Enough about the raving. I'm making this sound like the Alan Wake series. I went through some of the relevant wiki articles and I'm no longer surprised storytelling in video games can easily trump the stuff you see on the TV or movie screen. While I don't mind Squid Game enjoying global fame despite the point of absurdity, the fact Alan Wake was released in 2010 instead of 2020 means we're dealing with some kind of injustice. Then again, Old Gods Of Asgard were unable to achieve Squid Game's level of fame despite an actual quality.
Note: Credit goes to Alina "I don't think Triss Merigold is a ginger" Gingertail and the fact I forgot to switch off auto-play in YouTube after relistening to her rendition of Red Eagle's Song. Otherwise, there's no way I'd notice a dark shining gem of Lovecraftian storytelling. Such is the curiosity responsible for discovering stuff like Berserk and these below.
Source and Credit: YuYu-Tei
New World: Will it fight WoW, ESO, or both?
If you think the hype surrounding Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin "unrelated to Guan Yu unless proven by science" Kwan was something, I'd say the hype surrounding New World by Amazon has been another monster. Let me give you an idea of how great the New World hype is:
Despite preparations made by the developers, not even Jeff "not Hardy" Bezos' astronomical wealth could avoid log-in queues a hundred times more insane than your worst login queue in Final Fantasy XIV. We're talking about a company with more money than the Chinese fortune god and very likely as much as Tesla. We're also talking about login queues lasting as long as... 13 hours or so? The only thing more unreal than this would be a photo obviously edited.
The signs are good so far. When we talk about the #RedefiningFailure hashtag, two names come to mind. The first is Jamus "mee siam got hum" Lim. The other is none other than... I don't know whether I should say Jeff "not Hardy" Bezos or Amazon but you get the drift.
For a very long time, Amazon tried creating AAA games. For a very long time, Amazon failed. New World is not just about redefining failure. It's also that one game I believe Amazon will do well in focusing on in terms of continual development and improvement. Granted I never played it, but I can't contest against the consistency of the reviews. Especially if it's from the Steam community.
Now a massive question is whether New World can topple WoW. At the same time, gamers are commenting that NW plays more like ESO than WoW. I came across an interview in Washington Post involving Rich "not Chris" Lambert. The takeaway I got from this article wasn't how much was being promised for the Deadlands DLC release. I wouldn't be surprised if so far none of the newer content could compare to the quality of Summerset and Elsweyr. In particular, I really like the dragon boss world events in both ends of the cat country. I played some Harrowstorm world events and while they're good, the level was never on par with the dragons. A large part of it lies in the loot. Dragons do drop very good loot. So good, it's 100% better than what you get in Harrowstorms or world bosses.
It's what Rich said that caught my attention:
"First and foremost, competition is good. It’s healthy. It’s good for the consumer. The second you feel like you don’t have to compete and continue to improve your product is the second that things start to go downhill. So I think it’s great, and we need more successful games in our genre to help earn the trust of the consumer, to kind of shake things up and get those creative juices flowing and whatnot."
An interesting question involving the current state of WoW isn't about whether a moral scandal is going to do Activision Blizzard in. Granted there must be a satisfactory conclusion to the gaming version of Andrew Cuomo, Roy Moore, and Jeffrey Epstein. Granted the 18 million dollar deal was total nonsense. We're talking about revenue running up to 2.3 billion. That's the kind of money I won't be able to earn in 23000 billion lifetimes. Morality remains relevant in a world of moral irrelevance even in Singapore. You can't contest against that. But how much would a gamer care? I hope there are many. To say all, however, is being out of touch with the real world.
The question is best summed up by what I'd call a guild with OG status in The Burning Crusade Classic. Note that nowhere in this article did it mention words like sexual harassment and Crosby Suite [sic]. Instead, it's all about the state of the game. Content quality has been an issue in WoW for quite some time. There are definitely gamers leaving because of the moral scandal, 18 million or not. However, I believe many were those departing due to frustration at an endemic lack of quality. This is not to say the likes of APES don't care. They merely stated the first thing in their minds. In other words, I'm convinced they do care.
