Yeah, that kind of gives away certain elements of the mid level flashpoints, but I'm not concerned. Looks interesting indeed, that the Revanites will have a part to play.
EtA: Removed the "the" from the title.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Before anyone accuses me of spoilers....
...there's a new expac announced for SWTOR: Shadow of Revan.
Yeah, that kind of gives away certain elements of the mid level flashpoints, but I'm not concerned. Looks interesting indeed, that the Revanites will have a part to play.
EtA: Removed the "the" from the title.
Yeah, that kind of gives away certain elements of the mid level flashpoints, but I'm not concerned. Looks interesting indeed, that the Revanites will have a part to play.
EtA: Removed the "the" from the title.
Friday, October 3, 2014
Oh hai, Friday. Where'd you come from?
It's been a busy week at work, and I've not had much time for writing. Therefore, check out this female Draenei cosplay instead:
Yes, there's several more pics at the site; go see it. I'm seriously impressed by the amount of work that went into it.
EtA: Fixed the broken link.
 |
| From fashionablygeek.com. |
Yes, there's several more pics at the site; go see it. I'm seriously impressed by the amount of work that went into it.
EtA: Fixed the broken link.
Friday, September 26, 2014
We Got it All Wrong After All
World of Starcraft?
WoW 2?
A more robust Diablo MMO?
Well, Titan was none of the above. According to an article on Kotaku, Titan was supposed to be a hybrid Sci-Fi shooter with a heavy dose of MMO elements. More than anything else, it was supposed to be similar to the recently released game Destiny*, but with much heavier MMO interplay.
Given that this would have been a completely new property for Blizz, it would have been that fourth leg to their table that currently has Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft holding the company together. It does sound very interesting in concept --particularly the ambitious nature of the economic game-- but I know I could never play Titan since it's a shooter.**
In the end, I suppose that Destiny was the final nail in Titan's coffin, since you're getting about 75% of Titan in Destiny's released form, and why would you want to compete with a game you're releasing?
One aspect to Titan that might have been interesting would be how it would have translated into PvP. With MOBAs all the rage these days, could Blizz have turned a portion of Titan's development into a PvP game that would compete with already released MOBAs? I suspect PvP wasn't a focus of Titan's development process, and that might have hampered Titan on release as well.
Regardless, Titan is now dead, deader than Jacob Marley, but you never know when elements of it will appear in other, already released games.
*By Bungie, which is released through Activision/Blizzard.
**Shooters give me headaches. Seriously. I have to take dramamine before I can even attempt to play a shooter.
EtA: Cleared up a grammar error in the first paragraph.
WoW 2?
A more robust Diablo MMO?
Well, Titan was none of the above. According to an article on Kotaku, Titan was supposed to be a hybrid Sci-Fi shooter with a heavy dose of MMO elements. More than anything else, it was supposed to be similar to the recently released game Destiny*, but with much heavier MMO interplay.
Given that this would have been a completely new property for Blizz, it would have been that fourth leg to their table that currently has Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft holding the company together. It does sound very interesting in concept --particularly the ambitious nature of the economic game-- but I know I could never play Titan since it's a shooter.**
In the end, I suppose that Destiny was the final nail in Titan's coffin, since you're getting about 75% of Titan in Destiny's released form, and why would you want to compete with a game you're releasing?
One aspect to Titan that might have been interesting would be how it would have translated into PvP. With MOBAs all the rage these days, could Blizz have turned a portion of Titan's development into a PvP game that would compete with already released MOBAs? I suspect PvP wasn't a focus of Titan's development process, and that might have hampered Titan on release as well.
Regardless, Titan is now dead, deader than Jacob Marley, but you never know when elements of it will appear in other, already released games.
*By Bungie, which is released through Activision/Blizzard.
**Shooters give me headaches. Seriously. I have to take dramamine before I can even attempt to play a shooter.
EtA: Cleared up a grammar error in the first paragraph.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Fall of (the) Titan
For those wondering what's next for Blizzard, it's not Titan.
Titan, the often rumored MMO successor to WoW, has been officially canned by Blizz.
What I got from the Polygon article (go, read the link, I'll wait) was that Blizz couldn't recapture that elusive "it" that they had with WoW, and decided to kill off Titan before it became an albatross and dragged down their reputation. Does that mean that even Blizzard can't put out a new MMO in this climate that will potentially topple WoW? Probably, but that's not their stated goal. Does it mean that it can't put out a new MMO that will at least be successful and not hemorrhage subscribers after a few months? I think that more likely.
If that doesn't give the MMO market pause, then I don't know what will. Even Blizzard is admitting defeat before Titan was even released.
