Dracon's Gamer Blog

WoW's magic winding down

2011-06-03T16:38:00.002-04:00

An article from The Motley Fool wonders why Activision/Blizzard stocks are remaining flat, and the author points out that "it's the games." Activision/Blizzard games tend to be concept games, which is hard to sell to a public that likes character games, like Mario Brothers, Tomb Raider, Witcher, Dragon Age and so on.The best-selling Activision game Call of Duty: Black Ops is the sixth in a series

Back to the free games

2011-01-28T12:25:00.004-05:00

I am going back to the free games, ones without a monthly fee. I have always felt that the monthly fee is something that gets in the way of playing. If I pay a monthly fee, somehow I feel obligated to play that game, so I can get as many hours as I can on that game. I certainly can't see playing more than one game with a monthly fee, like many of the bloggers I read. Monthly fees are time-based.

Troubles at Square Enix over Final Fantasy XIV

2010-12-10T18:23:00.002-05:00

The recent restructuring at Square Enix is interesting enough for Final Fantasy XIV fans, but the company also apologized "that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that FINAL FANTASY fans have come to expect from the franchise." I have not tried the game, nor have I played much of the FF series, but that apology does not make me want to try the game until the company works out

Taking a break

2010-12-09T21:29:00.004-05:00

I canceled my pre-order for Cataclysm and froze my account for World of Warcraft. Part of the reason was that I wanted to play Entropia for now. Entropia turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Most people play because it is fun to sink money into a game anyway. I found that the developers started selling synthetic mind essence, seriously depressing the market for mind essence, which is the

Cash added to Entropia

2010-11-22T16:10:00.002-05:00

I decided to take the leap and add $10 to my account at Entropia. I am hoping that I can get some kind of return for this investment, but we will have to see. I noticed that MindArk does take a small fee, plus there is an exchange rate, so that means the $10 translates to about 96.50 PED, not exactly 100 PED.

Crafters shine in Entropia

2010-11-20T13:35:00.003-05:00

Entropia is a crafter's paradise. The possibilities for making things seem endless in this virtual environment, but they are limited to the imaginations of the developers, because all items require blueprints, and I think most players cannot make blueprints.A similarity exists in armor, for example, except in textures and colors. There are so many types of weapons, devices and vehicles, it is

Entropia gives incentives for grinding

2010-11-17T15:17:00.002-05:00

The news was inviting: An entrepreneur sold a piece of virtual property in the online game Entropia for $635,000, setting a new price record for such real estate. The property was Club Neverdie, which John "Neverdie" Jacobs bought in 2005 for $100,000, then built into a playing environment. Jacobs sold the majority interest ($335,000) in the property to John Foma Kalun, and the rest ($300,000) to

Gamasutra interview compares UO and WoW

2010-11-11T12:19:00.002-05:00

An interesting interview on Gamasutra makes a fairly balanced comparison between Ultima Online and World of Warcraft. The interview is with two designers of UO, who are not out to bash WoW, but to give readers an idea of what the differences are between the games. They may be stating the obvious, but I have not read a better comparison between the two games. UO has more of an open-world design,

Popularity works against video games

2010-11-09T00:26:00.002-05:00

There are people who deliberately pick games that have a small but loyal following and decry any game that has a measure of popularity. Those gamers are interested in games as long as they are in the vein of the Dungeons & Dragons board game, which is played by a select few in small, intimate shops or at home by a group of friends. If the video game is next to inaccessible because of a

Ding 60 for Horde Paladin

2010-11-08T19:15:00.004-05:00

I dinged 60 on my Horde Retribution Paladin Renon on the Ghostlands server. That was after about 5 days and 17 hours of play, or close to 137 hours, which is not a record but pretty fast for me. I am trying the style of concentrating on my solo play, rather than spending time on professions.I don't think leveling is the only achievement worth pursuing, because a game like World of Warcraft offers

Smoother play for WoW

2010-11-06T16:29:00.003-04:00

I finally ironed out the video jumping or hiccupping I was experiencing in WoW after Patch 4.0.1. The hiccupping consisted of a brief freeze of my character when it went in or out of combat, plus very slow tooltip response every time I moused over an item. I decided to follow Blizzard's advice to repair the installation, then delete the Cache and WTF folders. I deleted the many patch updates that

New adventures in WAR

2010-11-06T15:44:00.002-04:00

I decided to start a free trial of Warhammer Online. The game is pretty much the same as it was before the "endless free trial." But the experience was an eye-opener for me, after about a year or two away. My old characters were not present. I may have to renew my subscription to get them back. I found that WAR has four servers for free trial members but many more servers that are for subscribers

Most WAR entitlements make sense

2010-11-05T13:47:00.003-04:00

Mythic has begun a series of Warhammer: Online entitlements designed to make more real money for the company. Only one of the entitlements is cause for concern on my part. I think it is fine to offer cosmetic or meaningless changes to characters, such as transfers to another server, trophies, mounts, vanity pets or even items like non-uber armor or weapons. I do have an issue with the offer of

