Category Archives: Games
Is leveling antiquated? Or am I just getting old?
I’ve always been a huge MMO nerd, that’s no secret. One thing I have noticed, though, is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to deal with the typical process of becoming uber which 9.9/10 times means hitting max level first. I’ve found myself becoming increasingly frustrated and impatient with the ordeal.
I question if the idea of leveling is becoming old or if it’s just me.
I’ve always hated leveling, from day one. I’ve only ever maxed out characters in two MMOs, despite having played many; Guild Wars and WoW. It usually took me months to get it done for each character. The common denominator is that I did so during my early years of college or during summer / winter breaks when I had a lot of time.
The carrot on the stick is so shiny...!
Since then, I’ve grown up a bit. Now that I’ve joined the 9-5 workforce, I find that if I’m not already tired, I’d rather spend my precious few hours / free days of waking life doing something else. Writing, coding, drawing, reading, seeing the outside world (the sun!? what?!), or maybe just sleeping. It isn’t a bad thing or a knock to those who do the whole 9-5, raising septuplets spiel on top of hardcore gaming at all. I just think my priorities have shifted of late and I’m hitting that “mmo-burnout” that lots of people are talking about.
While my own factors may play a huge role, I’m sure, I can’t help but wonder how other people feel. One big problem is that every MMO feels the same these days, and with more and more coming out to try and vie for a top-spot, you have to wonder how many times are gamers going to be willing to do the same grind over and over again before they really just stop. Maybe that’s why so many new MMOs are failing.
Gamers want an alternative to WoW. They’ve been screaming for one for years now. The problem is every MMO seems to try the emulate what is about WoW that’s successful and that drives gamers nuts. On the same token, anything truly novel and unique from WoW’s model has to be so far outside the comfort zone of said gamers that they find the transition difficult and give up. It’s like the same demographic of people complaining about quality TV but then go and torrent their favorite shows and wonder why it gets cancelled.
Just five more levels and I can get a REAL mount...
When I game, I want content, not grind. I don’t have time to. If I had to start over in WoW or GW, I’d probably pass. I’ve tried Rift and Aion, haven’t gotten past level 23 or 12 in either, respectively. And it’s difficult to talk about the subject with other gamers because most often it’s the trollish “leveling isn’t hard, you’re just bad.”
Well, leveling isn’t hard, but if it’s boring and grindy, what’s the point? You learn your class while leveling, sure, but I find it hard to believe that there’s no other way to go about the learning process.
I’ve vowed not to play any new MMO until GW2 comes out. Knowing that a large 1-80 grind is in store for me when it does, I decided that it’d be best not to force myself to avoid another burn-out before it releases.
What do you guys think? Is the concept of leveling antiquated? Is there any way to make an alternative system or to make the leveling experience better?
Realm of the Fae Adventure
Did RotF with the Guild tonight. I like it, it’s pretty fun. The final fight was cool. Took 2 videos:
One of the boss fights.
Rift Rogue Leveling
I mentioned yesterday that leveling as a melee rogue sucks. Maybe I”m just doing it wrong, but the consensus either way is that it’s easier to start out as a ranger.
After it took me something obnoxious like 15 hours to get to level 16 I decided to go ahead and get my ranger soul. Basically once you hit 13, you can head to your faction’s major city (Sanctum, in my case) and find the trainer for the rest of your classes’ souls. Grab one, go fight in a rift, summon your corrupted self, defeat, and profit. This is also a good time to grab a second role to switch back and forth (either pve / pvp or solo play / group play).
I messed around with talent trees and came up with this for starting out:
-
Level 18 Ranger Spec
- Level 18 Ranger Spec Zam Soul Calculator
In riftstalker, I chose 5/5 Unseen Fury for the extra AP. At low levels it would seem direct AP will up your DPS more than stacking dexterity (that becomes more viable once your gear has more stats). In bladedancer I went 3/5 combat expertise for the hit rating (once you hit 17 you’ll start running the intro dungeon so that’s when hit becomes useful.
People would probably argue with that choice. I like hit. The other options I would suggest for the 3rd tree would be 3/5 ruthlessness (crit) in assassin. If you go that route, though, then balance by taking points out of eagle eye in ranger and going 5/5 enduring. Then there’s Keen Eye in marksman (increases range) which I could see being useful for leveling.
