A Tale in the Desert is in the midst of a very interesting experiment.
On the original server, population is on average ~1100 people, in terms of paid subscribers (who are, of course, the only kind of users that matter to a developer earning money from 'em.) It peaked to about 1300-1400 people a couple months into the Telling, as things revved up, and has been falling steadily since. It went back to around 1100 for a while, and then slowly over the months, it's trickled to 900ish, I hear.
Meanwhile, Teppy is sitting around wondering why ATITD doesn't seem to peak over a thousand plus players. Are there really so few people in the wide world willing to play his grindy little no-combat game?
Instead of grasping at more obvious reasons like lack of marketing and lack of awareness by a majority of MMO gamers (let alone gamers in general and the overall public), he reads about Dunbar's Number - which I vaguely gather is some kind of social theory about the number of social relationships a person can form without strain (around ~140-150ish, apparently. Other scientists disagree on the exact number this should be, maybe 200+ and so on.)
Teppy suddenly decides that maybe, just maybe, ATITD's Dunbar Number is the magic 1100 number. Too many more than this, and people start quitting because they can't form enough social relationships in game, and so on.
So... what would happen if he started up a NEW server shard? Would he collect another 1100+ subscribers?! ($$$!)
Personally, I think he's got it in reverse there. I'm no big socializer, but I knew perhaps 30-50ish people in ATITD, sorta vaguely recognizing their names at any rate, and there were maybe 20+ close enough to me to form a group bond, in terms of sharing the same Region, and having Regional Pride.
There were 10 or so people that I got to know on a quite familiar basis in my primary guild. And I was talking to 3-5 people on a regular basis and counted as pretty good game friends.
Seeing that I am a hopeless introvert, if you take those numbers and multiply by 3 or by 5, and you probably have the average person's social network in ATITD.
Which is coincidentally quite close to Dunbar's Number as debated.
Now what happened to me ultimately was that as the 20-30 people in my vaguely conscious network of folks surrounding me dried up to about 10 people, and regional chat got quieter and quieter... to the point where I was talking with the one most hardcore gal/guildmaster in my guild, and had to run way across a deserted town to see another hardworking hardcore duo, and maybe 5 other people logging in once every few days...
...I got bored. Frappin' bored. Yes, solitary old me, got freakin' bored because there was nothing to do but either attempt to compete with around 50+ hardcore vets with multiple alts and spare time in challenges and land grabs, which you're destined to lose, or waffle around doing not much of anything.
I don't think I'm a unique pearl in why I ultimately quit ATITD.
So the issue here appears to be a strange conflict between "critical mass" (as used in gaming terminology) and "lebensraum."
I lacked local critical mass to accomplish much of anything, and yet the other regions were thriving and eating away at the land and resources and leaving me with not much of anything except to leech upon the kindness and absolute hardcority of the guild I was lucky enough to fall into. (Or at least, cunningly worked my way in through lots of spontaneous gifts and chats with the GM, after seeing them kick my arse in technology from across the river.)
Unfortunately, it left my Explorer/Achiever self with a somewhat hollow feeling, seeing as I'd invoked a dormant Socializer side to put on a bit of a front to schmooze my way into untold riches without really working much for it. (Nevermind that there weren't actually ENOUGH people to utilize it all.)
On shard B of ATITD, which I have recently allowed myself to get sucked into, there are currently around 120+ paid subscribers.
Yes, you read it right, about 10x LESS than the original game.
Granted, we are only in Day 3 or Day 4 of the shard's beginning, and it might pick up over time, but I have severe doubts that it'll hit over 500. Maybe around 300, just like RoD online size.
Most seem to be either past or current ATITD players. I'd guess around 40% have moved from the old server, including some uber hardcore vets and some newbies who don't want to fight with an established server population, 45% are returning ATITD players from various Tellings who quit and are now giving it the ol' second chance, and maybe 15% completely new players.
Let's not forget that a number of the hardcore players run 'mule' alts. That is, they've paid for another multiple account or two or three, because ATITD has certain advantages to playing as a duo, or as a quartet. So the actual number of players may not be as high as stated either.
So this is really interesting. In all of Egypt B, we probably have the real Dunbar's Number worth of inhabitants. There are maybe 20-30 people in the most crowded region I'm staying in, another 10-20 people in the neighboring 'rival' region, 5-10 scattered in adjacent regions who are more hermit-inclined, and a lone 2-3 out in the absolute boondocks.
On the one hand, I wonder if this will make cooperation more likely in the long term. Or at least, non-aggression, since it may not be worth it to feud over oodles of landspace and resources (as long as some hardcore guild doesn't grab it ALL over Egypt) which are available elsewhere.
Obviously, there are still going to be the short-term dramas as the really convenient spots go, and people cross each other's local/personal boundaries, but if it just takes 6 months for nearly everyone to pass a Test, instead of 'never' or 'not bloody likely', maybe there will be less overall unhappiness.
I practiced a policy of not-sweating-it-but-keep-a-lookout-for-good-opportunities in the original server, and I did ultimately make it to the last 'important' level for using tech buildings (the silkworm farm at lvl 28 or so), granted about 2-3 months and 2-3 levels behind the hardcore folks I was with. (I lost much interest in competing and completing after that.)
So, if it was possible on the original server, why not on server B for most people?
I think the -real- question about shard B is whether it can sustain the critical mass for long.
These past few days, the absolute hardcore have been playing 18+ hours a day. How do I know? Because I'm not -that- hardcore, and I'm pushing 12 hours. This allows timezones to overlap, and for people to feel there's lots of people around, comparatively speaking.
Once things end up quieting down, I wonder how many folks will start getting bored and draining away to the point of no return?
I think I might like a quieter server this second time around, but I can't say for sure. I might get tired doing the same old thing with no people about.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Hold the Front Line!
