Paragus Rants

Rants, reviews, and interviews from an MMO veteran and guild leader.

Author: Paragus1

Guild Wars 2: Beta Impressions

Well the time has finally come for Guild Wars 2 to get it's day in the court of MMO players, and over the weekend I got a chance to spend a fair amount of time in the beta weekend event.  The weekend was plagued with some techincal difficulties, but I supposed it is to be expected considering where the game is at in terms of stress testing (or lack there of) and development.  So I want to jump right in and talk about some the ups and downs for me during the event.   I tried to make sure I spent my time equally divided between the PvE and PvP side of the game, so hopefully I can cover both of these adequately.

Let's start with the PvE side of the game.  I ended up rolling a Charr Ranger and pretty much played that exclusively the entire weekend events.   The capital city felt really large, much bigger than the standard theme park MMO city.   I spent a fair amount of time going in and out of that place and derping around inside, but honestly still didn't even see half of the place.  I  found myself constantly looking at the map, which by the way is honestly one of the coolest in-game MMO maps I've seen in terms of the way it looks artistically and zoom functionality.   

When I finally walked outside it was weird not being told where to go.  I just started walking and things started popping up on my screen.   As things popped up I would wander over to see what was going on, help out in some event and collect money and exp.   I absolutely love the fact that there is no kill stealing, I can't stress this enough.   It baffles me that it's taken this long for a major AAA MMO to use this approach.  Since people aren't worried about who has claim to what mob, people are helping each other out, picking each other up off the ground, and while there wasn't an abundance of chatter there seemed to be a shared understanding that if we help each other we can all benefit.  The entire dynamic event system is really the next step in the progression of theme park questing.   Warhammer really tried to do it with the public quests as sort of a minor diversion, Rift took it to the next level by making it a larger part of the experience, and now GW2 really takes it up by making it the primary means of PvE with the complete elimination of a quest log full of chores masked as quests.  I didn't think it was Earth shattering or ground breaking, but it is the next logical step in the evolution of this type of MMO.

Despite throwing away the chore quests of bargin bin games past, I still got the feeling like there was a lot of content on the PvE side of the game.   Aside from wandering around tripping over events, skill points cant be earned through spots marked on the map which gives people a reason to wander off to some hard to reach places.  There is also a personal story quest that I found myself playing a lot more than I thought I would.   These quests are voice acted and do ask the player to make decisions about who to help and whther certain people live or die.   They also seem to be well varied in terms of theme, having me fight in arenas, fend of ambushes, and destroy back line siege equipment to name a few.  Combine this with everything above and the PvE experience feels robust in terms of content, and of course the choice is yours to completely disregard this side of the game since PvP can also be a means of leveling.

On the PvP side of the things, you have a completely different experience.  One option is to queue up for the standard instanced battleground type thing, which personally did not interest me that much.  I played it maybe twice and moved on to WvWvW stuff.  This is where the real meat of the game is at and will need to be to ensure the game has sort of staying power.  If you played DAOC (Or WAR to a lesser degree) you know the type of stuff that goes on out here.   Roaming warbands and keep sieges are pretty much the norm out here.  With 3 servers fighting over the various control points and hotspots, I found it refreshing that 3-sided PvP has made its return.  While roaming with our crew of INQ guys, we had some hilarious moments where we were killing one team, and within eye shot of the battle was the third team kicking down the second team's door.  The entire 3rd party interference factor is great and helps make this the game that Mythic probably wanted Warhammer to be, but dropped the ball.

Another thing here of interest is how accessible siege equipment is right out of the gate.   Instead of forcing players to grind out some trade skill to be able to get their hands on these things, pretty much anyone can access these things right out of the gate and put them together as long as enough supply is present.   Supply is a mechanic that replaces the old days of players lugging around buying piles of wood to build machines and repair doors.  Supply can be picked up from various supply points on the map, which can be fought over and taken in the name of your server.   Once you have it, you can take supply and carry it with you in finite amounts, the good news is that it weighs nothing and takes up no inventory room.   Supply can run out however at these points, and they need to be restocked via a supply caravan.  Considering these caravans can be attacked, it opens up another mechanic of cutting off supply to the enemy team, and this can be done easily with only a handful of people.

During the weekend I took part in a lot of keep battles and saw first hand all sorts of siege weaponry being used by relatively new players.  Catapults, battering rams, pots of oil, cannons, and arrow carts make for some really hectic and frantic combat.  These items really become a necessity to effectively take down doors as they can stand up to a lot of player damage compared to those in previous games.  The map also does a pretty good job of showing you where on the map fighting is going on so you don't waste your time hoping to find action.   The areas are quite large and have a wide variety of terrain, but aside from the central area, the 3 outlining server borderlands are all indentical.   As a gripe, I do wish these areas would be different but I do understand why they went the route that they did.  Another issue is that performance was pretty dodgy for me and I have a pretty powerful system, but with this being beta I am hoping to see them get a better handle on this moving forward.

I can't really talk about all the classes, but I would like to talk for a second about the ranger since it is the one class I played.  I read a lot of talk on the forums about the pet and how it factors into the class.  Issues I had with the pet were probably that it is dead most of the time, especially in PvP, and that there is no health bar on the UI for it.   This means I'm always finding out the pet is dead the hard way since he still walks around even though he has no life left.  That aside, I felt that when the pet was dead I wasn't worthless.  I also like the fact you can collect pets and swap them out on the fly.  I also like the fact I can switch between my bow and my sword pretty quickly, but was facepalmong over the fact that my starting weapon was an axe.   Ranger should start with a bow in my opinion, instead I spent the first hour in the game trying to find one.

The combat is going to take a little getting used to as well.   I keep forgetting that I can dodge, although I am not sure how effective it would be if I did, so I won't judge yet until I get a bit better with the system.  I did notice that other people were able to avoid my rapid fire arrows attack sometimes in part by running certain ways.   This game also let's me fire an arrow straight ahead without any target selected which is kind of interesting.   The combat is not quite TERA, but probably above the standard tab target face rolling once people learn to use the dodge mechanic a bit more effectively.

Overall though the game is worth 60 bucks considering there is no monthly fee.   I figure if you play this game for a month and quit you probably got your money's worth.   Considering the amount of PvE content in the game and the fact you can effectively go right to end game with PvP and stay there, most people should be able to get a least a month out of this if not more.  I might a bit harsher on the game if it was charging a monthly fee, but it isn't.  Guild Wars 2 will not cure cancer, but it's probably the closest thing to DAOC 2.0 (with a lot less crowd control) we are going to get. The fact that it does just about everything the other theme park MMOs can do and does them better without a monthly fee is going to mean serious trouble for other games on the market.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Rant: SWTOR free month for 50's

It amazes me that I still get amazed at some of the happenings that go on in this genre.   I am quite the grizzled old veteran in MMO terms considering all that I've seen and done.   When I heard today that Bioware is giving only people with a level 50 character a free month, frankly I didn't believe it.  So I went and looked on their website and sure enough there it is...

A SPECIAL GIFT FOR OUR LEVEL 50 PLAYERS – 30 DAYS OF PLAY TIME ON US!

