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League of Legends introduces the new Team Builder queue
You know what you're good at playing in League of Legends. Which is all well and good, but sometimes you choose to play something that requires a degree of support that's just not there from the rest of your team. Wouldn't it be nice to just choose your character and your playstyle right from the start, so you can form a team meant to compliment your strengths and weaknesses? That's what the new Team Builder queue is all about. Queueing up requires selecting both your character's position and role, then filling in the blanks by matching with other players who can support your initial decision. You can also invite friends in to the queue along with you, filling out the missing spots with other suitable candidates. A preview video is embedded just pas the cut, but you should take a look at the full article and FAQ for more information on forming a team that's the best it can be.
The Daily Grind: What was the last good grouping experience you had with strangers?
I'll admit that I'm not one to actively seek out strangers for grouping. I've been burned in several bad pick-up groups and am somewhat of an introvert, so teaming up doesn't come naturally. Still, I've been pushing myself to get out there and do it more, which has created several positive moments. The other night in The Secret World I ended up grouping with a newcomer to the game who was beyond polite and friendly. In turn, I helped him navigate a few quests and answer questions about his build. I logged out feeling as though I had created a good memory, not just racked up a few more quest completions. So what was the last good grouping experience you had with strangers? Let's focus on the positive and not on snarky, "I've never had one!" answers, please and thank you! 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!
Star Trek Online's newest Ask Cryptic takes aim at revamps and Romulans
The Romulan faction in Star Trek Online will be unique in many ways, but exactly how the addition will work within the context of the game is still unclear. That's why many of the questions in the latest edition of Ask Cryptic focus on Romulans, such as what ships they will have access to from the C-Store (all ships from a player's chosen allied faction) and how Romulans with different allies will interact (they will not be able to group together for Romulan missions but can group for cross-factional content). Other topics of discussion include the long-anticipated revamp to Exploration, which is being moved over toward encouraging the use of the Foundry to fulfill a similar niche. Klingon progression will be improved with a full leveling path, including episodes ported over and heavily tweaked from the Federation line as well as unique bits of content just for KDF characters. For the usual buffet of questions and answers you can check out the full installment on the official site.
Guild Wars 2 wants you to play with your friends no matter what
"Whenever we design a new feature we always ask ourselves how it impacts our players' ability to play with their friends," ArenaNet's Eric Flannum stated about Guild Wars 2. In an interview focused on connecting players together, Flannum made it clear that the team was looking for every possible opportunity to pave the way for social hookups. Flannum addressed the specifics of how Guild Wars 2's servers work in relation to transfers. While there is a traditional paid transfer service (which can be used only every seven days), all players will have the ability to hop over to friends' servers as a guest. Player team-ups are further made possible by the dynamic level-adjusting system that scales players down to the zone they're occupying. This process is made easier by ArenaNet's decision to make friend lists and guilds account-wide instead of specific to a server. So while each guild has a home server, other chapters can exist elsewhere. Flannum also said that the team is carefully structuring its PvP system so that it will be free from potential abuse by server guesting.
Behind the Mask: The incentives are backwards
This week in Behind the Mask, we will not be discussing Aftershock, the new Comic Series adventure that started several weeks ago. I intend to talk about Aftershock after it's finished -- if I talked about each new issue of Aftershock, I wouldn't be able to talk about other things, since there's a new issue every week. Instead, I'm going to talk about the broad aspect of teaming in Champions Online, and more importantly, the rewards for teaming. Teaming in CO is as fun as in other MMORPGs because playing with other people is generally a fun activity. Unfortunately, there isn't much material incentive to team. It's faster to get experience and gear solo, making lairs the only real reason to team. I team all the time, though -- entirely because it's more fun to play with friends.
The Daily Grind: Would you like to see cross-faction teaming?
The Alliance vs. Horde. The Federation vs. the Klingons. The Guardians vs. the Defiant. Most of our favorite games have done a fantastic job splitting up its players into two different groups and sending us on quests aimed at obliterating each other. Although these divisions allow for dynamic gameplay through PvP interactions and the opportunity to play through two different storylines, sometimes you just want to cuddle up with your friends from across the bay. Hugs and kisses aside, each faction comes together to defeat a common enemy without being able to offer each other an /invite. While this can be easily blamed on the story or chalked up to the fact that the various studios don't have the technology within their games to allow for this, wouldn't it just be awesome to team up and move on from enemies to frenemies? So if you had the choice, could you see yourself throwing aside your differences to team up against a universal foe? Would you cross-faction team through raids? Would this be too game-changing or immersion-breaking? How would PvP at endgame work? 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!
'Blind invites' still a heated subject in CoX
There are three subjects guaranteed to cause multiple-page arguments on the CoX forums. (Four, if you count the old chestnut about how 'the Fifth Column were taken out of the game because of the European release', which doesn't seem to crop up any more since Issue 12, for some reason.) In short, these are: Why does everyone hate PLers, and what is so bad about power leveling anyway Defenders aren't Healers, and if you say they are, you are a noob (and should go back to WoW) Why do people send blind invites, I hate it (or alternatively, 'why do people get so worked up about blind invites, it's no big deal.')
