the-daily-grind
Latest
The Daily Grind: How many MMOs?
Let's face it-- MMOs are time-consuming. Just one great MMO can steal all your free time, but there are just so many out there that it's hard for some of us to stick to just one. I'm paying for two subscriptions at the moment, but with free-to-play games, and a couple of betas, I'm up to about five different games that I occasionally sign on to about once a week or so..I can't say that splitting myself between that many games makes much sense-- I mostly do it just to keep up with what's new in all of them, so I'd guess that I'm a little higher than average. So let's put the question to you all today-- how many MMOs would you say that you play regularly (about once a week)? Are you a one-game player, or do you figure the more virtual worlds you get to visit, the better?
The Daily Grind: What's the rush?
Somebody always does it. Shortly after any expansion launches you can expect someone to plow through all those levels and reach the maximum cap in less than a few days. This recently happened again in Rise of Kunark, 36 hours after the EverQuest 2 expansion hit desktops, Monk Taucher from the guild Second Dawn leveled from 70-80 netting a 100 dollar prize and their claim to short-lived leveling fame. I can understand the achievement aspect of wanting to level as fast as possible, reach the end and be done with it, but even so in an expansion hardcore players who raid won't be able to raid until their guild catches up. Doesn't this defeat the whole purpose of relishing content instead of whining about how there is nothing to do on the forums? Or the all-to-common argument amongst the core hardcores that their guild is slow because they slack and can't play 12 hours a day? I know we all enjoy different things about a MMOG, but leveling up and waiting for your guild to catch-up isn't very enjoyable -- I've been there myself. At least it took more than a few people to achieve this goal when World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade launched. Gullerbone, a mage leveled from 60 to 70 in a matter of 28 hours with the help of some friends using area effect spells to grind out the levels faster. I'm a firm believer that everyone should enjoy the game how they see fit as long as they aren't breaking the rules (dupes, gold-farming, etc.) but I still think leveling this fast is a bit over the top. I think at some point we all power-level and wish we would reach a certain level already. That's understandable, but as soon as an expansion launches? If you could, would you skip to the end after an expansion launched or do you prefer to take it in small chunks and get there when you get there?
The Daily Grind: Getting ground under
One of what seems to be the universal complaints about many MMOs is the inherent grind involved in them. From the earliest days, we grind levels, reputation, trade-skills and/or professions. In end-game, you grind more factions, raid bosses for certain loot or quest completion, and potentially even more experience to gain additional talents or to unlock alternate abilities. This grind has been there since the earliest days. But the question is this: Is grinding really an absolute requirement in MMOs, or have we simply come to expect a certain inherent level of grind as an inevitability? Is there some new mechanic that hasn't been introduced yet that you think might be viable? Or perhaps there is some variant on quest styles beyond the "collect x number of y items" or "go kill x bad guy" that hasn't been properly explored?
The Daily Grind: The nature of addiction
I can't forget an article featured earlier this year on The Washington Post about an internet addiction clinic in China, and how they were treating patients there with the same techniques they've used on heroin addicts. From electroshock therapy to involuntary isolation, take your pick.That's disturbing enough in itself, but personally? I've never considered internet usage to be addiction. Let alone MMOs, which are always at the heart of the argument. Would we send people to addiction clinics for watching too much TV? Reading too many books? Drinking too many smoothies? Of course not. Personal choice isn't addiction, even if it isn't good for you.But maybe we're too close to the issue. Judging from admittance to the clinic, anyone who has attended a Molten Core raid in World of Warcraft is a die-hard addict. We've all heard -- or seen! -- one or two horror stories, as well.Do you consider over-usage of the internet to be personal choice? Habit? Or an addiction that should be treated as such?
