Friday, August 28, 2009

Titles that Make me Giddy

Van Hemlock posted his podcast question earlier today for their next recording session, it is as follows:

"Lot of Grump on the Blogoweb of late. Help cheer me up! What's the most positive thing thats happened to you this month?"

I would assume he means mmo bloggers are being their usual dour selves...but lets take a short look at a few reasons (games) to not be grumpy! These are the upcoming titles - excluding expansions - that I am most looking forward to, which will, *fingers crossed* be coming out within a year.

New IPs:

Gatheryn - Lets just be honest, it looks like crap. However, this is the only non-Asian, steam punk mmo coming out and that alone should be justification to anticipate it. The steam punk genre is morbidly under represented in video games these days. What interests me most about this game is its focus on community and games, rather than combat. My hope for this game is that it gives us something of a Free Realms-esq experience: collecting, exploration, medium to large community (hey, it will be free to play, so I can dream, can't I?), while milking steam punk imagery for all its worth. Oh, and did I mention it will be free? AND have player housing? It is currently in open beta and I've been teetering on the edge of checking it out, bugs and all. But, I think I'll wait until the kinks have been worked out, so as to get the best possible first impression. Regardless, it is one to watch!

Fallen Earth - Even though I'm a fan of post-apocalyptic storytelling and a ton of the things I have heard lately about this game sound incredible (the crafting, virus instead of nukes, the location), I probably won't ever have the chance to play it. Alas, my computer. That being said, I'm still excited for it. We have yet to see a good PA mmo and despite the inevitable Fallout comparisons that will come in a few weeks when it launches, this game will definitely fill a niche. Hopefully, it does well in its own right and paves the way for an actual Fallout mmo. These days you can never have enough online games that aren't fantasy rpgs.

Sequels or Old IPs:

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Seriously, how can you not be at least somewhat excited for this game? Maybe the hype switch in the back of my neck is just set opposite of everyone else's, but every piece of information on this game that comes to light manages to make me even more excited for it! Now there is even a rumor of player housing! After that four part video that came out this week everyone was complaining that, "oh combat looks so boring." Well, it doesn't look any more "boring" that combat in WoW and I happen to enjoy killing things in that game, I mean, that's what it's all about.... However, I do think combat in SWTOR will be more involved and probably more like AOC than WoW. And have you heard about the story? Or the full voice acting (which was admitedly a little wonky in the latest video)? The only concern I have for this game is how massively multiplayer it will actually end up being. To have as deep a story as Bioware claims to have, it would seem that they would need to lean heavily on instancing, but they are Bioware, so maybe they found a workaround.

Lego Universe - When I heard that they were making a Lego mmo my childhood came flooding back to me in a pile of multicolored, interconnecting blocks. I only want two things out of this game: 1.) For it to be free to play. 2.) To be able to build just about anything my mind can think up. It wouldn't truly be Lego, unless you could literally build whatever you wanted. Here is a recent article from Wired that I admit I have not had the chance to fully peruse. Also, the logo is totally awesome.

Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited - While this is not exactly a new game, the coming version of it will certainly be new enough to those that have never played it before. When I first started playing mmos I shopped around before settling on WoW and one of the games I read up on was DDO. I thought, "Dungeons and Dragons, the original role playing game, how can I go wrong?" I didn't end up buying then, but as soon as Turbine releases their free to play client they can count me in as a subscriber. Yes, I'm one of those folks who thought it looked interesting, would liked to have played the game, but could never justify shelling out $15 a month for something that didn't get totally solid reviews. (Not to mention, their free trial wanted your credit card. Nuh, uh.) But, when this game relaunches in early September, I will be there!

