Shilen's Lineage: Breath of Life to the Grind?

Drained from work, and with a couple of unsorted materials, I resorted to take a walk at the new pages of the latest Lineage 2 expansion

Lineage 2 was/is a grinder's galore (and in my local server: a botfest), I spent two years of my life on it (not all of course, just the night ones :p), despite it's old unreal 2 engine this 10-years-old game has brought an awesome environment, but after 10 years with no major things going on (in my case: two years, damn man it's LONG) the game lags behind all the waves of newer MMOs

But it seems like NCsoft wasn't prepare to put a lid on Lineage 2 yet, on 2010 they announced new expansions which upgrades and revamps almost all aspects of the gameplay called Goddess of Destruction/GOD (let's milk this cash cow once more, we're sure there's still plenty of it!!!: NCSOFT stockholders), one of them is managing the grind for EXP which dreaded almost all would-be-players (at least they said it would be manageable), the gameplay and cinematics (yep they have in-game cinematics now) looked solid enough in their demo, and of course the expansion itself followed the path almost all MMO had walked upon: caters to the casuals :))

One thing that always bugged me is the course that Lineage 2 will take: Will it be PVP or PVE-based, because Lineage 2 initially PVP based at it's heart, you grind to craft armor and weapons to take on opponents on world PVP, you defeat raid bosses to.. again won a siege, you gather 44 of your friend to downed a reall epic bosses for a very phat and kewl loot (which you can sell for real currency and your clan will conquer the gold market on that server and.... okay that's enough information...).

What I'm trying to tell is, as a PVE player: Lineage 2 patches/updates up until the latest (High 5) is making it's easier to new DPS players to blast through the low/mid content (by selling grades armor at shop which in the past can't be obtained normally except thru crafting), and made the high level grinding more humanly possible (by instancing some zones, made some high grade armor/weapon craftable, and brings some solo/group epic quest that rewards tons of XP and SP, but it's usually so frakkin' hard) but at the end there's not a lot of endgame content for casual PVE-ers such a solid 7 or 10 mans dungeons or old contents where you can grind to gain reputation and/or gear, instead with 7 people you're forced to take on Aenkinel again and again just to get your weapon to +16, God, I hate pluses, why not giving us NEW WEAPON INSTEAD???!!! although I'm pretty sure Aenkinel dropped a new dual sword in the latest patch.

Hey NCSOFT, I'm too easy, BUFF ME!!!

Ah yeah, you don't even listen to players.... I'm just an ordinary regular boss here

Back to GOD, as the features said: they're gonna revamp the world but the question is: are they gonna revamp the old contents? or are they gonna made this a quest-based MMORPG rather than a ferocious grindfest? (they added daily quests on High 5 you know), will there EVEN BE A LORE? (okay, I guess I'm asking too much) and in this whole new era of gaming I don't think grinder have a chance whatsoever (unless they're free to play MMOs, and E.V.E, yes E.V.E is OP), Aion is a pretty example on how's a cool looking game turns into laughable grindstock because of the lack of contents. I think it's time for Lineage 2 to redefine their course

 Don't worry guys, it's only 1789 more of this guy to kill, this game is FUN!!!

source: http://jute.dreamhosters.com

But in the end it's always returned to the community, and since my local community is a hell on earth coupling with the unreliable license holder which in return employs unreliable GMs which doesn't give a s&%@ about their own company which in return doesn't give a damn about the game which then caused the server swarmed with ADHD kids. I'm sure I won't go back to GOD except all of my old clannies back together again, well I don't even count that GOD will be released here although I must say the premise of that is very interesting.

Pictured above: a local GM 

(damn, that suit cost a fortune you know)

source: http://jute.dreamhosters.com

Hyperspeedist (Initial)

The good thing about coffee before sleep is that they will always keep me up when typing, although waking up late is never a good thing :))

Well, it seems like The Secret World delayed their beta test to add some spices to their beta event, it's now integrated with Facebook app, still not active yet though but I was looking forward playing an Illuminati Agent :D

The Secret World (TSW) never stuck in my brain before because it's already on maximum hype with Guild Wars 2 and SWTOR, IMO Funcom's games are good, in fact their Anarchy Online was my first online game but since it's like really complex (for me at least) it quickly wears me off. TSW has classless system, urban legends type lore combined with modern secret conspiracies stuff, so yeah it's kinda grow on me especially after they release(d) the Secret War beta event.

Although hype is also easily wears off, after registering and got a message like: "We'll contact you by email when the event started" after a week and no mail in your inbox I can bet a good chunk of the hype will fall, nevertheless TSW looks good on their early stage, I'm especially interested by the Secret Wars beta event, at least will-be players will enjoy tearing each other apart in this Facebook game until the actual game came out :))

Yes, the tentacles are coming, thank you H.P Lovecraft!!

