Well. I had never really played a 'WoW-clone'. It's strange. It feels fresh yet has that familiar feel that I know will bite me in the ass at a later date. It's a strange feeling, kind of like riding a bike. It's essentially the same mechanics, and you're ultra aware of what to do, just looking out for a different 'skin'. With LOTRO and GW the differences were vast enough that it didn't feel like a clone, and then again, I disliked those games. But I liked Rift. The similarities are disconcerting.
The differences are enthralling though. I can see where this game's strong suit will be a problem in the near/far future, but right now, it is incredibly addictive. Where Rift separates itself from WoW is the class system. There aren't that many races, just three per faction: good humans, bad humans, dwarves, giants, good elves, and bad elves. Not that much, and I couldn't see there being any difference between one race and another. There are passive traits, but I did not really pay any attention to them initially.
There are four MAIN classes: Cleric, Warrior, Rogue and Mage. Pretty meat and potatoes, and yet I feel it's incredibly comprehensive. Within each class there are 8 (if I'm not mistaken) specializations, or souls. You are able to level three at a time. That's 96 combinations possible within the game. That's like saying there are 96 possible specs, but that's not really accurate, I think. Because you still put in 'talents' or points within each tree of each specialization, so I doubt you would be able to max out all three trees you could potentially have ...I think that makes for n*96=specs overall in this game. Boggles the mind.
Specializations are interesting to say the least. They can be defensive, offensive, supporting, and I don't know what else. I initially tried a Warrior as a Void Knight. It's a knight that counterattacks magics well. Then I specced him again as a paladin, a warrior of the light (weird), and finally, I WAS going to choose my third soul as a warlord, but I went the way of the champion, so as not to go defensive the entire way.
THIS is where I feel this game pulls a fast one on WoW. I can already see how Trion worlds (Spelling please) will have a hell of a time playing a balancing act on the classes (to be fair though, there are only 4 classes, hah! So awesome) to appease the qqing that will come. But so far, wow, it's...so immersive I haven't really had time to study and learn all the combinations you could end up with in this game.
Some of the conventions have been broken too. Ranged dps falls under Rogue, so there would be an opportunity to be MORE than just an autoshooting toon, and not all range have pets! Warriors have a spec for pets as well! It's a bit daunting to be honest. Clerics are the healers and they wear chain. Plate is better, of course, but the days of squishy healers seem to be gone, not to mention that the versatility achievable by three possible leveling trees make healers much more self reliant, I would say.
I think this game's weak point is the lore, but it's not like WoW had such great lore that everything should just stop trying. The lore in this game though...it's like a weird mix of religious mythos and viking mythology. I don't really get it yet.
More on this surprising contender later!
Oh! And by the by-shield slam, paired with a proc that increases blocking=this game gets me!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Azeroth...you are dead to me...
As I mentioned before, the better half and I decided to call WoW quits. We've done this before, but we never had a Blizzard designer confirm that this is the right thing for us to do. here are some excerpts of Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street's response to the apparent healer backlash on the forums. My interjections included-
" We've seen and heard a lot of discussion about the challenge presented by the Cataclysm Heroic dungeons, and to a lesser extent the raids. I'm not sure this is the kind of issue where we're going to be able to change anyone’s mind on the subject, but I can try to provide more insight into our point of view as well as offer some suggestions for success."
The arrogance underlying bothers me a bit...we're not going to change anyone's mind...the consumer is right, unless he disagrees with me? Caveat emptor, I guess.
" First, let me state that we do hear you. We understand some of you aren’t having fun and preferred the Lich King paradigm, or at least something closer to the Lich King paradigm. We greatly appreciate the feedback and it always makes us sad when players aren’t having fun. We're not ignoring you. We get it. We may not always agree on every point, but we understand where you’re coming from, and we want to try to help you understand where we're coming from."
Now, this opener, to me, shows promise, except for the sentence at the end.In this sentence I read- I hear you, I know you dislike my product but let ME show you why I made this product as it is. I'm not going to show you how to use it exactly, but I'm going to show you why I made it this way. You can thank me later.