Guild Wars 2 - Even though I have played and enjoyed Nightfall, this game was no where on my radar, because up until last week no one knew anything about it. Of course that all changed, when ArenaNet put out a darn good trailer. Hopefully the trickle of info on this game will become steadier now that hype is starting to build. To be honest, I think NC Soft needs something to bring them out of the fall they are in (Aion won't be it) and this is the best chance they've got. Fortunately, it's an extremely good chance. Also, I should say that there is absolutely no reason to believe that this game will come out within a year from now (like I stipulated above), other than my own wishful thinking. :)

Jumpgate Evolution - The only thing I know about this game is that you fly a space ship and things go KABOOM...and it's not Eve. That works for me. The launch was recently delayed so that they could change the economy to be player driven, not unlike another space ship mmo. I hope that they aren't trying to directly challenge Eve, though, because from what little I know about both games, they seem to be operating on entirely different levels. One is about charts and mining and large groups of players fighting other large groups of players. While the other one is not about charts, or mining, just shooting things and watching the beautiful space scenery. Jumpgate may or may not involve large scale battles, I could not tell ya. For my money though, that is the one idea they should borrow from Eve.

Hello Kitty Online - Juuuuuuuuuuuuuust kidding!! But really, wouldn't we all rather play Hello Kitty Island Adventure?

Well folks, that is it on the games I'm most excited for (and reasons to not be a grumpy blogger bump on a log). Hopefully they all come out sooner rather than later and completed rather than crap.

-Max

I love this song and I love this video. They just look so happy!
Matt & Kim "Daylight"

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Short and Sweet...

Just wanted to say a quick blip about MMO Voices, a really exceptional social network put together by Beau and Leala of Spouse Aggro. It's pretty much Facebook for mmo's with an emphasis on blogs. The community is a healthy 114 strong at the time of this post and still growing. So, if you check it out and decide to join be sure to send me a friend request, I'm the only member named Max...haha! I've been posting a few of my blog over there also, from time to time.

See you there.

-Max

No music, but I'm continually updating my blog list on the right hand side of the page, if you are looking for any interesting reading, then check those out!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Warning:

Felicia Day you are about to be replaced as my numero uno nerd crush. I was reading my favorite, non-mmo news site the other day, The Daily Beast, and stumbled across an article on celebrity World of Warcraft players. Apparently, Mila Kunis, who starred in one of my all time favorite movies (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) plays WoW! AND she's a mage! Could she be any more attractive? I think not.

Suprisingly enough, Macaulay Culkin, Dave Chappelle, Vin Diesel, and Elijah Wood also play.

It's always odd - like watching a dog walk on its hind legs - when the mainstream media decides to cover mmos. The article is worth a quick read, if only for a laugh.

-Max

Monday, August 24, 2009

I Pick the Best Days to Be Away from the Internet

I take a few days off to travel and look at all the info that drops!

Pigs do in fact fly. I was beginning to think they would never announce this game's imminent playability, but apparently miracles do happen. I've learned, in a very roundabout way, to love the first Guild Wars for what it is, so I can only hope that this sequel improves upon the things its predecessor did so well. You really can't go wrong with adding the ability to jump!

And entire worlds get ripped asunder!
Arguably the biggest game announced this week. Certainly the most exciting one for myself. Although, I can't help but feel bad for Dust 514 and GW2, this whole WoW announcement has stolen most of their thunder, at least in the press. But this new expansion, along with TOR has pretty much convinced me that I'm going to need a bigger boat...oh ahem, I mean a better laptop. An idea has occurred to me though, that I haven't seen much discussed anywhere else. I've been rather adamant for the last several months now that the new Star Wars mmo and the next World of Warcraft expansion will launch very closely together, but the announcement of Cataclysm adds another facet of competition between the two games. Is it just me or does it seem like this next WoW expansion seems to be focusing on story and a really awesome one at that? You know, like, just how SWTOR is supposed to be heavily focused on story? In my opinion the writers at Blizzard are really outdoing themselves bringing Deathwing back in a huge way and also aligning Worgen to the Alliance through Gilneas and finally letting us play Goblins! It is becoming more apparent with each announcement that these two games are going to be directly competing and anyone who thinks otherwise is sadly mistaken.

