You are basically the essence of the earth awaking from slumber who sees a desolate world you want to change. The game is focused on a 2D map of the world, it is round rather than flat like 2d is usually(which is a nice touch) but very easy to navigate. You can zoom out to see the whole map and then in to a single area. You can also scroll the world and watch everything roll by.  To aid you 4 gods are created that you are able to control who specialize on Terra-forming a certain aspect of the world.

There are different planes to this 2d view which gives the world a kind of depth and greater detail. It has a really quite lush look to the scenery, the gods each walk on their plane, and even when towns are developing they utilise the space differently. All actions though will be focused on this one view type and affect the entire tile. This may sound simple for a god game but it makes it feel more inviting and hides the complexity of the mechanics.

There are 5 main terrain types to work with: ocean, forest, swamp, desert and mountains. Oceans and mountains are kind of the foundations, oceans provide surrounding land with water that can then built into forests or swamps, and mountains cause deserts to form on the side away from water.

Now to populate the world you have the ability to create 2 different types of plants, animals, and minerals. The interesting part though is that what resource type spawns depends on the terrain type, a basic plant may result in a bush of berries in the forest but a cactus type plant in the desert. It’s a nice touch in a way as it not only adds a little depth but makes the world feel more real.

But wait there’s more.

Each of these resources will also have a certain type of symbiosis with other resources, and if it is nearby you will get special bonuses to what it produces. Then if you feel like it you may also upgrade these particular resources which evolve into a new species, they usually become more specialised and better producers by doing it but the evolution can also change what their symbiosis will be. This creates a very active sense of play as you are constantly calculating benefits, upgrading items and then adapting the terrain to match.

The gods you have control over are the ones who do much of the work with planting and upgrading, each having their own specialisation as well as skills to upgrade resources with. There are a decent number of skills that can change they way resource types act and produce immensely. Skills to make better herd animals, or maybe to change that same animal into a dangerous predator. Also even when upgrading depending on the terrain once again may determine which upgrade skill is needed; the mineral deposits change a lot in this regard.

It is a complex network of resources types and their upgrade paths that make the game challenging in a way but also rewarding when you get it right. In the beginnings much of it isn’t really required but as you progress these become a necessity. I feel I need to get home and make a neat little notepad page with all this information just so I have it close at hand. With the way the ui is designed, and the ease of information gathering these aren’t hard concepts but at first it is a lot to memorise.

Now it isn’t just about populating a world for the sake of it. What you will find is that nomads will set up towns where they want and then use these resources to grow their villages. The three types of resources they use are food, technology, and wealth and depending on the town, and what was there when it settled is usually what it will need to grow further. In terms of control over these towns and the people it is really quite limited. You can’t give them orders or dictate how and where they grow, this all depends on how you develop the world around them.

They have a sense of free will in a way. They use things how they want and if they are well provided for the town will grow but quite a bit of your micromanagement will revolve around them and molding this growth. At certain stages of growth they will enact projects that require a certain amount of the 3 resource types to be used, complete this and they gift you an ambassador that may grant your gods specific, or more powerful skills to upgrade resources further.

There is a balancing act in growth though, provide too much and too quickly and the town can quickly become very greedy and feel the need to invade its neighbours, stop developing the area and they may even get aggressive towards you. You can of course punish them, or destroy the entire town if that happens but usually you’d rather not. This can be mitigated rather easily by just spacing out you improvements better between the town’s, or by using other methods such as creating danger within their city space with the use of dangerous predators, or creating a certain symbiosis between resource types that creates awe.

This all seems like a lot to remember and evaluate at first but the game has a remarkable sort of extended tutorial that eases you into the game and gradually introduces new, and more complex mechanics. After the tutorial you progress through the game by completing certain achievements. Some will be easy, some hard, and some may require you to specialise certain cities. These achievements are there to encourage the use of certain resources and really gain a thorough grasp of the mechanics.

The achievements are all placed within a certain category called an age, the beginning age’s having rather easy tasks and the later complex. As you complete certain achievements you also begin to unlock new animal, plant, and mineral upgrade types to aid you at completing the harder achievements. Then, once you complete all the achievements in the age you then unlock the next game mode, it usually gives a longer amount of play time which in turn allows you more time to upgrade the world and grow bigger more advanced towns.

The locking of the game modes behind the achievements of an age may seem limiting but it’s more a way easing people into the mechanics rather than just overloading. You can still complete achievements from an above age without having unlocked it so it isn’t too restricting, it is more just limiting people within the achievable. I have never felt stressed playing but after each game I feel like I’m progressing further in the game. It’s a gradual growth of skills and power that makes keep striving forward and creating greater and more complex world’s.

Reus is on sale for 10% off at many of the big online retailers untill the 24th and I would thoroughly recommend picking it up. It’s cheap, it has some interesting gameplay, aaaand it’s oh so cute.

