The Free2Play MMORPG Age of Conan has a new Game Director: the Lead Designer of The Secret World.
The Conan franchise plays a larger role in Funcom’s future plans. At least one new title is set to be released in 2016. However, the MMORPG “Age of Conan” recently experienced a departure: Game Director Matthew Bennet left the project.
The solution presented by Funcom is in-house: Romain Amiel, the Lead Designer of Funcom’s latest MMORPG The Secret World, is taking over the vacant position at Age of Conan. Since there is no information suggesting that Amiel is leaving The Secret World, he is likely doing both jobs simultaneously. The situation is somewhat unclear.
At The Secret World, Amiel became the key figure in March 2015 when the previous Game Director of TSW, Joel Bylos, moved on to another job within the company for the single-player game “The Park“. Since then, the position of “Game Director” at The Secret World has likely been vacant, but Amiel effectively filled it as Lead Designer.
In his letter to the fans of Age of Conan, Amiel now promises no major changes, but reflects a bit nostalgically on his time in the development of Age of Conan. In 2007, when he joined the team, he worked as a game designer for levels 1 to 20 and later contributed significantly to “Rise of the Godslayer”.
Amiel now states that he is getting up to speed. Then he plans to present Funcom’s plans for Age of Conan in 2016.
The “dual job for Amiel” could be seen as a cost-cutting measure. Game Director and Lead Designer are typically high-level positions in an MMORPG, and they command significant salaries. However, there may be promotions or restructuring coming in the future, and this unusual situation might just be a temporary solution.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Destiny, they changed matchmaking in the Crucible, causing more lag. The plans were apparently so secret that not even one of the key PvP designers knew about it.
It is quite difficult to see through the patterns of people and names to understand who is actually responsible for what in Destiny. Luke Smith, who was a lead contributor to The Taken King, has stepped back into the background in recent months.
Derek Carol has been the “PvP guy” in recent months; active on Twitter and rather extroverted, he was one of the talkative designers. Carol’s pet project is the Trials of Osiris, where he tweets every Friday about which map was selected and faces criticism. In such a position, he gets a lot of questions and occasionally answers some.
In December, he apparently said on Twitter: Nothing will change with matchmaking. At that time, they had already internally switched to skill-based matchmaking.
Information Gap Among Bungie’s Designers
Now, in the last Weekly Update, there was an announcement from Lars Bakken, a lead designer: We have changed matchmaking. We have been collecting data for months, have progressively expanded the new skill-based matchmaking, and told you nothing so that you wouldn’t feel influenced by it.
Oh, hey, Destiny Twitter. So, about that thing I said about “nothing changing” wrt matchmaking in December: I was wrong, plain and simple.
Carol then reached out to the fans and said: “Do you remember when I told you we were changing nothing about matchmaking? I was wrong.” In the background, plans had changed, and Carol had no knowledge of it.
Changes were made behind the scenes that I wasn’t aware of at the time. Now you guys have the official word from Lars in the BWU.
Carol adds that while much is kept secret, and they are also closed-lipped, he can rarely tell the WHOLE story (for business reasons), but he doesn’t want to mislead anyone with his statements. He just didn’t know.
Community Manager DeeJ Feels the Fans’ Mockery
The Community Manager DeeJ currently puts up with a lot for revealing so little about the plans. He is actually only there to say, “We are working on it,” as it is said in the heart of the Destiny community on Reddit. The now almost ritualized “Weekly Updates” shine with many words and very little content.
As if the position of a Community Manager wasn’t already hard enough:
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
DeeJ understands the fans; he knows all of this. Still, it sounds a bit desperate in the Reddit forum when he says: Lars Bakken has now promised to help me keep you updated on the Crucible.
Allegedly in possession of Lars Bakken! – Wait, who is Lars Bakken?
This comes a few weeks after the community was fed false patch notes, because the PvP designers had overlooked double-checking the information they provided to the players. And the misinformation went unnoticed for a long time until the players had the changed weapons and realized: Wait, something is wrong here.
In this climate, an article from Kotaku appeared yesterday, which mentions that the “higher powers” at Bungie often decide on changes at short notice, and it takes a while for everyone on the team to be aware of the current state of affairs and the plan. With that part of the article, they are definitely correct.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Armored Warfare, players can now give their tanks camouflage paint thanks to a new patch.
Armored Warfare is on track. Development there is really progressing quickly. There is also a lot to catch up on: After all, the leading tank game World of Tanks has several years of head start, more tanks, more features, and Obsidian wants to hurry up.
