TennoCon, Travel, and Online life

I'm not sure where this one is going. My wife and I just got back last week from TennoCon 2025 ... TennoCon 10 and the trip was an absolute blast as it has been since we started going in 2018. (Note- 2020-2022 there was no physical convention as it was digital only due to the Pandemic but they still had an event even if only online) ... For those that don't know TennoCon is the annual convention hosted by Digital Extremes in their home town of London, Ontario for their game Warframe (Which I've talked about before) and now for their new game in development, Soulframe. It is a celebration, not just of the game, but of the community and the development team, where they give talks about the making of the game(s), and about the plans for the future of the game(s).

But it's also more than that, because the community that surrounds the game is amazing, great creators and amazing players that all share a common bond in Warframe. 2024 saw them expand the convention to two days, Friday and Saturday (Prior to that it was only a Saturday event), with registration, early Merch access and a party on Friday night before the main convention on Saturday. This year was much the same, but they expanded Friday a bit to include some of the autograph times, the Cosplay Contest (And some absolutely amazing entries this year I might add), and this year was a full blown, first ever, TennoCONcert. (The full TennoCon Cosplay, Concert and Panels is up on YouTube at LINK)

That's the OFFICIAL stuff ... but that's only a part of what TennoCon means ... Meeting friends from around the world that you only get to spend time with at the convention. Hanging out and talking about the reveals and announcements in the park Sunday afternoon after the Con is officially over and the Devs and Voice talent coming to hang out and chat with the players and fans. Many of us come into town early and leave late, for me this year it was 8 vacation days from work, time to relax, and see and hang out with friends that I hadn't seen since 2024. If you play warframe go to a TennoCon the energy there is amazing and invigorating ... if you don't play Warframe ... Have you tried Warframe? It's Free to Play on all platforms (except Android currently ... so PC, XBox, PS, Switch, and iOS) with cross-play and cross-save now.

Don't get me wrong, TennoCon has it's trials. Traveling is expensive and, since it's an international trip that creates it's own headaches, not to mention hotel, eating out, etc. The last few years have also had some trials with ticket sales ... namely they sell out FAST. London, ON isn't a huge city the convention center is good, but it can only fit so many people. This has a lot of fans calling to move to a larger venue such as Toronto. That bring another set of logistic issues, the London Convention Center has an advantage in that it is quite literally across the street from the Digital Extremes offices. Part of me wants to see them grow the convention further, make it even more of an event, and that will likely NEED a larger space ... They got the stadium this year for the Cosplay contest and Concert ... but unless they make that the main stage for TennoLive on Saturday as well, I'm not sure that it's a practical venue for the Con as a whole. But another part of me doesn't want them to leave London. So many of the traditions of the Convention are tied to local landmarks, restaurants, and, of course, the Sunday hang out at the park.

The announcements this year certainly have my interest, the upcoming expansions, new stories, new characters, and new abilities make the rest of 2025 and into 2026 a bright future. And the Roleplay rules coming in October will give me something to read and consider as well. Warframe is still growing, still innovating and evolving and I'll be very interested to see where it goes....

Had a great time there, and came back and the wife and I were feeling a bit nostalgic so we went back old school, and I mean WAY back ... we went back to EverQuest our first MMO. Just out of curiosity I looked today and Klikhizz, my main character and the character that my blogs were kind of based around, was created on July 9th 2000 ... so he just turned 25 this year. Now we started playing a little before that, we had played on other servers and I believe that Ralit was my first character on Torv. (I don't remember the full spelling, we all just called it Torv and it's since been server merged into Cazic-Thule ... rather fitting actually.) ... But even that was a coincidence ... My wife and I had characters elsewhere, but for one reason or another the server that our characters were on was down when we went to play one night, and, if I remember correctly, Torv was a newer server, having just launched in April 2000 with the release of the Ruins of Kunark expansion, so we went to play over there ... and, ultimately, the rest IS history. Because we found a community there and over the next several years, helped build it.

