Aggro Me

Random WoW Items

2008-08-13T14:22:00.002-04:00

There is an article in the New York Post (which Consumerist picked up on) about issues Time Warner Cable customers are having with lag and disconnects while playing WoW. Both Blizzard and TWC seem to be pointing the finger at each other. There is an official thread gathering information on the issue.

As a current Time Warner Cable customer (I can't get FIOS where I live), I'm curious to see how this all plays out.

Update: The digital communications director from Time Warner responds here.

While I was browsing the WoW forums, I came across the Blizzcon forum and the massive levels of customer anger being expressed therein. Apparently, in addition to the fact that the tickets available for Blizzcon 2008 were limited in terms of the sizable customer base, there were a number of issues with the website on which customers purchased (or couldn't purchase) tickets.

WoW Insider has a number of posts on the topic, Relmstein has a blog entry on it and CNet's Crave has a post as well. Someone even made a video. I see that a Blizzcon ticket on eBay is currently at $710. The ones on StubHub are $1,500 for a pair so it's looking like seven hundred and change is the current FMV for a ticket.

Weirdest MMO Promotion Ever?

2008-08-03T22:33:00.005-04:00

I've heard of promotions that give you in-game items or maybe even a poster. But only Richard Garriott would give you the opportunity to send your DNA into space or have your MMO character data uploaded and stored on the International Space Station.

You can check out his Operation Immortality and read more about it. You do need a Tabula Rasa account but you can still be elgible with the free trial. Each week, 8 Tabula Rasa players will be selected to have their DNA sequenced and the data uploaded to Garriott's Immortality Drive. And when he travels to the International Space Station in October, he'll be taking that data with him to store there.

Even if you don't get your DNA selected, Tabula Rasa players have the opportunity to have their character data uploaded to the Immortality Drive or leave a message to be stored on it.

In this Wired article on his journey to space, Garriott also mentions that he has ideas for an MMO that "shares more in common with Ultima Online than today's popular virtual worlds."

Always Go Right

2008-07-27T01:45:00.001-04:00

Well, I have a special announcement to make in this very post. After all these years, I can finally admit it. I'm Ceciliantas.

Okay, no - I'm just kidding, but if you got that I'm impressed by your memory. My actual announcement is that I'm here to tell you about a brand spanking new website: Always Go Right.

What is this new website, you ask? Well, about 14 months ago I started my own gold-farming and power-leveling company in Peru. I felt that the public would be quite interested in the ins-and-outs of this new venture. This new website will take you inside my world and tell you about the day to day life of farming for gold and items and about the wacky bunch of employees I've come to love. Okay, you got me - I'm just kidding again.

But the new website, Always Go Right, is for real and actually covers all manner of geeky topics. And don't worry, it's not just me, there is a group of writers including myself, Karnatos and Anskiere, with Bandit joining us soon. And even though today is the official launch, there are 37 posts already published for you to check out, as we've been "warming up" over the last month or so.

We've all been very connected to the geek community at some point or another but have also stepped away from it for a time. This is our journey to reclaim our geekhood and to learn about all the fascinating interests and subcultures that exist in this wonderful world. We will discuss the things we are passionate about: technology, fantasy and sci-fi novels or movies, comics and anime, and, of course, games. But that's just a thumbnail - you'll have to follow along to see what else happens!

We are officially launching today, Sunday, July 27, in honor of Gary Gygax's birthday. As a geek icon and the co-creator of a game that has touched our lives in tremendous fashion, both directly and indirectly, we salute him. So for the next ten days, we'll be focusing on the topic of Gygax and D&D. But we will be mixing in a variety of other items during that time, before embarking on our wide-ranging quest. And you can get a taste for the normal content of the site in the archives.

But I promise you, we're just getting started. So I urge you to bookmark the site and add it to your feed-reader. And please comment on whatever interests you or contact us with your ideas. We rely on your input and contribution and know the community is the most important thing. Well, go head over there already!

If you're curious about the details, I'll explain how this came about. I took a break from playing MMO's and from writing for quite a while. The urge to write came back more quickly than the urge to play MMO's. So whenever I read a great fantasy novel or saw a horrible sci-fi movie or played a cool board game, I thought, "This would make a great post!" But I love this blog and want to keep it the way it is. I've been posting more and following MMO news carefully. I'm definitely getting tempted to start playing again. I'm going to give in very soon and then I can get back to my more detailed analyses and jokes. But for the other topics, I thought a fresh start was the way to go.

If there's one thing I've learned with this blog, it's that it is best to find a very small niche you are knowledgeable about and stick with it. So of course, I've completely ignored that lesson by opening Always Go Right to a wide variety of topics. But it will be fun.

I have long wanted to do something as a community effort. The best part of this website was always the community: the comments, the forums, the wild roleplaying game, the collaborative pieces, the guild that sprung up. So I wanted to do something that was truly a team project, that would allow the different points of views and divergent interests to make us stronger than we would be alone. If you've been reading this blog from the beginning you'll certainly recognize the names of the other people involved. They've been supporters and contributors to this site for a long time and I think we're a great team.

Finally, this new site allowed me to learn about WordPress from the ground up. It may not seem like it, but Karn and I have spent months on Skype for hours each night debating and tweaking every detail.

Many changes from this site are obvious: the artwork, WordPress, the design. But there are a few items I wanted to specifically address.

Advertising: You know I've never advertised anything at all on this site, never even put up a single referral link. I honestly never even thought about it - it's just about passion for the subject. And we're doing AGR with the same exact passion, all of us. But we've included some advertising since we have big goals for the website and some of those cost money. I'm happy to finance the initial outlay but no one is going to be comfortable with me endlessly pouring money into the site. We're not in this for the money. In fact, we've all agreed to put whatever small amounts we earn directly back into the website.

But I am very aware of the ethical dangers and issues that come with advertising, even if it's for the right reasons. I get way too annoyed all the time at things I see in the mainstream media and even some blogs. I am very committed to giving you the most honest, transparent experience possible. No advertising will ever affect content and it will always be disclosed. I could go on about this forever, and, actually, I already have. If you visit the About tab on the new site you can read in much greater detail about our policies and about the specifics of the advertising used. If anything changes, I will be sure to update you.

If you ever do see a gold-farming ad, let me know so I can block it (I've already put several filters in place). Or if that becomes a problem, we'll switch to a different type of ad entirely. We're still learning.

Language: This blog has always been completely work-safe both in terms of images and in terms of the actual language. But with a team of writers and guest writers to come there is no way I would censor anyone's writing or tell them they can't curse if that's the way they do their best work. So, while the website will always be worksafe, some of the language may be strong. It hasn't worked out that way yet, but I'm being upfront about things.

If you've read all this - thank you! I hope you'll not only visit Always Go Right but keep checking back there and become part of the community. As for this blog, nothing will change from the norm here. I'll take a week to focus on the new website but I think things here will only get better as I get sucked back into MMO-land.

So join our quest for the Fountain of Geek and remember to always go right! I look forward to hearing from you. And I look forward to this new adventure.

Reasonably Priced Realms

2008-07-23T22:14:00.002-04:00

I've been doing some research on SOE's "family friendly" MMO, Free Realms. Or is it "FreeRealms" since some articles apply a one word title? Well, I'll go with Free Realms as that seems to be more prevalent.

Anyway, this thing has apparently been covered to death on the interwebs, so I'll just provide you with some of the better links I found rather then rehashing what's already out there:

Gamasutra posts an interview with Smed.

Rock Paper Shotgun has an SOE E3 report (other SOE titles are also covered).

Kotaku discusses the real money transaction aspect of the title and also asks if it is, perhaps, the best MMO shown at E3.

MMOG Nation has a quite in-depth look at the E3 demo and then a follow-up on the Q&A session that took place afterwards.

Eurogamer takes a look at the game, stating that "It's the slickest, cleverest prospect due out in the next year - including the increasingly impressive Warhammer Online - with the broadest appeal."

TenTonHammer gives their input with this article.

Wired has a short piece, calling the game "the most impressive showing at Sony Online Entertainment's booth."

It's clear that most reports are positive and that Sony put a lot of effort into this. It sounds like the game will run on even low-end machines, which is a smart move on SOE's part for this type of title.

I don't think this is quite as revolutionary as people are making it out to be, since there are a ton of free MMO's supported by micro-transactions or optional subscriptions already out there. But this might be the best of the class. It certainly seems to have the highest production values. I'll wait until I get more information or a hands-on before giving my opinion, but the potential for crazy fun seems there.

Although these are the Free Realms, SOE's not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, right? There is some discrepancy in the articles I linked as to just how the game will be monetized. Will it be ad-supported? Have subscription only content? Utilize micro-transactions?

Wired says "SOE is leaning towards a microtransaction or ad-supported model for Free Realms, though a standard MMO subscription model is still being discussed."

TenTonHammer seems to suggest that all three of these techniques will be implemented. And if I had to guess, I would agree. I think they will experiment to see what works best for Free Realms and to gain experience in preparation for future entries into this space. Again, I'll wait until I hear the specifics confirmed by SOE with details.

Maybe I'm crazy, but am I the only one bothered by the name? I haven't seen anyone else complaining so I've possibly lost my game-addled mind. I get it, it's FREE (and even that is debatable). Do you have to hit me over the head with it by putting the word free in the name of the game? I haven't seen any other free games deem it necessary to shoehorn the word free into the title.

Well, I'm thinking the word free will also tie into the backstory somehow. Perhaps these are known as the Free Realms because they are kingdoms of liberty and independence, not because they don't cost money. But backstory aside, it's obvious what SOE is going for by putting free in the title.

I just think it might create better perceived value to give it a normal, cool title. People will figure out that it's free. If you had a choice between a trip to Free Hotel or the Atlantis Resort (and both were actually free), wouldn't your inclination be to choose the Atlantis?

One kid asks another, "What are you playing?" And the other kid responds, "Free Realms!" Wouldn't they be worried that it sounds a bit cheesy to relate that to their peers?

To be fair, I'm sure they focus-group'ed it to death. And perhaps they found it was more important to get the free concept out there than have a cool title.

I would change the title but it's probably too late at this point. So I'll shut up about the name of the game the next time I post on it and review it on the merits.

MAG-ic?

2008-07-22T19:40:00.001-04:00

The idea of 256 players waging simultaneous war in an online action game is inherently interesting to a large number of people. Of course, any concept of that nature also raises many doubts: Will they be able to pull it off? Will gameplay suffer? Will it all devolve into chaos? Is bigger really better?

But while we all have our doubts, this is still an exciting idea that's worth trying. I'm glad to see Sony taking the risk with this game. At the very least it may lay the groundwork for things to come.

The game in question is MAG, short for Massive Action Game (though the title will certainly change before the planned 2009 launch). It was announced at E3 as a game set in a war-torn near-future setting in which up to 256 players (broken down into 8 person squads) would battle it out.

The information released was so minimal that it was hard to get excited. But Kotaku then posted an inside report from a playtester with a ton of details on the game. These type of games are not my specialty and it's still very early to be making judgments one way or the other. But at the very least, the potential for something different and fun seems to be there. If you are interested I recommend you read the report and see what you think.

Today we got an update on the Sony PlayStation blog. What surprised me the most about this update is that they went ahead and actually linked to the Kotaku piece. I would have expected them to ignore a report like that, not give it credibility by linking to it. I'm not complaining, I think it's a good thing that demonstrates an ability to react well to surprises.

The screenshot they include is pretty impressive at well. And they do state in the comments that it is an actual screenshot running on a PS3.

Many things can go wrong with a project of such tremendous scale, but it also has the possibility of being a major hit. It's been a long time since Planetside was released and the public seems ready for a game like MAG.

KotOR MMO Fun

2008-07-21T00:47:00.019-04:00

I've been playing a little game lately. When reading a mainstream article about a new MMO, I count how many sentences it takes before the author mentions WoW. For example, in this post, I linked to an article in which the author held off until paragraph four. Well, the article that is the basis of this post only makes it to sentence one.

The article in question is this piece on Portfolio.com. In it, we get EA's chief exec, John Ricitello discussing the two MMO's EA has in development. And he drops some Star Wars upon us:

"And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it.

"Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? "Yes," he said.

Well, this KotOR MMO certainly has been oft rumored to say the least. But we've never had any official word on it until now. There is a lot of discussion in the comments on whether this is a good or bad concept for a game, but what interests me most is the way this was handled.

Was that the proper venue or manner to announce something of this magnitude? And does it even count as an announcement?

I headed over to this (21 page and growing) thread on the BioWare forums. In response to a forum post that the KOTOR MMO has now been confirmed, Chris Priestly, Community Communications Coordinator (those are a lot of C's in that title), states:

"I will post this again in the new thread. There have recently been rumors about the BioWare MMO. Once again, these are just rumors and we do not comment on rumors."

But isn't a statement by EA's chief exec more than a rumor? Priestly adds (on page 5):

"BioWare is working on an MMO. That is not a rumor. BioWare is not working on KotOR 3. That is not a rumor (we are also not working on Baldur's Gate 3, Neverwinter Nights 3, Barbie Dream Home 3, etc). We are making an MMO, but the subject of what that MMO will be is rumors. We do not comment on rumors. Sorry for your confusion."

I had high hopes for Barbie Dream Home 3 but I guess I'll have to be content with my three-story Barbie dream house.

The "sorry for your confusion" came off a bit passive-agressive. But okay, so maybe KotOR MMO does not equal KotOR 3. And it's absolutely fine that BioWare wants to hold off on commenting until they can release the news in their own way. But I just wonder how they feel about a suit from EA dropping these comments?

In response to the tight lips at BioWare, the forum posters play internet detective and pull up these trademark links.

Over on Joystiq, Christopher Grant tracked down the writer of the Portfolio.com story who told him:

"...when asked specifically if this game was "KotOR Online", Riccitiello responded unequivocally, "Yes."

Well, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

In terms of the fan base, you have some people excited that there is a new Star Wars MMO in the works because it is still a powerful IP to many. But then you have some KotOR fans who don't like the idea of their beloved franchise departing from the single-player format.

I've always thought that the reputation of a company does factor in, on some level, to the initial success of a game. For example, Blizzard's fantastic record definitely didn't hurt when WoW was released, and some people are so down on SOE that they need convincing when it comes to a new SOE MMO.

But what's intriguing in this case is the varied reputation of the entities involved. Most people definitely don't have a lot of respect for EA and I don't blame them. And although they are not actually developing the game, they are essentially in charge. There's always the concern (unfounded or not) that they could really screw with the product. Since LucasArts is in on this as well, you have to look at their rep. I'd say it was quite good in the old days but I'm pretty sure things have gone downhill in terms of overall perception. So that's one big negative and one neutral/negative factor. But then you have BioWare, a company that is absolutely highly respected by the vast majority of players. So how will it all pan out? Will BioWare's rep be strong enough to counteract the others?

Of course, there is much concern in the community over how the mechanics of the game should, could, and will work. A popular debate on the forums is the whole "everyone wants to be a Jedi" can of worms. Massively suggests a solution is to make other classes (Wookies, Mandalorians, Droids) super compelling. I like the ideas in the article and I think that could surely help, but I don't think it will ever completely override the draw of the force.

Personally, I would just give into the whole Jedi thing and let people play one right out of the starting gate if they wanted to. Just because there are a lot of Jedi doesn't mean they all have to be the same. There could be sub-classes of Jedi (healers, warriors, etc.) or people could go down different paths in the Jedi skill tree that would focus on different aspects of the Jedi powers. Of course, there is always the issue that so many Jedi breaks with the canon of the Star Wars universe. But there were plenty of Jedi during the time period the game will cover. I will be very interested to see BioWare's solution and wouldn't be surprised if they had a better one.

And in case you forgot, there actually is a Stars Wars MMO out there already. What was it called again? Oh, that's right, Star Wars Galaxies. In this interview on Massively, Smed reminds us that the live team is still very active and promises a ton of content ("vehicles in battles on Hoth") of expansion quality will be released for free.

Dofus Levels

2008-07-18T10:10:00.003-04:00

Back when Dofus was first in beta and for a while after its release, I played it quite a bit and found it to be an interesting experience. Heck, I even posted about it. But even though I liked some aspects of the game, I tired of it pretty quickly and haven't played it since.

I usually love games with strategic or tactical play and enjoy SRPG's. But in a cooperative multiplayer setting, it just didn't work for me. The game also felt unpolished and the english translations were ridiculously bad. The quests were the height of tedium and I never really felt connected to the game world or cared about the story. I also recall frequent load times.

But as I stated, this was quite some time ago, back in (wow!) 2005. It may very well have improved since then. I lost touch with Dofus, although I did stay on their email list because I enjoyed the wacky gems they would send my way. However, they piqued my interest with their latest email announcing Dofus 2.0.

You can see a video on the main site and read more about it here. The graphics did impress me, considering the game is in Flash and the system requirements are quite low. It sounds like there are plenty of behind-the-scenes changes to the code as well. I'm not familiar enough with the game anymore to really judge the whole 2.0 thing, but I am considering checking it out.

What really impressed me the most was this post by Tyn, the Client Developer Manager. When I used to play Dofus the english on the website was awful and it was very hard to glean any actual information. It is great to see that Ankama now communicates well with the english-speaking players.

What's more, I liked with the way he addressed many of the issues and questions people had on the forums about the new version. Rather then hide from criticism or avoid issues, it seems Tyn did a good job of taking it all head on and making sure the customers feel like their concerns have been heard.

It appears I missed out on a few other Dofus-related announcements in my long absence. They released a game called Dofus Arena which focuses on tactical PvP and sounds like it has potential. Another game called Wakfu is in beta-testing and takes place 1,000 years after the events of Dofus.

Blitzed

2008-07-16T17:08:00.003-04:00

Every so often I get hooked by a casual, web-based MMO. You know, the type you don't have to check every single day and you can play around with at work. For a while that was ForumWarz for me. While I'm still into that game, lately I've been pretty taken by a new contender.

The game is Goal Line Blitz, and the creators describe it as:

"...a web-based American Football MMORPG. We've written a custom football simulation engine to provide you with the ultimate football experience on the web."

Well, ultimate is a little strong but this game is fun. You start off by creating a player. You pick the position for your player and a name. Note that "glamour" positions like QB or WR are far more popular and it can be harder to find a team if you go that route.

The game then "rolls" your starting stats for you, both physical (speed, vision, etc.) and football (tackling, blocking, etc.). You can re-roll these and, when you're done, you can use skill points to add to those base stats. Skill points can also be used to work your way up skill trees which give special abilities (i.e. Big Hit, which increases the chance of causing a fumble).

Once your player is set up, it's time to join a team. You can join a human-run team but this can be tough at first when your player is low level and you don't know anyone. However, there are also CPU-run teams which will offer you a contract.

You never actually "play" in the games - your player does but it is just simulated. There is still plenty to do though. You can tweak your training regimen, buy equipment, set your in-game tactics and keep an eye on your morale and energy level. As you earn XP from training or playing in games you get additional skill points to spend.

This game would be fun enough if you could only have one player. But it's a lot more fun to have multiple players going. Of course, creating a player costs flex-points and you start with a limited amount. Flex-points can also be used to buy equipment for a player or "boosting" stats.

You earn flex-points by referring other players. The other option is to buy them with real money. I am not crazy about the whole flex-points thing. I hope you can also earn them just by playing, but I'm not sure on that. I believe they give some out at the end of the season.

Of course, the game itself is free. And your player can be absolutely great without using flex-points - it just might take longer. You start with enough to create multiple players and can get them back by retiring. I just wish there was a way to purchase a team without them.

It looks like things get exponentially more fun when you can get your own team. That adds a ton of other options and strategy (team chemistry, depth charts) to the game. I have not reached that level yet. But I think it's a good idea that you get familiar with the game first before you jump into team ownership.

If you are interested, I recommend you check out the faq and some of these guides before creating your first player. My one tip is to add skill points to bring your stamina up to at least 20 when you are first setting up your player. I screwed that up the first time...but you can always retire and begin anew.

I have definitely not played enough to give an actual review of this game. I'm a noob who just started over with a new player. But I know Bandit has played for a longer period of time and enjoys it quite a lot.

I'll revisit the game when I have more experience with it. However, I wanted to give you a heads-up now because a new season is beginning soon.

Tomorrow's Griefers and Exploiters

2008-07-14T19:15:00.002-04:00

Kids try to get around profanity filters in online games: alert the media.

Babbling

2008-07-09T12:00:00.006-04:00

The one post on this blog that most surprised me in terms of the amount of comments and search traffic is definitely the post I did on Psychobabble. With 86 comments (probably the second most in this site's history) it's become a bit of an ex-Psychobabble player hangout. Since people are still coming here looking for Psychobabble information, I feel a duty to update them in my search for similar games.

Psychobabble was a genre of game I call a "creativity game." You really had to use your creativity and sense of humor to succeed.

Recently, I've been playing a game that taxes the same creative juices. It's an acrophobia game in flash called acroBabble. It's a very well done version and I always have a ton of laughs whenever I play. The players are good and new features are added frequently.

What's more, I heard the site's creator is working on doing a version of Psychobabble. Here's a mini-interview:

What was your inspiration to start the accroBabble website?

I was playing around with some new technologies - Flex SDK, some new Java features etc. I've always maintained that the best way to learn a new piece of technology is to write a real-world app with it. About the same time, there was an article about how traditional games were catching on in social networks. I researched acrophobia to see if it was still around. I realized that there was perhaps an opportunity for an acro-clone and hence decided to embark on the acro adventure.

What are your plans for the future of acroBabble?

I have quite a large list of features to add. There are the obvious - sound effects, game features like private rooms, teams etc. Beyond that I would like to experiment with allowing players to play acro over IM.

Recently, I've added a feature to declare the first person as the room admin with powers to boot unruly players. I've also allowed players to be designated as "trusted." These players cannot be booted by a room admin but they can boot a room admin (gotta keep the admins in check too :)

And what about my precious Psychobabble?

While researching acrophobia, I came across the phenomenon of psychobabble and came to discover its loyal and zealous fan base :) Since acrophobia and pyschobabble are very similar (except for the core creative task), I've been building the code base for acroBabble to factor out the common parts so that I can launch a pyschobabble clone very easily. In fact, I've got a domain for it - http://www.crazybabble.com/ . It currently points to acroBabble.
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Well, I know I'm definitely looking forward to that Psychobabble version. But for now I'll keep playing acroBabble whenever I want to have some creative fun. And I do have a couple more "creativity" contenders that I'll blog about soon.

SOE Goes All Out

2008-07-07T14:44:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but, man, SOE is going all out with this Living Legacy thing for EQII.

I mean, sure, plenty of other MMO companies have done the marketing maneuver where inactive subscribers can log back in and play for a time for free. But I've never seen anything like this concerted effort.

Not only can you play for free until July 31, 2008 but you get a free (digital) copy of the Rise of Kunark all-in-one pack if you convert to a full subscription. Then there's the ability to earn free play time by recruiting friends. And, hey, why not throw in a $5 coupon for the next EQII expansion. But wait - that's not all! If you call right now they'll give you unique in-game items.

Holy smokes. I was expecting the next thing on the list would be that Smed will personally come to your house and power-level your character for you. This is quite a promotion.

I think this will pull in more players which is always a good thing for the game. And I'm sure SOE has worked out the financial angle so it is a net gain for them. I don't have any problems with this kind of thing (although the referral bit does strike me as slightly cheesy).

The modest risk you run with stuff like this is seeming too desperate and causing people to wonder if your traffic numbers are really bad. I honestly do not think that is the case, I'm just saying it's a danger of perception.