As a thanks for being one of our most valued players, every active account with a Level 50 character as of April 12th, 2012 at 12:00PM CDT / 5:00PM GMT, will receive thirty (30) days of game time** in appreciation for your support and loyalty.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, much like the average TOR subscription.  This astounds me for a few reasons.   I know what the TOR fan is already thinking..."Paragus, this is just another promotion!   All MMO's do this sort of thing!"  No, not like this they don't.   Let's take a step back for a minute and think about this.   

First and foremost, this is a giant slap across the face to what is probably a decent chunk of their player base.   Yes, getting to max level in TOR is not a particularly difficult thing to do.  But clearly they think that somehow the guy with a level 50 and the guy who might have several characters in their 40's are not equally valued.   The guy with several level 40's probably has more hours clocked into the game, might have even been playing longer in terms of hours / months subscribed (fees paid), or maybe even invested the extra cash for the CE.  Sorry buddy, since you never really "completed" the game, you don't get anything.  Well that's not true, you get a kick to teeth, but that doesn't really count.

Secondly, doesn't this pretty much imply that they are admiting something the rest of us already knew? This game is bleeding out level 50s.  Everyone I know who played this game terminated their sub shortly after reaching 50.  Yes, I read the press release about the 1.7 Million or whatever nonsense they were spinning, but the facts on the ground just don't reflect that.    I know a lot of people in a lot of different gaming communities.   In those various communities I know quite a few people who bought TOR and popped once they hit the cap because the game felt over at that point.   In fact, I don't think I know of a single person left still playing.   Maybe I am living in some bizarro anamoly, I guess that's possible, but I'd wager from what I reading on various forums that this is not the case.   Bottom line is that I think they see the bargain bin rapidly approaching and are trying trying to pull up as hard as they can.

Finally, doesn't this entire thing basically encourage people to adopt the very playstyle that is killing their subscribers?   If the game is bleeding out at 50, and you are offering a monetary compensation bonus for reaching 50, you are basically trying to get people to hasten the death of their account.  Someone is going to effectively pay me $15 if I rush to the endgame so I can realize the complete lack of one existing.

I wonder how many of these free month subs will be counted in their next report period?  Just some food for thought.

Paragus Rants

Co-Leader of Inquisition

Path of Exile: Beta Review

I had never really heard much about, let alone followed Path of Exile until their recent beta weekend.  I had heard that the game was some sort of Diablo clone and that was about the extent it.  A bunch of friends were talking about this in vent Friday, so on a whim we all decided to hop in and take a look at this upcoming free-to-play hack-and-slash action RPG.

There are two things we need to establish before we go any further.  First, Path of Exile is clearly heavily inspired by Diablo.  Second,  Path of Exile is different from Diablo in many ways.  This being established, comparisons to Diablo are inevitable.  There are a lot of gamers out there anxiously waiting for Diablo 3 to come out, and this game clearly will appeal to a lot of those same gamers.  I hope as we go forward here that you will understand that I will make many references to Diablo because it is a standard that I think most people recognize and understand.

The game starts out with you picking from a class from one of the five options.  This is pretty standard for this type of game.  One beef I have is that the various classes all have their gender already selected.  This means if you play as the witch or the ranger you will be forced to play as a female, conversely playing as the Marauder, Templar, and Duelist will have you playing as a male.  It's not a huge deal honestly, but it would be nice to have the option to change gender.

The gameplay is pretty much the same as what you are used to in Diablo.   You hack your way through hordes of monsters from a top-down perspective through randomly generated areas while collecting randomly generated loot.  One difference from Diablo however is the fact that when you enter town, you actually see other players who don't know going about their business.   Once you leave the town you will be on your own or with friends you invite to your party.  So while the town is seems to be a shared instance for sorts, the game outside the town is private unless you bring along people you know.

The biggest single aspect of the game for me that made it stand out from Diablo was the skill system.   Path of Exile features a single skill tree that is shared by all classes.   Tree probably isn't the right word though, it's more like a skill galaxy (Click to see interactive map).   I simply can't emphasize how absolutely massive this thing is.   I literally got lost in it and had to back out to find out where I was.   Each of the five classes all use the same system, but they all start in different spots.   Everytime your character levels up (and completes certain quests) you are awarded a skill point that can be placed in the tree.   As you start leveling up and spending points, you literally are exploring this tree by skilling up a path through it to reach desired passive abilities.   This to me is by far the biggest selling point of the game.  This system gives massive amounts of customization and freedom for the player to branch off into whatever parts they want which enables them to create a character tailored to exactly what they want.

While the skill tree covers all passive abilities, your special attacks and spells are obtained and handled in a completely different way.  Unlike Diablo which grants you new attacks when you reach a certain level, Path of Exile's abilities are obtained through finding gems through drops or quest reward.   These gems come in a variety of colors and must be socketed to a piece of gear that has the matching color socket.  Once socketed, the ability can be hotkeyed and used as long as it remains equipped.   While fighting, the gems themselves have their own experience bar that can level them up, which in turn increases their damage and effectiveness.   Gems can be taken out of armor at any time and placed in a new item or stored with no penalty.

It gets deeper.  Many of the items in the game also have multiple sockets that are connected together.  As you go farther into the game you will start finding support gems.   Support gems are specifically designed to be paired up with your other gems in order to grant a bonus to the gem it is connected to.  As an example, a support gems could be attached to on your melee attack gems to add some bonus elemental damage effect to that attack to bolster its strength.   Factor all of these things together and it gives the player a lot of freedom and customization when mixing and matching various gems.  It's also worth noting that gems are not class specific, so it becomes very possible for different classes to use some of the same gems.  Some players may or may not like this as it blurs the lines between classes a little bit, but it is quite a different system compared to what you will see in Daiblo.

Another gameplay difference between PoE and Diablo include the potion system.  In Path of Exile the player holds flasks in a seperate hotbar which contain healing potions.   Once you use a flask, the entire potion is not consumed.   You can drink from the same flask several times before it is drained.  Once a flask is drained out, it will refill over time by killing monsters forcing you to drink from one of the other flask slots.   Flasks are dropped as loot though like any other item in the game, and some of them do have magical properties.  Whether you like this better than Diablo is again personal preference, but I found it to be a pretty cool approach to something that has always struck me to be a mundane part of these types of games.

One aspect of the game that I found odd is the lack of gold or an in-game currency.  Killing monsters yields no money at all, in fact nothing does.   There are shops that you can buy and sell at, but apparently for whatever reason PoE stores use some form of barter system.  Selling loot to the store gets you little component items, and purchasing is done via the same way.   These items alone don't really do anything, but when you get enough of one, they combine into items that can be used to modify your gear.   These can do a wide variety of things like changing the socket colors on your items, rerolling item stats, or even turning normal items into magical items.  It's interesting in the fact that it all feeds into more options for tweeking your gear, but not having a gold currency or anything in the game takes a lot of getting used to.

