I just haven't been playing games lately.  After about 2 months break for all games, I just went back to visit TERA Online.  It took some time getting used to my Popori Archer again.

I'm not a great player and the quest text boxes are like tiny walls of text.  So I mistakenly started soloing BAMs (vicious orisks and brutal orisks) and could not figure out why they were taking so long to kill.  I died a few times, finally settling on a system of just running around, dropping traps, during monster pauses shooting off a poisonous DOT and getting some more elaborate shots.  The great thing about the BAMs now is that they seemed to have nerfed the gathering requirements for them, so instead of 10 or more monster kills, you just need 3 to 5.  Because of this, they have also taken off the party needed warnings off the quests.  Which is why I started taking them on, otherwise I would have just ignored them.

Anyway, this was a video linked on the TERA forums.  I think it is a guild recruitment video.  But it is so sweet and inventive. Poporis are the best.

NOT Elins though, Elins just creep me out.

My travels in game world...

have been lackluster.  Outside life pulled me from my mmorpg hobby and now I'm wondering if I will continue with games much past next year.  The only game I play regularly now is Lord of the Rings Online. But even my time in that game has taken a hit.

Halfheartedly, I tried to get back into RIFT.  But not long after I re-subbed, they announced their Free to Play conversion.  Luckily it hasn't had a big effect on my characters.  All of them were on decent population servers and were not forced to move due to mergers.  But I've lost the incentive to level and the only thing I do when I log in, is putter about in my dimension house.  Boring, I know.

I did enjoy Tera for a bit.  That was the game I thought I was joining when I signed up for GW2 because I had them mixed up.  The graphics are beautiful and the game play is interesting.  But due to lack of time, I haven't logged back into my Popori Archer character in more than a month.

So now, I'm trying to decide if I should keep Rift and Tera for the times I feel the need to log in or just delete them to free up space.

I suppose it was nostalgia for when I was new to games that made me sign up for a few months of WOW. But I returned to find a vastly different game from just last summer.  The servers that contained my main and second most played character had gone belly up since my last log in.  I mean really died.  They were both once bustling with activity.  At first, I thought I would carry on, but going from one empty area to another was depressing.  Even the cities were desolate.  I was also disappointed in the hype surrounding the Siege of Orgrimmar update.  I thought the game would include a lot of story material for non-raiders then leave the actual boss fight to the raiders.  But NOPE, you have to raid if you want the story to progress at all.  At first I laughed but then it just further depressed me.  Even despite losing a large portion of the player base and "merging" servers (cross realms), the developers still insist on forcing everyone to play the way they think their game should be played.  It struck me as a obtusely ungenerous, more in the spirit of the appropriately named expansion Cataclysm which caused the free fall in subscribers.  Up until the Free to Play explosion and glut of games, Blizzard could get away with forcing people into certain play modes.  But now so many other options are out there plus with no subscription tag!  Blizzard no longer has the ability to throw its weight and haze its player base.  They should really change their ways since they are shrinking noticeably now.  My two high levels are now on more crowded servers.  But who knows how long they will last?

I won't even discuss the coming shut down of WAR.  The thought of it makes me so sad.  I'm holding a bit of hope for Camelot Unchained but even my short time in gaming has shown me to be skeptical of everything until I'm actually in the game.  And even then it is still questionable.

Oh Bother

Eve Online, yeah, EO.  *sighs and shakes head*

What do you think about when this game is mentioned?  Spaceships? Space? Wild scandals in which players gang up on other players in order to make them commit suicide?  More scandal in which a popular blogger (Mintchip) was hired as community manager by CCP and led to slander and pillaging of her character?  Ayn Rand idol worship?

So having only 4% of the player base claim to be female is surprising?

Although CCP claims not to worry about this minuscule number, I have a feeling that they do anyway. Why?  Because, even though most male gamers don't admit it, any game that attracts a large female player base makes money.  Lots and lots of money.  Really, what developer would turn up their nose at money?

So now CCP has a hit a wall with subscriptions and their mostly male player base holds part of the blame.  But still the majority of the blame is due to CCP's lax policing of outrageous behavior.  They don't govern against harassment, threats, cheating (in fact their own devs took part in early cheating scandals), the list goes.  The player government had that famous scandal with the Goon Squad suicide campaign.  I haven't looked into what happened to Mintchip, but I've seen the comments on her recent vlog post and they weren't nice.

I do have to say that the hiring of Mintchip is due to CCP holding out a tentative hand to female players.  Mintchip has a fun vlog and she is one of the few female gamers who is very enthusiastic about EVE Online and it's sister game DUST.  At times I have been leery about Mintchip's giggly female persona but I never thought that she wasn't serious about her gaming hobby or the games she enjoyed.  The reason for my hesitant support was not because of jealousy over a younger, pretty female gamer but because her behavior was bound to attract misogynist male gamers of every age.  It also made me angry that I even had to worry about this, because it shouldn't matter if Mintchip wanted to be flirty.  She is young and pretty and has every right to enjoy being so.  But now she is accused of sending sexy photos to someone for game money.  Is it true?  Don't know.  More likely it was embellished by jealous male gamers to get her fired.  Even it if was true, SO FUCKING WHAT!  None of us know the details except for the stories spewed on game boards and youtube comments from a bunch of men screaming like sexually frustrated, hysterical Church types.

