This Week In MMO 108: World Of Warcraft, RIFT Storm Legion, Planetside 2, Final Fantasy XIV, And More!

http://www.facebook.com/davidallmighty David Cohen

I stopped playing RIft in Tier 2, forget the name of it, last boss was a big fish/octopus/thing… I always felt the raiding was a little boring , a little easy, a little tank and spanky in most cases. Has anyone played it more then I did at a “serious” level, since I am more of a hardcore raider. And could say if they came out with harder or even more complex raids since?

Marc Desjardins

Easy??? Most of the hardcore raiding guild stopped playing because HK raid was to difficult. So personally, I don’t think you’ve played at this level in RIFT. If ppl want easy raid, they should go play WoW not RIFT. I know hardcore guild in Rift that still have difficulty with Akylios.
- Old Ben
  
  > Most of the hardcore raiding guild stopped
  > playing because HK raid was to difficult.
  
  Not true, but let’s admit it was.
  
  Let’s say Trion made it easier, and so _all_ those “hardcore raiding guilds” (who apparently quit when faced with a challenge – so much for being “hardcore”) managed to finish it.
  
  Then what?
  
  Quit because “there’s nothing to do” ?
  
  During The Burning Crusade, Blizzard was releasing new raid tiers before people had even managed to finish the previous one (Black Temple was released before the first kill of Kael’thas), and it was their most successful period ever.
  - http://twitter.com/Leithian Duane Lee Hampson
    
    WoW raiding died with Ulduar for me. All the raids after that were so easy pugs were completing them before some guilds.
    Our Guild were the 2nd to do a full clear of Ulduar on Normal mode on our server (Lightbringer) after that i have raided casually because the content just didnt justify comitting to a 4-5 night a week schedule. All to easy.

scottsummer

Dang i missed the live show.

btw, not every single MMO needs to go F2p because they don’t have one million subscriber, Rift is obviously making money for Trion. Going F2P is a double edge sword, it can driven away the current subscribers while failed to sustain a steady number of F2P players.

I personally do not see Rift going F2p anytime soon, game likes Rift only needs couple hundred thousand sub to maintain profitable.

Josh Rosenvelt

Yeap, they privately listed unlike SWTOR under EA and blizzard since they merged with Activision. Being publicly listed means you have to create a game for everyone and not just for gamers. Rift can be whatever the devs want it to be and not what the shareholders require.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Let’s not oversimplify. Trion Worlds is still has to answer to the private investors and you have to kiss alot of ass and make promises, last thing they want is nervous private investors.
  
  Blizzard was only a private company for about a year. If it wasn’t for the corporate funding, they would have never developed their major franchises. Probably would be still making PC ports of console games.
  
  But, with that said, the Activision/Blizzard with Vivendi as majority stockholder doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Blizzard needs a new home.
  - Old Ben
    
    Blizzard has always had separate management and even separate accounting from the rest of Activision. And WoW’s current team of designers was appointed before the Activision merger even took place.
    - Jado Cast
      
      You speak like someone with inside information sir, hmmmm.

http://www.facebook.com/anders.proos Anders Proos

Lore is by far the one that is making the gamebreaker shows worth watching

Josh Rosenvelt

I am also happy to see Lore is also diversifying away from wow which will be a good thing for him personally in the long run.

I really don’t hold high hopes for MoP.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  MoP is going to be a blast. I do hope Lore either gets his WoW mojo back or does the right thing. You can spot the guys that try to do commentary on WoW, but dont play it anymore. They will read the forums and try to convice themselves they know what playing the game is like today. It would be kind of sad, if Lore simply played WoW because it was his job.
  - MMO_Doubter
    
    Like MOST WoW players?
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

MoP is going to be a blast. I do hope Lore either gets his WoW mojo back or does the right thing. You can spot the guys a mile away, that try to do commentary on WoW, but dont play it anymore. They will read the forums and try to convice themselves they know what playing the game today is like.
- Old Ben
  
  Does Blizzard pay you to start every post with some variation on “MoP is going to be great”, even when you’re replying to someone who didn’t mention MoP or WoW at all…?
  
  If they’re not, they should be.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Responded to the wrong post. Correcting it now.
    - Jado Cast
      
      That happens to me sometimes too, even though I hit reply on the correct comment.

http://www.facebook.com/andrewmaxcohen Andrew Max Cohen

ZOMG Is Pokket back on TWIMMO??

http://twitter.com/crocodilius ryan phillips

all this told me is that pokket probably likes will ferrel.

Evilevi501

Everyone underestimates the PVP community….except The Secret World.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Kyle-Eggers/100000868131517 Kyle Eggers

Rift does have WvsW in PvP now, with three factions in the open world(Stillmoore). Rift also has a good enough subscription base that it will not got free to play for a long long time, at the moment Rift has the a higher subscription base then SWTOR, Tera, and STW.

Josh Rosenvelt

Also its playerbase in terms of % that raid is a lot higher the Wow.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  lol, good one. Fun with numbers. Looked up one stat, there are 12 times more players raiding in WoW than Rift has subscribers.
  - Old Ben
    
    Do you understand the concept of percentages? Or do we need to call Matt to draw you a graph?
http://profile.yahoo.com/W76UOX2IDTRMMYTPASSJDLXLRM Bob

Rift only has 250,000 subs currently. That’s no where close to SWTOR.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Closer than you think.
Old Ben

> Rift does have WvsW in PvP now

So you play against people from a different server, with everybody from your server on your team? Is that a new mode? Because Conquest is just faction vs. faction (Nightfall / Dominion / Oathsworn), and players from any world can join any faction.

> Rift also has a good enough subscription base that it will not got
> free to play for a long long time

Going free-to-play is a decision based on how many new players they think they can attract. If they think that going F2P would significantly increase their player base, then a F2P model with a cash shop would be more profitable. If they think the number of subscribers is about as high as it’s going to get, then there’s no point in giving up the steady income from the subscription.

> Rift has the a higher subscription base then SWTOR, Tera, and STW [TSW?].

Considering none of them has released numbers recently (in fact, three of them have _never_ released subscriber numbers), that statement is straight out of the “anal pass”.

http://www.facebook.com/rasmus.nielsen.75491 Rasmus Nielsen

Starwars Galaxies did a “new game thing”, and failed terribly.

http://profile.yahoo.com/2AG3USLQMI66VFZR4IWO4H5KVA echoes

Actually Galaxies was around for roughly 8 1/2 years and the game survived longer with the NGE than without it. If something fails terribly you would think it would die pretty fast and not have 6 years of playing time.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  I’m confused. It’s my understanding that NGE was not well received by the Star Wars Galaxies community. Why would the game have shut down sooner, if NGE was never released?
  
  My understanding why Star Wars Galaxies shut down was a large royalty payment was due and the companies involved did not want multiple Star Wars MMOs out at the same time.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/2AG3USLQMI66VFZR4IWO4H5KVA echoes
    
    I don’t see how you can be confused. If the NGE was the Galaxies killer that everyone says it was how could it have possible survived for 6 years AFTER the NGE? You would think that the game would have “died” a lot sooner, but it didn’t. Why? Because it was still profitable right up until the end.
    
    Also at the time of the close down of the game SOE was still contracted to develop Galaxies into this year. Obviously LucasArts had no intention of renewing that contract because of ToR.
    
    Now less than a year later ToR will be going F2P. Galaxies would still be up and making money because it was not F2P.

http://twitter.com/RavingRendal Matthew Ulmen

Nooooooo…why did I have to take a nap on the day Pokket was on GBTV =( I miss seeing her on, hopefully she will be on again.

Jadedsheamus

Gear progression sucks, I don’t want to feel forced to keep playing to in order to gear just to feel competitive. My motivation to keep playing pvp is to get better. Cosmetic rewards for pvp are just a bonus, especially the the weapon skins.

Diequex

pretty much the same for me. I can understand the idea that lore/hilary had when they said what they said…but when playing TOR I personally didn’t feel like playing at level 50 after a few matches, simply because it required a grind in order to compete. I play MMOs more for pve nowadays and pvp casually; I have no motivation to grind for gear in order to play casually. idgaf about rewards, and don’t think i’m in the minority. Hell, when I played a few WoW trials playing against ‘twinked’ characters made me not want to pvp much in battlegrounds.

So while rewards definitely give casual players more of a reason to pvp, getting destroyed by players who have already acquired said gear conversely affects the intended replay value that the gear is supposed to present, imho.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Yep. Playing BGs in the starter version of WoW is a lesson in torture. HUGE imbalance. Thanks to Heirloom hand me downs for high level alts.

Old Ben

Gear-based PvP basically benefits bad players with a lot of free time.

http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano

Yea I actually can’t think of a single scenario, pvp or pve, where a gear treadmill was good for casuals.
http://twitter.com/Pokketsays Hillary Nicole

I equate people who are more casual and have less time to hone their skills, min/max characters, and just play the game in general with being “casuals” and therefore (for most cases) not being as good at the game as someone who is more hardcore (and plays a lot more).

Someone who plays for an hour every other night and then two hours on the weekend probably isn’t going to be as good as someone who plays five hours every night and all weekend. It’s just a fact that a hardcore player that has 10 hours to the casual’s one hour is just going to be better. He is going to learn the game faster, he is going to have better muscle memory, he will learn from mistakes that he makes faster because he makes them more often. He will likely have more characters made.

