grouping
Latest
Wings Over Atreia: What's in it for me?
That does it. No more Ms. Nice Wings. This time I am just going to unleash! Let my rant all hang out. Admittedly, I am not normally one to complain; I can see the good in most every situation, and I can roll with the punches like it's an Olympic event. But even my feathers get ruffled sometimes. It's true! And sometimes you just can't bite your tongue anymore or all you will have is a very sore tongue. Now I know I am not a rant-master like Jef, but even fledgling ranters must begin somewhere. And this week, I found just such a place: immature, self-serving, can't-pull-their-thumbs-outta-their-ears-unless-there-is-something-in-it-for-them-gamers in Aion. You know the type -- those who think the world revolves around them. Those whose spoiled-rotten antics ruin groups and legions alike and who are the reason why many a block list is so full. They without whom drama would die a quick death and be a forgotten plague. They're the bane of chat channels everywhere -- they are the trolls. Throw yourself past the cut for a look at some recent Aion tantrums and sure-fire ways to minimize the effects of blatant immaturity. Careful, though -- I cannot be held responsible for any resemblance to gamers near you.
Alter-Ego: Five powers that make Ice nice
Last week we took a look into the Fire powerset in DC Universe Online, one of the two tanking powersets available to heroes and villains who want to spend their time at the front lines of the fight. As noted last week, the Fire powers make tanking a snap by simply soaking damage through the use of self-healing. Ice, by contrast, is all about mitigating damage through armor abilities, which help tanks shrug off smackdowns that would leave other players knocked out and drooling on themselves. While my Ice tank is just shy of DC Universe Online's endgame at the moment, I have spent time running her in groups, reading just about anything I could put my mitts on about tanking powerset suggestions, and fiddling with my own build as I progress. I feel pretty comfortable recommending five great powers to consider for an Icy-tanking hotbar, since I've seen these oft repeated. I find them useful in my everyday play now -- even if I'm not quite up to smacking the biggest baddies around yet. So if you're curious as to what much research (and faceplanting) has unearthed as five of the best Ice tanking powers, then join me behind the break!
Wings Over Atreia: Endgame = end of game?
It happens. All good things must come to an end... except (hopefully) your favorite MMORPG. After all, the whole idea of the MMO is to keep going endlessly, right? To supposedly ever-evolve -- there is no final "win" that concludes the story as in single-player RPGs. However, what do you do when you hit the level cap and have "been there and done that" with everything in game? I guess that's the disadvantage of not having a sandbox; as much I love the graphics and my friends in NCsoft's Aion, there really is just a finite list of things to do. Now before anyone gets up-in-arms or sneers "I told you so," no, I am not quitting and I haven't given up on the game. I still enjoy it. It just so happens that my mind zeroed in on the topic this week as I logged in over the course a few days and just stared at my screen, wondering what I wanted to do. While I was feeling under the weather a bit (which dampened my endurance and enthusiasm to complete any major dungeons), I started wondering about what there actually is to do in Aion after you reach and sit at maximum level for a while. For me, the two things that keep me interested in my virtual worlds are the community and friends that I find in game as well as exploring and experiencing new things. One involves the company providing regular content updates; the other allows for player-created content. But once there is nothing left to explore or experience, friends can drift away... so what does that leave? Pondering this subject and watching the community around me actually brought up some expected -- and some not quite expected -- answers. Join me past the cut to look at different ways Daevas spend their time in Atreia and how they keep their interest sparked.
Forsaken World launch trailer debuts
What's the launch of a brand-spanking-new MMORPG without a similarly wet-behind-the-ears trailer to go with it? In service to that tradition, Perfect World Entertainment has just released a sleek new video that coincides with the debut of its latest free-to-play effort. Forsaken World officially launched on March 9th, and even if you've already played it, you'll want to take a peek at the two-minute teaser that shows off a bevy of lush location shots as well as numerous big bads. If you haven't played the game yet, well, we submit that the launch trailer may very well get you hot, bothered, and ready to do just that. Luckily for you, we've got the clip available for your viewing pleasure just past the cut. Forsaken World is a deeper, darker fantasy MMO from the makers of Jade Dynasty, Battle of the Immortals, and Perfect World International. The title boasted an astonishing 3500 developers during its construction phases and is now available for download via the official Forsaken World website.
The Daily Grind: Should the MMO holy trinity be a thing of the past?
Dungeons, lairs, and instances, oh my! No, Toto, you are definitely not in Kansas anymore. No matter what game you play, there is usually some sort of division of roles that a toon you roll takes on -- some characters are support, some are up-font and center, and others stick to the side and unload what their mama gave them. Undeniably, the holy trinity seems to be something of a standard in most MMOs -- you are going to have to make a choice at some point about how you actually play. But maybe some day you wouldn't have to choose a spec, roll a new toon, or make compromises in your class picks. Dreams of being a healer who can actually kick some serious winged-monkey butt could be a thing of the future. Or maybe it will never happen. That's why I pose the following to all of you: If the holy trinity became a thing of the past, how would you envision your favorite game changing? Would you rather see every class be able to use a mix of skills? Could it actually work, or would it just create games full of clone characters? 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!
Embark Beach and Mercenary Heroes coming to Guild Wars
Do you play Guild Wars with nothing to lose and nothing to prove? Then you might wind up dancing with yourself in the newest update to the game, which will add a new system of Mercenary Heroes -- turning other characters on your account into special heroes just for your use. And since this update also gives players the option to have a full party of seven heroes, there's plenty of reason to improve alts and play with them even on other characters. Of course, that's the least of the features packed into the new update, and you may not even need the new heroes with the introduction of the group-focused Embark Beach. Allowing players transport to a multitude of locations and missions, the outpost serves as a waypoint for players to find groups and get right into the action of a mission without any trouble. It's also a hub for services, making it an ideal place for players to congregate and look for any needed assistance. That's not even touching upon the new daily quests in Pre-Searing Ascalon, the changes to the Survivor title track to make it earnable on an existing character even after that character has died, and a new Minion UI feature. In short, Guild Wars players have plenty to dance about in the new update, whether by themselves or with others. %Gallery-9135%
Exploring Eberron: One isn't the loneliest number
Two weeks ago on Exploring Eberron, I talked about my preview of the Crystal Cove event in Dungeons and Dragons Online. Design director Ian Currie and producer Eric Boyer joined me on the Lamannia server to show me around the upcoming event. It was a great time, but I was still very curious about how the event would go once it arrived on the live servers. The thing about a developer tour is that you get to see the best of everything -- and that is both a blessing and a curse. It's great on one hand, because I can see the event and have the details explained to me without my having to navigate the hectic and busy aspect of a crowd of players all participating at once. On the other hand, there was an important question that I really couldn't find the answer to until the event was live and I tried it on my own. One of the things I love about DDO is that it acknowledges and provides for the solo player. Right from character creation, the game tells you which classes are and are not good for soloing, and the addition of casual mode offered even more options. It seemed that a server-wide event like this might have a harder time keeping up that tradition, and I wanted to find out for myself. So how did it go? Follow along after the jump and see!
The Daily Grind: Do you like cross-server dungeon finders?
There's little doubt that World of Warcraft has brought a lot of change to the MMO space in a few short years. One of the more recent Blizzard innovations is the dungeon finder tool, a cross-server matchmaker that throws together ad-hoc groups for the game's 5-man instances. Released in early December of 2009, the mechanic has proven to be a boon for casual players who are pressed for time or are looking to power through content. The dungeon finder doesn't earn universal high marks, however, and players who use PUGs to recruit for their guilds (or those who simply like to make new friends) are often put off by the disposable (and largely silent) nature of many dungeon finder groups. For today's Daily Grind, we'd like to know how you feel about the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am-don't-talk-to-me-just-kill-the-boss mentality that's showing up with greater frequency in current-gen MMOs. Do you blame the dungeon finder? Do you care? 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!
