Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Nice Try Steam...Nice Try...


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.

Monday, May 7, 2012

SWTOR Subscriptions Down 25%...

...but of course there is a reason.

And according to the diehard fans, it's either never Biowares' fault or it doesn't mean there is anything wrong. Everything is perfect in the land(s) of SWTOR...even if your server has 1 person on it.

Funny. I know.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=447469

Today's earning call provided facts that allowed us to finally understand that the dead servers we were playing on weren't just part of our "hater" imagination.

So now, the defense comes up.

On the forum, you have people who once said "SWTOR would surpass 2 million subscribers " saying , "I told you haters this game wasn't dying!"

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ea-sales-beat-targets-star-wars-takes-hit-2012-05-07?siteid=yhoof2 

Yes, it makes perfect sense!

Because losing a quater of your playerbase means the game is still growing!

Sometimes, I really believe it's the fanboys that helped destroy SWTOR.

Sadly, it's probably the "haters" like me, that are big MMO fans, who saw this coming long ago. Instead of listening to us, Bioware tried to do the bidding of the people who have no idea what makes a good MMO.

Friday, April 27, 2012

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

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Just Thinking : Turn-Based Combat Does Not Belong In Any Star Wars MMO

Now, I am by no means a "Star Wars geek" or knowledgable about much of the lore besides the first three movies, KOTOR and Jedi Knight series but...

I've been thinking after watching the Star Wars movies (the first originals) on how a perfect Star Wars MMO would be. You know? The type of gameplay, mechanics and features it would have.

I felt the best way to achieve a good Star Wars MMO is to follow the period AFTER the originals. Either right after the end of Return of the Jedi or around the time period of the Jedi Knight : Academy game series.

Even though I have been playing MMOs for years, it took me a while to understand what people meant by "turn-based" combat. And now that I understand what "turn-based" combat means, I can see why turn-based combat doesn't feel right in some games.

I want to jump right into it though. I think alot of the issues with MMOs is the "turn-based combat" in them. It seems very out of place, especially Star Wars MMO.

I think that combat in a Star Wars MMO should not be similiar to other MMOs. It should not have the type of combat where you hit someone with a lightsaber and it doesn't inflict tons of damage. It should be more about BLOCKING / DEFENSE.

Therefore, I think the animations and gameplay should be based around defending yourself.  Where you block until one of you gets lucky enough get a hit on the other.

And as much as I would like FPS style combat, that is usually the first type of combat to become exploited with aimbots and other hacks so...an auto-target system will suffice.

 I also think that crowd control skills have gone too far MMOs and if you play SWTOR you will see what I am talking about.

Friday, April 20, 2012

OT: Diablo III Beta Error 3003... EU Rages Even Though It's Free

Error 3003
Apparently, tons of people (mainly Europeans) have flooded the forums with comments such as "failed beta weekend" and other classics such as "blizz wake up EU test is an abortion".

This is due to Error 3003 which PROBABLY has something to do with the amount of people connecting to Diablo 3 servers because...well...it's free.

So let's just forget that it's free and that the players complaining about the service of something free are being ungrateful...

Thinking about Error 3003 or connection issues on Diablo 3 free beta weekend?

All These Post And More Were Deleted In About 1 Second.
Well, don't bother posting it on the technical forum on the Diablo 3 website because it won't make it past two comments.

No, Blizzard is having none of that SWTOR forum troll nonsense in their house.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

PvP in SWTOR 1.2 is Complete Crap...Unless You're Empire....

...but just so happens that 80% of  SWTOR's population play Empire.


So...I took this free "7 days come-back" special from Bioware for people who quit. They wanted us to come back to try the hyped up 1.2 legacy patch and give the game another chance. I decided to try it again because, well, Guild Wars 2 isn't out yet and maybe I judged SWTOR too early but...

...all it's doing so far is making me hate this game even more. There are many things I want to touch on but the major most noticeable thing is the PvP handsdown.