I'll be pissed if CCP folds for these screechers.  Seriously these men need someone to get Freudian on their asses.

Anyway besides the previous story, why doesn't Eve Online attract women?

Is it because the avatars are just spaceships?  Partially, I've written about that in previous posts.  But not totally.

Is it the PvP?  There are plenty of women who enjoy PvP.  My friend who got me into games (WoW) played on a PvP server and she enjoyed it immensely.  I, myself, loved WAR to death.

You know why it doesn't attract women?  Take a look of that screenshot in the header that I've included with this post.  Look at that godawful UI.  I mean seriously.  You want another gander at it?  Look at an official screenshot of it.

Holy CRAP!  What the hell is going on in there?  It literally takes a few weeks to learn all the menu and sub-menu systems.  There has to be a better way.

How do you drive your ship?  Do you see it on that nightmare of a UI?  Nope.  

Another reason, there is no codified attempt to guide the player into missions or crafting.  After the tutorial (which is better than when I first signed up), the new players are left high and dry.  The developers figured that the rest of the training would be completed by the many player corporations in the game.  Which considering the bullying scandals, is laughable.

The questing....whatever there is of it,  is enjoyable.  However, and a BIG however, whatever questing there is in the game is spotty, ridiculously arcane and purposely obscure.  Even if a player manages to follow the quests/agent missions in the game, there is a ridiculous jump in skill levels.  Since the game does not label its levels or allows easy tracking of skills, it is possible for a player to accept a mission that they cannot complete but won't know it until they accept the mission.  That leads to the PvE faction that gave the quest to permanently ban the player from future quests.  Nice.

I won't get into the crazy that is mining/crafting.  The UI doesn't even tell you how to fly your ship much less how to mine.

Whatever.  I would say to CCP, if you want to attract female players do the following:

1 - Properly police your user base in game and out (forums), even the popular players/corporations.

2 - Clean up that UI

3 - Ban obscurity in everything.  The mechanics of every feature must be transparent.  It isn't dumbing down.  Believe me, the main features of the gameplay can stay as is without alteration.  But it is not shameful to allow the player to easily understand how, why and what.

I have a feeling though, that CCP has painted themselves into a corner.  Any change would alienate the players they have, but no change will continue to keep females out of the game.

To Rohan

A few months ago I received an invitation to participate in Turbine's Riders of Rohan closed beta program.  The email didn't make an impression on me since I decided to write it off as a phishing attempt.  To my surprise the legitmacy of the email was confirmed when I logged into Turbine's LOTRO forums and was able to see the Closed Beta discussion site.

I downloaded the program to both my Windows computer and to, my surprise, my Mac computer as well.  The majority of my play time was dedicated to testing the Beta client for the Mac.

Mac Client

As far as performance for the Mac client, I had no major problems.  My Mac is a mid-2007 and it ran the beta client rather well.  My graphic settings ran comfortably on mid to high.  There were a few strange artifacts here and there (such as flickering) but those problems were also shared by the windows client too.  However, I can't vouch for the client staying playable for older macs for the release in October (if they release the mac client with ROR).  Many things could change and that may make the client unusable for older macs.  As of now, it works amazingly well.

Rohan

I don't want to release too many spoilers for the new expansion.  But to just say that right now, the quest stories for Rohan are very interesting.  Every quest left me waiting to learn more as I traveled to each new quest hub.  The graphics are outstanding.  The Turbine art team really went to great lengths to capture the area from Tolkein's books.  The area now has new music scored by the Chance Thomas (returning due to popular demand).  All I can say is that theme used to introduce the player's entrance to Rohan is wonderful.

Game Play and Mounted Combat

Regular game play has not radically changed in this expansion.  Everything is still the same for most classes with some added tweaks.

The real change comes with mounted combat.  Mounted combat is not like the mount system used in WoW's Lich King expansion.  Turbine is really taking chances with this new system and tailoring it to act as closely as possible to real world dynamics.  Each class has mounted attacks that closely mimic their regular combat technique.  But just punching out these attacks are not where the difficulty comes into the picture.  Every player must learn how to maneuver their mount around enemies.  The horse mounts are based on heavy combat destrier models used during the Middle Ages.  Since they are large and muscular, they don't turn on a dime once they are up to full speed.

This is where Turbine has added in a special trait line, in which players can choose between speed or strength or a mix for their mounts.  If you choose a quicker horse, a player will gain speed and manuverability over health.  These horses suited for DPS classes need to keep moving since being unhorsed is an ever present probability.  Believe me, you don't want to be unhorsed in the middle of an NPC warband.  The trait line geared for strength and health are for the tank classes.  But that doesn't mean a player gets to stand still while attacking.  A player needs to move to build up fury for their mounted attacks.