Just to quickly gloss over some final things before I wrap this up.   The game does seem to have varying difficulty levels.  After clearing the entirety of what beta allowed us to, we were kicked back to the beginning of Act 1 on the next difficulty up.  Also present right out of the gate was the inclusion of a "hardcore" mode.   If you played Diablo you may be familiar with this in that it pretty much means that when your character is dead the game is over....sort of.  In PoE there looks to be a completely seperate server for HC characters, and a death on that server automatically removes the character off of the server and on to the normal server.   There is a ladder and ranking system leaderboard for HC characters to see who can get to the highest level.   Speaking of which, I believe the max level is upwards of around 100, maybe higher.  PoE is also promising PvP right out of the gate in some form (Diablo 3 apparently will not until later) and a cutthroat mode, although these were not present in the beta weekend.

Overall I would say my imrpession of Path of Exile left me very surprised in a good way.  I haven't seen or heard a lot about this game on a lot of the major sites and it looks to be quite a solid game.   Will it stack up against Diablo 3?  For some people I think it will, but I think it does depend on what you want from a game like this.   I think Diablo 3 probably offers more in the story department and has a crafting system, but it is also a $60 game where Path of Exile is completely free to download and play.  It's definitely a game that deserves a look especially if Diablo 3 is something on your radar.   You may end up liking PoE's variation on a solid formula that gamers have come to love.

Paragus Rants

Co-Leader of Inquisition

Guild Wars 2 Thoughts

So here we are finally, and Guild Wars 2 seems to be coming over the horizon in the foreseeable future finally.  Everyone seems to be speculating on how Guild Wars 2 might shake out and what it means to them, so I guess I'll lay down my thoughts on the table.

I have to say after being in a virtual MMO retirement for the last year or so,  I finally see an MMO that looks like it might be worth playing.   For me this is a big deal since I've made no bones about my distaste for a lot of the stuff that's passed through here promising to be some sort of game changer for the genre.  At this point I can safely say the TOR train is flying over  the cliff as we speak considering most people finally figured out that scripted story can't be produced fast enough to keep people entertained for more than a month or so.   Tera looks a bit interesting to me, but despite their new take on combat, I can't just help but shake that feeling that the rest of the game is going to end up being generic.  Guild Wars 2 looks like it "might" finally be something that might take hold around here.  It's not a sandbox or an open world game, but at the same time it doesn't seem to be stepping in the footprints of the other "next-big-thing" MMOs lately that lead to that cliff overlooking the bargin bin over there.

I find it kind of ironic that for a game that looks like it might be raising the bar for a non-sandbox game, the bar to be considered a major success is actually quite low.  I've been digesting a lot of the press beta event articles and videos, and the one common thread mentioned by almost everyone who was in there is a reference to Dark Age of Camelot.  To see this mentioned so consistently across all media, and recalling the GW2 devs mentioning DAOC as influence, I'm thinking we might be on to something.  What does Guild Wars 2 need to do to be a success?  It's actually quite simple.   GW2  simply needs to recreate or recapture the DAOC PvP / RvR experience that a lot of us veterans cherish.

From the the information we have right now, it looks like they are on the right track.   Ironically, Mythic who invented the DAOC experience, has completely fumbled and botched their attempts to do just this.   It's sad and hilarious that they forgot the important parts of what made DAOC so successful, while Arenanet seems to better understand it.  Finally someone realized that 3-sided PvP should be in an MMO that's based on PvP.   Yes, based on PvP, not tacked on there as some sort of afterthought.  Thats 2 steps in the right direction.  Centralized PvP area with massive keeps and a relic type object.  No subscription fee to boot, now you have my attention.

As much as I want to drink this kool-aid I have to remember everything we've seen happen.  My optimism is a cautious optimism.  We can't discount the fact that somehow someone will find a way to screw this thing up, because the other companies always do this either right on the drawing board or how they manage it once it goes live.  There are some aspects I can see people taking issue with.  I was disappointed by the fact that the WvWvW area seems to have a cloned layout to the outter areas.   I think it would have made for a much more interesting dynamic to have them different, but at the same time I can understand the reasoning behind it.  One layout being favored or unfavored can lead to some epic whining and rage as people graps for reason why they lost or how it wasn't fair.  Such cries always exist in PvP games from those who have been beaten.  

Also while the game may look a lot like DAOC, let's not forget one of the things that made DAOC what it was was the fact that it had so many classes, all of which were specific to the teams.   Obviously that's not the case nor would it make any sense in GW2, but I suppose it will make for better or easier balancing.  Finally let's hope for the love of all that is holy, that one thing they do not take from DAOC is the Mythic pattened excessive amount of crowd control.  Warhammer Online's 140+ cc abilities or whatever it turned out to be was horrid, and DAOC area of effect insta-cast mez / sleep was horrific for watching your group mates get assist trained down one by one would you stood there unable to react.  Ultimately while the games differ a lot, there is an opportunity for GW2 to actually improve from the DAOC experience.

The other thing nagging on my mind is what happens to the genre if this game turns out to really be the "next big thing"?  If Guild Wars 2 offers everything the other MMOs do, or do it better if their innovations end up working out (remains to be seen yet), why would anyone pay a monthly fee to another non-sandbox MMO?  I think of it in terms of the MOBA genre where League of Legends offered a similar game experience for free that others made you pay for, the others ended up having  to go free to compete.  As long as GW2 doesn't mishandle the microtransaction aspect of the game by letting people buy some form of power, they could not only shake the genre up dramatically, but also nail the coffin lid shut on a lot of the clones out there still charging a fee.

I guess we'll see how this all shakes out, but right now I have cautious optimism.   I'm looking forward to getting into the beta, and I know the staff here as well as myself will be livestreaming the ever-loving balls off this thing once we get our hands on it and are allowed to do so.   I hope you'll join us when that happens.

Paragus Rants

Co-Leader of Inquisition

Rant: The Endgame

Endgame seems to be a hot issue on the site these days, especially with the release of TOR and people starting to reach the endgame.   It's a topic that comes up everytime a new MMO comes out, and honestly it is probably one of the most important aspects of any MMO.   Ironically it is one that people following upcoming games don't really seem to stop and think about when they start sipping the kool-aid for the next MMO they are looking at.

MMO's are games that most players want to play for the long haul.   The developers are in most cases charging us a monthly fee, so it's in their best interest that we as players keep playing for a very long time.  This is fundamental to the MMO genre, but for some reason developers seem to be missing the boat here, and players drinking the kool-aid never stop to look at whats at the bottom of that glass they are drinking from.

The current theme park model of MMO that we have seen come through here the last few years seems to be the most vulnerable to falling into the trap of a bad endgame.  Think about how many years these guys are spending making these games, and the insane amount of cash being throw around to make these MMO's, especially in the case of TOR rumoring to be several hundred million dollars.  Yet with all this time and money being poured in, these developers are using these resources in the most inefficient way possible in terms of how they make their content.   The time and money spent making these scripted one time quests on the linear railroad, compared to how long it takes us to complete them is a horrible formula for long-term retention.  It's not that the theme park can't do this, it's just that the approach lately has been way off.

