End of Dragons First Beta Event

Greetings, Traveler!

I tried to come up with a clever title, but failed. So, for the past five days, players of Guild Wars 2 were given the opportunity to test out three of the new elite specializations that will be released with the End of Dragons expansion in February. Scooter and I got in on the action. And though I don't think anything was broken–exactly–I definitely have preferences for one over the other two, and Scooter, even more strongly. The beta test is over for now, so all I have of these characters are the screenshots I took.

In Grand Style

Greetings, Traveler,

Hannah from Dragons and Whimsy facetiously questioned my "movie palace" line in yesterday's post. But the more I thought about it, the more apt the term is for this little nearby cineplex. I doubt if any of my readers live near me (cool if you do, though). But let me tell you little about the Grand Avenue Theater.

Free Guy

Greetings, Traveler!

So I went to see a movie on Sunday with Scooter. I had seen the trailer for Free Guy and figured we'd have to see it when it comes out on whatever streaming service. But Scooter saw it and said we had to see it in the theater. So we made a date and got tickets at our favorite movie palace. This is one of those places that serves actual food and not just popcorn and hotdogs, so we got there early enough to have our food before the movie would start. I'm not going to go deep into the plot, but I wouldn't count out any spoilers, so bottom line up front: I liked the movie, and would recommend it to anyone likely to be reading this mostly gaming blog. If you don't like spoilers, stop reading now.

Revisiting Bartle

Greetings Traveler!

I told you I would get another post out before the end of the day. I hadn't thought about WildStar too much in the past few years, now I've had two reminders in the same day.

With thanks to Thyanel, I decided to take the Bartle test again for my evening post. And like Thyanel, my score hasn't really changed much over the years. I think the player "types" that Bartle originated can be valuable as guides to design and plan a roleplaying game, particularly an MMO. However, too much emphasis on Bartle types can lead to poor design decisions, WildStar being a case in point. The result of my own test today is shown below.

The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology

You are 73% Explorer

What Bartle says:

♠ Explorers delight in having the game expose its internal machinations to them. They try progressively esoteric actions in wild, out-of-the-way places, looking for interesting features (ie. bugs) and figuring out how things work. Scoring points may be necessary to enter some next phase of exploration, but it's tedious, and anyone with half a brain can do it. Killing is quicker, and might be a constructive exercise in its own right, but it causes too much hassle in the long run if the deceased return to seek retribution. Socialising can be informative as a source of new ideas to try out, but most of what people say is irrelevant or old hat. The real fun comes only from discovery, and making the most complete set of maps in existence.

You are also:

47% Achiever

47% Socialiser

33% Killer

This result may be abbreviated as EASK

Background & Acknowledgements

The Bartle Test is based on the player types identified by the legendary Richard Bartle in his paper, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. It is strongly recommended that you read this paper if you wish to find out more about your player type, and what it all means. Bartle revisits and expands upon these ideas in his book, Designing Virtual Worlds, which is also recommended if you wish to delve a little deeper.

The original Bartle Test was created by Erwin S. Andreasen and Brandon Downey and this implementation is based on the question data which Andreasen has made available at http://www.andreasen.org/bartle/.

As you can see, while I heavily fall in the Explorer group, I also have significant scores in both Achiever and Socializer, and occasionally might dabble in the Killer group. The folks at Carbine mistakenly (in my humble opinion) thought that players would be one or another type, when I suspect we are all more of a blend. I need to read Bartle's original paper to get more nuance, but I think it is worth noting that he was talking about (and possibly promoting) a specific type of game: Multi-User Dungeons.

As Bartle himself wrote:

Are MUDs
games? Like chess, tennis, D&D?
Yes - to achievers.
pastimes? Like reading, gardening, cooking?
Yes - to explorers.
sports? Like huntin', shooting', fishin'?
Yes - to killers.
entertainments? Like nightclubs, TV, concerts?
Yes - to socialisers.

While MMORPGs share many traits with MUDs, they are not the same. And few MMO players have ever played a MUD. As I wrote above, I do believe that Bartle types can be helpful in designing MMOs. However, they are just one of many considerations that should infuse the design of a game.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Updated My MMO History

Greetings Traveler!

