Having "insta-travel" is one of the things that killed Everquest. You completely lose any concept of the size of the world(s) when you can just click on a stone and get to where you are going. Requiring travel immerses you in the virtual world.
Travel in WoW is actually pretty reasonable. I suspect that once you have flight paths and a mount, the worst case is probably about 20 minutes to get anywhere. Which is enough to make you think about "the world" and how where you are going is related to where you are starting from, but not enough to make the game unplayable.
Only when you count quests that involve killing x type of monters to get y number of baubles, and ironically enough you tend to get more xp killing the monsters than from completing the quest.
So you can either kill random mobs and get x experience... or you can get a quest, kill the quest mobs, and get 2*x experience (I found that the quest exp seemed to be about equal to the mob exp, but if you want to discount this to 1.5*x, feel free).
You make the assumption that playing an MMO requires a PhD in quantum physics. Playing MMOs revolve around a few basic ideas. Healers, tanks and DPS classes and some crowd control thrown in. It's not rocket science. Everyone remotely competent can switch classes easy.
Wrong.
You can play, in the sense that you can press the buttons. You may even know what some of the buttons do. But there are things you learn only by playing. Like when to "pre-shield" your mage, because if you wait till after the mage is hit to shield, you won't have a mage. When you can use fear w/o aggro-ing the dungeon. When to down shift and use a lesser heal to preserve mana. Etc. Yeah, a priest is easy, just press the right button...:)
My biggest pet peeve is people in game talking about how bored they are. This is supposed to be entertaining. If it isn't entertaining anymore please quit and find something else to do!
Please please please mod this up as insightful!!!!! I'd do it if I had any mod points.
I don't play much player vs player, but many years ago I got into a 3 person FFA Warcraft 2 game. It was obvious early on that the other two players were ganging up on me, but fortunately they weren't all that good. One of them was going strictly for dragons, which I love because they are easy to kill and cost a boatload of gold. So I was gradually pushed back but was still holding my own.
One of the players kept lagging and a dialog would come up asking if I wanted to boot him. After 30 minutes or so I finally decided to toss the lagger, and then proceeded to wipe out the other guy when it was even odds. Very satisfying.
Then when they get done, they realize there is no way they can implement their solution because:
1) The issue is too steeped in politics/corruption/ignorance/bullshit
2) There is no way, as a single person, they can hope to affect any change - even with the best idea in the world
or 3), their idea is some typical simplistic engineer's approach to social problems that ignores most of the realities of the situation.
Let's see, they did a great RTS, then an RTS with 3 well balanced yet completely different sides, then a hero-based RTS, then an MMO. And did them all brilliantly. Yeah, sure sounds like they don't know how to innovate.
I agree, the Cylons were at their best when they were mysterious. We didn't know what they looked like, what their powers were, or even whether they had a hotline to God. They spoke with one voice, and as the teaser for each episode reminded us, "they have a plan".
Now they are a bunch of confused humanoids who don't know the meaning of life or what they want to do when they grow up. They argue amongst themselves. They order the mechanical cylons around like a bunch of slaves. Essentially, they ARE humans who just happen to live on a base ship.
I also listen to the RDM podcasts. One of the best ones was the writer's conference where they plot out the 2nd half of season two. It's fun to listen to, but what's really eye opening (at least for me) is that RDM and the writers don't know any more than we do about what's going on.
Is the story set in the distant past or the far future? Do the Cylons have a home world, or are they strictly based in space ships? Why did the Cylons attack? Do the human colony worlds circle a single sun, or are they scattered in space? The writers tossed these out, and no one, including RDM, had an answer. (actually, the last question RDM said that he thought that although it was astronomically unlikely, the human worlds did orbit a single sun... but he wasn't real definite on that).
So the first two seasons the story line introduced lots of questions, but no one has really thought about the answers, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. I think they've taken the easy out of making the cylon characters that we are familiar with like us. Those cylons are trying to figure out what's going on, just like we are.
I still enjoy watching the show, but it really does feel like it's starting to lose its way.
The original "The Longest Journey" game was fantastic. The best story line, best puzzles, and best dialog of any game I've ever played. Easy to play, intuitive controls.
Dreamfall controls and camera are bizarre, and the game couldn't run 5 minutes on my (relatively new) computer w/o crashing. If those two things could be fixed I suspect it would be a great game, but as it stands it really sucks.
