Releena in Vana'diel
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releenaseraph's LiveJournal:
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| Friday, October 8th, 2010 | | 9:02 pm |
Make it free and they will come
So how's free LotRO doing? F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S Paiz also shared that 20% of LotRO's former players have returned to the game since the switchover, and that the game has seen a 300% increase in peak concurrency, with three times the number of players online simultaneously, and a 400% increase in active players total. 53% of players have used the in-game microtransaction store (which sells everything from mounts and outfits to XP boosts and character slots), and as you can see above, extra storage slots are extremely popular in the store. And even paid subscriptions have increased. http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/07/lord-of-the-rings-online-doubles-revenue-since-going-free-to-pla/The venerable Everquest 2 also has a free version, but they are segregating F2P and subscription players. | | Friday, September 10th, 2010 | | 8:36 pm |
People are never pleased
MMO with little gear progression/where having best of the best doesn't matter: complaints about no progression, little incentive to go the last mile and be a 10/10 player versus a 9/10 or even 8 or 7. Gear based PVP MMO: complaints that the dominating side is unbeatable and the schism in power can never be closed. Gear based MMO where previous good gear is given out to the masses so they can attempt new content: complaints about gear becoming outdated and the free handouts to average players. Lesson to be learned: take gear out of MMOs completely! Reality #1 only the have-nots like this system. Once you become a have you see how silly it is. #2 design flaw. Balance can be achieved simply, by "rewarding" the weaker faction. #3 it's the path that matters, not the destination!? | | Saturday, September 4th, 2010 | | 8:22 pm |
FF14 Worldchat
Is there a world chat? The lack of this was actually my favorite feature in FFXI. It really raised the perceived maturity level of the game because you weren't constantly seeing flame wars. | | Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 | | 8:29 pm |
FF14 Fatigue System
Apparently this was confirmed by Director Nobuaki Komoto. Fatigue starts after 8 hours. After a total of 15 hours XP gain is -ZERO-. It resets every week. This is the unique solution they came up with to "reward" casual play instead of just copying the XP bonus system you get while logging off in other MMOs like WoW and Aion. Kinda reminds me of how they made mobs that lost hate just disappear and respawn instead of having them path back without aggroing because they wanted their own solution. Sometimes taking the path less traveled is a good thing, sometimes it's better not to try and reinvent the wheel. | | Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 | | 5:15 pm |
Really?
So I saw this being said in world chat last night.  Naturally, I figured it might be BS so I took a look at BG to find people complaining about said fatigue system. I also googled "ffxiv endgame launch" and found this: http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/11066-gamescom-2010-coverage/Apparently, there won't be any raid type content at launch. I expected a pretty sparse endgame, but this goes beyond my worst fears. Seems like the interface is laggy yet again due to not being optimized for PC even though as of now it's a PC exclusive game. No auction house at launch. Not impressed. So far it's looking like my choice to wait and see if FF14 can/will deliver is proving totally justified. | | Thursday, June 24th, 2010 | | 11:57 pm |
| | Monday, June 7th, 2010 | | 12:35 am |
I feel like Bilbo setting off to Rivendell for a long vacation. As you may already know, I've deactivated FFXI after my playtime dwindled continually. FFXI is a dead end game because S-E doesn't care about it. They'd rather we play FF14 instead, and so I'll oblige them, by not paying for FFXI. Just remember, this post was largely written up before the server merger announcement. I'm actually shocked that so many people are finally deactivating their accounts. FFXI was always the game that so many people stop playing but keep paying for. Maybe because it was the first MMO for so many. So, the next question is: will I play FF14? That really depends on whether or not S-E has learned from their mistakes or not and whether they will step up to the plate instead of trying to be like the Lakers and coast with sheer talent. Except unlike the Lakers who are still