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CCR Podcast

Episode 16: Blizzard is the New TSA

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Beautiful Wildstar vista from https://twitter.com/lady_annieloy
Beautiful Wildstar vista from @lady_annieloy

 

This week we discuss Wander’s issues, Guild Wars 2’s issues, World of Warcraft’s issues, and other issues. Issues. That word has lost all meaning to me now. Welcome to Casual Core Radio, where we talk about MMOs and where our lore in stuck in their canon…

MMO News

 

Guild Wars 2
Heart of Thorns Preorder controversy: http://massivelyop.com/2015/06/18/why-guild-wars-2s-prepurchase-deal-has-the-internet-raging/
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/
Specializations: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-one-a-primer/
Reward tracks and Elite Specs: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-one-a-primer/
Spec changes: http://dulfy.net/2015/06/16/gw2-june-23-specialization-changes/

Azeroth Do Not Fly list becomes a premium-air-experience feature.
http://massivelyop.com/2015/06/10/world-of-warcraft-to-allow-flight-in-draenor-in-a-post-6-2-patch/

TSW – $42 for ALL of it… amazing deal for a b2p game.
http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/the_ultimate_edition_is_here
http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/the_franken_chopper_is_here

Wanderlaunch and… Wandercrash
http://massivelyop.com/2015/05/28/explorer-centric-wander-launches-june-4th-with-new-hira-form/
http://massivelyop.com/2015/06/08/wander-struggles-with-bugs-crashes/

 

MMO Community

 

Flashpoint celebrates their 100th episode.

Ootinicast is over 200 (I was in Vegas that week I think)

@lady_annieloy

Xam Xam’s Lore post on Vitiate and the Fallen Empire
http://www.xamxamsays.com/?p=1766

I6: Ravenloft

Secretly Kephess:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=8256270

I want to to Believe:
http://ootinicast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/I-want-to-believe-Kephess.jpg

 

If I Were a Dev

 

How would you handle content release cycles – how often and what level of content?

JOE: Monthly mini-updates (adventure-sized instances, not a full dungeon). Quarterly new dungeons. Bi-annual new raids. Foundry.

DREW: Quarterly. Don’t lie to the customer. No one has been able to make monthly updates work. Your customers make most of the content for a PvP game anyway. There will be monthly balancing patches, because you cannot let things get out of hand.

 

 

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This week’s end music is Deep Space Nine from Star Trek Online.

CCR Podcast

Episode 13: Right on the Money

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NC3
Who the heck is playing – and paying – Lineage?!?

 

This week we discuss getting older, public executions, how NCSOFT properties are doing, and yet more conjecture on Wildstar’s subscription-to-f2p transition. Welcome to Casual Core Radio, where we talk about MMOs and we’re not sure how we’ll find time to do more than seven daily zones each week.

MMO News

Money Money Money
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/12/square-enix-profits-double-thanks-to-mmo-and-mobile-titles (and WTF is up with that hair… it’s full-on JRPG-level height.)

It’s not newsy, but it’s interesting – Diablo III is often described as kind of almost-an-MMO.  Turns out, it WAS almost an MMO.
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Diablo-3-Was-Almost-An-MMO-71858.html

Near and Dear to my heart… MMOs and Working Adults.
http://news.mmosite.com/content/2015-05-13/das_tal_fixing_sandbox_mmos_for_busy_adults.shtml
Catering to the casual? Yeah. The casual who used to be hardcore, aka the casual who now has WAY MORE MONEY to spend.

Ok ok, we know about WoW and it’s 3 million sub drop. Enough already. Let’s talk about 6.2 and the new Bonus Activities feature.
http://www.youthhealthmag.com/articles/15605/20150511/world-of-warcraft-gameplay-patch-6-2-blizzard-mmorpg-lost-3-million-subscribers.htm
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/18985406/patch-62-preview-bonus-events-and-adventure-guide-5-7-2015

ESO on the Console. The company that loves console RPGs is finally putting it’s MMORPG on consoles, and it’s releasing June 9th.
http://www.vg247.com/2015/01/21/elder-scrolls-online-no-subs-ps4-pc-xbox-one/
http://www.vinereport.com/article/elder.scrolls.online.console.release.date.console.versions.offer.improved.version.of.glitchy.pc.version.of.tamriel.unlimited/203.htm

Guild Wars 2 Cheater’s toon is publicly shamed and executed. Then all of his toons are deleted.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/guild-wars-2-hacker-publically-executed-mmo-cheating-1500648
https://youtu.be/h_hS_XNpg30

SWTOR – Irony in the extreme. The second part of the Sixth Line story starts with ledge crawling. Funny, that’s how the now defunct exploit worked.
http://www.swtor.com/info/news/blog/20150428