" We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. "
I can't fault him for this if it is indeed the goal, because it is a very lofty goal, however, the misanthrope in me scoffs at the prospect of strangers working with each other in a positive way more than 50% of the time ON THE INTERNET.
" We don’t want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. "
The way they corrected the situation where a good healer could carry a bad group was ...they nerfed the healing model. Made it more of a challenge. They made a hard job even harder for already talented players. Ok.
" Ultimately, we don’t want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize."
Which would mean that PUGs are guaranteed failure. Again, expecting total strangers on the internet to work together favorably more than 50% of the time is a pipe dream. Sorry, going by personal experience.
" We didn't like that the Heroic dungeons in Lich King and early Naxxramas had become zerg-fests. It made the rewards feel like they weren't earned. It made all rewards except the best-in-slot items feel transitory -- why enchant or gem an item when you don’t need the performance boost and you’ll quickly replace it anyway? Furthermore, it set the expectation that everyone would eventually earn all best-in-slot items rather than those being rare and treasured goals. It made class abilities feel less useful and interesting. Who needs that crowd-control or survivability talent when nothing is hurting you? Who needs a mana-conservation talent if you’re never going to run out of mana? Who needs a crit talent if your heals often overheal anyway?"
This I agree with- the culture created by BLIZZARD at the end of the WOTLK life was a deplorable one that bleeds into the fact that pugs are a horrible experience at least 50% of the time, given that anyone with enough time in their hands nad not necessarily working hard or having the skills to back them up would be able to rise through the ranks with little exertion. This is a blizzard-created mess, and I guess it needs to be addressed. But I dont agree withhow it's been addressed.
" Finally, the encounters, even the bosses, ended up having a sameness to them because you could ignore their mechanics. It didn't matter -- in fact, you didn't even notice -- if the dragon breathes or silences or drops a void zone. The fights all felt the same."
I disagree, in all earnest. Our guild struggled through Naxx, and we never finished Ulduar, because of the mechanics. And don't get me started on Malygos.
" Tanks, you can’t pull and AE every group in a Heroic (again, until you overgear the content). It’s a good idea to crowd control at least one target "
CC is not the tank's job, it's the dps' job. Tank- keep aggro. CC can be a way of maintaining aggro, but, not our job. But we get it, can't take on EVERY mob in a group of 5. This is where I see a flaw. This means that out of 4-5 mobs, 2-3 cannot be tanked, they have to be cc'd. This means I will not be keeping aggro ON these 2-3 that need to be cc'd, otherwise I'd die quickly. This means aggro will be had ELSEWHERE. Maybe the healer, maybe DPS. This means the HEALER will have to keep up with more damage going to the healer or to dps on top of the same damage they would have to keep on top off before, on the tank. BUT...you said so yourself, you don't want healers to be able to carry a group, and this was done by nerfing the way healing is done...SOOOOOOO....you made the game more challenging by turning it into CONTRA.
" The responsibility for marking and setting the pace often falls upon the tank, but sometimes other experienced players are happy to take the mantle."
Marking. Ok, so we have to revert to CCing and to marking. After zerging for a year. That's expecting a lot from the client, from the user base already used to the gogogogo mentality. And again, this is a blizzard created issue.
" Where I have personally seen them get into trouble is when they slip into overconfident “I got this” mode and try to tank too many things at once."
Again, so, tanks shouldn't be taking on ALL comers, that falls on the dps' collective shoulders to CC, the healer will have to heal itself and the dps on top of the tank while gimped. Ok. Great.
" DPS specs often get blamed the most for not knowing what is going on. It should be your business to understand the mechanics of the fights. You’re a member of a team, not a follower who can always rely on someone else to tell them what to do."
Let's see...dps is 3/5ths of a group. You're asking 60% of all users that they need to learn to play. Just as an example, do you know how many balance druids I've been grouped with that insist on playing as if a 5man were a battleground?! Too many! So, ok, again, pipe dream, in my opinion.
