ramps up during the successive phases, as the new phase events are added to the previous pool.
It's theoretically possible to finish the series in a single month, but that means not a lot to do in the initial phases and probably more than I want to do in a single day as more phases unlock. The good news is that players can be increasingly choosy about the quests they don't like as the campaign advances, at the cost of making this a several month-long project.
Personally, daily quests in WoW tend to be something that I do while waiting for the dungeon queue to pop. At that rate, it will take forever to complete the campaign, and I will have long since gotten similar or better gear from the dungeon vendors. I will probably try to work on the thing just so I can see the content, but it remains to be seen whether my patience holds out as it becomes less and less meaningful to actually finish.
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.
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