Just to start, I’m aware that right now the whole blog looks rather…amateurish. I am planning to make several changes to it but this sort of thing takes some time to iron out, not to mention I need to make sure Greasy is happy with it too. So just bear with us, changes are coming, but we’re working it slowly

That out of the way, I myself have also been fully enthralled in Dragon Age: Origins, having recently completed the personal quest of the rock golem Shale in the depths of the Deep Roads and am now working to gain the favor of the Dalish Elves in my struggle against the Blight. I’ve been taking my time through the game and so far it’s been able to tickle me in all the right spots. Definitely going to be a contender for me for game of the year.

One of the best things about the game for me has been the colorful cast of party NPC’s which you can recruit. This isn’t anything new for long-time Bioware fans, harkening back to the Baldur’s Gate series. But given my work, it did occur to me that this is a part of single player games that will NEVER be able to be captured properly by any MMORPG.

To put it into perspective, it’s been about 10 years since Baldur’s Gate 2 was released, and I would bet that everyone who has played the game still remembers who Minsc and Boo are.

Go for the eyes!

I’m guessing no, you probably wouldn’t – and if you did it’s not going to be because of that person’s personality, but rather the situation that you find yourself in with them. I recall the exact spot in Cazic-Thule where I dinged 65 in Everquest (back when 65 was still the level cap) but I couldn’t tell you the name of the group tank apart from that it was a dwarf paladin.

Perhaps thats just me, I don’t know. But thats how I see things. Real people living in our mundane world just aren’t as interesting as a well thought out, fictional character. Thats why we like to read about them, to watch them, and to play as them. And even if per chance we do have some exotic life story to tell, there’s rarely any incentive within an online environment for any meaningful desire to share it.

But we can ourselves become interesting characters, can’t we? There is a potential to do so. After all, these interesting, fictional characters in our games were created from the mind of a real person, someone grounded and living in our mundane world. So why don’t I see this happening more often in an MMO environment? Barring well thought out role-play, why do I get Bob the rogue looking for XP rather than Iandak the silver tongued Half-Elf rogue with a dark secret from his past? Mainly because there is hardly any incentive in today’s MMORPG design for the player to really put out.

The problem in my opinion is one of scale. Current MMO design gives no incentive for players to flesh out an alternate persona that could then be shaped by their adventures in game. While I am only barely touching the surface of this issue, one reason is that pretty much everyone’s story is the same. There is a SINGULAR end goal that everyone strives towards, and despite the differences in leveling paths one might take across different zones or different methods, you all arrive at the same place.

The game simply isn’t big enough, nor encompassing enough, to be able to capture individually unique and distinct stories or to even have multiple end goals. Perhaps they do not necessarily need to be “end goals” per se either.  The scale needed for such a world would be absolutely enormous, but it’s one way I can think of where suddenly you actually have a large enough world that each player’s story suddenly becomes more unique. The game needs to be designed more as a living breathing world first before it is a game.

It begs the question then, will the Old Republic still have that Bioware feel? Partially yes, I think it will. From the previews I have seen, they’ve done a lot in adding plenty of what makes their games great into it (branching dialogue trees, some sort of moral system, relatively interesting NPC’s, etc.) but will it be like a multiplayer version of Dragon Age? I doubt it, and I doubt we’ll see anything like that for a long, long time.

-Seb

~ Zacharius Zetch, 4th day of the 33rd year.

I have made it along with Balizi through the Shadowed Forest. He does not see the bounty of the land before him. I will make my capitol here upon this citadel before the greater mountains. Zamilidor, I will call it. Balizi will be leaving through the pass and into the desert in the morning. His disband from our group only leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

~ Illani Dan E’ri the first Stwalart

And so they met in the desert 10 years after their departure. Each had prospered on his own side of the valley, and each had conquest in their eyes. As they came together for their first meet in those ten long years,  Zacharius slew Balizi with a dagger. And so the bloody conflict engulfed the desert. And the two nations became mortal enemies. Before that battle in the desert each faction was left without a leader, for Zacharius died of thirst wandering the desert a misfortune of the gods some called it.

Shortly after two leaders emerged bearing new banners of war,  Queen Salth’iri of the Black Roses and Darmurian of The Sacred Swords. Salth’iri was a emmissary of the countries to the far east beyond the sea. She in the best interest of making Zamilidor and it’s countries colonies of the Taborean Empire began to lead under the banner of a Black Rose. A symbol of a darker time in the Taborean Empire.

Darmurian was one of the most loyal knights under Balizi and during the original conflict fought off Zacharius and his men. He emerged taking Balizi’s Sword and carrying it back to Kerotor garnering the respect of it’s citizens.

And both…met 12 years later, under different circumstances they met…me.

Holy crap, the largest source mod since the games inception…the largest source code mod in my entire game development career. It has been finished. This new system is one-hundred twenty-six million, thats 126.000.000 times more efficient. It will never de-synchronize either. The FPS of the game has been drastically improved to 64 making things so much more fluid. Special thanks to Scorpious2k for all his coding help.

I am going to be working straight on the games development now…only one more month to go.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King e exemplul perfect pentru ceea ce se întâmplă atunci când un monopol este în pericol. Motivul pentru care e ideal să alterneze două mari partide la guvernare. Motivul pentru care scad preţurile şi creşte calitatea când apare conceptul de potenţială concurenţă.

Până acum, World of Warcraft s-a stabilit pe un tron al MMO-urilor şi nu s-a clintit de acolo. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures s-a anunţat cu surle şi trâmbiţe, doar ca să moară candid după lansare, etichetat drept un “beta pe bani”, suferind de numeroase aspecte găunoase, în ciuda câtorva concepte interesante. Tabula Rasa a fost trecut pe tuşă la scurt timp după plimbarea “Generalului” British (Richard Garriott) prin spaţiu. Guild Wars a fost primit relativ bine, atât de comunitate cât şi de critici, dar nu s-a bătut niciodată pe aceleaşi ţinte demografice cu WoW. Lineage 2, în ciuda design-ului lăudat, s-a dovedit a fi mult prea axat pe grind ca să nu deterioreze din imersiune. Până acum câteva luni, mamutul de încasat al Blizzard-ului hiberna letargic într-o poziţie de câştigător.

De curând, au început să apară titluri mai “periculoase”. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning e poate primul MMO care stă cot la cot cu WoW, îi face cu ochiul din când în când şi speră într-o zi să-l egaleze ca şi număr de abonaţi. Aion: Tower of Eternity, un MMO cu mare priză la asiatici şi cei cu înclinaţii anime, bate la poarta Europei începând cu al doilea trimestru al acestui an. S-a anunţat chiar şi Guild Wars 2, din păcate fără dată de lansare, dar stau şi mă întreb, în ciuda faptului că încă plătesc abonamentul la WoW şi încă nu-mi pare rău de asta, cât o să mai ţină motorul grafic? Formula după care e făcut? Lore-ul? Motivaţia?

Răspunsul e prins undeva în esenţa noului expansion, un efort solid din partea producătorilor de a exploata la maxim tot ce au clădit până acum, patch după patch, instanţă după instanţă, noutate după noutate.

Nord prin Nord-Vest

După cum vă poate confirma orice screenshot, poster, trailer, zvon de cartier sau bunică octogenară, WotLK deschide poarta către continentul Northrend, cunoscut şi din Warcraft III: The Reign of Chaos şi expansion-ul acestuia, The Frozen Throne. Povestea de fundal îl readuce pe Arthas, prinţul decăzut, sub lumina reflectoarelor, în condiţiile în care Alianţa şi Hoarda avansează purtând un război crunt cu toate dihăniile gheţii, ca să ajungă la „fiul rătăcitor”.

Aventura începe, pentru majoritatea, de la cel puţin level 68, când se îmbracă în haine groase şi se îmbarcă spre una din cele două zone de start ale Northrend-ului: Borean Tundra sau Howling Fjord. Merită menţionat că apariţia a două zone de start a rezolvat parţial problema aglomerării la lansare. Bineînţeles că în prima zi de activitate live a serverelor tot au fost puhoaie de jucători care stăteau unii după alţii ca să termine câte un quest, dar situaţia n-a fost nici pe de parte atât de tristă ca în cazul primului expansion, The Burning Crusade. Ca şi în acesta însă, sunteţi aruncaţi în mijlocul războiului, clădiri înflăcărate la orizont şi valuri întregi de soldaţi care se aruncă nesăbuit în prima linie, agitând săbiile prin aer, până când îi loveşte un obuz în dinţi.