Storyboard: Swapping tales
A few weeks back, I took the opportunity to explain why roleplaying is most definitely not storytelling. So this week, I'm going to directly undermine every single part of that column and talk about running a steady story via roleplaying. If you haven't noticed by this point, I'm a big fan of subverting expectations. My usual impish sense of humor aside, the two exist rather comfortably alongside one another. A long-running storyline in-game doesn't require you to have arcs and movements and motivations planned out -- rather, it's the natural outgrowth of character arcs and interactions from months or years of play. You lose much in the way of narrative consistency or overall theme, but you gain a sprawling organic network of developing plotlines. So keeping a long-term story running is more a matter of letting time build on an existing base. But getting that existing base functioning and keeping it on an even keel isn't always a simple task, and that's what we're going to examine. There are a lot of ways to keep a story going in the game, but the better the foundation, the better it'll be.
EVE Evolved: Incursion guide -- Combat strategies
With the final release of EVE Online's Incursion expansion, Sansha fleets began invading constellations across New Eden. Hell-bent on revenge against the empire nations that rejected him, Sansha's unholy army of borg-like cybernetic soldiers is united in a singular goal -- to bring his disturbing brand of order to the galaxy. The incursions have been running for several weeks now, and players are quickly adapting to EVE's latest group PvE challenge. In last week's EVE Evolved, I began a series of guides to tackling incursions with an article on fleet composition and group tanking strategies. Even with a well-composed group, it's still possible to fail encounters if the fleet doesn't exercise good target-calling and combat strategies. With some Sansha ships fielding remote repairers and others throwing ECM, energy neutralisers, and massive torpedoes at players, taking on an encounter isn't just a matter of tanking it and flinging missiles in all directions. Fleet commanders must be able prioritise the enemy ships in order of the danger they present to the fleet. Clear target-calling will help a fleet to focus fire and get targets down quickly, and good prioritisation of targets can mean the difference between victory and defeat. In this week's second part of the EVE Evolved guide to incursions, I explain two popular target-calling strategies and look into prioritising targets in order to minimise the risk to your fleet. I end with a list of high-priority NPCs with special abilities that you'll need to keep an eye on.
The Mog Log: Let's talk about EXP, baby
If there was one thing I always hated about Final Fantasy XI, it was the leveling process. Not the grouping for levels, which was fun and often a good distraction from the monotony of camping and grinding. (It was obnoxious trying to level Dragoon, sure, but that was excellent motivation to spend more time as a healer.) No, it was something much simpler -- the actual speed of the level-to-level process, or more accurately, the earth-shattering lag between levels that only increased as you got higher. Both Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI are on the horns of an experience change, with the former having happened and the latter still to be seen as of this writing (I'm working fairly far ahead, so watch the patch drop this week). Seeing as how leveling is kind of a big deal until you've reached the level cap in everything, the changes are worth examining for what they add to the game and for whether or not the changes are actually worthwhile and useful.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Stricken pack
It's been a while since the Incarnate system went live, and we've had a little time to get used to the ideas that the Issue 19 Strike Pack brought to the table. Not a full shakedown, mind you, but enough to make it clear what the fairly minor addition actually does for the nascent endgame. Whether or not it brings anything positive to City of Heroes is still up for debate. Depending on whom you're talking to, it either nicely handles a few weaknesses of the current Incarnate design or it's a step in a bad direction. As usual, I don't think the answer is anywhere near that simple. The Strike Pack is a good thing in many ways, and not just because of the addition of the higher tiers of Incarnate abilities. I love giving people more reason to run Task Forces, definitely, but if there's a serious problem introduced by this it goes right back to the same endgame problems that City of Heroes has always had, problems that I'm not completely sure even Issue 20 will fix.
