Mailvaltar – MMORPGs and other stuff

16. October 202317. October 2023

My Fabulous Four Frames

At the time of this writing Warframe has 53 different ‘frames on offer (not counting Prime or Umbra variants), with the 54th to be released two days from now.

Of course not all of those are available to new players right away – in fact you start with only one out of a selection of three, the rest have to be farmed and/or unlocked through various methods. After playing the game for a while an embarrassment of riches sets in though, so much so that you may find it hard to decide which of your shiny new battlesuits to invest precious resources like Orokin Reactors and Forma into.

Once you do have souped up a couple and have gotten used to a much higher power level it becomes even harder to evaluate the relative strenght of new additions to your roster, because most of them will inevitably feel rather weak in comparison due to the severely restricted mod capacity.

However, there’s no need to fret too much about those choices. Warframe isn’t actually a hard game once you get the hang of it, and unless you intend to play endless missions until enemy levels approach four digit territory you can beat pretty much any type of content while just using the ‘frame you like the most.

Me, I always gravitate to those that offer a healthy mix of Is really fun to play and Kicks some serious ass. Alternatively, if the content I’m trying to to clear annoys me in some way, I usually look for something that Makes the annoying thing trivial.

Over time these criteria have led to four ‘frames becoming my go-to tools for at least 90% of the stuff I do in the game. These are…

- Mesa

l’ve already spent the better part of a post praising Mesa soon after I’d built her, and ever since then I’ve been using her more than any other ‘frame.

The combination of having up to 95% damage reduction against ranged attacks from her third ability and blasting everything to bits with Peacemaker is just too strong and too much fun to not use her whenever I don’t feel I need anything more specific. Granted, that damage does fall off a bit when facing extremely high-health and -armor enemies (i.e. Steel Path), but since she can also equip two ranged and one melee weapon, like any other ‘frame, there are other tools for those.

Her 1 isn’t really needed (or, well, good), so I’ve replaced it with Rhino’s Roar via the Helminth system for yet another multiplicative damage boost, but honestly, I hardly ever use it because it ain’t necessary in most situations. She’s that strong. Also stylish and fun. What’s not to like?

- Gara

Meet the bull in the china shop. Gara is all about glass, and the nasty things you can do with it.

First off, she can erect a circular wall of glass panels to block enemy attacks as well as the enemies themselves, like seen above. On first glance this seems to be her cornerstone ability (and it is her fourth, which is the “Ultimate” of more than a few ‘frames), but you can’t really use it for that purpose in high level missions as the panels don’t have a lot of hitpoints and break far too quickly. If you want to protect certain objectives in that manner Frost’s and Limbo’s bubbles are far more efficient.

However, when used in conjunction with her 1 and 2 it’s still good, and also an integral part of her kit. It seems a bit complex at first, but bear with me, it becomes second nature pretty quickly.

If you cast her 2, Splinter Storm, a flurry of glass shards starts floating around her. These give her up to 90% damage reduction against all kinds of attacks and deal damage to all enemies in range each second. Now, this damage is laughably low at first, but don’t dismiss the ability just yet.

When you smash the panels of your own 4 from outside the glass ring with your 1 the whole thing shatters, dealing quite a lot of damage to all enemies in the vicinity, and more importantly, 50% of that damage is also permanently added to your Splinter Storm, as long as it remains active. As casting your 4 also renews Splinter Storm’s duration this all fits together quite nicely.

You can stack this basically forever, and I’ve had it deal well over a million damage per tick on a number of occasions. Which, frankly, is overkill for most normal missions. Even long before reaching such a high number all you need to do is run past or through enemies, and they drop dead instantly.

How much damage is added each time depends on your equipped melee weapon, by the way. Gara is one of the ‘frames that utilizes what the community refers to as a “stat stick”. The weapon itself is completely irrelevant, the only thing that matters are the mods you use on it. In Gara’s case only raw damage actually carries over to her abilities, so don’t use any crit, status or attack speed mods. I was lucky enough to get a Riven mod for a pretty crappy and thus rarely used melee weapon (Rivens for such weapons get their stats boosted) with nothing but damage on it, as seen above. Without any other bonuses my Splinter Storm’s number increases by 31k each time, so having it deal hundreds of thousands of damage per tick doesn’t take very long at all.

Last but certainly not least, you can cast Splinter Storm not just on yourself, but also on your teammates, companion and even inanimate objects like mobile defense terminals or excavators. Protecting those when they too have 90% damage reduction is obviously a much more relaxed affair. Just keep in mind that the duration of your 2 as shown by the UI depends on the last one you’ve cast, so better refresh your own by hitting another 4 afterwards. Losing a Splinter Storm already stacked up to half a million because its duration ran out sucks.

I quite like this playstyle, and more often than not when I finish a mission with Gara I’ve hardly fired any shots with my weapons. Since she really shines when there’s stuff to protect I mainly use her for Defense, Mobile Defense and Excavation missions though, as my other favourites don’t require quite as much buildup and maintenance.

- Octavia

Octavia is another ‘frame I’ve talked about at lenght before, and I’m still using her regularly. If you want to run a mission but aren’t really in the mood to kill stuff yourself just punch all of her abilities, make yourself invisible and watch (and, of course, listen to) the show.

She’s especially great in the open world zones where her disco ball can’t wander off to other rooms, and she’s also my go-to for Spy missions, with maxed out ability duration so she can stay invisible for ages. But, seriously, she can do anything, and since she makes the enemies kill themselves there’s basically no limit to how high in difficulty she can go.

If there’s one thing to criticize about her it’s that she’s a bit…boring to play, I guess? Some might feel that way. I like her though, not least because I get to rock out to my own versions of Kernkraft 400 or Through The Fire And The Flames whenever I play her.

- Inaros

If you watch any Warframe tierlist on YouTube you will most likely be told that Inaros is crap and you shouldn’t use him. Now, I get where those folks are coming from, but I don’t care because I know for certain that I approach the game completely differently than they do.

Pro gamers, and I’m not using the term ironically here because they are playing better than me, will tell you that stuff like “shield gating” or mods like Rolling Guard are the only things that can keep you alive at endgame. But, again, I simply don’t face enemies as strong as that. That’s by choice, mind you, mainly for two reasons. One, there’s no real incentive to even do it except for the challenge, and that’s not what motivates me. Two, I don’t fancy having to play around mechanics like shield gating at all, and I sure as hell don’t want to move around the map by doing one dive roll after the other and stuff like that. Playing the game “normally” suits me just fine, thank you very much.

That being said, there are situations where survivability becomes an issue, even at my level of play, and that’s when I hop into Inaros and instantly feel comfortable because I know that absolutely nothing will be able to bring me down. His abilities are crap and I don’t use a single one of them, true, but being immortal without the need to use any skills (unlike, say, Revenant) is already an impressive feat on its own, isn’t it? Just slap health, armor and Adaptation mods as well as a rank 1 or 2 Arcane Grace on him and you’re good to go. Hell, if you have the latter at a higher rank (mine’s at 4 currently) you can even go AFK while standing in a room full of baddies and you’ll most likely still be alive when you come back. If that’s not a relaxing way to play I don’t know what is.

