When too much is too much

Social media is a tool that I’m increasingly getting tired of using. I have a Twitter to track dozens of people. I have a Facebook to look at rolling news of where someone’s just pit-stopped for a quick bio. Some of the most popular news network sites in the world now are based on blog-style, rapid-fire, “make it spicy” work with a Like This Now button. I now have to listen to not just the news, but also to podcasts, YouTube videos, G4 videos and more just to stay on top of things. I could turn it off, of course. My personal life would probably thank me, as would my tired eyes from staring constantly at various monitors. Only a fool of a Took journalist would though, because that’s the environment we live in now. Now, I don’t necessarily begrudge this. Getting some of the latest breaking news is possible from Twitter, better than the old style of waiting on AFP or Reuters live wires. Tracking trending topics and compiling info is never easier with hash tags. And being one of the first to scoop something is a fantastic feeling for journalists.But I’m beginning to see news about the news. Or news about what Hideo Kojima had for lunch (Really? That’s news? Why? So the legion of fans know to worship the restaurant he ate at?) And even news for the sake of news (HOLY HELL MASS EFFECT 3′S DLC IS ON DISC ALREADY!) And that tires me. It makes me want to unplug. It makes me want to do something else. Like reading a book instead. There’s hundreds if not thousands of articles, opinions, papers and more about this. To the point that the views on this are now contributing to the noise from it.

 

It’s crazy.

 

But is there an alternative?

 

P.S. And for those wondering, yes, the lack of formatting above is intentional.

 

Explaining nerfs: What price, timesinks?

Continuing on from my series of posts on nerfs, we reach one which may seem like it stretches the concept of the word today. Today, in the final piece, I’d like to examine the concept of nerfing as a continual process to combat time and money sinks.

MMO’s inherently require inbuilt sinks – Things to keep the player playing. This can be in the form of content such as end-game raiding, achievements, player-versus-player interaction and so forth. Such sinks fulfill the form of creating feedback economic loops that sees both in-game currency and time being fed in repeatedly. You need to log in to farm icky spider legs to sell to crafters who create the whetstone oil that shines on your +20 sword of Lasfingar. And then do it again after raid is over.

Click on past the break for more

Explaining Nerfs: When silence reigns in the halls of ours

In my previous post, I talked about nerfs as a necessary, if painful, change that can be handled well when communicated effectively. Problems arise though when such changes are not communicated effectively. This can lead to unnecessary frustration amongst the player base.

Today, we’ll look at a change being proposed to Rift’s player-versus-player map, Whitefall Steps. Whitefall is a Capture-the-Flag variant map. Two teams of 15 players each race to fight into the enemy base, grab a shard flag and bring it back to their base to score, while keeping their own shard safe.

Click on past the break for the rest.

Explaining nerfs: A lesson in communication

As Rift approaches its one year mark, it is with a bit of surprise that I have found myself continuously playing a game that often feels like one step forwards and two back.

This isn’t in reference to its storyline – which I’m sure has a game plan for letting players kill all the storyline-induced dragons threatening the world of Telara – nor in its concepts of whatever planned expansions are already in the works. Rather, I’m talking about that bane of every MMO, balance.

This is a far-ranging topic that I’ve been pondering on as to how to tackle, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I should probably disclose my character as well. I am a max-level rogue, with four pieces of relic-level armor and 10 of 11 experience in the hardest raid, Hammerknell. My guild is working on the final boss, Akylios. I am also max-rank in PvP (Rank 40) with full max valor, which mitigates player damage. Finally, I have over 8300 achievement points out of a possible 9700ish. In short I have experienced pretty much everything that Rift has to offer, and then some. I have no alternate characters since I have always preferred to play just one character class, good or bad.

To read more, click on past the break.

Eligium and Tribes Ascend Beta key giveaway!

I’ve got 3 Eligium beta keys and 1 Tribes Ascend Beta key to giveaway to lucky readers!
If you’re interested in either, leave a comment below with your preferred game and we’ll see what we can do!

I hate winter.

Well, ok I don’t actually hate winter per se (Other than the fact it’s bloody cold all the damn time) but I do find it annoying that post-Christmas, everything goes silent in the video game industry.

I have a small pile of games to review, for sure. But it’s clear that most of these are B-grade titles that would have gotten lost in the clutter of Christmas’s rush and are hoping to cash in on the lack of anything else to play after that.

