Sunday 1/12/2025 Post

 The Green Bay Packers put up another embarrassing loss in the playoffs and it was evident from the moment the opening kick off was fumbled and egregiously awarded to the Eagles even after numerous replay reviews showed clear recovery by the Packers.

Am I being fair to Ashes of Creation?

 If you browse my history of Ashes of Creation blog posts or read many of my comments on Reddit in the Ashes of Creation subreddit, especially around the recent Narc controversy, you will get a sense that I am critical of the game.  Skeptic, even, would be a good word to describe my view of Ashes.   But am I being fair in my criticism and skepticism?  Probably not but I need to get some things off my chest.

 In order for this to make sense you need to be up to speed on the drama created by Narc, a popular Ashes content creator on Youtube, who announced he was done with the game and can no longer recommend backing the game financially.  In the video Narc makes a range of points backed up by video.  Watch his video first:

 Steven Sharif, who started Intrepid Studios and is spending his own money to make Ashes a reality and serves as the creative director, did not take kindly to Narc's video.  First he responded publicly on Reddit and then he took to live streaming the current alpha test to disprove Narc's statements (with a specific focus around Narc's comments about the desert zone expansion).  It's along stream and can be watched here:

 Asmongold, a very popular and often considered toxic MMO streamer, then reacted to Narc's video. Surprisingly Asmongold stayed fairly neutral and wanted to hear more from both Narc and Steven on the topic.  First watch the original react video.

 Asmongold was able to then line up impromptu interviews with Narc, Steven Sharif, and Thor (Pirate Software) and get more of each side's view of the matter on the topic.  Another long video to watch but as the top comment on Youtube states "If you think I’m going to lay here watching this for 3 hours and 40 mins then you would be correct.".  So get watching.

 Once you've watched the above, which is an investment of time for sure, you should have the context for the rest of my thoughts shared below.

 First I want to point out that Ashes of Creation is a crowd funded game in a time period where there is not a great opinion of crowd funded games due to rampant fraud, scams, and failure to deliver related to crowd funded projects. Yes, Steven Sharif is making up the difference for development costs from his own pocket but the game is still at it's core a crowd funded project.

 Second it is worth noting that Ashes is charging for access to test the game.  Originally this was via more traditional crowd funding packages which were taken down for sale before the test was set to begin.  Right after the packages were taken down and assumed you could no longer buy access to the alpha test Steven announced new test-only access was available to purchase.  Charging for alpha access has been a bone of contention ever since.

 I mention the crowd funding and charging for alpha testing access because it sets the stage for a powder keg in the environment.  Add in a defensive, cult-like following for the game who practically worship Steven Sharif and it was inevitable something like Narc's video was going to set it off.

 The stage was set.  We have a crowd funded game with a feisty community and a "savior of all things MMORPGs" figure in Steven Sharif.  Toss in a spark of "I am quitting because the game isn't delivering what we paid for" from Narc's video and BOOM.

 My initial reaction to Narc's video was one of confirmation of my skepticism that Ashes of Creation could deliver the game that Steven has promised.  Or at the very least that the game that Steven promised was even farther away than we had hoped.  I wouldn't say I rushed to defend Narc's position but I did make many comments on Reddit that ended up defending his position.

 I still somewhat identify with Narc's points he made in his video but after seeing Steven's response, mediated by Asmongold, I can see where Narc cherry picked footage that exaggerated the point he was making.  In essence, Narc was not being fair to the progress the game has actually made.  The game came up short on his expectations but through words and selective video he overstated his opinion.

 I hesitate to say Narc flat out lied because at the end of the day he was ultimately sharing his opinion.  No amount of Steven flying around the world and showing things off will convince Narc that his opinion was wrong.  More importantly it is not hard to see that Narc had higher expectations due to the past developer updates and a lack of specificity about what was coming to the alpha test's .  When you are charging for access to a test and have a history of creating "fear of missing out" around crowd funding packages then the expectation of the buyer is always going to get a bit more weight from me.

