Variel vs. the Oddfoot

Okay, since I know there are at least two people out there who may marginally care about this post (which is two more than usual), here goes.

Perfect World's Fortunate Kylin mount.

The other day I went out and downloaded Perfect World International. PWI is the English — as opposed to Engrish — translation of a Chinese “free” MMORPG. I have a love hate relationship with Asian MMORPGs, especially of the “free” variety, but I’d gotten stuck in zOMG!ⁱ and figured… what the hey. Plus, PW has the distinction of having the most awesome mount in any game in the universe; the Fortunate Kylin, as pictured right. And any games that gives me a shot at something like that can’t be all bad, right?

So anyway I downloaded the game client, signed up and signed on. I was tossing up between making an Archer and a Venomancer. Both are good, solid soloing classes, with the Venomancer being the best on account of it being a high DPS pet class. However, in the end I couldn’t resist a Winged Elf Archer, simply because you start the game with the ability to fly. I thought being able to slowly hover at level 6 in City of Villains was OP!

Thus was Variel born on the Sanctuary server.ⁱⁱ

First things first, Perfect World looks beautiful in a kind of generically, hyper-realistic Asian sort of way. Whether you like that sort of thing is up to you, I guess. The monsters are generally fairly cool-looking (another reason to be a Venomancer) but the world is a little… bleh. Then again, I’m still in the “noob” areas so maybe some of the later scenery is more spectacular. It’s also the first game of this type I’ve played which actually runs in native res for my monitor, though some UI scaling would be nice, since everything is so tiny I spend a lot of time leaning forward and peering.

The game itself is definitely post-WoW, and if you’re familiar with that there are a lot of things — from gathering to the skill tree page — that will cause some serious déjà vu. The gameplay is also similar, and PW is the first Asian MMORPG I’ve played with an emphasis on questing rather than letting the player loose to grind their way from 1 to 99. Okay, admittedly I’m only level 17 — I haven’t even made it to the major city yet — so it’s possible that peters out sometime but so far it’s promising. Questing actually seems integrated as a character stat, and crafting in nominally useful, at least at low levels (HP regen increase thingie for the win, man), even if I can never find enough Logs or Nectar.

Where PW does differ from WoW is in its skills and stats system; for godssakes, if you’re new, go in with a plan. Character building “resources” are limited, and while they can be reset, it costs actual Really Real Money, and the game is unforgiving if you allocate your stat and skill points incorrectly. Google yourself a class build guide before you start, and I swear you’ll have more fun.

Oh, and Guardian Charms? Best. Item. Ever.ⁱⁱⁱ You get one as a quest reward early on, and unfortunately that addicted me. Further charms have to be bought from the store, but I figure the couple of dollars is worth it if you’re going to play seriously. It still works out cheaper than WoW and Guild Wars.

So yeah. All-in-all I’d have to say I’m fairly impressed with Perfect World. It’s not, well, perfect but nothing is, and it’s certainly fun enough to keep me entertained at the lower levels. Plus, of course, the fact that there’s no subscription fee make it easy to pick up and put down at will.

So yeah, definitely worth checking out if MMORPGs are your bag, baby.

Next on the list to try out: Shaiya.

1. CL 3.x, if you’re wondering. I’d gotten to a point where all the appropriate level quests in Zen Gardens were broken, and I didn’t feel like blowing another 600,000 gold breaking up CL 10 Rings for Orbs like I did when I got stuck at CL 2. I don’t do non-quest farming, especially not in a game with random XP drops that forces me to walk back to town every ten minutes.
2. Some cunts had apparently already stolen all my “usual” character names… including Loqia!
3. Any time your HP falls below 50% — barring a tens econd cooldown — it heals you to full health. They’re require no user intervention, and expire when they exhaust their HP quota. There’s also an MP version, and you can have both equipped at the same time.

On the plus side:

Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

FiL and MiL’s Battle of Extravagance

So, Mat’s house has always had a tennis court and an indoor swimming pool, right? But when we went over to visit last year we found this:

Father-in-Law's golf course. It seems to get bigger every time I visit.

Yes, kids, it’s a golf course. Or, at least, one hole thereof. Father-in-Law had it landscaped in so he could… I dunno, practice his golf I guess. Every time we visit there seems to be more work going on; pulling down trees, adding new tee-off spots, adding additional shielding so no more windows get broken… (I’m standing  just outside the front door to take this shot; they’ve got a weird battleaxe block.)

So, in retaliation, Mother-in-Law covered over the swimming pool and stuck this in the room instead:

Yes, it's an industrial-quality quilting machine. Every home should have one.

It’s an industrial-grade quilting machine. You know, for making quilts. It’s twelve feet long.

No island yet, but we’re working on it.

