After some thought, I'd like to make a few tweaks to the way I focus my reviews. In some ways these changes take a new angle on the same essential ideas, while in other instances it will lead me to talk about games in more specific ways that I might have in the past. So, let's talk specifics:
Gameplay: Still my first category but no longer one I would consider "most important", Gameplay is where I'd like to discuss the way a player plays the game. This means the control schemes, the duration of play sessions, and how these things effect the "feel" of the experience. I intend to make this category shorter and more specific.
Visual Effects/Art Style: An adaptation of the "Graphics" category, Visual Effects and Art Style will still be about the visual experience of the game, but will include more specific discussions on the aesthetic qualities of particular facets of a game. I will focus on moving away from relative comparisons and into my thoughts on what the visual component adds to the game.
Sound Effects/Music: In my previous posts, I have found a tendency to emphasize the necessity of effective in-game sounds. I hope that bringing greater specificity to this review category will bring new insights into good game design and a better guide to how a game creates atmosphere.
Story and Narrative: To my chagrin, many of the games I pick up lack well-developed stories. This is a serious problem among free-to-play games (which I review most frequently) that typically sets them apart from bigger, triple-A titles, but rather than using this category to grind that axe, I hope to focus more on constructive criticisms pertaining to how a game's narrative could be further developed.
Entertainment Value: An adaptation of the "Value" category which also borrows from what was cut from the old "Gameplay" category, Entertainment Value is where I'll discuss a game's value-for-dollar as well as the impact of the experience. Games cost time, money, and attention in order to provide an entertaining experience.
Previously, in the "Value" category, I had intended to discuss the artistic contribution a game made to the whole industry, but the nature of much of what I am able to review makes this largely unnecessary. I don't mean to say that F2P games don't contribute to the art of video games, but I have seldom found it to be a highly relevant factor to recommending a game. If a game has artistic merit, then I would expect that merit to make a contribution to the way a game entertains the player and it will still be considered in the "Entertainment Value" category.
The next post I have planned is about a game called Shattered Horizons. I will be giving this scheme its first run there, and also plan to include a gameplay video. Look forward to it!
Friday, April 18, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
ESO Launch and First Impressions
The Elder Scrolls Online officially launched on April 4th, but I've been playing since March 31st with 5-day early access. My initial impressions were positive: I saw a great many players roaming Tamriel with their pre-order bonus vanity pets and Imperial Horse mounts. Last minute changes to the starting zones were frustrating to some story-centric players, but as someone who participated in several beta tests I found the opportunity to skip ahead of much of what I had already experienced to be a pleasant surprise. All in all the launch for both the 5-day and the 3-day early access went very smoothly.
With the true launch of the game on April 4th, some new problems came up. While the game itself is far from bug-free, the bigger troubles came from policies and systems external to the game. With the end of the early access periods and the beginning of subscription-based play-time, players were required to use their 30-day pass (included with the game) as a sort of registration key before they were prompted to select a subscription plan. The failure or inability to do either of these things meant being locked out of the game. This frustrated players who wanted to use their 30 days before deciding whether to subscribe for longer, but more egregiously those who had not received their codes were left helpless. In response to this, a grace period for submitting the code was extended through part of Sunday.The problem was that deliveries aren't made on Sundays, so some players were unable to play the game until their codes were delivered on Monday. This is what happened to me and, as someone who paid for the Physical Imperial Edition (the expensive one), it was disappointing to not be treated as a valued customer.
But when I think about judging a game's launch, what is happening in the game is far more important. If I'm delayed a few hours for some server downtime or a day for a delivery to be made, I would still be more frustrated by the game itself not working for me. In that respect, bugs are still popping up in spite of the lengthy beta testing phase and relogging to fix small glitches is disruptive to the experience. If the Elder Scrolls universe was not one which I loved, I would feel more inclined to recommend it to MMO players. As it is now, I would say the game better serves Elder Scrolls fans as the atmosphere is true to the game's predecessors and knowledge of the world-lore adds depth in the world which is otherwise easily skipped over. It might be more effective if ESO served as a bridge for MMO players into the Elder Scrolls universe enabling the Elder Scrolls fandom to grow, but the opposite is true and I see ESO bringing Elder Scrolls fans towards the bewildering landscape that is MMO gaming in this Free-to-Play, Pay-to-Win era.
