The buzz around MMO Town these days is on New World, and specifically, the open beta that wrapped up last week. So far, the verdict seems pretty positive!
SparkoMarcoGaming said, “Overall my first impressions of the game were good, it looks nice even on low settings, and the quests were straight-forward.” Alysianah Noire noted that “it didn’t disappoint,” saying, “From where I sit, New World has the early staying power of Guild Wars 2. Only an onerous cash shop, dearth of new content, or severely broken mechanics can defeat the successful base game.”
Blessing of Kings wasn’t quite sold on it, however: “It’s certainly not a bad game, and is probably worth checking out if you are interested. At the same time, nothing really grabbed me.”
Contains Moderate Peril took an early look at LOTRO’s Brawler class, saying, “Despite this being a very early build the Brawler plays quite well at present. The basic skills of heavy and light attacks are done as different kinds of punches. The animations are okay and it all feels quite tangible. Your blows do damage and the mobs react to them in a timely fashion.”
Should fierce factional enemies ever be friends? Pugnacious Priest hopes this happens in World of Warcraft: “I don’t think we need to keep the lines between Alliance and Horde so strict – and I am supportive of blurring these where it could. We are currently fighting for the same world.”
Endgame Variable is struggling with why everyone thinks FFXIV’s Shadowbringers is the best MMO story ever: “Nobody ever really tells you why they thought Shadowbringers was so great. I suppose to avoid spoilers. Or perhaps people don’t know why. Perhaps they just liked it for unknown reasons, which is certainly a valid response to any piece of art. Sometimes we don’t know why we like something, we just do.”
Is Fallout Worlds a net positive or negative for Fallout 76? In An Age chews on the topic, saying, “A large number of people in the Fallout 76 community consider Worlds a waste of developer time. Originally, I did too. What’s the point? Why spend developer time on a feature that has no progression?”
Was the World of Warcraft level squish a good idea? The Ancient Gaming Noob examines this question but doesn’t have a definitive answer. “Part of it is hard to appraise because you’re viewing from the outside. And when you add in the long content drought after the Shadowlands launch and then the company blowing up with the lawsuit it is easy to think that Blizz could have spent their time better.”
The Nosy Gamer got into some of the economics of EVE Online’s transaction changes, saying, “Some of the increase in broker fees received was a result of CCP forcing some structure owners to actually charge fees. Of interest to those following the war is that the changes did not necessarily enrich the owners of the TTT Keepstar, as they were already charging a 0.5% fee. An increase to 1% with NPCs taking half resulted in no net change.”
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.
