Bladewir's Bellowing Blog

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC MMORPG

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:06:00 +0000

MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLEPLAYING GAME CONFIRMED!

The De-Evolution of Message Boards

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:18:00 +0000

After reading a recent blog entry by Tobold in which he asked: "Is Discussion A Dying Art?" it made me think about my own experiences on various message boards throughout the years, and my response to his question would be a vehement "YES". It's not just the message boards on the "Internets" that has gone south, I'd have to say that as a whole, human communication itself is in dire straights. As we embrace new technologies, adapting faster, portable, and most importantly, anonymous means of communicating such as blogs, forums, myspace profiles, instant and text messaging, it appears that we are no longer placing the emphasis of discussion on the subject at hand, but instead how quickly we can respond to it. For the most part, the responses are completely irrelevant to the subject, and usually end up berating the original poster for having a differing opinion than him, and it turns nasty within 3 posts.

"FIRST!" is a prime example of this mentality when someone responds to a discussion post. By posting just this one word as a reply it is now a contest and not a discussion at all. This, added to the fact that most people get flamed because they are either a beginner or have a valid question that the rude, anonymous responder doesn't have the answer to but won't admit it turns the "discussion" into a cesspool of garbage, real fast. People follow suit and jump on a bandwagon of hate and start spewing filth until the original poster just gives up. What starts as human communication ends up a cacophony of metaphors, misspellings and trite internet vernacular that eventually becomes incomprehensible: PWNED, NOOB, WTF, LMAO, QFT, fanboi, Leeeroy! etc. When did this type of communication become acceptable?

The message boards of today or the BBS of yesterday have really evolved from a basic need of humans to communicate with each other. The internet is a great tool that enables this to happen globally, however the problem isn't necessarily the message itself, but the manner in which the message is handled. Ultimately it is up to "the other" human beings participating to behave themselves and be polite, and to stay on topic. It IS ok to have a different perspective or opinion, and that is what a discussion is all about - presenting all sides and individuals making a decision based on what they have heard.

When was the last time you read a discussion thread where someone wasn't being a complete ass hat to the original poster? Not just disagreeing but calling the original poster names and threatening violence? It's become ridiculous and discouraging, de-evolving communication to basically grunts and groans, much like the way early man communicated.

In the gaming realm this is intensified as I believe there has developed a "gamer mentality" that just completely disconnects gamers from reality. Gamers are a special breed of message board denizens who take on a personal mantra of spewing either utter hate for anyone who disagrees with what they think is a good game, or defending to the death something they like. It usually becomes a war between 2 factions: Those who like and those who don't. Usually nothing constructive comes of any of this and it leaves people who are new to gaming or message boards with a stale taste in their mouths.

I believe that if we are polite and courteous humans, and write more than 4 word posts, and drop much of the trite vernacular, and actually COMMUNICATE with valid points on either side of the argument or question, that we as human beings will be able to improve our means of asking for help, or just plainly posting our opinions.

Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning (WAR) Review

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:30:00 +0000

Preface by Bladewir:

I have spent the last couple of weeks with my nose buried deep into my keyboard playing Mythic Entertainment's "WAR" as it's affectionately called within the MMORPG community. I must say, I really like this game. Because I'm tired of reading reviews of new games that solely base their opinion on how the game is just like/unlike, better than/worse than another specific game or games, I'm going to review this game without mentioning another MMORPG game or comparing it to any other. Wish me luck.

First, let me start by officially stating that I know nothing/zip/nada about the Warhammer universe or it's lore. I know there are volumes of information that are available because this particular IP has been around for some 20 years now, as created by Games Workshop. I know what a dwarf looks like in contemporary video games and table-top games, but what I didn't really know until I did some small research is that what we know as a dwarf in current MMO's, was conceived and shaped primarily by the Warhammer universe. Now, I'm not saying that Games Workshop invented the Dwarves, goodness no. Just what we currently see in current games in the fantasy genre is heavily based upon them.

Second, I am by design, NOT a PVP (player vs. player) gamer. I have for the most part of my MMORPG career (about 5 years now) been against PVP, mainly because I generally SUCK at video games. I enjoy gaming immensely, but I just suck at them. I can't play FPS games very well, and on a multi-player map, I'm usually the gimp who gets fragged like a NOOB being handed his teeth after they've been knocked out. I prefer a gaming experience in which I am not in constant danger of my character's life every 2 seconds, wondering if I'm gonna make it to my base without watching my back (and front, and sides) at all times. I like to relax more and PUT MYSELF in danger if I choose, and then pay the consequences if I don't come out a victor. That is why I'm more of a PVE (Player vs. Environment) player.

So with those 2 items out of the way, here goes my review, again my goal here is to not compare WAR to any other MMORPG by name. Just my opinion on the game as an avid MMORPG fan.

Oh Nohs! Not another fantasy themed MMORPG! Seriously, how many of these do we need? Ok, with that said, I want you to go and buy Warhammer Online! The latest entry into the MMORPG market, Warhammer Online offers a unique take on the game genre, with a few unusual mechanics, and just *fun* gameplay.

It offers a wide gamut of options and caters to most people's play styles such as PVE even though it's primarily a PVP-centric game. And actually, it takes PVP to a new level with Mythic's own RvR combat (Realm vs. Realm) where 2 factions are at constant war with each other. In fact, as one of the taglines for the game is "War Is Everywhere", and they mean it. The entire game centers on an ongoing, bloody, all-out war between 2 realms, Order and Chaos. You pick a side and get to it soldier! From your very first level you are placed right into the frey and before you know it, you've spent the past 3 hours sitting in front of your computer saying "Shouldn't I go to sleep, it's 12am!"

WAR IS EVERYWHERE, AND IT IS HELL!

Whether you are doing a solo PVE type quest, or even one of the 300 available Public Quests (PQ), fighting in an instanced PVP scenario (ladder style timed "battlefield"), engaging in larger "open" style PVP (called RvR) with battlefield objectives, or just ganking the enemy in open world PVP, you are contributing to the overall success of your realm's battle against the enemy. By glancing at your map and war tracker, you will know who is currently in charge of what city / keep and where it is safe to go, or where you are needed. What's really cool, is that the end-game is a final, all-out war, the objective of which is to capture/overthrow your enemies capital city (which is HUGE by the way) and dethrone the king, for a final victory of your realm. These battles, which I've heard can handle hundreds of people on the screen at once involve one-on-one melee, and huge siege weapons such as battle rams, catapults and the like to take down groups of people as well as their large battle keep doors.

PUBLIC QUESTS

One of your objectives from an NPC quest giver in town tells you that they need you to seek out a certain individual at one of the warcamps set up along the perimeter of a skirmish between your realm and the local vermin that have popped up unexplained. So you head in the general direction that the NPC gave you and you wander into a designated area where you see a few other players engaged in combat with strange creatures. You've stumbled into a Public Quest (PQ) where there are objectives listed on your screen that need to be fulfilled before that stage of the quest is complete. Usually there are 3 - 5 stages that as a group of people (some of them all strangers to each other) working together to accomplish a task that alone, they couldn't do. But with help from each other the task is completed, and by the time the final boss-stage occurs you feel a sense of accomplishment as the beast falls. It's like a mini-raid that occurs more frequently out in the open. You can participate as often as you like, as they repeat indefinitely in sequence so you can always get in on the action from the beginning, and as you complete stages you collect "Influence" (INF) points that you can cash in for some really good weapons and armor. This is a new spin on boring old Fed-Ex type quests and adds some flavor to PVE. And the spoils are pretty good too!

As the final boss drops, a random die roll generated by the server creates a loot table. Your participation factors heavily as to your placement on the list, adding a bonus to the value of your roll, but it is not the final deciding factor. The system then at random picks the winning #'s, and distributes the loot based on die roll. So everyone has a shot at winning the best loot. There is also lesser loot bags to win as well. Generally, there are at least 5 winners for each final encounter. Just stick with it and you might win big!

FINALLY, AN MMO WITH MEANINGFUL PVP!

