24 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in MMO Things
I’d like you to take a look at something for a moment.
That is a map of the Great Gubal Library, one of the dungeons that was released in Heavensward. Here’s another map:
This one is for Amdapor Keep Hard Mode, one of the dungeons that was a part of XIV well before the expack.
What’s the point of these pictures? To illustrate how far removed dungeon-diving has gone.
24 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in MMO Things
Tags
3.1, content patch, dreams, dungeons, expansion, final fantasy xiv, heavensward, hopes, main quest, new shiny, raid, sidequest, wishes
So the Letter from the Producer for XIV happened. In it, there was a great deal of outline for the coming large content patch, 3.1. In typical fashion for this game, a great deal of things are being applied that are definitely exciting. New dungeons, a new Primal, lots of adjustments to the current jobs and a complete surprise in the form of the Minion RTS game Lords of Verminion.
The whole thing is pretty damned interesting…but at the same time, there are still some questions. There’s still hopes. There’s still a list of things that I want this patch to be. And because I’m VERY eager to write anything that springs to mind as a result of Blaugust, let’s line those out, shall we?
Even if someone will likely write a better lineup than me.
SPOILER ALERT: This article is going to once more discuss spoilers for the Main Scenario Quest of the game. If you haven’t played through, please stop here!
20 Tuesday Jan 2015
Posted in MMO Things
Tags
a realm reborn, dungeons, endgame, final fantasy xiv, MMO, xiv
I adore PvE, but abhor grouping content. At least, the way grouping content has worked recently. I hate how you can’t have access to new content without forcing yourself on that treadmill. I hate how people form up based on numbers and metrics. I hate how this stuff creates gates and limits the idea of adventure.
I hate everything that Final Fantasy XIV does…and yet…
It’s a trap!!
I had walked away from this game in frustration at the ever-piling gear treadmill endgame and unceasing nonsense of it all shortly after patch 2.1. I was justified in my decision at the time–things were not that much fun at the time, and the choices of things to do were not plentiful…and that made it all the easier for the Superstar E-Leet to lock down what little there was to do behind metric walls.
Now over a year later, that argument doesn’t hold quite the same amount of water anymore.
Let’s be clear–every patch that has come since 2.1 has followed the same sort of path. New dungeons, new Primals, new steps in raids or new tiers of raids, with subsequent new piles of gear and new currencies required to purchase said gear. It is, verbatim, everything that I find wrong with the PvE endgame system…but holy crap, when I was able to shelve myself long enough, I found these damn dungeons to be…well…FUN!
Either that or I’m easily amused by exploding colors.
The way I play this game now, which I returned to shortly after patch 2.4, is very much like everyone else, I suspect–you just sort of join up on a bunch of random Duty Roulettes, which plucks from a list of dungeons you’ve already unlocked and cleared once, offering a daily bonus depending upon the sort of Roulette you pick, either Low Level, High Level, Trial, Main Scenario, etc. The reward for re-visiting this already beaten content are Tomestones–this game’s funny money which lets you purchase the hottest kit at cap.
On paper, every single letter of that paragraph sounds terrible. But in practice…I dunno…there’s something awesome about having a reason to go back to old stuff and make it rewarding. Not only will you likely end up helping out any new players with the clears they need, but you’re getting useful stuff for your time. And it’s not like your gear makes it faceroll easy–you’re synced down to the appropriate level of the encounter. It’s taking a useful system of RNG–the random chance–and applying it to completed content to make it worthwhile.
“Only three more days until I can buy a ring!”
Further incentive is offered by way of the First Timer’s Bonus. If you’re in a party with someone who’s never touched the dungeon you’re at, guess what? You get a bonus on a successful clear. Just a successful clear! Not a timed run or a gold medal run or a no-death run. Just make it through to the end, and you get more funny money.
It’s so clever…so simple it hurts. And it’s shockingly effective.
Another part of what’s helped ease me into this whole nonsense is the fact that the people I run with are just absolutely wonderful. Being a Warrior–a tanking class–and away from the game for almost a year, I was beyond nervous. I had built up this whole thing into a monster of nightmares and assumptions. It froze me in place.
But then I finally looked at the meat of the matter. This game. Demands. That teams form. You do not get anywhere in the endgame by yourself. Not really. There were the Hunts that were added on, which provided their own funny money. Content you could do solo and get precisely the same exact reward. But the time it took to earn it was beyond any grind I think I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing. So, with the help of some good friends and some excellent support, I ran at that amalgam of terror I had built.
