It's True

The rumours are true: WoW has a new expansion on it's way.

Titled 'Wrath of the Lich King', it will be set in the new continent of Northrend, and bring with it many new features:

• new Death Knight hero class
• new arenas and battlegrounds
• siege weaponry and destructible buildings
• customisable hairstyles and dances
• a new Inscription profession
• and the increase of the level cap from 70 to 80

To view the trailer, click here or here.

Additionally, Blizzard have confirmed that integrated voice communication and guild banks would be introduced to WoW in regular patch updates, along with a new 10-man instance, Zul'Aman.

Blizz refused to name a date for its release. "It'll come out when it's ready," said lead designer Tom Chilton.

Jeff Kaplan promised that the expansion's new continent, Northrend, would contain more zones than The Burning Crusade's Outland - since Blizzard isn't having to create starting zones for new races this time.
A map shown indicated ten new zones as well as a new captial city, Dalaran.

One zone, Lake Wintergrass, will be a new type of outdoor world zone totally dedicated to player-versus-player combat, even on normal servers.

Four more regular questing zones were shown:

• Howling Fjord
• Borean Tundra
• Grizzly Hills
• Dragonblight

There will be two points of entry into Northrend, from the east (in Howling Fjord) and west (in Borean Tundra). Despite the continent's northerly location they won't all be snowy: Grizzly Hills, for example, the home of the furbolg race, is a lush, tall forest.

The capital city will be Dalaran, which has been transported from the Eastern Kingdoms to a new location floating in the skies above Northrend.

Final boss the Lich King - formerly the paladin Arthas - will be a prominent presence all the way through the new content, promised Kaplan. "We're aware that in The Burning Crusade we didn't give you enough interaction with [end boss] Illidan. In Wrath of the Lich King there will be much more interaction with Arthas from the moment you arrive in Northrend."

The new Death Knight class will be the first of several hero classes to be introduced to the game, said Chilton. But these will be added gradually.
"If we tried to introduce all the heroes from Warcraft III at the same time, we'd face some pretty disastrous consequences in terms of impact on the whole game," he said.

Death Knights will be unlocked by completing a quest chain at level 80, said to be similar in feel to the Warlock epic mount quest. Once completed, the player will be able to create Death Knight characters of any race, starting at a "relatively high level" still to be decided, but probably in the 55-70 range.

Blizzard considered making players destroy their original characters to turn them into Death Knights, but "Too many people on the team felt they were losing something to gain something," said Kaplan.
"Even though the Death Knight is a hero class, it's not supposed to be a more powerful class, it's just supposed to feel different to play," Chilton added.

Death Knights will be damage-dealing tanks, similar to warriors. But they can tank without a shield and have the ability to cast strong magic spells, such as Army of the Dead, which summons several skeletal minions at once.
They will use runes inscribed on their weapons to cast spells, instead of existing resource systems like mana or rage.

In terms of the original continents, there will be a new Caverns of Time instance, and steps will be taken to speed up the leveling process. "Right now we really want to encourage players to roll alternate characters," said Kaplan.
"We feel that leveling is a little slower than we want it to be, so we're looking at ways to speed that up a bit. Maybe before the expansion comes out. But the Death Knight is also part of that," said Kaplan.

Kaplan also confirmed that a new raid zone and new daily quests (involving dungeons, battlegrounds and cooking) would appear in patches before Wrath of the Lich King is released.

On the ability to customise hairtsyle Kaplan simply stated, "Barbershops are coming! No, you can't change your face. Plastic surgery will probably be in the next expansion after this," he joked.

Screenshots are available here and here.

Full details including features, artwork, faqs, and movies are available at the official expansion website.

*sources: Eurogamer Blizzard

MMO In Tutaminis (l)

Ok I'm getting tired of all the "how come you play online games so much?" question now, thanks. Let me count the ways:

• you don't listen to what I'm saying
• you don't listen to what I'm saying
• you don't listen to what I'm saying
• you don't listen to what I'm saying
• you don't listen to what I'm saying

That makes about 5 that I can think of right off the top of my head.
Let's take a slightly deeper look at it then, shall we? Starting with some easy comparisons.

Let me ask you a few questions like:

• 'How many new people do you meet per day?'
• 'How many conversations, with people you have only just met, do you have per day?'
• 'How many conversations, with people outside of your work, age and social demographic, do you have per day?'

The answer is easy: Not as many as me.

An MMO is not *just* a game, it's a social interaction foremost, that optionally entertains you with a game story or action. It gives me the freedom to decide to be socially active, or to go solo and enjoy the 'game' itself, or both.
Think of it more like a glorified chat tool (an extremely basic analogy, but based upon the approaches I entertain, this is my best bet..) that allows me access to a virtual world created by 100's of talented artists, populated by REAL LIVING BREATHING HUMAN BEINGS. And it just so happens that I can go on fantastical adventures with these 1000's of others, whilst simultaneously holding 'normal' conversations with them.

When I log in, I get greeted by my friends - you know what that feeling is like, right? Where you (say) turn up at a club and before you've had time to order a drink you have people running up to you saying "hey good to see you!".
Its A Good Feeling™.