Peisajul e dezolant în zonele de start, dar nu în sensul rău. În Borean Tundra, la ieşirea din fortăreaţa în care ajungeţi iniţial, scarabeii şi Crypt Lorzii Nerubieni ies din nenumărate tunele şi atacă tot ce mişcă. În Howling Fjord, Vengeance Landing e asaltat de o tabără a Aliaţilor în neştire. Cerul e rece şi ostil, misiunile implică sabotare, asasinare, strângerea proviziilor din tranşee abandonate.

După câteva priviri fugare, îţi dai seama că design-ul e mai lucrat. Motorul grafic e acelaşi, dar arhitectura a fost modificată considerabil faţă de TBC. Pluteşte o atmosferă de dark fantasy pe alocuri, clădiri masive cu tente gotice şi forme intimidante presărate pe noul continent, faţă de alura de SF a expansionului precedent. Introducerea unui sistem de umbre dinamice adaugă la adâncime, iar unele porţiuni te fac să uiţi cât de vechi e engine-ul.

Civilizaţiile întâlnite în conţinutul nou nu sunt la fel de excentrice precum facţiunile din TBC: Vrykulii sunt vădit inspiraţi din mitologia nordică, o formă demonică a soldaţilor înviaţi la Ragnarök, Tuskarrii sunt practic nişte morse umanoide ce-şi duc traiul asemenea eschimoşilor, iar oraşul magilor, Dalaran, văzut de undeva de deasupra, prin ceaţă, pe timp de noapte, aminteşte de Netstorm, Stratosphere, sau Darkside of Xeen, de ilustrarea unor elemente de arhitectură medievală într-un cadru fascinant (oraşul în cauză pluteşte undeva deasupra zonei Crystalforge). Dalaran este şi capitala noului continent, şi asemeni Shattrah din Burning Crusade, este un teritoriu neutru în care nu se pot ataca membrii facţiunii opuse.

În tandem cu îmbunătăţirea notabilă a design-ului, mă bucur să vă anunţ că muzica este deosebit de reuşită. Are un ton mult mai grav şi solitar decât OST-urile anterioare, ilustrând perfect senzaţia care te cuprinde în mijlocul zăpezilor, cu dragoni survolând deasupra şi incendii la orizont. Cu toate că în majoritatea zonelor climatul e cam acelaşi şi atmosfera cercetează tonuri apropiate, muzica e destul de variată şi experimentează cu o gamă vastă de instrumente. Viori, tromboane, alămuri de toate mărimile şi culorile, şi chiar şi o nyckelharpa conturează sonor peisajele moarte şi pe alocuri primăvăratice.

Tema principală este o uvertură compusă de Russell Brower, ce reia pasaje din temele anterioare (compuse de Jayson Hayes şi Glenn Stafford) şi le încorporează într-o atmosferă mai întunecată. Melodiile în general sunt destul de explozive şi nu prea ai cum să ignori sau să nu simţi coloana sonoră în timp ce explorezi întinderile albe ale Northrend-ului. În total, vreo 7 ore de gâdilături muzicale din cele mai plăcute soiuri, lucrate de unii din cei mai inspiraţi trei oameni din industria contemporană: Russell Brower, Derek Duke şi Glenn Stafford.

Quest-urile sunt, în cea mai mare parte, aceleaşi alergături relaxate din beta şi până în clipa de faţă, însă cu o concentraţie mai mare de interactivitate decât în trecut. Noile mecanici – cum ar fi introducerea maşinăriilor de asediu, mount-uri zburătoare cu mai multe abilităţi şi altele sunt folosite extensiv ca să ofere nişte variaţie, dar deosebit de atmosferic rămâne un singur chain de quest-uri. Nu vreau să stric experienţa nimănui, aşa că nu vi-l voi descrie, dar vă voi da un indiciu – faceţi cât mai multe chain-uri pentru facţiunile din zona Dragonblight.

Când vorbim de daily quests, situaţia e mai mult sau mai puţin aceeaşi ca şi în Outland – există quest-uri pe care le poţi repeta zi după zi, legate de majoritatea activităţilor/profesiilor din WoW: parcurgerea unui dungeon pe dificultate normală, parcurgerea unui dungeon pe dificultate eroică, quest-uri de gătit, pescuit, cules obiecte etc.

Trebuie spus că în Northrend se obţin şi se cheltuiesc bani cu mult mai multă uşurinţă. După lansare, meseriile nu au făcut mare vâlvă prin economie pentru simplul motiv că nu mai e nevoie să ai skill-ul maxim pentru a avea acces la produse bune: spre exemplu, un enchanter va putea să creeze (aproape) toate cele necesare raidului cu mult înaintea atingerii nivelului de skill maxim.

Ceea ce, în consecinţă, scade preţurile la care sunt vândute unele materiale şi produsele tradeskill-urilor, dar asta n-ar trebui să afecteze foarte tare pe nimeni – „scorurile” la care circulă o grămadă de materiale farmabile sunt mai mult decât decente, în cazul în care aveţi nevoie de bani, şi vă rămân cel puţin trei zone întregi de questing după level 80 (iar un quest făcut la nivel maxim, ca şi în Burning Crusade, adaugă un bonus substanţial recompensei).

Noua meserie, Inscription, s-a dovedit a fi însă deosebit de profitabilă pentru mulţi. Aceasta creează Glyph-uri care modifică anumite vrăji în termen de cooldown, damage, efecte crescute sau adăugate. Fireşte, toată lumea vrea Glyph-uri şi n-au întârziat să apară oameni care să le vândă în cantităţi industriale. Pentru meseria în cauză se folosesc drept reagenţi plantele culese de Herbalişti, cu menţiunea că se pot extrage din plante, cu Milling, reagenţi mai rari (numiţi Pigment). Ba mai mult, meseria permite şi crearea de scroll-uri, numite Vellum, pe care se poate conserva câte un enchant „de unică folosinţă”.

Betmen – The Death Knight

Îmi amintesc de parcă ar fi fost ieri: prima misiune din campania cu Scourge-ul din Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos – după ce îşi călca pe cap tot neamul şi prietenii, tânărul prinţ Arthas, sedus de Partea Întunecată a …. ăăă… Lich King-ului, alb şi tras la faţă, călărindu-şi semeţ capra printre acoliţii deghizaţi în săteni paşnici, părea imbatabil. Îmi amintesc chiar şi în meciuri timpurii de Warcraft 3 în multiplayer cum Death Knight-ul făcea pe turistul, masacrând câte un Peasant nefericit în timp ce un cvartet de ghouli curăţa câte un spot de monştri de pe hartă, pe altundeva.

Şi cum să nu îmi amintesc evenimente mai recente, cum ar fi beta-ul de Wrath of the Lich King ? Unde, pentru prima oară în WoW, puteai lua în braţe câte 4-5 monştri elite, mai mari ca tine în nivel, fără umbră de sfială, că deh – nu-ţi trebuie healer când eşti Death Knight.

Începi de la level 55, în cazul în care mai ai cel puţin un personaj peste acest nivel (acum ceva vreme, era necesar să ai pe acelaşi server un personaj de cel puţin 55 pentru a-ţi crea un DK) în Acherus, un necropolis suspendat deasupra oraşului New Avalon, în zona Eastern Plaguelands. Îţi câştigi, succesiv, echipamentul şi abilităţile necesare pentru a ţi se da drumul în lumea largă, trei nivele mai târziu, la terminarea tuturor misiunilor din zona de start. Recomand oricui crearea unui Death Knight pentru experienţa zonei de start care e probabil cea mai plină de substanţă şi mai interactivă porţiune din WoW făcută vreodată. E unul din acele momente rare când urmăreşti la persoana I un storyline la care contribui.

Clasa are trei arbori de talente: Blood, Frost şi Unholy. Fiecare dintre aceştia e însoţit de un tip de aură (Blood Presence, Frost Presence, Unholy Presence). Prima creşte damage-ul cu 15%, a doua e relativ esenţială pentru tanking şi a treia este orientată spre PvP – creşte viteza de atac şi mişcare a Death Knight-ului. Pentru folosirea abilităţilor şi vrăjilor, clasa foloseşte o combinaţie între Rune Power şi Runele propriu-zise.

