So I Met an MMORPG Player in Class Today

I haven't really announced it on the blog that I have gone back to school for the fall semester. If you ever met me in real life you would think that I am not a day over 18. Fact is I am approaching 25 and am just starting technical college. I am often confused as just another "kid out of high school", but that does not bother me. Anyways this is all besides the point. I am in school and go to class everyday.

Today we had a lab to do. A simple lab: install Windows 98 SE on our hard drives. While doing the lab I started talking with the older female that was sitting next to me. We ended up talking about routers while we waited for Win 98 to install. She didn't know how to secure her wireless so I told her about a story involving my roommate and how our old neighbor found out he was piggybacking for free on their wireless access. Long story short she said "As long as it doesn't effect my games."

Being the self asserted genius that I am I put some clues together. What game or type of game could be so important that you wouldn't want it to be affected? MMORPGs... duh! What is the most popular MMORPG out right now? World of Warcraft... duh!

This doesn't mean everyone I meet that talks about video games or gaming is automatically thrown in the WoW category, but for this particular instance it was my best logical guess. So I said bluntly... "You play World of Warcraft." Not a question... a statement. Of course I was correct.

Turns out she is also playing in a couple of beta tests. Specifically Lord of the Rings Online and Vanguard:SoH. And here is the meat of this post:

Me: So how's Vanguard?
Her: Sucks. Can't even kill level 1's and the graphics run like crap (she has a moderate gaming rig, but still relatively new). Death penalty is stupid.
Me: I agree.
*senseless jabber occurs about Brad McQuaid*

Me: So how is LotRO?
Her: Great. It's beautiful and runs really well.
Me: I saw a video and I think the game looks boring... combat is slow and unimaginative.
Her: You have to try it because the combat is very fun.

Now these aren't exact quotes, but it gives the jest of what she was saying. On one hand it gave me some insight into LotRO which I was surprised to hear was going so well. I just lack faith in Turbine after Asheron's Call 2. Of course the other side is Vanguard and I must say she confirmed what I've been bitching about all along.

So overall it was a productive lab even if it took me a bit longer to install Win 98 than I had planned.

Mind Control in World of Warcraft PvP

Me: Oh look that priest is casting a spell.
(Priest is casting Mind Control)
Me: Oh I better interrupt that.
(You interrupt with Earth Shock)
*fighting occurs*
Me: Oh look the priest is casting again.
(Priest is casting Mind Control)
(You can't cast Earth Shock yet.)
(You can't cast Earth Shock yet.)
(You can't cast Earth Shock yet.)
(You can't cast Earth Shock yet.)
(You can't cast Earth Shock yet.)
(You can't cast Earth Shock yet.)
Me: Oh shit... there is a cliff next to this Lumber Mill in the Arathi Basin battleground.
{You take a lot of falling damage.)
(You are dead.)
Alliance has taken the Lumber Mill.
Alliance has won Arathi Basin.

Mind Control is still allowed in PvP... that's another one for the "What the fuck were they smoking when they came up with this?" file.

Update: 10 Nov, 2006 - Applied labels.

Vanguard : Watch how boring our game really is!

Ten Ton Hammer has a set of four Vanguard:SoH beta videos up for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately for Brad and friends they are just four more reasons not to play Vanguard.

Comments

• The animations are stiff and repetitive. They do not look dynamic or fluid at all.
• Whack. Whack. Whack. Nothing stellar at all found in the combat portions. Actually the combat looked quite boring and repetitive.
  
• Did that big bad wolf just run through solid stone? Yep it did. Next generation graphics... same old problems.
• Can the camera be any more jerky? It is commendable that they shot in game footage instead of a developer hacked ride by of the game world, but god damn is the camera really that laggy in the game? Were the graphical settings turned up a little bit high?
• Hello I am "insert NPC name here" and my legs don't work. Once again this is supposedly a next generation MMORPG, but the NPC's still don't move and still need little indicators over their head to get the players attention. After playing with Everquest II's voice acting I was quite surprised by its effectiveness. Even if I just want to skip through the bullshit and get to the quest/merchant/etc. it was still nice that an NPC would beckon for me to come over and talk.
• Did I mention how BORING combat looked? Just checking.
• The one thing that I did like was the UI that was in a couple of the videos where they were fighting in the desert. It looked clean and manageable. It was hard to tell what everything did, but it seemed like there was a good and solid base to play the game.

