Hudson's Hideout

Ramblings of a MMO player

Author: pvthudson01

Before I go on I would like to give a big thank you to the folks here at MMO Voices for putting my podcast on the list. Thanks a ton Leala and Beau!

http://mmovoices.ning.com/page/the-banstick

Here is the thing that is good about World of Warcraft: it is immensely popular. Here is the thing that is bad about it: it is immensely popular.

Since I have decided to take part in a separate blog about reviewing games and starting from level 1 my MMO time has been ramping up again lately. Like I stated, I had to teach a newcomer to MMO’s how to play World of Warcraft and there is one thing I have learned. World of Warcraft ceases to be fun once you level cap if you are not surrounded by fun people. By this I mean people so focused on being "UBER" and not having a good time that they bring your mood down in the process. Being level capped can be a boring frustrating mess. The adventure of course is in getting there, and that is what I have always loved.

When Cataclysm is released, I think it may be fun again. Leveling old content can be hideous. Unless that is you take it in chunks, then stop. In my case I am teaching someone to play, as I noted in my last post on my blog. This is perfect for me since I can get in, run to a spot, jump up and down to show them where something is, and then immediately log out. However I feel like a sucker for having paid for 6 months and only played about 1 month of it. I guess Blizzard got me good on that one.

I have no one to blame but myself, much as I am sure that the opinions of other gamers and guild drama drove friends to quit. Lately when I am in there, even for a short time, I tend to have more fun if I shut off the world part of World of Warcraft. I leave all channels but general in a city (especially trade which for the past 2 years has been worthless and is the new general, LFG and guild recruitment channel), I instantly ignore anyone that is an idiot, I turn off player names and I go about my business like the game is a single player experience. What I have found is that, unless I know the person, OTHER PEOPLE ruin WoW and many MMO’s for me.

This leads me to believe that I may just be over that entire “social gaming” craze that seems to have others enthralled. Or does it? I see a lot of bloggers rushing out to buy these MMO’s only to play them…solo. This is an odd little aspect of gaming and a sure sign that we as gamers are diverse and have different play styles. That is why gaming with Titans in WoW could be so important! So step 2 came around in my MMO teaching and I am still having an issue with getting the player to find quests and not skip entire hubs. I have come to the point where I may actually print a map (who says printed material is dead!) and circle the areas they need to visit. I know that most quests gently PUSH you toward a new hub in the 2006 version of World of Warcraft (old world not so good at it) but when a person doesn’t know a Blood Elf from a Troll you get issues.

A reader responded to my other post that perhaps an MMO, complicated by nature, was too much to start them with. I agree to an extent but after watching them pick up and conquer Sims 3 in one day I think that it would not be an issue. The things that are delaying me the most, as another commenter also pointed out, are:

* Camera controls. The player still has issues mastering the angle of the camera

* Controls. I still cannot ween the person off of turning with arrows keys (well, the A and D keys) or get them to hold and use right mouse button to steer.

* Understanding WoW’s map. A trail or road drawn on the map is LITERALLY right there on your screen when you approach it. Follow the roads, stay safe. Even if Quest Helper shows you a direct route, skirt danger then re approach the target.

* Teaching and getting them to understand the other aspects is difficult right now. Tradeskills, the bank, the auction house. I am not even going to try approaching that. With the pimp bags I gave this player space is not an issue right off the bat.

* Talent Points: ummm…no way…not yet, not at all if I can help it. I think I may secretly log in the character and set those for them So that is where we stand now.

The player is level 18, has a pet, knows the pet commands now and can even feed the cat. I didn't think that my test subject would stick to it but sure enough each day I see the player tacking another level on, and at the same time this is drawing me BACK into the game, which is something I wanted to avoid.

Is WoW my new EQ1? That meaning is WoW that stodgy old MMO that somehow I have come to learn to hate but love at the same time and just never actually quit? I take breaks, but man I just cannot get over that year long break hump. I say I am not playing yet I find myself in there now at least 3 nights a week doing things. What the flowers is going on here? I do find that in general I am not drawn to MMO's anymore. I can take WoW in small chunks but I still find myself getting distracted and only playing about 3-4 hours a WEEK as opposed to how I used to play that much each night. I even took the time to teach my girlfriend to fish, a skill which I have never had the ability to sit and cap out.

The next layer I want to add on is teaching them to use hunter’s mark and what benefits it gives. That will open the door for explanations about buffs and debuffs.

So in the past couple of weeks my girlfriend has gotten to level 18 with her blood elf hunter. She is efficient at taking care of her pet, doing the quests now and all that, but still has trouble understanding the entire "gear" metagame and what is worth keeping or selling. She also is not as interested in AH and the auction side of things so I typically log her character in and fix up her inventory and such. Also I have not taught her about talents and I am filling those in when she is offline.

I have to relax on my faction change stance. I always wanted to go horde, but the majority of my friends from 2005 and on were alliance. As such I have my accounts built around alliance toons. They are all self sufficient as well as far as tradeskills. This faction change option gives me a chance to break free of the alliance and finally have some level 80 horde characters. I will probably put that into motion soon, but I have watch how much money I give Blizzard and really pick my best ones. Since my level 80 paladin is totally prot geared and spec'd he has the least amount of opportunity to play a different way so he will stay in mothballs for a long long time. My 77 alliance warrior is decked out with blues from Northrend and has a set of DPS gear, so he is good for a move. My level 80 alliance rogue is prime also since he does one thing and that is DPS.

