Quick WAR Stuff

Thing the first!
Gold, gold sellers, gold buyers and how tos.

I loved Marks post on the banning. I enjoyed the idea of the pop up bannings, but seeing as I've not experienced any yet (computer is still broken) I've no idea how trying they get. The Book of Grudges also has a good post on how to make gold, and that's where the thrust of this first point is.

The best tool for dealing with RMT services is to render them obsolete. Not by offering them yourself or similar ideas, but by making it easy to earn. Orrekai before my computer imploded was at level 12 and has five or more gold. I've not even tried to earn it. Sooner or later it will filter into peoples minds, especially with the fact that renown gear needs renown levels as well as regular levels, that buying bucket loads of money in at the start in no way improves your game experience.
You'll still have buckets of cash at the end of your levelling and have bought everything you wanted on the various stops along the way.

Thing the second.
Ok maybe it's because I don't meet many (read: any) Irish MMO players, though I'm told they exsist. Apparently there are alot in WoW. I will continue to harbour the vague unsettling sense that anyone who plays an "irish" inspired character or uses gaelige in their guild/character naming is in fact an American with a dictionary and a vauge idea.
Still, GOA is in Dublin here. I've seen two things which may be attributed to either a) the growing popularity of MMO's or b) the fact that the EA marketing budget is immense and effective when applied.

The first thing I saw was earlier in the week. Some random lady on the bus, who looked like every other random city worker, was reading the WAR manual. I wanted to throw my arms in the air and shout woo! Unfortunately upstairs on the bus is small and I am tall, so that would have hurt.

The second thing and the more important one, leading back into the first, was that we have alot of free newspapers here in Dublin. They tend to be run by some of the other papers and are morning editions only. The two big ones would be Herald AM and Metro. They're always on the bus and the DART and handed out by people at intersections. On a commute into the city, lots of people (even schoolkids at times) are reading them.
Today, the back page of the Metro was plastered with a full page advertisement for WAR.

Way back when I started with Earth and Beyond, EA had just taken over Westwood. They didn't really push the game, advertising wise. As a result this probably contrbuted to the declining numbers of subscriptions and eventual sunset of the game. It's really really good to see the supposed "EA: Cancel Everything" machine marketing WAR (Or maybe GOA took out the ad, either way). WoW got huge numbers because it pulled a Halo. Halo made gaming cool for people who didn't console game. WoW made MMO's easy and accesible to a huge audience.

Hopefully more ads like that are coming and with them more people for the battlefield.
(Also there are no Irish people on Ostermark thus far. I've been checking. And Guild Róisín Dubh, that doesn't mean black rose, it's a girls name Goddamnit)

Virtual worlds on paper.

I'm sure everyone knows about the Bartle Test.
Now I've taken said test twice and scored the same both times, ESAK. Of course it's a painfully transparent test so it'd be incredibly easy to take it and make everyone think I'm all about the player killing. Still it does give a good idea of how I view games. I take great pleasure in knowing the universe we're playing in, I enjoy finding things and seeing the sights. I won't simply sit around and gawk, if you tell me I need X to get into Y to see something new, I'll go do that too.

But that's a tangent for another time. Recently I reviewed, if you can call it that, the novel Empire in Chaos. It's the Warhammer Age of Reckoning tie in and it has put me back to thinking about virtual worlds, the why of them and how to affect them.

When I was out picking up Empire In Chaos, I gave into the urge and also picked up EVE The Empyrean Age. For those who know me, yes I am a sucker for expanding universes. I have some of the Warcraft novels (despite never playing the game), all the Halo books, the two City of Heroes novels, a great deal of Black Library material (Warhammer) and other game/novel tie ins.

It was asked on Massively and probably every other MMO blog ever before, what would you do if your online world was about to end? I'm wondering how would an online world benefit by continuing, in and out of game and with the same story telling, to grow and to be a part of more than just our computer time. People mentioned before that if the Star Trek Online game was based around the same time as a show or during a shows run, that it would be a huge thing if people could win or through other merit earn a mention on the show. Of course such a thing, in my opinion only, would be unworkable but the idea has some merit. Most games have leaderboards of some description showing who is the best healer etc. Wouldn't it be lovely if in an ongoing series of novels tied to the games we play you could earn even a tiny mention for your efforts to change your online world. Should WAR close tomorrow for some bizzare reason, I'd love to see a book explaining how the Age of Reckoning ended. Should WAR continue for many years to come, I'd love a shot at immortalising my efforts for Order during that age.

I'm far too lazy to actually set up a poll widget, despite the fact that it is likely not much trouble to do so. Instead I call for comments. Wherever you fall on the Bartle scale, explorer, achiever, killer or socialiser, what do you think of continuous novel tie ins with an ongoing MMO?