We played EverQuest solidly until their 8th or 9th expansion ... so Late 2004 or early 2005. I don't remember if we left before or after Dragons of Norrath launched if I'm being honest, and we've played off and on since then. Often coming back for anniversaries or several of the Progression server launches. To be honest I was shocked to realize that it was only 4-5 years that we played solid, it felt like so much more. I still have online friends that I made in that game so long ago, some I've met in real life over the years, some I never have managed. Many I've lost touch with, but still think about, still wonder what ever happened to them, how they're doing. 

Of course we played EQII when it came out, and we enjoyed it. We re-formed the Scales of Pain, or original guild on EQ, and did quite a bit of content in that game, though we didn't play nearly as long and haven't gone back nearly as much. I mentioned before that EQ was, to me at least, the MMO that got most everything right, it was a sandbox and we built a story in it. (For the record, my wife and I did not start the Scales of Pain in EQ, we joined it and made it our family, she was made an officer, and later I was made Guild Leader ... I'm happy to say that the original founders told me later that though I changed the guild drastically they loved what I made it into and thanked me for making it what it became ... since then I have always considered the Scales mine .... of course a little of that is Klik's arrogance and confidence 😜)

I mentioned EQ: Next in earlier rambles here ... the elusive EQIII ... I hope it comes out, and if/when it does I hope that the developers do it right, go back to the original design and make EQ as a modern sandbox ... with a modern unified UI because coming back to EQ ... that UI is ... *shudders*

December 2024 saw EQ launch their 31st expansion "The Outer Brood" ... all expansions up to the 29th (Night of Shadows) is included in their Free-to-play part of the game, and purchasing The Outer Brood includes Laurion's Song, the 30th expansion which raised the level cap to 125. Certain features (such as the better NPC mercenaries, certain AAs, Spell tiers, and the like are put behind membership, of course, but that is to be expected in all honesty, though I DO wish they'd cut back on how often the 'upgrade to member' pop-ups came up during gameplay. Still, the wife and I are playing and enjoying the nostalgia, exploring some things we've never done and remember some things that we have done in the past. Remembering old friends, good times, and frustrating times ... and wondering how in the HECK we managed doing a lot of the things that we did without voice chat ....  

 

Graphics and Gameplay

I don't know if I've done this rant here before or not, but let's go anyway. Amazing realistic graphics generally makes for crappy games. I'd call that a 'hot take' but honestly I don't really think it is .... I think there's a good portion of people out there that will agree with me. For so long the large studios have focused on graphics, making things more detailed, more realistic, more polygons, better textures. And, in many cases, the actual gameplay suffers. Harder to visually process, and harder on computers, requiring upgrades, more memory, more hard drive space, longer loads. My wife and I picked up Space Marine II on the Steam summer sale. And don't get me wrong I love the game ... except the load times .... any game where my wife and I want to play co-op and the day starts with, let me launch the game while we're eating breakfast so it can load to the main menu to save time ... is a problem. Though, personally I'm confused as to why it needs a 5+ minute load time just to get to the main menu .... followed by another 5+ minute load time to get to the mission hub, and then a 5+ minute load time to start the mission .... what in the Emperor's Golden Light does it need to load for that long to display the freaking main menu? You can probably minimize this with a SSD, but that just goes into my point of making games that require the end user to have high end gear or upgrade ... it's a part of the problem facing the game industry as a whole.

 

I've also been going back and playing Ghost Recon: Breakpoint ... an older game ... absolutely beautiful game no doubt about it, but would it have killed the team to have worked on movement a little more? I'm not even talking about the passive cover system that causes me to stick to a wall rather than walk through a doorway because I moved too close to the wall at an angle before reaching the door .... I'm talking about the fact that an ankle high curb stops me unless I wait for the 'climb' prompt ... or to cross over a fence I can only do it at certain places ... nope can't cross the fence there ... there's a gap and a board at a 45 degree angle that would be easy to cross in real life, you have to go to where the fence is full chest height and straight across the top because that's the only way the animation works ... why? Because we spent more time making the foliage of a make believe pacific island that has tropical forests, swamps AND snow covered mountains look real, rather than actually making our movement smooth and realistic in the world. We won't let you cross a board at an angle because it won't look good ... never mind the fact that moving at a crouch means your weapon's barrel is embedded in the ground and looks bad .... but look at that tree .. isn't it the best tree you've ever seen? .... Well at least it's load times are minimal and once you're in world you're done with them.

