Yo!
As far as this blog goes, I need to figure out what I want to blog about. And then make a list of ideas for each blog post.
Writing off the seat of my pants turned out to be too challenging — I need a roadmap. So there!
HOLY I’m a bad blogger. I only like to write when I’ve drank, ruh roh raggy
brb. i’m not even tagging this. (I seem to lack the creativity even for disjunctive descripulatory words)
Generic title, hoo!
Well sorry for the delay in blogging, everyone (no one) that read me. I have no excuse. Carrying on!
Today begins my first travels in studying abroad…London!
Limeys. Bangers. Mash, fish und chips.
I guess I’ll just bore you all with the minutiae of my flight, here goes:
Thus spake Joethustra on the nature of flying.
So then, after arriving in Heathrow, I took the Express to Paddington Station. My god the train was so nice and modern and had opera and the BBC and was purple. And then it rained. I foresee a trend here in Britain; you read it here first!
All right enough minutiae; let’s get to the existential emotional bollocks (…yeah, slang-o)
…tomorrow. I’ve had some beers tonight to extinguish any mental capacity I may have had. Maybe even some photos (if I get around to signing up to flickr).
At the beginning of the week where they’ll probably be announcing the collector’s edition beta for Warhammer, I was finally invited into beta 3. What timing! *scurries off to download*
Meaty post coming up soon!
Ah Tobold, you provide me yet another source of a blog posts. The article in question: http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2008/08/chess-pvp-story.html
Essentially, he’s advocating the greatness of PvP as sport over PvP as war using a…creative chess analogy. Personally, I think it’s a sound analogy if the only PvP you can stand is e-sports. In that case, I submit to you: Starcraft, DotA, Counter-Strike. Why not play those if all you need is esport action?
No, MMORPGs offer the perfect venue for PvP as war, engulfing an entire world of MMO junkies (carebears insert tears here). MMOs are designed for persistent worlds (sometimes, I’m looking at you AOC/GuildWars/other instanced games); why do developers decide to ignore one of the most persistent human endeavors — war. Sure, there are pacifists that say they hate war (I’d say they’re ignoring their natural insticts, but I’m not a psychologist/anthropologist/*ologist), but for every nay-sayer for war, you can still look in our culture and see war’s lasting presence. I won’t bring up actual wars, but sihlouettes of them. Sports (yes I know just decried esports, but they still exist)and stories (yes, any story essentially revolves around conflict. What is the original source of conflict? War!) come to mind.
So then, why is war minimalized/ignored/made shallow in MMOs? While this was not always the case (i.e., Ultima Online), this is the current trend (WoW). I guess it goes back to the accessibillity schtick Blizzard has going for them. However, I still salivate at the promises of a virtual world in conflict (minus all the tragedies of real war, hooray!). Taking over lands, fighting over cities, resources, culture (yes I know plenty of MMOs have factions, so checkmark this one off); it sounds so engrossing, so much fun. Aren’t the biggest selling points for video games the ability to get lost in it all? I can’t think of a single human trait more intrinsic to ourselves than violence and war (except love, but we haven’t really seen any truly good love stories in games yet (Final Fantasy has never had a good love story, sorry!); also I don’t know how that’d work in an MMO other than falling in love with a real person with whom you’re playing).
This is why I’m excited for Warhammer. Bring on the RvR (and scenarios for those who enjoy a good chess match).
First things first, sorry for the lack of blogging over the weekend. I, in my boring world post-work, usually have nothing to blogserve. I have a few drafts I’m working on, but they’re not ready yet. Also they’re theorycraft, so I like to take my time with those (as they usually leave my brain exhausted from lack of oxygen — theorycrafting is exciting!) So now that today is Monday (hooray for Mondays!), I blogserve.
I’m heading to work, gleefully listening to my iPhone scream German death-music into my ears, when above the din I hear shouting. Who, pray tell, would muster the energy to shout on a busy subway in the morning, and more importantly, for what reason? And lo, I turneth my gaze and see ranting and raving none other than a NYC subway crazy!
I’m assuming this lady was from the West Indies, considering her Island-y accent and her distaste for the man she was chewing out (who happened to be West Indian, I guess. I’ll take her word for it.) She kept going on about how now that she’s in America those West Indian “monkies” (her words, not mine) can’t abuse her any longer. She’s dropping F-bombs, N-bombs, S-bombs; enough bombs to make bomb sniffing dog pee itself in excitement (I’ll assume dogs pee when they’re excited, like me! (Had to work in a Joker reference somewhere, finally saw The Dark Knight Friday)). She pronounced the fact that she’s now in America, so she has the right to vehemently curse on the subway (I guess some people need hobbies). She even accused the man of abusing her like a housewife. This stuff writes itself! The man, mostly taciturn from any lack of gap in her attack, tried to egg her on with “Is that all you got? Nice insult.” People were laughing, crying, looking away. I managed to make eye contact with her and felt my spine melt in fear. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, after all.
