Just Potatoes

In the Fallen Earth help channel, the same few questions get asked over and over. (No, not “How do I make relish?” and “How do I equip the axe?” though those do get asked an awful lot.)

It’s very common for people in the tutorial to ask, “What’s the level cap and how’s the endgame?” When hearing that Fallen Earth really doesn’t have much of an endgame yet, and the level cap is 45, the response is often, “Then what’s the point?”

What’s the point, indeed…

Many MMO players are inclined to look at the endgame of a potential new MMO as a determinant of how long they’ll stay with the game. What’s the point of subscribing if you’re going to run out of content in a month of playing?

The issue with Fallen Earth is that so much of the game is about the journey, and about exploring, that people who think, “I’ll jam through 45 levels and be stuck with nothing to do” don’t do the game justice. But I’m not surprised they think that way.

When I first tried Lord of the Rings Online, shortly after it’s release, I decided not to subscribe, because I was concerned that the level cap was only 50, and there seemed very little content past that. So I know what those people in the Fallen Earth help channel are thinking. I felt that same way about LOTRO.

For anyone whose main leap into MMOs began with WoW, as mine did (not counting MUDs and Guild Wars), I think it’s hard to break away from the idea that the*real* game starts at the level cap.

In World of Warcraft, leveling characters is easy. In the past, it was far more difficult, but they’ve since reduced the experience required to level and increased the experience earned from quests. So the journey to the level cap is short and sweet for most people. And that’s where the REAL game begins. Gearing up, reputation grinds, raiding… Blizzard has focused so much on the endgame in WoW that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion didn’t provide any new content for characters under the level cap. It was solely an endgame expansion. Blizzard’s primary demographic is clearly the endgame players.

Where I find the most enjoyment in WoW, or “the point” of WoW for me, is getting a character to the level cap then gearing them up. I love the gear grind. In Burning Crusade, I spent hours doing heroic 5-man instances with guildies for badges, and grinding rep with Ogri’la, and the Shatari Skyguard. Getting to exalted reputation levels with the various factions had tangible rewards and was tough to do for the casual player. It took time. As a result, there was far more diversity in the server community.

Now, the loot grind is ridiculously easy. Not only is leveling short and sweet, but so is gearing up! The whole point of WoW, for me, is lost. I was never a hardcore raider, so I’m not lamenting that they’ve made content more accessible. I’m glad it’s accessible! I’m just disappointed in that there’s nothing really left for my style of playing. I’ve got six characters sitting at the level cap, and the most recent two level 80s (druid and warlock) were both pretty well-geared within a few days of hitting 80.

I enjoyed Warhammer because I was able to level through PvP (RvR), and gear up through renown, lucky bag drops and later, tokens. The gear grind frustrated a lot of people, which is why Mythic introduced tokens, but it didn’t really bother me.

So after realizing that “the point” of an MMO, for me, is leveling (with friends!) and then the loot grind, I’m starting to look at other games to see what’s out there that might still satisfy that play style…

I’ll still stick around WoW, because I love the people I’ve played with the for the last three years, but I really need something more… hmm… satisfying? Or what’s the point?

I’ve spent the past month playing Aion with a really great group of people, but this past week, my mother flew in from California to visit and I found myself unable to log in.

And now, I find that I don’t really want to log in. I think, “Hmm… I have some downtime. I should play Aion and see how things are going.” But then I get distracted by something else– forums, email, housework, Google Reader, Order of the Stick –and I just don’t bother playing the game. When doing housework distracts me from playing an MMO, it’s time to start thinking about the value of that MMO!

My main problem with Aion is that PvP just isn’t that complex… or fun. I’m dreading logging on and seeing fortresses becoming vulnerable, because I know I’ll probably spend an hour sitting at an artifact, for 15 minutes of frantic PvP accompanied by disconnects, lag and people yelling at each other. I don’t like how some legions run past the guards to take on the diety just so they can get their name on the fortress. I don’t like how some legions don’t bother defending forts they’ve captured, but on the other hand, it’s hard to know when your legion’s fort is going to be vulnerable. I don’t enjoy feeling like I’m missing something if I’m not on when a fort goes vulnerable or that I’m not leveling fast enough to start fighting in the upper Abyss. I don’t like the way that healing, buffing and rezzing apparently give little or no contribution in fort battles. The only people I know who’ve earned contribution bonuses are melee dps and the healers who spam heal the tanks.

