This should be a tradition.

I did this well before the launch of Star Trek Online and I am doing it again. The only difference is this time I’m not (yet, if ever) in the beta.

I do not like nor am I impressed by Star Wars : The Old Republic.

I’m not hating on your game, if you are a fan. I am not bashing the company or anything. I am just totally unimpressed. If I change my tune later and become a total fanboy, feel free to call me on it.

In the meantime, until I get my blogging regions of my brain full of coffee and come back to you all, enjoy this.

WAR EU

This little tidbit has come to my attention.

Will I be able to transfer to North American servers immediately?
◦We do
have plans to allow European customers to transfer to and from our North
American servers. However, this option will not be available at the time of
launch.

Sure I went back to WAR for a bit with Sareini but, in reality, I played maybe two or three days. I'm busy with things at home and in other games. That said, the ability to take the characters I still love, the goodies I managed to grab up (Kossars Helm from C&C RA3, Scarabs from codes etc) and move it all over to the timezone I actually live in? Fantastic!

That may well get me back. No promises of course... but it'd be an option to play again when I know there'd be major action going on.

Sorry for GOA, but I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Warhammers Black Ops

Apparently the Skaven may or may not be coming. Who knows? It's all rumours at the moment.

I've talked about Skaven before and Planetside.
So my quick two cents.

Skaven Classes!

• Grey Seer - Equivalent to Archmage and Shaman. Variously imbibing Warpstone and expelling it to weave spells.

OR

• Plague Monk - Equivalent to Rune Priest and Zealot (this one is Sareinis)
• Warpfire Cannon Skaven - Equivalent to Engineer or Magus. Guns ho!
• Assassain - Witch Elves and Witch Hunters suddenly find sneaky rats butting in.
• Rat Ogre Tamer - White Lions and Squig Herders.

But one race alone wouldn't properly shake up RvR, it'd have to be an entire faction. Unless you go the Planetside Black Ops route.

If Skaven do make an appearance and exist primarily to foul up the plans of everyone else...well that's Skaven-y and perfectly fine by me.

To Everything There Is A Season

I have never really had experiences with big guilds. I dabble in many many games but my home for the majority of my MMO life has been the Virtue server of City of Heroes.

City of Heroes is a reasonably casual game. You can hop on to either side, grab a random mission from the Police Radio or Newspaper (assuming you don’t have a contact with missions) and hammer it out quickly. Design aspects were taken and further expanded upon in Cryptics Champions Online and to an extent Star Trek Online. As a result of this casual nature, I have never had the experience I hear of with World of Warcraft guilds where courting them is a multiple week long process. I never really had much interaction with many guilds in Warhammer either. The one that I did join which wasn’t just a collection of City Of Heroes friends merely asked that I play with them a lot rather than a little. Given that more often than not I no longer played with friends at that time I had no problem throwing my various alts in.

However recently in City of Heroes old players have come back from the wilds of Champions Online and here is where I get to the point.

There once was a group. I shan’t name it, though anyone who knows me can guess it, so as not to come across as bashing anyone. I had a wonderful time in the group and made many friends. Some of them persist to this day, some of them I have had the fortune of meeting in person. The group was active, had allies, had stories and had fun. With so many people back in those heady days coming and going in City of Heroes there was a vibrance to the Supergroup. People came and people went but the core of what the roleplay group was remained.

As time passes though, so too do people. Eventually the group withered and died. There were brave attempts at restarting it to be sure. There were good ideas and good intentions but in the end, if no one can give the time to the group, the group does not exist. That is the core of my belief regarding Supergroups. Perhaps with hardcore guilds where it takes months to gain entry, where they are a heavy investment in time, money and effort, there is a greater sense of permanence to the guild. Perhaps in those cases it is about the tools and utility of the guild rather than the people. As I said, I don’t know having had no experience. Supergroups though are all about the people. In a casual game with so many coming and going and having so many faces (ahhh altitis, my bane) the time between a group being one you remember fondly and one being filled with strangers who have little link to the original ideals can be quite small.

In the end the casual nature of the game contributed to the death of the group. Some older hands retried it in Champions Online and it seems it has either diverged from the memory of the original or the game itself does not hold the interest of everyone. Why do I say this? Well those same souls are back in Paragon City and trying once more to recreate the group. The name was never the group. The ideals or roleplay reasons for it were never the group. The group was made and immortalised in peoples memories by the people themselves. They’ve moved on, the groups season turned. I just hope that in trying to bring it back again, people do not tarnish their memories (surely rosily coloured by nostalgia at this point) of what they had by the imitations attempted.