The latest patch weighs 573 MB and brings not only balance changes but also a color and camouflage system. This has been sorely missed; although players could stick some stickers and flags on their favorite colossus, there was more to it.
What you need to camouflage and color your tanks in Armored Warfare
The color is unlocked through achievements in the game – achievements that you have already earned also count. However, you need to complete a battle to receive the colors you earned. They can then be chosen for all tanks.
The camouflage works either through gold or the in-game currency credits. It provides a small 3% buff to the camouflage value. Depending on the type of environment, a tank with a camouflage net will automatically select the appropriate camouflage pattern for the map (forest, desert, and snow)
Here in the trailer you can see more details:
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
In Star Wars Battlefront the planned update in January will not bring a map to Tatooine after all. To be precise: No new map will be released.
We reported that a video on EA Brazil’s channel announced a new update for January. According to the video, the Battlefront patch should also include a map on Tatooine. The developers have since denied that. The video from EA Brazil contained some misinformation. Therefore, no new map is coming. Nevertheless, it should be a great patch.
Developers are frustrated about false information from EA Brazil
The developers are frustrated about the blunder. It raises expectations. Then players are disappointed, even though they have worked so hard to make them happy. That’s what the “Lead Lighting Artist” Oscar Carlen told Videogamer.
Carlen also tweeted: The hype is strong for the patch. Better manage your expectations.
January patch hype is strong. Manage your expectations please! #battlefront
There is still no new official information on what will actually be included in the January patch. The Brazil video mentioned private matches, daily challenges, and some other great things.
But an announcement should come soon; there isn’t much January left.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the Free2Play martial arts MMORPG Blade and Soul the rush continues. More new servers are coming.
Many Free2Play titles burst at the seams at launch. But a rush like the one on Blade and Soul is still rare. NCSoft is pleased with this success. A few days ago, they launched with 22 servers. There was an overwhelming response. The 22 servers were quickly filled, they say in a statement on the B&S forum.
Iron reserve increases server count to 32 – NCSoft has already ordered new servers
4 more servers will be going online soon. That was the “iron” reserve. After that, they have nothing left in reserve. But NCSoft has already ordered new hardware. It will take a while before they can deploy that as well.
With the 4 servers coming now, they will be at 32. The two newest EU servers are called Twin Wagons and Spirit’s Reset.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
When Blizzard tinkers with the ship missions of WoW, a little pet gets its big revenge: The abandoned shark floods the inventories.
Shark, Shark, Left Shark
Not too long ago, Blizzard significantly altered the ship missions in World of Warcraft. Previously, players rarely experienced so-called “rare” missions, which could offer a lot of gold, Apex crystals, pets, or heirlooms. However, since the special quests were as rare as an A’lar drop from Kael’thas, they listened to fans’ complaints and increased the spawn rate for rare missions.
The winner of this change is not only the players, but also the abandoned shark, originally known as “Left Shark”, which was a reference to the dance performance during a Katy Perry song. Instead of seeing the little pet about once a month as before, the shark is now virtually always available. Many players complain that it often appears immediately after completing the mission. This would not be particularly dramatic, but it also blocks the valuable spawn spot of another rare mission.
What was once a cool prestige item is now the cheapest pet in the auction houses on almost all servers. The price has been in free fall since the change – where around 50,000 gold were initially paid, there are now only a few silver coins. That’s barely enough to drown one’s frustration in a dwarven stout.
However, those who are into fish have been able to build a whole collection of these gluttonous creatures, like imgur user Aryssal.
One can only hope that the developers will show mercy and send the shark back to its limits (or rather, its swimming pool).
Hardly a week after the release, Blade & Soul is already teasing the new content for 2016. A new teaser trailer helps with that.
Hot Enemies and Cool Mountains
The action MMORPG Blade & Soul has not even been out for a week, yet the creators at NCsoft are pulling out all the stops and flooding fans with fresh material. At least in the form of a new teaser trailer, they show players what more to expect throughout this year.
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
Alongside some sexy adversaries that players wouldn’t really want to beat up, new areas, solo instances, and raids will be added, expanding the already wide variety of endgame content. In particular, the Tower of Mushin will offer exciting challenges for solo players, and the new class “Warlock” should draw hardcore players back into the MMO.
Play will take place on the map Asylum. This is considered a very good 3vs3 map, so there shouldn’t be as many complaints as usual.
The majority of rewards are available through the bounties. On Mercury in Destiny there are special rewards waiting for those players who reach it without defeat on the pass.
