The MMORPG Chronicles

Neverwinter Lore

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:16:00 +0000

courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

So we are about nine days out until the official release of Neverwinter the new Dungeons and Dragons MMO. It's really quite an exciting time to be a Dungeons and Dragons fan with two mmos to choose from. Justin Olivetti over at massively has done a good job of highlighting some of the differences between the two game settings in what is sure to be a long running debate between fans of both games. Personally, I have decided to upgrade my rig just in time for summer break so I can have a chance at enjoying this great looking game.

Just like I did when DDO released their expansions a few months back with the Drow, I bring you some resources for info. on the new setting, though some long time fans may already be familiar with it, it is always cool to have some background on the game settings for the Dungeons and Dragons newbs and the rest of us who did not get a chance to spend a lot of time in the pen and paper game world of 4E.

For starters here is a link to an excerpt of the Neverwinter Campaign guide from the folks at Wizards of the Coast and provided by the good DDO community. It is an excellent resource for lore and backstory on Neverwinter, while it may not be a game guide for the mmo masses, those who are interested in the story will appreciate having it as a handy reference. There is also some good info here from WoTC. Here is a link to the various factions that play in the game.

There is also this wiki page with info on the Forgotten Realms which I found helpful and finally the link to the official campaign guide to Neverwinter is a must have and a fountain of info, especially for the mmo players who will be messing around with the foundry.

Whether back story is important to you or not when you play Neverwinter, I hope you find these resources fun to wade through and provide the necessary background to refer to when the game finally drops later this month.

Surveying the guild leaders and officers on the interwebs

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:41:00 +0000

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of posts these past few weeks, but I have been swamped with both work and school. If anyone reads this blog consistently (anybody? anybody? Bueller?) then you should know I have been working on a graduate school project involving mmorpgs.

It is still not too late to get involved and help me out, there is a link to the survey I prepared about regarding guild leaderships in mmorpgs, so if you are a guild leader or officer or know of any guild leaders in an mmorpg, please click on the image and take the survey, only takes about 15 minutes of your time, or encourage your guild officer friends to do the same, it would really help me out. I can't send you anything or reward you as I am a poor student, but you will have my gratitude.

Thank you. More to come...

10/10 Blogging project: One game a Day

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:24:00 +0000

courtesy of ggftw.com

In order to get out of his gaming rut, Syp from the popular BioBreak blog has been involved in a new project where he plays a different free-to-play mmorpg game every evening. He has challenged other bloggers to join him and I thought this was a magnificent idea to try out new games and to try and break out of my own gaming rut. I thought long and hard about how to participate and I have a few limitations which prevent me from going full throttle with this intriguing blogging project, but before I enumerate them, I will say that I have been having fun playing DDO, leveling my orc warrior in wow to take into b.g.s, and anticipating my eventual return to the mmorpg game I truly love (Dark Age of Camelot) this summer.

Limitations:
-My ancient gaming rig, though I have finally saved up to upgrade my ancient computer probably by summer, other personal investments may necessitate me to push that upgrade to fall, so I am still limited by the games I can choose and run on my machine

-Time! Grad school projects and research sap almost all my free time away when I am not at work
-preference for genres, I favor fantasy over shooters, in fact, there are very few fps games I like.
-money! That's always a big one, with so many f2p options out there, it's hard to justify p2p games like wow and others of its ilk, and more go f2p every day. Gone are the days when f2p games meant low quality, just late last year and this year alone we have TERA, The Secret World, SWTOR and Vanguard, STO and a few others go free to play, these are not exactly bad games at all!

So what games should I play keeping in mind those limitations? Well since the game nights don't have to be consecutive, it will take me longer than most to get through even 5 games, let alone 10, so I have limited my list to five for the time being. I have placed a poll on the side panel, so feel free to vote dear readers and I will choose one next week.

Here are the ones which made the cut and why:

-Aion (NC Soft) I actually dabbled with this game a long time ago, but it was so brief that playing the game again will feel entirely new and fresh, given my time on it was so limited. I remember essentially getting inpatient with the grind, but having experienced the grind in other games, Aion is suddenly looking a lot more tempting and primed for a return trip. It is one of the most polished of the f2p games of a few years back.

- Runescape (Jagex) This venerable game is so legendary, and so dated, I could not resist checking it out. It's browser based from what I understand so the idea of not having to sit through a long download appeals to me, as did the combat training tutorial. Runescape should provide an mmo experience like no other, or at least I am hoping a few hours of entertainment on a given evening.

-Torch Light 2 (Runic) OK so technically this one isn't even an mmo, in the true sense, but its Diabloesque motif and action RPG design makes it an appealing choice for a light evening of dungeon crawling. I actually played the original Torch Light and found it lacking, and I uninstalled after playing the trial, but now I feel I probably should have given it more of a chance. My only concern is will the sequel run on my old computer?

-Blood Line Champions (Fun Com) What? An on line PVP arena game a la LOL? I know I suck at LOL and I truly don't enjoy playing that game, so why on Earth would I put another MOBA on the list of games I want to try? Maybe I am a masochist, or maybe I just want to see if the problem is with the MOBA genre, or with LOL itself, as everyone else seems to love it, but I just can't play it worth a damn.