Wings Over Atreia: Solo vs. group
OK, now get your collective minds all out of the gutter! There we go. Of course, the title speaks to gaming styles and preferences in Aion. Lately, I've had the topic of grouping crop up in different discussions, from the trend of decreasing group sizes (Star Wars Galaxies had groups of 20, then Lineage II had groups of nine, followed by other games with a maximum group size of six) to questioning the need to group at all. To group, or not to group: Is that really the question? I touched on this topic a bit a few weeks ago, but an adventure this past week brought my attention back to it; I discovered that you no longer need a full group for one of the more frustrating quests in the game (once you factor in trying to get a group when the rift is up and not have it camped on the other side by the enemy!). Instead, you can complete the quest with just two or three Daevas, a feat unheard of previously due to the difficult dungeon in enemy territory. Granted, we completed our quest, which would have been impossible otherwise given the circumstances. But on a broader scale, what's with the trend of phasing out group content in MMOs and catering to the solo crowd? This phenomenon puzzles me. When a game is an MMO (read "massively multiplayer"), why discourage grouping by making almost all content accessible to the solo crowd -- especially in Aion (where learning good group dynamics can be crucial in large scale warfare)? In a time when social skills seem to be struggling to survive, why open yet another opportunity for people to avoid interaction? Type /Invite and join me past the cut to examine this phenomenon and weigh in with your preferred gaming style in our comments.
EVE Evolved: Incursion in progress
In a blaze of fire and glory, Sansha Kuvakei's fleet clashed with players in a major offensive in Yulai. Although his AI-controlled Sansha battleships numbered in the hundreds, the sheer force of capsuleer defense initiatives was brought down on Kuvakei's fleet like a hammer. With the Sansha ships under heavy fire, the fleet opened additional wormholes to call in reinforcements. Amidst the busy buzz of lasers scorching hulls, capsuleers hurling missiles, and CONCORD rescue operations, space itself warped as several massive Sansha supercarriers emerged from the incoming wormholes. Sansha Kuvakei played his biggest and most fearsome card as a show of the incredible forces he now commands. And capsuleers burned them to ashes in defiance. Since the battle in Yulai, Sansha's Nation has begun launching full-scale occupations of constellations across New Eden. Many players dove straight into the fray without adequate preparation, and Sansha's forces were not forgiving. While most NPC pirate ships found in EVE Online are weak with a very basic AI, the new Sansha ships are both smart and deadly. They use everything from ECM and energy neutralisers to stealth bomber technology and logistic support. Thousands of player ships were destroyed in the first day of fighting as people worked out, through a system of trial and error, how best to tackle EVE's latest supervillain. As the dust settled, I began to get a solid impression of how well the feature is working and whether it really is the breath of fresh air EVE's PvE has been sorely lacking all these years. In this week's EVE Evolved, I give my first impressions of the Sansha incursions in an attempt to demystify some of the discussion surrounding them and share some basic tips for getting involved.
Beta 5 patch notes posted for RIFT
If you've been following RIFT closely over the past few weeks, you know that the fifth beta event has just begun. That means it's time for a new batch of updates, and the staff at Trion Worlds has come through. The notes for the newest event have been posted, and they contain an exhaustive number of changes, including a much-requested public grouping system and a number of UI improvements. There's also the usual collection of bugfixes and changes based on testing feedback. Many players had requested some sort of open grouping system to coincide with the game's dynamic events, and the new public group system facilitates just that. Although the system still requires clicking a few buttons and flagging yourself as open for public groups, it streamlines the process of getting everyone organized and cooperative during a rift battle. RIFT testers and fans should take a look at the full list of changes before diving into the newest event.
Sansha incursions have begun in EVE Online
The moment EVE Online players have been waiting for has finally arrived. Sansha's Nation has begun its plan of regular incursions into known space. Using terrifying advanced technology suspected to be of Sleeper or Jovian origin, the Nation has begun sending masses of troops through controlled wormholes into constellations across New Eden. The powerful new Sansha ships found in these sites are controlled by a borg-like hive mind composed of the millions of citizens abducted from planets during last year's Sansha raid events. The Sansha ships are even named after the system their crews were abducted from, an eerie reminder that we could do nothing to prevent the Sansha raids. To find out where the nearest incursion to you is, open your mission journal and go to the incursions tab. If you can't see any incursions in the global report after refreshing it several times, you may need to clear your cache. To do this, press the escape key to open up the game options, go into the "Reset Settings" tab and click the button next to the text "clear all cache files." This will restart your game and the incursions will be visible. Once you arrive at a constellation that's under siege, a new chat channel will automatically open to help coordinate resistance efforts in that constellation. Players who are thinking of getting into the incursions are urged to proceed with caution and use only ships they would be willing to lose, as these upgraded Sansha ships are deceptively powerful for their size classes. If you'd like to take part in the incursions with other Massively readers, join the Massively channel in-game for instructions on how to get involved with the official Massively Mob corporation. To give some background to the events taking place right now all over EVE, CCP has released a new video trailer putting the Sansha threat in context. Skip past the cut to watch the video, embedded in HD.