I always read on the forums here and even in the articles about talking about that guy who rushes to the end game and to enjoy the ride.  Well I am that guy, and allow me to tell you why exactly it is that I do this.  Countless AAA flops have come down the pipeline the last few years and we all fall victim to them.   My guild members get the MMO itch so we jump into the next big thing.  I want to know...no...I need to know if the endgame is viable for long term play.   Not just for myself, but them.   If I get to the endgame and it's paper thin and severely lacking, I need to let them know.   Each one of my members is investing dozens and dozens of hours into this game to get there, and if it turns out to be a bust, they need to know about it.   Dozens of hours multiplied by dozens of members is a crap ton of time I can be saving people.  If this can be discovered by the end of the free month it's even a more compelling case because I can save my friends the cash as well.

Spare me the bullcrap about enjoying the ride.   The ride in the modern theme park MMO is nothing more than running from quest hub to quest hub down a linear hallway, listening to some derp of an NPC spew some nonsense on how he needs me to collect flowers 30 feet from him, or come up with another excuse why 10 rats need to die.   It's not enjoyable, it's not a ride, it's a tedious series of chores masked as "quests" that are not epic or meaningful.  If I am going to be doing chores for some mythical payday at the end of the tunnel, I need to know that is was somehow worth it.   I want to know that at the end I can participate in something bigger and interesting while having some way to push my limits and advance my character.  If there's nothing there and I can spare my friends the pain, I will.

Look, if you are going to spend years making this game and it's only going to take me 2-3 weeks to get to the endgame, I don't think I'm being unreasonable to expect there to be something to do.  These games are supposed to really get going once you hit the level cap, not end.  If I wanted a game to over at max level I could play another number of single player RPGs and spare myself the fee.   But these aren't singleplayer games, and there is a fee usually.  See where I am going with this?

There are thousands of us playing on a given server in any given MMO and developers just aren't tapping into the best source of content they have, us.  This is where the developers are really failing because people like to compete inherently. This is also why I am such a strong advocate for PvP to be a major feature in MMOs, not tacked on as an afterthought.  Getting that character you have been fine tuning and putting him against another thinking person is content that keeps on giving.   All the developer needs to do is intelligently approach how to create an environment that encourages people to keep fighting.  

On the flip side you have the PvE focused games that fall flat in the endgame department as well.  These guys are releasing PvE focused games with a miniscule amount of end game PvE content, or the content there is so easy that a moron can faceroll right through it and complete it without being seriously challenged.  If your MMO is all about PvE and it's not challenging, you will never be able to create it at a rate where players will instantly devour it, and it won't be meaningful.  In older PvE MMOs like Everquest or even FFXI, there is a sense of accomplishment and a badge of honor when you were sporting that hard to obtain item.  Competition between players exist just as much in a PvE focused game as in PvP focused ones. If that desired item is growing off a purple epic tree that anyone can pick one off of, it really isn't as exciting or appealing is it?  The entire concept of welfare epics needs to be replaced by challenging content so that there are bragging rights.

Endgame is one of the most important MMO features, and for some reason it's the one the developers seem to be talking about the least.  If you aren't talking about it and showcasing it, then I think you're hiding something.  The endgame should be explained right next to the other "next gen" features because it is the sales pitch as to what I am buying for that monthly fee.  This is why I will rush to the endgame, and for the sake of my friends and guildmates to see what's behind the curtain.  If there is nothing there you can bet your ass I'm going to tell everyone I know that your joke of a ride isn't worth taking because it goes to nowhere.  We see this happen over and over again and yet these guys keep spending more and more money on the same failed formula.  It doesn't matter what fancy big name IP you try to dress it up in, it's the same empty crap and it's why I think we are going to continue to see the monthly fee fade into obsurity.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.twitch.tv/paragusrants

Tribes Ascend Impressions

The Tribes series was undoubted one of my favorite FPS franchises when I was younger.   I spent countless hours playing both Tribes 1 and 2 back in their hayday, and like many Tribes fans I was saddened when I saw what happened to the series after this point.   It was probably for this reason that when I was accepted into the closed beta for Tribes Ascend months and months ago when it was very exclusive, that I just filed the email into my saved box and forgot about it while I focused on playing through my backlog of other games on Steam that I had picked up through the holiday sale season.

At this stage Tribes Ascend is still technically in "closed beta", but for all intents and purposes anyone can get a key to play the beta by liking them on Facebook, or buy visiting any number of gaming websites.  It wasn't until last week when some fellow Inquisition members got into the beta and nagging me that Tribes Ascend might not quite be the debacle I was expecting.   Having finally cleared most of the games in my backlog, I decided to fish out the email I filed away months ago and go take a look.

For those who don't know, Tribes is a first-person shooter series of games that take place in a futuristic setting, where two teams play pretty intense matches typcially of capture the flag.   There's a lot of things that sets Tribes apart from a lot of the other FPS games out there, primarily the focus on air-based combat through the use of jetpacks combined with a physics system that allows players to "ski" across the large open landscapes and down hills at very high speeds.  This creates a very unique dynamic that really sets the combat apart from a lot of the other stuff out there.  Tribes Ascend seems to have retained this aspect of the game very well from the original two games.

Aside from all of this, there is something that sets Tribes Ascend apart from not just the previous titles as well as the other games out there, and that is the pricing model for the game.  Hi-Rez Studios seems to have opted for a free-to-play model for the game that almost exactly mirrors that of League of Legends.   Much like LoL, you can opt to spend real money if you want and be able to unlock some classes faster, but you could also not buy money and unlock them anyways just by playing over time.

That's right, I said classes.  Older Tribes players might remember being able to choose between playing a Light, Medium, or Heavy armor type from the original games, and to a degree these exist in Tribes Ascend.  There are in total as of the time I am writing this, 12 classes that feature a variety of different preset builds that span across the 3 different armor types that seem to be geared towards offering a specific type of utility to the team.  Some of the lighter classes that have less life but faster speed are geared towards trying to grab the flag or long range sniping, while the opposite end of the spectrum has the slow moving heavy armor classes that can take a lot of damage but lack mobility making them good defenders.

For better or worse, one point of controversy is the fact that you can't customize your classes loadout like you could in the older games (at least in the current version of the beta).  At first I was a bit apprehensive about this because I did like to be able to fiddle with my kits to find the optimal loadout for my playstyle.  The counter arguement is that this often led to a lot of people just taking the same optimal loadout and not having the diversity.  While I am still torn on this I can understand both sides of the debate, and whether or not this changes by the end of the beta, it hasn't detracted too much from the fun I've been having so far.

Game matches can hold up to 32 people per match (16 vs.16) which isn't too shabby.   At the conclusion of each match, experience points and tokens are awarded based on a variety of factors which seem to in part related to your performance and the length of the match.  Tokens are a currency you accumulate on your account that can be spent on unlocking the other classes.  The game only gives you 2 medium classes to play with when you first start playing, the rest have to be unlocked via tokens or gold, which is the currency you get for spending real money.  Obtaining the cheapest heavy armor and light armor classes are not overly expensive, but many of the more advanced classes beyond this can be quite pricey in terms of tokens and will require you do play a fair amount to grind out what you need.

Experience points serves 2 purposes.   The first being that they go toward ranking your account up much like you would have in Battlefield or CoD.  At the present time, there is no real reward for ranking up except bragging rights as it really only acts a symbol of how long you have been playing.   Your rank does seem to be factored in to determining who the match making throws you in with, so that newer people will be more likely to fight other newer people.