As I stated earlier, I am not a fan of PVP, which despite that I wanted to give WAR a chance as it was offering a few unique takes on the genre. There are multiple opportunities to engage in PVP, and a mechanic that can simple preclude you from participating. You have to CHOOSE to engage in PVP on the Core servers by either walking into an area with a giant warning you are about to be flagged for PVP, giving you time to about face and run back, or you can simply just flag yourself as a PVP player.

Finally, PVP makes sense - this is WAR after all! Take down thy enemy with vengeance and make it count! As you level up your PVP rank which levels separately from your character rank (known as Renown) you obtain Renown points which can be spent on better abilities and goodies for PVP. And every death counts towards the war tracker.

And no real death penalty other than a sickness that lasts 15 mins that reduces your hit points, but can be removed for a small fee by an NPC healer. And none of your stuff can be looted from your character. Your body can be looted by the enemy, but the system generates an item randomly which does not come from your inventory.

EVERYTHING ELSE IN LIST FORM:

The game has a pretty modifiable UI right out of the box, which allows you to change the overall scale of the UI as well as placement of each UI element.
Money is not hard to come by, as selling vendor trash can put cash in your pocket..and the quests pay pretty well too.
Items available as rewards for turning in INF and RENOWN points are very good
The Tome of Knowledge keeps track of every event in your characters life, allowing you to go back and revel in your accomplishments, or look up a quest or lore item you may have forgotten...this is perhaps THE best feature of this game, IMO - very well executed.
Horse mount is available at level 20 for very little money
Open group system is unique and allows you to find groups very easily
You can specialize your career in one of 3 paths of your choosing
Client seems pretty stable, have yet to CTD (see my computer's specs in right column)
Graphics are really good, especially for all the simultaneous number of people on screen in battle at any given time
Audio quality is fantastic, and there is a lot of spoken "ambient" dialogue going on

IN CONCLUSION

Over all, the game is a blast, and I look forward to leveling up my character and helping out in the war. There are a lot of unique ideas in the game which separates it from the pack, and that kind of innovation will make it a success. Mythic brought to life a very well known and beloved IP which will have the fans trying it out..perhaps even people who have never played an MMO will come and check it out because they are a Warhammer fan.

From the very onset it seems that Mythic wants to go to war with gold sellers and power-levellers. They have instabanned at least 600 accounts in the past week, and have on display, right on the Warhammer webpage, "The Banhammer", a tally of gold sellers that have been banned so far. Way to go Mythic!

The game is not without it's bugs and issues, but they are small and for now don't dominate the picture. The launch was a success I'd say and server downtime was minimal. The game appears to have quite the polish that most MMO fans look for and the experience is a well-rounded one, with most important details fleshed out, without placeholders for future expansions. I believe they have delivered on their promises, and even have the end-game fleshed out. I wish Mythic the best of luck as they are a bunch of great people over there in Virginia. And that Mark Jacobs, he's a riot...you really should read his blog, it's great!

Blackberry 8330 Curve Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:37:00 +0000

Ask my wife, and she'll tell you I have an addiction to cell phones. I think it's just part of my tech-geek nature, but may also stem from the fact that I actually hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. I've been fascinated by personal communication devices and technology for as long as I could remember. In fact, I wrote my senior thesis on personal communication services and devices. And boy, the technology has really changed for the better over the years since I wrote that paper back in 1994.

I actually got my first cellular phone back in 1995 as a college graduation gift from my Mom, who at the time could barely afford it (thanks Mom!). It was a hand-held Technophone PC-405 AMPS 800 (analog) phone and boy was it great to have a portable phone! Couldn't leave it powered on all day like we can now, no sir. You turned it on, made a call and then powered it off. You even needed to attach the antenna by screwing it into the hand-set before making a call. The antenna made the entire device about 12 inches long! There were actually no alphanumeric keys to speak of...your phone book which consisted of 20 spots only contained phone numbers - no name tags attached! And for $34.99 a month which included 20 (yes, twenty) anytime minutes it was a bargain! No caller ID, you had to call voicemail from a land line (in fact you never knew someone left you a voicemail until you called in on a land line and checked it). In fact at the time, everyone was using Motorola pagers to supplement communications and the cellular provided I subscribed to actually had a feature that you could set up the system to send a message to your pager when a caller left a voicemail on your cellphone - VERY advanced, indeed!

But I digress.

So shuttle forward quite a few years in time to current day (and many, many cell phones and pagers later) and I am now on my second PDA / Smartphone. I now have a RIM Blackberry 8330 Curve on the Verizon Wireless network, and I am simply amazed at the features and quality this little gem has. I've had the phone almost a week and it's a night and day type comparison to my first PDA phone, the Verizon Palm Treo 700wx. Granted, the 700wx is about 3-4 years old and the BB 8330 was released (on Verizon) only 3 short months ago, but man is there quite a difference.

First, the build of the 8330 is solid. The keys work well, the trackball (ingenious on a phone if ya ask me) works well, the screen size and resolution are fantastic. The battery life is hands down the best I've experienced to date on any cell phone of this caliber.

And then there's the phone function and quality - you know the real reason most of us have a cell phone in the first place is to make phone calls. Bar none, THE best sounding and fastest connect speed for voice I have EVER encountered on a cell phone. It's phenomenal. It even has a voice quality setting that can re-EQ the speaker to either add or remove treble/bass to suit your needs. And the microphone built into it has awesome noise reduction - I swear it sounds like I'm on a land line. Solid performance.

And then of course, there's the PIM features such as calender, to-do lists, etc, and RIM didn't short us on anything. This phone is really packed with features, and well worth the cash spent on it (in my case, $99 US after mail in rebate).

The feature list is just too long to report here but any web search for the Blackberry 8330 will net you quite a yield of information. However, I will mention that the data feature of the phone is really good too, with solid Bluetooth performance while tethering to my laptop (see my Asus EEe PC review on this blog).

So overall, I'd say if you are on the fence on whether to try out a Blackberry vs. a Windows Mobile Smartphone, I'd highly recommend the BB Curve. I have to admit, I thought at first that Blackberry was just for IT guys and nothing more, but RIM has come a long way since then and have made the phone fun, fashionable, and full of features that everyone wants - and it is still great for IT guys and gals as well. Especially if you are somewhat computer and Internet savvy - the Blackberry allows you to fiddle with the Internet anywhere you go.

Highly Recommend.

Apple and the iPod Touch

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:30:00 +0000

I knew that when I purchased my iPod Touch (16GB) back in February that I had in my hands a very special device. I realized the potential that it had in the near future due to its features, and that basically, I could "own" an iPhone and have all the cool features of one, just without the "phone" part and 2 year contract with AT&T Wireless that came along with it.

Even though I'm a staunch PC supporter (and usual Mac hater) I have grown to respect what Apple has now become not only in the personal computer business, but also what they have done to revolutionize the personal electronics business as well. I mean, who hasn't heard of an iPod? The term has become synonymous with 'mp3 player' just like the word 'Kleenex' has been used to represent any facial tissue. "Hey can you pass me a facial tissue?" - NO! you say "Hey can you pass me a Kleenex?"

So the iPod since it's inception into the world has sold like crazy. There are so many shapes and sizes, colors, features and storage capacities to satisfy just about anyone's needs for music storage. And this week, my iPod Touch replaced my Pioneer Inno, which used to receive live satellite radio broadcasts on the XM network (now Sirius XM...bleh) That's right, I actually cancelled one of my all-time favorite electronic gadgets this week, in favor of the sleeker, and cooler iPod Touch. You hear me Sirius XM?

My iPod Touch has become much more than just a portable mp3 player. Oh yes. It has actually become my: Alarm clock (actually fall asleep and wake up to it), calculator, weather forecaster, flashlight (yup, flashlight), RSS news reader, web browser, internet radio streamer, and email client which also houses my entire 3000+ song library that I can take with me wherever I go. Or it can just sit in it's dock on my main PC. Or it can sit in it's dock on my nightstand. Or it can travel with me to hotels on vacation or my daily 3 hour commute to work. You see, it's become an essential part of my daily routine.

