Thanks to the Massively site, I was able to grab an invite to the last weekend of beta testing for this game. I must admit, I was more impressed than I thought I would have been.

There were a few buggy anomalies in the UI and browser but I doubt those will be present in the release version.  There were a few things that weren't clear in the game, such as save points.  But that was definitely not a showstopper in terms of game play.

My game time for the beta was very restricted since I was only among the wave of testers that were allowed in on Saturday instead of Friday.  Plus I had a lot of holiday engagements to attend to during that weekend.  So I was only able to level a few characters: a Sith Inquisitor, Smuggler and a Jedi Knight.  Out of all of them I spend the most time with the Inquisitor.

The story arcs for the classes are very immersive.  The game starts with that famous scrolling text that showcases the player's character as a major force in the game's storyline.  Each class has its own introductory area which is nice.  However as things quiet down in the game, it could turn those areas into ghost towns.  Which will definitely be the detriment of the many group quests/heroic areas in these beginning levels.

The quests are extremely linear and there seems to be little room to run off the path.  This could be problematic in the future.  But as of now, I don't have a problem with it since the quest stories are very interesting.  Each quest gives all character classes the opportunity to choose between light side and dark side decisions.  Sometimes there is an indication between which is which but more often there is no tip as to what is a Light/Dark decision.  In essence you could have a very light force influenced Sith Inquisitor/Warrior or a Dark Force natured Jedi Knight/Consular.  Another nice addition to each character class is a companion that helps with harder solo quests.  Each class gains his/her own companion in a unique way with varying levels of difficulty.  On my Sith Inquisitor, the companion required my character to fight it and it was an elite fighter.  It definitely took me a few tries to subdue it. On my Jedi Knight it only required my character to rescue the companion.  Unfortunately I did not level my Smuggler enough to get a peek at her companion.

The cut scenes and voice acting, which is a highly touted part of the game, I am ambivalent about.  On one hand, I got a kick out of seeing my character talk and interact with other NPC characters in a meaningful way.  On the other, some of the cut scenes dragged on so long, it annoyed me.  There is no way most of the scenes can be skipped because they require decisions that affect your character.  So you must sit through them.  Playing these scenes while in a group added a whole new level of complexity.  Responses to the NPCs while in a group are determined by rolls of the dice.  So everyone gains light side or dark side points depending on who won the role to respond.  It remains to be seen how many players will have the patience to keep sitting through these cutscenes a few months/years into the game.

The graphics were very basic, nothing fancy or too advanced.  RIFT definitely looks better in the graphics department.  This game is barely a few notches above WOW style wise.  The UI is the same as any mmorpg out there.   However the game takes away auto attack so the player is kept on his/her toes during playtime.  If you aren't hitting attack buttons, your character isn't attacking.

Will this game blow WOW out of the water?  No, I don't think so.  It could take away a few more subs from the powerhouse but not so many that it will falter.  I have my doubts that there are that many die hard Star Wars fans out there still playing WOW.  Most of them are saving up their dollars in preparation for SWTOR pre-orders and subscriptions, not idling in WOW.  Will I play SWTOR?  I'm not sure right now.  I do like the game.  But I'm not a crazed Star Wars fan.  But I do think that this game will be a hit and the source of enjoyable holiday hours of game play for many gamers.

Glitch

A few weeks ago, I heard talk about Glitch.  A strange, sweet and open ended VR built on Flash.  It intrigued me, so I signed up for an invite.

I received the invitation a few days later but neglected to create an account until this week.  What I discovered was some kind of mix between Second Life, Eve Online, Free Realms, other traditional mmorpgs.

It is most like Second Life which means it is open ended and completely free form.  There are traditional quests but they are mostly tied to the skill learning system.  Also objects in world can randomly drop quests if you discover them.  But otherwise your character wanders this kooky, pleasant, arty little paradise with no goals except the ones you create for yourself.  There are levels but the leveling system is vestigial only.  Gaining levels only grants minimal bonuses over lower leveled characters so there is no rush to level cap.  There is no combat system and the only PvP game play available is a racing game against other characters.

The premise behind the game is a mythology of many god giants who dream together.  And player characters are living inside that dream.  Each god rules over a particular skill such as Mining, Cooking, Farming etc.  In fact most of the gameplay centers around gathering materials to create usable items for yourself and other players.  If you aren't the type of player that likes crafting, a whole lot of crafting and make busy work, then this little game is not for you.  The learning system for these skills remind me very much of Eve Online's system but a little less arcane...only a little.  Each skill level grants bonuses in that particular skill, and some quests.

The game gives a very fast tutorial on what do with the basic objects and animals such as trees, pigs, and chickens.  A new character will get rewards for petting pigs and squeezing chickens.  The rewards will be put into the skill systems to create items.  The game also has an extensive achievement system so you will be rewarded over the most mundane things and very strange ones as well.

Built on top of this F2P is a cash shop that allows you to buy credits and use those credits to collect zany clothing for your glitch.  There is a very simple housing system which will be expanded upon in the future.  If so inclined, you can subscribe to the game which will give you monthly credits for the cash shop.

So far my first week has been enjoyable.  I love the artwork in the game as well as the little word pun jokes that pop up.  Although the visuals look childish, this game is definitely not for young children.  It was created for older teens and adults which means some of the jokes are on the mature side.  The community in the game is friendly and the customer service is upbeat.  If you ever wanted to waste a little time just fooling around and doing silly things, then this game is for you.

Dionysian Bacchanalia

History is a study of circles.  We all know this and yet we travel in the same rut.  We ignore the well worn signs.

