Guild Wars 3

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I don’t keep up with gaming news as much as I use to but several noteworthy announcement have come to my attention of late. Firstly, there’s an expansion, Songs of the Past, coming for the Witcher III: Wild Hunt in 2027. No doubt this is to pave the way for the Witcher IV. Next, I also found out about Hand of Fate: Horde. I liked this franchise and was saddened to learn that the original studio, Defiant Development, closed. Hence is was a pleasant surprise to see this new game being developed by members of the original studio. The third announcement was regarding Guild Wars 3. A new MMORPG in active development by a major studio is no small feat and is certainly good news for fans of this franchise and the genre per se. However, once you look beyond this news this announcement raises several questions and has certainly given me pause for thought. Let us take a few moments to consider them.

When a new game in a popular franchise is launched, it does not necessarily mean the immediate death of the previous iteration. You can still buy and play older versions of titles such as Call of Duty and Battlefield and they often maintain a dedicated player base. That has not always been the case with the MMO genre. The Playstation 2 version of EverQuest Online Adventures was shutdown by Sony Online Entertainment upon the release of EverQuest II. Overwatch was not closed as the such but the game client was patched thus morphing existing installations of the game into Overwatch II, regardless of whether players wished this or not. However in the case of Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet have announced that they will keep producing content for the older game once they have completed work on Guild Wars 3. ArenaNet have a track record of maintaining old and new products in parallel.

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Perhaps the biggest issue associated with Guild Wars 3 and the one that is currently being debated, is what does a modern MMORPG look like? The term has evolved greatly over the last 25 years and as a result there are clear difference between games hailing from different eras. Those who want tab targetting, static combat and structured skill rotations, along with a strong social component and required grouping may be disappointed. I suspect that ArenaNet will be pursuing a modern approach to Guild Wars 3, utilising a hybrid style that blends a large persistent online world with the kind of high-mobility gameplay that you find in modern third-person action games. Perhaps there are clues to be found in the recent RPG Crimson Desert, which started its development life as an MMORPG before being transitioned into a single player game. It has many systems inherent in the MMORPG genre but its combat is very contemporary.

Naturally, there is scope that some players will not like the cut of Guild Wars 3 proverbial jib and will not migrate to it. Conversely, the existing Guild Wars 2 community may well see a substantive drop in players which may impact negatively upon guilds and end game content. You cannot please everyone, nor should you try to. It will be interesting to see how both game fare. I still have numerous screen captures taken during the Guild Wars 2 beta tests in 2012 and have fond memories of that time as I was a consummate MMORPG player back then. Nowadays, I am more curious about the development of Guild Wars 3 from a business and industry perspective, rather than an active player of the genre. As to those players who have already questioning whether to continue to play Guild Wars 2 now that a new game has been announced, I’d urge them to live in the moment and continue to play and enjoy the current game. Guild Wars 3 is a long way off. “Now” is here already.

MMORPGs Based on Existing Intellectual Properties

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I was recently perusing my archive of old blog posts, when it struck me how much I’ve written about the MMORPG genre over the years. Naturally, there was far more material from between 2008 and 2012 as that was period when I immersed myself in the genre and was very enthusiastic about it. I was at a point in my life when I had the time to dedicate to such games and I was happy to participate in the social aspect of they offered. I would regularly play through group content and spend time socialising online with fellow guild members. My experience remains a textbook example of how online games can be more than the sum of their parts and that where you are at in your life has a major impact upon your overall enjoyment. As I read though various old posts it became clear that my experiences where specific to this particular part of my life and that they cannot be repeated. My relationship with the genre is very different now and that’s fine.

Out of all the MMOs that I’ve dabbled with over the years, only two are still being actively played. The Lord of the Rings Online and Star Trek Online. After giving this matter some thought, I have concluded that it is my relationship with the intellectual property on which they’re based is the main reason why these two have remained, where as other have fallen by the wayside. I used to play Guild Wars 2 regularly. I participated in the beta testing and doggedly worked my way through the base game and tackled the first expansion. It was the latter that killed my interest. On its release Heart of Thorns was difficult to play through, due to it’s three dimensional environment. There were no flying mounts at the time, so the game ground to a halt for me. Usually in such circumstances, games like LOTRO have the benefit of lore heavy narratives which appeal to my sense of fandom. Guild Wars 2 is its own unique IP and sadly has no emotional resonance for me. So I stopped playing.

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The same thing effectively killed my interest in most other MMOs. I really tried to get into the lore of The Elder Scrolls Online because I had enjoyed Skyrim so much. But it all seemed a little too derivative for my taste. When I’ve raised this issue in-game, other MMO players have suggested I just ignore the dialogue and mission text and focus on just getting whatever is required done. Sadly, I like narratives and therefore want to know what my motivation is. Doing a task for “reasons” doesn’t really suit me. Such things don’t kill my interest in an MMO immediately. The social component can keep me engaged for a while, especially if you often play through content as a group. However, that too can wane over time, especially if friends move on to another game. I’m in a curious situation where I still talk online each week to a friend I have met through MMOs but we seldom play the same games any more.

All of this raises the question of whether I am still an MMO player per se, or whether I am just playing MMOs as single player games, in a multiplayer environment. Crimson Desert has highlighted this point as that game feels conspicuously like an MMO, especially with regard to many of its game systems and mechanics, yet it lacks the presence of other players. I suppose the definitive test would be if a new MMO launched that took my fancy, would I now play it? That question would depend greatly upon its setting and whether it was based on an IP I was already familiar with and enjoyed. If there was a modern MMO released that was set in the First Age of Middle-earth, then I would most definitely try it. I cannot say the same about titles with just a generic fantasy setting. I am not entirely sure if this change in perspective is down to me or the ongoing evolution of the genre. I suspect that both have contributed to my current outlook.

Playing MMOs on a Second Monitor

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I have two monitors on my desk. The first (which is the primary monitor as far as my PC is concerned), is on the left and the second is on the right. The primary monitor is a 24 Dell U2412M, which has a resolution of 1920 x 1200. It therefore has an aspect ratio of 16:10 which adds a little extra desktop real estate, which I prefer when writing. The second monitor is a 24 inch Dell S2421H with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. It has an aspect ratio of 16:9 which is standard FHD. My chair is adjacent to the middle of my desk and I can turn according to each monitor I’m using. I tend to use the primary, larger monitor on the left for tasks such as writing via Google Docs and emails. The second monitor on the right is used  for YouTube and gaming. This is because of its FHD format. I also have a Nintendo Switch connected to the second monitor for the same reason.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s move on to video games that are relevant to this post. I have at present six MMORPGs installed on my PC. Age of Conan, Star Trek Online, The Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars 2, The Elder Scrolls Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic. As previously stated I prefer to play video games using the second monitor as it is a default FHD standard. Screen captures and any recorded material are in a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is very useful for YouTube or streaming. Working within a standard format is also convenient when trying to find optimal game settings for my CPU and GPU. However, trying to get these games to run on my second monitor and more importantly stay there, has not proven easy. Some cooperate, others have to be cajoled and a few flat out refuse to do so. 

The obvious solution is to change the primary monitor designation in the PC settings. However, I don’t want to do this as it would have a knock on effect on my current preferences. Hence I have had to manually tinker with each game to see if it will run consistently on monitor number 2. ESO being the most recent MMO out of those listed, has a drop down box in the game settings where you can choose which display you use. Both STO and SWTOR can be temporarily set to “windowed mode” and dragged over to the second display. Furthermore this change persists after exiting the game client and rebooting the PC. Sadly, AoC, LOTRO and GW2 resist this simple work around. The games can be dragged to the second monitor in “windowed mode” but when the display is set back to fullscreen they instantly revert back to the primary monitor.

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I am far from alone in my preferences. A simple Google search shows that many other gamers have made similar enquiries and you’ll find numerous forums and subreddit posts. Often the advice is to use various Windows 10 settings to force content from one monitor to another but it seldom works, or if it does it doesn’t persist. Using the management software that comes with your GPU is also frequently recommended but this tends to be for spanning a game across two monitors, rather than forcing the output to a specific one. There are also some third party apps that have been developed by “gifted amateurs” but again the results are not guaranteed and often depend on having the right sort of GPU with the right sort of output cable. The problem ultimately stems from most of these games being developed when having multiple monitors was not as common as today.

Out of the three MMOs where this problem persists I find GW2 the most egregious. This game possibly has the biggest development budget of them all and is regularly updated. You would have thought such a feature as a choice of displays would have been added to the game by now. AoC is in maintenance mode, so one adjusts one’s expectations accordingly. However, LOTRO is a curious beast. It has a small but loyal playerbase and makes sufficient money to keep going. Updating the GUI is on the development “to do list”. In the meantime I finally found a workaround today by making some alterations to the “UserPreferences.ini” file. I changed “DisplayOutput=1” to 2 in the list of [Render] settings and changed all display resolution data to 1920 x 1080 and the aspect ratio to 16:9. LOTRO now runs on my second monitor and stays there after rebooting the PC. A minor victory but a victory no less.

