Gorked Out on Cataclysm

NOT a reference to the Orc gods Gork or Mork!

That other MMO some of you may have heard of launched its big expansion last week. It’s called Cataclysm and the gist is that the world of Azeroth has been devastated by some ancient, all-powerful dragon (Deathwing … very original name) leaving the world torn asunder and forever changed. The business model is to sucker fans into dropping another $40 plus the monthly subscription to replay the same game over again from the beginning in a newly graphically devastated world. The cinematic trailer is quite nice, actually it’s pretty awesome. There is so much hype and talk about WoW that a lifetime gamer such as myself can’t possibly avoid playing this thing … can he? You bet.

A part of me did consider giving WoW the 10-day free trial try. However as I’ve learned the past two years, one MMO is more than enough for anyone to keep busy. I had zero clue what MMOs were or what the gaming experience would be. I’ve been an avid console gamer for decades and never spent time playing online. As I’ve mentioned previously, WAR only drew my attention because of an interest in GamesWorkshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Since starting I have been a devoted subscriber but have cheated on WAR. I’ve given Champions Online a go. It has an interesting art style but the gameplay is like other MMOs. Heavy on PvE players can duel if they want PvP. I’ve found that my opinion feels PvP > PvE. I never made it to Level 10 on any of the zillion toons I rolled. That’s the most fun in this game (and I assume the same for City of Heroes and the soon to be released DC Universe Online) is creating your character(s). It’s a lot of fun with near infinite possibilities. I even created one that resembled an obscure DC Comics character, Dr. Midnight.

I also gave Aion a brief try and like many others have commented, it was a grind. That grindiness and lack of PvP saw me again abandoning before I reached double-digit levels. The game looks stunning … it’s amazing! Visually it blows all other MMOs away. Grinding mobs made me stop and think of the time and effort I placed into my toons in WAR. MMOs steal a ton of time from your life all while you’re having fun. Your characters grow, advance, power up, acquire gear. None of that is handed to you. Players have to invest the time. I realized that I don’t have that kind of time to further a super-hero or Final Fantasy-like emo in addition to defending Altdorf. And that definitely means I don’t have time to dive into the World of Warcraft, which is better than the best dessert you’ve ever eaten and delivers the biggest gaming orgasm, period. Not as good as Doritos.

I’ve learned a lot about this genre and many MMO vets say that the true MMO experience has long since faded with EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot. From what I’ve read those were real MMO worlds with all the immersion, depth, and newness that defined the genre. WoW came along afterwards and “improved” on these by taking the MMO to a broader audience. The 12 million subscribers it has can’t be wrong, can they? Depends upon who you ask.

I tend to feel all MMOs are graphically lacking and solely in place as social spheres for like-minded gamers to come together and play with or against one another in some capacity to have fun. WAR is not the best game I’ve ever played. And despite the legion of WoW-hards it isn’t the best game either. There are far better games that I’ve played at one point or another in my life. The social-gaming universe is a relatively new one that started niche and has exploded into a phenomenon. And don’t look now but WoW has already been passed by the likes of Farmville. You think 12 million players is king? Try 80+ million! Despite the sheer number of people who play or love them, those games themselves aren’t that great (and many even contend their status as games). It’s a matter of how much a slice of escape you’re willing to let into your life and the amount of fun perceived.

I’ve never written a WoW post but the game has always intrigued me. I mean, doesn’t every MMO blogger have at least one “WoW is Jizztastic” or “WoW Sucks” post in them? This is neither. Many others know more about it, have played it, or have better insights into it. But getting a good look at it now I am left wondering why it is this unparalleled maitreya. WoW reached people that weren’t hardcore gamers. That’s its magic and still is to this day while alluring a significant chunk of hardcore gamers. The old-school MMOer will say WoW dumbed things down, made things too easy to achieve, and you can dance. In today’s world we have so little time to enjoy the fun things in life. The casual gamer isn’t willing to work long and hard to achieve something a true gamer would. WoW wouldn’t be king if it didn’t make major concessions. That’s difficult to swallow for the hardcore as those not so hardcore encroach upon their turf.

