...are not coming yet.
So the things I'm looking at in the MMO future-possibility space:
Age of Conan:
Already out, but falls into this category as, in my eyes, its still far to broken. I'm sure people will (actually the won't) be savaging this and saying its teh awesome, but a) they'd be drowned out by number 3, and 2) it is. Also, I don't care for games that go "look, look, we're mature!", even if thats not what they actually do. Seriously, marketing guys. Also, twitch MMO, no thanks.
Warhammer Online:
Don't care.
Wrath of the Lich King:
Will buy, but I think this is Blizzard's last gimmie expansion. People bought Burning Crusade because yay more WoW. The same will happen with Lich King, but if its the same marginal increase that TBC was, I don't think the third expansion will sell as well. It'll still sell like hot cakes, but less of the everyone buying it.
WAR:
Actually, I do care; I like Warhammer (more a 40k player, but whatever) but I think it'll translate horribly. There's all the fuss about 3 way PvP games being better than 2 way PvP. Warhammer is, by default, 15+ way, where there can be infighting. This is my fanboyism within the GW space showing, but I think Warhammer Online would've been better served by Mordheim Online (or similar). It'd be more like EVE fantasy version, what with the free-for-all-ness and reliance on guilds (in this case, warbands), but thats not exactly a bad thing. It'd still have a focus on PvP, and you wouldn't end up with the horrible lore-fest that is Destruction. Whatever. Don't care.
Chronicles of Spellborn:
Will buy. Its like Guild Wars, only with more shiny. Also, seems to be lacking in the ricockulous hype that every other MMO release ever seems to be getting, which is probably a good thing. Looks to be heavily instanced, which usually turns me off, but tell that to Guild Wars. Maybe I can mention Guild Wars some more.
Guild Wars 2:
Heh. I'm interested, but haven't heard too much. Might buy. Depends on what they do with things. The main draw of GW is the tactical skill bar building (if only for comedy builds), and the lack of levels (protip: to make me buy a game, make it less level dependent. Also, EVE, you managed to fuck something up as I can't like you, much as I want to. Maybe I should try a free trial again at some point and microblog it). If GW2 keeps these, I'm likely to at least try it.
So looking forward, thats one expansion, and one or two games that stick out to me that I want to buy. I'm sure there are more upcoming games, but nothing sticks out to me. For now, I'll stick with my leisurely leveling WoW characters, my comedy build designing in GW, and social play in CoX.
Is that too many anyway?
Showing posts with label WoW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WoW. Show all posts
Friday, 29 August 2008
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Obligatory Catchup Post
So I've not posted in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages.
I blame sunspots. That and just having an absolute ton of stuff happening; a show to stage manage, Christmas, moving back and forth to uni, and exams. Exams still aren't quite over, but I've got something I really want to comment on so, I thought I'd try and catch everything up.
Of the three games I can actively play (without setting up a new account or whatever), WoW is far and away my most active one. I now have my 70 mage slowly grinding up money for her epic flying mount, a nearly-20 hunter on the same server to help grind money for same (as leveling is more fun than grinding primals), a 41 druid on a different server to play with friends at uni, and a level 5 priest I'll get to in a moment.
I've not played City of Heroes in a while. The random instances using the same tilesets over and over and the slowness of leveling all just kinda conspire against me enjoying plain old leveling. When I was regularly playing with a group it was fun, but doing task forces (or whatever the villainous equivalent is) requires the grinding 10 levels to get to the minimum level each time, even if I do get a couple of levels out of each one.
I still log into Kingdom of Loathing regularly, even if I don't play all of my turns to their maximum effectiveness. I still listen to every podca- sorry, mp3 recording of their radio show that gets updated on an rss feed (and did even when I wasn't actively playing), but I expect that I'll get the spark of interest again when I start doing things in their hardercore mode, bad moon.
Guild Wars, well, I've beaten it. Well Factions anyway. And doing anything else just seems... flat, there's no objective there, even though theoretically there's plenty I could do. There're the end-game raids, the pvp, and getting perfect weapons and armour. But two of three require other people, which in GW tends to be a bad idea unless you know who you're with already, and the third is grinding. Lots. And solo if you want to get all the loot that drops.
Of non-MMOs, I'm in Ravenholme in Half Life 2 (yes, the original, and yes, for the first time) so that needs progressing. My Team Fortress 2 stats are lacking, although the LAN party I'm at this weekend should remedy that to an extent, I'm at the final boss (maybe) of Phantom Hourglass, and although D&D has been on hold over the holidays, I'm going to try to tie the remainder of that up fairly quickly, as a) I wrote myself into quite the corner, and 2) I want to play!
The main reason for updating this post is that my girlfriend now plays WoW, as a blood elf warlock, hence the level 5 priest listed earlier. After a couple of hours, we've got to level 5, and done the first few quests in Falconwing Square. Of course, I've been doing a lot of thinking after she said she wanted to play a warlock, perhaps too much, but I'm thinking shadow priest + warlock will be good for leveling, and then can convert to a good 2v2 arena team at 70. Careful selection of professions later, and we can be swimming in gold when we get there as well. I actually also have arena talent choices partially planned out.
