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Flameseeker Chronicles: Your Guild Wars 2 mileage will vary
There's been a good deal of talk, here in the early days, about the level and experience curve in Guild Wars 2. A great many people are tackling the game in a great many ways, which leads to a tremendous variety in folks' perception of the leveling curve. There are a few of ways that your experience gain might not match up to your desired or expected level. These ways mostly deal with feeling underleveled for storyline content and zone progression. As I said, everyone's moving through the game differently: Some folks made a point to run around major cities right of the bat to tuck a few safe levels under their belts, while others made a beeline for personal story content, and others still (and I count myself in this category) are stumbling this way and that through content with all the focus and willpower of a drunken goldfish.
Limits on guild leveling and reputation removed in patch 5.0.4
Patch 5.0.4 appears to have made a major change to the way guilds level and the way characters earn guild reputation. The daily and weekly caps for guild leveling and guild reputation game have been removed entirely, allowing players to grind reputation and experience to their heart's content. With a Renowned Guild Tabard, my alt was gaining a whopping 367 guild reputation per quest turned in, making the grind to exalted a relatively quick one. But there's more than just the cap removal. Apparently, the reputation and guild experience you gain is no longer limited by level, either -- which means that were I to make a new level 1 and slap on that tabard, I'd still be making 367 reputation per quest completed. Speaking of alts, my bank alt completed a couple of quests in Azshara just to test this theory. Not only did she get a sizeable reputation gain, but she also earned a whopping 60,000 guild experience per quest turned in. This makes it much, much easier for guilds to level, whether you're part of a small friends and family guild or just wanting to level a guild for your bank alt. In either case, guilds should have a much easier time hitting level 25 before Mists officially launches in September. [Thanks to Matt for the tip!] It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Ask Massively: Squee edition
Part of me could be nervous about what's coming next for Final Fantasy XIV, since it'll mean a lot of big changes for the game and it may no longer be quite the same place I now call home. But most of me is looking at new screenshots and squeeing. Literally squeeing. I mean that I am shaking my fists, beaming with joy, and making a high-pitched noise resembling that of a boiling teakettle. It won't excite everyone, but boy does it excite me. Seeing as I'm being a bit self-indulgent with this week's Ask Massively opener -- which happens about half of the time, I know -- you might not be surprised that this week's question is a little more indulgent, discussing what's expected of MMOs. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, leave it in the comments below or mail it to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.
Final Fantasy XIV unveils the full scope of patch 1.21
The time is now -- Final Fantasy XIV's sweeping patch 1.21 is going live. That means players can experience the new Job system, do battle in two new instanced dungeons, and relax in their new private rooms. The patch notes make it clear that as with most of the game's patches, there's a lot going on even beyond the headlining features for the update, including intra-city teleportation services, new achievement categories to explore, and new ways for players to spend guild marks. Patch 1.21 also brings along a revision to the food and medicine of the game, with food serving universally as a small long-term buff and medicines working as short effects or buffs with a big impact. The team has also revised accessories, doing away with the previous mechanic of slot costs. And that's not even touching upon new missions for provisioning from the Grand Companies, the introduction of chocobo barding, or any number of other smaller features added with the list. It's a lot of stuff to absorb, and it should keep adventurers happy for quite some time.
MechWarrior Online previews BattleMech upgrades and pilot skill trees
A couple of days ago, Piranha Games -- the studio behind the upcoming MechWarrior Online -- gave us a look at the role-based warfare and character progression we can expect from the robot-fighting title. As we reported last week, players in MWO will fall into of four roles: scout, assault, defense, or command. Today's update on the game's official site gives us a closer look at the various ways that players can earn XP and on what they can spend it. For instance, every 'Mech will have an upgrade tree, which is divided into tiers. Players must spend experience in order to purchase all of the upgrades on a given tier before they are able to access the subsequent tier. To get a look at the various abilities and skill trees through which players will be progressing when they finally find themselves in the cockpit, just click on through the link below to the official MechWarrior Online site.