It's almost exactly 50% worse than it was before and worse than any game you've probably PvP'd in. 

Yes, even Champions Online and Rift.

Just Joined A Game. Republic Losing and Only Had 5 Players Vs. 8. This Happens 90% of the Day.

Not to mention Bioware buffing/ changing classes in very rushed and sloppy way. And it's not me. I love PvP and found SWTOR pvp amusing and fun before 1.2. Now it's complete trash.

It's hard to describe how the PvP is worse because it was never really that good to begin with, but I'll give you an example:


If You Play Republic, This Is What Your Score Will Typcially Look Like. Note
If You Have Less Than 3 Medals, You Will Get No Reward.

Before 1.2, you would get a certain amount of rewards if you lose. It wasn't as much as the winner but it was better than nothing.

Now, they changed things to the point that you can get NOTHING AT ALL for doing PvP matches. Literally, nothing. It's now based on medals. If you get very few or none, it's almost if you didn't even play a match.

 And this will happen ALOT if you are playing on the Republic. I was just in a match, fighting the SAME pre-made Empire guild over and over. They would stomp us into the ground. This has alot to do with the "PvP" stats in game as well (which I find makes PvP worse in itself) but still let's say that wasn't even a factor.

The fact that you get NOTHING is stupid all together.


It's even more stupid because Bioware KNOWS 100% well that Republic is outnumbered or dead on almost every server. Not only that, on the server I am on, we barely, if ever, have a full team. So it's always 5 +/- Republic going against a full 8 man team of Empire.

I also say Bioware knows this because they are slowly leaning torwards making all the Warzones non -faction based. Which pretty much means Empire will be fighting Empire and Republic will fight Empire. See what I did there?

The sad part is, there are players ACTUALLY trying to play the PvP still. That part I DO NOT understand. For some of these players common sense will just never kick in. The PvP is imbalanced and not fun. Period.


But you know what? Instead of making some long post about this horrible broken PvP sytem, I'll leave you with some threads on the official forum where people are obviously not happy with this change to PvP:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=405248
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=414039
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=412826
http://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=76

 In fact, the only ones that seem to be happy are the Empire. I wonder why?

With that said, if people want my advise on if they should buy this game...

...then the answer IS NO.

I can deal with MMO developers making mistakes but Bioware just does not listen. They do not test their content properly. They have no clue how to run a MMO or what a MMO needs.

Do not waste your money and time on SWTOR unless it goes free to play or you just want to do PvE single player type things.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Just Thinking: MMO Developers Should Not Expect High Subscriptions...

...because they will end up disappointed like most.



I never really understood the big hype and obsession with developers wanting high subscription numbers post-WoW. I thought the fact that MMORPGs were brought into the mainstream( due to WoWs success) was good enough. It was for me at least.

It's to the point where it's obvious the desire for high subscription numbers has little to do with the "cost" of running the game and more to do with seeing high profits.

Yes, I expect developers to make a profit but it feels as though the "profit" is all these developers think about now. It's no longer about making a fun game that even the developers enjoy. It's about how developers can take a feature they feel WoW lacks, and exploit it to attract players. Or in some MMOs case, an IP.

Anyways...was just thinking.

Bioware Values You...If You Are Level 50 in SWTOR.

Many adult TaunTauns were killed in order to steal their children to be your slave.

Yesterday on April 12th, Bioware announced they would be giving their loyal subscribers that remained subscribed from day one a free TaunTaun pet and 30 free days.

Sounds great!

Bioware is finally giving back to the community it loves to rob so much.And I bet it has nothing to do with players leaving SWTOR in droves and all the negative feed back! Oh,wait a second...aren't you...aren't you one of those, "I didn't rush to 50 players" that still don't have a level 50 after almost 4 months? You are also one of those players that believed Bioware and thought a decent MMORPG consist of rolling alternative characters constantly?

Well then I would like to apologize as this offer does not apply to you.

