Missing Artifact: Sense Of Accomplishment

Tonight I was researching a return to Rift. Right away I would want to spend $35 to buy the new Ascended Soul pack, which only contains one soul I want for my mage.

So that’s one skill tree for $35. Trion hasn’t ever broken up the packs, since that would be less moneys.

Speaking of money, I noticed you can also buy artifacts now in Rift. Just click a button and spend your store credits for spin-the-wheel to get an artifact you’re missing. What a deal.

What I’m missing is any desire to hunt artifacts ever again, which has been one of my main activities and enjoyments, and the main reason to have a patron account.

I’m also missing any interest in returning to Rift, which looks like it’s going the same way as LotRO, just throwing shiny things out and trying to hook a few fish. And forcing players to use the cash shop (source of the comment in the image) for things that previously didn’t need a cash shop.

It’s nice they are finally doing something about the poor game engine performance, which sort of doomed them from day one, and made their advertised challenge to WoW into a non-starter. WoW actually looked and ran better at higher FPS than Rift’s lowest settings on my old computer.

This week I’m playing some Saint’s Row 2, but it’s really hard to look at. Last night I played a mini-game where I prostituted myself in the public restroom, getting guys off for money. That’s a new one.

I really like the hispanic voice-over of Rebecca Sanabria for the main character in Saint’s Row 2. I like the respect system. And of course, the playable female main character. F**k you, Rockstar.

I just wish Saint’s Row 2 wasn’t the Morrowind of the Saint’s Row games. While the production values were gorgeous with The Third and IV, the franchise sort of lost its soul. Who wanted an alien invasion and outer space?

Unlike Rift, Saint’s Row was a legitimate rival and contender against the thousand pound gorilla in the genre – the GTA franchise.  Like Rift, questionable creative design leadership squandered the opportunity.

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Gaming Stocks

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Today I took a 12% profit in Blizzard’s stock with the U.S. stock market perilously close to a record high, and companies reporting dismal results to start off earnings season. I plan to buy Sony at an opportune moment between now and E3, and buy back into Blizzard as soon as it sells off significantly, for any reason.

The GAMR ETF is basically soaring, but so are overall markets, so that doesn’t mean so much. The volume seems to be picking up. When the U.S. market swoons again, I might look into a GAMR long term position, especially if I miss a big up move in Blizzard.

That seems unlikely (which, along with the overall irrationally exuberant market, is the other half of my urge to take profits), but it’s really hard to say how well Blizzard is doing in Asia.

This last quarter was supposedly a stronger, more upbeat quarter in Asia than the one previously. I say “supposedly” because you can’t trust the Chinese government, who just happens to have a huge stake in its own stock market.

Anyway, Blizzard could easily surprise on an Asia basis, and probably will since the kitty is almost always wrong to sell stocks. I don’t really care at the moment. I’m really, really tired. For a few nights, I just want to play a game.

Devilian: Trion Livestream 07/31

Yesterday I watched the Trion livestream for a few hours, which attracted a crowd of about 500. Trion showed off their new Warfront for Rift, which looks fun and different.

You’re attacking and defending back and forth, trying to beat the other team’s time and use nasty environmental traps to your advantage. I took a few casual notes on the Devilian part of the livestream, and here they are:

• No really, Devilian is an MMO more than a Torchlight or a Diablo.
• Trion is still planning on a Q4 2015 release.
• Devilian has great writing with humor, and that’s part of what made it a great game overseas. Trion just hired a well-known writer (who the Trion devs didn’t want to name yet) to tweak and work the translation to English from Korean (among other things?) I really want to see this. Claims of great writing put a lock on playing this game.
• This is an M-rated game.
• A big game change from the Korean is making sure PvP is skill-based and not gear based. (Pay-to-win gear-based power in PvP is common is Asia.)
• They also showed a cosmetic Corgi that seemed to have storage, and clarified that Ginno Games (maker of Devilian) actually had the Corgis before their Trion alliance.
• There is a polar bear mount, tiger, and some sort of floating wind serpent mount.
• All character classes sit on mounts differently and have different dances.
• The character classes will be staying gender locked, despite a lot of debate. It’s just as easy to make an entire new class (which is currently happening) as to make a new gender for one of the existing classes.
• Trion’s F2P design goal in general: When a player buys something, they should want to buy. They shouldn’t feel forced to buy. The golden rule is shortcuts, cosmetics, and convenience.