I am hoping to post another later this afternoon, but for now I realized I needed to update my gaming history to reflect our recent stint in GW2. 

If you've read any of my posts, you probably realize that I spend a huge amount of my game time partnering up with my lovely bride, known here as Scooter, who is also an avid MMO gamer.

Guild Wars 2 is a ton of fun (the most important thing in a game), easy to jump into and play for a few minutes or a few hours. The game has a good skill/progression system, great graphics, plenty of lore, and just a touch of whimsy—without going overboard. I especially enjoy the seasonal events like Dragon Bash and Lunar New Year. Scooter and I began playing during the Summer of Betas (2012), and after a lengthy break, returned in the summer of 2018. We have been playing pretty solidly since. And, in fact, we recently pre-purchased the upcoming expansion "End of Dragons." I have ten characters, all at or near max level (80). As of August 2021, Scooter and I have played most of the story content at least once through the middle of the (current) Icebrood Saga, although not all in the exact episode order.

I played World of Warcraft from June of 2006, when a friend got me hooked, until October of 2011. I have three level-80+ characters, plus many more lower-level ones. I tried the Pandaren starting area in the "Mists of Pandaria" expansion (in October, 2012), but got a "been there, done that" feeling from the experience. With the release of the Warcraft movie in June, 2016, I again became interested in WoW, and Scooter and I re-upped a couple months before the release of Legion. Honestly, we never really experienced most of the Legion content, choosing instead to level a few new characters up through the expansions that we missed. Time and interest petered out in early 2018, and neither Scooter nor I have played since.

Prior to our stint in WoW, Scooter and I were subscribed to Star Wars: The Old Republic from April, 2015, through June, 2016. Previously, we had played from the headstart in mid-December, 2011, to August, 2012, pushing to achieve 50 (max level at the time) and finish up the story on my Imperial Agent. Despite issues I've had in the past with BioWare's customer relations, the game has a lot going for it. During our return, we enjoyed several class storylines, and loved a single run through of the new "Knights of the Fallen Empire" expansion. Unfortunately, the lack of variety in storylines in KotFE didn't help our interest level. And I still haven't completed the Trooper storyline.

Star Trek Online is another game I have returned to with some regularity, playing from just after its release in February of 2010 until May of 2011. I dipped in a toe again in June of 2012, checking out the Duty Officer system and other developments to the game. With the "Legacy of Romulus" expansion, I started up a new Romulan Captain and got my Main up to max level. Most recently, I played for a few months in the winter and spring of 2015. Amongst all my MMO characters, I am still most attached to my STO crews in many ways.

Scooter and I have drifted in and out of Rift a few different times. We played regularly from the beta tests in January of 2011 through October of the same year. I cannot say enough great things about this game, or the developer, Trion Worlds. It's not perfect, but the polish and responsiveness of the game and company are things other devs should aspire to. For reasons not really clear even to me or Scooter, when our Mains hit 50 (max level at the time), the wind went out of our sails, and we really had no desire to continue playing the game. We got involved again in summer of 2013, with House Stalwart, but discovered that something about the game caused us both eye strain. We were back again in the autumn of 2014 in for the "Nightmare Tide" expansion, but quickly drifted off again.

We played WildStar in the summer of 2014. Scooter and I had two duos of Exiles, plus I had a few solo toons. It was a fun game with an engaging storyline and a delightful art style reminiscent of World of Warcraft, but in some ways an even darker tone. Despite the colorful cartoony look, this is not a game for young children. Sadly, Wildstar and Carbine Studios were shuttered by NCSoft in late 2018. I still listen to Jeff Kurtenacker's soundtrack to this day.

Judging from the shear number of posts tagged with The Secret World, it may have been my favorite game. It's the smartest story and skill/ability system on the market, in my humble opinion, though the additions of the Augment and Aegis systems make an already complicated system unwieldy. The issues from 2013, "The Last Train to Cairo" and "A Dream to Kill," feature the most enthralling storylines I have followed in an MMO. I currently have a toon in Egypt's Scorched Desert, one in Transylvania's Carpathian Fangs, and one in Tokyo, having completed the main story through "The Venetian Agenda." I stepped into Tokyo, the new zone that opened up with the release of Issue 9, "The Black Signal," but became discouraged with the AEGIS system. I haven't logged into the game in almost a year. I dipped a toe back in during early spring, 2017, but decided I was not interested in the format of the re-released Secret World Legends.

