Dark Demons Cry Very Bloody Loud

Dark Days Are Coming. The signs and portents have been littered around the internet for some time. ARGs dedicated to The Secret World (I know Sareini and I are waiting to hear what will happen to the current residents of Kingsmouth and the Monsters of Maine blog).

When the embargo lifted I was quite pleased with everything I heard coming out of the GDC. Yesterday as I got home, there was a further treat with the Secret World trailer.

I will try organise more coherent thoughts about it all but for now we’re going to go with the good old fashioned bullet point system.

• I love the sound of the skill setup. It allows for flexibility and experimentation and they’re working on a “Respec” in pre-alpha instead of waiting. (Looking at you Cryptic.)
• The Cthulloid makes the most awesome sound. I want to kill it.
• The cinematic sound promising. Star Wars TOR will be fully voiced true, but I like the idea of each mission being made a little special and epic.
• Dark Days Are Coming, but they are not yet here. Still, that means I can keep up with the ARGs.
• The trailer voice over lady (from the Meet the Illuminati video) has a great voice for the sort of atmosphere they’re aiming for. So long as nothing gets NARM we’ll be okay.

More thoughts as I have them and manage to get time to put them down.

Information Permeation

The Patron Saint of iPhone cannot be without it and in fact wrote a book on it. A close friend of mine makes it sing (not literally, though I’m sure there’s an app) in her hands.

Fallen Earth, EVE, Champions Online and many more all look to include it.

The iPhone is a wonderful device that has an app for practically everything running, in the works or being dreamed up. I’ve seen people tackle tough business with them. I’ve seen people manage social lives across several networks with them. I’ve seen them used for status, used for silly games, used for managing life.

Then I saw this.

It really came home to me then that for all the apps, abilities and adaptability of the iPhone, I hate it.

This isn’t a Mac/PC thing or a Geek vs. Style thing. It’s a simple matter of information permeation. I use Twitter while in the office and at home. This has served me well in making friends, keeping abreast of blogging and in the industry I work. Knowing anything about Twitter while working in Market Research (even if I am the monkey) is gold. I use Trillian at home to tie together two MSN accounts, a Yahoo that I no longer use nearly as much, an AIM that I never really understood why I had and IRC networks. I blog on blogger, I blog on Wordpress (when not lazy) and I have Facebook and other social sites. For all intents and purposes, I am almost always connected.

That all said, I enjoy my commute home where unless someone rings me in a desperate rush, I can read my book and be away from the wired world. I enjoy my lazy weekend mornings where until I turn on the computer, none of you are in my home and the greater world doesn’t exist. I do love the internet and I’ve met many wonderful people online and in person due to it. I do love being able to blog, to search for numbers when I need them and otherwise worship at the altar of Google. I just also like time to myself.

This is in fact less about the iPhone itself, though such a target it is, and more about any device that ties me more to the internet. You could change it to Palm Pré or Google Nexus One or the Droid with the only difference being that my stories are incorrect.

Someone upstairs in work is considering getting a new phone. I’ll be the one who has to set it up, iron out any problems and be ready with a quick tutorial. I dread the day where they hatch the plan of giving me one. Scarybooster wrote a NaNoWriMo book on his iPhone and with the death of his computer it is his digital umbilical keeping him in touch with the wider world and the weight of information flying through the airwaves.

For me, given how I’d be compelled to make the best use of the device for work and home, it’d not be a digital umbilical but a digital noose. Goodbye problem solving or basic memory, hello iPhone and whatever app I’d need for that.

I called it.

It’s been busy here, hence the infrequent blogging. Up and downs but on the whole it’s getting better.

Of course reading other blogs give me gems like this.

Suffice to say there’s all sorts of goings on over at Cryptic, Atari and with Star Trek Online.

I would just like to remind everyone, I called it.

Overactive Imagination

Yesterday Shannon told me she had "badish" news. Turns out she needs a new chair. Nothings wrong with the old one, it's just not good for her back. This only rates as "badish" due to well... money.

"So what?" you may ask. I agree, it's a little detail. However, at the time Shannon took forever to tell me this "badish" news. There were tangents and then quibbles over how bad it really was. I didn't care, I just wanted to know. My mind was coming up with all the horrible scenarios it could. Is it really not bad or is it in fact a whole lot worse than advertised?

Not knowing is the worst thing. When you know what a problem is there at least exists the possibility of planning for it, facing it or running away like a little girl.

Not knowing in an MMO context is also powerful. I didn't know much of Cryptics plans for Star Trek bar that it was Cryptic and my mind ran away with the possibilities. It was also proven right (sadly) in many of them. I don't know a whole lot about The Secret World beyond that I want it and again, my mind is dancing with what may be.

However recently I've noticed fewer games doing that to me, at least in an online context. C&C 4? I'm thrilled. WoW Cataclysm? Meh. Despite what it could mean for the genre. Sword of the Stars 2? Woo! Allods? I haven't a clue what that's all about. Am I getting crankier and more insular as I get older? Am I more concerned about solo or casual experiences where I can do my own thing despite all the friends and connections I've made through MMOs?

Or is it simply there's not enough wonder in the genre at the moment? Of course everyone's taste is different. What has me fascinated by The Secret World may not work for someone else and they'll instead be salivating over FF14. When I first saw online games, they were mysterious things to me. Ireland was way behind the times as far as online connectivity went. These persistent worlds where anything could happen seemed like a little slice of gaming nirvana, Christmas and my birthday all in one package that I'd get every day.
Now though when people are looking at games it seems to either be "This is <X Game> with features lifted from <Y & Z with some poorly done -i>"  or "This is <A Studio>'s 2nd/3rd/4th/5th MMO with <overdone or rather rubbish signature trademark>".