Practic, există trei tipuri de rune: Blood, Frost şi Unholy, ca şi tree-urile de talente. În total există 6, câte două de fiecare tip. Fiecare arbore are un talent prin care se poate crea o a patra rună, Death Rune, pe lângă posibilitatea de a converti un Blood Rune în Death Rune cu abilitatea Blood Tap. Abilităţile clasei folosesc rune în diferite combinaţii, şi în mod normal fiecare din ele se regenerează în 10 secunde.

Runic Power-ul creşte atunci când foloseşti diferite abilităţi. Pe de o parte, seamănă cu rage-ul clasei Warrior, fiindcă îţi creşte pe măsură ce te lupţi, pe de altă parte seamănă cu Combo Points-urile unui Rogue, fiindcă odată ajuns la valoarea maximă de Runic Power, poţi folosi toată cantitatea pentru rezultate devastatoare.

De regulă, un DK foloseşte o armă de două mâini, atât pentru tanking, cât şi pentru damage. Există o alternativă, o specializare a talentelor numită Tri-Spec, în care pot fi folosite două arme, câte una în fiecare mână, dar nu sunt sigur cât de fiabilă este această specializare în prezent.

În clipa de faţă, Death Knight-ul e una din cele mai excentrice clase pe care le văd. Din cauză că e nouă, mulţi nu sunt obişnuiţi cu ea şi nu o folosesc la potenţial maxim, ceea ce te-ar face să crezi că e oarecum echilibrată, poate chiar un pic slăbuţă. Apoi te uiţi pe site-uri care arhivează şi analizează rating-urile de arene, cum ar fi arenajunkies.com şi îţi faci cruce: aproape fiecare echipă din top are un Unholy DK în componenţă. Te uiţi pe damage-ul dat în raid şi te cuprinde un râs isteric: în aproape fiecare raid, pe locul 1, Hyoscine, Death Knight. Peste Hunters. Peste Warlocks. În. Fiecare. Raid.

Pe undeva, sunt convins că DK-ii vor fi reduşi ca abilităţi. Să zicem că acum se încearcă marea cu degetul, lumea încă învaţă, nu avem o imagine clară.

De ce iubim epicele? de Mircea Lootărescu

Instanţele şi dungeon-urile de pe noul continent sunt, simplu spus, mult mai uşoare decât cele anterioare. Monştrii nu au fost îmbunătăţiţi la fel de mult ca abilităţile jucătorilor, tank-ul face destul de mult threat prin damage pur, damage-ul redus al monştrilor (chiar şi în instanţele pe nivel eroic), lungimea şi structura instanţelor – toate acestea contribuie la o experienţă mult mai relaxată şi casual. De fapt, nu e nevoie de crowd control decât în 2-3 locuri şi în rest e mult mai rapid şi eficace să fie ucis tot grupul de monştri „tras” simultan.

În plus, nu mai e nevoie de niciun attunement, niciun test înainte să ţi se dea ofere acces în beciurile domneşti ale Northrend-ului. Poţi intra oriunde, atâta timp cât ai nivelul necesar. Nici măcar dificultatea Heroic nu mai cere să ai reputaţie ridicată cu vreo facţiune din joc.

Şi dacă tot vorbim de reputaţii, şi aici a fost uşurată pentru mulţi abordarea, dar într-un sens logic şi natural – parcurgerea unei instanţe nu mai acordă puncte de reputaţie cu vreo facţiune prestabilită, ci lasă la alegerea jucătorului cu cine vrea „să se împrietenească”. Tot ce are acesta de făcut este să poarte o tabardă (un fel de poncho) reprezentând facţiunea dorită (atenţie însă, trebuie să aibă cel puţin Friendly standing înainte să poată achiziţiona o tabardă) care îi va acorda puncte atunci când parcurge instanţe.

Ca diversitate, atmosferă şi poveste lucrurile stau foarte bine. Elementele de design care compun instanţele sunt inspirate, iar prima lor parcurgere, în majoritatea cazurilor, va fi o plimbare relaxată, nu prea lungă, în care şansele să moară tot grupul sunt minime, chiar şi pentru party-urile mai stângace sau prost organizate.

Câteva instanţe au aceeaşi structură şi abordare precum unele din The Burning Crusade – spre exemplu Violet Hold, în care trebuie să te lupţi cu valuri de monştri care ies din portaluri până când este eliberat câte un boss, odată la fiecare 6 valuri. Primii doi boşi din această instanţă sunt aleatori, din 6 variante, oferind o linguriţă de diversitate într-un mediu în care oricum mai devreme sau mai târziu oboseşti repetând acelaşi dungeon, oricât de scurt sau uşor ar fi. Din fericire, după atâta vreme de WoW, e destul de greu să dai de grupuri care să nu ştie să joace suficient încât să termine dungeon-ul.

Există şi o instanţă complet inovatoare – The Oculus, în care o parte din instanţă, incluzând bătălia cu boss-ul final, se desfăşoară pe dragon. Ai de ales dintre trei tipuri de dragoni – unul care să vindece, altul pentru damage pur şi altul care să crească damage-ul grupului, dar nu este esenţial să ai toate cele trei tipuri pentru a învinge bestia.

În „Caverns of Time”, hub-ul de instanţe care pun în scenă evenimente memorabile ale universului Warcraft, a fost adăugat un nou dungeon: The Culling of Stratholme. Acesta ilustrează o misiune a campaniei Human din Warcraft III, în care Arthas (pre-Borg…ăăă… Undead) trebuia să omoare 100 de locuitori ai oraşului înainte ca dreadlord-ul Mal’Ganis să-i transforme în zombie. Dialogurile din cadrul evenimentului sunt exact aceleaşi cu cele din Warcraft III, lucru care, cel puţin pentru nostalgici şi cunoscători, va fi o pastilă dulce.

Când vine vorba de raiduri, lucrurile sunt şi mai casual. Naxxramas, prima instanţă de raid la 80, reprezintă o clonă adaptată a instanţei cu acelaşi nume pentru nivelul 60, un necropolis împărţit pe patru aripi. Cu alte cuvinte, abilităţile boşilor şi tacticile necesare înfrângerii lor erau cunoscute dinainte să ajungă oricine la 80. Chiar şi mecanica şi valorile boşilor din dungeon sunt simplificate şi reduse, lucru demonstrat şi de rata rapidă la care numeroase ghilde, de toate formele, mărimile şi calităţile au terminat tot conţinutul.

Ba mai mult – acum cerinţele unui raid sunt mult mai scăzute. Practic, unele clase pot fi ignorate cu desăvârşire, nemaifiind necesar să ai un spread bun pentru a beneficia de toate avantajele aduse de unii sau alţii. Fireşte, asta a stârnit controverse în anumite cercuri, pentru că oamenii obişnuiţi să „aibă două spoturi de Hunter asigurate” se vor trezi cu buza umflată. Partea bună a faptului că nicio clasă nu mai e indispensabilă e că grupurile se pot crea mult mai flexibil şi că un disconnect nu prea mai poate reprezenta, sub (aproape) nicio circumstanţă sfârşitul raidului.

Pe lângă asta, fiecare raid are două variante: Normal şi Heroic. Varianta normală e creată pentru grupuri de 10 oameni, cea eroică pentru 25. Chiar dacă în modul Normal echipamentul care cade e inferior celui de pe Heroic, măcar nu sunt traşi în spate oamenii fără ghildă sau ghildele de raiding abia formate, şi cam toată lumea apucă să vadă tot conţinutul.

În prezent există patru instanţe de raid – Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, Obsidian Sanctum şi Vault of Archavon. Patru dungeon-uri de raid e un număr mare, privit de la distanţă, dar numai Naxxramas are mai mult de un encounter, iar Vault of Archavon e o glumă. Cu toate astea, patch-urile următoare anunţă încă trei raiduri majore (şi, sper eu, ceva mai grele) – Ulduar, Icecrown Citadel şi… o a treia, despre care nu se ştiu foarte multe.

Interesant e că în Obsidian Sanctum există practic patru nivele de dificultate – dragonii mai mici, găsiţi pe marginea instanţei, pot fi ucişi separat pentru a uşura encounter-ul, sau pot fi lăsaţi în viaţă şi înfruntaţi odată cu boss-ul central al instanţei, Sartharion. Cum era de aşteptat, gradele mai ridicate de dificultate oferă şi echipament mai bun.