And I loved all those old hand drawn games and movies, it is a style of creation that really exudes a lot of personality pity though that the game really doesn’t deserve to be compared to those classics.

Playing Deponia, the major thing I keep thinking is if nostalgia has some how taken over in my recollection of past experiences in games like Monkey Island and Myst (along with many others) and somehow they were all bad in terms of gameplay, maybe this is just a bad interpretation of those earlier classics. Or just maybe somehow during this last decade of games and their continued developmental towards ease of use and play that games that do add a certain challenge and require more thought make me more frustrated than I used to get.

I tend to think that it is because of it’s poor, and very rigid  interpretation of these old adventure game mechanics leads to a rather frustrating affair. Usually there is a certain amount of frustration in adventure games, certain complex points that urge you to strive for more due to wanting to see more of the game world, the characters, and story but here I really didn’t care too much.

The world feels a little limited to me but at the same time waaay to busy. Most of the game takes place within the same limited space, the ramshackle town of Deponiaa, a place pieced together from old pieces of trash. Even though it seems like a nice concept, and that the entire town gives off some sort of steampunk type design it is entirely unremarkable. There is some much going on in the background that nothing stands out, everything is a distraction against the overall aesthetic and to points of interest.

The characters are rather unloveable as well. You never really feel connected at all to the main character and his situation as he seems more of a characterization of a certain persona rather than someone who has any depth. He is an egotistical, spoilt, delusional pig of a man – it isn’t enough to hate the person enough that you delight in his failures… you just don’t care. You don’t care if he succeeds or fails, what he has to say or his input in the situation. I honestly don’t care enough that I just stopped playing after a while.

All the characters seem rather unremarkable beings, exuding a sense of peculiarity and.. weirdness but there isn’t contrast between their eccentricities and anything resembling human feelings or emotions that allows you to relate to them at all… actually scratch that, the robot in the post office who loves bubble wrap is amazing since you see a difference between the a rule bound robot and then joy. They rest though appears like the writers have tried way to hard to make some sort of wacky humorous affair and ended up with something that comes off like a childish caricature of ridiculously overdone stereotypes.

And then there is the mechanics. There is an abundance of adventure game reasoning here in the way you use and combine items, often times which really make no sense or is not explained well enough. For a lot of times the solution to a problem will be explained by certain npc’s in conversation, which is a very long-winded affair. Many times though there is no guidance on how to use things or about where to go next, it’s just frustrating trial and error.

I know I have become far less tolerant towards complex puzzle solving due to the internet age, most times when using a walkthrough at certain points though I didn’t even feel guilty like I usually do for using them. I have liked many adventure games lately, this not so much as it has primarily abused the worst mechanics of adventure games without any sort of modernisation of them.

Frustration without the fun

What spurned this on is the recent post from black lion profit who once again opened a considerable number of the new chests.. For science. And once again the emphatic response regarding these is don’t bother, save your gold and good God put your wallet back down.

Let’s look at what he got… 1 token for a new weapon skin, an axe skin (recycled), a couple of armor skins (ugly as all  sin) and an abundance of readily available and quite useless crafting items. Oh, don’t forget the amazing boost items. Also remember that all of this is character bound after you use it and the whole transmutation system makes changing anything a rather frustrating affair. Gold was used in this example as a way of gaining gems but if they had used real world currency it would have cost them over 70$.

You would think by now they may have gotten a little better at the reward to crap ratio in these, and while it’s improved slightly it’s still rather disgusting. The only major changes I’ve seen to these is how they are handed out and the improved naming of the chest. It all seems to me like some giant money-making experiment where they are trying to make the absolute most profit from people. Who cares if it really isn’t very ethical, annoys a large chunk of players, and is the worst way to run a long-term enterprise because MONEY.

I support Liore’s recent post about the problems with running an mmo without a subscription. It invariable leads to developers caring more about ways to make money rather than actual gameplay. It’s not just her though proclaiming the dangers of the model lately it’s many, many others.

Games need to make money, that’s a given but the shift in content development and implementation is a dramatic shift. A shift that isn’t a very positive for players in most circumstances. As Wilhelm points out recently it is a development approach that no longer takes into account the broader playerbase but focuses on the smaller market that is funding them…. it becomes a focus away from gameplay and towards selling things to this market: creating new items to sell and new ways to sell them.

I have seen this sort of approach in the development of GW2 with the new events each month being tied to new cash shop items or mechanics  There nearly always seem to be some rng element in them, predominately lockboxes…. Lockboxes that are filled with the same old crap and terrible probability. The events are really the only way they could market these and still conceal their nature. When they used the standard black lion boxes for the Halloween event there was a mini player revolt, yet they just re-skinned it and the issues subsided. They of course make money, that is obvious and probably more money than any other model but it is an approach that alienates a large percentage.

