Disqus - Friends of heartlessgamer

Re: I lied about WAR….

Copra — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:05:50 -0000

I'm without WAR, too.

But I responded here only to say

MOOOOOOO!!

Re: Everquest II Review

Copra — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:37:56 -0000

So that is the list. Whence I played EQ2 I found out that the map system was severely lacking and EQMaps addon was doing it's best to remedy that: has the map system been revamped?

I wish I had friends from my own timezone playing the game, as it is always a drag to play 'alone in the dark' when the rest of the population is sleeping.

Oh, as a side note: my youngest kid is all the time telling me that EQ2 is so much cooler than WoW in this and that. He fell in love with the scary races and classes when I was playing it, so I might be tempted to take the leap to the dark side again sometime.

C out

Re: The more I play...

Copra — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:17:23 -0000

It's got the set, it's got the content, but the overall performance is soulless and empty. That's sad, as there surely are stories to tell that really capture you and make you do the extra mile to see the ending...

I think I have to set up a regular scheduled session with my brothers. I don't understand you people who have played for as long as the game has been around. Unless you have been blessed with either a very singular mind or a good guilds/friends to go along.

C out

Re: The more I play...

Copra — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:43:45 -0000

Dear Ysh, that wasn't meant directed to you in person. I just kind of lashed out, sorry for the inconvenience and everything. But if you think of the WoW bloggers and commentators in general, they seem to be more or less addicted and 'well versed' in their game.

C out

Re: Blasting through boredom

Copra — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:25:50 -0000

I've had that same thing in my mind, too. In fact I tried to remember to enter that to the post, but obviously it was omitted. Reputation should affect everything you do, and should be a meaningful part of the character's story and development.

Right. Now fix that darn SpartanUI or I quit using it. Then again, all non-Blizz UI's have the same problem with minimap. Go figure.

C out

Re: Blasting through boredom

Copra — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:38:41 -0000

Crucifer, let me assure that I didn't change to Disqus to annoy you: you've been a very valuable commenter. The change was purely selfish reason to be able to follow the commentaries more easier.

If you add the outrageously expensive dual-speccing to the fact that they made a minor tweak to the LFG tool to provide the spec information to people looking for more, it clearly is a band-aid: how it will work or backfire is another thing. But that's an interesting thought to ponder over in a separate post I think.

And how confusing must all this seem and feel to a newcomer, when the initial money sink (aka mount) takes all of their money at lv30 and at lv40 they are 'required' (this will become a norm very soon...) to dual-spec to be able to enter instances later on... I feel sorry for the newbies, which WoW supposedly still attracts according to the ever growing subscriber numbers.

C out

Re: Blasting through boredom

Copra — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:48:01 -0000

It will create a question, whether the player is 'required' to learn to play the class or to play the spec. Either case, the newcomer will be the one who will be paying the price.

Is this going to be the countdown to the new subscribers?

C out

Re: The more I play...

Copra — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:35:21 -0000

Good question: the honest answer is that I want to play the game and like it. Honestly speaking WoW is beautiful game with extremely vast content and great stories which have been obscured in defunct quest system and "the same, the same" routine you described.

The hatred, boredom and desperation comes from the fact that the game is being developed to the people at level cap and the real content -and the former bread and butter of the game- is being neglected so much. Instead of adding new areas Blizzard could revamp old content to contain both low level and high level people at same areas.

And I hate myself for skipping the quest text, but sometimes it just happens. And then I wonder how this story started when I'm at the fourth episode of a chain...

C out

Re: Content devaluation

Copra — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:27:11 -0000

If I understand correctly, the basic assumption would be that you have to start a new MMO at the launch or very soon after that, or you will miss the majority of the content, because the 'train left already' aka the main populace is already at the level cap?

In a way, I understand the statement, but instead of taking the main part of the populace away from the already existing content I think it would be both cheaper and faster to create more content to the same setting. Currently WoW is void of players everywhere else than at the areas where the majority of the population is residing.

It's an absurd idea to 'find a nice levelling guild' as they are -or at least my experience on them is- already confined to their own level range, progressing their own pace through the content. Sure, there are exceptions, but I'm not looking for exceptions.

WoW is still strong in subscriber numbers, but how much will the churn rate increase with the current stage of the game?

And is it really a valid strategic decision to separate the populace so steeply by moving all the 'action' to a remote space where the fresh meat has the chance to travel through void content?

The more I think of it, the more I'm convinced that the next Blizz game will be WoWII, killing the WoW we know now and transferring the player base to the new era.

