Disincentives to Play is Piss Poor Game Design

We all know I’ve had an ongoing love-hate relationship with The Secret World over the years.  The lifetime subscriptions we purchased prior to launch means I can pop in and out as the mood strikes me. 

Well, it’s Halloween and the mood struck.  TSW should be a game which does Halloween with gusto and welcomes and HOOKS new players this time of year.

Instead, it has piss poor design flaws that mean Halloween quests cannot be completed by new or low level characters.

A quest particular up my alley and it is marked devastating, meaning I have no chance to complete it.  I love old time radio programs, grew up listening to them, and still do today.  I was looking forward to the quest chain involve old time radio programs.  But because I’m a casual player, I have zero chance of completing it.

Apparently Funcom likes missing out on cash expenditures from casual players.  I would be much more likely to stop in more frequently (and SPEND real life dollars on fluff) if the game was friendlier to casual players on holiday events.  I in NO SENSE want the quests to be dumbed down or made less difficult.

I want Funcom to pull their heads out of their corporate asses and realize that casual players are much more likely to spend money when they stop in and play as their free time allows.

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2014 Gaming

2013 and 2012 I was a MMO tourist.  I couldn’t find and settle down in any one game for any length of time.  Instead, I’d play game X for a couple of months while “cheating” on it by playing a couple of other games on the side.  2013 isn’t going to be touristy for me.  I know what games I want to play and what games just hold no interest for me any more.

WOW is off of my SSD and my subscription cancelled once again.  I’m not going to jinx myself and say I’m never going to play it again but that’s how I feel.  BlizzCon left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth and I honestly don’t want to continue to support Blizzard economically via gaming.  I prefer my WOW lore in book format where actual stories can be told and finished.  I loaded up on several WOW novels when they were last on sale as an Amazon Daily Deal.  Raiding isn’t enough to keep me continually paying a subscription, hell let’s be honest it is as boring and trite as running the same five-man instance repeatedly.  End game boredom is the reason I first “cheated” on WOW and nothing has changed since I started playing the game back in 2008.  I’m a woman over forty-five who doesn’t enjoy raiding, clearly WOW doesn’t care about what interests me and thus I’ll spending my gaming dollars elsewhere.

Games that I’m “Quitting”

Guild Wars 2, Rift, and SOE games are definitely no longer on my radar. 

GW2 was a huge disappointment for me and every time I pop back in and retry it my initial disappointment is reconfirmed.  There is no one playing the game and thus the whole “events” theory of gaming is utter crap. 

Rift is still enjoyable but I still can’t stand my questing being interrupted by rifts.  I do thoroughly enjoy Rift’s PVP but that isn’t enough to keep me interested in playing the game. 

SOE has its own particular set of issues.  I love Everquest 2 but I do not love the artificial blocks they have established to character progression.  Also I’m not going to spend money on SOE games when the benefits of subscribing are constantly in flux and are detrimental to the gamer but highly beneficial to SOE.

2014 Games

This year, the MMO’s I am going to playing Elder Scrolls Online, Lord of the Rings Online, The Secret World and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The one thing these games all have in common?  Fantastic story telling and characters I am utterly invested in. 

TSW is a game I can play for small doses at a time but I love every moment of that play time.  TSW has expanded my reading base and thus my knowledge and I cannot fault any game that pushes me to become a better read individual.

LOTRO may not be a perfect game and it may not be hundred percent pure for the lore purists, but it is more than reasonably close for me.  The cosmetic system and the stunning screenshots I get are worth minor inconveniences like purchases not being account wide from the cash shop for almost every purchase.  I admit, I lose complete track of time while playing LOTRO and that alone is an endorsement for me.

Elder Scrolls Online releases on 4 April 2014 and I am eagerly looking forward to the official release.  I fell in love with Oblivion on the Xbox360 and have been a fan ever since.  Elder Scrolls games will always hold a special place in my heart, with the exception of Skyrim, and based on developer statements and interviews ESO will be a game that perfectly fits my play style.  I will also admit the Skywind mod for Morrowind has me intrigued.

SWTOR is going to be my guilty pleasure this year.  I have characters with unfinished stories and I will admit that bothers me immensely.  I may pop in and out of SWTOR this year as a break from high fantasy games like LOTRO and ESO and I’m ok with that.  I will complete story lines and enjoy myself immensely doing so.  I am a complete sucker for anything Star Wars, Yoda slippers & Jaina Solo shirt I’m looking at you, so it shouldn’t be a complete shocker that unfinished stories in a Star Wars game is driving me bonkers.

