Item Farming, Why?
We’ve all done it, doing the same raid over and over again hoping to get that kick ass item everyone is desperately trying to get. My questions is not why we do it, that’s pretty simple, it’s because we want that damn item. The question is why are MMORPGs setup like this to begin with? The whole point of a quest, raid or big boss fight is the challenge of completing it. Finally completing a raid or killing a boss that’s challenging is a great feeling, but only seconds after victory you’re presented with a slap in the face as the item you were hoping to get wasn’t dropped or worse yet someone else got it. So what now? Well we all know what’s next, time to run it again and again and again until hopefully one day we’re lucky enough to finally get the item.
No matter what quest your doing, after running it a dozen or so times you can’t help but start hating it. And lets hope you’re not in a small guild and have to run it with a random group, cause you know there’s going to be one guy that f@cks it up wasting 2 hrs of your time.
What I’d like to see are raids that are meant to only be completed once. Once completed everyone in the group gets the item they wanted, preferably class specific. I think this would help put a stop to item farming, which you know you hate doing and puts more emphasis on the challenge of the game. I know when I complete a raid or big boss fight, even if I don’t get the item I was looking for, I don’t want to have to do it again. Why should I? I already beat it, there’s no replay value in fighting the same guy again. Sure if someone in my guild hasn’t completed it yet, I’ll help out, but aside from that I don’t want to have to do it again. I want to move on to the next challenge.
Consider a MMORPG where there are 12 (arbitrary number) raids. Each raid is extremely challenging and in order to get all your epic items you need to complete all 12 raids. Compare that to most MMORPGS today where you first find out which raids/areas drop the item you want, then run those 5-6 raids over and over again until you have all the items. I’d much rather have to do 12 where once I complete it I’m done and can move on, instead of doing the same 5-6, completing each one a dozen times hoping to get a favorable drop.
For me I’d like to see the repetative aspects of MMORPGs removed and concentrate more on the challenge of the game. The fact that item farming is such a big part of MMOs is one of the main reasons why I end up quiting a game once I reach the level cap. There’s only so much I can take and when that time comes I’d rather quit playing then have to do the same quest/raid again.
Item Farming, Why?
We’ve all done it, doing the same raid over and over again hoping to get that kick ass item everyone is desperately trying to get. My questions is not why we do it, that’s pretty simple, it’s because we want that damn item. The question is why are MMORPGs setup like this to begin with? The whole point of a quest, raid or big boss fight is the challenge of completing it. Finally completing a raid or killing a boss that’s challenging is a great feeling, but only seconds after victory you’re presented with a slap in the face as the item you were hoping to get wasn’t dropped or worse yet someone else got it. So what now? Well we all know what’s next, time to run it again and again and again until hopefully one day we’re lucky enough to finally get the item.
No matter what quest your doing, after running it a dozen or so times you can’t help but start hating it. And lets hope you’re not in a small guild and have to run it with a random group, cause you know there’s going to be one guy that f@cks it up wasting 2 hrs of your time.
What I’d like to see are raids that are meant to only be completed once. Once completed everyone in the group gets the item they wanted, preferably class specific. I think this would help put a stop to item farming, which you know you hate doing and puts more emphasis on the challenge of the game. I know when I complete a raid or big boss fight, even if I don’t get the item I was looking for, I don’t want to have to do it again. Why should I? I already beat it, there’s no replay value in fighting the same guy again. Sure if someone in my guild hasn’t completed it yet, I’ll help out, but aside from that I don’t want to have to do it again. I want to move on to the next challenge.
Consider a MMORPG where there are 12 (arbitrary number) raids. Each raid is extremely challenging and in order to get all your epic items you need to complete all 12 raids. Compare that to most MMORPGS today where you first find out which raids/areas drop the item you want, then run those 5-6 raids over and over again until you have all the items. I’d much rather have to do 12 where once I complete it I’m done and can move on, instead of doing the same 5-6, completing each one a dozen times hoping to get a favorable drop.
For me I’d like to see the repetative aspects of MMORPGs removed and concentrate more on the challenge of the game. The fact that item farming is such a big part of MMOs is one of the main reasons why I end up quiting a game once I reach the level cap. There’s only so much I can take and when that time comes I’d rather quit playing then have to do the same quest/raid again.
“Game Management Systems”
Hello, everyone, and happy holidays! It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, and most of you are probably thinking “thank god I haven’t had to read any hateful posts from this asshole,” but who couldn’t do with a little holiday negativity? No, no, I’m not here to bash the countless holiday events that game companies host in their virtual worlds. I’m not even here to post a subjective evaluation of a game I’ve played for only 10 minutes a la my Atlantica Online review. Today we’re going to take a look at Game Management Systems, and a couple in specific: PlayOnline, and Steam. If you’ve never heard of PlayOnline, all you need to know is that it currently stands as the best example of how to not build a game management system.
What the hell is a “Game Management System”?
