Although the month of May has come to a close, the fruits of the NBI Initiative will continue to ripen over the years.
Welcome to all new bloggers!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
In Memoriam
In honor of those who served and fought. Memorial Day may be an American holiday, but most other countries also have an Armistice Day or Day of Remembrance.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Ghost Towns
Things are pretty dead when Dalaran has just as many people in it on a Monday night as Stormwind.
I suppose you could argue that it was an 'up' day for Dalaran with 20 or so people in it on a Monday night, but Stormwind? Of course, that other software product that Blizz dropped last week might have something to do with that, but the downward trend had been noticeable since the beginning of the year.
Ironically enough, the regular LFD random queue was the shortest it had been in well over a year for me, clocking in at around six minutes. Maybe you'd expect a quick wait as a tank or healer, but DPS? But on the flip side, getting into a random BG meant a 10 minute wait, a definite change from the typical 2-3 minutes.
I can't really make any sense of the weirdness surrounding the queues; while empty servers ought to translate into longer wait times for both sets of queues, it only impacted BGs. Perhaps the people who are left playing WoW at this stage of the release are those who are the true 'hardcore' players: leveling alts, crafting, transmogging, raiding, etc.* If that's the case, leveling alts might be the reason for the short LFD queue times: you get a bubble of people who began leveling alts at roughly the same time, and they all reached Cata instances at once.
Of these so-called hardcores, how many of these people are still blogging out there, working on beta, and figuring out their pathway to L90 on Mists? Maybe we bloggers have a skewed sense of things, because we're passionate enough about the game to devote words to it in addition to any in-game activity. But right now, I think we've long since entered the long lull before the lead up to the next expac, and the servers won't get busy again until the release date is imminent.
Which brings me to the Blizzard suggestion to merge servers in low population zones to give the illusion of more activity.
I can't be the only one who, when I first heard about the idea, said "I guess the first zones they'll do are Exodar and Silvermoon City. After all, nothing says 'activity' quite like seeing a hundred or so bank alts in one location."
From an activity standpoint, this proposal sounds absolutely great. It will give newbies the impression that there are a lot of things going on in WoW, and might convince them to stick with the game past L20. It will also make some historically dead zones more lifelike, and will help players in The Ghostlands and Bloodmyst Isle find groups for questing.
However, WoW being WoW, I have some concerns about the proposal. Not from a technical standpoint, but from a social standpoint.
What's the worst part about the social experience in WoW, particularly from the standpoint of a new player?
It isn't a lack of people to interact with, but an excess of antisocial people ruining the initial play experience:
Based on an initial experience like that, it's a wonder that WoW gets new subs at all.
If Blizz is serious about bringing in and keeping new blood, then they have to address the social issues in WoW. This isn't Polyanna country, and it ain't EVE, either. People like to be welcomed and respected and tolerated. If they feel the environment is toxic, they'll move on. You can't expect a new player to blindly stumble through all of the social pitfalls and land in a good guild without guidance, and likewise you can't expect someone to blithely ignore all of the social issues that some players bring to WoW.
This is something that Blizz will need to tackle now, before Mists, when their system will strain under the weight of hordes of leveling Pandaren named Pandaspanx or Hotnfurry.
*Well, aside from the gold farmers, that is. When I left Icecrown a couple of days ago there were more people there (15) than in Dal (10). And as for me, I don't consider myself hardcore at all. I just get on and play when I can.
I suppose you could argue that it was an 'up' day for Dalaran with 20 or so people in it on a Monday night, but Stormwind? Of course, that other software product that Blizz dropped last week might have something to do with that, but the downward trend had been noticeable since the beginning of the year.
Ironically enough, the regular LFD random queue was the shortest it had been in well over a year for me, clocking in at around six minutes. Maybe you'd expect a quick wait as a tank or healer, but DPS? But on the flip side, getting into a random BG meant a 10 minute wait, a definite change from the typical 2-3 minutes.