No, these aren't computer-generated characters that are glad to see me - they're real people, with real lives, and real stories to share and tell, and with real questions to ask; about anything from what's happening in the game, to their most recent relationship misadventure, to their issues at work.
And it happens whenever I log in.

My point isn't to 'rate' anyone's social choosings on an 'interactions-per-day' basis, as we all enjoy our caves at some stage (scroll down a few posts to witness my own invisible barrier around my sanity) but instead my point is aimed fairly and squarely at those who belligerently claim
- computer games are antisocial!
- it's not 'natural'!
- it's for nerds!
- get outside and kick a ball around and meet some people!

Hey you - the blinkered and misinformed person saying that:
GET FUCKED (I learned that off Teh Intehnets, alongside how to make a bomb of course..)

Because yes, Teh Intehnets is bad, right? And MMO's are Teh Intehnets, right?
(I'm not joking - some of you seem to think it's the case)

Let's break it down a little further then:
MMO = entertainment choice
TV = entertainment choice

Ask yourself this: How many hours a week do you spend watching TV?

Well, as it happens, I can tell you:

• You watched television last year at an average 4.2 hours per day. This 'leisure activity/entertainment choice' was by far the largest percentage of your time spent amongst any other leisure activities.
• Socializing, such as visiting with friends or attending or hosting social events, was the next most common leisure activity last year, accounting for about 40 minutes per day for both sexes.
• The number of hours per day that the TV is on, in an average home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
• Percentage of people that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66%
• Percentage of people who say they watch too much TV: 49%

Right.. and I spend "far too much time sitting on my ass inside" and its "not natural" and blah blah blah.. take a LOOK in the freaking MIRROR, couch potatoes.

YOU, are more than happy to sit in front of the tube, which serves you up mainly pre-scripted and non-interactive content (largely utter drivel, let's be honest) for the most part of your non-working days, excluding sleep. You, subscribe to a medium that looks like this:

• Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000
• Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000
• Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
• Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
• Hours per year the average youth spends in school: 900 hours
• Hours per year the average youth watches television: 1500
• Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
• Number of TV commercials seen by the average person by age 65: 2 million
• Percentage of survey participants who said that TV commercials aimed at children make them too materialistic: 92%
• Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: #1
• Percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99%
  

Wow - some really wholesome trends there.. and no, my point isn't to lay out all that is bad about television. (although this does go a long way to explaining why I feel like I am surrounded by morons) My point, is to put it into the same perspective that you stereotype MMOs into.
You, as the ultimate critique of MMO pastimes (despite not even trying one likely) are supporting a medium with the above 'benefits'. And to put it into even more simple terms:

YOU ARE SITTING AROUND ON YOUR FAT ASS WATCHING TELEVISION FOR THE LONGEST TIME, FEELING YOUR BRAIN SEEP OUT YOUR EARS.

So get the fuck off my case, freaks.

Where was I - oh yes.
I, on the other hand, subscribe to something that's a little different to the above.
Read this: (if you're attention span is long enough, that is.. I know you're used to sitting on the couch and having it spoon fed to you so I apologise for actually having to *read* something, you big fat brainless and blinkered LUMP)

MMOs are interesting social spaces in several ways. First of all, there are almost no other social spaces in the physical world where people from such different demographic backgrounds and life experiences collaborate on a regular basis. The age range in most MMOs goes from 10 to 70. In a typical 5-person pick-up group, you may have a high-school student, a war veteran, a professional home-maker, a law professor, and a retired bank manager. In our education and work systems, we typically only get to talk and work with people who are incredibly similar to ourselves. This is actually seldom the case in MMOs. Another thing that bears pointing out that there are almost no social spaces in the physical world where teenagers routinely get to work with adults as equals. But not only does collaboration occur, teenagers routinely lead groups of adults, give them orders, and partly schedule their leisure time in MMOs. Learning how to work with and lead a diverse group of people is an important social skill, especially for teenagers.

Beyond the demographic landscape, MMOs also expose us to stressful group conflicts, leadership opportunities, and moral dilemmas, among other scenarios, that we may be less often exposed to in our day to day lives. Another interesting part of MMOs is the compressed time in several domains. While it may take decades to rise to the top of your profession in the real world, it is possible to reach max-level in some MMOs with just several months of casual playing. The rate at which guilds form, fragment, and dissolve may also allow some players to try out and understand how to lead and manage teams in ways that may take much much longer in an actual office. In short, MMOs may offer players experiences in roles and positions that they may not have access to in the physical world.

Goodness - it just sounds terrible doesn't it! Teaching us to get along, to learn to lead, to learn to adapt to others.. shocking stuff.

But wait there's more: (from another formal research project)

After examining the form and function of what's known in the trade as MMOs -- massively multiplayer online video games -- an interdisciplinary team of researchers concludes that these games "promote sociability and new worldviews."