Truth be told, it’s just a term I use to describe applications that handle digital content to make it easier for the users to 
obtain, play, and keep their virtual assets up-to-date; it’s a way to juggle many games at once. The most prominent example of such an utility is Steam. Like in the days of old, not every person had imaginary encounters with minotaurs, dragons, or angels but most people knew what they were; much in the same way everyone knows what Steam is supposed to do, even if they’ve never used it. These utilities promise a reliable, and most importantly, safe way to acquire games for yourself or others. Not only that, they’ll keep your games organized, so that all you really have to do is run that application, then pick whatever game you feel like playing. Wait, it gets even better. This tool will even keep track of your friends, what games they’re playing, and even allow you to join your friend’s game through the utility’s friend interface. The application even provides you with an in-game overlay you can use to talk to your friends, change the application settings, etc. It promises the ability to use all your favorite applications while in-game. That is, unless PLAYXPERT beats them to it(hurry up with those 64-bit versions, slackers!). Sounds great so far, right?
Well, hold on, I’m not done yet.
Everyone benefits from the existence and support of these applications. Developers can make their games available to an international audience without having to ship boxes there, thanks to digital distribution. Additionally, it promises the potential to reduce the price of games. How can it do this? Think of Wal-mart. They can sell goods at a much cheaper price because they sell a broader array of goods. Wal-mart also keeps low prices on goods by reducing the cost to make them; irrelevant when it comes to what we’re talking about, though, as there is virtually no cost in digital distribution(no box, CD, etc). By having so many games under one roof, and completely eliminating cost of shipping, cardboard, plastic, and media, games can be made available to the public much more cheaply. These companies can even bundle a bunch of games together, and sell them at a very affordable price. Hey, who wouldn’t want to buy over a dozen games for only $75USD[1]?
There’s more. These management systems can prevent piracy. By making game activation possible only to those who have the application, and only allowing people who have legit serial keys to play on legit servers, you can successfully prevent piracy. Arguably, anyone determined enough to crack a game will eventually find a way to play it for free. If the effort and time comes out to be worth less than the 50 bucks , then great. You must be some sort of game-cracking prodigy. Unfortunately, you’ll still miss out on having the most up-to-date version of the game, and any mod developed by communities of people who paid for the game.
So that’s it. This form of content delivery:
- Is user-friendly.
- Saves a ton of time spent on organizing games with your friends, and gives you more time to actually play with them.
- Allows more people to purchase the games and encourages more companies to offer digital distribution to reach an international audience.
- Can ultimately make games cheaper, as the companies running these applications have more games to sell, and can often bundle them for an amazing price.
- Prevents piracy.
Good night, everyone!
Wait. There’s more in this article?! Damn it.
I’m sorry. I can’t go an article without some negativity. If I skipped this next part, I might lose some “street cred” and then no one would like me anymore. Corporate executives know that if you need to point out an employee’s shortcomings when speaking to them, you start with something good, then point out where that person can improve. I’m taking a similar approach. You’ve seen the benefits of such a system, now let’s take a look at a system that may not be as popular or well-known. For damn good reasons. Square-Enix manages and distributes some of their games digitally through a system called PlayOnline. The most popular game obtainable through the system is perhaps Final Fantasy XI. Some of the game’s expansions are even available for purchase through PlayOnline itself!
If PlayOnline had been the only system ever made to manage digital content, then it would have also been the last. It shits all over the idea of game evolution and progress. It makes it more difficult for players to get to the game they want to play, can cost you more money than buying the games at the store, and can drive you to set yourself on fire and jump off a bridge. The only thing it can do in comparison to the previously-mentioned system is prevent piracy. Seriously, though, who owns a cracked copy of Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, or Lord of the Rings: Online? I don’t know why I even mentioned this point.
PlayOnline will assume from the moment you start your registration that you’re an idiot. It may be right, but it’s no reason to punish the rest of us. PlayOnline will assign you a username, consisting of four letters and four numbers. I guess it prevents people from exploiting the fact that some morons make their account name the same as their character name in-game. Of course, this safety measure can often prevent the same morons from accessing their own account, if they forgot to write down the random gibberish that is their user ID. You also get registered for a sweet e-mail address that you should give to all of your friends. Mine is x261610402427@pol.com. I’m not fucking kidding. There’s user-friendliness for you.
Note: Only e-mail me if you’re the chick with three boobs from Total Recall.
If you’re not a moron, but you move a lot like I do, and you lost the booklet where you kept your user ID, then good luck to you. Square-Enix’s customer service is the worst when it comes to account recovery. Well, actually, their customer service can’t even usually solve a simple problem. We’ll save that for another post, though.
The client offered potential. Five years ago.
I’m going to be fair here. I liked PlayOnline when I first started playing Final Fantasy XI, back in 2003. It seemed like a pretty cool way to organize your games, and keep all the people you play with on a separate friend list than the people you talk to on AIM, for example. So you could organize everything you wanted to do in-game with your friends without having to talk to them on AIM/MSN/TeamSpeak.
Its one downfall, perhaps, is that it is now limited by outdated technology. Because this system is used across two other platforms: the Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 2, it is limited by the technology of the latter. That means if they invented a PCI card to serve the purpose of telepathic communication online, then PlayOnline would never support it. Consoles like the PS2 are not updated. Ever. At least not anymore. So PlayOnline is stuck in the past. Maybe forever.
Let’s go back to hating it real quick.
