Living In the World of Warcraft

I've been debating for months about possibly getting back into World of Warcraft. There's a lot I like about the game:

I get a kick out of some of the quests in the game, and they're definitely a bit better than they used to be. Granted, plenty of them are still "Kill 8 boars," or "Gather five boxes," but there are others these days, especially into Outland and beyond, that have a bit more depth to them. And I enjoy unlocking new skills and shaping my character to be my own.

I enjoy taking on the instanced dungeons in the early, from Wailing Caverns to Shadowfang Keep to the Scarlet Monastery. And it's a fair bet that once I get to some of the later ones, I'll enjoy them as well. I also like how some of them have changed; SFK is much more interesting with the Worgen layer on top.

I like the organic economy that ebbs and flows in the game, and I like finding ways to exploit it to generate funds, which I happily use to further exploit market inequalities, or to buy things I want like gear or recipes.

I like collecting resources, and sharing them between my characters to really craft the shit out of the game. I haven't managed to get multiple characters to high enough levels to make a huge difference, but I've definitely put together armor, weapons, and potions for my guys to share.

So now that I've got a full-time job, what's been stopping me? Well, the thing about me, and it's different about me versus a lot of other users, but...

...I love the grind.

I feel like it's the grind that makes you feel like part of the world. The quests may not be amazingly crafted as far as lore, but they add little pieces of what's going on in the zone to your experience. Lots of stuff like this helps to explain why you might want to delve into a particular dungeon, like the quilboars being general assholes in the south Barrens, and how conquering RFK and RFD are your ways to strike back.


The grind also makes me feel like I own my character a little bit more. You used to have only certain weapon proficiencies when you started your character, based on your class and race. If you wanted to learn how to use other weapons that your class could use, you had to seek out weapons trainers and pay them a fair sum in order to learn how to use that weapon type. And you leveled up your use of that weapon just like any other skill, so your first few swings with a new weapon would be ineffective.

Was that "fun" for most people? Probably not. But it added a reason to search around the various capital cities, which made you learn more about them, which made you feel like more a part of the world you were living in. Now, you know all proficiencies just by creating a character. You also don't need an actual "fishing pole" to go fishing; once you've got the skill, you apparently have a phantom fishing pole that sprouts as needed. Which I guess whatever, but I liked that you had to commit a backpack slot to a fishing pole if you wanted to fish. Again, character choices.

In the end, because of the aspects I mentioned above that I enjoy, I'll probably still get back into the game (if I haven't already by the time this gets posted). But I think when people complain about the grind, it'd be important to remind them that the grind is there for a reason. When people complain about having to carry a mining pick around to mine ore, remember, it's there for a reason.

Immersion is a tough thing to achieve; I don't think we should so easily dismiss it.

The Buggy Old Republic

Overall, I've been fine with the game quality of Star Wars: The Old Republic. It does definitely seem to be a little laggy at times; sometimes an ability will finish channeling on the server well before it shows on my end, or I'll miss an interrupt that it doesn't look like I should've missed. But all told, while it's not as crisp as World of Warcraft, the combat is fairly stable.

The video rendering can be a little twisty, though. Here are a few screenshots from my time in The Old Republic that I found pretty funny. None of them created a quest issue for me, so I could appreciate them as simple video quirks.

I've got one more image for you. It's not an issue with the video loading slowly or improperly, though. It's just a funny little design choice that I appreciate...even though I'm not a big fan of Johnnie Walker:

Apparently folks on Tattooine enjoy their scotch.

Unsubscribing from Star Wars

So I recently allowed my subscription to lapse for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It wasn't a mistake; I had subscribed for a month and enjoyed it, but I knew going in that I'd be headed back to a free-to-play status. Well, not exactly that; SW:TOR has a middle tier called "preferred" players, giving a few extra bonuses for players who have spent any money in the Cartel Market, or have ever been subscribers. The middle tier has a few more character slots, quickbars (which really shouldn't be limited on any tier; they're part of gameplay), auction slots, etc. It's also got a credit limit of 350,000 credits for each character, and this factor has had an effect that I couldn't have anticipated:

I'm playing the game again.

While I was a subscriber, I spent the majority of my time trying to make money. I was going to say "a good portion," but the truth is it was a majority of my time in the game. I would log in, send my crew on missions to pick up crafting materials, then peruse the auction house for this or that, then Alt+Tab to work on whatever else I had going on, or just watch Orange Is the New Black.

Sometimes I'd swap into another character while I was waiting for my crew to get back, so that I could send another companion on another crew mission. I was literally grinding out a job on days I had off from my real job. And not even with a goal in mind; there isn't really anything credit-wise I was saving up for. I was just acquiring credits so that I had them.

