world of warcraft and the Guild

Has the Guild jumped the shark?

Sorry I have been a bit MIA for a few days fellow gamers, but work and other responsibilities have kept me quite busy, as has the slow progress I have been making setting up my new gaming blog. Well I have decided that for the balance of this year, I am going to go back to playing the mmo that started me playing these games: World of Warcraft. Even though the starter’s edition is a jip, I still decided to roll a blood elf rogue and spent a bit last night in Eversong Woods leveling him up. Why a blood elf? I actually don’t like them. I think they are the lamest race in the horde, but since I have tried everything else, thought I’d give it a go. Meet my latest toon: Keyalloris!

I will probably play him for about 10 or 15 levels until I can get him into pvp battle grounds because I am not at all impressed with the starting zone. Almost all the other horde races are more fun. Speaking of wow, I would like to examine the state of this game in another post. In the post-cataclysm era, it seems that the consensus from retro mmo players appears to be that wow is just not as fun because you do a lot of waiting around in the game. I won’t go as far as pronouncing it dead like a few blog sites already have, but I am interested in seeing what the future holds, especially if the new expansion turns out to be as speculated here.

THE GUILD

I’ve also fallen a bit behind in my endeavor to review every ep of season five in Felicia Day’s web series, so today I combine a mini review of the last two episodes. I’m not sure if the Guild is “jumping the shark”or not, these last few episodes haven’t been as great as earlier seasons, despite being longer.  In episode 4 Bladezz got some groupies and there was a guest spot by Brent Spiner, man Data hasn’t aged well.

Though I must say I chuckled at Zaboo’s Master chiefs entourage. “I found these guys sneaking an old lady into a Malcom McDowell look-alike contest, good peeps.” The Zaboo-Codex “will they or won’t they romance” really hasn’t interested me as I am less intrigued in the soap-operaish elements of the show. The entire subplot just felt sort of forced, Zaboo’s analogy not withstanding. The “cheesy pirate kid” memes bit was actually pretty cool, as was Clara’s obsession with the clockwork steampunk stuff. The ending of episode 5 was not as epic as the collected fandom made it out to be in my opinion. Vork continues to have the best lines of dialogue “We’ve got a raid tonight, fornicate at a later date.” The fate of the game hangs in the balance, apparently so does my interest in the rest of this season.

Earth Eternal browser based mmo returns in beta

There have been so many game announcements this part of the summer, it’s hard to keep up. It looks like companies are gearing up for the fall and the big holiday season. I was surprised to learn that Blizzard has already set up their community site for Diablo 3. This can only mean the beta for that is not far behind.

As for me, I tried to play Earth Eternal last night. It is not exactly a retro-mmo in the truest sense, it was around 2009 but was discontinued for some strange reason, but now it’s been back in beta for a while. I have been wanting to play this strange little game, even despite (because?) of the funny animals ever since I watched this video review by Remotay from mmohut.com:

I guess the thing I liked most about it was the fact, apart from being a f2p mmorpg, no big client download is necessary to play and I can grab it and play on the go on my laptop. However, the game does require a facebook account to authenticate, but most people already have one of those. I found it to be ok in the first few levels but one annoying thing was the colors were way off on my UI and it bugged me so much I had to stop playing. I wonder if it was just a bug or something to do with my crappy video card?

Anyone else experience similar problems? I am going to play it some more and report back more info in the future. Keep an eye out for my new site at http://www.killthegoblinsavetheworld.com. It’s my summer project to have it debut by at least the end of this month (or sooner.)

Failed mmorpgs: It started with a game by EA

I was looking at the mmo timeline found in Bio Break again to see which classic mmorpgs I would like to try next, and also to learn more about the history of the genre of gaming that I love.  It occurred to me that with the new wave of mmorpgs that are coming our way, (Tera, SWTOR, GW2 etc) there is going to be more variety than we have ever had.