I think it's just a nice big marketing push. They're doing something similar for EQ .

The great thing about it is that EQII has really changed tremendously since launch (largely for the better - although I can't vouch for the most recent content). So I think that a lot of people will be quite pleasantly surprised if they give it another chance.

I also think SOE did a good job on the websites for the promotion. And my favorite part about the whole thing is that they seem to be doing a great job with tying it in to new in-game events and content.

You can read more in an interview with SOE Senior Producer Bruce Ferguson by Michael Zenke over on Massively.

Hmm...I was just thinking that if SOE had held off on that free server transfer week they did in May and combined it with this promotion that would have been absolutely killer. But now I'm getting greedy.

Gaming for Dollars

2008-07-02T15:40:00.000-04:00

"Work is for people who can't play video games." - Jillian Wiebe in 'The King of Kong' quoting Billy Mitchell.

So how about it? Can we make a living playing video games? I know a bunch of different companies are working on shoehorning a gambling aspect into gaming. I was going to use Kwari (I've never tried it) as an example of an FPS for cash game but they are apparently not doing too well.

I decided to try out a casual contender: WorldWinner.

Please note I have absolutely no relationship with this company and I'm not getting compensated in any way for blogging about them. Well, I'm not even really recommending them so I guess that's obvious.

I signed up and deposited $20. Then it was time to survey the list of games. Now, we're not talking Bioshock or even Shiren the Wanderer here. No, these are decidedly casual games. A modified version of Diner Dash is probably the most flashy.

Before I actually wagered my hard earned ducats I tested out a number of the games. The problem is that, while you can test any game for free, I couldn't figure out how to compare my score with the scores of people playing for real money. So it wasn't until I actually played a real money game that I figured out if I was good (or not...usually not).

I gave up on Bejeweled and the solitaire variants right off the bat. Too many people play those games 24/7 for me to be competitive. I thought I had a shot at Catch-21 because I'd played that type of game quite a bit before. While I was in the ballpark in real money games, I was winning only about 1 in 4. I think I could have improved but it honestly started to feel like work.

I know playing games all day sounds fun but a lot of these start to feel like work after a bit. The whole mentality is different.

I got excited when I saw SkillGammon because I was a tournament level BG player once upon a time (though my cubing was always atrocious). But it turns out that SkillGammon is Backgammon with all the probablility sucked out. And for me that means with all the fun sucked out.

I finally settled on (drumroll please)...Family Feud! I know that sounds crazy but for some reason I'm apparently a good Family Feud player. I think it's the type of game where tons of repetition is not really important but your ability to think quickly is. This version is not the whole game but a quick, modified game.

Well, the point is, when I'm playing 1-on-1 in Feud I actually win 2 out of 3 games (I checked my stats). So should I quit my job? Not exactly.

You see, WorldWinner takes their cut. And it cuts deep. Example using the 2 player game:
Balance: $2.50
Game 1: You enter for $2.50 and win $4.00.
Balance: $4.00
Game 2: You enter for $2.50 and win $4.00
Balance: $5.50
Game 3: You enter for $2.50 and lose.
Balance: $3.00.

So for playing 3 games and winning 2 of them...you're up a whopping 50 cents.

And winning 2 out of 3 is pretty good. There are times you're just going to get unlucky with words you don't know, have a bad game or run up against a super good player. And you can't just beat up on noobs forever, the website does something called FairMatch to put you up against people of equal skill level.

Of course, there are larger tournaments with larger prizes, but I find you run up against truly amazing players.

I've been hanging in there (I'm around $27 now) but I can't seem to make much headway. You do rack up rewards points as well as money which you can use to purchase game credits or other stuff. To be honest, I probably wasted money playing games I'm not good at and entering tourneys I had no hope of winning. But I just think for the number of 2 player games I've won I should be doing a little better.

I would really like to see WorldWinner be a lot more reasonable with their "take" of the action. You do get something of a rush playing for real cash and it's kind of fun to mess around with. But, overall, I think it's a losing proposition.

DC Details

2008-06-30T14:23:00.000-04:00

PS3 Fanboy recounts some of the first details on Sony's DC Universe Online MMO as revealed in Edge magazine. I was always more of a Marvel person myself, but I am interested in how they plan to be better then City of Heroes/Villains. The character creator better be darn good to top CoX's.

The information about meeting famous comic book heroes and villains is not surprising or interesting. The focus on action is probably a smart move with this genre, especially since the game is a PS3, as well as a PC, release.

I do like this idea: "Lee also hinted at story events in DC Universe Online happening simultaneously with comic book DC Universe."

You Think It's Easy to Make an MMO?

2008-06-26T20:08:00.001-04:00

I'm a little bit behind on this news but if you haven't already seen it, check out the freeware game MMO Tycoon. Monitor forum buzz, add content and set level ranges as you try to increase your MMORPG's popularity.

I thought this game could have done a bit more with humor since there is so much potential for hilarious parody in this concept. Some more depth to the gameplay would also be nice. But I did find it an amusing and enjoyable way to waste some time.

The Horror...The Horror

2008-06-25T17:51:00.000-04:00

In my last post I mentioned that for every possible genre of game, someone out there is trying to turn it into an MMO. The horror!

No, I literally mean the horror genre. It appears that Gravity gave it a whack with their "chillingly" titled MMO, Requiem Bloodymare. What is exactly is a Bloodymare? I think it has to do with ponies and ice cream and rainbows.

You can sign up and play for free. They make their cash by hawking a "premium package" and selling stuff for real money through the "Item Mall." Hmm...why not call it the Terror Mall of Death instead?

If you like horror and you try this game, let me know how it goes. The main reason I'm posting about this is I thought Gravity won the prize for the most unintentionally hilarious press release title of the year:

"GRAVITY INTERACTIVE UNLEASHES A NIGHTMARE OF VIOLENCE AND DEATH INTO THE MMO WORLD"

"OH AND ALSO KITTENS...A NIGHTMARE OF VIOLENCE AND DEATH AND KITTENS..."

Okay, so I made up the second part...

City-Building MMO

2008-06-10T14:01:00.001-04:00

I was playing a little Caeser III last night (my personal favorite city building game) and I started wondering whether anyone was attempting an MMO based on city building. It just seems like if there's a gaming genre (RTS, FPS, SRPG, etc.) someone out there is trying to make an MMO out of it.

After some searching, it appears that Cities XL is the most likely contender. They just released a trailer last week so I know they're still kicking and they seem to have a relatively small but rabid forum fanbase.

How do they plan to make city-building an online community experience? From the FAQ:

"Build your cities in a virtual world populated by other subscribers.

This allows you to cooperatively create a living online community
Trade with others, specialize your city in specific activities such as tourism, entertainment, business development, recycling management and more.

Visit other cities and host events for others to attend and enjoy.

Cooperatively create a booming metropolis teeming with life and businesses.

Participate in competitions and enjoy a calendar of events that will keep you coming back to your planet.

Share your in-game experience with friends through a companion community website."

I'm not sure how succesful this endeavor will be but I enjoyed reading the blog postings and browsing the forums so I bookmarked the site to check back every 3 months.

Oh, and if you are a city-building nut and you are interested in the game - you can tell that the devs really read every forum thread and incorporate community suggestions. So get posting.

MMORTS Giveaway

2008-06-09T10:50:00.000-04:00

The website Game Giveaway of the Day is currently featuring the MMORTS Saga. The game must be installed within the Giveaway of the Day timeframe.

Now, anyone can grab a free Saga account anytime they want so what's the big deal? Well, this giveaway is for the registered account. The free account has access to the market, pvp and other features locked. The registered account is the full, complete game and it usually costs $19.95. So that's what you're saving.

Be warned though, this is one of those games in which you are encouraged to buy booster packs. While you don't have to - it makes things a lot easier. You can play completely free forever, but most people will purchase booster packs at some point.

I tried this game for a few hours once before (with the free account) and I thought it needed work. But I'm not a fair judge since I don't like RTS games to begin with. It reminded me a bit of Pox Nora - with real time instead of turn-based play.

If you want further info, check out Saga's website, it's wikipedia page, or this interview.

I checked and it looks like they recently did another free giveaway involving FileFront.

MMO & Television Convergence: The Sequel

2008-06-06T09:47:00.001-04:00

After my last post, I received an e-mail newsletter from Entropia Universe, the MMO with the real cash economy. I was surprised by two things:

1. Project Entropia is still around? I tried it quite some time ago (to be fair it was years ago) and I never thought it would last. It just seemed like a game built around a business model rather then the other way around. But it's still kicking so what do I know. Apparently they changed the name from Project Entropia to Entropia Universe at some point.

2. I saw this strangely worded headline in the newsletter: "Entropia Universe is First Virtual World Ever to Contribute to Emmy Award." What now?

It turns out Entropia participated in just the kind of television/MMO convergence discussed in my previous post. So it seems the Sci-Fi project is not as novel an idea as I thought. Obviously, this endeavor was much smaller-scale then the Sci-Fi project hopes to be but it was apparently a success.

You can check out the full press release here. Here's a quote:

"Last week in Cannes, France, the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the International Interactive Emmy® Awards, recognizing the drama "The Truth About Marika," produced by Swedish Television and The Company P, for the best Interactive TV Service. The program successfully integrated television and the Internet, yielding an exemplary crossover experience for viewers that showcases the potential of future projects between the two mediums.

As part of "The Truth About Marika," viewers could participate in the show by helping to solve the mystery of a missing person. Clues were planted in the virtual realm of Entropia Universe, where viewers could collect the separate clues to solve a larger puzzle, leading them one step closer to solving the overarching mystery. Viewers could also interact with the avatars of the main characters of the show inside Entropia. "

TV Linked MMO - Science Fiction?

2008-06-03T15:04:00.000-04:00

The Sci-Fi channel is developing an as yet unnamed MMO which will be linked to a television show.

You can read the article in the LA Times here.

The article itself is unique in that it takes until paragraph four to reference WoW. Also, the writer uses Matrix Online as the example of a licensed flop as opposed to SWG.

But, back to the matter at hand, just how will this MMO and the TV show on the Sci-Fi channel interact?

"For example, we can tell them that there will be an alien invasion at a certain place in the game, at a certain time, and to be there with all their friends and be ready. The outcome depends on them. And then that battle will be part of the universe in the show."

It will also be a means for marketing research of sorts:

"The virtual world that pulls in fans of the show will also give Buttler and his team hard data about which characters, settings and story lines stir the most interests. He said that will help the show's producers bend their story lines to audience tastes."

And maybe your raid will be on tv:

"The game will continue to grow, and 'footage' of players in battles or other mass gatherings will be incorporated into the series."

Nothing like a "mass gathering" for online fun.

I've seen some discussion of this story along the lines of "Battlestar Galactica is great so this will be awesome" or "Sci-Fi original movies are horrible so this will suck." But what about the game studio Sci-Fi is working with?

Trion World Networks is referenced in the article as "an on-the-rise gaming company based in Redwood City, California." What makes them "on-the-rise" is unclear. I had never heard of them, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. So what's the scoop?

They have a website.

They have some loot.

The CEO likes to talk smack.

They offer a lot of career opportunities.

They are also working on a fantasy MMO.

That's about all I've got. So will this succeed? Maybe, to some degree, but I'm dubious. I've yet to play an MMO that really makes the players feel like the outcome of their actions is important to the game world. Now their actions will change a television show? There will be some novelty value (gimmick value?) to it but I don't see this being perfected on the first try. I also don't think there will be quite the level of interaction between the game and show as implied by the article.

But hopefully it turns out to be cool. I do like to see companies trying different things, especially when they are talking about a dynamically changing universe. And I'm sure this is only the beginning of links between MMO's and other media.

G4TV seems to think the setting is Stargate but the article leads me to believe that's just wrong.

It's worth noting that the Sci-Fi channel recently launched a pretty decent new gaming site called Fidgit edited by Tom Chick.

The Festival of Unity

2008-05-30T22:42:00.001-04:00

There is a Festival of Unity on EQII's Antonia Bayle server from June 1st to June 7th. You can read about it here or check out this forum thread.

I don't know much about the Festival of Unity but I imagine it's some type of hardcore PvP tournament! Well, not really. But it sounds like fun and is a good example of how strong the community can be. The Festival is apparently fully player planned and player run which is nice to see.

I'm shooting for the prize in either "Cat Splat Fever" or "Find the Drunken Dwarf."

Some Stuff I've Been Playing - 10 Word Reviews

2008-05-29T18:31:00.000-04:00

Shiren (DS) - Roguelike that's pretty? Awesomeness! Jars are unique. Fun puzzles too.

Fairway Solitaire (PC): Relaxation. Golf theme works. Pleasant graphics and great voice work.

Crusader Kings (PC): My brain hurts. Land blue on mini-map? Why?!? Rewarding though!

JoJo's Fashion Show (PC): Embarassment at finishing this dress-up simulation! Great game though - seriously!

MLB 2008 (PSP): Good enough. No franchise mode. I hate PSP load times.

Gametap (PC): Really slow lately and lost good games. Still...great value.

Forums Anger Crom

2008-05-21T13:26:00.000-04:00

So, I was reading this story on Kotaku about how the DirectX 10 version of Age of Conan will not be available until the end of August. I had questions: Will an upgrade be free? What do players think about this? Where in the world is Carmen Santiago?

I decided to check the official forums. I've visited them before but I don't have them in my favorites. So I started on the main site. After the age verification thingy, I surveyed the page and figured "Community" was the best choice. Clicking that for some reason launched a new browser window and brought me here. I looked all down the left hand side and did not see any mention of forums. Eventually I looked under "Links" on the right hand side of the page. Finally...

But no, I was denied. You have to enter your retail box key. So if I don't buy the game, I can't browse the forums? That seems like a really bizarre decision to me. Browsing the forums is often what lures me into trying a new game. Hopefully this is temporary.

Fitness Quest

2008-05-20T14:19:00.001-04:00

"Hey, Aggro. People are playing video games in Central Park."

"What?"

"Yeah. I swear...Southwest corner - a bunch of 'em. You should check it out."

"I'm already 20 minutes into my lunch hour."

"Do you accept this quest? Y/N?"

"Yes."

Can I make it there and back in time? Only one way to find out.

***

No, Apple Store - you will not tempt me today with the power of your giant glass cube! I will not be distracted!

The smell of horse manure and tourists lets me know I've reached Central Park! But I'm only at the Southeast corner! Gotta take it up a notch!

When Vaux and Olmsted designed the Park, they envisioned subtle entry ways. But as you can see from this look at the Merchant's Gate, other people had different ideas. If you remember your American history from high school, when taking that essay test about the Spanish-American War, you knew you could always mention "Remember the Maine!" and get some credit. Well, this statue, financed by none other then William Randolph Hearst, commemorates the Maine. Anyways...

My first clue...a sign of sorts!

Yes, it turns out the "video games" are all Wii Fit setups. Nintendo was apparently doing a giant demo in the park. They had a ton of "trainers" (the people in white tracksuits) luring passersby into trying Wii Fit.

They had a ton of Wii Fit setups, seriously. I even saw a few camera crews about.

I couldn't believe how many random people walking by they convinced to try these things. New Yorkers are trained to ignore everything they see or hear on the street and continue to their destination. But Nintendo had everyone trying the Wii Fit.

One of the employees told me they had a bunch of "celebrity trainers" in attendance as well. Sure enough, they started doing a demo over on the main stage. The woman pictured is apparently the "yoga trainer to the stars." I didn't catch her name.

She's actually not properly balanced in this pic as the red dot is not in the yellow circle (or something like that)...

So what did I learn on this quest? Everyone who was playing with the Wii Fit was having a great time, laughing constantly. I really enjoyed trying it too (I played the game where you try to tilt a marble into a hole).

Also, I should probably get out of my office and to the park more.

Quest complete.

Space Stuff

2008-05-19T15:21:00.006-04:00

I've been following the news on Spacetime Studio's space combat MMO named Blackstar.

NCSoft cancelled funding of the project earlier this year, but Spacetime recently reaquired the IP.

Now there is an interview up over at Massively about the game. There is also plenty more information at the official site.

It will be really interesting to see if Spacetime can pull this off after the break with NCSoft. The references to Wing Commander and Descent were what intrigued me in the first place.

I'm kind of in the sci-fi mood this week as I've been playing R-Type Command for the PSP. When I heard they took this side-scrolling shooter franchise and turned it into an SRPG of sorts, I was fascinated by the pure weirdness of it. Sure enough, the game plays more like Fire Emblem or maybe Advance Wars then any previous R-Type game.

Even weirder is that it's actually a pretty good game. I haven't finished it yet but I'm enjoying the strategic fun. Everything is very well done - I like that they included basically the entire manual in the game under a Help option. I wish more games would do that as I always lose the manual. The only problem I've had is that the loading times for the full-screen animations are very long (it seems like loading times are always an issue with the PSP). But you can put them in a window or turn them off entirely. It's a challenging strategy game and the setting feels fresh to me after so many fantasy SRPG's like FF Tactics, Jeanne D'arc and Disgaea.

Conan-athon

2008-05-16T13:28:00.001-04:00

Well, it seems people just can't wait to pwn their enemies, see them driven off the servers and hear the lamentations of their women in vent. Despite many concerns about the beta, the Early Access program for Conan is now inaccessible.

There were even reports of some WoW players getting into the mood by attempting to live the Conan lifestyle.

Well, if you're not already playing, you can test your Age of Conan mettle by trying to guess which of these server names are real and which I made up:

• Tyranny

• Teacrumpets

• Bane

• Politeness

• Deathwisper

• Death-hug

• Bloodspire

• Candyhome

• Thog

• Gary

• Wiccana

• Cuddlefest

• Fury

• Foveverfriends

• Wildsoul

• Chamomile

• Doomsayer

• Doomkitten

You can check here to see which are real.

Smed Said

2008-05-15T12:57:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen this interview on gamesindustry.biz with John Smedley, it's worth checking out.

He really gets into the whole issue with Perpetual (Gods and Heroes) way more than I would have expected and it makes for a good read.

Is Vanguard really doing "quite well" though? I don't have the numbers and I guess "quite well" is a matter of opinion.

Ring Ding

2008-05-14T14:23:00.001-04:00

I recently received an email from Lord of the Rings Online:

"The Lord of the Rings Online™ is waiting for you! Celebrate our 1st Anniversary - play LOTRO for free through May 12, 2008!

Play your old characters, check out the LOTRO Anniversary celebration events, explore new areas, and tackle new quests. Just log into your LOTRO account any time through May 12, 2008 and we'll take care of the fun and adventure. "

I logged in for a bit (to check out the new fishing hobby) so I thought this might be a good time to relate some LOTRO opinions. I never got out of the twenties level-wise so I'm not going to give a full review. I'm not done with this game either so I'll have some more notes as time progresses.

The main thing that surprised me is that this game is not awful, by any means. That may not sound like much but I had the following preconceived notions going in:

1. Everything Turbine makes is awful.

2. All licensed content MMO's are awful.

So when you combine the two, you expect double-awfulness. Maybe my expectations were very low but I had a fun time playing this game. It's definitely not innovative and I didn't think about it much when I wasn't playing. But when I was playing I always had a good time.

I'm a bit surprised that the buzz surrounding this game has been so limited. There just aren't many solid MMO's out there that are absolutely playable. But LOTRO is solid and playable.

I played as a Minstrel and I loved the class. I was able to heal in groups but I also had some serious DPS and I was absolutely able to solo with no problems. It is just a very enjoyable combination of buffs, heals and damage.

I do take issue with some of the buffs the Minstrel has. They just all seem very short and basically irrelevant - at least at the levels I was playing. And what made it worse was you had to level up your Ballad's each time. So, for example, I would have to play a Tier 1 Ballad (say Vigour) and a Tier 2 Ballad (say Swiftness) before I could even bust out with my Tier 3 Ballad of War. And then the buff lasts 15 seconds and has a mild boost to melee abilities. I don't know - this may have changed - but I never felt any of my buffs had an impact on combat in the same way my DPS or heals did. I don’t mind going through the Tier progression (I think that’s a cool idea) but I expect the payoff to be worthwhile.

Of course, the map system and UI are subpar, but that's true of every MMO out there. It's like every company assigns that task to some drunken hobo who wanders in off of the street, never mind that it's something your players stare at every second they are playing.

There are just a ton of quests, some of them pretty fun and most pretty well written. The normal fare was broken up with some wacky stuff like delivery missions and even transforming into a chicken (which was very well done). The main story-line quests involve the big name characters and are the most impressive.

The game can seem a bit grindy if you look at all the stuff you have to grind up. It's not just levels. You also need to grind for Deeds and Traits which help customize your character. But it really doesn't feel like a grind because you are getting rewards all of the time: levels, titles, traits. And killing one wolf might help you level, help you work towards a title you get when you kill a certain number of wolves, help you work towards a deed because you used Herald's Strike and so on.

A lot of the zones are quite beautiful and a ton of detail went into each area. I think the Shire is clearly the best starter zone, though starting as an Elf or Dwarf is very fun. Its seems to me humanity gets the short end of the stick with their starting zone.

As for crafting I think the goals for crafting in any game (ranked in order of preference are):

1. Make crafting fun

2. Don't make crafting fun but at least don't subject people to tedious exercises

3. Crafting isn't fun and you have to go through very tedious exercises

LOTRO doesn't reach level 1 but it is closer to 2 then 3. You can harvest when you're out adventuring (or just harvest) and then the actual crafting is not revolutionary but also not mind numbing torture.

Combat is the usual to be honest. Yes, there are "Fellowship Conjunctions" (similar to EQII's HO's) but they don't really add much to the norm.

The one thing that constantly stood out to me when playing this game is the amount of attention to detail and “extra” content the designers put into this game. You might call it fluff but this is the fluffiest game I've ever played.

I mean, I've stood around with a friend for half an hour in the Prancing Pony just trying out the different types of pipe weed there are. You see, different variations will change the effect created when your character blows out smoke. One might cause you to puff perfect rings, another might be a gigantic smoke blast and another might be a dragon. And you can farm/cross-breed seeds. All of this has no effect on gameplay but it's crazy fun and just one tiny example of how much fluff this game has. There's housing, holiday festivals and, now, the fishing hobby.

And it doesn't stop there: the music system is just crazy. I've heard groups of people hanging out and making some actual music. It's fun to pick up and there's a decent amount of complexity to it.

I mean in LOTRO you can even grind emotes to get crazier emotes. For instance, I believe if you get /laughed at a few hundred times you then can /juggle. And the scary thing is: I get so into the fluff in this game that I actually set this as a goal for myself (not there yet).

Maybe "fluff" is the wrong word. Maybe it's "atmosphere." Whatever it is, LOTRO is chock full of it.

The two things that stand out to me from my time in LOTRO are:

1. I always had fun each night I played and was never frustrated with the game.

2. Whenever Bandit and I (playing hobbits) would run across some innocent solo player out in the wild we would seamlessly move into "Hobbit Entertainment Mode" without a word. This involved handstands and other crazy emotes, busting out the drums and other musical equipment for an impromptu concert, hopping around like idiots, breaking out fluff items like the prized pie or Hornblower's brew and blazing some pipe weed. No other game ever made me feel like I could create a crazy scene for another player like that.

Oh, I almost forgot: LOTRO offers in-game voice chat for free. And it works perfectly as far as I can tell. Not a big deal to me personally but I give them credit for pulling it off.

Pirates of the Lukewarm Sea?