The second aspect of experience is that it's stored up on a per class basis to be spent unlocking passive talents in a tree much like you would see in an MMO.  Unlike other talent trees, you are not forced to only pick one path.   Tribes Ascend will let you unlock everything in the tree assuming you play that class extensively enough.  The talents themselves however are not earth shattering or game changing to the point where someone with less invested won't be able to beat someone with more, player skill still trumps all.   In most cases the bonuses add a only few percentage points to certain aspects of your class such as a few more ammo, life, % run speed, or energy used for the jet pack.  At the very bottom of each classes tree you can unlock perks that once available can be used on any class you own.

As far as the game modes go, both Capture the Flag and Deathmatch are fun in their own rights.   Capture the Flag is a very team oriented game where a team can work together on a variety of fronts to help win the match aside from actually grabbing the flag.   Setting up a good defense and defenders are critical, while others may opt to sneak into the bowels of the enemy base compound and try to sabatoge the enemy by destroying the generator powering all of their turrets.  This is the mode where the various classes really have a chance to shine because each is really tailored to have its own niche in this mode.

Deathmatch is a completely different beast all together, but one that I found myself liking a lot more than I thought.  Basically the two teams of 16 each are dumped into a large landscape with the sole purpose of fighting each other.  The bad news about this mode is that a lot of the niche classes you would use in CTF seem initially to be a lot less viable, and as a result you'll see a lot of people playing the basic soldier and ranger classes most of the time.   The good news is that this mode is pure mayhem and really puts you into the center of a massive dog fight with people flying and chasing each other while trying to out maneuver their prey.  To mix things up there is a single flag that gives the team carrying it double kill credit on each kill.  It makes for some intense moments if you are the guy with the flag as everyone starts coming after you, and some funny moments when the flag falls on the ground and the mad scramble to grab it ensues.   Shooting the flag with an explosive weapon sends it bouncing around like a hot potato and it makes for quite the brawl.

Overall Tribes Ascend has a lot of potential from what I've seen at this preliminary beta stage.   There is still a lot of missing parts in the beta, but the core gameplay is solid.   I'd definitely recommend checking the game out if you are looking for something to play or are a fan of the older games.  If you end up liking the game and think it's something you will want to play, you will be happy to hear that everything you earn and unlock during the beta will carry over to the release version, so no wipe is planned.  It's fun and it's free, so you have nothing to lose really.  If you decide to play it and want to come find me, add me to your friend list as "Paragus" and maybe I'll see you on the battlefield.  You can also catch me streaming my gameplay live from time to time on my channel below.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

My Favorite Games of 2011

The end of the year is upon us, and while it hasn't been that great of a year in the MMO department (in my opinion), there has been quite a few good games this year I think for gamers in general.   I wanted to wrap things up for the year here and just gloss over some of the games I've played in 2011 that I felt really delivered a great gaming experience and value.   These are not ranked in any particular order.

Terraria

This game literally came out of nowhere for me.   A $10 dollar steam game that is on sale all the time, has really been one of the best values of the year for me in terms of hours played per dollar spent.   While I wrote about Terraria briefly back when it first came out, this game really deserves another mention.  

Terraria is basically what happens when Minecraft and Metroid have sex and produce a child.   Randomly generated maps that are absolutely huge give this game massive replayability as you never get quite the same experience twice.  The price tag is dirt cheap, and the developers are cranking out free content patches on a regularly basis that make the game better and better with every update.   Consider the fact the the original game at release was made from scratch in about 3-4 months time, and it's exciting to me to see where this game will be in a few months or a year or so down the road from where it is now.   If you ever see this game on sale on steam you'd be a fool not to snatch it up immediately.   The multiplayer is a blast with friends, and with an optional hardcore mode with permadeath, you will laugh and cry as you and your friends have their dreams shattered trying to defeat all the games bosses and survive the newly expanded endgame.

League of Legends

I think this was an absolutely massive year for League of Legends.   While the game actually released before 2011, this year brought a ton of new changes to the game in terms of a new game mode with Dominion, their Tribunal System for players policing other players, and their consistent bi-weekly updates.

A lot of companies are very shy when it comes to talking about the numbers of people playing their game, unless that number is massive.   Riot has literally seen their playerbase grow on an exponential basis this year with the number of registered people playing games of LoL topping out upwards of 30 Million plauyers globally.   Whether you like the game or not, League of Legends has become the new WoW and is the elephant in the room when it comes to MOBAs.  It's free to play pricing model is astounding and prevent players from buying power, and I expect that LoL will continue to enjoy a lot of success in the future.  Cost to play = free, hours played = countless.   That's good value right there.

Dungeons of Dredmore

Here is another indie game that snuck up on me, again brought to you via Steam for only $5 when its not on sale.  Dungeons of Dredmore may not be the prettiest looking game, but what it lacks in graphics it makes up for in gameplay and fun.

If you have ever played a "rogue-like", then you pretty much know what this game is all about.  You create a character by chosing a handful of skills from a list and test your meddle in a randomly generated dungeon that features 10 massive floors (+5 more if you get the DLC) full of monsters and booby traps.  Combat is turn-based on a grid system, and permadeath makes death's sting something you will fear.   Of course there is the option to play with permadeath turned off, but it pretty much defeats the purpose of playing a rogue-like, and pretty much makes you a bitch in my book.  A game that is sure to suck hours and hours form your life and leave you shrieking aloud when your character perishes 8 or 9 floors deep.  With varying difficulty levels and a ton of achievements, the game has great replayability and a good sense of humor as it is loaded with many pop-culture references to help lighten the mood when you have the pistol in your mouth because you drank from a water fountain that turned out to be acid.

The Binding of Isaac

Here is another $5 indy Steam gem brought to you by the sadistic developer who brought you Super Meat Boy.  Similar in many ways to Dungeons of Dredmore, Isaac is a rogue-like that is a lot less RPG and a lot more action and also has permadeath.

The game has you being turned loose into randomly generated dungeons and plays exactly like the original Zelda from the 8-bit NES.   Heart Containers, bombs, and coins included, you'll make your way to the bottom of the dungeon through random rooms, random floor layouts, find random items along the way, and even fight random bosses.  Unlike Dredmore which saves your progress when you are done for the session, Isaac forces you to play through the entire dungeon in a single sitting.   The good news is that a playthrough is much shorter than Dredmore and can usually wrapped up in around 40-60 minutes depending on your luck and how methodical you are.  The game is also based on the premise that you will be playing through it over and over, as each time you win the dungeon, it becomes harder.    The more you play, you also unlock new items and bosses that will have a chance to appear on future playthroughs.   There is a lot of meat here for achievement chasers, and for the pricetag you will probably get your money's worth even if you only play through it a few times.

Battlefield 3

Sorry if you are a Call of Duty fan, but Battlefield 3 is the premier FPS right now.  Frankly, I can't  even will myself to play another FPS that doesn't have destroyable terrain after Bad Company 2.  BF3 takes that mechanic and applies it to a game that is grander in scale in every way.

