Punishment Of Luxury: WoW Classic, Guild Wars 2, EverQuest II

WoW Classic is beginning to get its claws into me. The diluted enthusiasm of yesterday is begining to coalesce into something more concentrated. I waited until after lunch to log in today but then I played for four hours without a break and I didn't much want to stop then.

I'm sitting here now, typing this post and itching to get back in and level up some more. It's quite a long time since I've wanted to play an MMORPG more than I wanted to write about it and wouldn't you know it, sod's law, all of sudden I'm staring down the barrel at three of them.

My delayed start in Classic today was mainly due to a hospital appointment but also because I logged all three accounts into Guild Wars 2 to pick up the seventh birthday present on my oldest character and the Victorious Anniversary Achievement Box on each account.

The box includes a few nice things and a rock you can stand on. I thought it sounded ludicrous but I have to say I quite like it. It is literally a small rock that goes in your Toy slot that you can pull out and stand on, whereupon your character strikes a triumphal pose. I've only seen it on a Charr so far. Looking forward to seeing what an Asura does with it.

"Ahem. May I remind you who is the Princess here?"

There's also a free Black Lion Key in the cash shop. I love these and so does Mrs Bhagpuss, who does map completion not infrequently to get them and has been known to buy them from the Gem Store.When I told her there was a free one she was considerably more excited than she was for WoW Classic (although she has now actually made a character there (Gnome Warlock) and leveled her up to five).

While I love opening the boxes when it isn't costing me anything, I would never buy a Black Lion Key.  A) they are far too expensive and B) what you usually get is total garbage. Total garbage was exactly what I got on the first two accounts, the two I play these days and also the two that have the Heart of Thorns expansion, which you have to have to be able to use gliding.

My third account (chronologically the second but third in terms of usage) only has the core game so of course that was the one that got the big ticket Exclusive item, the Watchwork Wings Package. Naturally it's account-bound and more surprisngly it looks fantastic. I would absolutely use it on either of the accounts that can, y'know, freakin' well glide!

I was, initially, very annoyed but I calmed down a lot when I realised the "Package" part of the description means you get both wings and a backpack. The backpack is also splendid so at least I can use that.

Take a look at what you could have won...

Fun and exciting though all that was, it obviously wouldn't keep me logged in and playing all day. If it wasn't for WoW Classic, though, the other new addition to the game that came with yesterday's update certainly would. Cooking has finally been raised to a skill level of 500 and I would be on my chef right now, grinding away at the stove. So to speak.

Cooking was the first tradeskill I took up in GW2 and it remains one of my favorites. It's been languishing for years but now it's back! Prices of various ingredients are booming and things will be chaotic for a while, which is always fun, but cooking is going to have to go on the back burner until I cool off on Classic.

The other hot ticket right now, were it not for Blizzard parking their elephant on everyone's lawn, would be EverQuest 2, where there's not only the new Panda quest to enjoy but also a new Fabled dungeon. I really enjoyed the last two of those. I spent a good while getting killed in them before I managed to tweak my gear and build sufficiently to start downing names and looting upgrades.

Can't stop! Things to do!

This time the schedule's so crowded I haven't even patched EQII up yet. Maybe tomorrow, as the theme tune to The Littlest Hobo would have it. Could have used that as the post title if I'd been as smart as the dog.

As far as posting about Classic goes, I have so much to say I don't know where to start. The reason you're not reading any of it now is that I know if I get stuck into a post about it I'll be here all night. Only this time I don't want to spend the evening writing about the game - I want to play it.

So I'm going to! Bye!

Treat, Discover, Play

Gamesindustry.biz has one of the best articles I've seen on the thorny problem of lootboxes. It's entitled The Flawed Kinder Egg Defence and it collates a number of significant statements from various games publishers and developers before putting them into revealing context.

I have used the Kinder Egg analogy myself in the past. Won't be doing that again. Or, rather, if I do it will be in a context where it's relevant, such as the long-established content of loot tables on mobs and bosses.

I'd encourage anyone not already bored to distraction by the general topic of in-game monetization to read the full article, lengthy as it is. On the specific issue of Kinder Eggs as an excuse for lootboxes, however, this is all you need:

"A Kinder Surprise Egg does not collect your data. The Kinder Egg does not learn more about the person buying and opening the Egg, such as his or her preferences for its contents. The Kinder Egg does not adjust its contents according to an algorithm based on population data. People do not link their credit cards to Kinder Egg vendors. Kinder Eggs are physical and can be given away or traded, unlike virtual items. 

