Sony Offline Entertainment

Update:

Oh my, this certainly does not look good.  Sony knew its software was obsolete.

Update #2:

Our friend over at Dragonchasers has a nice post on the latest Data Theft hearings, specifically the testimony of Dr. Gene Spafford.  He makes some good points throughout, so be sure to check out his post.  I also find it a bit difficult to swallow that Sony had no security at all, as Dr. Spafford seems to be hinting at in his testimony.

Update #3:

SOE has released details of their player compensation plan in lieu of the data breech and lost game time.  Check it out here.

———————————

I’m sure most of you have heard of SOE’s recent troubles regarding the security breach over at Sony proper.  It looks like SOE had its own share of account hacks along with PSN, all to the tune of over 24.6 million accounts with personal information stolen from them, and 12,700 bits of debit/credit info on top of that.  Despite my outrage at this whole mess, it’s a little bit hard to completely lay into SOE right now.  Notice I said only a little bit.  But I do honestly believe that this could have happened to any company out there.  Hackers are dead clever, and let me continue by saying that if you honestly think your personal information is secure on the internet…it isn’t.

However, the way SOE responded to all of this has certainly left me with a very sour taste in my mouth.  We don’t even know what the fallout of this breach will be yet.  There is no way to tell how many people’s lives might be affected or thrown into chaos because of this stolen information.  The first thing that SOE did so poorly was their typical slow rate of response.  It took them far too long to figure out there was a problem in the first place, and by the time they did it was too late anyway.  Now all of their services remain offline, and their customers (including myself) are left wondering if we should really trust these guys with our money again.

Then SOE responds with two quite tepid attempt at saying “We’re sorry.”  First, they offer a weekend Station Cash discount to their players, which was such a laughably bad move that there aren’t enough words in the English language to describe the measure of fail contained within.  Hey guys, sorry about all that identity and credit theft, but why don’t you put another card on your account and give us some more of your money for your trouble!  Um…really?

Secondly, SOE is now offering players 30 free days of game time to the title of their choice.  Now, I have read some people who think this is more than enough, because what else can SOE do?  They are the victims here!  Well yes, they were indeed the victims of a crime per se.  But they aren’t the true victims in this situation.  That dreaded title falls onto the people who may endure some painful hardship in the days/weeks/months to come.  The end result of this whole debacle is still not clear, as I said before.

But I am the kind of person who tends to think that if I give a company access to my credit/debit info, along with most of my personal information, that I enter into a sacred pact with them.  Their job is to use that info to help give me the service I desire, but even moreso, their charge is to ensure that they keep my information safe and in good hands.  That simply didn’t happen here, and it’s not something that we should just brush off and say, “Shit happens.”  What we are seeing could be the beginning of an epidemic that results in some rather fierce class action lawsuits.  SOE is in some hot water, and it truly pains me to see the old glory of the MMO industry in such a hampered state.

So at the end of the day, a weekend cash shop discount and 30 days of free game time aren’t going to cut it.  Think about what might happen as a result of this and honestly tell me you think that 30 days of game time is a good way to start winning back the confidence of your customers.  The number should have been at least 90 and with the Station Access pass, along with plenty of win-back promotions and confidence building to follow.  A formal letter from John Smedley would also not be out of line.  People love to see some genuine leadership in times like these.

Your hear me, Smed?  Where are you?  Your silence is deafening.

Rift: No, it’s not the “Jesus” game

Hello again, friends!  For those of you fine people who are still kicking the tires around these parts, I thought I would take a little bit of free time today and talk about a couple of blog posts I recently stumbled onto.  They both pertain to Rift and the MMO community in general, so I will link to them straight away and then dive right in to where I agree and disagree.

This is a conversation that needs to be had I think, and it seems to be one that people keep twisting into contorted shapes based on their own experiences and preferences…all the while circling near the point but never quite landing on it.  So without further ado I give you these fine posts…

(I will put some little identifiers next to the links for those who lack reading comprehension…)

(I kid, Elementalistly, I kid) 

Rift:  This is where the MMO community let me down   (This post contains the list of 5 Reasons Rift is the new WoW)

It isn’t the game…it’s you   (This is the post that refers to Rift as the “Jesus” game)

Quote of the Day  (Highlighting the original post that lead me to the others)

(So with those clarifications out of the way, we now return you to our originally scheduled blog post…)

Before I make my comments, I would like to warn a few of the more sensitive among you that I am going to fiercely take opposition to some of the opinions on display here.  But this should not be taken as a slight to the bloggers themselves.  We just happen to disagree, nothing more or less.  So while I do find myself empathizing with a few of the points they make, I passionately stand against the underlying sentiment contained in both posts.

