Housing For Everyone!

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To little fanfare (at least from my feeds) SWTOR announced player housing.  Maybe they gave out more information while I was at sea but this is what I found today.

It looks somewhat similar to RIFT’s housing idea, what of instances of housing to choose from.  Where that game had a lot of choice in terms of domicile, this one seems to be limited to either your capital city or Nar Shadaa. So, yay?

As per everything in SWTOR, a new experience bar is also available for housing.  It increased based on the amount of decorating you do.  This is a strange mechanism, to be honest, as housing is between achiever and socializer in my books.  This “prestige” gets you more something but do they want people to decorate just to raise that bar or simply as an afterthought to decorating?  I’ve always been of the mind that people build what they want for the pleasure of building, not some mini-game.

Not a whole lot more to go on.  Namely travel (hopefully a single hop), size, customization options, cost (though $1.5M seems to be listed somewhere) and a few more things.

Other good news is that fleet ships are in, which is essentially guild housing.  That is pretty sweet, if again, they can get the transport issue resolved.  I have quite a few fond memories of guild housing in UO, what with the local amenities and shared common space.

Keeping track, we have housing in EQ2, LOTRO, RIFT, FF14 (though too expensive for most) Wildstar and now SWTOR.  WoW has an extremely simplistic version.  TESO doesn’t yet appear to have anything, though it’s been a core of the single player series.  The concept of ownership certainly does make people come back.  Hopefully this thought process, where player initiated actions provide noticeable changes to the world, can take hold in more games.

So I Want To Be a Hero – Quest For Glory

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No word of a lie, I can clearly remember getting Hero’s Quest for Christmas when I was younger.  I unwrapped the gift and saw the picture below and could not wait a second more to get back home and play the game.

It all started here

I had played a few shareware games, Commander Keen and whatnot, by that point but this was the start of my fascination with games.  Now the game series had to change titles because of a boardgame with the same name (which was also awesome) and turned into Quest For Glory, spanning 5 games.  I remember even buying the little books as guides, with the red plastic window to read the clues.  I played all the games, extensively (even 4, which was notoriously buggy) and was saddened when 5 was announced as the last in the series.  Which, in my opinion, spelled the death of Sierra games.

Tears aside, Syp’s recent foray into nostalgic games had me thinking I could do something similar with QfG.  Let’s see how that goes!

Building a Hero

First off, QfG is a mix of adventure and RPG, with most of the focus on the former.  You class, either Fighter, Thief or Magic User, impacts the types of tools you have at hand in any given puzzle.  Most of the puzzles have many solutions, depending on your level in your skills.  For example, a Thief with Flame Dart can attack at a distance rather than sneak around.

For my tastes, I have always been drawn to the Thief.  They have a subset of missions in every game that just seems more fun.  I opted to make a Thief with a set of points in every skill, allowing me to try anything out.

9000!

9000!

And off I went.  Sent into Speilburg (this game is notorious for puns), I meet with the sheriff at the gates to learn about some brigand problems, along with a curse from a local ogress.  Get rid of the brigands, rid the land of the curse and become a hero – sound simple!

I head next door to the inn and meet some cat folk.  Always cat folk in fantasy games, don’t really know why dogs aren’t around more…anyways.  Nice people, got robbed by the brigands and now they have to lay low, charge me a pretty penny for a sloppy meal and then ask me to find their stuff.  I don’t know, maybe give me a free meal and I’ll think about it?

qfg2

I explore a bit more of the town afterwards.  Hit the Guild Hall to learn about being an adventurer.  Buy some magic spells from Zara, buy some apples from the cute centaur and sit down for a mug of beer and some stories at the pub.  Looks like this peaceful town has a thieving problem, which is right up my alley!

At night, I find a shiny coin in that same alley which leads me to the thieve’s guild.  Buy  myself a license, train up a bit on lockpicking and hit the town.  Only 2 houses to lift from and very little within them, maybe a few gold total.  There are many ways to die however, of which I find quite a few novel ones.  That cat is especially friendly.