They say you can’t cross the same bridge twice because of the water flowing beneath. I suppose you can’t join the same casual dream twice either.

Overactive Imagination

Yesterday Shannon told me she had "badish" news. Turns out she needs a new chair. Nothings wrong with the old one, it's just not good for her back. This only rates as "badish" due to well... money.

"So what?" you may ask. I agree, it's a little detail. However, at the time Shannon took forever to tell me this "badish" news. There were tangents and then quibbles over how bad it really was. I didn't care, I just wanted to know. My mind was coming up with all the horrible scenarios it could. Is it really not bad or is it in fact a whole lot worse than advertised?

Not knowing is the worst thing. When you know what a problem is there at least exists the possibility of planning for it, facing it or running away like a little girl.

Not knowing in an MMO context is also powerful. I didn't know much of Cryptics plans for Star Trek bar that it was Cryptic and my mind ran away with the possibilities. It was also proven right (sadly) in many of them. I don't know a whole lot about The Secret World beyond that I want it and again, my mind is dancing with what may be.

However recently I've noticed fewer games doing that to me, at least in an online context. C&C 4? I'm thrilled. WoW Cataclysm? Meh. Despite what it could mean for the genre. Sword of the Stars 2? Woo! Allods? I haven't a clue what that's all about. Am I getting crankier and more insular as I get older? Am I more concerned about solo or casual experiences where I can do my own thing despite all the friends and connections I've made through MMOs?

Or is it simply there's not enough wonder in the genre at the moment? Of course everyone's taste is different. What has me fascinated by The Secret World may not work for someone else and they'll instead be salivating over FF14. When I first saw online games, they were mysterious things to me. Ireland was way behind the times as far as online connectivity went. These persistent worlds where anything could happen seemed like a little slice of gaming nirvana, Christmas and my birthday all in one package that I'd get every day.
Now though when people are looking at games it seems to either be "This is <X Game> with features lifted from <Y & Z with some poorly done -i>"  or "This is <A Studio>'s 2nd/3rd/4th/5th MMO with <overdone or rather rubbish signature trademark>".

Right now The Secret World is giving me what Warhammer gave me, what Warhammer 40k will give me and what my other games did. It is giving my mind something to run away with. To imagine the vistas that lay before me, even if the reality is somewhat lacking in the end. I will always treasure the run up to Warhammer for the excitement of the time and the bloggers I met.

It may turn out that The Secret World suffers, or has a bad launch (seriously Funcom, prove people wrong this time), or is simply crap. Either way for now I'm 16 again, seeing those unspoiled unknown worlds laid before me and happy with what may be.

Axe Me Again Next Month

Vorri, Aardii, Orrekai. Do you miss me lads? Do you miss getting your Dwarf on and being piloted into mayhem and madness and war? Do you miss the hustle and bustle of Altdorf or the haggling and bragging that goes on in her taverns? Do you miss the sights and the fights and the foes and the pitfalls and the pqs and the keeps?

I know I do.

I know I hear good things about 1.3.1. I know that since the Bioware/Mythic merger people have apparently gained a measure of calm. A sense of peace and a sense of purpose. I hear that they are being more straight forward with us, the fans. I hear that improvements are being made where they are most called for, most needed, those places that I stopped just short of seeing.

Do you want me back? Raising staff and rifle and hammer and spanner in the name of Order? Do you want to ride with the Sentinels, proud in your Gyroharnesses? Do you want to slay your foes, slake your thist and bury your weapons in the worthy?

If I could move to Europe and keep you boys, you know I would.

Failing that, the stars are not yet aligned. Morreslieb and Mannslieb have yet to wax full once more for me.
Axe me again next month.

Warhammer Temporal Mechanics

I love Warhammer Online. I really do. I enjoy playing it, I enjoy the setting, I enjoy the times I've had and the loot I've gotten my hands on.

I have not played in the Land of the Dead yet for two simple reasons. My graphics card died silently one night leaving me with what the motherboard cranks out and Shannon came back to City of Heroes. Given a choice between playing with her or playing in a Warband, it's no choice. Also, given the fact that no graphics card means no RvR, it's better not to play and have bad memories. Economic pressures also recently made me pick between the two games I subscribe to and for a while, I have let Warhammer expire.
Then on top of it all, time is an issue.

Recently Nic, one of the fantastic Community guys over at GOA, had a birthday. We were all out for drinks, hugs (I am told I give the best manhug in Dublin) and geekery. The WAR EU players have consistently seemed to have a better time than me, and I've never really complained about my time.

