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  • 5 Ways that Rift Lives on in Guild Wars 2

    5 Ways that Rift Lives on in Guild Wars 2

    (Guild Wars 2: Icebrood Saga – ArenaNet)

    As I’ve mentioned repeatedly before, Rift is one of my favorite MMORPGs. Sadly, I don’t expect to revisit Telara anytime soon, given that the game has long since transitioned to being free-to-play and entered what is effectively a maintenance mode. Another MMORPG has caught my eye, however; I just can’t seem to keep my hands off of Guild Wars 2, especially given ArenaNet recently launched their latest Living World event, the Icebrood Saga. After spending hours reliving my adventures in Tyria, I realized that many of the reasons that I had originally fallen in love with Rift were clearly apparent in Guild Wars’ sequel. Had my favorite MMO been living under my nose all this time? Did my frustration with the changes to the class and skill system in Guild Wars 2 keep me from realizing its brilliance? Either way, let’s jump straight into the top 5 ways that Rift lives on in Guild Wars 2.

    5. Group Quests

    Let’s get the obvious items out of the way, shall we? Rift’s namesake mechanic involved temporal rifts opening up in the wilderness, each requiring a group of adventurers to overcome and fight back the oncoming horde of baddies. Players didn’t need to join a group or invite strangers into their own party to participate as a community to overcome a common goal. Guild Wars 2 picked up where Rift and other MMOs (Warhammer Online comes to mind) left off, allowing players to jump in and out of quests simply by completing their objectives while sharing rewards with nearby players along the way. Not only does this create a more welcoming and accessible world to play in but it creates a more streamlined experience than the more traditional fetch quests of old.

    4. Exploration

    Although Guild Wars made a name for itself just fine without a persistent open-world environment, ArenaNet shifted their focus drastically with the sequel to emphasize exploring Tyria. Similarly, Rift implemented plenty of features to keep players from AFKing in their faction’s major city waiting for dungeon queues to pop. Whether it was open world puzzles, group events, or artifact hunting, the ascended of Telara always had some reason to explore the world. This seems like an essential part of any MMORPG, but what Rift and Guild Wars 2 accomplish that many other MMOs fail to do is provide a reason to explore outside of the main leveling experience. It’s an open world out there, so it makes sense to have plenty of things to do in it.

    3. Armies of Invaders

    In addition to the portals opening up all around Telara, Rift shook things up by having armies of enemies attack nearby towns and cities to disrupt the leveling experience. The idea of world events isn’t new, but when a giant world boss and their army of minions march on your home for the first time, it shows just how cinematic group experiences in MMOs can be. Guild Wars also embraced this as a part of their group questing mechanics. While most quests involve helping out a local farmer or harvesting resources, some involve nearby enemies laying siege to quest hubs or a zone boss killing low-level players en masse. These kinds of moments are what MMORPGs are all about, and the sense of scale and purpose just can’t be matched in other games.

    2. Mentoring

    MMORPGs, more often than most other genres, carry a lot of baggage from bygone eras. Some games embrace the silliness of endlessly slaying monsters on the hedonistic treadmill we call “grinding,” while others prefer not to shy away from the fact that levels as a concept are outdated. Rift and Guild Wars 2 are definitely the latter, despite the fact that both include level caps that come close to triple digits and leveling experiences that could take a few months to complete. Rift’s answer to the question of leveling was to implement a mentoring system to allow players of different levels to scale their stats to something closer in power level to make adventuring together more fun and engaging. Guild Wars does something similar, except that it is done automatically upon entering a zone, creating a seamless world that most other MMOs fail to achieve.

    1. Back to the Action

    When you think quick, simple fun, you probably don’t think of MMOs. Some developers have put significant work towards ensuring that isn’t the case, however. Rift, especially later in its lifespan, developed many features under the philosophy of getting players into the action as fast as possible. Their answer, among other things, was to include an Instant Adventure button that quite literally instantly teleports the player to another place and gives them a specific objective to complete with another group of adventurers. Tired of instant adventure? Try some of the singleplayer story content or instanced PVP. Crafting, costumes and other sideshows fill out the usual suite of features for a theme park MMO, but providing content is clearly not the same as guiding the player through it, which both Rift and Guild Wars 2 do spectacularly.

