The Force is strong with Star Wars: The Old Republic’s new expansion, at least by all of the buzz that it’s created thanks to Knights of the Eternal Throne’s new Blur trailer and revealed details. MMO bloggers are dissecting every bit of this new information and finding much about it to ponder.
“We’ll actually be able to choose difficulty modes for story chapters now,” Calphaya noted. “I doubt that this will do anything more than increase health and damage values of mobs and bosses (although I’d love to be surprised!) but certainly this should be interesting to see in-practice. Certainly I know a lot of people have complained that Fallen Empire is too easy, so hopefully they’ll be sated.”
Ravalation thinks that all of this points to a bright future for the MMO: “Knights of the Eternal Throne promises a story as compelling as KOTFE, and then some. Although I know it’s unlikely to be the focus of things, I’m personally mostly looking forward to finding out what happens to Senya and Arcann.”
Star Wars not your jam? We’ve got bloggers weighing in on Star Citizen, The Secret World, Atlas Reactor and more after the break!
Ten Tentacles: Elite Dangerous — So you want to be a bounty hunter
“Once you find your spot, it’s often a waiting game. Bounty hunting is long periods of cruising around and scanning potential targets, interspersed with frantic ship to ship combat. There are many locations and situations where you’ll be outnumbered, but if you can take the bad guys down and survive to make it back to a station, you’ll be in for a big payday. That said, none of this really matters unless you have the right ship with the right tools.”
Overly Positive: Games immersion as coping
“When games went online and multiplayer, this sense of immersion in order to cope got even stronger, mostly because instead of just NPCs and AI you were able to interact with real people as well. I’ve blogged before about how the bonds we forge online are just as strong if not stronger than the ones we can put together IRL, but I think shared experiences, the ability to enter another world or setting together, and developers encouraging grouping and social interaction make the immersion ability (and thus the ability to cope) much stronger.”
Wolfy’s Eyes: How Atlas Reactor made me like PvP
“It’s a PvP game where head games and forethought drive the action, not stats and rotations. That’s probably one of the first reasons why Atlas Reactor has become a PvP staple for me. Even though 20 seconds to make a decision doesn’t sound like a lot of time, it does give you just enough to rub your chin and consider things. It’s infinitely more cerebral than most PvP MMO combat, and significantly more so than FPS games.”
ECTMMO.com: Expansion ponderings
“I do think it will be an interesting expansion. I love Kunark in both EverQuest games and retro throwback expansions seem to be a thing with games lately. I look forward to the new ascended idea, I think it is a nice alternative to WoW’s artifact system, instead of unlocking weapons you unlock ascended classes. Plus, the epic 2.0 weapon being a part of this is icing on the cake.”
Superior Realities: TSW’s Hide and Shriek seems underwhelming
“I can’t help but see this all as a waste of potential. If you ask people what makes The Secret World special, I really don’t think a lot of people are going to answer, ‘PvP,’ and those that do would cite the build system as the reason for that, and Hide and Shriek won’t have that.”
Errant Penman: Why MMO cosmetics matter
“For these many players, collectible systems centering on the gathering of cosmetic unlocks can be seen as a pillar of a game’s content offerings on parity of importance with content like dungeons and PvP — a pillar that’s been plundered for profit by many of the most recent MMOs.”
Gameronomy: No Man’s Sky, what’s going on?
“No matter how you cut it, No Man’s Sky does actually have a lot going for it, its potential is huge; but it’s been done such a disservice by the people trying to champion and promote it that it realistically never stood a chance of becoming well-liked, instead of merely decreasingly tolerated. Picture this, if No Man’s Sky had been released as an early access title at somewhere around the $30 mark, would there be this much controversy? I think not.”
Mystic Worlds: Star Citizen — CitizenCon 2016 impressions
“While I wanted and expected a bit more from CitCon 2016, I’m encouraged by the loose outline of the upcoming alpha updates. OMG and a loud SQUEEE. I have a new ship coming in each of the outlined updates. My joy at this revelation is not merely for the ships. These are all career ships — specialized for specific player professions. YES.”
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.