 So I think Narc created a misleading video and based on his follow up comments assumed more viewers would have watched previous content to have a bigger picture of his view point.  In the end though Narc had expectations based on what he saw and what he heard that were not met.  This was the straw that broke the camel's back for his diehard interest in the game.  His video was his way to say so and that he could not longer in his own good version of faith recommend the game.

 Steven's response was one of measured response at first but veered into anger and I personally think Steven made a couple missteps when anger got the best of him but after seeing Narc's unhinged response targeting Steven (which I won't link) I will give Steven a pass.  More importantly is that Steven's response increased my interest in the actual state of Ashes of Creation because if anything positive has come out of this fiasco is a much better understanding of the state of the game.

 Also Steven can sell a compelling vision for the type of MMORPG I want to play.  Without prompting he clarified positions such as understanding his desire for PvP systems in the game that are not in line with most of the market but a game with PvP is the type of game he is making... period.  Good on him.  Stick with your guns.  I have skepticism on how it all comes together but now I know it's not an area of negotiation.  I can get behind developers that stick to a vision.

 Now how do I judge my own response?  First, I admit I took the bait and fell for Narc's video hook, line, and sinker.  I supported words like "lies" and used phrases like "legal action" when I should not have.  In the case of the legal action comments I made I will stand by them because crowd funded games are a hot topic in the legal space with many game projects being forced into refunding backers even when they are able to release games.

 My own view of Ashes is it is slow to deliver and I've been regularly unimpressed with their monthly updates so it was not hard to buy into Narc's point that the team is not delivering to previous updates that made the game seem further along than it is.  It is worth noting that Narc doubled down on the assertion when questioned by Asmongold and while Steven did show some more of the desert area I would still argue it is no where near what was shown in the preview showcase two years ago.  It is a valid question to ask why what is actually in the test two years later is lacking in comparison and how none of the stuff talked about two years ago is in yet (i.e. the desert dungeon).

 The topic around the desert area expansion is also the only real point that Steven was able to dispute via showing the current state of the game.  The other points Narc made were only refuted by "its coming later" and "game development is hard so things may change" response from Steven. Which brings us full circle to why my own view is still closer to the points made by Narc than maybe I want to admit.  

 There is a long ways to go for Ashes of Creation to become the game it set out to be and as a crowd funded game that is charging players to access test phases I am personally going to set a higher bar and be more skeptical in nature.  As Josh Strife Hayes, another well known MMORPG content creator on YouTube, once said "If a game costs 100$ I judge it for this price.".  

 Yes, this means I am admitting that much of the uproar around Narc's video is more due to Ashes charging for access than it is for the development misses towards some player's expectations.  A point that Asmongold hammered home when he spoke with Thor at the end of the "About Ashes of Creation" video.  So to a degree that means I have not been fair to Ashes of Creation's actual progress and thus puts me in the same light as Narc.

 So where do we go from here?  First, I need to get back into blogging more about Ashes and my thoughts about their development updates.  I told myself I wouldn't do it as I wanted to avoid my past mistakes made with being a WAR fanboy before it's ill-fated existence, but I'm too invested now and have said too many short sighted things to not broaden my body of work about Ashes.  Ashes is also one of the only games doing interesting things in the MMO space so I would be remiss not to pay closer attention and provide my feedback.

 Second, and probably craziest of all, this entire situation has made me consider buying into Alpha 2 access.  Why?  Because I did get misled in Narc's video and I would not have had I had more actual experience with the game.  There is a side of me that does not want to reward crowd funded games anymore but there is another side of me that says "you are just paying a subscription to play a game".  Because while it is a test, and to Steven's point "not a game to play yet", there still seems to be tons of folks like Nyce Gaming having a ton of fun testing it by playing it as a game!  New World is in a dry spell.  Throne and Liberty flamed out. I really don't have an MMO addiction at the moment so the itch is there.  I may actually do this and that will speak louder than any number of words I've put on page here.

Note: as I wanted this post to be as pure as possible no AI was used in editing this post so I own the grammar and spelling errors!

Sunday 1/5/2025 Post

 Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

Dec 2024 in review!