Are MMORPGs Expensive to Play?

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Bree Royce, editor-in chief at Massively Overpowered, recently asked the question “what is the most expensive MMORPG right now”. My first thought was to search through my old draft blog posts and track down an MMO cost analysis I wrote circa 2019. It includes data such as subscription rates and the price of current expansions. There was also information on what were the most popular cash shop items at the time. However, I then read some of the comments that had been left on Bree’s post and I quickly realised that this wasn’t just a matter of financial expenditure. Whether or not an MMO is expensive is also determined by one’s disposable income, respective wealth and personal relationship with money. The latter is perhaps the most important, irrespective whether you consider yourself rich or poor.

I play several MMORPGs over the course of a year. I tend to return to a game when there’s sufficient outstanding content to keep me busy for a few months, such as a new expansion. Hence I will binge play games such as The Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Elder Scrolls Online. While I am playing any one of these titles, I will subscribe to ensure that I am not impeded by any “free-to-play” restrictions. I will also buy some in-game currency so I can obtain any cash shop items I desire. Hence, if I play SWTOR for three months or so, I can end up spending between £60 to £75. It is therefore entirely possible that I can spend £300 a year across multiple MMOs. Broadly, this breaks down to about £6 a week. I personally do not feel that this is a lot of money.

Every hobby has some sort of cost associated with it. From golf, fishing, gardening, painting lead figures to trainspotting. Compared to others, I consider video games good value, especially the MMO genre. However, this is very subjective. Some people may consider my spending to be profligate. Others may think that I’m penny pinching. It all comes down to our own relationship with money. Something that varies between generations and other social divides. I know very wealthy people who will balk at costs that are just pocket change to them. I know others on what would be considered a relatively low income, to happily embrace in-game expenditure because it is the primary source of leisure and entertainment. Furthermore, “whales” do exist and are a big enough factor to influence a video game’s business model.

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However, setting aside one’s own finances, there is another factor that counts here. One that is a matter of perspective. Most gamers understand that games cost money to develop and that there is a requirement to generate revenue to finance new content. Hence we broadly accept that there will be charges such as a subscription or the sale of cosmetic items. What matters here is setting a cost that feels appropriate. If this is done right then the player does not feel abused or exploited. A $5 or $10 cosmetic mount is therefore acceptable. Not so, $50 or more. Sadly, publishers often push egregious charges upon developers and mandate that they are included in the game. All too often a deliberate bottleneck or grind is artificially created in an MMO which can only be bypassed with a paid solution. This is the main bone of contention with many gamers.

As I’ve stated in other posts recently, what we expect from a video game is very much determined with what we have grown accustomed to and that varies depending on age. Paying once and getting everything was the norm during the eighties and nineties. But those days are gone and are not coming back. Therefore one has to adjust one’s expectations. It is also true that video game studios only pitch a business model that they can get away with. Sometimes, a live service game fails because it delivers too little and charges too much. The business models for games like LOTRO and SWTOR persist because the players ultimately tolerate it. They may complain but they continue paying. Unless you are prepared to stop paying you cannot exercise any leverage. Ultimately, the only intellectually honest answer to the question “what is the most expensive MMO right now” is the one you’ve chosen not to play.

MMO Tropes: Death

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I use to be alive until I took an arrow to the cerebral cortex

“The MMO genre is rife with its own set of tropes; recurring themes and motifs that have become established and ubiquitous. All of which are ideal material for a hastily produced, lazily conceived, recurring blog post”. Dying in an Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game is a clear and unambiguous fail state. A means by which to teach the player that they’re doing something wrong and that they need to rethink their strategy. IE Don’t mess with the foul Marmydons unless you have back up and are wielding the Sword of Kagnazax. Dying is a reminder to not get overconfident and maintain situational awareness. It teaches us to ensure you have the right gear and consumables, to be au fait with the mechanics of any fight you’re about to get into and that winning is not a given. Any enterprise that offers a tangible reward will come with potential risks and consequences. If you’re playing in a group then death provides a timely reminder not to rely on Colin.

Over the course of its evolution, the MMORPG genre has handled death in many different ways. There’s the scorched earth policy of permadeath, in which your in-game character dies for good. You lose everything you’ve accrued and have to create a new character and start from scratch. Then there was the infamous “corpse run”, in which your character’s spirit spawns at a designated point on the in-game map and has to return to their own dead body to re-animate it. In the meantime, any passing player can pilfer your loot from your unattended cadaver. However, such draconian rules have fallen out of favour with modern MMOs, although you will still find them in many classic games that still linger online. Death is now treated as a minor penalty that temporarily inconveniences you. It may incur damage to your gear but it is no longer the setback that it used to be.

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I’ve spent many a happy hour plummeting to my death in LOTRO

In the Lord of the Rings Online, death is politely called “defeat” and occurs when your morale reaches zero. While defeated your character remains immobile, unable to use any skills. You may then use a self-revive which has a two hour cooldown by default, assuming that the immediate area is safe. If however you cannot or do not wish to self-revive, you may “retreat” which will teleport you to the nearest rally point, which is a circle of stones in a safe area. This disadvantage of “retreating” is that it may take you a substantial distance from your previous location. This is particularly problematic if you are in an instance. However, if you are playing in a group you may be revived by a fellow player, if they are of a class that can revive others. It is not the best or worst example of death mechanics in an MMO but it can be managed. You can purchase an account unlock that reduces the two hour cooldown on “revive” to one or purchase additional consumable “revives” by using in-game currency.

Death is managed in a far more equitable fashion in Star Trek Online. During ground combat, if you are inconvenienced by dying you can simply respawn at the last unlocked respawn point. However, more often than not, your character is accompanied by your “away team”. This is a group of four NPC companions or “bridge officers”. While dead you may request “help”, in which case one will come and revive you. Depending upon the intensity of the ongoing combat, your companions may well all heroically die trying to save you. However, if you ensure that you have a holographic or android NPC on your away team, these have the ability to self-reboot. Hence if your entire group is wiped out, one will self-revive and then revive everyone else. Conversely, space combat in STO handles dying far more simply. There is a short 10 second cooldown and then you can opt to respawn in the combat zone.

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“He’s dead, Jim. Oh shit, it is Jim”

I have always liked the way that Guild Wars 2 has made reviving others a key social aspect of the game. Each player can use a self-revive when “downed”, the stage between zero health and “defeat”. Alternatively, while “downed” if you manage to kill an enemy you will “rally” back to a state of health. However, once dead, they can either retreat to the nearest waypoint or look to an ally or the kindness of passing strangers to revive you. In dynamic events, where there are lots of players, it is commonplace to help players who are “downed” or “defeated” as it is practical to have as many functional players attacking a target as possible. There are traits in the game that improve reviving speed and potency. Gear can be augmented with runes, some of which can improve revival mechanics.

The Elder Scrolls Online dispenses with the intermediate stage of being “downed” and once your health is exhausted, you are officially dead. At this point, you can retreat to the nearest wayshrine or self-revive using a soul gem. Soul gems are consumable items that are initially empty. However, if the player slots the right skills, they are filled with the souls of enemies they defeat. Hence soul gems come with a cost. The player has to either make them themselves or buy them pre-made from the in-game store. Reviving yourself with a soul gem will grant you a spectral form for a short time that is unable to attack or be attacked, before returning to full health. This allows the player to strategically reposition themselves. Soul gems can also be used to revive other players. However, unlike Guild Wars 2, as you are using a resource with a value, players may not always be disposed to help you.

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A poultry-geist

Most people are not overly enamoured by death mechanics. However, during solo PVE gameplay, it is broadly tolerated. However, in my experience, this changes significantly during group content. I jokingly mentioned earlier about death in instances or raids. It is a fact that players do not warm to dying in an MMO when it is due to the incompetence of another player. Group content in MMOs requires a substantial investment of time and resources. Death may lead to a wipe and failure to obtain the loot you desire. Which means when Colin fucks up and you all die, tempers will flare. It can ruin a game. Colin notwithstanding, death is a legacy penalty left over from the original hardcore days of MMOs. Its relevance seems to have diminished with age and continues to do so in this era of “live services”. It may eventually vanish from the genre as it ultimately stands in the way of player gratification. Unhappy players tend not to play or pay. Business doesn’t like that.

A Month in Gaming

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I last wrote a post in this series in June. Back then I wanted a break from MMOs as I had invested heavily in Star wars: the Old Republic and The Lord of the Rings Online. Because I was still enjoying the Star Wars vibe, I decided to try Jedi: Fallen Order. Sadly, despite the story showing a lot of promise, the PC version of the game handles poorly and the controls are sluggish. Often it felt like my character was wading through mud and there was a tangible amount of skills lag. So I uninstalled it and moved on to something else. One of the odd things about gaming is that despite amassing a library of free and discounted titles, we often end up buying something new, instead of playing that which we already own. And that is exactly what I did. I purchased Stray amid all the excitement surrounding the game, but to date I still haven’t played it. Make of that what you will.