-Age of Conan (Fun Com) The most savage Online Game Ever. With a tag line like that, you gotta give it a try, though I am not much for savage violent games, this one looks like it may not be too bad and at least it is a mmorpg unlike the previous two. To be honest, I saw a video of the game play for this awhile back and it did not appeal to me, but in the spirit of the 10/10 I am willing to give it a shot.

So there you have them! Please vote on one and the one with most votes I will pick and play.
Let the mmorpg revolution continue! See you in the catacombs :-)

Camelot Unchained First of the Kickstarter MMOs??

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:09:00 +0000

My inbox has been blowing up lately with news of Camelot Unchained's Kickstarter progress. For those of you that are not that pvp-centric, or regular followers of Mark Jacobs' exploits like myself, CU is Jacobs' bid to develop an mmorpg that is strictly pvp oriented but which promises a brand new mmo experience. So far, to date the project has raised more than $600,000 of its intended $2M goal. We have to wait an entire year and a half to see the fruits of the developer's labors, but the reason this mmo project seems to be getting more press is because it is a big name usually associated with big name developers like Mythic Entertainment going the indie route and funding strictly through crowdfunding methods. Personally, even though Jacob and his team are quick to deny the fact they are trying to make a rehash of Dark Age of Camelot, they have obviously taken the 3-faction pvp model made famous by DAoC and are banking on the nostalgic appeal of that masterpiece to drum up interest in an updated version of that game. 3 factions, Arthurian Scandanavian, and Irish mythological influences, these are some of the features that harken back to the days of Albion, Midgard and Hybernia.

Personally, anyone who knows me and who follows this blogs knows what a huge fan I was and have always been of Dark Age of Camelot, unlike Warhammer Online, which was a good game but structurally flawed because it wanted to be too much like World of Warcraft, DAoC has always had its own flavor and distinct back story and no other mmo has come close to it in terms of pvp combat, until now? It would be exciting to get into a game from the ground floor, but I for one don't think it is necessary to pledge our souls to City State's project, that is unless you want to for the reasons stated above. I will definitely play Camelot Unchained once it comes out, but I seriously doubt that you can catch lightning in a bottle twice, call it the skeptic in me.

Academic Research mmorpg style

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:30:00 +0000


Will Wheaton's table top web show on Geek and Sundry has sparked interest in a lot of modern table top rpgs.

There's a lot going on this weekend. It's International table top gaming day, so all across this great land at hobby shops across the country people are currently engaged in their favorite board or rpg game. This blog is primarily about mmorpgs not table top gaming, but I bring it up because as descendants of RPGs, mmorpgs owe a great deal to their table-top heritage.

Today I have the misfortune of missing out, so instead of playing D&D, or fun games like Zombicide, Bloodsuckers, Clash of Cultures, and countless others, I am trying to work on my research paper for my theory class in graduate studies.

I have spent a great deal of time scouring the forums and trying to contact guild leaders to take part in my study, but thus far, the response has been less than spectacular. I figured, why not reach out through my blog? So if you are reading this post and you are a guild officer in a current mmorpg like Rift or World of Warcrat, or if you are the leader of a guild, it does not matter what game, please get in touch with me. You can respond to this blog post, or contact me via email at journalismdude@gmail.com

I appreciate any and all help, as there is a deadline involved and I am getting kind of antsy. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones who is either playing your favorite table top RPG today at your local hobby shop, or even at WonderCon in Anaheim, then oh how I envy you! Peace out!

MMORPG Kickstarter projects I would have funded

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:38:00 +0000

wow I am back blogging on my original blog after nearly a year of being AWOL!

Well, it has been a while but I think the reason I decided to get back into blogging about mmorpgs here at my original blog is mainly because I already have a built in audience on blogger and I want to take advantage. So for my return post I decided to follow up on a blogging project that I have been kicking around in my head for a while, now that I am on spring break from grad school, I decided it might be a good time to work on it. It dawned on me while hanging out with my gaming group this spring that a lot of interesting projects are going the crowdfunding route these days. One phrase I heard a lot was, "I kickstarted so and so, or I really like this game project and I am kickstarting x or y." It got me thinking, What exactly makes for a successful indie project and conversely, what factors help to make a failed project? I will be exploring this topic in a series of posts with an emphasis on mmorpgs and mmo-related projects.

I ask myself, if these indie projects were available now would I play these games? why or why not? and are they innovative, or more of the same old same old? I started with a successfully funded comic book based on a mmorpg called "Meatspace" A sci-fi comic book by NY based comic book author Josh Gorfain.

As described by Gorfain, this is a cyberpunk story that is one part mega-multiplayer online roleplaying game, one part revenge thriller and one part story about a man re-entering society from his own self-exile partly from his own doing and also from someone bringing him back. Sounds like something I would dig reading and wish I had written myself, and it has been developed into an Amazon Kindle book. Check out the promotional video in the kickstarter campaign which was funded in the fall of 2011. This was supposed to be a 5 part series so is Gorfain working on the second edition? Seems like a long time in between editions, but that is the thing about these indie projects, some take a while to see fruition. More on this later!