good even when they disrepect their opponents, S-E's lack of effort hurts them. ( The cardinal sins of FFXI, let us begin. )If FF14 is anything like FFXI, it could be a fun ride at endgame for a few months. How the game evolves from there, is up to S-E. I do have to reiterate, I find it amusing that by taking the steps to be a great game and a great modern MMO, FF14 will have to leave a lot of what made FFXI FFXI behind. Also, a pure PVE game is going to be boring as hell unless frequent updates occur. In order to make up for a lack of PVP, the frequency would probably have to be even quicker than WoW's updates. Someone let me know if it turns out that way, or if there's actually PVP in the game. | | Sunday, June 6th, 2010 | | 11:48 pm |
Micro-transaction Trend Continues
As you may have heard, D&D Online went F2P last year which gave the game a remarkable turnaround. D&DO continued to offer monthly subscriptions for premium services, in addition to the token cash shop mall. It appears the game went F2P in June 2009, and by October the number of subscriptions had increased by 40%. Yes, you're reading that correctly. Do not adjust your television set, err your monitor. Subscriptions went up by 40% for a free to play game. Initially, that sounds shocking and counter-intuitive. A real conundrum. But if you think about it for a second, it does make some sense, and it's not a paradox. Increasing your market increases the number of consumers to sell to. What gets people in the door? A free lunch. Once you get them hooked, now they have a vested interest in the game. Hanging with friends, real or virtual, getting a leg on on their arch-nemesis, and so on. Essentially this is the same addictive "hook" that foreign (maybe domestic even) prostitution rings employ. It would be really interesting to see more recent numbers and determine whether these subscribers were maintained or were just MMO hopping. Back on point, Lord of the Rings Online is switching to this hybrid subscription/F2P model. Time to try it out? | | Monday, March 1st, 2010 | | 6:50 pm |
| | Saturday, October 10th, 2009 | | 7:01 pm |
| | Monday, August 10th, 2009 | | 11:35 pm |
F2P vs P2P
That would be Free to Play and Pay to Play for those less familiar with the acronyms. Since everyone quit Perfect World, I moved on to Jade Dynasty, a PW2 of sorts. And it's quite interesting to observe the inner workings of the community and the cash shop. Lots of people simply lack any sentiment of restraint. There are people spending hundreds of dollars a month, if not per week, and bemoaning how it's stupid, or unfair, and how "necessary" spending real money is in order to get ahead. Really? You're forced to spend real money? Now, your mileage may vary depending on what F2P game you choose, but in games made by PWE you can get cash shop money with in-game money, thereby gaining access to everything available. How is it that I level faster than most cash shoppers and never touch these "necessary" items, spending neither real or game currency? Anyway, it's a matter of course that people who drop a few grand in the official cash shop open up more opportunities to themselves. Just like how people in P2P games buy gold online and gain the same advantages even though it's an illicit avenue that isn't supposed to exist. Yet many partake in it. The difference may as well be an illusion because the reality is that it happens in both sects and everybody knows about it. Arguably, the effects are worse in a P2P game; witness the terrible Christmas inflation of 2006 or 2007 in FFXI when a NQ Scorpion Harness cost 20 million and simple necessities such as food were over 100k a stack, a 5x increase. In the end, it's all about self control. Some people have massive credit card debt because they can't stop spending. And this existed before the advent of the internet and one click purchasing. Stop spending money that you can't afford to spend. Use money wisely even if you can afford it. And if you enjoy being lavish, then don't complain. Thanks. | | Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | | 7:10 pm |
Chinese Gold Farmers Banned
Could it be? It's funny how it's been predicted that China will take over outsourcing from India and will then lose it to other underdeveloped Asian countries. Looks like gold farming will be first. OTOH, how can this really be enforced? | | Saturday, June 27th, 2009 | | 1:27 am |
| | Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | | 9:44 pm |
Diablo 3 Musings
If [runes] were only being picked up legitimately there simply wouldn't be enough of them circulating to become a common currency.