Right now The Secret World is giving me what Warhammer gave me, what Warhammer 40k will give me and what my other games did. It is giving my mind something to run away with. To imagine the vistas that lay before me, even if the reality is somewhat lacking in the end. I will always treasure the run up to Warhammer for the excitement of the time and the bloggers I met.

It may turn out that The Secret World suffers, or has a bad launch (seriously Funcom, prove people wrong this time), or is simply crap. Either way for now I'm 16 again, seeing those unspoiled unknown worlds laid before me and happy with what may be.

Games are Competitions.

A little under 13 months ago I paid a visit to my old Primary school (that's Elementary for most of you). I needed my Confirmation certificate from the Church parish and they share links. During the visit, Shannon and I wandered through the yard and into the school so I could show her where I was educated as a wee boy. On the way back out and over to the Church we were surrounded by boys from 4-12 years old.
Kids were screaming happily, some were chasing one another, others were playing marbles; more still were playing games that I couldn't begin to guess at. It was chaos, but it was happy chaos.
Shannon, as far as I recall, asked me how anyone makes any sense out of the games and what was going on. The only answer I could give was that it makes sense to the kids at the time.

They knew if they were racing and against whom. They knew whatever the latest iterations of schoolyard marbles rules were. They knew the rules of this chasing game, that hide and seek game and of all the other games that were lost on me, having grown up and no longer being the sort of person to play in a schoolyard and the type of person who thought a half hour was an eternity in which to have fun.

That's not entirely true though if I play MMOs. They are the playground I long for when I am working. Not to the exclusion of life of course, but while the schoolyard was a small slice of Heaven when you were in classes, MMOs are my escapism from work.

Why the personal anecdote? Well Seph and I, you may know him or just recognise the name from the previous post, occasionally take part in that great past time of all MMO players. Armchair developer. We toss around ideas and of course, ideal game designs that may or may not ever see the light of day. In doing so I've begun to think about combat and competition.

Take Star Trek for a moment, it appears to be and is reported as having precious little but combat and FedEx missions (with the occasional memory game in lieu of diplomacy). Even so, it launched properly yesterday and likely by the end of the week we'll see it reported that someone has reached the skill/level cap. There'll be those that complain that the Rear Admiral blew through content and lessened the game for themselves by rushing. There'll be those who take any utterance from the cap as gold and proclaim that there are either greener pastures or desolate wastelands awaiting everyone if they get past the next arbitrary level. In the end though, one thing is apparent. He wasn't playing the same game as you. Oh, you may both be in Star Trek, but he was racing while you're playing chasing with Klingons or marbles with supply missions. If the game doesn't lend itself to a schoolyard though, we've a problem.

Most "games" are about competition. Who is the fastest, the strongest, the richest, the most skilled, the most adorned or adored? Healthy competition is good, but of course there will always be cheaters or those who suffer a lack of ability in certain areas. Competition can equate to combat, but it has to be combat in all areas. Financial, physical, social. Sandbox worlds do call back to our childhood where you could race in the yard today and chase or be chased tomorrow. Where the game was what you felt like doing and took pleasure from, even if no one else in the screaming mob was necessarily playing the same game with you or at all. The games we play need to promote the competition in all its forms and be flexible in the rule set.

Further to this, I think GMs should get more chances to interact. If not them, then there should be more dedicated community teams. Someone needs to police the schoolyard and it always falls to volunteer parents where I am. They keep an eye and solve the disputes. The cheating, the fighting, the scraped knee from a fall; all these fall under their remit. GMs should walk amongst us as giants and have a chance to see the community live instead of just deal with our broken moments.

Finally though, we all learn to play our games as children. Maybe some of you now prefer a more cerebral approach to entertainment. Others will enjoy the mindless grind or chaotic nonsensical battle. No matter how you prefer to be entertained, you want to be entertained. The competitions that our games inspire should be nurtured and promoted. When I played Planetside, I played an Infiltration Armour character. I didn't play to win the war for the Vanu every day. I didn't even necessarily follow the flow of the battle most times. I played for the heart pounding excitement of being chased by a Dark lighting MAX and for the thrill of sneaking past fortified placed. I loved to test myself and play with others. No matter the flaws or virtues of the game, I will always love it for that one simple fact.

Winning didn't matter, the rules were my own and sometimes I was the only one playing my game in that massive world at war. What did matter was I got to go to the yard and I got to play.

Morning Snark

I promise I'll blog properly later, but here's some morning snark from my friend Seph, intially about Star Trek Online, finishing with Cryptic.

Seph: snrk
  God, that's going to be a trainwreck of epic proportions.
Ardy: Like you wouldnt believe.
  Never did get your take on the Cryptic Kitchen sink link
http://www.massively.com/2010/01/27/players-miffed-over-champions-onlines-kitchen-sink-patch-and/
Seph: A change of that magnitude is like ED 2.0.
And seriously, an expansion pack ALREADY?
Ardy: No no, a single zone
Seph: That you have to pay for.
Ardy: That you have to buy, even if you're a lifetimer. In the 37-40 band where they've a huge lack of content (Lemuria is 34-40 and the kitchen sink patch was supposed to fix the lag, made the high level content even less accessible)
Seph: ...
Do... do they have brains? Common sense? Trains of thought? Because I'm sure that a platoon of dead babies would make better business choices than this, at this rate.
  Yes. Dead babies.
Ardy: They have the unholy fusion of Bill Roper and Jack Emmert.
Seph: THAT IS STILL A MORE PLEASANT THOUGHT THAT CRYPTIC RIGHT NOW.
Ardy: XD
Seph: THAN, TOO.
FINGERS SMASHING INTO KEYBOARD WITH RAAAAAGE
TYPOS IMMINENT
Ardy: So blogging this
Seph: HULKSEPH APPROVES

Seph:  But, uhhh... yeah.
Not all that smart of a move, really.
From a strictly-business perspective?  I get it.  From a game developer perspective, they're seemingly taking every bad PR move they can.
I honestly have heard very little good press about CO in some time.