I do use other warframes too of course, but these four are far and away my favourites. Your list may well look completely different, and that’s totally fine and working as intended. Which, if you ask me, is just one more thing about Warframe that’s simply awesome.

20. September 202320. September 2023

Raiders of the lost…stuff

Last time around, when I raved about Warframe’s many qualities once again, I mentioned in passing that one of the things I enjoy a lot is to search for hidden vaults and stashes.

What I didn’t point out is how absolutely awesome the game actually is for ambitious scavenger hunters like myself. I would even go as far as saying that no other game I’ve played, no matter the genre, had quite as much hidden goodies on offer as Digital Extreme’s space ninja shooter – and some of these are exceptionally well hidden to boot.

So if Warframe’s usual gameplay loop is too hectic for you, and you’re as much of a sucker for treasure hunts as I am, the following alternatives might just be what the doctor ordered.

I’ll start off with my current obsession, which I indulge in pretty much every day right now: collecting Voidplumes in Zariman Extermination missions.

Back when the Angels of the Zariman update introduced this content I didn’t like it all that much and stopped engaging with it soon after I’d completed the associated story. The main reason for this is that the three new mission types are too hectic for my taste – yes, they’re even more frantic than Warframe’s usual chaos and mayhem, because there’s some element of time pressure to all of them (no actual clocks ticking, but stuff that has to be defended at all times etc). That’s doubly problematic because said Voidplumes, eight of which are scattered all over each map, are the only way to gain standing with The Holdfasts, the resident faction you may want to be on good terms with, and you can’t really go and look for these thingies when you need to hurry from one objective to the next in order to not fail the mission.

However, in addition to those Zariman-exclusive mission types there’s also a normal Extermination on offer, as some helpful Redditors (yes, those do exist) have pointed out to players who’d also wondered how the hell to farm Voidplumes reliably. So that’s the one I’ve been doing on repeat recently, and had I not gone on vacation I would most likely have maxed out my Holdfasts-standing and bought all the goodies I need by now.

So how does this work exactly?

Voidplumes, just like Ayatan statues, are interactible objects that are lying around somewhere on the map, waiting to be picked up. They aren’t hidden quite as well as some other treasure items, but you’ll not find them in any random hallway either. Usually they’re tucked away in dead ends or small rooms. If the door to such a room won’t let you in but stands a bit ajar, look through the gap, shoot the red electronic panel you will see on the wall inside and the door will open. Some areas can only be reached by dropping into a hole in the ground or smashing a panel concealing the entrance to a narrow, vent-like path – remember that destroyable objects like these flash every few seconds to make spotting them a little easier.

On the Zariman there’s also some help to be had. Glowing and humming little orbs lie around in various places that, when interacted with, spawn a golden ghost child. These apparitions will start running after a moment, expecting you to follow them. Their movement is a little erratic at times, but they leave a golden trail, a few yards in length, to make tracking them easier. They’ll eventually come to a halt next to an item of interest – mostly a Voidplume, but it can also be stuff like a rare container or an Ayatan statue if you’re lucky – and vanish soon after. If you activate such a ghost and it just stands there for a while before despawning again it means that there’s nothing to be found anymore (or it’s just buggy, which unfortunately happens sometimes).

I addition to the eight Voidplumes just lying around a couple more can be acquired per mission. Also hidden somewhere on the map are two items vaguely looking like oversized keys. These are called Zarium Accolades and must be picked up and delivered to a terminal marked by a purple symbol on the map (only if you’re somewhat near though). A Voidplume Quill then appears next to the terminal – don’t forget to take it! The accolades emit a pretty loud sound until picked up, so finding them isn’t that hard when you’re snooping around anyway. Lastly, one dormant Void Angel per map waits to be activated. I won’t go into detail about the fight here, but once it’s defeated you’ll have earned one more Voidplume, and this one’s always a Pinion (the highest tier).

Since this has almost turned into a guide anyway allow me to go on another little tangent here. The by far most important form of support, and this is true for all kinds of treasure hunts in Warframe, is having at least one source of loot radar. Warframes can be modded to provide this, but most players choose not to „waste“ a valuable ‘frame slot for it and equip their companion of choice with Animal Instinct or Primed Animal Instinct instead. You’ll have to make sure that your little friend doesn’t die until you’ve found what you’re looking for though.

Loot radar marks pretty much everything in its range that can be picked up or interacted with on your mini map, with the exception of lockers. A few item types, mods and Endo for example, have their own unique icon, but most things, including normal loot containers as well as all treasure items and special caches mentioned in this post, share the same little rectangle symbol. In order not to miss any of the rare ones I usually seek out anything and everything with such a marker, smashing and collecting stuff as I go (don’t forget to also give your companion the Vacuum mod, so they hoover in all loot for you from a distance).

The main benefit of loot radar, at least to me, is that still seeing markers on the map after clearing out the mission’s obvious “main route” is always an unmistakable sign that I must have missed something, be it a room, a vent, a balcony, an alcove, or any other place where loot might be waiting. These can be pretty well hidden at times too, and after more than 600 hours in the game I still stumble upon treasure rooms I’ve never seen before from time to time. Do note that not every such room always contains actual “treasure” though, often it’s just a bunch of normal resources. It wouldn’t be much of a hunt if you always found the good stuff right away, now would it?

Next on the list of shinies are resource caches, and man, if you’re really into searching every last corner of the map, however long it might take, these are for you!

Resource caches can be found as an optional objective in most Sabotage missions, as well as select Exterminate and one specific Hive mission. The Lotus will inform you at the start if there are any, and the UI keeps track of how many you’ve already opened. They look like the normal lockers you find pretty much everywhere, only with a white glow instead of the usual green, as seen above. They also emit a sound, making honing in on their exact location a little easier once you’re near enough to hear it. The hard part is getting that near in the first place.

You know those awfully long elevator shafts that appear in some Uranus missions? I once found a cache halfway down such a shaft, tucked away between some steel framework. I never, ever would have looked there had I not seen a blip on the loot radar for a few milliseconds on the way down. They’re placed very much out of the way sometimes, is what I’m saying.

If they’re that hard to find and also optional, why even actively look for them? Well, to be honest, I’ve had runs where I’ve found all three and didn’t get much for my efforts. But they do have nice things on their loot tables that you won’t get anywhere else, a couple useful mods for example, as well as parts for the rare Xiphos landing craft. Also, a real treasure hunter doesn’t do it just for the rewards, right? Right??

