Misc.
Ramblings unrelated to any particular game.
Found myself quite inspired by Zubon's challenge, over at Kill Ten Rats. Expressing some dissatisfaction with an awful lot of Wheel Reinventing in recent years, he's asking we, the Citizens of Blogsville, to try our hand at reviewing a game from before 2003, and in particular, one that has seen no updates since that time.
I thought about it a bit; EVE Online almost qualifies on the first, dating from 2003, but what with its monstrous ongoing free expansion schedule crashing on with Quantum Rise pretty much as I type, it fails on the second criteria. Anarchy Online, Ultima...
Not every day I get a scoop like this, being one of those folks who does this sort of thing for personal catharsis, the ability to set my own working hours, and of course, no remuneration at all. But this week I managed to take some time out of being ill enough to be grumpy, (but not ill enough for professional medical help, or any kind of sympathy,) to actually play a Alpha MMO Test Client. I don't remember having to sign anything NDA-ish, and am far too thick to imply one, although to be fair, one...
Hello all! I don't tend to do this a lot, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Over the last few months, I've been having increasing troubles being booted out of my online games. Mostly this had been happening in Guild Wars and Tabula Rasa, so I initially assumed it was some problem with NCSoft - perhaps those titles in particular are more finicky than most with dropped packets and suchlike. The trouble with this kind of troubleshooting exercise though, is that there are just so many links in the chain, between me and my Mesmer and/or Grenadier,...
Looks like my plans for world domination are coming along nicely! Since setting up this Google Analytics thingie some months back, I'd largely forgotten about it, to be honest. While it is indeed gratifying to know that a fair few people are actually reading this stuff, I think I mostly do it for the act of doing itself - keeping my hand in on the writing thing, and also just a kind of diary for my own future reference, and inevitable senility and/or nervous breakdown.
Its a fascinating place though, if a tad narcissistic; not so much the bog-standard stuff,...
Regular readers will by now, know that I have a rather unfashionable vice. Everyone has at least one, those awkward quirks in otherwise good friends, those little things that you don't approve of, or like, but put up with out of a greater sense of comradeship. We put up with them because we hope the the favour will be returned, I guess. Mine, or at least one of mine, is an enduring fascination with [Name Removed For Legal Reasons], an online virtual world where users are encouraged to build things, sell them, show them off to friends, make a...
I'm sure you're all dying to hear all about my latest and recent PC upgrade, and some point last week saw me elbow deep in circuit boards, PCI-E slots and all manner of faintly organic and intestinal-looking disk drive power-cables again. It's a process that always makes me faintly nervous, mostly due to my vague understanding that Static Electricity is Bad for Microchips, and a taste for cheap shoes and a man-made fibres often causes me to...arc somewhat, near metal. Opening the case of my pride and joy then, causes me to fret tremendously, and...
Is this thing still on?
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I've been at this for quite a while now; both the blogging and the online gaming, and I suppose in many ways, for me they've become somewhat entwined. I don't know what it is that makes me feel that I have to play a bit of an online game, and then go away and bang out thousands of words on what happened, here. Partly, I think its is a kind of self-justification - I spend a lot of my free time plinking away at some made up and arbitrary task set for me by a group...
Oh! Hello! I seem to have vanished in a deluge of holidays and such like, partly giving myself a few weeks off, and partly wallowing in the throes of a fairly savage bout of Seasonal Blues. All very maudlin and the mood takes me from time to time; dark soulsearching hours in which I wonder whether I'm not just a big fat cheat, whether I ought to be playing online games at all, and whether I have any business writing about them on the interwebs. Holiday gaming was mostly EVE Online and Guild Wars this year, with both...
So! Guild Wars then! Ah-ha! Tuesday N00b Club and such forth! Weeeeeeell...I'd like to talk about my experiences in my customary manner, you understand, but things didn't go exactly as I'd have liked, and... look! One paragraph down! A three-headed link post! An interesting aside found here: Tobolds Blog: Massively on PotBS crafting In which Tobold peruses a decent interview piece in the relatively new online magazine thing Massively, which is quite growing on me, but is no substitute for for an RSS Reader stuffed full of Halfarsed and Ill-Informed Opinion! The particular nugget I noted is almost incidental...
Its a bit silly, I know, but I've always been rather jealous of this kind of thing to be perfectly honest: Kill Ten Rats: Recent Searches In which Zubon uses Arcane Sorceries to magically divine what people have been typing into Google, to lead themselves to KTR. Its a popular format and often very amusing, (and/or worrying), but I've never quite had the wherewithal to actually do my own chicken-entrail readings successfully, and get out a list of strange things people type into Google, which lead them here. For those with a technical bent, the sometimes elucidating ramblings of Van...
All quite annoying really, but in a somewhat sit-com-like fashion, various Real Life events have all conspired to take out not only Tuesday N00b Club this week, but also the inaugural attempt at a similar "Monday Infamy Club" of sorts, in City of Villains too. I think the plan was that our little gang of petty hyper-fellons were going to try and approach the 'Strike Force' chained story missions in a similar vein to the ongoing Guild Wars: Factions plot, and then I was going to ramble on about it at length here, for the delectation of the insomniac, the bored-at-work,...
Today's post is brought to you by the number Four! You know this stuff is getting out of hand when I've had to make up a special icon for it, and to be honest, I'm with Tobold on this particular one. Still, I've not yet gotten around to the Ambassador's Reception at the SL Swedish Embassy thing yet, and have nothing better to write about just now, so here goes... Four Fun Facts about The Number Four: Four is the only number in English that has it's own number of letters in it's name!...
Bit of a lazy three-day weekend here, and yet again, not much MMO to ramble about. I find myself in a bit of a 'calm before the storm' at the moment. Done with free trials for now, and yet with the exception of Guild Wars and Second Life, (both free to play) not really obsessed with any of the more traditional MMOs at present. Mostly, I feel like I'm waiting. For what, I'm not quite sure - probably whichever out of Tabula Rasa or Pirates of the Burning Sea gets here first. I hope it's Pirates, mostly because I've finally...
Apparently, there are other things to do on the Internet than play Guild Wars: Factions, it seems. Normally I have several different little things on the go at once, but to be honest, right now it's just various campaigns in Guild Wars, and my usual low-grade minor tinkering in Second Life at the moment. For those who are interested, (and not many are), I'm currently spending my time in there seeing what I can do with these interesting and well detailed solar system planetary survey textures, with vague ideas about creating some kind of working orrery. Purely a fun...
