Life in MMOs For The Financially Impaired

What am I doing sneaking in at this hour of the night? Let's just say my mind and soul have been... entangled in other more... draining endeavors. Or some such. Oh, let's just not go there lest I begin to blush.

While employment seems a far-off chance in a place with 35% of so-called youngsters being unemployed, I turned my attention to F2P models. The fruits of the labor of so many that decide to share their worlds with us for (seemingly) nothing at all is particularly appealing, specially now that I blew the last of my savings on pre-ordering Mass Effect 3. I played the demo, giggled an obscene amount of times, tested the voice-activation, frowned at the amount of hugs I was denied from party members and promptly decided I could wait no longer. And so it was that I turned my attention to the world of "Free to Play"s

The first I decided to try was Star Trek Online. I'd heard interesting things about the game and I do like space, or the idea of space at least. I figured I might as well give it a whirl if the only thing they were charging was disk space. And so I rolled a healing type character which ended up meaning a support-type ship most of the time. I honestly hadn't expected the bulk of the game to revolve around my ship and that may be the reason why I haven't picked it up again. You see, I am terrible at navigation and seeing as I can neither swim, ride a bike, drive a car or stand up straight in roller-blades, one can say I'm not terribly good at basic locomotion either. Maneuvering a ship on a three-dimensional space while taking care not to blow up and attempting to shoot things down all at the same time proved to be a bit too draining. Plus, going through all that alone ended up not being as satisfying as I'd hoped.

I remembered I brought a copy of GuildWars with me from my previous life and thought that, since that one was already paid for, I might occupy my time with that. Also, I have heard of interesting things about GW2s three-faction open world WvWvW (read PvP) and this could be a good opportunity to re-acclimate to the environment and feel of the developers. Sadly, GuildWars demands I recall the name of one of my characters to be able to log in. I laughed hard, thought harder and then laughed a bit more. No, that wasn't going to happen.

I had also heard there was this new closed beta up of something called Tribes: Ascend. I had no idea what it was but I thought I had the time and the will to try something new and shiny and free. So, after some hardship, I successfully downloaded the game and it sits there still, untouched. I'm not sure if I'm afraid of outright sucking at a PC shooter or if I'm just too drained to configure my G13 to yet another experiment.

Then I heard Aion was also going F2P and, at the behest of a very compelling third-party, I decided to go try that one next. Unfortunately the F2P version has been announced, has been tested, is all but ready but not out yet. So I am down 30 gigabytes of disk space for yet no good reason.

So, at the moment, I'm waiting for Rift to finish patching since I heard they have a free trial now. Maybe that'll keep my thirst for healing sated until tomorrow. See, Wrath of Heroes' closed beta is up again tomorrow and, despite all its faults, I end up having a good time with it and with an F2P, that's all you really want, right?

Burlap Underwear: It Chafes

During the course of last week I've seen an increasing amount of people calling it quits.

Rift, for me, seems to have gone the way of Aion. People flocked to it with sparkling, hope-filled eyes and dreams of a better future. They opened the gates to a new world and, for a while, they made their best to adapt, to fit in, to discover the wonders they hoped to find. People were depending on Rift to take them into its loving embrace and carry them to a land of pixelated bliss while a choir of angels sang of their future exploits. Or something.

You see, we came from all walks of life (or games), carrying with us the desire to see aspects we loved from these games seemlesly integrated in a new and fresh body in a pretty dress. Is it any wonder must of us were disapointed?



Have a giraffe

I certainly was. My time in Rift was mainly spent near the loom in Sanctum, going through the most absurd rotation. I'd purchase or leech crafting materials to make pants; I would then destroy said pants to make room for more pants and to accrue more crafting materials; I would sell these second crafting materials to acquire money to buy pants-building materials and make even more pants. I found myself on this detestable loop of WASTE, on the losing side of a battle against burlap. I thought "what am I doing with my life? Is collecting 6 Goblin bladders for a lazy NPC really how I should be spending what little time I have on this earth?" It's just not for me. Which is not to say it's not for the rest of you. There are peolpe who love crafting pants. And even wearing them. Others like to pierce their geintalia for aesthetic purposes.