Now we’re getting to rare stuff that’s not exclusive to certain mission types. In every mission (possibly with the exception of those occupied by the Infested, I’m not sure on that one) there’s a chance for either a rare or a reinforced storage container to spawn. These look similar to the bog-standard containers of that particular tileset, just with some kind of glow and a humming sound to make them more prominent. The reinforced specimens also look a bit more fancy. Both show up on loot radar, but like all treasure items just with a normal rectangle icon.

If you’re like me you’ll smash them before even realizing that they’re not just a normal container most of the time, but that’s ok because you’ll get the special loot regardless. The first two items will depend on the tileset you’re in: first off you’ll always get either a Detonite Injector (Grineer), a Fieldron (Corpus) or a Forma (Orokin and Zariman), all built and ready to use. Additionally there’s a chance to snag a blueprint for the Mantis landing craft, which one will again depend on the faction you’re facing. The third special item is a random 30 minute booster if it’s a rare container, while the reinforced one will treat you to a full hour – which is also the only difference between the two. Some credits and Endo round out the package, and rarely you’ll get a random weapon blueprint as a bonus.

However, since these containers can spawn almost anywhere, but only have a low chance of actually doing so, it’s not really worth it to play specific missions just to look for these. Unless…

What if you had the means to know whether or not a mission contains something worth your while right from the start? Enter Golden Instinct.

This is one of the Helminth’s unique abilities, which, once unlocked, you can replace any Warframe ability with. When used it sends a spark towards the nearest rare container, Ayatan statue, syndicate medallion, or unscanned fragment or Kuria (some of the game’s mostly lore-related collectibles that have to be scanned instead of picked up). I believe its color depends on your Warframe’s chosen energy color, so pick one you can see well for this.

The great thing about Golden Instinct is that it already has a 200m radius by default. Word is using it on a ‘frame with 200% or more ability range is enough to cover the whole map, no matter the tileset, which means that you can immediately exit and restart the mission if it doesn’t find anything. Using Lavos instead of any other ‘frame adds the benefit of being able to use Golden Instinct more often (thanks to his ability that lowers all other skills’ cooldowns), making actually finding the shiny, once you’re in a mission that has spawned one, much easier.

The catch is that this ability is the last thing you’ll unlock, at Helminth level 15. When I realized that it’s something I really want mine was only at level 7, unfortunately, because I’d only ever used the Helminth when I actually needed it for something specific. What can I say, I usually don’t level stuff up just because, I’m too lazy for that. Of course now I’m constantly giving various abilities to my Warframes, just so I can remove them again and feed the Helminth with resources, and I’ve also farmed some more duplicate ‘frames to also feed to it. Currently it’s at level 11, so I’ve got still a ways to go. Once I’ve reached 15 I’ll be sure to share my own experiences with Golden Instinct. Can’t wait.

Another thing in Warframe I’d classify as treasure hunting is searching for and plundering Orokin vaults. Where to find and how to open these hasn’t changed since I talked about them in my guide to rare mods, if you’re interested. I’ve only tweaked my own approach insofar that I equip all four dragon keys now, which means that I’m always able to open the vault, as long as I manage to find it.

The hobbled key slows running and walking speed down significantly, yes, but I use speedmods to compensate for that at least somewhat. More importantly though, other forms of movement, most notably jumping and bullet jumping, aren’t affected by the key at all, so that’s how I move around almost exclusively when vault hunting. Works like a charm.

There’s even more I could talk about, like the secret labs on Jupiter or the Halls of Ascension on Lua. Suffice it to say, Warframe really has a lot to offer if you like to search for hidden treasures, and it’s just one more aspect of the game’s design that I absolutely love.

Now if you’ll excuse me, those treasures aren‘t gonna hunt themselves.

29. August 202330. August 2023

What’s so special about Warframe anyway?

I don’t know why, but I seem to be a very seasonal kind of guy. It always happens during winter that I pick up Black Desert again, for example.

The month of August, on the other hand, obviously does something with me that makes me miss playing Warframe. So here I am, still doing my daily stuff in Lost Ark, but dedicating the remainder of my gaming time fully to being a Tenno once more. Man, what an awesome game this is!

The other day I left a comment to one of Naithin’s posts, saying that Warframe is most likely the only Looter Shooter I’ll ever need, and while there is some hyperbole to that it’s pretty spot on at the same time.

The thing is, Digital Extremes’ masterpiece has spoiled me in some fundamental ways, and whenever I play an even remotely similar game I can’t help but compare the two. As you’ve probably gussed by now, Warframe always seems to come out on top in some – to me – very important respects.

Unsurprisingly the first thing that comes to mind is the game’s unparalleled pace and fluidity. Everything is so smooth and, if you want it to be, blazingly fast that playing any other game afterwards feels like walking through molasses.

I get that this isn’t to everyone’s liking, but I love it so much that it’s become really hard for me to settle for less, so to speak. If your Looter Shooter doesn’t let me double jump, bullet jump, glide and run alongside walls it’s gonna have a hard time winning me over.

Another big contributor to this quick pace is the fact that, bosses aside, enemies aren’t bullet sponges. I mean, sure, at certain points in your progression you will face considerably tougher opponents, but those aren’t meant to stay that way forever. Instead they’re there to nudge you towards rethinking your loadout and strategy to get stronger, and once you’ve done that even the hardest (normal) enemies become pushovers again.

Yesterday I played one of the game’s endless mission types for about 45 minutes or so, and when I extracted I had defeated just shy of three thousand (!) mobs. It doesn’t always have to be this extreme of course, but let me tell you, I absolutely do not have the patience anymore to shoot each single enemy in the face half a dozen times before they finally decide that I have, in fact, killed them.

Another aspect of the game’s design that I love to death is the enormous complexity, and the freedom that comes with it.

With over 50 ‘frames to choose from, who knows how many weapons, over a thousand mods, companions, arcanes, Forma, focus schools, archon shards, Helminth abilities…it is 100% safe to say that you will never, ever meet another player who is using the exact same loadout as you do.

It’s not that this doesn’t really have much influence on gameplay either – quite the contrary. For example, my Xbox-based buddy and I play the game very differently. He likes to shoot stuff – even his melee weapon of choice is used to nuke the entire site from orbit, basically. I use guns and blades too of course, but I tend to rely on strong warframe abilities much more often. Hence I’m regularly seen playing ‘frames like Gara, with whom I’m usually running around, killing everything by just touching it, without firing even a single shot.

Not only do our tastes in how we like to fight vary, we also enjoy different kinds of missions and gameplay. Before crossplay was implemented we used to play simultaneously but individually, and while he was, say, running two dozen void fissures to crack open relics for Prime parts, I was meticulously searching every nook and cranny for well hidden loot caches in certain missions to find rare mods.

Which is great because this not only means that each of us can play the game exactly how we enjoy it the most, we’ll also be able, should trade between platforms finally be enabled at some point, to help each other out with stuff we don’t like to farm for ourselves. I already have a couple of harder to get mods stockpiled for that occasion, and he keeps surplus Prime parts in store for me in turn.

