“The cloud” is not a new addition to our everyday lives, it has been used for quite some time in the areas of file-sharing and movie streaming. Services like Dropbox, Netflix and Pandora all utilize cloud-computing principles that allow you to access their resources via your own personal account anywhere in the world.

In recent years the gaming industry has started to use cloud-computing as well. Steam, for example, uses cloud-computing to store game settings and saves so that you can load them on any computer you log-on to Steam with. Even games like World of Warcraft have some minor cloud-computing principles in use; World of Warcraft stores player-created macros locally so that you can access them anywhere.

But what’s more interesting, and what this article is about, is the advent of playing video games via the cloud. Services like OnLive and Gaikai allow users to access and play games on their own computers using the hardware power of other computers and, just recently, I found out NVIDIA is offering the same. But is it all candy canes and lollipops, or are there some problems with cloud-computing in relation to gaming?

My opinion on the matter is simple: The weaknesses outweigh the strength.

The primary strength of cloud-computing is that you can access files anywhere. For gaming, you are essentially using the power of another PC to play your games that then streams what’s happening to your monitor. On-demand streaming works great for movies and music, in which you can simply “rewind” what you miss, but the downfalls of cloud-computing are multiplied when used for gaming.

If the hosts servers go down then you lose access.

The biggest pitfall with “the cloud” has always been reliability. Reliability has many variables, ranging from the hosts software and hardware to your own, but whilst you can control your own network to a degree it’s virtually impossible to control how the host runs their network.

In short: If the hosts servers go down then you lose access. You can no longer play anything.

A prime example of this is when MegaUpload was seized by the US government. The reasons for it are irrelevant, the issue is that regardless of how you used the service you can no longer access any files put on it, illegal or otherwise. The same happens if Dropbox or MediaFire goes down, and if Netflix goes down then you’re effectively paying for a service you can’t use.

What you gain in FPS you potentially lose in latency.

In regards to gaming, other issues arise such as server location. Whilst server hosts will generally provide different servers in global hotspots around the world, it’s not guaranteed that any of these will ever be a suitable match for where you live.

Because of this, what you gain in fps you potentially lose in latency. 60 FPS is great but if you’re getting 300+ ping on a first-person shooter then you may as well shoot yourself in the foot, because your avatar certainly will.

The problems become multiplied when you realise that your entire experience is in the hands of somebody else, regardless of whether the game is multiplayer or singleplayer.

The bottom line is that for online games like Call of Duty or World of Warcraft then the downsides aren’t as big an issue – you already have latency to worry about anyway – but for anything else you’re better off upgrading your own computer and buying the games yourself.

I’ve been a gamer for 19 of my 22 year life. I’ve played games from numerous genres ranging from the old school platformers to the wondrous action-adventure titles to the more recent role-playing and first-person shooter games. I’ve played a range of consoles but my roots are dug deep into the wide world of PC gaming.

I want more.

Specifically, I want more of the medieval fantasy I’ve come to love in book series such as The Black Company, The Witcher and Lord of the Rings. When merged with gaming we get titles like Baldur’s Gate, PlaneScape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls series.

I’ve played so many “sword and sorcery” type games but the craving for me is completely overwhelming. As cliche, tired and repetitive as the genre has become, I have never lost the deep and rich love I have for the genre. From time to time I get bored with one of them to go shooting in Borderlands or even a Saints Row title but I always come back, craving for the swords and magic I so love to wield.

The problem? I still want more.

After playing so many RPGs though, it’s hard to tell what I actually want. Sometimes it’s the gameplay, other times it’s the storyline, but there’s no reason a game can’t incorporate both of these to an extremely satisfying effect. So after long discussions with myself, I decided what I wanted was something around the lines of the following:

I want a game with Diablo 3′s skill system.

Diablo 3 isn’t the greatest game I’ve played in the past 10 years, but I enjoyed the way Blizzard handled it’s skill system none-the-less. It’s not perfect, but I believe Blizzard at least made a decent attempt at promoting more build diversity by switching to the skill/rune system.