Another reason I think the probability on items is so low is because of the gold to gem exchange. For their business to actually succeed in its buy to play approach they need to make money from these cash shop items. They obviously expect people to use their gold often enough and are aware of the current popular methods of making money and so they inflate the price to compensate. It is designed to take out  large chunks from the market so enough people do have to resort to cash but then this of course affects any real world comparison.

They can’t just make it easy for people to achieve these items with gold and the probability is made so low that only the most hardened of farmers could achieve such things.. which in the end also makes it out of reach to any customers willing to buy them. I’ve been through the comments section on many of these post about lockboxes and there are a lot of examples of people buying around 10 keys with real money, a decent amount really and getting absolutely nothing so obviously this isn’t a system designed for the average consumer. I loved how they implemented these weapon skins during the Wintersday even, the gambling boxes were still there but people could buy these for an inflated cost. Obviously going by the market research they made less money from it, and so here we are again with new items being hidden behind rng with appalling probability.

Wilhelm also had one particular phrase in his article that felt very similar to my experiences now

…the initial experience can be quite positive.  But over time, it seems like another race to the lowest common denominator, that cash shop focus becomes cash shop mania.

At first the experience in GW2 was great, the only things to worry about were one time pieces of convenience but this has slowly changed into something unrecognisable. I expected the approach to change a little as you can’t sell convenience forever but the predominance of lock boxes is a bit unnerving. And now, after 8 months it seems Anet is indeed pandering to the lowest common denominator with certain items in their cash shop.

Tits and Ass, something I never thought would be blatantly sold but here it is. Even with their rather dubious approach towards selling a chance at costume pieces I didn’t think we would reach the standards of games like Tera.

So after all this Anet, I solemnly swear never to purchase a single upgrade, boost, cosmetic, key, or any other item from your ridiculous cash shop. I no longer support your dubious lock box enterprise and deplorable ethical (and social) practices. Even though I felt a little dirty about purchasing things in the past I didn’t think I was going to actively regret doing it.. now.. I’m not so sure.

I know this is all a very emotional response to certain business practices in standard but as others have pointed out our relationships with our games and the companies that run them are primarily bases on our opinions and emotions. I still like the game.. admittedly less and less as game areas of my interest see less and less content and changes as they simple aren’t as easily monetized but I will continue to play nonetheless.. at least only until the next shiny comes along.

There are many MANY other games out there now and being free isn’t the major selling point it used to be. Somehow though, by miracle or design, they have actually pulled together a decent mmo(ish) experience.

ok..so this turned out way longer then I intended again. So much for a short concise post.

 

Combat

The combat feels rather decent considering a few of the game eccentricities. For starters, Neverwinter has ignored the modern-day approach towards constant movement and has certain animation locks on skills.. Some that can be cancelled, others that can’t. While this did annoy me at first coming from Guild Wars 2 I got used to it rather quickly. Because of this, and with the restricted skill bar it kind of feels like if GW2 and Tera had a baby.

Both of those respective games have very different yet polished combat styles. Tera works well with the movement locks as it has many skills for a particular occasion and the selective movement abilities work since all monsters have animation tells on skills. GW2 works with a limited skill selection because your focused more on movement (or should be) and they want players to be more active on combat rather than there skills. You would think then that a game like Neverwinter, which really doesn’t get the feel right from either wouldn’t play well but surprisingly it does.

Combat is rather fast as your dodging many rather well (if simple) choreographed damage skills and generally with trying to manouvre yourself into place. Each class seems to have their own distinct movement skill as well which really suits it’s playstyle… my wizard was teleporting around and the greatswaord fighter a sprint tool. The skills are rather tactile with some excellent effects suited to its class.. My barbarian was smashing earth and the wizard controlled the elements. To me the skills, with their restricted timer can be rather strategic, some are just do as much damage while others are more situational.

So far the combat situations though are rather generic.. Groups of mobs with a mix of range and melee and often a certain elite enemy. They have taken on that rather terrible trope of just standing around with nothing to do which is very noticeable at times, for instance on encounter was in a burning building yet everyone in there was content being slowly asphyxiated while waiting for.. Me apparently. I could have just gone to the pub and had a pint while waiting for them to die and gathered my reward from their corpses later. Usually becasue of this it will be you initiating the fight in the way choose which makes them feel far less dynamic.

Sometimes it does get a bit more interesting with ambushes and such which are rather interesting to work around but so far most fights feel way to similar. I’m still sub 20 so this may change later.

Customisation

The customisation isn’t too extensive but it seems enough that each class has a few different playstyles they can do. There are many skills to choose from as you level, many which focus on key class mechanics. The design makes you want to try and fill out a perfect deck to utilise this specialisation properly. Then at level 10 you unlock the specialty of your class to increase a certain aspect, for my wizard I aimed for better control effects over damage.

