I haven’t really been playing the beta as much as I could, don’t want to know everything about the game before I really get started on it after release, but have checked out the crafting, harvesting, trading and combat mechanics, and they’re all “good in the hood” as the kids might say.

Only a few short weeks until the 22nd of September before I get my hands on my copy, and my Collectors Edition “Frosted Adventurers Tumbler”!

Joy!

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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The FAQ on it is located here.  To me, it seems like a unlimited trial, very similar to Age of Conan, limited in what classes/races you can pick, and not being able to chat in certain channels. Obviously SOE want a piece of the very lucrative F2P pie, and call my cynical, but I personally think this is ridiculous.

Payment options etc. after the break.

Worth noting that this is separate from the main game servers, but it looks like bad shareware, and I can’t see the community liking it.

Any thoughts on it? Not currently playing EQ2, looks like I dropped my subscription at the right time…

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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His post “Not Playing MMO’s” mentioned an upcoming game, Rift: Planes of Telara which I’ll admit I hadn’t really heard much about or looked into. Well thanks to the Short Shiny one (he plays dwarves in plate mail),  I have been having a read of the Rift website.

I have to say first of all it’s my kind of MMO, I’m a high fantasy MMO fan as you may know from my previous posts. I find high fantasy style worlds more interesting than the more futuristic worlds of Sci-Fi MMO’s, that’s not to say I don’t play those games, they are just not my preference.

Rift takes place in a world call Telara which was protected by a Ward setup by the Gods, due to the actions of the inhabitants of Telera this Ward was damaged and creatures from outside are now trying to get in. It’s a bit like the Shadow Odyssey expansion in EQ2 I guess though much more involved.

There are 2 factions on Telara which the players get to choose from, the Guardians and the Defiant. For the Guardians think religious “I’m going to cleanse the world to save it” types and for the Defiant think “Where are the Gods when we need them, we’ll save the world ourselves” types.

The class system is what has my interest the most at the moment. You as a player are an ascended, someone slain during a past war and resurrected to fight the new invasion. You gain your power and in fact your play style from souls. From what I can gather you gain one soul to start with which is the class you begin with, you can attune additional souls as you find them which enable you to choose abilities from other class types in addition to your own. These souls can also be dropped and changed as you find new souls to attune, with “heroic” souls available which give new game play experiences. Each class types has root abilities and branch abilities, choosing branch abilities gives you access to more root or core abilities for the class type.

This is a different system to those in LOTRO and EQ2 and is certainly interesting, though I’m not sure how it will work in practice. My initial worry was that characters would become a one size fits all type character where someone could cherry pick abilities from varying class types. I think this has been controlled by restricting players to souls which form subclasses of their initial character choice, which seems like a wise move.

The world itself seems like it will be changing constantly due to the actions of the players. In an interesting interview with Scott Hartsman creative directory of Trion the company behind the game, Zam discover some of the details about the world and how it will work. I like the part where Scott explains how they want to bring back and reinforce the social aspect of MMO’s. If a rift opens players get more rewards if more players are involved in closing it. So rather than going solo, you will be encouraged to call for others to aid you in your struggle.

I will be keeping an eye on Rift: Planes of Telara and I’d love a beta invite (hint hint).

If your reading this, what are your thoughts on the game? Does anything I’ve mentioned above peak your interest?

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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Been using XFire to keep in touch with my merry band of followers, but recently I was told of Raptr.

This program is the canine’s reproductive organs!

Here is where you go to get it, it supports, XFire, XBox Live, Playstation Network, AIM, Yahoo IM, Google Talk, MSN and tracks yer achievements and all that jazz.  Also has a client for *spit* iPhone *splurgle* and one for *yay* Android *cheer* supposedly in the works.

Here’s my Profile Thingymabob as an example, it’s a great way to keep in touch with people playing other MMO’s, and lets you know what they’re upto.

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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Why?  Complete and utter bordom of the genre.  Why am I still posting on and reading the various MMO websites?  I know of all the good stuff that is just around the corner…

I guess the main reason has been the lack of any actual gameplay in EQ2.  Combat is automatic, with a few clicks on various spells or combat arts here and there. Mob positioning is important, and keeping the mobs in the corrent position being rather challenging at times, but with the general level on intelligence of most of the pickup groups I get lumbered with being lower than yoghurt, there is little point in doing that…

So what have I been doing?  Battlefield Bad Company 2 has been my multiplayer game of choice, but the main thing I’ve been doing is single player games, preferably ones with a good story, which is sorely lacking in MMO games.

