I caught a cold, and since I have a big week coming up in March I holed up in my bedroom with the tv, my laptop (on my trusty IKEA stand), gallons of juice and soup, and a plethora of medication for three days. Tuesday -- sniffley and tiring easily but better -- I braved the outdoors and went to work. The walk from my car to my desk in the unexpected snow tired me, and I've gone through multiple boxes of tissues and containers of soup, but I'm feeling less like Slimer today and should be back to normal soon. The snow Tuesday was impressive, and quite a few people freaked out, abandoning work early, but by 3pm the sun came out and most of it melted. Pansies.

I've not touched Aion in some time, and Guild Wars languishes despite my desire to get more achievements in preparation for GW2. I have, though, tried Rift. I wasn't going to. Nothing about it really caught my eye, but on a forum there were some positive posts, so I figured I had nothing to lose than time by trying the closed beta.

Here's the basic rundown of the game:

Rift is set in your typical generic fantasy setting and has two factions: The Guardians who worship angelic like gods and the tech savvy Defiants. As typical of MMO stories, a Great Evil is trying to take over the world and each side has their opinion on how to best defeat it. The Guardians are chosen heroes brought back to life by the world's gods, the Vigil, and are composed of three races, Mathosians (human), High Elves and Dwarves. They are considered the "light" side. The Defiant, meanwhile, blame the gods for the world's current problems and turned to technology to created their own ascended without the aid of the Vigil, causing them to be labeled heretics and blasphemers. They're considered the "dark" side and are made up of the Bahmi (I guess kinda like orcs), Eth (humans), and Kelari (dark elves).

Keep in mind I didn't get far. We didn't do much research as to what combination of classes work best together, though on a PvP server we didn't experience any PvP, and we didn't get close to the level cap. of MMOs, some for years and some only a few weeks, including the grindfest Lineage 2 -- participated in Beta 6. On the Guardian side I was a Ranger-Bard-Nightstalker and she a Necro-Warlock-Dominator. Then I made a Purifier-Sentinel-Warden while she tried a Paragon-Riftblade-Reaver. On the Defiant side, I tried a Bladedancer-Riftstalker-Saboteur, and she made a Ranger-Marksman-Bard. On average we got to level 13.

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I'll try to add some screencaps later

Cherry went over the details earlier (clan members only), but it has actually happened. A few of our pre-level 20s were "mules", holding gear for our mains and playable alts, and as long as they were around there was the possibility of one day returning. But now they're gone. I considered renewing for a month to save them, but there wasn't that strong a drive to do so.

Lineage 2 is a brutal game when you play the official servers. It sounds like bragging, but it's true when I say that all my MMO friends who played it were toughened (and even mentally scarred) by the experience -- it's remarkable, in hindsight, that we survived so long. When people complain of "grind" in games, broken economies, and "griefers", "PKers", and "gankers" I think, "You have no idea what that really means." And I think it in the appropriate old-fogey-walking-uphill-to-school-both-ways voice. It's not that their grievances aren't valid, but Lineage 2 is harsh, and the players who defend it are proud of that and label themselves "hardcore" and the complainers who like the game but see room for improvement "carebears" who should "L2P" or leave.

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Guild Wars is an odd duck. Some people hate it because it's not a "true" MMO. It's instanced, and you only run into random players in towns. You can play the whole thing solo if you want, and some people like the challenge of doing the harder missions with only (stupid) henchmen and heroes.

So five years ago we released Guild Wars, which was really a new thing. It was an RPG, but it also had elements of a strategy game; unlike most RPGs it was inspired more by M:tG than D&D; it was an online world with no monthly fees. We called it a CORPG but the ‘net raged with debates about whether or not it was an MMORPG. However you categorized it didn’t matter; it was a fun, new, different experience. [...]

The first thing you should know about Guild Wars 2 is that, this time around, there’s no question that it’s an MMORPG. It’s an enormous, persistent, living, social world, filled with a wide variety of combat and non-combat activities. There’s so much depth here that you’re never going to run out of new things to discover.

So if you love MMORPGs, you should check out Guild Wars 2. But if you hate traditional MMORPGs, then you should really check out Guild Wars 2. Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee. [...]

The original GW featured a CCG-like skill system that allowed each player to discover unique combos and new strategies. Theoretically every Elementalist in the game could approach combat with a different strategy. In fact players found thousands of interesting strategies over the years, most of which our designers never anticipated, which is always the sign of a flexible system. [1]

I don't think it will suck as long as they maintain the feel of what made Guild Wars unique, and, being "local" rather than in imported Korean Game it should have the same humor and updates that made GW fun and funny in my opinion, but whenever something goes truly MMO it's a bit worrisome. I hope they do follow their design philosophy and avoid the grind or "it'll be fun once you reach endgame" problem.

