Raven Plays - Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Testing Weekend 8

In which my meditation is rudely interrupted by a.. Huge Pokemon?

Raven Plays - Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Testing Weekend 7

In which I really get into the groove of combat.

Raven Plays - Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Testing Weekend 6

** Originally posted on levelsave.com **

In which I justify my actions. What? Moral accountability in my MMORPG? Get out of town!

Raven Plays - Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Testing Weekend 5

** Originally posted on levelsave.com **

Sassy aliens in cages are surprisingly easy to kill!

RE: Pathfinder Online

** In response to a post at levelsave.com: http://levelsave.com/2011/12/pathfinder-online-announced/ **

The complaint with my early experience in 4th Ed D&D isn't necessarily with the system itself, but with the way the particular games at the Living Forgotten Realms nights in which I played were handled. The management team in Toronto for the LFR campaign is great, but some of the DMs are not. There is a policy that encourages players to rotate through DM duties every certain number of games. This leads to very player-driven sessions, a lot of looking up rules, and a ~lot~ of new DMs. This is a failing when trying to run story-driven modules, but not as much when running battle-driven modules.

This isn't an isolated problem, as I've seen the same kind of thing happen in other publisher-produced living campaigns outside of Toronto. I'm getting the impression that it's a living campaign problem more than anything. This may be why all of the modules in Forgotten Realms are so battle-heavy, with a story that ushers the next encounter, rather than explores the universe in which it is set.

That being said, the 4th Ed. D&D ruleset is definitely battle-oriented. The non-combat skills have been simplified so that rolling to tie a knot and rolling to hunt are based on the same skill. Whereas each segment of combat is accounted for, detail is high, there is "flavour text" for abilities that last less that two seconds. DMs and players can change that about their game, by adding complexity or by building highly detailed backgrounds with the DM. Roleplay doesn't need a bunch of attributes attached to it, ideally players should be able to choose to play out the role of their character verbally without any use of statistics whatsoever. Personally, I love that. Having a bare-bones character like you might in the 1st edition: Six statistics, a name, and a class. That's the ideal game for me. Combat in these games is driven in the same way, there is a stat that you are rolling against to "attack" and that's it. It's up to you to say if you are swinging from the chandelier and trying to upset the table that the Bullywug is standing on by throwing daggers at his feet and making him dance. (A lot of DEX tests on that one, yes?) There isn't any "Chandelier Barrage" ability which requires a unique formula to figure out damage for and might stun on a critical hit.

The 3rd edition, which is a medium complexity system, is also not for me. When I say I returned to "older systems," I didn't mean the third, I meant the first. I've been playing Labyrinth Lord for a while now, and I'm really enjoying the open-endedness of it. This game is perfect for me, and it's so simple to play and run that you can group more and more people together at the table. Taking on some of the older modules that required 8-12 characters to complete is an amazing experience. The table-talk around the game with that many players tends to be a lot of fun as well. This can't really happen with the 4th edition since battle tends to take so long that table-talk is discouraged. Making the game less and less social with each passing session.

This returns to the root of the discussion, MMO socialization. It is very true that MMOs don't tend to produce social buterflies, but there is a lot of socialization that happens in EVE Online. Joining a leading faction was actually a little much as far as my social threshold is concerned. I ended up just grouping with small squads to take down some other enemy-faction small squads. It was a lot of fun and a ~lot~ of socializing. This is why I have such high hopes for Pathfinder Online. There is a game developer who is interested in creating a sandbox, open-world MMO coupled with people who have been directly involved in an MMO which succeeded in doing just that.

Raven Plays - Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Testing Weekend 4

** Originally posted on levelsave.com **

In which I "fix" the graphical issues and have "no idea the enemy I'm making." Remember, it isn't murder without witnesses.

