A mixture of hope and apathy

At the moment I’m kind of adrift on an uninspiring sea of MMORPGs. There’s no siren call strong enough to tempt me into paying a subscription fee, I’m just not finding anything particularly alluring. Too much of the same old same old I suppose. So instead I’m just fiddling about with single player and F2P stuff, whilst I wait for one of the more interesting online games on the horizon.

As always I am tempted to return to EVE, but also as always, it’s just not life style friendly enough for me and my regular AFKing. Alas, I can’t see me being able to play EVE the way I would like to anytime soon. Though it’s probably a positive thing that real life prevents me from doing so, as I know EVE can devour you like a Sarlacc with the munchies. For now I’m mainly playing Star Trek Online. Just nipping on for an hour here and there to play through episodes or missions and set my next batch of Duty Officer assignments running. It’s free to play, quite engaging and I’ve always had a soft spot for STO. That said, the game won’t ever be my long term MMO love affair, but is more of a regular casual flirtation, perhaps with the occasional tongue. Flashing eyes across the office, the odd late night drinking session, but not quite worth a divorce.

Oh, I've downloaded RIFT again and will dick about the free 1-20 bit. Not logged in yet.
The only other online game I’m playing at the moment is Tribes: Ascend. It’s free to play, the cash shop is not essential and most importantly, it’s fun. This reimagining of the classic Tribes 1 and 2 is getting better and better and I recommend people try it out. Just be warned that it is not like your normal online shooters. It’s MUCH faster and you have to learn to lead your shots a lot more than normal. It’s all about predicting people’s movement and it can take some getting used to. Anyway, it’s a good game and recommended.

At some point soon I will be making use of my 2 weeks free in both WAR and DAoC, but I doubt very much I would subscribe to either in the near future. Obviously I’m a fan of both games, or at least what they once were, it’s just that WAR would really need to do quite a lot to make up for the Wrath of Heroes disappointment. The less said about that the better. Actually, as I write this I’m changing my mind slightly regarding DAoC. There is a bit more chance that DAoC could persuade me to take up a month’s subscription. It did grab me last year, surprising me how well so many things still played and looked. I swear if that game had a decent UI update it could see a reasonable resurgence.

Aside from those retro distractions, for me it’s all about the upcoming games; Planetside 2 and Mechwarrior Online. There’s a load more Planetside 2 news appeared in the last couple of days, which I’ll gather up and post about soon. Mechwarrior is continuing to drip feed news at a slow steady rate, though we’re still waiting to see some in-game footage. I hear we may see something soon however. Mechwarrior isn’t a MMO of course, but this blog is about stuff that interest me, so meh whatever. Oh and Hawken looks great. Me like mechs.

Elsewhere, I’m not totally writing off Funcom’s “The Secret World”, yet I don’t find myself particularly caring about it either way. To be honest I’m not quite sure why. Despite my many misgivings regarding Funcom, I do like what they try to do and certainly TSW has many features that tick my boxes. My apathy confuses me slightly. If I don’t get on the beta then I doubt I will try it until well after launch.

And on the subject of apathy… If for a moment I take off my Hat of Trolling+3, yes Guild Wars 2 has much potential and does look like some serious PvP goodness. That doesn’t change the fact that it will never be a game I get excited about and I still find it hard to motivate myself to write about it, but it’s certainly one I would like to see realise its PvP potential. Obviously Kill Frenzy and I will try it out.

Hopefully sometime soon we’ll start to get more news on Dark Millennium Online and World of Darkness. Both games are perceived as being on rather rough seas, what with the challenges faced by THQ and CCP, but I guess we just have to wait and see what news arrives. I still have high hopes for both games, purely due to their settings. Actually that’s not true. I have some confidence in CCP to deliver something interesting and hopefully sandboxy. Plus THQ have some excellent 40k games in their stable, so we know they’ll do the 40k universe credit when it comes to atmosphere at least.