That wouldn't be such a bad idea, after all.

C out

Re: Reconsidering current end game

Copra — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:04:13 -0000

LOL. Sorry, had to chuckle a bit, because this chapters and ending are something that I wrote about in my earlier post about my 'perfect' MMO and some earlier commentary. It would be great to have an MMO which would develop steadily through world changing chapters which would trigger when the players had accomplished something and that the game had a real ending, only to reset the whole game to a new, progressed starting point. There were no sci-fi series with set story arc and definite ending before Babylon5, but because of this it is still the best in storytelling there is. So why not switch that same structure to a MMO which lasts for, say, four years and ends up in a great big bang and continues from there. Like if EQ had really ended the day EQ2 launched.

The only difference would have been that the players should have known that they are going to be wiped...

But you can obviously have the MMO's and computer/console games as your hobby, even if you don't 'complete' the game by sticking to the End Game grind. You, Openedge1, are a perfect example of that. Right? :P

C out

Re: Reconsidering current end game

Copra — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:49:12 -0000

"re MMOs and computer games a hobby worthwhile of our interest and pursuit?"

This is exactly the question I was trying to convey in my very obscure and un-precise way. Would it be fair to quit calling our gaming "just playing a game" and start saying -honestly- that "MMO is my hobby"?

And how that would be accepted by the rest of the world, as games are still considered -though falsely- something kids do to pass time...

Thanks again Crucifer for clarifying my thoughts and post.

C out

Re: Reconsidering current end game

Copra — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:57:25 -0000

Actually I agree with Crucifer on that the games we play are more or less akin to painting by numbers: you don't really "create" anything, but only execute something someone else has created, within the confines of the creation and its rules. Sure, it feels like you are doing something, but if you take 'your' toon out of the picture, nothing changes: the story remains, the scene remains, only the one executing the action is changed.

Even though there is the minor dimension of tweaking the build, performance and outcome of fights, all of that has been created somewhere else by someone else. Thus playing MMO -or any other computer based game for the record- isn't really creative endeavour in that sense.

Whereas earlier computer games were played for the story and to relaxation, they are nowadays replacing the boredom of TV reality shows: they are both as creative and individual as can be, the only exception is the people who take their time to do something with the stuff they do in the games.

Like we're doing in here, or someone else when writing their RP experiences in story format.

But if you would take MMO's off the equation and replace that time and effort with something really creative, there would be something like 20 million subscribers worth (gross approximation of all current MMOs) of creative or scientific talent available to the global intelligence pool.

That would be something.

C out

Re: Reconsidering current end game

Copra — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:17:59 -0000

Just to clarify, you kind of misinterpreted the first quotation: I mean that the background, confines and options are created by others, which we just use to move the pixels. The only creative thing we can do while playing an MMO like WoW or EQ2 or any other DIKU MUD based game happens only to us as players. And maybe someone unfortunate nearby following our 'deeds'. But where is the creativity. Just like painting by the numbers, you can paint the areas with artistic circles or dotting them in pointillistic way, but in the end the final work of art is just a painted by the numbers picture without any artistic value.

Can it be relaxing pass time? Of course. Can it be hobby? Sure. Is it creativity or art? No way.

Can I -or any of us- deny that it might be very enjoyable to someone else even if it appears ridiculous to us? No.

I think that in MMO the creativity part is only possible in open sandbox in which the main part of the content is player generated. EQ2 took the step to this direction by introducing the player writeable books into the game. Darkfall is a step towards the open sandbox thinking, though there could be a scripted part to generate the EQ kind world menace which would unite the warring player guilds/clans.

But in the end, MMO's cannot be an art form in them self to the players. They can be a tool to create art (machinima), but as only a tool.

I hope the games could teach people more about tolerance and acceptance of different views: however, the constant quarrel between hardcore (raiders and gamers) and casuals (explorers, levellers and those not boosting to end game) is constant and gets only different flavors over time.

C out

Re: I'm not the only one

Copra — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:32:25 -0000

And to add to that, I think it would have been more clever to have the mentoring system to slow down the actual levelling on newcomers. There should be a kind of DK button for the people who have been there, seen that (aka level capped toon) to speed up their levelling, but then again, I doubt that there are too many who have really done ALL quests in the game.

Even though the achievements so claim.

The boxes could be tied into the old world, like another 'set' of higher level quests around the old world areas by the use of Phasing or something. Like EQ2's adventure packs?

C out

Re: Content devaluation

Copra — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:33:50 -0000

On the other hand, why not create additional content to the currently neglected content. The stage is there, only the actors and script is missing?