With the majority of these games currently set to release in 2010, next year is looking to be huge.

On a side note, this is what I was doing over the week. Real life can be pretty amazing when we choose to look beyond our monitors:


















Hamilton Pool, Tx


-Max

Oh, and by the way, Carla Bruni!
I have no idea what she is singing, but, thankfully, beauty has the ability to transcend language

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Dust 514

When I read the article on Massively this morning about CCP's new console only mmofps Dust 514, the best two adjectives I found to describe what they are attempting were bold and intricate. And there are two questions, the answers to which, I feel, will determine the success of this game.

1. Will the EVE Online community accept the console community and share their sovereignty content?

2. Will the console fps Halo crowd be smart enough to figure out that they need to work with the players of EVE Online, in order to achieve success, and presumably have fun in game?

In attempting this melding of gameplay styles CCP is putting a metric ton of faith in their subscribers. Will it pay off?

Also, something they didn't mention was which console(s) Dust will actually be playable on. I'm thinking PS3, for no baseless reason other than it just feels right in my mind. Not to mention, PS3 players will soon be playing MAG which seems a lot like Dust, just without the interconnectivity. And did I mention the graphics? Because they look pretty damn good.

It will be interesting to see where these two games go from here.

-Max

Monday, August 17, 2009

My Felicia Day Crush

Like most mmo playing guys I have a huge nerd crush on Felicia Day.

So, it was pretty awesome to find that her and the cast of The Guild did a music video in costume.

Check out the video for "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar" The song is nothing special, they should of gotten Parry Gripp to write it. But wow, I don't think Felicia Day could possibly get any hotter!

If for some reason you live under a rock then go check out the damn show already! I linked it up there somewhere.

-Max

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Thoughts on Fallout...12 Years Too Late

I thought long and hard about just what to say in my post regarding this game. It's old. It's groundbreaking. It's famous. Playing through the game for my first twenty minutes I could honestly not tell you why it is held in such high esteem, but after leaving for a few days and coming back, I fully understand.

I was about to start out with a few complaints mostly regarding combat, but instead I'll just get right to what about this game really grabbed me.

I wanted to be in the world. It didn't matter that I thought the combat was boring, or that the story had too little direction (and a god-damn-ball-busting-timer!!!) I wanted to explore what is essentially an entirely open ended world that was created before anyone truly knew what open endedness could be. Maps that gradually reveal themselves as you explore them are always the most rewarding. I wanted to learn the lore and collect crap and talk to people (fucking phenomenal voice acting) and just learn about this post apocalyptic waste land that seemed so unbelievably alive. I only have a pdf copy of the original game manual, but GOOD GOD is that thing incredible! Clearly, what made people such huge fans of these games is that they wanted to live out this existence in a world recovering from nuclear holocaust; the game designers did such an amazing job in making it seem real. I can completely see why a company like Bethesda, who make the Elder Scrolls games, would want to develop a property like Fallout 3. They pretty much write the wiki on how open a game world can or should be. Not owning a 360 or PS3, I have haven't had the chance yet to pick up numero tres, but you can bet that when I buy an Xbox, the first game I get will be Fallout 3. If the world is this detailed in a 1997 game with an isometric view, I'm sure the same details with updated graphics will just blow my mind out the fucking window.

So, just to wrap things up: I get it. I went in to these games expecting everything (combat, story, overall great gameplay) and what I came away with was an experience and a longing to be in a world that was alive (sorta, ha). This is a perfect example of "lasting gameplay" - why people still lavish praise on these games twelve years later. Experiencing a world this vivid takes a pretty long time to get old.

Take this experience, ramp the detail up ten times and give us the Fallout mmo, please!

-Max

Watched a great documentary on Hulu last night about remixing and the nature of copyright law in today's world. It's definitely worth a look: here.

