TERA the political system
“It’s not just action combat! There’s also BAMs! And the political system!”
BAMs are semi-boss fights. They look interesting, but they’re still just combat. And I’m not interested in putting in the effort to “run for office” or whatever you have to do. So sure, it’s got a little more than action combat, but that’s been the primary talking point, and the other 90% of the game still looks more or less the same.
Now, toss in where TERA appears to be regressing, with a poor storyline, no battlegrounds at launch, and an apparently long grind to get to the “fun,” and the question is: Why should I play it?
“Because you’re press and you have to play to get a reasonable idea of what it is so you can talk about it.”
I am press… sorta.
Six months ago, as the editor of a magazine, I could have called En Masse Entertainment’s PR director and gotten a free copy of the game and probably a multi-month subscription. Now? I’m just a freelance writer for a site with about a dozen freelance writers, so I don’t really enjoy those kind of privileges.
For the foreseeable future, I’ll probably be paying for my games, same as the rest of you. And I only want to spend my money on things I figure I’ll enjoy. You can hardly fault me for that.
“But you can get into the beta now! For free!”
I also only want to spend my time on things I figure I’ll enjoy. Do I have a professional obligation to play it? Only if I also have a professional obligation to play EVE Online, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and any number of other games that I’ve barely or never played that I’ve covered in news hits or on TWIMMO.
Fortunately, I have 218 hours every day to — oh, hang on.
I try to avoid “claiming” hits for games I don’t know, at least where significant knowledge of the game is required; TWIMMO’s a little less forgiving, as the topics are picked out usually independent of the hosts’ knowledge, but we all make do as best we can.
I’ve also watched several people’s livestreams and videos of TERA and before you come up with Counterpoint 5.5 along the lines of “play it yourself, don’t listen to others,” I don’t see how my experience would be a whole lot different. I don’t need to personally wait for a boss to respawn while 20 people are waiting for it or read bad quest text on my own monitor or wait five minutes for my health to refill after a fight — all things I’ve seen on others’ streams.
Think of how many games you’ve probably watched on livestreams and thought “Wow, that looks cool, I might check that out!” Then there are games you’ve probably watched streaming and thought the opposite. And I highly doubt that you’ve never based a purchase decision for a game solely by seeing it being played, seeing a trailer, reading about it, etc. If you’re not going to play everything extensively, in demos or a beta, before making a purchase, then don’t ask me to do the same.