aesthetics
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Encrypted Text: The buff rogues really need
Every week or two, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Scott Helfand (@sveltekumquat) will be your shadow on this treacherous journey; try not to keep your back turned for too long, and make sure your valuables are stashed somewhere safe. My fellow rogues, it's time for an eleganza extravaganza. For the past couple of months, you've joined me on a long, winding stroll through the state of roguedom today. We've talked about the burning questions on our minds as rogue players; how stealthy (or not) our stealth is; and what makes us (or used to make us) feel unique as a class. We've talked about what we're thankful for, as well as what we're less thankful for, as the Warlords beta likely draws near. And finally, last week, we tagged along as three fictional rogues hung out in a fictional bar, got fictionally drunk and caterwauled over the many nonfictional (and sometimes contradicting) complaints players have about how their class works. So. Where does all of this chatting leave us? Are we any closer to agreement on these issues? I'm not so sure. In fact, I suspect that, while we've generated a lot of great conversation, the main thing we've done here is highlight just how tremendously varied our opinions are when it comes to the specific aspects of rogue gameplay we players would like to see altered. But I think we're closer to getting at one of the major seeds of our communal discontent. Here's what I suspect that seed is.
The Daily Grind: What does it take to keep your interest?
Every MMO wants you to play forever. The longer you play, the longer you give the company money, which is sort of how companies operate. The troublesome element is that developing features that will keep one person playing for a long period of time might very well mean ignoring other groups of players. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many developers working on new features, after all. So today we're coming at this from the obvious angle -- what does it take to keep your interest? Is it a question of update speed, whether you prefer rapid updates like Guild Wars 2 or big expansions a la World of Warcraft? Is it a question of fundamental mechanics, such that you prefer a wide-open sandbox like EVE Online or a directed experience in Star Wars: The Old Republic? Is it a matter of feel and lore that keeps you invested in Star Trek Online or Final Fantasy XIV? What does it take to keep your interest? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Encrypted Text: What does a rogue look like?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. Ghostcrawler recently described the rogue class as "slippery". He was met with a backlash of rogues arguing every side of the argument. I have personally struggled with my mental image of the rogue class. What does a rogue look like? Are we lightly-armored thieves or toughly-bound brawlers? Let me get this one out of the way early: "A rogue doesn't look like anything because you can't see them!" While I appreciate Stealth humor, the quip doesn't answer my question. Appearances have always been an important aspect in WoW. Players used to gauge their opponents' strength based on what shoulder armor they were wearing. Transmogrification is easily the most important feature of the past few years, as it has breathed life into content both old and new. The rogue class draws from several diverse archetypes, such as the thief, the assassin, and the brawler. Each source archetype contributes flavor to the class, but the end result can look like a confused mess.
Hyperspace Beacon: The SWTOR Terror From Beyond experience
Last week, BioWare launched its fourth major update for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Terror From Beyond. This new game content also happens to be the fourth operation (or raid) for the game. Eight to 16 players battle their way across the planet Asation, hoping to close or destroy a rift in hyperspace that has opened on this ancient Gree world. Along the way, many strange creatures and beings from other worlds attempt to stop the strike force from reaching its goal. Just like the other operations (Karagga's Palace and Explosive Conflict), Terror From Beyond continues the story of the Dread Masters. With each new addition to the story, the goal of these six Sith lords becomes more and more clear. Mechanically, this operation consists of five boss fights and a fairly linear path to the ultimate goal, a swirling vortex about a kilometer away from the starting point. Thankfully, none of the boss mechanics is a simple tank-and-spank ordeal, and the trash mobs along the way might cause a bump or two as well. This weekend, my guild ran this brand-new endgame addition to SWTOR in story-mode to get a taste of what it has to offer. I'd like to break down the experience into three major categories: aesthetics, boss mechanics, and overall impressions.
This is what artists do with their desktops
Need inspiration for a wallpaper refresh? Then you'll find plenty of treats at the source link below, which displays 51 examples of how artists customize their desktops when they just can't resist a tabula rasa. They were collected by Mac-centric creative type Adam Cruces, who wanted to echo an earlier project from 1997 (called "Desktop Is") that has since decayed into mess of broken links. Some of these new desktops are mesmerizing while others are surely too impractical to be real -- but then, who's to say?
The Daily Grind: What do you like to see on MMO websites?