So how did WoW end up from one end of quality to the other? Long story short, it's all about monopoly. Like how there'd be fewer problems with the tech industry if it doesn't have hegemonies, I suspect a similar scenario was the cause. When a brand got too big for its own good, things are bound to happen. The impact wouldn't be immediate, but that doesn't remove the fact games are developed by developers and developers are people. They're not robots and they're not a department of hamsters running 24/7 in the wheel. Needless to say, they're also not objects of sexual fantasies and schadenfreude.
But what if the unspeakable happens? Staff morale will suffer. No woman would want to work in a culture where her male colleagues view her as nothing more than a sex object. To do what is right and just, persecution would become a reality. All that'd be left is a bunch of people behaving as if their existence alone would warrant a paycheck and no danger of being fired. I've seen this kind of attitude elsewhere and I've experienced it most notably during my schooling years as well. Different circumstances, same concept.
The reason why I'm talking so much about it is that one thing leads to another. If your staff are happy, they will work for you. Sure, salary is an issue. Not everyone is born with a silver or golden spoon, but everyone has to spend money and many are those who have to pay their bills. But is money everything? To some, yes. But to many? That's a theory unproven and disproven. This comes to the question of why stay if you know you're either sexually objectified or wrongfully persecuted? The correct question should be is there any other option for you to pursue your dream?
In a hegemony within any industry, a lack of good choices is bound to be exploited by the powers-that-be. The longer the monopoly, the worse it gets. The worse it gets, the poorer the quality. If it's bad, it's bad. If it's good, it means it could have been so much better. It's very easy to settle for mediocrity so long you can get away with it. And by that, I mean profits instead of minimised losses. The MMO industry has always been about striking a balance between casual gamers and non-casual ones. There are bound to be decisions favouring one or the other. This is why we have an actual difference between games like WoW and titles like Dark Souls. The range of difficulty is way larger for the former while the latter is more for crazy people running naked. As a result, it's easy for the decision-makers to agree on prioritising new players over retaining the current ones. After all, why settle for MMO if you're good enough to defeat Detlaff in Witcher 3 while blasting a Death March worthy theme?
The reality is doing an MMO title involves growing the fanbase at the start and keeping the existing fanbase happy once it matures. This is even more so for AAA titles. However, AAA games require more money to develop and maintain. We're not just talking about content. It's also about servers, attracting the best possible talents in programming, etc. This comes to risk assessment: Do you want to play safe by prioritising new gamers or risk revenue stagnation by prioritising the existing players? At a certain point, hard decisions must be made.
For New World, the same is true. Why am I optimistic about its future then? Some find PvE content monotonous. How monotonous, I don't know. What I do know is that grinding in MMOs is a reality. It all boils down to how many content options do you have. For New World, this is its weakness. This comes to its greatest strength. No, it's not crafting even though the consensus is that crafting in New World is either AAA or beyond AAA.
There aren't many MMO titles guilty of making PvP right. In fact, the current changes to proc sets in PvP has created quite an uproar among the ESO players. It's not that radical changes aren't good. It's because not all radical changes are good. After all, anyone can make a daring decision but not everyone can be the second Oda Nobunaga or William Sherman. Now I don't see myself doing PvP in the short run due to personal preferences and actual trauma involving people at school. Gwent was an exception but that's because I trusted the reviews. But even though I enjoyed myself, personal trauma remained the decisive factor in me leaving the game. The Trollololo theme song was good though.
So why am I talking about PvP in other games? Because that's where I see the strength of New World. The necessity of factional PvP is proven by a land-grab format where Covenant, Syndicate, and Marauders vie for continental supremacy in the good old historical manner. Without lands, your company will suffer. And if your company suffers, you will suffer unless either you leave or the company disbands. This resulted in actual scamming. As much as I hate to say it, this is very likely the kind of offence anyone can get away with. From the developer's perspective, the last thing the team should do is to play the moral police. We have too much moral policing in the real world, hence the last thing gamers need is... well, moral policing. Banning scammers requires effort because we're not talking about one rogue element out of every million gamers. Manpower wise, a server-wide sting operation isn't feasible. Already, there are rules to be kept. Break them and you'll get banhammered. Imposing additional rules will just create unwanted burdens.
