Unlike other offer walls, this one probably won’t infect your computer with anything TOO harmful.
Like watching pretty alien spaceships blow up in all sorts of interesting ways? I do! I bought Gratuitous Space Battles the day it came out and every now and then, I build some fleets and watch them get crazy on the devious (but not as devious as me) enemy. Positech Games sent me a 25% off code for the game, good for seven days only, and two of those days have already passed, so if you’ve been wanting the game, be the first to use up this discount code when ordering: BNXP00099.
From now until Monday morning, Cryptic is having a 25%-off sale in its cash shop. If you’ve been wanting to get that new starship in Star Trek Online or more of whatever you need from Champions Online, now’s your chance. Now if this were Blizzard, your new sparkly must-have mount would be only $19!
It’s not, though.
Runes of Magic is also getting with the discount cash store program. From now until Sunday midnight GMT, prices for diamonds, their in-game cash store currency, are half off. If they were Blizzard, that would mean your sparkly must-have mount would be only $12.50!
Oddly compelling iPad/iPhone MMO Pocket Legends has some new items in its cash shop, too. Throwing weapons for the archer, shields for the enchantress, new two handed blades for the warriors. Unlike other games, you can buy anything in the cash shop with either in-game gold or money via iTunes, unlike sparkly mounts from Blizzard, which no amount of in-game gold will purchase.
To celebrate the release of the newest compilation of orchestral Final Fantasy music, Distant Worlds, Square Enix and Arnie Roth are traveling the world, partnering with local world-class orchestras and the occasional visit by compose Nobuo Uematsu himself, to bring an evening of Final Fantasy music to you. I can’t think of much I’d rather do than attend, but none of the dates are anywhere near. Still, maybe you’ll be luckier!
Did looking at this page infect your computer? Are you sitting on a sparkly horse RIGHT NOW? Do you wish the sparkly horse had come in pink instead of blue? Let me know!
While developing a game to an established IP may bring the potential of thousands of players eager to live in the world they have come to know, the property may also be a straight-jacket. Clever developers have found ways around these problems, though.
In 1963, Jin Yong began serializing his epic novel Tian Long Ba Bu, or “The Heavenly Dragon and the Eight Sections”, in newspapers in Hong Kong and Singapore. Four years later, he finished. Over 230 characters make their way through TLBB’s grand plot of warring sects, intrigue, love, betrayal, blinding, death, demigods and dragons. He was the Robert Jordan of his day — if Robert Jordan had written a chapter of his books every day for four years. TLBB has spawned four films and five movies. After reading about TLBB on Wikipedia, I don’t understand why we haven’t seen a Western adaptation yet. A whole fake CITY was built in order to film one of the series (and is now a tourist destination).
At least we have the MMO version, called Dragon Oath here in the states. Dragon Oath boasts 75 million players worldwide. Yes, 75 MILLION. Publisher ChangYou.com claims it is the #1 martial arts MMO in the world. The player chooses from nine schools of Kung Fu, can apparently eventually command armies, ride dragons and command showy magics. Judging by the quality of graphics, the game, which is in open beta here, should likely run on most anything.
First published in 1974 by long-time wargamers Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, early editions of Dungeons & Dragons had a dead-easy character generation technique: roll three six-sided dice and add them up and assign those values in turn to STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON and CHA — the six characteristics that told the story of every character in the D&D world. If you had a high strength, you might opt to become a fighter. A goodly intelligence would mark you as a mage, and so on. The games were moderated by a (hopefully) impartial Dungeon Master (DM) who would lead the party on adventures appropriate to their classes and numbers. Later editions of the game introduced more rules and many ways of tuning a character just exactly right, but the game itself is still instantly familiar. The character sheet, the iconic 20-sided die, and the DM behind his or her screen cackling evilly as the players blunder into some insidious trap — all would be instantly familiar to a D&D player of any age.
It’s no big surprise that D&D was made into an MMO; the only mystery is why it took so long. Then again, with almost every RPG of the 70s through the 00s explicitly modeling itself on D&D, perhaps there was just too much duplication going on. EverQuest came about as close to an implementation of D&D in MMO form as one possibly could without severely trampling on D&D’s copyright. With a largely faithful implementation of D&D 3.5′s rules and its Eberron setting, the d20 spinning on the screen and the occasional voice of an unseen Dungeon Master, DDO tries its best to pay homage to its pen and paper roots.
