MMORPG

EverQuest II’s next expansion is not Velious, as widely assumed based on the (now known to be) red herrings seen in Kunark. EQ2’s next expansion, Sentinel’s Fate, will bring the island of Odus back to Norrath. At the same time (but not as part of the expansion), good races will be able to start in the frozen city of Halas, a move widely expected as it brings the number of good/evil starting cities to three each – Freeport, Neriak and Gorowyn vs Qeynos, Kelethin and now Halas. ...

I’m not gonna say anything snarky about Michael Jackson. When he died yesterday, millions of people all over the world played his music loud and sang along; people gathered to remember him. When you and I die, how many people will even remember we lived? Nobody will remember us for how many max level characters we had or how many nights we spent raiding. We’ll only be remembered by and because of the people whose hearts we touched. Beau Turkey finds the most memorable moments in MMOs are not the levels ground out, but the coming together of friends to work on something as a team. ...

Hey, didja hear the news? Mark Jacobs is leaving Mythic and Mythic is being merged into Bioware! Jacobs was the public face of Mythic for so long, I can’t think of one without the other, and I can’t think of an upside to his leaving for the game I once loved, Dark Age of Camelot. Keen thought EA was past absorbing studios for their properties and then squeezing out the help. Snazfg urges people not to pillory either EA or Jacobs until more is known. Heartless_ said he knew it all along (I guess he did!). Ardwulf wonders if this means Mythic will be getting some Bioware resources (don’t count on it). Tobold suspects the merge came because Warhammer did not meet the goals Jacobs promised. Stropps agrees. Abalieno at Cesspit would have preferred this ended differently, with more learning and caring. Werit detects an air of schadenfreud among some of the commentators. And Scott Jennings reminisces about Mark and happier days at Mythic. ...

Deciding to see if a treasure card like “Quench” could stop Malistaire from casting Meteor Storm all the time, Thomas the Friendly Necromancer and I took ourselves and our alts to the Great Spyre to see if we could figure out the puzzle of Wizard 101’s ultimate encounter. Aside from the forge outside the instance, we didn’t find anything unusual. Inside were some harvests – some ore and lava flowers – and two of us received ectoplasm (a new crafting reagent) from the spirits that protected Malistaire – but nothing suggested itself as a counter to Malistaire’s spells. None of the treasure card recipes seemed to make anything that would reflect his spells back on him. ...

Yes, we’re back to the Daily Blogroll. Another allergy attack has left me asleep by 9PM, which really shortens the nights for me. Is Aion too derivative to be successful? Tobold thinks so. In fact he wonders why people would pay full price (US$15/month) for a WoW-like like Aion when they can get the real thing for the same price, or a free WoW-like in Runes of Magic. He also doesn’t hold out much hope for Fallen Earth, calling it too much like failed MMO Tabula Rasa “just working less well, being less fun, and having less good graphics”. So that’s that. ...

A lot of commentators in yesterday’s blogroll felt the changes to boss battles in Wizard 101 are bringing the game away from its casual, kid-friendly roots. It’s important to remember that even easy games like World of Warcraft would seem difficult if the solution to every single quest, instance and boss mob weren’t carefully explained to people. Soon every single quest, instance and boss mob fight will be figured out and carefully explained to every W101 player, and these will be easy again. Thomas of The Friendly Necromancer noticed that there is now a huge forge outside the Grand Chasm (Malistaire’s lair, forge pictured above), and harvestable items throughout the instance. It’s not too much of a stretch to assume that the new Malistaire fight consists of crafting certain treasure cards which would nullify or reflect his constant progressive AEing. ...

Between allergies and traveling, hasn’t been a lot of writing being done. When I got back home Sunday, there were nearly 200 messages in the my feed readers. Ugh. Lots happened! <– You’ll see over on the left that we now have a guild on Free Realms. Let me know if you want to join ;) On to the blogs! ...

Though I was away this weekend, I still managed to squeeze some hours into Wizard 101’s Test server to check out the latest changes. And there’s a LOT of them. This next update does not just introduce the world of Grizzleheim into the game, but a whole laundry list of things players have been begging for (aside from appearance slots, which haven’t made an, um, appearance). ...

Grizzleheim is now live on Wizard 101’s test server! If you’re a subscriber and want a peak at the next world, download it and check it out! Unfortunately, right at this moment the servers are down – but they should be up soon! Grizzleheim and many other Features are now available to preview on the Test Realm. To find out what features are being added to the Test Realm, please consult our Update Notes Page. ...

A few days ago, the MMO blogging world burned with the news that rock star MMO developer turned lonely exile, Brad McQuaid, had returned from his lonely, sparse existence of playing video games, racing cars and sports bikes and feeling sorry about the harsh hand life dealt him to urge people to play more Vanguard. Some people were skeptical, but have come to believe. Others forgive him for his sins. ...