So what exactly have I been playing? Sniper Elite 5 for starters. I feel this is by far the best iteration of the franchise and as such it kept me busy in June and July. I like the weapon customisation, especially the addition of non-lethal ammunition. I finally feel that weapons choice makes a tangible difference to your play style. I also like the pace of this game or more specifically, the fact that you determine it. You can spend ages lining up a shot or you can go in all guns blazing. And the maps are by far the best that developer’s Rebellion has come up with so far. They lend themselves to continuous replay due to the variety of potential routes you can explore. Invasion mode, which I wrote about at length in a proper blog post, offers a new and interesting spin on PvP, with another player entering your campaign game and trying to hunt you down. Sniper Elite 5 has provided me with some of the best gaming I’ve had this year. 

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It was nice to see Fall Guys go free-to-play, in so far that it makes the game more accessible to players across multiple platforms. This is a fun game; something you can jump into and quickly start enjoying, with little or no impediment. However, the business model is based upon the selling of cosmetic skins and the pricing structure is far from generous. Running about with a default character will be a problem for some players, so they will naturally want to customise their look. Earning the in-game currency is a long grind (when is it not?), so the only alternative is the game store. FOMO is not an ethically ideal foundation for your game’s business model, but it doesn’t seem to bother publishers that much. If you are content to just play with the default skins, then Fall Guys is certainly still an enjoyable game. But sooner or later, you will want a chicken outfit or something and will have to reach for your wallet.

Despite my overall fatigue with LOTRO, I have been intrigued by the Echoes of Angmar private server and the debacle that has accompanied it. Despite a politely worded and somewhat wishy-washy cease and desist notice from Middle-earth Enterprises, the developers of this project have pushed ahead with several stress tests and delivered (so far) exactly what they intended. A version of LOTRO as it was back in November 2007, shortly after its launch. I found the few hours that I played to be entertaining, although that mainly came from the sense of nostalgia. I’m not so sure if I’d enjoy the game in this form quite so much, as I did back in the day. However, I am curious to see how this project evades the “legal issues” arising from its situation and what sort of long term audience it can sustain. 

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The other gaming development of note that I’ve enjoyed over recent weeks, has been my return to Guild Wars 2 after a seven year absence. There are still several elements of the game that infuriate me, but after a further two expansions there is sufficient content for me to do and enjoy. I have set about collecting mounts and earning mastery for their various skills. I continue to enjoy the various events that regularly occur and the fact that you can always find something to do if you’re pushed for time. Playing through the main story is another matter altogether. I await to see if my interest in the game lasts. As autumn approaches, the immersive nature of MMOs and their requirement for time investment becomes both appealing and sustainable. If Guild Wars 2 cannot fill that gap, there’s always The Elder Scrolls Online. The next post in this series will indicate which game prevails.

Navigating in MMORPGs

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The Lord of the Rings Online was my first major MMORPG. I started playing in late 2008 and quickly discovered that there was a necessity to become familiar with the game world. Although the game provides quick travel options they were not ubiquitous at that point and often a player would simply travel on foot to travel costs down and to take the most direct route. Back in 2008 you could not own a mount until level 30. Hence I began “learning the maps” in the game and to this day still remember how to travel from one side of Moria, to another. The maps in the base game remain clear in my mind as they were so well trodden. Not so those in the regions. There are far more stables with fast mounts present in the game now and so convenience trumps any requirement to become so familiar with newly added zones. Nowadays Standing Stone Games designs new zones that tend to funnel players through them from quest hub to quest hub.

After considering the wider matter of maps in general in the MMO genre, it seems that most of them seem to be lacking in some fashion. The biggest problem is that traditional in-game maps are two dimensional views of three dimensional environments. LOTRO, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 are prime examples of this. Furthermore maps in this genre tend to be initially devoid of specific detail. This is to encourage exploration which then populates a map with NPC, fast travel points, crafting stations etc after they’re discovered. Another issue, especially in fantasy games, is that the maps themselves are designed in a stylised manner and are frequently not accurate in the sense that an Ordnance Survey map is in real life. The Elder Scrolls Online at least addresses the issue of multi-layers maps, allowing players to switch between levels. But it is far from perfect. The MMO does allow you to set a waypoint which can be a godsend. 

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As maps can prove so “unhelpful”, I find the most practical thing a game can do to help me with navigation is to provide a highly visible landmark which can be used to orientate players. Weathertop is a prime example of this in the Loneland region of LOTRO. The crumbling fortress on the highest hill in the region dominates the map. Having line of sight helps you make quick decisions when travelling and find the direction you need. Guild Wars 2 has gone all in on the concept of verticality and three dimensional environments. Does it make for interesting and complex world design? Yes. But the main problem is you cannot easily set a destination and travel there. As you seldom have any line of sight, often the only way to a location is through trial and error. Usually through “bandit territory”. It is intensely frustrating especially as there is much XP gain to be had via discovery. It makes me miss Neverwinter and its sparkly trails that can optionally lead you to your destination.

Navigating in Star Trek Online is the polar opposite of most other fantasy based MMOs and a very straightforward process. Especially after 2015 when developers Cryptic revised the galaxy map dividing it into four clearly defined quadrants, rather than sectors which were separate instances. The point and click navigation between planetary systems in sector space is simple and easy. If you wish to navigate by hand you can manually fly around at your own leisure. However, until you earn the transwarp travel skill it can take some time to get from one side of the map to another as a low level player. There is no cost associated with travel in STO. Unlike SWTOR which charges the player for the fuel used to travel across space. Both approaches are compliant with their respective lore of each franchise.

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I find travelling and exploration a major source of enjoyment in MMOs. If I’m confronted with a blank map, then the first thing I want to do is open it up and see its details. I’ll often go exploring first off, rather than playing through mission or quest content. This isn’t always a shrewd decision as I can find myself in zones I am ill equipped to travel. Bu for me, looking around the game world is part of a game attraction, especially if it has a rich and diverse environment. Sometimes I will log into LOTRO and ride around Middle-earth just for the pleasure of it. Sadly, that is not the case for all MMOs. Take SWTOR, which has some industrial themed, city based maps that are a never ending maze of corridors and walkways. Overall I would like to see more games in the MMO genre having some sort of Grand Tour option or game mechanic. A means for peaceful exploration as an alternative to the usual narrative driven progression.

Making Your Own Fun in Guild Wars 2

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It’s a curious thing but despite there being a wealth of story content available for me to do in Guild Wars 2, I don’t feel disposed towards doing any of it. I think this all stems from the fact that it’s an original intellectual property, rather than one based upon an established franchise. Looking back through my achievements and story journal on my primary character, I played through quite a lot of narrative content when I first started playing this MMO at launch. Sadly none of it has made a sufficient impression upon me to have stuck in my memory. This is not a reflection of the quality of the storyline of Guild Wars 2 but more a case of how I tend to prefer known quantities such as Tolkien and Star Trek. Curiously, I have not encountered this problem with The Elder Scrolls Online which is equally an original intellectual property. It all seems very much a case of horses for courses.

Having returned to Guild Wars 2 and rolled a new Necromancer with Reaper Elite Specialisation, I’ve been trying to keep myself occupied while minimising my interaction with the central stories associated with the base game and the subsequent expansions. However, you have to do some of this content to be granted access to the various zones. I decided to bypass the Heart of Thorns content which I didn’t especially enjoy when first released and instead began Path of Fire. I benefited from playing this MMO again, just as they’ve recently given all players a Raptor mount when they reach level 10. Hence, I thought it would be fun to set about collecting all the other kinds of mount. I’ve also set myself the goal of completing all points of interest, vistas and heart quests, as well as Mastery and Hero points. So far this has proven sufficiently engaging, along with exploring the new maps I’ve not seen before.

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Another aspect about PVE story content in Guild Wars 2 is that it’s far from easy and not the faceroll that many players are used to in games such as The Lord of the Rings Online. You have to be well geared and well versed in playing your class to undertake it without “incident”. Many play through it with friends or guild mates, which makes it a lot easier. However, that comes with the organisational and social complexities associated with playing as a group. I recently reached a point in the story near the Makali Outpost where I had to clear the surrounding desert of three groups of mobs, each of which had a Champion boss among them. This fight is long, hard and not especially exciting. Finding the sweet spot for combat duration is a difficult task as different people have different levels of patience. Mercifully, I was assisted by a friend.

At present, I can effectively make my own fun in Guild Wars 2 and keep myself engaged with the game, rather than following the formal structure that is already there. For example, tonight I decided to just follow any zergs I encountered and this proved a fun and useful strategy. I was in the Maguuma Jungle at the time which proved beneficial by opening up some points of interest along the way. Hopefully, this approach to the game will keep me going for a while. Now that this MMO is available via Steam there seems to be an influx of new players and lots of zones in the base game are well populated at present. I’m sure my approach to Guild Wars 2 is not unique and that other players follow suit not only in this game but also in other MMOs. Naturally, there are “purists” that will consider my approach an anathema, but that is of no importance to me. Having fun on your own terms is my maxim.

