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The MMO Times: First of 2012

On January 13, 2012

Issue 25

Hellooooo Everybody! Sorry for the delay between issues, the Christmas and New Years holidays have a tendency to make things pretty busy. So without keeping you any longer, check out these headlines that I hope you find interesting as I have. Enjoy!

TERA Beta Sign-ups Opens

January 12, En Masse has sent to call for TERA testers. This game got a lot of attention in the gaming conferences last year. The graphics look pretty awesome. I probably will not have time to try out the beta, but if anyone else does check it out, let me know what your thoughts are. Remember, this is just a sign-up which means its not a guarantee beta invite. Follow the links for the Massively article or the TERA website for signing up.
Massively Article | TERA Website

League of Legends Hits 11.5MM

This is probably another foreboding sign for Blizzard and World of Warcraft. League of Legends, a Free-2-Play MMO by Riot, now has 11.5 million active players far surpassing the 10.3 million that are playing WoW. I think its pretty interesting that a F2P game now has more players then WoW. Follow the link to see the Forbes article.
Forbes Article

More On MechWarrior MMO Going F2P

A developer at Piranha Games explains the reasons the MechWarrior MMO will be going with the Free-2-Play model. They mention in the article that the games anticipated release is expected to be in the second half of 2012. There is also a link in the article that elaborates on the CryEngine 3, which is the graphics engine the game is being built on. Follow the link to read more at VideoGamer.
Video Gamer Article

Rift Offers New Subscription Plans

Another interesting competitive move by one of WoW’s biggest competitors, Rift. They have adjusted their subscription plans which actually makes playing Rift cheaper then playing WoW. As if Blizzard didn’t have enough problems keeping players in WoW, lowering prices below their rate is going to make life even more difficult. Many have been clamoring for Blizzard to consider the Free-2-Play model and they have fervently stated they will not consider the Free-2-Play model beyond level 20. Follow the link to read more at tom’s hardware.
tom’s hardware Article

SWTOR ‘Fastest Growing MMO’

I love reading good things about SWTOR and I think this one is really exciting. Based on the millions of players that flocked to play SWTOR when it was released, it has been crowned the “Fastest Growing MMO in History”. I think that is a pretty prestigious acolyte. Follow the link to read more Attack of the Fanboy.
Attack of the Fanboy Article

SWTOR Covers New Flashpoint

On January 17th Bioware will be issuing its first content patch for SWTOR. The patch will fix several known bugs and introduce a new, level 50, flashpoint. The planet of Kaon has fallen victim to the Rakghoul plague (which is the Star Wars version of zombies – because who doesn’t like zombies!). Players must go to the planet to rescue survivors and eliminate the plague. Follow the link to read more on Massively and view the trailer.
Massively Article

WoW 4.3.2 Patch Notes

I decided to go way back on WoW Insider to find the post about the 4.3.2 patch. The reason is that I wanted to point out a particularly interesting feature that will be in the patch. You will be able to enter Raid Finder with your Real ID friends (as long as you are the same faction). So if your friends are on other servers, you can now do a raid, or older normal/heroic raids. They are also fixing a few bugs, such as the annoying mature language filter, and players winning multiple copies of an item in Raid Finder. Follow the link to read more at WoW Insider.
WoW Insider Article

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SWTOR: Tips & Tricks Part II

By Biggs

On January 9, 2012

In Gaming, MMORPG, SWTOR

I have put together another list of tips to share with everyone that is playing Star Wars The Old Republic. If you have made it all the way to 50 by now then these tips will probably be of no use to you. However, if you are just starting out, you might find these tips useful too.

Show Me The Credits! – Training and Crafting Missions get expensive. You will be forking over 3-3.5k per ability by the time you get into the early 20s. Also, speeder training will cost you 40 Gs at 25 (and a speeder bike will cost you an additional 8k). So make credits fast!
Focus But Don’t Hurry – When you are questing focus on completing your class quests. You unlock ships and companions as you progress through your story. However, don’t skip the other quests; the story and rewards are worth the time.
Make Them Happy – Your companion will complete crafting and mission quests faster the more you build up affection. I know its difficult to resist punishing Vette, but there is a greater output to getting her to like you sooner.
You Don’t Have to Tank/Heal – Regardless of which advanced class you roll, you can always DPS. All the advanced classes have a DPS tree; how you spend your talent points ultimately determines your role.
Crafting Conundrum – Sometimes its terribly difficult to pick the right profession. The Codex is your friend. Visit all the profession trainers to gather all the codex entries and use the information to help you decide.

That is all I have to share. I don’t think I am going to share many more tips. I think its important that you find some things out for yourself. I will be doing a post soon where I break down all the classes, which I hope people find useful as well. Enjoy Star Wars The Old Republic!

SWTOR: Vette Doesn’t Seem To Mind

By Biggs

On January 5, 2012

In Gaming, SWTOR

People are so inane it’s infuriating! The recent SWTOR rancor (see what I did there) floating around the Internet is that people are uptight because the Sith Warrior class has the option to “abuse” their companion.

Wait!! It’s not cool to be sadistic??!! Why am I just now finding this out??

Yes, when you first get Vette she is wearing a shock collar. You have the option, occasionally, to shock her for being insubordinate. There is a means to an end for it, she will eventually turn evil (her story is that she’s essentially a captive republic smuggler). You do have the option to remove her collar, which is actually the option I chose. In fact, here is a tip for you, the sooner you build affection with your companion, the quicker they will complete crafting quests and tasks.

