Guild Wars 2: Lost Shores

Today marks the start of a weekend long event in the vast world of Tyria. This will mark Guild Wars 2's next content expansion and allegedly some game changing events that will culminate on Sunday the 18th.

I've enjoyed Guild Wars 2's extremely well designed world quite thoroughly, it may even be my favorite aspect of the game as a whole. In addition to the slew of events this weekend there will also be a new PvP map introduced, a long needed addition to the stagnating PvP content that pushed me to shy away from the game to begin with.

So, what can we expect this weekend? My current expectations are quite lofty considering ArenaNet put on some absolutely fantastic events while I was playing GW2 such as a map-wide Zombie PvP match and a survivor-type attrition event. Both of these were incredibly well done so I have high expectations for the events this weekend. My main question right now is one of direction. I want to see how ANet defines itself with this weekend's events. They will largely determine, for me, what kind of game GW2 will become.

From the sound of the advertisements I'm expecting some colossal boss encounter on Sunday that changes the world of Tyria in a significant way(s). If GW2 wants to preserve their initial intent to have a constantly evolving, dynamic world then this kind of content is exactly what I've been waiting for and completely justifies my return to the game this weekend.

This is GW2's chance to pull some of its more reluctant audience back into the fold and keep them interested. I'm very excited to see where things go!

If you're interested in participating in the Lost Shores event then please drop a comment so we can see about sending out some invites perhaps.

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You're Doing it Wrong: SWTOR's F2P Model

With the MMO market rapidly shifting to a free to play philosophy there are games that do it right and games that...well make you want to kick yourself for even thinking it was a good idea to play it. Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of those games that I has generated a high level of self-kicking.

When you embrace a free to play model you have to go all or nothing. If you want to turn your game into an exclusive pile of garbage then you do what EA and Bioware did and divide both the content and the players themselves. SWTOR's free to play model essentially breaks down to allowing players to do the bare bones content and not much more. You are restricted with experience, loot, PvP, and high grade equipment. To make this even more silly players are able to purchase items from a cash shop that lift some of these restrictions...for ten dollars a week. The game is a 14 dollar a month subscription. If that isn't the most counter intuitive business plan then I don't know what is.

The strategy here breaks down to making the free to play players feel so ostracized from the rest of the community that they are almost forced to subscribe. The only content allowed for free players is the basic story content and almost no end game material. Heck, you can't even use half of the stuff you'll acquire along the story.

For comparison you could look at AION's "Truly Free" model that restricts ZERO content and the cash shop exists simply to supplement the game-play experience rather than choke money out of an already dwindling player-base like SWTOR's.

Personally, I resubscribed to SWTOR earlier this week to get the dust off and play with some friends who were going to try the free model. Needless to say, our hopes were dashed quite quickly as we realized they couldn't even run PvP content or benefit from instances.

I find it hard to believe that the companies running MMOs like SWTOR would look around at the rampant success other companies are having with their F2P policies (NC West's Q3 earnings went up 426% when they switched AION and Lineage 2 to F2P) and just disregard them and still fail horribly. 

I tried to love SWTOR, I did. I played to 50 at launch, did the whole SWTOR thing for a few months and then dropped it. EA has just delivered a series of upsetting failures resulting in an equally shoddy free model for a game they expected to be a hit without even bothering to look at the numerous ways they could have made it better.

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Fest's Character Corner: Supporting/Peripheral Characters

Few games use only one character, there is almost always a fairly high amount of supporting characters both in support and opposition of the protagonist. These characters often add a degree of depth and intrigue to a story as they involve themselves in both the main story as well as numerous sub-plots.

There are a few games that jump to mind, both new and old, that boast a solid supporting cast. The most obvious ones being games like Mass Effect. Looking at ME over the years it's obvious that it was meant to be looked at as more than just the story of Commander Shepard, it's the story of the group of diverse individuals banding together to overcome insurmountable odds. The potency of Mass Effect would be highly diminished without its core supporting characters that added such character to the Mass Effect universe.

In Mass Effect's case the player is able to easily identify ways in which the supporting characters change the story but also how the story, and your choices, affect the characters around Shepard. The consequences of your actions are felt within your comrades as some of them suffer due to various choices you make throughout the game even sometimes resulting in death.

We would have had a much less colorful experience had it been a solo performance by Shepard. The Mass Effect supporting cast gave the franchise that distinct sense of camaraderie that has aided in ME's appeal.

Another game franchise that did this well was the Fire Emblem series, simply because the main characters almost took a backseat sometimes in favor of the wide variety of characters you could use to assemble your forces. One commonality with the Mass Effect franchise is the presence of consequence; Fire Emblem did this extremely well with the finality of all death that occurs. There is no second chance for a character that falls in combat they either retire for the remainder of the game if they are story relevant or actually die.

That sense of consequence really helps create a very real feel to many of these characters. The thought that you could potentially lose them if you aren't careful pushes players to go through the game with a conscious sense of cause and effect.

The supporting characters in a story are often what make them so memorable and dynamic. Humans are made for contact and interaction and that is reflected in the stories we tell, games being no exception.