The Daily Grind: Watching while playing
Let's be honest. As captivating as some of these games are, you can only kill hundreds of boars before the urge to multitask raises its ugly head. And so while many new players probably take in the game on its own merits, listening to the soundtrack and drinking in every clash and yell, I'd guess that the majority of us need something more than the game we've already played for many, many hours.So today's question: what is it you do while playing? Me, I like catching up on television shows while I play-- while a show like Heroes or Lost demands my full attention, there are plenty of sitcoms and reruns that I like to just let roll in the background while I mine for ore or slaughter orcs. I know lots of other people listen to music while they play, and while I personally have never done it, some bloggers even tell me they blog while playing. I will admit, however, to practicing my ukulele while playing-- sitting in the battleground queue (way back when there were battleground queues) doesn't require me to do much with my hands.So what do you find yourself doing most to divert your attention while playing?
The Daily Grind: Giving thanks
Today, as you may know, is known in the United States as Thanksgiving, which is supposed to be the time we sit down together as a family and give thanks, but usually ends up being the time we eat way too much turkey and/or the day before we go out and spend way too much money.But here at Massively, let's be glass-is-half-full people: what are you thankful for in the world of MMOs this year? Me? I'm thankful for daily quests in World of Warcraft, because otherwise I would have no money instead of the pittance I have now. I'm thankful for my uber mining Osprey in EVE Online -- that damn ship can pull ore down like nobody's business. And I'm especially thankful for the Warhammer Online hype-- it's about time someone tried giving Blizzard a real run for their money, and hopefully the game will live up to it. What are you thankful for?And from all of us here at Massively, if you're in the US, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving out there in your various virtual worlds. And if you're not in the US, have a great Thursday anyway.
The Daily Grind: Leaders and followers
Today, our discussion topic is: When it comes to MMO groups, are you a leader or a follower?To tell the truth, I kind of prefer being a follower, especially when I'm first starting out in a new MMO. I want to let others lead the way, hang back, and reap the benefits of being part of a group without actually pouring all the work in to keep it going.But eventually, my personality (yeah, I'm bossy) and my desire to actually do group things usually turns me into a leader, whether I like it or not. When I want to participate in a group activity, and no one else is around to lead it, I kind of fall into the de facto leader position (and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but that's a discussion for another day).So when you're logging into your favorite MMO for the day, are you stepping into a leader role or a that of a follower? Are you up at the head of the pack or somewhere back near the middle? Are you leading your own guild or just kind of showing up when someone asks you to join a group?
The Daily Grind: So many games, not much time - What are you playing?
It's a good week to have a habit -- a gaming habit. *twitches* Over a bazillion games launched last week on various gaming devices and contraptions. Button mashers everywhere basked in a new shiny flickering game glow, getting a jump start on that lustrous pale skin reflection. I'm already transparent. This Gamingpalooza most likely prevented thousands from functioning in work society at some point during the week -- at least some of you admitted it! Is it a strange coincidence that so many games and patches released on November the 13th? Normally, I would chalk-up World of Warcraft's patch dropping on the same day as two EverQuest expansions as cruel and evil; albeit, one hell of a marketing maneuver to get players that were possibly thinking about flipping to EverQuest II to check out the tasty patch changes instead. But, so many games launched this week, so I'll crumple up my tin-foil hat until my next crack-pot theory emerges. I'm still piecing my head back together over all this MMOG craziness, patches, expansions, console goodness. Maybe, you aren't interested in any MMOGs right now, and you are dabbling in those nefarious console titles like Mario Galaxy or Mass Effect. Maybe you aren't interested in anything at all and waiting patiently for AoC or WAR! So, what's up with you? Go ahead and tell us what games you are playing and perhaps what you are focusing on, that alt, beating the game, crafting? Maybe you are like me and one MMOG is never enough, I'll be busy doing some pew-pew space joobie off angels in EVE (piloting a brand-spanking new ship today), and I'll do some plundering in PotBS. I might hit up some EQ2, but I doubt there will be enough time -- never is.