Producătorii au declarat că Icecrown Citadel va fi lansată foarte târziu, pentru a preveni ce s-a întâmplat în Burning Crusade cu Black Temple: un personaj legendar, Illidan, poster boy pentru atâtea evenimente din lore-ul Warcraft, farmat de sute de mii de mucoşi în fiecare săptămână ca o vacă babană şi dornică, făcându-ţi cu ochiul în timp ce ugerul îi lăcrimează picături de pixeli mov. Astfel, mai avem de aşteptat mult şi bine până vedem la faţă Lich King-ul, aşa, ca bărbaţii, 25 pe 1.

Despre pumni în gură şi relaţii interumane…

Latura de Player versus Player este într-o situaţie foarte ciudată în clipa de faţă. Ca să dăm la o parte aspectul nasol al acestei activităţi, balanţa înclină mult prea puternic în favoarea echipelor bazate pe mult damage în timp scurt (burst). De obicei nu mă plâng, pentru că per total mi se pare că WoW e MMO-ul cu cea mai bună raţie diversitate/echilibru în termeni de PvP, dar munţi de oameni se zgârie pe ochi când văd: Retribution Paladin, Death Knight, Arcane Mage, sau combinaţii ale acestor clase în arene.

Împotriva lor, dacă ai un popă, de exemplu, eşti ca şi mort. Nu ai ce să faci. După un Silence de 4 secunde în care nu poţi decât să te mişti încoace şi încolo întrebându-te unde găseşti un stâlp să-l călăreşti, mori candid cu toate protecţiile şi scuturile şi armurile şi rezilienţa şi Cuvântul Domnului pe tine.

Da, sunt conştient de propria-mi ipocrizie, jucând Mage, dar în apărarea mea am jucat în echipă cu Priest peste Priest peste Priest. Nu e distractiv nici pentru mine, şi îmi imaginez ce chin o fi fost pentru ei.

Partea ironică (şi fericită) e că există, pentru, ăăă, Priest, de exemplu, vreo cinci specializări de talente valide. Unele clase, puţine la număr însă, au primit o mână mai largă când vine vorba de echilibrul talentelor. Nu totul e bătut în cuie şi sper să rămână aşa o bună bucată de vreme, pentru că dacă e un lucru pe care-l pot reproşa WoW-ului e că, oricum ai pune-o, oamenii care ştiau să joace erau prinşi în formule prestabilite pentru a putea să-şi maximizeze eficacitatea.

Celor trei arene deja existente li se mai adaugă două, care au elemente dinamice în ele. Apa care trece prin canalizare în Dalaran forţează jucătorii să nu campeze, să nu joace static şi linear. Focul şi pilonii care se ridică, precum şi poziţiile originale în arena din Orgrimmar, foarte apropiate între ele, fac locaţia interesant de abordat. Un mic inconvenient ar fi că acum se pot incapacita adversarii înainte ca meciul să înceapă, de către Rogue şi Priest. Dar mă aştept ca bug-ul să dispară în interval de un patch, cum se întâmplă în majoritatea cazurilor.

Printre noutăţile aduse PvP-ului se numără un nou Battleground, de tip Assault, numit Strand of the Ancients. Practic, o echipă atacă o fortăreaţă susţinută de cealaltă echipă, şi atacatorii au la dispoziţie maşinării de asediu şi explozibil Seaforium. Pentru a ajunge la obiectiv, trebuie să treacă prin trei seturi de ziduri, folosind tancurile şi bombele puse la dispoziţie. După care se inversează rolurile. Echipa care reuşeşte să câştige într-un timp mai scurt câştigă Battleground-ul.

Apoi, mai e Wintergrasp, zona dedicată PvP-ului „în aer liber”. Lupta pentru controlul acesteia începe după 2 ore şi 30 de minute de la finalizarea ultimei bătălii pentru control, care poate dura până la 40 de minute. Când o facţiune deţine controlul ei, boşii din dungeon-urile aflate pe noul continent lasă în urmă şi o unitate monetară specifică numită Stone Keeper’s Shard. Acestea pot fi folosite atât pentru achiziţionarea de echipament, cât şi mount-uri (mamuţi).

Lupta pentru dominaţie implică trei tipuri de vehicule de asalt, iar uciderea succesivă a membrilor facţiunii opuse oferă un rang temporar ce permite crearea şi utilizarea maşinăriilor de asediu de către jucător. Per total, unele bătălii sunt deosebit de interesante, dar din cauza accesului liber în timpul evenimentului, există o mare şansă ca măcelul să fie prea haotic pentru gusturile unora.

În cadrul zonei se află şi instanţa de raid Vault of Archavon, foarte simplă, cu un singur boss, ce poate fi accesată de către facţiunea ce deţine controlul zonei. Fireşte, se poate intra atât în 10 cât şi 25 de oameni, dar lupta e jignitor de uşoară, iar obiectele– atât Tier 7 (PvE) cât şi Hateful Gladiator (Sezonul 5 de PvP) mi se par, personal, o recompensă prea mare, având în vedere că modul „obişnuit” prin care le poţi obţine e ceva mai anevoios.

Briz-brizuri şi minuni din târg

Trebuie să recunoaşteţi, chiar dacă nu vă place WoW, Starcraft, Diablo, sau Warcraft III, că oamenii ăştia se pricep la ceva, fără doar şi poate: la atras lumea să colecţioneze pixeli ca pe Pokemoni. Când era Diablo II, jucătorii făceau Baal grind runs 24 de ore pe zi, doar-doar le-o pica un item după care salivaseră luni bune. Când era Starcraft, lumea îşi smulgea părul din cap după rating. Când era Warcraft III, erau oameni care jucau pe Battle.net doar ca să colecţioneze icon-uri din meciurile şi turneele câştigate. În Vanilla World of Warcraft se alerga după pixeli mov, epice, Arcanist Regalia, Netherwind Regalia. Cu cât erai mai mov în Character Pane, cu atât erai mai motivat să-ţi adânceşti cearcănele. Credeţi-mă. Am fost acolo. La toate episoadele de mai sus. În toate rolurile.

Aşa că n-ar trebui să surprindă pe nimeni atitudinea pe care au abordat-o unii vizavi de Achievement-urile introduse. Ca şi cele de pe Steam, LIVE sau Trofeele PSN, acestea au, în mare parte, rol simbolic. Sunt 745 la număr în momentul scrierii acestui articol şi se vor înmulţi în următoarele patch-uri, odată ce este introdus conţinut nou. Sigur, unele dintre ele recompensează jucătorii prin accesorii drăguţe: urşi negri pentru uciderea liderilor facţiunii opuse, titluri pentru completarea tuturor achievement-urilor sezoniere, reuşite în PvP şi PvE, punerea în scenă a faimosului fenomen Leroy Jenkins (fără moartea suferită de acesta) şi multe, multe altele.

Dar să nu mă înţelegeţi greşit, Achievement-urile mi se par utile. Dacă vrei să recrutezi pe cineva în ghildă, poţi să-i vezi progresul personal în această rubrică, fără să fie nevoie să-l crezi pe cuvânt, iar îndeplinirea unora dintre ele în momentele de pauză de la activităţi mai „serioase” din WoW poate fi chiar distractivă. Mai mult chiar, unele au recompense practice: terminarea tuturor quest-urilor de pe noul continent permit celor cu meseria Tailor (croitor) să ţeasă un cloak epic foarte bun.

O inovaţie mai practică vine sub forma Heirloom Items – obiecte legate de cont, ce pot fi trimise personajelor de nivel mai mic, ale căror proprietăţi cresc sau scad în funcţie de nivelul personajului care le poartă. Umerii, de exemplu, adaugă un bonus de 10% experienţei câştigate, ceea ce accelerează, per total, substanţial rata la care avansează personajul, mai ales că limitele de experienţă necesare avansării în nivel au fost scăzute drastic acum câteva luni. Heirloom Items pot fi cumpărate pe Stone Keeper’s Shards, pe care le puteţi culege, după cum am scris mai sus, din Wintergrasp, sau Badge-uri obţinute de la boşii din dungeon-urile Eroice sau raidurile de 10 oameni.

Convenţia mâncării chinezeşti

Da, e important să insistăm pe acest subiect, fiindcă mă întreabă cineva aproape în fiecare zi cum de pot trece pe nesimţite cu un Alt-Tab de la, să zicem, Far Cry 2 la WoW, fără să sesizez diferenţa.