No, for those of you that are not level 50  but subscribed the same time, you get nothing but the TaunTaun, which if you are lucky won't causes errors to your gameplay. Yes, you players that decided to roll alts because Bioware said it was an important part of the game are not important nor loyal enough to get 30 free days.

On a serious note, if you look at the forum, most of the people who constantly defended everything Bioware did are now up in arms about not being rewarded as well. Go figure.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be rewarded as well. I feel they should get 30 days free as well but it's kind of amusing to see the ones who called anyone who was dissatisfied "whiners", "complainers" and "entitled generation". And now they are complaining.

Amazing isn't it?

Because remember kids! Everything is fine and dandy until it's something that effects you!

I leave you with links to the rage:

The Real Reason for the Free 30 Days!
Celebrate Game Update 1.2: Legacy

Also a bonus post for Legacy 1.2 and why I told you / will make a post about why it fails:

GUILD BANK GONE! items lost!

Enjoy!


Quit SWTOR. Sucked Then, Sucks Now, Will Suck in 1.2 PT.2


Alright, just to let you guys know, this will probably be one of my last post about SWTOR...

I know. I just love giving my very biased opinion about SWTOR because it's everything I feel is wrong with the MMO genre wrapped up in a big ball of hype and failure-to-deliver. I don't believe I have hated a game this much since...All Points Bulletins. In a way, they are actually very similar.

APB and SWTOR that is. They were both published by EA, both lacked real content, both were hub games and both focused more on advertising than the horrible, broken gameplay.

Maybe I liked Bioware so much  I expected too much? Not sure!

Moving on!


So...by now if you STILL have forced yourself to play SWTOR, you probably have noticed the huge drop in server population unless however, you are on one of the few populated servers. And when I say "few", I literally mean that. If you stroll by the forums, the "loyal" Bioware fans however will make you believe otherwise.

I say this because most of them will consistently deny that most servers are either very empty or near death. They deny it to the point that if you were to show them any evidence of this server population deficiency (let's say the evidence is people on the forums begging for server merges, TORStatus.com and screenshots of empty fleets), they will persist with denial. Usually, citing that they see no issue with population. But...

...I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact the ones claiming there is no problem are usually on the two or three populated servers.


Anyhoo...Let's talk about how linear SWTOR is!

Now, I understand that a video game can only offer so much as far as exploration goes... But in SWTOR, it's almost as if they just cut the idea of adventure out completely.

First, Bioware claimed all this unique story, decisions matter blah blah blah. I will tell you that, not only are the "class" stories not "unique" because most of the stories (if not all) revolve around the same plot (Hunt this guy down, Stop this super weapon, Hunt this guy down)and they only count for about 10% of the missions. The rest of the missions are all the same for EVERYONE on your faction.


No, it isn't like alot of other MMOs where you have some type of option as to where you might want to do missions... unless you just completely skip those around your level. This is because you follow an invisible path that takes you from quest hub to quest hub, planet to planet etc. If you've played Rift and Warhammer you will know what I mean. Ironically, people from the Warhammer team helped with SWTOR...go figure.

The linearity of SWTOR is so bad that it made it VERY hard for me to make alts after 50. It's worse than a grind. It feels like TORTURE. I know, I know! "But on the SWTOR forum, people say they love making alts!" Yeah, that's because most people that have a bunch of alts still aren't level 50, barely play the game and/or are loyal to anything Bioware does. Probably even working for Bioware.

 I actually had to skip most of the missions on my alt and do PvP for levels just to  get through the tedious grind. PvP was a little better but after doing 100's of matches of the same three maps, I am sure you can imagine that also gets old too.

Transition!


Oh man...end game/ normal content. Wow, not only was it broken, it was broken with the most stupid things I have ever seen in a game. And what made it worse, it's almost as if none of it was tested!

OH WAIT!...It probably wasn't because Bioware didn't allow players to have pre-made max level characters in beta nor did they allow it in this new 1.2 patch (which is why it is failure already; No ranked warzones, overpowered tank assassin class, matches usually unbalanced).