Tonight was one of the most crazy exciting quests I have EVER attempted in Aion.
As the title suggests, this is the ultimate quest of the Morheim area (after completing a score of campaign quests from level 20-40) and your group's job is to hold back an onslaught of Balaur (dragon-people, the third NPC race that maintains balance between the two winged player races and provides lore story excuses) after their Mau (cat-people) servants opened a rift into the Abyss to let them in.
Of course, the Abyss gate the Mau opened just -happens- to be near the very end of the open instance area. Good thing there were a couple dozen non-campaign group quests that led you by the nose right into the Mist Mane area (or MM for short, as WoW escapees tend to abbreviate everything.)
The Mist Mane area is no joke, but there are a couple glide paths through it and so on that veteran groups use when they skirt the place and aren't killing every single mob between point A and point B.
I felt very thankful that I previously had lots of prior practice in this area, because the group showed themselves to be very skilled. We lacked much CC capability at all - the group had been hunting for a sorceror for cc reasons, and I sort of wheedled my way in, saying I wasn't a sorc but I could offtank, up to them if they were ok with it. They'd only been broadcasting about 30 times for a sorc, so I suppose they said what the heck.
(See, apparently, the sucky thing about this quest is once you complete it, you can no longer enter the portal, so you have to find fresh n00b faces who HAVEN'T done it, yet have done all the previous campaign quests and are on the same step of the quest as you. How many planets align at once, eh?)
We moved through the Mist Mane area with nary a hitch. We had a few scary moments where we drew too much aggro, but amazingly, there were no total wipes. The tank was very fast to call RUN when there was evidently too much aggro, and frankly, the rest of us were already hoofing it out of there by the time he called it.
So only the tank died twice or three times, and the unfortunate cleric bit it once when there was way too much aggro... the chanter, the glad (that'll be me), the assassin and the ranger were all spared.
Two elite mobs were no problem, I'd offtank one, the tank would tank another. We survived a number of three pulls by the skin of our teeth too, either the tank would grab two and I'd grab one, or the other way around, though I'd be very shaky grabbing two.
The cleric half-annoyed me with his style of healing, because he was quite comfortable letting us drop to half hp, and staying there for a good 5 seconds, but I suppose he knew what he was doing. Certainly I didn't die, even if the tank did, and even if I had to blow a couple of my cooldowns too. He proclaimed himself as very "pro" so I bit my lip and let the guy work his magic and see.
We eventually made it relatively uneventfully to the site of the Abyss Gate. I wish I'd remember to take a picture. But it was quite a sight, with a rift right next to it.
Zoning into the quest instance by clicking on the Gate started a 4 min timer.
This was a one-room style quest instance where there was a portal behind us and a portal in front of us.
With us was an NPC that we were supposed to protect. By holding the front line for 4 minutes against the onrushing hordes of Balaur.
The first wave was nothing. 4 normal mobs. We killed them. I'd basically charged up and AoE'd merrily, thinking haha, maybe they're glad they got a glad with them after all.
The second wave wasn't much either. Another 4-5 normal mobs. I was in AoE heaven.
About the time I'd pretty much bought the propaganda on the forums that if you got in here, it was all non-elites and really easy, I was AoE'ing down the third wave (presumably with folks blowing apart their choice of targets behind me, the tank wasn't bothering to mark anything) when I suddenly noticed that one of the mobs was named differently "Chandalar Scaleguard" from the others, and he was taking quite a while to go down.
Eh, the tank is fighting him. I look at the mob's hp bar, and egads, it's an elite!
Everyone puts two and two together when that mob is the only one left, and soon we're all gathered around blowing it apart.
Fourth wave arrives, and aha, 2 normals, 2 elites!
No problems, I know what to do. I turn on my defensive toggle, move into offtanking stance, and take one while the tank takes the other.
Of course, the slight hitch in doing this is that it drops my offensive potential to not that much at all, and the tank is already busy with his own mob, so basically we have two DPS on one elite and everyone else helping with stuff we hope is more than tickling.
Our group has also shown a previous tendency to get a mite confused as to which target to focus fire down at this point, with both mobs getting damaged, and both tanks getting beat up, until one finally drops, and then shortly after, the other.
This slows us down to the point that we're just about finishing the first elite, and turning on the second when the FIFTH wave shows up.
Holy crap. This time, if you've been counting, there are three elites with them, and one of them is *shudder* a MAGE elite. I hate mage elites, they go through my plate (which are oddly set up to highly resist physical damage and have poor magical resist) like butter.
So we are suddenly surrounded by 3+1 elites, and 2-3 normal mobs. Approximately 40 seconds to go.
I have no clue what to do. There's no way I'm AoE'ing because if I take all their aggro, I will die, and if I am dead, quest completion doesn't trigger in Aion.
I have full DP saved up (Divine Points, which allow for some spectacular cooldowns to be blown), so the only thing that hits my mind is to hit my 3000 DP skill Daevic Fury, which sends my Physical Attack +80% and Attack Speed +10% for 30 seconds, while I'm still in my defensive toggle.
Maybe if I go crazy on the elite I'm already facing and tanking, I might be able to finish it off really quickly, and then try and pull another elite off the tank... were the vague thoughts in my brain.
Just as the elite is dying, the tank who is literally surrounded by stuff, falls over and dies.
OMG OMG OMG. ~30 seconds left.
I'm thinking, we're so bloody close, and we're going to wipe now. How the hell am I going to survive all that aggro...
... but somehow, I'm not dying. All that aggro must have come loose off the tank, and god knows where it's gone, but I'm miraculously not dying. In some kind of last stand frenzy, I start AoEing and hopping around, in the vague hope that my random knockdowns will hit the bunch of Balaur and interrupt them briefly, vaguely cognizant that the next elite I've targeted has me as its target and possibly the others (but not the mage, or I'd be dead by now), pop my +parry cooldown, wondering how it is I'm still alive, pop my stigma defence shield (which blocks a measly one hit of 300 hp)...
