Yeah, I like TV. I can say that now; for years I refused to watch it. Rotting my mind and all. But having just come off a marathon 30 Rock Season 2 bender, I find I really want to get back to playing MMOs because they are LESS addictive than television. With MMOs, you chat with people, group with them, make friends. With TV, it’s just sitting with the cat and a bowl of popcorn on a lonely couch. So, you know, on the scale of pathetic leisure time activities, MMOs are way above television.
But I still like it! The GOOD shows, I mean. Since you and I like only the good shows, I don’t need to list them, but I think we know Brennan and Booth are gonna get together.
I am playing Runes of Magic now because, hey, WoW is coming out with a new expansion that I probably won’t play, so why not reminisce about good times in WoW by playing some other game? Runes of Magic only allowed me to pick from two races, Elf and Human. I thought they had some short folk in the character concept art, but I guess those were just meant to be children. It’d be kind of cool, by the way, to start of as a child in an MMO (optionally, anyway), and play children’s games of crafting, socialization, war and magic while slowly aging and learning more of the wider world and your place in it.
I’m a little late to the Runes of Magic scene, but I won’t let irrelevance slow me down. Expect a “first look” in a week or two.
Raph Koster is at the Austin Game Developer’s Conference this week (and I’d love to be there, too, to hear about all the new Wizard101 stuff!), and he’s been working his fingers to the knuckles transcribing various panels — he just posted a fascinating transcription of a panel about monetizing online games.
Because “Free to Play” doesn’t mean free. They expect between $5-$50 ARPU – average return per user per month (I believe it’s by month).
Speaking of modern gaming’s loose and liberal use of the word “free”, Free Realms is having a double Station Cash weekend Friday evening through Sunday night. Buy a Station Cash card, redeem it after 7PM PST Friday but before Sunday midnight, and they’ll match your donation. You have to redeem it within Free Realms, but you can use it in any SOE game that takes it. This puts a character transfer for your EQ2 characters at $12.50 each, effectively. Or you can spend it all on dressing your kitty like a pirate for International Talk Like a Pirate day.
Here’s a little Pirate Alphabet to get in the mood:
Ravious at Kill Ten Rats has a fantastic interview with some folks at ArenaNet, the people behind Guild Wars and its forthcoming sequel, Guild Wars 2: Electric Boogaloo. Find out how the Wizards of the Coast folks have it so easy balancing Magic: the Gathering compared to the way tougher card game of primary and secondary skills, what the purpose of all those different classes is anyway, and what they’re keeping in mind for GW2.
I used to twink my EQ alts by logging the alt in this little corner, dropping stuff there with my main, then logging in really quick and hope nobody had stolen it or it hadn’t just decayed. Was that cheating? *I* don’t think so. In EverQuest, that’s pretty much why people kept going to the old zones. Twinking — and farming stuff to sell — was the root of EQ’s social culture. It was the battery that kept the whole thing going. Gordon of We Fly Spitfires, alas, sees things differently. Is twinking just another form of cheating? Or is it a way to keep older zones active enough so that newer players can more easily find groups?
Syp thinks grinding has got a bad rap. In fact, it brings you to an almost zen-like state of relaxation. Seriously — grinding might be good for your health! So grind another rank of faction for your kids, because they love you.
If you’re gonna get that zen-like state going, what better reason than living through the apocalypse? Well, not quite living, not if you’re in Fallen Earth. You’re a clone of a DEAD person (oops, spoiler alert). Pete of Dragonchasers isn’t sweating the genetic stuff, he’s out scrabbling through the ruins looking for bits and pieces with which to make horrific weapons of destruction and finger-lickin’ fried chicken. Well, at least the fingers of one of those hands is lickable.
Spinks has words for those scallywags who pre-order a game just to get into the open beta, but then feel free to cancel it if they don’t like what they see. And those words are: go ahead! The game company gets good PR for all those pre-orders, and you got to see if you liked a game without shelling out big bucks.
Spinks is also liking what she hears about the new Captain’s Log in Star Trek Online. Yeah. The more I hear about that game, the more I like it. Please PLEASE I hope they take a cue from their Champions Online and make the STO universe a shared universe.
And Keen is agonizing over the server choice he must make for Aion. Every time it gets harder, whether for Pirates of the Burning Sea, or Warhammer, now this… at least Darkfall had just one server. Me, I just wait six months or a year these days. If the game still sounds like fun by then, I go for it. That’s what I did for WoW. Wizard101 lets you change servers at will. I don’t understand why more games don’t design their games around server pools. Dividing friends among different servers shouldn’t be a revenue stream. It’s a problem that needs fixing.
You know, if Lord of the Rings were anything like Lord of the Rings Online, Radagast the Brown might have had a little more trouble with the birds and beasts of the field than he let on…. and Melmoth of Killed in a Smiling Accident has the sad duty to write it all down. My problem with him, in LotRO, was — he was the one in charge of those annoying spying birds? When I met him in game, I wanted to ask him why he didn’t call those annoying pests OFF. But that wasn’t one of the conversation options.
The Teal Nine Ring Highway Hazard has gotten subscribing to several MMOs down to a finely honed science. Get out your spreadsheet and follow along and you, too, can play five MMOs and pay for only one sub at a time.
