Ramblings of a MMORPG Addict

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Pre-Order is here!

2011-07-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

You can now pre-order the game. Should be out later this year. When you pre-order you get to play the game 3 days before release. There are 3 versions: Collectors Edition, Deluxe Digital, Standard. Details can be found at www.swtor.com/preorder.

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™Collector's Edition

Cost: $149.99

Currently Sold Out at the EA site but may be ordered at local retailers.

Pre-Order Exclusive:

Early Game access
Color Stone (virtual item)

Limited Collector's Edition Includes:

Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
Game disks collectible metal case
The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural as annotated by Satele Shan
The Old Republic galaxy map
Custom Security Authentication Key
Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
High-quality Collector's Edition box

Includes 7 Additional Digital Items:

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™Digital Deluxe Edition

Cost: $79.99

Pre-Order Exclusive:

Early Game access
Color Stone (virtual item)

Includes 5 Additional Digital Items:

Star Wars™: The Old Republic™Standard Edition

Cost: $59.99

Pre-Order Exclusive:

Early Game access
Color Stone (virtual item)

MMO Health and Fitness

2011-06-02T10:34:00.003-04:00

Added a friends new blog to my list. She's another MMO addict that's into keeping fit while still playing. If you are interested in getting into a little better shape, I'd recommend reading her blog.

Good luck with the new blog Janet!

Withdrawl.

2011-05-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

Week 2 of the great Sony downtime. Hands are not shaking as much and the hallucinations have subsided some.

Wow, Sony needs some serious compensation for it's customers. While I will return to EQ2, because of my guild of friends. How they handle this will determine the likelihood of me tossing in the towel and giving up my MMO career at least till SW:ToR comes out.

Going Old School - Part 2

2010-09-25T15:44:00.002-04:00

Well the GURPS space game didn't materialize. Coming up with a galactic scale game takes a lot of time. Time which I didn't have. So after going to GenCon and playing some FantasyCraft from Crafty Games, I decided to run a fantasy campaign.

I've already run my group through Cleansing of the Black Spur adventure. Which turned out well for them. This weekend I will be running them through The Darkest Hour. Should be a blast!

Return to EQ2

2010-04-26T14:10:00.003-04:00

Been a few months since my last post. I've been on hiatus from EQ2 and just recently got sucked into Eve Online with a friend.

As time went on I kept having to fight the urge to resubscribe to EQ2. And as of last Friday I lost that battle and bought the latest expansion. While I'm a little late to the game, I will post my thoughts of the new expansion once I get some playtime under my belt.

Mass Effect 2 - Final Review

2010-02-22T09:22:00.002-05:00

Over the last weekend I finally finished up Mass Effect 2. I went through all the loyalty quests and upgraded 98% of the upgrades I could. My character made it to level 25 Soldier.

I have to say I was a little let down by the ending. The end boss seemed a little too easy to kill. I did like the ending cinematic part. It definately leaves it open for a Mass Effect 3.

I'll probably play around with a biotic class for a bit.

Nothing like going "Old School"

2010-02-10T10:24:00.003-05:00

Been working on running a table top RPG for my friends. Over the last few months a friend has been running a Twilight 2013 mercenary game. Before you ask, no it doesn't involve vampires or werewolves. This has gotten me into the mood to run a game myself.

So I decided that a space setting is what I wanted to run. Being a fan of Firefly, Babylon 5 and Cowboy Bebop, I'm modeling my universe with elements of each. I decided to use the GURPS rule set from Steve Jackson Games. I know GURPS best and it runs rather smoothly. I picked up a few more of the 4th edition books and have been wracking my brains about what mankind is like in this time frame.

Well I won't bore you with details as I really have little to write about. But talking to my players, my first hurdle was to overcome the idea that they would just buy insanely stupid levels of wealth and have armies and fleets at their beck and call. Were talking 3 billion credits with a 600 million credit monthly income. This was going to totally screw the game up and would put way too much strain on me as a GM. So I muddled back and forth for 2-3 days trying to figure out what restrictions I would put on the use of wealth. After typing up a rather long email to the players outlining what they could do with their wealth, I trashed the email and wrote one stating that I'm limiting how many points they could put into wealth. This makes things much easier.

I'll try and update the adventures here. Should be fun to chronicle their misadventures in space.

As always keep safe and watch your six.

More Mass Effect 2

2010-02-10T09:58:00.002-05:00

Been playing Mass Effect 2 off and on over the last couple weeks and I have to say it's as good as the first game. Once I got use to the interface changes, it was easy to get around and do what I needed to to.

