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.

Photos Fixed

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I had an issue where my photos weren’t updating properly after an update to Shashin.  Well, after 3 weeks of troubleshooting the problem is resolved.  The dev for the tool was great help too.

I updated the photos page to only have recent albums (or ones important to me).  Daughter’s pictures are updated too!

[shashin type=”album” id=”3″ size=”small” crop=”n” columns=”max” caption=”y” order=”date” position=”center”]

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.

Drive

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Valentine’s Day means the wife gets to pick a movie.  Her choices boiled down to Drive and Ides of March – Ryan Gosling thing much?  Anyways, we end up with Drive and I can’t complain.  He’s a solid actor.

It has been a while since I’ve seen such a movie.  Inception was the last one, where the character are the story.  See, in most movies the plot is king and the characters just move it along.  You could replace any one of them with a different character and the plot would likely keep moving as is.  Think of any Michael Bay movie.

So back to Drive.  The characters don’t say a whole lot in speech but pounds in maneurisms.  A raised eyebrow, slumping shoulders, big eyes, the whole package from everyone.  Ryan Gosling is really good.  So is everyone else actually, barring perhaps Christina Hendricks in a limited role.  Certainly, there are twists but they aren’t huge.

Car chases are calculated affairs, heck the first one is 100% from inside the car viewpoint.  It’s such a smart take on chases.  One particular crash has a 270 degree swerve and they catch the other car flipping, through the rear view, over one character’s shoulder.  That was spectacular in it’s execution, not in the fact that the car didn’t flip over 10 times.

The music is pure 80’s and used superbly.  Silence is actually silence and the tense scenes have the right feeling.  I am looking for the soundtrack.  The director of photography and the lightning guy should get medals.  It’s like watching a movie of slowly moving pictures.  Nearly every scene is framed and the character’s mood changes as the lightning does.  It’s a different twist.

Finally, the violent scenes.  Compared to other films where they fill in gaps where the writer took a coffee break, here they are plainly insane and jarring.  When it happens you’re blown back at the sheer violence involved, especially from the characters that are involved.  It really raises the stakes and further pushes the characters along.  Even the ending is appropriate.

And you never learn his name.

Giftedness

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Wikipedia has a decent article on the subject.  The topic comes to mind after reading Ender’s Game, where the main character is quite obviously gifted at at the same time, ostracized for it.  The gift is personal, the hindrance social.  People, especially kids, hate different.  Survival instinct.

I remember quite a few elements from my childhood after being identified.  First, I hated the idea of being alone, though in retrospect I’ve always been.  My parents wanted to put me in a better program at school and I purposely dropped my grades to avoid it.  That didn’t work and they moved me anyway.  I remember being in math class and understanding the solutions without understanding the methods.  The teacher would explain the problems for 30 minutes then give the class 15 minutes to complete them.  I usually just skimmed through and wrote answers.  My high school teachers really hated me for it since they thought I cheated.  I had to write out the solution long-form, which to be honest, I had trouble with.

You know that feeling when you know something is just right but you can’t say why?  I have had that my entire life, like the details don’t matter, just the big picture.

My social disabilities however have pushed me to focus on the details in order to better relate to people.  If I can do something really well but can’t explain how, that pisses people off since I seem high and mighty.  In fact I don’t know the answer off hand and it takes time to figure it out.  So flip that and I spend more time explaining why than actually doing.  The social disability is actually an intellectual hindrance but my only method of coping.

Back on point.  My wife recently asked me if I considered myself or the people I went to school with gifted.  In all honesty, I can only think of a handful of people I would call truly gifted, myself included, but nearly all of my social circle has an above average intellect and desire to perform.  People who work hard and succeed at it.  I don’t have particular regrets about life as most of it was out of my control but I do realize, as I get older, that I could have achieved more if I was given the chance/support to do so.  I don’t forgive people for their ignorance but I understand it.  It also tempers my judgment with my daughter and will help me frame options for her in the future.

As rambling as this post might seem, there’s a catharsis inherent to the process.  Let’s just say that if you want to have kids, it’s not a 5 year job, it’s a lifetime job and a calling.  My respect for those parents who truly want the best for their children is endless and society’s future is dependent on that particular gene overtaking the “have babies because you should” social stigma.

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.