bio-break
Latest
MMO bloggers band together to encourage new writers
Have you heard of the Newbie Blogger Initiative? It's only the latest and greatest craze to hit the MMO circuit. Basically, several experienced MMO bloggers decided to band together to encourage and support players in trying their hand at starting up a new blog. During the month of October, the NBI will be raging across blogs, on its website, and especially on its forums. Veteran MMO bloggers have gathered to offer advice through posts, mentoring, Q&A sessions, and promoting start-up blogs. Yours truly will be a part of this, as will Storybricks' Brian Green. If you've thought about starting up an MMO blog, then this is the perfect month to do so. Sign in, peruse the forums, get posting, and enjoy the resources that the blogging community is setting up to give you the best possible beginning! The NBI should interest all MMO players, as it's a great central location to find interesting and entertaining blogs both new and old.
Call for submissions: The pause that refreshes
What are the absolute best opportunities during a WoW session for grabbing a quick break? Whether you're desperate for a bio break, need to make a brief phone call or simply need a moment to stretch and get a drink, when is the right moment to go AFK when solo, grouped or in a raid? What if you're a raid or event leader -- how do you build in the pause that refreshes? We're looking for the Top 10 chances to take a break while playing WoW. Submissions should be between 500 and 1,000 words. Artwork is not mandatory, but any you choose to include must be your own work or from creative commons. We will not accept articles submitted under player names or pen names; please use your real name and email. We'll only be accepting the very best article. Ready to submit? Read up about our guest post program, then sign up for Seed and submit your article here. (You can't see the article page unless you have a Seed account.) Unfortunately, the Seed program currently only allows us to accept submissions from individuals living in the United States; we hope to be able to accept international submissions in the future. We'll accept submissions for this assignment until 11:59 p.m. EST on Thurs., July 1. Good luck and good writing!
The Daily Grind: When did a bad game have a good idea?
In a recent post, Syp of Bio Break was observing neat ideas that other games really ought to steal. One of them was the trophy system in Warhammer Online, and while he personally feels that it was implemented poorly, it's still a neat idea. As he puts it, just because you feel a game is lackluster or even bad doesn't mean its ideas were also bad. Even if said ideas aren't very well put together, taken as pieces, it's sometimes easy to see something in a game you dislike as an aggregate that seems like a fine idea when isolated. After all, pen and paper games have historically cannibalized from games of any caliber -- why shouldn't MMOs do the same? So today,we're asking you to think of a game that hit you as lukewarm at best and find something in there that seems like a worthy idea. Whether it's a system that's in a game focused toward a genre you don't care for or just a game that struck you as lackluster, if you played it, odds are there was still something worth porting to other games. What would you suggest?
The Digital Continuum: Your face is 'still in beta'
There's been discussion recently of the failings of "Dude, it's a beta!" as an argumentative device when someone makes a critical observation about an MMO during the beta process. Syp over at Bio Break takes the stance that people who say things like this are either considerable fanboys or have severe brain health issues. Of course, he then pulls away from that statement by declaring that the truth lies somewhere between the person claiming a game is "suck" and the person defending said title's honor with, well, "It's beta, dude." I, however, think differently -- and it's probably not what you're expecting.
The failure of the beta defense
There are always people willing to defend a game, no matter what its flaws. You could have a game where the fundamental means of communication was broken for two months straight, and it would still have fans piping up and explaining why that isn't such a big deal. But with one high-profile game (Star Trek Online) finishing its beta, and several others slated to finish or start theirs, one of the classic defenses for a game's problems is losing much of its strengths: "well, it's still in beta." Some of you may well recall our recent feature on betas, in which several developers alternately lamented and stated that the "open beta" is now essentially nothing more than a preview. Bio Break expounds on this point, noting that more often than not the defense of "it's just a beta" would only be valid if there was some large launch-day patch on deck to fix everything. Those patches, it's worth noting, occupy the same space as unicorns and fairies. Broken parts of a game in open beta, more often than not, now mean that there will be something broken in the game at launch. That doesn't mean that the developers aren't working on fixing things, but it does mean that defending the beta as sacrosanct is lacking validity.