I really don’t know what to compare this system to as it is once again a mash-up of a few but it looks interesting, allows for Min maxing, and is just a nice way to differentiate yourself from others.

Questing

Kill, collect, protect is all you will be doing once again, unfortunately the way the have presented these to make it interesting and give some agency are rather poor. Some of the npc actions and cut-scenes are hilariously bad too..b grade horror bad acting and scenes. I have already skipped many of these quest briefings because they just aren’t appealing due to their very low production values.

The world you quest in is very instanced. There will be a main map for the zone which you come back to accept and complete missions in, as well as a few side missions but a lot of the quests will be taking you into various other locations in the zone. Luckily though these little instanced areas are really well designed, often enough with thus sort of design it’s just a way to be lazy and recycle content and themes and while some areas may be similar here the are all great to explore.

These instanced places are like mini little dungeon delvings’, just like Dungeons and Dragons should be and they can be rather extensive. The look and feel of then are excellent with great detail. With the different environments they have and they you will constantly be exploring it creates a nice change of pace from the overarching zone design so you don’t get bored of any one theme.

I like the traps you sometimes find in these too and hope the expand on them in later missions to add a bit more diversity as they make you be more conscious of your surroundings. The only bit I really want them to improve on is promoting some different playstyles in these instances as so far it’s just kill kill, it just needs some stealthy sections, or even puzzle points to think over.
I really want to say something though…a glowing path to quest points…seriously? I don’t know whether they think we are all imbeciles  and feel insulted or if they were just trying to make questing require as little thought as possible but whatever its reason it is perpetuating the overarching development trend of dumbing down mmo’s (and games in general), and I don’t like it. Do we really need this? I know it can be turned off but still, you should be trying to engage your players not just funnel them down a linear path. You need to capture people in the lovely environments not having them act like zombies from point to point.. then when done straight off to the next game.

Skirmishes

These are great short bursts of high action, lots of mobs with one or two bosses that get completed within 10-20 minutes. The setting seems to be the zone map and aim to tie in a few points of the story and lore of these areas. It isn’t some sort of long winded affair that the questing usually is, just experience the real troubles first hand. They get handed out as well with normal quests although I’m guessing they are optional but they really are a nice distraction from the standard questing and are a fun experience.

Dungeons

Dungeons are exactly what you would expect to them to be. Lots of trash mobs in between a few key boss characters. They are the linear kind but have a nice aesthetic design that changes slowly as you progress, the design makes the experience interesting as there are always some new visuals and the linear aspect keeps the party moving so the action never stops. Same monsters you are used to on the map with just a lot more elite ones with simplistic mechanics and attacks which once again makes it kind of boring and requiring little thought.

The only one I’ve done so far, the clock tower, was incredibly easy for the group. No one died or went down and we all just kept playing through. The mechanics to the bosses were incredibly simplistic, kill the adds, dodge the red stuff,????, profit. Even for a beginners dungeon it was easy. Did I have fun… I have no idea.

I think this is because, even though Neverwinter has a trinity system the dungeons aren’t specifically made for them. Our party composed of 3 rogues and 2 wizards.. Hardly a well constructed group but we did it easily because the main attacks were telegraphed with ample time to avoid. You have a lot of movement abilities ti use although often enough just strafing around will be enough, and if not you can chug health potions like they’re water.

It was a little chaotic at points, and it wasn’t very strategic but it was fun? to do, I pew pewed a lot and it felt fun but looking back in retrospect it seemed a rather souless affair. It was an introductory experience so this might be part of it. So far I think the dungeon and skirmish finder doesn’t seem to make a standard group on purpose so maybe all these encounters will be more flexible. This could be a great thing for getting people in and trying these, or it could be a terrible experience like GW2, or it could just be boring if the don’t get the challenge right.

PvP

The early brackets are kind of fun with everyone just screwing around and not being too serious. Skills are a bit restricted still so there is little variation in the fights. Damage seems like it is scaled really well at the moment, death is more meaningful as there aren’t any one shot kills or anything close to that. You play rather strategic because of this, coming in and out of combat accordingly,  trying to find the right moment to use your skills.

The map was a bit small and simple but going by some other viewings the appear to get more complex with various paths and overhangs. Based on a capture the flag type mechanic , very similar to gw2 conquest with little variation on this mode. Not sure if there are any other different types.

It’s all not very serious and more the token experience developers tend to add but kinda fun nonetheless.

Foundry

From what I’ve seen it actually it offers everything that Cryptic could not. They have some nice lore pieces, well written dialogue, nice stories to follow along with. There is also a wide variation on many different mechanics to fill in the gaps that the developers either haven’t or can’t make due to certain restraints such as missions for different group sizes and difficulty, structured content for many, continuation by a few of the people developing them, and they seem to accommodate many different playstyles as well. There are those that are all action and then some that are more focused on the situation and the people. It is impossible for Cryptic to create something for everyone, questing has been mostly designed to accommodate solo players and this gives a lot more options and hopefully a lot of replayability for long term players.