The mounted combat tutorial does give good basics but the majority of the learning curve is spent in regular combat.  Once you learn how to maneuver the mount into and out of combat, it makes this new fighting style very exciting.

Delayed Launch

ROR was originally set to release today, the 5th.  But due to various bugs, the date was pushed back to October 15.  I believe that was a very good decision.  The major reason why this was done was to ensure that mounted combat was as smooth as possible.  There will little issues with mounted animations and manuverability.  I believe Turbine is really close to the end result so an extra month is just what was needed.  There were also little graphic anomalies during quest instances and some broken NPCs.  Which shouldn't be too hard to fix up.

All in all this will be Turbine's most exciting expansion in quite awhile and I'm looking forward to it.

The launch of the good ship GW2

So it has been a little over a week since GW2's launch.  This is counting my extra days because I pre-purchased.

And I must state that I am satisfied with the game.

The problem that irked me the most, the female caster armor, looks as if it has been addressed.  The starting gear is still that atrocious bikini miniskirt lacy underwear number.  But as soon as I was able to level up the tailoring craft, the outfit turned into a harem dance girl outfit.  Still a little squicky but not as bad as the mini skirt.  Later on a quest reward gave me an even better looking shirt with fuller coverage.  The character still looks sexy but just not the stripper-in-search-of-a-venue look.  I'm hoping that as the character levels there will be a consistency in the gear.

The game has been crowded beyond imagination from the first day I logged in.  Most thought that the majority of players were the pre-purchase crowd and things would be smooth for actual launch day.  The auction house was down for the majority of the headstart.  Which most overlooked since the game had not officially launched.  So I know that I was hoping that it would be up for opening day.

It was not.

In fact I think the game developers miscalculated how popular the game would be.  They were happy with the pre-purchase numbers and most likely did not count upon fence sitters (after all you can't hope for hypothetical crowds).  But it turned out that they showed up in greater numbers due to word of mouth.  I think I've spent more time on overflow servers than I have on the server that I chose to play on.  Even though the overflow servers were created to address large crowds and forestall the need to add extra servers (which may go empty a few weeks down the line), this nice solution groaned under the weight of all the players.  I heard of tales of disconnects, crashes and groups being split up due to being sent to different overflow servers.  The auction house has not been up yet.  ArenaNet has not opened up its forums so a true account of player discontent or lack of it is unknown.  However they did bite the bullet and started to add more servers.

Personally I haven't experienced any major problems.  The AH being down is inconvenient but not game breaking.  What would concern me would be actual problems with character attacks.  But unlike SWTOR that suffered from ability delay, GW2 is blessedly free of that problem.  The attacks are just as smooth as the ones in World of Warcraft.  Which is a very genuine achievement and it is practically the only game that has come close to that gold standard.

To conclude, I'm very happy with the game.  I can see myself spending time in its world more than I planned.

Shadow of the Argonath - Chance Thomas

Although I really liked the "Rise of Isengard" expansion last fall, one of the main disappointments I had with it was that it did not have a new music score.  I believe one of the main reasons why I fell in love with LOTRO so much was the beautiful score composed by Chance Thomas.  His music captured the spirit of Middle Earth wonderfully.

Since ROI, I noticed that I was not the only one who wanted a new score.  The forums had a few posts regarding the absence of new music.  It seems Turbine took this into account and commissioned Chance Thomas to write new music for Riders of Rohan.

ROR will be released on Sept 5 and Turbine is in the midst of drumming up excitement by releasing snippets of Thomas' new score.  It sounds as gorgeous as the original score for the game.  I can't wait to hear more of it.  Turbine has also dropped hints that they may rerelease the old soundtracks along with the new one for sale.

Why?

So my time in SWTOR was a bust.  I did not pay for a subscription after my 30 days of free play time expired.

Incidentally I was given promotional time in RIFT.  Which I used to create new defiant based characters on a new server.  Not long after it was announced that the server for my original characters was being downgraded to a trial server.  So all my original characters had to be moved elsewhere.  I liked my original server.  It made me sad to see it disappear.  After that event, I lost the will to keep playing RIFT.

Another game I dabble in, Wizard 101, expanded to a new area called Zafaria.  It was interesting but it didn't catch my imagination as the previous areas.  Also Wizard 101 is in a strange state, it has attracted a great many raiding gamers.  So now the game is tuned to grinding for gear in numerous raid level instances.  They have changed their gear for mitigation stats and class boosts but with barely any morale on them.  The NPCs have been given boosts in damage and health.  All of this is not really that terrible.  But considering that the game began as a hobby for young children in grammar school and junior high, the high level raid type atmosphere at end game is extremely unnecessary.  KingsIsle was in a great position to experiment with different end game experiences because their main audience was not yet used to the WOW mmorpg end game paradigms.  Did they? NOPE.  They just tacked on raids and gear grind.  Thanks KingsIsle.  Now, like other mmorpgs, Wizard 101 end game story instances are only available for the 5 to 20% of the playing audience.

