We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

Not even a wolf riding a wolf makes me want to play Vanguard again

I’m a big believer in expansions for MMOs. Whilst free patch content is always nice and more than welcome, I accept that it has its limitations and that we can’t expect to get bundles of new stuff – new classes, races, game mechanics, locations and level cap increase – for frees (well, not unless you play EVE anyway). Perhaps most importantly though, expansions also help re-ignite MMOs, gaining positive attention and drawing in new players, helping them grow. There’s a reason why games like Everquest and Everquest 2 have survived for so long and kept me personally interested for years. I also wholeheartedly think that it the continuous and reliable release of solid expansions that stopped EQ2 from slipping off the face of the planet. But that’s another blog post.

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A reminder to all that WoW's colour palette should probably be avoided by those with epilepsy

Although it’s early days with SW:TOR and I’m still somewhat off to the level cap, I’m an avid PvPer and queue for Warzones almost constantly when I play it (they’re a lot of fun). Taking a breather and switching back to WoW Battlegrounds for a few days though highlighted something I always suspected: it’s ridiculously unbalanced compared to The Old Republic.

It’s no surprise really. SW:TOR is a new game and designed from the ground up to cater to both PvE and PvP and, whilst I’m sure there will be balance issues of some sort (it’s unavoidable really), the PvP is a lot less frustrating than, say, WoW and none of the classes seem to stand out as being ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than any of the others. At least not yet. Of course, it’s not perfect and you still have to deal with the issues of level divides and gear progression but, unless you play PvP specific MMO like League of Legends, I’m not sure it’s ever going to be possible to solve those problems.

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The incredulous, exuberant, marvellous paradigm of multi-role perfectionism - the RIFT cleric

One of the reasons that I’m not a fan of the Advanced Class system in SW:TOR is because it fills you with hesitation and regret. Having invested four or five hours into your character, you’re suddenly forced to make a huge decision that’s going to impact your playstyle forever more based only upon a tiny Codex entry and a brief glance at skill trees. Furthermore, you sometimes have to pick between giving up any chance of tanking or healing and become a full on DPS only class. The Jedi Sentinel/Sith Marauder and Gunslinger/Sniper are the examples in question. Just why, oh why, would anyone gimp themselves to such a degree?

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The backstory for my character was a Nord who recently went on vacation to work on his tan

I’m quite enamored with Skyrim. Partially because it makes me say things to my wife like, “honey, I’m going to play Skyrim, come get me in three hours” but mainly because it gives me everything I’ve always enjoyed in a RPG and always wished for in a MMORPG: freedom, immersion, exploration and a real sense of satisfaction.

Skyrim’s not perfect. The UI is awful, the combat is a little clunky and a lot of the voice actors sound like poor Arnold Swarchenegger impersonators but all of these things, for me anyway, are easy to overlook as you get sucked into a pure, honest and unashamed role-playing experience. The game doesn’t pander to you and it doesn’t patronise you but neither does it make your life hard for the sake of creating artificial challenge or immersion. There’s no mandatory grinding and practical concepts like fast travel and providing exits at the end of long, winding dungeons keep you from getting frustrated. It’s the perfect blend of hardcore and casual (something I’m hoping MMOs will get right one day).

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Guild Wars 2 - "Look ma, no healer!"

My post last week about MMO designers using class flexibility as a way to keep the Holy Trinity on life support rather than find alternative solutions drew a lot of great feedback, fantastic comments and interesting discussions. I always love it when readers know more about a subject than I do and aren’t afraid to get stuck into a debate about it, however it did raise a lot of good questions about my motivations for writing the article in the first place. To be clear, I don’t hate the Holy Trinity (in fact, I’m rather fond of it), it’s just that I don’t think it works in today’s MMORPG.

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Pandaren Monks. Filling every role and making every other class obsolete.

Let’s face it, the holy trinity mechanic for MMOs isn’t going anywhere. No matter how restrictive it is, no matter how much it impedes gameplay, no matter how much it puts the whole silly concept of raiding at odds with the leveling game (I just despise the idea of a single ‘main tank’), its here to stay for a long, long time. Regardless of how much we might want the holy trinity to accidentally asphyxiate itself during a sordid little sex game with its dirty sandbox cousin, it’s never going to die, especially not when developers have found a way to keep the darn thing on permanent life support. Y’know what I’m talking about – the concept of hybrid classes and versatility.

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You all know my kid would be a badass

No, my wife isn’t pregnant. Yet. But it’s definitely on the cards – turns out the biological clock of a woman is an insane force to be reckoned with. Last time I likened it to a nuclear time bomb but I was wrong, it’s more like the most dangerous ninja on the planet, ready and waiting to attack. And attack she did. A couple of weeks ago I was awakened from a deep slumber in the middle of the night by the woman pouncing on me in a burst of animalistic sexual desire. It wasn’t until the deed had been done and she rolled off me with a smirk on her face that I realised just what had happened and a wave of utter terror flooded over me.

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