Anyone that keeps up with what I write, or has had a chance to read MMO Evolution, knows that I have mixed feelings about the online game industry. On one hand, I am very annoyed, irritated, angry, and my panties are in a bunch about a lot of the things going on in the industry. On the other hand, I still hold a glimmer of hope that there are passionate and creative people out there that are not satisfied with the status quo, and are striving to make a change.
Continue reading Doom and Gloom…
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.Smooth Launch for Turbine
I shouldn’t be surprised with a smooth MMO launch, but I still am. The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar launched yesterday and from all appearances it was quite trouble free. I have heard some tales of new account registrations being slow, but other than that it seemed to go without many problems at all. The availability of boxes on store shelves might not be as plentiful as one might hope, but I don’t know if that qualifies as a negative.
There was a queue when I logged into Landroval last night, being 14th in line. I was logged in within 3 minutes. I ran around a lot, trying to see how many people were playing. It looked pretty good to me. Plenty of people.
Piercing the Veil and Losing the Monkey
I have not really been playing MMOs much for the past three months. I went on a trip for a week and had lost the urge when I came back. I am reminded of Heavy Metal and You, in which our protagonist gives up smoking for a couple of months then finds himself unable to stand the taste of them. “How did I get started on this?”
One thing is that there is nothing new under the sun. I have already killed that rat twenty thousand times, although sometimes he was named “goblin prowler” or perhaps “rock monster.” Rats, wolves, and giants usually do about the same things, with different models and different number values. It is the problem of procedural content: you may never run out of missions in City of Villains, but eventually you realize that the newspaper only has four or five options, and half of them are pretty much the same. “Guys, do you want to beat up Archon Fontaine, steal the plans from the Council, or beat up Archon Morena?”
Thorin’s Hall
I only recently started playing a Dwarf in The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. I just logged out after spending time in Thorin’s Hall. Simply amazing. I can’t say enough about how beautiful this place is. I grabbed some screenshots to share, even though my graphics settings were not as high as they could be. I still think it looks fantastic.
Up first is the view from the courtyard outside. You can see Thorin’s Hall up the stairs to the right.
This Is Why We Cannot Have Nice Things
I am taking the weekend off, so instead I direct you to one of our dear friends, the most influential blogger on the internet, who explains why these here tubes are so full. Excerpt:
For a mere moment, think about that. No web. And they don’t care.
As a note, a similar analysis applies to goldfarmers. “Americans are too lazy to play their games, and they will pay me to do it for them?” Yes, Americans will pay you to help destroy the games they play. Who cares if you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? You can get a lot of gold while it is alive, and people keep breeding those geese. Apparently, we think it is a feature not a bug if you can reach up the goose and just yank eggs out. Keep reaching further, and if you yank out a vital organ, well, there will be Yet Another Fantasy MMORPG published in a few weeks.
Has anything helped the gold sales industry more than WoW mount prices? The World Bank wishes it could cause as much money to be sent to the developing world as WoW does.
Turning on the wayback machine…for your amusement!
A few people at IMGDC asked me about my background, and a few others I have met recently at some other events wanted to know what I have worked on. My answer is usually “nothing you have ever heard ofâ€, but I *have* been around for a long time, just under the radar. But really…what have I worked on? What the hell was I doing in the early 90s? What is so amusing?
Continue reading Turning on the wayback machine…for your amusement!
A Forest of Holy Trees
Since I already have one topic going about the changes to the most popular healers in WoW today, I thought I’d take a different angle to it – i.e. fix instead of nerf. The main reason Paladins (and Shammies and Druids to a lesser, more specific extent) are the main healers is they simply have a better healing tree. So I’m going to try my very amateur hand at redesigning the Holy and Disc trees. This will be a bumpy ride. More after the cut.
The Ugly Side
Another example of the ugly side of MMOs just occurred.
In World of Warcraft, a member of a guild is claiming his brother was one of the victims at Virginia Tech. He announced that he is taking over his brother’s character and that the one thing his brother wished for was to have a mount. Therefore, this “person” is asking for donations to buy one. Now, if true I certainly feel for him and his family. But why would you turn your grief into asking people for gold? Even if I believed him, I think that action is way out of line. I assume this guy is using a tragic event for a personal gain and it makes me sick. Worse yet, the guild is pooling funds for this guy. If I was in that guild, I’d be so out of there. But maybe that’s just me.
– Ethic
He Who Shall Not Be Named
I have seen several posts and received several messages about that lawyer from Florida. Fox even gave him air time. I encourage you to deal with him as you would any other troll. Ignoring the bad eggs and blocking them from your life is the only way to make them go away.
This is the opposite of Voldemort. Saying his name grants him more power (publicity). Resist the urge. Don’t feel the need to mention every time the monkeys at the zoo fling poo — that is just what monkeys do.
: Zubon
Good Tradeskill Post
Over at Tobold’s place. Check it out.
If I can recommend a mini-game variant from A Tale in the Desert: actually craft the item. If you are a blacksmith, you get a blob of metal and a hammer. Go nuts. Some players worked out how to make pretty good shovel heads in 10 seconds or less; other people specialized in getting that last bit of quality out of tapping the metal into just the right shape. You could determine the output by the final shape created or have a set “perfect shape” for a pre-picked output and determine item quality by its similarity to that Platonic ideal.
: Zubon