Now for the primary tree, I went 3/5 Enduring and 5/5 eagle eye. It’s worked out for me, but these can be switched if you find you and your pet are getting dangerously low, dying, or wasting time refreshing. I don’t have that issue. I believe strongly that the faster things die, the less damage I take so I normally opt for DPS. 2/2 killing focus for more damage. 3/3 improved quick shot (this is my spam skill). For leveling I would then put points into piercing shot (filler) first, then go for cripple.
At 18 I went for Trick Shot for AoE (dungeons). But if you plan on soloing more, then double shot might be the way to go.
From 18 to 25, my plan is: 3/3 improved piercing shot, 3/5 double shot, 1/1 rain of arrows.The last 2 points, not sure where to put just yet. Probably King of the Jungle to up my pets effectiveness, or finishing up Enduring since I imagine mobs will hit harder. Something like this.
At 25 is when I plan on switching back to melee, as this should be enough points to be useful.
just chillin’
Initial Thoughts on Rift
Like a baddie, I ignored all my beta weekend invites until the very last one (the open beta), so I feel like I didn’t really get a chance to explore as much as I should have.
Either way, I went ahead and pre-ordered the game since I knew enough people giving it a shot to make it worth it and hopped on the head-start.
My initial impression of the game… honestly, I’m not sure. There’s a lot I like, and a lot I don’t like.
This is the first time I’ve started an MMO while employed 9-5, so while time constraints have affected my play in other games like WoW and Guild Wars, I’ve at least already done the hard part (getting to max level).
With Rift, I find myself struggling to keep up. I’m not entirely sure why. Upon further research it may have been my soul choices. We’ll start with that.
Micaila. Badass.
The awesome thing about the soul trees is the fact that you are not bound to a very specific role the way you are in other mmos. Once you pick one of the four basic callings (rogue, mage, warrior, cleric), eac offers several souls, or sub-classes, that fit within the general idea. Cleric and Rogue offer the most diverse, allowing you to support / tank / dps. Mages offer dps and healing while warriors offer dps and tanking. This is pretty genius as far as allowing people to experiment outside their comfort zones of the holy trinity of mmo rolls without being forced to re-roll.
Initially, I had a defiant lock but ended up re-rolling a guardian rogue on the same server to play with friends. I decided to go with a melee build (nightblade, bladedancer, riftstalker) which I regretted practically 5 levels later. At 13 I finally went for assassin (which offers the best straightforward melee DPS skills) and eventually gave in to ranger for the sake of leveling.
Melee rogues just don’t have enough points to make them worth it.
One thing I’m really impressed with is the lighting in the game. I first noticed it when I was digging around artifacts. I found the glow reflecting off my character pretty awesome.
Then I ran around sanctum, where there were multiple sources of light of varying colors and it all looks amazing and realistic. Gotta give them props.
Shiny.
The rift events are pretty cool so far, but I can see where people have several concerns. What’s going to happen when the masses out-level an area and only a handful of scattered newbies are left to defend alone? What about when high levels come back to low-areas to “farm” the events, essentially getting all the damage / kills before a lowbie has a chance (loot scales with how much activity you put into sealing a rift, but you can’t do much when the mobs are one-shot by a level 30). I’ve seen people complain about this a few times but I haven’t gotten around to seeing if there’s been any answers yet.
I have a lot of complaints, too.
The dances are horrendous. Character creation is lackluster, too. I feel like I have more face choices in six year old games than I do with this. Leveling is a bore. Each faction has one starting zone, which can be annoying the 3rd time around. Although the multiple sub-class helps alleviate the need for 3,000 alts, joining friends and starting a new role will mean the same boring repetitive starting zones.
I feel like I’ve been stuck in the same area for ages, too.
Storage is a real problem. Bags and space are expensive and you seriously get TONS of shit. Grey vendor trash aside, I seriously don’t have enough room. It probably doesn’t help that I went triple gathering for my professions. I have a bank-alt in the works but I”m not to keen on having to level him through the same areas again.
