Age of Conan: “Outlook Not So Good”. AoC released its first expansion, “Ride of the Godslayer”, last summer, and that’s pretty much the last I’ve heard of the game. I don’t think the Magic 8 Ball is correct; I think Funcom is content to support their current player base without feeling the need to go F2P. Their massively hyped launch should have helped them recoup their development costs years ago.

Aion: “Concentrate and Ask Again”. November saw Aion publish a massive revamp which added more loot to the game. December brought with it a rebalancing of the world PvP via rifts. Perhaps the Magic 8 Ball’s confusion stemmed from the game’s more Asian market?

Allods Online: “Better Not Tell You Now”. This Russian import stunned the MMO world with its innovative gameplay and Soviet art. It’s famously expensive cash shop instantly dampened the enthusiasm, and it seemed like only a couple of months before the crowds had vanished entirely. We gamers are a fickle folk. What is it, though, that the Magic 8 Ball doesn’t want to tell me? Perhaps a relaunch of the game in the guise of an expansion or a sequel? Only time will tell.

Black Prophecy: “Concentrate and Ask Again”. This space-based dogfighting MMO dropped its beta NDA the same day Rift dropped theirs. And hardly a word was said. Nonetheless, the MMO genre has been waiting for a space dogfighter ever since “Earth & Beyond” went under these many years ago. I expect the game to launch small but experience steady growth as word catches on.

Champions Online: “Very Doubtful”. The Magic 8 Ball clearly feels that going free to play next month won’t be enough to save the struggling superhero MMO. With DC Universe Online launching almost to the day that CO goes F2P, it’s clear there’s going to be an epic battle above the skies of Metropolis and Millennium City. Who will win? The 8 Ball seems to have its money on the SOE offering.

City of Heroes: “Cannot Predict Now”. With DCUO and CO duking it out in January, I have to go along with the Magic 8 Ball. There’s going to be too much mayhem from the two newer titles to have any way to predict how their battle will affect the elder game.

Darkfall: “Cannot Predict Now”. After a stunning six weeks featured on Massively, and Syncaine’s constant recaps, my gut feeling is that Darkfall has found its home with the fantasy PvP sandbox crowd, a niche it dominates. There are lots of fantasy PvP games out there, but few were built to cater to a Western audience. Still, the Magic 8 Ball seems to have its doubts.

DC Universe Online: “It Is Certain”. The 8 Ball is nothing if not consistent. After dissing Champions Online, it’s giving the clear nod to its latest competitor. Will the PlayStation 3 crowd take to the game? DCUO is a game that will live or die on the console.

Dungeons & Dragons Online: “Ask Again Later”. The Magic 8 Ball doesn’t have a strong opinion, and why should it? Since going F2P, Turbine has supported DDO with a steady stream of new content. A reliable money maker like DDO could last for years. However, there are at least two new online games coming based on the D&D license, Neverwinter and Daggerdale. 2011 should be safe for DDO, but come 2012, the story might end a little differently.

Earth Eternal: “Reply Hazy, Try Again”. A spot-on prediction for a troubled game. Earth Eternal joins APB, Gods & Heroes and Mythos as MMOs that either launched and failed, or never launched at all, that have been given new life with new publishers, new developers or both. Last we heard, EE was in the process of finding new hosting and was expected back online any day.

EVE Online: “Don’t Count On It”. Well, we never really expected the “walk around in stations” expansion, Incarna, to ship in 2010, and it didn’t. Magic 8 Ball thinks it won’t ship in 2011 either. Making predictions AGAINST ambulation is an easy win.

EverQuest: “You May Rely On It”. As far as we know, EQ remains the stalwart in SOE’s stable of MMOs, the reliable performer that just keeps chugging along, year after year. The 8 Ball predicts another year of stability, and I see nothing happening this year to prove it wrong. EQ Next? Not happening in 2011.

EverQuest II: “It Is Decidedly So”. The Magic 8 Ball predicts a smashing year for EQ2, but from my vantage point, it’s hard to see that coming true. Maybe EQ2 has found its home with the F2P crowd who are used to spending money on fluff items. The shattered realm still teams with adventure, after all…

Fallen Earth: “Cannot Predict Now”. It’s been a turbulent year for Icarus Studios, and for awhile it looked like they might have downsized too much to keep the game running. Nonetheless, they seem to have found their level and might be positioned such that steady growth could keep them running for a good long time. The 8 Ball can’t call it one way or the other.

Final Fantasy XIV: “It Is Certain”. Um, what are you THINKING, Magic 8 Ball? FFXIV had one of the most disastrous launches of any MMO EVER and heads are STILL rolling! My prediction is that the game is relaunched in Japan only for at least a year before being reintroduced to the West.

Lucent Heart: “It Is Decidedly So”. I dunno why people are always covering games like Tera and consistently ignoring the sleeper import to beat them all, Lucent Heart. The dating sim/MMO is going to definitely be the leader in its niche. Here’s a Chinese spokesmodel in a French maid uniform to explain how Lucent Heart will stop her from being lonely in love:

Pirates of the Burning Sea: “Definitely No”. Flying Lab’s recently made free to play sailing ship MMO hit all the right notes with bloggers when it relaunched earlier this month. Will this be a new start to success? The game definitely has gotten the content and polish it needs to succeed; the problem now is getting the word out. The 8 Ball is pessimistic, but I’m hoping it’s wrong on this one.