And I slaughtered it.
Perhaps that’s what this game meant all along. Yes, you do Roulettes and can PUG it up exclusively…and you’re left to the absolute mercy of whatever tosser decided to get put into your team. But in between those runs with the randoms, you get friends along. You socialize. You get out there and make yourself aware of who’s around and make others aware that you are. You collaborate. Chat. Talk.
You form a party.
There’s lots of options. Be choosy.
Convenience is…well…it’s convenient. But to truly, absolutely allow yourself to experience XIV at cap? You have GOT to be sociable. And for a nerdy turtle like myself, that was not easy. That said, the solution was even simpler than the problem. Cliche as it sounds…you just go for it. You peck and you look and you find folks who are fun and just enjoy.
And when you find those people and get to know them a bit and have them know you a bit, a strange thing happens. You keep just…running. I dunno. Something just takes a hold and you just want more and you see yourself offering help or finding more complete strangers to make friends with so you can all get those clears and it all just sort of continues and snowballs from there, and then before you know it? You’re getting those endgame shinies that you thought were beyond your grasp before.
Incredibly important stuff.
And these dungeons? These things you’re running over and over? They are enjoyable as hell. The dungeons here are as I always wanted them to be–a setpiece. They’re thematic and engrossing and enjoyable and have some cool fights and fun creatures and occasionally give you neat rewards out of treasure chests. They keep you on your toes without stressing you out too terribly much. They provide great engagements, unique characters and stories to tell later.
This game’s dungeoneering is some of the best I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Hell, even the raid tier stuff is fun! I’ve had runs in the Crystal Tower content on several occasions, and have thoroughly enjoyed each one. It took a couple of runs to understand the flow and what to do, but despite that, I had a great time. Because you’re sharing an experience with others.
This is the kind of stuff I love about the MMO dungeon run. And XIV does it better than pretty much anybody else.
Running for your life whilst turned into a frog = an experience.
Despite all of this analysis and internal gazing, I’m still not sure what it is about this endgame that makes me want more in spite of its glaringly obvious designs that I have personally said are the worst thing to happen to MMOs. Yes, these are really fun things, but it still is a grind of content in order to get the highest numbers possible on stats. It’s insane.
But I also have said that I don’t mind looking out the window at the same view if the window dressing is interesting…and these fights are definitely interesting.
I imagine there will be some later level of burnout that I’ll experience. It’s why I roleplay and play on one of the largest RP communities in this game right now. But right now? I’m nowhere near burned out. In fact, this very post is being written on a Monday night in order for me to fully experience all of the new dungeons and trials and raids that are coming with patch 2.5.
Got places to be, folks!
Forced grouping has forced me to rethink what an endgame can be…and while seeking compatible people like I was trying to get things arranged for a job interview is not a perfect solution, I can’t deny how that extra bit of legwork has helped weed out the very aspects of grouping I don’t like. There’s machinery grinding just beneath the skin of this whole thing. Finely timed and crafted machinery that locks in to each other part and makes you just….want. And if you’re able to find those folks who can enhance that want, then everything just pulls together.
XIV has been relaunched from the ashes of a completely unplayable MMO to one of the finest themeparks in existence. If World of Warcraft is the Disneyland, then XIV is like Orlando Studios–a themepark by any other name, but with a whole different paradigm and set of characters it draws from to make itself a unique experience in spite of archaic design. Or, perhaps, because of it, in places.
From 90 to 93 in about three hours of helping folks do stuff. Not bad.
26 Wednesday Nov 2014
Posted in MMO Things
Websites and blogs that I follow have been talking a fair bit about endgame, raiding, and the douchewankery of the PvE player. I’m here to confirm that a great deal of this sort of thing is completely true. I’m not sure it’s entirely the player’s fault, though.
Let’s try to elaborate on this first by the concept of “endgame”. I’m not sure who said the term first, but it essentially is the part of the game where you’ve hit cap and you’ve got to keep playing because MMOs cost money to operate. The prime source of endgame is raiding. And the prime source of keeping people interested in raiding is item level progression. You’ve been through 50 or 100 levels of regular levelling up progress, so you need a bar to continue to fill, right?
Wrong.
Look, I agree that some level of reward should be offered to surmounting great in-game challenges and I’m gonna get to that, but this whole gearscore thing? It has to stop. Seeing the imposing gates of Castle Stabbenfranz yawn wide before you, you’re intrigued to go in, right? But then you’re stopped by some asshat forcing you to fill out a survey…and if your answers aren’t satisfactory, then guess what? You don’t get to enter Castle Stabbnefranz. You don’t get to fight Dr. Gigglez and his mad hamster robot army. Because you’re not wearing the right sort of t-shirt.
