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. ...
First there was Wizard101, a MMO unlike any other that played in a unique fashion but lived happily on your PC. There were minigames, variants on popular Flash games widely available, that conferred some in-game benefits – they would refill your mana potions, let you win gold and some magic items. Their iPhone game WizardBlox took the minigames off the PC and on to the smart phone. Playing WizardBlox on your phone could give your character benefits in game as well – benefits you could pass on to other players if you liked. ...
Professor Drake stood silently behind his podium. Beside him sat a mysterious crate that would, sometimes, shift a little one way or another. Sometimes it grunted. The three o’clock “Mythterious Creatures” class sat nervously at their desks – Abigail, Bailey, Cedric and Daniel. They looked terrified. In Drake’s classes, everyone looked terrified. “I have graded your ‘assignments’ from last night,” said the professor, punctuating his words with strikes of his wand to his podium. “Pathetic. It was a simple enough question, and if any of you had been studying, you could easily have answered how the height of trolls varies with the amount of phlogiston used in their second stage of production. I have recommended to Headmaster Ambrose that, as teaching this class is clearly a waste of my time and yours, you all be returned to your homes on the Spiral.” ...
Kobold-eye view of Derra the Fighter/Cleric Last night, the OnedAwesome crew descended once again on the sleepy port town of Stormreach. There were five missions on the docket last night, but I didn’t take part; I’m still on a mission of my own: to catch up in experience to the other two members of my static Sunday group. Every time I miss a night, I fall further behind. These Wednesday night get-togethers are fantastic for filling in the spaces. ...
I’m not sure how I missed this fantastic video of the new pet games (and more!) coming with the next huge content update for Wizard101 (and thanks to Sierra Starsong at Modern Automagic for the heads-up!) This adds the feature I have been wanting for YEARS (well, maybe just a year) – letting my pets roam free. Plus pet races and other pet games…. This is Wizard101 moving into Free Realms territory. I’m all for it! ...
There’s dozens of kung fu-based MMOs out there; I think Aeria Games publishes at least three. They aren’t hard to find, but the best and most popular of them has just come to the States last year, and that’s Dragon Oath, the WoW of Chinese kung fu MMOs. I came across Dragon Oath during my series on IP-based MMOs. The game is based on an epic “wuxia” novel, Tian Long Ba Bu, serialized over four years in newspapers starting in 1963. With a cast of hundreds and a complexity that could only be appreciated by a Robert Jordan fan, TLBB sparked a string of over-the-top kung fu movies, television series and so on. As an IP-based game, they have a tiger by the tail. Dragon Oath has over 75 million players the world over. Granted, it’s a free to play, so who knows how much yuan it’s pulling in compared to WoW, but it’s no slouch. ...
IcyWiz on Twitter shared her Beckett Magazine EQ2 code for a Ssraezha Observer’s Staff. I happily toko it and redeemed it on my EQ2 account, only then remembering my only casters on that account were island babies – characters I kept on the island for harvesting and crafting reasons and well, there was no reason to take them on. I spent a few hours this weekend leveling one of them, Tsuki, to 20, so she could wield the staff (it being an appearance slot item). The Timorous Deep newbie zone was its same old reliable experience machine and it didn’t take me more than maybe three hours to get through it. This weekend being a bonus experience weekend helped, too. ...
The Federation News Service (our fleet/guild in Star Trek Online) had its first fleet event tonight. Organized by Longasc, Commanders, Captains and Admirals gathered to take on some fleet actions. We headed to Tortig in the Regulus sector block and — Well, that didn’t work. Level banding meant we couldn’t all join the same instance. We decided to see if we could do some damage in some Deep Space Encounters, and “encountered” our SECOND mess-up; there can only be five ships in a DSE. Who knew? So if someone else was already in the encounter, some people would be sent into a new instance. I could have SWORN there used to be room for lots more ships in DSEs…. ...
Lots of people really do ask me what I DO in EverQuest? Truth be told, most of the time I am either working on my Epic 1.5 (the rogue epic quest is THE WORST of them all), do monster missions for gear and experience, or do the Boomerang! event in Brell’s Rest. It’s a simple arena game; everyone in the party chooses a team – red, blue or gold, like in Star Trek – and each is given boomerangs in their opponent’s two colors. You enter, are transformed into a gnoll of your color, and you run around and fling boomerangs at enemies while dodging boomerangs thrown at you, as well as explosive barrels that drop randomly from the ceiling. You get one point for hitting an enemy; lose one point for being hit twice and lose five points for being blown up by an explosive barrel. After five minutes, the top three get gold tokens (used to buy high level uber weapons), and everyone gets silver tokens appropriate to their point total, used to buy a wide variety of gear and augments. ...
Yeah, I know I’m late on this, but… EQ2’s Passport program? $5/month for three consecutive days of play per month? Absolute genius. To recap what the plan offers: Weekend Warrior Your game, your time and your money. You choose when to play! This is your chance to continue to play the game you love, with all your friends and most importantly, when you want! Party Crasher With the EQII Passport, your alt accounts or inactive accounts will not have to miss another seasonal event or special game update. Visit Norrath to participate in fun-filled events and festivities at a discount. ...