The researchers, Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams, claim that MMOs function not like solitary dungeon cells, but more like virtual coffee shops or pubs where something called "social bridging" takes place. They even liken playing such games to dropping in at "Cheers," the fictional TV bar "where everybody knows your name."
"By providing places for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home, MMOs have the capacity to function much like the hangouts of old," they said. And they take it one step further by suggesting that the lack of real-world hangouts "is what is driving the MMO phenomenon" in the first place. The new conceptual study was published in early August in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication under the title, "Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as 'Third Places.' "

Steinkuehler is a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Williams is a professor of speech communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The term "third places" was coined in 1999 by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe the physical places outside the home and workplace that people use for informal social interaction. Steinkuehler and Williams argue that online spaces, such as those found in MMOs, should also count as third places for informal sociability, "albeit new and virtual places." MMOs are graphical 2- or 3-D videogames that allow players, through their self-created digital characters or avatars, to interact with the gaming software and with other players, to build "relationships of status and solidarity." While still in-game, players can hold multiple real-time conversations with fellow players through text or voice.

The games the researchers studied represent "a fairly mainstream portion of the fantasy-based MMO market," the authors wrote, where rewarding players for cooperation and the formation of long-term player groups or "guilds" is part of the game. Game play in MMOs is not a "single solitary interaction between an individual and a technology," the researchers wrote, "but rather, is more akin to playing five-person poker in a neighborhood tavern that is accessible from your own living room." Steinkuehler and Williams also found that participation in such virtual third places "appears particularly well suited to the formation of bridging social capital -- social relationships that, while not usually providing deep emotional support, typically function to expose the individual to a diversity of worldviews," they wrote. "In other words," Williams said, "spending time in these social games helps people meet others not like them, even if it doesn't always lead to strong friendships. That kind of social horizon-broadening has been sorely lacking in American society for decades."

Over the last few years, Williams has published a number of studies that have challenged the common and mostly negative beliefs about game playing. For his work on online games as third places, Williams drew on an earlier study of "Asheron's Call," for which he combined survey research and experimental design and focused on "issues of social capital and real-life community," he said. He even played the game and conducted random interviews, asking players about their motivations for playing, their in-game social networks and their life outside the game. "There were both positive and negative outcomes," he said.

In her earlier study of cognition and learning in MMOs, Steinkuehler conducted a two-year ethnography of the "Lineage" games, her goal being to explore the kinds of social and intellectual activities in which gamers routinely participate, including individual and collaborative problem solving, identity construction, apprenticeship and literary practices. She conducted repeated interviews of key informants throughout the study. Their overall conclusion in this newest study: "Virtual worlds appear to function best as bridging mechanisms, rather than as bonding ones, although they do not entirely preclude social ties of the latter type."

While they continue to draw fire from many critics, MMOs attract tens of millions of subscribers worldwide, who spend on average 20 hours a week "in-game."

"To argue that their MMO game play is isolated and passive media consumption that takes the place of informal social engagement is to ignore the nature of what participants actually do behind the computer screen," the authors wrote. Online spaces are not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon that can simply be labeled 'good' or 'bad.' " The authors suggest that now may be a good time to reconsider how new media are affecting people. "Perhaps it is not that contemporary media use has led to a decline in civic and social engagement, as many have argued, but rather, that a decline in civic and social engagement has led to a 'retribalization' through contemporary media."

Refs:
The Daedalus Project
The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

So there you have it. And to repeat a quote from the study:
"To argue that their MMO game play is isolated and passive media consumption that takes the place of informal social engagement is to ignore the nature of what participants actually do behind the computer screen."


Every single day, my mind, and therefore my life, is enriched and expanded with the interaction and opinion that comes from socialising with people (yes, actual PEOPLE) from all walks of life, all over the world. Every day, I learn something new about myself, or something new to apply to myself, or something that I didn't know previously. Importantly, I learn something about someone else, or I learn to look at something I already knew from a totally different perspective.

How about you?

Let me wrap this up now:
MMOs are full of REAL PEOPLE, not television scripts. Okay?
No, really, are you listening this time? Adventures and storylines require real living breathing human beings in order to operate, meaning it's never the same twice (for a start).

The medium I choose for relaxation and socialising isn't filled with beautiful people and 'perfect lines' - the drama is real. The humour is real and unplanned. And I prefer it that way.

But hey, if you choose to watch movies and TV (I do the same sometimes) as a primary source of leisure that's fine. It's your choice. I'm not suggesting one is better than the other.
However, I am quick to be judged and pigeonholed based on the % of time I spend online vs watching TV or kicking a footy or going out drinking - based on the stats above, and all things being equal - shouldn't you also be judged therefore?

Face it - you're just the same as me. You spend lots of hours performing a leisure activity in front of a screen.
Only, mine is 100% interactive - yours is not.
Mine, I get to speak to maybe 100 people a day sometimes, other days maybe I spend with a tight group of friends - you sit there and get spoonfed distorted and censored content that somebody else has decided they will 'think' through for you.

Don't knock what you have no fucking idea about, until you have tried it yourself at least.

And stop trying to 'help' me. I don't want your 'help' - in fact you are downright annoying (you wonder why I'm constantly turning off phones and locking my front door?). Your 'help' is nothing more than your narrow-mindedness, and you moronic small poppyism. I have no desire whatsoever to be bland and belong to the colony.
For the unforeseeable future, get over the fact that I would rather come home and get online than go with you to a club, or stay at work for a function, or any other raft of crappy excuses you all seem to have for a good time.

