Raid-Groups
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What is the average?
People make assumptions. We all do it - even when we know they might not be warranted, making an assumption is an easy shorthand, a way to skip a few steps. One of the things we as players often do is assume that our peer group - the people we play with, the people we know who play the game - are in some way representative of the game as a whole. We assume our personal experiences are universal. I bring this up because of this recent tweet from Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas. @DarkCainX Then you're misperceiving what "average" is; I assure you, if you were clearing 4.0 raids steadily, your group was above average. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) May 12, 2014 What Watcher is pointing out here is that for many of us, our group of peers is the game. We only see the game we play. Any assumptions we make about the game (such as, the difficulty of the raids, the quality of our fellow players) can be hampered by the assumption that what our group experiences is what all groups experience. The tweet that Watcher responded to argued that the Cataclysm launch raids weren't overtuned because his peer group, which he considered 'below average', was clearing them. Watcher's response points out that it can be difficult to define what the average is, much less whether or not you're there.
Breakfast Topic: Will Raid Finder popularity be sustainable?
When the Raid Finder feature rolled out on the PTR, it was terrible. Queues were long, dropouts were common, and the overall experience was poor. The Raid Finder on live, in contrast, is new, shiny, and by all accounts a success. Everybody's happy ... for now. Now, I don't want to channel Ol' Grumpy here, but will that success be sustainable? Right now, a good 90% of the active playerbase still has upgrades they need from Raid Finder, including current raiders. This means quicker queues and better groups overall. Once those raiders have their gear, though, will they continue to participate in the Raid Finder? With gear levels topping 380 and the heroic 5-mans reasonably easy, those seeking quick valor will likely end up there instead of the Raid Finder, which demands a larger commitment with less chance of reward. Two months from now, I'm afraid the Raid Finder queues will be full of nothing but alts and occasional players, causing the situation from the PTR all over again. What do you think?
Anarchy Online update adds raid interface, turns zones into instances
Anarchy Online's version 17.1 update went live last week. It added a complete raid interface to the game, allowing players to combine up to six teams into a raid group with its own chat channel and loot rules. The interface will allow raid leaders to move players between teams, and every player in the raid group will be able to monitor the vitals of other raid group members.Additionally, a handful of AO's existing playfields -- Sectors 13, 28 and 35 to start with -- have become raid instances. That means that raid groups can take these encounters on at their own pace and without competition. Funcom plans to do this to more playfields in the future.The update also features your standard assortment of bug fixes and gameplay and balance tweaks. Read the patch notes at the AO website for details.
