Star wars, the money wars...

As I mentioned in my post about Tera, I am not a fan of Star wars: the old republic ideas of free gaming. So I thought I made a post dedicated only to that game and include any additional things that spiked my rage and the things I actually liked.

I should also point out that it has been a while since I’ve played the game, so it is very likely that things have changed or have been updated. I am not well-versed in the Star wars universe either, so don’t expect me to judge any story flaws and such.  

The good things

Well, I can’t really say it was all bad since the game had me glued to my screen for longer that I care to admit now. Some aspects were really interesting and did make you want to play more.

The first of one was the way the story was told. I have to admit, there must have been quite a budget behind this one. Basically anytime you talk to someone you’ll get a full animated scene of the characters talking… and you can actually talk back! You are given choices (2-3) of how to reply, some replies making you good and the others evil. You can even choose if you would rather bribe a certain snitch, kill him or get his silence by flirting. That’s how my character accidently had a very… private encounter with a particular “horny” Zabrak. (If you got that joke you most likely don’t need this review.)

The other thing that stuck with me was getting your very own spaceship. That did allow for a very interesting fast travel system from one planet to another. It also gave you the opportunity to engage in space battles and mission with your ship, giving the game a more varied way of fighting. You could even make your own crew and best of all; you could even take one member as your companion that aided you in fights.

Now on a more feminist note, I have to applaud the game for their portrayal of women. The female characters were no less clothed than men, wearing the same spy suit and the same jedi robes. That is one of its key points against Tera, where the girls still seem to miss key parts of their armor. Also, the female characters of SWTOR you interact with are all just as fleshed out as men. It really is a big step in the right direction of female portrayal in video games, at least in my opinion.

The bad things

For starters, I’d cross the “free to play” sign right off it. It felt like at every turn the game was grabbing for my wallet and urging me to pay for something. I fully acknowledge that games also need to earn money for maintaining their servers and so on, but when you restrict the gameplay like this, I wonder why you would even bother making the game free. At the very start, a lot of playable races are locked down and can only be obtained by becoming a paying member. Alright, I can live with playing as a cyborg and not a miraluka. However, then the game starts taking away more and more. Some useful skills like sprint or mount are pushed back several levels, making going from point A to point B incredibly tedious. There is equipment that monsters drop, but you yourself are not allowed to equip without paying real money first and even the basic feature like trading object with or sending letters fellow players is taken away. That was the striking point for me.

The other one is its combat. I don’t remember anything special about it. It was the tried and tested ‘click on enemy’ system that most MMO games use. It was alright back then, but after experiencing Tera’s combat I got spoiled. Another thing was that the enemies were usually grouped together. It wasn’t that bad since most of the objectives wanted you to kill off a massive amount of them, but the problem was you, the player, had no real means to avoid taking damage. The most you could do is build up your defense, get better armor and hit the dodge button every now and then. The fights usually left you with low health, making you either spend a fortune on med packs or making you wait for a long time between each fight to replenish your health.

Missed opportunities

Let’s move on. Remember those choices I talked about. Yeah, as the game progresses, that incredibly interesting feature slowly amounts to nothing. While it does make you follow the story a lot more than most other MMO games, the choices you make don’t seem to affect much. Your reactions are mostly forgotten. When it does matter for you picking the light or dark side, you even have little icons to tell you what’s good and what’s bad! It stops being about finding out which option is right or wrong, but a decision of: “Do I want my eyes to be red or white?” Yeah, the riveting moral grayness does not exist in this game, as you can see. Which is a shame as it would make the game so much more interesting to play. However, all you get is obvious, clear defined choices that are mostly about either killing a person for a bigger reward, or letting them go.

Conclusion

Star wars was a fun game to play for the time being, but now remains an unvisited icon in my game folder. All the buyable features along with the draggy combat and black-white decision-making really stared to get on my nerves. It is not a title I would recommend as it was back in the days of my brave jedi/sniper expeditions.

Plus size?

Ok, let’s get one thing straight: idolizing of body images has been going on ever since the first human learned how to draw a stick figure on the cave wall. From the Venus of Willendorf to The Birth of Venus, and all the odalisques that came after. Society has always had an ideal of beauty, and that ideal was almost always a woman figure after the Greek trend of muscular boys died out. It seems almost natural that every form of society has such an ideal. So why are we so concerned about how advertisements portray women today?

What this argument doesn’t consider is the unique situation present today that had no parallel in any other historical era. Information, mainly images, has never been so easily accessible or distributable as today. Billboards, internet, TV and much, much more. These are not just pictures hanging in an art gallery that only a few select groups of people might see, but viewable to everyone. Every gander, every race and every age group. When seeing an idolized image that often, its message stops being: “Oh, look how pretty this looks!” 