2008-05-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

I haven't really been following Pirates of the Burning Sea so I was surprised to see Arkenor's comment in my Planetside post that PotBS had already merged servers.

Sure enough, I read about the mergers on Ark's Ark and Tobold's blog. So is the analogy Auto Assault and the game is in dire straits? Or is the analogy Eve and this is a game that will start off slow but build up a solid, loyal fanbase over time?

I've been reading the official forums (specifically this thread, which is cheerily entitled "Has server mergers stopped the player exodus?"). There definitely seem to be significant problems but there are also a lot of interesting design choices. Most people agree that the ship-to-ship combat is very good. It sounds like the UI was terrible on release, which is a major pet peeve of mine.

Reading about the game, good and bad, has piqued my curiosity to the point where I want to try it. But I think I'll let them get a couple more patches in first. I would expect the price of the game to drop as well.

Long Live the King

2008-05-12T14:26:00.004-04:00

I mentioned going to see the movie King of Kong (official site) when it was playing downtown but I don't think I ever reported back on how much I enjoyed it.

Well, I purchased the DVD last week (first DVD I actually bought since I joined Netflix). So let me tell you now: This is not a good movie. This is a great movie.

The King of Kong is a documentary film on competitive retro arcarde gaming, Donkey Kong in particular. The film focuses on Billy Mitchell and Steve Weibe's quest for the Donkey Kong high score. But, as Weibe notes, there comes a point where it's not about Donkey Kong anymore. The characters are amazing, the culture is fascinating and the story is an incredibly compelling one.

This film is absolutely hilarious, heartbreaking and inspiring. If someone presented this as a script for a fictional movie you would think the characters were too unrealistic. But these are real people. There are so many instant classic, memorable lines in this movie, made all the better by the fact that they are unscripted. All of the music used in the film is wonderful and I thought it was genius that Weibe's own music is used to score parts of the tale.

This film passed my ultimate test: showing it to someone who has never played a video game and has no desire to. That person was still absolutely enthralled by this film. But don't take my word for it...check out the overwhelmingly positive reviews.

There has been some complaints and mild controversy over the way the story in the film was framed and what was left out. If you're interested you can poke around the interwebs and find a ten part statement by Walter Day or lengthy forum posts by Rob Mruczek.

Is the film a bit heavy-handed in getting across the story? Sure. Did the filmmakers choose sides? Absolutely. But check out any other documentary and you'll see the same. The bottom line is that this is an incredibly entertaining, magical film. And I think in the long run the film will definitely benefit Twin Galaxies and everyone involved.

Did I mention everything about the DVD is awesome? The menus, the music and most importantly the extras all rule. There is a ton of extra footage with extended interviews, cut scenes and some Q&A's from the festival showings. I loved every minute of it. There is also a commentary track by the filmmakers which was fairly entertaining. There is even a side-by-side comparison of Weibe and Mitchell playing Donkey Kong.

Those are the key elements but there's some other minor stuff: a glossary, a brief history of DK and some DK inspired art and music from I Am 8-Bit. The only thing I didn't care for was the second commentary track featuring someone from IGN and I Am 8-Bit. But on the whole I was very impressed with the amount of content on the DVD.

I strongly suggest you consider buying or renting the DVD. You will not be disappointed. But I will tell you that they will be showing this film for the first time on television on June 1st on G4TV. So at the very least, check it out there. Don't chumpatize yourself.

Here is the trailer:

Friday Humor: Certified Virtual Life Coach

2008-05-09T12:07:00.002-04:00

You may have heard about the growing trend of having a "life coach." Yes, life coaching can truly help you become a better person, advance at your job or even have a more fulfilling personal life. A life coach can encourage you to succeed and push you to new heights of personal growth!

But seriously, who cares about that?

Isn't your virtual life much more important?

With our new Aggro Inc. Virtual Life Coaching Service (certified by the International Association of Virtual Coaching) we focus on what really matters - your virtual life.

* Are you a complete freaking noob?

* Have you been unable to get your level into double digits?

* Does your guild spam for members in the newbie zone?

* Do your friends laugh at your sad little weapon?

* Do you embarrass your group time after time?

If you answered yes to any of these questions - you need our services!

We have on staff some of the finest virtual life coaches in the multiverse and they are waiting to help you! We’ll push you to new levels…of levels!
----
Question: Can you really just choose to stop being a complete noob?

Answer: Yes! But you have to take the first step and contact us!
----
Before: Boo-hoo! I don't have time to level up as fast as my friends! I have a marriage and a job and I like to go outside.

After: Heh. I am an accomplished level 70 Paladin with great gear. Virtual Life Coaching gave me the courage to quit my job, leave my wife and move back in with my parents.
----
Proactive! Synergy! Meta-strategy! Do these words mean anything to you? Of course not - you can barely log into your account, you worthless loser.
----

"But Virtual Life Coach! I'm already a high-level dood with awesome gear! But this cute Elf healer won't talk to me. How can you help me?"

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Figgy Pudding

2008-05-08T13:27:00.002-04:00

"My team has collaborated on an overarching epic storyline..."

"Essentially, new [players] enter [blank] Universe with nothing: no money...no stuff. Then they go through the world completing challenges, defeating enemies, gathering goods, discovering treasures and unlocking secrets."

Okay, try to guess the MMO these quotes are referring to (I redacted a few giveaways).

Gee, could be anything, right? Those serious sounding quotes could describe WoW, Everquest, LOTRO...

But they actually describe LEGO Universe Online.

I ran into this post on Kotaku, and since then I've been poking around the LEGO website.

When I first heard about this game I figured it would be a more family friendly version of Second Life. But the descriptions make it sound more like WoW. They're talking about "defeating enemies" to earn "plastic," the currency of the game, in the midst of an overarching storyline.

The question on the current poll is: "Minifigs love minigames, and LEGO Universe will have massive amounts of each! Which minigame will your minifig love the most?"

Apparently a minifig is a miniature figure - one of those little LEGO people and your avatar in the world. The answers to choose from are:

"Collecting hidden sets of trinkets

Rebuilding broken LEGO models within a time limit

Timed Obstacle Courses to jump and bounce through."

Okay, the second one does sound really fun and fitting with the LEGO theme. But the others?

I envisioned making an insane lego creation. And then another one. And then having a friend check it out. I thought it would be less limiting then real legos because you would have access to every lego ever made and endless storage space.

I'm not saying there won't be some LEGO creativity. The designer, Brian Booker states that he is the most excited about:

"The systems that allow users to generate their own content—things like original, highly customizable creatures as well as static models. It’s just amazing to be able to build your own creation, deploy it and have it come to life in the game world, and then show it off to your friends."

Which is great and what I was expecting. But the following surprised me:

"Essentially, new minifigs enter LEGO Universe with nothing: no money, no bricks, no stuff. Then they go through the world completing challenges, defeating enemies, gathering goods, discovering treasures and unlocking secrets. Along the way, the minifigs find bricks and collect a highly valuable currency— plastic. "

I could be totally wrong but I imagined most people's expectations (children and adults alike) were that they would log on and start building lego creations right away. I expected you would have a sizable number of building options to begin with.

"But an individual minifig may have to scale back their dreams if they haven’t collected or earned enough bricks to build their creations. "

I don't like scaling back my dreams - not when it comes to legos. Are people going to have the patience to play mingames, grind for plastic and participate in the "epic" storyline in order to have suitable building options? I get that this game is targeted to kids - I do. But it's the creativity and endless options that made legos so popular with kids in the first place.

I can't say they are making the wrong design decision. The decision to make LEGO more of a game and less of a sandbox may be based on research regarding subscription numbers and player interest. I should have just remembered the success of Lego Star Wars and realized that they would go that route. The sandbox aspect might be quite limited by obscenity concerns, so perhaps they had to focus on questing and mini-games.

The designers may very well have made the best decision based on what they were aiming for and the limitations they were faced with. Even though the direction of the game surprised me, it could still be fun.

And Then There Was One...

2008-05-07T14:16:00.006-04:00

I received an email from the peeps at Planetside yesterday. They are merging the two remaining North American servers into a single server named Gemini on May 20, 2008. As a past player, they also offered me the chance to play for free until May 21, 2008.

"With the goal of maintaining a high level of battle between the three Empires of PlanetSide, the two North American servers, Markov and Emerald, will be merged into one server, Gemini, on May 20, 2008. Starting today, as a part of a select group of past PlanetSide players, you will be able to log in for free until May 21, 2008.

Preserve your Legacy! After the merge, many character names will be duplicated and priority will be given to players who have logged in most recently and to those who created their names first. As an added bonus, special merits will be given to native Markov and Emerald players to represent your loyalty to your past server. Characters will receive their merits upon logging into Gemini for the first time after the server merger is complete.

If you haven’t played in a while come check out what’s new in PlanetSide! Experience elevated battles and more competitive play! "

If you want more details you can find them, along with a faq, in this thread. Another thing to note is that if you want a deleted character restored, you have to request it prior to the merge. See here for details.

I read the reaction thread and most players seem pretty happy about it. The ones who were not had the following issues:

1. What about Werner? (the remaining non-North American server)

2. It's a short term fix.

3. Fix stuff instead: hacking, TR MAX.

But again, most seem excited about the increased population. Any bets on how long Planetside can hang around for?

Barkley: Shut up and Jam: Gaiden

2008-05-06T14:22:00.001-04:00

Ah, yes. To give the full title: Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa.

If you haven't played this hilarious game yet, please check it out.

Barkley is simply one of the funniest games I've ever played - right up there in the top 10 with Portal, some Infocom stuff and a few old Sierra graphic adventures. It's not just a parody of all RPG's - it lampoons anything and everything.

I could take a screenshot at any point in the game and it would crack me up. Did I mention it's free?

I thought the humor would get old after an hour or so but this thing kept me rolling right until the end. I figured that the actual gameplay might be awful but it turns out the combat is actually more fun then most Final Fantasy games. I ending up varying my skills and attacks to a greater degree then I usually do in RPG's.

I love this game. I hate Jordan. I cherish the save points.

If I keep writing I'm just going give stuff away - I can't control myself. Just go play it. The specific brand of humor in Barkley might not work for you but you have nothing to lose by giving it a try.

Mount and Blade

2008-05-05T14:10:00.001-04:00

I've talked about Mount and Blade before so I thought I'd mention that version 0.950 has been released.

I still wouldn't call it polished and I'm not crazy about the graphics but the mounted combat is incredibly satisfying. I even love the sword and shield battles on foot - crazy fun.

The fact that the version number is so close to 1.0 makes me think that time is running out to grab this game for a mere 25 bucks. But check out the demo and see what you think.

I recommend starting out by doing tournament after tournament. It's a good way to gain some cash and renown and, more importantly, you really get the hang of the combat.

Trading seems a bit too easy and you can get pretty invincible with the right gear relatively quickly. But I find myself returning to this game quite a bit.

Did I mention that Mount and Blade is very mod-friendly? There are some insane mods already and I bet they only get better.

ForumWarz

2008-05-02T14:12:00.000-04:00

I've been enjoying ForumWarz lately. It's a browser-based, multiplayer rpg that parodies internet forums and internet culture in general. The brand of humor is not for everyone and may be considered offensive but I think it's really well-written and funny.

The game is very polished and the tutorial is quite smooth. Your main mission is to pwn various forums. This happens as a kind of turn-based battle in which you use various skills or items.

The "world" of ForumWarz feels pretty deep for a free, browser-based game. You can talk to various NPC's via an IM client, send and receive e-mails that advance the story, visit various websites for goods or services and even mess with a google type search engine. The NPC's are very distinctive and the dialogue is really well written.

There are character classes to choose from and you can select various upgrades to your character as you level up. Not surprisingly, I play as a Troll. You get a certain number of forum visits each day which prevents you from rushing through all the content too quickly. It's a great way to kill some time.

For a multiplayer game - you don't really interact with other people during the main gameplay. However, there are community features which lend a social nature to the game. There are leaderboards, achievements to be gained and a weekly challenge called Domination. But the most fun way to interact is with forumbuildr - a collaborative way to create new forums. Users can come up with ideas for new forums and write dialogue for the posts and thread titles. It's fun and, once complete, anyone can play through the user created forum.

They recently added another multiplayer feature called INCIT (still in test mode) in which users caption photos. And of course, there are actual forums (on which some people even roleplay as their ForumWarz characters).

The community/multiplayer aspect of ForumWarz does seem a bit divorced from the main game. But the community is a good one and the game itself is perfect for a fun play at work.

There's a good interview with one of the developer's here but it's probably best to play the game before reading it.

Evil Bloggers

2008-05-02T14:10:00.001-04:00

This has nothing to do with gaming at all but the bloggers out there might find this ambush of Will Leitch (of the sports blog Deadspin) on Costas Now interesting. It was amazing to see the pure rage Bissinger, representative of the "old guard media," explodes with. This video is not safe for work, not because of the "vile blogger" but because of Bissinger's own profanity-laced diatribe. Even those who agree with his arguments (I don't) have to admit he did a terrible job by becoming just what he was railing against and turning Leitch into a martyr.

Video here.

It was so bizarre I actually found it more amusing then annoying. But I did get annoyed when Mad Dog Chris Russo (of Mike and the Mad Dog WFAN radio fame) got ambushed by Michael Strahan in the show's second segment (unfortunately not in the video). How can anyone not love the Mad Dog?

Be A Hero and Create Your Own Content

2008-05-01T13:16:00.005-04:00

The idea of user-created content in MMO's is something that's long been discussed on this site. For instance, I talked about it here and Karnatos wrote about it here. It is not something that is right for all games. But there is definitely so much opportunity to utilize community created content in the right framework and it is a facet of gaming that will be huge in the future. The public is definitely hungry for it. I don't know if it's humanly possible for me to hear any more about Little Big Planet and it's user created content from the gaming media.

So it is very exciting to see that City of Heroes will feature user-created content in the future, according to Lead Designer Matt Miller (Positron) in his post here.

"One of the things I can talk about is a feature that we are planning. Similar in concept to our character creator, it allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. You’ll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialog and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall."

As I said, community created content would not work for all games. It would be extremely difficult to implement in EQII to this level. But COH seems perfect. The beauty is that COH is not at all item-centric and is a relatively simple game. People have called it a "shallow" MMO, but now that very shallowness may be a great asset, as implementing this type of content will be so much easier.

Take a moment to think how cool it would be to design your own superhero mission with your own dialogue! People are going to have so much fun designing their own missions. I can pretty much guarantee that when this feature is released, I and some friends from this site and going to be jumping to re-sub and work together on some missions - funny, serious and everything in between.

And don't forget, it provides much needed additional content to players without any work on the developers' part. Someone who is bored with the "official" missions can do some top-rated user created ones. And that extends the subscription life of the game.

The community certainly seems super excited about it to say the least. That is a positive reaction - page after page.

There still will be some difficulties. The first thing people will do is try to abuse the system to farm. But who really cares about farming in COH? I mean it's not that kind of game - we're not talking about WoW here. I'm sure they will try to have safeguards in place anyway. For example, I noted that Positron did not refer to the placement of individual mobs but rather referred to the ability to pick the "villain group." So it seems to me like you select the type of villain and the game populates your zone. This is less control, I know, but it also makes preventing abuse a lot easier. You have to start somewhere.

I guess the main problem I see is dealing with user-created dialogue that is mature, racist or otherwise problematic. I don't see an easy answer to this. I predict they will have users "flag" content of this nature and then look into it and ban the party involved. But is that enough? Reviewing all dialogue before it goes live would be impossible. There will be a filter but human creativity will always top that.

Well, it will be very interesting to see how the whole system works and I'm sure other MMO developers will be watching closely. There will be a lot to learn. If COH pulls it off I think it will be an amazing step.

Back at the Keyboard

2008-04-30T13:18:00.003-04:00

Wow, has it been this long? Tip for aspiring bloggers: this is actually a lot easier when you update every day.

Even though this site has not been updated, you may actually have caught some Aggro writing if you picked up a copy of Equinox - the official EQII magazine. I have a humor column on the last page of issue two (and you will probably see one in issue three as well). If you read it - let me know what you thought.

(Note : I deal only with the publishing company, not SOE and I don't receive any compensation).

But anyway, I plan on updating this site again and hopefully this post will provide sure-fire motivation to do so. I'm going to start by discussing some of the bizarre, off-the-radar games I've been playing the last few months. I've also been working on a couple of other mystery projects that you will hear more about soon.

I hope everyone is well and has had some good gaming!

Legends of Norrath: Initial Impressions

2007-11-16T18:00:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to trying Legends of Norrath a week ago. I'm surprised it took me so long because I'm definitely into collectible card games. I've played it a good deal but I haven't yet challenged many real human beings or tried trading or tournaments yet. So this is just the start - I will follow up on this post.

The important thing to make clear is that this is a great game. I've played it every night since I first tried it, sometimes for extended periods of time. I'm always excited to log on. The general design of the game is excellent. I love the aspect of dual win conditions (you can win either by questing or defeating the enemy avatar). It plays very smoothly and has a perfect pace. I find it fun and challenging and the artwork is definitely beautiful. There is a nice variety to the cards and a good number have very interesting effects which allow for strategic play.

I just think SOE did a fantastic, polished job and I can't wait to log on again. So the slight negative comments I'm going to make should not dissuade you from trying this game. If you are an EQ or EQII subscriber (meaning you get a free starter deck) I strongly urge you give it a play. But nothing is perfect, so here are a handful of issues I had:

The Tutorial: When I was playing through the tutorial, I quickly developed a headache. "They made this game way too complicated," I thought to myself. "They should have gone the route of making it accessible to all." But don't worry, those impressions weren't accurate. The learning curve is actually modest and you'll figure things out very quickly in your first few actual games.

So why did I think it was so complicated? It's the tutorial's fault. It's split into way too many segments and it needlessly muddles things. The tutorial tackles each type of card individually (items, abilities, quests, etc.) in too much of a vacuum. The important thing to teach is the gameplay. I promise you, the game is much much easier to learn when you actually play it through, because you understand the flow of play and how things relate.

I understand the concept of the tutorial. It is attempting to give you the basic knowledge you need about each type of card and then tie it all together at the end in the summary lesson. But that's way to late in my opinion to tie it all together. That should be done throughout.

Players would be much better served by being led through an actual continuing game. The tutorial should force you through a number of turns. And when a new type of card comes up, say "items," it should then explain that card in the context of the larger game. Then the tutorial could tell you to raid and explain how combat works, again in the context of the actual game. Having eleven tutorials is needlessly off-putting and really doesn't help.

The Scenarios: The scenarios are absolutely great and a ton of fun. I love the fact that some force you to win using a certain victory condition and familiarize you with different styles of play. The whole thing is well-written and enjoyable. I absolutely love what they did in Scenario 14 by connecting the story and events in the game to actual cards. The way they used the Altar and the Rift are just terrific. I absolutely loved playing the scenarios through and I strongly urge SOE to add more from time to time. I was impressed that they took the time to make these so enjoyable.

My negative on the scenarios is really minor and related to lore. And it's very rare that I ever get tweaked about lore. But, okay, here it is. In EQII we basically never see Lucan or Antonia (unless things have changed). I always felt this was a mistake, though I know it is trickier to do then it sounds. It would have been nice to be more connected to the central characters.

So am I now going to complain because the scenarios are chock-full of Lucan and Firiona Vie? Yes, a little. The problem with introducing legendary characters like this into an MMO or any other type of game is that we have pre-conceived notions and expectations of them. So when we play through the scenarios and see Lucan and Firiona have rather pedestrian stats, it's a little disquieting. I realize that this is necessary to keep the game balanced but it definitely is an issue. I also thought it was weak to use Firiona as the classic damsel in distress. It's just cliche and not really suited to the character. Just nitpicks, as I said.

Card Text: The "flavor" text on the cards is fine. But that's about it and that's the problem. I don't think the writing is weak by any means but it just doesn't reach out and grab my emotions like some of the Magic text does. I think it can really help draw you into the game if superbly done.

Again, none of the card text in Legends is terrible or even bad. But it's just my personal belief that writing flavor text for cards in these type of games is just about the greatest, most exhilarating job any fantasy buff can ever have. You have such an opportunity to be hilarious, dramatic, beautiful. To me it's almost the poetry of geekdom.

I'm designing my own episodic flash-based card battle game (still in the pen and paper stages) mainly for the golden opportunity to write flavor text. And it is hard, a heck of a lot harder then you might first think. So I appreciate the difficulty. But I just beseech whoever it is out there penning the prose: put your heart and soul and lifeblood into it. And enjoy it, because it's a fantastic opportunity.

Business Aspects: In general I think the price is right. It's great that you get a free starter deck if you are an EQ or EQII subscriber and great that you can play around a bit even if you're not. I think the booster decks are quite fairly priced. So, overall, I really like the model. I just have a few issues with it, one major and one minor.

The major issue I have is that there is no benefit for Station Access subscribers. If there is and I don't know about it, I apologize. But for those out there who are passionate enough to pay the quite high price of $29.99, I think it's almost absurd not to take advantage of this opportunity to reward them.

Would it be that big a deal to give Station Access subscribers a free booster pack a month? I certainly don't think so. They're paying you enough money and interest has to be waning considering Vanguard and some of the other "titles." This is a golden opportunity to make these subscribers feel good about the cash they are handing over every month. In the end, it might even make SOE more money to be a little generous here as perhaps fewer people will go back to a one-game subscription.

Again, if there is a benefit, I apologize. I didn't see mention of one. But if not, this probably bothers me more about Legends then everything else put together.

On a more minor note, it would be nice if the booster packs could be somewhat tailored to each class. It's pretty lame to buy a booster with only a few Mage cards in there. Okay, I think this will be alleviated when I start trading, but I still think it might be nice to have class-based boosters.

Well, that's it. As you can tell, pretty minor nitpicks and on the whole a wonderful job by SOE. The main thing to know is that the game is great and you should give it a whirl.

Two questions for the more advanced players out there: How is the balance between the different classes? How is the balance between the two victory conditions when playing a live opponent (do people mostly win by questing or by knocking the opponent's health down)?

I hope to meet you on the fields of battle in Legends soon.

PSP = SRPG

2007-11-09T11:41:00.001-05:00

When I first bought a DS and a PSP I placed them down next to each other on a table. It seemed clear that the PSP was miles ahead of the DS. The gorgeous screen, the style - it just seemed like the PSP would dominate. I was obviously wrong in my initial impressions. I've spent about 90% of my handheld time on the DS, simply because the software was so much better. But lately, that percentage has completely reversed. Why? The PSP has come through with some very solid SRPG's. I've loved the strategy RPG genre since Shining Force and I find it very well suited to the handheld world. Following are the three SRPG's I've been enjoying for the PSP.

Jeanne D'Arc

This excellent game really hits all the right SRPG notes, combining challenging strategic gameplay with wonderful graphics and a solid story. There are plenty of fun combat mechanics to play around with such as the Unified Guard, the transformations and Burning Aura. I also enjoy the quick pacing of the battles, something a lot of SRPG's falter on. The setting may be a bit odd, but it is a really refreshing change from the standard fare. The story falters in points but on the whole it is a compelling drama with interesting characters. The graphics are just fabulous, both in the cutscenes and the actual battles.