I have tried Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Defiance, The Elder Scrolls Online, ArcheAge, Landmark, EverQuest II, and Neverwinter, but ultimately found them not to my taste.

Please see also my character pages. Links above.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Do I Need a Blogging Self?

Greetings Traveler!

Naithin was talking the other day about a Separation of Self on Discord. While I now can't find the thread, I believe he was responding to Roger's post about Your Writing Persona.

I guess I fall more on Roger’s view of this topic. A long time ago, a supervisor commented that I write the same way I speak, which made my correspondence much more warm and readable. Since we were part of a customer service (billing inquiry) department, this was an important trait. I took great pride in that assessment, and have never felt the need to alter my written communication to edit out that warmth.

Now, it is true that I don’t always speak as well as I write. No one does, and linguists in recent years have worked to capture that difference between spoken and written language. However, by profession, I train people how to use computer systems to do their jobs. So I am experienced at speaking precisely and thoroughly to cover a topic and also engaging with my audience. Writing is a little more solitary in the beginning. But hopefully, I am able to engage with you, Dear Reader.

Which is to say, you generally get “the real Rowan” when you read my posts. Now, what I say is filtered. I tend to focus on games and my gaming experience, because that’s the type of blog this is. But my political views have occasionally spilled out . . . when I am particularly agitated. And, of course, when I have cool pictures from some foreign land that I have visited, I share them here among other places. Also, you may have gathered that Rowan is not my real name. Like Naithin, I am a little leery of sharing that much about myself. I don’t think any of my views are particularly controversial, and certainly nothing I am ashamed of.

While we all “perform” to some extent, depending on the people around us, I think some others may feel more pressure to not be themselves in certain situations. I either learned to resist that pressure long ago, or never really felt it. For the most part, I am the same whether at home or among friends as I am at work. And I always have been.

So the extent to which you share yourself or adopt a blogging persona is really up to you. Your comfort level in sharing yourself with the world. Some will flock to read you just for your unique voice, whichever way you decide to present yourself. But having met a few of the bloggers on my blogroll, the ones I most enjoy reading are the ones who are essentially themselves in written form on their blog.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

What If I Told You?

Greetings Traveler,

OK, a little cheat here. This tidbit has been sitting in my drafts for years–nearly eight, actually. I would like to get more creative writing in, but it required a certain mood. By way of explanation, this is my Illuminati character from The Secret World.

What if I told you that it's all real? What if I told you an army brat from Texas could find herself in the middle of one of the biggest conspiracies on the planet? I'm just a humble history professor. I almost had my tenure. Little did I know that it was not the fancy college education and degrees from ivied halls that would be most useful in my life. Instead it was the hours on the shooting range that Daddy dragged us to from the time I was five until I departed for said ivory towers.

Daddy was a Vietnam vet. Not one of those acidhead burnouts. He assisted in the evacuation of Saigon, then made a career of it. He made sure his whole brood could fire any number of different guns. Rifles, pistols, shotguns—you name it, I've squeezed the trigger. Among my brothers and sisters, I was always the most natural shot; but since the Bees came, my aim is downright uncanny. Big Bro followed in Daddy's footsteps, got into West Point and everything. He's a Light Colonel now, I think. Daddy was slightly disappointed that I didn't go the military route myself. But there was still no room for women in the infantry when I came of age, and I didn't need to play Army a couple times a year and spend the rest behind a desk or pulling weeds. And I wasn't about to become some G.I. Jane parody.

Oh, to be sure, my current employers take plenty of advantage of my skill in libraries and literature. But on such missions, I feel more like a Tomb Raider than a scholar, like my recent trip to Salamanca. They just had to have that Loyola manuscript. Turns out the accusations were correct, but like all true Illuminati, Ignatius escaped prosecution.