You had things like tons of mobs coming out of no where, couldn't delete missions to the point you HAD to do them, you die when you zone in to a instance after a wipe, bosses spawn that didn't reset, boss mechanics not working properly, companions not working properly, getting stuck on your ship etc etc. Some of these issues had work arounds, most didn't.  It was almost as if I we were playing a beta SWTOR still.   It was so frustrating, people would vent in guild chat, in general chat, on the forums, on my sleep, on my blog...well, you get the picture.

Another problem I have with SWTOR is the lifelessness. When every mob seems like it's just sitting there, waiting for you to kill it, there is no thrill in that. It's boring. Not only that, but ALL the mobs are usually spread out in the same format /pattern almost as if they just copy and pasted them up and down. Then having to dig your way through a tunnel of enemies only to have to dig yourself back through them...ugh.


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Guild Wars 2 PRE-ORDER UP! 'NUFF SAID! GO GO GO!




"

The wait is over! Pre-Purchase Guild Wars 2 Today!

 

NO TIME TO ADD TO THIS! TIME TO PRE-ORDER!

OT: EA Bots Rigging AllOut.com Petition...

UPDATE: THEY HAVE SHUT DOWN THE PETITION, PRETENDING EA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SPAM BOTS.

Coincidentally, the same day people found out what they were doing, they shut it down and post this:

Thanks for standing up against homophobia.

More than 60,000 All Out members took action before our page came under attack from spammers. We've disabled the form, but want to assure everyone we've had no contact with EA regarding this campaign and are looking into the source of the spam.

You can read our press statement here and follow us on twitter @allout for more information.

Thanks for going All Out.

...And I can't say I am shocked.

Most of you know EA by now. 

If you don't, I will remind you that EA was voted the worse company in America for 2012. 


And I must say, that award was long overdue.

But now as the water boils and begins to rise, EA has unveiled their master plan to get you to believe
that all the backlash they get is from EA "defending their GAY consumers"...

 No seriously.

"Electronic Arts (EA) -- one of the largest video game makers in the world - is the target of a hateful boycott campaign. Why? Because they approved a gay romance story in one of their partner BioWare's most popular games: Star Wars: The Old Republic. "

Thanks to Reddits thewalking and JakeSteam

Make sure everyone sees this image, and understands the latest EA advertising trick is just that.  


 Yes, EA and Yoda want you to help them fight the darkside. 

And by "you", they mean automated bots that spam Allout.com with praise and love for EA
defending their LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans) player-base after EA received 1000's of imaginary anti-gay hate mail.

This was also almost predicted to happen beforehand by a user on Reddit.com (comrade-stalin) which posted:


So instead of talking about the real problem, that EA is a greedy, soulless company that sucks up talented developers, has them make mediocre games for the sake of selling DLC and then spits them out when they fail....they decide to make Christians and Republicans out as the enemy.

That's fine I suppose. 

Christians can be the religious enemy.

Republicans can be the political enemy.

 And EA can be the game industry enemy.


See? Now everyone is happy!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Secret World! Sub. Fee,Cash Shop and No Information Oh MY!


So...where to begin....

The Secret World had announced it's payment model back in August 2011:


I figure they would change it but...looks like they are going ahead with what I feel is a suicide plan.

By the way, this thread they posted it in, is made up of many angry pages and they have not even responded to it.

But back on point.
I had a major issue with cash shops+sub. fees to begin with but liked the fact they had to balls to announce it ahead of time. Probably a mistake,but none-the-less, admirable. 

However, my opinion on Funcom, EA and MTs in a whole:


This game, The Secret World, is the type of crap I hate about MMOs and these greed developers because not only are they "double dipping" in potential revenue but they have given very little information about the game to begin with. Even less than what we got from Bioware with SWTOR.

