Guild Wars 2: Ranger Pictures

PC Gamer has news on the next Guild Wars 2 class, the Ranger.  Included are some shinies:

Update: Videos available at the main site as well.

Have MMOGs changed the single-player gamer in me?

I've been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as of late and I'm coming to realize something: playing MMOs has damaged my ability to enjoy single player RPGs to a degree.  I find myself playing Oblivion with the console up and entering cheats to get items or to reset my status with the in-game law enforcement.

I find it annoying that Oblivion asks me to run from shrine A to town B just to pick up a head of lettuce, some yarn, and a soul gem.  I can cut that trip out and just dump the items into my bag with the console commands.  And I don't feel the least bit sad about doing it.  It doesn't hurt my enjoyment of the game one bit.  I really don't want to run to town and hope I find a vendor with the goods I need.  I just want to get on with the story, not waste time grocery shopping!

After playing Ultima Online for a couple years, I could still go and play a game like Baldur's Gate II and enjoy haplessly doing side quests and any number of annoying single-plater things.  However, I started to notice I wasn't enjoying exploring every inch of single-player RPGs as I previously had in my glory days of Super Nintendo greats Chrono Trigger and Playstation wonder Final Fantasy 7.  I was starting to need single-player RPGs-on-rails.  Games had to lead me from A to B and cut out a lot of the normal bullshit associated with RPGs.  I realized that I was only fooling myself.  No one would care (I know I wouldn't) if I cheated a little to get through the parts of single-player games I didn't enjoy or just ignored things that distracted from beating the game.

A decade and thousands of hours of MMOG gaming later, I guess online gaming has damaged my single-player appetite for good.   Playing through the handful of single-player RPGs I snagged during the Steam holiday sales over the past year, I have no patience left for anything that doesn't get me closer to finishing the game.  Especially when we are talking about games like Oblivion where powerful command line tools are available to make the experience better.  I can pretty much cut what I don't care about from the game and get to the best part: finishing the damn game. 

This is all quite ironic considering that MMOGs rarely have an end of which to reach.  Sure, there is a max level and end game goals, but they aren't really win conditions.  The next time I walk into town, I could be meeting a player that I will spend the next year playing with.  I could be one group invite away from a new guild.  There are a lot of possibilities with MMOGs and the most important factor is the presence of other players.  Playing Oblivion right now would be immensely boring if another player entered my world and played the way I did: we'd both be gods.

I think the point with MMOGs that resonates most with me is that there are dozens of other players slowly slogging through the same hell that I am.  If I have to kill X and then run to town Z to get A and then trek it back to town F, I can feel secure in knowing there are tons of other players that have or are doing the same.  I may even have an underrated victory if I find myself being more efficient than other players and fitting in quest Q on the way to town F.

There is an underlying sense of  competition in any multiplayer game.  Knowing that I am doing something legitimately better than another live human being is wonderfully powerful.  Knowing that I am doing worse than someone can be provocatively motivating (or just as easily soul crushing).  Without that competition, I lack the drive to care about the details and will do whatever is necessary to enjoy my single-player experience.  Though, some days while playing an MMOG, I sincerely wish that Basterd Sword of Slaying was only a tilde away from my grasp.

Part II : Star Wars: The Old Republic beta leaks

Apparently some people are angry that I posted a link to some supposed beta leaks for Star Wars: The Old Republic (SW:ToR).  Generally I agree that linking to beta leaks is poor form, but I felt the "ask me anything about the beta" post on Reddit was laid out well and free of the general "OMGz I'm in the beta and you arz not!!!" style that makes beta leakers so annoying.  Eventually we learned that the supposed beta leaker was not in fact a beta tester and was simply answering questions with information available elsewhere.

So, lets do a quick run down of what we learned from the "not really beta leaks" posting.