I've been playing a Male Soldier and I have to say that the combat has been pretty easy up to this point. I've made it to level 11 and collected 4 of my team members. I've been playing this character heavy on the Paragon side as I typically play a goody-goody character.

Last night I started a female Adept as I wanted to check out a Biotic character. I picked female because it seemed to fit my idea of an adept. My plan is to play this characters heavy on the Renegade side. So far it's fun! Though pulling out my gun and putting it in the face of everyone is going to get old quickly.

Right off the bat I noticed a number of differences in the story. For one, where a male character start play talking to Ashley, the female character starts with Kaiden. Both were potential love interests from the first game. In the scene your character has a helmet on to cover up your face, this helps keep the illusion that it's you. Later in the game you get to select your characters looks.

Another thing I noticed was that the dialogs switch to match your character gender, he/she/him/her/etc. Even though most of the time they just call you Commander or Shepard, it's a nice touch. In the cinematic scenes they even change to more feminine features. One seen your looking through your eyes up from a medical table, with the male character you see a male hand and with a female it's a female hand.

I cannot imagine the amount of time it took to do the extra cinematic scenes and voice dubs, but it's a very nice touch. I was a bit disappointed in my female characters overall body structure. The arms and legs seemed a bit too thin for the rest of her body. After armor was put on, it looks pretty good.

Well more later.

Cya around and watch your six!

Initial Review of Mass Effect 2

2010-01-27T14:01:00.002-05:00

Mass Effect 2 is a RPG from Bioware and Electronic Arts. It follows the continueing adventure of Commander Shepard. In Mass Effect 1, your character is tasked with saving the universe from total annihilation. Mass Effect 2 seems to follow this mold. The human race is threatened by some outside threat, colonies that were full of people are now empty with no sign of what happened to the colonists. After meeting your demise 2 years earlier a secret organization has through the miracles of medicine and science, revived you to yet again save humanity!

After about 4 hours of game play, here is my initial review.

While some fans of Mass Effect 1 will be disappointed in the changes to the game mechanics in Mass Effect 2, many will find the story and gameplay to more than make up for the differences from the original game.

The biggest thing that returning players will miss is the inventory screen. In Mass Effect 1, you had an inventory screen that allowed you to equip various weapons and armor. This does not exist in Mass Effect 2. Instead, you have a weapons locker that you assign weapons and armor. I'll admit I'm not overly fond of this new method as it makes it more difficult to equip your character.

In Mass Effect 1 you had 12-20 different skills that you could train in each level. These have been compressed into 5-6 skills. With this compression, the skills seem to have a increase with each subsequent level. Skills range from level 1 to 6 and include weapon, biotic and general stats increases.

Combat is much like it was in Mass Effect 1, though the hud has changes a bit and how you interact with your team is different also. Mass Effect 1 seemed a lot closer to your typical FPS than Mass Effect 2 does. It's tough to say whether the changes are good at this point. Both system are fun to play.

Like Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2 really makes player choices mean something. Comments on the web and from the developers have indicated that your choices can mean the difference between living and dying in the final scenes. It seems to revolve around whether or not your team is loyal to you.

Again Bioware produces a stunningly beautify game. The graphics are awe inspiring, especially in the very opening scene where you move through the Normandy 1 on your way to evacuate Joker. The expressions of the NPC's really do an excellent job at conveying emotion.

Not only do the graphics help draw you into the story, but the dialog and voice actors are the best I've heard in a while. Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, does an excellent job.

Well I'll post a total review after finishing, so look for a post late next week or the next.

Better late than never

2010-01-25T23:44:00.003-05:00

Well I've been a bit tied up with real life to be blogging as much as I'd like. What has the addict been up to, some might wonder.

Well first off after months of barely getting online with EQ2 and finances being a bit tight, I have cancelled my EQ2 subscription. While I will miss many of the players I have met while playing, some I still have contact with and talk to from time to time. I suspect I won't be returning but never is an awful long time so no guarentees.

Prior to christmas a few friends and I picked up Left 4 Dead 2 and one gave the gift of Borderlands to each of us. L4D2 is a blast! Very fun and extremely easy to get into a game. It was so fun that when Steam offered L4D1 at a discounted price of $7.49, I couldn't pass it up. Though after a while the maps do get a bit old, still a good stress reliever after a long day at work.

Borderlands seems to be a decent game. I've only played the single player version, and I've played each character for 6-13 levels. So far I think I like the sniper the best. My friends haven't gotten to play much yet so I suspect we will give it a try over the next few months.

I picked up the Deluxe Digital Download of Mass Effect 2. It goes live tomorrow and I expect to be very busy playing it over the next couple weeks. I was very impressed with Mass Effect 1 and I look forward to ME2.