I'm not even going to get into the inflation on items in the company store.  There are many threads about that in the KingsIsle forums, and none of them have been addressed.  And it looks as if they never will be addressed.

This leads me to LOTRO.  This is where I went after I left SWTOR and I've long since given up on WOW.  I liked the expansion last fall called "Rise of Isengard".  It had interesting stories and well done phased content.  However there were a great many bugs in instanced areas.  Plus I was deeply disappointed that Turbine did not commission new music from composer Chance Thomas (I'm hoping this will rectified in the upcoming expansion this fall).

But as like all mmorpgs, I've hit the raid or lie fallow paradigm.  And the more I see this gated tactic in games the more I ask WHY?  WHY? WHY?  Why spend a great amount of monetary resources on end game stories, instances, items etc that only 5 to 20% of your paying audience will see?  WHY FUCKING WHY?  It doesn't make any sense and it is the very example of insanity.  You know what happens with this gated shit?  Every night, in any given MMORPG, are spammers looking for those last few players to fill out a raid.  PST! PST! PST!  And the people willing to go on these runs are denied because they are not geared for the encounter.  Because you have to run the instance to get gear for the instance.

I'm so sick of this, it is getting to the point where I don't want to play these games anymore.  And I'm sure a great many psychologists would encourage me to give up the gaming hobby.  Yet I go on.  Something has to give one of these days.  I suppose.  Or maybe a group of developers will get it and design a game that is inclusive to all players and doesn't use the gated tactic.  Or maybe not.  Most likely not.

The New Year

I haven't been gaming that much so far.  But when I do I'm in...

Star Wars: The Old Republic

It has been wearing thin on me.  I knew it would before I even purchased it.  But I went ahead and spent money on it.

The game is decent, but there are bugs.  The worst bug is an ability delay on class attacks.  Whether it is due to lag or poor coding is unknown.  But it is incredibly annoying.

The questing is rather linear and in addition to the many cut scenes, I feel as if I'm watching a film not playing a game.  That isn't a good thing.  Many times the quest stories are enjoyable so it is easy to ignore the strait jacket quality to the game.

Companion romance.  Why?  I'm baffled by this element.  And it seriously creeps me out when this computerized thing starts to flirt with my character.  Its as if my toaster oven suddenly started to recite romantic poetry to me.  People really seem to like it as well.  Is it more enjoyable than real flirting with another human being playing the same game?  In the middle of questing, when my "companion" suddenly growls that he needs to speak with my character someplace private, it makes me want to rage.

Group quests.  They are fun.  But already I'm seeing problems.  I'm a slow leveler and I'm behind most of the people I started playing with during the holidays.  Many have even reached level cap.  Which means there are no people to help run the heroic group quests in the area.  This problem is only going to get worse, not better as the population stabilizes and the majority are at end game.  Why don't designers take this into account?  Most of these games are designed as if they believe there will be constant streams of people barreling through their world.  That isn't and never will be the case.  It isn't even the case in World of Warcraft.  So why continue to design content that will be obsolete?  Why?

Ultimately, I'm not as big a fan of Star Wars as I thought I would be.  Yes, I loved the films as a child.  However they never became an obsession for me.  So running around in the Star Wars universe has left me underwhelmed if not down right depressed.  The world is extremely dystopic and filled with one steel fortress after another.  All of them are inhabited with robot drone guards.  Invariably, my character is forever entering caves to grab an item or speak with a certain person.  The cave is always designed the same way and filled with crowds of mobs that cannot be avoided.

I'm tired, I give up.  So I will not be extending my subscription.  Maybe if things workout better financially in the future, I may go back.  But not now.

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....

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.

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.

Whats it gonna sound like?

I discovered this video at Mediabastard's website.  Funny.  I swear he looks like every game designer I've ever seen from the greasy hair, the cocaine sniffles and the wild eyed evangelical glare.

Fascism and Sexism in the Internet Class

Fascism of the tools

The irony of the "liberal" class today is that they don't see reality.  They see fantasy constructs of reality just the same as conservatives do.

For example, the whole internet machine prides itself on being open to "democracy".  The powers that be pride themselves on being standard bearers for freedom.  Which is ridiculous because the very coding they use to build their posting systems are fascistic.

What kind of freedom do you have on internet sites?

Your comment can be down ranked to oblivion.

If someone doesn't like what you have to say or just wants to be an asshole, your participation in any forum debate can be erased from history.  Now THAT is freedom.  Every site contains this form of jackboot in the face of others option.  They call it the thumbs up/thumbs down rating, or the fan rating or the heart rating.  As others thumbs up or thumbs down your comment it will either rise in relevance to stay in the debate or it will disappear.

You can not reply to people who debate your comment.

Some sites will cut off any ability to debate by disallowing any threads longer than one reply.  So it cuts you off from replying to anyone who has replied to your original comment.