As I scan gaming blogs to read those writing about the Cataclysm it is interesting to see the differing opinions on the highly anticipated expansion since it released …

• Some are nostalgic at the game they spent so much time in and are inspired to go back to play yet again. The world has been “redone” … remade. It will be different this time. It’s a chance to see old friends, to explore lands you once walked before, now changed. It’s a chance to do the things that were fun in a game that changed gaming.
• Some sound like the mistreated girlfriend who finally left to date other men only to be disappointed time after time until realizing the mistreatment wasn’t so bad as to go back and believe it will be different this time.
• The gear-minded are realizing that their once noble grind for epics in the last expansion are now gimp compared to greens that drop in Cataclysm. Thanks for the time you spent getting uber only to be chumped one level into the new expansion.
• While others are simply so sugared up at the pure awesome that not a single thing is wrong in WoWville. It’s as incredible as they remember with the most innovative quests and the most immersive lore and story.
• Some already say they are close to completing the new content. Really? It just freaking came out but you know it’s coming. The hardcore hardies will play non-stop and breeze through the new stuff thus crushing their own enjoyment by prematurely cataclysmalating after the long tease waiting for it to come out in the first place.
• Lastly, people talk about how active the zones are now but in a few months they will be barren as players return to the cities to chat, craft, and wait for raids. Is that really what WoW is? That’s the best game ever?

It appears WoW is like the Kaiser Soze of gaming. It’s difficult to explain, extremely intricate, and is difficult to truly put your finger on what it is that makes it so incredibly interesting, different, (and dangerous) … right in front of your face but poof … gone. I don’t understand, yet I do. Damn Kevin Spacey.

As a gamer I like when my hobby of choice thrives even when it’s due to a game I don’t play. For you youngsters, there was a point where gaming almost died. Honest. Gaming hit big in the late 70’s/early 80’s. There were places called “arcades” where us kids would go waste quarters in these stand-up boxes blasting alien invaders or jumping barrels to save princesses. I have no idea how much money I wasted but I loved every single minute of it. I remember when Space Invaders came out. I remember eating dots as Pac Man. I remember the first time I heard that heroic music as Mario grabbed the hammer on his way up the ramps in Donkey Kong.

And when gaming came home via Atari … it didn’t matter that the graphics weren’t as good as what was in the arcade. You were at home playing! Block-graphics never looked so great. That continued with other systems but then suddenly things started to flop. Arcades weren’t doing so well and people weren’t buying games like before. Were we over the fad waking one morning all grown up?

It took the Nintendo Entertainment System with its improved graphics plus flagship characters to turn things around. Through a series of new systems, new gaming concepts, and a semi-resurgence in arcades, gaming stayed alive to grow and thrive into the multi-billion dollar beast it is today. Games keep getting better and keep evolving. No one bats an eye at seeing game commercials during prime time television and even grandma can play the Wii!

This brings me back to WoW and what I’ve written previously about those who like to shit on things for shitting’s sake. It’s not relegated to gaming but we find everyone in life wants to defend what they like and criticize what they don’t. Why do I hate the New York Yankees? I could write a huge post why. Why does Twilight suck? Ditto. Why do I look at WoW as an outsider and simply do not get it?

I think visually, it’s lame. As I viewed videos of the new Cataclysm gameplay to see what it’s all about (and even ponder trying it), the game was as if I was watching a better Banjo Kazooie or a little known game called Vexx. It’s cutsie, cartoony, and goofy. Everyone seems to sport Popeye deformed forearms. I find that it’s a little too Disneyesque for me. And the faithful tout the new look of the game as amazing. Really? This is the visual improvement that took Blizzard years to complete?

There’s 3500 new quests that are more detailed, more immersive than before. They look like every other PvE quest I’ve seen in my limited MMO life. You still have to stop, click the NPC, and read the quest text. You still get hints on your map where to go. You still have to find X item or kill X things. That’s immersion? That’s awesome?

There are goblin hotrods, disco parties, swimming pools, girl gobbos with pigtails. WTF?!? That super slick game trailer up top … it’s the classic bait-and-switch for MMOs. If WoW looked like the trailer I’d be in there playing. But it’s not. It still looks like a really well done PlayStation 2 game. And the fans eat it up.