I’m also a very big fan of the simplified action bar and whilst many think of it as “too simple”, I think it’s perfect for what the game is. It’s simple, sleek and stops players screens from being overwhelmed by ability buttons is was the case in many MMOs like World of Warcraft. Whilst it may be too simple for some of the more hardcore players out there, I like it exactly because the rune system still promotes clever build strategy whilst also being sleek (we can argue how well Blizzard achieved that diversity but they did at least try).

I want a talent tree like in pre-Cataclysm World of Warcraft and numerous other traditional RPGs.

This might sound odd considering what I stated above about simplicity but the talent tree has been apart of most role-playing games since the dawn of the genre and being an somewhat old school role-playing fan I still enjoy the way it works, albeit it could be changed to work with the above.

I enjoy Diablo 3′s rune system and even the idea of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria’s talent system, both of which try to simplify and free the talent system by getting rid of bloated or “filler” talents that do nothing but increase damage done, reduce damage taken or boost a specific stat by a flat percentage. The thing is, I actually love these “filler” talents when done in small amounts.

Being able to pick from a pool of new abilities and skills every 10-15 levels in Diablo 3 or Mists of Pandaria is, in my opinion, a very cool thing to do, but the thing I loved about talent trees is they made up for those levels where you didn’t get any new skills or abilities. The “filler” talents were filler because they literally filled up the gaps. There doesn’t have to many of them (one given every one or two levels) but each time I got one I felt like I was progressing just a little bit further.

I want a game with combat like Skyrim.

I’m being general here, as combat in Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls games in general can be quite tedious, but overall I feel that Skyrim’s combat system is much more visceral and dynamic than the standard “Press 1, 2, 3, then 1 again to win.” style of games most common in MMOs and RPGs like Dragon Age.

What I like about the game’s combat in particular is it’s camera mode (first-person mainly, though third-person would work so long as it’s similar to how most MMOs work) and the ability to run or engage in combat at any time, in real-time. Real-time is fantastic. Even if abilities on an action-bar has a cooldown or what-have-you, being able to attack in real-time with left or right mouse-button attacks just feels more exciting, which is partially why I enjoy Action RPGs so much (I understand this can hurt peoples hands – which is why holding the button down for continuous attacks could be an option).

Being able to actually dodge and evade attacks by skill rather than some obscure “Dodge” stat would be nice as well, which is something Skyrim doesn’t have by default that would’ve been awesome to go along with it’s Block system.

…among other things.

To re-cap, I want the following:

• A diversified skills system that has few active abilities but the option to change these with a good amount of variety.
• “Filler” talents to go with them, to give the impression that players are progressing just that little bit more.
• A more visceral combat system that rewards players for utilizing the environment and actual combat skills, rather than simply relying on a stat to dodge or land a hit.

But among other things, these have to go with what we already have in role-playing games today: Good storylines, captivating dialogue, memorable characters, clean, smooth and user-friendly interfaces and all the other hub-bub some may take for granted.

Alongside these I enjoy multiplayer capability, especially co-op modes, that don’t impose on a players ability to also do an activity solo when they want to. Raids, dungeons and bosses in general are fun and you should be rewarded for being able to find a group and kill a difficult boss in that group, but being able to experience the dungeon or whatever without a group would be nice to. MMOs can be great fun but also punishing if you’re not in a guild or a group, and I think making what seems like an online game also accessible to solo-minded players is a boon, not a downside.

* * * *

I understand many of these aspects already exist in games, I also understand I’m incredibly picky, but that’s what you get when your library is filled with games from the same genre.

I love role-playing games and I love most of the new ones that get released. I still enjoy them today just as I did yesterday, but what I would like is a fresh new take on the genre without disrupting what old fans like me have come to know and love.

I want more, but it’s hard to pin down exactly what I want. Do I really want an amalgamation of games I’ve enjoyed, or would I prefer something I’ve never seen before?

It’s something worth thinking about.