Since it is WiFi capable everything gets updated when needed as well as I'm able to browse the entire iTunes music library and actually purchase a song or album directly to my iPod and then transfer it to my PC when docked. I can browse the entire iPod Applications store in the same fashion. I can even rent a movie and watch it when I want without needing to go to a video store! So I challenge any company to provide this kind of service and features, with no monthly subscription, and without having to purchase a laptop or equivalent computing device. Good job Apple, making a computer from all solid-state components, with a touch-screen to boot, that fits into my pocket. And for even more functionality, one can purchase the iPhone which does everything I listed above, plus makes phonecalls and can use wireless networks for data.

Yes, I'm still a hardcore PC fan, and will probably never purchase a Mac computer for what I need, but I also remember saying way back that I'll never need an iPod either.

Have a great day folks.

Star Trek Online Update From Live Webcast

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:25:00 +0000

Star Trek Online Las Vegas Webcast from Cryptic Studios on Vimeo.

I just finished viewing the live webcast from the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention, hosted by Cryptic Studios, the Developer of the newly rescued Star Trek Online MMORPG. Complete with a professional and witty introduction from none other than Mr. Spock himself (Leonard Nimoy), Jack Emmert, the games Chief Creative Officer, spent about 30 minutes discussing what STO is about.

Jack discussed the important aspects of the game including exploration, diplomacy, combat, and socialization. He also stressed that in regards to his game, the original series, the long list of movies, and novels written in the same time frame are considered "absolute canon", and that STO will NOT deviate from what we all know and love as "Star Trek". He also mentioned (during the Q & A) that the alternate, parallel universe novels will be used as secondary canon, mainly for reference but not game-based canon. Apparently, the game will take place about 30 years after the last STTNG movie.

And for the MMO players out there, it appears that we will have explorable player ships, commanded by the player, along with a crew of intelligent NPC's that will grow and level up with you. And I couldn't quite infer if the game is level driven or skill driven, however I believe it may be the ladder.

When asked about player character death and how the devs intend on dealing with it, Jack stated that there will be permadeath, and that they will ding your credit card for another subscription each time you die. Of course he was joking, but it was funny none-the-less. He said in all seriousness that death is becoming less and less of a huge penalty in MMOs these days, and that the game should just be fun to play, and not a chore if you make a mistake. It is after all, just a game.

Then Jack introduced the very first "In-Game", non-rendered, "player-controlled demo style" trailer...to wit I cheered and applauded...wow it is really amazing what they have done in so little time. The footage showed space battle, a phaser fight on board a ship's bridge, the Borg, Andorians, beaming down to a planet and all kinds of eye candy - and all I can say is - you gotta see it.

And the reason Jack states that the game will be out "Sooner than you might think", is that Star Trek Online uses the same game engine that Cryptic used for CoX and Champions Online - just re skinned for Star Trek. The system is in place, and they do not need to develop an entirely new game engine to make the game work. This aspect usually adds at least 2-3 years to the dev cycle, making the tools to make the engine, so to speak. Since Cryptic is an already established MMO company with a couple games under their belt it was easier to just start adding new art and content to an existing system, thus reducing the dev cycle of this game. He stated that although he knows the release date/time frame, he cannot tell us...but what he did say is that to expect it in perhaps less than 4 years, maybe less than 3.

Keep your MMO eyes peeled on this one folks, it is gonna be big. And I think from what I've seen, all Star Trek fans who also play video games will want to pick this one up for sure. It's kind of reminiscent of when Star Wars Galaxies was announced- the anticipation is killing me.

XM+Sirius=4Ever? Meh.

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:54:00 +0000

Well looks as if we have a wiener…err winner…err monopoly. Sirius (SIRI) has been drooling like a panting dog over acquiring its (only?) competitor, XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XMSR). The regulatory Gods have handed down the final word this week, giving the nod for the proposed $5 BILLION merger that will finally marry the likes of Martha Stewart, Howard Stern, and Oprah Winfrey. However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows yet as it isn’t without its terms, conditions and restrictions. Just like any other good monopoly, sorry “merger”, we have to make sure that the public is protected and that the proper number of wrists is slapped an appropriate number of times before moving on. Oh by the way, the two companies will need to bring their respective checkbooks.

It appears that XM is actually getting the harsher slap due to its unfulfilled obligations to tone down the power of 50 of its terrestrial signal repeaters back down to FCC mandated signal levels. While this may seem transparent to the consumer now, it won’t be when a few customers affected start noticing that their radios don’t work as well as they should.

It’s always the technically-savvy minority that is the most vocal about such changes, however we are usually just wiped under the carpet. And as a consumer I (had) a choice as to which service I wanted to subscribe to for either personal reasons or reasons that I have justified to myself when I subbed. There is usually a sense of pride that comes along with that decision and us techies will defend our choice with a vehement rebuke to anyone who might oppose us. Its human nature and what makes us unique individuals. And geeks.

I currently have 4 active XM Radio subscriptions, and due to the recent merger, in a geeky-mannered protest, I am going to deactivate 2 of them this week. I don't want Sirius. If I wanted Sirius, I would have purchased and activated radios/subscriptions on their network. I'm sure it won't be very long until we start hearing ad-bumpers and teasers and station ID's with the new "Sirius XM Satellite Radio" tag. Meh.

Star Trek Online Is Now Official (Again!)

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:29:00 +0000

Some really good news today on the MMO gaming front. In case you weren't aware, Cryptic Studios (City of Heroes/City of Villains) announced today that they have officially picked up the Star Trek Online IP from Perpetual Entertainment which is now defunct. Cryptic studios has relaunched http://www.startrekonline.com/ where they have begun a community forum and a portal to get the latest information about the game.

It appears from what information they have released so far, that they plan on forging ahead with most of the original plans for the game, but this time it seems Cryptic wants the gaming public to very much be a part of it's development. I say YAY!, and look forward to giving my input on what I'd like to see in the game. Cryptic has had solid success with it's CoH/CoV games these past few years and seem to always have their finger on the pulse of it's player base.

I for one am very excited about finally knowing the fate of one of my favorite IP's coming to the MMO game space, and have confidence that it will be true to the original IP and at the same time fun to play.

Knights of The Old Republic MMO? Maybe.?

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:05:00 +0000

Well we MMO fans just got some rather good news I’d say – Electronic Arts president John Riccotello has confirmed in an interview, that Bioware is indeed working on the next installment of KOTOR. However, I’m not 100% convinced that it is a fully fledged MMO at this moment, as the interviewer stated that this new game that Bioware is working on in the KOTOR universe “has an online component”. Not that this is necessarily bad news. It could be just a misinterpretation or a symantical mistake – let’s hope.

My initial impression of the article is that it might be KOTOR 3 with an online type model that allows multiple players in the same world, perhaps similar to Bioware’s previous hits Neverwinter Nights or Baulder’s Gate series.

Can you imagine a game with Mass Effect type first-person storytelling and interaction, Neverwinter Nights character creation, player created modules, massive multiplayer modes (where multiple people can play those modules online) all set in the KOTOR universe? Wow would that be great! Of course this is pure speculation on my part as I’m just guessing – but a gamer can dream, right?

So I wait with baited breath until Bioware comes forth with more details of the new game. It’s kind of funny that Bioware defers comment on the game’s existence back to Electronic Arts – Bioware is remaining hush-hush on it for the moment. But when the big boss let the cat out of the bag so to speak, it’s just a matter of time before we get more information.

Come on 2010, hurry up!

Bluetooth Woes With Windows XP (Bluetooth Service Error, Access Denied)

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:45:00 +0000

I was having trouble getting my EeePC (Win XP) to recognize my Kensington USB Bluetooth adapter which I use to tether with my Treo 700wx for mobile internet access. Specifically, after pairing my phone up with my EeePC all seemed well until I needed to check that the "Dial Up Networking (DUN)" service was running via Bluetooth so I could set it up.

It was the infamous "It worked before, why doesn't it work now?" syndrome. I had it working just a couple of hours before, and all I had done was move my Bluetooth USB adapter to my Vista machine do to some syncing with my phone..../scratch head

After numerous hours trying to get it working again, and many lost hair follicles, I finally stumbled across this helpful lad, who posted this almost 4 YEARS ago, and though I'd share it with you if you ever came across this problem with Bluetooth and Windows XP.

