Tag: casual

Emblem Strategy for the Super-Casual

Update! This arti­cle is well-intend­ed but the truth has been revealed, and I guessed wrong. More infor­ma­tion in the arti­cle “Wrath Emblem Design Revealed”.

How­ev­er, it kills me to delete text, so I’ll leave it here any­way. Also as a reminder to myself that design is opaque.

Only raid or instance once a week? Won­der­ing what to do with those 25 or 30 emblems you’ve final­ly accu­mu­lat­ed? Like real-life mon­ey, don’t let those shiny tokens burn a hole in your pock­et.

“But, but, but how can I wait? Zomgepics!”

I know, I know. The siren call of zomgepics beck­on us all.

The emblem gear will (in all like­li­hood) be refreshed when a high­er tier of con­tent comes out, just like the Badge of Jus­tice sys­tem did in the Burn­ing Cru­sade. This means that your Emblems will (in all like­li­hood) appre­ci­ate in val­ue.

Con­tin­ue read­ing Emblem Strat­e­gy for the Super-Casu­al

If, If, Wait, Wait

My 10-month-old daugh­ter is sick, cough­ing, con­gest­ed. Con­fused. She does­n’t under­stand why my wife and I don’t just fix it. It’s impos­si­ble to explain that we would use this awe­some con­ges­tion pow­er on any­one but her. So, lots of sooth­ing, lots of grumpy dia­per changes, lots of naps inter­rupt­ed by vicious chok­ing on mucus. She final­ly goes to real sleep late in the evening.

Par­ent free­dom time! How­ev­er, said par­ents are absolute­ly exhaust­ed. Need to do some­thing before sleep, though. We’re not par­ent-bots.

“Hey, you know what would be great?”

“No, what’s that?”

“Want to do some dailies? Just to relax for a few min­utes. Get you clos­er to that rep sword.”

“That sounds good!”

Ok then! Let’s log on for fif­teen min­utes or so and do some dailies.

Position in queue: 429
Estimated time: Calculating...

The cal­cu­lat­ed time end­ed up being twen­ty-four min­utes.

Back in the days when we were sit­ting down for a three or four hour block, a twen­ty-four-minute delay was just a minor irri­ta­tion. But now, we’re (try­ing to) log on for a half-hour or even ten-minute ses­sion. A twen­ty-four minute wait? It’s the whole thing.

This got me think­ing.

Con­tin­ue read­ing If, If, Wait, Wait

Expansions, Side Projects, and your Guild

Every time new con­tent becomes avail­able, it’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty for change in how each play­er approach­es the game. When the con­tent is as sig­nif­i­cant as an entire expan­sion, it can mean an influx of play­ers in the most obvi­ous way: peo­ple com­ing back because they want to see that new con­tent.

There’s a sec­ond, much small­er shift that hap­pens as well, for both the peo­ple who have been play­ing all along and their guild’s lead­er­ship.

Con­tin­ue read­ing Expan­sions, Side Projects, and your Guild

Everything is Always Moving

There’s a fun­ny thing hap­pen­ing in my guild.

I logged on late the oth­er night to hope­ful­ly luck into a quick instance run (did­n’t hap­pen), and there were four peo­ple from my guild on. I did­n’t rec­og­nize any of them. I vague­ly remem­bered read­ing some­one’s app from a lit­tle while ago, but that’s all. I mean, I’ve seen them around, but this is the first time I had ever logged in and not known any­one who was online.

“Well, new guildies are good for the guild,” I thought.

How­ev­er, these peo­ple were chat­ting with each oth­er over /g, and they all seemed to know each oth­er pret­ty well. Even though I did­n’t know them, it was obvi­ous that each of them was a good fit for the guild. We have a strange and fun guild cul­ture, and it was obvi­ous that they were steeped in it.

It felt like walk­ing into my liv­ing room and find­ing four very friend­ly strangers there.

Con­tin­ue read­ing Every­thing is Always Mov­ing