Sure, and while you're at it, fuck feeding the poor -- if I'm going to feed the poor, shouldn't I get paid for it? And fuck shelters for battered women -- what am I, a hippie? Obviously, anybody who believes anyone could actually afford to volunteer their time for a worthwhile cause must be an independently wealthy, elitist snob. Out here in the real world it's all about the money, baby. You want code? Fuck you, pay me.
Well, actually, shelters that feed the poor and help battered women DO take donations to support the staff and the facility. Pretty much exactly what the folks paying the Debian guys were doing... put a little money in the pot so the facility can be open. So I'm afraid you came up with an example for the other side.
Not only that, but most "normal" people aren't really interested in changing their operating system
It's the difference between people who want to use their car to get to where they are going, and the people who are fascinated by cars and want to spend their weekends dinking around in the engine. If you offered me a new set of sparkplugs and expected me to be delighted, you'd have a grave disappointment.
Well, if the content (& source) gets GPL'd and some of the servers turn out to be free-as-in-beer, that can be a pretty compelling reason to play this over WoW.
By that same logic, sitting in front of a TV beats doing anything. People aren't solely motivated by cost... there is enjoyment to consider as well.
mean, the adventurer angle is fun for a time, but as I've illustrated, it gets old when you realize that it's all you really do in the game, and by the end it barely exists; it essentially boils down to grinding mobs to gain rep so that you can grind more mobs and gain rep, hoping that eventually you'll reach a level of prestige in that group where they'll give you nice stuff. Somehow, this is supposed to be so much fun that over 7 million people are doing it. I just don't get it.
You're right, you don't get it. If that was ALL you were doing, yeah, what fun would it be? A couple of weeks ago my guild took down Hakkar (chief boss of ZG). We had been working up to this for months, learning how to kill the sub-bosses. The final kill required intense concentration from 20 people, working together very closely, making split second decisions, talking, fighting, healing. It was an extremely intense experience. It was great fun. It was not the "sit in one place and kill the same mob over and over and over again to level" experience.
Completely different fun event: sometimes folks in IronForge just decide to hold a parade. Folks get on their horses, you jump into line and follow the guy in front of you, guy at the front walks his horse along the parade path. It sounds goofy, but it is just plain fun. Completely spontaneous, certainly never planned for by Blizzard. It's folks getting together in the a virtual world to have a good time.
Well, in ANY RPG that I've ever played, you venture out into the world and encounter situations where you have to perform some task that someone wants you to do. Other than changing WoW to be pure PvP so you are constantly battling other players instead of helping NPCs, or being a virtual storekeeper in a virtual economy (neither of these appeal to me), just what do you think you're going to do?
I'll admit that WoW is a well-made game, but like most MMOs that have come before it, it gets really boring REALLY fast because all there is to do is grind mobs, grind quests, grind rep
I baffled by the people who talk about the "grind" in WoW. Basically, you are continually questing... exploring new areas, seeking out some poor NPC who is stranded in a cave somewhere, finding a desperately needed cure to a rare disease... Unlike NeverQuest, where you really do spend weeks sitting in the optimal spot and killing the same mob over and over, in WoW you are pretty much always on the move. Of course, you can choose to grind... but that's your choice. You don't have to do that.
Perl can be fun, in the sense of "guess what this random set of chars can do". If you are never going to have to maintain any code, sure, go with Perl. If you enjoy writing larger, structured, easy to maintain programs, you are better off with.Net.
And don't worry about VB.Net vs C#. Doesn't matter. In the.Net world that's just syntactic sugar (despite what the C# bigots would have you think).
Microsoft is betting that Windows and Office are so easy to use versus the open source counterparts that they can afford to decrease the ease of use a little bit with these shenanigans, and still come out on top.
What they are betting is that the number of users who get pissed off and quit using MS Office is going to be less than the number of people who pay for it instead of pirating it. And who knows, they might be right.
Funny because I've known some really superb programmers and NONE of them committed "multiple felonies". Maybe the people you know weren't all that good?
Bah. I've been gaming since 1981, and as far as I can tell, games have gotten progressively easier over time.