    I hope you enjoyed this short romp through memory lane. If you’d like to read more posts like this one or if you remember a specific MMO memory that has stuck with you, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

    Happy hunting!

  • The Delicate Balance of Complexity Allowance

    The Delicate Balance of Complexity Allowance

    Game design is often a juggling act involving complexity and the audience’s attention. Every game needs some level of complexity to evoke specific emotions in their players, but humans only have a finite amount of attention that they can (or want to) give to your game at any given moment. Each specific element of a game should be evaluated against the added complexity that it will bring to the overall project.

    This can create issues, however, especially when designers get attached to mechanics or assets that they might be better off cutting. The old adage “kill your darlings” applies to games just as much to creative writing, but it can be hard to quantify exactly how complex any given mechanic or how it’s purpose in the design affects how the idea should be evaluated.

    Another hurdle every designer must eventually cross is deciding whether a specific action is healthier as a player decision. Often, it’s easy to get caught up in a cool sequence of actions and lose sight of the overall vision. Those moments have their place, but it’s also important to weigh the value of that decision point against the player’s overall attention. Is the player overwhelmed with choices? How does this affect the player’s experience? What is the reasoning behind this specific sequence? If the player already had enough to keep track of, adding another decision for them could ruin the experience, no matter how interesting or cool the resulting action could have been.

    The goal isn’t always necessarily to simply things either. Decisions represent significant points in gameplay, moments that test the players skills and understanding. Throw too many of these at a player and they can start to feel discouraged, if not completely turned off, by the added opportunity. Humans don’t like messing up, especially when other people are watching, and no matter how you frame the question, there will always be a “right” and “wrong” answer, or at least the player will see it that way. The more questions, the more potential chances for them to embarrass themselves.

    Sometimes it’s better to force the player to perform the desired outcome, rather than give them the chance to fail. Other times, creating mechanics that specifically check the players ability to overcome a challenge is the way to go. It’s a blurry line at best.

    Recently, I went through the entire design document for my latest project with the intention of reducing the overall complexity of the average game state. What I found was that it was relatively easy to cut back on some mechanics, making certain actions simpler or more directed towards their desired outcome. In most cases, I removed superfluous effects that would only really matter once in a blue moon.

    The resulting game should be cleaner, more elegant, and easier to play now that the average game state is less complex and, therefore, easier to grok. Sure, some moves lost a little luster, but it’s a cheap price to pay for the game being more easily approachable. Keep in mind, the first game decides whether a player will keep playing. Making the learning experience as smooth as possible is paramount for creating an experience that players will want to come back to.

  • Guild Wars 2 is the MMORPG I Always Wanted

    Guild Wars 2 is the MMORPG I Always Wanted

    (Guild Wars 2 – ArenaNet/NCSoft)

    MMORPGs seem especially prone to building devoted fan bases, leading players towards spending most of their time in one or two virtual world’s that they prefer over others. The original Guild Wars was one of those games that I will forever admire as a landmark in gaming history. ArenaNet pioneered many mechanics that pushed the genre in new and unique directions (focusing more on PVP, showing how silly the leveling treadmill is, singleplayer AI teams, etc).

    Once Guild Wars 2 was announced, I admit that I was cautiously excited, but as the game got closer to release and I managed to get my hands on it, that caution quickly turned to disappointment.

    Gone was the revolutionary card game-esque skill system, where players selected eight abilities to bring into combat rather than using the same skills as everyone else of that class. Players could no longer select a secondary class to diversify their strategic options. Guild Wars 2, while innovative in its own ways, removed much of what I admired most about the original.

    That wasn’t enough to stop me from playing, but it did put a damper on my initial playthrough. I managed to level a warrior and travel through the world but stopped playing after a few months. It took me until 2019 to realize that Guild Wars 2 might be exactly what I need in an MMORPG at this point in my life.

    og_rift_lg

    The more I play GW2, the more I realize it’s stunning similarity to my other favorite MMO, Rift. Group quests keep me entertained as I romp through the wilderness with a pack of strangers, monsters attack nearby villages that need defending, exploration is rewarded, the scenery and atmosphere are gorgeous, and the skill system, while not as brilliantly elegant as it’s predecessor’s, is varied and interesting enough to keep me switching up my playstyle every couple of sessions.

