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The Daily Grind: National pride?
One of the things that gets some of us about PvP hype are the claims that "you'll be saving your nation/faction/etc!" Tobold, however, joined the "meh" camp the other day with an excellent post about Nationalism in MMORPGs. To give my personal example, if the Scryers and the Aldor in World of Warcraft started going at it in the middle of Shattrath, the only thing that would interest me about any "faction fighting" would be if my side could take control of Scryer's rise in the end. (I hate the drop off the Aldor tier; it means instant death if you miss the elevator.) Beyond that, as long as the bank and flight path NPCs are unharmed, and the portals are still open, I could honestly care less. While some of our staff admit to feeling a connection with the Horde or the Alliance, it almost always seems to come down to the people we know in the end. Tobold posits that this is due to the Dunbar number -- we're just not wired to trust an entire nation worth of people. Also, as he points out, there's always the fact that no matter how bad you trash things, it always respawns eventually; there is just no permanent damage to a site or a "nation" in these battles.Today we thought we'd spin off this concept and ask what your thoughts were on it -- do you think it's possible to really have a game developer get you energized about defending a "nation" or does it also come back to the people you know too? Is it less about defending NPCs/any given location, or is it more about having fun kicking the other side's butt? Do you really care if your city if being attacked when you know that eventually control will be returned to your side? Is there really any such thing as a national pride in MMOs for you?
The Daily Grind: What was your first guild like?
We're not entirely certain how this topic got started up recently, but we've seen both Scott at Pumping Irony and Mightydar have a bit of fun with it, and we thought we'd jump on the bandwagon. (We just can't resist fun and funny topics!) So, this morning we'd like to ask you what was your first-ever guild like? Was it a great place to play with some thoughtful and kind folks, or was it one drama-bomb after another? Personally, I landed in a guild in EverQuest that was self-destructing, but managed to make good friends there fast enough to score an invite to a much better guild a week or so after the first one imploded. (I also think it gave me a great example of what not to do when running a guild!) How about you? What was your first-ever guild like?
The Daily Grind: What would bring you back to a game?
One of the bits of news yesterday was that of a stupendous deal on NCsoft's Tabula Rasa Collector's Edition version for the cost of $14.90. Now, as I tend to collect MMOs like many people collect books, this definitely got me to put down the $15 to give Tabula Rasa another go. I know a few other MMO fiends who were similarly interested, considering the extra goodies for the low price point and who have joined me on the "try again" bandwagon. This got me to thinking, though -- what would a company need to do to get your attention, and perhaps entice you into purchasing their game after a first try that didn't (for whatever reason) work for you? Is the promise of something shiny and extra -- on top of changes to the game structure from when you tried it -- more likely to get you to give a game a second go? Is there ever a time when you're willing to try an MMO again? Would a free trial or change to a free-to-play/microtransaction structure help? Or is it pretty much one try and move on for you?
The Daily Grind: Forms of transportation
No matter what game you play or virtual world you inhabit, one of the major points is how to get around. In Second Life, you can hit a SLurl and teleport, or if you're just exploring, you can fly around the landscape and check out what people have designed and built. In World of Warcraft, you can run around on different land-based mounts in "old" Azeroth, and enjoy lots of different forms of flying mounts in Outland. In EverQuest, you could take boats, books, portals, be transformed into a wolf, or just get a speed-buff in the form of a SoW. Perfect World allows you to pile a land mount on top of a flying mount, even! It seems like with as varied as each game is, there are always preferences for one mode or another. I will admit that one of my favorite ways to get around is SuperJump in City of Heroes just because it's just so much fun to bounce into a group of bad guys, then bounce away. Today we thought we'd ask you what your favorite methods of getting around are? Do you have a Peep (the phoenix mount from WoW) or are you all about catching portals to save time? Do you like the city-to-city teleports offered in Guild Wars, or prefer to adventure with your noble steed in Lord of the Rings Online?
The Daily Grind: Will Microsoft bring another MMO to market?