We’ve talked about how these game management systems can help you keep your games up-to-date either through downloading patches or purchasing expansions. PlayOnline does that absolutely flawlessly. Wait, I think I used the wrong word. Yeah, I meant absolutely shittily. As far as keeping your game up-to-date through content patches, why even discuss that? Every MMO does it. It’s not complicated technology. Final Fantasy XI has four expansions, though. These are: Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urghan, and Wings of the Goddess. Rise of the Zilart came bundled with FFXI as far as I can remember. I think the only place it wasn’t bundled with FFXI at release was probably in Japan. Still, they offer registration keys for Rise of the Zilart through PlayOnline for … $9.99? What the hell?! In fact, they offer every key except the one for their latest expansion[2].
Let’s pretend for a moment that some stores sell just Final Fantasy XI, no expansion. $9.99 would be a reasonable price, but let’s put it down to $4.99. You go home, install it, and you want to buy the expansions through PlayOnline since you weren’t even told at the store they existed. Possible scenario, happens with some games.
- Theoretical cost of Final Fantasy XI alone: $4.99
- Rise of the Zilart: $9.99
- Chains of Promathia: $9.99
- Treasures of Aht Urghan: $14.99
- Total: $39.96(no taxes)
So you get the game, and three expansions for about 40 bucks. You don’t get the last expansion, though. Sorry. Not available through PlayOnline. On the other hand, they offer the game with all expansions at every store and Direct2Drive for…20 bucks? Wait, so the company sells keys for expansions that no one will ever buy, because they come bundled with the original game for a lot less money. Isn’t the purpose of digital distribution to save the users valuable time and money? And let’s remember, it’s Square-Enix selling their own games, through their own system, for more money than retailers. What is going on here?!
You might be thinking “man, you’re a dick,” but you’re also wondering “Wouldn’t returning players who didn’t purchase the third expansion want to buy it through PlayOnline? They don’t need a whole new copy of the game.” Actually, they don’t benefit, either. The third expansion(Aht Urghan) is sold through PlayOnline for $14.99. If you spend just 5 bucks more, you get that expansion, and the latest one. As well as a few extra keys you can burn or keep for when you lose your user ID and have to make a new account.
So, if you’re keeping score:
- PlayOnline is not user-friendly. You’re forced to write down or remember gibberish user IDs. You don’t need to type it in every time you log in, of course, but if you need account support(god forbid) or anything else, you’ll be asked for this information. Oh, you’ll also be asked for your registration keys. I guess the fact that you need support for their game is not enough proof that you bought it…What?
- PlayOnline does not save the user money. Buying just two of their expansions through PlayOnline would turn out as expensive as buying the original game and all four expansions at the store.
- PlayOnline stops running when a game launches. So you don’t get a sweet overlay, or anything like that to help you mess with settings while in-game.
Oh, and:
- PlayOnline helps prevent piracy.
It’s okay. I’m full of shit, too.
Look, my arguments are not that great. It’s possible that Square-Enix had no intention of producing a system to manage their games effectively, like Valve did with Steam. Maybe Square-Enix just wanted to have a way to handle billing for Final Fantasy XI without having to do it via browser. Wait. Shit, it doesn’t even do that better than paying via browser. My street address has a “.” character. You know, like “Apt. 4.” Couple of weeks ago, I wanted to renew my subscription and so I hop on, and put in my credit card information. It gets declined about 3 times before I contact customer service. Since in PlayOnline you cannot type special characters, like “.” their brilliant staff suggested I call my bank to tell them to remove the damn period from my address so I could pay for the game. I digress. Like I said, let’s leave their customer service for another post. We’re going to have fun with that one, too. There’ll be public notaries and calls to the FDIC…I know, I know. I can’t wait, either.
Getting back on track.
I have high hopes for game management systems. Even PlayOnline. With a few updates it could become the bullet-train of digital content and distribution systems. I really think that in the right hands, utilities such as these can save users a ton of time and money. The video game industry rapidly advances. Some think it’s going down the wrong path, and that developers no longer care about gamers. According to these people, it’s all about the money. They may or may not be right, I mean, it is a business and they want to make money; game companies are not charities.
One thing I am sure of is that the future of video games, and MMOs lie within these systems. Much like retail has moved from tiny mom and pop stores to Wal-Mart, Target, and other big box retailers. Hell, no one can argue that you can’t find quality goods at any of those stores. I believe the same will happen with video games. How will it affect MMOs? Just look at the Station Pass SOE offers. You can play a ton of games for one monthly subscription fee. Sure, most of them suck, but you have to start somewhere. Eventually someone might bundle good games under one subscription fee. I don’t know why you’d want to, but maybe we’re not far off from paying one low monthly fee to play Lord of the Rings: Online, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XI all together.
“Game Management Systems”
Hello, everyone, and happy holidays! It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, and most of you are probably thinking “thank god I haven’t had to read any hateful posts from this asshole,” but who couldn’t do with a little holiday negativity? No, no, I’m not here to bash the countless holiday events that game companies host in their virtual worlds. I’m not even here to post a subjective evaluation of a game I’ve played for only 10 minutes a la my Atlantica Online review. Today we’re going to take a look at Game Management Systems, and a couple in specific: PlayOnline, and Steam. If you’ve never heard of PlayOnline, all you need to know is that it currently stands as the best example of how to not build a game management system.
What the hell is a “Game Management System”?