The way it has all been set up is well designed. they are very easy to find out in the world. The npc and the notice board are in each zone and display the specific mission centered there. They are very easy to navigate and there is a lot of information usually on them to make an informed decision in regards to what sort of gameplay your after. Getting into them is really easy as well, enable the mission from these spots or even use the pop up menu system and then follow the bright glowing markers.

So far I don’t think they have implemented the creation tools very well yet, a lot of what you may want in terms of complexity in the environment and character tools is really limited.. there is a nice selection but not enough. It really needs to be expanded on further so people can tell their tale appropriately. it’s a nice start, and some of the creations that are coming out of it are good but it can be soo much more. It is also not very polished yet either, a few things like npc’s in particular are very buggy and not very user friendly.

Crafting

I’m not sure about the implementation so far.. love how they have integrated an out of game application into it, a lot of games are trying to do this and it’s a great way to get people continuously thinking and engaged in your game. Even how you hire minions to craft for you seems like an interesting take as mos people don’t want to be standing over a crafting table for hours. It adds a decent utility to the experience, I think it could be meaningful as gear drops don’t seem to happen very often when questing so it’s good to pick up and use from the start . I like to actually craft over a bench when it is meaningful and even though you aren’t actually crafting it I guess this is progress, if in a different direction.

The experience gain through it though seems good so far and you don’t have to create an abundance of useless items.. having it so you can craft ingredients needed and still gain experience for crafting and your character is great. It’s hard to tell how important crafting will be as you level further and reach cap though but so far I think it can and should be done as your leveling which a rather good recommendation.

Gathering has been designed as part of the class mechanics in a way. There will be many gathering points out in the world and in the instances and each class has the ability to gather from one of these without any tools, if you want to get all of them you can buy kits from the merchants but they seem rather expensive during the earlier levels so you will be mainly only gathering the one type. They are actually rather hard to find at times requiring some exploration and a keen eye as they don’t show up on the mini-map but because of this I actually get excited when I do find them. They don’t contain anything too important I think but they do add a nice little side project for people and a reward for those who like to explore.

Cash shop

I have to admit I never really looked much into it, it doesn’t seem too important although having a mount and a mercenary straight away seems like it is a nice bonus as you have to wait many levels otherwise, and with great cost. I am still laughing at the people who spent 200$ though… Seriosly.. two..hundred dollars for a ftp game, I don’t even spend that much on a sub or btp mmo and so far I haven’t really even worried about it. A lot of cosmetics are purchasable, as well as a few gameplay tools like mounts, pets, mercenaries and such. You can transfer a different currency earned through play to this currency to buy things but I believe the conversion rate is rather appalling. If I get more immersed in the experience I might buy a couple things to support the game.

Is it a little Pay to win…kinda. You can buy nice gear, decent stats and all that with the astral diamonds.. earnable through play but far easier to gain by paying however I don’t see that as being really important when it is primarily just for PvE. Who really cares in the end if your survivability and damage is better than anyone else, you’re not getting rewarded more because of it and it only shortens the lifespan of the game for that person.

The Feel

The world looks great from what I’ve seen so far, the maps look amazing, have some interesting set-pieces and backdrops, and everything is very cohesive. Everything about the world and the many instances make you want to explore it to see more, breathtaking visuals at every turn and it really does well to promote your immersion. The character creation options are rather decent but there is something about these characters that puts them right in the middle of uncanny valley… fugly weird little things they are. I can kind of forgive this though as from what I’ve seen the armor design is rather nice, my plate mail warrior and light robe wizard were wearing appropriate clothing for the occasion. The heavy armor has the better detail and design but it’s nice wearing pants as a wizard.

I know many people have already declared that Neverwinter is in no way true to the PnP versions with its combat and design but to me, a less than geeky gamer who really hasn’t tried much pnp beyond a few campaigns of cyberpunk, it felt like dungeons and dragons should. The class designs and group functioning work well, the action mechanics aren’t over the top, and the many little instances you go into are like delving into separate self-contained instances like you would expect. In this aspect it kind of reminds me of a more mmo version of Dungeons and Dragons online, DDO has more parallels to Diablo in its style and Neverwinter more mmo’s with its third person view and mechanics.

I especially thought the little cut-scenes displaying the names for bosses where really cute and a nice touch, they made these events more special then they could have been just based on combat.

Even the barrels and boxes that roll around when you collide with them are awesome. There is just so much in Neverwinter that screams out its PnP background regardless of its non-adherence to official 4e rules and regulations. It downplays a lot of the dice rolling that goes on, and for an mmo in this day and age I really think that’s a good thing as I like a lot more predictability in my skills and combat. I want to know how my skills work without randomness getting in the way.