Ask Massively: Mind tricks are the lazy way of doing things edition
Recently, I've become enamored of the Bavarian Fire Drill. For those who don't want to click on that link (it's work-safe in the sense that it contains no cursing and not work-safe in the sense that you'll be clicking for hours), it's the art of infiltrating a building by carrying a clipboard and acting like you're supposed to be there. Sure, you could just wave your hand and tell people that these aren't the droids they're looking for, but wouldn't you rather have the chutzpah to just walk around like it wasn't a thing? That leads very naturally to this week's installment of Ask Massively, in which we discuss whether or not leveling mechanics have worn our their collective welcomes in MMOs. As always, if you've got an urgent question for a future week, feel free to leave it in the comments or mail it along to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity.
Starbucks launching augmented reality Cup Magic app for the holidays
Starbucks is going to kick off the holiday season with a special app for iPhone and Android devices that will interact with art on holiday cups at the popular coffee shops around the world. You can see the app in action in the video below. As you can see, it's not really so functional as just a fun way to interact with the company's product. But the app does provide a little bit of interactivity, and apparently you can send holiday ecards directly from the software, as well as possibly win a prize for playing with all of the AR scenes. The app is set to be available on November 15th, a few days before Thanksgiving. This release will end a year of really interesting mobile phone-based initiatives from the company, including that mobile payment app that came out back in January. That app has been used in over 20 million transactions already, and Starbucks has also release apps that work with QR codes for more in-store interactivity, as well as an app to manage the company's Starbucks card program. It is fair to say Starbucks has seen a bit of success using the mobile app market to develop its brand and its retail experience. It'll be interesting to see if other retailers try to take on this kind of interactivity next year.
The Daily Grind: Do you like to level in parties?
Back in the old days of MMOs -- and feel free to insert your own jokes about dinosaurs roaming the earth -- leveling was something that was done in groups. Soloing was for farming or running from place to place, but for the most part, you leveled with several other people, meaning that you knew from a very early level what you needed to do when in a group. It also meant, unfortunately, that it was really difficult to just play on your own schedule instead of the times when everyone else was on and available. To some players who grew up on games like EverQuest, the idea that almost every game can be soloed to max level is a bit jarring. But there are lots of reasons to level in parties anyway, ranging from working with others when you play a group-centric build to just wanting other people around when you level. So do you like to try and level up in groups? Or do you group up for special events and level on your own for the most part? 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 Mog Log: Patch 1.19
So there was a Final Fantasy XIV patch on Tuesday. Maybe you heard about it. It was only all over the parts of the internet that care about Final Fantasy XIV, and even some that don't. This was not a patch in the traditional sense; it was a huge reworking and revamping of several parts of the game. It's a big patch, that's what I'm getting at. And I've spent the past several days diving into it with all the time I've had because this is the sort of thing that really changes a lot of core assumptions about the game. So it's been a time of empirical testing, a time of leveling, a time of dropping a lot of gil on new pieces of equipment and getting ready to tell my readers whether this patch was everything promised or fell flat. And truth be told, there's too much to address even in one column. But I can at least get started.
The Daily Grind: Do you complain about games you don't play?
It seems like everyone has an opinion on big-name MMOs, even if the person with the opinion has never been past the starter areas. Whether you're discussing EverQuest or Star Trek Online, there's someone who has a long list of reasons about why the game is terrible. Of course, said complainers frequently don't play the game, sometimes because of the issues they like to raise -- but sometimes this leads to people complaining about bugs or bad systems that have been patched out months ago and are no longer an issue. Sometimes, the complaints are simply "I didn't like how it was designed and it's not for me." Other times, the complaints are hate-filled rants that would fit nicely in a breakup letter for an ex-lover. But whether the complaints are valid or not, today we ask you if you complain about a game that you do not play. If so, which game, and how much did you play before you left? And if not, what springs to mind when you see people who do? 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 Soapbox: On armchair development
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. A couple of weeks ago I penned a Soapbox that, to put it mildly, elicited passionate responses. While a few people sided with me in my belief that MMO combat is silly and sucky, the cries of the masses drowned us out with variations on "you know nothing, Jon Snow" and "go back to consoles, you inexperienced newb!" Some of the responses got me to thinking about game design in general and about game designers and their cult celebrity status in particular. When you cut through the anonymous insults and keyboard courage, most of my would-be critics were actually right about one thing: I'm not a game "developer." You know what's funny, though? That doesn't make a lick of difference when it comes to the ability to talk intelligently about games and game design.
