Warning! Elitist views are about to be uttered. While I try to avoid being elitist as best as possible there is no other way to say what I think about this subject without being so.
Disclaimer: I do not feel that I am the best in the world, nor do I feel I am even close to that. I do feel like I am one of the more skilled players and I have taken part in many things that would back up my experiences. (i.e. Hard Modes etc etc.) Also be warned that this is a rant.
With the upcoming patch to WoW labeled 3.3 Blizzard is AGAIN catering to the masses. While it is not completely unreasonable to make a game easily accessible to people of all skill levels I do feel it is unfair to penalize those that are of the higher skill capabilities. The Cost/Benefit ratio of actually putting in the effort and learning to adapt to new situations and learning to coordinate to complete an encounter is becoming lower and lower. With each patch since Wrath of the Lich King came out they have made it easier for even a fresh Level 80 player to get to the same raiding gear levels as those that actually raid and have a reasonable understanding of the games mechanics.
3.3 is no exception. Blizzard has again decided that it is a brilliant idea to spit in the face of the people who actually have the skills to complete the encounters they create. Those of us who have spent countless hours bashing our heads against a wall to try and figure out the way to coordinate a victory in these encounters now get the shaft. The "perk", if you want to call it that, to completing these before they grant access to the gear rewards, for actually beating them, to those with the mentality of an 8 year old are achievements. In some rare cases, however, there are titles for being able to execute a strategy well. That's nice. But it is insanely aggravating to work hard for your gear that realistically should reflect your skill level and/or your experience and capability. While there are always those who get carried by those around them, you used to be able to get a fairly good impression of a persons ability through how they looked.
It worked kind of like a credit score. And while we all know Credit Scores are the bane of existence to some they do tend to reflect a better idea of someones ability in life than nothing. Now I walk around with my gear I've obtained from the hardest modes of an instance many people haven't even completed yet, (Ulduaar), and some schmo who saved up triumph badges from heroic dungeons as difficult as walking across the street is wearing better gear than I am. Now... I don't see where Blizzard felt this was appropriate. Those same schmucks with "better" gear can't even beat the normal version of Ulduaar bosses and yet my guild beats them on the hardest difficulties and our reward is an achievement. Granted... when we can finally beat Yogg +1 we will get a 310% drake and that will make things all the more beautiful, without accomplishing that we have nothing to show for our efforts.
So now, when 3.3. comes out, all the hard work that has been put into beating 10m HToC will be eclipsed by your average nonchalant individual who saves up with triumphs gained from beating a puppy to death every day. That is what I compare the normal heroic dungeons to. They are simplistic now with the monumental leap in gear levels from what's available now and what was available when they were first released. It's like going out to a pound and beating a defenseless puppy to death for its carcass to give to a person who will give you a reward that when combined with enough can yield amazingly powerful items. Ones that rival, if not surpass that which is gained from actually doing something legit like defeating a raid boss on their hardest difficulty.
What is truly and utterly sad is that even with gear a full Tier above if not 2 Tiers above Ulduaar there are many many guilds who have yet to even complete the normal version of it. Those same people will get to gear up in the new Icecrown gear and still won't be able to beat Ulduaar because the mechanics and intelligence needed will elude them. That's an astonishing 3-4 entire Tiers of gear higher and they will be unable to beat it. Yet, those of use skilled enough and/or lucky enough to get into groups of people skilled enough to actually complete the content when it is new and current are only given a pat on the back with an achievement and told to walk the streets of Dalaran looking the same as your 10 yr old who plays only long enough to do the heroic daily and get the tokens to purchase the gear.
That being said let me take just a second to clarify that there are some who are struck with the insane misfortune to meet wonderful people socially that mechanically and skillfully lack so greatly they are held back in the available content. I realize that this is what this brilliant method of dumbing down is aimed to help alleviate.
My problem is that I believe that there should be a Tier of armor for those who save up, badges/emblems/tokens/items of no worth until gathered in mass, and a tier for those that actually raid. It doesn't need to be some enormous gap, but a gap should be present. I shouldn't be able to gear an alt to the same gear-ability as my main character doing nothing more than running heroic dungeons once a day.