I just don’t understand why people get so upset over pixels on a screen. I’m not going to buy into the argument that it promotes domestic abuse and violence. No it doesn’t! That’s asinine! Wouldn’t you rather the player “abuse” a video game character then a real person? It’s up to the parents to teach their children the difference between pixels and people.

I’m sure this is all happening because SWTOR is the new kid on the block and it’s rivals are just looking for fodder. This will all blow over in a week. I’m just tired of people blaming video games for bad parenting or a bad moral compass. Here is my advice for all these antagonists, life is a lot easier to endure when you buy the panties that don’t bunch up!

Cheers!

What Happened to “Frag”?

By Biggs

On January 3, 2012

In Gaming, General Cogitation

I’m an old school gamer. I started on Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog. I graduated from console gaming to PC gaming when I went to college and I began with first person shooters like Half-Life and, of course, the infamous Quake. Quake was the game everyone played at LAN parties, no matter what the latest gaming fad was at the time. It was a staple.

As is common in every gaming community, Quake players developed various colloquial expressions. The most common word among the nomenclature was “frag”. There were t-shirts, bumper stickers, and various other paraphernalia that donned various phrases using the word. If you are not familiar with the word “frag” it meant that when you killed someone, or you were killed, you weren’t just mortally wounded; usually fragged meant your death was a grisly explosion or dismemberment that left parts of you scattered about. The MMO genre doesn’t have such graphic fatalities so, I think, “frag” loosely evolved into the word “pwn”.

Personally I like frag better and I wish there was a way to bring it back. The fact is MMO gamers have already established their own set of colloquial expressions so introducing a new term would be very difficult. Also, the games themselves would need to properly reflect what it meant to frag, or be fragged, when a player dies. Somehow I can see such macabre graphics being met with much opposition once the ESRB became involved. If the ESRB rating is too mature it could adversely impact the sales of the game.

Personally I think introducing these kinds of deaths to an MMO would be pretty cool. Sometimes such visual indications of victory can make you feel extremely triumphant. Maybe one day an MMO will come along that has this feature, and maybe one already exists that I just haven’t played yet. Either way, it was a fun trip down memory lane and reminiscing about Quake has made me want to go dig up my old install disks.

(P.S. The image I used for this post is the iconic image used by Penguin Computing who are known for delivering high-performance computing solutions.)

Cheers!

The MMO Times: Merry Christmas!

By Biggs

On December 24, 2011

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Hello again, gamers! I hope you all can tear yourselves away from SWTOR to check out the following articles that I found interesting over the past week. This will be the last one I do before Christmas so Merry Christmas all! Enjoy!

Guild Wars 2 Enters Closed Beta

December 16th, 2011 – Guild Wars 2 will be entering closed beta. NCSoft will be running an internal selection process to determine who will be in the beta. There won’t be any public application process. I’m sure, regardless, fans are excited. Check out more at the Massively article
Massively article

Aion Going F2P in Europe

I was excited when I first read about Aion going Free-2-Play because I thought it would be for all servers. Apparently, at the time that I am writing this, it is only going F2P on the European servers. This is scheduled to happen in February, so there is still time for NCSoft to change their mind about the NA servers.
Massively article

Farewell SWG

Well, the first ever Star Wars MMO is officially shutdown. December 15th was the last day for Star Wars Galaxies. I never played it, I thought about it, but I didn’t know anyone that was playing so I didn’t partake. Despite the fact that I never played it, a part of me is still sad to see it go. Jef Reahard, of Massively, gave SWG a very well written farewell.
Massively article

Previewing MechWarrior Online

Massively has a pretty decent article that covers some of the “nuts and bolts” of the upcoming MechWarrior Online MMO. There are several images of some concept art in the post. I never played MechWarrior, but I knew of it. Some are claiming that this is their most anticipated game of 2012 (which means it has a release date of sometime next year). Check out the article and tell me what you think.
Massively article

Marvel Universe MMO Renamed

Gazillion’s newest project, Marvel Universe, has been given a new name. It makes sense, they want to differentiate their game from the DC version. It is now called “Marvel Heroes”. I found the post on an MMO News site. There still isn’t a lot of details provided about the game. Check it out if you are interested.
MMONews post

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SWTOR: May The Queues Be With You

By Biggs

On December 18, 2011

In Gaming, MMORPG, SWTOR

Tuesday is going to be an interesting day for Bioware. Early access has been running for nearly a week now and the queues started forming Thursday night. As I’m writing this post I am 141 in queue, I started at 401 about 15 minutes ago.

I hope Bioware is using the staggering of the early access to accumulate statistics on peak time and estimated volume so they can, hopefully, be better prepared for Tuesday’s launch. I have noticed, though, that despite the queues to get in, once I am in the game I notice very little lag. I remember when Aion started, I could be in queue for 20-30 minutes and once I got it, my character would “rubber-band” all the time. (If you don’t know what I mean by rubber-band, that is when, while running, you think you have gone X distance and suddenly you snap backwards quite a ways).

They might do population control in the form of limiting which servers new users can create characters on. While this will help some of the queues, they still will likely face the issue of players who hadn’t pre-ordered, wanting to play on a friends server who had.

To be honest, I hope people will be patient and understanding. I know that is asking a lot of the gaming community, but when you have a major title going live, you have to allow for software company to work out the kinks and standard growing pains. They will stabilize the queues and it may take a week or so. I just urge everyone to be patient and let Bioware work the problem. Of course I know there will be those disgruntled, impatient “nubs” that demand perfection on the first day.

Ah, my queue has finished. Time to log in!

Cheers!

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Category: Gaming Page 39 of 44