May 2024 In Review

May has come and gone.  Here is a look back (late delivery due to vacation).

The Blog

 I still owe a larger post about my findings with "spam" abuse of my GA4 (Google Analytics) tags that made me realize most of my traffic tracked to my blog was not real.  With that said let me present two numbers for blog traffic in May.

 First; the Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph / May count over the top)

 Second; my much filtered Google Analytics number.

 Those pictures tell two very different stories.  16k+ visits according to Blogger but only 875 per Google Analytics after I apply traffic source filters to get rid of spammers abusing GA4 tags.

 So May saw between 875 and 16,000+ visits to the blog. I'll pretend the latter is correct because... reasons.

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 15 (at least one per week day; except vacation)
  
• Posted:17
• Difference: +2
• Woohoo!  Back on track this Month
•  Search Trends
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" blew up this month directing folks to my post: Best Battlefield!?
• New World dominates the rest of the search queries across Bing and Google.  This month the champ was "new world roadmap 2024" which makes sense as May was the original timeframe for the 2024 roadmap to be provided (that has now been pushed to June 7th for the big news)
  

What I Played

 New World continues as my main game.  I spent a lot of time in 3v3 arenas (100+ wins this season).  With vacation I won't be able to make top 10 though on the leaderboard but hoping my main playing partner makes it in (he has a shot at #1).

 I also spent some time in Jedi: Fallen Order.  I really like the visuals and Star Wars story of the game, but the "on rails" corridor levels totally ruin the feeling.  That is why I am looking forward to Star Wars: Outlaws to give me an open world experience.

 Fallout fever died off as I gave up Fallout 3 (the game is too dated at this point for my tastes) and I didn't bother to grab Fallout 4/76/NV/whatever.

 I was accepted to the Combat Champions playtest but didn't get a chance to play due to vacation.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

 In May 2023 we got the first news of Amazon Game Studios (developers of my beloved New World) were starting working on a Lord of the Rings MMO.  In kind we began digging New World's grave.

5 Years Ago

 May 2019 I was looking at Magic the Gathering and reminiscing about the guild I helped run for a while: Casualties of War!

10 Years Ago

 In May of 2014 I was running around Guild Wars 2 and decided to document where traits could be obtained.  How much that game has changed!

15 Years Ago

  May of 2009 was a busy month on the blog and in retrospect some important things happened.

• Shadowbane wasn't quite yet dead: https://www.heartlessgamer.com/2009/05/not-gone-yet.html
• I reviewed Darkfall... by stealing a reviewer's review of another game: https://www.heartlessgamer.com/2009/05/darkfall-lost-review-made-possible.html
• Free Realms hit 2 million players (crazy for the time): https://www.heartlessgamer.com/2009/05/free-realms-hits-2-million-none-could.html
• Warhammer Online was undoing dumb designs: https://www.heartlessgamer.com/2009/05/mythic-checks-another-item-off-wars.html
• The irony is not lost on me all these years later that New World also had to eventually remove the idea of "wards" on gear for the same reason as WAR... wards made any gear without ward pointless.  Time is a flat circle or something.
  

 20 19 Years Ago

 Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.

 In May of 2005 I started a blog so I had that going for me :)

Why I have faith in New World

  I get a lot of crap for being a proud supporter of New World.  I don't think the game is perfect, but it doesn't take me long playing around with other games to remind me why I have faith in New World.

 I recently played the Pax Dei wilderness alpha and shared my thoughts.  I was not impressed and the game has a ways to go.  What was most shocking was how rudimentary the combat was.  Having insight to even the earliest of New World's testing periods the combat in New World was never anywhere near as basic as Pax Dei's offering so far.  Point goes to New World.

 Even more recently I've played Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) again for the first time in a decade and it didn't take me long to remember how floaty (and clunky) the combat is in that game.  Ironically ten or so years ago when ESO first launched I was not sold that an MMO could provide action combat and ESO was my poster child as to why.