Star Champions Online Trek off the Starboard Bow

Originally as this entry formed in my thinking meats, I was simply going to do a counterpoint to Syps Six Reasons why he is excited for Star Trek Online. Then as I sat down earlier with a coffee in hand, I caught up on my Massively. Specifically the Kitchen Sink patch.

We’ll deal with Star Trek and come back to Champions. Syp gives his own personal points why he is excited for the game. If you are at all interested in the game or even on the fence, go over and see what he has to say. It may well swing you in the games favour and who am I to stop you? My points though… my points are negative of course.

The first deals with Syps points 4&5, the fact that STO shows marked improvement and potential. Star Trek, as a game, as an IP and as a phenomenon should be commanding attention in the online market. Eve players should be eyeing up gorgeous ships with envy. Cryptic fans should be touting the jewel in their crown. Star Trek vs Star Wars debates should be suffering a blow as STO is out the gate well in advance of TOR. Cryptic made much of the fact that they have voice work from Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. They’ve worked with the plot point presented by the latest (and for me greatest) Star Trek movie. They’ve had all the breaks, all the chances and all the support and fans they could want. The game should be shining as it comes out of beta. Not “improving”, not “showing potential”. Star Trek is so deep within popular culture now that a poor execution of the game wounds fan spirits greater than if it was a newer ip. It’s launch shouldn’t be marred by last minute controversy. In light of the goings on with Champions (the two games being practically joined at the hip) the idea of a big content update 45 days after launch, requiring you to be into the second month of paying is just a further insult.

My second reason for disliking Star Trek Online is a little more airy. Shannon and I were watching the special features disc for the movie recently and Michael Giacchino made a fantastic point that had never really filtered into my mind before he voiced it. They left the theme of Star Trek right to the very end. They had flirted with it at various points through the movie but the cast and the crew had not yet earned it. As the movie closes, Leonard Nimoy talks us through it, the music swells and the ship, the crew and the franchise leaps into warp speed and the future. Love it or loathe it, the people behind the most recent Star Trek movie loved what they did, strove to be worthy of Star Trek and earned at least my adoration. Cryptic on the other hand has never (in a visible manner) given the same effort. They delivered a game based on an engine that isn’t suited for it with complaints everywhere. They slapped something together, stuck a combadge on it and partied like it was 2399. At no point in the beta build up, the marketing campaign or the public test did they earn the right to create or run Star Trek. IPs have huge power, but slapping an IP on a game you’d already built and calling it a day is nothing less than a gross insult to the fans of the IP. Just because it has the label of Star Trek, this in no way means they earned it.

The Champions debacle is an entry on its own. However there is something that I have taken away from Cryptics pricing, tactics and my own coloured views of Star Trek. This isn’t the game we deserve, this isn’t even the game that should have been. It was thrown together hastily using whatever was handy, marketed and shoved out the door. Why? I say because of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

So much of the industry nowadays is focused on WoW-killers and the next WoW and Bioware could topple Blizzard that they panic. Farming cash from the Star Trek IP in this way says only that Cryptic as a developer and Atari as a publisher had no faith in what they created, they didn’t think it’d survive contact with a Bioware Star Wars and they didn’t even bother to make a new game. Instead of being a virtual world where humanity has grown beyond some of our worst features, instead of being the shining light of hope that Star Trek strove to be, this is an extended exercise in lining ones pockets at the expense of a fanbase. Personally, my heart is broken.

Start Trekin’

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while I know. First Shannon put out her back on Thanksgiving, then it was Christmas and then it was New Years, Shannon’s birthday, my birthday and yesterday my anniversary.

That all said, it’s a poor excuse but hey it needed saying.

Soooo! Star Trek.

I got into the Closed Beta quite some time ago, in fact shortly after I did I made sure to make a note. I will be perfectly honest and say that in the closed beta, I didn’t exactly give it the most rigorous testing of it’s life, nor did I pour obsessively over it so that I could give you the best review of your lives. Why? Well Cryptic works on PST and as a result the three or four hour beta windows were typically far too late in the evening for me. I stayed up till 3am for my first, just to see the game, but after that I couldn’t be bothered. If a window met me and if I wasn’t otherwise occupied then I played. However the painfully brief windows for testing left little opportunity for me on GMT to actually y’know.. test.

Speaking of said windows, the only time the game was up for a nice meaty chunk of time before open beta was a week before Christmas. All other times, maybe maaaaybe for a few hours with each window a week or so apart at times. If you’ve been fretting about how fast this game has been tested, there’s some more fuel for the fire. If you think Champions Online was an extended beta for Star Trek, well then surely the engine didn’t need that much testing.

On the game itself, I have a surprising revelation given how I’ve been about it. Having tootled about in my little Centaur for a bit, you know game-wise, it isn’t half bad. I’ve only gotten to Lieutenant Rank 6 so it’s not like I’ve seen all that can be seen and done.

Bullet points! This would be the pro-list.

• Fleet Actions or as you know them, Warhammer Public Quests
• Diplomatic Missions (I did one, simple chat and remember)
• Trans-Warp to Starbase (A hearthstone by any other name, but graphically appealing)
• Phasers and Photons sound like they should.
• Open instance auto teaming.
• Space combat is engaging.
• Alternative crafting methods.

And my con list.

• Cryptics level of customization.
• Micro-transactions.
• Lifetime Sub price.
• Poor mob AI.
• Immersion.
• The fact that it’s Star Champions Online Trek.

Because I’m a miserable sod, we’ll deal the the cons first. Micro-transactions as a complaint have been beaten to death previously and by better than me. The lifetime subscription price has also been worked over something rotten.

