Just a thought - The Rise of Non-Linear MMOs

2013 was a shaky year.

Many MMO titles have fallen on and off the radar.

Many F2P MMOs have been shut down due to publisher negligence and greed.

And World of Warcraft continued its tight stranglehold on the entire industry.

But today, it’s becoming more apparent that gamers are getting burnt out on MMOs altogether. Mainly due to years of conditioning brought by World of Warcraft, many titles have been forced to follow its formula down to a T, as well as follow a strict check list for progression, features and amount of control the player has up until the endgame. For any MMO that doesn’t have a massive amount of content like World of Warcraft, it’s a formula that becomes a time bomb for any MMO attempting long term development.

Previously at GDC 2013, Park Seong Joon of Neowiz CRS hosted a lecture regarding the pitfalls of maintaining a modern MMO, with average scenario that happens after an MMO has launched:

Wonky grammar aside: his lecture explains is that most players will burn through the content of a new MMO faster than any development team can crank out new content for it. While I tend to play my MMOs at a more casual pace these days, it’s a routine that I see time and time again, as many gamers seem to be convinced that the endgame is where all the “fun stuff” happens, and with the linearity that most modern MMOs have, they’ll soon realize that the endgame actually has an –end- to it.

Just a thought - Too many MOBAs?

Okay, so I can't be the only one that's feels this way, but is anyone starting to think this MOBA trend is starting to get a LITTLE bit out of hand? Month after month, the market is just getting flooded with more and more MOBA titles, even more than the whole World of Warcraft  and Call of Duty trends.

With the success of League of Legends, and to a slightly lesser extent, DOTA 2, so many developers and publishers are blindly trying to cash in on their success, and chances are that they will fail miserably, but that's not going to stop them from trying, of course.

I mean, just the other week, Deep Sliver announced that they'll be making a Dead Island MOBA... I mean, just who in the hell was clamoring for a MOBA title based on Dead Island, the most over-hyped zombie action title of 2011?

And if that wasn't already a terrible enough idea for a MOBA title, just recently I saw THIS while I was poking around Cinderboy's blog the other day...

A King of Fighters MOBA? They're about to take a legendary 2-D fighting game series, and turn THAT into a MOBA? I can't even wrap my head around this concept. There's even some gameplay footage available and I still can't wrap my head around it.

Just like with all the publishers and developers that followed the WoW-like MMO trend and the CoD-like Military FPS trend: Unless you're working on the real deal, you're NEVER going to reach even one-third of its success. I also usually don't believe that new video games need to reinvent the wheel in order to be fun, but in this case, it should, otherwise why bother?

• You're never going to capture the success of World of Warcraft, because the audience you're after is too busy playing World of Warcraft.
• You're never going to capture the success of Call of Duty, because the audience you're after is too busy playing Call of Duty.
• You're never going to capture the success of League of Legends, because the audience you're after is too busy playing League of Legends.
• And so on.

This should be really simple logic, but so many companies just follow these trends like sheep and it just blows my mind.

Also: In all honesty, the MOBA genre doesn't seem like a genre that could ever truly evolve, since they're already an evolution, or rather a de-evolution of the RTS genre, and a whole lot of them are pretty "same-y" in terms of core gameplay. Sure, there's some subtle differences in mechanics for some of them, but overall, they all share the same elements: Control one unit, only have up to four abilities to use, and spend the whole match running and/or fleeing from enemies with PvP confrontations only lasting for a few seconds.

This post of mine is clearly just a rant, and it's not like I have anything deep or thought provoking to say on this matter, but it's getting to a point where these trends are less of being trends more like plagues against humanity. Simply put: This shit needs to stop.

Just an update - 8/14/2013

So here I am, procrastinating on work, as usual! But I still have a bit of time on my hands to post an update on my current personal status and my upcoming projects for OnRPG. One thing I'd like to talk (or rant) about is the newest update for TERA: Rising which is the Alliance system.  I've been looking forward to this new system for years, as I had many different plans in mind for it, including an RP-PvP based guild. Sadly, my plans fell through the roof due to many different reasons. The most prominent reason was the lack of interest from the community overall, as I was looking for a very specific kind of player to join my guild. Sadly, I wasn't able to rope in enough qualified members, so I decided to put my plans to rest and instead just focus on enjoying the Alliance update on my own.