All in all, Jeanne D'Arc is a great game. If I had to find a negative I'd say there isn't quite the depth or complexity of the other two titles on this list. But you certainly can have fun combining skill stones and trying various combinations of skills on different characters. As for the challenge level, it's really up to you. If you want to try to plow ahead through the story missions without leveling your characters it can be tough. But if you are having too hard of a time, simply level your force up on the free battles for a bit. I think it's the perfect game for someone new to the genre.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

I really don't understand some of the incredibly high review scores this game received. I admit I'm a little biased. I'm just so tired of ports, remakes and rehashes coming to the handhelds. And while I recognized the greatness of Final Fantasy Tactics, I always found it more flawed then most.

But I think even putting that bias aside, there is no way this game should have received the level of favorable reviews it did. I find the slowdown that occurs when using magic or special attacks completely unacceptable. This annoyance is more than minor to me when you are spending so much time battling. The fact that the clunky control scheme is unchanged combines with the slowdowns to really kill the pace of the battles for me. And while they certainly did a solid job revamping the script, almost none of the problems with unit balance or the camera have been addressed.

But of course, you are getting the almost limitless depth and complexity that Final Fantasy Tactics brings. And it is definitely a robust, exciting game that I do enjoy playing.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

Yes, like FFT, this is a remake. I've only played this one for a few hours so far but I think they did a great job with the port. It's smooth, it looks good and the voiceovers are surprisingly well done. Unlike FFT, the framerates are perfect throughout. This is another one with incredible depth and complexity with the added bonus of humor. There is also an element of almost puzzle type gameplay with the geo panels. Whether you enjoy that or not is dependent on whether you enjoy that type of puzzle play. With the Dark Assembly and Item Worlds there is also more to do in Disgaea outside of actual storyline battles than in the other two games.

If you haven't guessed I would recommend the games in this order: Jeanne, Disgaea and FFT. But the real point is that these are three very sweet SRPG's available right now to PSP owners. That's why my DS is gathering dust right now. Does anyone have any SRPG's to recommend for the DS? I expected a plethora by now, especially since the stylus control seems so perfectly suited to the genre. I've identified Luminous Arc but the reviews have been pretty bad and also Hoshigami Remix which features even worse reviews.

I am making the somewhat arbitrary distinction between the SRPG genre and the turn based strategy genre. I differentiate the two genres in that SRPG's focus on individual characters in battle which you can level and carry forward into future battles while TBS's feature larger scale battles with units that you can not individualize. Does that make sense? Anyone have a clearer definition? If I broaden my scope to TBS games, there are other options. For instance, we have Advance Wars for the DS or Field Commander for the PSP. These are two very solid games hampered only by what is some of the most poorly written dialogue I have ever seen. I'm not sure what percentage of overall production costs it takes to hire a good writer but I'm constantly surprised that so many companies still don't think it is worth it.

Well, I hold out hope for some good DS SRPG's in the future. Archaic Sealed Heat for the DS sounds promising, though I'm not sure it's an SRPG in the traditional sense. In the TBS arena, Warhammer 40K: Squad Command (DS and PSP) is very intriguing. But probably the biggest one to watch for is Fire Emblem DS.

And hey, if you have to do remakes, how about Shining Force for me? And from the turn-based strategy genre, I would love to see Heroes of Might and Magic on the DS. I'm thinking the simple but beautiful art from the first three iterations of the series. Wouldn't it be great to use the stylus to move around the exploration map, position units in battle and poke at town buildings to buy units?

Best Cosplay Ever?

2007-11-02T19:37:00.000-04:00

When you're playing EQII, LOTRO or WoW do you ever want to be an Elf? But I mean do you really, really want to be an Elf? Yes?

Okay, click here.

I'm 95% sure that this is an elaborate prank or art project but it is a well crafted one.

Fantasy Wars

2007-10-25T18:08:00.000-04:00

Turn-based strategy games are not exactly flooding the market, so I wanted to bring Fantasy Wars (available for purchase at GamersGate) to your attention.

I can't give a formal review because I haven't finished the game yet. Honestly, the only reason I'm posting about this one is that I haven't seen a single review or even advertisement for this game. I'm not quite sure how they expect to sell any copies.

What kind of name is "Fantasy Wars" anyway? Could you get more generic? Yeah, I was just playing some "Role Playing Game" and then "Platform Side-Scroller." But forget the name. It's basically a series of turn-based battles on a grid (though the field is a 3-D affair with fairly pretty graphics). You move your units, attack and defend against the enemy and take cities and other important areas. You also purchase new units, upgrade units and discover and equip artifacts.

Really, the game calls to mind Fantasy General, another game with a generic name and hex-based strategic play. It was a 1996 SSI release in the Five Star General series. Now, Fantasy General was one of the greatest games I've ever played and had a huge impact on me. The combination of compelling strategy, beautiful but simple art, incredible music and lengthy campaign were very memorable. I can close my eyes even now and I'm the Warlord Marcas, battling through the Vale of Sorrow, grimly resolute in the face of the Herculean task before me.

So I'm not comparing Fantasy Wars to Fantasy General in terms of overall quality. It pales in comparison. But that doesn't mean it's a bad game. The battles are exciting and there is plenty of depth and complexity. One of my favorite features is that when a unit levels, you can choose from a large branching tree of skills. So two units which start out the same may soon have quite different attack and defense skills. Some may be better in the forest and some on the open plains and still others may be experts at storming a city. The story is nothing special but the voiceovers are surprisingly not horrible. It is a challenging, fun campaign and I'm enjoying it so far.

I have noticed a few negatives. There are very few single mission scenarios included outside of the three large campaigns. The scenery looks a little too pretty and bright to me for a war game. And in general, when it comes to games like this, I prefer simplicity in the graphical design over bells and whistles. For instance, I much preferred the first three Heroes of Might and Magic Games to HOMM V because I liked the simple, clear map much better then the 3-D one. I hate having to constantly mess with the camera. But I'm pretty sure that's just me. I don't think most people will mind the graphics.

But don't take my word for it. Just download the free demo which contains two short missions and have at it. From the main page just click "Bonus" and it's on the left hand side of the page under wallpapers.

Another option to consider for your turn-based strategy fix is Dominion 3. I could wax poetic about the depth of this game but in this case there are already plenty of reviews out there for you.

And of course, no matter what genre you prefer, get Portal before any other game. Trust me on that one.

Why Can't I Stop Playing This?

2007-10-18T14:20:00.000-04:00

Via Independent Gaming...The Abrupt Goodbye, user-created interactive fiction.

It seems so simple but I can't stop playing it. Must close browser window...

It's pretty remarkable that the users haven't ruined it yet. See if you can pick out the Aggro dialogue in there.

A Rogue's Revenge: MMO Influences on D&D 4th Edition

2007-10-12T10:15:00.000-04:00

There is no debating that every MMO is deeply indebted to pen and paper D&D. It's the foundation we all game on. But I've found something interesting as I've casually followed the news of the upcoming 4th Edition of D&D. With 4th Edition, D&D seems to be taking strong inspiration from the MMO world. My information regarding the 4th Edition comes mainly from EN World, the D20 Source blog and, of course, Wizards.

I intend to look at some of the links between MMO's and the 4th Edition of D&D and the lessons each group could stand to learn from the other.

Technology

D&D Gaming Table

The D&D Gaming Table provides a way to play D&D online with other people. You can create maps, move characters, traps and monsters around and roll dice. Check the video out here. They do some pretty neat things with lighting and "fog of war."

Hmm...a roleplaying game played online with other people. Sounds like an MMORPG doesn't it? Well, not exactly. While the online D&D Gaming Table is a multiplayer, online experience, the real "game" portion is taking place outside of the online space. And the number of players is limited.

Now, nothing will ever, ever replace for me the excitement of sitting around a table and gaming with real people. But this option will give me the opportunity to play D&D with people I met through playing MMO's or through this site who do not live anywhere near me. And I'm truly looking forward to that. I do think it may take a few iterations before this first attempt is a truly solid product. And remember, the real game takes place between the DM and the players. Wizards is just providing some tools to play that game. You could honestly play D&D online right now in an IRC chat room or even Second Life. But I think it's great that Wizards is attempting to give us a polished option to take our D&D game into the virtual world.

Character Creator

This is direct from MMO land and looks just like any MMO character creator (you can view the D&D Character Creator in the same video about 2:58 in). While characters created using this tool can be imported directly into D&D Gaming Table, I think it may also prove handy for games played around the traditional table. It's just a cool way to set up your character sheet and even have a graphical representation that you and others can enjoy. I wasn't blown away with the video but I do see it as having nice potential.

The Business Model

It's pretty interesting to see D&D working the subscription model, a true MMO staple. In fact, they even reference MMO's in their Ask Wizards feature:

"At Gen Con, we did state that the price would fall somewhere between the cost of a single print issue of Dragon magazine and the monthly fee of a MMORPG (in other words, between $10 and $15)."

I believe some people (especially DM's) will sign up for this subscription service even if they never intend to use the online Gaming Table. Rather, they will use available tools and additional resources such as the DM Toolkit or the Campaign Vault to better their real life D&D experience.

Patching = Errata

What happens when there's a bug in your MMO? Well, it gets patched (or at least you hope it does). It's a pretty good system and I appreciate when companies patch their games often. But what happens if there's an error in a D&D book? Well, they can't really patch that can they? It's a physical text. But Wizards may be borrowing the concept of patching for D&D. See the following quote from here:

Another factor that will change the face of errata is the implementation of the database, which plays such a central role in our management of 4 Edition. With the institution of ebooks that accompany one’s physical copy, we have the option of keeping one’s ebook updated with the latest changes, from the very small (a “+2” instead of a “+3”) to the very big (changing the text of an ability or feat). That’s not to say there still won’t be a physical copy of the errata, but we might simply compile quarterly changes made in the database into a readable format, rather than the sporadic release that now exists.

If they handle this the right way, they could build a ton of goodwill with customers. Here's my opinion of the "right way:"

1. Player buys the Monster Manual at a gaming store and takes it home.

2. There's an error in the text.

3. Player enters a code from the Manual on Wizards' website and is given access to a special section dedicated to updating the Monster Manual. (I don't believe there should be any subscription fee for this feature if you purchased the book).

4. Player prints the change and affixes it to his or her physical book.

I think that kind of D&D "patching" could be great.

Game Updates

But updates in MMO's aren't only about patching existing problems. I know I looked forward to each Update in EQII to see if new abilities, new weapons, new items and even new zones were going to be made available. I felt this was a terrific way to keep players excited and interested in the game. MMO's have the advantage of being able to do this online.

Now D&D will be able to accomplish a similar goal through their online services. By getting issues of Dungeons Magazine and Dragons Magazines online, in addition to other information provided through D&D Insider, players will be able to supplement their games with new adventures, items and skills. This could truly be beneficial to both Wizards and the players.

Going Further

In one case Wizards seems to be borrowing more from the broader Web 2.0 world than from MMO's. Wizards has a website called Gleemax (awful name but horrid website names are web 2.0 to the core) which looks to be a sort of Facebook for D&D and Magic players. Although various MMO companies have attempted things like Gleemax, I think Gleemax looks to be more robust. Well, it's pretty much exactly what I was talking about just a few posts ago. I do think it will take Wizards some time to perfect the system. And while I wholeheartedly endorse the idea, I think the design and layout of the website need serious work.

The Core

All the above relate to technology, which I view as supporting but secondary portions of the 4th Edition experience. What I found most fascinating is that even at the core of the 4th edition, the actual pen and paper rule-set, you can see what I think are MMO influences.

Defined Player & Monster Roles

One of the strongest MMO connections in 4th Edition is the intent to define player roles more clearly. They may be calling the roles other names, but I sure recognize Tank, Healer, CC and Ranged and Melee DPS. I know some people are worried that this will take away from the variety of the characters. But I believe that 4th Edition is actually going to give players more options to customize their characters both in and out of combat. The use of player roles is more about making it easier to balance groups. There should be no more "oh, you have to play a cleric, the party needs one." So this change should result in more options, not less. And it should make balancing encounters a lot easier for the DM.

Now, where D&D is going further then MMO's is giving the mobs (or monsters if you will) similar classes. So some monsters will be tanks, other will do crowd control and so on. This will definitely make it easier for DM's to put together solid, exciting encounters in much less time. Believe me MMO's would love to do this - it would make combat far more exciting. And to some extent they have, but it's really not there yet. The beauty of D&D is that you don't have to worry about AI, because the DM is the AI. But I think MMO's will reach this point someday. Just think about fighting a group of orcs in an MMO. Would you rather fight five orcs who just sit there and swing the same club at you or a coordinated group with tanks, healers and ranged dps? It would lead to so much more excitement as players put together different strategies based on what they are facing.

Raising the Level Cap

Just like an MMO expansion, 4th Edition raises the level cap to 30. I wonder if this is a direct response to the fact that many MMO players are used to more levels then 20. Even if not, it's a move strongly reminiscent of MMO-world.

Level Balancing

It's one thing to raise the level cap. It's another thing entirely to make every level just as fun and playable as every other level. But that is one of the major stated intentions of 4th Editon. It's also something that's often been discussed in the MMO world. MMO companies are always trying to ensure that the lower or middle levels are as fun as the higher levels, or vice versa. Their success is debatable so I think it will be interesting for MMO fans and developers to watch how Wizards handles this.

Racial Bonuses

MMO's and D&D are both faced with the challenge of making race actually mean something. Whether you choose to be an elf or a dwarf in an MMO does the character play any differently, graphics aside? When you roll up an elf or a dwarf in D&D does the character play any differently, roleplaying aside? MMO's have made strides in this area. EQII, for example, introduced special racial quests and racial traits. In LOTRO, different deeds are available for different races, allowing you to further customize your character.

D&D also seems to be headed in this (positive) direction by allowing for different racial traits to be achieved as the player levels. This attempt to make classes of different races play differently from one another seems to be one of the focuses of 4th Edition. The goal is to make an elf fighter play differently then a dwarf fighter, and so on.

Note the importance of both MMO's and D&D making race a factor as you level. If you play an MMO and choosing an elf gives you 5 points more dexterity when you begin, well, that's great. But that difference will be long forgotten when you're at level 50. It's important to make the distinctions in play continuous ones that effect you at the high as well as low levels. Gaining new racial traits as you level is certainly a way to do this.

Character Customization

Just as it's important for race to play a role in your character, it's also critical for you to continue to customize your character level by level. Again, this is important in both D&D and MMO's. You never want your wizard to be the same as every other wizard, no matter what game you're playing. Allowing customization is key to building that connection and emotional attachment between player and character. I think Wizards is really refining the customization of characters with feats and talent trees, just as we have seen further refinement in the MMO world.
Wizards also seems to have picked up a lesson which MMO companies learned. Just as it's important to have character customization, it's also important not to have players feel trapped by "bad choices." EQII and WoW allow for spending money to change your character customization decisions. Likewise, 4th Edition will apparently allow for swapping out or switching various feats and abilities.

Choice of Classes and Races

One thing I find of great interest in the MMO world is the amount of classes and races each game gives you. The obvious feeling may be the more the merrier and variety certainly is important. However, back in August of 2006, I argued that, based on some very interesting scientific studies, perhaps too many choices is a bad thing. To dramatically oversimplify that post, a quick summary is that consumers faced with more choices actually purchased less. And students given less choices for an assignment actually performed better. So I'm not bothered that 4th Edition will somewhat reduce the amount of races and classes in the game in an attempt to hit the sweet spot.

Forums Frenzy

If there's one thing MMO's and D&D really have in common it's the insanity on the forums. Both communities are intensely passionate about their games and whenever a change or expansion is announced there is a mix of excitement and anger. And it's a wild ride. You get the same personalities and even many of the same arguments on the D&D forums that you do on MMO forums. And I understand the concerns people have.

But for me it's simple. It comes down to the fact that I trust these designers as much as any group of game designers out there. They have the passion for the game and they have the design skills. I don't have to agree with every move they make, because I have faith in the overall picture.

As for the financial aspect, I know it stings to buy more books. But you really don't have to. I think you can ride 3.5 for another decade, especially with the Open Gaming License (and the OGL better be just as strong for 4th edition - it's critical). If you sit down and analyze the entertainment value you received from D&D and compare it with your financial outlay, I'll think you'll agree that this is a value investment, especially when compared to other forms of entertainment.

Bilateral Lessons

MMO Companies Should Learn This D&D Lesson

If you listen to Episode 16 of the official D&D podcast (available for free on ITunes) you will hear some ideas regarding monsters in the 4th Edition that I think MMO developers could stand to hear and apply to mob AI and mechanics.

* Interesting At Any Level - Just because a mob is Level 3 doesn't mean it has to be ten times less exciting than a level 30 mob. Designers should strive to make combat exciting at the early levels to hook new players. In the podcast, the designers discuss changing the mechanics of a Level 2 monster, the Kruthik, so that it is a challenging and exciting encounter for players. How many incredibly boring low level monsters do we encounter in MMO's?

* Making the Mechanics Match the Story - When we are fighting a monster in D&D or a mob in an MMO, we're basically fighting a collection of numbers: attack, defense, hit points and the like. So what makes one monster different from the next? What makes us feel like we are fighting a Griffon or a Beholder? In MMO's we have graphics and in D&D we have our imagination and roleplaying. But if you put that aside and think about it, doesn't it seem like many of the monsters we fight, especially in MMO's, are very similar?

So how do we make fighting a Griffon seem different then fighting a Beholder? The D&D designers stated that they really made an effort to make the actual combat mechanics for each monster match the backstory and "feel" of the monster. I think this is crucial. I realize it is harder to accomplish in an MMO, but it's worth the effort.

* Differentiating Similar Monsters - If an MMO asks you to kill 10 orcs and then to kill 10 goblins and then kill 10 gnolls, is there really a difference? Sure the graphics might be a bit different, but that's it. On the podcast, the designers discuss attempting to significantly differentiate the backstories of similar monsters. And then the next step is to make the mechanics and "AI" match the concept. An example given was that Gnolls might attack you like a pack of hyenas while Hobgoblins march towards you like Roman legionnaires. This variation in attack procedure is based on the differing backstories of each race. Again, the mechanics aspect of this is harder to capture in an MMO but I think it's something worth striving for.

Wizards Could Learn This MMO Lesson

If there's one strong lesson to be learned from the MMO world over the last few years, it's that taking the time to polish and playtest is incredibly important. Just look at WoW on one hand and Vanguard on the other. Heck, even SOE has caught on to the importance of a polished product, breaking with their previous hard-line expansion release schedule. But I don't think Wizards learned that lesson.

I believe that Wizards has not allocated enough time to polishing and playtesting. In reading and listening to the comments of the designers I just don't think they are in the place they should be to release this product on the timeline they want to. And even though I know they shut the whole company down for months of hardore playtesting, I don't think they have allocated enough time to exterior playtesting. I could be wrong in this assessment but it is my belief. I just think polish is key these days.

Conclusion

It's a wonderful and exciting time to be a D&D player. Let's not forget that there have been some really tough periods in D&D's history. It's great to see Wizards continually working to bring us the best game they can and experimenting with different ways to do so. And this isn't only about current players. I have to think that this will be good for new players and even those who, like myself, have been away for a bit. That can only help the game.

I will say that the views expressed in this post are coming from someone who has not actively played in a while but who is dying to get back in. Current players may have a different (and more informed) perspective and I certainly understand and appreciate that.

Jack Thompson: Completely Rational

2007-09-27T15:15:00.000-04:00

Yep, totally sane and logical. There's nothing even remotely odd about his last court filing...pretty much the usual thing to do when fighting misconduct charges.

Dice Me

2007-09-22T17:04:00.000-04:00

A few months ago I realized that I was a total noob when it came to one aspect of gaming: boardgames. No, I'm not talking about Monopoly or Sorry! but rather strategic, exciting games like Settlers of Catan, Caylus and Puerto Rico. So, I've been building XP in this gaming arena.

Since it's a bit more time consuming getting boardgame play together, when I have the opportunity to play online (like Ticket to Ride) I do. I've also enjoyed just reading the rules and reviews of various games. There are so many fascinating game mechanics out there and I feel like I've learned a lot about gaming in general. But I have been playing as well. I particularly enjoy fantasy themed games like Descent or Runebound.

I'm not going to start blogging about or reviewing boardgames (though I feel compelled to recommend the excellent Battlelore). I simply suggest heading over to the amazing BoardGameGeek for plenty of reviews and discussion. Before I began this boardgame run I admit I assumed that boardgaming was a dying industry which was somehow less fun than PC or console gaming due to the technical limitations. Well, I'm here to tell you now that playing boardgames is no less fun, only different. And rather then dying, the boardgame community is thriving and vibrant with a ton of new and exciting games on the horizon. So consider giving dice a chance.

LOTRO: Discounts of Angmar

2007-09-05T10:22:00.000-04:00

Amazon's video game deal of the day for 9/5/2007 is Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. They have it for $26.99 (currently $49.99 at Gamestop) so if you were thinking of taking that plunge into the Brandywine, today might be a good day to do it.

You Got Web 2.0 in My MMO!

2007-08-25T03:15:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, it's cool to abuse Web 2.0 right now. There's been a ton of Web 2.0 backlash: a lot of the terminology (including "Web 2.0" itself) is cringe-inducing and companies with horrendous ideas are getting tons of venture capital thrown at them for merely including the world "social" in their business plans.

This criticism is perfectly justified and the bubble is going to explode. Back in the day people thought they would make billions with websites where you could buy cat food online. Now people think they can make billions with websites that have "social networks" for cats. No, seriously. More than one.

But because of all the trash out there, it would be easy to miss the fact that there are valid ideas in the Web 2.0 world. In the original bubble and crash, were there a ton of garbage websites out there? Sure. But did we also have some awesome sites like Amazon and Ebay that we still use today? Sure. Likewise, sites like Digg or YouTube will be around for years to come and will be enjoyed by many.

So I'm going to try to find some Web 2.0 ideas that can be applied the MMO world. I'm sure there's going to be or already has been a lot of pontificating on this very subject probably with words like "folksonomy" and "clouds" being bandied about. So I'm going to try to be as concrete with my ideas are possible. To be honest, none of these concepts would be a selling point for me in deciding between games but I'm just going to throw them out there.

Feed Me

I want to be able to log on to Netvibes and have a tab fully dedicated to my MMO of choice with tons of delicious feeds. I'm going to use Netvibes and EQII as an example of what I would like to see, but you can substitute any feed-reader and your MMO of choice.

* Official News (obvious)

* Dev Tracker (preferably with different categories for Technical, Design, etc.)

* Community News Aggregator (one feed which aggregates all the community blogs and fan-sites)

Okay, those are fairly straightforward. But let's get more MMO specific...

* Server status

* List of friends/guildmates with online/oflline status and current zone information

* News specific to my Guild, both player generated (i.e. guild news postings) and automatic (guild status points)

* Ranking of Guilds on my server

* Ranking of Wizards on my server

* Ranking of Gnomes on my server

Heck, let's get even more specific on the rankings. Let me choose to have an automatically updating ranking of most damage done with a single spell by Gnome Wizards on Antonia Bayle in the level range of 10-20 in the Commonlands. You have the data - use it.

I'd also like to stick a widget in there which lets me search an item or player database.

The idea here is for me to be able to open one web-page and have absolutely all the news, resources and information I need, updated in real time.

Let Your Users Do the Work

Your users are an amazing resource. May as well tap into them as they are the best marketing department you can find.

The obvious one is supporting the people who contribute to your community with blogs, podcasts and fan-sites. For instance, EQII has the Town Crier which helps users find blogs and fansites they might not know about.

You could also make it easy for your players to capture screenshots or gameplay video and automatically upload them to a Flickr group or YouTube. Alternatively, a game could have it's own screenshot or video sharing page, with rankings for the most popular or most commented on media. Similar pages could be set up which allow players to post stories or artwork and let others comment and vote on them.

