The Doctor Is In

It seems those wacky psychiatrists want to get some World of Warcraft action.

One of them, a Dr Richard Graham is very concerned about the imaginary condition of World of Warcraft addiction. So concerned in fact that he has appealed to Blizzard to give him and his various colleagues free or reduced price access to the game so that they can treat patients inside the game.

Hang on a sec. How much do these guys charge an hour? They can’t afford a measly US$15 a month subscription?

Anyway. Dr Graham reckons that a true WoW addict is hard to treat because they pretty much forsake the rest of their life to be in the game. They don’t eat, sleep, bathe, go to work or school, or socialize outside the game.

So the only solution is to meet them inside the game. Makes sense I suppose.

But hang on. I smell the real reason that the good doctor wants to deal with the imaginary WoW addict inside the game. THEY DON’T BATHE.

Of course, dealing with a WoW addict in the office, or through a house call, would simply be too smelly.

Or maybe, just maybe, Dr Graham and his psychiatrist buddies just want to form a raiding guild. What side would they take do you think. Alliance or Horde?

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Marketing Ethics in Today’s MMORPGs

TenTonHammer has a interesting article up called Bait and Switch? Ethics and Values in Today’s MMO Marketing that addresses some of the marketing practices that we’ve been seeing occurring more and more in the run up to release of some of the biggest MMORPG releases.

The article talks about some of what we’ve seen in the Warhammer Online and Age of Conan releases and provides a contrast into how the devs/publishers managed the pre-release of info to the fans.

Well worth a read.

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And Thousands of Teenaged Girls Everywhere Swoon

Via Syp:  A Twilight Based MMORPG is in Development.

There are only two character classes, the lovestruck and misunderstood heroine and the broody vampyre hunkybutt.

(Donning my flame retardant undies now.)

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EA’s Marketing Division Should Do Some Ethics Training

What is up at the EA Marketing Division these days?

A short time ago they figured that staging a fake Christian protest would drum up some interest in their upcoming game Dante’s Inferno.

And the latest stupidity?

Thinking that staging a competition for convention attendees to molest the booth babes at Comic-Con in order to be rewarded with “a sinful night with two hot girls.” Oh, and this is also a stunt to promote Dante’s Inferno.

Great move EA. It’s probably a fairly tough job being a booth babe. Not only is just standing and smiling at a convention fairly draining, there’d be the jerks as a matter of course. You’d hope that the majority of convention goers would treat them respectfully, but there would just have to be a ton of jerk making rude and unwelcome comments. EA has made that job an order of magnitude harder by asking those jerks to molest the poor girls.

Unfortunately it wasn’t just the EA booth babes being targeted for this, it was all of them.

Is sexual harrassment a part of the core philosophy at EA these days?

Looks like they need some ethics and diversity training at EA head office.

Oh, and even though this post is giving some publicity to EA’s Dante’s Inferno, I respectfully suggest that if you are offended by EAs behaviour in marketing this game — don’t buy it.

I won’t be.

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A Small Everquest 2 Update

Since I’ve been playing more Everquest 2 than anything else lately, I figured it would be appropriate to post an update of where I’m at.

I’m not fighting the altaholism anymore (stopped attending the meetings) which is great since I joined a guild, The Halasian Empire, which pretty much has a mandatory alt policy (mandatory crafting too .) So I rolled (several) characters on Lucan D’Lere. These are:

