Best Gift Ever

In a show of appreciation it looks like the Champions Online team put together a few rewards for the lifetime subscribers. While some look more useful than others (Our own chat channel? Really?), it’s a nice gesture that they didn’t have to make.

My favorite reward?

Bill Roper is leaving the Champions Online team!

Aww guys, thanks. 🙂

Midnight MMO Musings

If it takes a guild to defeat the encounter than maybe you should reward the guild instead of the individual.

It lives!

Witchcraft!

More news coming out of GDC:

Onlive announced a release date – June 17th – for their new streaming video game service that lets you play games on any computer and your TV.  Which I assume is involves some sort of array of servers dipped in the blood of virgins, and/or a pact with the devil.

Its $14.95 plus the cost to rent/buy the games.  Which I’m not sure how I feel about.  It’s yet another subscription to my monthly bill but the ability to play high end PC games on my low end pc – or on my big ass TV – is tempting.

Like most services it’ll of course boil down to which 3rd parties they can get on board (EA, Ubisoft, and THQ so far), if they’ll be able to release games day and date of the physical product dropping and of course if their server witchcraft will work in my service area.

The first 25,000 people that sign up for their preregistration will get the 3 months of the service for free (Onlive’s charges waved, you’ll still have to buy/rent games) which doesn’t sound bad if you’re looking to test the waters.

Mixed Feelings

YAY!

“…we are coming into the browser-based space.”

BOOOOO!

Who’s Fault?

I do not approve of this post.

Andy Chalk, of The Escapist, wrote an interesting article today.  And by article I mean; fired a deep fried shot into the cholesterol filled heart of The Video Game Fanboy. Striking them where it hurts most by pointing out that maybe, just maybe, DRM – specifically Ubisofts new DRM – is actually all their fault. Although clearly written to provoke the response Andy has since gotten I do find myself landing squarely on his side of the line in this debate.

This simple fact is that software manufacturers will lock down thier product to the highest degree of security that thier consumers will allow them. And if you buy this game – or any game with what you believe to be an unreasonable amount of DRM –  you are saying; “Yes, this is an acceptable to me.”

Did Ubisoft step over the line?  That’s for you to decide, everyone’s line is different.  If they did, and you want to send them a message then you do it in the way that hurts them the most:

Don’t buy their product.

Buying thier product and then complaining on the internet doesn’t work as well because THEY ALREADY HAVE YOUR MONEY AT THAT POINT. It will hurt them far more – and thus get them to react in a better way – if they see a massivley anticipated game they release floundering in the sales figures. That’s how business works. And video games are a business no matter how bad we may want them to not be.

If there’s no way you can skip a single video game release because of this matter then DRM really isn’t that big of a deal to you.

I do have one bit of contention that I would like to point out.  At one point he writes:

“And while missing out on a day or two of gaming is unfortunate, the sheer volume of anger, indignation and surprise that accompanied the response is, to be frank, shocking.”

As it is not my first day on the internet, I did not find it shocking at all.

Noooooooo! (aka wow, I’m bored)

Nooooooooooooooooo!

I was looking forward to getting in on some hot 128 on 128 MAG action tonight. Now only to find the PSN network is down?  This is the single most terrible thing to happen this weekend.

I want a refund on this service.

-Update-

Oh, so only fatties get the shaft then?  I see how it is PSN.

I’m watching you.

The Secret World – ARG

The Secret World – ARG

I’m not really a fan of Alternative Reality Gaming.  Especially its sole use as a hype machine for a company’s product. It’s like a form of advertising that makes me do all the work, running around finding all the hidden ads.

That being said, I love The Secret World’s Alternative Reality stuff going on right now. Running around and finding all the hidden ads is getting me increasingly hyped for the game!

WTF?

Mmmmm... warm Lovecraft-ian tortillas...

I think it’s the setting of the game that lends to my brains acceptance of it as a viable marketing strategy.  All the secret society and conspiracy theories wrapped up in a warm Lovecraft-ian tortilla fit nicely with Alternative Reality stuff on the web.

Maybe because the web is filled with real nut-jobs with conspiracy theories about secret societies?It goes together like bacon and heart attacks. But mostly I find it a fun way to get information on a game I’m looking forward to.

At any rate if you’re interested here’s what I check in on from time to time to keep up to date:

Kingsmouth – Website for a Fictional city in Maine with some low-res screenshots of possible locations for the game.

Monsters of Maine – Blog of a Cryptozoologist living on Solomon Island, made reference to by the Twitters of the people of Kingsmouth. Screenshots and some basic info on possible – and pretty interesting – monsters in the game.

The Sanctuary of Secrets – My favorite, a website showing a Flash video of static. Which seems like a joke I would play on other people; seeing how long they will stare at it. At some point in time (April 3?) this will probably switch over to something more interesting.  Maybe the “proof” that Mr Cryptozoologist mentioned on his blog?

Twitterers of Kingsmouth:

Carter – Solomon Island resident

Andy Gardener – Deputy Sheriff

Helen Bannerman – Sheriff

Danny Dufresne – Paranoid misanthrope?

Saturday April 3rd is the next big day coming up -“Kingsmouth Day”. Which will probably be the release of more general game info, or possibly initial rounds of closed beta.

I’m not claiming to have been the original source on this by a long shot. You can find this stuff out there, on other blogs or mostly in the forums; I’m just putting it together for those who are interested.

Top 5 Video Game Settings!

Top 5 Video Game Settings!

1. Medium

2. Hard

3. Nightmare

4. Easy

5. Very Easy

This far, no further!

Ahhh... the memories. They certainly are memorable.

Sometimes I miss how the original EQ really seemed to dislike you. Not the recent incarnation of the game, all dolled up for polite company. I mean the original game when it came out; mysterious, unexplored, with an often rage inducing amount of punitive measures.

Want to travel to another continent? Here’s a 30 minute boat ride for ya.

Too dark to see? Too bad; you should have picked a demi-human.

Did you just die? Well then, let me erase the past 4 hours of work you just put in.

Map? Hahaha! You’re funny!

Sure we didn’t necessarily like everything they did but there’s something to be said for “the good old days” when someone took a stand for what they envisioned their world to be. Player whining be damned.

These day’s game designers and gamers seem to have a more codependent relationship, where the one makes sacrifice after sacrifice to try and make the other happy. It’s a slippery slope. It may seem like a good idea now, but it’s not healthy and there’s no future in it.

10 years from now, I'm sure she'll be just fine.

You can not give someone everything they want. It’ll ruin them (do a Google search for “lottery winner horror stories” if you don’t believe me). Games these days have virtually non-existent penalties for failure, free high level characters, and keep difficulty and challenge scuttled into a closet under the stairs like some bookish wackjob that thinks he’s a wizard.

The original Everquest changed because it didn’t work. The measures where too harsh and new games have adapted their plans because of it.

But have we gone too far the other way?

Glass Canonry

If there is one thing that I will never forgive Blizzard for it is the correlation of the “wizard” with that of “ranged dps” in the minds of MMO developers. This typing did exist before WoW, but WoW’s monumental success – and the desire to replicate it – has left the once venerable master of the arcane pidgeonholled into a shallow existence of glass canonry.