Anyway. It’s just leveling. I haven’t really had time to do anything else (one half-completed dungeon run, interrupted by a server restart, no pvp). I’m hoping to get around to trying some other things and getting the hell out of Silverwood or whatever.
Rift. At least it’s pretty.
Thoughts on the Shattering Part 2: Themes and Story
Entire post is spoiler ridden. Do not read if you care. You’ve been warned.
While for the most part the Shattering was lighter on the action than other novels, it was still enticing because of the political drama and feeling of impending doom we get throughout the book. We know the Cataclysm is coming. We know the shifts in power that are happening. We know who dies and who takes their place. Shattering takes us on the journey to these ends and keeps us hooked because it builds up to what we already know is inevitable but aren’t sure why and how.
Part of that drama is the almost-but-not-quite butterfly effect of the major events. Almost all of them could have been avoided and it’s very clear at what points in the story certain characters made the decisions that would seal their fate an that of others.
- Thrall at the Maelstrom
Drek’Thar’s visions of the cataclysm and desperation to talk to Thrall, and his attendant’s choice to ignore it was the first nail in the coffin. Had Polkar done as Drek asked, Thrall would have taken the visions very seriously and gone to Nagrand much earlier and could have possibly stopped the cataclysm.
Had Cairne taken more time to think about his challenge, perhaps he would have never died. If Garrosh hadn’t been so absorbed in his reputation, he may have noticed his weapon was laced with poison. What if Thrall had listened to Cairne and never made Garrosh acting warchief in the first place? What if Jaina had never given Anduin that hearthstone?
It brings a level a frustration but each decision and the series of consequences after have all attributed to setting the stage for the future.
The only thing that I wish could have been avoided fully was the coup of Thunder Bluff because it was so brutal and bloody. Dozens of innocent people were slaughtered helplessly in their sleep, and the Tauren being one of the most peaceful races makes it all the more painful.
Likewise, Moira’s claim of the throne in Ironforge is an important lesson: despite her morally questionable tactics, she and her son are the future of the Dwarven people. Her claim is her right, and her marital situation makes her child the unifying element of the separated clans. It feels unfair, sudden, and selfish, and in many ways it is. But that’s exactly the point. It is unfair.
I think the tragedy of Thunder Bluff, the coup at IF, the slaughtering at the Druid peace meeting, and the loss of Cairne and Magni are symbolic to the death of innocence, peace, and stability in Azeroth. The Tauren have always exemplified the ideals of peace and respect in it’s most basic forms, holding everything the world offers to the highest regard and as a blessing. And the dwarves have been the pillar of perseverance, honor, and overcoming odds without losing sight of humor and celebration. Both cultures celebrate life to the fullest I think it’s no coincidence that this is why they were the ones who suffered the most.
The shifting of power within the factions is an important overall aspect to the story, largely because the three new leaders and one future king all stepped up to the plate. It’s the catalyst of a lot of change. As Thrall said, the wars have left the orcs, and likely all races, with large numbers of the old and young but missing many of those in-between who have died in battle. So the contrast between old and new, age and youth, is a powerful one.
Each situation was different: Thrall and Garrosh, Cairne and Baine, Varian and Anduin, and Magni and Moira, but they all result in the young trumping the old in one way or another. Not all were hostile. Some were tragic. But the younger generation have finally taken their places in the world. They are the future and the future is theirs; as such they have made it clear that they, not the elders, will be the ones to choose what that future will hold. Which leads me to the last part.
One of the big themes was accepting who we are and what we are meant to be despite what the world expects or demands of us. This was the journey that Thrall, Anduin, and Stormsong among others took personally, and one that Jaina, Baine, and the Dwarves took politically.
• Thrall accepted his role as a humble shaman and formally stepped down from being warchief. It was both what was best for him and what was best for the world.
• Anduin discovered his true desire to heal, not harm. Tended by Mangi’s warmth and support, he was able to bestow that wisdom to Baine and hopefully set himself up to follow his own path even if it’s against Varian’s wishes.
• Stormsong, despite his loyalty to Magatha, was able to realize what the loss of Cairne meant and chose to side with the Bloodhoof, both saving the Tauren people and securing a place for the Grimtotem among them.