I prefer my online acquaintances to you. Simple.

**The figurative 'you' in this post is for each and every person that has either approached me, or spoken about me behind my back. Knowing my 'acquaintances' and online adversaries, I felt I needed to explain that. Yes that's an insult to your field of vision and intelligence.
**That's Latin in the title, by the way.

Rocket Surgery

It's an interesting time in MMO-land at the moment:

• SOE just released their first massive patch for the wounded Vanguard:Saga of Heroes, which is actually a great patch fixing 309 tangible bugs, amongst other issues such as memory leaks and general performance issues.
  
  
• Turbine just released their first free content and balancing patch for Lord of the Rings Online here, here and here, causing an unprecedented uproar in the online community for the game (including myself) given that most of the changes are absolutely atrocious, and that many of the 'promises' made in the patch notes were not quite as they seemed. Deviously, Turbine delayed this patch until after the first month of subscriptions had rolled over. Many of us decided to stay onboard with the game based upon the promises made in the patch feature list, and so now feel cheated into staying around (and paying our monthly fee) based upon misleading information.
  Yup, Turbine: you can change your spots but your colour remains the same.. sad, and such an opportunity lost (or at least slowly sliding down the drain).
  
  
• SOE, despite releasing the Vanguard patch I mentioned above, are fueling mutinous fires with a server merge announcement. Given the relatively low populations of the current servers, it actually makes sense to me as Vanguard is the first MMO I've ever played where I can go for 3 hours without seeing another soul. Literally.
  However, as expected, the logistics of merging RP, PVE, Team PVP and FFA PVP are slightly complicated, and each member of the community over there deciding to post about it has a different opinion to everybody else. Sadly, it will most likely end up the way of Star Wars Galaxies and The Matrix Online (two of SOE's other miserable management failures). You'd think they'd have learned not to rest their hand on the burning hot element by now huh?

Funnily enough (and ultimately, ironically) I've found myself spending more and more time with my original favourites of late - driven back by the vast sea of MMO mis-management that appears to be occurring all over the place wherever a 'new' title has cropped up.
EverquestII, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft and Eve-Online all seem extremely trouble-free in compare to these more recent MMO cash-in attempts, and as I have already mentioned elsewhere, these latter games are most certainly extremely polished and fun.

The new releases have actually solidified my loyalty to their competition. Odd.

But I guess there's some assfuck corp-tard at the apex of all of these decisions, making ill-informed and greedy decisions under a narrow-sighted perception that they'll be able to retire early. And they've most likely never actually laid eyes upon their own product. (Gamers?? eww.. bet they also do drugs and have sex with each other in the back of cars. And I wager they never go to church either!)

The common theme I am seeing repeatedly, is that these publishers (or developers) of new titles seem to think they know what their paying customers want. To the point where they will almost argue *with* their customers.
Yup - guys - that's bound to guarantee your subscriber base stays loyal and is happy to fork out their $15.00 per month. I mean that's what we all want to do; pay for something we don't like, and invest our time into something that puts that investment at risk through ridiculous changes to the rules of the universe we signed up for.

Rocket Surgery (sic) at it's finest.

Playing: Vanguard Saga of Heroes™ - sort of..

You know, the more I try other MMO's, the more I seem to have an appreciation for the ones I consider 'core'.

Let me firstly type a couple of lines about Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
Yes, it's an SOE game, but it was developed by a company named Sigil Online, headed up by Uber Wanker #2 Brad McQuaid (of EverQuest I & II fame).

If you spend no less than 5 secs searching the net for anything to do with 'Vanguard' you will soon see that the subject has more flames coming from it than a charcoal firestarter cube soaked in petrol sitting underneath a lit blowtorch.

Why? Because, according to all those who have played it, the game is effectively.. well.. 'still in beta' would be a nice way of putting it.
In other words, it's riddled with bugs, glitches, performance issues, and other such goodies. So badly in fact, that it's a miserable launch failure - underpopulated and the laughing stock on the online community.

SOE partnered up with Sigil a couple of years back, thinking Vanguard would be The Next Big Thing and, why wouldn't you think that! I mean, the guy responsible for the EQ series (who had already worked with Sony obviously) was at the helm. Sure, he quit Sony to form Sigil a while back but hey..
..and how were SOE to know that Brad would be capable of churning out a product under his command with absolutely zero quality control..?

So, SOE decide to buy out Sigil (only but a couple of weeks ago in fact) and actually, if you go to the Sigil website you are now greeted with the formal buyout announcement: http://www.sigil.com/

In other words, Sony spat the dummy at the poor release, and have decided to take matters into their own hands. Which should presumably be A Good Thing™.

Except for the fact that Mr McQuaid (who LEAD the product to the dismal state it's currently in) retains a position on the team! Go figure. At least he's not in charge any more.