Rift: “Outlook Good”. Every year sees a new WoW-like or two; this year we had Allods Online and Alganon. Most make a decent splash and then fall back into the crowd. Rift takes inspiration from WoW, Warhammer, EQ and even Aion, and plans to be a subscription game when the genre is clearly taking a decided turn toward F2P. With history seemingly against it, the Magic 8 Ball nonetheless sees a bright future for the game.

Runes of Magic: “Concentrate and Try Again”. This is my fault. Though I’ve played RoM a bit, I have to admit I haven’t really given it much thought over the past year. With so many new games to try, returning to old ones, even ones I really enjoyed, just hardly ever seems to happen.

Second Life: “Ask Again Later”. Once the darling of the tech set and the subject of endless articles and papers, the world’s premier virtual world has fallen on hard times. Linden Labs is going through a lot of turmoil, and it’s unclear what form the future of SL will take — an uncertainty shared by the Magic 8 Ball.

Star Trek Online: “It Is Decidedly So”. Lauded by some and dismissed as a failure by others, Cryptic’s take on the Star Trek universe started slow but has been steadily building content and polish into its flagship (heh) game. Speculation about a possible transition to F2P sometime in 2011 is likely responsible for the Magic 8 Ball’s sunny prediction.

Warhammer: “Very Doubtful”. Warhammer: Age of Reckoning was going to change the very face of MMO gaming. Instead, it became just more debris beneath the WoW juggernaut. It was the last game that seriously expected to get players in the millions; now it’s content to keep what players remain while EA prepares Star Wars: The Old Republic to take WAR’s place as its primary MMO.

Wizard101: “Outlook Not So Good”. The Magic 8 Ball has dark words for the kid-focused card dueling MMO (and minigame portal). Perhaps it is seeing something I’m not. In the past few months, KingsIsle has released a new expansion (Celestia), pet training and races, gardening, new crafting enhancements and more. It seems to be going strong and there really is no other game like it. We’ll see if the 8 Ball needed another shake or not next year.

World of Warcraft: “It’s Decidedly So”. Of course it is. It’s WoW. Nothing can touch it.

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I long ago pre-ordered SOE’s DC Universe Online, but this was my first opportunity to play it, in beta, on the PC. Though it’s on the PC, the little picture hints and controls clearly expect you to be using a PS3 controller to play the game. I don’t have a PS3 controller, but I do have a XBox controller, so I plugged it in and away I went.

In a niche genre already filled by City of Heroes, Champions Online, and Avenger Babies Super Hero Squad Online, it must be asked what DCUO brings to the table?

After admittedly only a few hours of play, I can think of two things right off: The Justice League and the PS3 integration. If you want to fight aside Batman, Superman, the Joker and their pals, DCUO is the only game that’s gonna let ya. And if you want to play an MMO on the PS3, again, you have nowhere else to go but DCUO. On the PC, however, the cup runneth over, and there’s nothing to particularly distinguish the game, aside from the strong and constant use of the DC milieu and characters.

Anyway, more on that later. On with the blogroll!

DC Universe Online

The Roadkill with the Greenish Hue has a few thoughts on DC Universe Online. He came away with a somewhat better impression than I did, but then, he’s playing it on the PS3, as God and Sony intended.

City of Heroes

DCUO might be the new gunslinger in town, but venerable genre leader City of Heroes still has some life in it. Sente of A Ding World romps around in the latest new content with news about all the cool stuff Paragon Studios has been stuffing into the venerable spandex-clad blockbuster.

Gods & Heroes

Mostly remembered as the game Perpetual Entertainment killed so it could try to save Star Trek Online before Cryptic inherited it, the rebirth of the collectible hero MMO proceeds apace with new developers, publishers, and a shiny beta to boot. Sounds like the game is off to a great start, with the gods of Mt. Olympus throwing a New Year’s Eve bash and celebrating the birthday of one of their community managers.

I’m not sure it’s wise to get so chummy with the pantheon, though. That never really worked out well.

Craft of Worldwar

Copra had a notion to try and level a character in World of Warcraft as a pacifist — without any unnecessary killing. In a sandbox game, you could have many paths through the game — some bloodthirsty, others not so.

Lord of the Rings Online has a pacifist path right in the wiki. In EQ2, you can reach max level without killing even one thing — as a crafter. I’m not sure anyone has maxed out a non-violent adventurer character. But World of Warcraft, well… it says “war” right in the name. You’re gonna end up killing someone in a war.

Rift

I had the hardest time getting the Rift beta working for me. The patcher kept giving me a 2002 Error: Unauthorized, even though everything looked okay with my account from the Trion side and from the account page side. To see if maybe my account was just borked, I made a new account and Trion accepted it into the beta. Worked fine. I guess there’s a few reasons someone might get the 2002 error, but if nothing seems to fix it, it might just be your account.

The folks at fan site Rift Junkies have put together an impressive collection of starter guides for each other the game’s four archetypes (or ‘callings’). They’ve got build guides for Warriors, Mages, Clerics and Rogues (and no, the Rogue guide is more than “don’t play a rogue”).