Yet, why do games fail? What is it about a specific concept that makes a game a success or a total failure? With something like SWG, it’s pretty obvious that there were factors that led to its demise, one prominent factor being the expiration of the gaming license and SOE’s failure to listen to the gaming community and rolling out the infamous NGE, angering a significant chunk of the player-base.

So in part one of this series of posts examining the failures of some significant mmorpgs, I started with the first “red” on Bio Break’s mmo time line: 2003′s Motor City Online.

MCO can be considered one of the first major failed mmos of the modern era, maybe even the first! (AOL’s Neverwinter Nights does not really count as a failure in my mind and neither did the games before it, as they were pioneering games and their closures had less to do with financial success or other factors and more with the changing landscape of the emerging world wide web)

Would I have played this game? A massively multiplayer online racing game? Probably not. I am more into sci-fi and fantasy based games and even though I tried games like Twisted Metal on the old Ps2, I was never really a huge fan of racing games, with the notable exception of Atari’s ancient Pole Position, but even that game I was not too heavily into.

Let me say that others have had this idea, and it’s amusing to read some of this author’s conclusions regarding the factors leading up to MCO’s demise. I had to chuckle at this: One of the main reasons given by the author for MCO’s failure was its pay to play format. Specifically EA’s $10 a month subscription coupled with a paid box game. Hindsight  proves that the author’s premise may be flawed because countless MMORPGS since have employed the boxed game coupled with a subscription fee, including Blizzard’s beastly “World of Warcraft.”

As we all know, this strategy continues to be employed with success by game developers, so it is highly plausible that the author’s other reasons for MCO’s failure were more on target, namely a lack of advertising and exposure by EA following launch.

What do you all think? Now it’s back to DAoC for me!

League of Legends and other Mobas inspiring WAR?

It’s funny, yesterday out of sheer boredom I downloaded LOL and tried it out. I don’t have a big hankering or interest in Mobas (Massive Online Battle Arenas) and prefer the more open sandbox games like mmorpgs, and this isn’t a blog about Mobas per se, but it is a blog about gaming and there is no doubt that games like League of Legends are quite popular. My friend Mike has been into the game for a while and has been asking me to try it for quite some time, so I finally broke down and tried it.

He has logged in over 1,000 games and surely knows what he is doing, while it was my first game and as you can see, the results were less than favorable, but I am a noob so it’s to be expected.

I don’t think I am going to be logging back in often, there is something more appealing to me in games like wow and EQ2 than battle Arena games.

League of Legends’ popularity may be influencing other game developers.
Unfortunately, the game’s not shy about telling you that your team stinks.

Nevertheless, I found this story about Mythic, the creators of Warhammer online and DAoC, creating a brand new MOBA game to be quite interesting.  A number of bloggers claimed to have been surprised by this move on the part of Mythic. Color me surprised as well, could it be that LOL’s rising popularity (and the success of similar DoTA games like Heroes of Newerth) have influenced Mythic? And what will this mean for Warhammer Online? Just when I was set to go back and level up my goblin squig herder, will there be significant changes to WAR?

I guess only time will tell.

The Guild Season 5 episode 3.

I did not forget about my commitment to review every episode of Felicia Day’s popular web series “The Guild.” I was just taking my sweet time. Episode 3 picks up with the guildies fully exploring the gaming convention on their own. This episode of the show has been hyped as the longest episode of the series clocking in at 9:18. I watched it three times but I was completely distracted the last time by the less than subtle product placements and started to watch instead for how many times Felicia manages to plug her sponsors: Jinx, Dark Horse Comics (which prints the Guild Comic book series) etc. Overall this episode had a few funny moments and interactions. Vork and Tink’s scenes I think stole the show, but overall it’s not much to write home about. Hoping next week is a big improvement.

Crawling back into the action with Dungeons and Dragons Online

Normanoz, my WAR goblin squig herder has been sadly neglected of late, due to my fickle habit of jumping from game to game

So it turns out that I had been doing it all wrong.