Adevărul e că o sesizez, dar nu pun mare preţ pe ea. Ca să clarific situaţia, vă invit să daţi click aici. Veţi vedea galerii aparţinând unor artişti Blizzard, dintre care vă rog să urmăriţi atent concept art-urile şi schiţele lui Samwise Didier, Chris Metzen şi Michel „Twincruiser” Koiter (R.I.P.) – veţi vedea un stil semirealist american, a la benzi desenate. Aşa este conceptualizat Warcraft-ul, ca un desen animat semirealist.

Construcţiile anatomice, consistenţa texturilor şi cromatica sunt toate fără cusur, oricât de caricaturizate ar fi. Unora le place, altora nu, dar volumul de muncă şi profesionalismul, din punctul meu de vedere, nu pot fi negate.

Mie unul, îmi place design-ul şi grafica WoW-ului. Înţeleg de ce alţii, care trebuie să vadă iarbă umedă înclinându-se, pori pe feţele personajelor sau nurii Larei tremurând sub şocul suav al unei alunecări pe gheaţă, nu se pot bucura ca mine atunci când survolează rânjind deasupra unui party de gnomi nebănuitori – dar nu văd ce poate fi reproşat aspectului vizual, dincolo de preferinţele personale. Drept pentru care v-aş ruga să înţelegeţi cum de nu pot taxa un engine mai bâtrâior doar pentru că e mai bătrâior – scopul lui nu este să fie fotorealist sau să îngenuncheze un Triple SLI.

Fin

Aş putea să descriu în continuare zonele, subtilităţile quest-urilor, elemente specifice din instanţe, prostioare ludice la care am fost martor de când am pus piciorul în Northrend, dar acestea nu v-ar convinge să jucaţi sau nu acest expansion, ba mai mult, v-ar putea strica experienţa – şi chiar sper că nu am făcut asta deja.

Există mulţi oameni – foşti jucători, neveste demoralizate, mame întristate, prieteni abandonaţi, copii flămânzi şi câini – care „fac pe ei” în faţa uşii cu multă ranchiună pe WoW. Există, sunt convins, oameni care ar risca ani grei de ocnă ca să scape lumea de jocul acesta, dar nu daţi vina pe un produs electronic pentru lipsa de echilibru a prietenilor voştri. Pentru voi, am veşti bune.

Wrath of the Lich King este un MMORPG casual. E un joc vast, în care poţi totuşi să vezi la fel de uşor conţinutul cu 8 ore de joc pe săptămână, strecurate pe ici-colo, datorită dificultăţii scăzute şi structurii mai libere.

În acelaşi timp, e un produs consistent care îşi merită banii. Turnura pe care a luat-o Blizzard bucură pe mulţi şi rămân la ideea că este cel mai solid MMORPG, îmbunătăţit poate chiar de riscurile recente de a pierde din clientelă. Problemele minore pe care le-am sesizat ţin mai degrabă de percepţia unui jucător deja iniţiat, care aşteaptă ziua de miercuri (weekly downtime) ca pe ziua de salariu, când speră va fi lansat un patch care să-i elimine nemulţumirile.

Pentru cei care s-au lăsat de WoW, speculând că au făcut-o fiindcă s-au plictisit de rutină şi preferă să petreacă timpul acordat în trecut jocului, oricât de puţin ar fi el, făcând alte lucruri, nu pot să recomand revenirea în Azeroth din simplul motiv că esenţa e aceeaşi, iar acest expansion nu e revoluţionar.

E doar îmbunătăţirea, aproape de perfecţiune, a formulei care convinge în prezent peste 11 milioane de oameni să plătească lunar o taxă pentru a participa în cel mai mare şi mai consistent univers MMORPG-istic de pe piaţă.

This tutorial show some gameplay to the players who are interested in this game. eRepublik is a combination of a massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) and a social network. It’s a totally new world, with a multiplayer simulator from the current world, based on a website and textual elements with a search for easy navigation, reflecting a version of the real world where citizens of different countries interact.

eRepublik is an online real world simulation game, available free of charge. Some of the features include: Getting a job, fighting for your country’s military, joining a political party, running for Congress, and owning your own company.

War is one of the most interesting aspects of the game. From day 2-3 you can train your strength, and join your nations Armed Forces. Once you get to a battle you answer trivia questions, and your score impacts the amount of damage you do.

The main currency of the game is ‘gold’, which can both be earned in game, or can be bought for real life money. There are also the various national denominations. I have played the game for almost seven months, and have yet to pay any real life money – and I have bought a company, which you have to use gold to buy! You receive gold when you get certain achievements, or you can exchange national currencies for gold on the monetary market.

eRepublik is a text based game, but it is still very fun to play. You can spend anywhere from five minutes to five hours on the game every day, with much entertainment coming from reading/writing newspaper articles and the forums.

Step 1 – Welcome to eRepublik

eRepublik is massively multiplayer social networking and online strategy web-browser game. It provides a realtime model of the modern world and allows players to simulate their political, business or military aspirations, in so doing potentially changing the course of history. This tutorial covers the points mentioned by Plato in his introductory video, the first issue of which is the homepage. Familiarize yourself with the homepage.

Step 2 – Upload your avatar picture

Experience points unlock eRepublik’s features and the easiest way to achieve your first two is to upload a avatar for your citizen.

Step 3 – Your profile page

You’ll find the information about your citizen’s career and biography on the profile page. The wellness indicator and the inventory area should be closely monitored as they’re vital to the day-to-day routines of your citizen’s life in eRepublik. Learn more about your profile page.

Step 4 – Buy / Consume food

Just like in the real world your citizen must eat daily in order to survive. You can acquire food from the marketplace, and once a day the highest quality food unit from your inventory will automatically consumed. See more details about buying and consuming food units.

Step 5 – Get a job

Working daily is essential as your citizen needs money in order to buy products, so visit the job market and find a job. Find out how you can get a job.

Step 6 – Work

In order to work you’ll need to visit your employer’s headquarters. Your citizen will receive a salary for each day worked… and don’t worry, working in eRepublik is more fun than in the real world! See more details about working in eRepublik.

Step 7 – Train

Serving your country in a war is important in eRepublik as it helps you to receive the recognition of your fellow citizens, one of the key concepts of the game. To achieve a higher score when you fight you should train daily. Find out how you can train.

Step 8 – Exchange money

In eRepublik you can exchange any currency (including gold, an intermediate currency in it’s own right) for other currencies, each of which is particular to one country. You can do this by accessing the “Market” tab in the main menu, followed by the “Monetary Market” button. Learn more about the Monetary market.

Step 9 – Fight for your country in eRepublik

You can see if your country is involved in a war or Resistance War by viewing the wars list, accessible from the homepage. After you decide on a battle to fight in, click the green “Fight” button on that page. Learn more about the military system.

Step 10 – Vote in eRepublik

There are three major political events occurring monthly in eRepublik where a citizen can vote to elect party presidents, members of congress, and country presidents. You have the ability to express your choice in these elections once you reach experience level 6. Learn more about the political system.

Original article: Here

It’s been a while since i’ve done a development update. Okay so, Implementation is what i’d like to call this stage. All the work I have been talking about on the item database the quest database it’s really paying off in organization and rebalancing the game. Everything is much friendlier and casual, but there are still hardcore features. Im also fixing bugs inside the engine…

Visual Basic Coding ...Fun

Right now I have all the tier 1 items entered into the game. Including quest items. However I have a lot of quests to re-do, which means that npc drops have to be redone. Plus I have additional quests that i’m adding into the older areas of the game.  The beta test contained 10 tier 1 quests. Version 1.0 will have 20 tier 1 quests. On top of that I will have 7 treasure finding side-quests. With the new item database I also have to re-write a lot of scripts and code with new variable numbers so it’s kind of annoying. Almost all quest dialogue has been changed.

The game will launch with tier 1 and 2 content. The tier 3 content is going to be released shortly after launch as an expansion. Shortly after launch we hope to have around 60 quests in the game.

Wizards 101 and Ether Saga just recently were announced to have taken home a National Parenting Publication Award. You can read the details at Massively.  I’m pretty happy to see both games being recognized, as they are two examples of titles catering towards a younger market done right. Not only are they good games on their own, but they get what “kid friendly” is all about, something a lot of other games don’t.

Congratulations Wizard 101 and Ether Saga!

Speaking as someone who got his start in the industry working mostly on children’s titles, this particular genre of gaming is rather dear to me. The past few years the genre has gotten a lot of steam, and now it seems just about everyone is working on a title catering towards the prepubescent crowd.