Maybe it depends on what games you are playing. I've played a few RTS's (Warcraft 2, Starcraft, etc) and they definitely seem to be getting more complex... more units, more "rock paper scissors" stuff to keep track of, etc etc. One thing I LOVED about Warcraft 2 and Starcraft was that they introduced you to the units one or two at a time. A lot of the storyline was just learning how to play while you had fun. Nowadays it seems like there are so many units, modes, options and settings that they just take the easy way out and have a tutorial that's like sitting in 8th grade algebra... not a lot of fun.
The first evening I just messed around with it for about an hour, getting a feel for the territory. The second evening I ran the game in a few hours, and I'm not even what you could call a puzzle game player.
The last time I heard about someone finishing Myst over a weekend, it turned out that the guy had a walkthru, and every time he got stuck for 15 minutes, he looked up the answer. Personally it took me a couple of months, playing off and on, to solve it. So I have just a tiny amount of trouble believing that that you finished it in "a few hours".
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Having "insta-travel" is one of the things that killed Everquest. You completely lose any concept of the size of the world(s) when you can just click on a stone and get to where you are going. Requiring travel immerses you in the virtual world.
Travel in WoW is actually pretty reasonable. I suspect that once you have flight paths and a mount, the worst case is probably about 20 minutes to get anywhere. Which is enough to make you think about "the world" and how where you are going is related to where you are starting from, but not enough to make the game unplayable.
So you can either kill random mobs and get x experience... or you can get a quest, kill the quest mobs, and get 2*x experience (I found that the quest exp seemed to be about equal to the mob exp, but if you want to discount this to 1.5*x, feel free).
So what's the problem with doing quests?
Wrong.
You can play, in the sense that you can press the buttons. You may even know what some of the buttons do. But there are things you learn only by playing. Like when to "pre-shield" your mage, because if you wait till after the mage is hit to shield, you won't have a mage. When you can use fear w/o aggro-ing the dungeon. When to down shift and use a lesser heal to preserve mana. Etc. Yeah, a priest is easy, just press the right button... :)
Please please please mod this up as insightful!!!!! I'd do it if I had any mod points.
I've used windows... well, pretty much forever.
I wouldn't say I've never seen a BSOD, but very very rarely. I've probably seen as many kernel panics as BSODs.
I don't play much player vs player, but many years ago I got into a 3 person FFA Warcraft 2 game. It was obvious early on that the other two players were ganging up on me, but fortunately they weren't all that good. One of them was going strictly for dragons, which I love because they are easy to kill and cost a boatload of gold. So I was gradually pushed back but was still holding my own.
One of the players kept lagging and a dialog would come up asking if I wanted to boot him. After 30 minutes or so I finally decided to toss the lagger, and then proceeded to wipe out the other guy when it was even odds. Very satisfying.
or 3), their idea is some typical simplistic engineer's approach to social problems that ignores most of the realities of the situation.
Let's see, they did a great RTS, then an RTS with 3 well balanced yet completely different sides, then a hero-based RTS, then an MMO. And did them all brilliantly. Yeah, sure sounds like they don't know how to innovate.
Yeah, if you insist in hanging around the very first zone (Hellfire Penninsula) than it's crowded. Try moving out a little.
Yes, I can see that you have highly advanced social skills.
Caveat: I haven't seen the latest episode.
I agree, the Cylons were at their best when they were mysterious. We didn't know what they looked like, what their powers were, or even whether they had a hotline to God. They spoke with one voice, and as the teaser for each episode reminded us, "they have a plan".
Now they are a bunch of confused humanoids who don't know the meaning of life or what they want to do when they grow up. They argue amongst themselves. They order the mechanical cylons around like a bunch of slaves. Essentially, they ARE humans who just happen to live on a base ship.
I also listen to the RDM podcasts. One of the best ones was the writer's conference where they plot out the 2nd half of season two. It's fun to listen to, but what's really eye opening (at least for me) is that RDM and the writers don't know any more than we do about what's going on.
Is the story set in the distant past or the far future? Do the Cylons have a home world, or are they strictly based in space ships? Why did the Cylons attack? Do the human colony worlds circle a single sun, or are they scattered in space? The writers tossed these out, and no one, including RDM, had an answer. (actually, the last question RDM said that he thought that although it was astronomically unlikely, the human worlds did orbit a single sun... but he wasn't real definite on that).
