Spouse Aggro!

I blog at www.spouseaggro.com, write for www.ablegamers.com, run www.mmovoices.ning.com and post all over the net. HOWDY!

Author: beauturkey

I guess I am kind of a "glass half full" guy. After all, we are talking about video games right? Still, I can totally understand some players getting very angry at their favorite developer or game. I mean, we spend hours upon hours crafting our characters, and even the hardest of the hard-core number-crunching raid-a-holic grows to love their character. When sudden changes ruin what we thought our character was supposed to be, or when games fail at doing things that we wanted them to do, it can make us a little sore.

Perhaps that's why my nomadic play-style works so well for me. I don't grow so attached to just one thing, one world, one game. Ironically, I love and develop my characters more than most players I know, but I think I have developed an acceptance of change as I have in life. In fact, I look at nerfs/class changes/game changes as an opportunity for my character to overcome something.

Having said all that, there are many GOOD changes and new things a'happenin'. I am being totally serious when I say I get giddy hearing about stuff like this. I mean, many of my friends are involved in game-making. Many of the coolest people I know play these games, as well. We have all worked together and built a pretty cool community of Twitterers, bloggers, pod-casters, developers, writers and designers. We should be proud. And it makes me excited to hear of these "indie/underdog" games doing cool things. I want to extend my congrats to those developers that are working their asses off for us, and I would like to tell them that they need to keep their chin up, and that there are plenty of people that appreciate their originality and hard-work. Even the haters do, trust me.

So let's talk about some of the recent movings that have me so excited:

1) DDO F2P doing purdy darn good: A nice lil article talking about DDO's recent success shows that F2P is (like I have always said hehe) a viable option. It is not something that is dirty, a cheat or that contributes to the downfall of games. I am so happy to be seeing this game NOT going away. This is by no means me claiming that the game is massively huge and filled with millions of players, but this is me pointing out that success can mean different things and can scale to different games.

2) Ryzom and ANOTHER new patch:  OK, what the heck? The game is getting patched up more in the last few months in the last 3 years! Gee Whilikers, this is more exciting to see because I have always pulled for this game, and knew that with some development it would not only step into "modern" MMO'ing but would be a game to look at for amazing ideas that other games should try. At this rate, all my dreams might come true for this game. Well, maybe not the one where I get a Gubani mount, but still...

3) Vanguard gets mentoring: Not that many high levels would want to show my noob butt around, but this is cool. I honestly was so scared that VG might start fading fast, especially the worse I saw some of the community become. No one seemed to actually enjoy the game anymore, but that might have been the result of some kind of tunnel vision I had by being too immersed in that community. This is still one of the classiest "real" MMO's out there, still looking good and still feeling HUGE. Good job, guys!

4) Mabinogi gets hot air balloons and MORE content: People that don't understand need to listen up: F2P games often update themselves in faster and BIGGER ways than subscription based games. They have to. If they didn't, you just leave the game and never come back,because  after all you didn't pay anything. And Mabinogi must be one paranoid game, because they update the heck outta' themselves. Hot air balloon dragon fights? Yep. New lands? Check. More skills to add to your 4 billion other fun skills? YESSSSS.

5) I dinged level 20 in The Chronicles of Spellborn: OK, technically this has nothing to do with you. But heck, I wanna' brag. While I wish the game hadn't been forced to go F2P and the original dev team forced to go elsewhere, this is a golden opportunity to play one of the most original titles out there. Take your time, enjoy the lore, meet some people, go exploring. An amazing game, still. I think that around the beginning of next year it will come out as a "true" F2P game with a cash shop element, and there might be a character wipe. Still, PLAY THIS GAME. And if you are one of the dev's that has read this blog before, know that it is my DREAM to interview one of you. Even off the record. Man, I got so many questions! :)

6) Wizard 101 talks mounts: Me and Leala covered the new mounts for www.ablegamers.com a bit ago, but man are they going to be a success. I want to buy 4 of them. No, 18. No, 439. I will buy them all and line them up and name each one and make a parade of awesomeness. Mounts are not really needed, being that travel time is low in the game, but I adore the fact that they will be PURE BRAGGING RIGHTS. Yes, please, may I spend 400 dollars?

7) Earth Eternal goes into open beta! This lil gem of a game runs right out of your browser, or once downloaded can be ran as a stand alone client. Furries? Yeh, but not that way. Only 4 classes, but once you are done customizing your character, you will fight like none other. Great stuff!

There's more good stuff out there, but I really need to cook some supper.

If you have had a recent burn-out, or recently wrote a gripey blog about how MMO's suck, TRY MORE. Take your time, explore. Literally avoid leveling for a while. Role-play. Write a character bio. HAVE FUN. Right now is a time of development in MMO's, and by that I mean community-wide. Developers are learning from us, we are learning from them, communication lines are more open than ever before thanks to Twitter, podcasts and really cool companies like Kingsisle.

This is Christmas come early. The new year will bring so much, I can feel it.

And no, I'm not drunk.

Beau