Fascinating discussion here, and quite possibly one of the longest blog post titles I've ever seen:
Broken Toys: See you in Ultima Online… no, Shadowbane… uh, DAOC… hey, SWG… wait, Horizons…. Vanguard?… Darkfall! YEAH! Totally see you in Darkfall, newb!
In which Scott picks over this gem of an opinion piece at Darkfall Warcry. Now I don't really know a lot about Darkfall, which is perhaps an error on my part, but I can't quite remember the last time I was called a plebian, mouth-breather and moron all in the same article! Well, not me personally, but according to Redmorgan, there are...
Just a quick plug, in case dear reader, you haven't seen this yet:
1UP.com: News
Specifically, look for the Massive Update: Weekly MMO News pieces, which I seem to have trouble permalinking, so you'll have to scan the list manually. These have been going for a few weeks now, and are the work of Michael Zenke, of MMO Nation, are definitely worth a read.
Of course this is partly shameless reciprocal backslapping backlinking, as he seems to link to yours truly on an alarmingly frequent basis, down there in the 'What People Are Blogging About' bit, but also I can't help be impressed...
Oops. A mere day after my Operation Cheapseats mini-review of Auto Assault's 14 day free trial, this news, found via Tobold's comments (Yes, yes, I was ego-surfing; no-one is perfect!)
Auto Assault: News
Which all goes to answer the mildly curious question I had a couple of posts back, 'How can they afford to keep Auto Assault going?', the answer to which seems to be 'They can't.' All a bit of a shame, as noted previous; it's not a bad game, by any stretch - just a rather quiet one.
Interesting seeing the various comments on this blog and others, from those that did...
All a bit quiet here at the moment, being in something of a between-games lull. There's the weekly Guild Wars: Nightfall thing of course, and I'm still quite captivated by this unusual Not-MMORPG, and there's a lot of mileage left in it. Perhaps the rationing is a way to preserve the games we love to love to death, or something. Second Life continues to fascinate, but is largely an exercise in trying to figure out the arcana behind Sculpted Primitives, and doesn't make for particularly interesting reading.
So failing anything else, here's a picture of my gaming space, as demanded by...
Interesting link brought to my attention, here:
MMOGData.com
In which we learn of a new attempt to pick up the baton dropped by the long absent SirBruce, over at the somewhat dusty MMOGChart.com, a widely perused reference for those of us who, like me, have a rather embarrassing Numbers Fetish when it comes to all things MMO. SirBruce himself was last seen in Shanghai, boarding a twin-prop cargo plane full of chicken crates, being piloted to two sinister-looking Chinamen, heading for the Nepalese Himalayas, and is even now, destroying the evil Thugee Cult, and liberating the Shankara Stones. Probably.
Actually, I can't...
How about this for Quote of the Week:
'...but Garriott emphasizes that the traditional trading of blows while keeping a sharp eye on your health, shortcut bars, and not much else is just "not great gaming."'
From an article about Tabula Rasa on 1UP.com, (found via Virgin Worlds), which largely seems to be an early preview of the getting-quite-close-to-real SciFi MMOFPSRPG thing that Veteran MMO Beard, Richard Garriot has been working on for the last few years. I deliberately didn't delve too far into the meat of the article, a hands-on look at what Tabula Rasa is actually like, partly because I'm...
News of another MMO Release Delay here:
Pirates of the Burning Sea: State of the Game 04.27.07
(Via Potshot & TCSG)
In which, via a somewhat charming admission, Flying Lab admit they haven't quite got a handle on the whole Retail Thing just yet, which is fair enough, them being an Independent operation and all, and so are going to postpone the launch until they can negotiate with the Evil Game Distribution Cartels and get some kind of boxes on the shelves. I'm quite looking forward to this one (it's even on my list!), which is odd, because I don't really know much...
Why does everybody suddenly want to hear what I have to say these days?
And by that, I don't mean it in a figurative sense, as in read my blog and consider the ideas sometimes presented here. No, I mean literally, hear my voice. It's always been a constant low-grade irritation for me, probably dating back from my first days in a proper Planetside outfit. Those didn't last long mind you, but often I'd be nagged at to 'get on TS', as if me suddenly being able to hear the vague and general non-specific warnings and orders would in some...
Interesting observations here:
Raph's Website: The Game Without Treadmills
(Via Virgin Worlds)
In which I am reminded why Raph Koster has quite the guru status he does. The piece is short, relevant and to the point, and basically explains why the Treadmill we all supposedly hate, is unfortunately, quite necessary in any MMO that hopes to be a big hit. It particularly struck a chord with me, because I've seen exactly the phenomena described first-hand, in my month-by month flitting from title to title.
Being "In The Industry", and so on, I expect he can't point fingers at particular titles very easily, but STILL...
I'm not sure what I was expecting really - a scene from memory mostly, which no longer exists in any real sense, nor is likely to ever again. It was glorious once though; the eastern plaza of Omni 1 Entertainment; the bustling vibrant hub of a busy world.
This was five years ago, I suppose. Anarchy Online had been released long enough for various patching and tweaking to have been done, and even a bit of a rewrite of how textures worked in memory - compression and the like, I think. I forget exactly, but there was a big progress bar...
Bah...another of those chain-letter tag blog things again, courtesy of The Podnosticator. You know, when I'm done here, I think I'll track this one back to it's source and have a Very Stern Word with them about attention seeking. Anyway, I'm afraid of curses, misfortune and ill-fated happenstance, so here's my five things:
Five Reasons That I Blog:
1) I have a terrible..thing....you know...that you use to remember stuff with, so it helps to write stuff down.
2) For reasons that are far too complicated to go into right now, if I drop below two thousand words a week, this blog will explode,...
Somewhat spontaneously, and for no particular reason more pressing than sheer nostalgic wallowing, I found myself downloading the veteran freebie Anarchy Online Basic Client yesterday. I'm not sure what it is with me and Free MMOs, but I've always had somewhat magpie-like tendencies when it comes to free-to-play client downloads. Oooh! Free! YOINK!
I'm also interested to see how badly these older titles conflict with Windows Vista, being ever the online masochist, although this weekend's gaming was good...only one Blue Screen of Death all weekend long! Score! I'm quickly developing a flinching aversion to installing anything on the new PC that's...
