Author: Admin

A Fair Criticism Of Guild Wars 2


I love Guild Wars 2, but my love is not without its fair share of annoyance. So while my previous articles have been about bumping up the MMO, I am using this space to discuss a couple of my gripes with Arenanet.

1. The Game Isn’t Dynamic

I have a problem with MMOs calling their systems dynamic, because the catch-phrase that has caught on is that anything not-static must be dynamic. Warhammer Online tried this with public quests, when in reality they were simply multi-stage regular quests with timers attached to them. Tabula Rasa tried this with base assaults, and Rift claimed that its rifts we’re also dynamic.

Anything that can be put up on a schedule is not dynamic, and Guild Wars 2 is about as predictable as it gets without going back to the standard MMO quest model. The events are dynamic in the sense that they are not available 100% of the time, but apart from the zones run on a recurring treadmill, one with alternate paths that all lead to the same destination, before looping around at the beginning and starting all over.

But this doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of Guild Wars 2, it is just a poorly worded phrase, like how Tim Horton’s “cappuccino” comes in a bag and is powdered.

2. The Trading Post Needs Work

The trading post is massive, a technological marvel that Arenanet should be immensely proud of. That said, when this behemoth goes down, boy does it go down hard, bringing down some other features with it. And the Trading Post isn’t just down for an hour or two, when it crashes it has remained offline for days on end.

But the trading post has a massive load on its back, so let’s go further than connectivity issues. It took a while to understand why there were thousands of high priced orders for certain cooking ingredients but no buyers, before I realized that the trading post lists account-bound goods. And while you can’t sell account-based goods on the store, you can still place orders to purchase them, I expect from Santa Claus.

In its current state, the trading post is rather bloated and not very user friendly.

3. Discovery Crafting Became Obnoxious

I mentioned in my reviews of Guild Wars 2 that discovery crafting is likely the best part of crafting, at least as far as cooking goes. It gives a reason to travel and complete the map, as certain materials can only be obtained by vendors unlocked by finishing heart events. And even your crafted goods can be further used as their own crafting resources.

But previously, the discovery window only displayed items from your inventory. So my method of crafting became to store goods that were above my level and could not be used. In an update, Arenanet made crafting easier by allowing the bank and collection box to be pulled from. At the same time, this cluttered up the discovery page with all of the items you can’t use, removing any sort of filtering system (apart from deleting the items).

Again, I’m not trying to point out fatal flaws with Guild Wars, since frankly I don’t believe there are any.

4. Cooking Produces A Lot Of The Same

I love discovery crafting, and not just because my psychiatrist says I have the symptoms of a hoarder with none of his means of acquiring items. But to wrap up this list of mostly crafting based whine, while you can create everything from white chocolate cake to peppered steak, strawberry pie and at least a couple hundred things in between, the food itself generally doesn’t offer anything other than nourishment and bonus experience.

Perhaps if different foods offered a greater variety in boosts, cooked items would be in greater demand. Of course I could be completely wrong and foods far higher level than myself may offer the diversity I so wish for.

Falling Out #14: Well, They Are Asian


Remember folks: When western companies make similar games, it’s just creative license. When a Korean company does it, it is criminal theft.

The more you know.

Runic Has No Plans For A Torchlight MMO


We’ve talked before about the possibility of a Torchlight MMO, and while Runic has hinted at the possibility of an MMO before, nothing has been set in stone. Unfortunately, it looks like the odds of an MMO based in the dungeon-crawling universe are slim. In an Ask Me Anything on Reddit, Travis Baldree (President) commented that there are no plans currently for a Torchlight MMO, at least for the moment.

“I’ll be frank, we have no plans to jump into that right now. The landscape is a little different than a few years ago, and creating the amount of content we did for Torchlight 2 was a supreme effort with a team this size. Taking on an MMO immediately afterward is not our current desire.”

So it seems that the Torchlight MMO may just be wishful thinking at this point. Still, I can’t blame the folks at Runic for wanting to do something different after working on the Torchlight series for so long.

(Source: Reddit)

Kickstarter Implements New Rules To Protect Users


Kickstarter is not a store, and the folks at Kickstarter Inc want potential backers to know this without question. In the Kickstarter articles here at MMO Fallout, I’ve made a point in reminding viewers that making a pledge is a risk, closer to investing in a company than pre-ordering a game. Regardless, there are a number of people who have invested in Kickstarters without realizing, or without caring, that there is no real guarantee that the project will ever come to fruition. And for that matter, there is no real guarantee that the project isn’t a fly-by-night scam.

So Kickstarter is adding in a few new guidelines to projects. For starters, Kickstarter projects must post clearly the risks of backing a program.

  • Product simulations are prohibited. Projects cannot simulate events to demonstrate what a product might do in the future. Products can only be shown performing actions that they’re able to perform in their current state of development.
  • Product renderings are prohibited. Product images must be photos of the prototype as it currently exists.

