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2000 Days
6 months ago
Mystic Spiral [MYST] hits another milestone today. It’s been years in the making but we’re finally getting rid of our current forum and making way for an actual website.
It’s almost like the 21st Century or something.
I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together a prototype site that combines WordPress and PhpBB3 to make a unified content management system and forum. Having spent most of that time re-skinning the site to create a seamless look, I can say 2 things: I know a lot more about CSS now than when I started and I’m no graphic designer. While I’m proud of what has come out of my swearing programming sessions I’m expecting cries of “it’s ugly” once it launches. I won’t disagree, but then there’s a reason why I’m a developer.
Functionality wise though, I’m in heaven. There are a million more directions to go in with the new site than the old. I explored some of them in a previous post, which will shape up to be phase 2 aka a dynamic guild roster. I also spied the Steam API a week or two ago which has got my pulse racing. For now though, the new site gets information like voice server details out of a buried thread in a forum and onto a separate page. Events have their own section and are Google calendar powered. If Guild Wars 2 launched tomorrow, we’d have something to work with and I’d spend less time maintaining a forum and more time with my guildies – ultimately the aim in changing format.
The next 2 weeks while we get everything migrated are likely to be hectic. Like all of this venture, it’s new territory for me which inevitably means long hours, lots of swearing and consumption of beverages that may not be healthy to me (coffee or vodka). I’m also celebrating my +1 day and have tickets to see Within Temptation in that time frame, so don’t expect to hear much from me on my blog. Twitter should be as active as ever though.
In one way it’s unfortunate everything’s conspired to happen at once, but I enjoy being busy. Since coming back from Gamescom I’ve had at least 3 viable community projects going through my head, and a blog post for Talk Tyria I must have revised at least 5 times. Its hard not to pick up one of these items and run with it, but I’m determined to get the site migrated. For once in my life, I will be a finisher.
You can take a look at the format we’ll be migrating to here. Our proper domain will be updated sometime before the 20th if all goes to plan.
Wish us luck!
PS: It’s also 2000 days since we were founded!
Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None
7 months ago
My love of rangers is no secret, and neither is my opinion that the essence of what I liked about them has been removed from the class in Guild Wars 2. In various other MMOs I’ve played, I usually try the equivalent ranger class (followed by their cleric class) and after trying to mentally dice up how the ranger can be sorted out, I’ve noticed something common to nearly all incarnations of bow wielders. They are plagued by imbalance and lack the epic feeling of their counterparts.
The original Guild Wars ranger isn’t a stranger to this. Nature rituals were to blame for a horrible meta in the early days of the game, then there was the bunny thumper causing havoc everywhere. Disrupting Shot was catapulted to the skill hall of fame, being picked by The Last Pride [EviL] to be made into a skill pin. Over the years, the nerf bat has chipped away at various aspects of the ranger so that the profession has relatively few teeth left in its mouth and little benefit to the team as a whole. Even playing solo in PvE, its hard to see the impact you have on a battle – mesmers interrupt better, necromancers apply conditions better and various classes deal more damage.
Rift has to be applauded for the flexible nature of its class construction, but it feels like the rogue gets a lot more sweeping changes than other classes. This could be related to Trion’s insistence on rolling out updates like it’s the morning newspaper but my rogue’s roles (which I tend to play as a Marksman) seem to get reset a lot more than my cleric’s do indicating significant changes were made. It’s a bit of a mystery really. The bow-wielding NPC rogues hit hard, but when I’m the one aiming the arrow it feels like my character is throwing a pebble. Maybe I’m a bad ranger, but the repeated skill changes make me think that maybe it’s not entirely my fault.
Age of Conan’s take on the class was enjoyable, but was lacking variety and the feeling of epicness, due in part to the overpowered nature of the class at the release of the game. Finishing moves are a big deal in that game and while my husband’s Bear Shaman was ripping off heads and smashing skulls, my Ranger was limited to crouching down with my bow and shooting my killer blow. Fierce…
Overall it feels like a very hard class concept to action. And looking at the the variety of concepts above, is it much wonder? Warriors, mages and clerics don’t change much from MMO to MMO, but that fourth archetype does. Perhaps it’s a symptom of being the fourth wheel in the holy trinity, trying desperately to be the Swiss army knife for all situations that ultimately it fails in all of them.
Oddly the incarnation I enjoyed the most was found in Aion. Rangers were given silences, stuns, poisons, stealth and traps to play with. I maintain that traps are pretty useless in a PvP(vE) world and never used them in my gameplay. Still, I felt like I was doing something in a team. If someone needed killing, I could combo a damaging chain. If we overaggroed, I could provide another stun or silence. If we needed to pressure a team, I could spread poison or unleash a range of shots. There were no pets, but you could shapeshift into various animal forms if you had enough DP. I really enjoyed playing Aion’s ranger, it’s just a shame about server balance and a number of other game problems that drove me away. Also those few months of alpha & beta I burnt out on the game.
