Entitlement Mentality, the difference between punishment and reward

The release of the new scenario system in WAR has spurred many interesting conversations on the boards, and one that I found most intriguing is the emergence of a new arguments people use to support the continually cried-for PUG/Premade system. I even dived into this issue myself, not two months ago. For me, it was mostly a spitballing of ideas to achieve a desired outcome. I somewhat agreed with the idea at the time, and found it interesting to explore some of the concepts that drive grouping and competitive dynamics. However, I think I have settled on my opinion of the matter as a whole. After re-reading my previous post, I think I discovered that my original assumption of the problem may have been inaccurate, particularly given the stated intent of the game developers.

First Blush

Surprisngly hard to find a good "Blush" image.

As you should know, yesterday was the introduction of patch 1.3.4 and the new scenario reward system. I got to play it for a few hours last night, and for my play-style, I was pleased. So, I’m going to regale you with my impressions and experiences of the evening. Your rapt attention is required, so lean in real close to your monitor, and get a good read. However, before I go any further, I want to make something very clear. The names of the currency, because everyone I speak to seems to have a hard time getting it straight.

The rewards in the scenario system are EMBLEMS and INSIGNIA. Emblems are what you get in each of the four tiers for the scenarios associated with them. Insignia are the currency you get in tier four for the higher renown rank weapons. Emblems are essentially the corollary to medallions, and insignia are that to crests from the armor currency system. The two systems share the base icon of differentiation between the tiers. Conqueror insignia have the same design as crests, as do invader, and so on. The emblems and medallions are identified by a roman numeral that indicate their tier.

Now that we have the terminology down, lets get to business.

Pat attention!

This post has been up for 9 days, and he only has 3 entries so far. Throw your hat in the ring to get some amazing Warhammer-themed artwork done. Forjador does quality work and has been around for a year now. Give a brother some love.

Ubi-fail

Yeah.

Look, I’m all for buying of games, not pirating them, and playing them if you enjoy them. That said, reasons like this are a big part of why I almost exclusively play MMOs only on my PC and everything else on my console. The DRM issue has alway been a battle line between gamers and producers. Piracy is a problem, but DRM is not a solution. It provides hurdles and speed bumps, but only delays the inevitable. A solution, by definition, fixes an issues and prevents it from happening.

I hate to say it, but if you want people to stop stealing your games, sell them for less. Games are expensive, and that’s a big portion of the reason why people pirate them. Hell, it’s why I only buy used games for my consoles. No way in hell will I ever drop $60 for a brand new game when I can wait a few months and get it for half that.

To quote Tycho from Penny Arcade, “And no-one of any sense has ever bet against the scorn and resourcefulness of young men.”

Hot off the presses!

Get your scenarios in tonight see! The patch is coming tommorrow see!

I know you’re going to be sad about Thunder Valley going away, but no tears kid, just enjoy it tonight while you can.

Yesterday sucked, but the weekend rocked

The title says it all. My weekend was pretty amazing. My mother in law watched my daughter for most of it, so it gave me a good amount of free-time. I spent the majority of it on my PS3 actually. I finished off CoD4:MW (the first Modern Warfare, a used copy of MW2 is impossible to find), and traded it out for Killzone 2. Sunday, my Knight got to run through the palace and kill Tchar’zanek again. I walked out with the sovereign shoulders, and a bad-ass claymore. 95.7 DPS to this beast and stats that make me weep with joy.

So, yesterday, I was eager to take my new sword of devastation out into the field and put it to good use. Sadly, I didn’t get to log on till 9 PM EST, and I found myself face to face with a stage 1 attack on Altdorf, with a whopping 13 minutes left.

PTS Video

It’s the Ironclad on PTS. Enjoy.

New WAR Blogger

Or at least to me.

Mykiel War is the name of the game. He just did a video of the PTS, which I am downloading as I type this. He seems to be heavily into doing Podcasts on a fairly regular basis, so for those of you who like to sit back and listen, this should be up your alley. Thanks to Charlotte of Warhammer Alliance for pointing this one out in her news postings over there (even if I just realized she was still doing them thanks to the screen-dominating avatar contest).

PTS 2010.02.18

As you are probably aware, last night was the PTS event to test out the new insignia system as well as the new 6v6 scenario, “The Ironclad”. Some of the more morning-loving bloggers out there have already talked about them to some extent (seriously Gaarawar do you sleep?). I was there for the entirety of testing the vast majority of the Q&A, staying up well past my typical bed time of 10:30 PM. This morning is rough, but I’ve got my big jug o’ coffee, my actual job work-load is somewhat light for a change (only one meeting to interupt this post), and I’m ready to talk about this some. So here goes.

EuroGam…errrrr I mean Gamespot

Yeah. This.

At least they recognized the situation quickly, and promptly apologized.

There’s a problem in journalistic media today outside of the mainstream news. The credibility of game reviews are becoming more shaky as stuff like this continues to happen. There needs to be a higher level of scrutiny on what is released from outlets that retail to this market.