Category Archives: Games

More TOR

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Holy shart.  Two things.

First, TOR is dropping the price of all high end mounts by a truckload and artifice items are available on vendors – until patch 1.2.  Let me say that mounts are not expensive at 50.  You should have 1 million + in your bank by that point and mounts are 200K.  It’s enough but nothing like WoW were it took weeks at max level to get a mount (until Lich King).  Artifice items, specifically color gems, going to vendors is mind boggling.  They are putting the only unique item that Artifice has – and that is never replaced at 50 – on vendors for at least a month.  That’s just crazy.  No matter what they do in patch 1.2, they have effectively destroyed the market on color gems for a solid 6 months.

Second, they are asking plays in Austin (near their HQ) to help test 1.2.  This is a paid position, one weekend a month.  Now let’s get something straight here.  When you need to pay your clients to test your game, you have some SERIOUS issues.  These aren’t minor things, this is when you are saying “our internal testing is crap, our test server is crap, we don’t have a clue how to get this to work and we’re making massive changes”.  Imagine if Ford sent you a letter asking you to test drive a prototype car.

It’s like the more I read about TOR, the more I shake my head thinking what they got themselves into.  I’ve been in the MMO world for 15 years (UO launch, wow that’s a while back) and I’ve seen games come and go.  I usually have a pretty good idea if a game will work long-term or not.  TOR has rung so many, many bells that I don’t see how they can continue on their current path and maintain success.  This huge re-write in 1.2 just makes me think of NGE (in Star Wars Galaxies) where the devs put up their hands and say they give up, here’s a new game.  I really hope they can pull this off as the future of the subscription MMO hinges on this being somewhat successful.

Just… wow.  I’m at a loss.

The Battle for Content

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I’ve been over how TOR lacks content but more specifically lacks the actual mechanics to make that content work.  Every single system has a major flaw and most are being addressed in 1.2 – or should be.

Well, I went back to Rift since I had time left on the account.  They are 1 year in and have 7 content patches.  WoW is nearly 18 months and has 3.  I wanted to compare a bit between both systems.  WoW has a Looking for Raid (LFR) tool set to get people together to raid.  Cool, only 5% of their playerbase was seeing their raid content.  Now it’s closer to 30%, good job.  Rift doesn’t have that tool but they do have alternatives.  Rift has Instant Adventures and Chronicles.  The former is a non-stop set of 5-10 minute quests you can do with 1-20 people.  The latter is a set of dungeons for 2 people.  Both are accessible from the interface.

Rift also borrows from EQ in having an alternate advancement system for level 50s.  Where typically at level 50 you are defined by your gear, in here you get additional experience from playing and get to assign points for extra abilities.  These are more planar charges (for special abilities), more stats (about 30, half a piece of gear) or some speed increases.  Nothing earth shattering but still some nice flavor.  It’s a reason to keep playing if you’re not a raider since you get something in 5 minutes of work.

They also have faction grinds (like WoW) with bind to account rewards  for a lot of it (like WoW) so that a single character has to go through it to get the cool rewards.  This means that less players have the rewards (since the grind can be longer) but as a player, you don’t have to redo it for every character.

Dungeons are balanced, new crafting recipes were launched, there’s a world event on at all times with costume/pet rewards, there are multiple gearing streams, PvP has 6 instances that you can choose from, always invasions somewhere – the list goes on about how accessible the content is.  What Rift learned from WoW and EQ has been expanded on.  WoW could learn a LOT from what was put in here and TOR could shut down for 2 months and still not catch up in terms of mechanics/content.

A game is judged by what I can do within it.  When I logged into TOR I could only PvP since the raid and dungeons were practically inaccessible due to their systems.  I couldn’t craft or make money.  When I log into WoW, I can raid, dungeons, collect, PvP, craft, explore, achieve and more.  Rift does that and adds 6 other things to do.  How do people put up with a game that doesn’t let you do anything more than pick your nose?

