I really don’t have a great post for today, but rather go without a post I am cobbling something together. Last few days I haven’t really followed much of the goings on in either the blogosphere or gaming press. Basically all of this is due to the fact that I have continued to get sicker. Finally get into a doctor and sequence of events goes a little something like this.
My allergies were mean, and took over my zone thanks to the cottonwood invasion. Then they managed to accidentally open a sinus infection rift. Over time according to the doctor this started a zone wide pneumonia invasion. Rather than letting it overtake my zone, she summoned a guild known as Levaquin to help fight it back. So end result is… I am still feeling horrible but hopefully on the mend.
Rift Commercials
As I sit at home, not really feeling like playing, not really feeling like doing much I have been watching a lot of the Syfy channel. As a result I have seen a good number of the new rift commercials. Honestly it is a damned clever idea.
Commercial #1
Commercial #2
Time to End Quests?
Wolfshead Online posted an interesting piece entitled “Why It’s Time to Get Rid of Quests in MMORPGs”. While I don’t 100% agree with the premise that quests need to be removed, since I have played a game before that might as well have not had quests… Everquest. However it is a well thought out and rather lengthy case for their removal.
I think in the grand scheme of things, I am longing for a game that is a little more sandbox and a little less golden path. I like having quests, for when I want to quest… but ultimately I think there needs to be a type of gameplay supported that favors free exploration. I think a game that had a questing system similar to that of Oblivion would be the perfect blend.
In that game you are never beaten over the head with the need to run quests, but they are there and extremely compelling if you choose to seek them out. I think there has to be a way to bridge the gap between Everquest, where the quests themselves were near impossible to find and confusing to complete, and the world we live in now where no game dare launch without a shimmering path of breadcrumbs for the players to follow.
Earlier in this week I posted about the new Rift Ascend a Friend program. While I still think this program is by far the best I have seen implemented by a game company, the more I thought about it the more frustrated I got. It feels like all of these recruitment programs are fundamentally flawed.
Why Recruitment Programs Suck
The fundamental flaw in all of these programs is simple. When a game starts to drop in population after its initial release boost, the first tool in the bag of mmo publishers to to break out a recruitment program. Where better to draw in new people than from their loyal player base. If you have friends playing a game, you are more likely to adapt to it yourself. I find no flaw with this logic at all.
Where the breakdown happens is the fact that most “alpha geeks” have already drawn deeply from their friends at the release of the game. I know personally I have been responsible for the sale of at least a dozen copies of rift. At this point, everyone that would make a solid player is either in game, has tried the game and left, or is a wow-loyalist and bordering on ignoring me for my constant pro-rift banter. While recruiting three more people doesn’t seem like much, for someone like me who had already drawn deeply onto the friend pile, it definitely is.
In theory, by creating a recruit a friend program, you are slapping your most loyal players in the face. Those are the folks who have already brought everyone they could into a new game. For example, I sold probably 30 copies of WoW over the years, but it took me 5 years to finally earn one of the recruit a friend mounts. In this scenario however, the mount is the least important part.
It is extremely frustrating that all of these friends who I have brought into the game, can never be linked to my account like any new people I recruit will be. Since some of my closest friends are already playing, I wish there was a way to somehow retroactively tag them as folks I brought in. How handy would it be to be able to join your friends in doing whatever they are doing by teleporting to them?
How to Fix Them
The thing publishers need to understand is that from the day the game launches, their most loyal players are going to be actively recruiting. So even if there are no rewards for it from the beginning, you need to give your players a way of flagging which players they have recruited into the game. This is not something that can really be rolled out a couple of months after the game launches, this is something that needs to be in place prior to release.
Bioware seems to be getting this, at least in a small way. With The Old Republic they have given us the ability to form guilds, recruit players, and create the social structure for the game well before launch. However I think all publishers really need to look at this as the new norm. The key difference between an MMO gamer and your standard console or pc gamer is that they crave the social interaction that these games gives them. As a result it is impossible to divorce the community from the gameplay.
More than likely I will eventually get my pony. However as a beta rift player, that managed to bring a good share of his friends into this game, it is frustrating that I will need to go into hardcore recruiter mode to earn it. While this is not a massive deal, but recruitment programs have been a constant of MMOs for years. Knowing this, I think it is something that publishers have to think of from day one. Capturing this user loyalty from the start, only serves to give your player base the message that they really do matter after all.
Today was a busy day for things I care about. Along with the major release of the 1.2 patch and all related trappings in Rift, another game came out that I have been waiting for a very long time. Brink is a game I have been watching the progress of for months. I realize that traditionally this is blog has been about MMOs and related titles.
Why I have been waiting
Once upon a time there was this amazing game, given away for free to the public. It featured a unique way of playing an FPS. Instead of being concerned about racking up kills, the gameplay was solely based upon whether or not your team completed an objective. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was class based, like Team Fortress, but instead of just changing what your weapon load out was, these classes actually mattered.