This bank-holiday weekend saw the arrival of the latest in a long line of gaming PCs in the Van Hemlock Household. My somewhat accidental Second Life success has finally, and quite improbably, been turned into a real and concrete payout, which runs somewhat contrary to the general opinion of the place I'd both formed myself, and seen talked about a lot elsewhere - furry, cyber, casino, pron, etc.
All the more surprising then that in about four months, my invention, which I'm still not going to identify here, has been popular enough that I can buy a new PC entirely...
And so the days turn to weeks, and the weeks roll over and over and become churning months and weary years, and WTF??? Q2 2007 already? zOMG! Ultima Online is 10, Everquest and Asheron's Call are 8 and Anarchy Online is 6, and I've played them all, for approximately as long. In spite of this, I'm seem to be showing no signs of growing up, getting a life and transferring my obsessive addictive compulsive tendencies to something more respectable like Playing Golf, Watching Television, or Solitary and Determined Alcohol Abuse.
Idle chatting one night in the EVE Corp recently, ended up...
More good omens, and gathering momentum for what I hope will be an almighty High Fantasy RPG Backlash some time soon, along with subsequent Renaissance, with a fascinating GDC interview over at Virgin Worlds, with the chaps behind the upcoming Stargate: Worlds MMO, in production and possibly due out this year:
Virgin Worlds: Podcast #60
Must admit, I'm quite keen on the idea of a Stargate MMO, as it does rather seem to be the kind of idea that can't go wrong. If it's good, it's good, and if it's awful, in all the ways we all know only too well, it's...
Ah, now here's some news I can get a little hyperactive about:
Gamespot: THQ Forging Warhammer 40K MMOG
(via MMODIG)
Looks like the already tried and tested partnership between THQ and Games Workshop, which brought us Dawn of War, and Fire Warrior are going to have a crack at the big one, an MMO based on, in or around, the sprawling grim darkness of the future that is Warhammer 40K. The Unbeliever is excited, and damnit, so am I, in spite of the carefully constructed veneer of jaded indifference I maintain to appear cool online!
I'm certainly interested in the much more complete and...
Thank god...news! I've done absolutely nothing of memorable note at all, online, in the last few days, so was all set to grind out a half-arsed opinion piece on that whole EVE Online Cheating Devs Fiasco, (of which I know nothing about, having not played EVE in a year, not been in any of the corps mentioned and never having owned a Tech 2 BPo), when Turbine obligingly lift the Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Closed Beta NDA. Huzzah!
This signals the start of the main phase of the Traditional MMO Launch, as all us blogfolk start having...
Another month, another Carnival, which is now 21 already, making it eligible to drink beer in the US, or stand as a Member of Parliament here in the UK, where we've already been drinking since 18! (Three years being the accepted length of time to develop the really good alcohol problem considered helpful for representing The People in this country, or something.)
Jason Preston: Carnival of Gamers #21
All sorts of interesting bits and pieces there...off you go!
By all counts, the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes beta Non-Disclosure Agreement has been lifted, and indeed, the whole thing has been opened up to anyone with a File Planet subscription now, allowing our intrepid amateur war correspondents to get in to the action and get word out to all us mildly curious bystanders about what this much speculated-on title is actually going to be like.
Or at least that's the theory anyway. Personally, I hate the idea of an 'Open Beta Test' - the word 'Test' is typically omitted these days, and this rather neatly hits the nail on the head....
Michael at MMOGNation got me, but I've been waiting for an intervention for months anyway:
Five Things You Might Not Know About Me:
1. I once made headline news! It was the front page of the local paper, in connection with the discovery of evidence of 'occult activity'. The expert the police called in was particularly convinced by the discovery of diboloical markings (drawn from memories of Ultima Underworld 2 spell runes) and a burnt offering (A mixture of damp charcoal from a nearby barbecue, and sweet-n-sour sauce from a Chinese takeaway). A somewhat ill-advised evenings larking about after pub kick-out. I...
Perhaps the most startling piece of MMO news that fell out of Google Reader when I shook it down for last weeks news, was this one:
Saga of Ryzom: Important Information
And
Saga of Ryzom: The Latest Update On The Ongoing Situation
As of writing, this is the last thing we’ve heard through the official channel of the Ryzom main site, although I’m sure things will develop. As far as I understand it, the basics are that Nevrax, a French company whose one and only product seems to be Saga of Ryzom, is going into receivership. I’m not quite sure what the American business...
Is it that time already? Where do the weeks go...
Unfettered Blather: Carnival of Gamers #19
I'm always a little surprised how many completely new faces emerge each month on the Carnival list. I guess this internet thingey is really quite large!
It's carnival time again:
Man Bytes Blog: Carnival of Gamers: Revival!
You know what you have to do...god, no no no! Take that tutu off! I mean the other thing you know you have to do! Go read!
Obsessed as I am with a hobby which largely revolves around try to suck as many bytes of data from the ether, so that I can stare at them, and then spit some slightly modified ones back out again, I’m always keen to find new ways to increase the power of my hoovering apparatus. I’m not really that technical though, beyond the basics needed to get online and stay there, so am generally quite wary of immersing myself in the Overclocking Culture, reasoning that the gambling involved – the chance of a better PC versus the likelihood of as PC...
Oops...my bad. This is a few days old now - clearly I wasn't paying as much attention to matters as I ought to. I'm not really a very good primary news source, thinking about it:
GU Comics: Consumer Alert Lifted
Only fair to kick up as much of a fuss about the problem being fixed, as I did when it was caused. We at Van Hemlock do not condone sensationalism! From the look of it, EI Interactive, North American operators of Horizons, seem to have sorted out a more secure and proven payment solution than the one that got them in this...
Carnival time again folks, so fire up the invisibility-suit and skulk on over to Cheap Ass Gamer:
Cheap Ass Gamer: The Carnival of Gamers - (Issue #17)
Remember; Control Console, Spawn Room, Generator, in that order! There's only 18 of 'em, so we should be able to clear the thing. Try to read the whole article before tapping out, and keep an eye out for AMS trucks and paradrops! Johnny Blogger has eyes everywhere!
I'm repairing our turrets!
Quite a fascinating section on Prognosticator’s latest podcast.
Virgin Worlds: Podcast #24
Of course the whole thing is quite fascinating as well, but it was the 2Moons bit that got me banging my head of the desk in stupefied awe. Further details can be found in text-form here:
MMORPG.com: 2Moons: Game Announced & David Perry Interview.
I’d not really heard a lot about the game up to now – a quick perusal gives the impression of being just another Korean Grinder. I hope it’s not prejudice on my part, but on the whole, I’m not too enticed by that particular school of MMO design,...