Pathfinder Online Announced

** Originally posted on levelsave.com **

I have been playing tabletop roleplaying games for a long time, longer than I have actually been playing the video game variety. I was involved in a game of Vampire: The Maquerade when I was a mid-teen, and played in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign made up of almost all the same people. This was back in the mid-90s before I had experienced the crushing reality of life and I entered a sort of personal Dark Age of tabletop gaming. I wouldn’t play another game of D&D for over a decade, totally missing out on the entire third edition of the game. I began again in 2008 when the fourth edition was released, coming back to the table with fresh eyes and a willingness to adapt to all of the changes that had occurred over the course of the last 12 years. I created an elven archer and brought the character to my local Living Forgotten Realms nights, which are held across North America. I met new people and had some good fun, until I realized that I wasn’t playing Dungeons & Dragons. The system that I was playing was nothing like the D&D I knew. The battles were slow tactical affairs with grid-maps to represent the environment and markers or minis for your characters. The story was weak at the best of times, and at the worst of times would be completely skipped to fast-forward to the engagement of steel and mana. I felt like I was playing Final Fantasy Tactics. (Don’t get me wrong, FFT is a great game, it’s just not what I was there for.) So I made the jump back to older editions of the game, bringing a couple of my new-found friends along with me.

Many share my view about the fourth edition of D&D as opposed to older versions, but some maintain that it is the failing of the users to take the reigns and really drive 4E as it should be. I understand that view but would rather play a different game, thank you.

Pathfinder is a kind of spiritual younger sister to D&D. It grew out of the desire for more third edition content after the fourth was released. Since the latest system was changed beyond recognition, it made sense. Also called the “d20 system,” it too has undergone many changes in it’s rules. The errata to the core books that everyone needed to play was so large at one point that they rebooted the entire series and called it the 3.5 edition. There was a lot of grumbling and moaning about having to buy all new books amongst the fans of the game, but it wasn’t necessary. After all, there was the Official Errata, which was free but fairly confusing to use unless you already knew it inside and out. More and more errata was piled onto the system until Paizo, the company who handled publication of the Dragon and Dungeon lines of magazines. Announced that they would be releasing an RPG called Pathfinder. Obviously taken straight from the pages of the 3.5E and errata, they also made it their own. With new monsters, a slew of wonderful adventure modules, and new rules of their own, they released the hefty core rulebook under their own banner.

Now, Paizo has gathered certain figures from Wizards of the Coast (D&D Publisher) and CCP (EVE Online) to create a company called Goblinworks that will handle all aspects of what they promise is going to be a “sandbox/theme park” style MMO. I am assuming they don’t mean that all player characters will have mascot-heads and ride roller coasters for experience points. They are proposing a model of gameplay that revolves around player interaction, rather than collection and mail-runner quests. Paizo has stated that they would like to see players building glittering castles, garner support from neighboring townships to take down larger military powers, and yes, maybe even have a quest or two to kill a bothersome dragon.

This is exiting news for me, and I believe it can be done well. The way Paizo and Goblinworks are talking about this new project feels reminiscent, to me, of the power-struggle and economy inherent within EVE Online. Let’s just hope the project gets off the ground!

For more information about Pathfinder Online, visit http://goblinworks.com. If you’d like to know more about tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, visit www.wizards.com/dnd/.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Session 1, Part 3/3

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Session 1, Part 2/3

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Session 1, Part 1/3

During the recent Beta Testing weekend, I took to the Academy as a Sith Warrior. These are my first steps into the new LucasArts MMORPG.

Sorry my voice is so quiet. I will endeavor to fix that problem in the future.

DC Universe Online Now Free To Play

** Originally posted on Levelsave.com **

On November 2011, after a short 11 month stint of a strict subscription-based business model, Sony Online Entertainment has eagerly adopted a tiered free-to-play system for their fierce physics-based MMORPG, DC Universe Online. Executive Producer Lorin Jameson stated, on the SOE Gamer podcast, that this change "...will allow everyone an opportunity to figure out where they want to be, and how they want to pay for it." When asked why he thought the change was necessary, Lorin added that he wanted players to be able to get involved in the game without commitment, to test the waters.