As new news is released, I grow increasingly eager, so my friends and I revised Tyra, Cantha and Elona. We watched the Trial of Zinn then did some hunting. Skills, as typical of the game, had gone through tweaking since last we logged, and old skill combos didn't work out as we remembered. We also died a lot as we plowed through hard mode while trying to remember our old once familiar tactics. We were rusty. The guild hall was also dusty and unused, and we discovered new henchmen for PvP loitering about from an October '09 update I think. I also realized I have a lot of old screencaps I've got to sort.

There's now news on the skills, including some self healing abilities and some predetermined by your weapon and profession. But what had me "oooh-ing" was this the Elementalist videos. Some of the skills are carryovers from GW with familiar names, like Churning Earth and Phoenix, but have been tweaks. Looks like Cynric, or his descendant, shall rise again*!

Now if only Blizzard would release more info on Diablo 3.


* I'm glad GW was never ruined for us by a bad experience with a real a$$hat. If anyone ever talks about bad sports or whiny players, I immediately think of this one fellow. But he left, sulking like a manchild, and we moved on. I hope he keeps his nose out of GW2 also; makes the game more speshul that way. XD

The formula rarely deviates much when it comes to Massively Multiplayer Online games. Not including games like Second Life, most are action based, with players influencing the world in some way, or at least the illusion of it, usually most obvious in the form of the in game economy. Quests are typically the same gathering, retrieving, and escorting goals, so what differentiates a good from a bad and an innovative from a ho-hum? Is there even such a thing as innovative?

There’s an MMO for just about every interest. Star Wars fans had SW:Galaxies and now the new SW:The Old Republic. Trekkies have Star Trek Online. Eve Online allows in game piracy, infiltrating players' corporations, and seems to appeal to people willing to invest a lot of time. Tolkien fans, meanwhile, can turn to LotR Online. If you’re keen on a game where you play three classes together, check out Granado Espada, a.k.a. Sword of the New World. Prefer something more spacey? You could have played Rising Force Online. To fulfill those dreams of superhero-dom or villain-dom, you've got City of Heroes and Champions Online. As for fantasy, would you like D&D Online perhaps? I’ve just named a few, and I’ve not even covered the many that being as free to play, including bloody Requiem and the cute ROSE Online, Ragnarok and even Hello Kitty.

But, if you're familiar with MMOs, you'll notice some of those mentioned are no longer around or went free to play after starting off as subscription based, such as RF Online, which after making it free to play in 2007, same as they did with ArchLord, closed its servers in 2008. Granado Espada, meanwhile, went free to play in 2007 and D&D Online in 2009. Of course “free to play” means “free as long as you don’t mind some disadvantages” in the MMO world. And just because there’s a genre for you, doesn’t mean it’ll be good or stay good. SW:Galaxies was known for launch bugs and updates that “reduced depth and complexity of the game”. Speaking of bugs, wasn’t Age of Conan troubled by them as well, yet determinedly lurching on to this day, though it was predicted last year to follow on the heels of Tabula Rasa and Hellgate: London.

My point is that though there’s probably an MMO flavor for you, there’s no guarantee it’ll really be that different from or any better than what’s already out there. Every MMO dev wants to be the next World of Warcraft, but there’s as of yet no real “WoW Killer” that I know of. In fact, few of these MMOs really haven’t much staying power, fading into the background and just getting by.

I thought of this as a few more MMOs prepare to take the stage in the next couple of years: NCSoft’s Blade & Soul and Guild Wars 2, The Secret World and Bluehole Studio’s Tera Online. But which will succeed? Which will actually prove fun and profitable? One thing the former has as a strength are the graphics, video of which can be viewed here; with art designs by Magna Carta’s Hyung-tae Kim, they’ll draw in fans of his style at the very least. GW2, meanwhile, has an existing GW fanbase to draw from. Bluehole boasts, meanwhile:

TERA innovates in three key areas crucial to MMO quality and success:

Action-adventure style combat
Player position, timing, and aim all impact combat, creating a uniquely immersive "explore and engage" experience that goes beyond traditional point-and-click-style MMO games. Keyboard-and-mouse controls or a console gamepad put characters right in the action.

Rich, Lushly Rendered Fantasy World
Six character races, eight classes, thousands of quests, a huge array of weapons and items, hundreds of different monsters, and a deep tradition of history and lore are delivered with stunning graphics and beautifully stylized animations.