DLC is the Devil

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So game companies have a problem.  They have 2 revenue streams and one of them doesn’t work very well on consoles and the other doesn’t work well on PC.  First, is the box sale in the store.  This is great for consoles as it doesn’t take up much shelf space but a month or two after launch, good luck finding the copy if the game isn’t a blockbuster.  They have a relatively small window in which to sell their game and make a profit (after the reseller takes a 15% cut).  The second option is the online store, which is great for PC players.  You can find a game whenever you want, sales are easy to access and there are infinite copies.  Resellers make a cut as well but since every game is a new game, it works well for the developers.

The issue is in resales.  You won’t find too many resales of PC games (maybe a lot of pirating though honestly, Steam is much easier than pirating) but you will find hundreds of resales of console games.  A resale goes 100% to the reseller.  Let’s take Assassin’s Creed as an example.  The game is good but the multiplayer sucks so people play it and sell it back to the reseller to finance their next purchase.  Player 2 buys the used copy 2 months after release for 1/4 the price and the developer doesn’t see a penny.  These are 2 distinct sales yet only one counts.

Compare that to movies with multiple revenue streams.  The cinema, rentals, tv distribution, netflix and hard copy purchases are all available before the used market.  Pirating is a larger issue for them then used movie resales and good luck trying to find a new movie for more than 25$.  Games start at 60$.

So, game companies sell an overpriced (judged by the consumer) piece of software that drops in value the instant it’s purchased and can be acquired in 2-3 months for half or less of the initial cost.  Developers then said, “hey, let’s make money long term”.  DLC came out where you could by expansion packs (like on the PC) for a nominal fee and extend the life of the game.  League of Legends is wholely based on this with DLC packs for skins.  Cool.

Next they said “maybe we can make new game purchases better”.  They added codes to new boxes that enabled multiplayer or gave free DLC.  If you had a used game you could buy them from the developers for a small cost.  Nothing too big and I understand it though the cost of this type of DLC/code is up for debate.  In many cases it’s next to impossible to get a new version of a game in the first place and others, it’s a much better deal to buy the game at 15$ and pay the 10$ fee to get the new game items.  Heck, sometimes it’s not worth it at all.

Finally we get the nexus of the two – the collector’s edition.  There was a time when this meant you had maps, books, music and a bunch of non-game stuff. That was awesome.  EA started pushing a change with in-game bonuses (pets, equipment, quests) in their games and simply saying “free day 1 DLC for new games”.  Day 1 DLC means it is part of the game and they split it off.  If you are not getting the DLC, then you are not getting the game.  I can’t remember the game off the top of my head but they had this in a MMO FPS game a few years ago and people went crazy over the imbalance.

Now we have Mass Effect 3 where the day 1 DLC includes a Prothean as a playable character (as well as guns and skins).  Protheans are the central people in the Mass Effect universe and if you don’t have the collector’s edition you can buy this DLC for 10$.  The collector’s edition costs 20$ more and comes with: 70 page digital art, lithograph, pet, skins and this DLC package.  In past games, just buying a new game normally would get you normal content (which this DLC is).  Now they are breaking up games to sell them to you in chunks to be sure to make as much money as possible.

So what does this all mean?  To me it means I now have to vote with my cash.  I really want to play Mass Effect 3, I mean really want to.  I won’t though.  I’ll wait a while, see if I can get the game from another reseller than Origin and get it all on sale.  The whole Origin debate is for another time but there is no way in hell I am putting an avowed root kit software on my computer.

If devs want to make money on each game sale, then day 1 unlocks is the way to go.  Day 1 DLCs are not.  Eventually, games will be streamed to consoles/pcs and require an account link to play – just like MMOs.  A few more years though.

TOR Patch 1.2 is the Biggest Ever

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After reading another Q&A session from BW, it just seems like they are putting the entire kitchen sink in their next major patch.  4 pages of crafting changes?  Doesn’t that just scream “we really mucked it up the first go”?  From what they say, 1.2 will have zero content and be entirely bug/feature fixes.  And there’s still no release date.  Not even for the LFG tool, which is so badly needed.