Life at the end of Weimar Berlin is now.  Just as Weimar Berlin was the same as any great culture on the verge of collapse from Greek to Roman to Ming to Mayan.  People sense the impending disorder, get nervous and mindless just like wildebeest do when sensing an approaching predator.

Leave your Troubles Outside!

So Life is Disappointing?  Forget it!

In here, life is beautiful!

The Girls are Beautiful!

Even the Orchestra is Beautiful!

At those tipping points, people find release in fantasy.  We create a spot for ourselves in that cave of wealth and death (written about by blogger Elaine Meinel Supkis).  In that cave we play with mirror societies.  Those mirror societies are decadent, they push social norms and explore new expression.  Of course, this all has to do with sexuality because the cave is sex at it's most basic and it is a death too.

In the past, these mirror societies were created by artists.  Audiences with similar desires, but with no talents, would vicariously live through the artists' work.  But at our moment in time, that has been destroyed. Our current art and performance offerings are not allowing us the release we need.  In fact, our current culture is fighting the very need for release.  But this impulse cannot be denied, it must find an outlet.

Virtual reality has allowed the previously untalented spectator to recreate the cabaret, to celebrate the Bacchanalia and push boundaries.  In VR, as the song says, life is beautiful even the girls are beautiful. In VR we explore sexuality and gender roles.  In VR, women can be men and men can be women.  What is beauty or sexy?  In the past, the artists had all the fun while we watched.  Now, in this temporary bubble of order and disorder, anyone can take part in the cabaret.

In most articles on VR, Second Life is most often pushed as the pinnacle of decadence.  But SL is not the only cabaret.  It exists even in World of Warcraft, where many have designated the Inn at Goldshire (on just about every server) as a free zone for Bacchus.

Of course, the developers have no idea what they created or why it makes people drunk.  I believe Prokofy Neva once pointed out on his blog, that the developers are largely conservative.  They are more attracted to tight-ass, fascistic movements such as Singularity.  They have no idea what to do with the "freaks" who settled in their utopia.  Far from playing masters or mistresses of ceremonies, they want to change everyone into their ideas of what VR should be, of what avatars should be or how we should play their games.

If only some enlightened developer would come along and willingly become an avatar of Dionysus.  To delineate for the revelers the sensible division between fantasy and reality.  To stop the nonsense that VR drunkards are currently telling everyone, that their drunken revelries are part of real life.

But I suppose we should be happy with what we have now.  It won't last...when the money runs out and the backlash takes back our new ground.  The merry-go-round goes on....

Viewer 3.0

Linden Lab is working on the Viewer take 2.  Unlike most, I've never really had serious problems with the official viewers.  I just muddle through the crap.  But now we will be getting Viewer 3 and the Second Life community is doing what it does best...snark galore.

Run Devil Run - Girls Generation

In Second Life, I mostly hang around the Japanese and Korean sims and stores.  They have a very twee sensibility that appeals to me.

While making my rounds for the Poupee Hunt 2011, I visited a store called Pink Ribbon 21.  I noticed some t-shirts called "Girls Generation" with various pretty model types.  It intrigued me, so I did an internet search on them.  At first I thought they were some kind of TV show, but it turns out they are a girl pop band in Korea.

They are pretty good, if a bit over-processed.

I've included a youtube vid of their version of "Run, Devil, Run".  There is a little war on the page concerning who sang it first and who sang it better between Girls Generation fans and Kesha fans.  Whatever

I just love discovering new cultural icons through SL.

Cigarettes

I've only been traipsing around the online game scene since 2007.  Four years.  Four long damn years.  I still can't believe it.  And what ever game I've played, I've seen the same outbreaks.  If it isn't IP rights in SL, it's leechers in WAR or Ninjas in WoW.  And everyone is convinced the sky is falling.  Well, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.

But then I saw this clip of "One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest" on youtube.  And it reminded me of all those game communities I've been in.  They are all asylums.

Perhaps it is time to break free.

Give me my damn cigarettes.

A visit to WAR

Since I took the free week from Blizzard, I thought I  would return to WAR for a bit and see what changes this game has undergone.  Mythic offers 2 free weeks to returnees in an effort to re-hook interest.

When I had left the game, the patch that was supposed to change everything did.  The change it wrought was a hemorrhage of remaining players.  The new gear led to the creation of god like player characters that could practically fight warbands single handed.  The BO timers, NPC guards and zone points were taken away.  Which meant people wandered around a bit aimlessly then finally coalescing at a keep.  Even then only war machines could take down a door, since they were now resistant to range and melee damage.  That led to people just standing around the keep door.  I left the game.

Since then Mythic has taken considerable power away from the end game PvP armor sets, warpforged and doomflayer.  That has eased up on lower RR players a bit.  However checking my damage against other players, I still see opposing players immune to ALL of my attacks.  This is wrong.  There should never, ever, ever, never, ever be full immunity to attacks in a PVP game.

The campaign is still in a shambles with aimless wandering.  Even more distressingly, the standard of private warbands and private groups is now the only standard.  Open warbands are left out of the loop.  Since the Realm 4 chat channel is only open to guild leaders, no one can send messages out on it to report on activity.  During my heyday in the game the chat channels were filled with chatter and skirmish updates.  Open warbands were always in creation.  Even I was able to lead a few warbands.  Those days it seems, are over.  And for what reason?  Because a few control freaks were pissed off that there were renown leachers sitting at BOs, keeps or at the entrance of the RvR lake.  Was that problem annoying?  Yes.  Did it need addressing?  Maybe, but more likely not.  Because now that there are no clear cut goals, no points to rally, no group synergy, the game is now truly fading.

