Guild Wars 2’s new (old) leadership, uptick in communication, and upcoming expansion have a lot of MMO players returning to the game lately — including Why I Game’s Jeromai, who wrote an essay on the state of the game and its activities right now.
“Guild Wars 2, as a horizontal progression game, is filled with way too many things one could be doing at any turn,” Jeromai said. “A little bit of help focusing and a direction to follow is appreciated when one is lost and overwhelmed.”
Endgame Variable took a trip through FFXIV’s New Game+ mode: “In most MMORPGs, it’s not a big deal to start a new character and replay the story. In Final Fantasy XIV, it’s a massive pain. You unlock so much stuff on your journey through that game that losing it all is like losing two limbs, and then two more limbs.”
And speaking of FFXIV, Leo’s Life is going on a bit of quest tourism in that game as of late: “You are given clear instructions to go here, do this thing, talk to this person, and then most likely travel to the other part of the big map for the next bit. It’s quite jarring frankly, where the journey itself is more important than the character level associated with it.”
Retro MMO Gamer is “slumming” in Dark Age of Camelot lately, saying, “It almost seems contradictory to spend any time leveling in a mostly PvE server in a game like DAOC where PvP is its main attraction and done so well, but I do like the idea of all three realms working cooperatively to achieve certain in game goals.”
Boundless is still here, reports Unidentified Signal Source: “A lot of people seem to be assuming that the game is some combination of dead and/or abandonware. Live services cost money, gotta get the cash from somewhere if it’s not coming from here, and it’s hard to justify to an investor or publisher why you’re dedicating resources to this other thing instead of their project.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob took a trip back to WoW Classic’s Hellfire Ramparts: “The high point after that was the group of five at the top of the ramp which we have managed to wipe on every time. As we got ready for that fight, I looked at my exp bar and realized I would level after we killed two or three of the group, so when we pulled them around the corner I did not hold back on mana. I kept consecrate going and anything else I could throw at them.”
Should you boost to max level in Star Trek Online? Contains Moderate Peril considers this, saying, “Overall, this max level boost has proven okay and a convenient means to an end. It came with a bundle and was not something I specifically sought out. I’m not sure if I’d buy this if it was sold separately. Knowing how Cryptic tends to price things, it may not offer sufficient value for money.”
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.