• Individual story areas are instanced and vary based on your character's own story.  Areas for your story are designated by green energy fields, while areas not involving your story are marked by red energy fields.
• We already knew this from playtests at E3.
• Combat is based on fighting multiple enemies at once instead of one vs one fights.
• We already knew this from playtests at E3.
• The cover system works well and is central to combat for some classes.
• We've known this since the first video about the cover system was released.
• Enemy NPCs follow your character as they run through an area.  Some aggro at a distance while others have a buffer zone where they simply watch your character; get too close and then they attack.
• Pretty much the standard behavior for NPCs in RPGs; MMO or not.
• There is no PvP, spaceships, or space in the beta yet.
• We already knew they weren't revealing their PvP aspects yet and have announced little to nothing in regards to space/spaceships.

In conclusion, we learned nothing.  Some fans who haven't been keeping up with the game may have found a few gems (like the red or green energy fields), but overall it is obvious to me the beta leaks were not from a beta tester.  I'll let you know when the real beta leaks start and we get to see something amazing like space flight or a combat system that doesn't suck.

Blizzard caves, no more Real ID on forums

Blizzard has caved on the idea of having players post using their real life names on the Blizzard forums.  Details are laid out in a posting by Blizzard's CEO, Mark Morhaime.

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

Bad ideas are bad mmmm k?

Star Wars: The Old Republic beta leaks

And the original post has been removed.

Update: 10 July, 2010 - Adding to the drama, apparently the beta leaker was NOT actually a beta tester and was just making it all up; summed up nicely by this picture from a Reddit moderator:

With that out of the way, does that mean we can repost what was said in the thread? It's not truly beta leaks and for the most part was really just covering what we already knew (ableit explained a bit better).

Update: 11 July, 2010 - Part II of my beta leaking has been posted.

World of Warcraft going Free 2 Play?

Is it possible that we may see a free 2 play World of Warcraft at some point in the future? That is the question being pondered in a piece over at PC Gamer:

The rise of the free-to-play western MMO hasn’t gone unnoticed at Blizzard, developers of World of Warcraft, the dominant western subscription MMO. Speaking to PC Gamer at their studios in Irvine, California, World of Warcraft’s lead designer, Tom Chilton, explained that “at some point, it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee.”

We all know that WoW was a game changer as far as MMOGs were concerned and with every expansion or change it continues to be one. If WoW was to make the switch to free 2 play, it would become something even greater than a game changer. It's legendary status would be cemented and the genre changed forever.

With that said, I don't see it happening anytime soon and when and if it does, it will be long after WoW has peaked and the money train has moved on to another Activision Blizzard title.

June 2010: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

June was an interesting month for my gaming.  I came into the month with no set "Game of the Month" and no plans to play anything specifically.  Then Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers (DotP) was announced for Steam and shortly released.  Also, a mid-month Steam sale on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion took a chunk out of my wallet.

I have embedded the new What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying spreadsheet for June below.  The overall spreadsheet (includes previous months) can be found here.

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Game of the Month

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

Cost: $9.99
Played: 20 hours
3-words: casual Magic fun

While I didn't enter the month with a game of the month in mind, I ended the month with a winner in DotP.  My three word description really fits the game.

Casual:  DotP is all about getting in and playing Magic the Gathering.  Some rules are simplified, the decks are pre-constructed, and the game is dead simple to operate.  However, this can be a negative for anyone looking for a more hardcore Magic experience.  I suggest those hardcore players look at the official Magic the Gathering Online.

Magic: any current or past fan of Magic the Gathering will immediately identify with the game.  It is a solid representation of the game mechanics. The only part missing is the collectible aspect as card lists are set and there is no real collecting to be done, but that's OK as its not the focus of DotP.

Fun: this is a subjective term as some players just don't like card games and there is nothing here that will convince them to like them.  But for those players that do enjoy card games, this is probably the best casual PC card game available.  There are no booster packs to buy, decks to construct from scratch, or proxy cards to tape together.  DotP is about getting to the fun of playing.

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/Played

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I started my journey in Oblivion as a Wood Elf with the customer Heartless class (yes, I named a class after myself!).  I've spent a few hours wandering around and enjoying the game.  There is quite a bit to do without actually doing anything.  It can be annoying sometimes, such as when you are trying to talk to someone and inadvertently steal the cup in front of them prompting a little run in the with the town guards, but once a player gets used to the game it is a fun game.

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/Paid

Total spent this Month: $18.49
My Value Rating: Excellent

For $18.49 I purchased two great games which are aiming to give me a couple hundred hours of playtime.  

Time flys, 10 years

Ten years ago I was just leaving high school on a journey to the great state of Texas for military basic training.  To be honest, I was a little bit scared (too much Full Metal Jacket filling my head). Ten years later, I wouldn't trade my military career for anything and the FMJ nightmares are all gone now that I've met R. Lee Ermy in real life and realized he's a pretty cool cat.

Also, ten years ago as of yesterday, Diablo 2 was released.  Happy belated birthday!

Allods Online removing Fear of Death debuff

I just received news that in Allods Online patch 1.1.0, the Fear of Death (FoD) debuff will be removed:

The upcoming Allods Online Patch 1.1.0: Revelations of Gipat introduces new content and gameplay mechanics. In fact, one of the most controversial aspects of the game, Fear of Death, is being eliminated!

Fear of Death is a debuff that players receive upon death which reduces all of their offensive stats by 25% for an amount of time proportional to their level. It can be removed by spending Drops of Myrrh that can be bought from vendors, using Incense that can be bought from the Item Shop, or just waiting it out. However, most users will rejoice in knowing that Fear of Death will no longer be a part of the game.

For those that have followed Allods Online's progress from beta to launch, FoD was the most controversial topic. It is the reason Keen, and I suspect many others, decided not to stick with the game.  Personally, I disliked FoD, but came around to an agreement with myself that it wasn't that bad since I only played the game casually.

I didn't agree that it was a cash shop or micro-transaction issue.  What I didn't like about FoD was the fact that it didn't make sense in terms of gameplay.  Reading these upcoming changes, I feel somewhat vindicated in my prior stance.  If FoD was a mechanic meant to create revenue, as many argued, it wouldn't be getting yanked from the game.  This to me, is evidence enough that it was just a bad gameplay mechanic awaiting replacement. And now Allods is getting that replacement:

When a player dies in the upcoming patch, instead of receiving a debuff to all of their offensive stats, players will have a very small chance that a curse will be cast upon them. The curse will randomly land on one of a player’s item slots; however, if the curse lands on a slot that is empty or contains an item that is Uncommon or Common, the curse will be deflected, leaving the contents of the item slot unharmed. If the curse lands on an item slot that contains an item that is Rare, Epic, or Legendary, its stats will become inverted.

Bosses in dungeons and raids will now also drop Cursed Items in addition to the items that they usually drop. This means that means that players will have a chance to receive more loot, which can be used once the curse is removed.


In order to remove a curse from an item, players can purchase Scrolls of Purification from the Item Shop, or buy them from other players. Players can also avoid items becoming cursed with each death by wearing Holy Charms. Players may have up to 1000 Holy Charms equipped at a time and each time the player dies, one charm will be used to deflect any possible curse. Holy Charms are available for purchase in the Item Shop, and can also be bought from other players.

There are no hard numbers to substitute for the "chances" mentioned in the blurb above, but as FoD was in effect 100% of the time, this is already a better system.  Also, it does a better job of defining the Cash Shop's role in the death penalty revenue scheme.

While I don't like the idea that any game penalizes players and then tells them to go into a Cash Shop to remove that penalty, the proposed system has a couple of tricks up it's sleeves.

First, the items are player trade-able, creating a currency system of sort for players that have real life cash and want to exchange it, legally, for in-game goods and services.