Oh, their PvP framerate answer is great.

You should see evidence of this work as soon as Patch 1.1.5, when we will be introducing a new ‘very low’ setting to shader quality, which should drastically increase the number of mid-to-low machines the game can run well on, especially in Warzones and Operations.

People with amazing rigs (me included) have exceptional framerate issues and massive memory leaks in PvP.  The Hero engine they are using is meant for single player games and the primary reason that all content is limited to 16 players at a time (compared to 40 vs 40 in WoW for example).  It’s unfortunate that in 2012, the toolset of a multi-million dollar MMO is not much better than that used on mobile phones.

Regardless of all this, if 1.2 releases a LFG tool, fixes crafting (near re-write actually), addresses the performance issues, fixes the still outstanding PvE bugs and reduces the difficulty of hardmode flashpoints it has a chance to get back a lot of people who have already quit.  Here’s hoping!

Diablo 3 Economics

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I realize the game isn’t out yet, heck, it doesn’t have a release date either.  Still, there are certain items being tested that should transition near seamlessly into the live client.  The game mechanics aren’t terribly interesting to me but the meta mechanics do and particularly the Auction House.

Recently, Blizz said:

  • Listing fee is being removed.
  • Transaction fee is being increased to 1.25 Beta Bucks.
  • Minimum listing price is being raised to 1.50 Beta Bucks.
  • You will be limited to 10 active auctions per auction house.

This means you’re taxed about 80% if you sell at the minimum.  To me, a micro transaction is in the 1-2$ range and when the seller only makes 25c on that sale at at most, 10 sales, that’s 2.50$ potential.  Now I realize there are going to be extremely stupid people who will post at that level – I made about 20K in WoW from people posting at below vendor value – but the point remains that Blizzard is clearly taking a massive cut from players.  A transaction fee should not MORE than the value of a micro-transaction.

I understand they want to set a firm bottom on their auction house and reduce risk by limiting farmer’s ability to post but at the same time, 3rd party players will easily circumvent this tool.  It’s like Blizz hired a high school economics student to build their strategy or perhaps Bobby has some finger in here.

The more I read about D3, the more I scratch my head at what they are trying to do.  I remember when Blizzard was about making quality games and now it seems that the focus is less on that aspect and more on testing revenue generating models.    Then other times, something like the LFR tool comes out and you say “that makes sense”.  It’s really all over the map.

What to Queue

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All online games have the same problem – at certain times there are more people who are trying to play than the servers can handle.  For the past 20 years, this has meant queues to wait or simple denial of service.  This is also directly linked to the artificial surge in servers at launch, then empty servers 2 months down the road.  People are just driving by.

Star Trek online used a dynamic environment for loading the game client but not for the login server.  Which is kind of weird actually.  There were dozens of game instances but you had to wait to have access to them.

TERA is going to try something a bit different. Queues will remain but you’ll get an experience boost based on the amount of time you waited.  This is a tricky balancing act but a neat idea.

Guild Wars 2 is trying something completely different.  If your server is overloaded you’ll be given the choice of loading an overflow server to play on.  Same thing as a normal server, just people from around the world on it.  Once your server is up, you get prompted to swap over.  This allows developers to set up extra servers at launch and take them out when the initial surge dies.  Smart move.

Now What?

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So now that SWTOR is out of the picture what do I do with my gaming time?

I finished Mass Effect 1 Saturday.  It was quicker than all my previous attempts because I completely ignored the Mako.  That stupid ship was more of a pain than anything else and it provided nothing to the game.  Well, there were 2 optional quests I did (one for Wrex, another for a specialization).  The game’s mechanics ages well but the graphics do not.  Especially after comparing to Mass Effect 2.  The inventory also doesn’t work for me.  I like that I could mod items but not that I had 150 items to mod with.  Maybe have the various mod types but have them upgrade as I find better versions?

