by Jeff Woleslagle on Aug 12, 2011
Another success for the Turbine model, plus blow-by-blow commentary as the fight rages on over whether games should be made with mods in mind... it's all in today's Reloading...!
As most of you know, Age of Conan: Unchained, the free-to-play model of the previously subscription only title launched about a month ago. Originally launched in 2008 (Was it really that long ago?), it topped sales charts in 17 countries and was the best selling new MMOG of the year. According to a press release in my mailbox over 300,000 players have joined since the free-to-play was launched. That’s an impressive number in its own right, but more so given that in total two million have tried the game in its lifetime.
Congratulations to the Conan team on their success. Turbine took the leap of faith with Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. You have to wonder how many other companies would have tried the hybrid payment model without Turbine’s lead.
I’ve been dipping into the mailbag a lot lately, but since everyone seems averse to commenting on the website (TenTonHammer.com/reloading) AND the comments in my mail are so freakin’ good that I’ll keep shuffling them out there.
Regarding my “Raster” post and link from my glory days in EverQuest:
“Holy shit, I was an Iksar Monk and I was probably cursed because I never could get that sob raster to drop it. Its funny I followed the same guide lol. Raster finally broke my back after a 19 hour camp and it just wouldn’t drop I hung it up. It’s my one regret in EQ never finishing it. Till this day I still can’t believe I camped him for 19 hours. I am sure that the guy whom I cant remember his name kept checking on me to take over the camp once I was done probably got the drop in one kill lmao.
I used to have nightmares of GUK I spent so much time down there. Thanks for the trip down memory lane” -- BigHud
Fun times! Of course, I was a human monk…couldn’t stand the crazy tail.
Nick had written in with the opinion that mods were for the weak. Some readers agree and well, some didn’t.
“Out of the mods he listed “healbot, dbm, omen, recount, etc.” None of them really change much in terms of experience of the end content of the game. I still need to know what is the most efficient heal spell to cast during a certain phase of a boss, I still need to economize my mana, I still need to know what effect the “plasma breath” ability that DBM is flashing on my screens does, and omen and recount are simply statistics and reflections of numbers able to be used to analyze one’s own play-style/rotation for tweaks and changes…
How DARE Nick think he is better than the rest of the community of gamers because he doesn’t use all the tools available to him. That’s like saying “I don’t care if you’ve invented the fork for me to eat with, I’m still going to use my hands because that’s the way we did it originally, and you should, too” – Natha
And Terry deals a flurry to the midsection…
“Sure, people can raid without all the addons. But the addons help to make people more aware, and addons like Recount help raid leaders to make decisions, or give pep talks ("Hey, dps.... step it up!"). With all the available tools out there, guilds can focus on the whole point of playing a game: having fun.
I don't pay $15/month to prove I'm the baddest tank out there, or that "I don't need no stinkin' mods." If some people do, great! But that shouldn't mean that the other 98% of players in the world should be considered "bad" or talked down to because they choose to use the tools available, and have fun doing it.
And yes, the first time "Nick" died while standing in fire, I'd kick him for not having DBM installed!” – Terr
And Rich delivers an uppercut...
“Elitists are by default stuck up. They may also be (like the majority of the Human species) dimwitted. If you have ever raided with elitist dimwits you know that you need tools to help you to compensate for said elitist dimwits standing in fire. PUGs are currently the bane of my existence. I truly hate (and I use the word ‘hate’ with every bit of vitriol in my being) being dropped into a dungeon-finder group with DPS who don’t know how to help the tank and healers, even when (or perhaps especially when) I’m on one of my DPS toons. On my hunter I spend two thirds of my time with these morons trying to freeze the mobs trying to kill the healer after some dimwitted DPS meter champ dies and leaves the agro dump on him. The other third I spend misdirecting the rampant mobs back to the tank. And then one of the dead idiots goes “Hah! I was top DPS!” I have also actually seen a healer tell a tank to “tank harder” because the Ret paladin was picking his own targets and taking them on alone, causing a greater need for heals for him.
All ranting aside, though, I’d like PlayerScore to add a feature that provides coffee. Failing that, perhaps a way to keep a cross-realm alert list of elitist dimwits that allows you to see immediately if you’ve been dumped into a random dungeon with a known moron.” -- Rich
But what made this a hot topic was that both sides took off the gloves and threw roundhouses.
“I think Mods are silly. World of Warcraft is already basically a children's game, you really need to simplify it further?
Just the fact that gear plays so much a part of the game shows how childish it is. I'm not saying that gear shouldn't play a part, it should, but it should be a small part of the equation. Someone's skill and a group's strategy should be able to overcome anything however. If the only difference between player A and player B is what chest piece they are wearing, that's a game I don't want to be part of.” – Bryan
The number of email was just slightly in favour of mods, but it wasn’t a majority by any stretch of the imagination.
This last email snippet is in response to my wife repeatedly telling me, even after 19 years of marriage “I can’t believe you did that!”
“There should be a dbm for wives, so they know what's coming, even if they've run the instance before.” -- Frank
Frank’s quote is absolute perfection! Imagine the raid warnings that a Deadly Boss Mods for wives would yell out.
“Run away little girl! He’s lighting the BBQ!”
Send me your best DBM for wives lines and I’ll share some of them here.
Thanks also to those of you following on Twitter, both @TheRealPranks and @jstoyanott agreed that the Transformers MMOG trailer was a #fail.
As always, you can contact me a number of ways:
Until we meet again,
John “Boomjack” Hoskin
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