Secondly, it offers proactive and reactive items to be purchased allowing players to decide how they want to pay.  Players can pay up front and carry Holy Charms to prevent the curses or they can pay on the back end after a curse has hit via the Scrolls of Purification.

Or, players don't have to pay at all by keeping stashes of spare equipment on hand to replace any cursed items.  This may not be efficient or advisable, but it does allow players to continue their free rides.

Allods Online is still a great game and I am looking forward to getting back into at some point and the upcoming Patch 1.1: Revelations of Gipat will be live July 7^th!

Hidden Gems from E3: Heroes of Three Kingdoms

E3 has come and gone.  We've learned about Kinect, Move, and the 3DS.  The major players were as expected and it was a very console heavy show.  However, hidden in the pile of consoles were some gems for the PC market.  The first one I'd like to point out is Heroes of Three Kingdoms, a free-to-play PvP MMO from Perfect World.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun sums it up nicely:

It’s weapon based, with your role changing depending on what you choose to tool up with. Finally – and most RPS-interestingly – in the end game, after you’ve formed legions and conquered cities, leads to a large-scale board-game which apparently involves keeping your population happy and taxation and similar.

That blurb certainly has me interested.  Further, there is a video:



With all of this said and watched, I just don't have time for another MMO in 2010, but if you are interested; Heroes of Three Kingdoms is set to launch Q3 2010.

Holy **** : OnLive on an iPad

This video literally made me shit my pants.  OnLive, the cloud gaming service launching right as I post this, shows off Borderlands.  Now this was only a tech demo, but one hell of a tech demo it was.  I still will not buy an iPad, but come later this year and 2011 when decent Android and Windows 7 tablets start launching I may have to give OnLive a try.




We may very well be looking at the future of PC gaming.

Guide for Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalker

As I mentioned on my twitter stream a while ago, there is a great guide for Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalker available over at PlayHaven.com.

Introduction

This guide is aimed at anyone who wants to get better at playing Magic, and specifically on Duel of the Planeswalkers (DOTP). This guide will also be a reference point for all other guides I write for this game. Beginners and casual players will probably benefit the most from this. Advanced players may find much of what I say obvious to them, but may pick up a useful tip here and there. I will cover a lot of the mistakes that are often made by beginners, not to poke fun at them, but to help them understand how they can improve. I will also cover more advanced techniques that can be used to gain small advantages here and there. Magic is all about making the most out of every single card that you draw, and every little thing matters.

I have been playing Magic for about 15 years and feel that my experience in both constructing and playing decks can be of value to others.

Enjoy!

Debunked: 10 Reasons not to buy Duels of the Planeswalkers

I love forum posts like this.  First, the list is only 7 items long (as of this posting).  Secondly, half the mentioned issues listed are non-issues.  Breaking it down one by one.

1. No online CO-OP 

Alright, I concede this point.  Everyone was disapointed that the co-op mode was local only and not Internet-enabled.

2. No Text chat

The Steam community is available in all Steam games and includes text chat.  As Duels of the Planeswalkers (DotP) is built on Steamworks, it is easy enough to start up a chat with another player based on their Steam username. 

 3. Game is currently unplayable for several users, especially some users with ATI video cards. <-- upgrade your video card drivers and try the demo first.

This can be said about every PC game.  PC is a hostile and varied platform to play on.  So far, I have had no issues and I know no one who has had any (out of three friends playing).

4. No deck building <-- I knew this going in but still its a negative in my book and even more so now that we have discovered reasons # 1 - 3.

If the original poster knew this, then they are dumb for including it.  If they expected differently, they are playing the wrong game.  MtG: Online is over here.  And for clarity's sake, there is minor customization as additional cards can be unlocked for each deck and added or removed before each game.

5. Music / Sound. its horrible and very annoying.

It can be disabled.  Plus, its a fucking card game, what was expected for sound?  Turn the damn radio on.

