On the Subject of Online Shopping

Catherine Bell

What is it with online shops stating that things are in stock and will ship in 24 hours, and then when you order they decide it's actually out of stock and will take 2-3 weeks. Twice I've tried to order a bloody monitor and had that happen this week alone.
Yeah, I know it's nothing to do with gaming. Just imagine some rant about idiot MMO zealots here, there'll probably be another one along soon. Meanwhile I'll try to find some more totty to fill the space.

On the Subject of Beta Testing

Alyssa Milano

You know, I hate the way MMO "betas" are now commonly regarded as some sort of head start for the grind monkeys*, and some sort of badge of honour on forums. "I've been in the game since beta", usually accompanying a "why has this game become carebear" whine-fest or "therefore I understand the game better than you" retort.
Beta testing used to be about testing the game systems for the developers so that as many bugs as possible can be worked out, or gameplay issues resolved. Now it's all about players having the opportunity to learn the game systems as early as possible so that they can identify and master any weaknesses or exploits and level more efficiently or make more money sooner than everyone else once the game goes live. Not to mention that despite beta tests that can last for years, many games are released with an astonishing array of bugs or poorly-designed mechanics. Probably because the "testers" are too busy trying to get one up on the opposition to actually provide any useful, constructive feedback.
When I provide one of my well-informed, insightful commentaries into the current state of MMO gaming I might occasionally suggest how I would deal with the situation if I were to design my own ideal MMO. Because I do spend a great deal of time pondering the subject.
This is one of those occasions. In my ideal MMO I would have the (open or closed) public beta test take place on some sort of cut-down trial island that offered only a subset of content and mechanics. I would rely on internal teams to test advanced systems because I would recognise that there is a good chance some balancing will ultimately be required whether or not the grind monkeys get the opportunity to "test" the game. I would be very hesitant to open the game to a large-scale, un-vetted audience prior to release. I might have a stress test that offered perhaps a single city or environment, stripped-down to test the systems I was interested in rather than the systems the random yahoos might be interested in.
Unfortunately as the market becomes more crowded companies are pandering more and more to the expectations of the idiot public. That includes gameplay design (whether it's grinding, raiding, PvP or similar) and offering a selection of beta tests to allow some players to feel like they're more hardcore and important than others. It's becoming increasingly common to see posts on forums where people take beta tests (and the player's acceptance into the test) for granted, and those people probably wouldn't even consider joining an MMO that was already live because they wouldn't be able to scoff at the noobs.
Essentially it all comes down to the majority of developers taking some sort of smug "hands off" approach to their player communities, a subject which really deserves it's own commentary.

* grind monkey: a player who considers grinding to be a desirable gameplay mechanic in the mistaken belief that being willing to grind is in some way indicative of player skill.

On the Subject of Gears of War

Kelly Brook

It is good. It makes me think how good Tabula Rasa would be it it played like an MMO GoW. Then again I've barely played TR yet so who knows.
Also on my ever-expanding gaming to-do list: CoD4 (pre-ordered on Steam), The Witcher (barely played, but so far so good), HL2:Ep2 (bought but not at all played), and not forgetting the imminent release of both Crysis and UT3.
Busy busy busy.

