token-system
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The Soapbox: Tokens suck!
A few weeks ago we reported on a somewhat silly article in which the author advocated that studios could and should charge players real money transaction fees to trade items. I didn't see a lot of people in favor of this idea, but I definitely agreed with one thing that he pointed out: MMOs have become increasingly anti-trade in practice. It's not something that I've thought a lot about recently, but once this article triggered some introspection, I realized that the issue of trade (particularly relating to restrictions) has become a growing frustration of mine. My veteran characters in several MMOs are absolutely loaded -- with basic currency, that is (usually gold). And yet I am sitting on this Scrooge McDuck pile of wealth with no useful things to buy because (a) everything seems to take tokens these days and (b) so much of the good stuff in games is bind-to-character (or bind-to-account). I started feeling fidgety and then I let out a grunt of frustration. Tokens, in a word, suck.
The Daily Grind: Is loot better with an RNG or token system?
Oh the random number generator, how we love to hate thee. And yet you're so very addictive; with the roll of some virtual dice, we could win big-time on any given kill. Sure, you're often very stingy, but that makes the payoff so much more sweet. With MMOs, the house doesn't win if you play long enough -- you do. Then again, there's the "sure bet" of tokens. Maybe we won't have a shot at uber-loot for every kill, but slowly and surely we can collect enough currency to barter for what we do want. Token systems are the assurance of eventual payouts. Which do you prefer when it comes to acquiring gear in MMOs -- the random number generator or tokens? 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!
Pillar of the community: Vindictus adds a new character and events in 1.31
The always over-the-top Vindictus has released its latest update on the game world, Karok: Pillar of Strength. Actually, more like "Pillar of Smash Your Face In," although that doesn't fit as well on business cards. The 1.31 update comes with a host of additions to the game, chief among them the ability to play a completely new character. The titular Karok is a hulking 400-pound giant who swings a barbed pillar, knocking foes out of the park. While he boasts great strength and power, his slower speed and lack of AoE attacks make playing him a challenge. The Karok update also includes new transformations for the Dark Knight and Paladin, a leaderboard ranking system, party member ranking, new avatars for characters, and the end of the game's token system. To celebrate the update, Nexon is throwing three in-game events. The Blood Brothers Event (June 15th to July 13th) gives your lowbie characters an XP boost if you have a level 40 or higher toon. During the New Recruit Event (June 15th to the 28th), baby-faced characters that hit level 10 will receive a welcome package. And finally, the Power Personified Event (also June 15th to the 28th) will reward new level 20 characters with three dye ampoules. You can watch the Karok: Pillar of Strength trailer after the jump!
SDCC 2010: Massively interview with Vindictus producer Chris Gyselinck
Among the insanity that is the exhibitor floor of the San Diego Comic-Con was the demo booth of the upcoming, free-to-play action MMORPG from Nexon, Vindictus. Though sandwiched on one side by the Warner Bros' booth (where the stars of True Blood were generating enormous crowds) and on the other by G4's two-story monstrosity (which was blaring live broadcasts from the second floor of the booth), you still couldn't miss the Vindictus staff members wearing their signature red gnoll chief spirit hood. After our hands-on with the game at E3 in June, we were eager to speak to Chris Gyselinck, Assistant Producer for Vindictus about the highly anticipated game. Yes, he was wearing the gnoll spirit hood. No, he wouldn't let me try it. But he did give me the scoop on the game, including upcoming beta plans. Check it out after the jump.
Lost Pages of Taborea: A look into Chapter Three
It's been a fun week of questing and exploration for me in Runes of Magic. I've been digging deeper into the heart of the Savage Lands and learning more lore while discovering new visual treasures. When I first entered the level 53 and up zone, I thought it was some kind of tropical dinosaur utopia. Most of the areas I ventured into have that visual style, but there's also a mix of Elven villages, mountains guarded by apemen and tiki style huts to give the zone unique variety. Of course, I gave all that a break when the first part of Chapter III: The Elder Kingdoms came out. I was anxious to see the new content with its new systems and pretty graphics. After impatiently waiting for my client to update, I was able to journey to the new lands and see some pretty cool stuff. Now, I think it's about time I gave some of my impressions before all of Chapter 3 is released and I'm too busy playing to write about it.