Let’s complain about Cryptics level of customization. Odd I know, that’s generally where they get the most praise and usually rightly so. Cryptic set the bar with the City of Heroes creator, worked themselves harder for Champions and when Shannon saw the creator for Star Trek where you could create your own race she fell in love. You can change every little thing and there’s even (fluffwise) leeway given to alternative gender options. After that, Starbase offers you the chance to tailor again, offers you a choice of ship configurations and bridge layouts. You can have your scratch built race, personally modified ship and favourite bridge set up. Why I count this against them is simple. Cryptic, make a game where yes you have a fantastic creator but where people actually want to play the creations. It’s all well and good that you can tweak a custom race to such a degree and then do it to your ship as well, but shouldn’t that level of attention be given to the game proper? I’m not saying that it hasn’t been, that’d be for people who have tested it harder than I to decide.

Mob AI is idiotic on the ground. You get bonuses for flanking attacks in ground combat so if you have your away team, you want to try take the other guys by surprise or otherwise get around them to get the extra damage. Best way? Wait till they shoot at someone and then walk past them. Many times I would finish killing a Klingon only to realise there was a line of them directly behind me and not one of them paying me the slighest bit of attention. It isn’t honourable, but I shot each of them in the back. My brother who also tested has said that he has found that many people give their away teams Wide area phasers so they generate all the threat while he goes around the back and finishes the job. Will crews be twinked to soak all the aggro? Oh you bet.

The other two cons come hand in hand. Star Champions Online Trek and Immersion. I know a bunch of people who have nothing but praise for CO, but it’s not for me. However STO is Champions with another skin and some space bits. You still loot, you still look funny, you still only play in instances with a handful of people and have the same damn chat system. I didn’t like Champions and if I played Star Trek, I’d be forced to endure parts of Champions that I still don’t like but in what should be a completely different game. I can understand trying to cover your costs by reusing the engine, hell it makes perfect technical and financial sense. On the other hand, if people didn’t like your other game, they’ll be able to find fault with this.

Immersion is also a problem. Star Fleet is by very definition a uniform military organisation. It has codes of conduct, acceptable behaviours, a prime directive and an image to uphold. I don’t think an institution like Star Fleet can be done properly outside of single player games. Everyone in this MMO starts as an Ensign who gets given a ship. Apparently everyone down the chain of command on a ship you don’t even start on gets killed real dead and as a result you have to take command. You were led by your nose through the entire tutorial and told what to do and how, but they trust you with a Starship for keeps. After a few months of live time, Sol System will have more Rear Admirals than you can shake a Romulan Ale at. Everyone is also their own Captain. On an away team solo, you’re the boss and you have your bridge crew you can pick from to accompany you. On a team away team, the leader picks who gets to fill the dead spots with their npcs. You can invite people to your bridge which is nice, but is essentially pointless. I’m sure people will claim that the roleplay community will be fantastic and I do wish them my best but I don’t see how the immersion will work and to be honest, Star Trek fans are all but unpleasable. Everyone’s a Captain and the leader will be the one with the rare blue Klingon Disruptors.

Going back a second in my incoherent ranting, looting in Star Trek makes no sense. Buying black market from Ferengi, yes. Requisitioning in Starbase, yes. Coming across the bits and pieces of a long dead civilisation? Yes. Hot swapping phaser banks for the newly looted Romulan disruptor cannons… no. Refitting the offensive potential of a Starship should not be a drag and drop in between combats affair. Neither should Star Fleet personnel be picking over the hulks of destroyed ships like so many Pakleds.

I will give the pros a review of their own after work but I’ll say this. Despite my complaints, most of which can be laid at the feet of Cryptic or the trouble in adapting certain IPs to current MMO models, the game itself isn’t terribly bad. I happily flew around and fired my phasers. It didn’t breach Shannons warp core, she got bored the moment she was put in a ship in the tutorial, but I was distracted decently enough. However I’d not buy it. It’s an okay game but I wouldn’t give up my current games and give them money for “okay”. Cryptic can work on it, as people think they will using the lifetime cashgrab, and when it is stellar (pun intended) they can call me.

NaNoWriMo

You only really lose if you never try. I personally did not try and that's my loss.

I had outlined an idea and did start, but quickly fell out of love with how it was going. So in my inspired laziness I decided that as it was a loss either way (I dawdled far far too much) I would wait till the last weekend and try hammer out as many words on a new direction and tone of the novel idea as I could.

Then of course life intervened. So I lost for not following the advice I gave other people several times. It doesn't matter if it's rubbish, if it barely makes sense or only has a fleeting relationship with coherence, it only matters that you write. 50,000 words or bust, quality optional.

Perhaps next year I'll smack myself in the head and do it properly. Either way I must say congrats to Sehkmet, Renalae, Sypster, MorrowS and a huge congratulations to the absolutely nuts Scarybooster who wrote his on an iPhone.

It's only 8am GMT here so there may well be more congrats to come, Sareini and shinobitsn I'm looking at you.

Intellectual Properly

In my fit of nerd rage previously, Terry made a good comment.

It's box art. It's supposed to get your attention and trigger certain subliminal behavior responses.

As far as Marketing is concerned, fighting and spaceships and explosions with a clean cut looking fellow front and center > 5 balding nobodies of various colors with a collection of head ridges sitting around a table, maybe arguing or having tea or something.

He’s completely correct. If you counted up the episodes of the Original series and the amount of times the Captain Kirked out, you’d get a fairly action packed show. Times changed with Captain Picard who favoured more diplomatic or cerebral solutions. Don’t be fooled though, he could still kick your ass up around your ears. Captain Sisko went his own way and had a war to fight, between Gods and Demons and a proper war with Klingons and Cardassians and Breen and so on. Captain Janeway sadly was portrayed about fifteen thousand different ways per season but had her fair share of ass kicking. Captain Archer went a special crazy for all of season three when someone in Paramount decided that the equation “Sci fi+GRIMDARK=Money” applied to any and all science fictions.