Every game should have a Wiki with user contribution. We all know official documentation is hopelessly lacking and dated. New users often have to spend extensive time searching for bits and pieces of information on the forums and it's so important to get new users over that initial learning curve. By having a Wiki, you have an up to date, living resource that can benefit both new and current players.

The final extension of this concept would be to allow for some form of user-created content in the game, itself. But that's a topic I've discussed before already and is too in-depth to get into here.

Get Social

I firmly believe that it's the social connections we make which keep us playing an MMO. The friends we make and the community we become a part of may just be the most important factor in our enjoyment of any game. So if a company can in any way facilitate those social interactions, they should definitely do it.

I don't use Facebook or MySpace so I'm a little out of my depth here, but what I am envisioning is a Facebook-esque page for each player. This page could have all of their character information updated automatically along with whatever personal data the player chooses to enter. There should also be room for a player's journal or blog, favorite screenshots and in-game videos and some fun widgets (some of which could be created by the company and some by users).

And of course, there's the social aspect. A player should be connected to his friends from the game, guild, and people known in real life. Each of these "classes" of people could have different permission settings when it comes to viewing that user's page.

The great thing is that MMO's already have so many ready-made social groups. In addition to player-made groups like guilds or a friends list, each player is part of server, a class, a race, a level range. These groups are the perfect foundation for creating a social network.

Players should be able to send and receive messages or media between individual players and to send out group messages to all of their friends or guild. Friends should also be able to comment on the aforementioned screenshots or journal postings on the page.

And Back Again

Can we take some of these social and community aspects and bring them back into the game? Sure. Players could be awarded titles or house items for having, say, one of the top ten most popular screenshots in a given week. Badges could be given for having a great page in the social network or for other ways of participating in the community. This would tie everything back together and encourage people to utilize the community features. And likewise, the community features would encourage people to keep playing the game.

MMO companies have always been been leaders in building online communities. I know that SOE has already tried to accomplish many of these goals with EQ2Players. I'm just suggesting they keep at it and take it to the next level.

Equinox

2007-08-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

You may have already heard about the upcoming release of Equinox: the Official EQII Magazine. You may even have heard that pre-orders grant you a Rise of Kunark beta invite.

But much more importantly, did you know that Equinox contains a never before seen Aggro Me humor column? Yes, the aptly named and completely honest column, "I Am Better Than You," penned by none other than yours truly, will appear in the premier issue.

While I don't know any more than you do about how the magazine will turn out, there are some promising signs. The company producing it did the official Eve magazine which was great. There's also a column from Cyanbane of EQ2Daily fame and I really enjoy his writing. And did I mention an Aggro Me column? Be sure to check it out.

Note for the record that I received no money or other compensation for this article and I dealt only with the publisher, not SOE. I have no vested interest and it will certainly not bias me one way or the other in my blog writing. I just thought it would be fun to see an Aggro Me piece in print. Hope you enjoy it!

Legends of Norrath

2007-08-17T12:22:00.000-04:00

I've been reading a bit about Legends of Norrath, SOE's new CCG game connected to both EQ and EQ2. I would recommend the interview with Smed on MMOG for more information. You can also see some "clarifying comments" Smed made here.

I love the general idea. I enjoy CCG's - for me it's the combination of card art, strategy and luck factor that makes them so appealing. I really think it's fantastic to build this kind of meta-game to your MMO. It gives your community some diversity in gameplay. When people get bored of regular MMO play (which does happen no matter how good the game is) they may decide to go play some console games or an FPS, RTS, etc. But by offering this type of game, you're giving your players the opportunity to have that variety without leaving your community. And people who get really into the CCG will be excited to play EQ or EQII to find special cards as loot. In general, I just think it makes the community stronger by connecting EQ and EQII and by offering more opportunities for fun under the Everquest "umbrella."

I'll give you an example of how this precise type of meta-game can be effective. There are hundreds of websites out there which have tons of flash games to play. Many of those sites have the same games. So why would I pick one over the other? What would compel me to ever bother registering and giving my e-mail address to such a site?

Kongregate managed to pull me in with the mere promise of a CCG meta-game. Kongregate is the usual collection of flash games. But the difference is that they have special challenges where meeting a goal in a certain game grants you a special card to be used in the CCG they are working on. Note that they haven't even finished this game yet, but they still have me hooked.

If I'm going to be playing flash games anyway, why not have the added fun of winning challenges and collecting cards, achievement points and levels? Kongregate succeeded in turning a collection of flash games into an actual community.

So I'm a fan of the concept and I'm excited to check Legends of Norrath out. I do take issue with some of the details.

You can do either of these two things:

1. Charge money for card booster packs.

2. Use in-game loot as rewards for the card game.

But I don't think you should do both. You could either forgo the minor revenue stream and simply use the CCG to build community or you could make the cards "one-way" (i.e. get cards in game but rewards don't go back in). But when you're charging for cards that have valuable effects in game, well, you can see my problem...

Now, even if you do both of the above, you can still get away with it if the in-game rewards are purely fluff. And I think that is SOE's stated intention. So my only remaining issue is that our definition of "fluff" may be different. To me it's purely titles, house items, decorative effects, or pets. But from the official website, the effects don't seem too "fluffy" to me (note that this game is not yet even finalized).

I'm not outraged or anything - I think it's a great idea that just could have used a few tweaks to avoid concerns of paying for in-game benefits.

Kong Day

2007-08-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a documentary chronicling two men's pursuit of the Donkey Kong high score, opens today (though in quite limited release for now).

The official site is here. GameSetWatch has been doing quite extensive coverage on this flick, so if you're interested you should head over there. It sounds like a pretty amazing story - I'm going to try to catch it this weekend.

Is This Really Happening?

2007-08-10T17:25:00.000-04:00

Is this for real? Is GameTunnel really not doing their monthly review panel of independent games anymore? Say it ain't so, Game Tunnel - that list usually accounts for one-third of my monthly gaming!

If anyone knows of any alternatives please let me know. I really hope someone steps up to fill the void. I'd rather it not be me so go for it people!

Roguelike Roundup

2007-08-10T17:18:00.000-04:00

"If you were stuck on a desert island indefinitely with no internet connection, what game would you bring with you?"

This question may seem like it has a very subjective answer but I believe the one true answer is a roguelike. You might think that Final Fantasy XXIII - Chocobo Dance Time is your all-time favorite game and that you'll never get sick of it. But believe me, after the hundredth play-through you will. Only a rouguelike gives you the complexity, replayability, randomness and challenge to keep you entertained for decades. And it would probably take you decades to win Dungeon Crawl with each class, let alone messing around with undesirable race/class combos.

This is my roundabout way of saying I've been playing a lot of roguelikes lately and I'm going to list some them. I'm not going to define what a roguelike is, that's what Wikipedia is for. I'm also not going to bother discussing the Big Three (Nethack, ADOM and Angband). Plenty of people have done that already. And to be honest, I don't play the Big Three anymore. I think they've gotten a little overwrought and gimmicky. But that's me - I don't even like side quests in my roguelikes.

Also, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm an ASCII-ist. Yes, I can't stand ASCII graphics which I know means I'm definitely not cool in the roguelike world. But my first roguelike was Epyx's Rogue on the Atari ST which had actual graphics. It's really hard for me, a decade and a half later, to play a game with worse graphics than that.

But where I thought I could help is by spreading the word on some of the lesser-known roguelikes. This list isn't even in the realm of comprehensive but only focused on games I have actually played.

Dungeon Crawl: Dungeon Crawl (or Linley's Dungeon Crawl) is easily the most popular game on this list but it still gets far less attention than the Big Three. I'm not sure why, since it's my favorite roguelike. It not only has a better graphical tileset than the Big Three but it's gameplay is just excellent.

There's a wide variety of classes (28) and races (26) to pick from and playstyles can vary starkly. To add even more variety, the deity you choose to worship (if any) has a marked effect on play. The challenge level, while tough, is consistent. The itemization and monsters are well done and there is enough variety in the levels without straying too far from the core play.

Some aspects do seem unfinished - if anyone knows the difference between a Mountain Dwarf and a Hill Dwarf be sure to tell me. I'm also not crazy about the way the skill system works. But all in all, it's a fun ride that will keep you coming back.

The wikipedia page has links to the latest official release as well as to the graphical tileset. But it does seem that most of the development action is on the Stone Soup variant, which is also linked, so I'd advise playing that.

Although most recommend a Dwarf Fighter to start, I've found that a Spriggan Venom Mage is the easiest class for the initial few levels which gives you a chance to grasp the gameplay when you're first starting out. There's not quite as many keyboard commands to learn as in some other roguelikes.

The Tombs: This is not the greatest roguelike ever. It's probably the worst roguelike on this list. But yet it's still awesome. Why? The Tombs is a Flash game. That's right - I'm telling you can get some delicious roguelike action in your web browser, at work, without having to download a single thing.

It's a pretty nice ride. You can choose to raise your base attributes or select special skills each time you gain a level. There is a fairly enjoyable magic system. And the graphics are right up my alley - nicer than ASCII but still very simple.

On the downside the challenge level is uneven. It can be hard for the first level or two but then very easy for quite some time until you meet your first winged viper at which point it gets very hard. It then quickly turns into cruise control again until you meet another certain monster at which point it gets very hard again. This just doesn't sustain the right level of excitement.

Powder: Powder is an excellent roguelike with great items, excellent challenge level and fun magic and skill systems. It's also very fast moving. Indeed, the creator states that one of his definitions of a roguelike is "Steam rolling monsters. If a critter is in your way, and weak, you shouldn't even notice it is there." I agree.

I would play Powder on the PC all the time, but the great thing is I don't have to. Powder is a roguelike which is specially designed for the GBA (there's a DS version as well). Of course you do need a whole flash cart setup. I've probably played more Powder on a handheld than any commercial game.

Lost Labyrinth: Lost Labyrinth has the best graphics of any game on this list (not that they're anything special). It's a quirky but fairly enjoyable game. It's definitely good for short gameplay periods (although it's not as fast paced as some other roguelikes). This game is very easy to pick up and play and has a much gentler learning curve than others on the list.

I really love the character set-up. Rather then picking races or classes you pick from a very large list of skills or abilities. You can even select flaws, which have a negative impact on your character but grant you additional points to spend on skills. So my character usually has no ability to use magic, is hated by the gods, is cursed and has only a toothpick and paper bag to start off with. But, hey, if I can get past those first few levels, I'm cooking.

One of the quirky things about this one is that the monster don't move. Bizarre, I know. They just sit there. However, most of the game is in narrow corridors so it works better then it sounds and there are ambushes. Another strange thing is the way you level. One of the very few things I liked about DDO was the way you leveled by completing quests. Likewise, in Lost Labyrinth, you level when you take the staircase down to the next floor, regardless of how many monsters you killed. This allows for different playstyles to be effective.

There is a lot of variety to the levels in this game, much more than most roguelikes. All in all, it's a different but enjoyable experience. This is also the first game that actually made me want to spend money on a torch or lantern. You'll see why.

Castle of the Winds: This is a commercial game that is now freeware. It's nothing special but it is decently fun and polished.

Dwarf Fortress: This game is definitely the New Hotness in the gaming community. Pretty much everyone who is into roguelikes is checking this out. I'm the exception because of my ASCII-hating ways but I did manage to play a few games and I can see what all the excitement is about. The Fortress mode, where you create this insanely complex dwarven city is just fascinating. It's far from a traditional roguelike but I can see how it would be very fun, and there is a more traditional roguelike included (Adventure Mode). If you don't mind ASCII, this is the one game on this list you should be checking out immediately.

Incursion : Unfortunately for me, this is another ASCII only game. However, I was interested enough to try it because it uses the D20 system. I couldn't get into it, but if you're into D&D, this might be the roguelike for you.

IVAN: You call it IVAN, I call it Iter Vehemens Ad Necem, let's just call it awesome. This is my current obsession and a truly fascinating take on the roguelike experience. The thing most people fixate on with this game is that it deals with the body parts of your character and your enemies discretely. Sure, you can have your arm chopped off by a unicorn, pick that arm up, beat the unicorn to death with it, pray to your deity and be granted a new banana arm which you then transform with a scroll into a shiny new iron arm. And then you vomit just to top things off. But there's a lot more to this game then that.

There is no class or race selection in IVAN. All your characters start off the same. There is also no identification game. A major part of most roguelikes is identifying just what the scrolls, potions and wands in your posession do. Not in IVAN.

But it all comes together to create a very fun experience and the game has a relatively pleasant graphical tileset (your equipment even actually shows up on your character visually). The itemization is superb and the combat is challenging and fun. It's a great game, but it is flawed. I haven't put my finger on exactly how yet, but I will.

I've barely scratched the roguelike surface here. Maybe sometime I'll do a post of non-fantasy setting roguelikes. Until then, I'll be trying to slay the Enner Beast on Level 5.

Psychobabble Update

2007-07-15T19:51:00.000-04:00

Last August I wrote a post saluting Pop Cap Games' creative multiplayer game, Psychobabble, and bemoaning Pop Cap's decision to discontinue it.

Surprisingly, I received more e-mails (though not from my usual readers) about that post than almost any other post I've written. The people who enjoyed Psychobabble turned out to be a quite passionate group which really speaks to the unique online experience the game created.

So I feel compelled to pass on a link from an anonymous tipster who pointed me to Farragomate. It looks like Psychobabble reincarnated. Enjoy.

A Sad Day in Neopia

2007-07-13T17:55:00.000-04:00

Back in the day, I was a pretty big Neopets fan. They had a great collection of casual games with almost no advertising (just a sponsored game or two). It was fun to accumulate Neopoints and the devs were always adding new games, items and features, as well as running world-wide events that actually had an impact on the game world. And if you think the games are just for children try to beat Better than You just one time.

So I was sorry to hear that Neopets is joining the ever growing ranks of online worlds which charge real cash for virtual items with their new NC mall. You can read more about it here on one disgruntled user's page. Basically this means that instead of earning items by playing games or running a business you can just buy your accomplishments with real money.

Now, Neopets probably lost it's way long before this. All I ever read about these days in terms of child friendly online spaces is Club Penguin. And every child I talk to is incredibly obsessed with Webkinz.

I think part of the problem was that users didn't feel enough of a connection to their avatar. In some games you were playing against your pet, in some you were playing as your pet, in others you were playing as yourself. There was a consistency lacking in this regard and the one place where your pet had a direct multiplayer experience, the battledome, was pretty awful. Neopets also failed to update their older games. The painful wait between turns in otherwise great games like Cheat and Pyramids was bearable years ago. But now we expect some minimum level of speed from our games, rendering some of the older games basically unplayable.

But still, I always checked back in on my sadly starving pets and six figure NP bankroll every few months. The site was quite enjoyable and the new games were always fun. The Altador Cup was another great example of how to run a good online event. But now logging in just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

To argue against myself, the site has become plagued with advertising since the old days. There's nothing completely offensive like pop-ups, but compared to the golden ad-free days, the banner ads, keyword ads and large ads on the right-hand side of the page are rough going. So you might argue that if Neopets had gone the RMT route earlier, we would have been spared the advertising. But I believe that we would have just had both anyway.

I realize Viacom is a business, and I understand their desire to profit as much as possible from the Neopets user base. And I realize that everyone is doing it, so why shouldn't Neopets?

But it still saddens me. I always thought that when I had a son or daughter old enough I would introduce them to Neopets. There are educational games and I think all of the games teach some skills. But more importantly, I thought Neopets was a fun way to learn things you just don't learn in school. It taught you about personal finance: how to budget your money and not splurge on things you can't afford; how saving is important (the Neopian Bank pays interest); how slowly working your funds up day by day is better in the end then gambling (you end up earning more playing games then gambling your money away on the slots); and the value of entrepreneurship (starting your own store).

But now all Neopets teaches is how to convince your parents to give you their credit-card number so you can just have whatever you want whenever you want it. I'll skip that lesson.

Life is a Fakepost

2007-06-08T09:59:00.000-04:00

Opening the actual New York Times and seeing the word "Goonswarm" made me wonder if all my fakeposting had finally destroyed my sense of reality.

I hereby end fakepost week before things get any crazier!

Fakepost Week: Aggro Nova

2007-06-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

Ah, real money transfer! That most fascinating of topics and one that is extremely rarely touched upon on this fair site. In short, it is the most fascinating thing ever created in the universe. It is so fascinating that it is like a fascination black hole only instead of being a hole it's puppies and unicorns stuffed with rainbows and glory.

During my time spent studying the economy of a small island off the coast of Borneo inhabited only by spiders, I suddenly realized the future of the virtual world.

As Eglizt Thackgunderson writes in his well-known pamphlet on the mating habits of aquatic fowl during the Sixteenth century, "It's not the size of your beak, it's the size of your feathers." Truer words were never spoken.

I recently said to my friend Yogbert Fizzle, JD, MD, PHD, AOL, DDD, who happens to be not only a world renowned scholar but the foremost expert on middle-eastern tupperware and the seventy-fifth person to ever create a MUD, "Hey, Yogbert, how are you?"

All in all it's a glorious new vista of excitement as we stand like Columbi at the prow of this brave ship heading westwards towards the intersection of reality, virtuality and the metaverse.

*finishes strong by working in the word pwned or uber*

Fakepost Week: Great Gaming Quotations in History

2007-06-07T09:48:00.000-04:00

"I am Gandalf the White and I come back to you now at the turn of the tide." - Ken Kutargi, E3 2006

"It was unearthly, and the men were, — No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it — this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity — like yours — the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uprour. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to youself that in this dismal heart of darkness there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you — you so remote from the night of first ages — could comprehend." - GameFun Magazine, April Issue, Review of Second Life

"The healers of the world have nothing to lose but their chains! They have a world to win! Working healers of all Guilds, unite!" - Greenhealz, Guild Forums, Thread: DKP Discussion

"I hate Mondays but I love lasagna. Do you like lasagna, Snake? SNAKE? SNAAAKE???" - Otacon, Metal Gear Solid III

"Napoleon's army flanks us - his Western and Eastern troops are like giant pincers which seek to confound us with their pinching. But if we come from the South, at his weak point, we shall punish the French army for damage of a most massive nature." - Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington

"Jesters do oft prove prophets." -Cartman, South Park, WoW Episode

"Welcome to the Ultra Competitive Hardcore Gaming League Extreme Edition! First up is Ghosthead92 battling SexyGrrl15 in Dead or Alive 4! This is going to be an incredible match...probably the greatest in gaming history. What's that? They used to be in the same gaming clan? I'm shaking right now - look at my hands. No...I'm hearing now that they used to date! Is this really happening? IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING????" - Tommy Tallarico, Ultra Competitive Hardcore Gaming League Extreme Edition on Direct TV

"Reading Aggro Me is the best thing to ever happen to me."-Prumpy Irontoe, Everquest

Fakepost Week: Second Life Press Release

2007-06-06T09:57:00.000-04:00

*BREAKING NEWS*

Realizing the critical importance of maintaining a business presence both in so-called reality and the wonderful virtual universe of Second Life, Bob's Taco Emporium of Fargo, North Dakota has opened a Bob's Virtual Taco Emporium in Second Life.

"This is just another shining example of the expanding corporate presence in Second Life," stated some Linden. "The business world has embraced the mind blowing opportunities we have to offer. This is a wonderful, better world. And there's nothing weird or, er, perverse going on here, seriously. Don't look over there...that's nothing. Seriously. Linden dollars."

Bob's Taco Emporium will launch today, having been designed by Analog Sheep. There people will be able to purchase virtual tacos for their meta-eating pleasure.

"Think of it as Tacos 2.0," said Bob of Bob's Taco Emporium. "We're breaking down barriers. With extra salsa."

Lot's of people play Second Life. But play is not really the right word because it's more than a game. Linden Research. Linden dollars.

*BREAKING NEWS*

Fakepost Week: Fakepost Facts (Meta Fakepost Post)

2007-06-06T09:56:00.000-04:00

I've noted a dearth of bloggers joining in on Fakepost Week. Perhaps, in this jaded age, the true meaning of Fakepost Week has been forgotten. It's become so commercialized, few still know the true Fakepost spirit. Therefore, I bring you the following fascinating Fakepost facts:

*FASCINATING FACT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fakepost Week was created seven years ago by the United Nations in a spirit of international cooperation to bring peace and economic stability to the world. The General Assembly approved the measure in a near unanimous vote (Canada and Tonga abstaining). However, it is the International Court of Justice which monitors Fakepost Week and deals with any disputes.

Did that fact FASCINATE you??! I know it did.

*AMAZING NUGGET OF KNOWLEDGE

Bill Gates, millionaire Microsoft Maven, will send you $1.23 for each Fakepost you write!!! I know what you're thinking lol Snopes.com but this thing is legit! He's beta-testing the new Microsoft Serious-Post 2008 and needs tons of Fakeposting to test the filters. I doubted it too but my friend Frank showed me an ACTUAL CHECK in the amount of $3,294 signed by Gates!!!

Also my friend Sally wrote seven fakeposts and she won the lottery and married Tom Brady!!! I'm not saying it's connected but something to PONDER!!!! Then there's my friend Dean who failed to Fakepost. It might just be coincidence but the next week he got bitten by a rabid penguin, fell into a hole and his dog got asthma!!!! Do you really want to risk it?!?!?

Was that nugget of knowledge tasty and delicious?!! Oh yeah, that hit the spot.

*INCREDIBLE INFORMATION

If you fakepost about fakeposting the universe will collapse in upon itself and-

Uh-oh.

Fakepost Week: Forum

2007-06-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here knows how to use Feature X?

Fakepost Week: MMO Expansion Review

2007-06-04T09:54:00.000-04:00

Well, Company X has released an expansion to Game Z! (Insert joke about large amount of time people spend playing Game Z). Ah yes, the world of Game Z. (Insert joke about elves or dragons or wizards). So what do we have in store?

*lists every new feature directly from the Company X press release - word for word*

So those wacky players will be (joke about spending a large amount of time playing the game). Now I only got to level 3 but I did take a guided tour of the expansion! So here's my detailed analysis of the game:

Conclusion

All in all it is pretty much an expansion to the original game and should please fans!

If you play the game your decison to buy or not buy this expansion is almost certainly unrelated to this review. And if you don't play the game, well, you're not going to need the expansion are you?

My work is done here.

Overall score: 7.5 out of 10

Gods and Betas

2007-06-01T16:37:00.001-04:00

Looks like Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising is accepting beta signups. So head on over and check it out if you're so inclined.

The main site is here. The squad based combat in Movie 2 of the Media section looks pretty neat, but some of the monsters seem pretty generic. I would have played up the Roman aspect a bit and downplayed the mythology to further differentiate the game from its rivals. But it still could be interesting.

Judgement!

2007-06-01T16:30:00.000-04:00

I came across this Phoenix Wright Judgment Generator (via DS Fanboy). My attempts with it are pretty awful but, hey, this a "warm-up" post and maybe you can top me!

The Secret of Everything!

Coercer!

Massive....

This is...

The page is in Japanese but here is the info:

1. Enter desired text and press the red button.
2. Click on the horizontal bar above the three buttons to browse for your desired image.
3. Drag and drop the image and use the buttons to the right to resize/rotate.
4. Press the red button to continue (the first button is "back").
5. A preview will play. Press the red button again to save.
6. Post link.

Aggro: The True Hollywood Story

2007-04-16T12:38:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Michael Zenke for the great write-up over at GameSetWatch on my all time favorite subject.