Apparently, if I have loved WoW at any point in WoW’s history but haven’t fallen head-over-heels in love with Rift in the same fashion, then I should leave the MMO genre entirely because I am nothing more than a burnt out, jaded gamer who has simply played far too many MMOs in his day.  Come to think of it, I am a burnt out and jaded gamer during these, my MMO twilight years….*snickers*…but that’s beside the point! 

So let me begin with the obvious reaction.  Just because you like something does not mean that everyone else has to feel the same way about it too.  To follow that point, if you genuinely enjoy an MMO then there should be nothing that stops you from relishing every moment you spend with it and its community.  What the larger MMO playerbase thinks should be irrelevant to you, because if you and your friends are having fun where you are then what does it matter if others don’t feel the same way?

Of course, MMOs need healthy populations to survive in this suddenly crowded market…so to that extent we should care somewhat about what other people think of our preferred games.  But Rift is going to be just fine in that regard.  No, it will never be the WoW-killing, genre dominating game that some thought it would be, but Rift is well made enough to carve out its own little niche in the MMO market and go on to live a fruitful and expansion-filled life for many years.

This is all that should matter at the end of the day, but apparently, the fact that some of us haven’t taken to Rift with a healthy amount of zeal is a disappointment to a few good people out there.  So let’s tackle some of those claims next, shall we?  In the first post, the blogger points out another article detailing 5 reasons why Rift is the new WoW.  So allow me to make a few observations.

1.  Rift is a finished product

Why yes, Rift is indeed a polished and well-made MMO.  I have pointed this out several times and have seen many others do the same.  Trion Worlds has managed to finally give us an MMO that doesn’t suck.  But we are missing the point here.  We are congratulating Trion for making an MMO that isn’t littered with problems.  Which is because companies like Mythic and Funcom gave us two duds that were wrecked with issues from beta and on to this very day.  But should we really be so eager to heap endless compliments onto a company for finally doing what most MMO developers should do in the first place…release stable, unbuggy games?

How have we let our expectations become so diluted?  Well, it’s because we are so used to receiving the same crap shoveled out again, that we are more than prepared to kiss the feet of anyone who can release an MMO that doesn’t possess the stench of decay at the very moment it’s birthed into the world.  So is the problem here really the MMO community?  Is that who is truly at fault for making us all so screwed up in how we assess new MMOs?  Or is the fault to be laid at the feet of developers who continue to release unfinished, problem-strewn games?

2.  There’s an endgame

Why yes, Rift does have an endgame and things to work for, which completely differentiates it from…oh wait.  Yes, I am happy as anyone to see that Trion has released an MMO that has some endgame content from the get-go.  But that makes it special how?  I have played a metric ton of MMOs in my time, with Lotro, EQ 2, and WoW being among the most predominant.  And all of those MMOs currently have endgames and many different goals to work towards.  It doesn’t matter if they had a proper endgame at launch, because that is the somewhat unfair reality that new MMOs face.  Freshly launched MMOs have to compare to current games after they have already received a bevy of fixes and updates over the years.

So just because Rift offers me more loot to pursue does not make it special, as I can find that almost anywhere right now.  I can raid in plenty of places, folks, it’ not a revolutionary concept anymore.  But I do applaud Trion for releasing a finished game, as I said before.  But how long are we going to pat them on the back for doing what should be the norm anyway, and instead, point out how they are simply copying what has been done before them without really pushing the genre forward as some of their marketing material claims.  (I will touch on this more later)

3.  The game isn’t buggy

Good heavens, haven’t we already made this point?  Does Rift have nothing else to offer me other than it isn’t a terrible game?  Is there really where this debate has gone?  It’s like when Valve keeps putting blocks and see-saws in Half Life 2 to demonstrate the fact that they made a physics engine.  I’m thrilled that they’ve managed to make a good physics engine, but there are only so many times they can keep showing me how I can throw blocks before I start to desire something more out of it.  (they do provide that by the way, just making a basic point)

So Rift is not buggy.  Well done Trion!  But what else have you got to offer?  Let us see.