On a related but otherwise totally different point, Jim Butcher has a map (illustrated by Priscilla Spencer) now for his Codex Alera series. This is a good thing. It’s a lovely piece of artwork and helps flesh out the world.

Only it’s backwards. Rather, in my head it is. For some reason I had always held Canea as being to the east rather than the west. Perhaps I didn’t pay enough attention, or perhaps I just preferred it that way. Such is the point that people start abusing canon and doing slashfiction. If anyone knows which way up or around the world goes, it’s the author, not me.

This brings me to a point though. The world of Alera to me goes the opposite direction to what is it. The world of Star Trek to me is about the triumph of humanity and its betterment rather than pew pew laser beams. Yes there are battles and action sequences liberally sprinkled throughout the canon. Heck my favourite Captain is from Peter David’s New Frontier series and Mackenzie Calhoun is a complete Kirk style cowboy Captain.

Ultimately, the intellectual property that is Star Trek has many aspects and for each there are fans. Could any company create a game that would satisfy all or even most parties? Is that even achievable in games based on an IP rather than a completely new world where there isn’t 40 or 50 years of fans idolising different aspects of it?

In the end did I lash out at Star Trek because I don’t feel that Cryptic has done the property properly, or is it because they’ve done it justice, but not in a way that suits my mental image of Star Trek? Only time will tell. I’m going to give it a try of course, how could I not? However if in the end it is all brawn and no brain, “Fire all Phasers” rather than “Open Channel” and gung ho at the expense of thought, it just won’t be Star Trek for me.

I want to boldly go, to seek out new life and new civilisations. Solve their problems, save them from the dangers that plague the universe and work towards a shining ideal first put forward decades ago. I don’t want to spam photons and go for coffee, no matter how much I can customize a race or ship.

I’m sure you wouldn’t…

I’m sure you all wouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. I’m sure you all wouldn’t jump to conclusions on scant information.

I’m sure each and every one of you was raised right and isn’t going to cause a fuss over this.

According to Massively what you see in the link is the Star Trek Online Box art. Now being responsible mature people you won’t immediately read anything into it. Except we’re on the internet and that’s all bullshit and it’s time for nerd rage.

Specifically if people had a problem with the PCGamer Star Trek covers featuring vast … tracts of land on the girls, then what about this? Gun toting, fire raging, glorified battle with a Star Trek badge.

Suffice to say, diplomacy doesn’t seem to be an option.

We come in pwn, shoot to kill.

EDIT : Addition from a good friend

Doman: This is space, it shouldn't be "vast ... tracts of land" but rather "heavenly bodies"

MMO Blog Alliance Charity Drive 2009

The holidays are almost upon us again and this year the MMO Blogging Alliance wants to help ensure a good season for all! We’ve decided to pull together and encourage our readers to donate to those less fortunate. It has been a tough year for many families across the world and a little boost can go a long way. Please consider donating to one of the many charities that we recommend or one you select on your own. If you’re a blogger and would like to participate in our drive, it is as easy as writing a post, including this at the top, linking to the other posts, and picking a charity to donate to. Let’s show everyone that in 2009 the MMO community can make a positive difference in the world!

For Echoes of Nonsense, like some of the others, I’ve gone for Child’s Play. Honestly, every year I see it and every year I mean to do something but always let it slip me by. So this time around I’m getting behind Child’s Play and supporting them.

From the Child’s Play website:

Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over 3.5 million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

There’s a widget going up on the side to donate directly to Child’s Play (i.e. I shan’t be touching the monies) and for those of you out there who have your own near and dear charities, be sure to check the roll of honour below as there are many more charities covered, from Amnesty International to housing the homeless, breast cancer and lolcats needy kitties.

Roll of honour on the MBACD 2009, brainchild of Ferrel and supported by these great folks.

• Epic Slant 
• Bio Break 
• Incoming Pull 
• Spinksville 
• Psychochild 
• Stylish Corpse 
• Stabbed Up 
• MultiPlaying

This is our first year and if you’d like to know more or just chat about the initiative hop on over to the Epic Slant forum. Information on donating toys to Child’s Play can be found on their site.

Last Chance

Hey folks, just a quick poke in the eye here.

Today is the final day where you can buy the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.2010 MMO Calendar

Information and Store here

If you want an epic piece of MMO art every month for a year, this is the last chance. Go now and grab it, 100% of proceeds go to charity.

Cryptic’s Star Trek

First, let’s do the easy bit. To apply for the Star Trek Online closed beta please visit this link. If you get in, remember who sent you and beat up a dev to get me in. Closed beta started October 22nd and Star Trek Online is slated for a first quarter 2010 release. Amazon pre-order link is somewhere below.

So. Star Trek. I was raised on Star Trek. Oh there were other shows, there was Doctor Who ingrained so deeply in my mind that I sleepwalked (slept walked?) to the source of the theme music once. There was Space 1999, Blake’s 7, UFO, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. British 70s sci-fi, American sci-fi it didn’t matter. I was born and raised a geek. I love newer stuff. Stargate, Farscape, Odyssey 5, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 all are huge to me. Star Trek though… despite the rubbish first three seasons per show, despite the ending of Enterprise or even worse, the Warp 10 episode (disowned from Canon) and despite what people may say about the latest movie, I love Star Trek. Shannon too is a life long Trekkie and we’ve both said to one another that love it or loathe it, we’re honour bound to at least trial Star Trek when it gets to Open Beta/Release (Though Cryptic, I can totally be bought by two closed beta keys if you want me to be nicer). With my geek cred established needlessly let’s get onto the real reason for this post.

KHHHHHHAAAAAAANNNNNNYYYYPPPPTTTIIIIIICCCC. (Why does the spell checker have no problem with that but dislikes “cred”?)