10, 9, 8..... 5...4....3.....2.....1...
And boom, just as I have 1/3 of my hp left, the cutscene animates and a deus ex machina saves the day. (The NPC we were protecting was preparing some kind of uber spell that pretty much wiped up the Balaur.)
Later, as I sat through and analyzed the combat log, it solidified my resolve as to how this was one of my best experiences ever. Because the group, without speaking or prior arrangement, worked in fantastic serendipitious tandem...
At the point I blew my Daevic Fury and started attacking elites in mad gladiatorial frenzy, the pro cleric must have realized that the tank was going to die very shortly. He blew HIS 3000 DP skill, which was Aquittal, this cleanses all party debuffs, and gives every single team member a heal over time that heals for 20% of their hp per tick.
At 6000hp buffed from chanter and cleric spells, I was healing over 1000 hp per tick from that spell alone. (So was everyone else, pretty much.)
This wasn't enough to save the tank, who fell over, and the Assassin blew one of HER special stigma skills Blinding Burst, which blinds all enemies within a 15m radius of her for 10-25 seconds.
We must have gotten very lucky and got a long blind out of it, because all the mobs were now blinded and missed their attacks. So -I- who had actually drawn about 4/5 of the aggro, evaded about 7 out of 8 attacks a tick and parried the last.
Hence my mysterious, miraculous survival: both blind AND the HoT working in tandem.
I had, by chance good fortune, pulled aggro of nearly all the physical attack mobs with my AoEing, who were now missing me 8 times a row.
The assassin and the ranger were barely scratched with one or two attacks from a stray mob or two, which they were also evading, thanks to blind.
The MAGE elite's aggro had been yanked to the cleric, in the manner of all healing aggro, who was actually one of the best suited to tank magic-type attacks as he has more magic resist than plate wearers and can heal up his damage and has decent hp. He soaked about 800-1000hp a tick from the mage, and his prior HoT kept him upright.
In the midst of this madhouse, either healer must have rezzed the tank, stood him upright long enough for him to start taunting one more elite off -somebody-, at which point, we were at around 5 seconds left on the timer and counting down.
So everyone was left alive to reap the quest completion when it ticked around.
Dayum. How crazy was that? I should think everyone left feeling like it really was a last stand scenario because it was so intense.
We were doing it on level too, by the way. Our group was around 37-42s, for a level 40 quest. I've seen 45-50s beg to do this quest because they hadn't finished it yet, or failed earlier and wanted a sure win with overwhelming levels.
Bloody fantastic group. Bloody fantastic experience.
Not doing it again in a hurry though. Can't really, that Abyss Gate probably wouldn't let me in again. :)
As the title suggests, this is the ultimate quest of the Morheim area (after completing a score of campaign quests from level 20-40) and your group's job is to hold back an onslaught of Balaur (dragon-people, the third NPC race that maintains balance between the two winged player races and provides lore story excuses) after their Mau (cat-people) servants opened a rift into the Abyss to let them in.
Of course, the Abyss gate the Mau opened just -happens- to be near the very end of the open instance area. Good thing there were a couple dozen non-campaign group quests that led you by the nose right into the Mist Mane area (or MM for short, as WoW escapees tend to abbreviate everything.)
The Mist Mane area is no joke, but there are a couple glide paths through it and so on that veteran groups use when they skirt the place and aren't killing every single mob between point A and point B.
I felt very thankful that I previously had lots of prior practice in this area, because the group showed themselves to be very skilled. We lacked much CC capability at all - the group had been hunting for a sorceror for cc reasons, and I sort of wheedled my way in, saying I wasn't a sorc but I could offtank, up to them if they were ok with it. They'd only been broadcasting about 30 times for a sorc, so I suppose they said what the heck.
(See, apparently, the sucky thing about this quest is once you complete it, you can no longer enter the portal, so you have to find fresh n00b faces who HAVEN'T done it, yet have done all the previous campaign quests and are on the same step of the quest as you. How many planets align at once, eh?)
We moved through the Mist Mane area with nary a hitch. We had a few scary moments where we drew too much aggro, but amazingly, there were no total wipes. The tank was very fast to call RUN when there was evidently too much aggro, and frankly, the rest of us were already hoofing it out of there by the time he called it.
So only the tank died twice or three times, and the unfortunate cleric bit it once when there was way too much aggro... the chanter, the glad (that'll be me), the assassin and the ranger were all spared.
Two elite mobs were no problem, I'd offtank one, the tank would tank another. We survived a number of three pulls by the skin of our teeth too, either the tank would grab two and I'd grab one, or the other way around, though I'd be very shaky grabbing two.
The cleric half-annoyed me with his style of healing, because he was quite comfortable letting us drop to half hp, and staying there for a good 5 seconds, but I suppose he knew what he was doing. Certainly I didn't die, even if the tank did, and even if I had to blow a couple of my cooldowns too. He proclaimed himself as very "pro" so I bit my lip and let the guy work his magic and see.
We eventually made it relatively uneventfully to the site of the Abyss Gate. I wish I'd remember to take a picture. But it was quite a sight, with a rift right next to it.
Zoning into the quest instance by clicking on the Gate started a 4 min timer.
This was a one-room style quest instance where there was a portal behind us and a portal in front of us.
With us was an NPC that we were supposed to protect. By holding the front line for 4 minutes against the onrushing hordes of Balaur.
The first wave was nothing. 4 normal mobs. We killed them. I'd basically charged up and AoE'd merrily, thinking haha, maybe they're glad they got a glad with them after all.
The second wave wasn't much either. Another 4-5 normal mobs. I was in AoE heaven.