You Can Never Just Do the Thing You Want to Do

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Last night I had some spare time, so I watched a Guild Wars 2 live stream from Massively Overpowered. I stopped playing this particular MMORPG in late 2015, a few months after the second expansion Heart of Thorns was released. To say that it changed the game is an understatement and sadly they were not changes that I especially liked. Since then I have occasionally logged into the game but never done anything more than potter about the starter zones. However, after watching this live stream I felt disposed towards giving the game another go. I wanted to try a new class and swan about casting spells, looking like Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon because that’s the way all Mages look in MMOs. Today I logged into the game with hopes of rolling a Necromancer and questing in Tyria. However, the game had other plans.

The MMO genre is very good at some things. Many have complex lore and engaging stories. If a game has been around for a while there’s usually plenty of content to complete. Then there are the communities, many of which are helpful and welcoming. And let’s not forget the business model. If you want to try an MMO you can usually do so without having to spend a red cent. You can usually progress sufficiently to decide whether the game in question is right for you. However and there is always a “however”, most MMOs are utterly incapable of just letting a new or a returning player log into the game and casually start playing. No, the game has to burden you with a confusing tutorial and emails with filled boost, gifts and other paraphernalia.Then there’s the wildly flashing interface that is desperately trying to get you to attend some in-game system that you have zero interest in at this point in time. It’s like being surrounded by multiple toddlers that want to show you the collage they’ve just made out of pasta.

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I was watching the film Reach For the Sky recently about WWII fighter pilot Douglas Bader. There is a scene where he is with a friend at a golf course and Bader has no prior experience of the game. The friend lends him a club and a ball so he can get the feel of them. Now I appreciate that this analogy is somewhat of an oversimplification, but why can’t bloody MMOs give players the option to do the same? Because Guild Wars 2 was having none of this. As soon as I rolled a new Human Necromancer, I was funnelled into a tutorial. It was relatively short but it was confusing because it gave me an axe as a weapon by default and I didn’t want an axe, so I was vexed until I was able to change it. Once the tutorial was over the emails started coming with all the account wide free crap I’ve earned over the years on other alts or through buying an expansion. And then I had to clear out my shared bank space and try and determine what stuff was still relevant and what wasn’t.

Despite these frustrations, I soon determined that I like the Necromancer class and decided to use the level boost I had been given to advance to the current level cap of 80. Let it suffice to say that although the game is quite generous with the gear it gives players who do this, there is precious little guidance regarding builds. This meant that I had to stop playing to do “homework” and by that I mean looking for information outside of the game. Something I think is cardinal sine in the gaming world. I finally settled on a build that suited my needs and returned to the zone where I was pottering about. After some further gameplay I decided to buy some Gems, the currency for the game’s item shop. I used PayPal and was somewhat taken aback by an onscreen message that stated it could take up to 72 hours to get them. Mercifully, it was only an hour but the absence of an instantaneous transaction shocked me. I’ve subsequently learned it doesn’t seem to happen if you pay by credit card.

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To cut a long story short, despite the game doing its utmost to not let me play, I have decided to stick with Guild Wars 2 for a while. However, I learned to treat the game store with caution. Don’t rely on it to warn you about buying something you can’t use. I ended up with a Skimmer skin despite the fact I haven’t got one as yet. If you’re not sure about something in the store and if it is relevant to you, tab out of the game and do some research. Again you shouldn’t have to but that’s the way it is. Also the complexities of the Elite Specialisation system are not explained in-game. It took me ages to figure out how to unlock the Greatsword for a Reaper Necromancer and how to enable its skills. Again player curated websites provided the answers and there was no information of a comparable standard provided by ArenaNet, which is rather annoying and also damn strange. What’s their excuse?

On a positive note, all three of the expansions for Guild Wars 2 are available for purchase as a collection at the reasonable price of £44 bar a penny. I already had the first but this bundle was still cheaper than buying the two more recent ones separately. So I’m now back in this MMO and will be playing it until something else comes along. I did have fun today and I do like the class that I’ve rolled. But I do think that my concerns have legs and that not only Guild Wars 2 but most MMOs seem to have a problem with just letting players get into the game and doing their own thing. I appreciate that there is a need to inform players about a game’s systems and that tutorials are hard to do well. But it would be nice if there was a way to temporarily suspend the tsunami of in-game information I’ve highlighted and be able to get on with the task in hand. Be it in the main game or a bespoke “testing zone”. However, knowing how the MMO genre is, I won’t get my hopes up.

A Month in Gaming

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Usually I keep subscribing to an MMORPG, even if I’m not playing it that much. I like to have options in case I decide to log in on a whim. Especially if an absent friend returns to a particular game presenting an opportunity to catch up. However, the current economic climate is no longer something that I can ignore. Although far from having a low income, the current ongoing increase in the cost of living is becoming apparent, so I have been fiscally prudent and cancelled my monthly subscriptions to Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Lord of the Rings Online. Both have provided me with a lot of entertainment over the last three to four months but until new content becomes available, I can happily dispense with them for the meantime. Not only have I saved £17.98 on subscriptions, I shall no longer be making ad hoc purchases of in-game currencies. Something I have been doing a lot more than usual of late.

May saw the release of Sniper Elite 5 and as ever, I have found the game thoroughly engrossing. I have written a more substantial review elsewhere but I just want to reiterate how this franchise is the complete opposite of the fast paced insanity and lightning reflexes of Call of Duty. I find taking my time in Sniper Elite, tagging all targets and waiting for as long as it takes to make the right shot, is immensely satisfying. All too often, modern gaming is excessively frenetic, bombastic and overwhelming. Sniper Elite is the antidote to this. I also made a brief return to Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout recently. It is still fun in small doses and the cosmetic aspect of the game is a major contributor to that enjoyment. As a Prime Gaming customer (part of being an Amazon Prime subscriber), there are frequently free outfits to claim each month. Despite having played this game for two years now, I still haven’t achieved being the “last player standing” and thus won a complete tournament.

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I surprised myself recently by reinstalling Guild Wars 2. Again I’ve written at length in the past as to the point of returning to a game that requires me to spend time in a zone I loathe. However, unlike some other MMOs that require you to tinker with your client once it’s downloaded, or update a plethora of third party addons, installing Guild Wars 2 is really simple. The game launcher downloads at a reasonable rate and once done, you can jump straight back into the game. It even remembered all my personal settings. I quickly found my favourite character, a human ranger, where I left them in Queensdale and jumped into an event that used to be part of the “Champion Train”. I noticed that everyone now has mounts and was briefly tempted to look into this. I suspect that it will require a grind of some kind, so I’m going to nip this flight of fancy in the bud, immediately. Plus, why do I need a mount when I have a flying carpet?

Over the forthcoming summer, I intend to tackle some of the games I have amassed across various platforms such as Epic and Steam. The first title I intend to explore is Jedi: Fallen Order as it has enjoyed a lot of praise and flown in the face of EA’s numerous claims over the last decade that single player games are “finished”. I’m also tempted to play through another Assassin’s Creed game, as I enjoyed Black Flag so much last year. I recently spotted that I had a copy of Control: Ultimate Edition, which has piqued my curiosity as I have no idea when or where I got a copy. This is what happens when you arbitrarily claim any free games offered to you. Hence I’m not lacking anything to play in the months ahead. It will be a pleasant change to be able to write about something new in the next instalment of “A Month in Gaming”, rather than the usual MMOs.

Guild Wars 2: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

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When Guild Wars 2 launched in the summer of 2012, I was very enthusiastic about the game on the Contains Moderate Peril podcast. I had participated in the beta and was impressed by many of the game's mechanics and its overall accessibility. Although I did not expect the game to be the focal point of my gaming activities, I (and many others I suspect) felt that this casual MMO had a lot to offer and would become a firm favourite. And that was pretty much the case up until 2015 when the first expansion, Heat of Thorns, was released. I have written in the past about how this new content changed the nature of Guild Wars 2 and contradicted its existing laissez-faire approach to solo game play. I didn’t want content gated behind skills I didn’t enjoy earning, Nor did I want my access to zones subject to player unlocks and thus making my gaming activities dependent on others. Hence I parted company with the MMO and have not returned. 

Since then, there has been a second expansion, Path of Fire, which added mounts to the game as well as new content. I believe that this expansion was more equitable than the previous and friends and colleagues have assured me that I can return to the game and bypass the material I didn’t previously like. However, this still did not prove sufficient to tempt me back to the game in 2017 as I felt that Guild Wars 2 was simply one of those games that just wasn’t applicable to me any longer. All too often when I return to an MMO that I have previously left, I enjoy a few hours of excitement mainly due to all the things that have been added to the game in my absence. Then after a while, I find that all the things I didn’t like are still there, or that there is a massive progression gap to be overcome before I can join my friends at the endgame. I believe we as gamers, have an inherent blind spot where we substitute the reality of a situation with what we would “like” a game to be.