There’s one more thing that puts Warframe way ahead of the competition for me – the loot. It just works. Again, for me.

In his reply to my comment mentioned above Naithin said this about Warframe:

Sure, there is shooting and there is looting, but there isn’t loot, you know? Mods sort of play that role and it isn’t quite the same as getting that one legendary or unique that will enable the build you want.

I absolutely get that, but here’s the thing: finding those legendaries or uniques happens so goddamn rarely in most games! Playing for an hour or two and not finding a single shiny (that I actually need) can feel like a waste of time to me, even if the gameplay itself is enjoyable. Even Diablo II, one of my all-time favourite games, is guilty of that.

Of all loot-centric games I’ve played Path of Exile and Warframe are the only ones that have always managed to make me feel like nothing I do is ever a waste of time.

Getting that sweet dopamine rush by finding a really rare and great thingy is awesome, sure. Warframe has those too – just the other day I finally got my first copy of Hammer Shot, a pretty strong mod for primary weapons that has a measly 1% drop chance at the end of certain missions which you can only do a couple of times per day.

For me it’s much more about the little things though. Like I said, I have a desire to feel productive, so even if I do not find that rare item I’m looking for, it still feels good when I at least have a plethora of other useful stuff to show for it.

Look at that screenshot above – in addition to Hammer Shot I received credits, Endo, some other mods that I can give away or turn into more Endo, various resources to build stuff with or feed to the Helminth, syndicate standing, and XP for four different focus schools. So even if Hammer Shot hadn’t dropped I wouldn’t have come up empty, which is just the way I like it.

So, yeah, those are just some of the things that make Warframe special to me, and as of yet no other game I’ve played has come even close to it in these regards.

Blaugust 2023 post count: 5

23. August 202323. August 2023

Challenging vs punishing game design

Last time around I talked about gatekeeping in MMORPGs, i.e. group leaders not granting access to their dungeon runs or raids unless a player meets certain requirements in terms of gear, level etc., and that it usually does not happen due to said group leaders being jerks, but out of a desire to avoid suffering from too punishing game design.

This begs the question how dungeons and raids, or multiplayer content in general, can be designed in such a way that it’s not that, but still challenging.

Now, I’m not saying that stuff always has to be challenging, but today I’d like to focus on those games, or just specific segments of games, that are supposed to be.

In my opinion the most severe form of punishing design, and probably the reason for 90% of any gatekeeping that’s happening, is when a group of players is forced to repeat the same stuff over and over without anything to show for it because just one player made one little mistake.

Hence my suggestion would be to spread the risk on a couple more shoulders. Or less, if you will. Here’s what I mean: let’s say an encounter is designed for eight players, and at certain points in the fight a mechanic kicks in that wipes the group if not executed correctly. Why not make it so that only six or seven of these eight people have to stand at the right spot, click the thing or whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing?

This would still require the bulk of the group to be on point, while giving one or two freshmen (freshpeople?) a chance to watch and learn without immediately causing the run to fail. It would also allow experienced players to have a brain fart moment, which even the best of us do every now and then, without forcing the whole group to start over yet again.

“Do this or it’s a wipe” mechanics aren’t the only ones in need of a little tweak here and there though. Whether or not multiplayer content feels too unforgiving also depends on how a game handles dying and the resurrection of individual players.

Characters in The Secret World, for example, don’t have in-combat rez capabilities of any kind. Which means that, if a player dies, they are out of that particular fight for good. While technically not the same as an automatic wipe, losing one of five players (or ten, in the case of raids) is practically tantamount to having to start over most of the time.

SWTOR, on the other hand, does have in-combat resurrection, but only healer classes get it – this is actually true for most MMORPGs I’ve played – and once one has been used everyone is barred from casting another for five minutes. Which means, for all intents and purposes, that you get one rez per fight, maybe two if it’s a long one.

Personally, I think a five minute cooldown is ok, but each character should have their own instead of a global one, and in a group with just one healer a second player should also get access to an emergency rez of some kind, probably with a much longer CD or even once per fight only.

For raids, which usually have two or more healing classes, this would mean that these players could possibly pull some truly heroic moves in the face of an almost certain wipe. I remember situations like these from my raiding days in Everquest II, and let me tell you, those fights didn’t feel less challenging at all, but had 24 people cheering and hollering as if we’d just won the world cup.

Groups with just one healing class would at least have a small chance of survival whenever the healer’s the first one to fall. Alternatively the “off-rez” could be utilized when someone’s down but the healer has their hands full keeping the tank alive and whatnot.

Last but not least, I think that no encounter should be so overloaded with mechanics that literally every attending player has to assume one or multiple special roles in addition to their “actual” job.

I remember some SWTOR raidfights where the whole group was so busy running to specific spots, pressing buttons, taunting certain enemies at the exact right moment and so forth that actually tanking the boss, healing and dealing damage was almost relegated to an afterthought. It became apparent pretty quickly that this was just too stressful for some of our guildies, especially since one mistake inevitably led to a wipe more often than not – see above.

Of course I’m not suggesting that every bossfight should just be “tank and spank”, that would be boring. However, like I said above, every group or raid should have a couple of spots for players who are either new to the content, or who just aren’t comfortable with and/or good at handling ten things at once while also needing to perform “sexy movement”, as we liked to call it, at the same time.

Taking this into account it can actually be beneficial to have, if you pardon the expression, mechanics for dummies. EQII’s fight against a raidboss named Druushk, for example, needs up to four (!) of 24 players to stand in the corners of a large room, too far away from the actual fight to participate, because every 45 seconds one of four statues becomes clickable, and the assigned player has to react relatively quickly to prevent, you guessed it, a wipe. I seem to remember that we did it with just two players, one each for a pair of statues, and all these two folks had to do was to watch their respective statues and run up to them to clicky clicky if needed. Nothing else, no damage to deal, no ground targets to avoid.

Now, was this fun to do? Not exactly. But it meant that players with sub-par DPS and/or without sexy movement could still come along, do their part and reap the rewards, and that’s a pretty big win in my book.

Of course some might disagree, but I don’t think that any of these proposed changes would make the games less challenging…only less punishing.

All of this being said though, keep in mind that I’m not against having a difficulty setting for those close-knit player groups who’re actually seeking out the biggest, baddest and most punishing of challenges. Nightmare Mode, Mythic+ and whatever the hell else they’re called – those can remain just as they are as far as I’m concerned.

But each and every player who likes to play MMORPGs should be able to see every bit of content that the games have to offer and, even more importantly, experience what sets them apart from single player games – the chance to work towards a goal and taste the sweetness of success alongside likeminded teammates. It’s too much fun to be reserved for a select few.

Blaugust 2023 post count: 4

16. August 202316. August 2023

Punishing game design is bad for MMOs

I’m still playing Lost Ark a lot, and I’m enjoying it very much. However, there’s one thing that bothers me a bit, namely the fact that I’ll most likely never get to see much of the game’s dedicated multiplayer content.

