MMORPG

Very exciting news today from KingsIsle. We’ve known for awhile that a new world was coming, and that it was likely to be the last of the worlds mentioned in the original game, Celestia. Headmaster Ambrose mentioned last year that we might see Astral magic introduced in the game, and it is part of this expansion. What we DIDN’T know (until their teaser announcement last month) was that they were adding a broad range of pet games. Breeding? Racing? Can’t wait :) ...

I sat in front of my computer the other night, not really feeling a pull toward any MMO. I was watching Zombieland, and I couldn’t think of any MMO that would be more fun than watching the best comedy zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead. Blahblahblah. This isn’t a post about quitting MMOs. This is a post about WILLING IMMERSION. I talked a little about this yesterday. Immersion can seem like a quality of a game, but it’s really a quality of the player. Even the best game is nothing like reality; it’s as far removed from reality as anything can be. To make it important to us, we have to willingly fill in the lines, paint the walls, paper the ceiling and give it a place in our reality. You might argue that games can help immersion by having fantastic graphics, amazing sound design and killer animations, but I have been immersed in books before. I have immersion to spare; all I really ask of a game is that it doesn’t BREAK my immersion. ...

Petter of Don’t Fear the Mutant was wondering on Twitter last night what happened to immersion in MMOs. What happened to those virtual worlds, like Vanguard, World of Warcraft and EverQuest? Is immersion a quality that games have, or is immersion what the player brings to the game? For immersion to exist, I suspect the player has to WANT to be immersed. There have been times in my life when I’ve been immersed in such games as Super Mario Kart, Chess, Othello, Backgammon, Colossal Cave Adventures and Zork, and none of those were virtual worlds (and none of those feel immersive to me any more). ...

I had a different picture prepared for this post, but I noticed while making it that several of my crew members looked almost identical. So back to the tailor for some adjustments to hair styles and uniform…. I made admiral a few days ago. I can’t say I have seen all the game, since I haven’t been able to find anyone with which to do the raid mission. I really need to look for a fleet to join, but I really have no idea how to go about it. The tools in game are primitive, and even when you join an open group, it’s hard to figure out if the people in your group are in fleets. Since after the mission everyone separates and goes their own way, you never really get a chance to talk or get to know anyone. ...

A few days ago, my alt in EVE Online, Etha Preve, finished enough training to fly the Amarrian stealth bomber, the Purifier. After grouping with a friend who had just gotten the skills to fly his own bomber (a Nemesis), I knew I’d want one on my alt to help with level 4 missions. There’s this time in Level 4 missions where you’ve taken down all the lesser ships with drones, and all you have left are slow, lumbering battle cruisers and battleships. These seem to take the most time, because I am usually ALSO in a slow, lumbering battleship. The ships are gravy for stealth bombers. They can stand out of missile, beam and gun range and just lob missiles and torpedoes into the fray. If they get aggro, they can move out of targeting range and cloak. As a fleet member, they are first-rate damage and, with sensor dampeners, can even take on missions by themselves, using their small signature radius, high flight speed and ability to jam enemy sensors to dance outside of firing range, making their entire lack of any defense less of an issue. ...

A new player survey pops up when you log into EverQuest these days, asking what sort of content players would like to see from the venerable MMORPG. Can an eleven year old game still innovate? These poll questions hint that SOE has not given up on the game that put them on the map: Poll Question: What new feature would you be most interested in seeing in EverQuest? ...

Well, the fine faculty at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts have put a month’s worth of speculation into a handful of paragraphs. The full press release is below, but let’s take a look at it, shall we? First, the picture of Pets on a Podium. We can’t help but notice that there’s a crab or lobster pet wearing the banner “Celestia”. This more or less confirms what we students have long suspected, that the next would be Celestia, a land that apparently contains water and beaches and an emphasis on flight. Jonathan Livingston Seagull World? MAYBE! ...

On my fourth try, my Nemesis invention produced an actual blueprint. That’s pretty fun, but what are the true costs? I wasn’t able to find any Tristan blueprints on contract on which to base the invention, so I had to buy an original. That DOES give me a second avenue of profit, as I can sell Tristan blueprints at about 200K each. They don’t move quickly, but they eventually do sell. ...

Even if you have a static group in Dungeons & Dragons Online, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the dungeons by trying them yourself on the casual or normal settings. If nobody in the group is a subscriber (as none of the people in my group are), then SOMEONE has to have done it at least once so that the group difficulties – hard and elite – open. ...

I thought it might be fun to do “playthroughs” of certain MMO missions, to try and give a feel for what it’s like to simply play the game. I play a good variety of MMOs, so what I’m going to do is go through each one of them and do a mission or quest from start to end. For this first one, I will be doing a Star Trek Online “episode” called “The Tribble with Klingons”. Klingons and Tribbles have never gotten along… but why? ...