I talk not just because I love the sound of my own voice but also because I love to talk about the things I love. I read comments and post on forums because not only do I love sharing my own opinion, I also enjoy reading the opinions of others, despite how ignorant some people can be.

Some call my outbursts of anger and frustration as “rage”. I call it passion. In truth, it’s a mixture of the two, but don’t mistake my passion and rage for hatred, because it’s anything but that.

I’m far from the only one who expresses their feelings and opinions in such passionate ways, but there’s a time and place for everything.

The biggest problem with being passionate is expressing that passion in a manner that isn’t foreboding and intimidating. I’m a very loud and obnoxious person and because of this my passion comes off as hostile rage when it’s not supposed to be. I’m angry, but not at the people I’m talking with. What I hope to achieve in this article is to inform people on why I get so upset and why I can look so angry about something people see as “trivial” (video games).

I’ve shared thoughts, opinions and outbursts of rage over pretty much any game I’ve ever played. From the original Pokemon Red and Blue series to my favourite game, Deus Ex, to more recent titles such as Mass Effect 3 or Diablo 3.

My frustrations on the games can range from very minor to very extreme but my arguments aren’t just meant to vent pent up anger, they’re also meant to be raw expression on why I believe something is bad. I’m a logical person and can usually logically deduce a bad decision from a good decision, but sometimes I come across bad decisions that are so blatantly obvious it makes me wonder if they were designed on purpose, because the only other option would be accusing the creators of being ignorant, and that’s not something I agree with.

I hate and rage on games not because I hate them but because I love them. I hate the iteration system used in most of Blizzard’s titles because it feels lazy and never actually works. I hate it because it makes class balance feel like a roller-coaster ride that has no end, because it doesn’t. You can iterate and iterate to the dawn of time, and the rollercoaster ride will continue to chug on.

I spat words of hot lava at Mass Effect 3′s piss-poor ending and at the idea that BioWare, one of my favourite game developers, could even write such tripe not because I hate BioWare or Mass Effect 3, but because I loved the series as a whole. Dragon Age 2 was in the same boat; I enjoyed most of DA2 but it was lacking in some areas that made the first game great, and so I told the world what I thought.

I get angry because I want these games to be the awesome games they could be. Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 were fantastic games. Sure, ME2 had some issues but overall it was fun. ME3 was fun too, incredibly fun and probably still worth the $80-100 USD I spent on it (NZ gets pretty jibbed on games) but the ending was so abysmally horrible. It took everything good about Mass Effect and destroyed it in front of the fans eyes, and that’s why we got angry. We wanted to love it, but we couldn’t.

From my perspective I’m not getting upset for no reason, nor am I getting upset over trivial things. I pay upwards of $80-100 USD in New Zealand for video games and so I demand good bang for my buck. Movie and book lovers expect the same quality for their money; it’s no different in the gaming industry. I’ve also spent a good 18 years of my life playing video games and plan to spend decades more.

Gaming is not merely a hobby for me, it’s a lifestyle, and I choose to live it because I enjoy it. Because I want to enjoy it. Because I want to have fun when playing a video game, be immersed in the storyline or captivated by the complexity but awesomeness of the gameplay. Live people who watch a movie, I want to be awed and amazed by the fancy effects, shiny graphics and big explosions I see on screen. I love all of these things about gaming but I also get frustrated at a lot of things, too. I rage and moan and write blog posts in the hope that someone will see it, agree, and try and change the way things are.

I’m passionate and I get angry because I love gaming, not because I hate it.

Makes you sick just thinking about it, doesn’t it?

Romance appears in quite a number of role-playing games, most notably BioWare’s, who have even gotten in a bit of shit by some raging bigots who can’t stand the idea of same-sex romance options in a video game let alone real life. But let’s not get into that old debate.

Let’s get down to business; I have a love-hate relationship with romance options in video games. Here’s why.

For those unaware, love is a feeling of deep affection that someone shares for someone or something. Romantic love is the expression of love and in the context of this article romance implies the expression of strong emotional desires towards another person, in this case, your characters feelings towards one of the numerous non-playable characters in a video game.

