Creating Your Own Fun

Too much pipeweed

The next few paragraphs talk about a fun experience I had last night, skip over them if you want the core point =)

Last night, I had more fun in an MMO than I’ve had in a long time. The funny thing was, I was doing something that I usually don’t do: roleplay. I’ve dabbled in it a little n the past but it’s something I’d generally do in passing tiny bits at a time. Nothing in-depth or consistent, at all. So, when I got invited to an RP gathering on LotRO last night, I put it off for about 45 minutes to “finish a couple of quests”.

That was true, I was questing, but part of me was hesitant to put off leveling to take part in something that I’d possibly not enjoy or even find a little awkward. Still, the person asking me to join them (I figured there’d be about five people, give or take. It was a small guild gathering, after all) was very outgoing and I didn’t want to be stand-offish. After all, one of my resolutions with LotRO was to enjoy the journey as much as my destination.

When I got to my friend’s kin house (guild house), I was surprised to see several guilds represented by over twenty people in the room. Tables abounded with food and a keg stood on the far wall. A couple of people were playing a duet on a harp and lute in the middle of the room while several others danced. There was a lot of idle in-character conversation and, like a real party, it wasn’t all about the troubles of the world. It was less “the shadow looms in the East, doom is at our door” and more “It’s been a long time, welcome to the party! Can I offer you some ale or some food?” In the back, a lone person stood smoking by the fire; another browsed through the kin’s bookshelves.

I wound up staying for almost an hour. It was genuinely fun because the players made it so. Game mechanics helped (music, ale that makes you “merry”, various pipeweed) but more than anything, I think it was because the people were into it. Even as a mostly dormant roleplayer, I was drawn in. I found myself wanting to explain my shabby leather armor (I’m a tank but can’t wear heavy armor yet) and still bulging midsection. It was contagious.

The whole thing got me thinking about what it is that keeps so many people into the genre. Even though many claim that games like WoW and LotRO are Massively-Single-Player RPGs, I think that misses the point a bit. Whether or not you’re soloing, you have the opportunity, at almost every turn, to interact with other players. We get to see good people and bad, as they come into and out of our gaming lives. Be it direct or not, they have an impact upon us and our impressions of the game. I know, a game may perhaps be more fairly judged on its own merit but an undeniable part of any MMO is the community. They’re a part of the world, like in real life, whether we all would care to separate them from it or not.

But, I think that’s great. In any large community, you’ll get people that are morons but you’re also going to get a lot of genuinely good people as well. I have a lot of fond memories of PuGing through instances on WoW. I met many people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Together, with faces always changing, we shared laughs and overcame many challenges of the game.

I tend to believe that as players we make our own fun. If you’re with like-minded people, even things that seem boring can be brought to life. How many small events with your guild have you had turn out to be more fun than you expected? Was running across the map naked that much fun or was it because of the people you did it with? On that same token, how many instance runs/raids have been a blast because you clicked with the people you were there with?

That’s one of the reasons a strong community is important. I read Beau’s blog pretty frequently (it’s pretty good, you should check it out) and I heard him mention once that he likes the lesser played games because the community is smaller and more well knit. For all of the reasons a big game might succeed, sometimes the closeness of the players gets lost in translation. That’s one of the reasons why players railed against cross server scenarios in WAR. Community is important.

And on that same token, so is community enhancement. And encouragement. Players should be encouraged to come together and interact without forcing them to do so in order to progress. Since we can create our own fun, I think it’d help the new offering of games to maintain that MMO feel some people think is missing without impeding those who would prefer to solo. WAR could benefit most from this, I think. They have a great universe flush with possibility. But right now, there’s not much incentive to be around other players outside of the pursuit of RvR. Luckily, RvR brings about interaction and fun all its own.

So, to sum up my thoughts, last night showed me again that we can find fun in the creativity and humor of other players. Bringing that interaction to life through game elements, dungeons, and the like, is what MMOs are all about. In the end, I don’t think it’s the gear that drives the player who get the most enjoyment out of gaming. I think it’s doing something fun made funner by doing it with other people. Massively Single Player? Maybe in Counter-Strike but not in any MMO I’ve ever played.