Truth be told, it’s just a term I use to describe applications that handle digital content to make it easier for the users to 
obtain, play, and keep their virtual assets up-to-date; it’s a way to juggle many games at once. The most prominent example of such an utility is Steam. Like in the days of old, not every person had imaginary encounters with minotaurs, dragons, or angels but most people knew what they were; much in the same way everyone knows what Steam is supposed to do, even if they’ve never used it. These utilities promise a reliable, and most importantly, safe way to acquire games for yourself or others. Not only that, they’ll keep your games organized, so that all you really have to do is run that application, then pick whatever game you feel like playing. Wait, it gets even better. This tool will even keep track of your friends, what games they’re playing, and even allow you to join your friend’s game through the utility’s friend interface. The application even provides you with an in-game overlay you can use to talk to your friends, change the application settings, etc. It promises the ability to use all your favorite applications while in-game. That is, unless PLAYXPERT beats them to it(hurry up with those 64-bit versions, slackers!). Sounds great so far, right?
Well, hold on, I’m not done yet.
Everyone benefits from the existence and support of these applications. Developers can make their games available to an international audience without having to ship boxes there, thanks to digital distribution. Additionally, it promises the potential to reduce the price of games. How can it do this? Think of Wal-mart. They can sell goods at a much cheaper price because they sell a broader array of goods. Wal-mart also keeps low prices on goods by reducing the cost to make them; irrelevant when it comes to what we’re talking about, though, as there is virtually no cost in digital distribution(no box, CD, etc). By having so many games under one roof, and completely eliminating cost of shipping, cardboard, plastic, and media, games can be made available to the public much more cheaply. These companies can even bundle a bunch of games together, and sell them at a very affordable price. Hey, who wouldn’t want to buy over a dozen games for only $75USD[1]?
There’s more. These management systems can prevent piracy. By making game activation possible only to those who have the application, and only allowing people who have legit serial keys to play on legit servers, you can successfully prevent piracy. Arguably, anyone determined enough to crack a game will eventually find a way to play it for free. If the effort and time comes out to be worth less than the 50 bucks , then great. You must be some sort of game-cracking prodigy. Unfortunately, you’ll still miss out on having the most up-to-date version of the game, and any mod developed by communities of people who paid for the game.
So that’s it. This form of content delivery:
- Is user-friendly.
- Saves a ton of time spent on organizing games with your friends, and gives you more time to actually play with them.
- Allows more people to purchase the games and encourages more companies to offer digital distribution to reach an international audience.
- Can ultimately make games cheaper, as the companies running these applications have more games to sell, and can often bundle them for an amazing price.
- Prevents piracy.
Good night, everyone!
Wait. There’s more in this article?! Damn it.
I’m sorry. I can’t go an article without some negativity. If I skipped this next part, I might lose some “street cred” and then no one would like me anymore. Corporate executives know that if you need to point out an employee’s shortcomings when speaking to them, you start with something good, then point out where that person can improve. I’m taking a similar approach. You’ve seen the benefits of such a system, now let’s take a look at a system that may not be as popular or well-known. For damn good reasons. Square-Enix manages and distributes some of their games digitally through a system called PlayOnline. The most popular game obtainable through the system is perhaps Final Fantasy XI. Some of the game’s expansions are even available for purchase through PlayOnline itself!
If PlayOnline had been the only system ever made to manage digital content, then it would have also been the last. It shits all over the idea of game evolution and progress. It makes it more difficult for players to get to the game they want to play, can cost you more money than buying the games at the store, and can drive you to set yourself on fire and jump off a bridge. The only thing it can do in comparison to the previously-mentioned system is prevent piracy. Seriously, though, who owns a cracked copy of Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, or Lord of the Rings: Online? I don’t know why I even mentioned this point.
PlayOnline will assume from the moment you start your registration that you’re an idiot. It may be right, but it’s no reason to punish the rest of us. PlayOnline will assign you a username, consisting of four letters and four numbers. I guess it prevents people from exploiting the fact that some morons make their account name the same as their character name in-game. Of course, this safety measure can often prevent the same morons from accessing their own account, if they forgot to write down the random gibberish that is their user ID. You also get registered for a sweet e-mail address that you should give to all of your friends. Mine is x261610402427@pol.com. I’m not fucking kidding. There’s user-friendliness for you.
Note: Only e-mail me if you’re the chick with three boobs from Total Recall.
If you’re not a moron, but you move a lot like I do, and you lost the booklet where you kept your user ID, then good luck to you. Square-Enix’s customer service is the worst when it comes to account recovery. Well, actually, their customer service can’t even usually solve a simple problem. We’ll save that for another post, though.
The client offered potential. Five years ago.
I’m going to be fair here. I liked PlayOnline when I first started playing Final Fantasy XI, back in 2003. It seemed like a pretty cool way to organize your games, and keep all the people you play with on a separate friend list than the people you talk to on AIM, for example. So you could organize everything you wanted to do in-game with your friends without having to talk to them on AIM/MSN/TeamSpeak.
Its one downfall, perhaps, is that it is now limited by outdated technology. Because this system is used across two other platforms: the Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 2, it is limited by the technology of the latter. That means if they invented a PCI card to serve the purpose of telepathic communication online, then PlayOnline would never support it. Consoles like the PS2 are not updated. Ever. At least not anymore. So PlayOnline is stuck in the past. Maybe forever.
Let’s go back to hating it real quick.
