Tuesday, May 13, 2014

WoW PvP = Skillless,Heal/Gear-Based CC Abusing Grindfest! PT. 1

"The year is 2014 and Blizzard development team is still no closer to finding the right cure for PvP. Despite claiming that "balance is an art" (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2956383), it seems that the longer the development team goes down this tight rope known as "PvP" they make less progress across every time. In fact, everything just seems to get worse."

Let's get into it shall we...

Boy. 

I remember playing SWTOR and doing PvP. I said to myself, "Why did I leave WoW for this game? The PvP here is terrible! All these stun and heals! All these classes that have huge advantages in matches! This game sucks! I'm going back to WoW!" Little did I know...

Blizzard had changed WoW to the exact same thing.

Now, I may be a bit jaded because the good times to me for WoW PvP (Vanilla) were when gear wasn't the major factor in winning for most classes (cough cough rogues) and how you played was usually much more effective than anything you wore. Even if you were still killed by someone with better gear, putting up a good fight made you feel much better about yourself as a player. 

Hell, I remember killing a warrior that was 10 levels higher than me just by outplaying him!

Alas, Blizzard development team ruined "World PvP" by trying to capitalize on it's popularity and turning it into a terrible instanced GRINDFEST. Blizzard went even further by adding numerous high level guards to towns to discourage town raiding and finally they killed it off completely their LFG queue system. Now Blizzard development assumes they can fix World PvP but from this video it's pretty obvious they have NO IDEA what "World PvP" even means:


According to them, World PvP = Sitting on a random secluded island such as Timeless Isle. While it was fun for about a week, that isn't "World PvP". This is just a clear case of Blizzard development pretending they understand the problem and yet still trying to control it.

 Now, all of this would be fine if they hadn't done this to PVP SERVERS but I assume they don't have the technology or will to make an effort to implement the changes on specific servers only. 

Those were the days though. 
 
But these days it's pretty damn obvious Blizzard has no idea what they are doing...ESPECIALLY when it comes to PvP. The state of PvP in WoW is not only completely absurd but stressful for anyone just trying to CASUALLY PvP. Let's look at low-level PvP for example.

Thanks to the heirloom system (I actually like the heirloom system though) players who have the H-Gear will probably kill a player without the gear in a matter of two shots or in an extremely fast manner. There will be no time to react to anything. All you can hope to do is be the first one to fire off a skill before you are gunned down by some hunter or stabbed in your spine by some rogue. If you are lucky, you might even see the attack coming via instant kill shield slamming warrior. 

If you aren't playing one of classes I just mentioned by the way, you are probably sitting in the graveyard reading this or watching this scripted drama crap:




 Spoiler Alert:
  • These bikes are already finished.
  • Blizzard is going to use it as a marketing gimmick for WoD.
  • Both factions are most likely going to both get bikes. 
  • Is everyone working at Blizzard almost 50? That explains the state of the game I assume.








Thursday, January 16, 2014

The Elder Scrolls Online (TESO) Is Going To Be A Piece Of Shit. And You Know It.

Oh here we go again.

Another big named IP MMO being pumped out to collect a month worth the subscription fees before everyone quits because they figured out the game was worthless, uninspired GARBAGE.

I mean...WHEN. WILL. PEOPLE. LEARN.

I Sure Hope This Is The Console Version

First warning should have been that Zenimax is making the game, you know, the parent company and not Bethesda? The the major warning should be that the game is under a heavy NDA just like SWTOR. Also, the fact that this game was announced to be for consoles also...I don't care what anyone says...if you have been playing MMOs as long as I have been then you should know there is NO WAY IN HELL a MMO is going to be good if it's on a console. Just due to the fact that a MMORPG should be about THE WORLD you are in first. And I'm not talking linear "follow this straight path to all your quest" worlds.

So anyways back to what I was saying...

This game has BARELY released any information other than cherry picked content, prevents everyone from streaming or showing any videos of the game, does FAKE Reddit "AMAs" called "AUA"(...like AUAHAHAHAH) and is releasing this shit in April.

Have you seen the trailer video for this shit?


I mean, this reminds me of Rift/Warhammer instantly. Look at the stiff animations. Are the only spells in this game fire and electricity based? What the fuck is going on. I've seen more motion in rocks I threw across the street (and accidentally broke my neighbors window :( ).

This game seems to be copying the SWTOR gameplan to a T. I mean ALL the character bodies and animations are EXACTLY the same. For ALL RACES. This is just like SWTOR.

Heavy NDA without releasing much of any real information. Just like SWTOR.

Using a popular IP from a single-player game. Just like SWTOR.

Cherry picking questions to answer. Just like SWTOR.

Instanced, watered-down. map-pack MMO. Just like SWTOR.
 
Yup It's FUCKING SWTOR II: The Journey To Free to Play (and eventually shutdown)

I'm starting to think that these MMOs are just hoping to get as much money as they can during the first month then when shit goes down hill, start firing all the staff and blaming the people who had nothing to do with the games failure before the top bosses leave the company with their fat checks.

Also...