I can’t say I 100% agree with their build suggestions, but follow their guides and you won’t be gimped at all.

Agree with him or not, Wolfshead has his opinions and isn’t afraid to share them, though typically always shaded by his experiences in World of Warcraft, which must have touched him in a bad place when he was a child. This time, he turns his WoW-colored lens onto Rift.

He highlights a question in his article:

Questing is quickly suffocating the MMO genre right now as most people have stopped reading quest text and are grinding them for experience, gold, items and reputation. Take away all of the rewards and incentives and I ask you: would players even bother to quest in MMOs

You might just as well ask if, without rewards and incentives, anyone would do ANYTHING in an MMO. Raid, dungeon crawl, PvP, log in… It sure would be a lot easier to develop an MMO if people stopped wanting those quests. The ironically named EverQuest lured players on, not with quests, but with the chance that the next mob might drop a rare item… okay, maybe the NEXT one… etc.

Wizard101

W101 community god Stingite, the Friendly Necromancer continues his march through the Spiral playing a character wearing nothing and wielding just the starter wand. He’s just about to finish up the third world, Marleybone, wearing nothing but what the Good Headmaster gave him. How far can he go? It’d be really cool to see someone do this in WoW…

EverQuest II

Lots of people are up in arms about EQ2′s new cash shop race, the vampiric Freebloods, but I haven’t seen anyone talking about whether or not they were fun to play. Kaozz at ECTMMO took the plunge and bought the Freeblood, the Freeblood Estate, the special “swarm of bats” travel form and so on and shows them off in glorious 24fps video. But the background music… “Barracuda”? Someone get that girl some Sisters of Mercy…

All MMOs Everywhere Forever

Ardwulf read Ten Ton Hammer’s look back at the most notable MMOs of the past ten years and shared his thoughts on the matter. Was EQ’s “Planes of Power” really the best expansion of the decade? Say what you will about EQ, but it was the game that invented raiding as we know it today, and PoP has still never been equaled for sheer depth. Then again, it also emptied the old world, making it and Luclin the expansions most old EQers blame for killing the game.

Earthrise

When I was a kid, “the future” was a cheery place mostly concerned with how to spend our infinite leisure time now that everything was free and robots did all the work. Now, you see the phrase “near-future setting” and you don’t have to hunt far to find “post-apocalyptic”. I guess everyone is pretty certain we’re nearing the end times so, hey, might as well play a game!

Increasing the total number of post-apocalyptic by a substantial percentage and the number of Bulgarian post-apocalyptic MMOs by infinity percent, Masthead’s Earthrise is now scheduled to be released in February, 2011. Single server, player-driven economy, PvP, sandbox style game — yup, it ticks off all the EVE checkboxes (and EVE Online itself is a post-apocalyptic game; in fact the lore suggests at least two apocalypses).

Empire of the Immortals

Perfect World International’s announced the start of closed beta for Empire of the Immortals, the sequel to its hit Battle of the Immortals. This new game promises “novel gaming experiences with a vast selection of vehicles built on ancient armory and weapons technologies”. So, if you’re looking for vehicle-based fantasy MMO gaming, you could do worse than look here.

I always thought a battle between immortals would be kinda boring after awhile. “You hit Boss X for a zillion HP! He doesn’t die! You hit Boss X for ten zillion HP! He still doesn’t die! He’s immortal!”

Herotopia

And lastly, one more late entrant in the superhero genre — Herotopia, a game where you become a superhero and fight, not supervillains, but bullies. Yup. Herotopia is an anti-bullying game. A game where you become a superpowered character, find someone weaker than you, and beat the crap out of him.

That will teach him to be a bully!

(Actually, it’s mostly a minigame portal, but whatev)

Anyway, see you all tomorrow, and keep gaming!

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The Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor 69 years ago today. Now we’re having a little payback at the expense of the whole world. I know a lot of people who plan to take days off to play their way through the entire expansion as quickly as they can. My cousin Tom even (jokingly, I hope), regretting that he had to work, thought he might let his son take the day off from school to play.

I’d like to be more excited about the WoW expansion. But — I just don’t think a game can make me feel like that anymore.

On with the blogroll — it’s been a long weekend. I was too busy playing a game which cannot be named to write much, so there’s a lot to catch up.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Arkenor feels a little left out of the Cataclysm hubbub, but maybe Optimus Prime can help him through it. The Green Armadillo doesn’t think all the work Blizzard put into the old world revamp can keep people busy more than a few weeks. Anjin from Bullet Points reminds us non-players that it’s not cool to rain on the WoW parade. And Ars Technica has a grand unboxing of the WoW: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition.

Rift

On a completely different note, Rift has announced their next beta weekend. Where this last weekend’s test focused on the technomagical Defiants, this next test will focus on their foes, the proud religion-motivated zealots, the Guardians. Rumor has it that a third beta test will pit them against the Defiants in a huge PvP battle. More when Trion Worlds releases more since nobody can talk about the game besides them.

