The MMORPG Chronicles

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.

Hunter trials in Azeroth

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:50:00 +0000

well, my plan to play some LOTRO was derailed, mainly because I re-rolled a horde toon in a pve server. I tried another Hunter, because I like ranged classes. So far, slow going, only get a few hours a day to play when not busy with school, work, life et al. but I got to level 11 and got me a pet. A rare ghost cat I named "whiskers."

Battles certainly have gotten easier with a pet and with the use of heavy shot, which I traded up from light shot at level 10. There are other perks, but the trials have been many thus far. My goal is to level this Hunter as much as possible before Cataclysm drops. I am sure that many are doing the same thing only with much higher level characters. Well I leave you guys for now. Onward and upward!!

LOTRO goes F2P

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:45:00 +0000

image courtesy of blogcdn.com

Fellow gamers. I'm back. I know it's been a long absence, if the date on my last post is to be believed, but I love MMORPGs and I love blogging so I will never leave for so long again. This I vow! A lot has been going on since my departure from cyberspace, but one of the biggest news is Turbine's announcement that LOTRO is going to be free to play soon.

OK, so this is old news by now, but as soon as I heard this, I reassessed my playing time, costs, etc and decided that the most cost effective game to play would be LOTRO for the time being so my free time, what little of it I have these days will be dedicated to this game. So if you are a member of the LOTRO community now, drop me a line.

As I type, I am also downloading the game. I actually had a copy of it on my hard-drive once a long time ago and got through the first book before the expansion came out. Can't wait to play it again.

LOTRO's decision is a no-brainer. DDO has already tried a f2p model with an "in-game" store and this model has been tried by severs outside of America, most notably from Korean based and owned MMOs if I am not mistaken.

What do the rest of you think? Good idea? or bad? Drop me a line and let me know!!!

Back in WOW

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:06:00 +0000

Sorry about the long time without updates, but now the chronicle is back!

Ok so I got back into wow this xmas break. I decided I was going to try and level up a hunter. So far, in only a few days with the trial account doing pretty good. Thus far the most fun I have had is learning to deal relatively low damage at the early levels with a ranged weapon. Those of you who have been playing longer than I probably have more experience than I do and scoff at my measly accomplishment, but having played a warrior tank before, it's a whole new ball game.

Here's a shot of my hunter (now at level 8) after feeding "Kyle the friendly" and also what he looked like after the temporary "Mohawk" class buff shown by Mr. T. on TV these days.

Hope to post up more in the near future and merry xmas!

buying diamonds in ROM

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:29:00 +0000

Does it seem odd to anyone else that selling gold in Wow is frowned upon by Blizzard when it is encouraged by a game like ROM and now gear and other perks are for sale in a game like DDO?
Is this the wave of the future? Are micro in-game transactions the way things will be for MMOs? Should Blizzard drop their current subscription format in favor of a format like ROMs?
Just throwing it out there, actually there is a good discussion about the sale of diamonds, (the currency used in game in ROM) here.

Also, MMO crunch has a pretty decent break-down of how this is accomplished. Personally, I would probably consider playing a free version of Wow with in game items for sale such as DDO's current format, but I wonder how everyone else feels about this topic. Come to think it, there already is a free version of Wow with ingame perks for salem, it's called ROM

Tobold's blog Alganon contest and more....

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:35:00 +0000

OK fellow gamers, it's time for the MMORPG blog roundup, where I scour the web for interesting blog content about games, so you don't have to! we start off with:

Tobold's Alganon contest.
Our friend Tobold from Tobold's mmorpg blog is having a contest whereby he is giving away beta keys to test out Alganon NDA before it drops on Oct. 31st. The rules seem to be pretty straightforward. You just gotta make sure you have your contest entry by Oct. 4 which is right around the corner so if you wanna try out the game, I suggest you get this done ASAP and grab yourself a beta key! Intinally I had asked Tobold to be a regular contributor to this blog, but he declined to do so, citing the fact some of his content on his blog is a bit esoteric. To prove we don't hold any ill feeligns, we are pimping out his contest here.

QJ.Net has a nice roundup this week about all the latest going on in MMORPG news, with a lead post explaining this weekend's upcoming Double XP event for City of Heroes, information on the second LOTRO expansion Seige of Mirkwood which is slated for the holiday season and detailed info on wow's 3.22 patch which is now live. Personally, I have never played CoH but I am sure that it's got great content because the comic books were really good.

Finally, episodes 4 sand 5 of the third season of the guild have been released. While I don't have time to go into full episode reviews at the moment, wow.com has posted good synopses of each, the latest dealing with Codex moving on from Tink's decision to join the rival guild. The highlight of course is the applicants vying for Tink's vacated spot. A priceless segment in the web's most engaging show which had me chuckling like a ninny for several minutes. You gotta watch!