The whole genre in general, and especially in MMOG scene, really got a lot of attention when Club Penguin started earning money, and lots of it. As soon as the pub and dev execs got wind of it, dollar signs began flashing, and that brings us to where we are today. As far as I know, Club Penguin wasn’t the first kid’s oriented MMOG to hit the ground, but it definitely was the first one done right.

As an adult, or even a teenager, you probably won’t be that impressed with Club Penguin right away when you try it. It’s web-based, graphically simplistic (although admittedly, quite charming), and is more or less just a collection of mini-games placed in an iceberg themed world populated by colored, anthropomorphic penguins. Despite that said however, I feel that even an adult can find something endearing about the game (I personally like the surfing mini-game) given some time with it. The whole thing has a simple, yet very solid design. It’s core foundations are well placed in traditional game design norms and frankly, it doesn’t surprise me it’s done as well as it has.

So why then are countless developers out there not getting it if it is indeed so simple?

Ironically, it’s now this market which seems to be the most difficult to work with, despite the long-standing view on video games being primarily made as children’s entertainment.

Club Penguin's simple but solid design is one of the factors for it's success

A lot of the problems stem from a basic failure to understand the market well, and working on broad generalizations, and then trying to implement all those things first without thought to what makes a game fun to begin with.

Here’s a quick run-down of common mistakes I usually see:

Utilizing non-standard UI elements in an effort to be wacky, funky, zany, crazy, etc. There’s nothing wrong with having large buttons and bright colors, but more often than standard elements of a user interface get replaced with objects that just are ridiculous, all in an effort to appeal to a children’s sense of “fun”. I once dealt with a game where the developer had a slot machine arm in place of a vertical scroll bar. It was unwieldy and unresponsive, whereas a brightly colored scroll bar would have worked a lot better.  I’ve seen another game that insisted on keeping all interface items such on a horizontal menu, in an effort to keep the interface “uncluttered” and “to keep visibility into the game world at a maximum.” Too bad no one likes scrolling horizontally, considering why word wrap was invented.

Rule of thumb: if an adult has trouble navigating your game, a kid will too. As much as possible, stick to what works. Paint it up, make it easier to use, but don’t change the inherent system all together.

Over-simplying the game in an effort to make the game more accessible. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of making something more accessible to a wider audience, but in a lot of cases of kid’s titles, this comes at the sacrifice of challenge. The game ends up being dumbed down to a point where the engagement level begins to suffer as well. If a game is too easy, then most people won’t play it for very long, child or not.

Negative reinforcement has a place, don’t be afraid to use it. A lot of kid’s games never penalize the player for a bad performance, even in a slight fashion. Negative reinforcement has it’s place in a kid’s upbringing, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t work just as well in a kid’s game either. My favorite example of this is the Duck Hunt dog. After a while you just wanted to strangle the damn thing, laughing at you mockingly whenever you missed. It pushed you to play more and play better, smarter. It built engagement into the game.

I could go on, but let me just sum it up like this. Classic children’s stories are great stories first and foremost before they were great stories for kids. In my opinion, the same ideal should be applied to game design. If your looking to develop a “kid friendly” title, don’t throw out common sense game and UI design out the window just to keep the marketing guys happy. A lot of these issues do end up being caught by playability and usability testing, but rarely do I seem them getting changed, all because of a fear it would dilute the “kid friendliness” of the whole thing.

I’d love to see more GOOD kid’s titles out there – but for this to happen folks need to go into the creation process thinking to make a good game first, before they make a good game suitable for kids.

-Seb

I could have waited one more week and made this post officially on the one-year anniversary since my last post, but I hope to be posting more often, not less.

It’s interesting to look back at your posts from a year or more ago that have been perfectly preserved by the Internet.  In this case it turns out that my thoughts on Facebook are being validated — and that MMOGs are indeed evolving fast.

Last year at this time, I was musing on whether Facebook might actually become the new technology platform for MMOGs.  As I noted at the time, Mob Wars was steaming along with up to 500,000 daily active users and an estimated $7-15M in annual revenue.  Clearly the market for these games has exploded: Today that number of DAU would place the game around #25 on the top Facebook games (#42 of all Facebook apps) (per appdata.com).

With Zynga, Playfish, Playdom, and others leading the way, “social games” (a category people take much more seriously this year than last) are fast surging toward being a true mass-market phenomenon.  We’ve seen growth that strains credulity (the top Facebook social game, Farmville, now has over 25 million DAU) built on moderate innovation in a few game forms with the release of a slew of “X-Wars” games, farming games, aquarium games, and restaurant games.

And while there continue to be a few virtual-world-ish games (YoVille, Pet Society, etc.) out there, we now have an actual MMOG made in Flash and available on Facebook in Ohai’s City of Eternals, as announced last week.

I believe this represents the first of the second-generation of games on Facebook and the evolution of the MMOG.  In some ways CoE looks like a throwback to Ultima Online or Diablo — games made roughly ten years ago — but it is also unabashedly built on Facebook as a social platform and sits squarely in the “free to play / buy virtual goods” revenue model.

In the coming months I expect see the current pace of design innovation in this area sustained and maybe even accelerate as we see more games that look like classic MMOGs on Facebook.  Even more interesting from a design perspective, we’ll begin to see games that stand on the shoulders of current MMOGs and current first-gen social games to create new kinds of highly social game environments.  These will combine the depth of experience that MMOG players have always enjoyed with the social availability of current Facebook games — but maybe without the requirement of donning your tights and going to a virtual Renaissance Faire — the sort of deep genre-fication that has limited the mass-market appeal for MMOGs thus far.

The traditional formula of creating a character, becoming a hero and saving the day is nothing new to BioWare. After all, this is the company that introduced classic role-playing game experiences to gamers everywhere with titles including Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. For Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare fleshed out its customary design by including radically different characters with unique backgrounds for gamers to experience. The result is that Dragon Age dwarfs other role-playing games in size and scale, and weaves in mature themes amidst a backdrop of chaos and destruction.

The plot of Dragon Age is extremely rich with details that unfold over dozens of hours of play. All of this is documented in your in-game codex, which tracks conversations, plot points and other elements of your journey. The general backstory revolves around the Darkspawn threat to the land of Ferelden. Darkspawn are a race of creatures born from magic users who attempted to become gods, but were cursed for their efforts. Led by the powerful Arch-demon, the beasts emerge from underground lairs every few hundred years in a swarming plague known as the Blight.

The Darkspawn’s destructive plots would succeed were it not for the Grey Wardens. An ancient order of elves, dwarves and humans, Grey Wardens dedicate their lives to hunting down Darkspawn wherever they go. It’s been centuries since the Darkspawn appeared, and the signs of a new Blight are even more troublesome since the numbers of Grey Wardens have dropped precipitously. To make matters worse, Ferelden is bitterly divided by an internal war, making the repulsion of this threat harder than before.

This is the fractured world your hero or heroine inhabits, a world which can evoke Tolkien-esque imagery. Ferelden has an impressively vast history (as your codex will indicate to you through your adventure). The biggest issue, that arises with the storyline of Dragon Age is that plot elements suffer from repetitiveness. Even though different cities house unique quest events, they all incorporate similar motivating factors – assassination, betrayal or murder. Even though the results of your actions vary, it can become a bit stale. Not every single city needs Macbeth, King Lear or other Shakespearean styled machinations to drive the action forward.

The character creation reveals more of Dragon Age’s depth and flexibility. You have three separate races (human, dwarf and elf) and three base classes (warrior, rogue and mage) to choose from. Additionally, your hero will have general skills, class-specific talents and specializations, which you can learn from manuals or other characters willing to teach you their arts. By the end of the game, your hero will feel like a true legendary Grey Warden with a full complement of abilities to destroy the Darkspawn.

Dragon Age provides a ton of customization without a level cap, so it’s possible to take two characters with the exact same background and develop them in completely different ways. For example, do you want a berserker that mows down enemies, a stealthy rogue that strikes from the shadows or a mage that wields the elements? These are only a few of the options you can explore as you grow your character.

Gather around the campfire — it’s story time!

