Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Arenanet gets points for doing some cute things with some major news site(s?), like this . Still, I feel like Heart of Thorns is being rushed out the door. The pace of the reveals of new specializations has seemed to run up pretty darn close to the October 23rd release date. It feels like that stuff should have been shown off a fair bit earlier. Then there's news that their Halloween-style events are ramping up on the 23rd as well... that seems like unnecessary content glut that you would want to space out a little bit. A raid was just recently beta tested. A recent post about new legendary weapons indicates they'll be released into the game a few at a time, starting with three (of sixteen total?). Raids also apparently are going to be staggered in release. This is the stuff you want live in the game when the expansion is released. To me, it seems like they're trying too hard to get the expansion out in October when it should have been pushed back until more of its conte...

Well, I haven't been involved in RP offline in quite a while now. Just too hard to gather motivation and align schedules. Ah well. Online, the Lords of Gossamer and Shadows rolls on. 'tis weekly entertainment, though I'm still perhaps not as into it as I could possibly be. The combination of roster turnover, anything-goes setting, and such contributes to a certain sense of aimlessness. There's also a small D&D (5E) game I've managed a few sessions as player in, set in the MtG realm of Innistrad. That's been interesting, if young yet. And I need to get back to running scenes based in Rym, even if that's just for one person, really. WoW has been on my mind a fair bit the last few weeks with the Legion announcement, but at the same time, my interest in actually playing the game currently seems to be waning. After a big push Saturday, I'm at 30/33 tomes for the (I think) final collection stage of the legendary ring, so I should be able to finish t...

As my obsessive time commitments in WoW reduce, I've put a little more time back into FFXIV and the Heavensward expansion. Functionally, not that much has changed, though you can jump through some hoops to fly in the new zones, which is always neat. It's still possible to run into blockages of quests where you must do an instance to continue, but those aren't too terribly painful really. The game is still gorgeous, now with more three-dimensional vistas. The music is possibly my favorite that I've experienced in an MMORPG. Of course, in period where now even WoW can be played for gold rather than dollars, FFXIV is still a subscription game. The story is still strong. ARR (the main game) ended on a hugely tragic note, seeming to destroy much of what was build for the PC(s) and their associated Scions of the Seventh Dawn, leading into Heavensward. That I just hit at level 55 was, however, more emotional in my eyes. Ysayle, aka Iceheart, the host of the primal Shi...

I feel sort of floaty, adrift, aimless... In a lot of ways, that's not uncommon of me being thoughtful or introspective, really. And prior to the medication, it would probably spiral down to a much darker place. The week's not been bad. Heck, a "quiet" day-shift week at work means things are going pretty well in general. Of course, it also means there are projects being pushed out for one reason or another, so there's nothing to really sink my teeth into and do. I've been reading anthologies this week - finished one and halfway through another. I thought it might be a nice change of pace with less investment. That might just be unseating me further. Games are... what they are. I'm reaching 6.2 goal-markers (level 3 shipyard, exalted with a couple factions, closing in on finishing the mission-based legendary requirements), if still 7/33 for raid-bits - that'll take several more weeks due to the way its done. I'm plot-blocked at level 54 in F...

Fury Road stunt doubles got married? That's kinda cool. E3 gears up. Ooo. Ahh. A remake of Final Fantasy VII? Fans have wanted that for well over a decade. I find myself less than enthusiastic that the time has actually come. Actually, the most interesting thing I've seen so far is the Mass Effect: Andromeda announcement. Mostly, I find it fascinating because it raises all sorts of questions about what happened after the original trilogy. Though the cynical part of me says it'll be glossed over or blurred rather than Bioware defining a canon ending and really exploring the repercussions. Clearly humanity has rediscovered viable FTL travel after the destruction of the mass relays, and even some way to travel to another galaxy. But there are some incredible narrative opportunities to exploring how society developed in the Milky Way after 1) life became techno-organic, 2) a benevolent-dictator Shepard-Reaper armada took over, or 3) all mechanical life (Reapers includ...

... occasionally aren't. In my periodic casting about for distractions, I picked up Pillars of Eternity , a crowdfunded computer RPG in the vein of the old Baldur's Gate games. There's a lot of nostalgic value that really takes me back and technical improvement. It's definitely higher resolution than those games, though you still don't often have reason to zoom in and portaits are used for conversations. There's more voice, I think. It's also an original fantasy world rather than licensed D&D, so there are interesting things to discover. On the down side, the format does not lend itself to getting caught up in the story as easily as some others. Perhaps my attention span was longer back in the day, or I didn't have the alternatives, but it's easier to put this game down for a few days than 1) I remember or 2) newer, more active games. Also, the drawbacks of crowdfunding bonuses are a distraction - there are backer-submitted visions and tombsto...

Well, let's see... Offline roleplaying has been stalled since our regular GM left town. I don't really have any expectation of that changing in the foreseeable future - folks have plenty of other things to do these days. Online roleplaying is still fairly limited to small groups, though I'd say I've been in more scenes of late than just a month or so ago. The online Lords of Gossamer and Shadow game has been sort of hit-and-miss as far as attendance. In theory, characters were supposed to be able to slip in and out as players were busy or not, but in practice... eh... that just doesn't work so well, at least in my view. I think my interests lean toward 1) action and accomplishment (the doing of things and overcoming of challenges) and 2) interplay and development between characters. The latter is unavoidably hamstrung when you don't get a solid "party" together for any length of time (or when people don't play to that and their characters are j...

