Telon Update #2

I missed my content group Sunday night. So I think this Sunday we will be hitting Wardship of the Sleeping Moon. It is nice to see that they have been fixing some of the bugs from GU3.2 and not making up wait until GU4.  I think GU4 will really tell use the direction that Thom wants the game to go. I am hoping to see a more casual game with more group content .

6 Days

It doesn’t really feel like 6 days has gone buy but it has. I looked at the date on my last post and was wow. Now that Christmas has past I should be able to get back into my reading and writing again. I got caught up on my blogs today.  Mostly about RMT (Real Money Trades) and  PvP (Player vs Player) in MMO’s.

 RMT doesn’t bother me at all. It has become a billion dollar a year business so there has to be a lot of people doing it. I have seen people complain about gold buyers then tell me about bugs and third party programs you can use. Everyone looks at it differently I have come to the conclusion that to each his own.  

PvP is really only fun for the people on top. I think everyone likes the idea of it but when you spend 5 hours doing corps runs and being camped it loses its fun factor. PvP belongs in FPS games where it is about skill not gear.  I mean really people talk about being rewarded for losing in PvP.

LoN

Well I fell a few days behind. Not only am I behind in my posting but also my reading. Hopefully I can catch back up this weekend.  I did start playing Legends of Norrath last weekend. The learning curve on it was a little high I thought. I didn’t really like the tutorial system they have in place. It felt more like click on this card now that it is glowing type of deal. Once I got though that and on to the scenarios I have really start to figure things out. I even got a few booster packs to try and make my deck a little better.  It looks like SOE is really serious about the game. 5 grand was the top prize in the last tournament. I haven’t played anyone yet but the scenarios have pulled in into the game. You can find a lot of information over at LoN Wiki.

One a side note I wish they could have made diplomacy like this in Vanguard.

Side Notes

pOtshOt has started a nice discussion on Open Beta.

Random Battle also has a nice topic on gold farming.

Telon Update #1

Well I got to play Vanguard last night with my content group. They really added some nice things in the 3.2 patch. The game is running even better. I am a little confused with the QA department at SOE. Why is it they cannot seem to get the LFG working? Now they got it fixed to turn off when you log out and when you join a group but YOU CAN NOT BE SOLO AND LFM. If you are looking for more than logic dictates that you must be LOOKING FOR GROUP.  Maybe I am being too picky on this but I really bothers me and shows a level of sloppy design. Maybe GU4 they will get it right.

A few things not in the patch notes

1.       Group Buffs

2.       Wardship changes

Now group buffs should have been mentioned. So many people in game have been waiting for that and it might get a few people to come back. The faction changes in Wardship really show that PhanTom is serious about taking some of the grinds out of the game. I should make it over there this weekend.

I didn’t go into APW it must sound strange but the raid zone really hasn’t got me going yet. I hope that  GU4 will address some other things in game. The Khal revamp looks great and let’s see another city done in GU4.  How about looking into the group content for 50’s? Also they need to look into some of the areas that are broken. Minds Crown would be a good start.

I would recommend that anyone that left the game earlier this year for performance reasons should start to follow it again. GU4 should tell us a lot about PhanToms plans for the game it will be his entire baby.

LFG Update

Great news the 3.2 patch notes say they fixed the LFG options in Vanguard. I will find out for sure when my content group starts up. I really hope it is fixed.

Norrath Update #2

Well my little Illusionist just ding 22 tonight. I did put some AA points into an ability that I will not get until 32. I hope those 10 levels don’t take that long. I did my first group the other day sense my return to the game and was it nice. The group did last long we were trying to do something we should not have been trying. What was nice was it only took me about 5 min to go from Grater Faydark to the Commonlands.  That would have taken almost 20min in Vanguard. Aside from that and getting the Lore book for Orcs I haven’t been too far.  I am not in a fury and all the lands I see are new to me.

Vanguard 3.2

Well it is out GU 3.2 it only took 2 months between 3.1 and 3.2 but we got it. I would like to say there are a lot of good things in this patch and I could talk about several of them today. But I like to stick to one thing. So here I go crafting changes. There are a lot of crafting changes in this patch. The most not worth is now you will gain xp for making things. I know crazy idea huh. You see someone at Sigil thought it would be better to have people do work orders so they didn’t have to make items just to level. This would help keep the economy in check somehow.  It didn’t work it makes it hard to find low level items people just don’t really make them. Why waste your time?

Next up is they changed item decon. Now items have a higher chance to get the good crystals and resources from decon. This should really help lower the prices on some things but over all a win win for the poor adventure in Vanguard.

So what does this tell me about crafters in Vanguard? Well a lot of high level crafters have left the game and they are not being replaced by other players. You can really feel it in game. No longer do you see a lot of t5 heroic gear on the broker. Players that where dedicated crafters have moved. I imagine there will be more changes to come.

My personal thought on crafting in games is easy. You need to decide whether or not you have a player made economy or a loot driven economy. SWG had a player made economy everything was player made and nothing was a loot drop. That system worked well in SWG. If you are going to have loot then that is where adventuring gear should stay. At no time should someone be able to go by the best gear in game or an equivalent.  Crafted items can be everything else housing, bags, extra items in game. Nothing is more frustrating than to get the +5 vorpal sword that you had to slay the dragon for and see someone running around with a player made +4 vorpal sword.  No game has been able to balance the two yet but only time will tell if Vanguard can do it. I would say most games leave about 90% of adventuring gear to the loot drop systems. 

Off Shots

I saw this over at anakir.com  .

Is it an MMO

I was listening to Shut up, We’re Talking today and the subject of FURY came up. Is FURY an MMO? The consensus was the no it is not.  Now maybe the term MMO has become too generic for online game. Just like the term Rock and Country no longer fit in the music world.

So let’s start with Persistent Online Universe or POU. This would be games like EQ, EQ2, WoW and Vanguard to name a few. First these game have static worlds when you go to spot x that tree is always there.  The bulk of player interaction takes place in one world. People are interacting with each other and the world is not a lobby to an instance.

Next would be Online Community Gaming or OCG. This would be game like DDO, Hellgate, Diablo 2 and COH/COV. These are games that mostly use the world as a lobby. The main function of the static world is to form groups and then go into an instance. You have limited contact with people outside of your group. You are not going to see other people in your instance and ounce you are done with that group you go back to the main world to find another.

Then we have Massive First Person Shooter or MFPS. The name says it all Fury, Planetside and maybe Tabula Rasa. Fast pace twitch gaming where it is mostly about the speed of combat. Grab your weapons and go go go.

And there are always things like Gaia and Huba Hotel. Sites that while currently fall under the banner of MMO but I am sure that most people would not consider them to be such at all. Maybe we could call them Massive Only Community or MOC. One thing is for sure online gaming entertainment is growing and with growth comes a whole slew of new terms. Maybe in 5 years we will have MOSRG “Massive Online Sports Racing Game” How big will the first NASCAR MOSRG be? The list could go on and on and I am sure it will.