Loading... Trail Blazing

[Ethec]

With wintry weather on many people's minds, today's Loading... looks at the strange similarities between cross-country skiing and MMO guide writing, and if you think it's a stretch, you might be in for a surprise!

Ten Ton Hammer's slate of MMO dev panels for New York Comic Con is now posted, with top talent like DC Universe Online's Jim Lee (yup, that Jim Lee!), Champions Online's Bill Roper, WAR's dynamic duo of Jeff Hickman and Paul Barnett, and many more! We also have our very last edition of Ten Ton Turnip along with six other Ten Ton Hammer exclusives for your perusal just a click away at Loading... Trail Blazing!

[Bansaw]

I don't see anything wrong with TTH game guides. Game guides are like anything else that you have a choice of indulging in. Country music, XC skiing, Cage Fighting, F2P MMO's, these are all things that some people enjoy and others don't. If a person wants to play an MMO with no prior information about class or zone or anything else for that matter, well then that's easy. Just don't click on the link containing the guide. Just like I'm to lazy to XC ski, I don't enjoy Country music, I love to watch people beat the snot out of each other in the cage, and F2P in my opinion is for people named Ralsu.

I have found the guides useful over the years. Sometimes it's good to do some research before leading a group of guild members into a certain instance. That way you know what your doing and where your going and everyone has fun. Other times it's good to research a class that your thinking about creating next time your online. Whatever you find them useful for there will always be the option to use them or to not use them.

[Vaebn]

I agree with what was said in the editorial, and with what Bansaw just said here, but.... (yes I'm sorry, I just gotta throw in the 'but')

There is an element that wasn't touched on, and that is how it effects the competitive aspects of various games. Those games where to be competitive at the highest level in PvP for example one has had to have completed certain content to have acquired certain items, or skills, etc. (not wanting to get in a debate about whether or not it should be that way, just acknowledging that it often is).

I can empathize with someone that feels annoyed when they've "trail blazed" for themselves to get that content completed and acquire what was at the end, but a bunch of others get the same result, and get it much faster, by just reading a quick guide that tells them what to do at every step.

That's another way the walkthoughs and guides can be a bit dicey for some people.

I was going to write out a long explanation of what I mean, but I'll spare everyone that hoping that was self explanatory enough, and explain myself further if someone needs me too.

[Finn]

When I first saw this, I thought "OMG! Oregon Trail is making an MMO!!" But alas, not the case.

[Sardu]

After writing a few guides for the TTH AoC site I can certainly respect the amount of work that goes into doing them well. Even for something seemingly simple there will be a ton of fact checking, data collection and otherwise just knowing that aspect of the game like the back of your hand... and all of that is before you ever get started writing. Otherwise, there's just a huge amount of satisfaction in passing on knowledge to other people who may want or need it.

As far as their overall usefulness for players, I do think guides serve some important purposes. An obvious one is helping people who simply don't have the time to invest in discovery in any other way. There's also loads of gamers out there who like to connect with Game X even when they're not logged in etc. Otherwise, I know I've certainly been completely baffled by a specific quest or even NPC locations in the past, so guides can help alleviate some of the frustration with vague in-game directions or whatever.