Warhammer Online has become a private club kind of atmosphere.  Which means you must join a guild, a very big guild and a popular one at that.  Because that is the only way you will see action.  Otherwise, a player will just have to wander, hook up with various wandering groups that will allow tagalongs and expect no heals.  And all of this because a few screechers couldn't stand renown slackers.  You know what, I would rather have the old campaign, warts and all rather than this silent, asocial atmosphere.

The game is now down to 2 American servers.  That should tell the game developers, that yes, you do need fricking renown leechers.  Those leechers are paying for this damn game.  That should tell the game developers to stop listening to the top level players and bloggers.  These people are too close to the fire to give a well rounded view of the actual game.  And considering the last few recent updates, I can only seeing it get worse before it gets better.  The players in the developer talking circle are still screeching about renown leechers.  But are unable to connect the empty RvR lakes, no campaign rally points, and ridiculous immunity advantages to the fact that they are encouraging the developers to make the game as unfriendly to new players as possible.  The fact that the server Badlands went from overpopulated to now needing to be merged to the last server Gorfang, should tell these "elite" players that they don't know how to give good advice to this game's developers.

The latest boogaboo among the elites is the PvE areas.  Which they say are wasted.  And yes I agree they are wasted.  But I doubt any of them have played the PvE areas like I have.  And I say, the PvE quests were wonderful.  The story arcs in the quests were fantastic.  The only thing that needed addressing in these areas were that they needed to be integrated into the campaign more, to have them give a nice amount of renown but not as much as the RvR lakes.  They also needed to be examined for bugs and NPC damage tuning.  That was all.  If the PvE area had been useful, I doubt the game would have bled players so profusely.  Now it looks as if all that hard work for the quests will be thrown out the window.  So that it can all be RvR area.  Will that get back more players? Not a bit.

To the developers of this game, I would say go back in time and objectively look at the previous campaign ideas.  During which iteration encouraged more player activity, which did not and which led to players fleeing.  Seriously consider the advice elite players have given.  Did any of them lead to more player retention?  Honestly?

Time is of the essence now for this game and I hope they can pull it back from the edge.

Don't Trust A Rogue

It is time for another WoW video complete with corny Blood Elves.  The ongoing joke is that no one likes this character class.  But I know everyone in the game probably has a Blood Elf in their alt closet.

The Free Week

Much has been made about the announcement a few months ago that World of Warcraft lost quite a number of subscriptions.  It was surprising to many especially since the last expansion was only just released last holiday season.  The mmorpg fanbase exploded into various chatter that exulted in Blizzard's fall from grace and worry that the game was beginning to fail.  The Blizzard forums were overwhelmed by posts calling the expansion a very real Cataclysm and begging Blizzard to start merging empty servers.  It seems the schadenfreude talking heads won the day because recently Blizzard turned it's introductory areas to unlimited free to play.  A policy that was seen before in the less than popular Warhammer Online a few years ago.  This move caused even more chatter with greedy demands that the whole game be turned free to play.

I'm included in those lost subscriptions that caused this major change.  I left the game last year due to burnout over the dungeon treadmill.  I returned during the weeks leading up to the new expansion and only stayed about two months after it released.  During that time I barely played the game at all.  I did take a look at the new Goblin and Worgen areas.  And in my post a few months back I was alternately impressed and a little dismayed by them.  But I lost the energy to keep playing to see the end game areas on my top level characters.

This past week I received an email from Blizzard offering a free week to celebrate the latest update patch.  I decided to go back to take a look.

This time I concentrated on leveling my high level character.  I took this character through Hyjal and into Deepholm.  The quest design in the end game areas match the polish shown in the new Goblin and Worgen areas.  Everything is streamlined, intuitive and packed with good story tidbits.  There is minimal to no grind at all.  A player will never have to keep returning to the same areas to collect just one more object or kill one more baddie.  I really enjoyed the pace that the quests set and I never felt as if I was stagnating on a treadmill to prolong the leveling usefulness.  However the problems in the Goblin/Worgen areas are also present in the end game areas which include too much phasing, vehicle quests and cut scenes.  All of which took control of my character away from me and again left me feeling I was sitting in a Disney World ride.  I was also a bit dismayed to discover that the whole playstyle of this character (Paladin) was changed.  In WOTLK, the character had good utility and steady damage.  Granted there were areas that could be toned down and some toned up but the class was in a good place.  But this was thrown out and the class now plays like a slot machine.  Every move I make, I cross my fingers and hope to pull triple diamonds in order to do any damage at all.  In every fight I'm not sure if the character will destroy an NPC without blinking, do balanced damage or just keep hitting the NPC with no damage at all.  I don't understand this need developers have to throw out class design every few months or years.  That isn't something I have patience for anymore in any game.

All in all despite the few niggling problems I have with the new areas, I can't say that Blizzard went totally wrong with the new expansion.  In fact many of it's elements are better than WOTLK and BC.  Therefore my explanations for the surprising subscription loss are due to the ongoing economic Depression and an over saturation in the MMORPG market.  There are only so many games for which people can pay regular subscriptions.  That leads to careful picking on which games to play.  It turns out that the people prone to play MMORPGs are already playing and the audience is probably at it's peak.  This group for the most part cut it's baby teeth in World of Warcraft, they are a bit bored with the familiar game and now are spreading out to see other games in the market.  Some would rather pay a subscription to the new Rift now than go back to the same old WoW.  Another major change in the market are the rise of the asian based Free to Plays and western games that follow the same F2P model.  The F2P games are a very real threat to the old subscription model games and as the Depression gets worse their rise will gain more momentum.  Many of the asian F2P games rival the subscription style games in graphics and play style.  Many of the F2P games now are former A listed subscription games.