I think that’s it for major MMOs of interest to me, can’t think of anything else. There are a few small games I have an eye on, but they’ll get posts of their own at some point. Oh and for the record, Diablo 3 I’m indifferent to and World of Warcraft Panda bear stuff just doesn’t work for me. Sorry Blizzard, as if you care lol :D

CCP sure know how to make trailers

The trailer for EVE Online's 15th expansion: Crucible. Yes you read right, 15th!

I would recommend watching it in HD, but whatever you do crank the sound up.



Damn them. I want to resub now.

The MMO you want to play, but choose not to

If you’ve played MMOs for a long period of time, then there’s a good chance that there will be a game that you really like, but for some reason have chosen not to play. For me, it’s EVE Online.

I’m not actually a huge fan of the game’s control system, I understand why they’ve made it the way they have and I wouldn’t say it’s terrible, but it pales in comparison with the free flight of traditional spaceflight games like the X series and for many people that will always be a mild irritation. However, it really doesn’t matter because the overall concepts that drive EVE are bloody brilliant. EVE is without doubt the most wild, dangerous and freeform mainstream Online world out there and as such the one with the most opportunity. It is the ultimate MMO for forging your own way and seeing your actions have impact on the game universe. Also I really like CCP’s stance of in the majority letting players and their Corporations be responsible for self policing their universe.

EVE is in many ways a reflection of the real world in one of its more turbulent eras, with the player run Corporations as different nations and other powerful organisations. The source of their wealth and power varies with trade, warfare, piracy and even other things like logistic services all being viable options to build your empire upon. Some battle for supremacy, others will happily enjoy the status quo, some can perhaps be trusted, others not… Some are just bloody criminals, pirates and vagabonds! And then of course there’s the major complication of alliances between Corps on a scale not seen in any other game, It has at times led to events unfolding much like the domino effect that saw the outbreak of World War 1, where an incident involving certain nations snowballs into a monstrous conflict as a chain of treaties are honoured. Albeit only involving pixel death and not human misery on a scale barely imaginable, but I’m sure you get the idea from a political view.

From the humble tradesman, to the solo pirate and all the way up to organisations requiring pretty much true corporate management, EVE does it all. So, as you can probably tell, I really like what EVE is about and would love to bury myself in its intricate world. The problem for me though is a simple one: I go AFK far too much to play it.



In EVE you are at risk of being attacked by other players and losing everything you have with you, the only time you’re ever truly safe to go AFK is when you’re docked in a space station. Now, I did play EVE before and fell in love with it, but my random AFKs led to me losing ships and so on that really I could have prevented had I been at the screen. But when my daughter is freaking out because there’s a spider stalking her or my wife (who is not a fan of gaming…) needs help with something, I will obviously go AFK straight away; it is only a game after all. And that makes EVE a little frustrating for me, as I don’t want to be limited to staying in the more secure systems. A quick log out option wouldn’t work for EVE at all, but its something I need. It must be stressed though, that it really isn’t the game’s fault, it’s just that it’s not quite compatible with my personal lifestyle, at least not with what I would want to get out of the game.

Every month since I stopped playing EVE I have been sorely tempted to reactivate it… cor blimey guv, I’m considering it right now and I’m sodding skint! But no, NO! I shall resist. EVE’s a right fetching lass and well worth a fumble, but I know my absences will be too much for both of us.

How about you lot?

Dust 514 is a big deal

You may know that CCP (the developers of EVE online) are working on a shooter called Dust 514, certainly I'd known about it for ages, but have been taking what was being said about it with a very large pinch of salt. It sounded too good to be true. However since E3, it seems like they may well deliver the goods and by the dark Gods... if they do, it's a big bloody deal.

If you’re reading my blog then you’re more than likely a MMO gamer and as such it may well be that you don’t really care about yet another FPS shooter. However, this time around you really should care; Dust 514 has the potential to be the biggest step forward in MMO gaming since… well, since Ultima Online.

You should know about EVE, but if you don't then check this video for an idea of what the game looks like.