Anyway…

Most casuals won’t PvP if there is not any incentive from doing so. Even as a casual who sucks at PvP (in a game like WoW) and keeps losing over and over, he will eventually get gear still. And even if it is “for being bad”, it will set him above people without gear. Versus a game where he keeps losing over and over and does not get anything from it, he will likely be inclined to just leave, feeling like he 1] doesn’t have the time to get better at the game and 2] isn’t getting rewarded for putting time into playing.
Hardcore players will play regardless of gear progression or not. If there is a gear system, they will get it faster, they will likely win more. If there is no gear system, just “skill” then then will LIKELY be amongst the better of players and will win the majority of the time. Their incentive for staying will be the fact that they are better (bragging rights). But even then, not much incentive.
- Old Ben
  
  > Someone who plays for an hour every other night and then
  > two hours on the weekend probably isn’t going to be as good
  > as someone who plays five hours every night and all weekend.
  
  Especially if you give the second guy gear that doubles his stats compared to the first one…
  - http://twitter.com/Leithian Duane Lee Hampson
    
    I have to say I agree with Hillary. People who suck and have little time to pvp will still do it because they will still gain points to get that extra shiny piece of gear.
    
    In the case of wow ,they then try to use said piece of gear for getting around the item level for pve content such as dungeons and lfr. It takes way less effort to get gear via death in pvp then actually earning it through pve / questing.
    
    There obviously is a minority who want to be competitive in pvp with less time, but as she pointed out, gear reward or not, they most likely will not reach the skill level of someone who pvps a lot.
    
    Leveling the playing field with statless gear obviously makes it easier for more casual players to compete on a level standing in some regard but I think you will lose just as many taking part as you will gain because casuals and hardcore alike want to get that better item.
    
    There in lies my whole issue with GW2 in general I still am not sure if a new skin is enough to make me want to put in the effort to obtain it, That goes for both pvp and pve.
    
    Of all the current titles that are trying to build their player base I do feel Rift and GW2 have the best chances based on content. I just dont know that either of them offer everything that WoW currently has. I feel WoWs new content is uninspired. That said I’m sure new race, profession and raids / dungeons will be enough to keep people around for at least another 6 months.
    
    If I had to put my finger on why no mmo as been able to topple wow from its throne, apart from its obviously huge player base, i’d have to say that blizzard did a good job of making it feel alive. The shops and stores. the wandering npcs. The non static mobs. Birds flying around etc. SWTOR being at the very other extreme everything is stationary, nothing is interactive, nothing seems alive or fluid, and while Rift does a much better job it just is kind of souless.
    
    I keep hoping for something better but I always end up back in WoW just because it is more polished and yes to some extent the larger player base, and much longer development time, means there is always something to do. That said I liked the combat in Everquest better than WoW just no pleasing me I guess heh.
    - Old Ben
      
      > It takes way less effort to get gear via death in pvp
      
      And you think that makes sense…? That someone with enough free time to die a lot should get more rewards than someone who is skilled but can only afford to play a couple of hours a week?
      
      > blizzard did a good job of making it feel alive.
      > The shops and stores. the wandering npcs.
      
      You must have a different version of WoW. In mine, 99% of the NPCs stood in the same spot, day and night, rain or sunshine, 24 hours a day, 351 days a year (the rest was server maintenance time, which I assume they used to go to the bathroom).
    - http://twitter.com/Leithian Duane Lee Hampson
      
      no one said it makes sense its just the way it is. Take a look around at the environment in wow and then take a look around in any other mmo. I can assure you none are as alive as wow.
      
      Sure questing npc’s are fairly static but there are wandering vendors kids running around stormwind etc.
    - Old Ben
      
      > no one said it makes sense
      > its just the way it is.
      
      It’s “the way it is” in some games because they were designed that way (to reward time instead of skill).
      
      It’s _not_ the way it is in the majority of online PvP games, where everybody has access to equally powerful gear, without having to grind for months (while paying a subscription, of course) just to overcome a stat disadvantage.
      
      > questing npc’s are fairly static but there
      > are wandering vendors kids running
      > around stormwind etc.
      
      Yeah, out of the 85 vendors in Stormwind, there’s one who walks around.
      
      That actually shows it’s not a limitation of the engine; they just chose to make 99% of them static.
- http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano
  
  I get what you’re saying, but I feel like gear treadmills do nothing but punish casuals because they keep falling further and further behind. If you only have the time to run 1 or 2 battlegrounds a night, you may not even come close to getting a full set before the next set comes out. At least in systems like GW’s you still can come back anytime to an even playing field, and won’t have to spend all of your time playing catch up.
  
  The way I view GW2′s pvp system is a lot similar to the way I view other multiplayer games’ pvp modes like call of duty, or LoL, or even some sports games. The incentive to play this mode is to keep playing it, not because you have to.. but because they are quick, and fun, and most importantly strategy means a lot more.
  
  The gear inequality in WoW was best shown back when super geared players used to just graveyard camp in WG all day. Took no skill to do this, just resilience.
- Randall Burt
  
  Agree with Ben here. I think the pick up and play nature of normalized PvP will appeal even more to casuals, especially with an adaptive matchmaking system a-la Firefall. The appeal of any game system should be how much fun you’re having first and foremost. I think the incentive for staying is enjoying what you’re doing. Even a little bit of improvement is encouraging, and finding a niche and filling it in group play is as rewarding as high k/d. This from someone who sux at games but really likes PvP when its potentially balanced. I like being bad on my own merits, not because I haven’t played long enough to have gotten some chest piece that’s required for my profession to be competitive.
- testguy111
  
  I think you don’t know what you’re talking about.
  
  being casual, i.e. having LESS time to play than the average says nothing about one’s preferences.
  
  how could it?
  
  does having less time make me uninterested in pvp?
  
  your whole argument is spurious
- MMO_Doubter
  
  “Casuals’ should stay the hell out of PvP. They have neither the brains nor balls to do it.
  
  Of course, WoW and other MMOs encourage these casuals by rewarding failure. Losing just means a slower rate of progress.
  - Odeezee
    
    something tells me you have no idea what casual even means.
    - Old Ben
      
      Why should “casual” be a special case?
- Patrick Ryan
  
  Hillary, I assume you would classify yourself as a “hardcore” gamer and these are your assumptions about all “casual” gamers. I’d like to offer my experience as a “casual” gamer for consideration. I am hardly new to gaming, as I’ve been playing video games since we first got a Pong machine in 1976. I have owned most console systems through the years, and Raptr tells me I have 1,807 achievements across Xbox, PS3, and WoW (not counting the secret achievements which Raptr can’t figure out). I have played WoW since TBC and have only logged a little over 2,450 hours in that time with only 3 characters over 80 and only one 85. I don’t have as much time to play due to work and family commitments, and would certainly fall into your definition of “casual.”
  
  However, I couldn’t want a gear based system any less, especially in PvP. Due to the limits on my time, I will never see large swaths of content in WoW, and don’t like needing to drag down a group because my gear is sub-par. I don’t have time to grind for more, and so I find other things to do in game. PvP is something I have avoided for most of my time in WoW because I don’t enjoy having zero chance of killing anyone with PvP gear, and not for lack of trying. I wear cloth, I have to stand still to cast most things, I’m interruptible and it seems everyone has a trinket to cancel my CC so the best I can hope for is to stay with a group and do some damage from the background. And I don’t like gaining points for losing to buy gear. In that, I agree with most of the other posters here. WoW PvP isn’t fun for me, and as a casual player I had better be having fun with the time I do get in game or it will quickly be replaced by other things that life demands.
  
  So I have stayed away from PvP in most MMOs, though not for “lack of brains or balls” as stated by MMO_Doubter since those come through education and life experience. However, I have played in all of the GW2 beta weekends and did give their PvP a try. I am not saying that GW2 is a WoW killer or even that it is the next generation of MMO. I am saying that by eliminating gear progression, I was able to get into their WvW PvP and actually make some headway. Did I die? Yes. Did I manage to kill anyone? Yes. Most importantly, did I have fun? Absolutely. Does cosmetic gear for rewards satisfy me? Sure does. Like you, I do enjoy sitting on a cool mount in a capitol city in WoW. I did grind for an Albino Drake and a Violet Protodrake, which are absolutely cosmetic rewards and have satisfied me as a casual gamer.
  
  Being able to jump into any PvP option in a game and know that I can at least be competitive against part the population (because not everyone can be at the level of Ed Park or Matt Sorg) means that I feel I have more options in GW2 than I do in a gear based MMO. I don’t feel like I am limited in a game by how much time I am able to spend with it, and ultimately it makes me a happier and more loyal customer for that game.
  
  I am sure that this opinion will get flamed by “hardcore” gamers, but it seems to me that in a system like GW2′s WvW casual gamers are still very desirable. While they may not be able to solo chain-kill players, they are still able to capture supply camps, escort supply lines, deliver siege equipment, scout enemy movements, harass enemy defenses, defend walls and make repairs runs to keep their team in the fight. In a mode like WvW, I can add a important component to my team without needing to spend a month grinding gear first and that’s why I prefer a skill based system even as a “casual” player.
  - MMO_Doubter
    
    Good post. There is more than one definition of ‘casual’, and since you don’t like progressing by losing, you are not the type I was criticizing.
- Odeezee
  
  this is a grave misconception and leads to the death of a PvP community in any game with a gear treadmill.
  
  gear treadmills are prohibitive to casuals no matter how you slice it. PvP, unlike PvE, requires PLAYERS as the players are THE content and gear treadmills provide only one thing, a barrier to entry. the people who get to end cap first will reap the most rewards as they will have had more time to acquire gear and learn the maps, get more skilled, etc. now you then come in as a casual and get rocked not because you were just outplayed but because you do not have the statistical parity to have a fair fight. this makes people on the low end of the gear spectrum reluctant to “grind” PvP currency to acquire the gear as they will have to endure weeks or months of being roflstomped before there is gear parity over established PvPers.
  
  gear treadmills are called that because they are forever increasing the statistical power of gear creating and even greater divide between the haves and have nots, further disincentivising players to get into PvP and thus shrinking the player pool and leading to the “death” of PvP. casual players can then also not ever reach gear parity as they will always be behind as they acquire gear at a much slower rate.
  
  this leads to the second problem with gear treadmills is that it taints victories and does not provide competition as whichever side has the gear advantage wins. beating up on weaker opponents is only fun for a lot of people for a very short period of time if at all and since PvP is about being the best player/team, reducing the the barriers to competitive play is extremely important so that skill, tactics, teamwork and communication are the only deciding factors in a PvP encounter.
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

The premise that gear-based progression is good for bad players is just faulty. While I agree gear-based vs horizontal-based PvP are totally different styles, saying gear-based PvP benefits bad players, is just a specious argument. If anything the exact opposite is true.