Let’s start with a previous blog entry, The Cryptic Model. I suggested that if “polish” is the watchword of Blizzard, then “custom” is that of Cryptic. Look at what they’ve done to date. I think people have died due to the amount of time they spent in the character creator (Joke, seriously). So far Cryptic has offered up two perks for Star Trek and like any good little nit picking fan boy I have an issue with both. First we have the perk given to the Lifetime subscribers of Champions Online, the mirror universe uniform. That makes no sense. Allow me to explain/Shut up and listen. The Terran Empire as seen in the first Mirror Universe episode, the one that established that evil twins have goatees and thus goateed people are evil, collapsed shortly after Kirk got his Kirk on. By the time of DS9 Earth and such had gone from almighty warmongering empire to a slave race to the Bajorans, Cardassians and Klingons. By the time of STO (some 20/30 years after Nemesis) the idea of wearing a Kirk era alternate universe evil empires outfit? Yeah I’m going to go and put a big fan boy NO on that. The second perk is even more unforgivable. Pre Order From Amazon and get a Borg Bridge officer. If I have to explain why that is wrong you never really got the Borg did you? This isn’t a Seven of Nine type issue where it’s a recently saved human (and generally getting de-borged is reserved for main cast) who happens to have some implants and such. No they are saying here have a Borg. I could come up with methods to justify that, like the individual “Hugh” Borg Lore was hanging out with or the Borg from Unity. In any event, despite any justification, you’d imagine they’d be a rarity as opposed to every Tom, Dick and Harry Kim who pre-orders.

Moving onwards we have further complaints. We’ll swing the bat at Cryptic first and then back to the game. Star Trek Online is being based on the Champions engine. Sure this means that development time has been cut, they already have the engine and tools and whatnot. Star Trek thus will be out in the first part of 2010. February if Amazon is to be believed. That seems rushed to me, terribly so. Further to my complaints, I foresee the C-Store making an appearance in Star Trek. I’ll have to wait and see to complain properly about that one.

At this point in the entry I was geared up for further bile and ranting. However I think I will leave it here for now and save that for another day. Suffice to say, the ship list does not please the Ardy. Instead I will end with one or two positives.

While I don’t necessarily agree with the view of the Klingons being presented, I admit that it is a good move to have an iconic pvp based race. Klingons love to fight and it can even be another Klingon. Also the progression and some of the ships interest me. Still, with the game only going into beta, a lot can change. Let’s hope the needs of the many are satisfied by what Cryptic is attempting.

Champions Online Free Weekend

With the rising of the Blood Moon, Champions is offering a Blood Moon Weekend to give people two days to try out the game and the Halloween Event.

Terry was right in the comments recently, I have been more full of hatedom than usual. You know, I gripe because I am interested. I never was one of the CoH players or pen and paper RPG players who on hearing of Champions squeed my pants off. Personally I didn’t get it and to a degree I still don’t.

However I have told a few people (though I may have neglected to blog it, so here you are) that I always thought I could have fun in Champions. I loved the look of the Force set. I thought tunnelling was cute. I’m going to try make the Robo-Buddy. All these things hold true despite complaints about the store, complaints about the game at large or anything else.

I’m going to be patching up (provided it isn’t an insanely huge patch) and creating a few characters. As Syp pointed a while back, saving the costume you make is a good move as it saves everything and makes for easy loading at a later date. I don’t think I ever will pick up Champions full time because there’s just other things out there that I want to play and the people I enjoy playing with aren’t jumping ship entirely just yet. Even so, if you’re free this weekend feel free to poke me on my Twitter or in Champions. @Ardua or http://twitter.com/Ardua

That all said, I stand by my fan boyish Trekkie based nerdrage. Cryptic gets a blasting for Star Trek Online later on. Nitpicks incoming!

C(ash cow)-Store

Sorry for the delay folks. Blame The SCP Foundation for my absence lately. I just can’t get enough of it.

Anyway as I am sure almost everyone knows, the Champions Online C-Store is now live. In it you can get such things as a complete Character Retcon (1000pts), Four additional Character slots (1200pts), Additional costume slots (400pts per two slots), Character Rename (280pts) then various emblems, outfits, vanity pets and so on.

Now those Cryptic points are roughly similar to Turbine Points. We’ll come back to that. The current exchange rate (as though to imply it can be changed later) Cryptic Points stands as shown here. It is at this point that I must point out quite clearly to one and all that City Of Heroes also has micro transactions.

City of Heroes lets you buy

• Character slots for a server up to a maximum of 36 slots on one server (1, 2 or 5 at iirc $5, $10 and $20)
• Server Transfers
• Respecs
• Character Rename
• Super Boosters

The Super Boosters are $10 each and you have such varied ones as the Good Vs Evil item pack (from the GvE edition of the game), Wedding Pack, Mac Item Pack, Cyborg Booster, Magic Booster and Super Science booster. Of all of them, only the Wedding pack is entirely cosmetic, with new outfits and emotes. The last three bring outfit pieces, emotes and powers. Good Vs Evil and Mac Pack have costumes and a new power.

Basically $10 buys you a fair bit of kit in CoH. Shannon wants me to get the Magic pack when I can because she adores one of the coats in it and I have to admit, the Fortune power is very handy to have but by no means game breaking. I personally have been eyeing up the Mac Pack, not for the mission teleporter power but the Valkyrie armour which looks gorgeous. Despite there being costume sets to buy and emotes only available to those who have shelled out cash the booster packs are perfectly acceptable to me for two reasons. Firstly (and I wish I had the time to ferret out a link to source the assertion) the Wedding pack sales directly accelerated work on the issue that followed it thanks to the cash injection. Hey, they give us fun stuff that we may want but don’t need and if it gives them a leg up? What’s not to love? Secondly, there are new pieces added to the game constantly. There are more temp powers than I’ve ever had knocking around the game. I may not be able to juggle electricity or drink a super serum for a costume change, but I eventually got my own costume change emotes.