The update finally came out on Tuesday the 13th (yesterday). I was kind of excited to give it a go.

I gave it a try and got a big surprise: It wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be.

Alliance PvP is basically TERA's version of "World vs. World vs. World" mode" from Guild Wars 2, but it's nowhere near as engaging, since participating in Alliance PvE is just more of the same crap were used to: Kill the same rehashed BAMs, gather the same resource nodes, fight the same trash mobs, etc. What irks me the most about Alliance PvE is that it's the most effective way to earn contribution points. Which is silly, because I thought this was supposed to be a PvP focused update.

Oh, but there is PvP in there, no doubt. And it IS generally enjoyable when players are spread out all across the alliance maps, however, when attacking and defending alliance bases, it turns into "Fraywind Canyon 2: Electric Boogaloo" except now with twice the lag and three times the zerging. It also doesn't help that alliances are heavily unbalanced right now due to the amount of players in each faction, and there's no sign that the community will even things out, as all of the PvP tryhards have piled into Kaiator, the mass PvE guilds in Allemanthia, and everyone else in Velika (including me). Velika stands no chance against the other two alliances due to their sheer numbers, and there's absolutely no incentive for players to even think about joining a weaker faction, so Velika is going to be nothing but a punching bag for weeks or even months to come. And I'm not alone in this, either. If you check on the official forums, many people are speaking up over it, and the story is the same on almost every server, including Mount Tryanus, Ascension Valley, Tempest Reach and Celestial Hills. Here's a link to just one of the major topics on the subject of player imbalances: http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/general-discussion/topics/Great-Job-Community-you-killed-PvP

All alliances not being able to have a fighting chance is going to end in disaster. As soon as either Kaiator or Allemantheia gets a foothold on the other faction, and Velika not being able to keep the other two factions on their toes, only one faction will forever stay on top. In fact: This is exactly what happened to Alliances in K-TERA, where everyone is just piled into one whole faction while the other two rot. At that point, one would simply ask: "Why bother having a faction system in the first place" if things are going to be THIS imbalanced?

'll try and stay optimistic, hoping that the community will sort things out by the end of the week, but so far, I'm doubting it.

Update: I recently got approved to do an interview with EME regarding the Alliance update. I already have a few questions prepared, but I'm trying to get a few community focused questions available, such as their concerns on the player imbalance and spawn camping. I started a thread on the official forums, with which players can leave a question and decide which questions should be answered the most.

http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/general-discussion/topics/Tell-me-what-to-ask-EME-regarding-the-Alliance-update

MMO News Week - July 15th, 2013

Back on the news for the week! The features for OnRPG were pretty slim, but the news for upcoming games have been red hot, including End of Nations becoming an MOBA RTS and Age of Wushu recieving its first expansion.

Just an update - 6/24/2013

Here's my monday-ish update for you all. I ended up missing last week's update because I fell pray to some unforeseen circumstances. Last Wednesday, while I was taking my dog for a walk, the neighbor's dog (which was a German Boxer) got out from the neighbor's backyard and attacked my dog, most likely for territorial reasons. I was incredibly worried for my own dog, a small Jack Russel/Beagle, but instead of calling for help, I decided to try and pick up my dog and run back to my house, which was NOT a good idea at all. I ended up getting bitten in the face by the German boxer while it was still trying to attack my dog. My nose got mangled up the most, and I received several cuts on the right side of my face, as well.

I wound up in the hospital a few minutes later and got at least up to seven stitches placed. Having to deal with the pain and itching was quite taxing on my work for a couple of days, but things are healing up nicely and I should have the stitches removed real soon. My dog, on the other hand is doing much better than me. He got a couple of bites on his muzzle and leg, but he just shrugged the whole thing off and healed up much faster than me.

Other than my injuries, I'm back in TERA for a little bit. While I managed to take a nice break from it, I'm returning to handle some business in-game this week. What kind of business? Well, preview business is what. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to disclose before the release of a certain upcoming update, but I'm sure whatever I get to check out will not be too mind-blowing, since the game is just getting bits and pieces of what the Korean version already has.