I still don’t know if the man provoked her, or if she was the initiator. She got off at the next stop and the subway resumed its quiet silence of half-asleep people heading to work. I continued to listen to my devil-music. I queried my father about the whole incident, wondering if in his 30+ years of commuting to NYC he often sees outbursts like this. His response “Not really, but if you get that on the train without it coming to blows, it’s great entertainment!” I agree!
I forewarn you: this post is theorycraft; if you don’t like MMOs read a book!
Let it be known to the world that I read Tobold’s MMO blog. I almost always find his insights on the mark and well thought out. If only someone would hire him as an MMO designer! 
However, sometimes he doesn’t go far enough (usually when it comes to WoW). I’d like to discuss this recent post of his: Tobold on Horizontal Expansions to Vertical Games. I highly suggest you read it; it’s full of good stuff.
I’d like to offer a little background of my MMO career. I started in Ultima Online, had a jolly good time crafting (didn’t do much combat). From UO I played Anarchy Online for a time and didn’t really ‘accomplish’ (in the MMO sense) much. This was the end of 8thgrade, before I went to high school (yeah I’m young!); this summer would change my life in terms of gaming. During that academic year, I got accepted into the SWG beta and immediately invited my friend to join me (he’s also a Star Wars fanatic). Needless to say, years later we were still playing this game. I still consider it the pinnacle of MMO design — but not without faults. I like to view it as a flawed masterpiece; you can see the potential, but for whatever reason it’s not fully realized. What kept me going in this game? PvP! It was exciting, fun, filled with random encounters and epic battles; it was a challenge that never ended so long as other players populated the servers. I could gush more about SWG, but I suppose I could save that for another time.
For many months I thoroughly enjoyed my playtime (even during the Jedi fascination). This was before the dark times…before the EmpireWorld of Warcraft (dun dun dun). I think I put equal amount of time into SWG and WoW and explored the end game of both. I had a level 60 Orc Shaman, complete with top-tier healing gear, spellcasting gear, and melee gear (Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros + Windfury = Holocaust of mages). I was in a leading guild on the server, complete with influential leaders (let’s just say he works at Bungie now).
I do not look back upon my time with WoW as fondly as I do SWG. Why? The vertical nature of the game. This is what Tobold doesn’t explore — why the vertical design is flawed.
What was the point of the game levels 1-59? To get to 60. What was the point at 60? To increase my stats (i.e., get phat loot). What was the point of the game when I had phat loot? PvP. It all seems to circle back to PvP. I still also enjoyed helping my guildmates get their loot, so I’m not a giant prick. The game, while massive, is completely exhausted once you reach your hard-caps (levels) or soft-caps (gear). Sure you can make alts, but really it’s just same shit different day. Blizzard, instead of addressing these shortcomings, ran along with it and dangled newer carrots (or honey sticks) in front of us. PvP was not a game of skill like SWG arguably was (yes there was some loot, but it was incredibly rare and never overpowered; even the best looted items could still be overcome). This carrot-theory of game design, while lucrative, involves massive efforts by the developers to produce ongoing content instead of just letting the game play (you can’t just let WoW stagnate in terms of content; people get bored with raid bosses or everyone has the best gear). It’s taxing for both the developers and the players. I quit WoW mainly because I wasn’t having fun when BC hit and all my effort for the past couple of years were nothing (also I really neglected my social life, and I didn’t want to be a hermit in college). I’m sometimes tempted to go back, mostly by friends, but I’d sooner eat broken glass.
I agree with his points that you can’t make WoW a horizontal game, at least not anymore. It’s stuck in a rut and you can’t really innovate, only iterate. WotLK’s PvP zones seem like a joke. Blizzard doesn’t understand that you can’t have e-sports in an MMO unless there’s a level playing ground. Well, let me rephrase — they might understand, but at this point WoW cannot really change drastically. All of the most popular games are mainly horizontal in nature. Counter-Strike (and other FPSs) can be expanded with new maps; Warcraft can spawn minigames like Defense of the Ancients. Guild Wars is more about the builds and skills than the level or gear.
This is where I think WAR will shine. WAR, while having levels, is focused on RvR and PvP. They see Blizzard. They see the arena bullshit and the lacking-substance PvP. They had a blockbuster PvP game with DAoC, which I’ve heard nothing but good things (at least until the PvE expansion). They’ve learned from their mistakes (I hope). PvPers won’t mind not having expansions that increase levels, they’ll accept the horizontal endgame. I’m speaking from personal experience here, but when it comes to PvP the player is more focused on the challenge at hand than the gear in hand. They crave the random and unique challenge only a human mind can bring. Mythic needs to do a good job of constructing RvR so it’s accessible early and often to capture the more casual interests (that means minimize the effect of gear). I’m confident they can do that — they’re experts in the PvP design of MMOs. I, like Tobold, am looking forward to trying this out; I hope it can give me the same amount of PvP fun I had from SWG…otherwise there’s always the SWGEmu.
Well this ends today’s theorycrafting, hope I didn’t make your eyes bleed or brain hemorrhage or anything of that nature. I have no off-topic blogservations for today; I mainly woke up in a pissed off state and completely zoned out into my music on my iPhone during the commute.