Jumpgate Evolution

Via Massively, news that Jumpgate Evolution publishers Codemasters has sued developers NetDevil for a return of the $1.4 million they paid them to ship the game, which is almost two years late. Commenters point out that NetDevil did manage to ship LEGO Universe in that time. If forced to repay Codemasters, it likely means JE won’t see the light of day — and financial difficulties may affect LU as well. Too bad, I was really looking forward to some new space combat MMOs to try. Well, any word on Black Prophecy?

EverQuest II

The Ancient Gaming Noob writes about the new vampire race that will soon be added to EverQuest II — but only, apparently, to current subscribers. Given the easy availability of a trinket that can turn you more or less permanently into a vampire, I doubt anyone will really cry into their boots if they can’t play as one from the start. Honestly, what would vampire players do, anyway? Enroll in high school and spend centuries stalking teenagers?

Arkenor wonders why vampires, when there’s lots of OTHER races players have been asking for since forever? But, while it’s true players have been asking for gnolls to become a player race for over a decade now, EQ2 would STILL be accused of being copycat, what with WoW’s Worgen race. Just can’t win for losing down there in San Diego.

DC Universe Online

I’m not a big fan of game NDAs. I abide by the ones I sign (or click), but I sure don’t like it. While I’m technically eligible to play in DCUO, since I pre-ordered it and have the receipt, I didn’t get it copied and sent to SOE so I am not in the beta, and my friends who DID get in, can’t tell me about it. Thus, I was pretty happy to read Ars Technica’s first look at the DCUO beta. Is it going to be the superhero game for the rest of us? Comments from the beta testers tended to point to the DC Comics IP as the only thing really setting it apart from Champions Online and City of Heroes.

I suppose this post could have been longer. Tomorrow it will be, but tonight — I have some Sherlock Holmes to watch!

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Saturday, I linked to a raid force taking down some old Kunark and Velious mobs. That got me into the game to try and see if I could find any of those same bosses – Cazic Thule, Faydedar, Trakanon and Velketor the Sorceror – up. As far as I know, CT and Faydedar, in their original forms, are no longer in the game. Trakanon had been killed just moments before I got to his lair. Velketor was up, though, and I’ve embedded a video of our meeting at the end.

Hit the break for the latest gossip from around the interwebs!

I’m not the only one feeling a little nostalgic. Sente of A Ding World writes about how the City of Heroes “Going Rogue” expansion has him playing alts he hasn’t played in years. It’s the new faction changes and costume options that has reinvigorated his gameplay. Give someone a reason to play their abandoned heroes, and back they’ll flock.

Is that an argument for MORE microtransactions as the key to a successful MMO? Even Blizzard seems to rely upon them more and more, though you hardly think they need to. Ahead of the Cataclysm launch next week, they are tempting lapsed players to catch up, expansion-wise, by offering the base game and the Burning Crusade expansion for $5 each, and Wrath of the Lich King for $10.

Yeah, I upgraded my account to WotLK, even though my 7 days of free time expires tomorrow. The price was so good that even if you DON’T PLAY THE GAME, you buy it. I’m not the only one lured back; Pete of Dragonchasers is considering making “Back to WoW Again!” one of his standard post categories.

Nobody has jumped on the “microtransactions = good” bandwagon quite as hard as Sony Online Entertainment. Want to be known as a SOE “Super Fan”? Then, starting Monday, prove it by logging into a SOE MMO between Monday and Friday and spending some money!

If you love something, you should love it enough to pay for a subscription and then, you know, a little more. You said you were a FAN!

Should MMOs be more like single player RPGs? In most modern MMOs, especially those not built around PvP, no player can have any impact on the world in the name of trying to provide every player a consistent, identical experience. Single player RPGs, however, allow the player’s every decision to shake the world to its roots. Stargrace’s travels in Sims 3 have her wondering why MMO worlds can’t be just a little more dynamic.

Well, first, in Sims 3 you can buy up every shop and home and rule your world with an iron fist. That probably wouldn’t ever be allowed in an MMO.

I’m really of two minds regarding achievements. I like them, but only when it’s special. Walking forward? NOT an achievement. Leveling? NOT an achievement. Climbing to the top of the Firiona Vie statue in the Kunark outpost of the same name? THAT’S an achievement. She says, modestly.

Indie game developer Cliffski, he of Positech Games and Gratuitous Space Battles, ponders adding achievements to his secret fourth game, now in development, and cleverly named “G4″. I like achievements when they let me know there’s something I missed — “Don’t let the Executioner behead the King”, for instance. OMG, you mean I can STOP him?

Fave MMO blog Massively is starting their own fleet in EVE Online, imaginatively named “Massively Mob”. You can tell people won’t be joining for its clever name. If I were thinking of a triumphant return to EVE (and I always am), I’d definitely do it with these folks. Director Brendan Drain’s EVE articles have been a consistently clear and helpful guide to new and veteran EVE pilots for years.

I guess that’s enough for now :) See you tomorrow and keep gaming!

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In EVE Online, my corp is factioning up to get the new Level 4 epic mission arcs. I haven’t started on that yet… just as I was heading to the station where an Impetus agent who might speak with me dwelt, I got a mail from a storyline agent who had a ten part mission for me. So I headed back to Aunia for that, and accidentally took some normal Level 3 missions as well — but all for the good. I understand turning in more than one mission at once really pumps your faction with the agents.

