I was out of commission due to illness most of last week, so there's not that much to report. I mean, I played a little, but I didn't really do much of anything at all.
Somewhere around Christmas time I finally splurged and bought Skyrim (hey, it was on sale). Sure, it's about a year or so too late to be relevant, but I figured I'd play around with the game and see if I liked it. I've heard enough about the sandbox nature of the game to make me interested, and the fact that you're not forced into FPS mode but you can zoom out a bit into a more familiar third person mode is even better.*
The game is okay so far, but nothing so engrossing that I would find myself up way past my bedtime playing. The graphics are nice, and the old style quest finding is a welcome change to the MMO style quest markers, but when I sit down to play a game I find myself skipping over Skyrim for Civ IV or an MMO. The fact that (I believe) that purchasing the DVD of the game appears to be irrelevant as the game uses Steam to download to my computer doesn't exactly help, either, since I'm not that big of a fan of the Steam ownership model: you don't purchase a copy of the game itself, you only purchase the right to play the game, just like Amazon's Kindle purchases.
However, there was one aspect of Skyrim that I was unprepared for.
Like quite a few people, I use Curse to manage my WoW addons, and once every couple of months I hop onto Curse to make sure all of my addons are up to date.** I've gotten used to having WoW as the only game in my stable with a Curse connection, so imagine my surprise when I saw Skyrim pop up as an option.
Curious, I clicked on Skyrim and loaded the database of mods, just to see what I could add. There were mods to make lockpicking easier --something Ol' Fumblefingers can definitely use-- as well as mods for tracking your mats and whatnot. But by far the most popular mod was something I didn't expect: Nude Females.
No, really.
Apparently this game isn't "Rated M for Mature" enough for some folks, and they took it upon themselves to create a few mods to "tweak" the models for the game. Making more detailed facial models is one thing, but making sure what's under a toon's clothing is anatomically accurate is quite another. I'd almost be inclined to believe that the mod's creators had altruistic intentions except that you won't find an equivalent mod for male toons.
Just like some people can't play Age of Conan without going "Oooo, boobies!"***, some people need that in-game nakedness that the nude female mods --yes, there are more than one-- provide. This is akin to people who like to zoom in and watch the female Night Elf breast bounce, I suppose.
Me, I just don't get it. If you're interested in this aspect of the game, why are you playing and not surfing the Internet instead?
*It's been a while since I mentioned it, but I find that FPS games give me headaches, and one of the reasons I suspect that MMO's don't is due to the game's viewpoint. With third person mode, I can use my character as a focal point and not have issues with the constantly changing terrain.
**If I were a raider or already into Mists content it'd be a lot more frequent updates, but I'm still about 30 levels away from needing to purchase Mists.
***Go hang around Tortage on any server, and you'll see what I mean. I suspect that some people play Demonologists in AoC just so they can have the nude Succubus hanging around. And if you thought that the Shivarra in WoW was bad, the AoC Succubus makes the Shivarra look tame. But that AoC Succubus has a very sinister look about her. Oh, and the AoC Incubus (for female Demonologist toons) has just as little clothing and the same uncomfortably malign feel to them.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
I Don't Believe it! We Have a New Champion of Anguish!
Among my friends, I've been known as being a bit obsessive about winning from time to time.
There was one (in)famous time where I hadn't won a game of Settlers of the Stone Age all evening, and I kept my wife and another friend playing the same game until 3 AM when I finally was able to pull out a victory. Back in the days of the original Sid Meier's Civilization, I once played three full games back-to-back because I'd lost at the last second twice in a row. I may be older (and, theoretically, wiser), but there are times when thoughts of 'winning' cloud my brain.
Of course, 'winning' in an MMO means different things to different people.
The PvP oriented may focus on being an Arena Master or winning Rated BGs. (Or even winning regular BGs as much as possible.) The PvE people may focus on raiding or pet battles or dominating the Auction House.
But what do you do when you've got limited time to play and you get that itch to 'win'?
Sometimes, that urge gets channeled into something like dailies or reputation.* Or maybe you become a completionist, hunting down and finishing every last quest --group quest or otherwise-- that you can find. In the pre-Cata days, you had to use a third party app to try to find those last weird quests out in the middle of nowhere in the Azerothian Old World. TOR makes the completionists go crazy when they stick area quests on a planet, so you end up cruising all over, say, Alderaan trying to find the one zone you might have missed. LOTRO has taken that idea and run with it in their recent revision to the Moria expac, and Age of Conan sticks individual quests in the middle of group quest areas, leaving you to fight your way through just to collect that extra quest for another zone**.
Or maybe you just content yourself with following the story to the end --sans raiding, of course.
