tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post1738178235403875078..comments2024-03-28T10:18:05.213+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: If You Squint It Looks The SameBhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-47192844956889329122019-04-26T16:16:56.451+01:002019-04-26T16:16:56.451+01:00Oh damn, I didn't realize Vanguard's emula...Oh damn, I didn't realize Vanguard's emulator is apparently in a half-playable state! I expected this to go a lot worse than other emulators. I should probably check it out. There might actually be a slim chance for the game to become better in emulation eventually! More content or less janky performance.floschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05784402621836933199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-55633462008301288882019-04-26T09:07:11.163+01:002019-04-26T09:07:11.163+01:00I think most MMORPGs, if they last long enough, ha...I think most MMORPGs, if they last long enough, have a journey something like that. The core, defining principle of the genre is perpetual change, which is ironic considering MMORPG players often seem to be among the most change-resistance gamers you could find. <br /><br />The more I think about it - and I've been thinking about it a lot these last few months, what with the EQ 20th and WoW Classic on the way - the more striking the disconnect between how MMORPGs work and what MMORPG players claim to want. Mostly it seems they want an endless stream of new content that's fresh and exciting but never changes anything about the way the game plays. That's a big ask that few developers have been able to answer. <br /><br />I'm guessing that part of the reason CoH is held in such high esteem by those who played it is because the core gameplay never did change very much, no matter what other big changes happened along the way. Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-38821436785772745212019-04-26T02:57:55.415+01:002019-04-26T02:57:55.415+01:00To be marginally less reductive, City of Heroes (a...To be marginally less reductive, City of Heroes (and Villains and Going Rogue) was always rather repetitive. The nature of what you did never changed: Go forth and use your various powersets on flailing physics-enabled NPCs (or PCs, if you're one of those PvP people). The variety came from the number of powersets and the locations you did it in.<br /><br />It was always "click a button to shoot colored beam at/punch a gangster", but the colors, animations, and circumstances changed.<br /><br />I always equated logging into CoH less to continuing a character story and more to putting a quarter in an arcade machine. You're going to run around a couple of stages engaged in combat and then go do something else.XyzzySqrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07492223901575470508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-71317687368525811702019-04-26T02:50:55.072+01:002019-04-26T02:50:55.072+01:00It got much better after the beta.
Then it got wor...It got much better after the beta.<br />Then it got worse.<br />Then it improved but not so much as it was.<br />Then it got a little worse but it was okay because it also got better in other places.<br />Then it got a lot better.<br />Then it went free and got worse.<br />Then it got better again, and things looked up quite a lot.<br />Then it was canceled. That was a real low point.<br />Things are looking up again.XyzzySqrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07492223901575470508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-64255087794256866072019-04-25T20:49:04.169+01:002019-04-25T20:49:04.169+01:00When Rubies of Eventide, one of my favorite MMORPG...When Rubies of Eventide, one of my favorite MMORPGs ever, ceased operating commercially the server code got passed around in some arcane fashion the details of which I have now forgotten. For quite a while there was a quasi-official server running that I used to visit when the mood took me but one day I went to log in and it had vanished. It turned out the person who owned the code had lost patience with the various factions and drama involved in running it so he just switched it off and stashed the hardware and the source code in a cupboard, where as far as I know it remains gathering dust to this day. <br /><br />What's most infuriating is that it was such an elderly and small MMO it could probably be run from someone's home PC these days. I wish that code had been released into the wild!<br /><br />The Vanguard emu is exemplary, though. The small team had a server up within a few months of the game sunsetting and that server has been online almost continually for almost five years. They're taking their time but the beautiful world is all there to explore and there's a whole lot of low-to-mid level content slowly filling in. I recreated my old character there years ago and he's Level 10 now. They've only wiped once to my knowledge an that was ages ago. I logged in this morning to take screenshots and ended up playing for an hour and a half. There were three people playing when I logged on and two more logged in before I left. I don't knmow if they'll ever get the whole game back as it was but really I don't care - there's enough there to keep me happy now.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-35890251114082797542019-04-25T20:02:42.481+01:002019-04-25T20:02:42.481+01:00Huh, I missed the first part of that story, the pa...Huh, I missed the first part of that story, the part about the secret server having been running for six years. Too bad the original YouTube video appears to have been taken down since then.<br /><br />I'm not sure it's possible to have emulators without drama. It's part of human nature, and in a private server situation that only gets amplified by having a swathe of people desperate to return to their old home at the mercy of a server owner who is able to dictate the rules without being bound by any laws, customer relationships or even common decency.<br /><br />During my time dabbling in Vanilla WoW private servers I heard about:<br />- A disgruntled team member running off with a server's code and user data to create a rival server<br />- Another team releasing its code and user data into the wild<br />- Servers fighting each other by trolling each other's chats and organising DDoS attacks<br />- Donations intended for server maintenance being used for personal gain<br />- GMs accepting bribes to create gear for people<br />- Countless servers opening and closing<br />And that's not even an exhaustive list.<br /><br />So I can't say I blame the CoH server people for keeping their project a secret. Staying under the radar as much as possible seems to be the best way to survive in that sort of environment.<br /><br />I think the people getting super excited now about the code being released, while the whole thing is being reported on major news sites, will find it to be a short-lived joy once they start re-creating their characters on various servers just to see them get shut down again.Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com