Trying to please both Greeks and Trojans is the worst thing a developer can hope to achieve. No two people will love the same things the same way. Maybe if they're twins. And the thing is air. Including everything people have ever praised about your competition doesn't sound like a good idea. Maybe that's why Trion didn't do it, which would explain the lacking PvP.

My next statement is possibly the most agreed upon by people in the know: Trion didn't fail but they didn't spectacularly succeed either. They tried to provide an alternative to the biggest hook in the sea and, as far as I know, they did so well enough (not counting the whole persistent queueing problem, that is). Or am I wrong?

My next statement is fact: I'm an immature player. I am EA's dream gamer, if you will. My brain is completely receptive and succeptible to marketing ploys and consumerist drives. Just a few minutes ago I blurted out "by the way, we forgot to buy that new Mass Effect DLC that just came out." The obvious response to this was an amused "what, is it mandatory? Especially after all the poor reviews?"

See what they did to me? That's downright scary.

Luckily, I took Friday to catch up on my Zero Puntuation reviews. Not only is it good practice to keep my English ear functional but it also promotes the critic in me. I don't have to love the games I like and I don't have to like what everybody else does. It's not that I didn't know this but I sometimes get swept by hypes and popular opinion.

Conclusion? Nothing I haven't stated before. I'm not sure, as of the now, of what I'm looking for in a game but I'd be a fool to restrict my views to popular trends. I do know what I did like and even love and I feel the increasing need to go back to the games that made me feel proud of calling myself a gamer. As opposed to, say, a pants weaver.


For a common goal.



I won't be going back to WAR in a hurry but, the truth is, I absolutely loved that game. It had its faults (and it seems to be growing them like tumors as time goes by) but it made me feel things (non-romantic or sexual things) that no other game has. It made me feel like a crucial cog in the machine; it also made me feel like an extra in a big theatre production. It made me feel like nothing I did mattered, at times. I mean, how many times can you kill a King? And, fucking hell, I miss a screen full of Cold Ones and screaming Choppas, bright lights and my character's pelvic thrusts.

And maybe, what I miss most of all, is the second M in MMORPG. I miss it being multiplayer, in the sense of playing with/against other players, not that some other people just happen to be playing it at the same time and you might cross paths on your way to the loom/workbench/drugstore. I don't see anyone grouping up to go kill those 20 pigs for that shady old man by that wagon. Not that you can't, but it's just not a worthy goal you can bond over.

Ultima Online: The MO Experience

I keep telling people that the first mmo I played was WAR. This is not entirely accurate. WAR was the only one that I played actively for more than a few months and paid substantially to do so. But before it, there were others.

The issue came about as Mike and I, when we weren't yet sharing a dwelling, were looking for something to play together on those long winter nights. Or perhaps it was the summer or the middle of spring. Regardless of the season, we spent our nights alone and, for avid gamers such as ourselves, regular chat facilitators just weren't cutting it. So we delved in the realm of F2P mmos. We spent a lot of time playing on a Ragnarok Online server but, after a while, we got bored of that too. So the three of us (for yes, there was a third person to our party) decided to try something different.

Mike had been an avid UO player in his younger years and we heard numerous stories of great times had by him and his crew. So we decided to give it a go.

Since that time, however, every computer I had used to play it has met an unfortunate demise, envolving heat, beeping (supposedly from the motherboard who did not appreciate said heat) and, in some extreme cases, an axe. Meaning that all screenshots I might have taken during that time went with them. Luckily not all computers met with equally gruesome fates and some shots of screens were saved allowing us to reminisce about the good times we had.



Me being returned half my shit after I died



One of the few things I remember about UO is the backpack. I remember my inventory was much like my own bag in real life. There weren't (as there aren't) any defined spaces for you to put things. As long as you're physically able to lift it up and carry it about you can go crazy. I'm sad that this concept was lost. No matter how inconvenienced I may be, I would like to be restricted from carrying around 42 halberds as easily as I would 42 trinkets. It just makes more sense. And sense adds to immersion. And immersion adds to... hours flying by while you play.

One other thing that I remember the game doing right was the option of taming your own horse. In recent games (read WAR and Rift, dunno about all the others) everybody is "born" with the ability to ride a horse and I get that. All these characters were probably born in a stable anyway, given the setting they're spawned into. But if riding an equine/bear/insect/turtle is such a basic skill, couldn't we also be given the chance of taming the beasts ourselves? I mean, that's more content to entertain us right there, right? I'm not saying remove mount vendors completely but at least give us the option to bypass them. And crafting! You could actually gain muscle mass by mining. I didn't get much for my time spent crafting in Rift except a bag full of burlap shoes I was never going to wear. After all that sewing I could've at least earned some dexterity points, no?

