Way back before the holiday mayhem started, I received a promotional from Blizzard to play the Pandaria expansion for two weeks.  I wasn't feeling any real need to go back to WoW but I heard so many good things about the latest expansion that I took them up on their offer.  Amazingly, Blizzard managed to get back a little of the magic that surrounded the game during the heady Lich King days.

What Blizzard had managed to do was keep all the great things about the Cataclysm expansion and curtail its excesses (such as too many cutscenes, phasing and vehicle quests).  The smooth sailing questing lines that I enjoyed in Cataclysm, with no back and forth to the same areas, has been introduced to Pandaria as well.  I loved the new story lines and the mysterious Pandaren continent.  As crazy as it may seem, Blizzard managed to throw off its European Middle Ages Sword fantasy shtick and totally immerse itself in Chinese Middle Ages Sword fantasy shtick.  The new expansion feels like a different game.

The artwork is absolutely fantastic.  Despite the low fi graphics, Pandaria looks lush and colorful.  Great attention was paid to creating wide open spaces as players leave the initial forest area.  The vistas are gorgeous and created with care to mimic real Chinese scenery.  The game's equivalent of The Great Wall is a true achievement.  What is even more, the new score for the expansion is just as beautiful and matches the art.

The class tree lines have been pared down to very straight and simple techniques.  On my Paladin main, this was a relief.  I mostly played as a Retribution Paladin since I mainly just solo play.  During Cataclysm my Pally was hamstrung because her hits depended on the game's casino wheel to roll triple diamonds.  This meant she either wiped NPCs with just a look or she would be forced to keep hitting for minutes on end.  It was strange and frustrating.  Thankfully that is all gone.  The wheel of big hits has been tamed and now Pallys do reliable damage.  I spent a bit of time on my other main, a warlock and she is doing rather well too.  However the warlock is nowhere near the powerhouse it used to be and was once the scourge of PvP and PvE alike.

Cross server areas....  I'm holding back my opinion on this element.  This was Blizzard's way of trying not to close empty servers.  In fact I was a little dismayed and confused when I was visiting Silvermoon to see it filled with players with hyphenated designations/server names.  There are only certain areas where the cross servers work and those areas are mostly low population.  However I've noticed that it hasn't led to happy, happy family results.  It mostly leads to people from my server snarling at cross server visitors to go back to their own servers.  It doesn't help that the players sharing my server are from Moonguard (which has a terrible reputation as being the red light district of WOW).   We'll see where this goes eventually.

I have run two dungeons so far, Stormstout Brewery and Shado-Pan Monastery.  Both times I held my breath when I signed up for LFG.  WoW still has a terrible reputation for nastiness among its players.  I have to admit I rarely experienced this in any group, even during my heyday in the game.  However I am no longer the player I used to be nor even half as good.  So I was terrified of being cut out of a dungeon run.  My fears were unfounded and the two groups I was matched with were calm and cool.  Out of the two dungeons I found Stormstout the more enjoyable.  The fights were slapstick instead of the intense atmosphere in Shado-Pan.  I especially enjoyed rolling barrels into a monkey boss who liked to throw banana peels at players.

So far I have found a lot of enjoyment in this expansion, and I was glad to purchase a few extra months to see it develop.  Does that mean I will be going back to WOW.  I'm not sure.  I'm not the motivated player I was years ago and there are times when weeks go by in which I don't play any games.  A regular subscription isn't cost effective for me at this time.  But I can say that I will probably spend 3 to to 6 months in Pandaria.  Because right now, looking out at the game scenery while standing on the Great Wall is just too enchanting.

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.

Guild Wars 2 Beta Review

I have to admit the only reason why I was involved in the GW2 Beta events was due to a mistake. TERA was a game that I was not interested in but GW2 had garnered my interest due to the chatter about it around the WAR community.  Supposedly it was the game that would save the poor neglected PvP masses from the failing Warhammer Online.  Anyway TERA was released around the same time pre-ordering took place for Guild Wars 2.  I mixed up the grand opening date of Tera with GW2 and pre-ordered GW2 to my eventual dismay.  Because at the time of pre-order way back in April there was no opening date for GW2. ArenaNet placated the frothing fans by scheduling a number of Beta preview weekends every month.

