So, today marks a week of Anthem(tm) and last night I did the final mission in the initial ‘critical path’ storyline. According to the Xbox achievement, 1-in-5 players have got to the same point (I think it was about 16% last night; going up fast). It’s not exactly a long story, but it also drops a heaving, massive hint of things to come in the future.
There’s been a lot of noise about how bad Anthem is, especially on YouTube. Then again, according to a lot of YouTube gaming channels, the entire game industry is about to collapse and all the games being released are bad (except for that one they like). Since people have been predicting the end of EA (for example) for at least two decades, I’m taking most of this with a pinch of salt, but I have to admit that Anthem is not exactly a perfect example of software production. But what is? A little while ago, I started a playthrough of Rise of the Tomb Raider, which went really great until it crashed right at the end and corrupted the save data, making the game unplayable. My other game of choice at the moment is Destiny 2. For all the talk of Anthem‘s endless load screens and connection issues, I have far more problems with lost connections in D2, plus D2 has load screens just as long, they’re simply hidden better. And the amount of bitching about random loot drops in Destiny dwarfs the noise about Anthem‘s loot, and the same people are probably complaining about both being ‘the worst.’ Sigh.
My opinion (should you want it): I like Anthem. I enjoy the gameplay. I enjoy the interactions with NPCs in Fort Tarsis; there’s a real Mass Effect feel about some of the characters. It could certainly be better, but I have reasonable hopes that BioWare are going to make it better. More, I have reasonable hopes that the kind of better they’re aiming at is what I want to see. That last point is important because…
As luck would have it, Bungie put out the ‘reveal’ trailer for their Season of the Drifter content in the last day or so. It turned up in my YouTube recent videos list this lunchtime. Bungie are listening to their ‘core players’ when deciding how to develop Destiny. Unfortunately, that means listening to the minority of their players. Back to the Xbox achievements. I have one achievement for Gambit (D2’s PvP-lite competitive gaming option): ‘High-Stakes Play.’ You get it for winning one (1) match in Gambit. It does not take a great player to achieve this. I suck at any form of PvP and I hadn’t tried Gambit until very recently when I joined a clan (guild, league, whatever player groups are called in your favourite game) and was dragged into a Gambit match. Even playing with random pick-up groups, I’ve been on the winning side in Gambit. 16.05% of Destiny players have High-Stakes Play. I also have ‘Belly Of The beast’ for completing the Leviathan raid (which is now about 2 years old and I got recently). Me and 13.16% of players have that, which means that’s a load of end-game content Bungie have produced for 13% of their players. And now, those who yell loudest are controlling the development of Destiny. I don’t think I’ll be getting D3 or the next season pass, or whatever they go for next, because they aren’t really developing the game in the way I want to see it developed. I don’t think they’re developing it the way most players want, just the loudest 20% or so. And I’m being generous with that 20%.
And in other (not exactly gaming) news, yes, Anthem has popped an idea or two into my head I’m developing for the book after the next Princeps Venator book. Well, Anthem and a bunch of other random influences. When I’m ready to reveal more about it, I’ll be dropping some concept art and such.
Witches and Ray-Guns 
I used to do a lot more games. The last decade or so it has been almost totally World of Warcraft. Been playing it since launch and with the wife has played for the last four years. Its not all youngsters who play WoW or computer games in general. I was 50 when WoW released. Do the math. Mass Effect, hot dam n. If they had a TV series I would have watched it over Star Trek.
I dabble in Overwatch for something else. I realize FPS sell but it would be nice to get more choices. Rather than being on rails for the climatic chapter ending fight why force a fight. Instead have a sneaky way or the sledgehammer tactic where the game balance is svrewed by using heavy weapons and starship weapons. The trade off is like in real life. You need to decide between speed, low
losses with non- combatant deaths you get blamed for.
Hm, WoW was released in 2004 which makes you… even older than me! I’m not exactly a spring chicken. I’ve thought about getting back into WoW a few times, but it reminds me of a not especially great period in my life.
Oddly, Destiny 2 is a little like your heavy weapons option in some ways. There’s always a final boss to fight, but it’s not infrequently the case that, with enough sheer power, you can cut the boss fight to a couple of seconds if you run in and blast the bad guy with everything you’ve got.
What? Brute Force and Ignorance is a tactic!
The commonly held beliefs by many who are not gamers about gamer culture and gamer stereotypes is just sad and frankly irritates me a bit. Ive been in MMO guilds where the age range was from preteen to over 70 and have included many couples and parents and their kids. Hell, way back on Rainbow Six:Rogue Spear, I played with a guy that was in his 80s, his son, and grandson. Years later my group included a grandmother who played with her grandkids and a woman who played with her two teenage daughters. Those kids were damned good too, and teasing randoms for getting steamrolled by a 13 year old girl was quite common. Hearing her giggle at people over comms was hilarious.
I’ll stump for an MMO called Project Gorgon on Steam. I won’t claim to have a great breadth of game exposure but it’s easily the most creative game I’ve played or read of. There’s a free to play demo for the curious.
I’ve stuck with WoW because it has a nice mix of serious writing with moments of humor that make you out loud. How can you not like a quest where you ride a giant Macaw raining down poop on pirates who has treated the birdkeeper badly.
I’ve tanked some boss fights where the quick method was for mysel and the off tank to run in and pickup curses, stacks of nasty shit while everyone hammers the boss down. When we tanks reach the limit of stacks we run away and die heroically in some corner. Some unconventional tactics reminded me of a billion bunny rabbits trying to stop an MBT by the sheer number of bodies they can pile up in front of the tank.