MMORPG

Hudson wanted a look at the Aion UI – and that’s fair. I found out that Aion was built on the Crytek engine, and that implies it won’t “run on a toaster”, the famous boast Blizzard made about WoW. Just before I took this screen shot, it started raining in game. My character looked with disgust at the sky, and since it looked like I wasn’t going to be running her anywhere right then, pulled out a broad leaf to shield her head from the rain and sulked. The game is full of cute little animations like that. Your character has a life when you’re not at the keyboard, and will always be reacting to the environment in some way if you haven’t got anything else going on. Above her head are her health and power bars. Resting works wonders, but there are potions et al to get you back into the fight. Standard stuff. ...

Aion is not an innovative MMO. Anybody will tell you that. You have your quest hubs with quest givers who task you with killing everything in the vicinity. Classes start off with four archetypes (scout, mage, priest, and warrior) and split at level 10 into eight subclasses (ranger, assassin, chanter[shaman], cleric, gladiator[berserker], templar[paladin], spiritmaster[mage pet class], and sorceror[wizard]). And these work exactly as you might expect, in essence. Sure, there’s a whole combo tree where you can buy and equip skills to make devastating combos, but since they kindly have made a one button combo system – you hit the start combo ability, and then hit it again for the next ability in the combo, and so on – you usually aren’t pressing more than a couple of buttons. You never actually stop pressing buttons. ...

Re: this message from Wizard 101, the extended downtime might possibly have something to do with pushing Grizzleheim to the test server, but who knows? Wizard101 Extended Maintenance Wizard101 the game will be offline for maintenance for an extended period of time. From 3am to 7am Central US time, on June 17 2009, Wizard101 the game will be offline. Players will not be able to log in. Players who are logged in at that time will be prompted to log out. ...

I was a little surprised to see that my character from Florensia’s open beta last year was still around, though naturally I’d entirely forgotten how to play her. To get back up to speed, I put my Saint (healer) aside and started a new character, an Explorer (ranged dps specializing in guns). The very detailed tutorial took me through setting skills, inventory management, ship construction and combat, and I was just about to set out on my new life as an Explorer when I read in chat that people were desperate for Saints in their higher-level groups. ...

IGN has the scoop on Wizard 101’s next expansion, Grizzleheim. The article goes into a little detail about the three main clans of Grizzleheim, the war-like Bears, the cunning Wolves and the mystical Ravens. And as a tidbit, at the very end, it looks like Thomas was right on the money, as the article mentions that Grizzleheim goes live on Test today.

Thanks to commenter Wimp, who revealed that EverQuest’s newest server, the one with the new “51/50” rule set (new characters start at level 51 with 50 AAs), has actually been (briefly) live and players have played on it. The newest server, Mayong, named after the legendary vampire lord who is a villain in both EverQuest and EverQuest II, will (according to this thread on Steel Warrior) start new characters in Flawed Defiant armor, and spell books full of the spells to that level. ...

Yup, back in Florensia for a second try at it. Because, hey, be a pirate on the sea and an adventurer on the land, build your own ship, hire a (NPC) crew, two separate career paths, and it costs nuttin’. The cash shop only has some potions… I dunno how they make money in this game. The general chat is about what you’d expect, though. Big news today was that ex-EverQuest and Vanguard helmer Brad McQuaid was ending his self-imposed exile of idyllic days spent racing cars and playing games to jump back into the spotlight with his very own blog. Or did he? Genda believes the whole thing is a hoax, someone (possibly drummer Keith Sharward) just having a bit of fun. The actual Brad McQuaid doesn’t seem to have taken the steps of building up his LinkedIn profile in awhile, anyway. ...

Marissa Spiritcaller about five minutes before she became a smear on Lord Nightshade’s floor This was the weekend I didn’t do very much. My allergies had left me feeling drained, and I decided what I mostly needed to do was turn off the computer and go outside. To my balcony. I hauled out one of the wooden chairs I’d finished when the kids were little and read a book, guarded by the cat. I realized that this could be a better day if the old wooden chair was a lawn chair, and the book was a black raspberry ice cream cone from Friendly’s. A visit to Target and Friendly’s, and I was back in an hour, sitting on the lawn chair, eating some ice cream. ...

Yeah, I know it’s not a HUGE stretch to announce that Velious will be EverQuest II’s next expansion when pictures of dragon-turtles pulling ice barges are easy to find, but yeah. Velious. Velious and Kunark are often grouped together, in the minds of old EverQuest players, as the “core” game, beyond which it got more achievement focused. The first thing you saw when you went to Velious, landing in Iceclad, was the black and spiky Tower of Frozen Shadow – an absolutely wonderful dungeon, built so that each group could find their appropriate level, thick in lore and unique loot. The promise of that first dungeon was kept throughout the expansion – even the raid zones (Sleeper’s Tomb, Dragon Necropolis, Planes of Growth and Mischief, the Temple of Veeshan and the three faction cities, Icewell Keep, Kael and Skyshrine) had plenty of spots for single groups to play, and plenty of wide open spaces for kiting soloers. ...

I have JUST heard from a very reliable source that EverQuest II’s next expansion will be on the frozen continent of Velious. This was EverQuest’s second expansion, and for the first time brought a three faction war into the game, where players chose sides and earned rewards. Also appearing was Sleeper’s Tomb, which included the once-per-server event where players woke The Sleeper, the illicit child of forbidden dragon love, who was imprisoned lest he destroy the world. ...