Hey Pharmers
Given the impact of transmedia and transmedia storytelling, I have shifted my focus to another blog to provide one more resource to rally around this brave new world and revolution in storytelling.
Become a transmedia tracker too!
See you at www.transmediatracker.com
Cheers,
Roneil Reddy
After hearing many glowing reviews and reading about some engaging content, I decided to explore Atlantica Online. I read that this game can be played through without spending a dime of real world money.
This was all the motivation I needed to hack my own computer in safe mode to try and get rid of most of the Mabinogi game client. I don’t think I ever want to play that game again. But I have read removing F2P game clients are even harder than enjoying playing them. I am starting to realize that I am going to need to do a factory restore after I am done all of this F2P exploration. Good times.
Unfortunately while the game seems to be true to its promise, you get what you pay for. When I finally managed to get online, after a bug filled setup process, I got in line. Characters almost literally stand in line to visit game avatar after game avatar. Then they stand in line to wait their turn to kill critters to complete quests. It felt like I was in a passport office or at the DMV going from kiosk to kiosk to fill out different forms, jumping through different hoops and moving into the next area.
When I finally completed this gruelling process and got a reward for completing it, it didn’t work. Again I felt like someone who smiles knowing he is about to get his passport or drivers license, just to find out they spelled my name “Foneil.”
Goodbye Atlantica online. This may very well be the first true F2P game but why would anyone bother to stand in line to find out?
After trying to give Mabinogi an honest go, I think I am going to put it down for a while.
The fact that I had to download a client that is sitting on my computer means I want to be sure I really hate it before I remove it from my computer completely.
So far the grind of fighting critters without an overall goal or motivation to do so makes the game tedious. I like that the marketplace in the game is introduced so early but seeing how much stuff I can’t buy is de-motivating. Finally reading everywhere that this game cannot seriously be enjoyed without spending at least $30 a month just makes it seem like a waste of time.
Since critter killing style grinding isn’t doing it for me I had to really look around for a F2P game that is a little different.
I have finally settled on Urban Rivals which is an online Trading Card Game (TCG). Apparently the game is still quite playable without having to buy premium content.
Today I spent a good 2 hours playing Urban Rivals and I thought I had genuinely found a great way to kill 15 minutes here and there while building a great card collection. The registration process was quick and when I skipped past both the tutorial and rules the game flashed a great little comic before the game started to give me the basics.
The gameplay was dead easy and took no time at all to master. The depth in the cards and being able to level them up made the experience addictive. I was worried about the player matching element in quick matches but it seemed to favor me. I beat practically everyone I played. There were times when you could tell someone bought a custom deck, and you could tell you didn’t have a chance. This didn’t feel too bad though because as long as you focused on levelling one card, you still got something out of it.
The art is great and I kept looking for the new image whenever a card levelled up. I tried playing the game with the sound on and off and found the feedback the sound provided let me know when things were happening that needed my attention.
I wished there was a way to communicate with other gamers while we were playing instead of sending a message after the battle was over. The game would gain a lot from a sense of community. Still that was easy to overlook since the game seemed to be entertaining enough on its own.
I love the marketplace and felt great when I earned enough virtual currency to buy my first card. This also meant I could finally sell one of my own. I was going to use the cash to buy another card to customize my deck, but then I got a surprise. I found out that the game locks you out of the marketplace until you buy credits. That means the card I could sell for 850 virtual dollars could only be sold back to the site for 30 dollars. I would be robbed of 820 virtual dollars unless I bought something with real money first.
After that disappointment, I tried to continue to play the game because there is so much to like. I couldn’t get past that barrier. This is the only flaw I found in the game, and it severely limits my experience.
There are still plenty of ways to monetize this game without locking F2P players out of the marketplace. I think that one move is going to cost them a lot of lost players. Too bad. I was really close to finding a rewarding Free to play experience. But like Mabinogi I am going to have to put this one in the “Need to Pay” category.
Ok on to Atlantica. I hear this one could be the first true F2P game that is rewarding without spending a dime. I hope that is true, the content seems really compelling. Stay tuned for Part 3.
First Impressions:
This post is going to cover my initial impressions in what is going to be is a series recording my foray into f2p games.
New Friends.
Over the past few weeks I have started a journey into the vast world of “free to play” (f2p) games. While I am new, I can already tell that the gamers who play these kinds of games are a little different than the console owning, hardcore, ultra-competitive fps playing types I am used to. Instead of being mocked for being new, I am finding that players are more helpful and friendly. Go figure . . .
New Games.
While I am finding the quality of the gamers, the communities and the forums surprising, I can’t say the same things about the games I have been playing . I think this is partially because I am used to one extreme or another: games I choose and pay for upfront, or games I don’t choose and come for free on my computer or a website I am visiting. In either case I have set expectations. One has to give me a great experience that is worth paying for, and the other just needs to distract me for a few minutes. Now that I am venturing into a world where I have choice but don’t pay for my initial experience. I don’t know what to expect.
I find my lack of a barometer for f2p is making my experience with the genre frustrating. These games are not high enough in quality to compete with games I initially spent $60 dollars on, yet take more time and a higher learning curve than a free casual game. I am finding it difficult to navigate these uncharted waters.
I have yet to find a game I can play three times. I am finding my greatest source of satisfaction ends up being when I delete my account (if I can), knowing I never have to come back.
Thankfully the web is full of f2p games and I have had no trouble bouncing from one to another. Hopefully I will find one soon that is worth reporting on. A little help please? 
I have decided to get rid of my Facebook and MySpace profiles, that is if I can remember my passwords. I haven’t checked either in so long I wonder if they are still there.