The Daily Grind: Your best MMOment
What's the best time you've ever had in an MMO? I can think of two really good ones.In Dark Age of Camelot, way back before they introduced New Frontiers, I found the joy of fighting in a battleground. We were playing the one where your group needs to conquer a fortress in the middle of the map (it's been a while, I forget the precise names), and somehow leadership fell to me. I shouted out orders to everyone in the battleground, people actually listened, and we actually took the thing and held it. It was really the first time PvP had actually worked for me and while I've played some good matches since, that was still the most exhilarating.The other great memory is probably downing Hakkar for the first time in World of Warcraft-- I'd been on other raids with my guild (and many raids since), but Zul'Gurub was an instance where I was always in group one, always there for the progress when it was made, and when we finally, after many tries, finished off Hakkar, I really felt like we'd cleaned that instance out and I'd made a big difference in getting it done.What are the best moments you've ever experienced in your time playing MMOs?
The Daily Grind: Good tutorial zones
One of the things we've noticed in jumping from game to game lately is how common tutorial zones have become. From EQ to Tabula Rasa, it seems common to have a tutorial now. As such, we thought it would be nice to touch on a few of the better tutorials for people new to MMOs.Probably one of my personal favorite tutorial zones is the one in EverQuest II -- now. The tutorial zones in EQ2 can get you into the swing of things fairly easily if you're not familiar with the game. Not only are there myriad quests designed to teach you what you need to know, but there are also tons of NPCs whose sole purpose is to give you tips and tricks about how things work in game. While the tutorial in other games such as EVE and CoX could be said to be roughly as good about telling you how things are, I simply don't think they're quite as much fun, or as chock full of quests to keep you engaged. (Although I will give props to CoH for having the Isolator badge in the tutorial.) A close runner up is the tutorial in LotRO, which drops you smack into the middle of the lore and story that people play that game for while doing a good job of explaining the game. On the other hand, there's the problem of believability when it occurs to you that any low-level character wouldn't likely come out of a brush with a Ringwraith alive. While WoW may be the 800-pound-gorilla of MMOs right now, I do honestly think their newbie zones could stand to be instanced like many other games are. Why? Because if you're new, there's nothing that will turn you off quite a quickly as being ganked and corpse-camped in a noob area when you're level 3 and you're dealing with players who are easily ten times your level. (Yes, I've been corpse camped in WoW's new-player areas by opposite-faction griefers.) Games with distinct, separate tutorial areas save new players from this hassle while they're getting used to just what those shiny new buttons do. There are many other things that we love and hate about tutorials in MMOs, but we'll skip off those for now or this will quickly become a novel. Instead we're curious what you think. What do you love about the tutorial zones in the games you play? What do you absolutely hate? Is there something an older game did better than the newer games you've experienced? Which is your favorite? Let us know!
The Daily Grind: Updating...
Tons of updates hitting this week: WoW is headed to 2.3, Everquest is getting patched, and it seems like almost everyone is getting code out to their games (maybe in advance of the holidays).So what's your routine when patches come around? Me, I'll probably be avoiding Azeroth on Tuesday, as a big patch usually means things are a little hectic when it first comes down (not to mention that Assassin's Creed is coming to the non-MMO world, and that's going to be grabbing lots of my attention). But in the meantime, I'll have addons to update, a probably a good chunk of the patch to download yet.What's your plan for patch day this week? Are you going to charge in ahead of the crowds and be the first to see the new content (and all that lag), or sit back, relax, and let things work themselves out before you login?
