Farewell Tabula Rasa

Well, I’m very sad to see this title go. With NC Soft’s announcement that it is shutting down TR in February, I think the MMO genre has just lost one of it’s more original offerings. Say what you will about it’s flaws and shortcomings, you can’t say it wasn’t different and innovative in many regards. With it’s porting of FPS style play into the Massively Online world, it’s character cloning system and it’s setting based on a completely original IP ( yes I know, very much influenced by a slew of others, but still…), I think TR could not be considered as ”just another MMO”. It definitely had it’s own distinctiveness. 

Strangely enough, if I have to think of one thing that I will miss about this game, I’d have to say it is base defenses. In TR, the Bane ( the Bad GuysTM ), would constantly be mounting attacks on various forts and outposts throughout the game zones, and you as a player would have the option of joining others ( or try to do it solo ) in repelling these incursions. Often in general chat calls would go out that such and such a place needed defenders because it was about to fall, or that a given place needed to be retaken. It gave me quite a rush to speed off to one of these hot points and fend off the alien raiders, standing on a parapet and emptying magazine after magazine of machine gun ammo into the oncoming Bane waves, only to eventually lose my head and jump down into the fray, pouring shell after shell of shotgun ammo up close and personal style !

Oh yes those were indeed exciting times!

Few MMOs have given such visceral and sustained adrenaline rushes and I think that this intense action-trip was a feature that set TR very much apart from all other MMOs.

It’s too bad all this will enter the realm of pure memories come February, I believe it deserved a better fate, eventoday’s highly competitive MMO  niche market.

/Salute Tabula Rasa

PotBS mid-term review

Well I’ve finally reached level 30 and as promised, here is my review of Pirates of the Burning Sea. Since I have not yet reached the level cap and thoroughly experienced every single aspect of the game, this review does not constitute an in-depth appraisal but rather an informed take on this title. So here we go!

 

The Good:

Originality : Yes PotBS is an MMO and as such, it does follow many familiar MMO standards and clichés, but overall I find that this game still does feel quite different than other titles. Some of this is explained by the pirate / early 18th century setting, which is quite a departure from Fantasy / Sci-Fi or even Superheroes. I think that the other main factor behind this is of course the ship combat, where at least half of the time you are fighting your battles not as your avatar but as a vessel at sea, which is a refreshing change from most other titles ( although for auto-assault and EVE players this is nothing new ). I definitely give this game the thumbs up for it’s freshness and distinctiveness.

Ship Combat : As a long-time player of the Starfleet Command series of titles ( I actually recall seeing the two titles compared in the the official forums ), I was already pre-programmed to like this part of the PotBS experience, and the game did not disappoint in this respect. The tactical ship to ship combat is a high point of the game and is well implemented, with a relatively easy learning curve, which was for me mostly centered on figuring out how to cope with wind direction during battle. Rotating broadsides and gun batterie reloads as well as armor depletion, basically learning how to maintain optimum facing in a fight, came naturally to a SFC vet like me and really brought back some fond memories. Thumbs up for this part of the game too.

The So-so :

Travel time : I’m on the fence on this one. On one hand, the slow and majestic pace of open sea travel does give this game a certain atmosphere, contributing to the title’s disticntiveness. But on the other hand, it can also be a pain, sometimes needlessy prolonging a journey, especially if you are sailing against the wind. There is some limited port to port insta-travel and you can also experience shortened travel times if you manage to take advantage of some currents, but this is not always possible. Not a major issue as far as I’m concerned but I think that it could be for some players.

Economy : I would lean towards liking this part of the game, having been able to set up my factories and  successfully sell some goods on the open market. I noticed that it does help to coordinate production with your fellow society mates to maximize earning potential, the economy in PotBS being very much team-oriented. The reason I place it in the So-So category is that, as a rule, I am usually not very much into the crafting / selling aspect of MMOs, which limits for me the appeal of this part of the game regardless of how good it actually is.

