tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post2476803388246511843..comments2024-03-28T10:18:05.213+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: Drive, She SaidBhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-11279725265993015852018-03-20T11:25:27.449+00:002018-03-20T11:25:27.449+00:00Same for me. If I drive I can't even listen to...Same for me. If I drive I can't even listen to the radio and don't really answer to anyone who talks to me besides "yes", "no", "I'll explain when we arrived". The day when real self-driving cars on sale will be the last day of me driving a car. I find it an utter annoyance (like cleaning the bathroom) that needs to be done. Any game resembles it is a no-go.<br /><br />Gevlonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07072766785893313616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-6212879415115475672018-03-18T20:36:27.777+00:002018-03-18T20:36:27.777+00:00I don't know how they did it but ANet got dodg...I don't know how they did it but ANet got dodging 100% right. I was very apprehensive about it before I tried it out in beta but I took to it pretty much instantly. I find all MMOs without dodge a bit strange now and I've yet to find any that has a better version than GW2.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-39218607589617512442018-03-18T15:23:19.461+00:002018-03-18T15:23:19.461+00:00"The point, though, isn't really whether ..."The point, though, isn't really whether one system is superior to the other - it's that they serve very different demographics and psychologies."<br /><br />This is how I prefer to describe it as well. I've discovered that cursor-combat is not a good fit for me, but other elements of action combat, such as the GW2 dodging, can be enjoyable. As well as for grouping for dungeons and raids, I prefer the common current "trinity" of tank, DPS, heals.<br /><br />I plan to never again try to heal in a cursor style targeting system, I've tinkered with that in a couple of games in the past, it's far from my definition of fun.Daemonsbanehttps://www.twitch.tv/daemonsbanenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-43971787959373434002018-03-18T09:20:30.100+00:002018-03-18T09:20:30.100+00:00It seems odd that our interpretation of the analog...It seems odd that our interpretation of the analogy differs and yet we share the same attitude to the two types of controls. I think that if I felt as "in the moment" when action gaming I'd probably love it, but I never do. It takes me entirely out of the world and into something that feels like trying to do research with someone shouting at me while hitting me with a rolled-up newspaper. <br /><br />Traditional MMO combat seems to allow far more room for error and far more time to think. People generally say it's more tactical, which can be true, but it's also just a better pace for me, I think. I do like Black Desert's action combat, but that's mostly because the game has mobs that are mere fodder for your whirling blades - that has a mindless appeal for a while. Generally, though, I prefer to do my thinking in between thrusts.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-40934512201487911352018-03-18T09:14:04.454+00:002018-03-18T09:14:04.454+00:00This is why I keep telling people how "easy&q...This is why I keep telling people how "easy" and comfortable it is to play a Berserker Staff Elementalist when really it very much isn't. I have been doing it so long, concentrating particularly in WvW in being able to roll right through zergs and come out the other side alive, that playing my Ele feels like driving a familiar car in good conditions on an open road. I understand that, to people coming fresh to the class, it's more like driving a loaner with controls that haven't been explained through the traffic control system of an unfamiliar major city at rush hour.<br /><br />The negative is that after many thousands of hours and with almost 20 max-level characters spread across all eight classes and most of the two sets of elite sub-classes, I can still only really play Staff Elementalist and Longbow ranger competently. Maybe necro/reaver at a push. I started to learn Frontline Firebrabnd last weekend and I pretty much ahd to go an have a lie down afterwards! <br /><br />Once you get that groove, though, it's incredibly comfortable and like you I enjoy that feeling. It's very much what I'm looking for.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-56852414888751874652018-03-18T09:06:07.834+00:002018-03-18T09:06:07.834+00:00"When I play a tab target game, I spend all m..."When I play a tab target game, I spend all my time watching my bars and never get to enjoy the scenery or the ambiance. In action combat, I can feel free to live in the moment."<br /><br />This almost deserves a whole post of its own. Watching the bars is just exactly what I want to do when I'm in combat. I don't want to look at the mobs or the scenery or feel the ambience. That's for when I'm not fighting, which in most tab-target MMOs is most of the time. Similarly, when I'm driving and "in the moment" I want to feel the car on the road, the movement of the vehicle, the grip of the tyres against the surface. I don't look out of the window at the view.<br /><br />The thing I dislike most about action combat is the necessity to watch for tells. I just don't. Since developers these days put circles all over the ground I can't help but see those and react but other than that I have no idea what the mob is doing at any given time. I concentrate on my character, my abilites, what I can do. In tab target MMOs that allows me to do pretty much anything short of end-game raiding but in action games it barely gets me out of the starter zones.