I have through the good graces of a friend, been involved in the open beta of Star Trek Online. While I haven't had much of a chance to play, here's my brief review. Space combat B/B+; the controls of the ship seemed a little clumbsy at first but as you get use to them the clumbsiness lessens. But the fleet actions make up for this. The planet side adventures seemed to be missing something, having come from EQ2 the graphics seemed to be outdated, something I wouldn't have expected from a release of this scope. Planet side gets a C-/D+. I'm sure as the game ages some and enhancements are done, it will improve.

Well until next time. Keep safe and watch your six.

Via visits Veeshan's Peak

2009-07-27T09:47:00.002-04:00

Well Friday and Saturday night Via Solara ventured into Veeshan's Peak for the very first time. We were able to defeat Kluzen the Protector (1-Pull), Elder Ekron (2-Pulls) and Druushk (3-Pulls). Huge Congratulations to Lyssette, Mariska and Shaides who earned Mythical Weapons.

It was very encouraging to see that we could take on a new zone with such success. There were a few times we lost players due to crashes to character select. The zone seems to have a few bugs to it. But overall I had a blast. I look forward to visiting the zone again. Hopefully looking for a Mythical weapon of my own.

EQ2 update

2009-07-14T13:45:00.002-04:00

Well since returning to EQ2, I've been having a blast. I set goals to level at least 2 of my characters to 80 by the end of the summer and possibly a 3rd. These goals have fallen behind somewhat because of a particularly busy last 2 weeks at work.

Corwin should finally make level 80 either this week or most likely next week.

I started my collection of shards for the heroic armor set. Only 34'ish shards to go.

This week I run my first event since moving to Via Solara. I'm leading a brave group into the Scion of Ice on Thursday.

I've started to research what I need to do for the Guardian Epic and Mythical. It shouldn't take too long to get the Epic, but the Mythical may take a bit longer.

Happy belated 4th of July everyone.

Origins Gamefair 2009

2009-06-29T09:07:00.004-04:00

Origins, is a gaming convention held each year in Columbus Ohio that primarily caters to Pen & Paper RPG's, Boardgames, Miniature games and Tradable Card games.

Due to R/L commitments I was only able to go on Saturday. Unfortunately no games for me this year. I did get to walk the vendor hall to see what was around. Lots of discounts on old RPG's and even some miniatures. Nothing really caught my eye though. But I did pick up a Chuck Norris joke book. :D

My son an I did get to check out the Battletech pods. If you don't know what these are, they are a pod that you sit in with a speed control on your left and a joy stick on your right. You are totally enclosed as if you were in the cockpit of a mech. You battle other players, there was probably a dozen pods at the show. Even though the graphics are highly outdated it's a very fun game.

The attendance at the con was probably down from last year, but not by a large amount. Hopefully next year I will be able to schedule some time to actually play some games.

Rock Band: The Beatles

2009-06-04T09:29:00.001-04:00

Wow this looks to be a must get for me, even though I have Guitar Hero: World Tour. I'm a huge Beatles fan and rumors have it that I can use my GH:WT instuments with this! Here's their cinamatic trailer.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Cinamatic Trailer

2009-06-02T08:50:00.001-04:00

Wow beautifully done trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Back in EQ2 and having a blast!

2009-06-01T13:59:00.002-04:00

I re-subscribed to EQ2 and am having fun. I joined my guild for a Protector's Realm raid on Friday and it was a total blast! Something that LOTRO never really produced for me.

Thinking of betraying my Guardian to Beserker. Still mulling that over.

Should be some good times ahead!

New System (Update)

2009-05-26T13:17:00.003-04:00

Well I received the parts for my new system on Thursday, May 21st. Put everything together and installed Vista Home Premium 64. Initially I had issues with those evil "Blue Screens of Death".

But after checking online I found that some other people were having trouble getting the memory I bought to work at 1333 on other boards. The solution was to turn them down a notch to 1066. I did this and haven't had any memory issues since. This could be an issue with the memory or an issue with the MB itself.

Here's the main guts of the system:

AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

So far, I've played LOTRO and CoD: World at War. Both performed flawlessly. LOTRO at maximum settings was getting 45-60 FPS. While I didn't get the FPS while playing CoD, at maximum there were no problems and the game ran very smoothly.

I'll install more games and test out the performance. But overall I am very happy.

Turbine's unannounced MMO?

2009-05-26T12:55:00.003-04:00

I've been seeing mumblings online that Turbine, Inc. the developer of Asheron's Call, Dungeon and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online has been secretly working on a yet unannounced MMO.

