Tera Online Head Start

Hello everyone, as stated on the launch schedule Tera Online will start tomorrow on Saturday the 28th at 8:00 am pacific time. When tomorrow does come I plan to fill up my character slots and level the characters using rested experience, its easy to level them that way and they get leveled at the same time. How do you guys level characters in mmos? If you do not plan on playing Tera and are looking for a good game to keep you occupied until Diablo 3 or Guild Wars 2 I would recommend trying Tera Online. Launch Schedule

Tera Online To Prove Interesting

So I recently bought the Tera Online collectors edition from the Enmasse website, (clicky me) and got into the Mach 23-25 beta event. I must say I am intrigued by this game. There are a total of 7 playable races and 8 playable classes and the character customization is pretty thorough to boot. Its not as great as Aion,s, but its a lot better than a lot of others. The graphics aren't as cartoony as swtor which really turned me off to swtor. 

One thing I always liked about mmos is the fantasy setting of them. It may be a cliche setting but lets face it, when has a sci-fi mmo been successful? Besides Eve Online.

One thing I hated about SWTOR is how bad pulling the map up was. You couldn't even move it and I felt restricted as most other mmos allowed me to freely zoom in, zoom out, and explore the world via the map. Well guess what? Tera online gives us two maps!

  The picture above shows us the area map. You can see quest npcs and waypoints of where you need to go to complete a quest. It also shows spots like campfires, vendors, trainers, etc. What is a campfire? A campefire quickly helps you restore your hp if you don't have any potions. In this game you don't quickly recover hp and mp aka swtor style, which made the game pretty boring in my opinion. (SWTOR not Tera.) You can toggle the area map on and off by pressing N.

   Here we have the classic map interface above me. By pressing M on the keyboard it toggles the interface and brings up my area in all its fine glory. *Sniff* I'm sorry folks, its been such a long time since I have seen such a great map interface I got all teary eyed. Time to move on.

     So now we are looking at the world map right above. From the previous picture there is an option called "Zoom out" right next to the "X" in the top right hand corner of the map interface that lets me zoom out of the map. Notice you can see where you are on the map, and its in the center. Charming, quite charming. Also a good thing to note is Tera starts you in a tutorial zone which is in fact the middle of the map where I am. I don't know about you, but I hate tutorial zones. It reminds me of Champions Online all over again.

        The above picture just shows what the game looks like without the area map. (N.)

 This is a unique feature I really enjoy in Tera Online. Walk near an aggressive mob and they don't charge you and try to kill you. Instead, they warn you with that exclamation mark above their head and the monster itself takes an aggressive stance and faces you the entire time. You can get away from the monster and it will no londer be hostile towards you. Stay near it too long and it will attack you. You can also just attack it.

Thats all for now. Before the beta ends I will play some more and give more thoughts on the game. This playthrough was only 30 minutes of goofing around and exploring the features. Could I been more in depth? Sure I could of but I wasn't. Until next time, Aesr signing off.

Aion Going Free 2 Play

Clicky me

Finally Aion is going free to play and thats a good thing. Aion has a lot going for it and I am sure many people will play it again. Its not that Aion wasn't a fun game its just that it had a lot of Korean aspects to it that didn't appeal to Western audiences. (Ex. Korean leveling model.) From what I am reading on the website, since its been out Aion has taken a 360 degree turn and is more appealing to Western audiences now, and is worth another shot when it goes free to play on April 11th, 2012. I for one loved the character customization on Aion as no other mmo goes as in depth as Aion did. Also with Aion 3.0, they have added a ton of stuff which makes the game sound fun.

MMORPGs and Directors Lack of Imagination

Seems that plenty of games recently, especially MMOS, are suffering from really, REALLY horrible creative directors and others directing who just either don't really like games or have no clue about what they are doing.

It's those games that you log into and you are just like, "WHO THE HELL OK'D THIS?!"... One of those, "I know you could do better" games. And I could if I was the one directing a game. I have even written pages of ideas and concepts for a MMORPG that would have something for everyone. I will post that when I find where I put them...lol

Anyways...

People like blaming the publisher alot and though they may be at fault somewhat, when you get games with $300 million dollar budgets that produce crap...I think it's time to put a little blame on the developers as well. Though, I understand alot of times when games appear to be "unfinished" it is due to the publisher "rushing" the developers...SUPPOSEDLY...

But where was I...Oh yeah!

MMOs require good ideas foremost in my opinion. That's where it starts. Now in days, it seems that developers are just saying, "Ok, let's just copy WoW but make it look different!" which I think it's fine to get SOME ideas from WoW...but not just carbon copy it like alot of these MMO devs have done.

I think it's a good idea to pick up ideas from ALL types of MMOs, not just one that became extremely successful.

But in a way, that sort of let's us know which developers really want to make a game they love or who wants to make a profit. Though, that is how most or all industry works.

Even Pablo Picasso said, "Good developers love to innovate, great developers copy World of Warcraft."

Uh, at least I think that's right...

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.