Bit of a Public Service Announcement here:
GU Forums: Consumer Alert: Horizons Billing Concerns! (8/2)
(And accompanying cartoon)
Woody strikes me as something of a professional and not the sort given to outrageous rants and vitriolic hyperbole, and indeed, even carries adverts for Horizons on his banners now and then, so something must be *really* wrong for him to just warn people to flat-out stop playing in this manner, and then not explain why. I can only imagine it involves some kind of monumental cock-up at the billing end, one that could be used to steal real money somehow.
This doesn’t bode well for...
Checking the URLs very carefully this time:
Next Generation: E3 Finished as Big Exhibs Pull Support
Ars Technica: E3 game trade show not cancelled, but will be downsized
(via Broken Toys & Slashdot)
Seems like the high point of the gaming industry calendar is starting to wobble a bit, with a number of the bigger names deciding not to bother next year. It's hard to tell what the real picture is there, amid the somewhat purile journo pissing contest, but regardless of who you believe, next years's E3 is likely to be a much more low-key affair than we're used to hearing about.
Now, I...
Heh...here's one for the 'What Took You So Long' File:
CNN.com: SOE President files restraining order against customer (Via Virgin Worlds)
I'm suprised we'd not seen something like this before, given the dangerously unstable and obsessive nature of many of our bretheren. In this case though, I doubt the guy is dangerous, merely being ironic to the point of self-destructive irritation. We at Van Hemlock do not, of course, condone hunting game devs and producers down in the Real World and leaping on them naked, yelling "Give me your perfect seed!" - that kind of thing should be left to...
Good grief…how long was I out? Did I say a couple of weeks? I meant, of course, a couple of months. What should have been a simple enough job, of getting my internets moved to my new flat, swiftly developed into a nightmarish exercise in trying to beat bureaucracy at it’s own game, with it’s own tools, in a protracted series of phone calls to my ISP, British Telecom Customer Service, British Telecom Wholesale Division, OFCOM – the UK Telecoms Regulatory Authority, and basically anyone else who would listen, and the whole thing quickly degenerated into a farce not unlike...
It's RL moving day tomorrow, and the usual arseing about with ISPs, so its all going a bit quiet here for a week or two. There's plenty of hot sidebar action to fill in for me in the meantime though - I know how fickle you all are, and many of those links are at least as good as me!
I shall mostly be trying to stay sane with everyone's favourite MMO 'Nicotine Patches', Oblivion and Morrowind, with a light dusting of Tron 2.0 if needs be. I've also never actually gotten around to installing the two Neverwinter Nights expansions, and...
Is this thing on? Well, that was quite a weekend, and I'm not even talking about the Monsters of Eurovision Rock Festival either. Much as I enjoyed seeing Lordi run roughshod over traditional European Musical Values, I had problems of my own over the weekend, in the form of a particularly vicious 'Spam Ragnarok' on the old comment threads, here in my inner sanctum itself!
At one point, the poor blogging difference engine was being hit once every six seconds by some poisonous server in linking to a drug resale site registered some place in South America, and in the end,...
Here's some news:
MMORPG.COM: Shadowbane New Home: Stray Bullet Games
Looks like Shadowbane gets a second chance, at the last minute. Four days after it's scheduled demolition, it seems that most of Wolfpack Studios have been rehired/reformed as this new 'Stray Bullet Games' outfit, and Shadowbane lives on to fight anther day.
As the press release explains, it is now an Independent title, freed from Ubisoft, who clearly didn't think highly of the thing in the first place. It's a mixed blessing - on the one hand, the team now have total creative and financial control over the game, which can only be...
Well, that’s E3 all done again I guess. I didn’t get invited, again, but pretty much all of the links to the left have something to say about the thing. My personal recommendations for E3 coverage:
Aggro Me
Kill Ten Rats
Grimwell Online
And an excellent humorous anecdote about bodyguards and shouting at:
Broken Toys
It seems few of ‘our people’ were really impressed by the event, which by all counts seemed mostly about Consoles, less about PCs, and even less about PC MMORPG.
Highlights included the WoW Alliance race revealed at last. The ‘Draenei’, who bear no resemblance to the mudhut-dwelling mobs of the same...
Oh, go on then:
Slashdot Games: Sigil Drops Microsoft
And our little bit of the internet goes berserk again as one of the most messianic promised lands for the hardcore MMO gamer bounces from one of the most conspiracy ridden corporate names in computing, to one of the most reviled names in the MMO industry.
To be honest, I’ve not really been following Vanguard as closely as I ought to, being of that age now where the idea of a bloody tooth-and-nail struggle for progress and self-worth looks less and less attractive as a way of wasting my remaining spare time. Easy mode...
Has it really been a year?
Buttonmashing.com: 14th Carnival of Gamers
Carnival time again, and this time it's back to where it all began, with Tony's original idea and inaurgural organisation at Buttonmashing, a year ago. The caravans return once more to the very first site, and the show is as strong as ever, with 21 offerings, in diverse categories, from the thought-provoking, to the ridiculous, (that would be me, then...).
Head on over and take a pick, and here's to another year of continued success!
Van Hemlock Associated Examining Board
MMO Proficiency Basic Certification – Theory Paper
This examination will make up 50% of your final grade and should accompany a two-hour practical examination in a live internet environment to make up the final grade. Calculators may be used, but full working out should be shown. The paper consists of 20 multiple choice questions in four sections, all of which must be answered. Time allowed for the paper: 30 minutes.
You may turn over now.
Section I – Language
Define each of the following commonly used MMO terms:
1) “aggro”
a) A citizen of the nation of Aggronia
b) To gain the attention...
Looks like we're needed!
Mischiefblog: MMO Survey (found via Nerfbat)
I'm a sucker for surveys, and can usually milk an entire blog post out of my answers! It seems the only people who have filled in the survey in any appreciable numbers is the entire player-base of World War II Online, which is going to make for somewhat bizzarre reading in any context I suspect. So in an effort to prevent Advanced MMO Theory papers being written from the first-hand experiences of Squadron Leader Fossington-Smythe and Generalfeldmarschall Von Trapp, head on over and tell them a bit about your game. Fill out...
