07.08.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience, Editorial at 10:29 pm by Matt
Alas, Ale moved past the early stages and into the final grind toward 50! It’s been interesting. I love the Tolkien universe, but I still find MMORPGs a bit tiresome due to the thematic consistency in what constitutes the core of the game play:
- * Acquire experience through killing and quests
- * Choose a secondary profession and gather resources
- * Craft your way through
- * Participate in player economy
- * Kill, kill, kill, loot
- * PvP action
As in life, you start a career. You find yourself thrilled with the prospects of trying something new. You do it for a decade, and you find yourself in mid-career. Now comes the tedious parts of the grind. Day in day out — generally the same old stuff on a different day with similar but slightly altered faces. For example, Orcs and Neeker Breekers tend to repeat themselves in terms of the art and the loot drops with the only difference being the hit points and power being set appropriate to the level and area of play.
The progression one enjoys as a noobster is no longer as fast or as joyous, but the rewards are different. One starts to realize that only the monomaniacal narcissist who dedicates his / her full energy to the job can ever advance to those top 1-3 positions in the chosen field or organization. As in life, this holds true to the MMORPG, as character tuning and optimization will be similar for everyone who achieves the highest ranks through casual play. However, it’s that rare individual who actually goes forcefully and unwaveringly toward acquiring those special loot drops, player crafted goods, and buff applications that give the character that extra zing that sets one apart from the herd. The basic enjoyment of the narrative experience and story arcs are open to all, but the competition minded player really embarks on a different experience than the casual gamer.
Alegulper finds himself in the mid-career moment. He is a seasoned character that can participate in quests, help newer players, and generally engage the player economy in ways that allow him to accumulate in-game wealth. However, every new level comes at with increasing time and quest commitment (see earlier entry: The Joy Return) . He also finds that the major quests can’t really get completed without a larger team effort.
Hence, I am participating in more epic level quests, and this means that I am in groups more often than not. A whole new set of shared experiences and relationships begin to form around these joint expeditions, and I look forward to the next phase of the journey.
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06.23.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience at 11:18 am by Matt
Recently, I have torn up the crafting and auction circuits. I am really enjoying the auction house. Right now, about 60% of the items I place on the auction house are getting purchased. Here is my formula:
- Loot Drops from Orcs and Goblins
- Treated wood (now treating Yew Wood)
- Iron, Silver, and Gold Ingots
- Treated Hide (medium)
- Gems
The loot and the processed resources are selling very well. I get hit or miss on weapons, recipes, and armour. If something does not sell the first time, I just sell it to a city vendor.
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Posted in Editorial at 11:11 am by Matt
To facilitate class discussion and make images and editorials available, I will upload and comment upon various aspects of the game. This FLICKR set will allow us to utilize images in class appropriate to topics under discussion:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewjetthall/sets/72157600449661255/
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06.09.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience at 10:51 am by Matt
I have migrated this blog to a new wordpress.com site: Vicarious Universe: Narrative in the Digital Age
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04.30.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience at 8:58 am by Matt
Name: Alegulper, Defender of Bree — Level 17
Class: Guardian
Membership: Lifetime
Now that Lord of the Rings Online opens its doors to the general public, we see tremendous opportunities with the game. So far, I know of around 5 WoW players and many from other games moving to this new property, so I am seeing huge crowds in Bree. Finding friends and kinships (i.e. LOTRO term for guild), is not that difficult.
I enjoy the quests that let you participate in the Middle Earth back story and visiting such famous places as Hobbiton and the Prancing Pony. The world is expansive, and there are many activities in which to participate. Crafting and questing are my primary activities. You don’t have to quest exclusively, as the world is open for exploration. You can camp and grind if you want, and I sometimes do this for loot purposes.
One thing that Alegulper strongly recommends: stuffed cabbage — a potent restoration buff that restores morale during combat.
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04.05.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience at 7:25 am by Matt
Last night, I achieved level 7 in Lord of the Rings. As in many games, one could wander across and then kill random creatures for advancement. If you were to chose this path then I would caution that you would be missing a couple of things
a) Quest experience: an individual creature, at my present level, seems to yield between 16 - 40 experience points. Upon completion of a quest, I have received anywhere from 250 to 400 experience points in addition to all the hacking and slashing along the way.
b) The Story: This game allows you to enjoy Middle Earth as a participant in the wider story. You get to immerse yourself in a world that many of us grew up with and love.
Presently, I am known as the Hero of Archet. Archet is a city in Bree-Land that I saved the town from a band of thieves aligned with the Nazgul. I am working through a story arc that is going to see me continuing my pursuit of these bandit renegades.
