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Would emotional value improve the leveling experience in MMOGs?
Grats on your ding, wait, why are you crying? Not again. That last level really hurt your feelings didn't it. Well, some game developers like Indigo Prophecy creator, David Cage believe there is a missing component in the MMOG leveling experience. Cage's own feeling on the matter is that the interconnection is lacking when it comes to invoking a broader reaction from the player. "What's the real narrative or emotional value? Sometimes it's really interesting when you're in the guild in a massively multiplayer game and you attack the fortress or whatever. Some great things can be told, but it's not guaranteed. The value is not always there."Wow, that's deep but in all seriousness there is a certain truth to his sentiment. Leveling can be a painfully dull experience and usually MMOG use the same formula and mimic the same rags-to-riches journey. While there is nothing wrong with that, it can become tiresome and insipid if you no longer care for the redundant leveling experience. So maybe developers do need to instill a sense of danger, a sense of importance and meaning to the leveling experience. Fun is most important, and MMOGs should be enjoyed and not an emotional rollercoaster into dystopia.
Leveling and numbers in newest Ask Cryptic
The most recent installment of Ask Cryptic starts off on the topic of levels and how player characters will progress through them. While no exact count of how many levels we can expect to see in the game was given, (though our guess would be somewhere around 50) we are told how characters will generally progress in the superpowers department. If you've played City of Heroes, then you probably have a semi-good idea of where you'll start off in Champions Online. Cryptic says they want to start players with a few starting powers and gain both more powers and customization options as they level. This is of course all part-in-parcel with the whole "MMORPG thing" anyhow, so nobody should be surprised by the revelation.Another good question was whether or not Champions Online would allow players to see hard numbers on their abilities, something that min-maxers are the biggest proponents for seeing. The short answer is yes, so any of you hoping for that can rest easily while the rest of us wonder just how much we'll get to accessorize our superheroes.
Midsummer Fire Festival level guide
You don't have to be level 70 to get in on most of the fun for this year's Midsummer Fire Festival. Here is a guide to the minimum levels required (as stated by Kisirani) and recommended for each of the quests: Torch Tossing and Torch Catching have no minimum level requirement. Because you complete these quests in the safety of a capital city, any level is appropriate. Honoring the flames has no minimum level requirement. Unless you are 50+, however, the recommended level is the same as the level of the area you can comfortably hunt in. Desecrating flames also has no minimum level requirement, but considering it flags you for PvP even on a PvE server, do so at your own risk if you are low level. Incense for the Festival Scorchlings also has no minimum level and any level is recommended. Unusual Activitiy requires level 16, but I wouldn't recommend lower than 20 given that you have to fight level 20 and 21 cultists and the area is rotten with level 20 Naga. A Thief's Reward or stealing the flames in the other faction's capital cities required a minimum level of 50, but if the flame is at all defended, it's best to be level 70. Lord Ahune requires a minimum level of 65. Slave Pens is where he resides, so any level above the minimum that you feel comfortable in that instance is recommended. Edited to add: Upon further review, the recommended level to complete this quest is 70 and it is easier if the 70s in your group are well-geared. These quests give a lot of experience if you are below 70 and a lot of money if you aren't. Regardless of the rewards, however, these quests are a fresh infusion of fun during this period of pre-expansion blahs. So if you haven't tried them yet, what are you waiting for? The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Player vs. Everything: Frustrated by levels
I was reading through my usual round-up of blogs and news items this morning when I found an interesting post by Van Hemlock on the topic of levels in MMORPGs. More specifically, it was about how levels in games keep players from playing with each other. He discusses how ever since he started gaming in 1999, being a different level than the people he wants to play with has kept him from playing with them. Whether you're too high for the content to be challenging or too low to be effective, playing with your friends at different levels just never seems to work very well. Van Hemlock makes an excellent point, and it's a problem in almost every single MMOG out there with two notable exceptions: EverQuest 2 and City of Heroes/Villains. Both of these games recognize the problem and attempt to circumvent it, but they do it in very different ways. In City of Heroes, you can move either up or down in level so that you can see high level content at low levels or go back and do low level content as a high level player and still advance. In EverQuest 2, it's strictly one-way. You can bring yourself down to your friend's level and adventure with them for alternate advancement experience. Is this really as big of a problem as people make it out to be, and if it is, why don't more games have systems like these?