I take ZERO credit for the following steps, but thank user lukasl at the following forum:

"Here's the fix:

Open up Services (Start->Run->services.msc)

Open up the "Bluetooth Support Service"

In the "Log On" Tab change it to logon as "Local System account" (I had it set at "NT AUTHORITY\LocalService" before)

Leave the check box unchecked

Click OK

Don't just restart the service, but restart the computer.

Hope this helped!"

Turns out the problem was related to permissions/security and for some silly reason, Windows XP would not let me regain access to the "DUN" service again, so I had to tell it to let me have permission. Kind of an early UAC thing methinks :p ... silly Vista!

Darkfall MMORPG: Fact Or Fiction?

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:11:00 +0000

I have to admit - I am really intrigued by this pretty much unknown game called Darkfall. It appears from what information I can find on it, to be a very well rounded, huge game that has pretty much all the encompassing elements that make the MMO's of yesteryear come to life again but this time with better technology.

I won't go over all the details of the game yet, as really none of them have been confirmed or denied, and at this point are all rhetoric as far as I'm concerned. See the developer of the game, Aventurine, apparently located in Greece has been pretty hush-hush over the game so far. It (apparently) has been in development for almost 8 years, and if you believe what the "devs" have said about it, it appears to be the end-all be-all MMORPG we have all been waiting for, especially those sandbox players like myself.

Problem is, the public kind of doubts that this game actually exists, due to the very little information that is out in the wild. Many people are speculating that it is just vaporware and actually DOESN'T exist, whilst fans and followers of it seem to think that the game is near final beta testing stage, and may be released by the end of 2008. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Based on what information is provided on their own website: http://www.darkfallonline.com/ I can tell you that my jaw dropped to the floor in awe when I was reading the feature list. Truly incredible - and if it runs anywhere as smooth as they say it does, I may have found my next MMORPG - one that will stay with me for a long time, much like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has (and will continue).

Check it out for yourself and form your own opinion on it - does this game actually exist? Discussions abound at my favorite forum hang-out, http://www.mmorpg.com/ with some pretty passionate people, and of course with the passionate, you also get the nay-sayers.

I actually do hope that the game exists and that it really is in the state the "devs" say it is, for this would be really great news for the MMORPG community. I believe that this game is what many of us have been waiting for.

My Asus 701 4GB Eee PC

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:05:00 +0000

HAVE YOU SEEN THE EeePC FROM ASUS?

Well that’s what I’m writing this blog entry on my daily train ride from work. It’s a itty bitty sub-compact laptop that is basically all Solid State (no physical hard drive – just a built in SSHD).

For $399.99 US you get:

• 900Mhz Intel Celeron M processor
• 512MB installed 533Mhz DDR2 RAM (Expandable to 2GB)
• 4GB Internal SSD hard drive
• SD / MMC card slot
• Windows XP Home 32 bit OEM with SP2 (I have SP3 installed)
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi & a RJ-45 10/100 Ethernet port
• Built-in Webcam with Microphone
• Realtek HD Audio
• Intel 915GM integrated video with 64MB video RAM

The computer is about the size of a DVD case or a medium sized paperback book - it is small! But don't let it's size fool you. It is a completely functioning Windows based laptop, in fact there is nothing this lil' devil can't do that a normal-sized laptop can. The only real physical difference is there is no optical (CD/DVD) drive, but you can attach an external one!

I have added a Memorex CD/DVD external USB drive ($39US) for installing software, a Kensington micro Bluetooth USB dongle for my wireless broadband internet connection to my Palm Treo 700wx ($15US), a Microsoft portable wireless mouse ($19US), and finally a Patriot 16GB SDHC card ($59US). I plan on upgrading the RAM from the stock 512MB to a 2GB SODIMM from Crucial ($50).

So far I have installed a plethera of software including:

Microsoft Office 2007 (Word and Excel only)
Eset NOD32 Antivirus
WinDirStat
Revo Uninstaller
7-Zip
AsTray+
CPU-Z
eeectl

Most of the above are utilities that I've found quite useful, while NOD32 is essential (IMHO). The LCD screen on the Eee PC has a native resolution of 800x480, but will operate at 800x600, but with scrolling. Also the stock and shipped clock speed of the CPU is 630Mhz, but with the utility called eeectl I have safely revved up the CPU to it's "stock" 900Mhz, which also lets me have control of the CPU cooling fan, as well as tell me the reported temperature of the CPU.

So, no computer that Bladewir uses would be complete without some games as well! I have sucessfully installed and running the following games on this inexpensive, tiny computer:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition
Sim City 4: Deluxe Edition
Anarchy Online (Small Client)
Guild Wars

The peformance of the MMORPG's is OK with framerates in the 10's to 20's but is playable. The other games run quite well actually, and run even better with the CPU clock moved up to 900Mhz. But the mere fact that I got these games to run at all means this computer has some kick to it, and it doesn't give up! It's half the size of a normal laptop, and HALF THE PRICE as well!

Who Reads The Quests Anymore?

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:02:00 +0000

I have to admit - I've migrated from the "I need to read every bit of this quest dialogue before I actually start this quest", to just hitting "ACCEPT". This has been a gradual change, but I usually end up just grabbing the quest and hurrying the hell up so that I can catch up with my guildies / friends who are already half way through the quest already, especially if someone in the group just "shares" the quest with you and DING! you have a new counter quest sitting in your quest tracker.

I'm the explorer type who enjoys stumbling across a new area either by accident or by deliberate means, say by following a map. I like to take in the sights and try to understand the reason this particular castle lays in ruin, or asking questions like "Why is that gigantic crater in the middle of this town still smoldering?". I ask these questions to myself and then hope that the NPC standing next to the smoldering rock has at least a partial explaination as to what happened. When I first started playing MMO's I would read every word carefully and try to make mental note of proper nouns and maybe even jot it down on paper so that I can remember the particular name. I would take in what the NPC had to say, and then react by accepting the quest if it sounded interesting or decline if it seemed to difficult to go it alone. Nowdays, I quickly hit "ACCEPT" and don't give a damn what it said and move on to the next NPC with a blue shield over his head and LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT.

I am waiting for the day when a fun-loving DEV creates a quest such that when it is accepted after 1 second of being open to the player, the player turns into a toad and cannot revert back to his normal self until the quest is completed - and take him on a long-winded journey with tons of toad lore, having to catch flies with your tongue, etc. - just plain torture to the guy who just doesn't read it. Of course in the body of the quest (if you DO read it) it plainly states that you will turn into a toad if you hit ACCEPT, and must complete the quest in order to revert back.

I kind of wish that quest journals were more basic these days and not offer such diverse options as auto sorting by level or area, giving a complete recap of the accepted quest, and offering nice counters for kill x rats or FedEx this many y's to so and so NPC. I kind of long for the type of quest journal that just simply lists the name of the quest and who gave it to you - it's up to you to decide if you are finished with it and try a turn in to the original NPC. If he says no, you have to go back and read the quest again at the NPC for further details (the quest will always be available if incomplete at the NPC for review).

So, do you read the quests? I think I may start reading them again, so I can potentially avoid being turned into a toad.

The World Of World Of Warcraft

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:32:00 +0000

I had to share this newsbit from "The Onion". Enjoy!

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

LFG: Why is Finding A Group No Longer Easy?

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:09:00 +0000

I've noticed in my MMO travels of late, that it is getting harder and harder to find a group to adventure with in any MMO I'm currently playing. I think the primary reason behind this is the fact that the market is now saturated with these types of games, and people who are not readily familiar with the MMO game mechanics are to blame. I think a lot of new players are trying to "go it on their own" and treat it like a single player RPG instead of grouping up with others.

I remember in the not so distant past, that it was difficult to actually solo anything, and finding a group of adventurers was very easy. Tools didn't even need to exist back in the day for grouping as it just happened from the social areas of the game, or even right out in the open public areas in chat. Nowadays, the developers have created very specific tools for us players to use to find groups and perform easy matchmaking for us, yet we either choose to ignore them completely or don't know how to use them properly and efficiently.