Selecting your character’s race and class decides which one of six unique origin stories you’ll explore. Choose your origin carefully, because this decision affects how the world treats and views you. Since each background starts in a different location, the origin stories play out in distinctive ways. As you travel on your journey, your character may return to the lands they hailed from, and people you knew will respond differently to you. For example, if you play a mage, you start out in the Mage’s Tower. Eventually, you’ll return to the site of your training, and the instructors and guards of the tower will remember who you are and what you did as a young magician inside the tower walls.

Preview in limba romana aici: http://computergames.ro/ro/jocuri/viewitem/id/207/name/dragon-age-origins/section/previews.html

The largest issue that I had with the Origin feature is that some of the background elements fade away too easily as the game progresses, becoming little more than an afterthought. For example, many of Ferelden’s citizens are extremely prejudiced against elves, but this bias eventually just disappears. Considering that a portion of the game revolves around uniting Ferelden against the Darkspawn, it would seem like you’d have to address these issues of racism somehow, especially if you happen to be an elven character. Simply tossing these endemic problems aside without any attempted mediation or resolution seems unrealistic and forced, and insults the plot of the game.

This is not to say that Dragon Age shies away from tough predicaments. While you can affect some decisions with the respective skill (like manipulating conversations by persuading or intimidating characters), Dragon Age frequently presents you with options that can radically change events — opening up separate side quests while closing others off. Certain choices have longer-lasting impacts on the world, and some can even alter the overall story. For example, can you convince people to protect a town under siege that they would rather abandon, particularly if it they could lose their lives in the process? Even the smallest decision can have a butterfly effect on the game (particularly if someone dies), which is both daunting and exhilarating at the same time.

On top of this, your decisions influence the relationships you have with your party members, improving or damaging their opinion of you significantly. Managing this balance is very important for a number of reasons. First, as a party member’s opinion of you improves, you unlock permanent stat bonuses for that character, strengthening their role in your group. Second, the more a party member trusts you, the more they’ll open up, providing side quests that strengthen your friendship and allow them to teach their individual skills to other characters in your group and unlock specializations for everyone. Third, depending on the character and the strength of your bond, you can have a romantic relationship with them. On the other hand, make decisions that they don’t agree with or completely upset them, and they could choose to leave your group entirely.

Time to die, fiend!

While it’s fine to include a variety of relationships, the depiction of love feels rather wooden and romantic segments are censored to the point of being very awkward. But the far bigger problem is that you can essentially buy your party’s affection with gifts, even if you’ve wronged them. It would seem more appropriate to have them refuse to go on missions with you until you complete a side quest to get back in their good graces, or risk them leaving forever. Considering how complex the interaction with your party members can become, that would be the more realistic way of handling relationships, but the current system feels like trite manipulation.

Of course, Dragon Age isn’t just about exploration and relationships. There’s combat as well. You can engage the enemy in one of three ways: fight in real time, pause the action and tactically determine your next attack, or set up fighting preferences for your characters. Of the three, micromanaging the battle with pauses after each command is the optimal way of engaging in combat. Trying to command in real time when you’re frequently outnumbered is complete lunacy regardless of how fast you use quick commands on the keyboard. Inevitably, you’ll go up against a creature or a “boss” enemy that will use tactics which require a more strategic approach instead of brute force. Selecting battle preferences for your characters works for a while and can be useful, but every now and then the character will disregard your commands and utilize basic actions instead of skills or abilities. Plus, even with preferences set up, characters frequently act on their own idiotic accord – choosing to attack enemies you don’t want them to or running blindly into traps that they should be able to see and disarm. Combine this with your party’s poor path finding skills, and you’ll clearly want direct control over everyone.

Micromanagement does take a lot of time, but you’ll get the most out of your characters. When a downed character is revived, Dragon Age penalizes your party in the form of stat-weakening injuries. If you have a well-balanced party, you can avoid these penalties while effectively creating combos to decimate your opponents. For example, you can cast a spell to freeze approaching monsters and have your warriors smash the creatures into pieces. Battle within the game is frequently a brutal affair, with spells streaking towards their intended target and clashing swords bouncing off shields and enemies. Even more striking is the attention paid to kills and critical hits, and watching heads get lopped off, or beasts getting impaled are fantastic touches.

However, I had a couple problems with the battle system. First off, the game doesn’t really scale enemies to match your characters’ levels, so after a while, some fights are designed to overwhelm your party with size instead of skill. In fact, once you start to approach level 20, many of the Darkspawn are killed in a matter of seconds, drawing out play unnecessarily. Another issue is that everyone, regardless of their distance to a fight, looks like they walked through a slaughterhouse afterwards. Why is my mage, who’s a sizable distance from the fight, covered in red? It seems like some of that blood could’ve been toned down especially since it takes a while to disappear.

Really, it’ll all wash off with soap and water.

The presentation in Dragon Age is sharp, but it isn’t nearly as impressive as other games. In fact, some of the character models and graphics look like they are a few years old, so they don’t pack the same visual punch you’d expect from such a high profile game. On a positive note, the ability to manipulate the camera viewpoints is useful and well executed.

An extensive amount of dialogue is included in a mé lange of accents, some of which are done well while others are poorly performed. At least your party members will provide some moments of hilarity as they question, cajole and annoy each other during down moments of exploration. Your created character will exclaim random phrases every now and then in the midst of battle, but they are, for the most part, a silent observer. That’s fine, because the real star here is the music, which sounds like a Hollywood score for a fantasy movie.

The flow of power through the Internet is surging like Niagara falls and no where is it more powerful than in the user inhabited worlds of social networks. Through giants like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, we the users are in a position to have more pull as consumers than ever before. By enabling us to connect with long lost friends and relatives or our favorite celebrities we’ve never been more connected as a society than we are today. The size and scope of these networks is ever expanding. Now, on Facebook you can play games, rate movies or rally to a cause. This only grants us more power, and by interconnecting

services like iTunes to Facebook, iTunes to our favorite instant messenger clients, and our video games to social networks the circle of connectivity is wide and all encompassing. But what does it mean to have all of these things reporting to one another about our doings on the Web? First, it means that big companies and organizations can get rather detailed information on what you’re doing, when you do it and how many times. To an extent, that’s the bad part. But if Google has shown us anything it’s that giving the giant evil company a little personal information at least results in less annoying ads. Second, and most importantly, it means we’re on the verge of a potential boom in the best user created content to date. If Digg.com is any indication it’s that people can work together to create something that we all can enjoy. Now close your eyes and use your imagination for a moment. Take the power of the popular vote of Digg and merge it with software where content is generated by text and ideas inputed into it. Think Scribblenauts, now put those two together with the multitudes of users on Facebook, Myspace, Youtube or Twitter. What you’ll get is an ever changing, compelling piece of content created by and voted into existence by you the user.  (Side note – Why hasn’t someone come up with a “choose your own adventure” style web series?) What started with Youtube and blogging has the potential to truly go into the realm of what we today consider science fiction. The cool thing about science fiction though, is that it only stays that way until someone with the know how and resources makes it science fact.

The New Vault Music has been finished, and i’ve been working more on the ethereal look that envelops into a floating city. It’s pretty freaking cool. Click Here to download the music.

The new Vault look.

I’m still working on mapping the vault but tonight I hope to take a look at some quests. I really have to get on that and finish the vault by next week. The holidays are going to be busy times around here. Also I need time to play Modern Warfare 2 tommorow, well actually midnight 12:01 Nov, 10. I’m getting 10% off because my friend works at wal-mart and all the game crazy’s have recently closed in my area.

Today I was working on recovering some of the old finished game music. I also composed 3 new tracks for the game as well. I’ve been coding to get title screen music once more. After finishing a design for the new vault, I went to work mapping a few parts of it. The Vault has a very new style that I hope you will make it one of the new most visited areas in the game. It turned into the begining parts as a sort of ethereal moon world where gravity has no effect. Craters are hung up in the area as platforms and new teleporters are the key to traversing this area. Afterwords you will be received into a giant ancient structure where you will be tested by some all new foes for great loot.

Here is a video preveiwing the new Saludio Hills.

I have finished all of the fringe mapping in the game about 230 interior maps needed changes. Next i’m going to be going over and reworking all the quests. No more stupid fetch quests with no point I’m going to make sure there is a reason for fighting the bandits trying to make things more personal.

In other news I’ve also done some work on a new page specifically for A Stwalarts Tale. Soon it will be filled with useful guides and information about the game and maybe even house a high scores list.

Inconsistencies Arise! Today I spent my evening going over the fringe layers of every interior map working on filling the “Black Spots” As people used to call them. They were small little inconsistent colored areas that were in the fringe of almost every interior map exluding the first few that were created in build 0.1 . Yeah…that far back.

