You dirty rat

Bootae’s been turned to the dark side.

Okay, so maybe that’s a bit melodramatic, but he has been converted to a happy rainbow of optimistic expectation as it comes to the skaven.

Okay, so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but he has gone from concerned to expectant, and dammit, this is the internetz! I will exaggerate, pontificate, and wildly gesticulate (verbally speaking) to strengthen my points, no matter how poorly my actions reflect reality. As I said before, I was overall underwhelmed by the Skaven news. I think I’m going to expand upon that a bit more, so, follow the jump.

NOW.

Incentivizing vs Limiting

As I see things, when designing games, systems, or anything that involves human interaction and choice, you are always trying to get certain outcomes or results. With games and MMOs in particular, we usually like to have options on how to go about doing various tasks we want to do, and we want to be successful at it. Lately, it seems I’ve been having a lot of conversations about how to get players to act as desired after. In WAR, this is healers who DPS, or Tanks who DPS, or players who solo queue for scenarios, or ignore other players who need help. But this activity happens in all games, it was the Dirge/Troub in EQ2 who wanted to do more dps and neglect their debuffs. In WoW it (perceived) to be Shamans and Paladins who wanted to DPS instead of heal. Sometimes the games change to accommodate these other desired playstyles, making all paths viable, other times, games cut divergent players off by hard-limiting possibilities. Of the two choices, I always prefer the former.

Fitting in

This is the stuff I look at every day.

In the space of EVE, how you fit your ship is one of the most important decisions you will make every time you undock from a station. The only thing that I can think of that holds the same level of importance, decision-wise, is what comes immediately before that, figuring out what you want to do. When you look at the blank slate of  a ship, with all its various options open to you, deciding what you want to install is like deciding what career you want to play. Deciding what quality of fitting you want to use, is like deciding if you want to run around with greens or mythicals, except anything is available for a price.

European Colleagues

In case you weren’t paying attention, this last weekend, Games Workshop held their Gamesday event in the UK. Those WAR fans out there should take special note of this, because Andy Belford flew over there to take part in the event and to reveal gobs of information to the fans, and our great Euro Bloggers were there to get all the information.

• Start with WarAura, which has an amazing write-up conglomeration of a mass of info.
• Then head to Bruglir’s Blog, who has a similar write-up, with his own twist.
• Later on, head to Bootae’s Bloody Blog, who supposedly will have something up, eventually. Until then, check out his pretty pictures!
• The Price of Wargh! already has some commentary and responses to the news. Find out why he is underwhelmed.
• Werit, in his typical freakishly-early morning post schedule, talks briefly about the Skaven.
• Skar gives Mythic props for their willingness to change things, but is dubious about the direction micro-transactions may take WAR.

It’s early still, and I expect a lot more to come from the WAR blog community as well as maybe a few chirps here and there from those who pay attention to MMOs in general. Oh, wait, you want MY commentary and thoughts on all these announced changes so far? Well, golly gee-wilikers, follow the jump, and you may just get it.

Through the haze of Hydrocodon

I’m coming to you with a proclamation: Shadow Warriors bring the bomb! I’ve had bronchitis and a sinus infection the last couple of days, but I still got to be a part of a pretty decent city instance yesterday. People may say otherwise, but the Shadow Warrior as a career is in the best place it’s ever been. There’s still some work to do, and some minor tweaking, but they can fill a number of roles pretty decently. Playing bomb is pretty damn simple, mind-numbingly simple, but it’s pretty effective.

1. Replenishing Strikes
2. No Respite
3. Masterful Aim
4. Expert Skirmisher.
5. Spam Lileath’s Arrow
6. ?
7. Profit

I died a lot more than I’d like, but we were shy healers and tanks actually, and everyone there from my guild was DPS. I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out. Follow the jump to see my action from the city.

Can anybody hear me?

There has been a lot going on in the Warhammer world, and sadly, I havent’ been able to inundate you all with my take on it. So I’ll do the short version, and hope this post turns out like I want it to.

There’s been some good.

And some REALLY bad. Seriously, whegn you’re writing articles for something on a professional level (no matter how “semi” it may be), it’s not a good idea to throw your arms up in the air and declare “I’m out of ideas, this game is dieing!”.

Anyway, I’m keeping this short to see how it all goes, and if everything looks like it should. Fingers crossed, because my HTML is a bit weak, and the post-via-email thing is a bit cumbersome.

This is only a test

I repeate this is only test. Do not be alarmed. Poor writing and commentary will return shortly.

Technical Difficulties

Having some slight issues with my blog for the last few days. Please read one of the many fine sites on my list to your right while I figure out what the hell is going on. Hopefully none of this is misspelled because I can’t even see it as I type.

Smoke and a Pancake

Want to know how to ruin a successful movie series?

Werit already used the title I was looking for, so whatever. However, as he points out, yesterday we got our Producer’s letter as well as a small patch. The patch changed the new “stance” mechanic for the Rune Priest/Zealot to function as a 1:1 ratio, as well as a couple minor bug fixes. The bigger subject of note was the producer’s letter.

In this letter, Carrie hints at the removal of the VP system, and how it is going to change the face of the ORvR campaign. Gone will be the days of Waithammer, allegedly. Between her and Andy’s answers on the Q&A thread, we can see them moving toward a more dynamic and actively-involved PvP system, with sights on the city to hopefully take queue from the things that worked there.