Mass Effect 2 sort of fixes the equipment issue but gives you a total of 15 guns (3-4 per category) and no real upgrades.  You also have less powers, per player.  It really feels limited and more of a corridor shooter than an RPG – one of the main reasons it does not have any map.  The story is less unified but each individual chapter is better than its predecessor.  The interface is slightly improved but there was never anything really outstanding on the first.  The game is more about the illusion of choice for 90% of the game as the final outcome is based 99% on the extra quests you take, not their results.  Wonder how ME3 will fix that.

MMO space, I have nearly 2 months left on my Rift account so I logged in quickly to see what had changed in the past 6 months.  New zones, enemies, equipment, changes to souls and an alternate advancement path (not too powerful but a good choice).  So I logged on to my 50, reset my talents and did the following in the first 30 minutes of play:

  • reset builds on my 5 talent builds
  • tested each build on a target dummy (normal, boss and healing)
  • searched for an exact item on the auction house
  • completed some achievements
  • joined a dynamic event with 20 other people
  • joined a targetted PvP match in the zone of my choosing
  • finally entered the LFG queue (which took about an hour to clear).

Not a single one of these things can be done in TOR.

So If I Wasn't Clear

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I un-subbed from SWTOR today.  They allow for a rather large section to say why you quit, so I pretty much put this blog post in there.  I then checked the main forums and half the general channel is about people quitting, not really a good sign.  So much potential, so much wasted.  I really hope they can do something in the next 4 months before Guild Wars 2 (for PvP), Tera (different PvE) and The Secret World (open world) come out.  Heck, I’m sure people will drop for Diablo 3 when it comes out.

I’ll check back in a few months, maybe there will still be a game then.

I still have 50 days left in Rift.  Going to try that out again, there’s some decent new stuff in there.

Star Wars

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So we’re a couple days shy of the 2 month mark and here’s my opinion.

TOR launched 2 months early, at the very least.  The first month had so many crashes, exploit and bugs that they patched once or twice a week to address it.  We’re at the 2 month mark, and there’s a patch every week still.  When Rift launched, it was nearly bug free and they worked on major things, like a group finder and guild stuff, plus content.  SW came out to compete with WoW and Rift, two fully functioning MMOs, with a wiffle bat.

What does TOR do right?  The single player aspect.  Leveling from 1-49 is a pretty cool journey.  It can get repetitive at times, but so do most games.  I enjoyed it tremendously the first time through.  The settings made sense, travel was long to give a sense of scope and you had well spread out enemies.  It’s a single player game with minimal replay (since there are no side-quests) and that’s worth your money.

What it does wrong is everything else.  I leveled another character to 50 and skipped all the dialogue since 99% of it was the same as the first time through.  My 3rd char is 30 now and I’m bored to tears of the questing, flying, zoning garbage that breaks up the MMO aspect.  You feel like you’re alone for ever.

So let’s do a feature comparison.  If you were in an MMO, you left that one to come try this one right?  So you left stuff to try new stuff.

PvP

This is a strong point for WoW, though Rift has some decent elements to it. There is a PvP stat that completely unbalances PvP in all 3 games though it’s being addressed in Rift.  TOR has massive exploits and a RNG system where once a week, you have a 25% chance of getting PvP gear.  Massive exploits too, you can max your PvP level fairly easily by Googling.

PvE

WoW has this down pat.  Rift has some balance issues for raids but the open world content is great.  Rift battles are amazing and you can do pretty much what you want, when you want.  I like it.  ToR has flashpoints that have a 25% chance of rewarding you at the end – and their loot tables are fixed.  Each takes 90mins to 2 hours to complete, many are bugged.  It’s better to run raids, as each boss has a 75% chance of dropping something you can use.  You need gloves?  There’s only one way to get gloves.  Rift and WoW both have LFG tools.  TOR is 2 months old and you can still wait an hour or more spamming LFG.

Money

This is a bit tougher to measure.  WoW has many methods to make cash, AH, dailies, raids whatever.  It let’s you buy flavor items (pets, mounts) and power (enchants, gems).  You need it certainly but not a whole lot.  Rift is close to WoW in this regard, though overall there’s less to buy.  TOR’s only expenditure right now is re-specing your talents (100-400K per shot).  The AH doesn’t work, dailies give 13K per (4 you can do alone), crafting is useless and your best bet is running a level 30 dungeon for money.  My 2 50s are millionaires, many times over with nothing to do.

