Star Wars: The Old Republic's patch 2.7 went live the other week, bringing the allure of new progression in the game's story arc in the form of two new "tactical" flashpoints. The intent was to introduce the foundations of the new plot line that will ostensibly round out the 2.x patch cycle, and the year, by fully fanning the flames of a war "recently" reignited. When I started ToR two years ago, I was very disappointed that, at endgame, there was very little to the conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire other than bland, repetitive PvP. It makes sense, in a convoluted kind of way, I suppose, but it was still a pretty big let down after fifty levels and something like a dozen planets' worth of cold war ready to boil over into all out conflict.
Now, finally, the spast is ready to hit the ventilator and we get...Two tacticals and a vendor with two specific sets of out-dated gear shells? But, where's the carnage? The devastation? The planet-shattering kaboom? It feels very much like both sides' battle fleets are stuck in traffic honking at each other from opposite sides of the intergalactic freeway.
I'm not intending to hate on the content - in fact, I've actually enjoyed the new tacticals despite there being absolutely nothing of value for me from them save a couple of very rare-drop speeders. Found fewer bugs and had far less intrinsic lag than the last tactical introduced, Kuat Drive Yards, which itself sounded very promising but failed to deliver on replay value for me. And replay must be the goal of new content; people have to want to run it ad nauseum, else they'll leave. All in all, despite my enjoyment, 2.7's content infusion feels very weak in the face of a much anticipated release behemoth like The Elder Scrolls Online.
What's really bugged me about the patch, though, is the continuation of a trend started in 2.6 - the (to me) senseless gutting of reactionary procs. On the one hand, I get it; having your DPS completely dependent on mythic, star-aligning procs is never fun and is inherently bad design (gogo Seal of Casino!). However, making rotations mindlessly sequential is just as bad, to my preference, since it effectively negates any measure of skill in a spec and places a player's value entirely on their gear to produce solid, effective damage. The only thing ToR has going for it in combating this predicament is the absolute lack of automation inherent to the game; that is to say, no macros.
But I do often forget that ToR has really only been out for a touch over two years. The anti-RNG changes that have been addressed seems to indicate that BioWare does, to some small extent, listen to their playerbase and try to address issues. And that's a very good thing for the longevity of the game. So, really, not much to do but sit back and watch.
Your move, Dev Team.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Sunday, April 6, 2014
That World We Love to Hate...Craft
So, here's a little project I've been thinking about for a long while, now; still a bit uncertain that it's "my thing," but we'll give it a go! My goal is, at least once a week, to post some rambling piece about my views on gaming - what I happen to be playing, what I may have played recently, what I may be looking forward to in the future...And it may not always be about games; I'm a fairly avid geek all around. Nothing revolutionary, I grant, but not everything has to be. Which leads me into the first topic I shall address.
World of Warcraft, as many know, has been one of the largest, most stable MMOs of the last decade - and it shows no signs of dying off any time soon. It's a juggernaut of the industry which revolutionized things such that, even after ten long years, there are upstarts still trying to puzzle out and copy its ineffably prosperous formula. And yet none have been able to topple the titan.
To hear the developers and owners at Blizzard talk about their games, it doesn't seem like just a job to them; it seems like a passion, a love, something into which they pour their essence. And it's not for their own sense of accomplishment, not to fatten their wallets, or pay for their kids' college funds (all that is just a fringe benefit). It's for the fans, the gamers that have been with them ten years or more that still hunger for further adventures into the worlds the company has created. And Blizzard continues to deliver.
It is at this point that I should add that I quit WoW back in December - five months ago to the day, in fact. I lay the blame for my leaving squarely at the feet of the development team at Blizzard. Not because the game was no longer fun, not because my class/spec was viewed as mediocre at best, not because my class/spec was taken too many steps back towards faceroll for my tastes. It's because I think that, like most creators of wondrous genres, they get too attached to certain aspects of their craft and to hell with the fans. And, in a perfect world, that'd be all well and good - "damn the man, save the empire," as it were.
However, in any collected group of peoples where there are subdivisions, the higher power(s) are always perceived as having a bias. And all the divided sides firmly believe it's this or that other group that has the favor of the gods. I always felt that Blizzard was biased towards the Horde, and Blizzcon 2013 proved to me their devotion to that single faction. Nevermind that the forthcoming expansion, Warlords of Draenor, is letting us, the players, slaughter many of the greatest leaders the orcish hordes have ever had, or that garrisons sound really cool, or that a pristine version of Draenor (for those not in the know, Outland before it was sundered) would be really awesome to explore. It is, sadly, the very much anti-Alliance vibe that drove me away.
Despite the blow to my idealism that was the Draenor reveal, and Chris Metzen's almost orgasmic exultation about how cool the orcs are, it was actually something he said in an interview after the WoD reveal that decided my intent to leave the game. During the reveal, he referred to the Alliance as the "Captain America faction," the "last standing superpower [of Azeroth]." But later he referred back to the Cap metaphor and said something to the effect of "it's hard to write for Captain America because he's so good, so pure."