While there is no information on what the MMO will be about, a few things have surfaced.

In Jan. '09 there was a job listing on the Turbine site for a micro-transaction and e-commerce manager. When the community of their current MMO's started to balk at the idea that micro-transactions would be used in their current MMO's, Sapience, a LOTRO community manager, replied;

"We know the recent job listing has caused a bit of a stir, but please be aware that this posting is for an unannounced future project."

Source: ShackNews

Odds are this MMO will be developed for the console market. According to an interview with Adam Mersky, Director of Communcations at Turbine, from Aug. '08;

"We’re looking at creating, hopefully, the first MMO that really works. Right now we’re looking at if for the 360 and the PS3…We’re not going to rush to be first so-to-speak, but clearly we’re leading the way. We’ll ship something when it’s ready, and when it’s something that’s going to work on the platform. Clearly there are a lot of hurdles. We’ve been working for awhile, plowing through the majority of them, and we’ve got a lot of work still to do."

Source: Destructoid

Could Turbine be bringing one of their existing MMO's to the console or are they starting something totally new? Could we see an Asheron's Call or LOTRO on the 360 or PS3? I'll keep an eye out for future information on this project.

Star Wars: The Old Republic (Update)

2009-05-18T10:42:00.003-04:00

Well the people at Bioware have put out more information on their upcoming MMO. So far I really like where they are going with this. Here's a little bit about the worlds they are developing.

http://www.swtor.com/media/vidcasts/devdispatch002

System Update.

2009-05-18T10:04:00.002-04:00

Well it looks like one of my 7950 GX2's went south on my system. After taking it out and running with a single card, my system seems a little more stable. I took 1GB of the RAM out earlier as a memtest showed errors after a crash. Later this week I may put it back in and test it again.

I ordered my new rig Saturday from Newegg.com and I should get it by the end of the week. It's not top of the line, but it should perform better than my last system. Here are some highlights of what I got.

AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

There's room to upgrade this system later on to a faster CPU and more memory. The video card is a little outdated, but should perform better than my old setup.

I'll update my blog after I get everything running.

On a side note I've installed Windows 7 on a VMWare image for testing. So far it looks fairly nice, but with my limited RAM, it's causing some issues. I'm hoping to give a review of it in the coming months. I may even try to load it on the new system.

Computer Woes

2009-05-13T11:51:00.002-04:00

Well it looks like my outdated PC is going to need some work. Blue Screens of death started cropping up and it appears that some of my memory may have went south. Hard drive is running hot, which may be contributing to my system issues.

Time to clean out all the dust bunnies and look into replacing whatever has gone bad.

LOTRO is going well, I actually hooked up with a few members of Explorers of Legend and have joined the guild they are in. The guild is named Explorers of MiddleEarth and they seem like nice people.

Sons of Numenor

2009-04-14T13:12:00.003-04:00

Well after jumping back into my MMO habit, this time LOTRO, I've been mostly solo'ing and slowly getting tired of not having any human interaction.

Having researched a number of guilds on the Landroval sever, I've finally found a group of players that seem to be active and are very friendly. The Sons of Numenor is a casual guild that is rather young, but growing quickly.

Benjimir, the leader of the kinship, posted an advert in chat one night when I was out trying to complete a quest. He was very friendly when I inquired about their website and I quickly left it at that until the next day when I could do a little research.

So far, everyone seems very nice and I expect to make their kinship my home for the forseeable future.

I've added their website link to the Online Addictions links on the left side of the page.

LOTRO Update

2009-04-10T15:59:00.004-04:00

Been playing LOTRO a bit more. The graphics and atmosphere of the game is really excellent! At night the stars are spectacular and during the day the clouds are very life-like.

At first I tried out the new Rune Keeper class (mage class), this class was fairly fun to play and even with the light armor I didn't get beat up too bad. Decent DPS with some decent healing capabilities make this a good class to play, at least up to 12th level where I decided to check out the Hunter class. I expect that the combination of DPS and healing makes this class an asset to any group.

The Hunter class is pure DPS and I'm having a blast with my him. When solo'ing most of the mobs are near death or dead by the time they get to me. This makes the light armor not a problem as the mobs are quickly dead before they can take you down. Sometime after 10th level the class gets the skill to use medium armor. I expect that this will come in handy as I level and run into tougher opponents.

Last night, I finally got into my first group. I was blindly invited into a group of 3-4 people in Chetwood last night. At first I was a bit sceptical about the group as they were talking much. I asked what was up and stated I was game to do just about anything as I didn't know my way around much. After killing some wolves and bandits, it was suggested that we hit the borrow downs to kill some undead. I've wandered into this area before while exploring and was awestruck when the atmosphere changed to very ominous and dark.

