Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Note to Lum, Tyrant, Evocare... I HATE YOU ALL!

Not really, I just thought it would be an attention getter...

Well, I will get to why I hate them in a minute. I have some time since all the Goddamn WOW servers are down for "extended" maint... GIMMIE MY CRACK!!! LOL just kidding.

I was reading Lum's interview with TTH, and I have to say that I am glad to see Lum getting up there and saying something negative/positive about specific games and not just generalizations about the genre. It was also nice to see him speak on PvP, which as you know, he was the defender of the PvE back in the day. Maybe not because he wanted to, but hardcore PvP people came here, he got the rest. hehe Please read the article, so you can see the context. I may not have a movie or a book, but I did my small part. *wink*

So, anyway... He just got me thinking about some things. Lum says:

"There are going to be a good group of people out there who are able to compete with the big name games on a much smaller budget. And they’re going to make an insane amount of money."

I agree and those people are out there, but all the really good people want to do their own thing. In every game publishing house there are those that have been around the block in MMO's and those veterans are really good at what they do. The downside is that once you become an MMO veteran, you want to do it "your way". I guess you could call it the "Frank Sinatra Syndrome".

I also believe there are, and will be those games created by veterans and new teams that can make a lot of money. Most of the big vets have their own companies now, and hopefully, they can make something just as good if not better. Everyone has friends. If you have enough friends that like what you are doing, you will see them in your games. Some of us players have friends too, and they know we will work hard to bring them more people. Spending the big money helps, but I don't think that determines "success" or "failure" in every instance.

Lum also said this about the game he is working on "in secret"... (I hate that when they don't tell us what is going on... Don't you? Even Adrick used to pull that crap on me...):

"Yes, it is going to be a fantasy MMO. But it’s going to be a fantasy MMO that is done by a lot of veterans that have a fairly good grasp on making these types of games."

I think if you could find a team of vets that don't have "Frank Sinatra Syndrome", and can put together something cool, then I applaud you. I would still want to get some cutting edge newbies in there for a little flavor. I mean, before EA and Mythic started hiring all of my friends, they were only veterans at "Playing" MMO's, not necessarily making them. Now look where they are. Lum, and Evocare are doing well in their respected areas. I can't even tell you how many people I know out there that used to just be playing the games and visiting sites like BV or LTM that are out there making a difference because of the platforms we created back in the day. I guess all of you vets will just have to "group" and hopefully not fight too much among yourselves.

You take WOW, and you just can't help but see so many things that we bitched and complained about in the past that have come to light! I probably notice it more then others because I was there back in the UO/EQ days, and I left MMO's for awhile. When I came back, it was like a magic wand had been waved over a game casting "less suck, more crack". Don't get me wrong, I already do have some issues with WOW, and I will get to those once the crack pipe gets a little worn, but OMG what a difference four years can make.

I don't think WOW wants to get away with anything. I just don't see that too many folks are pushing the right people. If you remember even in the days of UO, when you talked to the right group of folks, you got results. Hell, Lum could manipulate an emergency game fix or bulletin board wipe, in two seconds when he pushed the right buttons. Even I got those guys to make changes if I played real nice and didn't call them dirty Dread Lord posers. They just need the right push, and one day a new bunch of crazy people like us will come up and give it to them.

The point is, don't give up on your game. If you pay them each month it is your right to let them know how they are doing wrong. It is a "service" industry after all. If you aren't happy, they are gonna do something about it. Even though WOW makes more money then God, they are greedy bastards and will do things to keep each one of our crack lovin' booties playing their game.

I hate Evo and Lum for getting to live the dream. I hate Tyrant for always being so damn RIGHT!

See ya!

Monday, May 26, 2008

The honeymoon is over...

Well, we are looking at level 19. I went ahead and subscribed after my 10 free days were up, and things were still lookin' pretty sweet. Now the tough stuff gets goin. All my quests are red to me, and I have found that those tricksters at Blizzard are going to make me fight two of everything a lot. So, I am working on a new strategy to defeat their evil plans so I can make level 70 by Chrismas. hehe

Hell, I didn't even get to 30 in EQ, but you know how it is... So many people to see, so little time.

Anyway, I gotta figure out how to get some of this stuff I have been looking for. I will be back soon with my next WOW update. ;)

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Happily grinding my way to victory!

Now, grinded to about 15.5 or so, we are at the point where I am starting to like others around to help out. It just goes faster… I am now starting to get some decent special items, and I even figured out how to get more bags so I don’t have to go to town as much. It’s just never enough though is it? How much storage should one need? I can’t really afford much, so we are going with the 8 bag slots for now. One of these days I need to rob the bank or something.

So, I was in Stormwind the other day and I saw this bizarre deal where a lady was guiding a bunch of children on a tour of the city. My first thought was “What the hell is this?” What were these guys thinking? I don’t know, but there is a lot of humor and snark built into this game, and I find it to be funny. My little pet Voidwalker frequently announces that he is “Void where prohibited”. My little Imp pet is always trying to break up with me. The Imp is more comical, but I want to know who did the voice for that character.

