You have most definitely heard it all when it comes to Guild Wars 2. I will not rehash it, in actuality I have not experienced enough of the game to go through its finer points. From the little I have experienced this beta weekend I could tell immediately that this game was not for me.

Simply put, I am in the belief that this game is for a different generation of MMO gamer than whatever category I am in. Similar to the way that I am not a fan of music from the 1920’s I am not into this game. This is NOT to say it isn’t a good game, or even that anything is wrong with me personally, it’s just not my style.

World of Warcraft isn’t my style either and were it not for friends who got me into it, I would have avoided that cartoon-fest forever. There were elements of WOW that I enjoyed but, as with anything, you can always find the silver lining. I have even been attempting to play Rift recently and I find it a superior model to the WOW style, but again, it is not my ideal game.

The truth is, my ideal game hasn’t been invented yet, and the majority of elements I would like games to primarily focus on, I find lacking in all others. Well… The exception is Neverwinter Nights. It is my observation that quite a few of the things I would like to see in MMO’s reside in that game.

Guild Wars 2 seems to be the conversion of Unreal Tournament and Quake style gameplay into the land of MMO’s. Hacking and Slashing with special moves has now been partially ported into the massive multiplayer arena. The only problem is that I was never a huge fan of hacking and slashing or button mashing. I liked Zelda, especially Ocarina of Time but that wasn’t dependent on internet connection stability and had a much more organic feel to it, the way I remember it.

Picture Guild Wars 2, in design, then, picture Asheron’s Call. Obviously the complexity of gameplay had shifted. I wouldn’t say in this case that it was dumbed down exactly but, the focus has shifted from advanced strategic planning to instant “twitch play” mechanics. In Asheron’s Call you were forced to plan your character in advance and master your particular style of gameplay, you must even do this to a degree in Neverwinter Nights. In Guild Wars 2 as far as I’ve experienced it, it seems that it’s all about a sort of halfway console hack and slash combat style mixed with moments of adding your special moves in a fixed sequence depending on 2-4 variables. Variables being things such as:

Is your opponent is primarily ranged and you are melee, then; Advanced quickly with move X, slow movements with move Y, perform maximum combat sequence per enemy defenses & attempt to use “console dodge” tap button.

In a game such as Neverwinter Nights or Asheron’s Call there were more variables due to skillsets being unpredictable. There were sometimes visual cues, sometimes. Most times enemies would attempt to deceive you by using secondary skills and dressing contrary to their class / skills to initially throw you off, deception could be key often enough. Magic items also caused strategy to vary in such an unpredictable way that pre planned combat sequences were almost always guaranteed to change. This is also assuming you were in a position to attack first.

It may seem like I’m saying that previous games were more complex and maybe I am. I do think there is something to be said about players that have the affinity for extreme keyboard & mouse gaming combat but it is not the same as pre planned combat tactics. The action required in Guild Wars 2 is more reactionary, you must be willing to counter or seize upon your enemies mistakes in a more immediate way. I would say the comparison is like the difference between table tennis and chess or even chess and pool. Guild Wars 2 has brought a different combat style to the table, much more improved than a Vindictus, that’s almost all I know for sure.

That’s really all I want to say for now, I may make a few videos of some lowbies crap in GW2 but you’ve probably seen it all by now and I’m not into YouTube gameplay footage necromancy unless it’s Skyrim.

I hope orange is easier to read, I'll update it back to default if requested.

Lots of us game late, aka play hard, don't eat or eat horribly. Doritos, oatmeal cookies with frosting in the middle, bags Smartfood popcorn. Well, I have a slightly healthier alternative for 1 or 2 of those nights when you decide to eat terrible food.

Actually the fact that we call that stuff food is pretentious. The ingredients half the time were never actually food in the first place, I like to think of it as flavored cardboard. Synthetic food substitues (WTF IS RED 40), ewe gross. So my suggestion, take the 20-40mins and make something like this; 

http://www.closetcooking.com/2010/05/spinach-pesto-grilled-cheese-sandwich.html

I made it one night knowning that I was going to be up late. It took maybe 30-40mins to whip it together   ( I used a blender for the feta / Spinach, might have added to the time). It was super delicious and super filling. I made 4 of'em, 1 for me and 1 for the gf. I wanted to eat the third and fourth but it was too filling, ended up eating 1 for breakfast and I think somewhere in there my dog ate one.

It's not even close to the healthiest choice, but it will be better then fake food stuffs, even if it says 0 calories. I watch quite a bit of UFC PPV's so I've also been introduced to the Dolce Diet. You can have great tasting snacks and not have immediate heart attacks! 

I will not deceive you. I have massive sweat tooth so I suppliment my terrible diet with Lindor chocolate balls, lol South Park bastards. However in the near future I will eliminate all fast food from my diet in an attempt to remain as healthy as possible. I don't want to be like these 65 year old gamers having to guess whether or not they'll make it to the next gen MMO release. I WILL be playing games in full holodeck so fuck you papa time!

ONE LOVE!

Normally, as in, almost never, as in maybe 3 times ever I've watched a movie on YouTube and usually never the full length. I will watch a clip and cut out, mostly because I've seen the movie already.

