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to the 1,328th
edition
of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news and commentary
newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Public quests will be a big part of the next wave of MMOGs, with both Guild Wars 2 and Rift: Planes of Telara making avid use of the concept. Are PQs another crack in the social foundation of MMOGs, or is PQ gameplay one of the more socially-oriented enhancements we've seen in MMORPGs in years? Ethec looks at the similarities between this Kotaku-fueled debate and the old throw-downs regarding instanced vs. open-world gameplay in Loading... Public Quests, Public Enemies?

width="100%">

The Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse ( target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results:

  1. World
    of Warcraft
  2. EverQuest
    II
  3. EVE Online (UP 5)
  4. Age
    of Conan
    (down 1)
  5. Dungeons
    & Dragons Online
    (down 1)

Biggest
movers today
:

  1. Rift: Planes of Telara (UP 35 to 12 - why?)
  2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/287">EverQuest (UP 10 to #6)
  3. City of Villains (UP 9 to #17)
Recent Releases
  • 2/16
    - href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
    2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
  • 2/16
    - LotRO:
    Oath of the
    Rangers
    (content update)
  • 4/5
    - Pocket
    Legends
    (iMMOG - release date)
    href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">

  • 5/1
    - href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">City
    of Heroes - Issue 17: Dark Mirror
    size="-1">(content update)



Upcoming
Releases

  • May 11,
    2010
    - Age
    of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer

    (expansion)
  • May 18,
    2010
    - EVE
    Online: Tyrannis
    (expansion)
  • June 30,
    2010
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
    (US - July 2nd in EU)
  • style="font-weight: bold;">Q2 2010
    - Mytheon
  • TBA
    2010
    - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079">Final
    Fantasy XIV





Upcoming
Events

  • style="font-weight: bold;">6/15 -
    6/17 - E3
    Expo
  • style="font-weight: bold;">6/25 -
    6/27 - Looking
    for Group
    Expo
  • style="font-weight: bold;">7/22 -
    7/25 - Comic-Con
    International
  • style="font-weight: bold;">8/5 -
    8/8 - href="http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/">SOE
    Fan Faire 2010
  • style="font-weight: bold;">9/3 -
    9/6 - DragonCon
  • style="font-weight: bold;">10/22 -
    10/23 - href="http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y">BlizzCon
  • style="font-weight: bold;"> 3/24
    -
    3/26 (2011)- CCP
    FanFest





Loading... Daily

Some of you (I hope) recall the Internet debates that raged around instancing when Anarchy Online introduced it and EverQuest made it mainstream with LDoN. The pro-instance lobby thought it was great that everyone had access to all the epic shinies on demand without marathon spawn camps (sometimes 20-80 hours, sometimes longer), ninja looters, and KS'ers. The anti-instance side felt that developers were literally tearing their world apart, accelerating gameplay to a frustrating level, and seriously reducing the incentives to socialize - you're bound to talk to each other if you have nothing to do but kill junk mobs waiting for the named to pop.

In my opinion, both sides were right, but the achievers ended up winning that battle and most of the ones since. (Interestingly, according to the Guild Wars 2 design manifesto, the concept of instancing is on the outside looking in with Guild Wars 2 and I'm not the only one curious to see how that turns out.) But if you're lucky, you might be able to stir one of these up at the next fan convention, and it feels like old times. However, the arguments flaring over public quests in Guild Wars 2 and Rift: Planes of Telara have their own old-timey instance rage feel. Kotaku had their way with the design manifesto (and the English language) with a short but rapacious blog post titled Guild Wars 2's Design Manifesto Details Anti-Social Social Enhancements, in which the author claims that by rewarding 100% of the xp and loot to all players seriously involved in a kill, "this system encourages cooperation without having to do the whole awkwardly meeting new people thing. It's social and anti-social at the same time! I love it."

I'm not sure about the author's use of "anti-social". If you see a group of people and you don't want to associate with them, in my book, you're being unsociable. If you see that group of people and bellow taunts about whatever shared attribute springs to mind, you're being anti-social - it's just one rung down towards outright criminality on the asshat ladder.

Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer Eric Flannum took exception to Kotaku's choice of words, but for another reason: "'Anti-social' is a bit of a mischaracterization. The systems in Guild Wars 2 don’t make the game less social; they actually make it more social... Guild Wars 2 offers another social approach: you can just choose to play with the people who happen to be around you while you’re out adventuring. This is made possible through shared goals, dynamic content scaling, and more forgiving rules on loot and XP distribution."

Regardless of how loot and XP are distributed - honestly, these things are secondary to me unless the gameplay sucks to the point I'm watching my xp bars or overly tough fights tell me my equipment is outmoded - the key phrase here for me is "dynamic content scaling." Though (like everyone) I loved the PQ concept and befriended a few groupmates through PQs, I tended to avoid PQs in Warhammer Online because I was afraid of scaling up the PQ to a stage I or my small group couldn't handle. If PQs spawned near large groups of people, a la Rift, or if WAR would have had WoW's magnetism for new players such that PQs never felt empty, I think PQs would have gotten a much fairer shake. But, regardless, if Guild Wars 2 and Rift can convincingly deliver on dynamic content scaling, that will be their biggest contribution to the evolution of PQs, not their planned visual wizardry and game rules enhancements.

Is public quest gameplay another crack in the social foundation of MMOGs, or is it a whole new way to engage the content in a social context? Share your say-so in the Loading... forum.


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day




From our Guild Wars 2 General Discussion forum

No Faction Conflict?

Perhaps
you can help christen our new Guild Wars 2 forums by responding to
Blackmyst's question. He asks: "I thought that was to be an element [of
faction conflict] in the game when GW 2 was first discussed.Is it fair
to assume it's not part of the game now?" If you're one of those people
who scours the official Guild Wars 2 site and forums and reads every
available article, you may have the answer. (You may also want to join
us as a volunteer guru.) Can you help out?

==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread


Make one!
==============================



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell
us
!


New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

7 new Ten Ton Hammer
articles! 16 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in May! 487 in 2010!

DEVELOPER JOURNAL

Exclusive Fallen Earth Blood Sports Developer Journal
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84071
 
If
you thought you were lucky for surviving Fallen Earth's apocalypse you
might want to hold off on the celebration. The Blood Sports patch is
set to go live on Fallen Earth servers Friday, May 7th, 2010. And what
awaits players of the post-apocalyptic MMOG are four new bloody games
that will allow them to maim, burn, shoot, and otherwise destroy each
other. One level even has a kill switch that can make the other team
suffer a sudden gruesome death. How's that for fun? Luckily, the Fallen
Earth devs stopped by this week to give us the skinny on the new update
with all the juicy details and offer a few hints on how to avoid
becoming fertilizer for the Fallen Earth landscape.

FEATURES & GUIDES

WoW: Death Knights and Duskwood in Cataclysm - Loremaster's Corner
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/lore/dksincataclysm

The
Loremaster's Corner is here again this week with a look at Death
Knights and what their role in Cataclysm will be. Arthas, now slain,
has fulfilled their role in the story. Yet, can an old nemesis from
many wars ago find its way back to the main story stage? Let's take a
look in this week's Loremaster's Corner.


Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features

  1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/interviews/intro-scott-hartsman">Rift:
    Planes of Telara Intro Q&A with Trion's Scott Hartsman
  2. Exclusive Fallen Earth Blood Sports Developer Journal
  3. Ten
    Ton Hammer Live Ep. 5 - Developer Guests for Guild Wars,
    Guild Wars 2, and City
    of Heroes
  4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/interviews/eq2-passport">EverQuest
    II
    Passport Q&A with Dave Georgeson
  5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/eq_underfoot">EverQuest
    Underfoot All-In-One Giveaway - 20 Copies Available!
  6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/reviews/guildleaders_handbook">The
    Guildleader's Handbook Review
  7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/guides/ships/bait_raven">EVE
    Online: Flying A Bait Raven In PvP
  8. Microcosms
    - Gaming for Freedom: Atlantica Online Review
  9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/dmail/2">D-Mail href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/dmail/2"> #2:
    Knee Jerk Reactions
  10. A
    First Look at Rift:
    Planes of Telara

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
and
the Ten Ton Hammer team



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Guild Wars 2 Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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