The Skill Cap Issue

Cryptic has done it now. They have churned the cesspit and the trolls have risen! Enter the 500+ page post of whining (at your own risk of course).

Long story short, people are mad (read PISSED OFF) that Cryptic has a Cap on the Skill Points you can earn in Star Trek Online. Now, unless you’ve ONLY played EVE Online, this shouldn’t be anything new. But by the responses on the forums and on many blogs, you would think that Star Trek Online is the ONLY game to have a skill cap. it won’t be the last. In fact, there are some very livid bloggers who keep making the comparison over and over again. A lot of these people are personal friends of mine, but I still disagree with the comparison. STO is not EVE.

Now, before I get into that, one of the big arguments people are trying to make is that Cryptic is doing this solely to be money mongers, and to sell Respecs through the Cryptic Store. A Dev posted already (sorry, can’t find the link now) about how it’s not to sell Respecs at all. Respecs will be available in-game for in-game currency. So, that argument is shot down.

As for it being like EVE-Online, it’s nothing like EVE. I really think that since Star Trek is space, everyone is trying to compare it with EVE, and that should not be the case. This is not the first time I’ve heard the EVE argument come up, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. In EVE, there are literally thousands of skills that take 250k+ skill points to completely master, where the final tier can take anywhere from a week to several months to actually complete training on. STO isn’t like this. You earn skill points while you level/do missions/kill things, and you spend these to learn your skills. No person is meant to be a master of every category. In EVE you can, but in almost all other MMOs on the market, you cannot.

Players are meant to specialize in one area, while having secondary and tertiary skills that they are “OK” at. There would be no need for strategies and finding certain players if everyone could do everything. In fact, I think the best example with the way the STO skill system works would be Fallen Earth. You get AP while you level and do quests, and you spend that AP to specialize your character in a certain way. There is an AP cap and you cannot master everything. Everyone is meant to have their own niche.

And just when it thought there was a chance I might be wrong (hell, 500+ pages of people telling me I am was sure to get to me, especially since I take official forums so personal! /sarcasm off) StormShade, the Cryptic Community Rep, posted a response backing up my theories.

My other argument for this cap is one of game balance. Unlike EVE, all other games try to maintain some sort of class balance, especially in PvP. While STO doesn’t have “Classes” per se, they have character and ship types. There would be no point to having this, or having one main area of focus, if there was no cap on Skill Points. If everyone could master everything, why would you have to choose a Tank, DPS, or Healer? I for one have always spoken out against the “Holy Trinity” of classes, and wish there was a better way around it (see Fallen Earth), Cryptic isn’t going in a “New” direction with STO. It’s the same old gameplay, and that’s how they, and the majority of people enjoying the game see it.

Let me be straight forward in saying that my only qualm with this decision on the cap is that it comes towards the end of Open Beta, and not sooner. Should it have been done months ago? Probably. But with everything else Cryptic was focusing on, I’m sure it only recently became and issue, after they opened up End Game for testing and saw the effect it was already having on the game.

And for the love of God, do NOT even begin to categorize this as an NGE type event. NO (read Notta, Zilch, Zippo) major gameplay was changed by this at all. All it did was put everyone on equal ground. The game still plays exactly as it did before the cap was put on, it just means people have to think when they spend their points, with repsecs easily available if any mistakes are made, which is exactly how it should be (you hear me Icarus?).

With all that said, this kind of goes back to Cindy’s post on MMOVoices last week. Who’s fault is it? It’s the players (or non-players as it is), who are trying to find something to blame on Cryptic for them not enjoying the game. Listen up folks, if you don’t like the game, you don’t like the game. There were no gameplay changes at all, and harping on the Devs for putting something as simple as a Skill Cap in the game is only causing them undue stress where it is not needed. Take a look in the mirror, and take a cold shower to cool off. It’s not the Devs fault you don’t like the game, it’s your own for buying into the hype and not getting what you expected.

(Sorry for the lack of writing lately, I will try to remember to share all of my writing from MMOVoices.ning.com to here as well. Bad Jmo! /slaps hand.)

MMOVoices Podcast

For those that haven’t heard yet and follow my blog, I am one of the hosts of MMOVoices.ning.com ‘s Official Podcast! Head on over to the site to check it out, or look it up on iTunes, then let me know what you think!

MMOVoices – MMO Bloggers and Podcasters Rejoice!

For those of you out there familiar with GAX Online, and it’s impending doom at the end of this month, know what an MMO Social Network is. Basically, the MySpace or Facebook of the Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming world. Now the problem with GAX, and one of the main reasons it’s downfall (from what I’ve been told and what I witnessed as I browsed from time to time), was that it wasn’t moderated much, if at all. The posts were strewn with obscenities and flames made very pointedly towards the authors and podcasters. It was not a safe haven for anyone, and environments like that seem to just push people away in the end.