MMO News Week - June 10th, 2013

I'm back for REAL this time! Well, I've just been distracted a lot this week, what with E3 at our footsteps and getting back into working for OnRPG. But I managed to get another news recap finished and ready to go, along with previews on AeriaGames' upcoming Solider Front 2, and an early access review on ArcheBlade by CodeBrush Games.

It's an exciting week as E3 is here, and I took a moment to talk about three of my most anticipated games for the week. Check it out!

MMO News Week - May 27, 2013

I'm here again to help make your Mondays a little less crappy! A lot has happened over the week, and things are really heating up for OnRPG and in the MMO industry in general. With that in mind: so much as happened over the week, with plenty of new Kickstater projects, beta updates and more.week.

The biggest scoops this week include my upcoming Warface article, RIFT's F2P transition and WarFrame's 8.0 update.

I'm back!

Finally, after months of slugging my way through college, I have finished and earned my Bachelor's Degree. I'm finally ready to suffer in the real world! Hurrah!

But in all seriousness, I'm glad to be finished with college (I really do not wish to go for any Master's Degree), so now I can focus on doing what I love for awhile. I'll uploading more blog posts from time to time, and will be doing news recaps and articles for OnRPG once more, and starting today! I have my news recap for OnRPG up and ready to go, and my impressions article on Warface's closed beta.

Meanwhile, I'll be looking for second job to help pay the bills and my ridiculous college loans, and soon I play to take some time to learn Korean, as I wish to help OnRPG with foreign gaming news. I see sites like Steparu and MMOCulture making so much traffic on these kinds of articles and I figured it would be awesome to bring it to a more open audience.

That's pretty much it for now. I'm happy to be back. Oh, and I'm closing in on 100,000 hits!

PAX East 2013 - Recap

Whoops! I've just been so busy with my last semester at college that I haven't had a lot of time to spend on my blog anymore these days. I only have one more month to go, and then I'll have plenty more time to spend posting updates, reviews and so much more!

Anyway... This month I did re-cap for OnRPG regarding their trip to Boston for PAX East 2013. Funny thing is that me and my brother went up to Boston a weekend BEFORE PAX East started. If we had taken the time to plan things out, we would have totally stuck around for PAX East. Oh well...

MMO News Week - March 11th, 2013

Another news week for Monday! I'm currently on Spring Break (even though it's still kinda freezing outside), and so I had plenty of free time on hand for this one.

I want to say that I’m sorry for not getting these news recaps out on a regular basis like I promised, mostly because I’ve just been having a lot of my time occupied by school and what not, but I assure you all that pretty soon I’ll be able to get these videos out more often so you all can start your weeks off with fresh news of all things happening in the MMO gaming world.

MMO News Week - 2/11/2013

Hello random people. Yes, I am still alive. Most busy with college work, as usual, but at the very least I still have time to do MMO news videos for OnRPG.

Also working on a second look review for TERA: Rising which I hope to have done by tomorrow. It's probably the most extensive review I've ever done on any game ever, so look forward to it... (or not!)

MMO News Week - 1/19/2013

Well I'm starting to get back into the swing of things in terms of news recaps for OnRPG. Hopefully I'll be able to continue recapping on a bi-weekly schedule just to keep up with what's happening in the industry.

This week: I re-cap OnRPG/MMOHut's 2012 awards and 2013 predictions, TERA (NA) transition into F2P, a review for Age of Wushu and more.

Just an update - 12/26/2012

Happy Holidays, people! I made another blog post!~

Well there been too much going on with me, but I finally got back to doing MMO news recaps for OnRPG! This week, I got to talk about The Secret World going B2P, Tera's 2013 letter, the new smite god reveal Xbalanque, Jade Dynasty's expansion launch, and Defiance accepting beta invites. 

Also near the end of the video, I host a little get together for TERA players on CH to come along and have a little holiday fun.

Just an update - 12/12/2012

It's been way too long since my last post on this here blog. My Fall semester is just about other, so I'll have some free time to do what I want this winter break, which is mindlessly playing and writing about video games, of course.