Star Wars: The Old Republic does the same thing with its trailer versus actual gameplay. Granted, its in-game art is better than WoW. And I understand that going with simpler graphics enables better, smoother gameplay online. But it amazes me at what so many will accept and annoint as awesome. I can admit that WAR did the same with its trailer … however its in game graphics at least come closer to the trailer than others.

That’s the WoW appeal, I suppose. It has fun baked in with the funny look, whacky NPC names, and casualness that doesn’t seem to take itself overly serious. That’s what makes the non-hardcore love it, right? It also seems to have everything in there to appeal to just about everyone. Blizzard really does have it figured out and people are playing and having fun. That’s the bottom line. Games are supposed to be fun but we dissect them and analyze them every which way we can. I can definitely see some fun in WoW … but I’m not biting. As if Blizzard is missing this lone gamer.

So the big dog did their thing but is this truly the pinnacle of MMO gaming? Subpar graphics, goofy toons, borrowing mechanics and pop-culture references from other games and places in a world that envelops millions of people around the globe? What’s next? Are there no more innovations to this market? Is it one big gorilla and a bunch of niche monkeys that will continue to make up the MMO universe churning out the same old same old? I guess as long as the fans are willing to settle.

There’s already grumblings about what’s coming down the pike. BioWare is catching flack for using voiceovers to relay quest content in Star Wars: TOR. Guild Wars 2 and SWTOR are being attacked for seemingly catering towards a single-player RPG style. Please school me if I’m wrong … other than raids in WoW, is there really a reason to group up? Can’t most quests be completed on your own? Aren’t some WoW-hards complaining at how single-player WoW has become? Is the new awesome playing a game over again with slightly improved graphics, new races, in a destroyed environment really it? I’m thinking more my problem is the MMO genre in general than any of the current offerings available.

Warhammer 40K Dark Millennium Online recently announced no action bars … no “Kill 10 Rats” quests. They want people to look at the game on-screen and not know it’s an MMO. Will it be as simple as shooting a gun or swinging a sword hitting buttons a la some fighting or shooting game? Is that the future? Maybe it is … a return to doing it yourself with a little help from your friends when needed to enter some dungeon.

I’m not meant to get WoW completely at this point. I missed the boat. But I am happy for its fans despite all the differing opinions from their community. These games are all about what we make of them and how we experience them. Depending what MMO grabbed you and enthralled you first will likely determine how you feel about other games and the industry. Had my first MMO been WoW, how would I be looking at other games? Take any MMO and there are people who love it, defend it, and play it all the time. I just criticized the “best” MMO ever for its success and new expansion while playing a game whose only “expansion” was 20 new levels, fluff, and new armor. Case in point.

Right now I think we’ve plateaued until someone wants to really take a chance. Innovation doesn’t always take hold and can summarily get squashed even when it’s worthwhile. Will it be Blizzard who takes that chance or will they continue a sure thing: 10 more levels, more loot, more quests, more raids, so-so graphics? The safe road. I read an article that claimed WoW could be sustained this way for another 20 years. Really? Our expectations are that low.

Comments are welcomed. Help me to understand this and why we are all so easy to please. We’re all friends here.

Rage In the Cage

Has the EALouse fervor died down yet? Unless you’ve been trapped under a large piece of furniture the past week, you should be aware of the now infamous “blog” started by a soon-to-be ex-Mythic employee. The Louse fired more than a few salvos at EA, BioWare, and Mythic from the most convenient seat of all … an anonymous blog. Many fellow WAR and game bloggers have had some things to say about this whole affair so I thought I’d ramble a bit myself.

Relating to the Rant
I’m not here to say Louse’s rants and posts are true or false. Whether you believe Louse or not, there’s more than a few things he/she posted that sound credible. I’m employed at a large corporation and work with some outstanding people (and some who aren’t). It’s like arguments I have with people over politics — government is incompetent, inefficient. Really? And you think private industry is any better? HA! Both are run by people and once you realize that people are incompetent and inefficient it should all sink in.

