- Joined
- Mar 15, 2005
- Messages
- 3,650
- Age
- 50
- Location
- Delawhere?
- Nation Banner
- Main Job
- Secondary Job
- Third Job
- Server
- Quetzalcoatl
- Linkshell
- PhoenixPimps
- FFXIV
- Raesvelg Helheim
I'd considered calling this one "A New Hope", but let's be realistic, there's very little hope for the genre at this point.
So Blizzard has announced that they expect their new MMO project to coexist alongside World of Warcraft. I believe the appropriate response to this revelation from on high is "no shit, really?" I suppose we can give Blizzard credit for not trying to hype up their new product and coming to the sobering realization that, in all likelihood, whatever they produce will ultimately be devoured by their own offspring, in some sort of reverse Titan/Olympian conundrum.
Then again, given the typical pace at which Blizzard develops games, it's entirely possible that we will a.) discover that the current theory regarding the planet Tyche will prove to be true, just in time to have it induce an apocalyptic shower of comets to b.) destroy human civilization and thus doom us all to an eternity spent in the afterlife with millions of 2012 conspiracy theorists screaming "I TOLD YOU SO!" long before the game ever comes to fruition.
I have to wonder how terrified Blizzard must be of their own offspring at this point. While I'm sure it's immensely comforting to them to know that, no matter what else they do, they're going to be fondly remembered for the handful of games they've actually produced over the years, but given the scope of their recent success with WoW, I'm forced to wonder if there's not a certain sensation among the Blizzard design teams that maybe nothing they do will ever be that successful again. Indeed, that any further forays into the MMORPG market will fail because of the monster that they've inadvertently created.
Time will tell, I suppose.
What else do we have? More superhero MMOs (/yawn), which have honestly never appealed to me, despite the fact that there are probably only a handful of people on this site (looking at you TG) who are more conversant in comic trivia than I am. I took one look at DC Universe Online and ran screaming in the opposite direction, to be frank about it. Yes, I realize that some people enjoy the game. I realize that some people enjoy interacting in some small way in someone else's grand story, but while I could almost imagine a Marvel Universe Online game being remotely engaging up until they introduced an X-Men expansion and suddenly every game server spontaneously imploded in a fit of rage at the sheer level of contradictions, inconsistencies, confused subplots and just outright bad writing, I can't imagine playing in the DC Universe and having any fun at it, largely because of the knowledge that DC has so many invincible characters flying around I'd be questioning the point of my digital efforts.
Seriously.
IT'S FUCKING SUPERMAN.
Alternately.
IT'S FUCKING BATMAN.
I suspect there's a reason why, every time DC decides to run a "Superman goes crazy, begins to operate at something approaching his full potential towards some nefarious end" storyline, they almost invariably use Batman to shut him down, thus proving that despite Superman's literally godlike powers, all it really takes is one really smart guy with a lot of money, ignoring the fact that Superman could pretty much kill Batman at will in any realistic scenario.
And hooooooooly crap have I gone off the tracks into a comic book rant.
Ahem.
Anyway, DCUO fails to interest me because while it's occasionally nice to play in someone else's sandbox, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm doing so on sufferance when it comes to that particular setting.
Generic fantasy MMOs abound, as always, though at least the ones coming up are slightly less generic than usual.
Which actually leads me to another rant, this one less specific to MMOs, but triggered by an ad for an MMO, so I guess it qualifies.
At what point was it decided that the only vulnerable part of the female body was the nipple?
Seriously, I was on the The Escapist for this week's Zero Punctuation, and covering a good chunk of the right side of the screen is a female character from Rift, who is wearing an armored... ordinarily at this point I'd say bustier, but really, one typically credits a bustier with covering at least 30% of the torso, which this does not. So call it an armored bra, cut low enough to expose some serious tracts of land (and most of the vital organs in the upper torso) while leaving the other important part of the torso (the midriff, where all those squishy intestinal parts without a ribcage to protect them sit) completely exposed.
It's bad enough in FFXI where we're apparently led to believe that women in Vana'diel don't actually want pants when they could have short shorts and long stockings instead, even when those garments are composed of chainmail and plate armor. But at least female dragoon artifact armor covers the rest of the body (aside from the apparently invulnerable panty line) to largely the same degree as the male dragoon artifact armor.
I realize that the specific image I'm ranting about is advertising, probably deliberately created to draw loveless gamers (who I suppose I really shouldn't mock, circumstances being what they are) into a game with the lure of digital boobies, but really, it happens so much. Sometimes they at least try to dress it up a little (Dark Elves in Warhammer, for example) with some background justification, but it bugs me. Not because I give two shits about the objectification of women in video games (here's a hint: I don't), but because the whole armored nipples approach just seems so crass and transparent.
In a brief segue back to the topic that I'm supposed to be following, apparently the designers on the FFXI team have finally decided to allow people to upgrade more than a very tiny range of very specific equipment. When they introduced the Trial of the Magians system, this is more or less what I expected from them, particularly once the level cap was raised. "Here", I thought, "here is the system that is going to make all the old content still valid somehow, and give people a reason to keep coming back to the interminable timesinks of Dynamis, Limbus, and HNM camping".
Only it appears that SE was having difficulty deciding how that was going to be accomplished, because while they've finally announced their intent to do so, they've yet to announce how/when/what the details of this process are going to be. Seriously, I just want to upgrade my Hauteclaire, is that so wrong?
In a way I think SE doesn't get enough credit for innovation in the genre. Yes, they're hopelessly backwards in regards to some things (story-based quests that actually have experience rewards, for one), but when you think about it, they've actually been right on the cutting edge in some things. They just wind up doing it so awkwardly that someone else, who actually invests the necessary effort to seamlessly integrate the concept into their game, gets the majority of the credit for it. Just because SE is bad at innovating doesn't mean that they're not innovative, just that they need someone in charge who is willing to say "Great idea, now make it not suck."