Giant maps with every game mode available in each one, this game literally has something for everyone.   Aside from it being one of the best looking games I have ever seen on my monitor, the audio is some of the best I've heard.  I saw on ad once that made me laugh that took a jab at CoD asking why call for an airstrike when in BF3 you are the airstrike.  I really just don't see how from a gameplay perspective, the competition can do it better.   Sure the game has its warts with the stupid Origins bullshit, but the game itself really is the FPS to beat right now in terms of online multiplayer.  The newly released Karkand map really takes the favorite map of most Battlefield fans and takes it to a new level. 

Skyrim

Game of the Year awards from some of the major sites, and justly deserved.   This is the premiere single-player experience of the year.  If you even remotely enjoy single player RPGs, this game is a must have.

Skyrim offers all the things we expect from an Elder Scrolls game with its massive open world, interesting quests, staggering amount of content, and sets a model in many areas that I think most MMO players would love to see developers of this genre pick up on.   I did a lot of quests in this game and played multiple characters, and out of all those quests there were very few that were as uninspired and tedious as the standard MMO "quest" we see today.  Almost everyone I know who bought this game played it and started over immediately with another character, that's a sign of a good game.   It's also intersting to me to hear how everyone is playing the same single player game, but everyone has stories about their playthrough that are so different from the next guy.  Just an absolutely stellar gaming experience that you really can't afford to not play.

Portal 2

I was gifted Portal 1 on Steam having never played it before, and I fell in love with the game right away.   My only beef was the game was over too soon.   Portal 2 really was one of the more memorable gaming experiences of the year.

Portal 2 took everything about Portal 1 and expanded on it.   The game had a much better story, and the length of the game was greatly expanded to make it feel like a real game and less of a mini game.  Tons of new mechanics introduced to the games many puzzles really made you wonder how you were going to get through a room when you first walked in.  In addition to this the co-op was a great deal of fun, although I do wish it were a little longer.  Overall and great game that is well worth picking up if you see it on sale, which most likely will be quite often.

Dark Souls

Have you ever played a game where you honestly felt that the people making it hated your guts?  If you haven't, you should check out Dark Souls.   Following the tradition of punishing difficulty, this game offers a very challenging gaming experience not for the weak-hearted.

Looking beyond the challenge, the game also provides an amazing single player console experience that shouldn't be missed if you are up to the challenge.   The game pretty much drops you into a world of shit and turns you loose to try to explore and figure what the hell is going on and how to stop it.   While there is a progression to things, the game opens up frequently letting you decide the order in which you'll tackle some of the horrors that lie within.   If the game wasn't hard enough, you have the threat of having other players come into your game and try to kick you when you least expect it, but on the flip side you can call for backup to help tackle certain encounters in the game.   The real icing on the cake however is that while Dark Souls is one of the best console games this year, the ending is probably the worst I have ever seen given how hard it is to beat.   I literally felt the develops spitting on me through my TV after beating it as if to say, "You might have won somehow, but f$#k you anyways!".

Dungeon Defenders

I've never really played or been a fan of the tower defense type games, but I ended up picking up Dungeon Defenders out of sheer boredom waiting for Bf3 to come out and the fact that half of my friends on Steam were playing this.  I was really surprised how much fun this game was and the amount of play someone could get out of this game.  Something about the sillyness of a situation where you are holding off literally thousands of monsters with your friends just makes for a hectic and fun experience.

Basically this game is the 3D version of tower defense but with a lot more rolled in.   You create a character from one of the classes and you team up with other people and try to conquer the various maps.   Each character class plays completely different from the next, and each has a role to play and brings something to the table.  On top of that, you get to create a build for your class spending skills points as you level up to either focus on tower building stats, straight character DPS stats, or a hybrid.   The game also features a random loot generator, and each item of loot can be leveled up.   I guess the game is somewhat of a grind game at it's core, but the gameplay never really made me felt like I was grinding because of how fun it was.  Between playing all of the classes, playing with the different builds, finding the best gear, leveling that gear, and trying to complete the dozens of missions and challenges at varying difficulty levels, Dungeon Defenders really gives you a lot to see and do for it's $15 price tag.  On top of that, the devs are constantly adding new stuff to the game very regularly and many times for free.

That about wraps it up for 2011.  If you see any of these games on Steam for the holiday sale I give them all a thumbs up.  While I am hoping that 2012 will finally deliver us an MMO worth playing again, there definitely has not been a shortage of great titles to play outside the genre this year.  I do find it kind of funny that some of the best games I played this year were price between the $0-$15 price point and made by indie developers.  Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed the big name games like Skyrim and Dark Souls, but the hours don't lie.   I find that I have been getting for more hours played per dollar spent hitting up the indie games this year, and many of these games I am still playing even now because of regular free content updates.  I think there is definitely something to be learned here from some of the big house developers.  See you next year!

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

Rant:  The Old Republic

I already know what you're  thinking, "not another TOR article",  believe me when I say I can't take it anymore either.  Let's face it, TOR is slated to be the next big thing on the MMO scene so you're going to be subjected to every derp's opinion on it.  I've sat and watched quiety reading and digesting everything TOR related the last few weeks, so here is one more derp sounding off.

If you read the title of this, you probably realized on your way in here that the "TLDR" version of what is beyond this point can be summed up by a simple "I don't like TOR".  If the foam is starting to accumulate around your mouth at the thought of someone not liking your new precious, save yourself the torches and pitchforks to run me out of town, I'll go wait in exile happily with the rest of the people who just can't take the insanity anymore because I know in the end most people will figure out what the sane among us already know.   If you like where this is going and ready to ride this storm out with me, come gather around the fire friend.  If you can't handle it, just click your bookmark in the browser to your favorite TOR fan site.

The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how fickle the MMO community is, and how astonishingly short memories are when it comes to watching what happens to every MMO hype train that passes through this station with all the fanfaire.  The Old Republic is the poster child of why I haven't been able to bring myself to seriously commit to an MMO for the last 2 years.   Am I the only one sitting here completely dumbfounded by the fact that people don't realize that the TOR train looks almost identical to the last dozen that came through here?  This is MMO insanity.   We are literally doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

I know it's Bioware.   I enjoyed Dragon Age and Mass Effect as much as the next guy.   I know it's Star Wars, or at least it is supposed to be.   I know they spent more on this game than any other MMO ever made to date.  But when you remove your emotional attachments from the IP, the company making it, and all the other bullshit, it is the same game that has come through here time and time again that has ended with massive burnout in the 60-90 day mark.

What really baffles me is how hard they doubled down financially to make what is a glorified Star Wars mod of an MMO that walks exactly in the footsteps of the previous games, footsteps that lead right over a cliff.  Reports are they spent well over $100 Million, and I'm just scratching my head trying to figure out where all the money went.

So we got the same generic UI as the previous MMOs, actually worse in some ways because it lacks some of the customization functionality of the others.  We have a weaker character creation and customization than we saw in some of the previous games.  We have the same generic facerolling combat system ported over.  We have the same quest content designed for lowest common denominator that involves our hero / sith lord collecting animal hides.  We also somehow managed to turn the prospect of PvP on an intergallactic scale and reduce it down to Hutt Ball.  So by looking at this we can clearly conclude that they didn't spend the bulk of their cash on the actual gameplay, because every other MMO debacle has done all this for a lot less money.