Anyhow, you're most probably wondering why on earth I would decide to purchase a game that is widely known to be technically awful, and where subscribers are basically paying to play a beta?
Curiosity, mainly.
Well - let me quantify that: The premise of Vanguard is actually very appealing on paper

• player housing
• ships (building them with the skills of your friends, plus of course sailing them to far-off lands)
  
• ground and flying mounts for all
• a card-game-based diplomacy system
• 4 'spheres' of characteristics per toon (separate outfits and equipment and abilities depending on which 'sphere' you have active such as harvesting, adventuring, diplomacy, crafting)
• a unique crafting system
• caravans (travelling with a group of people making a trek together, even when you're offline, and also being able to purchase or build a wagon to follow your caravan carrying supplies and loot for your party)
• a huuuuge world (and yes, from what I can tell already, it is)
  
• very purdy graphics..

..all features which would appear to set it apart from standard MMO fare.
So yes 'curiosity' to be able to take a close look at some of these 'new' features.

Also, in terms of needing an 'excuse' to pick it up, EB Games had it on special for $29.00 so, with a month's free subscription it seemed that an 'excuse' had arrived.

After going through a minor drama to create the extra twenty gigabytes of hard disk space required for the base install (yikes!), only to then have to endure 5.5 hours of content patch downloads (god knows how many gigs), I went to bed.

The next 'morning', I was off!

..and then I discovered why the game is such a hot topic in online discussions.

Let me put it this way: Even after only having spent one afternoon with it, and creating two toons and getting them to Level 4 each, I have never in my entire life come across anything so buggy and sloppy that I can remember. EVER.
It truly defies words..

..perhaps just a sprinkle then:

• bugged quests (ie: select an option in a quest dialog, only to be taken back to the original question, round and round in an endless loop.. aarrgh!)
• glitchy graphics (falling through the world ~ walking through walls ~ being able to see through closed doors ~ doors not opening.. you get the idea)
• bugged NPC's (stuck on objects yet still damaging you no matter how far you run away from them, and subsequently being killed)
• weird anomalies (flickering world objects like rocks and walls just flashing all the time ~ mysterious pauses in gameplay where everything just freezes for a few seconds)
• equipping a belt but it not showing on your ingame toon (same with gloves and most items)
• no picture of your toon in the 'character stats' window, despite there being controls for rotating your character - its simply not there to view!
• no stats updates to the (paid for!) Vanguard Players website
• logged back to my character select window, only NONE of my characters were there all of a sudden (What The!?!? Where'd my HARD WORK go??)
• reeeeaaaly poor quality voice acting and recording (sounds like a bunch of nerdy students got around a cassette deck and recorded trite and stereotypical phrases for Ultima Online in their living room, complete with the sounds of traffic passing by in the background)

..I could go in, but I shan't.
Remember - all of this in only a few initial hours of playing. WOW. (or, not WoW as it happens..)

Perhaps it's my 'reasonable expectations', but surely one would not even consider releasing a title, let alone anything as complex as an MMO, in such a state?

It would appear that they would, and indeed did - right Brad? :-o

Anyhow, I have a 'free' month to noodle around within Vanguard, so I might as well do so, in-between my usual MMO gametime. I'm sure if anything, it will provide great material for further blogging.
Plus, SOE have committed to an incredible 'fix up' schedule, openly stating that things are a mess and that they will be turning it around now it's under their wings. And if the frequency of recent (and very large) content updates are anything to go buy, I believe them for sure.

But I digress - my main point at the outset of this ramble, was about an appreciation of MMO's that 'get it right'. And by that, I mean that there are a core set of MMO's that I consider to be 'core':

• World of Warcraft
• Guild Wars
• EverQuest II
• EvE Online

They are all highly polished, have very few bugs, have intuitive User Interfaces, run as expected, and generally make sense whilst enabling the player to have a bunch of fun.

In thinking about these core games, I realised they all has something in common: time.

I've come to the conclusion that there's a sweet spot with all MMO's. Or rather, that there most definitely isn't a sweet spot with all MMO's, at the beginning of their life.

Even all of the core games I mention above, which nowadays run like buttered silk, had numerous issues at their birth. Once again, a simple search on Teh Intehnets will bring up varied and sordid pasts for these frontrunners. Bugs, balancing issues, slack programming, poor customer support - you name it. They've all been through it.

Thing is, all of these games are at least 2 years old (some a lot more) and as such have had the benefit of time bestowed upon them, making them run smoother and quieter than every previous incarnation.

So, as I look jokingly in the direction of games like Vanguard and Lord of the Rings Online, I realise that whilst they may be frustratingly full of holes and poor support at the moment (and none other can top those two games - trust me!) I also realise that they both have an absolute ton of potential.

LOTRO for example, looks beautiful and has a real atmosphere of 'kinship' and a relaxed pace (no compelling urge to level up before everyone else - instead promoting social exploring and quietly chipping away at the main storyline) which is extremely complimentary to the fantasy setting (Tolkien).
Vanguard on the other hand, is trying to push the MMO envelope a little, offering things that simply aren't standard fare in other MMO's, which is sorely needed right now.

It's just that both of them are still in nappies. And there's fluorescent green baby-shit seeping out the sides, running down their legs. Yes, they smell. Bad.