 I can say all these years later that I was wrong about action combat in MMOs.  Action combat is New World's best selling point and while its got some growing pains right now with it's recent changes to the underlying scripting it is literal leaps and bounds better than ESO combat.  The ESO combat isn't so bad I don't want to keep playing but every fight I wish I was playing New World.

 What I do see as an advantage that ESO (or Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft, etc) have on New World is content.  ESO has a lot of content and comes out with new content chunks at a good pace.  New World has not been able to generate content at a pace that meets player expectations and some of the content, such as seasonal events, has been lackluster.  However, the games I mention didn't magically get content overnight. New World can get there with more content; they just need to figure out how to speed up the delivery.

 So whether its stepping back into old games like ESO or playing new shiny games like Pax Dei; I can see clear advantages for New World against its peers.  This gives me faith that there is a future for New World that is obfuscated by folks that can't look past the steam charts for concurrent players.  New World just needs to clean up the recent combat bugs introduced by the combat code rewrite (slayer script) and get cracking on new content.  Frankly; I find the general lack of faith in New World to be disturbing.

Vacation 2024 Edition

 

Upcoming Games I'm NO LONGER Interested In

 To go with yesterday's post about upcoming games I'm interested in I wanted to share some that I've lost interest in.

Pax Dei

 The Wilderness Alpha did not impress.  I hate to let an alpha test sway my opinion but its not clear much is going to change as the game barrels towards early access.  It may be one to come back in a year or so; we'll see.

Wayfinder

 I like the plan to move Wayfinder to offline singleplayer with some online co-op.  However, that just isn't something I want to play.

Crowfall

 Yes, I was still following and hoping we'd see a resurrection of Crowfall.  Despite its flaws I did really enjoy my time in the game.  Still some outside hope it'll come back but I am going to stop checking and wait for that news to make it to me.

Camelot Unchained

 Another one I am going to stop checking on and wait for the news to make it my way.

Riot MMO

 Relationship ended with Riot MMO.  Relationship started with the Ghost MMO project over at Fantastic Pixel Castle.

Upcoming Games I'm Interested In

 Just a quick check in on games I am paying attention to and some summaries with links to more info if you are interested.

Ashes of Creation

 Ashes of Creation is an upcoming open-world fantasy MMORPG with a massive 1200 km² world called Verra. It features a dynamic node system where player actions shape the development of civilizations, from humble villages to vast metropolises. The game blends PvE and PvP elements, with open-world dungeons, professions like fishing, and intense castle sieges in PvP zones like international waters.[2][4]

Citations:
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEVU8EZ6QaU
[2] https://ashes101.com/worldofverra
[3] https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/44414/the-new-player-guide
[4] https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Gameplay
[5] https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Alpha-1

Light No Fire

 Light No Fire is an upcoming open-world survival fantasy game from Hello Games, set on a procedurally generated planet the size of Earth. Players can explore vast landscapes, climb any mountain, sail oceans, and fly on dragons[1][4]. Character creation allows customizing species like rabbits or wolves[1]. It features multiplayer, allowing players to build persistent communities together or go solo[1][4]. While focused on exploration and building, combat is also expected to play a role[1][4]. The intriguing title "Light No Fire" hints at the game's mysterious lore and potential dangers lurking in the shadows[4].

Citations:
[1] https://blog.electronicfirst.com/8-things-we-know-about-light-no-fire/
[2] https://twitter.com/lightnofire?lang=en
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhLOQs_-BBo
[4] https://gamingbolt.com/light-no-fire-what-we-know-so-far
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uug_ckBLcyI

Ghost MMO

 The Ghost MMO is an upcoming fantasy MMORPG being developed by Fantastic Pixel Castle, a new studio founded by veteran developers like Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street (World of Warcraft, League of Legends MMO). It takes place in a shattered world of floating "shards" containing different biomes and environments to explore. The game features a unique shard system - private "Blue Shards" for you and friends to play survival/base-building, and public "Red Shards" for a more traditional MMO experience. With a focus on community, heroic characters, and alt-friendly gameplay with dozens of classes, Ghost aims to modernize the MMO genre while retaining classic RPG combat and social worlds.[1][2][3][4]