Gone are the days of yore when you'd start with a group and 90% of them would hang out till the last party member drops out due to exhaustion. This old-school group would go on for hours and hours, taking just a few bio breaks along the way. We'd suffer through countless wipes or constant deaths of our tank or healer, yet we'd keep chugging along. Nowadays, as soon as someone dies or there is one group wipe, the table turns and 90% of the party disbands pissed off and logs out.

This leaves us with "Pick-Up-Groups" which is happening more and more nowadays. Now we are constantly looking for that one class such as a tank over and over again, adding a player, only for him to log out after dying or all of the sudden needs to log. We spend more time either initiating a group, or maintaining a cohesive group instead of actually playing the damn game. Why is this?

I really hope that there are whole guilds out there that don't tolerate this kind of behavior and expect it's members to participate often to reap the rewards of a full, cohesive group that works well, or at the very least stays together to finish the quest. If you are reading this, and belong to a group of players who actually work together and stick it out, and play any of the MMO's listed on the right side of this column, please contact me!

First Impression: Dark Age Of Camelot

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:05:00 +0000

I just picked up the Epic Edition of Dark Age of Camelot at my local software store, which includes all of the expansions up until "Darkness Rising". Now, I have never played this particular MMO until now - not even a free trial - I just jumped in feet first and am giving a whirl while I use my first 30 days up.

Obviously, DAoC is a fairly old MMORPG, clocking in at around 7 years in age. It's what I would call one of the MMO Grandaddies. While not as old as the original Everquest, and close to Ultima Online, this game still has some pizazz to it. I've been playing MMO's since mid 2003, cracking my teeth on SWG. I was hooked.

DAoC, developed by Mythic Entertainment (Now EA/Mythic) still has some of the most original ideas included in MMOs that I'm sure were just seeds back in late 1999 when it was in final stages of it's beta life. The main idea of the game is what they coin as "Realm vs. Realm" or RvR - which is their take on Player vs. Player or PvP. Their ultimate goal was to have a raging war burning 24/7 between 3 different factions, where players could fight other players, but not be caught up in all the griefing and general negative connotation that PvP brings. Each faction has a home town where they are safe, and then there are 2 distinct other areas that join the 3 factions that basically become the battlegrounds for which each side is striving for domination on the battlefield. It's quite interesting, at least in this game player's mind, that this same company, Mythic, is developing Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning as well...which appears to have quite a few of the same concepts of Dark Age Of Camelot - such as RvR style combat. I guess if it works, why try to fix it?

DAoC has mounts (land and flying), housing, a fairly large explorable world, 3 different server types (a fourth is being considered), a pretty cool skill/XP leveling system, and pretty much every other type of system that is in place now in contemporary MMOs...I guess one could say the MMO's of today, actually copied what DAoC was doing all along :)

The graphics are actually pretty good for it's age. Apparently they did a graphics engine overhaul with one of the expansions, and I have to say that even at 1680x1050 resolution, it gives my 8800GT card a run for it's money. The graphics are clean and ample, and the new player experience they released last month is a very cool introduction to the game. Sound is dated, however it is in stereo (no surround sound).

The game world that I have explored so far has all been open and non-instanced...I can walk from the outside, open a door to a tavern and enter, all without encountering a loading screen. I understand that a few of the areas in game are indeed instanced but that was a later addition to the game via one of the expansions, or so I've heard.

The game has it's money sinks as well: you have to repair your gear and you can also enchant it as well. When you respawn after death, I understand that you have to pay a cleric NPC to restore your constitution which is kind of odd for current day MMO's. I guess some of these game mechanics would push this game to a semi/hardcore level. There's no corpse run and the mechanics of the PvP system don't allow for griefing and player spawn camping - there is no fundamental reward for doing so.

So to me, it seems that AoC and even WAR has quite a few elements of DAoC in it such as large open PvP battles, fighting for territory and wealth, as well as a few other elements. I'll be playing this game for my 30 days included and decide if I wish to continue with it after some more exposure. For now let's suffice it to say that I'm quite overwhelmed by features and content (after all I did get all 6 expansions!), but only time will tell if I want to keep paying to play.

Instances - Why They Kill Immersion in MMOS: A Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:17:00 +0000

There has been a lot of heated discussion lately on several MMORPG boards that I read regularly on the topic of the instancing mechanic used in MMOs. An instance as referred to in online gaming is a mechanic that the developers use to control lag and player population in a given area within a game world. Because the largest cause of lag in online games is the actual players due to the basic fact that every person with a character is on a different internet connection, each character looks different, has different gear and clothing, may be on a mount, or 100 other possibilities - the system has to draw every single detail of each player, taking resources away from the server and creating lag.

Another function of instancing is to control spawn camping in larger dungeons or other areas. This is done so that more players can have a better chance of finding and killing the named boss, instead of 1 or 2 players ruining the experience for others by camping and even botting it. Some games have taken this to the extreme by creating individual instances of each quest so that each party has their own fresh copy of the adventure that only they are allowed into. Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach all use this mechanic. The planet of Kashyyk in Star Wars Galaxies was the first in that game to use instances of individual high level quest areas.

So, what the servers do is create a "copy" of the game world, or a particular area, when the population reaches a set number of predetermined players, and puts it into a separate cluster within the server. Sort of like a mini-server within the server. When this happens, it requires the player's client to "load" into that mini-server, causing the player to encounter a loading screen. This can be done in several ways: 1) when a player walks up to a portal of some sort, such as a door, cave entrance or similar, or 2) using a drop down window in the client, the player may choose an instance at will. Method 2 is used heavily so that you can somewhat easily re-group with a friend if you get separated. Usually if you are grouped into a party, you will all jump into the same instance without the need to hunt and find each other.

For those of us players that enjoy and appreciate the roleplay aspects of these games, or just want a seamless game world where we can pretty much go anywhere we want without hitting an invisible wall, or having to jump through a portal to get to the next area (Everquest 2 is a great example of this) or every time we want to enter a building, we have to load into it (Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online are good examples of this), or basically ANY time we encounter a "Now Loading" type screen it completely breaks any sense of game immersion. Instead of feeling like you are your character walking around in the lush landscape it seems more and more like you are in a single player role-playing game.

And the size of instanced areas is getting smaller too, therefore the quantity of instanced zones are increasing - probably due to the fact that more people are playing MMORPG's now. In my short experience with Age of Conan, I could actually "feel" the size of the zone I was in and constantly had to "zone" or "gate" during the intro part of the game where you had to rescue the maiden and escort her to Tortage. This completely broke any immersion feeling for me if I can palpate where I need to go, and know where I can't go due to discreet pathing and instancing used by the devs.

Lets look at another game and how they use different mechanics to make the word appear seamless and is NOT using instancing. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes uses a large open game world, based on "chunks" (lovely name isn't it?). Each chunk is 2,000km, squared (i.e. huge) and is it's own mini-server. If you are in chunk A and looking towards chunk B, you can see chunk B on the horizon and any large land markers such as volcanoes etc can still be seen, creating this HUGE world view. In Vanguard, if you see it, you can travel to it. Granted, there is a small 1-2 second hiccup when you cross into the next chunk (called "chunking") but that's it! No loading screen! You now have another 2,000km, squared area to explore! There may be multiple dungeons, some of them just HUGE all within the same chunk - and many of the dungeons go above ground and below ground, creating this sense of awe when you walk up to them. Gigantic castles laying in ruin waiting for you to explore! When you walk up to a gate or door in Vanguard, you actually open it, and walk in! The world is seamless while walking into a tavern from the outside street.

Alas however, it seems that instancing has become a necessary evil in order for these games to work. I'm sure there are more innovative ways to combat the problems I've listed here, but the easiest (and tried and true) method would be instancing. But for the "RP" portion of MMORPG to continue, we need novel ways to change this mechanic to make the game world truly open and explorable, while at the same time not breaking immersion that devs really strive for in the first place, and keeping the players honest at the same time.

Is Vanguard: Saga of Heroes The Last Great Epic MMO?

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Sun, 25 May 2008 03:48:00 +0000

I have noticed a trend recently that even though the MMORPG as a genre is exploding and gaining a huge notoriety amongst gamers and becoming a staple in many a game developer's palette, I have also taken notice that large, epic, and original MMORPG's are on the decline.

