Them Old Times

I miss the days of UO where I would just explore, visit the same spots/dungeons and not be obsessed with getting to max level or even completing the next quest. I hope that happens when I start GW2 in a few weeks (waiting on a new internet provider for faster speeds).

Rabbit out of a hat

To create a sense of immersion, logic plays a key role for me.
It has to make sense; it can't always be as "its because its magic."

I was reading Syp's entry on ArenaNet's use of home instances in Guild Wars 2 and while it seems like great way to make a connection with the player (via in-game housing), the way it sounds like it will be implemented doesn't sound 'real.'

There will be an instance of this area in the capital city that you can visit and interact with other npcs. You can invite your friends there. People that aren't your friends will not be able to go, but still have their own instance of the exact same area? Will you be able to see them, or will it be fully instanced?

Is that supposed to be magic.. that you enter some sort of portal and you have your house and the people that you interacted with in your travels.. but in reality it only occupies a small space like in a magical bag of holding, and other people has a mirror or parallel universe/space like yours?

I think that is what made the housing in UO special; you had a house (if you were lucky enough to find a spot) which anyone in the game universe could visit and interact with. The drawback was that there was a huge population and only a finite amount of space available to purchase property.

With the technology of instancing, Arenanet was able to accomodate the player's need of personal housing at the cost of logic and believability; what is the logic that everyone has their own personal space that occupies an actual area in the game?

I guess it comes with the territory of pve; where in reality the quest has been done hundreds of thousands of times by many other players. Heroes you would call them. But when you do that pve quest, you are the sole person of importance: you are the only hero.

Going back to a personal instance that you and people you allow have access to, if this technology or magic is possible, why is it only that small area and not the whole world? A world where you are the most important person: the king or queen?

I look forward to the personal quest and the home instance provided in Guild Wars 2, i'm just saying from what i've read on it, it doesn't seem to be logical.

A Simpler Time

I can barely remember now these days what the UI in Ultima Online was like. Can you?
It was mostly a bare screen.. a radar/map..maybe your health & mana bar?

I never even had that many things open at one time.. only the radar and the screen was full, and not occupying the top left :P

Trion implemented a nice area map (via M) which goes transparent when you move which is a nice touch. I was thinking of maybe taking that a step further by making your whole UI go transparent whenever you are travelling. The only things that should possibly stay visible are instant cast spells, and possibly the radar. If you took damage, maybe your health bar would re-appear.

More appreciating the scenery than cuttering up your screen with gaudy windows and text.

Slow week going fast

Yeah that doesn't make sense.. a week where nothing really happens and you're just waiting for the weekend to come. Everything right now seems to hinge on my trip to the Bahamas at the beginning of January, but thats another story.

No real gaming news; WoW Cataclysm comes out next week; will NOT be buying it. YOU CAN"T FORCE ME!! lol It just seems too old an mmo, though I always have a hankering to play Ultima Online ;)

Haven't been playing much; been going through my photos that i've taken and getting rid of crappy or blurry photos. I did pick up Archon from Steam; its probably the only game that doesn't crash besides Civ5. I intend on possibly upgrading my RAM by Christmas.

I'm totally on Team Meat

Though PETA likes to have nude models to get their point across... Tie score.

No Room to Breathe

Is instancing overall good or bad?

These people that go into their own instances are removed from the actual game world. I like my game world to be busy and crowded. At the same time, I like having my own instance so there isnt' kill stealing, leeching, ninja looting and having that protection from being ganked.

But if everyone has their own instance, the world becomes empty.
Right?
Well, not necessarily; there will always be people who like to solo, or don't like/need to do things that require an instance. At the same time, its the responsibility of the developers to ensure the servers are populated to a degree so its not over-crowded or empty.
Its possibly the reason why Mythic recently introducted the Skaven to WAR; to get people out of scenarios and back into o-rvr. Nothing was worse/boring in that game than attacking empty keeps in zergs.. and even worst protecting a keep with an empty battlefield.. hence the beauty of cultivation and the mods for them... GOOOOO DYES!!

Once again, reminisce of a simpler time when there were no chat channels, where possibly the most populated place was the bank (it still is in a way) and b/c of that everyone hawked their wares there. The screen would be flooded with text. People had their favorite vendors and hangouts, there was guild housing.. and places that was normally deserted b/c it was out of the way, but still visited for the rare services they provided. I loved the city of Magincia in UO where the graveyard was always busy with people and undead, or the quiet of Yew's monastery and how exciting it was when people were actually there. Or letting out a sigh of relief when bogged down with loot from a dungeon and finding out the new comers to the dungeon were friendly and not gankers. The world was busy b/c alot of people were online and in the same area. The world could be empty but have alot of people online not because they were in their own private instance, but b/c they were somewhere else in the same world, making it busy in that area.