Following a trend of subscription-based MMOs going F2P, including such ongoing games such as Lord of the Rings Online and Anarchy Online, DCUO joins the ranks of good games which simply cannot compete against Blizzard's beast, World of Warcraft. Subscription can still be bought in various packages, but SOE is also adding two new tiers of commitment for people who are not willing to put up the monthly fee. There is a limited free-to-play format which will give you 2 character slots, a limited inventory, and access to all of the core areas not included in the DLC packages. There is also a Premium tier, which sits comfortably between the subscription and F2P levels, and includes more inventory and character slots, as well as access to other varied in-game privileges. After spending $5 on the game, players are automatically upgraded from Free to Premium. This includes players who have once been subscribed and have let their subscription lapse into dormancy.

Microtransactions have arisen in the game. A player can access the in-game store and buy items, equipment, character slots, inventory slots, and even DLC with credit purchased with real-life currency. The online store is also available for this purpose, and can take various payment options which does not include turning your hard-earned cash into DC credits.

There is some contention around whether this trend of subscription-based MMORPGs going F2P is actually a good thing or not. Personally, I am glad of the conversion, because through it I have found a good game that I wouldn't have been likely to pay for. I'm not a DC fan, not a comic book fan, nor an action-MMO fan, but the experience flying high above Gotham City and having shootouts with goody-goody heroes is definitely worth my time.

Download this game on PC and PS3 for free. Large content download required.

Cyberpunk and the Art of Deconstruction

Recently I've been playing Anarchy Online and a lot of those freeware japanese shoot-em-ups (shmups). 

My AO game is progressing very slowly due to only having a couple hours a night to play anything. Stupid life! This is my very first MMORPG to speak of and I must say, it's terribly boring. The combat is automatic on the "barbarian" classes and the Nanotechnicians (mages) are pretty much just point and click. I'm not sure what I expected but gameplay has gone right out the window on this one, I hear most MMORPGs are played this way, too. That being said it has it's good points. The world is spectacular and the team battles can be kind of fun when battle gets heavy and people start dying. Also, when you get an implant that suits your character it's rather exciting. These sparks of elation are too few and far between and getting more rare as my character progresses, unfortunately.

**It's crack. I can't stop playing except to get in some time with my insane japanese shmups, which are sex.**

Ah, stupidly hard shooters! These misleadingly simple verticle and horizontal scolling shooters are one of the staples of the gaming industry yet are totally underrated. Gradius V was the last big one to be released here and, though I haven't actually played it, I have seen the "perfect" video which was supposedly released the day Gradius V was released. This video is an expose in gameplay and is extremely... how do you say in english.. f****** nuts. If there is anyone who hasn't seen it, seek it out and get it.

I seem to have drifted off topic slightly. The fighters I've been playing recently are japanese freeware and play like showcases for complex patterns, this is not a bad thing. In fact Siroi Danmakukun is can more accurately be described as a dodge-em-up rather than the more traditional title of shmup as there is no fire buttion whatsoever but rather has a "go slowly" button. The game is, basically, you (a dot) vs the enemy (another dot) and an enourmous amount of complexity. My best is nine seconds, but to give myself credit I've only played a couple times, as yet.

Anyone who's anyone should try TUMIKI Fighters. I've heard it described as a "Katamari Damacy shmup" in that you can attach bits of the ships you've destroyed to your own for protection as well as having a Katamari Damacy-esque colour scheme and blocky graphics. This one is definately an innovation in shmup gameplay if not gameplay in general.

Another couple of very good games are by a guy who, I believe, calls himself Hikoza'n-CHI X and are entitled Shooters Solitude and Warning Forever. SS is a traditional shooter and features four different weapons which you power up (as far as I can tell) by killing enemies. The real game to play on this page is Warning Forever, though. It's basically boss battle after increasingly hard boss battle. The aimed cannon is one of the best executed aimed weapons I've seen in a shmup and make the game extremely fun to play.

The game I've been playing the most is called CHO REN SHA 68K. It's a traditional arcade-style shmup and is just insanely fun to play. The colors and music are awesome, the gameplay goes from the simplest style of ship shooting satisfaction to some difficult dodging whilst holding the turbo button down. Also, it has a bomb button, something definately lacking in a lot of modern shmups.

This has been my time alone for the past week or two. If anyone knows of any more of these freeware jaanese shooters i would love to hear about them. I seem to have started a small collection.