On the noobie level, I am raising up a warlock to level along side the gf's hunter.

Between the podcast, watching TV shows as they wind down for the summer and catching up on movies I do not find myself playing WoW like I used to. While it is a little fresh again I think that for the most part my MMO love has dwindled so low that I am just numb to them. Borderlands hits the shelves in October and we also have Dragon Age coming up and all these will easily take time away from any MMO I may play.

Episode 3 of the Banstick Podcast records tonight and we are going to go into the fine points of what we have seen so far from Star Trek Online and interview a Titans gaming community member.

In the meantime, the Hudson School of MMO Knowledge is taking applications for the 2010 spring semester. Thank you.

Welp it aint perfect but it is up.

Did I like it? Well so so. What Styed and I learned is that we do not like to follow a format, so expect us to be more loose next cast and a little less rigid. Also it was my first go around at editing and doing all this so next cast I will have it down and be more polished. What matters the most to us is the discussion anyway.

I won't be talking too much about it here on this blog as it is. I will notify about new episodes so listen if you want and if not then that is ok. I have embedded a player on the right from our host at G-Cast. You can also download it by subscribing via XML in I-Tunes although we are not officially up on I-Tunes yet.

I have always wanted to podcast more than blog and with a dedicated co-host and a slew of guests we can pull from I can finally take my thoughts off the written website and just talk about games.

Anyway our new website is here: http://banstickpodcast.blogspot.com. That site is also linked on the right under my new spiffy blogroll.

Snarky comments on this blog about it will be deleted, since we want to keep the podcat stuff there and the MMO whiners here.

The first episode covers the following:

* Japanese gaming culture
* Styed gets picked on by a shuriken master and his mother in law
* Stranded island MMO of choice
* Why EQ1 gave us fond memories
* What is up for next episode

Our next episode is going to cover all the weird stuff Styed and I have seen in our 7+ years of leading and being part of guilds, so stay tuned for that. We have a great thread at our Titans Community site about some really odd guild drama we want to bring up.

I-Tunes: itpc://www.gcast.com/u/Banstick/main.xml

You can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Banstickpodcast

You can email the podcast crew at: banstickpodcast @ gmail [dot] com

I recently watched Second Skin, a documentary about people that play MMORPG’s. This film had been in production quite a while and was flip flopping around as to when it would be released. The primary amount of footage is from 2006 when Burning Crusade was released. You can watch the whole thing on Hulu, but I am not so sure you want to.

Directed by Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza the film immediately takes a turn for the worse when it decides to focus on how these games pretty much destroy or ruin a person’s life rather than focus on the games and the gamers themselves. What we have here is a film that takes the very stereotypes that we as MMO gamers battle to shrug off and pushes them out to the audience and makes many of us almost ashamed to be playing MMO’s.

The film doesn’t cover the industry, it doesn’t cover what the games involve, the way people interact in them or how much fun they can be. Instead the film plucks every stereotype of gamer there is (only the worst ones mind you) and then paints all of us gamers in a terribly bad light.

Lets take a look at the type of gamers featured in Second Skin and rattle off a who is who list of what other people believe MMO players to be like:

* *Lets see… take introverted lady that only finds love on internet in a game and probably owns 8 cats : check
* *Fat dudes that do nothing but guzzle energy drinks and power level: check
* *Dude that loses job cause of gaming: check. As a bonus lets have him in a run down house with no carpet and a friend that looks like a meth addict: BONUS CHECK
* *Creepy guy that preys on women through MMO’s and nerd flirts with them over voice chat: check
* *Interview mother who parented so poorly kid shot himself. Then show her trying to help other evil gamers and failing OH NOES!: check
* *Take couple with soon to be dad that doesn’t want to relinquish gaming time to parent: check
* *Coverage of gamers that live together and forget to buy basic household items, but lets cover them at a grocery store stocking up to power level in WoW the night before expansion comes out: check

What other gamer stereotype did they miss? I am pretty sure they covered them all. Yup, that’s all of us alright! Although I am sure every MMO player has run into those types and that most games do have a ton of those types of people playing, the film does nothing to go out of its way to show them in a good light. The only truly feel good story in the mix is the handicapped gentleman that is just happy to be able to play and gets a sense of freedom when he does so. Thank you for at least shedding light on one positive thing gaming can do to people.

Then when they DO COVER something that is controversial such as gold farming it is glossed over. Wait though, they do interview a gold farming company head. Guess what! This is a kinder, gentler gold farming company and he wants to treat his slave labor employees with respect and take them on field trips and have love ins! Wow, maybe gold farming isn’t that bad after all. Hell, I’ll go work for him according to what I saw in that film. Doesn’t look so bad to me!

Second Skin is pretty biased toward portraying MMO players as the utmost losers they could possibly find. All that time for this? Are you kidding me? Of all the 50 million gamers out there these people are the best you could find? One guy wouldn’t even keep toilet paper stocked in the house or go get any when his lady friend was calling him FROM the bathroom. Nope, gotta raid! Trust me, even though 90% of my WoW guilds and EQ1 guilds have at least one of those people, we usually find them few and far between. To quote another friend of mine that watched the “film”:

Looking at the stereotypes they portrayed reminds me of the Dark Ages… err… the 70’s and 80’s… when AD&D got such a bad rap for being evil. I used to save the news clippings to share with my groups. The typical story was of a dude that killed someone (or multiples) and/or committed suicide, and how police found “Dungeons and Dragons material in his house.