Tomorrow or the next day, we’re having a lowsec ops — going around low or null sec, looking for trouble. I have a cruiser, a Vexor, fitted out for PvP. I have had this same Vexor for over four months now, ever since Saylah gave it to me, and though I used it for most of my level 2 missions, I always brought it home.

Since I was getting really bored with mission running. I decided to give the Vexor a spin in lowsec — a solo ops. I’d just fit a micro warp drive in it, and the drone bay was full of ECM drones I’d never really tried out. ECM drones interfere with the target’s targeting — and if the enemy can’t target you, it’s much harder for them to hurt you. Smart bombs and friend-or-foe missiles will still work, but I haven’t seen many people or NPCs use those.

I headed to 0.3 space — nearly lawless — found a deadspace hideout and started directional scanning to find players hunting by themselves that I might be able to take. I did find a couple on the scanner, but I couldn’t zero in on them enough to find out how to reach them, so I just went from asteroid belt to asteroid belt, hunting. I didn’t find any players, but I did find some Serpentis pirates. A single went down easily enough, but the next group was two frigates guarding a Megathron battleship. I warped out, then decided to try out the ECM drones by having them jam the battleship while I took out the frigates. I got a little mixed up on the way back and ended up in a different belt, with two Serpentis cruisers guarded by two frigates — two same class ships, the cruisers, plus cruiser-killing frigates. I sent the ECM drones against the cruisers and took on the frigates, but the frigates got in too close, close enough that my guns were useless. I had to call in some of the ECM drones so I could bring out combat drones. One cruiser stayed numb, but the other shook off its drone and came at me. I traded one combat drone for a third ECM drone to quiet that cruiser, took down the frigates, then took down the cruisers, one by one.

ECM drones are not the sure-fire killer I was hoping they would be… it was worth checking them out before we go against another player. I believe our plan is to double up on ECM drones, warp scrambling and webbing. But we’ll see.

I recently finished Core Competency Standard certification and Gallente Soldier Elite, so my skills are coming along nicely. I’m working on battleship skills now.

I got my Champions Online character, a power armor hero named Radium Red after my most recent City of Heroes character, to level 14. This is the highest level I’ve gotten a CO character. She got through all the Canadian quests she could find, handling group missions solo without too much trouble. I’m liking the power armor builds, and I REALLY like being able to lift things like airships and toss them at enemies — one shot kill if it’s heavy enough. (If you’re in the Powerhouse, this would be Gigantic-level objects). I felt pretty unique until I found the Science Invention store, and it was full of people in power armor. Only one looked like Iron Man, thankfully.

The missions in Millennium City REALLY remind me of City of Heroes missions, except, so far, the mission environments have been very much smaller. I don’t like leveling MMOs so much these days, but I do want to level enough to meet my nemesis. In the City of Heroes world, R.R. was a villain, so here, I will make her nemesis upright and heroic as I can. Maybe Superman :)

In Legends of Zork, changing my sidekick to the Accountant is finally starting to pay off. When I dinged 43, she dinged 3 and my rate of interest is now 6.4% compounded nightly. I have a spreadsheet tracking my profits and most recently made 116.2K interest overnight. I’m on track to have 3 million zorkmids by next weekend and in a month’s time should reach the interest cap, which is 635K per night. And then — I can finally start spending money again. My previous sidekick, the Gent, helped me solve traps and fight, and without him, combat and puzzle solving has taken a real hit. My skill points have been going toward TMP (trap, maze and puzzle) solving, but levels only happen once every couple of weeks, so it’s very slow going. Combat will have to wait until I can buy new weapons and armor. In two more levels, the Accountant will be giving me 9.6% interest compounded nightly, and after that, I should have no more money problems ever again.

I play Legends of Zork purely so I can enter the figures in my spreadsheet each morning. Way more fun than looking at my actual bank balance.

—

I played Gatheryn for awhile, and also Earth Eternal for a few hours. Tonight was our weekly Neverwinter Nights 2 group, and we’ve just uncovered a Githyanki plot. Many Githyanki died this night. I also dinged 7 and learned two new spells, Summon Monster III and Haste. Neither seems to be as useful as Fascination and Cloud of Bewilderment were, either of which serve to make everything in the area hate me. Everyone hated bards, why is that?

In Wizard101, my plan to move onward to Newgate Prison has hit a snag as Marissa is forced to go on a bunch of really trivial missions in Chelsea Court and Hyde Park. I may take a break and head back to Grizzleheim once I’m finished with those.

My house in W101 is shaping up nicely with all the quest rewards and random drops. I wonder how much space the new Life island will have? Or should I just let Marissa have an island all her own….?

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Wow, can’t believe it’s almost autumn. Summer came so late to New England; cool and rainy through most of it, a couple of hot and humid days, and now the cooler days are back. It’s like living in Seattle.

Played a bit of Champions Online over the weekend. I take a character to level 10, start them in on the Hero Games cage matches, see how well they do and take what I learned to the next character. My most recent character was the Green Reaper, a character with all of Green Lantern’s abilities without the power ring. Custom framework of supernatural + telekinesis, allows for a ranged power builder, ability to make ego weaponry from thought alone, and the ability to toss heavy objects at people — with her mind! Travel power is green fire flight.

