Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The End WAR

Disheartening news has leaked out that a chunk of the recent EA job cutting spree has hit EA Mythic hard:
Mythic laid off 80 people today, which is about 40% of the company and responsible for 90% of the content. According to a friend of mine who left before this happened, they're putting Warhammer into "maintenance mode."

I am not sure if there's been an official announcement, but my friend said that I was free to mention it, because it's surprising it's not out already. (I actually knew about it on Friday but not the numbers.)
There is no hiding it. Many of us (me included) were wrong about WAR. The game has floundered since launch and performed misstep after misstep the entire way. Its only logical that the game's development would be scaled back.

The laundry list of canceled, dieing, or dead MMOGs at the feet of EA is legendary: Earth and Beyond, Motor City Online, The Sims Online, Ultima Online's sequals, etc. It makes one wonder how much the EA merger affected the Mythic office.

Currently, I am part of a company undergoing a similar assimilation by a much larger company and player in our industry. Even with a positive attitude overall in the office, constant commentary from customers about the merger and half-assed quotes from officers of the company easily put people on edge. An environment of mistrust is being born and people rightfully question whether project A or B will exist next week.

In the case of Myhic merging with EA, it should have resulted in a better game. More resources, more manpower, and probably more marketing. However, if the merger created any doubts about the direction of the project, more of everything would have been needed just to keep the ship sailing straight, effectively nullifying any positive gains.

The question now is whether Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is going to be around much longer. Will EA cancel a game that may be costing too much to keep alive or will they dramatically change the way it is managed? Maybe to a point where the game has no chance to do anything other than float on by for a another year before being canceled.

Is there any truth into the "EA = poison" mythos that has been created around MMOG projects they've acquired? Do we need to fear for Star Wars: The Old Republic? IMHO, yes.

Monday, November 09, 2009

This Is Why The Packers Are Losing Games

The Green Bay Packers lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yesterday. They handed one of the worst teams in the NFL a win. The root cause is not lack of talent on the team, but a management and coaching issue. This problem is highlighted by the following:
Tampa, Nov 9 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Green Bay Packers have put the injured Jason Spitz on reserve and instead filled the spot with wide receiver Biren Ealy according to a reliable source.
With the worst offensive line in NFL history and probably one of the best receiving corps, Packers management has decided to replace an injured offensive lineman with a god damned wide receiver. Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy need to go. NOW!

Friday, November 06, 2009

Tempest in a Teacup: Modern Warfare 2

Ars Technica is running an article about the trials and tribulations of upcoming military-shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In the article, they provide plenty of quotes from the game's developers showing some blatant disrespect for the PC version of the game:
We thought the lack of dedicated servers was bad, but now we can add the lack of console commands, the inability to have a say in who hosts the game, a lengthy pause while the game migrates to a new host if the currently selected host quits, no leaning, no option to record matches, and no way to kick or block trouble players, hackers, or cheaters.

You have to wonder if there are any actual PC gamers working at Infinity Ward, as it will be a challenge to find any member of the PC gaming community that will stand up for any of these omissions, not to mention all of them bundled together. At launch, this will be one of the most locked-down, inflexible, and gamer-unfriendly game ever created.
While the above quote is a bit sensationalist, it does illustrate how frustrated some of the core audience for the CoD franchise have become, particularly on the PC.

Personally, I don't feel the loss of dedicated servers or a restriction to 9vs9 is all that horrible. In the current Modern Warfare game, any game above 9vs9 feels overcrowded or is a blatant cheat server designed to unlock accomplishments and/or gain levels. Secondly, its almost impossible to find two servers running the same rulesets these days. No snipers here, no perks there, this perk not allowed, no airstrikes, etc. It all gets fairly annoying when a player just wants to play the game.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) is not a strict or heavily-leaning PC title. I have no qualms with it being "consolized" in the PC version. We would be having a different discussion if this was Team Fortress 2, a game BORN from the PC platform, and heavily dependent on a customized experience on each server. Modern Warfare 1 was big on the PC, but it truly took over the consoles. It is not surprising to see where Infinity Ward is basing their design.

With that said, IW should accept the fact that the PC gaming industry will probably reflect the "consolization" in their reviews. For example, Borderlands has some fairly obvious console leftovers in the PC version, but its still a good game and uses the same sort of Peer2Peer multiplayer hosting as MW2 will. Most reviews docked Borderlands on the PC for the console leftovers, as they should, but not because they were mad about it!

There's a quote in the Ars Technica comments section that describes the situation best:
This is a tempest in a teacup. Either buy the game or don't. This is not the end of PC gaming as we know it.
My best suggestion is for PC gamers to forget that this is part of the Call of Duty brand. It was originally meant to be called Modern Warfare 2, a somewhat separate product from the Call of Duty series. Move on if dedicated servers and other features are a must. Plenty of PC gamers will do fine without them and play the game without you.

NOTE: IWNet is an interesting move towards Peer2Peer hosting for such a MAJOR multiplayer game release.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

WTF2


What the Favre!

Once upon a time I would have cheered when Favre won a game, but not today. Fortunately, I didn't get to watch this abomination of a game (the highlights were enough to make me break something).

Oct 2009: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

Previous months: Sept 2009
Check out the "What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying" Google Spreadsheet.



Commentary:

The first note I would like to make is that I moved gaming-related computer hardware to its own line and placed Batman:AA at $0 since it was free with the video card I purchased in September.

I spent October waiting for Borderlands, which released on the 26th. I paid just shy of $34 for the game as part of a Steam 4-pack (splitting the extra copies with friends). I do not feel comfortable paying $50 for new games any longer. The $30-$35 range feels right to me.

I'll be posting more about my thoughts on Borderlands this week.

Next, I spent another $10 on Battlefield Heroes to dress up my Royal Soldier, BrettFavre. The end result:


Heroes still remains a great game, but leveling past 14 seems to be a little bit grindy and I constantly debate whether I should just pay for an experience boost to help get one of my Heroes to level 20+. Fortunately, they gave away a 3-day XP boost to all players for Halloween, so that sated my appetite for faster leveling. Plus, I got to play as a zombie-head for a few days! I'll probably put another $10 into this game at some point to finish up my Heroes' customizations.

I am still working on beating Batman:AA. Its a great game, but with so many games to play, I find it hard to dedicate time to it. I'm only 5% done with the game.

I was fairly quiet in the MMOG department:

I knocked out a few quests on my Sorcerer in DDO:EU, but am still only level 1 and sitting on the starter island. The dungeons can be set to solo, but they truly shine when grouped. I have never had a steady play group, so this may not be the game for me. I'll have to investigate the pick-up group scene a bit more.

I hit level 5 in The Chronicles of Spellborn on my Spellcaster, Favre. I need to determine which class I want to go with from level 5 onwards. Any thoughts out there? Still enjoying the combat system, even if its hard to pick up at first.

On a side note, not listed on the spreadsheet is Killing Floor. I played a bit during the recent Free Weekend on Steam. Its a quasi-pro, but way over the top, Left 4 Dead co-op zombie shooter. Personally, it made me miss Left 4 Dead and with L4D2 right around the corner, I didn't really care for it.

Conclusion:

Free MMOs still reign in my play list. While at heart (ha!) I would like to be a completely Free Gamer, there are too many good games out there that I would miss, Borderlands being one of them. Deals such as the Steam 4-pack give me value and I reward them for that with a purchase on a game I wouldn't have spent $50 for. My purchase and playing decisions remain with value: is the game and the time I will invest worth the costs?