This Week In MMO 126: PR Warz

Written by: QuintLyn (Twitter @QuintLyn - Google+) | December 22, 2012 8:56 am

45 Comments

The big day has come and gone and once again the apocalypse has proven to be very disappointing. But, on the upside, that means we get to watch more TWIMMO!

This week, MikeB and Jason Winter join Gary to discuss the recent issues with The War Z and what could have been done to keep them from happening.

SWTOR announced it’s first expansion. Is there really enough content there to call it that or should Bioware have just released it as an update?

John Smedley’s been talking about EverQuest Next again…

The guys take a look at some more XIV Alpha footage, this time group combat.

Aaaand, more.

Check it all out in our post-apocalyptic / pre-holiday episode of TWIMMO.

3:23

World of Warcraft

Blizz Blues From The GAMEBREAKER Vaults Ep2:
What’s A Fire Festival

We know you've missed him so we thought we'd relive some classic memories Darnell with a trip to the Fire Festival.Read more »

4 comments
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Yoshi-P Defends FFXIV Subscription

Yoshi-P sits down to discuss the merits of MMO payment models and why he feels the FFXIV subscription fee is the right way to go.Read more »

99 comments
50:06

Star Wars The Old Republic

The Republic Ep142:
SWTOR On Consoles?

This week on the Republic, SWTOR patch 2.2 is here and Damion Schubert has things to say about next gen consoles.Read more »

4 comments

http://twitter.com/j0nnara Jonnara

Can’t watch the video Quint it says “This Video Is Private”.
http://twitter.com/deadonthefloor Dennisaurus

vid’s private =[
Infurn

Says “this video is private”

Y U TEEZ, GAMEBREAKER!?
http://twitter.com/Tidonius Tidonius

Hell yea, YT upload! Blip runs like crap for me for some reason.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1190180138 Richard Grinspan

Youtube?!
BigH001

Why is this in YouTube and not the other player? As much as I didn’t like the other player at least I could make it go full screen without going to the player site (unlike YouTube).

Edit: And just for clarification: I actually prefer the YouTube player to the other one, but the embedded YouTube player is pretty limited.
- iamthemikeb
  
  Which browser are you using? I’m able to click and expand to full screen in chrome with no hangups.
  - BigH001
    
    Firefox (latest version).
    All the other buttons are there on the popup bars, except for the Large Player and Full Screen buttons which are replaced by a button which takes you to the video page on YouTube. Clicking/double clicking just pauses/plays the video.
    
    I did just find a Full Screen button on the pop-out player (Right click>Pop out), but that’s basically the same as clicking the YouTube button and going to their site to watch.
    
    Edit: Yep, I see the button there in Chrome too. It kind of looks like the FF version had their bottom popup bar cut off? So the Full Screen button is off screen.
    - BigH001
      
      Though I just noticed on Lore’s Rapidfire PST on Tankspot, which also uses the embedded YouTube player, there IS a full screen button in FF. So…. yeah.
      
      And what’s even weirder is I just noticed the YT Legendary video has a full screen button too! So it must have been something with this particular video? I don’t know, though I noticed you went back to the blip video here.
valkilmer

name dropping mew nice
http://twitter.com/FishBaitism Fish Bait

& a happy b`day to you too GBTV
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Too bad Pokket couldn’t make the show, she seem to have played a lot of WarZ.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/KHPZTPGVBYFPZSC2QLRVIYVE6M Tom
  
  You can always ask her when she is streaming, about the whole WarZ thing
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    During the show Gary asked if anyone was playing WarZ, the show was clearly missing Pokket at that point.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/KHPZTPGVBYFPZSC2QLRVIYVE6M Tom
      
      True, it would have helped with her view on it since she plays the game. Even though we don’t have someone who played the game, they can still talk about the company’s shady behavior, false advertising. Thats the big part of the story, no so much the game and how it plays.
Kendjin Cremefrog

Would be nice if Jason could get a better mic (even as a headset), he’s got a lot of good points, but the muffled sound, it feels such a shame.
theunwarshed

Gary’s 100% correct, sand box game creators need to find creative ways to ease today’s gamer into the deep mechanics of player-driven persistent worlds. totally abandoning theme park elements is a mistake and won’t reach a wider audience. if successful, both players and devs benefit from a more sustainable game model-players get a deeper, richer game experience and developers don’t have to keep chasing the content consumption factor.
http://twitter.com/Stone_LX9 Stone LX9

Good show.
http://twitter.com/j0nnara Jonnara

Mike B is wrong,

Both playing customers and free to play players have to pay for the SWTOR expansion.