This screenshot illustrates a quest log entry. The rings on the right side of the screen show the player that he has elected to pursue those quests, and he can click on the ring to get the details.
Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the majestic artwork. It’s so breathtaking that I’ve even made a canvas portrait out of a landscape screenshot I’ve taken.
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04.01.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience at 10:13 pm by Matt
I received my Pre-Order beta key from amazon.com this afternoon. I am now known as ALEGULPER of Bree-Land, a Champion — Gladden server. I level’d up to 4 in about an hour. Purely quest driven. I really enjoy reading the content and the stories.
There were a few kill quests, delivery quests, and go collect “this item” quests. The graphics are stunning.
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03.31.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience, Editorial at 1:16 am by Matt
One of my favorite things I enjoy about Dungeons & Dragons online is the fact that loot is distributed evenly among the players. In other games the loot is apportioned on a first come first served basis. What happens in these sort of situations is that many people are left out of the loot distribution. People who rush in and grab loot in the game system where the loot is actually finite are called ninja looters.
The following screenshot demonstrates Dungeons & Dragons online’s capability to equitably distribute the wealth among the party of people. It is so much more enjoyable to play with many people than try to solo a quest or adventure and not have the benefit of playing with your mates.
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03.19.07
Posted in MMORPG Experience at 11:02 am by Matt
I received an email from Turbine inviting me back to D&D On-Line. This past weekend they offered free play and digital download. I tried it again, and I have to say it has gotten much better.
The thing I enjoyed most was the fact that it is fairly episodic. These days, I am under a personal time crunch which has taken away my ability to keep up with my WoW buddies and their chronic grinding. I have been sitting at 34 for 2 weeks on WoW, and people who started after me are now in the 50s and 60s! Additionally, I still hate the cartoon graphics on WoW.
D&D is taking a more story centric approach, and it is much more friendly to the casual gamer. My previous problem with the game was this very thing! However, they have added a SOLO version of each instance, so that you don’t have to be in a group to complete the mission. Now that I can solo some things without the pain involved in joining a team and missing loot opportunities, I feel that this has strong potential.
Here is a self-portrait:
Bottom line is that I picked up a year subscription, and will be picking up a life subscription to Lord of the Rings on-line as well.
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03.03.07
Posted in Editorial at 3:21 pm by Matt
It’s interesting to see the MMORPG model so fundamentally start to mirror movie creation and distribution. From a distant outside perspective, it seems to be a process that looks like this (although not as entireley linear as it might appear in my list):
1) An original idea is conceived (such as Pirates of the Burning Sea)
or
2) An idea is licensed (such as Lord of the Rings or Stargate)
3) The studio, either major or independent, begins its artistic, content / quest, world, and technical design activities
4) Development work concludes
5) Distribution deals are struck with major firms
or
6) The firm offers the property directly to the market
7) Back office, customer service, and payment systems are developed and deployed
8) Marketing and hype creation run through the entire cycle of development and start very early by the studio developing the game
Large firms such as Sony or Electronic Arts possess considerable advantage due to the scale and infrastructure they enjoy. Billing, community forums, customer service, IT, and other back office infrastructure constitute a major part of making an enjoyable gaming experience. Account provisioning and client downloading can make or break the game experience even with good content.
Hence, when studios such as Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, the licensee of the Stargate intellectual property, conclude the game development for Stargate Worlds, they could possibly court large firms to help them get off the ground. These smaller organizations potentially do not want to bear the expense and headache to build all of these back office capabilities, as they desire to focus on the creative and game development.
I certainly hope Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and the other new firms bringing wonderful new properties stay independent. If the must partner with other organizations for service provisioning, I hope they do so with firms other than the major production houses or distributors such as SOE or EA. These large firms de-humanize the MMORPG experience — which can be a very special thing to the players affiliated with the world in which the game is set.
I would love to see an independent billing and back office infrastructure organization come to life that facilitates high quality back office and digital software distribution services including payments processing and customer service.
Bigworld technology appears to be one firm that helps in the publishing and hosting part of this equation, but it appears that other components in billing and distribution might also be required.
Sundance demonstrates that if the big studios had been allowed to monopolize the creation, distribution, and profit from this important mode of creative expression, our popular cultural and cinematic landscape would be so much more anemic and cliché.
I mean, Rocky XIII still remains a possibility, and one can only stomach so many sequels — even high cinema such as Rocky. I sure hope Rocky gets an MMORPG.
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