" Which are the adds that must be burned down (and conversely, when should you ignore the adds and focus on the boss instead)? If you aren’t sure, then ask. Almost every group would rather take the few seconds to explain a fight than to wipe "
Almost every group I've ever played with will censor you and treat you like dirt, and maybe even vote to kick you if you so much as ask where to go. I really don't know who Ghostcrawler has grouped with, in all earnest.
" Healers seem like they largely understand that Heroics are challenging, and sometimes get penalized when the rest of the group doesn’t understand that. If you feel like you can’t cast anything but your efficient heal or you’ll run out of mana, then something is going wrong with the fight. Likewise, if you feel like you must spam your inefficient heals to the exclusion of all else, then your group is ignoring key mechanics or is just undergeared. [..] Gear also makes a huge difference for healers, which leads to my next point."
I already exposed my opinion of why this paradigm shift fails with healers being less powerful. And a good healer, according to him, would fail if the group is undergeared or if the group is inexperienced. Well, this would mean that you can expect to fail a lot at first. Who knows how to play at first? It's silly. Moving on...will bring this up later.
" If you just can’t make progress and you are literally wiping on trash pulls over and over, it may be time to analyze your gear. The Dungeon Finder's Heroic item level requirement should be considered a minimum -- and remember, it doesn’t look at enchants or gems or even if the gear is appropriate for you. We are assuming an entry-level Heroic player has a lot of item level 333 gear from Twilight Highlands, normal dungeons, or any of the reputation vendors. These 333s are probably mixed in with a few 318 quest greens, but offset by a few 346 items. If you finished the Hyjal quests, you are probably Revered with Guardians of Hyjal and have access to their 346 items. Questing might only earn you Honored with some of the other reputations, but that is easily rectified with daily quests or dungeon tabards (and don’t forget the Tol Barad reps). There are some nice crafted items. No, the weapons aren’t purple, but when you look at their stats, they are quite competitive."
translation- you're going to have to grind absolutely every single quest, every daily until you go blind. That's not hard. Is it FUN?
" The item level requirement is intended only to keep out players who have no idea what is appropriate content for them. We know you can game it by getting PvP gear or hiding off-spec gear in your bags. Congrats on being sneaky!"
Congrats on totally missing the point that your system has a horrible loophole!
" I’ve PUGged the Cataclysm content a lot. So have all of the designers. We want to stay in touch with what players are experiencing. Heroic PUGs are definitely harder than going with groups of people you know, but they aren’t impossible. If things start to go wrong, you might want to take a moment to analyze why they are going wrong before you bail. I do weep for those players who join an in-progress Heroic Rajh attempt (with suspicious player skeletons everywhere), immediately pull without any discussion, and then have the tank leave the group following the first wipe. That’s not fun for anyone and not going to lead to success. These aren't the original Scholomance or Arcatraz runs that could take four hours with respawns. Making a couple of concerted attempts on Rajh is probably going to be faster than going into the queue again."
These aren't going to lead to success...and yet the mentality you fostered for two years has led to the situation. So....ok?
" We've seen a few threads that suggest that we're too proud to admit mistakes. I find that logic strange, because we do it all the time."
As far as I know, you've addressed WHY the game is harder, not what you're going to do about it other than to expect your customer base to ship up or ship out, and you haven't addressed why it's not fun anymore. So...yeah, pretty proud I would say.
" We do understand that some healers are frustrated and giving up. That is sad and unfortunate. But the degree to which it's happening, at least at this point in time, is vastly overstated on the forums."
If it was so overstated, the wall of text he gave the forum would have been also overstating the importance of pointing out where the designers are coming from. If this was a minority just throwing a tantrum, it's something that could have been ignored. But no, you took the time to address it, thus it must have been of some importance.