• Bargears (pronounced BargeArse) – A Troll Shadowknight on adventure level 25 and tradeskill level 29 as a Carpenter. He’s currently the character that I’ve been spending most of my time on, nearly six days played so far which might seem odd considering the relatively low level. I’ve been taking the leveling very slowly, as an experiment locking the adventure level and accumulating as many AA points as possible. So far he’s gained 38 AA points since level 10 simply by doing as many quests from the available regions as possible.
• Stropp – A Froglok level 16 Templar, and level 22 Sage. I’ll be spending more time on Stropp’s tradeskilling than his adventuring, at least for the foreseeable future simply because he’ll be responsible for spell upgrades.
• Motli – A Ratonga Necromancer sitting pretty on 13, and is also a level 25 Armorer. Also a character developed more for the tradeskills. Bargears is going to need that Master Crafted armor, and Motli will supply that need. When I do any adventuring, he’ll get his spell upgrades from Stropp the Sage. Balance, eh?
• Stroppcat – A Kerran Illusionist, currently level 7 and a level 17 Scholar.  Also chosen for the crafting, he’ll be going down the Alchemist path. Alchemists supply the combat ability upgrades for the fighter archetype (Sages => Magic/Healing, Jewelers => Rogue) and will also be a support for Bargears. Having said that, I was pretty impressed the other day when I was doing the first crafting tutorial quest. It required gathering a bunch of raw materials and I decided to go through Oakmyst Forest since it has the best selection of nodes in the newbie areas. I managed to get close to one of the young (agro) bears and got some unwanted attention. This beastie was also pretty tough, registering as an orange mob. Fortunately I had my Personae out and cleaned him up. Pretty good for a clothie, another mage class would probably have been torn to shreds.

Even though I don’t necessarily intend to adventure with all these characters right at the moment — Bargears is proving an awful lot of fun and I want to take him as far as possible — I made sure that I picked an adventuring class that I’m interested in trying out. Stroppcat particularly interests me, especially with that orange takedown, and might be a good subject for an extreme AA experiment I’m considering. (More on that later.)

There are a few other alts sitting in stasis, I did some experimenting with other classes just to see what they were like in the one to ten range. They might go on, or they might not, I haven’t decided yet. However, it’s a dead cert that sometime I’ll create a new alt. I’ll let you know when I do.

So that’s the round-up. I’ll keep working on Bargears, he’s currently got a nearly full quest log with quests for The Thundering Steppes, Nektulos Forest, and The Butcherblock Mountains. Not to mention a bunch for various dungeons like Fallen Gate and Blackburrow. He’ll remain level locked until most of those are cleared (except for Fallen Gate, he’ll need 2 or 3 more levels to solo that dungeon) and that should add up to 10 more AA.

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Praising With Faint Damning

You may have heard the expression: Damning with faint praise. It means that someone, by only giving a token measure of praise to something, is really expressing their disapproval. You’ve heard it used before, “That movie was okay.” Or for a date setup, “She has a nice personality”. And even for an employer reference like “Mr Smith, was a loyal employee who was always on time.”

So what’s it called then when someone attempting to be critical of something can’t really find anything serious to be critical about?

Wolfshead seems to have found himself in just this dilemma with his analysis of his first 15 minutes in Everquest 2.

It appears that his most serious problems have to do with Everquest having too much in the way of character choices and things to do, and some of the art choices made for loading screens and the like.

To be honest, when I first started reading this post I wondered if he was just pulling our collective legs as his first couple of minutes were spent worrying about the size and position of the ESRB label compared to how WoW does it. And in fact, that’s pretty much where the rest of this review headed, into a comparison with World of Warcraft.

That in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are times when it’s appropriate to make comparisons between things. It’s one of the ways we work out what we like. But in this case, it appears Wolfshead is looking hard for things that make Everquest 2 to be not as good as World of Warcraft.

To be fair, there are a couple of things I agree with.

The UI could handle a bit of improvement, especially for new players. For the most part it isn’t so bad, but it does take a bit of getting used to, and finding out how to do some things can be a bit of a chore. On the other hand, it’s light years ahead of the UI used by EQ1 (or is that damning with faint praise?) Having said that, every UI needs improvement. Over time user needs and expectations change, and developers should keep abreast of that.