Since BioWare’s got some recent games which all have romance options I’m just going to use that one for my primary example, but I shall also dabble into other games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and perhaps even The Witcher series.

The Love

I don’t actually love romance options in video games. In truth, I actually dislike them in their current format and I’ll explain why later but I enjoy the concept of romance options as yet another way to build depth and character into what may be a stagnant game.

In some games romance is an event that the story is deliberately driven to. The story is written in such a way that your character is “fated” to meet and engage in a romantic relationship with another character. This kind of romance has no real problems in my eyes, as the romance is deliberately used as a plot point. Naturally it can be portrayed badly but it’s all deliberate in the end. The player doesn’t get to choose who or why he has a romance, as the story is driven to it by force of the writer.

In other games, most notably BioWare’s titles, relationships are an option by which the character can engage or disengage at will, usually over the course of the game. You select a partner you wish to woo and you start wooing. Over the course of the game your character is ideally supposed to convince their chosen partner that they are, indeed, a lovable kind of guy (or gal). It’s a pretty straight-forward procedure and in the case of BioWare the climax is an achievement and one of those evil sex scenes you hear about on FOX News.

The purpose, or at least it’s concept, is to provide a bit more character to the story and the plot, and to add more “realism”, especially in games with war-torn environments where you may never see your loved ones again.

The idea of adding more depth to a game is wonderful. Pity it doesn’t actually happen.

The Hate

As stated above, in BioWare’s games, you pick and choose a character you want to go out with and start trying to convince them to your way of thinking. You do this by choosing relevant dialogue options whilst talking to your chosen partner, more slowly unlocking as you progress through the game’s main storyline. By the end of the game you’ll reach the “epic climax” where you get your free achievement and hanky panky.

So why do I hate them? Why do they suck? Because they add no depth what-so-ever, which I always thought was their entire purpose. In all the games I’ve seen romance options they’ve either been about getting free stat bonuses for successfully romancing a character, getting a free maid to cook and clean my player-owned house or seeing some actually raunchy sex scenes (in an R18 game so no, not Mass Effect).

In BioWare’s games their purpose ultimately boils down to, as stated, a free achievement and me watching my character get touchy-feely with another character. The original Witcher title tries to do better by adding separate paths depending on who you romance (only two options) and it actually does add a bit of character depth but since you can basically have sex with every hooker in that game as many times as you want and get some weird collectible card for doing so, what’s the blazin’ point? In the second Witcher title you still only get two options but the sex scenes are far more raunchier (the first playthrough was an awkward experience, lemme tell you) and cheating on your original lover means absolute nothing.

Skyrim though… oh good lord, Skyrim. Skyrim has this really gimmicky “marriage” system where you wear an amulet which signifies how desperate you are and when someone else who’s as desperate as you notices the amulet, you guys go to a temple and get hitched, then your lover moves into your house and proceeds to be your kitchen bitch for the rest of eternity. That’s it. That’s really it. There’s no purpose to it, there’s no rhyme or reason, you just wear an amulet and get married! Just like real life!

Another seemingly minor issue is also the method in which you break-up, or disengage relationships. You can leave a relationship in a BioWare game pretty much at any time by simply saying you’re no longer interested in that person. You won’t be able to go out with them again and they might ignore you forever but you’ll be free to start a relationship up with any other character and screw their brains out, too! You damn player, you! It’s almost like playing Pokemon, only with the hearts of woman (or men, if you’re a BioWare fan): “Gotta sex ‘em all, Mass Erect!” (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist).

This is why I hate the romance system in games. For all the work and effort you put into trying to woo someone over, it all boils down to jack all. In older games characters could actually get a stat boost or some tangible reward which made romancing a viable tactic for powergamers but it’s always been a really tacky and shallow system.

Developers need to give romance options meaning and depth. They need to have a better reason than “We’re all about to die. Let’s have sex.” because otherwise they’re a big waste of time.

