So it’s been forever since I’ve posted, and I’m going to take it slowly for now.  I actually have a lot to write about that I’ll get to soon enough, but something small (with the potential for vast expansion later if I choose to.)

So I was just reading Tobold’s post and the comments, which got me thinking about character progression and raiding in WoW.  What I realized is that the only real need to have really good raiding gear is to continue to push for more raid content.  On a related note, you only need to have really good PvP gear to push to become more dominant in PvP.  Shouldn’t there be other venues to put the gear that you’ve obtained to use?  Sure you can go run heroic instances with it, but you already have better gear than you are going to be able to get from there if you have really good raiding gear.  I really don’t even know what I’m looking for exactly, maybe entire zones that are more challenging/rewarding (but can potentially be ran through solo) or 1-man instances that really put your skills and gear to the test.  Who knows, I just know that I’m frustrating with the role that gear plays in WoW.

Am I alone in thinking this way?  Am I the only one who wishes there were more ways to put your raiding gear to use other than to continue raiding?  This is ultimately why I will not be purchasing WotLK.  In that vein, if you don’t like the direction Blizzard is taking their game, then this is the only way they are going to listen. Just like voting, one person doesn’t necessarily matter, but if enough people participate, then it will.  I was tempted to buy WotLK just for the 70-80 content, but then I realized that I’m paying for much more than that, and I don’t want any of the other stuff.  I also know exactly where I’m going to end six months from now if I start playing again, which is exactly where I was six months ago when I stopped, and that is debating whether raiding is worth the time and effort, and the answer for me is no.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy the game if you know you’ll enjoy it, I just know that with Blizzard being the leader of the MMO industry, I am going to do what I can to get them off their asses and start thinking the way they did when they first built World of Warcraft, instead of thinking about how they can simply retain their customer base, because that’s honestly all I see them doing right now.  

Hopefully that made sense.  Whether you agree or disagree with me is your opinion, I just know that I expect more from Blizzard and I’m not going to pay them if I’m not happy with their product.

~Kanthalos

It’s been about two weeks now that I’ve been playing Warhammer, and I must say that I’m really enjoying myself.  There are a few things that bother me a little bit, though, and public quests are definitely one of them.  I think that they are a very good idea, but I think they could benefit from a bit of tweaking.

I am a bit of a solo’er, but I’m not going to go out of my way to solo.  With that said, I find that the best method of obtaining influence in PQ’s is through playing by yourself and completing the first stage of the PQ and then hopping to another PQ and repeating the process.  If there is a solid group, I’m not going to leave frustrated or anything like that, but given that PQ’s offer the most influence when alone suggests that something is wrong with the way they are distributing influence.  Yet again, this is a case of groups getting penalized, which is a bit ironic since that is the whole premise of PQ’s.

Also, the second and third stages of PQ’s should provide far more influence than they do.  It doesn’t need to be as much as you can get in stage one, but you shouldn’t feel like you are being penalized for making it further into the PQ.  Getting to the second stage is great, but if you don’t have enough people to complete the remaining stages, then you just end up having to wait until it resets before you can build more influence.  I’m primarily speaking about the Chapter 8 and 9 PQ’s in Ellyrion, and other PQ’s could be a different story, but I hate feeling like progressing further into the PQ is hindering my ability to get more influence points.

I still enjoy the general mechanic of PQ’s and think they are a lot of fun, I just think that influence points should be divied out a bit differently, and I worry that as more and more players level a) the lower level PQ’s won’t be very full and b) max level pq’s will be used up and spit out quickly and then all PQ’s will become worthless to.  We’ll just have to keep an eye on them and see how it works out.

~Kanthalos

Even though I would rather be playing Warhammer right now, I know that this is long, long overdue and I really dropped the ball on my blog over the last few weeks.  I think I should provide an explanation and give a little insight into what’s going on with it if anyone is still reading.