6. the game auto taps your land cards for you.

Finally, a second point I can agree on.  This is annoying and borderline game-breaking for multi-color decks.

7. You cant mute the other player online. <-- which sucks because some times you just dont want to know what they are doing with their other hand.

OK, I'll give in on this one as well, but I maintain there is still the ability to turn off the sound on your PC.

Conclusion

Buy the game, but don't expect a hardcore experience.  It's fun, casual MtG. 

Magic: The Gathering, Planeswalkers,Tactics

Magic: The Gathering (MtG) Duels of the Planeswalkers has launched today on the PC via Steam.  Duels of the Planeswalkers is a simplified version of MtG where players play with set preconstructed decks and modified rules.  It is meant as an introduction to MtG as there is already a true MtG Online that is faithful to the hard copy CCG.

I've downloaded my copy (plus expansion pack 1) and will have some comments up later this week.

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Secondly, we have new information out of E3 about SOE's MtG: Tactics,  a 3D strategy game based on the MtG world and lore.  Watch the video below:



It's an interesting take on MtG, but I'm not sure I'm sold on it after watching the video. Also, we know little to nothing about how it plays. It does fit into SOE's current stable of games, as they continue the move away from traditional MMOGs (such as Everquest) and focus on niche strategy games (Pox Nora) and casual social games (Free Realms).

Here's another pic of Tactics:

Counting the lies: Star Wars: The Old Republic "Hope" Trailer

The newest video trailer has been released for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Watch it below.



Having watched it, let me point out the ways in which it lies to us.

1. Force users (Jedi and Sith) will NOT be as dominate over non-Force users as they are in the video.
2. There will NOT be deformable or destructible terrain in the game.
3. Armor will NOT be destroyed during combat (no item durability).
4. Combat will NOT be like the circus act that we see in the video.
5. Combat will NOT feature Matrix-like slow motion.
6. In fact, from what we've seen gameplay-wise, combat will be NOTHING like the trailers.
7. Bounty Hunters will NOT be able to "fly" using their jetpacks as featured in the video.
8. Lightsabers will NOT be blockable.
9. Players will NOT be little clones of each other, running around all wearing the same armor. There WILL BE a naked Sith or Jedi somewhere asking someone to touch their lightsaber.

Battle.net 2.0 vs a Rock, there's something to learn here

I claim no credit for this image.

Normally, I wouldn't poke fun at Blizzard because they have a fairly flawless track record as a game developer.  However, the world is changing and Blizzard with it.  Every company is locking their games into "platforms" and it's starting to get a bit silly.  Oh, and I can sympathize with the gamers that long for the days where LAN support was one of Blizzard's standard features.

The bullet points in the picture are agreeable to my persuasion as well.  As a gaming community, we seem to be losing a lot in favor of Facebook and Twitter integration.  Game developers appear to be looking at the new social media as a replacement for what has worked great for years. 

Actually replacement is a strong word, as what we're really getting is "integration with and instead of X".  However, we're still being tied to the developer's own platform rather than offloading entirely to the social media maven of choice.  It's one thing to offer "Facebook Connect" in place of a developers own account system; it's another thing entirely to integrate a game into Facebook status updates.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of consolidation to a central "hub" that can be tied into.  That is why I am more of a fan of Facebook Connect than I am of Facebook itself.  I like creating one account and being able to use it on tons of different websites.  Just as I like having a Steam account and having that account integrated directly into a game via Steamworks.

Battle.net 2.0 is great for gamers that will stick to Blizzard games and I suspect there is enough of them to make it a success.  However, Battle.net 2.0 is NOT that much different than a 40,000 year old rock when the games are removed.

Steam Sale Success for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

The game of the year edition of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion went on sale this weekend via Steam for $8.50.  It's a steal of a deal and I couldn't resist picking up a copy for myself.  