I can't really make any sense of the weirdness surrounding the queues; while empty servers ought to translate into longer wait times for both sets of queues, it only impacted BGs. Perhaps the people who are left playing WoW at this stage of the release are those who are the true 'hardcore' players: leveling alts, crafting, transmogging, raiding, etc.* If that's the case, leveling alts might be the reason for the short LFD queue times: you get a bubble of people who began leveling alts at roughly the same time, and they all reached Cata instances at once.
Of these so-called hardcores, how many of these people are still blogging out there, working on beta, and figuring out their pathway to L90 on Mists? Maybe we bloggers have a skewed sense of things, because we're passionate enough about the game to devote words to it in addition to any in-game activity. But right now, I think we've long since entered the long lull before the lead up to the next expac, and the servers won't get busy again until the release date is imminent.
Which brings me to the Blizzard suggestion to merge servers in low population zones to give the illusion of more activity.
I can't be the only one who, when I first heard about the idea, said "I guess the first zones they'll do are Exodar and Silvermoon City. After all, nothing says 'activity' quite like seeing a hundred or so bank alts in one location."
From an activity standpoint, this proposal sounds absolutely great. It will give newbies the impression that there are a lot of things going on in WoW, and might convince them to stick with the game past L20. It will also make some historically dead zones more lifelike, and will help players in The Ghostlands and Bloodmyst Isle find groups for questing.
However, WoW being WoW, I have some concerns about the proposal. Not from a technical standpoint, but from a social standpoint.
What's the worst part about the social experience in WoW, particularly from the standpoint of a new player?
It isn't a lack of people to interact with, but an excess of antisocial people ruining the initial play experience:
- People who go kill opposing factions' quest givers in the intro zone. (These are intro zones, so unless a newbie decides to set the PvP flag there isn't any direct ganking going on.)
- People with names such as "Isukballz" or "Killitnow" challenging people to duels, killing the mobs you were supposed to work on, and spamming guild invites to any and all comers.
- The toon who decides to zero in on a player for some ERP.
- The "Yr doin it wrong!" or "L2P noob!" toon who spews trash into Gen Chat just because they think it's funny.
Based on an initial experience like that, it's a wonder that WoW gets new subs at all.
If Blizz is serious about bringing in and keeping new blood, then they have to address the social issues in WoW. This isn't Polyanna country, and it ain't EVE, either. People like to be welcomed and respected and tolerated. If they feel the environment is toxic, they'll move on. You can't expect a new player to blindly stumble through all of the social pitfalls and land in a good guild without guidance, and likewise you can't expect someone to blithely ignore all of the social issues that some players bring to WoW.
This is something that Blizz will need to tackle now, before Mists, when their system will strain under the weight of hordes of leveling Pandaren named Pandaspanx or Hotnfurry.
*Well, aside from the gold farmers, that is. When I left Icecrown a couple of days ago there were more people there (15) than in Dal (10). And as for me, I don't consider myself hardcore at all. I just get on and play when I can.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Great Spoof of the D3 Opening
I enjoyed this, hopefully you will too!
(there's nothing NSFW about the video, but it would still be awkward to have a co-worker look over at you watching this one)
(there's nothing NSFW about the video, but it would still be awkward to have a co-worker look over at you watching this one)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Law of Unintended Consequences is Alive and Well
Steve Rogers: How do you know about this, Beast?
Beast: I am an agent of S.W.O.R.D. Also.
Steve Rogers: Anybody else here an agent of a clandestine specialized covert operation and forgot to bring it up?
Spider-man: I'm a level 27 Rogue on World of Warcraft. Does that count?
--From 2012 Free Comic Book Day "The Avengers: Age of Ultron 0.1"
Sometimes I get my thinking done doing something very mundane, such as cutting the grass.
Of course, when I do cut the grass, I've got my earbuds in to muffle the noise from the mower, and that means I've either got music or a podcast on.
