What can call an MMO blogger out of retirement? A game studio putting in below the bare minimum of effort in its updates seems to do it for MMO Fallout’s Connor, who had some harsh words to say about Daybreak’s handling of H1Z1 these days.
“I’d like to pick up the mantle to talk about how Daybreak Game Company is a dead company with a bare bones, barely functioning development team. They just don’t care anymore folks,” Connor said. “As far as game updates go, H1Z1 Season 4 is the That 70’s Show Season 8 of video games. Topher Grace is gone and so is Ashton Kutcher.”
Well! That’s an interesting start to this week’s roundup of online gaming essays from the community. Topics that lay in wait include strategies for making gold in World of Warcraft, the characters of SWTOR: Onslaught, and a bizarre story about a giant in Elder Scrolls Online.
Misdirections: Can this relationship be saved?
“Blizzard has historically been very adept at getting commitment from its players, and to be fair they in turn have bought into that commitment. It is no small feat to keep millions engaged in an online game for 15 years. Still, just as in a failing marriage, it seems like the transgressions are coming more rapidly than the good times.”
The Lazy Goldmaker: The best methods to get early gold when starting out in World of Warcraft
“Old raids are a tried and true method of getting some raw gold. The cataclysm raids in particular have been popular. The general idea is to go at the highest possible difficulty and vendor everything you get including the BoP epics. Doing the cata 25 raids will net you a couple of thousand each as well as some transmog and a shot at some cool mounts. This might not be the most efficient farm, but it will give you raw gold that you can go straight to the AH with.”
Coffee Cakes and Crits: WoW guild housing
“Player housing is sure to come. The interest and demand is there from the player base. We’ve had in-game trials with the Tillers and Garrison and Order Hall, though there is zero in this expansion: too much pruning in our garden, I’d say.”
Galactic Antics: Characters I’d like to see introduced or brought back in Onslaught
“Obviously, some characters are a given. Darths Krovos and Malgus, Empress Acina, General Daeruun, Jonas Balkar, Major Anri, Moff Pyron, NR-O2, Tau Idair, and Vowrawn are all definitely going to be back in some way or another, either because of their prominence or their popularity. I’m also considering Alec Ranin and Lord Izar from the Hearts and Minds mission to be certainties since the two outreach programs would be well-used at various points in the new story.”
“So, City of Heroes Homecoming. I really had a lot of fun with this server. I loved the game, as old and clunky as it is it feels good to play still. I started out with a class/archetype that I liked, the mastermind, having so many pets is really, really awesome. The pet selection is really a neat aspect as you can pick from ninjas, thugs, undead, demons or robots. I have not gotten very far but I pop in here and there. Always I see so many people playing. The queues were crazy to begin with and servers were added. It really was heartwarming. There are some bugs but nothing terrible. I highly recommend trying it out if you haven’t yet.”
Occasional Hero: The day I became a kaiju in Elder Scrolls Online
“This is the story of how I became a kaiju. I was playing Elder Scrolls Online the other day, doing the Orcrest instance on my new Necro tank along with my wife’s healer. Everything was fine, until, at one point, I noticed that I wasn’t getting buffs correctly. Then I tried to use the Bone Goliath ultimate, which normally makes you turn into a giant armored skeleton. Except, because I wasn’t receiving buffs, I didn’t get the skeleton armor. I just got bigger.”
Tales of the Aggronaut: Books and bad decisions
“I am making poor life choices and apparently drawn back into piddling around with my Zodiac weapon. I solo’d my way through several dungeons last night and at current moment find myself just needing to do Amdapor Keep and get a FATE in Coerthas to spawn that seemingly doesn’t want to. I figure at some point I will have to start farming down the FATEs that have popped since I believe every zone has a limited number up at a given time. This is apparently what I am doing with my life now… in this lead up to Shadowbringers.”
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.