Kaput

My computer is having a bit of a breakdown (read: it's broke)

So any blogging I do here or for Hammer of War Online (go check 'em out) will have to be done during work. So if I'm scarce around the comments or here at least you know why.

Hopefully I'll be back up and running soon.

Heisenstate

I joked about Heisenbergs uncertainty principle as it applies to packages before.

I've been dealing with them all day. My Warhammer Collectors Edition started its journey two or three days ago. This morning I had a wonderful email. My package had survived Amazon.com. Braved Delaware and Philly. Broke through into the airport. Managed not to fall out of the sky and landed in Dublin.
At 10.50am DHL couriers had my pack and were en route.
At 1.30pm I rang and they said it'd be with me within an hour.
At 4.30pm I rang and apparently their van had "broke" and the driver was "stuck somewhere waiting for the AA".

Bastards.

So tomorrow morning, I'm up bright and early. I've a bus or two to catch as I make my way out to the airport and claim my package a day later than promised.
Also Mythic announced that anyone without a key entered since this morning doesn't get to play today. So DHL have single handedly screwed up a simple delivery and borked my evening.

Ah well. Tomorrow, there shall be a reckoning and a bit of a glaring.

Edit! : Update on the Grace Period

Empire In Chaos : The WAR Tie-In Novel

This isn't your typical book review.

Mostly a) because I've not reviewed a book before, b) because we're looking at how it represents the game and c) because I'm rubbish at this.

First!
Classes represented.
No mention : Bright Wizard, Rune Priest, White Lion, Zealot (see Magus for possible confusion), most of the Dark Elf race.
Passing mentions : Hammerers, Archmage (possible), Sword Masters (possible)
Decent mentions : Shaman, Black Orc, Chosen, Maurauder, Magus (sans disc), Disciple of Khaine (maybe), Engineers, Squig Herders.
Repeated mentions : Ironbreaker, Warrior Priest, Shadow Warrior, Witch Huner aaaaand Knight of the Blazing Sun.

That's right folks, the KoBS and Hammerers make it into the book. Granted the Hammerer gets only a descriptive sentence whereas the KoBS is actually a main character.

Secondly, the book itself.

As pictures and previous entries here and on the Book of Grudges will show, there are certain authors more popular than others in the Black Library. There is His Most Benificent Danness. Graham McNeill (he wrote about Necrons, so I love him. Oh there may have been Space Marines involved) is way up there. Sandy Mitchell seems to get alot of attention. Then the books of William King (and continued by Nathan Long for Fantasy and Lee Lightner(?) for Space Wolves) are really popular.

Anthony Reynolds is ... not one of those guys. His only other Warhammer credit is another Computer Game/Novel tie-in, Warhammer : Mark of Chaos.

That's not to say that the book is bad. It's just ... constrained shall we say by the material. It works very well as a scene setter for the opening stages of the war we will fight virtually, but even then it doesn't quite match what we've seen in WAR. Destruction and Order mingle amongst themselves around warcamps. Here we had one main Dwarf and one main Elf. The Elf can't talk to anyone and the Dwarf is like all good Dawi, a grumpy bastard.

Personally I enjoyed the book but found it suffering from being too familiar with the game. There are literary equivalents of the in game mechanics (Shadow Warrior stances, Ironbreaker Grudges, Witch Hunter accusations etc) and for a player of the game first and reader of the book second, I found it mildly distracting and annoying.
If nothing else, having to try pin the heroic feats of the main characters not on martial skill but on the game mechanic you will experience means that the battle scenes suffer a little.

Still it's not a bad book and is worth a read if you fancy picking it up. I personally think game tie-in novels can be better. A good example would be the Halo novels.

Also, man. Knights of the Blazing Sun suck.

Now Reading : Cain's Last Stand (signed copy wheeee)
Next up : EVE The Empyrean Age

Launch stuff

The obligatory Blogger "zomg the game is on" launch post.

As I'm about to start work and still half asleep, we're going to go back to our old friend, Mr Bullet Point.

• Destruction sleeps alot. Honestly, Order had Ekrund and Mount Bloodhorn completely in the bag and uncontested up until "evening" in America. No complaints here, the minor vendor buffs were handy and let me get some good levels in Apothecary.
• Gates of Ekrun Scenario is unloved. May be related to the Destruction love of sleep.
• This explains the WAR. Someone woke the various faction leaders up too early and so now we have an invasion.
• I crashed to desktop twice, but I can alt tab (windowed mode) with impunity.
• I have rolled up Orrekai on Ostermark for those wanting to come RP and Ardua on Avenheim to abuse and annoy the Casualties of War. Rune Priest and Warrior Priest.
• I'm just shy of level 10 having played a quick catch up to my friends.
• PvPQs are amusing.