I should probably note that this particular project was funded after a first attempt which failed, and the writing and editing team had to modify the specific to make a successful run of it.

Boogie raging over Diablo 3

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:01:00 +0000

Boogie is raging again! This time he is upset over not being able to play D3. You should have stuck to Wow man! Like he needs me to give his channel more web traffic? It's OK. He's youtube's raid boss! Boogie is da man!

Misadventures in Gaheris

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:01:00 +0000

I have been absent from the blogging scene too long. This has been due to heavy work hours this spring, but I suspect with my summer vacation fast approaching, I will be logging in more frequently and updating all of you on what I have been doing mmo-wise. Do you play DAoC? Chances are that you are not playing it, perhaps busy sampling Tera or some of the other shiny new mmorpgs out there, maybe even indulging in some Diablo 3.

For me, I have had the most fun playing Camelot the past few weeks, first leveling up my Midgard Berzerker to 50, then I switched over to doing "glass" questing on TOA, but to be honest, I did not like it as much as running b.g.s, and I dreamed of leveling another class altogether to see how the pve side matched up to the pvp.

Well, I rolled a Bonedancer on the Gaheris co-op server. For those of you not in the know, Gaheris is DAoC's co-op sever, meaning there is no pvp. The battleground NPCs are all there, but I don't think they port you anywhere, and the factions can all work together towards defeating bosses and doing pve questing. Even though I am not big on raiding, I just wanted to try it out and found it lacking, that is until I found the great Gaheris forum. An entire forum dedicated to a specific DAoC server in 2012? And not even one dedicated to pvp! Go figure! (click on graphic above to check it out)

This should convince EA Mythic to continue developing resources for the game, the population may never be what it once was, but there are still dedicated members and subscribers alive and well in this forum.

So how's it been leveling the bonedancer on Gaheris so far? Well pretty slow going to be honest, and not as much fun as leveling in the pvp servers. The xp gained from doing b.g.s is actually substantial and fun, but here on the pve side of things apparently you gotta join a guild, find a friendly soul to pl you, or take hours to level up on your own. It can be a daunting task if you have a caster or a squishy class, and it can get pretty lonely as you may feel you are playing an RPG, because most won't group with you until you are closer to max level. Is it as much of a grind as wow? No, but in some respects, wow might be better because with the Dungeon finder, you can pretty much get a lot of xp by running instances as soon as you hit level 15.

So the jury is still out on how far I can go leveling my BD. As much as I love the atmosphere and old school feel of DAoC, wow has a bigger advantage at the moment: more of my mmorpg loving friends are running through Azeroth still and I know I won't have problems joining the PUGs. It may all be academic anyhow, as summer rolls by and I have less disposable income to spend on games, I may be playing DDO's new expac or LOTRO, or even LOL and Dragon Age 2 as they say, stay tuned!

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:04:00 +0000


battling harpies in Atlantis, not as much fun as b.gs. IMHO

Well, after spending nearly a month and a half leveling my Berzerker in DAoC, I can honestly say this has been one of the best mmo games I have experienced, I am hooked on this game, and rarely have a desire to play any other, which is rare for me because I usually jump from game to game.

My goal was to max level my toon, and I am almost there, I have heard of people doing it in a couple of days which is crazy to me, but then again, I have no one that will PL me and I only play about an hour to two each day, except on weekends when I have a bit more time and I stay on longer. Today I will try to analyze or tell you some of the things which have made DAoC a great experience for me, and you can decide whether you want to try it out for yourself. (Assuming you haven't and are reading this on the fence..)

What I have discovered from playing in the pvp b.g.s is that with the exception of the last b.g. which is called Catha Valley and is only for 45-50s, the others are all populated at peak times. C.V. probably has people too, but I haven't had the chance to explore much of it. I don't know how accurate are printed reports about the server populations, but regardless, I found no problem most of the time finding a group if I posted LFG after my /region command in the chat. Eventually people will add you on for x.p. or for RvR./advice is also a great command, the blue letters are your friend, you will see what I mean.

X.P.ing in pvp goes waaaay faster in a group than it does individually. You grab the pve quests from the NPCs and then you go do then with your group, they are usually fun, unless you get ganked, or you get jumped by the other faction (which in my case was always Hyberia or Albion because I always played Mids) but even then, this can be fun. I remember being out in one of the b.g.s I think it was Wilton or Molvik, when some joker tried to gank me on a hill after I was engaged with some mobs, the group I was with came by to blast him, and I guess he was by himself or separate and it was sweet to see them make short work of him.

b.g. are also soloable, but unless you have a lot of patience, or can't find a group, I do not recommend. The problem is, if enemy are roaming around a zone, you will die a lot unless you can tank or can heal yourself.

Bounty scrolls are nice, they help you get good gear, but remember to buy the appropriate gear for each b.g. and don't worry about dying, as long as you go back and pray at your grave or visit a healer outside the b.g. to regain constitution, it is no big deal. Praying at your grave restores your lost xp but you only lose xp if you get killed by pve battles, not during pvp, if I am not mistaken.

