MMORPG

Remember, way back when, when the thought of paying $$$ TEN DOLLARS $$$ for a permanent mount was considered insane? Then Blizzard introduced their sparkle pony for $25. Suddenly, $10 didn’t look so bad, and $25 became the new industry standard. You want a cool mount, you forked over a couple of sawbucks with a Lincoln chaser. The Blizzard sparkle pony would be as fast as the fastest mount you could ride; if you could ride a flying mount, then your sparkle pony would take to the skies where the stars in its wings would blend seamlessly with the stars glowing in the firmament above Azeroth. Better yet, when you bought the horse, all your characters could use it. ...

The sunken world of Celestia moved a step closer to reconnecting with the Spiral in Wizard101 yesterday when KingsIsle added a teaser pre-quest to the Test server and, we hope, very soon to the live servers. We don’t get to go to Celestia YET… but we do find out quite a bit of the circumstances behind its loss, long ago. It comes as no surprise that there are elements both in the Spiral and in Celestia itself that don’t want to see wizards swimming with the sharks; but we defeated Malistaire. Nobody tells us what we can’t do. ...

Modern, traditional MMOs are full of “yes you CAN”. Yes, you CAN get great gear with little effort. Yes, you CAN get useful things done in just a few minutes. Yes, you CAN choose to never group at all and yet see and do most everything. Yes, you CAN play through the entire game and never connect with even one other person, if that’s what YOU want. ...

With the EverQuest server merge in full swing, SOE has offered free server merges for everyone for a limited time. My twisty EverQuest career has taken me from Erollisi Marr to Fennin Ro, back to Erollisi Marr, then Stromm, then back to Erollisi Marr, then Luclin, then back to Erollisi Marr…. EMarr always brings me back. Now, thanks to the server merges – and by the way, those are working out well, Bazaar is more full than ever, Guild Lobby is positively stuffed. I didn’t get spammed with group invites as I was logging in all these characters, but I bet i could have found one. ...

Wizard101 recently announced their ten millionth player, a not-inconsiderable achievement for a non-free to play game. Even given second or third accounts, millions of people have spent some bit of their lives enjoying the mystic worlds of the Spiral. Tara Windwalker wrote me today to share the sad but somehow joyful story of Emma Elizabeth Bradford, one of those ten million. Yesterday, I was doing a search of online posts featuring current news about Wizard101 and found an obituary for Emma Elizabeth Bradford, a 7 year old girl, who was a Wizard101 fan. Emma’s obituary is one of the most beautiful that I have ever read. I don’t know if I ever saw or met Emma in the Wizard101 game but we probably share(d) the joy that Wizard101 adds to our lives through its humor and wonderful graphics. ...

Note: Fists of Fu is currently in a short closed beta period. I expect open beta to start fairly soon. You’d hardly know Outspark’s Fists of Fu is an MMO to look at it. What we usually consider an MMO has a long history back through MUDs and to the pre-history of tabletop, pen-and-paper games. You learn to expect adventure to come at a fairly slow and sedate pace. ...

Casual gaming portal Outspark, known mainly for its Fiesta Online MMO and snowboard racing sim Project Powder, looks to be soon entering the F2P beat ’m up MMO world with the forthcoming “Fists of Fu”. I took a look at the teaser video (embedded below) and could only think that someone’s been playing a little too much of THQ*Ice’s “Dragonica Online”. Both games are pure, balls-to-the-wall action MMOs; both use 3D engines to add an extra dimension to largely side-scrolling game play. Both have pretty much the same classes. Both have four player groups. Neither really shines in the character creation department, though arguably Fists of Fu isn’t really into that, as each of the six available characters has their own class and back story. (The available characters just happen to include the three available starting classes in the two available genders). ...

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. ...

Amazon.com panicked; they’d let me download the “Symphonic” Les Mis soundtrack before they tried to charge my debit card. The debit card, it was dead. Bank of America, fearing a leak of card information, had revoked their debit cards and sent new ones out; mine was in an envelope on my desk. But unless I informed Amazon and every other outfit which had my debit card information about the new number, all my recurring subscriptions and everything else would, as they tried and, like Amazon, failed to remove money from my account, remove me from their rolls. ...

The contest is over! Professor Drake is NOT a fair person, and in fact, had constructed his puzzle such that only his favorite student, Bailey, could win. No amount of cheating by Daniel, who was stuck outside the classroom; or Cedric, staring at a wall, could help them with the colors of their own hats. Abigail simply didn’t have enough information to make more than a random guess at the color of her own hat. ...