I’m a fantasy guy at heart.  I love the medieval setting, especially when it centers around something close to Arthurian legend.  My ideal setting would be somewhere between standard fantasy and high fantasy, where magic is prominent in the world and the races that inhabit it.  The races would be your stereotypical fantasy types like Humans and Elves, but I would step out from the norm slightly by adding different types of Humans.  In DAOC there were the Saracens, Britons, and Highlanders and I would want something very similar; they would look very different and their starting locations/lands would have a distinct feel.  My Elves would be divided up into Wood Elves and High Elves (no Dark Elves here).  I have not decided yet whether or not I would want Gnomes or Dwarves.

The races would each be in their own “realm”  – not quite the same as DAOC’s use of the word, but more like a Kingdom or land very much autonomous and distinct from the rest of the world.  Within these realms would be sub-realms to accommodate the diversity amongst races.  Between the Kingdoms there would be lands which are unclaimed.  It’s within this area the most of the conflict would take place between the races.  All of this would be seamless.  In fact, the entire would would be seamless (truly seamless, if possible one day).

Classes are important because they emphasize the setting just as much as the landscape.  I’m not sure about names for classes, but I’m leaning towards something a bit more descriptive than “Warrior”.  I’m thinking along the lines of “Bowman” for a class, because you get the idea immediately that this guy uses a bow.  Taking it further, a “Longbowman” would be one that uses longbows.  Classes would be unique to their realm and perhaps even sub realm.  A “Sword master” would perhaps be a dual wielding Saracen, and perhaps only the Elves would have the ability to use Druid-like magics.

Zones within each realm would have their own unique style.  For example, the standard Human lands would be filled with all types of wide open plains, lush forests, and swamps.  Within this would be a more snowy area for the Highlander types and a more desert-feel, yet still high fantasy/medieval Saracen-esque land.  You get the idea where I’m going with this – it would be very simple yet beautiful and fully realized as a “realistic” fantasy setting.  I want the world to feel lived in.  That’s important to me.   The sterile feeling of some MMORPG cities really saddens me.

I mentioned before that magic will be common in my world, but at the same time I would not want to devalue it as so many worlds in today’s mmorpg have done.  At the same time, I don’t want to have people using a “Longsword” or “Mace” and get bored by the lack of flare and diversity in gear.   This is where I would reintroduce the idea of the true “quest” and allow players to obtain magical items, but they would be important.  Items would have meaning and be a sign of fame and status.  If you had a particular magical sword it would be known to everyone what you accomplished to achieve it – and it wouldn’t always be that you killed a particular boss after farming him a dozen times.

There would be safe areas, such as starting areas and ‘mostly safe’ places in the outlying space around the starting locations, but this world would not be entirely friendly to the player.  It would have dark and truly dangerous locations that players would not even think of going without a group.  The world, not the mechanics, would encourage grouping.  What the world has to offer to those who socialize will be far more rewarding than what a solo player could experience.

Monsters in my world would, of course, vary greatly.  Yes, it would have wolves and probably even snakes.  However, it would also have the stranger and more mystical foes that I can not recall fighting in a MMORPG yet.  I would also revive the idea that Dragons are something to fear and something to always think about as epic.  Maybe it’s cliche now, but I remember the days of running around in newbie areas and thinking “I wonder if this game has a Dragon?” and imagining how great it would be to one day take up arms against one.  IT was an exciting thought that lit the spark of adventure every time I heard rumors that one existed in a cave deep within some high level place.

Races, and even sub races, might be in conflict with each other, but the focus would never be on dominating the enemy or their lands.  It would be about coexisting amidst this conflict.  I want the emphasis to be placed back onto the world that the player is apart of, and less about the player himself.

Without getting too much into mechanics, I want to emphasize that my world and the characters within it would be heavily influenced by the lore and legend.  Players would appreciate the importance of where they are and what they are doing regardless if they read the texts or not.  I would want every place within the game to feel like it was designed for a reason.  It would take some doing, but I know that a finely crafted world is capable of immersing the player in this type of experience.

