Sequel to the Original

Just before the start of 2012, I got an invite into the “beta” for DotA 2. As you can probably guess, I was quite excited. I played the original DotA via Warcraft 3 more than I would care to admit, and had recently been immersing myself into its spiritual successor LoL (sorry, never actually tried HoN). LoL is a fabulous game, it’s fun, it’s competitive, and it has a lot of light, whimsical aspects that keep it from being some oppressive entity. DotA 2 feels, in many ways like a different game from LoL. Which fits, since it is, you know, a different game. I can boil down the differences between the two in one word: Unforgiving.

DotA 2 is definitely for the far more hardcore player-base. There is no going to a lane, and auto-attacking creeps to get the kills and push the tower. Though that still happens in a general sort of overview.  Where in LoL, focusing on last-hits is something you find in ranked games, and is ignored in every single PUG game I’ve played (ever), auto-attacking in a lane is almost sure to generate a comment every time in DotA 2.

Of course, you also have the return of denies.

Oh, sweet, sweet denies, how I have missed you. If you missed the original, in DotA you could attack your own units, your own towers, even your fellow teammates. What that lead to, is a strategy of denying kills. When you kill your own unit, it stops the gold for the kill from being divided to the opponent AND the miss out on the experience from its death. This can add up very quickly. A person who is good at denying creeps, especially in the early game, can easily create a level plus gap between themself and their lane opponent. It hurts to receive, and makes you laugh with glee when you accomplish it.

Level gaps are hard to overcome, and the gold gap is just as unforgiving. One big contributor makes the situation even more desperate than any other MOBA I have played: when you die, you lose gold. Significantly. So, if your opponent is denying you hard, uses their advantage to jump you in an unforgiving moment, you get to sit there dead not gaining any experience, and weep a little inside as the stockpile of gold you had been saving just dropped faster than the U.S. employment rate. Poor play is rewarded brutally and is very unforgiving. What can seem like a simple mistake can quickly cascade into catastrophic failure.

You may be thinking to yourself how terrible this makes the game sound, but it doesn’t. In fact, just the opposite. I’ve been going to DotA 2 nearly every time I would have gone to LoL in the past. It’s eating up the majority of my gaming time this month, and poor Skyrim has been feeling ignored because of it. If you enjoyed the original DotA, you will love the hell out of this. If you get easily frustrated, your beginning here will be painful. The learning curve for those new to the genre is tremendous, and becomes shallower the closer you move to DotA familiarity. Even I had to get back in the groove so to speak, and remember how different the gameplay is, and what gear does what.

Of course, it has some issues, every game does. But nothing that seems game-breaking. The progression system isn’t involved yet, and I haven’t found a good reporting system. A lot of the heroes aren’t implemented yet (Phantom Lancer, k thx?), but there is a very robust selection available. I feel as if the UI, and particularly the item shop could use a bit of tweaking to fine-tune and smooth out the experience, but overall, it gets my rocks off.

Not sure what else there is to say about it.

A deal

One benefit of waking up at hours reserved for insomniacs and school teachers, is that I get to put in a quick post. Yay discipline!

So, Mr. Meh is back (in case you haven’t been following, he comes and goes a lot). He, like almost every other breathing soul involved in MMO gaming, is playing SW:tOR. He’s gushing (in his own way). I played in the beta, and found it enjoyable, but not anything that grabbed me by the ass and pulled me in for some genital rubbing. I mean, it’s Star Wars, which automatically produces some attention and attraction, and the voice acting is good and greatly helps with the immersion/storyline factor. However, the PvP was, well “meh”, and it had the typical trope of quest-hubs sending you to do things for people, then come back again. Rinse. Repeat.

But, I like Mr. Meh’s opinion, and respect it as much as anyone can respect another internet entity, and I posted a deal with him. In two more months, if he still likes the game, I’ll buy a box and give it a go.

So, you’ve been given notice.

Worlds Colide

I have a lot of hobbies. Gaming is just one of the many endeavors I enjoy pursuing, and easily in the top five of all my favorite activities. Also high up on the list of things I am interested in, is politics. So, it may not surprise you that I’ve been keeping an ear out about this whole SOPA (official) /PIPA (official) thing. As much as my two hobbies may thrill me on their own (I’ve listened to every GOP debate, half streaming while I killed dragons in Skyrim), I had an amazing laugh at the awesome combination of the two today.