Time’s up in the town, let’s head out into the wild!

qfg3

Until the next chapter.

 

Back on Land – Cruise Review

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My wife was kind enough to book a cruise to the Caribbean for the both of us last week.  She’d been talking about that type of trip for some time but money was always a stop on that idea.  There are plenty of ways to spend a week for a lot less money than a cruise – and that opinion still stands.  Still, back after a week and here’s some thoughts of the whole affair.

Get a great agent

We were lucky to find a great agent and a great deal.  Direct flight, transport, accommodations, gratuities and a drink package were all included – for $2200, tax-in.  Most cruise prices only include the accommodations.  All the rest combined, per person, would have been around $1000. Our agent found the deal, did a ton of prep work and was highly organized.  It was a fire sale price really, quite comparable to a 5 star all-inclusive resort.

The best part is that they will take all your requirements in hand and budget it out for you.  Some people don’t need a drink package, others can’t live without it.  They’ll recommend excursions too, and give some great tips.

Great cruise line

Each line has their own target clients.  Carnival is the 20-something pary-goer.  Royal Caribbean is the family type.  Celebrity Cruises, our line, is aimed for the retiree/affluent market.  Now, I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy at home but I’m practically in a suit at work, so no big swap for me.  Every dinner was a 5 course meal, required “smart casual” wear and you had more than 2 forks.  I am an avid food lover, I like that type of dining.  My wife isn’t so used to it, but she found the charm in it.  The activities on board also reflected that attitude, with an active pool deck but a more subdued ship interior.

It’s a damn big ship

Room service was included, so we had breakfast every day on our balcony.  Get a balcony.  Do not ever, ever go on a cruise without one.  And one that faces the sea.  It is spectacular and provides you some private sun.

Of all the target demographics, I found myself better aligned with this cruise than the others.  I would much rather wear a dinner jacket than sit next to someone in flip flops.

Important note is cleanliness.  At every port and every restaurant there was someone with hand sanitizer.  There were always people cleaning the ship.  Health and safety is extremely important in a closed space.  I’m not sure how it’s handled on other lines but this is not a resort.  Everything sparkles and is clean and there’s no smell.  It’s astounding what a difference that makes to the experience.

Finally, nearly everyone we met had gone on a cruise before.  Celebrity Cruises is not a discount line, so they had done the other ones before.  Every single one of them would recommend this line again.  This speaks highly to the target market being patrons and being served accordingly.

The food

Above everything else that I do on vacation, eating is the #1 thing I enjoy the most.  My wife doesn’t like quite a few things (seafood, fish, lamb quickly come to mind) so it’s not like I have that normally at home.  This line had a great set of food, 5 course a night, with a varying menu.  Our package included select dining, which meant we could select the hour of our meals.  We took a late seating, which meant we had our own table, rather than splitting it with 4-8 other people.  I had risotto, lamb shanks, eggplant caviar, apple gazpacho, baked alaska, blue cheese souffle and dozens more dishes.  All extremely good and the portions were not American – i.e. you could finish the plate.  Also of note, my wife’s lactose intolerance.  They made special work for her plates, always with a smile, and I could not have thanked them more.

Even the buffet open during the day was great, with a rotating selection every hour.  I stuck to Indian food mostly, but did try a few odd things.  The homemade salmon sandwiches were a good midnight snack.

What I didn’t try were the specialty restaurants.  They were $30-$50 a head and it is extremely hard to justify a $100 premium on a meal after having had a ballroom meal the night before.

Itinerary and excursions

We landed at San Juan, St Thomas and St Maarten.  The first port was great, a small metropolitan town that reminded me of downtown Quebec City.  Cobble streets, bars, military fort.  People actually lived there.  St Thomas and St Maarten were simply 2 towns meant to sell jewelry to tourists.  I despised both port towns and felt dirty just being around them.

We did take a trip to do some snorkeling in St Thomas, which was cool.  Saw some whales (very rare), sea turtles, rays, fish and corral.  Well worth every penny.  In hindsight, we should have tried to find a few beaches outside of town.