4.  There’s a lot to do

This just isn’t getting any better, is it?  We simply keep banging the same drums over and over again.  So I am to understand and be thankful that Rift has lots to do.  Well, that’s a good thing.  But it’s an MMO and they are supposed to have lots to do.  I have so many thing I can accomplish in EQ 2, Lotro, or even WoW.  So how does Rift stand out in this respect?  What does Rift offer me that other MMOs do not?  The Rifts themselves?  They are randomly spawning Public Quests ala Warhammer Online, nothing more.  I can’t believe people are still treating them as some sort of holy grail in MMO design.

There are only two things in Rift that are somewhat unique.  The Invasions and the Soul system are the two features that should be touted by Rift fans everywhere.  But personally, I eventually found the invasion every 15 minute-thing to be really annoying.  I didn’t really find it to be exciting or intriguing in any way, as the invasions happened so darn often that it made the whole world feel like and endless battleground to me.  But I don’t want to play an MMO that is an endless battleground.  I want to play an MMO that is a world that has a few endless battlegrounds in it.

As for the Soul System, it was probably the key ingredient that I enjoyed the most while playing Rift.  It is a step in the right direction for MMOs, and I am more than happy to applaud Trion for its creation.  But at the end of the day, it has two things working against it.  First of all, that many souls will prove to be horribly difficult to balance over time, especially for PvP.  I’m not sure if Trion will ever be able to get the balance right.  Secondly, just like the talent system in WoW or EQ 2, certain flavor of the month builds will emerge and dominate as they always do, proving once and for all that we don’t really need a better class based system.  What we need is a skill based system that actually does its job properly.  But that’s a topic for another day.

5.  Rift is the cure for your WoW ennui

So if I put effort into not thinking about WoW, that will allow me to properly see Rift for the gem that is and allow me to enjoy it the way I should.  That’s like telling me that if I go to the movies I should forget about every other move I have ever seen in my entire life, so I can fairly assess the movie I am currently watching.  Seriously?  I don’t even know where to begin with this comment.  Even better is that we once again come back to that age-old argument on how WoW has killed the MMO genre.

Oh how I wish it were that simple.  If only I could keep a straight face and say that WoW has ruined MMOs for everyone.  But if I did say that, it would be every bit as preposterous as when other people spout the same thing.  WoW has not ruined the MMO genre…other developers are ruining the MMO genre by constantly imitating everything that WoW does.  People see a formula for success and so they try to replicate it.  They copy what has been done before and then try to put a few spins of their own on it to make it seem original.

But it’s not original.  Rift is not ground breaking or unique.  Providing me with the ability to upload videos to YouTube or post my in-game achievements in Twitter does not make Rift revolutionary.  Rift is a solid, well-made MMO worthy of your subscription and many years of continued development.  But it is not the “Jesus” game in any way shape or form.  As I said before, newer MMOs are launching into an increasingly difficult market.  They face MMO players who have seen and done it all over the years, and many are simply tired of the tried and true mechanics with a little dash of something new thrown on top.

Of course, no one really knows what they want to see, do they?  Everyone says they want something different, but typically spurn new ideas and cling to old concepts even though they claim to want something fresh.  This is where I do agree with the previous bloggers.  We, as an MMO community, have to be a little more open and loving to new ideas if they are every going to get traction.  But the flip side of that coin involves the developers too.  You can’t keep giving us the same old song and dance while expecting us to laud you for it.  You have to come up with better ideas, you have to give us a reason to say, “Wow, this is something I have never really seen before I want to know more about it.”

Rift does not do this, it simply has copied what has been done ad-nauseam and then sprinkled invasions and the Soul system on top.  That will not suffice in this day and age.  The bar has been raised and developers need to adjust their ambitions accordingly.  Yes, I am sure many of you are screaming how WoW did the same thing.  WoW just copied what had been done before it and then added a few new sprinkles of its own (questing to level, solo to max).  But there is a difference, folks, and here it is.