Ironically, what ruined the experience for many gamers happened to be New World's gameplay strength. This PvP format can result in a higher level of player technique. In this sense, New World isn't for casual gamers. It's more for technical gamers closer to those you see in esports tournaments. Of course, you can focus on the PvE alone. But would that compromise the gameplay experience since PvE in New World can get terribly repetitive?
At the same time, starting a guild/company in any MMO is a challenge. In Neverwinter, I've seen players offering incentives to fellow gamers so that they could start a guild (i.e. you need a minimal number of players to register a guild). After that, it's back to ground zero (i.e. those being paid are free to go). This was a clear indication of what you have to face in forming a guild in any MMO. It's not about creating but rather growing, maintaining, and improving. The hardest part lies in growing. Once you get that right, maintaining and improving would be far easier. Do it wrong and you might as well fold it.
For New World, trust in the players is important. The developers have to trust the vast majority of players aren't MMO criminals. If they can't, unwanted workplace stress can easily follow. To do so, however, requires an accurate analysis of player behaviour. Players scam because they can't make the cut when it comes to decent leadership. On the flip side, this can also weed out scamming since the scammers are only interested in profiteering. And in New World, profit is synonymous with PvP. There's nothing practical in a scammer doing the same thing in an endless loop. Not because of whether they'd be caught but rather that would defeat the purpose of scamming. The more practical challenge developers have to deal with is how long it will take. A matter of time, yes. But there's a difference between sooner or later and sooner rather than later.
This comes to the comparison of strength. Since New World already boasted an actual AAA grade PvP, it means Amazon needs this to take flight instead of focusing on the PvE. PvP is all about format while PvE is more about creativity. New World's strength happened to be making that one thing work instead of other things (two if you're to include crafting). Granted it's still early days, but one might still expect better PvE due to the amount of money invested to make the game work. I don't know how Amazon is going to improve and expand the PvE, but it'd be a good idea to focus on the PvP. It's not every day a game can get mostly positive reviews on Steam despite criticism on the PvE end. This implied the PvP is so good, players can actually ignore an otherwise banal PvE content. Crafting alone isn't going to make this happen. When a new MMO is released, the first impression counts a lot because it allows players to anticipate what lies ahead. There will be additional content and whatnot, but the base game always serves as the foundation from which future content and quality will be defined. At the same time, this is also an indication of the developers' vision for every aspect of the gameplay.
Will Patch 32 ruin your life?
The TV Tropes website is known for many things ranging from orthodox storytelling tips to actual history. At the same time, there's a declaration going like TV TROPES WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE!!!!! It's a bit like Tenka Fubu minus the real violence. So will Patch 32 ruin your life?
Now there are new properties like Einstein level RNG and Armoury system. I won't be addressing them Rather, it's the hybridised gear system.
A Critical Monster:
Monster sets are back now. The changes are interesting for a reason. At a glance, Monster sets are going to be the BiS deal. The raw power is going to be something wonderful. This comes to the question of whether Mythic items are going down a few notches in the pecking order.
For a very long time, I've been running with Ring of the Wild Hunt on all my toons. This means I'm doing a 5-5-1-1 setup. It's either Valkyn Skoria or Kra'gh due to the penetration. If I am to redon a full Ilambris for Update 32 (not that I'm ruling this out), it means I have no choice but to go full light armour to plug the Penetration shortfall. Another alternative is to go counter-intuitive. Instead of the current False God's Devotion-Diamond's Victory set combination, the alternative would be Mother's Sorrow+Hexos' Ward. Instead of the Thief, my Mundus effect of choice would be Shadow. Penetration will be lower, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that an extra bit of Critical Damage can tip the scales. Because I have enough Transmutation Stones to reconstruct a full Mother's Sorrow, this means I only need to farm Hexos' Ward to complete the setup. However, this is only a tentative plan which I may or may not go ahead with.
