Syp announced his flushies-Awards for 2009.

WAR did only get the Fall from Grace Award and I can partly understand why.

Did WAR fall? Surely if you expected it to become a WoW-Killer or DAoC v2. The layoffs didn’t support an overly positive impression too.  Subscription numbers seem to be really low (compared to the expectations). All in all WAR dropped not only on the hype-meters, but also in the perception of most MMO-interested of being an alternative to any other MMO.

Many stuff happened in the past year and much has changed. LotD was being hyped (by Mythic) and died before it really set foot in the game..at least for me. It’s just a leveling-zone with few RvR actions going on and a zone where I search for the Runepriest Healing staff .;)

If I look back I think that WAR has changed a lot and it’s getting better and better.. Sure.. Mythic did some terrible decisions (more city sieges anyone? *cough*), but the game is just a lot of fun. Performance is at an acceptable level, though it really gets laggy when you have all the players in one pairing.  Like yesterday, when Order locked the Dwarf/Greenskin pairing and Destruction locked Empire/Chaos. In Eataine some of my spells just didn’t finish because of the lag, but in the normal fights with not more than 4 warbands involved performance is really good.

When both realms bring enough people on the battlefield the game is a blast. What I really like is that nowadays you can find some group-action, i.e. Destruction has some guild-groups so our guild-groups find some small-scale RvR fights. There is action on all fronts in a RvR zone and there’s not always one single zerg per realm that is roaming through the zone… When I log on I can hop onto a zerg-train or find some small-scale action, just as I like. No rule without exception… City sieges ruin my gaming-time ;)

Is Syp’s …Award for WAR justifiable? Sure. WAR did fail on many fronts and couldn’t fulfill many of the high expectations for it. Layoffs being  an indicator for failing and falling..

Does this mean that the game is not fun? No.. Mythic has done some stuff really good and though I can understand that it’s not for everyone, I enjoy the game.

Yitu asked me to answer this here on my blog..

(German)

Was mich zu der Fragestellung führt: Was bleibt wenn man ein MMO beendet? Wenn man EVE, WoW, WAR, AoC usw. usf. beendet? Welche Eindrücke bleiben? Nur ein MMO-Museum?

Wenn ich meine Tabletop-Figuren auspacke, dann habe ich “etwas in der Hand”. Wenn ein MMO-Acc. beendet wird, dann hat man… was? Wie kann man Erinnerungen an seine MMO-Erlebnisse am besten / leichtesten / einfachsten Konservieren?

(English translation.. Just written down by me.. so if I’ve done anything wrong blame me ;))

What leads to this question: What remains if you quit a MMO? If you stop playing EVE, WoW, WAR, AoC, etc..? What impressions remain? Just a MMO-Museum?

If I grab my Tabletop-Figures, then I hold something in my hands. If my MMO-subscriptions runs out, then remains…what? How can you conserve a MMO-Experience best/easiest?

I have quitted some online games now and never tried to conserve any of the stuff that happened there. Well..that’s not right.

I didn’t write down anything, saved screenshots, etc.. just for the purpose of having something to look back. Somewhere I have some combat logs from the MUDs I’ve played. Lately I stumbled upon some screenshots I took when playing WoW..and I’m blogging about WAR (and STO).. but this is not meant to be a form of solidifying the essence of the experience when playing.

The only thing that really keeps the fun of a MMO experience alive are the many nice people I’ve met and played together with. Just as the web keeps information alive by spreading it around, it’s talking to people with whom you had some nice gaming experiences which brings back the fun, excitement, etc…. of that special MMO moment you don’t want to forget.

So I don’t need a physical thing after I quit a MMO. It’s more than enough that I meet new people and keep in contact with (at least) some of them after I quit that game. This is the most important thing in online gaming (and blogging) for me. This social element is the thing that differs from a single-player to a MMO.. It’s not the need for grouping.. loot..items..ranks etc..

World’s first kill/highest item/rank is nothing if you have no one to share the experience with…and I don’t mean bragging about it.

From the patch notes for Warhammer Online 1.3.3

Key Mappings: A new key mapping option, ‘Toggle Walk’, has been added to the Movement key mapping tab, this allows players to toggle between running and walking.

It took only something over a year for this ;)

As always I don’t comment so much about the obvious, game changing stuff like the Underdog System. There is enough little weird stuff to be mentioned.

Some of you might have noticed that I don’t write much about crafting.. some not because I don’t write so much anyways ;)

There is one topic which really for me is a..don’t-like-it-feature that every MMO needs to have.. It’s crafting. I really hate it.. I’ve enjoyed some blacksmithing or mining in WoW, but in general it tends to be just a real painful grind. Therefore I don’t do it so much and don’t care about it.

Another thing that really annoys me about crafting is it’s effect on the economy in the game… I’ve never been a fan of player run economy. Most often I find the pricing people put on stuff too weird. I understand it that they put high prices for stuff they’ve made which took them some grinding etc.. but most of the time the prices tend to be just irrational.

Funny thing to note..The only game that differs for me in that aspect is Eve. It’s all about capitalism and the whole economy stuff just fits (from what I’ve seen in my 2 weeks test). This is the only game where I thought that I maybe should try to be a trader..

So… long story short.. STO has crafting and player run economy…

Strategy Informer: There are several areas of the game you’re not commenting on or have stated are still being “worked on”, like the Economy, will you be using this period to test those out?

Craig Zinkievich: We’re looking to develop an economy that is deep but very much in the Trek genre. Gathering resources, inventing technology and understanding alien technology – and then trading those items and knowledge – will be the basis of the economy. These are being tested internally and eventually will be in the beta as well. (source)

STO being heavy combat oriented seems ok with the setting Cryptic presented in the history line. Crafting and economy..especially on Federation side seems.. too much out of the line from the Federation we all know or at least that I know. It’s not about profit or money (forgot what currency Cryptic will use..) If you are not Ferenghi, than money should be not your main goal..

Just for a second.. Think of Cpt. Sisko farming stuff to sell it to Quarks. Cpt. Picard negotiating with a Romulan about the price of a crate full of Romulan Ale or unknown technology. Even better.. Cpt. Picard selling Cpt. Sisko some stuff that he really needs. Does this fit? *shudders*

Some MMO standards just don’t fit to every IP… so does a player run economy in now reasonable way fit to the Federation or general Star Trek theme…unless there are plenty of Ferenghi out there.

Cryptic changed the webpage for Star Trek Online.

With this changes they also put on some videos online.. most of them known, but one I haven’t seen before. It’s Starship Tactics: One.

It’s a nice video which shows some fighting going on.. in some scenes you can see the UI. It’s looks something crowded at first, but interesting.

So with all those fighting going on I get more interested in how the diplomacy parts will be. Will I have choices as a captain or will it be the ..well-known.. linear quest chain in an episode? Cryptic is still somewhat silent about that aspect of the game. Most of the time it’s about fighting and the rest is only mentioned briefly, i.e. diplomacy and exploration…

If you look at the Klingon trailer on the video page, you’ll see that diplomacy will not play a big role for them … ;)