That was six years and the MMO genre did not have the choice it does now.  The MMO genre has grown considerably since that time, while the core mechanics of these games have not really changed at all.  WoW became a hit because Blizzard copied what had been done before and found the right formula for success.  Not it sits on top of the MMO world unchallenged as far as subscribers go, and Rift comes along many years later as a well crafted and polished competitor, with people are screaming how we should embrace Rift just as we did WoW before it.

But my friends, the MMO genre is not the same as it was back when WoW launched.  The genre was simpler back then, there is no way to compare it to how things have evolved or de-evolved in some cases.  If Rift had been released five years ago just as it is now, I would have been the first to hail it as the crowning jewel of the industry.  But it has released in the present, in 2011, and is built with the exact same core of every single MMO I have been playing for 10 years.  The basic gameplay is unchanged.

Rift offers little in the way of true advancement.  And just because it does its job well, does not mean we should all conform to hailing it as the greatest MMO on the planet.  I can sit here and say that Rift is a good game and worthy of your subscription if you are tired of the MMO you are currently playing, and just want something similar but with a new skin.  But like it or not, Rift must be judged in the time it has been released in.  And facing that sobering fact, Rift is simply a solid, by-the-numbers MMO in a genre that is already filled with them.

Warning – Nostalgia Overload

Oh my dearest Everquest, how I hath missed you in the years we have been apart!  No matter where I go or what I do, you remain a part of me.  To borrow an old saying and throw a spin on it, you can take the player out of Everquest but you can’t take Everquest out of the player.  Besides, learning to genuinely appreciate the days when he had clenched balls of flesh for hands…priceless. 

 

 

Like so many in the blogosphere right now, I too have found myself back in Classic EQ enjoying the days of MMO infancy all over again.  Between the Official Time Locked Progression servers that have launched recently, along with Project 1999 finally releasing the Kunark expansion, there are several ways to get back into that old time EQ groove.  You know what I’m talking about. 

 

 

It has been said a million times before, but I am left with no other thought right now other than it all bears repeating once again.  This is something that I and many others will continue to shout from the rooftops until some development team out there finally gets it.  So here we go…you can bag on EQ all you want for being a life-stealing grindfest, but there was simply something magical about it that has yet to be equaled in the entire MMO genre.  The mystery, the difficulty, the need to truly rely on other people and form lasting relationships…EQ cemented a social community within it that was unlike anything before or since.

That’s not to say that the games of today can’t form good communities, but to be an asshole in EQ actually brought consequences.  This is something that just doesn’t exist anymore.  If I am playing WoW and run into a complete jerk while using the Dungeon Finder, that guy will always be in the same que as myself.  He receives no punishment, and even if he is booted he can just wait a few minutes and be right back in the que just like the rest of us.

More and more I watch with a hint of sadness as MMOs become more like games and less like actual worlds.  The sense of exploration and discovery is gone, replaced by the desire for instant gratification and for everyone to always be on the same playing field no matter the circumstance.  It wasn’t perfect back then of course, and this blogger is not too interested in bringing back the days of bickering over spawn camps and the like.  But EQ had the “It” factor…the thing you couldn’t quite put your finger that just made the whole damn thing special.

Classic EQ was a place you could build a home.  Classic EQ was a place where you could settle in for a long, gratifying trek to endgame that was always more important than the endgame itself.  Classic EQ was an MMO that took the words of Homer to heart, if you will.  The journey’s the thing…

 

 

My EQ memories will be forever etched into the fabric of my mind.  They exist with a purity and strength that memories of modern games cannot match despite their technical superiority.  The mechanics of MMOs have simply not evolved in the years since EQ blazed a trail of glory across the gaming world.  It was the titan of its time, a giant that still proudly stands after 12 years and continues to release expansions.  This is not something that would happen if no one played it, as some claim.  Though anymore, the majority of the world does resemble a tragic ghost town when compared to the thriving days of old.  But this is due to the nature of the EQ’s zone expansion over the years more than anything else.

But the prospect of leveling in a barren world couldn’t be further from the truth on the new Progression servers or on the Project 1999 server.  Classic EQ is alive and well, with even Project 1999 reaching 1,000 people online during peak hours since Kunark launched.  For a private server that is a mighty impressive feat to be sure, and we all owe the folks who work on P99 and a great debt of gratitude for donating their free time.  If you haven’t ever looked into the prospect of playing on P99, I am going to throw you a few links here to get you started.

