Yay GW2(?), WTF SWToR, Pandas

Exactly one more week to go until pre-purchase customers such as myself get to roll their very first permanent characters, create their guilds and start their adventures in the land of Tyria, again, fuck if I remember how many years after the events of the original Guild Wars. I can't wait! Lucky me - I don't really have to. Nothing's gonna kill me before next Saturday, right? RIGHT? Maybe I should put that pizza back in the freezer...

I'd be even more thrilled if it wasn't for one of my clever friends asking a very valid question: Why did they never show us any content beyond level 33 (or 30 or 35 or whatever the fuck that cap has been during all beta test stages)? How finished is this game? What I've seen during the very first beta weekend was amazing, near-flawless and felt more solid and polished than certain other hyped MMOs did a year after release. And I've tested several classes with all their level 80 abilities and skills, since that's how the staged pvp works - get buffed to the level cap, pick your favourite set of attacks and spells, blah blah... if I still have to explain this, then this blog isn't for you.

So yes, the classes and their abilities work, the lowbie zones work and they're insanely fun to explore. Maybe the guys at Arenanet are so confident in their work, that they don't need any beta testing for their mid and high level stuff. But it's a bit weird how they'd only show off a single dungeon, how we don't actually get to see any dragons, some random 2D images aside. Maybe they don't wanna ruin the surprise until the game actually goes live. After all, everyone who cared enough to look, knew every single new boss, dungeon, quest, EVERYTHING included in every new WoW expansion MONTHS before that stuff got released. I've watched Totalbiscuit's playthroughs and knew all of the goblin and worgen starting quests long before they made it into the actual game. Maybe Arenanet want to avoid exactly that for Guild Wars 2. Or maybe the game will turn into a broken, unfinished mess once you reach level 40? Not very likely, sure, but Final Fantasy XIV did the exact same thing, remember? Three different starting areas, no mounts, no quests, nothing to do in the beta - and they've added exactly nothing upon release. But let's leave that poor dead horse alone now.

The funny thing is - should the content beyond the low thirties turn out to be broken, incomplete or crap in some other way, I'd be sad, but I wouldn't even stop playing. I'm in for the pvp. I wanna spend every minute of my available spare time on the world vs world battlefield, cleave skulls, raise through the ranks and earn some cool-looking gear. I'll still do the pve bits for the sake of experiencing my character's personal story and simply because Claire wouldn't want to do all the exploration on her lonesome, but aside from that, I'm here to chew gum and kick some ass. And I'm all outta ass. Er... or something.

In other news, I'm predicting the sad, untimely end of Star Wars: The old Republic. You've probably heard about the game going free 2 play. Now, I'm not one of those nay-sayers, who say that F2P will ultimately doom every game. In fact, I'm rather enjoying the F2P versions of Age of Conan and Star Trek Online. But look at the interview at the bottom of this site. Just ignore the text if you don't understand German and simply watch the video. And yes, those are the guys I work with, this is a shameless self-plug, fuck off!

What I like about this interview is how he gets right to the point - the best thing about ToR is the storyline. Nobody plays this game to farm tokens for gear by repeating the same old instances and warzones over and over again. Until some smart people come up with proper endgame, every MMORPG out there will forever force you through this ordeal upon reaching the level cap: Repeat content in order to obtain gear, which will allow you to repeat more difficult content. If I wanna do that, I may do so on WoW, AoC, STO... I don't need to play ToR for that. The one thing that sets this game apart from all the other games is the great story: Be a good guy, be a bad guy, make friends and enemies, kill or spare your defeated enemies, that kinda thing. The universe revolves around you. Then you hit level 50 and BAM - you're one of a million morons trying to find a group in order to farm gear, no more story, no more adventure, you're not the hero anymore.

Okay, basically all he says is: "When my friends finished their personal storyline, they quit playing, because they felt like they've beaten the game. Something that shouldn't happen in an MMO." So you get the idea. What do we want? More story. See where our characters go. Epic adventure, voice acting, choices, drama. Space Opera - it's fucking Star Wars, for godzilla's sake! And what's their response? New group instances every six weeks? Really?

That guy says he's excited about the future of ToR and that he foresees millions of new players. Sure, it's his job to say that. He even tells people to have another look at the game, because they added awesome new features such as the LFG-tool, which has been requested by players since day one and they responded: "We might look into that, but not right now."
So, instead of continuing the cool story, which lots of players are hoping for, they're giving people more group-based content for farming, stating that they firmly believe the main aspect of every online game should be group-based stuff. Yeah... that's why so many games have solo instances, that's why ToR gives you a personal (solo) storyline, that's why there's a LFG-tool, so people don't have to awkwardly ask around for groups. Because everybody loves being forced to interact with random strangers. That's what online gaming is all about! Thanks for telling us!