Vanguard:SoH is going to fall flat on it's face. An MMORPG just can't afford to launch with next generation graphics when the majority of gamer's computers are still last generation. World of Warcraft hit on the fact that a lot of potential gamers just don't have souped up gaming rigs. Next generation graphics require bigger budgets and the choice to go with better graphics means you are sacrificing a good 3/4 of your potential customers. No I don't have numbers to back that 3/4 up, but the WoW vs. EQ2 has been more than enough evidence to convince me.

I truly feel sorry for Brad and friends... I truly do.

Welcome to the new Heartless Gamer

I finally got around to cleaning up my blog template and switching over to the new Blogger Beta. It offers easy to use template tools that have allowed me to customize my template without having to rewrite the whole thing myself; which is great!

One of the biggest new features is: labels. I am in the process of retro-updating all old posts to include a label. Hopefully, this will help visitors find older posts on my blog about certain topics with the simple click of a label.

The template is not exactly what I want yet, but its a good start. I will slowly be adding to it with little tweaks here and there. If you see anything acting funny just let me know in the comments.

Update: 8 Jul, 2007 - Edited post and applied labels.

That Gaming Itch: Call of Juarez MP Demo

That Gaming Itch

Every once and a while I get an itch for some type of game, in some sort of setting, that I don't always see in the spot light. For a while now, I've been wanting to play a good western-themed shooter. There are a couple Half Life 2 mods floating around that have been working on the idea, but none of them have produced a playable mod yet.

The other night I was surfing for gaming news, and I came across a multiplayer demo for Call of Juarez. It is a soon to be released western-themed shooter from Techland and Ubisoft. Without hesitation, I decided to satisfy my gaming itch.

Pros and Cons

I am going to break this down into a Pros and Cons list, as it will be the easiest way to review this game's multiplayer demo.

Pros

• The setting feels authentic. The two available maps felt like towns right out of a good spaghetti Western.
• The concepts behind the game modes make sense with the western setting. One map is centered around the Outlaws robbing the bank and the Lawmen defending, while the second map is just a straight up timed team death match (TDM).
• Graphics are up to snuff. Nothing to complain about. I didn't have a single issue related to graphics and I ran the game on max settings.
  
• When zooming in with a weapon you lose focus with everything except what you are zoomed in upon. A unique twist I haven't seen before.
  
• Not a single crash to desktop for the entire time I played.
  

Cons

• Due to the unbalanced nature of the weapons in game, the two classes, Six Shooter and Rifleman, didn't really provide enough variety.
• Piggybacking on the first con: the rifle is the most effective weapon in game. It can be fired as fast as the trigger is pulled and does two times the damage of the Six Shooter's pistols.
• The in-game server browser is trash. It makes Battlefield 2's server browser look like a golden nugget. The update and refresh buttons rarely worked and the game froze several times while at the server select screen.
• The game suffers from several connection issues. I can't remember ever actually quitting a server. Every game I was forced off by connection issues, or a flat out server crash.
• The Outlaws are Native Americans (Indians) and the Lawmen are White Men. Hmmmm... anyone crying injustice yet? Racist? Got me, but when I think Outlaw in the old west I'm thinking of Billy the Kid, not Chief Tonka.

Conclusion

In the end, the demo was fun overall when I was able to connect to a server not having connection problems. The action was quick and refreshing. Unfortunately, this game didn't make enough use of it's western theme. Besides the idea of shooting it out in an old mining town as an Outlaw or Lawman, there isn't much else that puts the western in Call of Juarez. Maybe I was looking for horses, trains, or Mexicans. Maybe just something other than White Man vs. Indian. I really don't know, but Call of Juarez just didn't deliver anything that screams "must play".

If you are interested in a western themed FPS, then Call of Juarez can satisfy you for a few minutes. I make no guarantees that the server browser or connection issues will be fixed, but I can't imagine them giving up on the title before some major holes are plugged. Call of Juarez is just another FPS that fails to innovate or impress.