We’ve talked about how these game management systems can help you keep your games up-to-date either through downloading patches or purchasing expansions. PlayOnline does that absolutely flawlessly. Wait, I think I used the wrong word. Yeah, I meant absolutely shittily. As far as keeping your game up-to-date through content patches, why even discuss that? Every MMO does it. It’s not complicated technology. Final Fantasy XI has four expansions, though. These are: Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urghan, and Wings of the Goddess. Rise of the Zilart came bundled with FFXI as far as I can remember. I think the only place it wasn’t bundled with FFXI at release was probably in Japan. Still, they offer registration keys for Rise of the Zilart through PlayOnline for … $9.99? What the hell?! In fact, they offer every key except the one for their latest expansion[2].
Let’s pretend for a moment that some stores sell just Final Fantasy XI, no expansion. $9.99 would be a reasonable price, but let’s put it down to $4.99. You go home, install it, and you want to buy the expansions through PlayOnline since you weren’t even told at the store they existed. Possible scenario, happens with some games.
- Theoretical cost of Final Fantasy XI alone: $4.99
- Rise of the Zilart: $9.99
- Chains of Promathia: $9.99
- Treasures of Aht Urghan: $14.99
- Total: $39.96(no taxes)
So you get the game, and three expansions for about 40 bucks. You don’t get the last expansion, though. Sorry. Not available through PlayOnline. On the other hand, they offer the game with all expansions at every store and Direct2Drive for…20 bucks? Wait, so the company sells keys for expansions that no one will ever buy, because they come bundled with the original game for a lot less money. Isn’t the purpose of digital distribution to save the users valuable time and money? And let’s remember, it’s Square-Enix selling their own games, through their own system, for more money than retailers. What is going on here?!
You might be thinking “man, you’re a dick,” but you’re also wondering “Wouldn’t returning players who didn’t purchase the third expansion want to buy it through PlayOnline? They don’t need a whole new copy of the game.” Actually, they don’t benefit, either. The third expansion(Aht Urghan) is sold through PlayOnline for $14.99. If you spend just 5 bucks more, you get that expansion, and the latest one. As well as a few extra keys you can burn or keep for when you lose your user ID and have to make a new account.
So, if you’re keeping score:
- PlayOnline is not user-friendly. You’re forced to write down or remember gibberish user IDs. You don’t need to type it in every time you log in, of course, but if you need account support(god forbid) or anything else, you’ll be asked for this information. Oh, you’ll also be asked for your registration keys. I guess the fact that you need support for their game is not enough proof that you bought it…What?
- PlayOnline does not save the user money. Buying just two of their expansions through PlayOnline would turn out as expensive as buying the original game and all four expansions at the store.
- PlayOnline stops running when a game launches. So you don’t get a sweet overlay, or anything like that to help you mess with settings while in-game.
Oh, and:
- PlayOnline helps prevent piracy.
It’s okay. I’m full of shit, too.
Look, my arguments are not that great. It’s possible that Square-Enix had no intention of producing a system to manage their games effectively, like Valve did with Steam. Maybe Square-Enix just wanted to have a way to handle billing for Final Fantasy XI without having to do it via browser. Wait. Shit, it doesn’t even do that better than paying via browser. My street address has a “.” character. You know, like “Apt. 4.” Couple of weeks ago, I wanted to renew my subscription and so I hop on, and put in my credit card information. It gets declined about 3 times before I contact customer service. Since in PlayOnline you cannot type special characters, like “.” their brilliant staff suggested I call my bank to tell them to remove the damn period from my address so I could pay for the game. I digress. Like I said, let’s leave their customer service for another post. We’re going to have fun with that one, too. There’ll be public notaries and calls to the FDIC…I know, I know. I can’t wait, either.
Getting back on track.
I have high hopes for game management systems. Even PlayOnline. With a few updates it could become the bullet-train of digital content and distribution systems. I really think that in the right hands, utilities such as these can save users a ton of time and money. The video game industry rapidly advances. Some think it’s going down the wrong path, and that developers no longer care about gamers. According to these people, it’s all about the money. They may or may not be right, I mean, it is a business and they want to make money; game companies are not charities.
One thing I am sure of is that the future of video games, and MMOs lie within these systems. Much like retail has moved from tiny mom and pop stores to Wal-Mart, Target, and other big box retailers. Hell, no one can argue that you can’t find quality goods at any of those stores. I believe the same will happen with video games. How will it affect MMOs? Just look at the Station Pass SOE offers. You can play a ton of games for one monthly subscription fee. Sure, most of them suck, but you have to start somewhere. Eventually someone might bundle good games under one subscription fee. I don’t know why you’d want to, but maybe we’re not far off from paying one low monthly fee to play Lord of the Rings: Online, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XI all together.
Microtransaction-Based MMO’s: The Future of MMORPGs?
If you’re unfamiliar with what Microtransactions are, they’re items you buy in a virtual world that you pay for with real money, not virtual currently. Today via Kotaku, they stated that EA’s upcoming Star Wars MMO might be microtransaction-based.
Rather than asking for a monthly subscription fee, ala World of Warcraft, EA boss John Riccitiello has strongly hinted that the game will instead be “microtransaction-based”.
Depending on how you’re thinking about this it could be good or a very bad thing. Good if the items offered are not critical to the game, such as clothing, different types of mounts, basically anything that doesn’t have an direct effect on your character. However if this means that I’m going to be paying real money to buy armor, weapons and/or skills then this could change the way MMO’s are played.