My latest game has been Alan Wake, it’s basicly one of those high budget American TV shows about some horror writers search for his missing wife after a novel he hasn’t even written yet starts to come true.  A plot easily summarised in one sentence.  If you tried doing that for most MMOs, you couldn’t.  Such a depth of lore and story, but why isn’t it being used to a greater extent?  In the entirety of EQ2, there is one zone, The Estate of Unrest, that has a story, which you follow through to complete the zone.  It is fantastic, nostalgic for those players from EQ1, well made, full of scripted events, though not upto the standards set by Half Life or Call of Duty, but very good for a MMO.

Another game I’ve been playing is almost an MMO, but not quite.  Monster Hunter Tri, basicly you play a hunter, of monsters… no fat on that title.  The game has an impressive sense of scale, although the actual areas you play in are small, there is a feeling of being within an immense landscape, which you don’t get often in MMOs.  The game is one of those japanese sandbox style games, which differs from the western style sandbox games like Crackdown and Grand Theft Auto, in that you don’t really see there being much to do, but then it gradually builds up until you’re always occupied, less overwhelming than most MMOs are at first.

I recently finished Alpha Protocal, a spy-rpg.  The game is your standard action rpg, think Mass Effect but with the combat dice rolls taken from Deus Ex, fairly generic Middle Eastern locales at first, and if I’m being honest, I struggled to go on, but then the game gives you loads of choices on how to do missions, how to treat NPCs, who to kill, who not to kill, where to go, what missions to do first…  The best thing is, you can’t make a wrong decision.  The game won’t end if you annoy someone, or get someone else killed, it will impact the story, you may make bad decisions, but it doesn’t matter.  This is a thing missing from most MMOs.  If you want to play well, you need a wiki, or somewhere to get detailed, up to the minute, information on your class/race/quest/faction etc.  I don’t want to spend hours respeccing, testing dps, swapping gear to min-max my character. I want to be flexible in what I do, how I build my character, and yet still be a valued member of my group or guild.

So what is “good stuff that is just around the corner”?

Firstly a little game you may have heard of; The Old Republic.  Bioware know how to do story, so I’m really hoping that the game gives MMO developers (not looking at you, Sony Online Entertainment or Blizzard) a well needed kick up the posterium in regards to creating a living, breathing world.  Hell, even Oblivion succeeds more than most MMOs just by having (badly) scripted NPCs wandering around.

Final Fantasy XIV is looking pretty much likely to show people what proper freedom is like in an MMO, multi classing, massive areas to explore, and the game looks great to boot.  I’ve been in the Alpha and Beta and it’s going to be my next main MMO, unless I get to have a go on…

Rift: Planes of Telara.  Some of the original EQ1 Devs are behind this.  Class free, skill based leveling system, very freeform.  The game for people who want a next gen EQ1 style experience basicly.  The thing current MMOs don’t have, that EQ1 does, is versatile classes.  Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 all have classes that are good at one or two things, whereas EQ1 had classes that could do far more.  I’ve seen Wizards tanking raids, bards soloing swarms of mobs, necromancers healing groups, beastlords being total badasses! (yes, I played a beastlord, biased, I know…)

Hopefully the “Next Gen” MMOs will bring gameplay and choice back to the genre, or otherwise, I’ll be wearing my xbox out..

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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Hi!  I’m Wyntr

Blizzard is currently upgrading the servers in a concentrated twenty-four-hour window of maintenance to prepare the realms for the release of the new Cataclysm expansion.  This is the third major revision, following Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, for the World of Warcraft since vanilla WoW was first launched.

In this expansion, we’ll see a new level-cap taking our toons up to level-85, new instances and end-game content centered in Azeroth and the sundering of the lands by black dragon aspect known as Deathwing.  Two new races will be introduced: the Worgen for the Alliance, and the Goblins for the Horde, along with their corresponding starting-zones and quest lines.  Also on-tap for the expansion is a re-vamping of the talent-trees, and the addition of new classes to the existing races.  (Tauren Paladins FTW!)

However, as the old saying goes: the devil is in the details.  And, fwiw, I’d like to take a brief moment both as means of introducing myself, and as an outlet to pent-up frustrations, introduce my list of improvements that I’d like to see addressed in the new expansion.  Realistically, I understand that most of these issues are probably way far down on the features list and won’t be addressed anytime soon.  But, in spite of that, let’s gird our loins, hoist a lance, and go tilting at that Blizzard-owned windmill, shall we?