Conclusion: I plan things too much, especially when its to avoid doing productive things!
I blame sunspots. That and just having an absolute ton of stuff happening; a show to stage manage, Christmas, moving back and forth to uni, and exams. Exams still aren't quite over, but I've got something I really want to comment on so, I thought I'd try and catch everything up.
Of the three games I can actively play (without setting up a new account or whatever), WoW is far and away my most active one. I now have my 70 mage slowly grinding up money for her epic flying mount, a nearly-20 hunter on the same server to help grind money for same (as leveling is more fun than grinding primals), a 41 druid on a different server to play with friends at uni, and a level 5 priest I'll get to in a moment.
I've not played City of Heroes in a while. The random instances using the same tilesets over and over and the slowness of leveling all just kinda conspire against me enjoying plain old leveling. When I was regularly playing with a group it was fun, but doing task forces (or whatever the villainous equivalent is) requires the grinding 10 levels to get to the minimum level each time, even if I do get a couple of levels out of each one.
I still log into Kingdom of Loathing regularly, even if I don't play all of my turns to their maximum effectiveness. I still listen to every podca- sorry, mp3 recording of their radio show that gets updated on an rss feed (and did even when I wasn't actively playing), but I expect that I'll get the spark of interest again when I start doing things in their hardercore mode, bad moon.
Guild Wars, well, I've beaten it. Well Factions anyway. And doing anything else just seems... flat, there's no objective there, even though theoretically there's plenty I could do. There're the end-game raids, the pvp, and getting perfect weapons and armour. But two of three require other people, which in GW tends to be a bad idea unless you know who you're with already, and the third is grinding. Lots. And solo if you want to get all the loot that drops.
Of non-MMOs, I'm in Ravenholme in Half Life 2 (yes, the original, and yes, for the first time) so that needs progressing. My Team Fortress 2 stats are lacking, although the LAN party I'm at this weekend should remedy that to an extent, I'm at the final boss (maybe) of Phantom Hourglass, and although D&D has been on hold over the holidays, I'm going to try to tie the remainder of that up fairly quickly, as a) I wrote myself into quite the corner, and 2) I want to play!
The main reason for updating this post is that my girlfriend now plays WoW, as a blood elf warlock, hence the level 5 priest listed earlier. After a couple of hours, we've got to level 5, and done the first few quests in Falconwing Square. Of course, I've been doing a lot of thinking after she said she wanted to play a warlock, perhaps too much, but I'm thinking shadow priest + warlock will be good for leveling, and then can convert to a good 2v2 arena team at 70. Careful selection of professions later, and we can be swimming in gold when we get there as well. I actually also have arena talent choices partially planned out.
Conclusion: I plan things too much, especially when its to avoid doing productive things!
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
Fishing in WoW
My brain appears to have dribbled out of my skull while trying to become skilled enough at fishing to catch Icefin Bluefish so I can get a nice spell damage buff. So I present my protips for leveling fishing:
1) bind 'cast line' to middle mouse button
b) switch on autoloot
III) have two monitors
δ) find a radio show/podcast/something to hold your attention
The procedure is then this: Middle click and move your mouse over the bob. Go back to whatever you were doing on the other screen. When your peripheral vision spots the splash, right click on the bob, then middle click again. Repeat ad nauseum.
Considering I managed to gain 90-odd levels of fishing today without going completely insane, I think this is as close to 'worst mechanic ever' as I can find.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
1) bind 'cast line' to middle mouse button
b) switch on autoloot
III) have two monitors
δ) find a radio show/podcast/something to hold your attention
The procedure is then this: Middle click and move your mouse over the bob. Go back to whatever you were doing on the other screen. When your peripheral vision spots the splash, right click on the bob, then middle click again. Repeat ad nauseum.
Considering I managed to gain 90-odd levels of fishing today without going completely insane, I think this is as close to 'worst mechanic ever' as I can find.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Saturday, 3 November 2007
The grind, it beckons :(
So I succumbed. I am now resubscribed to WoW (as of a couple of weeks ago actually). Unfortunately, things move as slowly now as they did before I quit.
The problem is, of course, a lack of utility classes. And by utility classes, I actually mean healers and tanks. Anyone can do damage, but taking hits, and stopping the guy taking hits from falling over takes specialist skills, ones that people don't want to take.
The long and short of this is that groups are the most aggravating things in the world: I've seen feral druids who refuse to go bear, I've grouped with fury warriors who apparently don't own a shield, I've ended up with more shadow priests than I can count. But none of them want to do what their class's archetype is.
This leads me to one of two conclusions.
One: start a new character, who can do one of the above. I actually have filled up all of the character slots on my primary server, but none of them are above level 18, except my mage (and the level 18 is a second mage, go figure).