Also, the band (guy) Girl Talk who features prominently in the show is one of my favorite musicians and his work can be downloaded here for free! My favorite quote about his music is that, "If you like music, then you like Girl Talk."

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Virgin Worlds: The Movie!

(Full disclosure: I never finished watching it.)

By now I'm sure everyone has heard of the new mmo documentary Second Skin. Apparently some dudes got the bright idea to make a documentary of a certain selection of gamers who play EQ2 and WoW. Maybe when they first set out on this project they didn't intend it to be so heavily biased against the genre, but the finished product is pretty heavy handed in its disdain for these types of games. This is not a review, other than to say I thought the movie was fear-mongering crapola. Also, check out the latest episode of Spouse Aggro, as Leala pretty much rips into the film - like RAWR!

However, I just had an amazing idea for a rebuttal. Hence the title of this post. To counter all the negativity expressed in Second Skin, somebody needs to take their little digital camera and hop on a plane around the world to interview the podcasters of the Virgin Worlds Collective! From the way these folks behave on their shows (like normal, everyday human beings without social issues) they would be the perfect group of people to interview in order to show that the mmo community is a very friendly, deep thinking social sphere that isn't just inhabited by nerds in their parent's basements. The bias would be very obvious and very positive, promoting our community to the world at large.

Someone mention my idea to Brent and lets get this shit in theatres!

-Max

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ye Olde WoW Hate

This topic has been done to death, I know, but with the inevitable coming expansion, I feel it deserves some re-discussion.

At the this very moment (and for the last week or so) I will be the first to tell you that I am none too happy with ol' Blizzard at this point in Warcraft's lifetime. Not being able to log-in to one's first and favorite mmo will do that to a person. But, it is precisely because I love the game so much that not being able to play it causes my frustration at the company. I fully understand my current feelings for the game and thus am able to cope with not being able to play it for some unknown time. What I don't understand is why any WoW news at all brings out the haters, with the sharpest criticisms usually coming from former players.

Yesterday I was checking Massively and WoW.com for any new stories when this jumped out at me, as I'm sure it did to many others. My first and only thought concerning this revelation was that it sounds totally awesome, if it proves to be true. Now, perhaps it is because these days I mainly read mmo game sites for news, but I was quite taken aback by most of the non-mmo gaming communities reaction to the news. A little while ago I was checking Gamespot's "Latest Headlines" and two things caught my eye. One was this, which just caused me one more groan of Nintendo bewilderment. The other was, of course, Gamespot's own rumor mill reporting of the WoW.com news.

Jesus, god. Please take some time to scroll through the hate. Here are a few of the best:

"Can this game get any gayer?"

"No more new races will be added. This article is pure BS except the fact that the next expansion will be called Catacalysm. Expect a new hero class."

"This game has been going downhill since release, I didn't even bother with WOTLK, it'll take a lot more than Goblins and Worgen to bring me back."

"I don't play WoW anymore but all my friends are still addicted. Just wanted to comment on this. Ok I can see Goblins joining the Horde but Worgen for Alliance? How does that make any sense? Am I missing something? Seems like just a random choice because Worgen don't really fit as Alliance at all. But I guess if all people care about is "cool playable werewolves!" then why should Blizz care if it makes sense."

"and WoW becomes even more stupid, glad I left this piece of crap months ago"

"enough of this game already."


Most of this nonsense is easily brushed off with, "read the damn lore," and, "stop speaking out your ass on a game you have likely never played" but the comments from former players are what bug me the most.

What is it about this game that causes people to feel so burned when they finally call it quits?
  • Did they take it too seriously?
  • Did they not get out of it as much as they put into it? (time & effort vs. rewards)
  • Are they just mad at themselves for playing the game for so long, but never really 'getting' what it is about?
  • Or, perhaps after all that time spent did they never create the experience they wanted? As we all know, because of the social nature of mmos a large portion of that experience is player created.
  • Lastly, maybe they just saw how much they had paid for the game and had a heart attack!
I am no psychologist so this is as far as my gamer-mind evaluation goes. But, perhaps those bullets are something to consider with regards to reasons for Warcraft burnout.

