MMO Gamers

Wow.  This is an interesting turn of events.

Today we have important news to share with the community. EA is restructuring its RPG and MMO games development into a new group that includes both Mythic and BioWare. This newly formed team will be led by Ray Muzyka, co-founder and General Manager of BioWare. With this change, Ray becomes Group General Manager of the new  RPG/MMO studio group. BioWare’s other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk will become Group Creative Officer for the new RPG/MMO studio group. Rob Denton will step up as General Manager of Mythic and report to Ray. BioWare’s studios remain unchanged and continue to report to Ray.

Mark Jacobs, co-founder and current General Manager of Mythic, will leave EA on June 23, 2009. We thank Mark for his contributions at Mythic and wish him the very best going forward. Mark played a major part in the success of Mythic with his contribution as General Manager and Lead Designer of WAR.

Mythic retains a strong team led by Rob who co-founded Mythic in 1995. Rob played a critical role in the development of Dark Age of Camelot. In his previous role as COO, he was responsible for all day-to-day management of the studio including all development, operations and support.

Please join us in celebrating the union of these two award-winning studios.

Didn’t Richard Garriott get a similar “thank you” for his contribution to Tabula Rasa?  And Brad McQuaid’s “thanks for coming, don’t let the door hit you on the way out” after the launch of Vanguard?

My interpretation, and that’s all it is, my interpretation, is that EA is saying “The guys at Bioware are doing a fantastic job, so we’re going to put them in charge of everything.  Rob Denton did an awesome job with DAoC so we’re putting him in charge of Mythic, and let’s see if he can’t fix the debacle that is Warhammer before all our subscribers go and play Champions Online, Aion, or any number of other MMO’s.

Mark, thanks for coming, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

The patch we’ve all been waiting for, well some of us, released today; 1.05.  This is a huge patch (1GB in fact) and overhauls the gear and some of the crafting, mainly the gemcutting profession.  It also introduces new zones and dungeons and does a whole lot more.  I’d like to tell you more but sadly I can’t, due to lag spikes, lockups, and crashes.  And I don’t mean a few every hour, I mean a few every minute.  Age of Conan is currently unplayable for me.  Now I know others are not having these issues because I was speaking with them on vent and they were happily running around killing stuff.  But I was having these issues.  So instead of playing, I’m writing this rant post.

One concern my online gaming buddies and I had about 1.05 was that Funcom would follow their track record of patching, whereby for every one thing the patch fixed, it created two new issues.  We were worried, and rightly so, that it could be the death knoll for AoC if that were the case, or at least seriously impact its subscriber base.  I hope for Funcom’s sake that I am the only one experiencing these issues.  But if I am experiencing these issues, then perhaps a hundred others are, or a thousand, or ten thousand.  I haven’t gone to the forums yet, but will head there next, and I’m running the verify/repair option in the games settings.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to edit this post with a happily ever after story.  Here’s hoping.

EDIT:  So far, running Verify/Repair at the settings option before logging in seems to have resolved my issues.  Stay tuned for further updates as necessary.

Well, I’ve taken the plunge and headed into EB Games and preordered my Collector’s Edition of Aion - The Tower of Eternity.  Here’s what the CE gives me.

Exclusive items:

• 6.5″ hand-painted figurine of Aiva
• Two dual-sided, full color posters
• Full color tri-fold quick reference card
• Two game DVDs
• Game Manual
• 30 days of gameplay included
• Official Aion Soundtrack CD
• 20 page concept art booklet

Exclusive in-game items:

• Black Cloud Wings (gives you 40 seconds of additional flight time)
• Black Cloud Earring (gives a HP and MP boost)
• Special character tile with stat boost
• Color dye to tint one in-game item
• Two character emotes

Generally I find CE’s to be a waste of money, but it’s nice to have some of the extras such as the concept art book and the soundtrack CD.  Preordering gives me some bonuses also.

• Access to all Aion beta weekend events
• Access to Aion server and character pre selection
• Access to live 48hr headstart
• In game item: Spirit ring, Stat-boosting hat and XP talisman

Of course, that’s not entirely true.  I’ve already missed some beta weekend events, but that’s no one’s fault but my own, but EB Games, while offering the pre order and all its encompassing benefits, does not actually have any beta keys and are not expecting them until “some time in July”.  The next beta weekend event is scheduled for July 2nd, so it looks as though I’m going to miss that one also.  I shall cross my fingers that I get a beta key before then.

We also have an official release date now for both North America and Europe.

Your adventures in Aion begin this September! NCsoft is proud to announce that Aion launches in North America on September 22, 2009 and makes its official debut in Europe starting September 25, 2009.

That’s only three months away.  The countdown begins.