So Blizzard has announced that they expect their new MMO project to coexist alongside World of Warcraft. I believe the appropriate response to this revelation from on high is "no shit, really?" I suppose we can give Blizzard credit for not trying to hype up their new product and coming to the sobering realization that, in all likelihood, whatever they produce will ultimately be devoured by their own offspring, in some sort of reverse Titan/Olympian conundrum.
Then again, given the typical pace at which Blizzard develops games, it's entirely possible that we will a.) discover that the current theory regarding the planet Tyche will prove to be true, just in time to have it induce an apocalyptic shower of comets to b.) destroy human civilization and thus doom us all to an eternity spent in the afterlife with millions of 2012 conspiracy theorists screaming "I TOLD YOU SO!" long before the game ever comes to fruition.
I have to wonder how terrified Blizzard must be of their own offspring at this point. While I'm sure it's immensely comforting to them to know that, no matter what else they do, they're going to be fondly remembered for the handful of games they've actually produced over the years, but given the scope of their recent success with WoW, I'm forced to wonder if there's not a certain sensation among the Blizzard design teams that maybe nothing they do will ever be that successful again. Indeed, that any further forays into the MMORPG market will fail because of the monster that they've inadvertently created.
Time will tell, I suppose.
What else do we have? More superhero MMOs (/yawn), which have honestly never appealed to me, despite the fact that there are probably only a handful of people on this site (looking at you TG) who are more conversant in comic trivia than I am. I took one look at DC Universe Online and ran screaming in the opposite direction, to be frank about it. Yes, I realize that some people enjoy the game. I realize that some people enjoy interacting in some small way in someone else's grand story, but while I could almost imagine a Marvel Universe Online game being remotely engaging up until they introduced an X-Men expansion and suddenly every game server spontaneously imploded in a fit of rage at the sheer level of contradictions, inconsistencies, confused subplots and just outright bad writing, I can't imagine playing in the DC Universe and having any fun at it, largely because of the knowledge that DC has so many invincible characters flying around I'd be questioning the point of my digital efforts.
Seriously.
IT'S FUCKING SUPERMAN.
Alternately.
IT'S FUCKING BATMAN.
I suspect there's a reason why, every time DC decides to run a "Superman goes crazy, begins to operate at something approaching his full potential towards some nefarious end" storyline, they almost invariably use Batman to shut him down, thus proving that despite Superman's literally godlike powers, all it really takes is one really smart guy with a lot of money, ignoring the fact that Superman could pretty much kill Batman at will in any realistic scenario.
And hooooooooly crap have I gone off the tracks into a comic book rant.
Ahem.
Anyway, DCUO fails to interest me because while it's occasionally nice to play in someone else's sandbox, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm doing so on sufferance when it comes to that particular setting.
Generic fantasy MMOs abound, as always, though at least the ones coming up are slightly less generic than usual.
Which actually leads me to another rant, this one less specific to MMOs, but triggered by an ad for an MMO, so I guess it qualifies.
At what point was it decided that the only vulnerable part of the female body was the nipple?
Seriously, I was on the The Escapist for this week's Zero Punctuation, and covering a good chunk of the right side of the screen is a female character from Rift, who is wearing an armored... ordinarily at this point I'd say bustier, but really, one typically credits a bustier with covering at least 30% of the torso, which this does not. So call it an armored bra, cut low enough to expose some serious tracts of land (and most of the vital organs in the upper torso) while leaving the other important part of the torso (the midriff, where all those squishy intestinal parts without a ribcage to protect them sit) completely exposed.
It's bad enough in FFXI where we're apparently led to believe that women in Vana'diel don't actually want pants when they could have short shorts and long stockings instead, even when those garments are composed of chainmail and plate armor. But at least female dragoon artifact armor covers the rest of the body (aside from the apparently invulnerable panty line) to largely the same degree as the male dragoon artifact armor.
I realize that the specific image I'm ranting about is advertising, probably deliberately created to draw loveless gamers (who I suppose I really shouldn't mock, circumstances being what they are) into a game with the lure of digital boobies, but really, it happens so much. Sometimes they at least try to dress it up a little (Dark Elves in Warhammer, for example) with some background justification, but it bugs me. Not because I give two shits about the objectification of women in video games (here's a hint: I don't), but because the whole armored nipples approach just seems so crass and transparent.
In a brief segue back to the topic that I'm supposed to be following, apparently the designers on the FFXI team have finally decided to allow people to upgrade more than a very tiny range of very specific equipment. When they introduced the Trial of the Magians system, this is more or less what I expected from them, particularly once the level cap was raised. "Here", I thought, "here is the system that is going to make all the old content still valid somehow, and give people a reason to keep coming back to the interminable timesinks of Dynamis, Limbus, and HNM camping".
Only it appears that SE was having difficulty deciding how that was going to be accomplished, because while they've finally announced their intent to do so, they've yet to announce how/when/what the details of this process are going to be. Seriously, I just want to upgrade my Hauteclaire, is that so wrong?
In a way I think SE doesn't get enough credit for innovation in the genre. Yes, they're hopelessly backwards in regards to some things (story-based quests that actually have experience rewards, for one), but when you think about it, they've actually been right on the cutting edge in some things. They just wind up doing it so awkwardly that someone else, who actually invests the necessary effort to seamlessly integrate the concept into their game, gets the majority of the credit for it. Just because SE is bad at innovating doesn't mean that they're not innovative, just that they need someone in charge who is willing to say "Great idea, now make it not suck."