I think part of the reason that I’m looking forward to Guild Wars 2 as much is because I like the concept of being able to switch up my gameplay as the situation requires it. Clearly it is possible to achieve but, if anything’s to be said for classes that do this in other games, it feels like a very very tall order to execute 8 times over.
If you’re expecting a great revelation or arrogant claim to have a solution, prepare to be disappointed. I don’t have one. It’s hard enough getting a group of rangers to define the class itself, let alone work out how to execute the profession.
So, who’s up for a bit of amateur game design? If you’ve noticed any patterns or have any insight, drop your thoughts below please!
Eurogamer Expo 2011: Beer and Good Company
7 months ago
I start this post with an admission: size counts. I’ve always steered clear of all UK conventions on the basis that as a nation we have very few big exhibition centres and they weren’t really relevant to my interests. Earl’s Court One, where Eurogamer Expo was held, is roughly the same size as 1 of the 7 exhibition spaces of Gamescom. Smaller venues mean fewer titles and less entertainment, so going to a smaller venue than this doesn’t seem worth the expense of travel and accommodation.
Conventions are always best when they are accompanied with friends and this one was no exception. My husband and I dragged my dad along for his first convention, and we met guild mates Andypanda, Entropy and Ku there, who has brought her friend Dave along too. Andy’s mission for the day was simple – get lots of free loot. Ent and Ku wanted to play Guild Wars 2, while the rest of us were happy to meander and see what was around.
The queue to get in was delightfully British – long but moving quickly and well organised. Once inside… well the show is definitely on a different scale to gamescom. The big stands and shell schemes are replaced with constructed walls, deep enough to get a door on the end (for storage) and long enough to get 4 laptops or consoles against. The big stands were reserved for the likes of OnLive, Rage, Nintendo and Samsung who had obviously invested the big bucks in the event.
Look! You can see carpet!
Guild Wars 2 was being advertised on the side of the free goodie bag that was being given out, and there were various adverts for it around the expo. They also had 3 constructed walls with a total of 24 stations where people could play the game, although when I first found the Guild Wars 2 area, I only thought there was one by the way everything was set up. Derp. It was there we met up with Cornish and Will, who I plug regularly on this blog. They’re as much of a delight and pleasure to chat with in the flesh as they are on Twitter and Skype and we spent a lot of the day milling around together.
In the morning we introduced my dad to Rift, had a wander around the retro gaming area and most of the 18+ zone. Andy managed to score himself a few t-shirts, a few miniature tanks and a Little Big Planet keyring. While waiting for Entropy, Ku and Will to come back from the Guild Wars 2 Developer session, we all hit up Trackmania Canyon. I’m a big fan of the Trackmania series and this one is looking good although I’m in desperate need of practice!
After lunch the less dedicated gamers (read: Dave and my dad) left and the rest of us wandered around the expo. I got to try my hands on a 3DS, playing Zelda. While I wouldn’t say the 3D aspect added to the experience, it certainly wasn’t as distracting as some have said it is. 3D on 3 22’’ monitors though? Yes please! The indie games arcade and career fair were a little on the small size but perfectly adequate. I tried my hand at Waves, an Indie top down shooter, which is oodles of mildly frustrating fun that makes you want to hit “try again” in the same way Tetris does.
Other highlights of the day include OnLive giving out vouchers to get their TV console for £1 (usually £70), but I remain unconvinced by the entire deal. If I’m going to pay £30 for a game, I want to own it. Choosing a subscription seems a good idea, but with a rather lacklustre library at the moment I’m very sceptical. Towards the end of the day it got obvious that there wasn’t as much here as there was at Gamescom, and Somnium, Andy, Cornish, Will and I retreated to the bar for a couple of pints.
Ku plays Guild Wars 2, while Cornish, Somnium, Andypanda and Ent watch
In the meantime, Entropy and Ku were queuing up for Guild Wars 2. The lines were a lot still shorter than the 5 hour wait I’d endured at Gamescom a few weeks ago, but still Ku was in the last 15 mins of her play session when we arrived at nearly 6pm. While snapping a few pictures, she finished her demo and joined the throng of fans gathering around Colin Johanson asking questions. Poor guy, he had 15 or so obviously hardcore fans bombarding him with questions, but not once did he stop smiling. Total pro.
Amongst the various questions about betas, release dates and stuff, I asked about activities for an upcoming article I’m writing. The highlight though was probably Colin apologising for Polymock.
“I do need to apologise for that. It wasn’t how I intended it to be. When I first designed it you played your pieces on a board in front of you and battled that way.”
“Kinda like chess?”, a fan asked.