Wolfshead also mentions that the newbie areas and quests could handle some improvement. As Tipa points out in her rebuttal to Wolfshead’s post, that actually has happened – a number of times. And perhaps they could use still more improvement. However, I’d be more inclined to ask for some improvements to the major starting cities, Qeynos and Freeport. I find they, especially Freeport, tend to be tedious to get around, and these days are not the thriving metropli that they once were.

But there are a lot of points in Wolfshead’s article where I think he is completely off the mark. Aside from some of the completely irrelevant issues like “inappropriate background screens,” there are three points I’d like to address.

1. Character Creation – Too many choices. I have never heard any game criticised for it’s abundance of character customisation before. On the contrary, some of the more celebrated customisations come from City of Heroes/Villains where it’s possible to have fun without ever leaving the character generator. If anything can be said, and it’s one of the things I felt WoW was lacking in, it is that World of Warcraft should have more character choices. And by the way, guys do like character options, just check out Age of Conan on that front (pardon the pun.) One thing to finish this point, I think Wolfshead has a great idea in having the devs provide a set of pretty character templates that players who don’t need the higher level of customisation can quickly choose.
2. Combat and Abilities. For the most part Wolfshead seemed to like the combat, but felt that casting times were too long. I think we’ve all felt that when we’re in the middle of a fight and are waiting for the refresh. However, that’s where AA’s come in. For example, the ShadowKnight class provides an AA that reduces refresh and casting times by 25 to 30 percent. Wolfshead simply hasn’t got to the level where he can know that. Fair enough. He also says that there is only one way to know when combat has started, the name flashes. That’s simply not true. The music dramatically changes, and there are sound effects of attack, not to mention red numbers floating away saying how much damage you’re taking. Much the same as WoW in fact. But where Wolfshead really comes unstuck is suggesting that in getting more than one new combat ability or spell per level that this is in some way overwhelming for newbies. He suggests only giving one new ability per level. Hmmm. Strange considering with WoW you sometimes need to purchase way more than two abilities at every second level.
3. Exposing the player to crafting too early. Once again I thought I was reading a parody post. Crafting in Everquest 2, while not perfect, is far superior to that set and forget nonsense in World of Warcraft. In fact it’s the reason a lot of players, some of whom are in my guild, play Everquest 2. To suggest offering crafting later? — What like Age of Conan where you can’t start crafting until 40 or so? — next he’ll be saying that crafting should be set and forget like WoW. Another point: At this stage Wolfshead was still on the newbie island. The only thing wrong with crafting on the island is that the crafting tutorial given by crafting NPCs in the cities is missing on the island. In fact there is no quest regarding crafting on the island, (there used to be.) Wolfshead would have to have gone looking. I know this because the other night I created a crafting character and went looking for the quest. I would have been happy to not do any combat at that time for that character. So sorry Wolfshead, you’re way off base with this one. If you don’t want to craft, don’t. But don’t suggest that others don’t want to.

In essence what Wolfshead is saying is that Everquest 2 should be dumbed down to below the level of World of Warcraft, especially considering some of his gripes are with things that WoW does. It’s posts like this that risk me agreeing with Syncaine on the subject of WoW Tourists!

While Wolfshead is entitled to his opinion concerning his comparisons between Everqust 2 and World of Warcraft, it seems to me that the essense of his post, saying that players are given too many new abilities as they level, that they have too many character choices at character creation, and that being exposed to crafting too early are all bad things, simply seem like he’s looking hard for something, anything, wrong with EQ2. And having found nothing he picks on the most minor and inconsequential issues.

To me, that sounds like praising with faint damnation.

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September – Shaping Up To Be A Busy Month

First both Champions Online and Jumpgate: Evolution pushed back their release dates to September. I think there are a couple of others due around the same time. (Aion?) Now Fallen Earth LLC, the company with the same name as their game, is announcing that their post-apocalyptic MMORPG Fallen Earth is also hitting the streets in September. The ninth to be exact.

Not sure if that’s really a great idea. It’s possible the extra competition could hurt sales. But I’m sure they’ve thought of that.