" In any case, we want to ensure that everyone is having fun and enjoying their time with the game"
Bottom line is, we're not. We're not having fun, we got BORED, not so much as frustrated, and you failed to address that in any way. We're sorry. What bothers us the most is that you resorted to tell us we need to learn to play on top of paying YOU $15 for rented time on your MMO. Well, no. Ok? I pay someone $15 an hour for fun or to learn something. I don't learn anything worthwhile from WoW. So I pass. We pass. Thanks!
" We've seen and heard a lot of discussion about the challenge presented by the Cataclysm Heroic dungeons, and to a lesser extent the raids. I'm not sure this is the kind of issue where we're going to be able to change anyone’s mind on the subject, but I can try to provide more insight into our point of view as well as offer some suggestions for success."
The arrogance underlying bothers me a bit...we're not going to change anyone's mind...the consumer is right, unless he disagrees with me? Caveat emptor, I guess.
" First, let me state that we do hear you. We understand some of you aren’t having fun and preferred the Lich King paradigm, or at least something closer to the Lich King paradigm. We greatly appreciate the feedback and it always makes us sad when players aren’t having fun. We're not ignoring you. We get it. We may not always agree on every point, but we understand where you’re coming from, and we want to try to help you understand where we're coming from."
Now, this opener, to me, shows promise, except for the sentence at the end.In this sentence I read- I hear you, I know you dislike my product but let ME show you why I made this product as it is. I'm not going to show you how to use it exactly, but I'm going to show you why I made it this way. You can thank me later.
" We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. "
I can't fault him for this if it is indeed the goal, because it is a very lofty goal, however, the misanthrope in me scoffs at the prospect of strangers working with each other in a positive way more than 50% of the time ON THE INTERNET.
" We don’t want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. "
The way they corrected the situation where a good healer could carry a bad group was ...they nerfed the healing model. Made it more of a challenge. They made a hard job even harder for already talented players. Ok.
" Ultimately, we don’t want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize."
Which would mean that PUGs are guaranteed failure. Again, expecting total strangers on the internet to work together favorably more than 50% of the time is a pipe dream. Sorry, going by personal experience.
" We didn't like that the Heroic dungeons in Lich King and early Naxxramas had become zerg-fests. It made the rewards feel like they weren't earned. It made all rewards except the best-in-slot items feel transitory -- why enchant or gem an item when you don’t need the performance boost and you’ll quickly replace it anyway? Furthermore, it set the expectation that everyone would eventually earn all best-in-slot items rather than those being rare and treasured goals. It made class abilities feel less useful and interesting. Who needs that crowd-control or survivability talent when nothing is hurting you? Who needs a mana-conservation talent if you’re never going to run out of mana? Who needs a crit talent if your heals often overheal anyway?"
This I agree with- the culture created by BLIZZARD at the end of the WOTLK life was a deplorable one that bleeds into the fact that pugs are a horrible experience at least 50% of the time, given that anyone with enough time in their hands nad not necessarily working hard or having the skills to back them up would be able to rise through the ranks with little exertion. This is a blizzard-created mess, and I guess it needs to be addressed. But I dont agree withhow it's been addressed.
" Finally, the encounters, even the bosses, ended up having a sameness to them because you could ignore their mechanics. It didn't matter -- in fact, you didn't even notice -- if the dragon breathes or silences or drops a void zone. The fights all felt the same."
I disagree, in all earnest. Our guild struggled through Naxx, and we never finished Ulduar, because of the mechanics. And don't get me started on Malygos.
" Tanks, you can’t pull and AE every group in a Heroic (again, until you overgear the content). It’s a good idea to crowd control at least one target "
CC is not the tank's job, it's the dps' job. Tank- keep aggro. CC can be a way of maintaining aggro, but, not our job. But we get it, can't take on EVERY mob in a group of 5. This is where I see a flaw. This means that out of 4-5 mobs, 2-3 cannot be tanked, they have to be cc'd. This means I will not be keeping aggro ON these 2-3 that need to be cc'd, otherwise I'd die quickly. This means aggro will be had ELSEWHERE. Maybe the healer, maybe DPS. This means the HEALER will have to keep up with more damage going to the healer or to dps on top of the same damage they would have to keep on top off before, on the tank. BUT...you said so yourself, you don't want healers to be able to carry a group, and this was done by nerfing the way healing is done...SOOOOOOO....you made the game more challenging by turning it into CONTRA.