But does this mean WoW is failing?  I don't think that is case.  It will be chugging along for many years to come.  But it's heyday is most likely past.

When Objectivism bites you in the ass!

I tried to play EVE Online many years ago.  And every few months kept trying to play it.  But it never took for me.  This was despite the world being lovely to behold.  One of the things that kept me back was the sheer time requirements involved for being a successful player.  Another drawback was the game absolutely required being teamed up in a corporation for any kind of game success.  Single players in that game were just cannon fodder.  But the main reason I disliked the game was it's cultic adoration of objectivism and anything Ayn Rand.

Ayn Rand has a particular and peculiar hold on the geek community. So much so to their detriment that they sit passively while Free Trade/Objectivism drains their jobs to Asia.  But that is another subject altogether.  In relation to Eve Online, it was a "philosophy' that was the very foundation of the world.  A world in which greed was the most sacred human aim, is considerably dystopian.  But dystopia was what the game company was aiming for and that is what they got.  Along with this dysfunctional social setup, they were the focus of real life scandals of game fixing and employee corruption.

And yet no one has made the connection between Ayn Rand love and the disintegration of the social contract both in game worlds and in the real world.

Anyway, Eve Online and CCP are now involved in yet another scandal involving a micro-transaction store.

A leaked document surfaced within the past week in which CCP discussed an in-game store and the tones of it were considerably less than exemplary.  Many of the game's fans hoped that it was grief stunt but alas the leaked company document is the real deal.  In one week, the "hardcore" fans of EO had a wake up call to the fact that Objectivism isn't just a game.  That in fact, they are being gamed.  Because lets face it as the old saying goes, all games have a patsy and if you can't figure out who that person is, than the patsy is you.

Now, to be rational, it isn't really the concept of micro-transactions that cause gamer's anger.  What is causing the anger is that EO may allow game breaking merchandise to be sold through the game store and at astronomical prices.  It would skew the game to such an extent that anyone who can't afford to pay for "SuperdooperStormTrooper" Ship A will be unable to compete with the players who can pay and pay numerous times over and over.  So it would seem that no one wants to live in an Objectivist world, even a dream world, in which naked self interest is the norm.

The controversy is still raging on the EO forums, in the game itself, and on gaming blogs and news sites.  CCP is sticking to it's plans and sitting out the controversy.  Another tactic that is beloved by all game developers.  However past events shows that this is not the best plan of attack.  Blizzard had to back down from their identity swipe fest that was REAL ID and even Turbine had to scramble to make up for their "grindaversary" celebration scandal.  In fact, I would think all developers would have learned by now to ignore popular uprisings only metastasize the mobs not lessen them.

Many developers are watching CCP now and gaging how successful they are in this Randian money grab.  They are also measuring how far gamers can be pushed.  This fight is more important then many know or realize.

ETA:  I've seen some rants mention Second Life regarding the EO debacle.  I have no doubt that game companies are curiously fascinated by Linden Lab's game/world.  And as much as I like to rag on LL's policies, no, they are not charging their gamers 60 fucking dollars for a virtual eyepiece.  Nor are the gamers in SL who create items, charging that much for clothing or accessories.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that most game heads think SL is heralding the birth of Cthulhu.  I've never understood the hatred for little old Second Life.  It perplexes me.

My VR Photostream

My Flickr photos in Pummelvision from Melponeme_k on Vimeo.


I discovered the link to Pummelvision on GoSpeed Racer's webpage.

Its an interesting stream of all my VR travels including a few flashes of my RL photos.  It is the RL that looks bizarre in this grouping.

Empty Universe

Linden Lab is slowly but surely working on new features in their browser. Some of them are a bit boggling (transferring profiles outside the world), amusing (body jiggle) and beautiful (shadows/Depth of Field).  The newest features (shadows/DoF) are still experimental and can only be turned on in the advanced menus or a player can download one of the sanctioned 3rd party browsers.

Anway, the above machinima showcases SL at it's best and the work of it's many players as well.

The location in the video is Japan Dream Kenjin, a quiet little sim that emulates a small Japanese fishing town in the early 60's.

So Lucky

Ah the WoW years.

This was a cute vid, probably staged but I don't mind.  The song was ridiculously silly.

Proof of Concept

I just watched a video feed of a conference from Gametech in Orlando via Metanomics in SL.

One of the issues that came up about VRs and their application to the military was regarding price.  As in how to make it all less expensive.  Particularly in regards to content portability.  There was a great concern that they (as in military companies and providers) couldn't take their toys to all ports hither and thither.  That they were stuck on proprietary platforms.  All of this kind of talk reminded me of a comment once made by Prokofy Neva.  That little Second Life was at the epicenter of enormous interest by various parties and it was trying all it could to remain autonomous.  That this was most likely one of the main reasons why the company culture was so insular.

This led me to look upon the whole issue of various groups fighting over content, control and platform direction as a battle over a very successful proof of concept venture.  Second Life is not a commercial platform.  It is an experimental proof of concept to the world that a non-game virtual environment can be done.  How well is open to personal opinion.  The company is not public it is still under the domain of private capital.  As such, it is at the mercy of the various whims and ideologies of it's investors.  The investors still look at Second Life as an experimental prototype with it's direction still open to change.