Addendum:
I was reading the comments on this particular post and noticed many that mentioned no liking of PvP, only liking of PvE, achievers, etc. I’d like to address these as well, lest I be seen as a close-minded individual (never!!).
I think in order to have a horizontal PvE game, you need to have a well established economy (no, WoW does not count). I’m thinking more along the lines of SWG and EVE. Here, you have robust (relatively speaking) crafting, resources, and economies. PvE, at least in SWG, was mainly used to fuel the crafting process. PvE in EVE is a different story, but there are similarities that overlap. Here, you can introduce new PvE experiences and expand horizontally. You can offer new items that add new abilities to items once crafted — not necessarily stronger than before but different.
If you say, “well why not just introduce new and better gear?!” I will throw my orange hammer on your feet. This is vertical expansion disguised as horizontal expansion, nothing more and nothing less. The whole point of horizontal expansion is to not make content obsolete, but to culture your game and enhance it.
And for the achievers that play MMOs, I don’t really know what you want outside of the social aspect. Badges/titles/achievements can easily be added; additonally, I like WAR’s Tome of Knowledge (at least from what I’ve read about it). If you could elucidate what you’re looking for in the game that cannot be found easily elsewhere (achievements…I submit you XBox’s achievement points), I would greatly appreciate it.
Yeah yeah, call me an Apple snob / mac head / kool-aid drinker, whatever. I dig Apple’s user interfaces; I think they’re pretty. Anyways, I don’t really have much else to say for today; nothing interesting happened. I guess I was surrounded by beautiful women on the subway this morning — but isn’t that a given?
Just got an email from Gamestop purporting a new release date for my preorder, a whole 5 days earlier (September 18 for those that failed elementary school math). I don’t know the veracity of these claims, but they even go so far as to tell me when the servers will be open. Who knows, I submitted the tip to Kotaku so maybe they can shed some light on this (doubt it, those pesky game companies and release dates).
Welcome to the Blogerati, a blog about blogs (blog²), theorycraft (more on that later), and various details of my life that I choose to interject (blogservations). I was supposed to start this yesterday when I purchased the domain, but today happens to be today and yesterday is not today (additionally, I like to start off on the right left foot of punctuality).
A little about me first:
I’m a to-be sophomore at Boston University, currently (as in, I can’t undeclare until I go back) majoring in Computer Science (I’d rather eat the keys on my keyboard whilst having lock-jaw than learn more about Dijsktra’s algorithm). However, I still love computers and the internet and nerd things and pontificating, thus I blog (instead of just bitch about things to no one in real life, I can now do it online so that future employers can have a nonsense excuse to fire me). Also, I like parentheticals. In addition to my computer interests, I am a word nerd — my favorite shortcut on my mac is apple+space d (using Quicksilver for those in the know) for the dictionary. My ‘free’ subscription to the OED via my school is also well perused. I cofounded a Mac user group at my school and reign supreme (allez-cuisine!) from my throne as treasurer. Check it out! http://www.macbu.org /endplug. I intern in NYC at an undisclosed company because I don’t want to get fired just yet.
Anyways, what can you expect to see at this blog? Well, I said I liked pontificating, so I guess this virtual soapbox is better than being a weirdo in Times Square. I’ll muse about theorycraft (MMO design theory), blog articles I read, and my blogservations (usually things I find ‘interesting’ on the commute to my internship). I theorycraft because I think most MMOs are utter crap right now, but I see the potential in the future. Seriously, WoW as our standard? That’s like saying a Civic or a Camry is the best car ever.
So here are my blogservations for today.
8:20something: The train is pulling into Grand Central terminal and I get up to walk out. Lo and behold, I see a swashbuckler by the age of 50 preparing to stand. Seriously. The guy had his shirt unbuttoned to his navel, chest hair in full bloom. Today (yesterday) I knew was going to be a good day.
8:30something: I’m sitting in a 4/5/6 (whatever) car going downtown to my internship. I see this woman in front of me who has the most ridiculous appearance. Why do people caricature themselves willingly? Her hair looked like pieces of curled paper and her fake eyelashes were the length of a Buick. Here is a picture for your amusement (I, uh, intentionally took it blurry so I would not get arrested).
Since I can’t just stare at people the entire train ride for fear of getting shanked, I, like most people, choose to read the advertisements along the wall/ceiling (newspapers are for dinosaurs). I see this seemingly-innoculous advert:
Now, I’m not saying it’s a big deal, but just slightly amusing. They clearly worked so hard to be race-agnostic here and in doing so completely missed the boat. I mean really, they have every minority known to Ra here — minus caucasian (this term sucks, I, as half-Sicilian, share litle physical connection with Swedes (for instance, not that I hate Swedes; woah, I’m nesting parentheticals)). Do not white people need medical insurance? Guess not, we must all be on HIP or are made of fiber optics or something.
Well, I can tell this post is dragging on so I’ll curtail it here. However, I think for my next post I’ll chronicle my adventures into productivity/GTD land, and how I lost my brain somewhere along the way.