I don’t honestly care for the cheap cinematic at the end, nor do I care for an achievement that nobody else cares about. What I want from a romance is the ability to unlock more lore and information on the character I’m romancing. I want a system which rewards me with more in-depth knowledge of both my character and my characters partner. I want the romance to actually develop both characters and if I cheat on them or leave them then it needs to have real repercussions. It doesn’t have to be so-far as them being really shitty in combat (because they’ve gotten all depressed) but it needs to be far more than “Oh… okay then. I’ll sit here and watch as you screw that other guy then.”

I like the depth romance options could provide, but I feel no game has ever delivered.

“Cage Rage” (or “Nic Cage Film Rage” in the finished product) was a website interface designed for a film festival.

The concept was to choose three movies that all corresponded with each other in some way (actors, genre, directors, etc), create a brand for them and then use that brand to make a website.

You can see the design and read a brief explanation after the break or check it out in full-size over at deviantART: Web Design: Cage Rage.

The concept was to choose three movies that all corresponded with each other in some way (actors, genre, directors, etc), create a brand for them and then use that brand to make a website.

I chose three Nicolas Cage movies which I knew of and where he goes absolutely mental. If you haven’t already, this was the video for my inspiration (besides the fact I happen to like Nicolas Cage).

If you have a deviantART account and feel the strong urge to comment, like, fave or just look at it on dA for some reason then simply click on the picture below and you’ll be sent to the page over on deviantART!

It also just occurred to me that I haven’t uploaded my little character designed I alluded to in my Splosions Logo Design a few months back. I’ll try and remedy that shortly!

Enough blabbering, let’s see the damn design already! So ‘ere it is:

* Excuse the little disclaimer at the top but it’s necessary so I don’t get people asking if I had “permission” to use these graphics or people portrayed in the design/finished product. To answer that right now: No, I didn’t have “permission” but the design is non-commercial and for educational purposes only. I did design and code the website (so it’s fully functional) but is not for public viewing and I make absolutely no money off of it what-so-ever.

To cut a long story short for anyone still curious about WowHumor (though I don’t know anyone who would be): It’s doors closed sometime near the start of last year (if I recall correctly, and my memory is pretty shot so I probably don’t) due to an issue that occurred when I updated WordPress. The template I used as a base for WowHumor was never designed for the latest version of WordPress and so I’d have to have gone back and updated everything relating to it. I didn’t feel doing so was necessary due to my living conditions at the time (no reliable internet access) and so I just left it to die a slow and painful death.

However! For some reason or another I’ve decided I might revive the old project, dust off the old plans and see what I can make of it with a new facelift and what-have-you. I’m also considering doing similar for a few other games and we’ll see how those pan out (if they “pan out” at all).

I won’t instil some false sense of hope into anyone, however. Whether I spark new life into an old project mostly relies upon whether I get the free time to actually do it.

My thoughts are focused around removing quests as a necessary function to level, not merely as “something to do”.

The “Korean Method”

The large majority of Korean MMOs – or at least the numerous ones I’ve tried – play much like Action RPGs in slow motion. Most of them don’t have an indepth or meaningful quest system, in fact, many simply don’t have one at all. The primary method of levelling in these games is to kill the same enemy over and over until you can kill higher levelled enemies, over and over.

They play in a similar vein to Action RPGs such as Diablo or Titan Quest, as the primary means of levelling (and indeed the main point of gameplay) is to simply kill hordes of enemies for hours until you reach satisfaction (otherwise known as “the level cap”). Using this logic one might come to the conclusion that Korean MMOs must implement some pretty awesome combat systems but unfortunately, most of the games I’ve tried, whilst looking pretty snazzy, are incredibly tedious and very, very slow. Think of them like Action RPGs in slow motion. Where Diablo has you speeding along slaughtering demons, a Korean MMO will have you slaughtering the same pigs all day long until you die from boredom.

This is what we call “farming”, and Korean MMOs have this in abundance. The games are still successful despite this, simply because they’re not designed for the average Western market, like myself.