Destiny 2, a planned sequel to the MMO shooter Destiny, is allegedly said to have been delayed.
The US site Kotaku released a disclosure report on the origin story of Destiny a few months ago. They cited several anonymous sources that were said to be within the game’s environment. The result was an interesting and quite coherent story, which Bungie remained silent about.
Apparently, there is still close contact with these sources. Because once again there is a supposed revelation, which Kotaku reports exclusively. They again refer to anonymous sources and insiders.
Allegedly, Bungie’s leadership decided to delay the big September expansion known as “Destiny 2” . This decision was only made by the “Higher Ups” last week. It hadn’t even reached all Destiny employees yet.
Surprise!
They allegedly told the live team responsible for events and ongoing operations to focus on content, on DLCs for 2016. The live team is supposed to fill the gap created by the delayed expansion Destiny 2. However, the team is not sufficiently staffed for this.
The spicy part is: Activision has not yet announced Destiny 2 or any equivalent. Officially, nothing is known about it. Fans and journalists expected a Destiny 2 in September, because it emerged from a contract that became public during a legal dispute. It is assumed that a large expansion is hidden behind Destiny 2 in the style of “Taken King.”
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
According to Kotaku’s sources, the development of Destiny is constantly in flux. Therefore, Bungie cannot reveal anything about the future at the moment, as much as fans might want. Time and again, Bungie has discarded plans.
Bungie’s leadership does not want to announce anything, nor give hints about something they are not absolutely sure they can deliver.
The future is simply not yet set, plans change constantly, feedback is being integrated, and they want to give no suggestions.
These two ideas could be implemented
According to further information from Kotaku, there are plans to bring the section “Pyramidion” to Destiny, which is an area on Mars with a new strike and raid.
Allegedly, they removed the activity “Dares of the Nine” from “Taken King”, a type of custom game as known from Halo. Players had to complete certain tasks in dynamic scenarios.
But whether something like this will come as a bridge or something else is unknown. Those are just speculations. Kotaku knows nothing concrete about the future of Destiny and how it will proceed.
Reports about something we will only learn about in summer
Mein MMO thinks: We should take all of this with caution. This is the type of story that currently tells players what they suspect and want to hear. Why doesn’t Bungie tell us anything? It doesn’t make sense; there must be a reason for it. Something is not right here. With Kotaku’s story, they explain what players suspect and feel.
However: A Destiny 2 would have been announced at the earliest at E3. That is still a long way off. It will take place from June 14 to June 16, 2016. Whether there are really problems with Destiny 2 (or with a fall expansion), as reported by Kotaku, we will probably only find out in 5 months, should Bungie really remain silent at the fair or announce something “small”.
The reports now show, in any case, that fans urgently want “concrete statements” about the future of Destiny. Because the Guardians invest many hours into the game and want to finally know how it will continue, if there is still more to come.
Such an article that makes a lot of noise, like the one from Kotaku, might provoke an official statement. In recent months, developers have repeatedly tried to reassure players: Everything is fine. A lot is still coming. They will talk about it soon.
It seems that these reassurances currently aren’t satisfactory for many anymore.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The operator of the Korean version of TERA is bringing new servers – and is working on a “TERA 2”.
Server Transfer and Mobile Game TERA 2
At the end of last year, Nexon secured TERA in Korea and has since been responsible for the further development and maintenance of the game. After the server transfer was initiated in December (with 60% of the transferred characters being Humans), the new Nexon servers are set to launch on January 26.
At the same time, Nexon has also secured the rights for a mobile game that is currently being referred to as “TERA 2”, until new information is available. TERA is considered to be relatively successful in Korea, having had 5 years of development time and won numerous gaming awards. The game has already received several spin-offs in other genres, such as “TERA: Elin Expedition” for Android and iOS systems. Whether the ominous “TERA 2” will also be merely a casual game or will be more extensive is currently not known.
For more information about the game, you can visit our TERA topic page.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The online shooter The Division is launching soon. What are the official system requirements for PC? What does your PC need to run The Division?
For a long time, there have been various made-up system requirements for The Division. You can trust them as far as one of those great emails: “Hello, I have 95 million in the bank, but I’m stuck in a prison in Ghana and need 10,000 euros to pay the lawyer. Please transfer it to my account in the Cayman Islands. It won’t be your loss!”
Now Ubisoft has released the official system requirements for PC in a blog post. They answer the question: Can my PC run The Division?