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There is now a third expansion for Guild Wars 2 on the horizon. Provocatively called End of Dragons. Despite my past experience and the fact that the MMO genre has evolved greatly since the launch of this game, I have a worrying urge to re-install the game and see what is “going on”. The rational part of my mind predicts that I’ll spend an evening downloading the game client, log in to my primary character in Divinity’s Reach and then spend some time riding around on my flying carpet. I’ll quickly establish that the game is not really that different than before and then promptly log out. I did exactly the same with The Secret World: Legends, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Neverwinter. But the irrational part of my mind is adamant that I’m missing out on “the best MMO around” and that “it’s way better than last time” and I really do need to check things out. I’m curious to see which point of view wins, although common sense urges that it should be the former.

Another 5 of My Favourite Quality-of-Life Mechanics in MMOs

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Last year I wrote a post about several “quality-of-life mechanics” found in MMOs. Systems and functionality that just make a game more manageable or convenient. Despite having many features in common, MMOs are far from identical in their interface and controls. If you’re a genre aficionado, then you can usually bluff your way through a new game and decipher how to play it. But for new players, often just trying to figure out how to do a simple thing, like find your skill points, can be an uphill struggle. However, every now and then, you’ll come across some simple functionality in a game that is useful and makes a task much easier. So I have collated another five “quality-of-life mechanics” that I feel are significant and beneficial to the player. Some are very minor but that does not diminish their value. Sometimes, less can indeed be more.

Star Trek Online: Away Teams and Combat Pets.

Some MMOs include AI companions that can join you on quests. I used to enjoy the virtual company of Guss Tuno in Star Wars: The Old Republic and his amusing quips and personal foibles. However, Star Trek Online goes a step further and allows players to take a 4 man away team with them on ground missions. You can pick your away team from your Bridge Officer personnel and have whatever mix of classes you wish (Engineering, Science and Tactical). Hence, a well balanced team can provide heals, buffs and DPS support. Furthermore, if you wish to play more tactically, you can assign basic instructions to your away team, such as holding a position or suppressing fire. It’s all a bit hit and miss at times but it adds to the fun and has practical benefits. If you are defeated you can opt to respawn or call a team member over to revive you. If you have an android as part of your away team they have the ability to reboot themselves. If the entire team wipes they will self revive and then resurrect everyone else. You also get to customise your away teams gear, so you can make them very robust if you choose wisely.

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Like other MMOs STO has cosmetic pets. But it also has a modest collection of combat pets that can be used offensively during ground missions. It is possible to equip up to 4 of these at a time, although I wouldn’t advise such a strategy as it comes at the expense of other useful ground equipment. Combat pets can be very effective if used in conjunction with deployable turrets and other ground support weapons. Plus it is great fun to watch a combat Horta leisurely sliding over to the enemy. However the jewel in the crown is the Bio-Engineered Furiadon. Who doesn’t want an armoured dinosaur equipped with lasers fighting at their side?

LOTRO: Simple Rally Horn.

The Lord of the Rings Online has a huge game world. Standing Stone Games’ virtual Middle-earth has grown prodigiously over the last 14 years. If you want to play through content with another player or need assistance, it can be quite a chore for one party to travel to the other. The is a complex network of stables and auto mounts across the various zones and it can take a while to get from A to B at times. However, the simple rally horn is a consumable item that will summon another player to your location, if you are grouped with them. They can be obtained from the Hobbit Gifts, which are a daily login reward, or purchased from the store. They are incredibly useful and I always keep a few in my bag for occasions when I want to team up with another player. Because so many play LOTRO PVE content solo these days, these items are often overlooked.

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Guild Wars 2: Revival.

Over the years, the MMO genre has experimented with various systems that handle player “death” or “defeat”. I’ve never liked “corpse walking” as it is a major inconvenience. Many games have a specific class that can revive, resurrect or heal a downed player which is fine if you have one in your group but not so good if you don’t. In STO, your AI companions can revive you which is beneficial. However, I feel that Guild Wars 2 handles this mechanic the best, insofar as every player has the ability to revive another. As it is a game with wide expansive zones and dynamic events it makes sense to have this common skill. When a player is defeated and in a “downed” state, they can either retreat to a nearby waypoint, or be resurrected by one or many players. The more players that participate, the quicker the process is. It is a simple and efficient process and I wish it was available in other games.

The Elder Scrolls Online: The Crafting Bag.

Storage, bag space and inventory slots are a perennial problem in most MMOs. Many players feel obliged to store everything “just in case”. Therefore, you can never have enough storage and therein lies the problem. Monetising bag space is an easy source of revenue. Perhaps the biggest culprit for hoarding space are crafting items. I tend not to craft in MMOs but I do trade in such commodities. So even I am not immune from this problem. Which brings me onto The Elder Scrolls Online and the way the issue is handled in that game. The Craft Bag is a unique subset of the player's inventory, that does not take up any space and can store an unlimited amount of all crafting and style materials. Therefore when you are out in the world playing through content, armour, weapons and jewellery etc will be deposited in your regular bag space but crafting items are automatically segregated into the craft bag and doesn’t steal space. The only caveat is that this facility is only available as part of an ESO Plus subscription. However, I usually play ESO for 2 to 3 months a year and during that time, I always subscribe due to the practical benefits of this bag.

So these are another five examples of “quality-of-life mechanics in MMOs” that I find useful and consider game enhancing. I’m sure there are plenty of other examples. Feel free to leave comments below any that you enjoy and would like to mention.

A Welcome Return or Just Repeating a Mistake?

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Aion. July 2011

When I first started playing MMOs, it was very easy to maintain a degree of “gaming monogamy”. The Lord of the Rings held my attention for two years, without any distractions because everything was new to me at the time. But eventually, the allure of other genre titles became too great that I moved on to pastures new. And so I spent between 2009 and 2014 trying numerous other games. Star Trek Online, Age of Conan, Aion, Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Neverwinter, WildStar and The Elder Scrolls Online to name but a few. If a game took my fancy, I would invest a great deal of time and make substantial progress. Conversely, if the “shoe didn’t fit”, it was quickly dispensed with. For example World of Warcraft never “clicked with me. It’s no reflection on the game itself. I just didn’t warm to any aspect of it. Similarly, the reality of EVE Online was vastly different to what I had imagined and expected.

Hence, I’ve left numerous MMOs behind me in my gaming wake over the years. Games that I learned were not for me. Or were they? The thing is, I’m not immune to cognitive dissonance. I’m quite capable of holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. Namely, that hardy perennial among gamers, “I know I didn’t like [insert game title here] last time I played but maybe it’s changed”. And so due to a combination of factors, I have recently found myself revisiting several MMOs I have previously parted company with. Because of the recent coverage of Guild Wars 2 on the Massively OP Podcast, I decided to reinstall the game and return to Tyria. Much to my surprise, I rediscovered that I had three characters at level cap. A Human Ranger, a Norn Warrior and a Charr Engineer. My primary alt was still based in Queensdale which brought back pleasant memories of the “Choo Choo” or Queensdale Express. In fact within a few minutes of pottering around the zone, I began to recall how the various game systems and mechanics work. It began to feel like putting on a comfortable pair of slippers. And then I ported to the Maguuma Jungle and things rapidly went South.

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Guild Wars 2 Beta. April 2012

The Heart of Thorns expansion killed my enjoyment of Guild Wars 2. If memory serves, I lasted until summer 2016 and then I quit the game. The “verticality” of the new zone and the grinding for Mastery Points to get the gliding skill and such like, were and remain the primary problem. That and the fact that this expansion made playing solo demonstrably harder and more reliant on others. Path of Fire may well do much to redress these issues but I’ll have to trudge through the first expansion before I can reap any benefits of the second. And as I play MMOs for primarily for pleasure and do not welcome any enterprise that “gets on my tits”, to coin a phrase, I shall be progressing no further in Guild Wars 2. I mistook the MMO for an absent friend because I was focused on my enjoyment of the base game. But the first expansion remains just as frustrating as it originally was and so all I’ve done is repeat a mistake by reinstalling things. I won’t get fooled again. No honestly, I won’t.

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Neverwinter Beta. March 2013

So, fresh from this lesson, I decided that it would be a really good idea to ignore what I had just learned and retry Neverwinter. This a game I haven’t played since the beta test in 2013. Unlike Guild Wars 2, I really couldn’t remember much about the game. The only things that stuck in my mind was the combat which was a curious action hybrid. But beyond that, the game didn’t leave that much of an impression upon me. I was most surprised when I found my original avatar still available. However, for practical reasons I think it best to roll a new alt as I have no idea how the game plays. But over the next day or so, I will give this MMO another go. It’s odd that despite being an inferior game to Guild Wars 2, this is the one that seems to be more welcoming. Perhaps I didn’t play sufficiently to become prejudice against Neverwinter. Or may be after a while, suppressed memories will come flooding back. Perhaps my experiment to revisit older MMOs is already a forgone conclusion and these games have been abandoned for obvious and legitimate reason. Either way, it all makes for ideal material for a blog post. If there are any interesting developments I’ll keep you posted.