Microsoft have made it big-time with what is largely a market-follower strategy. Let others take risks, open new markets, make mistakes and find solutions, and then use that experience to move in with a best-of-breed application. Granted, opinions may vary as to how successful the implementations are tactically, but it is sound business sense nonetheless. However, this doesn't seem to be working quite so well in the MMO space. Mythica was canceled, True Fantasy Live Online, and Marvel Universe Online as well. Possibly others that we haven't heard about. And that's not counting MMO properties that they've sold off. The problem with the bandwagon business strategy is that MMOs take a fearsomely long time to assemble, and markets do change. Microsoft also hates being an also-ran. At the end of the day, Microsoft could produce a very credible MMO if they're willing to take the long-view. What do you think? Can Microsoft suck it back long enough to take the long-view, or are they likely to keep canceling in the hope of hitting that one perfect product that hits the market at exactly the right moment?
The Daily Grind: What game pulled you in to MMOs?
It seems like no matter how many people we talk to, almost all of them seem to have a warm fuzzy place in their heart for their first MMO. No matter how many hours it took you to cross the world on foot, how many corpse runs you had to spend hours on without benefit of gear (EverQuest, I'm looking at you here) or how many times you lost a level or three due to getting into a party full of particularly bad players and wiping repeatedly. We've taken the abuse, and we came back for more -- for a while, anyway. For today's question, we thought we'd ask you -- how did your MMO love start out? What was the game that sucked you in? Do you still remember it fondly, despite some now out-of-the-question mechanics, or instead do you now declare it to be the worst game ever?
The Daily Grind: What tabletop games would make good MMOs?
One of the tidbits of news that made many of us happy here this week was the claim (and yesterday's follow-up statement) that the MMO underway at Cryptic is most likely a Champions MMO. If the sheer geekgasm that occured amongst many veteran tabletop players is any indication, careful planning and design will likely make this a winning title, drawing quite a bit of player-base to it. Of course, this got us to thinking about some of the tabletop games we've played, and in turn this brought up a variety of interesting IPs that could be optioned for a MMO. Today we thought we'd ask you -- if given your choice of all the different tabletop RPG systems out there, which do you want to see as an MMO? Are there any particular rulesets that you think would lend themselves more readily to the workings of an MMO? Are there any niche games that the world never picked up, but would be fantastic for an MMO?
The Daily Grind: Would you ever play a noncombatant?
Watching a recent Cinemassively, it occurred to me that in MMOs, everyone is a warrior. By that, I mean that everyone fights -- some with weapons, some with magic, etc. There are probably games out there that don't require combat as a method of advancing the game, but I'm not privy to any of them. No matter what you look like, or roleplay, you will do battle at some point.But what if there was a game that let you progress through other means? What if you were a diplomat or politician, with different goals and abilities? What if you had to be protected by other players as you made your way through the game world, dependent on them for your survival? Would that be fun? Would you ever choose to play a noncombatant and watch other players hog all the glory?
The Daily Grind: Happy Valentine's Day!
Ahh, it's the day of the year when roses will be everywhere, and everything heart-shaped is suddenly "in." Yes, indeed. It's Valentine's Day -- both in the real world and in many different MMOs! While not all of the events include things as funny as the Weighted Companion Crate, there are lots of great quests (easy xp and prizes!) silly and fun events (kissing Lindens!) and more going on in our different lands. For this morning's topic, we thought we'd ask you what your Valentine's plans are for your game of choice? Or are you going to be working on getting some RL love faction, forgoing games altogether and instead heading out for dinner or a movie? Whatever you've got planned, we hope you have the very best of Valentine's Days!
The Daily Grind: Do item databases make raiding more fun?
