Game designer and blogger Psychochild posited an interesting question recently: How can you tell the difference between a good raider and a bad one?
He acknowledged that rating raid performance can lead to exclusion and bragging but can also help a group improve as a whole. In his post on the subject, Psychochild notes that raid performance can be measured as DPS, tanking, healing, hybrids, within disciplines, and the group entire.
“The right answer is probably some balance,” he concludes. “A carefully designed equation that balances all the measurements of the different roles and overall performance.”
This is just the start of our exploration through the MMO blogosphere. Join us today as we look at goofy fashion, first impressions, and — yes — more chatter about raiding.
Hawtpants of the Old Republic: Deputy fashion police are on the case
The ever-hilarious Hawtpants is back with a massive edition of reader-submitted screenshots featuring tacky outfits and egregious names in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Njessi provides acidic commentary for each, including this comment for the screenshot above: “Poor Quinn. What did he do to deserve… haha just kidding, he deserves so much worse.”
She’s not a Quinn fan. Who is, really?
Why I Game: Wot I think about raids now that the first is here
Jeromai has a lot to say about Guild Wars 2’s first stab at implementing raids into the game following Heart of Thorns’ release. He’s of a divided mind on them, noting both good and bad early impressions of the content.
One problem he did identify is that healers and tanks seem to be in short supply: “It is both so tedious and costly to switch stats, traits, build, and have multiple sets of armor and weapons and trinkets for different functions, without even build saving/loading. My inventory bags are bursting, ascended stuff costs money and the meta is in flux, so one would currently be gambling on experimental builds.”
Tyrannodorkus: Elite Dangerous beginner’s guide
Need a helping hand to get into Elite Dangerous? Tyrannodorkus is here with a guide that explains the four basic pilot roles found in the game.
“The basic pilot roles guide will help build structure on what kind of pilot role to take. I’ll go over the most basic roles and add some definition to them to explain what these roles do. The first rule of this guide is that it’s completely subjective. You can change the role as you see fit (I encourage you to do so) and come up with your own ideas for these roles, but this guide is made to get you started,” he writes.
West Karana: Shroud of the Avatar — Choosing fate
Let’s finish with a trio of first impressions pieces, shall we? Tipa over at West Karana blogs about her initial steps into Shroud of the Avatar, including its revamped tutorial. So would she recommend this game for everyone? Not quite.
“I look forward to playing it again,” Tipa writes. “I’m not incredibly sure how much time I will put into the game when it goes live. It really wears its niche appeal proudly. Those who are looking for a setting in which to set their own stories for themselves and their friends will likely find a home here. Those looking for curated and scripted dungeons and raids will likely find it too slow for their liking.”
Mrluvvaluvva: The Crew: Wild Run first impressions
So what does The Crew’s first expansion look like? According to Mrluvvaluvva, it’s extreme — to the max! And also pretty goovy. He remarks that his first play session with the driving MMO has left him craving more.
“The new graphics look amazing,” he gushes, “Everything from the world map to the animals have been giving a slight tweak and the game looks at the better for it. It even manages to hold a stable frame rate, which is quite impressive considering what it did look like beforehand!”
GamingSF: Non-spoilerish Knights of the Fallen Empire impressions
And we’re back to SWTOR, where Telwyn walks curious parties through the major changes that happened with Knights of the Fallen Empire’s launch. His advise? Don’t get too attached to the companions that you had before!
“Companion characters are greatly affected by the expansion, as you lose access to all your class companions at least temporarily. This may upset some players but I’m all for the change especially as it gives players real choices for which companions to recruit and use. Prior to KotFE, only a very few store-bought companions were available to any class.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