The Daily Grind: Best character creation
In all the games we've played, that's one thing we've often heard about. Many people from the earliest days, wanted ways of making themselves stand apart from the others. EverQuest introduced dyes to allow you to change your armor color, but many felt that wasn't enough. The community called for more and more ways to set themselves apart from the others in their MMO of choice. Some MMO makers have done a good job. Others, not so much. That said, this morning we wanted to ask what your favorite character creation in an MMO is? For me, personally, I'd have to say my top 2 would be: Second Life - You can control every single aspect of your avatar. This is, of course, why mine looks like Picasso's cubist rendition of someones really ugly little sister. (I can't figure that system out to save my life.) It is, unfortunately, the downside of having a system that customizable for people who aren't good at that kind of thing. Unless you get an artist or friend to hook you up, you'll always remain the ugly duckling in a land full of swans. City of Heroes (and more recently, City of Villains) which just seems so packed full of costume changes that it can take you an hour or more to even make a character the first time you sit down with that character generator. I still say it's the best mini-game ever. Add in veteran rewards like trench coats and capes at level 20, and it just gets better as you go along. Now I know I haven't touched on many other games, and I'm sure some people are sharpening their pitchforks now so they can tell me SL isn't a game. (Okay, it's a virtual world -- but it does have a character creator) So I leave it up to you. What are some of your favorites for character creation? Have you seen any that gave you highly powerful creation up front? Which ones have you spent hours in?
The Daily Grind: Not there and repeatedly back again
"I think I'll cancel for awhile, why the heck not?" We've all shared that brooding thought at one time or another when it comes to our favorite MMOGs. Take your pick from the reason tree: the game cleaves your brain matter with boredom; various lovers to herd, or the one significant other to placate; the expansion or patch won't be out until the end-of-days; real-life aggro's and it slays your played time; thousands of others. Eventually, you're back trundling about in that same MMOG again. It can be a brutal, and yet, hilarious cycle. I think my break and return record is probably around a dozen times with EverQuest. I was finally able to drop it for good when a shiny alpha invite popped up in the mail one day inviting me to a new magical enchanted land called WoW. Admittedly, not to make this post a debate between which MMOG is the best, I suffered a huge case of burnout -- raiding tastes like burning after you eat it for a few years no matter what MMOG you play.How many times have you taken a break from a MMOG only to return again later? What were your reasons? Did you actually quit for good only to return later for a specific reason? "They fixed my class! Count me back." 10 months later a flurry of nerfs strike. "I'm out!" Good times.
The Daily Grind: Will you ditch work or school to play WoW on 2.3 patch day?
Do we have any World of Warcraft players reading Massively? I see a few hands, alright a few thousand, put em down already. If you haven't marked your calendars yet, I'm sending you another memo that states patch 2.3 is set to go live in North America on November 13th, next Tuesday -- print that out, instant-memo. I was sifting through the 2.3 patch notes, and it turns out they are over 9,000 words in length. It's humongous, there's so much added content that's being crowbarred into this patch they might as well call it World of Warcraft II, maybe that's the next-gen MMOG Blizzard is working on. hah. So, with the patch day officially set-in-stone, what about that sick-leave you got built-up, how about cashing it in for some WoW time and skipping out on work or school -- what creative excuse will you try and slip on your boss? I broke my X backbone won't work, I already tried it. Then there's always the risk your vacation won't happen as planned because the patch flopped and the servers are flat-lining along with your character, and before you know it, emergency maintenance is extended for the rest of the day. I tend to only take a work day off for an expansion and never a patch, but Blizzard takes so long with these patches that they are like mini-expansions. Patch days are like holidays, heck, better than some holidays. So, what will it be: Are you taking the day off, or no way, you are "ready to work" as the peons say? As for you students, are you going to be cool and stay in school?
The Daily Grind: Favorite Genre
In the MMO market, the fantasy genre seems to dominate. You've got your World of Warcraft, your EverQuests, your Lord of the Rings Online... but sometimes the same old, same old does get boring -- and we're starting to see more games on the market covering other genres. So, what's your favorite MMO genre? Is it the old standby of fantasy, or do you enjoy your gaming a little less traditional?