Citations:
[1] https://outof.games/news/6746-ghost-a-new-mmorpg-from-ex-wow-and-riot-mmo-devs-fantastic-pixel-castle-studio-announced/
[2] https://esports.gg/news/gaming/ghost-mmo-reveal/
[3] https://fextralife.com/former-wow-and-lol-designer-is-creating-a-new-fantasy-mmo-ghost-heres-why-you-should-be-excited/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMRULKzoTNk
[5] https://www.ign.com/articles/greg-ghostcrawler-street-returns-with-new-mmo-codenamed-ghost

 The Word on the Street podcast, hosted by Scott Johnson and Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, provides monthly insights into the development of Fantastic Pixel Castle's upcoming MMO Ghost, featuring conversations with the team working on various aspects like prototyping, combat design, world-building, and technology.[1]

Citations:
[1] https://www.frogpants.com/street

Combat Champions

 Combat Champions is a fast-paced, first-person shooter video game where players engage in over-the-top stunts and map-altering destruction while capturing key points and outshooting opponents in corporate arenas turned into game show settings.[1][2] Developed by C77 Entertainment, the game features explosive corporate conflicts televised by the Corporate Mediation Alliance, allowing players to drive the crowd wild with their high-stakes, high-reward performances.[1][2]

Citations:
[1] https://kotaku.com/games/combat-champions
[2] https://www.metacritic.com/game/combat-champions/
[5] https://www.combatchampions.com

Day 3,651: Elder Scrolls Online

 With the downtime in New World until the "big announcement" in June I decided to do some game exploration.  At first it was in my Steam backlog but it wasn't long before that MMO itch crept up on me.  At first it was just wanting to be in an open world so the though was survival/crafter but then the desire for multiplayer and if multiplayer why not massive multiplayer.  So  I made the plunge into Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).

 On day one of my adventure I created my character.  I was immediately annoyed by the fact that "heartlessgamer" as a name is already taken so I had to settle with "heartlessgamerr".  I have a sneaking suspicion when I played at launch that I did so under another account and may have self inflicted this (my current ESO account shows my beta access from 10 years ago but not my release purchase).  I guess this technically means this is really day 3,651 of my ESO adventure.

 Moving past the name I rolled up a Redguard Templar.  I am not one to spend too much time tweaking my appearance but found myself moving a good bit of the sliders available to get an old(er) looking bad ass ready to take on the world.

 I clicked create and set off into the tutorial.

 The quests and characters are all voiced which was nice but it wasn't long into the tutorial where it became click through material the same as most MMO quest and NPC fluff.  I have heard there is some great material from John Cleese in the game so that may change my mind on clicking through this.  The click through also may be related to my experience post-tutorial which I'll talk about in a bit.

 The world navigation involved a lot of segmented world slices separated by doors and minor loading pieces.  This was annoying but I assumed was part of the tutorial.  I expected a more open world experience out of the gate.  Unfortunately the segmented approach followed in to the main game so was off putting to not have a more seamless open world.

 With that said I am a bit lost in the main world.  I have lots of quests but find it hard to figure out what to do and not until late in my first day did I figure out how to see main vs side quests in the UI.  Wandering the world is pretty generic.  Enemies are very easy to defeat and there is no indication of difficulty anywhere that I can find.  My research says that PvE is easy and with "One Tamriel" there is level scaling, but seems like there should still be some challenge to expect.

 I've also gotten a bunch of "oh you should buy X" from players I've run into.  X being some content pack for the game that you have to buy and there is a lot of possible Xs to buy.  The store is a bit overwhelming in ESO.  I am sure it will make more sense as I progress but if a $19.99 box price (even though I got it for free) doesn't give me enough of a good starting experience then I am not likely buying X.

 Lastly I want to touch on combat.  It is the same "floaty" combat that I remember from playing in beta and launch.  I hate to say it but New World combat has spoiled me so it is very, very hard for me to go to older MMOs that have much less fluid combat.  This isn't to say New World's is perfect but it feels so much better than ESO.  Maybe it gets better later on in ESO?  Maybe PvP is better?