This build usually gets me in the top two scorers for a match. Having my main damage power — Ego Weaponry — be a melee attack is a problem. You want to be powerful at ranged in cage matches. You need to be able to cast a hold. You need a travel power that lets you run away — burrowing seems best for that, followed by teleport. DoTs are good for those people. My best cage match character remains Daddy’s Little Girl, my gadgeteer from beta. Heals really help! Swinging was her travel power.

Playing Champions Online and wondering how it compares to City of Heroes? Or vice versa? Scopique has a nice comparison of the two superhero games which gives a decent idea of the differences. I’ll add that City of Heroes has Day Jobs and Mission Architect, while Champions has the excellent Cage Match PvP instances. CO was looking mighty boring before I discovered those.

Saw a tweet from the Spellborn folks last week that implied the F2P version of Spellborn was crazy popular. O rly? Beau of Spouse Aggro says Ya, rly! Looks like new dad Heartless_ is having some fun with it as well.

Both WoW and EQ2 are revamping their innate racial bonuses, and the Verdant Dasypodid at Player vs Developer looks at the reasoning behind the changes, which seems to be at cross purposes. WoW is adding more fluff and less advantage to theirs, while EQ2 aims to give certain race/class combinations a decided advantage over others. I’m just kinda miffed they are taking away the halfling ability to summon pie :(

Spinks continues her mini-symposium on roleplaying in MMOs with a focus on using emotes and fluff items to set a mood. Given how pretty much all her suggestions were commonly implemented in the era of MUDs just shows how much we lost when we moved to games with more of an emphasis on graphics than gameplay.

Syp asks if it’s worth jumping into a MMO after the rush of release day has come and gone? Do late adopters have any fun? Or do they have to catch up to everyone first?

Stargrace at MMOQuests has an excellent guide to EQ2′s new Achievements system. New to EQ2, anyway, since it’s about as blatant a copy of similar systems in WoW and Warhammer as I’ve ever seen. I’m just happy there are still MMOs out there for *non*-Achievers. Ogrebears has the patch notes for the complete list of changes coming for Game Update 53, including the Shard of Lurrrrrv. I am SO HOPING that’s a no combat zone! I’ve been wanting to meet the Goddess of Love, Erollisi Marr, since I spent all those years on her server in EverQuest. I DON’T want to kill her!

Cownose loves Darkfall! He loves the world, loves the big fights, loves the exploration, loves everything about it! So why is he quitting, never to play again?

This is definitely the season for betas. Over the past few years, a game’s beta has taken on an importance way out of proportion to its former status as a way to get some player feedback during development (the pre-2004 model), or a way to stress test the game before launch (the pre-2008 model), to where it is now — a free trial in which the player is not expected to give any feedback on the direction or goals of the game and is more a marketing tool for which players should perhaps expect to pay a token amount. Maybe they should just call it a Gamma or something. Anyway. Syncaine looks at the timing of open betas, asking if companies should time their open betas for the time when no other mindshare-swallowing games are doing theirs? Should MMOs be scheduled like summer blockbuster movies?

Lastly, shout out to Cliffski of Positech Games, an indie developer whose Gratuitous Space Battles lets you create mad space battles between huge fleets. Picture of me horribly failing my first battle in the preview beta for pre-order customers is below.

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Well, would YOU bet $200 on a game that nobody but press is allowed to talk about, a month before it’s released? When Lord of the Rings Online offered the same deal — A Benjamin and his identical twin for a lifetime subscription — you had a month to think it over. Not so with Champions Online — if you insist on playing before committing, the offer goes away. Probably the best thing about the offer — access to the Star Trek Online beta, and Mirror Universe outfits for same. So, if I want to play STO and get all the best goodies, I have to toss two c-notes Champions’ way?

They do announce STO’s beta begins later this year, which is in line with their projected Spring 2010 release date.

Green Armadillo doesn’t think ANY game is worth $200 to play free forever, especially when it will have an RMT store that, following SOE’s lead with their EQ2 and Free Realms, will entice subscribers to spend additional money each month on costumes and temporary powers. Keen feels they should at least drop the NDA now so that the blogosphere can weigh in on Champions’ good and bad points before begging players to pay blindly. Anjin of Bullet Points wonders if the Champions IP is compelling enough to take the leap of faith.

I’m in the beta, but when the NDA does drop, I won’t have any glowing articles to write about it (just some comics). It’s just hard to get excited about quest-based, level grind MMOs anymore. I’m just burned out on the whole idea of the grind to play mechanic. By making the level 1 game essentially identical to the level 50 game (or rather, the level 21 game, as that’s as high as I’ve gotten), Cryptic’s previous superhero MMO arguably provides a more super and less level-bound experience.

The Evil Theurgist and Fallon Shadowblade of Diary of a Wizard are sponsoring their Second Official Meet and Greet (SOMG) in Wizard 101, August 15th, Vampire Realm, Nightside. I missed the first one, but everyone had such a great time that I’m gonna try and make this one.

I just finished the Nightside/Sunken City arc with my (now) level 14 Myth wizard last night, too… (picture above, note Marissa’s Firezilla pet!)