Buying virtual items with real money is nothing new however, people have been doing it on Ebay for years. That was until 2 yrs ago when they banned such auctions, however new sites have popup since, such as MMOBay.net to replace them, so you can argue that it won’t have a big effect on the gameplay. But in my opinion you can never underestimate the greed factor of publishers.
MMO’s such as Second Life have been selling virtual goods for real money since the start, however the items being sold are purely cosmetic and player created. Now EA and other companies such as virtualgreats.com are stepping in and trying to get a piece if not the whole pie for themselves.
If you’ve ever played the card game Magic or I guess Yu-Gi-Oh for the younger readers, you know you cannot be competitive without shelling out big bucks to create your deck. I fear the same will become true of MMOs. While it would be nice to play MMOs for free, I don’t want to feel like I’m playing a gimped version of the game because I can’t afford the $100 sword for my character. I think the key here is to make the gamers that aren’t buying these items to feel as though they’re still getting the full game experience and still have a fair fighting chance in PvP and PvM as the players who are buying the top of the line equipement.
However another aspect to think about is crafting. If EA decides that armor and weapons are fair game, how will this affect the in-game economy and craftsmen? I can’t see it having a positive effect on it. I’m not against the move away from subscriptions to microtransaction, I’m just worried that publishers greed will get in the way and that ephasise will be on making money in-game instead of making games better.
Microtransaction-Based MMO’s: The Future of MMORPGs?
If you’re unfamiliar with what Microtransactions are, they’re items you buy in a virtual world that you pay for with real money, not virtual currently. Today via Kotaku, they stated that EA’s upcoming Star Wars MMO might be microtransaction-based.
Rather than asking for a monthly subscription fee, ala World of Warcraft, EA boss John Riccitiello has strongly hinted that the game will instead be “microtransaction-based”.
Depending on how you’re thinking about this it could be good or a very bad thing. Good if the items offered are not critical to the game, such as clothing, different types of mounts, basically anything that doesn’t have an direct effect on your character. However if this means that I’m going to be paying real money to buy armor, weapons and/or skills then this could change the way MMO’s are played.
Buying virtual items with real money is nothing new however, people have been doing it on Ebay for years. That was until 2 yrs ago when they banned such auctions, however new sites have popup since, such as MMOBay.net to replace them, so you can argue that it won’t have a big effect on the gameplay. But in my opinion you can never underestimate the greed factor of publishers.
MMO’s such as Second Life have been selling virtual goods for real money since the start, however the items being sold are purely cosmetic and player created. Now EA and other companies such as virtualgreats.com are stepping in and trying to get a piece if not the whole pie for themselves.
If you’ve ever played the card game Magic or I guess Yu-Gi-Oh for the younger readers, you know you cannot be competitive without shelling out big bucks to create your deck. I fear the same will become true of MMOs. While it would be nice to play MMOs for free, I don’t want to feel like I’m playing a gimped version of the game because I can’t afford the $100 sword for my character. I think the key here is to make the gamers that aren’t buying these items to feel as though they’re still getting the full game experience and still have a fair fighting chance in PvP and PvM as the players who are buying the top of the line equipement.
However another aspect to think about is crafting. If EA decides that armor and weapons are fair game, how will this affect the in-game economy and craftsmen? I can’t see it having a positive effect on it. I’m not against the move away from subscriptions to microtransaction, I’m just worried that publishers greed will get in the way and that ephasise will be on making money in-game instead of making games better.
Why Darkfall is Important
Darkfall is on the verge of becoming a reality. Shockwaves were sent through the MMO community on Friday as Tasos Flambouras announced that Darkfall will be releasing in European markets on January 22, 2009. This announcement was followed by the deafening silence of “vapor trolls” who were once over-spoken forum activists convinced the game would never see the light of day. Not only is Darkfall coming out, but it is only 6 weeks from going live.
Every MMO player who loves this genre even a sliver as much as I do has a vested interested in seeing Darkfall become a success. If you have been playing MMOs for any length of time, you are no doubt feeling somewhat disenchanted with the state of the genre over the last few years, especially if you are a veteran like me who remembers the way things used to be. You might remember a time where a new MMO didn’t look exactly like the one before it, a time when innovation was profitable to a developer.
The Death of Innovation
It is easy to figure out how and when innovation died. A certain company made an MMO some years ago that made unimaginable amounts of money by using a model that dumbed down the game to appeal to a wider audience. MMOs are expensive and risky business propositions, and in the last few years we have seen 40-80 million dollar debacles that have brought their developers to their knees or out of business. The safest route for profit is to look at the industries most profitable game, and build the same dumbed down model for mass appeal they used. The profit being rewarded to the companies who follow in the footsteps, combined with the innovative games being debacles, has sent a dangerous message to new developers and helped fuel a trend of linear copycat theme-park MMOs.
Sandbox games have traditionally offered their players freedom, something that most of the more recent games have been lacking and some newer-school players may have never experienced. The freedom is yours to go anywhere without being boxed in by mountains that always seem to mysteriously bottleneck into a loading screen. The freedom is yours to pick a character that is yours to shape, instead of being pigeon-holed into some specific role where for some reason can figure out how to use a single type of weapon. These are the promises that a sandbox game makes, but unfortunately there has not been a successful one made since Asheron’s Call.
