Ask Massively: Bribes are just particularly motivated gifts edition
Once again, World of Warcraft has made itself the forefront of the gaming blogosphere by unrepentantly bribing tanks to run more dungeons. It does seem kind of inevitable that you'd have a shortage of one role when it can only be filled by four specs out of 30, truth be told. So is this a good move? A bad one? A good idea with poor execution? It's not for me to say. This column isn't The Soapbox; that runs on Tuesdays.
But it's Thursday, which means that it's time for another edition of Ask Massively, featuring a grand total of zero questions about bribery. Instead, we're fielding questions about years of content and console versions, which should be a fun ride. As always, you can leave questions for the next edition in the comment field or mail them along to ask@massively.com. (I guess you could see having your question put into a column as a sort of bribery.)
Fienemannia asked: Has there been any news about Final Fantasy XIV on the PlayStation 3?
Not at this time. Naoki Yoshida made it clear that the development team is focusing on improving the game right now, so the PS3 version is currently set on the back burner. By all accounts, it's still on the table, but priorities first.
Gordol asked: Why is Funcom planning for seven years of content for The Secret World when an awful lot of new MMOs are struggling to make it to two years of operation?
Because the alternatives can be found all around. And failure to plan is one of the things that has crippled a lot of newer releases, which often have no definite plans for new content or expanded storytelling.
The Secret World has been in development for a while, and there's good reason to ask why the team would be planning for things that won't happen until 2018 if the game releases this year (odds aren't looking great for that). However, by expanding the design discussion out for several years, the team can have a backlog of new content, new features, and new mechanical wrinkles to introduce for players to enjoy. In other words, when the new dungeon comes out, a lack of balance won't prevent the team from getting the next one out roughly on schedule. A plan will be in place.
And while you can wing it for a while with no plan, you can't put one into place retroactively -- something that several developers (insert a cough that sounds suspiciously like Blizzard) have begun to realize.
RogueJedi86 asked: So these people ["unverified" posters on Massively] aren't unverified by choice?
Well, not all of them. Some of them could be taking a stand against the site's coding. We haven't personally asked everyone.
Looking for some advice on which class is best for soloing in Aion? Not sure who this Raph Koster fellow is? Curious about the release date of NCsoft's newest MMO? You've come to the right place! No one knows MMOs like we do. If there's anything you'd like to know about the MMO genre or the site itself, Ask Massively is here to help every Thursday afternoon. Just ask!