If you are a bad PvP player in a horizontal-based game, you can piddle around in matches, win some, lose some. But, never really progress up the ladders. But you can be the expert on the discussion boards talking about builds for hours on end. Just claim you are a hardcore player that doesn’t have time to play with the casuals.

If you are a bad PvP player in a gear-based game, you can piddle around in matches, win some, lose some. But, never really get a good team rating and earn the top of the line gear. Sure you can run across some bad PvP players with okay gear, all it means is it will take a skilled player a little longer to kill then. If they are bad player with no skill, they are no danger to a smart, skilled player.

Now if you have a skilled player with great gear, you have to change strategies, CC them, kill their healers, attack with multiple players. But, a bad PvP player doesn’t require a change in strategy.

If you are a skilled player in either a horizontal or gear based PvP game, I got all the respect in the world for your skill. (Not always their behavior.)
- Old Ben
  
  > The premise that gear-based progression
  > is good for bad players is just faulty.
  
  The inability to read sentences all the way to the end is also pretty bad. Namely missing the part about “with a lot of free time”.
  
  Gear-based PvP rewards players for the _time_ they spend playing the game (regardless of any actual increase in skill – or any skill they had to begin with), thus reducing the skill requirements and giving less skilled players with more time an objective advantage over more skilled players without that gear.
  
  It also gives skilled players with plenty of free time time a virtually insurmountable advantage over any new player (regardless of his or her skill), reducing the number of players that will even try to acquire the gear they would need to become competitive.
  
  Why waste time getting stomped by guys who can afford to just stand still (because they do more damage than you do _and_ take half the amount of damage you do)? If you’re skilled, you’ll just go play a game that rewards that skill, not a game that constantly makes you chase gear with higher stats. The players that prefer gear-based PvP are the ones afraid of a level playing field.
  
  Watch Taugrim’s “Top 5 PVP Design Flaws” video, specifically the part about asymmetrical damage scaling.
  
  If you can’t understand that, it’s time to look for some fanboyitis medication.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Nope, I fully understood your argument. My point is the bad player is a bad player and gear doen’t help. If you are a bad player and spend a huge amount of time in a gear-progression PvP, you are till going to end up with basic PvP gear. If you are a highly skilled player, it doesn’t take long at all to put together top of the line gear.
    
    Big fan of Ed videos. But get real Ed’s videos are not about bad players.
    
    Personally, I can appricate both styles of PvP MMOs and plan on playing both.
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      Kindly explain how skill means shit WRT gaining PvP gear. Arena, maybe? Which requires a set group – which requires you have the gear to find a group to begin with.
      
      Same deal with rated BGs.
      
      Perhaps it has changed in the last year?
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      Right, the point of this thread was the “bad player.” With the premise is the bad player can get great gear, if they spend enough time playing.
      
      Let’s chat about the bad WoW PvP player.
      If you are a bad player in WoW, you can run BGs all day long, win some, lose some. But your gear will never progress past the basic honor gear.
      
      If you are a bad player in WoW, you probably won’t find a Arena team (or keep one) and you clearly won’t progress to the point of top PvP gear or top the Arena rating for a season.
      
      It’s much to early to talk about the bad player in GW2 sPvP. Let’s see what happens to the bad players in GW2 sPvP. It may be the best solution for the bad player in GW2 sPvP is grind yourself up to level 80 and buy crafted gear off the Trading Post. We need to have this chat in a few months.
    - Old Ben
      
      > I fully understood your argument.
      
      Oh, so you _deliberately_ chose to respond to a different one.
      
      > My point is the bad player is a bad player
      > and gear doen’t help.
      
      “A bad fighter is a bad fighter and a gun doesn’t help.”
      
      Sounds like a stupid statement, doesn’t?
    - Dan Winton
      
      I think what he is trying to get across to you is that in gear based mmo’s (WOW) a bad player can only achieve good pvp gear, he will then hit a wall when going against good players and will not be able to buy the best gear.
      A good player will have a rough go of it until he gets the good gear, then his skill comes in and allows him to continue to progress and get the best gear.
      Believe me when I say a top skilled player may be annoyed at having to grind out that good gear to become competitive but he/she will still do it and will get that gear very quickly.
      The skill based MMO just cuts out the bad players ability to feel like a good player when killing lower geared players,
      I believe that is why Pokket said gear based mmo’s appeal to casual (bad players in this instance not good players who do not have the time to invest).
      Both models work, which is better? Everyone has their own opinion about that.
    - Old Ben
      
      > he will then hit a wall when going against good players
      
      Especially if those “good players” have a stat advantage over him…
      
      > I believe that is why Pokket said gear based mmo’s appeal
      > to casual (bad players in this instance not good players who
      > do not have the time to invest).
      
      “Casual” and “bad” are very different things. Gear requirements are what lumps the former in with the latter.
      
      > a top skilled player may be annoyed at having to grind
      > out that good gear to become competitive but he/she
      > will still do it and will get that gear very quickly.
      
      No, he won’t be “annoyed”, he simply won’t be able to do it if he doesn’t have the time to “invest” in it (and that investment drains away quickly, because the ilevel treadmill is never-ending).
      
      In fact, if he’s smart, he won’t bother with it at all; he will simply go play a game that actually rewards his skill, not the amount of free time he has or the months he’s willing to spend paying a subscription and playing at a disadvantage just to be able to reach a level playing field.
      
      Both models “work”, but for very different crowds. Gear based PvP benefits players with free time. PvP with a level playing field benefits players with skill. That’s not a matter of opinion, it’s an objective consequence of the game mechanics.
      
      Skill still plays a role in gear-based PvP, but players who are actually skilled will always prefer a level playing field. The other ones just want to get better gear so they can crush “noobs” and _pretend_ they’re skilled.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=754168227 Len Hobbel

LORE plays wow for a living? GOLD SELLER

http://twitter.com/inkthedink INKS

Good to see Pokket on TWIMMO as a guest. I am really interested to see how this daily thing work out.
Need to get some more guests in here. Havent seen Jay Dub recently, Lore is always good, get some Guardian up in there, Little Richie perhaps. Good show guys. and gal

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=754168227 Len Hobbel

who is metzen ?

Old Ben

One of Greatfather Winter’s reindeer.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  I hope Metzen doesn’t get kidnapped again this year.
Krzysztof Kotarba

guy with golden voice

Old Ben

> Pokket dixit:
>
> “Whoever announced first, the other one was going to take advantage of it.”

So… how exactly is Blizzard “taking advantage of it” ? By giving Arena Net the full weekend (25-27) of exclusive media coverage? By giving players a full month to get into GW2 instead of putting them on the MoP treadmill before they even have a chance to play GW2?

And how would Arena Net have “taken advantage of it” if Blizzard had announced first?

The only way either company could “take advantage of it” would be if they waited for the other to announce the release date and then released _before_ the competition. But neither of them did that.

> “It’s pretty smart of them to just wait.”

How, exactly? How does launching one month _after_ your competition help retain your current player base, or reduce your competitors’ sales?

> “They have the power and the money to do that, to just wait
> and be like: ‘Go ahead and announce, buddy.’”

Again, how does that benefit them in any way? They’re launching the game one month after GW2. They announced the MoP release date two months after GW2 announced its release date (thus causing a lot of players to commit to buying GW2, and now giving them a full month to get attached to their new GW2 characters).

If Blizzard had announced its release date sooner, and if they launched MoP before GW2, would you be saying “terrible move on Blizzard’s part, they should have waited”…? Somehow I doubt that.

Power and money to wait? You use power and money to stay ahead of the competition, not fall behind it. But money can’t fix everything, and Blizzard’s power isn’t what it used to be.

Except, of course, for… PVP POWER!

Randall Burt

The hype wars, friend. And its “POWAAAAAAAAAAH”.
Jay

I’m glad I’m not the only one who isn’t buying it… I’ll let you decide what “it” is, but whatever you choose, you’re probably right.

They need to get Mike B back asap.

http://www.facebook.com/carl.j.stephenson.5 Carl Stephenson

Nasty boy, Step out the way rick rolliin’ . Its now Gannon gankd’ <– new meme spread the word.

Randall Burt

How hard is it to sell someone on “spend all this time because you’re having fun doing it”?

Old Ben

To WoW players? Practically impossible, it seems.
MMO_Doubter

There are tons of fun multiplayer games out there. Without sub fees and P2W cash shops.

Getting people to PAY extra to play them is the trick. MMOs do it with progression, but that very progression imbalances the competition.

http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Gary should try the free to play route with WoW. Play to level 20, but really focus on the story.
Start an undead character and play it to the major story point in Gilneas. Swap over to the Worgen and experience the flip side of the story.

