tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post7438381732151402845..comments2024-03-28T10:18:05.213+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: Short StoriesBhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-40526380734721671782022-03-29T11:13:52.257+01:002022-03-29T11:13:52.257+01:00I speed-read most of the side quests but surprisng...I speed-read most of the side quests but surprisngly often I stop to enjoy the nuance. There's some amusing stuff in there. The main quest is pretty much dead average for an imported mmorpg, to the extent that I sometimes wonder if the whole lot are written by the same person. They really are remarkably similar. I can't see any reason to claim Lost Ark's main storyline is significantly worse than any of the others, though. I suspect the reason behind that is unfamiliarity with the prevailing standards.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-77804811445743139812022-03-28T14:17:29.601+01:002022-03-28T14:17:29.601+01:00Indeed, nothing I've read or seen so far seems...Indeed, nothing I've read or seen so far seems very reassuring.<br />I can't be far away from unlocking those things Naithin mentioned though, so at the very least I'll give those a chance to win me over.<br /><br />By the way, I agree with you that the story isn't half bad. I do read most of it too - well, I guess "skim" is the more appropriate word - and the only thing that really bothers me is how rarely we get to actually defeat a villain for good. Either they escape without a proper explanation for why we would let them do that, or someone else puts them down after we did all the work.Mailvaltarhttp://mailvaltar.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-50322873234078956742022-03-28T11:15:38.625+01:002022-03-28T11:15:38.625+01:00It really shows in the last two screenshots, where...It really shows in the last two screenshots, where the character is in exactly the same pose but in one she looks like a gunfighter and the other a Disney mascot gone feral. As Mailvaltar said, it completely breaks all sense of immersion. I quite like it but I can see why it might be the final straw for some.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-83769612543223790542022-03-28T11:12:30.902+01:002022-03-28T11:12:30.902+01:00There are very clearly still a whiole lot of peopl...There are very clearly still a whiole lot of people who play one mmorpg for years and years. My blog roll has plenty of examples of blogers doing exactly that. I note, though, that most of them seem to be playing either WoW or FFXIV. There seems to be a very definite split between the established games like ESO, SW:tOR, LotRO, the EQ titles and so on, all of which have been around for years and the newer titles to which people seem to flock and then abandon. <br /><br />I think GW2 is a rare example of an mmorpg that actually prospers by being so porous that players drop in and out of it all the time, coming and going depending on what's happening in the game. Most other mmorpgs seem to rely on building a critical mass of players that will stick with the game and then catering directly to their needs. The issue with new entrants seems not to be attracting initial interest but building that critical mass of people who choose to stick around once the novelty wears off. It's been sort of that way for a long time but it does seem to be more of an extreme phenomenon now, with certain games getting huge attention and then bleeding out very quickly.<br /><br />It's going to be very interesting to see what the life expectancy of these high profile mmorpgs turns out to be. Until now, as a genre, longevity has been extremely high. Even apparently unsuccessful and unfashionable mmorpgs last for many years, presumably because they still make money. Whether Amazon will be willing to run their "failed" mmos on indefinitely just because they make a small profit is another matter. That might not be good enough for a business the size of Amazon.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-87209094039718666172022-03-28T10:59:18.579+01:002022-03-28T10:59:18.579+01:00I'm really not in any position to recommend an...I'm really not in any position to recommend anything in the genre since I've only just begun to pay it any attention. I couldn't even say for certain I know what the term means - I use it very loosely to describe games that have a lot of narrative and no combat but it seems to have a much more specific meaning when I see it used by other people. <br /><br />The kind of games I've played and enjoyed that are the sort of things I'm thinking about when I use the term would be games like Doki Doki Literature Club, Lake or The Longest Road on Earth, all of which I've written about here and should be in the tag cloud. I suspect, though, that none of those actually count as "visual novels" in the usual menaing of the term. I think that would generally be things more like the two demos I wrote about <a href="https://bhagpuss.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-novel-approach.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. As you can see from that post, the one I liked was the one that didn't follow what I take to be the more traditional visual novel mechanics.