Showing posts with label Guild. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guild. Show all posts

Sunday, October 21, 2012

In Guild Wars 2...You Buy Leadership... but Grind For Armor...

Yes.

Though it appears to be nothing more than a nice blue icon on the map....

....Anyone with 100 gold can become a "Commander".

 A Commander which is supposed to lead their world to victory but usually just lead their group to jumping puzzles.

100 gold is not that easy to come by unless you have been working the trade market or saving every gold you earned. Yet still, I can't help but wonder about the failed logic behind allowing something which SHOULD have come from experience to be bought.

If anyone can buy Commander...how the hell am I supposed to know who actually knows what they are doing if I am new?

Instead of pratically GIVING leadership titles away, there really should have been some type of requirement set in place. To be a commander, you should have to prove yourself or...SOMETHING.

Not just be another one of Guild Wars 2 MANY "money sinks".

But to top this off... you have the end armor in WvW which cost over 1000 "Badges of Honor" for the whole set.

You get the BoHs off bags from killing players or NPCS in WvW.

Most times there is no BoHs in the bags....so hmmm...

Which makes more sense...?

Letting any random player who could have just went into WvW his first day and bought the Commander book...?

...Or buying the book with 1000s badges that at least show you are some what a veteran in WvW?

But don't worry...this is just one of the many backwards and illogical features in Guild Wars 2.

I'll get to the trade market soon enough...

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Guild Wars 2: Die. Die. Repair. Die. Die.

 I am not going to sugar coat anything for raging fanboys...by saying "I enjoy GW2" and "I like the game" to ease you into it. If you don't like to hear negative things about your "favorite game" then please...MOVE ALONG!

Anyways!

So...

 There is dying in MMOS... and then there is Guild Wars 2. 

I've played many (not all, obviously, but it's my genre) MMOs and really I have never been killed as much as I have been in this GW2. I know what you are thinking..."Hmm...perhaps you aren't using your skills properly?"...because really, I had hoped it was just a skill issue. But it's not...it's the way the game was set up. Some call it a challenge, I call it a terrible design of death mechanics.

For a game that prided itself on being able to play how I want...it sure is obvious that it does not work. Especially if you aren't a class wearing heavy armor. I can't help but feel Arena.net (Arenanet? Anet? Whatever!) designed the game like this purposely.

And by "purposely" I mean purposely so you are forced to waste your money...well...look...The cashshop...uhhh....uh...

I think this picture speaks for itself.

Dying and repairing in Guild Wars 2 is like...it's own little mini game. 

So much of a mini game... there is actual achievements for not dying. 

This wouldn't be so bad if the many of the mobs weren't LITERALLY hitting you twice and either killing you or nearly killing you (most apply to classes that wear lighter than heavy (I think))...echo...

Take for example the dungeons. I mean...there is literally very little...scratch that...  no strategy whatever in dungeons. It's basically a bunch of high HP slash High DPS mobs that randomly focus fire on someone.I mean...it's a mess...Your "evade/dodge" skill rarely is useful. Soon as you use it, you get hit by some other random AOE attacks...

Let's not even get started on the super high aggro mobs outside  dungeons...

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Just Thinking: Michael O'Brien and Guild Wars 2 Team.

Now that the MMO world has become a world of "Get Rich Quick" schemes, seldomly do you have developers or team members that really seem to care. And by "care" I mean, actually take time to address player problems and issues in a timely manner.

But not in the case of the Guild Wars 2 team. You don't need to question if they feel their fans are important. They show it constantly by their sheer number of responses, blog additions and time they take out for interviews.  And not just when it's something negative printed about them or their game.

Sure, the FaceBook thing was kind of...strange, but I understand the reasoning for that. They want more fans. Who doesn't? Compared to *Other Game I Will Not Name!* Guild Wars 2 has more information about videos about it by a very long shot.

All together though, the Guild Wars 2 team seems more like a family rather than a team. And I kind of admire that. I feel that is how your work place SHOULD feel. I know all MMOs are about "wars" but tou don't get the best efforts out of people running your business like actual an warzone.

And I should know.

I worked at retail stores.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Stop Calling MO's in Disguise "MMO's"...