Ardwulf, he of the one word Aion review, bids a fad sarewell to NCsoft Austin’s Dungeon Runners. I liked the game fine, just got too repetitive, but I am sad to see it go. I remember when NCsoft Austin was started with bright hopes and magical moonbeams to work on a mysterious groundbreaking MMO by game royalty Lord “Richard Garriott” British. I remember it just like it was Sunday. Now, what’s left of it? Gone, along with all our dreams.
The Friendly Necromancer spills the beans about the special PvP armor you can earn in Wizard101. -100% mana? Sounds like winning stats to me. But it does look cool, though making plate armor and metal helms kinda stretches traditional wizard-wear, doesn’t it?
Keep gaming! I’ve had a pretty rough past couple of days IRL but I’m back now :)
Hey, everyone ELSE returns to WoW…. And why not? Rumor has it that Blizzard is definitely going to introduce the Worgen and Goblin races as new playable races… something ever World of Warcraft player has been expecting since before Burning Crusade was announced. With news of the new expansion and the Starcraft II delays already making the rounds, Green Armadillo asks what else could Blizzard possibly have in waiting to surprise Blizzcon attendees?
Eager to try out Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited when it goes live next month? Syp at Bio Break has some great pointers for letting your group know that you are no noob, you are a l33t d20-rollin’ playah like them!
If you’re interested in preparing for Guild Wars 2′s “Hall of Monuments”, which displays your notable accomplishments from Guild Wars and its expansions, Ravious of Kill Ten Rats has the skinny on some of the monuments and what the require. Don’t expect it to be easy, but at least you know what you’ll be doing until GW2 is released. Guild Wars is one of the best single player RPGs on the market — the notion that you can play solo or with others is just the icing on an already tasty cake.
Yes, I KNOW Guild Wars calls itself a MMO, and YES I know that you can have huge arena battles. Okay? I was just making a point that it is a very good SOLO experience if you want it to be. Sheesh.
Noted hardcore PvP-er Syncaine hopes that Warhammer’s patch 1.3.1, intended to make the core city sieges somewhat less grueling, will bring some life to what was always intended to be the centerpiece of the entire game. I hope so. Though I don’t PvP much, I like some of the innovation Warhammer brought to the genre which has already influenced newer games such as Champions Online. Lively competition in the MMO genre keeps companies from stagnation. Werit headed to the player test realm for some hands-on experience with the new city sieges.
Since the patch earlier this year that brought the Life school spell Rebirth — a group resurrect/heal/damage shield that anyone can cast (as a treasure card) — 4v4 arena fights in Wizard101 have been known to drag on for hours. The last one I tried was pushing two hours with absolutely no end in sight before I decided I had better things to do with my life, but better people than me stick it out. After a seven hour duel, Stingite at The Friendly Necromancer reports that one group received just 11 fame (nearly nothing) for winning their tediously long battle. Should treasure cards be disallowed for PvP? How can this be fixed?
I’ve renamed the Web Log to the Daily Blogroll, just because I like the name better. Also, in the Shameless Self Promotion dept, look for the last Adventures in Monopoly scheduled for later today. There’ll be more adventures with Dire Bear, Scottie and Car, when they have another story to tell.
Player-centric blogger Tobold loves Free Realm’s collectible card game. If you want to get in on the fun and not look like a newb Pokemon player with a hand fall of Charmanders, check out his Deckbuilding 101 guide.
Taymar of MMORPG Info tells another chapter in the tale of Paxmar, the Pacifist Gnome. Paxmar is working through EverQuest 2 without killing any creatures. Just think of all the hotbar space she saves!
Dusty Monk (real name: Dusty Monk!) of Of Course I’ll Play It explains why he no longer plays betas (new blog name: I Might Still Play It). Split into two sections, “Blame it on Vanguard” and “Beta is French for Free Playable Demo”, you gotta admit that he has a point. I’m not that strong. I’m still going to check out betas :/
Today being CoH’s fifth anniversary, it seems almost an insult to talk about Champions Online, but… whatever. Syp at Bio Breaks points out that the superhero MMO will allow duplicate hero names. If someone made their Superman first, no worries, you can still be Superman — you’ll be Superman@playerhande. The comics world has needed this for ages to keep track of its various Supermans and Flashes. Personally, I’d rather they just appended a number, like in Watchmen: Night Owl II, Silk Spectre II, Doctor Doom CLXVI….
Champions beta testers have been asking where the healing powers are? Apparently there is just very little healing in the game, but Hudson of Saving the World has the answers, straight from Cryptic. It looks like a couple of the base archetypes will eventually include some direct heals, and the crafting professions will each be able to make a heal object of some sort. I wonder if it will be clear at character creation just which archetype will eventually get heals?
Kendricke of Clockwork Gamer joins the game industry as an Associate Producer for Activision! Big grats to him! Activision… don’t we know that better as Activision Blizzard? Hmmm…. and Blizzard has that new super secret MMO… Hmmm….!
I used to twink my EQ alts by logging the alt in this little corner, dropping stuff there with my main, then logging in really quick and hope nobody had stolen it or it hadn’t just decayed. Was that cheating? *I* don’t think so. In EverQuest, that’s pretty much why people kept going to the old zones. Twinking — and farming stuff to sell — was the root of EQ’s social culture. It was the battery that kept the whole thing going. Gordon of We Fly Spitfires, alas, sees things differently. 
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