Category: MMO Musings

Burnout By The Numbers

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s ironic that almost a year ago I was writing about the same topic and how to cope with it. Back then, players were complaining about being burned out with Wrath. They’d done everything they wanted to, achieved what they wanted and were ready to throw in the towel. I was as well, which is why I wrote about how I cope with hitting a gaming rut.

Yet here we are, a slim 14 weeks since Cataclysm was released and feeling burned out already. These aren’t just isolated cases either – MMO Melting Pot reports that 75% of all respondents to a burnout article on WoW Insider are themselves struggling with the problem.

So what gives? What turns a loyal fanbase of players into burned out deserters in the space of three and a half months?
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Blueprint for a Next-Gen MMO Machine

Posted on by Gazimoff

This post is part two in my series on the Next-Gen MMO Machine. The first part is about salvaging and keeping your existing good stuff, while the part on getting the latest accessories is still to come!

Once I’ve worked out what I’m going to keep and what’s going to get trashed or donated to someone else, it’s time to work out the budget. I always find it pretty important to keep a hard cap on the amount you’re going to spend. It’s easy to persuade yourself into spending a little extra for things here and there, and before you know it your build costs double. If you’re going to buy off the shelf the same thing applies – be ruthless and discard systems that are over budget by 10%.

Don’t forget hidden costs as well – have you factored in taxes like VAT or sales tax? What about shipping costs? There’s even import duy to consider if you’re having something shipped from a seller overseas. You might want to carve your budget up and set aside a chunk of money for all these unexpected things.

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Building the Next-Gen MMO Machine

Posted on by Gazimoff

Part One: Laying The Foundations

I’ve been hoping to pull this off for a while now. My faithful companion, commonly known as “Gazdesktop” but affectionately known as “that black monolith that weighs a ton” is finally going to be upgraded. The stars have aligned, the gods have smiled upon me and the process has begun. It is once again time to scour all known tech resources in pursuit of that final PC blueprint called The Spec.

The reason I want to upgrade is simple: PC gaming is more than just World of Warcraft. There are other games that are vying for my attention that I want to be able to enjoy to their fullest. While my current rig will churn out a healthy framerate in Stormwind, it’s really starting to struggle with anything more current. With Aion, Rift, The Secret World and Star Wars: The Old Republic all using higher quality graphics I’d like to have a machine that can do them justice.

I’d also like to have a bit more headroom when recording videos. FRAPS is pretty resource intensive and Sony Movie Studio can take a while to encode a video, so anything that makes this easier is a Good Thing. Besides, I fancy giving machinima a go!

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My Folly Against The Entitlesloth

Posted on by Gazimoff

I feel like a conflict has been brewing inside of me for the past few days. It’s one of those horrible conflicts of ideologies that I can’t see any easy way to resolve. And what makes it worse is that both sides of the conflict are borne of a single source.

You see, I want to help players become better.

Part of that is by writing guides, making videos and helping people in-game. I don’t see anything wrong with being a bad player if you have a willingness to improve. The players I don’t want are the greedy entitlesloths – the lazy players who play badly, know they play badly and insist on continuing to play badly. The players who then inflict their laziness onto others by abusing LFD, expecting to be carried through dungeons on a dais to scoop up loot like peeled grapes.

But in my desire to stigmatise the entitlesloth I fear that I contribute to a culture of elitism. A mindset of “You must be this skilled to enter”. I see people who play in spite of their real-life restrictions and limitations, the people who rely on Warcraft to provide them with an escape from their real world situation. And I feel ashamed that the culture I help support probably makes them feel unwelcome and unwanted.

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Looking For Dramatic Change

Posted on by Gazimoff

If you ever wanted a minute by minute reading of why tanks and healers feel special, you need look no further than the infamous Looking for Dungeon tool. It’s a bit radical to see tanks get insta-pop dungeons and healers have maybe five minutes while DPS are left to sit around for maybe an hour or more.