All Action, No Faction
Players of the six races comprising the Valkyon Federation join in a common struggle against rampaging monsters, insidious demons, and the horrors of a world torn apart by the gods. Players not only control the action, they dictate the flow of the economy and impact the community environment as part of a player-centric community with unparalleled security and service.[1]

Sounds like every MMO I’ve played more or less since my Lineage 2 days, so what exactly is innovative?

There are limited MMO players, and these games are time eaters, so not many – at least not many I personally know – actively play more than a couple at one time. Some hop on during beta then leave, waiting to see if the game is still around a few months down the line before investing more time and money into it. It’s my observation that it’s tough to find a niche and keep it. Will these games be able to do that?

And check out this nice hair and cloth video from possibly the in development World of Darkness: HERE.

My Fellow War Kittens:

After the sad ruin of Rohan at the hands of the nefarious Big Hats, we were without a MMO home. For many long days and nights we wandered the desolated Netlands, seeking shelter. Some sites took us in, free of charge at first, but the data was often insubstantial and the shelter poorly rendered; for more satisfying vitals and a comfortable server we'd have to pony up cash. So we packed up our things and moved on from IP to IP.

Then one day, following rumors of a brave new virtual world, we topped the rise and looked upon a land untouched by PKers, bots and goldsellers. Finally, we weary refugees found new place to call "home", nomads no longer.

In this strange new place we installed ourselves in order to build the foundations of our new clan/guild/legion. Of course Paradise was short lived, for with the coming of The Player came the ills of Playerkind as well. Yet here we shall stay for now.

Thus so once again cherrysyrup is setting up her shop, sweeping the floors and restocking the shelves, ready to again be the one stop place for all our MMO info. Business hours are 24/7. No shirt, no shoes, no pants, no problem. We have pleanty of pants for you. Please be patient with the staff, though, as they're having a hard time adjusting from their adventuring lifestyle in Aden to retail work.

Some time back my friends and I, mostly because we love to collect usernames, made a community for MMOers called mmoholics. For a time we posted regularly, striving to make it a decent and somewhat active place, but, being typical humans, I all too soon neglected it. Months passed, and I failed to check the community, but today, to my surprise, it'd been somewhat active for a few months, clinging to life with an occasional post. I do feel bad that I've not been around to help keep things active. Without people to talk to, communities can't last. With some new MMOs starting up, perhaps I can try rectify it a bit.

After a long development period and little news, the Guild Wars 2 hype has started up again In February 2009, some may recall, ArenaNet's Mike O'Brien pointed out that there was no GW2 delay as the game never had a firm release date attached to it. Not entirely comforting to people used to seeing in dev games get cut at any time. But now he's promising something soon:

Last week I promised you’d get your first glimpse of Guild Wars 2 “very soon now”. That day is almost here.

I want to thank all our fans for their patience as we developed the game to the point where we can start talking about it publicly. I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting this moment. You’ll soon understand how ambitious we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished during these past two years of development. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but from here on out we’ll be able to provide you with more regular updates.

Guild Wars 2 is going to be a huge leap beyond the original. We have the best team in the industry executing at the top of their game, and I’m very proud of what our team has accomplished so far. As I said last week, I’m confident that when you get your first look at what we’ve been working on, you’re going to love what you see. Stay tuned for an exciting week ahead. [1]

I hope to see something at this years PAX! After a long dry period of the same old same old games and the disappointment that was Rohan, I need it. Neeeeeeeeed.

Another game I'm really looking forward to, especially after playing some of the closed beta, is NCSoft's Aion. Unlike Lineage 2, which I enjoyed for a time, I so far see the North American and European players having a greater influence on the game. In Lineage 2 western complains and suggestions were largely ignored. There were some tweaks to the game, but, perhaps because the North American devs weren't allowed to tinker too much with the game, the game was heavily geared towards the Korean play style.

More on the game and screencaps coming soon!

NCSoft is having their holiday events again. Guild Wars has Wintersday as usual and City of Heroes has their Winter Event. As far as I know, both are yearly events with minor tweaks with each passing year. What surprised me though was the news that Lineage 2 has it's own holiday plans, and it's not the same old same old.

I played Lineage 2 for a long time, too long perhaps, and each holiday event was a variation of the same theme. Kill mobs, items drop, then turn in said items in exchange for a prize. Sometimes you hade to collect specific drops, such as spelling out words, while other times you only got a chance at a decent prize. By the time I left, it got boring and unimaginative, but this year it seems someone in Korea has decided to try something somewhat new.