About the time I'd pretty much bought the propaganda on the forums that if you got in here, it was all non-elites and really easy, I was AoE'ing down the third wave (presumably with folks blowing apart their choice of targets behind me, the tank wasn't bothering to mark anything) when I suddenly noticed that one of the mobs was named differently "Chandalar Scaleguard" from the others, and he was taking quite a while to go down.
Eh, the tank is fighting him. I look at the mob's hp bar, and egads, it's an elite!
Everyone puts two and two together when that mob is the only one left, and soon we're all gathered around blowing it apart.
Fourth wave arrives, and aha, 2 normals, 2 elites!
No problems, I know what to do. I turn on my defensive toggle, move into offtanking stance, and take one while the tank takes the other.
Of course, the slight hitch in doing this is that it drops my offensive potential to not that much at all, and the tank is already busy with his own mob, so basically we have two DPS on one elite and everyone else helping with stuff we hope is more than tickling.
Our group has also shown a previous tendency to get a mite confused as to which target to focus fire down at this point, with both mobs getting damaged, and both tanks getting beat up, until one finally drops, and then shortly after, the other.
This slows us down to the point that we're just about finishing the first elite, and turning on the second when the FIFTH wave shows up.
Holy crap. This time, if you've been counting, there are three elites with them, and one of them is *shudder* a MAGE elite. I hate mage elites, they go through my plate (which are oddly set up to highly resist physical damage and have poor magical resist) like butter.
So we are suddenly surrounded by 3+1 elites, and 2-3 normal mobs. Approximately 40 seconds to go.
I have no clue what to do. There's no way I'm AoE'ing because if I take all their aggro, I will die, and if I am dead, quest completion doesn't trigger in Aion.
I have full DP saved up (Divine Points, which allow for some spectacular cooldowns to be blown), so the only thing that hits my mind is to hit my 3000 DP skill Daevic Fury, which sends my Physical Attack +80% and Attack Speed +10% for 30 seconds, while I'm still in my defensive toggle.
Maybe if I go crazy on the elite I'm already facing and tanking, I might be able to finish it off really quickly, and then try and pull another elite off the tank... were the vague thoughts in my brain.
Just as the elite is dying, the tank who is literally surrounded by stuff, falls over and dies.
OMG OMG OMG. ~30 seconds left.
I'm thinking, we're so bloody close, and we're going to wipe now. How the hell am I going to survive all that aggro...
... but somehow, I'm not dying. All that aggro must have come loose off the tank, and god knows where it's gone, but I'm miraculously not dying. In some kind of last stand frenzy, I start AoEing and hopping around, in the vague hope that my random knockdowns will hit the bunch of Balaur and interrupt them briefly, vaguely cognizant that the next elite I've targeted has me as its target and possibly the others (but not the mage, or I'd be dead by now), pop my +parry cooldown, wondering how it is I'm still alive, pop my stigma defence shield (which blocks a measly one hit of 300 hp)...
10, 9, 8..... 5...4....3.....2.....1...
And boom, just as I have 1/3 of my hp left, the cutscene animates and a deus ex machina saves the day. (The NPC we were protecting was preparing some kind of uber spell that pretty much wiped up the Balaur.)
Later, as I sat through and analyzed the combat log, it solidified my resolve as to how this was one of my best experiences ever. Because the group, without speaking or prior arrangement, worked in fantastic serendipitious tandem...
At the point I blew my Daevic Fury and started attacking elites in mad gladiatorial frenzy, the pro cleric must have realized that the tank was going to die very shortly. He blew HIS 3000 DP skill, which was Aquittal, this cleanses all party debuffs, and gives every single team member a heal over time that heals for 20% of their hp per tick.
At 6000hp buffed from chanter and cleric spells, I was healing over 1000 hp per tick from that spell alone. (So was everyone else, pretty much.)
This wasn't enough to save the tank, who fell over, and the Assassin blew one of HER special stigma skills Blinding Burst, which blinds all enemies within a 15m radius of her for 10-25 seconds.
We must have gotten very lucky and got a long blind out of it, because all the mobs were now blinded and missed their attacks. So -I- who had actually drawn about 4/5 of the aggro, evaded about 7 out of 8 attacks a tick and parried the last.
Hence my mysterious, miraculous survival: both blind AND the HoT working in tandem.
I had, by chance good fortune, pulled aggro of nearly all the physical attack mobs with my AoEing, who were now missing me 8 times a row.
The assassin and the ranger were barely scratched with one or two attacks from a stray mob or two, which they were also evading, thanks to blind.
The MAGE elite's aggro had been yanked to the cleric, in the manner of all healing aggro, who was actually one of the best suited to tank magic-type attacks as he has more magic resist than plate wearers and can heal up his damage and has decent hp. He soaked about 800-1000hp a tick from the mage, and his prior HoT kept him upright.
In the midst of this madhouse, either healer must have rezzed the tank, stood him upright long enough for him to start taunting one more elite off -somebody-, at which point, we were at around 5 seconds left on the timer and counting down.
So everyone was left alive to reap the quest completion when it ticked around.
Dayum. How crazy was that? I should think everyone left feeling like it really was a last stand scenario because it was so intense.
We were doing it on level too, by the way. Our group was around 37-42s, for a level 40 quest. I've seen 45-50s beg to do this quest because they hadn't finished it yet, or failed earlier and wanted a sure win with overwhelming levels.
Bloody fantastic group. Bloody fantastic experience.
Not doing it again in a hurry though. Can't really, that Abyss Gate probably wouldn't let me in again. :)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Allure of the Incremental
Lately, there's something I've been finding very attractive about the games I'm playing. Being able to move a tiny, incremental step further along towards progress/completion/achievement/what-have-you.
I'm terribly guilty of this joy in Aion. Partially because the accomplishment is hard enough that one wouldn't be able to blow it away in an eyeblink, and because leveling takes long enough that any gain over time is appreciated.