A lot of this probably sounds like generic medieval fantasy, and that’s exactly how it should sound.  In my opinion we’ve stepped so far beyond the roots of fantasy that we’ve neglected a little bit of what made it special – to me at least, which is why this is my ideal setting.

That’s the gist of what my ideal MMORPG setting/world would be like.  I’m interested in hearing about yours.

BF 1943 is a real deal for only $15.   It plays nearly identical to its predecessor because, duh, it’s the same maps.  However, they’ve been updated with the Frostbite engine which makes the environment destructible.  See a tank on a bridge?  Shoot your bazooka at it and watch the bridge go BOOM!  Want to airstrike a town full of people but afraid they’ll hide in buildings?  Who cares?!  Blow’em up!  In 1942 I would often cry as my tank would get stuck on geometry (I’m a bad driver, okay?) but in 1943 my tank just bulldozes those trees and fences down as I pursue and run down the little screaming infantry.  Needless to say the graphics get an ‘A’ even for a console game.

There are three kits:  Rifleman, Infantry, and Scout.  The Rifleman is the guy with the one shot rifle and yes it comes with one of those attachable grenade launchers (more BOOM!).  The Infantry comes with a wrench to repair, bazooka to be anti tank, and sub machine gun to spray at people.  Scout = Sniper… the Japanese one gets a Katana! All the kits are fun.  I’m horrible with the machine gun on the Infantry so I just run around and blow stuff up with the zooka.  The rifleman’s rifle is powerful and I tend to be a strafer (I’m trying to quit) so it’s fairly easy to line up one-shot kills.  The Scout’ sniper rifle is pretty good as well, but it’s your run of the mill sniper.

Wake Island is, again, my favorite map but this time each team has a ship.  I tried to figure out how to move the ships but I came to the conclusion that you can’t in ‘43.  Why?  I don’t know.  It used to crash the servers back in 2002 if you moved them too much, but that was then and this is Frostbite… but I digress.  The maps are great, sounds are phenomenal,  the vehicles are familiar… in fact it’s all familiar.  It’s like eating your favorite food after going months without:  In reality it tastes the same but it’s extra delicious this time.

There are some quirks, like the Squad system being “Meh” and the HUD giving away sniper locations, but I really enjoy the game.

I am, without a doubt, buying ‘43 for the PC.

Many people will look at this list and recall things from the oldschool mmorpgs that promoted the social experience  — I better stop and give you a quick list before going on…

- Required grouping to accomplish goals
- Good players giving you the highest highs and bad players giving you the lowest lows because of needing them both
- Death penalties being rough
- Complex and sometimes confusing scenarios forcing you to have to think or ask for help
- No map / crude map forcing exploration and, again, other people for help
- Dangerous landscape requiring treacherous treks into the unknown
- Quests being actual quests… you know, journeys and undertakings of meaningful value
- Trade being done in person. No Mail. No Auction.

The list goes on.

Nearly every one of the points above have vanished from the face of the MMO industry.  We no longer deal with harsh death penalties, complex zones, real quests, or forced grouping.  Good or bad?  Both sides have their proponents, but the side cheering for the demise of this way of gaming is by far the largest and the loudest.  Yet, if you take a moment to look around, you’ll notice that even the people in favor of a game without the above complain about the consequences.

The million subscriber question is quickly becoming:  How can we make a game that feels like a genuine social [edit: Massively] multiplayer roleplaying experience again?  Ironically, designers are trying to go back to the old way in a new way.  I don’t think it can be done.  I truly do not think you can replicate that type of social experience and immersion in a game without at least half of those things.  Ryan appears confident enough that they (38 Studios) are on to something in Copernicus.

“Social game” and “accessible” are polar opposites in MMORPGs because it’s in each of their nature to suppress the other.  I think any attempt at bringing the two together will involve a deep level of theorycrafting and might lead to delusions of grandeur on the devs part.  It might look good on paper, in a studio with 100 people playing, and maybe in a beta with thousands, but I fear any attempt at bridging this enormous gap in gamer mentalities by a single game could lead to a crash and burn.