Actually, I've watched Pineapple Express already. While searching for gameplay videos I ran into this vid. It's a completely free legit version of Pineapple Express on YouTube. The downside I believe is that it contains commercials. I remember really liking this movie when I first watched it so I thought I'd share my random stumblings with you guys.

So there it is. I know you guys have alternatives but, there it is anyway.

Non-hyperlinked link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMHui1TGDxA&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1

The Badass Gamer

I’ve wanted to talk about this for a long time, back in the day gaming was semi taboo so I just stfu. We’re now in 2012 and I feel more than confident that I could have widely discussed this in any venue 5 years ago.

Veteran gamers are badasses through years of training. There it is, pretty simple. Gamers who have played a certain amount of RPG’s, regardless of the game’s difficulty are being trained virtually to handle similar situations.

Pilots can now log certain simulated virtual flights as real flight hours, a point I think should be both very scary and enlightening when it comes to the psyche of RPG gamers because… RPG games are centered around virtual scenarios that involve solving or executing solutions involving extreme situations.

In most games a goal must be achieved, usually, enemies must be murdered in all types of fashion, traps must be sprung that cause many levels of carnage and, decisions must made, hard decisions that may require many tough sacrifices. Some of those sacrifices, though virtual, are still emotionally real. All the experiences you gain during gameplay are absolutely emotionally real, maybe not to the extent that they are identical to non-virtual emotion but in a lot of cases your subconscious may not know the difference.

A great example would be when you develop attachments to characters, it also happens in books and movies. Sometimes when the character dies, you feel the emotional pain of loss, which would be sadness, anger etc… The difference being that in an RPG game, the gamer sometimes is in control of the choices necessary that amount to that loss.

When I was a kid, I cried when I saw Simba’s father die, Mufasa.  If any of you remember the movie The Lion King, and if you were younger at the time you may know what I mean. While I didn’t break down in slobbering tears, I still had some liquidity going on lol. Later in life I’ve seen grown men break down and cry during movies like Million Dollar Baby, even Titanic. By this time I had already been a veteran gamer and though I’m enough of an emotional person, I didn’t shed a tear during Titanic and I was able to hold my shit together during Million Dollar Baby.

What I am not saying is that gamers will break down and cry when deciding whether to sacrifice Kaiden or Ashley. What I am saying is that when that choice has to be made in real life, A LOT of veteran gamers will be prepared to make that decision, and make it in a timely manner.

Gamers will notice their new skills in action while in a “stressful” situation at work, or during another activity, maybe even recreational. They will notice these new skills when people start to freak out at work, over what the gamer will consider a trivial matter, one in which he or she may have even had a prepared solution.  It’s not that other people are less intelligent or that you are a Dexter type. The truth is, you’ve been practicing these scenarios virtually for decades. And even if you suck at something, you WILL be good at it if you’ve been doing it for generations.

Gamers are trained to make more intelligent tactical decisions, we are trained to execute plans, we are trained to learn fast on the spot, improvisation skills, fine motor skills, heightened anticipation, we learn how to identify patterns quickly. By the time I’m finished listing skills that we are virtually perfecting we’ll be halfway to Jason Bourne. 

Obviously there is going to be some loss in the virtual to real translation, especially in the physical prowess department but emotionally, as game writing gets better, I expect to see almost lossless emotional conversion.

The MMO genre is a tricky one. You have far more human to human interaction than any other game type. Most people do not even interact with that many consciousnesses for any reason, maybe at a football stadium, but not in any meaningful way.

In the end, when you’re thinking, “I know better than my boss” or “I’m smarter than that guy” chances are, you REALLY do and you REALLY are.

I will continue this later, for now here is part 1 0f 3 of my latest Skyrim espide for those who are interested;

 Part 1

You want to wear effective gear and look cool at the same time right? Tired of looking like everyone else or at the very least, you're tired of looking like some mismatched freak, maybe you even think the DEV's did it just to F&ck with you.

Enter's Vanity gear / social gear / whatever the 4uck they call it these days. I don't even support the idea of stat based gear progression, it's very linear and drives the population to farm and or raid, this is also why I'm having a hard time finding an MMO to play consistently.

I would prefer if I had the ability to design my weapon and my armor as if it were the character creator. I'd love tons of options that get me a certain desired look and effect. I really can't get that though can I? I mean, even in the world of vanity clothing there are usually some very limited options. IF I do get to choose vanity clothing it's almost guaranteed that the cool stuff or silly stuff are all very similar, I end up still looking like every other jackass that tried to dodge the train wreck that is AWFUL tier set armor.

Of course weapons are almost always NEVER allowed to be "vanitized" I'm stuck with whatever I looted. I understand that maybe I shouldn't be able to make a greatsword look like a warhammer and that said warhammer shouldn't be doing piercing damage so the solution? Let me put a spike or 2 on the ends of my warhammer's hammer, and let me but a sphere on the end of my greatsword for some blunt damage. IF that's even a factor in the game I'm playing.

What's far more likely is that the stats on those weapons have less to do with damage types and more to do with character stats (Str / Con / Dex). Was there ever a valid argument for why a Bow would contain a dexterity buff inside of it? Well I'll assume it's because the weapon is magical. Having everything enhance your character's stats via magical means really feel magical? I don't think it does.