I've been having some trouble trying to get some requested reviews during the semester, so I feel like I may be a bit rusty on writing my usual articles. This month, though: I decided to snag a review for Webzen's Arctic Combat, with looks like a pretty shameless CoD: Modern Warfare clone, but has some nice touches here and there. I previously got to try the game out a few months ago during a special VIP test and it wasn't half bad, I'd say. Expect a full review this month.

I'm (surprisngly) STILL playing TERA, despite En Masse dropping the ball on several occasions, like just recently: En Masse decided to release the heavily desired bunny suit outfits in the vanity shop, only except they weren't actual bunny suits: They were 'leotards', instead. They removed the cuffs, bowtie and the fake bunny tail, making the entire outfit look incredibly plain and boring. Not only that, but they've put the black version of the suit inside another RNG chance box to boot. As if the whole Gym Bag chance box fiasco wasn't bad it enough, it seems like they didn't learn their lesson from it at all.

Sure, it seems like a really small thing to gripe about, but it's all the little small things that add up over time and really makes En Masse look like a very amateur game publisher.

...and yet, I'm still playing it and keeping my subscription going through Chronoscrolls, all because I enjoy my character and roleplaying too damn much. Still: I'm expecting En Masse to pull off something very crazy that will make me drop the game cold turkey, and soon. Like I keep telling myself and others: If it wasn't for my friends, the RP server and the CH community, I would have quit playing TERA after the first month.

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I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things for video news updates for OnRPG this week. I was hoping to get back into last week, but it seems like DizzyPW got distracted in giving me a script to work with, or whatever... I'm sure I'll be able to get back on Saturday, though. It really is a good way for me to keep taps on whatever is going on in the western MMO industry.

That's all for now.

Just an update - 11/19/2012

Oof! The month is almost over and I haven't posted much of anything! College is really taking a lot of me, so I haven't found the time to get any new posts up. Not only that, but I also haven't been working on any articles for OnRPG recently, which sucks because I could really use some extra money.

At the moment, I'm working with OnRPG and covering for JamesBl0nde as the weekly MMO news update guy, so from now on I'll be doing video news re-caps of MMO news for each week!

Getting to do these video recaps is fun and a nice way of keeping pulses on news for upcoming MMO and PC titles.

I've also been bumping around Mabinogi for just a little bit. checking out some of the game's new content. So much of the game has changed since I last played it, so I'm completely lost and confused on what to do! At least I have a partner card that I saved from last year that I can get to try out...

That's it for now.

Just an update - 10/30/2012

Lazy, lazy, lazy. I've been so lazy with updating my blog recently. I've had plenty of chances to get some posts up, but rolling back into classes after my trip down to New York for the NYCC just made me very neglectful. I've had a lot of work done over the past few weeks with recordings for panels and interviews at NYCC, too.

I managed to snag interviews for World of Tanks, Marvel HEROES, Age of Wushu and HAWKEN. It was really a fun week and a nice learning experience for me. Personally, though, in my interviews I felt like I was way too unprofessional about the whole thing compared to my brother, that kept stressing over every little detail for his interviews. He kept saying his interviews weren't as good as mine, but I honestly feel it's the other way around. I got some critique on my Age of Wushu interview which is did take to heart and will use that advice to improve myself in the future.

As for games on my list: There's not much going on for me in terms of new stuff. I got into the HAWKEN CB test but I haven't been playing it a lot, which I really should, since the game looks and feels great even though it's considerable more fasted paced that "realistic" mech games. I'm still bumping around TERA (surprising), although I may be done soon enough. There's a Battlegrounds tournament coming up soon and some members from my server are trying to get a team going to participate, although I'm not sure if I want to be in it or not, because after the month I spent playing Battlegrounds mode just TRYING to get the top spot and dealing with so many idiots and assholes from MT, I don't think I can handle that mode ever again. Still: the people on my server that are signing up for the tourney may end up short of a few members, so I'm considering whether I should join or not and make one last big splash.

That's all for now. Will be posting my interview videos soon.

