This MMO Would Be Great if it Weren't For All the Other Players

WARNING: BEGIN RANT

So, I spent a big chunk of the last weekend in a certain MMO beta, and really enjoyed a lot of it. Much of this established single player series' tropes were in place, which I enjoyed, and while it took a bit to wrap my head around some of the MMO concessions, I eventually started to 'get' the game once I started putting my preconceptions to the side.

However, because of the way I'm wired, no matter how hard I try, if someone's whining in general chat, I can't help but look.

And lemme tell ya, for a beta, I was blown away by the amount of bitching going on. It was as if the average mouthbreather doesn't understand what a beta is, nor do they understand that they're not playing the latest internal build of the game.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I tend to solo anything I can in an MMO. I like having huge worlds and tons of quests, and I love having new content added to this huge world over time, and I only group when a) I know the person or b) I absolutely must.

Yes, that is somewhat antithetical to playing a lot of MMOs, but really, I don't like most of you. Most of you can't communicate in a coherent fashion, AND, and this is my big irritation, just wanna click through and race through an instance as fast as possible.

I'm super-chill in MMOs. I like to take my time, explore, talk to folks, and really, zone out and absorb the world and the story through which I'm playing. Most MMO players are the second-worst human beings on earth, second only to the cesspool known as Xbox Live.

Actually, the average game article commenter is the worst. So, we'll say MMO players are a distant third-worst.

In any case, and yes, I could close gchat, but I like being helpful to new players, and sometimes, there are worthwhile discussions, especially back in pre-F2P SWTOR, but IN ANY CASE, nothing induces eyerolls like seeing a political discussion while you're tromping through the wastes of Korriban, or just trying to chill for a bit in Daggerfall, when someone starts ranting about the proliferation of gays in pro sports or some either equally dim-witted perspective.

Of course, nothing makes me lose hope for the future of humanity like the 'armchair developer.' These motherfuckers, because they know a guy that reads Gamasutra sometimes, know all about what it takes to develop a game, and the asshats that make THIS GAME are LAZY and GREEDY and WON'T LISTEN TO ME and I KNOW WHAT EVERYONE WANTS and FUCK THIS GAME and I'M STILL PLAYING THIS GAME BUT FUCK THIS GAME.

Yeah, criticism is fine, but damn, man, find a way to express yourself in a more constructive manner.

END RANT

So, anyway, I really enjoyed a lot of the beta I was on, and can't wait to test more, as well as play the production version.

I generally am not an MMO player, but have made exceptions for MMOs that make story a big part of the game, like Guild Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and, I assume, Elder Scrolls Online.

When beta testing a game I assume I'm going to play the shit out of, I always try to pick the character build that I'm least-likely to enjoy, since I want to save as much of the 'real' game as possible for when I first start really playing. I try to hold all the awesomeness back for the game I really wanna play.

Again, I did that with this beta, but because of the awesome flexibility of the character leveling, I accidentally put together a character I really like, and I'll probably borrow a lot from this when I finally build my real 'main' when the game comes out.

I did a similar thing back on the SWTOR beta, when I built a super-awesome Sith Sorcerer, a build I never thought I'd want in the real game. I had so much fun with it, that I re-rolled that character last year.

I can't wait for the NDA to lift, because I wanna gush about this game. Until then, just know that your past weekend was far inferior to mine.

Side Quests
 - the South Park: Stick of Truth achievements are as horrifying as I imagined, and then some. This should be a very interesting game. I have it preordered on Steam.
 - PCGamer has a cool preview of Pillars of Eternity up

That's all, folks! Thanks for reading!

-Blaine

3 days until E3 2012 ...

First, as I do every year ...

I never get tired of that video.

Second, read my E3 preview for Galaxy Next Door.

Third, I can't wait.

Before I really get cranking this weekend and next week and what's actually at E3, I want to take a moment and celebrate the impending eye-fucking that happens at E3 by promoting my favorite aspect of the internet, which is wild speculation.

Hell, I won't even call it that.

