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Making Some ISK

EVE[EVE Online] I was hanging out in one of our stations in Alliance space when someone asked for help hauling some scrap parts and modules over to another station we have in order to be refined down to minerals. I answered the call and loaded up my industrial-class ship with about 10,000 cubic meters of junk. Away we went.

On the way, the corpmate flying with me asked if I wanted to follow them around afterwards while they blew up some Sansha’s Nation ships in the nearby ‘roid fields. My job would be to collect anything left after the explosions so we could refine it (or sell it in Empire space if it’s valuable).

Continue reading Making Some ISK

The Folly of Free to Play

Free to play online games sounds like such a good deal…after all, it’s free, right? “Free to play” MMORPGs aren’t actually free (yes, it is false advertising when they say “100% free”). The publishers and developers make their money primarily by generating revenues from in-game advertising, and micro-purchases of in-game items and other perks. [Yes, I know there are exceptions, but I’m talking about MMOs in general]

Games in Asia have long been based on a “pay to play” model where gamers usually buy time cards at a cyber café, gas station, or something similar, which they redeem for time in a game. These are usually hourly or daily options. So, going from “pay to play” to “free to play” seems like a logical next step. One of the reasons that the monthly subscription model hasn’t been as popular in the East is the lack of market penetration of credit cards.

Continue reading The Folly of Free to Play

We were promised flying cars!

I’m sure you remember this commercial…Avery Brooks (AKA Captain Benjamin Sisko, Deep Space Nine) is complaining that we were promised flying cars by the next millennium, blah blah. If you enjoy reading a lot of science fiction (the older good stuff!), then by all rights we should have flying cars by now as well as a lot of other cool things. At least the PC is pretty powerful and we have the lovely Internet.

But not only are we missing the flying cars, we don’t have a kick ass Lunar base, man hasn’t set foot on Mars yet, and we certainly can’t teleport ourselves around. The virtual reality craze of the real early 90s was too soon, and fizzled out before computers and VR hardware had matured to a point to really be useful for much beyond making people motion sick and giving them eye strain.

Continue reading We were promised flying cars!

Ex-Blizzard Receptionist scores MMO Funding Deal!

Well, not really.

So a few guys that worked on World of Warcraft left Blizzard and started their own studio, Red 5, last summer. One was a team lead, another was an art director, and I don’t remember anything about the rest of the guys. I should say here right at the start, that I wish these guys the best and I hope they come up with some really cool stuff. The thing that gets me excited about these guys is the fact that no one knows anything about what they are working on yet. That means there is a chance, albeit however small, that they might come out with something really cool and innovative.

However what I don’t understand is why the hype around these guys is so big, and getting bigger (they announced a worldwide exclusive distribution deal with Asian MMO giant WebZen yesterday)…

Continue reading Ex-Blizzard Receptionist scores MMO Funding Deal!

Getting Up to Speed on Slow

I don’t know about you, but I have always considered “slow” to be a fairly sub-optimal power. Of all the things I can do to my enemy, slowing him down a bit seemed like the least useful. Some of this must come from starting in Asheron’s Call, where there were no slow powers (or any crowd control to speak of, when I played). Mostly, it comes from most enemies’ living only a few seconds. In the time that I could slow him down, I could blow him up.

Lately, though, I have been seeing a lot of value in it.

Continue reading Getting Up to Speed on Slow

Bust the Cap

DDO[Dungeons & Dragons Online] D&D Online is open for the pre-order players, and it should be on the store shelves shortly. In honor of this fact, go find out what D&D player you are here. I’m a Chaotic Good Half-Elf Bard. Yeah, right.

In other news, people are already hitting the level cap (which is 10) before the game is officially available to the general public. Ouch.

Reached level 10!, (now what else is there to do???)

Ciryadin Aklabeth
Sanctum Infinitas Guild Leader
Bored Level 10 Rogue

UPDATE: More level 10’s showing up, some with screenshots to prove it.

– Ethic

Segregation

cov[City of Villains] Following the success of the world’s first widely accepted comic based MMO; City of Heroes, the brains at NCsoft began design on a companion product to allow roles of a more malicious nature. The surprise regarding this obvious progression of the universe is concerning the independent nature of the product. City of Villains is designed and marketed as an autonomous entity, free of all dependences to its predecessor.

While the above statement is true it is also an expected assumption of players in both games to assume it is a shared world, through parallel style, game play, design, account fees, and all around structure. It would not be too much to say it is simply a modified template positioned atop a singular foundation.

Continue reading Segregation

The Power of 2

EVE[EVE Online] I pretty much decided to turn my current EVE character into a full-time production and refining guru, so I started thinking about starting another character with a combat focus. Problem is, if I start the 2nd character on the same account, I cannot train them both at the same time. But to purchase a second account? Me? Never.

Enter the EVE Dev Blog. They are bringing back “The Power of 2” promotion at the perfect time for this decision. Basically, I can buy a second account for $49.95. Seems like a lot of money, right? Actually, the account comes with 6 months of game time which amounts to $8.33 per month. I guess we have a deal on my hands, and I’ll have two accounts by the end of the week. Perfect time to try out the new bloodlines.

I imagine that this will increase the number of active accounts by a few thousand. Or even more, who knows?

– Ethic

Another 2 cents (well more like 48)

Hey folks! I’m the new guy. My nick is Nicodemus and I will be posting a lot of rants, raves, complaints, ideas, opinions, analysis, theory, practice, and commentary on just about every topic remotely related to the game industry (with an emphasis on MMOs). Apparently I have talked Spot’s ear off so many times that he thinks I should shut up, write it down, and share it with the rest of the world. So, here I am!

“Who is this guy?” you are probably wondering. Well, here is a little bit about me:

I am an old school gamer…I’ve played games on the Ti-99, Atari 400 and 800, the Apple IIe and IIc, the Amiga, the Commodore 64, some weirdo computer called a Schneider (with a tape cassette to load games!), and of course the venerable consoles…Pong (yeah, I owned one) Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 2600 and 5200, and the usual Nintendo and Sega consoles, as well as all of the recent ones you are familiar with. Oh yeah, can’t forget the Vectrex!

Continue reading Another 2 cents (well more like 48)

Between-Patch Die-Off

cov[City of Villains] The launch of City of Villains was Issue 6, with little on the heroes side (except the overlap PvP content). Issue 7 is coming, again mostly villains stuff. Luckily, most of my supergroup has City of Villains, so everyone has been on. Until recently.

We are now at that point when everyone is bored and will be logging on a couple hours a week until the new patch is on test. At first it is a few people. There are fewer people to group with from the SG, so a few more wander off. Next, you are soloing or in pick-up groups for a month, so maybe you join them in the logged-off state. Hmm, I can check out a new game for a while…

Of course, for me, that has meant more time badge-whoring on my old main and playing Kingdom of Loathing. Guys, come back! We miss you! Issue 7 is coming, really!

: Zubon