WAR and faction jumping: taking a lesson from LOTRO Monsterplay?

As we are inundated with Warhammer Age of Reckoning info now that the NDA is lifted, a few interesting nuggets of data about the game are now coming to light and one item in particular caught my attention. While listening to Keen and Graev’s Chaoscast, I heard it mentioned that players could not have both an Order and Destruction toon on the same server.

In a PVP / RvR game I can’t tell you how important I think this sort of measure is, side-hopping being in my opinion one of the biggest spoilers of good PvP / RvR play. But don’t take my word for it, just check out the Lotro Monsterplay forums and see what players there have to say about the instantaneous creep to freep mass migrations that regularly occur in the Ettenmoors. In Lotro you can indeed have a creep and a freep on the same server, which means that often people will flip-flop between factions for various reasons, thereby affecting the dynamics of PvPand preventing any sort of the stability and balance. Whether it be to take back with their creeps the keeps they just took with their freep,  to farm renown with the help of a cooperative friend on the other side or just to somehow grief in chat or otherwise an opposing player who just killed them or made them look bad, or better still just to spy on the opposition,  the ease with which individuals can switch camps in Lotro Monsterplay can be a source of endless frustration.

In light of this, I’m very happy that Mythic has nipped this problem in the bud and prevented the emergence of same-server flip-floppers.

Blackhorse contender : Stargate Worlds

Like a lot of people, I keep abreast of what Massive titles are in development and slated for future release, always on the lookout for ways to satisfy my MMO ADD. Recently I noticed myself checking up a lot on Stargate Worlds, my eyes being immediately attracted to any mention of it on news feeds and MMO related websites. This is strange because I don’t really see myself as a Stargate fan. Sure I watched the original movie, I even own the soundtrack, and I did catch of few episodes of the series on SpaceTV, but to say that I have an avid interest in the Stargate universe would be a stretch.

After seeing a gameplay trailer showing off the game’s combat engine, which I found quite interesting with it’s action-oriented approach similar to Tabula Rasa’s,  things have changed somewhat. My interest in the setting has grown, to the point where I have rented the two Stargate feature length movies, Stargate : The Ark of Truth and Stargate : Continuum,  to get back into the lore of the series in anticipation to playing the game.

I don’t really understand why I am so into this upcoming title, what makes me so want to check it out, but my interest for it is very real, which is all a bit suprising. Is it bacause it is a sci-fi title in a relatively fantasy dominated market? Is it because after playing DDO and Tabula Rasa, I am in fact becoming a fan of faster-paced combat in MMOs?

Who knows. Maybe it’s just that I have a repressed need to have a toon dressed up in pseudo-ancient Egyptian garb shooting bolts of energy at anything that moves !

Back To Tabula Rasa!

Today I got an email notifying me that my account for Tabula Rasa had been reactivated till August 31st. Seeing that I am a sucker for free gametime marketing ploys and that my WoW sub expires tomorrow, I will gladly jump back into this title and see what it has to offer.

I’ve been listening to Tabula Cast on the Virgin Worlds website for a few weeks now and I am a bit curious to see what has changed since I’ve been there. I’ve actually been thinking about reactivating my TR account for a while, the timecard for it already purchased and sitting on my desk ready to use for a few weeks now.

I wonder if I’ll take the plunge and join a clan and see what TR group play has to offer, the few PUGs I’ve joined in the past having been surprisingly pleasant and stress-free ( apart from the Bane focus-firing on me for some reason !) .

Living Legacy got me!

Last night was supposed to be my last day playing EQ2 for a while, at least till the new expansion comes out. July 31st being the end of the free game time associated with the Living Legacy promotion, I had decided that I would log on one last time and write a “farewell for now” letter to my guildmates explaining to them my departure and my plans on maybe returning in the Fall. That being said, when I turned off my PC last night, I had quite radically deviated from the plan and instead of ending my time in Norrath I had added some playing time to my account and kept it active. As I woke up this morning I asked myself what had just happened, why had I done this ? Here are the reasons I have come up with :

1-Playability : Subconsciously, I think that playing a solid, polished and stable game has had an insidious effect on me, making me realise that playing older established MMOs does have it’s charms when placed next to the quirkiness of playing shiny new titles like AoC, which are going through some early growing pains. I think playing EQ2 again for an extended period of time made me appreciate how pleasant it is to play a game that has already been through a majority of it’s tech hurdles and design rebalances and has attained a certain “maturity”. Playing a “veteran” title like EQ2 has somehow provided me with a counterbalance to playing a “rookie” title like AoC, which it seems, is something I need at the moment and am not willing to part with just yet.

2-Sentimentality : EQ2 being my very first MMO, I think that the whole “come back home” vibe put forth in the Living Legacy promotion did very effectively push the nostalgia button in me. In fact I admit it : it made me swallow hook, line and sinker SOE’s marketing line. What can I say, sometimes you think you are so jaded that you are immune to this kind of thing and then the irrationality of emotion comes and clouds your judgement !

3-The expansion grind : Seeing that my templar has not yet hit the level cap ( he is level 77 ) and that I still need to buff up the healing AA line in readiness for the release of the upcoming expansion, I guess that the desire to be ready for the new content that is coming has also had a role in making me prolong my sub. If Living Legacy had not come along, my healer would probably have stayed at level 66 and I would likely have foregone buying the new expansion and probably given up on EQ2 completely. Having invested all that time and energy levelling him up and catching up on Achievements, I figure that the thought of just walking away from all that was not something I was willing to do. Another sign that I am a sucker for even the most basic MMO marketing strategies !

So there it is, some deep introspection from a somewhat bemused MMO player, for your reading pleasure!