I logged onto the Guild Wars 2 BWE briefly last night and jumped into WvW. My shard, Green team, was dominating solely by force of numbers. The zerg moved from tower to tower, destroying everything in its path. After the fact I thought, “hey that would have made some nice screen shots.” So once I got an opportunity to log on tonight I immediately jumped in WvW to join what I assumed would be another zerg to take some screen shots, instead I found this…
Where are the blue and red teams?
A light tank so slow that heavies and TDs easily out run it.
I can’t help my self, the past couple nights I get a chance to sit down to play for a little bit, click the SWTOR icon, close the window and open World of Tanks. The game has fully caught my attention again, and for good reason. It offers so much more than just a fun game.
Take a minute and think about it.A while ago I mentioned that one of the things I love about WoTs is that you have to play smart. The game is a constant challenge which means that there’s always room for improvement and unlike most typical MMOs, improvement doesn’t mean epics. While you still have to upgrade your tank, it won’t get you very far. You have to improve your game. It’s the inverse of most MMOs. In SWTOR, WoW, Rift, etc player skill is important but the best player in the world will get trounced by a gear discrepancy. In WoT the better tanker will always come out on top, even in a lesser tank. And I suck, so that’s usually not me but there’s time to grow and learn.
You can’t win them all.
So many games have conditioned players to expect to win all the time, but most WoT players have about a 50% win/loss ratio. When WoT first hit the scene many people complained and even rage-quit over the fact that they lost half the time. The most common complaint I saw was that they play to unwind and losing just upset them. I’ve always been one who games first-and-foremost to unwind but there’s a difference between unwinding and being bored. There’s nothing fun about winning all the time, it’s repetitive and repetition is boring. A challenge, something that occupies the mind and allows the worries of the day to fade away, that is relaxation. Sure booze do a great job too but have that nasty tendency for dependency, and hangovers.
A different kind of lunch-break research.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who brings up their favorite game sites for a short distraction at work or during a break. Check the news feeds, a couple blogs, maybe even a forum or two. Every time I get engaged with WoT I find myself looking up different information: history. It’s fun to research the real-life counterparts of the tanks you drive in the game. It feeds my inner war-buff and history geek and creates a connection to real life and a level of immersion unparalleled by fantasy and/or sci-fi games.
Give it a try.
So If you haven’t tried World of Tanks and my reasons for enjoying it above sounds interesting, give it a try. If tanks aren’t your thing, planes and ships are on their way too. I highly recommend it and, if nothing else, it’s a great distraction from the normal MMO rotation.
I’ve been trying to come up with ideas for regular posts and the first one, and as of yet the only one implemented, is that my first post of the week should be a review of what I did the previous week and weekend. Real life, of the most serious variety, stepped in last week and made that first post of the week also my last. I was also unable to play much: my Sith Assassin gained half a level, I created but didn’t play a Dwarf Rogue in Rift and I got a handful of World of Tanks matches in. Since I don’t have anything to share about what I’ve been playing I thought I’d share what I’m planning.
Is that a Marder II on cinder blocks?
I got an okay session of World of Tanks in yesterday, only a handful of matches but I felt good about it afterward. I did realize one thing though: my garage is a fucking mess. When I first started last summer I gave each nation’s tier I tank a try and then decided to attempt to elite the entire German tree, with a focus on the tanks. I’m currently sitting with a Wespe, Hetzer, Panzer III/IV, Panzer IV, Leopard, and various old tanks from the journey (the Panzer III being the only old one I actually ever play). And of course being the altoholic that I am I branched out: I “needed” a Sherman, wanted to give Soviet heavies a try, and their lights, and when I started back up I wanted to try the French tanks. So now I’m just a tank pack rat with a full garage.
Time for some cleaning.
Step one: sell all of the old tanks I’m saving “in case I want to play them again later.” I play the Panzer III, and even bought a camo skin for it, so I’ll keep that one but the rest have to go.
Step two: decide my goal tanks and the progression paths I want to follow. Elite-ing the entire German tree is a fool’s errand, especially when I’m not running a premium account. I don’t even like playing arty and although I enjoy TDs, I have to be in the right mood for them and I’m more interested in the US tree. The the new plan for the German tree is to get a Tiger. I’m going to elite and then sell my Wespe, Leopard and Hetzer, shelf my Panzer III/IV (until I later come back to work toward a Panther) and focus on my Panzer IV to progress toward the Tiger. I haven’t progressed far in the Soviet tree (just a T-46 and a T-50) so i’m just going to stop it for now. I’ve barely progressed on the T-50 so I’ll sell it to free up the space while I’ll unlock everything for the T-46 before selling it. I’ve come to really enjoy the Sherman so I’m going to stick it out with the US mediums and continue down that path. I’ve started on the French medium tree and plan to continue to try and get a feel of them.
So my goals for World of Tanks are: (1) clean shop, (2) get a Tiger, (3) progress all the way down the US medium tree and (4) give French mediums a fair shake.
I can taste the freedom.
As much as I’ve been enjoying my little sabbatical into Rift Lite, and am excited about the upcoming expansion, I’m trying not to get hooked. My SWTOR sub is up in July and I’m finding myself excited about being liberated from a subscription. I’ve had at least one active MMO subscription running constantly since I started playing WoW in July of 2005. The big reason I’m excited is for the freedom from feeling like I have to play game X to get my money’s worth. Then again I might just wait for Guild Wars 2 to go subscription free.
