Month: February 2006

.

Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

.

Bust the Cap

DDO[Dungeons & Dragons Online] D&D Online is open for the pre-order players, and it should be on the store shelves shortly. In honor of this fact, go find out what D&D player you are here. I’m a Chaotic Good Half-Elf Bard. Yeah, right.

In other news, people are already hitting the level cap (which is 10) before the game is officially available to the general public. Ouch.

Reached level 10!, (now what else is there to do???)

Ciryadin Aklabeth
Sanctum Infinitas Guild Leader
Bored Level 10 Rogue

UPDATE: More level 10’s showing up, some with screenshots to prove it.

– Ethic

Segregation

cov[City of Villains] Following the success of the world’s first widely accepted comic based MMO; City of Heroes, the brains at NCsoft began design on a companion product to allow roles of a more malicious nature. The surprise regarding this obvious progression of the universe is concerning the independent nature of the product. City of Villains is designed and marketed as an autonomous entity, free of all dependences to its predecessor.

While the above statement is true it is also an expected assumption of players in both games to assume it is a shared world, through parallel style, game play, design, account fees, and all around structure. It would not be too much to say it is simply a modified template positioned atop a singular foundation.

Continue reading Segregation

The Power of 2

EVE[EVE Online] I pretty much decided to turn my current EVE character into a full-time production and refining guru, so I started thinking about starting another character with a combat focus. Problem is, if I start the 2nd character on the same account, I cannot train them both at the same time. But to purchase a second account? Me? Never.

Enter the EVE Dev Blog. They are bringing back “The Power of 2” promotion at the perfect time for this decision. Basically, I can buy a second account for $49.95. Seems like a lot of money, right? Actually, the account comes with 6 months of game time which amounts to $8.33 per month. I guess we have a deal on my hands, and I’ll have two accounts by the end of the week. Perfect time to try out the new bloodlines.

I imagine that this will increase the number of active accounts by a few thousand. Or even more, who knows?

– Ethic

Another 2 cents (well more like 48)

Hey folks! I’m the new guy. My nick is Nicodemus and I will be posting a lot of rants, raves, complaints, ideas, opinions, analysis, theory, practice, and commentary on just about every topic remotely related to the game industry (with an emphasis on MMOs). Apparently I have talked Spot’s ear off so many times that he thinks I should shut up, write it down, and share it with the rest of the world. So, here I am!

“Who is this guy?” you are probably wondering. Well, here is a little bit about me:

I am an old school gamer…I’ve played games on the Ti-99, Atari 400 and 800, the Apple IIe and IIc, the Amiga, the Commodore 64, some weirdo computer called a Schneider (with a tape cassette to load games!), and of course the venerable consoles…Pong (yeah, I owned one) Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 2600 and 5200, and the usual Nintendo and Sega consoles, as well as all of the recent ones you are familiar with. Oh yeah, can’t forget the Vectrex!

Continue reading Another 2 cents (well more like 48)

Between-Patch Die-Off

cov[City of Villains] The launch of City of Villains was Issue 6, with little on the heroes side (except the overlap PvP content). Issue 7 is coming, again mostly villains stuff. Luckily, most of my supergroup has City of Villains, so everyone has been on. Until recently.

We are now at that point when everyone is bored and will be logging on a couple hours a week until the new patch is on test. At first it is a few people. There are fewer people to group with from the SG, so a few more wander off. Next, you are soloing or in pick-up groups for a month, so maybe you join them in the logged-off state. Hmm, I can check out a new game for a while…

Of course, for me, that has meant more time badge-whoring on my old main and playing Kingdom of Loathing. Guys, come back! We miss you! Issue 7 is coming, really!

: Zubon

Data Mining

EVE[EVE Online] The latest EVE devblog has some interesting information about the skillpoint totals of the currently active players. I will share this information below.

Here is the breakdown of skillpoints of active characters on Tranquility:

between 0 and 1 million skillpoints: 358353
between 1 and 2 million skillpoints: 14035
between 2 and 3 million skillpoints: 8149
between 3 and 4 million skillpoints: 5826
between 4 and 5 million skillpoints: 4696
between 5 and 10 million skillpoints: 14859 (avg 2972)
between 10 and 15 million skillpoints: 9875 (avg 1975)
between 15 and 20 million skillpoints: 7861 (avg 1572)
between 20 and 25 million skillpoints: 6194 (avg 1239)
between 25 and 30 million skillpoints: 4373 (avg 875)
between 30 and 35 million skillpoints: 2568 (avg 514)
between 35 and 40 million skillpoints: 1313 (avg 263)
between 40 and 45 million skillpoints: 257 (avg 51)
between 45 and 50 million skillpoints: 4 (avg 0.8)
between 50 and 55 million skillpoints: 7 (avg 1.4)
between 55 and 60 million skillpoints: 1 (avg 0.2)

They also mention that the average EVE player sticks around for 7 months. As reference, I’m just over 6 million skillpoints and I started playing in May 2005.

– Ethic

One-Day Ascension?

[Kingdom of Loathing] For those interested in such things, several people tried for one-day Ascensions (i.e., beat the game) in Kingdom of Loathing yesterday. They were coming off Hardcore-Oxygenarian (max difficulty) runs and donated a good amount of the money to have maximum rewards/resources. Bashy seemed the most likely, being perhaps the most prominent player in the Kingdom. He has…everything. Mysticality day, a good donation item, coming off an Oxycore run… good times.

This thread tracks the progress of several of the runners, along with commentary and cheerleading. Or, if you want to cut to the chase, read after the break.

Continue reading One-Day Ascension?

Tough But Not Too Tough

EVE[EVE Online] Not that long ago I posted about CCP getting tough on people that trade in-game currency for real money.

I was happy to see them turning the screws, with them going so far as writing: “This issue is not up for discussion. Buying your way ahead in EVE is cheating, pure and simple.” Sounds great, right?

Well I have recently become aware that CCP sells Game Time Cards. Basically, these are codes that you can use to pay for your account, a pre-paid credit as you will. Here comes the fun part.

CCP specifically ALLOWS people to resell these cards for in-game ISK. They even allow it on their very own forums. So it’s against the rules to buy ISK with real money, but if you just buy one of these cards with real money you can in turn sell the card for ISK. Why is this OK? The end result of this allowed ISK purchasing scheme is the same. People are buying their way ahead.

Sounds lame to me.

– Ethic

A Day In the Life

cov[City of Villains] Folks asked for a typical day in City of Villains, so here is the running account of today’s play. [edit: I have been informed that this is pretty boring. Sorry about that.]

Log in my level 39 Dark Blast/Thermal Radiation Corruptor. Friends are also in this level range (two 38 Masterminds, 35 Dominator), so I immediately join them. We run a few missions against Wailers and Circle of Thorns, then they all need to go for various reasons.

Continue reading A Day In the Life