Do MMOs Have a Specific Window of Opportunity?

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World of Warcraft was the MMO that broke the mould. The reasons for its success are too numerous and complex for this blog post, so let it suffice to say that it rode a perfect storm of factors and has maintained a strong presence for fifteen years. And as a result, subsequent developers have often sought to duplicate its success. Yet frequently the opposite has happened. In fact several MMOs have launched and experienced a brief time “in the sun” only for things to come crashing down thereafter. Perhaps the most well-known example of this was SWTOR which experienced a triumphant launch in December 2011, yet within three months the majority of players had left for pastures new. It took the game going F2P and a lot of hard work by BioWare to claw back the playerbase. It has also been argued that many MMOs have grown too big for their own good? It is true that a new player starting a game such as LOTRO today has a long slog ahead of them and some may simply find that too daunting. 

The reason I mention these two points is because I think they are linked and reflect a shift in mindset towards MMOs. Many of the older MMOs were originally based around group content and the formation of guilds. As a result many titles have a sizeable community of players that have reached level cap with multiple alts. Players such as this have played through pretty much all the content that the game has to offer. They play within guilds that have lasted years and have strong social bounds. Now consider a new player that has just started playing LOTRO for example. They have a prodigious amount of content to play through before they reach level cap. Furthermore because many players now prefer to play solo, they have an even more arduous task ahead of them. 

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Now I know some will argue that it's not about racing to level cap but the journey itself. This is a fair point if you are a player who is content to work through content in this fashion. However many games developers are still focused on the so-called endgame and creating new content for those at level cap. If you start playing LOTRO today, the only way you can reach Western Gondor or The Grey Mountains is if another player summons you there. It's a shame that so many of the older titles are hindered by such a linear approach to landmass and content but that's the way these titles were created. I personally would like to see more of an open world approach like The Elder Scrolls Online where content scaled according to your level and you are broadly free to go where you want.

So considering these points, I am beginning to think that for many MMOs there is an initial window of opportunity as to when it is most favourable to start playing the game. I started playing LOTRO in late 2008, just after The Mines of Moria expansion launched. As I was playing through The Shire, Bree and The Lonelands, senior members of my guild were levelling from fifty to sixty in Moria. However because I was very invested in the game at the time (it was my first MMO) I managed to catch up within nine months. I am now part of the group of players permanently at level cap and I can therefore immediately enjoy whatever new content Standing Stone Games develops for the game.

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The Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2 are both relatively new titles, so I think one could start playing these games and still be participating during the optimum window of opportunity. Plus they do not have such a difficult levelling curve or level cap that is extremely high. Is this the same case with EVE Online, Final Fantasy XIV or Black Dessert Online? I'm not so sure. These are games where the key to success is the investment of time. Some MMOs have mechanics or store items that will allow you to level quickly but does that really solve the issue? There is an inherent contradiction in selling an item to boost your level, hence paying money to bypass playable content. But levelling through intermediate level content can be a lonely process sometimes. Zones can be devoid of other players. At least in Guild Wars 2 the game downscales players to the zones specific level thus providing an incentive for the veteran player to return. Sadly many other titles do nothing to encourage players at cap to revisit lower level areas.    

I also think this window of opportunity may be tied to wider factors, other than the games progression system. Many MMOs experience a period when the fan base thrives and produces a wealth of content. This can be blogs, guides, podcasts, You Tube videos or livestreams. However this tends to be cyclical. Due to the rise of the casual player and their migratory nature, this if often more pronounced. I remember sites like the LOTRO Combo Blog that used to aggregate fan related blogs. It has long since gone. Another example you can see is the way your Twitter timeline may be awash with content regarding a new title and then over time it simply fades away. Twitch TV is also another interesting litmus test. A look at the homepage will quickly tell you what is popular and what is not. Is the window of opportunity for MMOs therefore not only verifiable but also clearly getting shorter? 

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There are other genres and franchises that experience similar optimum windows of opportunity. Harry Potter and Friday the 13th are two examples from the movie industry. There was a clear period in time when both were immensely successful franchises. However, their transition from silver screen to multiplayer game took a lot longer and perhaps the proverbial boat was missed. The Wizarding World eventually found a home in the mobile gaming market and not as an MMO. Friday the 13th fared slightly better as a multiplayer game and captured a nostalgia wave. Yet it was ultimately hamstrung by legal issues surrounding the rights to the franchise. MMOs take a lot of time to develop and the market trends can change during that time. Amazon Game Studio appears to have halted the development of New World. Is this game now going to be repurposed to tie in with their Middle-earth themed TV show. If that is the case the game may launch during the optimum window of interest.

Finally there is an odd codicil to this question. We have seen recently a trend towards “Classic” servers which strive to serve up a broadly comparable experience to that of launch and the first year of an MMO. Is nostalgia the key to successfully creating a second window of opportunity for a game. Is it sustainable? Or is it going to have an even shorter arc? So far, the LOTRO Legendary Servers seem to be ticking over and I have not at present seen any data pointing to a decline in population. Perhaps the launch of World of Warcraft Classic on the 27th August will provide a greater insight into the longevity of nostalgia. In the meantime there is much to reflect upon, as the points raised here have barely scratched the surface of the matter. Because when we talk of a window of opportunity for an MMO, there is the player perspective and then there’s the business perspective. For all the market research and data analysis, I suspect that there are also some other factors that are much harder to quantify.

The Changing Face of MMOs

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The promotional video for Guild Wars 2 (dated July 19th, 2011) featured below, came up in an online discussion recently. The game as it exists today is radically different to this eight-year-old marketing presentation. It got me thinking about MMOs, how they evolve and those that have fallen from grace. Naturally the spectre of World of Warcraft looms large in such a discussion, because for many years this was the game to beat. Subsequently the market was awash with clones, which proved to be an unwise business tactic. The tumultuous life of Star Wars: The Old Republic along with the closure of Warhammer: Online, Vanguard and recently WildStar indicates that more of the same is not necessarily what players want or at the least, insufficient to keep them engaged. Guild Wars 2 initially deviated noticeably from the perceived wisdom but then contradicted its own ideology out of necessity to remain financially viable. Subsequent expansions have proven far more “traditional”. A decade on from the MMO boom, the genre has had to become far more niche to survive. MMOs exist and make money, but the are no longer seen as cash cows.

So what has changed? Well for a broad overview, I’d recommend watching a selection of episodes of The Jimquisition; Jim Sterling’s show that critiques the video games industry. He regularly explores the main problems that are endemic with mainstream, triple A games publishing. But one particular issue seems to be the root cause. Although game developers may well have artistic intentions and want to create a content that delights audiences, such motives are subordinate to the commercial requirements of the publisher and their shareholders. The industry is primarily focused on what sells and how to monetise any new product to ensure increasing financial growth. Hence after numerous efforts to make a WoW clone, most companies have discovered that such projects take too long to develop, cost to much up front and don’t have the adequate return on investment in the short term. Hence you seldom see such grandiose projects in development anymore. But what about Star Citizen, I hear you say. Yes indeed, what about it, I say in return? I’ll let you know when there’s an open beta and a release date on the horizon.

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Now to clarify, the MMO market does have regional differences. In the China and South Korea large budget titles are still produced and prove viable, but this is due to major differences in the core market. The player base often embrace mechanics rejected in the West and monetisation is perceived differently. Hence many titles remain conspicuously absent from the North American and Europeans markets. Therefore, in recent years MMOs have had to adapt in the West to such an extent that the term itself is now being redefined. Older notions about persistent, immersive worlds, filled with group activities and nurturing communities have been replaced with more flexible concepts. Such as any game that supports a large body of players in an open world or instanced set of maps. Thus GTA Online, The Division 1 and 2, as well as the Destiny franchise find themselves as part of ever growing MMO Venn Diagram. Naturally old school purest protest, but from the industry perspective, “money talks and bullshit walks”.

Therefore, I am not optimistic about there ever being any weighty IP based MMORPG projects that are of a traditional nature. Perhaps the last big MMO was indeed The Elder Scrolls Online. The website Massively Overpowered lists numerous MMOs in development but the reality is that many of these are doomed to failure. Crowd funded vanity projects or indulgences by gifted fans or old school development staff who haven’t quite adjusted to the realities of the contemporary market. Titan after all got canned and parts of it became Overwatch. Amazon Game Studio’s New World may not get beyond its recent Alpha Test and could be augmented into something else with a more marketable IP.  Hence, we are left with a handful of titles that are established and survive purely on the whims of their playerbase. New content costs money to develop but will bring in some profit. But to reduce content output risks bored players who’ll go elsewhere. If a publisher is content with the realities of their projected revenue, then games can tick over. However, if they seek all the money in Christendom, then things may go ill.