Third times a charm, or so the saying goes.  I downloaded the 14 day trial for EVE Online again.  This will be the third time I’ve had a crack at this game.  There’s been some changes since my previous trials.  For instance, the load screen declares APOCRYPHA, which I assume is the latest expansion/game update/version of the game.  The character creation seemed a little different also, a little easier and not so overwhelming.  That’s generally how I felt about EVE the first two times, overwhelmed, a little confused, and bored.  But I’m itching for a space sim MMO and EVE is at present the only alternative.  Part of EVE’s success is no doubt due to the lack of competition.  I also think one of its strengths is one of its weaknesses; its complexity.  EVE doesn’t portray itself as a casual friendly game, but then, not everyone wants an “easy mode” MMO.

There are generally two types of MMO.  You have the “Theme Park” model, which takes you to the places where things happen and fun is to be had.  These type of games direct you to quest hubs and dungeons etc, guiding you through the game.  The other model is the “sandbox” game, where you have an online world and you have to make your own fun.  EVE is a sandbox game, and it’s a PvP game.  It does feature missions (quests), harvesting (mining asteroids for ore which you then process into usable materials), and crafting.  There are no levels either, you have an enormous number of skills you can train and as you advance these skills it opens up new options, such as being able to fly bigger and better spacecraft or being able to outfit your craft with certain things, like bigger guns.

One thing I do find interesting is when I log in it tells me how many people are on the server at the present time and how many of those are trial accounts.  There were over 40,000 people on the server, and of those, a little over 2,000 were trial accounts.  Interestingly I only saw about 10 people the entire time I was playing, but it’s a big galaxy I guess.  I’m accustomed to game developers keeping their cards close to their chest when it comes to server population, so for a company to outright tell me how many are on the server is a welcome change.

So far I’m finding EVE to still be complex and some things are a little vague, even the tutorial quests.  I had to create something using a blueprint and it required tritanium, pyerite, and mexallon (did I say those right?).  I knew that I could get tritanium from harvesting veldspar and reprocessing it, but I had no idea about the other two.  I hadn’t seen any and the only asteroids I saw that I could harvest were the veldspar ones.  I ended up buying the other two on the market so I could complete the quest, but that’s what the game is like; a lot of head scratching.

There’s also a lot of times where I’m doing nothing but watching my spacecraft fly.  I had a fed-ex quest to another solar system that was six jumps away, so I set my destination and then put it on auto-pilot and watched my ship warp to a jumpgate, then jump, then warp to another gate, so on and so on until I reached my destination.  Luckily the game looks good and I didn’t mind staring at it so much, but I went and made a coffee during the return trip.

The thrill of getting better ships is there and I’ve been training my skill to fly a better frigate, which took about 10 hours.  That’s how you learn skills, you queue them up and then play, or log, and when you come back, they’re trained.  You can queue up 24 hours worth of skills so there’s reason to log in every day and queue up more skills, but this is not a casual game where you can log in for an hour and achieve something.  Deep space is a big place.

Deepari Space Station

In my excitement over the number of new MMOG’s soon to hit the interwebz, I overlooked a couple of games that are worthy of a mention.

Mortal Online is a First Person MMORPG set in a fantasy setting, or so they tell us.  What makes Mortal Online different from many of the MMO’s out there (but not all) is that it is a sandbox game heavily focused on PvP.  Yes, it will have PvE, crafting, housing, blah blah blah; but it is primarily a PvP game.  Open, Free-for-all PvP will be the only server type available.  So if PvP is your thing, then check out Mortal Online.  It’s currently in Beta and has a release date of summer 2009.

Star Trek Online is another Sci Fi MMOG in development.  Beta testing has not yet begun and we don’t have a release date yet so it might be too early to get excited over this one, but I am.  STO will feature not only space combat, but also ground combat in the traditional 3rd person player controlled avatar perspective.  Space combat will be slow and strategic, more like Pirates of the Burning Sea than Jumpgate Evolution.  You begin with a small spacecraft and work your way up to large capital ships.  If they can manage to pull off the combination of space combat and ground combat I will be very pleased and will put this game on my Most Wanted list.

Looking back, 2007/2008 was not too bad as far as new AAA MMOG releases went.  We had Vanguard, Tabula Rasa, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Age of Conan, and Warhammer.  Unfortunately they all released with issues, from being virtually unplayable to just being a bit too boring.  But still, there was always another MMO just around the corner, so there was always something to look forward to.  It’s been nearly 10 months since we had a big budget MMOG release, and still we’re waiting.  But hopefully not too long.

Champions Online is currently in its beta and should be very close to release.  I liked City of Heroes but not enough to play it for any more than a few months.  Champions Online is developed by the same guys that made CoX so I’m expecting a similar game to their first effort.  While I’m not overly excited about CO, I am excited about a new MMOG on the market.  I shall utilize the blogosphere and see what the initial reaction is to the game’s release before deciding if I’ll try this one.