Whew! What a Week It’s Been!

Wow! This past week has been nuts. I’ve been totally absent from blogging since the unraveling of the valentines day mystery hints. I apologize for that. I’ve been up to a lot though, IRL and in-game.

 

Let’s take a step back to the beginning of last week. I’d mentioned then that school had started up again and, with it, student teaching. The funny thing that’s happened though, is I’ve spent more time reading about games than playing them! For the longest time, I’d come home from college or whatever I’d done after and hop on WAR, or WoW, or Vanguard to drift away from the stresses of the day. Now though, college isn’t college. It’s more of a full time teaching job, with all of the responsibilities and obligations associated. So, I’ll read my favorite blogs on lunch break, or what have you, and come home ready to crash.

 

That was last week leading into this week.

 

I’ve found my groove though!  So what’s with all the silence around here? Well, it’s hard to write about games if you’re not playing any. When I’ve gotten home this week, I’ve spent it in a game or two. Admittedly, it’s been mostly WoW, despite my inclinations to get some things done in other titles. We’ll get there in a minute.

 

So, what’s up in the wide world of WoW? Pretty much the same thing as any level 80 sans raiding Naxx. I’ve had great luck with PuGs though. Monday, I was able to get into a normal vault run (two pieces of tanking warrior gear dropped) followed immediately by a run of normal Obsidian Sanctum. I’ve been able to get my T7 hands last week and this latest run got me the 22 slot bag. So, apart from badges, I have everything I need from OS10 standard! I’d love to try to with some drakes up but the PuGs I’ve been in have been real hesitant about that. Personally though, a 0 drake run is so easy that I’m going to start pushing for a little more challenge.

 

Skip this section if you don’t want a rundown of Obsidian Sanctum – from a ranged DPS perspective.

 

For those than have never been, here’s a (very basic) run down of the sanctum. You have three drakes up surrounding a central island with the main raid boss. There’s trash in between each drake. The way we’ve been doing it is to go clockwise around the zone. On the first drake, tank and spank until he opens a portal. When he does, go inside and kill the single elite you’ll find there. When he dies, you phase out back into the normal boss fight. Rinse and repeat. Oh, and watch out for the red circles on the ground. It’s the same thing for the far right drake, essentially. On the second drake, the one in the back, we haven’t even been going into the portal. This guys summons little whelpling adds. If you have the AOE for it group them together and burn them down. This process repeats.

 

When all the drakes are down, you can take down the big dragon in the middle. Stay away from his tail and don’t stand right in front of him. Throughout the fight, he does an aoe you can easily move out of and also calls lava waves. These can be in front or in back. When you see the emote about the lava churning, move your camera to the side and look for a split in the lava. Stop what you’re doing and get in between the split. RIGHT IN-BETWEEN. If you’re off-spot, you’re going to die to the lava wave or come real close.

 

And that’s it. Rinse and repeat. I know this isn’t all inclusive but if you want a basic idea without reading a plethora of WoWhead comments, this is it. If I’m missing something, and I know I probably am, feel free to add it in the comments.

 

Begin reading again.

 

Anyways, half-assed guides aside, I’ve also been able to get into a couple of heroics. I ran heroic Oculus yesterday, which was fun. I love drake-based combat. It went easy as pie except for the last boss where it took my group a couple of tries to move away from his arcane barrages on time.

 

All of this dungeon running let me figure out an important fact about 200 series nVidia cards. They seem perfect at first. They crank out the FPS at blazing speeds with games set to the highest settings. It’s enough to really make you satisfied with your purchase. Until you step into a raid encounter and your FPS drops to 1-2. After some digging I found out that the 200 series cards have trilinear optimization set by default to “on”. You must go into the nVidia Control Panel and manually disable it. Apparently, TO tries to anti-alias every spell animation at once which destroys fps. I have the 500dps on Archavon to prove it. Disabling makes no noticeable difference and gave me.. wait for it… 60 extra frames a second.

