What Will MMOs Become

In the late 90s early 2000s MMOs had proven to be a game for hardcores.  It offered an infinite number of activity options to players who were sick of an entirely single player experience.  MMOs had taken hold of a demand that no one was fulfilling, multiplayer.

MMOs attracted the most hardcore of the hardcore.  These were people with broadband when everyone else had dialup.  These people had Pentium 2s when few people even owned a Pentium 1.  These people could spend 16 hours a day playing games and have no worries about life.

Today we don’t look at hardcore as being that hardcore.  But back then, that’s what hardcore meant.

MMOs attracted a lot of people, but they also pushed people away.  This “hardcore” life style was not for everyone… and indeed not for most of anyone. As it turned out the MMO format actually scared a lot of people away.  When thinking about playing an MMO people thought about a time investment.  This caused people to flock to single player games that offered multiplayer.

In the initial transition of the MMO genre the hardcores were in denial.  I know this, because I was one of them.

I can even remember when the big transition happened.

The year was 2009.  All was well in the universe.  Wrath of the Lich King was in full swing.  Warhammer Online was losing subs left and right.

But something was wrong.

An evil was lurking on the horizon.

An MMO so different that people would deny it was even an MMO.  It was called…. Farmville.

Farmville was an MMO designed entirely around… building a farm..  The word MMO was so stigmatized at the time that they wouldn’t even refer to it as an MMO.

Instead they referred to themselves as a “social game.”  I can pretty much say with certainty that with the massive success of Zynga’s Farmville transformed a viral app into a paradigm.

Farmville to this day is not only the most popular MMO in the world but also the most popular game in the world.

The success of Farmville saw the mass re-branding and re-appropriating of the MMO genre into a social game.

Prius Online had some weird branding calling itself an “Emotional MMO.”  This may have been a very terrible translation error in an attempt to call it a social MMO.  Lucent Hearts however was specifically released as a “social” MMO.

Since the success of Farmville mainstream MMOs have attempted to integrate being social more and more.  Blizzard setup a massive Battle.net social network allowing you to communicate with friends cross-server and cross-Blizzard game.

Rift took a giant leap by letting people access their Facebook and Twitter from the game.

Star Wars: The Old Republic created a leveling stat called “Social” entirely designed to get people to play together.

After all the years of MMOs the developers finally realized the reason why their games were so successful was because it gave friends a game to play together… not to give people an epic feeling.

But alas, another trend is forming.

The adoption of the “social game” aspect of the MMO was a powerful trend because it emphasized a new strength.  The old strength of MMOs was simply multiplayer.  But then everyone got multiplayer.

Now every game is getting a social aspect to it.  It is becoming almost standard to include the ability to make a social network when playing a game.  Wargame: European Escalation even has a clans system.  Anno 2070 is linked into a UPlay social network.  Last night I was playing the Anno 2070 event and a person invited me to play with them that I had never talked to before.

Yes single player games are once again taking popular aspects from MMOs and putting them into their games.

So where do MMOs go next?  If the genre is to survive it will have to do something that no one else is doing.

Right now MMORPGs are just RPGs with worse graphics, worse stories, worse combat systems, worse leveling, and worse stats systems.

Right now MMOFPSs are just bad FPS games with no sense of balance.

Right now MMORTS is just the longest and most boring RTS game ever made.

No matter what it is doing right now MMOs are doing it worse.

MMOs are massively out sold by single player games and only really survive when the developer is willing to give it up for free.

So where will MMOs go next?

Maybe the morgue?

Caelia the Stormtouched Kill Strat – Charmer’s Caldera

Caelia is the last boss of Expert Charmer’s Caldera and is going to be the second hardest boss in the dungeon.

Abilities

Shocking Paralysis: Single target air damage spell

Stormtouched vision: Spawns 8 carbon copies all named Stormtouched vision.

Whirling tempest: Applies a debuff that deals are of effect damage to anyone around them.

Grip of Death: Lifts everyone in the air and pushes them backwards, causes fall damage.

Strategy

The raid should position themselves at the door behind Caelia shown in the image below:

In a very basic strategy your entire group can just sit here for the entire boss fight. There are many ways to kill this boss but this is the simplest and most consistent.

The boss will occasionally place a debuff (Whirling Tempest) on a party member. This debuff needs to be dispelled as soon as possible. If it is up for too long the party will take too much damage and it will be a wipe. You should make sure the dispeller knows what he’s doing before pulling.

Every 33% Caelia will spawn minions which you will have to kill. These can be AOEed down.