Unfortunately I had to log before going with the group. My daughter needed to do some school work on my computer. By the end of the night my hunter made 11th or 12th level and I had a blast with the group.

Been busy

2009-04-02T20:48:00.002-04:00

Work has been pretty busy, started working with our support staff and it has kept me crazy busy. Were now starting to port some of our 16 bit apps to 32 bit and a few VB6 apps to .Net. All is good.

I expect to start playing more LOTRO shortly. Been neglecting my addiction for some time now. :)

Now that Spring is here, I have gotten my Honda Rebel serviced and am waiting for warmer weather to start driving it daily.

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

2009-01-23T14:47:00.002-05:00

I just found the game on G4TV.com. Looks dark and lots of action. It's a FPS that's coming out for the PC, Xbox 360, PS3. It's definately on my watch list. Enjoy the trailer.

Farewell EQ2, Hello LOTRO

2009-01-12T15:57:00.002-05:00

I've been playing EQ2 off/on (mostly on) since it came out in 2004. And it has been a very fun and exciting ride. I've met many people in game that I consider friends and will miss adventuring with them.

I've hung up my EQ2 boots for now as I cannot bring myself to log in. I'm severely burnt out on EQ2 and have decided to give LOTRO another try.

When I first tries LOTRO (2007), I exclusively solo'd. Solo'ing can only keep me interested in a game for a very short while and I quickly gave up on it. This time around I plan on finding a large casual guild on a high population server.

An online friend suggested that I try using xfire to keep in touch with them and I'll definately look into doing so.

Happy hunting all and I hope to see people in game.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

2009-01-07T20:11:00.011-05:00

Many, including myself, are eagerly awaiting Bioware's highly anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic (SW:TOR). Bioware had a huge success with the Neverwinter Nights series and the Knights of the Old Republic series, but this is their first attempt at a MMORPG.

Many players of the Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) MMO are very excited to see what Bioware and Lucas Arts have planned. SWG is set during the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebels. SW:TOR is set 3,000 years before the rise of Darth Vader, a time when the struggle between the Sith and the Jedi is front stage.

Your choices and actions in the game will steer your character towards the dark or light side and affect how your game progresses.

An added, and very interesting, feature of SW:TOR is the ability to have companion non-player characters that will add a new dimension to MMO's. These NPC's add to the story arc and allow you to experience a richer world.

Personally I am very excited about this MMO and I hope that Bioware can deliver a game that will live up to the expectations of the fanbase. This game has a huge potential and many cannot wait to get started.

Sorry I couldn't find a way to turn off the autoplay. :(
Video Documentary #1 to wet your lips. Enjoy!

Asheron's Call 2 dies again

2009-01-07T19:53:00.002-05:00

Turbine, Inc maker of the Asheron's Call series of MMORPG's issued a cease and desist order to Lost Company late last year. Lost Company was in the process of creating emulation software that would allow fans of Asheron's Call 2 to once again visit the world of Dereth in AC2.

This effectively halts their efforts and I expect that no futher work will be done. It's very sad day for AC2 fans that were looking forward to this.

From: www.lost-company.info

We have received a Cease and Desist order from Turbine. All progress is being halted on the Emu until further notice. We are looking into our legal recourse. Turbine is doing what it feels is necessary to protect their own interests. We disagree and feel that this emu is in their best interest. Please refrain from starting a flame war until you hear from us!

Notice: All links to downloadable stuff and the emu are disabled from now. You can still use the forums for discussion.

Thanks,

Your Pelops Dev Team!

My Belated review of Age of Conan.

2009-01-07T16:40:00.002-05:00

Well I picked up Age of Conan when it was release last year. I played if off and on for a couple weeks. So this just scratches the surface of the game.

Observations:
1. Having made several characters, trying out the different classes, the classes seemed fairly well balanced for PvE. Granted I didn't get a very far into the game to comment if this is the case at higher levels. But overall each class was interesting and fun enough.
2. Quests are pretty lack luster. Nothing that really sets them above the quests in any other game. From my limited experience, most of your exp was gained by questing.
3. Combat was different from most MMO's and reminded me somewhat of the combat system in Dungeons and Dragons Online. To me this was a plus for the game. Often combat becomes very dull and a burden in most games.
4. The player base seemed a bit offstandish and not as outgoing and friendly. This made it difficult to get groups and enjoy the game. To me a game is only as good as the people you play with. The guild I joined was a bit disorganized and I never got the invite to the guild in game.