To get that last one, you don't have to be a completionist. After all, just how many side quests are out there in an MMO these days? But finishing a story can become a Civ-like obsession: "just one more quest!"*** While WoW has all but eliminated the old class stories from the game, there still are two faction questlines to progress through. Star Trek Online seems to follow the WoW pattern of having a set story for each faction, but I've not gotten anywhere deep enough to confirm this.**** LOTRO has only one questline track (but two different starting zones, so that provides some variety). AoC has one real story line, but each zone has it's own set of stories to follow; they're almost like side quests in a way, but the real story line's quests show up once you reach a certain threshold level: L30, L50, etc.
TOR, however, is a different animal, with questlines for each class from L1 through L50. And then there are the companion quests, the zone quests, and... You get the idea. A story freak can take months --years even-- exploring every aspect of a game like TOR.
The obsession with "winning" an MMO can drive self destructive behaviors.
Just like a gambler has issues with getting up from the poker table, an MMO player can spend way too much time in game, seeking that rush of victory and, more importantly, validation. Think of the money spent on gear to get an extra edge, whether it be a bigger screen, faster CPU, or that awesome keyboard (want!). Also, consider the cost of extra purchases via a cash shop (whether you play a F2P game or not, the cash shop is still there) to give yourself an edge in some aspect of the game. All of that money adds up, and the urge to overspend just to "win the game" can be very seductive.
When American sports fans talk about destructive behavior, the name Art Schlichter often pops up. Art's compulsive gambling ruined his pro career and led to jail and drugs, and yet Art still can't stop. This is a direct parallel to the board gamer who can't stop buying new board games, or the video gamer who will spend every waking moment playing to the chagrin of coworkers, family, and friends.
I've never crossed that line, but I understand its appeal. I also understand how it impacts others playing the game: the people who sit around and complain in Gen Chat that they "finished" the game and now "there's nothing to do, this game sucks", the people who refuse to play nice because they want to "just win, baby!", and the player who thinks nothing about being a ninja looter or griefer because it's all about them.
That inevitably begs the question as to what do these people get out of this behavior? While that sort of thing might work for a while, eventually it catches up to you. Turn off enough people, and they isolate you. You start to live in an echo chamber, where everybody thinks the same thing as you, behaves the same as you, and validates the way you do things. The trouble is that we don't live in an echo chamber, but in the real world, where people don't think and act like this.
I've kind of wandered a bit far afield when I started this post (shades of Cynwise's old Field Manual posts, I suppose), but obsession and addiction are but one output of the need to "win the game". Competition can be good, if channeled well and doesn't venture into that morally grey territory. I play MMOs to enjoy myself and explore a good story, and I try to avoid obsessive behavior as much as I can. I understand my limits, which is part of the reason why I don't try too hard to raid. But I have become acquainted with obsession, and I'd rather not try to get to know it any more than that.
*"I will finish all of the dailies I can find and I will reach Exalted!" Not that I've ever said that. Okay, I did, once, back in Wrath days. At least at the time, it seemed achievable, which is why I kept slogging through the Crusader dailies.
**There's one in Conall's Valley that sends you in the direction of the true end boss right when you think you've slain the end boss of the region. For the record, it takes a player of about L50 or higher to bring down the pseudo-end boss who is L30. Yes, the AoC elite bosses are THAT tough.
***Sid Meier memorialized this urge for "just one more turn!" by building that quip into later editions of Civ.
****Oh, did I mention I've begun tinkering with STO? I like it much better than Aion, and while I can see what some people complain about with you becoming your starship, I don't mind.
There was one (in)famous time where I hadn't won a game of Settlers of the Stone Age all evening, and I kept my wife and another friend playing the same game until 3 AM when I finally was able to pull out a victory. Back in the days of the original Sid Meier's Civilization, I once played three full games back-to-back because I'd lost at the last second twice in a row. I may be older (and, theoretically, wiser), but there are times when thoughts of 'winning' cloud my brain.
Of course, 'winning' in an MMO means different things to different people.
The PvP oriented may focus on being an Arena Master or winning Rated BGs. (Or even winning regular BGs as much as possible.) The PvE people may focus on raiding or pet battles or dominating the Auction House.
But what do you do when you've got limited time to play and you get that itch to 'win'?
Sometimes, that urge gets channeled into something like dailies or reputation.* Or maybe you become a completionist, hunting down and finishing every last quest --group quest or otherwise-- that you can find. In the pre-Cata days, you had to use a third party app to try to find those last weird quests out in the middle of nowhere in the Azerothian Old World. TOR makes the completionists go crazy when they stick area quests on a planet, so you end up cruising all over, say, Alderaan trying to find the one zone you might have missed. LOTRO has taken that idea and run with it in their recent revision to the Moria expac, and Age of Conan sticks individual quests in the middle of group quest areas, leaving you to fight your way through just to collect that extra quest for another zone**.
Or maybe you just content yourself with following the story to the end --sans raiding, of course.