Fix the LFG queue:

Hey Blizzard.  Everyone uses LFG now for instancing and picking-up a daily.   We appreciate the effort you put into the Occulus nerf where you make the rewards commensurate with the effort required.  However, the effort put into the WotLK instances still greatly exceeds the reward when you’re LFG system so badly mis-matches players to the instance.  I’m talking about Halls of Reflection (HoR) and Pit of Sauron (PoS … snicker) specifically.   HoR alone has, and I think I am being generous in my estimate, about a 10% chance of successful completion as an LFG pug.  The LFG systems will put over-geared DPS with an undergeared Tank, or Healer, just about every time with the net result culminating in repeated wipes, rage-quits, and skyrocketing repair bills.  (More on this in a minute…)  Seriously – the LFG system needs a better AI — it has to be able to match players based on their playing ability – not their gearscore, or achievement points, or whatever algorithm you’re using to determine PuG match-ups.  Whatever the algorithm is, it doesn’t work and needs to be fixed.  WoW keeps more statistics than professional baseball — seems to me that at least one of your in-house rocket-scientists should be able to figure out a better mousetrap…

Repair Bills

To me, a purple is a purple is a purple and shouldn’t matter if it’s made of cloth, mail, leather or plate.  It’s the enchanting of the materials that makes it an epic item, not the materials.  As such, the repair of same should be consistent.  Cloth-wearers should pay the same amount of pain for a wipe that the tank does.  The investment in success during a raid should be the same as the investment in failure.  For all classes.  That’s all I gotta say about that.

Crafting

I have maxed-out all the professions across my toons.  And I simply don’t understand the profession system.  It’s damn-near worthless in end-game.  Sure, I can get ICC-recipes…and make a nifty set of shoes for my main and off-spec….then what?   Oh.  Right.  Time to whore myself out in the Trade channel or in the AH.

And why is crafting itself so incapacitated mentally?  Why did it take my blacksmith 70 levels of experience to figure out how to pound metal flat enough to make a decent shield?  And of all the gray-crap-loot I find: broken swords, rusted helmets, etc., how come I’ve not been able to figure out how to melt down this stuff to reclaim and re-cycle base materials?  My tailor can put together some amazing patterns — but stick a pair of scissors in his hands and he can’t figure out how to de-panel a cloak back into a bolt of cloth?  My jewelcrafter has been lugging around a box of tools since level one that’s probably full of points and squeezy-type tools — but he can’t figure out how to pop a gem out of a ring socket?

Crafting needs some serious attention, Blizzard.  Too often I can’t get to the point where the stuff I craft is available to my toon at a useful level.  (You’ve speeded-up leveling, but not crafting…)

Trinkets

I love my alchemists.  They make crap out of more crap but the crap they make is pretty useful.  However, in order to full realize the full potential of their professions, I have to equip a blue-200 trinket to get twice the benefit of any potion that I can make.  What the hell?  My alchemist is a Raiding toon – currently battling the Lich King in ICC, and I still have to have a blue-200 equipped…!?!  Come on… Break the chains, Blizzard…

Mages

Are broken.  Period.  What was once my main has become my least favorite class to play.  Spells take too long to cast – do too little DPS, and tanks have more armor points in their wrists than I do throughout all my gear.  It takes three mages to do the damage output of two warlocks.  If you hate the class that badly, then just put a bullet in their head and get rid of them.  This lingering cancer you’ve infested the class with is just tragic.

Holiday Loot

I took all 11 toons, into whatever that water-logged BC instance was, daily to fight Ahune during the midsummer holiday….I needed that caster staff for a couple toons – but it only dropped twice – once for my Druid who didn’t need it, and once for my DK.  Big, fat, hairy meh.  Please make holiday loot BoA so I can actually use the drop for something other than filling-up a bank slot.

Armory

Where’s the armory for the iPad?  And lol @ charging for access to the AH via the mobile armory…  As if…

Mail

Please let me mail BoA items cross-realm.  Otherwise, don’t call them BoA.  BoR or something more accurate.

Well, that’s pretty much it for my wish list.  I hope I’ve kept it logical and justifiable.  I think my wish-list of action items would enhance gameplay without over-balancing it.  Sure, Blizzard is all obsessing over Pally spells, DK tanking trees, and whatnot.  But it’s the details and daily conveniences that keep the game playable at the daily level.  The devil is in the details, indeed.

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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I’m hoping this will improve now most things are sorted out though I’m sure when baby arrives I’ll find gaming time harder to find.

