Creativity can be deadly I realized today that I have no clue whatsoever what the term “MMO” means anymore. I gave it some thought and came up with “An MMO is an online, real-time game where other people affect can your game.” That’s pretty vague. Clearly there are games which call themselves MMOs and can be played as if they were MMOs, or as if they were solo RPGs. I don’t know. I just know the old definitions don’t work. ...
It's Dwaggin Season I got this mysterious e-mail the other day, it was simply a list of tasks to perform… log on to Lord of the Rings. Find skirmish camp outside Bree gates. talk to people there and get set up with a soldier and do the intro skirmish run. Press Control+J to get the skirmish panel. Select the Siege of Gondamon Skirmish. Second boss to the end is a dragon. ...
We’re way behind on our latest project at work, so I’ spent most of Friday working. I did take a break, though, to log on and participate in the final Beta 3 invasion event this afternoon. I’d spent all night (until 4:30AM) leveling my cleric from 12 to 20, and though I didn’t get a chance to visit the Iron Tombs, I did want to help keep Freemarch free. I’d leveled from 16 to 18 in a raid group at one of Thursday’s invasions. That also earned me nearly enough planar currency to get some nice epic items. I logged on, joined in, and earned enough to get some “purple” leggings. Good stuff. ...
It was a 7.1 gig patch, but I did managed to get into Flying Lab’s Pirates of the Burning Sea last night, and spent a little more time with it tonight. Just went through the tutorial, did some of the Yuletide quests, joined a “society” (guild) named La Fédération, and wandered around the starting town. Veteran players were being helpful over the nationwide chat and the server was hopping. One server for North America, one for the EU, and a test server. I haven’t played PotBS for a couple of years, but I was very much impressed by their improvements to the land game. The NPCs sing, dance, and make the town very much a lively place to stroll – see the video at the end. ...
World of Warcraft’s forthcoming Cataclysm expansion (1 week away!!!!) is still setting fire to the blogroll today. Hey, if all a MMO has to do these days to generate some buzz is destroy the world, well, I have a couple candidates who could use some devastation. I logged on to Vanguard yesterday evening to check on how my characters had fared in the big colossal server merge last July, and was shocked to find that whenever it was I last logged into the game, there had been no patches since. For a game that has had zero developer support in eleven months, the community there still seems vibrant and positive. You just can’t kill a good community. ...
Lord of the Rings Online launched as a free-to-play game today. No, wait. The gates that had been shut beyond the memory of Man groaned open on hinges made of dwarven stone, mithril-inlaid runes pulsing a message nobody living could read…. BE FREE…. No, no, no. In Evendim, did Lysistra, a Capitan of Men, foresee A day of future memory when Eriador would be free ...
Dungeons & Dragons Online started fairly strong for a new MMO, peaked early and fell into obscurity. People complained, loudly, that for a game built on the Guild Wars model (multiplayer hubs leading to solo/instanced content), they charged a bit much. Guild Wars, its inevitable competition, was after all free to play once you bought the box. Guild Wars also offered single player party play, a fairly unique combat mechanic and a strong RPG plot to take players through the story. ...
Oh, this isn’t a real post. Just was so happy to finally get a horse in Lord of the Rings Online. I don’t subscribe to LotRO, but each time Turbine offers a free play weekend – or week, in this case – I log in and see if I can make enough to get a horse. I was going to be riding last night. I WANTED the Spring Festival horse, but after doing a couple of the “spring leaf” events, I got bored and gave up on that project. I’d settle for the regular mount, if I could afford it. ...
What wonders does the in box of mystery hold for us today? Cryptic announces veteran rewards for players who keep an active subscription to Star Trek Online. Saith Cryptic: “Skill point bonuses, titles, costume pieces, character slots… Veterans will be rewarded every 100 days! Rewards will be retroactive, too!” Nice of them! They’ve also announced a “Come back to STO” weekend and a “Recruit a Friend” program; all these kick off May 7. ...
If you’re ever in the position where you’d want to tell a non-gamer about your hobby, you can either try to explain WHAT the game is (like, you’re a dwarf or an elf, and you go out hunting Meezle Monsters, except if you come across the Grand Meezle, you better have some friends with you or you’ll get smooshed with the Meezle Blaster, and that can hurt if you’re not in the Stance of Unmeezlement, but of course, you can’t use the Meezle Tooth Rot Ointment then). MUCH easier to just say, “oh, I’m playing that Star Wars game” or “yeah, I hung out with Bilbo in Rivendell the other day”. Because people UNDERSTAND when you’re playing in IP-based game. They can meet you halfway. ...