I completed one of my second-last campaign quests in a level area (Morheim) just a couple days ago. It was one of those nightmare difficulty quests where everyone wants to put together as huge an alliance as possible (aka 2-4 groups) and get high-leveled help, screw the xp, in order to get done. The nasty thing about it is very closely packed elite mobs in a cramped area, some of whom are linked, some of whom call for help to nearby groups - so one bad pull is VERY easy to come by, and one bad pull can cause a total party wipe.
Everyone wants to get it done because the final campaign quest is only unlocked when you finish all the preceding ones, and of course, the final campaign quest has a lot of pretty booty. (It's hard too, apparently. *shudder*)
I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to finish it, but I overheard a call out for it on the third day of CNY, so I leapt at the opportunity. And stuck like glue despite a number of wipes and so on, and narrowly missing family aggro by staying in my room despite having visitors over (fortunately, it was Day 3, not Day 1, so comparatively unimportant.)
When the quest finally chimed 'completed' and I saw it greyed out in my quest log UI, I had this immense buzz of satisfaction. Woot, it's done, and I just unlocked the final quest in the long campaign chain.
I get this way with little armor and weapon upgrades in Aion too. Wowzers, after all that work, I finally get this cool little increment in my combat potential.
It's quite weird, since I don't experience this with LOTRO or WoW, or even Guild Wars (though I did manage to finish one teensy Nightfall quest when Aion was patching yesterday, the first in probably 12+ months.)
Maybe it's cos in LOTRO, something is always incrementing. In WoW, it's too easy to increment or just Monty Haul, I dunno. Guild Wars, I might be too removed from the game, who knows.
I'm pondering the impending shard Bastet of ATITD. I feel like popping in to take a look-see. That can be done with a trial account.
I'm also pondering if I have the will and desire to play some months in ATITD.
Let's face it, I don't like the Tests. Or rather, I don't see the need to splurge on massive resources in a short time in order to game a Test and become FIRST to win it. Especially since that with some patience and persistence and waiting for people to become bored and go away, enough Tests become easier in the long run. Some, of course, become impossible to win, but meh, I have learnt the lesson that pursuing first place in the hope of staying happy is a fool's game.
So if I don't like the Tests, why in the world am I hanging around wishing to play ATITD?
Well, I used to like the community. In a very general sense. I think there is something to Dunbar's Number, in that I greatly enjoyed the oldschool 200-300 people in a MUD can-recognize-the-names-even-if-you-don't-like-them feeling.
The community got exceptionally boring once not enough people were logging on to form a critical mass of conversation. I'm also geographically disadvantaged in that all the fun conversations and non-automated events happen from 3am-8am my time. That added to the feeling of stagnation, which eventually knocked me off the existing game... twice.
But the community is not the main driving factor. What is -really- compelling for me is the ability to plant structures in the ground and call them my own. Lasting structures. Making a relatively permanent mark (as long as you're paid, anyway) in the landscape. Seriously groovy.
Of course, this is complicated by the fact that other people have the exact same building rights. So there is a somewhat not-so-fun social maze where you either cooperate with them, and perhaps schmooze your way into having part ownership of their structures (I was pretty good at this! Yay, female avatars! No cybersex either, lol!) or you compromise with them and build where other people aren't, or you compete with them with some serious ensuing drama and no peace to really build properly either.
The weird thing was, once I had access to all the stuff I had ever wanted, from schmoozing my way into a guild (or two), I lost all desire to even use the damn things.
They weren't really mine, for one thing. So you had to treat the use of them with respect. You used some of the small stuff. You topped it up again. Yadda yadda. In order to...what? Pass Tests? Ugh, not really my idea of fun.
Then again, the stuff that was mine, I lost all will to use those too. Because something far better was sitting next door. That I could use. So why the hell was I wasting my time reinventing the pottery wheel again?
I don't know. It was a dilemma I never quite resolved. Economically and logically, I was far better off in a communal guild, where the same expensive high-tech building could serve multiple users, since there weren't ever enough of us to put a dent in usage. Especially with my timezone disjunction too.
Maintenance mode was quite a pain. I hate hate hate maintenance mode. It's that point in a game where there's nothing new to do and you're just doing a routine chore because if you don't, you lose what you have. Add a compulsion to log in every 4 or 6 or 8 hours because that's the interval for maintenance and that adds a Tamagotchi loathing to the activity I learned to detest ever since chardelete in RoD left me logging 124 lowbies because I didn't want to lose 'em.
The devil's advocate argument is that you don't -have- to put yourself in maintenance mode. There's nothing saying you have to be hardcore and try to do EVERYTHING by yourself (and a mule alt, and lots of handy cyborg macros) 24/7 in order to get umpteen levels and pass Tests first.
Since I have rejected the final goal (get umpteen levels and pass Tests firsts), this makes a certain amount of sense. I -could-, if I could control my compulsive urge, not feel obliged to do everything and just focus on one teensy lil part of ATITD at a time to form an incremental goal. Instead of trying to build a Pathmaker and a Hexaglyph and enough Towers and mine metal and make wine and grow onions for sheep all in one evening, I could take one of them and make that a week-long progression goal.
Could. Should. Probably won't. Because I'm kinda crap at the planning side of things. And because ATITD rewards a lot of cross-focus activities, where the richest vets are the ones who do it all and have everything and desire nothing that newbies can give, besides a cosy feeling of superiority and some of the newbie-only goodies that can help the vets progress even further.
That's me being mean, of course, because plenty of vets are happy to have newbies run about the place, if only so that things aren't so goddamn samey.
It's a damn sandbox. It's what you make of it. I'm half-tickled by the idea of going out in the desert to live like a hermit and decorating the empty places with buildings and things. Art sculptures. Thingies. Why not?