Shit That I Hope is at E3
 - I know Dishonored is going to be there, but I really, really want it to be awesome, and I want it to be packed to the gills with three things: 1) numbers, stats, skill trees; I wanna have to do fucking algebra to tweak my character; 2) story; I want to apologize to people for not being more involved in their lives because of this game; 3) at least one game mechanic that distinguishes it from the glut of shooters that dots the modern gaming landscape
 - anything at all on The Last of Us
 - anything at all on Dead Space 3
 - Company of Heroes 2; I want to see that this game is on own path of evolution, and not just aping the changes from Dawn of War to Dawn of War 2, Relic's other bad-ass RTS franchise; Company of Heroes is a better game than either Dawn of War (though I LOVE DoW), so I hope they don't take the safe route [oh yeah, THQ isn't even going to be there! DAMMIT!]
 - Final Fantasy XV; not only FFXV, but let's see it hearken back a bit to some of the classic systems and mechanics, but push the franchise forward in terms of narrative; maybe embrace some branching story and dialogue, perhaps?
 - cross-functionality between the current and future XBox OSes and Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8; streaming XBox games to PC sounds amazing, but let's also seed parts of games to Windows Phone for on-the-go interaction; there's a great piece on next-gen console OSes over at GND here
 - iPad + AppleTV has the potential to be an amazing 'console' on its own, if only someone has the guts to step up and start making really bad-ass RPGs for the iPad; everything on iPad right now feels 'light,' and not much like a 'real' game; this can be addressed by having deep systems and beefy story; I'm curious to see if anyone boldly steps into this arena
 - I want solid dates for PS1 on PS Vita and the release of Guild Wars 2
 - I want to see if Nintendo is going to get out of its own way in terms of making a console on which people can play games, or if they're just going to pin their hopes to another gimmick
 - Vita games; where are they?

What else? What are you hoping to see?

Keep an eye out for more from Untitled Gaming and Galaxy Next Door!

-Blaine
Buy my book!

Untitled Gaming & E3

First, we must absolutely indulge in an old tradition:








I never, ever get tired of that. God, I used to love G4TV.

Anyway, so we'll be doing some E3 podcasting and some E3 blogging. We're recording on Saturday, and will have it out a bit earlier than usual, due to some crazy scheduling, and then throughout the week I'm going to blog a bit each day, and I'll try to bug Tony into doing the same. Additionally, you can follow Tony and myself (Blaine) on Twitter, for our fairly-live reactions to each of the pressers and announcements. Somehow, some way, we're going to do a post-E3 podcast. I don't know how, but maybe we can do something cool and different with the wrap-up podcast.

It seems, more and more, like this is the year that a) console makers are justifying the lack of new & more powerful hardware by introducing various waggling methods, b) waggling methods might really catch fire and replace what we know and love as 'fun games,' and c) that my cynicism might take a real punch to the nuts because Bioware & Squenidos team up into a Voltron of gaming awesome and introducing a waggling method for menu-navigation and win my love forever.

So, yeah, it's going to be an interesting year for me, because I have my expectations way lowered. While I'd love to see something about Dragon Age 2 & Mass Effect 3, I'm expecting Bioware to throw all their weight behind establishing Star Wars: the Old Republic as the WoW-killer that EA needs. Now, this isn't a bad thing, but it's something I already know exists ... in the distant future. A release date and pricing scheme would be nice.

Additionally, Nintendo is going to show the 3DS with a handful of awful kids' games, and I'll do what I do with their handhelds every time and wait until they start releasing either original interactive stories or Final Fantasy ports in the system's second or third year.

The PSP2 has the chance to be great IF IF IF there's a second analog control. If there's not, it's going to be a hard sell and Sony should fire every fucking moron that was involved in that decision.

Natal & PlayStation Move also have a chance to be very cool IF IF IF the software is there. They need to demonstrate this technology as something so immersive and accurate that it is truly a better gaming experience than the controller or mouse/keyboard combo. The lack of force feedback is a real problem, though, just like on Wii.

Which leads me to what E3 should always be about, which is the GAMES. I don't think there's anything coming out the rest of this year that I'm really, really excited about, which is a very strange feeling for me. Dragon Age 2, Gears of War 3, Final Fantasy XIV, Star Wars: the Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, and maybe Mass Effect 3 are all next year. I am curious to see if Obsidian can take the Fallout 3 formula and make it NOT painful to talk or fight in the game, with their Fallout: New Vegas.

So, we'll see. I'm pumped for E3, but it's a very tempered, curious 'pumped.'

What about you? How are you feeling going into E3? What's got you pumped? What are totally negative about? Are there going to be any surprises this year? If so, WHAT?

As always, thanks for reading, and expect to see a LOT here over the next week!

-Blaine

Untitled Podcast FTW

Once again, we return to bombard you with correct opinions.

We start out with our usual jibba-jabba, then delve into actual games we've been playing like Alan Wake, Dragon Age: Darkspawn Chronicles, and a random assemblage of random shit.

From there, we talk a little about Steam on Mac, Guild Wars 2, and then launch into an exhaustive preview of Summer 2010 for gamers. From games to books about games to E3, we cover it all.

We're also soliciting requests for what you wanna hear about in our upcoming PRE3 podcast. What do you wanna see @ E3? What do you think will be there? What's got you pumped about this year's show?

So, enjoy the podcast, and comment away!

-Blaine