I’ve done excursions on resorts and they in no way shape or form compare to those organized by a cruise line. It’s like comparing McDonalds to Cordon Bleu.  Companies will fight over a cruise line recommendation, which drastically increases the quality.

The not so good

Our ship had 3,000 people.  You need to put those people somewhere and the upper deck was, in my opinion, too crowded.  I am a natural introvert and being elbow to elbow for 7 days with other people drove me batty.  The last day I spent mostly in my room, on the balcony.

Try 3x more people.

Ships move.  Get some pills or patches or whatnot and be ready for the possibility of rough seas.  One night was particularly difficult.  The advantage to this is that no one wants to get drunk and be sea sick, so there’s none of that crazy stuff you see on a resort.  My wife is still feeling it after 36 hours off ship.  One lady was sick the first 3 days.

The contrast in service between the ship, the excursions and everywhere else is drastic.  The first two treat you like you are a client and ensuring their employment.  I don’t mean pampering, I mean service with a smile.  Just saying “hi” is a great thing.  The service in the continental U.S. is abhorrent.  Our driver had 60 people on the bus.  He loaded it up alone, and emptied it alone.  Every time with 4-5 people just watching him.  Then these people wanted to get tips for being porters or for moving the bags 5 feet.  Airport service was just as bad.  I have had great service in the U.S. before but this level of apathy is incredible.  It made me give extra gratuity to the on-board staff, just because the contrast was so high.

Conclusion

The real question is would I do it again.  I would not do an eastern Caribbean cruise.  The ports are much too commercial and American influenced for my tastes.  I would try pretty much anywhere else in the world though, even a western Caribbean one.  I would do it again, for anything under $2500, assuming all the same was included as in this trip.  Anything above that, I could get a near-private beach at a Sandals resorts.   I would also plan things a bit better in terms of ship activities.  I’d spend the time to find the quiet spots at the quiet times.  I’d try to keep the same table for formal dinner, just to have a better rapport with the wait staff.

Cruises aren’t for everyone.  They aren’t wholely up my alley, as I prefer a bucket of beer on a beach and a good book, but they do provide a level of luxury at a great price point.

I’m On A Boat

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Well, at this size it’s a ship. Taking a cruise in the Carribean with the wife and no kids.

I need a massive break from work. Too much time there and the candle is fully burnt.

This’ll be great.   See you on the other side.

Gone for a week

Slow Start to the Year

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Syp has a post that reflects my current thoughts, that the year is off to a slow start.  I think this is mostly due to the new console generation, and the push-back on development of cross-platform games.

From a PC-only perspective, we have the indie stream (kickstarter and Steam) where development timelines are “always beta” it seems.  Sure, we get the odd Banished coming along but the real push of games seems to be months away.

The first real launch appears to be TESO, in a month, and from beta reports I’ve read – Reddit included – there are some rather significant bugs that still need to be ironed out.  They’ve mentioned no open beta, so the odds of having these bugs killed before launch seems small.  I guess there’ll be a day 1 patch.  Fingers crossed.

TSW Tokyo was delayed.  GW2 living story doesn’t seem to be having much impact.  Diablo3 did put out patch 2.0 (the loot-bonanza) which seems to be going well.  How the RoS expansion comes to fruition is a separate manner.  I honestly do not expect major sales on that front but it’s interesting to read about.  Neverwinter’s Icewind expansion is a few months away.

Wildstar still doesn’t have a launch date, though apparently this “phase” of beta had completed invites.  There are certainly bugs in the game, it’s a beta after all, but there are apparently some core mechanics that need to be tweaked.  The hype is in a lull right now and given that elder game is currently being tested, we’re likely 3 months away.

WoW is the last one on the list.  WoD heresay indicates that friends and family beta is just getting started.  The watercooler discussion still shows that there are large design gaps to be filled.  I would be surprised if WoD launches before November at this pace.  This would make the current patch 14 months old, which is so astoundingly stupid I am at a loss of words.  It does give TESO and Wildstar a ton of breathing room.