So yes, I take back my previous comments and tweets regarding this game as I eventually did play it and I am enjoying it. It isn’t a very compelling game, it isn’t even particularly deep, it has a few funky lag and polish issues, and it has a lot of parts of it underdeveloped but it’s fun for random gameplay now and then..and its free, like actually free with restrictions that really don’t hinder your experience.

I would have to say my mmo infatuation started with rift.. there were many before that but Rift was the one which really sucked up a lot of my time and brought me to the mmo promised land. It is not an amazing mmo, but it was enough to captivate me for a long time. Looking back on it all one thing that actually promoted my enjoyment and immersion was just how simple it was to play. Just pay that monthly fee, which in the end you usually forget about. I wasn’t having to worry about all these different types of currency, pay walls and restrictions, lockboxe’s, and stupid mechanics being put in solely as a way of getting people to spend money. I just had to play.

I like how everything in the game was accessible with time because  in the end, an mmo is meant to be a time investment. I’m not talking about the overabundance of dailies and such as they are a cheap mechanic to expand content but just how my investment in the game is rewarded. Many mmo’s now are tying in the game currency with the real money cash shops so that core players can gain such items without resorting to real money  however the average, and even above average player in terms of time would never be able to play enough to gain what they want through this method as there are always some arbitrary costs. With a subscription I can focus on a particular area to attain specific rewards that I want but with ftp it is often repeating the same mundane tasks. In Gw2 it’s all about running the same dungeon..over and over, or if you have the mental acumen playing the Trading post (which really isn’t playing at all).

Even when they do have this method of payment it still feels like there are too many restrictions and that too much content and customization is locked behind this pay wall. Day to-day frustrations seem like that are a part of the model, sometimes I think this is why WoW is often so popular with casuals as the subscription model just made it soo much easier to play and avoid this unnecessary frustrations.

hmmm…Although in subscription games the frustrations seem to be based on spending more time than more money.. which is better or is there a better way?

The other thing I think is that when it comes to a subscriptions if someone isn’t enjoying the game it seems easier for them to just stop paying and playing. That monetary cost to fun factor analysis is relatively easy and simple to make but ftp has created this weird new feeling of just putting up with the bad/terrible times and mechanics since it’s free. Like somehow being free negates the bad..I don’t think so. Star Wars wasn’t a very good game with a subscription and it’s worse now with all these new restrictions yet somehow it’s become popular again though so I’m probably just an outlier on this.

It is still very much a learning experience for many of these developers but so far it seems that the demands of making a large profit (greed  at times) are dramatically outweighing any sort of consideration for the players experience. I like Free to play sometimes. It can and has been done well but I feel much more comfortable in games paying a subscription, it just feels… easier.

It’s EA too, so maybe just do your superstitious dance to ward off the evil eye…I’m doing mine right now.

Also, for the record, the roots of command and conquer was TIBERIUM you fools and amazing armory and defense options not real world parallels.

Oh, and you can sign up for the Beta now it seems…could you before? or was that for that failed ftp mmoesque one.

The newbie blogger event came and went and not soon after I thought, “I could do this”… “no, I want to do this”. And so Healing the masses was born and, like with most big events I missed it by that much. Oh well. Weeks went by, than months and surprisingly I was still writing and enjoying even more than when I started as I am sure many are now as a result of the Newbie Blogger Initiative. Matticus had a wonderful suggestion in the previous newbie blogger post about maybe getting people to talk about their experiences during their first year of blogging and I think this really is a wonderful idea to keep expanding on the newbie blogger idea.

It has been a wonderful time for me during this year; writing and being creative, talking and debating with other bloggers out there… maybe not a much as some as not as out going but it’s nice anyway. I’m sure many newbie bloggers are feeling this exact way, amazed and proud regarding their achievements, for putting thoughts to electronic paper and showing the world a little piece of who they are and excited about what the future holds. It is an endearing and rewarding hobby that we should keep promoting to those like-minded people out there waiting to blog but just needing that extra little bit of reassurance. So for those that took part see if you can scrounge up some tips, hints, stories, anything really relating to this first exciting year of writing incoherent ramblings. I’m sure everyone that took part has learned a lot from the experience over the year and there is probably many others out there thinking about starting one that could gain a lot from these tales.

A couple of things I’ve learned over the year is to really try to be myself. Yes not so enlightened, and you’ve probably heard that countless times but it gets repeated for a reason. Initially you may find yourself trying to write like one of your favourite sites, same style, same content but that really is a way to lose you passion. Don’t try to be what you think your readers want, or what will make you popular just do what you like and really be happy with how your work turns out. It will take a while to find your voice, a voice your comfortable with and it will probably be a learning experience for some time. I still don’t think I’m exactly happy yet but it’s getting there I hope.