Why is that? Well... I went to the NA servers for a good reason, I stand by that reason. But in an RvR game or a PvP game, the main action will always be primetime. I can stay up for that on the weekends, but if I've got something going on elsewhere, I'm missing the lions share of the action. For once, geography and time have let me down. There are fantastic people on Phoenix Throne (Go check out The Sentinels) but I don't get nearly as much time with them as I would like. Money no object, I'd run two computers :P However such multigaming is best left to people with more money than sense.

What to do then? Well it's obvious. I'm going to keep blogging about WAR and I have my sights set on someone inside Mythic about a few things.
That and I'm going to campaign for greater server transfers. It's time I went home, it's time I asked for a way for my Dwarfs to find their way back to their native time zone and the people who will be playing when it suits me to play.

Mythic & Bioware : Mythioware

Head on over to the Warhammer Herald for one of likely many announcements to come on
the EA Mythic/Bioware Merger.

This... is going to be interesting. Where's my flame war survival suit?

Woohoo!

Thanks to the blogosphere (I wish I was putting information out rather than taking it in as usual, must work on that) I too have gotten myself the nifty Scarab amulet.

So far ....
CE Retail Box Includes: The Librams of Insight, Custom Character Heads and more!
Pre-Order Includes: Rittenbach's Portable Camp and Guardian's Iolite Band
Reward: White Dwarf Includes: Custom Dwarf Head
Reward: Email Validated Includes: Title - 'The Validated'
Reward: C&C Red Alert 3 Includes: Kossar's Helm
Preview Weekend Provides access to Preview Weekend
CE Open Beta Provides access to the CE Open Beta
CE Head Start Provides access to the CE Head Start
Reward: Choppa/Slayer Custom Heads Includes: Choppa/Slayer Custom Heads
Reward: Scarab Amulet Includes: Scarab Amulet
Reward: Shroud of the Imrathepis Includes: Shroud of the Imrathepis

One day Skaven Cloak, you will be mine.
(What? CoH has badge whoring, WAR has the Tome and rewards :P)

Never one to deny a challenge

Folks, they've thrown down the gauntlet. That or dangled a carrot, you decide. What am I talking about? The Warhammer Age of Reckoning Blog Challenge.

Werit already tweeted that the fantastic and ever entertaining Tome Of Knowledge has received a package, head on over for a peek.

From the Herald.

If you want to claim your free Scarab Amulet, put your decoding hat on, because the Rise of the Tomb Kings blog challenge is coming! Over the next three weeks, Tomb King Skulls will be appearing on some of your favorite online gaming sites. Painted on these skulls are five different Cartouches. Translate any one of these and you’ll reveal an item code. If you play on a North American or Oceanic server, you can take this to the Mythic Account Center and enter it into your account. Once activated, you will receive a unique Scarab Amulet reward. This fun item summons a Scarab swarm that chitters and swirls around your feet. Remember, nothing grants e-kudos like a personalized beetle horde.

How do you translate the hieroglyphs? Well, you’ll need to search around the WAR blogosphere. Just like the Night of Murder bloody valentines, we’ve sent special packages out to US and Canadian WAR bloggers. Different blogs will get different fragments of the code. Collect the lot, and you’ll be able to translate a cartouche.

You’ll need to be quick about collecting the code. Each Cartouche will only give out 1,000 Scarab Amulets (only one per account, before you ask!). So, if you want your beetle buddies, get thee to the internet!

WCPI : Gaarawarr Gabs

This week in WCPI I hereby promote my new favourite person.

Gaarawarr has a fantastic blog dealing with his views on patches, updates, armors, wards and so much more.

If nothing else, he should be worshipped for these two. " Moar Tokens! " and his Guides section.

Read, enjoy and like me, plan out what you'll be doing tonight. Moar tokens indeed.

WCPI : Tome Of Knowledge

This weeks WCPI.

It has to be, it's got to be. It is the Tome of Knowledge.


Webcomic? Oh you bet. Great posts, great commentary and still the blog I'd go to for Land of the Dead stuff, fluff and history. Looking back and going forward, always check your Tome.



Go! Read!

Blogroll Update

Had to go and take an axe to the blogroll on the side. So many WAR Bloggers gone, so many blogs that I didn't pay enough attention to.

Sad to see them all go, but still I thank them for what they shared with everyone while they were here.

Coming later tonight : WCPI

WCPI : Blogwarhammer

For this WCPI it is less a promotion of the active and more a good bye.

• Alt Much? rips off the bandaid.
• Girl IRL makes a sideways move.
• Wizards & Wenches beats a towel to death with another towel. Don't meddle in the affairs of Wizards, they is the cwaaaziest people. <3
• Bugmans Best is no longer being served.

