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The Daily Grind: What do you collect in-game?
Recently I was lamenting to my wife that I don't really have a good collection of anything. I think that really interesting people usually have some oddball collection that they work on over the years. For example, my friend Howard is a Pez fanatic, who has not only thousands of Pez dispensers but Pez t-shirts, belt buckles and a huge Pez tattoo down his arm. Howard knows the joy of a good collection. But then I realized that perhaps my urge to collect is being sated in MMOs. I usually always love to collect non-combat pets (if the game I'm playing has them), or goofy titles, or awesome outfits. There's something deeply satisfying about sitting on a well-stocked treasure-trove after a long period of working on it. So do you collect anything in MMOs? Do you store away statistically useless yet cosmetically perfect weapons just to have them? Is there a huge menagerie of animals parked in your garage, ready to transport you in style? If an MMO has a collection system, do you take full advantage of it? 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 Old Republic dev blog outlines codex system, exploration mechanics
You may have heard about the fact that BioWare is banking heavily on story as a selling point for its Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG. Narrative has arguably been the focus of BioWare's marketing campaign over the past year, and by all accounts, TOR will have story in spades. How will individual players keep track of the sprawling mythology? And how will they keep track of how their particular class-flavored vignettes fit in with the larger whole? Enter the codex. If you're familiar with BioWare's single-player RPG titles, notably the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, you'll likely feel right at home with TOR's version of the codex. In a new dev blog, TOR lead designer Damion Schubert explains how BioWare devs borrowed from Mass Effect's encyclopaedia-style codex and Dragon Age's chronicle-style codex to arrive at the perfect system for The Old Republic. Aside from being a lore dissemination tool, the codex also functions as something of a questing system, with many entries locked behind requirements such as exploring certain locations in the game world. "All of these features combine to make a nice little collection game for the player, where the reward for the act of collecting is more lore and context offering insights and depth into the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic," Schubert explains. Check out more of his codex-related insights on the game's official website.
Alter-Ego: A quick and dirty guide to Area 51
When it comes to taking your first steps in DC Universe Online, the sheer amount of different types of missions and objectives can be a bit daunting. "What is this Alert thing sitting in my quest log?" you might say. "What does it do? It is PvP? PvE? What's the point of doing an Alert?" Well, to help demystify some of DC Universe Online's content for you, I wanted to offer up a basic overview to the very first in-game Alert: Area 51. However, knowing that some of you have already run this instance, I also wanted to make it useful for those who may have popped in but not spent a great deal of time in the zone. That's why this post not only contains a first-timer's overview of this Alert but also gives more advanced players a handy guide to all the Investigations, Player Briefings and Collections -- as well as a couple of other things I found in the Area 51 zone that might have been missed otherwise. Ready to dig in and help beat Brainiac back from trying to take over? Curious about what kind of extra goodies can be gained? Join me after the break as I take some of the mystery out of the notorious Area 51!
Enter at Your Own Rift: Sightseeing in Sanctum
One of the things I love about RIFT is its smaller, more intimate feel. Don't get me wrong -- there's still plenty of space to explore and get lost in, but the space that is present is used to great effect and isn't just there to make it seem bigger for bigger's sake. This is echoed in the two capital cities of the game, Sanctum (Guardian) and Meridian (Defiant). Both are gorgeously detailed and impressive in their own way, yet they're comfortable and accessible instead of sprawling and vast. If one thinks of the quest hubs, camps and villages dotting the world as mom and pop stores, then the capital cities are the Walmarts of RIFT: one-stop shops for all your character's needs. They're both fairly compact, although I found myself preferring Sanctum's beachfront atmosphere and circular layout over Meridian's underground labyrinth. Because all players will be traveling to and extensively using capital cities during the course of their in-game careers, I figured we might as well take a look at what capital cities -- Sanctum specifically -- have to offer. Jump on our people-mover as we wind our way through the sights and sounds of civilization!
Digital collections make comics on your iPad easy and cheap
Our friend Macenstein has a nice tip running over on his blog about how to get more comics on your iPad. The iPad is a device that seems made for comic book reading -- that display is colorful and bright, and the touchscreen lets you examine comic art from any size or angle. The problem, however, is price -- while there are some good official apps out there, and some great free comics in them, purchased comics still aren't too cheap, even compared to the real thing. Enter Amazon, which is selling things like this DVD of Archie Comics for super cheap. For four bucks, you can get 120 digital comics. That's an amazing deal, and while there aren't a lot of those to go around, there are definitely other digital collections you can purchase for much cheaper than actually buying them piecemeal. Turning those comics into PDFs (or just finding them on the disc) is usually not a problem, and then just dragging the PDFs into iTunes and cracking them open in iBooks is even simpler. And voila, you've got tons and tons of comics to read on your iPad. Excellent tip, and a great way to pick up a lot more comic books to read on your next plane trip.
RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman
This is, by any measure, a busy week for RIFT. Fresh off the second beta event, Trion Worlds has dropped the NDA for the game and announced a third beta to take place over the holidays. As the process speeds exponentially faster toward launch, Scott Hartsman and his team have a white-knuckled grip on RIFT for all the bumps, shimmies, dips and hills that such a high-profile title offers. Even with a heaping amount of work on its plate, the team has been willing to share its passion for RIFT with the press and community. During this slight lull between betas two and three, Hartsman sat down with us over the phone to jaw about lessons learned from the beta, why Trion has dropped the NDA, how RIFT's already made history, and when we might be seeing this game on the shelves. Hit the jump and let's do this thing. As Hartsman is fond of saying about the game, "S**t just got real."
Hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara at Gamer Day II
As part of its recent Gamer Day event, Trion Worlds invited Massively back to its studio for another look at Rift: Planes of Telara. Having now been to two of these Gamer Day events, I can say without a doubt that last week's was the more festive -- the player-community leaders and swarm of devs certainly made the whole experience much more wild than the first and reminded me that I was supposed to be having fun (not just studiously taking notes for you lovely readers, although I did that too!). Since this was my second day-long hands-on with the game (the first being last summer when I got to check out Rift's dynamic content), I thought it best to focus on two areas: improvements to systems I'd seen before, and totally new elements I hadn't seen at all (like the Guardian starting zone, PvP, UI enhancements, Deepstrike Mines, and several new souls including Riftblades, Bards, and Wardens!). Follow along after the break for my second impressions of this MMO that continues to surprise me with its glittering shine of polish.%Gallery-101448%
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Kindle version 2.5 update gets Facebooked and Twitterized
Amazon just announced a 2.5 software update for its Kindle and Kindle DX readers. At the moment, it's rolling out the update to a "limited group" of Kindle users with a general release coming at the end of May. Enhancements include the ability to organize books and documents into "collections," pan and zoom within PDFs, Kindle password protection, larger and sharper fonts, and just what you've always wanted: the ability to "share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter." Somebody pinch us.
The Daily Grind: Are you a collector?
In most MMOs on the market today, there are several different classes and races. Even if you're in the rare game that arguably has neither, there are still skills to be leveled, achievements to be earned, missions to be played. For some people, all of these things are mostly means to an end. But others look at a list of ten classes, or nine races, or even eleven summon spells as a to-do list. If it can be leveled, they will level it; if it can be acquired, it will be theirs. The joy of MMOs is in part the fact that many goals are set by players, and the collectors do a marvelous job of setting one for themselves. Some goals, like collecting every little vanity pet in a game that offers them, can be accomplished as a side-goal to the core leveling process. Others, like leveling every class, can even require more character spaces than the game normally gives you. Do you have overarcing collection goals when you play games? What are they? Do they interfere with your normal play, or are they the whole reason you keep playing?
MMO MMOnkey: MMOs as conditioned learning engines (Part 2)
In a previous column we looked at some of the many ways that game designers use positive reinforcement and reward in MMOs. Positive reinforcement occurs whenever an action is accompanied by or results in something pleasant or enjoyable. When a person is positively reinforced or rewarded they are more likely to repeat the action that is associated with the reward. The importance of reinforcement for MMOs is obvious; the more the player is rewarded, the more likely she is to play the game. A deeper understanding of how reinforcement works in MMOs can be gained by comparing an example of where it's done well with a case where it's done poorly and Everquest 2 provides just the examples we need.
Star Wars Galaxies soon to feature new pvp badge collection
The newest content update for Sony Online's Star Wars Galaxies is expected soon, and Chapter 9 promises a world of new and enjoyable content for the players in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Last week the official SWG site offered up a preview of one of the Chapter's additions: PvP collections. Collections are a great feature, added to the game back in Chapter 7. They allow players to show off their in-game accomplishments in a very deliberate fashion, and these PvP rewards follow much the same lines.Collections will be opened up for all kinds of PvP activities, including killing factional NPCs, slaying players on the opposing side, and downing officers of varying rank in the Rebel or Imperial forces. PvP collections not only net players swanky additions to their inventory, but have the possibility of earning the PvPer factional rewards above and beyond what they'd normally get. A rare base infiltration collection, for example, could earn a player 2500 faction points for spending/saving as they participate in the Galactic Civil War. We were promised a number of new collections in the upcoming patch, and it will be very interesting to see what other kinds of rewards will be made available post-Chapter 9.
Witness the power of this fully armed and operational SWG update
Despite its rocky past, Star Wars Galaxies still has a solid base of players who crave new content. To meet the demand, SOE has been releasing major updates every couple of months. It's been a longer wait than usual since the last Chapter, which went live way back in May.Now Chapter 7 has finally hit the streets. Is it worth the delay? Read the release notes and come to your own conclusions. The quick of it is: new epic encounter instances, a new town where high-level players can congregate in preparation for said encounters, and over 90 "collections" for the patient, OCD gamer.Oh, and RPG Vault's Jonric interviewed LucasArts Associate Producer Tim Temmerman about the update yesterday; be sure and glance over that for some more insight. Of course, if you're a Star Wars Galaxies player you can just log in and play the thing yourself.
Wii Warm Up: Greatest hits
The Namco Museum Remix collection includes, in addition to wacky, waggly remakes of arcade classics like Galaga, authentic emulated classic games. Just a few days after the first Neo Geo game became available on the Virtual Console, SNK announced their intention to release King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown collections on disc.We don't mind buying collections on disc, since they're inevitably cheaper than buying even a few of the games separately on the Virtual Console. How do you feel, though? Do these collections make the Virtual Console redundant? Is there room for both? What are the advantages of one approach over another?
Wii Warm Up: How does your VC collection stack up?
We got curious about this when some readers described system-based organization of VC games in a recent WWU: From which system do most of your Virtual Console games originate? We would guess that the NES would dominate most collections, due to the lower price of the games. Similarly, we doubt there are many Nintendo 64-heavy collections, due both to the increased price and reduced selection.But, really, we have no idea. Maybe your Wii Menus are full of surprises.