Play a troll for the Echo Isle storyline. See how Garrosh is just pissing everyone off. View what happened during the shattering in Thunder Bluff.

Try all the factions and races to levels 20.

Once MoP comes out, try out the Pandaren starting zone.

If Gary doen’t have a level 85 WoW character by now, it’s kinda silly that he would try out the content in The Mists of Pandaria (Still hear Gary’s over the top inflection.)

Old Ben

> Play to level 20, but really focus on the story.

Because anything beats focusing on the gameplay?
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Always focus on the game play, just don’t be in such a rush and skip the dialog.
  
  Still enjoy the dialog between the characters of Garrosh and Sylvanas. Can you tell, I’m leveling a new toon in The Daily Blink fan guild. Buff Mages.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/Z36GPOU3Q2QIQYBIDVNQAVGNGE Raul
  
  Agreed.
  Love the Lore,
  Gameplay is needing alot of attention, methinx.

Randall Burt

Glad to hear Lore thinks there’s still a market for video games that are fun to play.

Randall Burt

Games for which subs still make sense should do what CCP does. Don’t charge me a freaking entry fee and a sub on top. My sub should give me access to every feature and all the content.

http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

You do have to admire CCPs subscription model.

http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Duplicate post.

Jado Cast

I don’t understand why anyone thinks gear progression in PvE or PvP is a good thing. Lot’s of people PvP in other gaming genres without needing a gear grind. Although some have XP so you can unlock perks, load-outs, cosmetic armors, etc., many casual gamers like to jump into a match, run and gun, then jump out. To me, that is truly causal, but still skill based. I think Anet and Trion is going to try to tap into those causal gamers.

Jay

Some people don’t like change… Josh is a major WOW fanboy, which isn’t surprising since he gets paid to be one. I think a lot of people are ready for “skill based” PVP in GW2.
- Old Ben
  
  I wouldn’t call him a fanboy. I think he’s somewhat addicted to the gear treadmill (he keeps saying “I don’t care about X as long as I’m getting new gear”), and that’s reinforced by the fact that part of his income depends on it, but he’s not constantly singing WoW praises (on the contrary). He knows that playing WoW nowadays feels more like a job than fun, but in his case it _is_ a job (with tangible rewards), so he has valid reasons to stick with it.
  - Jay
    
    Have you seen his live stream? I don’t base my statement off one show… So yeah, I stand by what I said.
http://www.facebook.com/richtcarroll Rich Carroll

I totally agree, I mean i know its not an MMORPG but look at Call of Duty so many people play that game on an even type playing field just to get Gold Guns at the end. GW2 is doing the same thing and I defiantly will be PVPing for cosmetic items. Skill over gear progression is always better. Ive always hated playing in a PVP match where everyone has better gear and even though people are more skilled they lose because these people do insane damage or wont die. No one wants to jump into a game and be owned by someone just because he/she has no life and plays the game the first day it comes out and gets all the best gear. I totally disagree with pokket saying that people want grinding for gear, the small amount of people that want grinding for gear want it because they have no skill and getting that gear makes it look like they actually have some skill. GW2 PVP will be amazing cant wait to see what its like in months to come.

http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano

Pokket is back! I hope she comes back more ! Good show everyone, stay nasty

H S

I couldnt watch it because of her being on. So I guess is I hope your hope doesn’t come true.
- http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano
  
  Hey, I don’t necessarily agree with her all the time, but she’s fun to have around.
  - ArsenicSundae
    
    Mike B is fun to have around AND he knows his shit. Pokket brings a pretty face to the table and little else.
    - Nut Bunnie
      
      I’d like to disagree but can’t.
    - Jay
      
      lawl
    - http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano
      
      Well, of course Mike B is the man. I wasn’t trying to imply replacing anyone.
  - Jay
    
    Is it because she haz boobz? Let’s be honest…
    
    Cmon, let’s be honest.
    - http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano
      
      well, I’d be lying if I said they didn’t add to the fun haha
- http://twitter.com/GeekCream Koolaid Gospel
  
  Could not watch but could reply. It’s a miracle.
  - H S
    
    the two are somehow mutually exclusive in your mind? ouch that must hurt.
Diequex

I’d like to have her on more too, you’re not alone [: The majority of her arguments I didn’t agree with either, but I kind of like that. Makes it more worth discussing/commenting for the sake of voicing your own opinion.

M O

First: Gear treadmill only appeals to hard core types with lots of time on their hands. The entire PvP board in Rift leans more toward being happy about the equalization. Of course, there is the qq about “I had to do it, so should everyone else!”, but that is just someone who wants to sit there and not really play.

I am going to be interested in how they drop 1.10 on the PvE shards. I like the way TSW handles their rivalries – greater bad guy means we work together. It just makes sense for Rift as well. It would be nice to have someone who actually plays Rift commenting on what is coming. I know that not everyone can play every game, though. And, myself, I’m on a bit of a gaming hiatus. I log on for Rift and TSW and can’t say I’m excited about GW2 at all as I feel my gaming needs are being met by those two MMOs. (Of course, the occasional PoPCap Game and Little Big Planet Fix as well!)

I have to say, that it is obvious Trion is doing the analysis to figure out what their base wants. I know the main reason I couldn’t get people into PvP was they were getting facerolled. That is NO FUN. Whenever they would introduce “matched” tournies or the like, people were all over doing the PvP. I’m very interested in where it is going to go from here.

Jay

LOL Gary couldn’t even say, “I’m looking forward to MoP.” with a straight face.

Gary “Griefer” Gannon… 3G is at it again. =)

http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Really, how can he. Last I remember Gary saying, he doesn’t have a WoW character past level 50. That’s why I recommended he try the free-to-play route for WoW.

Got to watch that GG, I don’t think he got any max level MMO characters on any MMO. Got my fingers crossed that he will max out his TSW character and get his GW2 character past level 30.
- Jay
  
  Believe it or not… A lot of players are like him. Do their opinions not count?
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Really? A lot of players are like GG and saying they are looking forward to Mist of Pandaria coming out, but don’t really mean it.
    - Jay
      
      Lol maybe… I meant there’s a lot of people who try MMOs but don’t have enough time to have max level characters doing “endgame” content.
      
      All I’m saying is that he has a right to his opinion, just like everyone else.
      
      You love WOW, he doesn’t. Neither of you is wrong for that…
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      When MikeB said he was going to stop playing WoW, I can respect that.
      
      When Lore, indicated he was going to stop raiding in WoW, I can respect that. Don’t really respect the statement, “I play WoW for a living.”
      
      When Gary said he didn’t feel the excitement of Mist of Pandaria coming out, I can respect that.
      
      But, GG passive/aggressive “I’m looking forward to Mist of Pandaria coming out.” but not really meaning it, no I don’t respect that.

Fluffenstuffen

OMG I APPROVE OF THE BACKDROP.

jason jacobson

The PvP changes coming to Rift are going to appeal to the masses AND the hardcore PvPers. This is because the hardcore pvp players will know they are better than others, not just more geared, as well as making the fights more challenging. The average PvPer will love this even more because of how it will feel when they first get into it.

Nothing can describe this better than someone jumping back into WoW after not playing for awhile, or just hitting max level on a character; and automatically getting facerolled, regardless of skill, purely because the other guy has better gear. Its no challenge for the geared person when they can 2 shot you (very possible, even seen people get one shot in WoW, without PvP armor), and its obviously no fun for the person that repeatedly gets 2 shot and can do nothing about it but wait until they scrape a few wins together or grind out honor (or equivalent resource) to buy gear so they can compete at all.

This model of skill only PvP, is definitely going to become popular in future games. As for incentives to keep playing PvP, that’s another matter. I believe what GW2 is doing with cosmetic items achievable only by playing PvP is sufficient for most players, as long as they look amazing! In all honesty, who really plays PvP so they have higher numbers on gear? You do it ultimately for fun. What game have you ever played that was fun (for an extended period of time) when you turned on God Mode. Being innately better than someone because of statistical numbers on gear, is the equivalent to God Mode.

Old Ben

> This is because the hardcore pvp players will know
> they are better than others, not just more geared

And some who think of themselves as good at PvP might find exactly the opposite. That’s always the fun part.
- jason jacobson
  
  “It’s pay-to-win with an intermediate currency (time). ”
  Hit the nail on the head right there. That is about 90% of the reason why I quit playing WoW and its vertical scaling clones (SWTOR and such, not to say that I didn’t enjoy the story of SWTOR).
- Jay
  
  I wish more people would understand this statement…
  
  “It’s pay-to-win with an intermediate currency (time).”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Karl-Thysell/601969471 Karl Thysell

I dont totaly agree, a full no gear need atall is abit to big jump for yor evry day player tho have agear progression, but were maby there aint so big difrent between the worst and best gear and therfor fix the faceroll issue but still have some kind of progression
MMO_Doubter

The sad thing is that a LOT of MMO players WANT God Mode. That is why they are willing to do that gear grind.