Although there are a lot of gamers that fit some of the stereotypes in the film, there’s also a lot of us who don’t. We have jobs, families, stocked shelves, toilet paper, RL friends, other hobbies, etc… and also play MMORPGs. I’d like to see a follow-up story about some of us.

After watching Second Skin I felt dirty and ashamed. I did not feel the film did anything but set all of us gamers back 10 years in how we are portrayed. South park was bad enough, but we all took that one on the chin. This movie is an hour long exploration into a bunch of idiots that are not able to function in real life.

Now, if you all want something better head on over and check out the Discovery Channel HD’s fine mini series about gamers, games and how the effect lives and the economy. This show is called Gamer Generation and you can catch some episodes on You Tube.

Originally posted on my actual blog at

http://hudshideout.com/blog/?p=2934

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Last night I came home and decided to avoid all MMO's and immediately fired up Empire Total War. Before I get on to the rest of the post today I just want to say that even though that game is pretty slow to develop, I fought an epic battle against George Washington at the battle of Brandywine Creek. I didn't want the British but somehow I got forced to play them. I could have won this battle. I was just too slow and did not use my units in a coordinated fashion. I had feints, flanks, and a few moments where I thought I would pull it out but in the end I just wasted too many men.

You can read what actually happened at Brandywine here, but for now that ends today's history lesson. Empire Total War is an interesting beast because the campaign is basically a built in turn based strategy game and I really have to take the time to learn it.

Ok Fallout 3. I hear many of you groan but deal with it because I have not played this game through yet. I started over, finished the early part, escaped the Vault and headed out into the post apocalyptic nightmare. Usually as far as I had gotten was Megaton. Now though I really wanted to explore the whole game so I went right into that cesspit that I always try to clear out: the Springvale Elementary school.

I always end up in here but never really gave it too much thought. Last night I wanted to clear the whole thing out and I started off by heading around the back and taking out the bandits that live up in the ruined rafters there. The fascinating thing about Fallout 3 is that you can almost do whatever you want. Case in point last night when I spent my entire gaming session in a 3 story instanced building clearing out riff raff and getting involved in their back history. That is what I love about Fallout 3 and at the same time hate about it. There is almost TOO much to do, and unless you go in set to invest time you will not like the game.

So back to the school. I had done this many times and I knew the exact spot of the bandits so I used crouch and picked them off, still getting used to the combat system I saved my action points better and suffered minor injuries. My problem in the this game is always ammo. I tried to lure many of the bandits around the corners and put them down with a baseball bat to the head.

Inside the school, and I never knew this, there is an entire upper floor, middle floor, a lower floor and tunnels. Yep there are tunnels under there and they are there for a reason. This is why I start over because each time I learn something new about the game. Turns out you will need a key to open a door, and another key to clear past the rubble to get the to tunnels. I don't want to give out too many spoilers so if you have not played the game (YEAH RIGHT) then stop here. The rest of this post is about what I found. To those of you taking off and surfing on, see ya later!

Ok so once I had figured out that keys drop in this game and there are actually mini quests inside buildings and things to do, I really started to perk up. I grabbed the key off a bandit I killed (and this whole school has been taken over by them) and then unlocked what I needed to get to around on the 3rd floor where I found the leader of the bandits and she was armed with a machine gun. After a nice little gun fight in which I managed to cap her knees, I found a desk with a working computer terminal and a key. Turns out this group of bandits had been tunneling underground to try and break into the vault from underneath. I found this out by reading entries on the computer terminal. However, they dug too deep and awakened a hive of giant mutated ants. Not being one to shirk adventure, off I went to unlock the door that led to the mining tunnels.

Once I got into the tunnels I shot up a few ants and worked my way back into the very dark areas of the mining operation and found clutches of eggs which I could loot for Ant Meat. Not the tastiest of options but if your health is low and you are out of stim paks you take what you can take. If Mel Gibson can eat a can of dog food in the Road Warrior then this is just a slight step down.

I worked my way in among the eggs and started looting them all when this horrible skittering noise started echoing all over the chamber, and I knew I had triggered a huge spawn of ants. Sure enough about 5-7 came streaming at me and I had to use all my ammo just to fend them off and take them down.

While I got XP for this, I ran out of ammo and really got nothing in return other than stacks of ant meat. I wish there had been SOMETHING down there to discover but all tunnels led to a dead end.

With all the bandits dead and nothing to search through, I decided I had had enough of the school and left the place, feeling good that for once I had explored it and finished it to my hearts content. I did come out of there with a lot of gear to sell, but unfortunately I need ammo now so it will be off to Megaton. I will let you all know how that goes later on. I may hit up Empire Total War once more tonight and dive into that grand campaign as the Russians.

Ok, so after playing the game for about one week solid and not really advancing too fast, I had to hit up the newbie forums and ask a plethora of really dumb questions for things I just did not understand.

When I start a game I tend to look at the features and figure out if they actually work or if they are gimmicks. The more I learn about this game the more in depth I realize it is, and when I start a game I like to dig under the hood and see what makes it tick (just ask Hicks who I spam all day long in email).

This bag is not loaded with tricks

First issue I ran into was this “Bounty Bag” quest thing you can do. Basically, this is DDO’s answer to the daily quests that are popping up in MMO’s all over the web now. What this is is a quest that will ask you to go talk to a particular NPC and then he will ask you to enter a dungeon that he is normally associated with. Very clever tactic actually by Turbine here. They added new content without actually having to make new dungeons. You run the same dungeon but have a chance to get a named NPC spawn and when you kill it or perform the daily task you return the bag for XP. Catch is: the named NPC does not always spawn. With no XP per kill in the game this makes it a hard sell, because some of these dungeons can be long and to not have the item drop means more grinding in a place you may hate. I tried one and my NPC did not drop, but at least I got good XP because you can repeat quests again in DDO. So while grindy, I do not mind this it beats grinding faction or some crap like that. Just be warned it is not bugged if you do not get your item.

What is the deal with Tumbling?

Ever watch the neat trailers for DDO where all the people playing are somersaulting and rolling all over like a bad Power Rangers episode? I have and I wondered to myself: WHY? Does the game REALLY take that into account? Well yes and no. There is a difference between TUMBLING and moving out of the way it turns out and to test this I watched my nifty NERD O MATIC die roller that I have displayed on my screen when I play.

Sure enough, when I moved and attacked 3rd person shooter style I lost my +4 to hit and missed a lot more. When I sidestepped, or as I have it mapped, held SHIFT and moved side to side, I kept a +3 or sometimes +4 to hit on my die rolls. So yes the game DOES account for movement. Pretty slick engine. now as for tumbling and putting points into it, the most definitive answers I got were these (I am no expert so I will leave it for them to decide if this is right or not):

I have seen people TUMBLE over water, you do go faster. You only need TUMBLE for doing the Reaver Raid. My advice, make sure your tumble skill is anything BUT not NA. That way, if people cast tumble on you or you buy the tumble buff for 100 GP, you will minimize your damage in the Reaver Raid. If you truly want to role play a rogue then put points into tumble.

and

Tumble doesn’t slow down in water. If you have to fight or move through shallow water it’s good to have a total score of 1 tumble after all penalties etc, so that you are able to roll through it at normal speed, instead of doing the ‘wading’ animation at about 1/3rd speed it feels like.

Tumbling doesn’t always stop combat. If you swing once and ‘run’ forward you transition to the running attack animation. If you swing once, tumble, when you come out of the tumble you should do the second swing in your animation.

and one last mention

Tumble is one of those skills that didn’t really make a good translation to ddo. If you have the Feat: Moblity or a Mobility item on, tumbling is a more defensive way to get out of combat (While tumbling you have +4 AC)

So in short, do not worry too much about it but use tumbling to move fast and take a swing without a penalty. As far as I can tell it is not required to roll all around but it sure does look cool. The key thing about DDO in dungeons is not to get left behind or split up. Bad things can happen much like in pen and paper D&D. As a GM, I used to love picking off characters that split up from the main party. That was a sadistic pleasure of mine. Especially when you can make it creepy and tell the other players they can hear their buddy screaming in pain. Oh, umm, where was I? Ah yes.

What if I make bad design choices while leveling up

The next question I brought up was how do I know if I am not making a totally worthless character when I choose my stats and where to use my ability points. This is usually a worry for many online games that feature achievements, talent points, trees, traits and all that gimmicky stuff. In DDO, you need to watch where you put your stat points and how you spend things because it does follow D&D quite a bit in terms of what you can do at higher levels. Syp over at Bio Break covered the great 28 point or 32 point build in a blog post already, so I won’t go over that here. Instead I asked about this from a straight new player perspective and got some answers that made me feel ok about my barbarian thus far. Now if you are a cleric or a rogue, have fun. Your choices seem diverse and confusing at the same time.

Some responses I got to this were the following:

The only thing you can’t respec are your levels chosen and skill points. And the 1 ability point (str, dex etc) you get to add to your stats every 4 levels. You can reset your enhancements every 3 days at the class trainer…and you can switch feats at fred the mind flayer.

You can respec feats and enhancements, just not stat scores and class choices..You can gimp yourself by multi-classing poorly… One should understand the game fairly well before attempting a multi-class character…

I’ve made several 28-point builds that I am not going to delete. I have fun playing and that is the most important part. The more you dwell in the details of squeaking out every point of AC or damage, the more it becomes a “job” rather than a game.

My original 28pt char, made with no DDO experience, and faced with three years of nerfs, does just fine. Might not be up to some people’s standards, but I wouldn’t worry to much if I were you.

The responses were generally that if you pick a basic build template or at least read over your class forum, you should be ok.

What does a guild do?

Well, fairly obvious but I noticed in DDO there is really nothing to making a guild. Then I noticed there was NOTHING TO A GUILD. Ugh. The only downfall about the community I have found so far is that guild’s are more or less not supported. The final analysis? Summed up well by a PM I got on the boards:

There are no guild vaults or really anything else that tends to tie anyone to a particular guild except the relationship with members. In fact, guilds in DDO are basically just a way to find groups more easily. Also guild chat can be entertaining… And for new players, they are usually a source of lots of free stuff. (As I’m sure you’re familiar with from other games, stuff that is awesome to a new player is completely useless junk to a veteran, so these gifts are win-win.)

