Brad McQuaid responds to my /. comments

I posted earlier in the week about the Vanguard : SoH preview at IGN.

I also posted the commentary over to the original /. posting that lead me to the previews.

Brad McQuaid responded;

"That it would take the average player, the 'core' gamer as we have described our target audience on our message boards (e.g. the group of players that sit between truly casual and truly hard core) 6-12 months to hit max level doesn't seem unreasonable. The players who have hit 40+ in beta have gone through various tweaks of the exp curve, levled up to varying degrees in the other spheres (crafting, diplomacy), etc. And for the record, we play the game on all sorts of systems, as well as test on different systems, from low end to high.

I did bring in one high end system to show off the game on a 30" monitor with all of the options turned way up (both because it looks great and also so people in the room could see the game from the various places they were sitting). And, yes, it was my system and I do play often on it, with the new Dell 30" monitor that came out -- not sure what your issue is with that unless you are assuming that's all we play the game on (high end systems) which most certainly isn't the case. Also, for what it's worth, the fact that you *can* play the game at a playable framerate at 2560x1600 with all the options turned up on a 3.8 ghz system with a x1900xtx is testament to how optimized the game is.

Obviously to run at a more typical resolution of 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 even, you can do so on a much lower end system. We're also not done optimizing, and by release, systems and graphics cards that are on the high end of things today will be much more reasonable price-wise. So while the game does take advantage of the latest hardware, shader model 2.0, HDR lighting, etc. and not just in closed off 'FPS' areas, but also outdoors where you can see for 4+ km in a truly seamless world, it will not require an 'uber' machine to run. More power than, say, WoW, yes, but nothing crazy or that would make it such that the majority of gamers couldn't or wouldn't enjoy."

Of course I responded;

Well Brad I "will" play your game at "some" point because that is the fair approach? No? I can hate all I want, but you never know I may be terribly mistaken about Vanguard. In all honesty there is even parts (housing, crafting, and mounts with bags) that intrigues me about V:SoH. Maybe it was IGN and Gamespots lackluster previews that set me off? I mean both articles are written obviously fanboi centric with nothing more than "This game is Everquest with better graphics".

I understand the media blitz. I understand the "show off the game" approach to the previews. Doesn't mean I have to like it and blogging about it surely doesn't mean I have to be constructive about it. That is what folks like Darniaq are for.

Personally I would conduct the preview in a totally different way and probably wind up with my rear on the front steps of your office. Not for being rude or unruly, but for asking questions that wouldn't be sufficient for the media blitz that you are conducting for VSoH. Now if you are so inclined and curious as to how such an interview would be conducted you can check Heartless Gamer or e-mail me yourself at heartlessgamer_at_gmail.com or hell if I would be so inclined to be granted an interview through Gamergod.com (now defunct) I may even be at your office someday. All three of which I hold no high hope for aside from blogging about it.... cause I'm cool like that.

Banter aside Brad, I hope your project the best of luck. Do I think its the right direction for such a large title? No. Does my opinion count. Probably not in the grand scheme of things. I'm not Koster and I'm not Lum. I don't make games. Therefore you can dismiss my ranting and go along with your day. It will still make me happy to post my thoughts.

So back to my blog and Gamergod.com (now defunct) I go...

Update: 29 Nov, 2009 - Edited post, corrected spelling, removed broken links, and applied label.

Joining a corporation in EVE Online

Joining a corporation in EVE Online is very similar to applying for a job in real life. Accepting an offer of employment and showing up for the first day is also comparable to its real life counterpart. This is a story of my first day "on the job" in EVE Online as a member of Ars Caelestis corporation (refered to as a "corp" from this point on).

Accepting the Offer

Ethic of Kill Ten Rats vouched for me to be admitted into Ars Caelestis and the AC folks were glad to accept me. It was in a bit of a hurry up as there was a convoy heading out to 0.0 space to deliver folks to the Huzzah federations station.

Now there is thousands of systems in EVE Online and unfortunately 0.0 space is labeled with all sorts of number and letter combinations. I would love to tell you where I journeyed to and from, but alas I cannot. What I can tell you is that I'm located in Catch region... wherever that is! Haha...

With the offer accepted to join I parted ways with any gear I wouldn't be able to carry with me. This was after all going to be a long trip out to the middle of nowhere. After selling off my industrial ship and all its equipment I was left with just my little Tristan frigate. I un-docked and caught up with Ethic a few systems away.

Setting up the Convoy

Now I don't want to pretend like I understand half of what was being done to set up this convoy. I warped to Ethic and we started a few jumps behind the main force. Ethic was able to get us back in line with the others and before long there was 30 of us waiting around in space to journey out to 0.0 space.

Learning the Basics

As we waited around for the convoy to get organized Ethic took me through some of the basics. It was very "real world" like in the fact that Ethic was just handing me gobs of information (in the form of bookmarks) that I would need to survive in the corp's region of space. On top of this there was the briefing that the convoy leader was kind enough to give to all the people joining that explained the basics of such things as aligning stargates, setting targets, adding the correct waypoints, and the basics of combat target calling.

Overall I was very impressed with the leadership. I wish I could pull names out, but just learning the basics was keeping me plenty of busy.

