by Jeff Woleslagle on Jul 15, 2009
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Talents, appearance, gender, faction... just about every core decision a player makes can be swapped out at will (for a small fee) these days. It's just one more way MMOs are becoming increasingly commercialized, but what's the long term effect on players and games. We'll discuss character appearance and stats as you like it when you like it in today's Loading... No Sacred Cows.
Coyote 's daily column explores all things geek with Coyote's trademark wit in It's All Geek to Me. Read it daily at Ten Ton Hammer! Today's topic: Okay... these women just HAVE to go... (three female parts that sci-fi shows should part with)
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results for today:
World of Warcraft Champions Online (UP 6) Aion (down 1) Age of Conan EverQuest 2Biggest Movers in the past 7 days :
All Points Bulletin (UP 16 to #18) Champions Online (UP 4 to #6) Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (down 1 to #8) Recent MMO Releases 6/24 - Age of Conan Update 5: Gangs of Tarantia 6/25 - WAR "Land of the Dead" 6/30 - City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary 6/30 - Lord of the Rings Online Book 8 7/7 - Darkfall Player Housing Expansion 7/13 - Darkfall NA launchImportant Dates
7/13 - Mortal Online Preorders On Sale 7/17 - 7/19- Aion Beta Weekend 7/23 - 7/26 - San Diego Comic Con '09 Upcoming Releases Late July - FFXI "Moogle Kupo d'Etat" Addon (release date) 8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date) 9/1 - Champions Online (release date) 9/22 - Aion (release date) Early 2010 - APBOne of my least favorite MMO trends is that today, it seems like any core decision can be changed at any time. The latest WoW controversy, as you can see in today's epic thread, is that WoW players will soon be able to change faction from Horde to Alliance or vice versa. EverQuest 2 has always offered a similar "service" - a betrayal quest that occurs in-game, i.e. not a monetary transaction. Blizzard might make a lot of money, but they also have sky-high stockholder expectations to deal with at this point. Nonetheless I really don't like this West Side Story approach to monetizing game design ( ♪ "Everything's free in Azeroth, for a small fee in Azeroth." ♫ )
EverQuest 2 and WoW offer gender swapping, and the EQ2 "Norrathian Witness Protection Program" potion that makes the change is one of the hottest sellers in the Station Cash store. In just about every MMO except WoW and AoC you can change your appearance without changing the gear that gives you stats. The ability to re-spec your talent and AA choices used to be expensive if even available, now its almost a weekly activity. I can't help but think that the more picky-choosey we are with our characters, the less we identify with these characters on their own merits. Instead of enjoying a character's strengths and weaknesses, as we would with a character in a good story, we become like a spoiled angry little girl playing with her Barbie dolls, upset that Mattel didn't make Ken's horse an Arabian.
Personally I've never really felt an impulse to change anything about my characters, unless something like a talent revamp changed things under my feet. That's not to say that I make perfect decisions, but moreso that I'm not really willing to waste such incredible mental effort on constantly second-guessing myself in a game. If that means I'll never get server firsts or be in a top raiding guild, so be it. My gaming roots are like those of corn, they grow wide, but not especially deep. And I think I'm in the majority.
But as games grow and the marketing pressure mounts to give gamers what they ostensibly want ("for a small fee in Azeroth"), we'll only see more of this. And that makes me sad. Maybe we should rename the category RCGs - role choosing games, since to look at some of the latest talking points you'd think that players spend more time and energy getting every detail of their character just how they like it than actually playing the game.
Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or as always feel free to email me.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day
From our WoW: General Discussion forum
Has the shark been jumped?
Well, it was a good game while it lasted...
On June 29th Nethaera posted a bombshell on the World of Warcraft official forums:
The
responses on the WoW forum have ranged from "Awesome!" to "Z0MG, WTF?!"
and the debate has raged on for over 300 pages.
Now we're discussing the topic on our own WoW general forum.
LiquidAppo wants to know what the faction change announcement means for
WoW. Is it an act of desperation? Has WoW finally jumped the shark and
taken the turn down that dark and lonely lane toward Has Been Road?
(Yeah, I mixed a metaphor. Deal with it.)
We want your opinions, so post them!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread
"Well
then, I can see it now! Weeds blowing in the wind in front of
Stormwind, rabid fungi growing amongst the sacred groves of Darnassus,
Ironforge will become nothing more than a hollowed out mountain, and as
for the Exodus? Nothing more than a shrine to a once prosperous race.
Then
the camera pans over the front of Orgrimmar and...wait! Whats this?
That has GOT to be one of the BIGGEST parties I have ever seen! The
entire server has rerolled Horde and are now partying away out the
front of Orgrimmar!"
- Beerkeg
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Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!
4 new Ten Ton Hammer articles today! 47 in July! 812 in 2009!
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-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team