The final thing is a quick note. This is the third time I've brought Orrekai to 10ish. PW I got to 11 and Open beta I got to 11.
Despite being in the same zones, with the same quests and the same paths three times, I'm not bored of it. Perhaps it's the MMO equivalent of new car smell. Maybe it's the fact that the world is just so so much bigger than City of Heroes and presents other options for levelling.

Or maybe it's the simplest two factors. I left the heavy exploring off till live. I keep finding lovely new things (there's a way to Barak Varr from Redhammer Station by wandering into the Greenskin Chapter four area and taking a mountain path). Secondly, there is alot to do. Every time I've been to Altdorf, depsite combing the place, there is another something to be doing. It's amazing.

This week you'll likely find me clearing up Tome stuff in Dwarf Chapters 1-4 or praising Sigmar with my serious hammer. Leave a comment if you want to get in touch and run around.

Cost of a Hobby

Oh just a random aside from all the Games Day coverage.

Years ago, from the very first blister pack on the White Dwarf, I followed, loved and collected the Necron 40k army.

I even had a respectable small raiding force. Through various life things I no longer have the original metal models nor the plastic raiding force that was released and that I never got around to putting together.

I've not rebuilt my army because Warhammer is an expensive hobby. It is rewarding, believe me, but costly.

If ever there was another army I'd consider, it'd be the Tau. I spotted a model in the Forge World catalouge. It's a Tau Manta dropship. It holds a commander, four units of warriors, two troop carriers, two heavy support tanks and eight battlesuits. Basically it's a full army in a drop ship.

Money no object I'd buy it. Hell if I won the lottery, I'd relocate my Necrons and then start on the Tau with this model.

Money however is an object. It costs £895/€1,129.14 /US$1,598.84
Expensive hobby.

Photoblog - Games Day

Arbitrary has posted the photos from Games Day, so keep an eye out for more.

Of course the "me" ones are as follows.
Manhandling GOA staff (Poor chap didn't see the attacking hand till a moment later :P)
Who is a cuddly wuddly Chosen?
The Audience for His Dan-ness
Aforementioned "Corsetgirl" (Oddly, I don't think this was posed as they were discussing some unit move on the table, and Corsetgirl ended up setting Fingerpointerguy straight. So Cosplayer and knew more about the army)
The initial cause of "Whoa girl in a corset"
RHINO TANK! Also SPINKS! Also Ardy!
My own photo of what we think is Barak Varr

Almost all photos by Spinks and Arbitrary from Book of Grudges and thank you to them for letting me post a few.

Also good Lord I'm huge.

The Non Mythic Games Day Bit

Arb & Spinks do a really good job at summing up what we did at Games Day yesterday.
Don't forget to also check their Twitter for the trip.

So to sum up a few things from Games Day myself.

Who is braver?
The willing/grudging girlfriend/wife who goes with the guy to Games Day despite no interest.
The girl who goes and is a fan.
Or
The girl who goes, is a fan, and is cosplaying.

I think #3 myself. If you're a girl, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that you're used to in gaming hobbies, be they computer or tabletop, being outnumbered by the guys and thus looked at with fascination.
It's a whole other thing to know you're the minority and then go get dressed up. Ask Arb & Spinks about "Corset girl".


Second. Sandy Mitchell, Graham MacNeill and Dan Abnett apparently make up the bulk of the Black Library's awesome if relative queue sizes are any indication. I will admit that they do also happen to be my three preferred authors.
If. IF! If I had stayed inside the NEC on arrival, I would have stood a chance at getting into Games Day in the first one or two hundred people. I could have had Dan Abnett sign a few things. Instead because I decided that I honestly didn't care, his queue hit a point where the average wait time was 60-90 minutes. Bugger that for a game of soldiers.

Also in the interest of being confusing, I got my Black Library stuff first before making a beeline for Mythic on the basis that if I was going to meet the ladies anywhere, it'd be there. It worked out for the best.

Sandy Mitchell is lovely but talks too much. Really I just wanted the autograph and to go to the bathroom, but he was doing his duty and talking to the fans one on one. Great guy, just next time, bathroom first.

Also, a little tip for Games Day. If at all possible, talk to Red shirts. I got in to the signing area on the basis of "No I don't want to go near Dan". When Arb and Spinks wanted to visit Gav Thorpe, the HiVisJacketBrigade barred entry to everyone. Redshirt was off to the side "talking" to a blonde girl. He'd have let them in if they promised to stay away from his Danness.