The Bad :

Avatar missions : In PotBS, you spend about half your time fighting sea battles on your ship, the other half on land as your avatar. These avatar missions for me are the weak point of the game, being rather repetitive and quite frankly boring, the swashbuckling combat system being especially irritating. I read that this part of the game was tacked on late to PotBS and was not really part of the original concept, so to a certain extent I understand why it is so uninspired. Let’s just say that people coming from other MMOs will likely feel let-down by this aspect of the game. Thankfully, the ship missions more than make up for this.

So these are the sum of my main impressions of PotBS. Some may have noticed that I have not reviewed PvP. This is because I have yet to actively partake in port battles and group skirmishes, and so will hold off commenting on this till I am more informed on the subject.

PotBS and dying

I said I’d write a personal review of PotBS when I reached level 30 but I’m going to jump the gun and give a “status update” type post right now.

So far I’ve hit level 18 and joined a Society ( that’s PotBS lingo for a guild ) and have taken my baby steps into the economy part of the game ( PotBS lingo for crafting / gathering ). I have yet to PvP though.

One thing that has really caught my attention so far in PotBS is that learning to size up your opponent is a skill that is well worth developing because the death penalty in this game can be quite harsh. If you engage in a battle with a stronger opponent and fail to escape, you get sunk and lose your ship, permanently if you did not invest in durability upgrades. You don’t lose XP, you don’t get a temporary debuff or have to do a corpse run, you just lose your precious boat that you worked so hard to upgrade as well as most of the loot it was carrying. Ouch!

So carelessly rushing into fights hoping that you didn’t start something you can’t finish in this game is not a very good way to go about things, contrary to many other MMOs where I feel the death penalty is much softer. Being stubborn by nature, it took me dying 3 plus times per session before getting this concept but now I am enlightened, and no longer chronically broke! It got so bad that for a time I didn’t bother naming my ship since I expected to lose it within an hour of leaving port ( just like some ancient cultures held off naming a child until it had passed some critical age mark where it’s eventual survival became more likely ).

This harsh death penalty also has an effect on powerleveling, which can be a risky proposition since you may lose everything you gained if things go wrong. I learned this two nights ago while doing level 26 missions with members of my society : after making good gains for most of the evening I got careless and cocky and wound up being blown out of the water, thereby pretty much cancelling all the gains I had made ( and yes I did fail to store my won loot at a port warehouse at regular intervals, so I deserved everything I got ! ).

After initially being a bit irritated by this, I now enjoy the added tension that comes with ship battles and the importance of gaging your chances of success. This makes fights a bit more meaningful and gives PotBS a certain flavor that other games lack.

So there maties!

MMOs and the PC vs Console debate

MMORPG.com recently carried this article addressing the future of MMO gaming, specifically the possibility of a platform shift from PC to console. After reading the article and a few pages of the reader comments related to it, I’m left with mixed feelings on the whole subject, especially after the Champions Online dual-platform release announcement.

Yes I am exclusively a PC gamer, though I do once in a while enjoy getting together with friends to play some silly console game for a lark. I am unrepentedly pro-PC and firmly believe in it’s superiority as a gaming platform, yadda, yadda, yadda…

That being said, some of the points brought up by the pro-Console crowd did strike a chord with me. A few noted that playing an MMO on a big screen HDTV would be quite an experience. Others brought up the fact that grinding while lying on your living-room couch would be the ultimate in comfort and luxury. These characteristics of console gaming do indeed look appealing to me and would, I think,  represent a refreshing change of pace from what PC based MMO gaming entails.

From this I find that my mind has been ( slightly ) opened to the whole idea of console based MMO gaming, although there’s still a long way to go before making me a believer. Will be interesting to see where this all leads to two or three years down the road.

Champions Online, meh!

So I just finished reading the IGN preview article on what to expect from the upcoming Champions  Online. Being a huge superhero fan ( although not a comic collector ) and  a long time City of Heroes / Villains player, the news of an another super-powered MMO in production definitely caught my attention.