Player vs. Everything: Age of Conan's 250 hours
It's going to take you 250 hours to get to level 80 in Age of Conan. That's the big news today, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that. On the one hand, that tells us very little about the actual game. Saying you have 250 hours of content means nothing unless that content is fun content. On the other, it does let you know exactly what you're getting into as far as a time commitment goes (on average). It's also important to note that that's pretty close to World of Warcraft's benchmark, too -- most players can get from 1-70 in 6 to 14 days played. I think my first 70 took me about 7 and 1/2 days. What's a good length of time for the leveling game to be, anyway? If you make it too long and drawn out, won't many players quit in frustration before they ever get to the top (EverQuest was notorious for having players that never capped)? Maybe. Let them level too quickly, though, and they'll quit if there's nothing to do at the top. Even if there is something to do when you're capped, for many people, leveling is the game. I'm probably one of those people. I hate structured PvP (like arenas) and while I dabble in raiding, I really have more fun leveling. So is 250 hours long enough to keep you interested? And why even tell us that in the first place? What does Age of Conan's 250 hours mean to you?
Blizzard may be considering granting levels to recruit-a-friend users
We've been wondering for months now what Blizzard is holding back. Wrath of the Lich King seems like a very competent, well-planned addition to World of Warcraft, but it's all so samey. More zones, more loot, more content, the usual. The addition of the Death Knight and a PvP-focused overland zone are interesting, but hardly revolutionary - Burning Crusade changed so much about the game that it's been hard not to be a little dissapointed. Now Massively's sister site WoW Insider offers a hint that perhaps there's more to the expansion than the company has let on. WI reports on a post to the MMO-Champion site, from a forum-goer who found something intriguing in the newest 2.4.2 patch notes. Buried in the code are several programming strings that hint at big changes to the WoW Recruit-A-Friend program. At the moment all the program offers is a few days of extra play time if your companion opens up a subscription. The strings, though, suggest that someday your referred friend may be tied much more closely to you. Hints are there that you'll be able to teleport your friend to you, that recruiting a friend may increase your reputation with certain in-game factions, and even that you may be able to grant levels to your friend's character. If these additions to the game are to be believed, this system will have limits; you won't be able to teleport your friend around beyond a certain level, and characters that have leveled past a certain point will no longer be able to have levels granted to them.The notes also imply that your own character's level is somehow tied to the number of levels you can grant a friend; perhaps some sort of metacurrency. This is fascinating news, if true, and hints at the possibility of even more changes coming to World of Warcraft in coming months. Certainly here at Massively we've been talking enough about subjects related to this; it's wonderful to see Blizzard coming at the problem of the endless grind from such a unique angle.
The first Saga tournament is player-run
You may be familiar with the MMO called Saga, by Silverlode Interactive. You may even be a member, and are currently lamenting the fact that there is no official Saga tournament in which you can test your PvP skills. Don't despair! Sagaunits.com and sagatraders.com have teamed up to offer prizes for the first Saga tournament, held by saga.scratchplace.com!The tournament starts at 9 AM PST on April 19th, and it's completely free to enter. There are four brackets for ranges of levels beginning with 10 - 14, and ending with 25 - 30. If you fit those ranges and want to compete, better get yourself set up! For more information, go visit the site. [Thanks, Casey!]
Bangai-O Spirits uses the world's best level-sharing network
Odds are right around 100% that you've used the burgeoning unofficial Bangai-O Spirits level database -- even if you've never played (or heard of) the game. One player (that we've seen) has turned to YouTube for hosting and sharing of levels and replays. Immediately, Treasure's bizarre decision to make level data into sound files makes sense. YouTube is easy to use for both uploaders and downloaders, and all you have to do is hold an earphone up to your DS's mic to download a level. Other Japanese players are making use of Japan's YouTube-like site, Nico Nico Douga. This video demonstrates the process. It's also amusingly meta, in that it's a YouTube video that shows someone downloading and playing a YouTube video. It's a better alternative for a blog than just embedding one of the actual levels, since there's no screeching involved.
The Daily Grind: Updates to your favorite game
It's a fact of life as an MMO gamer that your favorite worlds are always going to be changing. Patches and expansions can change the face of gameplay and inspire us to spend more hours in game to level and explore. But new content coming too quickly will leave players feeling constantly behind the curve, while new content coming too slowly will leave players bored and looking for new entertainments. While MMO developers no doubt have their own ideas of how much content they have to put out how often in order to keep players interested and playing -- but today we're not talking to the MMO developers, we're talking to you. How often does your favorite game need fresh new content (new zones, new levels, new races, new classes?) to keep you interested in a game?