If you read my blog regularly, it should be no surprise to you that Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is my favorite MMO. I base my personal opinion on features that I consider unique and epic in scope such as game play and world mechanics, role play functionality, transportation, housing, crafting, and a large class and race selection.

I think that Vanguard is the last of a dying breed of "traditional" MMOs (more here). In addition, I think that Vanguard may be the last of the epic and great MMOs of the past decade. I believe that we are on the dawn of a new era, where the MMO developers are now catering to more of a directed, hand-holding, softer approach to the genre, probably in hopes of drawing more of the casual crowd into it's realm. The time of "here's a huge, unexplored world...good luck!" approach is gone. Instead, we now have games launching that are for all intents and purposes, an instanced version of the same world over and over. And now the instances are becoming smaller with more of them to boot.

Features such as sandbox game play are now extinct in my opinion. Before Vanguard in this respect there was Star Wars Galaxies, and before that Ultima Online. These are all very large games the pretty much shaped the sandbox genre as we know it. Going forward I don't see any games on the 1-2 year horizon with as much original content, sandbox, and giant un-instanced worlds as those 3. The only exception to this would be Darkfall, but so far everyone thinks this game is vaporware and doesn't even exist. I personally hope that Darkfall indeed exists and launches, and becomes very popular. I hope that the excitement that the "devs" and "fans" of this game is creating is truly the next big thing, but until then, Vanguard is it.

I'm willing to change my mind if going forward, MMO dev's do away with the instanced worlds and combat with it's immersion breaking mechanics. The only 2 games I'm able to tolerate (and subscribe to by the way) that has instancing, is Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Guild Wars. The instances in DDO really do make sense to me, because just like the PnP games, it's you and your group (only!) going into a dark and mostly unknown dungeon - that's just the mechanics of it. It works, and is explainable. Guild Wars on the other hand, at it's core, isn't even an MMORPG. It's a CORPG or Cooperative Online Role playing Game, where you basically play a first person type RPG for some content, and if you wish, can chose to group up with others in outposts or cities, where you and your group (only!) start on a quest.

Vanguard's world is 3 continents big, with vast oceans between them, that you actually have to travel to where you need to go. In addition, if you see something on the horizon that you want to go check out - you can! The world basically allows unfettered travel. Walk, run, swim, ride a horse, sail a ship, or fly on the back of griffon! Run out of earth beneath your feet and hit water? No problem. Launch a boat and sail to your next destination...be it anywhere you want, all without EVER encountering an immersion breaking loading screen or entering a numbered instance. Just make damn sure that you have the right type of boat or you won't make it!

Vanguard also has a harsher death penalty - so if you constantly do stupid things and don't think about what you are doing when you get aggroed - you will be collecting a large number of tombstones and losing a TON of XP if you don't. The game makes you "think" of your next move and consider your options or you pay the consequences or you are just plain lucky. Roll the dice if you feel lucky.

Vanguard does not "hold your hand" either. You have to go find the quests, then the targets for the quests, and figure things out for yourself. You may be guided by a general direction to start but the quest givers do not just hand you perfectly written instructions on where to go, what to do, how to kill the mob, where the treasure chest is, and spoon-feed you all the details. You get enough information to get going and that's it. Hell I remember when it was in late Beta before they even put in a mini-map!

A crafting system, which is hands-down the best one so far. Very intricate and detailed. A resource gathering system that anyone can do. A diplomacy system that anyone can become involved in local politics for the cities they claim allegiance to. Houses and guild halls that have to be built by the players, brick by brick (almost)! And maintained!

So, in this MMO players opinion, Vanguard is really the last of the great and epic MMO's. I hope to see the game grow and continue to gain subscribers. People initially poo-pooed it early on due to it's somewhat awful launch condition. But the game has truly improved both performance wise and game play wise since launch, and if you are a hard-core, old-school MMO player looking for your next game, give Vanguard a try.

What Happened To The MiniDisc, DAT, and DCC?

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Remember Sony's answer to the .mp3? Portable or stay-at-home, flexible, digital audio recording? Referred to as the Sony MiniDisc (MD for short) the format took the pro and semi-pro (read: home recording guru) markets by storm. For about a year and a half.

You could record your music, live microphone, or anything with a line out jack to a small square recording medium about 1.5" square and have it record up to 74 minutes in the original ATRAC format. ATRAC was Sony's 2 channel compression algorithm that was used on the MD, and eventually spawned version 3, surprisingly called ATRAC3 which lead to MP3-type CD-R's wherein a consumer could burn quite a few tracks onto 1 disc. Sony then made portable CD players that could read these data discs and they operated much like the MP3-type CD-R of today.

I actually preferred ATRAC even though it was a "lossy" type of compression, and it sounded fairly good to my ears. Then later on in development, we gained quite a few hours of recording time as the format blossomed into ATRAC3, now with various recording schemes, meant to extend record times available on the same size disc, ala the old VHS speeds SP, EP, SLP. Even though you could get almost 6 hours in ATRAC3 SLP mode, the compression artifacting wasn't all that bad.

This is all around the time that Sony's other format, the DAT (Digital Audio Tape) was winding down in price and popularity and became more of a niche, rich-boy's cassette recorder. Sony thought they needed to tap into the high-end consumer and prosumers with a flashier, more productive recording medium, this time optical in nature, instead of the tried-and-true capstan/head/pinch-roller tape based medium.

The MD was very flexible in the fact that you could record not only in digital form (44.1khz) via TOSLINK or SPDI/F, but analog as well. You could index tracks by name, by actually typing in the name of the song and artist (and have it display it back to you on your player), you could re-arrange the tracks order, you could edit/time slip, A/B remove, cut and trim audio, all from the comfort of your chair using a remote. If you grew tired of the recordings, you could delete them and start fresh ones. Get a false start on that song? No problem, just delete it and try again. The format was really clean, sounded good, and was very easy to use.

So what happened to it? I think it was so advanced, that the average Joe Consumer didn't either understand what it was capable of or thought it was too technical to grasp. Either way, it slowly died out, now only to find it barely available, with rarely any new hardware to support it. Sony tried to release a Napster / iTunes type service called Connect Music Store which featured the ATRAC format for the files, for easy manipulation within the Connect music player software and on your ATRAC CD-R's.

I think it was a little ahead of it's time, launched at a time where DAT was king in the Pro/Prosumer ranks, and just came off the heals of the other format developed by Phillips, called the DCC or Digital Compact Cassette. While in limited use today, MD can still be found on some production trucks or recording racks for a quick and instant recorder and distribution format. DAT on the other hand is still used today in modern recording studios and TV/Film production and post-production facilities, and doesn't seem to want to die as easily as it's brethren, the MD and DCC.

Passionate MMO Players: Age Of Conan

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:33:00 +0000

This will be my third entry in my series of blogs focusing on what I'm calling "Passionate MMO Players". This time around I'd like to focus on the upcoming Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures MMORPG, being released by Funcom next week. While I have personally come to a final conclusion on the game , I still follow the pulse of the MMO community by reading various message boards and like to see what my fellow gamers feel about the game.

It seems there is some more passionate talk over how gamers feel betrayed by Funcom and being let down somehow due to the way Funcom is handling the "early start program" for the game. While I won't go into the details as there are numerous posts about it, I would like to say to those who feel betrayed, bewildered, or let down...please R - E - L - A - X and take a deep breath. There is NO espionage or treachery afoot - Funcom is NOT trying to stiff you for money and mislead you. My goodness, the game is about to launch for Pete's Sake! They WANT you as a customer and just how ethical do you think it would be for a large, popular MMO development company, who is well established in the industry and in the spotlight right now, to "rip-off" or bait and switch it's customers before the damn game even gets released? Funcom is counting on a successful release which equates to lots of paying subscribers.

If you failed to read the terms of the offer, which were plainly written out for you, you would realize what actually happened. Please just accept the fact that if you choose not to participate in the additional requirements of "early access", you will simply have to wait 3 more days for it's commercial release. Again, why all the Doom and Gloom being posted by people who insist on making these tragically sounding and absurd arguments thinking they will magically change the course of time and make Funcom feel sorry for them and give them 3 early days access?

