tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post4306391662620126390..comments2024-03-28T10:18:05.213+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: Swell MapsBhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-8647694809220038982018-04-02T18:40:43.634+01:002018-04-02T18:40:43.634+01:00I love the option of mounts in the GW2 old world, ... I love the option of mounts in the GW2 old world, but not like I adore the fun of gliders. I use gliders when I can because it's so enjoyable, I only break out the springer when I'm going somewhere and don't feel interested in the tedium of old school platforming. Such as a daily vista that I've done many times before and I'm in a hurry.<br /><br /> Those who are more enchanted with platforming, and such, are free to feel otherwise and I won't criticize them for choosing not to use a springer which would bypass a part of the game that they enjoy.<br /><br /> To me, the old world zones have been out for years, and I don't see a reason to avoid the convenience of mounts if I'm in a hurry covering terrain that I've passed many times before, often on multiple characters. However, sometimes I'm feeling old school and I do eschew the mounts for a more classic feeling session.Daemonsbanehttps://www.twitch.tv/daemonsbanenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-67571700948389434542018-04-02T17:03:09.742+01:002018-04-02T17:03:09.742+01:00I think the major difference between Then and Now ...I think the major difference between Then and Now when it comes to community in MMOs is that back then playing an MMO was analogous to joining a Social Network today. Outside of IT workplaces and academia, most people didn't chat to other people around the world via the internet. MMOs made that possible and it seemed magical. Nowadays that's just completely ordinary and there are a million places better than MMOs to do it.<br /><br />Even back then, a lot of people chatted because they had nothing better to occupy their attention. There was a lot of downtime in the gameplay and often it was either impractical or not permitted by the rules of the game to tab out to another screen. Few people had a second device available. I used to keep a book open on my lap to read whule I medded when I played EQ. <br /><br />You could see the writing on the wall when SOE added the "Gems" mini-game to EQ. Everyone played it to the point that clerics missed heals and people got kicked from groups for paying more attention to their Gems high score than the dungeon or raid they were in. If we'd had smart phones at the same time we'd had that amount of downtime I think the genre would have imploded.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-40041086239007977712018-04-02T16:54:58.342+01:002018-04-02T16:54:58.342+01:00Good question! I love Spain and so does Mrs Bhagpu...Good question! I love Spain and so does Mrs Bhagpuss. I've been going there pretty much at least once a year for more than fifty years. I know Spain far better than I know Great Britain in that I've been to every major city except those in Cantabria and Asturias, most of the smaller ones, many of the really small ones and a lot of villages! I've driven all over the country, hitchhiked, traveled around by train and bus and even done some fairly long walks... and even so I won't get to see everything I want to see before I get too old to travel. Well, maybe if, as we often talk about doing, we move there for a few years.<br /><br />That said, it is specifically the long travel times that put me off going to North and South America, both of which I'd love to visit. If I could zap there instantly I would definitely want to do it. So it would make for some interesting choices.<br /><br />I think you're 100% right on the turning adventure into having a job thing. Token systems are one of my pet hates in MMOs. I've mentioned before that I first encountered it when Darkness Falls came to DAOC. I hated it it then and I haven't warmed to it since.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-41161339225142225392018-04-02T16:04:11.829+01:002018-04-02T16:04:11.829+01:00If I could press a button and travel instantly fro...<i>If I could press a button and travel instantly from my home to the Hire Car depot, would I? Hell, yes! </i><br /><br />My question is: If you really could travel to anywhere instantly, would Spain continue to be your destination of choice repeatedly? After all, you could just as well go to Venezuela, or Australia, or Alaska...<br /><br />I find the question of quick travel endlessly fascinating, and like you I have to admit that there's a bit of a difference between theory and practice.<br /><br />In general though, it kind of seems to me that we create these virtual worlds to experience something different from the real world, but then keep introducing features to make them more like the real world until they cease to work effectively as a fantasy. Still working out the details of that theory in my head :P but quick travel is certainly one example of the mechanic at work. Another is the move away from finding random treasure towards "salary-like" guaranteed rewards attained by regular grinding...Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-76633355487281731462018-04-02T15:09:33.174+01:002018-04-02T15:09:33.174+01:00Thanks for the post! I can definitely see both sid...Thanks for the post! I can definitely see both sides. As I've gotten older I have more time to play (and sadly less money to spend) so puttering around works well for me and extends the time I spend with a game. But that's mostly single player games. <br /><br />Do you think that removing travel times has hurt community in MMOs? I just remember doing a lot of chatting as I was traveling from one place to another. Of course I remember doing a lot of chatting as I meditated to recover mana in EQ and I don't think I'd want to go back to that.<br /><br />Maybe these days people would spend 'down time' looking at their phones or something anyway...<br /><br />I guess I just miss those moments when you're going from this town to that dungeon and along the way you run into some other players struggling with a tough enemy and you stop to help them and start chatting and wind up going off on a tangent. But I will freely admit this might all be rose-tinted glasses. Nimgimlihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00230174946054927922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-48901026600437821702018-04-02T13:43:04.059+01:002018-04-02T13:43:04.059+01:00I completely agree with that. It's exactly tru...I completely agree with that. It's exactly true. As with most truths, though, it's not the only truth. MMOs have to be so many things at the same time - games, chat rooms, hobbies - virtual worlds is just one role they have to play.<br /><br />There absolutely is a place - an essential, necessary place - for MMOs that put their virtual worldliness ahead of everything else. That's just a type of MMO, though. It's the type I wanted twenty years ago. I still wanted it ten years ago. Now? I'm not sure.<br /><br />I guess if the world is sufficiently well-imagined then, yes, I'd still be in for all the inconvenience a true virtual world entails. Until someone comes up with one that's good enough, though, I think I'm done with that. If that means gussied-up lobby games that are still amusing and entertaining then that's going to have to do. For now.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-41530896605389709862018-04-02T12:43:48.990+01:002018-04-02T12:43:48.990+01:00Fast travel removes the World, as distance is *fel...Fast travel removes the World, as distance is *felt* by travel time. Two locations connected by a teleport are "next door", as you just have to pass through that glowing doorway and you're there. All WoW instances are "everywhere" as you can enter wherever they are. <br /><br />World is a defining feature of MMOs, for better or worse. Remove it by fast travel and you get a lobby game. It's like removing aiming from an FPS. Aiming is often annoying. But it's no longer an FPS if you have autoaim feature.Gevlonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07072766785893313616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-80041414098093256482018-04-02T09:30:49.769+01:002018-04-02T09:30:49.769+01:00GW2's mounts are a total mess. Allowing glider...GW2's mounts are a total mess. Allowing gliders in the old world worked well but Mounts really jumps the shark. I don't care because for me GW2 jumped the shark sometime around November 2012 but it's an extreme example of the complete disregard to internal logic that long, long ago reduced GW2 to what Graham Greene would have called an "entertainment". <br /><br />I don't really count Mounts as travel conveniences, though. They're more of a style accessory. I generally find it quicker and easier to WP, run and glide than to use a mount.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-17697376974083316792018-04-02T07:53:56.050+01:002018-04-02T07:53:56.050+01:00GW2 taught me that travel could be too convenient ...GW2 taught me that travel could be too convenient with how mounts ruin Vanilla zones. Not only they are too fast, not only they let you skip most of the obstacles that are designed for multiple small jumps, not springer's 20 meteres high, but their attacking skills are also too strong. Creating infinite invisible walls (which don't really help, breaking out of the map boundaries is too common nowadays) should've told Arena.net to at least try to reconsider the decision.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com