"It is difficult to spend thousands of dollars on Kinder Eggs, unless one visits a Kinder Egg 'megastore' or the wholesaler perhaps. You have to go to a shop to buy Kinder Eggs, they are not acquired in your living room. Kinder Eggs are not by their nature integrated into a broader online social experience and community of Kinder Egg purchasers. The transaction, user experience, and consequences are quite different."

Pretty much covers it. There are many other stand-out quotes I could pull, for instance

"Our review suggests that there are some emerging designs that aim to capitalise on player data to present individualised offers that the system 'knows' the player is more likely to accept. So it's not about being 'forced' -- it's about the game anticipating or making the best judgement about what the player is likely to accept."

There's little that I haven't seen somewhere already but I haven't seen it all brought together and contextualized as effectively before.

My position on lootboxes and in-game monetization is moving. I still remain strongly in favor of openable containers with randomized contents. I love opening those. I'm having no truck with smart containers that learn who I am and what I want and then use that data to extract money from me. Not that I ever buy loootboxes for real money but the principle stands.

I want my lootboxes to be delivered free, in-game, during normal gameplay, or free during login campaigns and the like, something I consider to be  fair and legitimate.

They should also, preferably, be tradeable, although that does bring up issues over purchasing in-game currency for real money to buy those lootboxes from other players. I wonder how many people do that during the brisk trade of Holiday Event boxes in Guild Wars 2, for example?

Anyway, this one is going to run and run and what's more it's just a reflection of changes in wider society that are likely to make the world of 2030 or 2040 all but unrecognizeable to those who didn't grow up in it.

They Got The Drugs I Could Use...

We're coming towards the end of this year's IntPiPoMo which gives me an excuse to bring out a few choice screenshots I've taken over the past few days. Otherwise they'd most likely molder in their folders since I didn't take them with any particular post in mind.

Not that I need a reason to take a shot. I can't pass a view without snapping at it. Never could. I don't recall exactly when I discovered the screenshot key in EverQuest and sadly my very earliest attempts at fantasy photo-journalism are lost to posterity but I do still have a few that pre-date the launch of EQ2 in 2004.

Taking screenshots costs nothing and with the seemingly endless, self-destructive nihilism of the lootbox war showing no signs of slowing down, far less fading away, this seems like as good time as any to remind ourselves of all the fun there is to have in an MMO without ever spending a single cent.

Oh, lootboxes...they really are the gift that never stops giving, aren't they? At least, when it comes to filling the internet with fury. If anything, further escalation of hostilities seems unavoidable. With that gloomy prospect in the background, how about we all just look at some pretty pictures and see if we can't remember why we came here in the first place...

I don't know about the rest of you but I came here for the virtual worlds and as far as I can see they're still here, in abundance. What's more, in these modern times I find myself free to visit more worlds than ever before and in every one I find yet more wonders and marvels.

But then, I'm just a virtual tourist. I point my imaginary camera and go click. And I'm an adventurer, too, let's not forget. Here to discover new lands, teeming with amazing creatures - then kill them, skin them and turn them into hats. But not before I've taken a few snaps for my album.

I never needed a lootbox for that and I don't now. No-one does. The only box that matters is wide open already: this richly furnished Skinner Box we like to call our hobby.

One thing's for certain, though: if games developers had to feed their children on the coins players like myself feed into the slot there'd be a lot of hungry children. And pretty soon no games.

It may be fatuous to suggest that the best things in life are free but it's equally simplistic to suggest there's no such thing as a free lunch. There's plenty of lunch to be had that you, yourself are never going to be asked to pay for, either in cash or favors. Whales pay for me, I let them, it ends there.

Except it doesn't because the flavor whales like best is crunchy lootbox and you can't catch a whale without throwing out the chum. If you don't like the taste you don't have to eat it but you're still swimming in the same ocean and it gets messy. There's blood and lootboxes in the water and I can't even hear the soundtrack for the wailing. Whaling. Whatever.

Where will it all end? SynCaine's still talking down the F2P revolution while Gevlon imagines a brave new world of equality and fairness but I prefer to go with Wilhelm's view that it's all a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing very much.

 At least I hope it is. If we ever really do reach a situation where national legislatures are seriously concerning themselves with creating the necessary legal framework that will allow you to bequeath your GW2 mount skin collection to your grandchildren, then I strongly suspect developers will call "Game Over" on MMOs.

Screenshots of your mount skins, though...now who owns those?