I have been thinking about reactivating a few games in order to do a mini-review on any changes that may have occurred. The two games are Auto Assault and Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. Oddly enough, both games have offered free reactivation for this weekend (actually Auto Assault is giving 10 days).
Author: Ethic
I run this little MMO gaming blog but I hardly ever write on it anymore. I'm more of a bloglord or something. Thankfully I have several minions to keep things rolling along.
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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.
.Space Drama
[EVE Online] A recent email from CCP offered me a free 7 day come back offer. Figuring it was a good way to train a skill for free (skills train in real time even if your account is closed), I popped in to see what was new. I found myself staring straight into the drama of space.
It appeared that my former corporation in EVE, Ars Caelestis, had been disbanded by the CEO. In fact, the claims were such that he stole lots of ISK on his way to the full and final destruction of the corp. The CEO, Achilles Thorongmor, did not go quietly into the night as I expected. I thought some of you might find it interesting to see some of the things that go on in EVE Online and I leave it to you to decide what is right and what is wrong.
Back to ToonTown. Not.
[ToonTown] It was my son’s birthday recently and he asked if I could set up ToonTown for him to play another month. I figured I would, even though I had a bad taste in my mouth from the extra steps I had to do in order to cancel it last time.
I logged in and set up a subscription for the account. I hit submit and it sits there for about 5 minutes. Finally I get a message telling me to call a toll-free number for assistance. OK, nevermind – I’ll just make a free 3-day account for him and try the subscription after that expires. Three days later, same problem. They accept PayPal, so I try to pay with that hoping for a better result but I have no such luck. So, I make the call.
Fun.
Disneyworld is fun. However, I think if you went every weekend, you would lose a lot of the magic. Many MMOs are the same for me. Fun, but if you play a lot, you can lose the magic. Sometimes, bringing someone new along awakens the magic once again. I have been experiencing this in World of Warcraft lately, with my wife playing an MMO for the very first time. I can see the fun and magic all over again. I also experienced it in The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.
Last weekend was a whole bundle of fun events and I’d like to share some them.
The Power of IP
[The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar] I was listening to Brent’s 53rd podcast from VirginWorlds last night and he brought up an interesting point about The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. While I did not agree with some of his impressions, his comment about the Intellectual Property (IP) being powerful is very true.
He questioned the fun of the game, if you removed the IP. I have to admit, the setting has been a huge appeal for me and I think he is right – if you remove The Lord of the Rings from The Lord of the Rings Online, the game does not stand up all that well. Personally, I have been enjoying the setting a heck of a lot more than the actual game. I did not really understand that before. I have decided to spend more time playing the game and not being so into the setting and see if I can find some other reasons to play the game.
Uber & The Newb
– Ethic
All Access Pass
SOE has theirs and NCSoft is working on one. Turbine should give some very serious consideration to having one. In fact, it just might keep them alive. Fire up an old AC2 server and include it just for fun.
I can only see an upside for an all access pass for any MMO company that has more than one game. It would create more box sales and keep more customers playing. Can anyone think of the downsides?
Oh and while I’m at it: Family Plans.
UPDATE: SOE raised their price to $29 for their pass. Are they nuts?
– Ethic
Too Many Characters
I decided to create a character to play along with Kwip in World of Warcraft when this happened:
Some sort of bug I guess. Bah.
Director of Internal Affairs
[EVE Online] The latest dev blog over at EVE Online brings some hope for a cleaner, brighter future.
In what a feel is a good move, the new director of internal affairs makes an introduction and follows with some plans for the future. The part that Arkanon said here is what I was hoping to read:
I believed, and still believe that we owe our player community the right to be the focus of EVE, without paid employees using dirty tricks to swing our universe in their favor. Even playing by the rules, I frown on employees being power players to the extent that their gameplay results in any sort of domination over others. I don’t believe CCP employees should run the EVE universe; that spot is reserved for the paying customer. EVE is a sandbox, but it’s not our sandbox. We’re here to keep it clean and provide the sand.
I hope so Arkanon, I hope so.
– Ethic
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar – Beta Screenshots
[The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar] Finally got the clarification that we are indeed allowed to share screenshots from the beta test. I went through my first batch and will share them with you today. If there is something you’d like to see, let me know and I’ll try to get it for you. Remember while looking at these, I had my graphics turned down so they do not look as good as they could. I’ll try to get some better shots soon.
Approaching town, the guards blocked my entrance. But as I closed on them they decided I was friendly and let me in. In town, I stopped by the jail to taunt some of the prisoners. Outside, people had their laundry hung up to dry. There was a blacksmith nearby, hard at work.
Continue reading The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar – Beta Screenshots