The basic requirement is that you own a version of the Titanium client.  Yes, I did say own.  So if you don’t have that version of EQ then hop on Amazon and snag yourself a copy.  I will make it even easier for you.  Amazon.com – Everquest Titanium. From there, setup is actually rather easy.  And fear not of the legal issues, as SOE has already stated that they will not seek to shut P99 down as long as no money is made off of it.  So if you are itching to relive some of those old memories or have never experienced the agony and ecstasy of Classic EQ before…you owe it to yourself to check it out.  Enjoy! 

 

 

 

P99 Home Page

P99 Setup Guide

P99 Easy Setup with UI

P99 Wiki

Now that’s more like it

Hello again, friends!

I couldn’t help but notice that Trion has announced their very first update to Rift, and it looks to be headed out on March 30th.  Here is the forum post.    Now at this point, I am not playing much of Rift due to reasons I have stated in previous posts.  I have nothing against the game and am actually rooting for it to succeed.  It’s just not quite what I am looking for in an MMO right now.  But I would like to make a few points regarding this announcement.

First off, releasing an actual content update around one month after the launch of a new MMO…hot damn say it ain’t so??!!!  Blizzard, are you guys listening?  Because I love your work and all, but if your content releases get any further apart then your subscribers are gonna start filing for reckless abandonment.  So props to Trion for keeping to an aggressive schedule here.  This is the kind of thing it will take to really grasp people’s attention long-term.

 

 

Secondly, I would like to point out something about this announcement that truly brought a wicked smile to my face.  Notice the text in bold.

Starting next Wednesday, Alsbeth the Discordant will lead massive invasions across every zone in Telara, raising legions of liches, ettins, and gravemakers to battle Ascended. Over the course of about a week, participating players of any level fighting these invaders can earn hundreds of new items including exclusive rewards, such as a Spectral Horse and a transmogrifying disguise that turns Ascended into the rotting undead. But be warned: once the rifts are sealed, these items are gone forever.

Now that’s more like it I say!!  Implementing an in-game event that actually rewards cool items that will never be available again?  In this day and age of MMOs that struggle with unrestrained fervor to appeal to everyone, God bless Trion for actually bringing a little exclusivity back to the MMO genre.  Not everyone has to have everything, not everyone has to be the same, and not everyone has a ironclad right to say that they were there too.  Sometimes it’s better to create something everlasting, to create memories.

By using this event to reward players with things that will never be seen again, that is the process of creating an actual mythos for your MMO by forcing some of your content to matter.  It truly is a step in a positive direction that I wish far more MMOs would make these days.  Instead, we are typically force-fed with the usual development teams that are terrified to do anything unique or original for fear that it will piss too many people off.

This form of thinking usually makes me want to do things like this…

 

 

So kudos, Trion.    You took a step forward by having the guts to make something unique again.  You just earned yourselves another point in my book.

Guild Wars 2 – The first true next-gen MMO?

Guild Wars 2 just won’t let up with its frenetic assault on my own personal hype meter.  The more info I get the more enamored I become with what ArenaNet is trying to do.  But If you haven’t seen the latest videos from Pax, I’ll take care of that for you right here and now.  But of all the MMOs currently released and on the horizon…none looks to innovate the genre the way Guild Wars 2 will once its released.

From these videos you can learn a little bit more about GW 2′s Dynamic Events, with each one possessing branches that genuinely effect the world around you (not just defeat a few phases and done, like Rift or WAR).  You’ll hear them talk about doing away with the holy trinity and freeing up players to formulate strategy based on their playstyle instead of worrying about class types.  This way you can play with WHO you want to instead of restricting participation based on the presence of tanks, dps, or healers.  You’ll also see some very active and visceral combat that requires thought, spatial awareness, and reacting properly to situations.

This is the kind of thing we just don’t see when leveling in MMOs today.  We smash our hotkeys 1,2,1,3,5,2 and so on…and the monsters fall easily at our feet while we barely engage our brains.  So if Guild Wars 2 can actually deliver on these innovations then it could move the genre forward in all sorts of new and exciting ways.  Or it could all come crashing down with the deafening thud of a new MMO launched by Funcom.  lol  (I kid because I love)  But at this point I am betting on ArenaNet to deliver the former.  Call me a hopeless optimist if you must. 