MMORPG or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. I think we "true" MMO fans know what I am talking about

You know, the "MMORPGS" that aren't really MMORPG's but rather games marked "MMOs" to get a piece of the World of Warcraft action. Countless games have been released  post-WoW and always under the genre of "MMOs".

Which "MMOs" am I referring to you ask?

Well let's look at a list of games I can think of off my head first.

All Points Bulletin - APB
World of Warcraft - WOW
Star Wars: The Old Republic - SWTOR
Hellgate: London - HGL
Guild Wars - GW
Lineage 2 - L2
Ultima Online - UO
Champions Online - CO
City of Heroes -COX
Global Agenda - GA

Games like APB, Hellgate London, SWTOR, Global Agenda and Guild Wars (1 not 2) just to name ones I have played personally.

Games like these aren't "real" MMOs in my opinion mainly because  there is very little that is "massive" about these games and usually no real role-playing elements in them (For the ones that include RPG at the end that is).

You will find that some of these games aren't labelled as MMO "RPGS" but rather MMO "FPS". I like to throw role-playing into the social department though which also makes up what an MMO"RPG" is.


Back on point!

 The major things you would notice about some of these games is that the world isn't "restricted" or "guided" as other "MMOs" are. Basically, there is something "massive" about some of these game other than the amount of players subscribed to it for it.

Take World of Warcraft and Lineage 2 vs Star Wars: The Old Republic and Global Agenda for example .

When you play WoW it feels like a world. I can explore, even do things like running my low level from one side of the world to the other. Same goes with Lineage 2. If I don't like my questing area, I could leave and go to another area. It may take some time, but I have a "choice".

Now let's look at SWTOR.

I am restricted to one starting zone until I become level 10. Once I get to level 10, I go to the Republic Fleet , which is obviously encouraged as it has ALL the things you need ironically in an unending circle,(Which is a "hub".For those not sure what a "Hub" is, it's a place created specifically to get players to gather. It's similar to what World of Warcraft did with their Cataclysm expansion)and I can only go to ONE planet until I finish my class mission and get my ship (unless I join someone else on their ship).

Also, SWTOR is heavily instanced akin to APB, which doesn't promote a "massive" experience but rather persistent social hubs. Likewise with Global Agenda, after your first mission and few levels, you are sent to the "central" area where all of the things you need are there.

Games like SWTOR and Global Agenda...AREN'T MMOS. Period. They are "MO's", Multiplayer Online. I say this because once you start "instancing" everything outside of strategic content (usually done to prevent outside interference from completing a specific goal) the game usually is no longer an MMO.

Especially when it's done in the fashion that you can only have 100 or less players in each instance.

What makes it worse is that you don't even have a "choice" to make it a massive experience in games like Global Agenda, SWTOR and APB. They are dictated to you through FORCED instance placement once an area because "full".

So please, stop calling social hub instanced games "MMOs".

I know these developers call there games "MMOs" but the reality is they are not making anything "massive" other than hype.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

I Used to Think I Was Done With Middle-Age Fantasy Games...Until I Took SWTOR to the Knee.

Either that number is fabricated, based on something else or just not even close to that. And I don't believe anything that comes from EA because anyone not a game industry "noob" knows what EA is good for.

And it ain't customer support.

WE DON'T LIE TO YOU!... UNLESS IT'S ABOUT DLC.



I'm not seeing where these 1.7 million players are in SWTOR.

We have whole guilds that quit the game on my server and my guild makes up the majority of the Republic side active on now.

And most of us are leaving when GW 2 is out.

On top of that, I don't know anyone who either knows this game exist or plays it.
1.7 Million "Active" subscribers...doubt it...

James Ohlen said something a little bit ago about people "wanting SWTOR to fail"...Not only does it make it hard for me to take him serious when resorting to the average forum trolls taunts of  "You're a hater" but I think he just really thinks...that SWTOR is something to be considered "creative". 

Apparently, he is not looking at the same game I am.

The story is very repetitive. Even to the point where ALL the class stories are basically the same. 

"Chase this person down. Stop this "super weapon."

So maybe I am a hater. 

I hate shitty games obviously made with a lack of imagination and effort sheerly for profit.