Prove me wrong though, please.  Bring back the social game without bringing back the above, but I don’t think you can.   If you do not have to rely on other people, then you’re never going to get that same feeling back.

[Edit: As always, the comments are full of great discussion.  I want to amend my original entry to include something.]

The gist of what I am trying to say here is that it’s time we figure out how these games can get the players involved with each other again.  It’s not going to happen by going backwards nor will ignoring the problem ever be the solution.  Although I really do believe that we’ll never get back to that same level of interaction without at least a glimmer of the past, we should be trying to come up with ideas of how we can incorporate the past in a more ‘now’ way.

My debate over which class to play was compounded this weekend as I played my Sorcerer a bit more.  I got him up to level 15, mostly by grinding, and wasn’t enamored by what I saw.  The class felt like every other ‘mage’ that I have ever played in a MMO; it felt like my Eldritch, Mage, Wizard, Runemaster, etc.  Is this bad?  No, I enjoyed those classes and took a couple of them to the “end-game” – and some of them to great PvP feats.  It’s just that feeling of familiarity is unsettling knowing that there might be some classes in Aion that feel new and fresh.  The Chanter, for example, offers an interesting Healer/Buffer/Melee hybrid that sounds like a DAOC Friar.  That sounds different from what I have played in the past 4 years – should I try it?  As I played this weekend, solo grinding mobs, I did realize that this class will play differently later on and that I will fill a different role from what I’m exactly used to: Crowd Control.  Even in a raid setting, CC is used in Aion.  This could make for a very active, rather than passive, caster experience as I am in charge of ensuring the group fights only what it can take.

Since I only reached level 15 this weekend have no real desire to push myself to level a character that will be wiped and see content that I will have to play again, I may not get to beta test the Abyss.  I’m sorta banking on NCsoft being generous and allowing us to have pre-made level 25 characters for the 4th weekend, but I won’t hold my breath.  I’m going to be okay with not seeing the pvp… I think…  In the end it will be better for me.  I like the PvE, I like what I hear about PvP, and I enjoy playing the game in the here and now.  I’m going to force myself to trust those things and not give in to overdoing it in beta.

Our delicious home made family ribs

We hope that all of readers in the USA had a great 4th this year.  Our day was full of relaxation, good company, and good eats.  Keeping with tradition, we had our BBQ with the famous family Ribs, hot dogs, and other goodies.  This year’s Ribs were probably the best yet.

Fireworks in our city are so-so, but they’re ours and you gotta be proud of your home town even if it’s a bit embarrassing to show off to visiting family.  This year’s firework show went as usual…

*pew*  ….. *Pop* Ooo

*pew* …. *Pop  Ahhh

….

*pew pew pew*  *pop* *crackle* *pop*  That one didn’t suck – must have been the finale.

It’s one of my (Keen) favorite holidays and for good reason.  We here at K&G hope you had a fun day.

Q. In WoW questing was initially placed in few but huge quest hubs and later into several but small quest hubs. How has questing been done in Aion and how is the pace (smoothness, speed) compared to that of WoW?

A. Aion uses quest hubs like World of Warcraft.  In the 1-20 game thus far I have seen very large quest hubs, like the crossroads in Barrens, and smaller ones like NPC’s standing in little groups along the road or in camps off the beaten path.  The pacing in Aion from just questing has been comfortable.  I’ll do all the quests from one hub and then I’ll be tasked with going to the next one, where the quests pick up right where the last ones left off (in terms of level, sometimes story).  This may change higher up, but I see no reason why.

Q. WoWs standard UI is considered quite horrible, how does the UI of Aion (without any customizing at all) compare to that of WoW?

