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The Daily Grind: What MMO systems are too complicated for you?
In my experience, game designers are prone to creating systems in RPGs and MMOs that are, well, antagonistic to the extreme. Maybe they made sense to the dev who had it all mapped out in his or her head, but to the average player, it's only a little more understandable than reading War and Peace in Sanskrit. The customization systems of Final Fantasy VII and VIII always come to mind when I think about this. VII's materia was easy to grok, allowing me to clearly understand what effects I wanted to equip and giving me a path to level them up. Then came VIII's junction system, which allowed scads more customization but was just a jumbled mess of incoherent ideas and a generally bad approach. Don't get me wrong; I don't want a Fisher-Price MMO. I think that the more complex a system is, the clearer the instruction and design needs to be for us to navigate it. So what MMO systems are too complicated for you? How would you make them better? 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!
Zynga unveils Battlestone, an action RPG coming to iOS soon
Zynga's been on an interesting pivot lately. The company made a name for itself on Facebook, and most of its business is tied up in big games like Farmville and its sequel. But that audience is slowing down in growth, if not declining, which has prompted Zynga to experiment on mobile platforms like iOS. Last year, Zynga published Horn, which is a very impressive action / adventure title on iOS, and this year I expect to see more games like it as Zynga targets the "midcore" audience with nice graphics and complex gameplay. Battlestone is a great example of that. It's a newly revealed game from the House that Farmville Built, and as you can see above, it looks very impressive. It's an action RPG in the vein of Diablo, but made for mobile platforms, and with a slightly more casual look. Battlestone will let you pull one hero from multiple choices to fight through varied 3D environments, swiping and tapping across the screen to get involved in combat. It definitely sounds fun -- Battlestone should be available in the US soon, as it's already being tested in a few markets around the world. Zynga's real challenge with these will be to balance "midcore" gameplay with its preferred freemium promotional practices. The company grew very quickly thanks to its "social" gameplay, but as it has grown bigger and bigger, Zynga's depended more and more on desperately trying to make its games viral. If they can tone that down in these more complicated titles in a way that still allows them to keep things profitable, the company will be able to find a whole new audience to replace the one that's getting more and more bored with all of the "cow clicking" that Zynga originally started out with.
WSJ: Apple prepping thinner, lighter iPhone 5
The Wall Street chimed in with its insider information on the rumored iPhone 5. According to the report, Apple's next generation iPhone will be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4. It also may include an 8-megapixel camera, which is a nice boost from the 5-megapixel shooter on the current model. Qualcomm will supposedly provide the wireless baseband chips which suggests the handset may be a world phone capable of connecting to both CDMA and GSM networks. Apple apparently expects the iPhone 5 to be popular and has warned suppliers it plans to ship 25 million units by the end of the year. Foxconn will be the assembler for the rumored iPhone, but these yields may be lower than Apple wants as the iPhone 5 is described as being complicated and difficult to assemble. We're not sure what that means, but it is intriguing.
Gadgets convicted of making us miserable, dodgy stats used as evidence
Gadgets need to be rounded up and thrown in a cell right alongside meat glue, child pageants and other notorious public enemies. The crime? Stressing people out, according to researchers at Ipsos Mendelsohn. The evidence? A survey of affluent Americans with a household income over $100,000 who moaned that their lives are more "complicated" than they were a decade ago. Damningly, the vast majority of these respondents also admitted that their lives are more "technology-infused" than a decade ago. The researchers also highlighted evidence from a separate poll of affluents, showing the growing prevalence of certain gadgets that add to the "complex calculus" of our lives: E-reader ownership has doubled over the last eight months, smartphone ownership is up to 52 per cent, and a third of affluents either own a tablet or expect to buy one soon. Sufficient proof, it seems, to send these poor devices down for life -- especially if we disregard all the other things that have stressed out rich Americans over the past decade (recessions, deficits, bad TV serials) and the possibility that busier people might actually need more technology to help them cope.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: INQ chief says Android is too geeky for 'pretty girls'
Take one dose of improper generalization, mix it in with a heaping of condescension, and then add a pinch of good old sexism. What do you get? This quote, coming from Frank Meehan, CEO of the Android handset-making INQ: "If you go to a nightclub in any city in the world, the pretty girl has an iPhone or a BlackBerry. She doesn't have an Android phone. She has no emotional attachment to an Android phone. It's too complicated. It's a geek device, it's all wrong." Now, before you go emailing him photos of the Android tattoo girl, there is undeniably some smidgen of truth to the man's words. Android is a geek's dream ecosystem and it's not necessarily the most accessible platform in the world, but to completely write it off for the nightclub-going lady demographic doesn't strike us -- or Justin Timberlake, or Chad Ochocinco -- as the most astute idea in the world. [Thanks, AC]
Breakfast Topic: Is WoW too complex?
As I said the other day, we've talked about the dumbed-down argument quite a few times before, but I think this is the first time I've ever heard the opposite argument put forth so succinctly: Tadaa asks, over on the forums, "Is WoW getting too complex?" Longtime players will probably say no at first glance -- the game has been streamlined a lot since it first game out, and things that took up much of your time previously (tracking quests, looking up quest targets, dealing with respecs, and finding groups) now have systems built into the game that let you get past them easily. But think of what it would be like to step into Azeroth nowadays -- instead of just a chat channel where you can find groups, there's a whole system with terms like "damage" and "tank" in there. On first glance, it might be tough to figure out. And then there's things like resilience and Replenishment (which some experienced players don't even fully understand), and even things we think of as helpful features (getting pets and currency out of our inventory) can be super confusing for new players: where did that pet go that I just clicked on, or that badge that I just saw looted to me in the combat window?
WoW Drama, a blog about serious business
I can't believe, considering my fascination with the great WoW drama that shows up every week in Guildwatch, that this has existed for months without me knowing about it, but I guess it has. There is apparently an entire blog dedicated to nothing but gritty, stupid, complicated WoW drama. How genius.At GW, we just stick to guild drama, and it's true that most of the really great stuff comes from that. There's nothing better than a WoW is Serious Business guild post or a shocking Vent session (that poor kid is really crying! wow!). These guys have also expanded into PvP drama, and even reviewing some classic stuff. The site is run by two guys named Kingfox (who I believe has commented on this site before) and Eddie Bax, and while they could update a little more often (it seems like they've been too busy raiding lately, what's there is definitely an interesting read.I don't know what my fascination is with this stuff. I guess maybe it's that I always seem to have no trouble remembering that I'm just playing a game, and so the people who completely forget that just amuse me to no end. I don't want anyone to get hurt (although feelings do often get hurt in good drama), but it just seems like so much of this stuff could be avoided if everybody just lightened up. It's a game, folks-- there'll be other guilds to join and other loot that drops.