So I have come to the conclusion that I must simply dial back my expectations. The potential is there, and hopefully in about 12 months time I'll be able to enjoy the worlds they have both crafted, minus the frustration.
And if I choose to play either of them in the meantime, I must be prepared to take the bad with the good - even if the bad most certainly outweighs the good at this early stage.

One final thing:
It really really REALLY makes you appreciate the old favourites. It's been an absolute age since I played WoW, but I logged in the other night out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a slick and unintrusive gameplay experience - one that I had forgotten about completely after being burnt out after a year of playing solid.

Same goes for Guild Wars (uber slick - slickest of all in fact, in my opinion), EvE and EverQuest II. All of them have had a hot iron running over them for the past 2+ years, leaving very few wrinkles or creases.

So for now, I will resign myself to expecting that anything that's just come out, or is coming out this year, will be great for whiling away the winter hours of 2008.

Hey - at least I have something to look forward to, right?

Dungeon Runners

I came across this latest offering from NCSoft (of Guild Wars, Auto Assault, Lineage, City of Heroes/Villains fame) this week:

Dungeon Runners

As you should be easily able to tell from first glance:















..it gets it's visual cues, UI, and gameplay mechanic from a certain other mildly popular MMO. But any similarities to that particular online world of crafting war, end right there.

For starters, DR's is free.
As in, you download the client, run the installer, set up an account, and start playing. No monthly fees and no initial purchase price. And no, it's nothing like any of those free Korean in-browser MMORPG's that have a bunch of tiny-but-cutesy avatars running around in rainbow land wearing mile wide smiles and dinner plate eyes. This, in compare to those offerings, is a 'real' game.
















I like to think of it this way:

• Visual Style: WoW
• User Interface: WoW
• User Control: Guild Wars/Diablo II
• Gameplay Model: WoW/Guild Wars/Diablo II

The technology is similar to Guild Wars, in that you meet with all other players on your server at towns and outposts, then travel off into instanced dungeons (either solo or in a group) to kill/loot/kill/loot.

In order to achieve this, there's a rudimentary 'Looking For Group' facility, and a robust and plentiful quest system in place (talk to an NPC with a '!' over their head, get a quest, etc), plus a fully functional chat system including friends and ignore lists.

This game is all about loot, and gold, and is highly addictive in it's repetitiveness in the same fashion that Diablo II was - masses of items constantly dropping off the mobs, forever juggling your limited inventory space, opening chests of coin, and mowing through the various denzians of said dungeons.













Obviously, the end to all of these means, is leveling your character. Doing so will not only increase all of your stats but allow you to wear/use the items that pour out of your mob kills.

Whilst the character system is effectively classless, there are three derivatives to choose at character creation time; Mage / Fighter / Ranger.
But as you progress through the levels and zones, you will discover that your stats, traits, and actual in-game character title will morph to approximate the style of gameplay you're embracing, including the weapons you are using. (For example, use a sword a lot and you'll get a title in your name much different to if you solely cast spells.. I'm currently an 'Energetic Noobie Obsidian Mage')

You learn new spells and abilities through NPC trainers or by looting spell books of fallen mobs, and assign them to one of the 8 hotbar slots on your UI, or to the left or right mouse button (Diablo II anyone?). Loot you pick up may be used (if you qualify in Level) or sold to vendors in towns.
As far as player trading or any form of auctioning goes, it's the good old-fashioned method of 'drop on the ground for your mate to pick up', which is actually amusing and also extremely reminiscent of Diablo II days.
















Speaking of amusing, the entire game is riddled with humour, often taking the piss out of itself and frequently poking a Very Large Fun Stick at all of the genre stereotypes. Fans of the genre (such as my good self) will find themselves chuckling away at regular intervals.

For example - I recently gained a passive skill named 'Mediocrity'. It's tooltip reads:
"Congratulations, you are average! You aren't great, but you don't suck either. No sense in rocking the boat and changing the status quo. You gain 12 Mana per Intellect point and 25 Health per Endurance point. Keep up the average work, and don't push yourself any harder than you have to."

And another, 'Trigger Happy':
"You have a nervous twitch with your trigger finger resulting from a “work-related” accident involving a branding iron, a penguin, and a large bucket of coffee beans. Your memory of the accident is hazy, but the twitch comes in handy with ranged weapons, giving you the innate ability of 25% increased speed with all ranged weapons."

Add to this items such as 'Baby Seal Fur Pauldrons' or 'Cardboard Axe for Great Justice', and you begin to get the idea. (I recently walked up to an NPC offering a quest who said, in voice, 'If you see the ghost of my dead father, tell him... I'm sorry about the poison')
Even the main location hub's name made me chuckle ('Townston').


All in all it's extremely fast-paced, colourful, and light-hearted, yet at the same time it feels like it goes well beyond the usual limitations of any free offering.

And speaking of which, whilst it is indeed totally free, if you sign up for a $4.99/month subscription you gain a number of benefits such as:

• being able to use the most powerful in-game items, weapons and armour
• log-in queue priority for when the servers are full (you’ll skip straight to the front of the queue)
• access to a bank, which contains an additional 220 slots of storage space for you to access when in a town
• the luxury of stacking potions (meaning that multiple potions will occupy one inventory slot, saving room for loot)
• plus more to come

Whilst I initially presumed it would merely be a light distraction between courses of my staple MMO diet, I've actually been playing it non-stop since I installed it. I'm positive it'll grow old fairly quickly, but I also know it'll remain on my hard drive as light entertainment to break up my lengthy EQ2, LOTRO or GW sessions.