Overall the game has potential and even though I have cancelled my account, I consider possibility of re-subscribing as generally good.

Back in the Saddle - Somewhat

2008-04-26T16:14:00.002-04:00

Yea I know I've been a bit absent from my blog over the last few months. I've been really lacking the gumption to do much of anything Online outside of gaming.

For a while there I was heavily into the political scene and got pulled into a number of sites. Well that got old really quickly and now I'm back to MMO's.

I've semi retired my Guardian in EQ2 and quickly leveled my Troubador. I hope to help the raid force of my guild become more successful. We are in the process of rebuilding our raid force and it should be interesting to see how the next few months go.

Age of Conan is due out on May 20th and I'll try and post an initial review of it here. I will be getting it, but expect it to only be a momentary distraction from EQ2.

Gotta run, my time is up. Happy blogging all.

Firefly MMO?

2008-01-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

I was cruising the net yesterday and found this tidbit from December of 2006.

From Wired:

Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game.

Now that's shiny.

Multiverse, maker of a free MMO-creation platform, plans to announce Friday morning that it's struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into an MMORPG in the fashion of Star Wars Galaxies or Eve Online.

The "Browncoats," as Firefly's most devoted fans are known, have been campaigning to bring the show back almost since the moment it was canceled in late 2002. Now they'll get their wish, albeit in a new form.

The rest of the article can be found here.

I've not found any newer news on this so it may be vapor at this point. If done correctly this could be a very interesting setting for a MMO. I expect that you'd see the standard Sci-Fi character classes and maybe even some Psychic powers for those wanting to be mage types.

One may even wonder if there are plans to use the ruleset from the Serenity RPG produced by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. Serenity Wiki

Upcomming MMO - Age of Conan

2008-01-15T10:20:00.000-05:00

Age of Conan (AoC) is an upcoming MMORPG from Funcom, the creators of Anarchy Online. It promises to be a gory bloody game with scantily clad slave girls to boot. Holding true to their vision of the world created in Robert E. Howard's novels, Funcom plans to release a Mature rated game. So expect a lot of violence and other mature content.

AoC will attempt to balance PvE and PvP, giving each near equal treatment in the game world. It's unique combat system strays from the typical target an click hotbar buttons. In fact there is no targeting in the game. Combat in general should require some skill to be good at it, but not enough to turn off the more casual player. Ranged combat promises to be rather interesting.

AoC is still in BETA so many details are sketchy and are subject to change. For more information be sure to visit the AoC website at www.ageofconan.com

The current projected release date is March 25th, 2008.

New EoL blogger.

2007-12-29T15:35:00.000-05:00

I added a new blogger of mention to the links. Lieu, a member of Explorers of Legend, started blogging. Lieu is an Australian and a very funny guy.

Welcome to blogging Lieu!

http://lieuslife.blogspot.com/

Busy times.

2007-12-10T15:21:00.001-05:00

Been busy in R/L and in game. So busy that I am neglecting the blog. :(

I expect to be posting more soon. Possibly a flurry of posts towards the end of December.

If for some reason I do not get the chance to post.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Happy Belated Birthday to AC

2007-11-21T13:45:00.000-05:00

Yup on November 2, 2007 Asheron's Call, the game that started my MMORPG addiction, celebrated it's 8th birthday.

Asheron's Call has a rich story and large world in which players explore and adventure in. The largest highlight of AC is its character generation and advancement system. AC is a hybrid skill/level based system. The graphic are outdated but the content and character development are still one of the best out there.

Congratulations to all the folks at Turbine and all those players that make the world of AC their home.

MMORPG Series: Part I – "The Story"

2007-11-21T11:26:00.001-05:00

This component of MMORPG gaming is often overlooked and underdeveloped by the MMO developers and most of the current MMO games have little to no story. Many players view this as more of a role-playing aspect of the game and don’t participate or get involved with it much.

The story of a MMORPG world and how the player characters interact with the story is an important part of any MMORPG. The key to any story is to intertwine the player characters story with that of the world. This feat is difficult to accomplish without appearing too cookie cutter in its presentation. Really how many of the player character’s brothers, sisters, mother, father or some other significant relation died during the “Great War” or were killed by some “Nefarious Entity”?

So for a MMORPG story to work it, needs to be general with respect to the player history. But it needs to draw the player in and cause him to care about the story and what happens to those involved.

Above all else, a players actions need to help drive the story. Does this mean that the players make the story? Perhaps, but the story should have its own outline and direction. A player’s status with major NPC's should be driven by the player’s actions. If a player runs around slaughtering innocent people, good NPC’s should become hostile to that player and the evil NPC’s should view the player more favorably. The NPC’s have an agenda of their own and as long as the player is going along with that agenda, they will assist the player character in any way they can.

