Star Wars: The Old Republic’s new Dark vs. Light event has everyone talking, including MMO bloggers. The consensus seems to be wavering between bewilderment and anger over the structure of BioWare’s summer initiative.
Xam Xam labeled it a “content rehash extravaganza,” saying, “This event punishes long term players who have completed the majority (if not all) of the content required for this event with their existing characters. Making the event consist of doing old content, adding rewards to it, then forcing players to make new characters to do it all again, is absurd.”
Ravalation agrees that this event fails in several ways. “It does not introduce any new gameplay into the game,” she writes. “Instead it focuses on getting players to replay old content, keeping them satisfied with digital treats. […] The event’s way of wrapping up old content as new content is just a little too obvious.”
Read on for more thought-provoking articles from the MMO blogosphere, including a look at The Secret World’s player museum, hate for online cities, and more!
Superior Realities: Night at the Museum
“Funcom has now launched the new British Museum of the Occult feature. I was fairly skeptical of the feature going in, but even so, it’s still managed to disappoint me […] As it stands now I can’t see myself putting any further effort toward the museum. Or even going back there. The upside is, like a lot of things in TSW, it seems like you can pretty much ignore the museum if you’re not interested in it. It won’t harm your gameplay.”
GamingSF: My type of characters
“In games where there’s a taller than average race I’ve often chosen that. I guess it’s linked to the above. I’m average height in real life so I don’t think there’s any deep meaning to this. I have occasionally chosen small characters but only if the race is insufferably cute without being merely a ‘mini human.'”
Psychochild: Multiple paths in MMOs
“In the end, it’s about letting the player find what is fun for him or her. Providing different paths of advancement makes sense to let people find something they can sink their teeth into. So, even if they aren’t interested in all aspects of raiding, grinding, crafting, playing the market, or PvP, they might find one area they do like to focus on. And, they can talk to other players in the shared space with shared experiences to form social bonds.”
Jinxed Thoughts: Some hate on MMO cities
“See, I have this issue with cities in any old RPG, not just MMOs, but most of the time they’re fortunately not big enough for it to become big enough of a problem. It does happen though, Final Fantasy XII was right on the threshhold for what I can endure. I’ve realized I pretty much detest having to run around in a city or village and look for things. Maybe I enjoyed Warhammer so much because I don’t even remember it having cities!”
“Warcraft was never made to be a solo game. It was built as a place where people played with each other, where group activity was front and centre. It encouraged individuals to be bold and daring, extending themselves outside their comfort zones. It pushed you to think, and act, and play differently to any other game I had ever encountered, and for the brief period where there the supporters outweighed the detractors of this mindset? It was glorious.”
Atheren’s Adventures: Where the game is always afoot
“Himbar is in the northern part of Angmar. As soon as I entered the area, I internally said “Oh, oh, this place.” Isn’t it interesting how years can go by, but certain places in certain worlds just have memories of trouble ahead, even if you can’t quite remember why.”
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.