SO yeah even if i am a sub, I have to pay an additional fee for the so call expansion.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  I think MikeB was talking about the f2p player who plans on never spending any money on SWTOR. They will be cap at level 50.
  - http://twitter.com/Sh1ngara Sh1ngara
    
    also the $10 is only for subscribers, its $20 for f2p players
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      It’s kind of a funny model. It will be f2p from level 1 to 50. Then at level 50 it turns to B2P.
http://profile.yahoo.com/256R6FPYDJRZIWNJX3AAZLMFSI Mukind

They probably went to youtube because everyone uses ad blocker and they make no ad money off those people

Twitch sucks I’m glad
- http://quintlyn.com/ QuintLyn Bowers
  
  We still use Twitch for all our live shows. The embedded players have previously been blip and viddler.
Kaemin

I’m sorry but, SWTOR’s model is a joke, if they didn’t half-heartedly go into free to play they would be doing great but right now this game is pulling Bioware under.
Kaemin

Case an point, their ME3 multiplayer has had how many free dlc releases???

ALL KINDS OF THINGSAnd I personally know people who have laid down 20-40 bucks on Bioware points for accelerated gains on items. nothing too game breaking just options keep it like that and you will receive the love from the community that simple.
http://twitter.com/cecilandblues Anthony Botz

The stuff they have shown for FFXIV has not been great, that is for sure. It lacks any sort of details. It would be nice if there was a voice over explaining how group dynamics impact a fight, or what players can expect from quests. That aside. I’m kind of ok with the big monster that the party huddles around and beats on. I feel like that’s kind of the Final Fantasy style. I hope there are dungeons and such. I am certainly not interested in an FF11 model of finding a corner with a good spawn rate and chain pulling mobs that are easy and worth good xp. I want to be going somewhere and doing something. Cleanse that Shrine, Kill that elite monster at the middle of the maze. get that box full of gold.
Kaemin

SOE really is going in bold new directions I feel like Smed has turned into this eccentric old man that doesn’t care about the investors anymore and is just saying, “F*** THIS! We are making the game we want to make!”

Sand box games (MMO) are less developed in my opinion these days not because of player unwant but, investor fear. Think about it like gambling why bet on numbers on the table when you can bet on red or black. An investor is more willing to invest if it is a proven method for money making, and without investors we have no game.

FFXIV DAT PARTICLE EFFECTS that is all.
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

I think ppl are underestimating the power of Sandbox. Saying that there is no market for more than 1 million ppl playing around when we see a game like Minecraft that gives ppl the power instead of locking them down.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Since I loaded up my SC, I’m looking forward to what EQ Next has to offer.
http://twitter.com/kirzanSix Michael Coulombe

If we’re gonna talk about “Don’t Stand in the Fire” mechanics, then the “It’s an Alpha” comment is valid. Sorry, but I doubt they’ll code an intricate mechanic for an alpha video. Furthermore, these giants seem like World Bosses. Name me one World Boss you did that had some of the best gameplay in its game. If you say GW2 dragons I’ll slap you.

Anyone who has played XIV and done Ifrit knows there are Don’t Stand in the Fire and other mechanics such as “Be tact about your healing or you’re going to die” or “Manage your AoEs like a smart person or that add phase will screw you over”. Starting to see why there’s a seemingly longer cooldown? It’s to make every action matter, and if you screw up, you’re screwed. Kinda of like interrupting a cast in GW2. It hits a weird short cooldown to punish you from being bad. In XIV, you should wait for this and that, to use this and that.

I understand none of the hosts have played the game… but if that’s the case… Why even talk about it? They don’t even READ on the game. There is ZERO interest from anyone at GBTV. Just talk more about LoL drama or anything that’ll make the mass’ panties bleed.
- Passio1
  
  Think the point is that regardless of whether its an alpha trailer or not it doesn`t change the fact that it shows a pretty boring fight. Everything else is just speculation. Like they have said, it looks pretty, but it also doesn`t show off much variety.
  
  If you have played alpha and have some videos to show mechanics etc, then feel free to share them. If not all you`re basing your comments on is speculation.
  
  The hosts don`t need to play the game to make a comment on the videos Square release. Their opinions are on the videos showed which look pretty meh at the moment.
  
  If FFXIV had tricky boss fights before they shut it down what does that matter? Are those same style of fights going to be there when they re-release?
  
  Hitting the right buttons at the right time does not make for interesting combat in todays standards of mmo`s. Its no different to maxing your dps rotation on a stationary target.
  