“Yeah kinda like chess. In the end the release date for Eye of the North was approaching and the developers came to me and said they didn’t have enough time. What made it into the game was a compromise.”
When asked if Polymock would be going into Guild Wars 2, Colin told us that nothing had been decided yet but he was hopeful the original idea would make it. The event made it onto the ArenaNet Flickr stream before a couple of burly security guards ushered us out of the Expo at 7pm.
Colin speaks with fans
All in all the day was good. Andy counted the day as a plus, leaving with a decently full loot bag (provided by Playstation) of stuff he’ll probably never use or wear. The queues were shorter and my feet didn’t ache anywhere near as much as they did at the end of day 1 at gamescom. It’s a mildly disappointing experience when compared to the huge conventions, but I’m glad of the time spent in Earl’s Court and the for the excellent company.
If you want to check out more of what happened on the day, the photos are up on my gallery.
Eurogamer Expo 2011: Preview
8 months ago
Yup I’m at it again. This Friday I’ll be down in London attending the Eurogamer Expo 2011, meeting lots of familiar and new faces and playing a few games. I didn’t plan on going to this convention at all, but seeing as how our plans for this time of year changed it seems silly not to go to one that’s less than 2 hours drive from my front door.
I’ll be armed with my trusty (and fully charged this time) camera again, and will be sliding my pictures the direction of Will and Talk Tyria. Of course, the pictures will also go up on the gallery linked at the top of my blog in due time and I’ll let you know when they’re there.
Mystic Spiral will be representing again, with 7 of us attending over the course of the 4 days. I’ll also be bringing my Dad along to his first gaming event, who is very nerd friendly after reading “Fantasy Freaks and Gamer Geeks” a couple of years ago (I recommend it by the way). He’s also been an avid gamer as long as I can remember – he taught me to play Lemmings at a really early age and I stole his original Game Boy console at every opportunity. He was quite a serious Civilization 3/4 player at one point and although his gaming now consists of Tiger Woods and alike, It feels like coming full circle. We’ll make a proper gamer of him again!
Keep an eye out over the next week or so for my impressions of the Expo, and how our offering fares next to the German’s. If you spot me at the expo, feel free to come over and say hi. I don’t bite and love putting faces to handles! Likewise, if you fancy going out for a drink Friday or Saturday, tweet or email me (tasha.darke <at> googlemail.com).
Gamescom 2011: Sunday, Ree Soesbee and the Yogscast
8 months ago
This post is a continuation from Gamescom 2011: Saturday’s dash of culture. You may also wish to read Gamescom 2011: Friday and the thief.
To Sunday then and our last day in Cologne. Our flights weren’t until early evening so we all left our hotel and headed back to gamescom to tidy up any loose ends and pass the time. On Friday I’d gotten hands on time with Guild Wars 2 and the thief and had a few questions that wanted answering. Somnium and Jareth wanted to watch the final of the DotA 2 competition and others wanted to play various other games so we all split up.
Heading to the NCSoft stand with Zeflakey, our first port of call was to find Katya and Zerk who were queuing up to have a go on the game. After saying hello and having a quick chat I went looking for Ree, which wasn’t hard as she was only a few paces behind us. I introduced myself and started by asking her about Aleem’s Penance and who Aleem was.
“You know I’m not sure, but you’re right the name does sound familiar.” She paused. “I really don’t know if I can answer that one. Eric Flannum named the areas in Sparkfly Fen.” Smiling she added, “our fans come up with the best questions. One of them asked me earlier how many fingers asura have. There’s 4 on the drawing up there but I thought there were only 3 in game.” Turns out there are only 3 fingers on the in game models. And male asura wear the cutest boxers with little carrots on them.
I asked her why dungeons were being limited to 5 players and started explaining why that was tough as a guild leader wanting to take my guild through dungeons. Ree shook her head. “Don’t do dungeons,” she replied. “Do the big world bosses instead. Some of them take 4 to 5 dynamic events to be completed before they’ll spawn and having numbers will help you a lot. The reason we don’t allow more than 5 in a dungeon is because any more than that and the performance of the game starts to suffer with all the animations. But in the open world we deal with it slightly differently and can cope with the numbers.” That’s laid to rest any possibility of scaling dungeons, but I am quite disappointed with dynamic events (even epic ones) being the only thing to do for large parties of near max level players. With a finite number of bosses I fear the options will get old fast. Enough of that for now though, I have a piece on guilds in Guild Wars 2 coming up in the next few weeks.
Finally I asked her why there’s so much time between the Guild Wars 2 novels being released in the US and Europe. “We don’t have anything to do with that. Its all the publisher. I send them the manuscript and in a few weeks it appears in the book store – we don’t have any more control over it than that. Maybe you can preorder?” she asked.
