Runescape

NBI 2016: 6 Features I Want in My Perfect MMO

Kluwes2 Comments

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This may have been last weeks NBI 2016 writing prompt, but it’s been a busy week and not a lot of writing has been done here. I really need to stop telling myself I’ll write tomorrow, because that doesn’t happen.

Thank you Faeldray at Lair of the Wolf Dragon  for coming up with the prompt.

 

1. No Mini Map

One thing I notice myself doing a lot in RPGs and MMOs is spending more time watching the little arrow cross the mini map when traveling than actually looking at the character and scenery in front of me. I think ESO’s compass bar to show you which direction the objective is really helps to limit  map starring.

2. Training Skills By Using Them

I’ve always liked when skills have to be used to make them more powerful. It makes more sense  that if my character never uses a skill then it shouldn’t get more powerful when he levels up or puts an ability point into it. Games like FlyFF used to have this and it’s one of the reasons I enjoyed Runescape so much. While I can see how some could see it as a grind or a time sink, it’s another enjoyable layer of progression for me.

3. Voice Acted Quests

I’ve seen arguments against the voice acted quest. That people can read faster than the character can talk, that it ruins immersion, that it’s usually poorly done. If I have an option between reading or voice acting I’m going to choose voice acting every time..It’s not that i don’t like to read, I love to read, but in a game I’d rather the characters talk to me, it feels more alive that way. I noticed when I was playing FFXIV that I’d read through the quest dialog or story dialog and by the end of it I had no idea what I just read. Maybe I’m just lazy when I play a video game.

In MMO’s I do prefer the silent protagonist though. In Guild Wars 2 it irks me that every player character sounds exactly the same. I like the Secret World’s approach where the NPC’s are voice acted and my character asks questions via text

4. In-depth Gathering Classes

If I could play a game completely and utterly as a gather I would. I love to gather. I love going into the world, finding the resources, and hording collecting them. Runescape had this to some extent, it wasn’t super in depth but a lot of the skills weren’t either, you leveled up and could collect different things and use different tools. I wasted many a summer day cutting down yew logs. Finaly Fnatasy 14 has some pretty fun gathering classes as well. I kept hearing they were a grind but when I finally tried them out, I spent almost as much time leveling them up as I did running dungeons with my combat class.

5. Classes Advancements with Branching Specializations

I first experienced this in Flyff. You started out as a vagrant, after level 15 you chose a more specialized class like a mercenary or a magician, at level 60 you picked an even more specialized class like a Knight or an Elementalist. It added this carrot on a stick that if I grind out a few more levels I can wield a new weapon or get some better skills. I wouldn’t have had so much fun though if the title didn’t change. Outside of Korean grinders I’ve only seen this in Final Fantasy 14. I’ve been eying Tree of Savior because of their immense class system but haven’t heard great things about the game so far.

6. Robust Wardrobe System

Let’s get to the real reason to play MMO’s dressing up virtual dolls. It’s odd, it bothers me knowing everyone has the same voice in a game but it doesn’t bother me that everyone looks the same. I have no problem looking like the guy next to me as long as the armor looks awesome. Through Diablo 3, I have found the joys of transmoging and mixing and matching armor. I like the way Diablo 3 saves the style of the armor/weapon when you pick it up and it can be applied like a skin whenever you’d like later on. One of the strong points of Trove for me was collecting different weapon, hat, and face styles to mix and match later on. I also want some vanity items to drop even if their stuff like extra hair styles or slightly different looking armor, or weird outfits, but then I guess there would be nothing to sell in the cash shop.

A Love Affair with MMOs

Kluwes5 Comments

 

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I’ve been MMOing since 2004. While I would really like day that my first experience with online games was with Runescape or World of Warcraft, it just isn’t so. See while all my friends were playing Runescape, I was playing Club Penguin. If you’re not sure what that is, it was basically a heavily moderated chat room with some mini games and a penguin avatars to dress up. For the life of me I can’t remember why I was so entranced by it, maybe because it was the first time I was playing a game that had any kind of chat feature at all. It took about a year for my friends to convince me to try this Runescape thing.

I like to think of Runescape as the gateway MMO. It wasn’t flashy, it ran in a browser, and it was pretty easy to learn  to play. It was one of the first open world games I played and even as a free account, where 50% of the content was locked off, the map felt huge. I never could convince my parents to pay for a membership. It was in Runescape that I fell in love with watching numbers go up and there were so many skills to level! I played with friends almost every day for a year and a half before we all lost interest and moved on.

My parents never understood video games, nor could they see why they should spend $15 a month for me to play them. I missed out on playing World of Warcraft and other pay to play games. Guild Wars on the other hand was something I could buy from the store myself. I played Guild Wars and all of its expansions religiously for 4 years. . I had a menagerie of alts, I ran a guild, and I must have completed each campaign at least five times. Though I couldn’t tell you what the story was about now if you asked. I haven’t been able to sink my teeth into a game like that since.

Once I graduated high school, I didn’t have a lot of time for MMOs anymore.  I experimented with League of Legends in college but ultimately gave up  when no one else wanted to play. I patiently waited for Guild Wars 2 to launch but when it can out my laptop couldn’t run it. I was devastated. By the time I got a semi capable PC, no one I knew was playing it anymore.

Since graduating from college I have rekindled the old flame once again. While I haven’t found an MMO to stick with yet, I’ve fooled around with a lot. I bought The Secret World, I played FFXIV for 3 months, and I finally got a character to level 80 in Guild Wars 2. When I discovered what use to be Massively (now Massively OP), I realized I didn’t just enjoy the playing the genre but I enjoyed learning  about the industry as well. Unfortunately my computer still isn’t ideal for gaming, making it impossible to play the newer, prettier titles out there. But I have enjoyed trying games out that it can run.

For the past few months some friends and I have been playing Trove. Most of them aren’t really into MMOs but like building and the super easy game play. For me it’s  a little too simple, but it’s enjoyable in a group. Unfortunately, after the last few updates, my interest in Trove is dwindling.  Once again I’m setting out to find my next MMO to settle down with. Maybe I’ll give Guild Wars 2 another try.

I’ve been wanting to start a blog for a while now, but never had the motivation to just sit down and write.I just learned about the Newbie Blogger Initiative a few days ago. I’m really excited to participate in the events and talk with other bloggers. I’m aiming to post at least twice a week, maybe more if time allows. It’s been a blast so far.