The “Western Method”

In an average Western MMO like World of Warcraft or Rift, the primary source of experience for levelling comes from quests. You talk to an NPC, he assigns you a quest, you go and do the quest, then you turn-in the quest for a boat-load of experience, some money and maybe some gear upgrades.

The vast majority of these quests tend to be “Kill X amount of This” or “Kill X amount of That”, and if not kill quests they’ll be “Collect X amount of An Otherwise Useless Item” which usually requires you to kill more goblins for their toenails or something (which they conveniently never have any of).

So what’s the difference between this method and the above, “Korean Method”? Fundamentally, nothing. All you’ve done is traded one grind (killing monsters) for another (doing quests) and the one you traded for has you killing monsters anyway.

So why do it? Because quests give a false sense of accomplishment, and many gamers cling to this (even I do). The quests feel more efficient and you also feel you get more out of them. In many ways they are more efficient: You get bonus experience for completing the quest, money, and even a possible item upgrade, which is a ton more reliable than what you’d get farming a bunch of bandits for several hours (most of the loot from that would probably be a bunch of vendor trash, perhaps some cloth, and coins less than the pocket change you get from your parents).

Incoming Action RPG!

Most Action RPGs actually have quests: Diablo, Titan Quest, Torchlight, even The Elder Scrolls games (which could still be considered Action RPGs) have quests of some sort, but they’re not necessary nor do they necessarily benefit you as largely as a quest does in a Western MMO.

In Titan Quest you have your “main quests” which are all storyline-related and pretty much impossible to avoid (not that you’d want to) and then it has side-quests which have some nice little bonuses (most experience and gold) but aren’t necessary. If you miss one then going back to get it is usually less efficient then simply carrying on and slaughtering more foes, this is much unlike an MMO where it’s usually beneficial to do all quests, regardless of whether you have to go back (more-so if they give you upgrades).

In games like The Elder Scrolls, doing quests isn’t actually a big deal most of the time, in regards to levelling. Most are actually quest-chains with rewards not truly appreciated or apparent until the very end anyway (which could end up being super-long, like back in Morrowind). They’re usually unrelated to levelling because most of your levelling will be done through actual combat and use of actual skills. You don’t get a pre-arranged set of experience and level up, you have to train in actual combat.

In some cases it’s because of this that these quests can feel so epic. A large amount of quests in Morrowind, for example, felt truly epic not because you were going to get a crapton of experience at the end but because they were designed that way. Compare this to World of Warcraft where some of it’s quests are epic (like punching Deathwing in the face) but the majority of it’s 5,000+ quests are utterly time-consuming grindfests.

The “Guild Wars Method”

Guild Wars 2 is proposing the idea of “Dynamic Events” in place of levelling. Guild Wars 2 is forsaking the old adage of talking to an NPC and getting a quest, instead opting for epic scenarios that all players can be involved in all the time.

Dynamic Events are designed to happen quite frequently and can last anywhere from a few hours to months at a time, depending on the “care factor” of players at the time. Dynamic Events can be simple “one-off” events or complex “chain events” that have 20+ different scenarios within the one main event.

Dynamic Events aren’t supposed to be so black and white, from what I’ve read. In one event you could band a group of adventurers together and raid the oncoming army, slaughtering their commander and saving the day, but what if you fail or simply ignore the looming threat? What happens is the enemy will come in, shove up a big stick up the ass of your allies encampments, take over and then proceed to rape the hell out of the rest of the area by building structures, enemies, weaponry and all those sharp goodies that they want to stick inside you.

Completing one of these events is akin to completing a quest: You get rewarded! Rewards come in two flavours primarily: Experience and “Karma” (I’m not too sure on what the “Karma” system is at the moment). Much like the Rift systems in Rift, how much you are rewarded is based on how much effort you actually put forth, so no slacking off for those wannabe-levellers!

This kind of system sounds fantastic but I fear some people can’t see the forest for the trees. They see this as the “end to questing” when in reality, it’s actually a glorified quest system. Bare with me a moment because you unjustly insult me!