To get that last one, you don't have to be a completionist. After all, just how many side quests are out there in an MMO these days? But finishing a story can become a Civ-like obsession: "just one more quest!"*** While WoW has all but eliminated the old class stories from the game, there still are two faction questlines to progress through. Star Trek Online seems to follow the WoW pattern of having a set story for each faction, but I've not gotten anywhere deep enough to confirm this.**** LOTRO has only one questline track (but two different starting zones, so that provides some variety). AoC has one real story line, but each zone has it's own set of stories to follow; they're almost like side quests in a way, but the real story line's quests show up once you reach a certain threshold level: L30, L50, etc.
TOR, however, is a different animal, with questlines for each class from L1 through L50. And then there are the companion quests, the zone quests, and... You get the idea. A story freak can take months --years even-- exploring every aspect of a game like TOR.
***
The obsession with "winning" an MMO can drive self destructive behaviors.
Just like a gambler has issues with getting up from the poker table, an MMO player can spend way too much time in game, seeking that rush of victory and, more importantly, validation. Think of the money spent on gear to get an extra edge, whether it be a bigger screen, faster CPU, or that awesome keyboard (want!). Also, consider the cost of extra purchases via a cash shop (whether you play a F2P game or not, the cash shop is still there) to give yourself an edge in some aspect of the game. All of that money adds up, and the urge to overspend just to "win the game" can be very seductive.
When American sports fans talk about destructive behavior, the name Art Schlichter often pops up. Art's compulsive gambling ruined his pro career and led to jail and drugs, and yet Art still can't stop. This is a direct parallel to the board gamer who can't stop buying new board games, or the video gamer who will spend every waking moment playing to the chagrin of coworkers, family, and friends.
I've never crossed that line, but I understand its appeal. I also understand how it impacts others playing the game: the people who sit around and complain in Gen Chat that they "finished" the game and now "there's nothing to do, this game sucks", the people who refuse to play nice because they want to "just win, baby!", and the player who thinks nothing about being a ninja looter or griefer because it's all about them.
That inevitably begs the question as to what do these people get out of this behavior? While that sort of thing might work for a while, eventually it catches up to you. Turn off enough people, and they isolate you. You start to live in an echo chamber, where everybody thinks the same thing as you, behaves the same as you, and validates the way you do things. The trouble is that we don't live in an echo chamber, but in the real world, where people don't think and act like this.
***
I've kind of wandered a bit far afield when I started this post (shades of Cynwise's old Field Manual posts, I suppose), but obsession and addiction are but one output of the need to "win the game". Competition can be good, if channeled well and doesn't venture into that morally grey territory. I play MMOs to enjoy myself and explore a good story, and I try to avoid obsessive behavior as much as I can. I understand my limits, which is part of the reason why I don't try too hard to raid. But I have become acquainted with obsession, and I'd rather not try to get to know it any more than that.
*"I will finish all of the dailies I can find and I will reach Exalted!" Not that I've ever said that. Okay, I did, once, back in Wrath days. At least at the time, it seemed achievable, which is why I kept slogging through the Crusader dailies.
**There's one in Conall's Valley that sends you in the direction of the true end boss right when you think you've slain the end boss of the region. For the record, it takes a player of about L50 or higher to bring down the pseudo-end boss who is L30. Yes, the AoC elite bosses are THAT tough.
***Sid Meier memorialized this urge for "just one more turn!" by building that quip into later editions of Civ.
****Oh, did I mention I've begun tinkering with STO? I like it much better than Aion, and while I can see what some people complain about with you becoming your starship, I don't mind.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Thoughts on an Icy Friday
I was on TOR the other day when someone asked a question in Gen Chat: do the planets ever change their background due to time of day?
No, was the instant response, but it'd be cool if they did.
While I'd be the first one to think that the planets with an outside would look cool if they did change with the time of day, I realize that TOR has bigger issues to worry about at the moment than background. Or weather, for that matter.
But something about that question did get me to thinking. Why is it that weather and times of day are simply bolt-ons to most MMOs? I say most, because the Tortage-at-night solo portion of the intro zone in Age of Conan does take advantage of the darkness to make it easier to hide, and that does carry over to the regular game.
Think of it this way: when was the last time that sneaking around in WoW was made easier due to cover or darkness? Shouldn't there --at the very least-- be a debuff or two associated with bad weather? I know I don't operate at peak performance in the rain, and there's the constant threat of hypothermia, so why doesn't your toon feel it? Shouldn't it take longer to trudge through a snowstorm or thunderstorm? If there can be a visible reaction to and a game changing debuffs associated with drinking to excess, why not with weather? Having a snowstorm or blizzard whip up, leaving your toon disoriented and weakened, would have an impact on whether you're actually out and about when the skies turn crappy. Hell, I'd have a harder time imagining that wandering monsters and intelligent opponents would be out in a downpour; you'd think that they'd confine themselves to shelter --makeshift or otherwise-- to wait out the bad weather.
Perhaps I'm taking realism a bit far, but I think it would make the sense of immersion that much more satisfying. In Ultima V, you could watch the shop keepers move around and back to their homes when night fell, so if a game from 1988 could figure such basic things as this out with the changing of the hours, then why can't an MMO do it?
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