$10 in CO doesn’t buy you anything. You have to purchase in increments. So the nearest band is $12.50 which gets you 1000 points and that’s just enough for a full RetCon in Champions. $12.50 to rebuild your character. City of Heroes also has Respecs for sale. Respecs in City of Heroes let you repick every power from your primary and secondary from the first level, entirely changing the pools you may have had and also are a handy way to sell off or remove enhancements and slotting that you may want elsewhere. You cannot, unlike the RetCon, change your primary and secondary. However as I write this I have 51 months worth of Veteran badges and Issue 16 recently launched. I personally tend not to respec and five years on from launch massive sudden nerfs to powers in CoH are rare. As a result I have Four veteran respecs (9 months, 21, 33 and 45 months), one new issue “freespec” and on most of my characters I have my three possible reward respecs from the trial. The trial takes about two hours and at the end, wahey respec and badge. If for some reason I managed to burn through those 8, I still do not have to shell out cash, there are Respec recipes on the in game market (though they cost a pretty penny).

Slots are also an issue. Four more character slots in Champions (to bring you to a total of 12) costs $18.75 (1500 pts) if you buy the two smaller instalments or $25 (2000pts) if you want to buy a few more things. Five slots in City of Heroes is $20 and you get a new character slot for every 12 months you’ve played the game, on top of the 12 you already had from City of Heroes (originally it launched with 8 but 12 became the standard after CoV) and the two they gave out if you were around for the launch of slots. You can on a single server in City of Heroes have 36 slots. Sure Champions is brand new and sure it doesn’t have servers, relying instead on the instances system but … it’s not like Cryptic didn’t know that hero games breed altwhores. It’s not like they didn’t give out Freespecs in CoH or didn’t have an easy and enjoyable respec system. Sure I suppose the ability to have a full retcon, rebuilding your character from the ground up and having entirely different powers, shouldn’t be cheap or easy. There’s a difference though between “not cheap and easy” and “screw the customer for cash”.

As people will continue to compare the two games (me especially) keep in mind that Cryptic did make them both. Champions should have been City of Heroes Mk 2.Awesome. They had the time and experience with CoH to show them what did and did not work, what does and does not piss off the fan base and finally how to have fans hand over cash with a grin. I’ve never heard anyone bemoan “having” to buy a super booster. Heck if you decide to play City of Heroes, buy the Architect edition, you get a free super booster with it. Right now Champions is punishing its players and the pricing is insulting in some cases and idiotic in others. Really though, it’s just retail. You’ll almost always have points left over and they’ll tease you with more bits and pieces. You’ll always need to buy just a few more to fit everything if you don’t shell out more than you need initially.

Though for the close we’ll go back to the Turbine Points like I promised. I played some DDO with Sareini over the weekend and I earned my first Turbine points which when I have enough I can use instead of cash to buy anything in the DDO store. Now obviously I know it’ll be a grind if I want anything in particular. The cash option is just the faster, easier but ultimately costly option. If I want it NAO I pay money. Champions to my recollection is supposed to have the same system. However Sareini tells me that there are to her knowledge at the moment no missions in the game that reward C-Points because well… it’s broken. Also Cryptics Daeke had this to say.

I agree with Syp in that CO really shouldn’t be charging for costumes and such when they haven’t yet surpassed their only competitor. If nothing else, charging money for Halloween outfits before Halloween? Whose bright idea was that?

Two notes I'm adding after the fact. First I will put in ParagonWiki links for people soon. Second, while I want clarification on the extra costume slot item in the C-store, it is the one thing Shannon would kill for in CoH

STO Placeholder

This is a post I've joked about a few times to friends.

I'm going on record as disliking Star Trek Online, the direction Cryptic are taking, the information released and pretty much most of everything I hear about it.

Placeheld so I can refer to it later and either laugh at myself for my misguided nature (yeah right) or more likely point and prove I was on the hatewagon first :P

Cryptic? You just go and bugger off.

WTS: 1 Ardy Soul

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve never played a Blizzard or Bioware game. I’ve watched my brother play countless hours of Mass Effect, KOTOR and KOTOR II. He plays WoW. In fact most people I know online either have played WoW, are playing WoW or will at some point.

As far as my gaming calendar goes, there’s City of Heroes next weekend to such a degree I’ll probably be sick of it next monday. There’s Left 4 Dead and if I get the money, a pre-order of Left 4 Dead 2. I’d love to dabble in Aion and have every intention of getting Shannon to test Champions Online just for my own grim amusement.

However Christmas is coming and with it, holidays. I’ll have time to indulge various bits and David (the brother) does keep offering me World of Warcraft. So question to everyone.

Is the never ending draw of Warcraft based in how it is as an MMO or due to fond memories of Warcraft I-III being translated to the big screen as it were? I understand some of the lore but none of the draw. Am I too changed by the games I have played to enjoy WoW or will it be me selling my soul?

So, Ardy play? Y/N.

Possibly The Worst Idea

My wee mention of Left 4 Dead put me to thinking about things. Of course the thoughts aren’t terribly original but hey Echoes here.

Kyle Horner of Massively put digital pen to paper in March and offered up the idea of a Zombie Apocalypse MMO. Earlier still he mused on a Survival Horror game.

While collecting links for this post, I remembered where Syp talked about permadeath. Permadeath as he points out is a polarising thing. You either hate it or embrace it and rarely fall on either side. Unsurprising really given that a quick look at game wikis proves character death is cheap. In Champions, you take a hit to your effectiveness. In City of Heroes, technological wonders rebuild you on a molecular level as you fall, avoiding all the issues of death (probably also explaining why you can “arrest” with a broadsword to the neck). Aion, you’re immortal. Warhammer, you’re too busy to die. Warcraft, death is helpful if you want to get all the quests. There are so many ways of sidestepping the Reaper explained away by the fluff of the game, usually in the tutorial to boot, that is causes fights when applied to NPCs. Ask people about if Heroes kill or not in the Champions Online or City of Heroes role-playing forums and be ready for a firestorm.