I was told that going to Atlantis, doing the extension trials and doing the ML was faster than leveling in the last b.g. but so far it has been hard to find consistent groups in Atlantis, and I don't like the zone as much as I did the b.gs. although battling there, without a template (whatever the heck that is) can be difficult.

As for games coming out, I am keeping my eye out for Tera, which looks kinda cool, but not sure my ancient rig can run it, may have to upgrade for that. I will probably make DDO my go to alternate, because the expansion is due out this June.

History of the Drow: DDO's Latest Expansion Features Familiar Foes

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:05:00 +0000

Everything old is new again eh? It would seem the same applies to DDO whose new announced expansion coming this June "Menace of the Underdark." is an intriguing virtual retooling of the old Forgotten Realms setting first made popular by TSR more than 20 years ago.

There are plenty of sites out there including Ten Ton Hammer and Massively which have all the details about Turbine's new expansion. Instead, I want to focus more on the history of the drow, the race which is heavily featured in the campaign setting in which this new expansion is based on, so I dusted off my old copy of The Drow of the the Underdark (available on paperback on ebay and similar places online) and brushed up on the history of DDO's new/old fantasy campaign setting.

The Drow or dark elves, are a fearsome and mysterious race to most surface dwellers in the realms. The most dangerous of the drow, are wizards. They can become quite powerful and often appear in the company of strange familiars. What's the connection with the drow and spiders? Well, they have a strong affinity for arachnids, Most of them worship the spider goddess Lolth,
whose priestesses dominate drow society.

Lolth will most certainly be making an appearance in DDO's new expansion, as she is central to the drow. I am guessing she will be a high level boss, but there are many other gods or creatures which can make an appearance which dwell from the forgotten Realms. For example there is VHaeraun, a lesser god, the god of thievery, and then there are the monsters native to the region.

"Deep Bats," werebats, deep dragons, and Rothe are just a handful of creatures which may or may not make it into the video game version of the Forgotten Realms, but with such a rich history, the game will have plenty of adversaries to confront in parties or solo play.

If you want to read more about the lore and history of both the Drow or the Forgotten Realms, you can head over to wizards of the coast and look up some of the books explaining the elements of this campaign. Alternatively, you can visit the ddo Menace of the underdark website which has info. on the new expansion. Players will be able to play the druid class and I should probably also mention that the new ddo expansion is going to raise the level cap to 25, which means I hope to be getting some toons to max level. I have been very busy playing through my subscription of DAoC, but I hope to play some DDO this spring in preparation for what appears to be a fun expansion.

The battle for Gilneas vs. fun in the Dark Age of Camelot b.gs.

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:56:00 +0000

Remember when choosing a game to play was easy? I remember when I would play pac-man, or a game I was fond of as a youth: an isometric 3d combat RPG named Realms of Arkania.

Back in those days, I had to qualms grabbing a game and playing through it without making many choices at any conscious level, it was a visceral private experience and there didn't have to be any association with the dot chomping pacman. I felt no ties to him, nor did I wonder why he had to race around a maze chomping down the ghosts, that was just the way things were. Not so with a game like World of Warcraft. In wow, you have to choose a side, there's a raging conflict between the two factions in the game, the horde and alliance. I think if you read this blog fairly regularly, you know which side I tend to group with.

Recently, a friend presented me with a resurrection scroll for wow, and I started playing my neglected fire mage once again. However, the scroll allowed me a free upgrade to cataclysm, an expansion I never played before, so I had the chance to play the two races I had never played before, the goblins of kezan on the horde side, and the Worgen on Alliance. When I first heard about Cata back in 2010, (or was it 2009? I can't remember) I thought the horde got robbed. The Goblin are a joke race, they are mostly there for comic relief, who would not want to play a werewolf in a fantasy game? But why did the Alliance get the cool race? The more I tried to reconcile it, with being OK with the Goblin in the horde, the more I resented Blizzard for giving them to us. Then I heard about MOP and the stupid monk pandas, but that's a whole other story....

I learned to hate the Worgen as I mowed them down with my mage. I found it easy to hate them as they camped around Alliance zones and sprung out at the most inopportune times in instanced dungeons. Then something weird happened, I started to get the urge to roll Alliance, so that I could play one! I think it was after seeing the intro video with the Gilneans. The Gilneans were members of the Alliance once, until their wall cut them off from the horde, but now in the Cataclysm reality, they had to defend their land against the foresaken, while concurrently trying to deal with the Worgen curse. Suddenly they weren't the twits of the Alliance anymore, but they were a people resisting being conquered, and I always side with the underdogs. Like the Liliputians they have an irresistible allure Why does Garrash Hellscream want to take over Gilneas in the first place? Because it's a strategic foothold in the war against the Alliance? Because he is a power hungry bastard? Maybe both?

The Gilneans don't shout "For the Alliance" like those humans do in Stormwind, at least in the early part of their campaign, and at least they have a valid reason for joining, but still I shudder to play one and watch that horrid Alliance flag fly. I am horde, how can I turn against my own virtual faction? So I played DAoC instead and had a blast leveling up my berskerer in the Molvik b.g.s.

The last days of Camelot

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:10:00 +0000

What you see here at left is Gannisper my level 80 fire mage, and one of the main reasons why I am going to be leaving Dark Age of Camelot for a while.