“Its still a 3-5 week wait for it to be shipped. The first book I was able to buy electronically on Amazon but for the second book they’d blocked UK buyers from the US store.” Ree looked shocked at my reply. “In the end I did order it to be shipped from the States, but it meant I pretty much had to stay off all fansites in the meantime.”
She looked apologetic. “Well I can’t promise anything, like I said its out of my hands but I can bring it up at the next meeting.” I thanked her for her effort on this and the rest of the world she’s helping to make, wished her a good convention and safe trip home.
Entry for the case modding competition
Zeflakey and I wandered around for a while before meeting up with the others for lunch, after which we went to check out the case modding competition. There were some amazing entries; a 1u chassis that had been burnt that housed a computer, a pc that had water pouring over it, buildings and a stunning perspex case that had been etched all over. Jareth had a go on Sonic Generations which actually looks like a surprisingly good game (you can toggle 3d and 2d views), and a few of the others played Zombies Must Die, a party game where players must make their way out of the town while mowing down zombies as best as possible. Check it out – its a perfect game for when you have mates over.
Minecraft house on the fridge
Sadly that was our time up at gamescom. On the way out we stopped by one of the merchandise stalls to get some t-shirts & other bits and bobs. Somnium and I picked up the last pack of Minecraft fridge magnets from the stall. There was one more foam pick axe there which a lady next to us wanted to buy, but the merchant wouldn’t sell, saying they were going to be auctioning off later in the day. She was distraught at the news saying she really wanted to get the pick axe so she could get it signed by Simon and Lewis of the Yogscast who were at the convention. We’d looked for them lots and hadn’t found them, or gotten one of the cardboard hats that were being given out. Thinking she had an impossible task ahead of us we headed to the airport.
As we were going through border control to get on the airport, Somnium tapped me on the arm and whispered to me, “Hun, you see those guys in front of us, isn’t that Simon and Lewis?” I looked and sure enough it was. After following them through passport control we saw that yup they were getting on the same flight as us.
I managed to control myself until we got to passport control in the UK when someone in the party noticed that Lewis had his bag open. The inner fangurl couldn’t be contained any longer and blurted out “Um Lewis your bag is open.” Creepy stalker or excited fan? There’s a fine line. Maybe I crossed it but we all have our heroes and I’ll probably never get another chance to meet them.
So the verdict of the entire trip? Gamescom may have gotten too big to be enjoyable. The length of the queues for the big games is too much for anyone to consider going in unless you have all week or that is the only thing you want to play. As for Guild Wars 2 itself, I’m very impressed with the improvements in PvE, pleasantly surprised at how fluid the thief is compared to my less than awesome experience with the ranger last year.
My concerns for the game have mostly boiled down to the lack of observer mode or replays for pvp, what guilds are going to do as a group and what will the ranger be like once all the tinkering is done.
Bring on Eurogamer Expo!
Gamescom 2011: Saturday’s dash of culture
8 months ago
This post is a continuation from Gamescom 2011: Friday and the thief
The Chocolate Museum
Let no one say conventions are not exhausting. Not only is there hours of standing, sitting, waiting and walking to do but there’s also the evening parties. Friday night saw the beginning of the Gamescom Festival, where the streets of Cologne were blocked off with live musical entertainment and gaming demonstrations in the city for everyone to enjoy. Sounds great! Except our hotel was next to said location and little sleep was had. Ooops.
Since Saturdays at conventions are always horribly crowded we had already opted to have a lazy morning and explore the cultural delights of our host city in the afternoon.
Mmm chocolate...
First stop was the chocolate museum on the west bank of the Rhein. Inside was a history of chocolate, games on the economics of chocolate buying and selling as well as advertising through the ages. The highlight for me though was the room containing the various machinery used to make the chocolate. Watching moulds being filled, cooled, emptied, wrapped and boxed is strangely hypnotic. But then I’m a sucker for museums at the best of times.
After having a sit down and a drink at a local pub we wandered up the river towards the cathedral, an imposing gothic building a little north of us. Luckily the weather was beautifully warm with a nice breeze and the riverside was filled with people enjoying the sunshine. Snapping a quick picture of “Viking River Cruises” in honour of our Swedish guild mates who couldn’t make it on this meetup we headed inland up a well groomed and busy area… and spotted the following on the base of a statue:
Classic
Yes we’re an immature bunch. But this was an obscure sight against the throng of families around the area. Huzzah for German liberties.
Stained glass in Cologne cathedral
The cathedral itself is beautiful. Its undergoing some renovation at the moment but is covered in gargoyles and grotesques on the outside and some of the most unique examples of stained glass on the inside, including this modern offering on the left. The publically open crypt is a little on the small side but this cathedral has an open, relaxed and friendly feel. I highly recommend a visit to this cathedral if you get the opportunity – I enjoyed it more than I did St Paul’s in London even without ascending its towers to view the surrounding area. There’s also some archaeological work going on inside the cathedral which was of additional interest.
