patience
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Lost Continent: Why so impatient with ArcheAge?
It's kinda silly, but I feel like giving up on ArcheAge. It's silly because the game launched in mid-September and we're currently in November. The fantasy sandpark does have more than it's share of problems, but logically I know that it's way, way too early to start piling dirt on its imaginary corpse. That said, there are so many MMOs clamoring for my attention nowadays that the idea of being patient with one of them is almost laughable. I'm not alone here, either, as many gamers I know look for the first available reason to leave an MMO and cross it off their to-do list, simply because they're wired to complete tasks and the ginormous glut of games long ago passed the point of overwhelming.
Stick and Rudder: Oh yeah, Star Citizen is a game I'm following!
I actually said the title of this piece out loud the other day. I was compelled to do so primarily because of a certain sandpark's launch as well as the fact that it's been dominating my game time for a solid month now. And yeah, I left off the Stick and Rudder part when I said the title out loud because "Stick and Rudder: Oh yeah Star Citizen is a game I'm following!" would've sounded even stranger than "Oh yeah, Star Citizen is a game I'm following!"
The Daily Grind: How patient are you with explanations?
I run a lot of random dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV. It's not uncommon to wind up grouped with someone who hasn't seen one of the newer dungeons, or even someone who just happened to forget the mechanics in a lower-level fight. That's fine, and I have no problem explaining the fight in detail to people. What gets my goat is trying to re-explain as someone either ignores the directions or does exactly the opposite time and again. Some people are far more patient than I am. I've watched players explain the same mechanics a dozen times without ever showing signs of irritation. And of course, there are people far less patient than I -- people who explain the fight only once in mangled shorthand or even outright refuse to explain anything. So what about you, dear reader? How patient are you with explanations about fights, areas, mechanics, or anything else in your game of choice? 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!
The Summoner's Guidebook: It takes skill to right-click stuff in League of Legends
I've mentioned in passing that my favorite role on Summoner's Rift is ADC, otherwise known as "AD Carry" or "ranged DPS." This might be a bit of a surprise for some of you. Typically in League of Legends, the jungler is the playmaker, and if not, the support is. The playmaker roles seem like more suited to me, especially because I write guides on how to make plays. The ADC is the opposite of a playmaker. She's incredibly reactionary, relying on others to start things so she can finish them. Bruisers, tanks, junglers, mages, and supports all have tools to make things happen, but not the ADC. I didn't learn to love carrying right away. It was sort of an evolutionary process, moving from support to mid to never-playing-SR-again to top to jungle to ADC. One of the things I love about ADC is that you can't be good at it starting out. You can be better than the people you're playing against, but you can't be good at it at all. The huge technical curve, more than anything else, is what attracts me to the role.
The Soapbox: Give MMOs a chance
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. The very first Soapbox was penned by our Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster, who posited that MMOs have an hour to grab his attention -- or he was gone like the wind, baby. I understand where he was coming from and mostly agree with his sentiments, especially as someone who deals in many MMOs over the course of a year. Devs should work their butts off to give us a gripping and intuitive experience from the get-go, but lately I'm wondering if even the best beginning is enough for the community. At the risk of over-generalizing, I see signs that there's a chunk of MMO players that will never, ever be satisfied. These are the players who fully judge a game before it even releases, who perhaps relent to give 15 minutes of their precious attention before logging out and trashing the title all over the place, or who never let any past "failure" or perceived slight go so as to give the game another try. To them I want to say: Give MMOs a chance. A real chance. Do this, and you might just be surprised at how these games can delight you.
The Daily Grind: How long have you been waiting for your next MMORPG?
With early release and launch day for The Secret World fast approaching, I took a moment to glance back over the game's development history. In the back of my mind, I knew I'd been waiting on the title for quite some time, but it surprised me to learn that it's been well over five years since I registered on the official forums following Funcom's first ARG brain-teaser. Guild Wars 2 fans can also see the light at the end of the tunnel, though we don't have a definitive launch date as of yet. Regardless, today's Daily Grind is all about patience. More specifically, how long have you been waiting for your next great MMORPG? 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!
The Daily Grind: Do you wait for MMO cash-shop sales?