(Bliz) ZARD

No, this isn't an article about some cool game developer :D

You see, I haven't picked up my guitar for like three or four months, Well I haven't got time to browse some new tunes let alone let some sink in my head, but then some unexplained urges (no, I'm not exaggerating) lead me to browse some more Zard song,

Who? Zard was a Japanese... one man... sorry, I mean one woman band: vocalist, songwriter, and lyricist Izumi Sakai, was? Yes, Sakai passed away some four years ago, Zard golden age was in 90s where their (well at that time there's five more person in there) songs takes away the japanese crowds, Zard also wrote songs for animes (most on Detective Conan/Case Closed and Dragonball GT), they're also famous for being mysterious, only got two LIVE concert yet spawned numerous high-selling records, and yet again: almost zero videoclips (Damn, they made Pearl Jam looks small, sorry Mr. Vedder)

For me Zard was a band that defined J-pop, influenced by the New Wave movement from international music all of Sakai's song has a harmonious feels in it, here's the thing: I never put my finger in why the hell all of her songs always got this old animes feeling in it, let alone always fits with animes. The fast paced songs brings the feelings of power and spirit, the slower ones has smooth and shiny lovey-dovey thing, the beats, the distortion guitar, the synth, even the monotonous bass always had a nostalgic feelings in it, on top of it: Sakai's voice are one-of-a-kind thing that flow together with the instruments, it's more like her voice was the thing that completes the songs, like the songs can't be sung by anyone else but her. I know it's the mixing that do most of the work but when I listened their only real live album the feelings stays the same, Sakai's voice and Zard's music really combined into something I never heard before, and until this moment I DON'T RECALL I never heard something like that been done by other than Zard

Call it nostalgia, call it past New Wave cravings, and yeah maybe a "stuck-in-time-can't-let-got otaku's QQ" might closer to the spot, but I first listened to Zard almost ten years ago and at that time all of their songs already feels coming from another time in a dreamy picture of a town's beach outskirt, Sakai's death probably put an end to Zard's journey and we're doomed never heard anymore of those songs and voices again, but looks like technology saved us a bit since Zard lives once again in form of a double album called Best Request: Beautiful Memories, This is a retouch of all their hits but also contains live versions of some of their songs, played by musician Sakai's had work with (twenty of them) combined with recordings of Sakai's voice

So I picked up my guitar and work over Makenaide's bass tab once again, just like ten years ago, but now I knew that this song will be immortalized in my mind, thank you Miss Izumi Sakai for such a great work of art

Selected Works:
- Makenaide (24 hours-TV official song)
- Too hi no Nostalgia
- Unmei no Roulette Mawashite (OST Detective Conan)
- Don't you see (OST Dragonball GT)
- Iki Mo Dekinai
- My Friend (OST Slam Dunk)

Hyperspeedist (The Galactic Empire)

"A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close combat, or to deflect blaster bolts..."

(from Wikipedia) 

Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) is the next hype on my brain, but it's actually wasn't the first Star Wars-themed MMORPG, in 2003 Sony released Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) which an initial succesful hits, despite being plagued by 'punishment' methods such as permanent death of characters and huge time investment. SWG was scheduled to close on December 15 2011, the rumored release date of SWTOR, thus the hype thickens

The hype probably caused by the fact that SWTOR is being developed by Bioware, the original maker of Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (KOTOR), an RPG which is a huge success in late 2003, at that time Bioware is already succeeded with their other RPGs such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, Bioware's RPG always had huge worlds, great story (which is also huge and engaging), a festival of visual eye-candy and memorable characters. When I first played Baldur's Gate I was baffled and addicted by the huge amount of quest, In Neverwinter Night I was impressed by the abundance of storyline, Bioware developed RPG storyline like old school Krondor into the next level, too bad my experience with Bioware ended with KOTOR 2, after that Bioware just keep on rolling with their award-winning RPGs like Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

Of course it's another matter to develop an MMORPG, one of the challenge is probably to make the "role-playing" more... intriguing and enjoyable, for example: Guild Wars 2 proclaimed they will break the "Holy Trinity" of MMORPG by not making a dedicated healer/tank/dps class, SWTOR didn't make comment about role gameplay but their character sheets revealed that they do have specialized class but with hybrids as base, the Operations and group play also shed some light with some asassin class tanking lasers, also trooper with medic skills.  Of course some skeptic said SWTOR will become just another WOW in space and soon will be joined by other WOW clones in the outer rim of MMORPG, some fans of the original Star Wars series also expressed concern that the gamifying of Star Wars Universe will destroy the 'legendary' status of Star Wars franchise.