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Perhaps the MMORPG has had its day in the sun. A cursory look at other leisure industries shows that trends come and go. Different genres of movies and music rise and fall, proving lucrative for a while and then fading away. When you compare the likes of Ultima Online with Guild Wars 2 there is a considerable gulf in mechanics and systems. Would the former sell well today? Fifteen years of changing consumer tastes may well put pay to such time-consuming games. With time being such a precious commodity these days, is there room for such a genre as the old school MMO? I played The Lord of the Rings Online heavily between 2008 and 2011, mainly because it was a period of my life where I was available to do so. I simply cannot do something comparable today. Furthermore older players who lived through the era of subscription models are often averse to modern monetisation methods. Live services are not embraced by this demographic, where younger players who prefer the quick fix nature of competitive multiplayer games are not so concerned. All of which leaves me increasingly disposed towards the idea that the MMO genre is going to be relegated to the sidelines in the years to come. A few will exist in their own bubbles of fandom, but they will be a relic of the past. Just like cinematic musicals, westerns and “poodle perm” rock.

MMOs I No Longer Play

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I started playing MMORPGs over a decade ago, at a point when the genre was growing. It seemed at one point that every developer wanted to produce the game that usurped World of Warcrafts crown. I therefore ended up trying many of these massively multiplayer online games yet ended up sticking with few. All too often many of these titles were too generic or had an inherent flaw or flaws that killed my enjoyment. Sometimes it was just a case that the game just didn’t chime with me. Naturally over time, I have revisited some of these MMOs and a few have become a mainstay of my gaming activities. The Lord of the Rings Online, Star Trek Online and The Elder Scrolls online are three such examples. Yet there are numerous other games from this genre that I have not returned to or if I have, I still found them to be problematic, so they have not become part of my leisure activities.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (or Unchained as it is now suffixed) was one of the first MMOs I tried after LOTRO. Broadly I enjoyed the game although I found combat to be somewhat cumbersome. I liked the aesthetic of the game and the atmosphere, but like so many other players, was extremely disappointed when I discovered that the voice acting, and extensive cut scenes only applied to the starter zone of Tortage. And because it was a time when there was plenty of competition available, I can remember just abandoning the game and moving on to another title. Oddly enough that was STO but that game had a bad launch and was incomplete in spring 2010. It took several years for it to find its feet. Therefore I didn’t stay there for too long either.

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Rift was my next MMO port of call and although I wasn’t especially inspired by the game’s lore and story, there was a broad spectrum of possibilities when it came to class builds. By now the novelty of traditional social gaming, participating in organised guilds and devoting large amounts of time was beginning to wear a little thin. The dynamic events that Rift introduced where you could simply join a zerg and participate in a localised event, was a welcome change. Yet Rift fell between two stools. Although it did new and innovative things it still struggled with skills bloat and was saddled with too many traditional MMO mechanics. So I moved on again, just in time for Star Wars: The Old Republic in December 2011. Out of all the MMOs that I’ve played over the years, this was the one that seemed to have the most expectations associated with it.

I like so many other gamers, really wanted to like SWTOR. So I gave it possibly more of a chance than it deserved. I liked many aspects of the game; the gunslinger smuggler class that I chose, the companion system and oddly enough the ship that wasn’t quite a house. The narrative was extremely good, and I liked the way gear could be upgraded. But there were quite a lot of negative points as well. The combat was slow and there was an excess of skills, many of which could simply be ignored. Plus, although it was Star Wars, it wasn’t the period of history that so many players wanted access to.  Perhaps the biggest issue was that once you had burned through all the PVE content, there was little to do at level cap. Hence there was a mass exodus of players leading to the game having to go free-to-play just to survive. A lot has been done with the game since then and I did return a couple of times but although the narrative was still strong the game is just too old school for my liking.

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And so in 2012, I dabbled with The Secret World in the hope that Funcom would honour their promises to do something different with the genre. And broadly that’s what they did. The story was adult and uncompromising. There was a lot of dialogue, which I enjoyed, and the game made you think. The skill wheel system did indeed lend itself to a far more nuanced approach to fine tuning your character. But the combat was slow, repetitious and far from fun and if you wanted to spend your skill points elsewhere, they were not transferrable. Hence you had to repeat content. Needless to say I parted company with The Secret World and moved on to possibly the last big MMO release Guild Wars 2. I could easily write an entire blog post about what I liked about this MMO. But for the sake of brevity, I shall say the flexibility of the classes, the horizontal progression, the fluid combat and the fact that there was always something to do. Out of all the titles I played, this is possibly the most frictionless, although I say this only of the base game. Things changed too much for me with the first expansion Heart of Thorns. But for the first year of two Guild Wars 2 was the most casual friendly MMO I played. You could return after a while and jump straight back in and pick up where you left off.

It’s odd how business demands will sometimes take you in the opposite direction of where you intend to go. The first expansion for Guild Wars 2 essentially put into the game all the systems and ideas that were conspicuously absent from it at launch. I could no longer easily freelance and join zergs to accomplish what I wanted. And as I was never a big fan of the lore, I had nothing to hold me when things changed. In fact lore appears to be a major selling point for me in the MMO genre. ESO is odd in so much as unlike LOTRO and STO, I was not familiar with the lore and history of the franchise, prior to playing. But because I consider the writing to be of a high standard, I do actually consult the games Wiki to gain a greater understanding of things. And ESO has established for me that action combat, a sensible amount of skills and systems is how a modern MMO should be. It will be interesting to see what changes another decade brings to the genre and what, if anything, I’ll still be playing.

Fans, Community Management and Social Media

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When I first read about the furore caused by Jessica Price’s comments yesterday, I knew it wouldn’t end well. There’s a tedious inevitability to the outcome of most video game related “outrages” these days. For example, a senior member of staff from a major developer will same something crass, double down, dig a hole and then finally after being bitten on the ass by reality, will put out a mealy-mouthed half ass apology. The other scenario is that an employee affiliated to a studio says something completely left field, is presented with short window of opportunity to retract it and blame it on over the counter flu medication, before they get fired due to the ensuing PR shit storm.  This particular controversy falls into the latter category. However, if you take a step back from the Jessica Price debacle you quickly notice it raises a lot of questions beyond her obvious transgression. Namely, the problem of always being “on the clock” when you work in certain professions, the need to separate your work and personal social media presence and the place “influencers have in the video games industry.

First up, let’s deal with the most obvious things that standout from this “wee stooshie”. The moment you have your employers name in your twitter biography, you rightly or wrongly are now an ambassador for that company. This is a problematic foible of working in an age dominated by social media. I also think it is further exacerbated by the US work ethic which is curiously more zealous than its European counterpart. Work is more of defining factor in American culture to begin with. Irrespective of this, if you work for a major games developer and cite that in your profile then the fans will take it as read that you’re accessible 24/7 and they’ll cross examine you at every opportunity. It’s ironic but the term “emotional courtesan” that Jessica Price refutes in one of her tweets, is not a bad definition of the role that is thrust upon such employees. A company’s reputation and standing with its customers is one of its most prized assets. Questions regarding the capricious nature of fans and the fact that some totally lack any filter are ultimately irrelevant. You don’t upset the gravy train.

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Next there’s the need to compartmentalise. If you work for a big player in any type of industry and feel that there are constraints placed upon your freedom of expression online as a result of that, then simply create separate social media accounts. Apply common sense to your work-related platforms and if need be follow a clear set of rules with regard to your customer interactions. As for your personal accounts, keep them separate and don’t make the mistake of getting drawn into needless arguments. Use mute or block judiciously if need be. And remember that Twitter is a public space and is therefore governed by rules of speech in such an environment. Ultimately if you want privacy in your discussion then use What’s App or something similar. Also, manners have declined in the last fifty years. Some people either lack a filter or simply refuse to use one for their own dysfunctional reasons. You have very little say or control over who decides to interject in any ongoing conversation. The sad reality is that your work related social media account forces you to do your job with one hand tied behind your back. It’s not a level playing field but if that’s place you’ve chosen to set up your stall, then that is how you have to roll with things.

Then there is the whole thorny issue of influencers. In this case, I’m not aware that You Tuber and Streamer Deroir has ever been considered a difficult or controversial individual. From what I’ve gleaned from the internet, they are a relatively benign community conduit. He’s even got an NPC named after him in the Mistlock Observatory. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for Deroir to want to interact with an ArenaNet employee such as Jessica Price. His comments were not in any way rude, so he really didn’t deserve the response he received. However, the wider gaming dependency upon influencers is a questionable practice. Not all are as measured as Deroir. It should not be forgotten that many influencers are not directly employed by the games developers and therefore not subject to the same scrutiny and security checks as regular staff. It’s a powerful position to be in and people are flawed. There have been instances of influencers going rogue in the past, although again I say this is clearly not one.

