So, I finally applied to The Guildhall. This is something I should have done (or rather, completed) 2 years ago when the end of my RPI career was nigh. At the time, I didn’t really want to do more schooling, I just wanted to work. Mighty good plan that was. Instead of mucking around training myself the things I didn’t learn at RPI, I could be done with it already, and be far ahead of where I am now. No use dwelling on it though, I can only hope I make the cut. I am anxious to get back into making games.
Aside from that, I have made a few updates, mostly in the Graphic Design section. There are more updates to come, of course, just need to decide how I want to organize everything. I also realized that I don’t have my resume posted! What? Who does that? Making a portfolio and not posting your resume. Need to update it anyway.
The buzz in Champions Online right now is about the giant “Melee Patch.” It’s not what I was hoping for, certainly, but it’s not bad. Instead of doing away with mechanics that don’t function well, they have instead been streamlined. Unfortunately, the whole mess is still very mechanically weighed down, so the game continues to function more like an elaborate thought exercise than an Action Oriented Massively Multiplayer Online Game. I honestly feel like I’m playing a game that is some Master Student’s Systems Design Thesis, rather than the brainchild of a veteran MMO company. I completely sympathize that Champions is a risky endeavor — nothing quite like its open selection, classless system exists — and that balancing the monster is going to be tricky. Sometimes it feels over-designed, though. I feel like the power design could be slicker, instead of having mechanics that require very particular powers to capitalize on. For instance, the changes to Bountiful Chi Resurgence — allowing it to do extra healing on Dodged attacks. I really like the idea of this, but in practice, only a few powers and power combinations are going to be able to capitalize on it, which bogs the free-flowing, open selection system down.
Don’t get me wrong. Champions provides a set of tools that allow you to do some very cool and fascinating things, but it requires quite a bit of thought and experimentation to get the most out of those tools. It’s not as newbie friendly as Cryptic was hoping, I think.
