Landmark’s launch hasn’t gone unnoticed by the MMO blogging community. Several players have decided to use the game’s official release as an opportunity to check it out again (or for the first time) and render a verdict of thumbs up… or thumbs down.
So what do they think? MMOBro says that Landmark is not too shabby, commenting, “What I found was not the empty afterthought I expected, but a surprisingly charming and enjoyable little game.” Superior Realities thinks that his visit might be a short-lived one: “I don’t think it’s a game that’s going to keep me engaged for a super long time, but I am going to try to keep my claim up and running for as long as I can.” And The Ancient Gaming Noob noted that Landmark’s launch seemed to fizzle out quickly on the charts.
We’ve got plenty more thought-provoking articles on deck for you here today, including plenty of talk about Elder Scrolls Online’s new approach, the features for a perfect MMO, and more!
Mersault Online: One Tamriel! How ’bout that?
“These days, I feel like we are seeing Elder Scrolls Online stepping up to satisfy both player types and the birth of the next great MMORPG. I mean, it has been in the making for quite some time now, but Elder Scrolls Online will be shaping itself up to a set of features and scope that will see it propelled to be one of the best, if not the best, MMORPG to be released in this decade at least.”
Herding Cats: The guilt of wanting to be pretty in games
“Obviously I am not responsible for representing all of woman-kind in everything thing I do, much less video games. But wanting my character to be pretty sometimes — conventionally, unrealistically pretty — still feels like a capitulation to social forces.”
I’m Not Squishy: Six features I want in my perfect MMO
“One thing I notice myself doing a lot in RPGs and MMOs is spending more time watching the little arrow cross the mini map when traveling than actually looking at the character and scenery in front of me. I think ESO’s compass bar to show you which direction the objective is really helps to limit map staring.”
Dragonchasers: Rebuttal — The Elder Scrolls Online is not Guild Wars 2
TESO to me is like a hike through a state park. Lots of time alone, and then when you do encounter other people it’s a delight. GW2 is like walking in a city park. You’re constantly surrounded by people and noise and you’re never alone with your thoughts. I like TESO much more and I hope that One Tamriel doesn’t change the feel of the game too much. But I guess ZOS needs to risk alienating current fans in order to try to bring in new blood. We’ll see how it works out.
Tales of the Aggronaut: Goal accomplished
“This weekend saw me succumbing to nostalgia, but not in the method you might think. Â With all the talk of the Warcraft movie, one would assume that I spent my entire weekend playing that game. However instead I wound up spending nearly the entire weekend playing the game that ultimately first took me away from World of Warcraft in a significant way. There were some events that happened this past week, and I ended up finding out that a friend of mine had passed away suddenly. Â That friend is someone I first met during the launch of RIFT when they were part of the community team, and from that point on we kept in contact through the other games we both moved to.”
The Errant Penman: Raising the gear cap in a scaling world
“Because so much more of the world is scaled and many of those zones feature daily and repeatable content, players won’t be venturing into new, more dangerous environments to gain power and glory, returning later to old content stronger and more experienced. They won’t feel like they’re getting stronger, they’ll feel like their power is being taken away and they’re being asked to redo their work to get it back. If there was ever a case where an MMO’s gear grind felt like an artificially enforced treadmill, this would be the one.”
Wolfy’s Eyes: The convenience store MMO
“I’m referring to the MMOs that try to cast a super-broad net and garner as many different types of players as possible. From a business standpoint, this makes absolute sense. However, from a design standpoint, I feel like the convenience store MMO has hurt the genre.”
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.