December 2024 is in the books so let's take a look back at the blog over that month.

The Blog

Blogger stats for Dec: 23,527 visits

 

Note: this is the last 30 days graph as of 1/2 so off by a day or two

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 15 (weekdays minus holiday weeks/vacation)
  
• Posted: 10
  
• Difference: -5 (took some time off blogging just because)
  
•  Search Trends
• "new world inferno build", "inferno build new world", "new world flamethrower build" have been gaining momentum since New World Aeternum (NWA) launched thanks to my build post: Frigid Inferno Build. I need to take this rise in the search rankings as a sign that I need to update the build for all the changes with NWA (though it mostly stayed the same).
• "new world roadmap 2024", "new world 2024 roadmap", "new world road map 2024" dropped off the search radar this month which is not surprising as we enter 2025. This reminds me I still haven't posted about the "living roadmap" the New World developers gave us.
  
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" is proving it has a long run as it proceeds to drive traffic to Best Battlefield!? but that may be ending soon as I found this note on my Google Search Console today.
• 
  
  
  
  
• "deadlock invite not showing up", "not getting deadlock invite", and other Deadlock invite related searches keep driving traffic.   I am amazed they still have an invite system for the game's test version with how much trouble it causes and how steep of a player count drop off the game has experienced.
  
• Last, but not least, was "quitting throne and liberty" which directs folks to, no surprise, my post on "Why I quit Throne and Liberty"
  

What I Played

For December I was back in New World smashing  faces in 3v3 arenas and outpost rush matches.  I've also spent some time hitting the winter event to get some of the rewards I've not gotten in the past (skins; gotta collect 'em all).

Marvel Rivals was a surprise hit this month for me and I've put in a good number of hours.  I really enjoy the game.  I am not sure its a long term game as hero shooters wear me out and there is not enough with Marvel Rivals to separate itself from that trend, but for December it was a big hit in my playtime.

I gave Brighter Shores a few minutes of my time and this Monday Screenshots post is all you are going to get out of it.

I also took a moment to try out Deltaforce and if you told me I was playing Battlefield 2042 I'd of believed you.  It is a literal clone of the game to the point the UIs look almost identical.  I was going to make a post about this but it is not worth the time and effort.  I do find it sort of crazy how the community is giving Deltaforce a pass

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

December 2023 marked a momentous "gamer dad" moment for me as we gifted my oldest son his very own gaming PC components and I got to watch him put it together.

The Finals surprise launched and I recorded my first win.

Groundhog Day had me thinking about modern storytelling in video games.

5 Years Ago

Dec 2019 was in the 'not a lot of blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.

10 Years Ago

In Dec of 2014 the biggest event recorded was that I upgraded my GPU.

15 Years Ago

In Dec of 2009 Borderlands (the original) was the hot game and I wrote this review.

I also decided to go back to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) and give it 10 more days of my time.  You can check out my "10 Days of WAR" posts by starting here.  To no surprise I was done playing the game, again, after the 10 day experiment.

 20 19 Years Ago

Technically I have 21 named years on my sidebar (since I am posting this in 2025), but mathematically December 2005 was only 19 years ago.

In Dec 2005 we were speculating the Draenei were the next race coming to to World of Warcraft which eventually turned out to be true. 

Oh and I became somewhat of an early viral celebrity with an article I wrote for the Gamergod (now defunct) website discussing why MTV was doing a better job at games journalism than actual games media.  I was mentioned in a GU Comic (now defunct) about it (which I used the wayback machine to go nab a copy of to include here and in the original post).  You can also use the wayback machine to read the forum thread for the comic.

"a guy" = me

Sunday 12/29/2024 Post

 Packers scored more points than the Vikings but the refs decided to give away 3 points to end the first half and thus the Packers wound up 2 pts short of pulling off the comeback.  The Packers are now 0-5 against the top teams in the NFC; the teams they will face in the play offs.  Sigh.

 

Monday 12/23/2024 Post

 The Green Bay Packers shut out the injured New Orleans Saint and damn it felt good!

