(Written on Friday, hence the present tense.)
I didn't really have anything in mind to write about today. I was thinking of skipping but then I thought maybe I could say something about the EverQuest II Producer's Letter. Or I could if I'd read it. I'll just go do that now...
Hmm. It's not very interesting, is it? Even by Jenn Chan's wonderfully low-key standards. After some of the hyperactive attention-seekers we've had shilling for the game over the years, I do genuinely appreciate her calm, reasonable approach but combined with not really having much of note to announce it can get a little "so what?" at times.
The first half is all "Here's what we've done so far. Aren't we good to you?" which is fair enough. No harm reminding people what the Romans have done for them. Then there's the usual trumpeting of special offers and things we can buy, with the crass commercialism of all that offset by the Good Works for Charity report. Again, expected and justified but really not very interesting.
There are a couple of mildly intriguing items. This Persona thing for a start. I can't remember when they first mentioned it but I feel like it was a while ago. I didn't pay much attention and I couldn't honestly say I knew exactly what it was but I think I do now. It's EQII's attempt to turn itself into FFXIV I think.
"... this new feature will allow you to level and play alternate class 'personas' on the same character. This enables leveling from level 1 to max on each class while still playing the same character, having access to the same equipment, and credit for completing the same quests and achievements. "
The "all jobs on one character" thing was one of the aspects of Final Fantasy XIV I enjoyed the least. It was a strong factor in our decision to go back to Guild Wars 2, when there was a real possibility Mrs Bhagpuss and I might have moved to FFXIV full time because GW2 was overrun with bots to the point of unplayability (Something no-one seems to remember any more.).
It also put me off playing FFXIV much even as a side game later. I actively dislike being able to play all the classes on the same character. I like making alts.
The ability to play multiple characters, have them do different things, dress them in different gear and have different experiences with all of them is one of the things that kept me playing MMORPGs for so many years. The way that, over the last decade, many MMORPGs have moved towards an account-based rather than a character-based structure, with the more extreme examples making it illogical and counter-productive to do anything on more than one character, has been a significant influence on my declining interest in the genre as a whole.
Rolling multiple characters used to keep me in a game a lot longer. Years longer in some cases. These days, while you can still do it, most of the practical reasons have been removed and it just doesn't feel fun any more. In fact, it feels like a waste of time and the last thing any MMORPG needs to do is remind you of how much time you're wasting, playing it.
I suspect it may even have something to do with my growing preference for open world gacha RPGs, In those, you're actively encouraged to play lots of characters.And rewarded for it.
To me, then, adding Personas to EQII seems like a retrograde step. It's another sop to the Toon Brigade, those players who see all their characters as nothing more than interchangeable functionaries. From their perspective, being able to do everything on the same character must look like a huge benefit.
Also, I suspect, it may have something to do with the ever-declining population of EQII. It's going to be a lot easier to get a group going if everyone can swap Personas to fill the missing roles. Then again, Rift used to work that way and it never did Trion much good...
The letter mentions the summer update, which has a name now: Revelations of Malice. It doesn't really say anything about it, though. In fact, I'm a bit unclear on whether the technical and quality of life improvements listed are part of that update or separate from it. Or maybe they are the update?
UI scaling is one of the proposed improvements although it's only going to be in testing, presumably on the Beta server, not on Live. I wonder how many people play EQII in 4K? Seems like it'd be a niche group at best. I guess when I get my gaming laptop (I was pricing them this morning.) I could hook it up to the big TV we have now and play EQII in the lounge in 4K. Not sure why I'd want to but I might try it, just out of curiosity.
More useful and attractive to me are the proposed upgrades to the number of mount slots and house item caps and especially the option to train mounts that you don't currently have equipped. I have a lot of mount xp potions stashed I'd like to get some use out of and that should help.
And that's about all there is. Not much, is it? Hardly worth sending out a letter.
Oh, there's a whole paragraph about the expansion. Ought to mention that, I guess. Only problem is it doesn't actually tell us anything.
Here. have a read. See if you can make anything out of it. I can't.