A. It’s a standard UI.  It offers a map, a layover map, a mini-map (with mobs and things shown), hotbars, additional hotbars, the ability to switch between top or bottom (ui moves to top or bottom), standard charater frames, inventory, group, etc.  It is essentially your very basic and standard UI.  I have yet to feel limited by the UI, but I can’t speak highly of it as being anything new.

Q. WoW has probably the most customizable UI of all MMOs. How much can you customize Aions UI compared to that of WoW and in which is the result favourable?

A. You can’t customize it at all to my knowledge. As I mentioned above, you get some options to add more bars or switch locations of a few things but that’s it.

Q. You said the quests were the normal fetch and kill quests. In which game is it easier to quickly identify the objectives of the quest?

A. I like WoW’s default quest journal more than Aion’s and I feel that the quest text and general user friendliness is better in WoW.  However, Aion has this feature where you click on a quest and objectives or names are highlighted in blue; Click those names and you’re given a direct location on your map of where the objective/person is at.  It takes a few extra steps, and that is perhaps why I feel WoW’s descriptive text is better, but Aion is ultimately easier if you discount WoW’s quest UI mods.

Q. Which game has the smoother transitioning between combat and non-combat?

A. Aion has a timer that keeps you in combat for a few seconds after the fight.  The transition isn’t noticeable though.  I would say they are equal.

Q. How does the pace of combat compare between the games? Which one is faster, better balanced to the amount of health and abilities etc.

A. WoW is much faster in terms of time it takes to kill something.  Mobs take me perhaps 2-3x as long in Aion.  I use more abilities at level 15 in a fight than I have time to on my character in WoW because of this additional time.  Fights are harder in Aion too.  A mob 2 levels above me could pose quite a challenge and feel like it takes more effort.  I never felt this in WoW while soloing because I just smashed my sword into the mob’s face a few times and it died.

Q. During the leveling process in WoW world PvP is quite dead, how does the world PvP experience during leveling in Aion compare?

A. I can’t speak from personal experience here, but my friend has told me great stories about his experience with the Chinese version (or Korean, I forget?) of just how alive and well the open world PvP is in Aion.  There are these portals called “rifts” that open up and allow you to leave your lands and be transported to the enemy lands – their PvE places.  You’re free to kill anyone you see.  Killing other players gives you Abyss points – far more than killing Balaur – and this is apparently a great way to earn them.  Level 20+ you should never feel totally safe while out hunting.  The fact that Aion has designed it directly into the game for world PvP to occur, and encourage it, is more than Blizzard has ever done in WoW.

Q. Which game would you say has the most dynamic leveling (amount of options you have to level, how linear it is)?

A. In WoW it felt like questing was the absolute best way to level.  Nothing rivaled it or even came close.  I stacked my log full of quests and leveled faster than any MMO before.  Early on (I hear it sorta changes later) Aion is the same way.  However, I found that grinding was actually just as effective or more effective than questing for some levels.  I spoke with someone who has played higher levels and they confirmed that that it stays this way.  In fact, leveling in groups (group-grinding) in the Elite outdoor areas (they exist 15+) is faster than questing or soloing.   So you have Questing, solo grinding, group grinding, and dungeons to level in Aion.  I won’t deny that those exist in WoW, but they seem more viable in Aion.

Q. How much do you enjoy leveling in Aion compared to WoW?

A. About the same right now.  There isn’t much to get excited about in the 1-20 range.  I hope to write a lot more about this when I get to play 20+.

Q. Diversity in atmosphere and setting among the areas in WoW is quite big, even at lower levels. Does Aion offer a comparable experience?

A. Yep.  In fact, it’s better than base WoW.  I really, really liked WotLK areas though and I have yet to see anything that trumps those, but I haven’t seen even 90% of the game.  This is another area where I look forward to taking video and screenshots to compliment writeups.

If you have more questions you would like me to answer then please feel free to post them in the comments.  If you have enough questions, like the ones above, then I will create a new blog post for them.  If anyone else wants to answer these questions feel free.

