Comments on: Playing Single

By: scrusi

scrusi — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:53:30 +0000

I think you are right about the difficulty. I mixed up to things. arenas adjust the difficulty to the level that is right for you via rating and in an ideal case good matchmaking. You are however not free to choose the difficulty that you like best.
The cheating issue was more a general thought about mmos. i did not mean to cheat to godlike level but id like it to be there and to have legit way to get there. I do agree that it is impossible to handle if the game shall be fun for all players. its just something i personally miss an that you essentially only get in single player games
I was more heading for the direction of which of the things you pointed out wow rudimentary has. Maybe there are ways to incorporate these in a mmo as well. more at least. not to a degree a single player game allows for but maybe to a degree that is at least satisfying. ofc that excludes tecnical things like the pause key but it might be possible to create immersion and heroic feelings in an mmo. keeping in mind that wow is quite old after all a new game might do that better.
So I do essentially agree with the advantages that single player games have. it was just thoughts that crossed my mind while reading and me having spare time I'm still w8ing for da :/ seems not everyone has your luck with the fast delivery

P.S. the only example of a pause key i know was in starcraft and i think even warcraft 3 still had it. you could hit pause 3 times during a game and the opponent could just restart the game O_o it was extremely rare though that an opponent would w8 instead of just restarting the game.

By: scrusi

scrusi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:32:14 +0000

@ Kerri: That exclamation mark-wielding guy at the camp got to me. Truth be told though, he could pretty much be saying "EA compels you!" and I still wouldn't be able to keep away.

@ Zor: Yeek, my hands are already itching to get back to playing though. So I'm left to either suffer through or risk glitches at a nervous breakdown -level. Hm, this is Bioware though so I'm not too hopeful about the frequency of patches.

By: scrusi

scrusi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:31:00 +0000

I just wanted to agree with all you wrote there and only stress importance of immersion. This keeps me playing single player games. People read books, watch movies or play games to get inside of something that differs from reality.

MMO doesn't feet that role but has other strengths like cooperation, value of community (guild that is), reaching ambitious goals might be very rewarding. But it is far from being good for an old player that value that magic old games could provide.

I still remember myself playing Elders scrolls 2: Daggerfall for example. Low resolution, 256 colours graphics and some low quality sounds but it could make me fall off chair in some scary moments. And there is plenty of such games.

Other points are absolutely valid as well but the most important will always be that thing which keeps you involved inside of that wacky game world. At least that's my pov.

A lot of DA:O allusions you made. Yes, decent game it seems, a bit ruined feeling because of DLC issues - Lil do not install that before new patch hits!:D game is kinda bugged because of those de-auth bugs which result of complete reset of questline, player loosing items etc. But those are temporary problems I hope and they will fix it asap. Game is definitely good though.

By: scrusi

scrusi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:55:28 +0000

Either you misunderstood me or I misunderstand you. The point about difficulty was that in single player games players can (theoretically) adjust the difficulty to exactly the right level. In MMOs you can't do that - _especially_ not in arenas. As soon as other people are influenced, you can't give one person the ability to play at whatever level they like.

Modability/cheating: Exactly my point. In single player you get to cheat if that's what you want and to solo if that's what you want. In multiplayer - not.

Heroism - Some people may get a heroic feeling out of playing arena, most will not. Single player games can make everyone a hero.

Balance - not the point of the article, but I think the "omg shiny" effect is simply worth more money than "it's all very well balanced".

Please tell me how these things are possible in an MMO (and in the case of say heroism for everyone, not just the top .3%.) I don't see it.

Recent blog:=- Playing Single

By: scrusi

scrusi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:46:10 +0000

Just some thoughts one your article:
-the difficulty in wow is twofold i think. in the arena you get the same tools as your opponent and its a mere skill/difficulty question. assuming reasonable balance (3on3 should okish), the scripted encounters however take away a lot of difficulty and decision making and therefore make the game easier. do you know examples of bosses that are scripted but also have a lot of randomness in there? that might be an interesting way to go.
-modabillity
cheating can be fun as long as its within borders (meaning achieving something that would be possible within the game right away). This god like feeling is one of the things i miss the most in wow... my char has been quite active and killed soooo much stuff and spend sooo much time on becoming strong... so why exactly do i need other people to kill a simple other human being like khael'thas?
-heroism
same as above wow does not give you the opportunity to become heroic in pve since the skill cap is so low. arena is more like it and as soon as you made your e rep fine enough you'll see people tremble in fear and make mistakes once they see who they are facing.
-balance
you are right about that... but with all the effort going into it i still don't get why they can not get it right. I know its complicated but they had many years now to get it right... why do they have to change chars so much with expansions that everything is shattered to pieces i will never understand... why not take it step by step? let character changes evolve and deliver content with the expansions?

so to conclude... i think all theses things are possible in a good multiplayer mode as well. you just gotta give people options to show them... and farming (sorry buying) a zillion pets is certainly nothing heroic.
you just gotta give gamers a gamers mmo and not a dumbed down version for gaming nubs.

By: scrusi

scrusi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:50:48 +0000

Warden's Keep, eh? Fraternizing with the enemy?

Recent blog:=- Playing Single

By: scrusi

scrusi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:57:45 +0000

The nude ghoul mods, they burn! I didn't even have goggles!
Browsing through mods can be dangerous, unnerving business. I had neutral to weirded out feelings about the Gay bar -mod for DA when I saw it, but then it started haunting my dreams!
Immersion in MMOs tends to feel like being handed icecream, then getting kicked in the stomach. Like Aion, reaching the capital for the first time was kinda nice, the whole questline made it feel like you had a proper story and the other players didn't get in the way too much.
Then I actually got to the capital, and started suspecting something when my relatively tall char was surrounded by midget women and skyscraper-tall men. I kept on my merry way with the quest, which then turns out to be "Wow, you're a unique snowflake aren'tcha? Now go out and play with the million other unique heroic awesome snowflakes out in the square."
The whole "You're the chosen one!" shiz bugs me somewhat even in single players, where it can be somewhat viable, but when it's manhandled into a MMO it just turns into nightmare fuel.
Now I'll go kiss my Bioware-altar-in-the-making while waiting for my PayPal transfer to come into effect (Warden's Keep here I come).