During my time with Massively and as a gamer, I've visited scads of official MMO websites. And I can say, incontrovertibly, that no two of them had the same features and focus. Some were extremely easy to navigate while others were almost indecipherable without the Staff of Ra to guide me. Some were more about flash while others were loaded with content. And some, to my never-ending dismay, still lack an RSS feed which I cannot fathom in this day and age. But enough about my journeys -- I want to hear about your own thoughts on MMO websites. What do you like to see when you visit one? Are the aesthetics important to you, or are you more concerned with specific features? Are these websites more for first-time visitors curious about the game or should they cater to players looking for news and updates about their favorite titles? For bonus points, provide a link below to (in your opinion) the best-designed MMO website! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A peek at Sector 4 of Fallen Earth
Sector 4 isn't available for players of Fallen Earth just yet, but it's impossible not to know that it's out there, the fourth piece of a building world. As it turns out, however, Sector 4 is more than just the next zone -- it's a look into what the game's world was like before everything went to hell. In a new diary from Chris "Devo" Deavellar, the aesthetics of the new zone are discussed, and he mentions that Sector 4 is the first branch away from the fairly realistic environments seen in the game up to this point. Deavellar mentions that just throwing a bunch of plant life around would have felt unsuitable for the game, but considering the newest sector highlights the insane experiments of the Globaltech company, the place needed an alien feel. Using several real-world plants such as kudzu for inspiration, the result is a world that still feels true to life in many ways... but also is filled with alien plants weeping amber fluid. Fallen Earth players should take a look at the full diary to get the smallest hint of what this newest zone will look like, a reminder of what would have been the future... before the end of the world. [Thanks to Scott for the tip!]
15 Minutes of Fame: Anthropologist Bonnie Nardi on WoW culture and art
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. We've written before at WoW.com and even here in 15 Minutes of Fame about attempts to study World of Warcraft culture from a sociological, psychological or anthropological point of view. In all of these cases, the researchers in question have logged time playing WoW as part of their research, albeit some with greater degrees of immersive success than others. So I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that Bonnie Nardi, a University of California-Irvine expert in the social implications of digital technologies and author of the rather blithely titled My Life as a Night Elf Priest, not only rolled the token raiding character in order to observe the curious behavior of the raiding animal -- she actually enjoys WoW in its own right. Rather than cautiously sniffing WoW culture only to generate another wide-eyed, ZOMG-look-at-this-funny-lingo report from the digital field, Nardi dove deep enough to play in four different guilds: a casual raiding guild; a raiding guild composed of fellow academics; a small, casual guild; and her own friends-and-family guild. Our two-part interview with Nardi, packed with opinion and cultural analysis, reveals a witty approach to WoW culture that successfully combines academic insight with the familiarity of a seasoned player.
Lenovo's M70e and A70 desktops are coming soon to a cubicle near you
It's rare that a company spends any time talking about the visual design of a desktop intended to be sold en masse to big corporations before being unceremoniously stuffed onto or under desks. Odd, then, that Lenovo is highlighting the aesthetics of two new ThinkCentre PCs for enterprises, pointing out such things as silver rings around power buttons and crimson eject buttons. Right. Moving on to the hardware, there are two models here, the M70e pictured above and the rather more slim A70, shown after the break. Each come with your choice of Intel processors, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, gigabit Ethernet, DVD burners, and storage capacities of 500GB on the A70 and 1TB on the M70e. That latter machine starts at $559, going up from there, while the A70 starts at a rather more affordable $379. That, it seems, is the machine for your new posse of go-getter interns, while you can save the M70e for the clock-watching middle-management types.
The aesthetics of Black Prophecy's Genide faction
We had some good news about Black Prophecy the other day and how things are looking up for the game's developer Reakktor Media. We're hoping more info will be revealed about the game in the coming months, and now they've released a dev blog on the art direction of the game's Genide faction. Whereas the Tyi faction is a cybernetic offshoot of humanity the Genides embrace biogenetic manipulation in their pursuit of perfection. The aesthetics of what the Genides have become is the focus of Black Prophecy Art Director Nick Ebenhoch's dev diary. Nick kicks it off by explaining the significance of the Genide faction logo and what the symbol was designed to represent. Unlike the more utilitarian Tyi faction which favors a modular complexity, the Genide's cleaner, minimalist aesthetic sense permeates everything they create. This is seen in the smooth and tall look of their various space ships, which have vertical wing orientation rather than the standard horizontal orientation typically seen on such vessels, explains Nick.
Philosony - The beauty of problem-solving
Being the upstanding PSFanboy that I am I have been devotedly playing, creating, and (not quite) sharing since I got my grubby, cotton-filled sack paws on a copy of LittleBigPlanet. As we are all well aware this season is particularly pregnant with A-list new releases, but I think it safe to say that Media Molecule's monster is the game to play if you want a uniquely PS3 experience (sorry Bioshock, Fallout, and Dead Space - there will be time for you in the next life I suppose).We all know the selling points of the game. It's not just a cute, side-scrolling platformer and despite it's graphical style and E for Everyone rating it's not necessarily a targeted "kid's game". The real appeal of Sackland is in creation, making us as much game makers as game players. But here's the rub: how is it feasible that there is market among consumers for something that essentially makes them producers?