But what if it could be different? What if there was a new “GAX” of sorts that WAS moderated, and EVERYONE’S opinion was appreciated and respected? Well, thanks the MMO Blogger and Podcaster Beau Turkey of the Spouse Aggro Podcast (formerly Voyages of Vanguard), and husband to Leala Turkey (top notch podcaster and former lead host of Epic Dolls),  we now have a new MMO Blogger and Podcaster Social Networking Site. And that site is MMOVoices! I’m proud and excited to be a part of this rapidly growing community. The word went out less than 48 hours ago about the site going live, as nothing more than an experiment at that, and it’s now about to reach 50 members. At this rate, by mid week it should have well over 100 and growing.

I am completely stoked to be a part of this new community, and I strongly urge anyone else out there who fits into the MMO Blogger and/or Podcaster mold, to head on over to http://mmovoices.ning.com and get signed up! You won’t regret it. I look forward to what the future holds for the site, I for one know that I will be starting up another PodCast to go along with the site soon as well. Hopefully with a co-host this time, as Not-A-Cast was weird (talking to a wall and all) =p .

Anyway, for now, Jmo out. See you on the flip side, and hopefully on my friends list at MMOV! (and no, the blog isn’t dead, I swear!)

The Raid Leader’s Manifesto

Those who read my blog and know me in game (whether it be WoW, EQ, SWG, or any other world I’ve stepped into), know that I’ve spent much time as a raid leader. And if you didn’t know, you do now! If you know anything about raiding in MMOs, you know it’s hard work, but if you think that just being at the raid is hard, try leading it! I garuntee your stress level would be through the roof. Anything that goes wrong is pinned on the raid leader, regardless of actual fault. For some, being the leader of 25 (72+ when I was leading in EQ) is not an easy task, to others it’s a breeze. It can be game making, or game breaking. In the end it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Clockwork Gamer had this awesome post yesterday about what it means to be a raid leader, and I thought I would share (full article at the link).

The Raid Leader’s Manifesto

I am a raid leader.

Time is my enemy. I recognize that the most important number on any raid is not the mitigation of my tank, the health of my target, or the damage of my raid force – it is time I have left on this raid.

Anything or anyone that interferes with the limited time I have before my raid breaks up is aiding my enemy. Raiders who show up unprepared, raiders who have not read the strategies I’ve written, raiders who do not listen while plans are discussed, raiders who get into conversations during fights, raiders who did not work on their character since the last raid – these are all collaborators I must halt or overcome in order to perform my duties within the time my raid force has alloted me.

As a raid leader, I am impatient. By definition, patience is a virtue that requires time. Time is my enemy. I grow frustrated when the raid is taking too much time. I do not care about dying…I care about dying slowly. I do not care about wipes…I care about recoveries which take too long. I do not care about careful pulls…I care about pulls which hold us up. If I must repeat myself, I am wearied. If I must wait for a recovery, I become irked. If I our raid wipes frequently due to the same mistakes, I grow upset.

When we run out of time, the raid is done. If I have lead my raid well, they will have accomplished something new, performed better, or moved faster than they have in the past. They win when they gain new loot, see new enemies, or learn something different. Any or all of these things are referred to as progression. When my raiders do not progress, I have lost the raid. In order to avoid losing, they must progress…and they must do so within our time constraints.

Whenever I am online, I am either raiding or preparing for a raid.  When I am online between raids, I talk about raiding. I discuss raiding. I ask questions about raiding. I try to get my raiders thinking about raiding. I want my raiders to understand that success in a raid does not start in a raid zone.

Groups are the way to success. Before I ever step foot into a raid dungeon, I know that our raid force’s success has already been largely determined. I realize that the best way to prepare for raids is to prepare raiders and the best way to prepare raiders for raiding lies in groups. I know that we bond in groups. We gear up in groups. We prepare for raids in groups.

Mine is a thankless job. I accept this. I accept that if I am polite and the raid fails, I will be berated. I accept that if I am kind and the raid is slow, I will be judged. I accept that even if the raid is a success, so long as I am not polite, I will be criticized. I accept that when I do well, I will rarely hear it. I accept that when the raid fails, it is my fault.

If I believe I am acting firm, I am being rude. If I ask someone to leave the raid, I am a jerk. If I call out someone on their performance, I am elitist. If I reserve any loot for a critical raid class, I have favorites. If I remain quiet, I am weak. If I chat, I am distracting. No matter what I do, I will never please all of my raid force. No matter what I do, I will always be compared to other raid leaders who do things better than I.

It is irrelevant that the very people who tell me what I am doing wrong as a raid leader are rarely people who have ever been a raid leader. It is irrelevant that the reason a raid failed is due to one person making the same mistakes over and over. It is irrelevant that the target was just too hard for the raid force we brought. Any time we fail the raid and any time I am criticized, the fault is mine.

I take failure personally. Each time we fail, there is something that I could have done differently. I could have explained the strategy differently. I could have benched a different raider. I could have chosen a different target. There is a never a raid which fails which is not my fault. That is the responsibility which is mine as raid leader.