Just an update - 9/19

Sorry for the lack of posts for this month, but I've just been very busy since my senior semester started at Richard Stockton College. Trying to juggle and balance time between school, work and play is very difficult for me, and I've been slipping a lot in my article contributions for OnRPG.

I've been trying to finish up my first look/impressions video on GunZ: the Second Duel, and I'm just about halfway through with it. I just need to do some re-recordings of my voice (I STILL hate it, though!) and it should be ready by friday (which is the deadline for articles this month!)

Also: I've recently got a second chance to chat with Theo Sanders, the creative director behind Ghost Recon Online, to talk about their recent open beta launch and the new Arctic Pack update. I already got some questions out to him and I should be recieving some answers very soon.

Lastly: An impressions article on ArcheBlade from the recent closed beta test that I managed to get in, thanks to the guys at CodeBrush games that were able to hook me up with a beta key. Also finishing this one up before Friday.

That's about it! My recent review for Ghost Recon Online will also be up soon.

Just an update - 8/29

God damn, there's too many games on my radar this week! I've had my eye on a couple of upcoming F2P titles and it seems a whole lot of them are having their beta tests happen ON THE SAME WEEKEND!

First up: GunZ: the Second Duel. Even though I have very little knowledge of the Korean language, I decided to sign up for the Korean closed beta which will be happening tomorrow (I'm downloading the CBT client as I type this.) It seems that I was one of the lucky ones to get accepted, including Steparu who got access to the game with a bunch of media press accounts. I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to play with Steparu and a few other English speakers when CBT starts.

Also happening this weekend: A CBT for ArcheBlade. I've actually been tracking this game ever since I found alpha development videos on YouTube several months ago. It's touted as a 3rd person fighting game and fighting games are right up my alley. The game also seems to have some MOBA style gameplay modes, as well. Just today I found out that they're planning an international closed beta on August 30th.

Registration for the CBT happened on August 23rd with a set amount of keys that were sent out fairly quickly, and I wasn't able to snag one for myself. I decided to email the developers and see if they could hook me up with one, and they were nice enough to give me two keys instead of one. I'm not sure who I'll give the second key too, though.

Last up: Gamingo is having their CBT for their upcoming MMORPG: Otherland. It's a Sci-Fi and Fantasy inspired MMO based off Tad William's novels of the same name. I never read any of the Otherland books before, but the style and the vibe of the game looks incredibly breathtaking. The actual combat that I've seen from the GamesCom 2012 footage and from the Next-G 2012 footage, however, looks kinda dull and clunky. If nothing else, though, Otherland could end up being a really cool MMO to just hang around and socialize.

Well that's a whole bunch of titles that I wanna stick in before college begins. Not a bad way to end my summer, though.

I'm still bumping around TERA, even though my subscription was supposed to end on the 28th of this month, but I decided to stick around a bit longer as one of my in-game friends wanted to sell me a Chronoscroll for cheap. I'm really grateful to have met such nice people on the Celestial Hills RP-PVE server. If it wasn't for them, I would have quit this game months ago (I know I said that before, but I can't stress it enough. TERA is really in shambles right now.)

The Argon Queen update is nice, but I'm already burned out of it.  The new dungeons are fun for the first couple of runs, but then they just become another chore to deal with the enchantment slot-machines...

The new battlegrounds are fun, but the pick-up groups you have to deal with are freaking TERRIBLE. There's also a leader role in battleground matches where one player on each team is assigned as leader, and they get access to two special skills: One that temporarily scans the field for enemies, and another that spawns meteors at pointed locations. I gotten used to playing as a leader a lot and giving directions, and for awhile it was kinda fun, but overall it's such a fruitless job when most people on your team don't listen to a thing you say and the rest just bitch at you for making a bad call even though they're doing very little to help win the match.

I became sick of being the leader after dealing with so many hopeless players in pick-up groups, but yet the IMS LOVES sticking me as the leader, even if I don't select the "Able to lead the battle" option.

In addition to the "Able to lead the battle" checkbox, they should add a "Absolutely does not want to lead" checkbox.