A Safe Journey

The high point of the journey was when one of our scouts called out a 12 ship formation at the next gate over ventrilo, but unfortunately it was only in jest. It did get the blood flowing for me though as I anticipated my first EVE Online PvP encounter. While it would of been fun to get into a battle I know I was ill equipped in a very weak ship.

The trip was long, but with all the stopping and aligning required you stay quite busy. There is still plenty of time to chat away in various chat channels so it was a rather enjoyable experience. Without friends though I could see myself getting bored on future trips.

Moving On

From here on out it is just more skill training for me. There is really nothing I can do in 0.0 space, but I now have a jump clone installed for future quick traveling. The next goal is to get back up into empire (0.5 - 1.0 security space) to continue learning the game along with raking in cash.

The future looks bright for me in EVE Online!

Update: 29 Nov, 2009 - Edited post, corrected spelling, removed broken links, and applied labels.

Vanguard preview @ IGN

Vanguard : Saga of Heroes is in a media blitz and IGN has a review up and I have it in my crosshairs. It has me more than disapointed... it has me downright angry. Angry because of the setback this pile of steaming crap will be on the MMORPG market.

Read the preview for Vanguard here.

Lets start with the stand out comment of the article; "The actual game mechanics should be familiar to anyone who's dabbled in MMOs in the past few years."

- Holy fizzle... Vanguard really is Everquest 2.0 (not to be mistaken with Everquest 2 from SOE). Read that quote again. Translated to human speak the previewers impression was "This is Everquest with better graphics."

Something about housing that caught my eye; "Once you start racking up a lot of dough, you'll eventually have the resources to build your own house and you can create a list of specific people who are allowed to enter it. Housing is not instanced, but the world has tons of open space for staking your claim."

- OK I'm going to calm down a little bit because they are the first MMO really since UO to attempt this in the fantasy setting. This does have potential.

Next on the chopping block is this beauty of a quote; "(Right now, the plan is to have a level cap of 50 at launch. With the current content balance, one beta tester took over four months, playing twelve hours a day, seven days a week, to reach that point.)"

This of course is followed up by this dandy; "That's primarily why McQuaid has a 30" Dell LCD powered by a Radeon X1900 XTX -- because they like to play."

- We already knew this game was made for the hardcore and I'm over that fact. What really hits hard is Brad's PC setup. Way to keep it real Brad. For bloomin' sakes... you would think they may want to test/play this game on a system THAT MORE THAN 10% OF THE GAMERS OUT THERE OWN OR COULD EVEN AFFORD!!! Just my opinion of course.

There is another preview up at Gamespot which I'll digest later, but for now I am pissed off so no need to bite off more than I can chew.

Half Life 2 Singleplayer = Complete

Well I've finished the singleplayer campaign for Half Life 2 all while AFK mining to glory in EVE Online!

I'll work on a review later in the week or early next week. I can't believe I didn't play this before now. It is an insane experience. The story is great and the end left me doing a "WTF" turnaround.

9.5/10 only lost .5 for no pr0n.

Update: 29 Nov, 2009 - Edited post, corrected spelling, removed broken links, and applied labels.

I ended up NOT writing a review for HL2.

The Outage

My internet has been connected to an "outage" for the past six days. Outage is highlighted because that is the word Comcast used to describe my problems. Last week Friday my problems began. The online light on my surfboard modem was a blinky-blink-blinking from time to time. Websites loaded slow or not at all.

IPConfig showed a connection and trace routes ran fine... err when or if they ran. My games like EVE Online, World of Warcraft, Battlefield 2, Guild Wars, and so forth just would not stay connected if they managed to get connected at all.

So it was about a six day "outage" of non-reliable connectivity. You would think since I called on the first day of the problems and followed up two other times during that period I would be entitled to some form of a discount this month.

I spoke with a customer service rep today at Comcast about just such a topic.

The agent was able to confirm my account was no longer connected to an "outage", but only after refusing to believe I correctly power cycled my modem. Three calls this week confirming I was still connected to the "outage" and three different agents walked me through turning the power on and off my modem. BTW there is NOT ONE, BUT TWO automated messages before you can even talk to an agent that describe in detail that most common problems can be solved by power cycling your modem!

The fact that this outage was days old wasn't really that frustrating to me, but the fact that they knew I was connected to an outage and failed to contact me with any information regarding it is frustrating. If their system could identify that my connection was part of the affected area then how damn hard is it to auto-generate an e-mail to tell me or call me based on the fact I reported the issue?

Of course I was denied my refund and I asked to speak to a supervisor. But when I spoke to one, no luck. To add insult to the "outage" the manager ensured the technician walked me through power cycling, checking PC drivers were installed, running IPconfig, running a trace route, and making sure my modem was pinged. Then I told them the technician could see I was connected to an "outage" as soon as I called.

Now the supervisor was respectable, but seemed to be reading off the "How to be annoying and repeat everything the technician did" checklist. Long story short... I was denied any form of reimbursement because a) I do not have a small business contract and b) it was not an outage of more than 14 days.

The major things I took away from this.

1. Never once did Comcast e-mail, call, or snail mail me to inform me that my connection would be connected to an outage for an extended period of time.

2. If you're calling Comcast support chances are its well beyond power cycling the modem, but the Comcast agent will never believe you're actually capable of power cycling it without their step by step guidance.

3. Asking for a refund for services not received is like a trip to the dentist. Your hesitant before you even get there and you probably have a headache when you leave.