I can do that again? OOPS!

I knew you could run quests over and over again, but I did not look into the deeper picture. This is a very instanced game, as it should be since it has DUNGEONS in the title, but I really didn’t understand why you would run the same thing over and over until I got my cleric to level 2 in about one hour. My barbarian took me two days. Why is this? Simple, I did not try the same quests over again on higher difficulty. So with my cleric (yes she is a female sue me) I decided to try this and good golly it worked. I got massive amounts of fast XP by doing each mission on solo, regular and then hard. I did try elite once. Once. I got the end and the boss mob was 3 levels above me (I was level one) and I just got destroyed.

Not only is this a good way to get XP you also can choose the rewards again. In many cases I didn’t not realize that there were say two different rings offered and especially for casters these work out well. So I would take one ring, then go back and take the second ring. I also had some mastercrafted plate mail drop for her which she put on to look pretty bad ass. So really, I actually skipped a lot of experience the first time through Korthos with my barbarian. The neat thing is I can go back if I want to but I think that perk ends at level 3.

Turn on the class loot option

Amazingly, I did not even know about this. In the options, under gameplay, you can toggle off or on the games smart loot system. Turn it on, and quest rewards are tailored to your character. Turn it off and you can get other items for other classes. What a great idea! I think it is on by default so I didn’t have to worry about it too much, but keep in mind this does not effect chest loot.

Well, those are some of the things I learned in just ONE day of research. If anything new comes up I will post it here next week. For now, I have some Dawn of War 2 to play.

This is a repost from my blog at http://hudshideout.com/blog

So over the course of last weekend when I was supposed to be playing the Aion beta I was not. Well, I did play Aion to be fair, however I stopped short Saturday and never logged back in after playing Thursday night all night. Due to the holiday and a busy schedule, I just did not feel like sitting there spamming hotbar icons and taking quest after quest in an effort to level up and have my character erased. This is called burn out guys and gals, and it has hit me hard. I am tired of MMO’s and if I sit at my computer, you had better keep me entertained and keep me involved or within 10 minutes I am off and back to the XBOX 360.

My love for MMO’s, the traditional kind, has worn off and now in my gaming twilight I am looking for instant gratification and ACTION. I know I was coming down hard on the Champions Online beta and the first 10 levels of Aion but guess what: I was coming down hard on them because they offer nothing different! Hence, I was getting bored.

So imagine my surprise when Hicks, an occasional writer here, went back to Dungeons and Dragons Online and let me know how cool the beta was for the free client. I actually managed to install the beta client and test it out and the game seemed different. I don’t know how to put my finger on it but the game seemed to work better, it was brighter, more responsive and FUN. The store was dead on in it what it offered and it FELT like a good action oriented MMO the type of which we hadn’t seen since Tabula Rasa shut down.

Since that night I have not been able to log into the beta server to test it again (some account issue I think) but I did resubscribe to DDO to get in there and test out the new player experience and by GOD I LIKED IT. I actually liked it so much that any free time I had MMO wise was spent in DDO this past holiday weekend.

Now I am not going to go into a review or any of that stuff. If you want that other bloggers beat me to the punch already. Take a read over at Bio Break and look at Pumping Irony’s AWESOME newbie island write ups from back in November of 2008 (yeah, I am late on the DDO train).

Now DDO is a game that I bought when it launched and spent about 4 days in before trashing it. The reasons were the controls, the style of fighting and it wasn’t World of Warcraft. Common little issues that we have all been guilty of yes? At the time of release I was a WoW Head I admit it. The thought of mana and hit points not returning to me and having to actually click to SWING my weapons was foreign and frightful. Now however I love it. I am involved, I have to plan ahead for my rest breaks to get HP back, and the combat seems so much more visceral.

The primary issue I always had with the game were its really dumb controls. I come from the old school mouse control world where right click mouse button hold moves your freaking camera, and left click selects a target. Not in default DDO. For some reason they made right click swing a weapon, exactly like if you play Oblivion and walk around and swing but imagine it mapped to the wrong damn mouse button.

Whenever I would try to right click to talk to someone, or pick something up I would swing my weapon and my character would enter that dumb battle stance. I was so frustrated that I just could NOT rewire my brain to comprehend this new control scheme that I actually stopped playing.

I didn’t do the research on the game, I didn’t understand the leveling, I didn’t even get why I got no XP for killing monsters. I just flat gave up, wiped the drool off my desk and jacked back into the Matrix that was World of Warcraft and it’s shiny colors.

So I have no idea what clicked or what happened this time around but I am fairly sure it had 80% to do with Oblivion for the PC and the fact that it was on sale this weekend. You see, I always wanted to like Oblivion but despite the fact it had great content and really neat side stories I was bored to fucking tears with it. I always wanted Oblivion to be online because I liked the combat and how involved you were with fighting.

After I went in and REMAPPED my DDO controls the entire game just clicked and I became instantly addicted to it. Much like Guild Wars I liked that it was heavily instanced but since it was D&D it had flavor, it had some spice to the dungeons and it was heavily reliant on atmosphere and not geared toward PVP at the end game. DDO just felt “homey” to me where I always felt like a tourist in Guild Wars because I knew if I maxed out in that game I would just quit because I super SUCK ASS at PVP.

