click-to-move
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First impressions of Heroes of the Obelisk
Heroes of the Obelisk might look familiar, probably because its developers are the same folks who brought us Luna Online and Legend of Edda. I really enjoy its art style, one that puts us in control of Chibi-style, juvenile characters. The backgrounds are pretty, and there are some nice modern bells and whistles like distance blur and glow effects. As is normally the case with an Anime-based game that comes to us from the East, the game looks like a carbon copy of other titles, at least at first glance. The details make all of the difference, however, and there are a few things in this title that manage to just barely keep it out of "clone" territory. I do take issue with the fact that the developers refer to it as a hack-and-slash title, though. Heroes of the Obelisk is not what you think of when you think of action combat. Games like Vindictus, Neverwinter, and Dungeons and Dragons Online are action-based gaming. Heroes of the Obelisk is standard, class-based, hotbar-mashing combat.
The Daily Grind: How do you like to move it move it?
Zentia, Guild Wars, and a sampling of other MMOs offer what seems to me a bizarre movement option: click-to-move. I suppose I'm a first-person or chase-cam kinda girl, but I can't imagine using click-to-move in any sort of competitive 3-D gaming environment. There's always a better use for those mouse-clicks. Granted, I can understand why it's the only option in a strategy-sandbox like the freshly launched Wakfu, and I did have a go at making click-to-move work in Guild Wars on a touchscreen, but even that was iffy at best. So today I'm wondering, when exactly is click-to-move the best option? And how do you like to move it move it in MMOs? 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!
WoW Rookie: Leaner, meaner character controls
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.How do you control your character? If you move with the W-A-S-D keys and stab at spell and ability icons on-screen with your mouse, you're missing out on a whole world of options that can streamline your game. Simply by setting up your character controls a little differently, you can make your game play easier and more efficient. WoW Rookie pulls together a whole host of options to mull over. One of the first points to consider: How do you move your character? If you read a bit of WoW and gaming sites around the 'net, you've probably seen the phrase "mouthbreathing keyboard turner" bandied about. You're a keyboard turner if you use keys (usually W-A-S-D) on the keyboard to turn and move your character. Your character can turn (and get behind and around things and other players) much, much faster if you whip around with the mouse rather than slowly pivoting in place with your keyboard. So why's that such a big issue?
The Daily Grind: Do controls make or break an MMO for you?
With all the different options for controls in MMOs, some are devotedly tied to keyboards for movement - either the WASD crowd, the arrow keys, or occasionally the folks who use the numeric keypad. Other players we know who love PvP tend to be heavily mouse-driven, often with macros tied to different buttons on their mouse, able to unleash a devastating string of attacks with just a couple of clicks. In the Western market, we tend to see a combination of controls, offering users their choice. As we play through the Eastern free-to-play titles, we notice a great many that are click-to-move, offering limited keyboard/remapping support. This of course started discussion on our end. Some of the team are dedicated keyboard fans, and really dislike playing click-to-move only type games. Others are very used to using their mice and the idea of being required to use keyboard for movement seems clunky and slow. What we thought we'd ask today is this - if you found a game you were interested in playing, but it locked you into a control for movement that you didn't like (such as click-to-move, or WASD only if you're an arrow-key fan) would it cause you to put down the game? Or would you try to get used to a completely foreign set of control/movement keys? Do control options (or the lack thereof if you can't change your keymap) make or break an MMO for you?
The Daily Grind: WASD or click-to-move?
In an ideal world, we wouldn't have to choose between the two modes -- they'd be options configurable in the preferences tab. Until then, we'll have to make do with one or the other as they're presented to us. Click-to-move games free up a hand to access keyboard commands, but at the cost of increased difficulty in simultaneous travel and camera movement. Mabinogi features this control.WASD, on the other hand, seems a perfect fit for 3D movement, and by now it's a well-accepted standard, but having to cluster frequently-used keys near to your movement hand can sometimes be awkward. Which is your preference? Does it depend on the type of game?
