Month: July 2009

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Nod of Camaraderie

I saw from afar a fellow student battling the undead, re-risen, or newly awakened crocodile warriors in the tombs beneath the Krokosphinx.  I was not quite sure what they were.  The genus of the creature was lost on me during lectures.  All I knew was that they turned to sand when I threw lighting at their faces.  A newt-looking Mander had asked me to defeat a few more of the Kroks, and my classmate was trying to defeat the same Kroks.  I scampered up to his battle circle, re-tooling my spell deck on the fly.  He turned  his head toward me with a grim nod.  More of the enemy would soon be joining us.

After the protracted battle involving the summoning of all manner of magical creatures, the Kroks dissolved to sand, filling the rocky cracks in the floor.  There were a few small pieces of fulgurite from all the lightning strikes I inflicted, but I pretended not to notice for the life wizard’s sake.  That was it.  The briefest of glances, the quickest of handshakes, and a tactical retreat in to the shadows of sidewalks ended our grouping.  I may meet up with him again for another painless transaction.  I can only hope the other world’s I walk will soon have means for the transient gathering requiring merely the nod of camaraderie.

–Ravious
in the end it became a triumphal march

Zombie Is the New Vampire

I have been saying it since Generation Dead came out, but I am convinced after a tour through the coming books. Generation Dead‘s sequel is already out, and the zombie cheerleaders are starting to line up. Zombie movies and games started moving that way a while ago, with 28 Days Later and Left 4 Dead featuring fast-moving zombies like angry rabies victims, with the former even having them convert victims with a single bite. Vampires started going sparkly sometime in the Anne Rice years, and I am surprised how quickly the zombies have followed. We are probably on the verge of a unified undead-dom, or maybe the next author will decide that they are all variant forms of revenants, and we will see epic fantasy adventure wherein revenant dragon-slayers work with undead witches to save the kingdom. I see movies, lousy console game tie-ins, and a cartoon version that mimics anime stylings.

: Zubon

Interview with Guild Wars Guru’s Inde

For many MMO fans, a large part of the hobby comes from communication outside of the actual game. Fansites and their forums are one of the best places to get the latest news, interact with devs, and discuss the game down to its base mechanics. Inde is the site administrator of Guild Wars Guru, which has one of the most active Guild Wars forums. She, along with a cadre of other moderators, keeps the site and community in good condition. Inde agreed to let me ask her a few questions on running an MMO fansite with an active community.

Continue reading Interview with Guild Wars Guru’s Inde

Orion on Emergent Gameplay

While many are still splashing the ripples from the Twixt or Myers or whoever’s attempt to explain sociological emergence in a one-sided, four-colored narrative, Orion – one of the developers for Lord of the Rings Online – put up an excellent post discussing emergent gameplay on his blog.  He discusses how all exploits start with emergent gameplay and uses the Mines of Moria instance, the Grand Stair as an example. It’s well worth a read.

–Ravious
first principles, clarice. simplicity

EDIT: Linked to Orion’s post as originally intended, not my comment.

I couldn’t kick him

My kinship wanted to do the turtle raid. We didn’t have enough people to do it without inviting people from outside the kin. One of the people we picked up was a guardian. The first thing we noticed about this guardian was his health pool. My squishy little runekeeper had the same amount of health as he did. An inspection of his traits revealed that he had terrible equipment. Many of the things he was wearing were quest rewards in dire need of replacement. His virtues had such gems as “Charity 9” and “Wisdom 4”. He also didn’t have his traits set up to hold agro.

My kin-mates were complaining about the guy on our teamspeak server before we started, but we went with him anyway. During the battle he had the attention of the turtle for about half the time. He just couldn’t hold agro. When the turtle was down to about 50k health, we wiped. I’ve seen turtle raids before, and if you wipe when it has 50k left, you’re in trouble.

Continue reading I couldn’t kick him

Mirror World Myers

It would have been a better read if he decided to roleplay the Pied Piper in Everquest 1 to rid the region of invaders by training the mobs of that zone.  I do like how Myers tried to distance himself from Twixt’s actions by writing as if Twixt was the one acting.  Hopefully Myer’s peers that reviewed his paper are not themselves new to online gaming.  Hat tip: Broken Toys.

–Ravious
we have no future because our present is too volatile

MMO Twittering

I have given my thoughts on Twitter, and my fervor is beginning to erode.  I even camped out a name.  No, I didn’t get Ravious.  Some impostor has squatted on my namesake.  I did get my “real” name though, which depends on who you ask: my mom or Magneto.  Recently, an add-on for World of Warcraft was made that allows people to tweet in-game.  This (and the fact that nearby taco trucks tweet location) brings me from doubtful to enlightened in my view of the micro-blogging application.

I like signing on and checking my guild page to see where people are adventuring.  That small amount of information can be helpful, but rarely has it helped me group up with guildmates.  Most of the time I have grouped up in guild chat where pertinent information can be exchanged.  Sure, it helps to know that they are in the Lonelands, but they might just be passing through.

A simple tweet could change that if it is used as some active status report.  I always feel guilty when a guildmate expends will and energy to let his band of brothers and sisters know that he will be farming trolls for the next hour.  Would any of us like to join him?  Now, instead of guilt-tripping some hobbit healer to be turned into troll foot-jelly, the guild member can just update his playstyle on Twitter.  It’s brilliant!  Sign on and scroll through meaningful information immediately.  Hey, you say, Bobthefarmer is working on Yak rep, I will join him.  It becomes your choice rather than a reaction to a plea for help.

Stupid Turbine’s add-on policy.

–Ravious
wanderers wandering all round the town