<br /><br />Maybe someone who knows a lot more about this sort of thing than I do might like to pop into the comments with some recommendations?Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-12904992358819231632022-03-28T02:45:23.924+01:002022-03-28T02:45:23.924+01:00That furry suit still looks weird as hell, and it&...That furry suit still looks weird as hell, and it's one of the few times that I wish that the NPCs would actually react to your toon and what that toon is wearing. Just seeing the NPCs go "WTF is THIS??!!!" would be worth it.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-10313795574453469602022-03-28T01:47:25.540+01:002022-03-28T01:47:25.540+01:00I agree with you about three months being consider...I agree with you about three months being considered a short run in a MMO in days gone past, which always puzzled me. Any offline game that keeps me entertained for three solid months (or even a month) is a damn fine game. I have always considered anything approaching a quarter of a year a solid hunk of entertainment.<br /><br />However, I am not sure MMO players are less patient, or if they are it's because more people are playing these games than ever. There has always been a divide between peaple that are willing to read every scrap of quest text and soak in the ambience, and people that judge a quest entirely by what they actually do during the quest. For example, I thought the prose in many quests in LoTRO was well above average and helped establish the setting. However, even back in 2007 (or whenever it came out) I knew a lot of players that thought all the quests were terrible because they nearly always came down to kill or gather, and they were already sick of those mechanics from WoW.<br /><br />In any case, all the chatter about Lost Ark has me intrigued, but I am still hip deep in my latest 2005 era obsession. It looks like it is very much on track to follow the trajectory that most MMOs seem to follow. I hope they can turn it around and stabilize into a success on the same level as ESO or FFIXV, but from what I have been reading it doesn't seem likely. Yeebohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08028940396189544294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-28229668396165102472022-03-28T00:07:49.551+01:002022-03-28T00:07:49.551+01:00The horizontal progression aspects of the game are...The horizontal progression aspects of the game are still very much there, although my engagement with them has certainly gone *way* down in light of Elden Ring also taking a lot of time.<br /><br />It'd be interesting to know what, in a parallel world where either Elden Ring wasn't delayed or was delayed for a lot longer, how I'd be engaging with Lost Ark right now. As noted at the top of my post, the shine had started to wane for me before my friends got caught up and we were able to do meaningful content together again.<br /><br />My suspicion is that... probably not much would be different. It'd just be a different game (or likely, set of games) in place of ER. I've never been much of a one for completionism, so I suspect I would've found a reason not to engage with the various collections and horizontal aspects of the game for much longer than I did anyway.<br /><br />In terms of the rest of it, the modern MMO player is certainly a different beast from days gone! Once upon a time, a three month stint in an MMO would've been considered short. The barest touching of the surface. Still just a tourist. <br /><br />Going on the concurrency numbers as a proxy for MAU (which as noted in my post, may not actually be entirely fair) it would seem that a month, or heck, weeks or even days is all it takes these days. Anecdotally that would seem to fit with what I've witnessed in MMO guilds (incl. for Lost Ark) of late as well.<br /><br />Josh Strife made a recent video commenting on the fact that it appears MMO developers of late seem to have forgotten the fact that they need to make an actually good game first and worry about the rest afterward. I think he's right by and large, but also that it doesn't tell the whole story.<br /><br />MMO Players just aren't as patient as they once were. I'd say that's in part due to the reach out into mainstream they have, but even just speaking for myself I know my attitudes towards MMOs have changed vastly over the years too. The fact a game 'is' an MMO isn't on its own enough any more. Once upon a time, that's all I took to be happy for quite a while!Naithinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830174305806727004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-17397041329348571052022-03-27T21:57:44.301+01:002022-03-27T21:57:44.301+01:00What are some visual novels you would recommend? ...What are some visual novels you would recommend? I really enjoyed a few of them, but stalled out after Stein's Gate. It is supposed to be one of the best, and I found that the incredible randomness of actions that affect story outcomes completely ruined it for me. To see the whole game, you would have to have a spreadsheet listing the completely random and largely inane actions you need to take at key points the the story. Yeebohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08028940396189544294noreply@blogger.com