 

Apart from WoW, I’ve been playing Vanguard a bit. The scale of this game simply amazes me. I’ve played through a big chunk of the trial isle (which is HUGE) and am almost always in awe of my adventures. So far, the quest requirements haven’t been revolutionary or anything but their stories and where they send you to complete them have been very cool. And there’s so much to do. It’s obvious that this was a game designed to keep you playing for a long time. You have your four scopes of play, Adventuring (normal leveling), Diplomacy (a conversation based card game), Crafting (more in-depth than any other game I’ve played), and Gathering, which is standard “find-the-node”. Vanguard really captures that essence of explore and adventure that is lost on almost every other game out there.

 

It’s art style isn’t for everyone but it does lend a lot to the immersion. It’s realistic enough where the environments seem almost real sometimes. They also have some great lighting affects which lend a lot to this. Tone mapping, which costly performance wise, is pretty cool. I love how I can immerge on the other side of an underground tunnel so see my screen go white as my characters eyes adjust to the brightness of day, only to see a beautiful expanse spread out below him.

 

Or it. I play a dog-man. No, honestly. If you took a German Shepherd, stood it up, gave it some pecs and a green robe, you’d have my little druid. He’s all good though. Lacks a little ferocity maybe (two mobs at once tend to pull his tail) but I like him.

 

I’ve been a little in between on my gaming though. Where does a newly-casual spend his free time? WoW is well and good but only if you can get a group quickly; otherwise, you pretty much grind away the time. WAR is appealing, very actually, but I’m hesitant to cancel Vanguard quite yet. This week will probably decide that for me though. Then there’s LotRO which is another great option for a casual, so perhaps I’ll play around there. The thing is, tri-juggling MMOs is hard to maintain. I’ll have to settle in somewhere and, despite WoW’s failings, it’s hard to give up on something you’ve spent so much time on.

 

I’ll get a post up on that this week.

 

So, to end this “mega-post”, what can you expect from the blog this week? More frequent posting, for one. I’ll be doing some drafting this weekend, such as the post I just mentioned, and I’m also planning on writing the second installment of “So Your Spouse Hates Video Games”. In the first part, I talked about handling it like an adult but we all know that sometimes our hobby comes under attack in a less than adult fashion. This week, we’ll look at how to dish it out as well as we can take it.

 

If you have any ideas for posts, or tips on stories, feel free to contact me at firesofwarblog@gmail.com. I’m also happy to publish guest entries, emails, etc. within reason, of course. Sorry for the quiet this past week. This week should be back on track. I hope J   

The Pieces Fit!

Today, we found out exactly what our Valentines were hinting at! It looks like we have the Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer classes coming our way. On top of that, we have two live events and a new Darkness Falls-esque dungeon to look forward to. I can’t wait to check all of this out. I’ll be waiting until the classes are available to play before I dive in (mainly due to RL butting in… damn college, taking my time),  but I’m already excited.

I was trying to hedge my anticipation but after today’s announcement, I’m officially antsy.

Sorry Darkfall, I only allow myself one monthly subscription. This news officially reserves a warm and comfy bench spot for you. Don’t worry though, I can be easily bribed away from my rule. At least for a while.

Of Instances and the Heart of the Genre

I’ve recently gotten back into Vanguard again, an event ushered in with the installation of a few much needed computer upgrades. In my search for metagaming material, I’ve stumbled across various pages on the dungeons of VG and there are lots.

I love to instance. Well, let me rephrase that, I love to dungeon crawl. In WoW, I’m always using the Looking for Group tool or keeping an active eye on the chat channels for a group looking for someone to fill a DPS slot. The same behavior applied to WAR. If I was online, I was looking for an instance run or PQ group. And if I leveled a character high enough in LotRO, I’m sure it’d be the same.

But it’s not the amount of dungeons Vanguard has that I find interesting, it’s that most of them are totally open. And not just that, some of the early dungeons can be completely soloed.

Talk about something you don’t see very often. Generally, I think that instanced dungeons is probably the better way to go for AAA MMOs. There’s less kill stealing, griefing, and personally, it tends to boost my FPS fairly substantially. In today’s gaming world, instancing solves issues created by players who don’t work well with others. Open dungeons definitely feel more immersive, though. That castle you’re raiding is actually part of the world and not a mini-game within a wider universe. Keeping dungeons “in-game” so to speak means that the world is now layered and not simply “what you see is what you get”. Maybe you can enter that cave and find a sprawling underground citadel. Or maybe beneath the ocean is a city of ice serpents.