Santa's Helpers throughout Aden and Elmore are begging for the assistance of Lineage II players. It seems that Santa Claus has been imprisoned by the jealous and fanatical Thomas D. Turkey. Outraged by the treatment that he and his brethren have endured over the centuries, Thomas is holding Santa hostage in an undisclosed location to show the world that turkeys mean business. It is up to the citizens of this fair land to help free Santa. The fate of this and all future holidays depend on all Lineage II players. They must find Thomas and defeat him in a "turkey style" battle. Only then will Santa be free from turkey tyranny. [1]

Granted, Guild Wars’ events are repetitive in their own way. Lord knows the Mad King could use some new jokes next Halloween, but with low pressure PvP fights, drops, holiday quests, and decorations in the major cities, it feels like there’s something for everyone and no additional work or unnecessary risks. Naturally there appears the seasonal market for holiday goods, but it’s never put the in game economy out of whack.

On one hand, it’s nice to see something different, but I have my doubts regarding L2’s event. "Tom" appears every four hours for 30 minutes in one location where a maximum of 30 players can battle him rock, scissor, paper style. Assuming the server population hasn't fallen drastically, I imagine there will be more people waiting to battle than 30, and what's to prevent some bored players who don't get to battle from PKing or, at the least, flagging or drawing a train just to cause trouble? I know what the player mentality was like in this game, and I doubt it’s changed that much.

While investigating Lineage 2’s holiday event I came across some of the updates for the new chronicle. There’s flying ships for clans over level 5, more enhancement stones, transformations into flying creatures, and more pets and mounts, but though they look pretty as I read through it I felt kind of ill in the pit of my stomach. I see more high level 75+ content, more rewards for large clans, more money sinks, and more tedious – L2 has in my experience some of the longest most boring quests of any MMO -- fetch and kill quests. I still think the game looks gorgeous, and I have fond memories of my time playing it, but it’s like food. It may look delicious, but it’s how it tastes that matters.

I thought I was hardcore when I'd "2 box". Sometimes I'd even "3 box" although it was a strain on my desktop/laptop setup, DSL connection, and mental well being. I also believe if you prefer to solo, that's your prerogative. I despise the players who mock and deride solo players and those who don't care for PvP as "carebear"; such people believe only a PK and PvP player really know the game.

And yet there are some situations that are deserving some mocking. headlesspuppet shared with me this bit of geek news.

This one fellow owns 36 World of Warcraft accounts that he plays simultaneously. Sure, he can play this way if he wants and maybe it's the challenge that he loves. From my own multiboxing experience, it got to be too stressful, healing, fighting, and watching out for potential troublemakers, and I prefer to play with my small guild and circle of friends than random pick up groups. Yet it's also worthy of some chuckles, especially considering part of an MMO's selling point it the social aspect. It's, well... wow.

It costs me exactly $5711 in subscription costs per year with 36 accounts on the 6 month pay schedule. Not bad considering I'm looking at it like it's a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft. [...]

When Wrath of the Lich King is released, I plan to be at the store when it opens and will purchase 36 copies of it. With tax, it should be about $1500 for all of them. Then the shaman are on their way to level 80 along with the priest, druid and mage. [...]

I use 3 addons in the game. CT_MapMod is used to give me locations for quests, etc. ClassIcons is another addon that I use to show the class of the target. It helps for PvP encounters. Then the last addon I use is SSPVP2 which is excellent for displaying timers and other things while in the battlegrounds.

For my keys to send to all instances of WoW on my 11 computers, I use Octopus 1.3.2. Maximizer in Octopus allows me to start up all WoW instances at the same time or any individual instance such as if a WoW instance has crashed. It also allows me to shutdown all of the computers at the same time.

[Click to see computer setup. I didn't want to hotlink.]

Not shown to the right is another laptop which runs 3 copies that I just moved there. The keyboard on the right was moved to the top shelf there as I don't really use that keyboard while playing. I have macros that set my main assist/cast/follow. Any of the eight screens to the front can be set to main assist/cast/follow as my mouse scrolls to them all using Octopus.[1]

I'd like to know if after spending all that time raiding and leveling up his many characters and equipping them, who does he play with?