These kind of tools proliferate all over internet sites which has turned everything into echo chambers.  The problem of the Yes men/women of the net is all due to these site tools that allow the erasure of comments.  These tools don't stop trolls they create rabid tribes.  All of like mind whose first intent is to protect themselves from naysayers

Are we that weak that we can't bear to hear anyone say I don't agree or air their opposing opinions?

There can be no democracy if the ability to say "no, I don't agree" is taken away.

Sexism in Games

This is a societal problem that is still hampering women.  Especially in male dominated areas such as games.  Sexism pops up in ways that at first seem benign but are such mainstays that eventually a person must acknowledge they are dangerous.

Skimpy Gear

Female characters get to wear chainmail bikinis even though the same type of gear makes a male toon look like an armor plated mack truck.  Developers can't ever forget to pander to the male eye or they get an extra zing from the knowledge that they are causing humiliation to female players.  It is true that some women don't mind sexy gear.  But from the female friends I've spoken to who game and around female gaming sites, this issue is always considered a problem.

Now, I'm not against bikini wear in general.  I'm against bikini wear when it makes no sense.

My main in Warhammer Online is a Sorceress.  This toon's whole wardrobe is based on revealing gowns.  But it makes sense thematically.  It is relevant to the game's storyline.

WAR is one of those games which has not forced female players into the bikini chainmail paradigm.  Tanks in WAR wear the same gear no matter if their character is male or female.  Tanks look like tanks and wear plate.

Another game that doesn't force the bikini issue is Lord of the Rings Online.  The gear is all standardized and created to fit both male and female characters in the same way.

As much as I love Warcraft, it fails miserably in gear standardization.  Although I will say, the gear that was released for Lich King was better designed.  My Paladin was not forced to look like "I Dream of Jeannie".  Since the world is being overhauled in the new expansion, perhaps the ridiculous hot pants gear of the lower levels will be changed as well.  I'm not counting on that though.

Females in Distress!

Almost invariably there will be a damsel in distress.  And in distress because some damn foolish thing was attempted on the damsel's part.

I recently deleted a game called "Vindictus" from my HD because of this subtle jab at women.  The opening quest consisted of a pet gone rabid.  The town guard were all set to shoot it down.  Which was quite reasonable considering it was a gigantic rabid spider tearing apart the town.  But does this happen? Of course not.  In comes the Kawaii female, looking like a school age girl but yet has an important position as town advisor.  The game and the player has to follow some fool plan to allow this girl to speak to the spider.  I guess they have some psychic connection.  Whatever...moving on.

As you can surmise the plan goes horribly wrong.  All the guards are taken out and it is up to the player to lead this fool to the spider. And in the process the fool faints and it is up to the player to CARRY her ass past monsters.  Even though in the very next cut scene it is shown that the character was quite capable of movement.

And the end result...spider killed.

Now I'm not against escort/savior quests.  But I hate when consistently these quests show female characters doing ridiculous things while the male characters are always sensible.  The whole attitude of "Bless those little womens, they just want to help".  How these quests treat female characters is really a reflection of how male gamers treat female gamers.

It isn't only obscure games that resort to female in distress.  Even WoW did this by debasing two of their strongest female characters in a quest leading up to the end game Lich King fight.  The players are "assisting" Jaina and Sylvanas in their attempt to bring Arthas back to sanity (Jaina) or seek revenge (Sylvanas).  Both women end up failing miserably and the players essentially save their backsides.  There aren't too many similar quests involving male characters portrayed in that fashion.  Maybe you can count the saving of Thrall from prison, but really in that dungeon Thrall does most of the work.  The players just need to keep enemies occupied while he does his magic.  So it isn't the same at all.

Most people argue that the character in "Vindictus" was showing sensitivity.  Just another sexist stereotype of female behavior.  As if our sensitive natures regularly get in the way of common sense.  I'm pretty sensitive, I'm a female, when faced with that opening quest my attitude was shoot the spider.  Why endanger the town guard in order to calm down a rabid animal.

The whole carrying the character when she was capable of walking just made angry.  In all the years I've been playing games, I've never been required to carry male characters past danger.  Never.  But it happens all the time to female characters.

Its these cues that encourage the general chauvinism in games.  In the past I've tended to overlook them.  But now with my time and money stretched to the limit, I jettison games that are not woman friendly.

Fumigating the Laundry

So the Warhammer Online community, really the game community in general, is abuzz over a tell all blog post from an alleged employee from Mythic Bioware EA.

I'm not going to link it because that information is out there already.  Just check the back posts of Massively.com.  And I'm disappointed at Massively publishing this bit with practically no research at all.  The blog post doesn't reveal anything new about WAR or it's backstory.  It throws out unverifiable gossip about key players in the company.  But there is nothing concrete about what is happening now.  There is no information about things in development now such as the new "RvR Packs".  The blog gives no information about what WAR fans are really worried about, is the game set for closure in the next year or two?  Does the game have enough subs to justify at least a maintenance mode life?  The ranter did throw in some blows toward the still in development SW:TOR game.  Which frankly was just a bizarre addition to a post that was about WAR.