I really miss Warhammer’s scenarios, battle objectives, and open grouping. If I had a warband leader I didn’t care for, I could leave and join another open warband. In Aion, I spend most of my time ganking or being ganked while grinding in the Abyss. As a result, I’ve been logging on to alts more and more often.

But I love the people I play with, so I’m not sure what to do. I was willing to overlook Warhammer’s flaws (graphical issues, server and class imbalances) for so long because the lore was so rich, and the world was atmospheric (if buggy), and the people were wonderful. Friends are what kept me playing both WoW and Warhammer when my enjoyment of the games had ceased, and the lack of a social group is what led me to drop Age of Conan, and Lord of the Rings Online, though I really think they’re great games. I know I’m not the only one… At least three of my guildmates have quit Aion and gone back to Warhammer. Two of my WoW guildies who had joined us in Aion have gone back to WoW.

So I find myself looking at other games… It’s been so long since I’ve really been able to immerse myself in an MMO. I was in the beta for Fallen Earth, and I’m thinking about trying that out. I might go back to LoTRO too. My daughter would love to play with me, and LoTRO would be a good game for us both to play. It’s also the only MMO my husband has ever expressed an interest in playing, so maybe I could rope him in.

We’ll see.

I’ve gotten a number of messages in recent weeks asking where I’ve been! Thank you all so much for your concern, but everything is just fine. I moved to Minneapolis in August when my husband’s job was relocated, so between unpacking and getting adjusted to our new home, I haven’t had much time to write.

In September, I logged back into Warhammer for the first time since my move and found it felt sadly decayed. My server was like an old building with lots of character, where good memories were once formed, but now past its prime. Most of my guildmates were off playing Age of Conan or Chinese Aion or just biding their time waiting for the western release of Aion. The RvR map showed all tiers solidly locked by Order most of the time, with very few Destruction warbands roaming the RvR lakes. I noticed that morale would deteriorate quickly in the warbands that did venture out. I’d join a warband, they’d decide to take a battle objective or a keep, get rolled or wipe at the keep door, and the warband would dissolve as people found excuses to do other things. Sometimes someone would say, “Let’s go to . Since Order is here, we can take some objectives there.” I suspect Order was probably equally demoralized, because although they owned much of the map most of the time, they rarely seemed to put together an organized fort push. ( I also suspect that a tremendous amount of cross-realming was going on in the later months of my time at War.)

Uhm, sorry, but I play the game to fight. If I wanted to PvE, I’d play a different game. On the other hand, I agree that the lack of server and class balance in Warhammer is disheartening.

According to the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology, I’m a Killer/Socializer, with something like 73% Killer and 67% Socializer, which means I enjoy both PvP and hanging out with my friends. When I found out that most of my Warhammer guild, War Seekers, was moving over to Aion, I opted to go with them.

I rolled a chanter, which is a buffer/debuffer class, and as of last night, I’m level 26. I provide some melee dps, but my dps is less than the true melee classes. Instead, my role in a group is to buff my party primarily using aoe buffs called mantras. I can only have 3 mantras up at a time, so part of the challenge is choosing which mantras are best for a given situation, and being aware of when mantras need to be changed on the fly. My other role is to keep my debuffs on the enemy, and to then to offheal as necessary. I have two heals: a HoT and a bigger heal with a long cast time. Clerics, which are the true healing class in Aion, have a wider variety of faster and more mana efficient heals, as well as group heals.