So, with all of the major headaches taken out, I think WOW was the perfect EQ killer. I can’t get over how much they put into taking some of our pain away and saying… “Hey, we love your money, come spend it here.” I just love it when they ask nicely for me to play the virtual slot machine.

DSL should be available here any time now. I have no clue about cable, but I would at least have a better connection on the wired DSL instead of the air card. For the most part, the aircard does okay, but there are a few times where things have gotten shaky.

Another interesting feature I liked last night. If your pet dies immediately after you make it, then you get your soulshard back. I found that to be quite the bonus.

Anyway, I am off to see the wizard, err the warlock…

Monday, May 19, 2008

Still Wow’d by WOW…

Anyway, I have been happily grinding my way to level 13. I am impressed with how much has changed since EQ. I am mostly self-sufficient at this level, I can heal myself, I have a pet, which makes me very happy. I always loved Dark Elves, but Warlocks seem to fit the bill just fine. It doesn’t take as long to learn in this game, which as a casual player makes me even more excited. Now, most everything I could want to know is tracked somewhere on the net.

There were some other things I liked. At least up to this point, I haven’t had to bother with where to put “points” and stuff. That always bothered me in EQ. I am more likely to just want to play the game and get my cookie, then worry about where to add points. In many ways they really dumbed things down. Although, I may not have liked that in the past, I find that it keeps me more interested in doing the busy work and not so much about screwing up my character.

Of course the second character is always better then the first. I had to go figure out what to do with the first one, then quickly built up another on of my own in half the time. I have been running a couple of characters because they seem to do maintenance on the servers in the early morning when I like to play. The system is so easy to do. If you stay close and do the quests, you will advance quickly. They will move you on when you are ready.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can help but want to find out what happens next. Four years of downtime did me some good.

On another note…

I was reading the Massively's ION notes over at Lum’s house. I was amazed that people are still arguing about players causing grief in games. Enough grief to make some folks leave the game. I don’t know that there will ever be sufficient tools to keep people in line in the game. But, when you have a game with over 10 Million subscribers, they still must be doing something right.

Some equally funny stuff...

This is older, but if you haven't read Amber in awhile, she is making a comeback!

She is talking about games targeted towards "Boomer Women" My favorite quote here is "“Wedding dash?” Sweet Jesus on a Maxi Pad, I think my ovaries just asploded." Oh, my sides are hurting! I think they are talking more about busty babes, but who knows...

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Quick notes on WOW...

Keeping in mind I haven't played an MMOG since Asheron's Call first came out, here is my scoop on WOW.

WOW! I like it. I could immediately tell who had been working on this game just by the mechanics and the way things were laid out. I felt as if I was playing UO and Everquest in one neat little package. The thing that most reminded me of UO is the terrain. I like how most cities are very close to each other, and things are divided into smaller areas for quests and such. The terrain reminds me so much of UO, especially because of the guard towers. I remember being quite afraid of those back in 1999 since my character was usually a red one.

I haven't done any PvP, but I did grind to level 9 in one evening. I hate that part, but I was pleased by how things were meant to trick you into getting your ass kicked. I also like the way you rez right by your corpse, and the zones don't take long to load like EQ. I also liked that I could play on my air card with only an Edge connection and still had minimal latency.

The nice thing about starting a game after it has been out a long time, is that you don't have to deal with as many assholes. The downside is that there aren't as many assholes around to help you out with cash and equipment.

The quest engine seemed to work great, and I love the experience for exploring new areas. I also liked that for the most part, if you stick to the road, you don't get killed a whole bunch. I had to go quite a ways away from my home town before I was plastered into dust by a couple of agro mobs on the road. I also like the flight paths so you don't need a mage, and the tram that travels underground to the dwarven city was too cool. Graphics were good, sound was good, and the options are excellent. It really seems like they put some real work into this game, and it is obviously showing up in the number of accounts.

I like the way most of the adventure is layed out just off the path of the roads, and the fact that you can solo if you stay on the outskirts of each encounter. It is still hard to solo, but so far, it hasn't been impossible. I don't know about the harder levels yet... I laughed when I saw someone offering 10 siver to people to strip and dance. I couldn't believe someone thought up the Michael Jackson moves and even the Macarena. I haven't seen it all yet, but those cracked me up.

I had to read the credits to see who I knew from EQ and UO, and sure enough, I saw someone very fimilar. Old Tom "Evocare" Chilton is one of the Lead Designers. Congrats to you my friend. I can see your input in there, along with the other folks you have working with you. The list of folks doing the game is huge!

I noticed there are a lot of PvP servers. I wonder if that is just because the game is older, or if the stigma of people losing stuff and fighting is not so harsh as before.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw out my 2 cents on the game. I personally want to play World of StarCraft, but that is another story...

Monday, May 5, 2008

Yep, still alive and kicking!

Just stopped in to give you something to read on another site...

GTA MMO? Wouldn't that be interesting?