Before I begin, let me tell you that I can not give you a definitive answer on some of these because I have not been able to see the whole game.  Know that what I write comes from a certain perspective gained from beta.  I would encourage anyone who has played Aion in the Chinese or Korean versions to comment where I am unable.

Graphic & Animation / Style
Both games use a stylized form of graphics. WAR went for a gritty look and Aion for the more rounded and softer (dare I say Eastern) look. Having to compare the two very quickly, Aion’s graphics are much better – style aside. The animations in Aion are also much, much smoother and show quite early on how they are much more polished and incorporated into the game, such as combat. When choosing which style is better, that has to be left up to the individual’s preference. I don’t mind either.

Texture
Both games have great textures in some places and poor textures in others. In WAR you’ll see muddy textures on occasion and simple textures quite often. In Aion I have seen a great deal of muddy/poor to no texturing at all on some cliffs. Certain walkways and paths also lack decent textures. On the other hand, there are times in WAR and in Aion where the textures are very well done and you can’t help but stare a second longer to appreciate them.

Landscape
I’ll consider this as a general approach towards creating an atmosphere and toss in general appeal of the world around you as you explore and experience content. WAR suffers from forcing the player down very specific paths, almost ushering you to the next location. This is accomplished by using impassable objects, terrain, etc to ensure the player is going in the predetermined direction. Aion does the same thing, at least early on from what I have seen. While both games have a linear path of progression, Aion does have the advantage of flight and better graphics to simulate that lush landscape, forest, lake, and scenery that will naturally immerse the player far easier than WAR.

Frame-per-second
It’s not even close for me. Aion’s performance is nothing short of stellar. I can easily maintain 70+ frames even with nearly 50+ people visible at one time on my screen. There are places in the world where I have maintained 90+ frames. The only time I ever felt my frames actually drop was this third weekend when I logged into Pandaemonium (Asmodian capital city) right as the servers came up. It stuttered for a few seconds while loading all the people rushing in then it returned to being smooth. WAR is a laggy beotch. The performance by comparison is atrocious.

Smoothness in large scale PVP
I have not done the Abyss yet, so I can’t comment on castle sieges. I can say that in the Arena when we had 30+ people fighting together it was smooth as can be. While not the ideal setting to test “large scale”, it’s still a step above WAR’s performance.

Smoothness in Keep / Fortress Siege (assuming AION got some kind of castle siege)
Aion does indeed have a Keep sieging feature. I won’t be able to test it until the next phase. This question will be answered for you then.

CC impact in group PVP
In both games CC is prominent. Aion has DAOC’s level of CC – a lot. It will make or break your group’s ability to succeed. Just like in DAOC, when a group that knows how to maximize their CC comes against a group that doesn’t, the better CC’ers can take twice their numbers. This is what led to the success of the 8 man teams after players decided that zerging wasn’t fun. I hope to see the same thing in Aion. Additionally, there is a different between ‘annoying CC’ and CC that makes sense. WAR has the three difference CC timers and the disables and so on. Aion has roots, sleeps, snares, polymorphs, etc. I’ll comment more when I do sieges, but it feels less annoying already than WAR CC.

What WAR did right compared to AION
This is tough. I don’t know enough about Aion yet, but I do know that WAR is often criticized for getting nothing “right”. Public quests are arguably a good addition to the genre, but as WAR has shown they are over used and act as replacement for real content. I will say that WAR made an effort to ensure that their focus (RvR being accessible, even at level 1), even if a wrong focus, was accomplished. It’s easy to jump right in to RvR regardless. I also like WAR’s guild system; sure it could use improvements to how guilds level and the rewards they receive, but the leveling of guilds was nice. Aion only has 3 guild levels and you buy them.