Ever wanted to feel third-class? Just roll a pure-class DPS and watch as the queue mocks you, again and again.

But why is this? Surely if we got more people to play tanks or healers then we’d all win from shorter queues? I’m not sure. We’ve had two major tanking changes, firstly to make non-Warrior tanks much more viable and secondly to introduce a whole new class to persuade people to tank. I’ll admit that the LFD tool was introduced after these changes, but still – that means that either nothing has got better or (shudder) things were actually worse than I remember.

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The Last MMO on the Street

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s difficult to argue against the hype that a strong retail release can generate. Pictures of gamers lining up in the cold and the dark to be the first to get their hands on a new game make for great newspaper articles and TV features.

There’s also the social part of being one of these gatherings. There’s a feeling of being a band of brothers in arms, as if we’re all members of some secret club sharing knowing winks and inside jokes.

But is it, when all is said and done, actually needed?

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Comparing Mages: Warcraft Vs. Rift

Posted on by Gazimoff

There’s a common theme among fantasy MMOs. It doesn’t matter what game it is, you can expect to find the same three character classes. There’ll always be a plate wearing warrior type that’s ready to soak up the damage and a cleric or priest (or even minstrel) type that throws out healing.

Then there’s the spellcaster. Mage, warlock or elementalist, there’s always someone throwing around balls of some description. They also tend to have similar mechanics for casting spells and so on. How can a new MMO make itself feel any different?

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Managing Limited Game Time

Posted on by Gazimoff

There are times when I miss my youth. Back when I was a student I’d be free to play the night away, blasting cyborgs in Quake 2 or bludgeoning head-crabs in Half-Life. I’d blitz through a game in four days straight, chomping through single player content like a man possessed.

The other thing was that back then I’d play through a lot of games. I’d consider buying a new title once or twice a month to give me something new to play. I’d adventure across a multitude of worlds, shooting my way to liberty, freedom or glory.

Warcraft has changed this. In the time I’ve been subscribing I’ve bought maybe a handful of other games for the PC. Gordon from We Fly Spitfires asked a great question recently about what the gaming landscape would be like without the game. For me and probably a fair few others we would never have entered the MMO genre.

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Warcraft Versus the Traditional MMO

Posted on by Gazimoff

Box art for the original World of Warcraft

I promise I’ll get back to talking about mages soon. I’ve been doing some research on the latest PTR patch which I think will make interesting reading, but that can wait a few more days. Today I’d like to ask you a question.

Do you play World of Warcraft because it’s an MMO, or because it’s Warcraft?

The reason I ask is because your expectations of the game were probably different depending on what angle you were coming from. If you’re a veteran MMO player you’d probably expected many of the genre conventions to be applied to this game. The game world would then have been moulded and shaped around those genre conventions, effectively making a Warcraft MMO. It would still be fun to play but it would probably have had a much more traditional feel to it.

If on the other hand you’re a veteran of the Warcraft games then you’d probably expected the game world, environment and storyline to come first. You wouldn’t have felt too worried about genre conventions being cast out and disregarded as long as the game had that Warcraft look and feel. It would still have been fun to play with that unmistakable Blizzard polish, but it probably wouldn’t have felt like a traditional MMO.

Why do I make this point? Because sometimes we need reminding that games aren’t designed with our individual tastes in mind.

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A Fashionable MMO?

Posted on by Gazimoff

Let me start off with an admission: I like beer. I know, it’s surprising. I bet you’re all incredibly shocked. That’s not all though: I’ve not always liked the same beer. My tastes have drifted from Budweiser (the American version) back when I didn’t know any better through to the real ales I prefer now.

That’s not to say I always drink the same beer now. I have a staple favourite that changes every so often (currently it’s Leffe Brune), but there’s all manner of other beers and ciders that I like to try occasionally. Sometimes I find something I like, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I grow bored of the taste of one beer and move to something else.

You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with Warcraft and MMOs. What I’m trying to say is that Raid Warning is right: MMOs are like beer.

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