But now, with the 350,000 credit limit, there's no reason for me to wildly accumulate. As a result, instead of wallowing on the Imperial Fleet, I'm pushing forward with my class missions. I'm a bit over-leveled because I have a habit of doing every single mission I get, so I only get experience on like half of the missions, but the story is moving along, and I'm enjoying that.

Additionally, I'm less concerned about spending money on the Galactic Trade Network (I called it the auction house earlier, but GTN is the official name). The one thing I'd spent money on before was mounts, but I was always reticent to shell out the cash, because I didn't know if I was getting a good deal. Now I don't care much; I have a credit limit, so if I don't spend the money, it gets locked away in "escrow" until I pay to have it transferred or re-subscribe. So if I see a mount I don't already have, I buy it. No researching the prices, no wondering if it was for sale somewhere from a vendor, just nom nom nom.

I still send my guys on crew missions, of course. I'm not going to change who I am at my core. But the credit limit has helped to change my play habits, I think for the better. I'm getting a lot closer to that "experiential gaming" I mentioned in a post last week.

And I am pleased.

Experiential Gaming

I was at a friends' house a couple weeks ago, and we were watching some random Twitch streams. He's got an Xbox One, so we were able to browse Twitch from the comfort of his living room couch. Anyways, the stream that we settled on was a guy playing the recently released Alien: Isolation on his PS4. He was very animated, and he did a great job of ramping up the tension in the stream. He was clearly nervous and scared (of the outcome of the game, not of streaming; he seemed perfectly comfortable sharing his gaming experience, and I wish I remembered his name). He was truly "experiencing" this game.

As I watched, I realized that this guy's gaming experience is almost completely opposite my own recent experience, and his experience is what I wish I was getting out of gaming.

I've been playing the following games of late:

PAYDAY 2

Payday 2 has a number of different heists, usually with both a stealth and "loud" approach. Each mission holds several different challenges, and some are multi-day affairs that change based on your actions on the first day. The game also offers a wide variety of moddable weapons and customizable masks, both of which are consistently supplemented through DLC (some of which I've bought, some I've not bought).

But I've really done everything I wanted to do in Payday 2. There are some achievements I don't have, some guns I haven't bought, and some missions I haven't completed on the highest difficulties, but I don't feel compelled to satisfy any of those "incomplete" aspects of the game. I've completed all I feel compelled to complete from this game, though I keep playing, because "levels" and "unlocks" I guess.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

About two months ago, I decided to finally check out the Star Wars MMO. I was a huge fan of Knights of the Old Republic, and I had actually played a little bit of the beta for SW:TOR. It was fun enough, and story-heavy, which is a nice change of pace from some of the other MMOs I've played. So I've been playing for a while now, and while the stories are interesting (and unique for each class!), I find that most of my time "playing" the game is simply spent on crafting while I do some other task outside of the game, like watch a TV show or work on a Magic deck. It's like I'm only seeking the regular validation of a successful crew mission, not actually caring about the time spent.

Pattern?

Counter-Strike:Global Offensive

I go through spurts of playing CS:GO a lot or very little. The game recently began a new "Operation," which involves a few new maps, some new weapon skins, and a revival of the mission system that was present in the last operation. The missions require you to complete some task in the game (get 20 kills in deathmatch, win a match on a particular map, etc), and after completing the mission, you receive a reward of some in-game item. These items can be worth anywhere from $0.03 (most often) up to a hundred dollars or more (pretty rare, obviously). So, naturally, I grind out some games here and there to feel like I'm "accomplishing" something.

What the shit, right?

Remember the old days of playing games just because you hadn't beaten them? Or damn, I mean, I've played Mega Man 2 a thousand times, and probably 900 of those times were after I'd beaten the game. I keep playing because the gameplay itself is fun. I don't get any achievements or register any points when I play. I just play.

So much of my gaming these days is in pursuit of small, artificial, unsatisfying goals. I'm not saying I don't like getting achievements; I'm saying I want to want to play the game, not solely want to pursue the achievements.

I have managed to get back to playing "the game" of Star Wars; I'm actually scheduled to regress from "subscriber" to "preferred user" in the next day or so, so actually I'll have fewer options with regards to crew skills and auction houses anyways. It's possible that this artificial barrier, designed to encourage users to re-subscribe, might actually help me play the game I want to play it again.

I have 846 games just on Steam. I've got a dozen more on Origin, maybe 40 on GOG.com, and probably another 30-40 on Xbox 360 (my one console that's set up). There's literally zero chance that there isn't a game in here that will get my blood pumping again. I just have to A) find it, and B) feel like I'm okay with adding a new game to my "rotation." I should feel that way, since as I said, my gaming isn't satisfying me in its current state. But I'm a complicated guy, so you never know.