The Daily Grind: Are you a chat Luddite?
So DC Universe Online's voice chat is broken, according to many of the commenters on this and other MMO-centric websites. Ironically, even if the game had no voice chat at all, it would be less broken than the abject disaster that serves as the superhero title's text chat interface. While the game is enjoyable enough in most respects, I scratch my head as to how a development firm with SOE's considerable expertise could scrimp on something as vital as in-game text chat. The cynic in me says that it's because the PS3 version takes priority, but whatever the reason, DCUO's social tools (at least on the PC) are in dire need of someone who cares. That brings up an interesting point regarding voice chat vs. text chat. While third-party programs such as Mumble and Ventrilo have been the norm for "serious" MMO guilds for years now, it's only recently that games have started incorporating voice chat (and players have started expecting it). Sure, voice can be vital for raids, PvP, and challenging endgame content, but is it really necessary (or desirable) for most of the things we do on our way to the level cap? Today's Daily Grind is all about your stance in the voice vs. text chat debate. Are you a chat Luddite? Do you refuse to play a game without voice chat? Inquiring Massively minds want to know. 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!
Exploring Eberron: DDO for the solo player
One of my favorite things about MMO gaming is that there is literally something out there to suit every MMO player. It's one of the upsides of a fairly crowded market -- if what you're playing doesn't hold your attention, there are a hundred more games lined up behind it. One effect of this is that the "multiplayer" part of "massively multiplayer" is more of a suggestion than a defined gameplay style these days. There's a significant portion of the gaming community that lacks either the time or inclination to do everything in-game with a group. Most MMOs have varying levels of soloability. Some make a point of extending a welcoming hand to solo players, some stack the benefits and perks on the side of groups, and some don't even seem to realize there's a difference. So where does Turbine land in all of this? Well, the company has made some nice strides in the past year or so in opening the doors for solo players. If you tried DDO way back when but didn't find it very solo-friendly, it might be time for a second look. Follow along after the jump as I touch on the various solo-friendly points of Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Aika introduces scaling instances for players
Irregular schedules are the bane of group content. When you can't know when you'll log in or how long you'll be online at a stretch, it's really hard to make plans that involve getting other people together, and that's assuming that the content in question isn't an hour of continuous play. So Aika's latest addition should be a welcome change to players -- the development team has changed all of the game's instances to scale according to group size. Scaled-down dungeons operate under a few restrictions, none of which are terribly restrictive -- players will have a slightly lowered drop rate for items when in a smaller group, to compensate for the lowered difficulty. Although some comments in response allege that the difficulty is still tuned a bit high or low in certain spots, it's a welcome change that's been requested in several games over the years. So if you can't get a half-dozen people together in Aika for a simple run, you don't have to keep looking -- you can just go.
Blizzard working on ways to improve dungeon finder
The current dungeon finder is of course a vast improvement over the old LFG channel, but it can always be made better. In response to a forum thread about the dungeon finder's ever becoming performance-based, Zarhym weighed in with some interesting news. Zarhym - Dungeon queue should be performance-based We would love to implement better ways for Dungeon Finder to detect if players know what they're doing in dungeons beyond just the gear they've accumulated. We have some long-term design goals in mind for this we're not quite prepared to share this early on though. ;) source What was more interesting was the idea that Blizzard wants to improve the educational aspect of the service, however. With the current vote kick system, often players who are forced out of a group may have no idea why they failed, especially when they are new to the game.