The elusive breed of the console MMO
Much like the Loch Ness Monster, the console MMO is a rarely-seen creature which nevertheless has captured the imagination of many. (Unlike the monster, console MMOs are not admitted hoaxes perpetuated by willing disbelief and a lakeside town's need for tourist revenue.) We've yet to see much progress made toward console MMOs, despite the huge available market (see also: China) and the increasingly robust hardware of consoles. Even more notable is the fact we've already seen publishers promising the game for consoles without it happening, with Age of Conan and Champions Online being the biggest offenders. What's the problem? Syp recently asked and tried to answer this very question, noting that most of the problems come from the console hardware, both its short lifespan and lack of several input devices. Still, it hasn't stopped many from playing and enjoying Final Fantasy XI on the Playstation 2, nor does Sqare-Enix seem worried about placing Final Fantasy XIV on a console. The lifespan of consoles can also be somewhat elastic -- almost anyone who plays console games holds on to their systems longer than their market lifespan. Gordon at We Fly Spitfires believes it may be a split in audience, since computers are more ubiquitous than consoles -- but computers capable of serious gaming are far less common than the PS2. Whether a hardware issue or one of audiience, the breed remains elusive, though the subject of far fewer undewater searches and TV specials than the aforementioned lake monster.
Finding your place in Fallen Earth
Back just before the holidays, Fallen Earth joined the ranks of many other games on the market in offering a free trial. That's all well and good, but that leaves one to face the slight problem the game has. Once the tutorial is over, you get rather unceremoniously dropped off with a line pointing you toward... well, nothing. Like any true post-apocalyptic survivor, you have the clothes on your back, a couple of weapons, and no real goal handed to you beyond "don't get killed." While Andy Breckman's advice is certainly a good overall goal, something specific is better. That's why Bio Break has recently compiled a list of tips on finding your place once you get done with your tutorial. The condensed version is simple enough: scavenge everything you can, because it can all be used to craft something, and buy nothing unless you absolutely have to do so. It's also recommended that you avoid spending any of your character's AP early on, instead saving it until you have a clearer picture of what you want to do. The list also includes some links to fansites that can provide excellent data for a first-time player, so if you're diving into the tutorial, it's a handy resource.
Avoiding a sinking game
With the holiday season usually comes a healthy dose of gift money, and what comes with extra money for many people reading the site is new games. It's not as if the past year has been exactly spare on game releases, although the success of several is a bit up in the air. But be forewarned -- if you needed the reminder, 2009 could very well be the year we learned that no title is immune to being shut down, with Tabula Rasa and The Matrix Online being among the highest-profile games to finally be shut down for good due to sales figures. Bio Break has an excellent post on what is termed "avoiding the Titanic" -- in short, making sure that you're not signing up for a game that's going to just leave you high and dry. The recent announcement from Vanguard is among the examples cited, although some fans would be quick to point out it's not a death knell for the game. But it doesn't sound like the game is going to advance far beyond its current state, and for many games, that means a slow bleeding-out. Of course, avoiding titles that are perceived as hopeless can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it's worth keeping in mind that perhaps that money might be better spent if you question a game's near future.
Stop playing your favorite game
Do we have everyone's attention? Great. Now do exactly that. Stop playing your favorite game. Not forever, just for now. Just let it rest and play something else for a while. That's the idea proposed by Bio Break in an entry about letting go. The idea, as it's put forth, is that the best way to fight burnout is to prevent it from happening in the first place. If you're really enjoying a game and are just a few days away from a major goal, why not put it down and savor that instead of pushing forward until the game has stopped being fun? Of course, it's hard for us to behave that way -- if we're enjoying a game, our inclination is to keep playing until we aren't, at which point burnout kicks in and we start almost dreading logging in. But it's an interesting idea and a different approach to keeping ourselves engaged. It's a lot easier to go back to a game if you've just let it sit for a while and have had some time to think about it fondly without being reminded of its blemishes. Absence can indeed make the heart grow fonder, and perhaps you should let your favorite game be absent for just a little while. You'll still be almost at your next major checkpoint when you get back, after all.
Will Star Trek Online be ready for its launch?
It's no secret that a lot of people in the MMO blogosphere are excited about Star Trek Online, considering that it's more or less a built-in home run from many of the same people who play MMOs. But there are certainly questions to be asked about any MMO due out soon, especially one with three more months before it hits launch day. Bio Break asks the question in simplest terms: will the game really be all set for a February release? As Syp mentions, the game's videos and screenshots have pushed combat heavily in a series renowned for protagonists talking through their problems instead of shooting first. With the currently allotted time for beta, if something major does crop up, there's not much to be done to fix it in the short span of time without resorting to a launch day patch. There's a definite question of readiness when Champions Online had a launch that was somewhat stormy, and it certainly did some damage to Cryptic in the eyes of a lot of players. That doesn't mean that Star Trek Online won't be excellent, of course, but it does mean a healthy does of skepticism might be in order.
