About a week ago Ginger Gaming Mentor released a video in which he reminded me of a very important aspect of well designed (i.e. motivating and fun) itemization in RPGs – arguably the most important one, in fact – that I completely forgot to address in my own recent post on the subject. Actually I didn’t so much “forget” to include it, I just didn’t have this particular design philosophy on my radar as something worth mentioning, because it absolutely feels like a no-brainer to me, one that any RPG worth its salt should adhere to. I’m talking about the (supposedly) simple concept of item powe ..read more

Well, that didn’t take long. Just a few days after talking about the Barbarian being a hot candidate for my next Diablo II Resurrected character I indeed started playing one. Or more precisely, I dusted one off that had been lying around at level 24, unused, for quite some time. My initial plan for him, shortly after D2R’s release, was to use Frenzy as his main skill. However, I then decided that I wanted to level a buffbot-Barb on my second account first and use Frenzy as a means to get him through the game quickly. In doing so I had to realize that I don’t actually like the skill all that m ..read more

A couple of weeks ago I decided to dip back into Diablo II Resurrected after about a year-long break. I’d been without a game that managed to really grip and excite me for quite a few months, and I was definitely missing something. Since D2 has never failed me in that regard it seemed like the perfect time for another comeback. Sure enough, it has delivered once again. Right now I play whenever I can, and think about playing when I can’t. Of course it helps that they’ve really done an outstanding job with Resurrected, and still continue to improve it on a regular basis without messing up the ..read more

At the time of this writing Warframe has 53 different ‘frames on offer (not counting Prime or Umbra variants), with the 54th to be released two days from now. Of course not all of those are available to new players right away – in fact you start with only one out of a selection of three, the rest have to be farmed and/or unlocked through various methods. After playing the game for a while an embarrassment of riches sets in though, so much so that you may find it hard to decide which of your shiny new battlesuits to invest precious resources like Orokin Reactors and Forma into. Once you do hav ..read more

Last time around, when I raved about Warframe’s many qualities once again, I mentioned in passing that one of the things I enjoy a lot is to search for hidden vaults and stashes. What I didn’t point out is how absolutely awesome the game actually is for ambitious scavenger hunters like myself. I would even go as far as saying that no other game I’ve played, no matter the genre, had quite as much hidden goodies on offer as Digital Extreme’s space ninja shooter – and some of these are exceptionally well hidden to boot. So if Warframe’s usual gameplay loop is too hectic for you, and you’re as mu ..read more

I don’t know why, but I seem to be a very seasonal kind of guy. It always happens during winter that I pick up Black Desert again, for example. The month of August, on the other hand, obviously does something with me that makes me miss playing Warframe. So here I am, still doing my daily stuff in Lost Ark, but dedicating the remainder of my gaming time fully to being a Tenno once more. Man, what an awesome game this is! The other day I left a comment to one of Naithin’s posts, saying that Warframe is most likely the only Looter Shooter I’ll ever need, and while there is some hyperbole to that ..read more

You there, on the left…camera’s over here! Last time around I talked about gatekeeping in MMORPGs, i.e. group leaders not granting access to their dungeon runs or raids unless a player meets certain requirements in terms of gear, level etc., and that it usually does not happen due to said group leaders being jerks, but out of a desire to avoid suffering from too punishing game design. This begs the question how dungeons and raids, or multiplayer content in general, can be designed in such a way that it’s not that, but still challenging. Now, I’m not saying that stuff always has to be challengi ..read more

I’m still playing a lot of Lost Ark, and I’m enjoying it very much. However, there’s one thing that bothers me a bit, namely the fact that I’ll most likely never get to see much of the game’s dedicated multiplayer content. One reason for this is that the game unfortunately doesn’t provide much of an incentive to run Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons below your current gearscore, resulting in all but the highest ones being deserted most of the time. It’s a shame, as from what I’ve heard especially the dungeons are well designed and really fun. I think the folks at Smilegate should draw some ..read more

As you can see it’s “Introduce Yourself Week” in Blaugustland, formerly known as “Getting To Know You Week” if I remember correctly. Since I’ve already introduced myself in the past and you can dig up those posts at any time if you’re so inclined I’m gonna use this opportunity to talk about something more specific that’s been on my mind lately instead. This one hasn’t aged well enough to be on this list I’m afraid I guess we have all missed out on some games that seemingly everybody and their mums have played and that are widely considered to be masterpieces any person who likes video games s ..read more

I’ve been playing a whole lot of Lost Ark recently – according to Steam 77 hours in the last two weeks alone – and I’m still fascinated by the whole situation. To quickly recap, I had high hopes for the game before it launched last year, but was disappointed greatly once I’d actually played it for a while. Almost a month ago I picked it back up, and now it’s everything I’d hoped for and more, although it’s basically still the same game. So what do I like about it so much? Well, when played the way I do now it’s almost exactly what I want from an MMORPG – a nice, well-rounded package of explor ..read more