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Dishonored Full Review

When a player hears the word "freedom" tossed around lightheartedly describing a game it may give them reason to pause. How much freedom can we expect in a video game?

Games themselves are simply a set of rules and scenarios presented to a player in the hope that they will take and apply those rules in the intended ways. Dishonored, however, sought to break the mold of its predecessors and allow the player a high degree of freedom to move through the game in a way they see fit.
So what is Dishonored? If you were to categorize it then you'd label it a stealth action title. But it's more than that, Dishonored took the standard stealth game formula and ran with it, giving birth to an incredibly intricate mission based stealth sandbox.

The gameplay is a fluid mix of physical weaponry and supernatural abilities, a combo reminiscent of Bioshock’s combat systems. Players can upgrade their physical arsenal in significant ways using currency and can augment their supernatural abilities by finding hidden items called Runes. This customization can be pursued to the player’s liking; allowing Corvo, the protagonist, to become anything from a walking supernatural armory to a shadowy assassin armed with nothing more than a blade. The choice is entirely the player’s and Dishonored doesn’t demand that any of these abilities be used to complete the game.

The plot the other hand, draws from many tried and true themes and plot points with heavy emphasis on betrayal and consequence. Much of Dishonored’s themes, however, are communicated through a visual medium, as you take control of the silent protagonist, Corvo, and guide him through the ruined remains of the once great city of Dunwall, now reduced to a shell of its former self by a brutal plague akin to the Black Death.

Corvo’s story is, in part, left up to the player. It can be a story of vengeance and death, as Corvo becomes part of the chaos he seeks to destroy to exact his revenge on those who took both family and dignity from him. Or it can be a story of retribution and redemption as there are non-lethal ways to complete every mission.

No matter what choices you make you will end up in the same geographical locations but they will be vastly different in content depending on how the player has shaped the story. This is measured throughout the game by determining the level of “chaos” the player has caused in completing Corvo’s assignments. Should the player choose a more chaotic path, it will be reflected in both the mission content and the environment itself as the city reels in the wake of Corvo’s vengeance.


Dishonored is arguably one of the most prominent stealth action titles to hit the market in recent years and promises a solid, albeit short experience. It is a must have for any fans of the stealth genre and has fully earned my approval

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Fest's Character Corner: Pets!

Pets are great. My house is a complete zoo containing three cats, two massive huskies and an albino ferret. Pets add texture to my life in the same ways that they do in games. Pets in video games often take a variety of roles depicted as anything from a companion character that serves little purpose, to an actual playable character.

Generally speaking, I love dogs. Most people do. Often shown as a dedicated ally to their owner it's hard to think about life without them once you've had one. As far as dogs go in the virtual world I have to say that one jumps into mind before all others; Blanca a character from the Shadow Hearts franchise and the main character Yuri's ever faithful companion.

Blanca was always a character I added to the character lineups I'd use for battles not because he was the "best" choice but because I liked the dynamic between Blanca and Yuri. Blanca is always viewed as a highly intelligent guardian who decides to go with Yuri after his original master was killed by the people Yuri was pursuing.

Since I am such a dog person I loved Shadow Hearts even more when there was a canine companion to add into the mix but I digress. As far as pets in games go they serve to create an emotional bond between the player and the game. Pets are good for facilitating that emotional stimulation and connection as it is a widely shared experience, most people have loved a pet at some point in their lives and that makes it easy to love a pet in a virtual setting as well.

                                                                    Gotta love the dogs!

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What CAN Make it in Today's Market?

As an avid gamer throughout the years I have watched the industry ebb and flow in some pretty significant ways but none quite as extreme as the changes we're seeing these days. For me, there has always been an expectation of quality coming at a price; games that were worth my time often demanded a significant portion of my money. This both encouraged me to spend my time in-game to make sure I was getting my money's worth and it also kept companies accountable to their subscribers.

This standard has gone through a complete shift in the past few years as more online games embrace a free to play model of business. So what does this mean for the players? What about future MMO's? Will online games hold themselves to the standards that they did in the past or become bland in the absence of motivation?

It's important to keep in mind that with the hundreds, even thousands of online games available for people to play that it's going to become even harder for a new MMO to achieve any sort of success as most players already have their online home away from home established. There is a significant level of brand loyalty that comes along with the games people play. You find players investing their time and often money into building a better experience for themselves within the game world they inhabit. Even with the free to play model becoming more common players spend money in virtual cash shops for special items, which generates the bulk of the revenue an online game produces but I digress.

What can actually make it these days? In the days to come we will see Star Wars: The Old Republic transition to a free to play model and, quoting my good friend Kemp, "If Star Wars can't do it WHAT can?". Good food for thought, arguably the most popular, well known license can't even maintain a pay to play status then how could anything else, especially new concepts, hope to find success?

Personally, I hope this forces developers to realize that it's time to take things to the next level with online gaming. We have such great tools at our disposal that now, more than ever, we need to innovate and rethink what online games are. Just some food for thought.

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