June 2005 Entries
Got nothing. Real life calling. Going walkabout.
One of the key fascinations with EVE Online, for me, is the Market - the vast and complex sprawl that makes up the (mostly) player-driven economy. Much in that game revolves around making money. Due to the unique way their experience points system works, the concept of 'Level' as understood in other MMOs is by and large, totally irrelevant as a measure of progress or success. Instead, bank balance tends to function in that role.
I've mentioned various ways to go about becoming wealthy in previous posts, but last night I decided to look into manufacturing again, an activity I hadn't...
I was wandering around town at the weekend, on various unrelated errands I'd been putting off for a while, and enevitably ended up in the local computer game shop, "Game". They have a chart in there, in the PC section. I'm not entirely sure on what basis positions on this chart are calculated, but am not naive enough to suppose it's purely on 'copies sold' - almost certainly there's an element of 'what we'd like you to buy' to the whole thing too.
But regardless of method, I was suprised to see no less than five MMOs in the chart, which...
Not sure how long this has been going for:
City of Heroes: Free Trial
...but as regular readers will know, I'm a sucker for anything 'Free' in MMOs, so expect more in-depth details once I'm done with Project Entropia, but City of Heroes is one I've definitely wanted a look at for some time.
I've never really been into the whole Marvel/DC Comic collector thing. I'd say it's an American Cultural Thing, but I've known avid collectors here in the UK too. While I've no desire to get embroiled in the pedantry of what makes a Graphic Novel different to a Comic, all...
Remember school? Sitting in Maths lessons, trying to force your brain to do all manner of complex and unnatural things with protractors, cosines and triangles. I don't know about you folks, but I distinctly remember thinking to myself, at the time, that this trigonometrical voodoo was all very interesting and all, but that I couldn't see any point in my life where I'd ever find a practical day-to-day application for it, beyond end-of-school exams.
Well, it turns out I was wrong, and the practical application, oddly enough, turned out to be Massively Multiplay Online Gaming. Who knew?
Anyone one who has ever...
I've always been rather awed, and not a little frightened, by the continuing tradition of the SOE Fan Faire. I've never been, you understand, and am never likely to go, but each year, the photos come back:
EQ2 Warcry: Photos
EQ OGaming: Photos
EQ2 Fan Faire Board: Photos
And many others. (Pay attention, MMO Art Directors - this is what Real People look like! Take notes.)
The idea that players of any online game can be so enthusiastic that they not only travel thousands of miles for The Gathering, but then dress up like their character when they get there disturbs me on a number...
Well this is new:
BBC News: Rentable Heroes Go On Sale Online
The whole system of buying and selling characters, and by implication accounts, is a murky but long established tradition in online gaming, what with eBay and Sony Exchange, but now we can rent level 50 characters? Good grief.
BBC didn't have a link, as the whole thing seems indefinably illicit, and against seven shades of EULA for most games, but I think it's these people:
GamePal Internet Gaming Services
I merely include the link for pointing-and-laughing purposes, because no matter how many official-looking logos they have in the footer and how clean-looking...
So my Project Entropia adventure begins. I'll do a proper review in due course, but already the novel payment system warrants further scrutiny.
The client downloads for free, and there's no monthly sub. So far so good, but as the hardened cynics out there know by now, nothing is free. I created my newbie, apeared at the spaceport in a natty orange 'Guantanamo Bay' style boiler suit, and imediately went through the basics; you know, 'walk forward', 'run toggle', 'locate monsters', 'start shooting', etc. And that's when the problems began. It turns out, as a newbie who has deposited no dollars...
So our EVE Online checklist so far consists of not going outside of 0.5+ space, and not joining a guild. However, these two might not be enough, because of the way law enforcement works.
Like Real Life, there is actually nothing physically stopping you walking up to a stranger in a busy town center and killing them. You can do it, but you'd expect to be seen, reported, arrested and put away for a very long time, or excecuted, depending on local legislation. None of this helps the person you just murdered much though - it's mostly to create a deterent...
It's that time again:
Planetside Stratics: Dev Q&A
When you see as much ill-informed and shamelessly biased messageboard soapboxing as I do, you really start to appreciate hearing what the people who actually matter have to say, so these are always quite interesting. This time around, the focus seems to be on balancing the Air Cavalry units, and not before time, if you ask me.
Planetside is largely based around the ideal of combined arms action, at least in theory anyway - infantry, transport, armour, aircraft, and yes, even the big stupid robots, all working in a co-ordinated capacity to get things done....
More fearless consumer research here:
Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates: Free Trial
Duration: 10 'non-consecutive days' (i.e. having a day off won't cut into your ten.)
Client: Retail (Web driven Java Thingey - Size: tiny, even on dialup)
Credit Card Required: No
(Mac and Linux versions available - bonus points!)
To be honest, this all started as a bit of a joke review really, but soon suprised me by being a well-rounded, complete and functioning MMO, albeit a simple one. The basic preimise is that you are a...
No, not a witty and insightful piece on Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and Next Gen Consoles - it's EVE Online again. I try not to bang on about the same thing two posts in a row, but the only other news of note today is the introduction of Elves to veteran sprite-fest Ultima Online, and my feelings on that can be summed up with one long sigh of reproachful dissapointment. Could be worse though - it could be a Mecha-based expansion instead...
So, regular readers will now have a picture of the EVE Galaxy, composed of three areas; The wild open frontier...
I really should know better than to read the 'General' board at any MMO website forums by now. A great deal of what I see there makes me alternately angry and sad, and the worst part of it is that it often has no bearing or basis on what the Developers and Producers of said MMO have in mind for it's future at all. Mostly it's just a lot of anonymous hotheads trying to create the impression that if the game is not already a thing that comforms exactly to their own ideas, it will enevitably become so very soon.
This...
Last night I finally gave in and admitted a dissapointing truth. I don't play Everquest II anymore, and indeed, haven't logged in for some weeks. Time to uninstall and move on.
It is a shame though...I did want to like it, and for a time, did. The graphics were good, some of the most fundamental gameplay problems with the previous generation of MMO had been looked at and addressed, and they had spent an awlful lot of money on voice acting. It would almost be chirlish not to like it really. Also, I picked EQ2 instead of WoW, so felt that...
Interesting interview piece here:
MMORPG.com: Project Entropia Q&A
Project Entropia has been going for some time now, but I don't really know a lot about it. On the face of it, it's just a variation on the Anarchy Online theme, but with the big gimmick of a directly linked real-money to game-money economy. $1 buys you 10 Game Dollars, or vice versa.
Naturally I first saw this announced, back in the day, giggled a bit, made all sorts of self-righteous snortings about 'Games Should Be Free' or similar, then moved on and promptly paid $15 a month for the next ten months for...