Daily Archives: May 24, 2012

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38 Studios goes under, but the industry response is encouraging.

So 38 Studios announced a company-wide layoff today, and the closing of Big Huge Games, due to financial troubles.  For those who don’t know, 38 Studios was a promising company founded by MLB pitcher Kurt Schilling, due to his passion for MMORPGs.  They released Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning back in February, but unfortunately, it didn’t sell well enough to recoup the costs, and the sad result is before us now.

However, there is a glimmer of something that I want to focus on.  Following the announcements, 38 Studios was flooded on Twitter by other studios saying “by the way, we’re hiring.”  As sad as it is to see a studio go down, times like this remind me why I love the video games industry.  This list was compiled voluntarily for the employees, and includes over a hundred currently-hiring studios, from the huge names like Microsoft, Ubisoft, Blizzard, to medium ones like our beloved ArenaNet, to tiny studios like High Voltage.

If you don’t know, the video game industry can be rough.  Really rough.  Getting in to begin with almost requires you to already have studio experience, and even with that, you’d better be good at networking.  Once you’re a part of the industry, employees tend to be shuffled from position to position, game to game, studio to studio like so many playing cards, and as today reminds us you never know when an entire project will be canned and you’ll have to find someplace else.

So it’s amazing, truly amazing and heartwarming, to see the studio outreach today.  I just wanted to point that out, and give proper honor to you great guys and girls in great studios reaching out to help a colleague in a bind.  Thank you for your work and your humanity.

Everyone from 38 Studios, I wish you luck.  I think you’ll all be just fine.

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New Dynamic Event: Centaurs invade the Underworld!

So a few nights ago, a few friends (TriggerSad, Sharn_Vendeta, and damagedself) decided to try an Underworld run. We ultimately didn’t succeed (damn you Talhkora and your over-aggroing ways), but we did have a lot of fun. A lot of the chat we had on skype was about Guild Wars 2 and things from it we missed – such as the fact that we couldn’t jump (would have been very helpful at some points) and couldn’t dodge.

And then Sharn used his Zhed tonic, said “New dynamic event! Centaurs are invading the Underworld!”, and it got me thinking.

I would really, really love to see the Underworld as a dungeon in Guild Wars 2.

Now, nothing as silly as “centaurs are trying to take over”, but, honestly, how cool would that be, to be able to see how the UW has changed in the 250 years since GW1? I mean, obviously things are still active there, considering how portals to the Underworld will open up all over Godslost Swamp, where the Black Curtain and Temple of the Ages used to be. Aatxes are among the things that spawn from the portals when you destroy them – yes, those same Aatxes. And then there’s the Shadow Behemoth itself, that may break out of the Underworld and needs to be defeated.

It seems to me like things in the Underworld have worsened since Dhuum’s awakening.

I also think it’s an area that would benefit heavily from a GW2 upgrade, in terms of game mechanics. The Underworld in GW1 is a twisted maze that’s not easy to navigate, by any means. So many times we found ourselves looking down on where we needed to go, wishing we had a z-axis so we could just jump down. Also, the area is already set up as a chain of quests; imagine how neat it would be if those were replaced with a series of dynamic events, with things changing depending on what you did. Of course, as it would be a dungeon it would be instanced, so if you did ‘win’ a specific area you wouldn’t have to worry about respawns coming along to destroy all of your hard work. The presence of waypoints would also greatly help out here, as there’s nothing so frustrating as spending two hours clearing things and completing quests only to die and get kicked back out.

I think that if we get extra content between expansions, some of it will likely consist of a new dungeon or two. I really think that the Underworld as a dungeon would be great for that sort of thing, and I doubt I’m the only person that would want to see that old haunt return with an upgrade, and how things have changed over the years. What do you think? What area from GW1 would you like to see return in some manner?