Patch 2.3 and you: pre-60 dungeons
Leveling is getting a boost. Along with some new content in Dustwallow Marsh, patch 2.3 (going live tomorrow!) will bring across-the-board changes for characters between levels 20 and 60. The XP required for each level is being reduced by 20%, quest XP is getting buffed, and the so-called "leveling" dungeons are getting some major changes. Here is what the patch notes have to say at the moment: Elite mobs outside of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been changed to non-elite. The level ranges of pre-Burning Crusade dungeons have been adjusted to a narrower range. Meeting stone level requirements, the Looking for Group system, and quests have been adjusted to match the new dungeon level ranges. All old world dungeon bosses have had their loot revisited. Players will now find that the loot dropped inside instances will be of Superior (blue) quality. Well, that's vague enough, isn't it? Level ranges adjusted to "a narrower range"? We can't have that. So I went through to all the old-world dungeons on my trusty 70 rogue and checked the level ranges of the mobs there. I'll also show you a sample of a new or improved item for each dungeon; new items are on the left, and old items on the right for comparison. That means a lot of pictures, so dial-up users beware, I guess. TL;DR version: minimum level stays the same, maximum level nerfed down to somewhere between 3 and 5 more than the minimum level. If you want all the fun details, let's get to it!
Leveling improvements for Patch 2.3
Are you in the midst of leveling a character between 20 and 60? Well right now is the time to stop everything, rush over to this forum post from Blizzard, and sing a happy song while you hurry up and wait! That's right, in answer to the crying pleas of casual alt-oholics everywhere, Blizzard is finally speeding up the tedious leveling curve for old world content in patch 2.3, adding in a bunch of new quests, nerfing a lot of the nastiest bad guys, and buffing a whole bunch of the items they drop.Here's a summarized list of the changes, with the full post by Vaneras copied for you beyond the link below. Amount of experience needed to level reduced by 15% per level between 20 and 60. Experience gained from completing quests increased between levels 30 and 60. Outdoor elite quests will now now be soloable, with the same (or better) rewards. About 60 new quests and a new goblin town based in Dustwallow Marsh (levels 30 to 40) Level ranges for old dungeons to be narrowed down a bit (so that if you are high enough to start them, you are high enough to finish them too) Increased questing experience for dungeon quests. Buffed up item drops from dungeon bosses. As Vaneras says, "Though we've given you a few examples of the things to come, we think everyone will pleasantly surprised when they see the full extent of the changes discussed above." Keep reading to see all the juicy details.
The hidden formula behind pet loyalty
Mania's Arcania continues its look at pet loyalty and the mechanics of how it works. Last time, she found that tamed pets would stick around for 30 minutes no matter what you do, and this time around she went the other way-- up to loyalty level two, Unruly.Basically, using a newly tamed pet, a stopwatch, and a notepad, she determined that in order for a pet to go from loyalty level 1 (Rebellious) to level 2 (Unruly), the pet needs to gain 5% of the experience the Hunter needs for his next level. So a level 11 hunter needs 8800 experience to get to 12, which means a pet (of any level and family) needs to kill for 440 XP (5% of 8800) to go up a loyalty level with that Hunter.Interesting. And the formula apparently works even when the pet isn't actually earning experience (ie when your pet is the same level as you are). However (and this is a big however), time is also playing a factor, and Mania's not exactly how it does-- she let her pet sit happy for a few hours, and then on the very next kill, the loyalty level went up. So it seems to be some combo of experience earned together and time (where more experience or more time can replace the other if necessary), but the exact numbers aren't there yet.At any rate, good stuff, and Mania is being really thorough with it. If you're a Hunter who changes pets often, it's worth a read.
Should the expansion add levels to the game?
While I think it's pretty certain that the next game expansion will add additional levels to the game, there's a reasonably sized petition making the rounds on the forums asking Blizzard not to add more levels. The argument, of course, is that we could see a repeat of the Burning Crusade -- all raid content is abandoned as the first quest rewards from new zones equal it while the reputations you spent so much time grinding up now only offers useless, low level rewards. But though I understand the concerns of players railing against new levels, I think they're going to come, anyway -- Blizzard has to give the players who have already burned through Burning Crusade content something new and interesting to do. However, perhaps they've learned a bit from the last expansion... only time will tell.But what do you think? Does the game need new levels, or does that just destroy the things we've worked so hard to achieve?
User-created content in N+
Metanet just announced the winners of their SUBLIME (Submit Unique and Brilliant Levels to Metanet Event) competition, in which they asked fans to do their work for them design new levels for the DS, PSP, and XBox Live Arcade versions of N+. 29 user-created levels made the cut for the DS version, including "Endless Flight?" seen above. User-created levels on the retail cartridge? So awesome.In addition to the honor of having their level in the game, winners get a free copy of N+. As cool as this contest is, we hope it isn't a substitute for an in-game level editor.[Via GameSetWatch]
Hey! I needed that!