One interesting thing to note, of the games being released, none are fantasy. Jumpgate is starfaring scifi, Champions is a superhero game, and Fallen Earth is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi. I gotta say this: If any of you have been complaining that there’s nothing but fantasy MMORPGs out there, then you’d better get one of these games. Put your money where your mouth is.

I’m not sure which I’ll be getting yet. I’ll probably end up playing all three at some point, but only one at release. I’m leaning towards Champions Online, but not so much towards Jumpgate. Fallen Earth is in there, and it depends on what the game offers in the way of  non-combat features as to whether it replaces Champions as September’s choice or not.

In anycase, you’ll be able to get the Fallen Earth via digital distribution, or from a game store, early September.

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World of Warcraft 2: Cataclysm

Back a couple of weeks ago the news became public that Blizzard had registered Cataclysm as a trademark.

And the MMORPG blogosphere erupted into speculation.

Not being above a little speculation myself, as well as not being above a little smart-arsedness, I suggested that the term Cataclysm sounded like something that would be used for an expansion. The smart-arsedness came in with the speculation that WoW: Cataclysm could be about the destruction of the old Azeroth and a increase in starting level because Blizzard were sick of maintaining the old world and wanted to concentrate solely on adding levels to WoW. (That was the smart-arsedness btw.)

Of course, everyone else said that it was about the swirly thing in the middle of the world map, and they’ve probably got it right.

But today in the comments on the WoW: Cataclysm post, Kiryn of the Eleven-Four blog, suggested that Cataclysm also sounded like it could be a sequel where the old world was destroyed and where everyone had to (from Outland) retake their old, shattered lands.

Hmmm. Now that sounded familiar.

Everquest 2 is based exactly on that premise. Old Norrath was destroyed when the gods left (also destroying the moon Luclin) as they were upset at being continually ganked by the players. (I wonder if one of them was Twixt?)

Big chunks of Luclin rained down upon the world and (I guess) the change in tidal forces ripped the continents apart. Residents of EQ2 are now basically rediscovering the old world through each expansion.

Now given Blizzards aptitude for taking what others have done and then improving on it through polishing it out the wazoo, it may be that they are looking (as Kiryn suggested) to be taking what EQ2 has done and adding the unique Blizzard/WoW touch.

So here’s what to expect from WoW2: Cataclysm.

• The game will be set 500 years after the events of World of Warcraft 1.
• Several player species will be lost and will need to be rediscovered through quests, world events, and expansions.
• Some player species will be renamed. Expect Tauren to be renamed Minotauren.
• All of the player cities will be consolidated into two remaining large cities, one for each faction. Other old cities will be rediscovered over time.
• Players will be able to collect shiny objects on the ground.
• A butterfly winged race will be added. Probably Furbolgs will evolve wings over the 500 years (making them even more annoying.)
• Crafting will be added made more relevant and fun.
• Housing will be… err… Housing probably will never be added.

Release date: When it’s ready.

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Too Human

I’ve never really been one to pick the Human as my choice of race in any of the role playing games that I’ve played. Unless Human is the only choice available to players, or there’s some other necessity for doing so, I’ve usually chosen a more exotic race. (Digression: It’s actually species, but everyone seems to want to use race for some reason. I blame you Star Trek!)

That doesn’t mean I haven’t chosen the Humans from time to time. I’ve even created a Human male character in WoW, but I really can’t stand the character model. (It looks like he runs with a wand stuck up his bum!) But I always tend to gravitate back to the non-Human.

Lately I’ve noticed that I’m going even further away from the gold standard of anthro-centric gaming. I’ve been playing Everquest 2, and as usual, I’m working on a stable of alts. (I’m really getting into crafting as an adventurer support, and need a few crafters to do this.) But when I’m choosing what I want to be, Human doesn’t even get considered, Elves are just Humans with pointy ears, and Dwarves and Gnomes are just short-people.