But rather: “You should look like that.”

That is why the major outcry over Cosmopolitan labeling a perfectly healthy model as “plus-size”. 

There is a theory why advertisement is the way it is, especially in the beauty industry. Many of you might have heard about it, but considering Cosmopolitan’s actions it is still worthy of being addressed. There is a lot of money to be made off of people unsatisfied with their looks. Cosmetics, clothing, dieting aids… All to help people achieve their dream of looking just like that (photo-shopped) lady on the poster. And if you make that image harder to obtain that the damn crown jewels of England, the more distort people will buy your product with magical slimming, rejuvenation or “health” effects. Misery makes money.

Thankfully, there seems to be a turn of the tides, as the internet also gives the people the chance to express their disapproval.

 

Register

If you ever learned any language, and presume you have since you are able to read this, you have probably encountered this little thing called register before. No, not the school register that Mrs. Frillybottoms used to see if you were skipping class that day. The dictionary definition for this sort of register is: “A variety of language used in a specific social setting.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com)

If there is anything I did noticed about register, its dynamic nature. What was completely unheard of some decades ago is now slightly frowned upon or even completely normal. Thus a person who might be the vision of good nature and manners today might cause a proper Victorian maiden to blush and call him an awful, unrefined brute. For example, in Victorian times, not only was it impolite to mention your posterior, but also just using words like “trousers” or “legs”, meaning that these words weren’t even accepted in the informal register of the more refined class.

However, register also isn’t unified for all languages. Just the language structure requires some attention. If I compare my own language, Slovene, with English, one notices a big difference in the way we address people. In modern English, saying “you” to the president is not considered impolite. In contrast, Slovene differentiates between two sorts of addressing people: “tiknje" and “vikanje”. (See? In English, these two ways of addressing don’t exist so I couldn’t even find the right translation for it.) Let me explain: in Slovene, the “you” with which you address your friend translates into “ti”- so “TIkanje”. However, if you want to address a person in a formal way, you use “vi” instead- thus “VIkanje”.

So there you have it. Knowing your registers also means getting that much closer to understanding the language. Direct translation can often be misleading, for dry words usually aren’t set in the bigger picture of the culture of that language. So, when learning languages, think about the words you know and how to use them in the proper setting. It might help you avoiding lots of sticky situations.

OMG, MMO!: Tera

Tera has to be my favorite MMO game, but I usually find it being shoved into obscurity and not get enough recognition. So here’s my review of the game.

The good stuff

What originally got me so hooked on Tera was the gameplay.  I find most RPG MMOs to be just a case of target-lock and all just a battle of skills and stats from there on out. The dodging done is mostly just displayed in the combat log with no real active effort on your part. Tera is different as it uses third person combat. Your character is still allowed to move to get out of harm’s way and even choose which side of the monster he’ll attack. That not only makes the combat more engaging, but also gives you a chance to minimize the damage taken and so avoids the annoying wait after each bigger battle where your character’s health points come literacy within an inch of your character’s life. Also, the game provides a “skill chaining” option, making you think about the best order to use your skills and attacks, chaining tem and then just activate them with one trigger button. It may not seem like much, but it can give you an edge in combat, and it also elevates the game from simple button mashing.

The other thing that really like in Tera is the design. It has pieces you’ll always attribute to the game, such as the building/tree on Island of Dawn when you first arrive, the beautiful night-time Pora Elinu or even the dark city of Castanica. I also like the design of the different races and while they can be a bit generic with pretty much four human-looking races (castanics, high elves, humans and elin), but they’re still done well. Regardless, there are still seven races to choose from, giving this game a bit more diversity than some other games I‘ve played where you’re stuck with just one. Better yet, each race does have its own story and its own homeland which you get to see in the game, enriching the experience. I still thought it was amazing when my castanic character finally arrive in Castanica. 

There is also a big diversity in classes as the game features 8 of them. Pair this up with the game’s dynamic gameplay and you’ll really be able to create your very own fighting style. However,  some classes are more challenging to play then others, so try to start from the bottom, especially if you aren’t used to MMOs.

Now, you might have compared all of this to some other games and said: “Only 7 races and 8 classes? There are games with a lot more like World of Warcraft.” However, unlike WoW, Tera is a free-to-play game. Meaning all of this won’t even cost you a cent. There are some additional items you can purchase with real money of course, but they’re mostly only for appearance as far as I’ve seen. I’ve played the game for some time now and never felt like there was a major aspect of it missing because I’m not a paid user. A lot of games say they’re free-to-play, but he free gameplay is severely crippled with some basic functions taken away like trading objects with other player (I’m looking at you, Star wars: the old republic). Tera is not such a game and that only makes me appreciate the producers more. They promised something and they delivered.