So DDO had a great new starter island added that when I tried it last year I really did not explore completely. I know most of you are thinking “but the game is so weird” but it really is not. Think of DDO as Oblivion online and you will go in and understand the game. Think of it as “I am going to DDO from WoW” and you will hate it. For me, along with the fact that it allows me to play in chunks of time, the atmosphere and the ability to get into dungeons after all this solo content they added has really picked the game up a notch.

Now since Aion has a limited beta schedule and I had pre ordered it already, I have a lot of time to get back into gaming and see all these things I have missed and I have to say I am having a blast. Not with just XBOX 360 titles but also with free to play games like Requiem or Jade Dragon. The problem is though that even these games are technically WoW clones. After a bit, I start to zone out and I lose interest because lets face it we all know where this is going.

Not DDO though. DDO is a WEIRD game and it is weird because it has mechanics we as MMO players are not used to. Some basic facts follow.

Yes, you do not get XP per monster kill. You get it for finishing an adventure.

Yes you do not regenerate health and mana during an adventure. You need to watch it and time how you use the rest shrines.

NO you will not get uber weapons and armor drops, you must get to the chest at the end of a mission and see what is there.

YES rogues have a purpose other than to get owned by AOE in raid groups like in World of Warcraft.

No you cannot charge forward in a dungeon and expect to live.

Yes there are traps and puzzles to think about.

No you do not level fast and leveling is very odd since you have ranks within levels to clear before you actually level (think of them as EQ2 mini dings and that will help many).

Yes the game does encourage people hanging out in taverns.

Yes the class builds are odd and you can multi class.

Yes combat is twitchy but not to the point that you have to have a Street Fighter type combo menu memorized.

All these things that scared me off before are now a breath of fresh air and I wonder if Turbine is really marketing this game wrong. I think they went after a DIKU loving crowd and failed miserably to meet their target audience. Oh sure, there is an action bar and some hot keys on it. You WILL use them eventually (the first few levels on the newbie island are LAUGHABLY easy don’t let that fool you) but the core system of the combat is not a “push it and wait for it to refresh” type of combat system. You need to attack by swinging your weapon, try to trip your opponent, watch your facing, target mobs and actually AIM a bow to hit something. The game’s combat sounds lack some UMPH but it is still satisfying for me to swing a huge two handed axe and know that as long as the monsters are in front of me I will hit them in a big arc of damage. No AOE attack hotkey needed, no waiting for a cool down, no targeting. Just plain combat common sense. If many opponents are in front of you and you swing a huge axe sideways, you will clip some if not all of them. One drawback is you will click the mouse a lot if you are melee. I mean A LOT. However this is not much different than “A” button spam in a console title.

Archery is a little different. You need to target and aim and then shoot to really hit the enemy. This also makes it very satisfying when you line up a shot from far off and hear the nice THUNK when the arrow hits the mark and you see a damage number go up. Want extra fun? Turn on die rolling and watch and see what you roll when you shoot. Roll a natural 20 and sure enough you will crit on screen. This is a lovely nerdgasm moment that has to be seen and felt to understand.

Abilities are sometimes only usable a few times per dungeon run, and expending them will mean that you need to rest before getting them back. You need to plan ahead and equip what spells you want to bring in as a caster, and not having the right ones can be embarrassing and detrimental to the party. You need to think on your toes and examine everything since there may be secret doors and areas of a dungeon that if found will give you more XP upon completion.

Best of all you can BREAK things. Crates, barrels, altars, coffins you name it you can smash it (unless it is part of the artwork). In these things may be cash, potions or other items just like Oblivion. In short DDO plays like an XBOX 360 role playing game and you can even use a gamepad with it. I like this system now and it has me hooked. Another great thing is the ability to run dungeons over again even after you have finished the initial quest. I can hop online, do something for 20 minutes and get out without wasting my entire night. Sure, there are longer dungeons that require more people but the solo content is right on par with my experience in a console title that lets me save the game. I have the added bonus with DDO though of meeting up with my friends (if I can get them to play) and adventuring.

Overall I have been pleasantly surprised in the changes in the game (especially the hirelings which saved Hicks and I during one mission where we were rushed by 200 kobolds) and look forward to unlocking and purchasing extra adventures when the free to play RMT model goes live.

The newbie island of Korthos had enough content to easily get me to level 2 if you READ and do not blow through it. Many people do one or two quests and don’t look around and realize that after a bit you unlock the gate that goes out to the rest of the outdoor area: the huge island itself wherein lies many other dungeons and kill tasks and some great long distance archery combat.

There are issues with the game sure, but honestly I just wanted to blog about my experiences I am not a person paid to review games. A blog is for what you do and to talk about adventures to me so that is what I have done here.

I guess the best thing about DDO going free is that people no longer have an excuse to ignore it. I agree that the monthly price when it launched was a bit of a joke, but now there is a ton of content and some good perks to think about maybe subscribing when the F2P model goes live.

First off thanks for adding me to your blogroll, I always appreciate that and try to return the favor.

Secondly, let me direct my scant amount of readers to a blog just setup for Aion and wish him continued success. The blog is called Aionic Thoughts and is written by Naamah. So far he has had some really good material.