Another more intuitive alternative would be replacing False God's Devotion with Mother's Sorrow while leaving the rest untouched. Currently, I'm doing two medium and five light. This would definitely result in my Mundus stone going from Thief to Shadow. If this goes accordingly, my front bar ability rotation would look like Haunting Curse>Force Pulse with base Critical Damage at 25% instead of the current 8%. This is due to me using Inferno Staff instead of Lightning Staff (read: I don't have Inferno Staff for False God's Devotion). As for proc'ing Diamond's Victory, I find Hurricane to be surprisingly good in terms of preventing damage instability. At the same time, I did a test and the only way for me to miss the Ranged Supremacy proc is to wait for the second tick of the effect. The interesting part? Hurricane only got two ticks with the final tick coming near 2 seconds or so before the duration expires.
Strategist+Tactician=Hybrid:
The best part of Update 32 has to be the hybridisation (yes, it's an actual word) of the gear system. Playing Gwent taught me where my strength lies: The cerebral instead of the physical. Class wise, I'd be the mage just like how Abnur Tharn described himself.
The new gear system change isn't just radical. It's a world-beater in my eyes. It's every strategist's dream come true, the next best thing for a tactician apart from a girlfriend. I function best in a DPS role, but my brain works like either a strategist or tactician. Actually, there's not much separating the two once the fighting gets underway. On one hand, it's going to make theory-crafting go full Tohoku. On the other, it allows more space than a super spacious Nassim Road building lobby for players like me to go full Tohoku.
Currently, I decided to experiment with Hurricane in place of Boundless Storm for my Dark Elf Magsorc. It may sound more insane than doing a naked run in Dark Souls, but I find it actually works. As I mentioned earlier, the damage instability was effectively prevented. The DPS ceiling actually went from two extreme ends to a more stable damage-dealing game. Sure the insane damage spike is gone, but I'm not a fan of rolling a twenty-sided die. At the same time, Hurricane goes for two ticks. For a 15-second duration effect, I'm hoping the developers don't increase the ticks unless someone else can prove my approach can break the game come Update 32 and beyond. That's clearly impossible if you're to ask me. If I'm sticking to my current gear setup, I'd have to push the AoE damage via the Warfare CP. Maybe I should have done that a long time ago instead of having to do it soon? I never contemplated whether the Force Pulse proc would be affected. That plus I never intended Boundless Storm to play a part in the DPS. Switching to Hurricane means I need to test certain things due to the maximum AoE. And besides, I just started messing with it last night.
So why am I going on so much about Hurricane? The reason is with the change in Update 32, I have every reason to do that. As a DPS, I can see the intent is to allow Stamina abilities to play a meaty supporting role to Magicka DPS and vice versa. If the approach doesn't break the game, it means it's a success. The equation is that simple and zero-sum. Already, I can clock more than 11-13K damage despite having yet to tweak the Warfare CP while running on open-map solo difficulty. Update 32 is going to up the ante and I can't wait for it to arrive.
This comes to the question of whether racial passives are going to play a far bigger role than we might imagine otherwise. Dark Elf racial passives are effectively the brute force sibling of the Khajiit while Khajiit racial passives are that technical twin. Two sides of the same coin when you look at it from the DPS perspective. I'm not saying hybridisation is going to buff Dark Elves more than any other race. While I'm not surprised if Dark Elves would benefit more than High Elves and Orcs due to the increase in Stamina and Magicka instead of either, applying the hybrid logic on the Khajiit could present another monster. At this point, it's futile to argue whether the Khajiit is more tactical or whether Dark Elves are more strategic. Both are strategic in their own ways and the same goes for the tactical side. If there's a common theme though, it'd be the likelihood of them benefitting the most from Update 32. For Khajiit, it's all about being a critter in ways more than one. In this sense, there's a greater brute force factor. Base damage wise, Dark Elves would be another kind of brute force DPS.
Update: Test dummied this on a troll in Vvardenfell since I'm more familiar with the spawning points. Deadly Aim and Master-At-Arms was a surprisingly better combination than Biting Aura and Master-At-Arms. Also, Deadly Aim affects Force Pulse proc damage but not Biting Aura. In other words, I burnt 6000 gold just to test that out. Also, I think I'm currently sold on Mother's Sorrow+Diamond's Victory+one-piece Valkyn Skoria+Ring of the Wild Hunt.