Of course, the question becomes, should I just go back to the old server where there are some people I know? There are advantages and disadvantages to this, of course.
The compulsion to progress as a group rather cripples any attempt at independence. The advantages that being in a group brings also dwarfs any attempt at going it alone.
Ah, I should stop obsessing and just putz around and see how it turns out. Who knows, a reset might bring something new, or it might be more of the same old.
I'm terribly guilty of this joy in Aion. Partially because the accomplishment is hard enough that one wouldn't be able to blow it away in an eyeblink, and because leveling takes long enough that any gain over time is appreciated.
I completed one of my second-last campaign quests in a level area (Morheim) just a couple days ago. It was one of those nightmare difficulty quests where everyone wants to put together as huge an alliance as possible (aka 2-4 groups) and get high-leveled help, screw the xp, in order to get done. The nasty thing about it is very closely packed elite mobs in a cramped area, some of whom are linked, some of whom call for help to nearby groups - so one bad pull is VERY easy to come by, and one bad pull can cause a total party wipe.
Everyone wants to get it done because the final campaign quest is only unlocked when you finish all the preceding ones, and of course, the final campaign quest has a lot of pretty booty. (It's hard too, apparently. *shudder*)
I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to finish it, but I overheard a call out for it on the third day of CNY, so I leapt at the opportunity. And stuck like glue despite a number of wipes and so on, and narrowly missing family aggro by staying in my room despite having visitors over (fortunately, it was Day 3, not Day 1, so comparatively unimportant.)
When the quest finally chimed 'completed' and I saw it greyed out in my quest log UI, I had this immense buzz of satisfaction. Woot, it's done, and I just unlocked the final quest in the long campaign chain.
I get this way with little armor and weapon upgrades in Aion too. Wowzers, after all that work, I finally get this cool little increment in my combat potential.
It's quite weird, since I don't experience this with LOTRO or WoW, or even Guild Wars (though I did manage to finish one teensy Nightfall quest when Aion was patching yesterday, the first in probably 12+ months.)
Maybe it's cos in LOTRO, something is always incrementing. In WoW, it's too easy to increment or just Monty Haul, I dunno. Guild Wars, I might be too removed from the game, who knows.
I'm pondering the impending shard Bastet of ATITD. I feel like popping in to take a look-see. That can be done with a trial account.
I'm also pondering if I have the will and desire to play some months in ATITD.
Let's face it, I don't like the Tests. Or rather, I don't see the need to splurge on massive resources in a short time in order to game a Test and become FIRST to win it. Especially since that with some patience and persistence and waiting for people to become bored and go away, enough Tests become easier in the long run. Some, of course, become impossible to win, but meh, I have learnt the lesson that pursuing first place in the hope of staying happy is a fool's game.
So if I don't like the Tests, why in the world am I hanging around wishing to play ATITD?
Well, I used to like the community. In a very general sense. I think there is something to Dunbar's Number, in that I greatly enjoyed the oldschool 200-300 people in a MUD can-recognize-the-names-even-if-you-don't-like-them feeling.
The community got exceptionally boring once not enough people were logging on to form a critical mass of conversation. I'm also geographically disadvantaged in that all the fun conversations and non-automated events happen from 3am-8am my time. That added to the feeling of stagnation, which eventually knocked me off the existing game... twice.
But the community is not the main driving factor. What is -really- compelling for me is the ability to plant structures in the ground and call them my own. Lasting structures. Making a relatively permanent mark (as long as you're paid, anyway) in the landscape. Seriously groovy.
Of course, this is complicated by the fact that other people have the exact same building rights. So there is a somewhat not-so-fun social maze where you either cooperate with them, and perhaps schmooze your way into having part ownership of their structures (I was pretty good at this! Yay, female avatars! No cybersex either, lol!) or you compromise with them and build where other people aren't, or you compete with them with some serious ensuing drama and no peace to really build properly either.
The weird thing was, once I had access to all the stuff I had ever wanted, from schmoozing my way into a guild (or two), I lost all desire to even use the damn things.
They weren't really mine, for one thing. So you had to treat the use of them with respect. You used some of the small stuff. You topped it up again. Yadda yadda. In order to...what? Pass Tests? Ugh, not really my idea of fun.
Then again, the stuff that was mine, I lost all will to use those too. Because something far better was sitting next door. That I could use. So why the hell was I wasting my time reinventing the pottery wheel again?
I don't know. It was a dilemma I never quite resolved. Economically and logically, I was far better off in a communal guild, where the same expensive high-tech building could serve multiple users, since there weren't ever enough of us to put a dent in usage. Especially with my timezone disjunction too.
Maintenance mode was quite a pain. I hate hate hate maintenance mode. It's that point in a game where there's nothing new to do and you're just doing a routine chore because if you don't, you lose what you have. Add a compulsion to log in every 4 or 6 or 8 hours because that's the interval for maintenance and that adds a Tamagotchi loathing to the activity I learned to detest ever since chardelete in RoD left me logging 124 lowbies because I didn't want to lose 'em.
The devil's advocate argument is that you don't -have- to put yourself in maintenance mode. There's nothing saying you have to be hardcore and try to do EVERYTHING by yourself (and a mule alt, and lots of handy cyborg macros) 24/7 in order to get umpteen levels and pass Tests first.
Since I have rejected the final goal (get umpteen levels and pass Tests firsts), this makes a certain amount of sense. I -could-, if I could control my compulsive urge, not feel obliged to do everything and just focus on one teensy lil part of ATITD at a time to form an incremental goal. Instead of trying to build a Pathmaker and a Hexaglyph and enough Towers and mine metal and make wine and grow onions for sheep all in one evening, I could take one of them and make that a week-long progression goal.
Could. Should. Probably won't. Because I'm kinda crap at the planning side of things. And because ATITD rewards a lot of cross-focus activities, where the richest vets are the ones who do it all and have everything and desire nothing that newbies can give, besides a cosy feeling of superiority and some of the newbie-only goodies that can help the vets progress even further.
