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Enter at Your Own Rift: The curious case of planar attunement
Over the weekend, players finished off those last crumbs of the RIFT birthday cake and celebrated six months of fending off planar invasions. But already on the horizon is update 1.5, Ashes of History, and with it comes new ways for level-capped players to keep busy. One of the major features to arrive is the new Planar Attunement system. Players who are level 50 will be able to use any earned experience toward attunement points, which will grant new abilities and stat bonuses. In many ways, it resembles the AA systems used in EverQuest and EverQuest II, although there are some noticeable differences. The testing continues, and there are still tweaks to come with this system, but there are several questions surrounding the addition of the Planar Attunement system. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, we'll look at some potentially tricky issues when it comes to RIFT and AAs.
The Tattered Notebook: What EQII can learn from Minecraft
EverQuest II's Update 61 is officially here, and the sweeping itemization revamp has been about as pleasant as the arrival of Hurricane Irene. I spent the better part of a morning trying to go through all my gear and then redo all my AAs. But I was one of the lucky ones because I don't really have alts. Some of my guildmates had at least half a dozen or so toons to fix, and they had to do that two or three times because hotfixes were resetting gear all over again. It's not really that surprising when we consider there's a mountain of gear in game, and over the years, certain stats grew in value only to be de-emphasized in a future expansion. But it's frustrating for players because some hard-earned gear has become less powerful by comparison, and that's altered the landscape when it comes to old content and challenge. I ran out of gas about two-thirds of the way into respeccing, and I decided to shift gears and check out the new housing changes. The leaderboards are great because people can surf the list of homes and directly port to them to see them up close. The problem right now is that the ranking system could use a little work; it currently allows for abuse and griefing. But despite the issues, it's helped put the decorating community in the limelight, and it's given housing a new purpose in game. That got me thinking about the future of EQII's housing system and the upcoming addition of player-created dungeons. With the new focus on player-generated content, EQII could learn quite a lot from an unlikely candidate -- Minecraft. Let's take a look at how.
The Guild Counsel: Pre-launch pitfalls
There's nothing more enticing than that new car smell of a soon-to-be-released MMO. And it's no surprise that many players make the decision to either bring their guilds over or build a new one from the ground up. It's exciting, but forming a pre-launch guild comes with plenty of potential hazards, and all too often, those months before the game goes live are the best and happiest months of a guild's life. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at some dos and don'ts when it comes to building a pre-launch guild... and hopefully keep the good times rolling long past launch day.
The Tattered Notebook: Jeremy and I go house-hunting
As I write this, EverQuest II's Game Update 61, The War of Zek, is about to hit live servers. There are several exciting changes on the way, including the itemization revamp, two new scalable dungeons for levels 60-90, a new AA tree for tradeskillers, an AA revamp, and a new questline that gives the Fae and Arasai the ability to fly. For those at the level cap, there is a new dungeon and raid zone that continues the overarching storyline, and all stats are now uncapped. Those who like questing can find new content in Eastern Wastes. And everyone can now record her adventures on YouTube with a new Video Capture system. There's a plethora of new content that will appeal to both new and veteran gamers, but of all the additions, the one that's most intriguing is the new house rating system. Players will now be able to design, showcase, and rank each other's homes. The housing directory will also make it a lot easier to find and visit players' homes, something that was increasingly difficult to do because of all the different types of homes -- and addresses. As it so happens, Massively's Jeremy Stratton, who pens the Runes of Magic column Lost Pages of Taborea, has been spending quite a bit of time over in EQII's Norrath and fell in love with the housing system. This week's Tattered Notebook features Jeremy's impressions of housing in EQII, and then he and I present a few tips for those who are interested in showcasing homes through the new system.
The Guild Counsel: I'm just a number
Sometimes it seems that numbers dominate MMOs. We play in worlds that are filled with stat-based items, resists, crits, parses, rankings, heck, even little tech issues like framerate and latency often come into play. After a while, you start to wonder if you've somehow turned into Cypher from the Matrix, able to see things in the steady stream of green numbers. But the most worrisome of all the numbers comes up when members of your guild feel like one. There are several ways that this issue can manifest itself, and it always leads to people feeling alienated and frustrated, and at its worst, it can lead to a complete breakdown of a guild. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's crank up the Bob Seger, look at some of the ways that members end up feeling like just a number, and focus on how to avoid it.
Enter at Your Own Rift: A party guide for the fashionably late
Last week, Justin presented a great overview of what's on the horizon for RIFT via his interview with Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman. On August 25th, everyone is invited to celebrate RIFT's six-month birthday, with special events and prizes for the next seven days. New and returning players get to play for free, while subscribers get lots of special perks like extra experience, increased drops, and even a special birthday gift at the end of the celebration. Curious about why players names are certain colors? Having a hard time deciphering an acronym? Wondering how you can find the calling and level of someone talking in open chat? Read on for some helpful game tips for those who are thinking of checking out the game (and perhaps a few tips that even veterans might appreciate)!
The Guild Counsel: A color-blind world
A couple of interesting points came out of last week's review of The Raid, and I'm going to use them as a springboard for this week's column. There were two topics that dominated the discussion: one was Edward Castronova's analogy of raiding as sport and the downing of the Lich King as a World Cup Championship victory. The other was about the use of inappropriate language in game, including some racist and sexist remarks. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at soccer and sexism, and we'll see why Castronova was worth hearing out and why there's a big difference between what players say and what they do.
The Tattered Notebook: Let's play 'Keep it or nuke it!'
As a longtime fan of EverQuest II, I'm often asked by non-EQII-players what the game is like. I usually try to answer by describing the usual game features like combat, crafting, PvP, and the unfortunate inclusion of Gnomes. But the best analogy I can think of for EverQuest II is that it resembles a type of MMO archaeological site. If you play the game long enough, you can begin to see the stratification of the game, as layer upon layer of content and features were heaped onto what was already there. It's something I've admired about the game because the developers have always been willing to try new things and make changes. But the mound of content can be overwhelming to a new player and even confusing to those who have returned after an extended hiatus. With a new round of content having just arrived on servers and even more due in a few months, it's time to consider whether some of the older stuff might need to go, for clarity's sake. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll play a little game called, "Keep it or Nuke it." Read on for my recommendations, and then add yours below.
The Guild Counsel: Why The Raid is worth seeing
Over the weekend, Gary Gannon from Gamebreaker.TV hosted a unique event in the world of MMOs: a film premiere, complete with fancy suits and ties and even an afterparty (albeit in the form of a chat room). The film is The Raid, which followed the World of Warcraft guild Double Dragons as it worked through the raid content from Wrath of the Lich King. There has been a lot of feedback from those who saw the premiere, but it's been decidedly mixed so far. Furthermore, viewers had such strong reactions to certain parts of the documentary that director Kevin Michael Johnson made a post on the site to try to address some of the criticism. But is the mixed review simply the cynical gamer at his best, or is it legit? In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll take a closer look at The Raid, and I'll explain why I think it's definitely worth seeing.
GDCO 2010: Panel and interview roundup
As you may have noticed if you're following our GDC Online 2010 coverage, we were there in full force. Karen Bryan, blogger and podcaster extraordinaire, covered the event along with our own Beau Hindman. As a wrapup to her interview articles, Karen gives this final impressions piece on the panels of GDC Online 2010. I had a busy week at GDC Online, seeing some great panels and speaking with some enthusiastic developers. Since not all of you could attend this Austin, Texas event, we've done our best to bring you the highlights. Follow along after the jump for a quick rundown of what I saw, as well as the big takeaway from each.