So the first two seasons the story line introduced lots of questions, but no one has really thought about the answers, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. I think they've taken the easy out of making the cylon characters that we are familiar with like us. Those cylons are trying to figure out what's going on, just like we are.
I still enjoy watching the show, but it really does feel like it's starting to lose its way.
The original "The Longest Journey" game was fantastic. The best story line, best puzzles, and best dialog of any game I've ever played. Easy to play, intuitive controls.
Dreamfall controls and camera are bizarre, and the game couldn't run 5 minutes on my (relatively new) computer w/o crashing. If those two things could be fixed I suspect it would be a great game, but as it stands it really sucks.
Well, actually, shelters that feed the poor and help battered women DO take donations to support the staff and the facility. Pretty much exactly what the folks paying the Debian guys were doing... put a little money in the pot so the facility can be open. So I'm afraid you came up with an example for the other side.
It's the difference between people who want to use their car to get to where they are going, and the people who are fascinated by cars and want to spend their weekends dinking around in the engine. If you offered me a new set of sparkplugs and expected me to be delighted, you'd have a grave disappointment.
By that same logic, sitting in front of a TV beats doing anything. People aren't solely motivated by cost... there is enjoyment to consider as well.
You're right, you don't get it. If that was ALL you were doing, yeah, what fun would it be? A couple of weeks ago my guild took down Hakkar (chief boss of ZG). We had been working up to this for months, learning how to kill the sub-bosses. The final kill required intense concentration from 20 people, working together very closely, making split second decisions, talking, fighting, healing. It was an extremely intense experience. It was great fun. It was not the "sit in one place and kill the same mob over and over and over again to level" experience.
Completely different fun event: sometimes folks in IronForge just decide to hold a parade. Folks get on their horses, you jump into line and follow the guy in front of you, guy at the front walks his horse along the parade path. It sounds goofy, but it is just plain fun. Completely spontaneous, certainly never planned for by Blizzard. It's folks getting together in the a virtual world to have a good time.
So yeah, you don't get it.
Well, in ANY RPG that I've ever played, you venture out into the world and encounter situations where you have to perform some task that someone wants you to do. Other than changing WoW to be pure PvP so you are constantly battling other players instead of helping NPCs, or being a virtual storekeeper in a virtual economy (neither of these appeal to me), just what do you think you're going to do?
Yeah, mine charges way more than $50 :(
I baffled by the people who talk about the "grind" in WoW. Basically, you are continually questing... exploring new areas, seeking out some poor NPC who is stranded in a cave somewhere, finding a desperately needed cure to a rare disease... Unlike NeverQuest, where you really do spend weeks sitting in the optimal spot and killing the same mob over and over, in WoW you are pretty much always on the move. Of course, you can choose to grind... but that's your choice. You don't have to do that.
Yeah, having fun in a well designed, well maintained virtual world with great atmosphere is a real drag, I can't imagine why anyone would do that.
whups, gotta go, raid coming up...
Perl can be fun, in the sense of "guess what this random set of chars can do". If you are never going to have to maintain any code, sure, go with Perl. If you enjoy writing larger, structured, easy to maintain programs, you are better off with .Net.
.Net world that's just syntactic sugar (despite what the C# bigots would have you think).
And don't worry about VB.Net vs C#. Doesn't matter. In the
What they are betting is that the number of users who get pissed off and quit using MS Office is going to be less than the number of people who pay for it instead of pirating it. And who knows, they might be right.
Funny because I've known some really superb programmers and NONE of them committed "multiple felonies". Maybe the people you know weren't all that good?
Maybe it depends on what games you are playing. I've played a few RTS's (Warcraft 2, Starcraft, etc) and they definitely seem to be getting more complex... more units, more "rock paper scissors" stuff to keep track of, etc etc. One thing I LOVED about Warcraft 2 and Starcraft was that they introduced you to the units one or two at a time. A lot of the storyline was just learning how to play while you had fun. Nowadays it seems like there are so many units, modes, options and settings that they just take the easy way out and have a tutorial that's like sitting in 8th grade algebra... not a lot of fun.
The last time I heard about someone finishing Myst over a weekend, it turned out that the guy had a walkthru, and every time he got stuck for 15 minutes, he looked up the answer. Personally it took me a couple of months, playing off and on, to solve it. So I have just a tiny amount of trouble believing that that you finished it in "a few hours".