Anyway, so I went from pantsuits to jeans and camo jackets, unless I need to look the part of the university professor again. KG calls me her Lone Star Belle. A real NYC bitch, that one—or maybe La La Land. I hate The City, regardless of the coast it's on.

When I first joined the Firm, I hadn't held a weapon in years. They frown on that sort of thing in Academia. I actually thought I would try the fist claws. I love Hugh Jackman—couldn't imagine anyone else as the Wolverine (Dougray who?). And that X-factor healing ain't got nothin' on the Bees. The claws aren't as easy as they look, though.

Eventually, I settled on an array of firearms. See these pistols? My great grandfather wore them. Colt M1873s. Other folks use newer pieces, but there's a certain feel to the Peacemaker, especially since they're family heirlooms. Don't you worry about the "limited capacity" of a six-shooter. I haven't used bullets since Solomon Island.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

A Place We've Never Been Before

Syp asks, "Is Cantha enough draw for Guild Wars 2?"

It may not be for a casual player. After all, the last time Guild Wars players saw anything of Cantha (other than some cosmetic items like outfits and weapon skins) was approximately 12 years ago. And I can see how someone who never played the OG GW would not be drawn back to such lands in the sequel.

For me and Scooter, though currently slightly behind, making our way through the Ice Brood Saga will hopefully have us ready for the next phase of the story for the first time since launch. That's a good feeling. We missed out on Season 1 of the Living World because we were still working through the Personal Story at the time (on multiple characters). As it turns out, the biggest changes to the open world since launch occurred during that first season. After that, ArenaNet started adding to the map (and occasionally using instances) for new LW episodes. The learning curve for the Dev Team would be worthy of a post all by itself, if I had any real insight.

But I don't know how many players care that much about new mount systems, or the "opportunity" to fish our way across Tyria. As Redditor Dr_Koss points out in this post from just this morning, "I am simply excited for an opportunity to play something new." I, too, enjoy seeing new places in the game. I'm sure GW1 veterans are interested to see old haunts in a more modern graphics engine. The game has always been gorgeous, even when grotesque.

Perhaps of most interest to me, personally, is seeing the Gothic rendering of the Echovald Forest. You see, Heide Uhrmacher, my first character (and largely unchanged from the Summer of Betas), is "from" there. Or descended from there. As is Scooter's corresponding character, Reina Echowald. So going to Cantha, and the land of the Kurzicks in particular, is almost like going home to a place we've never been before.

And, as always for me, it's a new place to explore and adventure together with Scooter. 

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Blaugust 2021 What Have I been Up To?

Greetings Traveler!

*Dusting off a chair for you* Welcome back to my little corner of the Internet. Things have been crazy around here. Well, not around the blog. Scooter started a new career. I've taken on new and different responsibilities at work, initially as a supervisor and technical writer, then more recently as a subject matter expert for a small flyaway training team. (Previously, I had been a classroom trainer for the same family of systems.) In mid-July, I "celebrated" my 14th anniversary with the organization; quite a feat, considering I told myself when I started that I would stick with this job at least 5 years if I could.

So it's Blaugust again, which I apparently haven't participated in for 5 years. I had seen Belghast posting a few days ago about it, but today's post kind of kicked me into gear. This month will be busy for me, but I'm not traveling, so I should be able to take a few minutes to kick out some posts. It may not be pretty. In the past, I have spent way longer than I should on any given post. Even now, I have been at this for a while today, because I was distracted by other things on Twitter and Blogger.

Anyway, what have I been up to lately in the realm of gaming? Scooter and I pretty much exclusively play Guild Wars 2 nowadays. Right now, there is a World Boss Rush event going on. We usually only do that stuff if we're in the area, but it's fun to bounce from place to place around Tyria and Zerg rush the bosses. I just realized it would be a good way to pick some of the achievements we'd been eyeing.

The other interesting news coming out of ArenaNet this week was a livestream with more information on the next expansion "End of Dragons." They announced a planned drop in about six months: February 2022, along with preorder options. Since we know we'll be playing, and I like to support the game, Scooter and I purchased our copies. Some of the perks were available immediately, a mount skin, cape, and more. Some, like a skin for the new skiff mount, will not be available until launch. 

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.