Of course the game community is loving the controversy and it's starting yet another cycle of anti-WAR sentiment.

Now my opinion of the WAR game.  I enjoy it.  I enjoy playing it a lot.  Lately I've been taking a break from it.  But I'm never bored when I am in world.  Does that mean I think everything is wine and roses with it?  NO, heck no.  I've experienced the bugs and some class imbalance issues that make others rage for hours on end.  I've seen the unfinished RvE content that many gamers would really like to see developed alongside the RvR.  Yes, I've been playing online games long enough to know that many developers have amorality problems and superiority complexes.  They also have a jones for questionable beliefs such as singularity, scrum and objectivism.  Social Darwinism is a beloved ethic among these folks.

The problems the ranter barely touched upon in his post are an all encompassing problem in contemporary capitalism today.  Not only in the gaming industry.

These problems are a direct result of game development community's devout belief in free trade and Ayn Randism.

If the game developer community hadn't been so eager to throw away their worker's rights to the winds during the go-go days of 90's/early 00's, then there would be no need for half-baked blogs like this one.  If they had decided to unionize and group together for equal rights against company management there would be no Bobby Koticks etc.  There would never have been an exodus of their jobs to India, China etc.

Well the horses are out of the barn on that one.  So the lowly developers have to scratch and bite one another  over chump change.  They didn't unionize so all they are left with are blogs to rant.  Will it get anything done?  No.  It just amuses the circus and makes the people in charge laugh.

Instead of ranting, this self named "Louse" should be getting up on a desk and holding up a Union sign.  The game industry needs more Norma Rae not Ayn Rand.

Lord of the Rings Online

I signed up for LOTR before it changed from subscription to Free2Play.  But I never had a chance to play it until now.

I'm not a big fan of the free to play model.  When done well, as in Wizard 101, it feels like a perk on top of the game.  But in other games it seems as if it is being used to milk money in any way possible.  The LOTR model is bad marriage between the two.  It's store has nice perks but the game also makes you pay for things that are needed in the game.  Lets discuss basics such as mounts.  In the Wizard 101 plan,  mounts are a perk you can buy from the get go.  In fact it is presented as a pay option from the start.  There is no farming a player can do in game to get a permanent mount.  It is a perk and customers know they must factor in the cost if they want a horse, shark, tiger or unicorn.  In LOTR, the F2P customer must buy the option to ride a mount plus the mount.  This just strikes me as a bit of gouging.  The game will let you grind your way to a mount but considering the economy in game, that could take a long, long time.

The penny pinching over mounts in LOTR is just annoying, especially when they are ignoring the truly pay dirt pay options such as housing.  I'm sure Wizard 101 makes a bundle with vanity housing.  You cannot buy housing in LOTR as a pay option.   Plus there are limits within the game on housing, such as only one house to an account on one character.  If you want more housing, you need to create another account.  You must buy the housing with in game gold (slow in the gathering) plus be subjected to weekly rent.  Also the player has limits to housing size and limits to what can be placed inside of the house.  Mansions are only available to guilds (called kinships).  This set up just strikes me as insane.  Especially when Turbine could be charging real money for this option with no limits and people will buy it.  They would and will buy multiple houses for each character.  I've checked out their forums and there are rumors that Turbine is looking to changing the set up, but nothing is concrete.  Many on the forums have speculated that the code the housing is built upon will not scale.  So that is why the game puts so many caveats on the option.

LOTR is graphically gorgeous to behold.  The creators have truly worked hard to create Tolkein's world in VR.  The avatar creation process is simple yet holds numerous possibilities in looks and background stories.

There are two, instanced starting areas for all 4 races (Men, Dwarves, Hobbits and Elves).  One start area is shared by Elves and Dwarves the other by Hobbits and Men.  So there is quite a bit of overlap in the quest story lines.  As players level, they all end up on the main quest line which converges in Bree Town.  Basically players are just a few steps behind the story written by Tolkein in his trilogy.

The fight mechanics are the same as any mmorpg where LOTR excels is the graphics and the IP it is based upon.  Lord of the Rings gave birth to the modern fantasy genre so visiting this mmorpg is rather like being able to visit fantasy's Ur.  All the important landmarks have been lovingly recreated by the graphic designers.  Truly no expense was spared when it came to creating the visuals.

The game play is strictly PvE and the player will never run out of quests to complete.  If one is an explorer there are even more hidden quests with found objects and from lonely NPC travelers.  The number of quests do depend on the type of subscription the player is working on.  If F2P, there is an option to buy more quests.   Premium players (those who use the Turbine store) get a few more perks.  But to truly get everything the game offers (with the exception of a few designer classes), VIP is the way to go.  VIP is a monthly pay subscription to the game.

The PvP option is not as large nor seems that popular with the players.  It is embodied as something called MonsterPlay, which only VIP customers can access.  Monsterplay allows players to build an endgame level Orc to fight against players on the side of Frodo & Co.  I haven't tried it yet, so I can't properly review it.