For those that have decided to keep the flame alive by keeping their pre-order and giving the game a fair 30 day chance, my hat is off to you. Enjoy the game! You've waited a long time for it, and it's almost here! I remember the days leading up to my acceptance into the Vanguard Beta and up to it's release - I was giddy inside! A year and a half later, I'm still playing.

We as passionate MMO players should certainly be allowed our opinions, but let's not turn it into a witch-hunt, calling for drastic measures just days before the game releases and trying to bring down the game before a majority of people get their hands on it. Remember, these are real world companies making our imaginary worlds, so lets let them do what they do best, and support them with our wallets if we like them, or simply don't buy the game if you don't like it.

The Xbox 360 7 Year Lifespan

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:38:00 +0000

I read today on Gamasutra that the head honcho over at Microsoft's gaming division Shane Kim said, using his words, that the Xbox 360 "has a long tail". I assume this to mean that he anticipates that the 360 will hang around and be useful and popular for a total of 7 years.

My particular Xbox 360 had a lifespan of 14 months before the "Red Ring Of Death". Of course I'm sure that's not what he's referring to. And after a total of 3 calls to "Xbox Support" I just might actually get the shipping box in which to return it to Redmond.../sigh. This has bummed me out as I was anticipating playing GTA IV on it, and wouldn't Bladewir's luck run out on the very Sunday of that game's release. Meh.

Any-who, do I think the 360 will last 7 years? Maybe. I see it as the front-runner at the moment, with of course the Wii and PS3 trailing closely behind it. There is definitely more software available for it, and has quite a long list of backward-compatible titles as well. Of course the big guffaw right now is the fact that the HD optical disc format that Micro$oft chose to lead the race with, namely HD-DVD, has officially, and unequivocally - died. While this really only affects a small portion of the installed base (as it was an add-on option, and not the only format that the system uses for games) it has now instantly fallen behind I think, as the center of everyone's living-room entertainment system due to the fact that it does not support Blu-Ray. I think it behooves Micro$oft to come up with a Blu-Ray player to keep up with the Jones' but we'll see.

Honestly, I see Micro$ofts Xbox 360 (and it's ladder incantations) as competing directly against...well...Micro$oft's own OS and DirectX 10 system. The line is becoming finer and finer between what the Xbox 360 of a year ago is and a current multi-core PC system with a high end video card today. They may be painting themselves into a corner if this trend keeps up. I know for a fact, that with my current PC AND the slowly burgeoning catalog of ported game titles appearing in "Games For Windows" shelf space at my local electronics retailer that I may just want to sell my Xbox 360 when it comes back (if it ever comes back) and move on with my life. Just about every game I wanted to play on the 360 has come to the PC, and now that I have upgraded (specs of my rig are listed on the right column of this blog) it seems pointless, for me at least, to keep the dream alive.

Now another positive for Xbox is the Xbox Live service. Sony and the PS3 can't hold a candle to this phenomenon and is already leap years behind - in fact they can't even get Sony HOME launched! There is no way, in any reasonable amount of time that Sony will be able to play catch up and surpass the functionality and popularity of Xbox Live. This just may add to the Xbox's lifespan.

I guess we'll just to to wait to see who moves next.

My Lord of the Rings Online Experience Thusfar

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:21:00 +0000

I subscribed to LOTRO when it launched in May of 2007. I cancelled my sub in December of 07 due to the fact that I had too many MMO's to play and found I just wasn't playing it as much as I anticipated for US$14.99/month. Then I received an email that Turbine was celebrating LOTRO 1 year anniversary and for a few days anyone who has had an account could log in (i.e. your account had been re-activated for free) so I thought what the hay. It turns out, that as an additional bonus, Turbine is offering discounted pricing on 90 days or more plans, and have for a limited time brought back the US$199 Lifetime subscription.

LOTRO is a beautifully rendered game with plenty of content and extra goodies that anyone who was a serious and hardcore MMO player down to the game player who just likes to socialize and smoke a pipe, go fishing, or decorate their house ... each could do it, with very little problems...plenty to do in the game.

Turns out that the game engine that Turbine used for LOTRO was the same one (albeit modified I'm sure) as used for Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach - which is still my guilty pleasure MMO. LOTRO uses a few DirectX 10 schemes for shadows and water and other textures, and lets the client choose to use them or not. Performance wise, the game ran pretty well also.

However a couple of key things that did and still kind of bug me are thus: the Lord of the Rings franchise just doesn't seem like it fits in a MMORPG type game - in fact, I think it barely fits in with the RTS games that came out as well. Don't get me wrong - I love J.R.R. Tolkien's tales of Hobbits, Man and Dwarfs as much as the next guy, I just think that because of the class system that MMO's use, the LOTR world just doesn't fit in well. The overall story arc is an adventure meant for the one fellowship, not 100,000 of them all doing the same story. The game does a good job making you feel as if you are taking part in the adventure, but those stories have already happened. I want it to be MY story and how MY character affected the story, not how he "fit in" to the pre-existing, already concluded adventure, as told by the books.

Also, I didn't care for all the zoning and instancing. If you read my blog regularly you'll notice that although I understand the need for zoning and instancing, I don't really care for it much as it totally breaks the immersion that you experience while playing an online role playing game. I'm into "being there in the moment" so to speak, even though I have a high-tech heads-up User Interface guiding me on my adventure. LOTRO is full of zoning - in fact all buildings that you can enter are instanced.

So those are my 2 biggest gripes over the game. I'm considering what to do now that I've experienced the game the past few days, and pondering whether or not to re-up my subscription at a reduced rate. Might be worth it. Or it may sit on the back burner while I play my other games. We'll see I guess.

Cool Games Are Not Just For Consoles Anymore

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:21:00 +0000

As I hit 'Submit' on my pre-order for Mass Effect for PC the other day, it dawned on me...what am I doing? I have already bought that game for my Xbox 360 and completed it (which just died a week ago..yup Red Ring of Death). In fact, the sole reason I bought an Xbox 360 in February of 2007 WAS so that I could play this fantastic, next-gen, ground-breaking Xbox 360 "exclusive" RPG.

Meh.

Don't get me wrong. Mass Effect is indeed one of my favorite games to date, and I enjoyed it immensely. The story was rich and interesting, the graphics were stellar and the game play was phenomenal. In fact in an earlier blog entry I suggested that BioWare make Mass Effect into an MMORPG.

But why is it coming to my PC now? Or, why are a lot of popular console games being ported over to PC? I've noticed a huge trend now with video game makers - that they make an A-Title game for limited release on say the PS3 or 360 and see how it goes - then if it's popular they port it over for the PC population. For a good couple of decades there has always been this sibling rivalry of sorts betwixt console gamers and PC gamers. Each has valid arguments as to why theirs is better (read: e-peen). However, due to modern technological advancements in graphics and power, the line between the console and PC is getting thinner and thinner, almost blurred if you will. The super machine console of the past is now competing with the modern PC neck in neck.

With the advent of DirectX 10 and Windows Vista, we finally have a PC platform that renders beautiful graphics on par with either the PS3 or 360. In fact, they are so close, that there are now games that will play on either the 360 or the PC, and the players can PLAY EACH OTHER on their respective systems. Wow! Look at MMORPG's as well...Final Fantasy Online has been doing this successfully for quite some time, and now Age of Conan is about to do the same later this year. Five years ago, we would have never thought this possible, yet it's happening.

The opposite of this trend happens as well. Games originally developed for the PC are being ported over to the Xbox/PS3. Take Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for example. Originally a PC franchise now available on the 360. Another game like this is World In Conflict.

I now have Assassin's Creed Director's Cut for PC and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for PC, and now Mass Effect for PC on it's way - and a dead Xbox 360 that at first broke my heart, but it is turning out that I may not miss it as much with all the games I want to play, no longer exclusive to the now $400 paper weight known as a Red-Ring-Of-Deathed 360. Oh well, I guess I'll just continue to wait patiently for my RMA UPS box to arrive, and continue my game-playing uninterrupted.

Why All The Doom and Gloom Over MMORPG Betas?

