MMORPG

I’ve come to realize, over the years, that I really suck at MMOs. Easily distracted and easily bored, the sort of long-term, intense concentration that is the mark of the truly successful grinder is impossible for me. I can’t be the only one; the newer crop of MMOs seem made for people with short attention spans. World of Warcraft’s “Looking for Dungeon” tool lets you defeat the ultimate evils of Azeroth half an hour at a time. EQ2’s newest mission maps reward you if you can finish the entire instance before the necromancer is done buffing her pet. ...

Cryptic responded to player concerns about the state and the direction of the game in a huge, long, detailed producers letter that outlines their thoughts on the game as it nears the end of its first month. Will this keep people subscribed while they wait for new content to come online? Just picking a few details from the letter… Some of the few things on the way: Respec Death Penalty Difficulty Slider More open auto-fire Replayable missions Improving Memory Alpha Fixing those Commodity missions Respec is nice. Cryptic took some heat over respecs in Champions Online when they added the respec ability to the cash shop. They also allowed you to buy respecs with in-game currency; I never really felt the sting. Here, though, I can’t imagine someone not wanting to respec more than once as they level through the content, acquire new skills and weapons and so on. ...

Last night, the first phase of the Ishtar Project ended – I flew my Ishtar out of Amarr, where I’d bought a contract on one for 130m ISK last week. I could have MADE one, but the Ishtar blueprints just SELL TOO FAST and for too much for me to waste one by turning it into a ship. They are selling so fast that I think it would probably not break the market if I started buying the datacores I need to invent them instead of waiting the week it takes for my research agents to come up with enough. ...

This morning I, and likely every other Star Trek Online subscriber, received a survey from Cryptic asking how we liked the game so far, if we were likely to subscribe past the first month, what other games we played, what our favorite parts of the game were (Character/Ship customization), what parts we thought were really ill-thought and crappy (Memory Alpha) and so on. There were no long form questions where we could explain to Cryptic just what I really want from their game. So here’s what I’d say to them – and based on my comments, I think a lot of Star Trek players are thinking the same things. ...

I made Captain in Star Trek Online tonight; that’s level 31 if you’re all crass and number-using. We leave those sorts of things to our holographic life forms. They really seem to enjoy it. As befits a captain, I traded in my Science officer blues for the red of Command. While I was at Deep Space 9 picking up necessary ship supplies, I picked up new uniforms for the crew. All they had were the DS9 uniforms, but that’s fine. Black is very slimming. ...

Click to Enlarge Allods Online is fun enough, and I guess it’s cool that everyone’s characters speak and read Russian because, hey, it’s an overseas game not afraid to show its roots. Or too cheap to localize the voice and art assets, one or the other. Yet I still feel a little uneasiness toward the game. Not because I can’t handle a little Cyrillic here and there. Not because it doesn’t depart far enough from its influences to really stand apart from the crowd. But because…. ...

I am playing too many MMOs, it’s true… but there’s some good gaming out there. In EVE Online, the Ishtar Project saw a minor victory as I sold my two run Ishtar blueprint for 30 million ISK after only a couple of days on the market. That worked out incredibly well. In another stroke of luck, I put another Vexor blueprint in for invention and produced ANOTHER two run Ishtar blueprint. This one I will likely keep to make the Heavy Assault Cruiser of my dreams. ...

KingsIsle is introducing a new mount type today – Wings! They attack to your back and give you the same faster movement speed as any regular mount! They are also adding back more insanely powerful Crowns gear that they had originally, for a price. The old uber gear only went up to level 35, but for this new stuff you’ll have to be level 45 or better. They also have some new wands and stuff. Check out the full press release below, after the pictures. ...

After helping to save dozens of people from the destruction of their doomed Allod – an island floating in the Twisting Nether – my gibberling crew defeated a ravening demonologist, lured a marauding demon into a trap that meant its doom, defended a powerful sorceror as she strived to keep the island afloat just a few more seconds, and finally escaped at the last moment to safety, regarded by all who knew them as a new breed of hero. ...

Although invention in EVE Online can be lucrative, my main motivation is to make stuff I can use. My first foray into the invention world was Hammerhead II medium drone blueprints. I’d make the drones from them and sell them for a >500% profit. That was good, but it could be better. It’s been a goal of mine for some time to pilot an Ishtar Heavy Assault Cruiser (HAC). Fast guns, fast ship overall, plus a lot of tanking ability and the best drone control of any ship in its class, able to single-handedly clear plexes and level 4 missions. A Dominix battleship in a smaller, more agile package, essentially. ...