Employee of the Month

2007-04-16T12:38:00.000-04:00

I've been too busy at work to get in on the discussion of SOE's hire of an ex-IGE employee. And I haven't read/researched enough about this story to comment fairly, but I wanted to at least make you aware of it if you aren't already. So here are some links:

Krones
Lum
MMOGNation

And for a somewhat different point of view:

MMODig

Station Access Price Increase

2007-03-06T14:20:00.001-05:00

The upcoming increase in the Station Access plan from $24.99 to $29.99 (via Plaguelands) is so ridiculous it almost doesn't deserve commentary. It's obviously bad for the players. And I don't see how it could even be good for SOE's bottom line. They have to be losing some subscriptions to this increase, not to mention creating ill will amongst the current and potential player base.

Let's not forget that it was only in May, 2006 that the price was increased from $21.99 to $24.99. That's an $8 per month increase in less than a year. And what's been added in that time besides Vanguard (which definitely still needs work)? Sure, EQII has gotten better (just look at the last patch). But the older games just seem all the more dated.

By pre-paying six month subscriptions, you could actually be playing both EQII and WoW for four dollars per month less than the Station Access plan. Think about that.

There needs to be a distinction between the types of players the plan is designed for. For those who only use it for extra character space, the price borders on the absurd. An extra $15 for four character slots in EQII? And for those who only use it to play two games, there's really no savings. I guess if you really want to play three MMO's or play two MMO's and have alt-itis, it might be a passable deal. But that has to be the exception and not the rule.

And the raise in the Planetside subscription after subjecting players to in-game advertising is just laughable.

Casual Gaming: Your MMO Vacation

2007-03-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

When I have time, I'm always going to play an MMO. But when I only have fifteen or thirty minutes, I find myself preferring casual games. That way I can get a quick and complete gaming experience rather than just a chunk of a lengthy single player game. I also find that some casual games evidence really innovative design.

So, I figured I would share my casual gaming resources:

For Flash games, the definite spot is JayisGames. You get a wonderful selection of games served up to you with great reviews. You can also read the comments for spoilers if you get stuck or just to see if others found the same flaws or greatness you did.

I also occasionally try Digg's Playable Web Games section. There are some clunkers in there, but the selection changes relatively quickly. And again, you have the community experience with the ability to comment and vote on each entry.

Downloadable casual games are a bit trickier. JayisGames does feature some, but they're usually demos. I've lately been hitting up Game Giveaway of the Day. Each day they post a new game. But the great thing about it is that for that day, you can download the full version of the game and not just a demo. If you fail to download and register within the 24 hour time period, you're stuck with a trial version. But if you do download and register on the day a game is featured, the full version is yours forever.

I was a little leery about mentioning this one because it's in essence a commercial site. And I really don't understand their business model. I understand what they say it is, but I just don't see how it could be profitable.

But the reality is, I've downloaded a ton of stuff from them and scoured my system with both anti-spyware and anti-virus programs. I've never found anything fishy. And, hey, it's completely free games.

The games aren't necessarily that great but I have gotten a few winners. I've been playing a pretty tight Arkanoid clone they had up a while back and today they have Master of Defense, which I actually played the demo for in the past and enjoyed. These games are far less likely to have an innovative design then the Jay is Games selections (like the recent entry Sprout). They are more often just variations on traditional games like shmups, sidescrollers or puzzlers. But sometimes that can be fun too.

Be sure to read the comments before you download so you can be aware of any particular problems with the software. Let the first downloaders take the fall for you. And remember, you do have to register the game within the 24 hour time period by following the instructions in the readme file which is part of the download package.

Vanguard Initial Impressions: Odi et Amo

2007-02-15T18:31:00.000-05:00

Remember that initial impressions are just that. This is not a formal review. For instance, I haven't gotten to a high enough level to fully understand the combat system, so I'm not really getting into it at this time. The same goes for crafting and harvesting.

I Hate

Polish

No I don’t hate polish. The proper heading should probably be, “Polish, Lack Thereof.”

I would never tell any company working on an MMO that they have to imitate WoW. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t valuable lessons to be learned from WoW's success. No one would ever suggest imitating Anarchy Online but I would say there are clearly lessons to be learned there as well.

And the lesson is that players care about polish.

Maybe polish isn’t even the right term. Perhaps some would call it “a less than massive amount of bugs.” Others might define it as “a level of minimum functionality.” But I prefer polish because it incorporates those two concepts as well as adding the idea that the game is, in some sense, refined and ready.

However you want to define it, Vanguard doesn’t have it. Every play session I’m afflicted with scores of bugs, incredibly uneven content and just that general “beta” feel.

To me you can no longer debate the fact that a game should be released when it’s ready. And you can argue about what’s “ready” and “not ready” all day. But Vanguard is clearly not ready.

Look, even SOE has realized that polish is important by getting rid of their expansion policy (six month timetable) for EQII.

To not realize that players want a game that is, to some degree, polished at release goes beyond stupidity at this point and can only be attributed to sheer arrogance.

User Interface

The UI in Vanguard is just hideous. How that much development time can go into a game and produce a UI like that is beyond me.

When will developers understand that the UI is incredibly important? We stare at it and use it every second we play the game. It might not be the “sexiest” thing to work on but it deserves effort. Vanguard fails.

Now, there might be some great ideas incorporated in the UI. I love the fact that you can see what enemies are targeting you. I love seeing the icons that pop up under a mob to give you combat clues. But everything is just very off.

The map interface is particularly sickening. During the beta there was a big argument in a general channel because the map interface was non-functional. The gist of one side was that lack of maps leads to immersion. I suggested burning my subway map so that commuting could be more "immersive." But you can't hide behind immersion when you do implement a map system that works, but fails on every level of usability.

Someone's going to suggest downloading mods to improve the UI. That's fine, I love when the community tries to improve things. But a game company shouldn't rely on the community to complete one of the basic aspects of their game. And I paid my money for Vanguard to see the "vision" of the designers. If I have to turn to the mod community because the UI is just that bad, I find it hard to believe the designers really care about that vision.

Graphics

I’ve heard people talk about how amazing the graphics are, but I sometimes think steep technical requirements are confused with amazing graphics. “This game requires 4 gigs of ram to play smoothly – so the graphics must be incredible!”

I’m not going to knock Vanguard for having high system requirements. For one, I think some of the reports on this are just a touch overblown. Also, it’s a valid choice, even if I don’t agree with it. I’ve changed my mind on the system requirement issue so I’m not going to criticize them for their decision.

But I think, as Uncle Ben might say, “With great requirements come great responsibility.” If you’re going to ask people to upgrade their machines to play your game, you simply have to hold up your end of the bargain.

Sure, some aspects of Vanguard’s graphics are amazing. The volumetric clouds, the grass, and, most of all, the vistas. You can look into the distance and see some amazing and incredible sights.

But on the whole, it fails. The character models are just bad and the animations go beyond bad to terrible. Some of the textures are laughable. And yes, I've seen it run on a high end computer.
On the whole, simply too many areas are just bleh, to use a scientific term. You can say that graphics are subjective, and they are. But if you lined up 100 art professors to judge Vanguard, WoW and EQII, I’d bet serious money that the results for artistic merit would be “WoW, EQII and Vanguard.” And that’s unacceptable.

As much as I do occasionally marvel at individual aspects of the graphics (coming across a beautiful structure for instance), my general impression is an unpleasant one.

Take the font used to display NPC’s names. It’s simply hideous. I’ve heard a lot of rigmarole about how this gives the game a “classic old-school EQ feel.”

Well, in the words of MC Serch to 100 Proof on the White Rapper Show: “There’s a difference between respecting the old school and paralleling the old school. You’re in a room with a bunch of wolves. They’re all hungry and they’re all in the now.”

I respect the old school. Vanguard parallels it. And players don’t deserve to dedicate a year or more of their lives to someone’s vanity nostalgia project.

Quests

If the graphics are bleh, I would term the quest content "blah." There is nothing memorable or interesting there, nothing we haven’t seen a hundred times before. And it’s okay to do stuff we’ve seen before, if it is done very well. Vanguard quests are just mind-numbingly average. You will get a gem in there every once in a while, but they are few and far between.

It might get better later on in the game. I don’t know.

The content is also very uneven. Starting out as a High Elf in Thestra I was put to sleep with completely uninteresting, generic starter quests. But as a Dark Elf in Kojan I was immediately drawn in with exciting, emotional content.

Now, some people might not like the almost cinematic opening quests I am referring to in Kojan. It does give a history to your character which might conflict with the one you have created. But either way, these are two incredibly uneven openings.

And the Kojan starter quests show me the Vanguard team is capable of producing exciting quests with good storylines which create emotions in players. I just don’t get why I’m struggling through generic kill ten x quests when I see there is an alternative.

Character Creator

Yeah, it has a million sliders so if adjusting your “brow depth” is important to you, you can do it. But what do we really notice when we see players in the game world? Their face and hair. You can mess with the limited selection of faces with the aforementioned sliders. But the races I've played have literally only four hairstyles. And you will usually see the population latch on to one or two out of the four hairstyles. So, hello, attack of the clones.

This may seem like a minor issue. But connecting with your character and feeling unique is very important.

I Love

I've been pretty hard on Vanguard so far, but they should take that as a compliment. I haven't cared enough about a game since EQII to get this angry about it. It's my love for this game that sparks such a passion.

Diplomacy

Wow, this is great. This is pretty much exactly the type of fun, strategic, skill-based game I was thinking of to replace the typical crafting "gameplay" in MMO's. Okay, so it's not about crafting, it's a whole new aspect of gameplay. That's still great.

The key thing is that this game just plain works. It's fun, exciting and challenging. I love getting a new card, I love deciding which cards to use against a specific opponent, I love winning a difficult parley.

Some might say that a game involving cards to represent diplomacy takes you out of the world and breaks immersion. But the way it's designed actually makes me feel more connected. By having the actual quest dialogue progress for each point you win, you make reading that dialogue feel like a reward and not a chore. I read every word of my diplomacy dialogue and I just can't say that for regular quests. What's more, the diplomacy quests I've done so far are just very well written and exciting.

Of course, diplomacy suffers from the same fate as the rest of Vanguard - lack of polish - and it kills me to think of what diplomacy could have been at launch with sufficient development time. My excitement at getting my first timed diplomacy quest was immediately killed by finding the key NPC was just missing. There are other minor bugs and issues I've had and I am reading that things get very "grindy" once you finish the quest lines. I don't expect features like Diplomacy PvP or raiding (which are being discussed) to be in the game at launch. But stuff like broken quests, writs and informants should clearly have been fixed.

I don't blame the diplomacy team for this. When I first played the beta, the entire concept of the diplomacy game mechanic was different (and to be honest it didn't look at all promising). The current card game was nowhere to be seen. So I appreciate that the diplomacy team did such great work in such a short time, and I'm happy with the direction they are headed. I pretty much love every post Aruspex has made concerning diplomacy. I just wish they were given a little more time to work on the system prior to launch.

Finally, I do hope Diplomacy fits into the game as a whole and does not suffer from a feeling of isolation. I think the Civic Diplomacy concept is brilliant (working together at moving metaphorical levers in each city to give city-wide buffs). But it's also a little too altruistic for me. Diplomats need their phat lewtz just as much as any other class. Crafting and adventuring gives direct, tangible rewards. I hope Diplomacy doesn't feel unrewarding.

I've pointed out some concerns but I absolutely love this aspect of the game. I can't wait to play it more and I can't wait to see what the future has in store.

Freshocity

Ah, freshocity: that well-known combination of pure freshness and newness. How sweet, how very sweet it can be.

The reality is that Vanguard is the first fantasy MMO worth wasting my time in since EQII and WoW launched. And that's been a while.

Even though it's unfinished and I don't agree with some of the decisions made, the fact is that you can be online playing Vanguard right now. And it is playable (barely but it is). Sometimes you just feel the weight of history and levels is too much in the more established games. Sure WoW and EQII have their expansions, but it's not quite the same thing. Sometimes you need to feel you're exploring a new world along with everyone else.

You have that amazing feeling of exploration in Vanguard. The excitement you get when you come to the edge of a cliff in Qualia and see Khal in the distance for the first time is incredible. And Vanguard is a huge world to explore, that is certain. While games like Dark and Light clearly prove that size doesn't matter, the sheer amount of places to see in Vanguard is a pretty nice aspect. And so far I enjoy the combat, items and abilities (though I'm not overly impressed with any...yet).

This might not sound like a lot. It might sound like just being in the right place at the right time. Well that might be enough. For a time everyone thought it was easy to start an MMO. It's not. Vanguard may be a failure in many respects, but I don't think it will fail, and that's saying a lot.

If you're enjoying your current virtual world, I say keep enjoying it. There's certainly no rush to play an unfinished game. But it is a valid, if shaky, option for the more jaded player looking for a new journey. Keep an eye out for me in Telon.

Station Exchange Whitepaper

2007-02-08T16:10:00.000-05:00

Not the Station Exchange again. Please, Aggro, don't bore us. Oh, I'll bore you.

SOE recently released a white paper (think of it as term paper you get paid to write) on the first year of the Station Exchange service. What's more, Smed did an interview with Gamasutra about it. You can download the entire white paper for yourself on the last page of that interview.
First off, major kudos to SOE for releasing this data. Very few companies would ever do that.

And the Gamasutra interview was excellent. They nailed the first thing I thought of when I read the white paper, the "popcorn analogy," and asked some tough questions. Smed was excellent and gave some honest and thought-provoking answers.

The white paper itself was informative and readable. I don't think it was great, but it was acceptable. The writer, Noah Robischon, is actually fairly accomplished in his field. You may know him as an Editor at Gizmodo but you can see from his bio (near the end of the page) that he's done a large amount of this kind of writing. I couldn't remember where I heard the name, but then I realized he does the occasional segment for NY1 (a NY-centric cable news network).

I'm not out to knock SOE or the white paper. I just have a few points to make. There's been a lot of commentary already and I honestly haven't read all of it. I may have more to add at a later date. These are just initial impressions.

Money, Money, Money

The first point is: Everyone relax. I've seen a lot of people going wild about the amount of money involved but not one person yet distinguishing revenue from profits.

Everything seems so fabulous and massive when you see numbers like 1.87 million (cash that passed through the system). But cash that passes through the system doesn't mean a whole lot. What are the revenues? $274,803.

That may seem like a lot, but as Robischon states "Station Exchange is not a significant source of revenue for SOE, nor was it expected to be."

The number is also a little misleading to the casual reader.

Revenue, according to wikipedia (which we all know is never wrong), is "not to be confused with the terms 'profits' or 'net income' which generally mean total revenue less total expenses in a given period. "

So don't think SOE profited $274,803 from the Station Exchange in a year.

This is the point in the white paper where I would have loved further information. How much did the Exchange system cost to develop? How much was spent on marketing it? Factor in those costs and my bet is you're looking at a loss, not a profit.

But now I'm the one being unfair. Those are one-time costs, for the most part. And the Exchange will continue to bring in money. Well, I still think you have to factor in at least a portion of the initial start-up costs, but okay. What about the continuing costs? There have to be some bandwidth costs. There has to be at least one person who has to deal with Exchange related technical issues and at least a portion of his or her salary has to be considered a cost.

Let's make a random stab and say costs were $74,803 during that year (I really think I'm hitting the low end). So $200,000 in profit. At $14.99 per month over the course of that same year, one player pays $179.88 to SOE (at $14.99 per month). I'm being generous and not factoring in Station Players extras or an upgraded Total Access subscription.

So that $200,000 in profit represents 1,100 players. How much did SOE lose in terms of good will and reputation value? How many players left or stayed away because of it? What if the development money spent on the Exchange was spent on bettering the game or simply marketing it? How many players would SOE have gained? What about the costs of running two additional servers?

I honestly could be misinterpreting the numbers. I admit that. But it is also completely possible (based on my understanding of the way the word revenue is used) that the Exchange is running at a net loss.

So, again, relax about how this is the future of MMO profit until you have the full picture.

Customer "Service"

If you're going to point to something in the white paper this is the way to go:

"Prior to the introduction of Station Exchange, 40 percent of customer service time was spent on disputes over virtual item sales. Since the debut of the Exchange, the overall customer service time spent has dropped 30 percent."

That seriously is impressive. But there is no mention as to whether that is only for the Exchange servers or for the game as a whole. Oh wait:

"The remaining 28 EverQuest II servers are likely to see just as much illicit buying and selling as in the past. "

Wasn't one of the main ways the whole concept was "sold" to the players is that all the people who wanted to buy plat and all the sleazy sellers would simply move to the Exchange servers? Let's isolate all who like to use RMT and the rest of us can live happily ever after. This has clearly not happened. The activity on the remaining servers simply did not change.

But, hey, "Station Exchange was never expected to replace or eradicate the use of third party auction services."

So what did we learn? Legitimized RMT can reduce customer service costs. But it's all or nothing. All RMT on every server or none at all. I'll take none but, hey, that's me.

How about a simple: "Our customer service policy is not to get involved in disputes over virtual item sales. Period." Congratulations, you just eliminated 100 percent of the time spent in disputes over virtual item sales.

Step 3: Profit

Everyone loves to look at studies like this and wax poetic about how people can earn a living by playing a game. But let's be realistic. Yes, the Top Seller sold $37,435.47 worth of goods. But how much did he or she buy? What other costs did he or she incur? And look at the very steep drop-off point. Top Seller number 3 sold less than half of what Top Seller number 1 did. The more telling point is this:

"None of the top 20 zip codes showed a profit for the first year, although the June 2006 end date may not represent a full year of trading for these sellers." None. It's not like people are raking in the dough.

If you take the average numbers from Robischon's assertion that you can make between $200 and $500 a month spending five to six hours a night ($350/5.5 hours x 30 days) you're making $2.12 an hour.

I'm not even going to get into the fact that Mr. or Ms. $37,435.47 had better have a really good accountant if they are thinking that is tax-free pure profit. IRS: Oh sure, 37k, no we don't expect tax on that, much love - keep the change kid lol. Hey, sure, maybe that's possible.

Boredom Overtook Us

Following is my favorite part of the white paper:

"He is, in essence, getting on-demand access to the best battles and quests in the game."

"It offers a fundamentally different approach to play: a means of skipping the boring parts."

That just says it all. Here's a novel, revolutionary idea: Don't have boring parts in your game.

The early levels are boring and should be skipped? The early levels should clearly be the most exciting part of the game. They should be your best stuff. If they're not, you're doing something wrong.

As a bit of a play on Robischon's popcorn analogy: Let's pretend you go to see a movie. It's great. Only every twenty minutes there's nothing but a test pattern on the scene for a boring five minutes. As the producers of this movie do you:

A. Remove the test patterns.

B. Charge people $10 to skip each test pattern and get to the "good stuff."

Look, I'm not saying SOE agrees with Robischon's comments. I'm sure the designers who worked so hard to create the "boring parts" sure don't. And EQII's early level revamp is clear indication to me that the EQII team is hard at work making all aspects of the game exciting. I'm only pointing out what I believe to be the fallacies in the "get to the good stuff" way of thinking.

Final Note

"What’s more, players enjoy strutting around and showing of their wares in front of a live audience."

What are you strutting about? No, seriously. You figured out how to enter your credit card into a computer? Congratulations.

Link Loves MMO's

2007-01-24T16:19:00.000-05:00

What's this? A handy dandy Zelda scene creator (via Digg)? Let's have some fun!

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link

As always, feel free to add your own creations in the comments or on the forums.

Wii Love New York

2007-01-24T16:17:00.000-05:00

You're planning to visit New York and you want to stay at a trendy, stylish hotel. But you know you can't give up your gaming.

Well, the luxurious Hotel Gansevoort in the much hyped Meat Packing District has you covered. You can now grab a Wii at the front desk for some in-room gaming action.

Here's a link to the story complete with video. Note that you don't have to stay in the Penthouse Suite to get your Wii on. I double checked with them and any guest can request one.

I just thought it was kind of interesting to see that the Gansevoort felt that there was an intersection between their "ultra-trendy" clientele and Wii fans.

Love in the Time of Kinetics

2007-01-05T15:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not playing City of Villains any more, but I did enjoy playing it for a few months. There are certainly quite a few negative things about the game I will share with you later. But, I thought I would start with a positive impression concerning my time as a healer. Yes, that's right, a healer. I don't know how it happened. After a brief glance at the Corruptor archetype, I figured it was akin to an EQII Wizard, a ranged DPS class. So when people suddenly started expecting me to heal them, I didn't know what to think.

I've always assumed that healing in MMO's is merely a matter of watching health bars and clicking a spell when those bars get low, along with the occasional buff or half-hearted attempt at DPS. But I found the actual experience of the Kinetics power set to be quite different.

A player with Kinetics has a power called Transfusion. It's one of the best heals in the game, with a few restrictions:

1. It triggers off of an enemy.
2. It has a limited range.
3. The heal it triggers has a limited AOE range.
4. The enemy you have targeted can't die until the actual heal goes off.

Now, every Kinetics player I've ever played with has this "nobody understands me" emo attitude.

And they have a point because your team mates have to understand that for heals:

1. They have to be near an enemy.
2. The healer has to be somewhat close to that enemy.
3. They can't kill that enemy before the heal goes off.

The natural response of every player who is low on health is to remove themselves from melee range, not stay in it. And players are certainly not going to hold off on killing mobs just because you need them alive. City of Villains is also a relatively fast moving, mobile game.

Instead of giving boring heal lectures, I just decided to try to pull off heals the best I could by moving frequently, anticipating players' movements and picking "safe" targets to heal off of.

I soon found that healing in CoV was nothing like my original expectations. When I pulled off a tricky heal as a team member was about to die it felt pretty rewarding. It's not complicated. When a task is challenging or difficult, the feeling of personal satisfaction is greater when you accomplish it. Of course, I also felt bad when a heal misfired and a team member died. But that's risk and reward. It keeps things interesting.

But, of course, personal satisfaction is not enough. So playing with me on Vent went something like this:

Aggro: Wow, what a heal.

Aggro: Did you see that heal?

Aggro: Aggro nails the heal!

Aggro: You're playing with one of the top five healers on the server.

Aggro: Did you realize that?

Aggro: Did I say on the server? I meant the whole game.

Yeah, I'm annoying on Vent. Seriously.

I guess I have two points with this post:

1. Kinetics healing in CoV is fast paced, exciting and fun. It's challenging without being frustrating. And that's one of the things I really enjoyed about the game.

2. I get annoyed when people say MMO's require no player skill. I get annoyed when I hear that the only metric of success in MMO's is time.

Now, sometimes this argument is used to make a point I agree with: That player skill should be more of a factor in MMO play. I absolutely feel the same way and I've argued the point myself many times. But it's still imprecise to say MMO's require no skill and that kind of imprecision bothers me.

By using the faulty premise that MMO's require zero skill and only require time, people are able to make specious arguments in support of RMT. I see it over and over.

I'm not saying playing an MMO is akin to doing quantum physics. It's definitely not akin to 5-starring Jordan on Expert in Guitar Hero II (which is harder than quantum physics). But every single person who has ever played an MMO will quickly realize that there are good tanks and bad tanks, good healers and bad healers. And what is that if not a reflection of some level of player skill?

Do I want to see more skill required in MMO play? Sure - it would be more fun. But if you try to tell me that there is no skill at all required you had better topple my imaginary status as a Top 5 CoV healer first.