One reason for this is that the game unfortunately doesn’t provide much of an incentive to run Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons below your current gearscore, resulting in all but the highest ones being deserted most of the time. It’s a shame, as from what I’ve heard especially the dungeons are well designed and really fun. I think the folks at Smilegate should draw some inspirations from games like FFXIV here and keep that content relevant somehow.

The bigger problem by far though is that I, as a casual player, won’t even be able to find groups for the current endgame stuff – not because there aren’t any, but because nobody will want to have me in their group. Gatekeeping is what it’s called nowadays, but this is far from the first time I’m confronted with that kind of player behaviour.

I used to think that those players do it because they’re elitist dickheads, end of story. Over time I’ve come to realize that it ain’t quite as simple though. Of course some people indeed are dickheads, sure, but when there’s gatekeeping going on more often than not it’s the game’s fault, not the players’.

Back in 2008 my Everquest II guild was fighting and clawing its way through the Rise of Kunark expansion’s raid tiers, and we all had (mostly) a lot of fun. Until we had to face a boss named Venril Sathir, that is.

Here’s a quick rundown of only his most annoying and punishing mechanics, as they were back then:

1-2 people devoted to clicking the statues in his room. Statues must be clicked constantly during the fight to prevent the two larger statues in the hallway leading up to his room from spawning.

At 65% […] Use the Mistmyrian Soulcube from Tairiza the Widow Mistress within 5 seconds or die.

At 60% […] he will begin to watch your power consumption. Your raid force must keep their power between 30% and 70% to be safe. A raid member who get’s under 30% or over 70% for too long will spawn adds that will wipe the raid most likely.

The first one isn’t too bad for the raid as a whole as it doesn’t take any skill to execute, meaning that basically anyone can do it without risking a wipe, but it sure is boring as hell for the assigned clickers. Also, getting that job doesn’t feel too good, because it means that you’re obviously deemed expendable for the ‘real’ fight. But, fair enough, someone’s gotta do it. And, as we’ll see in a follow-up post, having stuff like this in a fight can actually have its advantages.

The second mechanic wasn’t too much of a problem for us either, but still, I think having a whole 24-player raid wipe because one person didn’t do a specific thing within a 5 second window is pretty harsh – especially when it happens 5-10 minutes into the fight and you’ll have to do it all over again if screwed up.

Shortly after having taken that hurdle the third and really disgusting mechanic kicked in though. Having to stay between 30% and 70% power at all times is harder than you might think, what with healers still needing to heal and damage dealers still having to beat the boss’s enrage timer etc. As if that wasn’t enough random players were debuffed regularly during that phase, either doubling power consumption or drastically enhancing power regen for a while. My Warlock getting hit with the former just before casting a huge nuke meant game over for all of us.

I remember at least three full evenings, three to four hours each, of one wipe after another at the hands of this guy – and I wasn’t even one of those who attended each and every raid night.

As you can probably imagine it didn’t take very long until tempers started to flare, and when yet another wipe had happened someone to blame was quickly found. Once the same person had screwed up twice murmurs along the lines of “let’s not take that player along next time” started, if not openly then at least behind the scenes. And I’ve absolutely seen raidleads comply and bench people. Hell, I was this close to doing it myself once, back when I was a raidlead in our SWTOR guild.

Gatekeeping is nothing new, is what I’m saying, and in my opinion this is a perfect example of too punishing game design being the catalyst for this kind of seemingly toxic behaviour.

Do note that I’m not talking about “too hard” here. Raid bosses are supposed to be hard. However, forcing 24 players to repeat a 15+ minute fight over and over because just one of those people made a little mistake – that’s not hard, it’s overly punishing, which is something different entirely. And it’s only natural that human beings have a tendency not to expose themselves to stuff like that if at all possible.

An argument often brought forth to prove that gatekeeping is idiotic is the fact that a character’s level, gearscore and whatnot don’t actually reveal anything about that player’s skills – and of course that’s 100% true.

But here’s the thing: what else is there to go by? Unless you already know that person and have seen them in action you have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not they will cause wipes galore because they don’t know or can’t execute the mechanics.

When a character has a high gearscore (and in the case of Lost Ark also good engravings, a high roster level etc.) you at least know that the person behind it has played many, many hours, so the chance of them knowing their stuff is quite a bit higher, which is all you can really ask for.

That’s why there will always be gatekeeping in games whose multiplayer content is designed in such punishing ways, and it’s bad because it means that lots of players will either never get to see that content, or worse, get yelled at by strangers for being “bad” and thus grow to hate that content. There’s no doubt in my mind that people have quit playing (and paying for) certain games over this.

So what could game designers do to prevent or at least reduce gatekeeping? How can dungeons and raids still be challenging without reverting to those overly punishing mechanics?

I’ll save my thoughts on that for the next post.

Blaugust 2023 post count: 3

7. August 2023

Five hugely successful and influential games – that I’ve never played

As you can see it’s “Introduce Yourself Week” in Blaugustland, formerly known as “Getting To Know You Week” if I remember correctly. Since I’ve already introduced myself in the past and you can dig up those posts at any time if you’re so inclined I’m gonna use this opportunity to talk about something more specific that’s been on my mind lately instead.

I guess we have all missed out on some games that seemingly everybody and their mums have played and that are widely considered to be masterpieces any person who likes video games should have experienced.

Obviously there can be a multitude of reasons for not having done so. Maybe a particular title just came out at an inopportune moment, and once you would’ve had the time to play it any kind of momentum was gone. Or you had a specific reason for not wanting to play it, and no amount of rave reviews was enough to change your mind. Of course some games are just not your cup of tea, and that’s that.

Without further ado, here’s my (by no means complete) list of highly successful and beloved games that I’ve never played.

- Skyrim

My history with the Elder Scrolls franchise starts with 1996’s Daggerfall. I’d read about it in a PC gaming magazine and liked what I saw very much. I bought it shortly after release, played the hell out of and absolutely loved every minute of it. Given the game’s enormous scope I never finished it though, I seem to remember that I ran out of steam about two thirds through.

In 2002 I bought and played its sequel, Morrowind, without any hesitation. However, this time around I lost interest a lot sooner. Sure, it looked much better, but somehow felt very lifeless and sterile to me, which killed my immersion rather quickly. I wasn’t really happy with the combat and progression systems either, although I’d quite liked those in Daggerfall. Oblivion I didn’t even buy, but still checked it out for a bit (ahem). It felt pretty much the same to me, if anything it seemed to be even more lifeless and sterile. I didn’t like it at all, is what I’m saying.

Hence I’ve never felt even the slightest urge to play Skyrim. I’m sure that it’s a much better game overall than its predecessors, but what I’ve heard and seen points to the “Elder Scrolls Formula” still being in there, and all of the above suggests that I just don’t enjoy that – or at least not its 21th century incarnation.