When Lord of the Rings Online first went free-to-play, Turbine put quest zones on sale for a song, and I missed it. There's never been as good a sale since, and I regret being slow on the draw. So I vowed to start watching sales across the F2P games I frequent very carefully. Sparklepony for 10 bucks? Woot. City of Heroes character slots 50% off? Heck yes. It's become a game in and of itself, and sometimes I admit that I plunk down a little money for a sale on something in a game I've drifted away from, knowing I'll use it later (like Guild Wars' storage panels, which I delayed buying for several years until they were half off). This method had definitely ensured that I save money on stuff I would have bought at full price had I lacked the patience and planning to play the cash-shop sale game. What about you guys? Do you wait for MMO cash-shop sales for the stuff you want to buy, even if that means you must wait to have the latest and greatest power set or inventory slot? Or do you just let your whims dictate your purchases? 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!
The Daily Grind: How do you pass the time in a login queue?
So I'd been trying to log in to DC Universe Online (with a legendary account, mind you) for the better part of a week, and I finally managed it at around midnight on Sunday after a 20 minute wait. That may sound annoying, but it's nothing compared to the waits last week after the title went F2P. Afternoon and prime time queues placed me somewhere around the 4,000th spot in line, and I eventually stopped waiting after routinely encountering 45-minute delays and never-ending login screens. It's been quite some time since I had to wait like that for an MMO, and I alternated between reading a book, making dinner, and playing another title to pass the time. What about you, Massively folk? Do you have the patience for MMO login queues and if so, what do you do while you're waiting? 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!
The Daily Grind: What's your longest patch-day wait?
Patch days are generally a crapshoot for MMORPG fans. Smaller updates usually have a minimal impact on your gaming schedule (but still may necessitate some custom UI maintenance or an adjustment period for various game changes). Bigger updates can cut into your playtime by a significant amount, to say nothing of the changes wrought on your favorite game world. Age of Conan's 2.6 patch (or Unchained, if you prefer) falls into the latter category. It was so big, in fact, that the game servers were down for a whopping 13-plus hours last Thursday. While this was expected and Funcom did an admirable job of updating the launcher as well as a relevant forum thread, the wait tested the patience of some AoC die-hards before it finally went live around 10:30 p.m. EDT. For today's Daily Grind, tell us about your patch-day patience. Do you constantly watch for updates, or do you forget about the game for a while and do something more productive? What's the longest you've ever had to wait? 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: Learning the rogue virtues
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. If you have any topics you'd like to see covered, send me a stealthy email. So many years ago, I picked up a copy of World of Warcraft. It was my first MMO, although I had played my fair share of RPGs. Once I started my rogue, I found myself leaning on Sinister Strike to kill everything. Eviscerate didn't seem very potent, and Slice and Dice was just some dumb buff. Other games had taught me that damage now was better than damage later, and so I focused on simply hitting my targets with Sinister Strike as often as I could. Stealth only slowed me down, and so I would just run up to my enemies. The learning curve of WoW isn't exactly steep, and so I was able to level pretty easily even though I was playing poorly. Looking over our talent trees today, it's clear that Blizzard has spent quite some time refining the rotation of each build. In the past, we relied on diligent theorycrafters to guide our every move. Now, the talents themselves tell us how to play. How can you read Master Poisoner's tooltip and not realize you should be using Envenom? Improved Sinister Strike clearly points combat towards Sinister Strike, while Energetic Recovery makes Recuperate a staple of the subtlety builds. As I've mentioned before, each spec really has its own combo point generator and finisher priority. Figuring out what abilities go with which spec isn't rocket science; it's merely common sense.
RIFT's head-start is standing room only
To almost no one's surprise, Trion's RIFT head-start was an exercise in multitasking for many would-be players. MMO launch-day veterans are probably familiar with the one-eye-on-the-queue and one-eye-on-something-more-productive routine by now, but for everyone else, the fact that a good portion of the day was spent not playing RIFT was a bit frustrating. In some cases, estimated wait times approached 15 hours (though in fairness to the folks at Trion, the counters did fluctuate quite a bit). Demand was so great that a whopping 13 additional servers were added around noon, with 10 more going up as the day wore on. Tell us about your head-start horror stories in the comments (if you're not too busy playing, that is).