Well, that’s new:
Auto Assault: Veteran’s Awards (Found via OGRank)
Bonus loot drops for block bookings, it seems. Another day, another experimental Additional Revenue Stream, I guess. Auto Assault is only a few days old and already it has Veterans, which seems rather odd. Still, I it was only a matter of time, and it’s already the commonly done thing to give away special shineys for pre-orders, and indeed, an Auto Assaultist who preordered and then stumps up for six months worth of motorised mayhem now gets +2% cash drops, +2% loot drops and +7% chance of the loot being magical…er…’enhanced’. They...
Oooh...back from the dead!:
MMOGChart.com: April 11 Update
And I thought SirBruce was gone forever! The charts go to Nov-05 now, and more updates promised. For want of proper numbers, which people rarely give out, it's an interesting read. Looks like it was a good few months for EVE Online, Second Life, Puzzle Pirates, RuneScape, Final Fantasy XI, and of course World of Warcraft. Not so good a quarter for Lineage, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, The Sims Online, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane and Horizons. It does rather seem World of Warcraft has in fact pulled new gamers from thin air, rather than, as...
From the post-bag:
Hi there.
I also stumbled across your blog, a couple of times infact, during my sad trawling expeditions for Raider Wars.
A little while ago I snapped, and now I'm modding Allegiance into Raider Wars. Since this blog is like the only active site except mine that has anything to do with RW anymore, I decided to spam it. Watch... !
You can see the ongoing results of my delirious crusade here: Raider Wars: Epilogue
Whee! Wasn't that fun?
-phreec
A comment in response to this previous post.
Not only am I going to hold off the ever-vigilant comment-thread spam-pocalypse cleansing fire, I thought this...
Well, with my resubscription to EVE Online, something else had to go. In any event, I wonder if playing four different online games at once is at all healthy, or indeed feasible. My current smorgasbord tendencies with MMOs mean that I end up skimming a lot of titles, but not actually getting anywhere in any of them.
It’s probably a commitment thing. I like variety, certainly, but many MMOs seem to punish people who like that. It’s gotten better in recent years certainly, but at their core, the majority still have a basic repetition exercise as their main way of progressing...
Shocking collection of print-screen dumps over at n3rfed!
n3rfed: Carnival of Gamers Online
It's this kind of practice that means I try to avoid saying, or doing, anything online ever. You never know when last night's ill-advised confession is likely to become tomorrow's general forum hilarity, thanks to the magic of the 'Prt Scr' button. Nothing to fear from the above link though - it's actually a very clever format for presenting the...er...thirteenth Carnival of Gamers! Go see, but as usual the standrard warnigs apply: If you alt-tab while in a hectic courtyard defense on Esamir, you deserve what you get. Best...
My local branch of 'GAME', on the ball as ever:
Van Hemlock: Latest New Releases!
Yes indeed, that is a real copy of the Asheron's Call 2: Legions expansion - there's actually two there. This pic was taken on a friend's mobile phone last Tuesday. Now I know, and you know, that Asheron's Call 2 is dead, rendering that particular box there, about as useful as an AOL CD - i.e. Will keep coffee warm for a reasonable length of time, but is no substitute for a real cork coaster. That CD cannot function.
I'm guessing someone missed a memo somewhere along the...
This just in:
“Dear Anarchy Online player,
We have agreed to participate in a program to measure results of advertising
in Anarchy Online. If you would like to participate in this survey, please
visit the link appropriate for your country of residence below and answer a
few questions regarding your impression of the ads. There is also a chance
to win a certificate worth $100.00 (in local currency) for use at local game
retailers for those who choose to enter!”
And there were a bunch of links to websites on domains I’ve never even heard of. Assuming for a minute that this isn’t just an elaborate phishing scam,...
Well, that’s me flummoxed. I’m sure you’ve all seen this by now:
Blue’s News: Shadowbane Free
At first glance, I figured this was just another MMO joining the growing ranks of the currently in-vogue movement away from monthly subscription, be it pure box sales - like Guild Wars, long-term free trial - like the any-day-now Planetside: Reserves thing, or just gaming sponsored by advertising - like the Anarchy Online Basic package now. Turns out its even more revolutionary than that – as far as anyone can tell at this stage, they just can’t be bothered to charge anyone any money for it...
It's Carnival time again:
Virgin Worlds: Carnival of Gamers March 2006
I was going to attend, but my tux was at the dry-cleaners. Another excellent line-up - head on over!
Wailing on message boards is all very well, but it’s not often you get MMO game devs actually asking you what you want from their game:
MMOSite: Anarchy Online Design Survey
Now’s your chance to be heard. The 15 free accounts competition bit needs a MMOSite login, but you can still do the survey without bothering with that bit. For want of anything better to write about, I’m going take you through some of my answers!
Recommendations: Well, that’s part of what this blog is all about, so I’m on firm territory here.
I gave the basic game 6 – it’s a bit dated...
Ha!:
Kill Ten Rats: Bust the Cap
Yes, well done you. It seems that pre-order players of Dungeons & Dragons Online have ‘won’ already, despite the fact that game is only just going in to the shops for the rest of us to buy as I type. Clearly the beta test previewer estimates of two to three months of content were generous. I’m not sure what I’m expected to feel…admiration? Pity seems to be nearer the mark.
The chap there seems to have raced out of the pre-order starting gate, dug in and ground like a man possessed, having min-maxed all the quests...
Carnival time again, this time at Games.Slashdot:
Games.Slashdot: The Carnival of Gamers
Frankly, I was dubious about this when it showed up in the Buttonmashing list (link on the left), since their usual comment thread response to any mention of this ongoing project is a not particularly subtle blend of ridicule and dismissal, leaving one with the impression that Slashdotters are just too cool for blogs, and indeed, school. Come the day, and my apprehension seems to have been well served, turning up a comment thread of people who would probably be a lot more relaxed if they didn't make themselves regularly...
If Science Fiction has taught me anything, it is that when you find yourself in a spacesuit, on a distant and shattered world, shining a flashlight through the ruins of an alien civilisation obviously far more advanced than your own at it’s height, and you come across a big tomblike chamber in which stands a single solitary lever/button/box/coffin/crystal/etc, covered in strange writing and surrounded by alien skeletons, and murals of alien skeletons, LEAVE IT THE HELL ALONE!
I just thought I’d get that gem of advice in now, in the hope that it’ll sink in, because if the people imagining...