Not too long after I mentioned that I didn't have the time to listen to podcasts in a previous blog entry, I began to make time. I have a small collection of regulars in the pencil-and-paper RPG and WoW areas, but I'm always looking to find a podcast with an interesting voice. So, while I pushed the mower along late last afternoon, I listened to the 2 GMs 1 Mic podcast* and became acquainted with the term "murder hobos".
According to one of the hosts of the show, it's a put down of one aspect of old-school style RPGs: your characters move from place to place and kill things. I chuckled at the definition, because not only would characters from old-school RPGs qualify as murder hobos, but those of most MMOs as well.
Seriously.
When was the last time you walked into an instance and didn't kill just about everything? (No, wipes don't count.) Of course, the complexity of interactions beyond the absolute basics keep higher level actions out of the reach of most MMOs., so it isn't quite a fair comparison. We, as players, can interact more between each other (or with a DM) than we can with computer NPCs. And with NPCs programmed to perform only certain duties, it doesn't take very long before interacting with an NPC gets boring.
This got me to wondering whether the "biggest beta ever" for MoP is a good thing or not.
Getting all of the annual subs into the beta is a good thing from a polish and bugs standpoint, but what about from a freshness standpoint?
Some of the beta testers have been playing for over a month now, and we can expect this beta to continue for the foreseeable future. However, how many of those beta players will find themselves burning out on MoP more quickly than if they'd not been in the beta? Could Blizz be feeding the beast by getting everyone into beta so that they'll have seen everything (or enough of it, anyway), only to discover widespread apathy a month or two into release?
Before anyone starts telling me how awesome and cool beta is, I'll point out one thing: I worked in software development for five years. I've been through about six or seven development cycles on a product that took well over 300 developers worth of effort. By the time the product went Gold, we were utterly and completely sick of working on that release and looked forward to the next release.**
If that happens to developers who (supposedly) like to code, why wouldn't it happen for beta testers?
Think about it: people will have effectively been playing MoP since April 2012. Those of us not in the beta won't get to try it out for several months (or later); while MoP will be fresh for us, it'll be old hat for the testers.
And how long did it take before people started complaining about things to do in Cata or Wrath? A few months?
I'm not sure what the consequences of the beta will be (other than a polished product), but what I am sure of is that people wouldn't have thought of them beforehand.
*I've only listened to part of one episode so far, but it's pretty good; I'm willing to listen to a few more podcasts before I decide to pick it up or not. The hosts do use colorful language, so this isn't the sort of podcast to listen where little ears might hear.
**One of the statements that would cause the most anguish in a developer were the words "I need you to work bugs on the current release for a few months."
EtA: It's "agent", not "ancient". Stupid auto correct. @#$&!
Beast: I am an agent of S.W.O.R.D. Also.
Steve Rogers: Anybody else here an agent of a clandestine specialized covert operation and forgot to bring it up?
Spider-man: I'm a level 27 Rogue on World of Warcraft. Does that count?
--From 2012 Free Comic Book Day "The Avengers: Age of Ultron 0.1"
Sometimes I get my thinking done doing something very mundane, such as cutting the grass.
Of course, when I do cut the grass, I've got my earbuds in to muffle the noise from the mower, and that means I've either got music or a podcast on.
Not too long after I mentioned that I didn't have the time to listen to podcasts in a previous blog entry, I began to make time. I have a small collection of regulars in the pencil-and-paper RPG and WoW areas, but I'm always looking to find a podcast with an interesting voice. So, while I pushed the mower along late last afternoon, I listened to the 2 GMs 1 Mic podcast* and became acquainted with the term "murder hobos".
According to one of the hosts of the show, it's a put down of one aspect of old-school style RPGs: your characters move from place to place and kill things. I chuckled at the definition, because not only would characters from old-school RPGs qualify as murder hobos, but those of most MMOs as well.
Seriously.
