What EVE Could Do to Bring Back Players

I hold no reservations about EVE Online. It is a very well designed game, albeit owned by an otherwise poorly run company named CCP. EVE is like a good wine, aging well and accruing value with every passing year. If that sounds conflicted, it is. I am still conflicted over the game.

I enjoyed my time playing EVE, but the game is inherently punishing towards it's newer players. Also, I spent more time researching things outside of the game, than I did playing. My first character was completely gimped and without a delete and restart I would have spent months catching up. I stopped playing, but kept paying to advance my skills. Eventually my two cents kicked in and I canceled my subscription. Just in time fortunately, as my corporation's leader decided to dump the corporation in classic EVE form: by stealing all the ISK, kicking all the members, and stealing every last BPO and ship possible.

So, what spurs me to post about EVE today? First off, CCP, invited Richard Bartle to speak at a recent panel for the EVE Fan Faire. Bartle told them that their plan to democratise the player to company interactions would fail.

The panel I was on this morning is now over. As insulting your hosts go, I think I did well (sigh).

Basically, CCP (the EVE Online developers) want to democratise their virtual world because they have so many players that they're being overwhelmed by suggestions for ways to change or improve their virtual world. They want a council of players to put the best ideas to them, with the council-members decided by popular vote. I told them that this wouldn't work because CCP still had the final say (they're gods, not a government), so the players actually had no new powers at all. However, using the word "democracy" would give them the impression they did have power, so it would all end in tears when they discovered that they didn't.

That sums up my opinion on the matter fairly well. Honestly, the whole move smells of marketing to save face for numerous past misgivings. CCP needs to concentrate on improving the experience it provides to the average player, not spin political mumbo jumbo with a few hardcore elite.

The second news item that brings me to EVE: patch notes. No, I'm not going to break down all the notes. I just wanted to point out the inclusion of both a Linux and Mac client for the game. Other than that, nothing of interest for any ex-EVE players looking for a reason to come back.

However, that is the reason I am here. There is a couple changes that would definitely make me reconsider coming back at some point.

1. With an account that is 6-months or older, allow players to set skills to train without paying a monthly subscription. This will allow interested players to return down the line without having to worry that they will be years behind in training. ISK will still be a limiting factor in how much of an impact these players can have by themselves.

For some evidence that this would work, we just need to look back at the five day period where all accounts were reopened. Several of my friends reopened their accounts just to set a long skill to train with the plan of someday playing again.

2. Allow skill training to be automated. When I was playing, nothing sucked worse than losing time because you could not log in to set a new skill to train. EVE needs a skill template system where players can load a template from a website and have their training automatically set itself. I don't believe any current EVE player would argue that this would not be a benefit to the game.

Unfortunately, CCP seems far too wrapped up in political bullshit and graphical updates to care.

Team Fortress 2 Initial Impressions - Part IV

Part I
Part II
Part III

I want to take a moment to clear something up about Team Fortress 2. There is no I in team. Games are won or lost by the actions of the team. Teams that don't want to defend control points, lose. Teams that want to play defensive classes while on offense, get trapped. Teams that constantly steal ammo packs during setup, thus delaying the upgrade of sentry guns, get run over by early rushes. Teams that play together and support each other, win.

These team mechanics can be both aggravating and rewarding. Even the best solo players can have a screaming fit if their team is not working together. Nothing they can do themselves can make up for a half-dozen or more other players doing nothing. A good player could have an instant kill switch for anything on their screen, but without a team watching their back they will make little difference in the end.

However, a good player can instantly lift a sub par team that is at least trying to work together. A couple good players can almost make a team themselves with the proper classes and strategy. I can't wait to see how more organized clans and teams start doing in tournament level play.

Over all the other aspects of TF2, this is the aspect that sells the game. TF2 would be "just another game" if the developers had submitted to repeated pressure to make each class more "solo friendly". The biggest war was won when the developers stated strongly that grenades for every class were not going to be part of TF2. Grenades would have turned each and every class into a potential powerhouse, capable of soloing any situation. Without the grenades, classes now have to work together to form a team. There are other examples, but the grenades issue was the most apparent in beta and in comparisons to Team Fortress Classic.

Teamwork sells the game.

Final Thoughts

It's Over

Halloween has come and gone. For the most part, I stayed away from any in-game related Halloween madness. I was particularly burned out on World of Warcraft, so I never paid the headless horseman a visit (however, we did watch Sleepy Hollow tonight). I'm still in newbie mode in Dark Ages of Camelot, so nothing special there.

And here at the homestead, the witches, princesses, Jedi, mummies, Sponge Bobs, Supermans, Batmans, Spidermans, giant raisins, robots, and mutants are all gone. The candy dish is empty. Tomorrow, I'll pack up the skull candles, spiderwebs, and gravestones.

The good news? Halloween is only a year away!

Chuck Norris vs. The Dragon Raid

New in Linux: Graphic Card Drivers

AMD has decided to start supporting their ATI line of graphics cards with Linux-based drivers.

Video card giant AMD announced the release of new Linux drivers for its popular line of video cards today. The new drivers, Linux Catalyst 7.10, provide updates and features for desktop effects and gaming.

The new drivers provide support for AIGLX and ATI GPUs, enabling performance improvements for OpenGL games including the Quake and Doom lines. The improvements also offer support for enhanced graphic effects for supported distributions.

