What is it like to play MMORPGs if you’re deaf? Just ask Stars of the Spiral’s Kelsey, who talks of her condition and why captioning is so important for the hard-of-hearing community.
“Twitch is the best example,” she writes. “It is such a popular program that is used by hundreds, possibly thousands of streamers. I love the way it includes players and make gaming fun except it’s not automatically captioned. Deaf people miss out on so much with this particular program. Same goes for Youtube Gaming. Anything that streams live cannot be captioned. The technology is not yet there for that.”
In addition to this interesting perspective, join us for a tour through other captivating posts from the MMO blogosphere, including a tour through an EverQuest IIÂ guild hall, a guide to relaxing at endgame, problems with World of Warcraft’s transmog, and more!
Ravalation: LOTRO’s Summer Festival 2016 in pictures
“I never used to be such a fan of festivals in MMOs, but as I get older and undoubtedly more boring, I find myself strangely attracted to them. This summer festival offered pretty new rewards (making to the total amount to pick from absolutely overwhelming) and cute new quests. I’ll walk you through them with this summer festival 2016 photo report.”
Retro MMO Gamer: Guild hall shenanigans in EverQuest II
“Allowing players to craft the stuff that will be in their hall really gives them a sense of pride in those accomplishments. Not to mention some of the items look really really cool! There is also for some reason a recreation room, kind of a virtual dance hall so I went in and made myself comfortable and danced for a bit with the guild mates.”
Aywren Sojurner: How do you learn to relax at endgame?
“When I log in, though I crave relaxation, all I can think about is progression. Did I do beast tribe dailies today? Did I get a drop in Weeping City this week? How many more Lore Tomes do I need for the next piece of gear? Do I have enough seals or tomes to buy one more item for my Relic? Wow. No wonder I feel stressed.”
MMO Bro: Gaming for the ‘right’ reasons
“Inertia is a very powerful thing. The reasons that compel us to continue playing a game might be at odds with why we started planning it in the first place.”
I Have Touched the Sky: The trouble with transmog
“Why does all this require me to go to a vendor anyway? Why could it not be done from anywhere? Half of the transmog interface (the images of my acquired pieces) is available at all times through the vollections window. Just like I can use that interface to summon my mounts and minipets, why could I not use it to transmog my stuff at will? Contrast this with the new talent system allowing folks to switch between all specs at will, in any resting area (i.e., inns and capitals) — or for that matter, the costume systems of the four other MMOs I have mentioned here.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob: I bet Blizzard really wants to mention subscription numbers about now…
“That all sounds great, but they are just words.  What does ‘momentum’ really mean here?  If you don’t publish per-game MAUs, which are a bullshit metric anyway, is double really that good?  Why aren’t they ten times better?  And if you make the claim that your game is the #1 subscription based MMORPG, I think it is incumbent on your to back that claim up.”
“I’m going to start with cold and snowy biomes as its one of my favourite types of zone to wander around in.  I’m going to be strict and only allow one screenshot per MMO!”
Occasional Hero: Is it possible to balance ranged and melee classes?
“It’s a perennial problem for MMOs: either melee classes have the advantage or ranged ones do […] So what do you think? Is it possible to truly balance these two class styles? Have you played any MMOs with any clever ways of bringing these two class types into balance?”
The Hybrid Journal: Housing wishlist for Elder Scrolls Online
“Of course we know housing is going to be monetized in the cash shop — there’ll be exclusive items, possibly even houses, and I have no problem with that. As with everything, though, it’s important to keep a balance. I think it would be a shame, for instance, if crafters couldn’t create anything for the houses, in-game means would be quite limited and everything else would go into the cash shop. Housing items should be attainable through as many means as possible, including but not focusing on the cash shop.”
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.