So, not only do we know little about how this game will play, but they want me to PRE-ORDER it? 

Haha...Oh...it's not a joke?

No. It isn't.


By little info, I mean very little actual footage of the game and no information on how much the monthly fee will be. Ironically, this is almost the same marketing method used by EA with SWTOR.

But they have information on the cash shop which is selling character slots because you only get three character slots to begin with!


And don't worry! You know this game will "more than likely" be a huge success due to the fact they are offering a "Lifetime Subscription" plan for a low price of $199 (which is alot more for EU)! Because if the game gets cancelled, like APB and Hellgate, that lifetime subscription 
will be worth it!


Note that EA was involved with APB and Hellgate:London ; both failed horribly.

I bring that up because this game is almost a mix between those two with a Champions Online cash shop twist!

Ahh yes. 

Dark Days are coming indeed...

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Tera Beta Gameplay Videos



Howdy all, Aesr here.
The last Tera online beta I captured some gameplay of a Female High Elf Warrior. Fun stuff. You can find the three parts below. So far I have had some fun playing the beta. I recommend you check it out.



Its kinda long so I do not expect you all to watch it all. Just briefly watch for Tera awesomeness.



MMOPTICS Youtube Channel

Howdy, Aesr here:
             
 Me and Opollo have setup a youtube channel to upload the videos we make onto it. You can find it here:

As always, Aesr out.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Blizzard is Trolling Bioware

Seems that even Blizzard is jumping in with subliminal torches of anger against Bioware.

Recently with the Supply Depot 2 Starcraft mobile game (Won't spoil it :)), Blizzard posted this:


The "color-coded endings" bit appears to be a stab at the highly controversial endings Bioware included at the end of Mass Effect 3 which were well....nothing more than different colors

Look at this video:



And the "DLC ending" part appears to be an allusion to people expecting Bioware to released DLC with a new more "appropriate" ending.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium MMO Cancelled.


Well...this sucks.

 Eurogamer reported THQ would not be making the much anticipated Warhammer 40k MMO  but instead a single player / multi-player game due to financial problems after quarterly losses. 

Was hoping to play the MMO but what's even worse is...

...They had to let go 118 employees. 

Hopefully, if things pick up again, these people will be offered their jobs again.


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Can We Escape"WoW Syndrome"?

Oh that's right. 
Because every MMO you seem play there is someone that has to bring up something about Blizzard.

And for me, it's gotten pretty damn old. Every. SINGLE. MMO I have played, it is only a matter of seconds after joining a server when you start seeing people rant and rave about either how this game you are playing will kill WoW and Blizzard or why this game you are playing is so much different and better than WoW. 

I used to like WoW (in Vanilla) myself.  Even when I came from  Lineage 2, where they were trash talking WoW while it was in development, I thought it was one of the best games I had ever played and it became my home for many years.  

And I even understand the impact that WoW had on the MMORPG genre as a whole. 

But what I don't understand is why people have to bring up WoW constantly. 

You could talk about anything! Anything! 

And there would be someone comparing it to WoW, usually in a pessimistic way.

I feel it stems from players who don't really hate WoW but more likely had really bad experiences in WoW. Things like not being able to progress or just not being good at the game at all. I mean, even I hated WoW for some reasons such as Blizzard seemingly abuse of "paid services" and constantly changing the game to the point it wasn't even the same game anymore etc.

These things made me dislike WoW. When I played another MMO, the last thing I want to talk about or hear about was WoW. And it appears there are plenty of gamers that feel the same way. Except they can't stop talking about it or bashing it everytime they join a new game. 

Doesn't make me think they have real legit reasons for disliking it by spamming chat with how bad it is. I mean it's at the point where it's no longer about WoW, it's about Blizzard and anything they do. It's as if they think Blizzard is the ONLY company that practices in the way they do. As if their favorite game company wouldn't take a chance to get some extra money out of their fanbase. Some won't, but most do.