There is always a question of how successful these fire sales on Steam are.  To provide some anecdotal evidence to their success, I present the previous 7-days of game-play tracking via Raptr for Oblivion.

As can be seen, there is a pretty good spike following the start of the sale this weekend.

While hours played are not easily equated to sales, and factoring in the sales price, it is tough to determine what revenue this generates for the game developer.  However, a cursory glance tells us there are plenty of players playing the game and that has to warm the heart of any developer!

May 2010: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

And we're caught back up. May 2010, the month I lived out of a hotel, but still only managed to put in 15 hours of gaming.

I have embedded the new What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying spreadsheet for May below.  The overall spreadsheet (includes previous months) can be found here.

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Game of the Month

Torchlight
Cost: $9.99
Played: 14 hrs
3-words: Hack, slash, win!







Torchlight is a shining example of how to make a game.  Developed on budget, by a small and dedicated team, it delivers everything one would want in a Diablo-clone.  There are monsters, loot, and random dungeons galore. 

I spent 14 hours hacking away at the game.  I came to close to beating it while seated in my hotel room, but the end boss did not fall until I returned home in June.  Even with the end boss downed, there is so much more to accomplish.  There is a never ending dungeon in the game, so a character can level forever (I assume).  Or if it fancies a player, they can retire a veteran character and start a powered-up new character with the retired's equipment.

The combat is smooth and clean.  The various classes and abilities are simple to use and graphically brilliant.  The monsters can get repetitive, but when players are killing hundreds of them per level, its an acceptable mark against the game. 

I highly recommend Torchlight and it can often be found on sale for anywhere between $4.99 and $9.99.

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/Played


Civilization 4

I originally planned to put some time into a new Civ4 game during May, but Torchlight quickly won out.  I'm not sure, but I think I may have burned myself out on Civ4 after only ~30 hours.

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/Paid

Total spent this Month: $0.00
My Value Rating: n/a

I made no gaming purchases in May.

April 2010: What I Played/What I Paid

As promised over a month ago, I am finally catching up on my What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying post (subbing d's for ing's, past tense and all that).

April, as a month in gaming for Heartless_, was as exciting as watching the Detroit Lions play a random High School football team. 

I have embedded the new What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying spreadsheet for April below.  The overall spreadsheet (includes previous months) can be found here.

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Game of the Month

Cost: $13.39 (Steam Holiday Sale)
Played: 2 hours
3-words: Better price = $13.37








Don't let the total playtime fool you.  I liked Bioshock, but between a bugged out Big Daddy and failed game save backup forcing me to restart twice, I just didn't make any progress.  By the time I turned around, April was over and I was scheduled to be out of town most of May.  My poor laptop just couldn't manage Bioshock reliably enough to provide a good play experience.  I've shelved the game for completion and commentary at a later date.

Upcoming Game of the Month  for May: Torchlight (because it runs like a dream on my laptop!)

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/Played

Allods Online

I stuck in an hour playtime with my Melee Healer in Allods Online in April.  I still enjoy the game and wish I could dedicate more time to it.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

I continued my enjoyment of BFBC2 in April playing a few games.

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/Paid

Total spent this Month: $0.00
My Value Rating: n/a

I made no gaming purchases during April.

Heartless Blender, so cute

Duels of the Planeswalkers to release on PC via Steam June 15th

Just a quick note.  Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers appears to be hitting Steam on June 15th according to this tweet from Elaine Chase. 

It can be pre-ordered here.

SOE + Star Wars + MMO = Star Wars in Free Realms?

After the NGE debacle, no one could have imagined that SOE would be allowed to create another Star Wars MMOG. We were wrong; we were very, very wrong. SOE has announced a new game, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, coming fall 2010.

However, SOE seems to have learned a lesson with the success of Free Realms: casual and micro-transaction supported games can work. Visit their website or watch the video below and it is immediately noticeable that the game is not aimed at the hardcore or even core MMO gamers.

