Author Archive for Ethic

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Snappy One-Liners

Posted by Ethic on August 6, 2010 in Guild Wars 2. 5 Comments

One of my main concerns while watching many of the videos the Guild Wars 2 folks have been sharing are the little one-liners the characters shout when they attack. You know, things like “Take that!”. I knew right away I would get sick of hearing that sort of thing all the time. Thankfully, they agree with me. Read this quote from their latest news, Talking Heads: VO and Dialogue in GW2:

We’re also aware that there can be too much of a good thing, which is why we’ve developed a sound throttling system so you won’t hear the same combat chatter repeated over and over again during fights. Those concerned about the game being diluted with “snappy one-liners” can breathe a sigh of relief. You won’t hear quips every five seconds, and most of them aren’t smarmy in nature. That annoys us just as much as it does you.

Make sure you listen to the samples while you are there.

- Ethic

Free Realms Housing Confusion

Posted by Ethic on July 22, 2010 in Free Realms. 6 Comments

I grabbed a lifetime account on Free Realms for both of my kids. One of the perks of becoming a member is that you get a house as well as the free apartment everyone gets. Problem is, the house is only for one character and it is not shared over the account. Even though you can have 3 characters (I’m not sure why you’d want more than one) only one of them gets the house. The rest get apartments. I really do not understand why you wouldn’t share it to all 3 but hey that’s the rule.

The first thing my daughter does is create a new character (again it was a perk of gaining member status to get 2 more character slots) and the “you have an item to claim” icon shows up so she clicks it and next thing you know she has a house. Excitement! Decorating! Then she logs into the character she has been playing since the game came out and hey what’s this apartment thing? Where’s my house? She had no idea. So she deletes the new character thinking that the house will show up on the only character left. Oops! She just deleted her house. It’s gone for good. Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m sure it warned her that the house is tied to one character only when she claimed it but for whatever reason she did not digest that information.

SuperDad steps up to the plate and contacts Free Realms support. After a few emails back and forth they grant the house to her main character and remind me to remind her not to delete that character because if she did she would be out of luck and have to buy a house in the future.

I really only have one question for them: Why would you do it that way?

- Ethic

Quest for Chests

Posted by Ethic on July 16, 2010 in Allods Online. 8 Comments

May all your loot be big and bouncy.

Ahem.

- Ethic

Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon – Excerpt

Posted by Ethic on July 1, 2010 in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. 2 Comments

You can read an excerpt from the upcoming “Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon” book by Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb here. Small excerpt of the excerpt here:

The sylvari set her chin and concentrated on a patch of the bones lining the left side of the passage. She swung her arms and fingers in a complex pattern and spoke words that made Dougal’s head ache slightly. A greenish glow formed in the wall of bones and coalesced around a human-sized set of remains.

As Dougal watched, the bones detached from the surrounding patch and assembled themselves into a coherent skeleton. The deep-green glow, rather than sinew and tendons, held it together. The right side of its skull had been bashed in, and its jaw was missing, as was the lower part of its right arm, which terminated in a pair of jagged breaks. It stood before them like a servant presenting itself to its betters.

- Ethic

Weatherstock 2010

Posted by Ethic on June 12, 2010 in Lord of the Rings Online. 5 Comments

Rocking out on Weathertop for this year’s Weatherstock concert.

- Ethic

I Admire The Honesty

Posted by Ethic on May 27, 2010 in General. 1 Comment

One of our latest and frequent spam comments (emphasis is mine):

WoW patch 3.3.5 ptr is live.The Ruby Sanctum will be the last raid released in Wrath of the Lich King, advancing the storyline towards Cataclysm. although i am spammer, we have cheap wow account and wow gold

- Ethic

The Lich King is Dead – HCB Update

Posted by Ethic on May 17, 2010 in World of Warcraft. 9 Comments

My brother (whom I call hard core brother or HCB) has taken many forms under the name of Grim. His latest is a blood elf paladin. He sends me this update about him and his guild Juggernaut.

Invincible

The name of the mount is “Invincible“, and is a guaranteed drop off of LK25-H.
For obvious reasons, it’s the rarest mount in the game :) I was fortunate enough to be awarded our first one.

Continue reading ‘The Lich King is Dead – HCB Update’

Alganon: Blatant Plagiarism

Posted by Ethic on May 7, 2010 in Alganon and Star Wars: The Old Republic. 55 Comments

Thanks to the folks over at F13.net it has been pointed out just how blatant the Alganon folks are being with their plagiaristic press releases.

Remember this statement from the Alganon press release? Note it is dated Wednesday, April 28, 2010.

“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, we’re not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more.”

Now check out this statement from the SWTOR folks, dated October 21, 2008.

“Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe.”

Sad.

Update: Here is the official response and conclusion.

Still sad.

- Ethic

Alganon: No New Ideas

Posted by Ethic on May 5, 2010 in Alganon, Star Wars: The Old Republic and World of Warcraft. 13 Comments

Not that long ago, this quote appeared on Massively:

The December first launch of the game “should never have happened,” and Smart is working to fix this. Among other things, he says the “WoW lookalike rubbish” is gone. The design team is throwing it out and working in a completely different direction to give the game its own unique look and feel. “You don’t go competing with WoW when you don’t have a WoW sized budget or the manpower to match.”

They copied World of Warcraft, realized it was a dumb idea, and are going to take all that WoW rubbish out.

Then I get the Alganon launch email and it has this quote:

“Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story.

Where have I heard that before? Oh right, Star Wars:The Old Republic. Also, nice spelling. Multiplier?

Traditionally MMOs are built on three pillars; Exploration, Combat, and Progression. We at BioWare and LucasArts believe there is a fourth pillar: Story.

Do they have any original ideas? They didn’t have a WoW budget but they do have a SWTOR budget?

- Ethic

Dear Quickfoot Cat Burglar

Posted by Ethic on April 21, 2010 in Dungeons & Dragons Online. 2 Comments

BoomI infiltrated your warehouse the other day and, well, perhaps I shouldn’t be saying this but I think you guys are getting some bad advice. You see, some of the barrels in your warehouse are rather clearly labeled as “Explosive Barrel” and yet each and every last one of you chose to stand right next to one. I mean, even though it made it quite enjoyable to put you guys out of business, you might find more success standing next the the plain old “barrel” next time.

Not that I can blame you, your boss was standing between 2 explosive barrels.

Respectfully,

- Ethic