Still to come.
i) The Mythic Games Day bit with footage and photos from Book of Grudges and footage from Dervish from Covenant of Zak and Flimgoblin from Humberton Blackguard and their party.
ii) Other associated random memories.
iii) The sounding board for ArbArdySpinksEuroBloggerGamerpalooza
iv) Who plays Warhammer? Social breakdown of the fans.

The Travel Bit

First of my series of posts on the Games Day experience.

Naturally being first, that means it'll be at the bottom, but we'll fix that later.

So without further farting about. FLY AER LINGUS.
Really, I only took the Ryanair flight initially because I didn't know any better. Moments after confirming my booking someone then told me Aer Lingus do service Birmingham and it turned out the flight times were comparable ( 6.30/6.30 departures 7.25/7.35 return) as was the price.
You may think, so what?
All the GOA lads were on the Aer Lingus flight back. I could have been harassing the daylights out of them. That and Ryanair was naturally late, and also naturally neglected to mention that, so despite a 10 minute lead (which I was sure I'd make up while they get their bags) I ended up arriving in Dublin some 40 minutes later than GOA and missed the bus I wanted.
It worked out, I went and got Chinese food.

I don't regret getting up at stupid o'clock (3am, after 4 hours in bed) and making my way to Games Day. Being there a day early would likely have bred complacency or laziness. This way I was up, I was awake and I was at Games Day on time! Unless we put into action the Arb/Ardy/Spinks Eurobloggergamerwarhammerpalooza idea, I think a day trip suits me well.

Also a travel advisory.
Arb and Spinks were fantastic. In return for Butlers Irish Chocolate I got 4 liters of Cherry Coke. You just can't get the stuff in Ireland. It was heaven!
Then...about 40 minutes before my flight I remembered. I had only used carry on. You can only have 100ml of fluids going through security. I was carrying 4000ml.
Crisis.

Ryanair wanted £16 for me to check my bag. As much as I loved the coke, it wasn't worth that. But it was a gift and one does not let gifts go to waste.
So the reason I was up until 4 this morning may be the fact that I proceeded to mill my way through the coke.

Sadly Im not as young as I used to be so I couldnt manage 4 liters, but it didn't go to waste.
It was however delicious, so thanks again you two.

Grah

Blogger ated my post. Then I found it. It's below.

I survived the trip and had a fantastic time at Games Day with Arb & Spinks of the Book of Grudges.

The first blog on return

Edit It seems the post which I thought lost...wasn't. So in it goes. Despite repetition


I have survived!

I have survived death by Ryanair, death by delays, death by Coke (self induced) and death by sleep deprivation (staved off by the former).

Ryanair. If ever you needed more reasons to not travel with them, the GOA people all used Aer Lingus. So for the same price and comparable flight times, I could have been harassing the lads all the way home. They escaped.

More on the flights later.

Cherry coke. The Book of Grudges girls Arb and Spinks were fantastic to meet. Again it's all something I'll blog tomorrow. They very nicely got me 4 litres of Cherry Coke. <3

40 minutes before my flight I realised I was carrying 4000ml of coke, hand luggage may only contain 100ml.

And it was £16 to check the bag.

Suffice to say I chugged what I could, but Im not a teen anymore and could not manage all 4 litres. Letting it go to waste was not an option :P

So now I'm back home and about to log on to the NA servers to game a bit. 24 hours ago I went to bed. 21 hours ago I got up.

It's been a long but fantastic day.

Also Operation : Manhandle was a bust for reasons, you guessed it, to follow.

Games Day - Part 1

I have awoken RAWRGH!

It's 3am, and I'm unusually a) awake b) hyperactive and c) not grumpy.

Phase 1 - Wake - Complete
Phase 2 - Go - In Progress

So if anyone wants to see if I've survived and doesn't want to wait for the blog later on, head over to the Book of Grudges and keep an eye on their twitter stuff. I may steal Arbitrarys phone to yell. See you all shortly.

It's up! (Hammer of War)

My first article is up over on Hammer of War Online.

Not bad for a first shot but I have learned my lesson. Don't write during work :P

Pop over, check it out and leave some comments (even a You suck, go this other way is welcome).

Also points go to Joey in charge over there for the title.
The Art of War

Operation :Manhandle

From Pauls Blog

I am off to Europe, to games day on Sunday the 14th of September in Birmingham.
I will be there all day to wave and say hello.
Also in Paris around the 26th
of September for the Paris computer show.
Also in Birmingham the evening of
the 27th for PC Gamers LAN show.

So he will be at Games Day! Now the mission. First secure Arb and Spinks from the Book of Grudges a few teeshirts.

Second, manhandle Paul Barnett for a photo.
Wish me luck.

Orrekai in Altdorf

Excuse me.... Yes sir, if I may have a word? I'm from the Altdorf Merchants commission on trade and tourism. We just have a few questions if we may?