The release date was finally announced and it will be August 28.  Grand opening for pre-orders will be August 25th.  Interestingly GW2 scheduled its release not long after Turbine's release announcement for its much awaited Riders of Rohan expansion.  Which caused quite a bit of comments since GW2 will be opening barely a week before ROR.  Many others wondered if Blizzard would counteract both and release the Mists of Pandaria expansion early to trounce all competition.  But so far they have remained silent on the Pandaria release date.  But they have canceled their beloved Blizzcon event this year.

In regards to Guild Wars 2.

It is a very good game.  I'm hesitant to pump it up anymore than it has been in the gaming press.  Because frankly it is at overkill even now.  There is also a problem of building false expectations in the community as a whole which was what happened to the Star Wars The Old Republic mmorpg.

Is it going to topple WoW?  No chance in purgatory.  But then again, no game ever will.  WoW is a phenomenom that could only happen in an exact place and time.  The time and the place have occurred and will not occur again.  So it would be best to put all thoughts of WoW collapsing in a failed heap out of mind.

Combat

The Combat mechanics were simple but interesting.  A character must use a weapon in order to learn its moves.  Hence if your character doesn't equip for example a two-hand sword, he/she will not know advanced moves special to two-hand weapons.  You will not be able to purchase knowledge of these weapons from a trainer.  That being said, training new weapons is not an overly time consuming undertaking.  Across all beta events, I thought the unlocking of new weapon skills occurred in a reasonably quick time.  If you take part in a combat event, you can unlock your weapon skills even faster.

What was nicely simplified is that there are not a great many moves to learn.  Most weapons only have about 5 to 6 skills.  The trickiness comes in on learning how to time these skills for great effect.  Some skills will stun monsters others will heal other players in the vicinity.  Also each weapon has a specialization.  A Guardian class character can wield a DPS two-hander or use a tank DPS/threat oriented shield and one hander.  Or a Guardian can choose a healing two hander and/or shield and one-hander.  Supposedly any character can switch between weapon specializations mid-fight.  However I personally noticed that I could not switch between a shield/one hander to a two-hander during a fight.  Whether this changes in the real game, I don't know.  But during Beta it was not allowed.

Combat is also subject to your proximity to the target and how well you can dodge the target's attacks.  A quick hit to the strafe buttons will move your character out of the way of a target and its attacks.  Some character's dodges are more fun than others.  A Norn will just roll out of the way but a little Asura will leap and somer sault through the air.  These special strafe/dodge moves are subject to cool downs and power supply.  So you cannot spend your time rolling or leaping out of the way in PVE or PVP.

PVE

There are no set questing objectives except for a character's main story quest.  The main bulk of experience building is taking part in group "heart" quests that help various NPC's in an area, exploration, crafting and PvP.  That being said, I didn't notice a terrible grind between story quests.  However I would reach points where I didn't know where to go next.  So I spent a lot of time studying my map and deciding where to go.  But it never got to the point where I felt as if I were on a treadmill ala an Asian mmo grinder.

Difficulty?  This is hard to say because the difficulty levels for the story quests, heart quests, and events varied wildly during each Beta.  During the last Beta some of the story quests were akin to impossible and required exact usage and timing of skills.  The last Beta relaxed the difficulty level considerably.  I'm not sure if it will stay this way or be somewhere in between.

Class Areas/Graphics

Every area for each race is beautifully designed.  The human area is a typical medieval type village complete with big city.  The Norn race has a wonderful wintery area with rivers and fjords.  The Charr and Asura areas are filled with rather steam punk designs since they are both technological races.  The Slyvari is a pretty little forest area with various levels and tree house like city.

The graphics are very well done and look good across all levels.

The Bad or Character Selection/Armor

So far everything has been great about the game.  But what GW2 does bad, they do very, very, very bad.

Character selection is lackluster with no opportunity to craft a unique look.  Body types are the same shape no matter what is chosen.  The worst of the worst being the Norn and Human characters.  The facial characteristics of both male and female characters skew towards young.  And I mean very young.  Human characters in particular look as if their average age is 13 years old.  There is one old bone thrown to the players with one face being about 25 to 35 in both male and female selection.  Some players claimed they could change the facial characteristics more with the minimal sliders provided but I could not.  A 13 year old face will stay a 13 year old face no matter how much you change the shape of the eyes or nose.

The armor.  Oh God the armor.