The bad stuff

I almost feel bad criticizing the game as you have to consider everything is provided for free, but I do feel like I should point them out.

The thing that bugs me most about the game is its crafting system. I mean, it works just fine; you gather items, you buy designs and materials and out make something out of them. Simple, but pointless when you actually take a closer look. Let’s make a little crafting list, shall we?

Take something basic, like the Airy vedracloth tunic, able to be used by priests, mystics and sorcerers above level 10. The sell value of this item is 1 silver coin, or 100 copper ones. We’ll use S for silver and C for copper for simplicity’s sake.

For this item you require: 2 vedracloths, one paverune of Anur and 2 apprentice armor kits (these kits you HAVE to buy as no monster will ever drop them and you will never receive them as a mission reward).

Now, you will have to make your vedracloths and for that you will need:  2 vedra fibers and 2 apprentice refining kits. (again, have to buy this kit too)

So, let’s calculate:

Starting off with the production of 2 vedracloths: 2x(2 vedra fibers (2 C)+ 2 apprentice refining kits (64 C)= 2 S 96 C (sell value of 1 vedracloth= 99 C)

Now for the tunic: 2 vedracloths (2 S 96 C) + 1 Paverune o Anur (5 C)+ 2x( apprentice armor kit (2 S 14 C))= 7 S 74 C (sell value of the tunic= 1 S)

To recapitulate: in the whole process of producing one tunic you lost 6 S and 74 C! Meaning there is no way you can make money off of crafting unless you find an extremely gullible player who would be ready to blow that much money on it. There are some, but do you really want to be that jerk, cheating people out of their money in a computer game?

This price might be understandable if the items you were making offered severe perks and were that much better than the items you would get under normal circumstances like looting or mission rewards, but they’re not. In fact, by the time you have earned enough money to actually dabble with crafting a bit, you already have a far better gear than you can make. So there is literally no reason to craft armor and weapons by yourself. The only slightly useful crafting option is alchemy, where you can craft your own health, mana and other useful potions. You will still lose a lot of money on them, but hey, at least you will be well prepared or battle. This is about the only thing that makes me go: “Hey, maybe I should give WoW another try.”

Missed opportunities

Not as much as what’s bad about the game, but more of the things I think would be really cool to see being realized.

Tera is really a beautiful game and nowhere is that more apparent than riding on top of your Pegasus, the game’s fast travel system. It is far better than just a simple loading screen. The Pegasus usually makes a small round around the city you’re departing from before flying into the portal that teleports him to portal nearest to your destination; where the horse gives you chance to see the new city as well. It’s really a nice experience, but lately I have been thinking that Tera is really a game that would really benefit from a flying mount. Everything looks so amazing and I would also like to see some other areas from the horse’s back. So I think that a flying mount would also be a welcome addition. I’m fine with it being restricted to maybe higher levels and the lower levels would still have to take the public transport like the envious freshmen on a bus glaring at the seniors driving around in their new cars. Yet, I’m aware that that would probably require some major re-confinements and I don’t think we’ll see the day where it happens, but if there’s a donation poll for a flying mount in Tera, count me in!

The other thing also has to do, partly, with crafting. This isn’t just Tera’s missed opportunity, but a lot of other games as well. The things you can make are pretty limited to weapons, armor and potions. The only game that also featured some other, more life-like skills like cooking, fishing and crafting medical supplies was World of Warcraft and I haven’t seen this ever since. Is there a WoW license on these skills and I have been committing copy right infringement every time I pick up a pot in the kitchen? I really don’t get it and I really miss it since it made the game feel a lot more real and Tera does feel real in a sense. It has a political system that I haven’t quite figured out and really am just voting for the guy whose avatar I find appealing (just like in real life!), and the community is pretty active. So adding some more ‘real life’ skills in would also make it that much more fun. It already encourages you to put up camp fires to recharge your stamina, so it’d be cool to spice of the wait with a friendly barbeque with your whole party. Hmm, now I just realized I’m dying to play a game that would be a mix between Tera and the Sims.

Conclusion

All that said, I still can’t praise Tera enough. It has great graphics, beautiful designs, addictive gameplay and a nice community to booth, and all of it for free! So I really, really prompt you to go download it right now if you have been looking for a game to play… and even if you weren’t. it would probably be time better spent than reading my blog. So, happy gaming!

Tera’s home page: http://en.tera.gameforge.com/news/index