(no subject)
Having slept on it...
I feel there would be a market for an MMO of this design, so I share it.
* Never, ever, require a group for anything. Especially not anything in the main story. If people WANT to group up? Pair with a friend, or bring in a dozen, great! Each PC replaces one NPC in the party until the dungeon/trial is finished, but - this is a big thing - if you are bringing ONE friend and the trial/dungeon wants FOUR people, then when you start, it's automatically you, your friend, and two NPCs, not two random human beings.
* Sure. Have content with great loot that needs like 10 people to go get, that's at the highest level the game has. But let people go in alone if they want to, too. Have 'trial runs' so they can learn the content without pissing people off. (No really. There's shit I never even bothered to try, because all the people seeking groups were all 'experienced players only please'. There needs to be a way to LEARN. And don't say 'learning party'. Learning parties need a lot of random people to need to learn the same content at the same time. I almost never see it happen.)
* Socialization should be free-range. That is, let people group for anything they want to group for. Any quest, any dungeon. Just don't require it. And let people auction off their gear, or sell it, and hang out in the town taverns to meet people that actually want to meet people. Let the friends be through, you know, the ways people make friends. (And yeah. Totally allow ANY GEAR to be auctioned or sold. DO NOT FORCE PEOPLE TO GO TO THE GODDAMN DUNGEON FOR THE GEAR. Seriously, people worked this out on MUDs in the 90s. It remains valid. LET MULTIPLE PLAY STYLES BE EFFECTIVE. Some of us need that elite gear just to not freaking die, okay?)
If any MMO gets invented that's like this, let me know. THAT, I might play. (Especially if there's still a way to report assholes.)
* Never, ever, require a group for anything. Especially not anything in the main story. If people WANT to group up? Pair with a friend, or bring in a dozen, great! Each PC replaces one NPC in the party until the dungeon/trial is finished, but - this is a big thing - if you are bringing ONE friend and the trial/dungeon wants FOUR people, then when you start, it's automatically you, your friend, and two NPCs, not two random human beings.
* Sure. Have content with great loot that needs like 10 people to go get, that's at the highest level the game has. But let people go in alone if they want to, too. Have 'trial runs' so they can learn the content without pissing people off. (No really. There's shit I never even bothered to try, because all the people seeking groups were all 'experienced players only please'. There needs to be a way to LEARN. And don't say 'learning party'. Learning parties need a lot of random people to need to learn the same content at the same time. I almost never see it happen.)
* Socialization should be free-range. That is, let people group for anything they want to group for. Any quest, any dungeon. Just don't require it. And let people auction off their gear, or sell it, and hang out in the town taverns to meet people that actually want to meet people. Let the friends be through, you know, the ways people make friends. (And yeah. Totally allow ANY GEAR to be auctioned or sold. DO NOT FORCE PEOPLE TO GO TO THE GODDAMN DUNGEON FOR THE GEAR. Seriously, people worked this out on MUDs in the 90s. It remains valid. LET MULTIPLE PLAY STYLES BE EFFECTIVE. Some of us need that elite gear just to not freaking die, okay?)
If any MMO gets invented that's like this, let me know. THAT, I might play. (Especially if there's still a way to report assholes.)
This FFXIV update is going to be the death of me.
1) TRIPLE TRIAD. With the original FF8 music, all the old rules and some new ones, and thankfully NO region-rule-spreading.
1a) Friends of mine who apparently managed to never play FF8 are now addicted to Triple Triad and you cannot imagine how big my grin is at the "this game is addictive and is also driving me insane!" commentary. It's like FF8 came out all over again but with less bitching.
2) CHOCOBO RACING. Again with the old FF7 Chocobo Race music and oh my god the trouble controlling the damn trainee bird and OH MY GOD THE THINGS YOU CAN GROW AND BUY TO TRAIN THE BIRDS. AND BREED THEM. I am going to need to become a 3T master just to pay for my chocobo habit.
2a) Okay yes they also brought back all the other crap around the Gold Saucer that I never did love as much but at least I can skip right past it and go straight to the chocobos and the card games.
1a) Friends of mine who apparently managed to never play FF8 are now addicted to Triple Triad and you cannot imagine how big my grin is at the "this game is addictive and is also driving me insane!" commentary. It's like FF8 came out all over again but with less bitching.
2) CHOCOBO RACING. Again with the old FF7 Chocobo Race music and oh my god the trouble controlling the damn trainee bird and OH MY GOD THE THINGS YOU CAN GROW AND BUY TO TRAIN THE BIRDS. AND BREED THEM. I am going to need to become a 3T master just to pay for my chocobo habit.