Ending the Cycle
Whether you believe that Tasos will deliver what he has been promising us for years or not, before you jump on bashing bandwagon, stop and think about how a successful Darkfall will affect the MMORPG genre. If a sandbox game like Darkfall is financially successful, it will send a message to developers that not only is there a market for sandbox MMOs, but there is money to be made in innovation. Think back and imagine what this genre would look like today if Asheron’s Call and Everquest 1 had switched places in terms of who came out on top financially. If any of the sandbox games from then until now had done well, I don’t think we would find ourselves in a market full of copycat games.
When was the last time you played an MMO where the death penalty really made you fearful of dying? When was the last time you could explore in an MMO without hitting an artificial wall of mountains, or you actually were completely lost? These are the type of things that have long been gone from the genre. Now most of developers making the big name MMOs don’t even have enough innovation to make their own world. Is anyone else as sick as I am of watching these stupid prepackaged MMOs come out that are based on some old franchise? Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Conan, and Warhammer are all games you are supposed to be excited about, and I feel like these devs are the same guys who used to play Dungeons and Dragons and buy those little premade box adventures because they didn’t have the originality to come up with their own.
Darkfall deserves your best wishes, even if you don’t plan on buying it. It is a vessel of hope to try to stop the madness that has turned what was once the best genre in all of video gaming and reduced it to an experience that is akin to sitting on a ride in Disneyland. You get in, you sit down, you go the one way there is to go, you watch the dolls dance, then you get up and exit with probably a lower IQ than you had before you got on. If you’re on the fence about buying Darkfall, think about the money you spent on MMO ideas far worse than this one. I think it is worth the chance to finally show support for someone who is willing to take the big risk, and show other developers that we are willing to pay for something that is original.
I know some of you will flame me and try to brand me a fanboi, and I would argue that I am a fanboi of the genre and what it should represent. I also know that for a lot of you reading, Darkfall is your last stand in MMOs. I can’t blame you for going all-in on this game after all that has happened. If you have read my words here and agree with me, I ask that you make sure you tell a friend and pass the word along; we are going to need it now more than ever.
Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com
Why Darkfall is Important
Darkfall is on the verge of becoming a reality. Shockwaves were sent through the MMO community on Friday as Tasos Flambouras announced that Darkfall will be releasing in European markets on January 22, 2009. This announcement was followed by the deafening silence of “vapor trolls” who were once over-spoken forum activists convinced the game would never see the light of day. Not only is Darkfall coming out, but it is only 6 weeks from going live.
Every MMO player who loves this genre even a sliver as much as I do has a vested interested in seeing Darkfall become a success. If you have been playing MMOs for any length of time, you are no doubt feeling somewhat disenchanted with the state of the genre over the last few years, especially if you are a veteran like me who remembers the way things used to be. You might remember a time where a new MMO didn’t look exactly like the one before it, a time when innovation was profitable to a developer.
The Death of Innovation
It is easy to figure out how and when innovation died. A certain company made an MMO some years ago that made unimaginable amounts of money by using a model that dumbed down the game to appeal to a wider audience. MMOs are expensive and risky business propositions, and in the last few years we have seen 40-80 million dollar debacles that have brought their developers to their knees or out of business. The safest route for profit is to look at the industries most profitable game, and build the same dumbed down model for mass appeal they used. The profit being rewarded to the companies who follow in the footsteps, combined with the innovative games being debacles, has sent a dangerous message to new developers and helped fuel a trend of linear copycat theme-park MMOs.
Sandbox games have traditionally offered their players freedom, something that most of the more recent games have been lacking and some newer-school players may have never experienced. The freedom is yours to go anywhere without being boxed in by mountains that always seem to mysteriously bottleneck into a loading screen. The freedom is yours to pick a character that is yours to shape, instead of being pigeon-holed into some specific role where for some reason can figure out how to use a single type of weapon. These are the promises that a sandbox game makes, but unfortunately there has not been a successful one made since Asheron’s Call.
Ending the Cycle
Whether you believe that Tasos will deliver what he has been promising us for years or not, before you jump on bashing bandwagon, stop and think about how a successful Darkfall will affect the MMORPG genre. If a sandbox game like Darkfall is financially successful, it will send a message to developers that not only is there a market for sandbox MMOs, but there is money to be made in innovation. Think back and imagine what this genre would look like today if Asheron’s Call and Everquest 1 had switched places in terms of who came out on top financially. If any of the sandbox games from then until now had done well, I don’t think we would find ourselves in a market full of copycat games.
When was the last time you played an MMO where the death penalty really made you fearful of dying? When was the last time you could explore in an MMO without hitting an artificial wall of mountains, or you actually were completely lost? These are the type of things that have long been gone from the genre. Now most of developers making the big name MMOs don’t even have enough innovation to make their own world. Is anyone else as sick as I am of watching these stupid prepackaged MMOs come out that are based on some old franchise? Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Conan, and Warhammer are all games you are supposed to be excited about, and I feel like these devs are the same guys who used to play Dungeons and Dragons and buy those little premade box adventures because they didn’t have the originality to come up with their own.