By the way: According to information from pcgamesn, The Division is also capable of satisfying more demanding players with its graphical capabilities. The Snowdrop Engine supports multi-GPU configurations. It is also possible to display across more than one monitor – although no details are known yet. There is both built-in support for 4k and an unlocked framerate.
But here are the system requirements for The Division (PC):
The minimum configuration to play The Division on PC
Operating System: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 (only 64-bit version)
Processor: Intel Core i5-2400; AMD FX-6100 or better
RAM: 6GB
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 with 2GB VRAM (equivalent to a GTX 760); Radeon HD 7770 with 2GB VRAM or more
DirectX: Version 11
Hard drive space: 40 GB
The recommended configuration to play The Division on PC
Operating System: Windows 7, 8.1, 10.0 (only 64-bit version)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770; AMD FX-8350 or better
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics Card: GTX 970; R9 290 or better
Hard drive space: 40 GB
Direct X 11
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
In a new video blog, Executive Producer Andie Nordgren discusses new features of the MMO EVE Online.
The team is currently working on several new features for the space MMO EVE Online, including the Citadel expansion. This is set to be released this spring and will allow you to build and expand space stations, the Citadels. These are gigantic constructs that you need to build together in a team. Additionally, an interesting feature is coming to the game: the control of fighter squads. You will be able to send them into battles and choose formations, for example.
Trade with your skill points
Another major topic is skill trading. This feature will allow you to remove gained skill points that you do not need from the skills and then sell them. The buyer can then simply use them and improve as a result.
This provides another way to improve in the game, especially for players who have a lot of money available but less time to earn skill points themselves. The skill trading feature is expected to be introduced in February with an update.
A new launcher is already available, which makes it easier for you to access the game’s test server. Here, you can try out new features before they go live. In the options of EVE Online, you will now also find new camera options. These are designed to provide additional perspectives on the action.
EVE Online looks positively to the future
If you want to learn more about the upcoming features of the space MMO EVE Online, you can watch the video where Executive Producer Andie Nordgren presents them. Fans of the online game can look forward to plenty of interesting innovations that will be introduced with the upcoming updates and the major addon Citadel.
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
Finally, the time has come: Riot has announced which mages in LoL will be revamped next.
As we reported in the past, developer RiotGames wants to revise the mages in the game League of Legends . Until today, it was not clear which mages would be involved. We only knew that it would be champions who are not particularly mobile. Back then, you had good ideas in the comments under our article about which heroes needed a revision.
These 6 mages are on the list in LoL
Malzahar, Vel’Koz, Brand, Vladimir, Cassiopeia, and Zyra are on the list of mages in LoL that will be worked on next. Similar to the major changes to marksmen , 6 mages are to be changed. Whether it will ultimately be these 6 champions is not 100% certain, as they are waiting for feedback from the community on which champions deserve a change and which do not. The developers chose these 6 champions because they believe they can make some solid changes to these LoL heroes.
In the comments in the official League of Legends forum, several players asked why Swain is not on this list. This question is valid, as Swain could indeed use a bit of “love” from the developers to bring him back up to date in the game. The developers responded more positively than expected. Swain is not on the list because he will not just be getting a “bit” updated, but rather a rework, similar to Sion or Poppy.
3 points that developers focus on in the update
Uniqueness – a specific reason to choose this champion in the game
Context – The champion must still fit into their story and fantasy gameplay
“Healthy” – It should be fun to play with or against him. Additionally, he should be “balanced”.
In addition to these 6 champions, they also want to make general “smaller” changes to other mages. These changes are comparable to the fine-tuning of Twitch and Lucian that they received during the marksman update.
When the update will come is still not exactly determined. However, the thread in the official League of Legends forum is titled “Mid-Year Mage Update” – so we are roughly aiming for summer.
What do you think, which LoL champions are missing from the list? Or is Riot doing everything right and has chosen the right mages?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Flying in Blade & Soul? As a hacker, no problem! Cheaters are currently dominating the arenas of the new MMORPG.
Flying through the air with the teleport hack
With the release of a “new” MMORPG, numerous problems usually arise. While Blade & Soul had a pretty solid launch, aside from the overcrowded servers, more and more hackers are being spotted, especially in the arena, cheating to gain a significant advantage. As players are meant to walk upon the earth, hackers simply fly through the air and destroy their enemies from there.
As if that weren’t annoying enough, some hackers can teleport all over the place. You can tell that people don’t take themselves too seriously when they name their characters things like “Exploit”, as some streamers on Twitch have lamented.