This is one moderate step in the right direction for Linux gaming. Graphic card support is the sore spot and hurdle that Linux gaming needs to clear. Hopefully, other companies will follow suit and give Linux users even more hardware options.

Lord of the Rings Online: Game of the Year?

Apparently Lord of the Rings Online has been voted Game of the Year.

(Drum roll). The PC Game of the Year 2007 - sponsored by PC Gamer, has been awarded to Turbine's Tolkien-powered MMO The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

And the hobbits rejoiced.

Lord of the Rings Online beat off WoW, Football Manager 2007, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to grab the gong. We've have a feeling this is going to generate some interesting and no doubt highly enlightening discussion in the comments below...

Funny thing is, LotRO didn't win the Online Game of the Year award. World of Warcraft won that award. I guess we can all figure out what category the LotRO fanboys voted in. In my opinion, the people that voted for WoW, did so in the correct category, instead of trying to cheese it to a win in an overall category. So, LotRO scrapes out a trophy to throw up on the wall next to their four million characters created plaque. I wonder who is getting fired over this one?

Back Into the Dark

I'm heading back into the dark; Dark Age of Camelot that is. While Team Fortress 2 has my action gaming covered, I need a new game to replace World of Warcraft for a bit. It is nothing that WoW has done, but I am just tired and can't force myself to login lately. It is probably my fault, because I really needed that fifth epic mount and the brewfest quests were fun. Well, fun for a day. But it doesn't matter, I have my epic Brewfest Riding Ram!

So, I reinstalled Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) today and resubscribed my account. I decided that I'm going to give the Classic servers another shot. After all, the Classic server cluster fixes pretty much every complaint I've ever had about DAoC. No more buff bots. No more Trials of Atlantis, which means no Master Levels or Artifacts.

Of course, there is a couple expansion packs I need to catch up on. Darkness Rising and the Labyrinth of the Minotaur have both launched since I last played, and there appears to be a ton of stuff to do in both. For example, Darkness Rising has mounts, and we all know how much I love collecting my mounts!

For those interested, here are my plans:

Server: Gareth (Bossiney Cluster)
Realm: Midgard
Class: Skald or Warrior

If you play and want to hook up, just let me know and maybe we can get in on some newbie Realm vs. Realm. Oh, did I mention players can almost level completely from Realm vs. Realm now? Awesome. And, experience gain is doubled in the original world and dungeon zones! Leveling like this makes WoW look like a grind.

PS. Please give me plats.

Where's My Tin Foil?

It is very hard for me not to run out and buy some new tin foil to fashion a very stylish hat out of.

Call of Duty 4 Demo Impressions

I had a chance today to play the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare single-player demo and I was very impressed. The CoD4 demo is truly how all demos should be: fun, intense, and satisfying within itself. So many demos come out these days with a short, pitiful glimpse at what the game offers. Fortunately, this is not the case with CoD4's demo.

The entire Call of Duty series is noted as having some of the best single-player FPS action to date. So far, CoD4 is shaping up to be no different and it's not World War II this time around! CoD4 is set in modern times, hence the Modern Warfare subtitle.

The demo starts the player off in a Middle-eastern setting on a mission to secure a damaged tank. Along for the ride is an entire squad of U.S. Marines. The action starts immediately, and when I say immediately, I mean it. There is literally no time for a player to check their weapon load-out or control schemes before the squad leader is barking out orders to move forward and suppress the enemy's fire.

It doesn't take long to realize that CoD4 emphasizes action and fast game-play over complicated strategy. This forces the player into a "don't think, just react" mode, and that can be uncomfortable at first. My best advice: learn how to duck for cover, because the intense action is what makes this game so fucking great. There is no shame in hiding for a minute to assess and advance on the situation presented.

As the mission progresses, players get a taste for some of the tools available in the full version, such as night vision, vehicles, and a gadzillion different weapons (yes, gadzillion is a made-up word, but it sounds fitting). It is very refreshing to play a demo where I didn't feel the available weapons were restricted in anyway. Every few steps, there was another new weapon to be found.

And the best part of the demo is the fact that it has a verifiable conclusion. Players definitely reach a point at which they can say; "I did something here and I'm glad its finished." I can not wait for the full version of this game, and all of this based on the single-player alone. We haven't even touched the multiplayer yet!

Sorry Hellgate

It wasn't bad enough that the recently released Hellgate: London demo sucked, but EA has once again gone and tried to make a buck off of unsuspecting gamers.

...people installing the newly released Hellgate: London demo have noticed that the game includes adware, advertising that is integrated into software. Here's the pertinent section of the license you have to agree to abide by once Hellgate is installed onto your system:

The Software incorporates technology of Massive Incorporated ("Massive") that enables in-game advertising, and the display of other similar in-game objects, which are uploaded temporarily to your personal computer or game console and replaced during online game play. As part of this process, Massive may collect your Internet protocol address and other basic anonymous information, and will use this information for the general purposes of transmitting and measuring in-game advertising.

This is the exact reason I did not buy Battlefield 2142 from EA. This is another reason I will never buy, own, or care about Hellgate: London. Don't get me wrong, the recent Hellgate demo didn't exactly win me over, but it didn't completely kill my interest in the game either. However, the coffin is closed now.

Vote with your wallet gamers, say no to Hellgate: London.