People who want a level field don’t play MMOs.
- Jay
  
  “People who want a level field don’t play MMOs.”
  
  wait, what?
Draugmahl

Thanks, I don’t have to type all this now lol. PvPing should be enjoyable without needing an end to the means. Rewards should be perks and not goals. In gear based PvP, you endure lopsided beatings until you reach the point where you are dishing out the lopsided beatings. Noobs have a lot of work to do to reach parity, casual players may never reach parity and how they’d ever have any real fun is beyond me. swtor put the nail in that coffin for me, it had like what…3 or 4 tiers of pvp gear in the first 6 weeks? Then they added another? The pvp in the game wasn’t enough fun to sustain that a WoW like grind, let alone triple the grind…

samhainous

I’m going to give xiv 2.0 a shot. I also bought the CE and was in beta and it sucked. I would have been satisfied if ffxiv had been ffxi hi def (maybe less brutal to people with little time to play) but they f’ed up big time. After checking out some of the screens and reading about the systems they’re putting in to modernize the game, I think people that currently play will contact friends that left, if they do enough to make the game worth playing. And if they already bought it once, they get to try it for free anyway. My only issue is I can’t get into my SE account. I put my info in and the screen just refreshes.

saxophone15

I haven’t played FFXIV at all but I might just try it out when 2.0 comes around. I’ve honestly seen a decent amount of hype/optimism for the relaunch. If anyone is at all interested in 2.0 and want to see gameplay right away, there is a leaked video of gameplay if you look around for it. Given all the work they seem to be putting into this, I think the game is worth another look (and maybe some re-reviews).
Jay

I agree completely.

http://www.facebook.com/Willy.Wads.723 Will Wadsworth

I’d say the rift annual pass is kind of a “last hurrah” to see if the game should go ftp or not.

MMO_Doubter

Maybe it is total scam, and they already plan to go F2P midway during that 12 months.

It’s been done before.

Kyan Vermet

you actually can obtain new gear for pvp in gw2 that looks awesome if you collected enough glory …. that’s impact for I guess

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=684860058 Min Hsin Waitforit Shiek

Gw2 is B2p, Firefall is F2p, Neverwinter Online is F2p, Swtor is gonna be F2P, a new F2P sand box mmo called project: theralon which has been under dev for only 2 months is powered by CryEngine3. subs based models are a thing of the past dunno if The Elder Scrolls online is gonna be F2p tho.

http://twitter.com/Hawkn93 Austin Carlin

I’m hoping TES:O doesn’t assume a massive fanbase will insure steady subs, just like SWTOR did.
MMO_Doubter

F2P is a flash in the pan.

There are plenty of people who don’t like cash shop games.
- Jay
  
  There are plenty of people who don’t like subscription games.
- Jado Cast
  
  Flash in the pan? Yeah, because League of Legends is just doing terrible. And DOTA 2 isn’t highly anticipated. /sarcasim
  
  MMORPG’s can do the same, although GW2 is B2P, there are plenty of companies that will follow their example, wait and see.
  
  IMO, the Sub model will be over in the next two years, except maybe WoW.

tommythepower

Just because i game is F2P doesnt mean i will ever try it, if i dont like the IP of the game no chance, thats why i play SWTOR no matter what and STO before that, enjoy sci fi.

http://www.facebook.com/jinchurikii Luis Garcia

rift: storm legion = wow: burning crusade

http://www.facebook.com/people/Filip-Buhov/1379207683 Filip Buhov

nono , let’s go back a step wow
≠ rift . When rift becomes the leading mmo for the last 6-7 years , then we talk
- Old Ben
  
  So, in your opinion, it’s pointless to talk about any kind of food that doesn’t sell as much as Big Macs…?
  - Jay
    
    That’s why Apple, COD, and McDonald’s are the “best”!
    
    There is no discussion, so don’t try to prove me wrong.
    
    /trollface
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Whoa, Rift has a long way to go before it can even think about being compared to World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Even five years later, many players consider TBC the greatest MMO expansion of all time. Many, many WoW players consider that the pinnacle of their gameplay within WoW.

Storm Legion has 7 new dungeons and 3 new raids, sorry, I know the TBC and Storm Legion is no Burning Crusades.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  I agree with WoW fanboy. On THIS point.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Case/100003772398650 Justin Case

Pokket has no idea what she’s talking about,where the hell is Mike B?

Jay

Lawl, I’ll cosign this 1000 times.
testguy111

she looks great but that’s it

http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Case/100003772398650 Justin Case

“gear progression is better for casual gamers” WHAT?where the hell did they get this clueless pokket?

http://profile.yahoo.com/RUW5EK6C6X55D7E4UFBVTVE3CE DakotaH

Yeah, I couldn’t help but drop my jaw a bit when she said that. In TOR I loved pvp 1-49 and I was pretty into it, but when I hit fifty, I kept getting face rolled because of the gear gap. I didn’t feel like grinding gear just to be competitive, so I unsubbed. This is coming from someone who LOVES pvp: no way a casual gamer would gear grind. I’m not even a GW2 fanboy and I can’t let this go.

Pokketsmisinformed/10
http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

It depends on how you look at it.

1) It’s going to be a slow crawl but eventually they should have better gear than some of the other people who are just starting out. They can feel like they’ve improved without actually improving. They can stomp the “newbies” just because they have been playing longer.

2) If they lose a fight they can simply blame their inferior gear rather than inferior skill.

This would also mean the person is taking credit for their wins when it’s really the gear that is winning and blaming the gear for loses when it’s really their lack of skill.

I guess it’s not so much ‘better for casual’ as ‘better for really horrible people’
- Old Ben
  
  > I guess it’s not so much ‘better for casual’ as ‘better for really horrible people’
  
  With free time. Exactly.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Filip-Buhov/1379207683 Filip Buhov

Worldofgrindcraft , Rift:Despair , Laggingside 2, Final what the hell is this and more .. good show trough

http://twitter.com/QSatu QSatu

I hope FF XIV will be more than mix of FF XI and WoW. I don’t want to do endless quest grind with raid centric end game.

http://www.facebook.com/inkogni.alex Inkogni Alex

DAMN YOU GANNONG, MAKE IT STOP. i cant stop laughing

testguy111

time has NOTHING to do with the whole gear grind vs normalized gear.

even if you only have a few hours a week, you can quickly approach the level of someone who is really good.
you can get good enough to have fun.

with gear grind, you might win a few matches if you have gear, but it’ll be randomized due to gear being the main factor.

overall, you’ll enjoy skill based wins a heck of a lot more than gear based ones.

the argument that gear based systems are good for casuals can only come from someone who doesn’t play pvp for fun, or has not thought it through

http://twitter.com/Hawkn93 Austin Carlin

I’m happy with cosmetic upgrades. I hate beating people with gear. I love to rub in someone’s face that I beat them with skill, and my badass gear can show off that I’ve done well in ranked. If you need gear to win in PvP, you don’t belong there in the first place.

Also, Pokket, while in possession of boobs, is still not worth having on the show. (sorry, but she just feels like a “booth babe”)

Maybe I just take PvP “extreme hardcore serious”. So what? People still play CoD and Halo don’t they? The only thing you get is cosmetic upgrades, and people are willing to pay subs for Elite.

Or maybe the solution is free to play (with a cosmetic cash shop), and not just relying on clueless gamers falling for a skinner box.

Time to sleep, sorry for the 5am, no sleep rant.

Old Ben

> Maybe I just take PvP “extreme hardcore serious”.

Being against gear-based PvP has nothing to do with being “hardcore” and everything to do with actually enjoying the _gameplay_ (as opposed to just liking to win, even if that is achieved through a stat advantage).

The majority of online games is PvP-only and doesn’t have any long-term “powering up” through gear. CoD, CSS, TF2, etc.

http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm

POKKET IS BACK !!! *Caps Intended.

Jay

Are you using caps out of fear and dismay?

Dixhallpike

/sigh I really dont agree with Pokket and I never have. She really represent the far end of the spektrum than me. She predicted about a year ago that swtor will succeed and she would rather play that then GW2.

Josh Rosenvelt

Well I can’t understand how anyone stands out in wow anymore, everyone looks the same. Burning crusade was the last time peeps could really stand out from the crowd.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Tj-Vossos/647768691 Tj Vossos

the bringing of the factions together was spoken about months ago

MMO_Doubter

There definitely are players who want to play PvP on a level field, but there are a lot more who want to faceroll people – even if it because of a gear advantage.

I never saw a BIG outcry against Heirloom gear in WoW PvP. Despite it unbalancing PvP terribly.

Jay

Where did you find these statistics? I would think (I don’t have official numbers) that most people would want fair PVP. I could be wrong…
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Years of experience playing PvP in MMOs, and a knowledge of human nature.
  - Jay
    
    You mean like pretty much everyone else on this site… Stating your personal perspective as factual information isn’t really good practice.
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      No, not like everyone else. I am much smarter than most of them.
      
      YOU are the one who mentioned statistics, not I. I am not going to include “IMO” in every post.
      
      Feel free to include links and footnotes in your posts.
    - Jay
      
      “I am much smarter than most of them.” – Got proof for this too? lol
      
      I have np backing up my statements with links, but when I state opinions, I usually say: “I think”, “I feel”, “IMO”, or “From what I’ve seen”… It would be arrogant to post my opinions as facts.
      
      Oh, and occasionally I make a ridiculous comment followed /trollface or something similar.
      
      It’s NBD, Roger… Speak freely.

MMO_Doubter

Big name MMOs are not going to pass on the big cash score that a box price gives.

Even if they have a plan in mind for going freemium.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1018077056 Rolando Rangel

There are tons more incentives in skill based pvp aside from cosmetics, “esports” allow Competitive “tangible” rewards which are more desirable and easier to manage.

MMO_Doubter

What are they?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Tommy-OCallaghan/100002977065964 Tommy O’Callaghan

ok im gonna say it she looks gorgous!