When was the last time you walked into an instance and didn't kill just about everything? (No, wipes don't count.) Of course, the complexity of interactions beyond the absolute basics keep higher level actions out of the reach of most MMOs., so it isn't quite a fair comparison. We, as players, can interact more between each other (or with a DM) than we can with computer NPCs. And with NPCs programmed to perform only certain duties, it doesn't take very long before interacting with an NPC gets boring.
This got me to wondering whether the "biggest beta ever" for MoP is a good thing or not.
Getting all of the annual subs into the beta is a good thing from a polish and bugs standpoint, but what about from a freshness standpoint?
Some of the beta testers have been playing for over a month now, and we can expect this beta to continue for the foreseeable future. However, how many of those beta players will find themselves burning out on MoP more quickly than if they'd not been in the beta? Could Blizz be feeding the beast by getting everyone into beta so that they'll have seen everything (or enough of it, anyway), only to discover widespread apathy a month or two into release?
Before anyone starts telling me how awesome and cool beta is, I'll point out one thing: I worked in software development for five years. I've been through about six or seven development cycles on a product that took well over 300 developers worth of effort. By the time the product went Gold, we were utterly and completely sick of working on that release and looked forward to the next release.**
If that happens to developers who (supposedly) like to code, why wouldn't it happen for beta testers?
Think about it: people will have effectively been playing MoP since April 2012. Those of us not in the beta won't get to try it out for several months (or later); while MoP will be fresh for us, it'll be old hat for the testers.
And how long did it take before people started complaining about things to do in Cata or Wrath? A few months?
I'm not sure what the consequences of the beta will be (other than a polished product), but what I am sure of is that people wouldn't have thought of them beforehand.
*I've only listened to part of one episode so far, but it's pretty good; I'm willing to listen to a few more podcasts before I decide to pick it up or not. The hosts do use colorful language, so this isn't the sort of podcast to listen where little ears might hear.
**One of the statements that would cause the most anguish in a developer were the words "I need you to work bugs on the current release for a few months."
EtA: It's "agent", not "ancient". Stupid auto correct. @#$&!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday Musings -- Brann's Trusty Pick Version
There are days when I think WoW is composed of 2 million subs and 8 million gold farmers.
Why yes, I'm working on mats for a chopper. Does it show?
The elimination of the wait for older mats when a new expac is released, such as Titansteel (and Felsteel for you older BC types) has been a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because you can farm all you want to collect the mats needed to create Titansteel without having to wait a day/week/what-have-you, but it's a curse because everyone else is doing that too. The entire cycle is compressed, and when you add the gold farmers to the list there can be days when you could spent almost all of your WoW time cruising Northrend and not find a single Titanium node.
Back in Wrath, I used to farm Titanium and Saronite for the gems, and in the wee hours on a PvP server there would be three of us (quite literally) fighting it out for the nodes. When I switched Q over to a PvE server, that number fluctuated between 3-5 people, but it wasn't too difficult to get your share of the ore and assorted goodies. However, in late Cata, it seems that there's a toon parked over every spawning point for Titanium or several cruising Icecrown or Sholazar for all of the spare Saronite. The number of toons farming ore has more than doubled, and I've spent 10 minutes or more hunting around before I found a lonely hunk of Saronite that wasn't being mined at that very moment.
Strangely enough, this doesn't translate into an overabundance of gold farming in the BC zones. Khorium and Eternium are still easily mined, while the BC herbs have been left alone as well. (My Worgen Lock finally made it to Outland, so he's ready to get some clown gear to match up better in BGs.) I guess you could chalk it up to not a lot of demand out there for the BC stuff, but if you read the blogs touting transmog you'd think otherwise.
Perhaps what really attracts the gold farmers is the near 5 digit price tag that a chopper or mechano-hog will fetch on the AH.*
Since I've been Farmer Bob the past couple of weeks, instead of running BGs I've queued up for a few normal 5-mans instead. I figure that the time it takes for the queue to pop is better spent cruising for mining nodes than the extremely short entry times for BGs.