Sure lad, sure. Jus' make it quick. I've a flight back to that bloody Blighted Isle in a bit. Kin versus kin there. Very sad. Still have to find a wayward Ironbreaker. Gets around a bit. Apparently he owes some hood wearing Elfling a favour.

I see sir...So, if I may what brought you to Altdorf?

Ye blind lad? *cocks a thumb over his shoulder* Good solid Dwarven engineering. What else?...Oh ye mean why I'm here. Sure it was on the way and I thought I'd see how you manlings are getting on here. I heard there were some sights worth a moment.

Have you had the chance to sample any local cuisine?

Sure I did. Some young lass down the Market Square has a shop and wanted me t'give her a review. S'crap is what it is. No offence to her, but Raven in a Pie? That's not a dish, thats a picnic accident. An' don't get me started on that sausage vendor. Pah, wouldn't know good rat if one up and bit 'im.

Uhh.. I see. And...erm. Transport! Yes.. how did you find the transport methods in Altdorf? Good for trade?

Y'know laddie, it's a telling thing. The best way in an' out? Gyrocopters. Ye got the right idea lettin the Engineers Guild in fer that. But the rest? Some Elfling boat is in the way of a good solid Ironclad in the river. No one over this side of the city can board her and see how ship buildin is done. Still maybe some of your brave lads will make it to Barak Varr. The Port has to be seen to be believed. Not like the docks ye have here. One thing in it's favour is the Screamin Cat. Any ale good enough for Gurnisson is good enough for me. I hear the Slayer still shows up there every so often. Just... make sure your "tuurists" don't go lookin for him for a fight right?

Okay..No sir. We're not advertising ...unsavouries.

Watch your tone lad.

Sorry sir. Can you tell me anything else you think new arrivals in Altdorf should see or be made aware of?

That I can do. Now you make sure to ge this all down, I'll be checkin next time I pass. Manlings do a reasonable city. Anyone new here should talk to that shouting body down a ways in the square. He's got some pointers and things to see, even if he does leave the ears ringin. Also be careful. I saw some barrels layin around and thought to myself I'd crack one open. Could have been relevant y'know? Or ale. Anyway one of those deep dark livin, underhanded, conniving bastard of a Skav-

--THANK you sir. That will be all. Altdorf Merchants commission thanks you for your help.

Why the shoutin lad I'm only tellin ye....here where are ye going?... Bloody manlings. Here Flight Master, when's my bloody harness ready? These manlings are all loony.

Sunday Sunday ahhh ahhh ahh ah ahhh

Yes I know the song is about Monday.

Anyway!

• FreddysHouse Key? Check!
• Intarwebnets? Check!
• Go to GOA? Check!
• They Told you so? Oh so much check.

Ah well. Maybe later on today? Ha!
Ask Shannon, she's experienced it. Sunday in Ireland means the country is all but closed, please try back tomorrow. God help European service when it comes to the October bank holiday weekend. I know GOA is hiring people to fill the chairs 24/7 in the customer support (I applied after all) buuuuuut yeah. I forsee difficulty with staff turnover.

News from the Front and slightly to the Left

It seems that Open Beta is going up two days early for all Preview weekend people.

Pro : I get two more days to fart about doing silly things.
Con : There may still be that graphic error.

Pro : I can get stuff for a Hammer of War Article
Con : It's American only.

So for this weekend you will find me on the Open Beta in the US, but for the rest of the week I will more than likely be harassing the Book Of Grudges, Wizards and Wenches and all the other euros like myself thanks to the Freddyshouse Open Beta key I got.

Expect lunatic tales to come.

Hammer of War Online

Rawr folks!

I've been given a chance to ramble incoherently to a larger audience. A lovely husband and wife team have started up Hammer of War Online and asked me to be a columnist. So I'll be joining the likes of Jo Bildo and very soon, once a week inflicting what passes for a thought process for me on their audience as well as my normal schtick here. Head on over to Hammer of War, sign up for the forums and keep an eye out for me there soon.


\o/

The Cost of Risk

Let's do some sums!

And by that I mean I will. So bear with me.

From the Wiki on Lord of The Rings Online.

In North America, players who pre-ordered the game were offered a special founder's offer, a lifetime subscription for $199 or reduced cost of $9.99 per month. Standard monthly fee is $14.99 with three, six, twelve month, and lifetime discounts available. European players had a similar program from Codemasters. A Holiday subscription was available in December of 07 and January of 08 for $9.99/month for a 3 month commitment. A one year anniversary addition includes a $9.99/month subscription or a $199.99 Lifetime subscription.

So! Assume about $50 for the game box. $250 for all the LOTRO you want, forever more. But assumuing I am reading that right, that's up front. You had to preorder or drop by at the anniversary to get it.