Because if you really hate WoW, the worse thing you can do is keep talking about all the time. And if you are going to bash it constantly, at least make it more than "WOW FAILS!" "BLIZZARD FAILS"...

...it's not 2010 anymore.

Friday, March 23, 2012

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.

Quit SWTOR. Sucked Then, Sucks Now, Will Suck in 1.2 PT.1

Seems alot of SWTOR players have forgotten the rocky road torwards SWTOR's launch which stilll continues it's jagged path today but I'll try to refresh their memory. It's kind of hard to say anything good about the way Bioware handled all of this because most of it was bad.

I followed the SWTOR development on and off since 2008. Coincidentally, I was in my "star wars fanboy" phase and playing Star Wars: Jedi Knight Academy a ton. So you can imagine I was pretty excited when I heard about Star Wars: The Old Republic being in development.

Not only this but I was a huge Bioware fan after Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins.



I never paid attention to the forum that much except for a quick peek to see what the community was talking about. It's better to stay away from the forums before the game is released since it's mainly filled with people dreaming and hoping (sometimes dictating) about what will be in the game.

Some years later with Bioware releasing small amounts of content /information on the game, I start to get the feeling the game isn't all it was being hyped up to be.

 Well, that along with the EA Louse thing and Warhammer team working on SWTOR...

Fast forward. Bioware dodging questions, still barely any info on SWTOR, strict NDA beta.

 I actually managed to find more "information" on SWTOR and got into beta. I pretty much went along with the whole "It's beta! It will get better!" idea people usually use to justify their favorite game looking nothing like what they imagined.  And though I turned my hype meter off long ago after disappointing games like Warhammer and APB...There was something about this game that was...wrong.



Fast forward. Bioware focusing more on hyping SWTOR, launching with tons of bugs and broken features, Wiped forum of past evidence.

SWTOR is launching with it's "early access" plan over a seven day period. Not only was this probably the worse idea ever, but it made it the worse MMO launch I have ever experienced.

Basically, people who paid the SAME PRICE for the game had to wait in a "que". This que was Bioware letting players into the game in order by which month they bought the game. Now I hope you can imagine how much the forums were on fire at this time. It was the people who were already in the game proclaiming how well a job Bioware was doing vs. angry customers who were...well..angry.

Biowares' whole reasoning for what they label as a "staggered release" was you create a "smooth launch". In other words, they wanted to pretend the servers were stable and would NOT have player ques by letting players in slowly...

That would have been acceptable I suppose...if it actually worked. Which it didn't.


Not only were the servers dead and empty because of this, but there were STILL huge ques. I'm talking, "Wait three hours to get in the game." ques. Then I get into the game and there is barely anyone to play with for group content.

Fast Forward. Leveled up, dealing with tons of bugs (some game breaking, some just annoying) and forum wars continue. Also, tons of exploiters either getting rich off the Slicing. Which nothing was done. In fact, there is a post on the official forums asking how many are millionaires.

Bioware gets tons of negative feedback on the forum about the amount of bugs and broken content. My guild is literally raging, myself included, about how much of the game is either not working properly or just frustrating. Bioware seeks to remedy this by releasing patches.

Now...normally, patches are supposed to "FIX" the game. Most of the patches released either didn't fix what they claimed to be fixing, made things worse or went into the game in what appeared to be untested states.

They claimed to had fixed "ability delay" (When you attempt to click your skills, it won't work if it's right after you do another skill. This leads to you not really being able to time attacks or have fluent effective combat responses) which was still very much in the game. They released the notorious "Ilum patch". Now, EVERYONE knew this patch was going to completely destroy Ilum content. There were so many post about it on the forum Bioware just seemingly ignored.



Well, not seemingly, they DID ignore them because they went ahead and patch it anyways. And sure enough what happened? Here's a clue for those that don't play SWTOR:

There are two factions. One Empire and one Republic.What used to happen was these factions would take turns destroying each others "war assests" which I agree should have been changed. However,
 on almost EVERY server, the Empire outnumber the Republic about 3:1.