What AION did right compared to WAR
I think we’re going to see Aion’s PvP play out much better. Their Abyss vs. T4 is going to show up WAR in a big way if anything I’ve heard from friends is true – remember, Aion has been out for 8 months in Korea. Why will it show it up? Because it’s not about gathering points for domination flips to get to a capital city. It’s not about flipping keeps for gear, flipping them for renown, or really about this arcadelike production of PvP…. it’s simply about fighting your enemy. The Balaur (3rd faction, NPC) will add an interesting element to the PvP that will make it just that much more dynamic. You will still earn points, and lose them too, in Aion for fighting so players won’t feel like they’re doing it for nothing. These points are then redeemed for gear and other things. It’s like DAOC’s realm rank system in a way. I think the irony here is that Aion will be closer to DAOC than WAR.

World PVP (random pvp) fun
WAR did not have this, except on ORvR servers. Even there, the random world pvp was nonexistent. People simply did not go into each other’s PvE areas because being in the RvR area was 10000x more rewarding. Guards everywhere and the funneling of players in certain directions that I spoke of earlier only compounded the lack of random world pvp. Aion might have the edge here with rifts which open in one side’s area and lead to the other side. Players can jump through these rifts and enter the enemy’s PvE area and fight them in their own land. They are open for a certain period of time and their appearance is random (although I’ve hard players figured out a system to predict them?). This could lead to great world pvp where you’re never truly 100% safe.

PVE Questing variety and fun
I don’t LIKE questing. I feel that it is overused, simplistic, mind-numbing, and a shortcut. This applies to both games. Both of these games have simple quests where reading them won’t matter because the description just says “Kill 8 of this” or “Get me 10 of those”. Both games have their occasional gems, but overall it’s a system that I wish would just go away. Aion has “missions” which are like an epic storyline for you to do throughout the leveling process (and perhaps beyond?) that will provide decent incentives/rewards, some story, and an underlying purpose for each region you visit. It’s a step up from the mundane, but still falls short of what quests should really be all about – the QUEST, not the chore. Luckily you can avoid questing in Aion altogether and grind if you like, because it’s just as effective to level up if not better later in levels.

Hows the End Game?
No idea. I’ll get back to you on that in a few months. I do know that PvP is the main focus of the game because it is at the center of everything. There are also dungeons and big boss encounters. How it compares to WAR, only time will tell. I do hope to find out if Aion has gear progression though. I haven’t heard anything about a “ward” system or a “you must do this to do this” step. Hopefully it does not exist.

These are two very similar games in theory, yet very different in practice. Hopefully my answers were what you were looking for and give you a sense of how the two games match up. I would be happy to answer additional questions in the comments section if I am able. If not, maybe those more experienced would be willing to lend a hand.

This time when I canceled my account I was asked to take a survey.  What the heck, sure.

The usual questions were presented and I clicked away.  One of the pages had me chuckling though.

I don’t think I could possibly make a better list of Warhammer Online’s biggest problems and how to fix them if I tried.  There you go Mythic!  You already know what you need to do.

In Brett Close’s interview with Joystiq you’ll find the reasons for my unrest.  He talks about Copernicus (btw, that’s still a code name right? right?) being this IP and turning into books and graphic novels, extending to other platforms, printed on underoos and t-shirts – okay, perhaps not, but you get the idea.  It seems to me that they’re trying to really sell the idea of this property becoming the next big name.  Does 38 studios want Copernicus to be the next Warcraft?  EverQuest? What?  That’s the biggest problem that I am having right now:  I don’t know wtf Copernicus is anymore.

Originally, the idea of Todd McFarlane and Salvatore being the creative force behind a MMO, with what we know Curt Schilling likes (And what people like Ryan and Steve are comfortable with already), had me thinking that perhaps we would see the next step in the EQ style of game being refined and brought up to speed with what the masses and fans of McFarlane and Salvatore can appreciate/enjoy.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The greatest successes in this industry have come from brilliant minds willing to take what we know and improve upon it.  The biggest flops in this industry have come from people who think it’s time for innovation simply because they feel it’s time to be innovative.  Innovation for the sake of innovation is wrong.

