I love seeing interaction and cooperative projects between MMO bloggers because what fun is there in being an island? Especially when we talk about massively multiplayer games! Anyway, two writers have been conducting a weekly series called Dual Wielding in which they give their takes on the same topic.
The topic that caught my eye was the value and effect of the 12x leveling boost that’s currently running in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Party Business thinks that it’s too fast: “I prefer 2x — it gives a faster levelling experience without rendering everything outside of class missions ‘useless.'” Waiting for Rez concurs with this assessment, saying, “I think it’s a fix applied to an outdated system; the system itself should be better.”
We’ve got a doozy of a group of community blog posts for you to peruse in Global Chat today. Dragon Nest Oracle? LEGO Worlds? Board games? Hell levels? They’re all here, my friend.
Inventory Full: Dora the accidental explorer
Bhagpuss is having a “love affair” with a game I’ve hardly heard of: Dragon Nest Oracle. The colorful and even kiddy style to the game is only the facade for what he deems as an engaging and thoughtful experience.
He emphasizes the quests: “[Dragon Nest Oracle] has an attention to detail and a delight in nuance that few eastern F2P’s I’ve played can match, with the exception of the much-missed and wildly under-appreciated Zentia. Everything, from the choice of a word like ‘meiosis’ to the spot illustrations suggest writers and creators who are genuinely invested in their work.”
Dragonchasers: Books and movies are influencing my gaming tastes
This is a short but particularly astute post in which Pete notes that other areas of geek culture prompt him to find a similar experience in games. I think that’s an effect that goes in many directions and one that I have experienced several times myself.
“[Elder Scrolls Online is] a fairly somber world in a lot of ways,” Pete writes. “And I think it’s safe to say the same about the Westeros. Not a lot of silly things going on there. I think that’s why out of all the pseudo-medieval MMOs out there, ESO is scratching this Game of Thrones-induced itch of mine.”
Tobold’s Blog: Hell level nostalgia
The buzz around EverQuest’s new progression server is still going strong in the blogosphere, but Tobold says that he actually misses one of EQ’s more notorious features.
“As much Ragefire and Lockjaw might resemble the old EverQuest and the advertising says ‘Play like it’s 1999,’ I think that playing on these progression servers with their fast leveling is fundamentally different from playing the original EverQuest with slow leveling and hell levels.”
MMO Juggler: Board games vs. MMOs
How are board games similar to MMOs? In more ways than you might think. Board and video game enthusiast Aillas compares the features between the two and comments on the strengths of each.
One area where board games have a leg up on MMOs? Setting: “Board games offer a wider variety of settings and roles, from underwater robot programmer (Aquasphere) to wine merchant (Viticulture) to post-apocalyptic tribes fighting for control (New Era) to spaceship crew member (Space Alert) to wizard battling others via summoned proxies (Tash-Kalar) to humans trying to flee a zombie attack (Escape: Zombie City) to… well, you get the idea.”
Tales of the Aggronaut: LEGO Worlds impressions
When a title comes out on early access, you can bet that someone’s going to be writing an early review of it! For LEGO Worlds, that someone is Belghast, who putters around the crafting game with an open eye and a critical heart.
As would be expected, he judges that it’s far too soon to be jumping on board what little there is to be found here: “So as you can see they pretty much intend to flesh this game out to be competitive with the Minecraft genre. For $14.99 it was more than enjoyable enough roaming around and interacting with things. However, if you are looking for a complete game, keep moving on.”
Clean Casuals: Landmark — monumental disappointment
The recent decision by Daybreak to shift resources from Landmark to EverQuest Next have left those invested in the former feeling particularly sore. Aywren gives a voice to the affected in this post, expressing her disappointment and uncertainty.
“At a time when Daybreak is being held up to the light of great doubt, less communication does not seem like a good idea. It sounds like they’re just slapping a disclaimer on the whole thing to wash their hands of the weight of responsibility that came with the example of total transparency that Landmark was built upon,” she writes.
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.