Now City of Heroes.
I have my 39 month badge which means I have played for 39 months. Normally that'd mean paid for 38, but I'm an odd one.
So City of Heroes.

$50+$30+$0*+($14.99x36)+$10+$10 = $639.34
*=I got a CoV collectors edition code free from a lovely friend. Also the $10's refer to the GvE edition pack and the Wedding pack.

So then... Warhammer is coming. I've pre-ordered my collectors edition quite some time ago. That was $80. I had to get priority international shipping because Amazon are mean like that, plus import fees. $120. We can safely say I really want the game and am willing to spend money on it.

This isn't a blog about how the subscription model is flawed or fantastic or broken or whatever.
Simply this is a matter of math.

If I had betad (is that a word?) Lord of the Rings Online and enjoyed it and had the cash on hand I'd be able to play it for pretty much the rest of its operable life for $250.
If I had been with City Of Heroes at launch (Issue 2 I came in) and had the cash. I'd have saved myself, ohh lets call it, $400 over the last four years.

So then that's the cost of the risk of an MMO. My first MMO Earth & Beyond was shut down after two years. It was only operating as a pay to play for about 75% of that. It's last few months being a long sunset to let subs time out.

If you have the cash around and a game looks like it will go the distance and most importantly it's offered. Well... I think we'd all be fool not to take up such offers in the future.

Sure it's expensive and sure it's a risk. $199 pays for itself in 13 months.

To be the Devils Economist for a second though, that's why Turbine will never stop offering this lifetime deal. They get $200 for every guy who buys the sub and who may leave after a few months. Even if they do, they still will count on spreadsheets to investors as subscribers, possibly making Turbine more money. Not every game in the MMO market will make it big, or even big enough to keep going. Those that do though, they'll always find a way to charge.

$199 may pay for itself in 13 months, but there'll be expansions.

I've paid $640 for my game so far, but it has had 12 free issues so far. I also got a run of a free comic for a long time mailed to me.

Which would you prefer? Give your game a boost of money now, or let them draw on you for as long as you play?

(Ardy doesn't have the cash at the moment to pay for a $199 lifetime sub to WAR so I'm pretty much holding out hope that I don't miss such a deal if one does surface somewhere)

Blogging Contest from WnW

Regis over at the fantastic Wizards & Wenches is holding a blog contest. This isn't a contest limited to current bloggers. It appears to be open for all comers.

So! If you're considering a move from one platform to another, or if you're looking for a start in the WAR blogging community without all the hassle of a start up, here's a shot.

From the man himself.

This is what's in the pot:

• Your own space on the server with FTP access. 10 GB should do it?
• Installed Wordpress platform with plenty of themes.
• A subdomain name (http://yourblog.blogwarhammer.net/)
• A email address (yourname@blogwarhammer.net)

The Good, The Bad and The Horny

Consider for a moment one of the types of people who plays MMOs.

Let's call him Bob. Bob is a roleplayer. So too is xXxDrthVad3rxXx and LoliLilith.

Part of the endearing sucess of MMOs is of course the ability to lose yourself in your avatar and in your world. Doesn't matter if you're a serious roleplayer who has taken the time to craft a long backstory, mannerisms and personality or a casual guy like me who pulls a concept out of his nethers about two minutes before hitting the newbie zone. What makes the games for us is the people we meet, the experiences we have and share and the world in which we all "lived".

Roleplaying brings that to a new level. You get story writers, artists, those of a musical or machinima bent and so on creating scores of people based off this one shared setting.

You're going to run into LoliLilith probably within five minutes. Reduce that to 40 seconds if you play destruction generally and Dark Elves specifically. After all come on, the base model for an undressed Dark Elf is black, presumably leather, lingerie.
You know that things will go a certain direction sooner or later.

You are garunteed to meet whateverhisfacewas. The guy who thinks pop culture references rendered in leet make him a roleplayer. Or his slightly more eloquent counterpart who is still a rubbish roleplayer and will set your teeth on edge, but at least managed to make a coherent name.

That leaves Bob. Bob is going into a world of warfare. A world where there is always something happening, someone fighting and something worth fighting for. Bob has access to public quests, open groups, scenarios that will pluck him from the world at the press of a button and much more besides. Bob has more warfronts than he can shake his pointy stick/axe/hammer/other at.

So if you come across Bob, say hey. Make him feel welcome. Help him along. Get him the bronze needed to back away from the warfront. Bob is going to the Capital. Bob and all his friends are likely going to end up in the square, possibly recounting battles, perhaps marvelling at a friends statue or otherwise living up the world they're in.

