Drive By Posting!

Sorry for the limited postings (None actually in a week I think) lately, work and having nothing really important to say has been the cause of a lot of it. Not that i don’t have “something” to say, but I usually just come up with very silly ideas, like this one I’m about to post in my drive by.

Do people on an RP server (Role Playing) just stay in character in game or do they do it on Vent and Teamspeak as well? Do some of them even dress up while they are playing the game? How hardcore are these people? I mean aren’t they just a little off their rockers? Or could they be the best thing a game has going for it?

Never having played on an RP server, I wouldn’t know. I did play AD&D a lot when I was in college and at times, I could really get into the role playing aspect of the game. I preferred a game where the DM created the whole world, all the encounters and made all the mobs have personalities, rather than one where people ran it all out of a store bought module. Less mechanics more role play I would say. I personally was happy if they never rolled the dice and we just talked our ways out of encounters.

All this is funny, because in the gaming world, I want less story and more dice rolling. Why is that? Have we been spoiled by more mechanics in a game and less story that we just want to kill stuff and could care less if the guy we are killing razed an entire village with his orc army? Does anyone know what the story behind the destruction of Norrath happens to be or do they even care? Does anyone know the story behind Black Temple or would they just rather know how to kill the mobs and get the loot?

I bet the players on an RP server know. They help give credence to the designers that build the world, create the history and make the quests that all tie together. In my opinion, they help persevere the integrity of the game, while the rest of us PVP, grind monsters and do crafting.

Things to think about.

Close the Door!

I finally managed to leave the guild.  There was no monumental reasoning behind it, I just typed “/gquit” and that was it.  

If there was a “thing” as they say or a final straw that moved me in that direction, it had to be their lack of commitment to others in the guild.  Apparently, tonight was Gruul’s lair, I was told, but never saw a message that invites were going out. In truth, if they had tried harder to get guild members to go, they wouldn’t have had to PuG 5 people for a 25 person raid.  I only saw one message go out, and it was “DPS Message me for invites” and that was from the guild leader.  Apparently, by the defender of the guild that asked me why I left, they had sent out tons of messages for invites to Gruul’s.  Its a shame my text log doesn’t go back 4 hours or I might have seen it. lol

This wasn’t the real reason for leaving, but it was “a” reason for leaving.  If you have to PuG any percentage of your 25 person raid, there is a problem.  And how do you explain to the PuG-ed people that guild members get first dibs at loot?  I mean, you have to let them know thats the rule, especially if you won’t let guild members bring in alts to fill spaces and let them have chances at loot, right?

Anyway, the response to my “Loot Whore” blog was awesome.  Just about every response I got validated the fact that the guild was being managed poorly and that I should leave as fast as humanly, or in this case, Dwarfinly possible.  Which, as already stated, I happily did. (Break these chains!)

The real problem is that the situation I described is the reason why most people either stop raiding or quit MMO’s altogether.  

It really doesn’t matter if your hardcore or casual, at some point, after reaching the top level attainable in any MMO, as a player you have to face the truth.  If you want to move forward, you have to become a raider. (Not the one’s out in L.A with the really bad record.)

Raiding is the end of the line and you have to either get with it, or bail.  If you move to some other MMO, its only a temporary fix, because you will have to face the problem again. Developers have to find a solution to this and fast.  They need to give players more options at the “End Game.”  Funneling all the players down to a predestined style of play is only going to frustrate them and turn them off as is evident by a lot of blogs I read.

I have no answers or suggestions.  I do know that if a company can successfully close the door to “End Game” raiding, and open up new, exciting and casual doors for players, they would truly be able to yell “DING”.

 

Video Games vs. the Law!

Stephen King, author of such works as “The Stand“, “Misery” and “Salem’s Lot”, writes articles for Entertainment Weekly from time to time.  Recently he discussed a bill pending in the Massachusetts state legislature known as HB 1423.  This bill basically wants to restrict the sale of video games with violent content to minors.  This is what Mr. King had to write on the subject:

HB 1423 would restrict or outright ban the sale of violent videogames to anyone under the age of 18. Which means, by the way, that a 17-year-old who can get in to see Hostel: Part II would be forbidden by law from buying (or renting, one supposes) the violent but less graphic Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

They (our elected officials) want the ban because video game violence is “pornographic and has no redeeming social merit.” These types of games are sold to youngsters in order for them to experience the “vicarious thrill of killing”.  Stephen Kings also writes, “when politicians take it upon themselves to play surrogate parents. The results of that are usually disastrous. Not to mention undemocratic.”

I have to say, Stephen King is now my hero.  Why?  Well, frankly, parenting is what parents should be doing, not a governmental body.  Parents need to be aware of what their kids are doing, by being involved in their lives daily and to make sure they are learning how to make the right choices.  It’s not the job of the government to clean up the mess of poor parenting.