Apparently, one of our U.S. congressmen (by the name of Jared Polis) plays League of Legends, and after seeing the “Help us Stop SOPA” thread on the forums, he decided to respond. Beyond it being a great moment of helpful reinforcements from those behind the lines, he agreed to continue checking in on the thread. Which then lead to this AMAZING troll FROM the representative TO a player.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bieberfever123  WHY DOES HE GET AN AVATAR AND l DONT???

u would just use Justin Beiber as your avatar anyway

I almost laughed my balls off. If the nerds of Colorado don’t get together to reelect this man, they are doing themselves a disservice.

As a last message, go here, to help stop these bills from passing.

 

Is this thing on?

Uh. Hi.

Yeah, still breathing. In a lazy Sunday afternoon right now, the long dark tea-time of the soul, as Arthur Dent calls it.

In any matter, for anyone still reading here’s a quick recap of where I’ve been gaming wise:

MMO bouncey-bouncey-bouncey: I’ve been entirely unable to stick to just one MMO for any length of time. I’ve been avoiding PvP ones in large part because of my temperamental internet connection, which FINALLY seems to be fixed. Mostly, I’ve bounced back and forth between EVE, EQ2, and a dash of Rift. I even went so far as to dip my toe in the AoC pool, but never even made it out of Tortage. Not sure what people are saying, but I found the Tortage experience to be as bland as any PvE MMO experience as I’ve played. I’m avoiding SWtOR for the most part, did some of the beta, but am dubious of my ever playing the actual game.

MOBAs: League of Legends has been hard for me to play in, because of said previous internet difficulties. I still played non-rank, games, and more Dominion than I normally would (thanks to it’s shorter time frame), but on the whole I haven’t done a whole lot there. However, along with getting my internet mostly back into shape two weeks ago, I got into DotA 2 beta, and that is just damn good, hard-core fun. I think I may do a short write-up about some of the big conceptual differences between the two. The sequel to the originator and the current crown champion of the genre.

SRPG: SKYRIM!! OMG SKYRIM!!! So fucking good. I have never played any of the Elder Scrolls games before this one, and was blown away by the awesomeitude this wonderous piece of digitally constructed world contained. My first play through was a shield and axe wielding, heavy armor wearing behemoth of destruction. My second (well 2.5) play through so far is a sneaky, archer type that just changes the whole way I play the game.

Console: I’ve gone back and replayed some of my older stuff, like Mirror’s Edge, and some more Wipeout, and a bit of Katamari: Forever. Console gaming is something I really enjoy still, and am waiting on the edge of my seat for Dust541, which just announced Beta sign-ups not too long ago (with some restrictions).

As for real life, my daughter just turned two, school is still in its part-time classification, which eats up a lot of free time what with that full-time job I have. I’m taking my first actual real-programming course this semester (Object Oriented aka Java), which I’m looking forward to. Work is finally slowing down a bit, my two large-scale hospitals are winding to a close on my design/coordination/fabrication side, and the bulk is going to be left in the hands of the installers – which means I’m sure someone is hunting for a new BIM project to throw me into.

The biggest thing I need to decide about this space, is how I want to proceed with it. There’s a good gap of time, and I don’t want to go back and discuss all the things that happened in the interim. I need to figure out what I want to write about, and get back in the habit of it all.

No new years resolution or anything like that, just saying, I’m going to try to put out stuff more frequently here on out.

Lull

There’s been a lull in my writing. It’s for a bunch of reasons. Work’s more restrictive policy of internet used coupled with being busier at work having been saddled with another giant BIM project as of two weeks ago are two of the main culprits. Elsewise, I’m playing two older, very well-balanced MMOs (EQ2 and EVE online), the second of which I haven’t really been playing other than to queue up skills. I haven’t been playing EVE because my internet has been completely unreliable. I lost my connection eight times in less than two hours Monday night – luckily, servicemen are coming tomorrow to hopefully fix it. Oh, and school, school started agin.