- Mass Effect

Oh boy, this one I really regret. I’m a huge science fiction buff, I like to play RPGs a lot and gamers worldwide seem to agree that this trilogy tells one of the best stories video gaming has ever seen.

For me this falls squarely in the “came out at the wrong time” category. The original Mass Effect and Everquest II’s Rise of Kunark expansion launched pretty much simultaneously, and at that time I’d really dug my teeth into the latter, including raiding and everything. As it would turn out, playing anything else wasn’t going to happen for another year or so.

I don’t remember at which point in time I first contemplated finally playing Mass Effect with any seriousness, but somehow…well…the moment seemed to have come and gone.

That being said, the “Legendary Edition”, including all three games and countless DLCs, was discounted to 15 bucks on Steam a while ago, and I pulled the trigger – this is actually what gave me the idea for this post – so at least I now have the somewhat serious intention to finally play them. We’ll see how that goes…

- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I don’t really have one specific reason for not having played this, and I’m pretty sure that I’d love it if I started playing today. The thing with sprawling single player RPGs that take ages to complete is…I don’t feel that I have the time to play this kind of game.

Which is, of course, a load of bollocks. When I can play MMORPGs for hundreds (or thousands) of hours, surely I can spare one or two hundred for a masterpiece like this, right?

Only that, ever since I started to play MMOs, investing that kind of time into games that are not meant to be played “forever” somehow doesn’t feel right to me. Knowing that all the cool sword skills, magic tricks and whatnot, as well as relationships and reputation I’ve built – in short, that everything I’ve worked for will basically cease to exist as soon as I hit the end credits makes me very reluctant to even start. It’s silly, I know, but that’s how I feel.

It’s much different when I know that a game is only like 15-20 hours long – stuff like the Uncharted series comes to mind. Those I can finish in less than a week without even taking a break from my current “main game”. Titles of somewhat average length, let’s say 50 hours or so, require a bit more commitment, but can still work for me if the time is right. 100 hours and beyond though…I’d rather not. Which, I guess, is yet another reason for Skyrim also being on this list.

- Elden Ring

By far the most recent game I’m mentioning here, but at this point it seems already safe to say that it’s one of the all-time greats too. However, I’m fairly certain that I’m not going to ever play it.

The thing is, I play video games for a variety of reasons – a desire to overcome big challenges is not one of them.

It’s not that I only play games that are as easy as pie, mind you. As I’ve said earlier I’ve even raided and stuff, so I can definitely enjoy playing difficult content – as long as I do it with friends. When we’re talking single-player games though beating my head against tough as nails bosses (or even normal enemies), having to learn and master intricate dances of attacking, blocking, dodging and all that jazz – to me that’s pretty much the polar opposite of fun.

From Software’s worldbuilding may be the best in the industry, and I’d most likely love all of their games in that regard, but I’m just not willing to submit myself to the frustration that would go along with it.

- World of Warcraft

I wrote a whole post about why I’ve never played the world’s most successful MMORPG during my first Blaugust participation (jeez, that was five years ago today!?), so I’ll keep this short.

Everquest II and WoW launched pretty much at the same time, and a friend of mine convinced me to play the former. While the game initially had too much forced grouping for my taste it turned out really great by the second expansion, which is when I got into it big-time and never looked back (see above). It easily ranks among my favourite games of all time.

Also, although Blizzard as a whole was still widely regarded as a top-notch development studio at the time, looking in from the outside I never felt that they were doing a particularly good job with WoW, considering the huge piles of money they were making with it. Much fewer expansions, races and classes than EQII, inferior crafting, no housing, the list goes on. Due to this it’s the one game on this list that I’ve never played at least in part because I felt – and still feel – that they didn’t deserve my support and money.

And there you have it. Which all-time classics did you never play?

Blaugust 2023 post count: 2

2. August 20234. August 2023

Things I really like about Lost Ark

I’ve been playing a whole lot of Lost Ark recently – according to Steam 77 hours in the last two weeks alone – and I’m still fascinated by the whole situation. To quickly recap, I had high hopes for the game before it launched last year, but was disappointed greatly once I’d actually played it for a while. Almost a month ago I picked it back up, and now it’s everything I’d hoped for and more, although it’s basically still the same game.

So what do I like about it so much? Well, when played the way I do now it’s almost exactly what I want from an MMORPG – a nice, well-rounded package of exploration, progression, combat, life skills and story. That it looks, sounds and feels absolutely awesome (in my opinion, obviously) puts the icing on the cake. It’s not a sandbox by any stretch of the imagination, but one can’t have everything.

It also does a lot of things quite differently than other MMORPGs I’ve played, some of which I enjoy very much.

- The Adventurer’s Tome

This is Lost Ark’s version of “map completion”, a concept I was first introduced to by Guild Wars 2. I didn’t care much for it back then (I only played GW2 for a couple of weeks though), but I quite like this iteration.

The usual suspects are all there of course: unlocking all waypoints, discovering every vista, stuff like that. There’s a lot more to it though. You also need to clear every dungeon in normal as well as hard mode (which are all easily soloable, especially once you outgear them a bit), get to trusted rank with various NPCs, collect a bunch of mob drops and kill some nameds and field bosses.

Lastly, you need to find a couple of story snippets scattered all over the maps, and, believe it or not, you have to acquire the ingredients for a range of local specialties, which is at times quite a bit more complex than just picking them up or buying them at a vendor, have a local chef cook them for you and then, well, eat them.

One might argue that, at the end of the day, all of this is still just busywork, and one would be correct. I’m having fun with it however, mostly because there’s more to it than just running around and clicking things on autopilot.

What I also like is that there isn’t a tome for each individual zone, but one for every continent, and that there’s not just a reward for 100% completion, instead you’re getting something nice every 10%. This means that even if you don’t like some of the things you’re asked to do, or can’t stand a specific area, you can probably still get to the reward you’d like the most and then just stop – as long as you don’t want the 100% one of course.

- Una’s Tasks (aka dailies)

Yes, seriously. I can’t quite believe that I’m putting these here myself, considering my strong dislike of repeatable quests in almost every other game I’ve played, but in my opinion they’ve done an outstanding job with them this time around.

First of all, the game keeps track of how often you’ve finished each of these tasks, and every five times or so you receive an additional reward. We’re not just talking more silver or XP, but substantial boosts to your overall progression – skill points, virtue stats, song sheets and emotes (you actually need those, they’re not just fluff here), even stuff like a blueprint used to build the game’s fastest ship is to be acquired this way.

In some cases the tasks even change after reaching the next “level” (of which there are usually three or four), progressing the little stories they tell further.

But Mail, I hear you ask, if they’re that important, won’t I have to busy myself doing nothing but dailies all the fricking time? No, because you can do only up to three per day. Yep, you read that right! You can use one-time tickets to raise that limit, but the game dispenses those sparingly, so most of the time you’ll actually do no more than three. Which of course means that you need to prioritize. Folks who always want to progress as fast as humanly possible might hate this, but I’m thankful for it because it lets me work towards meaningful goals without stressing me out.