Horse taming amidst corpses of some sort.



In time we retreated back to Ragnarok. I think we all missed the first M (the one that stands for Massive) since there were only three of us playing at the same time in that particular server. But I'll never forget a few things we did there.

One day, I was so in character that I suggested we "go talk over there, so we can sit down on those benches." Only once or twice did I feel like moving my doll around to a more comfortable position during my two years of playing WAR and I never even sat down in Rift. It says a lot that, after only about a week in the game I was so lost in it that I was looking for agreeable places to have a chat in.

UO wasn't and isn't perfect but a lot of people loved it for very good reasons. If I understand this sandbox concept well (which, I'm afraid, Is still a bit alien to me) this was a good example of it and one that captivated and entranced many. It was a good game and many people miss something remotely like it. Most likely, recent games like it exist but just aren't public enough for lil' old me to know of them.

Rift: Arrested Chicken



Do you not get it?
I might.



Rift: The Cleric in Me

When I first reluctantly purchased Rift I knew I'd be rolling a healer. I wasn't sure how similar healing in Rift and in WAR would be but, when having to decide between roles, I'm more comfortable as a hit point restorer than as a damage dealer. Which is not to say I completely suck at dealing damage but, when I do, I keep thinking about the ones dying around me that I could be helping instead. So I rolled a Cleric, the most obvious (but not exclusive) option for those of us with a mother-hen complex.

For my main role I went "Pure Healer" as I called it. My main soul (20 or so points spent at level 28) is Sentinel. It's focus is long cast instant heals which appealed to me after two years spent playing a Zealot. My secondary soul is Warden which focuses on instant cast heal-over-time abilities. The third slot I filled with the PvP soul  (Templar) but I haven't really studied it properly so I dared not spend many points in it.

Soulkilla: Found his farming spot

How I mainly operate is by deploying HoTs around and casting my AoE heal (2sec cast time) when battle starts and when AoE is dealt from the opposing side. This I do for 2 reasons: firstly, to restore hit points (la-dee-daa) and the second is because I finally specced it to reduce incoming damage by a certain percentage (I forget how much). This isn't a very interesting role, to be honest. I just stand there and apply health where needed. I have an ability to increase the next heal's effectiveness by 50% and another to reduce the next one's cast time to nothing. Oh and another to reduce a target's damage input (read how much damage is done to him/her/it) by some.. 40% was it? That's about it. Not terribly exciting even if enjoyable when you're in the mood.



So if you decrease it twice
do you end up increasing it instead?



Now my second role, the one I use mainly for PvE, has proven to be much more interesting. I went for Justicar as a main soul, Shaman and Druid for other small benefits. If you played WAR you might understand when I say that a Justicar plays a lot like a DoK/WP in that the damage you deal can be reverted back to health to your allies. There are many differences though. First off, I usually walk around with an increased armor, endurance and threat buff but I can switch to a decreased threat and increased healing output one if needed. Also, I recently acquired this one-target buff that increases all of my healing effects on another player by some 100% or more. I'm terrible with numbers really, I just know it's cool. Also, whenever you use a Justicar ability you gain a Conviction (if you remember to activate the buff) and with each Conviction you can cast healing spells for your party, yourself and your prefered "defensive target". And you can actually rarely run out of Conviction, unless you're being focus fired. Your cookie cutter isn't that expensive plus you get an ability to restore 10% of your mana for each of your melee swings and it has a manageable cooldown.

Healing as Justicar in optimal conditions

I'm quite stricken with it. It worked better than I expected in PvP as well, as seen above. I have some points in Druid for... actually I don't know what for; a few other points I invested in Shaman to increase my damage and critical ratings. It must be said that all your magical stats convert to melee stats when you're using these close combat Cleric souls. So you can keep investing in Wisdom and Spell Power to boost the effectiveness of whatever soul you desire.

Which is... pretty cool,  right? I thought so. It also keeps me from lugging around two sets of gear.

