What to make of Shroud of the Avatar? The few MMO bloggers who have looked into this recently released but already long-running title have struggled to get a handle on Lord British’s latest RPG.
The Ancient Gaming Noob calls it “retroist hobbyism” and left him wondering. “What is this game that is by turns awkward, finicky, intricate, deep, slow, and clearly a work in progress?” he asks. “Where does it fit into the gaming world?”
Inventory Full found some merit in it but noted the extreme performance issues and other annoyances: “My willingness to struggle on was further undermined by the D&D style random encounters that dragged me into a private instance every time I tried to travel from one adventure area to another. Not to mention the fact that my weapon was broken and I couldn’t remember how the combat system worked anyway.”
Continue on with us in this edition of Global Chat, as we’ll read essays on altitis, EverQuest, City of Heroes, Elder Scrolls Online, and more!
MMO Bro: Should MMOs encourage altitis?
“It’s easy to understand how altitis has become so common place in our world. New characters mean new classes mean new abilities mean new experiences mean…well, this could go on for a while. Altitis generally develops naturally, but some MMOs provide boons for splitting time between characters.”
MMO Gypsy: Everything is early access and a broken MMO
“Game releases used to be fun — they used to be full releases of finished games. Now everything is a premature MMO and players are juggling different categories of disappointment from ‘needed another three months’ and ‘holy hell, how is this not still beta?’ to ‘they’ll fix it next month… or so,’ and ‘yeah, should’ve left it.'”
Tales of the Aggronaut: It’s too late
“1990 had an amazing battle game that was inspired by the moving The Running Man, and pitting players against waves of oncoming enemies for cash and prizes. Smash TV seems like a game that is just begging to be converted to the battle royale genre, and could also serve to change it significantly in the process.”
Yeebo Fernbottom: I finally made it to the level cap in EverQuest
“I recently started playing EverQuest on a whim, mainly because I was curious to see how the game has changed since I last played it 10+ years ago. EverQuest is still not a game for the faint of heart. The best way to really get going in it is to start at level one and read the dozens of walls of text that come up during the tutorial.”
Gaming Conversations: Eight ways to make the Elder Scrolls Online better
“I always enjoy it when the NPC dialog makes reference to something specific about my character, such as race or class. Makes it feel more like a genuine conversation and less like a predetermined dialog tree. A few additional tweaks here and there in ESO would go a long way towards immersion. Such as referring to certain quests you’ve completed, or areas you’ve visited. Also, if my character is a vampire or werewolf, don’t badmouth vampires or werewolves to my face! Sheesh, the nerve of some NPCs!”
Through Wolfy’s Eyes: Glomping the Ghost Widow
“See, in both City of Heroes and City of Villains, you could take missions directly from the primary characters and learn additional powers on top of your build’s abilities. By and large, these were more thematic than actually useful, but in an MMO that was all about looking cool first and being optimal second, learning awesome-looking skills from the Ghost Widow herself was an amazing hook.”
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.