It has got me thinking though about blogging in general. What kind of posts do people want to see? Lots of MMO blogs post only about aspects of the genre or upcoming games, with less in game experience posts. Here at MMO-Symposium myself and the other slacking writers have tried to make the site about all aspects of MMO’s. For me in game experiences are a big part of my MMO life and I often like to write about them or post a few pics of what I’ve been up to in game. I even thought about having a dedicated MMO photo blog as I sometimes feel that angles on MMO’s I want to write about have all been covered by those who slack less.

The most popular post so far here has been the Everquest 3 post and I have been surprised with the amount of comments received, all with great idea’s and views on the Everquest series or what MMO’s need. It’s posts like this that make me want to continue blogging. I mean sure I want to put out my thoughts and ramblings, but sometimes if nobody drops comments in return you feel a bit like a madman talking to yourself.

If anybody reads this thinking “I’ve tons of things I want to say about MMO’s” then drop me a message and get writing here on this blog. Oh and any budding designers wanting to design a blog and have their work credited on the web are welcome too as I’ve been thinking about a bit of a redesign. I blame the latter on Gordon at We Fly Spitfires for his shiny new design that got me thinking.

If there is a continued lull while my fatherhood status takes hold in the next few months, I hope to pick it up again when time allows and  pop the odd post in here in between. With a bit of luck I will gain inspiration from the MMO world in general and a slew of posts will ensue, who know’s maybe someone will read them.

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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The Agency was mentioned but I myself am not that bothered about what looks to be an FPS with an MMO amount of players.

I’m currently playing Everquest 2 still and Lord of the Rings online, both of which I still enjoy though LOTRO is a more occasional MMO for me. I also play Battleground Europe though I think I may be taking a break from that game soon  due to my impending Dad status. I don’t feel that paying a monthly sub for a game I only get to play now and again is worth it, I have a life sub for LOTRO so don’t have to worry about play time there.

My guild has a history of trying out new games together and forming branches so we can keep the guild feel going while we test new MMO’s. Granted some of the branches last a very short time but what’s a better way to try a new game than with a few friends who you already game with?

I guess the point I’m making is a few of us don’t really have an MMO in our future that we are eagerly anticipating. With the exception of PvP MMO’s such as Battleground Europe and Planetside which are always my side MMO’s, I prefer MMORPG’s. I also have a preference for the high fantasy style rather than the more futuristic based games.

I am watching the development of 38 studios with interest as they do have an MMO planned for the future, though this seems to be a long way off. They have gone down the route of making an offline RPG first something which I won’t be playing as despite my interest in the world they are creating, I don’t play offline games anymore. I miss the social aspect that an MMO brings and is obviously not there in single player games.

If any of you know of an MMO in development you think I should look at, drop a comment here and I’ll head off to check it out.

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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This year we met up in Liverpool and headed to the Isle of Man (the home of our guild leader) for the last few days. The usual suspects turned up along with a few members we haven’t met before all of who soon found the beer and got on great with the rest of us.

Meeting new members is always interesting as I often wonder just how much you know someone from voice chat or even just text chat for those that don’t use voice. With all the neXians I’ve met so far though it is just like I’ve known them for a while anyway as I think all who turn up do use voice chat and so I’ve already spoken to them just not in the flesh.

Some character traits do come out however as was seen in one of our members (I won’t name names ), who is famous for getting lost in game. It was the member in question’s first meet and she brought her boyfriend along, a brave guy coming to see us nutters. At the end of the night she went out of the lift and turned the wrong way to her room, only a quick shout from her other half saved our guild member from a long night wandering through hotel corridors.

We had the guild chuckle brother’s who I’ve never met before, continuing the banter they have online. Ffaffner an occasional author on this site kept up to character too. He always plays a dwarf and we know Dwarves like their beer, so Ffaffner obliged for the whole meet.

It was another good guild meet and assuming finances allow (mini-me on the way), I’ll be at the next one. It’s times like our guild meet and our group nights in game that make me enjoy MMO’s more, our guild has become more a group of friends who happen to play games together rather than a group of gamers.

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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My Character Yetian is now level 20 and has entered the city of Bree, found my Kinship house and ventured into both the forest near Bree and the Barrows.

I am enjoying the game again and even at my slow pace there is plenty to see, with the views still outstripping other MMO’s I have played. The character models are still poor  though and I’m trying to get a decent black outfit now I can use appearance sets of armour.

I’m afraid this is a short post as things are hectic here at the moment and I’m off to our guild meet in a couple of days in Liverpool/Isle of Man.

Nothing major has happened to my character apart from a dungeon instance to advance the epic storyline of which a couple of pics are attached to this post. So here’s a few images from my most recent adventures, with more to come in the future.

Originally Posted At: MMO-Symposium an MMO Blog

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