Stepping into the Mists
I already know I’m not going to have much, if any, gaming time next weekend. I originally had some grandiose plans for the second Guild Wars 2 BWE but have paired them back, maybe next time. Instead, if I get some time to play, I’ve got a very short list of what I want to see: PvP.
I never got around to PvP during the first BWE and only stepped into the Mist for about 1/2 an hour during the stress test. This time I’d like to try taking my Guardian and/or Engineer into both sPvP and WvW. We’ll see how things pan out.
So that’s about it for now. I’ve got a couple of plans for the blog this week: take more screen shots for posts (I know I’m horrible about that), complete the blogroll (lots of NBI blogs to add), add podcasts to the blogroll, and follow my desired basic post schedule: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Earlier this week I was listening to a podcast (I believe it was Too Long Didn’t Listen) during my morning commute when one of the hosts, Syp, mentioned RP-PvP servers and what the deal with them is. As someone who plays on RP-PvP servers I thought I’d explain the benefits of this server rule set and why I’ve come to make RP-PvP servers my home.
History of a PvP Hopeful
I started playing MMOs with World of Warcraft and from my first character creation I’ve been playing on PvP servers. My initial thought was that by narrowing my multiplayer experience to cooperative only, especially in a game with opposing factions, I was effectively limiting the ways that I could play with other people. For the first year or so I constantly rerolled and bounced between alts, rarely ever getting a character above level 20, and into contested zones. It wasn’t until the summer before the release of the Burning Crusade that I made a serious attempt at progressing farther than Ashenvale.
I rolled a new Shaman, on a new server, and told myself that I wouldn’t play another character until either the expansion came out or I made it to level 60. A few days later I found myself sitting in Orgrimmar looking for a Ragefire Chasm group. After about a half hour of futile searching I decided to roll a Warlock alt to play in the meantime. Before I knew it that fresh little Forsaken Warlock was my first proper main. Soon after, with my first taste of Tarren Mill vs Southshore, I was hooked on world PvP. I ended up tooling around with a few open world PvP groups and had a lot fun. By the time TBC launched I had quit the Warlock and moved on to a Tauren Druid. Said Druid was my first end-game character. I leveled him to 70, joined regular battles over Halaa (always busy on my server at the time), small skirmishes in Hellfire Peninsula, and 1v1 battles in the daily zones. It was the best PvP I experienced in WoW.
Things changed with the release of Wrath of the Lich King, at least on my server. I guess it was the combination of Wintergrasp and the lack of open world PvP objects, but open world PvP seemed to completely die. Gankings were always an issue but at the same time they were balanced by the enjoyment of evenly matched encounters, no more. The situation was only made worse by the sift in faction balance: originally Alliance-heavy, the server became more Horde dominated. And then the second great Blood Elf Influx, more commonly know as the introduction of faction transfers, pushed that imbalance to absurd proportions that only fueled the gankings. Horde player would jump at any opportunity to actually kill an Alliance player, and then Alliance player took it out on lowbies. Even Wintergrasp turned from a simple Horde zerg into a slew of siege engines just bombarding the Alliance graveyard for half an hour. I couldn’t stand it anymore.
Uh, I thought this was about RP-PvP…
Yeah, I’m getting there. I had enough so I started looking for a new server. I hit the forums and eventually found myself in a couple of RP-PvP server forums. The people seemed nice and everyone kept bragging about how great the world PvP was there. So I rolled a couple of alts, gave them a try and loved it. People were friendly, no rogues with names like Xxkillerdudexx or Istabyou waiting to gank you, actual open world PvP and best of all: great immersion.
Even though I’m not much of and RPer, I’ll create a back story and play along with RP but I won’t seek it out, the environment cultivated by RPers is unparalleled. One instance in particular comes to mind. I was running around Ironforge when a low level Gnome comes up and, in character, explains that this is his first time in Ironforge and that he needs directions to Tinker Town to meet some friends. I play along, tell him how to get there, and he was off on this way. A little later I encounter a group of Gnomes on a walking tour of the city and the one who stopped me earlier is among them. He stops, waves and thanks me. I return the gesture and he continued with his tour group. Little things like this made the world feel so alive.
Moving On
I ended up not spending too much more time in WoW, bounced around some and then moved onto Rift last year. This time I started on an RP-PvP server but found something new. In Rift I encountered RP in PvP. People put thought into how and why they were attacking each other and, without a language barrier, were able to express it. The most epic encounter involved a mid-to-high level Defiant Necromancer who turned himself into a Gloamwood raid boss. He followed around death rifts and invasions while yelling taunts about his minions conquering the region. Eventually a bunch of us lowbie Guardians grouped up and managed to take him down. He shouted a final warning of his impending revenge and left us toasting our victory. Since then I’ve played RP-PvP exclusively.
Would I Recommend It?
If you enjoy PvP but hate the type of community that typically grows on dedicated PvP servers then yes, go for it. Are there any downsides? Of course, a couple. Dedicated or hardcore PvPers probably want to stay away. There seems to be a lot of people who are just in it for a good time and don’t care about being that competitive. That’s not to say there isn’t competition or that people don’t take it seriously. The competition just isn’t as feverish as it is on dedicated PvP servers. Likewise, dedicated RPers might want to steer clear. RP seems to be more centered in guilds with very little in the open world, I’ve been playing on two different RP-PvP SWTOR servers since launch and haven’t encountered any impromptu RP. You will also find many people, like myself, who are there for the more mature community rather than the RP.
All the fun of PvP but with a nicer community and less assholes. If that sounds like your kind of thing then give RP-PvP servers a try. I don’t regret it.
The Altoholic 