Hearing how members of management kiss ass, don’t listen to underlings, make bad decisions, etc. is not a surprise to me. The company I work for is extremely efficient but despite that … we still have plenty of boneheads making boneheaded decisions on projects that can only be summized as the epitome of boneheadedness. I’m sure EA is no different. And that they outsource, cut staff, etc. should also not come as a big shock. (The gaming industry isn’t immune to the crushed economy.)

People who claim to “know” what went down tell me that Mythic wanted to get away from the DAOC model to prove they could win with something different. Others tell me that they “know” it was an EA decision from on high to make Warhammer WoW-like so to draw in as broad a base of gamers as possible. At this point who cares? All we can do is look forward. Was WAR one big missed opportunity? Perhaps. Did it fail? Maybe. I guess that depends on your perspective on opportunity and definition of fail.

Butt Hurt
It’s been my observation that many MMO gamers get easily butt hurt by their genre of choice. Read any games board where an article about WAR is up (or nearly any other MMO) and you’ll see the trolls come out from under their bridges to complain about a game they obviously no longer play. Obsess much?

If you were excited about APB, were in its beta, read up on it and followed its development, then you bought it and subscribed to it only to see it shut down soon after launch … well … you have the right to be butt hurt. If you played Tabula Rasa … went through all those same things from pre-beta, through beta, and launch, enjoying it only to see it close down in less than two years … you have a right to be butt hurt.

If you were overly enthused about a game that you’ve followed, perhaps took part in the beta, then played but it fell short of your expectations … get the hell over it. You need to readjust your expectations because for some, this seems to be a recurring theme. Simply put … nothing will meet your expectations and no new game now or on the horizon will apparently. WoW is the pinnacle of MMO greatness and nothing will ever top it. So go back to WoW and leave us alone in our shitty game!

Expectations and Comparisons
So much of this anger, rage, and hate stems from overly inflated expectations. Hey, I get excited for this or that and can’t wait for a new game, movie, book, television show. But given time … one learns to curb their enthusiasm so as to avoid the letdown that can happen. The way MMOers rage about games it’s like Star Wars nerds … the ones who waited for nearly 20 years to see Lucas’s next trilogy only to leave theaters with so much venom their minds forever turned against their once beloved movie trilogy. Is it possible that MMO gamers simply hate the genre they claim to love or are they only content when they are complaining?

I know, it’s easier said than done and that calming patience and resolve isn’t prevalent in many people. Call it a wisdom thing that comes with age. MMO gamers seem to be those who want the new game first, they want it now so they can quickly level up and go through the game. As I’ve learned in my limited exposure to MMO’s … it appears best to bide your time … wait a few months … let some of the kinks get worked out. In the two years I’ve been playing the genre, the new MMO’s that have come out all had troubles, bugs, issues, flaws. And that’s all it takes for the fickle MMO gamer to bail, claim fail, and search for the next best thing or a return trip to WoW.

That’s not to say we should be totally understanding. These games should be released when they’re ready to go, playable, as bug-free as possible. Instead there is this mad dash to market that leaves us with inferior products and a sour taste … all for $15 per month. And that’s what happened to WAR, Champions Online, Aion, Star Trek Online. There is so much pressure to get games out with a hope to sell a ton of boxes, garner a good number of three-month subscribers hoping to then hold onto a nice population, only to go in and fix what’s broken later. People look at the polish of WoW today and expect every new game to be as sharp when it hits our PC’s. Though they forget that WoW wasn’t so great or polished or awesome when it first launched. Gamers only remember the ugly of games that scorn them … not those they love. And to gain that love takes time.

WAR Hate
I’m guessing both the gaming fanbase and EA had equal amounts of expectation for WAR. My awareness of the game was only brought to light when trying to come up with an online game to play with my cousin who, at the time, lived in Arizona. I said “Hey, what’s this World of Warcraft game? Should we play that?” He replied, “Nah, wait for Warhammer … it will be better.” I left it at that. So I was never swept up into all the hype and I had zero expectations for the game. In fact, I remember when I first loaded it up and played I had zero clue what the hell I was doing. I was ignorant for what was in store for me on this MMO treadmill. Flocking to WAR were a ton of MMO vets and players looking for the next best thing. Some were ex-WoW players, ex-DAOC players, and others had played multiple MMO’s in the past.