The monkey wrench in all the works are the regular users.  As far as we are concerned Second Life is done.  We erroneously thought that becoming a social entertainment VR was what Second Life was all about.  However all the jabs that Linden Lab made at becoming entertainment have been half hearted.  But once again they are trying to give themselves direction as entertainment and as a result hired Rod Humble (an exec with experience in the gaming industry) as the new CEO.  Truly everything hinges on whether or not Rod Humble is successful in turning SL into some kind of attraction like a regular mmorpg game.  Because if he isn't, I believe Second Life as we know it today will cease to exist.

The military and it's satellite company providers are now very large investors in the Second Life prototype.  Recently they purchased the Enterprise platform subdivision of SL.  And it is truly no surprise why.  Second Life is a reliable and working platform.  There would be no need for the US Military to commission it's providers to program a working alternative.  Of course since they did spend a lot of money for this variation of the platform, they are looking to cut corners off in other areas.  They want their purchase to come with benefits.  Benefits such as getting rid of proprietary content restrictions.      Its all under that cynical notion that content should be free to move.  But what it means is that the military doesn't believe in Second Life as a stand alone company with proprietary rights to it's IP.  Now why would they have that opinion?

I think about the track record of the various big names of LL, including Philip Linden, and all of them support the notion that the platform of SL should be like some kind of utility.  That it should be a jump off point for some kind of mega grid with free highways to move information.  This led me to a deeper understanding why these people hated the notion of land arbitrage and shopkeeper economy in SL.  These money making elements depend on proprietary systems.  They depend on lawful restrictions to protect property of the guinea pigs who thought Second Life was about them.  Meanwhile, we guinea pigs in SL were just an example that the grid was workable.  An example to various interested parties that many would do high grade graphic work and accept chump change for payment.

Many of the VC bigwigs of Second Life don't really care if Second Life becomes a big entertainment platform.  They just wanted to create a "Snowcrash" world and go down in the history books as the first founders of this mega grid.  They already made their billions, so SL's success as a stand alone company wasn't of utmost priority.  Now that the military is sniffing around, the same entity that funded and launched the internet itself, this group is getting excited.  I have a fear that they will happily throw Second Life users out the window,  requisitioning our content to placate the Military complex.  Especially if it means it will launch the Snowcrash.

Rift

So I joined the last 3 betas on Rift and have been playing the game for the last month or so.  I was impressed enough with the game to pre-order.  Now I'm in the Head-start program.

Is this game breaking new ground? Well, only if you consider breaking well trod ground something new.  Rift is not the next step in mmo games.  It does take what was good about certain other "games" and exploit them well.  I see a lot of other games in Rift.  I see a great deal of Warhammer Online artwork and game concepts in Rift.  I also see a lot of WoW in the game.  As well as Lord of the Rings Online.  Again, Rift has taken the best of the innovations and created a very solid game underneath them.  Plus they have managed to create a very nice buzz around their product which has led them to 1 million head-start accounts.  It is still speculation if they will gain a million more with the official release on March 1st and will be able to keep all their subscribers in the coming months.



The game has two opposing forces, called Guardians and Defiants.  One side being "good" the other "bad".  The variation of this mmorpg theme standard of opposing forces in Rift has made me extremely uncomfortable.  The player characters in this Rift setup are, for all intents and purposes, all powerful deities.  Unlike other games, in which the gamer is an average, every day nobody, learning to take part in a campaign...Rift characters are gods.  The NPCs treat the player characters as gods.  The cut scenes are bombastic, with a booming narrator crowing about the player's sanctity.  Let me just say it bluntly, I felt as though I were watching fascistic propaganda.  This game is the very example of Susan Sontag's Fascist Aestheticism idea.  I am aware of the dangers of these ideas floating around the internet at the moment.  But I'm not sure how this is affecting the people who play Rift or other games like it.  I can only conclude that these types of UR Fascist ideals soften us up for the real thing when it takes form in some kind of political ideology.



My discomfort has extended all the way to the actual character models themselves.  There is little option to personalize these characters.  They remain, first and foremost, fantasies of the developers.  Instead of being a projection of the player's will, they are just theme park vehicles for the player to ride in.

The characters have only one skin color....WHITE.

If you want to be something else, you can be purple or maybe blue.  But those colors are for baddies...i.e. Defiants.  If you are good in this game, you are caucasian. You are not black, you are not asian, you aren't even any other ethnicity under the sun.

Like I said....Fascist Aestheticism in all its glory.

The models also have this strange ideal of a misshapen small head to large body ratio.  If you check my portrait screenshot, you can see the head/body disparity.  It looks like a voodoo head on a regular body.  Why this is so, I have no idea.  During beta, many players complained about it, including myself.  But the models were never changed.  I'm not sure if they could be changed.  I also have a feeling that the developers are staunchly against the change because these characters are THEIR fantasies not OUR fantasies.  We are going to take what they give us and like it.



The actual gameplay is smooth.  There are minimal problems.  Probably the most glaring problem right now, is that people can't roll on the servers they want.  The beta servers which survived release, are all intensely popular and have long wait times for entry.  It has led to a lot of wailing on the forums.  I could not get on my beta server, so instead I created a character on a new server.  Which has a nice population and no wait times.  There are enough people to take part in public Rift quests.  These Rift invasions are fun and rather exciting.  I'm not sure how successful they will be in the long run as population thins out.  Hopefully the developers have kept this eventual problem in mind.

