Guild Wars 2’s recent renovation of underwater combat has brought back some interest to this oft-neglected sphere of gameplay. Inventory Full’s Bhagpuss used this occasion as an opportunity to examine the role of underwater combat in general and the changes to GW2 in specific.
“The undersea worlds of most MMOs weren’t quite so unforgiving but still they were shunned,” he notes. “Developers tended to avoid them too, other than blocking out something wet and watery in the most perfunctory manner possible. It was quite a surprise when Guild Wars 2 launched with a goodly amount to see and do below the surface, any number of bodies of water, from inland lakes to the open seas, offering much the same opportunity and inducement to explore as their counterparts on dry land.”
Once you towel off from that essay, join the MMO blogosphere as it looks at DC Universe Online, World of Warcraft, RIFT Prime, and more!
Superior Realities: The mustering of Azeroth — an end at last
“At long last, the journey is done. My nearly two year mission to complete every class story in World of Warcraft has reached its conclusion, with the last three now in the rear view. Man. What am I doing with my life.”
“I was impressed by the design of the instance and the items in it. Adding the giant balls and presents made it a lot more interesting to play through than some other, simpler boss areas. There was something slightly disturbing about the sense of scale as well – either that it was a place for giants or that we’d been shrunk by some diabolic device on entering. We triumphed easily enough, but I did feel as we played through as sense that a rather strange joke was being played on us.”
Aywren Sojourner: Close encounters of the dragon kind
“One amazing aspect of Second Life (once you get past the learning curve) is that you can be just about anything you can imagine. The new bento mesh avatars make this a million times better. I’ve talked about how great they are for people avatars and for riding horses. But they can also take the form of infinite other things.”
Contains Moderate Peril: The psychology of an MMO player
“Competition is a very strong human trait. Western culture focuses on it heavily and often enshrines it in all aspects of society. It is therefore a prevalent facet of many MMOs and attracts a substantial player base. However, the pleasure of competing is often overshadowed by the perceived benefits of succeeding and on occasions public displays of pride.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob: Something missing in Scarlet Gorge
“Overall however, momentum in RIFT Prime has clearly slowed down. The guild I am in, which was semi-active, with everybody playing at least a bit each week, has now pretty much dragged to a halt. I may be the only one who has logged into the game in the last two weeks.”
Tales of the Aggronaut: More Warmind impressions
“The average player would be going into that scene wondering what in the hell a Worm God is and why these two NPCs seem so freaked about it. The problem being that the game didn’t really give us enough run up to reach this supposedly epic conclusion. It feels a lot like the campaign in Rise of Iron where you have some epic things going on… but nowhere enough lead up to make them feel like that epic nature is earned.”
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.