I’ve tried to be a bit more regularly with my game playing and writing instead of just doing whatever.. whenever like I was. I’m still rather prone forgetfulness and have a lack of attention but it is one thing I needed to do. That may not be you, you might have an entirely different rhythm, you might be more or less structured, or you may just give into your base urges for wandering digital worlds…whatever it is is fine. Post as you like and with as much frequency as you feel your able to.

I have also learnt that I’m still terrible at grammar..but that’s ok as well, not every opinion piece must be a grammatical masterpiece of prose and punctuation  What was more important to me at times was just getting my thoughts down and having the internal dialogue “is that good enough”, if my main message is there then usually it will be immediately published. I go back often enough to change things from time to time if I notice a mistake but I am trying more to get it right but now. Don’t worry and over think it too much. People read blogs often enough knowing that they are going to be a lot rawer in terms of editing then a professional site but stay for the interesting opinions, pictures, visuals, inane ramblings…whatever really that they may not get from elsewhere.

The funny thing is that even with my tenuous editing system I still have so many ideas and thoughts jotted down they may or may not become posts. Even if most of these I recognize as in nane ramblings of a diluted gamer once you open that floodgate it is hard to stop. If this is the case I highly recommend getting a notebook to carrying along with you, brilliance and stupidity often strikes at the oddest times…and both are equally amusing to readers.

But the thing is, none of what I’ve just said or is yet to come may relate to anyone else starting to blog. We are all special little snowflakes, and no that’s not something that’s meant to come off all warm and fuzzy but just a statement that all blogs, their content, writing styles, networking, posting schedule and such all make an individuals blogging kind of unique to them. There is no right path, only your path. Just go with the flow and learn as you go ..(haha that rhymed)

I hope that may help some, and hopefully there will be a few more bits to look forward to. It really is a tradition that I would like to see continue, and regardless of having an official site or event I think I can say that most out there would be very supportive of new bloggers coming in. For traffic, referrals and advice there is a large and friendly community waiting if you need it.

I’ll see if I can comment on most of the new blogs to make them aware but would also appreciate an RT (ooooh, fancy twitter term for me..)

Oh and Thank you to Rav for our brand new badge of honour for the older, and maybe wiser Newbie Bloggers

For Firefall, there is already a decent selection to choose from as seems to be the case with most games that open themselves up to modders. There is no official support but even the developers have recognized the wonderful things the community is creating and how they are improving much of the functionality. They may require an update or two in-between major game updates but Red 5 have been very open with a lot of their code so it is very easy for people to create them.

One tool you should grab first is called Melder, it is an addon manager specifically tailored to Firefall that well… manages much of the installation and organisation of your mods. There are others you could use, or you could even do it the old fashion way by copy and pasting into folders but this program really simplifies it.

It’s an exe that you run whenever you want to add or change these addons which needs no installation, you can even start the client from it. Adding any mods or addons is done by simply adding the whole zip folder (don’t unpack) into the folder Melder has the option for. They will then show up on the main screen and are activated simply by checking the box on the side. I had a couple initial problems with it, namely that I wasn’t putting the whole zip in and a weird bug where the check box wasn’t showing up but it has been working well for some time now.

There are a lot of great add ones to try to use. The ones I have loaded at the moment are

• Crafting ui -A re-organisation of the crafting menu

• User Waypoints – usually you can only create one but this let’s you add numerous waypoints on the map as well as connecting these together.

• Surveyor – this program tracks and keeps all your scan hammer results so the remain easy to view in the map. A must have addon to keep track of locations.

• World Alert – i really enjoy joining in with the events, and defending the POI’s will be even more important now with the added energy system. This program keeps track of the entire zone rather than those just close by.

• Coordinates – shows up coordinates on the minimap… x, y, and the option for z. Good for noting interesting points on the map during screenshots or for relaying co-ordinates to others.

For the new player I might also recommend the glider addon that shows the optimal angle for a long smooth flight, eventually you get the hang of it but at the start it would be helpful. The other I may be trying out is the mod that gives the engineer females pants because ass cheeks aren’t for everyone. There are a lot more suited to just about every player so check out the forums for an updated list that seems to be getting longer every week.

Also one youtuber has started creating some great videos that go over some of the more comprehensive UI changing mods. They offer an excellent guide on what they look like and the functionality changes of these for anyone interested, some of these can be rather different as well so it might be worth taking a peek at these.

So if you’re giving Firefall a go or are a long time player i thoroughly recommend taking the plunge into addons to improve your play, functionality and the general experience. Maybe try making one yourself, the forums are rather friendly and there are many people who can and will give advice if you ever want to.

The box is there. They have many of the mechanics down that would make a decent sandbox game. It has a large world with many secrets spots and items of value that make you want to explore. There is a remarkable in-depth and complex crafting system that enables everything from gear, weapons and food. The focus away from the predominance of gear, ffa nature of combat, and decay on items has created an excellent economy that I believe will remain active and useful for the games life span.