I still wholly believe that DAoC is a superior game to wow, well at least in terms of atmosphere and pvp. The b.g. pvps are rife with conflict every time I log on, and especially at peak hours. Why would I ever dream of giving up all that much fun for a game I am already familiar with like wow?

Things were just getting interesting to! I joined a guild and I was one step away from the Molvik b.g. where a lot of the heavy duty RvR is actually supposed to take place, and I have been told is as much fun as Thid, or even more if you can believe that. Also, at level 30 with my berserker, I was only 5 levels away from acquiring a precious mount! A mount! Hot dog! That would be sublime! Although i still considered myself a DAoC noob, even after 30 levels, I don't think I could have done any worse than this guy.

Alas, my reasons for leaving DAoC (at least temporarily) are valid. Even though wow is a p2p game, economics don't really figure into the equation, as I am already used to the idea of having to pay for a small subscription to get in some quality gaming time. The devs over at Mythic claim that DAoC will never convert to a p2p format because they use the revenue to sustain the game. Fair enough, DAoC is so good, I would not mind pitching in so that it would continue to exist. No my reasons for suspending my time has more to do with immersion than anything else.

This spring, having switched to full time work, I simply have little time to devote to any one game, so I will continue to rotate and getting my gaming fix anywhere I can get it, dreaming of the day where I can max out one toon on any mmo. Those will be the days! But alas retirement is far away, so I must be content with weekends and the occasional free time to game.

So recently my friend sent a wow resurrection scroll my way, which not only got me interested in roaming through Azeroth once more, (there's seven free days attached an the instant boost of my toon to level 80) but to make the deal even sweeter, I can also create toons in Cataclysm. Yes I know, most people were disappointed with Cata as an expansion, but for me, damn it, I was too busy or broke or both in the fall of 2010 and into 2011, so the chance to try out the goblin starting area, or even (gasp!) a Worgen, never came my way, that is until now.

MOP betas be damned! I am always behind the 8 ball in terms of current trends, so why should this venture be any different? All I know is I see any panda come my way, decked out in Alliance gear, he's going down like Santy Claus down the chimney on Xmas eve!! Gannisper don't play that Kung Fu Panda nonsense.

Adventures in the battlegrounds

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:11:00 +0000

Another friday night run in the Dark Age of Camelot RvR battlegrounds, another successfull and fun experience. I had to chuckle a bit after reading this week's edition of massively's Choose My Adventure column. The writer is taking cues from his readers and playing his toon on DAoC, but he's a total noob. I laughed because I encountered similar growing pains upon rolling my warrior, but I am pretty sure it didn't take me three weeks to reach level 9.

User Gramaw has good advice for tackling the b.g.s when he writes: I would recommend doing quests in the level 10-15 zone until you're 15, then hitting the BG's. When you're in the BG's you should keep doing the PVE repeatable quests until you are the highest level for that BG. Once you are that level, then you can try to do some RvR. You should ALWAYS try to get a group for the PVE quests in the Battlegrounds because the kills will come much faster.

In my own experience, I found that once I was 15, I immediately ventured out to the Lion's den and had fun. Usually these b.g.s are hit or miss from what I read, but when I went in I joined groups doing runs and xping, I leveled up pretty fast on my way to Thid.

Thid was by far the most fun b.g. to date, I have since moved on to Braemar, but that one seems less populated in the RvR sense, but we will see. I was in there one night and alternated between doing pve quests there and exploring the instances.

Here are some noobish mistakes I made which others should avoid:

use your b.p.s to buy the corresponding gear appropriate for your class and for that b.g. otherwise, you will not fare as well, unless you get lucky and you get a group to run with you who will either trade/give you some equipment, or help you get b.p.s for you to buy some from the merchant.
don't assume that if you see a group of players running around they will want to group with you, but if you message using /tell or /region and chat with them, they might be inclined to. Sometimes they need muscle to RvR or to take the ck, so you might as well join if asked
RvR deaths do not give you experience debt, but dying against mobs will, so don't aggro too many if you are soloing in the b.gs. because that will lead to you having to port out to see a healer and that can get expensive if you are low on gold. And you should avoid soloing to begin with, in a pvp server, that's just a sure recipe for being ganked by the other realm, if there happen to be any about.
Thid should be fun and a breeze to level if you find groups and if you do the pve quests. Also make sure you clear your quest journal from lower level quests or those you did not complete, so you have room to get new quests in the b.gs.

That's all for now folks! I will be back with more advice and commentary as my level 29 Berserker moves through the world of DAoC. Happy hunting!

My love affair with a classic mmorpg continues

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:10:00 +0000

Hello fellow gamers I am back! Finally updating my very first gaming blog ever on a consistent basis. Who could have forseen it? With all the available mmorpgs out there and f2p options, the one game which has captivated my imagination the most of late has been Mythic's classic pvp Dark Age of Camelot.

There are few gaming experiences as rewarding as doing RvR in DAoC. It is a truly unique and satisfying thing, which is hard to explain to those who have never tried it. It took me a long time to accept the fact that a decade old game would be the most fun grouping experience, outside of DDO, but that is a fact. So I rolled a Berserker Warrior in Midgard and leveled him up all the way to 25 in a short time, which is pretty damn good for me, that's halfway to the level cap on a game I didn't really care for at first, but only because I had not given it enough of a chance.