Monday Screenshots: MVPs

 I scored back to back MVP nods in Marvel Rivals over the weekend.  One playing The Punisher and the other playing Hela.  I wanted to share the MVP screencaps and some thoughts on each hero.

The Punisher

15 kills / 2 deaths and a clutch quad kill

The Punisher is the first hero that Marvel Rivals players get to experience in the tutorial and I pretty much fell in love from that moment.  He has both range and close up potential as he sports a machine gun and a shotgun.  He also can deploy a stationary turret that he can use to mow down the enemy.  To help him get in place he can deploy ziplines and use smoke grenades.  His ultimate ability turns him into a pumped up machine gunner with shoulder rockets firing down on targets.

The biggest downside to playing The Punisher is his lack of mobility.  While the zipline grapple can sometimes get you out of trouble it is far too unreliable to be a consistent escape mechanism.  It is far better to use the zipline to get in a better position against the other team.  If another duelist or a tank gets in close to me while playing The Punisher it doesn't end well most times but there is something I've gotten better at that helps.

The Punisher has a second weapon with his shotgun and I see many new players overlook this.  It is a strong close range weapon and can delete soft targets up close but is slow between shots and even slower on reload so you have to hit your shots.  The shotgun is also a remarkable tank killer.  You won't win a 1v1 with a tank but if you are pushing an enemy tank or trying to finish one off there is no better weapon to get the job done.

A few things I'd like to see the game fix with The Punisher:

• The grapple zipline is unreliable because it is not clear what parts of a map can be attached to and which cannot.  I am sure this affects other heroes like spiderman as well.
• The smoke grenade needs work.  The smoke lasts for almost no time at all and it is easy for enemies to just push through.  Either add a stun to the smoke grenade if it hits a target or give more control to the player on the pushback so they can use it to juke enemies.
• Many other heroes get some form of health boost or protection when activating their ultimate.  The Punisher does not and with his clear announcement that he is entering his ultimate it is not hard to find and focus fire him down before his ultimate finishes activating.
  

Hela

EZ PZ 18 and 2 match

Hela is probably the strongest duelist (aka DPS) hero in the game.  She is sniper-like with her throwing daggers/swords and has outstanding mobility as she can shapeshift into a bird to escape or reach a perch from which to snipe from.  She also gets a stun orb and can float slowly down instead of falling.  Her ultimate boosts her health and launches her to float above the battlefield while she unleashes bombs.

I honestly only started playing Hela after getting repeatedly wrecked by her in many matches.  There is also a lot of feedback in the community that she is overpowered and after playing her a bit I would have to agree.  She is easy to play and get kills with.  She can lock down areas chokepoints and almost always escape danger with her stun and shapeshifting.  She is also very strong against tanks and if you can land headshots she is the "tank killer" most competitive team comps rely on.

She needs a nerf.

Sunday 12/15/2024 Post

 The Packers excised some demons last night at Lumen field and beat the Seahawks.

The Real MVP Jeff the Landshark

 I had a burst of inspiration and put together a video with some music and a highlight from Marvel Rivals.  Enjoy!

Heartlessgamer Rap

Who knows what the future of AI will look like, but for now, I am having a lot of fun exploring creative possibilities that were once beyond my personal talents, resources, and time. One such pursuit is music creation.

An AI generated image of an old(er) video game blogger creating music.
Sort of not at all what I look like.  I prefer my jeans NOT ripped.

Back in the day, I dabbled in electronic music (over 20 years ago!) and was a fan of the MTV Music Maker—a sort of video game for wannabe musicians. I even had a Napster chat channel where I shared my electronic music, though those early creations have been lost to time. Recently, I've started experimenting with Suno and AI-generated music, reigniting that old creative spark.

After some trial and error and watching YouTube tutorials on the best practices of song prompt writing, I've developed an AI-collaborative approach to lyric writing. The process is a partnership between my creativity and an AI assist. I contribute the core ideas and overall structure, while the AI helps refine the lyrics, ensuring proper length and rhyming.