EVE Online

In EVE players and their Corporations (guilds) travel the universe in their massive spaceships, in a massive ongoing campaign to control star systems and their resources. If you’ve not played EVE then I can safely say that you have no idea exactly how HUGE their campaign and universe is. These systems of course have planets, but as a spaceship based game they’ve never really done that much other than be a source of materials and so on. As Corporations take over systems you would assume that there would have to be some land based warfare going on to capture the planets, but as a space based game you’ve never seen any evidence of it. That is until now.
Dust 514 players are going to be the armies that fight these battles. Yes, they are going to be fighting the battles and taking part in the same wars that the EVE players are involved in. EVE Corporations will hire mercenaries from Dust, or even recruit Dust players into their Corporations (or the other way around!) and these armies will be transported around by the EVE spacecraft and then fight the battles planetside in Dust 514. In fact the games are going to be so linked that a Dust player can call down air strikes from EVE players in orbit around the planet they are fighting on, or even use ground based defences to return fire…
It’s going to be the same server, the same gameworld, same voice coms, same economy, the lot... It is two different games viewing a shared universe from completely different perspectives, with players from both games working together to achieve their goals.

Dust 514 and EVE

Now you could say that games like Planetside have kind of done this before. Planetside certainly does have players able to fly transport aircraft, interceptors, tanks and more, alongside people focussed on infantry and with the battles across a whole planet, its clans did have to consider the logistic of moving their players around. Yet the big difference with what CCP is doing is the linking up of two utterly different types of game play and environments. If you’re flying a plane or walking on foot in Planetside, you’re looking at the same landscape in the same way, much like say playing a Battlefield game. Where as the gameplay, the environment you’re playing in and pace of play for a Dust vs and EVE player are completely different. Also we are talking about doing this across two different platforms (Dust is PS3 only). This is a bit like linking up Silent Hunter on PC with Call of Duty on Xbox.

So it doesn’t matter if you’re interested in playing either game or not, because it’s bigger than that. You should instead be very interested in where this could lead. The MMO genre has stagnated, with everyone wanting a bit of the Warcraft cashcow, it’s like publisher and developer’s balls have shrivelled up. More and more generic MMO quest and raid farm bollocks continues to arrive.

The future potential..

Dust 514 is hope for the future, because if this works as they say, then we’ve finally moved forward. Not just another EQ/WoW clone with different graphics, something that has the community as the core feature, where players have genuine impact on the game world and isn't just some glorified chat lobby with sterile instances accessed through a dungeon finder. Think about the potential for MMOs if this was to work.. Smashing apart the borders between different types of games and melding them into these epic player driven campaign systems. Silent Hunter mixed with World of Tanks, IL2 and Medal of Honour, each game with enough room to be specialised instead of trying to merge everything into one egnine. What about traditional MMORPG games? Where could this go?

Or of course it could fail utterly, not reach it's potential, be a technical disaster and be a hugely embarrassing flop for CCP, but regardless I salute them for actually trying to drive the genre forward. I will buy the game on principal, because things like this deserve our support. Unlike most developers these days, CCP have shown themselves to have BALLS OF STEEL. Also, rather unlike the latest Duke Nukem by all accounts. Shock horror... Anyways, for more details I would recommend this post over at Massively, or click here for the official site and this fan site has a lot of info, screenshots and more video.

In their world, everyone is a winner

In my recent post about DAoC2, I mentioned that if DAoC 2 were to ever appear, while I think it would be very successful, I don’t believe that it would be a WoW beater and in fact neither will any RvR or PvP based MMORPG ever. So what’s my reasoning behind this?

It’s really quite simple. People don’t like to lose. 

Games were not created to favor the loser. It is strange to think people are sitting in video game design classes and dreaming of games that punish the victor, even if those designers are not the best gamers. Especially as games become more involved and advanced, those playing will spend days or even weeks working past what is giving them trouble.