At launch, DDO did fairly well, but players did not take well to the heavy instancing and requirements to run dungeon modules time and time again in order to gain the most points and experience with which to level. Since DDO became free to play, player counts, subscribers and income have increased five-fold.
Aside from the occasional reuse of character names, general plots and Nobuo Uematsu’s haunting scores, about all that unites the various titles in the Final Fantasy catalog is the name “Final Fantasy”. You can’t get much purer than that in an IP. The earlier games in the FF series tended toward more universal character classes and abilities before 1997′s Final Fantasy VII moved the series toward more individualistic characters with iconic weapons and fighting moves. Since then, creators Square-Enix have outdone themselves in finding new, unique combat methods, weapons and power-ups, aside from a single return to their roots in 2000′s Final Fantasy IX. The Final Fantasy series has been credited with bringing Japanese-style RPGs to the rest of the world, and has spawned two movies, at least one anime, manga and a host of tangentially-related spinoff games.
Final Fantasy XI Online and the in-development Final Fantasy XIV Online take their inspiration largely from the earlier games in the series; players have jobs (classes) with various set skills, and they can train for and change their jobs with little effort, once they have unlocked them. Ridable Chocobos (pony-sized birds almost certainly based on the mounts in Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind) and monstrous Summons make their appearance, and the infamous BCNMs — Burning Circle Notorious Monsters — provide mini-boss battles that could be earned or bought at will. Innovative game mechanics, a strong plot, gorgeous scenery, the famous Uematsu music and an “automatic” English/Japanese translating chat system made FFXI a favorite the world over. It didn’t hurt that it was the first MMO available for Sony’s Playstation 2, predating Sony’s own EverQuest Online Adventures by a year. FFXI Online is, eight years in, still going strong. FFXIV looks to take the best parts of FFXI and improve on the rough bits, and should easily match the popularity of its predecessor.
Since Cartoon Network started broadcasting in 1992, its blend of classic and original cartoons has made it the discerning teenager’s outlet for original animation when the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon have lost their luster. Their late-night “Adult Swim” block shows experimental animation aimed at older teenagers and young adults. Cartoon Network broadcasts to kids from Ireland to Pakistan. The generally high quality of its cartoons make secret watchers of plenty of adults as well.
FusionFall launched last year to good critical buzz. With kid-friendly systems in place similar to those used by other kid-focused games such as Disney’s Toontown and KingsIsle’s Wizard101 and gameplay based on classic platform running and jumping, combined with ease of play (runs in a browser) and NPCs drawn from most of Cartoon Network’s most popular shows, the game is apparently doing quite well. Launched as a subscription game, FusionFall will go entirely free to play Monday, April 19th.
Originally developed as a simple, semi-abstract decoration for a coin purse in Japan in 1974, within two years Hello Kitty had spread around the world. Now, Hello Kitty and her legion of friends can be found on merchandise of all descriptions available wherever children may be found, including Sanrio-themed stores selling every kind of Hello Kitty branded merch you could think of… except maybe that Hello Kitty AK-47. From her humble beginnings as a coin purse, Hello Kitty has gone on to reign over a media empire that includes two animated series and a dozen video games.
Hello Kitty Online lets players go on an epic quest to find all of Hello Kitty’s lost friends who have scattered across the world. Along the way, you’ll find and raise pets, tend farms, battle villainous creatures, craft clothing and weapons, and unlock and play various minigames such as fishing and water-skiing. The game tends to be grindy (as is usual for Asian imports) but the social tools are second to none. I suspect Hello Kitty Online appeals more to kids moms than the kids themselves, though. Also, your screen will almost certainly run out of pink almost immediately.
Tune in tomorrow for part 3, where we’ll be looking at lords, pirates and little plastic bricks.
What makes The Prancing Pony such a “must see” when you’re in Bree? Butterbur just stands in that same spot all day and all night, perpetually on the edge of remembering what it is he needed to do while buying sticks and pebbles from snickering children.