Gordon of We Fly Spitfires looks at EVE Online’s sandbox approach to letting players determine their own goals in the game vs World of Warcraft’s rails-driven approach to player achievement and wonders if it would ever be possible to combine the two — still have rails-driven gameplay, but with the freedom to accomplish given goals with some degrees of freedom?

I don’t think that could even work. I’ve played both games, and they are just too far apart. Both fun, but they scratch different itches.

We haven’t heard much from Ayba and Oric over in Shards of Dalaya for awhile, but news comes from the gnoll-infested undead-infested passageways of Highpass Undead Pass that our favorite halfling duo have reached level 30! Grats!

Speaking of returning from the dead, Cownose, once our connection for news of Lineage 2 and Ultima Online, is back with dispatches from the world of Darkfall. And is that Cameron Sorden announcing his comeback by reposting articles from the last couple of years? Aw, no, it’s not. And, could that be some new posts by Tobold? Yes, yes there are.

And lastly, Syp explains why he’s no longer excited about Fallen Earth, Global Agenda, Jumpgate Evolution, The Agency, APB, DCUO, and Guild Wars 2. That’s mean! Doesn’t The Agency have enough problems already?

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The weekend went by too fast, as it always does.

Rock, Paper, Shotguns Kieron Gillen had the perilous job of re-reviewing Darkfall for Eurogamer. Eurogamer’s original review score, 2/10, was savaged by the Darkfall developers and players. In Darkfallout, Kieron talks about the perils of being the clean-up crew for a disaster, and why he was shocked at the reaction by some other game journalists to the first review.

Following up on last week’s discussion about how MMOs are like men, women, dogs, or kitchen cleansers, Green Armadillo notices that his dog is a lot like an MMO player. Except we have to go get our OWN food.

Like a whole bunch of people, me included, Peter of Dragonchasers was given a very limited Aion beta key that was good for only a weekend or two back in July. Since then, he has not been able to play in the preview events. Since the game has been released for quite some time overseas and needs very little testing, Peter wonders if this whole “beta” thing is just a ploy to lure people in with a free beta, and then force them to pre-order to play more?

Stingite at The Friendly Necromancer says the world of Wizard 101 is filled with danger, challenge and all that, but where are the pranks, hijinks and mischief you’d expect to find at a wizard school? Where’s the troll phone?

Warhammerer notes that Free Realms now allows you to invert your mouse, and that all jobs will now level faster. Noted :) Also, look out for the new raceway and Demo Driver and Kart Racer quests this very week.

World of Warcraft watchers have discovered the addition of two new Halloween masks into the game, a goblin and a Worgen (wolf people whom you kill by the millions in Duskwood and Shadowfang Keep, iirc). Could these be new player races for the next WoW expansion? When I played, pre-BC, it was widely rumored that Worgen would be coming with that expansion. Would these new races bring new players to the game?

And (via Hudson, so thanks!) Gary Gannon wonders why most MMOs haven’t taken advantage of the rise of social networking and mobile gaming? I dunno, maybe they should, maybe they shouldn’t, but seeing people’s Twitter spam from the games they play just annoys me.

And lastly, the ever-prolific Hudson looks at the recently announced changes to City of Heroes along with the latest developments at its sequel-in-spirit, Champions Online, and figures it won’t be long before you won’t be able to tell the game apart at all. Except one will be a lot more like WoW than the other.

Well, I guess that’s all for today!

I’ve been working on a 3D exploration of famous MMO worlds (well, at least the ones I have on my hard drive), so dig out those old red/blue cardboard glasses and prepare to look at the worlds of fantasy in a new way, sometime this week.

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I love the feeling of peace and serenity EVE Online gives. And then sometimes weird, exciting stuff happens. A corps-mate and I were testing weapons fire and tank abilities last night when a battle broke out behind us as rival corps met outside a station. It was great, and for some reason reminded me of the very first story I ever read about EVE Online, about The Great Scam which put the game on everyone’s long range scanners.

I haven’t done a blogroll in a few days, what with the holiday and being the on-call developer this week. So this will be a short one.

The biggest news from yesterday was of the professor who role-played a griefing PvPer in City of Heroes and made people angry with him — for SCIENCE. First off, who cares? Who doesn’t expect childish behavior from PvPers? Of course, the point is that the City of Heroes players had decided upon an unwritten code of conduct that the professor chose to ignore.

Still struggling with the “why should I care” bit. But I’ll be online in Wizard 101 talking up my neo-Nazi propoganda tonight… FOR SCIENCE.

Tobold noted yesterday that with the Chinese WoW servers offline for an extended period as ownership changes hands and the Chinese government decides how much it wants a Western MMO to corrupt its children vs the home-grown varieties of MMO crack, that WoW no longer can brag about 11 million players. Instead, it’s probably just keeping ahead of… Free Realms…

Yes, I know a WoW player is worth more than a Free Realms player. But people brag about the numbers so much, and even a FR player is worth more than a Chinese player, given the very, very, very small amount of money Blizzard makes from any given Chinese player.

Faced with a spare WoW account, Saylah does what anyone would do — take the new duo out and three-box her way to fame and fortune in Azeroth. She could just run three screens and switch between them, but that would be boring. Much better to jump right into the deep end with carefully chosen macros and helper programs to make things simple and easy.