Nikol of WoW Ladies posts about something I shouldn't get so worked up about, but often do anyway-- higher level characters farming mobs that lower levels need for quests or rep.Now, Nikol is actually on the opposite side of the equation from the one I remember being on more. She was wondering if there is a certain etiquette when she goes to farm Timbermaw rep (as a level 68) and starts competing for mobs with level 58s. Which is actually very nice of her, because usually I'm in the other situation: I'm playing a lowbie alt and I have to go kill 50 pigs to get their spleens. Suddenly, a level 70 mage roars through the area, AoEing every pig he sees, rounding them all up in a pile so he can level up his skinning. A few seconds later, I'm left with nothing to farm, and he's standing over a pile of piggies, skinning away and humming to himself. For some reason, that makes me just see red. There are lots of other places he can farm skinning, so why does he feel the need to gank my quest mobs? It makes me seethe just thinking about it!Unfortunately, as Nikol finds out, there is no set etiquette-- outside of a group, it literally is a free-for-all. If you're in my place, your only real option is to just find another quest to work on while all the mobs respawn, or poke around to see if he missed any. And to tell the truth, I shouldn't get so angry anyway-- it could be that the mage didn't realize I needed those pigs, and in fact, there is probably a whole other cache of pigs just over the hill that I haven't found yet.But for some reason it just drives me nuts. Have you been on either side of this situation? And how have you handled it?
Level restrictions on the Dark Portal
Here's an interesting tidbit that may or may not mean much at all. A player asks on the forums how to report someone under level 58 in Outlands, since there is a level restriction on the Dark Portal that means you have to be level 58 before you pass through it. Of course, other players respond (correctly) that it's not against the ToS to be in Outlands before level 58-- you are free to be summoned there whenever you want.Drysc then shows up in the thread and affirms that Blizzard isn't worried about lower levels being in Outland, and then says the reason for this was to keep lowbies from rushing the new content during the Burning Crusade launch (as happened on many servers during the AQ gate opening. A player then asks the kicker: since the launch is long over, and any lowbies are welcome to explore their curiosity at any time (for the price of a simple summon), when will the level restriction on the Dark Portal be lifted? Drysc, caught speechless (at least, in my imagination he is), says simply, "I'm not sure."So it's conceivable that Blizzard could, at some point, lift the level 58 restriction on going to Outland. The only problem is: who cares? While there are a few level 58-60 mobs in Hellfire Peninsula, anyone lower than that is going to get mauled everywhere else. I suppose that with an escort, lowbies might want to go out there to work on their profession skills, but for most skills, 300-375 require at least level 50. I'm not sure if First Aid has the same restrictions-- I guess that players might be able to go to Outland, get the First Aid books, and then go into sub-58 battlegrounds with better bandages than others at that level. And setting your hearth to Shat early doesn't hurt-- it gives you access to every big city in the game. Are there any reasons at all lowbies might want to get into Outland early?
Breakfast Topic: What level are you?
The race to level 70 has come and gone -- the first 70 in the world, the first 70 in the US, first 70 on my realm, your realm, and everyone else's realm. Not there yet? That's okay -- having a penchant for reading quest text and other such silliness, I'm not there either. But before I ask you, I suppose I need to 'fess up myself and admit to my own levels: a priest at 63, a rogue at 61, and a paladin at 29 (this last taking up the majority of my time lately). And now it's your turn -- what levels have you reached since the expansion release?
The Levelator 1.1.0
We first wrote about The Levelator when it was just a wee app in beta, but now it is all grown up and has hit version 1.1.0. The Levelator, as you might recall, can take an audio file and automagically adjusts the levels so everything has the same base level (though some things are louder than others, as it should be).New in 1.1.0 is an entirely new (and very un-Mac like) user interface, as well as a new license that permits free use of The Levelator for commercial projects (the previous license only permitted free personal use).The Levelator is Univeral, requires OS X 10.3 or later, and is free.
Preview of new Guitar Hero II co-op mode
In case you missed it on Friday, IGN posted a pre-E3 hands-on preview of Guitar Hero II's new co-op mode. It's a departure from the first game's multiplayer mode in that the two players have to depend on each other a lot more to pass each song and thereby make beautiful music together.While the old multiplayer option will still be around in the sequel, the new mode mixes distinct lead guitar and bass or rhythm parts where each player affects the other in various ways, whether by failing if either performance slips (as in DDR), sharing the same Rock Meter (with mistakes from either player resetting the score multiplier), and needing to both go vertical at the same time to activate the shared Star Power. Thankfully, different difficulty levels can be assigned to each player.The Joystiq team out in L.A. will probably find something to do until they get their sweaty paws on a guitar controller or two on the E3 show floor (maybe one of those wacky press conferences will help pass the time), but we're sure the wait to try the latest build of this rockin' series will be worth it. The seven songs available at E3 are listed below.[Thanks, murph]