Before reading the preview I was already familiar with the Champions tabletop RPG, although I never played it myself ( I was a Villains and Vigilantes player ) and the idea of an MMO based on that rule-set did indeed look to me like a promising venture.

What dampened my enthusiasm somewhat was reading that it was going to be a dual platform release, PC and XBOX, which inevitably entailed that it’s combat system was going to be more action-oriented than the traditional button-mashing, and slightly more strategy oriented, MMO combat systems. This concession to the twitch-freak console market saddens me because I am not at all into that kind of game. I have somewhat gotten used to this trend of injecting action elements in computer RPG games to try and broaden their appeal but I find that inevitably, a lot is lost game-experiencewise when manual dexterity becomes the prime factor in advancing the storyline. When I think of Champions Online I immediately have visions of the disappointment that was for me Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Yes I am one of those turn-based combat fans, a true dinosaur in today’s gaming environment. I long for the days where you had to think your way through a fight instead of simply reacting quickly and hitting the right combos. That being said, I have been able to adapt to the growing twitch based gaming culture, an example being my playing and enjoyment of DDO’s action-oriented combat system.

It’s still a bit early for me to write Champions Online off and I know I will not be able to resist trying it. Maybe if I find that I can get into Age of Conan’s action combat system then I just may find that I am also able to stomach Champions Online’s  twitch combat too. Here’s hoping…

Lotro in for the long haul

I just saw here on Massively that Turbine, makers of Lotro, and Tolkien Enterprises, have agreed to extend the game maker’s license at least till 2014, with an option to extend it further till 2017. So Lotro is definitely going to be a long-term player in the whole MMO market.

This news isn’t such a surprise since at the moment only a small portion of Middle-Earth, Eriador, can be explored by players, leaving a rather vast number of development possibilities for the rest of the world.

This is great news as far as I am concerned. Although I was initially a bit disappointed by the game, I have gradually warmed to it and would now enjoy playing it on and off over a long period. What gets me really excited though are the possibilities concerning the further development of Monsterplay. I’m hoping that over the long-term, Turbine will re-examine this part of the whole game experience and grow it to it’s full potential i.e. a proper PvP component of Lotro rather than just a sideshow.

The thought of new PvP zones gets me drooling and I am keeping my fingers crossed that with this renewed licensing deal, in the near future big things will come for Lotro Monsterplay. 

Lotro Monsterplay Rant

In Lotro Monsterplay, you get to play the “bad guys”, either an orc, a warg,  or an Uruk, colloquially known as a “creep”, in a non-ending fight against members of the Free Peoples, otherwise known as “Freeps”. This takes place in a self-contained PvP zone called the Ettenmoors, which freeps can enter from PvE. Creeps , on the other hand, are confined to this zone and can never leave.

About three months ago, when I felt Lotro PvE was getting stale, I decided to give Monsterplay a try and rolled up an Uruk Blackarrow ( basically an archer, like Lurz ). Some years ago I had sworn off any kind of PvP after playing Starfleet Command fairly competitively for 3 years and basically burning myself out on the constant pressure to win and the urge to maintain a “top jock” rep. But after mellowing out a bit with time I realised that I was ready to re-enter the jungle that is PvP gaming.

I was pleasantly surprised by the experience, the rush of fighting for my life against a sentient and devious opponent injected new life into the game for me. I got really immersed in the whole task of taking and defending keeps and fighting for the glory of Angmar. But three months later, the initial thrill and magic has faded and I am in fact starting to feel mounting hostility and contempt towards my freep opponents. It all stems from what is addressed in this post on the Lotro forums, which basically says that the game creators, Turbine, never intended for people to get so involved in Monsterplay and actually become dedicated creep players, situation which has led to some pretty serious imbalances in gameplay.