At only around 420mb to download fully, and with system requirements that would almost allow it to run on your mobile phone, I can't recommend it enough, at least as a curiosity.

Head on over to the sign-up page and give it a whirl. Monster bashing with appealing depth at it's finest.

EvE Online? What's that?

Good question.
Firstly, and probably the best way to discover what EvE Online looks and feels like, is to watch this:



Some trivia for you:

• The song in the background is a remix of 'Beauty Never Fades' by Junkie XL, from the album 'Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin'
• The female vocals are performed by Samantha Sprackling (otherwise known as 'Saffron' from the band Republica, responsible for the song 'Ready To Go', which you will all no doubt be familiar with given it has been used in nearly every advertising medium known to man)
• All of the footage you see is shot totally in game - there are no pre rendered cinematics in the trailer whatsoever

In essence, EvE Online is incredible in scope, beauty, and unmatched depth. With it's beauty, comes some of the most brutal PvP online play I have ever encountered, but that's par for the course in the EvE universe. Here's the fundamentals:

What is EVE Online?
EVE is a massive multiplayer online game set in a science-fiction based, persistent world. Players take the role of spaceship pilots seeking fame, fortune, and adventure in a huge, complex, exciting, and sometimes hostile galaxy.
EVE Online is host to the largest virtual universe in the world, has an unbelievably dynamic player controlled economy (and I mean *unbelievable*), and the unique feature of leveling skills whilst offline.

What is basic game play like?
The diversity and flexibility of EVE makes it difficult to categorise it by conventional standards. It absolutely depends on the level at which it is played.

The game is set in an unknown portion of space, spanning thousands (5000!) of solar systems, many of which are settled. Players begin by creating an in-game character equipped with a basic spaceship ready to explore the world. As they get acquainted with life in EVE, players can trade goods between systems or conduct other money-making ventures such as mining asteroids, transporting goods as a courier, or even cleaning up debris for recycling. Financial gains made through such activities can be used to upgrade the ship with weapons and equipment and also to develop the character by purchasing skill packs used for training him or her in various skills he will need to advance in the world of EvE.

When a player has mastered the basics of the game, acquired some money and equipment, and advanced his or her character through basic skills, the possibilities become almost endless. Players who wish to explore peaceful paths may continue to upgrade their ships to bigger and better cargo vessels with high-end defenses, purchase advanced mining or research equipment and continue to develop their characters by specializing in their preferred skills. Others may elect to pursue a more dangerous path such as piracy, smuggling or bounty hunting.

This page shows most of the features, including screenshots, and more details than I could ever find the time to type about are available here.

Bottom line?
If you're a boy (ie: into space/sci-fi) then you owe it to yourself to try this game. Even if you're hormones are more Estrogen-based, there is plenty to offer here.
Yes, it's set in space (beautiful, eye-popping, jaw-dropping space) but that's only about 1% of the appeal. This game is deeper than a deep-diving thing set to dive ad infinitum. The choices over how you choose to exist in the world are so vast, I have trouble knowing where to begin.















For example, there are 'Corporations' in the game. These are run by players, and are lightly akin to 'guilds' in other MMO's. Only these are the real deal - complete with CEO's, CFO's, Accountants, Auditors, Factory Managers, etc. You may join a mining corp for example. Your job may be to head out to asteroids and mine ore for the corp - that's literally your job. You will be accompanied by other employees who (say) are there to protect you as you mine.
Your goal is to fit out your ships with better mining equipment - theirs is to upgrade with better weapons, tracking devices, and hull or shield augmentations.
You bring the ore back to base, it gets refined (another job for someone else), and then is either packaged and sold as a commodity over the in-game Escrow market system (complete with in-game browser support to Corp store fronts) or utilised in-house for manufacturing (some corps are set up purely as industrial manufacturers, supplying goods, ships, and equipment across the galaxy).

I happen to belong to an Australian Corporation named 'Southern Cross Mining and Industrial'. They have a stock market ticker in-game [SMC] just like a real market. Shares are purchasable, and I have the opportunity to try out different roles within the organisation. It's quite nuts.

And in case you haven't figured it out yet, the 'world' of EvE is.. well..







let's just say that UNBELIEVABLY HUGE is an understatement. The very first time you gaze upon the starmap, you feel hopelessly small, and even more-so, lost. But you quickly realise that getting around isn't as daunting as one might expect.
The map system, and nav plotting features, are all exceptionally intuitive. Plus, you start out in a high-security zone of space, meaning you tend to not stray to far away from home at first. As you gain equipment and skill, and become hungry for more, you begin to venture off into less secure zones further out from the centre of the galaxy.

It is here that things start to get.. scary. To say the least.