Now, just because word "rune" is used for the runes in Diablo III it does not mean:
A. They will be the most sought after items in the game (although they could be)
B. Duping will be an issue allowing rare items to become common
C. There won't be a better and more appropriate currency
BUT, despite all this, we still want item trades to be useful. There is nothing wrong with people trading items for other items. It only becomes an issue when the barrier of entry into general trading becomes prohibitive due to secondary currency markets based on illegitimate items. And it won't happen as long as there is a intentional and low-barrier currency (gold), and the game is designed and maintained as to not allow creation of illegitimate items. http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=11693920688&postId=175555989164&sid=3000#47Where have we heard this before? Oh, I remember the glorious proclamations before D2 launched about how it would be cheat free because characters would be stored server side instead of client side. Gone would be the days of hacked items and duping. If only it had happened. OTOH, it's nice to "legitimately" obtain uber items, whether they are actually legit or not. Not only has every version of D2 allowed duping, earlier versions even allowed hacked items, aka user created items which were transferred onto Blizzard's "secure" realms through security holes. Maybe the third time is the charm. It's also interesting that nothing is confirmed or denied. Will D3 have a standard currency or won't it? Barter is nice, but only when there aren't millions of 10 yr olds trying to rip you off at every turn or shouting the nebulous "my item for best offer." How the hell do you ascertain the value of anything like this? Not to mention the various trade scams that flooded D2. And nope, I was never the victim of them. Are defensive skills useless?Defensive skills are useless for two reasons. One is that they get obsoleted by higher character levels and items, forcing you to either respec out of them or skip them in the first place. The other reason is that if the game is easy, you don’t need them, and if the game is hard, every build is forced to get them, creating a major balance issue. The author makes some apt points, however the analysis seems to be stuck on the way D2 handles skills. For those who never played, D2 uses the common skill tree approach where there are several branch "paths" on the tree. Higher level skills require one point into each prerequisite along that path. What was responsible for the flaw in how D2 handled skills then, assuming that people forgoing skills entirely or meekly spending a single point into them is a problem at all? 1) No tiered prerequisites. What if you force people to put 1 point into skill A every time they increase skill B by 5 points, and so on? No longer will early skills be a one point wonder as players horde skill points for the end skills. 2) Do away with "defensive trees" and don't have defensive skills at the end of any branch, but intersperse them with offensive skills. 3) Add offensive bonuses to defensive skills. Shocking, right? 4) Rework synergies so that bonuses are granted with some combination of defensive skill leveling instead of having them come solely from offensive skills. | | Saturday, June 6th, 2009 | | 1:03 am |
Game Hopping
Game hopping, also known in some circles as WoW tourism, is the phenomena of consuming available content then quitting/taking a break to play something else, and returning upon the release of updates to the original game. Of course this behavior isn't solely limited to WoW, but apparently hordes of bored WoW players are looking for something new, largely impacting other MMOs by first creating a mass immigration followed by a mass exodus. Just take a look at the fate of two major MMORPG releases in 2008, both of which were touted as being "WoW killers." In exhibit one, we have Age of Conan and its original claims of a tremendous 700,000 subscribers soon after launch, later known to be false. After a few months, Funcom, the developer, revealed a growing population of ~400k subs, which is apparently continuing to increase. Of the original 49 servers, AoC is down to 18 as of the start of 2009. The second game to receive hype was Warhammer Online. Similarly to AoC, the game seemed like a huge and quick success with 800,000 subscribers reported in November after the game just went live. Those numbers drastically fell by February, diminishing to 300,000 as droves of people returned to WoW(Blizzard gives exit surveys when you cancel your sub) amid 64 servers closing in March. The landscape for new MMOs seems bleak depending on your point of view. Not to go all Obi-wan on everyone, but 300k subs is actually very respectable. For comparison, Star Wars Galaxies peaked at 300k. Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Tabula Rasa, and Sims Online all failed to reach this number. AoC was lambasted, and WAR was rushed out early to beat Wrath of the Lich King to market. What will happen when a good, finished MMO is released? There are definitely a lot of people looking for a new game. Will such a game be able to hit the heights of WoW? Probably not, but WoW is an aberration among subscription based games whose success has never been reached before, and may never be duplicated. At the end of the day, there's never enough content. Power gamers will always be hungry for more, ready for something fresh. This used to be the target for MMOs. The hardcore. Blizzard changed everything by attracting and catering to the casual gamer. Raids too hard? Here's your easy mode. Is the grind too long? Blizzard went against "common sense" and made it shorter. And the people loved it. The hardcore hated it, but all their cries of anguish were for naught, they may as well have been screaming in space. Meanwhile, Blizzard's subscriber numbers continue to increase and the cash rolls in, electronically, of course. Should other companies try to pry casual gamers away from WoW or is it a lost cause? Clearly, there is a continued market for the hardcore. Game hoppers always bothered me on the principle that they're bad teammates. You never know when the guy who was covering your back one day in the trenches will disappear and when, or if, they will return. However, it's the best way to enjoy games. Playing the shit out of one game non-stop is a terrible idea. Conceivably, there may be a game in the future that actually delivers on the promise of unlimited content, but it hasn't been made yet. The sheer volume of content required would probably be quantity over quality anyway. Game hopping is the way to go lol. It will be interesting to see where FFXIV positions itself in the market, and how it is received. | | Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | | 4:40 pm |
Retrieving Windows Product Key
After years of using the same Windows XP key, it finally stopped working the last time I formatted my PC, and I had to call Microsoft to obtain a new key. Problem is, I can't find where I wrote down the new key. I've tried using a key extractor, however it is showing the old non-working key and not the new key, which I want. Anyone have a solution? Apparently, since Windows is still registered with the old non-active key there are some conflicts with Game Guard. | | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | | 4:53 pm |
MMO News
FFXIVSquare hopes to provide content for all the different styles of MMO players, explaining that "if you want to play in a solo, you can play solo. If you want to play 40 minutes in a day, you can play 40 minutes in a day. If you want to play all day, you can play all day." http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59008They've talked the talk before, with FFXI, but can they walk the walk? In May 2008 they said they were going to look at ??? repops and reduce them from 15 minutes because "of course if there is congestion we will change it." June 2009 and counting with nothing to show for these promises. Hell, there's been congestion since 2005 when I started endgame, it took them 3 years to acknowledge/become aware of congestion at pop locations? Old Republichttp://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1143Exactly what I'm looking for in a MMO. In your free time, you will be playing a game with the depth of a single player game, possibly with friends. Throw in some decent PVP and endgame raids and this is pantheon class. And it's a real RPG, where your character can make actual choices, not an "RPG" which is more like an adventure game where you're on the rail so to speak. Replayability potential is sky high. | | 1:22 am |
| | Monday, June 1st, 2009 | | 4:15 pm |
Game News
StarCraft 2 supposedly coming out this year. Feasible, as the beta is scheduled to start soon. Final Fantasy IV sequel coming out on Wii. Hot 2d graphics! And no, this isn't sarcasm. With a 2d game, there can be no focus other than story because there are no flashy animations or cutscenes to make people ooh and aah, drawing them in ala what FF7 did. Although to be fair, I found FF7's story over the first 1/4 of the game to be the most enthralling ever. Follow the YouTube road. Left 4 Dead 2, already. Get your shotguns ready for November 17. Further instilling me with faith in the epicness that the Old Republic MMO will be, Bioware has announced it will be fully voice acted. Glad to see that there will be a strong narrative literally, as opposed to the direction Blizzard seems to want to go in(see #2). Who really cares if kids with the attention span of a fly "mash the button" and don't read. I always liked the lore found in the manuals of Blizzard games and wished more of that were found in-game. Not every quest needs to be a novel, but at the end of the day, it should be about choice. Let the people obsessed with becoming l33t level faster, and let me enjoy story. Taking away choice is a bad thing. No matter what, 10 year olds will always be a moth to the flame buying up whatever Blizzard produces anyway. You can't really alienate them. Trailer, son. | | Saturday, May 30th, 2009 | | 7:51 pm |
Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echos
Videos are going to be posted detailing the game throughout the (next) month so we get to see exactly what we're missing. This isn't the same as the trailer(s). What could have been =\ Funny, S-E also made them remove their re-translation of the original CT too. CE YouTube Channel |
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