Today we're featuring a topic that was actually sent into us by one of our readers. Scott wrote us a few days ago and wanted to know about a practice that's been in place for a while now -- that of item databases. He wondered if people thought it would be half as fun to raid if we didn't know what the loot was. Would we still be interested in putting in the time and the effort if there were no accurate listings of loot somewhere, or mods that showed us what items were available at a click of a button? So as he put it to us, we ask you -- do "spoiler" sites make the game more fun for you? Or would you prefer to have absolutely no idea about loot? Do you even really care, or is it about the thrill of utterly destroying a mob that used to stomp you into jelly, faster and faster until you're through a raid instance before dinner?
The Daily Grind: How many MMO subscriptions do you have?
While not everyone around is quite as insane about signing up for and playing MMOs as some of us here are, we know of more and more folks who spend time in at least two different games. We know folks who jump from WoW to LotRO, others who jump from City of Heroes to Everquest II. A few non-writer friends of ours even have three or more different subscriptions. Today we thought we'd ask you -- how many different MMOs do you have subscriptions to? How many of the free-to-play titles do you play, thus saving on subscription fees? Or are you a devoted fan of a single MMO?
The Daily Grind: What is your quest?
One of the things that we can't seem to get away from no matter what MMO we're playing is the presence of Monty Python quotes. A particularly funny exchange combined with the daily news surfing brought the concept of open-source GPL MMOs (like PlaneShift) to mind. These worlds essentially allow talented folk to join the team and make up their own quests using the world that is already established. For today we thought we'd ask -- if you had the knowledge and time, what kind of a quest would you make? Now let's take it a step further and ask about the worlds you play in; if you could write a quest for any MMO, either currently available or in beta, what game would you write it for, and what kind of quest would it be? Would you make up one of the "go collect x items" quests, or would you write in more history, instead sending players all over the place? Would it be really easy, or really hard? Would it be a holiday event or daily quest? Would it involve killer rabbits?
The Daily Grind: What games have you lost time to?
We've all played these games ... otherwise, why would you be here? But sometimes you don't just play a MMOG. Sometimes you crawl inside it. Maybe the significant other is gone for the weekend with the kids, maybe you have a weekend off of work ... for whatever reason every once in a while it's nice to just be somewhere else for a little bit.This can be both a good and a bad thing. While studies are always coming out about game addiction and whatnot, that doesn't tell the whole story. Sometimes you can play a lot of a game without binging on it. Sometimes a game is just that good, it keeps you coming back over and over. When you look back at your life with games, there has to be one or two that just dominated the landscape. For me, several of those are MMOGs. I've played quite a bit of EverQuest 2 and World of Warcraft at this point ... enough to know that my time in the worlds of Norrath and Azeroth was well spent.So what are the games that would be like "putting a half dozen Mount Everests right in the middle of South Dakota"? What MMO takes up the top three spots in your 'favorite games' list ... by quantity of time played, if nothing else?
The Daily Grind: Is in-game music necessary?
I hate to say this, and I sincerely hope that any sound engineers who might be reading this will forgive me, but when I get into a new game, the first thing I do is turn off the background music. This is not to say I don't think the music is good; in fact, many times it's great. I bought the Warcraft III soundtrack, f'r cryin' out loud. But when I drop in-world, ready to kick some ass and take some names with at least one apostrophe in them, I'd rather just immerse myself fully, and that means only hearing the environmental and ambient soundtrack.Or I'll listen to my own music, preferring the juxtaposition of modern instrumentation with medieval visuals. Or I'll even just listen to the Penny Arcade podcast, if I get lonely for the sound of human dialogue. Am I alone in this? Am I missing out on a wonderful experience by omitting a piece of the whole that was engineered to enhance the gameplay experience? How do you feel about background music?
The Daily Grind: What makes a good MMO?
There are so many MMOs out there with different genres, different mechanics, different approaches to play, play-style, classes, missions and more. Sometimes we're asked to assemble short lists of the 'best' MMOs out there. There isn't of course, really a notion of a 'best' one, as the criteria we all use to grade them on are very subjective. Everyone's got their likes and dislikes from camera controls and inventory management, to raids and PvP/PvE, even mission-styles, setting and story. We've also each got different priorities that make those aspects more or less important to us. We all have some ideas in common, however. So, tell us - what do you think makes a good MMO? What particular things stand out or really grab you in a game? What do you really miss when it isn't there?