That's me being mean, of course, because plenty of vets are happy to have newbies run about the place, if only so that things aren't so goddamn samey.
It's a damn sandbox. It's what you make of it. I'm half-tickled by the idea of going out in the desert to live like a hermit and decorating the empty places with buildings and things. Art sculptures. Thingies. Why not?
Of course, the question becomes, should I just go back to the old server where there are some people I know? There are advantages and disadvantages to this, of course.
The compulsion to progress as a group rather cripples any attempt at independence. The advantages that being in a group brings also dwarfs any attempt at going it alone.
Ah, I should stop obsessing and just putz around and see how it turns out. Who knows, a reset might bring something new, or it might be more of the same old.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Where Did My Cartoons Go?
In today's edition of hard disk space woes, free space on my secondary hard disk drive has shrunk to about 16 gigs, which matches my primary hard disk's 15 gigs rather closely.
Games these days... 3-10 gigs. Yeesh. Perhaps I play too many MMOs. At some point, I need to go through them with a fine tooth comb and sieve out the space-hogs.
Problem is, I never seem to be able to finish a game and thus justify its removal from current occupancy.
What I am rather miffed over though is the disappearance of five seasons of X-Men animated series cartoons from every imaginable nook and cranny of the disk.
I had the vague recollection of deleting one folder of it to save space, but I was positive I’d either copied it to my backup hard disk, or burned it on to a CD.
Except my backup hard disk is automatically set to sync to my hard disk, and though I am somewhat positive that I checked the option to not delete any files if there were any dissimilarities, the fact remains that I can’t find the videos on my backup either. Nor can I locate any backup CDs, though I found Dilbert and Visionaries CDs.
I do not suppose a JLA watching fan would happen to have X-Men cartoons on CD?
*hopeful look*
I imagine it’ll take me another eon to re-obtain otherwise. *sighs*
Games these days... 3-10 gigs. Yeesh. Perhaps I play too many MMOs. At some point, I need to go through them with a fine tooth comb and sieve out the space-hogs.
Problem is, I never seem to be able to finish a game and thus justify its removal from current occupancy.
What I am rather miffed over though is the disappearance of five seasons of X-Men animated series cartoons from every imaginable nook and cranny of the disk.
I had the vague recollection of deleting one folder of it to save space, but I was positive I’d either copied it to my backup hard disk, or burned it on to a CD.
Except my backup hard disk is automatically set to sync to my hard disk, and though I am somewhat positive that I checked the option to not delete any files if there were any dissimilarities, the fact remains that I can’t find the videos on my backup either. Nor can I locate any backup CDs, though I found Dilbert and Visionaries CDs.
I do not suppose a JLA watching fan would happen to have X-Men cartoons on CD?
*hopeful look*
I imagine it’ll take me another eon to re-obtain otherwise. *sighs*
Monday, February 15, 2010
Goddamn Roguelikes
Lit a fire to prepare soil for planting seeds.
Didn't realise that already grown crops also burn when the fire spreads.
Didn't realise significance of having crops adjacent to log cabin until too late.
Ran around like madman trying to figure out how to put fire out.
Fuel was un-removable (still growing plant + solid wall of log cabin).
No water thrown at it seemed to matter.
Final result: Burnt house down.
And everything in it, hides, firewood stored for winter, all my tools, the works...
... Committed suicide rather than face rebuilding.
Didn't realise that already grown crops also burn when the fire spreads.
Didn't realise significance of having crops adjacent to log cabin until too late.
Ran around like madman trying to figure out how to put fire out.
Fuel was un-removable (still growing plant + solid wall of log cabin).
No water thrown at it seemed to matter.
Final result: Burnt house down.
And everything in it, hides, firewood stored for winter, all my tools, the works...
... Committed suicide rather than face rebuilding.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Unreal World
Most of my recent gaming time, as little of it as there is, has been spent messing around with a survival roguelike called The Unreal World.
One blog led to another, I stopped to dabble in a D&D based 'new'-ish roguelike called Incursion, found it way too tough for comfort, and started delving in others I hadn't tried. Enter this northern European entrant that seemed to be a weird cross between ATITD, a survival DS game known as Lost in Blue, and an ascii roguelike.
It doesn't sound like much when you summarize it. You get to play one of a dozen or so unpronounceable Finnish-like races that have different cultural starting locations and backgrounds - from village agriculturists, the comparatively more technologically enabled town traders, seal and reindeer followers, forest hunters, and so on.
There are a couple of starting scenarios from freeform, to friendly - start out at a random village that may provide resources, to lonesome cowboy survivalist (be a fisherman, be a trapper, etc.) to the seriously hardcore challenge (wounded, escaped slave running away from hostile raiders with only a knife and some rags to your name in the depths of the forest.)
Two tutorial-like structure overlays provide a set of goals to follow for those who can't make their own. One is a basic "here's how to find water, here's how to hunt, here's how to trap, here's how to make your shelter" commands sort of scenario. The other one is more advanced and elaborate.
It is strangely compelling.
Notice how I don't describe more about the advanced scenarios, because I'm happily failing the basic ones. In the manner of all roguelikes, once you die, that's it.
My first character fell afoul of raiders, having stumbled across a village-full of them somewhen in the middle of Day 3. Apparently, I didn't pay enough attention to my randomised starting location.
My next character survived till 9 days, at which point, the unregistered shareware version killed him off unexpectedly.
Slightly miffed, and yet captivated enough to consider pay-paling $3 for a fully functional version, I did so.