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&from=sp&vid=d492d422-9f08-481f-a6c7-e0f096cf614e" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 5: Application'd">Video: Season 3 - Episode 5: Application'd</a>

The MMO Report

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:14:00 +0000

Almost an entire week without any updates? I know I should be taken out in the middle of Ogrimmar and flogged by 12 angry goblins. Sorry that my work and having a life has interfered with gaming. However, rather than attempt to recap this week's happenings, I would like this opportunity to pimp the MMO Report. Yes, Casey Shriner can be annoying, but he's actually not as annoying as that dude from the soup. I think the MMO Report is still the best reason to watch G4 other than Olivia Munn (who IMHO is a tad annoying herself but whom any straight guy would give up an arm for) and Ninja Warrior.

Video Games - E3 2009 - The MMO Report

Wow addiction blog targets gamers

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Perhaps you came across this ad while on your Facebook page: It is a silhouetted image of World of Warcraft races against a dark background and the caption ominously reads: Addicted to Wow? Get help. Wowaholics Anonymous. "Quit Wow addiction. Win at Life"

It left me puzzled, who were these hucksters plugging an anti-wow page on the most popular social networking site on the internet? I had to investigate. The link leads to a blog called Wowaholics Anonymous replete with testimonials from people allegedly devastated by their Wow addictions and their all consuming need to play. There is very little identification on the site.

The About Us reads: "Wowaholics Anonymous is a community who shares their experience, strength and hope with each other. " so is this blog put together by a religious anti-video game group? Or is it the work of anti-gaming fanatics?

A tiny link at the bottom indicates it's actually sponsored by Inspire Center, a group based out of UNC that treats people for mental illnesses such as depression, ADHD, bipolar syndrome and anxiety. Are they kidding? Are these people really equating video game playing with these serious conditions? Apparently so. It would be insulting were it not so ridiculous. I have never believed in people who attribute the ills of society to playing a video game. I've played Wow before, it isn't crack cocaine like extremists make it out to be. Yes, it is very engaging and I suppose some people can use it to escape out of their daily problems, but the same can be said about television or movies and other forms of mass entertainment and no one is trying to ban them, well not yet at least.

Furthermore there are articles linked to this site, one of which is entitled "Should Doctors treat Wow addiction?" which implies that it is a serious problem which doctors should waste their time on. However, it goes on to state:

At its 2007 annual meeting, the American Medical Association rejected a proposal to classify video game addiction as a mental disorder in the DSM IV, which is used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental disorders. “There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn’t get to have the word addiction attached to it,” said Dr. Stuart of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Way to go wow addiction blog. Way to cite evidence to dispute the very point you are trying to make!

Review the Guild: Season 3 ep. 3

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:54:00 +0000

As promised, another review of the latest episode of the Guild. Things are getting good as the guildees are in shambles after Vork decides to quit and go on the road.

I was laughing at Zaboo this time around, he has the best scenes as he's forced to choose between the game and his new girlfriend. Tink is still AWOL, though I predict she will resurface as a new member of the rival guild from last ep. This is easy to figure out as we last see her talking to the members of the Axis of Anarchy.

After venturing out to the gaming store, the guild is back in their familiar environment, behind their computers and installing the next expansion pack...or at least trying to. Clara has funny dialouge as usual, her horrible mothering skills as a result of being obsessed with the game are about to cost her dearly.

Overall this is a very enjoyable episode and does a lot to further this season's direction which appears to be what happens when the Guild is fragmented and Codex has to try to keep it all from falling apart. Great show!

Warforged I hardly knew ye!!

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:17:00 +0000

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. Ever since Turbine announced last week that their MMO was going F2p I had been dying to rejoin the world of Stormreach. However, time constraints and spending time playing ROM prevented it, until now.

Last night I tried out an account on the new DDO Unlimited and found it to be quite an enjoyable experience, even if I only spent 2-3 hours on the game server. The biggest change I saw upon character creation was the fact that my old character was Warforged but Turbine has made it a paid race. I had to settle for a Paladin! Oh the humanity!

No matter, the game's graphics are terrific and the voice overs that they rolled out in the opening quest and noob section of the game was very satisfying and successful in capturing the mood and feel of Dungeons and Dragons.

The problem I had in my previous attempt at DDO was that it was hard to do some of the instances and dungeons unless you were in a party, but the cool thing about DDO is that it's less of a grind than Wow and with dungeons and zones that are tailored for soloing or for playing with a party, it really doesn't matter if you are on your own or with a group (though of course the latter is probably more enjoyable to most gamers)

Turbine has added the DDO store to purchase in game items for those who want to pay and their VIPs can continue to play the game as subscribers, but if you don't need to pay, this is a good time to get into the game and try it out, with nothing to lose.