I have extolled the virtues of this classic mmorpg in the past, and vets won't disagree with me. Recently a contributor over at massively made DAoC the subject of his very entertaining "Choose my Adventure" column. I must say I found his experiences as a DAoC noob to be similar to mine, except I seem to have progressed more in RvR thus far.

Don't get me wrong, there are some fun mmorpgs out there which may be different than DAoC, such as the aforementioned DDO, and STO. I have been also playing Cryptic's f2p Trek game, but that game is more story driven and missing driven,whereas DAoC, especially in the chaotic pvp b.g.s is more of a frenzied free for all. I like both games, but I find I have a little more fun playing DAoC.

There are some very compelling things which a game with dated graphics has over a more modern game like wow. 1. b.gs. are more fun. As fun as one may find b.gs. in a game like wow, they don't compare to the RvR bedlam found in DAoC , especially running with a good group. A lot of wow's b.g.s depend on gear and degrade into sad gankfests, there is a lot of ganking in DAoC as well, but there is a lot of team work which to me makes it more fun to group, if you find the right group, which is easy to do. Also, you don't have to queue for a DAoC b.g. unlike wow, where there is a lot of waiting around.

Here are some things I didn't understand first but which I now have a better handle on: Realm ranks in DAoC RvR. My toon is now L14, which means he is done adventuring in the b.g. appropriate for his level (level 25.) I look forward to the next b.g. which I have not really explored at all.

DAoC also boasts of an incredible array of classes to choose from in the 3 realms. Some people think because it is an older game with lower population, it is deserted, or lonely to be a low level player. This is not the case, if you play on the ywain servers, you will find plenty of players to run group with. I have found this to be the case, especially on weekend and late nights when people have the most time to play.

Lately I have been very tempted to try an alternative way to level in DAoC, and to try out some pve play, perhaps even roll a toon in the pve co-op server, but when in Rome...DAoC was voted best pvp game of the decade for a reason. Plus I think I would dislike having to team up or not being able to attack Albion and Hibernians, since as a Midgard players, I have grown to hate the other two factions, and isn't that what war is supposed to be about? See ya in the frontiers!

Guilds, guilds and more guilds

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:28:00 +0000

Hello mmo players. While the gaming community continues to fall head over heels for SWTOR, I think that I remain marching to the beat of my own drum sampling older games like Everquest 2 and playing till my hearts content in my first mmo love: DDO.

I think the focus of this blog has changed more than once and I would like to feature the exploits of guilds. The best part of playing a mmorpg over a single player RPG for me, and for many others, is the communities surrounding each game. Each community is different and diverse and diversity as we all know is the spice of life, and games.

So if you are a guild master or have interesting tales to tell about your guild adventures, whether they happened in a f2p game like LOTRO or DDO, or a more conventional subscriber based game like Wow, I want to hear from you guys!

Carry on guys!!

Not so Legendary in League of Legends

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Well for the first time this week, I can say that I am enjoying my time in LOL. Still have not had success in finding the mmorpg that will replace my time in Azeroth, and I like the lore so much that I am seriously thinking of investing in WC3 Battlechest.

I never got to play WC3 much back in the day, and even though this is not a blog about RTS games, we are all sort of in holding mode until GW2 and other games drop. As far as LOL is concerned, there is something very addictive about a game where so much strategy depends on both the cooperative play of your team and one's own contributions and it is satisfying to see a match develop, especially if your team is making a push toward victory.

This was only my fifth time playing and I have yet to kill a champion, though I am not dying as much and I did get an assist. Playing bots is not like playing against others in pvp, but you have to start somewhere, and this game is not very forgiving to newbies.

Will I try to level my summoner to 30 and try to to get into some competitive matches? Probably not, I was never one to look at rankings or game ladders, but as long as I am having fun I will continue to play this game as a diversion to my mmorpgs.

I still think that the sandbox and open world feel of a lot of modern mmos pwn the frenetic pace and slightly more limited play of Mobas and Dotas, but I am beginning to understand the appeal of both game genres, it really depends on which play style one enjoys most.

Still in search of the perfect f2p mmorpg

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:56:00 +0000

Another week gone by and I am no closer to replacing wow as my mmorpg of choice. Why would I even try to replace Blizzard's mammoth mmo for another game world you say? Well, call me a cheapskate, but with the economy being as bad as it is, I almost hate to dump $15 out of pocket, or $45 every 3 months on gaming, especially when there are so many good games you can play for free or are nearly free.

Or are there? I have played a number of games of late, trying to substitute that feeling of accomplishment and wonder I used to get from playing wow, but to no avail thus far as we approach the waning days of 2011.

November is just around the corner and with the climax of the year come new releases: GW2, SWTOR, Elder Scrolls V, just to name a few. So in the interim, everybody seems to be playing different games. Some swear by RIFT, others have gone back to wow in anticipation of the Blizzcon announcement of another possible expansion.

Personally, in the past few weeks I have tried: Guild Wars, Pirates of the Burning Seas, Everquest 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Forsaken World, Warhammer Online and a few others.