Wargaming.net's World of Warplanes to share currency with World of Tanks
Whether you feel more comfortable on the ground or in the skies, Wargaming.net has you covered. The studio announced today some new details on the economic system for its upcoming title World of Warplanes. According to the press release, it will follow the model of its predecessor World of Tanks with gold, credits, and experience as the primary forms of currency. With the addition of World of Warplanes to its stable, however, Wargaming.net plans to allow "global interaction" between the two titles. This means, in case you couldn't guess, that all of those different forms of currency will be shared between the two games. This, in turn, means that any player that has racked up an obscene amount of gold/credits/experience in World of Tanks can put their excess currencies toward their advancement in World of Warplanes. If you want to get a jump on the competition before World of Warplanes' launch, you can sign up for World of Tanks at the official site.
Final Fantasy XIV removing old penalties and adding a couple new ones
The Fatigue system was one of the most hated features of Final Fantasy XIV before the game had even hit release. Even though it was almost impossible to hit the mythical point where you started getting less experience, nobody liked the idea of having your gains cut when you were having fun. So there will be few tears shed when the entire system is removed in patch 1.18, which has already promised a number of sweeping changes to the game's functionality. Of course, it's not all about making life easier for players, as both the death penalty and Return option are seeing their functionality tweaked. Previously, players would sometimes die and use Return to avoid an anima cost while still making a fast trip somewhere. As of the newest patch, using Return to revive will incur a small durability penalty, offset slightly by the improvement of the Raise spell. Final Fantasy XIV players can check the official release for details on the slight rearrangement of penalties, aimed at keeping gameplay more dynamic and active.
Kinect app promises you'll wear flowery skirts, and you'll like it (video)
Don't be shy now: which of you doesn't love raiding your mother's closet and trying on her paisley dresses and velour tracksuits? That's more or less the idea behind Virtual Dressing Room, a Kinect program that taps into the clandestine thrill of sneaking into other people's boudoirs. Unlike some other shopping hacks we've seen, the app goes beyond just pilling on 2D pieces, but uses 3D models so that the items mold to your limbs, with the shadows and creases in the virtual fabric changing as you preen for the camera. That all comes courtesy of a special physics engine, while the app itself was written in C# along with Microsoft's XNA tools. Arbuzz, the group that dreamed this up, says the project's still a work in progress, though we can see this, too, being used to relieve those of who are allergic to shopping malls. Until then, you'll just have to settle for watching some other guy work a knee-length skirt.
KinectShop concept is ready to televise your shopping revolution (video)
Does anybody actually enjoy the laborious process of trying out clothes? The sheer physical effort, the risk of breaking a sweat... it's just not for us. We're much more comfortable with virtual reality fitting rooms, which is where Microsoft's Kinect motion camera has found yet another raison for its etre. Razorfish, the folks who already impressed us with some neat Kinect hacking, now have a new shopping platform that's said to actually wrap clothes around your frame and thereby provide a 3D preview of what you and they would look like together. The current iteration only shows some giddy ladies exploring the wide world of handbags, but they do look suitably impressed with the system. There are also sharing options via QR codes and NFC, plus the obligatory social networking tie-ins. Skip after the break to see the KinectShop on video.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Elaborating on XP gain and leveling alts
This week I want to elaborate on experience gain, the honor party, and other ways of leveling alts. I received some great feedback from last week's article that suggests to me an interest in a much wider discussion of power-leveling. But before I get to that, let's clear up XP gain in Runes of Magic. Most MMOs that I know of -- including RoM -- dish out XP based on the character's level and the level of the mob being slain. If your character is the same level as the mob, the game will give you an adequate amount of XP as a reward. If the mob is higher, you'll get even more experience, but you'll get less XP as you out-level a mob. If you've played any MMO, you're probably aware of this. In RoM, you'll stop collecting XP from mobs 10 levels lower than you. Naturally, fighting mobs slightly higher than you can be more efficient. You can continue to fight increasingly higher-level mobs, but at some point, there's just no way you'll be able to survive, which is why you may want to get a higher-level player to take you just about anywhere in RoM to power-level you. When a high-level player starts towing you around, though, the XP you gain will be based directly on the amount of XP that player would get from any mob he kills. Read on to see more about this and alternative ways of power-leveling.