Blogging is not easy, especially blogging about one game. People will watch what you say carefully and then when you flip flop you get into all sorts of trouble. I just want to say as one of the first all Aion blogs out there that you have a long road ahead of you for many months. The game is still in beta but it is an open beta and that gives this blog and Aionic Thoughts the ability to write about things I cannot speak of in Champions Online. I personally think the time for the closed beta needs to come to an end so that publishers have to own up to crap before they release it to the market.

Anyway all that aside, I want to point out a recent post there that captures every chain attack available by every class, then replays them in SLOW MOTION. It is from the Asian client but you all will get the point: THE COMBAT IS GREAT. Pulling these moves off is what keeps me pumped up so I think that it is key that we all know what I am talking about.

The entire post is here but I will include one video to wet your appetite from the Ranger class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIyHBXtPHg8&feature=player_embedded

Secondly a lot of people ask me why this game and not World of Warcraft. My answer is simple really.

I prefer this:

Over this:

Plus Aion has some really cool things going for it and PVP that I would actually care about. Lastly a new developer interview is up at Game Informer featuring some questions to Lani Blazier (meow) and in the interview she outlines some key points:

GI: Are you able to do different things with content in a subscription-based payment model than in games that are free to play and supported with micropayments?

Blazier: Yes, we are able to invest more heavily in content and production value with a subscription-base game. Also, we can invest in more outside-the-game features that have yet to be announced.

Yell at me all you want with all this free to play garbage hitting the scene right now, I still like the monthly model and believe it keeps the riff raff out of your game. The downside? It keeps the riff raff out of your game.

GI: The PvPvE system sounds particularly interesting. Can you talk about how the Balaur interact with players?

Blazier: The Balaur reside in the Abyss and are our AI-controlled faction. The advanced AI on the game server is constantly interpreting real-time events and will make a decision based on various Abyss criteria. The Balaur are one of the many tools we use to keep the Abyss balanced and challenging.

Want more Lani? Check out this link: http://pc.ign.com/articles/996/996285p1.html

Very cool, a intelligent AI that effects my PVP and keeps things balanced. I like this.

That is all for today. I don’t want to harp too much on this game but I like it. So too bad.

Aion has released its official release date according to a press junket over on IGN.com and THIS official announcement on the site:

Aion Launches This September!

Your adventures in Aion begin this September! NCsoft is proud to announce that Aion launches in North America on September 22, 2009 and makes its official debut in Europe starting September 25, 2009.

Not only can you find the game at your favorite retail store, Aion will also be available as a digital download at NCsoft.com, Direct2Drive, and through Steam this September.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the special preorder promotion at participating retailers now to receive access to the Closed Beta events as well as a head start to your journeys in Atreia.

Take to the skies and become a part of a stunning world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets. Become a part of Aion this fall!

That is a long wait and that makes September a VERY interesting month. Elsewhere, the people that decide to get a Collectors Edition version of the game got a nice sneak peek of what their special wings will look like. Along with all the actual CE version of the game has many goodies hidden within.

champions-online-20080222002549826_640wThe Champions Online beta has not gone so swimmingly for me, but that is not due to a lack of developer fixes and new content.

I haven’t been able to play for a two week period and just recently hopped back on there to see how much I had missed. While I cannot go into specifics all the fans out there can be assured that Cryptic is not wasting this new time they have after delaying it. I also do not want to burn out, which started happening to me faster in this game than I like to admit.

The game is going through some good changes in beta right now and a lot of things are getting streamlined and fixed that NEEDED IT badly.

My only issues with it right now center solely on the personal aspect of:

* I got sick and then sick again and missed three weeks
* Summertime blahs
* Wonky in game issues that are now being addressed thank GOD

We have all summer. Let us see how this shapes up.

Bill Roper popped out and gave us some heads up and the Champions Online hype machine has been going crazy in the media. Over the month of June alone their RSS feed has pumped out over 22 news articles and updates. This one MMO loves to keep the community in the loop and that is a good thing. While I have access to the State of the Game posts in the beta, the general public has also gotten some updates as well which I can just post here in a general CO news list:

* Randy Mosiondz talking about what being a hero means
* A June 17th State of the Game by Daeke
* How developers are handling the ins and outs of the Nemesis code
* A look at the Stonghold Prison instance (lair)

As you can see Cryptic is giving many readers and fans a huge look at the inner workings of what makes a MMO tick. Hopefully once things settle down for me I can devote more time to the beta code.

Originally posted here: http://hudshideout.com/blog/?p=2759

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Aion beta weekend shut down (at least for us working stiffs. I may get one hour in tonight hopefully before the deadline) and afterwards the World of Warcraft players invaded the Aion boards with several “not as good as WoW” posts, which I found interesting.

One thing I noticed on every forum, and I know that in my rant the other I said I had to stop reading these places, is that no matter what people tend to post the same thing over and over. No matter the game you see the same posts put up consistently. I do not know where these people come from but in EVERY game I see the same exact things typed up. Honestly it has gotten so bad that you could literally cut and paste the same response and just change the name of the game.