Blizzard 's new community site sports open look

2010-11-05T13:18:00.003-04:00

The preview of Blizzard's new community site has more of an open feeling, without all the borders and lines of the previous site. The old site now looks clunky by comparison. Now I wish Blizzard would change the user interface in World of Warcraft to a more open design, without all the clunky borders and ugly art. I have always liked the look and feel of the Skinner addon, which gives the game a

Neverwinter book part of game announcement

2010-11-04T13:10:00.002-04:00

I received an email that announced a book, Gauntigrym by R.A. Salvatore, published on Oct. 5. It was sent to me because I subscribe to the Neverwinter newsletter after I played Neverwinter Nights from Bioware for years. I never played Neverwinter Nights 2 by Atari, but I still had an interest in the game after playing the original version. I never purchased NWN2 because it didn't seem to live up

All WoW players can preload Cataclysm content

2010-10-29T16:51:00.002-04:00

WoW Insider has called attention to a method of preloading Cataclysm content without buying Blizzard's download of the expansion. That method is handy for people like me who have purchased a pre-order of a hard copy of Cataclysm from a local retailer and don't want to pay twice. You can download the content without waiting until launch day on Dec. 7, when the servers may be jammed.As explained by

Champions Online goes free-to-play

2010-10-26T22:00:00.002-04:00

Cryptic Studios has decided to offer a free-to-play deal for Champions Online, but with many restrictions, similar to other free-to-play models. Players are divided into Silver (free) members and Gold (paying) members. Silver members have limited access to archetypes, character slots and many other features. Although I have never played this game, it seems you have to pay in order to excel at

First Impressions of Rift: Planes of Telara

2010-10-23T11:37:00.002-04:00

Rift: Planes of Telara looks interesting but the proof will be in how it plays, and whether enough players will pay a subscription fee for yet another MMO in the medieval fantasy genre. The similarities to World of Warcraft are pretty obvious. The differences from WoW are subtle but important. The models of characters are much better conceived and more intricate than the WoW models. The

EA Louse takes on Mythic

2010-10-19T15:58:00.002-04:00

The EA Louse rant about Mythic and Warhammer Online is a bit hard to swallow in one chunk. It merits reading over and over, then reading all the sometimes vitriolic comments responding to it.First, the EA Louse is an anonymous soon-to-be-former employee of Mythic, so he or she has an ax to grind. He stands on a thin thread by complaining before he is officially let go. He should be worried that

Another Nerf for the Death Penalty

2010-10-18T16:59:00.003-04:00

The Death Penalty is one of the most irritating aspects of WoW. At the same time, it is something that may never be completely eliminated from the game, even if I would prefer it that way.Instead, through the patch system, Blizzard has decided to make it gradually easier to come back to life after death. Not too long ago, Blizzard buffed the player's ghost so that it runs faster, and it added a

WoW Patch 4.0.1

2010-10-15T14:17:00.003-04:00

Patch 4.0.1 for World of Warcraft has to be one of the most game-changing patches in a long time. It remains to be seen if it draws more players into the game. So far, the players seem to be sparse because they are still figuring out the new system.I had more than 30 addons that needed updating after I came back from a short trip, then I encountered the download and installation of the patch,

Leveling without professions

2010-10-07T17:34:00.004-04:00

Leveling a character quickly in World of Warcraft is definitely a different occupation than developing professions.The benefits of professions at the early levels are so lacking that it makes sense to level a character, then level the professions needed for raiding at max level. The time spent developing professions at early levels is better spent on leveling itself, rather than on professions.

Starting a Human

2010-09-20T17:21:00.002-04:00

I tried an experiment in leveling a Human Paladin in WoW on the Eitrigg server (marked for new players) by avoiding the quests and professions, showing that Blizzard has made the starting areas so simple that the quests are not necessary for leveling. I was doing about 5,000 experience per hour just killing things, about the same rate as I do while completing quests. I noticed that the early

PTR play

2010-09-18T17:24:00.002-04:00

Playing on the PTR for WoW gave me an explanation of sorts for the faster health recovery for characters below level 15. In the new scenario, a Paladin does not have any self-healing before level 9. Even Seal of Righteousness and its Judgment do not have self-healing, unlike the current version. The new healing mechanism to replace the two current ones is not learned until level 9. Instead, all

So much for Darkfall

2010-09-17T14:58:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, I successfully downloaded the Darkfall client after a few attempts at getting a working copy. It was a big disappointment to me that the game did not play well with my computer at all. The problem may be my outdated hardware -- the old NVIDIA card or the old CPU -- but it is amazing that Blizzard and NCSoft and Turbine and Sony games seldom give me problems. Darkfall played like