I still don't know what the Heroic queues are like, but the random normals are clocking in at a half an hour. Based on that, I've been reluctant to specifically queue up for those normals I haven't done on Tom yet, mainly Stonecore and Throne of the Tides. It's not like I've not seen Stonecore before --it always seemed to proc whenever I queued up on Neve-- but it would be nice to actually mark that as finished on a Ret Pally. And Throne of the Tides... Well, I think I've seen that pop once all of Cata.
Naga just aren't as popular as they were in BC, I guess.
I didn't quite notice this until the past couple of weeks, but leveling via BGs in WoW is cyclic.
When you start out at the bottom of the level range for a BG, you're just glorified fodder. (Clothies, such as Priests and Locks, are even more so.) It can be painful to drag yourself up to that next level, and you get used to dying a lot. Once you make that level, however, then path to level after gets easier. And the next one, even more so, until you just kind of cruise out of one level range into another.
Then the cycle starts over again.
This cycle is a lot like leveling via questing in Age of Conan.
There's a pretty big dropoff in XP when you kill a mob two (or even one) level beneath yours in AoC, even more than WoW. What that means is when you're questing in a zone and you level up to where the mobs close to you are 2 levels below you, your XP intake drops precipitously, and your leveling slows to a crawl. You then have to push yourself to another portion of the zone where you match up better with the mobs. The thing is, AoC orients those mobs so that you have to be really precise about your pulls so that you don't end up with 3 or more mobs on you at once.
Oh, and did I mention they spawn more frequently than WoW? If you enter a higher level zone, you'll not only have to fight your way in, but also fight your way out.
I'm sure this was done to "encourage" grouping, but for someone who plays at odd hours, that means that the leveling process operates in spurts: you gain a level or two fast, then you have to go to a higher level area where your progress slows to a crawl. Just like leveling via BGs in WoW.
I don't often talk about my kids' MMO playing, but I figured I had to share this little tidbit:
My oldest managed to get her L22 Elf Hunter to Rivendell last week.
The kids had tried to get their toons to Rivendell before --they play F2P, so they had to run there-- but they always would get zapped by the high level mobs once they got past Weathertop. So it was no small effort that she managed to zip through that last zone to reach the Last Homely House East of the Sea.
She then proceeded to start geeking out.
"OMG!! There's Frodo! And there's Gandalf! And Bilbo!! And look: there's Merry and Sam and Pippin!!! This is just so cool!!!"
I don't think she stopped grinning the rest of that evening.
*The Battered Hilt still shows no sign of dropping in value, probably more due to transmog and desire to see the questline than anything else. The thing is, you can clear most of the mobs in the entry area of Heroic Forge of Saron without that much trouble, so why not just do that instead until you get a drop? You'll even get a nice supply of Frostweave to sell on top of it.
EtA: Have I mentioned that I disklike trackpads that are too sensitive? They make "whenever I" change into "when I ever". Sheesh.
Why yes, I'm working on mats for a chopper. Does it show?
The elimination of the wait for older mats when a new expac is released, such as Titansteel (and Felsteel for you older BC types) has been a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because you can farm all you want to collect the mats needed to create Titansteel without having to wait a day/week/what-have-you, but it's a curse because everyone else is doing that too. The entire cycle is compressed, and when you add the gold farmers to the list there can be days when you could spent almost all of your WoW time cruising Northrend and not find a single Titanium node.
Back in Wrath, I used to farm Titanium and Saronite for the gems, and in the wee hours on a PvP server there would be three of us (quite literally) fighting it out for the nodes. When I switched Q over to a PvE server, that number fluctuated between 3-5 people, but it wasn't too difficult to get your share of the ore and assorted goodies. However, in late Cata, it seems that there's a toon parked over every spawning point for Titanium or several cruising Icecrown or Sholazar for all of the spare Saronite. The number of toons farming ore has more than doubled, and I've spent 10 minutes or more hunting around before I found a lonely hunk of Saronite that wasn't being mined at that very moment.