Blame The Healer and the Tome of Knowledge continue and I along with them. Over on the sidebar there's still the link to the Blog Warhammer Forum. Drop by and annoy some folks.
(Ardy watches for spam .... always watches)

Beyond the Stylish

Well... my aim of getting the elite reward on Vorri was very ... straight forward. There was a warband in the area after I scouted the Depot. Quick undead smacking later and Vorri has his goggles.

10/12 for the goggles, but I'm still going to finish it all out because I'm all about the fluff.

Still, doesn't he look good?

(Do all use engineer players use the same explosion in a a matress factory hairdo?)

Mythic Marketing Rewards

Unlike Arbitrary I'm not actually going to say anything useful or constructive on the marketing machine of Mythic just yet.

I will say two things.
1) It is my current mission to hunt down the guy involved and get an interview.

2) I cannot be more clear than this. I want a freakin sweet Griffon.

So if anyone from Mythic stumbles across this, I have sent some emails but if you have an answer, please drop me a line.
If anyone else stumbles across this and wants to be invite to Warhammer, drop me a comment or mail on my profile.

Ardy's Platform '09. Freakin Sweet Griffons for All!

Alting : Good or Bad?

Alts are commonplace in MMOs. Why else would you have more than one slot per server if people never played more than one character? Sooner or later everyone gets bored. Either they achieve what they set out to do, hit the level cap or some other reason. Sometimes it is as simple as needing a change of scenery and a change of pace.

Personally in Warhammer I have four active alts that I've mentioned herabouts. All Dwarfs as is only proper. In City of Heroes, despite originally being very conservative and loyal to a handful of characters, I ended up filling my 17 server slots on Virtue.

I personally, as mentioned in GirlIRLs meme, prefer to start out slow and only play support when I start a new game. It's how I learn the ropes, the community and if I like the game. Other folks like my good friend Seph love to try everything as soon as they can. Seph had in very short order, some 10 or 15 alts and may well have filled two servers. He wanted to sample the various classes and have them there to play later. That's his perogative.

Now to the meat of the matter. Before the switch from Ostermark to Phoenix Throne my regular play group wasn't regular anymore. Some had left, others couldn't afford the time. C'est la vie. As a result I decided that I would shop around and find myself a nice Guild to try out. Grungi was with me though as when I settled on this course of action, Bitter Rivals had just finished and I hadn't even gotten Aardii past the first PQ in Ekrund when I saw the various guilds vying for new blood.
I ended up joining a fantastic bunch called The Sentinels as well... they were in my PQ group and seemed like good chaps.

Now a part of Sentinel policy is that they wanted to recruit not just your character, but you yourself. All of your characters on the server. At first, I was a little wary as well I had some in the Oathbearers Legacy, a friend group from CoH.
Now though, all my Dwarfs are with them and I've one inactive character remaining in the Oathbearers. They all left so nyah.

This means no matter what I play, when I play I am with them. Whichever alt I feel like being on, I've an active guild to be around. This is in part because when any of them decide they'd like to alt and play something else for a bit, their alts are also there. We're encouraged to be together and it works. Notes on the Guild Roster let you keep track of who is who easily and so far I've not met one bad apple.

Now I don't know any of them personally, I've not yet formed the friendships I did in City of Heroes. In CoH, I'd happily join any group a friend wanted me to and I have come to think that this is a bad thing.
When my account expired, it wasn't just me not being on the global channels. It was several supergroups losing one of their number. Had I been centralised like the Sentinels prefer, well then one group would have only lost one person. You can, except in cases of Dual boxing or that crazy 36 account WoW guy, only be in one place at a time. This causes trouble when you have 17 places to be instead of one or two.

In the end it may all just be a cycle. I may end up filling Phoenix Throne and Vortex to the gills. I may end up have 20 different alts, but I wonder if I will have 20 different places, or by joining guilds like the Sentinels, will I only have one or two?
Either way that time is still in the future of my Warhammer play, I've 40 to get to yet and Vorri has his eye on those Aviator Goggles from the live event. Tonight, you'll find me with the Sentinels, no matter who I happen to be.

Dig, Drink, Kill

The Dwarf Way. Dig, Drink, Kill.

There's plenty to dig up though and as an addition to the WCPI and because of something mentioned on Sentinels guild chat, I present to you the quick link fest to the brightest and best about the Land of the Dead, Beyond the Sands and the Live Expansion.