Well, I took a look at storytelling , so why not look at combat in the MMOs I've played? WoW : This is the first MMO I really picked up, so I may be biased. It's sort of the baseline in my mind. It's not perfect, but it works well. Bottom line in my book is that it works. I rarely had any trouble targeting what I wanted to target. Abilities and auto-attacks hit your active target or specified area. Facing is important (especially as a shield-user). AI aggro mechanics are mostly pretty basic, straightfoward, and built-in with tanks having specific aggro-boosting abilities. With rare exception, abilities both have a cooldown and are limited by a global cooldown. There's some difference between classes with a secondary resource - mana, rage, focus, etc. And there are a lot of abilities. I had... 4 bars? Six? Eight? It sure felt like a lot, though some of those were regularly-used non-combat things like mount summoning. Boss fights, however, got interesting. "Tank...

I had some discussion about story and presentation, having just done Arah in GW2 this weekend for a couple people. So here are some sort of general thoughts... Now, it should be acknowledged that telling a player-driven story in an MMO and offering real choice may be a Sisyphean task. Offering real choice means more development time in making branches of the story. Making any story that centers on the PC involves some slight-of-hand in a multiplayer environment to be even remotely believable. And on top of that, opinions vary on what the best way really is. WoW : The game always kind of skirts the issue of player involvement. Big bad bosses are taken down by "heroes" or NPCs. Questgivers occasionally show recognition for the PC, but it's pretty trivial and interchangeable. With major bits of story "told" through raids, it's pretty easy to miss out on some things, too - though Blizzard has been more inclusive with LFR instances and such. Ultimately, I so...

So... I'm nearing the end of my "trial" period and there's probably more I can say. It took just over three weeks of regular play for me to hit level 50 with dragoon/lancer (which includes 15 levels of marauder), which So... I'm nearing the end of my "trial" period and there's probably more I can say. It took just over three weeks of regular play for me to hit level 50 with dragoon/lancer (which includes 15 levels of marauder), which stands as the current cap. The leveling experience wasn't quite as smooth as ideal, but it wasn't too painful to push through the "dead" spots. The main storyline has been reasonably solid. The player character is given an important, but not quite unique, role in events. Being gifted with the "Echo" is a clear story benefit in connecting with the beast tribes and resisting the primals, but an NPC has the same ability and there's nothing that precludes other "adventurers" from ...

This internal conversation happened: Huh, an article about FFXIV offering 14-day trials? That's neat. It's longer than I played at the beta. Maybe I'd find more to like about it. I should definitely look into that. I know one person always lamenting lack of friends playing. Maybe I would like it enough to get into it. * You must not have participated in the FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Beta Test. Fuuuu.... Well, I guess that's not happening then.

Things are getting to (maybe?) more normal at work after the last couple days. Wrrf. That was rough. And while it looked like the connection issues were at an intermediary stage, it turns out it was hardware at our ISP. If traceroutes and similar tests are that deceptive, what good are they? Ah well. Edit: Ah, fun. I can still get stuck working late... whee... I've not done much in WoW lately.There was some talk about how a few guildies might be interested in the assault on Garrosh, but without an active raid team, we aren't going to be jumping into the 5.4 raid anyway. Still not much reason to renew a subscription and I think my time expires fully in a few weeks. FFXIV was interesting and very pretty, but if feels overly-traditional to me. It also occurred to me that some of the beauty may be due to the zoning - seriously, most of the major hub cities are 2-3 separate zones before you even get outside them. But ultimately, combat (as a a low-level lancer, conjurer, and pu...

So I started sampling the FFXIV Realm Reborn beta. I used to think a Final Fantasy MMO would be the one I'd get drawn into. That didn't happen with XI. So how will this one shape up... on its second release? Well, I've only had a little time with it. It's very, very pretty. It doesn't quite move or feel as fluid as other games I've played. It has some classic appeal and charm. The interface is serviceable, but not an improvement. I find myself disliking the map (though not as strongly as in the original GW). I also find the lack of in-game voice to be something I miss (when did that happen?). I'll try the beta more (it looks like this stage 3 beta ends on the 15th and stage 4 is "open beta"), but I have yet to see anything that would draw me in past the increasingly-less-typical monthly subscription fee. So far, I think that would take a solid community of friends in the game while I only see one or two likely. But it is very pretty.

To be perfectly fair, I'd decided I wouldn't be buying the game some time back. I've long considered myself to be a fan of Final Fantasy games. FF 2/4 and 3/6 were inspiring. FF Tactics was great. FF 7 was... greater than it should have been. It's actually one of my favorites, but I have to acknowledge that it was not really that awesome as a game. But it came at the right time and involved the right innovations to have a lot more impact than the story and characters probably deserved. FF 8 was a bit uninteresting to me, but that's a fluke, right? After all, FF 9 was a nostalgic trip of awesomeness. FF 10 was okay. FF 11, I would once have sworn, would be the only MMORPG to be able to draw me in fully - I was obviously wrong there and never even played it. FF 10-2 was meh. FF 12 seemed to have potentially, but it didn't hold me enough to actually finish it. So I guess when I think of Final Fantasy games, I tend to think back to the high points (in my opinion) ...