Aion - The Tower of Eternity is a game that I was excited about when I first learned of it over a year ago but I’ve lost interest in it over the months.  This game is developed by NCSoft, the same guys that brought us the failed Tabula Rasa (R.I.P), and currently is in Closed Beta.  You can pre-order the game now, and Amazon has a release date of the 1st of September, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on that date.  Still, it’s not far off, even if the release date gets pushed back a month or two.  There is a very good chance that I’ll see the shiny box on the shelf and get it.  Stay tuned.

Jumpgate Evolution is the first of a number of Sci Fi MMO’s that are in the pipelines, and I’m glad to see us moving away (again) from the fantasy setting.  This is a space combat simulation, kind of like EVE minus the boring bits (no offense to EVE fans).  I’m not sure that this is the kind of MMOG I’d devote 20 hours a week to for the remainder of my life or even for a year or so, but it might make for a good alternative and as a casual MMO.  I think I might try this one.

Black Prophecy is another space combat sim with an upcoming closed beta.  It promises to be a more casual friendly game than EVE.

Begin your journey into space and experience fast-paced real-time action as a fighter pilot in countless hazardous missions and epic battles. Jump into your cockpit and engage the enemy threat solo, or join powerful clans and fight alongside fellow comrades-in-arms

Another Sci Fi MMOG (Yay!), Earthrise is a bit like EVE once you take the pilots out of the spaceships and put them on the surface of a planet.  Ok, it’s not like EVE at all then.  There’ll be no space combat in Earthrise, instead you control an avatar the way we’re accustomed to doing in MMO’s.  Earthrise won’t have levels but will be skill based, similar to the way skills work in EVE.  It has PvE but will be a heavily PvP focused game.  While I am interested in this game it’s the Bulgarian developers, Masthead Studios, first foray into the MMO market, and as far as I can tell, into games development period and it’s this lack of street cred that has me doubting the quality of this game.  Don’t expect World of Warcraft polish on release.

I wrote off Stargate Worlds as vaporware a long, long time ago.  The game was scheduled for release in late 2008 and currently it still hasn’t hit beta.  It would seem the developers have run out of money, though they assure us the game is still being developed and that they’re getting more funds.  This was always going to be a niche game for the SG1 fanbase and never really a major contender.  I hope it sees the light of day.

Lastly, a game that’s still a long way away, and another one that’s in a Sci Fi setting, and the game that I’m probably most excited about, Star Wars: The Old Republic.  It’s a shame I have to wait so long.  Fingers crossed they don’t stuff it up.

A team of Troopers scours an unsecured town after a recent resurgence of Separatist attacks

That was the global chat in Warhammer the other night.  I was playing on the Aussie server, Darklands, during peak evening time.  I’d logged in on my level 10 Archmage, queued up scenarios and started questing.  After almost an hour, no scenarios popped so I thought perhaps Tier 1 was quiet so I jumped on my Bright Wizard and queued up some Tier 2 scenarios.  After half an hour and no scenarios I saw the haunting call of the lonely gamer and the only chat I saw for the night.  “Is there anyone out there?”  I didn’t bother answering him and if there were other people on the server, they kept quiet.

Determined to find something fun to do in Warhammer, I switched servers and logged into Phoenix Throne and my Disciple.  I queued up some scenarios but didn’t really expect any to pop.  This was the quiet hours of the US servers, so I headed into the RvR lakes hoping to find a warband and flip some keeps.  Back when I was playing WAR in a serious fashion it was common for me to log in during the quiet hours and find a warband of night-owls and insomniacs to group with.  No such luck on this night however.

It seems awfully quiet in WAR these days.

I was sitting at the computer, drunk and bored, and had the crazy notion that I wanted to play Warhammer.  So, utilizing the incredible wisdom that is bestowed upon all inebriated beings, I decided to resubscribe.  My first impression, having not logged into the game for a couple of months, was “why did I just waste 15 bucks”.  I tried a few of my toons, did some questing (boring), did some Open RvR (boring) and queued up some scenarios, which shifted from totally crap to actually a bit of fun.

So my overall impression of WAR hasn’t really changed, though I must confess, some of the artistic style was pretty cool, particularly the Dark Elf ships docked off the coast of Chrace.  I also have a bit of a sentimental attachment to the game, having played it since Open Beta and early Headstart.  I’ve been looking for an alt MMO to play while my Age of Conan friends are all tucked away in bed and since Warhammer has an Aussie server it makes sense to play that, but I just don’t know if it will hold my interest.  I’ve thought about playing another alt in AoC, something that’s good to solo, or just using the quiet times to harvest and craft on my mains.  I’ve been trying a number of Free2Play games, but they’ve only really been fun while they’re still new and I’m discovering new things.  Once the newness wears off, after about 10hrs, they tend to reveal themselves as being a boring grind.

Oh well, I’ve payed for a month so I guess I’ll try it a few more times.  Then it’s back to Rock Band.