So here we have Guild Wars 2, perhaps the first true next-gen MMO.  Enjoy!

 

 

The Blizzard Way

I’ve seen this video posted quite a few times in other places, but I thought I would throw it up here regardless.  It’s a 48 minute retrospective detailing the history of Blizzard from 1991 to the present day.  Since Blizzard now practically prints money and is one of the most dominant gaming studios on the planet, people often forget that the beginnings of Blizzard were both humble and filled with challenges.  Some of the Blizzard founders actually had to go to their parents for loans during the early and more difficult years.

But what makes Blizzard stand out is that they did things the right way.  They always had a vision, maintained high standards of quality, and when a game was done…it was released.  If a game did not meet the standards of quality that they were striving for…it was not released.  You’d think more development companies would have learned this by now, but all we have to do is look at awful release after awful release to know that so many out there just don’t get it.

Whatever you might think of Blizzard or World of Warcraft, it is impossible to not be inspired by their dedication and success over the years.  This is a success I might add, that was formed and well in place long before WoW.  But what truly brings a smile to my face when I watch this video is the unmistakable fact that these guys are pure geek from head to toe.

 

Intrigued, I am

From Pax East…here is the most recent developer walkthrough for Star Wars: The Old Republic.  It features a group of 4 players going through the Taral V Flashpoint (instance/story).  Just watching things unfold with the classic Bioware dialogue options brought a smile to my face, as I have always wanted to share the experience of playing through Bioware’s stories with other people.  I like how the game allows each player to do a random roll on the party dialogue options, giving everyone an equal chance to steer the plot as it unfolds.

The Old Republic is truly starting to look like it will deliver on bringing the Bioware style of RP to the MMO genre…and I couldn’t be more excited about it.  Combat looks nice and smooth with actual tactics being necessary to come out on top, even if the basic mechanics seem all too familiar.  But it’s the story focus throughout the entire game that has my attention at this point.  Bioware has claimed that The Old Republic will contain more story content than all of their Single Player RPGs combined.  That’s an awfully impressive claim, to be sure.

Intrigued, I am. 

 

Rift and Me

It has dutifully been brought to my attention that it’s been a few posts since I have talked to you guys about my adventures in Rift.  But the primary reason for this is mostly because the word adventure can’t really be used to describe my experiences with Rift lately.  To put it simply…I haven’t been playing much.  Knowing myself as I do, this is not a good sign only a few weeks out after Rift’s launch.  But much like Werit said over on his blog, the reason for me not playing has more to do with my own preferences than anything else.

 

 

As I said in my previous post, I realize more and more every day that the MMO I really want to be playing right now is Warhammer Online.  Well, a Warhammer Online that exists in an alternate reality where the RvR is not nearly as frazzled and poorly designed as it is in this one.  But not knowing any Gnomes who could build me some sort of infernal contraption that would whisk me away to such a reality, and not having the Doc around to help me get to…

 

 

…so I could properly warn Mythic of future troubles during WAR’s early development, I find myself faced with something of a dilemma.  Rift is a fine game to be sure, both well-made and polished, with a great Soul system and a few interesting concepts of its own.  But all in all, the more I play it the more I find my mind wandering.  Rift has just not connected with me in the way an MMO needs to in order to secure my subscription beyond the first month.

When I play Rift I can never shake the “been there, done that, have the t-shirt” feeling I get that courses through my veins until I am about to scream.  The world of Telara does very little to rile up my imagination at the end of the day.  I wish I could give you guys more than that, I honestly do.  But Telara has failed miserably to strike any sort of profound chord within my soul.  Worlds such as Norrath, Azeroth, and Middle Earth were all able to do that and I am forever grateful.  But Telara on the other hand, gives me pause.

Since Rift does very little that is innovative on the PvP-side of things, it falls to the concrete world of Telara and the basic game mechanics to immerse me in the setting so I will continue to log in.  But the world has fallen flat with me, and the game mechanics are so shockingly familiar that I become more certain with each day that my time with Rift will always be somewhat on the low/casual side.  But before anyone shows up here to flame, allow me to repeat something I have said for while now.