Ouch...looks like the long anticipated Dungeons and Dragons Online is out of NDA then:
Aggro Me: Not Impressed
Kill Ten Rats: Somewhat Indifferent
Tobold: Content Concerns
Penny Arcade: Tentative
Virgin Worlds: Scathing Roundup
Etcetera, etcetera. All in all, a mixed bag, tending more toward...er...Chaotic Evil than Lawful Good. The chiefest concerns seem to revolve around the current shortage of content, with estimates placing around 1-2 months of medium-to-hardcore powergaming gameplay in the game as it stands. Other problems seem to be an almost total lack of soloability, a complete dependence on instance pick-up grouping to get anything done at all, a somewhat stale and un-inovative setting...
I never came here looking for Orcs.
Or Elves, or XP, or Treasure. It must be getting on for at least seven years now, since I started the self-destructive spiral that began with Everquest, back in 1999, but I was an online gamer, of sorts, before that, and it certainly didn’t used to be about firing my magic missiles at the darkness back then.
My very first real go at ‘online gaming’ was through the Microsoft Gaming Zone, which amounted to little more than a bunch of Chess and Tetris style games, and more importantly, a matchmaking lobby for proper games with...
Carnival time! You know the drill...
Kill Ten Rats: Carnival of Gamers X
All kinds of good stuff there. Go see!
And so another year draws to a close, a year which, by most Normal People’s standards, I’ve essentially wasted playing computer games. Personally though, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, and since I’m off for the seasonal hols today, and won’t see you all again until 2006, what better way to end the year than a gratuitous highlights flashback episode! One of the neat things about a blog, is that the back issues are all filed away automatically, requiring no extra effort on my part. 2005 then – click randomly in the Archives (left), to play along at home…
January: SOE offer the...
Just one more quickie then, before the weekend:
Slashdot Games: Err....riiiight.
I'm not quite sure what to say to that really. Conclusions to be drawn as this weekend's homework!
Aaaand, I'm spent!
Live Update 1.74
World
Added new respawn points at B3 and E5.
Added bank and inn at G4
Split up the market on D4 to prevent lag. Casualwear can now be found at the E5 street-market, and plumbing supplies are now available in each race’s Factional HQ, at D8 and E1 respectively.
Updated terrain for squares A4, B5 and D6; this is to prevent a possible exploit. All squares should now be completely square.
New: The Plains of Conflict! Expand your game in ways you never thought possible, as the Plains of Conflict lay ready for war! New squares at J3-M6 contain mystery and peril, and...
This just in:
Dear Neocron customer or beta tester,
Seize this opportunity and test the brand new add-on for the action sensation among the MMORPGs, NeocronEvolution 2.1 completely free of charges for 10 days.
The name Neocron still stands for first-person, dark-future, cyberpunk, massive-multiplayer action. And now a new, improved evolution of Neocron is available.
Main features of the free add-on are:
- brand new, highly detailed weapon models
- completely redesigned vegetation of the Wastelands
- new dungeons, quests and creatures
For more information, the new client and everything...
It's Carnival Time again, this time courtesy of The Game Chair:
Carnival of Gamers #9: Classifieds
(Nine already!)
Must admit, this is a blog I'd not seen before, but it seems to be a much more well-designed and broady scoped look at diverse aspects of gaming than I ever manage, featuring news, reviews, articles and more. I wonder at what point a blog ceases to be a blog and becomes a webzine, or magazine proper?
Anyway, The Game Chair is definitely at that end of it all, and the current Carnival is extensive, with twenty different articles, some from old favourites that are...
Interesting piece here:
Gamergod: Brad McQuaid on Instancing! (via Slashdot)
Brad McQuaid (a.k.a ‘Aradune’) was one of the original minds behind the first Everquest, and is now, with Sigil Games, working on the forthcoming Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The article is pretty much a game design white-paper, and quite heavy going, but focuses on the various pros and cons of Instancing, vs a wholly shared world. It’s a fairly fundamental choice of gameplay design, and the impression one gets from the article, is that on the whole, McQuaid seems quite cool to the idea of Instancing, particularly in the case of Vanguard,...
Seems to be National Xbox 360 Day in the US today:
BBC News: US gamers lay hands on Xbox 360
Yea, and there was much grumbling about ‘cores’. Seems there’s two types of 360, one that has all the bits, and one that sucks, and they sold out of useful ones. I must admit, I know very little about consoles in general, being something of an old-school traditionalist when it comes to my gaming, and seem to have by passed the console thing entirely.
My gaming history:
Sinclair Spectrum +2. My first ever computer, it used audio cassettes as a data storage medium,...
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually introduced any of the links I whimsically refer to as ‘Monster Hunters’, over on the sidebar there. Terribly rude of me. As the term implies, these are all people who like me, follow the goings on of MMO gaming; be it as players, journalists, developers or mere academic interest.
Of course hardly any of them are paid to do so, and they are only human after all, so levels of interest and writers block come and go. I don’t actually know any of these people – at least not in the conventional...
Some weeks ago, it was announced that online gaming in China was to be restricted with a kind of reverse 'resting' system, for all MMORPGs.
Van Hemlock: The Definition of Healthy
For want of any healthy useage guidelines from my own government, I've decided to take this on-board, and game like a Chinese person from now on. I suppose the point of living in a western democracy is that you're free to regulate your own life and habits, but I wonder with MMO Obsession and Addiction whether a helping external boot up the arse might not actually be quite helpful in keeping...
Mystic Hemlock speaks!
SCORPIO Oct 23 - Nov 20
A good week for new encounters and a pick-up group may end up giving you a lot more than you bargained for. Generosity with loot rolls will be repaid a hundredfold. Characters with misspelled Anime names will be lucky for you.
SAGITTARIUS Nov 21 - Dec 20
One respawn too many will leave you asking yourself a lot of meaningful questions, and a change maybe better than a rest. Look out for new Open Betas, as it may be time to strike out anew. Don’t roll a melee character in your new game.
CAPRICORN Dec 21...
I love stats, and so does this guy:
Next Gen: MMOG Player Trends Detailed (Via Slashdot)
Theres a few of these doing the rounds now; The Daedalus Project, The Bartle Test, and this chap’s one, Project Masive, and aside from being obvious Doctorates In Progress, they do offer some quite fascinating ‘Gamers Under The Microscope’ insights. Well, they fascinate me anyway.
I’m not entirely sure how these kinds of microcosmic psychological field trips can then further be applied to the Real World, and I doubt World Peace is something that can come from World of Warcraft, but for better or worse, I do...
On a somewhat lighter note:
The Seventh Carnival of Gamers
Go see!