    The only thing that Guild Wars 2 is missing from Rift is it’s tab targeting and poorly aged questing system, both of which I do not miss dearly (although I am always nostalgic of boar killing-style quests once in a while). I wish there was fishing, but with the addition of gliders and mounts, Guild Wars 2 is just about as perfect an MMO as you can get without installing Guild Wars 1.

  • Bonnaroo 2019 Day 3 – Post Malone, Lil Simz, and The Lonely Island

    Bonnaroo 2019 Day 3 – Post Malone, Lil Simz, and The Lonely Island

    Each day of Bonnaroo has its own distinct vibe. Thursday is like Christmas in July, Friday is usually once everything starts to get into the swing of things. Saturday’s vibe is one of excitement paired with unease at the fact that the festival is almost over.

    saturday

    Bonnaroo 2019 wasn’t any different. My girlfriend, my brother, and I started the day at Lil Simz’s show. While she had a lot of people dancing (myself included), I do wish the sound engineers had made her a little louder. It’s strange how an act like Brockhampton can fill the entire festival grounds, but a 1 PM set for a lesser-known artist gets shafted in terms of volume, despite having almost no other musical acts to compete against.

    My memory is a little hazy, but for one reason or another, we ended up missing Bishop Briggs, despite having looked forward to seeing her for a while. Sometimes shit happens.

    We managed to return to Centeroo to catch Quin XCII, before shuffling over to see Kacey Musgraves while heading towards John Prine’s set. After hearing a particularly romantic duet, we took a chance to “see” ODESZA while making our way to the restrooms.

    Our next destination was Post Malone and we were an hour early, so instead of waiting through the ODESZA set, I introduced my girlfriend to the Silent Disco for an AC Slater set (for one reason or another, she didn’t get to experience it her first time on the farm). After dancing our faces off, we took a break by resting on a wooden bench and watched Tokimonsta’s set at The Other. Some of the best Bonnaroo moments involve standing at one amazing set and being able to turn your head to hear another amazing show going on across the Farm.

    We met up with my brothers to see Post Malone. Although I understand that he is very popular amongst the youngsters, I was completely taken aback by how full the What Stage field was. To provide some context, Centeroo is broken up into two major sections: the What Stage and everything else. So when I say that Post Malone’s crowd filled the entire field with what often felt like standing room only you understand the kind of square footage we were dealing with. I’ve seen plenty of rock superstars play the What Stage and never saw a field of people that large. Now, they weren’t all jamming to the tunes as hard as closing acts from previous years rocked the same stage, but the numbers don’t lie; Posties’ got something that keeps the kids coming back.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/Byxk8o_HEeh/

    To top off the night, we ended up seeing The Lonely Island’s first music festival concert ten years after I had first heard of their music by way of viral Youtube videos. What commenced was essentially an abridged reenactment of their most popular Youtube videos with famous celebrities replaced with puppets. Also, Chris Parnell was there. I had fun and I was glad to see more comedic acts at Bonnaroo this year, but I was also wondering how the act would evolve over time or whether they would slowly run out of viral memes from a decade ago.

    Although 2019 was definitely Sleeparoo (however, this time I have an excuse), my girlfriend and I decided to try and stay up late on Saturday to ensure that we caught some late-night sets and, maybe, we would catch Kalliope around 3 AM. That all fell apart after The Lonely Island’s set ended around 1:30 AM. Although we had promised some of our friends that we would be raging long into the night, we both crashed hard. Needless to say, we did not make it to Kalliope (during their normal hours) at any point during the festival.