2a) Okay yes they also brought back all the other crap around the Gold Saucer that I never did love as much but at least I can skip right past it and go straight to the chocobos and the card games.
Thoughts: Babylon 5 vs Deep Space 9
The Babylon 5 First-Timer's Watch Log.
The Babylon 5 First-Timer's Watch Log.
The Babylon 5 First-Timer's Watch Log.
The Babylon 5 First-Timer's Watch Log.
A Classic Whovian's advice to New Whovians.
There are people who are unclear on the nature of the Doctor Who fandom. Now, I will grant that there is a difference between Classic Who fans and Nu!Who fans, but the rift as it's perceived to be is rather wider when viewed from Nu!Who's side. (That is, Nu!Who fans seem to think Classic Who fans are an entirely different species, and Classic Who fans mostly tend to think Nu!Who fans are just Young and will Get The Hang Of This Eventually.)
Before we truly begin, I present my Fan Credentials:
I was a fan from childhood, thanks to the PBS station in St. Louis, which would air all the Doctor Who episodes in a given serial (we'll get to this, nu!Whovians) on Sunday night, before going off the air for the night. While the first Doctor I was exposed to was Four, my father's choice of serial was Planet of Evil, which scared me silly, and at the time I didn't realize that was the point. I don't like being scared silly, see. So the first Doctor I actually watched regularly and came to love was in fact Five.
The PBS station in St. Louis, I should note here, was usually at least two years behind what was currently airing in the UK, because it would air one serial every week until it caught up (the UK would air one episode a week) and then go back to the oldest serials it had and start over. So while I started my fandom with Five, my overall favorite is Two, with Seven a close second.
As a teen, I joined the St. Louis Celestial Intervention Agency (and I'm happy to see they're still around to link to) and met up with Fandom for the first time, a few years before the internet would change the entire face of Fandom for good. I worked a bit on helping put together a Tardiscon, hampered by being repeatedly grounded and carless, and watched The Latest Episodes that were smuggled in on copies of VHS tapes, and incidentally learned what 'crossplay' was, which is always a good lesson for a teenager in fandom to learn about early on.
I was hardcore fan enough to both know about the Doctor Who movie with Paul McGann, and be very very worried that Americans had any part in its production. I don't think the movie's terrible, and I suppose I'm glad that the new series has actually given its oddities a place in the continuity, but at the time it was kind of "bwuh?"
And I love the new series. It is Doctor Who; I'm certainly not a fan who'd even try saying it's not. But the fandom! The fandom, in strange ways, is just like the classic fandom but without the self-awareness (mainly because y'all seem so SURE we're a separate species) and so I present to you new-Who fans this guide and tipsheet.
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Before we truly begin, I present my Fan Credentials:
I was a fan from childhood, thanks to the PBS station in St. Louis, which would air all the Doctor Who episodes in a given serial (we'll get to this, nu!Whovians) on Sunday night, before going off the air for the night. While the first Doctor I was exposed to was Four, my father's choice of serial was Planet of Evil, which scared me silly, and at the time I didn't realize that was the point. I don't like being scared silly, see. So the first Doctor I actually watched regularly and came to love was in fact Five.
The PBS station in St. Louis, I should note here, was usually at least two years behind what was currently airing in the UK, because it would air one serial every week until it caught up (the UK would air one episode a week) and then go back to the oldest serials it had and start over. So while I started my fandom with Five, my overall favorite is Two, with Seven a close second.
As a teen, I joined the St. Louis Celestial Intervention Agency (and I'm happy to see they're still around to link to) and met up with Fandom for the first time, a few years before the internet would change the entire face of Fandom for good. I worked a bit on helping put together a Tardiscon, hampered by being repeatedly grounded and carless, and watched The Latest Episodes that were smuggled in on copies of VHS tapes, and incidentally learned what 'crossplay' was, which is always a good lesson for a teenager in fandom to learn about early on.
I was hardcore fan enough to both know about the Doctor Who movie with Paul McGann, and be very very worried that Americans had any part in its production. I don't think the movie's terrible, and I suppose I'm glad that the new series has actually given its oddities a place in the continuity, but at the time it was kind of "bwuh?"
And I love the new series. It is Doctor Who; I'm certainly not a fan who'd even try saying it's not. But the fandom! The fandom, in strange ways, is just like the classic fandom but without the self-awareness (mainly because y'all seem so SURE we're a separate species) and so I present to you new-Who fans this guide and tipsheet.
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