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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.

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Space (I believe in)

Yesterday a BOB Titan was downed by Goonswarm and allies. It’s the first time that a fully complete and piloted Titan (the largest ship in the EVE universe) has been downed while in active service. It is a surprising twist in a saga of online and offline conflict that has embroiled CCP, the developers of EVE, in a maelstrom of metagaming machinations – allegations of developer malfeasance and bias, cover-ups and conspiracies exposed by individuals of dubious reputation and siezed upon as useful propaganda by characters with obscure and highly questionable motivations. It is an epic story that has made headlines and the destruction of this ship is just another paragraph in that story.

I don’t even play EVE – why do I care?

Continue reading Space (I believe in)

A Few Months in the Shire

I have been playing The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar for a few months now and I have to say that I am really enjoying myself. I have become a pretty casual player these days, logging in for just an hour or two per setting and not even every day. It is working out perfectly for me and this game.

I have three characters that get rotating play time as I enjoy them each for their own reasons. I have a level 12 Man Lore Master, a level 15 Hobbit Minstrel and a level 11 Dwarf Guardian. I have joined the Vindicators on Landroval (led by Scott Adams). It is a nice group of casual players with many doing light role play and I am enjoying their company.

The setting is the number one reason I am enjoying the game. I just can’t get enough of the scenery. In fact, it is so good that is pulls me right into the game. I am constantly stopping to take pictures or just sit down and watch the clouds roll by. Breath-taking really. Most of my time has been spent in the Shire and I love it. The quests are enjoyable (I read them all) and I even went after some fun titles like Shire Brewmaster.

Continue reading A Few Months in the Shire

Analyzing the MMO: First in a series of… some

I plan to write several articles in the coming weeks over MMOs as a genre, with an eye towards seeing what can be done in terms of improving the genre.  During the analysis, I’ll be comparing MMOs with several other types of games, along with other forms of media and some types of social constructs, such as football leagues and fraternal orders.  At some point in here, you’ll also get to hear me blather on about my “ideal” MMO.  For the kickoff of Analyzing the MMO, we’re going to take a look at what MMOs do well.  Some of this is blindingly obvious stuff for some of the readers here, I’m sure, but it’s important to lay down a baseline, so I beg your indulgence for the first few articles

Continue reading Analyzing the MMO: First in a series of… some

“Putting the RP back into RPG”

How better to follow on from Nicodemus than scavenging a throwaway line from post? Well, there are probably a plethora of better ways but that’s the one I’m going to use. But this isn’t going to be an examination of what little we the Un-beta’d know about how Tabula Rasa may or may not be providing players with ethical dilemmas in its quest structure nor is it going to postulate as to exactly how a being “shooter” does not necessarily exclude a game from being an RPG. That’s dull and tedious conversation and just needs exhibit A: System Shock and exhibit B: Deus Ex to make the case.

This is about the lack of RP in MMORPG.

Continue reading “Putting the RP back into RPG”

*yell* “Ding!”

It’s ok, I know you automatically tried to type “gratz”. If you play online games, you just do. ‘Ding’ is THE universal MMORPG word, present in every game. I remember where I first heard it and learned to hate it: South Karana, Norrath, Everquest. It is the symbol of your achievement, displaying a success in your work, and, more than likely, showing that you’re about to start a whole new set of goals. After reading Zubon’s post, and responding to it, I found myself thinking about how ‘Ding’ has evolved.

Continue reading *yell* “Ding!”

I’m in ur market stealing yer customers…meowlolz

I’ve been paying attention to the forums here so much I’ve neglected posting here. Omg wth! To make up for it, I thought I would come up with a snazzy lolcatz title (hey, everyone else is doing it) that would surely make its way across the internet, RSS feeds, reposts, and linkbacks. This will assuredly draw your eyes to these very words! Ah, the power of greysku…er the internet!

Anyway, I just moved into a new place and the stupid AC doesn’t work. APPARENTLY my anti-industry rantings have caused a small cabal of evil developers to band together and they have set out to silence me. Galileo knows what I’m talking about. Anyway, these guys are total amateurs. I caught them trying to load a copy of Vanguard on my computer (dorks) and they had the nerve to throw old AOL disks at me like shurikens. HA!

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition you know.
Continue reading I’m in ur market stealing yer customers…meowlolz

And now for something completely different…

(*mumbles* I knew the book wasn’t for free after all)

Well, hello everyone. Julian here. Grandmaster farmer, exceptional dancer, friend to the animals. Also a gamer when real life doesn’t intersect too much. Ethic was kind enough to give me the chance to pour some musings here, in between all the rat killing, so I decided to take his generous offer. Or was it “crazy enough”? Well, I can’t tell the difference anyway.

I’ve been playing all kinds of games for as long as I can remember. Started on a ZX-81. 8K RAM (16K with the expansion, mind you), membrane keyboard, black and white: The world was an oyster. Ever since then, I won’t say I played them all, but I did play most. Good ones and bad ones alike. Like others here, I’m a relative newcomer to MMOs having only played them for about four years. Alas, also like most others, soon enough I was captivated by the genre.

I absolutely adore talking about games and game design, mechanics and also the more social, surrounding aspects of this ordeal of ours we like to call ‘gaming’. So that’s about it, and the kind of things you can expect to read from me. For the moment, stay tuned. If statistics are to be believed, I’m bound to write something worth reading at some point in the future. And if not, well, I’ll write it anyway because it all comes from the heart.

/wave

World of WarCraft: The MMOFPS

Unfortunately, I didn’t work on the post I had planned for this weekend.  Instead, I was playing WoW all weekend.  Here’s an idea for discussion, however:  One of the things that bugs me about MMORPG’s in general is how apparent the turns are.  We interact in real-time, but there’s still a turn-based game going on underneath.  Imagine, if you will, a more interactive WoW.  What would it be like?  How would combat be handled?  How would PvP balance out?