" The responsibility for marking and setting the pace often falls upon the tank, but sometimes other experienced players are happy to take the mantle."
Marking. Ok, so we have to revert to CCing and to marking. After zerging for a year. That's expecting a lot from the client, from the user base already used to the gogogogo mentality. And again, this is a blizzard created issue.
" Where I have personally seen them get into trouble is when they slip into overconfident “I got this” mode and try to tank too many things at once."
Again, so, tanks shouldn't be taking on ALL comers, that falls on the dps' collective shoulders to CC, the healer will have to heal itself and the dps on top of the tank while gimped. Ok. Great.
" DPS specs often get blamed the most for not knowing what is going on. It should be your business to understand the mechanics of the fights. You’re a member of a team, not a follower who can always rely on someone else to tell them what to do."
Let's see...dps is 3/5ths of a group. You're asking 60% of all users that they need to learn to play. Just as an example, do you know how many balance druids I've been grouped with that insist on playing as if a 5man were a battleground?! Too many! So, ok, again, pipe dream, in my opinion.
" Which are the adds that must be burned down (and conversely, when should you ignore the adds and focus on the boss instead)? If you aren’t sure, then ask. Almost every group would rather take the few seconds to explain a fight than to wipe "
Almost every group I've ever played with will censor you and treat you like dirt, and maybe even vote to kick you if you so much as ask where to go. I really don't know who Ghostcrawler has grouped with, in all earnest.
" Healers seem like they largely understand that Heroics are challenging, and sometimes get penalized when the rest of the group doesn’t understand that. If you feel like you can’t cast anything but your efficient heal or you’ll run out of mana, then something is going wrong with the fight. Likewise, if you feel like you must spam your inefficient heals to the exclusion of all else, then your group is ignoring key mechanics or is just undergeared. [..] Gear also makes a huge difference for healers, which leads to my next point."
I already exposed my opinion of why this paradigm shift fails with healers being less powerful. And a good healer, according to him, would fail if the group is undergeared or if the group is inexperienced. Well, this would mean that you can expect to fail a lot at first. Who knows how to play at first? It's silly. Moving on...will bring this up later.
" If you just can’t make progress and you are literally wiping on trash pulls over and over, it may be time to analyze your gear. The Dungeon Finder's Heroic item level requirement should be considered a minimum -- and remember, it doesn’t look at enchants or gems or even if the gear is appropriate for you. We are assuming an entry-level Heroic player has a lot of item level 333 gear from Twilight Highlands, normal dungeons, or any of the reputation vendors. These 333s are probably mixed in with a few 318 quest greens, but offset by a few 346 items. If you finished the Hyjal quests, you are probably Revered with Guardians of Hyjal and have access to their 346 items. Questing might only earn you Honored with some of the other reputations, but that is easily rectified with daily quests or dungeon tabards (and don’t forget the Tol Barad reps). There are some nice crafted items. No, the weapons aren’t purple, but when you look at their stats, they are quite competitive."
translation- you're going to have to grind absolutely every single quest, every daily until you go blind. That's not hard. Is it FUN?
" The item level requirement is intended only to keep out players who have no idea what is appropriate content for them. We know you can game it by getting PvP gear or hiding off-spec gear in your bags. Congrats on being sneaky!"
Congrats on totally missing the point that your system has a horrible loophole!
" I’ve PUGged the Cataclysm content a lot. So have all of the designers. We want to stay in touch with what players are experiencing. Heroic PUGs are definitely harder than going with groups of people you know, but they aren’t impossible. If things start to go wrong, you might want to take a moment to analyze why they are going wrong before you bail. I do weep for those players who join an in-progress Heroic Rajh attempt (with suspicious player skeletons everywhere), immediately pull without any discussion, and then have the tank leave the group following the first wipe. That’s not fun for anyone and not going to lead to success. These aren't the original Scholomance or Arcatraz runs that could take four hours with respawns. Making a couple of concerted attempts on Rajh is probably going to be faster than going into the queue again."