Lastly, when I started to write this post I remembered something Shawn Schuster tweeted the other day:

"Man I hate when sites write about MMO news and don't even play them. Don't you?"

Yes, Shawn, I DO hate that. I'd say that hate even extends to regular gaming sites that only partially cover mmos, but that have a rabid user base of mmo haters.

-Max


"WoW was the Nirvana of mmos"
-Michael Zenke in reference to wow's inevitable legacy

Sunday, August 9, 2009

So Excited!

As you may have guessed, I'm excited. Why? Oh, well, because I just purchased the recently re-released Fallout Trilogy! So, I thought I'd throw up this post real quick to say that as a guy who has never played any of these games, but heard nothing of unending praise for them, I'm pretty excited. My expectations are extremely high (rightfully so?) and I hope that in the next couple of days I can perhaps offer a different perspective on these games, coming from a younger generation. I was only seven when the game was originally released.

The disk includes Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics. And I should say that I have also never played Fallout 3, so I'm coming into this totally new.

Well I am off to load the game and I will be back with my impressions soon!

-Max

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The End of WoW *Tear*

Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be logging in to the World of Warcraft for quite some time. With the new patch 3.2 came more demands on the video drivers within my shitty little laptop, demands that it just can't handle. Dell, apparently, hasn't seen fit to update the drivers for the GMA 965 integrated graphics card in their Inspiron line, and because it's Dell, the generic drivers downloaded off the Intel site won't work. :( And yeah, because my warranty is out, customer service totally won't take my call.

I don't have the computer know-how or patience to search every last forum post for a possible solution to this problem.

So, until I get a decent computer, it's goodbye Warcraft.

-Max

Monday, August 3, 2009

Off Topic: Summertime Edition

It's always healthy to take some time out from a hobby. Today I thought I'd mention a couple things I've really been enjoying this summer.

Every season, it seems, I have a playlist of songs that I'm mainly listening to. Here is the mix that has been playing in my car for most of the last couple months.

  1. No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
  2. Daylight - Matt & Kim
  3. My Girls - Animal Collective
  4. Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective
  5. Bruises - Chairlift
  6. No Hope Kids - Wavves
  7. Weed Demon - Wavves
  8. So Insane - Discovery
  9. With a Girl Like You - Dave Sitek (The Troggs cover)
  10. And I Was a Boy From School - Hot Chip
  11. Ready For the Floor - Hot Chip
  12. Stress - Justice (I know it's the Kanye West blog...but the video is amazing!)
  13. Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell - Das Racist
  14. The Girl at the Video Game Store - Parry Gripp
  15. The Kids Don't Stand a Chance (Chromeo Remix) - Vampire Weekend
  16. Cap Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend
  17. Engine - Neutral Milk Hotel (bad picture, excellent sound)
  18. Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
  19. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
  20. Everyday - Rogue Wave (Buddy Holly cover)
  21. Day N' Nite - Kid Cudi
Be sure to comment back if you end up really loving any of them.

And if any of those links don't work then just search the songs or bands on Grooveshark, it's the best site I've ever seen for streaming just about any music there is.

I'd also like to mention a brand of tea called Honest Tea. If they have it at your local grocery store - do yourself a favor and buy a bottle. So far, I haven't found a flavor I haven't liked. Tea: the best thing to drink during summer, if you are underage.

This website is one of the funniest to come along in a while.

Ms. Kara Sutra (when she isn't bitchy) gives some pretty good advice.

Finally, if you are a do it yourself type of guy you probably already know about Instructables, but if not then check out the Throwies and other crazy LED projects.


Have a good rest of the summer!

-Max

Saturday, August 1, 2009

The D&D Experience pt. 1

This is something that has been kicking around in the back of my mind for a little while. So, if you will indulge me, I would like to tell a short story.