There is a problem with nearly every game on this list. Guild wars had me bored to tears and it is nearly impossible to find PUGs unless you join a guild, and even then. POTBS was interesting for one night and then the idea of running around in a game world as a pirate where the game's mechanics depend so much on simulated sea battles, even though it is unlike a lot of mmos out there, the game wore thin after one night. Maybe I need to play as the other nations to get more fun out of it.

Forsaken world was pretty, but it's not fun because you can't group, so I may as well be playing a single player game.

EQ2 costs money to play, and if I am going to sub, I might as well sub for a superior game like wow, or like DAoC. Out of all these, DAoC had the most intriguing atmosphere, for an old game it's a rare gem, but I can't help and feel that the epic scale of rvr and battle ground battles is lost in a game world where the population is small and makes the whole thing seem less epic than it should be. Also there is a pesky subscription.

So I am taking suggestions, what games are out there that are as fun as wow? or is warcraft still the ultimate immersive be all, end all of online gaming?

The Guild Season 5 FINALE

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:23:00 +0000

The Season 5 finale of the Guild is online. My original plan was to review every episode this season, but somehow that plan went to hell.

No matter, this season's finale went live yesterday, so did the season live up to expectations? I would have to say that for the most part it did, though fans missed the interactions between all the characters, which took a backseat to the many cameos on the series during the Mega gaming convention.

Felicia Day still makes this all work, her one moment in the denouement with the creator of "The Game" was really well put together, accentuating Codex's personality. I really loved her wishy washy persona.

"The last 2 episodes finally felt like the guild we all love and enjoy," said user Mcajmus on watchtheguild.com, "Don't get me wrong. All the cameos were nice. Kevin Sorbo was the funniest. But overall it didn't feel like the guild series b4 due to the lack of interaction between the guildies. Granted that was the theme in the season but it took the "magic" of the series away when these characters have so little interaction.

I would have to agree with this assessment. While all the subplots are wrapped up rather neatly, the finale begs the question, will the show be back for a 6th season, given the fact Felicia Day is busy with "Dragon Age Redemption" and other projects.

So not to spoil the ending, it does look like this climax could nicely and neatly wrap up the web series, if the producers decide to end it. It is no secret that "The Game" is based on "World of Warcraft" and given wow's upcoming challenges with SWTOR, GW2 and other mmogs, it remains to be seen if "The Guild" will keep up with RL developments and go in other directions, or risk becoming culturally irrelevant. That's a fate worse than the end of "The Game." for all our guildies.

Wow goes free to play...well sort of

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:51:00 +0000

It's been an eventful week in mmos. Not only did WOW release a new patch, but Blizzard/Activision announced a new f2p model for the flagship MMO. Well sort of, it replaces the 14 day trial and will allow players to try the game out for 20 levels.

However, the catch is that the limitations on free trials will remain pretty restricted, i.e. no guild memberships and no access to the chat channels for most. I have mixed feelings about this, on the one hand I think it is cool that new players can now sample various races and classes without the constraints of time. On the other hand, the restrictions make me want to play Wow less, instead of more, which is what the company is probably the opposite of what Blizzard wants.

While initially I was kinda miffed that Cata had possibly nerfed the Valley of the Trials when I re-rolled Horde as a hunter, I reserved final judgment until I made a little progress. I once had a Hunter go as high as level 30, so I never really did experience end content, but always wanted to and always found the game to be fun to play. Now it just seems that they are greedily trying to bring more players back in without giving anything up.

Is RIFT chipping away at a sizable chuck of Blizzard’s subs? What do the rest of you think?

I personally had given up on the game, not because I don’t like it, but because it plays horribly on Vista given it has issues with the annoying video adaptor error, which seems to be a known Windows issue. A pity.

In other news, SEO announced that they were lowering prices on some of their game content, and sadly for SWG fans, the game is going to seize operations in December. Massively had a lengthy interview with the developers. It's really sad I never got to play this game in its prime, and now it looks like TOR will be the only game in town, though I can't say I am all that surprised. Stilli, "it's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced..."

Even cats love LOTRO

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sun, 22 May 2011 06:37:00 +0000

I found this online. Evidently this cat has never heard of RIFT.

Rift vs. Wow the Latest News

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:34:00 +0000

Ok the title of this post might be somewhat deceptive given it's mostly about my spending sometime in Wow this week as I run through another toon in a different class. Still leveling up my undead mage Gannisper, but as I ran through quests and did some grinding in Silverpine Forest, I noticed something this RIFT blog alluded to, mainly I didn't see many players running through SF while questing.

Could it be that there is some validity to his claim that the world of Azeroth is mostly deserted and most players are hanging out in capital cities in Ogrimmar since the December 2010 release of Cata, waiting to queue into instances and ignoring the world altogether?

Even on a pvp server with a high population (which I am not sure mine is) this is very discouraging to see that players are not running around as much, even if I did get to meet Lady Salvanas ingame, which was a thrill for me.

