Dota - "Defense of the Ancients" is a custom map (mod) for Warcraft III. Dota is an excellent game that I've been playing for years. Whenever there's an MMO drought (like there is "right" now...) I've always relied on Dota to keep me entertained. No matter how much time passes, it consistently remains fun, and manages to survive through each year.
The gameplay consists of 2 teams, 1-5 players each - Though most games are structured to be a 5v5 setup. Each player controls their own "hero", and their objective is simply to outplay the enemy team and destroy their base. That is about as "simple" as I can explain it, but the gameplay is far, far, more complicated. I could go about all the gritty details surrounding the game, but that's not the point of this post. If you're in need of such information, check out the wiki page for Dota -
This game offers two of the most important aspects a game should have.
1. Fun Gameplay
2. Replayability
Simple, yes? If a game is fun, and you can play it over and over without getting bored, you have a "successful game"...right?
This is true, but no game is without it's issues. Unfortunately, Dota is restricted by many things due to the engine it was developed on. Warcraft III wasn't meant for Dota, and Blizzard isn't necessarily going to "fix" issues with a user-created "mod".
Here are some faults with DotA:
1. Leavers
Dota is a strategic game, and the slightest error can sometimes ruin the rest of the game for you. Since nothing is "really" ever on the line, people make these mistakes often. They decide the game is no longer worth their time, so they leave. This creates an imbalanced 4v5 situation, and it can only get worse from there. 3v5, 4v2, 1v3, ect. There isn't any possible way to implement a "replacement" for the missing players, once they leave...it's over.
2. Game Hosting.
In order to play, someone has to host the game. Of of their own connection.
What does this mean? If the host loses connection, everybody loses connection. If the host lags, everybody lags. In general, there are other server issues too - and lag majorly interrupts gameplay.
3. Disconnects
This can kind of go together with hosting, but sometimes disconnects happen. The users fault, battle.net's fault? It's not always the same reason, but when the plug gets pulled - you can't get back in. Sure, you can start a new game, but really, that's not the point.
There's really a lot more to it than that, I'm just pointing out a "few" engine problems...problems that are obliterated within HoN.
HoN stands for Heroes of Newerth - and it's a Dota clone, pure and simple. It's Dota, but with an updated engine. They offer a few random changes that aren't within Dota, and the fix a lot of issues that Dota had. They host their own servers, and provide "leaver protection". I've played the game first hand and I can say it actually works. No more leavers, no more "bad hosts", and if I disconnect for some reason, I can get right back in the game - exactly where I left off.
When you break it down, Dota is fun, but has issues. HoN is fun, and fixes most of Dota's issues. You don't get all of the heroes that have been developed for Dota, but most have been implemented into HoN, and the gameplay is exactly the same. HoN is the "new" Dota.
The biggest issue that both games have in common, and is most likely impossible to fix, is the learning curve. In order to properly play either game, you must have knowledge...experience. Dota is a strategic game, and if you don't play all of your cards right, you will lose, and your morale will plummet. It's impossible for a team of people new to the game to beat a team that has been playing for years. If you want to enjoy the game, you have to get the experience. To get the experience you have to lose, a lot.
If you're sitting at home, bored, and are willing to take a beating for a month or two, pick up Dota/HoN - it will pay off, eventually. We're seeing some dark times in the gaming world, and you can't afford to pass up any good games.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
PVP Centered MMORPGs
These games really bring me down. I've never been much of a man for PVP, but I've always done it within whatever MMO I've played (with the exception of EQ). It's fun, but not my primary interest. Unfortunately, however, the past few year have released nothing BUT pvp centered MMO's, and this, sucks. Most of which I didn't bother to play, but I did play a few, I tried to give them a shot. Vanguard was my first world pvp experience. I got a view of the people who enjoy pvp, and their mindset. I won't say it was a bad experience because vanguard wasn't actually built to be a pvp game, and therefore you had a fun game with pvp thrown into the middle. If you're familiar with vanguard you know it didn't do well, and many people couldn't stand the game due to all of the bugs and playing issues. If you were able to get passed all that, you'd know that vanguard had some amazing aspects that made it a lot of fun. The classes are what made that game good.
I later tried Darkfall, a game many viewed as vaporware for a very long time. I managed to play a bit after launch, and I was very happy with how the initial game started out. It had the atmosphere that you were free to do whatever you wanted, even if that wasn't entirely the case. The game became boring once all the alliances started building, and the clan vs clan type of wars began to surface. I prefer things on a smaller scale, and once the game got going, everything went big, real big. It was no longer fun, and you were immensely restricted on what you could do, because the consequences would kill your ability to play. I'll say in general though, I did not like the mindset of the people who played. It didn't seem right for these people to play an MMO, it just felt like the game wasn't an MMO, and that I didn't really belong, so I left.