I'll probably expand more on these souls and my love for them when I start actually memorising their names and learning what they do exactly and for sure and was this even a sentence anymore because it's so long I can't tell what it is with any degree of certainty anymore.



I'm not the only one gagging for more Dragon Age



Phew... One problem I found though: I always end my playing sessions crafting in Sanctum. I arrive on my mighty Rhino-like mount with my purse filled with about 1plat every night. When I'm ready to log out im down to 20 silver. I need help finding a scam in AH to make easy money. PLS HALP!

Theme Hospital: "You Have Conquered This Realm!"

Original post title: "Rift: Sorry, Completely Forgot About You"

Ok, first of all, the screenshot folder is aptly called "screenshots" and it's just inside the main Rift game folder. If you can't find that, just open your Rift desktop shortcut properties and see where it points to. Now stop Googling it, jeez...

I got home yesterday and I decided I'd play a little Theme Hospital before dinner. This had a lot to do with my first post and the nostalgia I felt when I looked back at my past. I had the .iso in my work flash drive (which I downloaded after I discovered my original copy is probably still in a box at my mother's) but I can do fuck all with no admin privileges; I even tried using DOSBox Portable to no avail. So I plugged it in my laptop, put a blanket over my knees, searched around for my small mouse (which my cat has tried several times to separate from the USB plug) and I mounted and installed.

Need more janitors, stat!

Surprisingly, the game looked just as I remembered it, down to the midi soundtrack. The graphics were even better than what I was hoping, mostly due to the fact that my computer back in the late 90s was everything but top of the line. This only added to the fun I ended up having.

The game revolves around, as the name implies, running a successfull hospital. To do so you have to manage your alloted terrain and build GP's offices, general diagnosis, X-ray rooms, clinics, pharmacies and place benches, heaters, KitKat vending machines (that serve soft drinks) and pretty plants. You also need to hire doctors, nurses a receptionist and handymen. You need to research treatments, diagnosis equipment, drug efficiency. You need to train your doctors and prioritize either watering the plants or mopping up vomit. You build facilities to cure illnesses like Gut Rot, Spare Ribs, Slack Tongue and Bloaty Head. And when you finally meet your quotas, you leave that hospital and start anew at a more challenging site.

Micromanagement is the word and the game manages to be just difficult enough to keep you wanting to get better without completely frustrating you and your efforts. At length I finally asked "oh God, what time is it?" It was nearing 2:00 am. I had completely forgotten about Rift, grinding, questing and pig skinning.



All this vomit, they do not approve.

So what does this say abour Rift? I'll tell you what it says about me. It says that the main reason, by far, that I have purhcased Rift is my guild. I probably wouldn't have bothered if not for them. I have a "fantasy game" hole in my heart that always needs to be filled but that would've been taken care of when Dragon Age 2 comes knocking. I have no real MMO need, at least not anymore. I just didn't want to lose touch with all the friends I made in that guild and so I slugged over to Rift. Again, it's not that I don't like the game or that it's too daunting. No, it's just that I don't get excited thinking about it, I don't desperately want to go home just to play it. I do, however, feel like going home to play a bit more Theme Hospital, see if I can finally beat the game after all these years.

I will be playing Rift tonight, though. I don't want to be left behind. I try and make excuses for the game. It's an MMO, it would be a bad thing if it got you that hooked, you'd never get a life; you're supposed to be playing this for a long time, better not to exhaust things to do so quickly. Bad excuses that. I got that hooked on WAR in the beggining. I'd cringe and frown and moan all day because I wanted to go home and play it. And if I play enough Rift that I exhaust things to do, the game suffers from a severe lack of content because I could never play that much, I don't have the time, my life doesn't function that way.

I'm still waiting to find that one thing about Rift that makes me love it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but I'm not getting my hopes up. Right now, it's like settling for a tuna sandwich when what you really want is grilled salmon.

Rift: "Your workshop is not big enough"

Oh, so there's something big happening today? Hmmm....
I'm more interested in sharing my experiences of yesterday, concerning PvE and crafting.

I managed to piggyback on a Darkening Deeps run. Darkening deeps (DD) is a level 23ish dungeon that, like any other dungeon, I'm willing to bet, circles around the "kill or be wiped" motto and not much else. You go up a ramp, you kill some things, you roundhouse kick a few shrines, you go down a ramp, you kill more things, scissor kick more shrines, rinse, repeat, loot, wipe, res, wipe, "getting late", "was fun", "maybe some other time."

