oh man i have no idea, haven't played in ages. Last thing I remember was that I had a lvl 40 something Paladin, with a samurai sword, some type of plate armor with black and white checker marks, and matching shield. Damn, been forever...even worse I am really thinking about resubbing now due to this thread lol!

anyone know how the bot population is? is the market still outrageously overblown?

I too am running vista 64bit, one thing i have noticed with NC SOFT games is that I have to run them as administrator for them to work properly. I am currently playing the Aion Trial and am considering coming back to L2 as well.

I just do a simple right click, run as administrator on the play NC launcher Icon and I am good to go. Beforehand I was Freezing/Crashing on the Aion splash screen, right before you got to the login screen.

I just started playing myself, figuring out the UI etc. I am enjoying the game, just feeling a little too directionless, and the lack of info on how to do things like train skills, where can I find the trainers etc.

Did my first Adventure Guild Leve just fine, but when it comes to crafting the "tutorial" doesn't really tell me how to gather and craft.

One of my leves is asking for a skill called "Lay of the Land" a quest to collect tinder for the innkeeper in Limsa Lominsa. I looked at my abilities (I am a Lancer) and cannot find the skill anywhere. Did shout a couple times in General chat for some help, but no answers.

i looked at the Lodestone website, it's ok, but it doesn't break things down enough atm. Any really good online resources for this game. Anyone have any advice?

not to hijack your thread orm, but after reading it, it looks like you are beginning the game too?

I think there are a few reasons why they would go console only.

EvE is always dealing with Lag issues, a console is a closed system with a set group of specs. So you won't be adjusting settings to get the game to run at a decent FPS to go with the scale of the battles CCP is proposing.

Secondly, I don't think  CCP wants to cannibalize it's playerbase from EvE. It's trying to bring in a new group of players that might not even know what EvE online is. At least it's not like Nintendo where they wanted to get your grandma to play games too.

CCP also has every right to grow as a company and expand into new markets.

I do agree with the fact that with console shooters, players do tend to migrate from game to game very quickly. There's never been a reason to really stick around. The only games I've found where people still play on a regular basis are rainbow six, and ghost recon. I think dust will be the  game that offers players a world and incentive to stick around. MAG on the PS3 wasn't bad, it had some persistant world characteristics, like faction bonuses that carried over depending on how many matches won by that particular faction, but it still wasn't enough.

The console shooter market is highly competitive yes, but the MMO market is too. I mean c'mon now, every time there's a whisper of a new game message boards light up with "OMG! wow killer... best game ever, blah blah blah" with only a screenshot as proof.

Who knows, maybe you will have some console players get tired of slogging it out in the trenches and enter the EvE universe as a new pod pilot.

[edit] I do know I will be playing Dust next time I have a 21 day skill to train.

MMORPG.com and Massively seem to be having the same issues with the beta codes. The Official forums are saying that all the codes should be active/turned on, on Thursday.

Originally posted by MystaIV

 In the end, who cares?

This is the smartest quote here. We are all gamers, we are all going to play what we want. Until Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo start paying me for lip service, I am going to remain console neutral. Each console has their ups and downs, I don't care who has more units sold, or who has a bigger online population, or who is gonna outsell who. I am going to play the games I want to play regardless of platform.

All the nitpicking and semantics going on about console gaming just gets annoying after awhile. In the MMO realm games are competing for your monthly sub, and that +1 to the server population so the wonderful discourse here is absoulutely necessary :P. I feel like I have to make a bigger commitment to a MMO than I do a game console. Just so I am not misunderstood, I do own all 3 systems plus I am a PC gamer (see, no time-space continuum distortions there, it's ok to do both). 

Both systems have been out for awhile now, so are threads like this even necessary? There's plenty of info out there for people. Magazines, Websites, etc. Or does someone have buyer's remorse and needs to justify it?

I'd rather talk more about the games themselves than the platforms they are on.

I just finished reading Soul Hunter, a really good Night Lords novel. It makes a nice nod to an older novel called Lord of the Night.

Been reading the Heresey series as well, looking forward to the next installments, I think Flight of the Eisenstein and Battle for the Abyss are my favorites so far. I wonder what happened to Captain Garro and if he has any involvement with the inqusition, or he was there for the founding of it.

I am taking a break and am currently reading a kick-ass zombie novel called Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile. The first book was you guessed it, Day by Day Armageddon. I highly recommend these novels to any zombie fan out there.

Back to 40K next novel on my list is part of the Battles series: Helsreach.

I started playing this not too long ago, and have been having fun with it. So far all i have come across is rolling gun battles, i haven't seen much in the way of takedown and arrest. which way is it? non-lethal or lethal? is there a difference?

out of extreme morbid curiosity and boredom i picked the game up today. yeah, there's stuff that's definately broken, but I have a feeling it will be ironed out eventually. i do feel like I am paying to play a beta but, it's not like I have to sit and grind to compete. the thrill of being in a car chase with 3-4 other players (3 diff cars) chasing down 2 other players (2 diff cars) was a watershed moment for me. I was having a blast at that point.

with limited playtime coming up, I will definately be sticking with this.

overall, let's just say I was pleasantly suprised

Originally posted by MarlonB

I almost feel like they pulled an NGE on me ... i'm pretty dissapointed ... i don't want  another loot grinder :S

 Tell me, i'm i overreacting? Is the impact less then i feel it is? 

I don't think you are overreacting, and I still feel the same way. I feel like the whole balance the game previously had is off.

Pre-Sandstorm phase 1. I had no problem telling people about how much of a fun, well balanced game it was. I honestly could not shut up about this game to friends and co-workers. Post patch the game just doesn't feel the same as it did. I am not a fan of token grinding, Why couldn't they just add more weapons and devices post lvl 30? The PvE was fun, I played it for xp and crafting loot, I pvp'd for cash and fun.

I am happy they made the decision to change their subscription model because I would not have subbed to the game in it's current state. Now at this point yes I have a love/hate relationship with the game, but I am not totally gonna write it off just yet I  need to see the full release of Sandstorm before I can make a more honest judgement on where I stand with this game.

@cerebrix we are all thinking the same thing :)

if you noticed in the comic they are launching nanites, weren't nanites the ammo for the repair gun?

Been playing on and off since launch, i like the fact that it's very team oriented, and a bit slower than  cod:mw, fun game, worth the money. Blows SOCOM: Confrontation out of the water.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series of DoW games, DoW and it's expansions are more typical RTS fare. DoW 2 is more squad oriented with RPG-ish elements.

either way, both are really good, solid games. They just released an xpac for Dow2 adding in Chaos.

Another thing would be to mess with SDKs and get familiar with the different tools available. Try making a mod for Half Life 2, or try your hand at mapmaking with the Unreal 3 engine. Source and Unreal books are available at your local bookstore in the computers section.  The mod tools for both are easily available and would be a great way to get your feet wet.

Testing is another ball of wax alltogether. It's a great foot in the door, entry level gig and a way to get yourself established. Expect a lot of repetition and long hours, if you work on the publishing side of things, be prepared to work on games you wouldn't play normally, or just don't like on a personal level as well. You could be grinding away hours on a build of the latest kid tv show fad.