Quests Without Questing

At the end of the day, the idea of “Dynamic Events” in Guild Wars 2 are a glorified quest system. You gain the convenience of never having to see a random NPC you’ve never heard of to get and turn-in a quest and they feel so much more epic than your standard “Kill X” quests, but what are they really?

What they are is yet another trade. You’ve gone from trading monster farming with bonus rewards (aka: questing) to killing monsters in “dynamic” ways. In all three of the described “Methods” you are still going to be killing monsters, meaning this will may feel rather “grindy” to some people eventually. In a quest system the rewards are usually meant to make up for this, and in the Dynamic Events system that same concept still exists, but anyone who calls this an “end to questing” is simply misguided.

As stated, the standard quest system revolves around you killing various amounts of enemies for some small experience and money rewards. What does the Dynamic Events system have you do? It has you killing some monsters and maybe an elite/rare commander for similar rewards. The first few times this will feel epic but if they’re all the same then it will certainly get tiring quickly.

Is this method better than the current quest solution? In my opinion, yes, as I still feel that these sorts of battles will feel infinitely more epic all of the time than killing a few measly mobs ever does on World of Warcraft. Even if that’s all I’ve been doing on Guild Wars 2 it’ll still feel epic. Not only this but my “feeling of accomplishment” will come in a sense of actual worth. I will feel as if I’ve actually made a difference in the games world. A big giant army threatened the land, and I helped beat it back. That’s a lot better than killing 10-20 of the army and saying “Yup, I did a damn good job!” I do understand that in the context of the game, “20″ is meant to be similar to “hundreds” but that’s certainly not how it feels.

Removing Quests Altogether?

The idea was interesting to me, but it’ll never truly happen without resorting back to the old grindfest of Korean MMOs, which many Western MMO players simply don’t like.

Quests are not a bad thing, though, but they shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all to a game. Things like daily quests are tedious, not fun, whereas the average MMO has shown it can make some pretty awesome quests. Even The Elder Scrolls series has some epic questlines but is ultimately bombarded by a bunch of useless crap (especially Skyrim).

Quests should feel epic and should reward you not just with experience, money or items but with a good challenge and the sense of achievement and “epicness” that you feel upon completion.

Installing the WARZONES mod and single-handedly stopping hundreds of Rebel soldiers feels so much more epic than any of the quests given to me in Skyrim. Likewise, completing the Thieves’ Guild quest chain in Oblivion is one of the hardest but most satisfying chains that game has to offer, even if the reward doesn’t necessarily stack up (the chain is the reward if you ask me, though).

A good role-playing game should have quests, but it shouldn’t rely on them. We don’t have to remove them, we just have to stop relying on them.

“Cage Rage” (or “Nic Cage Film Rage” in the finished product) was a logo designed to go with a film festival website interface.

The concept was to choose three movies that all corresponded with each other in some way (actors, genre, directors, etc), create a brand for them and then use that brand to make a website.

I chose three Nicolas Cage movies which I knew of and where he goes absolutely mental. If you haven’t already, this was the video for my inspiration (besides the fact I happen to like Nicolas Cage).

If you have a deviantART account and feel the strong urge to comment, like, fave or just look at it on dA for some reason then simply click on the picture above and you’ll be sent to the page over on deviantART!

You can also check out the design process here.

I plan on making another one with a different name that my tutor suggested. I didn’t have time to change during the development (week deadline). Original name was just “Cage Rage” but I found it too hard to associate it with a film festival, so I changed it.

Hardcore modes pop up here and there but are usually included in action RPGs such as Torchlight and Diablo. They play exactly like their normal mode counterparts with the catch that you have but one life, and if you lose it by screwing up then you must restart your character from the beginning.

Same games let you continue playing in the normal mode after your characters been killed, some don’t, but the idea of hardcore modes is the all the same: It’s an adrenaline-packed thrill-ride and many gamers, myself include, thrive on this style of play. But there’s a certain mentality surrounding the modes that new players should be aware of, so here’s my take on it.