As you played through a map it progressed a storyline. Engineers were actually needed to build bridges, gun emplacements, and vehicles. Basically the role you played in the game actually mattered to the objective at hand, and how good a shot you were really didn’t matter at all if your team was not working together. Basically I like to think of it as a thinking mans shooter, needing the same kind of fast paced thinking that many MMO fights do.
A Studio Called Splash Damage
This game studio continued onwards, and I followed their progress. They worked with id Software on the multiplayer in Doom 3. Problem is, this form of multiplayer did not really allow them to shine as a company. Some time after the release of Quake 4, it was announced that Splash Damage would be working on a spiritual successor to Wolf ET, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory.
The game was extremely fun, but I feel it got caught up in the Battlefield 2 era of games. Departing from their core gameplay, they added in multiple vehicle elements. While well done, it didn’t feel nearly as elegant as Wolf ET was. Long gone were the stalemates where each side controlled equal footing. It was replaced by a much more run and gun style of gameplay.
Along Comes Brink
Now we have the release of Brink, and with it Splash Damage feels like it is returning to its roots. Gone are the gimmickry of Quake Wars, and replaced by it is solid character driven combat. Borrowing from Borderlands, Brink has a character development system. As you complete objectives and score kills, your character collects experience points. These can be spent powering your character up, earning abilities like faster reloads and more hit points.
As you complete various objectives and unlock achievements you start getting various interesting costume bits. So as you can see from the above two images, after a few times playing the game your character starts looking just as unique as you want it to. There are two kinds of unlocks, one is account wide, and the other character specific. So by playing one character, you ultimately will unlock a few items here and there for your other characters.
But What About The Gameplay
As you can see in the above image, the game is gorgeous, and luckily for us it plays equally well. I am playing it at 1980×1080 high settings and get no lag whatsoever. I am hearing some reports that the console versions are currently a bit laggy, but since playing a shooter with a controller feels like an abomination, this doesn’t really effect me. However I am sure considering this is release day, it will shake out over time.
Basically in this game you take the side of the Resistance, or the ARK as you are given the decision, do you save the ark, or escape it. Each faction consists of classes, for mirror balance. The Soldier is your traditional run and gun player, with the added effect that they can plant explosives and resupply ammo. The Medic is your archetypal healer role, with the ability to revive players and npcs, and buff the health of nearby players. The Engineer is your fixit operator, being able to plant mines, repair machinery, and diffuse bombs. Last we have the Operative, that is your traditional infiltrator class, having the ability to assume the look of any fallen player as well as perform hacking objectives.
As you enter the map, each team has a number of objectives. You select the objective by either pressing tab or hitting the middle mouse button. You get extra experience for completing whatever your selected objective is. Each objective requires a specific class, and the players can change their current role from any of the command posts.
Most of the objectives require the player to interact with an object for a few minutes, this means your team mates need to get your back. If you are on the “attacking” team, each time you complete a primary objective your side gains additional time on the clock. The maps are finished when either the attackers complete all of their objectives, or when the defenders manage to run the clock out. So the average map lasts between 10 and 25 minutes as far as a time commitment goes.
Wrapping Up
What we have in Brink is a return to a thinking mans FPS. You can customize your character to play how you want, and this includes the weapon choices. Gone are the annoyances of being killed by planes you can’t even see, and with it comes a very close quarters and personal skill based shooter. If you were a fan of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or Quake Wars: Enemy Territory you will love this game from the start.
If you however cut your teeth on Call of Duty, this might be a little slow paced for you. You might find being constrained by objectives and having to rely fully on your team members for success frustrating. However for those of us who prefer team based games like MMOs, this is a shooter for us. This is the perfect game to get in with a bunch of friends on voice chat and talk through situations. Some of my most enjoyable times were playing Wolf ET with my clan, and here is hoping that Brink will revive those moments.
In other news Trion has released a “recruit a friend” program. Called “Ascend a Friend” it offers cool and permanent benefits to both sides of the deal. In the past with WoW, the person who did the recruiting ended up getting a nice mount after a few months, but after the initial period all benefits to the person being recruited disappear.
Goodies for the Recruit
Special In-Game Title “The Chosen”
You will be forever linked to friend: Able to teleport to their location every 30 minutes.
You and your friend will automatically have characters added to each others friends list.
Goodies for the Recruiter
You will be forever linked to friend: Able to teleport to their location every 30 minutes.
You and your friend will automatically have characters added to each others friends list.
1 friends recruited – Unique Dog Pet.
2 friends recruited – Unique Cosmetic Hat Item.
3 friends recruited – Unique Flaming Horse Mount that scales to your highest purchased mount.
In order to get the rewards your recruit must purchase the game.
So you are asking yourself how do you get started enslaving your friends as part of your global pyramid marketing scheme? Quite simple. Log into your Trion Worlds account, and click on the Ascend A Friend button. From there you will get a custom url you can share with your friends. I have cleverly disguised my URL behind this shiny button. Doesn’t it look like it would be fun to push it?