Whether you knew it or not, I created this blog for several reasons.  First and foremost, I enjoy relaying my thoughts and experiences to others when it comes to MMO’s almost as much as I enjoy actually gaming, so that is the main reason I write this blog.  The secondary reason behind this blog was that I was somehow hoping that it might provide me with a little boost towards getting a job in the MMO industry.  For several months, this was really the only career I could believe I would possibly be happy with, and that nothing else was going to do, but there is a difference between determination and being realistic.  The MMO inudstry can be very tough to break into so you really need to stand out, which I frankly don’t.  I am also not too sure that the west or the east coast are places I really want to be.  Over the past few years I thought that I really wanted to get out of the midwest, but I realize that it’s a great place for my wife and I.  I have also removed my blinders to see that there really are other careers that I would love to pursue (whether I can get a job in them with the horrendous job market right now or not is beside the point.)  I know that eventually I will find the right job and career and I can’t wait to see exactly what that is.  I am not saying that 8-10 years down the road I won’t re-evaluate things and see whether I want to head in a new direction, but for now, I’m happy here and out of the gaming industry.  In fact, my wife and I just put in an offer on a nice, affordable home that we are both very excited about.  There’s a chance that we might not get it, but the emotional process really helped me understand that this is where we want to be.

I don’t think that I’ve actually altered much of what I’ve written based on the fact that it was a sort of resume tool, but I might have sugar coated things more than I would have liked to or left some things out.  I’ve never sacrificed or shifted the ultimate intention of any posts, and you can be sure that this will never happen in the future.  I might be a little more candid and harsh than I have in the past, but content will stay relatively similar to what it was, so don’t expect a big change in that regard.

I don’t think that I want to set any number of posts that I would like to reach, because unless you are a total machine like Tobold, real life gets in the way or inspiration can fail you from time to time, so I’ll simply say that I’m going to be more dedicated now than I have been.  I really didn’t seem to have much inspiration for the past few weeks, and while I could have tried harder, I am extremely excited about Warhammer and you can bet you’ll see a good many posts from me (and the rest of the blogosphere) in the future.  I am also keeping an eye out on several other MMO’s right now too, so whether I play them or just watch from the sidelines, I will certainly have things to say about it.

Hopefully I haven’t bored you to death and hopefully you still want to read what I have to say, but I thought you might like to know what’s been going on and the future of this blog.  I have no intentions of stopping, but there might be some gaps from time to time as you’ve seen.  Thanks for reading, and expect to see some gaming-related posts over the next few days.  Now, however, it’s time for some WAAAAAAAGH!!!

~Kanthalos

Tipa gave me this idea with her latest post about music, and I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the bands/artists that I listen to that are either slightly obscure/older/completely awesome (in no particular order.) Sorry, Tipa, but I am going to have to steal a few I only put up videos for a few of them, and a few are actually just still images because I thought the videos were stupid or they had the best sound quality. In any case, I hope you like them and I encourage you to check out the rest if you haven’t heard of them. I would love to know what some of our fellow bloggers listen to as well.

1. Zero 7 (Electronic’esque)
2. The Shins (60’s sound)
3. Blur (Brit Rock)
4. Travis (Brit Rock)
5. Joshua Radin (think Simon and Garfunkel)

6. Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething

7. Camera Obscura - If Looks Could Kill
8. Silverchair (Rock)

9. Jellyfish - New Mistake

10. The Gabe Dixon Band - Five More Hours

11. Sonata Arctica - Victoria’s Secret
12. Dream Theater (Prog Rock, or Fantasy Metal as I like to call it)
13. Nightwish (Fantasy Metal)
14. The Hush Sound (Indie Rock)
15. The Decemberists (Indie Rock)

16. Dishwalla - Angels and Devils
17. Muse (If you don’t know/like Muse, you probably need to get your head checked )

18. Nickel Creek - The Lighthouse’s Tale
19. Oscar Peterson (Jazz)
20. The Postal Service (Electronic)
21. Psapp (Electronic’esque)
22. Splender (Rock)
23. Spoon (Rock)

24. Steadman - Wave Goodbye
25. Vertical Horizon (Rock)
26. A Tribe Called Quest (Good, Old-School Rap/Hip-Hop )

27. Amos Lee - Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight
28. Ben Folds (Just Plain Awesome)
29. Bond (Techno-Classical?)
30. The 88 (Rock)