I want to wear my louis vuitton and my chest of awesome regeneration at the same time but I'd prefer to just have the option and make one from an awesome customization menu and avoid the whole "You are wearing the same vanity clothes as me because we have the same number of vanity options as tier set options."

Hope I make a little sense this time

<|Trionicus|>

A member here named Azmundai recently created a thread titled “If The Trinity were to expand…”

I liked the idea of the thread so I decided to write a little blog about it.

First, to discuss the expansion of The Trinity we have to look at it in a little detail. The reason why it exists isn’t as important as how it works. The Trinity – 3 main roles, Tank, Healer and DPS. To expand the Trinity to include more roles would definitely change its name, we would have to call it “The Quad” or the Penta- lol anyway the only other MAIN roll we have in today’s gaming is the CC’er aka crowd control.

Usually CC’ing is done by a rogue or a wizard, that just seems to be the nature of the class design, I think DEV’s are stuck on a certain stereotype /shrug.

This Trinity is forced gameplay, you cannot perform these boss fights without people claiming these very specific main roles, were one of these roles absent from your party you absolutely could not complete these boss fights. By asking to expand The Trinity you are essentially asking for them to REQUIRE that more roles be NECESSARY to complete fights.

In some WOW boss fights as you all might know, some of these alternate roles become necessary to defeat specific bosses, some mobs must be CC’ed because it is not an option to kill them too early, or they weren’t killed fast enough so they have to be controlled. Usually the control takes the form of hampering their movement, stunning them, or turning them into a chicken or whatever, mostly it means they can’t move like their usual selves. By the end of WOTLK I don’t even think mind control was an option in any major fight, it was all about movement control, IF CC was demanded at all.

Some of the ideas AZMUNDAI threw out there were, having specific classes that pulled mobs, buffing classes, Cloth tanks etc.. You get the idea. So did WOW. In Burning Crusade there were types of fights that made a mage tank necessary and even in WOTLK kiting was still necessary if you didn’t completely out-gear the encounter. The bottom line, I suppose, is do you want to have to NEED these roles performed in every fight, or even the majority of your boss fights?

It is hard enough to get competent players together to perform a single raid, don’t believe it? Go ahead and check your friend’s achievements. WOTLK was herald as the easiest WOW raiding in the history of the game, now go check the date on when your friend got the Kingslayer title, chances are he didn’t get it anywhere near when the expansion was new. Not even within the first year most likely. So if WOW was so easy, why didn’t everyone have an ironbound protodrake from Ulduar hardmode achievements? Easy answer, it wasn’t so easy.

To add more necessary roles and mechanics into a system that most people can’t even accomplish now would be, uncomfortable I think. This is not to say that The Trinity should reign the supreme combat mechanic of MMO’s forever, but adding more required roles for the majority of boss fights isn’t the answer.

My proposition, and this one is a freebie, fights don’t have to take a certain length of time. In real life when opponents of equal skill enter combat, they cannot beat on each other infinitely, and I do discuss certain issues I have in another blog. Combatants of equal skill have the potential to end a fight very quickly or not, it varies by situation. The important thing is that a group or a player feel a sense of accomplishment and joy after completing the encounter, having a drawn out choreographed dance isn’t the only way to achieve this desired result.

Playing a good hard ladder match in SC2 for 15mins and winning gives me the same joy or even more than fighting a boss for 30mins - 1hr in a raid environment. What is more important than the roles is the quality of the fight / encounter. I don’t think there was ever a “Golden Age” of MMO’s. Whenever I think epic I certainly don’t think required gear and minimum DPS, I think about Kratos jumping on some god, giving him the most awesome and gory beatings in the history of game violence. All that and more could be ours for $15 a month + the box cover fee and I think we should have it.

You might be thinking, well.. uuh.. that’s a single player game and my party wouldn’t be involved and… STFU ok! THINK! How about they add more enemies more often than a single VERY large boss, how about multiple people putting the Kratos whoopASS on a single boss AND just as well as people can kick ass and look awesome killing a boss, the same can be done to every player, just to even things out.

There really doesn’t need to be a Trinity if the fights are generally more dynamic, plus, do you really think a guy in medieval armor can take a hit from an elephant, much less giants with weapons.  I AM NOT promoting this pathetic dodge button bullshit from GW2 and these console games, if I have to roll on the floor 1 more time… If I’ve trained it, give me auto dodge that looks matrix cool, make it passive and I’ll be happy. Allow my warrior to shield bash a guy’s jaw off and I’ll be happy.

Even having different classes assume the roles isn’t better than having more entertaining and intelligent fights, so what I can use my mage to tank with the right spells, or use my rogue as an “evasion tank”. Not that those are bad ideas but having better fights is… better.

Not going to proof read this thing so I apologize in advanced for grammatical errors and incoherent ideas. My hope isn’t that you agree with me, what is important to me is that you understand what I’m trying to say.

Skyrim video’s incoming tomorrow! Can’t wait for the PC version of Dawnguard

<|Trionicus|>