Console & Mobile Gaming

I will still be playing games on the 360 and the One this year.  Fable Anniversary releases next month and I’m looking forward to it.  I still have several games to finish on the One purchased on release day.  I like the titles just fine, I’ve just been in the reading mood and not the gaming mood the last month or so. 

Mobile gaming caught my attention in the last couple of weeks.  Games like Dungeon Hunter 4 and Royal Envoy 2 have me engaged and interested.  It is safe to say that mobile gaming reviews and impressions will be forthcoming this year. 

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Christmas Week Abbreviated Adventures

Pippa managed to run into Krampus finally in The Secret World and blindly followed him into the portal he opened.  He and his buddies immediately kicked my rear and Pippa was dead on the floor faster than wrapping paper on Christmas morning.  She wisely exited the instance upon regaining her sense.

Pippa, the original character of that name, and the bevy of 90’s opened presents and rescued Metzen until one of them was lucky enough to get the Rotten Little Helper companion.  He is decidedly evil and miserable looking.  Can’t say I feel the effort was worth it.  I will admit, I think I’m over WOW for quite a while.  Yes, I still have characters I could level and I haven’t completed the loremaster achievement.  But I’m not enjoying myself.  I enjoy reading the lore in novels much more than I am repeating myself in game. 

I can’t say I won’t ever be returning to WOW, I’ve made that claim too many times before and Pippa always get’s missed.  I wish Blizzard would wise up and give the non-raiding crowd a reason to stick around, like adventure or quest packs.

I stopped into Guild Wars 2 again this year.  Same even as last year it appears, I didn’t stick around that long to find out.  I decided to try out one of the event instances and imagine my delight in learning my level 10 warrior was stuck (until I logged out) in an instance filled with level 80s.  I can’t deny the game is lovely but there is no quest content and thus no interest for me.

I’ve dropped my LOTRO several evenings this week and completed the quests in Frostbluff for cosmetics.  Luckily, LOTRO will run on the Surface Pro well enough to do things like festivals and crafting so I’m not trapped in the office.  I think I’ve gotten almost everything I want from the festival this year.  Trying to decide if I want this year’s horse or not.  I’ve gotten one, not sure how interested I am in the other. 

I stopped by Star Wars: The Old Republic this week.  I activated one character, my Consular.  She’s on Hoth and I want to finish her story line.  I didn’t play her, I browsed the Cartel Market and realized that I need to change her gear out if I’m going to play her without subscribing.  Two years after the game launched and I don’t have a character at max level yet, but I keep wandering by for the story which speaks to how compelling the quest writers at Bioware are.

This time next year, I imagine I will still be happily immersed in Elder Scrolls Online.  I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas.  Happy New Year and may all your football teams be victorious!

 

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Leveling Screenies from this week

We both have colds and I will admit that those colds are kicking our butts.  No real thought intensive gaming was accomplished this week.  Most of the gaming time was spent in WOW where it is much easier to engage in mindless gaming activity with very little danger of dying because you aren’t paying attention.

So, onwards to screenshots from The Secret World, WOW, and Lord of the Rings Online.

Pippa meet Sam Krieg this week while continuing to explore the Savage Coast in The Secret World.  He in incredibly fascinating and I loved his quests. 

The dialogue from Sam Krieg is amazingly well written, not that is all that surprising.  I hope there is more of him to come otherwise I will miss his insights into humanity.

After the heaviness of the conversations with Sam Krieg, Pippa felt a need for a little whimsy and so she slipped into her pirate costume.

Taalina was been gifted a heirloom weapon and thus she spent her week leveling in Darkshore.  As you can tell, the Murlocs were incredibly happy when she stopped and rebuilt a dwelling for them.  Now if only game phased to permanently show for Taalina there rebuilt Murloc home.

Queen Azshara and Malfurion Stormrage decided to have words off the coast of Darkshore.  Taalina somehow escaped the Queen’s wrath despite the dead Naga scattering the island.

 Meet Brynhildd my Dwarven Champion who was created this week.  Her name means Warrior Woman in German and she is my cosmetic vault keeper.  I already have one character of every class with appropriate leveled professions, but no Dwarf characters.  Making a female Dwarf isn’t possible in LOTRO, so Brynhildd is going to be a female Dwarf disguised as a male Dwarf out to seek adventures of her own.  Now she may never see more than Thorin’s Hall and gate but she will be prepared for the eventuality of leveling further.  She slipped into the Boots, Shoulders and Gloves of the Eastemnet (pre-order items for Rider of Rohan expansion) and the Leather Cloak and Hauberk of Mystery from Skirmish Cosmetic boxes.  All in all, I think she looks quite attractive.

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The Secret World: Loving It

I admit it, when The Secret World was in beta and then released I was not happy, to put it mildly, with character creation options or the clothing choices available.  Time has greatly improved the later and the former is still problematic but in this case clothing choices can completely compensate for crappy character customization. 

I fired up TSW over the long weekend and was more than pleasantly surprised to discover DRESSES in the cash shop.  My accumulated currency was quickly exhausted as I went on an account wide shopping spree.  Pippa is modeling a couple of the looks as she explores the Savage Coast.

My preppy heart is thrilled and better yet there are female clothing options that don’t scream “WHORE”.  I am having a blast running around the Savage Coast.

Anyone who knows me, knows I would so totally wear the above outfit in real life without even thinking about it twice.  In fact I have a much loved pair of pink slippers.  And as for the blue-gloved, highly creepy but oh so incredibly interesting NPC standing next to me, I am loving his story and missions.  Hayden Montag is the current headmaster of the Innsmouth Academy and to say that there is something of a magical problem is an understatement! 

Again yet another outfit I would consider in real life, so yeah I’d prefer a longer hemline and a more structured built-in bra but this dress is fabulous.  And those green shoes, would totally wear those with anything.  Still hanging out at the Innsmouth Academy for this shot, taking my time and enjoying missions that require me to think to successfully complete them.  But as you can tell, apparently my character is more concerned about her fingernails than the horde of familiars in the room behind me waiting for their chance to try and kill me.  Hey, don’t judge those familiars leave GOO under my nails!

I admit it, I bought the sea pirate costume for Pippa.  It was cute and seasonal and let’s be honest, I’m looking forward to playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag when the Xbox One arrives on the 22nd and so I was completely inspired by that.  Pippa is a Templar which just blends in perfectly to her homage to AC:IV.  

TSW is a thinking MMO, don’t fire it up when you are tired or cranky because frankly you just won’t have fun.  However, when you need to get your brain cells firing on all cylinders or want a good old fashioned scare or just want to be creeped out, than fire up TSW and experience the awesomeness for yourself.

 

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The Secret World: Revisited – Success or Failure?

Apparently it was retry old games weekend around here and Funcom’s The Secret World was part of that gaming experience this weekend.  Was it a successful experiment or did Funcom once again disappoint?  My past experience with the game was filled with frustration and disappointment, so to say my expectations were minimal is being generous.

The new team for The Secret World has apparently been very hard at work since the game converted from the subscription model in December 2012.  I decided to create a new character, not only because I wanted to see if there had been improvements made but because my two existing characters were “tainted” from the bad taste the launch of the game a year ago left.  I was floored by the cast improvements in character creation.  I was actually able to make a female character I could stand to look at for the first time ever.  Hairstyles have been expanded and improved, as has make-up options.  I won’t lie and tell you that it’s the best character creator I’ve seen in recent memory but it’s vastly improved from the game’s launch.  Also, there is FINALLY a height slider!!!!  Seriously this option alone was a significant improvement for me.  There is no body size modification slider unfortunately, but I think that is a hard and fast limitation of the game engine being used. 

After character creation improvements, my expectations for the game improved dramatically.  I was not disappointed.  The game still has an amazing atmosphere and creepy feel.  I immediately had the spark of excitement rekindled over the different types of quests available in the game.  I love not breezing thru quests and having to think in trying to solve a puzzle presented to me.  Now that my character no longer looks like a whore and I can stomach looking at her, I’m much more willing to tolerate the issues that still exist in the game.

There are still issues, no sense sugar coating them, but they aren’t deal breaking for me.  Combat still feels disconnected, at least against the zombies in Kingsmouth.  Zombies don’t react to a hail of bullets or a whack from my hammer, they just stand there and try to hit me while I’m mowing them back into the earth.  Now that good be because zombies don’t feel or react to pain or it could be that the engine is incapable of having enemies react to being slaughtered.  It is an annoying issue that mildly affects game play but it isn’t a deal breaker for me.  Item delivery from the cash shop can also be wonky and slow.  This is more annoying since, in theory, real life money is being expended to procure items.  But since the cash shop is purely cosmetic and optional, once again doesn’t impact the ability to play the game.  The biggest issue with game play I found is that my machine can’t handle certain areas well at all, I can go from 60+ fps to 4 fps in a couple of steps.  My machine isn’t bleeding edge admittedly but it’s no slouch either.  A couple of tweaks later, frame rate issue was resolved except for a couple of locations and that is something I can live with.

So final verdict?  We both immensely enjoyed our time and will continue to play The Secret World.  The stories and settings are just too good to ignore.