~Kanthalos

I was reading Thallian’s most recent posts about what people can expect to find in WAR and how long they can expect to play the game. While I think WAR warrants a slightly better outlook that Thallian is willing to suggest, I do think there is one key element that WAR needs more than any other in order to be truly successful. Tobold has hit on this subject, too, and it only really hit me how important it is recently, which is getting the average PvE player to get involved in the RvR conflict WAR is centering itself around. Yes, there is going to be PvE content that has been freshened up and I have no doubt that it will be enjoyable, but (thankfully) they aren’t making yet another game that focuses almost entirely on raiding and PvE content at the level cap. They are expecting players to get involved in the conflict presented to them. I am like many other players in that I primarily enjoy playing my MMOs with a heavy PvE slant, choosing to participate in PvP only when I’m bored or when it offers the best method of character progression. I don’t want this to be true anymore. I think players deserve more than that now. I think that without having a true sense of loyalty and a desire to protect what’s yours, then a game will never feel like more than just another game. If you can get the players to have a sense of pride in defending their cities, allies, and homeland, then you’ve created a far richer and more fulfilling world for the players to be a part of. This, more than anything else, is what will keep players invested in a game.

While I still want to enjoy all of the PvE content WAR is going to offer, I want to feel like when I compete in RvR battles I am actually making a difference. I know there are going to be instanced battles in WAR, and that’s fine, but what I really want is open-world RvR with tangible consequences, not a battlefield that is wiped clean every 15 minutes. I know there are hundreds of other factors that will determine whether this game will be a success, but in terms of longevity, this is the main key. As for bugs, questing, grouping, instancing, balance, etc., they will need to be up to snuff, too. I really, really hope that Mythic is up to the task, because I don’t think they can comprehend just how many hearts they are going to break if their game fails.

~Kanthalos

I just received this e-mail from SOE:

For a limited time only, all inactive (in good standing) EQ players can start building a new legacy in the world of EQII for FREE until Sept. 30, 2008! New adventures and new experiences await the legends who choose to fight. A whole new world full of nostalgic EQ zones, lore and creatures are open for exploration. Journey through Norrath with breathtaking graphics and amazing gameplay mechanics all built from your hardcore heritage.

The quest continues:

	Free Game Play All inactive former trial and EQ subscription accounts (in good standing) have been activated to enable free EverQuest II gameplay between Aug. 4, 2008 and Sept. 30, 2008.
	Free Rise of Kunark All-In-One Pack Access the latest content and keep a complimentary digital copy of this compilation edition if and when you convert to a paid monthly subscription for EQII.
	Discount Coupon Receive $5.00 (or local currency equivalent) off the purchase of the next EQII expansion (scheduled for release Fall 2008) if you convert to a paid monthly subscription by Oct. 13, 2008 and purchase the expansion through the Station Store by Dec. 21, 2008.
	Unique Bundle of In-Game Items Available for all new legends. Available Upon Log In: Outdoor Pet Drake – Receive a Lava Drake for your evil character and a Fae Drake for your good character Pouch of the Prodigal – 12 slot bag XP Potion Pack – Three-pack of potions to jump-start your advancement Granted Upon Purchase and Release of the next EQII Expansion Pack: Cloak of the Void - A specially-designed cloak created exclusively for the upcoming expansion
	Player Events Celebrate all summer long with the community. Participate in several scheduled pre-launch in-game events leading into the next expansion pack. Access content from robust game updates, many offering new zones.
	Legends of Norrath™ Free game client, starter pack and access to competitive prize tournaments.
	Contests & Promotional Offers Opportunity to participate in events to earn EQII merchandise, a free copy of the upcoming EverQuest II expansion pack, a beta invitation and in-game items.

Get Started Now
To download EverQuest II, click here for the installer. The download may be quite large and take a significant time.

