Have developers and players grown so used to mechanics and number crunching that we’ve collectively lost something important along the way? That’s the concern that Leo has in a thoughtful essay that provokes a perspective shift.
“At some point, the RPG went from ROLE playing to NUMBER playing,” MMO blog Leo’s Life posted. “Sure, the P&P games always had numbers (THAC0 was my bane), but they were more indicators than absolutes (the quad power gain of wizards is a thing long gone). The dice had a major impact, and with a solid DM, you could act your way through a ton of content. When’s the last time you saw a Bard trick a dragon to killing their mate because they thought there were planning to usurp them? That sort of insanity is only found on paper.”
Tales of the Aggronaut: Minecraft without the mining or crafting
“Minecraft Dungeons is a game in the Minecraft universe, but effectively has nothing at all to do with the gameplay of the baseline game. It is instead a top-down isometric dungeon crawler that just happens to feature the primitive graphics of Minecraft.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob: Tough act to follow
“As I noted above, my enjoyment of Legion might very well have shaded my reception of BFA. Maybe. More certainly, my time spent with Wrath of the Lich King, where I played from the last few months of The Burning Crusade and straight through the whole time it was live, made me less receptive to Cataclysm.”
Inventory Full: The way you wear your hat in Guild Wars 2
“Which is when I was reminded all over again just how irritating GW2’s clothing options can be. First I had to select all six items separately from a list of eighteen, all with very similar names and icons, being extremely careful not to misclick and end up with the wrong weight or slot, which would mean another week to get the right one.”
“The KDF intro is fast paced and it’s funny, well written and well voice acted, and provides a crash course in the way that Klingon society functions. Incidentally it also justifies the rapid promotion to the captain’s chair rather better than the Starfleet tutorial does, although I suppose the Federation don’t offer the same opportunities to fast-track your career as the Empire.”
Kaylriene: My experience leveling a WoW alt now
“For me, I’ve talked a lot about how WoW is a sort of home for me – most of my concerns with leaving the game for the time being have been about concerns outside of gameplay, and while BfA has sort of bummed me out, I’ve been engaged with it about as much as I was for WoD. Ultimately, what I find that WoW offers me at the core of it is a sense of familiarity and comfort.”
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.