The training system for classes and professions is well done.  There is also the well loved fishing hobby included in the game play.  A past time that I never understood the love for in WoW or in this game.  There have been players in Wizard 101 and WAR asking for Fishing to be added.  Why?  Fishing doesn't feel like playing a game...well...whatever.  If you love virtual Fishing, it is in LOTR.  And like the rest of the game, it is beautifully animated with appetizing fish and gorgeous fishing hole locations.  LOTR even includes a profession that I've only seen in Asian mmorpgs, which is farming.  The farming areas are located in Hobbit villages such as Michel Delving, Straddle and Buckland.  Just throw out seed and reap the rewards.  Although the produce can only be used by players who have cooking as a sister profession.

The economy is slow.  It is a black mark it shares with Asian mmorpg's such as Jade Dynasty.  Which means the rewards gotten from quests are really chump change.  The AH is inundated with junk and basics.  Which means it will take a player a long, long, long time to make that first gold piece.  On the other hand, if you do manage to slog all the way to level 20, then the rewards will improve and drops from monsters get better as well.  So it does get better.

What is not slow is the population.  I'm on a server that is very busy.  Which is good to see.  It seems that the free option has attracted more players and not scared away older, paying players.  While sometimes it can turn into a fight fest to get to monster NPCs first or farm nodes, it is better than playing in totally empty areas.

To sum up this game has a lot to offer.  While it does have some drawbacks in it's F2P option, it makes up for it in wonderful game looks and play.

Am I a Gamer?

Every so often I'll read posts around different blogs about being a "gamer".

The subject always gives me pause because I never really thought of myself as in the same group of people who go to expos to celebrate their favorite game.  Sure I paid Directv to watch Blizzcon but that was to get the shiny promotional items.  I was never really interested in the games presented by the company with the exception of Warcraft.  But even then I would just fast forward through most of the new information which didn't interest me.  Most of the Blizzcon activities, such as dressing up as a favorite game character, just makes me go "huh"?

I suppose you could say I was a gamer when the old, ancient Atari was a hit in the living room.  Everyone played them and there wasn't enough of stereotype gamer characteristics to scare girls away from Atari.  But as the years passed, something changed and games became something that appealed more to the male half of society.  So it became something women did not do.  And if they did, it was something they were lured into by boyfriends or brothers.

But of course women do play computer games.  Before I started mmo play, I loved purchasing and downloading little strategy games.  Sponge Bob's Collapse was an obsession for me as well as various mah jongg tile games.  I've since read that many women share a liking for these little computer play things.  But the activity isn't considered gaming and they aren't a part of the gamer subculture.

Consoles and portable consoles.  Okay, now these things are getting into the more serious gaming arena. Even though they are the descendants of Atari, I understand not a vast number of women play them.  Not even women who actually grew up with Atari in the house.  The console that does attract women, Wii, is thought of as something fluffy.  It isn't a gaming rig.  I have little interest in consoles.  My Playstation 2 is hopelessly outdated with old, old games.  I don't play it anymore and I don't plan to buy a Playstation 3.  Nor do I have an interest in buying an XBox.  Many gamers have portables which they use to pass the travel time to work.  But as an old school New Yorker, travel time is serious book reading time.  I have no patience to be pressing little buttons when I could be relaxing with a good book.

The reason why I started with online games was because of friends.  I was already doodling with Second Life when a friend suggested that I might like World of Warcraft.  Second Life is and is not a game.  It depends on how the player is using it.  To me, SL is a place to admire beautiful scenery created by other players.  It definitely isn't a place that typical "gamers" hang out although due to the strong reactions it causes in this segment, I think they do lurk there from time to time.

I was surprised that Warcraft engaged my interest so quickly.  However, during my time in WoW I was the very definition of "casual".  I discovered that the game ran on two tracks, casual in which most of the content was out of reach and hardcore which meant serious time investment. Almost at the beginning I knew I would never be a hardcore player.  So my game time concentrated on exploration, questing, and reputation building with factions.  In my roster of alts, I had only one level 80 character.  That character was fitted out with gear that was just a stone's throw away from raiding.  I realized that running dungeons continuously annoyed me and I was a drag to people who did take their play time seriously.  So I left.

Strangely enough, Warhammer (which most gamers consider a WoW also ran but a very hardcore pvp game) managed to hold my interest.  It is an extremely inviting game to the casual player.  Most of it's high level content is within reach of all players.  The race to gear up is a bit easier than it was in Warcraft.  It also has a no nonsense atmosphere that negates the cuteness trap which WoW fell into at times.  Yet it is still considered a hardcore game.  Considering that most players love questing and other areas that don't include player vs player content, perhaps WAR is hardcore.  Many players like the predictable ways in which computer AI characters react.  There is a tried and true method for each PvE encounter which is comforting to most.  Player versus player requires constant assessment, attention to detail, situational awareness, a secure knowledge of a character's talents and more than a bit of aggression.  Of course, the grind isn't dungeons in WAR but scenarios.  Which leads me to wonder how long it will be before I become disenchanted with the game.  A few months ago I felt like throwing in the towel for any and all games.  Whereas WAR won me back from the disillusionment, I haven't gone back to WoW.