There are no second chances on raids for the leaders. Each raid is a trial. Each raid is a judgement. Each raid is a review. If I perform well, raiders will continue to follow me. If I perform badly, they will stop attending my raids or even seek a new raid force. This is the reality I live with. This is the the only thanks I will ever truly know – that if I do my job well enough, I will be allowed to continue to do my job again in the future.

I am a raid leader.

110% accurate, so you followers out there, remember this the next time something goes wrong on a raid. Don’t be too hard on the guy organizing it all.

Need to Update

Updates coming soon. Promise! =)

DDR Meets WoW

I love April Fool’s Day, and this year is no different. There are tons of fun little pranks and news stories being thrown around in the MMO World. CoH: Golden Years is a good one, as is WoW EU’s Pimp My Ride. There are also some “eh” ones, like the Guild Wars “Everyone’s a Stick Figure” prank (which, by the way, was ALREADY DONE by Sony in Everquest 2 or 3 years go).  Anyway, Blizzard pretty much takes the cake again with this year’s “Dance Battle System.“

While it is no “Molten Core for the Atari 2600″ like last years prank (which was really freakin hilarious), it is still really funny. Check out the link above to laugh your ass off.

The Land Down Under

There’s been a lot of stink the MMO gaming news these past couple weeks, about the Australian government deciding, all of a sudden, that MMORPGs should have a rating. While I do believe that Australia not having an M18+ rating (or whatever it’s called) a bit too much censorship to make me feel totally comfortable, I don’t see anything wrong with rating MMOs.

Here in the US, we have the ESRB that rates all of our games, online and not. So I don’t see why it’s a big deal for Australia to do the same thing. Now, if they were deemed “too adult themed” (such as the boobs in AoC), then there may be a problem. But then again, nothing is stopping the Aussies from just downloading the games off of the internet, and avoiding the box sales.

Announcement at the Grammys

Blink 182 is officially back together. I’m giddy as a schoolgirl!

That is all. =D

450,000 Gone

So, this week it was announced by Mythic that Warhammer Online is now down to only about 300,000 active subscribers. That’s way down from the almost 800,000 they touted just a couple months ago.

Sister Julie from the No Prisoners, No Mercy PodCast had this questionaire up at their Google Group. Here’s my answers, but what do you think?

1.) People who played WoW tried it, liked it better and went back to
WoW as Blizzard claimed happened with Age of Conan?

-I think this is a major part of it. WotLK launched not long after WAR. This HAD to hurt them at least a bit. And in the long run, the WotLK reviews were so good, that even the people who had held out on re-subbing, eventually did.

2.) Did they fail to deliver promised content?

-Not entirely. They promised an Open RvR centric game, problem is the players prefer the Scenarios. The promise was there, but the players weren’t in on it.

3.) Was Tier 4 too hard to get through and players just moved on, not
necessarily back to WoW

-Again, I agree with this. From all I’ve read, Tier 4 is a horrendous grind. Hell, I got worn out trying to get through Tier 3. It’s a shame too, and what I believe to be the main reason that those who rushed for Rank 40 are “lonely at the top” and jumping ship.

4.) Was the pvp too easy?

-I think they nailed it as close to on the head as possible. No other game that I’ve played has as well of a thought out and balanced PvP system. But again, it’s supposed to be Open RvR centric and players are sticking to the instanced Scenarios, leaving the world pretty much desolate.

5.) Was it the lag and crashes in the fortress battles?

-I’m sure this was part of what’s keeping the T4 players in scenarios and out of the open world. And instead of working on server stability, Mythic decided that they would just cap the number of players allowed in the battles. As I said when I was a guest on the Podcast: “When Napoleon raided a city he wanted to take over, the weaker troops were not teleported back to their home city, or nearest war camp.” If you’re touting massive battles, you can’t cap it.

6.) Was it a matter that the game was hyped so much by Mythics
pitchman Paul Barnett that it failed to live up to expectations and
after the trial period players just let their accounts expired?

-Paul Barnett is a great spokesman. He, and Mark Jacobs, both spent months talking up Warhammer. So much so that people may have been expecting more than was even promised, and Mythic couldn’t deliver on that. This could possibly have been their biggest snafu. But then again, if you don’t hype your game, who’s going to buy it? Such a double edged sword.

7.) Was it a combination of the above?

-Yes, and more. The majority of players to Warhammer came from WoW, looking for something completely different. But in the end, they really just wanted WoW. What is it now Sr.? The 1 Ton Gorilla?

8.) Was it something else?

-There could have been a number of factors that I didn’t even think about. I’m looking forward to all of the other replies.

or

9.) Whats Warhammer Online?

-Huh? Do you mean World of Warcraft? =p

Yo

Been a while since my last post again. I promise I haven’t thrown in the towel. Work has been really hectic lately and has had me keeping weird hours. I’ve also spent my little free time finishing the Trek to 80 on my Death Knight (which I finally hit last night), jotting down random notes for my eventually to be written book, working on show notes for Not-A-Cast, and also, I’ve started taking classes again.

Life’s hectic, but I will try to post more often.