If Bob doesn't get to do that, the extra trappings of a world made alive by its inhabitants will take that much longer to come about. I am not implying that RP servers are going to have two full capital cities of poem slingers and precious little in the way of war. All I am saying is one of the crowning moments of awesome for me in WAR from my sampler was waking up Orrekai and being right smack beside a canon emplacement. It was war all the way to the flight master.

When the game goes live, I want to see people socialising in the cities. I want to see keeps filled with singers and fighters. I want to see a community grow that will bring with it the machinima makers, the artists like http://www.rpvisions.com/ and the story writers that we've seen so far.
It isn't enough to see the game succeed. I want to see it be alive and be loved by those who live there.

The bad are catered for. The horny have options. Lets make sure the good find their place to rest, to play and to be.

That and I just don't want to be tripping over people when I go looking for lairs and other fun bits. Sod off you smelly roleplayers, even if I am usually one of you.

Tears in my eyes

The link is best summed up thusly.

Ardy: How was Lotro?
arbitrary: Not bad, we totally sucked, and I have to go raid with the guild tonight.. but was an interesting new instance
Ardy: Ah at least you enjoyed yourself Ive been near to tears laughing at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Warhammer40000
arbitrary: yeah, it wasn't too bad. Gives us a challenge. uh oh! ha ha!
Ardy: It just keeps going :P
arbitrary: that page is sucking your soul
Ardy: Yes. Yes it does :P
arbitrary: ha ha, affably evil. tv tropes is a work of art. 'Can't argue with elves'
Ardy: Hehehe. "Our Orcs Are Different (Traditional fantasy Orcs meet football hooligan stereotypes meet a whole lot of dakka. It says a lot about just how horrible the Warhammer 40000 universe is that these crazed, violent lunatics, whose societies revolve around killing or brutalising anyone and everyone - including each other - are the comic relief race.)"
arbitrary: its awesome. Utopia justifies the means you need to blog this ;p
Ardy: I think I shall :P
arbitrary: I think I just lost my tomorrow

With one more exerpt for people.

Squick (The Dark Eldar basically live on it. Slaanesh was literally created by it.)

Permanence in Persistent World

City of Heroes has just recently announced the eye candy features of Issue 13.

Included in this shortlist of the big stuff is the idea of day jobs. The idea whereby if you log out at a hospital, your character does EMT work, and thus will gain badges and buffs for when you log back in. There are various different buffs and rewards for the various jobs and locations.
Though as an aside, there is only one University in the City of Villains, so expect the top of Cap Au Diable University to be camped by all sorts.

Massively have asked the question, are rewards for offline time a good idea?

I counter with, what the hell has my character been doing while I slept?

In EVE, skills are trained offline in real time. There is the immersive sense that your character, no matter what they are doing in New Eden is at all times doing something. So countering the question with a question is more an exercise in wondering, how persistent should the worlds we play in be?

Time is fluid in MMOs. Certainly in City Of, the sun shoots across the sky at a great rate of knots and as such the day/night cycle is artificial. This is a rather good thing as I rarely am up so late that I'd be playing in EST "night time" if the cycle was realtime. Given that the days we count are our real time days, the in game distinction between night and day is meaningless, what happens to our alternate selves in the dead time?

If the world is to reflect the real, some form of buff or reward for the time spent not playing may well be acceptable. I cannot believe that when Bregel and Orrekai take a break from opposing the forces of Chaos they both, a) do not assist the war effort in some way, b) do not get rested up or c) do not do anything at all.

Rewards like WoW's rested xp gain or AoC's fresh kills are a good thing. They add that extra layer of the real to our virtual worlds.
I'm refreshed, I'm on top of my game, I have that little edge when going beheading.

What I disagree with is the way City of Heroes is approaching it.
"Lads, we have a task force tomorrow and extra regen is a much, everyone log for 24 hours on the hospital"
"Actually we're going to go badge hunting, we'll need extra damage, log out over Vanguard for a damage buff"

While I do think our characters should get a little something for doing whatever it is they do when we arent there to animate them, they shouldn't be able to do it all.
Virtual heroes, space pilots or warriors, everyone real or imagined needs a break from the working world.

More thoughts from Preview Weekend

Well.. it's Monday and work is light at the moment, so I can blog more. Ha!

First, my public service announcement.

Ladies, Gents and Greenskins.
If you are considering WAR, on the fence about it, or even mildly curious. Do yourself the biggest favour imaginable. Bring a friend with. The joy factor is that much more because of it. More on this below.

~Ardy


The Downside of Open Grouping
There are many people celebrating open grouping, and really it should be celebrated. I found one slight problem though, which mostly I am ascribing to newbie shell shock (You are dumped into a war after all) and the quirks of a preview weekend. All the closed beta folks knew what they wanted to achieve. All the Preview weekend guys like me wanted to find out what was going on.
Open grouping does help. Filter by range and hey you know if people in your general vicinity are doing things you may also be doing or interested in.
The problem I found was this. No one talks.
It actually took a trip to the High Elf starting zone to get a chatty pq/open group.