Before leaving the cathedral area, we went looking for a brewhouse that was marked as a must see in one of the tourist guides we had. It took us a while to find it and when we did the place was heaving. We opted for the ice cream parlour instead which oddly served spaghetti ice cream with fruit. I’m told it was lovely but opted for something doused in coffee and liqueur instead.
That evening we met up with some more friends, this time it was the guild leader and her boyfriend of an allied guild. Mystic Spiral has been allied with The Legendary Survivors for over 4 years now but we’ve never had the opportunity to meet any of their number. Katya and Zerk are from Slovenia and had been offered a deal they couldn’t refuse from ESL Slovenia. The 10 of us slipped through Cologne’s backroads to find a suitable restaurant that we could chat at and found a nice Italian place off the beaten track. It was a delight to spend the evening with the both of them, the food was great (if a little more expensive than other nights) and the conversation better. After dinner some of the group went back to the hotel while the rest of us went out for cocktails. If you ever find yourself in All Bar One in Freisenplatz, order the Zombie cocktail.
L to R: Molly, Jareth, Somnium, Tasha, Master_Chill, TeamFuzzock, Sevenforce
Ps: Thanks to Zeflakey for use of her pictures!
Gamescom 2011: Friday and the thief
8 months ago
This post is a continuation from Gamescom 2011: Thursday, more PvP and parties.
Pink Moa!
Friday can be summed up in a single word: queues. If Thursday was busy, Friday was heaving. My group parted ways as soon as we got into the convention, Zeflakey and TeamFuzzock heading off to get on Diablo 3, while Jareth, his girlfriend and I queued up for Guild Wars 2. I could tell it was going to be a long wait when we started. About half an hour in, Zeflakey and TeamFuzzock came back to the ArenaNet stand and told us they weren’t going to get to play Diablo 3 – Blizzard had stopped letting people get in the queue which was at a 4 to 5 hour wait.In the end it took me that long to get on to Guild Wars 2. While waiting I got to watch the Lore Q&A and other people playing the demo. My two highlights can be seen to the left: a candy floss pink moa bird, and a clown inspired charr. Love the character customisation options people! Beautiful, ugly and ridiculous.
Lawl charr
Jareth’s girlfriend was the first amongst our group to get on and I waited for my turn watching her play a human elementalist with interest. She’s not a “gamer”. She’d come along because Jareth wanted to come (he’s a friend of mine from my university days and was the one who introduced me to Guild Wars) and have a bit of fun on holiday. Her previous experience with MMOs was 20 minutes on World of Warcraft which she found extremely frustrating – she hasn’t even played Guild Wars and 95% of her limited gaming experience is on the DS.
She had maybe 3 minutes of instructions from Jareth on the bare basics – how to move, attack etc and then she was off. A few things struck me during her play time. Firstly how the human starter area has changed since I played the demo last year. Gone are the cowering villagers which are replaced with a single instruction to go to the inn, a good move in my eyes which stops the “kill ten rats” feel. Second was the new method of learning skills where new skills are unlocked the more you use the ones you currently have. Her second skill unlocked around 5 minutes after she loaded up her character (I’ve been informed its 10 uses). Her third skill unlocked around 15 minutes later.
Mmmm Pie...
I’ve heard some comment that this process is too slow, but I was talking about her experiences with the game later in the day over lunch and Molly told me she found the pacing perfect. “I’m not used to this kind of game, any faster and I would have felt overwhelmed” she told me. What also struck me was how quickly she picked everything up. “Yeah I was quite surprised at that too, but everything felt so natural. It was intuitive.” She helped around one of the farms, putting out fires and feeding cows, cleared around the dam and rounded off her game time with a trip to a nearby orchard and collecting apples for pies. Queensdale is beautiful, although I’m a little disappointed that the event with wurms in a field has been replaced by oozes in a field. I liked the nod to pre-searing.
When my turn came on the demo and I’d finished taking the pictures for Tigerfeet (who has done an awesome job of putting the pictures to use), I rolled an asuran thief which is one of the classes I’m interested in playing at launch. I was anxious to play a mid level area having played the starter areas previously, and not play in an area that others had. I’d had plenty of opportunity to watch people playing on the beach area while waiting, so mapped to an area in the south west corner of Sparkfly Fen. As soon as I landed, I saw an ArenaNet employee nearby who started running away in front of me across the open, swampy terrain. I followed, curious where they were leading me and another ArenaNet employee joined us.