These aren't going to lead to success...and yet the mentality you fostered for two years has led to the situation. So....ok?
" We've seen a few threads that suggest that we're too proud to admit mistakes. I find that logic strange, because we do it all the time."
As far as I know, you've addressed WHY the game is harder, not what you're going to do about it other than to expect your customer base to ship up or ship out, and you haven't addressed why it's not fun anymore. So...yeah, pretty proud I would say.
" We do understand that some healers are frustrated and giving up. That is sad and unfortunate. But the degree to which it's happening, at least at this point in time, is vastly overstated on the forums."
If it was so overstated, the wall of text he gave the forum would have been also overstating the importance of pointing out where the designers are coming from. If this was a minority just throwing a tantrum, it's something that could have been ignored. But no, you took the time to address it, thus it must have been of some importance.
" In any case, we want to ensure that everyone is having fun and enjoying their time with the game"
Bottom line is, we're not. We're not having fun, we got BORED, not so much as frustrated, and you failed to address that in any way. We're sorry. What bothers us the most is that you resorted to tell us we need to learn to play on top of paying YOU $15 for rented time on your MMO. Well, no. Ok? I pay someone $15 an hour for fun or to learn something. I don't learn anything worthwhile from WoW. So I pass. We pass. Thanks!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Countdown
A few things happened in the span of the holidays...
Basically, we're taking a break from WoW. I would not say it's indefinite, we might still come back, but this time it's less " we're bored, we're burnt out, we don't want to keep pushing uphill" and more "We're not having fun with our toons, even with new content" ...and it would seem that it's a common situation, not only the two of us. I would say that burn-out would be common after an expack hits, but Cataclysm has been out for a month...next Friday. A month. Err...that's not very promising. Sure, there will be content patches...but what, the next patch could come out sometime in February, it's not going to come out after a month. We're already bored, and we're not even level capped.
This presents a problem. I still like playing some, but I can see where I'll be bored in the next months, and I can't bring myself to paying more money to be bored. Moreover, we had plans for this expack... our plans consisted of having a healer/tank pair that would be our main pair. We had decided to do a priest and a warrior, because those were our favorite classes. Well, warrior tanks are more or less useless now, in comparison to, say, paladin tanks, so there's really no reason to play one. No one needs a warrior tank over another kind of tank. And my girlfriend had made a disc priest. There's no reason to play one. If you have a priest healer, you play as holy.
Given that state of affairs, we decided we've had it. For now anyway. I was thinking we could come back for another expack, but news of Blizzard selling inactive accounts to gold sellers really freaked me out. I know my toons are rented. I don't know, I failed to read the agreement, but the way I see it is this- I rent time and a space from Blizzard. But my content...I rent MY created content? That's like going to a pottery class, paying for the pottery class, paying the fees for the materials and the use of the kiln, and then at the end of the class term, having to leave your stupid fucking ashtray....now, there's no way I could take my level 82 DK with me, but god damn it, if I want to come back to him, let me come back to him!
Anyway, another thing happened, to add insult to injury. I got Mass Effect. I had wanted to play Mass Effect for a while...it was essentially the one game that interested me from the Xbox camp.
Why does this matter? Because it's Bioware, who are now making SWTOR, our next MMO home.
I had played KOTOR 1& 2 and Dragon Age. Those to me were not indicative of what Bioware is, as a company. KOTOR was super fucking fun, although it did not age well, and the story telling was last-gen, and it suffers for it. The IP carried the experience for me. KOTOR 2 was actually an Obsidian game, and while it was a great game, the ending and production mishaps hamper the game incredibly. Dragon Age is an INCREDIBLE game which I never grew to adore...despite how good it is. The world of Thedas is not my favorite, for one thing, and also, the fighting was fun albeit lacked a bit of oomph, in my opinion.