So today I finished all the interiors of

• Kerotor City
• Whispering Caverns
• Zamilidor City
• Forlorn Steepes
• Kerotor Tower
• Zamilidor Tower

However still left to go is,

• Fortified Enclave
• Selles
• Volcano Villude
• Tutorial Areas
• Kobold Village
• Trading Post & Grasslands

I really am not looking forward to all this grunt work, especially in the fortified enclave which is the largest dungeon by far in the game. After finishing this I hope to change that by working on The new Vault. Stay tuned for a video exploring the New Saludio Hills and the opening of the Vault.

The thought of buying and selling things that exist only on the Internet is one most of my friends find ridiculous and I can totally understand where they’re coming from. I mean, it is kind of embarrassing to admit I paid real money for my virtual pet’s fully stocked, high end kitchen no matter how cute he looks using his espresso machine. But despite how retarded it sounds, virtual goods trading has become a huge industry that employs tens of thousands of people worldwide and earns an estimated US $1,000,000,000+ a year. As new games are released on an almost daily basis, the demand for virtual goods is constantly on the rise – a fact that should inspire players of any MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) to try their hand at virtual trading.

Although there are several other ways to do so, selling your inventory and/or account to an MMOG service company is the fastest and easiest way to earn non-virtual green. An MMOG service company is a business that buys and sells in-game currency, inventory and gamer accounts in exchange for real-world money. Two of the largest, Offgamers and IGE, have been trading virtual goods for years and maintain a combined client base of over a million customers, both one timers and repeats.

The entire process is pretty painless: You first want to visit four or five sites to determine the current exchange rates (look at the small ones as well as the larger ones in order to get a well-rounded average). You should then check service ratings at a site like TopTenReviews or Virtual Trade Rate to make sure you’re dealing with a reputable business. Finally, contact the company (via live chat, email, etc.) and start negotiating! Note: The amount of time it takes before you see actual money is different for each company though all of them expect you to deliver the virtual goods before you get paid. Payment is generally made via PayPal, so if you don’t have an account, you should definitely set one up!

Oh my, please don’t critisize me for this one…

Yeah sure, I’ve played a mans MMO in fact I’ve played them all and got to end game content but still it’s freaking runescape. Runescape has a bad reputation in the MMO community for being point and click and like a spreadsheet with graphics.

…And it is…but so are all mmo’s its just that runescape doesn’t try to hide it. Runescape has more depth than any flash game and still no download or browser barriers. Its a virtual machine game and as such EVERYONE can play runescape. And that is both it’s strongest and weakest point, because it attracts all walks of life. And more often then not the worst aspects of life.

The gameplay is easy and deep but still rooted in monotony the graphics while lately improved are still not on par but for a VM game they get the job done. Sound is where the game really takes a hit because every sound effect could be better. The community sucks and stupid trade control mechanics have been put in place because of it. And while that is both jagex and the communities fault it does indeed bring the game down.

Runescape does not give you total freedom, but it can be totaly addicting.

If you would like to play runescape with me add me to your friends list as Da Nickkos, now if you’ll excuse me between developing STO and Ninja’s I have to get back to getting my woodcutting level to 60.

Webosaurs is having another “Best Cave Competition” =),I encourage all of you to decorate your caves the best way you guys can and enter,and I wish all of you good luck =).

for more info concerning the text above read below:

It’s that time again – you know what I’m talking about… It’s BEST CAVE COMPETITION TIME! Do you spend a lot of time getting your cave just right? Then this competition is the one for you. Get your cave judged and recognized on the blog if you win. Winners will receive coins and special banners for their caves as well. We’ve changed the winners format to include a 1st place and runner up for both members and non-members.

I’m not over Halloween quite yet so this week’s theme is going to be SPOOKY. Keep this theme in mind when designing your cave.

In order to have your cave judged just make a comment on this post with your Webosaurs name and tell us you want to sign up. Caves will be judged during the day tomorrow so sign up as quickly as possible!

-Rex

I’ve read a very insightful post at MMOSH about how MMOG gaming is deteriorating in what is Hawley called MMO Tourism.

I completely find myself in the depiction of the modern, superficial and bored to life MMO gamer that switch title as soon the free trial is ended and still continue to buy and subscribe every major game coming out soon.

Just yesterday, while in a gaming conversation with my girfriend Sara, I expressed my concern about that, and made a resolve to stop wasting time (a month playing a superficial game that you won’t be playing anymore in the future is precious gaming time wasted for nothing), to concentrate on more fulfilling and rewarding gaming (online and offline) experiences.

Hey Guys,

Today the new login screen(s) have been released, so make sure you go check that out!

Also, everyone who has an account has received 1,000 StickBucks!

Soon, you will be able to buy cool items for your Stick Figure with StickBucks!

That’s all for now, I’ll see you guys later!

~Hygt5
Stick World Team

Hey Guys,

I have some good news! I think that we should vote on something.

Do you guys think we should keep our current login screen, or do you think we need a new one?

Here is a picture of one login screen that I was currently working on:

Don’t forget to vote!

~Hygt5
Stick World Team

Week 8 on massive multiplayer online games (MMOG’s) still has my brain reeling.  Now, I’m not personally a fan of video games.  However, I was both surprised and intrigued to learn about the diversity of MMOG players and the level of socialization and skill involved in this type of video game.

I’m a little ashamed to admit by bias, but prior to Mike’s lecture I fell into the disapproving wife and mother category when it came to the use of video games.   I was convinced this was a male fixation which equated to a colossal waste of time.  After learning that 40% of all MMOG game players are women and a good portion are over the age of 18, my theory about the male fixation went out the window. 

Understanding more about the socialization, exploration and achievement involved certainly changed my assessment of this being a colossal waste of time.  MMOG is about honing a skill, which does not distinguish it from other activities requiring skill such as sports, sewing, and music and so on.  And like other skills you can now make money off of playing MMOG’s.  Make sure you’re paying taxes!

The lecture changed my attitude about MMOG’s and resulted in me lifting the ban on these devices in my house.  My husband and young son will be sending gifts to Mike for making mom a MMOG believer.

Tomorrow Rexxy is having a game tour =).

for more info about the location of this tour and more read below:

Ever wonder what Rexxy’s favorite thing to do is? Play games of course! Rexxy wants to invite you to a tour of the island tomorrow, stopping by as many games as he can! Those tiny little arms may be useless for a lot of things but Rexxy can game like a champ. He’s good in just about everything so be sure to bring your A-game!

Besides just having a blast, this party will be a great chance to earn some coinage with your friends! Maybe you’ll finally be able to buy that last piece of armor you’ve been hoping for.

Meeting Spot: Gushing Geyser

When: Wednesday, November 4th – 17:00 WST

Server: Jurassic

Be there or be a mammal!

-Rex

This is the Daily Dino Fact asked by Rent and Pilpulpichu asking “How did the dinosaurs become extinct?”, and the Webosaurs Team answers the question but they also give the “Gradualist” AND the “Catastrophists” opinion on how they went extinct also.

for more info concerning the text above read below:

Q: How did the dinosaurs become extinct? – Rent and Pilpulpichu

A: We’ve answered this question before, but it is such a big deal I thought it would be good to have a refresher.

I’m sure you guys are getting used to this response by now, but we don’t really know. There are two competing theories on the extinction that occurred at the K/T bounday (the time between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods). One group believes it was a gradual extinction and the other follows the idea of a single catastrophic event. Here is what we do know:

-There was global climate change from warm to cooler temperatures going into the Cenozoic. However the dinosaurs went extinct, this is what caused it. How it happened is the subject of debate.

Gradualists

These guys believe that the extinction occurred over a long period of time. We know there was a lot of volcanic activity at the end of the Cretaceous, and the ash from these eruptions could have partially blocked out the sun and produced climate change over time. Another possible answer is earthquakes and the shifting of the earth’s plates.

Catastrophists

These dudes believe a single or series of catastrophic events wiped out the dinosaurs relatively quickly. The biggest theory in this area is that a large object from space collided with the Earth, making so much dust and debris that it blocked out the sun, causing climate change on a larger and quicker scale.

So what really happened? We really don’t know. This is one of the most heavily debated topics in paleontology today and there are a wide variety of theories. For more information you can read this article from the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

How do you think the dinosaurs died?