Lastly and more importantly it has a free-form system of character progression, the ability to switch and progress how you please. The feat system is amazing for this because of how it rewards the gameplay and let’s players develop as they want but also how it offers a well made and customisable guide on what to do and how to progress for people who need it. Most sanbox’s miss this and to their detriment as starting off and gaining goals can be rather overwhelming for many.

But where is the sand. You craft gear, but due to its transient nature it really doesn’t have much importance, run around in the starter gear for you first 20+ hours and it really wouldn’t matter. You can maximise your points but attaining a decent build will happen in due time. There is a housing system that’s rather basic but unless housing is tied to far more important than a portal it seems meaningless as well. Taking over and destroying other people’s buildings and towns seems as meaningless as keep taking in gw2… Not to say it can’t be fun but it really isn’t a mechanic that has any depth.

Territory fights seem a little meaningless as you’re not really fighting to protect anything of value, most stuff seems to only have a time factor attached and the areas you fight over seem relatively similar in regards to resources. It’s never the only spawn, or node and there are many other places available to build on. The system also doesn’t really support large clan battles very well, mechanics and engine seem to limit it plus there is once again no real point to these battles other then bloodshed.

There is just very little world building and world-changing involved in… well anything and that seems like a key part for a Sandbox. In the end what happens in Darkfall is pretty much what I imagine would occur at my kindy if you took away the sand from the sandpit – the kids would just go around whacking each other with shovels.

Any Sand in here?

Most of the power leveling playerbase has just devolved into this pointless ganking so if all you have is random pvp fights and gank stories to look forward to what’s the point. Because of this I really see no reason to gear up, or acquire wealth… or play. There are a lot of polished games out there to get that same experience.. Hell I was ganking people in rift many eons ago, the combat in Tera made ganking and defending oneself thoroughly enjoyable in the open world, and then there are countless others.

Thus ends my play in Darkfall as, Like Azuriel of In An Age said, “it’s just not my thing.”

In the end I opted not to buy and be involved with the game, it has a lot going for it and is a fun experience but, like with a lot of games it comes to decision based on time and  unfortunately Defiance lost out to other games. The surprising bit though is that  am still very much enjoying watching the T’V show and regardless of whether you play the game it stands very well on its on. This is a testament to how well they have developed and structured both in regards to the story being presented and the characters that are a part of it.

It would have been a very hard balance to attain; just enough crossover between the two that it enriches the experience of both and has you learning new bits of information but not to have people feeling left out or confused based on missing key bits of information. They both stand very well on their own and regardless of what happens I think either could theoretically function well on its own, I hope too that they both can continue and see where Trion wants to take them both.

The new promotional activities beginning soon/now(?) are a nice start to tying in the two types, this is the part people were really excited about in regards to the original idea for the game and show and it’s great to see this finally coming through. Having people be engaged in Ark Hunting to win this prize was a great idea as it was really emphasizes one of the main mechanics of Defiance (arkfalls) and highlights the multi-player aspects. It seems like a rather basic way to bring in a person’s character and considering the limited nature of the character creator they probably have a lot of the basic CGI stuff worked out already but it is still a rather uplifting thing for the community right now.

It is just the beginning in many regards and it does make you imagine what is going to be next, how else can they tie in the players characters in new, interesting, and meaningful ways.

The other thing I really like about separation between game and T.V and Game is how this gives them a lot more options on how to tell a story. MMO’s are often an inadequate tool for telling a story, they often borrow too heavily on the techniques of single player games and movies and too much of it can either impede or intrude on the players gameplay.

So far Defiance has done this right in both parts, the game, while having a few cut-scenes focus’ more on the player actions and the T.V is a focused tale of the world. Having the Show makes the gameplay feel far less clustered as it gives them a better alternative for story-telling; the visuals, environments and limited story scenes are enough to orientate someone to the world and this way the game doesn’t have to be bogged down in exposition. It’s a hard line though in many ways as they can’t rely on the TV show too much as you need at least some direction of the story to orientate and avoid confusion, and you would not understand the characters if not enough is said or explained.

Defiance has done this reasonably well. The story in both modes feels separate as both could be rather self-contained, which is good considering the turbulent nature of both media types. There is enough though that they also feel connected, you gain more from enjoying both which is very clever marketing as I’m sure both types are getting more viewers/players then if they had done it alone. The one part I think needs improving at the moment is that the characters in the game feel rather shallow with a set stereotypical personality that rarely develops much. There has been some decent growth in the characters in the show and it would be nice for people playing if this also translated in-game with cross over characters and those just centralised in San Fransisco.

Other than that, so far both have been well-developed and I’m looking forward to watching them both develop in tandem as well as in their own ways…I may even grab the game at a later date.