Mass Effect though, is...well...let's say in the 48 hours of last weekend, I played 20 hours. See, I woke up at 8 AM that Saturday, so that left 40 hours to play. I played roughly 10 hours that day. I took bathroom and eating breaks. I also took about an hour or so to tend to 'relationship' with the significant other. Now that I recollect, I feel I lost precious time. I went to sleep at around 1 AM, woke up at 9. Another 8 hours lost. The following Sunday I had another bout of roughly 10 hours. I went to sleep at 12 on that Sunday evening. This means that there are roughly 10 hours unaccounted for at this point in time, and I am beating myself up for I cannot say I spent those precious hours playing Mass Effect.
It scares me to think what an MMO produced by the same developing team could do to my waning social life...
Basically, we're taking a break from WoW. I would not say it's indefinite, we might still come back, but this time it's less " we're bored, we're burnt out, we don't want to keep pushing uphill" and more "We're not having fun with our toons, even with new content" ...and it would seem that it's a common situation, not only the two of us. I would say that burn-out would be common after an expack hits, but Cataclysm has been out for a month...next Friday. A month. Err...that's not very promising. Sure, there will be content patches...but what, the next patch could come out sometime in February, it's not going to come out after a month. We're already bored, and we're not even level capped.
This presents a problem. I still like playing some, but I can see where I'll be bored in the next months, and I can't bring myself to paying more money to be bored. Moreover, we had plans for this expack... our plans consisted of having a healer/tank pair that would be our main pair. We had decided to do a priest and a warrior, because those were our favorite classes. Well, warrior tanks are more or less useless now, in comparison to, say, paladin tanks, so there's really no reason to play one. No one needs a warrior tank over another kind of tank. And my girlfriend had made a disc priest. There's no reason to play one. If you have a priest healer, you play as holy.
Given that state of affairs, we decided we've had it. For now anyway. I was thinking we could come back for another expack, but news of Blizzard selling inactive accounts to gold sellers really freaked me out. I know my toons are rented. I don't know, I failed to read the agreement, but the way I see it is this- I rent time and a space from Blizzard. But my content...I rent MY created content? That's like going to a pottery class, paying for the pottery class, paying the fees for the materials and the use of the kiln, and then at the end of the class term, having to leave your stupid fucking ashtray....now, there's no way I could take my level 82 DK with me, but god damn it, if I want to come back to him, let me come back to him!
Anyway, another thing happened, to add insult to injury. I got Mass Effect. I had wanted to play Mass Effect for a while...it was essentially the one game that interested me from the Xbox camp.
Why does this matter? Because it's Bioware, who are now making SWTOR, our next MMO home.
I had played KOTOR 1& 2 and Dragon Age. Those to me were not indicative of what Bioware is, as a company. KOTOR was super fucking fun, although it did not age well, and the story telling was last-gen, and it suffers for it. The IP carried the experience for me. KOTOR 2 was actually an Obsidian game, and while it was a great game, the ending and production mishaps hamper the game incredibly. Dragon Age is an INCREDIBLE game which I never grew to adore...despite how good it is. The world of Thedas is not my favorite, for one thing, and also, the fighting was fun albeit lacked a bit of oomph, in my opinion.
Mass Effect though, is...well...let's say in the 48 hours of last weekend, I played 20 hours. See, I woke up at 8 AM that Saturday, so that left 40 hours to play. I played roughly 10 hours that day. I took bathroom and eating breaks. I also took about an hour or so to tend to 'relationship' with the significant other. Now that I recollect, I feel I lost precious time. I went to sleep at around 1 AM, woke up at 9. Another 8 hours lost. The following Sunday I had another bout of roughly 10 hours. I went to sleep at 12 on that Sunday evening. This means that there are roughly 10 hours unaccounted for at this point in time, and I am beating myself up for I cannot say I spent those precious hours playing Mass Effect.
It scares me to think what an MMO produced by the same developing team could do to my waning social life...
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