This month is Blaugust, which means some bloggers will be writing every day this month. This kitty is a Nanowrimo veteran, so I’ll stick with novelist snobbery. I’m looking forward to reading a lot more blogging, though.

Sympathy For The Devil: A Look At Devilian

Today I signed up for the Devilian beta (I think), navigating a number of broken buttons and website errors.

Trion’s ship looks creaky, with lots of hate in recent Devilian commentary. Devilian is Trion’s new effort to bring another Asian MMO to the west.

A lot of gamers will never play another Trion game after the bitter free-to-play experience in Archeage. I’ve always thought the best of Trion, but they’ve fallen.

Like angels.

I spent some hours watching videos and reading articles on Devilian. This Korean action RPG seemed random at first, maybe a gap-filler in Trion’s game stable. This is far from reality. Scott Hartsman has a plan.

(And so does Celestrata aka Sara Brennan from Turbine, who apparently now is a Trion employee. Congrats!)

As Trion’s spokesperson said in the Gamespot interview with Trion, the “hook” for the game is the social content. The dungeons, raids, guilds are very robust, along with world bosses, guild alliances. There is an aggressive gift-giving system. It pays to be popular.

MMORPG mentioned an Abyssal Tower Tournament. This massive tower has 100 floors, and each level of it gets progressively harder. The farther you go within, the more loot and rewards you get. It’s competitive PVE, with the people who get the farthest and the fastest getting the most rewards on the leaderboards.

I love public dungeons like this. There are also Rift-type events that spawn landscape monsters.

MassivelyOP reported that Scott Hartsman was deeply impressed with Devilian’s social features. So it seems Devilian plans to succeed with the same formula that helped Rift succeed: a heavy emphasis on grouping up both planned and unplanned.

Scientific studies show that grouping up releases pleasure chemicals in the brain, which is devilish in itself, Manugo-esque. It’s no accident that the Trion team identified these strengths of Devilian and chose to publish the game. I hope it’s successful. (And I hope I can get a beta invitation so maybe I can write a new guide.)

Here are some more features of Devilian, gleaned from the above linked sources as well as an excellent post by DMKano in the MMORPG forums.

• Similar to Diablo 3, but is first and foremost an MMO.
• Quest driven game with a story-line.
• You can spec many ways to customize your character.
• End game has alternate advancement.
• Your equipment can also level up later on.
• You can break down loot and use it to craft.
• You’re a devilian–a half-human, half-devil shifter.
• Guilds can level up and bestow perks on their members.
• Guilds can form alliances to fight world bosses or defend against enemy guilds.
• Yes, there are guild wars, completely consensual.
• Rift-style instant adventures called eternal hunting grounds.
• You are surrounded by 100s of players everywhere.
• Mounts and pets.
• Socketed gear is similar to Diablo.
• Collectible card deck system that gives passive bonuses.
• Can be played casually (i.e. 15 minute popcorn) to hardcore.
• 4 classes – Berserker, Elementalist, Assassin and Gunner
• Each one has three specialization trees.
• PvP 20v20 and 3v3 matches.

This game might appeal to me. I liked Aion for quite a while. It doesn’t take much to ruin a game for me though. I quit playing Guild Wars 2 when I found out my main (Guardian) was destined to become a ‘Dragonslayer’ (the new advanced class.)

Imagine if every western game featured giant pandas because EVERYONE loves pandas. Pandas sell games. Everyone wants to fight huge evil pandas, right?! That’s how I feel about dragons.

Devilian has only four gender locked classes, and apparently it puts a hundred players on the screen at once, to underscore how generic you are.

This is concerning, but maybe it’s par for the course for today’s action RPG players. I wouldn’t know. The release of Devilian is planned before end of 2015. We’ll have to wait and see.

I’m still cheering for Hartsman and Trion, in any case.

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More Reading

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Devilian Official Website
MMORPG Player Write-Up On The Korean Beta (Recommended)
MMORPG Article