A dirty word
On WAR vs WOW.
"WAR is not WoW. But it is a lot like it in a number of crucial ways, and for one essential reason: money. I suspect Mythic and EA aren’t too concerned about the comparison themselves - they might disagree with the sweeping generalisation, but if they didn’t want to be compared they would have gone for an entirely different interface and art approach. Saying WAR is like WoW is not the same as saying it’s a bad or a lazy game, but unfortunately there are guys who do intentionally make the comparison unfavourably, and that’s perhaps understandably made a lot of WAR fans very touchy. I wish they wouldn’t take it so personally, but it can’t realistically be stopped."
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/09/06/a-dirty-word/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/09/06/a-dirty-word/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/09/06/a-dirty-word/
About Spore
The manual for Spore says exactly: "You may have multiple Spore accounts for each installation of the game."
Users, however, have been complaining that doesn't seem possible, and while it took a while, an EA rep finally admitted "our bad": "That section in the manual was a misprint and will be corrected in future printings of the manual. There is one Spore registration/account per game/serial code so you are correct in that you cannot make multiple accounts at this time."
Pft. A misprint??? You gotta be kidding me. Full text on:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080912/0031172248.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080912/0031172248.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080912/0031172248.shtml
Murphy's laws of WoW.
1. If something can be nerfed, it will be nerfed.
2. The only times you see rare herbs, rare mineral veins or chests on your minimap is when you're on a gryphon.
3. The moment you decide you can ninja AFK a minute is when the raid leader is watching you.
4. The items you so desperately want from an instance never drop until the first time you're there with an alt. Who can't use it.
5. The one time you roll a 99, someone else will roll 100.
6. Anyone who plays more than you has no life. Anyone who plays less than you is a scrub.
7. The moment you fly into a port is the moment you will see your ship sail away.
8. Nightfall only procs when the last mob dies.
ViaJoystiq.
The best game ever
“They say the front line of the War on Terror is the airport security line. See if you’ve got what it takes to keep airline travel safe in this hysterical game of airport security. Better not let that tube of toothpaste get through your checkpoint — it could be a terrorist’s weapon against freedom (or maybe it just fights gingivitis)!”
http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/airportsecurity.jsp
http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/airportsecurity.jsp
http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/airportsecurity.jsp
Anatomy of a Guild Death
(Woot! Drama!) Original at:
http://relmstein.blogspot.com/2006/09/anatomy-of-guild-death.html
http://relmstein.blogspot.com/2006/09/anatomy-of-guild-death.html
http://relmstein.blogspot.com/2006/09/anatomy-of-guild-death.html
I had the unfortunate experience of being in a guild which started going through death throes this week. Problems had been building for about a month as some of our key members left. However, in the end it came down to the simple fact that a few people were pushing our guild to be more hardcore against everyone else's wishes. Too bad all of our priests were casual players who felt offended by these people having free reign. Most of our priests were close friends and the wives of other guild members. Once one decided to quit they all decided to quit and the guild members started to drop like flies. The best part is the person who started all the trouble was one of the first ones to quit after the priests left.
I've been in a lot of guilds and experienced a wide range of guild politics, loot distribution systems, and hardcoreness. Honestly by the time I had gotten into World of Warcraft I had almost decided to stop raiding for good. This guild breaking up had a sort of deja vu feel to it since I swear it was an exact copy of my last guild breakup. In fact I was freaking out my friends by calling out who would leave next and what they would say in guild chat before they left. By the end of the night my friends were convinced I was telepathic and I was convinced I needed to write an article on guild death.
QFT.
*****: new people to morpgs tend to get star eyed over pixels.
The role of crafting
The Knights of the MMO Table have a discussion about crafting in MMOs going on. Check the articles from
Nerfbat,
AggroMe and
Moorgard. Some points from them:
“Adventuring and crafting are competing styles of play. I say this not only because a player must generally choose which they will do at any given time (yes, sometimes you can adventure to acquire things for crafting or craft to further your adventuring, but you understand what I mean), but because they are often pitted against each other by the very design of certain types of MMOs.” (Moorgard)
“The summary is that certain types of games can support deep crafting systems. Games that are both adventure-centric and item-centric will usually do well to avoid complex crafting systems, because you are either going to be slighting your adventurers by making crafted items great or will be alienating all the crafters completely by making a complex system that is not worth their time.” (Nerfbat)
“I can go on the net and in a few minutes find cheaply made flash games which are more fun then crafting. So why not dedicate some time to making the process of crafting addictive and fun? Whether you want to include elements of twitch play, turn-based strategy or real time strategy, the key is to make things interactive and require player skill. Just take a look at my harvesting examples and apply them to crafting. Memory, reflex, sound recognition, spatial visualization, puzzle solving and strategy are just some of many elements that could make crafting a game and not a chore. Of course, you do not want to completely remove players from the world. You do not want to have them sit down at the forge and then Tetris pops up. But working great gameplay into the theme and feel of the world is merely a challenge and not a barrier.” (AggroMe)
http://www.mmoroundtable.com/
http://www.mmoroundtable.com/
http://www.mmoroundtable.com/
Quote For a PVP Night.
“You know something is wrong when you start running damage meters in PVP.”
The Parachuting Mage Team.