They sure are trying to get players back into EQ2. I’m sure this is all related to the future releases of WAR and WotLK, and while I understand their desire to get more players back into the game, I don’t think this is the way to do it. Back when the Living Legacy promotion first occurred, I wrote that in order for players to come back to the game, there have to be significant changes made to the game itself, otherwise, no amount of free time in the world is going win them back. I went back to my wizard for approximately two hours before realizing exactly why I quit originally.

• I felt like I was viewing a game with cataracts because everything was blurry since my computer can’t handle it.
• I didn’t feel like any of the quests were interesting enough to pursue.
• I didn’t enjoy the zones that I had to play through to continue on.
• I didn’t feel like my class was unique enough to feel compelled to play.

There are several other reasons, but those are the biggest. While I might hop in yet again to try to power through this part of the game (20-25) that I really just don’t enjoy (though I’ve stated before that I don’t think players should ever have to do that,) I just don’t think it’s going to happen. I commend SOE for really trying to get players back in the game, but it seems pretty evident that EQ2 is never truly going to be the game for me no matter how much free play time they send my way.

~Kanthalos

Syncaine just wrote a post regarding his hope that WAR, through it’s open group and public quest system, will make grouping a more viable and enjoyable form of leveling. He states that WoW has created a mentality within players that has made us jaded when it comes to PuGs, and I certainly believe this to be true. There is simply too much that can go wrong when it comes to PuGs that make players extremely weary to try. I’m going to focus on two inter-connected problems with PuGs that I believe make up their biggest flaws.

Risk vs. Reward

I’m using the term risk here very loosely. The risk I’m speaking of is mostly referring to the potential for wasted time. Say you find three other people looking to run Slave Pens. All you need is a healer, so you tell them you’ll wait until they find a healer and then head to Coilfang Reservoir. “Sweet, we just found a healer!” they tell you. You make your way over there from killing eels for a quest. Just as you resurface inside, you ask the question you hope the leader has already asked, yet secretly know they haven’t. “(insert name here), you can heal for us, right?” Several seconds pass before he says, “I’m prot specced, but I’ll be able to heal fine.” Now is where it gets interesting, because there are so many potential options and outcomes. I won’t bore you with all of them because I’m sure you’ve been down this road like I have dozens of times. The point is, almost without exception, you will end up wasting an unnecessary amount of time and likely get nothing to show for it, or you’ll cut your losses and head back to the eels. With so much potential for failure and the possibility that you won’t get any gear and only a fraction of the xp for soloing, is it really worth taking the chance?

Rewards of soloing vs. grouping

Whether it’s in an instance or just working on a quest, many games today offer no xp boost for grouping. In Asheron’s Call, eight players in a group could earn 33% of the total xp which created a huge incentive to group. While leveling was a bit stale in AC and xp wouldn’t need to be that high in games today (due to their quest-based nature,) there still should be some increase when grouping is involved. It’s almost as if developers see grouping for additional xp as an exploit. While I can understand the prevention of power-leveling by reducing the xp earned by much lower level character, why should even-level players be penalized for playing together? This just doesn’t seem right to me. When I’m grouping I don’t want to have to think about whether they are a burden or not. I’d much rather focus on enjoying my time with them and playing the game. With that said, If I can solo a quest with ease, why should I cut out some of my xp by bringing another player along? I truly wish this was not the case, though.

In games that are built around social interaction, why would developers make it more lucrative to play by yourself than with other people? I think it’s a case of players wanting more solo content because grouping was too forced before, but now developers have gone so far to the other end of the spectrum that they’ve actually taken nearly all of the incentive out of grouping, even penalizing it. If you want to group anyway, you just have to understand that you are going to be penalized for it a good deal of the time because developers are afraid you will level too fast with extra xp from grouping. Yes, instances require that you have other players to help you, but when the chance is so great (I’d go so far as to say that 30-50% of all PuGs are failures in some form or another) that you won’t get the gear (which I addressed here) you want and you won’t get hardly any xp (when compared to soloing,) why not simply put grouping off until it is absolutely necessary? I know I do, and I think it sucks.