The next and for the love of god I hope the last game on this list, is Aion. This game has not been out for very long at all, but many people played it when it was available in China. This is where I realized that no matter what MMO I play, if it is even remotely centered around PVP, I will see the same type of people. I haven't fully given this game a chance, but I can tell I won't be staying for long. There are many reasons, really, the root of them being that this is a korean MMO. Koreans play MMO's different than we do, and I know that. NCSoft did there best to port this thing for America, but I can see the faults. Aion is simply a grindfest, and a boring one at that.
There's a lot of small things that make Aion a drag for me, and honestly it's those little things that bother me most. The targeting system, the hotkey detection, the quest structure, the zone layouts, the lack of seperate paths/race areas. It just feels very closed in, and I felt as if I was being forced to do things I didn't want to do. Hell I've barely even gotten to SEE any PVP and I'm already bored. They are hoping that the people who enjoy PVP a lot (not me) will push through and live off of the PVP aspect. My fellow Legion members are able to do that, but I'm struggling, really I am.
I just miss the old MMO's, it seems like they only one still functioning as a stable/enjoyable MMORPG is WoW, and I've played that thing to hell and back, and I don't want to anymore. Everquest and WoW were the only two MMO's that managed to hold me for at least a year, and it's really sad. Everquest is old, and in a state where it can never be the game I once played - and WoW is following right behind it.
I later tried Darkfall, a game many viewed as vaporware for a very long time. I managed to play a bit after launch, and I was very happy with how the initial game started out. It had the atmosphere that you were free to do whatever you wanted, even if that wasn't entirely the case. The game became boring once all the alliances started building, and the clan vs clan type of wars began to surface. I prefer things on a smaller scale, and once the game got going, everything went big, real big. It was no longer fun, and you were immensely restricted on what you could do, because the consequences would kill your ability to play. I'll say in general though, I did not like the mindset of the people who played. It didn't seem right for these people to play an MMO, it just felt like the game wasn't an MMO, and that I didn't really belong, so I left.
The next and for the love of god I hope the last game on this list, is Aion. This game has not been out for very long at all, but many people played it when it was available in China. This is where I realized that no matter what MMO I play, if it is even remotely centered around PVP, I will see the same type of people. I haven't fully given this game a chance, but I can tell I won't be staying for long. There are many reasons, really, the root of them being that this is a korean MMO. Koreans play MMO's different than we do, and I know that. NCSoft did there best to port this thing for America, but I can see the faults. Aion is simply a grindfest, and a boring one at that.
There's a lot of small things that make Aion a drag for me, and honestly it's those little things that bother me most. The targeting system, the hotkey detection, the quest structure, the zone layouts, the lack of seperate paths/race areas. It just feels very closed in, and I felt as if I was being forced to do things I didn't want to do. Hell I've barely even gotten to SEE any PVP and I'm already bored. They are hoping that the people who enjoy PVP a lot (not me) will push through and live off of the PVP aspect. My fellow Legion members are able to do that, but I'm struggling, really I am.
I just miss the old MMO's, it seems like they only one still functioning as a stable/enjoyable MMORPG is WoW, and I've played that thing to hell and back, and I don't want to anymore. Everquest and WoW were the only two MMO's that managed to hold me for at least a year, and it's really sad. Everquest is old, and in a state where it can never be the game I once played - and WoW is following right behind it.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
View on the current state of MMORPG's
It's a shame, really, MMO's used to be my all-time favorite way to pass the time, and in a way, they still are. The problem, though, is that the genre is decaying. World of Warcraft has had quite an excellent hand in that too.
Everyone always thinks back to their first MMO as a reference to how things should be. Everquest was my first MMO, so I naturally want them to return to that type of game. EQ punished you for just about everything. It was hard, and required you to actually play with the people in game to do anything. There were all sorts of minor things within that game that todays' MMO's don't include, and actually adding them all to a list would be very hard to do. I want things to return to how they used to be, and thanks to WoW I doubt that will ever happen.
The size of the MMO community was much smaller during the days of EQ. This was because it was hard for people to meet all the "requirements" of the game. A good enough computer, enough free time to dump into it, and an actual desire to play a game that hated you for everything you did. Because of all this, the people who were attracted to EQ were attracted to everything that game had to offer. If they played, it was fun. Simple, yes?
World of Warcraft threw all of that out the window. Almost any computer can run WoW, you don't have to sink hours of your day away to get something done, and it holds your hand the entire length of the game. This attracted everyone. Even people that weren't gamers were able to play this damn game, and it made Blizzard money - a lot of money. Video games are a way to make profit, and so the majority of the community gets to decide how the game plays, not the minority.
Unfortunately I'm part of the minority. I want a hard game that will challenge me, I want a huge world to be immersed in, and it just isn't happening lately. Each MMO that releases after WoW carries so many of its' traits it's saddening. Hand holding, no punishment for death, the damned quest system, the list could go on. WoW has killed off the veteran gamers, and let in the idiots of the world into my realm.