Someone on the development team thought this outfit was fantastic and that every Norn and Human female character of the magic class should wear it.

I can not describe the true nature of its hideousness.  Or how much it looks like a clown outfit when compared to the soberly dressed NPCs and other character classes.

And when it is paired with the too young female faces, the game descends into truly creepy, Humbert Humbert territory.  Some players claimed that this look was to pander to Asian audiences.  So apparently, in their quest for more money, ArenaNet will force Western fans to play as underage schoolgirl characters in pink tutus with plenty of upskirt shots because Asian audiences like young flesh.

This is something no game should pander to, no matter what the culture.

The forums were filled with complaints about this awful design each Beta since April.  But there was no response from ArenaNet. Which can only mean they are dead set about keeping the underage jailbait characters.  Frankly that is a deal breaker for me if this character design is not modified.  I can only write off the box price as a loss and just leave the game alone.  And since ArenaNet doesn't consider me or anyone who feels the same as a true target for its game, I don't think they will see it as a loss.

Conclusion

It remains to be seen if this game will be a success.  I can see stumbling points in their character design and perhaps over-emphasis on PvP.  Who knows how their cash shop will fare in this weakening economy.  Truthfully I can only seem them holding on to the PvP players who are desperate to leave WAR and filling a niche spot in mmorpgs.

The rest, the rest will go to the Mists of Pandaria.  Even though they claim they won't.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Blue Mars

Shade City - Blue Mars

Blue Mars began it's extended Beta period over a year ago.  Last year, the Second Life grapevine was buzzing with rumors that it could be an SL killer.  Well it turned out that it wasn't the killer it was rumored to be.  Instead it just hovers on the edge of the VR world.  Mention Second Life to most people and they will immediately recognize it as that online virtual sextopia they see on the nightly news.  The name of Blue Mars would just cause bafflement.  Recently the team of BM is working very hard at making "cloud computing" a reality.  This would allow the technically monstrous computers Blue Mars requires to be, in essence, obsolete.  The BM company seems to be putting all it's eggs into this cloud basket because siphoning off the residents in SL, the now defunct There, IMVU and other VRs failed.

Blue Mars is a beautiful series of places.  It isn't a VR world, it is more like a vacation scrapbook of photos.  Unlike SL in which one's avatar can walk through changing landscapes and experience a "world", Blue Mars just has destinations.  An avatar can't keep walking in Blue Mars.  You can't visit Shade City (shown pictured above), keep walking and find yourself in the area called New Venice.  While the areas are large (encompassing what would be several Second Life sims), they are separate and must be chosen from that picture scrapbook (called Places in the UI menu).  To a user of Second Life, as I am, this seems rather static and confining.  But it's really a small drawback in the grand scheme of things.  Someone new to VRs would not even care that these worlds are not connected.

Caledonia - Blue Mars

The make or break element of all these VR worlds are the avatars.  Do they look good?  Is it easy to make them look good?  Second Life has struggled with this element by making it's starting avatars look better.  But it still requires enormous amounts of time, money and effort to make an SL avatar look fabulous.  In fact so much so, that most new people think it an insurmountable problem.  Especially when they see how wonderful many of the older residents look.  Unfortunately, Blue Mars has the same problem.  While the game does offer basic starter avatars, no tweaking required, they still look awkward.  Not to mention that everyone gravitates towards the same pretty face, the result being clones all over the welcome area.  Seeing numerous faces the same as your own at the beginning of the game is disappointing.  Blue Mars has tried to alleviate this problem by offering an advanced option that allows the user to further customize their avatars.  Until recently, Blue Mars avatars were stuck with the face they were born with because further optimization wasn't allowed.  Now there is a customization station in the welcome area that allows users to go back and tweak their facial structure.

New Venice - Blue Mars

Still tweaking the controls still requires loads of work, not to mention a gift for proportion.  My avatar's face shown above required many trips to the work station in the welcome area.  The work doesn't only end in the work station, a user must also master the make up controls in the UI.  Unlike Second Life where a user has full control to change their avatar form, Blue Mars only allows facial tweaks.  Actually changing the shape of an avatar body is not allowed.  A user will need a Blue Mars developer's license and knowledge of 3d modeling programs in order to change their body shape.  You can buy these items from a merchant but if it looks really good, chances are other people have it as well.  Which leads back to the clone problem.

