Tarisland: Round Two

I enjoyed the first closed beta for Tarisland. At the end of the test, I described the game as "bright, cheerful, well-made and fun" but "not original or profound or ground-breaking". I summed it up as "a mainstream MMORPG, aimed at the existing MMO audience" and I thought "it ought to meet most reasonable expectations".

I also mentioned that one one reason I was interested in Tarisland in the first place was as a potential replacement for the disgraced World of Warcraft. The irony of replacing a game I wasn't prepared to play because of the unacceptable moral standards of the company behind it with one tacitly sanctioned by an considerably more questionable government was not lost on me but you have to pick your battles.

The issue has been made moot by the long-delayed completion of Microsoft's acquisition of Blizzard. Once again, I'm not going to pretend I believe the change of corporate masthead washes the company as white as the snows suggested by its name but I said I'd be willing to draw a line under the affair if the takeover happened and it has, so I will.

The fact is, I don't play any Blizzard games other than WoW and I play that only sporadically. It's not as though I was making any great personal sacrifice by leaving my account untouched these last couple of years. Still, as is often the case, the bare fact that I "couldn't" play has made me keener to revisit my old characters than I might otherwise have been, although I have to say that now my self-imposed time-out has ended, I haven't actually done anything about it.

As I write, BlizzCon is due to begin in a few hours, at which point we'll probably learn a couple of things that will be pertinent to when and if I resubscribe. Wilhelm gave his predictions yesterday and the two possibilities that interest me are Cataclysm Classic and the next Retail expansion.

I'm just familiar enough with WoW to find the changes made to Azeroth by Cataclysm intriguing but not upsetting. I've seen some of the revamped zones but by no means all of them and although I could obviously explore them in Retail, doing so in something closer to their original context is considerably more appealing.

looks like we get to summon Scooby Doo!

I'm also curious to see if Cataclysm-era WoW is a sweeter spot in terms of gameplay than the current version, which does seem somewhat overcooked. I know just about everyone who isn't married to 2004 seems to believe WoW hit its perfect stride during Wrath of the Lich King but that's when I first played and I thought it kind of fell between two stools at times; a little too easy to feel authentic but a little too awkward to feel cosy. 

I suspect the true sweet spot for me might be Mists of Pandaria but I'm happy to give Cataclysm the benefit of the doubt. Wilhelm predicts an early spring launch, which would suit me nicely. I guess by the time this posts we'll already know if he was right.

Surprisingly, when I got the email from the Tarisland Team this afternoon, telling me about the second Closed Beta Test, I was considerably more excited about the news than I was when the Microsoft deal went through. Tarisland may not be anything groundbreaking but it does have novelty value and I'm very curious to see how it's changed in response to the feedback and metrics from the first test.

I haven't been keeping close tabs on the details but I have seen several press releases, all of which give the impression that most of the alterations they've made have been designed to make the game easier. That seems a little surprising. It certainly didn't stike me as difficult but then I only saw the low end of the open world. I never even set foot in a dungeon.

Changes to PvE, described by the developers as "core gameplay", include making player characters stronger and dungeon bosses weaker. Raids and dungeons are getting some form of specialised loot and there will be selectable difficulty levels for both. There's also a dungeon-finder style "random matching system" intended to "help new players get familiar with the game more quickly and free those who would like to challenge elite dungeons repeatedly from concerns about teaming up."

Of more interest to me is the "Dark Invasion", a recurring open-world event that brings corruption to different parts of the map on a rolling three-day schedule. I'm not clear whether that's three game days or three actual days. I think it must be the latter. Or maybe, as in WoW, they're one and the same. I really ought to remember but I don't.

There are a whole set of separate quests and events that only happen in areas of the map that have been "invaded" and the whole thing reminds me of both Rift and the pre-expansion events in WoW that heralded the coming of Legion. If the Dark Invasion is anything close to either of those it ought to be a good time.

Separate to the invasions are World Bosses, described as "apex predators" and "highly territorial" which is probably as good a lore explanation of why these things stand around, ready to fight anyone who looks at them, as I've ever seen in an MMORPG. Sometimes the simple explanation is the best.

The CBT also brings some new, as yet unspecified, classes and some changes to existing ones. Rangers, who recently got a whole post to themselves on the official website, can look forward to a shake-up to pet taming, something which interests me since that was the class I played last time. Of course, we'll all be starting over from scratch again so maybe I'll play something else next go round.

Always assuming I get an invite, that is. Inclusion in the first beta test does not guarantee or even increase your chances of inclusion in the second. I've signed up again so fingers crossed. If nothing else, betas for big games always make for plenty of ideas for posts.

If anyone feels like joining in, here's the sign-up page and here's the FAQ. See you in beta. Maybe.