• Jaina and Baine’s pact to do what they could to uphold peace is significant. While Thrall’s efforts with Jaina were important, Baine’s could possibly be even more so because the Tauren, as a people, are more willing and desiring of peace than the orcs ever were.
• The Dwarves willingness to accept Moira and try to unify their race even in light of their loss and the circumstances was a brave and honorable decision.
• Even Gazent, the goblin who helped supply Baine’s troops with bombs, surprised us all when he only took the money he needed to provide them because he supported their goal.
The book was somber, dark, bloody, and depressing. There is a lot of loss, and a lot more frustration. But the events are there to help us realize and toughen up for what’s to come. Once Deathwing’s dark reign comes to fruition, there will be chaos all over. Innocents will die. The world will crumble.
But at the same time, hope refuses to be shut out. The political and personal stories all end with hope. Anduin and his son are reconciled. Baine has taken back his home and forged a quiet alliance with Jaina. Thrall has set the stage for a new future with Aggra and to fully realize his potential. Among the chass, many seeds have been planted.
Magatha’s words, brutal as they were, could be applied to all the world: “Like a child, Thunder Bluff would be reborn in blood.”
So will Azeroth; but the key word to all of this, of course, is rebirth.
Thoughts on The Shattering Part 1: Characters (Spoiler Heavy)
I have to admit, I hated the way Arthas was written. All the characters seemed weak and the style and language was distracting for me. When I saw that Christie Golden was going to be the author for The Shattering, I was a bit worried it was going to be another toiling read.
In my cynicism, I was very critical for the first few paragraphs and dwelled on her habit of overusing the same word in short periods of time (mountain was said 7 times in the first 2 pages…). But almost as quickly as I assumed this was going to be terrible, I got lost in the story.
The best part about The Shattering is the characterization, in which Golden wrote with a depth and complexity I don’t think I’ve seen in a Warcraft Novel since the War of the Ancients Trilogy. With so many authors covering the same people, sometimes it’s a little jarring to read about, say, Richard Knaak’s Jaina vs. Golden’s Jaina. But other than the hard to pin Varian, everybody seemed to translate well. So I’ll start with reflection on how the characters personalities and relationships evolved both throughout the book and in the overall Warcraft Universe.
Heavy spoilers behind jump. you’ve been Warned. 
Blizzard: “Lore? What’s that?” More ret-cons and confusion in Cata
Oh, dear WoW, how I’ve ignored you of late. Well here we go with a little Warcraft love. 
One of my absolute favorite Warcraft lore sites is Loregy. This guy really knows his stuff, and always has great insights to the under appreciated history of Azeroth. Between him and my fellow players Xero and Kaae, I was inspired to learn more about the characters and background, read books and comics, and actually give a crap about the story behind the game.
I will definitely attest to the fact that the more you know about the story, the better the game experience becomes. You start to recognize places and people like you never had before. I would honestly recommend it to anyone who plays an MMO.
So one source of frustration for anybody who’s been a long-term fan of the Warcraft universe and cares about lore is how much of it gets retconned or ignored completely in the games. “Retcon” is basically when something that was previously established as truth in the world is changed in a way that contradicts it’s former existence. A basic example: Character A was female in a novel but male in the game. That’s the idea of a retcon.
What lore-fans do when Blizz retcons itself.
Blizzard is well known for retconning their own lore. It’s one thing if certain aspects of the story would really interfere with the game but the fact of the matter is most times it doesn’t. Some of their changes are bizarre and unwarranted, or just plain lazy. And when it happens often and recklessly, it becomes a source of aggravation for people who take the lore seriously.
Their favorite over-used change is bad guys gone good. No, seriously. For whatever reason, characters that were just plain evil once upon a time are turned around to be fallen heroes. Apparently we’re supposed to feel a little bad about that boss we’re killing every week, twice a week.
He was just mis-understood once. He just went crazy. Etc. Etc.
Take the Draenei, for instance. The old story was that they were originally Eredar that ate worlds and corrupted Sargeras who in turn went apeshit and started ruining everything. Now, in order to make them appeal to Alliance players, the Dreanei were a small faction of uncorrupted Eredar that are all about Jesus. As so lovingly put by good friend Lizzie:
“… not that WoW had the most awesome story to begin with, but ever since the Draheyhey got retconned to be holy rolling space goats lead by evangelical wind chimes, it has gone steeply downhill. Someone needs to stop letting Chris Metzen write lore.”