The Daily Grind: NCsoft takes over Paragon City
News broke (right here on Massively, by the way) yesterday that NCsoft has bought up the City of Heroes and City of Villians IPs from creator Cryptic, and it's free stuff time over at NCsoft -- prestige for everybody and a debt wipe coming soon.So whaddaya think of this little turn of events? On the one hand, it seems to be good news for CoX players -- NCsoft now has a more vested interest in the game than ever, and clearly they're going to want to shore up players against the coming of Cryptic's Marvel Universe Online. On the other hand, this also means that MUO is poised to take a bite out of CoH, and without its creators, can Paragon City's game stand on its own?What do you think? If you're a CoH player, are you excited about the change, or scared by it? And if you don't play CoH, does the NCsoft takeover make you more or less interested in either CoX or MUO? Personally, I've never jumped into CoH, and the takeover means to me that the game is more or less on its way out. If Cryptic makes a big enough splash with MUO (and clearly they think they will, if they are willing to let go of a big IP like CoH), then this takeover may have simply turned out to be a last ditch effort by NCsoft to keep its superhero game alive.
The Daily Grind: In my MMO...
Kill Ten Rats says that in his MMO, using phrases like "u r" (as in "you are"-- yeah, I don't do it either) should flag you for PvP, as should writing "lol" ten times, or using the word "ghey".I'd have to say that I agree, but what if you could design your own MMO, tailored especially to your own tastes?In my MMO, ganking someone below your level would give them a 10 minute buff that would make them stronger than you for 10 minutes or until they killed you, whichever came first.In my MMO, NPCs would be extremely excited and generous even after seeing you complete the simplest of quests. "Wow, you killed all those rats in my basement? Here, have this Holy Avenger Sword!"In my MMO, anyone who needed a group could get one without waiting, and all group members would instantly appear wherever they needed to be once the group was formed.These are all pretty nice, but what can I say-- I'm a nice guy. Your wishes might be a little... harsher. If you had a designer at your beck and call to create the MMO of your own personal dreams, what would be "in my MMO"?
The Daily Grind: WRUP?
Our good friends over at Xbox 360 Fanboy have an awesome weekly feature that we're planning to steal from them for Massively. It's called WRUP, which stands, in a cool, acronymic way, for "What are you playing?," and it's just a weekly question of what their readers (and soon, you readers) are putting their game time into each week.It'll probably officially start up this coming Thursday or Friday, but for this Sunday morning Daily Grind discussion, I'll kick it off-- what are you going to be playing this week in terms of MMOs? Me, I've been rolling on EVE Online lately-- my (now former) corp just got flooded with war declarations, so I split from them earlier this week, and I plan to use the newfound peace and quiet to get some good mining and skill training done. I was also thinking of jumping into Hellgate: London, but the reviews haven't been as great as I'd hoped, so I may just fall back on WoW and try pushing my 68 rogue the final stretch to 70.What are you playing this week, and what goals in those games are you aiming for?
The Daily Grind: Pick a genre, any genre
For today's edition of The Daily Grind, we thought we'd ask you what you were looking for in your next big MMO? Are you one of the many for whom fantasy is the universe you want to escape into? Or are you looking for something new? I know many of us were sad to see Perpetual's title Gods and Heroes get shelved, as Historical MMOs are definitely a cool concept. Personally, I have to admit, I'm hoping someone will eventually option someone like Phillip K. Dick or William Gibson and we'll see a strong cyberpunk MMO in the Sci-Fi genre. How about you? If you had your pick of any genre that you'd like to see some new MMOs in, what would you pick? Would you like to be a dark elf, or a civil war soldier? Take the poll, leave your thoughts, and let's see what you all want. What genre do you want to see more MMOs in? Fantasy Horror War Sci-Fi Historical Puzzle Sports Super-hero Real-life Something else you didn't list (comment below please) Free polls from Pollhost.com
Widget Watch: The Daily Grind 2.0
Dave Caolo found The Daily Grind last month, just this week it was updated to version 2. The new version of this task-tracking widget adds colored labels and the ability to drag and drop tasks for greater organizing goodness or "simply because it's an addictive pastime."The Daily Grind v2 is donationware and available from Thomas Pilgaard Miller's site.