For the next 20 minutes we fought through random enemies. I wanted to see how the thief would work in normal combat so I started attacking things that looked mean and hard hitting. My pistols gave me some really nice skills – Vital Shot (“A shot to the vitals”), Body Shot (“A shot to the body”), Unload (“Unloads your pistols at the target”), Retreating Shot (“Fire a parting shot at your foe, then evade to a safe distance”) and Head Shot (“Daze your foe with a head shot”).
I quickly got into a rhythm, using the first 3 skills to cause damage, using retreating shot when I was taking a bit too much damage, and head shot when the Anet employees were taking a bit too much heat. My role in the party didn’t feel much different to how I play my ranger in Guild Wars, with options of dealing damage and controlling the enemy. I never got on with the assassin in Guild Wars at all but although I was squishy the thief has enough options to get out of trouble if needed.
The downsides – stealing items is mostly a gimmick mechanic. The items you get 90% of the time are not worth the time wasted to obtain them and you’d be better off spending the initiative and shooting stuff. I found it a bit hard to use my health skill too but I’m guessing that’s mostly because I wasn’t trying to use it right – playing from the comfort of my study it wouldn’t have been an issue.
The area I was in... but in English
I didn’t play around with stealth very much or the other weapons due to time constraints. While running north west of where I waypointed in, I saw a small passageway which ended up leading to Aleem’s Penance, a closed area with steep hills on either side, lots of trees and stone structures. We took out a minor boss in the area and celebrated with a session of cheering. I spotted the entrance to a tunnel that wasn’t marked on the map and went for an explore, my 2 new friends in tow. We ended up on the shoreline and I jumped into the water, anxious to get a taste of underwater combat before the timer ended.
I wasn’t disappointed. I’d been looking for beasties and found quaggan who I have a very big soft spot for. I greeted the one that was nearby, had a bit of a poke around their houses and swam on to find something to beat up. Underwater combat it turns out is quite hard to control. Whereas on land it was easy to work out where I was going to go and not over aggro, underwater it was totally different. I don’t think its a problem with underwater combat, just that its an unusual situation to be in in an MMO and more experience is required to properly control my character underwater. Noticing I only had a minute left on the clock, I typed a message of thanks and good bye to the developers who had accompanied me and contributed so much to my enjoyment of the game, and left the station to the next happy demo-er.
Unfortunately I was left with more questions. Aleem was a familiar name but I couldn’t pinpoint where from, so I resolved to find Ree or John before coming home and ask them where the name came from. The previous night’s dinner had also brought up questions about dungeons relating to guild outings that I wanted to ask. That would have to wait for Sunday.
I met up with my friends for a late lunch. Turned out that in my absence, TeamFuzzock had been back to find the Wildstar developer he’d taken a shine to and apologise for the previous night. In the process, he’d been asked if he’d mind going on camera and giving his “opinion” of Wildstar as “one of the more experienced players of the game”. Remember me saying he didn’t like the game? Well you can see him awkwardly reaching for good stuff to say on Youtube here. Enjoy!
Gamescom 2011: Thursday, more PvP and parties.
9 months ago
This post is a continuation from Gamescom 2011: Wednesday and PvP
Cosplayers
The next morning we sent TeamFuzzock for another flirt with his favourite Wildstar developer and got the tickets for the party. I should point out that TeamFuzzock and I dated through university, spending 4 years together and breaking up around 3 years ago. We remaining close friends afterwards and he was an usher at my wedding. Zeflakey and TeamFuzzock dated for a few months earlier this year (and no its not weird). So both Zeflakey and I were constantly teasing TeamFuzzock the entire trip about all those flaws you only find out about someone when you’ve dated them and the new woman he apparently had his eye on. To top it off he didn’t really like Wildstar as a game, but the developer was so enthusiastic about it he didn’t have the heart to tell her what he really thought. This would come back to bite him.
I was mostly on my own until lunch as JR had asked me to cover the PvP match and have a chat with Izzy about Conquest. He told me the Battle of Khylo map was the final result of around 30 or 40 iterations and designs which were made, played and discarded or altered. When I asked how many maps there would be in the game, he said as many as they felt would be fun to play, and they would probably make hundreds of maps in the process. In terms of preventing the stalemates we saw in GvG, he said they’d designed Conquest with this in mind. “Using capture points really helps us, because we can easily see when something was captured and count how many points that has earnt.” And of course, that can be communicated to the players easily too. When I asked about observer mode I was told that it was tricky and they were still deciding what to do about observer mode and replays. Fingers crossed my end for both as without them there’s no point releasing PvP at all.
The showcase match started late so I ended up talking to Katiechops and a few of the others from Boon Control who are all very friendly. Katiechops said they had had a few days to practice and were hoping for some really close matches. He recalled how the guild had reacted initially to the game, each rolling different characters to what they usually would have done as there wasn’t a holy trinity and then claiming that every profession they had rolled was the best. Where as the other members played a variety of professions during their matches, he preferred to play guardian. Asking him about the map and the feel of Conquest, he told me he felt the map was quite close and that it offered a lot of options in terms of strategy and line of sight – there were times he’d hidden in houses while waiting for enemy players to run past.