And we have a winner: (via Slashdot)
Erotic MMO Targets Female Audience
My god...I'm not entirely sure what to say. There was me, cackling with glee at the thought of how badly an MMO based on Star Trek could possibly go, and then someone comes up with an idea like this. Reading through the article does little to answer the main question I have; which would be "What the hell are you thinking?", but the basic premise seems to be that women don't like conventional pr0n, like men do, but would prefer something more interactive - obviously, an MMO is the answer!
Frankly...
Some new news here:
Via MMORPG.com: STO Devblog
They have ten people on the job now, and still hiring. I’m not an expert, but I’d guess it probably takes a few more than that to design, build and run an MMO – particularly one based on a franchise with that much baggage. Sounds like a general ‘Hi, we’re still here!’ shout, the kind you make in lieu of the screenshots being ready to flaunt.
I do kind of want to play this one actually. I’m not a Trekkie, or Trekker or whatever; I’ll watch it if it’s on telly, but won’t go out...
Rather curious initiative here, via Stratics:
Horizons: Military Appreciation Program
I'm not quite sure what to make of that. MMO Promo campaigns come and go - hell, I managed nearly three months on 14-day free trials eariler in the year and by no means exhausted the stock available, but I've not seen anything quite like this. The deal seems to be a free second account, if you have a '.mil' email address.
Whether History will look back on the US as a liberator or oppressor is is a whole can of worms I'm not touching with a ten-foot barge pole, but regardless of...
At last, back online! Predictably enough, it turned out that online gaming in reality wasn’t nearly as good as online gaming in anticipation, but on the whole it was okay, with most of the weekend spent sending ‘Hey! I’m not dead!’ tells and catching up with those few online friendships that do survive my fickle interests and innate unwillingness to form lasting attachments.
I blame a lot of it on levels – your best friend in the whole game one week, may end up a busy powerful end-game raid leader the next, and the relationship turns to one of occasional chat-text...
When I see a title like this:
Five Ways To Save Video Games
(Found via AFK Gamer)
…I can’t help but bite. For a start, I had no idea that Video Games were in danger, but was instantly ready to leap to their aid and do what I could to help. However, once the initial panic died down, the article soon seemed to become apparent for what it was; a list of suggestions for a better Industry. I’m certainly no gamedev, but then clearly neither is the author, but aside from having a lot of dangerously pent up issues, and possibly an imminent...
Still no internet, and to keep myself from going mad(er), I seem to be reinstalling old RPGs at an alarming rate, two or three a night. I shaln’t list them specifically on the left, as not many of them are actually any good, and there’s links a plenty there already.
It’s a familiar process; see box on shelf, recall fuzzy rose-tinted memories of how great that game was, reinstall, spend hours agonizing over character creation, and then slam right into the same opening prologue/intro/first few levels that I’ve tried to push past countless times before, suddenly realising that my fond memories...
Single-player gaming is all very well, but doesn’t seem to have nearly the life-crushingly addictive capacity that even the most broken and half-arsed MMO does on me. I’ve no idea why, but suspect it’s half something to do with my own withered psyche, and half something to do with the basic fundamentals of current MMO design, which lends itself to very short repetitive tasks conducted with a framework of extremely long-term progress. And no Save Games.
All this means that while many of my offline games are indeed very good, and enjoyable, I still have trouble putting in the same level...
I’m on a bit of an (enforced) offline kick at the moment, and two of the games I’m currently quite fascinated with are Pharaoh, and X2: The Threat, both ‘3 for £10’ stalwarts at this point, but more than worth £3.33 each. At first glance, both seem quite different; one a historically influenced city-builder, the other a slightly different take on the old space trading and combat game, ala Elite, but as I picked away at both, it struck me how similar they were, when it got right down to the nuts and bolts.
Pharoah is a variation on the old...
Apologies for the lull - this time it wasn't my own feeble guttering enthusiasm to blame. I've recently moved house, and haven't got internet sorted out yet. It's on it's way of course, but I've already gone a week, and can expect up to another ten days before I can swim in the life-giving waters of info-topia once more.
(The observant amoung you might notice that this is sorta the internet, right here. Suffice to say, I'm submitting this post from Elsewhere, a place where You Aren't Allowed To Play Games.)
I'm holding in there, into the second week of a haitus...
Some news here:
Kill Ten Rats: Asheron’s Call 2 To Close
It's always alarming to see this happen, regardless of the title - someone can end my Other Life, just like that? This one in particular is quite surprising actually, because although not a tremendous success, I always saw it as a good solid ‘also-ran’, and they’ve only just released an expansion, ‘Legions’. Presumably that didn’t go as well as planned, but to be frank, AC2 has been in a sedentary decline for quite some time.
MMOGChart.com: AC2 Population
Asheron’s Call 2 is the dark green line with diamond dots, and exhibits the classic...
Meanwhile in China:
Interfax China: Chinese Governments Set Limits
So now you know; three hours is 'Healthy', five is 'Tiring' and more than five is 'Unhealthy'. I guess I fall into the Unhealthy bracket then, most nights. To be honest, I tend to agree, but would still like for it to be my decision. Lifestyles vary, and I think very few people are so hopelessly addicted to these games that if they did have something more important to be doing, they wouldn't stop playing and get on with it.
Five hours might seem like a long time, but if you'd just be watching...
Why hello there! Long time no see and all that. It’s been a difficult month or two for me, back in the Real World, the details of which have no place on a barely updated blog about online gaming. However, I would just like to say, Tom Cruise, if you’re reading, die in a fire, kthx.
But problems or no, I’ve still managed to find the time to continue to be obsessed about MMO gaming; what can I say? I’m weak, psychologically dependent, and in some ways, having somewhere as pointless as a good online game to dive into and get...
Got nothing. Real life calling. Going walkabout.
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...
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...
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...
I used to think that I was such a biter, jaded cynic, but now, I'm not so sure anymore.
It's pretty easy to criticise, to heckle and poke holes in someone else's hard work and dreams. Too easy, in fact. I do it all the time, and hope to in some way over-compensate for my own self-esteem issues, to chase after the easy 'cool'. Much of the internet exists for this very purpose - pretty much any messageboard or comment thread is full of it - 'haters', I believe they're called Across The Pond.
I used to be a hater. It's quick...
To be honest, I'm always rather suprised to see that anyone comes here at all, let alone reads my rather self-indulgent ramblings. I can only imagine that people are putting wierd stuff into Google and, as it turned out, Not Feeling Lucky. Between that, and my inadvertent blundering into Trackback minefields at sites which are actually quite popular, I probably get more hits than intended for a site which mostly exists because if I don't take this stuff out of my brain on a regular basis, my mind starts to sting.