Well said (though I might not agree in the Metzen issue.) Other famous ret-cons? How the hell did Uther end up in Frostmourne? Varian Wrynn’s entire existence. Marudin Bronzebeard’s “death” (lol amnesia!). Onyxia’s death the first time. And second time. And apparently, 3rd time??
The list goes on.
The big lore failure in Cataclysm, as adeptly written by Cocles over at Loregy, is that Malfurion, great Archdruid of legend basically appears in Hyjal without any sort of proper entrance. The same with Jarod Shadowsong, the one responsible for uniting the races in the War of the Ancients. Even though Stormrage, the novel, effectively concludes the issues with the Emerald Dream, apparently none of that has happened yet. But Mal is still there….what?
As doubtlessly aggravating this is, the only good thing is that we might end up having the Emerald Dream as in-game content after-all. It still bothers me about the book, but at this point, I think everybody just gives up.
Another small bit on Cataclysm lore that saddens me is the fact that Med’an isn’t going to be a part of it as I originally predicted in my Future Heroes of Azeroth post, which is absolutely stupid and disappointing. According to this official thread in which lore questions get answered:
Q: What role, if any, will Med’an play in Cataclysm?
A: Med’an will not be visible in Cataclysm; something else is keeping him occupied.
WTF is so important that it’s keeping him from doing his divine appointed job? He’s the Guardian of Tirisfal for frak’s sake! His existence is prophesied. He’s the damned chosen one. Deathwing is about to destroy the world he’s meant to protect, and it’s not like he’s a kid who doesn’t know better. He’s got to be close to 30 by now and has the ability to use arcane, shamanistic, and Light-infused magic. If Cocles’ predictions on future expansions is correct, we can expect that this is the last time we fight on Azeroth for a long time. Sargeras needs to be beat down, and there’s a good chance we need to go to his house to do so. Med’an has direct ties with Sargie, so one way or another, this kid has -got- to make some sort of appearance in-game.
Sometime between now and the end of WoW, Blizz is releasing another novel: The Shattering. As a pre-lude to the Cataclysm, it follows Thrall’s story as he struggles between his roles as Warchief and as the world’s most uber shaman. With elementals going haywire, he feels the need to do something about it, but political issues are tugging at him, too.
Likewise, Varian’s psycho orc-obsession and the tensions within the Alliance are causing more rifts at the dawn of the most violent and significant era in Azeroth. Of all the wild accusations I’ve made in my posts about lore, I finally got something right. Anduin is going to start playing a major role that could very well result in him opposing his own father.
Well, Cataclysm. In one way or another, this expansion is shaking everyone up, so I guess we can say it’s doing it right.
Guild Wars 2 Hall of Monuments Rewards Revealed!
So Arena-Net released the Guild Wars Hall of Monuments calculator deal today.
This feature is so ridiculously amazing, it’s not even funny.
You input your character name and it tallies up your achievements. Each one is given a certain point value.
There’s a total of 50 points, and each level from 1-30 unlocks an in-game reward. There are titles every 5 levels and a pet, mini-pet, piece of armor, or weapon. Many of these rewards are major tips of the hat to Guild Wars One, like the Black Moa and Fiery Dragon Sword. After level 30, there are only 4 more titles to get at 35, 40, 45, and 50. The cool thing with the tool is that it also shows you a to-do list in case you wanna try to advance your score, and makes it print-able!
What this does is make all the psychical vanity stuff accessible to everybody who plays through the game a decent amount. Most are at least at 15 points, so halfway there alerady.
It’s account-bound it would seem. I have my HoM shared and so all my characters show up as having the same rewards, which is great.
Another cool feature: The heritage armor will be transmutable without needing to purchase the stones from the in-game store, as quoted by Regina:
For the Hall of Monuments rewards, we will provide players the means by which they can transmute the stats/appearance of these particular items without having to purchase transmutation stones in the in-game store. The development team is still working out the exact mechanics of this, though.
I’m at 22/50. 8 more points and I’ve got all the unlock-able stuff, and then it’s just titles after that that I may or may-not go for. Who knows!