 

 

I still think Rift is a good game overall and will become a solid hit for Trion in the years to come.  Though I might not always be there to witness the ebb and flow of Rift’s growth firsthand, I still consider myself a fan and will be cheering for them every step of the way.  They have a great deal of work ahead of them, this cannot be discounted.  Creating a solid MMO is just the beginning of the process.  Now they have to maintain the game’s success and find intuitive ways to add content/mechanics that will both entice newer players and excite the current player-base almost simultaneously.

I have faith that Trion can do just that, and I will still be popping my head in to see how things are coming along from time to time.  But Rift and me…we had a good thing and some great laughs in the very short time we had together.  But in the end it was just not meant to be.  There has been no harm and no foul to either of us, as they say.  But I hope that those of you who are loving Rift continue to love it and enjoy yourselves to no end.  It’s a solid title and well worth your time.

But as for me, I’ll be back to exploring the games I have always loved (WoW, EQ 2, Lotro, Eve, War) until something new comes along that shows some real promise of transforming the genre in a positive way.  Rift adds to the genre by taking much of what has worked in the past and refining it, then sprinkling a touch of their own on top.  That is also what WoW did when it was first released.  The problem for me is that I am genuinely happy with the games I have, and so I am looking for a little more from newer titles.  So will it be Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, or perhaps Swtor that captures my fancy?  Who can say at this point?

But no matter where I go, I’ll be sure to post my thoughts as I stroll along this bewildering and always entertaining road that defines the life of an MMO gamer. 

 

Catharsis

One thing I have tried so very hard to avoid when lighting a fire beneath this blog again, was a Warhammer Online post-mortem.  The more I thought about, I realized that I would just be beating a horse that had been thrashed to death, pummeled while dead, resurrected, then flogged some more for good measure.  But it has been with a potent sadness that I have watched the WAR blogging community shrink over the past few months.  Players are growing increasingly frustrated with recent changes, and it really is no secret that WAR finds itself at a fateful crossroads at the moment.

With only a few servers left running, there is no question that the vultures are gradually beginning to circle…eager to pluck the meat off of WAR’s fragile corpse.

I still play it all out in my head like it was some sort of dream.  To this day I can acutely feel my initial reactions from WAR beta all the way to launch, its historic rise, and ultimately its plummet to the depths we see now.  But if I sat here and attempted to chime in with my thoughts on how WAR got to where it is, I would only be regurgitating analysis from many other sources that are already available to you.

 

 

Now one thing I would like to say at this point, is that WAR isn’t dead yet.  It’s getting a little too close to the scythe for comfort, but hope springs eternal.  And I am one to always believe that it’s never too late to stem the tide.  But up to this point, Mythic just doesn’t seem to possess the ability to fix the problems.  Much of this is because WAR’s issues are all so deeply rooted in its design that they would truly need to revamp much of the game.

This is not going to happen, period.

So what we are left with are small bandages patched onto a titanic leaking damn that is eventually going to break open.  But rather than sit here and write what has been said before, I am going to try and aid my catharsis for WAR by linking to some of the most insightful comments I have found regarding why WAR ended up the way it did.  I am doing this as much for myself as anyone else, as I am still coming to grips with the fact that WAR is the game I really want to be playing.  The problem being that it just isn’t the game it should have been in the first place.

So let us hold hands and pray as we open our hymnals to page 113.

 

Where did Warhammer Online go wrong?

 

This article touches on many of the most popular points…the lack of a third realm…few viable in-game options other than PvP…horrible class balance…population imbalance…terrible performance given the look of the game…all of WAR’s sweet spots of pain, if I may be so bold.    It makes for a fairly accurate read so I think it’s a useful place to begin.  But the source which offers some of the most interesting and less well-known facts on WAR’s happens to be a thread on the Warhammer Alliance forums.

 

The Main reason why WAR failed

 

This really does have just about all you need to know concerning WAR’s troubled development.  Though I advise immediately skipping to page 8, as the first 7 pages of the thread are hijacked by a troll who constantly argues the meaning of the word “failed”.  I am not really sure what point he is trying to make here, as I think its safe to say that going from around 80 servers to 4 can be considered a failure.  But hey, some people love denial and cling to it until the cows come home.  So rock on there.

But back to the WAR discussion…some of the finest criticism in this thread comes from Sir Robin.  So start with page 8 and move on from there.  I will still be here when you return. 