I know I'm being cynical here. I know tackling a brand new instance with a bunch of friends can be super awesome. But come on! Just because there will be more operations and flashpoints for me to farm my tokens in doesn't make the farming any more fun. Of course it's easier and less expensive to release instances rather than new story bits. But we're talking about Bioware and EA here. It's not like they lacked the money or creativity. I remember pre-launch interviews, where they firmly promised regular updates on the story, whenever people have raised plausible questions about whether or not that's even gonna be possible. "We know it's gonna be expensive and time-consuming, but we can do it", blah, blah, blah. Load of crap. New flashpoints. For paying customers only. Yes, give your community something they didn't ask for and split them in half while you're at it. I'm sure that's gonna help save your game.

And while I'm bitching about stuff... I'm sure you've already seen this:

This is quite possibly the first time in my life, where I'd like to own a time machine for reasons other than sex. I'd love to show this thing to the WoW community half a decade ago, instead of a BC trailer. Just to see how they'd react. Just to see how people back then would have felt about a cartoony, humorous WoW cinematic featuring fucking pandas. Heh!

Don't get me wrong. For as stupid, annoying and off-putting I find the very idea of a continent full of pandas, I think Blizzard are probably doing the right thing. When WoW was still fresh and new, there was absolutely nothing like it. Now don't feel offended if you love Everquest or DaoC, but let's just say WoW was simply more accessible and more appealing to a wider audience. The game was fresh, unique, easy enough to get into and had zero competition. Today there are so many games just like WoW, many of them free to play and some of them mimicking the original so well, you'd almost think they're the same game.

Allods Online

And that brings me back to what I said earlier: If I want to raid, hack and slash my way through dungeons to farm epic gear, I now have a million games to choose from. One might argue that WoW executes this particular bit of gameplay much better than its competitors, but the fact remains that people have tons of similar games to play. So WoW adds the raid-finder, it hands epic weapons and armor sets to average Joe and even adds little timewasters and stuff, which doesn't really contribute to your character's progress at all. I am, of course, referring to the Pokemon and Farmville elements they're adding with Pandaria. Personally, if I want to play these games, I don't need a WoW account that costs me monthly fees, but I'm sure the new pet battles will turn out to be a crowd pleaser nonetheless.

It's not the game I once knew. I don't care for pandas, pet battles or epix for everybody. I liked being part of that small minority, which would get all the best gear before everybody else, earning it, working for my stuff. They're still gonna do hard modes of all their dungeons and raids, where you can get gear with slightly better stats and different textures, but that's just not the same. So my armor would be yellow instead of average Joe's blue armor, have slightly better stats and use the exact same model. I don't find that very motivating. Many "veterans" feel like me. I still think it's a clever design decision. Hardcore raiders, hardcore arena fetishists, progress junkies - they've always made up a very, very small part of the WoW community. They're not the reason why WoW still has millions of subscribers. Yes, so they're losing more and more players, but come on, after seven years? And still number one?

Look at the folks playing WoW. My dad plays WoW. He turned 57 today! Claire's mum plays WoW. People, who don't usually play PC games play WoW. Because everybody can achieve something, everyone can be the kind of hero they've always dreamed about and all that cheesy shit. Sounds like a bad advertising campaign, but at the end of the day it's all down to exactly that. And you don't appeal to the casual crowd by adding more and more exclusive, super hard to obtain items or by adding boss battles and encounters only the most dedicated core-gamers will ever get to see. If you want to make all your customers happy, you gotta give everything to everyone.

Hell, when I look at those stupid pandas, I can't help but wonder what the fuck I'm missing. I can't believe how excited people are getting because of them. I think they're stupid. When I look at the die-hard WoW fans in my family, I'm practically expecting them to agree with me. But they don't. They think they're awesome. Why? How is this possible? Is that because they're part of the dreaded "Generation Lich King?" Are they just more open-minded about complete bullshit than I am? I have no fucking clue. But I can tell they're all hyped up about this shit. So Blizzard must be doing something right. And to be perfectly honest: After seven years, I have long stopped caring about WoW anyway. Pandas, dinosaurs, gay poodles from outer space - no matter what the new expansion could have been about, I would have stopped playing, anyway. So if people enjoy their stupid pandas, let them. Why should I keep on moaning about what they're doing to a game I no longer care about? Doesn't hurt me if others are still having fun, right?

Oh well. One more week. I hope I'm not just gonna play GW2 to death within two or three weeks and never touch it again. Hype is the first step towards disappointment. On the plus side, this game costs no monthly fees. The worst thing that could happen is that I reach the level cap in less than a week, get bored of the pvp a week after and decide to wait for the first expansion. That's gonna limit the damage a bit.

-Cat