Christmas Day

The Trollbeads bracelet I got from MiL and FiL.

I had trouble photographing these, and unfortunately the best shot had my pasty had in it. So short of cracking out the PhotoShop… here you go. My Trollbeads bracelet. It’s very cool.

Of course, present opening is always more fun than present-cleaning-up-after.

Mmm, presents.

Mum’s Surprise

So after a surprisingly relaxing two-ish weeks in Wollongong, we come home to find:

My mother is a fucking genius, seriously. This is the bedspread and sheet set she made us for Christmas, produced from a cut-up sari and some other miscellaneous pieces of silk. The throw pillow — which really impressed Mat — is made from woven ribbons.

This is actually the… third (I think) one of these she’s made. The first was silver and green, and still lives on my old bed at their place. I keep persuading her to take commissions, but she’s like me, and does this stuff for the love, not the money.

So there you go; Christmas in pictures. A-aa-and PW’s finished downloading so I’m off to check that out.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

2009's first crapart.

Happy new year, everyone!

And here, have a crappy photo of the first art if the year, drawn at Husks and Alysande’s party. Because I’m a dag like that.

In my defence, the night’s other activities were 500 and Lips…

zOMG! still isn’t a bad game, but it suffers greatly from its confused parentage. The fact that it’s still in beta gives a bit of hope that some of these structural issues can be fixed, and in the grand tradition of the internet, here’s what I think needs doing:

#1: Decide What Kind of Game We’re Playing (or, If This is a “Casual MMORPG”, Then Make It One)

zOMG! is supposed to be a “casual MMORPG” but it isn’t. Ideologically, it owes a lot of to games like Ragnarok Online, Final Fantasy XI and FlyFF, which in turn come from what I guess is the Asian branch of MMORPG design. It differs from western ideas — seen in games like World of Warcraft, Everquest and Guild Wars — in that the focus is on, a) grouping, and b) grinding.

Now, I know a lot of casual MMO players, and as a general rule neither of those things are what they look for in a game. As a general rule, casual gamers like a fast-paced game with small, easily-achievable goals that build to something longer. Your standard casual is looking for something they can pick up for five minutes or five hours; give them a hundred “kill 5 mobs” quests and they’ll be much happier than if you tell them to kill 500 from the outset.

#2: Get Rid of the Emphasis on Grouping (”Crewing”)

In casual play, grouping should be something people do for fun, not something they do because the game mechanic forces them to. MMORPGs that are successful in the casual market (particularly WoW) are so because the majority of their content is accessible solo. With that in mind:

1. Be very, very careful about making grouping do things like increase normal drop rates. Players should not feel penalised for not grouping, but neither should they feel penalised for being in a group.
2. Quests that require a group should not “break” a quest line, especially if questing is your primary way of levelling up.
3. Understand that if you do implement content that requires a group to complete, a lot of players are going to takle that content by going away, levelling elsewhere, then coming back to finish off the lower-level content when they’re more powerful.
4. Get rid of the G’hi meter. Seriously; this is the nastiest mechanic in any MMORPG I’ve yet to encounter. Better yet, merge it with Stamina (i.e. rename the boringly generic ‘Stamina’ to the more zOMG!-specific G’hi) and remove any links with “social” activities. For the record, “social” and “casual” are not the same thing. Gaia already has plenty of outlets for the former.

#4: Increase the Pace of Gameplay

Last I checked, the most successful casual games around were all incredibly fast-paced. I’m thinking of everything here from Peggle and Bejeweled to The Sims and Guitar Hero. All of these games require, in at least some points, what’s half-jokingly referred to as “uber-micro” in hardcore gaming circles; that is, the ability to make multiple complex decisions/movements in a very short period of time, with the possibility — but not necessarily requirement — of complex, long-term strategies (”if I drop this block here then this can slot in for the combo there…”).

As it stands, zOMG! is a slow game. I’m not even talking about the death penalty (which I actually think is very good), but just about everything else. Drop rates are slow, levelling is slow and killing is slow due to the lack of temporary restorative items (the premium ones purchasable with Gaia Cash don’t count) and fast drain of Stamina.

This latter thing is the real problem. You don’t want players to have time to sit and think about the game, lest they start thinking of other games they’d rather be playing. The motto for any casual game should be “fast and fun”. Stick to that.

#5: Don’t Be Afraid of the Market

All MMORPGs have a market, and Gaia of all places should know that a thriving market is one of the cornerstones of a thriving community. Don’t be afraid to allow your players to get rich from playing zOMG!, even if it’s just from selling (a hell of a lot of) “trash drops” to the vendor. Offset this by putting in time-money sinks (i.e. a “tax” whereby money you earn is sucked back into the game — as opposed to transferred to other players — in proportion to your overall wealth); every other MMORPG in existence does this by selling rejuvenating items (health and mana pots, item repair), and in this case there’s no reason to mess with a good thing.