If you go, though, to the cloakroom on the second floor, you might find Melmoth of Killed in a Smiling Accident hiding from insanely super-powered wolves as he struggles with Lord of the Rings Online’s gated content — where overpowered common animals with a long history of being dead block lower level adventurers from peeking around the next curve. (Wolfshead also has a tankard of tears, by the way, for the poor, bereft children of J.R.R., whose money beds require additional stuffing).
Naamah of Aionic Thoughts heard that Aion’s latest patch (1.5) would be adding a cool dozen new instances, and he had a sudden thought: Instancing is killing WoW. Do we really want Aion to go down that same road?
Stropp doesn’t like people much. At least, not human-type people. At least, not in MMOs. EQ2 has rats, cats, frogs and lizards, but most of them are evil, and all of them are just more or less re-skinned people. Why not more exotic races? (Well, Horizons did have PC Dragons).
Mixmeister and Diapermancer Thomas, the Friendly Necromancer, has done another amazing remix of Wizard 101′s music, this time, the foresty, beastly themes of the Viking world of Grizzleheim. He once remixed a rather boring four-part Renaissance dance I recorded into something really special. He truly is a genius :)
There’s a lot of things you can do in today’s MMOs, but which one activity is the MOST fun? For Keen, it’s leveling. I dunno. I tend to think of leveling as a chore, where I pay $15/month (or whatever) for the privilege of doing boring, repetitive tasks. I only enjoy leveling when I am having fun with the game, and levels come when they come, but there’s no urgency to move on from where I am.
Petter finds more danger in Nosepickers and Unannounced AFKers in Final Fantasy XI Online’s Valkurm Dunes than he does with the more mundane Goblins and Star Bats. But aren’t these mobs found in pickup groups in every MMO?
Like an ebbing tide, the weekend slowly recedes, leaving behind the flotsam and jetsam of yet another Monday. Only a few years too late to knock ‘em dead in Mrs. Moran’s 3rd grade English class on similes.
Are the World of Warcraft’s raids too dependent on scripting to be done by unaided humanity? I haven’t played WoW in a few years, but it’s sounding more and more like WoW raids are just a multiplayer, more colorful version of the old “Dragon’s Lair” video game, where you had to move to lit-up squares in a room to defeat monsters. Actually it sounds EXACTLY like it, as Copra found out to his dismay. WoW raiding — an update of a classic 80′s video game for a new generation.
Spinks wonders why people agree to “boost” other people through high level dungeons. I first heard this term from my son, when he would get his Diablo II characters boosted to level 99, and then turn around and boost others (basically, powerleveling). And then he did it in EverQuest II, and in Call of Duty 4. Someone even asked ME to “boost” them through Wizard 101. I don’t think this says anything about the laziness of players, more than just the design of a game that isn’t as much fun played as intended.
Wizard’s Journey has a great post on this weekend’s “Wizard 101 Meet & Greet”, a fantastic opportunity for W101 bloggers and readers to meet up and get on each other’s friend lists. I wasn’t able to attend, but I’ve heard from reliable sources that a fun time was had by all.
Brad McQuaid continues wearing his public hair shirt of taking the piss for other people’s problems leading to the downfall of Sigil in “The All-Star Team“. Sigil hired the best and the brightest, and got a team of MMO superstars all pulling in different directions, claims Brad.
Petter of Don’t Fear the Mutant is taking Final Fantasy XI for a spin, and it’s fun reliving those heady times again, through his adventures. He started off in Windurst, while I started off in Sand Oreo, so I can see why he didn’t stay in the Dunes — he came at them from the wrong side (the low level stuff is on the Oreo side).
Struggling to remain afloat in any form, Chronicles of Spellborn is going Free-to-Play, but with a cash shop. I’m having a tough time figuring out what a game where gear and loot is severely de-emphasized in favor of player skill could offer in a cash shop. Maybe a more standard “press this button until everything is dead” interface. Whatever. Beau of Spouse Aggro looks at several different ways in which Spellborn could relaunch itself as a F2P title.
And finally Gordon of We Fly Spitfires revels in misogyny as he compares MMOs to women. Quick summary: Age of Conan – slut. World of Warcraft – your willing love slave who doesn’t mind if you cheat on her. Extra points for comparing EVE Online to the Soviet Union…
A Monday full of meetings at work! So I’d better be going. See you tomorrow, and keep gaming!
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