It will be interesting to see how this is received and whether the MMO blog'o'sphere will start writing the obituary for SOE's core franchises like Everquest.



P.S. Unlike many others, I liked the Clone Wars animated movie.

Thank You Posts On Developer Boards Are Rare and to be Commended

While sifting through dozens of complaints and suggestion threads at the official forums for Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers I came across a rare find on any game developers forums: a thank you post. Not only was the poster saying thanks, but also providing valuable feedback. For this, I commend the poster. Below is a sample of what was posted:

First of all, thank you for making M:TG Duels of the Planeswalkers. This game really brought back the joy of M:TG for me and my friends.

What we love about it:

• (Xbox specific) The friend chatter while playing the game (even being 1800 miles apart)
• Being able to play again, without investing a lot of money and time rebuilding digital collections
• Ease of logging in, picking a deck and getting playing
• The smoothness of the game; in my opinion overall it runs very well
• The decks being relatively balanced against each other
• Every player, for the most part, has access to the exact same pool of cards

5 Years of Blogging

Five wonderful and insightful years ago I started this blog.  I had planned a larger post talking about the "future", but like this five year milestone time has gone by faster than I could ever had imagined.  Five years ago I was single and without a care in the world outside of whether my Internet connection worked at home.  Today, I'm married, a father, a belated college graduate, and newly promoted at a company I would never have imagined working for.  Change, as they say, comes whether we wish it or not.

Yet, one thing has remained constant over the past five years: this blog and my gaming.  In retrospect there are a lot of things  I would have done differently, but looking back there isn't a single thing I would want changed. 

Without rambling any further (the kid has gotta be put to bed at some point), I present to you a repost of my first post.

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The date: 29 May, 2005. The time: 20:24 or 8:24 PM EST for those of you in the civilian world.

This blog has officially started. It has been a process of thought pulling at my mind for a while. I play these games we call MMORPGs, but I don't even know if "play" is the correct word to describe it anymore. I live and breath these games. They are more than an escape from my mediocre life. Fun is no longer the driving factor. Social interaction with like minded nerds and geeks; people whom live through their in game characters as though it was version 2.0 of themselves.

I don't want to hear these gamers speak in foreign Orcish or Elvish tongues. I want them to speak English and call me newb, l33t, or dude. I want role playing that is a real person, embodying a real in-game character. I don't want to know how much you can pretend. I want to see who, what, and how you can do things in game with the class, race, or skills you have chosen in our game of choice.

Ah, the game of choice! Room for debate among the flooded market of MMORPGs and the denizens that inhabit them. From baseless flame fests on the far reaches of the most bizarre gaming message boards; to developer's beloved Customer Feedback Forms. Well known to players that have ever hit cancel on a B-rate MMORPG subscription.

That is what brings us here. The game of choice, or should I say games of choice! After all, it is entirely possible to enjoy the splendor of more than a single MMO at a time. While you risk the chance of losing that significant other, the admiration of your pet, and standing in your real life social circle, you obtain the chance to be the darling of your online world of choice.

Whether its a heroic conquest, a diabolic scheme, or simply a comical battle cry; overnight stardom is possible!

So friends, let us journey down this road. Unafraid of the naysayers! Fearful of the sun that will burn our skin! And most of all, damn proud of what we choose to do with our free time. We are the many, the proud, the MMO gamer!

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers coming to PC via Steam

From Tobold's blog:

... Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers will be released via Steam to the PC. While DOTP is in a way a "Magic light" game, I am nevertheless highly interested in this.

Like Tobold, I am a long time MtG fan and former hardcore player. However, the days where I have the time to build and maintain competitive decks are gone. What I've needed to spark my interest in MtG again is a more casual approach that is PC based.  That is exactly what DotP delivers. I plan on giving it a try in June.

