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  • Confucius

    Guild Wars 2 To Basically Sell Gold 

    by
    Confucius
    Published on 03-20-2012 06:12 PM

    Today a new developer article was posted on the Guild Wars 2 site. The article talked about micro transactions and how they work in Guild Wars 2. The main thing that you get out of the article is that Guild Wars 2 will have three types of currency, the classic tradeable gold, untradeable karma (think honor or justice points), and tradeable gems that you buy from the store. Now these gems are not an item, they are an actual currency that is tradeable to other players and can be bought directly from Guild Wars 2.

    It seems like an okay platform, until you realize that these gems will most likely be traded for gold; in fact Arena Net hopes that is what players will do.

    This will greatly affect the game in many ways, for example the RMT industry for the game will most likely be non existent, or very cheap. And gold will have a lot less value as players can basically just buy it straight from Arena Net themselves.

    Here is the full article by Mike O'brien.

    In this monthā€™s closed beta event, weā€™ll do some early testing of the Guild Wars 2 microtransactions system. Our microtransaction content isnā€™t nailed down yet, but we have a good framework in place to support it. So, Iā€™d like to take a moment to explain our goals and the system we have developed to meet them.


    We believe in microtransactions because they fund ongoing development of the game in a very straightforward and open way. You, the customer, get to decide how much money you spend on the game after launch, based on how compelling it is to you. You get a complete and playable game no matter what, but we think we can provide additional content and services that youā€™d be happy to pay for. And when you pay for them, you help fund our support of Guild Wars 2 in a way that benefits all players of the game.


    Hereā€™s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But itā€™s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and itā€™s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
    I know none of this is new; the original Guild Wars also had microtransactions. But microtransactions were an afterthought in Guild Wars, whereas with Guild Wars 2, we had an opportunity to integrate the microtransaction system from the ground up, giving players more options and more convenience without sacrificing our design principles. So, hereā€™s what weā€™re doing differently this time.


    In Guild Wars 2 we have three currencies: gold, karma, and gems. Gold is the common in-game currency. Karma, which players earn in-game but cannot trade, is used for unique rewards. And gems are the currency thatā€™s bought and used to purchase microtransactions.


    We have a new player-driven market that allows players to trade gold for gems and gems for gold. If you want something, whether itā€™s an in-game item or a microtransaction, you ultimately have two ways to get it: you can play to earn gold or you can use money to buy gems. We think thatā€™s important, because it lets more players participate on a level playing field, whether they use their free time or their disposable income to do it.


    MMO veterans will note the similarities of our system to EVE Onlineā€™s PLEX system. As in that case, our system takes gold trading out of the hands of real-money trading (RMT) companies and puts it directly in the hands of players.



    We think thatā€™s a great thing.



    From a playerā€™s perspective, RMT companies have all the wrong motivations: the more money they make from selling gold, the more they spam ads in the game, run bot networks to farm gold, and hack accounts to loot them for gold. Conversely, under our system, players have all the right motivations. If a player buys gold from another player, he gets the gold he wants, the selling player gets gems she can use for microtransactions, and ArenaNet generates revenue from the sale of gems that we can use to keep supporting and updating the game. Everyone wins.


    We also like the tradability of gems and gold because it makes the rest of the gameā€™s economy more compelling. Weā€™ll have a player-to-player Trading Post in the gameā€”itā€™s like an auction house but betterā€”which weā€™ll discuss in an upcoming blog post. Because gems can be traded for gold and vice versa, we donā€™t need two different trading systems, one for gold and one for gems. In Guild Wars 2, everything on the Trading Post is traded for gold, but of course, somebody who wants to earn gems can just sell items for gold, and then convert the gold to gems.


    We have always taken our responsibility to players seriously with the original Guild Wars, and we will continue to do so with Guild Wars 2. We believe the foundation Iā€™ve described here is the right foundation for us to build upon, and we look forward to sharing more details with you in the future as we nail down our microtransaction content.
    -Mike Oā€™Brien
    What do you guys think about this?
    2 Comments

    Is Star Wars the Old Republic hurting itself? 

    by
    Confucius
    Published on 09-02-2011 07:50 PM



    Could Star Wars the Old Republic be hurting itself?! It certainly is possible. The game is known for its constant friday updates, but these updates could be doing more harm than justice to the up coming game, let me explain just how. At first many people were very excited over each Star Wars the Old Republic update, especially when they were first announcing the classes and advanced classes. But now, for many readers, the updates are constant let downs, instead of interesting new news about the game they have been waiting quiet some time for. Because of this it could be possible that Bioware is infact killing its own game before it's even ready for the real world!