“Oh, you’ve got green-letter weapons. That’s adorable.”
This is the behavior perpetuated by gear score, and enforced by the raiders who make demands of people that would only sound sane to someone who claims they can hear colors coming down the street. And it’s eating this genre alive.
WildStar was built, marketed and sold as the “hardcore raider paradise”–the idyllic wonderland where the truly immense challenging raids of legend sung of by neckbearded skalds would return, like a Jurassic Park made of even worse design ideas. It blew up so spectacularly in Carbine’s face that even Mount St. Helens turned to look. And games like Final Fantasy XIV that don’t apply too many intense challenges still pile on more item levels on top of more harder or extreme versions of dungeons or Primal fights that you’d think they’re trying to make a layer cake. And nevermind blocking your way in with that survey–imagine if said survey-wielding asshat was flanked by a bunch of heavily armored mecha-gorillas with their lasers trained on you.
That’s what this whole thing feels like….and it’s not welcoming. It doesn’t foster teamwork, it draws a line in the sand and tells people “You can’t have our toys because we won’t let you…unless you pass our checks.”
This is how beefcake you must be.
Now perhaps these people are trying to ensure and pad their chances of success. I can get behind that–you’re facing something tough, you wanna be sure you’ve got folks who are up to snuff. But that doesn’t strike me as building a team so much as trying like hell to game the system to make things as mindless and unadventurous as possible. You don’t put in a cheat code and then eat hot wings. You eat the damned hot wings. Am I wrong in feeling that way?
And gods forbid if the developers lower the entry barrier. To some this is the call of death–those damn dirty casuals invading their special little haven to be handed out their welfare epics or any number of completely horrible assumed things that barely veil racist problems.
The designs of the modern MMO endgame feed this nonsense. They add on more item levels, more raids, more hard versions of old content, more requirements of entry. It’s barricading against zombies when the zombies aren’t really zombies. It’s feeding the sensation of people coming together as tools as opposed to a team. It’s not going to work. It doesn’t work. It will ultimately end your playerbase.
Some more violently than others.
Now if I were listening to myself right now, my first retort would be “Alright, smart guy. Stop being so damned dashing and handsome and start coming up with ways to fix it if you’re so incredible.” I challenge anyone who hears someone whining like I am to confront someone with that. See if you can’t see smoke coming from their ears.
Luckily for me and my ears, I have some thoughts. And the first is not to get rid of raiding, but to change the idea of reward.
Currently the reward for raids or endgame stuff is best in slot equipment. Generally these are the true epic pieces, the stuff with the best designed stats but the worst designed fashion sense. Not only are these pieces uglier than Rosie O’Donnell and Slimer in an eating contest, they’re just no longer necessary. By this point in the game’s narrative, you’re a great hero. You should, by extension, be finished with your training, have all the tools needed and are ready to face the real threats to the world.
So why not end gear altogether and reward with more adventure?
Castle Stabbenfranz is guarding the way from Dark Lord Kittyynipples and his seat of power. If you want to get to this realm, you must face Dr. Gigglez and his hamster robot army. They are the first line of defense, and when you cut through? A whole new world of danger and challenge await. You are at the very front door of Dark Lord Kittynipples’ terrain. Oh sure, there’s been incursions of his forces. But now you’re on HIS turf.
Indeed, how would you?
Tying new adventures to raids isn’t the only thought I have here. Maybe pieces of an excellent weapon are hidden across various dungeons. Raiders have to collect these items. Then, they have to turn them in to an actual player crafter to put together said weapon! Not only are these raiders doing stuff to get themselves a new shiny, suddenly crafters or crafting is meaningful again.
Adding adventure is what’s making Guild Wars 2 stay alive right now. One could argue up and down about how well that’s doing, but you can’t deny that it gives you something to look forward to as a capped player. Hell, I’m re-starting the game again because I want to explore these new adventures. I’d pay for that. I will pay for that.
There’s more to a themepark than making the lines longer and forcing people to meet ridiculous conditions to play content. Just build more rides and make them part of the experience. I’m always a fan of the thrilling, long set piece rides than the quick hit intense rollercoasters anyways…and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.
Don’t end the game. Make it continue. Challenge people to come together to work towards seeing what’s on that horizon. I bet you it’ll be more fun than filling out a survey.
Through Wolfy's Eyes 