There definitely seems to be a bit of a trend...
Planetside last night, mostly to keep my hand in, and also an opportunity to catch up with an old friend whom I've shared quite a few online adventures with. He's off doing World of Warcraft at the moment, like just about everyone else with a PC at the moment, but also, and more interestingly for me, The Matrix Online, an MMO I'd been quite curious to learn more about, since to be honest, anything without Orcs tends to pique my interest lately.
Full-on armoured column tank manuvers is not really the best time to be discussing MMO gameplay features, but during...
Presumably E3 is over by now, and if not, I'm going to pretend it is anyway. Either way, I'm doing my usual browser-based round-up of all the news that matters to me (i.e. MMO News), and I can't move for pictures of half-naked out-of-work actresses in all sorts of variations of the Chainmail Bikini ensemble. I wouldn't mind so much if I was actively surfing for porn, but as an 'at work', alt-tab background task, it's a bit on the embarrassing side - another of those "My hobby? Uhh...Fishing! Yes, that's it! Fish...ohhhhhh yes, know all sorts of stuff about...
It's 'E3' time, by all counts, and I don't know what to say. I'm not a game company. I'm not a game company investor. I'm not one of the rather more obsessive gamers whose holidays generally coincide with trade shows. I'm not important enough a pundit to have been invited along to see what I rant about firsthand, and I'm not an out of work actress in an Antonia Bayle Bikini. I'm not even entirely sure what 'E3' actually means! 'Extremely Exciting Eggs'? 'Enevitable Entropic Exhaustion'?
All I do know is that it's something to do with computer games (and by...
As promised earlier, I managed to catch the EQ2's-Day radio show last night:
Online Gaming Radio OGaming
Of course, I ballsed up my timezone calculations again, and so missed the first half hour. I've never got those right, and as a result have missed pretty much every event or apppointment I've ever tried to get to, online. Does PST have daylight savings? I don't know but do know we'd all be a lot less confused living on a flat Earth.
But despite that, the rest of the show was very good. Again, not up to 'Professional' standards and budgets, but still very listenable,...
Saw a link to this site via my Everquest II launcher, while waiting for the usual interminable patching to finish:
Online Gaming Radio OGaming: EQ2's-day
I've not managed to actually catch a live show yet, and can't find any kind of recorded 'listen again' type of thing anywhere, but am listening right now to one of their archived interview pieces (Fan/News Site Designers Round Table).
It's certainly not the BBC World Service; it's stilted, technically amatuerish, and clearly none of the respondents are used to speaking in public much, (I'm not a big fan of trance or rave, either), but I kind of...
Sword-swinging Elf-fests come and go, but this looks interesting:
Pirates of the Burning Sea
Yarr! Details of actual gameplay seem sketchy at this point, but theres a lot of pretty screenshots there, and frankly, who doesn't want a huge beard, thirty cannon and weevils?
Seriously though, this does seem to be the latest in an inspiring set of novel and different MMORPG projects in the works. I mean I like Magic Missles and +5 Long Swords of Iritability as much as the next obsessive sociopathic stay-at-home loner, but sometimes I get really, really tired of abusing poor hapless innocent Orcs.
I expect I'll always...
So next up is Shadowbane. As usual, I'll hold off on actual game reviewing until the trial is up - hell, I haven't even got it installed up yet, so heckling would be somewhat premature at this point. But already, I'm facing something of a problem. I am a 'carebear'.
The term has many subtle variations of meaning, but by that I mean that I don't like PvP. I usually take pains to make sure I don't end up on a PvP server, and that I know exactly where the 'Duel' command and 'PvP Enabled' switches are as soon as...
Hey, remember Anarchy Online? Apparently, they're still going, and to remind us of the fact, here comes an expansion pack:
Anarchy Online: Lost Eden
Wasn't I just banging on about PvP? Well, it turns out that Funcom have remembered that AO is essentailly a game about colonial civil war, a fact which seems to have gotten buried somewhat among the metaphysical meanderings of Shadowlands and commercial redevelopment of Alien Invasion.
Lost Eden hopes to refocus the players on the fine art of the gank, with orbital space station PvP arenas, etc, etc, blah, blah. I was a big fan of AO, and devoted...
What is it with PvP all of a sudden?
City of Heroes: Episode 4
...and...
Everquest II: Expansion 1
What with these, Guild Wars, and the much bemoaned 'Honor System' addition to World of Warcraft, it seems pretty much everyone is doing PvP nowadays.
It's a wierd, paradoxical thing - practically every game has it, yet no-one really picks a MMORPG because of it. PvP-specific servers are far outwieghed by non-PvP servers, yet even the non-PVP servers usually have small bits of the world for PvP, and a duel function that only roleplayers use. Everyone imagines it would be a fun diversion, and that they...
SirBruce has updated his spreadsheets again:
MMOG Chart.com
Obviously only of academic interest unless you're a shareholder or dev; you either like a game and play or you don't, but it's still quite interesting to get a bird's eye view from a fairly reputable source.
Van Hemlock's Notes: Mostly the various numbers in the last few months reflect the outstanding success of World of Warcraft, in particular, the sudden and sharp decline in both Everquest and Everquest II during the last few points. Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online also seem to have taken a hit, along with pretty much all the rest...
Almost ready to review Neocron 2: Beyond Dome of York, having pre-emptively cancelled my trial account last night before it trips over into a paid experience. However, before I do, thought I ought to post this gem, found on their 'Community Talk (English)' message-board. In my experience, nothing destroys any faith, immersion or enjoyment in an online game than a trawl through it's 'General' forum.
Neocron Forums Community Talk: PCZONE UK Review 24%
There's a lot of trash in there, so here are the two point-scoring posts. First, a copy of June 2005 PC Zone Magazine's review of the soon-to-be re-released Neocron...
SOeBay-Gate seems to be gathering pace. At first, I was somewhat dismissive of it all; it wasn't going to affect me much one way or the other. I know it WILL affect all aspects of the server's internal economics drastically, but honestly, I really am that much of an online loner that I genuinely don't interact with player economics at all. I buy necessaries from NPC shops, and dump all my phat lewt on the nearest NPC merchant, regardless of rarity, value or utility. I just can't be bothered with haggle-anxiety, market-watching, price-checks, scamming and being ripped off, so tend...