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Flameseeker Chronicles: What's your golden carrot?

Elisabeth Cardy — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles, Dungeons

On the Sunday of the most recent beta weekend for Guild Wars 2, I found myself trying to figure out precisely what incentive my friends and I might have to go through the explorable mode of dungeons before we hit level 80. The question arose, in a roundabout way, because there's not a tremendous amount of XP available (you spend more time killing fewer things), which makes sense if you're a developer trying to discourage players from entering a dungeon they have no intention of completing in order to farm experience, but it left us wondering whether we'd feel compelled to participate in explorable mode dungeons as we progressed through the game. The point of the matter is, unless you're well and truly enamored of the armor attainable through a specific dungeon's tokens, there might not be much empirical motivation to get through a repeatable dungeon. This stood out to me because so much of the game's reward structure is so clear and well-designed.

Although I'll certainly never make the claim that the game will please everyone, or even that ArenaNet's fine folks are trying to please everyone, it is evident that they're building in support for a wide variety of play and reward styles.

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Flameseeker Chronicles: What's your golden carrot? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WildStar's Bartle-inspired paths offer players unique and shared content [Updated]

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Interviews, MMO industry, WildStar

Jeremy Gaffney recently opened up on the connection between WildStar's Paths and Richard Bartle's famous breakdown of playstyles. While Gaffney admits that WildStar drew inspiration from Bartle's categories, the team has tuned the four paths -- Explorer, Soldier, Achiever and Builder -- to fit the devs' vision for the game.

No matter which path you pick, Gaffney promises that there will be something meaningful for you to be doing at all times. The important part is that the game has a deliberate balance between path-specific activities and universal ones: "What we do is we take 70% of the world, and that's a mix of all the styles, and then about 30%, depending on the zone, swaps over and that's about you and about your path. So, as an Explorer you have your normal mix of stuff, but then an extra chunk on top of it that's all about exploring."

People from different paths have many ways, reasons, and incentive to interact as they progress through the zones. Gaffney says that WildStar will "pile on the layers" to keep players involved and active. He also assured fans that all paths will have plenty to do in the endgame so that the journey doesn't come to a crashing halt.

[Update: Carbine also released another WildStar Wednesday this afternoon; it features some community discussion all about events in MMOs.]

WildStar's Bartle-inspired paths offer players unique and shared content [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Enter at Your Own Rift: Off the beaten path

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, RIFT, Enter at Your Own Rift

Conventional MMO wisdom says that one should stick to the roads as much as possible when questing. Roads have become the "safe zone" of online games, a place where mobs are less likely to attack and adventurers are less likely to become lost. RIFT, however, turns this MMO convention on its head and does everything it can to break us of this predictable -- and boring -- habit.

For one thing, the roads in RIFT are not safe. At any moment, a rampaging invasion or event boss may be wandering down them, looking for easy prey. I've seen more than one jaded MMO vet express a type of dawning pleasure when this has happened, especially considering the reputation modern games have for coddling their populations.

For another thing, there are a lot of incentives to strike off the beaten path and explore the world instead of staring at a packed trail that's been walked a million times before. RIFT encourages players to do so in subtle ways, ways that I deeply appreciate as an explorer type.

In today's Enter at Your Own Rift, we're going to look at three reasons that blazing your own way in the wilderness is more fun -- and even beneficial -- than sticking to the highway. Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.

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Enter at Your Own Rift: Off the beaten path originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 May 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warhammer Online immortalizing top players in stone

James Egan — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Guilds, PvP, Warhammer Online, News items

We play massively multiplayer online games for many reasons. For some it's the social aspects of MMO gaming that edge out your standard console multiplayer experience, while others like to explore, collect, or otherwise rack up achievements. Achiever-types have had things to like about Warhammer Online through its Tome of Knowledge which stands as a personal record of what you've done in the game, but Mythic Entertainment is implementing a way to immortalize your deeds in stone. Well, as literally as possible within a game. December's patch 1.1 will add a third dimension to the game's leaderboard system, where the top ten players will see statues of their avatars in WAR's cities, adorned with their names.

Warhammer Online's Content Design Lead, James Casey, has written a developer blog about the concept as well as the blood, sweat, and tears committed to the project behind-the-scenes. Despite the fact you'd envision statues in a game as being -- by definition -- unchanging, WAR's statues will be a dynamic aspect of the game experience. Just because you've got that esteemed status right now doesn't mean someone else isn't going to topple you from that pedestal later on. Have a look at Casey's "Player Statues" dev diary for more about how the best of the best will be able to see their achievements set in stone.

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Warhammer Online immortalizing top players in stone originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: What's your Bartle quotient?

Samuel Axon — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind

The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology has long been a staple of the MUD and MMORPG community. We've ever mentioned it here a couple of times.

The Bartle Test (developed by -- you guessed it -- Richard Bartle) is a series of questions the answers to which result in the test-taker's Bartle Quotient. In your Bartle Quotient, you're told how closely you identify with each of four types of MMO gamer pychologies -- Achiever, Explorer, Killer, and Socializer. The final figure is a ranking -- from most dominant to least dominant -- of those types in your own gaming personality. For example, this blogger is an ESKA.

The test has been criticized over the years as an innacurate or insufficient measurement, but it's remained popular nonetheless. Take the test, and tell us where you stand. Do you feel it's accurate? If not, where did it go wrong?

The Daily Grind: What's your Bartle quotient? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Average Conanite will reach level 80 in 250 hours

Samuel Axon — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Launches, New titles, News items, PvE

Age of Conan game director Gaute Godager said at the launch event in Norway that reaching level 80 will take "on average 250 hours of gameplay," according to videogamer.com.

The first few levels will come lightning fast, but the bulk of them up to 60 will be comprised of between two and three hours of gameplay. After that, it will get a bit slower, thanks to some input from beta testers. By our math, that leaves five hours per level including and after 60, but who knows how that will be distributed.

Whether this ends up being faster than competing games like World of Warcraft and The Lord of the Rings Online by the end probably depends on your play-style. He said "on average," so does that mean the hardcore achievers will reach the top in 90 hours and the casuals will mosey on up there within 500 hours? There's been a lot of chit chat and speculation in the Massively office about this news. We suppose we'll get a good sense of it by midway through the summer.

Average Conanite will reach level 80 in 250 hours originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 13 May 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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