What is supposed to set this game apart? Is it the story?   The story that pretty much puts you in the same place regardless of the choices you make?  I sure as hell hope for their sake that they weren't counting on the voice acting to keep people paying month after month.  What is it about the story that justifies them collecting a monthly fee?  Skyrim offers everything TOR does in terms of voice acting and story, and at the same time gives you an massive open world, real quests that don't make you feel like a UPS driver trapped in a galaxy far away, and no monthly fee to boot!

How much of their massive budget did they spend reskinning Star Fox and putting into this game just for the sake of saying there is space combat?  The only thing missing is having Peppy's face popping up on the screen telling me to do a barrell roll.   They managed to get the most open environment known to mankind, outter space, and even turn that into a linear on the rails theme park ride akin to space mountain.

I just can't help but think that TOR might be the greatest wasted opportunity the MMO genre has seen in years.   You literally had one of the greatest IPs ever created, one with so much lore that it is nearly impossible to consume it all.   You had the biggest budget an MMO has ever seen to make this glorious IP into a reality, and you squandered it by making a dumbed down reskin of every failed MMO before it, and you did it on the hopes that your fate would somehow be different than theirs.  It's not even a theme park vs sandbox arguement.  I can understand the appeal of a theme park game, and I don't mind one every now and then.   It's the fact that Star Wars deserves better than this, and the fact that they took the low road in all the areas that count the most that actually keep people playing.  To me, this type of dumbed down gameplay does not justify a monthly fee.  If you removed Star Wars from this game and it had to stand purely based on the merits of gameplay, this would be an intergallactic failure and be seen for the mediocrity that it truly is.

Don't get me wrong, if you enjoy TOR and maybe you are new to the MMO genre and find it fresh, I don't think any less of you.  But as someone who has been around the block a while and seen a lot, I'll be the asshole and say I hope TOR ends up just as bad as all the games that came before it that did the exact same thing.  The madness needs to stop with this genre and with the amount of money at stake here in TOR, a failed TOR will send a resounding message to future bottom-peddling developers that going down this road is not worth the investment.  Unfortunately for the rest of us going into exile to watch this one from the sidelines, it probably won't be the case.

Flame on...

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

League of Legends: Interview with Riot Games #3

A lot has happened since my last interview with the folks over at Riot.   If you have been following League of Legends at all, you have no doubt heard about their new Dominion game mode as reviews have been pouring in.    In addition to the new game mode, Season one has finally concluded and the players now find themselves in Pre-Season 2 as things start to ramp up for the launch of the next round of competition. 

Riot's Design Director, Tom Cadwell AKA Zileas, has once again stopped by for an exclusive Q&A with me for the community here at MMORPG.com.

1)  There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the announcement of the new game mode Dominion.  Players are already in the process of trying to speculate which champions will have a strong presence in gameplay style Dominion offers.   The 3v3 mode currently in the game has a core group of champions that seem to be overly strong, and there are concerns that this could be the case for Dominion.  Is there anything you can tell us about how Riot is approaching champion balance as it relates to Dominion to help it from having the same issue Twisted Treeline has in this regard?

Watching the development of the metagame on Twisted Treeline was very much a learning experience for us, and we brought a lot of what we learned with us to the development of the Crystal Scar. On Twisted Treeline, for instance, high-durability, melee damage dealers emerged as dominant because the reduced teams size prevented them from falling quickly to focus fire. To prevent a similar phenomenon from developing on the Crystal Scar we decided to re-envision the item shop to adjust the arsenal available to our different categories of champions.

When you visit the item shop on your map of choice you’ll find that some items are only available for purchase in Classic mode and some are only available for purchase in League of Legends: Dominion. These sweeping changes in item cost and availability give us the option to make map specific balance changes to tweak the overall performance of a group of champions should they emerge as dominant in one game mode or the other.

2)  There was some surprise from the community when Riot announced that the new map was not Magma Chamber, but instead turned out to be Crystal Scar with Dominion.  Can you tell us a little bit about why Riot decided to change direction and go with this new capture and hold type game mode instead, and can you comment on whether or not the Magma Chamber concept has been abandoned completely?

A lot went into our decision to switch gears from Magma Chamber to the Dominion game mode and its accompanying Field of Justice the Crystal Scar. For starters, we wanted our next major project to be more of a departure from the Classic League of Legends gameplay. While our preliminary testing on Magma Chamber showed some promise in changing up the metagame in interesting ways, at the end of the day, we aimed for a more groundbreaking new experience.

3) What is the likelyhood or the criteria on whether or not players will see the new Dominion game mode be added as an option for ranked play?

We definitely plan on supporting a ranked ladder for League of Legends: Dominion. Just as with Twisted Treeline, however, this new ladder will be separate from the ranked play on Summoner’s Rift. An official launch date for the Dominion ladder hasn’t yet been determined, as we would like to give our community the chance to explore strategies and learn Dominion first.

4)  With the first Season of League of Legends coming to an end, when do roughly expect to see Season 2 kick off and will players finally get to see a normal draft mode by the time the new season gets underway?

As you may have noticed, between the end of Season One and start of Season Two, we have enabled Normal Draft Mode. While we haven’t announced a specific start date for Season Two yet, look for news on that front soon.

5)  In all of your tournament broadcasts each side is allowed to ban 3 champions each for a total of 6 bans, where currently only 4 total bans are permitted.   Does Riot plan to increase the number of bans in ranked play for Season 2 to what we are currently seeing in the championship tournaments?

Our banning system is flexible enough that we can adjust the number of bans permitted per team pretty readily. For the consistency of competition, however, we decided to leave the number of bans at four in ladder play for the remainder of the season.

Now that Pre-Season Two has begun, we have a little more flexibility to experiment and decide just how many bans each team should get during the champion selection process. Ultimately, there’s plenty of time for us to adjust our banning system in ranked play before the ladder competition in the new season official begins.

6)  Passive Gameplay has been a stated problem by members of Riot staff as an issue with the current metagame.  How does Riot plan to work towards reducing passive gameplay and make it more attractive for players to play more aggressively, especially in the early game which is becoming somewhat of a farmfest?

League of Legends already has pretty exciting play, but our developers are looking continue making it more active, which is an ongoing process. Our recent changes to support champions were geared toward reducing the level of safety that they provided to their lane partners in order to reward aggression, ganking, and teamplay over babysitting and early-game farming. It’s unlikely, however, that any one change that we make is going to suddenly transform the overall metagame in such a drastic way. Rather, this is a high level goal that we’ll reach through a series of progressive changes over some time.

Additionally, there’s a delicate balance to be struck there, since the laning phase is very much part of gameplay in Classic League of Legends. In League of Legends: Dominion, on the other hand, the concept of a laning phase doesn’t exist, and that’s going an important differentiator between the two experiences. Rather than completely eliminate this integral part of the Classic gameplay experience, we want to overhaul this phase of the game to make it more exciting.

7)  Riot has made mention on several occasions that there is a stealth rework in progress to help make characters like Evelyn and Twitch not promote tower hugging and passivity.   What can you tell us about the progress / release timeframe of the stealth rework and what stealth will look like for characters like these once these changes go live?