To end on the money note: NCSoft Earning Report – Lineage 1 still kicking ass. WildStar, not so much. All the rest – doing ok.
http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/earnings.aspx
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/9683/What-We-Can-Learn-from-the-Latest-NCsoft-Earnings-.html

WildStar, Guild Wars 1 and 2, AION, and all NCSOFT properties subject to a now-complete extended maintenance.
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/126026-extended-ncsoft-maintenance-13-may-2015/#entry1316861

WS Coming to Steam
http://massivelyop.com/2015/05/13/rumor-wildstar-is-coming-to-steam-and-might-be-going-f2p/
https://therepopulation.com/index.php/news/188-15-2-1-build-update

 

MMO Community

Money – Pink Floyd

For the Love of Money – Bulletboys

Price Tag (because why not?)

 

If I Were A Dev

How would you handle advancement mechanics?

JOE:

For basic experience – Levels with, as we’ve mentioned, have no real cap. Just max-ed skills. Maybe levels that don’t end, maybe no levels listed. A bit TSW-like or WildStar-like. Tough to say. Also, the ability to start a character at above the starting zone area like Age of Camelot and WildStar once you’ve already maxed a character.

Crafting – traditional leveling with recipes and rewards, but with the possibility of gaining crits by using more materials or special materials. End-game crafting gear would be JUST AS GOOD as end-game instance gear, and all gear can be modded by crafters, as we’ve already mentioned..

Factions – a classic reputation system. To make crafting valuable but not cookie-cutter, there would be materials and even recipes  gated by both level and reputation.

 

DREW:

No levels, just minor quality of gear differences, and slots for skills. Skills unlock through achievements.

Skills from crafting achievements that consume crafting materials

PvP renown, infamy, and honor. Renown is from raid-v-raid kills, Infamy is from piracy and ganking (large power disparities or raid-v-solo), and Honor is from killing high-Infamy players.

Pick a faction and move up in it, doing missions for them (or killing players from enemy factions), seals for your player-run faction that allows the leader of the faction to pick which crafting materials to make the seal, thus draining the economy of too-prevalent crafting material

 

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This week’s end music is Qeynos from Everquest 2

CCR Podcast, Uncategorized

Episode 11: Medium Rare Content and Arbitrary Walls

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The brilliant map voting process in Guild Wars 2.
The brilliant map voting process in Guild Wars 2.

This week we discuss bans for exploration, Black Desert’s media push, Left Shark, and more! Welcome to Casual Core Radio, where we talk about MMOs and and we don’t click our skills, but only because we keep dragging them off our bars…

MMO News

Moar WildStar

Boxes and boxes of mounts and outfits – retail box codes giving mounts and an outfit.

Speaking of in-game items, Left Shark is going to be a BATTLE PET in WoW
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/04/23/7430485.aspx

Steam gets community Steamed.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/24/valves-launch-of-paid-mods-faces-backlash-from-community/

And then Valve opens up… “We’ve done this because it’s clear we didn’t understand exactly what we were doing,”
http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-removed-paid-mods-functionality-from-steam-workshop/

New Daybreak Games (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) site
https://www.daybreakgames.com/home

Also, Daybreak aren’t dummies – they get community management.
http://massivelyop.net/2015/04/29/everquest-emulator-group-gets-a-written-agreement-with-daybreak/

The natural next question? Will a SWGemu agreement be in the works? No. Definitely not. Not their IP, for starters.  Lucasarts / Disney own the rights. Only one AAA MMO with the Star Wars IP allowed… that’s why SWG shut down rights as SWTOR launched. Zero overlap.

Loads of Black Desert News ahead of Japanese Open Beta
http://my.mmosite.com/2939211/blog/item/beta_date_for_black_desert_onlinejp_information_about_the_future_content.html

World of Tanks – Possible new MOBA style gameplay?
http://www.mmobomb.com/news/wargaming-teases-new-world-tanks-game-mode/

Aion – Expansion due soon!
http://www.mmobomb.com/news/aions-next-free-expansion-upheaval-coming-spring/

The meaty meaty center of tonight’s episodes:
SWTOR 3.2 is live. Kind of.
http://www.swtor.com/gameupdates/rise-of-the-emperor
Class changes
Outfit Designer
Rise of the Emperor Content and the SWTORGATE
BANS!!!!! MOAR BANS!!!! 204 Main hand? You killed a WHAT?

 

MMO Community

Elio cars
https://youtu.be/_JHEm9YYIjU

Empress of the Pagodas (performed by Christopher Parkening)
https://youtu.be/ggoMl7pUQC4

 

If I Were a Dev

Engine Update!

.Net Core released for Linux and Mac. Not enough to build a game engine on, but it won’t be long… a truly cross-platform system. Woot.

 

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This week’s end music is Justice Doesn’t Always Wear a Badge by Jeff Kurtenacker from Wildstar.