Karasu and Mewulf were also covering the match which was to a packed arena by the time it went on. Previously on Wednesday there were a handful of people around, and earlier that morning half the chairs were full. I estimated around 650 seats in the arena which were all full for the PvP match, people were 4 deep sitting on the floor in front of the stage and people standing several deep on all sides of the arena. Highly anticipated doesn’t cover it. I didn’t see much of the match itself as I was trying to take pictures, but it seemed to go down quite well. I understand looking at just what the elementalist was doing wasn’t overly interesting – and highlights the need for spectators/observers to the match.
From Dust
Afterwards, I met up with the other 7 and had some lunch. We had a quick wander around and snapped a few cosplayers but the volume of people was getting to our group so we agreed to leave early and split up to maximise our time. I jumped on From Dust and had 10-15 minutes on an early stage. I was reminded a lot of Black and White which I played extensively in my younger years. Its a must purchase for me. If you love god games, get it. While waiting for everyone to meet up at the entrance to the convention we snapped a rather good picture of Cologne’s cathedral while my husband played dead due to the muggy heat.
Cologne's cathedral
That night it poured it down. Thunder rolled and lightning lit up the sky as we half ran to Goldfinger’s for the NCSoft VIP Party. This was rain that was angry at the world and wanted to make you have a miserable time because of it. So we got determined not to. Cue the liberal application of vodka and beer. I got to talk to quite a few community members (hai jonny10, bsoltan and poke) and also hung out with Mewulf some more. The bad point of the party is that really most of the people there want to talk, but you can’t because the music is so loud. Still, I had a good night and dodged the hangover the next morning so I’m counting it as a plus.
The highlight of the night? The Wildstar dev coming up to TeamFuzzock to say hi, and he ignored her because he didn’t recognise her without her Wildstar shirt on. GG.
Gamescom 2011 – The day before…
9 months ago
Friends are gathering at my house, bags are (kind of) packed and in a few hours I’ll be flying out to Cologne. Needless to say I’m excited about hitting gamescom again. Last year was a blast and with 10 friends being there over the course of the next 5 days, laughs and fun will be abound. And if previous meet ups have been any thing to go by, moments that at least one of us wants to forget…
The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that the site has changed a little bit and there’s a “Gallery” link in the menu bar which will take you to my picture gallery. If all goes to plan, I’ll be uploading pictures of the show nightly to that gallery including lots of Guild Wars 2 monitor grabs. Yes the domain is different to this one, a decision which was related to bandwidth and my hosting solution. Already uploaded are my pics from last years gamescom, and Leipzig 2008 which are all tagged up. Do not expect the photos uploaded this week to be tagged! I’d rather be out drinking than sat in the hotel tagging, which I’ll do when I get back next week.
I’m not sure if I’ll get round to blogging here while I’m out there, but I will of course write when I’m back. Lots. I have agreed to do a write up of the exhibition PvP match on Thursday for Guild Wars 2 PvP and get the answers to a dozen or so burning PvP questions. Keep an eye on their site for that, and the exclusive pictures they get from me. Tigerfeet from Secret Agent Cat will also be detailing the character customisation options and will also be getting a load of exclusive pictures.
With the news last night of what has changed in Tyria since I last played, I’m more and more excited to be jumping back into it. Last year, GW2 felt like that pair of shoes that are falling apart but you can’t throw away – comfy and right. I’m hoping to find out more about the guild system, the extended experience apps and crafting but I expect all won’t be “finalised”. I’ll be looking at playing as many combinations as possible, but my aims are Asuran Thief and Norn Guardian. I’m still looking for a profession to call home after all.
See you when I get back folks, and if you happen to see me on GWTV send a tweet 
Guilds in Guild Wars 2: If You Make It, They Will Come
This post was submitted to be part of Guild Mag’s Blog Carnival 2. To see other posts that were entered, check their site from September 25th.
It’s no surprise that any information about guilds in Guild Wars 2 is very highly scrutinised. It’d be like Star Trek Online not being picked over for its adherence to canon set by the TV show, or World of Warcrack not being forever cited as the addiction-inducing widow-maker that the mainstream media like to portray it as. With a word that is inherently social in the game’s title and a plot line that involves drama so heavily, guilds are an important aspect of Guild Wars 2. Since guilds are the only player-made content to be announced so far, its important that players are not hindered from creating the organisations they want to.
The biggest bone of contention around is the decision to let one account join multiple guilds, and the most common objection is that as guilds won’t have the full attention of a player, there won’t be a sense of loyalty and cohesion amongst its members. However looking at other games in the MMO genre, its common to find a single character to single guild relationship. In these games (WoW, Rift, Aion to highlight a few), guilds fare just fine. Some of them are massive, some small, some loosely coherent, some tightly knit. So why the concern?