The patch Bioware added to the game was one that would FORCE players to fight each other OR collect these "armaments" which have a slow respawn, are only in ONE place and you have to gather 30 of them.

Not only did this destroy Ilum as a "world PvP" zone. It helped most of the Empire players max out their valor ranks in ONE day. They did this by camping the Republic base due to sheer numbers. The guns that were SUPPOSED to keep them out were not working properely (go figure Bioware) and there was low FPS.

What did Bioware do to fix this? Nothing. What did Bioware do to fix the fact tons of Empire/Republic players gained max or near max valor in one day? Nothing.


To be continued....I'll discuss how linear the game is, how broken the end game content was/is, how there is no soul to the game and why legacy 1.2 will not fix the core problems with the game.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

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.


OT: Prototype 2 Release in NA April 24, 2012 / EU April 27, 2012! Hells Yes!

Man, I've been waiting for Prototype 2 for a while now. 

Thank you Radical Entertainment!

And yes, I know it's just a huge hack and slash game... but at least it does it in damn good fashion.

I haven't tried Prototype 2 yet demo wise, but if it is anything like the first then I expect alot of mayhem, a big city and tons of carnage. 



It's also nice to see a game break through the race barrier and put a black character in the lead role...

Sure Sgt. James Hellers character design is very similar to Alex Mercer and he looks like someone you wouldn't want to meet after the sun goes down but...

Apparently, SGT. Heller Isn't Fond of Alex Mercer.
..it's something I rarely, if EVER see in lead roles of games.

Not that it should matter....

...Unless you played Mass Effect 3 and noticed Jacob was the only one that cheats and has a baby momma...

It's possible we might even see the antagonist Alex Mercer in this game. Whether he turns out to be an actual "enemy"...we will have to see.

Also, this game was the only game people actually liked at Comic-Con...

...I'm pretty sure that has something to do with Venom...

...Just a guess.

What DOES suck is that the PC Port is coming out later on July 24 2012.


I'm not a console gamer but that's fine I suppose. 

Just going to avoid every video about the game until I get my copy!

"Entitled Generation"...

Probably the worst phrase I've ever seen become"cool" to say on gaming forums. What makes it worse for me is that, the phrase seems to be used usually against people who have disagreements about ideas, features or what not of the said game.

I started to notice the phrase usage on the SWTOR forum. Usually,  people would complain and then you would have a few responding with "Entitled Generation" to quell the upset...However, fact is they didn't realise that if they EVER complained about anything, (and most people have) they also have felt "entitled" at that point in time.

I feel some gamers act as if though video games are free and "I" owe the company my devoted love and affection to them no matter what they do.

If anything, they owe me more than a game I can beat in one day.

Why is that? Because...

Developers and publishers(big companies) get rich off of their fans and they RARELY, if ever, give  anything back to their devoted  fans.

Only time they consider giving is at the time they need you and your friends to buy their products.

And no, DLC and MTs are not "giving" back.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Found Some Secret World Beta Videos and...

...Well...this game is now off my "To Play" list...

Secret World Beta Videos

I had planned on playing this game but to be honest...

Now that I look at it, it's looking pretty bad. Especially the animations...ugh.

I suppose I expected too much from Funcom seeing as how Funcom created AoC...

...Which no one can deny is graphically stunning...

...But this game...

It seriously couldn't have been made by the same team that made AOC right?...

Oh wait! That's right it's not.

That explains everything.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

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...

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.

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.

Monday, February 13, 2012

OT: Ashley in Mass Effect 3 Modeled After Michael Jackson...?

Because she sure doesn't look like Ashley from Mass Effect 1 and 2...

Mass Effect 1


 Mass Effect 2


 Mass Effect 3...


Mass Effect 4...




HEHE! OWWW!

Nice nose job and facial restructuring surgery there! 
And apparently, new eyes!





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?