One thing to temper ourselves with about the Aion hype is that NC Soft and the Seattle office (I think that is where Aion is headquartered here) are simply doing a massive translation of a game that is already underway and proven overseas. Technically, how could it really be a “beta” if we are simply testing a few cosmetic changes? Correct if I am wrong on that one but I am not sure how long the Asian version of the game has been up and running. So here we have a game that has been out and proven to work unlike the Warhammers and the Champions Online type of MMO’s that have to undergo new development and have not launched. So of course the game seems polished and is working. While in the literal sense it is still a beta, I know in the back of my mind that they have been given success on a platter for the most part (3.5 million subs overseas). Unless they REALLY screw something up. Some of us MMO players are very picky about our end game content and that could be an Achilles’ heel for some new subscribers.

Either way that is NOT the sole reason I ended up liking the game. Usually I do not do these ports because I cannot stand the universe or the wacky cuddly creatures and such. For example NeoSteam almost made me puke, as while I played it I realized it was one of the worst piles of garbage I had ever loaded on my hard drive. Going into Aion I did not expect much but now I know. The lore grabs me, the graphics (much like Guild Wars), the classes, the combat and most of all the atmosphere. When my character stands AFK in a lake or pond, he looks down and grabs a fish out of the water. As others stated, the game is rich in making you feel like part of the world. When it rains, he pulls out a leaf over his head. When he sits, he materializes a chair. Little things like that and not so over the top on the Asian anime influence. Make no mistake though that you WILL be killing a lot in this game. Every single quest is kill this, bring me that or activate this although not as bad as Wrath of the Lich King. You will be killing and killing and killing in this game and you will do it over and over and over again. Not much originality but honestly I didn’t mind it so much. This is because it is new. Would a player want to level alts consistently in this environment? I am betting they would because it is mindless and that seems to be what sells in today’s market. The quests are well written but again nothing jumped out to me as “wow that quest was awesome!”

So while Aion grabbed me right away, I have to remember that it is INDEED like a lot of MMO’s, I just happen to like the lore. We have a world torn asunder, clearly defined good and evil sides, something nasty lurking in the middle, and the ability to pick a class 10 levels in which forces you to really weigh your decision. I have decided I will be rolling Asmodian since the Elyos side is a bit too cheery and such for me. That is how it is supposed to be however and instantly it really causes a division among the players that I think spawns great PVP scorn. You need that in a game, you need that clearly defined I think. I felt it in Warhammer Online but not so much World of Warcraft, and in Everquest 1 and 2 well who cares. In WoW I simply hated Alliance players because they were seemingly the dumber players. That is a stigma the Alliance has never lived down, and I am not the only one that shares that sentiment. Yet there I was , my mains all pimped out and on the Alliance side because I went where the people were. That and at the start of the game the horde side was incredibly boring.

So while Aion is the hot ticket right now and yes I was quite addicted to it this weekend ever without getting to see the Abyss and PVP, we have to remember that many of you will simply see it as a WoW clone, not get into it and go back to Blizzard’s bosom. This will prompt a slew of new blogposts that I myself have done when I left Warhammer Online (a game I might add I have never returned to which says how much I ended up hating it). For me though it is just the break I needed because the game is so much darker and up my alley.

I would like to point out that once again I am having issues with the slow pacing of Everquest 2’s combat. This happens every single time I play that game. Taking a 42 Inquisitor to Everfrost and trying to kill things is a lesson in patience that I just do not have. I may have to switch back to my coercer or troubador. I got spoiled this weekend playing a beta for once I haven’t felt that in a long time.

What a crazy night Friday was. Our power went out for over 8 hours and I was RIGHT in the middle of playing the Aion beta. Needless to say I was little pissed, and power came back at 3am and awoke me with the shrill death knell of the fire alarm going off. The other day I pre-ordered Aion. Yes, I gave in. It looked cooler the more I read and studied up on it and when I saw how slick the gameplay was, WoW clone type or not, I had to bite. With my pre-order I got early access and an immediate beta key. I am not telling everyone to drop every game they are playing or that this will be my next MMO, but I had some cash and decided to use it on this and Red Faction:Guerrilla for the XBOX 360 a few days ago.

I couldn’t sleep so for the first time in a while I loaded up FRAPS and started taking some in game movies of the Aion beta with my Priest Azmodius.

The first movie, up on YouTube and embedded here, is just a quick film showing the combat responsiveness in the game and how fast things go. No delay here and the interface is intuitive and easy to master. So in the combat video I made it short and sweet. I wanted to show the movement during combat, the spell casting and the looting, that was it. No long speeches here just a super quick look at how fast and well oiled it was.

Find that video here:

http://hudshideout.com/blog/?p=2742  and here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXzATs9mS7c&feature=player_embedded

My next video is one showing gathering and how fast it was. Then I also show all the screens and the options for the interface. Gathering is fast and simple. While I am gathering I will show off the interface options and how fast it moves while you drag icons and place them where you want and how you can add additional quick bars. You can also set the POINT TO CLICK MOVE OFF thank God! You can of course adjust key mappings and several other standard features that make the game very customizable.

I also show how easy it is to modify the chat tabs and change the colors and filter the channels. A simple right click on the chat tab and you are there, no lag and quick and easy. You can also drag all your emotes out to the action bars and use them as well. They all have minimal voice and are well done.

Find the interface video here   http://hudshideout.com/blog/?p=2742 and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIUH9oJhFao&feature=player_embedded