I have lots of criticisms of Aion, but I’ll save those for another post. I *really* didn’t like having to PvE my way through the first 25 levels to get to the PvP portion of the game. It’s absolutely silly to have a PvP focused game make you spend hours grinding. Over and over, I wished there were scenarios, or battlegrounds, or something like Lord of the Rings monster play. If not for vent and legion chat, I probably would have gone nuts grinding. As an RPer, I don’t find the lore as immersive as games like War, WoW, LotRO or AoC. But there are some really good things about Aion too, and I’ll probably get into those at some point as well.

The best part of my Aion experience has been that some of my WoW guildmates joined my War Seekers. While the killer part of me is loving the PvP aspect of Aion, the socializer part of me is having a blast too now that I get to play with my friends from both WoW and War.

My little Necromancer hit level 37 in Age of Conan, but I haven’t played much over the past week. Part of that is due to preparing for a cross-country move on the 30th, and part of it is because I don’t have any social connections in AoC. I’m at a point where I feel kind of lonely. Global chat is incredibly bad, so I keep my combat tab flipped to the front which makes the game feel very quiet.

Last week, I logged out of AoC, and jumped in Warhammer, where my guild was putting together a warband to defend the Inevitable City against the inevitable push by Order. Within minutes, I was in vent, and in the warband.

As much as I like being able to solo, I’m really a social gamer at heart. If I don’t develop a strong social community within a game, I won’t stick around. As much as I’ve enjoyed playing some other games (Vanguard, DDO, AoC, LotRO), I have a hard time staying with them because I haven’t connected with the community. In smaller games with small communities, like Vanguard, that’s particularly difficult.

I’m also a fairly shy person in games (which is funny because I’m so NOT that way in real life). I don’t enjoying pugging, for the most part, and I don’t have a very thick skin. I need to feel like I’ve got a firm grasp on the mechanics of a game and my class before I jump into a group. That way, it’s no big deal if someone tells me to “l2p” because they’re just being a jerk. But if I’m actually learning to play, or feeling insecure about my abilities, then yeah… it irks.

In WoW, my first character hit 58 unguilded. I was at a point where I knew I’d quit unless I found a good group of people. There was *one* person on my friends list, a mage who asked me for directions a couple of months before, and afterward told me to pop him on my friends list.

I noticed he was a guild called “Shotgun Bunnies,” which seemed like a cool name for a guild, so I sent him a whisper. I was ridiculously nervous! I got a guild invite, and here we are almost three years later. My characters are all still in Shotgun Bunnies and I’m an elder, which is the rank just below the GM. In BC, our little social guild farmed Karazhan, downed Gruul’s a few times, and ventured into Serpentshrine. We had a tough time pulling together a 25 man, but we had a couple of great 10 man groups. We started out as a 10-man raid guild in Wrath, but after farming Naxx, OS and Vault, we fizzled out. A few key people quit the game or drifted off to other things, and a couple of people went to hardcore raid guilds where they could see more 25-man content.

But I still love those guys. For me, they ARE WoW. They’re the only reason I played as long as I did, and the only reason I still log in sometimes. Last year, I went to Blizzcon with one of them (my bud, Alicia). We met another guildie for dinner. We’re all friends on Facebook, and have a running group message thread going where we regularly trade links, chat, insult each other… and lately, talk about the mating habits of turtles. (Yeah… we’re a strange bunch.)

(I meet two of my guildies at Blizzcon 2008. I’m the short one on the left, with the Shotgun Bunnies shirt on.)

When I started playing Warhammer, after switching from Order to Destruction on Phoenix Throne, I shopped around guild adverts in the forums, and checked out lots of guild websites. I finally applied to a guild that I thought would be a good fit, but I’d never applied to a guild before, so that took me out of my comfort zone a bit. They ended up being a really great group of people, and I love playing with them. War Seekers is what largely what keeps me going back to WAR. A group of guildies is moving over to Aion in September, so I suspect I’ll be bouncing back and forth between both games.

It’s funny that in all my time playing MMOs, I’ve only ever really been in two guilds. I’m definitely not someone who enjoys guild hopping!

So now the question is do I like AoC enough to find a guild? I really don’t know.