If you want to talk numbers let's just say that with 3.2 there should have been iLVL 225 for badge etc farmers and 232 for raiders. That small gap would give some homage to those that put in the effort. And while I personally don't see a way to prevent them from going to older content and getting the credit for those wins I almost feel that those achievements should be made into Feats of Strength because they no longer require the same level of skill and coordination because the increase in iLVL allows for a lot more flexibility due to higher DPS output. I also realize that is just an achievement and it's not amazing, but I just feel that there is something that should be done to help make a raider feel like they are doing something that is worth anything rather than something that just gets them to point A a week before Joe Schmo.
I know I'm complaining abit much and not ushering in an amazing solution, but it's something that irritates me greatly and I just wish that a company that has billions of dollars of revenue flowing through it should be able to get their think tanks to come up with something that does, in fact, bolster the moral of those that put in the time and effort to become skilled enough to pass the trials of new content. That's my $.02 in a nutshell.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Dissidia! It's like crack...except it only costs you money once!
Final Fantasy has been one of the most amazingly fun series to play in my off-time. While I do not feel that every single thing with Final Fantasy attached to it has been golden... *cough* Crystal Chronicles Crap *cough*As a generality it has been incredible with it's vivid environments and breath-taking visuals. The story has been rich and enjoyable and the characters have been more than memorable, even sometimes epic. Final Fantasy has spurred many geek-outs and tons of cosplay's, among many which should not have been done... /shiver, while also giving inspiration and creative guidance to it's genre's advancement. Many great games have taken some key components from the revolutionary content that Final Fantasy has given birth to and made them shine brilliantly.
This is not to say, however, that the Final Fantasy series did not take ideas from other great games and expand upon them. We have many great games that were made in the Role-playing Genre that have been equally, if not much more, amazing in story, art, architectural design, environmental design, character development, music composition, and the list could go on and on beyond my current one... A few greats come to mind... Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, and Legend of Dragoon. They all shared something that kept bringing players back and sometimes even to this day. That is addictiveness. These games were so addictive I know that I personally spent many, many hours of my life I should have spent doing other things attempting to get that one last rare item, or beat that one last boss.
Sadly, I have not been impressed enough by many games as of late to the point in which I am with Dissidia. I cannot deny that I bought it with some relativity to the fact that I could play with some of my favorite Final Fantasy characters and that maybe... just maybe that drove me harder than other things to purchase it. In my defense... I did play the demo beforehand. It was amazing. Fairly simplistic, enjoyable, addictive action litters this game throughout it's entirety. I have only played this game for 7 days currently and the amount of content remaining to even be attempted is immense. While I would have loved to play with more characters the amount already playable is very enjoyable and makes up for the want to play as some of my favorite, less mainstream ones. Then again, with today's technology we can see updates to the games we buy and might can look forward to a content upgrade in 3-6 months.
In addition to the interesting storyline, there are your typical modes of play for a fighting game. There is Arcade Mode, Quick Battle, and the online capabilities with the ability to fight friends who you've sparred with in the past in a "ghost" fight. You have the ability to create 3 different sets of equipment per character allowing you to use three different play-styles with the same character. There is a leveling system from 1-100 and any RPG gamer would know the difference that each level can make in any fight. The visuals are amazing, the gameplay is solid, and the storyline even incorporates strategy due to the FF:Tactics style movement progression. You have to choose between fighting two enemies to the left and getting to your end point faster, thus ensuring greater chapter rewards or choosing the more treasure filled route that will make your end of chapter rewards non-existent. If chosen wisely and executed properly you can even get through with all the treasure and still get the best rewards with the Destiny Points Award system. Certain conditions arise on specific enemies that if you fulfill them you gain DP in order to attain greater end-of-chapter rewards. Each turn takes up 1 DP and so your goal is to be strategic in reaching your goal with as many DP's as possible while also accomplishing the most you can.
In addition to all of this there is tracking of your accomplishments and you are rewarded for doing well in fights consistently. You receive many accessories for completing "achievements" such as winning 1000 fights, dealing 100000 damage, obtaining X number of certain items, performing different actions X number of times, and executing certain scenarios flawlessly. All these things alone make the game seem very rewarding to play and with a calendar that is set up to reward you based on your play-style you can play and benefit at your leisure.
