familiarity
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The Daily Grind: Do you have an emotional reaction to old characters?
When I booted up Star Trek Online again, the first thing I had to do was look up my character from the game's launch. Seeing her on the screen again brought back a lot of old memories. Some of that has to do with the simple reality of roleplaying, but beyond even that there was a sense of familiarity. This was a setting and game I enjoyed, and seeing a familiar character was a little like coming home again. For some people, characters are just the tools they use to interact with the game. For others, characters are an emotional link, even if they don't really roleplay. Seeing your first character brings back a rush of memories, whether that character is in Ultima Online or Star Wars: The Old Republic. So do you have an emotional reaction to old characters? Or do you not really look back to what you've played in the past, focusing instead on the present? 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!
Arcane Brilliance: Familiars, porcupines and Frostbolt healing, oh my!
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we'll be discussing a few of the more recent additions and tweaks to our class on the Mists of Pandaria beta. Some of them are awesome. Some of them are silly. And some of them are porcupines. You see that thing up there in the picture? That tiny little legless flaming elemental from vanilla WoW? That's one of our three new familiars. That's right: familiars. I've actively campaigned for mage familiars in the past, even as far back as this crusty old post from 2008, in which I also wished for more portals, a Blink spell that actually worked, and a rumored new ability called Mirror Image, which I believed would prove to be a combination of a bacon double cheeseburger, the second coming of Christ, and a double rainbow out of a leprechaun's butt. So young! So naive. I always imagined my mage running around with a tiny furry minion, maybe mouse with glowing eyes, or an ominous crow, possibly animated by Don Bluth, that would do my bidding and tell me which cottage in the forest Princess Aurora was hiding in. I imagined a wizardly pet that would be always by my mage's side, part of the persona, perhaps conferring a passive buff or something. Well that isn't quite what we're getting here.
The Daily Grind: Games with potential
One of the things people chalk growth in an MMO up to is the strength of the IP - especially when you're talking about an established IP in popular culture like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, etc. Of course, some others will point out that there's something to be said for a completely new experience with an interesting story or idea behind it. City of Heroes, while based on comic books, wasn't based on any one comic in particular. EverQuest was general fantasy. World of Warcraft, while based on the Warcraft RTS wasn't nearly as much of a pop-culture buzzword then as it is now. Assuming all games have good mechanics - do you think that having a well-known IP can offer more potential in terms of creating an MMO these days, or do you feel that a well-timed new concept with a fresh new IP would do better? What particular games do you think have the most potential - and are they new franchises, or old, established stories already well-known to popular geekdom? Will it take a new spin on an old IP to really make things interesting in terms of upcoming games?
Forum post of the day: How the other half lives
Uhohhotdog of Mathrezim has a leveling problem. In the General Discussion forum he announced that fails whenever he tries to level an Alliance character. He asked if others have this problem. Secksie of Tanaris said that she has the same problem, only she can't seem to manage to roll Horde. It looks like the issues is not so much faction pride as friends and familiarity. Probably the most important factor is having friends or guildies to play with on the other side. Millaneous of Norgannon said that he doesn't care which side he plays, as long as he's playing with friends. Rummi of Ysera finds difficulty in breaking the link with his main character when playing on Alliance side. It's kind of Lonely and outside of one's established element.
