Showing posts with label System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label System. Show all posts

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...

Thursday, March 1, 2012

SWTOR's "Social" System is a Huge Flawed Design / No Community PT.2

Most of us know that the "Social" system is nothing more than a tedious grind. Not only is it a tedious grind, it's about as "social" as FaceBook and Twitter are.

The "Social" system is NOT being social. It's as artificial as it gets.

SEEING AS HOW LEGACY, CHARACTER, and VALOR LEVELS ARE ALL 50+, I THINK IT'S SAFE TO ASSUME WHAT "SOCIAL" LEVELS CAN REACH...

At the start of this game, the only way you would have a real chance of getting your social level high was by grouping non-stop. Good thing there was very little reason to group other than with flashpoints and heroic areas. Most of which still gained you either no social points or very little.

If you hadn't focused on the "social" levels from the start ( And sadly most of us didn't as this game never really made grouping a selling point but rather an after thought), you are probably either grinding Esseles or trying to get into as many groups as you can for points.

Which is fine.I guess.

If that's what people consider is "standard" in "all" games they play, mindless grinding, then more power to them. However, while they can keep their "social" grind system in place I feel you should NOT have to go through this on every single character. I don't want to "grind" social levels on all my alts especially when "people"  keep implying that "rolling alts is the end game".

Most servers are dead or near dead at peak times and very rarely do I find people in that want to even group for heroics. If a month or less, I am almost very sure there will be no one doing them at all. So I shouldn't have to miss out on things just because no one wants to do it or Bioware has succeeded in creating the most antisocial "MMO" ever.

I feel there is no logical reason to grind all your characters social levels just to wear "social" gear. Social gear, you know the stuff most role-players want, is a slap in the face to people that want to role-play to begin with. Not only do they need to be a certain player level, but ALSO a social level?

Anyways...

Social System is flawed and if Bioware wants to keep this flawed idea in the game, at least make it less of a burden by making the levels pass on to your alts.

Monday, February 13, 2012

SWTOR's "Social" System is a Huge Flawed Design / No Community PT.1

 As I struggle through to enjoy SWTOR , I just can't help but wonder if I am being too picky or perhaps just jaded from all the other "Let's get rich quick!" MMO schemes that have been run into the ground post 2004.

Many things bother me about how this game is designed...however, there are just somethings in this game which I can't understand how it was even thought of as a "good idea".

MMORPG.

The main aspect and reason "MMORPG" fans play them is to play with others. At least that's what I think!...

Basically, being social. 

Even this game is about that... but done completely wrong.

Being "social" in this game is as artifical as it gets. It's not really being "social" when you have to reward players or lure them with bait just to communicate/play with other players.

Social in SWTOR means grind in SWTOR.

A "Social" Life That Is!
I used to loathe people spamming general chat but I feel I'd rather see that now then no one saying anything at all other than "LFG HAMMER STATION" and NPC chat spam.

In fact, in game, there is no real community to be "social" with to begin with. And don't even get me started on the polarized forum community...

Back on point...social is a grind.

And that is mainly because being "social" has rewards that are given as an incentive to get people to group because I feel they [Bioware] knew there wouldn't be a desire for player to want to play with others. Not only is it a grind. It's a tedious boring grind. Even worse when you have to sit through dialogue you have heard 10 million times because one person in your group hasn't. Especially those who only came for "story".

Anyways...

Not only was the "social" system a bad idea, it was created in lackluster fashion. As it stands now, people just grind Esseles over and over. You know why I think that is?

Because most people that play this game didn't  group for every single mission they had when they started the game. Gasp. Just like in other MMOs, most people will solo what they can and group when needed. And it didn't really help that the social points aren't even rewarding decent amounts of points.

Also, who really wants to go through all of that again on an alt?