I got some new outfits for my character in the past week, though. I got the T13 Nexus Chest and Glove pieces for my outfit, and let me just say the make my character look so damn classy. I wore this outfit when I was judging the Miss Velika contest and everyone said my character looked FABULOUS.

I also got my complete basic PvP armor set from doing battleground matches (Victor Set). Two of the pieces I got from the "Bounty of the Fray" eggs (Gloves and Boots) and the chest piece I purchased using my BG credits. I also got my enigmatic PvP sword yesterday (Adversarial Blade), since I went into HARDCORE MODE and played BG matches for 7 hours straight. The extra PvP damage you get from enchanting the sword is nice, but I hate the fact that I can't get an extra 8% attack speed on it like with the Nexus hybrid gear, since the bonuses are completely locked and can't be re-rolled. My attacks just feel too damn slow compared to my +7 Swarmsword with 16% attack speed, so with that in mind, I'm thinking I might just go and get the T13 Nexus Sword as well. I'm just hoping I won't have to do a lot of re-rolling to get 16% attack + extra PvP damage on it.

Just an update - 8/14/2012

Hello random viewers. I just giving a small update of what's been going on...

In the last couple of weeks, me and my brother have been given the opportunity to start our very on Let's Play series on MMOHut, which was proposed by one of the full-time staff members in the company. I was really excited for the whole thing, since I've always wanted to do a LP with my brother, and the banter that comes from me and my brother when we play video games is pretty hysterical, so I thought it would have been an excellent way to appease the subscribers of MMOHut that crave some entertainment to go with their gameplay videos.

Unfortunately, the MMOHut community did not take us in with very open arms. Due to the recent actions of a previous video commentary, the YouTube community for MMOHut is still in an uproar, and they're not willing to let anyone commentate unless it's coming from Omer, the previous owner of MMOHut, or "The other guy". The amount of negative feedback was pretty massive, and it left me a bit sad and depressed.

Almost a day after the video went up, I received word about management deciding to cancel our LP series (I guess since it was just one video, it was more of a "pilot" than a series at that point). It's understandable, though. There's way too much drama happening on MMOHut right now and it just doesn't seem like it's going to die down anytime soon. I really wanted to comment on the video me and my brother made from my own account just to say "Give us a chance!" but after reading the 50th "YOU GUYS SUCK BRING BACK OMER AND "the other guy" comment I just couldn't bare view the video anymore, and I'm usually thick skinned when it comes to direct criticism.

I will admit that it wasn't a great first try for a LP session, and I really do believe that the video could have been a lot better. The sound quality was off since I was messing with primary sound devices, and there was several interruptions and recording issues. We had to re-record three times, and by the time we did our 3rd recording, all the good material that we came up with was used up, and if we tried to re-use it, it would have just seemed a bit force on.

While the series has been cancelled on MMOHut, DizzyPW is looking to keep the series going by having it moved over to OnRPG. I really hope we get another shot and have a chance to do a much better job than last time.

For those that are wondering: The video we did was on SMITE, a 3rd Person MOBA game developed Hi-Rez Studios. You can look it up on MMOHut's YouTube channel and all that. I, kinda don't want to link it here myself. Still can't bare to re-view the video and see all those negative comments. *sigh*

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Anyway, what else has been going on for me? Well I have been looking forward to Gamescom, mostly for new character reveals for the upcoming Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale. I was expecting a really big character announcement due to all the hype building messages coming from the NeoGAF and /vg/ message boards. Instead, all we got was characters that were already mentioned in the previous roster leak: Spike from Ape Escape, Dante from Ninja Theory's DmC, Racket & Clack from their game series and Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet.

Not really interested in Sackboy or Racket & Clank, but Spike looks hella fun to play, even though I've never played an Ape Escape game in my life, and DmC Dante actually looks great in terms of how he plays out and has style cancels. As cool as he looks, I REALLY just wish they had went with classic Dante, instead. What I'm thinking is that SuperBot asked for regular old Dante, but Capcom gave them Ninja Theory's Dante instead, and since SuperBot is a new dev company and can't really go around pushing demands, it was either "Take it or leave it" for them.

I hope that SuperBot at least got permission to include a classic Dante skin as DLC, but Capcom would probably make people pay a lot for it.