Take Amy, my review of which appeared in The Straits Times Digital Life on Wednesday 8th February. When it was lost in the Christmas shuffle I had thought that the release date wasn’t even that soon. Instead, it came out in January and was a horrific experience of seeing everything that could go wrong with an anticipated title, go, well, wrong. I’m as old-school as any old-school gamer will attest (Crowning glory: I slogged through Megaman 2 as a kid by myself. Hah!) but the lack of a checkpoint, or at the very least a way to skip past cutscenes, was one of the worst nails to drive into the coffin of Amy.

Or for my upcoming review of King Arthur 2. What was so great about the first title was its ability to blend in the unique hook of a choose-your-own-adventure set with fantasy elements in Arthurian legend. The sequel only served to irritate me with pedestrian, painfully obvious quest choice outlines and a hobbled manner of moving around the main map. Why? WHY!!!

It also seems like January is the time for developers of MMO’s to see what they can try out and get away with. Rift, for instance, has tried revamping its PvP experience. So far, I’m hating the changes. Changes to Valor means even squishy classes take forever to kill, while clerics and warriors were buffed. The mercenary system is absolutely mind numbing considering how both sides can have mercs – which defeats the purpose of having a side at all in the game. EVE released more news on its upcoming expansion as well as Dust 514, the tie-in FPS for the PlayStation 3 and the news so far seems… ok, there. World of Warcraft decided to throw a bombshell at its players by saying there will be no BlizzCon2012 (although they then tried to placate their fans by saying it’s because they’re too damned busy working on pandas and demons) while Everquest 2 is still feeling out how its shift to a F2P model.

Here’s to hoping some upcoming titles I have to write about are better!

Hmm..

So I promised updates but didn’t deliver. That’s bad of me. I can only say alot of other work has been taking up my time, but I’m re-energized now with some new things coming down the pipe that should see us through!

In the meanwhile, I’ve also hopped onto Twitter, though don’t expect too much out of me as I’m not the sort to throw comments willy-nilly there.

Been Real Busy Part 2

So, I ended up getting sucked into the world of Battlefield 3 and neglected my blog. That`s rather unprofessional, isn`t it? I really shouldn`t do that. So without further ado, we have a nice backlog of things to clear here:

 

Might and Magic VI: Heroes

Sengoku

Everquest 2: Age of Destiny

Battlefield 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

The Binding of Isaac

Dungeons of Dredmore

Runespell Overture

Dead Island

Warhammer 40K: Space Warrior

Tropico 4

Red Orchestra 2

 

That should take us well into the holiday season, where I will again go MIA when I flip home for the holidays (and *gasp* lose Internet access)

Look forward to it!

Been real busy

Am currently swarmed under from reviewing several titles as well as having to travel quite a bit, so apologies for not posting.

Look forward to my reviews of, in no particular order:

Dead Island

Warhammer Space Marine

Tropico 4

Red Orchestra 2

 

I also recently did From Dust, which I gave a 6/10 in Digital Life. Fun, but not THAT fun unfortunately.

Finally, I have another post up at KillTenRats.com on the state of Rift’s PVP, which you can find at this link here.

The Origin of the Battlefield, 3

So the news has come down that yes, Origin, the new online platform for EA titles, will be required for Battlefield 3. You need it installed. You need it running. Or no B3 for you. In and of itself, this is no cause for alarm. Ubisoft and Steam are other essentially online-DRM platforms that “force” players to play clean by linking a game to an online persona. This makes it so that you can track a player and ensure they’re paying for the game. It can also mean you can enforce rules such as bans etc such as Punkbuster or VAC Guard does.

The question is, is there such a thing as too much competition? Off the top of my head, I can list a half dozen or so online platforms to digitally purchase games from – Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Impulse, Steam, Goodoldgames, UPlay, and the list goes on. Even indie devs have a digital platform now. The most obvious benefit for consumers is cost. You can afford to shop around from the comfort of your own home for the best deals. Just because it’s 24.99 here doesn’t mean some other platform is having it for cheap elsewhere.Depending on the platform, you can also keep in contact with friends – Steam is notoriously good for this.

But what about the downsides? First, your PC is going to be clogged with half a dozen competing programs. Which do you start up? Steam is my go-to because of friends, but if you buy a ton of old games, who’s to say you don’t regularly keep the GoG downloader running in the background? Eventually, if you have enough programs up, they’re going to slow down your PC. As much ballyhooed as it is for us to have several speeds of light beyond consoles, that’s still not a reason for us to go mad with the multi-tasking.

There’s also the oft-used shadow of loss. What happens if tomorrow, Steam closes down? Will all our digital games disappear as bits in the air? Hard to say.

All I know is, I’m being forced to download Origin.