If all that wasn't enough there is another mode which I have yet to even unlock called the Duel Coliseum which is apparently a card game that allows you to get the rarer items necessary to create the ultimate armor/weapons. That said, the amount of content in Dissidia is nothing to be scoffed at and I can tell that as addictive as it already is I won't know what to do with myself once I unlock more of it. It's as addictive as crack atm with the exception that it was cheaper, legal, and I can use it in public. ^^
This is not to say, however, that the Final Fantasy series did not take ideas from other great games and expand upon them. We have many great games that were made in the Role-playing Genre that have been equally, if not much more, amazing in story, art, architectural design, environmental design, character development, music composition, and the list could go on and on beyond my current one... A few greats come to mind... Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, and Legend of Dragoon. They all shared something that kept bringing players back and sometimes even to this day. That is addictiveness. These games were so addictive I know that I personally spent many, many hours of my life I should have spent doing other things attempting to get that one last rare item, or beat that one last boss.
Sadly, I have not been impressed enough by many games as of late to the point in which I am with Dissidia. I cannot deny that I bought it with some relativity to the fact that I could play with some of my favorite Final Fantasy characters and that maybe... just maybe that drove me harder than other things to purchase it. In my defense... I did play the demo beforehand. It was amazing. Fairly simplistic, enjoyable, addictive action litters this game throughout it's entirety. I have only played this game for 7 days currently and the amount of content remaining to even be attempted is immense. While I would have loved to play with more characters the amount already playable is very enjoyable and makes up for the want to play as some of my favorite, less mainstream ones. Then again, with today's technology we can see updates to the games we buy and might can look forward to a content upgrade in 3-6 months.
In addition to the interesting storyline, there are your typical modes of play for a fighting game. There is Arcade Mode, Quick Battle, and the online capabilities with the ability to fight friends who you've sparred with in the past in a "ghost" fight. You have the ability to create 3 different sets of equipment per character allowing you to use three different play-styles with the same character. There is a leveling system from 1-100 and any RPG gamer would know the difference that each level can make in any fight. The visuals are amazing, the gameplay is solid, and the storyline even incorporates strategy due to the FF:Tactics style movement progression. You have to choose between fighting two enemies to the left and getting to your end point faster, thus ensuring greater chapter rewards or choosing the more treasure filled route that will make your end of chapter rewards non-existent. If chosen wisely and executed properly you can even get through with all the treasure and still get the best rewards with the Destiny Points Award system. Certain conditions arise on specific enemies that if you fulfill them you gain DP in order to attain greater end-of-chapter rewards. Each turn takes up 1 DP and so your goal is to be strategic in reaching your goal with as many DP's as possible while also accomplishing the most you can.
In addition to all of this there is tracking of your accomplishments and you are rewarded for doing well in fights consistently. You receive many accessories for completing "achievements" such as winning 1000 fights, dealing 100000 damage, obtaining X number of certain items, performing different actions X number of times, and executing certain scenarios flawlessly. All these things alone make the game seem very rewarding to play and with a calendar that is set up to reward you based on your play-style you can play and benefit at your leisure.
If all that wasn't enough there is another mode which I have yet to even unlock called the Duel Coliseum which is apparently a card game that allows you to get the rarer items necessary to create the ultimate armor/weapons. That said, the amount of content in Dissidia is nothing to be scoffed at and I can tell that as addictive as it already is I won't know what to do with myself once I unlock more of it. It's as addictive as crack atm with the exception that it was cheaper, legal, and I can use it in public. ^^
Friday, August 28, 2009
It's been awhile~ 1yr Anniversary!
Yeah it's been awhile since my last post/rant/frustrated concoction of irritability. Just rereading that makes me fired up again. I'd like to say that it is extremely disheartening to know that more than a year later... I still see the exact same situation. How sad is it that Sony has still yet to be able to pull their heads out their bum in order to bridge the Grand Canyon gap that is between Microsoft and them.
So here is to the 1 year Anniversary of Sony's continued Epic Fail.
They apparently decided that to celebrate their fail they would finally get on the path to redemption by releasing the PS3 Slim at a reduced price of $299. It's a start. Is it sad that I am wondering where my restitution is for the time I've had their system with it's unrelenting attention to mediocrity? I'm waiting for my stimulus check to revitalize my faith in them. With each passing day I defend that pathetically underutilized paperweight. I continue to wonder if there will ever be a day that I can say I'm glad I own a PS3.