Several years ago, a co-worker told me a story about how his 9 yr old neighbor was playing a new crazy game he just got called “Grand Theft Auto 2″.  The little neighbor told him all about the game. After hearing about being able to run people over in cars and being able to violently beat people to death on the street, he made sure to tell the parent what kind of game their son was playing.  Being a parent himself, he felt obligated.  But apparently, the adults had bought the game for their child, not knowing what it was or how violent.

 How can this be?  I’m sure the game was very well labeled with a rating sticker.  So what is the answer?  What would a ban have done?  Parents didn’t hesitate to buy the game, even with a “Mature” rating on it.  Are we going a little to far in throwing the word “Ban” around?  Parents aren’t getting the job done now, how will passing a law and banning the sale make things better? 

Honestly, as a former kid, I know that they will find ways around laws.  ”R” rated movies are for people over 18, but I’m sure everyone has made their way into a horror movie when they were 16 or 17.  I’m sure people in college under the age of 21 have had a beer or two.  If their is a rating system for video games now, changing it so you can arrest people isn’t going to change the fact that people will get their hands on it.  It’s not the job of elected officials to be as King writes, “surrogate parents“. 

Next thing you know, we’ll be banning books with questionable content, or even thoughts.  Once they start down that road, will we ever come back?

 

 

Loot Whore

I have been aware of the term “Loot Whore” since the inception of Everquest.  As defined on the web a Loot Whore is:

A greedy person, typically of an mmo, who believes that all loots belong to him and him only. No one else matters and the loot whore will rarely consider others when practicing the ways of the loot whore. Attempts are frequently made to reverse the loot whore’s way of thinking, but sadly it is an irreversible condition.

 Loot Whore and Ninja Looter are pretty much interchangeable at times.  Ninja looters, most of the time, pop up in PuG’s, where they can’t hid very well and once uncovered are usually dealt with pretty quickly, but the Loot Whore tends to rearer their ugly head more in raiding guilds.  They are usually thwarted by observant Guild leadership, spoken with in private, suggestions of changing their evil ways are discussed and if they don’t respond, they get the infamous “/gkick”.

I bring all this up, because a very conscientious player was labeled a Loot Whore by our so called guild leadership.  Not only was he labeled as one, but anyone that associated with him or took his position in his disagreement with “Leadership” would also pretty much be branded a Loot Whore and the leadership would no longer consider them for loot in the future raids. 

How was all this found out?  One would think that anything this disruptive would be handled privately among all parties and if an amicable solution wasn’t found, the offending player would be asked politely to leave or in a worse case scenario, just “/gkick” -ed.  But instead, the Guild leader posted the situation on the website, replacing all the players involved with the terms “Player A, Player B , and Player C”, then laid out only his side of the discussion, referring to some of those involved as “Loot Whores”, informing all other players who associated with “Player B & C” they would get no chance at loot in raids and then locked off the thread so there wouldn’t be any healthy discussion.  Maturity at its finest!

Here is a summary:

What’s Happening?

I wanted to take a minute and talk about some interesting things I’ve been getting into lately.

First, I managed to play a bit of LOTRO, as you can see from my other posting today.  The game is worth a try, and you can pick it up at Circuit City for $20.00.  I also played a bit of WoW as well.  I worked my poor neglected Paladin to level 53 last night.  Sadly, I’ve only managed to take Gwion, my level 70 mage, to the new area only once since it was released, but due to the fact that I’m on a PvP server, its pretty hairy out in that zone right now from what I hear and if your not traveling in a pack, you’ll get eaten alive by horde.

 Also, over this past weekend, I was able to get into a little bit of Lost Odyssey on the Xbox 360.  It’s an RPG similar to Final Fantasy series.  I’ve only managed to beat the first Boss, but the game is pretty great.  I don’t have an HD Tv yet, but the game looks and plays really great.  If your looking for something different and your tired of waiting for the next FF game, try Lost Odyssey.  The load times aren’t as bad as some reviewers have said, and if that is all thats keeping it from getting a 10 on their scale, then I say buy the game.

Also, on my list of new purchases is my new 4 x 6 writing tablet, by Wacom.  I’ve only been able to dabble with it a bit, but its pretty sweet.  I purchased it on the believe that one day I would be able to do an internet comic like Scott Johnson and Woody Hearn.  Don’t worry, I didn’t forget, Penny Arcade.  But so far, I’ve only managed two different drawings and neither of them is a comic, I don’t think. lol

The second one isn’t finished yet, so I’m really not sure what its suppose to be.  When  I’m away doing shows out of town, I tend to doodle a lot.  I realized that some of these little doodles aren’t half bad, and I should save them, which is the reason I bought the tablet. This way, I can be creative at home as well as away and I can preserve all the silly drawings I make, and torture my readers as well.

That is about it for new stuff.  One last thing, I’m not sure I like the new wordpress interface.  Apparently, while I was out, they changed a few things, and for some reason, my foxfire browser was having a hard time uploading pictures.   Lucky for me, I decided to try the new Safari browser by Apple.  When I say new, I mean new to windows and me, not new to the world of mac users.  I’ve managed to do two postings using it and its working like a champ.  No problems getting it to upload images or any other kind of strange and crazy stuff.  I haven’t decided if i want to use it as my default browser, but I will definitely us it for my blog postings while at home.