  FFXIV was not the only game featured in the show? Should they have someone from each game in the fourth box to sit there and defend their game? Thats a different show.
  - saxophone15
    
    I think alpha players for FFXIV are still under NDA so they can’t share any videos.
    - Passio1
      
      Of course. Hence we have the Square release videos to base our opinions on. Granted they may have the most groundbreaking combat ever due to be released and we just don`t know it.
      However most MMO players know not to listen to the PR buzz and adopt the policy of “We`ll believe it when we see it.”
dragontheory42

The final fantasy part which all of you were talking about is Final Fantasy. Thats how Final fantasy is and wow is. They were tank and spank large groups. I played the game for years in XI and the combat was exactly like this less flashy. You either love final fantasy or you dont.
http://twitter.com/Picoman Picoman

The only three Classes available in alpha are Lancer, Archer and Conjurer therefore an alpha combat video is just going to be all ‘spank’ at this stage anyway. What makes it more bland is that the only two race choices are male Hyur and Female Miqo’te along with the fact that none of the players were displaying ‘leet skillz’.

As for standing still, everyone who played 1.0 knows there will be plenty of times where you gotta “get the hell outta the way!” or “get in position you fool!”. Also, not many positional abilities are in the game yet. People wanting a GW2 dodge will be disappointed but i dont think they should be, it is a design choice that GW2 has went for, doesnt mean it will fit in every single game.

These mobs are free-roaming, there was nothing too special about them except that they were particularly large. Just a bunch of hit-points to burn in an attempt to show some gameplay footage. Also, the excessive mob hit-detection twitching has been addressed by the devs.

Im not stressing too much what gbtv thinks anymore, the game wont fail because the hosts choose to talk about dodge and mouse users. The fact is, the vids are not that great but would be nice to get a host on the show that can run through some of the concerns they have.Thank You/bow
sheduur

Funny when things like, map size, players per server etc seem to be more important to the players than how fun the game actually is. And WarZ is not great fun tbh… thats worse than any of the false information.
Laborday

Those are not bosses in the FF14 video. Those are just mundane group quests.
tawnos42

Even if EQ next is trying to break new ground they would be stupid to pass up on the nostalgia aspect as well. Bakafony’s asssessment that people have changed dramatically is correct (regarding the 2005 game reboot) but that doesn’t mean they can’t be gamers anymore. When you consider the change in disposable income ( I could guy/sell the 1999 version of myself that started with EQ1 without batting an eye 20 times over) I have to think thats a value market.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-Bailey/1357714628 Aaron Bailey

WoW is the Britney Spears of the MMO world… well said! Can not wait for EQ-NEXT!
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Lol, I thought it was Guild Wars 2 that was the Britney Spears of MMOs.
  
  Also, I throught John Smedley swipe at MMOs that were Movies, was a direct attack on Guild Wars 2 visas, jumping puzzles and meta boss fights. All very pretty to look at, but not challenging gameplay.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-Bailey/1357714628 Aaron Bailey

ok so they did not say that… BUT THAT’S WHAT I HEARD!
http://twitter.com/Xbuster231 Justin

FF14 looks great honestly, its going back to its roots with FF11, gary you think every fight in a MMO should require movment? why did I spend all this time leveling and geting cool new abilities just so i would have to jog around and “not stand in blue stuff” more than use my abilities?

FF11 was all about just geting awesome abilities and enjoying using them in combination with your teamates to make awesome skill chains, thats the only thing FF14 needs, is a good working skill chain system
DrossRocket

The point of the XIV “ALPHA” videos is mainly to showcase the changes to the UI.
There is a comment that the devs put under each video (on the forums) here it is:

* The battles in this video involve low level enemies. Targeting
and actions are demonstrated with the mouse instead of keyboard for greater
clarity.

* The battle system is currently undergoing significant
revision, including changes to all damage algorithms and the claim
system.

* The music played during combat is different than the music
currently implemented in the alpha.

they key thing to take from here is this:

TARGETING AND ACTIONS ARE DEMONSTRATED WITH THE MOUSE INSTEAD OF KEYBOARD FOR GREATER CLARITY.

I don’t think that they will make XIV action combat like GW2 where you are dodge rolling to evade.

In XIV you’ll be moving out of danger areas (red circles) and using your skills to stun,evade,block or midigate incoming attacks.

If you have to be constantly running around that fine, don’t play XIV. If you enjoy old style ROLE based combat maybe this game might be more your speed. I’m looking forward to XIV after playing GW2. I want to be a tank and control the battles when i’m in a dungeon. But thats me.
Michael Metz

music show! Makes no sense for this site, but do it

This Week In MMO 126: PR Warz

Blizz Blues From The GAMEBREAKER Vaults Ep2:
What’s A Fire Festival

Yoshi-P Defends FFXIV Subscription

The Republic Ep142:
SWTOR On Consoles?

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Sign in to your account