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:34:00 +0000

I have participated in a few beta programs, some open, and some closed in my MMO career. I have to admit there has been a huge change in attitude over the years in regards to the sanctity of beta programs in general, especially when pertaining to the NDA (non-disclosure agreement). In addition, I have noticed a very large influx of instantaneous panic and rampant spread of doom and gloom, minutes into the launch of a Triple-A title's open beta program.

It seems that a majority of participants either don't understand what an open beta release of the client is all about, or just use it as a way to try out the game without ever buying it. This is really a double-edged sword because the developers really would like to get a feel for what a massive influx of people on their servers (stress-test) would be like so that they can emmulate launch day scenarios while testing the hardware and internet connectivity of their data centers all the way to the end user. At the same time, the participants (beta testers) get a feel for the game and get to take it out for a spin on their computer - however, the open beta testers are seeing the client at it's absolute worst condition, as the whole stress thing causes constant crashes, falling through world issues, texture popping / loading, and at times, massive lag.

For a majority of the participants, this is their first look at the game (remember - you only get one chance at a first impression). These people might have been fanbois all the way through development and are just salivating at a chance to finally see the game come to fruition - and what they exprience instead is crash to desktops, and eventually dissapointment.

Instead of taking it all in stride and understanding what a technical open beta is really used for, and living up to their duty as an open beta tester, it is now time for the venom, piss and vinegar to start streaming. Almost instantly the negative posts start showing up telling everyone to cancel their pre-order for the game because it is unplayable in it's current state, and is nowhere near a public release yet - in fact it's still in it's alpha stage and needs more polish and optimization.

Whaaat?

This is usually coming from someone who spent a total of 5 minutes in the game world and decided to just give up and uninstall it. Instead of providing useful feedback to the developers they spew this negativity all over the internet as if they are some MMORPG God who should be thanked personally by the devs for their "time".

The MMORPG communities are instantaneously ablaze with negative experiences and doom and gloom to the devs of the game, and issuing a death certificate to the game, and it isn't even out yet! Now the devs have to play public relations clean-up with an instant mess, created completely by speculation and false-impressions - or hopefully, at the very least, a misunderstanding of the whole open beta process.

And believe me, most MMORPG gamers whose first 5 minute experience in a new game isn't absolutely perfect, regardless if it's a non-public release beta client or the final gold client, the game is tarnished and banished to the uninstall screen faster than a hot knife through butter.

This goes back to my blog post on May 4th: What Makes MMO Players So Passionate? We want to see the game succeed if we are fans and I hate to say it but there are people out there that just want to see it fail for reasons unknown. And in this day and age of the internet, it is much easier to do both, all from the comfort of our computer desks.

So why all the doom and gloom around open beta time? I don't know exactly why, but it is out there. I'm not saying there isn't a fair amount of fans posting positives about the game but it seems that the negatives out-swell the positives 3-to-1. And there is a palpable increase in this activity across the internet in the past 2 years or so. It appears to this blogger anyway that the first 2 days of the open public beta seal the fate of the game for the community, who basically IS the target audience leaving the devs to try to target the balance of PC gamers out there who may have never tried an MMORPG, and are untainted by the stench of burned out MMO players looking to get their next fix.

My Age Of Conan Open Beta Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Bladewir Stragg) — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:55:00 +0000

I was one of the fortunate people who was able to experience the Fileplanet Open Beta for Funcom's forthcoming MMO, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Since they lifted the NDA for the first 13 levels of the game, I thought I'd share my experience with it. And I will just briefly go over performance, but mainly focus on game play. Besides, there are plenty of posts about performance.

Overall, I think the game is pretty good. Funcom did a really good job bringing the visceral feel of the Conan universe (Howard's universe) to life. Much like the books, comics, and movies, there is a lot of blood and gore, foul language, sexual innuendo, and even some nudity. This is definitely NOT your typical MMO in that sense.

I'd say the game's design and game play is a bit atypical of current MMO's, in that combat is basically real-time - you swing your sword in any of 3 directions, and if you are close enough to the mob - you hit it - maybe. I say maybe because a new element is introduced to the game in that you now get to see which of 3 directions (left side, up or right side) the mob is shielding or guarding. If you hit him where he's protected, you will do less damage...if you happen to hit him where he is not protected you'll do most damage and so on. You get to do certain specials that require a trigger by you to activate, even AFTER you select the special. And if the mob has a couple of buddies near him, and they are in the arc of your axe swing - you'll hit them too - causing of course aggro and a relentless chain of bad guys wanting to hurt you.

I didn't actually encounter many creatures per se, mainly human mobs, except for the intro quest where you have to escort a damsel in distress through a jungle of various, well jungle animals. The game has hotbars that you can populate with weapons, special abilities and food and so forth. There is a nice set of maps you get to help you with questing. One interesting change to the UI is there is basically a PVP mini-game menu you can go through and basically sign up for a match at any given time. Interesting.

One thing that definitely sets apart AoC with it's modern contemporaries, is that most of the NPC quest givers actually speak to you, with a voice, ala Neverwinter Nights / Knights of the Old Republic dialogue, where you hail the NPC, a camera change occurs and you are having a one on one conversation with him, all the while, the background action continues in real time. He'll speak his lines and then you are prompted to reply with various numbered choices, some of which are plain rude and fun.

One thing that definitely doesn't set AoC apart from it's modern contemporaries, is the usage of instancing and loading screens. While I understand the need for instancing for various performance reasons and possibly spawn camping prevention, I think it was used a bit much in AoC. Walking into a building was a lot like LOTRO/DDO where you are greeted with a loading screen each time you went in and out. There were also a lot of "gates" that you had to go through, some that opened immediately, and some that greeting you with - you guessed it - a loading screen. To me, this just completely breaks immersion. For me, this is a major gripe item, with any MMO.

Another complaint I have is the seemingly inability to switch between your ranged and melee weapons easily. Putting them in your action bars did nothing - I had to actually open my inventory window and press the exchange main-hand/off-hand boxes to make the move from say a ranged bow attack to pull, and then switch to melee to finish him off. And another small gripe was the "you-need-to-put-your-avatar-in-combat-mode" by "turning on combat"...what?

And finally, I'm NOT a PVP'er. While this game has PVE elements, it's more of a PVP-happy game, and I'm just not into it. Which is totally cool - I have no problems with it being PVP-centric, in fact the age and period for which the game takes place kind of begs for it and fits it well. I just don't get my socks knocked off by PK'ing others. I'm just not good at it, and I don't look for PVP as a must have option in my games.

I would really really like to see the game in DirectX 10, first hand on my computer - but since the FilePlanet Open Beta client is DirectX 9 only, unfortunately I'd have to wait for public release to see it, which I'm sad to say I probably won't get to...for a while at least, as I've made the decision to cancel my AoC preorder. And my cancelling has nothing to do with lag, performance, etc...it's just not the kind of MMO I was willing to play.

And since I said I'd briefly touch on performance, I have to say that although I did crash to desktop 60% of the time by doing either nothing or something as simple as picking up a quest item, or falling through the world upon load in and zoning several meters away from where I logged out, and textures not rendering completely with many buildings "just floating" in the air. HOWEVER, I understand that this is a beta test, and a beta build of the client, and that stuff was meant to happen, or was being forced to happen so that Funcom could stress test their servers with a bunch of people basically over-crowding the space that fewer were meant to be in. As far as frame rate (my computer specs are located in the right hand column of this blog) I actually hit an average of 15-45 fps depending on where I was and the number of other players around me. I did feel a bit of lag while turning while initially loading into the instance but it went away in a short time.

OVERALL

The game seems like a PVP'ers dream come true, along with all the blood and guts to go with it. The little bit of Hyboria that I got to see was beautifully rendered and the character models were quite good. It has some innovative combat features while almost but not quite breaking the traditional MMO mold of game play. I'd say longtime MMORPG / RPG gamers will fit right in and be able to pick up an axe and start slaying Picts right away.

I wish Funcom the best of luck with the launch of the game (we experienced MMO players know that smooth launches are rare) and I hope that all the Conan fans and PVP MMO fans enjoy this new take on the genre!