Well, concern will always be there, the game wasn't coming out yet anyway, I'm a Star Wars fans myself although I got sucked into Star Wars universe not by watching the original trilogy (which is great) but by playing LucasArts "static-First Person Shooter" game: Rebel Assault

I finished it like 5 times a day

At that time the simulator genre are dominating the market and LucasArts have their share with X-Wing and TIE fighter, The cute thing is: it's not their game who got me in, it's their story, you see... old school games comes up with manuals which also contains a spin-off short story beside the story of the game itself, some games also take it to the limits by publishing artbooks and fictional schematic or character sheets... well on those day programming limitations are not the reason not to create a vast and story-driven world, the music from John Williams also made a plus.

 A great composer,

when all my friends credited Metallica, I credited John Williams at my psych test

Nevertheless my journey of Star Wars game geek begin, I pocketed almost every Lucasarts Star-Wars themed games,  collected the Jedi Knight series dreamed of Lightsabers, KOTOR came out, immersed at the story, tried my hand on Star Wars Battlefront and Republic Commando, up until one day I hit the wall and can't play the latest of the craziest Lightsaber FPS: The Force Unleashed (1 and 2) thanks to my incapabilities to buy a new gaming spec... or indecisiveness

Okay, let's end this with a cool trailer from The Old Republic, damn that Trooper looked badass

The Returns: Part two

It's been 5 months since my last writing, Fact: being an azerothian is addicting, but I somewhat enjoy my progress, never felt that it's a drag. It takes like 3 months for me to get to max level and realize that it's just a fraction of what can you do in this game, so as a PVE person I began gearing for heroics, doing dailies, and maxing professions, as a RDF user IMO Cata dungeon are challenging at first but it's getting easier as you progress and geared up. I pretty much complete all heroics dungeon and always crave for more, not very much though since I only can play for like 4 hours a day before sleepiness attacks

Speaking high level heroics I also experienced another type of interaction, I already told you that I'm a casual player with limited playtime (except on weekends) and takes anything in game lightly or moderately, well the fact is other people doesn't do as well as I do :))

Some bosses on heroic required mechanics that I called 'dancing' (since I'm a melee DPS) it requires me to constantly moving in and out some areal buff or deadly attacks from the bosses, failed to avoid, complete, and/or reach these mechanics 99% resulting in instant death and often brings the group to a wipe, The difficulty and needs of inter-role communications on the last two hard-mode 5-man dungeons are somewhat point-breaking for some people, the PUG groups are bound to have some difficulties when stressed out players begin to lash out on other player due to wipe or other people inabilities on some bosses mechanics (whether they're deliberate or innocently honestly don't know about the mechanic), take a look at Jindo the Godbreaker's fight where you must kill some continuously spawning ghosts while avoid meteor-like deadly attacks from the boss, not only that, you must use some bigger ghost attacks to actually damage the boss (and you in the process) so there are various way to get killed in this fight, thus nicknamed him Jindo the PUGbreaker

Tank and Healer got it the hardest since they are the main players often looked as leaders on PUGs (especially tanks) the sheer numbers of adds can be overwhelming for a tank, the spreading mechanic of some bosses and the little awareness of some players can lead to a frustrated healer, not to mention when a DPS busy surviving and resulting of a drop of DPS, it often leads to a 'shouting' match and blaming each other, I've seen a fair number of dropped groups which left me alone in the dungeon only to reque, got another wipe (due some mistakes), another rinse and repeat name-calling and shouting, group dropping and I was left alone again,

I'm not bragging about how I survived all those shaming and name-calling, I personally never dragged myself into a drama by insulting or pointig out other player even if it's the truth, IRL I'm one of those short tempered person, well not quite easy to anger though (except where it's work-related which goes down to life-related), it was kinda sad really that a regular hello on start can results in a bunch of F and S words, Some people blame the mechanic of Random Dungeon Finder where you grouped with someone from another server and little chance that you'll ever see them again thus Gabe's Dickwad's theory, some people said the it was some 'elitists' who ruined the game by expecting the 'casuals' to do as they told and some 'elitists' blame 'casuals' from being lazy and refused to learn some bosses mechanics