I’m not gaming much, and I’m certainly not reading other blogs nearly as much. I’m missing how I used to write every day, and I’m trying to figure out a way I can do that. I’ve tried it from my phone, and it just feels, unnatural. I don’t know how Scary does it – I need a keyboard in front of me to express my words, a very tactile responsive extension of my thoughts as my hands work their way across the letters and symbols of our language. Writing with my thumbs seems strange and alien to me – thumbs are for the spacebar.

Things at home are going to be getting better connection wise, so my gaming will open up a bit more. I won’t have to avoid EVE and LoL for fear of being stranded vulnerable in space or leave a team a player short (respectively). Time-wise though, I’m not sure what I’ll have, and I still have the hurdle of not being able to use work time to do reading/writing for the blog. I’ll need to find a way to jump that, and it may be that I write and read from home more frequently at the detriment to gaming.

Still working on my German via Rosetta Stone too, which you probably know if you follow me on Twitter – which is another reason for lack of updates. A lot of the short ideas I have that used to turn into full on posts wither and die on the vine of 140 character micro-blogging tools. Blame this current age of instant access, quick media, and social networking for the ADHD inclined as part of the dearth of posts of late. I’m making no promises still, as I always said I wouldn’t, but I really still want this to remain a place for me to come and write about what I’m doing for my own sake as much as for the relationships and discussions I’ve built over time with this thing.

Oh and I still really REALLY want to explore the topic of Fair that I broached a couple of weeks back.

Prime Incentives

I lightly participate in Prime’s forums, but I do lurk fairly extensively. One thread did entice me to respond, as it was a wide arching discussion on a subject that interests me: game incentives. Here is my post.

PvP incentivization is a very hard thing to get right. Hard core PvPers just want everyone to go out and fight, for the sheer thrill of pitting wits and talent against an opponent. That wish is a (pleasant) fantasy on the whole. Creating wide open fields, devoid of any compelling objectives will not entice conflict. What draws people into battle is a scarcity of resources required to complete an objective. The resources don’t need be tangibles, but they are usually the easiest to implement.

Examples help clarify.

EVE online is arguably the most succesful PvP MMO currently. Beyond just a sandbox game, its distribution of rewards and resources compels players to seek out dangerous and unsafe regions to get the greatest acquisition of goods, wealth, and control. WAR got players out to fight at first by placing vertical progression rewards in the world,but as expected, once the community achieved that goal, conflict dropped – the impetus for going out was gone. This shows us something else, whatever incentive is used as the driving factor, should need to be continually renewed/defended to encourage constant participation across all spectrums of the player base.

It’s important to recognise the motivational differentiatiors between PvP MMOs, and other PvP genres. FPS’s, MOBA’s, and RTS’s don’t have the persistance and long term progression to contend with. So the need to make a renewable motivator does not exist. Creating a PvP system that requires players to partake for no other reason than to fight won’t work in the MMO model long-term.

Passing thoughts

Gamescon is over, and I missed a lot of it. My interest in the new and upcoming stuff is waning, or at the very least, not pushing against that wall of excitement the industry attempts to construct from hype and mystery to ensure a continued revenue stream (except for Battlefield 3 – that shit looks crazy yo). Sure, a few things were bound to catch my ear, only by sheer volume of the social circles I run around the perimeter of. Wrath of Heroes and Wildstar seeming to be the two that with the biggest foundation in place amongst my cliques, and I’ll admit – the giant robot that was fought in the raid of SW:TOR perked up my ears. I wouldn’t say that I have ennui towards the institutions or developments, more of a contented disinterest, as nothing really (again, except Battlefield 3) grabbed me by the genitals and dragged me down to the floor with it for a romp in the hay. I am at peace with my current gaming distribution, and calmly waiting for the few objects I see in the hazy distance. I understand now why a placated population is so much in demand by some, and can be so dreadfully dangers to others – then content make no demands, and demands drive innovation.

There’s the portion of my brain, nagging me to research and delve, and find out what all went on. The portion that craves knowledge and information to analyze and decide. To call judgment and declare that THIS is the side of the line that my opinion falls upon. Immediately afterward, the portion that controls the actual doing then points out InFamous, Wipeout, BioShock, and a stack of other games that I still have yet to play through and suggests to me that perhaps the new and exciting can wait, and that an opinion doesn’t always need to be formed early on, as if some type of posterity is at stake.