That they’re spread out over the entire game world and thus let me travel a lot and explore in the process makes them even more enjoyable. Which leads me nicely to…

- Islands

The game’s main continents are separated by the sea, and on your travels you’ll come across many islands – over one hundred to be a bit more precise. Most have at least one quest chain associated with them, Mokoko Seeds to find and an Island Soul to unlock (I’ll probably talk about the game’s various collectibles in a post of its own), as well as co-op events and other stuff happening on or around them. Quite a few also have their own Una’s Task.

What I like the most about them is the sheer variety in aesthetics and subjects. Every time you might think you’ve seen it all along comes something new and unexpected yet again.

Oh, so you’d like some examples?

[Spoiler warning in case you’d like to discover these for yourself]

Here I’ve just uncovered and put a stop to environmental pollution commited by an evil corporation (who else?), and a concert is played to celebrate. I love how the penguins are in attendance too.

Speaking of cute animals, how about an island full of talking and singing pandas, foxes, rabbits and whathaveyou? Unfortunately their singing is…well…bad, so I have to show them how it’s done. Naturally.

Not really an island, more like an offshore platform, anyone should think twice about attacking this ramshackle but fully armed and operational pirate hideout, as the approaching fleet is to find out the hard way very soon.

As part of the second awakening questline (which rewarded me with a very powerful, long-cooldown skill) I had to uncover and smash a conspiracy by some religious fanatics (who else?). Here I’m sitting at the far end of the bar to eavesdrop on four baddies pretending to play poker or whatever. Fortunately they were too busy to notice the glowing…ball…thingies…I use to beat up evildoers like them all the time.

After that much work nothing beats raving it up on an island where no one ever sleeps.

Blaugust 2023 post count: 1

24. July 20234. August 2023

Why playing at one’s own pace is so important

To the surprise of absolutely no one there’s been a lot of talk about Diablo IV lately. I knew that I wasn’t going to play it – at least not anytime soon – no matter what people have to say about it, yet all that fuss still affected me in a way: I really started to crave playing an ARPG again.

For once I wasn’t feeling it with any of my usual suspects though…and then I suddenly remembered Lost Ark. You know, the Korean MMORPG that looks and, for the most part, also plays like an ARPG as far as combat is concerned. The one I wasn’t all too happy with following its western release last year. I called it quits after about 50 hours of actual playtime, give or take, and a return at some point in the future didn’t seem likely at all.

It’s free though (meaning no mandatory subscription nor paid expansions I might have missed), so giving it another shot wasn’t going to cost me anything but a little of my time. I thought what the heck, prompted Steam to install it, and soon after my level 50 Striker was standing before me, right where I’d left him.

This is a proper MMORPG however, hence diving back in after over a year felt quite overwhelming at first. So many places to go, NPCs to talk to and systems to engage with. There was absolutely no reason to rush anything though, so I took my sweet time and slowly but surely reacquainted myself with the game’s many intricacies.

That was about two weeks ago, and I’ve been learning or discovering something new every day since then. And, much to my own surprise, I’m absolutely loving it! It’s been quite a while since my first thought upon waking up in the morning or calling it a day at work was “Hooray, now I can finally play again!”, but that’s exactly how it is right now.

So what’s the difference to last year? Did they change the game in fundamental ways? Not really, no. As far as I can tell it’s basically the same. What’s totally different is my own approach to playing it.

When the game’s western version launched Lakisa, myself and two of our buddies were planning to play the game together. None other than our close-knit ArcheAge Unchained family was going to conquer yet another fantasy realm.

Unfortunately differing work schedules combined with extremely long queues in the afternoon and evening meant that we barely ever managed to play together as a group of four. Also, Tristron and Merl are much more the power gamer type – look up any guide on “How to reach max level in game xy as quickly as possible” and you can be sure that’s pretty much how these guys will do it, even without a guide – whereas I tend to find myself at the opposite end of the spectrum more often than not.

Before long they were already doing Guardian Raids and all that jazz, and I was desperately trying to catch up. I’m not blaming them for any of this, mind you. Had I had time off work for the release and they had not it might have been the other way around. It’s just the way these things go sometimes.

Bottom line is, I couldn’t play as much as I’d have liked due to the disgustingly long queues during my off-hours, and whenever I finally did play I was always in a rush. As it turns out this had much more of an impact on how I perceived the game as a whole than I realized at the time.

For example, remember the questing experience I and many others were bitching about back then? Well, right now I’m in the same boat as Bhagpuss, who enjoyed them for what they mostly are, namely completely non-challenging vehicles to tell stories (sometimes even pretty funny or touching ones) and funnel rewards into my pockets. It’s really quite relaxing when not done in a hurry.

I’m also having a blast messing around with all the ways I can make my character stronger, now that I don’t feel like digging into it takes up too much of my available time anymore. Skills, gems, engravings, ability stones, runes, you name it. I have a build for normal solo play and a completely different one for boss fights now, something I didn’t have since my EQII and The Secret World days. I dearly missed this kind of flexibility.

Now, the gating of content behind certain gearscore-thresholds is still there, and I’m still not a fan. However, since I feel like I have all the time in the world right now it doesn’t bother me nearly as much. Of course the fact that they’ve upped honing rates for the first two gear-tiers considerably – I say “upped”, but I’ve actually yet to reach a point where attempts can fail at all – also helps.

So let’s see, some of the things I disliked last year aren’t as much of a turn off anymore, and I’ve even come to positively enjoy most of them for what they are. How about the stuff I was pleased with right from the start?

Let me tell you, I’d really missed the “epicness” everything is positively dripping with. Wherever you go in the game, its art design is absolutely top-notch, and the camera is regularly used in clever and awesome ways to enhance it even further.

For example, here I had spontaneously moored my ship at an unknown island I’d been about to pass, just because it looked cool and I wanted to explore it, and as I was crossing an ominous-looking (and reaaaaally long) bridge this happened:

This ain’t a cutscene, I’m in full control of my character the whole time and the camera moves in unison with me. How awesome is that? In fact many of the game’s countless islands have all kinds of surprises in store, visiting them all will keep explorer types busy (and most likely happy) for quite some time.

I also still really enjoy how the combat feels, looks and sounds, which is obviously very important in a game like this. Thankfully there’s no level scaling, which means that going back to a low level region or dungeon for a quest or to complete a collection has me crushing the biggest of bosses like it’s nothing. Game design that lets me feel how my efforts actually make me stronger? Yes, please!

There are many more little (and not so little) things I enjoy, like the various collectibles and the adventure log (the game’s version of ‘map completion’), the stronghold – now even with real housing as the manor can actually be entered and furnished since November of last year – or the sheet music and emote systems. I always feel like I could do more than I have time for.

Which, again, was very stressful and not fun at all when I felt like I had to do it all as quickly as humanly possible.