Josh Rosenvelt

GW2 and Planetside 2 are the two games I will be playing a lot in the future.

http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

Ugh!! you guys are making me want to resub Rift, but with GW2 and MoP around the corner I know it’ll be a waste.. I miss Rift if only it was f2p.

nathan werner

Less Pokket please

http://profile.yahoo.com/KMMYFK5MJ2APHGWIL2MEKPH3AM the_founder

hah at these Pokket haters. she gave no less valuable opinion than any other gamebreaker guest in the past. her shows always try to be more informative than entertaining. she has tits and she looks like every chick in high school that laughed at you… but Pokket is a gamer too and you still could never get close to her and now shes staring at you, invading the Nerddom you hold so dear… that must doubly piss you off huh. threatened? vagina dentata.

if she didnt look like she does, if you just simply disagreed with her opinions, you wouldnt take the time to post dull comments like “less pokket please”. dullard. im a geek too but youre the worst kind. the scared kind
- Rifat Ansary
  
  Did you agree with her “opinions”? Or are you replying to be “the white knight” of the net.
  
  Are you telling me that her “opinions” didn’t feel dull, and as clichéd as something IGN would produce?
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
  
  @the_founder Maybe people want less Pokket because they feel like she has nothing of substance to say and YOU’RE defending her because you find her attractive. See how easy it is to put blame on her looks? We don’t like her opinions because they are uninformed. She’s not in touch with competitive gamers, causual gamers or any other type of gamer for that matter. Read these boards and you’ll see that just about everyone is disagreeing with what she stated.
- Jay
  
  That’s a whole lot of words in response to his 3 words… Sounds like you’re the one catching feelings here. You do realize she’s not going to be your girlfriend just because you defend her in a comments section, right?
  
  Take it down a notch…
  
  I think she’s okay, of course I prefer Mike B, but I think people have more of a problem with what she says than how she looks.

http://www.facebook.com/MissnL1nK Thomas Jordan

She is gorgous… but I don’t agree on most of what she says unfortunitely. Still nice to have a different viewpoint there than we are used to.

http://twitter.com/chumppi Riku Marttinen

Why the change of the video space provider? The videos look like shit and sound like shit nowadays.

http://twitter.com/AmythieI Kamil

Pokket looks so much better in “normal” hair.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz

She really does.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz

It will be a real day/night cycle in SWTOR before I agree with Pokket in anything she says. It’s like she’s a complete opposite, I can’t even find myself learning from her opinions. I don’t agree with everything the normal hosts say but at least I learn from it. I don’t know, I don’t want to be negative about her, but I just really don’t know how she reaches her conclusions.

Jasongvh

Well she was correct regarding the wow annual pass that her friends felt it wasn’t worth it and she said she didn’t have time to play SWTOR anymore. The part that didn’t make sense is when she said she likes to show off her gear. Showing off gear died in burning crusade, everyone in wow pretty much looks the same if they not hiding behind transmorg…

In all seriousness I found her alright and her thoughts refreshing. Be cool to have all 4 of them on the show.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
  
  My issues with her go back to her time in the previous GB show she was on. She might have changed and not EVERYTHING she said is wrong (I agree with you there), but I felt like she just wasn’t useful as a host. Jasmine, Q and Elizabeth all have so much more to say and so much more substance. I feel like Pokket’s opinions just never have any substance to back them up like other hosts do. They have other individuals that I feel are much more informed and informative that could have filled Mike’s spot.
http://profile.yahoo.com/KMMYFK5MJ2APHGWIL2MEKPH3AM the_founder

lol she offers just as much “substance” as the other commentators, who
if you havent noticed – giggle more than she does. i didnt defend her
because of her looks.. i pointed out that you scared nerdlings bash her
because of her looks. people like you find it so easy to just say “she
is a complete moron and i dont agree with anything she says!!” “omg
where does she get all these dumb conclusions from?!?” “i’m sooo much
more thoughtful than her! look at all the informative substantive
comments that i give the game community! yet she gets all the fame!!”

pssh check yourself. youre transparent. so what exactly is sooo shocking about “her conclusions”?
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
  
  Where did you get any of that information? You made a lot of ridiculous assumptions about a few words. You have some serious problems. You mad bro?
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/KMMYFK5MJ2APHGWIL2MEKPH3AM the_founder
    
    naw, not mad. amused.
    
    the burden is on you and the other Pokket haters… to provide some reason to your “her opinions are too dumb for me to learn anything from” statements… thats what you wrote. or am i assuming again? or dont you even read what ur moron hands are typing?
    
    cuz guess what… she makes similar comments that other regular guests make and in many cases her opinions match theirs, but i dont see you haters calling them “too unreasonable to learn from”. only difference is she is a girl, a LIVE girl, with a pretty face.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
      
      I have no problem debating or discussing, but your incessant need to insult, ignore what was written, and assume, is not conducive to a proper conversation. At this point you’re irrationally hostile without any reason and I’m not going to feed into whatever it is you have going on.
- Justin Bania
  
  Wow… feel better now?
Justin Bania

I thought she was on point when it comes to publishing companies having dreams that are grandiose. She expressed how she came up with the hypothesis and its effects on games that have launched.

The same can be said about her stance on why games haven’t switched to the normalized pvp system as well.

I don’t necessarily agree with all of her opinions but I do think she engaged in debate with the other hosts while also being able to adjust her opinions based on what they offered up as well.

http://twitter.com/AmythieI Kamil

Audio goes fubar at the 45 minute mark.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=638293439 Felix Klaar

Sound disapears after 44:47 :S

http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan

You can have people trying without going F2P, it just needs a trial period. Although that usually doesn’t seem to become available until some time after launch. Maybe what is necessary is a free trial right out of the gate.

http://twitter.com/NerdnGeekInc Raven Frosth

ok after the secret world and begining of the mop/gw2 debacle your audio went silent on the show, that was recorded on friday aug 17. Check you Show the last part of the show is NO AUDIO. Bad Gary

http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

hmm, wonder if the aliens came in and removed some of the audio after posting.

http://twitter.com/GrantElicious Grant Butler

Don’t see why Metacritic gets hate, just a site you go to so you can see all the reviews in one place. So why does the site get hate? Just don’t go there if you don’t want other peoples opinions and shut up.

Also haven’t you noticed the games industry is the only one where a 70 is bad? This industry only uses a 7 – 10 scale and not the full 1 – 10 scale. The Dark Knight Rises has a Metacritic rating of 78.. yet view games in this industry and suddenly that is bad.

I think the games industry is the one that needs to grow up, sites like metacritic are not to blame.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz

I agree, the numbering system sucks. It’s made even worse when games are usually rated 1/7-10. It’s crazy, they came up with the scale and don’t use it properly.

Tyler Woidan

Pokket did a fine job. They all did a fine job. TWIMMO is probably the hardest show for a guest host to do as honestly not many people play a bunch of MMO’s at a time. MMO’s are designed to be time sponges, and to try and pretend you know everything about all of them making headlines in a week would be a big mistake. It would be hard to find any guest host in the media community that actively plays and follows the seven+ MMO’s mentioned one week’s episode. So with that said, it’s smart to take the overall broad approach of generalizing an MMO against the business as a whole when new information about new or old games comes out, while breezing through the news of the week.

Gary’s idea of “Today In MMO” M-Th would be a great time to bring in specialized guests for the specific games that are making headlines each day. But 100% on the Friday TWIMMO recap should be expected to have a much more broad feel where a number of guests who have a feel for the MMO-scape can fill the role. There’s a lot of guests that present themselves really well in the GBTV community (which is why it thrives and is very entertaining each week). But none of them play WoW, GW2, SWToR, RIFT, Aion, LotRO, AoC, FFXIV, FFXI, TSW, EVE, Warhammer, EQ, DCUO, etc. every week. I’m willing to wager that no one watching does either. To expect them to is asking a little much. And to expect them to skip a headline because they don’t play the game is every bit as silly.

tl;dr Hosting isn’t easy. Hosting a specialized show is much easier than hosting TWIMMO. Be easy on the TWIMMO hosts as they do quite well with a broad topic.

http://twitter.com/GrantElicious Grant Butler

So wish we could talk about Planetside 2 beta, all I will say is I have a lot of friends in the beta and all have uninstalled lol. I so hope SOE are planning for a long beta until next year and don’t do the usual of rushing to launch and releasing a pile of shit like all their games.

-EQ was a broken mess at launch, by the time it was fixed they ruined it with PoP and Luclin.
-EQ2 was a rushed broken mess, I remember being in beta and they were like “releasing in 2 weeks” and everyone was raging over all the missing stuff.
-SWG broken mess at launch, known as the biggest failures ever after SWTOR and LOTRO etc.
- PS again just rushed it to launch, given little development time because they were focusing so much on EQ2 and SWG so they took most of Planetside’s developers and reduced the budget.
- DCUO again a rushed broken mess with no content and a broken UI.

I am not convinced they’ve learnt and if Planetside 2 ends up releasing this year then no SOE haven’t.

http://twitter.com/GrantElicious Grant Butler

Lets be honest though the MMO genre is bad, I don’t know a single person who has liked another MMO since WoW launched in 2004/2005 for the EU. Seriously all my friends either hate the MMO genre because it’s so dumbed down these days… I’m in that group, the last MMO I liked was 2005, I haven’t played one for more than a couple weeks in my free trial since. My other friends are all burnt out WoW players who cannot find anything better so they’ve either given up gaming or are playing Dayz now.

I need something where I can lose stuff when I die, without that there is no tension to death. When I used to play EVE Online before CCP ruined it by ignoring the space game for years focusing on Dust and the station shit. My heart used to pound so much I’d be having a heart attack every time I PVP’d, I fucking loved it!

Now in MMOs you just respawn and fight again : There is no risk vs reward, when I kill someone I want to know they’re thinking about quitting the game and crying to their lonely self. Why Dayz is so good, every time you see a player you’re shitting yourself, your hearts pumping and yet you’re loving it!

