Culture

When I was a kid, I loved the Red Sox, but I was dying to get a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap. It's not that I was a fan of the team; I just loved the unusual look of the hat, with its pillbox shape, gold stripes, and most importantly, rows and rows of gold stars. Those stars were called Stargell stars and were the creative genius of Hall of Famer Willie Stargell.

It might seem strange to be talking baseball in a guild column, but those Stargell stars played a key role in the Pirates' success, and they serve as a great example of successful guild management. Can a little embroidered star really make a difference? Let's take a look in this week's Guild Counsel.

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Character animations seem to be only noticed when they don't come off right. It's often a matter of subjective opinion whether or not these animations are pleasing or jarring, of course, but the fact remains that animations that don't meet players' standards are the target of long, long-winded rants.

I try to give credit where credit is due. MMOs that show off fluid, good-looking animations are deserving of praise. For me, the litmus test is whether or not a game can portray jumping in a natural way. That's harder than you'd think; I've seen so many titles that have characters jumping with stiff spines, awkward arm angles, or the grace of a boiled squash.

So instead of lambasting games for bad animations, let's focus on those that pull off natural- and good-looking animations today. Seriously, it's going to be tough for some of you to put a lid on the negativity, but I believe in you. Which game has the best character animations?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

I love MUDs. When I go through a several-hour long MUD session, I feel as if I took part in a greater story, and most of the fun was not based on stats or gear. MUDs let me escape into a world because they are about story first. I think I'm pretty rare, though. I can't find many other writers who seem to write about MUDs unless they are referencing them like some sort of relic from the past. The truth is that MUDs are still being loved, played, and enjoyed by thousands. Covering MUDs is as important as covering any other MMO. They're still part of the bigger picture.

I'm sure many of you reading this now could not care less about MUDs. You might have played one years ago, but generally they are seen as the cute elderly citizens of MMOdom. That's cool if that's how you feel, but now think about this: The new generation, kids between 13 and 20 years old, will look at many of our large PCs and 20 gig MMOs the same way modern gamers look at MUDs.

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Back in the day, combat in MMOs was nice and sedate. You had a weapon, the other guy had a weapon, and you both walked up and hit one another with weapons until one of you died. To ensure that you succeeded at that goal, you had huge bars of abilities filled with various tricks to make the other guy die a little more than you did. It was a bit passive, is what we're getting at.

Recent MMOs have been swinging to the other extreme, with players having a handful of abilities and a mandate to dance around the screen like a hyperactive rabbit. Titles like WildStar and The Elder Scrolls Online are previewing themselves partly on the strength of active combat. Do you like the increasing trend of active combat in MMOs? Or do you wish that we could go back to more sedate combat systems, possibly with those darn kids getting off our lawns in the process?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

I've got MMO music on the brain today, and with apologies to our dedicated music column, I'm going to devote this episode of Leaderboard to some of my favorite massively multiplayer composers. If you're not already aware, video game music has ceased to be cheesy, synth-dominated midi riffs and now sounds as good, if not better, than many of the orchestral marches composed for epic films and television.

With all that said, let's keep it simple. Who's your favorite MMO music composer? Vote after the cut!

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You know what sucks? Hearing a cool piece of game music and having no idea what it's called or where to hear it again, that's what. I mean, it sucks in a first-world-problems sort of way, but still.

It happened to me over the weekend as I was playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. My Imperial Agent was toodling along, doing the nefarious things that Imperial Agents do, when the most dastardly fanfare I've heard this side of the Imperial March came blaring out of my speakers.

It was glorious.

Naturally, I haven't heard the phantom track since, even after much fumbling about trying to recreate the in-game circumstances during which it originally played. I even turned to the soundtrack CD that came with the collector's edition that's been gathering dust in my closet since 2011. It wasn't on there, of course, since soundtrack producers have some unwritten rule about leaving off half the soundtrack (and jumbling the tracks they deign to include) when they make an album. I've also been unable to find the track on YouTube's extensive SWTOR soundtrack playlists.

So, what say you, Massively readers? Has a piece of game music ever derailed a play session? Which one?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

My loathing of Elves is not only well-documented here on Massively, but stretches back to my childhood. I've just never liked them, period. Maybe it's because they're the preppie cool kids in my mind's John Hughes movie, or maybe it's their incredible haughty arrogance and froofy love of flowerwear. In any case, I don't like them, I don't play them, and I feel perfectly fine wishing all manner of humiliating harm upon them. After all, they're pretend and that makes it OK, right?

So in the tongue-in-cheek spirit of imaginary racism, which pretend species makes your skin crawl in MMOs? Can you not abide by Dwarves no matter what? Do Gnomes irk you? Will your eyes roll out of your head if you see another humanoid cat race invade your gaming space? Let's get our hate on this morning! Whee!

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

You've got nothing else to do on a lazy Saturday. You've got plenty of food and beverages, a comfortable seat, and a burning desire to get something accomplished in your game of choice. So you settle down, you log in, and you start running around and getting stuff done.

Exactly how long is it going to be until you get up?