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    Now don't get me wrong, Bioware doesn't have to update each friday and it is very nice that they do take the time to. But because of the fact they do people would expect a little more than a 2 minute video or some interview about a guild that is going to be in the game, before the game is even announced for release! For many it seems that instead of fridays being days they can't wait to come in order to discover new information about their favorite game to watch; it is instead becoming a day where players pray for a release date, beta info, or something interesting. Now I know many of you may enjoy the updates, and whatever little thing Bioware releases about the game, however for many seeing a video of others playing the game without even showing any game footage just isn't too appealing.So is Bioware killing the hype of Star Wars the Old Republic by delaying the release of a release date and other information we have been waiting for? Well we can look at this from two points of view.

    Bioware     is not killing the hype at all but instead building more and more that will be released in a frenzy of excitement when the release date is finally released, which will hopefully be very close to the time of the actual release date. By doing this Bioware can insure that they will get the maximum preorders in and the media coverage they want, it also gives them plenty of time to finish up the final touches to the game so that they can work at their own pace and avoid rushing. Also for the players who have stopped caring about Star Wars the Old Republic because of the dull updates, they will surely come back once they hear the release date.

    The other opinion could be that Bioware is destroying the game's hype and that many players are losing interest and faith in Bioware due to the boring updates. Thinking of this opinion we can look at how at first when the game was announced it was very exciting, then it was even more so once the first cinematic was released. Each week was a surprise as we learned more about the classes and how the game would work. Then the updates became dull for awhile until the preorder announcement was released when the hype increased greatly, with people hoping that next they surely must release a release date. However Bioware did not in the following weeks and the hype fell down as quickly as it surfaced. Using this opinion it seems that Bioware would have been better off announcing the game at a later date so they could skip the boring updates and go straight into the game's details then release date.

    Here is a graph showing how opinion's two idea of how hype increases with each announcement then decreases with the following announcements, causing people to lose interest in the game.It may not be very professional or accurate, but it does get the point across.

    My opinion on the matter is that Bioware is doing a fantastic job when it comes to making sure the is an update each week for us to read, however they are doing a pretty poor job at choosing a good topic that the majority of the community will enjoy, or even read. Hopefully in the coming weeks we can begin to see more interesting information coming out about the game as Bioware stated in E3 that they are still aiming for a 2011 release date for Star Wars the Old Republic and hopefully we can get that release date out of them soon. I know that the boring updates haven't affecting me too much and I still constantly check the swtor site every Friday in hopes for that golden release date or some other news I didn't even know I should have been excited for in the first place!

    But that's enough about me, what is your opinion on your matter, is Bioware handling the updates good, should they not release any unless they have something good to post, should they continue as they are doing, or should they simply try and devote more effort into longer more interesting articles and videos that the community would love to see?

    Please be sure to post below with you thoughts, as we'd love to hear them!
    4 Comments

    5 Upcoming MMOs and Why You Should Be Excited 

    by
    Confucius
    Published on 08-19-2011 12:35 PM

    This year certainly is a good year when it comes to announcements about new up and coming MMOs, and just many games in general. It seems the game industry is taking steps forwards and all these new MMOs coming out have some new never before seen feature that they hope will set them apart from the crowd, let's take a look at 5 of the most impressive looking up and coming MMOs and hopefully a few reasons as to why you should be excited about them! We'll talk about them in no particular order, and this is all on my own limited research so don't be mad if I don't include some MMO you are crazed about or I miss out on some important points! However as always feel free to post your opinions and thoughts below. Well that's enough boring talk, let's get started!

    Darkfall 2.0







    Ok, so it's not really a new MMO, but it is a major patch that the developers hope will completely change Dark Fall and fix everything people didn't like about the original game.


    First off if you don't know what made the original Darkfall game so great to some, let me explain. It's skill based, meaning that players do not have levels or classes like in most classic MMOs. Also it features full world pvp and the ability to loot the players you kill of their gear and items, like in minecraft kind of. Combat is also different, instead of classic wasd key movement then 1-= spells it's more like a fps shooter, where you move with wasd and then use mouse controlled functions to fight, that also control the camera, remember DC Universe online combat? The basic point of the game is for your clan to obtain territorial domiance over pre-made cities and villages. Your clan can declare war with another clan if you want to attack them, giving you realistic diplomacy control, and adding another level to the game. There is also non instanced player housing throughout the world, and the world itself is pretty large. The mobs are not many like in World of Warcraft and they do have better intelligence using real battle strategies and often calling for help or retreating. Which brings up another point of the game, to make combat as realistic as possible including having to use real war strategies and not just rushing in like battlegrounds in World of Warcraft. There are dungeons, like in most MMOs, but they are not instanced, as with many first gen MMOs such as everquest, however the entire game world is seamless so you will never see a loading screen, which is pretty cool in my opinion. Another cool thing is how armor affects how easily the enemy can see you, for example if you are trying to sneak into combat wearing plate armor, it won't work very well as it will reflect the sunlight and make clanking noises, however if you are wearing different armor and stick to the shadows it can be very effective as combat is in a first person view and it is up the a player's keen eye to spot you.

    Well then what's so great about darkfall 2.0? Well I think it would be better just for me to show you myself, as I have never played the actual game and probably cannot stress or give input on how these changes will really affect the game play for the average player. So here we are!

    Today, weā€™ll talk a bit about some of the changes that are already implemented. This is far from everything thatā€™s going in to Darkfall 2.0, or what is changing. These are some of the points weā€™ll be giving more details on and discussing with you in the weeks to come. Thanks to Adam, Elias, and George P. for the information and Vagelis for putting it together.

    • Character skill set customization and role selection through the implementation of Darkfallā€™s new armor system and through attribute boost via achievements: What armor you wear greatly affects which skills you can use effectively and it makes others ineffective. Youā€™re highly specialized in one role making your character extremely efficient and effective in that role. The major attribute boost works exponentially to give your character access to special items and weapons setting him further apart from the hybrids. New skills are going to be added, and redundant ones will be removed from the game.
    • Skill and attribute gains have changed considerably. If a new player focuses on a single role, he will excel at that role in a relatively short time frame through casual play. More options and more roles will become available to him. Players can use one specialization at a time however.
    • Crafting System Overhaul: More customization options, visual cues as to what players are wielding as equipment rank is visually distinguishable. Increased importance of rare ores through infusion of other materials and closer correlation of ore rank and equipment rank. Gems are also a lot more important since theyā€™ll be used in enchanting.
    • Thereā€™s a great increase in player housing spots and a more meaningful connection between villages and player holdings.
    • The world map has been completely changed. This isnā€™t simply about moving locations around, itā€™s about changing the geography of the world. Monster spawns have been redistributed so they are more relevant, and all NPC and player holdings have been completely redesigned.
    • Combat dynamics are much more tactical now. Changes affect several skills like blocking and disabling blow, and introduce new mechanics such as momentum and crosshair wobble.
    • Complete redesign of the magic schools and their physics with clearly defined roles to spells, opposing magic schools, ability to assume different roles in combination with the attribute boost system (damage dealer, healer etc.). The magic system is built to promote cooperation among players.
    • Complete redesign of most dungeons. New dynamic elements such as traps, moving objects and one-way doors have been implemented.
    • Changes to the grid of teleportation chambers. No chambers exist in player holdings anymore and they are strategically placed to enhance PvP tactics.
    • More changes to the Alignment system: Lawful areas are limited to the immediate vicinity of racial capitals and surrounding NPC faction cities. Thereā€™s an increase in the lawful area protection with increased tower coverage.
    • The incapacitation system (gank/decapitation/revive rules) is revised in order to improve player PvP and PvE experience.
    • There have been adjustments to physics to achieve more realistic results.
    • All item properties, numeric values, calculation formulas and the like are completely redone.
    • Weā€™ve introduced a new Graphical User Interface which includes both new visual elements and new functionality. It offers a streamlined experience to the players alleviating all shortcomings of the previous one.
    • A new map tool with a lot of information added including vendor locations and items for sale.
    • Serious improvements to the new player experience, including training quests on all basic aspects of the game.
    • More changes to the new siege system weā€™ve already described.
    • Redesigned monsters, monster families, monster abilities, and all loot tables redone from scratch.
    • A new lighting system and new visual effects.
    • New environmental audio system and many additions and replacements to existing sounds. New area based music.
    • Changes in models, textures, animations and most visual aspects of the game.


    These are just brief mentions on exciting and sweeping changes compared to the existing game. These changes, along with the ones weā€™re not talking about yet, are the products of years of experience with Darkfall, lessons learned, and thousands of pieces of feedback from the community. In the coming weeks weā€™ll present each of these points in depth, with specific information on the mechanics of each point.
    As for our current activity, weā€™re fighting some bugs in the new siege system which are pushing our ETA back again. Weā€™ll keep you posted on our progress with that.
    Thank you for reading.