Earlier this week there was talk about Blizzard revealing their quarterly numbers and indicating that their subscriptions had fallen, though it didn't seem the company was all that worried about RIFT and other newer MMORPGS dipping into their player base, at least not yet. RIFT might be the shinier, newer toy in the bin, but if all it can offer players is visual eye candy and a few other enhancements, who's to say that players will stick with it?

Massively Multiplayer Games for Dummies: A Retro-review

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:43:00 +0000

Recently I have been entertained by reading the book Massively Multiplayer Games for Dummies by Scott Jennings. They really should make a new edition of this book. I got my copy at the local library and since this book was first published back in 2006, a number of changes have been made in the industry since its initial release.

The game is written by Jennings, who worked as part of Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot as a database programmer after his day job disappeared as a result of the dot-com crash of 2001. So when he wrote this book, Jennings had at least five years of experience with mmorpgs (probably longer) but you can tell how dated the book is because he makes references to defunct mmos like Shadowbane and The Sims Online. He also refers to these games as “mmgs” short for massively multiplayer games when the industry refers to them now as mmos. Perhaps the terms mmos or its lengthier acronym, mmorpg were not in vogue at the time the book was printed, but a google search of both will validate the fact no one calls these games mmgs.

So why am I reviewing this book now? It’s probably been reviewed before in other places in cyberspace, but I can’t help but to be fascinated by it, it’s not only like a history lesson in mmos, and somewhat of a time capsule because it includes a CD with a trial version of DAoC, a game most people still consider the best pvp game to date. It is interesting to note some of the things that have come to pass since Jennings wrote this book, and also interesting to see screenshots of the glory days of a game like DAoC, which he obviously helped to develop and is very knowledgeable about.

Mostly though, this book serves to outline the fact that mmos really haven’t changed all that much in five years, a period of time which can seem like an eternity in terms of today’s emerging technological breakthroughs. A lot of the information presented within its covers is still very useful, especially to a newbie. While it is amusing to check out the chapter on message boards to see how many of the fan sites listed are still up and running (surprisingly there are a good number) and find that the DAoC Allakhazam site has a 14-day trial to RIFT banner plastered on its home page, this chapter has good information beyond the obvious pointers on net etiquette. Maybe a new edition would make more reference to the obnoxious communities in some of these games, which people still bitch about even to this day, maybe not, but I found the entire enterprise fun and entertaining reading.

Though I had already experienced a lot of the things Jennings writes about, I think that the advice he presents here to new players is still quite valid. They should update this game for modern audiences and I think that they would sell more copies of it given the rising popularity of mmorpgs. I give it four out of five trolls. Now on to troll on that DAoC fan forum. He, he.

I love playing Wow

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 11 May 2011 01:13:00 +0000

There I said it. I really love playing wow. This realization came to me as I started to level yet another toon, after more than a few months absent from the game. Even though there are many haters out there, especially since Rift came out a few months ago and a bunch of bored wow players and people not satisfied with their current guilds defected, there has been a lot of hate coming towards Blizzard's game, but say what you will out there, Wow is still a very good mmorpg, it is quite polished and the company makes constant attempts to maintain the classes in the game balanced.

Currently I started to level up an undead Mage priest, because even though they have some fun zones I despise the Alliance. I don't know why, probably because Blizzard seems to favor them over the horde. I like Orcs, I like undead, I like almost every class in the horde and I have only a minimal desire to play humans, dwarves and gnomes (though I think gnomes are the coolest race in the Alliance.)

But all of this is irrelevant, my personal preferences notwithstanding are not anyone's concerns and I am not telling you anything you may not already know, despite all the societal backlash and a lot of the negative pigeonholing of World of Warcraft players, this game is still loads of fun and isn't that the number one reason we play games to begin with? I will continue to play this and DDO, which are currently my two favorite online games. Y'all can continue to play Rift if you are so inclined. I have nothing against it, I may try it one day after I upgrade my system, until then I continue leveling up my main and my alts in Azeroth.

slowly progressing as a Hunter

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:33:00 +0000

Hello all. Well, it's been a while since I blogged, life has not completely gotten in the way of my making progress with my Tuaren Hunter. As a matter of fact, I should crack level 18 by the end of the day and I got myself a nice pet.

I was wandering through the Barrens and found a nice "ghost cat" or at least, that is what I think he is, as he is invisible.

I named him whiskers.

Whiskers and I have been through a lot in the past few days in Azeroth, but I do have to say I like the fact this class allows the flexibility to tame multiple pets. Something, a lot of you old timers find old hat, but i'm still sort of a noob and I find it quite entertaining.

Other musings:

The Guild came out with yet another episode on tuesday. I have to say that this episode, #8 in the season entitled "Busted" was more like it. It was a considerable improvement over episode 7. After the hilarity of the previous ep, episode 7 was kind of a dumb ep, a real let down. Maybe because the cheesy beards pirate failed to make an appearance. However, this episode, like I said, was an improvement. I guess they can't all be winners. Wow.com has the scoop.

The Guild Season 4

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:33:00 +0000

...thus far the Guild Season 4 is a winner. Felicia Day is not only beautiful, she's also a bona fide genius. The latest ep. "Weird respawn" was up to the web show's usually high standards.

The pirate owner of Cheezy Beards is the absolute laugh riot. Judge for yourselves.