I’ve decided to group some stories from this past week into a wrap up article that we’re calling Week Reflection, including Facebook’s acquisition of the Oculus Rift, Guild Wars 2 announcing major system changes, and EverQuest Next Landmark going to closed beta. Let’s take a look at our reflection and see what we see.
Facebook acquires Oculus VR
This was the headliner, the big-time story this past week. Facebook has its fan base, but it also has its detractors – of which I am one. When they acquired Oculus VR – makers of the much-heralded Oculus Rift virtual reality headset – the reaction was loud and strong across the internet: this is going to be a bad thing for the Oculus Rift. My largest concern is Facebook’s invasive marketing, which I fear will make its way onto the Rift. The people with the largest beef are the original Kickstarter backers. They put their own money into supporting its development, and now many feel that their money was used, at least in part, in making this deal with Facebook. I don’t know how much of that is accurate, but I would be upset, too, if only because it feels like the Rift has gone from a crowd-loved, crowd-funded product to just another big-money company product. There was almost an indie air about the Rift, and that has been lost. However, not to be forgotten is that this gives Oculus VR much more funding, so theoretically this could mean a better product. Whether you like Facebook or not, you cannot deny that they bring money to the equation, money that will hopefully be used constructively here.
ArenaNet Announces Major Changes to Guild Wars 2
With the current storyline in Guild Wars 2’s Living World mechanism now completed, ArenaNet has decided that it’s a good time to overhaul a number of systems. They seem to be sticking to the philosophy of making things streamlined and rewarding the player instead of punishing them. From account-wide character wardrobes with the ability to change the look of your gear to any other look you’ve found, to the complete elimination of repair costs (though you still have to go to town for repairs, they are now free), to an total trait overhaul that includes free repsecs anytime and anywhere, I love the direction that they are going. Guild Wars 2 is my favorite MMO these days because it makes it easy to enjoy myself however I want and still make progress. The changes will take place on April 15th, and you can read all about them here.
EverQuest Next Landmark Enters Closed Beta
EverQuest Next Landmark, a building/resource gathering spin off of the upcoming EverQuest Next, is often compared to Minecraft, probably because that’s the easiest, most obvious connection. For me, I’m reminded of Second Life from back in the day. I haven’t spent much time with it yet, but you can register on their website for the beta. There are also a number of Twitch.tv channels where you can see it in action since there’s no NDA in place. I’ll have more on this once I give it some more burn.
That’s all that’s I see in this reflection. For everything gaming, hang around AAGH.