A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tag: Gaming Page 23 of 29

Mickey Mouse is Dead to Me!

mickey-mouse-dead-mouse-trap-disneyI started by giving Disney the benefit of the doubt when we all heard about its acquisition of everything Star Wars. The latest news has me wondering if my trust was misplaced.

If you haven’t heard yet, Disney is shutting down the LucasArts division, thereby throwing 150 programmers into unemployment. If that wasn’t tragic enough, all those great Star Wars titles are now a thing of the past, any projects that were in the works (ex: Star Wars 1313) has been canceled, and it leaves me wondering what will happen to existing titles that relied on the LucasArts backing?

This isn’t the first victim of Disney’s chopping block; remember they are ending the Clone Wars series. It’s ironic that the company that is responsible for creating childhood memories, is slowly dismantling mine! I’m now legitimately concerned about SWTOR because I was just starting to get back into that game. The Clone Wars series was highly successful so obviously how well a product is doing doesn’t mean its safe from Disney executives. The tumultuous start of SWTOR might be a blemish Disney doesn’t want to salvage especially now that LucasArts is gone.

I’m angry that all those programmers that developed so many great titles are just cast aside like dirty laundry. I certainly hope it was an issue of redundancy that often accompanies the purchase of another large corporation. As far as the titles are concerned I hope that Disney will absorb them into their collective of video game media and try to keep those titles alive and functioning.

Disney is doing the gamer and Star Wars community a huge disservice. I hope they plan to make it up to all of us but it damn well better be something extraordinary! Something akin to the invention of Mountain Dew and Cheetos!

/end rant

The MMO Times: Snoo Snoo!!

mmotimesheaderIssue 64: Greetings Gamers!! Are you among the WoW gamers working toward your first tier raiding goals as 5.2 draws closer? Or are you a SWTOR player indulging in the latest 1.7 content? Both, perhaps? Or maybe you are some lucky punk in an alpha test of an upcoming new Cryptic title 😉

Regardless, here is some of the latest MMO news for our favorite titles such as SWTOR and WoW. The latest MMO HoF inductees and a potential new title for 2014. Unfortunately its another slow week in regards to MMO news but enjoy nonetheless! (i.e. the lack of interesting posts should explain the completely random title for this issue.)

(I also provide The MMO Times in an e-mail. If you are interested in receiving the e-mail version please click here to subscribe.)

The MMO Times: The News Has Been Slow

mmotimesheaderIssue 63: When I started out creating this post I thought there would be quite a bit of news to report in this issue but the news stalled out near the end of last week. Perhaps with the impending Superbowl the MMO news went to the back burner.

I know today Blizzard is having extended maintenance on WoW so despite the fact that there isn’t a lot of news, there might be an article or two that will help pass the time. Check out a new MMO title from an unknown development studio; there’s a pretty good article on crafting in Age of Wushu; more news about TERA and DCUO which you may have already heard about. Read on and game on!

(I also provide The MMO Times in an e-mail. If you are interested in receiving the e-mail version please click here to subscribe.)

The MMO Times: Help Sandy Victims!

Issue 56: Hello again, Gamers! The Christmas season is in full swing and with only 18 days left, assuming the world doesn’t end in two weeks, I hope you have all your Christmas shopping completed, or nearly completed. We have some good stuff in this issue. One of the key headlines I want to point everyone too (especially if you are playing World of Warcraft) is the new pet store pet whose sales help Sandy Victims.

And speaking of Blizzard they are already talking patch 5.2 which is estimated to be 2-4 months away. There is also more Aion, Elder Scrolls Online and Age of Wushu news. The news for Age of Wushu seems to be increasing as we approach that February 1st release date (which is now less than two months away). There should be lots here to wet the proverbial appetite so read on and game on, friends!

(I also provide The MMO Times in an e-mail. If you are interested in receiving the e-mail version please click here to subscribe.)

What If Your MMO Shutdown

Last week the MMO community bid farewell to a much adored game, City of Heroes. I remember when CoH came out and I knew several people that were playing it. I had friends that would often return to Paragon City when they were bored with World of Warcraft. I never played City of Heroes but I considered it many times. It looks like Massively did a good job broadcasting the final sign off as the servers were shutdown for the last time (you click here to see the video if you want, its a little over an hour and a half.)

Every time I read about a title shutting down I often think about what I am currently invested in. While I am still in the process of returning to SWTOR, I still play WoW quite regularly. I often hypothesis what I would do if Blizzard suddenly announced that they had to shutdown all of the WoW servers permanently. It would be heartbreaking because I have made quite a few friends. I have been in the same guild for over 7 years and most of those friends have been there just as long as I have.

If the servers were to be shutdown forever the only thing I could think to do would be to start visiting some of my favorite locations in Azeroth and start amassing a ridiculous collection of screenshots. I’d probably do every raid and dungeon in the game. Screenshots of all my toons, my various pets, mounts, etc. Most importantly I would be taking screenshots with everyone from the guild. I would definitely have to post these images in a gallery somewhere and give everyone access. Perhaps even keep the website alive so we can all touch base every now and again.

I’m sure many of us would move on to another game, but I doubt if I would invest the same amount of time and energy. I think doing it once is enough for me, doing it again would be akin to madness. It’s really difficult to say what I would do especially when its hypothetical. In fact there is a greater likelihood that life will be the reason I stop playing before all the WoW servers go offline but you never know what tomorrow brings.

So what would you do if your game ended?

The MMO Times: 50!

Issue 50: Hello Everybody! I can’t believe I am sending out the 50th issue of this email/post. I hope all of you have found the stories I provide useful and interesting. This issue has some updates on some titles many of us may have forgotten about. Since Blizzard and Bioware have been doing random server maintenance perhaps this will be a good thing to check out during that down time.

This issue we have several new trailers for a couple titles we haven’t heard much about lately, including Age of Wushu and Transformers Universe. Since New York Comic Con 2012 just happened, several companies took the opportunity to unveil the trailers for their upcoming titles. There is also more information about changes coming to future updates of Aion and the new RIFT expansion, Storm Legion. Read on and game on, friends!

Page 23 of 29

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén