Hiatus

It's been a while since I wrote anything, mostly because I've been preoccupied with a gaming website I joined right around the time this blog appeared.  The website is okay, but the worst part is no one seems to take it very seriously, it's pretty much a dead end.  I'm also learning that I don't really enjoy writing reviews if I'm not getting payed for it, I enjoy to rant about games but not really to review them according to a formula (gameplay, graphics, audio, etc.)  I enjoy writing the occasional review, but to do only that, it's starting to grate on me.  I suppose that is what life is though, going through different experiences and learning what you can handle and what you like and learning about people especially.  

I've started playing Warhammer Online again.  It really is a great game, and a lot has improved from that last post I made about it.  The PvP is a blast, and it's probably one of the most balanced games on the market right now combat-wise.  A lot has happened with it recently though, it was merged with BioWare to become BioWare Mythic, and when that happened EA laid off 40% of the Mythic employees.  For me that's like "Awesome." Because I love BioWare and I love Mythic; I'm concerned about the future of the game though.  BioWare is developing an MMO called The Old Republic, and that game is going to be huge.  So I fear WAR is going to get the back-burner treatment and possibly be shutdown.  The developers and the new producer seem to be confident about its future, and that helps, but I still worry.  I transferred my old Shadow Warrior and me and my girlfriend are having a blast playing it, although some console games have been taking up our time too.

I think gaming is one of the best and worst hobbies to have when you have no job.  Best, because you have plenty to do, especially if you're into RPGs.  Worst, because you never have money to buy new games which kind of seals you into a cycle of perpetuation.

I can't decide what's worse, having to sit around playing the same games over and over, or being alone with your thoughts almost every day.  Thinking too much tends to lead to depression.  Did mention I loathe humanity?

Face of Mankind

     Recently I stumbled across a new MMO called "Face of Mankind."  It takes a much different approach to the genre and feels reminiscent of EVE in that the game is almost completely player driven.  

     When you start in Face of Mankind you choose a faction; these factions are pre-made but they are all run by players. Each faction has a leadership hierarchy and all of it is player controlled. Each faction has a leader that controls the faction and sets the faction's goals and maintains diplomatic relations with the other factions through the player-run senate.  When I started the game I joined the faction known as the LED, or the Law Enforcement Department.  This is one of the most interesting factions because they are the in-game police.  There are long documents that detail the law and all players in the LED are expected to know it well, and to advance in rank you actually have to pass a test on your knowledge of the law.  As the in-game police the LED enforce the law on the Earth colonies of New York City, Paris, and Tokyo through the use of the game's stun weapons and arresting system.  When criminals are arrested they are sent to a prison colony and must do objectives within the prison to remove their PP (points that accumulate from committing crimes) until they are free.  The ranks in the game are one of the more interesting aspects and can be considered the "levels" that are associated with many other MMOs.  You earn your first rank just by earning experience through objectives, these objectives are randomly generated tasks taken from the goals your faction leadership has set.  However after your first rank, you must earn your ranks through merit, as in you must be singled out and promoted by higher ranking players.    

     There are currently only two main focuses in Face of Mankind, combat, and crafting.  Crafting is done generically through terminals.  You choose what you want to mine/produce and how many you want, then you start the process and it mines while you're free to do other things.  The crafting is very straightforward and pretty boring.  The combat can at times be fun, but it is the source of my main frustrations with the game.

     The combat has numerous problems that stem from a few different mechanics in the game.  The guns do not do a lot of damage, but there are about four weapons that do do decent damage and as a result most players wield those and nothing else.  This obsoletes a lot of the weapons currently in the game, and makes combat uninteresting.  Since most weapons don't do much damage, in the majority of fights the combatants will be scurrying about like insects while trying to shoot accurately with the game's finicky recoil/cone of fire system; and also skill is negated by the fact that you may drill your enemy five times in the head, but since your opponent is using one of the higher damaging weapons he can hit you a few times in the chest and kill you.  Another frustrating, skill negating aspect of combat is that consumables play too large a role.  If one player is carrying foods and drugs, he will hands down beat a player who is not, this also creates problems in that law-abiding citizens do not carry drugs and are therefore always at a loss in combat.  Couple these things with the fact that there are a decent amount of hackers/glitchers and combat becomes a dreadful affair.