I can only say that only on a few brief glimpses of reality can I remember being happy that I owned a PS3. The first one was on the first week of having one. I remember watching the, then included, Blue-Ray movie "Surf's Up" on a High-def T.V. and I was impressed. I then found out that I could utilize a "Folding @ Home" program to help find the cures for diseases and help in research to develop advancements in modern medicine. This struck home for me, because my mother was diagnosed with Cancer when I was younger and she fought it off and even when it returned again she was able to survive. I thank god/whoever for the fact she was able to remain in my life. So for that one program I am glad I own a PS3. Sadly, however, that is the only real "saving grace" for the PS3 that remains so.
The only other thing I can remember making me feel happy that I own a PS3 was when FF7 was released for the PSP/PS3. That was simply amazing. The ability to swap between my PSP and my PS3 is awesome and allows the enjoyment of the greatest RPG game ever made (imo) to be available regardless of where I am as long as I have my PSP at my side.
That, however, brings me to a sad point. The 360 is great in it's own regard without any peripheral. How sad is it that the PS3, imo, is only worth anything when coupled with a secondary device? This is infuriating..., but alas I should be used to it by now. I feel like I might have battered-wife syndrome... Sony continues to beat me with it's incredulous ability to disappoint me, but yet I continue to hit the power key in the hopes of some grandeur to lure me back. I continue to make excuses for it and hold onto every snippet of it's "getting better". I make excuses for my bruised ego and damaged opinion of it and can't help, but get irritable when it's integrity is questioned.
But maybe in retrospect that's Sony's way of helping me save money? If they don't produce anything that makes me "have" to have it then I don't spend my money on it... maybe I should be thanking Sony instead of being irate with them... But wait... if my money isn't going to them...then as a gamer... it's going to a competitor... Damn logic to it's core. Without our consumer's money you can't produce the things they love...which in turn keeps them from being able to keep us happy...it's a viscous cycle, so maybe this price decrease is their first real step in taking responsibility for their mistakes and getting on the path to righteousness...
One can only hope. Happy Anniversary Sony~!
So here is to the 1 year Anniversary of Sony's continued Epic Fail.
They apparently decided that to celebrate their fail they would finally get on the path to redemption by releasing the PS3 Slim at a reduced price of $299. It's a start. Is it sad that I am wondering where my restitution is for the time I've had their system with it's unrelenting attention to mediocrity? I'm waiting for my stimulus check to revitalize my faith in them. With each passing day I defend that pathetically underutilized paperweight. I continue to wonder if there will ever be a day that I can say I'm glad I own a PS3.
I can only say that only on a few brief glimpses of reality can I remember being happy that I owned a PS3. The first one was on the first week of having one. I remember watching the, then included, Blue-Ray movie "Surf's Up" on a High-def T.V. and I was impressed. I then found out that I could utilize a "Folding @ Home" program to help find the cures for diseases and help in research to develop advancements in modern medicine. This struck home for me, because my mother was diagnosed with Cancer when I was younger and she fought it off and even when it returned again she was able to survive. I thank god/whoever for the fact she was able to remain in my life. So for that one program I am glad I own a PS3. Sadly, however, that is the only real "saving grace" for the PS3 that remains so.
The only other thing I can remember making me feel happy that I own a PS3 was when FF7 was released for the PSP/PS3. That was simply amazing. The ability to swap between my PSP and my PS3 is awesome and allows the enjoyment of the greatest RPG game ever made (imo) to be available regardless of where I am as long as I have my PSP at my side.
That, however, brings me to a sad point. The 360 is great in it's own regard without any peripheral. How sad is it that the PS3, imo, is only worth anything when coupled with a secondary device? This is infuriating..., but alas I should be used to it by now. I feel like I might have battered-wife syndrome... Sony continues to beat me with it's incredulous ability to disappoint me, but yet I continue to hit the power key in the hopes of some grandeur to lure me back. I continue to make excuses for it and hold onto every snippet of it's "getting better". I make excuses for my bruised ego and damaged opinion of it and can't help, but get irritable when it's integrity is questioned.
But maybe in retrospect that's Sony's way of helping me save money? If they don't produce anything that makes me "have" to have it then I don't spend my money on it... maybe I should be thanking Sony instead of being irate with them... But wait... if my money isn't going to them...then as a gamer... it's going to a competitor... Damn logic to it's core. Without our consumer's money you can't produce the things they love...which in turn keeps them from being able to keep us happy...it's a viscous cycle, so maybe this price decrease is their first real step in taking responsibility for their mistakes and getting on the path to righteousness...
One can only hope. Happy Anniversary Sony~!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