New Beginnings

2006-12-28T14:53:00.000-05:00

As a new year approaches, visions of shiny new game companies dance in our heads, promising gaming experiences that will bring us joy and cheer. Let's have a look...

Green Monster Games

A belated grats to my mortal enemies Moorgard and Blackguard who have joined Curt Schilling's celebrity-studded new gaming company. They have a lot of exciting people on board and I don't just mean McFarlane and Salvatore.

Everything I've been able to glean from perusing various forums leads me to believe this company is headed in the right direction. If I had Schilling-esque money, I probably would have done something very similar.

I truly feel that Green Monster will put out a great product.

A brief side note on EQII: Did the team lose some great people? Sure. Am I worried? Nah. EoF seems pretty great so far and there are still plenty of excellent people on the EQII team. I think even the most ardent SOE hater would agree that Gallenite does a great job at the helm. So as long as he's still there, I'm not really worried.

Areae

Areae is showtime for Raph Koster. Cosmik does a great job collecting the relevant links over at n3rfed so head there for more info.

Areae will be a very exciting company to watch. I would bet that they actually do come up with some innovative concepts that change the MMO landscape. I also have a sneaking suspicion that they might be more financially successful then people initially assume.

Okay, so I've said enough nice things, right? I can make fun of them both now? Cool.

I'm pleased to announce the formation of my new game company: Aggro Monster Games. I've assembled my own dream team of superstar talent to take the MMO world by storm. Tremble in fear at this mighty celebrity-studded lineup:

CEO/Founder: Aggro

Community Relations Director: Pam from the Office

Lead Designers: The design team from Mourning

Chief Programmer: That dude who was Crash Overide (Zero Cool) in Hackers

Business/Investments Manager: Omarosa Manigault Stallworth

Diversity Co-ordinator: Michael "Kramer" Richards

Chat Interface: Ceciliantas

Public Relations/Driver: Lizzie Grubman

Youth Outreach: Julio Franco, NY Mets

Holiday Events: Tom Cruise

Character Clothing Design: Britney Spears

And much more to come!

But that's not all. Refusing to be content with the creation of one game company, I also present to you the brand new Aggrae Games. Here's a coy little interview I did with the NY Times on the new company:

Q: So, you're working on a game?

A: Heh. We like to think it's a little more than a "game."

Q: Um. It's something you can play, right?

A: Haha, typical response. Perhaps you're "playing" it right now.

Q: What? Am I?

A: Maybe. It's a little too complicated to get into at this point.

Q: Wow, it sounds really interesting.

A: Hmmm....interesting. I'd say invasive. But yet inviting. Invisive. Is that a word? Well it is now.

Q: Can you speak about any specific mechanics your game will use?

A: *Chuckles* Game mechanics are for the weak. As are programmers. We're talking about something so revolutionary that it topples the world order as we know it.

Q: I've heard you mention Web 2.0 in relation to your project. Can you speak more about that?

A: Feh. More like Web 4.0. We're going to really tap the neanderthal-like intelligence of the sheeple - I mean players. Second Life.

Q: What? Will the game be something like Second Life?

A: *Sigh* No, of course not. Why do people insist on saying that?

Q: Um, you just mentioned it.

A: Stay tuned for more.

Dofus' Holiday Cheer

2006-12-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

Dofus, I like you. Heck, I even posted a positive review once. So why do you leave threatening holiday messages in my email inbox?

Um, thanks for the cheery offer, Dofus. I'm not sure if Dofus wants to "ruin" me mentally, emotionally or physically but since I don't have far to go on any front, I think I'll pass.

Full version of the Dofus holiday promo (with promise of "great surcraprises") here.

Hasten Bootstrutter's True Travels in Norrath: Part III

2006-12-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

Zek

10th Day of Warmstill

Think there are enough orcs here? I sure do.

Maj’Dul

23rd Day of Warmstill

Hmm, how can I put this. I didn’t try to rob a market stall. I definitely didn’t try to arrange an appointment with a Maj’Dul Courtesan using the money I stole. And I certainly didn’t get zapped by some lunatic mage on a flying carpet claiming he was “keeping the peace.” Nope. That stuff didn’t happen. But I’m not welcome in Maj’Dul anymore. I hope it crashes or whatever.

Sinking Sands

3rd Day of Busheldown

They call these people Dervish Lunatics and Dervish Madmen. But every single one of them has a flask of water. I have two copper and an empty bottle of Jum Jum Juice. Who’s the crazy one?

Lavastorm

11th Day of Lastleaf

News flash: lava does not “burn off the shroud of failure that surrounds me.” It just burns.

Nektropos Castle

19th Day of Lastleaf

I was feeling lonely so I decided to check back in with Alexa. Maybe the “breakup” last time was really my fault.

Nektropos Castle

20th Day of Lastleaf

She tried to kill me again.

Everfrost

14th Day of Lastchill

When will I learn not to take stupid bets? 5 Gold to go skinny-dipping in the Fanged Sea. The bite from that giant shark might actually hurt if I could feel any of my extremities.

Qeynos – Baubleshire

13th Day of Deadening

Ah, home life. Honest work during the day and a good sleep at night. Yes, my wife came to her senses and took me back. Sure, she said it was only because her husband was killed by an Oakmyst Great Bear, but I like to think she realized her mistake. I’m finally content and able to find some peace in life.

Qeynos – Baubleshire

1st Day of Deepice

My wife made me promise I would never go traveling again and I agreed. But I never said I wouldn’t go exploring, hehe. I’ve been hearing rumors that Kelethin has been rediscovered…

Hasten Bootstrutter's True Travels in Norrath: Part II

2006-12-11T13:36:00.000-05:00

Enchanted Lands

23rd Day of Grayeven

When did the Halflings become so angry? I thought they were cheery, chubby folk? They think they’ve had troubles….

Rivervale

4th Day of Stargazing

Kegs upon kegs of Jum Jum Juice. Taverns and inns all around. But not one single public restroom. Sometimes I hate my life.

Splitpaw

11th Day of Weeping

There was a gnoll here who was telling a long story about some guy named Harclave. I slept through most of it but then the gnolls kicked me out. They said they didn’t trust me. I don’t blame them. By this point, I probably smell worse than a Mucus Zombie.

The Arena

13th Day of Weeping

Finally, a nice quiet place to sleep.

Freeport

20th Day of Blossoming

There’s an Ogre in Big Bend who makes the best Taquitos. I don’t want to know what the ingredients are but they are so tasty I just don’t care.

Tenebrous Tangle

11th Day of Oceansfull

Sure, I’m a brave traveler. But if you think I’m jumping off a really high waterfall from one floating island to another just to talk to some Frogloks, you’re crazy. I don’t plan on getting on any flying clouds either. Ever notice that most of the people who live here have wings? Take the hint.

Nektropos Castle

3rd Day of Scorchedsky

I met this fantastic woman today. She’s not only beautiful but she’s apparently from a wealthy family. Her name is Alexa Everling. She says I should meet her in the basement tonight for some “experiments!” Hehe, sounds saucy. Things are really starting to turn around for old Hasten!

Nektropos Castle

4th Day of Scorchedsky

Okay, Alexa tried to kill me and turn me into a zombie.

Stay tuned for the mildly thrilling conclusion...

Hasten Bootstrutter's True Travels in Norrath: Part I

2006-12-07T10:04:00.000-05:00

Hail adventurer! Allow me to introduce myself. Hasten Bootstrutter is the name, and traveling is my game.

You may know me from one of my delightful “field guides.” I’ve written one for almost every locale in Norrath, guiding you, my faithful reader, to points of interest and adventure! But my publisher tells me that today’s generation of adventurer prefers a travel account that’s a little more personal. Well, I aim to please. I've decided it would be fitting to start my latest journey from the place all journeys begin…home.

Qeynos - Baubleshire

13th Day of Deepice

Ah, home. They say it’s where the heart is and who am I to argue? Sure, my journeys are wonderful – filled with constant excitement, adventure and intrigue. But there’s nothing like returning back to hearth, home and the wife who loves you. I knocked on the door and I admit I was a little taken aback by how much my dear wife had aged. But, well, she’s a sweet woman and I do care for her. I’ve even been faithful to her all these years. Mostly.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Haha. Good one, good one.” I gave my best impish grin and a wink.

“Get out, whoever you are,” she replied pushing the door closed.

“It’s me, Hasten!” I shouted. She looked hard for a second and then put her face into her hands.
“Brell Serilis preserve us,” she muttered.

I started forward but she put her hand up.

“Listen, Hasten, I had you declared legally dead a long time ago. I’m married.”

“Of course, you’re married,” I laughed. “You’re married to that famed rogue of a traveling gnome – Hasten Bootstrutter!”

“Um, no. To someone else.”

“There must be a mistake-“

“It’s been fourteen years, you moron.”

“Did you at least wait a decade?”

“If a decade is three weeks then sure. Now get away before I call the guards.”

I need a drink. Or shall I say drinks.

Qeynos Harbor

14th Day of Deepice

I can’t remember much of what happened here. I was trying to celebrate Brew Day but everyone kept telling me that it wasn’t for months and to stop annoying them. I started fighting with everyone I could find to defend the honor of Brew Day. Well, except for that Nathan Ironforge kid. He kind of gave me this cold, evil look and, well, I just got freaked out.

Eventually the guards tossed me out of the city, none too gently I might add.

Antonica

15th Day of Deepice

I finished the last of my “Brew Day gifts” today, right about the same time some highwaymen stole my J-Boots. I screamed at them for three hours about how I invented J-Boots and then passed out in a river. When I woke up a Coldwind King Crab was pinching my neck. I could barely walk without my boots. To make matters worse that idiot Hwal Rucksif came strutting by and started laughing, “Where’s your fancy J-Boots now?” Then he pointed to his stupid Dwarven Work Boots and said, “These boots are made for walking!” I hate that guy. My feet are cold.

Thundering Steppes

2nd Day of Grayeven

Does anyone have a key to this gate? Sigh. It’s going to be a long night.

Stay tuned for Part II in a few days...

Believing in Gaming

2006-11-22T11:32:00.000-05:00

I'm not big on gaming magazines. I've probably only read a handful in the last year. But when I saw that the Believer was doing a Games Issue, I decided to pick it up.

The Believer is a magazine published by McSweeney's, a publishing house founded by Dave Eggers (Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). McSweeney's has published books by authors such as Jonathan Lethem, Nick Hornby and David Byrne. They also put out titles collectively like Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney's Book of Lists (review here). And then there are the magazines: McSweeney's Quarterly Concern (fiction/humor), Wholpin (on dvd) and the Believer (mostly non-fiction).

To get an idea of the McSweeney's "vibe" check out their website which has a good amount of free content. Whether you think it's overly whimsical and smug or clever and entertaining depends on your personal preference. I go both ways with it depending on my mood. But I do admit that the writing usually pops.

I really enjoyed the Believer's Game Issue because it's fun to read articles about games from writers who aren't really games journalists or bloggers. You can check out the table of contents here. Two of the games related pieces are even available for free online and you can check out the first page of every article.

My favorite article was Destory all Monsters by Paul La Farge. It's about D&D. The first section is a great summary of the game with a ton of fun and interesting footnotes. The second section relates the author's "mission" to interview Gary Gygax and play D&D with him. But throughout the article there's really a third story about the author's own past with D&D and his coming to terms with it. And it's that story which is the most compelling.

Here's a quote:

"It turned out that my agent's office was a block from the Compleat Strategist, the hobby shop where I used to buy my role-playing games. I wasn't eager to revisit that part of my life, which I thought of as a dangerous mire from which I had miraculously escaped, but I slunk into the store. Nothing had changed: nothing. The same pads of hex paper stood in the same racks by the door, their covers bleached by twenty years of sunlight. It was as if the place had been preserved as a museum to the heyday of tabletop role-playing games; it was if someone had set out to demonstrate that you could go home again. Maybe I wanted to come home; maybe I had never really left that mire; maybe I needed to own up to an old love-an old habit-in order to make my life whole."

Another from the game with Gygax as DM:

"And something strange is happening; Wayne and I are starting to play well. We climb a cliff by means of a magic carpet; we bargain with invisible creatures in an invisible lake. We steal eggs from the hippogriff's nest; we chase away giant crabs by threatening them with illusion of a giant, angry lobster."

All in all, it's a great piece.

I thought the worst article was Interactive Propaganda. I've read so many press pieces and pontifications about Kuma\War (50 out of 100 on Metacritic), but I've yet to talk to anyone who has actually played it. I just don't see the model becoming as much of a trend as people think.

The Oulipo article is fascinating, even if the connection to gaming is unclear. I'd never even heard the word Oulipo before reading it, but I did read A Void by Georges Perec when I was younger. A Void is a novel which does not contain the letter "e." At all. It really fascinated me at the time but I don't know if I'd feel the same way reading it now. Apparently it was part of Oulipo, a "movement" in which writers employ various constraints in their writing. The article, itself, features some of these constraints.

I suppose it's included because this type of writing is a game of sorts. But it also got me thinking - writers have Oulipo and filmmakers have Dogme 95. Will game designers ever join together and form a movement with constraints like: no bloom lighting, no health power-ups, no crates or barrels? It could be interesting. Sometimes working with constraints can actually unleash your creativity.

All in all, I enjoyed the issue and I really hope they do another one.

As a side note, I've installed EoF and hope to get some quality time with it next week. I'll report back.

A Look at the Echoes of Faydwer Beta

2006-11-06T09:59:00.000-05:00

by Anskiere

Ahh, Echoes of Faydwer. SOE’s latest EverQuest II expansion. Where to start?

Level 1 to 70!

This is our first expansion to not only include a new race, but also have content from levels 1 to 70 – let’s start with that. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the setup of this 1-70 expansion is that the zones aren’t in a linear progression like they have been so far. In Faydwer there is nothing like we saw in the original zones (City -> Antonica/Commonlands -> Thundering Steppes/Nektulos etc., etc.) Instead, you take a wrong turn with your Fae in Greater Faydark, and oops! You’re now in the Loping Plains, home of Castle Mistmoore and other nasties. I personally enjoy this kind of thing. I’m not sure if saying “It makes it seem more real” is what I mean by it, but it does at least give an interesting dynamic.

Capes!

Wait… capes? You thought they were cloaks right? So did I… until I saw them. They are, without a doubt… capes! Now my wizard can look like a SUPERHERO WIZARD! Just what I always wanted, really. Oh well, like the look or not, here they are. And they do give something to guilds – the ability to have something completely (well, for your server at least) unique for the characters in the guild. And with that, the stats on the common tailor made ones are nothing exciting... seriously. I believe people will mostly get those just to own a cloak. The rare versions (made with the appropriate rare root for that tier) are a little better. Then there are of course quested and dropped capes, too. Once you do all the quests for your deity, you receive a cape… which brings me to the next subject!

Oh My Gods!

The deity system in place is pretty good. I don’t really have any major qualms about it, nor is it –really- that exciting. Let me explain. You start off doing quests for your deity, and after the first you receive and alter to pray at (that you place in your home). At the alter you sacrifice items to gain favor with your deity. You then use the favor to “buy” blessings and miracles from your deity. You unlock the blessings and miracles by going through the quest line. Now blessings, overall, are 10 minute duration, one hour recast skills that either do something like summon a pet to help you, or augment you skills (in the case of Solusek Ro, there are blessings that made heat based spells harder to resist, adds a heat proc to hostile spells, increases damage of heat based spells, etc.). Miracles, on the other hand, are either instant (damage or something of the like) or one minute duration, one hour recast. They give greater buffs than the blessings, but of course… only last a minute at best. In the case of Solusek Ro again, there is one blessing that reduces reuse timers, casting timers, and power cost of all heat based spells by 50% for the duration. Another that will inflict 16601 heat damage on a target that is below 50% HP.

So, while they can seem awesome, you always have to keep in mind that they -are- on one hour recast timers. Oh, and you can only have one blessing and one miracle “bought” at any one time (if you try to get another, it will tell you that you will be losing your current blessing/miracle). And there is one more thing, too… you can only use a blessing/miracle twice before you have to go back to your alter and buy it again. Also, as just a note, the blessing/miracle isn’t available right after you buy it – you have to wait for it to refresh before you can use it (so an hour wait from when you purchase to when you can use it the first time).

Now TLing to Antonica, Commonlands, and GFay for donations!

That’s right, ports are back! Being a wizard, I can obviously touch base on those more than the druid stuff, but I try my best. Wizards (well, sorcerers, so warlocks too) will now have access to both group portals and single-target translocates to the Antonica spires, the Commonlands spires, and the spires in Greater Faydark. This involves a little quest, but it is easy and not time consuming. Druids also get ports, though I am not sure of the specifics. One thing I did gather, however, is that apparently not only do the druids have to have the spells from their little quest to get them, but the people who want to be ported by them apparently have to have visited the location and gotten an item. Upside is I’m pretty sure druids can port to more places. Or that could just be the rumors I heard, and it could work completely different. Oh well, it’s still good to be a wizard.

Nostalgia

For anyone who played EverQuest 1 (well, okay, to anyone who actually played when Faydwer was big[and people actually played there], before all those fancy expansions…), Echoes of Faydwer really gives you that nice kick of nostalgia. There are enough things that are new so that everyone isn’t saying “yeah, saw it all in EQ1 whoopy”, and enough things that are old that have people saying “Wow, I remember this in EQ1…”

My favorite part would have to be the first time I ran across the spires in GFay. I was following a path, rounded a corner with some weird, seemingly out of place stone, and then the music hit as I came around the corner, looked up… and just said, “wow…”. It’s no wimpy Ulteran spire, no… it is a spire from the Combine Empire, one of the originals.

New Tunaria is also nostalgic, for any who had a High Elf in the early days. But something is not quite right there…

Holy Horses Batman!

Wow. The horses got an overhaul. New looks, new animations. Yes, now your horse doesn’t just run in mid-air while it is jumping. It actually –jumps-! And remember how silly it looked when you were standing still on your horse and jumped? Now a thing of the past! When standing in place on a horse and jumping, the horse will now rear up instead. A lovely addition… and a long time coming.

Secondary Tradeskilling

Admittedly, I didn’t really touch much on tinkering and transmuting while I was playing, so I can’t really talk about any mechanics of them. What I can say, however, is that what I saw was wonderful!

Tinkered items range from things that let you breathe underwater, to hover mounts, to… a portable mender! Goodbye repair kits, hello mender in my pocket!

Transmuting is another beast. You have to transmute items to get the consumables to make adornments for armor. Sound confusing? It really isn’t. You transmute say… some master I spell and get an infusion. You transmute an adept and get some other thing… you get the picture. Then you make adornments that you can place on armor. Each kind of adornment can only go in one slot (for example, it will say in the description that this adornment can only be placed on an item that does in an earring slot). Adornments range from +stats/resists to +haste to %damage reduction on fall damage, and all the in betweens.

And, in closing…

I realize that I didn’t talk much about the actual zones or anything involved in EoF. Honestly, I would really love to leave that up to the people to explore and discover. My intention here was to only give an overview of what to expect with the new expansion. I am sure other places are out there that have more details on zones, mobs, etc. if you want them. Hopefully everyone will enjoy this expansion as much as I have enjoyed testing it out!

Defcon

2006-10-12T15:09:00.000-04:00

When I was young, my greatest dream in life was to be the nerd from Wargames. To be a l33t haxxor, date Ally Sheedy and save the world from nuclear destruction in the process - what more could anyone want?

But as you grow up, your interests change. Sure, my hacking skills are legendary. But Ally and I had a messy breakup. And now, instead of saving the world, I kind of want to nuke it.

Enter Defcon. I don't want to gush but - instant classic. The graphics are simple but perfect. The soundtrack is truly incredible, replete with haunting coughs. But it's the gameplay that really shines. Like many terrific games, the basic gameplay is easy to pick up and understand. But it has a ton of depth and seems like it could take a long time to truly master. Here's a list of the units you have at your disposal:

Radar Installation – Without these you’ll never know what your enemies (and “friends”) are up to.
Silos – The big guns. Crucially important for defense as well as offense.
Airfields – Scramble fighter jets to scout and defend. Launch some bombers with a deadly payload.
Battleships – Clear the oceans with these deadly ships.
Carriers – Launch bombers and fighters from the seas.
Submarines – Sneak right up to the enemy’s coast and then open up a can of nuclear destruction on them.

Instead of boring you by trying to explain the diplomatic possibilities, I'll just show you this terrific video made by our own Anskiere (who meant diplomacy and not democracy but is too busy nuking people to change it).

Every game is filled with difficult decisions, shaky alliances, nervous lulls and intense excitement. It's an incredible product and for only $15 US on Steam, how can you go wrong? Check out the demo first if you're not convinced.

My only caveat would be to say that this is not meant to be a single player game, although you can play against the AI. It truly shines when you're playing actual human opponents.

Defcon is brought to you by Introversion, which has already scored with such indie classics as Darwinia and Uplink.

PoxNora

2006-10-07T17:06:00.000-04:00

Television bores me. Instead I spend obsessive hours scouring the internet for entertainment. Most times you find nothing of interest, sometimes you find amusing games to pass the time (see Motocross), but at other times you stumble upon one of those rare gems. My most recent find is Octipi's PoxNora. PoxNora is a turn-based strategy game based on playing cards. It resembles a Magic: The Gathering and a Heroes of Might & Magic hybrid. The game is java based and a very quick download. Players may play for free with a few full sets of pre-set, faction-based "Battlegroups".

Players take turns moving various units around the terrain on the game board. Cards are played in turn to spawn units, relics, spells and equipment. Each unit has its strengths and weakness such as movement speed, attack, defense, and special abilities. Essentially the game is like a fantasy-lover's dream chessboard.

If the game interests you after playing through a few of the demo decks, players have the option to purchase various size decks to construct there own battle groups. Purchase decks will have a mix of common, uncommon, rare and the ever-elusive exotic cards. The hand drawn artwork for the cards is breath-taking and is half of the coolness factor of PoxNora. A player can essentially get started with $10.00 (US). Once a player gets a bit established they can start playing rank games, level-up their cards, trade and bid with other players for cards, and enter online tournaments. There is an upcoming tournament with $10,000.00 in cash prizes. So if find yourself looking for something new, I would definitely recommend this title.

-Bandit

Aggro Note: Like potato chips dipped in luscious chocolate, sometimes two very different flavors taste so good together. Pox Nora is delicious. The card battle elements work very well with the SRPG portion (think Shining Force or FF Tactics). What I love about it is that a person with an excellent deck can sometimes defeat a person with superior strategy on the battlefield. And a tactical genius can sometimes defeat a player who has a more skillfully constructed deck.

Then for good measure PoxNora throws in the persistent MMO-lite element of being able to gain xp which can add abilities to your cards. Note that this doesn't necessarily make your deck stronger because it increases the casting cost of those cards. So don't feel you're at a disadvantage to established players. More xp really just gives you more options, not an automatically better deck.

While the card artwork is fantastic, sometimes the battlefield can get very cluttered and it can be hard to tell which piece is yours. It would be nice if this was made more apparent.

The sample decks are strong so don't feel you have to purchase the game to enjoy it.

I believe SOE's Pirates game will have similar elements of deck-building and tactical strategy so I'll be keeping an eye on that as well.

Discordi

2006-10-02T09:30:00.000-04:00

Discordi is a free-to-download remake of an old multiplayer online game that went by the name of "What's The Big Idea", which was later renamed to "Cosmic Consensus". The gang over at Blue Box Network have done a great job of recreating the game under the new name Discordi.