"Cthurath, reeling from his recent defeat within Gerion, has been suppressed back into the Void. While the majority of Norrath remain unaware of the cataclysmic threat posed by the Consumer, the Overlord’s absence in Freeport has not escaped the notice of the power hungry. Encrypted messages continue flowing, and the feeling of dread seems to suffocate you as you think too hard not only on what you’ve deciphered, but other clues and gut feelings. Something big is about to happen, and you have thus far been unable to home in on what that could be. Words are power, mysticism and darkness go hand in hand, a found missive and a very vague map of islands... what could it all mean? A fair warning Adventurer: pursuing this course can only serve to open a yawning gulf of madness and machinations which will not easily be traversed. Heed the warnings, Norrathians. Beware the Descent into the darkness."The only thing in that lot that caught my eye was the "very vague map of islands". I hope that means the expansion's set in an archipelago. I like island-hopping adventures. But then there's the ominous "Beware the Descent into the darkness" part, too. I do hope we're not going underground again. I had more than enough of that in Terrors of Thalumbra.
Oh well. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
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On the balance I am not a fan of the "every class on the same character" approach. I will now proceed to completely contradict myself.
ReplyDeleteI very much like the subclasses you can get from it in FFXI you could main one class, which would be your level 100 class, and then also tack on the abilities of up to 50 levels of the class of your choice. I used to often run around as a black mage or summoner with either healing spells or stealth tacked on from my subclass.
I also like when crafting is developed into a full in progression system with it's own classes. EQ II and FFXIV have the best crafting progression I am aware of, and I find it a heck of a lot of fun. Obviously it makes sense for you to be able to do an adventuring class on the same character as a crafting class.
However, on the balance, I don't like being able to do multiple adventuring classes on the same character mainly because it discourages alts. In FFXIV and XI there are a lot of very cool looking races. Yet with the ability to level up anything on one character, there is almost no reason to play more than one of them. I mean I guess technically I could roll an alt of a new race for a string of different classes. But it sure feels like I am wasting some time when I already have one character that can unlock all of the abilities of any class in about a week of evenings.
FFXI is especially bad about it, because there are extremely involved quests you need to do to even unlock the ability to take a character past around level 20. Some of them I would not relish doing again, they were hard enough the first time.
I liked the way it worked in Rift, where you could mix and match abilities from multiple classes and save builds so you could respec instantly as a healer or a tank as needed. That sort of flexibility is very welcome. I can't really remember how it worked now, it was so long ago, but whatever it was, it certainly didn't stop either me or Mrs. Bhagpuss playing loads of alts. I think we had at least six each in play and we were only really there for about a year.
DeleteThere are obviously huge practical benefits to being able to do everything on one character, though, and it always seemed to be the belief that most people only played a main and an alt anyway. I imagine the metrics support the move away from supporting multiple leveling paths and entirely separate characters but it definitely doesn't do much for me in terms of making me hang around in one game. I still want to play a lot of different characters but now I just play them in a lot of games instead.
I like account-wide things when it comes to faction reputation, cosmetics, and even gear. I prefer the ability to have alts, though. I found when Swtor added the option to learn a second (and only a second) class I tended towards picking a class that made the content I did easier. Mostly picking a complementary stealth class. That started to kill my desire in that game to play at least some of my stealth-based alts.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm much more on the side of let my alts be distinct in their single classes. Let the tedious stuff be account-wide and let me have fun playing a character with distinct strengths and weaknesses, not one that's everything to everyone.
I think that's a really sound balance. Account-wide cosmetics is something I particularly like, especially if it includes pets and mounts. Faction, too, although that's more useful than exciting. And god knows I wouldn't want to go back to the bad old days before shared storage, when we used to drop things on the ground with one character and quickly log another in to pick them up, hoping we got there before someone stole them!
DeleteCompletely agree on account wide for things like Rep, Pets, and Mounts.
DeleteI'm a little surprised by the harsh reaction - sounded pretty much optional to me. Or it's just that I'm torn, I love my alts in one game and I'm the happiest person in the world that there is one MMO where I don't *need* to do anything twice (yes, FFXIV) but I can still choose to. Maybe if it had been my main MMO for a decade I'd think differently, but even the Fantasia prices are so modest it sounds a lot better than my 10? 15? year old refusal to race change that one Paladin I have because I don't like paying so much.
ReplyDelete