Other games on my list include Wasteland 2, Project Eternity, Xenonauts and a couple other outliers.  Hopefully when March finished, we’ll be on a good wave of launches to fill out the year.

Race to the Bottom

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An interesting article on TTH-Respawn about the Death of Mobile Gaming got me thinking.  Always a dangerous thing, I know.  In the continuing race to the bottom, markets get saturated, value gets inflated, the bubble bursts and then there’s a crash, followed by a renaissance.  It’s a cycle, seen a few times but usually takes a LONG time to come about.  Today’s hyper consuming market is changing that.

To point, mobile games are still relatively young.  A true Android capable platform is only 2-3 years old, iOS about 5.  The original mobile games were exploratory in terms of controls and limited screen real estate.  There was innovation, it was new and with so little competition, it was “easy” to find the gems in the pile.  And today we have (had) Flappy Bird and the literally hundreds of clones.  Now, I don’t have issue with Flappy Bird itself – it was a simple game with no aspirations. I have issue with the market around Flappy Bird.  Issues with Temple Run.  Issues with Clash of Clans.  There is so much garbage in the mobile space today that it’s next to impossible to make money and quality.  Games that were offered for free on PC through Flash now dominate the Paid App Store.  99c for a game doesn’t speak much to value.

This delves into the MMO space too, where the largest glut was a few years ago, the days of Allods Online.  Everyone took WoW, took out the stuff that made it good and sold it for cheaper.  The actual dev cycle for an MMO is measured in years, so it must have been quite the ride to see all these games fail, and fail spectacularly, while you haven’t even released yet.  I won’t go too far into the F2P debate but clearly, the line at which people associate value with product is at a completely different place today than it was even 3 years ago. Quality aside, TESO and Wildstar’s single largest hurdle is public perception of value.

Consoles… I don’t even know where to begin.  Hats off to Call of Duty, FIFA and the NFL for making so much money on the exact same recycled product year after year I guess.  The market for games is so astoundingly atrocious that I can’t name a single XBONE exclusive title that isn’t a rehash.  PS games at least had Naughty Dog.  It’s just so bad that I can’t even bother to pay attention anymore.

That leaves us with the last refuge of the damned – PCs and indies.  Every couple weeks, another game seems to pop up.  Jewel and Murf have been posting/tweeting about Banished lately.  A game that likely never would have heard of if not for the blogging circle.  And it’s not a game that’s free, or one that is so cheaply priced you don’t even think about it.  In fact, the average Steam game tends to be between $10-$15.  The perceived value for that dollar is so drastically different on PCs than other media that it makes you wonder if it’s a completely different target audience.  There’s Free and then there’s Free.

The seemingly unending cycle to pump out crap to be consumed (pushed by large and small groups) is not sustainable.  There’s no money left in mobile outside of IAP – and even there, whales dominates (something like 1.5% of the population pays > 50%).  F2P MMOs aren’t a whole lot different, depending on their model.  Expectations are at a point where the large majority is expecting everything for no cost.  How does that make sense?

In the quest for the last penny, or for all the pennies, it’s remarkable how many developers have lost sight of the true value of games.   Here’s hoping that bottom is found soon.

Old School Challenge

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When I was a kid, games were tough.  There was little grey area.  Digital meant black or white – you missed the pixel or you didn’t.  The concept of “ledge grabbing” was unknown and you could die for a ton of reasons, many of which made you want to destroy your controller.  Battletoads, I’m looking at you!

SNES back on topic.  There were quite a few “twitch” games, where precise movement was required to complete a task.  Super Mario World and the star road is a prime example.  Few people saw this section of the game but having to fly for 2 minutes with a cape and avoid all sorts of stuff flying at you was a massive drain on your fingers.  Recently, I was playing Donkey Kong Country and after the first zone I was standing at 25 lives.  I was thinking “I’m set for the rest of the game!”  Then I entered the second world and in particular, the mine carts.