    Guild Wars 2










    Hopefully by now you have heard about this little master piece that NCSoft and Arena Net have been cooking up, but in case you actually do live under a rock here's some little information for you.

    Obviously it's the up coming sequel to Guild Wars, but aside from the obvious what Guild Wars 2 hopes to pull off will certainly change the MMO forever, if done right. So what role do you want to play, DPS, Healer, or Tank? If you answered non of the above then Guild Wars 2 is for you! In fact Guild Wars 2 hopes to completely eliminate the classic trio of roles in almost every MMO ever made. They also hope to pull off another amazing feat, full environment interaction. "But wait Confucius World of Warcraft already has this!" No my dear friend you are wrong! In World of Warcraft you can sit down in a chair and that's about it, in Guild Wars 2, you can not only sit in that chair, but pick it up, and smash it in someone's face. But that's not all! It has realistic outcomes, for example after you hit someone with the chair, maybe the leg you were hold it from breaks off from the rest of the chair, now you have a leg you can use to bash the next guy coming at you and so on. This feature sounds amazingly awesome and should in fact be one of the coolest things ever done in an MMO, but once again only if they can get it right. Because really it would seem kind of lazy if you could interact with only chairs and rocks but not that big appeasing log over there. From what I have seen and heard so far Guild Wars 2 certainly does look very amazing and hopefully it will have jump! Of course I cannot do such a massive new gen MMO justice in this small teaser article, so please do check more out at guildwars2.com. Over the next few months we will defiantly begin to see some new major news and exciting things coming out about the game, and hopefully some beta invites! "Hey, wait, wait, wait, Confucius where is my well explained information about the game?" Right here: Guild Wars 2 - Guild Wars Wiki (GWW)

    TERA








    This MMO is only up and coming for the US and Europe, if you're in south korea then you're already enjoying the game, if you're not then you're going to have to wait until 2012 to play it!

    TERA, which stands for The Exiled Realm of Arborea features yet another different combat system, akin to console combat, where the player attacks other players with crosshairs and there is no auto attack, however there are special moves. It is up to the player to dodge attacks and the combat is fast paced and intense. Despite targeting enemies with crosshairs, the game is in fact in third person view. It also offers quests and crafting just like pretty much every other MMO. You can use your standard keyboard or mouse to play this game or you can use your xbox 360 controller instead. Just like in DC Universe online, however I am not aware of any plans for this game to go console as well as pc. There really isn't much to say about this MMO, other than you can watch out for it in 2012 and if it sounds interesting to you, it's probably worth buying because some of NCSoft's top devs are also working on this game. Since I'm not giving tons of info on this game here is a bit of lore for you fans out there!

    About a millennia ago two omnipotent titans Arun and Shara entered into formless voids and for reasons we can only guess, fell asleep. The titans started to dream. Dream of a world that took form on their backs known as Tera. The first beings to call Tera home were twelve godlike beings dreamt up by the titans, but it wasnā€™t long before the gods started fighting. As the dream continued new creatures took place called mortals, they were less powerful but far more numerous. Arun dreamed of ambitious Elves, clever Humans, honor bound Amani, powerful Giants, scheming Devas, and mischievous Poporis. Shara dreamed of sly Sikandari, dark Gulas and Vampirs, fierce Wendigos, strange Faeries, and serpentine Nagas. The mortals were forced into the divine wars of the gods, which eventually left the gods dead, imprisoned, or otherwise diminished. The mortal races didnā€™t escape unscathed. Someā€”like the Sikandari, and most of the Giantsā€”were wiped out but others rose from the wars such as the Barakas and Castanics. Now that the gods were gone the seven races; Amani, Barakas, Castanics, Elin, High Elves, Humans, and Poporis must band together to fend off a new enemy. A metallic race from the underworld called Argons; their goal is to take over Tera and wake the titans to end their dreams and destroy Tera.

    Titan





















    Not much is known about Titan, other than it is Blizzard new MMO that is being worked on by some of the senior devs of World of Warcraft, and by senior devs we mean the amazing epicly guys who made World of Warcraft what it was back in the day.