Old Ben

I hear the army is always looking for more people. Their implementation of perma-death is absolutely perfect.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  I bet they would love to give their soldiers the ability to respawn. The soldiers would probably love it even more.

Mark Taggart

yea lost audio last 1/2 of video

DoctorOverlord

Good podcast up until the sound died (Maybe should just chop it at that point and post a ‘Sorry Technical Difficulties’ though I suppose lip-readers could watch it)

Welcome back Pocket,nice seeing you on the show again! TWIMMO always gets good guests.

I agree that the best way to personally judge a game prior to buying is to watch the gameplay, that provides really useful information. But reading about the game with reviews is still helpful by giving you details. You need a combination of information to try to judge a game without playing it yourself. Metacritic should just be one tool not the only one (I personally never check it myself unless there’s a news article about it).

Elusive Fox

I wanted to weigh in on the rift pvp thing – one thing that has generally kept me out of most pvp in mmos recently is how much of an impact gear makes in pvp… there is nothing worse than stepping away from the game for a month or two and coming back and not being able to step into pvp at all because i need to spend 2-3 weeks getting the right gear. I love gear progression but i think it should be left to pve stuff and left out of pvp completely…

MMO_Doubter

I love progression, but I agree that it has no place in PvP. WHY should better players get better gear? Surely, better players need gear LESS, no? Same deal with skills/spells.

Frankly, the standard of farming one dungeon until you have the gear you need for the next is not appealing to me, either. As soon as I have beaten a dungeon, I start to lose interest. ‘Farm status’ is boring as hell.

MMORPGs need STORY progression, and I do NOT mean individual story. I mean world/server story progression. Just like how accomplishing one major goal (often a boss kill) would open a new area, or a new means or travel. No reason a server story can’t be written that will last a few years – allowing time to write more story – or have a reset.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  It is a concern I have about GW2. Once your guild completes the story in GW2, it is unlikely you can get them to go back. I spoke to some original GW players, who said that was a major reason for them leaving Guild Wars.
  - MMO_Doubter
    
    Yeah. It is hard to do it right. Something like WoW’s AQ gate opening (but more involved and diverse) is what I am looking for.
    
    MMOs are designed to exploit repetition and grind. It is a crutch they rely upon.
    
    I do think the ultimate salvation of new content in MMOs will be UGC. Content designed by players.
  - Old Ben
    
    You can’t get me to go back after doing a single chapter. In fact, you can’t even get me to go forward.
    
    But I don’t play MMOs for the single-player story anyway.
Josh Rosenvelt

Well you should definitely get your hands on GW2 then.

Saboteur Sweden

Nice to see a new face and hear other opinions Pokket. I was thinking about the gear normalization. I’m not super hardcore PvP but that is the main thing I do in MMOs. I don’t have as much time to play anymore but i would not consider myself a casual in terms of knowledge regarding PvP.

I would have to dissagree with the thought of geardependent PvP being better for new players, in fact I think it’s the opposite. If you’re new and try PvP with bad gear the first impression would probably be devastating. Geared players would stomp the poor new guy who would feel useless and maybe not want to try that again. Without geardependence he/she might still loose but not as fast and not as painfully. You can start working on your skills (fun, imo) without having to grind for gear (not fun, imo).

I was impressed with the bolster mechanic in SWTOR but when i got up to max level I thought “oh no, not this geargrind again” and went back to WOW where i allready had gear…

Josh Rosenvelt

The other problem with SWTOR is that it copied the same failed endgame wow has now, the same endgame that is costing wow subs. Where they make a easy mode to see all the content. They should of given us more content with linear progress like burning crusade. Watch how players feel about LFR by the end of MoP. I predict a lot more sub losses for wow because the game loses respect everytime the content gets dumbed down.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  “should HAVE” not “should of”
  
  but anyway…I agree that Blizzard nerfing content to allow more people to ‘experience’ it sucked. I only ever raided seriously in Karazhan, so I missed a lot of end game content, but it doesn’t mean anything if you had it handed to you.
  
  They also should have given dungeons max level rating to prevent ‘run-throughs’, which totally kill any sense of accomplishment.
  
  Yeah, the combination of nerfed content and dumbed-down game play (hunters don’t even need to make sure they have ammo, anymore) really shows WoW to be a pale shadow of what it once was.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Karazhan do have good memories around that raid. But, Karazhan was easy mode raiding in TBC. Karazhan, good times, Moroes he was such a guild killer, if your guild couldn’t get through Moroes or later Curator, your raiding guild didn’t have much of a chance of staying together.
    
    Personally, I’m hoping challenge mode is a big hit in Mist of Pandaria. Sounds like there is a player base that would be interested in run some older content in challenge mode. Wonder if Blizzard could do 2, 3, 5 or 10 man versions of older content challenge modes and publish the leader boards?
    
    Shouldn’t be too hard, in the Mist of Pandria beta Blizzard did have a debuff that normalized gear. My Resto Druids ilevel even went down a couple of points when running standard dungeons. My character lost 5k of health and mana when running the standard dungeons.
    
    Any MMOs out there that still have ammunition? My GW2 Engineer has unlimited ammo and turrets. Heck my Charr Elementalist doen’t even use mana, I can auto-fire fireballs at a gate in GW2 WvW, go to the bathroom and when I return my character is still shooting at that damn gate. (Yeah, I know, you should use siege engines on gates. But this was the first BWE.)
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      Yeah, we busted our butts on Moroes. no L70 priests and his adds were undead, so we were down to using three hunters for CC.
      
      Curator went much quicker for us. The other boss who gave us a lot of trouble was the giant chick with all the AOE.
      
      A lot of guildies got frustrated and left, but I loved it, and it would not have been the same walking through it with strangers. We really were kind of like family back then.
    - Old Ben
      
      > Karazhan was easy mode raiding in TBC
      
      When a level 68 raid takes 20 days to be cleared by level 70 players, you know that “easy mode” meant something a bit different back then.

http://www.facebook.com/BetKiss Tumas Germanavičius

i believe that when wow will do its all number remaking and geer rescaling they will make all the gear from 60 to 100 or whatever will be barely better or even the same goodness. i hope… i wish…

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R35J5EUERGS3E6JRIQMBCDTRRY Nathan I

I can’t believe Pokket said that casuals will like gear progression more. TF2 would like to speak to you.

I know plenty of casual gamers and they absolutely HATE gear progression based games because they know even before the match starts that they will get one-shotted simply due to the gear difference. When it comes to skill based games, they’re a lot more willing to give it a try because they figured they might be able to win if they get lucky.

Old Ben

That last element (luck, randomness) is indeed a “casual-oriented” feature. TF2 is a lot more random than TFC, for example, and I’m pretty sure that was deliberate. It’s a bit annoying for skilled players (because they can get killed almost instantly by someone else’s lucky shot), but it gives new players an incentive to stick with the game. And, in the long run, skilled players will still float to the top. It’ll just be 90-10 instead of 100-0.

http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Just read this quote from the GW2 sites,

”4. The end-game is not 100% completed, there is much work to do, but ANET is not expecting the the end-game to be reachable quickly, they are now focused on the release, if all goes well they will move on to work at 100% in the endgame (DiabloIII nostalgia??).”

Really? I’m suspecting there will be a small, but significant base of 80s by the end of the headstart. Wonder how many players will hit the unfinished wall by the release date? Will the fan boys really be that forgiving if GW2 release ends up being the actual beta test.

MMO_Doubter

As I have said about MMOs in general: if you don’t see end game before release – it is garbage.

Damn these companies for doing this time after time.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  I had planned on working on my Asura Warrior (I want to work on my Engineer, but the warrior is a beast at 80) through the headstart until WoW patch was up on Tuesday. Figured it was going to be a hardcore GW2 long weekend. Wanted to make sure I was ready when the guild was ready for Orr.
  - MMO_Doubter
    
    I am curious about something – what day of the week will GW2 be having downtime?
    - Jado Cast
      
      No down time, if you are referring to updates, fixes, patches, and maintenance. They plan to do the same as GW, which is let you know the patch has been implemented with an in-game announcement and ask you to log off and back in to install the update. I think in all the years I played GW, the servers went down maybe 4 times total.
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      Impressive.
    - Old Ben
      
      Not really. Any web server / database server has yearly downtime measured in minutes.
      
      It’s only WoW players that think it’s normal to see servers go down for several hours every week.
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      I’ve worked with sevral systems that require hours (sadly sometime an entire weekend) of downtime to maintain and update the system.
    - Old Ben
      
      Thanks for sharing that incredibly interesting episode of your life.
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      I’ve always been impressed with Arenanet up time on their servers, just demontrates a really well designed architecture. Looking forward to them keeping that going.
      
      For me, I’m focusing on my Ausra Warrior the entire weekend, plan on only playing GW2 until Tuesday. Sadly, I can’t promise maintaining Arenanet server status for my personal status.
    - Jado Cast
      
      Wish I could play my Thief all weekend but Anet launched the busiest time of the year for me a work. Sucks for me, Have fun with that Warrior!
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      I do hope they keep the no downtime server updates going, that is one of the things that most impress me of Arenanet.
- Old Ben
  
  Yeah, I often say that about movies, too. If they don’t show you the entire movie before the start of the movie, it’s garbage.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Hmmm, several movies have beta tested the entire movie and changed the ending based on end-user feedback.
    - Old Ben
      
      Yeah, I hear that’s how Orson Welles always worked.
JDGend

And after that was posted onto Guru, Colin posted this in the thread ”Just want to jump on this before it gets out of hand. Pretty much nothing in this post is factually correct, I’m not sure where this information came from but flat out: it’s misinformed at best and a lot of it totally false.