We're not asking about when you get up to grab more chips or run to the bathroom or whatever. Today's question is just about how long you can sit in front of the screen without needing to get up and do something else for a little while. How long can you play a game in one sitting? Does it depend on the game, with group-based games like Final Fantasy XI meriting a longer session compared to solo-friendly titles like World of Warcraft? Or can you tolerate only a certain amount of time before you need a break no matter what?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Many players in my guild are really looking forward to Elder Scrolls Online. Nearly everyone has signed up for beta. I cannot confirm or deny whether some of them might be in playing right now. When I announced that I was taking on the ESO column for Massively, I could feel their questioning eyes burning through the internet: Why would you want to do a column on the Elder Scrolls? You have said that you were burned out on fantasy. Skyrim gave you trouble because of the first-person view. And there are no playable dwarves. They might have caught me on that last one, but the others are partially true, as well. I have played a lot of fantasy games, but TES bends a lot of the traditions of high fantasy. And thankfully, you can play all of Skyrim in third-person view.

There are three major factors that have kept me intrigued with the entire world of the Elder Scrolls. Tamriel is full of deep and rich lore. Granted, most of ESO's lore is future-tense, but a good chunk can be applied to the current timeline -- much as in Star Wars: The Old Republic, my other editorial focus. Secondly, Elder Scrolls Online intends to keep the mechanics and the flavor of the franchise within an MMO setting. This includes a PvP system that pits three factions against each other. Although I usually have a take-it-or-leave-it approach to open-world PvP, I have always been fascinated by how three-faction systems work. Lastly, the community is passionate. I enjoy connecting with people who are looking to connect with each other and share their hopes for a game that hasn't even been released yet.

Those will be the three main focuses of this column. Let me tell you how it will work.

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Even with Syfy doing a happy dance over Defiance's premiere numbers, there's been a cloud of doubt hovering over the show's survival. Because, well, this is Syfy. We've never quite forgiven the channel for canceling Farscape in favor of Octosharkasaurus vs. Mecha-Piranhadon. But it looks as though the MMO's sibling has received an extension of life, as Syfy renewed it for a second season.

Syfy President of Original Content Mark Stern had these words of encouragement at the news: "Bringing the rich world of Defiance to life has been an incredible team effort. We couldn't ask for better partners than Kevin Murphy, his amazing cast and crew, and Trion Worlds. We can't wait to see where they take us in the second season."

The press release says that the demographics for the show have remained impressive for the network, that over a million registered players have enjoyed the multi-platform MMO, and that the Trion-Syfy collaboration will continue into the second season.

It's time for a grab bag edition of Ask Massively! A reader named Nicholas is up first:

I was wondering if you could help me remember a game studio that was developing a new Korean action- MMORPG game engine (and it wasn't Bless, Blade and Soul, or ArcheAge). In the tech demo, no environment was being shown; it focused on the combat aspect of the engine. All the combat took place against a white background, and it was combo-based and reactive to hits. I remember a slow motion scene with an NPC being punched in the face and the face distorting. At the time, there were no announced games using the engine; the video was just showing what tech the game studio had developed. If it helps any, I remember the comments saying that the engine was just going to be vaporware.

I think we might! Massively's Lis pegged it as NetEase's Dragon Sword trailer. +1 to Lis.

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This is not timed perfectly to coincide with what would have been the ninth anniversary of City of Heroes. It couldn't be, honestly; trying to do so would have resulted in a worse column. There's also the simple fact that the ninth anniversary did not actually happen, the game was gone before then. Sanctifying the date will not bring the game back, nor will it assuage the fact that it's not there any longer.

Despite all of that, I liked the thematic structure put forth on the Titan boards, nine reasons for nine years. But since I'm incapable of doing things any way but the wrong way, I'm approaching this in my own style with my own nine reasons that I wish we'd had a ninth year. Even if the game comes back tomorrow in some form, it's never going to have the life that it should have had, and here's my nine reasons why I wish that weren't the case.

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Welcome back to the second installment of MUD May! Almost any time I write an article, I try to keep new players in mind. It's fun to see the reaction from readers when I talk about MUDs or other "classic" MMO models and how these games can pull in fresh blood. Many people seem to forget that there are new players coming into MMO gaming all the time, and MUDs should be no different. Over the next few columns, I will be pulling examples from five games: Gemstone IV, Dragonrealms, Threshold RPG, BatMUD, and Achaea to explain how some basic MUD systems work.

With that in mind, I'd like to use this week's installment to explain -- in a very simple way -- how combat might feel in a MUD. One of the biggest hurdles for a new MUD player is often the massive amount of information that is built from decades of development. MUD players often sneer at the thought of simplifying the entry for new players. To be fair, this unwelcoming attitude is common in gaming in general. I feel differently, however, and want to explain some of the basics of these fantastic MMOs -- simply -- in a way that illustrates just how cool MUDs can be.

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If there's one staple that MMOs share with other video games, it's that fighting tends to be a mostly bloodless and gore-free affair. Sure, sometimes a daring game might throw in blood fireworks that erupt in the air to signify that you're doing some damage, but you and your enemy will appear in model health until one of you keels over from invisible wounds.

Of course, as time progresses and technology gives us terrific marvels, there's the potential for games to start showing more and more wounds on our characters. It kind of reminds me how there used to be action figures with the main selling point that you could transform them into disfigured, gory versions as they took "battle damage."

What do you think? Should MMOs continue to keep combat gore on the down-low or have you had enough of these abstract, bloodless brawls?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

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