The article also tells me that WoW is going to be the last word in the MMO genre from Blizzard. No Starcraft MMO, no WoW 2, nothing. What you see in WoW is what you'll get; some incremental updates, some new expacs, some other stuff from other MMOs (housing) added on, but at its heart WoW is going to be the MMO you see today.
I also suspect that the rise of League of Legends and other MOBA games has had an impact here as well. Video game professional leagues have suddenly become big business, and money is flowing in that direction. Releasing an MMO when the money is going elsewhere isn't smart business. Of course, you can lose your way merely chasing the money; a AAA video game is often years in development, and where the money is at when you start development is not where it's at when you're finished.*
Finally, expect more small tie-in titles in the future, such as Hearthstone, but leveraging their existing Blizzard properties. It is entirely possible that Blizz isn't going to create anything new, such as completely original games with new worlds and/or properties, for a long time to come. Creating a new, original property takes some risk, and Blizzard seems to be electing to go the safe route and reuse the properties instead.
To be honest, Blizzard has been living on its existing properties (Warcraft/Diablo/Starcraft) for a while now, and Titan was going to be a fourth leg of a table. I guess that table will have to get by with three legs now.
*See: novels and movies. The time it takes for a novel to be written and then published is a couple of years --and movies even longer-- and tastes can change at the drop of a hat.
Titan, the often rumored MMO successor to WoW, has been officially canned by Blizz.
What I got from the Polygon article (go, read the link, I'll wait) was that Blizz couldn't recapture that elusive "it" that they had with WoW, and decided to kill off Titan before it became an albatross and dragged down their reputation. Does that mean that even Blizzard can't put out a new MMO in this climate that will potentially topple WoW? Probably, but that's not their stated goal. Does it mean that it can't put out a new MMO that will at least be successful and not hemorrhage subscribers after a few months? I think that more likely.
If that doesn't give the MMO market pause, then I don't know what will. Even Blizzard is admitting defeat before Titan was even released.
The article also tells me that WoW is going to be the last word in the MMO genre from Blizzard. No Starcraft MMO, no WoW 2, nothing. What you see in WoW is what you'll get; some incremental updates, some new expacs, some other stuff from other MMOs (housing) added on, but at its heart WoW is going to be the MMO you see today.
I also suspect that the rise of League of Legends and other MOBA games has had an impact here as well. Video game professional leagues have suddenly become big business, and money is flowing in that direction. Releasing an MMO when the money is going elsewhere isn't smart business. Of course, you can lose your way merely chasing the money; a AAA video game is often years in development, and where the money is at when you start development is not where it's at when you're finished.*
Finally, expect more small tie-in titles in the future, such as Hearthstone, but leveraging their existing Blizzard properties. It is entirely possible that Blizz isn't going to create anything new, such as completely original games with new worlds and/or properties, for a long time to come. Creating a new, original property takes some risk, and Blizzard seems to be electing to go the safe route and reuse the properties instead.
To be honest, Blizzard has been living on its existing properties (Warcraft/Diablo/Starcraft) for a while now, and Titan was going to be a fourth leg of a table. I guess that table will have to get by with three legs now.
*See: novels and movies. The time it takes for a novel to be written and then published is a couple of years --and movies even longer-- and tastes can change at the drop of a hat.
Monday, September 22, 2014
One More Post on Gaming and Misbehavior
I wanted to point out a couple of new articles on internet shaming and worse:
By Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg From Ten Ton Hammer: Shaming and Gaming - This is Not Okay
By Spinks (Woo hoo, Spinks is back!) From Welcome to Spinksville: Guild culture, game culture, gamer culture (with notes on GamerGate)
"Enjoyed" isn't the right word for this, but they were very thoughtful posts and I am very glad they were written.
By Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg From Ten Ton Hammer: Shaming and Gaming - This is Not Okay
By Spinks (Woo hoo, Spinks is back!) From Welcome to Spinksville: Guild culture, game culture, gamer culture (with notes on GamerGate)
"Enjoyed" isn't the right word for this, but they were very thoughtful posts and I am very glad they were written.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Facepalm City
As you may have heard, Microsoft is buying the developer house Mojang, which owns Minecraft. Unless you're more plugged into gaming circles, you'd also know that the creator of Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson, left Mojang the same day, citing how he'd like his life back.
Between this and other recent gaming related items, the term "we eat our own" comes to mind.
But this article by the Washington Post's Andrea Peterson, How the Gaming Community Destroys its Heroes, really hits home.
Between this and other recent gaming related items, the term "we eat our own" comes to mind.
But this article by the Washington Post's Andrea Peterson, How the Gaming Community Destroys its Heroes, really hits home.
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