Since it takes some time to investigate and confirm hacks, it will likely be a few days before NCsoft issues the first ban waves. Until then, players have no choice but to take it with humor – but flying girls with big eyes do have something quite fantastic, don’t they?
On Reddit, players blame the anti-cheat software Gameguard – it is outdated, easily bypassed, and practically invites others to ruin the fun for players. In the past, Korea imports like ArcheAge had problems with hackers here. In Korea, players must provide their “ID” when starting an MMO. If hackers get caught, they face a lifetime ban. Here in Europe, a ban in a game comes with fewer consequences.
It has only been a few days since Season 5 of Blizzard’s Diablo 3 started and already players are battling for the best ranks.
During the three-month season, there are players who are excited to create a new character and play it to Level 70. After that, they grind a few Paragon levels and are thrilled when they can increase the difficulty level thanks to new equipment. That may be enough for many and provide plenty of fun. On the other hand, there are also players, about whom our Schuhmann already wrote, who are infected with a sort of virus and desperately want to compete in large Nephalem Rifts with other players.
Top 100 is the goal
Greater Rifts are pretty much the end-game in Diablo 3. The faster you complete these rifts by killing all monsters and a rift boss, the better. For average players, these rifts are achievable at Level 20 and maybe even Level 30. For Greater Rifts starting at Level 50, you need very good equipment. And if you can also play particularly well, you can make it onto the top rankings of the respective Diablo 3 season. Currently, there are almost only Crusaders, Sorcerers, and Barbarians up there because the sets of these classes seem to be the best suited to master these rifts the fastest.
As an example of such a run with a Crusader at Level 84 (currently Rank 1!), here is the player Alkaizer:
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
If you show this “gameplay” to someone you want to convince of Diablo 3, that person will probably turn around and leave because it really doesn’t look particularly exciting. The fun comes for these players when they can find themselves on the top lists afterwards.
The funniest build in Diablo 3
However, if you want to have real fun and want to make enemies explode at lightning speed disguised as an Angry Chicken, I can only recommend this build to you. The “Angry Chicken” Witch Doctor is not only incredibly fun to play but also clears Nephalem Rifts in a good time. If you’ve always wanted to throw other animals at enemies or just want to find joy in the game again, you should definitely try it out.
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
It will be a while before the beta of Overwatch returns. However, the developers promise a fresh game mode!
More Modes, More Maps, More Progress
Since the beta of Overwatch was paused last December, there have only been rumors about when it will return to the colorful shooter world. Now Blizzard has written an article explaining when the beta will return – and unfortunately, it is as late as feared.
The beta will return in mid-February, and even this date is not fixed. However, it is planned that they will not slip into March – at least February remains firmly scheduled.
“Instead of squeezing the beta into this month, we will take a few extra weeks.”
This step is justified with the feedback from fans, which has been taken to heart. The community is craving new game modes, and at least one will be presented in the next build, along with new maps. What mode it will be remains unclear, so there is ample room for speculation.
In the player discussion, modes like “King of the Hill” as well as a regular Team Deathmatch are being considered. A “Capture the Flag” mode is deemed rather unlikely, as certain abilities, such as Symmetra’s teleporter or Tracer’s jumps, would be too powerful.
“This also allows us to tweak and polish the progress and reward system a bit more. (…) Although these features are technically still ‘In Progress’, we want to maintain a certain quality standard before we release them for testing.”
The survival MMO Ark Survival Evolved will soon receive the promised split-screen mode on Xbox One.
Just before the console release in December the developers of Ark promised fans that a split-screen mode would also be supported. This is the popular “couch coop,” allowing players to play together on one console. In an era of “always on” and “please stay in your own living room,” it has become a rare but still desired feature that is part of many console players’ traditions.
Since the initial announcement, not much has been heard about the split-screen. Now, Studio Wildcard revealed in the patch notes that the mode will be coming soon. In the next patch, version 7.310 for Xbox One, “split-screen multiplayer will be available for both online and local play.”
Little more has been said about the next patch for consoles yet, and no release date is known.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
A kind of World of Warships with a historical setting, where sailing ships fight against each other would be quite an interesting thing. The MMO Naval Action offers this and can already be played in an Early Access version.
Naval Action offers you not only naval battles, which you can fight together with your friends. The game is set on a huge open map that you can explore freely. Your task is to build a thriving economic empire. To do this, you can join one of the nations or found an independent guild. Therefore, you will not only be sailing battleships but also trading ships. Various types of ships are available to you, which you can further improve and upgrade individually, for example with cannons.