In my mind, the main draw of MMOs is that they provide a virtual world to adventure it. The key idea there is adventure. Flat worlds, totally charted worlds, or instance segmented worlds tend to lack the unknown that makes exploring an exciting past time. In the age of the internet, to expect a game to be unknown isn’t realistic, so games must compensate for that in other ways. Regardless, an MMO that lacks the essence of a world also lacks a big part what makes the genre appealing to many, if not most, fans.

The tagline of Vanguard sums up this concept nicely, “The Only Limits Are Your Own”. Freedom. Choice. Adventure on your own terms. I know that it may seem like I’m promoting Vanguard at the moment but I’m not. That tagline is so representative of the heart of MMOs, that I wish it’s essence could be something that all MMOs subscribe to. I’ll play a Sorcerer not to deal the most DPS but because the class can do the fantastic. The same could be said for any class; you can’t experience that type of adventure in the real world, so we turn to MMOs for the opportunity to step outside of ourselves and, with the aid of imagination, feel like you’re a part of a whole different place. A place that is whole heartedly at your fingertips.

This article started about dungeons because of the amount that they can lend, through teamwork, challenge, excitement, and reward; and that they can make the world more than what it may at first seem. WAR’s PQ system is perhaps the first of several revolutionary steps towards world immersion. They bring the best parts of dungeons into the open world, breathing life into it. It brings players together and, instead of encouraging griefing, encourages team work. They provide you with a means to make an impact on the world, even if temporary. And, speaking for myself, I find some of them just plain epic. Monsters ripping trees from the ground before looming over you? Yes please.

The heart of the genre began its lifebeat in the MUD world and then exploded in a Big Bang with Everquest. Since then, pieces of it have spread from universe to universe, each without all of its missing pieces. One day, a game will come out that pulls all of those pieces together and presents it in a new… revolutionary… Evercrack.  😉

Until then, we recognize the grandeur of each game’s particular approach on the bigger gaming picture. WoW’s epic dungeons and wonderful PvE, WAR’s PQ system and RvR, LotRO’s epic questlines, and Vanguard’s massive world and open dungeons. Every MMO can have something good pulled out of it that future games can learn from. Some day, a new gorilla will come home to roost.

I Received My Valentine From Mythic Today…

So, imagine my surprise when I get home from a long day of student teaching to find a blood splattered envelope. I can only imagine my fiance’s surprise and, probably (hopefully?), deep concern.  Did Raegn get in with those card sharks again? Quizzically, she never called to tell me of the mysterious arrival.

I was a little thrown at first. There was no “sender” information on the front of the envelope but an EA Mythic stamp on the back made it all clear. Eagerly, I opened it up to find the following (click for the full size):

And here’s the bloodied envelope:

The text on the card reads:

Roses are Red

Khaine gives me power,

I’ll hunt you down,

In the Twisting

Tower…

Very cryptic, very WAR, and very cool; but, there’s more. I didn’t know what to make of the coding on the back of the card at first. Student teaching has taken so much time, I didn’t realize these cards were being sent out until just tonight. The back of the card reads 10/13  and the letter “E”. Don’t let the look of the letter fool you. At first, I thought it was an “L” but if you check out the from of the envelope, the “E” in my name is identical.

So far, we have the following letters: T, I, N, V, R, and E. The wording also seems to hint towards a Dark Elf event. Rainbow MMO’s card is more direct and tells us to be in RvR in the second week of February. So, if we take that with the “hunt you down, In the Twisting Tower” where does that bring us?

At my count, this makes two big (and hellaciously provocative) things coming our way soon. Or, perhaps we should look into that a bit too. The Greenskin’s “Predator” tip (largely assumed to be a hint towards the Choppa class) says that there’s “More to Come 1-29-09”. So, two separate dates have been thrown out. Thoughts?

These little hints really exemplify what an outstanding company Mythic is. I can say that it really enthuses me about the game and its future in their hands. This type of community is really unprecendeted in the MMO world and, if I can speak frankly, is wickedly sweet. Oh yeah, I went to high school and back in three little words.