I’m of the opinion that many leaders in Guild Wars have become lazy at best and arrogant at worst, as they have been able to demand the full attention of their members by the construction of the guild system. Its hard for players to accurately judge the suitability of a guild in a couple of days, so sampling a variety of guilds and finding the right one takes a lot of time. After you’ve been a member for a few weeks, leaving a guild becomes a big deal. This all conspires to make leaders think they’re offering something better than they actually are. I’ve been guilty of it myself.
Cake or cookie? You must choose.
Unfortunately, this isn’t how organisation membership works in real life. Joining a book club doesn’t exclude you from joining a movie club if you have an interest in both and ArenaNet has chosen to change their guild model to echo this. Relating it back in game, the new system really does makes sense. An individual player may have a variety of interests but conversely most guilds are focused on an aspect of game play in order to offer quality with their limited time resources. In Guild Wars when a member wanted to focus on something their current guild didn’t offer, they would have no choice but to leave and find one that did. In Guild Wars 2, they can simply join a guild that helps them fulfil their new focus and need only leave their current one when it stops being relevant to them. This also applies when a player’s playing hours change. The change in the system should mean that fewer people leave a guild because they change jobs or want to take up a niche gaming activity.
However, there’s also nothing to stop players deciding that a guild just isn’t for them and that’s just fine. It’s a good point to look at the concept of loyalty and how it relates to leading a guild. Josiah Royce in his 1908 book The Philosophy of Loyalty gave the short definition of “the willing and practical and thoroughgoing devotion of a person to a cause”. This makes little sense from the player’s point of view from joining a guild. Loyalty may be what an authoritarian leader desires from their members, but no player joins a guild because they want to be loyal.
The truth is no matter how much time and effort people sink into making a guild, for most members they will be nothing more than organisations of convenience. While the reasons why some players choose to seek guilds are wide and varied, but usually it is because they wish to accomplish something more efficiently and/or require more people to tackle content. This rarely changes no matter what game you are playing, from an FPS to an RTS to an MMO. If you’re a guild leader, let the following horribly mutilated Wayne’s World 2 quote be your mantra – if you make it, they will come. Achieving this is mostly common sense as you’ve been participating in and contributing to communities since the day you were born. For those who like a more formal approach, there’s an ever growing body of literature to help you navigate the pitfalls. If coherence is a concern, draw comfort from the knowledge that people make close communities in the real world even though there are barely any rules about how many communities people can join.
Yup, this is a bucket of awesome - sadly not all the guild stuff is
Let’s talk a bit about drama, because the picture being painted here is not one of Mr Johanson riding a horse and repeatedly swinging his sword. There is the possibility for inter-guild drama, but this will happen no matter what organisational structure ArenaNet choose. Since connections between guilds by virtue of player memberships are likely to be a horribly messy affair, the best that anyone can do is look after what they can (their guild) and inform who they can. Because guilds will be more interconnected, there will be more pressure on the individual to manage their own image as tales of their behaviour will spread.
The flip side to the drama coin comes in the form of splinter groups within guilds – or rather groups of members making their own guilds for private conversations. Rather like gangs in the school playground, this has the potential to make a tough or hostile environment to newcomers. Likewise it may create suspicion amongst guild members excluded from the splinter guild. But again, this isn’t a new problem. It was possible to do this in Guild Wars, just outside the game using instant messengers and IRC. If this is of interest to you, please get in touch as it’s a subject I’m really interested in discussing with people.
With respect to guild reputation, chances are people won’t know that nutter screaming profanities in the middle of the city is a member of a particular guild, as it’s going to be really hard to neatly display all a player’s allegiances on their character’s model. And most won’t pay attention to which guild they are in unless they repeatedly cause a problem.
Overall then, it should be business as usual for guilds and those who run them. Allowing players to join more than one guild doesn’t present leaders with any new problems to overcome. Rather it becomes up to leaders as to how involved they want their members to be with each other. If you’re simply looking to create a pool of people interested in an aspect of the game, your life will be easy. If you’re wanting a group of players with diverse interests that play various aspects of the game together, your life won’t be any more difficult than it would have been in any other game. You may have slightly different challenges, but they are nothing new. In fact, people are more likely to be forgiving of any flaws and hang around longer. This extends to newly formed guilds too, who have a short straw no matter what guild system is used.
The proposed guild system in Guild Wars 2 doesn’t restrict players from creating any type of guild they want to. Making a fun, successful and coherent community starts with an approachable leader, so relax and enjoy yourself – gaming is meant to be fun after all! Make something worth being a part of and people will be part of it.