[EVE Online] According to the latest news out of CCP, there has been some sort of hacking incident and 57 accounts have been tampered with. They are encouraging everyone to change their passwords and several accounts have had the passwords reset automatically.
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.
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.Carnival of Gamers X – Winter Carnival
Welcome to the Carnival of Gamers X – Winter Carnival! This year we have lots of activites to take our minds off the brutally cold weather. Luckily the lakes froze over early so we could get a good start on building the Ice Palace.
This years schedule of events:
Curling Exhibition
Over at the Fairground Ice Rink, we have a Curling Exhibition by Russ Mitchell from “Boxing Alcibiades”. He is famous for a special move he calls “Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion is a great game”. It’s a long name, which is possibly why most other players just call it RoToWar BarInIaGaGa.
The End Begins (And Ends)
[Asheron’s Call 2] Today is the last day for Asheron’s Call 2 and I have the day off from work. Therefore, I will try to play as much as I can today to see how they say goodbye. There has not really been a lot of news out of Turbine regarding any plans they may have, so to be honest my expectations are low.
Here is the first update of the morning. The red X means “offline”.
Checking with the official forums, I find this update from Calandryll:
Hey folks,
Just to let you know, the AC2 servers are not supposed to be down. We are working to bring them back up now.
__________________
-Jonathan “Calandryll” Hanna
Looking Back: Ethic’s 2005 MMORPG Predictions
Let’s go back and take a look at my 2005 MMORPG predictions and see how close I was.
World of Warcraft: Will continue to dominate the casual playerbase. Hardcores will move on. Will become the number one MMOG in the USA.
Looks pretty good, but perhaps that one was too easy.
Asheron’s Call 2: Won’t make it to 2006.
Ouch. Dead on.
Everquest 2: Completely gives up on the casual player market and focuses on the powergamers, thus raping Everquest.
Wrong. It appears that EQ2 has been trying to lure the casuals over to the SOE camp. I got this game as a gift for Christmas, perhaps I’ll give it a try.
Continue reading Looking Back: Ethic’s 2005 MMORPG Predictions
I Like To Watch
[Guild Wars] The latest update out of ArenaNet has added something I like to call “Voyeur Mode”. The official name is a more boring “Observer Mode”.
That’s right, you can watch certain matches – time delayed 15 minutes to avoid abuse by cheating. This sounds interesting enough, I’d like to see more games add something along this line.
Sadly I stopped playing Guild Wars months ago, pretty much lost all interest in it. The Observer Mode is something I will check out, if only to study the technical side of it all.
Hello and Goodbye
[World of Warcraft] Blizzard has said hello to many players over the past year, now crossing the 5 million mark. I’m pretty sure nobody believed an MMO would have sold this well.
With that level of popularity comes some negatives as well. Scammers, thiefs, beggars, cheaters, farmers, crooks, and low life scum. Blizzard has occasionally said goodbye to large groups of accounts, the success of such actions are questionable but at least they are trying. The most recent round of bannings shut down over 18,000 accounts. That is around the total number of people playing EVE Online at any given moment, so it’s not a small amount.
I wonder if banning accounts really slows down the activities that caused the ban. I bet it’s a losing battle for Blizzard. Although, it probably is a financial gain for Blizzard anyway, because most of the banned people will just buy a new box and start over.
– Ethic
Asheron’s Call 2 Memories
[Asheron’s Call 2] First off, the people. The community of AC2 players was amazing. I’ve seen nothing like it before or since.
Leafcull!!!
The “end of beta” Tyrant assault on Molworth and Cragstone (they attacked all the cities, but these were the ones I was at). Running through the vaults (Arwic, Lost Wish, Esper, etc.) in the beginning as a group. Looking up at the rain hitting an invisible “floor” above me. Leveling just by running through portals and clicking on obelisks (crazy run buff too). Fueling the forges for crafters. Chat, or should I say no chat. Tou Tou Vault – argh the jumping. Cragstone Excavation (fighting the crowd for medallion pieces). Ghost Mines. Lady Aerfalle. Olthoi and Olthoi mounds. Lady Silva. Tyrants Loft and Lord Deimos. The White Rabbit. Becoming a Hero. Icefire, Boots, and Mage Academy. Gurogs and Buruns.
Whimper
[Asheron’s Call 2] Well, it’s almost over now. AC2 is closing down on the 30th of December. What’s left to do?
For one, you can read Wired’s article, “Not With a Bang but a Whimper”, here (thanks to Inhibit for sending me the link). Or, if you still have an account like I do, you can get boosted to the max level which is 150 and go fight two Tyrants at one time in East Gevoth or perhaps go fight Ahria Queen of Night.
But mostly it is just another MMO to go down the tubes. Lots of things went wrong and some went right. Lessons will have hopefully been learned.
Current AC2 players have been invited to DDO’s beta, so all is not lost. Yes, they sent me one so I guess they want me to stop playing AC2 now? Anyway, I’m planning to be there when they pull the plug, to see if they have any inspiration left or if they will do just that – pull the plug.
Whimper.
– Ethic
Sight-Steps
[World of Warcraft] Nick Yee put up a really, really nice gallery of images from inside World of Warcraft a good while back. Every time I go through this gallery, I resubscribe to WoW. So guess what that means I’ll be doing this weekend?
Check it out, and kudos to Nick for some fantastic shots.
– Ethic
Wish Me Luck
[EVE Online] I just applied for a position that CCP is advertising for on their jobs page. What fun would that be? I would think, lots. I have a lot of respect for the company and the position pretty much describes me and my skills. It would require a pretty major relocation but I’m perfectly willing to do that (and so is my family).
So send some good vibes towards Reykjavik, Iceland for me. I know it’s a long shot, but thanks!
– Ethic