Brett Close states that there is nothing like Copernicus out there and that he believes no one out there is even working on something like it.  *RED ALERT! ALERT! DANGER! DANGER!* ….  I’m not the only one, right?   Without enough information I’m left to form assumptions.  Some of my more disturbing assumptions would be this recurring nightmare of some oddly put together game mixing Guild Wars with Choose your Own adventures and Free Realms in a Spawn-like Forgotten Realms Metaplace available on the iPhone, DS, and PC!

I’ll remain uneasy about this game, IP, platform, whatever, until the specifics are out.  Curving the hype is a marvelous idea and I applaud them for it, but at the same time I just want to know what type of game we can expect.

[Podcast / Interview] Julie Whitefeather & Frances Kosac of the No Prisoners, No Mercy podcast had me on their show for episode 36 to discuss… well a lot of stuff, really.   They’re working on several episodes at once over there so I’m not sure what was all part episode 36 and what is being reserved for future episodes (I’m only halfway through listening) so you’ll just have to listen and enjoy.  I do know that you’ll hear my thoughts on Land of the Dead from my time on the public test server (this was recorded before LotD launched) and my thoughts on some of WAR in general.  Those two nuns are a lot of fun and you’re sure to enjoy their podcast (and me!) so give it a listen.

[Delayed] Mortal Online has delayed the sale of their pre-orders/collectors/whatever because they can’t get their store working properly.  No one could have seen that coming. OUCH! Sorry, my tongue just went through my cheek there.  Dodging the same problems that Aventurine had when they couldn’t get their store working probably would be a very good thing.  This whole “only 999 copies!” thing and having to pay full price to get into beta is a big put off for me so I won’t be adopting this one early.

[Gaming News] NCsoft delivered an open letter to their community.  In usual form for a producer’s letter, it gave very little information.  When I tried desperately to read into the letter or find something worth talking about I read the line “…an army of creative writers generating an enormous amount of rewrites as we execute to our total commitment of quality of content” and thought that this could at least explain why Aion, being so polished already, would need 3 more months before release.  Makes sense that rewriting the story and Westernizing the content would take a while…. but then I found out from a friend who has been following the game for years that they’ve been saying this same thing ofr the past 2 years.  Maybe they really mean it this time.

[Release] Battlefield Heroes launched this past week.  I’ve been in the beta for months and months and months and months and forever and have enjoyed playing and testing.  It’s not what you would think of when you think of the Battlefield franchise.  It’s cartoony, wonky, honky, and the antithesis of what you would consider the Battlefield games to be.  It works though.  It’s fun, completely free, and offers a decent amount of fun for a game that requires you to put so little into it.  You can earn experience on your character like you would in the recent FPS games to unlock new abilities.  You can do “missions” which are just like achievements and give you a form of currency to spend on buying new weapons.  The sad part about the game is that they’re really looking for you to spend money on their microtransactions.  To get any cool clothes you have to spend money and the weapons are not permanent because you have to continue spending to own them (7 days or a month at a time).  Unfortunately, their microtransaction system has to value to it.  You can’t buy more to save in the long run.  Spending $5 will get you X and spending $20 will get you X*4.   I consider myself to be decent at the game and enjoy completely destroying those who spent money on the game when I’ve spent zilch.

[Beta / Upcoming Game] Aion’s 3rd Beta Weekend will be a bit longer this time.  We get to play from July 2 – July 6 and have access to content from levels 1-20.  The schedule says that this will be open to Asmodians, but I bet they’ll open up the Elyos as well.  I’m torn on whether or not I should play a lot this weekend.  On one hand I want nothing more than to play the heck out of Aion, but at the same time I want to avoid burnout or seeing and experiencing the fun before it’s permanent.  I’m usually the type to play the beta, love it, play at launch and like it but feel like it wasn’t as good as beta – probably because the magic of the first time has worn off.  I’ll wrestle with my decision up until Thursday.  Be sure you pre-order if you haven’t already and give it a shot.  It’s only $5 if you can find a pre-order bonus box at your local Scamstop Gamestop/EB which can be transfered to another game if you don’t like it.