To which I say bollocks. If Cap were so hard to write for, he would've faded from the pages of comics long ago instead of remaining one of the most popular characters in comic book history for over seventy years. The insinuation of "too good to write for" is a cop-out to allow Blizzard to further pursue their faction bias with a clear conscience. I'm not really even that much into the Alliance, truth be told; "go Dwarf, or go Gnome," I say, very much myself partial to the snow-capped hills of Khaz Modan and the dim torch-lit halls of Ironforge. But blatantly ignoring a large section of the playerbase that has been begging for in-game story, and going so far as to invent excuses to set their minds at ease, Blizzard lost my subscription - and my faith.
The alpha notes for WoD that I looked over just the other day were almost as revolting. I won't yet go into detail (may need something else about which to create a heavy-critting wall-o'-text for next week!), but I was thoroughly dissatisfied with the direction of the gameplay and likely won't be returning. While there are many good points (reducing burst-reliance to balance sustained damage for classes otherwise lacking), there are too many things being kicked to the curb that would likely reduce my enjoyment of the game.
But, who knows? Closer to release, nostalgia and a thirst for the new and shiny may override my disgust and pull me back in. Certainly, the new character and creature models have been fantastic so far, and I would just love to see how my beard will sway with all the pretty new polygons. Only time will tell.
World of Warcraft, as many know, has been one of the largest, most stable MMOs of the last decade - and it shows no signs of dying off any time soon. It's a juggernaut of the industry which revolutionized things such that, even after ten long years, there are upstarts still trying to puzzle out and copy its ineffably prosperous formula. And yet none have been able to topple the titan.
To hear the developers and owners at Blizzard talk about their games, it doesn't seem like just a job to them; it seems like a passion, a love, something into which they pour their essence. And it's not for their own sense of accomplishment, not to fatten their wallets, or pay for their kids' college funds (all that is just a fringe benefit). It's for the fans, the gamers that have been with them ten years or more that still hunger for further adventures into the worlds the company has created. And Blizzard continues to deliver.
It is at this point that I should add that I quit WoW back in December - five months ago to the day, in fact. I lay the blame for my leaving squarely at the feet of the development team at Blizzard. Not because the game was no longer fun, not because my class/spec was viewed as mediocre at best, not because my class/spec was taken too many steps back towards faceroll for my tastes. It's because I think that, like most creators of wondrous genres, they get too attached to certain aspects of their craft and to hell with the fans. And, in a perfect world, that'd be all well and good - "damn the man, save the empire," as it were.
However, in any collected group of peoples where there are subdivisions, the higher power(s) are always perceived as having a bias. And all the divided sides firmly believe it's this or that other group that has the favor of the gods. I always felt that Blizzard was biased towards the Horde, and Blizzcon 2013 proved to me their devotion to that single faction. Nevermind that the forthcoming expansion, Warlords of Draenor, is letting us, the players, slaughter many of the greatest leaders the orcish hordes have ever had, or that garrisons sound really cool, or that a pristine version of Draenor (for those not in the know, Outland before it was sundered) would be really awesome to explore. It is, sadly, the very much anti-Alliance vibe that drove me away.
Despite the blow to my idealism that was the Draenor reveal, and Chris Metzen's almost orgasmic exultation about how cool the orcs are, it was actually something he said in an interview after the WoD reveal that decided my intent to leave the game. During the reveal, he referred to the Alliance as the "Captain America faction," the "last standing superpower [of Azeroth]." But later he referred back to the Cap metaphor and said something to the effect of "it's hard to write for Captain America because he's so good, so pure."
To which I say bollocks. If Cap were so hard to write for, he would've faded from the pages of comics long ago instead of remaining one of the most popular characters in comic book history for over seventy years. The insinuation of "too good to write for" is a cop-out to allow Blizzard to further pursue their faction bias with a clear conscience. I'm not really even that much into the Alliance, truth be told; "go Dwarf, or go Gnome," I say, very much myself partial to the snow-capped hills of Khaz Modan and the dim torch-lit halls of Ironforge. But blatantly ignoring a large section of the playerbase that has been begging for in-game story, and going so far as to invent excuses to set their minds at ease, Blizzard lost my subscription - and my faith.
The alpha notes for WoD that I looked over just the other day were almost as revolting. I won't yet go into detail (may need something else about which to create a heavy-critting wall-o'-text for next week!), but I was thoroughly dissatisfied with the direction of the gameplay and likely won't be returning. While there are many good points (reducing burst-reliance to balance sustained damage for classes otherwise lacking), there are too many things being kicked to the curb that would likely reduce my enjoyment of the game.
But, who knows? Closer to release, nostalgia and a thirst for the new and shiny may override my disgust and pull me back in. Certainly, the new character and creature models have been fantastic so far, and I would just love to see how my beard will sway with all the pretty new polygons. Only time will tell.
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