On the Subject of Endgame

Jennifer Love Hewitt

A thought occurred to me this morning while I was idly thinking about MMO purists and especially those particularly execrable individuals who consider MMOs to be all about raiding. The journey to the level cap is merely a tiresome inconvenience to these individuals who are constantly whining about "endgame", and usually the lack of it.
Of course 10 months into the game and Vanguard still lacks any raid content, or any other endgame content for that matter. Since it's largely populated by the MMO "elite" as I've previously described, any self-respecting Vanguard player has long since reached the level cap and has spent the remaining time bemoaning the lack of endgame, in between scoffing at players who are yet to reach the cap.
A quick aside at this point. It is common for players who have reached the level cap to comment that no one in the low-to-mid levels really understands the game. This is false. Nothing in Vanguard changes from about level 15 onwards, with the exception of the stats of weapons, skills, armour, foes and quests. It's just the same old shit, with bigger numbers, in different locations, over and over again.
But it made me think, what is "endgame"? Surely the very word suggests that all content has been completed and you have reached the end. Of the game. So racing to get there and then complaining about what it is seems particularly futile.
Of course in practice it means some lazy grindfest designed to offer some pretense of gameplay for those people who have exhausted the primary content. It is therefore necessarily repetitive and tedious. That's the problem with level caps; they create an unnatural barrier to further game progress. Compare that with something open-ended like Animal Crossing where the game is essentially designed to allow you to continue doing what you enjoy doing for as long as you enjoy doing it, no more, no less. That's what I'd like to see in MMOs, rather than the ultimately vacuous "achievement" of having ground your way through the game for long enough for your level number to reach some arbitrary limit. Way to go, cappers, you are "teh 1337".
An interesting contrast is Guild Wars (a game often dismissed by purists as shallow and simplistic). Even in the first (and best) chapter, Prophecies, the game is designed such that you reach the level cap approximately two thirds of the way through the game. Thereafter the game is simply about storyline (and loot, naturally). Sadly subsequent chapters have incorporated new and by no means improved mechanics like titles which have introduced a sad and largely unwelcome grind element to the game. If that trend continues I have little hope for GW2, currently in development.

On the Subject of Purists

Lucy Pinder

I've previously mentioned Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Sigil SOE's seemingly ill-fated MMO originally conceived (and subsequently fucked up) by Everquest designer Brad McQuaid. Quite apart from any gameplay or technical issues, Vanguard suffers from an insidious population of purists and self-styled "hard-core" players looking to turn back the clock and relive their MMO golden ages.
To go off on a brief tangent, anyone who thinks you can reclaim the sense of wonder and excitement you encountered in your first MMO is a deluded idiot. And you certainly won't find it by turning your current MMO-du-jour into a carbon copy of your first love.
But what bothers me about these people is how closed-minded they are when it comes to game mechanics. Any suggestion that a current game might deviate from the official gameplay guidelines laid down by UO, or EQ, EQ2 or similar is met with predictable, tedious derision. What's most irritating is that these people constantly mistake grind for difficulty, and have absolutely no idea what they even mean when they say a game should be more difficult (which is often, because they're typically fond of trying to prove how elite and hardcore they are by claiming they find everything too easy, especially in response to a normal player who might dare to suggest something's too hard).
I am reminded of this subject because of a recent Vanguard producer's post on the official forums where he reveals that they're planning to remove XP debt as a component of death penalty.
Unsurprisingly this had a lot of the elitist fools up in arms, claiming the death penalty is already too soft and the xp debt takes them little time to work off (in other words "I'm so good at this game I hardly notice the death penalty, look at me, look at me, aren't I special?").
I had previously had the unbridled nerve to suggest in another thread that xp debt was a pointless and stupid death penalty. Of course the fucknuts (I really need to come up with a good collective noun for them) missed the point of the post entirely and came back with the same old tired "no, it should stay, it takes no time to work off for me because I'm so good at this game, look at me, look at me". If it's so easy to work off, what's the point having it at all? Their point, really, is that they're scared of any change that might be viewed as making the game "carebear" (*yawn*). These are typically people who have nothing better to do than grind, grind, grind to the level cap and once there, they're terrified of anyone being able to achieve the same goal without having to put in the same hours of mindless drudgery and thereby diminish their achievement.
And that's my point. Grind is not the same as difficulty. Killing a thousand of the same type of creature for some ill-designed quest or simply to gain experience and level isn't something that should be applauded or recognised as a worthwhile achievement. Killing one creature that demonstrates sophisticated tactics (and not just sky-high stats) and provides a stimulating, unpredictable challenge would be far preferable to killing a thousand mindless zombies that simply stagger straight towards you. Improved enemy tactics are supposedly on the Vanguard to-do list, so that's something.
But the same old ignorance persists. "OMG don't reduce the grind! I spent X thousand hours grinding to the level cap and if other people can get there by playing through sophisticated, engaging content rather than mind-numbing tedium then I won't feel special!". Fuck off.