Philosony: Where's my box art?
This is a two-part column on digital distribution and its effect on the psychology of your average gamer. In part one we look at the change from the aesthetic of a well-stocked gaming shelf to a digital software library and what is lost or gained by it. Next week we will look at the they way smaller, quick-fix digital game downloads may change our gaming habits.Sorry for the brief hiatus, Inconstant Readers, but I was too busy making repeated trips to the store to pick up more Dramamine and an extra Dual Shock 3 after the PSN update last week. Let's just say that what Wipeout HD lacks as an epileptic stimulant it makes up for with motion sickness at 60fps. Mega Man 9 should also carry a warning about possible "controller malfunction" - here's a tip kiddos: the original Sixaxis is slightly lighter than the Dual Shock 3 and thus has a smaller chance of cracking televisions and denting walls when thrown. Still, I wouldn't have traded this weekend's gaming experiences for anything short of an LBP beta key. Generally after some frantic gaming and letting my house devolve itself into a special level of disarray I rather savor picking up the pieces - smoothing out the crumbled instruction manuals and reinserting them into their cases while finding the perfect organizational spot on the shelf for the box art (alphabetically? by genre? producer?). Imagine my lament when come Monday morning I realized I had nothing but broken controller pieces to pick up. The game's I'd spent my weekend with were all digital downloads!
Is "ugly" the new beautiful, and "evil" the new good? [Updated]
I have a question for all the Horde and warlock players out there -- as well as anyone who plays their character in a so-called "evil" way. But first, let me explain where I'm coming from.As you know, one of the main differences between the Alliance and the Horde is their sense of style. In fact, the question of what looks and feels good to players of either side may be one of the biggest areas of disagreement that actually exists between them. To a lesser extent, this sort of disagreement exists between classes as well. Warlocks give off a very different feeling from Paladins for example, and different people are attracted to each sort of "aura."Like many players, my sense of aesthetics and beauty fits in squarely on one side of this aesthetic equation, and the other side can be rather difficult for me to understand. I play in the Alliance, and my favorite races are usually the ones that are "beautiful" and noble-looking in a traditional sense. To me personally, the Horde races are hard to relate to.I do sometimes start up a Horde character if I have a funny idea for roleplaying him or her, but eventually something about them starts to bother me. Now that the Horde has prettier blood elves to play, I admit this helped me a lot -- I am gradually leveling up a blood elf alt in my free time -- but somehow being a blood elf in the Horde feels rather out of place, as if I'm not really part of the Horde because I'm not hunched over with a ready-to-kill look on my face. For a long time I couldn't play a warlock either for similar reasons. The class just seemed inherently evil; summoning demons and stealing people's souls seemed wrong somehow. Even though I knew it's just a fantasy game, I still had no desire to mimic in the game something that would be abhorrent to me in real life. I often wondered: what is attractive about the look and feel of these characters to Horde and warlock players?
Microsoft pushing for designer PCs?
Now that Macs are PCs -- we mean really real PCs that run Windows n' stuff -- the beige box world is having a harder time than ever keeping peoples' interest when their inner John Hodgman longs to walk on the wild side and snap up a Macintel. Re-enter Microsoft: the company's latest kick is, of course, vertical integration (see: Zune), so it should come as no surprise that Redmond's supposedly been issuing a strict aesthetic best-practices kit, called the Windows Vista Industrial Design Toolkit, to PC OEMs like HP and Gateway; apparently Microsoft's got a team of twenty some-odd designers working to guarantee the first round of Vista boxes are "objects of pure desire," sure to re-obsess jejune PC-buyers like it was Win95 all over again, even in spite of Cupertino's best laid plans. The claim is that Microsoft is in no way enforcing these guidelines or requiring PC manufacturers to pretty up their boxes, but even if they were, well, given how often Windows boxes tend to get hit with the fugly stick it might not be such a bad thing.[Thanks, CoreyTheGent]
Best looking HDTV out there - not picture, but rather the bezel
We have a question for all of you. When you are shopping for a HDTV, how much does the overall aesthetics of the set matter to you. We aren't talking about the picture here but rather the bezel. (the plastic casing around the screen) Seriously, is this a big thing for you or do you just care about the image quality. That's fine if you do, but why? This thing is going sharing the same living room as you so the looks must matter some. So this brings us to our main question. What HDTV looks the best - when it is turned off that is? Personally, I like Panasonic's new rear-projection LCD/DLPs. I think they look nice and clean but still like a TV. So what HDTV have you seen lately, or of the past, that just looks great?