Meghan "Patience" Jenks leaves Turbine, Andy Belford departs Mythic
Today, Turbine lost its Patience -- but not in the way you're thinking. Over Twitter, Meghan "Patience" Jenks announced that after six years, she is leaving the studio to move back to California: "I guess it's time to break the news -- Friday is my last day at Turbine. I'm heading back home to CA. It's been an AMAZING 6 years working on amazing games, but I need to be closer to my family." Jenks has been the online community manager for Turbine since 2004; she was one of the studio's most vocal personalities and the face that the community most often saw in interviews and on convention panels. She indicated that she does indeed have a new job lined up, although she called her stint overseeing Lord of the Rings Online's community "THE highlight of my career." If this news upsets you, then Jenks has a few words to cheer you up: "Don't be sad -- if you play Turbine games, you're still in excellent hands with the awesomeness of the Community Team! And no -- YOU CAN'T HAVE MY STUFF. :)" Update: Meghan's not the only one going to California. BioWare Mythic Community Manager Andy Belford also made his farewells on Twitter earlier today. "Jumping on the go west mentality... I'm no longer with BioWare Mythic. I'm moving closer to the family and have a great new opportunity. [... ] Thanks to the WAR and DAOC communities for the last 2+ years. Thank[s] to Mythic for all of the amazing opportunities. I'll forever be grateful." The west coast (and, no doubt, the gaming companies therein) is certainly about to become much richer! Best of luck to the both of you!
Breakfast Topic: Oops, I've been acting like an elitist jerk
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. So there I was, fresh off a rant to a friend in Vent about what had just happened that night during what was appearing to be a common occurrence in our raids. I was frustrated (in my own defense, it was just one of those nights when nothing goes right, no matter how hard you try), and that's when it happened: The deep-down thoughts of ZOMG, how hard can this be, people?! spilled out into a diatribe on why I can't stand to run with the lot of them, since they "just don't get it and probably never will!" I named names. I pointed fingers. If there was a bridge to burn, I had brought along the dynamite for extra explosive-y goodness! I was good, they were bad, and I was there to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was at that point I realized I had become the bane of every WoW player: the Elitist Jerk (OK, not the Elitist Jerks -- those guys and their forums are awesome). As soon as I had finished my speech, the notion of "it's lonely at the top" had a whole new meaning. Once I had out-classed my friends, they stopped being chatty with me in Vent. It was one lonely night after another. I missed them. Elitism can strike at any time. The important thing is realizing how to harness, control and manipulate what you know into a vessel that can be used to help those around you become better at their own game. My story ends well. Once I was able to use my powers for good, my old friends didn't hold a grudge. Besides, what's really important in the game for you? Is it the camaraderie of your friends or the satisfaction of being the best?
How to publish an Apple iBook
We've covered the issue tangentially before, but in case our guides on EPUB and the process itself haven't been enough to inspire you would-be authors to self-publish your book in iBooks, Greg Mills has a step-by-step guide just for you. Of course, the hardest part may be actually writing the book, but once you've gotten that out of the way, you're just a format check, a registration, and an upload away from becoming an e-published author. It's really not complicated, and while there are a few hoops to jump through (you need to make sure that your files match up exactly to the store's format, and then, of course, you need to let Apple know that you're legit and responsible), Mills' steps make the process almost completely transparent. The toughest part (besides the technical tweaking and forms to fill out) might be going through the ISBN application process, but even that's just standard bureaucracy. It's pretty amazing that with just a standard Mac, a little patience, and the right information, almost anybody can publish on Apple's iBooks store. If you go through the whole process and get a title published, send us a tip, and let us know how it went.
The Daily Grind: How long do you wait for stragglers?
It doesn't matter if it's a light-hearted RP event or a high-intensity progression run. As sure as the sun rises, if everyone is told the event is going to begin at 5 PM sharp, at least one player will not show up until 5:01. They might claim timezone difficulties, traffic, or even just that they forgot what time it was taking place. Inevitably, someone shows up late, and quite frequently several people arrive late to a lower-impact event. That's not counting the people who show up on time, but have one last thing to finish that takes upwards of half an hour. Of course, MMOs are fundamentally hobbies, and it's understandable that not everyone will be perfectly punctual. But by the same token, people who delay an event's start time by a significant amount are cutting into the enjoyment of other players, and it does mean they're harder to rely upon. How long do you wait for late arrivals before starting without them? Will you kick people from a regular roster, or argue that they should be kicked, in the event that they fall behind schedule too frequently? Or are you on the other side of the equation, and despite your best efforts you're almost always late to the party?