And that doesn’t leave much on the Good side of Norrath to choose from. The good-guys there only really have the Froglok, Kerran, and Fae species left to choose from (and Fae really are only short-guys with butterfly wings.)  And, Kerran can be played as evil too.

The more bestial choices are on the Evil side. Trolls, Ogres, Sarnak, Ratonga, Iksar and Arasai (evil Fae guys with butterfly wings.) A far more excellent selection. And coupled with the brilliant starter areas of Darklight Wood and Timorous Deep, I’ve been starting most of my guys with a more naughty outlook on life.

Still it’s a little disappointing that game developers still seem to think of ugly as evil. There’s a lot of pretty people in the world willing to do bad. It would be nice to reflect that in our games. There’s a lot of badness in the world simply because folks forgot the rule: You can’t always judge a book by its cover.

There’s another thing. And I’m not really sure why this is, but even the more bestial selections are humanised. Kerran for instance are simply anthropomorphised cats. Aside from feline features, cat faces, fur, and tails, they stand bipedal and move and fight, not like cats, but like people.

And this brings me to another thing I’d like to see. (Forgive the stream-of-consciousness style of this post.) 

Completely non-human attributes. World of Warcraft for example has NPC Centaurs (as has EQ2 and many other games.) Is this sort of creature too hard to make playable? And here’s an idea from the blackest parts of my own imagination. Spider people: Spiders with evolved forelimbs and humanoid heads and faces, or with bulbous bodies, eight legs, and human torsos. With the movement abilities that spiders have. (Imagine PvP where you hang on the ceiling above your opponent and drop on him/her DFA! )

How about an insect race? Full insect features, six legs, mandibles and the like. But intelligent and capable of forging and using weapons and magic (for a fantasy game.) There are plenty of other shapes in the world to work form, why just human?

In some ways I’m a little surprised game developers haven’t at least looked into this before, or experimented with it. It’s not a WoW idea. Perhaps that’s the problem.

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Chrome OS Will Hurt Apple More Than Microsoft

Okay, this is not really a game related posts, but still, it has some ramifications for gamers.

You might remember that the other day I posted about Google’s announcement that it was working on the Chrome OS and how it was positioning to be a competitor to Microsoft. The problem I had with that announcement was that Google seemed to be focussing more on “The Cloud” functionality, and less on the applications that you and I really appreciate: Games.

And, since games have been one of the major factors for the adoption of PC technology by personal users over the last 20+ years, Google will have serious problems beating the Windows stranglehold on the operating system market unless it does a lot more than just play lip-service to games and gamers.

As I was thinking about this, it occured to me that the Chrome Operating System is actually being targeted (maybe deliberately, maybe not) at the space that Apple currently dominates. The non-Windows, productivity application, boutique market.

Both OSes have similarities. They’re both based off a ‘nix. Chrome OS will be based off a version of Linux, and Apple OSX is based on a port of Darwin (a version of BSD.) Neither focus on games (despite Apple promising occassionally to support game developers) but are more focussed on productivity applications: Apple works well with the artistic types, writing, video production, and graphic design; while Google is already heading into the office productivity (Google Apps) space which is dominated by Microsoft in business.

But where Apple really dominates is in the boutique, non-Microsoft space.

Microsoft is a lot like meat and three vegies. It’s the staple diet for most computer users, both corporate and personal, and does what it does reasonable effectively (fanboism aside.)

Apple is like a night out at a four star restaurant. They provide well presented computers, a quite decent operating system, and a much smaller menu of applications to choose from. Apple also has the cost factor associated with fine dining.

Google OS will be more like a night out at AppleBees (iirc, it’s been a few years.) It will (eventually) provide a better selection than OSX and for a much better price, but it won’t be the staple diet that MS Windows offers. Not unless it supports the vast majority of users who want to do more than browse the web and download… and provides excellent support for games and supports an excellent interface for game developers to work with.

Otherwise, Google OS just becomes an alternative to Apple OSX.

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