Everyone always thinks back to their first MMO as a reference to how things should be. Everquest was my first MMO, so I naturally want them to return to that type of game. EQ punished you for just about everything. It was hard, and required you to actually play with the people in game to do anything. There were all sorts of minor things within that game that todays' MMO's don't include, and actually adding them all to a list would be very hard to do. I want things to return to how they used to be, and thanks to WoW I doubt that will ever happen.
The size of the MMO community was much smaller during the days of EQ. This was because it was hard for people to meet all the "requirements" of the game. A good enough computer, enough free time to dump into it, and an actual desire to play a game that hated you for everything you did. Because of all this, the people who were attracted to EQ were attracted to everything that game had to offer. If they played, it was fun. Simple, yes?
World of Warcraft threw all of that out the window. Almost any computer can run WoW, you don't have to sink hours of your day away to get something done, and it holds your hand the entire length of the game. This attracted everyone. Even people that weren't gamers were able to play this damn game, and it made Blizzard money - a lot of money. Video games are a way to make profit, and so the majority of the community gets to decide how the game plays, not the minority.
Unfortunately I'm part of the minority. I want a hard game that will challenge me, I want a huge world to be immersed in, and it just isn't happening lately. Each MMO that releases after WoW carries so many of its' traits it's saddening. Hand holding, no punishment for death, the damned quest system, the list could go on. WoW has killed off the veteran gamers, and let in the idiots of the world into my realm.
My History and Gaming Background
I'm primarily a PC gamer, and I primarily play MMORPG games. I play RPG's, RTS's, some FPS here and there, and other misc genres. RPG's in general are my favorite genre, and thus "MMORPG's" are at the top of that list. I started PC gaming around the year 2001, and I've been glued to my computer since then.
Backing up a bit, The very first online game I ever played...was Runescape. It's called an MMORPG now, but back then it was just an online 2D game that you could kill a massive amount of time on. It was around the year 2001, and I was homeschooled, so I had a lot of spare time to kill. I had free time than any kid ever should be allowed to have. Playing Runescape every day sucked me into a world I would not be leaving from, the world of MMORPG's.
It was due to that game, that I heard of Everquest, the game that would change my life forever. I've played countless games over the years, but the only game that could really keep me playing for a long time was Runescape. Now I played Runescape a lot, but it wasn't anything special, it was simply a time waster that kept my mind busy. When I entered the world of 3D PC gaming, Runescape went out the window. I played FPS, RTS, RPG's, just about everything the PC had to offer was all thrown at me at once. Among those games was Everquest, a game that had an amazing 3D world filled with endless tasks and areas to explore. The moment I started playing that game was the moment I would be tagged as a "Lazy Video Gamer" for the rest of my life. I loved Everquest, I loved how harsh it was, how big the world was, and how many hours I could pour into the game without ever getting bored. I barely remember sleeping during those years, and I've forgotten most of my childhood memories, all because of that damn game.
Fast Forward half a decade, and I'm in college and currently bored of the state the video game industry is in. I played EQ for a good 2 and a half years, WoW for 4 years, Vanguard for about a year, and some other minor MMO's here and there that I played for less than a month each. I'll skip out on the "non-MMO" games as the list would be a bit too large. I've played all of the games within the genre's I enjoy - and I've either beaten them all or gotten bored of them all. Since the day I started playing PC games, the amount of time I can have fun on a single game keeps decreasing.
Backing up a bit, The very first online game I ever played...was Runescape. It's called an MMORPG now, but back then it was just an online 2D game that you could kill a massive amount of time on. It was around the year 2001, and I was homeschooled, so I had a lot of spare time to kill. I had free time than any kid ever should be allowed to have. Playing Runescape every day sucked me into a world I would not be leaving from, the world of MMORPG's.
It was due to that game, that I heard of Everquest, the game that would change my life forever. I've played countless games over the years, but the only game that could really keep me playing for a long time was Runescape. Now I played Runescape a lot, but it wasn't anything special, it was simply a time waster that kept my mind busy. When I entered the world of 3D PC gaming, Runescape went out the window. I played FPS, RTS, RPG's, just about everything the PC had to offer was all thrown at me at once. Among those games was Everquest, a game that had an amazing 3D world filled with endless tasks and areas to explore. The moment I started playing that game was the moment I would be tagged as a "Lazy Video Gamer" for the rest of my life. I loved Everquest, I loved how harsh it was, how big the world was, and how many hours I could pour into the game without ever getting bored. I barely remember sleeping during those years, and I've forgotten most of my childhood memories, all because of that damn game.
Fast Forward half a decade, and I'm in college and currently bored of the state the video game industry is in. I played EQ for a good 2 and a half years, WoW for 4 years, Vanguard for about a year, and some other minor MMO's here and there that I played for less than a month each. I'll skip out on the "non-MMO" games as the list would be a bit too large. I've played all of the games within the genre's I enjoy - and I've either beaten them all or gotten bored of them all. Since the day I started playing PC games, the amount of time I can have fun on a single game keeps decreasing.
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