Darkfall deserves your best wishes, even if you don’t plan on buying it. It is a vessel of hope to try to stop the madness that has turned what was once the best genre in all of video gaming and reduced it to an experience that is akin to sitting on a ride in Disneyland. You get in, you sit down, you go the one way there is to go, you watch the dolls dance, then you get up and exit with probably a lower IQ than you had before you got on. If you’re on the fence about buying Darkfall, think about the money you spent on MMO ideas far worse than this one. I think it is worth the chance to finally show support for someone who is willing to take the big risk, and show other developers that we are willing to pay for something that is original.
I know some of you will flame me and try to brand me a fanboi, and I would argue that I am a fanboi of the genre and what it should represent. I also know that for a lot of you reading, Darkfall is your last stand in MMOs. I can’t blame you for going all-in on this game after all that has happened. If you have read my words here and agree with me, I ask that you make sure you tell a friend and pass the word along; we are going to need it now more than ever.
Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition
www.inqguild.com
Suicide Traveling
Lets face it, everyone at one point or another has intentionally killed themselves in-game to avoid having to walk back to town. I myself have never played a MMO where I didn’t regularly kill myself as a means of travel. However each time I do, I feel like I’m some how killing a part of the game for myself. I mean the whole point to video games is NOT to die, however because of the extremely lame traveling rules nearly every MMO has, we gamers are almost forced to partake in the rediculas act of suicide in order to save ourselves time.
Let us examine the three traveling means that are most common in MMOs today.
Mount - The trusted mount which will about double your run speed (depending on the game) and be your primary form of transportation. While the mount is useful in many situations, it cannot beat suicide travel. If I’m out completing a quest about need to go back to town to collect my reward, unless I’m very close, I’m going to be looking for a really high cliff to jump off of or a group of mobs so they can pumble me to death. The mount is good for short distances or traveling to quest locations.
Waypoints - Nearly all MMO’s will give the player the ability to make any town their home location. Then whenever they want they can just use that skill/item to instanly travel back there. The problem with this is that most games have a extremly long cool down, 1 hr usually and you can only travel to 1 location. While it seems very useful, I barely use this form of traveling, maybe once every time I play. What I would like to see are multiple locations and a shorter cool down, which would make this acutally useful.
Town to Town Travel - Most games have some sort of instant travel from town to town, however there are almost always some sort of restriction. Restrictions might be something like, from Town A you can only travel to Town B, D and F. Then from Town F you can get to A, C and R. Then from R, you can get to E and H. So if you wanted to get to H to begin with you’ll have to travel multiple times. Lame. Other restrictions can be that each map only has one travel spot, so if you want to get to another town on the same map you’ll still need to run/ride across the map to get there. There are a handful of restrictions depending what game you’re playing and all are just as lame.
I’m sure there are MMO’s out there that have a great traveling system, however I have yet to play one. For me suicide is the 4th form of traveling and is actually the best in my opionion since most games have little to no death penalty and it’s instant.
My suggestion to developers is let it go, traveling around the map is boring as hell. I should be able to travel from any town to any town(as long as I already visited once) in the game. I should also be able to set more than 1 town using my waypoint item/skill. I’m tired of killing myself, help me stop.
Suicide Traveling
Lets face it, everyone at one point or another has intentionally killed themselves in-game to avoid having to walk back to town. I myself have never played a MMO where I didn’t regularly kill myself as a means of travel. However each time I do, I feel like I’m some how killing a part of the game for myself. I mean the whole point to video games is NOT to die, however because of the extremely lame traveling rules nearly every MMO has, we gamers are almost forced to partake in the rediculas act of suicide in order to save ourselves time.
Let us examine the three traveling means that are most common in MMOs today.
Mount - The trusted mount which will about double your run speed (depending on the game) and be your primary form of transportation. While the mount is useful in many situations, it cannot beat suicide travel. If I’m out completing a quest about need to go back to town to collect my reward, unless I’m very close, I’m going to be looking for a really high cliff to jump off of or a group of mobs so they can pumble me to death. The mount is good for short distances or traveling to quest locations.
Waypoints - Nearly all MMO’s will give the player the ability to make any town their home location. Then whenever they want they can just use that skill/item to instanly travel back there. The problem with this is that most games have a extremly long cool down, 1 hr usually and you can only travel to 1 location. While it seems very useful, I barely use this form of traveling, maybe once every time I play. What I would like to see are multiple locations and a shorter cool down, which would make this acutally useful.
Town to Town Travel - Most games have some sort of instant travel from town to town, however there are almost always some sort of restriction. Restrictions might be something like, from Town A you can only travel to Town B, D and F. Then from Town F you can get to A, C and R. Then from R, you can get to E and H. So if you wanted to get to H to begin with you’ll have to travel multiple times. Lame. Other restrictions can be that each map only has one travel spot, so if you want to get to another town on the same map you’ll still need to run/ride across the map to get there. There are a handful of restrictions depending what game you’re playing and all are just as lame.
I’m sure there are MMO’s out there that have a great traveling system, however I have yet to play one. For me suicide is the 4th form of traveling and is actually the best in my opionion since most games have little to no death penalty and it’s instant.
My suggestion to developers is let it go, traveling around the map is boring as hell. I should be able to travel from any town to any town(as long as I already visited once) in the game. I should also be able to set more than 1 town using my waypoint item/skill. I’m tired of killing myself, help me stop.