Frozen Synapse is Fucking Brilliant

Since my son was born I've tried to cut back on my cussing.  Generally, I reserve using the F bomb in post titles for only momentous occasions (like Spore's DRM debacle).  Today however, I will gladly drop it in praise of Frozen Synapse, a game you need to see to understand.



Frozen Synapse fell into my email box as part of their "buy 1, get 1 free for a friend" campaign.  I had originally became interested in the game in part because of this Rock, Paper, Shotgun post.  Now that I've had some time with the game I have only one thing to say: this game is bloody brilliant. 

The basic premise is that players take turns moving soldiers around a battlefield. The catch is that its simultaneous turn-based: both players make their moves and then let the actions play out at the same time. This allows the game to be played over long periods of time or quickly in succession. Player A can make their move and submit it to the server whether Player B is online or not. Player B is free to return and make their move whenever they are free.

Once both players set their action (known as the planning stage) the outcome is played out. Various game modes determine the win conditions. Some are to destroy the enemy; while other modes focus on rescuing hostages or defending/attacking zones on the map.

As can be seen in the video above, the game is simplistic in it's graphical approach. This allows it to run on almost any set of hardware. My aging laptop that can barely play Torchlight in netbook mode can steam right through a match of Synapse.

My only gripe currently is the poor performance of the central server. However, that is due to over-popularity of the beta. Sometime this week a new server should be in place to help the issue.

This game is brilliant and I recommend it to anyone interested in the video. Oh, and just search Youtube for gameplay videos as beta testers can instantly upload games after they've been completed from the in-game menu. Pretty snazzy stuff.

Lifehacker has impeccable timing

Lifehacker is one of my favorite websites.  Not because of the great writers, but because of their timing.  Everytime I need something, Lifehacker finds out and posts something useful.  I swear they are spying on me.  First it was a detailed Thunderbird tweak guide, then Dropbox hacks, both published within days of my installs of both.  The list goes on.

The newest example is a post today about GameSave Manager, a tool that backs up saved game files for over 400+ games. It was not a month ago that I gave up playing Bioshock after losing my save files during a reformat of Windows 7.  This was after already restarting the game one time because of poor planning.  Oh, and I was making backups the old fashioned way, but the one day the backup failed is the day I decided to reformat!

Also, recently I lost several hours of progress in my save game for Mass Effect.  After that incident, I implemented my backup scheme for saved games by syncing the folders to Dropbox.  That way I have saved files on all the computers I connect to Dropbox with.  It works wonders for Civilization 4 games since I am usually manually saving them. 

However, it is annoying to have to add other games by hand to my backup scheme.  Even more so when it takes five minutes on Bing to find out where the actual saved game is stored in Windows 7.  GameSave Manager takes care of all the prep work and then makes it easy to restore from the backups it makes.

Lifehacker, again, saves the day.  <3

Linux Gamer's Rejoice! Steam coming to Linux!

With Valve's recent release of Steam for Mac, hints were found that an underlying Linux client was also in the works.  Phoronix has the news that an announcement is imminent from Valve about a native Linux version of Steam.

... Valve is preparing to officially release the Steam Linux client from where they will start to offer Linux native games available for sale. For all those doubting our reports that Source/Steam would be coming to Linux, you can find confirmation in the UK's Telegraph and other news sites. An announcement from Valve itself is imminent.

While this doesn't mean every game available on Steam will work with Linux, it does mean native Linux clients can easily be used for games such as Unreal Tournament 2004 and World of Goo. Also, this lays the groundwork for popular Valve titles such as Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 to head over to native Linux.

I've always been a proponent of gaming on Linux. I still feel Linux is by far the best operating system available for anyone that wishes to learn how to use a computer. Gamer's naturally fit the learner description, but far too often Linux gaming was over the head of even the most tech savvy gamers. Steam on Linux eliminates A LOT of the hassle and brings some great AAA games along with it. I am excited to see where this goes.

I may even be bothered enough to put Linux back on my main desktop with a dual boot with Windows 7.