Those February doldrums…

It’s February again and I’m feeling restless… the current offering of MMOs doesn’t seem to hold my interest and while WoW does a good job of killing time I can feel the need for some more excitement. I’m still enjoying my nightly Sc2 adventures but on the MMO front…. meh…. but then again its February and I tend to get that way every year right around now so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise.

I’ve been revisiting shortly some old MMOs like Lotro and Conan of all things but they didn’t keep my interest for more than a big 30 minutes. I even thought about trying out Eve online and then remembered I’d have to mine forever and then get ganked by a raging troll so I’ll skip. TSW is still present in my mind but I want to wait until I get my new PC so it can be a more smooth experience…

So… like I said, I’m restless. Nothing seems to fit and I get critical of everything coming my way. I’ll get out of it at some point but until then, do forgive this blog for being a bit quieter.

Looking for MMO where group questing is fun

The title says it all. I’ve been pondering lately about how much fun/easy some MMOs make it to group up and just quest with friends.  WoW isn’t horrible but the whole thing feels like a giant faceroll so I’m not sure how fun it really is. Others games like TSW make it feel somewhat awkward despite what should be an easy time. Investigation quests and stealth quest are just not that much fun in a group.

So I’m wondering, does any of you know of a MMO where questing with a friend or two is just great fun without it needing to be convoluted? I’m really curious here.

The first rule is… I have no idea what I’m doing

Back in WoW, I finally managed to land a Brawler’s Guild invite after watching the black market auction house like a hawk for an hour or so the other night. For the low low price of only 6.8k gold, I got myself the right to fight more monsters in an arena and pretend I’m the most awesome monster killer ever.

Turns out that these guys hit hard… Sure the first few fights are a matter of “stay out of the bad” mostly but it didn’t take long before I started to die with some regularity. Sure my gear could use improvement(a lot in fact…) but I’m wondering if it’s even designed to be done by all classes. I’m a warrior and I can see how my old DK would have an easier time.

Anyway, any of you guys have any advice about how to go about this whole Brawler buiseness?

Sc2 challenge update and other things

After three weeks of Sc2 I ‘m slowly getting in the groove of things. I play a few matches most days with some practice and even if I don’t always feel like I’m making a ton of progress I know I am so it’s all good. I’m ranked 7 in my division and seem to be able to hold my own up there, I’m facing gold opponents nearly all the time and I get a few silvers here and there and I can usually beat them without much trouble. I haven’t seen any platinum opponents yet but I’m suspecting it won’t be long before I face them if things keep going like they are. Long story short, I just need to keep at it.

The MMO front is pretty quiet. I log in quickly most days and do a few things but I’m usually not staying very long. It’s not that I’m bored or tired of WoW, just that lately I get distracted by other shiny stuff. In fact if I go by past years, I tend to have a slump right around this time and it picks back up a few weeks later.

So that’s it for me, hope you guys are enjoying yourselves.

World of ElderCraft of the old Scrolls

/puts flame resistant coat

So I’m looking ahead at the future MMO titles coming our way and I’m not super impressed. City of Steam is gathering some momentum due to its steam/fantasy/punk roots but it feels too much like a giant cash sink for me to get excited.

Then we have Elder Scrolls online which a lot of you seems to be real excited about and I cannot grasp why at all.

So…. what’s exactly new in here? It’s a warrior type guy fighting a big monster in what looks like a classic MMO fight.  I mean, I’m reading all I can find on the website and so far I’ve only seen the same exact things we’ve seen before in WoW, Rift, Swtor et all. There’s level, endgame, raids, craft, etc… etc…

Don’t get me wrong, it could be a very well executed “MMO we’ve all played before” but why get super excited about it? If anything, Swtor proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that even with the best IP ever backing you, you are not immune to the same flaws as all the other MMOs.

So… why all the excitement???

Starcraft 2 challenge, here comes the wall

Second week of my 2013 Sc2 challenge and what was bound to happen happened, I met my first wall. It’s not big surprise really and I had read multiple people talking about how the general flow of improving oneself in Sc2 goes. You read some new strat or valuable insight, you apply it, see rapid gains for a little while and then you reach your next plateau.

So right now I’m solidly placed in gold, hovering between rank 20 and 10 of my league depending on the results of my latest games. Sometimes I have good days where I win more than I lose and others I have bad days like yesterday where I lose four games in a row. Like I said, it’s nothing surprising and it’s only indicative that I’m pretty much where I belong according to my current skill.

I believe in the plan

Macro is still my main focus even if I’m not feeling a lot of progress on that front lately. I’m still practicing the same build I was from a week ago and even if I know I did make some progress on that front I would have liked more. I come within inches of meeting the deadlines most games but I’m still not quite there and I still have some games where I forget about doing some critical step. I think I need to rewatch the guides and practice a bit more solo to get back on schedule on that particular front and not be sidetracked.

On the good news side of things, I’m seeing more and more mid-game, late-game scenarios and I feel like I’m doing better at countering the various builds even if I don’t always get the win in the end. Where before I would be crushed by the first wave of banelings/roach, now it takes five or six of them to finish me off.

In the end, I know I’m improving and I just have to stick with it until I can make it to the next step.

 

What if LFR had a MMR?

I was talking last weekend to someone about how I’d probably love to be able to raid with a hardcore crew where I wouldn’t have to handle raid leading or tell people to gear up or any of the stuff I often have to do in more casual groups. That I’d love to only have to worry about my numbers, my gear and leave it at that. You might be tempted to tell me to find such a guild but I have a big problem… I simply cannot and don’t want to commit to a set schedule of raiding… and all the more serious raiding guilds do ask that you be present at the raids.

I started thinking about all of this, about how I’d love to be able to raid with people of similar skill level to mine but without having to follow a set schedule of raids. I started thinking that I’d love to be able to hit the LFR button and be matched with people of similar skill level and be able to run a few harder raids. I’m pretty certain I’m not the only one who would love that.

But how do we achieve this? Why not take a page out of RTS and Moba games and have a MMR (match making ranking) value for each of us? We’re already edging in that direction with the gear level requirements but why not take this further? Assign a value based on gear, on dps done, on unavoided damage and anything else relevant. Make it so that if my score is good enough I can queue up for hardmode version of the LFR.

I’m curious to see what everyone thinks about this. I know there’s some who will say it would split the community, would turn people into bigger asshats but still, I  think the idea has some merit.