In any good story you must have sides. Whether overtly good and evil or more shades of gray, the story often involves conflict between two or more parties, each with conflicting agendas. To me this is what drives the story.

Even the greatest story can be totally ignored by a large portion of the player population. The trick is to forcing the players to participate without them realizing it. The biggest way to make this possible is to make player choices in game mean something. Gaining access to goods, services or areas is a good way to reward players for the choices they have made in game.

In the end any MMORPG with a good story that involves the player characters is on its way to becoming a good game.

Coming soon: MMORPG Series

2007-11-21T10:58:00.000-05:00

Over the next few months I plan on coming out with a series of posts that cover the various aspects of MMO gaming. The topics will include; Story, PvE, PvP, Crafting, Housing, Accumulation of Wealth and Status, Group vs. Solo, Skill Based vs. Level Based and World Exploration. A few may be added or removed from the list, but I hope to cover the main parts of the game.

While I hope to provide a broad overview of each of these, I hope to complete the series with a “Near Perfect MMO” post that outlines what I feel would make a game that I would find enjoyable. I do understand that others may not share my vision and thoughts on my Near Perfect MMO.

Have a happy Thanksgiving Holiday everyone.

Initial Thoughts on EQII: Rise of Kunark

2007-11-19T22:26:00.000-05:00

Well the Rise of Kunark expansion for EQII came out last Tuesday and with 3 days of vacation time and a bunch of hours of playtime, here's my initial review.

The zones are huge! The creatures in the zones start around level 67/68. In the initial zone there is over 70 quests that can be solo'd by most if not all classes. The second and third zones are equally large and also have large numbers of quests.

The equipment and cash given by these quests are pretty nice, that is if you are not equipped in KoS or EoF fabled. For a non raiding player these zones are full of nice equipment. The cash given from these quests are nice also. This coupled with the No Trade equipment sales to the merchant and you can easily come out with 3-5 plat a night (4-6 hours).

Along with the equipment and cash you will find that the EXP and AA points will flow like it never has before. Now this can be because of the long dry spell since the last level raise. Either way you will have little to no problems leveling and gaining AA. Just be sure to do every quest that you can get your hands on.

To date I find this to be the best expansion released for EQII. I have yet to experience much of the Heroic and Raid content, I hope to be able to update this mid next month.

This expansion is definately worth it. You get every expansion and adventure pack, and at $40US it's a bargain.

See you in game. :D

Everquest II: Rise Of Kunark

2007-11-08T11:02:00.001-05:00

Only a few more days before the much anticipated expansion to Everquest II comes out. Due out on Tuesday, November 13th. This expansion named Rise of Kunark adds another 10 character levels and 20 guild levels to the game. Along with a new player race named The Sarnak. This race is a dragonl-like race.

New zones are also included in this pack. A new area for leveling from 1-20 and newer high end content is available.

I look forward to exploring these new lands and have taken 3 days off to do so.

This expansion includes all 4 expansions and the 3 adventure packs. So if you are just starting out in EQ2 you will have all that is available in game.

See everyone in game.

Team Fortress 2

2007-10-31T09:26:00.000-04:00

Team Fortress 2 is a FPS (first person shooter) where you are part of a team that takes on others. The objective: dominate your enemy by capturing control points and taking their intelligence back to your base. There are X character types each with their own unique ablilities and skills.

You can choose to play a Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper or Spy. Each of these characters are fun to play. Some are more offensive in nature while others are more defensive.

One of the nice features of this game is the build in voice chat. It's easy to set up and is clear and easy to hear. It does not affect game performance and so far has been a asset to the game.

This game does not allow you to set up computer players (bots), so you will need to have people logged in to play or find a server with people on it.

All in all this is a fun game and has a decent amount of replay value. Due to mild violence, parents may want to check out the game before allowing younger children to play.

He's a little teaser trailer that I found online. Enjoy.

Orange Box

2007-10-18T13:16:00.000-04:00

Orange Box was recently release for PC and Xbox 360. This is a compilation set of 3 games (Half Life 2 w/episode 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2). It retails for $49.99us but can be found on sale for less. Currently ToysRUs has the XBox 360 version on their buy 2 games get a 3rd game free promotion that runs till the end of October. Circuit City has the PC version on sale for $39.99, though I believe this sale ends soon. I do not own an XBox 360, so I will only comment on the PC version. I have not played Half Life 2 or Team Fortress 2 yet, so I will leave those for another posting.