In a PvE centric game like WoW it’s completely possible to play the game for years and always win. You will clear the dungeon, beat the bosses and emerge victorious. Even if learning new raid content and having to spend a few days wiping on a boss, you can be assured that you will eventually beat it to a pulp. No matter how difficult a particular PvE challenge is, a player knows they have a 100% chance of beating it should they put the time and effort in. You also know that you will have it on farm status at some point in the near future. Whether you win or lose is entirely down to you.

PvP and in particular RvR is very different. They might not like to admit it, but even the biggest epeen waving prick loses fights in RvR and bloody often too. I know because I’ve seen them lose :P Situations will arise that are impossible to win, it doesn’t matter how well you play or how well you’re prepared, you will lose and there’s nothing you can do about it. At some point your elite warband of doom will ride round a corner and straight into 4 warbands of OMFGZERGDOOM from the enemy faction and BLAM! You lose, simple as that. Sure, you can put up a good fight, get some kills, stay alive a long time and perhaps claim a moral victory, but it will still boil down to you respawning. Battles and campaigns will be won or lost and whilst you can influence the outcome, you cannot decide it with 100% certainty.

That huge mass of casual players that in reality bulk out the big name game’s subscription fees don’t want the results of their valuable gaming time taken out of their control. They want to consistently achieve and have a sense of progress; they need to be in control. They log in, do their daily quests and log out, safe in the knowledge that they’ve taken a step further towards item A, B or C. They do a dungeon, they want item X, but if they don’t get it they know if they go again and eventually they will. And hey, they still got a token/plaque/whatever, so no time was wasted, the winning end result is inevitable. They don’t want to log in and get their arse kicked for an hour and come out of it with nothing and have no guarantees that this won't happen again tomorrow, or every day for ever...  where’s the fun in that? What a waste of their precious time and I don't mean that sarcastically at all, because yes time is precious. And while I say this regarding casual players, it also applies to a great many more hardcore gamers, they will quite often be even more demanding of constant and reliable progress. What they are winning is relative to their different goals in-game and the time and effort associated varies, but the expectation of consistent winning crosses the boundary of casual to hardcore players.

Whereas the dedicated RvR gamer is far more comfortable with just taking part in the challenge itself. They of course will also be interested in character progression and winning their campaign, but they will also revel in those moral victories where the only reward is a smile, a bit of epeen bolstering and perhaps some banter. To play RvR games for a long time means you must have accepted defeat and enjoy what may turn out to be impossible challenges. Perhaps they are playing for the fun of the fight itself and the utterly valueless epeen internet glory.

I don’t mean to imply that the RvR gamer is better than PvE gamers in any sense, it’s just people have a different set of desires, levels of patience and just what they’re willing to accept and enjoy in life. The majority of people want to win and given the choice between two good games where one supplies reliable victory, but the other you are only able to influence a result, then obviously more people will opt for the fun victory. For most people that question would be a total no-brainer.

Just look at EVE, a game that is rampant with RvR in the form of player run Corporations battling each other for territory and power. EVE is an extremely well made, very high quality and all round excellent game. On the pure quality stakes I would say it can comfortably stand next to any other MMO. It also has regular FREE expansions. Yet, it isn't even vaguely close to WoW's sub numbers. It's just too harsh for most players. You can get your arse kicked, have everything you own destroyed or stolen and the perception amongst non-EVE players is that this happens all the time and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Which is potentially true, it's the nature of these type of games and as EVE's infamous history shows, no Corporation is invincible... That's a horribly risky style of gameplay for most people. The masses want their win and in WoW, RIFT and other PvE centric games everyone is a winner!

So then, what'll it be for you? The taking part or the winning?

Me, I like a bit of both.

Devs pimpin

Saw this linked on our guild forums. I've flirted with EVE many times. LOL this just makes it tempting again, yet for no sensible reason at all :P

Comedy gold :D

Meanwhile back in WAR... I might be visiting Tomb of the Vulture Lord tonight, not been for ages and I hoping the instance will play ball. Last time I went it was in buggy lag hell mode, but that was close to the last patch. Crossing fingers...