Way to go, Mythic. If every development and community team could be as involved as yours, the gaming world would be a better place.

Wicked.

Sweet.

Update: More clues have come forth! We currently have: TNITNLVERA. Tome of Knowledge has the same letter as I do, but we’re leaning different ways on what letter it actually is (poll to be posted soon). Wizard’s and Wenches have some great ideas on what the message may be. Check it out!

Paul Barnett Interviewed for the Age of Blogging

As a special mid-month treat for you all, we in the blog-scene were able to line up an interview with Mythic’s creative director Paul Barnett. If you’ve followed the game for any length of time, you’ve probably heard a lot from him as he’s become one of, if not the, most recognizable face for Warhammer Online. And guess what, Paul wants you to blog!

The folks at Mythic have been involved in the community more than any other major label game company we’ve seen in some time. Due to time constraints we had to conduct this interview via email. Let’s see what Paul has to say…

Raegn: Does the Warhammer team read anything from the WAR blog scene? If so, is it possible to name who (individuals or departments) and if they have any favorites.

Paul: We have a six-page long list of WAR-blogs that we keep an eye on regularly. Obviously, the Community Team monitors these things more closely than anyone else, but we all have favorites that we tend to check out at least a couple times a week. As for listing them, that would be a little unfair as the reasons that one might be read more often than another are usually somewhat arbitrary and are rarely an indication that the quality of other sites is lacking. I will say that we tend to read sites that are dedicated to WAR far more often than more general sites and, obviously, sites that update regularly get the most attention.

Personally, I like sites that don’t try to ignore the other WAR blogs and instead make an effort to capture the overall moods and attitudes of the fans from all over. Try to capture the “zeitgeist”, as it were, and don’t worry too much about constantly focusing on personal opinion and “exclusive” rants.

Raegn: What role does Mythic see blogs playing in the world of the gamer and the larger gaming industry? What value do you feel they have?

Paul: Primarily, they act as a means of condensing information and ideas from a VAST array of sources and present them much more concisely and conveniently. In addition, they act as an important advocacy mechanism for the players. While we try to maintain a good relationship with our fans, both in terms of praise and in terms of criticism and concerns, it’s always important for there to be neutral third parties that can help to make sure we’re doing our jobs properly. They champion the hobby, act as a sort of soul.

Raegn: Do you feel that blogs play a more important role in information flow without official forums and will their role/import change should official forums ever come to be?

Paul: Again, for us, the blogs are more about telling US what the fans think than they are about telling the fans what WE think. From that standpoint, I think the two are largely autonomous.

Raegn: What can an aspiring blogger do to get their blog noticed by Mythic?

Paul: Write regularly about things that matter to the community. Have a pro-active voice and aim for ways to make a contribution rather than ways to throw stones. Become a resource for us to use and rely upon. Be critical AND constructive. Most importantly, be about WAR. I won’t read a blog that requires me to wade through ten posts about games I’ve never heard of in order to read something about WAR. If I want general gaming news and blogs, I already have a full list that I consult. Don’t assume that if I post a reply its not me!

Raegn: How does Mythic envision the Warhammer community growing over the next year and what of interest have you seen arise from the community so far?

Paul: Hopefully, the community will continue to expand and new, interesting voices will appear. Diversity of opinion is important.

Raegn: As creative director, what type of community content is most important to you?

Paul: To be honest, I like to hear considerate presentations of what people LIKE in the game. I realize that people are far less likely to enjoy something and then blog about it than they are to find a problem and decide to voice an opinion, but it’s just as important for us to know what we’re doing RIGHT as it is for us to know what needs fixing.

Raegn: Related to that, do you have any favorite blogs and why?

Paul: As I mentioned about, we all like different blogs for different reasons. It would be unfair to offer a partial list that would necessarily exclude a lot of great sites.

Raegn: What’s the most important community outlet that Mythic looks at when considering changes to the game?

Paul: To be honest, all of them are vital. We use different sources of feedback for all sorts of things. I do read the greenskin a lot though and yours J

Raegn: Unrelated to blogging, can you tell us something about Mythic’s development process we haven’t heard about before?