The game is simple to play; you answer questions. There are 3 types of questions that get asked, multiple choice, fill in the blank, and creating lists of 3 items. All players currently in the game answer the question simultaneously and must do so before the timer expires. The game as a whole feels like a mashup between You Don't Know Jack and Family Feud.

The goal to each question/answer period is to try and pick the answer that the majority of the players will choose.

For example, if the question was "Who is the most annoying Star Wars character?" you might have to choose between "Jar-jar Binks", "Wicket", and "Young Anakin".

If you select "Jar-Jar" along with the majority of the players, then you move your way up the ziggurat 1 or more steps at a time. The overall end-goal is to accumulate the most IQ points before someone ascends to the heavens. Whoever has the most accumulated IQ points by the time someone ascends wins the game.

The game's "board" is of the form of a Ziggurat. Each layer/step of the ziggurat has a property that either may or may not benefit you when you land on it. Most steps either add or subtract IQ points for landing on it, but other steps make you miss a turn, zap you back to the bottom step of the ziggurat, or even allow you to skip some steps.

They also mix things up by having random Storm-events occur that can knock you down a few steps, result you losing IQ points, or both! Luckily you can spend some of your hard-earned IQ points to buy insurance to protect you against the incoming Storm.

To make the game more interesting than answering a questionnaire, the questions are usually zany and offbeat enough to make you chuckle at the possible answers. The developer was smart enough to allow players to submit their own questions to be added to the game... but I am awaiting feedback on this because it appears to be unavailable at the moment. Once they get this working again, I think it is a great way to keep the game fresh and current.

The game still has a round of advertisements each round... but before you throw your arms up in the air in disgust, let me tell you that some of these commercials are downright hilarious, if not disturbing. Some of us were eagerly waiting to see some commercials a second time because they were so disturbing and weird the first time that you wanted to see it again. I have to say that I thought this was a genius to make commercials in your game 'fit' - they had the same zany attitude the game presents you with, and they don't last more than a dozen or so seconds.

Sadly the game is currently suffering from lack of popularity these days. Back in the day the game was crazy-popular. There were always several games taking place, and most of these were usually near-full 24/7. When I first downloaded the game I was disappointed to see that there were no players at all currently playing. I had to resort to finding people I knew to play with... which still turned out to be a really good time. There were 9 of us playing at one point, however I can remember the days when there would be 20+ players in a single game.

I have a feeling that the game would be much more popular if it were remade in Java and hosted by a site that would give the game more exposure- right now its not only hard to find the game (unless you are looking for it, as I was). This simple, entertaining little game has such great potential I would hate to see not get played. If you are interested let me know and we can try to organize a game sometime in the near future.

Aggro note: Discordi was fun to play and a nice way to take a little break from MMO'ing while still participating in group activity with online friends. However, it might not have been fun if I wasn't on Vent with a group of people because: A. You need a good amount of people to play and B. There's no in-game chat interface. So if I just ran across the game on my own, I'd be unable to play at all until there were enough players. And then I couldn't talk to the other players when they were there, which really cuts back on the sense of community. I'm guessing there's no in-game chat feature to prevent collusion, but who would really take it that seriously?

EQII: Tip of the Cap

2006-09-29T11:14:00.000-04:00

Back in April, I wrote this post on mage skills in EQII. At the time, I said it was an introduction to a post I intended to write concerning the "relative triviality of gear improvement for int-capped max-level mages." I never did write that post. And now I don't have to.

But to briefly summarize my original concern: A big part of an item-centric game like EQII is the thrill of getting new gear. In fact, when you're at max-level and have all your Achievement's, that's pretty much your sole motivation (besides the social aspect). And it's always cool to try on new gear and see how it looks. But as a wizard, I could never get too excited about some super awesome item drop on a raid. Because no matter how good the numbers on the item were, I was already at the cap and it wouldn't really affect my gameplay. I wasn't hitting mobs any harder and my contribution on raids was pretty much exactly the same. Taking away that motivation for gear made the game as a whole less exciting. Obviously, other classes had similar issues. I was giving you an example for the class I'm familiar with.

Because I felt that way, I was pretty excited to see those concerns being addressed by a variety of changes to the way caps work. Gallenite explains things better than I did and there's definitely more to it then I've discussed so go read it yourself.

As always, I have to see how things work in their final version. And this change will really only affect a small segment of the population. But for those it does affect, I think it is an important and positive step in the right direction.

Field Trip: Nintendo World Store

2006-09-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

I heard yesterday that the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center was taking preorders for the Wii. However, I was kind of busy and I didn't feel like waiting on line. But today I figured I'd head on over on my lunch hour and check it out, since I've never been to the Nintendo World Store before. Thus began an exciting journey:

I had to walk, like, almost 10 blocks. When are they going to implement those people moving tubes like in Futurama?

Someone set up this giant mirror at Rockefeller Center. They claim it's art. It spoke to me of the morality of all living things and thus the fleeting nature of console preorders.

I hear that sometimes a rare tree node pops here but it's on a long timer and I wasn't prepared for a camp so I moved on.

Ultimate victory! I have reached the Nintendo World Store. The website says it's at 10 Rockefeller Plaza (and it is) but more helpful directions are 48th Street between Fifth and Sixth.

The Nintendo World Store can be a relaxing place to play Gamecube games in an odd chair.

They had a lot of clothing for sale. Some of it was OMG super exclusive t-shirts that Miyamoto glanced at once while playing the banjo or something.

Pretty much half the store is dedicated to Pokemon. I sat down at a table in the Pokemon Center and looked around menacingly but no one dared to challenge me to a Pokemon battle.

There's kind of a mini-museum set up on the second floor. They had a bunch of old games systems there and R.O.B. the Robot behind plexiglass. They also had these breathtaking cards. The sign said they were called Hanafuda cards and that Nintendo started off as a company which produced handmade Hanafuda cards.

In another display case was this Gameboy that was damaged in the Gulf War but still worked.

There was a ton of other stuff I didn't take pictures of like the DS circle and the GBA bar but you can see those on the website. I also didn't take any pictures of the Mario/Peach display because every time I see Peach now I think of this creepy webcomic. Thanks, internet!

I eventually asked one of the employees if they were taking Wii preorders.

"We were but we stopped yesterday."
"Wow, it would have been cool if I were here yesterday."
"Yeah. They were going a lot faster than we expected so we put a stop to it until we get official numbers from Nintendo on how many systems we're getting."
"Do you think you'll do more preorders?"
"Definitely. We're going to get way more systems than any other store in the country. We just don't know exactly how many yet."
"How many did you sell yesterday?"
"A few hundred."
"Thanks. Hack the planet!"
"Have a nice day."

In conclusion:

Wii Preorders Successfully Placed by Me: Zero

Nintendo World Store: It's a nice store with every Nintendo item or accessory you can think of. The employees are pleasant and really into Nintendo. However, I imagine the store gets insanely crowded and unpleasant around the holiday season due to its close vicinity to Rockefeller Center.

Things to Remember: Pikachu hates you. With every fiber of his little yellow being. You know he does. Just look at him...

Art & Music

2006-09-17T10:53:00.000-04:00

Sometimes at the start of the work week you need a little relaxation. So why not check out some art or listen to some tunes?

Via EQ2-Daily, I saw that SOE now has a fan art gallery for EQ, EQOA, EQII and Planetside. I always like to see the creative pieces players come up with and it's nice to have them all organized in one place for easy viewing. It's also fun to see how artistic styles vary from game to game. So go ahead and submit some of your own masterpieces.

I also recently noticed that NCSoft has the entire soundtrack of Auto Assault available for free download. I'm not sure if that will net subscribers but it's an interesting idea.

Backgammon

2006-09-13T20:55:00.000-04:00

I realize this post might not interest more than a handful of people. But I've been testing out a variety of backgammon software for the past few months, so you're going to hear about it whether you like it or not.

I started by heading over to Download.com and trying various demos. Most of them had more than adequate graphics and sound and a decent interface. But, in the end, I didn't find the computer to be a particularly strong opponent in any of those programs. It's fun to play a quick game and win a decent amount. But sometimes I want to focus on really improving my game by playing a world class level opponent. Even if that means losing the majority of the time.

So I checked out Jellyfish and Snowie, two famed neural net backgammon programs. But I ran into a hurdle there quite quickly. The full version of Snowie costs $380 and JellyFish is $220. Wow. No way I'm spending that kind of money.

But a little research uncovered an option that's quite a bit cheaper. And by cheaper I mean free. I'm referring to GNU Backgammon. It's open source and available for Windows, Linux and Mac. From what I can gather, Gnu Backgammon is just as good in terms of pure backgammon strength as any program out there, including the more expensive options mentioned above.

I don't care much for the graphics or sound effects. And the options, while copious, are confusing and not user friendly. But Gnu plays a great game. And you can learn a lot by clicking the hint button, which shows you a chart of your possible moves in recommended order. Make sure you set the evaluation options to look ahead two plies.

Gnu Backgammon is not a polished, commercial piece of software. But it's a beautiful thing.

I am not a Number, I am a Free Man!

2006-09-13T20:51:00.000-04:00

I was pursuing my usual pastime of refreshing the PrisonServer webpage over and over when I received the following message:

"Want your voice to be put in the PrisonServer game when it starts?"

Um, only more than anything I've ever wanted in my life.

"Just send us a creative voice clip of the Prison warden welcoming the fishy. You can do it with friends, alone, or come up with any ingenious idea you may have (what about a dialogue between a newcomer and the warden?)"

Ingenious! Check out the contest page for more details as well as an audio sample in Spanish with a hilarious translation.

The launch date for the game is September 21st. I think every other MMO should just give up and cease operations on that date. Why fight the inevitable?

Sign up before then if you want a free month of what will hopefully be hilarity. Plan your character class here but be warned that the "Corrupt Politician" is purportedly tough to level.

Links

2006-09-08T18:49:00.000-04:00

I messed around with my links list a bit because I use it myself. I removed some dead links and added a few new ones. If I accidentally deleted your link or you decide to start posting again just shoot me an e-mail. Or, if you have a blog that's not on the list and should be, let me know.

I had the links organized into a bunch of different categories but I ended up not liking that idea. There might still be some loose thematic grouping but there's no rational system to the order behind that. I did leave Plaguelands and n3rfed on the list even though they haven't posted in a while because they're great bloggers and I refuse to accept they're not posting any more.

EQII: Live Update 27

2006-09-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

This post will probably be even less informed than usual because I haven't played EQII in a while. That has zero to do with EQII. I just needed a change of pace after well over a year of solid play. I will definitely be back in Norrath though and I still follow the news and forums pretty closely.

Because I like to be difficult, I'm refusing to start calling the Live Updates "Game Updates" now, even though SOE is.

Before we get into LU27 itself, it's worth noting that SOE recently implemented several anti-gold-spammer measures. There's more I'd like to say about that whole phenomenon but it's beyond the scope of the current post. For now, I'll just point out that these measures were direly needed and I hope they have some degree of success. I'm sure SOE is constantly pursuing other lines of attack against this problem because they know how detrimental it is to players' enjoyment.

As for LU27:

Tradeskill Work Orders

I really like the idea of timed work orders. There's nothing wrong with a little action and excitement while tradeskilling. I saw some complaints about not being able to finish orders on time. But if everyone could always finish all of the time, what would be the point? You need a little drama. I'd want the average success rate to be something like 80%. And it's better to start off on the hard side and make things easier if necessary. Taking the reverse route just doesn't go over well.

Raid XP Increase

I actually like this idea. From 60-68 my leveling speed was something like a level every 3-5 days. But from 68-70 it was one level per month. Why? All of my play time was spent raiding with friends who were already at 70. It would have been nice to have gotten just a few percent xp for each raid. I'm sure my guildmates wouldn't have minded me eventually leveling either.

I might be the only one who had that problem. But since I did, I'm certainly not going to complain about this change (as long as the xp increase is not too big). And I'm guessing most raiders are usually max level anyway, so I'm not sure what the big deal is. I see people on the forums coming up with exploit scenarios but hopefully SOE thought those through already.

Gods Returning

The buildup for the Gods returning to Norrath continues. I don't know the specifics of the quest/event this Update adds, but it definitely sounds like something cool to do.

Profession Hats

I happen to think they look excellent. Plus, I believe you can still keep the "shared" version if you want. Discussion in this thread along with some really funny parody pics.

On the negative side, it's been a while since KoS launched. If I had to point to the number one flaw in EQII it's the lack of armor model variety and the time it takes to add new armor pieces.

Player vs. Player

There are some tweaks there but I believe SOE needs to add some actual PvP content, preferably soon, if they want EQII PvP to be viable.

You can read about the changes I haven't mentioned here.

While you're checking out the forums you might want to stop by this thread entitled "Unforgettable Comments" for a laugh. There are definitely some clunkers in there but there's also some great comedy. The thread also contained a link to this Canonical List of Famous Last Words in Roleplaying. I'd never seen that before and I thought it was pretty amusing.

Speaking of the forums, I noticed the transition for the official forums was indefinitely postponed. I have no idea if this transition will make the forums better, worse, or the same. But I will say this: I've visited the official forums for practically every existing or upcoming MMO. And the EQII ones are easily the best (and that includes the forums for other SOE games). I'm not sure if it's the graphical look, organization, moderation or the posters themselves. It's probably a combination of all those factors. If you disagree, just tell me which official forum you prefer and I'll take another look at it.

Finally, while I'm on the EQII subject, Anskiere recently notified me that Richie Truxillo has some remastered versions of old songs out. I know I linked his site before, but it was over a year ago. I just listened to a bunch of his tunes today and I'm still a big fan. "If I Had a Billion Platinum" is my personal favorite.

Nerdy New York

2006-09-05T00:04:00.000-04:00

Time Out New York magazine recently compiled a list of nerdy things to do in my home town, entitled "New Dork City." Options range from music (an 8-bit music festival, nerdcore rap) to gaming (lightsaber battles, live Pac-Man, playing kickball against people in pirate outfits) to the simply out there (monster wrestling, electrical art, the bizarre but cool sounding Madagascar Institute).

The nice thing is that the article is available online for the moment and it has links to most of the events and groups discussed. So check it out if you're planning a trip to New York and feeling nerdy.

Do Not Pass Go...

2006-08-30T20:22:00.000-04:00

I recently got the following e-mail, which I will copy/paste verbatim:

Hello, This is Serving Online Words, a company from Spain, Madrid (english Website: http://www.sowsl.com/en)

We are pleased to announce the pre-launch website of PrisonServer: The Online Prison. An online, persistent and multiplayer RPG game made in Spain that is about to open its localized English PrisonServers. The game is already running since 2003 in Spanish language, receiving updates andpatches since then, while building a groovy Spanish community.

The URL is http://www.prisonserver.co.uk (where you can find a little bit more about the game).Our main entrance is http://www.prisonserver.com (from there you select your language, and you can see our full, Spanish site in action).

Pleasenote that the Spanish and English server are completely set apart systems, game accounts, etc. We'll allow English only on prisonserver.co.uk.We invite you to watch the game in action on video or screenshots, then apply for a free account and pre-download the game client to be ready to start once we launch the International, English Servers!

Get ready for amazing social fun on a different, Spanish-from game, now available for all players worldwide in English.We'll be releasing further news in the coming days.

If you want tocontact us, please do it emailing support@prisonserver.com Regards!

--PrisonServer: The Online Prison http://www.PrisonServer.co.uk
English corporate Website: http://www.sowsl.com/en

I get an insane amount of spam so at first I thought this was some kind of new, bizarre e-mail scam. But I decided to visit the website anyway. And this is apparently an actual online multiplayer game. About prison. In which you play a prisoner.

Be sure to check out the screenshots for true hilarity.

I'm not going sit here and make too much fun of this game because I like their carefree attitude:

"Thank you for all your comments and curiosity. The PrisonServer Team is really enjoying all the speech the game is generating, even the 'it looks so bad' ones. We're used to that, but we also know there are people that will love PrisonServer, just like others will hate it, because is just a different online game community approach. It's not a Prison Simulator, it is supposedly to be fun without hi-tech eye-candy. "

Supposedly.

Ah, who am I kidding...downloading now.

Choice

2006-08-30T20:20:00.000-04:00

If you asked me a few weeks ago whether adding more races, classes or other options to an MMO was desirable, I would have quickly said yes. That's not surprising. I'm sure most people would agree.

But I recently came across some research entitled "When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing" by Sheena S. Iyengar of Columbia and Mark R. Lepper of Stanford. You can read it yourself but I'll try to summarize quickly:

Study 1

Researchers set up a table at a supermarket offering a free sample of jam. They alternated before a choice of 24 jams and 6 jams. While more people stopped to sample when there were 24 jams, significantly less actually purchased jam (3%) then when there were 6 jams (30%).

Study 2

Students were given an opportunity to complete an assignment for extra-credit. Some students were given a list of 30 assignments to choose from. Others were given a list of 6. Of those given the shorter list, 74% chose to complete the assignment, as opposed to only 60% of those given the longer list. What's more, students given the smaller choice of assignments received higher grades than those given the larger choice of assignments.

Study 3

Participants were given a selection of chocolates which were labeled as to their contents (i.e. Strawberry Cordial). One group was given a choice of 6, another group was given a choice of 30 and a final group was given no choice at all. After the study they were given a choice of being paid for their time in either money or an equivalent amount of chocolates.

Participants in the high selection group did report enjoying the act of choosing a chocolate more than those in the low selection group. However, when it came time to choose money or sweet, delicious chocolate as payment:

Of those given a choice of 30, the chocolates were chosen by 12%.
Of those given no choice, the chocolates were chosen by 10%.
Of those given a choice of 6, the chocolates were chosen by 48%.

Remember, I was simplifying these three studies tremendously (though I think I made the general point) so if you want to critique the methodology used, you better read the whole thing. But I thought it raised some interesting questions.

Are gamers similarly overwhelmed by too many choices? Would they have more fun and subscribe longer if their choices were actually limited in some fashion?

It would be really hard to tell. If you had trials for two games, one with 6 classes and one with 30 classes, the above study would tell me that more people would actually purchase the game with 6 classes. But in real life, there would be so many thousands of differences between two games that it would be impossible to isolate that particular variable as the determining factor.

I wonder if "alt-itis" plays into this choice phenomenon. Do people who have tons of alts tend to subscribe to an MMO for a longer or shorter period than people who play one character only? I don't know, but I've always been curious. If you have data, drop me a line.

I'm honestly pretty dubious of my own point in this post but I'm throwing it out there anyway in the hopes that someone will argue against it.

Fun With Subtitles

2006-08-22T20:42:00.000-04:00

I ran across this great website called BombayTV that allows you to subtitle short movie clips. I decided to have some fun with it and these are the results:

Movie 1

Movie 2

Movie 3

Movie 4

Movie 5

Movie 6

Movie 7

Movie 8

Movie 9

If you're making your own, be aware that they seem to shuffle the available clips every day. There is also a more complex version here, but I found the simple one more fun to use.

A Tale of Two Demos

2006-08-17T12:54:00.000-04:00

I played two demos recently that I thought were worth mentioning. Prey is a first person shooter with some gimmicks (portals, gravity shifts, a novel death mechanic). Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is a first person action game with a fantasy setting that uses the Source engine.

You can download the Prey demo directly from the official site, which is convenient. And for the relatively small 448 MB you get a really lengthy play experience and a great sense of the story and gameplay. I doubt anyone would play the demo more than once or twice though.

The demo for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is available on FileFront here. It's an insane 1.38 GB for a very short demo. It's not only short, it cuts you off before the "payoff" of one level. But it is quite replayable.

That's basically all you have to read in this post. I think both demos are worth checking out. Dark Messiah is obviously more of a download committment so you might want to look into that one a bit more. The rest of this post contains ramblings and some major spoilers so feel free to skip it.

Prey

Positives

The great thing about Prey is that the demo tells a compelling story. What's more, it is capable of creating emotion in the player. Seriously, don't read the following spoilers until you play it.

Amazing moment: You're on the alien ship and humans are being brutally tortured (and I mean brutally). You come to a console and notice that it's clickable. So you click it. When you do a torture machine comes to life and the person who was hanging there is brutally murdered. The main character says something like "Oh my god, what have I done."

I find this hard to believe myself but I caught myself quitting and restoring to an earlier save point. How crazy is that? I'm a somewhat rational person...yet I instinctively restored based on an occurrence that had nothing to do with gameplay. That's bringing emotion into games. It's also quite funny in a twisted way. Games often encourage us to open every box and press every button. But if you do that in real life, you're going to get yourself in serious trouble.

A second emotional point in the demo was its ending. You discover that the bar you were at in the beginning of the game has been taken whole by the alien ship, complete with working jukebox. But everything is twisted, literally. The entire bar is sideways, covered with alien tendrils and the drunken rednecks have been replaced with gun-toting aliens. By bringing that familiar spot into unfamiliar surroundings and bringing the story full circle, the demo provokes an emotional response. It's a perfect ending to the neat short story of the demo.

Negatives

Prey's gimmicks (portals and gravity changes) are stale by the time the demo is over. And Abalieno's criticism of the combat happens to be spot on.

There is also a really weak story point for a demo which tells such a good story. The main character does not like living on the Native American reservation, does not appreciate his heritage and does not believe in any mystical Native American Magic. This is made wonderfully clear through the beginning of the game. It really defines his character and his relationship with his girlfriend. But once in the spirit world, he goes from total non-believer to complete Master of Native American Magic simply by being yelled at and told to press "E" to spirit walk. It's an overly quick and awkwardly scripted shift in character that felt completely out of place. But that may be partially a testament to how enjoyable the rest of the story was.

Dark Messiah

Positives

The key to Dark Messiah is that combat is fun. How shall I kill an Orc (or whatever the enemies are called)? Let me count the ways:

Attack him with a sword
Use a power attack with the sword
Build up adrenaline and do a crazy fatal attack
Use some other weapon
Attack him with magic fireballs
Freeze him with magic and then attack him
Shoot him with an arrow
Light an arrow on fire and then shoot him with it
Sneak up behind him and stab him with daggers
Kick him off a ledge
Kick him into spikes
Knock out a plank which brings down a ton of barrels and crushes him
Kick him into said plank and bring down the barrels
Pick up a barrel and throw it into him knocking him off a cliff
Pick up a flaming box and throw it at him catching him on fire

I'm sure I'm missing a ton and that's just the demo. It's the physics that really make the combat so enjoyable. Think of the fun with physics from Half-Life 2 and apply them to a fantasy universe. The melee combat is not as solid as Mount and Blade but it is still quite good. I don't know how good the whole skill-tree is but I was able to focus on melee, magic or stealth by making different choices. And that did change my gameplay style.

Negatives

The story was completely generic and the voice acting and dialogue was lame. The game seemed somewhat unpolished. Kicking enemies is way overpowered, though it is incredibly fun. Also, I'm down on the whole Might and Magic universe after the tragedy that was HoMM V. But that's hardly this game's fault.

Metal Wolf Chaos

2006-08-16T14:00:00.000-04:00

I've never played or heard of this X-Box game before but wow:

Okay, it starts off with the usual evil rebels taking control of the country. Yawn. But when the President of the United States jumps out of the White House in a giant battlemech, shouting "Let's Party!" things really heat up.

Having the Vice President as the villain (also piloting a giant robot) is just genius. Especially when he has lines like, "Nothing like sipping some delicious Darjeeling tea...and watching you getting your clock cleaned."

The President has some good lines too, like "Nothing is pointless and the reason is because I'm the President of the great United States of America! Jodi, I'm gonna step on into outer space."

Um, okay.