Games Day '09: Managing realm vs. realm combat with Jeff Skalski pt. 2
On top of that, we are aggressively looking at city sieges. On the RvR team, that's where the big focus is. The last big improvement in the open RvR arena was adding a second ramp to the keeps, but now our focus is on the city. We want to make sure that players know what's going on, like with the stages of the city. It's really three stages -- contested when you enter in, then the attackers can push it to pillaged so the warlord PQs open up, then it goes to captured and you unlock the king's instance for a set amount of time. "Our goal is to make the city siege RvR, not RvE." Our goal is to make the city siege RvR, not RvE. We want to put more focus on killing players, capturing and holding objectives, and we want that to be the front from beginning to end so there's always RvR in the game. So that's what we're looking at right now, working with those concepts and fleshing out those ideas. Any previews or details on that yet?It's really too early to say. We just started meeting with our core testers and explaining to them the ideas we have, and we're throwing things out there while finalizing what we want to do. I can say that for the players out there who are saying, "Oh, make it more epic, make it more epic," well that's what we're focusing on. We're trying to bring the quality of epic up, but at the same time we have many other things going on too. There's always bug fixing and things to work on, so we have to be careful. We want to react quickly and get it done now rather work on it for 10 months and fix it next year.What would you say to a player who holds the opinion that something like Warcraft's PvP is superior to Warhammer's RvR?This is my opinion, but I find when I talk to players who have that opinion that it's about convenience as to why they prefer the WoW model of PvP over the WAR model. We're really seeing a change. So, for you and I, we've been playing MMOs for a while. But there are people out there who have never touched any other MMO except for WoW. That game is all they know. They don't know what EQ was like, they don't know what UO was like, they don't know what MUDs are, so they don't have this broad concept. They just want stuff now and they want to get out quickly. They want instant gratification and they want to be constantly patted on the back with an enthusiastic, "Good job, good job!" "Then we added in the token system because we understand that at the end of the day you just may not get that loot roll." So when WAR was launched, we didn't have anything like the token system. We just took the approach of, "Well, you're just going to have to work for it. I'm sorry, but you have to go out, fight enemies, get through their keeps, and go for it." What ended up happening was the players began taking the path of least resistance. Players even went to lengths to avoid one another, and that really confused us. We thought they had bought our game to RvR, but they're avoiding enemies! Then we had things like keep trading and round robin keeps going on, so that's why we went to zone domination. It's why we took the rewards off of flipping a keep and put it on flipping the zone. That way you're not just hopping from pairing to pairing and going around, and around, and around. Now they want to capture and fight for that zone.Then we added in the token system because we understand that at the end of the day you just may not get that loot roll. I, honestly, have horrible luck. I rarely, if ever, get the gold bag. Now for participating you get this token. Sure, you need a lot of them, but you know you're getting somewhere.We're learning a lot about the player base. We hear all of the feedback from the players and hear what they're complaining about. When I come into work in the morning I have, from multiple sources, the top five issues of the game. And that helps me and the other producers determine exactly what we need to put our teams on. What needs to be hotfixed before the weekend, what needs to be put into the next patch, or whatever.So they game is getting better. The game is better today than it was at launch in terms of stability, performance, and how the systems are working. We have teams dedicated to it and we just keep pushing it. The sands of the Tomb Kings are coming as the final release in the Call to Arms live expansion, the Land of the Dead approaches! Massively has your back with coverage from Mythic Entertainment at Games Day '09, so get your WAAGGGHHH ready for RvR mayhem as Massively re-arms for WAR!
The market crashes... for WAR's token system
This may be one of the few times a market crash is seen as a good thing. Mythic just released a hotfix that greatly reduces the pricing of RvR quartermaster token set gear, improves the drop rate of RvR set gear, and gives tokens as rewards for keep and battlefield objective defense.Players were begging for a token system shortly after Warhammer Online's launch in late 2008 and finally received one about a month ago. The only major complaint about the new system was that prices seemed extremely expensive. Some players on the forums even claimed they were leveling out of a tier before they were able to afford the gear for that tier. Rather than rush to immediately drop prices, Mythic stated they would monitor the new system and adjust prices accordingly.We think it's pretty safe to say that most subscribers will be letting out a big "Woot!" for this news. The amount of medallions required for quartermaster sets has been reduced by up to 50%. Some set items are now much cheaper while the more rare pieces of the set are only slightly cheaper. Officer medallions now drop off players rank 30 and above. Invader city gear can now be earned more quickly. Finally, the repeatable chain quests from war camps and defense of keep and BO now reward tokens.
All things Wrath of the Lich King
Over the past week, particularly in the last few days, the crisp Internet air has been abuzz with news from the upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Fear you're out of the loop? Here's a quick round-up of all the information being released, along with analysis and opinion. Don't forget to keep checking back, as this page will be updated as information becomes available:Dungeons and raids An analysis on Arthas as a ten-manned event, including its impact on the 25-man raiding structure, as well an exploration of its consistency with the lore. Did you know that all expansion raids will have a 10-man setting, as well as a 25-man? Read through some of our initial impressions on the 10-man raiding set-up. We also wrote up a concise overview of the ins and outs of dungeons post-expansion, including a new token system, similar to [Badge of Justice]. The Nexus has been announced on the official site as one of the new dungeons. The WoW Insider Show discusses 10-manning Arthas. Zones, factions, and relevant lore Alex has written an excellent overview of the Grizzly Hills, a soon-to-be zone for low to mid-seventies. With old factions reappearing, along with other surprises, it's definitely something to look forward to! If news of the Dragonblight has intrigued you, you'll be pleased to know that more information has been made available. While we're brushing up on our lore and learning about new areas and factions, Alex thought it fitting to illuminate the lore behind Azjol-Nerub, as the Nerubians will have their own role in the expansion. Alex asks us about lore figures we'd like to see in the expansion. %Gallery-20386%