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I couldn't give an exact date, but it was during my middle school years when I first discovered exactly what Dungeons and Dragons is. Until then, I had only a vague idea of a game played mostly by nerds in years past. So, one weekend I was sent to stay at my grandparent's house because my parents were celebrating an anniversary, or some such holiday. Their house is very easy to picture because it is the quintessential grandparent house. Really old. Really comfortable. Really good food. I usually slept in a room upstairs that formerly belonged to my youngest uncle and still had a lot of his stuff packed away in the closet. During the afternoon I was bored, so while my grandparents were downstairs doing boring old-person stuff I decided to go digging through the closet. Invasion of privacy be damned, I was a restless little kid!

I should note that by this time I had read Tolkien, (some) Dragonlance, and Harry Potter, so, for a kid, I was well-versed in fantasy.

Although, looking back, simply reading fantasy didn't really prepare me for what I found. Several open boxes were buried under a pile of clothes, so I decided to pull those out and sort through them. What I found in them immediately seemed to me a gold mine. For effect, I'll just list everything contained therein.

Books:
  • 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook
  • 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide
  • 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual
  • 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual 2
  • 2 copies of (one is pretty ratty) 1st Edition AD&D Deities & Demigods
  • 1st Edition AD&D Fiend Folio
  • 1st Edition AD&D Unearthed Arcana
Modules:
  • The Keep on the Borderlands
  • The Isle of Dread
  • Against the Giants
  • Queen of the Demonweb Pits
  • Vault of the Drow
  • Tomb of the Lizard King
  • Lost Tomb of Martek
  • The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
  • Master of the Desert Nomads
  • Sabre River
Other stuff:
  • World of Greyhawk Folio Gazetteer
  • an old folder full of graph paper, character sheets, and item/loot information
It took me most of the afternoon to just wrap my head around everything I had found. The complexity and detail that each adventure and book contained completely blew my mind. I thought the old, hand drawn illustrations that accompanied many of the descriptions were particularly cool. Because I have always been a sucker for maps, though, the Gazetteer was my favorite. The gigantic fold out map and the accompanying booklet described in minute detail an entire world that seemed to be begging to be explored.

In spite of the internet and its endless information, I am glad that this is how I found D&D. It would have been too easy and boring to just do a Google search for Dungeons and Dragons and read up on it. This sort of hands-on discovery fits perfectly with the spirit of tabletop gaming. It's just you, your friends, a few materials, and your collective imagination that brings the stories to life. So far I had three out of those four things, my brain was excited and my imagination was really starting to cook with the possibilities offered in these books.

My grandmother eventually came upstairs to find out why I had been so quiet all afternoon. She found me sitting on the floor next to the bed reading the Monster Manual. She smiled and said something like, "Oh, you've found all of Paul's (my uncle) old Dungeons and Dragons books, have you?" Apparently, when my uncle was in high school he was also in a local boy scout troop in which he made friends with some guys who got him into playing D&D.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening combing through many different books and modules; all the while my imagination expanding. When my parents came back and it was time to go home, my grandmother said I could take all the D&D stuff with me (as parents are sometimes apt to do without asking their children first)! This made me quite the excited little boy. On the way home I told my mom all about the cool stuff I had found. By the end of that day I had learned that Wizards of the Coast was currently producing the D&D materials and that it was in it's 3.5 edition. You can guess what my Christmas list that year consisted of. Eventually, we talked to my uncle, told him what I had found, and he was only too happy to pass his stuff on to a younger generation.

Thus began my problem and overarching idea for this post.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I originally intended this to be one post, but I don't want it to run too long and bore everyone to death. So, in the next couple of days I will write part two. I hope this has given at least some insight into a much younger generation coming upon tabletop fantasy games. In the second part I'm going to discuss my current generation's lack of imagination and how games like D&D just don't seem to cut it for most kids any more.


What I'm listening to:
"Young Adult Friction" by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
It can be found under this review.

-Max