Speaking as an Elder Scrolls fan, what I want most from ESO is for it to bring on an expansion of the franchise, not just internally through the game's lore, but externally as well as the fandom grows and more people take notice and take an interest in the game.
To that end, I'm already finding amazing things. For example, ShoddyCast, a YouTube channel, has been publishing an Elder Scrolls Lore Series:
And there are a lot more things coming from ESO, like these gamplay walkthroughs from YouTube channel IFreeMZ:
In my opinion, though, one of the best things coming from ESO are these trailers from Bethesda Softworks themselves:
Overall, ESO's launch certainly hasn't been perfect, but they have avoided some of the bigger pitfalls that other games have fallen victim to (like entirely halting digital sales of the game, FFXIV). The game itself is satisfying to Elder Scrolls fans like myself, and as long as we keep talking about it the game's popularity is sure to grow. The game needs to continue to grow as well, in patching up its bugs and glitches and in providing players more and more story to delve into. We are adventurers, after all, and we're going to need a steady supply of mysterious dungeons, caves, and keeps to hold our interest.
With the true launch of the game on April 4th, some new problems came up. While the game itself is far from bug-free, the bigger troubles came from policies and systems external to the game. With the end of the early access periods and the beginning of subscription-based play-time, players were required to use their 30-day pass (included with the game) as a sort of registration key before they were prompted to select a subscription plan. The failure or inability to do either of these things meant being locked out of the game. This frustrated players who wanted to use their 30 days before deciding whether to subscribe for longer, but more egregiously those who had not received their codes were left helpless. In response to this, a grace period for submitting the code was extended through part of Sunday.The problem was that deliveries aren't made on Sundays, so some players were unable to play the game until their codes were delivered on Monday. This is what happened to me and, as someone who paid for the Physical Imperial Edition (the expensive one), it was disappointing to not be treated as a valued customer.
But when I think about judging a game's launch, what is happening in the game is far more important. If I'm delayed a few hours for some server downtime or a day for a delivery to be made, I would still be more frustrated by the game itself not working for me. In that respect, bugs are still popping up in spite of the lengthy beta testing phase and relogging to fix small glitches is disruptive to the experience. If the Elder Scrolls universe was not one which I loved, I would feel more inclined to recommend it to MMO players. As it is now, I would say the game better serves Elder Scrolls fans as the atmosphere is true to the game's predecessors and knowledge of the world-lore adds depth in the world which is otherwise easily skipped over. It might be more effective if ESO served as a bridge for MMO players into the Elder Scrolls universe enabling the Elder Scrolls fandom to grow, but the opposite is true and I see ESO bringing Elder Scrolls fans towards the bewildering landscape that is MMO gaming in this Free-to-Play, Pay-to-Win era.
Speaking as an Elder Scrolls fan, what I want most from ESO is for it to bring on an expansion of the franchise, not just internally through the game's lore, but externally as well as the fandom grows and more people take notice and take an interest in the game.
To that end, I'm already finding amazing things. For example, ShoddyCast, a YouTube channel, has been publishing an Elder Scrolls Lore Series:
And there are a lot more things coming from ESO, like these gamplay walkthroughs from YouTube channel IFreeMZ:
In my opinion, though, one of the best things coming from ESO are these trailers from Bethesda Softworks themselves:
Overall, ESO's launch certainly hasn't been perfect, but they have avoided some of the bigger pitfalls that other games have fallen victim to (like entirely halting digital sales of the game, FFXIV). The game itself is satisfying to Elder Scrolls fans like myself, and as long as we keep talking about it the game's popularity is sure to grow. The game needs to continue to grow as well, in patching up its bugs and glitches and in providing players more and more story to delve into. We are adventurers, after all, and we're going to need a steady supply of mysterious dungeons, caves, and keeps to hold our interest.
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