While running around Stormreach the other night I ran into a number of friendly players who pointed out that my warforged paladin built was all wrong. Sure, I had somehow managed to advance four levels, but stats mean a whole heck of a lot more in ddo than in your average mmo, so I asked what was the best combo for a warforged just starting out life and it was unanimously suggested for me to re-roll as a wizard.

Now I know what you’re thinking, didn’t I say last time around that I was thoroughly enjoying warhamer online and was going to make it my summer project to level up my goblin squig herder until my heart’s content?

the first time I did Misery's Peak in DDO I was delighted to see an actual dragon in the game

Yes, but I have been either too lazy or to busy, or maybe both to play around with quieting my noisy vid card. Everytime I log on to Mythic’s game it sounds like it’s going to explode, so I decided to lay off and play some DDO in the interim, Turbine’s game is rather smooth in my ancient rig and my interest in DDO was undoubtedly rekindled by last week’s real table top session in Neverwinter while at Pasadena.

At any rate, I was having fun with my new DDO toon, as I learned how to prepare spells and quested through the newbie zone before shipping out once more to the harbor.

Below is a screenshot detailing my wizard’s stats. Pretty cool!

My stats, pretty awesome I would say

This game is quite deep, at least for me, there are plenty of zones I have yet to explore, so DDO should keep me satisfied until I return to WAR. For Destruction!!!

There are reporters in Stormreach, what a great surprise!

Dungeons and Dragons Game Day

Members of the Pasadena D&D Meetup group playing on Saturday at Game Empire

I know this is a blog about retro-mmorpgs, not rpgs or even table top games per se, but I thought I would talk about D&D today because if it weren’t for the iconic table top, pencil and paper game, it is very doubtful that the RPGs and MMORPGs we enjoy today would even exist.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of venturing out to Game Empire in Pasadena where they hold a monthly meeting of the Pasadena Dungeons and Dragons group. I had intended to take some photos and write an article for a South Pasadena website of the D&D Game day which was taking place Saturday in honor of the Neverwinter campaign setting with an exclusive adventure entitled Gates of Neverdeath, but I figured since I was there I would also get my geek on and play a few game encounters.

The tools of the trade- image courtesy of kaijuville.blogspot.com

I was not disappointed with the experience. The group is very friendly and the DMs are very good and know a lot about D&D in general and 4th edition in particular.

So I grabbed some d20s, my character mini, and a pre-gen character sheet and sat down for a morning session of frolicking and adventuring in Neverwinter.

Our party was tasked by the DM  to protect precious cargo bound for the city of Neverwinter, but on the way there our paladin was under heavy fire from an archer while on the ship and upon disembarking Fargrim, my level 1 dwarf Slayer slipped through a throng on the way to the Neverdeath graveyard where he was bloodied repeatedly by malevolent creatures.

At first I secretly contemplated the possibility of trying to “gank the DM” by acting obnoxiously and asking noobish questions, but gave up on that plan after seeing how hard he was working to make this a memorable gaming experience. He also did quite a bit of coaching by explaining moves that I and my allies failed to pick up.  Overall the experience was quite positive, and despite the fact the stereotype of the role player as a geek or a lifeless nerd still permeates society, I saw people from all walks of life having fun and enjoying themselves. True, there were fat dudes and the stereotypical socially awkward ones there too, but I was among them, reveling in our common geeky endeavors, and isn’t that what it’s all about?? I shall go back next month.

Warhammer Online summer project

photo courtesy of funnyjunk.com

I must have had a lot of fun playing Mythic’s Warhammer Online last night because me and my pet thingy were running around messing stuff up for close to three hours. For some reason, I didn’t like this retro-mmo at first, but it has really grown on me. For the purposes of definition, since Bio Break’s mmo timeline considers Mud1 the first classic mmo, and since there are a slew of new mmos in the horizon starting off with the release of RIFT earlier this year leading into releases of SWTOR and GW2, I will refer to retro-mmos  as games between 1980 and about 2008.

