Asheron's Call 2 dies again

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.

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

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?

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

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.