 ( Biased opinion warning now in effect )

You see, Lotro Monsterplay is very much tilted toward giving freep players a good time, very much at the expense of fools like me who actually take this part of the game seriously. Their toons on the whole vastly overpower their creep opponents, this is supposedly to reflect Lord of the Rings lore, and to some extent the movies,  where the main protagonists seem able to routinely obliterate whole regiments of baddies with ease. I don’t have a problem with this from the conceptual standpoint. But from a gameplay standpoint I think it just plain sucks.

The end result of this whole approach is that as a creep player, it often feels like you are logging on essentially to provide some hero-wannabe freep player his feel-good fix of obliterative pwnage. Turbine does seem to think that creep players are a marginal part of it’s game’s community, one that can be tapped to provide it’s freep players with an additional incentive to maintain their subscriptions, basically by allowing them to take their toon into the Moors and stomp their creep opponents in a decidedly one-sided fight.

I don’t know if this is such a wise attitude for them to adopt, since creep players are also paying customers. I myself am getting more and more tired of pandering to freep players who insist on having PvP take place exclusively on their own terms, in an unfair field of play. My initial goodwill towards some of these power-hungry players, and Turbine, is dwindling quite fast. I know many of my creep brethren, like me, see this as a reason to not renew their subs.

Will what I just stated sadden freep players or cause them any sort of concern? Of course I know it won’t. Most seem solidly entrenched in their attitude of entitlement to uberness and quite comfortable with this state of affairs. I wonder though, how they will feel when as time goes by there are less and less people willing to show up as a creep and participate in their one-sided show?

I’m still going to stick around and see if some light at the end of the tunnel materializes, and if it doesn’t, I’ll just go quietly and think it’s too bad some player’s greed for power ruined something that had some promising potential.

There, I feel better now.

MMOs and the credit card chargeback

Massively recently ran an interview with SOE CEO John Smedley, which you can find here.The part that caught my attention was where he talked about the high number of credit card chargebacks gold farmers were generating for his company :

Massively: Earlier you mentioned the problem of farmers with regards to Station Access. I know that’s something the company feels very strongly about?

John Smedley: I think the issue of farming is higher on the radar now than it ever has been. The behinds the scenes things are really frustrating. A lot of these farmers are essentially stealing from us. What they do is they charge us back all the time. They use a credit card –sometimes stolen, sometimes not – to buy an account key. They use the account for a month, and then they call the credit card company and charge it back. We have suffered nearly a million dollars just in fines over the past six months; it’s getting extremely expensive for us.What’s happening is that when they do this all the time, the credit card companies come back to us and say “You have a higher than normal chargeback rate, therefore we’ll charge you fines on top of that.”

This bit really caught my attention because I just finished a 16 month contract working in the chargeback department of a small bank here in Montreal and I can readily attest that MMO games companies do indeed suffer a lot from this kind of situation.  Smed is not exaggerating the amount of money this can cost a company in losses from transaction reversals and penalties. 

Other industries that do a high volume of their sales via on-line credit-card transactions, like MMO companies,  do also suffer a very high profit loss from this kind of fraud. Examples that immediately come to my mind are long-distance phone service providers and airlines which sell tickets via the Internet. This is an inherent risk of doing business via the World Wide Web.

What Smed didn’t mention though is that these chargebacks can also cost banks a lot of money, mainly in operating costs. Indeed, processing these reversed transactions forces banks to allocate significant amounts of resources to what is essentially a loss generating activity. Chargebacks generate a significant amount of incoming calls that have to be processed by a Customer Service agent and also force banks to maintain large anti-fraud / Security departments in hopes of minimising losses from this kind of activity. In addition, they can often generate significant extra work for Merchant Services departments who have to explain to companies like Smed’s why they have been debited money and why they have been have been imposed monetary penalties.

So gold-farmers are not only a plague for MMO game companies but also a real nuisance for the banks who issue the credit cards used to defraud them as well as those who count the defrauded company as one of their merchants.