Additionally, there is now a limit on hardware:

  • Offering multiple quantities of a reward is prohibited. Hardware and Product Design projects can only offer rewards in single quantities or a sensible set (some items only make sense as a pair or as a kit of several items, for instance). The development of new products can be especially complex for creators and offering multiple quantities feels premature, and can imply that products are shrink-wrapped and ready to ship.

While the new guidelines only affect hardware, gamers should be very careful about what products they pledge to. Just keep thinking: Kickstarter is not a store!

(Source: Kickstarter)

Firefall Is Sick of Trolls, Will Be Kicking Them Out


I’ve talked about the fine line between trolling and constructive criticism, one that generally doesn’t seem to be understood by trolls. And while MMO developers aren’t fans of trolling, they are also generally reluctant to expel their (often paying) customers for throwing up a fuss either in the game or on the forums. Firefall developer Red 5 is not one of those developers. In a post on the forums, CEO Mark Kern posted a stern warning: Continue trolling, and you’re out.

So, I have to say for the first time that I’m disappointed in some of the community. The amount of threads here saying that e-sports is all we care about, despite all the information we’ve posted about PvE being our focus is disheartening to those of us working hard to make PvE awesome.

More so, the amount of shortsightedness and selfish trolling and self-important pontification I see from armchair game analysts is stunning. We’re not done with the game yet. We are showing you our early builds, warts and all, so you can share in shaping the game. We welcome your feedback, but not your Chicken Little “sky is falling” ranting from those whose imaginations are not capable of looking further than the nose in front of their face and who ignore everything we say and do and have done in the game for you.

We do listen to you guys, more than any other game company on the planet, and we have proof because we show you builds so early, that they are incomplete… so you can help us fill in the blanks. But instead of embracing the concept, a vocal minority of you have taken up arms in the forums, with pitchforks and a sense of selfish self-entitlement I have never even imagined possible.

If you intended to frustrate me, you have. From now on, we’re going to start moderating the negativity on these forums for the sake of healthier discussions.

Personally I remember a time where alphas and betas were a privilege to join. Granted, this was a long time ago. But when I play MMOs in their alpha/beta stage, I see and abundance of whining over features not being complete, the presence of bugs, or features not being completely worked out. And that in itself isn’t the problem, as negative feedback is how a game develops into a higher quality product. But the people who Kern is talking about are more along the lines of:

“This feature isn’t complete, wow this game sucks why do I even bother playing, this company is going to go bankrupt and the game will fail because the devs are all incompetent idiots.”

But it would behoove Mark Kern to take this new proclamation seriously. Quite often demands to remove trolls turn into a hard culling of any negative feedback from the community, and that often leads to far more than just the undesirable folk leaving, either of their own frustration or through overreaching policies. And a game like Firefall can’t afford to turn its community away before it even launches.

Warhammer Online: Costs Haven't Synced For Free To Play


Warhammer Online’s fourth birthday has come and gone, and Massively.com has quite an interesting interview with Producer James Casey about the life of Warhammer, past, present, and future. Casey also talks about Warhammer’s MOBA brother, Wrath of Heroes, and how the development teams for both games have been kept complimentary, but separate. Finally, Casey answers the question many of us have been asking for a good while: Why hasn’t Warhammer Online gone free? My guess has always come down to cost, and from Casey’s reply, I wasn’t wrong:

We’ve investigated this option in the past, but the costs and changes needed to make it happen in a satisfactorily way haven’t synced up yet.

Transitioning a game to free to play is incredibly expensive and, in the case of games like Earthrise and Gods & Heroes (and now Warhammer), is simply out of the question.

(Source: Massively.com)

Warhammer Online: Costs Haven’t Synced For Free To Play


Warhammer Online’s fourth birthday has come and gone, and Massively.com has quite an interesting interview with Producer James Casey about the life of Warhammer, past, present, and future. Casey also talks about Warhammer’s MOBA brother, Wrath of Heroes, and how the development teams for both games have been kept complimentary, but separate. Finally, Casey answers the question many of us have been asking for a good while: Why hasn’t Warhammer Online gone free? My guess has always come down to cost, and from Casey’s reply, I wasn’t wrong:

We’ve investigated this option in the past, but the costs and changes needed to make it happen in a satisfactorily way haven’t synced up yet.

Transitioning a game to free to play is incredibly expensive and, in the case of games like Earthrise and Gods & Heroes (and now Warhammer), is simply out of the question.

(Source: Massively.com)

Reminder: Guild Wars 2 Does Not Allow Mods


I noticed recently that a mod is gaining some notice in the Guild Wars 2 discussion. The mod makes several changes to the way combat and targeting function, with the goal of creating a more fluid, faster paced system. As several have pointed out, Arenanet has strictly prohibited any form of modding to Guild Wars 2, as written in the Terms of Service.