We’ll absolutely have a GM team that helps support the game at live, the rest of it is partially incorrect information or just plain wrong. You’ll start seeing information about our post-ship plans shortly (as early as today on some press sites) but it’ll come from developers specifically.”-Colin
Jant0n

“Just want to jump on this before it gets out of hand. Pretty much nothing in this post is factually correct, I’m not sure where this information came from but flat out: it’s misinformed at best and a lot of it totally false.
We’ll absolutely have a GM team that helps support the game at live, the rest of it is partially incorrect information or just plain wrong. You’ll start seeing information about our post-ship plans shortly (as early as today on some press sites) but it’ll come from developers specifically.
-Colin”
That is a quote from Colin Johanson in response to the post you quoted. You can read it on GW2 guru (there is a link in the thread on the GBTV forums as well.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Glad to see an official response from Arenanet. Let’s see what their official response is today or tomorrow.
  
  I just want to know if Orr will be available on Tuesday, Aug 28th.
  - Jant0n
    
    Nobody but the devs can knows what is in the game or not and considering your post above
    “Of course Arenanet is going to comment. Probably someone talked to much and now they have to do damage control. Last thing they want is a big stink about endgame before next Tuesdays launch.”
    I doubt you would believe what they said either way.
    The lead on the development team came out and said that “I’m not sure where this information came from but flat out: it’s misinformed at best and a lot of it totally false.” leading me to believe that the endgame will be in an appropriate state come launch.
  - Old Ben
    
    > Let’s see what their official response is today or tomorrow.
    
    So you think Arena Net pays its employees to give “official responses” to random forum posts made by completely unknown people…?
Old Ben

Of course the “endgame” isn’t “100% completed”. That could only happen if the game was never going to get new content after release.

I doubt the Asura gates “under construction” at Lion’s Arch will be activated within the next 6 months, for example.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  What a bullshit, fanboy denial response THAT is.
  
  One I have heard used for EVERY MMO I have followed in the last five years.
  
  You know damned well they are not talking about ‘future development’.
  - Old Ben
    
    So they’re talking about “past development” that isn’t “100% completed”…? That’s some voodoo interpretation of the concept of time there…
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      What the heck are you talking about, Arenanet said, ”The end-game is not 100% completed.”
    - Old Ben
      
      Where by “Arena Net” you mean some guy in a Portuguese (or possibly Brazilian) website forum, who has absolutely no connection to Arena Net…?
      
      You’re slowly turning into Sharuko…
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      You’re sounding like Shaurko now, trying to defend TERA.
      
      I’m having fun playing GW2, when I stop playing GW2, I’ll stop posting about GW2. Unlike many posters on the Gamebreaker site about their former games.
      
      I was quoting from a GuildWars2guru tweet and GuildWars2guru make a big deal about going to Gamescon. I did not go digging for this page, GuildWars2guru sent out the tweet.
      
      Of course Arenanet is going to comment. Probably someone talked to much and now they have to do damage control. Last thing they want is a big stink about endgame before next Tuesdays launch. The truth comes out on Friday. (whenever the headstart begins.) If you can’t zone into Orr by Tuesday, then the tweet is correct. End game was not finished by launch.
      
      “Just want to jump on this before it gets out of hand. Pretty much nothing in this post is factually correct, I’m not sure where this information came from but flat out: it’s misinformed at best and a lot of it totally false.We’ll absolutely have a GM team that helps support the game at live, the rest of it is partially incorrect information or just plain wrong. You’ll start seeing information about our post-ship plans shortly (as early as today on some press sites) but it’ll come from developers specifically.See you in game on Thursday!-Colin”
    - Old Ben
      
      > I was quoting from
      > a GuildWars2guru tweet
      
      You propagated a translation of a forum post made by someone who has no connection to Arena Net and presented it as “Arena Net said the end-game is not 100% completed”.
      
      In fact, you continued to repeat that after three people told you that Colin Johanson (who does have an itsy bitsy connection to Arena Net) had said that “pretty much nothing in this post is factually correct”.
      
      > Probably someone talked to much
      
      Yes, “someone” definitely did.
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      You get your check yet from Arenanet. My orginal post mention a GW2 site, NOT Arenanet and I posted the quote from the site.
    - Old Ben
      
      Scratch “slowly” from my post above. The transformation is complete.
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      Yes Sharuko, (you are the one that started the whole Sharuko comments)
      
      My second quote was atributed to Colin Johanson, Lead Content Developer.
    - Saboteur Sweden
      
      You loose
    - Jant0n
      
      What you quoted was a post translated from Portuguese to English using google translator. It is hardly a reliable source of information. Whatever the original comment was it was more than likely lost in translation.
    - Old Ben
      
      That’s not even the issue; the translation could be absolutely flawless.
      
      The issue is that this was a completely unattributed forum post, it has no connection to anyone at Arena Net or any website affiliated with Arena Net; it’s not even signed with a real name.
      
      It’s like me posting “MoP won’t have any pandas, they’ve been replaced with ponies”, and then someone reposting that and attributing it to Blizzard.
    - Jant0n
      
      Thank you, I thought I mentioned that in this post for some reason.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Don’t be that guy. They are clearly talking about Orr (I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that the zones leading to Orr are ready.) They have already said Orr will not have hearts and will consist of web Dynamic Events. For Arenanet to publicly state it’s not ready and will compete the development once they finish launch is very distressing.
  
  I was very impressed with their description of Orr, sounded very complex and would be a fun large scale invasion. Starting to sound like the playerbase will be large scale beta test for the level 80 content.
  - Old Ben
    
    First, Arena Net did not “publicly state it’s not ready”. You quoted a translation of a forum post from a 3rd party website, by someone who has nothing to do with Arena Net and was probably just trying to get more hits.
    
    Second, Colin Johanson posted a message saying “pretty much nothing in this post is factually correct”.
    
    Third, no one (Arena Net or the guy posting in the forum) mentioned Orr, you’re just adding more random misinformation.
    
    Fourth, it’s not just the “endgame” (whatever that means) that isn’t “100% completed”; with the exception of the personal story (which needs to be kept consistent), everything else is likely to be changed after release. That’s how MMORPGs work. In fact, lots of things that _are_ ready will probably be disabled at launch just so they can enable them a month or two later and pretend they’re doing “frequent updates”. That’s how MMORPG companies work.
    
    Fifth, yes, people who rush to level 80 (in fact, anyone who goes into areas above level 35) will effectively be doing the first large-scale beta test of those areas. And I’m sure there will be some bugs. The game is designed as a sandbox, though, and you can level all the way to 80 without even going into those areas, so, regardless of those bugs, your progression won’t be blocked.
    
    Personally, I would have included in the BWEs at least one more dungeon and one high-level (ex. 75-79) area, just to check if the stat / damage scaling was working correctly, but I guess they thought that would give away too much of the story, or that it could give their competition some ideas.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Reach-Ogien/100002761262011 Reach Ogien

Glad to see Pokket back!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660476603 Rob Kellams

Pokket’s back!!!! xD

kyle robinson

Rift SL is going to completely rock the MMO world mark my word. Rift SL is going to blow GW2 out the water especially since its f2p. Maybe only true Pvp heads will just plat GW2 but most will play Rift SL along with Gw2. Don’t get me wrong GW2 looks like a great gome but when compared to rift with the soul system all the new stuff being added like the Harbinger mage soul with the morphing weapons and thats just some stuff they released imagine when Rift SL actually drops. Like i said i’ll play both Gw2 because after i pay my 60$ its free and Rift SL because its just seems like its going to be amazing i just can’t wait….

Keiosin

rift es muy beuno

KEkkoKamen

I wish I was Nichols Keyboard

KEkkoKamen

I Wish i Was Nichols Keyboard

http://www.facebook.com/tehsilva Brian Silva

Is it just me or is the HD audio not soo amazing on this one?

Bobby K

wrong Anet is acctually horong they arent having layoffs.Look at the gw2 official site

http://twitter.com/Xbuster231 Justin

You know gear progression is in GW2 its just not in PVP, and it doesnt belong in pvp, if you want to get better gear and feel stronger that is what PVE is for, PVP is for skill and ive never played a pvp game where i cared more about geting the gear than just killing people for street cred, you want to know why most pve games have failures of a pvp system its because they add the pve gear grind into pvp where it doesnt belong

http://www.facebook.com/astor.teufel Astor Teufel

Normalization of PvP is great, but the biggest problem with WoW and RIFT PvP is that they tend to be more stunned based rather than skill based.

MMO_Doubter

LOL. Quite. It was horrible in WH Online.

Most CC in PvP is just a BAD IDEA.

http://www.facebook.com/lpeace.88 Leo Lamphier

I think blizzards works better. I got the annual pass but If I had to pay it all up front I wouldn’t have been able to get it and I know a lot of people that got it but wouldn’t have been able to do it.

http://www.facebook.com/andymintz Andy Mintz

Trion has said they will not be doing PVP normalization, a few days ago on thier forums

http://www.facebook.com/nick.saylor.39 Nick Saylor

Arena Net is just laying back in their chairs playing GW2 with their players like bosses. They don’t care what Blizzard, and Trion are doing lol. They made their game F2P because they are gamers like us who know what we want. Also don’t even say “They added jewels, omg its pay to win!” You can easily buy them with game money they are not even that expensive.

Down with Pay to Play, all hail Buy to Play.

This Week In MMO 108: World Of Warcraft, RIFT Storm Legion, Planetside 2, Final Fantasy XIV, And More!

The Republic Ep142:
SWTOR On Consoles?

Unicorn Duck Shadow Puppet Ep4:
WildStar For The Holidays?

How To Play:
Affliction Warlock

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Sign in to your account