Going to DarkRam's tonight to test out the new lights he got for his photography. Pics will be taken. Maybe even a practice set. But pics will definitely be taken
The Shadowrun character creation went very well today. All but 2 showed up (and 1 person came that I was not expecting haha). The two that didn't show up today are coming up next Saturday to do up their characters. All together, we have 9 people playing (not including John who is the GM). The character creation took about 4-5 hrs. I have my character... Read More
It looks like maybe the guild might be picking up. Last night we did the raid weekly and actually, for once, did not have to pug a single spot. It was truely our first 100% guild run. We easily downed Noth the Plaguebringer (it was over quicker than I thought it would be). Then we did Sapph so one of us could have the key... Read More
I hate guild drama. So now one of my officers is MIA because of the ToC 10 raid from Saturday. We had all melee dps and when it came to Acidmaw/Dreadscale that did not fly. I had to get my mage, another guildie had to get his lock. The MT switched between his tanking and healing OS. The OT (MIA officer switched to dps once).... Read More
It's tough because you want to play with people you know and like, and sometimes those people just aren't what you need. If there was a lower bar to entry (by which I mean - anyone could play a statistically effective version of any role at any given time), it would go a long way towards resolving that issue. However, that bar is something that many MMORPG players love. I don't think most people would really like being able to create a maximum level character with pretty effective equipment on the fly - it would, from their perspective, rob the game of some of its depth, and thereby rob the players of some of their (emotional) investment. See Guild Wars - players don't feel attached to their characters. Players generally like that attachment.
So... essentially, there's no way around it that makes everyone happy. If raids required 5 people, you could work something out - grab four reliable people, help each other level up whatever it is you need, and off you go. When I was playing, raids required 25 people. So you either got the magical combination, or you tried with what was available and likely ran into some trouble.
Or you lower the bar to entry, as mentioned above.
Or you remove encounters that are truly challenging for a group that size.
In short, it's an inherent design flaw in MMORPGs (or ones with raids, anyway) that I don't think can be solved. It's unrealistic to expect players to recruit whatever specific arrangement of 25 people is required because, as mentioned above, people want to play with their friends. Likewise, people are unlikely to want to invest several hours running a potentially disastrous raid with strangers. And, lastly, quality players at maximum level rarely run around without a guild.
My only real solution is to leave large scale battles to PvP, where both sides have to contend with those very issues, and leave PvE on a smaller scale. That's only for games that don't already have raids, though, because otherwise they'd risk losing a hefty chunk of their base.
John and I went to Thai Basil for dinner and then we saw Daybreakers. Interesting spin on the world of vampires.
Tonight is Sushi 101 with DarkRam. Not sure what we're doing afterwards.
I'm such a dolt though because apparently I don't know how to read a calendar. I scheduled the Shadowrun character creation thing for Sunday... Read More
Never played Shadowrun, myself. In a weekly group right now, we just got done with Changeling: The Lost, moving on to CthulhuTech. We swap games every other week, so we're currently doing D&D 4e, though that will be on a temporary break to try out Eclipse Phase in the near future.
If you're into games that are more about setting and plot than rules, by the way, I highly recommend Eclipse Phase. Just a damn interesting world they have going on there.
I'm making John get off his ass and start doing the Shadowrun crap. We have more than enough people who want to do it. I know one of his biggest concerns was having too many people but I came up with a solution for that! He GMs one group and I GM the second group. Same campaign plus he gets to play in the 2nd... Read More
Last night we did a "guild" run for the Ulduar weekly raid (I say "guiild" because we pugged 3 people). We had a rocky start at first but we totally nailed the boss. Tonight is our ToC 10 run and I am super duper excited. If everyone shows up, we'll only have to pug 1 healer. WOOOT.