    "So Confucius why are you including Titan? Are you just too lazy to go find another MMO to write about?" No, that's not it, it's because Titan is being made by Blizzard. That itself is reason enough to include it in this article, and Blizzard also claims it will be a new gen MMO, and when it's Blizzard saying this it could really have some big inclinations. Given the slow decline of World of Warcraft, Titan may in fact kill Blizzard's unkillable, if it is what it claims to be. We know nothing of Titan at the moment other than the fact that it is going to have a completely new story and will not have any relationship to any other Blizzard game. Also Blizzard has stated that this game will be geared towards casual players, leaving the possibility that WoW will not completely die as the elitist may prefer to stay there inside their evil little homes. Sorry for such the short write on Titan, but that is really all we know at the moment. Just be watching out for it in the next few years, maybe we'll be shocked at what we see, and hopefully in a good way.



    Star Wars the Old Republic









    More hype?! Yes! I'm sorry but I just couldn't resist my little hipster friend.

    Pretty much everyone who hasn't been inside a rock all their life knows what Star Wars the Old Republic by now, and probably don't want to be bored by yet another summary of the game, so I'll try to be brief. Star Wars the Old Republic is being produced by Bioware and EA games as a brand new MMO based on the old republic era of Star Wars, duh. Bioware says it will set the game apart because of the emphasis on story, which hopefully it will. Players will be able to play as empire or republic and can be a many of the notable professions seen in star wars cannon, such as a jedi knight, sith warrior, bounty hunter, smuggler and more. This is Bioware's first step into the MMO world from the RPG world and that is a very big step, so hopefully they will pull through as they almost always some how seem to do.

    Ok enough with the summary and stuff lets get into some details. Star Wars the Old Republic is available for pre-order now at many major retailers. And EA says as the game release draws closer they will begin starting more beta testing weekends, so your chance of getting picked for the sacred test is drawing closer. The hype of Star Wars the Old Republic is very high due to three reasons, one it's bioware, two it's star wars, three the combination of the previous two makes the game appeal to long time gamers and just star wars fans in general, and so there is a massive amount of possible costumers for ea to draw from. Many people who have not yet played it are sure it's the all sought after World of Warcraft killer, but those who have beta tested it are not so sure, and lets be frank, the claim has been made many times before.

    However even if it doesn't kill World of Warcraft, it is still a great game to watch and one that many people will surely get some fun out of, let's hope bioware just doesn't mess up like sony did with star wars galaxies, we star wars fans get angry when people don't listen to us. Anyways we can expect a release date soon, as Bioware said they are still aiming for a 2011 release date, which may also explain World of Warcraft upping it's game to avoid losing all their players lately, which says a lot if Blizzard is afraid of this game. Whether you love to hate it or hate to love it or love it all the same Star Wars the Old Republic certainly is a big MMO contender and we can expect, hopefully, great things soon.





    I hope you enjoyed reading about these up coming MMOs, please do also discuss any other up coming ones that you are excited about, and if you are excited about the ones above please do post some comments as to why, your opinions are always welcomed. As always I hope you enjoyed the read and maybe learned something (not likely). Remember, have a nice day.
    5 Comments

    Star Wars the Old Republic's New Trailer: Join the Fight 

    by
    Confucius
    Published on 07-22-2011 08:16 AM

    Today swtor has released their new trailer at comic con, and I must say it does not live up to the cinematics at all, which I believe is one of the only reasons this game has so much hype. As soon as the video started playing I started laughing, the voices are just not that good, and the imperial agent looks like a high school super nerd. Anyways I'm sure you will still want to see it and maybe someone here can enjoy it.

    We are excited to present Join the Fight, an all-new in-game trailer for Star Warsā„¢: The Old Republicā„¢ that premiered at San Diego Comic-Con 2011.


    The uneasy peace established by the Treaty of Coruscant is broken and both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire build their armies. As both sides prepare for open war, a new generation of heroes must rise up to meet the challenges of a volatile age, declaring their allegiances and fighting for what they believe in.


    If you canā€™t join us in San Diego, be sure to check back here throughout the convention for more updates. You can also follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook to get the latest updates straight from the convention floor.



    The uneasy peace established by the Treaty of Coruscant is broken and both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire build their armies. As both sides prepare for open war, a new generation of heroes must rise up to meet the challenges of a volatile age, declaring their allegiances and fighting for what they believe in.


    From San Diego Comic-Con 2011: Watch the new game trailer, Join the Fight, and choose your side!



    As you can see the video doesn't really live up to anyone's expectations least in my opinion, it almost made me reconsider playing the game at all and certainly pre-ordering as well. Hopefully the game is better than this trailer shows it to be.

    Sorry if I sound rude, mean, negative, or whatever I was just stating my honest opinion, this is a game I have been following for years and this trailer was a huge let down!

    Please comment below and discuss your thoughts on this new trailer!
    7 Comments
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