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I'm actually getting back into doing some reviews: This month I'm reviewing Ghost Recon Online. I previously did an impressions video stating the games strengths and (many) weakness. Most of the issues I had with the game could easily be fixed, though.

Planetside 2 is having CBT sessions all this week, so I'm looking to get in a few games and see what all the buzz is about. I've always wanted to play a game like this because it reminds of of the Battlefield series but on a much larger scale.

Lastly, I'm currently on the fence about reviewing the recent Pyromania update for Team Fortress 2. I'm thinking it might be late to jump on it, but Valve just recently revealed their Mann vs. Machine update which is a 6-player co-op mode where players of both RED and BLU can work together and team up against robot versions of TF2 characters. Still on that fence whether I should go with the review or give it up to someone else, though.

 I might do another update post regarding my time spent on TERA, but that's all for now.

Just an update - 7/18/2012

Holy cow! Already halfway into July and I haven't made any updates to my blog other than the Ghost Recon Online post! Well here's a little something to let people know that I'm still alive:

I've been procrastinating (as usual) on a few of my projects for this month. The first one that I'm kinda sorta working on now: A press tour article on Gravity's Maestia MMORPG. Even though I showed up a little late to the party, I managed to get a quick look at the game, showcasing all the features that will be available with the upcoming Open Beta launch.

Seems like a pretty average MMORPG, but I do like some of the features it has like Mercenary system and the faction-based PvP. I should be done with article by the end of the day.

Also on my to-do list is the upcoming RaiderZ CBT from Perfect World Entertainment. I tried the game out during it's alpha phase and it was so incredibly un-optimized back then. I did like how the combat played out, though. Looks like it could be a nice F2P alternative to TERA.

Speaking of TERA: I'm still playing but I'm starting to get bored with it now. This is due to the lack of things to do at the end-game, and because En Masse's incompetence.

From CBT1-4, everything was swell, but then CBT5 and OB came and everything went downhill from there:

• Removed mischief engines, effectively screwing up the crystal economy
• Removed lucky eggs for the sake of 'making alchemy more useful'
• Removed crafting quests, effectively making crafting more difficult and tedious than it needs to be.
• Remove pets/vendor shops (this is the only change that makes some sense, but is still VERY debatable since a couple of MMOs have both player shops and an Auction House/Trade Broker that co-exist together.)>
• Lowered the item drop rates for everything.
• Re-arranged dungeons for late game and end-game without proper re-balancing (Ascent of Saravash, anyone?)
• Made the ToT dungeon more tedious for earning master glyphs (In K-TERA depending if you defeat 1 to 3 bosses, you can earn 1, 3 or 5 dire badges towards earning master glyphs that cost 60 of then, but in NA TERA, you can only earn 1, 1 or 3 dire badges.
• Lowered success rate for equipment enchanting and made it twice as hard as it is in K-TERA
• Made changes to elin and castanic outfits just so they won't offend the dumb soccer moms that can't tell the difference from fantasy and reality.
• They reduced nexus times so that only a select few can participate (Both K-Tera and TERA EU has Nexus runs everyday. TERA NA only has Nexus runs on the weekends
• They basically made the game inferior to its Korean counterpart in several ways

Kinda funny how the EME version of TERA has more gear grind and RNG than the Korean version, huh? What's even funnier is that K-TERA got bashed by South Korean gamers for not having enough grind in it. Maybe BlueHole should consider switching the two versions of the game? They'd would probably be more successful if they did.

Ha.

The main reason I stuck with this game for so long was because I enjoyed the time and friends I've made on the RP server, but just recently I cancelled my sub and will be using two chronoscrolls I got for this month and the next to see if the Queen of the Argon Part 2 update will make a difference. Besides that, I really hope En Masse is starting to see the error of the ways and will start putting things back in order. They already started backtracking a little since they re-added the Valkyon’s Response reward even though it was removed when OB started, with an excuse stating "Grouping is its own reward". Sure the rewards now are crappier than before, but it's a start.

I have a little bit more I want to say about TERA, but I gotta get going. Will update this post later!