 I will keep trudging along in ESO for a bit here, but do have vacation and trips coming up so it may be forgotten depending on New World's big announcement in June.  But if the announcement for New World is just "thing coming later this year" then maybe I'll make it further in ESO.

Monday Screenshots: Into Elder Scrolls Online

 I finished out the tutorial in Elder Scrolls Online and "heartlessgamerr" (grr!!!) is off into the main world.

Returning to Elder Scrolls Online 10 years later

 True story: I was going to the Steam store to look at Valheim when Steam decided to recommend Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) to me.  Being the type that is easily distracted I clicked into ESO instead of Valheim.  I had thought ESO was "free" to get started with but when I got to the page I realized it had a $19.99 starting price tag.  That reminded me that I had received a copy of ESO for free in the Epic game store so I hit download.

 Before I could get started I had to get my account in order with Zenimax which reminded me just over 10 years ago I was playing in the beta for ESO!  How time flies!

 

 When I had played the beta and then launch I bounced off the game quickly.  So quickly that it didn't even make a blog post (that I can find anyways).  My recollection of my experience was that combat felt floaty and like you were ice skating; the rest of the game didn't stick with me at the time.  I also assume at the time I wasn't as open to moving away from tab target combat as I would be now.  My memory also tells me there were technical issues but its been a bit!  

 Also not game related but my oldest son was young at this time and when we were learning what it meant to be parents of a child on the autism spectrum so my blogging had really hit a minimum at this point and it was hard to invest significant time in any specific game let alone the dedication most MMOs of that time required.

 So am I going to actually play ESO again? Maybe.  Timing seems right as New World is at a stand still until the June announcement and I doubt the announcement dovetails with anything new to play (we have 40+ days left in Season 5).  I've already been playing other games unless my playing partner is online in New World.

 However, I am gone on vacation for a week and then a lengthy trip to Northern Tier for scouts so I'll be mostly offline myself for the rest of May and June/July.  But I think I'm going to get started... if I can get past analysis paralysis of "what character to start and play".

 

Wayfinder Offline

Wayfinder Echoes will take Wayfinder OFFLINE

 

 Big news from Wayfinder: they are moving the game to a single-player offline game with the option for online co-op multiplayer.

"Wayfinder will be removing all online requirements and will be a single-player game with optional 3-player co-op. No queues, no login, no accounts. You can choose to play solo on your Steam Deck while on the go or engage in peer-to-peer co-op with friends from your home PC. We realize this is a big shift, but a necessary one to guarantee that the game is around forever. This also means that all progress will not be carried forward due to saves being local and not on a server. This major change will be the basis for what we’re calling Wayfinder's Echoes Update."

 Additionally they are moving away from micro-transactions: No in-game microtransactions or in-game purchases, just one price. 

 Kudos to the team pulling this lever after all of the back and forth they've gone through with losing their publisher and what has been a very rough early access period.  I think this is the right direction for the game. Under the circumstances moving to a single player approach makes it reasonable for them to deliver an actual game.  Plus they keep the multi-player aspect that made sense for the game; the co-op dungeon crawling.

 As should be expected this means a lot within the game will change and they allude to every part of the game being changed due to this redesign.  Ironically if you read through the paragraph on what changed it boils down to: nothing is gated behind a live service model anymore so have fun unlocking and collecting it all!  What a breath of fresh air to hear from a developer.

 When do we get to play?  May 31st soft launch for founders and then launches in various other forms through the end of year.  Their roadmap is below.

Wayfinder 2024 Roadmap

New World Free bearskin rug! And cool Paladin armor skins (not free)

 If you are not following along with the Community Convergence event in New World then you may have missed your chance at a free bearskin rug for your house.  It is claimed through the in game store (see screenshot below).

 

 Also if you are visiting the store, and like me, are a HUGE fan of the Paladin knight look there is a an armor and mount skin bundle that may be right up your alley.  Am I shilling skins for New World now?  No.  I just like the paladin look and it's easy to miss the new skins they are offering because New World doesn't shove their store in your face (which is good).

Paladin!

Paladin Horse!