Author: Ethic

I own this little MMO gaming blog but I hardly ever write on it any more. I'm more of a bloglord or something. Thankfully I have several minions to keep things rolling along.

[SWTOR] The Duo Strikes Back

This past weekend was called “Weekend Pass” for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which granted new players a chance to try it out for 4 days without needing to spend any money. I took the opportunity to see how my favorite method of gaming (the duo) works in SWTOR. I enlisted my son to be my “other half”.

First we picked a server, easily done. Next we had to find classes that start on the same planet/area. New players might not realize that they would need to do this but as an old veteran of the MMO wars, I know how things work. Research showed us as follows:

Continue reading [SWTOR] The Duo Strikes Back

[SWTOR] A New Hope

I started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic over the past weekend. While I was active in the beta test and developed many opinions about the game, I decided to try to ignore those and start fresh hoping for nothing more than a fun game. Once I put the quest to find some new miracle game that solves all design flaws ever made aside, I found out there is a fun game to be had here – at least so far.

Continue reading [SWTOR] A New Hope

Sometimes I Need That Carrot

I’ve been in a gaming funk for about a year now. I may find something fun for a while, but within a few weeks I’ve tired of it. I don’t have any active MMO subscriptions either. All I have left is MMOs that are subscription free, or ones I’ve signed up for a lifetime account.

I’ve been almost forcing myself to keep playing Lord of the Rings Online because it is still the one game I feel “connected” to. Regardless, as I play less and less, I get more and more lost. I will often log in, pay for my house upkeep, see if anyone I know is playing, and log out. Continue reading Sometimes I Need That Carrot

Loving Skyrim

Another great night in Skyrim confirms my original opinion, that this is the best game I’ve ever played.

Here is just one highlight:

I was out exploring with my constant companion Lydia by my side when we came upon a horse standing there, saddle and everything. I started thinking to myself, free horse. I approached with caution when I heard the screech and roar from above, a dragon! It looks like the dragon wanted the horse more than I did and it proceeded to attack the horse. The owner of the horse, a hunter, came out of the woods to try to defend. We joined in the fight.

Over the next 20 minutes we fought all over the side of the large hill covered in ruins as well as in the forest. It was as close to an epic battle as I have had in a game. I was close to death several times and I lost track of Lydia at some point. I burned through all my arrows and had to find little hiding spots to heal up.

The end result: dead dragon, dead hunter, dead horse. Lydia survived.

That was amazing fun.

P.S. Mammoths are killers.

– Ethic

$150? Are You Nuts?

Bullet Points made me do it.

Star Wars The Old Republic has priced their collector’s edition at $150. I just do not see the value here. Perhaps because the figurine/statue thing is not something I give a rat’s ass about. I’m still not even sure I want to play this game and this is coming from someone that buys and plays every mainstream MMO. Heck I even have the Age of Conan collector’s edition somewhere around here. With that said, I would have probably foolishly purchased the SWTOR-CE at a price point of $79.95 based on my past history. I really like soundtracks and art books (Guild Wars gets me every time). Thank you Bioware for putting more money into my motorcycle parts fund.

I guess I finally have reached a point where I can see through the hype a little bit and have no problem waiting for a chance to actually try before I buy. However if this was Guild Wars 2 I’d be frothing at the mouth to throw money at them and I barely ever play Guild Wars 1. They know how to turn me into a customer.

I really don’t have anything else to say other than this: If you bought the CE, enjoy it! If you didn’t, enjoy your money!

– Ethic

Note to self: Use bullet points next time.

Thoughts and Speculations on the Support Class

This is a guest article from Captain Scrat.
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For a long time we have known that ArenaNet; the makers of the fine game we all love, Guild Wars, have decided it is time to break the stone engraved rules of the holy trinity: The Tank (a player that will be able to hold the pressure of attacks from the NPC), The DPS (a very strong player that will deal as much as possible of damage per second) and The Monk (a key part of the trinity that will be able to keep the tank and the others alive). ArenaNet wanted to come up with a new concept of battle for their upcoming game: Guild Wars 2. They have always tried to distinguish themselves and make something different that the traditional MMO’s do not have. In this case, it was the idea of breaking the holy trinity.

Continue reading Thoughts and Speculations on the Support Class

Pirates of the Burning Sea Goes Free to Play

Or should that be “Free to Plunder”?

We’re preparing to change the business model of Pirates of the Burning Sea from subscription to free-to-play (hence forth to be known as F2P). This is the culmination of a decision that was made back at the end of last year, and I’m thrilled to finally be able to announce it. It’s not a decision we’ve taken lightly, and we’ve put in a lot of planning and work to make this a seamless transition. We’re very excited about this direction for a number of reasons.

First, it reduces the barrier of entry for new players to come in and try the game. Experience has shown us that players who try the game tend to stick with the game, so we want to remove any impediment for a player to try the game. Free trials are great, but the knowledge that there’s a required subscription makes potential players think in terms of commitment—”do I want to be paying every month for the long term” rather than “will I have fun with it tonight?” The first question is hard for any product, but we feel really good about the answer to the second.

– Ethic

All Points Bulletin – The End

Well that is that.

APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone’s best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It’s been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome!

From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support.

The servers are still up, so join the party and say goodbye!

– Ben ‘APBMonkey’ Bateman (Community Officer)

– Ethic

Free Love

Feeling the itch to try something different? Love is free to play this weekend.

This weekend Love will be free to play for anyone who wants to. All you need to do is download the client(42Mb), un-zip it start love.exe . Then just click “play for free” and you are in.

It wasn’t a game for me, but it might be for you. It certainly is different.

– Ethic