 

Breakpoint suffers from some other minor issues ... it's an open world game and I'd guess the map is a scale 15k square but absolutely packed with enemies all over the place and points of interest and objectives to a realistically absurd degree. Thankfully the PvP mode is its own thing and can be completely ignored in the game itself, it takes place on it's own maps with it's own objectives and rewards.

I know I said at the beginning that high end graphic games are crappier, and I haven't really made that case as both of the games mentioned actually have pretty good gameplay. However, I would argue that had they backed off the graphic budget and spent some of that money in other areas of the game they could have made an even better game, with smoother gameplay that was also accessible to a greater number of people. And with modern systems you wouldn't even have to tool it back that much. There were games 10 years ago that I still think are 'realistic' enough ... no, they aren't as 'realistic' as the cutting edge games now, but we could have stayed at that level of graphics and I highly doubt that anyone would really be complaining that it didn't look good.

Also, arguably, games with a more stylized look age better because the look isn't trying to be real, it doesn't have to compete against games that ARE trying to be real. Where as a game 20 years ago trying to look real, held against a modern game with the latest graphics isn't going to hold up. 

Assassin's Creed Syndicate released in October 2015 and I dare say that most people would still be more than happy to play a 'realistic' game with those graphics. Or for that matter, Fallout 4, Witcher III, or Batman: Arkham Knight ... All were cutting edge in 2015 and while, yes, I can see some rough edges on them compared to modern games of the same caliber, but I would argue that if games had stopped pushing graphics at that point (or maybe even before it got TO that point) as arguably Assassin's Creed III from 2013 also had solid graphics 

The race to 'better' graphics has lead to increased game size, as the graphics are the largest part of a game, as well as increased memory requirements, and an increase in required GPU capability. All for a part of the game that, while visually appealing, generally is one of the least important factors of a 'good game'. Graphics don't make a game good, there have been plenty of games with 'great' graphics that have been crap because the rest of the game was just not there. Graphics can improve the game, increasing immersion and adding a level of polish, but if the gameplay itself isn't engaging the game as a whole suffers. Gameplay, story, I would argue that even audio can be more important to a game than graphics ... this is NOT to say that they are unimportant but just that I believe that the focus on graphics has been detrimental to the industry as a whole and why, of late, I think that the smaller studios have actually been having more success as they often tend to have more stylized or just simpler graphics over all, but have a lot more focus on gameplay and story. 

If you've been a regular here you know I'm a fan and regular player of a Free-to-Play game known as Warframe ... launched in 2013 and it has had a few graphic updates over the years, but even still there is an ongoing joke that you can play it on a toaster. Their graphics are great but also highly optimized for performance. The game is incredibly fast paced and even older systems can play it and keep up. This is what games should be aiming for more than the bloated, overly detailed, and resource hogging mess that many of the major studios have been making. We've had launches with major performance issues many of which are graphics and rendering related. Graphics need to be good enough to display what's needed to play the game, but we don't need to be able to see the threads of Spider-Man's suit ... Style is also important but let's be real, Fortnite is STILL one of the biggest games out there and it is a very cartoony stylized graphics that is easy to render and doesn't require the latest GPU and top end system ... Hades one of the big hits a few years ago likewise, stylized animation style graphics, we don't need photo realism ... and in most cases we don't really want it .... use the budget better, gameplay, story ... maybe take some of the graphics budget from several projects and use it to work on even more projects. If you need a bleeding edge system to play your game at release you are limiting your market ... back off ... use graphics tech that was bleeding edge 5 or 10 years ago and is more stable and mainstream now ... you'll likely have a more stable game out of the gate AND a larger market as more people will have systems that can run it.