 

 

So there you have it…they were planning on totally instanced PvP to setup the realm war.  That doesn’t really sound like the game we all wanted, does it?  But by the time they realized the problem they were already in beta, so they were forced to shut things down to add an Open RvR system that is borked to this very day.  So WAR really has been in fix mode since before it even launched.  Keeps were never supposed to be there in the first place, which is why we got keeps that were not even as well developed as the ones in DAOC, made over 7 years prior to WAR’s release.

But to bring this distasteful rehash to an end, I can only say that I will continue to follow WAR in the future and may even log in from time to time.  But I just can’t see myself spending any significant amount of hours there unless we see some drastic changes.  Though I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is still a small part of me that hopes…that waits with baited breath for the final realization of the game I so wanted to love that just never really seemed to love me back.

Success = License to hate?

Now I don’t want to go off on a rant here, but I am truly starting to feel like the internet is just filled with people who wait for something to become successful, then pull out their claws and rip to shreds because they are “too cool” for anything that is so loved by the mainstream.  This isn’t really a new thing, of course.  I understand that there will always be people who try to prove how awesome they are by insulting things that become popular.  But lately I have been seeing it get real out of hand.

The obvious example is Blizzard and World of Warcraft.

 

 

Now, I could care less whether or not you like WoW or despite it.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and preferences as to what style of MMO they enjoy the most.  But you don’t even have to throw a stone to be caught up in the vile WoW hatred anymore.  All you have to do is log in to any MMO and wait for the word WoW to be mentioned.  It usually takes about 3.5 seconds in a new MMO, or perhaps a few minutes if the MMO is older.  But to read some of the comments, you would think that Blizzard committed some brutal series of murders to incur so much disgust from people.

Tune in next week when we hear about how WoW is directly linked to HIV and the primary cause of Global Warming.

But seriously, it really is funny to see people get so riled up over a game.  And each argument plays out in the same general way.  The first salvo is usually the WoW is for kiddies argument.  This mostly has to do with WoW having a more cartoony art style and maintaining a strong sense of humor throughout.  Also, WoW is popular as hell and holds more subscriber than any other MMO, and so many younger people do play it.  The community of WoW is not the greatest, I will be the first to say.  Some of the idiots who play it can be extremely annoying.  But I have also seen many adults who absolutely love WoW, and I’ve met many wonderful and mature guilds in my travels there.  So it’s not just kids that enjoy WoW.

But I won’t let facts ruin a good story here, so we’ll move on.

The second place where I see this kind of hatred is with the film Avatar.  Now again, it really does not matter to me whether you like it or hate it.  I’m talking about the people who don’t just hate it….they really hate it.  They hate it to the point that they started making up theories that it was un-American because it depicts American troops in a negative light.  Those people must have watched a different movie than I did, because the movie clearly states that this is a coporate security force.  They wear no flags on their uniforms.

So if anything it is a cautionary tale of corporate forces like Blackwater, but once again, I won’t let facts get in the way of a good story.

 

 

But the freshest example of this sort of behavior would be the massive amount of forum bitching that is popping up in lieu of Dragon Age 2.  Apparently, Bioware has reached the proper success threshold that it is now a cool thing to hate on them as well.  But to make myself clear once again, I am not talking about people who simply didn’t enjoy DA 2.  I am talking about people who have now taken their rage to the forums and are claiming that Bioware is dead, calling them traitors, they hate PC players, they have sold out, they hate RPGs, they assassinated JFK…you know, the whole works.

Seeing crap like this from the gaming populace really concerns me.

You might wonder why this is, given that people also react this way to other forms of creative expression.  Well, the primary reason is that gaming is still struggling mightily for respect and acceptance by the general public.  Though it has made some strides in recent years, gaming is still viewed by many as something for kids…a fanciful distraction that any reasonable adult should eventually “move on” from.  To compound this problem, I see so many of my fellow gamers behaving in an immature and petulant fashion, and so it makes me wonder whether people outside of the gaming community will ever be able to truly look at games as art.

And that is undoubtedly what games are slowly becoming…an art form just like books, music, or film.  But until the gaming community learns to grow up and regard their hobby with a sense of dignity, it may be difficult for games and those who make them to ever receive the worldwide respect they so richly deserve.