But this is definitely going to make me play Guild Wars again for the coming months! Great planning on ANet’s part, especially after all the upset over transmutation stones last week. I must say. I’m very, very happy about this.
If you’ve got a Hall of Monuments and a few achievements, go check out their calculator here. Join the excited chatter at Guild Wars 2 Guru and Guild Wars 2 Forums as well!
Starcraft 2 Then and Now
One of my best friends on the entire planet got me into Starcraft back in 10th grade chemistry class. Even though I’m not particularly good at it, it remains one of my favorite games ever.
I played terran pretty much my entire life and my signature end-game pwnage usually came in the form of a glitched fleet of fully upgraded battle-cruisers.The thing with Brood War is sometimes you could queue beyond your supply limit and still spawn units. That’s generally how I’d end up with a fleet of 30 some-odd BCs.
It’s a strat that honestly should have never worked. A fully teched fleet is extremely overpowered. Even heavy-anti-air can’t do much against them.
Luckily for my opponents, Starcraft 2 really balanced out the units and the game is heavy on early-stage combat. Still, on the rare opportunity I can build my fleet, I revel in it. In 3v3, one strat my lovely teammates and I use sometimes is actually letting me turtle and focus on blitzing to air while they take care of ground and early-rushes, which I fully enjoy.
The Fleet, reborn.
I’ve upgraded from full BC’s to include banshees and the versatile re-hashed vikings to take care of any units that might hurt the precioussssss. Banshees honestly are pretty ridiculous on their own, too.
All the white on the map is cannons...
Another friend of mine favored money maps in Broodwar. His technique usually involved spamming nothing but photon cannons. When we’d 2v6 in PvP this method, sadly, worked well. One of my favorite vs AI games, I got crushed, but we always open by sending one worker unit to each other’s bases and build one supply building for instances like these.
With my one unit, I was able to completely rebuild in his base while he focused on assaulting the map with cannons. I was able to completely dedicate my rebuild to making a fleet and we ended up winning.
One time we were doing FFA with a bunch of other people on a money map, and he spammed his cannons and basically forced a draw because nobody could leave their base. It was a point of no return, as nobody would ever invite him to a game again.
In Starcraft 2, due to Terran Overload, I’ve been working on learning toss these days. They’re really fun, and I favor a heavy ground army supported by a few void rays and phoenixes in the back to clean up. STill trying to get used to it. Colossi are ridiculously amazing and drool-worthy.
The Legend of Beta Part III: Finale. Be the solution.
So comes the final sequel of this 3 part monster. As always, many thanks to everyone who commented / tweeted with feedback, it’s always much appreciated. Another awesome blogger, ThatShortGuy, did a reaction to the Beta ideas with an interesting view on social networking and transparency during testing phases. Check it out.
Fixing the Attitude
We are all very aware that there is tension in the relationship between gamers and developers. What it is about gamer mentality that triggers the “unwarranted self-importance” sector of the brain, I don’t know, but I’d guess it something to do with thumb movement. There’s so many small annoyances but overall it feels like so many players have it in their mind that this game is -for them- and if they find something wrong or displeasing, it should be changed so that they are happy. This is a source of major frustration and even aggravation from both the peers of these players and the developers.
Nothing sucks more than having some punk basically tell you how to do your job, or that you’re miserable at what you do. It’s unfair, hurtful, and really, really annoying.
Here’s our 12 step program in fixing the attitude of gamers towards developers and games.
1: Be aware that, no, the universe does not revolve around you. Shocking, I know.
2: Learn the difference between real imbalance and personal preference.
3. Differentiate between whining/bitching and constructive criticism.
4: Understand that game developers are not gods. They are human. This means that they eat, sleep, need breaks and vacations just as much as you. Likewise, they won’t give you anything special if you suck up to them. Be respectful, treat them as equals, and you will earn their respect back.
5: Most game company employees make crap money, and don’t get paid enough to listen to gamers whine and cry.
6. If you make ridiculous demands or insulting comments about them or the game, they have every right to bitch back at you. Customer service can only go so far. Don’t be shocked if they publicly put you in your place.
7: Game developers happen to be gamers, so yes, they know a thing or two about how games work.