 That lizard looks completely ridiculous on that horse.

 Laugh out loud.  






Please. Stop Asking People To Watch Your Shitty Twitch Streams.

Let's talk about the retarded elephant in the room.

Everytime I go to a game blog or log into a MMO.

There is always someone going "HEY! WATCH MY STREAM HERE!"

Take your head set off.

Listen.

The only time people want to watch videos of you playing is if you have useful information on a game because the game is either in beta , you are giving your opinion or commentary about what you think of the game (such as Totalbiscuit, AngryJoe etc) or you have The Walking Dead which is more of a movie than a video game.

I really see no point in watching SOMEONE ELSE play a game that is available to everyone unless you just can't afford it. And if you do get people to watch it, why would someone come back when you have nothing to offer. Think I want to watch a 48 hour stream of you sitting in town afk?

No?

Then cut the shit out.

If you aren't doing anything unique or spectacular in the game that every single person on the planet can't do or hasn't done...stop.


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

EA To Destroy Star Wars IP By Making Games Like SWTOR For Another 10 Years.

So...EA's chief financial officer "Blake Jorgensen" just said this on Eurogamer:

"Yes the original expectations obviously were very, very large and obviously the multiplayer MMO world has - the popularly has come down over time and we tried to restructure the Star Wars business to better match the economics. It's a great business that's very repeatable," he added. "We brought the economics in line so it's a profitable business for us."


Notice a pattern? BUSINESS! BUSINESS! PROFIT!

Dear Jedi Jesus: Please Make Disney See The Light And Stop EA From Making More Star Wars Games.


No.

Don't "RESTRUCTURE THE BUSINESS". This is the EXACT problem. Look at how he talks about the VIDEO GAME. They aren't worried about players having fun or enjoying the game. They are worried about how much money they can make every quarter.

RESTRUCTURE THE WHOLE GOD FORSAKEN GAME!

Make REAL games that aren't meant to MILK the IP!

Put REAL effort into listening to your community!

Only people that currently play SWTOR are the people they thought would be the majority, the people who are die hard Star Wars fan. They are the only ones who don't care or don't notice just how bad the game is because they don't know any better or anything else.

I am seriously tired of EA and their sh--!

Shit.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Wildstar Will Probably Fail and Go F2P. Sadly.

Getting kind of tired of this same MMO pattern. It's like these developers never learn or it could just be that...oh I don't know MMOs have just become a "Get Rich Quick" scheme...of sorts. So I am going to keep it short and to the point. Actually, I will post this way from now on.

I've been following "Wildstar" for quite some time and though the overly cartoon style ALMOST threw me off completely, I managed to continue checking up on the game from time to time.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Wildstar development team and I really wish they never made this mistake. Especially since they will in essence be going against an IP like The Elder Scrolls.

So now, here we are further into the development of Wildstar and we have talks of release dates, classes, pricing models and etc. etc. That's all great. Wildstar seems to be the game that has everything and is for players who have been waiting for a good MMO were developers "care" about their players. Everything about this game seems to be perfect right?!

Wrong.

Wrong because Wildstar is an IP jumping into a market where word of mouth will make or break your game into a thousand pieces and it's a shame that developers of MMOs still haven't learned this simple fact:

When it comes to a RPG of any sort, LORE is king over all.  For example, The Elder Scrolls Online might be complete garbage game-play wise but that won't matter at the start. People know TES. And even if they hate MMOs or never played one, people will play for the IP alone.


Lore...lore...lore...does no one care about lore anymore? Or does everyone just love their MMO fastfood?



I Barely Know Anything About The Elder Scrolls Lore... But It's More Than I Know About Wildstar's!
And no, I don't mean the lore INSIDE your MMO that most players are going to be skipping anyways, I am talking about the lore that is established long before you even created that MMO. Lore people are familiar with or can get familiar with outside of the MMO. This is why, in my opinion, any MMO developed should be based off some sort of existing franchise. Whether it's a book, comic, movie or game doesn't really matter but it SHOULD have established some sort of lore people can reference. People just feel more connected to things they know and feel they understand. It doesn't matter if everyone knows the lore because your core fan base will be there to rant on and explain it via forums, role playing servers and video blogs.

This disturbs me because I am currently writing my own fantasy novel and hope to create some sort of game based around it in the future

Right. Point.


Who Needs Lore When You Have Stereotypical English Accented Villains!


Now if this game was fully voiced such as SWTOR (which is a terrible game) that could help sell your lore but so far what I have seen from this game is the same reading, boring objective missions and "AIN'T NO BODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!" mob grinding.

 Your random MMO and IP that popped out of no where probably will never be a top MMO or retain even 50% of it's user base due to the fact no one has really "grown" with your IP. No one knows anything about the story, characters, world....ANYTHING. Nor will most players care to learn once they get past the first once and something new and shiny they ARE familiar with comes out.

Then again, using SWTOR as an example again, you could have all the lore and money in the world and still managed to develop one of the worst MMOs created. How is that possible?

 It's called putting money first and player satisfaction last.

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...