     What does make this game good is the human aspect.  Since players are given almost full control of all events in the game, very interesting things happen that make it worth playing just for the experiences.  The game is full of corrupt and vile players both in the low ranks and the high ranks.  As an LED officer in the game, I have witnessed many things, and as an LED you really start to feel for the police in real life.  Everyone hates you as an LED and everyone is always trying to stab you in the back.  You're also met with many of the frustrations that real police do, in that you may pass a citizen in the hall, and when you enter the room that he was just in you find a body;  it's almost a certainty that he killed that person, but without witnessing it there's nothing you can do.  The game is full of interesting and bizarre interactions with players, and it is truly a redeeming quality for this game.  

    The game uses my preferred subscription style, in that the game is free but you can choose to become a subscriber and get access to more things.  So give FoM a try, but be warned, the game is not newb friendly.  You will find a generic tutorial online, but you are immediately dropped into the world with no direction so be prepared to have patience.  And also look me up in-game, I go by Osidus and can help you out if you have questions.  

Quality Gaming

I don't know about all of you, but I'm starting to expect more from my games. I love open worlds and being given choices to influence the story, every game should have those elements. Everyone always flips shit over Call of Duty, particularly Modern Warfare because every frat boy and bro-gamer can't stop making love to it. I hate linear games, I don't care how many explosions and scripted events it has, it's still linear, even if you call if "cinematic" -- it will happen that way every single time you play the game. Call of Duty is the pinnacle of linear gaming. Want the game to hold your hand and breast-feed you while you mow down unintelligent AI? Go for Call of Duty, can't go wrong there. I will say, however, that the multiplayer can be fun, although with Modern Warfare 2 they have made a mistake by forcing you into game chat. X-Box Live is the scumbucket of society, no one wants to talk to those people. If you want to hate your life as well as humanity, go play X-Box Live for a while.

Unlike Call of Duty, a game should really be worth the money. Sixty dollars is a lot of dough, and having to burn that every time you want a new game is rough. I want my money's worth, and games like Call of Duty do not deliver that. Games like Grand Theft Auto IV do, you can literally have hundreds of hours of gameplay from just screwing around. Not to mention all the other elements that make it worthwhile. Games need to feel like their own world, and allow you to do what you want in that world. Every game would benefit from having that level of immersion.

Oh, what's that? You don't like open-world games because you can't figure out what to do? Well grow a brain stem and then try again.

While I'm somewhat on the topic of quality games, I'd like to touch on MMOs. MMOs are an entirely different ballpark as far as what you should expect. Every day I see more people complaining about how this game isn't polished enough, or this game is buggy. WELCOME TO MMO GAMING. MMOs have bugs, get over it. MMOs don't start off with the five years of polish that World of Warcraft has, get over it. I miss the days when taking part in an MMO was a journey, and it was enjoyed even if it was rough. I miss the days when people expected there to be bugs. Everyone in the MMO world has this idea that all games need to be perfect by launch, well unfortunately things don't work like that.

My theory on what happens is that World of Warcraft is the gateway game. WoW didn't start off popular, it slowly grew to what it is today. WoW is currently the "hip" MMO, so everyone plays that game first. Then, once they play it a while and find out it's boring as hell, they move on to other MMOs. Disaster then occurs of course, because these idiots expect every game to have the polish and following that World of Warcraft does; and by extension they get on forums and cry about the game. World of Warcraft has done good and bad things to the MMO business. It's brought it more attention, but it has also ruined the experience of other MMOs (only if you're a dolt though.) WoW is too successful, it's so successful that it harms other games' chances. Other, BETTER games, I might add.