<br /><br />The point, though, isn't really whether one system is superior to the other - it's that they serve very different demographics and psychologies. It's not possible to swap the two styles in and out as though they were like-for-like. By adopting an action gaming approach as a genre, MMOs are welcoming in one set of players while telling another they're no longer welcome. We need both types of MMOs and some hybrids and new versions too.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-89336881550779772242018-03-17T23:16:22.987+00:002018-03-17T23:16:22.987+00:00As is often the case, I find this whole discussion...As is often the case, I find this whole discussion a tad perplexing. I have never found action combat to have a steeper learning curve. Indeed, one of the things I like about it is that it is so immediately intuitive.<br /><br />If an enemy winds up a big attack, you dodge it, just like you would in a real fight. Your ability set is usually fairly limited, giving every skill a clear role and an obvious purpose. It all just flows. You don't have to calculate or study anything. You just play the game.<br /><br />By comparison, in a tab target game, some abilities need to be dodged or interrupted, some can't be dodged or interrupted, some you can ignore, and it's never really clear which is which until you get hit by them. You're overloaded with dozens of barely distinguishable abilities, and it's usually not immediately apparent what the optimal rotation is. I don't think it's any harder, but it's certainly a lot less natural.<br /><br />When I play a tab target game, I spend all my time watching my bars and never get to enjoy the scenery or the ambiance. In action combat, I can feel free to live in the moment.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-63765267928224451052018-03-17T20:12:54.462+00:002018-03-17T20:12:54.462+00:00In a more general sense, it’s the ol’ Boredom/Flow...In a more general sense, it’s the ol’ Boredom/Flow/Anxiety spectrum (where boredom for some can also mean brain-off relaxation, and anxiety for others can mean tense excitement.)<br /><br />Personally, I lean more to favoring the boredom/relaxation side with flow being as far as I’d like to go in my entertainment. Sadly, designers seem to like to favor an audience that prefers the higher excitement tension side of flow and difficulty levels end up tuned to that level.<br /><br />So then the only ways back to more comfortable happiness are sucking it up and going through the learning curve until it becomes more automatic... or simply giving up learning whatever it is, having deemed it not a worthwhile investment of one’s time. <br /><br />The discomfort during learning is very much a normal experience for everybody too. I’ve played the banners/buffbot warrior in GW2 group content for so long that it’s become super comfortable to press buttons on automatic and my brain has time to think more strategically long term and focus on other things like learning raid mechanics. I’m fairly notorious for not wanting to be off that class if I can help it - I like comfortable, thank you. It makes me happy.<br /><br />Ditto my dragonhunter main which I’ve soloed for so long that I can bring it into a raid and cycle through attacks completely on automatic without even thinking about individual skills. I think “I want to reach out and spike this with high damage from range” and my fingers have double tapped torch 4 already. Once, a long time ago, it wasn’t like this, I had to read my skills, experiment with them individually, practice chaining them together into a string of keypresses that would eventually result in dead open world mobs in a few seconds.<br /><br />Contrast this with the new class (necro scourge) I’m currently working on learning for Dhuum CM and it’s been mostly brain overload and tears. Hypervigilance is the watchword. I’m staring at my skills bar 80 of the time, keenly aware I don’t actually know what most of the skills are doing and what their cooldown timings are. My focus is riveted on which attacks I need to be pressing next, listening for and reacting to coordinated epidemic calls while struggling with target switching, maintaining an acceptable level of dps, and oh, not getting killed by raid mechanics - a lot of attention balls to be juggling at one time, and usually means at least one dropped ball at one’s current level of competence (aka barely.)<br /><br />Someone remarked that I was “overthinking” things, something that alternately wants to make me chuckle or hurl something at their head. It’s confusing the result with the method. Once you learn enough to get into a flow state, THEN overthinking stops and big picture enjoyment begins. In the meantime, there’s nothing for it but a lot of deliberate practice and tension/concentration/terror, assuming one is motivated enough to learn X, whatever X is.Jeromaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02206083433625986970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-49453464607563602122018-03-17T17:28:19.320+00:002018-03-17T17:28:19.320+00:00I guess that's the difference between you and ...I guess that's the difference between you and I. When I drive, I never feel particularly comfortable enough to direct any meaningful amount of attention to experiencing my surroundings. My focus is the road, the cars in front me, which lane I should be in, how much farther I have to go, my speed, and a dozen other minor-but-extremely-high-stakes considerations. The whole experience is a chore inbetween my starting point and where I want to go.<br /><br />That's kind of a metaphor for gaming generally, I understand. But that's the Action game difference. It's hard for me to focus on the bigger picture and experience itself when I am hyper-vigilant for the correct enemy cue to dodge, or counter-attack, or use an ability. I don't feel that way with MMO combat in general, because the average mob does not demand immediate attention or perfect execution. Azurielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16581263347888757710noreply@blogger.com