The design of these new mechanics is an ongoing process, but in its current incarnation these changes will separate our current stable of stealth champions into two pools: invisibility champions and stealth champions.

Champions such as Shaco, Talon, and Akali who have limited or short duration surprise mechanics will fall into the category of invisibility champions and have their ability sets more or less unchanged.

Characters with longer duration stealth abilities such as Twitch and Evelynn will be undergoing some significant changes. Instead of being completely invisible, these champions will now be invisible to Sight Wards (although Vision Wards will still spot them as normal) and will be visible to enemy champions when they have closed to within a reduced sight range. To aid them in stalking their adversaries these champions will have an indicator added to their interface that warns them when they are drawing closer to being spotted by an enemy.  

8)  After our last conversation, we have seen a few of the champions you mentioned last time undergo a rework of their abilities (Tryndamere / Kayle).   Which champions are currently on Riot's radar right now in terms of being prime candidates for a rework and why?

At Riot Games we very much believe that game balance is an ongoing process. As such, we’re always interested in the way that the overall metagame is evolving and the effect that it’s having on our existing champion lineup.

A couple of champions that we’re currently taking a closer look at are Veigar and Jax. Veigar’s ultimate does a heavily varied amount of damage based on his opponent’s total mana pool. As such, as we add more and more champions to League of Legends who utilize alternate resource systems, Veigar’s ultimate is essentially losing utility.

Jax’s hallmark ability, on the other hand, keys off of his dodge chance. Not only does that add an uncomfortable element of randomness to this ability, but it also tends to pigeonhole him into limited item and rune builds that focus on this one particular stat, whether or not he’s in a situation where that wouldn’t normally be his strongest defensive stat.

    
9)  We got a chance to see observer mode in action at Dreamhack and some of the other major events and it looks like it's in really good shape.   What's holding you back from releasing observer mode right now and do you expect it will be ready for the start of Season 2?

While we believe that Spectator Mode is an important part of coverage for our major competitive events and are willing to offer it for use on our tournament realm for this reason.

Like all features of League of Legends, however, this is an ongoing project, and as we continue to patch and update the game, Spectator Mode will continue to improve and develop. Once it meets the stability and feature requirements that we have for large-scale use, it will be made more widely available for use.
 

10)  Are there any plans in the foreseeable future to add some sort of team functionality or clan support?

We are definitely aware that there is room to improve on the social features of the PvP.net client, and we would like to do so in the future. We are hard at work at some great features along these lines, but until they’re ready for prime time we’re not ready to make any official announcements.
 

We certainly appreciate Zileas taking time out of his busy schedule with all that is going on right now in League of Legends.   I for one am looking forward to keep an eye on Dominion to see how the ranked meta game ends up turning out as both the pros and peons alike theorycraft various strategies.  Dominion is officially turned on permanently, so if you haven't had a chance to check it out I'd highly recommend it.  The games are much shorter than classic mode on Summoner's Rift and the action starts right out of the gate without any real farming or laning phases.  If you have previously tried League of Legends and maybe didn't care for it, the new mode warrants a second look considering how completely different it is.   If you are still one of the few people out there that hasn't tried the game yet, what are you waiting for?   It's free to download, free to play, and might just turn out to be your next main game.  If you do play, tune into the livestream or look me up, and I'll see you on the battlefield.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

League of Legends: Dominion Impressions

Riot announced recently that they would be opening up their upcoming "Dominion" game mode to beta testing to the general public during certain preset times. I was finally fortunate enough to have one of these windows open to beta test the new mode during prime time hours when I am at home and able to play. I just spent the night machine-gunning games of the new game mode with friends, so I wanted to check in and just talk about some of my impressions after a night of trying it out finally.

Right out of the gate you are started at level 3 and 1300+ gold to kick start the game into high gear. Even standing at the spawn waiting for the countdown to start, I  noticed that my exp bar at the bottom was constantly ticking up due to a global buff exclusive to this game mode. The strategy starts right away as you decide the best combo of items. The increase in starting cash is a huge leap from the standard 5v5 mode which only starts you off with 475 gold. Do you rush your boots to get to the points faster once the game starts, or do you start building combat items for the inevitable fight that will happen within the first minute? The possibilities here are huge for theory crafters to sink their teeth into, and factor in the inclusion of completely new items and the choices and strategy is even more compelling.

Dominion is not just about about capturing and holding points, it's about combat, lots of combat, and combat right out of the gate. This is a massive contrast to the standard 5v5's on Summoner's Rift, where games start out usually with a laning / farming phase poking at each other. In Dominion when they turn you loose, you are charging head first into a fight usually within the first minute of the game. No poking, no farming, and towers whose damage is drastically less than then the classic game make for a real balls to the wall brawl.

Some other major differences I noticed from playing was the fact that it was pretty rare in most of the games to end up in a situation where all 10 people in the match were in the same fight. Most of the combat is on a smaller scale where you often will find yourself in 1v1 and 2v2 battles. Chances are if too many people are in a single spot, an opening exists for the other points to be captured due to being unattended. Combine this new game dynamic with the fact that combat is literally happening all the time, I found some characters obviously were very useful in this mode while some others were lacking in effectiveness.  I didn't see any support champs during my games, and I suspect they will be a bit less viable since a lot of the fights end up being so small in scale.

Rammus as an example seemed to be a good choice because his ability so power ball around at high speed allows him to get to open points and capture them quickly. Mobility plays a big role, so champions with some sort of movement speed increasing abilities do have a new found utility. I found myself trading in my flash for ghost as it seemed vastly more useful. On the other hand, due to the fact that skirmishes are usually smaller, some champions who thrive in these types of situations can be strong. Akali seemed to be on the ban list in most of the draft mode Dominion games I played, and after a few games with her in it I can understand why people do this. Of course at the same time, it could just be the fact that people are adjusting to the new mode and aren't really sure how to deal with new metagame of Dominion. I noticed one game a Cho'Gath had a hard time because of the dominion dynamic, getting killed frequently was problematic for him due to being unable to build up feast stacks and get large. The lack of creep farming and strong towers to hug really changes the game a lot.

The longest match I think I had all night went somewhere around 22 minutes, which is definitely a welcome change when I don't have the time or willpower to commit 30-45 minutes for the average game in the classic mode. Dominion literally floods you with money and experience passively while you play, which keeps the action going and your character advancing very quickly. The fact that the game feeds you so much farm can be beneficial to certain champs whose viability depends on heavy farm and maybe were not as desirable in the classic mode.

Overall though, my verdict from what I played is that the new game mode is a ton of a fun and a refreshing change to the classic Summoner's Rift.  If you played League of Legends at got burned out, or just didn't really care of the playstyle of the game, I'd recommend firing the game back up once the new mode comes out and give it a try. I think my only concern going forward is what Riot's approach will be for balancing certain champs in relation to their strength or lack there of in this mode. I guess it is to be expected though that just as there are many champs who aren't great picks in classic, the same will be said for Dominion. If you haven't tried League of Legends yet and are sitting around waiting for the next big MMO, I recommend you give it a look considering it's completely free to download and play.  If you did get a chance to play Dominion, drop your feedback below.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003