Guess who’s bored!

This guy is!

After what seems to be an eternity of not posting anything really worthwhile, I’ve decided to challenge myself each week to write an article. This week (or entire series, I haven’t decided yet) I’m going to go through both the plots and gameplay of RPGs from Eastern developers and Western developers. The games I’m more then likely going to analyze are Persona 4 and Mass Effect (1 and 2), and how each one has their strengths and weaknesses. 

As you all may be aware, Bioware is making an MMO based on its Knights of the Republic series. And EA is publishing it. I’m not hear to really discuss the gameplay (since I’ve only seen videos of it, and videos don’t equal gameplay), but instead about their interesting take on releasing the game.

In case you didn’t know, EA is planning to roll out a ‘limited’ number of pre-orders, so that the servers and developers can handle the estimated millions of players looking forward to playing it. I don’t know the actual numbers, but I’m going on the assumption that some people wont be able to get the game. They’re also releasing three versions, a Collectors Edition, a Deluxe Edition, and just a plain Retail Edition. The pricing for the three go as follows : $150 for the Collectors Edition (already sold out on Origin, EA’s store), $80 for the Deluxe Edition, and $60 for the standard.

Now I have little doubt SwToR will be a good game, but the game is already shooting itself in the foot (yes, the game shot first) and its not even released yet. If you’re going to go up against a behemoth of a game like WoW, you need to try and suck up as many ‘influential friends’, followed by the friends of those players as quickly as possible. MMO content is half the reason people play MMOs; the other half is players/friends. Most people quit MMOs because their friends quit, and usually do it in mass. If you’re only able to get one person of a group in, you better hope the limited release is short, otherwise I’m betting those people will quit fairly quickly. The best thing to do, honestly, is prepare for the worst and don’t have a scaled release. Even if the servers go down, odds are players will be playing with their friends when they’re available. This should be the main reason for beta testing, to stress out your infrastructure as much as possible, not tweak the game. You (hopefully) have had enough time to do that in development and with your army of QA people. 

Now onto the second point of this discussion, the price. I understand you need to cover costs, but dear god, you’re starting to pinch as much money as you can. The only game I know of for the PC that was marked at $60 minimum was Starcraft II, and that had as much hype as ever. For an MMO, you want the barrier to entry as low as possible. Granted, its $10, but some people will put off getting it, suggesting that they’ll wait for the price to drop. You never, ever, EVER, want people to wait to play for your game. You want as many people as you can get, no matter what. Like I said, 50% of the MMO experience is the gameplay, the other half is players. You don’t want to make this game out of reach just because its too high priced. Heck, the Collector’s Edition of Starcraft 2 was $100. Offering three different versions, each with INGAME content (I’m going on the guess that they will affect gameplay) makes the player feel like hes already in the hole if he starts off with the standard edition. If I had control (god forbid), I would still make three editions, but reduce the price on the Deluxe and remove any item that affects the gameplay, and remove the benefits of the Collectors Edition (such as the store) and keep the cosmetics (statue, music CD, artwork etc). That way, players don’t feel like they’re starting off at a disadvantage by going with the standard game.

tl;dr Read above.

Well, originally, this whole post was going to be devoted to about how old people can’t understand video games nowadays, and how simulation games will always outsell story based games, but I got bored and I wanted to rip off Extra Credits.

These are games that have influenced my way of thinking about what games are, or what they can be. In no ways are these games suggestions for people to play, because I’m demanding people play them if they haven’t. I’ll try and keep niche games to a minimum, but be warned, there will be a few.

World of Warcraft (Playtime Required : Enough to understand addiction)

Honestly, if you haven’t even touched WoW before, try it, at least for the free trial. The amount of variety in the quests, or how it eases you in while explaining how to play your class is all top notch. Also, another thing to try is getting into the community, and then cutting off those relationships. I can assure you right now that feeling from cutting off WoW is just like moving out of a town you’ve been growing up in. Thats the main part of how it still has 12 million + subscribers, because you’ll always have those buddies who play it.

Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater (Playtime Required : 20-40 hours)

If you want an cinematic masterpiece in a video game format, look no further then MGS3. I’m pretty sure this is the only video game thats actually made me cry at the end. The story, character development, graphics, all are top notch. This should be the basis on which all action adventure games should be based on.

Battlefield 2 or Battlefield 2142 (Playtime Required : Its multi-player, figure it out yourself)

I’m sorry all of you CoD fans, but you’ve been playing a dumbed down shooter for quite some time. If you want a tactical experience, with ACTUAL warfare, then look no further then BF2. This game, in its prime days, was a beast. Jets flying overhead, tanks shelling a control point, helicopters dropping in reinforcements, this game made you feel like you’re fighting a large scale battle in a usually small scale map, as well as making each player doing a vital role in that battle.  If Battlefield 3 can capture 50% of its predecessor, I imagine I will have found my new time sink.

Rise of Nations (Playtime Required : Pretend you’re playing Civ 5)

An excellent blend of both Civilization based tech trees and the real time strategy of Age of Empires, this game had it all.

Persona 4 (Playtime Required : 60 hours, or if you’re me, 90 hours)

I’m pretty much putting this in here because Nate would whine if it wasn’t. But the soundtrack should be praised, as well as succeeding in putting visual novel elements in an RPG.

The Ship (Playtime Required : None, since its pretty much dead)

If you just read about The Ship, that would be enough. The core game play remained intact, with the exception of some glaring missteps, kept this an interesting game. The idea of another player hunting you down, and you not knowing who they were, kept the tension up in this aquatic murder house.

More to come when I’m not sleeping on my keyboardlkjdfkjlanfkjabnkjf;angowo3

Well, thats certainly attractive.