Permadeath is based on a very basic premise though, one that exists in many games and I think could be applied well in MMOs (or it’s a horrible idea as the title of this suggests), specifically the idea that supplies are limited. There is only one of you. There are only so many resurrections available. There is no healer or mediport or other Applied Phlebotinum around to get you on your feet.

So if in fact supplies are limited, shouldn’t that apply across the game world? The Left 4 Dead example, and the idea of the post, is this. You have X amount of ammo, Y amount of friends and Z options. You need to get from A to B and there may not be a handy drop of medical supplies or pills or ammo or anything along the way. You could face hordes of mooks or a handful of specialised problems. Part of the tension comes in the fight, another part comes in the debate. Do I use my pills now or do I wait? Can I afford to unload my weapon like a madman into that mob or should I get my (unlimited) pistol? Will I survive just a little longer, saving that precious med pack for when we really need it?

In a post apocalyptic world or survival game world, supplies should be limited. Give people the ability to patch up friends into walking wounded, give people a weapon they can always use but isn’t exactly going to rock anyone's socks. Give them the tension that comes of the choices, to use what little they have now or try to hold on a little longer.

Like in Kyle's example, the best supplies and remaining scant resources are in the danger zone. You’re not. Maybe such a game would have permadeath, maybe not. Either way there would only be so many people with so much stuff and you’d have to work out how to survive on that. Logistics and tactics become paramount.

Bonus ideas

Two MMO settings where supplies are precious and choices hard. First, Sci-fi setting where humanity (or for extra points humanity are the invaders and you play something else) is on the run from an invading force. Until such time as the story allows it, it would be a game of rearguard actions and ever increasing pressure put on the survivors and their stockpiles. Escape, abandon other guilds to die, try to fight the good fight. Whatever you do, you’ve a game where people need to work together to win, otherwise they die piecemeal.

Second setting, easy one this, Post Epitaph One-Dollhouse verse. The world is clearly in tatters and people have all sorts of dangers rallied against them. Make the escape from a large city a very very long tutorial where you either learn what you need to work with people in refuge or you suffer a fate worse than death. Extra points if the game doesn’t include permadeath in a traditional way and instead offers you the chance to override a Doll. Do you take that option and take someone's body? Or do you do the honourable thing and go out shooting?

 

Either way the idea of limiting supplies could be awful, the one wonderful part of it is it has brought me that much closer to lunchtime. Really really awful. I remember reading about old school Everquest and guilds camping dungeons that they wanted to run. Do you think the world is ready for the ultimate co-op game? Not just an MMO but one where you really do have to shape up yourself as well as work well with others. Then again given the boards of many online games, do you really want to rely on those people for your continued survival? Would you play a game where every med pack is precious and if you don’t join the guys guarding the pharmacy, you may never see another?

I suppose in the end, supplies are limited. People will be patient with current game designs for only so long, many already have lost their patience. I guess my final question is this, would you play in a world where, in the big picture, your side has already lost? All you can do is survive and hope to turn the tide someday.

In The Name Of The Healer..

And the Tank and the Holy DPS did you see how I pwned that mob?!?

That’s right, the holy trinity. The three body system that has the person soaking the damage and keeping aggro, the person keeping everyone up and running and the person who dishes out the hurt. I’m told the Holy Trinity is boring and old fashioned and in need of a shake up. Personally, I’ve not had much experience with it. Even in games that have it, I’ve a tendency to go off and do whatever amused me rather than what I am good at or “meant” for.

The Trinity is being discussed on the Epic Slant Forums but this post is inspired by Luigrein over at Rainbow MMO. He was talking about City of Heroes and how just because your class is a tank, that doesn’t mean levelling one means you know them all. (By the way, I didn’t see your global for ages mate, I’ll tend to that tonight)

I am in total agreement with that. Last night I just got my tenth level 50 character in City of Heroes, this time my Warshade Kashlar. So as of writing this I have a max level on 6 of the 7 Hero ATs and 3 of the 7 Villain ATs. That doesn’t mean I have played everything, even in the ATs that I have supposedly finished. My friend Sephorus for the longest time had a Fire/Fire tank that he insisted was a scrapper with the wrong AT icon. Dinging 50, I was on an Imperious Task Force. We had no dedicated healer and precious little in the way of pure dps. What we did have was a lot of people who played well and had enough utility to carry the day (also lots of control). I have heard of all Kheldian taskforces, all Blaster taskforces, all Defender (broken and wrong:P) taskforces and so on and so forth. The Trinity can be undone through one word. Utility.

I think the hard part is though not everyone wants it gone. Personally I think I might enjoy some time making the healiest healer I can, or tankiest tanker. I might like my niche and I want to be able to indulge that desire wherever I play. Designers though are the ones who you have to convince and I know how.

Get the developers of all the games you love and have a massive Left 4 Dead vs marathon. Zoey is no better than Francis. Louis no less accurate than Bill. Each player is on an even footing and can pick the weapons that suit their style best, can heal with a medkit or patch up briefly with pills. They all can lay down walls of fire or lob a distracting pipe bomb. How the person plays with the tools offered is up to them. There is no dedicated healer, though someone can play that way. There is no dedicated tanker beyond “Hey you’ve slightly more health, you annoy the Witch”. There is no best weapon. You use what you have in a manner that suits yourself. Could that be applied to MMOs en masse? I haven’t a clue, though I will watch the one that recently caught my eye that might.

Levels and classes are a wonderful introduction to online games and teach you how to play in the virtual worlds that so many people love. Sooner or later though, the fun comes from having nothing but a shotgun and a prayer.