Gamers study their hobby.  They discuss character stats, skills and tactics.  Mainstream culture skews this enthusiasm into a stereotype of mental dysfunction.  Gamers are people who never leave their computer, are overweight, never shower and don't socialize.  Mainstream entertainment also confuses role play with regular play.  Role playing is akin to acting but for personal enjoyment.  However no role player I've ever spoken to has lost control of reality.  But that is what happens in every TV show and film about gamers.  In TV/Movie land, gamers are running around thinking they have turned into Orcs and are intent on killing rampages.  Not only that, TV/Movie women never game.  They are always cast into the role of the "normal" one trying to pull their delusional male friends out of their dysfunction.  This notion that we women aren't in mmo worlds is ridiculous.  I've heard many a female voice over ventrilo.  And I'm sure there are more who remain silent.

So am I a gamer?  I would say yes.  But I think other gamers would say no since I'm casual.  And the mainstream doesn't even believe I, a female gamer, exists.

Scenes from Warhammer

I'm still in WAR and trying to work my main to RR80.  Which is hard for me because my interest waxes and wanes.  I'm always in awe of people who have multiple high level characters.

Jade Dynasty

Through my Crossover Games program, I decided to try out "Jade Dynasty".  This would be my first exploration of the Asian mmorpg genre.

What Asian mmorpgs have in their favor is a mythology that is fresh, centered in asian folktales.  This is enjoyable because I feel the european medieval myths used frequently in US/European based mmorpgs are played out.  I mean there are only so many times one can be a stalwart knight.

Jade Dynasty begins straight forwardly with a simple character creation page.  A new player will only decide what their avatar will look like when entering the game.  Choosing a class for the avatar will only occur later in the game (Lvl 15).  The opening area is lovely, it consists of a beautiful city called Sunstream surrounded by fields, temples and mansions.  Each game area has wonderful graphics and design.

The opening quests are simple basically consisting of talking to another character, finding items or killing so many of these enemies.  Your avatar is given a variety of different weapons to use.  It really doesn't matter which weapon is chosen because gameplay will change once you choose a character class.

The hook in the game mythology is about a hero called Shaw Danon.  At some point in time, he fell from grace and it is up to the player to find out why and perhaps redeem him.  Players also discover that a thwarted love is also a part of Shaw Danon's history.

The game interface is simple with icons for attack moves.  However there is also an extra bar for a special attack called the Esper.  The Esper attack bar also allows a bot function in which the user can go AFK while still essentially playing.  Believe me, you will need that function.  Another bot function to gain experience is called Meditation.  Essentially the player is able to go AFK in a home city, click on the meditation button (a small Buddha icon at the top of the screen) and then gain experience.  Average experience gained from meditation is about 200 points a minute.  I've read as characters gain levels, the experience for these bot functions will lessen in value.

The bot functions are extremely necessary because what you have read about asian grinders is true.  Jade Dynasty has an extremely large number of levels to master.  And leveling is slow...very slow.  What is worse is that the storyline quests are used in cliffhanger fashion.  Each area consists of 15 levels each avatar must grind before moving on to the next.  Usually the major quest lines end about 5 levels into an area before advising the character to move on.  However your character will need to level up 10 more levels before being able to follow the story into the next game area.  Which means the game crashes into a wall with the story on hold while your character will be forced to do dailies in order to catch up to the next part of the story.  I gamely tried to work with this mechanic but truthfully its worn me down after only hitting level 35.  

The game is free to play with a cash shop that has numerous interesting items.  But unlike other free to play games that give you a lot of bang for your buck, Jade Dynasty cash is on par to the dollar.  1 dollar equals 1 gold piece in the Jade Dynasty cash shop.  So most items are extremely expensive.  Interestingly the game does not allow you to supplement your in game money with real money.  I don't understand this, because the cash shop in other F2P games allow this essential function.  In Jade Dynasty you must grind for your money as you grind for more levels.  There is also a strange player to player sell mechanic.  In the major city, Sunstream, players put their items for sale in cute little cat treasure boxes.  But there are no rules about where to put these boxes so they are laid out willy nilly.  Many times there are so many of these player boxes that it is hard to see NPCs or even your own character toon.  I've looked into these boxes and they are filled with things that were of no value to my low level character.  And it would take a day or so running to each box to find something I could use.  This game needs an auction house in the worst way.

Despite the many things Jade Dynasty has going for it, it is killed by the grinding mechanic.  Which I've read is a standard in many Asian mmorpgs.  Apparently Asian audiences don't mind being forced to do hard time in their games.  Honestly, I wouldn't make real felons play this game or others like it.  Its soul killing.  I don't believe that I will be going back to Jade Dynasty with any regularity.  But if you have the patience to keep with it, it will pay off with a lovely high level character, beautiful fight graphics and other goodies.