- I should know better than to post on the same subject as Green Armadillo. Nonetheless, I can't help but weigh in on the recent press deluge about the Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft. Or at least one bit specifically.
- MMO-Champion, as always, has a good round-up of the particulars. Many of the announcements are Blizzard hyping the instanced content and nailing down more information about rated battlegrounds. And they also informed us the Path of the Titans and Guild Talents had been one-shotted, so they would not appear in the expansion. I mention guild talents for the sake of completism, but I was never that excited about the system. It seemed like a neat idea, but the objections were valid.
- No, the one new thing in the new expansion I was most interested in was the Path of the Titans. (Not that I was terribly excited. More WoW is more WoW. For good or ill.) I know that I'll be leveling a new character. I'll take my mage to the new level cap and maybe see a few dungeons. But I'm not going to raid (unless random raiding really does come true). I don't like to PvP. And daily questing is a horrible grind. So I was looking forward to something that was at least a little else to occupy my time.
- I was a little interested to see how Blizzard would handle alternate advancement. Like anything you tack onto an MMO, it has the possibility to unbalance the game. I have more than once heard complains from podcasters how you can level to the cap in EQ2, but be terribly behind in AAs, therefore useless in endgame content. That's not something I want to see in WoW, but I'm sure Blizzard could have figured out how to hit the right balance.
- But more than that, Path of the Titans would have been an additional goal for those of us who don't buy into the raid endgame. Maybe that too much to ask for from an MMO. Or at least too much to ask from from WoW. But it's unfortunate to see that glimmer of hope dashed so quickly.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- I like to think of myself as a writer. It's my standard answer to my "What do you want to do when you grow up?" Of course, I should just admit that I am grown up and that if I want to be a writer, I really should try to write. That's part of the reason why I maintain this blog, especially my Unexplored Worlds and Microfiction posts.
- That's also why I occasionally dive into a larger project like writing a gamebook. I was initially inspired to try actually finishing one after finding out about the Windhammer Prize. A one-hundred section book sounds reasonable to me. If anything, I'm more worried about running out of room instead of running out of ideas.
- If you've never written a gamebook yourself, you might find this article by Steve Jackson to be a good starting place. (That's this Steve Jackson, not this Steve Jackson.) Of course, there are a bunch of gamebook creator tools to help you do the same thing. But I still hand-code the HTML in my blog posts, so I'm not going to shirk from hand-numbering and organizing a few sections.
- So far, I've developed the rule system (another iteration on a ruleset I've been tinkering with for years). I have the main plot and individual encounters outlined. Now I'm at the stage where I'm building the skeleton of each section within the encounters. They are simple one line descriptions of what has to happen in the second, skill test required, what decisions the player can make, and what sections they lead to. I actually think this is the hardest part because this is where I make the book fun or not. All the writing that comes after is just adding context and making the game more presentable.
- I don't have that much farther to go, though. The last encounter should just about write itself. I'm saving it for last, though, because I need to focus on the hard bits first. Anyway, progress is being made. I will keep you all up to date.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- After leaving us hanging for at least six whole days, ArenaNet has released its next round of previews for Guild Wars 2. This release sees the formal announcement of the Warrior profession (previously mentioned in the Elementalist preview). As well, game designer Ben Miller explains the trait system, something that I wasn't even aware of before. For more info, Ravious has posted his typically insightful thoughts at Kill Ten Rats.
- Like with the elementalist, ArenaNet is preserving the flavor of the warrior with mechanics like building adrenaline and having different play styles for different weapon types. At the same time, shouts (like the current paragon), chain skills, and the soon-to-be-iconic Battle Standard give it a unique feel. Not that I'll be playing a warrior in this game either, but it sounds interesting so far.
- While it was in the warrior preview, we also get a closer look at how tying skills to weapon will work. The ability to swap skills just my changing weapon set sounds really powerful, essentially allowing you to update your skill bar in the middle of the battle. I'll be very interested to see how that plays out with other professions as well.
- Somehow I did not notice any mention of traits prior to this overview article, even though it reference conversations going on in the forums. It sounds like a cool mix of perks, talents, and deeds from other games. And the fact that they can be swapped out anytime outside of combat reinforces that ArenaNet is committed to allowing experimentation and flexibility for characters. Not that I ever doubted, but it's not to have more confirmation.
- If there is one thing that bugs me, it's that we only know about two of the professions so far. I don't want to wait to get them all!
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- As with every Top Five on the blog, this is a list of my five personal favorites. This is not intended to be objective or exhaustive. If I happened to run across it and I liked it, that's how it gets on the list.
- Fabled Lands: The War-Torn Kingdom - Probably the last great gamebooks, the Fabled Lands series eschews the mediums Choose Your Own Adventure guided storyline roots in favor of an open world to explore. The ingenious use of check boxes in the text and codewords act as the variable flag that guide you through the various encounters. Removing the strong narrative does leave you without much motivation. But if you have a healthy curiosity, there are a lot adventures to be had and stories to find. And if you run out of things to do, all you have to walk to the edge of the map and you can move on to the next book. The War-Torn Kingdom is the book I've spent the most time in because it was the first released. But it is well balanced with big quests to follow as well as an interesting land to journey through.
- Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon - The fact that it was the very first gamebook I ever owned may cloud my judgment. However Deathtrap Dungeon is, appropriately, one of the most famous Fighting Fantasy books ever published. Devilishly difficult, with wrong turns aplenty that make it easy to miss something you will need several encounters later. But the atmosphere made this a story that captured my imagination. I never did get all the way through the book, but I enjoyed my many, many deaths just the same.
- Fighting Fantasy: Space Assassin - On the opposite side of the Fighting Fantasy spectrum is this sci-fi. The additional rules make the book a lot easier to get through, which makes Space Assassin one of the few that I successfully completed. Funny enough, the one part that sticks out most in my mind is the impromptu tank simulation that occurs partway through the book. It's a neat little minigame that does something different with the medium.
- Lone Wolf: Fire On The Water - The Lone Wolf series was a serious departure in gamebooks for me. A much great storytelling experience, the series felt more epic than the down-in-the-dirt fantasy of the FF books. While the first book was good introduction to the series, Fire On The Water sees your character (the Lone Wolf) traveling to a neighboring kingdom to procure a magic sword with which you can thwart the invasion of your homeland. It took me a couple of attempts to make it through this book, but the massive battle at the end was well worth the effort.
- Steve Jackson's Sorcery: The Shamutanti Hills - Based on the Fighting Fantasy rules, the Sorcery series was goodbooks for grown-ups. At least that's the impression I got. In actuality, the book was a pretty traditional start to the series. It's also the only one I was able to finish with any sense of accomplishment. I stumbled through the second on accident, I think, and never found more than two of the serpents. Don't even ask about my time in Mampang Fortress. But the mad imagination at work in The Shamutanti Hills drove me to try that book time and again. Someday I'll try the whole series again, but I'll have to find them first.
- All of this thinking about gamebooks has reminded me that I've been meaning to write a gamebook of my own. Maybe I'll even share if I get something done. What do you think?
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
WoW is like the ring in Lord of the Rings, dude. And all the [other] developers are like fucking Gollum.
- Tyler Barber, Rebel FM Episode 64
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