Paul: We don’t use the scrumm system. We have design training workshops and we have taken down some of our posters to replace them with new ones. The price of pop (or sodas to you yanks) hasn’t changed since we launched DAoC.

Raegn: Can you give us any new clues as to exciting things players can look forward to in WAR’s future?

Paul: Yes. But then evil marketing try to kill me.

Thanks Paul! I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and, on behalf of the larger WAR community, I’d like to thank you for all of your time and effort interacting with us, informing us, and encouraging us. Keep up the great work!

Mythic’s Mysterious Mailing

Hm, so it seems Mythic has taken advertising to a new realm. Keen, from Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog, recently received a package at his home directly from the company. What should be inside other than some red hair dye and an electric trimmer! Well, that and a mysterious card indicating a January 29th announcement. We can all surmise that this is a hint at the probable Slayer class, that is, unless they’re trying to tell Keen that he needs a new doo.

You see, this is the reason I love Mythic. Not only is it a totally “outside the box” form of viral advertising, it’s also ground floor with the community. I wouldn’t expect this kind of thing from any other company. Bravo Mythic, you continue to impress me with your involvement in the community.

So,  are we looking at the Slayer class? I sure hope so. Gotrek and Felix would be honored, I’m sure.

It might even be enough to convince me to reroll. Again. 😀

Age of Blogging: Weekly Wrap-Up

Greetings folks! Despite my absence last week, I’ve been keeping an eye on the many up and coming blogs that have started recently. I have to say, I’ve been really impressed. The quality of the writing I’ve seen, not to mention how entertaining a lot of the content is, has been really awesome to see. Keep up the great work, one and all.

 

I found myself short on time, so I’m sure I’ll miss some blogs from the first couple of weeks. If I’ve missed you, feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll spotlight you directly. Without further adieu, here’s what I’ve been reading:

 

Chosen Poorly: The author is an RPer on the only remaining EU RP realm. I liked his introductory post, “Me, Myself, and Burlok”. Usually, introductory posts are pretty cut and dry but I found this one interesting. He has a unique writing style, check it out.

 

GirlIRL: The author isn’t the average girl you’ll find in game. She’s a girl IRL too. And you know what, strange as it may seem, I know a lot of guys that like to play girls so the above fact is of note. She’s also the author of a blogging contest through Wizards and Wenches. The article linked talks about some common categories of chat in a humorous way. Definitely worth the read.

 

Kitchen Philosopher: If you’re a min/maxer, this is the blog for you. The main focus is WAR theorycrafting. There’s quite a bit of math but the author presents it in an easy to understand way so everyone can benefit. Check out his post, “Skill Coefficients 101”.

 

Shadow War: Short posts but great for quick gratification. For their length, they’re pretty entertaining.

 

Scarbigrot: The adventures of a leveling greenskin! The author chronicles his journey through the ranks. He’s a new blogger and off to a strong start. Keep it up greenie!

 

Healer at Heart: Interesting adventures of a leveling healer. He has a little bit of lore, a little bit of humor, and a lot of information to be gleaned from his stories. If you’re a healer, I’d recommend adding this blog to your RSS feeders.

 

Knights of the Feathered Hats: This blog is full of win on a few levels. First, the author’s name is Codpiece. Second, the blog name? Tee hee. And finally, good content. The post sure to garner the most hits is the “Top 5 Ways Mythic Can Improve Order”. His suggestions are good, check them out.  My personal favorite is on the graphics glitches in game. The screenshot included is too cool to ignore, even if it is a glitch. Mythic should learn from their mistake and make a legitimate mob with fingers like that. I find it more disturbing than anything rendered by an artist for any MMO currently out there.

 

Bow and Stab: Generally short and entertaining articles from a Shadow Warrior’s perspective. He was some interesting takes on oRvR and writing style I really like.

 

WarArt: Foreign language blog but we English-Only folks can enjoy the artwork. Since that’s the point of this very unique endeavor, I highly recommend it. There are some interesting pieces up right now for your viewing pleasure.