I don't believe that I will stay with this game past my initial subscription.  Mainly due to the problems with the game that I have listed. These problems are all artistic and thematic.  The technology platform is rock solid.  And the gameplay is virtually problem free.

It all depends on taste.  Will it be a WoW killer?  No. But it could give all mmorpgs a run for their money for a bit.  Before the next shiny is released.

Gamers

This small documentary was recently featured on Massively.  In which it caused loads of outrage.  The main argument being that the documentary was unfair and biased.

Truthfully, after watching it twice, I can't really find any kind of bias from the filmmaker at all.  He approached the subject with an open mind, he interviewed people for and against video gaming, and came to his own conclusions.  Well many gamers might not like what he personally discovered, but none of us can say that he had a well established agenda to get to that conclusion.  The journey for this filmmaker was that it gave him the opportunity to meet and chat with other people.  The game turned out to be a means to find new outlets to socialize outside the game.  And I have to admit he did find a really interesting bunch of people to interview.  Along with a talent to discover the prettiest girl gamers at Blizzcon.

This was a great film on the subject.  I just don't understand the outrage against it.

On a completely random note:  I didn't know they had a bar at Blizzcon.  So cool.  To be able to mix two addictions at once!

Kind of joking...kind of serious

When I think of what Second Life reminds me of, I hark back to those old sci fi films of the late 70's/early 80's.

Like this oldie but a goodie.

Little Screen

On January 14,  Avatar Reality issued a statement that it was restructuring.  They will now concentrate on the mobile market (Ipads, Iphones etc).  In essence they will offer avatar talking heads to customers by using the one single element in Blue Mars that was a failure.

I'm not happy that AR has a hit a wall with Blue Mars.  When the world first appeared, I was disappointed that they did not choose to use technology that could run on an Apple (ironic to say the least).  But after a semi-upgrade in hardware, I was able to use Blue Mars and see pluses in it's favor.  Blue Mars is a VR place built on cutting edge technology.  It was beautiful to look at and explore.  All of it using a graphics engine that until recently, was only used in action games.

I have a few ideas of where the stumbling blocks occurred.  As others have stated before, the hardware needed to run the game was really out of most people's price point.  Right away, the AR team cut themselves off from the average George and Jane who were into Second Life and other VRs.  Blue Mars could only be comfortably run by hard core gamers who had the hardware.  As seen continuously in Second Life, hard core gamers HATE Second Life with the passion of a thousand burning suns.  Even an alternative to Second Life with gorgeous graphics wasn't going to change their tune.  Looking to profit with a small slice of a tiny subculture within another small subculture wasn't really a road to success.

The world was released too early, it never developed beyond a test pattern.  The browser itself never progressed to gold stage/release ready.  It began and ends it's life in beta.  This hasty release after an intriguing promotional campaign indicated to me the lack of a solid business plan.  It seemed as if AR was confident enough in the wow factor of their crytek graphics engine (which runs the game Crysis) that people would come en masse into their world.  They put the kabosh on a fully interactive building option for all Blue Mars players and only allowed it for professionals/professional grade graphic designer hobbyists.  So the people who did make the leap into Blue Mars were only allowed to passively walk around pre-made environments.  Even then they could not take screenshots of these places.  The browser had been released with just basic functions without an option for screenshots.

All of this was unfriendly to say the least.

But the one big failure was the world's avatars.  The avatars could not be modded with any degree of personal preference.  Eventually there was an ad hoc option to change the facial characteristics of avatars but nothing with fine control.  The avatars themselves were obviously the fantasy work of a core group of designers.  Designers who had specific preference foibles that got in the way of user enjoyment.  I read recently some of the team behind the BM avatars were a part of making that "Final Fantasy: Spirits Within" film. That answered a lot of my questions regarding these avatars.  Blue Mars avatars look like extras from the Final Fantasy film. Avatars that were plastic and a bit frightening.  So hyper-real that they jumped the shark into unreal.  At the end there were more designers who created skins and eyes to overlay over the default BM avatars.  But their work couldn't erase the problems inherent in the avatars.  Mainly that their shape couldn't be modded by their own users.  I tried valiantly to work through these problems with the help of professional purchases.  But no matter what I did, my avatar's face always seemed a bit cross-eyed.  I never could figure out why that occurred.  The fact that AR thinks these avatars will attract average people after they were such a bomb with VR users worries me.  It indicates to me that they still don't have any kind of plan going forward.  They are just grasping at idea wisps.



At about the time I wrote my little post about Blue Mars, Avatar Reality was in the process of marketing a "cloud computing" option for their world.  The graphics would all be rendered on their end then piped through to the user.  It was impressive but it left a lot of unanswered questions.  Mainly who would have to pay for all that computing power and bandwidth cost?  Blue Mars was essentially a free to play world.    There wasn't even a large enough economy inside the world to support this new option.  Talk about this breakthrough disappeared around the holidays and then the January restructuring was announced.

Right now, the world will be left as is.  AR will no longer charge city developers for their worlds.  The development team for the browser is gone.  If any work is done on the browser, it will be only for dire bug fixes.  However I'm not too confident that this will last too long.  If AR is successful with their phone plan, they will cut off the world as unneeded fat.  If AR is unsuccessful with their new plans, the BM world will end.  It doesn't look good.  But I'm still hoping that they can pull through.

Tom Bombadil's Theme - Lonely Mountain Band

A fanvid and fan cover of one of my favorite songs in LOTRO.  I have this playing in my game house.