While no one has reported being banned for using this mod yet, the possibility that Arenanet could strike the mod as illegal is still very real. The somewhat vague response from CC Eva in the Guild Wars 2 forums should serve as a warning:

Hi everyone.
As Diva points out, the use of third-party software is not allowed in Guild Wars 2. Thypari, if you feel this is something that would improve the game, then we invite you to post your ideas on the subforum Suggestions, where they will be looked into.

NCSoft Admits Lineage II Faults, Wants Your Feedback


Lineage II has changed greatly since launch, and as Gon Namkung of NCSoft has admitted, not all of the changes have been for the better. In a letter to the community released today, Namkung admits that changes over the years have diluted what made Lineage II unique, from the removal of elements that made classes unique, to the unbalanced economy and weakened community. Attempts to fix the overabundance and imbalance in classes has resulted in classes that have lost their unique pull, and other classes that were no longer useful to groups.

So NCSoft wants to bring Lineage II back to its former glory, and they want you to help. While Korean players have already taken the poll, NCSoft wants to ensure that the two hemispheres are tailored for different tastes. Players are asked to take a poll asking them how they would like the classes to be diversified. The options to choose from are splitting the 8 Awakening classes into 34, adding race specific traits, and choosing 3rd class skills from 3rd class counterparts.

Each option is presented with its related pros and cons. Players can head over to the Lineage II forums (at the bottom of the page linked below) to vote.

(Source: NCSoft)

Taco Tuesday: Four MMO Revival Pitches


Welcome to Tuesday, there are trays at the front of the line and plenty of tacos to go around. Due to the past few weeks sucking up most, if not all, of the Greenlight and Kickstarter MMOs, you may be glad to hear we are shifting paradigm to having a real discussion. So on to today’s top 5:

Aventurine today announced Darkfall: Unholy Wars, a total revamp to just about every aspect of Darkfall, from the graphics to gameplay, user interface and beyond. So for today’s topic, let’s take a look at some MMos that could use a fresh facelift, new coat of paint, and perhaps a less rusty engine.

4. City of Heroes 2

Did anyone see that pander bear just walk by? There is a pretty unified consensus among players and the press, as well as hinted from Paragon Studios, that City of Heroes was still quite profitable, and fell victim to corporate restructuring. And since the game isn’t quite buried in the ground yet, let’s discuss digging up its corpose and reviving it via electricity.

The show of support for City of Heroes should be enough for a small (or large?) developer to either pick up the City of Heroes IP or create their own roster of notable villains and heroes, and set to work creating a new super hero MMO with a focus on slower combat and deeper strategy, alongside a deep character creation system. Think Champions Online but not as arcadey.

So what are you waiting for, indie developers? Get off of your generic, WoW-ish fantasy MMOs and listen to the pleas of the internet.

3. Warhammer Online 2

I know what you’re saying, “Omali, EA wouldn’t give Mythic the funding to buy a Snickers, let alone fund a new MMO based on Warhammer Online.” You are correct, and that’s why part one of this plan hinges on someone tearing the Warhammer MMO license from Mythic, not unlike Lucas and Star Wars Galaxies. Nothing personal, and Mythic could even keep Wrath of Heroes.

How do you create a new Warhammer Online? First, by not programming it on the gamebryo engine. This is an important factor, because it will prevent the mass exodus of your players over the engine not being capable of handling basic systems, and you won’t have to worry about disabling certain portions of the game or cutting mass swaths of content.

Who wouldn’t like to see a new Warhammer Online? Perhaps with three faction PvP, open world combat, and territory control perhaps?

2. Earthrise

Tell me you didn’t fall in love with Earthrise…on paper. Of course I’m talking about the version we were advertised, where thousands of players would battle in an epic science fiction sandbox MMO, dictated by one’s skill on the battlefield. Not the one where perhaps a dozen or so players battled the forces of lag, game breaking bugs, and unfinished features in a game that provided little more than quest grinding without a community to provide it purpose.

Imagine, if you will, if Earthrise was more like Darkfall but in a science fiction setting. So instead of swords, spells, and archery, you would have guns, nanotechnology, and big heavy stuff to hit other things with. On the other hand, I’d settle for an Earthrise that just wasn’t

1. Ultima Online 2

That pander bear just won’t go away. I must say that out of the items on this list, Ultima Online 2 is likely the only game with even a wink of likelihood. For that matter, it’s the only one that has officially been mentioned, by Jeff Slaski telling players to show EA that they want a sequel. So I’m being optimistic with this list, but I’m not dense. I know that the odds of most of these games even making it past the drawing board are slim.

I love Ultima Online as it is, but I will admit that the code that the game is built on is likely ancient and very obsolete and likely difficult to work with. If the folks at EA were able to upgrade Ultima’s underlying engine, they would likely be able to push the MMO to do far more than it is currently capable of, without sacrificing much if any of the features that the loyal community has come to love.

So it wouldn’t be as much of a sequel as it is a reboot. Like Funcom upgrading Anarchy Online to the Dreamworld Engine.