Realistic sailing
Of course, there are also battles at sea. The developers place special emphasis on making these as realistic as possible. You need to pay attention to the ammunition, which has different effects and can, for example, only destroy sails or the hulls of ships. Ballistics and other physical properties play a significant role. You must always pay attention to where the wind is coming from, as it affects the trajectories of the cannonballs.
Physically correct
Physics also plays a role in the controls. You need to consider the wind while sailing, the current, and the weight of your cargo. It is not easy to steer a sailing ship. Visually, Naval Action makes a very good impression. If you are interested in this type of game and are looking for a complex and deep MMO set in the age of sailing ships, then you can download the Early Access version now via Steam. It costs 36.99 euros but does not yet offer all features. New content is to be regularly added, and the developers place great importance on player feedback.
Recommended editorial content
At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
I consent to external content being displayed to me. Personal data can be transmitted to third party platforms.
Read more about our privacy policy.
Recent MMOs like The Division or Black Desert have announced in the past few weeks: There is no player trading with us. What do you think about that?
Once again, we have successfully completed a week and are starting the three most beautiful days. What better way to pass the time than with a few hours of relaxing farming, to then craft some weapons, armor, or bags for your beloved character?
But if you’ve already done that, should you be able to trade the goods? Or should trading in MMOs even be a necessity to obtain certain resources?
The Functions of Trade
Trading systems can fulfill many functions:
First and foremost, they allow players who are favored by luck or particularly diligent to sell their surplus items. So it’s an indirect reward.
At the same time, such a system can also serve for regulation, because those who cannot gather all items themselves will take longer to obtain the coveted armor pieces.
Lastly, there is the social component: Trade always requires a minimum of communication between players – in some games, even trust.
Trade can bring a lot – the auction house is a simplified form of it.
On the other hand, forced trading can also put players under stress. Not everyone wants to make their personal progress dependent on other players, and those who once fell into the clutches of a player who has established a monopoly on certain resources know the frustration.
Most trading systems have restrictions anyway, to eliminate possible downsides: Strong items can rarely be directly traded. They are better found by oneself, otherwise the motivation would quickly disappear. Usually, only consumables or crafting items can be exchanged.
What do you think of a trading system? Is it a requirement in every MMO, or could you imagine a (virtual) world without such trade?
Cortyn says: For me, trading is an essential part of MMORPGs. Buying and selling resources in an auction house in Star Wars: The Old Republic is just as much part of the game as directly negotiating with an enchanter in World of Warcraft to make the weapon glow in the trading window (does anyone besides me still know that this is possible?).
Only the possibility of trading gives me a real sense of “togetherness”. Because if I cannot help my fellow players, it feels more like playing a single-player game where everyone is just playing along. Only trade gives me the opportunity to engage with the character development of other players. Additionally, there is the opportunity to give gifts – with no other gesture can the virtual ice break as quickly as with a small token of appreciation.
But enough about me – what kind of trading system do you like in your MMOs? Is it an indispensable feature, or would you prefer to achieve everything independently? Let us know in the comments!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Paladins, they want to limit customization options. It’s said to be too difficult to learn all the possible builds.
Less Choice, More Characters
The hero shooter Paladins, by HiRez, the creators of SMITE, took a brief pause last month. After a multitude of updates with balancing and significant design changes, the game was on a good path to find its niche in the upcoming series of action-oriented games. Especially the card system is an interesting unique feature, as it allows for numerous combinations and different styles of play.
More new heroes are expected – for less differences between the same character.
However, this very diversity is what they now want to tackle. Feedback has shown that it is very hard to adjust to an opponent, and too much choice leads to confusion rather than a truly enjoyable gaming experience. One reason for this is the changing desires of the players, which have also evolved through Overwatch. In an interview with “Rock, Paper, Shotgun,” it is stated:
“We tried to have fewer [characters], but more cards. That was good until people started playing more MOBAs or Overwatch, where there is a larger selection of characters. Since then, people have come back and said: ‘No, we want more characters, not just more variation options.'”
How exactly this goal will be concretely achieved is still not quite clear. A drastic reduction in the number of maps could be a possibility.
Mein-MMO says:Although the considerations seem plausible, it would be a shame for the game if they cut down on diversity. However, HiRez has shown in the past that they are not afraid of drastic steps and making massive changes that seem to completely overturn the game at first glance. In case of doubt, they might just revert such a massive change – it remains to be seen how the game evolves. Our first impression was overwhelmingly positive.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