NCsoft is consolidating their European and U.S. subsidiaries, including ArenaNet, into a single lable, NCsoft West. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. On one hand, relocating their headquarters to my neck of the woods is neat. A few ArenaNet employees are getting promoted, but I hope that doesn't mean less attention will be paid to AenaNet itself and the development of Guild Wars 2. Actually, considering the success of Guild Wars, which many, myself included, were skeptical of when it first came out with it's no monthly fee or cash shop model, and the not so stellar performance of Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, and Exteel and apparent decline -- based on my personal observations when I last logged onto the game after the server merges -- of Lineage 2, could this mean NCSoft is putting their faith into Guild Wars 1 and 2? Possibly, but news of GW2 has been sorely lacking. Even at PAX they were forbidden to discuss it, though not from lack of wanting to. One ArenaNet panelist itched to say something but complained the gentleman beside her would hit her if she said too much. ^^

Shortly after this announcement came another, that the shift in management and consolidation is just "the first step in the company's decision to refocus their efforts on large, triple-A massively multiplayer games."

"This transition is really about ratifying a completely dedicated business to the triple-A titles," Reid said. "We would consider ourselves in the class of five-ish companies in the world that can be successful in this market. We are a leader here and we are doubling down in those efforts." [...]

In so doing, NCsoft plans to shed some of their lighter fare, including "moving away from" Dungeon Runners, Reid said. He declined to say if that meant killing the free-to-play, humorous online game, saying only that there were no announcements about the game at this point.

Reid says that another important step in the company's strategy is their deal with Sony to create several online games for the Playstation 3.[1]

There's no shortage of MMOs to choose from. Not all are good and a majority are foreign titles adapted to the Western market. A great many of them start off with a bang and end with a whimper. Rohan:Blood Feud is one such example experiencing a decline less than a year after it's release, with server populations -- based on insider estimates -- dropping from around 1,000 during the open beta to 600 to 700 last month. Do we really need more MMOs trying to become the next WoW Killer?

Working for NCSoft has never been very secure, and already this had a negative impact on their Austin division. A commenter claimed there are only 4 or 5 people left on the Dungeon Runners team after the Austin office cuts, of a previous 20ish, and the latest layoffs of 12 included the well known multi-game Community Manager, Crickette.

A total of 12 of the 250 to 260 positions in Austin are being cut to prepare for the move. NCsoft will continue to have a sizable presence in Austin, Reid said.

In Europe, he said, there are 58 positions in product development that have been identified for possible cuts. The final decision about how many of those positions to cut has not yet been made. Reid said the cuts in Europe would come from an unannounced title and not affect any of the games the company has already announced they are working on.

No cuts are happening at ArenaNet and, contrary to earlier reports, Tabula Rasa will not be affected at all by the reorganization or job cuts, Reid said.

I thought the success of the Wii had publishers eying "casual games" as more profitable, making NCSoft's decision unusual.

Maybe I should make a gaming filter, because I suspect such endless mmo this and mmo that talk may annoy some. I hope not too much though.

I don't play Lineage 2 anymore. It burnt me out, but I do check out the forums now and then. I'm curious still what's happening which is not surprising considering the time I invested in the game.

Announced 06/16/08, there will be server merges on July 8, 2008, and Kain is one of those servers.

The server merge plan is based upon current server population balancing needs and the physical locale of the server hardware. Servers 1 through 5 are located in North America on the West Coast and servers 6 through 8 are on the East Coast. As such, only servers in the same physical location are eligible to be merged. With that in mind, below is the server merge plan.

* Server 2 (Sieghardt) + Server 5 (Erica) = New Server A
* Server 3 (Kain) + Server 4 (Lionna) = New Server B
* Server 6 (Gustin) + Server 8 (Hindemith) = New Server C

After the merges, the old server names will be deleted and not used again.

In order to facilitate the smoothest possible merge, all account services will be turned off one week prior to the merge. We are also turning off all transfers to the affected servers on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 (after the regular weekly maintenance).
We will be turning on all account services again, including server transfers, on July 8th after the maintenance.

This may be a good thing as Kain, alst I saw it over a year ago, was pretty barren, but this worries me some. The parts that may negatively effect me and my old clannies are in bold.

Characters
Characters will transfer over with all of their individual belongings, including all items and Adena in their private warehouse, inventory, and equipment slots. Individual character status and info, such as quest info and karma, will also transfer over intact with the exceptions of hero status and Olympiad points, which will be reset.

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This makes me want to pay for one month to ensure our storage mules are not deleted. One way to save character names is to make the same character on Lionna, but make sure s/he has less exp than all the ones you wish to keep. Should we? It may be that opportunity to poke around for one month and see how things are. I don't know if this will turn out well or poorly, or if this is a sign that the game is dying, but it's a change, and I suppose that counts for something, whatever that "something" may be.