Warhammer Online and the perception turnaround
It's a kind of disconcerting time to be a Warhammer Online fan, let's face it. Patch 1.3.2 had a lot of people muttering quietly (or loudly on the comment threads of posts related to it) that the game is floundering for direction and trying to latch on to something to keep it afloat. This is one way to view things, but hardly the only way. Bio Break has an interesting take on it -- they're not floundering for direction, they're working hard to regain their footing. The game that was meant to go toe-to-toe with World of Warcraft didn't quite make it there, but Mythic hasn't been letting the game sink and falter. The post is specifically addressing the contorversy that came around regarding the shift to unlimited free trials within tier one, the game's introductory content. It sounds a bit fishy, but as pointed out, the shift to "unlimited free trial" has done wonders for Dungeons and Dragons Online, boosting its revenue by a fair amount. While Warhammer Online hasn't yet gone down the same road, it's clear that they're continuing to push forward with the game and find new ways to expand the gameplay experience. If you are one of the many fans whose complaints about recent developments have been less than optimistic, you might want to think about this, as the game hasn't given up the ghost just yet.
What voice does for MMOs
One of the big claims about Star Wars: the Old Republic is that the game is meant to be fully voiced, from start to finish. On the flip side, Star Trek Online will not be fully voiced -- in fact, its executive producer Craig Zinkievich recently made some statements asking more or less what the point of voice acting in the game really is. To quote: "It adds something to the game, but I don't think that VO-ing all of your text provides for that big a bang for the buck in terms of immersion." Bio Break seems to disagree rather emphatically. As he points out, voice is one of the most immersive and important parts of a game world in which our immersion is, by necessity, limited. We can only hear or see what's going on in front of us, which makes the things we hear and see all the more important. (Or makes a USB taste simulator all the more urgent.) He points out, quite rightly, that each of us have at least one or two bosses that we remember more on the strength of their voice acting than because of the fight itself. Bioware, of course, has long offered a great deal of voice acting in its games. It remains to be seen if the promises of pervasive acting in Star Wars: the Old Republic will be carried out, but the discussion about how important voice is will remain either way. Take a look at the article, and share your thoughts in the comments: is it important that a game have full voiceovers and cutscenes, or is that a distraction without much relevance?
Fallen Earth fan: "Don't play Fallen Earth"
You should most definitely not be playing Fallen Earth. How can you tell? Why, because Bio Break recently posted a long article explaining exactly why you shouldn't be playing it. And this isn't coming from a fan who's just disgruntled about a certain update or class rebalancing (though the latter would be pretty funny) -- it's from one of the game's most adamant fans who has no shortage of good things to say about the game. So why would he tell you not to play the game? One of the best things a fan can have is perspective. In his piece, Syp outlines all of the reasons that most players, even if they've been enamoured of the game's press, might want to use extreme caution stepping into Fallen Earth for the first time. Technical problems such as the server instability issues, of course, are likely to be improved -- but the game's unforgiving character-building system, its dwarfing sense of scale when the players get started, and the survivalist attitude that the game tacitly enforces are all part of the charm of the game. Of course, he's not suggesting that the game is bad -- but giving everyone a much-needed dose of perspective on a game that's really not well-suited to everyone.
Survival tips for Fallen Earth
Fallen Earth is one of most recent titles to arrive on the MMO scene. If you weren't a beta tester, though, you might have some questions about the best way to progress in the game. Syp over at Bio Break put together some tips to help Fallen Earth players get a handle on the game, and hopefully points out a few overlooked aspects of this post-apocalyptic title. Some of his tips are practical and relate to game mechanics or common mistakes made, others are simply advice from someone who's clearly spent a lot of time wandering the wasteland. Pair Syp's "20 Tips for Fallen Earthers" with Massively's "FAQ That" for Fallen Earth and you should be well on your way to getting the most from the newly released title. Also don't miss our Fallen Earth guides -- A WoW player's guide to Fallen Earth and the Beginner's guide to horse crafting -- for a closer look at what this MMO can offer.