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Finally, I am becoming increasingly sceptical of overt fandom of any kind. Pop culture, like politics and sports, is losing all semblance of measure and introspection and slowly becoming far more zealous. Everybody seems to have a stake or a personal claim on some part of the internet or aspect of fandom, regardless of whether it is legitimate or justified. Fandom isn’t collective ownership, although that is fast becoming a minority view. Dealing with such communities is becoming increasing hard. Who wants to navigate a daily diet of anger, accusations and bile? In the case of Jessica Price, her ill-conceived comments were wrong, and she has been sanctioned by her employers (The degree of which is subject to debate). However, what is worrying is the increasing trend that sees justifiable anger and complaint from legitimate quarters, being subsequently hi-jacked by those who simply smell blood in the water. The internet lynch mob is an extremely blunt tool and the dirty footprints of its affiliate members who often have their own agenda, ultimately just end up muddying the waters of measured and reasoned criticism. Thus, gaming culture declines further and it’s more mature and measured members find themselves moving ever further to its periphery, so as not be tarred with the same brush.

Lockboxes

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It would appear that lockboxes are being discussed once again. Bhagpuss wrote a post over at Inventory Full yesterday, which subsequently got used as a talking point on Massively Overpowered today. What made the debate a little different this time around, was that Bhagpuss doesn’t object to lockboxses per se, merely that in most games that have them, the content is frequently lacklustre and uninspiring. A point I am compelled to concur with. I too have no major objection to lockboxes in principle and partake of them from time to time in various games. However, they seldom seem to contain anything that I consider to be of tangible benefit to me. I want pets, gear and weapons. But because of vocal complaints from certain quarters, we are more often than not saddled with inconsequential convenience items and minor cosmetics baubles and trinkets.

Lockboxes in Star Trek Online are themed and are only available in the game for a limited period of time. There is a nominal percentage chance to win gear, or even a ship if you are “lucky enough”. However, at the very least, each lockbox yields a quantity of Lobi crystals which are a barter currency. If one ever buys keys to open lockboxes it is best to consider the transaction as a means of buying currency that can be traded in for items. Winning a desirable item on top as that is then an added bonus. That is how I think of things on the occasions I purchase keys. Such an outlook then mitigates concerns over gambling although I have no major qualms about that subject either.

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However, where STO handles lockboxes in a manner I like, many other MMOs do not. I have yet to find anything of note from one in LOTRO, Guild Wars 2 or Overwatch. The propensity to provided cosmetic or housing items means that lockboxes are often the prerogative of the role players or the game completists. I’m sure the developers target such a market because they pay dividends but if they could broaden their outlook and diversify the rewards there is scope for lockboxes to appeal to a wider number of consumers. Offering bag or bank space, or further character slots could potentially be attractive. Personally, I would like to see more game gear included but that would result in sabre rattling form the “pay to win crowd”. I certainly think that all lockbox rewards should be bind on equip and if not wanted available to sell via the game auction system.

Ultimately, lockboxes are symptomatic of game developers struggling to find a universally acceptable means to finance their game. The demise of the subscription model has left many MMOs in the thrall of an unsatisfactory hybrid F2P business models that have done precious little to improve the overall quality of the games. Monetisation of this kind impacts upon the conception and design of both content as well as game mechanics and seldom in a positive way. If this business model can be overturned for something better, then lockboxes may well go the way of the Dodo. However, that is not something that seems imminent at present so what can’t be cured must be endured. The current debate will more than likely have no effect on developers who have a propensity to repeat their mistakes and so the lockbox will continue as a gaming bête noire. 

MMO Burnout

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Although I have played numerous other online games, LOTRO has been my main MMO for the last nine years years. I have invested a great deal of time into it, which is hardly surprising as that is the entire raison d'etre of the genre. I recently purchased the Mordor expansion for the game which offers a wealth of new content. Yet despite having all this available I have done precious little in the game of late and have made no significant progress. Currently, I have Guilds Wars 2, The Elder Scrolls Online, Secret World Legends and Star Trek Online installed on my PC. I have dabbled with them all over the last few weeks, trying to rekindle a sense of enjoyment and pursue content that I have not completed. Sadly, none of them seem to hold my interest. I log in to them in the hope that something will grab my attention but I always seem to find myself just kicking my heels and aimlessly wandering through zones with no sense of focus.

The social side of MMOs can also be an issue at times. You log in to a game hoping to find something you wish to do, only to be met with a barrage of welcomes and offers to join groups or participate in some collective event. In different circumstances, this can be a wonderful thing. The restorative properties of friendship can wash away the ills of a bad day and can replace a dark mood with a good humour. However, there are occasions when the attention can be somewhat overwhelming. There have been times when I’ve been upon the verge of logging in to an MMO but after reflecting upon athe gauntlet of upbeat cheerfulness that lays ahead, I’ve decided to do something else instead. Joking aside, there are times when socialising can be wearing and you just want to be left alone.

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The consensus seems to be among gamers, as we get older we become far more particular about how we spend our time. I have purchased several games this year that I knew from the beginning would have a relatively short lifespan. Single player games often present a core campaign, online multiplay and DLC over a six-month period. You can effectively complete a game and gain a sense of closure that you’ve had your fill. Sniper Elite 4 has provided me with a solid five months of entertainment. I’ve progressed through all the content that I care to play through and have no desire to pursue it any further. Conversely, I have also returned to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, in anticipation of the sequel that comes out in October. I have managed to complete a campaign that previously alluded me and now feel that I’m ready to move on.

It is this sense of finality, short and limited gameplay as well as the option to play alone, that MMOs cannot compete with at present. Gamers are fickle creatures. There are times when I want to invest time, work towards long term goals and chat with my fellow man. Yet after doing those very things for three to six months they can become somewhat smothering. Sometimes virtual worlds are a welcome respite from the daily tragedy and horror on real life. Yet I still cannot help but think that it is not healthy to make them too much of a focus and a permanent substitute for real world engagement. I tend not to regret the time I have spent gaming, yet from time to time, I do question the hours required to make progress. Often this happens when a new mechanic or goal is introduced into a game and I calculate exactly how many days it will take to achieve it.

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As I am currently without an MMO, I find myself in need of an alternative distraction. However, when I look at the various titles that are currently available through a vendor such as Steam, the first thing that strikes me is the interchangeable and homogeneous nature of them all. This is hardly a revelation as most industries tend to follow tried and tested formulas. At present, mainstream films and music are staggeringly bland and uninventive, so it is almost inevitable that the gaming industry should follow suit. This perfunctory style is a major obstacle for me. For example, after pondering on whether to try Black Desert, I concluded that it simply didn't have sufficient difference from any other MMO to warrant a purchase. And of course, at times like this, EVE: Online raises its head once again, offering a wealth of perceived opportunities. Yet the reality of the situation is that I do not want to take on a game with such a steep learning curve. Neither do I have the time required to be successful at such a game.

So, it would appear that I’m currently suffering from a gaming, specifically MMO "burnout". Perhaps fatigue would be a better term on reflection. Although I have currently tired to a degree of the MMO genre, I still find myself interested in gaming. What I find trying is that I cannot seem to find that many titles, both new and old, to get excited about, especially MMOs. As a genre, they have so much potential but are simply hamstrung by a lack of vision and innovation. Perhaps single player game with co-op are the answers. Furthermore, I’m tired of the noticeable disparity in game engines between MMOs and other genres of game. I appreciate that developers have to lower the bar for entry to lower specified PCs but too many MMOs look and more importantly play as if they hail from a different era. It would be nice to have an MMORPG that had the combat of either For Honor or Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

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Fortunately, I have not put all my eggs in one basket and made my online activities the focus of all my friendships and socialising. This can be a real issue for some people when confronted with potential burnout, as loyalties and social ties can compound the problem. Gaming by its very nature can be indulged in to a far greater degree than say fishing or other traditional hobbies. It is not seasonal and is accessible 24/7.You don't have to go anywhere, prepare in advance and be mindful of things like the weather. Subsequently, unless we consciously decide to regulate ourselves it will simply swallow all our leisure time. Burnout is not a term I associate with train spotting, stamp collecting or campanology. As gaming continues to become a more mainstream activity, burnout is a phrase I think we shall hear more often.

Classic Game Themes: Guild Wars 2

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Jeremy Soule's score for Guild Wars 2 is an integral part of the games charm and appeal. It enhances the world of Tyria and is a character in its own right. As a player, whenever you visit one of the vast cities or travel the rolling countryside, it is Soule's music that breathes life into the finely crafted world that ArenaNet have made. Upon the games launch in 2012, the soundtrack for Guild Wars 2 was released in a four-disc box set, via Soule's own record label DirectSong. Sadly, this was a limited pressing and is now out of print. Copies now change hands for exceedingly large sums of money.

The score for Guild Wars 2 has a high production value and displays a great attention to detail. The compositional quality of each piece included on the four-disc set are musically and stylistically diverse. There are many stand-out pieces that do more than just provide ambient background atmosphere. This is game soundtrack writing of the highest calibre. It is musically literate, thoughtful and rousing. Sadly, Jeremy Soule was not involved with the soundtrack for the 2015 expansion pack, Heart of Thorns.

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The track I have chosen in many ways encapsulates all the positive attributes of the soundtrack. Dawn in Shaemoor plays in the human starter zone of Queensdale and is a beautiful example of the quality of Soule's work. It has a very haunting feel to it and sets the tone for the game.

Dawn in Shaemoor

Jeremy Soule / Julian Soule