I could go on and on about why I hate World of Warcraft, but I've honestly said it so many times I bore myself when I talk about it.

BORED

I'm an avid MMO gamer, I love being inside a living world where I can make persistent progress every day; and for one of the first times in my MMO career, I have nothing to play. I've played almost every major MMO on the market, but they're all lacking something on some level.

The greatest MMO experience I ever had was Star Wars Galaxies, back before the NGE update. It had an awesome community, an excellent open class/career system, a large world, player housing, player cities, and an interesting PvP system, and I also happened to love Star Wars. The game was doing well, and many people were in love with it but yet Sony Online Entertainment/LucasArts put through this new NGE update that completely changed the game on a fundamental level. Just after the update, people left the game in droves and it has never been the same. Play the game now, and sure you may enjoy it, but it's a shadow of its former self.

Ever since that game died I've been on an everlasting search for a new MMO. I've gone from MMO to MMO trying to find one I can truly enjoy, as it stands I usually don't play one for very long periods at a time, as I get bored with something about it. However, usually I move on to a new one that I think I can enjoy for a time, but this time.. I can't find one. I've played them all, and they all bore me.

World of Warcraft is a joke.

I'm afraid to touch any of SOE's games because all they care about is the almighty dollar.

Fallen Earth seems to have a lot of potential, but they need to work on introducing new players to all the possibilities, not just dump them into the world.

EVE Online I think is awesome, but it's just not my kind of game.

Guild Wars is good, but it feels like a dead-end with Guild Wars 2 on the horizon.

Warhammer Online is great, but it needs more class balance and engine streamlining.

I know there are many more MMOs, and I've played them, but I'd run this off the page detailing them all. So it looks like I'm sticking with console and non-MMO PC games for a while. Drat.

Go to hell, hype

     So, I've adopted a new philosophy when it comes to video games.  I've actually been doing this for the past year, but chosen now to write about it.  I have decided to stop hyping myself up on games, I've even grown to expect less from games.  When you think about it, hype is responsible for the majority of disappointment when it comes to playing a new game (apart from it downright sucking.)  We read so much about a game and watch videos and read speculative previews that we get this idea of what the game is in our head, essentially it becomes our perfect game.  Fast forward a year or so and you're playing the game and you are highly disappointed because it has not lived up to your fantastic vision of it.

     I realized that game developers promise things they can't deliver.. I've accepted that, they just say shit and vouch for features they aren't certain will make the cut.  This is the basis for hype, and it's just made to make people want the game (and it works.)  Think about it for a moment though.. I'm sure there's a game on the way now that you can't wait for, this is a game you've never even played, and you're freakin' out because it seems to be everything you'd want from the genre.  You've seen some videos and maybe a developer talking about how great it is.. but you've never played it, what reason do you have to be excited?  

     If we all just slow down and take games for what they are, not what they were promised to be, you can find a lot of enjoyment where there was none before.  (Yes I know it's wrong that those features weren't in the game even though they said they would be, but you've been tricked so many times!  How are you still falling for it!?)  

     I've applied this theory to my life currently and so far it has worked wonders.  Many games, when taken by themselves are a blast to play through.  When you know what could've been, it ruins the gameplay because that is all you can think about.  One game that comes to mind that I just finished is the new Wolfenstein on X-Box 360.  The game was a solid shooter with some interesting elements, overall I thought it was pretty bland, albeit enjoyable.  Now.. had I known of any features that were promised to be in it, it would have been a downright poop-chute of a game, (and from what I gathered from seeing the face of the game on magazines and websites, it seemed to have some decent hype.)  

     So I invite all of you to adopt this doctrine, and start enjoying your games again!  Stop hyping yourselves up, in fact, just downright refuse to expect good things from a game so then when you do play it and it blows you away, it will truly be a transcendent gaming experience.  Perhaps then forums won't be overflowing with crybabies.  

    On a side note, welcome to my blog!  I've been itching to do some writing and I hope to keep the articles flowing, if anyone bothers to read it.