The first thing you should do when you start Hardcore is forget about simple concepts like “winning”. “Winning” a game tends to involve reaching the end of the storyline or the maximum level and calling it a day, but Hardcore modes aren’t so cut and dry. Hardcore mode is less about winning as it is about general progression. It’s about figuring out the best way to play your character in what is, in most cases, the worst-case scenario. You don’t prepare for worst-case scenarios in Hardcore modes: You’re already playing them.

The Contra Comparison

I have a fairly basic mentality when it comes to playing Hardcore modes: Treat it like Contra. I use Contra as my example because it’s not only a prime example of the difficulty some games reached but also because it’s a well-known title amongst leagues of other games that were just as hard as Contra was.

The difficulty of platform games back in the 80s and 90s is nigh legendary for anyone remotely familiar with them. Most arcade games had a simple premise but were incredibly unforgiving. There’s a few reasons why this was which I won’t go into detail here, suffice to say that the difficulty was most likely deliberately designed that way.

Contra is one game where you couldn’t just zerg through it; It was never really expected of you to “beat” the game, not immediately at least. The best part about Contra wasn’t beating the game, it was making progress. It was beating that one boss to get to the next level, even if you ended up dying (and you did) 30 seconds later. Lots of people never made it past the first level but those who did felt immense achievement, even in the face of knowing there were so many more levels to go.

Excitement through risk.

Sometimes I take a look at this generations breed of gamers and I just laugh at the amount of people complaining that a part of a game is “too hard”. It makes me think back to the old platform games I’ve seen and played and I think, “If only you knew”. But I don’t judge these people badly, because I realise that today is much different to how it was back then. It’s a different generation altogether.

25 years later…

…and out pops Diablo 3.

Hardcore mode RPGs are a lot easier in some ways than the old arcade games, and a lot harder in some parts.

It’s easier to take it easy and progress at a slower pace on Diablo 3 than on Contra. Contra is fast-paced, to-the-point action. You die quick and you die hard. In Diablo 3 you have lots of methods to get you out of sticky situations just in the nick of time whereas in games like Contra you not only needed to be quick on your feet but also have a good memory for when you would inevitably die.

Hardcore D3 is harder in some areas, though. Most notably the randomness of dungeons factors into the difficulty of the game. Whilst some argue the true value of this so-called “randomness”, in a hardcore-style mode it’s beyond amazing. It adds a sense of unpredictability to a game which already has that.

Old-style arcade games are largely flat in their level design. The levels and monster placement generally don’t differ much, if at all, per run. Dying on the same level in the same place gets easier each time because you eventually memorize how to do it, whereas in a modern RPG you don’t get that luxury. The amount of enemies that spawn, where they spawns and what type spawns is random, not to forget the fact that the dungeon design itself is randomly generated as well.

For those who thrive on Hardcore modes there is truly nothing better than the simple concept of RNG; “Random number generation”, or simply put: The method of making things appear random using algorithms.

Hardcore modes are an honest-to-God trial by fire experience, and Diablo’s has a history of punishing those who grow too cocky.

We do it for the rush!

There are a number of people who question why one would waste the time and effort to level up in a game-mode where dying ends the game for the character, forever. They question why you’d waste possibly hundreds of hours on something just for the “challenge”, citing many alternatives as more “challenging”.

What these people don’t understand is the feeling you get when you’ve just run into the biggest group of mobs in your characters career, they’ve whittled your health down to less than 5% and you’re banging your fingers as hard as you can on your WASD keys trying to frantically get away when you realise… you’ve made it back to town! But what’s this? You haven’t taken a breath in 2 minutes and your heart’s pounding so fast it feels like it’s about to explode.

That’s the adrenaline rush.

It’s the same feeling that an athlete might feel after a days race, having been overtaken and worn down numerous times but at the end they pushed and pushed until they achieved victory. The athlete put all their effort and willpower into overcoming the odds, overcoming their own previous achievements and they won. For many people it’s one of the greatest feelings in the world.

It’s an adrenaline rush, plain and simple, and this is just one reason why some people love hardcore modes in any game, not just Diablo.

Yup, that’s all I got for now.