But I digress, I always read that No.1: The real strength of WAR was in its pvp, so I figured that if I had that much fun killing stuff while doing what amounted to PVE public quests, then I would most probably enjoy the game’s pvp and RvR, provided I get to that point. In the meantime I think I will be perfectly happy questing and interacting with other players.

No.2: A lot of players consider WAR a huge failure because of its dwindling player base (debuted with more than 60 servers and is down to fewer than 10 now) and its failure to add a third faction to balance the classes. I have no doubt to some these are valid claims, but I have found that few games nowadays are perfect anyway, so I will not nitpick. Just going to enjoy the ride for now.

I was really pleasantly surprised that I warmed up to WAR, considering it has a much different and darker mood than its spiritual predecessor DAoC. When I was looking for a new (old) mmorpg to play this summer I considered both DAoC and going back to wow, but WAR’s new never ending trial insures that I can level up in rank without having to dole out a lot of cash to try out the game, and I really like that. I spoke to some of the players in my guild and they were quick to point out some tips and tricks that I found most useful, the community seems to be as good as the DAoC community and not as bad as wow’s. I’ve decided that as my summer side project I am going to document my progress in this game here, until I get tired of it or until I start playing something else with more regularity.

I will also use this blog for our guild to communicate or share tips with newbie players such as myself, or whatever other need arises.

This does not mean I will stop playing DDO and other games I enjoy. In fact, I was seriously considering venturing back into Stormreach tonight to play with my warforged. Despite some of the shortcomings in Turbine’s game, DDO is still the game I enjoy most for the purposes of grouping.

The Guild season 5 ep 2

For the final part of today’s post, as promised, I bring you a mini-review of Felicia Day’s “The Guild.” I am still a bit miffed that I have to wait two extra days to get my nerd fix of the show, but whateves, I have to deal. Yesterday’s show “Crash Pad” was a little light on the subtext. I mean, the dialogue was still there, (“Macrame is the devil’s handicraft!”) but it seemed this could be because it is still very early into the new season and subplots take awhile to develop. “When did this guild go from playing a game together to talking about feelings and holding each other’s vaginas?” This question was posed by Tink in last season’s second episode, and if you recall back then Clara was telling Zaboo that he had no shot with Codex and should just give up on the idea. My how things have drastically changed, the bulk of this season so far has been dedicated to Codex’s new found feelings fro Zaboo. They should bring back Fox, at least he brought a different element to the more soap operaish-relationship parts of the show. See you guys in game!

Warhammer online latest MMORPG to cross my path

I made a few kills myself with my ugly pet thing

though in the beginning my toon was mostly dying

The year was 2008. Fall of 2008 to be exact and I remember playing wow and highly anticipating a much hyped new mmorpg in the fantasy genre. It was Mythic’s Warhammer online, based on the popular Warhammer franchise of games. Yet, the game’s launch came and went and I never played the game, until now three years later.

What happened? Well, part of it was my system, I didn’t believe I could run the game with my cheap integrated graphics card, and part was economics: the game shipped with a hefty $50 or $60 price tag and at the time, I did not see myself justifying the cost of another game, when I was already playing wow and paying for wow.

So I read about the game on PC Gamer magazine, even planted a little mini poster in my home office wall. The game launched in September and got mixed reviews, some thought that Mythic made a huge mistake by not employing DAoC’s old tried and true formula of a 3 factioin RvR.

So when I recently could not make up my mind about which retro MMORPG to continue playing, when I was considering resubbing my DAoC account. lo and behold at the Mythic website I was staring at WAR….hmm….a chance to try their endless trial? A second chance to try the shiny new mmorpg I never played back in the fall of ’08. I did. I will give you my impressions on it when I am a bit deeper into the game.