The Guild Counsel: Raid wipe, now what!
Whether you're a guildleader or not, there's always one single moment that everyone dreads in an MMO: the wipe. It's caused sleepless nights, tons of gray hairs, and in some cases, the breakup of a guild. The first few seconds after a raid wipe resemble that scene from Speed: "Pop quiz, hot shot. There are dozens of players attacking a mob, it's at one percent, your tanks drop, and you wipe. What do you do?" If you've ever been Keanu Reaves on that out of control bus, read on for a few helpful tips on what to do when everything hits the fan.
The Daily Grind: How long have you been playing MMOs?
Here on Massively, we've got a staff with a widely varying set of tastes. Some of us prefer open-ended sandboxes, some prefer straightforward themeparks, and some like a mix of both. But if there's one point of commonality that's come up when the question has been asked of late, it's the fact that most of us have been playing in our virtual worlds for a while now. In fact, the most recent game on our "first game played" list was Guild Wars, a game swiftly approaching its six-year anniversary. As much as we'd like to pretend that age is nothing but a number, we all know that there's a certain added weight to saying that you've been playing since Ultima Online was launched. So today, we'd like to know just how long our readers have been playing MMOs. Have you been around since the launch of Ultima Online? EverQuest? World of Warcraft? Or are you even more recent, having just started in the near-past -- or planning on starting when an upcoming game is released? 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!
TUAW's Daily App: Sticky
I'll say this: Sticky is an original one. It's sort of a platforming game, though there are no real platforms involved. You play as a little orange blob named Sticky, tasked with saving the world from invading black blobs that slowly move from one side of your iPhone's screen to the other. Sticky can defeat these enemy blobs by bouncing on their heads, so it's your job as a player to catapult him back and forth around the little levels in order to hit the bad guys exactly right. The game is fun, cute and intuitive, and while it's pretty easy to beat the individual stages (at least until power-ups and more obstacles get added into the mix), each stage also rates you out of three stars, so you need to race against time to try and grab a perfect rating as well. Hardcore gamers will want to clear out all of the levels, while younger (or just more casual gamers) can bounce Sticky around and still enjoy playing. Full Game Center (and Crystal -- Chillingo is publishing) integration extends the experience, and the fact that it's only US$0.99 means it's probably worth a try if you're interested. It probably won't pull me away from Tiny Wings completely, but it's another fun casual experience.
EverQuest devs talk progression server on new Live Cast
Ladies and gentleman, start your time machines! Today marks the launch of EverQuest's Fippy Darkpaw progression server, and SOE has a trio of new Live Cast videos with the dev team available for viewing on its YouTube channel. The discussion is hosted by Eric "Piestro" Cleaver and features lead designer Adam Bell, designer Ed Hardin, and lead programmer Steve Klug. Topics covered include the hows and whys of a progression server, the world and zone revamps, and the XP curve (which the team says will be slowed down quite a bit relative to the live game). "There are no 'hell levels,' but it will still be slower than it is on a normal server," Hardin says. The team also talks about how certain races and classes, and even the game's tutorial, won't be available from launch, as they're locked to certain expansions and will only become available as the progression server ages. Speaking of progressing, the devs have implemented a brand new voting system with a dedicated in-game UI in order to afford players the opportunity to choose when the server should move to the next expansion. As far as who gets to vote, Bell says that "you'll need to be on the progression server and at least level 30 in order to vote to unlock the next expansion, and we may raise that level as the expansion unlocks continue." Head past the cut to view the entire Live Cast in three parts.