While I certainly hope that WAR will help to change this mentality, I think it will be hard to unlearn everything that WoW and other MMOs have taught us about grouping. If the rewards don’t balance with the potential for wasted or unpleasant time spent with others, then nothing will have changed. Since player skill level and maturity are things that can be as different as night and day, it’s tough to always know whether a raid/mission/quest/instance are going to be successful before it starts, so players are naturally going to be skeptical. Only time will tell whether grouping, and more specifically pugging, will once again be revitalized as the chosen method of leveling as opposed to that dreaded thing we all must face at one point or another.

~Kanthalos

P.S. WAR open beta in just over a week, I can’t wait!!

While I can understand that my WotLK release date post has become by far my most popular, it actually turned out to be untrue. Mike Morhaime recently said that we can expect a Q4 release. This means that technically it could be October, but this is extremely unlikely for two very obvious reasons. First is the fact that WAR is set somewhere between September 15-25th, and I don’t even think Blizzard wants to compete so directly with WAR, which is quite possibly the most anticipated MMO ever. The second reason I doubt it will be October is Blizzard’s notoriety for continuously pushing release dates back.

I think it’s pretty safe to give this a release date between late November and early December. By releasing post-WAR, they really have nothing to lose at this point by waiting an extra couple months to clean things up and expand/enhance the new features (which are few in my opinion.) It goes without saying, however, that they would have been in a much healthier position releasing before WAR, but Blizzard is never going to rush something out the door until they are motivated to work faster via a drop in subscription numbers. Regardless of the fact that WoW has millions more subscribers than any other AAA MMO, they still don’t want to see those numbers fall. Only time will tell if Blizzard’s “it’s ready when it’s ready” mentality can still satisfy 11 million subscribers. For the sake of the entire MMO industry, I hope it can’t.

~Kanthalos

I just watched the new Stargate Worlds trailer from Comic Con, and I must say that I’m impressed.  I can also say without a doubt that I’m going to need a new computer before I can consider playing it, which is fine because I’m guessing it still has a year before release (just a guess, though.)  The graphics look stunning and the variety of terrains and atmospheres looks as good as I could have hoped for.  One of the biggest problems I had with the video was that it seems very shooter-intensive.  On one hand, I can understand this because ranged combat makes up about 90% of all fighting in Stargate, so it fits with the MO of the show.  On the other hand, however, if it isn’t executed well enough, players who are used to the typical fantasy combat style i.e. not needing to aim where they attack might find it frustrating.  If the auto-aim system is sufficiently good enough that it isn’t difficult to attack the enemy you’re after, then it will feel very much like an MMOFPS, which could be a good or bad thing.  I won’t might wielding a fully automatic weapon, but I also hope that there is some form of close range combat as well.

Another worry that I have in general about a Stargate MMO is that they will feel like they need to have a wide range of worlds to travel to (as they must) and that the worlds will feel too small and cramped or too large and empty and won’t be executed well.  However, this is definitely something they can easily expand on after release, both in terms expanding the worlds already built as well as creating new worlds.  They can add new worlds virtually whenever they want to, so I’m hoping within 2-3 years of release we have 30+ worlds to explore.

With that in mind, I really think/hope that CME is off to a great start on this game, and I hope it won’t disappoint.  There’s still a great deal of information we need to have at our hands before we can really say how this is going to shape up, and even then, we all know that information means next to nothing until we see it in game.

~Kanthalos

Well, Square Enix just announced the development of Final Fantasy 13 during Microsoft’s presentation at E3.  I’ve never really gotten into RPG’s or this series very much at all, but I must say that I’m looking forward to this when it does arrive.

They also announced additional levels for Portal, which I’m sure many of you will be excited about.  I just bought the title and I really can’t wait to give it a shot.  There are many, many great things they also announced during the presentation like a new assortment of XBox Live arcade games as well as a collaboration between Netflix and Xbox to provide content from Netflix through the Xbox which I’m really excited about.  There’s tons of information to digest on this one, so you should go check it all out.

~Kanthalos

P.S. I also recently bought Civ Revolution, which was my first foray into turn-based gaming.  I’m really enjoying it so far, and I’ll probably write up a review of it shortly.