World of Warcraft

I never watched Stargate: SG-1 while it was on (is it still on?), so when everyone was getting all excited about the prospect of Cheyenne Mountain’s Stargate Worlds MMO, it meant nothing to me. Now, thanks to Hulu, I’m catching up. A couple of episodes in to the second season and it’s clear the show is already chafing against its episodic “planet of the week” formula. Could Stargate Worlds make it work for them? Will it work for Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, or will people yearn for a less story-based, more personal play experience? ...

Blizzard announced today that all the rumors about their forthcoming expansion were true. Players will be able to play werewolves, and they’re going to need all the werewolves they can get to meet the demand. Werewolf Bob can’t let this opportunity pass him by. It’s the people you leave behind that hurt the most.

Is Gatheryn in open beta or not? Massively says not yet, but following Merry and Pippin’s example, I showed up where I wasn’t invited because they couldn’t keep me away. Picture above is from the docks, where it’s clear they haven’t invented automated rust scrapers and hull painters in Elymia as of yet. In news of the OTHER upcoming superhero game, Massively also has screens of SOE’s DC Universe Online. This fast-paced, arcade-ish actioner looks to be the evil twin to Champions Online’s more traditional quest-based offering. ...

Having heard about the EVE Fitting Tool from a helpful commentator, I spent a lot of time last night working some Battle Clinic builds into viable builds for me. VERY happy. Later on, the corps went on an impromptu trip through a wormhole, where we were relentlessly shadowed by the corp (Bones) who had staked it out. They allowed us to take on a Sleeper cell before we left. We got some T3 loot, but since we’d all brought expendable ships (that’s my Exequoror “The Liberator” hovering outside the wormhole), we weren’t up for taking out the second wave, which included a battleship. (Drew at Wizard of Duke Street has a little more about wormholing). ...

EVE Online wants you to make money. It’s hard NOT to be swimming in the stuff. So your given level 3 mission might have a couple dozen enemies in it. You get a bounty on every one you kill, they drop loot which can sell for a fair bit, can be salvaged for loot worth a million or more (sometimes much more) if you get a decent price, and many have asteroids that you can mine with very little danger that anyone will locate you. I’ve been sending my mining proceeds to one of the corp officers, and last night he parked a battleship at the local trading hub for me – the mainstay of the Gallente Federation Navy, the Dominix drone tank battleship. Half a kilometer of hurt clad in a meter-thick skin of tritanium. Now I have to train for a few days to be able to fly it to my base in Aunia – the EVE Online equivalent of bringing a new battery and a pair of jumper cables to check out a used car. (THANKS, RED!!!) ...

Hey, everyone ELSE returns to WoW…. And why not? Rumor has it that Blizzard is definitely going to introduce the Worgen and Goblin races as new playable races… something ever World of Warcraft player has been expecting since before Burning Crusade was announced. With news of the new expansion and the Starcraft II delays already making the rounds, Green Armadillo asks what else could Blizzard possibly have in waiting to surprise Blizzcon attendees? ...

I got a spam comment today which mentioned, while complimenting me on explaining some vague idea to them, that they were unsure of this blog’s update schedule. Geez. When even SPAMMERS wonder why you don’t update every day, it’s getting out of hand ;) Fact is, most of the time I am doing boring stuff. CrazyKinux linked to a blog once that insisted nobody wants to read about someone running mission in EVE Online, so once I read that, I stopped posting about my adventures in EVE. I’m leveling up a character in Wizard 101 so I can do Grizzleheim with level-appropriate characters, but that takes time. I do fit in little bits about what I’m doing in EVE and Wizard101 now and then in these blogrolls… but they don’t seem worthy of entire posts! ...

Back in EverQuest, the raid leader had banned all mage pets because they tended to push bosses into walls. The mages were not amused. Aion: Next WoW killer? Caliga thinks Aion might take that coveted #2 spot of ranked subscription-based MMOs right behind World of Warcraft with a final tally of 800,000 players. He’s forgetting that WoW players always return to WoW. Always. My own prediction? 200,000 six months in because A) it’s a WoW-like, and B) it isn’t WoW. ...

When I die, I don’t want my last thought to be, “Why oh WHY didn’t I grind out another thousand AAs when I had the chance?” Etha, 67 Druid, 191d 3h played Tipa, 71 Rogue, 254d 12h played Brita, 75 Cleric, 181d 8h played Tipa, 68 Ranger, 9d 1h played Those aren’t even all my EverQuest characters. Six hundred and thirty five full days playing just across those characters. I could add my 65 mage or 58 shadow knight to that. At eight hours a day, that would be five and a quarter years. (Though, it’s easy to see how much quicker leveling in EQ has gotten. 1-68 in nine played days? Sweet! And that included raiding!). ...

Well, would YOU bet $200 on a game that nobody but press is allowed to talk about, a month before it’s released? When Lord of the Rings Online offered the same deal – A Benjamin and his identical twin for a lifetime subscription – you had a month to think it over. Not so with Champions Online – if you insist on playing before committing, the offer goes away. Probably the best thing about the offer – access to the Star Trek Online beta, and Mirror Universe outfits for same. So, if I want to play STO and get all the best goodies, I have to toss two c-notes Champions’ way? ...