I do want to thank everyone for dropping by.  I’m like a little kid on Christmas day when I check my blog stats or check to see if anyone has posted anything, good or bad.  Again, I promise to post a bunch this week.  I’ve got some thoughts on an article that Stephen King wrote for EW a few weeks ago about passing laws concerning video games and children, so stay tuned, you never know what I might say.

 

First Impressions, LOTRO!

So far I’ve played 20 hours, give or take 2 or 3, of LOTRO. I’ve managed to get my Hobbit Burglar, Gweona, to level 14 and my Human Captain, Dalarin, to level 10. I am really enjoying the Shire and my little Hobbit a bit more than the last time I tried LOTRO, which was on a guest pass at the end of last year. The music at that time just annoyed me like crazy, now I couldn’t live without it. lol

Lets take a look…

Still AFK!

Been working a lot of crazy hours, so I don’t have much to report.

I did manage to get my Hobbit Burglar to 12 and have really started enjoying LOTRO a lot more.  Still haven’t made it to any very populated areas, so I don’t know how much graphic lag I will get once I make it to a major town, but the game is certainly a time waster.

As soon as I get off the road, I’ll post a full report on what I’ve liked and disliked about the game, so please check back.

I did manage to find the time to see the movie, The RUINS.  Not a stellar horror movie, but worth a rental when it comes out. 

Stay tuned, still!

Six-Word MMO

Last night, I happen to be listening to Alan Colmes. I’m not a Colmes fan, but when your stuck driving a large truck at 12am and falling asleep, his ranting can help keep you awake. Anyway, his topic of discussion was the book “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure” by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser. The book was a project to get people to write biographies about themselves by using only a six-word sentence.

Here are some examples:

“I’m ten, and have an attitude” - Tillie Sege

“Life has gone to the dogs.” - Ted Rheingold

“Anything’s possible with an extension cord.” - BillySirr

“Danced in fields of infinite possibilities.” - Deepak Chopra

“Ex-wife and contractor now have house.” - Drew Peck

As I was listening to Alan answer calls from people offering up their own six-word messages about life, I thought, wouldn’t it be great if you could find a way to sum up an MMO in a similar way? So, of course, trying to stay awake, I came up with a few.

World of Warcraft

Wow is fun, grinding is not.

Everquest 2

Life isn’t laggy, EQ2 shouldn’t be.

LOTRO

We make game, you make music.

Thats all I could come up with while trying to stay awake and not crash all the companies gear. lol Maybe you could do better?

Bored?

Well, after being afk for about a week, I logged into WoW, and I wsa bored.  I did manage to get my Paladin, Oakley to 51, which isn’t hard now that you get tons of xp for quests.  But still, it just felt like a job.  Grind Grind Grind.

So, as I write this, I’m downloading the 7 day trial for LOTRO.  I’m going to give that game another try.  I know people hate when people ask advice in their blog, but if anyone has a good suggestion as to a nice starting character class and friendly server, please let me know.  As soon as the trial for LOTRO is up, I’m also going to download EVE Online.  I figure I’d try a few different games while I’m chilling on WoW.

By no means am I done with WoW, but as a lot of bloggers are saying, its nice to have an alternative to the boredom of grinding.  I do intend to level up my Paladin,  get him attuned and equiped for Kara runs, but thats going to be a long drawn out grind.  But I have to say, next to the my Mage, the Paladin has been fun to level.  I just think its ironic that in real life I’m a Paladin/Sorcery and in WoW my two favorite characters are Mage and Paladin.  Maybe the quiz is a lot more correct than I want to admit. lol

The guild has grown a lot since I last logged in too.  Either we have lots of new members or everyone has leveled an alt to 70 in a week, which the way quest xp is these days, wouldn’t be to hard.

I’ll post more interesting stuff later, hopefully.

RL Character Sheet?

Scott over at Pumping Irony asked the question a few weeks back, What D&D character are you?

So, I took the quiz and the following is me, I guess?

I Am A: Lawful Good Human Paladin/Sorcerer (3rd/2nd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-14
Dexterity-13
Constitution-10
Intelligence-14
Wisdom-12
Charisma-13

Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Primary Class:
Paladins take their adventures seriously, and even a mundane mission is, in the heart of the paladin, a personal test an opportunity to demonstrate bravery, to learn tactics, and to find ways to do good. Divine power protects these warriors of virtue, warding off harm, protecting from disease, healing, and guarding against fear. The paladin can also direct this power to help others, healing wounds or curing diseases, and also use it to destroy evil. Experienced paladins can smite evil foes and turn away undead. A paladin’s Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast. Many of the paladin’s special abilities also benefit from a high Charisma score.

Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Now I just need a way to raise my stats. lol