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The Daily Grind: Do you skip quest text in MMOs?
I heard an odd complaint in the Massively offices this week: One of our writers was annoyed with Guild Wars 2 because it isn't delivering enough backstory through regular gameplay and normal questing. He couldn't figure out what was happening in the plot and didn't want to have to hunt down an out-of-game wiki page or NPC with a prepared info-dumping spiel; he just wanted the basic lore presented during the quest itself from normal quest NPCs. Crazy, right? Why would a designer put lore in quest text? No one reads quest text -- everyone says! Might be it's time to challenge that assumption, especially with games like WildStar with tweetquest philosophies on the horizon. Do you, in fact, skip quest text in MMOs? If you do, would you read it if you knew the text actually mattered to the plot of the game and wasn't just a 500-word essay on why you should kill 10 rats? 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!
Massively Exclusive: Blacklight: Retribution shows off the end of the world, part 2
Yesterday we previewed the trailer and the raw content information regarding Blacklight: Retribution's upcoming patch, World's End. But what's the story behind the patch? For that, we turn to the first two parts of a six-part motion comic from the team behind the game at Perfect World Entertainment. The comic details some of what happened leading up to the events of the update... starting with a single man touching down on a hospital rooftop about ready to bleed out from injury. From there, the first two chapters go on to establish some of what's at stake in the game's lore and what happened on the main character's disastrous mission. If you're curious, the videos are each only a couple of minutes long, a chance to get a little does of lore and an idea behind the setting. But what happens next? Check in tomorrow to see more.
Prime: Battle for Dominus announces classes and abilities
Pitchblack Games has released the first of what it promises to be a series of many "infodumps" regarding its upcoming PvP-focused MMORPG Prime: Battle for Dominus. Today the spotlight is on classes and character progression, which is as good a place to start as any. Each faction will have six classes available to it, making for a total of 18 classes overall. New characters in Prime will begin the game with five basic skills, though they'll gain access to newer and more class-specific abilities as they progress. Each class will ultimately end up with a total of 15 skills. Progression is skill-based, with players earning skillpoints as they level. These skillpoints can be allocated amongst the character's various skills as they so desire (though Pitchblack did point out that it will not be possible to max out every ability with the amount of skillpoints granted, which will force players to prioritize). Another point to note is that Prime will not be permanently tying players to a given build. Pitchblack President Warren Weems says, "We don't think players should be permanently tied to choices they made when they were still learning about the game. We also want people to feel free to experiment." As a result, skillpoints will be "relatively easy" to reallocate if players feel the need for a change of pace. For more information, and for the full class and ability listings, warp on over to the official site!