At first I researched these things and found a big unbridgeable gaps between the 'elitists' and 'casuals' but as I progressed into the content myself I realized something: All these issues, rages, debates was born from the inabilities to take everything in your own limits. For example: some high level heroic dungeons have half to an hour to clear, some people like to take it slow when other tend to gogogogo through, the first step is to understand the quality of the groups, probably by taking out the first trash mobs or conversating at the start of the run, I always said a quick hello at the start, trying to make gesture as a happy casual player, if anyone replies it's a good sign, when no reply it's usually the sign of a really long and bad run, tank like to run through without looking at healers mana? DPS occasionally steal aggro? bad mouthing healers/tank who good at their job? It all goes down to one single question, can you adapt? Can you stretch your patience? Was it worth it? Is it beyond your limits? If it is simply says sorry and drop group and not another word (reque if you still feel fresh for run, never if you burned out), if you're the confident type you can try to walk on their pace without losing your heads even they occasionally points and shaming you, and hope that everyone will kick you or they'll drop group and you're ended up with someone better :D

Nevertheless I RE-learned something that I learned a long time ago, some people attitude can be frustrating but it's a choice whether to debate about it or go on without it, an ironic thing since I occasionally lost it in real life.

The Returns: part one

Two weeks after my (almost unplanned) return to World of Warcraft, and I still spent my times blogwalking and writing on official forums, I guess I am a Community Troll after all :))

First thing when I arrived in a now-shattered Azeroth is logging on my Orc Warlock (which I rolled on trial almost one and a half year ago, capped at lvl 20) and running around trying to get a new feel of everything.... new :D. Orgrimmar is a fortress now and Garrosh stood on the center it (still same attitude). My demonology-most-of-it talent got reset and now since demonology tree got Felguard instantly I choose it, tadaaa now I'm level 60... NOT, still 20

And LEVELING IS EASIER!!! I remember a year ago when I was questing on barrens and ganked by a couple of running centaurs, now they seemed to develop bigger ego and stay away from each other, and like all egoist: They die easily. The mechanic of Demonology warlock seems nerfed because the damage come mostly from my Felguard, but since choosing the talents now instantly give you all the active and passive talents --previously placed on the third tree's tier-- it's now an improvement, not to mention I can use like five debuffs on mobs (previously four) and.... NO SHOULD SHARDS!!! YAAYYYYY!!! (God, by farming them I almost lost my youth on Dethpod....). Oh yeah anyway Barren's now split into two because Deathwing wakes up on the bad side of the bed and realized his consort is now a Raid Boss :))

On the old barrens there's only like four travel points, now the Northern Barren itself has four, Ashenvale now has four (previously two) so travelling won't be as dull as the Barren age now (and with all the Barren's chat and Chuck Norris...) There are also some quest that give you free ride into new area so no more walking, it also enhance the lore parts somewhat. Although now class-based-quests are no more, I kinda like it when I was questing to get my Voidwalker, and also when I have to steal something as a rogue.... it has stories so I hope Blizz will bring it back in the future. BRING IT BACK OR DIE!!! IT'S PAYING CUSTOMER HERE SIR!!! =)) =))

The music... ahhh... I love Ashenvale's music, is Yasunori Mitsuda part of the score team now? Since I swear I heard some of his celtic signature on some new sounds of Ashenvale, no? Some other guy then :p. Not only that, Darkshore has some great orchestral score too, Barrens is still sound a bit the same but who cares about Barrens right? :D I was looking forward for more, whoops I still level 32, Man I love cooking.... *spaced out*

Speaking of professions.... They're still... dull as ever :)) But I like leveling them up and daily profession quests makes everything a lil' bit easier (just a little...). Tabards are now can be equipped to gain reputation on dungeons (well at least now the Dungeon is something to look at for) so no more wool-silk-mageweave quests for factions anymore (BIG YAY since I hate those quests...) and Quartermasters now sell 12 slotted bags for Revered players (another BIG YAY).

PVP are... pretty much the same, Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, well honor points are always easy to come by, no new mechanics, twinks still existed and still OP as usual :p I really want to see battle of Gilneas but now I'm not hungry for blood as much as when I play rogue (NOT ROUGE!! ROGUE!!)

They revamped some dungeons, Shadowfang Keep got new owner, Edwin Vancleef succeeded by his daughter... (GOD I LMAO'D HARD!!!) And in there are new bossses that'll kill you if you don't move around, they said Cata and Heroic Dungeons are freaking crazy hard as well, let's see it in a couple of months, path of DPS-ers is always the easiest when leveling up, but not when raiding.

I like to see what's in store for me for a couple of months forward, I'm a casual player with an epic laziness and deep love for typing (and observing), my next post is about the official global community, players attitude, difficulties, big gap between elitists and casuals and more (I withheld everything in this two weeks :D)

PS: Also congratulations for Everbloom for reaching Level 85 on a Peaceful Druid Path (means without killing anything)

Glitch

1st April Jokes, GOT YOU!!!!
:)) :))