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Age of Conan: Improvements to Game Play

Funcom has changes in store for the free-to-play limitations for Age of Conan players.  Gone are class restrictions for non-subscribers, gold cap has increased from 2 gold to 10 gold, and ALL pre-80 dungeons are now available for play by nom-subscribers.  This should open game play up to a more diverse crowd, especially those refugees looking for a much better Funcom game than The Secret World.  The world of Hyboria awaits with plenty of action filled adventure that offers a mature game setting with far more polished characters and game play than The Secret World.

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The Secret World: Conversion to Free-to-Play Effective Immediately

If you watched the above clip, you definitely are left with the very strong impression that The Secret World is going to abolish their subscription model.  Today, 12-12-12 the game officially converted to a buy to play format.  The conversion isn’t unexpected since the game launched with a cash shop already present and Funcom’s other titles are already free-to-play.

Here is a break down of the tiers of membership:

• Free to Play: no restrictions on existing content
• Subscription: same current pricing model
• Time Accelerator
• increases experience gain for defeating monsters by 100% for 1 hour, 16 hour cool-down
• $10 worth of Bonus Points monthly
• Item-of-the-month gift monthly
• 10% discount to everything in the cash shop
• Grandmasters: current lifetime members receive everything a subscription member receives plus
• An additional 10% discount on everything in the cash shop

Through the remainder of this month, there is a 30% discount on the purchase of NEW 3, 6, or 12 month subscriptions. The game costs $30US and is available directly from Funcom.   Also previous purchases of the Initiate Pack before December 2012 will be receive a refund, of sorts, of 1,800 Bonus Points. 

Issues, aka game updates, 1-4 are included with the conversion to the new payment model.  Starting in January 2013 with the release of Issue #5, Issues will be considered Downloadable Content (DLC) and will be available for purchase via cash or bonus points.  Members and Grandmasters will have access to Issues as part of their subscription model.  DLC will be $5 in pricing but if you have a registered game account before 31 December 2012, Issue #5 will be no charge.

Be forewarned, TSW has hands down the ugliest character models I have ever seen in a game.  The game is fun, especially if you like to solve complex quests and puzzles that require you to think.  The conversion should bring a large influx of players into the game, but the character customization may not retain potential subscribers. 

Technorati Tags: Funcom,The Secret World,TSW,free-to-play,F2P. cash shop

Seasonal Events: Halloween 2012

A brief tour of the Halloween 2012 events on games that are currently installed on my system.  World of Warcraft is excluded however because the Halloween event this year is the same as years past with a simple loot table update.  Rift is also not on the tour, as the event has been going on for over a month now and isn’t specific to Halloween but more Fall in general.

 

First stop on the tour, Guild Wars 2.  I didn’t do any of the related quests.  I just can’t get back into the game to be honest.  And I was instantly turned off on how overly decorated Lion’s Arch was compared to the level of decoration I remember in Guild Wars.

Brief Stop in Lion’s Arch VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Next stop, the ever creepy world of The Secret World.  Halloween adventures begin in the zombie infested town of Kingsmouth and with the fortune teller in town.  Again, simply popped my head in for a peak and it was one peak too many.  I’m deleting the game for good this time.  It’s obvious the graphics are getting worse not better and obviously the game designers have never meet a real woman (see below).  Between the buggy quest (couldn’t get the cut scene to play on my second character after the first set of screenshots didn’t save), the horrible optimization (FPS ranging from 2 to 120 in the same area), and the god awful graphics, I just can’t tolerate it anymore.  And wouldn’t you think in a real world setting for a game, the towns and cities or heck even the homes would show some sign of celebrating Halloween?  But nope, Funcom couldn’t be bothered to decorate with so much as a single pumpkin in the bank in London.

Ugliest Female Graphics of All Time VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Moving right along, to the world of super hero’s and villains, next on the tour is DC Universe Online.  The tour took a prolonged stop here.  The in-game event is fun.  The streets of Gotham and Metropolis are decorated for the season.  There are new collection quests, tricks and treats drop as loot, and the mood is definitely a spooky, fall event.

The questing all takes place in Gotham, where characters level 5 and above are asked to help clean the streets of the invisible Masked Apparitions tormenting the citizens of Gotham.  The instance for Halloween takes characters to the tavern where Klarion the Witch Boy has scared the patrons.

		Masquerade Event VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Streets of Gotham VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Everquest 2 is the final stop on the MMO tour of Halloween 2012.  Nights of the Dead is how Norrath celebrates Halloween and the event lasts until 5 November 2012.  There are a ton of quests, which if Halloween is your favorite holiday is great (doesn’t happen to be mine however).  Here’s a quick peak at Qeynos when I logged on this morning.

		Nights of the Dead VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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