Strangely enough, this doesn't translate into an overabundance of gold farming in the BC zones. Khorium and Eternium are still easily mined, while the BC herbs have been left alone as well. (My Worgen Lock finally made it to Outland, so he's ready to get some clown gear to match up better in BGs.) I guess you could chalk it up to not a lot of demand out there for the BC stuff, but if you read the blogs touting transmog you'd think otherwise.
Perhaps what really attracts the gold farmers is the near 5 digit price tag that a chopper or mechano-hog will fetch on the AH.*
***
Since I've been Farmer Bob the past couple of weeks, instead of running BGs I've queued up for a few normal 5-mans instead. I figure that the time it takes for the queue to pop is better spent cruising for mining nodes than the extremely short entry times for BGs.
I still don't know what the Heroic queues are like, but the random normals are clocking in at a half an hour. Based on that, I've been reluctant to specifically queue up for those normals I haven't done on Tom yet, mainly Stonecore and Throne of the Tides. It's not like I've not seen Stonecore before --it always seemed to proc whenever I queued up on Neve-- but it would be nice to actually mark that as finished on a Ret Pally. And Throne of the Tides... Well, I think I've seen that pop once all of Cata.
Naga just aren't as popular as they were in BC, I guess.
***
I didn't quite notice this until the past couple of weeks, but leveling via BGs in WoW is cyclic.
When you start out at the bottom of the level range for a BG, you're just glorified fodder. (Clothies, such as Priests and Locks, are even more so.) It can be painful to drag yourself up to that next level, and you get used to dying a lot. Once you make that level, however, then path to level after gets easier. And the next one, even more so, until you just kind of cruise out of one level range into another.
Then the cycle starts over again.
This cycle is a lot like leveling via questing in Age of Conan.
There's a pretty big dropoff in XP when you kill a mob two (or even one) level beneath yours in AoC, even more than WoW. What that means is when you're questing in a zone and you level up to where the mobs close to you are 2 levels below you, your XP intake drops precipitously, and your leveling slows to a crawl. You then have to push yourself to another portion of the zone where you match up better with the mobs. The thing is, AoC orients those mobs so that you have to be really precise about your pulls so that you don't end up with 3 or more mobs on you at once.
Oh, and did I mention they spawn more frequently than WoW? If you enter a higher level zone, you'll not only have to fight your way in, but also fight your way out.
I'm sure this was done to "encourage" grouping, but for someone who plays at odd hours, that means that the leveling process operates in spurts: you gain a level or two fast, then you have to go to a higher level area where your progress slows to a crawl. Just like leveling via BGs in WoW.
***
I don't often talk about my kids' MMO playing, but I figured I had to share this little tidbit:
My oldest managed to get her L22 Elf Hunter to Rivendell last week.
The kids had tried to get their toons to Rivendell before --they play F2P, so they had to run there-- but they always would get zapped by the high level mobs once they got past Weathertop. So it was no small effort that she managed to zip through that last zone to reach the Last Homely House East of the Sea.
She then proceeded to start geeking out.
"OMG!! There's Frodo! And there's Gandalf! And Bilbo!! And look: there's Merry and Sam and Pippin!!! This is just so cool!!!"
I don't think she stopped grinning the rest of that evening.
*The Battered Hilt still shows no sign of dropping in value, probably more due to transmog and desire to see the questline than anything else. The thing is, you can clear most of the mobs in the entry area of Heroic Forge of Saron without that much trouble, so why not just do that instead until you get a drop? You'll even get a nice supply of Frostweave to sell on top of it.
EtA: Have I mentioned that I disklike trackpads that are too sensitive? They make "whenever I" change into "when I ever". Sheesh.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Blog Alert - Need More Rage Has Gone Sentimental
I could try to post something about the death of Maurice Sendak, but anything I'd come up with pales in comparison to what Ratshag did at Need More Rage.
Go now, and smile.
Go now, and smile.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)