I found this video which details what the first quest looked like in Beta. I found it's still very similar in the game. Also, here's an interesting article detailing who invented the warforged race.

Review The Guild Season 3 episode 2

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Since Felicia Day's "The Guild" is my favorite web show, and since they say it is "The Office" for the gamers set, the Chronicles will try to post a review of every new episode they roll out.
Although I don't like to be lumped into a category by the mainstream media, this one might be somewhat true, there are few web programs or tv shows aimed at gamers and this show does a fantastic job of capturing the feel of online gaming while saterizing its conventions, but it's funny even if you don't play.

The new episode centers around Vork feeling he let the guild down as leader when another group of players (The Axis of Anarchy) cut in front of them in line at the Gamestop store in order to try and get the latest expansion.
This episode, Vork has the best lines, even though the episode as usual opens with Codex hoping that opposing the other guild will reunify the guild. She says, "Its easy to bond over hating something together, the internet is total proof of that."

It's sort of weird seeing Zaboo give up his weird obssession with Codex, but it's hilarious and consistent with the progression of his character. The Axis characters were a bit predictable and there is some over acting going on here, but the premise is pure gold and the execution is as usual, well worth watching. Plus, how funny is it to see Clara's poor parenting beyond the scope of her house into the real world? It was a brilliant move to have the Guild move on from their comfort zone and adventure out IRL. This allows for further character development and for them to intearct with new characters. You can't take this show seriously, obviously real games don't act this way, but if you are fine with satire then it is sure to provide a chuckle or two, or to make you laugh out loud on several occasions. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Questing through Silverspring in Runes of Magic

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:43:00 +0000

I wrote in some detail about Runes of Magic in my previous blog. Last night after leveling up to 10, I found myself going into Varanas with the purpose of picking my secondary class.

I should probably preface this by saying I think ROM is a great game. A lot of people are down on it because they say it's a clone of WoW but I think more than that it combines some really good features from previous MMORPG including Wow. Unlike Wow this game is f2p. The only reason I would see myself not playing it anymore is because of the community. It might be my own fault because of the server I chose, not sure, but I felt more of a community sense with Wow since there were always so many other players running around the game world and some were even willing to join my party and play with me. Not so much so for ROM, at least not on my current server, or with the same frequency as Wow.

Above is a shot of my character riding a mount through the howling mountains on the way

to the big city of Varanas. Unlike Wow, where you had to be a level 30 character, ROM allows you to get a mount at any time. I just paid 300 gold and off I went. Below are some shots of what you see when you get to the main city. At level 10 characters they can go to the class hall (seen below) and choose a trainer for the class they select. I chose a mage so I could have a warrior with spell casting abilities. The other shot is of the guild hall, (also seen below) but since I didn't belong to a guild, I really had no business being there.

There are some other features of this game that I am really enjoying: One is that when you are doing a quest and killing x number of critters, you can click on the monster before going into combat mode and the game tells you how many you need to complete the quest. Nice! Another good feature is you can often open up your quest log for the specific quest you're on and double click on the name of the quest giver and it automatically takes you to the spot where the quest giver is, that way you don't have to wast time looking around for him or her.

I'm sure that there are other good game features that I am forgetting to highligh at the moment, however, I know characters can register for their own in game house but I have yet to do so.

DDO Unlimited released as F2P MMO

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:20:00 +0000

I remember the first time I heard about DDO. I tried out the Turbine 10-day trial key and made a Paladin which I eventually leveled past its level 3 status, which was pretty good because leveling in DDO is much slower than in traditional MMOs and I was mostly doing instances and soloing, with a rare exception here and there.

I recall being impressed by the game's mechanics and its graphics and I enjoyed the fact it was so much different than WOW, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is just nice to have some diversity. Soon however, I got bored of killing kobolds and didn't explore it at a deeper level. With today's launch of DDO Unlimited, the game goes f2p and much fanfare has been given to it, but how are things going with the MMO that claims to have the best combat system of them all?

Well, The updated content includes a new class, an increased level cap (up to 96), a new 12-player raid, new adventure packs and “major combat improvements” to the game’s real-time combat, according to the company. Turbine says the game is “easier than ever” and that “creating a new character is incredibly simple with guides and templates that speed you through the process.”

However, there are stability issues being experienced by players. This was posted earlier today by Marketroid:
"We're currently experiencing stability issues with many of our websites due to excessive amounts of inbound traffic tied to the launch of DDO Unlimited. We're working to stabilize the websites and will continue to do so overnight. The games and downloads are unaffected by these web issues."
We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to seeing you in Stormreach! "

aren't some connectivity issues expected when a game undergoes a massive relaunch such as DDO Online?

yesterday Turbine announced the launch of the beta release of myddo.com
The marketing copy reads: This new site offers players a place to share the experience of playing DDO. Blogs, galleries, character info, and guild functions all combine to bring the world of DDO to life on the web!