After the minions she will spin in a circle a dodgeable line of electricity. You can choose to run around in a circle to avoid it, or if you’re new sit there and seat the damage. The damage it causes is pretty minimal and only does about 10% damage twice.

After this she will lift everyone in the air (grip of death) and drop them for substantial damage. This will also push you back. You are standing at the door so that you will be pushed against it and not thrown into the dangerous lava surrounding the boss.

And that is the whole fight. Do this two more times and you win.

Gronik Kill Strat – Charmer’s Caldera

Gronik is the fourth boss of Charmer’s Caldera and has no trash leading to him. Gronik is accompanied by two hencemen and is a low difficulty fight.

Abilities

Reflective Torrent: Puts up a shield that will reflect all damage back to caster.

Storm’s Rage: Stacking buff that increases Gronik’s damage.

Pulse: AoE damage shield gets placed over one player causing them to deal damage to everyone around them.

Static: Snares an enemy in place making them unable to move.

Strategy

There are a lot of ways to do this boss. The easiest way is to kill off Gronik first. Make sure you have someone who can purge and who will purge as soon as reflective shield comes up. Once it comes up everyone will take a burst of damage your healer will have to heal through. A support is recommended for this fight.

Players should stay mostly spread out so to avoid area of effect damage.

A second strategy involves killing the ads first. This removes the snare and the pulse from the equation however should only be done if your tank is confident in his gear.

A third and final strategy involves simply using AoE to kill all of them at once. This will get you the kill the very fastest and will grant you an achievement. This needs a support and should only be done if bosses are falling over.

Jultharin Kill Strat – Charmer’s Caldera

Jultharin is the second last boss in Charmer’s Caldera and is entirely a gear check. If you can pass Jultharin you have the gear to do all of the T2 content easily.

Abilities

Deranging Tempest: Summons a line of orbs that will instantly kill an opponent

Shocking Blast: Single target air damage on target of boss.

Daze: Dazes a target causing them to confusingly walk around.

Strategy

So as far as a setup goes you want to be like this:

The goal here is to start off as far away as possible and just grind the boss down.

The orbs you see in the picture (red line) will slowly close in on you. This gives a direct timer for how long you have to kill this boss.

You have two options as far as makeup goes. The first is you can choose to run your healer as a DPS and have your support heal everyone. If your support is geared enough he should be able to keep everyone up while still DPSing. My rogue solo heals a number of bosses so as long as people are being smart it’s easy.

The other option is to have your support transform into a full on DPS (the more common option). In the kill video our makeup is one healer and one support. It just so happens that I forgot to transform into a DPS, however because it was a guild run it was not necessary.

A big tip is to not run off the edge. Sounds dumb but when you are dazed make sure to mouse turn and not keyboard turn around. Sometimes if you keyboard turn around you’ll push yourself off the edge.

Leveling Guide: Part 1 – Eating and Excretion

After having leveled three characters successfully I feel like I have mastered leveling in Rift. I feel I have mastered leveling so much so in all games that I’ve decided to start a new series dedicated specifically to leveling habits. Most guides that deal with leveling will tell you what quests to do. I have never used one of these guides to level, and neither should you. If that is your bag, by all means buy one. Instead these guides will focus on good leveling habits.

As far as credentials go I was a server first 70, 80 and 85 on a max population World of Warcraft server. I was part of a team of five who leveled together in Aion and made server first. In Warhammer my entire guild leveled together and was the first guild to start taking territory. In Global Agenda I was a sad server second.

So obviously I have spent a lot of time leveling, and doing it effectively. A lot of this comes from organization, not only organizing what quests to do and how to get to max level. What I want to cover are going to focus on organization and good habits.

The first topic I will cover is your diet.

Food and Bathroom Breaks

The smallest downtime you will find in leveling is going to be getting food and excreting that same food.

I think when leveling the best thing to do is go as much in a row as possible. While leveling you make a tone of micro-decisions that can just be easily forgotten. My limiting your down time you will decrease your confusion time.

Whenever you leave your computer turn Rift off. Just X out and leave. You will find that logging in does not take much time. This will give you some rested experience and it will divert from a secondary problem. Rift has a dynamic world environment that is always changing. By standing stationary you may feel that you are safe, however because of roaming and constant invasions and footholds your safe footing can easily transform into a major battleground. By Xing out you are going to avoid this problem.

You will find after you are leveling for so long that your bladder will demand less of the washroom from you. The key is to limit your intake of liquids. I often level with 3-4 2L bottles of Coca-Cola by my side. I might consume a liter of this a day. Compare this to the 8 liters of liquids you are required to drink every day. By limiting your liquid in take you limit your down time from going to the washroom. But never hold it… that can do serious damage to your body.