There was a time when I thought everyone on the planet was getting a MySpace page. The flurry of emails in my Inbox, telling me friends had joined Facebook , made me think I was missing out on something. I was diligent to register, update my profiles, add pictures, and respond to “pokes” with pokes of my own, whatever that did. I found friends, colleagues, family members and added them to my friends lists. There I was, part of this whole social networking thing.
I discovered the ability to meet cute girls, and wall-to-wall flirting. I later regretted the discovery when a new girlfriend’s father decided to track every connection to every woman I had ever talked to online and then bring them up anytime I was over for dinner.
I don’t think that is what I had in mind when I started using these sites. So what are they for anyways? Well according to Wikipedia:
A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
Ok I get the “exploring the interests and activities of others” because that is exactly what that internet savvy father did. That led me to delete my original Facebook profile and add only a couple of work friends. Now my profile is just there. I don’t build online communities with people I share interests with, like the definition suggests. I just remember adding everyone I know. So does that mean I didn’t use the sites properly?
These sites seemed cool for a while, but they don’t really seem to have a purpose. If I want to chat I will use MSN or Gmail messenger. If I want to email people I will use one of my email accounts. I never really got into joining groups or the games/apps. But I don’t think I am missing much given that more and more people are commiting social networking site suicide anyways.
I think the sites are there, people are there, and there are a bunch of applications that are there. It is all just there. So many social networking sites, so many people, so many web apps. Who cares anyways and where is it all leading?
I hope the social networking industry figures that out soon, or more and more people are going to start leaving their sites, that is, if they can actually remember their passwords.
January seems to be the month everyone makes predictions about 2009 and beyond. I am going to make one in the same area I have been making predictions for the past 10 years, multiplayer gaming.
This year my prediction isn’t so exciting. It’s not really even a prediction. It is actually obvious to anyone who is paying attention – so much so that even FPS developers are catching on . . . kinda. So why am I calling it a prediction? Because I have read so many other articles and blogs making obvious predictions that I am simply succumbing to peer pressure.
I think 2009 is the year we start to see a major trend in multiplayer that shifts away from competition and towards collaboration.
When we think of multiplayer games, it is hard not to think of “frags” or “headshots.” The majority of multiplayer games focus on competition. It has been the major driving force in extending the life and value of many games. This makes sense because it isn’t a stretch to go from “Must beat game” to “Must beat people.”
As multiplayer gamers evolved we began to see: “Must get together and beat people together.” While this concept is showing signs that gamers are connecting with some, the overlying drive is still competition.
The trend I am pointing to now doesn’t involve beating anyone or anything at all. It’s primary motivation is fun, connection and collaboration – games where you play WITH people to have fun not AGAINST them.
After all of these years the Game Industry is finally catching up to the lessons my Kindergarten teacher tried to instill in me when I was 5. Well look at us now!
Both the industry and gamers are evolving and that is exciting. As I look into this further I would like to catalogue games that have successfully implemented collaboration and connection into gameplay. If anyone out there can think of any please fire me a comment or feel free to make a prediction of your own.
Since this will be my only post before Christmas let me start by saying Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
The time of year has me thinking about the one thing most of us have on our minds at Christmas . . . gifts. It’s hard to think of Christmas and not arrive to the images of presents in your mind. Now before you start to think this is just another blog about the consumerization of Christmas, it’s not. It’s really about gifts, virtual gifts.
Christmas Past:
There was a time where virtual gifts were crude clipart images geeks could send to pretty girls on dating sites for a fee, in hopes for some sort of response that they couldn’t possibly achieve with that splash of Aqua Velva they wore to the Christmas Party. I think this sordid past is a part of the reason why virtual gifts have not yet gained mass appeal, which brings me too . . .
Christmas Present:
Facebook has popularized the giving of virtual gifts and now other major websites are following suit in hopes to monetize this trend (or fad) in social networking. Do people receive the same satisfaction out of receiving a virtual gift as they do a real one?
I don’t know what the statistics are but if I were to sum it up into a word, it would be: no. I would way rather get a big screen television for Christmas than a digital icon of one. I don’t think virtual gifts replace real ones but they do have a place and function in our lives, and the 60 million odd gifts to be rumored to have already been exchanged on Facebook confirms this.
These gifts seem to have gained popularity through commemorating specific events that people want to share with each other, or by simply including a color we know someone might like, or may appeal to someone else’s obsession with cute kittens. These virtual gifts seem to find relevance in being an external representation of something internal shared by the people exchanging them. In this way they seem to stop being virtual and gain some real value to the people sharing them. It’s either that or they both like to giggle at pink bunnies. My point is I don’t think most of us are sending random virtual gifts to random people at random times. They have some sort of relevance, no matter how insignificant.
They can make someone feel special, like you are thinking about them, or sharing a moment together. They can also annoy, and feel like spam in an over-crowded inbox.
I don’t think any website has truly explored the potential of virtual gifts. There must be some way to create, share and distribute them that is beyond the obvious.
Christmas Future:
In the short term, I believe social networking sites will capitalize on the distribution of virtual gifts, but in the long term it will be up to these sites to find new ways to make virtual gifting relevant. E-cards will never replace Greeting Cards. Virtual gifts will never replace real ones. But they both have a place on the web that is still being defined.
I wonder what Santa would do . . .
Hello,
You may have made your way to the Almanac by wandering through the Pug Pharm website, random blogs, or just to find out what Pug Pharm means. Whatever the reason, welcome to the Pharmer’s Almanac.
This is your one-stop shop for weekly ruminations and ramblings, meanderings and musings of Pug Pharm Employee #002.
Stay tuned . . .
Roneil