Now though, with what feels like having all the time in the world, it’s just great! This will teach me not to try and rush to whatever perceived “place to be” there is, just because everyone else is doing it.

At least I hope it will.

6. June 20236. June 2023

I got the six

Another year in the books and the blog’s still going, so here’s the obligatory cake for y’all.

The good news is that, despite my inkling that it might happen as early as two years ago, I haven’t turned my back on MMORPGs completely after all. As a matter of fact I’ve been playing the heck out of Black Desert Online since December, which has only slowed down a bit during the past few weeks.

I’ve taken a break from sailing and bartering for the time being, but am still grinding away for the infinite HP potion every now and then. I’ll also make sure to do the preparatory quests for Land of the Morning Light’s release, which is slated for June 14th.

As much as I’m looking forward to the new continent though, what I’ve come to realize is that BDO’s, like any other long-running MMO’s, biggest strength is the enormous wealth of content, systems and progression opportunities that are already there, as well as the countless iterations and (hopefully) improvements that all those things got over the years. I mean, the game was already quite good at launch, but by now it’s absolutely awesome and, in my opinion, one of the best there is.

Now, the anticipation for a game’s release can feel really great of course, and the craving for something new and shiny is always there in the back of my head. Still, when I look back on which MMORPGs I’ve played at or shortly after launch during the past few years…well, there’s pretty much only New World and Lost Ark, both of which disappointed me greatly.

I guess from now on I’ll take more of a wait-and-see approach towards new titles, while continuing to play stuff that’s had time to cook and already proven itself. Well, at least unless a game comes along that I feel I just have to play right away for whatever reason.

Diablo IV is not one of those games, in case you’re wondering. Even if I were to ignore the many good reasons not to buy it – like the fact that Kotick’s still in charge of the company, or the game’s steep price tag combined with a rather expensive cash shop and paid battle pass – I would still nope out for the time being.

Think about it – even Diablo II and III, which were made by “Good Old Blizzard” (anyone remember those times?), each needed a big expansion and many more patches to become as great as they are today. Why would it be any different now? I mean…worse? Sure, that may well happen. Better? Not bloody likely.

And, again, there’s already so many great games out there that are evidently good, polished and content-rich…

Yep, my rekindled enthusiasm for Genshin Impact hasn’t waned yet. I guess my playtime is split about 50/50 between it and BDO at the moment, which feels just right [Edit: Actually it’s more like 40/40, and 20% Hunt: Showdown]. The new (to me) regions, The Chasm and Sumeru, are really great; exploring those while questing and fighting along the way is tremendously fun.

I’ve even managed to get the character I talked about last time by investing only half of my available gacha currency, so I’m still sitting comfortably at 5 bucks spent for a full month of entertainment, with a handful of ten-pulls left over to boot. Take that, Bobby!

So, yeah, still playing, still blogging (well, occasionally). Good times.

I’ve also been watching a lot more basketball this year, starting right after Super Bowl. In years prior I only tuned in for the playoffs; turns out it’s much more satisfying to watch those when I already have a feel for what’s what and who to root for. Also, being there (kind of) when LeBron became the all-time scoring leader felt more special than I’d thought it would.

I’m even considering watching next season right from day one, but I’m afraid following the NFL and the NBA at the same time might be just too much (and pretty expensive too).

Either way, chances are the blog will remain primarily gaming-focused. What can I say, when it comes to sports I prefer doing it myself or at the very least watching. Talking about it – not so much.

Anyway, enough rambling. Year seven, here I come. Groovy gaming guaranteed!

17. May 2023

What once was bad is now really good…despite still being bad

It never ceases to fascinate me how the human brain works, especially the part that’s responsible for motivating us and making us happy. That sweet, sweet dopamine is one hell of a drug for sure. And dangerous, too.

It’s been almost two years since I quit playing Genshin Impact due to being thoroughly fed up with its treadmill-like and RNG-heavy game design. Do your dailies, spend your resin, work on the battle pass, do this, do that…it just wasn’t fun anymore.

You already know where this is going, don’t you?

Two weeks ago I decided on a whim to patch up the game and have a look at all the new content I’ve missed and also to see whether they’ve made any changes to its overall design. Yeah, as for the latter…pretty much nothing’s changed at all, which is disappointing to say the least. But here’s the thing…I’m playing every day and having a blast again nonetheless!

Of course I’ve already spent quite some time exploring the new regions they’ve added during my absence, and it’s enjoyable as ever to hunt for hidden treasures, solve puzzles and collect hard to reach shinies.

However, despite my characters being more than strong enough to conquer any challenge the open world has to offer, I’ve also started to work on their gear, talents and levels again because, damn, that kind of stuff feels so rewarding.

The funny thing – or tragic thing, depending on how you look at it – is that I’m well aware of my newfound enthusiasm’s temporary nature. It’s just a matter of time until I’ll once more tire of running the same domains over and over, or get fits of rage when yet another potentially good artifact rolls into a load of crap. Still, I’m enjoying it so much right now that I simply don’t care.

So here I am, doing all the things that made me quit the game once already, in order to get a new weapon for my Xiangling (a fishing spear, believe it or not), better artifacts for my Ganyu and so on, because the dopamine rush just thinking about reaching those goals triggers tastes oh so sweet.

Unfortunately, like I said in the opening paragraph, that rush can also be quite dangerous. This is where the fact that Genshin Impact is a gacha game comes into play.

A couple of months before I took my leave from the game back in ’21 I stopped pulling for new characters because I couldn’t keep up with leveling and gearing them all anyway. At the same time I also decided that I would not spend any more money on the game going forward, no matter what.

Fast forward a couple years and, well, just two weeks in that resolution has gone out the window already because, upon realizing that I play the game every day again anyway, I couldn’t resist buying the Blessing of the welkin moon for five bucks, which pays out a (relatively) generous amount of funny money spaced out over thirty days of logging in.

Now, five Euros ain’t a lot. However, as people designing this kind of shit aren’t even ashamed to tell you, getting players to spend that first couple of bucks is the “ice breaker”. After that it feels okay to spend on the game. At some point it might even feel like you actually need to spend more.

Of course people aren’t all equally susceptible to this. I guess I’m somewhere in the middle of the pack here, and fortunately my disposable income is such that I can afford my (very mild) level of obsession* without going broke, let alone incurring debts. Also, if you’ve been reading some of my stuff before you probably know that I think it’s important to support the makers of video games I really enjoy (even though the “real” makers only receive but a fraction of that support, obviously).

* I won’t call it addiction because I don’t intend to downplay the seriousness of real addiction, which I fortunately do not suffer from, in any way, shape or form.

Still, gacha mechanics aren’t something that should be condoned, and certainly not supported.

On the other hand, that Baizhu fella looks like he’d be a really great addition to my team right now, and I do have some funny money left over…

I guess we’ll see which part of my brain comes out ahead.

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