The Daily Grind: On leveling guides
With as busy as life can get, some consider leveling guides to be a nice way to be able to catch up to friends on very limited time. After all, you are still seeing content; you're just just following an optimized course and saving yourself from aimlessly wandering, looking for things. Of course, many people feel that this is basically cheating, because you're not exploring, or bothering to read the quest log seriously. (Of course, with item database sites like WoWdigger or mods like the above-pictured Lightheaded/Cartographer combo for World of Warcraft that point the way to the quest completion for you, the argument about "not reading the quest log seriously" kind of flies out the window.) This morning we'd like to ask you where you come down in this debate? Are you one of the people who feel that playing through using a leveling guide is cheating, because you're basically following in someone else's footsteps and not experiencing the game on your own? Do you think it's OK to use a leveling guide once you've been through the game "the hard way" and you're just leveling alts? Would you ever pay, or have you ever paid for a leveling guide? Do you think that paying for them adds to the stigma, or are they just worth it versus the general quality of many free guides available?
The Daily Grind: MM-oh, you're cute!
Every time the discussion of why guys play girl characters comes up, inevitably someone will chime in with the statement about playing female characters "because they get free stuff." To be honest, in 8+ years of MMO gaming, I can't think of a time when I got free stuff just for being present and incarnate as a female avatar. I would note that in the same time-frame I've seen guys and girls on female characters who were absolutely horrible flirts and often were given lots of items. So for today we'd like to ask you -- have you ever noticed that people give you stuff if you're flirty while on a female avatar? For the guys (or folks who play on male avatars) have you ever given items to folks on female avatars just because they're girls, or is it because of some other factor? Do you think that it's more likely that you'll get free stuff just because you're playing a female avatar, or do you think it's a combination of factors? Is the "get free stuff for flirting" restricted to female avatars only? Have any of you folks playing male avatars ever gotten a goodie from a female avatar for being "hot" and/or flirty?
The Daily Grind: How late is too late?
We know how it is. You get into a good group, the experience and loot start flowing freely, and before you know it, it's oh-dark-thirty. Sometimes the gaming groove is too good, and you just can't tear yourself away. For that matter, if there weren't enough of us doing this, the phrase "just one more level" wouldn't be quite so funny. For today's question, we'd like to ask you just how late is too late for you? Is there such a thing as "too late" in your life? Or are you one of the folks who have those real-life responsibilities and who turn into a pumpkin if you stay up past midnight? (Whatever you do, don't get busted napping at work after pulling a gaming all-nighter, lest someone put a picture of you out on the 'net!)
The Daily Grind: Do gender addresses matter?
As a very basic rule of thumb, it seems to be the case that in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, it's safe to call a person by their real life gender. Males who play MMOs sometimes play them as female avatars, and vice versa. In a virtual world like Second Life, however, the gender of importance belongs to the avatar. The distinction seems to rest on the concept of roleplay.Obviously it boils down to the player's choice; they decide what they want to be, and how they prefer to be addressed. When they do, if you know the person behind the avatar, do you address them as their avatar's gender, or as their real life gender?
The Daily Grind: Favorite in-game items
Many of the folks we know in MMOs tend to cycle through gear fairly quickly -- unless you happen to be a raider with bad luck on drops. So when we talk to them about "favorite in-game items" we'll often hear about silly or fun things like non-combat pets, trinkets that do silly things like WoW's Orb of Deception, or pickpocketed items like the Steamy Romance Novel. Now this isn't to say it's all we hear about -- there are those amongst our ranks who have held on to old weapons that looked cool, armor that took a while to get, and the like. For today's topic, we'd like to ask you what your favorite in-game items are? Do you have a silly toy or trinket that you can't resist using every so often? Are you one of the folks who has an old weapon in the bank just because you can't stand to part with it? What item is your favorite and why?