Syncaine identifies the major problem with most modern MMOs — the game won’t let you fail. You simply cannot make a non-viable character. If you can make a crappy character, his reasoning goes, then you also have the ability to make a really custom character that plays to all your strengths and is truly individual.

I remember putting lots of agility on my EverQuest druid because I thought it would help her get hit less. As opposed to, say, wisdom… she was gimped from that moment on, but I always treated it like an endearing handicap. But then, attributes in EQ were kinda broken.

Is Aion already yesterday’s MMO? Where just a couple short weeks ago, Aion was being hailed as the perfect polished paragon of WoW-like pulchritude, now people are wondering if it’s just too much of the same old. Keen is already bored with leveling characters through the cookie-cutter content-on-rails newbie areas (mostly identical for both factions, too). Syp sees nothing in Aion he hasn’t seen done better in other games, so why go through it again?

I loved what I saw in Aion, but I pledged to myself not to play any more grindy level-to-the-endgame MMOs. I have EQ2 for that, and one is enough. So I won’t be playing Aion, despite having had fun in it.

Warhammerer has been writing for some time now about a new MMO just out of beta, Ether Saga. I really haven’t heard much about this game anywhere. Sounds like it’s still shaking out those new game bugs, though.

And lastly (since I have just been paged to GET TO WORK), Gordon at We Fly Spitfires writes about why single player RPGs can never give the same sense of satisfaction and accomplishment found in an MMO — accomplishments mean nothing if there’s nobody to share them with. I agree with every single word.

Wow, Wednesday already! Week goes by so fast. See you tomorrow, and keep gaming!

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The “Amaryllis” edition stuff? Well, here it is, a warm Spring night, just started writing, and “Though Amaryllis dance in green” comes up on the playlist, and it just seemed to fit the mood so well…

And re: the banner, well, Atlus’ newly revamped MMO import NeoSteam closed its Open Beta today to relaunch soon as a real live game. Rumor has it that characters from both the closed and open betas will carry through to the live game, so if you’ve a yen to play a fairly standard fantasy grinder with PvP and a light industrial flair, give it a shot.

Aion had its first closed beta this last weekend, where players were invited to join the lighter side of Aion’s warring factions. Aion has been passing out beta keys like they were Reese’s Pieces at an ET convention and though absolutely thoroughly detailed information about the beta is easy to come by, only Ravious of Kill Ten Rats is Daeva enough to blog about it. But then, he got permission (and I am trying to!). His take? Highly polished but standard gameplay, with the ease of the first ten levels no indication that there is no grind to come.

I find it hard to disagree with anything he wrote.

It’s not so much that your game has standard classes, it’s what the players want. It’s what you do with them. Gordon at We Fly Spitfires (note: I would love to fly in a Spitfire) writes about his favorite MMO classes from games past and present. Beastlord? Yes, please!

Out of all the blog posts this weekend about people’s experiences with Sims 3, Ogrebears’ is my favorite. You just KNOW that he’s a rebel, in his leather jacket and emerald skin, sitting at the school lunch table without a care as the girls go crazy for him.

Lots of people agree that the biggest problem with playing MMOs is having to play them with other people. When you’re solo, you can start and stop when you like and you always get first roll on all the loot. And you don’t have to deal with other people’s problems. Melmoth from Killed in a Smiling Accident asks, with game after game turning to NPCs to fill out your groups — will there be something you miss, after all, when all the other players disappear?

A month or so ago, Mythic called ex-Warhammer players back to the fold with an email detailing the exciting changes available for your exact character, name included. Now they’ve sent out another letter which mines your friends list so you can see which of your friends is still “carrying the banner”.

Is it cool or creepy to get such personalized email? I can’t wait to get an email saying, “Wow, bummer that you lost your job. Did you know that these day-time guilds are recruiting your class?”

WAR may be war everywhere, all the time, killing and more killing, but not all games promise that as their sole focus. EverQuest 2, for instance, has separate paths for adventurers and crafters, and crafters even have dungeon instances of their own (hint: you defeat the enemy by crafting). Ysharros and her hubby have been spending a lot of time doing the harvesting and crafting quests and enjoying the uber rewards. Who needs to kill dragons when you could be mining feysteel?

With over two million players, you never know who you’ll find wandering around in Wizard 101. Thomas has an interview with Terry Dietz, a sculptor who is slowly cataloging the wizards and fauna of the game in polymer clay. Absolutely amazing work!

Now that SOE is axing underperforming MMOs, which is next to go? Ardwulf has been tipping his toe in the pool where Openedge1 usually swims, and is looking to see if XFire can answer which games are teetering on the edge. It’s not looking good for Pirates of the Burning Sea and Planetside, but Vanguard might just sneak through.

Syp takes a look at how adding a simple travel power like Super Jump to a hero in City of Heroes adds an entirely new dimension to the game, and wonders why other games don’t let you do truly heroic things like that? Could super jump (and stuff like that) be the missing ingredient to making ordinary adventurers into heroes?

And lastly, Anjin has a complete run-down of what we’ll see in Free Realms’ future. Soccer/football? Yes, please! Prestige classes? Sounds EXCELLENT! Here’s hoping SOE fixes my account so I can play again :)

See you tomorrow on the Tuesday Nightly Blogroll!

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