The collaboration isn't always smooth. The AI sometimes changes key pieces of text—for instance, replacing "Keyboard mouse" with alternative phrases even though "keyboard mouse" is a key lyric considering I am a PC gamer.

These unexpected shifts can lead to more interesting results. When I got stuck, the AI came in with clever solutions. A perfect example is the line "every post he writes erupts," which the AI suggested when I was struggling to incorporate blogging into a verse.

Rhyming has been particularly fascinating. The AI's skill at creating unexpected rhymes—like "alien sand"—has been a delightful surprise. Of course, there are moments when I simply insist on keeping certain lyrics, rhyme or no rhyme, maintaining my bit of control over the process.

The song I lyrics I ended up with:

[Verse] 

HeartlessGamer plays all night long
Virtual worlds where he feels strong
Pixelated lands where he belongs
Chasing dreams with epic songs 

[Verse 2] 

Blogging tales of heroes grand
Defeating foes with just one hand
From dungeons deep to alien sand
He conquers all with a fearless stand

[Chorus] 

HeartlessGamer is his name
In the digital realm he stakes his claim
No heart to lose no love to tame
In pixels and code he’s got the fame

[Verse 3]

Keyboard mouse like a knight’s sword
From level one to final boss
Strategic plays no room for loss
He’s the legend and the lore

[Verse 4] 

Loading screens and power-ups
Collecting lives and winning cups
Every post he writes erupts
With cheers from fans they fill his cups

[Chorus]

HeartlessGamer is his name
In the digital realm he stakes his claim
No heart to lose no love to tame
In pixels and code he’s got the fame 

Lyrics in hand it was a lot of trial and error with different music styles and combinations.  What resulted was a few different versions of the song.  Personally I have a wide ranging music taste.  You can catch me listening to everything from Lean On Me by Bill Withers to Mad World from the Donnie Darko movie to my teenage years dominated by music from Korn.  I tried to mix many of those genres and musical styles into the prompting, but ultimately the style that worked out best was rap and electro-pop.

The two song outputs worth sharing are:

• HeartlessGamer Rap
• HeartlessGamer Plays All Night Long

Monday Screenshots: Cuteness Overload

 I had written Marvel Rivals off as a Marvel cash grab, but then I saw the game had breached 400,000 concurrent players on Steam so I had to check it out.  What I found was an enjoyable hero shooter with a spot on super hero feeling.  One of those heroes happens to be the cutest darn land shark you've ever seen.  Meet Jeff the Landshark!

Hi Jeff!

 Jeff is a support hero that focuses on healing and powering up teammates.  He does this in adorable fashion by rolling around and then going underground to do his "land shark" thing. Every-now-and-then he turns on his back and flipping a fish snack up in the air to reload his healing power.  Once charged up his ultimate shark attack swallows enemies and teammates alike and either can be spit out or better yet, for the enemies, is to just swim off the map with them.

The land shark can also climb walls!

Who's the cutest MVP?  Jeff!

Jeff Jeff Jeff!  MVP MVP MVP! 6 kills, 1 death, 25 assists - top healing, assists, and a 4 KO ultimate

The stats so far; not a great win rate but still a ton of cuteness!

Oh and did I mention Jeff can ride on Groot's shoulders for a team up moment?  Bad screenshot but you get the idea.

Thursday 12/5 Post

 Playing like garbage in the first half and then making it a close game in the second half against good teams; not a winning strategy for the Packers this year as they come up short against Detroit.  There was a sliver of hope that Jordan Love would get the ball back for a chance to come back in the end but Dan Campbell gambled and walked away with the house instead.

November 2024 In Review

 November 2024 has come and gone and with it I'm a year older and wiser as I celebrated another birthday that puts me somewhere in my mid-40s.