The other side effect to this is to get rid of Soulbonding on Rings (at least to some extent, q.v. below). People should be able to get large quantities of gold on the off-chance they’re lucky enough to get something really awesome; this is part of the general risk-reward that’s inherent in every good game. The only thing that really groks that way in zOMG! are Rings, and Soulbinding all of these is crippling in a number of ways:

1. It’s incredibly nasty when coupled with the absence of a loot veto mechanic. As a general rule, I don’t like having to Salvage a Ring I’ve already got when it’s dropped for me but not a crew member who’d make better use of it.
2. It makes the assumption that people get into zOMG! via Gaia and not the other way around. Allowing Rings back on the market creates an incentive for people who started with zOMG! to get involved in the more “traditional” Gaian activities by giving them a way to get cashed- and blinged-up.

Limiting twinking is a noble enough aim, but don’t do it at the expense (hah!) of the market. Speaking of which…

#6: Limit Twinking, Not the Market (or, Why Soulbonding Sucks, and How it Can Be Awesome)

Every single other MMORPG I can think of (and likewise almost all RPGs) have an inherent mechanic to limit twinking. It’s usually called levels. More powerful items are thusly limited to more powerful characters, and this is a Very Good Thing. Twinking (in this sense, using in-game currency to purchase high-powered items for a low-powered character, thus reducing the difficulty of content) isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s use should always be limited.

zOMG! attempted to solve its twinking problem with Soulbonding, which I think was a poor move for reasons described above. The corollary to that, of course, is that the Rings that have escaped Soulbonding will skyrocket astronomically in price as people hoard them now and sell them in six to twelve months’ time (as I plan on doing, o ho ho). I think a much better option is to give an inherent player stat governance over what level Ring can be equipped, and Total Charge is the prime contender. zOMG! already has a “soft” player level system anyway (q.v. G’hi), so why not use it?

That being said, I still think Soulbinding Rings isn’t a bad idea, just limit it to certain conditions: Rings received from quests, for example, or ones that have been levelled up by players. That way you’re left with a happy (WoW-esque) medium between the two current extremes zOMG! has seen.

#7: Standardise Time Played vs. Reward Gained

zOMG! is the only game I can think of off the top of my head where XP is a random drop. Seriously. In the last two days I’ve played, I’ve gotten absolutely nowhere on my character due to the infrequency of drop rates, and that’s ridiculous. Hell, I haven’t even heard of a hardcore game in which that’s the case, let alone a self-proclaimed “casual” one.

Here’s the deal, guys; for your RPG, online or off, to be a success, you must reward the player consistently for effort spent in game. The main way that happens is XP. If I kill a hundred mobs, I’d damn well better be more powerful afterwards than I was beforehand, else I’m going to get annoyed and go play something else.

Broadly, games have a two tiered reward system; one that is slow, steady and predictable (usually XP and possibly gold) and one that is randomised (usually items and possibly gold). The steady reward stream keeps people coming back when the randomised stream isn’t paying out. In its current incarnation, zOMG!’s steady rewards — namely the rewards from repeatable quests — are weak and, worse, situational. If I could only change one single aspect of the game, this would be it.

Enemies need a standard drop rate for Orbs. This would make levelling too fast at the current rate, in which case the Orb requirements to level Rings should be raised accordingly. The main point here should be consistency.

#8: Rethink the Cash Items

Specifically the Superchargers. Cash for items is a common exchange in the world of “free” MMORPGs, but the items available in this way shouldn’t be things that are required during day-to-day gameplay. As it currently stands, if you don’t have money, zOMG! has no “panic button”, which is both, a) frustrating, and b) pretty unique amongst everything I’ve played.

As a general rule, cash-buyable buffs should be minor twinking items like the Ring Polishers, or items that slightly increase drop rates. For zOMG! specifically, the much-desired “self-Defib” items makes an excellent candidate here.

Ultimately…

zOMG! isn’t a bad MMORPG, but it isn’t a great one, either. It’s kind of new and exciting at the moment, but it doesn’t really have a hook that Gaia itself doesn’t, and as such I don’t think can survive standalone. There are some really bad gaming design decisions here, I think, lifted whole-cloth from other games that are popular in the market Gaia is aiming at. But the designers at Gaia need to realise that people play things like FlyFF and Ragnarok Onlinein spite of their flaws, not because of them.

You wanna make a MMORPG that’s cutesy and appeals to teenagers? Fine. But go to the effort to make it a good game as well, else all you’re left with is another gimmicky imitator.