Portal is a puzzle game where you navagate mazes avoiding death traps, robots with guns and other obsticles. There are items along the way that help you complete the maze. The bigest one is your hand held portal generator. This allows you to move around the maze fairly easily, but only works on certain surfaces.

The game is relatively short in duration, 4-8 hours of play will get you through all the levels. The game is fun and enjoyable but the replay value is limited. It's a great game for everyone, with no gore or bad language parents will have little to no complaints.

There is one warning however that I must pass to you. If you are prone to getting motion sickness, you may have a tough time with certain levels of this game. I have motion sickness issues on amusement ride and sometimes when traveling. This is the first video game that has almost made me toss my cookies! I had to stop playing and sit in the bathroom for a few minutes. Once my stomach calmed down I went to play again and within 15-30 minutes I was back in the bathroom. My tip if you find yourself getting sick, stop playing and pick up where you left off on another day. You can save the game at anytime.

The game is worth playing and is rather enjoyable. Look for my thoughts on the other games in this box later this month. Until that time, I leave you with the trailer for Portal.

October Days are here.

2007-10-01T13:00:00.000-04:00

October is one of my favorite month of the year. The weather really starts to change with the heat of the Summer giving way to the cool temperatures of Fall. The trees start to change colors and life just seems to slow down a bit.

This is the lull before the storm. November and December are the build-up for the holidays and tend to be a bit rushed. The weather is still nice enough to allow for fun outdoor activities and the not-so-fun ones are going away (taking care of the yard).

My thoughts start straying towards the upcoming presidential elections in 2008. The next 13 months we will see an ever increasing media bombardment of political ads and news commentary. In the end it will come down to the same decision as in the past elections, picking the lesser of two evils. Well it's still early and I don't expect to spend much time dwelling on politics, at least for now.

American Solutions is a site that attempt to get people together to discuss issues and purpose workable, real world solutions for them. It's meant to be a bipartisan effort by involving people from across the political spectrum. Focusing less on the Presidency or Congress, but focusing on Local and State officials. The site is still a little new but there's some interesting ideas and discussions forming or in progress there. Oh and for my Democrat readers, don't let Newt scare you off. :D

A life both real and imaginary

2007-09-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

Life as I know it currently consists on two totally different plains of existance. Very similar to what Neo's life in the movie "The Matrix". Past this one simple statement the comparison ends.

Real life is rather mundane, at least in my mind. My work is rather bland, with very few shining moments. Spending eight or more hours in front of a computer my mind tends to wander through my cluttered thoughts. After work I head home and eat dinner with my family. We go over each others day and when asked how my day was I often answer "ok". After that it doesn't take long before I find myself yet again at a computer screen, often sitting for another four or more hours. Weekends are often a blur of activity, with movies, a few outdoor activities and yes more time in front of the computer. My days for the most part run from one to the other. A few days do stand out, but those are often lost in my memories.

My imaginary life consists in the online world of Everquest 2. It consists mainly of a group of friends that I adventure with. This group of friends are in a guild or clan called Explorers of Legend. Guilds are a great way to organize friends and to socialize. During a typical gaming session, I join a group of up to 24 people and go out on raids. Raids are where a large group of people go into an area of the game that is set to be a challenge for so many people. Other nights I can be found running around with a few others doing quests or hunting creatures in the game. This sounds like fun, doesn't it? My imaginary life is not always a smooth one. I have taken on a leadership role within our guild. I like to refer to this as the work portion of my imaginary world, or at least I will from now on. Often this work can be very stressful and sometimes outright upsetting. But I will leave that for another time.

After reading what I have written, I thought that anyone reading this may get the wrong impression and take it as a rant against my real life. This is not the purpose of this. What's the purpose? To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps it's an attempt by me to catalog my life in general, in an attempt to better it. Both of these lives have their low and high moments. Either way, both are part of my life.

The Big Bang Theory (CBS)

2007-09-25T20:02:00.000-04:00

The new CBS show "The Big Bang Theory" has got to be one of the funniest new shows out there! It had me laughing so hard that I was in tears.

If you missed the pilot you can view it online at http://www.cbs.com/innertube/index.php?src=email&vid=160185&format=rmwmv.

Adventures in Blogging

2007-09-25T15:40:00.001-04:00

Greetings Everyone!

Well it seems that everyone has something to say on the internet these days. I guess I'll enter the Blogging rat race. Right now I'm a bit busy, but hope to post my rantings here.

As my Blog title implies, I am a MMORPG addict. Some people may already know the term MMORPG and some may not.

Massive(ly) multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of online role-playing viedo games (RPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. For a more detailed definition please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG.

As I think of more to post I will try and update my Blog.