The Blog

 Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph so a bit off a full month): 18,200

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 16 (weekdays minus vacation)
  
• Posted: 14
  
• Difference: -2 (the election results deflated my mood for a few days)
  
•  Search Trends
• "new world roadmap 2024", "new world 2024 roadmap", "new world road map 2024" continues to be the top driver of traffic even while I was on hiatus playing Throne and Liberty.  Of course we already had the 2024 road map and recently got the "whats next" update (which I need to post about still)
  
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" is proving it has a long run as it proceeds to drive traffic to Best Battlefield!?
• "throne and liberty daily checklist" also creeped up the list for a short run in November but dropped out fast
• "ashes of creation pirate software" also blipped driving some traffic to my post going over the video between Pirate Software and Stephen Sharif 

What I Played

 November started out strong with a lot of Throne and Liberty, but the game wore on me and I found myself less and less interested in the progression system which kept me from logging in.  By the end of the month I had given up on the game entirely.

 Which meant I had a hole in my MMO play space and to fill it I leaped back in New World.  It is honestly the better MMO of the two games and I'm enjoying my time back in New World far more than I was enjoying my time in Throne and Liberty.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

Nov 2023 was dominated by New World posts

• New World Economy
• Brutal Road Map Update for New World
• New World Arena
• Rethinking New World's Progression
• and plenty more during that month
  

5 Years Ago

Nov 2019 was in the 'not a lot of blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.

10 Years Ago

In Nov of 2014 we got the first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens.  Oh the promise!  The excitement! Can we go back and pretend none of the other sequel movies happened?

And I was playing ArcheAge at the time.

15 Years Ago

In Nov of 2009 the rumors began to swirl about the imminent shutdown of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning as the grim reaper that is EA began to cut staff at EA Mythic.  I miss WAR.  I think it had a chance to be a better game than it turned out to be.

We also got our hands on Left 4 Dead 2 which I still revisit from time to time all these years later. There is nothing better than playing as the zombies in that game!

I was also celebrating World of Warcraft and Firefox hitting their 5 year anniversaries.  I swear this was just yesterday though... but 15 years... 15 years ago... that means we've had both of them for 20 years now!

Oh and WTF (What the Favre)!

 20 19 Years Ago

 Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.

 In Nov of 2005 I was posting about the keys to the World of Warcraft's auction house; a pastime in every MMORPG I've ever played.  The online market and economy is one thing that sets these games apart in my book.

Star Wars Galaxies' ill-fated New Game Experience (NGE) was getting the proper drubbing it deserved.  No more tears, or words, shall be shed in remembrance of this event.

Monday Screenshots: Brighter Shores

 I gave Brighter Shores a few minutes of my time and well... no... just no.  These screenshots will be the only record of my time in the game.

Almost feels like an AI-generated title image... and the buttons feel like a game from 25 years ago

Another world, another "heartlessgamer"!

And that's it.  I didn't play too much past the tutorial.  The game is clearly for an audience other than myself.  It feels like a game meant for web browsers 25 years ago.

Thursday 11/28/2024 Post

 The Packers beat the Dolphins and Jordan Love finally got his turkey leg!  Two legs in fact!

Happy Thanksgiving 2024!

 Happy Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for all of you; you imaginary blog readers!

AI image generated with Microsoft Designer.
Prompt: A video games blogger who plays a lot of MMORPGs getting ready for a Thanksgiving feast.

Monday Screenshots: So Much To Do

Thanksgiving week is here, and you know what that means: chaos! There’s the turkey to pick up, the house to clean for guests, and... the map in New World to conquer. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t take time off just to prep for a feast with the family—I took time off because my New World map is an absolute disaster. Take a look:

Just look at all those quest and other markers! The New World: Aeternum update didn’t just shake things up—it packed the game with tons of new story quests and repeatable quests in zones like Cutlass Keys. Personally, I’m all for MMORPG maps that glow like a Christmas tree, brimming with things to do at every turn.

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI. The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.

Sunday 11/24/2024 Post

 The Packers beat the 49ers and damn did it feel good considering the recent history against them.  Better yet; this loss likely puts the 49ers out of playoff contention.  Stick a fork in them; they're done!