Food and meal preparation is important while you are trying to grind out anything. It’s important to realize that if you are missing key vitamins and minerals in your diet you will get tired faster and lose hours of play time to excessive sleeping. As a secondary effect you will also find yourself getting more depressed and finding less value in what you are doing.

Below is a standard diet for me as a former pro-gamer:

1. Oatmeal: Contains high traces of fiber, take 2-3 minutes to make and most importantly contain tryptophan. Tryptophan is also found in turkey and triggers increased serotonin production. This will give you a feeling of being energetic and will reduce your unhappiness.
2. Chocolate Milk: Milk contains whey which decreases anxiety. As well it is loaded full of protein. Protein is the one nutrient that is easiest to break down into carbohydrates (energy) making them more and more desirable. Having chocolate milk at least some of the time is going to help you a long way to staying awake and at it.
3. Sliced Pineapple: This is a common aphrodisiac. In short this means it makes you horny. There is a common brain activity found between high stress banking/investing and sexual activity. This essentially means that this stuff will make you want to do more and be more aggressive about it. Sliced pineapple is a little bit expensive but you can buy them in nice round containers at your local grocery all prepared for you.
4. 8 liters of Coke: Most people suggest you drink really strong black coffee while gaming. I have found that making coffee is too much of a down time and since you’re trying to limit your intake of liquids you cannot drink anything fast. Coffee is a huge problem for gaming. You want to drink it fast because you really don’t want it cold so you often will just down it in 10 minutes. Really what you want is to have something by your side to keep your mouth from being dry and giving you caffeine. Caffeine is great when tied in with a high carbohydrate diet. Combine these two elements and what you will find is that you will be bouncing and high energy far longer.
5. Salted peanuts: These are cheap and easy. They can be found in your local supermarket and are almost pure protein. This means by munching on these things you can better exercise that hand muscle and stay high energy longer. When you get tired you play less effectively and less efficiently. Peanuts will ensure that you will always have energy.
6. Light Potato chips: When you play and there is a lull in the action you will (and should) always have the impulse to do something. More often than not that impulse is eating. Providing with a large bag of light or plain potato chips will give you something to chew on that won’t make you super fat while playing. If you are super fat you are already probably low energy.

What not to eat:

1. Chocolate Snacks: Chocolate is a great thing for serotonin but a terrible thing for your health. The main problem is that when you’re gaming you are snacking so you won’t be eating a small candy bar. What you will probably end up with is bulk barn Glosette raisins which are just going to give you junk calories.
2. Full meals: It’s fine to cook yourself a piece of meat and eat it, or make a salad, or warm up some delicious corn. But to make a full meal means high amounts of down time. Full meals cannot be snacked on, they have to be eaten when they’re warm and have to be eaten over time.
3. Fiber One Bars: This can apply to almost any candy bar or granola bar, but Fiber One bars are the worst. Fiber is healthy for you and all but only if you are drinking a lot of liquids. The only thing a high fiber granola bar is going to do for you is make you poop more and maybe give you gas.
4. No Smelly Foods: Let’s face it, you are probably not going to brush, floss, shower, or use scope during your grind. You are going to be a smelly bag sitting in your chair at your computer desk. So with that in mind it’s probably not best to bring on something that will make you smell less appealing to yourself. My favorite addition to any food is garlic which just reeks after an hour. My girlfriend loves curry, which also smells really bad after an hour. You want to be comfortable, not sitting there thinking about how bad your breath smells (or how bad that meal you’re not eating smells).
5. Flavored Chips: The best way to screw up your keyboard or dirty your equipment is to eat some sort of chip with a powdering on it. My favorite chip flavor is Sour Cream and Bacon. 90% of the flavoring will always end up on my pants as I wipe my hands. You want to be somewhat clean while you are playing. It basically will take you 3-4x as long to eat flavored chips as any other brand of chips just because you’ll constantly be wiping your hands.
6. Fruit Juice: This is one of the touchier ones to bring up and people don’t like to hear it. Fruit juices are loaded full of sugar and sugar is a junk calorie. Worst yet unlike soda drink… it doesn’t even have caffeine.
7. Energy drinks/Red bull: Although drinking caffeine is fine from a soft drink, coffee and Redbull are pretty off the menu. The problem is that they are actually too high caffeine and give you an unsustainable amount of energy. These are great for the zero-hour situation where you are trying to make a push to the finish line. However on a day to day use these are terrible. Drinking super caffeine drinks will just burn you out really fast. Think of this as a marathon you want a steady stream of energy for a 17 hour day.