The basic animations of the avatars are a bit annoying.  My avatar is constantly in motion which is distracting.  The sit animations remind me of a person who is wishing that she had access to bathroom facilities.  But all that can be ignored.  What can't be ignored is Uncanny Valley.  Blue Mars has set a bar for truly realistic looking avatars.  Where they stumbled is in the eyes.  The eyes on BM avatars are flat and soulless.  This is disconcerting in an avatar that would otherwise look truly beautiful.  I'm hoping that eyes will become replaceable in the same way they are in Second Life.  On the whole, Blue Mars avatars look very nice, if one is willing to spend the time to customize.

Shopping in Blue Mars is a great experience.  It is easy and has a nice demo feature called "try it on".  The only drawback is that shopping options are slim at the moment.  I've traveled around a few worlds that showcased a shop here and there.  But mostly there were rows and rows of empty shops.  This is why I'm hoping that they will consider becoming friendly to user created content.  The world hoped that they would get loads of professional and professional grade hobbyists into the world.  But so far, that hasn't happened.

As far as socialization is concerned, I see most users congregating in the welcome area.  So far I've only seen one or two other users during my tours of other locations.  The clientele in Blue Mars is based on a wide variety of nationalities.  The first time I logged in, the welcome area was filled entirely with Russian speakers.  You can speak to other users through a chat menu, the standard of all mmos.  There is a strange quirk in that Blue Mars will show your conversation on screen as chat bubbles over avatar heads.  Although it may have struck Blue Mars developers as a cute design, when in a crowded welcome area it is confusing to see so many bubbles filling the screen.

The impression I have a Blue Mars is a platform trying to find it's place in a shrinking VR world.  A world caught between catering to seasoned VR veterans and the Farmville crowd.  It is hard to determine if Blue Mars or any of the VRs will survive.  So far the regular Facebook minions have been frightened or uninterested of these worlds.  I, for one, hope they find success.  Blue Mars is a solid entry to the VR open world genre.

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.

Second Life Plays

Last week, I finally purchased a ticket to see the last show of ART's production of "Alice In Wonderland". The experience made me question whether or not stage productions can find a proper place on this grid and others.  I must add a caveat with this semi-review, I do know most of the actors in ART and have worked with some of them.  But this is in no way influencing my review of their production.

ART made a very commendable effort in trying to use the grid as a part of their production.  In essence some scenes had an interactive effect.  The audience falls with Alice down the rabbit hole and swims in her tears.  Those special effects were delightful.  But I couldn't help thinking that they were somewhat of a distraction in some ways and only showed how stodgy the conventional staging appeared (more on this later).  The virtual sets were lovely on the whole and really captured the charm of Tenniel's illustrations.

The voice acting was well done.  However I sensed problems with the rushing of line delivery in a few scenes (particularly the Cheshire cat and Tea Party scenes) and some did not savor Dodgson's wonderful nonsense dialogue as much as they should have.  I noticed there were a lot of actors switching parts through out the performance which I did not like.  Simply because the characterization work was extremely different and it led to uneven performances in regards to some characters.  The character of Alice suffered greatly from this sharing of the part between 2 actresses, they each had different vocal quirks which led to wildly different interpretations through the play.  Another short coming was the use of a narrator to connect disparate scenes.  This, however, is a problem with the source material itself.  The books work on dream logic and nonsense story lines, so the scenes do not fit.  Therefore the narrator keeps it together loosely.  However when transferred to stage, the narrator just comes across as an unneeded element.  We didn't need him/her to describe the scenes or the reactions of the actors.  The narration could have been cut entirely.

Despite these few problems the production was, I thought, successful and it was a great hit with the audience.

The production did inspire me to question whether or not acting performances have a proper place in Second Life.  The grid by it's very nature is interactive and requires individual and collective input from it's users.  Performances require spectators not interactive collaborators.  An audience allowed to run free during a play is just mayhem.

As a voice actor in SL, I've had frustration in battling against the problems of the grid (lag, griefers, unreliable voice software, and unexpressive avatars).  I've also noticed that the grid is much larger in spirit then the old forms of plays and films.  We are not taking full advantage of it's pluses.  But what are those pluses?

In ART's Alice production, there was a hint of it in those few interactive scenes.  How could that be expanded?