• Beyond the Sands from the Herald
• The Tome Of Knowledge on the Tomb Kings pt1
• Pt2 from ToK, also what got the attention of Massively
• GirlIRL considers the Live Event
• When in doubt, Lexicanum

Also ... in a WAR related note. Some personal pimpage. If anyone is going to Baltimore Games Day and can grab me a code, I will heart you. If anyone wants to join Warhammer and help me earn a bloody sweet Griffin, so much love. Otherwise, get back to readin ye buggers.

Dug up the links. Check. Drank. Check. Kill.... well the barman looks shifty...

You're in the Guilditary now

Bear with me folks. This one will wander a bit.

Massively has a Daily Grind article up with the following question.

Do you think a game needs to include some form of PvP to be successful? Or can a game go with a purely player vs. environment or cooperative approach and still succeed?

Now I've my own question based on the whole PvP thing. Not is it necessary to be successful but rather, what does it or could it do to the structures that come about in games.

In City of Heroes there is some PvP both through arenas and pvp zones, essentially though I've always treated it as a PvE game. A few years ago the Silver Guard was redoing its website and one part of that was a picture for the front page of all the available members wearing the Guard uniform and basically showing off the colours. A group effort, a sign of unity and all that jazz.
Boy did it ever go wrong.

Firstly there was one member who at the time didnt have the ability to enter Supergroup bases because they had to be the only person I think I had met who didnt bother getting CoV (if memory serves, a whopping $1 increase in the monthly sub at the time, I could be wrong). What do you do in this situation? Personally if I couldn't be where every other single player in the group was, I wouldn't hold things up. No... that's too easy. So this member (to be honest I've forgotten the character name otherwise I'd be all for the shaming) basically had us all relocate to Atlas Park. Atlas is the armpit of the CoH universe, partially due to it being one of the two newbie zones (don't hate the noob, help the noob) and partially because the Atlas statue has a big idiot magnet in it that summons hyperactive morons.

Secondly, despite it being a group photo and the group having colours, several members refused to wear them. The Guard never enforced a uniform like some other supergroups, but personally I would have thought that throwing the colours on for the sake of thirty seconds wouldn't have hurt. Excuses ranged from "I don't have a uniform" to "I prefer my shades, the Guard ones clash with what I want".

Finally it was down to getting people to position themselves in a sensible manner. Top tip, if you have an 8' tall character, stand behind the 4' ones. Wait for the Atlasidiots (polite name) to get out of the frame. Wait for the afkers to reposition. Wait for the sun to come up as this has now taken so long we're in our third night cycle aaaaand finally click.

It wasn't a bad photo but I still as you can guess have a sore spot over all the nonsense that interfered, especially the fashion comment.

Compare and contrast a straight PvP game. We'll take a few examples.
Planetside, also a few years back, had several outfits making in game promotional/recruitment videos. Cue many many more players than the maybe two dozen Guardsmen standing in formation and having a mexican wave style salute to the camera. You were in the military now and you followed orders.

Massively gave a one-shot of Darkfall Online with an "Inquisition raft fleet". Players coming together and, even if their vent server is filled with penis jokes and bash.org style nonsense, forming a fleet to take the waters they want.

EVE.... just EVE.

Why does it appear to take a game or setting where the prime opponent is other people for our imaginary otherselves to show discipline that they wont when facing a computer? I know of course there are exceptions to both sides of this and of course no amount of roleplaying or discipline survives first contact with the enemy.

Is it something in ourselves? Are computer controlled enemies unworthy of displays of restraint and discipline or are other players such a threat that we look down on displays of axecrazy? Will in game AI advance to such a point to challenge this?

Finally in the 80/20 split of Warhammer (i.e. 80%pve 20%pvp inverting in later levels) that I once heard quoted play with this? I've seen some instances of people following orders and acting in concert in ways I wish bands I've been in could, I've also seen everything degenerate into a zergandpray. Does Party 2 always listen to the Warband leader and cover the postern? Or does this only come later when it is clear it's you vs another meatbag?

I'm in the guilditary now, but I think no one got the memo.

Who's that guy?

A quick update for all the bloggers or basically anyone who fancies a team or to kill me.

Phoenix Throne : Order
Orrekai Dalinsson lvl 31 Rune Priest
Vorri Powderkeg lvl 22 Engineer (Used to be Norri. Damn I was proud of that name)
Aardii ToBeDetermined lvl 14 Slayer

Vortex : Destruction
Leginit ToBeDetermined lvl 18 Squig Herder (Formerly Leggit, another name I was damn fond of)
Eadbursta Yougetthepicture lvl 12 Shaman

So of five characters I play regularly (I have a sixth but she never gets game time) two had to get new names. Of course it'd be the two I was most proud of. Sods law.