As with the rest of the game, I was not disappointed but neither was I pleasantly surprised. I was playing the part of main healer, doing my best to look as competent as possible while still hearing a faint voice in the back of my head whispering you don't really know what you're doing, do you?

Spider bosses.
Fuckin hate them.

But, then again, healing is healing. How much of a learning curve can you possibly get? You have some spells that restore hit points gradually over time and others focused on burst. Some are cast instantly, others take longer. Apply them when needed, no real big secret there. Most challenging thing is deciding where what is needed and when (if that even made any sense).

When we got to a spider boss (read caption) we wiped. Mainly because there was more to it than "apply HoT; hold; apply HoT". And then we wiped again for other reasons I was too tipsy to remember. And then my soul vitality was down to 25%.

In the days of old, ships leaving port for far-off uncharted lands would often employ a portuguese sailor for they possesed a unique skil not found on any other kind. The art of desenrascanço. This ancient skill is no more no less than the ability to make do and pull through any situation using whatever meager means at your disposal. It is a skill that has permeated the entire world, as seen here, and a skill I have resorted to many times in my gaming career.

When I respawned outside the dungeon I was in the middle of nowhere, forsaken amidst a horde of annoyed goblin-like creatures. I needed to find a healer but it was clear that none of the goblins were inclined to help me in any way other than relieve me of my health. I jumped up and down the road for a while and ended up soul recalling back to Argent Glade. I couldn't find a healer there either, mostly because I was getting stressed that everyone was waiting for the main healer to come back so I ported to Sanctum. Surprise, couldn't find one there either. I went outside and crossed the bridge, remembering that time I fell off the bridge and died only to respawn 10 meters away. No healer there either. Fine, I thought, I'll just make do.

I wish I could tell you that we fought the good fight, and the spider let us be. I wish I could tell you that, but Telara is no fairy-tale world. Well... actually it is but hey, that's how the quote goes. We wiped again, our lack of AoE making me pull every single ad and being setback into forever.



More like Pigkilla

 We called it quits and I decided to craft a little before turning in. Crafting, for me, is a slow process. I went with Butchering, Outfitting and Runecrafting. The thing is, I lack the patience to specifically hunt down certain mobs to skin them. Some people though, as shown above, seem to have all the time in the world and all the willingness in the world and make it their futile mission to erradicate the pig genus from the shard.

I can't do that. I can't be that leet or that no-lifer. I just can't bring myself to lose hours of my life tracking down virtual pigs and ending their fictional existence. I do want to be a master crafter and I don't wanna spend all my money in the auction house.

Soulkilla, you depress me.

Rift: Found the screenshot folder!

Here. Afore mentioned graphical bug:



My shoulderpads. That awesome, they are not.

And a very poor name choice. Or a complete win one. Who am I to judge?

More significant things tomorrow for tonight, I Rift.

Rift: "You have tunnelled into a new area"

I love Dungeon Keeper quotes. There's one for every ocasion.

So, after trying Rift out this weekend I have to say: it's not bad. Which is not to say it's not good. I enjoy the time I spend there, sure. The questing isn't bad, it's along the same lines as any questing - speak, kill/collect, return, reward - and I've explored a bit of the PvP content and one dungeon.



The sky, it has a rift.

With Rift I seem to have the same issues I have with every other game. I never have any bag space, for once. I tend to seek a healing function, no matter the class. Also, in trying to find the path of least resistance to a location I pick up every possible mob and end up spending twice the time I would if only I stuck to the road.

One thing I do love, though, is a small graphical bug I sometimes get. My Rift character is a tiny human (Matthosian) Cleric with a pure healing role and a sole PvEing role more focused on insta-gibbing stuff. She looks a bit bland, with her Planar outfit flapping between her legs. But sometimes (usually after I die) all the colours on her clothes turn black and shades of gray. The outfit loses none of its textures and it's only visible to me. Still looks awesome.