8: In fact, many of them went to college for this, so just because some of you know how to action script flash animations doesn’t mean you can do their job better. If you think you can, get a degree and apply for it.
9: Betas are incomplete versions of the game. Things will be broken. Things will change. The point is to fix bugs. Don’t complain and cry malarkey if you see something wrong. Report it so they can fix it.
10: They have every right to ban you for exploiting or abusing their ToS, whether on beta or live.
11: Beta and other forms of public testing are a privilege and responsibility, not a right.
12: Contrary to popular belief, game developers are not after your blood, sweat, and tears, but rather put a lot of their own into making games great for you. Respect and appreciate this very important fact.
Once gamers can come to terms with this hard to accept but very real facts of e-life, then they can more aptly prepare themselves for being a good beta tester and player overall.
How to be a good Beta Tester.
Now, say you’ve accepted the 12 steps but you still want to get into a beta. Deep down in your heart, even though you’re thrilled to be invited, you want to make sure you’re also contributing. You also like the idea that good testers sometimes get invited back in future tests.
If you’ve come that far, I could shed a tear of happiness.
So what exactly makes a good tester?
First of all, pick an area in the game you think you’d be good at testing.
• If you’re big on mechanics and key-binds, focus on testing basic game-play.
• PvP or group play, skill balance might be your thing.
• If graphics and visuals are important to you, checking for texture glitches, UI, and clipping is a great focus.
• Explorers do great finding possible exploits or unstable terrain that cause disconnects or falling through the world.
• People who enjoy questing and leveling can report on how those aspects of the game flow.
• Lore buffs who like to read quest text might find they’re good at picking out typos.
• Social butterflies can test out the chat systems and guild controls.
Obviously, you don’t -have- to pick just one area but it helps keep you focused and is great for the company if you report on mundane things that most people aren’t really interested in. Combine them.
I’m a graphics / explorer kinda gal. Back in the Lich King beta I spent hours just flying around taking screenshots of the terrain and reported on a few bugs I saw with textures. Simple but fun, easy, and constructive.
If you see something wrong that’s stationary, try to get screenshots from different angles. Re-log and see if it persists.
Something that’s an event is harder to report, so do your best to replicate what you did to cause it as much as possible. Use different variables. Did you disconnect when walking to a certain spot? Does a specific spell cause this glitch but not another? Is it just your class? Make use of the scientific method from grade-school. The more you can re-cause a glitch, the better, and likely easier to fix.
When you report a bug, be as detailed and organized as possible. Make use of bullet points and listing, and break down your report into sections.
• Brief description of the issue.
• How it happened as detailed as possible.
• Your experiments afterwards in trying to re-cause the glitch.
Next, organize your media and outlet sources. Be weary of NDAs. You don’t want to release information if it’s against their ToS.
But definitely make use of things like recording game-play and screenshots.
Most importantly, though, do have fun. Betas are a responsibility to testers but also a joy on the down-time. Make friends, talk to developers in-game or in forums, and get to know the community.
Which leads me to the last and most important part.
Creating a solid Beta Testing community.
I think one issue is that there’s no real central spot for prospective testers and those seeking testers to converge, and there needs to be one.
The idea I have involves a forum with sections for recruitment and requests. But the most important feature it would need is a resume / rating system.
This is also the most difficult to implement, I imagine.
There are different levels of testing. Yes, you have the gamers, but QA/QC (Quality Assurance / Quality Control) are the professional version. These guys are usually employed by a company but there’s no reason you can’t have professional free-lance testers, right?
In my dream beta site, everybody would have a profile that would detail all the things a game company might need to know to find beta testers. System specs, past experience, genre preferences, and a rating. When a developer finds a certain tester particularly useful, give them a gold +1. Other gamers who think they were good on reporting or answering questions can give them a blue +1. That way at a glance people can see and find exactly what they’re looking for.
Said site would make extensive use of social networking to promote new games, betas, and exclusive previews.
It’d be great, and if I had money and programing experience I’d start it. But alas. I’m just a small fry with big dreams of a gamer utopia!
Well that’s that. Thanks to everyone who’s been commenting and discussing these posts here and on twitter. You guys rock.
And sorry for the long wait. Blame my job.
~Izzie