C out

Re: Outsider look

Copra — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:47:32 -0000

I surely hope - from purely personal reasons- that you used the 'guild' description in plural... because I want to think you included both you horde AND ally guilds in this description. Purely personal reasons which you must know of.

But the rest of your response is exactly what was described in the posts I linked to: has WoW -and other MMO's so to speak- become more a fancy social networking thingy or is there really some RPG or gaming value in the system, too.

I mean, do we login to play (aka achieve something with the toons) or to see if there are some of our friends online to pass time with?

The best -and time wise the worst- thing Blizzard could come up to realize would be to create a mobile platform from which one could deal with the social connections (guild channel) and AH (trade channel): it would create a situation where the usability of the account would be extended beyond the normal gaming environment. I know I would relish the AH function, but I can see ways to utilize the social area also.

Surely the MMO gaming is becoming mobile soon enough: will it be WoW who will break the ice, or someone else?

C out

Re: Outsider look

Copra — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:57:33 -0000

Yes, I think also that the game should be hard enough - or easy enough - to allow a player to participate the content most of the users are utilizing: most of the time the level cap. However, this brings back what Crucifer responded in his earlier comment on Content Devaluation: the game's manufacturer should have deleted ALL former content before the level cap content if they think that content doesn't add to the experience of the player.

Somehow I can see that EQ2 has been able to do that, but WoW hasn't: when I played EQ2 I felt that my effort on lower levels really mattered, but in WoW I feel that I'm trying to relive the effort of Sisyphus: trying to beat the challenge I cannot beat. WoW is being built more and more along the lines that lower levels than the cap doesn't matter.

Load of wasted content and obviously completely neglected RPG value.

In fact, even for a heavily RP inclined person like me, the RP value of the old world content seems voided.

C out

Re: Outsider look

Copra — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:03:27 -0000

Maybe, in that case, I'm way too well educated to expect some emotional experience and challenge from the encounters: Sure, we passed the Scarlet Monastery as the Three Stooges way back when (did it at a bit too high level but with three characters: the holy trinity of DIKU MUD: warrior, rogue, priest), but still we felt cheated by the real challenge level.

It's kind of devaluation of the value of the content I wrote earlier about: the earlier content is meant to be passed currently and the main emphasis of the game is in the End Game (R by Blizzard).

That's how I feel about it.

C out.

PS. Desperately seeking meaning, value and challenge in a socially active game environment... heck, I have most of that in real life I want to avoid by playing! :P

Re: Outsider look

Copra — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:25:14 -0000

The reply feature -and the whole commentary system of Disqus- is more convenient for me due to several factors. To be honest, I don't even know what it looks like from "the normal user" because I have the admin view of it all the time.

But it has cut the spam off completely. Which is great.

If WoW has become more a social interaction tool than a game as such, is it still viable and acceptable to have the first 69 levels in game at all. I think Crucifer 'nailed' this one nicely in his post earlier by saying that if level cap is all that really matters to Blizz, why bother at all with the 'Old World'...

C out

Re: Random thoughts

Copra — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:48:29 -0000

Just posted a short note about this as a separate post: it serves some games to have bonus on resting while others it would ruin completely. IMO WoW is of the latter type, EQ2 the former. Why? Because of the depth of the crafting and 'ex-adventuring' content.

Re: WoW-less weekend

Copra — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:46:42 -0000

IMO the whole crafting in WoW is poorly planned, as there are only very few crafted gear and thing which are needed in the higher level recipes. The economy could be such that certain lower level materials would be required in higher more often, thus giving the lower level toons the opportunity to contribute to the higher level's levelling of the skills. Also the AH system could use a 'purchase order' kind of two way bidding, in which -if you needed something- you would issue a purchase order for green thingies for certain price, and anyone willing to sell those thingies could cash it out: win-win and the AH's pricing would be completely different by making flipping yet a bit harder.

Re: WoW-less weekend

Copra — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:47:19 -0000

Why, thank you! Now we're aiming to the next one, and now we really know what the dogs can take!

Re: Something completely different!

Copra — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:20:52 -0000

And a great one you put out, Softi!

Re: Something completely different!

Copra — Thu, 14 May 2009 07:45:51 -0000

Thank you! Really appreciate it, especially from an established Auction house guru like you!

Re: Coherently incoherent

Copra — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:36:00 -0000

Those are the Heritage items, which I mentioned. Exactly my point and thank you very much in clarifying how they work.