Auction House: Money Never Sleeps

A consistent theme I see on various game forums is the issue of prices on goods listed on the Auction House.  Mainly, how expensive and inflated the game economy is at any given moment.  I'm not without some sympathy for this minor problem.

When setting up in any mmorpg, there is a getting settled, learning curve to get over.  One of those bigger learning curves is learning the game economy.  I always go through a period where it seems I never have enough game money.  Eventually, after going through growing pains, I take a look at the auction house.  Especially how it handles pricing on items related to my game profession.  Then my money problems are solved.

This doesn't take long to learn.  It just takes a bit of patience.  So that is why I'm baffled when other gamers cry poor church mouse and demand that price controls be instituted.  I'm no monetary genius.  I'm not sitting in front of my computer with a million Excel spreadsheets open on my monitor tracking the game economy.  Believe me, most games aren't EVE Online.  However even the time I spent in EO, I made enough money to purchase ship insurance and buy upgrades.

Game economies are simple to understand.  They are basic commerce in action.  Which is why economists love to study them.  All any gamer has to know in regards to any game AH is this simple, Ben Franklin idea:

Time is Money

Or as Karl Marx in Das Kapital states:

Commodity - Money - Commodity

What you see on any game AH is a collection of goods related to game professions.  Some of these goods have already been valorized and can be purchased as a useful item such as a weapon, armor or tool.  The game auction house is also chockful of luxury items such as game pets, housing decorations or cosmetic costumes.  All of these items will be priced accordingly to how hard it is to gather the items or how rare they are inside the game.  The more rare the more expensive in game money.

One of the topsy, turvy results in game economies is that frequently crafted items are considerably cheaper than the basic items used to make them.  I believe this is related to the leveling nature of these professions.  Most gamers are so intent on leveling these professions in order to access the rare, more expensive recipes that the basic recipes used for leveling are cheap.  Since the focus is on gaining experience in professions, the basic ingredients of any profession hold more value than the basic goods produced.  That is why you will see a gathered items such as wood, metal or leather costing more in a game's AH then an item made from those materials.

Once you understand this basic underpinning of any game AH, you will make money.  So just go out and gather those basic ingredients.  Most gamers will like large stacks of items.  Hence a stack of 20 or more logs of wood, or metal pieces will sell faster than just small odd numbers.

Now many of the complaints against the pricing of profession ingredients is that they are inflated.  The complainers state that these gathered items are available all over, so they shouldn't sell for much on the AH.  But they fail to understand is that they are paying a markup for the seller's time.  Anything listed on a game's AH required the potential seller to take time out of his/her game to gather said items.  Or they required the seller to run a difficult dungeon which also cost them time as well as game fees to fix armor etc.  Now the argument that these items are ubiquitous is true.  So that is all the more reason to go out and do some gathering.  But since these gamers do not want to spend the time to do so and search for convenience instead, I don't understand why they complain about paying for those services.

Another complaint is that AH sellers are taking advantage of other players by monopolistic, gouging policies.  This is just ridiculous.  The majority of people just do what I do, check the going price for items on the AH and price accordingly.  We aren't tracking the game economy with a stock market like add on.  Not to say there aren't gamers out there who aren't doing that.  They are, but their effect on the game economy is rather miniscule.  They may cause inflation of one item or another for a short time but not so much it hurts the game.  And if it turns into something truly abusive, the GMs look into it.  Believe me, the smarter players quick in exploiting arbitrage opportunities are gone in a flash.  The people caught in price bubbles are the fools who were pulled into the Arbitrageur's wake.

A game's AH is a pure, voluntary experience.  No one is forcing any player into using it.  For those who think the AH is a fool's paradise, they sell direct on the trade channel.  In essence running a black market.  But unless a player knows the prices on the AH, they won't know if they are getting good deals or over paying.  Instituting price controls on AH will do nothing to stop what is conceived as inflation.  People will move to where they can make money.  If it can't be for basic gathered items, it will be for something else.  You can't stop people from assigning value to game items.  Its the nature of the beast.

So how do you make enough money to make a decent living for your game toon in any game?

Sell stacks of copper, silver, gold or any other mining metal.  In all the games I've played, I've noticed that the mining based professions were always the most popular and consequently their basic ingredients all commanded a nice amount of game money.  I guarantee that if you sell the basic materials for mining, within a week or two, you will have enough game money to keep the wolf away from the door for your game character.

Simple, no?  Which is why I don't understand all these complaints from gamers who cry that they have no game money or can't afford anything on a game's AH.  I suspect most of them are really trying to experiment with whatever monetary philosophy they hold dear at the moment.  They complain so much about being at the mercy of AH sellers that they don't see the policies they want (such as convoluted Player market stalls or price controls) as being equally controlling.

Luckily most games keep the Auction House going with little interference from players personal economic opinions.

Kung Fu Pandaren

I don't get the Pandaren joke in WoW.  But I did get the pet created for a charity drive.

This video was featured on WoW insider.

Warhammer Woe

I'm not a PvP fan.  Let me be clear about this fact.  I don't PvP in any game except for Warhammer Online.  For whatever reason, WAR made player versus player gaming feasible for me.  I did try this form of play in Warcraft.  But that game's emphasis on it's arena system was a clear move to inhibit casual players.  Warhammer Online with it's fantastic warband system was perfect for hardcore and casual gamers alike.

And I do emphasize "Was".