WWDC 2010: GameSalad brings game creation to everyone
I've seen GameSalad around before (they had a big booth at this year's MacWorld, and we've mentioned them here on TUAW a few times), but I've never actually spoken to anyone who works for the Austin, TX based company. Fortunately, senior platform director Michael Herring found some time to come say hi at WWDC this week, and he spoke with me about the development system that hopes to bring iPhone and iPad app creation to everyone. He did walk me through the app quickly, but since it's a free download over on their website, you can go see it for yourself if you want. The idea is that you set up a series of "actors," and then you add a set of rules for those actors (what happens when they touch or get directions from the keyboard, etc.) that will eventually make up a full game. GameSalad doesn't actually require any coding knowledge, but Herring told me that it did require a little bit of know-how in terms of how games work. You can easily make a game system with the app (and even veteran developers often use it for quick prototyping), but to actually make a working game that people will want to play, you'll have to bring your own trial-and-error patience and balancing effort.
The Daily Grind: How much do you expect from people?
Intellectually, everyone in a given game understands that everyone plays at their own pace, spends their chosen amount of time studying the game, and so forth. Asking more than someone's willing to commit is just asking for failure, and it's just a game after all. But in practice, you find yourself playing Guild Wars and you can't help but start screaming for someone to stop attacking Glint because she's using Crystal Hibernation, you stop attacking then, everyone knows that! And in extreme cases, you might even kick the person from your party like a bad habit, because come on. That's basic knowledge. Of course, there are the people who genuinely remember every single scaling skill value in Guild Wars and would be shocked that you don't instantly know that. We all expect different things amounts of knowledge from players in games, so how much do you expect from others? Do you expect people to know the strategies of a fight before they head into content? Do you expect to do some explaining? Or are you that mythical person that patiently explains everything about the game, even after wiping on the same boss repeatedly?
The Daily Grind: Still hyped for Star Wars: The Old Republic?
When we first heard that the much-anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic was more than a year away (at the time), it was pretty depressing. Not just because it meant it was that much longer until it was playable, but also because there was little left they could tell us about the game and the world. We knew all the classes and what seemed like most of the areas -- and we had more than a year to wait. There wasn't much left to look forward to in 2010 other than expansions and maybe Final Fantasy XIV. Time has passed, as it is wont to do, and we're now just around a year out from the projected release. We've seen steady updates from the Star Wars: The Old Republic team, but they've been a bit more content-light on occasion. And, of course, 2011 is starting to gain a full roster even without BioWare's much-anticipated game. So what are your feelings? Are you still excited to be one of the two million desired subscribers, or has your ardor cooled? Do you hold out hope for a big new announcement in the next few months? Or are you just sick of hearing about it one way or the other?
10.6.3 update hiccups and workarounds
Although it's been relatively quiet in the mailbox over the past 48 hours with regard to Mac OS X 10.6.3 issues and outcomes (probably because everyone is too busy refreshing their delivery status), every OS update comes with a few problems. In this case, the reports we've gotten include the usual mix of stalls, slow reboots, and even one very unhappy graphics card. Fortunately, the team at cnet's MacFixit site has a solid list of seven recommendations for managing a hung update process, including using the Combo updater and going to safe boot if necessary. If you have been having issues with the update and need a quick fix, run through their list and see if you can't get it working. Oh, and we'll add one more tip, just in case: be sure before you start that your backups are current. Good luck!
iPhone battery dead? In a squeeze you can charge it with Jaffa oranges
This may be strange -- in fact very strange -- but Imperial Leisure, a marketing and social media firm, has created an advertisement using an iPhone, to promote the sale of Jaffa oranges. They found that with a lot of rods and cable you can use orange power, or rather the power of 2380 Jaffa oranges, to power an iPhone. Talk about thinking outside of the box, or in this case, the crate. [via Engadget and Macenstein] Click on the Read More link to view the ad.