 

Nerf the Cat: Arbitrary’s (Book of Grudges) solo effort. It’s chock full of WAR goodness but also touches on other MMOs, such as LotRO. Definitely good stuff! My personal favorite is her rendition of the Lord’s Prayer. Like I told her in the comments section, that post wins the internet. We can all go home now.

 

Doodz Wherez My Blog?: I really like this blog. And it’s not just because he agrees with me on MMO language in his most recent post 🙂 He also has an unofficial “How to Make Money in WAR” guide in the works. Check him out and rake in that gold!

 

PrintscreenGG: This blog has been around for a while but is recently returning from a hiatus. Glad to have you back Printscreen!

 

And that’s all I had time for this week. Welcome to the community one and all! Again, if I missed you shoot me an email and I’ll take a peek at what you’re blogging about.

 

Until next week!

Perception or Practice?

WAR puts all of its chips on the “epic” square of the roulette table. Since before release, we’ve heard about the grandness of war; the exhilaration of taking part in a massive battle. Many envisioned mini-armies clashing on the war fields, attackers and the destined, and imagined that feeling of awe that’s attributed to a new and incredible gaming experience. 

 

So far these types of clashes have been great, forgiving the rampant performance and stability issues, of course. Even some of the harsher critics have commented that good RvR is downright fun. Recently enough, they’ve even announced a fix to the performance problems, which, ironically, is the cause of a very contentious outcry.

 

The solution is to cap the amount of players allowed into the siege based on their level. Immediately, players went to the forums expressing their concern over these scaled back encounters. Disregarding some key as-yet-unknown factors, outraged players announced proclamations of “epic fail” and other such dictums.

 

Now, other bloggers have commented on the “unknowns” here. The two that stand out to me are:

 

• What are the thresholds and total player caps?
• If you die, is your spot reserved or could you be locked out when you return?

 

Let’s address the latter first. If your spot is reserved, then you’re able to return to the fight. You have your chance at loot. More importantly, you have your chance at revenge. If they opt for a revolving door policy, when you’re dead you’re probably going to have to wait in line to get back into the action. To me, that’s just begging for player outrage. Which is why I don’t think they’ll do it.

 

And the former? I would guess that the thresholds will be as high as they possibly could be without impacting the servers.  I don’t know a specific figure, but even so, I’d wager that it’s a lot of people. Enough to fill a fortress anyways. The problem arises in the inability for battles to be bigger.

 

Let me pose a question though, are battles able to be that big now? If server crashes and choppy performance have been prevalent enough for this change to be implemented, the answer is no. I’m sure Mythic would love for 600 person battles to happen all the time. Right now though, they’re opting to scale back battles to make them big by normal MMO standards instead of, how shall we say… fricking enormous.

 

And the scaling back doesn’t necessarily translate to less epic either. There will be a lot of people either way and, as I contemplated in my raiding article, that “epic” feeling is caused first by what happens and second by how many people there are. In RvR lots of people definitely lends to that grandiosity but it’s not the end all be all. The battle itself will be the determinant.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of players judge games based on perception rather than practice. Sure, player caps sound limiting and since epicness tends to equate to scale (again, solely by subjective perception), the main focus of the game is less epic, right?

 

It’s a trap we all fall into; part of a pack mentality that’s pervaded human interaction forever. I’ve done it and posted about it, so color me guilty. I can say this though anything I’m able to try, anything I’m able to experience, I’ll gladly do it and draw conclusions from my own experience rather than those of others – at least for gaming. Breaking from the pack means time, judgment, and the possible realization that we may be in the minority. It could also mean having to explain your feelings to others who may disagree. In the end though, we come out stronger and more knowledgeable about ourselves.

 

I haven’t gone through a new siege. My perceptions are as subjective as anyone else’s except that you’ll find no judgment here. When you visit the forums, keep subjectivity in mind. Keep that notion of balanced perception and practice at the forefront. It’s a good practice not only when judging a new game system but also for most other areas of consideration in life. In the battle between perception and practice, when the two are so heavily dependent on one another, we should all keep our own individuality in mind.

 

Sometimes, the loudest voices are also the least representative.

Tips to Lower Your Latency (a Compendium)

This guide has moved along with our blog! Please update your links to it’s new home at Game by Night.

Click here to access the new guide!