Third character died to too hasty clicking through of the character selection options. I picked stats I didn't like, decided oh fergedit, and picked the most hardcore slave runaway scenario to see if I could survive it. Ironically, I survived the fight with the captors chasing me... to die to a pack of wolves because I was desperately hungry, starving, and trying to find ANY meat. (My crappy stat selection made it quite useless to fish, and foraging was not good enough during the season I had st arted in.) Tried to hunt down one wolf, and omg, there are 7 of them...egads, they turned around and did me in. :)
Fourth character survived quite a ways... had started constructing his own house, got quite far into the goals, and died to greed. And sociopathy.
Well, y'see, it wasn't my fault that a foreign trader NPC had wandered their way into my territory where my house was. It wasn't my fault that he stopped several squares away and decided to blissfully go to sleep.
It WAS my fault that I decided this would be a good time to creep up and stab him in the head so that I could take his stuff.
It was also somewhat sociopathical of me that I saw a dead body lying there and decided, hey, can I use my skinning skill on him? (I couldn't.) But I COULD cut up the carcass for meat.
While that robbery was a success, and I was in the midst of a cannibalistic bonfire-building for roast meat, what I didn't realise was that these fellas traveled in caravans. Suddenly, there were 6+ foreign traders baying for my blood. I gamely fought 4 of them to death, surrounding myself with quite a pile of bodies and loot, and had two of them on the run. Unfortunately, those running tend to come back, and I had limited mobility due to my injuries.
Midway between trying to rip my clothes for bandages to treat my wounds, one of the lucky bastards threw some kind of rock that hit me in the eye. I blacked out... and never woke up again. Grrr.
Next character wandered around in an archipelago, had some really sophisticated villages around, didn't kill anything more nasty than a squirrel. Or three. Unfortunately, either the villagers took sudden exception to my face, or the javelin I threw at the squirrel which narrowly missed their kid that set them off, or it was the last squirrel I killed which may have been a pet or something...
An entire family of man, woman, kid and old man was suddenly charging me with bloodthirst. Still guilty from my ancestor's recent brush with cannibalism, I tried to run away instead. Was just as unsuccessful. Darn.
I don't know if I'm ever going to finish the basic goals tutorial at this rate. :)
One blog led to another, I stopped to dabble in a D&D based 'new'-ish roguelike called Incursion, found it way too tough for comfort, and started delving in others I hadn't tried. Enter this northern European entrant that seemed to be a weird cross between ATITD, a survival DS game known as Lost in Blue, and an ascii roguelike.
It doesn't sound like much when you summarize it. You get to play one of a dozen or so unpronounceable Finnish-like races that have different cultural starting locations and backgrounds - from village agriculturists, the comparatively more technologically enabled town traders, seal and reindeer followers, forest hunters, and so on.
There are a couple of starting scenarios from freeform, to friendly - start out at a random village that may provide resources, to lonesome cowboy survivalist (be a fisherman, be a trapper, etc.) to the seriously hardcore challenge (wounded, escaped slave running away from hostile raiders with only a knife and some rags to your name in the depths of the forest.)
Two tutorial-like structure overlays provide a set of goals to follow for those who can't make their own. One is a basic "here's how to find water, here's how to hunt, here's how to trap, here's how to make your shelter" commands sort of scenario. The other one is more advanced and elaborate.
It is strangely compelling.
Notice how I don't describe more about the advanced scenarios, because I'm happily failing the basic ones. In the manner of all roguelikes, once you die, that's it.
My first character fell afoul of raiders, having stumbled across a village-full of them somewhen in the middle of Day 3. Apparently, I didn't pay enough attention to my randomised starting location.
My next character survived till 9 days, at which point, the unregistered shareware version killed him off unexpectedly.
Slightly miffed, and yet captivated enough to consider pay-paling $3 for a fully functional version, I did so.
Third character died to too hasty clicking through of the character selection options. I picked stats I didn't like, decided oh fergedit, and picked the most hardcore slave runaway scenario to see if I could survive it. Ironically, I survived the fight with the captors chasing me... to die to a pack of wolves because I was desperately hungry, starving, and trying to find ANY meat. (My crappy stat selection made it quite useless to fish, and foraging was not good enough during the season I had st arted in.) Tried to hunt down one wolf, and omg, there are 7 of them...egads, they turned around and did me in. :)
Fourth character survived quite a ways... had started constructing his own house, got quite far into the goals, and died to greed. And sociopathy.
Well, y'see, it wasn't my fault that a foreign trader NPC had wandered their way into my territory where my house was. It wasn't my fault that he stopped several squares away and decided to blissfully go to sleep.
It WAS my fault that I decided this would be a good time to creep up and stab him in the head so that I could take his stuff.
It was also somewhat sociopathical of me that I saw a dead body lying there and decided, hey, can I use my skinning skill on him? (I couldn't.) But I COULD cut up the carcass for meat.
While that robbery was a success, and I was in the midst of a cannibalistic bonfire-building for roast meat, what I didn't realise was that these fellas traveled in caravans. Suddenly, there were 6+ foreign traders baying for my blood. I gamely fought 4 of them to death, surrounding myself with quite a pile of bodies and loot, and had two of them on the run. Unfortunately, those running tend to come back, and I had limited mobility due to my injuries.
Midway between trying to rip my clothes for bandages to treat my wounds, one of the lucky bastards threw some kind of rock that hit me in the eye. I blacked out... and never woke up again. Grrr.
Next character wandered around in an archipelago, had some really sophisticated villages around, didn't kill anything more nasty than a squirrel. Or three. Unfortunately, either the villagers took sudden exception to my face, or the javelin I threw at the squirrel which narrowly missed their kid that set them off, or it was the last squirrel I killed which may have been a pet or something...
An entire family of man, woman, kid and old man was suddenly charging me with bloodthirst. Still guilty from my ancestor's recent brush with cannibalism, I tried to run away instead. Was just as unsuccessful. Darn.
I don't know if I'm ever going to finish the basic goals tutorial at this rate. :)