WAR has made me into a PvP addict, I discovered and, more often than not, I'll be trying to get down a road only to have constant Warfront pops. It took me only a few tries to get used to a new healing perspective, mainly the fact that AoE heals are centered around a target and not myself. One crucial difference that has hampered my success is the lack of both an offensive and defensive target. WAR had this wonderful idea and, according to what I was told, it was quite novel and unique. I would have loved it if they had kept this concept in Rift but you can't expect a new game to be a copy of an old favourite. Still, I often find myself trying to heal a Rogue and end up healing myself. Not so cool. Still topped the healing charts a few times, though.

At some point, Defiants invaded our lands or so I hear. I was offline at the time. This, however caused a response on our side which is told to have been quite epic and impressive. It was also described as sloppy and only a tentative  incursion to explore the open-field PvP facet of the game. Wish I'd been there. My biggest wish is to discover that Rift can provide those epic camp fights, with 200 people on each side, everyone sweating their balls off trying to subdue their opponents. Now that's a feeling.

Now all I have to find is the folder the game saves screenshots to.

Rift: Launch?

Or not really?

I could sum this whole thing up by just saying:

The character selection screen is AWESOME... not.

It was all I got to see of the game, though.

I had completely forgotten to uninstall the beta client and install the new one so, when I got home, at around 7 pm (GMT+0) that's what I did. It took me about an hour, hour and a half to download the 8 gigs. But by this time an eerie feeling had crept in. I was hearing a lot of moaning and complaining on vent and some numbers floating around: "2300" said one vent voice, "1500" said another, "just under 600" went a third. What was this? Some sort of queue? Surely not!



Should've taken the hint

Now, I know every launch has its hiccups and setbacks. I was expecting that. But I was expecting something more on the lines of server instability, mobs just not being enough, unbearable amounts of lag. I would have welcomed that. Anything was better than 3 hours staring at the character selection screen, watching those numbers slowly climb down. Hell, I would have even put up with the russians.

Every server was full (except a few french and german ones) so we decided to stick it out and wait to get in our guild's server. I'm fairly competent at staying completely still for long periods of time. Mike will often nudge me when I'm watching a movie yelling "YOU ASLEEP?" in my ear when I'm not. But this was boring as shit.

So, after climbing from queue position 2880 to 600 I decided I deserved a little treat. I alt-tabbed to play a little spider solitaire. Yes, the most interesting thing I dared to do without exhausting my computer's resources which I was saving for a night of intense gaming. I tabbed back a few times (read "about 50") to move my mouse around. I'd been fairly lucky all night, only having had 2 disconnects and getting right back to my position same as I was before. Others had not been so lucky.

But, for some reason, I got distracted and that's when it happened. My third disconnect dropped me down to 1300. It was disheartening, to say the least. All I could muster was a "fuck it" and I logged out.



"They're probably all getting drunk at the launch party."
Yes. Yes, I believe they are.

Now, as I said before, I was expecting a few setbacks but, in the end, I'm a paying customer. I paid good money to be able to play the game on the headstart launch day. Or so I thought. Apparently, I paid good money to alt-tab between the character selection screen and spider solitaire. In the end, I don't care what the developer's hardships are/were/are going to be. Do I need to care? Should I? I'm paying them. Me and countless others lined their pockets with millions of their chosen currency. Millions. They knew how many of us there were. They just had to divide all the money they made by how much they were charging per copy. So I don't get this and, frankly, I don't care to get it. I care not to like it.

This really gets to me. I mean, reeeeeaaaaally gets to me. I mean, here we are, struggling to keep up a household with one and a half paycheks in the middle of a financial crisis and we buy 2 copies of the fucking thing thinking that "hey, maybe a little time playing with friends will help take our minds off important things for a bit". Fuck that, have a screen with a countdown, dream about all the other cool things you could be doing (like playing that sweet Dragon Age 2 demo) and sweat it out.

Things didn't go so well for people that actually got to play the game either, due to the lag and over-population issues (which were to be expected as the entire existing player base was currently in the starting area). "OMG even the mobs are getting queued".

But I would've liked having been able to make that remark. I would've liked to have reserved my two character names. Instead I got a bad after-taste in my mouth that has nothing to do with my over consumption of Red Bull and cigarettes.

Bah. I was a bit "meh" at the game before, I'm just numb at it now. I'm sure I'll forget all about this when I actually get to play it decently. If I live to play it after these first three months, I'm sure I'll even look back at this and tsk tsk tsk at myself for my current disbelief.

Here's hoping.