So, anything you think I should take a look at? What piqued your interest? What do you think I should keep my eyes on?

Oh, and seriously, go watch the Battlefield 3 trailer.

Demacian Protege

I had a good time with her last night. Others may play her more aggresively, but I can’t help but feel like those 21 assists were appreciated. May be she’s the next champion I buy, and the good news is, I’ve already got all the reds, yellows, and blues I need for her rune build!

WoH: What I want to know

Just a list of questions I’d love to get some answers to.

1. What is the projected length of each match?
2. What is the projected length of combat interactions?
1. I.E. in LoL, a fight between two people can last seconds to a minute or so with feints, baits, etc.. Group fights can also be similarly diverse.
3. With multiple maps, will the objective of each be the same?
1. If no, what are the different game-types?
4.  How many maps are there planned to be?
5. Will there be leveling within a match?
1. If so, what will leveling provide?
2. Will all five powers (skills, abilities, w/e) be available from the start?
6. Will there be any “neutral” mobs, or “creeps” similar to other MOBAs?
7.  Any plans to include a match-only item shop as seen in other MOBAs?
8. It was stated there are 40 levels to each account, what comes along with this advancement?
9. With six possible team members, are you planning on adhering to typical MMO archetypes?
1. Are you planning on sticking with WAR’s archetypes?
10. WoH appears to be using the same engine as WAR, can we expect similar control schema?

That was enlightening

Gamescon is going on, and a lot of the people I follow on Twitter over at Mythic were reminding me of the EA segment that was going on today. I figured that something interesting may be coming, but more importantly, I wanted to see the new info on Battlefield 3, which I had also been getting pelted with tweets about. So, I happily followed the link, and watched the proceeding panel on my palm-sized phone screen while a software install of Revit processed on my work computer. Good timing!

The small community I’m injected into, and spend the most time with, is probably those who play(ed) WAR, and who still keep tabs on it pretty heavily. So, it’s no surprise that the announcement of Wrath of Heroes is the one being most talked about amongst them. There’s rote reporting, excitement, justification, ambivalence, cautious non-committal speculation, and further disappointment. Suffice to say, the emotional gamut is being run. My thoughts on it are probably not as emotionally swayed as some others at this point, having stopped playing the game with any enthusiasm months ago, and only returning on the rare occasion when I get an itch. My last days in WAR were primarily spent in scenarios, and that craving is almost entirely satiated by LoL. So, while I may agree a bit in part with Rancid’s above-linked post on the de-evolution of ORvR, I also keep in mind, that way-back-when, probably before most of you remember this, WAR was a PvP game of SCs. Keeps, fortresses, and all that wonderful “openness” was not in the picture. The franchise has come full circle, sort-of. Lum said it right when he wrote The engine was just sitting there.

What I’m seeing of WoH, is that Mythic (BioWare, EA, whatever) is trying to dive into the MOBA market. Only in a different way. They seem to be blending TF2 style play with MOBAs. Pre-designed heroes, with a small set of powers, and an account-leveling system that any LoL fanatic will find just like home. Only, apparently you can swap out heroes in mid-match. Which means there’s not likely to be an in-game leveling system (Edit: According to Werit, in his comments section, there is leveling in each match), which means your skills are what they are from start to end. This also means there’s not likely to be any creeps, or item buying that helps make the MOBA style of game work. So, perhaps this is going to be just a fantasy version of TF2, with 3 sides. The three sides thing isn’t to be discounted though, as that is something pretty new to the genre of gaming, and sadly, still rare in PvP MMOs.

I’m curious to see how it will all turn out, but there is no fire lit under me to jump onto the game. I literally know next to nothing about it. It may just be WAR with a bunch of three-team scenarios. In which case, for players like Rancid, it symbolizes a disturbing trend. Players like Mykiel, it just gives them more areas to potentially play around in. For players like myself, WAR became antiquated with one announcement, as all of the notes WoH seems to be trying to sing at first blush, are being pleasantly rung elsewhere in my world.