Should there be a fourth wall in SL?  Especially when the platform itself works on the notion of no dividers.  As an actor, I believe there should be some remnant of the fourth wall.  Without it, plays would become the equivalent of dinner shows like "Medieval Times".  But it should be reconfigured.  I don't believe audience members should have to sit.  Nor should they be condemned to gawk at a stage.

The future of plays in SL and other grids will be some kind of audience interactivity.  What if they could move through sets (abet with some restrictions) or become impromptu extras?  I like the idea of having the audience move through time and space with the actors.  To follow our character's journeys with their own avatars.

I envision the audience as party members at the Capulet's ball....  Plays should be presented with this aim in mind.  To set the audience free from their seats.

Wizard 101

I used to follow the Epic Dolls podcast while I was still playing World of Warcraft.  Not long before I put the game on hiatus, the connected Epic Dolls guild disbanded.  It turned out that the podcaster and guild leader was stepping back a bit from Wow and had taken up with other games.  Leala Turkey's (former Epic Dolls leader) webpage mentioned that she played "Wizard 101".  It seemed interesting and looked a bit like Harry Potter.

So when I purchased the Crossover software, I decided to try Wizard 101.

Wizard 101 is marketed for elementary school age children.  It is a extremely sweet tempered mmorpg that gives the young set a taste of multiplayer gaming.  Recently its surge of popularity is due to it attracting hardcore gaming teens and adults.  The game does a good job catering to all ages.

The combat system is based on card games.  The player can pick and choose who and what they want to fight.  The game always provides safe areas so that players will not be jumped by the NPC enemies wandering around.  These safe areas are little parks and sidewalks.  But when the players is ready to fight, they only have to run up to an enemy to engage it.  The characters will then automatically run to a combat ring which lights up for the fight.  Up to 4 players can join any fight in progress.  They only have to enter the combat ring.  Once the fight starts, the player's screen will show a card hand from their shuffled deck of spells.  Those are the spells that the player will work with for the fight.  It will be reshuffled depending how long the fight lasts.  The player can also pick wild cards, called Treasure spell cards, in lieu of their regular hand.  The spells are powered by points which the player will gain or lose depending on the strength of the magic card they use.  This is not a game that depends on hot keys, the player will be able to pick with their mouse.  And each round the player will be given a timed count down to pick their move.  The combat system is ingeniously structured so that the player can play as simple or as intricate as they want.  Each spell has its own amusing and whimsical animation that I love to watch.  The game also has options for PvP play which takes place in a special arena.

The quests are like quests in every game...go deliver this letter, kill so many of these enemies, collect these items.  But they aren't designed to be painfully long.  Collection quests don't turn into painful grinds.  The areas are all well designed with wonderful art design.  The characters in the game are inspired by various children's books which I love.

The game is free to play.  However players will hit a wall very early, if they do not purchase access to another area.  So look at the free to play option as the same any other game does to gather new players.   This game will give you a taste with a few levels then you must subscribe or pay $1 to $5 dollars for each area.  Most players will know whether or not they want to continue playing this game by level 5 and access to other areas becomes an issue.

Another area in the game that is well integrated is the character store.  You can buy game money through the website which are called crowns.  Then in game, you can go to stores to buy items such as houses, gear, furniture, pets, mounts, wings or potions.  The housing option is very nice.  The player will be given his/her own instanced home island.  On that private island, they will be able to furnish and relax in their own Wizard 101 haven.

This game is very well designed and enjoyable to play.  And it can be a fun time for the whole family.  However, I don't think it is any safer for young ones to wander around in anymore than I would let them wander alone in World of Warcraft etc.  The game designers have done their best to add in parental controls but that is in no way a substitute for parental guidance.  The players your young ones will be interacting with will not be all their exact age.  And not everyone your child will play with will have their game enjoyment in mind.  They may even take advantage of them for game items or just behave nastily because they can.  So please do not let them roam around alone.  The game does allow the parent to control who contacts their child by turning off friend requests (from other players) and chat.  However I've seen young players get around this by offering friendship to anyone they meet.  Then, I suppose, they will be able to chat.  Please understand that kids are impressionable and eager to create new friendships but the game worlds have legions of people who just like to bully.  Don't let them make your child one of their victims.  So play with them or have an older child guide them while in world.

This game is highly enjoyable and family oriented.  I would recommend it to everyone looking for a few hours of casual gaming enjoyment.