    Top 5 Less Obvious Places to Visit at Bonnaroo After You’ve Seen the Big Stuff

    1. The House of Yes: Although pod-specific stages and barns are a fairly new introduction (they must have popped up during my break between 2016 and 2018) to the farm, the House of Yes (Pod 3’s Venue) is a treat worth visiting even if you aren’t camped close. They’re a performance act from Brooklyn, New York and they’re a trip. Feel free to check out my review of their show last year.
    2. The Woods: There are often several wooded areas at Bonnaroo where festival goers can set up hammocks and take a nap. They’re worth visiting at least once to enjoy a more laid back vibe or take a nap. You can’t also be partying hard.
    3. Outside the Grounds: There are some opportunities to leave the grounds and explore other vendors and booths set up outside. Maybe it’s because they don’t pay vendor fees (I don’t actually know), but they tend to sell cheaper wares if you can deal with the occasional religious nutjob shouting at festival kids for living their best lives.
    4. Pod 10 / The Boonies: Although the campground you end up in is a crapshoot, Live Nation seems to understand how much it sucks to land in one of the farther camp sites, like Pod 10. Back in my day, we used to have to walk 45 minutes to Centeroo to listen to music, but nowdays, Pod 10 tends to be where secret sets pop up or other spontaneous debauchery occurs. Sometimes there are perks to being out in the boonies. For everyone lucky enough, you can just visit when the cool stuff is happening and go back to your closer Pod afterwards.
    5. Monteagle: I’m a filthy yankee through and through, but one of my favorite parts of going to Bonnaroo is spending some time in a nearby town called Monteagle, TN. I’m not going to spoil any of our best spots, but you’d be doing yourself a favor by visiting this small town on your trip in or out of the festival. Don’t forget to pick up some hot sauce on your way home.

    Stay tuned next week when I cover the last day of the festival, my first time ever seeing Phish, and some closing thoughts on Bonnaroo 2019 before delving into our trip home.

  • Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Review

    Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Review

    (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD – Andrew Cooper/Sony Pictures)

    If there’s anything you can say about Quentin Tarantino, it’s that he has a distinct style to his film making, script writing, and storytelling. Whether you like him or hate him, Tarantino’s films have introduced a generation of movie watchers to classic tropes from serialized television and movies of the past. While films like Kill Bill pay homage to cinema history while telling a compelling and gory story of revenge, Tarantino’s new flick seems to focus more on the former while outright ignoring the latter.

    Tarantino’s signature cast of eccentric characters is on full display in Once Upon a Time, but what’s seemingly lacking is a meaningful plot worthy of the 2 and change hour run time. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio’s performances were stellar, but neither actor could stave off my disappointment as the final tile card appeared and the end credits began to roll. “What had I just watched?” was my first blush reaction, but that was slowly replaced with an inkling that Tarantino had just duped us all into watching the college film he’d always wanted to make, just with an all-star cast of Hollywood royalty.

    Witty dialogue, beautiful set pieces, and a compelling sense of tension run throughout, but it’s hard to say a movie can be entirely positive without a point in the end. Once Upon a Time feels like an improvised bedtime story; there are a lot of threads to keep you interested, but the author may not have expected you to stay awake long enough to see the end.

    Without spoiling things too much, the ending to Once Upon a Time is more of a satire of a Tarantino film than a love letter. It is the epitome of “angry man yells at clouds,” except this time pointed at young hippies, mostly women, and we are meant to celebrate in their gruesome, violent, and over-the-top-to-the-point-of-it-being-slap-stick murder at the hands of Pitt and Decaprio.

    If Tarantino hadn’t done such a good job of setting up the climax, it probably wouldn’t have fallen so flat, but that’s what happens when a famed director gets too caught up in their own auteurship and charges moviegoers to pay $13 to bare witness to his genius.

    I have a hard time imagining Tarantino not wanting this response. There’s something incredibly cocky about hiring Margot Robby for a Tarantino film only to show off her feet and entirely waste her talent on screen. There’s something gloriously obnoxious about being led by a thread through an almost 3-hour endeavor only to be told that none of the best parts mattered in the long run.

    The worst part of Once Upon is that so many of the ignored or abandoned plot threads were more compelling than what we ended up with. The fate of Cliff’s wife alone was much more interesting than the half-assed violence sideshow that capped off Tarantino’s latest film.

    All in all, Once Upon is about as Tarantino as you can get, right up to the “screw you” attitude with which it treats its audience. Yes, we understand that you love old school Hollywood, Mr. Tarantino, but we’d also love a compelling plot to go along with your masturbatory nostalgia trip.