...but as of 7:06 PST the site was down for maintenance...an omen of things to come? or are servers just overloaded with players wanting to try it out? Hopefully the latter.

other issues: (posted on the official site)
"Please be aware that there is a known issue with the Difficulty Scaling system which is causing players to take more damage than intended in some game situations. The issue is most severe for large parties of players, especially in the first five levels of the game. Unfortunately this issue can affect quests in Normal, Hard and Elite difficulties; Solo and Raid quests are not affected."

"We are working on a fix to the problem which will go live in an upcoming patch. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience"

Some players are not very patient and get frustrated easily. User Whitey posted this earlier today:

"im gettin very annoyed paying for a game i can never use i want some free months outta this ****.seriously any1 find it annoyin when ever u try 2 play u cant when u payin 4 it ?"

It remains to be seen wether these issues will be fixed with upcoming patches, but I for one am avoiding the download until some of the kinks are all worked out. After all, I've got a level 10 warrior on ROM awaiting his second class.

The Monday morning quarterback MMORPG report

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:33:00 +0000

Well, it's closer to afternoon. Happy Labor day everyone! In America, this day marks the end of summer but there is plenty to report from the world of MMORPGs. Every week I will try to scour the forums, message boards and developer sites, as well as other relevant blogs to bring you info on the games you love to play. So let's dive in:

Mike from MMOCrunch reports that as of yesterday, two of the largest auction sites for MMORPGs virtual goods MMOBay.net and Playeraucitons.com, had been down for most of the day. They had been under a bonet attack since 5 am yesterday morning.

Ten Ton Hammer has event coverage of PAX 2009 including Fallen Earth launch news, screenshots and trailers. (Fallen Earth launch date was delayed to Sept. 22)

Aion Online has rolled out open beta testing in both Europe and North America.
According to a letter from producer Brian Knox posted on the site on Thursday, new game features include:

1.New Areas: Theobomos (Elysea) and Brusthonin (Asmodae)
2. New Instances!
3. Over 40 new default faces have been added to character creation.
4. Increased PvPvE rewards
5. UI changes (click-to-move has been disabled by default
And much more!
A more detailed list of new patches and additions can be found here

Massively.com reported yesterday from PAX 2009 that the mini-expansion for LOTRO Siege of Mirkwood was devoid of a date or a price, Turbine seems to be trying something new with a $19.99 base price and some special promotional deals leading up to the release of the new expansion. For more info click here.

Champions Online’s website reports that The login server has now been restarted. EU pre-order customers should now have access to the game until 11:59PM PDT on Tuesday, September 8.

Vanguard SOH and Everquest 2 developers state that there will be maintenance on the Session databases across all games on Wednesday September 9, 2009. It will begin at 12AM PDT and is estimated to last until 12PM PDT. All game worlds will be unavailable for the estimated 12 hour maintenance, as well as the Station Store and all commerce avenues. This may affect the performance of the forums and any or all accounts' abilities to log in.

SWTOR’s site reports that fans who join the Old Republic Community by September 15th, and receive a 25% off coupon for Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™ on PC, redeemable at Direct2Drive!
Fans can prepare for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ by playing KOTOR, a role-playing game developed and published by BioWare and LucasArts, which takes place 300 years before the events in The Old Republic.

Thursday, Blizzard announced that the new faction change service is now available. Basically players will be able to switch from Horde to Alliance for a fee. Here is a link to the FAQ for more details on this new World of Warcraft service.

Can it be that Warhammer online is already celebrating a year of WAR? Yep, and their live event The Wild Hunt is ending today. However, the Hunt's end will be followed by three weekend events: Battlemarsh on September 12th, Battle at the Gates on September 19th, and Isha's Sorrow on September 26th. In the spirit of Return to Nordenwatch, each of these weekend events opens up one of WAR's premier Scenarios to players of all ranks and tiers but only for a limited time!

Welcome to the Chronicles- a new era in MMORPG commentary begins

noreply@blogger.com (hordemaster) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:30:00 +0000

Welcome to the MMORPG Chronicles. Over the coming months this blog will provide you with information on the most popular games out there on cyberspace in the MMO genre. If you are a gamer we invite you to bookmark us and come back frequently. Wow's Cataclysm and upcoming MMOs like Star Trek online and Champions Online only serve to underscore the popularity of this genre for hard-core gamers and casual gamers alike. For now, enjoy Felicia Day's Do You Want to Date My Avatar video from the popular web show The Guild. but be warned, repeated viewings of this video may result in getting it stuck in your head, it's quite catchy.