By venturing out into the great unknown, you are effectively putting yourself at great risk from being attacked by rival corporations or NPC pirates (rats). After spending 100's of 1000's of dollars (ISK is the in game currency) and countless hours getting to where you are happy to venture out, you will be brutally shocked as you are blown to a million little pieces.
And trust me, the feeling is one of utter despair. Your total annihilation faces you as you gaze into the screen in total disbelief.

It is *brutal*.

Fortunately, like all aspects of the game, the details of the game save you somewhat as any half-witted player should've taken out insurance on their ship. (Yes, there's a fully functioning insurance system within the game, a'la real life)

I could go on for hours and hours and hours more, attempting to describe all of the features of EvE Online, but I shant.

If you're vaguely interested at all, grab a copy of the 14 day free trial and take it for a spin yourself. The early part of the game is a totally guided tutorial which more than gives you a feel for what the game has to offer.















As for me? (Aren't you also playing other MMO's at the moment?)
Yep I sure am. But nothing, and I mean nothing, comes close to being even vaguely similar to EvE. For me, I can't ever see myself canceling my subscription to EvE - it's simply too unique to every other MMO, and too deep to ignore. I have limitless fun within EvE (including the fantastic playerbase in there) and I am never far from feeling like a quick run amongst all my other fantasy-based MMO playtime.

Speaking of the playerbase, another little factoid: EvE is run on one server. Yup.
What does that mean? One community, effectively. Its truly astounding and nobody has any clue how they do it.

Anyhow, I hope this whet your appetite enough to grab a copy of the free trial. EvE is absolutely an unsung hero in the world of MMORPGs, but then again, that's kinda what makes it so cool.

As Kurt Cobain once said (quote):
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not."

EverQuest II So Far..

The top 10 things I am liking about EverQuest II the most:

1. player housing (you're given an apartment right after the n00b zone, and you can decorate it as you wish with 100's of items, including crafting nodes like forges and ovens etc). they also include a handy vault (bank), plus a 'market board' so you can set up a broker in your house to buy & sell items from, plus you can set it up to sell in your absence (kinda like an in-house auction house) you can also give other players and friends varying access permissions, so you can use your house for meeting, crafting, selling, and entertaining as you desire.
   
2. you can disable mob kill XP (to concentrate on crafting, or to complete storyline quests without fear of out-leveling the requirements, for example)
3. no corpse runs! when you die you get revived by another player, or hit a 'revive' button yourself and get transported to a nearby location (there are still penalties for dying: a small XP debt and 10% durability loss on your gear per death)
4. it's solo friendly for all classes and characters, with quests easy to find & in abundance (typically level a character to L7 or L8 within 90mins, with soloable content all the way to L70)
   
5. a Mentoring system (a low-level player can be assisted by a higher level player, who can mentor down to a lower level while still earning experience)
6. a huge selection of races (17) and classes (24) to choose from for your toon
   
7. an extremely slick, clear, and highly customisable UI (best I've ever seen) including a powerful and flexible in game chat system and LFG options
8. next-gen graphics (bump mapping, shaders everywhere, realtime dynamic lighting, incredible particle effects.. looks awful purdy) including full weather and day/night cycles
   
9. content updates ALL THE TIME (omg i've only been playing a few weeks and already there's been 2 major content updates, including one entirely new race and starting zone), and another major update due in a few months which increases the level cap to L80, and introduces *another* new race and starting zone
   
10. a mature playerbase (EverQuest has been around since Jan '99) especially when compared to WoW

I've got about 6 toons on the go at the moment, as I get to know all the classes. My fav's so far (and recommended to those starting out ) would be a Warden (Druid), Wizard (Mage), or Berserker (Warrior), depending upon your particular bent.

See here for a list of all classes and descriptions.

Given it's been around for so long, it's had time to iron out the kinks and simply get things right. Little touches make it enjoyable - for example, as I have begun a number of characters from scratch I've noticed little differences, such as upon leaving the 'starter island' you end up at different regions of the main city, depending on your race. Meaning, you can start another character and not play through the same content.

Crafting is exceptionally intuitive, fun, and most importantly; worthwhile and rewarding. Fishing is included here (unlike LOTRO where there is none) as is a unique 'collector' system: You can discover and collect items that are 'collectible', which you can add to various collections. Once a collection is complete you can turn it in for useful rewards.

Another little nicety is the ability to both fight and harvest while still mounted. And speaking of mounts, I saw someone on a flying carpet the other day.. don't see that in many MMO's! (scroll to the bottom of this page to see one, and all the other mounts explained) Another pic here, alongside one of the very cool 'spirit steeds'.

It's early days yet I guess, but so far I'm enjoying it more than WoW, LOTRO, or Guild Wars. It seems extremely 'complete' and optimised, and hopefully it will keep up the content and interest as I level.

There are a couple of trials available for people wishing to give it a try:

Trial of the Isle lets you play the 'starter island' in all it's glory (the place you start from in the normal game - kind of a n00b tutorial zone).

Play the Fae takes you to the new starting area of Kelethin (a treetop city) where you get to play as the new race called the 'Fae', who are basically fairies. I haven't tried this zone yet, but by all accounts it's the best content yet..

More to come as time goes by. I'll be sure to keep my opinions posted as I progress further into the game.

Good times. =)