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Hyperspace Beacon: Gameplay mechanics -- twisted and evil
As I'm writing this, it's Sunday, and I've just finished talking to Gary Gannon and Mike B of Gamebreaker.tv. Although I had planned to talk about character creation in this week's Hyperspace Beacon because it's been such a hot topic for other games, I realized that I may have been wrong in a couple of my statements regarding the originality of Star Wars: The Old Republic's mechanics. In comments on Mos Eisley Radio, I've said that combat mechanics in SWTOR are very similar to what you'd find in most MMOs. I believe I am going to have to take those statements back, if slightly. During the conversation with Gamebreaker, it occurred to me that even though the mechanics are familiar to most MMO players, they aren't exactly structured the way most MMOs build them. This prompted me to take a closer look at other mechanics we have been told about that differ from those in other MMOs. Is crafting different? How about other combat systems? I agree that there is an air of familiarity to all these mechanics. Why do they feel familiar? How are they different? Follow me after the break to explore these questions.
Waging WAR: Elitist alliances and RvR
No matter where you go in the MMO-verse, rivalries are bound to happen, and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is no different. In most cases, these rifts are the exception and not the norm; whether they manifest as a heated argument in scenarios, or a realm-wide feud between established guilds or alliances, there's always going to be some sort of drama. This week, Waging WAR takes a look at how the exception to the rule can affect the game as a whole. A few days ago I was playing on one of my Tier 2 alts running around with an open warband in the Shadowlands. We were taking some keeps and battlefield objectives for renown and influence, since the Tier 2 High Elf elite influence item is well worth the effort. As it turns out, a few of my guildmates were also leveling in the same warband. We ran into a keep defense at Spite's Reach that we weren't really prepared for, but we managed to muster a decent siege in short order. The hot oil started pouring and some area-of-effect magic started to blanket the warband on the ground as we pounded on the door. One of the players in my guild, a dedicated veteran (though not an officer), refused to heal someone else in the warband. I asked him why and he told me that it was because the person was in another specific guild, with no real reason beyond that simple fact.