Looking at the game and where it’s been we can see that Mythic did attempt to be a game for all-comers. Soon after launch WAR fell short of expectations due to many circumstances. The PvE crowd was unamused as there wasn’t enough depth to the PvE, the world wasn’t immersive enough. Some found the game to be too laggy and system crashes caused others to get frustrated. From a PvP perspective there were some career imbalances that made the game no fun for some as they were scorched by Bright Wizards or frozen by Sorcs. Endgame was found to be lacking, unfun, etc., etc., etc. There were many reasons to not want to play. For some, they were deal-breakers, for others bearable. I guess it depended upon the person.

The fallout was great and despite topping 1 million box sales and 750,000+ subscribers, that base of players dwindled pretty quickly. After launching with 64 servers the game was whittled down to less than 20 within months. And that’s all it takes for players to move along and not look back as they seek that next game to admire and yearn to play. For some, however, the jilted feelings of what “could have been” are so strong they just can’t let go … opting to rant, rave, and berate this game that so disappointed them. Many go out of their way to chime in on Massively or Gamasutra as they pile on the hate for a game that wasted their time.

And this is where I have to ask … Really? Over a game? You wanted it to rock, in your mind it didn’t, so move along. Believe it or not there are some of us that aren’t quite so sensitive to these things called “games” that we can simply play them and enjoy them for what they are.

And So It Was …
And since then many other games have experienced the same fate of being compared to WoW … anticipated … only to launch and fall short. Champions Online? Lack of content. Aion? Grinds you like a hurricane and for those hoping for awesome PvP … not until you’re Level 25 but then you’ll get gang-raped by Level 50’s. Star Trek Online? Too different to travel around like a spaceship, poor “away” missions, lack of content. But you know what? Just like WAR, these games are still active, people play them, and I’m sure in their own ways they are fun. This notion of needing millions upon millions of players to be the bestest only matters to those who care about pissing contests or being the tallest midget. Would you like a medal or a chest to pin it on?

Enjoy the game you want to enjoy and you want to play. It’s your money, spend it how you see fit. If you try it and don’t like it … you have the right to walk away. But two years later still spitting acid over WAR, you look pathetic. Perhaps your daddy didn’t praise you enough or your mommy didn’t hug you enough. Perhaps you have other issues. Perhaps you are more or less a simple troll. Let … it … go. Cataclysm will be out in a little more than a month so you can breeze through it in 2-4 months and then bitch about that.

And now a game like Star Wars: The Old Republic is already a failure because they will add in voice acting for quest text, it will be too much like WoW, it’s been eluded that BioWare is making it like a single-player RPG, everyone will be a Jedi. So rather than waiting for it to launch and actually see how it is we’ll decide now, years before launch based upon an anonymous soon-to-be ex-employee. How we have evolved. I don’t care about SWTOR nor how it is or is not being mismanaged. I do care about a fickle playerbase that now makes up its minds on rumor, on the number of subscribers, and on how much it will or will not be like WoW.

End to My Rant
All I care about is that WAR is still “open for business” two years later and despite its “failure” has not gone the way of Tabula Rasa or APB. And it has some new stuff coming. Mythic finally woke up and realized they have a pretty nice PvP game based on RvR. That’s been the long road that many quit traveling but it’s where we’ll be come year’s end. Who knows where we’ll go from there. I’m hopeful that things will start to get really interesting. These upcoming RvR Packs sound neat, but I want new classes, races, zones, dungeons, and all the trimmings. Should that never happen … I’ve enjoyed my time in WAR and will continue to do so until the journey ends. No regrets.

To Louse … I wish you the best when that pink slip comes and hope you land on your feet somewhere that you can contribute. To the haters, I hope somewhere you find your place, a game that will make you supremely happy and content. And to us WAR faithful, I hope for a continued improvement to our game and should it see another 2 years, may it get better and better.