Now, if you’ve never played DKC, then I get why this doesn’t mean much to you.  For those of you who did, this is likely a part of your memories you pushed in a dark corner.  These mine cart zones are an exercise in “press jump”, which you would think is a simple affair.  Back to the digital comment from above, where either you have it or you don’t.  There are a ton of obstacles you need to avoid and the hitboxes for these things are larger than the actual objects.  Jumps are measured in pixels, not inches.  In one particular level, I blew through 20 lives.

I compare this to today’s games, like Assassin’s Creed 4 of recent memory.  It’s platform based (mostly) but there’s so much room for error.  I think I died 5 times total (outside of naval warfare) for the entire game.  You mess up?  That’s ok, go hide.  There’s just so much padding on skill today that you need a real outlier, a Rogue-like or Demon Souls to remind you of challenge.  Plug back 15 years though and the cream of the crop is likely considered too difficult for today’s players.

I’m certain that has a large impact on MMOs as well, given that players who have been at it a while are used to a certain level of challenge and have a certain skill set.  New players don’t have that, there really aren’t any games that teach them about challenge, other than pulling that slot machine arm another time.  It certainly makes for a culture gap between the “older” and “newer” players.

Reliving Youth, One Game At A Time

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I loved my SNES.  I really liked the origina NES but the games on that were mostly crud filler.  Atari had more choice…  The SNES was a real eye opener as to what gaming could produce from Super Mario World all the way to Super Mario RPG.  I played hundreds of SNES games.  I remember a local corner store had a subscription service where I paid a monthly fee and could rent as much as  I wanted.  Boy did I get my money’s worth.
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Don’t get me wrong.  I wasn’t on the couch all the time.  I was an outdoors kids by and large, living on the outdoor rink for the entire winter months.  But when the lights went down, when we had to be a bit quieter at home, the SNES was where it was at.  I can still clearly remember going out to buy FF6 at the store, with a sticker price of $99.99.  It took a lot of work to scratch the money together to make that purchase.   And it was worth every penny.

Memories

I went back to that model on the original XBOX.  A friend had a full set of roms and a good emulator.  I modded my console and put in a ton of hours on that.  Even the odd ball games.  Mind you, I think I put way too much time into Earthworm Jim and not enough into Secret of Mana.

I was thinking recently about my two little girls.  The eldest has been playing with our tablet for some time now and all around the educational games.  My tablet (t701) comes with an integrated keyboard, so she gets to practice writing as well.  Good stuff.  But if I want to be able to share my passion for gaming, I need to find adequate games for her.  Consoles today are not the place.  Outside of Skylanders, what kids games are left anymore?  Bubsy is gone, Kirby, Mario and all that are super complex today.  My kids love the Wii and that’s all fine and dandy but there’s more out there.

So I found an emulator on Android, SNES 9X, which for the lovely price of FREE, plays all my old roms.  I still have an old box somewhere with the SNES cartridge connection but ROMS on a tablet are a great experience.  The downside was control schemes.  Games from the 90s were not designed with touch screens in mind.  Enter my logitech gamepad.  I use that with Steam + Big Screen already (which is awesome) and I wondered how it would work here.  Given the integrated keyboard and powered USB slot, it was a plug and play experience.  So now I have a 10 inch portable screen and a controller to play a few hundred games.  And my kids can experience old school gaming with new world convenience.  Win win!

Thar Be Trolls

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As long as the interwebs have existed, there have been trolls. Shielded by anonymity, they wreak havoc on a community and you can often find the trainwreck on forums.

Reddit has a very interesting way of dealing with trolls. It’s a democratic system that downvotes into oblivion. The truly bad cases are PM-ed to the nth degree. It’s hard to find a post that’s been on reddit’s top list that doesn’t have at least one deleted account posting. So, social tools ftw I guess.

Game forums are, by and large, based on the old phbb forum. You get a post count, stickies and the ability to ban. Even the largest game on the planet has notoriously horribad forums. 