Still Got It: New World Arenas and Outpost Rush

My second day back in New World, and I proved I’ve still got it by securing back-to-back victories in 3v3 PvP arenas. Afterward, I jumped into an Outpost Rush, which we won, and I ranked in the top 10 overall (top 5 on my team) with 11 kills and only 3 deaths. It felt great to be back!

 One thing to note; I am still using my "Frozen Inferno" build with minimal changes since I last played.  The artifact firestaff I use, Inferno, was my first upgraded artifact so is now 725 GS and also now has a gem slot so I slotted an electrified emerald.

 Oh and happy birthday to me (damn I'm getting old)!

Top damage and a 3-0 win in 3v3 arena

3-1 win in 3v3 arena

Outpost Rush; top 10 and an 11/3 KD ratio!  I'm back!

 

Why I Quit Throne and Liberty to Go Back to New World

I just can’t bring myself to play Throne and Liberty any longer, and it took logging back into New World for a few minutes to see why. New World is the better MMORPG. It’s better in every aspect I care about.

Sorry Helpie!

One thing I missed while I was in Throne and Liberty was how being zoomed so far out affected my experience. Playing effectively in Throne requires you to zoom way out, which creates a sense of detachment. Over-the-shoulder gameplay becomes impossible. In contrast, New World limits the zoom, keeping you behind your character, which feels far more immersive.

I spent almost no time staring at the UI in New World. There’s no constant tabbing to check if I have the right enemy targeted, no staring at my hotbar waiting for skills to come off cooldown, and no constant glances at a minimap in the top corner. Instead, I’m engaged with the game world itself, which feels much better.

Combat is a night-and-day difference between the two games. Throne’s tab-targeting system, paired with its overwhelming “word salad” abilities, is replaced in New World by an intuitive and immediate action combat system. What you see on screen dictates your actions—big fireball? Dodge big fireball. Enemy in front of you?  Press attack and hit them.  It’s that simple.

Then there’s the PvP. If there’s one triggering event that pushed me away from Throne and Liberty, it was may last dominion PvP event where I was repeatedly getting stunned and killed in seconds which was frustrating. I thought maxing out my gear and tank build would unlock the “can’t kill me” status tanks are supposed to have in Throne. Instead, even with 3,500+ CP, I died within seconds, often while stunned. Purge one stun? Another is coming.

Even without the constant crowd control, Throne’s combat remains unintelligible, drowning in poorly explained skills and convoluted mechanics. I had no idea what was happening half the time, leading me to mash my emergency buttons out of desperation. It’s the worst PvP I’ve experienced in an MMO.

In New World, PvP is a breath of fresh air. The combat makes sense—dodge the fireball, hit the enemy, block the attack. Even in larger battles, I can understand what’s happening, and the game is responsive enough for me to make an impact. Stuns and crowd control, while present, are manageable and nowhere near the mess they are in Throne. I’d still like New World to refine these mechanics further, but compared to Throne, it’s night and day.

Even with New World introducing aim assist and target lock (which I’m still getting used to), the PvP remains far more enjoyable. In large-scale fights, I can follow the action and feel like I have a role to play. In Throne, battles often felt like meaningless chaos, leaving me with no sense of agency.

Best of all, gear in New World contributes to power without creating an insurmountable gap. Even though I’m still at 700 GS and many players are now 700+ (with a max of 725), I’ve noticed no significant disadvantage in PvP. It feels like I’m competing on skill rather than being outclassed by someone’s gear.

Another thing I missed was the trading post. Jumping back into New World, I was reminded of how satisfying the economic side of an MMO can be. Throne’s auction house, limited to premium currency, was a disaster. Not being able to trade for basic materials was frustrating. In New World, the economy feels alive. Items that were once worthless are now valuable, and I love placing buy and sell orders to carve out my slice of the market.

I don’t understand why New World isn’t more popular. And I don’t get why so many players are still sticking with Throne, especially with the upcoming Tier 2 items doubling the grind required for gear progression—unless you swipe your credit card. New World is the better game and offers so much more to players. Now, I just need to figure out how to convince my friends to leave Throne and Liberty and join me back in New World.

 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI. The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AI.