Because with the latest patch update, the factor that made casual playing easier is gone.  Instead of finding more ways to open up the RvR system, the developers locked it down further.  They took away the influence aspect toward zone lockdowns.  I didn't mind when the PvE requirements or Scenario requirements were jettisoned.  However those changes made the game dependent on large groups to hold objectives and gain skirmish points.  Clearly, on unbalanced servers, this made it harder for the smaller faction to win anything.  The long awaited 1.4 patch was an effort to rebalance the problems.  But it has only accelerated the zerg factor.

Another problem that cropped up, previously only seen during city sieges, was closed, alliance guild only warbands.  Because the changes require a more pointed offense toward claiming keeps and keep sieges most players will now only undertake this with their guild and affiliated guilds.  The few times I've logged on since the patch change, I check the war update option, go to the highest populated area then check for open warbands.  There are none.  Believe me they are in existence and clearly trying to gain objectives, but they are private.  These warbands use private channels and rarely update stray groups and players as to what they are doing in game.  Many use the argument that you can gain more experience through ganking.  That can be true, but it really only works if you are on the underdog faction.  As a destruction player that is a rare occurrence on my server.

So now with less ways to gain renown experience (no rr points for objectives or keep sieges now), practically no way to join a warband (unless a casual one opens up), gaining those extra levels to 100 is a grind.  My Sorceress was at RR66 and I was looking forward to end cap.  But now with 34 slow levels ahead of me, I'm throwing in the towel.  I cry uncle.  Already I'm seeing an even more ridiculous imbalance between players who are closer to 100 end cap and new players to Tier 4.  There is just no way on this green earth a player below RR60 can make a dent in this game.  The old arguments of skill bridging that big of a gap in levels just doesn't work anymore.

Warhammer Online is now no longer casual friendly.  The new patch dearly needed a new tier to separate the post RR80 players from the lower levels.  But I don't think this will ever happen.  The game is on a skeleton crew development wise as it is.  And I don't see EA infusing more cash into this game.  Its a shame really.

Please keep your hands and feet safely in the vehicle at all times!

So, around the end of November I received a free week offer from Blizzard.  This was right around the time when the Azeroth was going to be torn asunder.  I took them up on that offer.

During that time, I decided to work on my Warlock (essentially the first character I rolled in WoW) and got her up to level 80.  The recent patches before the Cataclysm quickened the pace of leveling in Northrend.  My warlock was high level before I could blink.  During that time, I found I enjoyed playing again.  This time I was more relaxed because I swore I wouldn't start the gear grind again.  I changed my Warlock's spec from demonology to affliction.  The dungeons I ran her through were relaxing with fellow puggers who weren't hard core.  Most likely because they were working on Alts as well.

I caught the tail end of the elemental invasion which caused more annoyance than entertainment.  Everyone received what gear they needed from these raid like mini-games, so no one bothered to fight the invaders anymore.  That caused the cities to be needlessly closed for about 15 to 30 minutes every few hours.  At least they created portals so low levels could get out of the area without being smashed.  However the event was nowhere near as satisfying as the zombie invasion of Lich King.

Then the Cataclysm hit.  To get the feel of the full changes I rolled new characters on Horde and Alliance.  I created an Undead Hunter and a Night Elf Mage.  I must admit that the new quests in the once older sections were much better.  The leveling more smooth and the difficulty levels a little more even.  I remembered the Undead areas used to go from a difficulty rating of 3 to 10 all in one jump.  It was wild.  The Night Elf area was much worse.  But the new expansion fixed all of that craziness.  The quests are still the same, but the harder ones now give an NPC companion to help out.   Classes that used to have to grind for their pets (Warlock and Hunter) now get basic companions from the start.  Which makes the play much easier.  I quickly ran through the new gnome start area which was sickeningly adorable.  But I enjoyed it.

The most impressive change was the city of Orgrimmar.  Which is no longer a place of tent bazaars but metal clad stone buildings and huge zeppelin towers.  The new factor of Orgrimmar became a point of contention on the forums between Horde and Alliance players.  Alliance players stating that Horde players practically received a whole new city while Stormwind looked the same.

When the official release of Cataclysm occurred (I just ordered the basic internet download), I rolled both Goblin and Worgen characters.  That is where my enjoyment became a bit dampened.  Don't get me wrong, the new zones and toons were very nicely done.  I saw elements in the game play that were taken from other games such as WAR and LOTRO in terms of progression techniques and a bit of art work.  But nothing that would scream out plagiarism.

However, the goblin area in particular just seemed to be one big lampoon of the current popular culture.  Which I don't think will age too nicely.  The Worgen area received a more loving touch with very Lovecraftian themes.  What I didn't like about the new areas (and also the 80-85 areas) was the extensive use of cut scenes.  These new cut scenes don't cause me to feel excitement for the storyline.  They took me out of it.  They froze my character for a minute or two and took control of my game play.  It made me feel as if was inside a Disney World ride and I was just watching the game from the safety of my buggy.

So will I return like the prodigal gaming daughter to the Blizzard fold? No, I don't think so.  I paid for three months of the new expansion.  But I don't see anything for me in Warcraft at the moment.  But I'm an old, washed up WoW has been/never been.  The game is really for MMORPGs newbies.  And if this is the first game of it's type that a new player could pick up, then they could be nothing but impressed.  Azeroth is accessible and enjoyable.  The graphics are cute (although a lot of hardcore gamers complain of their simplicity).  The leveling is simple and non-stressful.  There are some jokes in the game that I think are more than a bit offensive but I think most would overlook them. It is a matter of taste after all.

So yes, I would still recommend WoW as a game for most would be players.  There is still nothing else like it in terms of brand and gaming accessibility.