Enter some contenders. LOL has a tribunal system where the really bad people go, based on warnings/votes. XBONE has a 3 tier system based on reputation scores, with more or less a hell layer for the worst offenders. These systems work well enough as the games typically cater to small set of players, 5-50 and the games are relatively short.

MMOs are long and contain thousands of players at once. Other than building a dedicated server for bungholes, the penalties are all related to time-outs or outright bans. To further complicate things, the in-game activities are not usually linked to the forum posts, where the trolls have the largest audience.

Trion is trying something new in that the actions on the forums carry the same weight as in-game. You can potentially be banned for forums activity. Time will tell if it works. Reaction is mixed and I think that has more to do with a culture saturated in trolling.

Respawn has a post touting the right of free speech and takes to a logical extreme the courts have outright rejected (at least outside the US). Freedom of speech gets you just far enough to where the other person’s rights begin. You’re certainly allowed to say what you want but you have to be ready to live with the consequences.

To be quite blunt, games are miniature societies who have their own rules. You don’t have to play them, there are hundreds to choose. If you want to be an asshat, I’m sure EvE is looking for more players. If you want to be a part of a society, then you play by those rules. If that society judges (and that’s the most appropriate word) that you are more a hindrance to them then a boon, get ready to be cast out.

The concept of individual rights superseding those of society is a separate topic and way too political. Depending on your location on our planet, the answer changes drastically. For games though, they are on the internet. And the internet is getting mighty good at fighting trolls.

Fun Times

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Oddly enough, after a few rounds in the TESO beta and some postings around, I’ve more or less come to the conclusion the game is a mashup of GW2 and TSW.

And I have a massive dislike for GW2, hence my issues with TESO. PvP has no value for me in MMOS, outside of filler content. The simplistic controls and lack of class structure make for a bunch of monkeys on keyboards. I’m sure people love it (Bhagpuss sure does) and I do like reading their stories – but they are their stories, not mine.

That leaves TSW and the other half. I played at launched, played at B2P and a few other times. Each time I left was due to other commitments. Summer breaks, holidays, work hours and so on. My fallout from Rift is quite parallel. Reading my RSS feed of late and seeing the Monday night crew in TSW, I wanted to go back and I did.

Apparently I had a full roster of characters too. I wanted a fresh start though, to see with a new set of eyes. Plus I wanted to keep my nickname (going on 20 years using Asmiroth now) so I deleted my old guy and created a new one. Templar on Arcadia.

Off to Kingsmouth, to live the nightmare.

TSW has 2 unique properties. First is the lack of levels and rather a system of skill points and skill trees. It’s complex due to skill synergies but if you pay attention, it’s a whole lot of fun. Plus I like Meta. The second part is quests.

Quests in most MMOs are a means to an end. Either the reward is the prize or the destination is. I have a new sword or I’ve found a new zone. No one pays attention to the quest itself. TSW is different in that the rewards and negligible. The quest itself however, is multi stepped and complex.

For example, one quest had me chase down boxes of eaten squid to reach a big bad guy. No quest trail, no arrows, just me looking at the ground. Another asked for zombie body parts (like slow and dry) so I had to find them. They were not very close to the quest giver.

Investigation quests are mini sleuth exercises. While on their own they are fun (you can cheat but it’s way more fun to give it a shot) they really shine in a group. I tagged up with Septakill for some other quests and we fell on this murder investigation. Went to city hall, found some records, went to prison and talked to a ghost, looked at a wall (which was oddly the most complex part) and followed some pigeons. The pigeons were the best part. 7 of them, each saying a different thing. Based on the clues given previously, you needed to touch the pigeons in a certain order. Each of us took a few stabs at each step and it was a lot of fun figuring it out.

The second breadcrumb

Long story short, I remember why TSW hooked me previously. It’s an experience rather than simply a game. You feel a part of it. Skipping quest intros makes no sense because that’s the point of the game – to be a part of the mystery. If ever you’re around, feel free to send me a message.