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The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's addons
Whether you agree with World of Warcraft's approach to interface design or not, it's hard to deny that it's a fascinating case study. It's a game that was released with a broken interface, one that was very decidedly not the optimal way to experience the game... with the expectation that players would develop a better one (which could then be pinched by the developers to improve the core experience). This is pretty unusual now, and it was almost unheard of back in the day. But WildStar is going down the same road of having UI mods and addons in from day one, and it's one of the places that I think taking lessons from World of Warcraft would not only be prudent but downright smart. Including UI modding from launch means that WildStar will have the opportunity to tread down familiar paths. But some of those paths are familiarly awful, and so perhaps the developers could learn some lessons from those who have made these mistakes before. So let's look at the good, the bad, and how we can perhaps get more of the former than the latter.
Hordebloods miniatures customizer has WoW in his blood
When we first spotted the evocative Hordeblood series of custom miniatures by Dave from Wargaming Tradecraft (thanks, Joe!), we were suitably impressed. And then we wandered into the wilderness of Dave's seemingly endless how-to resources for miniatures hobbyists. And then we heard about Headshots from the Heart, his online gaming charity event benefiting Child's Play. And then I was like, "Heeey, wait a minute. So who is this Dave guy? And how come he does so much cool stuff?"
Lost Pages of Taborea: Customization in Guild Wars 2 and Runes of Magic
It took me a little while, but you should know by now that I was going to do a Guild Wars 2 comparison. It's a little later than I previously said I'd write it, but there's no time like the present, right? Runes of Magic has been chugging along for over two years now, while GW2 is -- sort of -- just around the corner, and Guild Wars is the veteran of the bunch at six years of age. What do these MMOs have in common that would provoke me to attempt a comparison? I'll give you a hint: It has nothing to do with jumping. What they do share is character customization, which, really, many MMOs have. It's a pretty standard feature. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how RoM could have taken some customization cues from GW, while GW2 might be taking some from RoM -- sort of like a movie based off a show based off a movie.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: There's a spider in my room (VEAT level 24)
I want to give everyone a bit of an idea for how these illustrations come into being. After the first installment of the ongoing guide to villainous epic archetypes was on the plate, I let Ms. Fienemann know what I was planning so she would know what to draw. Once she drew that title image, I immediately laughed and noted how the middle soldier was sad. His name was Terry, and Jim and Earl (the other soldiers) were being jerks to him and not giving him even, like, a little bit of their lunch after Terry had fronted them both for coffee earlier in the week. This week, Jim and Earl continue being mean to Terry despite not being in the drawing. And that just makes it funnier. Where were we? Oh, right, leveling your epic villain archetype in City of Heroes. Or more accurately, making the big central decision to leveling your spider. By the time you hit 24 -- not very long after the last installment -- you're going to be neck-deep in a free respec that leads into unlocking the additional career paths for your character. Unfortunately, you're going to have to choose one or the other.
Roleplaying and the lack of it in MMOs
We refer to our genre as MMOs in shorthand, frequently, as an abbreviation of MMORPG. Of course, there are entries that don't fit the mold -- Planetside makes no pretense of being an RPG, for instance, while Second Life is really a virtual environment rather than a game per se. But the roots of the term do define what most MMOs are fundamentally aiming at: being an RPG with a massive component of players. Which is ironic, because as We Fly Spitfires points out, they're not really RPGs at all. They feature the stats and the leveling, but nothing of the larger sense of place and story that the genre hails as its strengths. Compared to games such as Dragon Age: Origins or Oblivion, it's clear that for all the strength of options we might have in some MMOs, we lack any sense of real character specialization or unique progression. Part of the concern, of course, is content -- you don't want to necessarily force any player who didn't happen to make the right choices in a dialogue tree to miss out on a major endgame event. The ubiquity of communication also helps herd players toward a specific set of specializations or ability tree, with little to no deviation encouraged. But there's more that can be done, and games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic seem to have a greater intent to focus on individual story and progression. Even if you don't necessarily like the impromptu acting which is usually associated with roleplaying in the genre, it's hard to deny that a greater sense of individual choice and uniqueness would be intoxicating.