Balmorra World Boss Destroys My Hard Drive

My brother bought me Star Wars: The Old Republic (obligatory referral link if you're interested, or if you're already a subscriber and you've never designated anyone as a referral) when it came out a couple years ago, and I finally redeemed the code a week ago. It gave me a free month and some other bonuses, so I've been playing it on the regular. It's been pretty good so far; the storyline and quest interaction is miles better than other MMOs I've played, and it's Star Wars, so there's a lot of familiarity between the aliens, the music, the planets, etc. Plus, the space missions have been a lot of fun, and a great change of pace from the rest of the game.

But that's not what this post is about.

So, each world has a "World Boss" roaming somewhere in it. These World Bosses are gigantic creatures (at least they have been in my limited experience). They appear to be engorged versions of creatures that exist on the planet. Well, the other night, I saw in General chat that someone wanted to get a big group together and try to take down that world's boss. I was, of course, totally in on it. I found out later that the group had level 55 guys while I was level 25, so I probably didn't have too much of an impact on the battle, but it was a fun little experience all the same.

Anyways, I knew I had FRAPS running on my computer, and I said to myself, "This might be a fun thing to record." So I hit my little hotkey to start recording just before the battle, and away we went. For posterity, the video of the battle is below:



(Side note: holy crap, my microphone is loud as a mother. Do you guys have to deal with that when I'm streaming? This explains why everyone seemed to leave my streams after five minutes of watching.)

Not crazy exciting, but getting that little achievement pop-up is always a nice feeling. I went back to my side missions to wrap up the planet, and at the end of the night, hit the hay and shut down.

The next afternoon, I logged in to do a little resource gathering, but my machine was running noticeably slower than usual. I had a few Firefox windows open, so I assumed that was the trouble, but it continued to be jittery even after I closed them down. I sent my crew members on long missions and exited the game, then went to take a shower. When I got back into my room, I saw a little notification bubble on the screen. It said, "Low disk space." I checked and sure enough, I was down to a measly 33 MB of free space on my main hard drive. I thought that was odd, but I had recently installed a few games to get their card drops, and hadn't yet uninstalled them, so I assumed that was the trouble. I uninstalled a couple of other games I never play (Planetside 2 and Warframe), and had plenty of hard drive space.
 
Then I remembered the FRAPS video I'd made the night before, and I realized why I had so little disk space. I had never shut off the video recording after the battle. So, FRAPS just kept FRAPSing, recording as much content as it could until it ran out of room on my hard drive. I checked my videos directory, and sure enough, there were 76 gigs of videos there from the night before.

I'll go through them soon enough to check out what might be waiting for me. I assume it's more loud keyboards and boring gameplay, but you never know.

Star Trek Online

Listen, I'm gonna go ahead and come right out and say it: I'm a nerd. I like all the stuff nerds like: Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, computers, video games, and the like. So when I heard that there would be a massive online multiplayer Star Trek game, I was obviously delighted. The concept of crewing a starship in the Star Trek universe was very appealing, and, barring some foul-up, should be a lot of fun.

See this article:
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50065

For those of you who aren't fans of reading, the article says that a new company has taken over the development of the game, and is planning on setting it up to be a more casual (their word, not mine) experience.

Vomit.

Are you kidding me? The most enjoyable games are those that are in fact too complex. I don't want a game that has been dumbed down for the masses; I want the game that every gaming company wants to make: easy to learn, hard to master. When I hear that they want to make it a "casual" game, I'm thinking it's going to be more like the Sims online or something.

Also mentioned in the article is that the company is exploring a different payment structure, where there wouldn't be a month-to-month fee, but you would have to pay for extra features inside the game. Apparently this strategy has been very successful in Korea. Well that's great, except this isn't Korea. What exactly am I going to have to pay for inside the game? Flight school? Engineering lessons? Transportation? Food? I don't like this, not one bit.

I play World of Warcraft. I've tried out Star Wars: Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Lord of the Rings online, and I found all of them to be seriously lacking when compared to WoW. I was disappointed, but not surprised. The Star Wars universe has its own flaws and foibles, so it's only fitting that its video game counterparts have some of the same problems.

But when it comes to complexities and fanship, Star Trek blows Star Wars out of the water. You can't give "Trekkies" a subpar effort; they'll lose their shit. The one thing I like about that is that, in those vehement supporters of the Star Trek universe, I've got a group of dedicated advocates who will do their best to ensure the game lives up to the standard of Star Trek. Many previous Star Trek games have disappointed, but an MMO should be held to a higher standard. You're not just creating an adventure. You're regenerating the entire Star Trek universe that thousands of people already know cover-to-cover, so to speak. You can't mess this up; they won't stand for it.

The main difference is that the average Star Wars fan is a casual fan, often young, and not necessarily a critical thinker. The average Star Trek fan expects a high level of discourse when they talk about their show, and certainly will expect a genuine representation of their universe from a game purported to offer gamers the true "Trek" experience.

Maybe this is all for nothing, and it'll end up being awesome, and everyone will go home happy. But I'm not holding out hope.