Meta game

This is the part where you look at the systems.  WoW and Rift both have balanced stats.  You know what’s good, it’s somewhat simple to move things around to get stronger.  TOR opted for a modding strategy, where you move slots of gear within gear.  Sadly, these slots were designed by a drunk monkey where the 2 stats that are most prominent are the least wanted by any class (accuracy and haste).  The core issue here is that 2 of the 4 main classes are resource dependent and that resource regenerates at different rates. Both need to be above 60% at all times, making for somewhat static playstyles.  Making them attack faster, depletes their resources faster.  That makes them change their rotation to regenerate power instead of playing the game.  So what’s happening in game is that everyone is buying 3 particular items, breaking them down and using them to power the rest of their gear.  Every DPS and Healer (80% of the population) is doing this.  That’s bad planning.

Crafting has no use past level 49.  Do a single daily and the rewards outstrip any thing you can possibly craft.  Ship combat is an on-rails shooter.  I can play those for free.

Conclusion

The game from 1-49 is great and if you’re looking to try that out, then it’s worth the free month.  It looks and feels Star Wars (as long as you’re not a Sniper/Gunslinger).  Playing through once is fun.

If you want to play with other people, find another game.  If you want an MMO with PvP, wait a few months for them to fix the exploits and PvP stat.  If you want PvE in your MMO, wait until they put in a LFG tool and fix their item drops.  If you want to craft, find another game.  If you want to socialize/collect, find another game.  If you like alts, find another game.

TOR is not an MMO.  It’s a single player game that lets you talk to other people.

 

EDIT: I wanted to add a link to a population measuring tool.  TORStatus does a decent job, considering.  A 5% drop over last week.  Let’s say they have 1.5 million paying players (they said 1.7 were playing, most paying).  5% is 75,000 players or about 1.2 million dollars a month.

Gaming better than Art?

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I read an interesting article that proposed that Video Games were superior to Art in that they require a social aspect to conquer/appreciate while being consumed.  The gist is that movies and books are isolated experiences, where you could just as easily do they in a black box and get the same value where a video game usually requires thoughtful approach, group strategy and provides a longer term return on investment.

While I agree with the statement I think that both have diverging interests.  I read a LOT and I talk about it a lot.  It’s also socially acceptable to read and often a measure of intelligence (though reading Cosmo would be the opposite I think).  Regardless, books and art are about interpretation and self-reflection.  You can share ideas with the author and other readers, help frame your own ideas and questions and usually by the end of a good book, your perception of your reality has changed.  Maybe you appreciate music more, maybe you think government is inherently evil.  Whatever it is, you change.  Art is meant to change people and that change typically permeates the rest of your life.  Art is also different for different people.  For example, read Orwell’s 1984 and then see how that changes your impression of the outside world.

Games are primarily meant to provide puzzles and then appropriate rewards for solving them in the way the programmers intended.  A bug in a game is when you try a different way to solve something than was intended.  You don’t share a new idea about how terrorists are very good at blowing up buildings or how that giant horse is blocking your path.  You are presented with a problem, a visible goal and the tools to get there.  At the end of the game, you’re better at those puzzles, you’re not necessarily able to map those skills to the outside world.  Though games provide a social outlet, it also removes the non-verbal social aspects and the subtleties that make for great interactions.  People who excel at World of Warcraft gain organizational skills and twitch skills but translating that into real-world equivalents is quite difficult.

If I were to compare Video Games, I would do so versus mental sports such as Chess or Go and a little bit towards physical sports for the adrenal rush you get.  The goal is to repeat an activity until you excel at that activity and some tangential benefit comes from it.

I read/watch movies to enrich myself and explore other ideas.  I play games to perfect minute analytic skills and keep mentally sharp.  With separate goals, it becomes easier to enjoy both while not competing between them.