Two: solo. Less of a plan, but it does mean I can get the ridiculous amounts of gold I need to get my epic plane in a patches time.
I've decided to go with option one, only twice: I am now the proud(ish) owner of a druid. The plan being, that I'll go some kind of feral/restoration hybrid spec that means I can tank reasonably well and heal reasonably well. Maybe not perfectly, and probably needing a good opposite-of-what-I'm-doing in the group to make up for what I'm lacking, but at least I'll get damn groups.
Of course, now is (perhaps) one of the best times to start a new character, what with the patch boosting pretty much everything you could need for the annoying bit leveling coming up for when, roughly, I'll arrive there. Seeing as my three highest level characters across all servers are 70, 45 and 46, the latter two of which are logged out in STV when I got frustrated, it'll be interesting to see how much the patch helps with this new character. Or if I get bored and go back to super-villainy. Either way.
The problem is, of course, a lack of utility classes. And by utility classes, I actually mean healers and tanks. Anyone can do damage, but taking hits, and stopping the guy taking hits from falling over takes specialist skills, ones that people don't want to take.
The long and short of this is that groups are the most aggravating things in the world: I've seen feral druids who refuse to go bear, I've grouped with fury warriors who apparently don't own a shield, I've ended up with more shadow priests than I can count. But none of them want to do what their class's archetype is.
This leads me to one of two conclusions.
One: start a new character, who can do one of the above. I actually have filled up all of the character slots on my primary server, but none of them are above level 18, except my mage (and the level 18 is a second mage, go figure).
Two: solo. Less of a plan, but it does mean I can get the ridiculous amounts of gold I need to get my epic plane in a patches time.
I've decided to go with option one, only twice: I am now the proud(ish) owner of a druid. The plan being, that I'll go some kind of feral/restoration hybrid spec that means I can tank reasonably well and heal reasonably well. Maybe not perfectly, and probably needing a good opposite-of-what-I'm-doing in the group to make up for what I'm lacking, but at least I'll get damn groups.
Of course, now is (perhaps) one of the best times to start a new character, what with the patch boosting pretty much everything you could need for the annoying bit leveling coming up for when, roughly, I'll arrive there. Seeing as my three highest level characters across all servers are 70, 45 and 46, the latter two of which are logged out in STV when I got frustrated, it'll be interesting to see how much the patch helps with this new character. Or if I get bored and go back to super-villainy. Either way.
Sunday, 21 October 2007
Downloading....
Blizzard seems to have done a lot of right things with its games (startling revelation, I know!). The fact that they've got me wanting to play it again after just not having played it for a while, and some reasonable looking patch notes is kinda a testament to that. Unfortunately, they have their own set of failings.
Yes, I know I said I wouldn't precisely one post ago, but I set up the client downloading, and, lo, a day later, vanilla WoW was installed on my machine.
Problem being, my account is activated for The Burning Crusade. This means (apparently) I can't play unless I have all the TBC data downloaded. 'Not a problem!' thought I, naively, 'I got the vanilla client from the "Download The Burning Crusade" page, I'll just head over there again'
Only then I hit a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable error, and have done since then.
Blizzard, I'm not wanting to, but am compelled to give you more money to play your damn game! And here you are not letting me sell my soul to you. Noble, sure, but not great marketting. I'm reminded of every time there's a PTR when the character copy page goes down, or every patch day when the entire website goes the way of the dodo.
Seriously, new infrastructure pls.
Also, interestingly, you can view other clients on the torrenting patcher thingy. I got maybe 3% of my data from other clients. Perhaps there is something slightly wrong with this distribution method.
Anyway, In the absence of Blizzard to the throw money at, I decided to purchase Portal instead. Its now downloading smoothly, and once its down, I'll be able to play it straight away. Differences indeed.
Yes, I know I said I wouldn't precisely one post ago, but I set up the client downloading, and, lo, a day later, vanilla WoW was installed on my machine.
Problem being, my account is activated for The Burning Crusade. This means (apparently) I can't play unless I have all the TBC data downloaded. 'Not a problem!' thought I, naively, 'I got the vanilla client from the "Download The Burning Crusade" page, I'll just head over there again'
Only then I hit a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable error, and have done since then.
Blizzard, I'm not wanting to, but am compelled to give you more money to play your damn game! And here you are not letting me sell my soul to you. Noble, sure, but not great marketting. I'm reminded of every time there's a PTR when the character copy page goes down, or every patch day when the entire website goes the way of the dodo.
Seriously, new infrastructure pls.
Also, interestingly, you can view other clients on the torrenting patcher thingy. I got maybe 3% of my data from other clients. Perhaps there is something slightly wrong with this distribution method.
Anyway, In the absence of Blizzard to the throw money at, I decided to purchase Portal instead. Its now downloading smoothly, and once its down, I'll be able to play it straight away. Differences indeed.
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