People came and went. Hell I did too. There was a certain sense of disconnection. However I am hopeful. As I progressed through the chapters people became more talkative and would speak to one another. Heck, one errant Dark Elf in an RvR zone stopped to bow to me (he wasn't flagged otherwise he'd have gotten a staff in the skull).

So yes the open grouping is much vaunted and talked about. If your first experience is a bit silent and akward, don't worry. Everyones head is likely spinning as much as yours. Go with it and you'll make friends in no time.

Related note Terry (Bregel from here on) is/was in Closed Beta and was surprised by something in the Preview weekend. This is an upside of open grouping. Myself (Orrekai), Bregel and Zylasharr (did I get it right T?) were in a public quest. There was another team also there. Both of us were below maximum strentgh so one or two clicks and the teams were seamlessly merged. Instead of two sub par teams running hither and yon, suddenly we were a full one. Sadly we didnt get into any trouble or areas (barring Scenarios) that would have required us to Warband it up a notch, but that little tool was a welcome surprise.
Also due to my having to close the game several times, open groups meant I could hop back in without harassing them (much) on teamspeak for an invite.

Altdorf
For the cheap cheap fare of 50 bronze, Bregel, Zyla and I beercoptered into Altdorf. Well... not Zyla, she was on a Rune Priest as well our first time, but you get the idea.
Altdorf is huge. Really huge. I could spend most of a day rather than the hour or two that I did exploring that place. I am not even sure that it was completely opened up despite being at 5 stars. In fact thinking about it, the city shot up the ranks, so it was likely bumped up.
Some pointers to Altdorf.
There are screaming cats. Get used to them.
Barrels are not toys.
Swirly glowy green things are very enticing to certain Dwarfs.
I met Gotrek and Felix, you should too.
The Steam Tank PQ is really rather clever.

We also came across some randomly and oddly naked Dwarfs. There were representatives of the three armies working out in this square. All were targetable but you couldnt attack them. That is, except for the level one naturalist dwarfs. I singed one or two to teach them a lesson about the value of britches.

Many more things occured there, but I'll keep them for another post.

Just my second PSA here. When you go to start your guild, it only takes a little cash and a party of six. Don't rush the process though. I know you all want to level up your characters and your guilds and get out there and smash heads in. Take some time though. Set aside an hour or two for you all to drop into Altdorf and gawk like tourists. Take in the sights, get the tome unlocks, examine weird swirly green things.
Honestly, don't miss it because you're in a rush or "will do it later". Enjoy your first foray into the living city of Altdorf.

Tome Unlocks
These things are everywhere. EVERYWHERE!
The quick guide to collecting.

If it moves or highlights? Click it.
If it doesn't move? Mouse over just incase.
If it has legs and cons blue? Talk to it.
If it moves and cons red? Kill it.
If it looks interesting? Run over to it and gawk.

Also don't be afraid to die. Don't be afraid to die in RvR. Don't be afraid to run around in circles healing yourself or others as fast as you can buttonmash. It's all a blast.

Geronimo
In City of Heroes I have the very well deserved nickname of Lemming. Heck on Teamspeak and Vent, there is even a song for when I have one of my "moments". Where angels fear to tread, there Ardy is, likely nomming floor.
In WAR, this name took on a whole new meaning. Seriously, watch your step. I don't know how many times I fell off cliffs while having a gander. It was funny every time. Especially the one time I fell off as a Sorceress, hugged the wall on the way down and ended up having a lesuirely swim back around the coast. It didn't matter that I fell, funny though it was, I was having a great time exploring and there was also the novelty of surviving.
I then did get into the bad habit of casting Heal over time runes on myself and jumping off some places just to see if I could.
So please, do watch your step. But if you end up flailing your way into the grave, don't worry. It's funny and death just means you'll get moved to the nearest rally point.

That said, future guildmates? I'm sorry. If the shortest distance between me and where we're going is a barely (if at all) survivable drop of a cliff. Well... I'm going to go get my base jumping tome unlock.

NOT THE FACE!
It is my lot in life to die. Doesn't matter if I've taken a stroll off Everest, found a playmate (you'd be surprised how often I run into hero/champion mobs and set fire to them on reflex), or RvR'd. I am doomed to die. I have come to accept it, and even find something worth laughing about in it.

Two examples.
1) Bregel and I were in Altdorf. There was a barrel. Thanks to Hawley at the Book of Grudges, we knew that this could only mean one thing. Pain a la Skaven.
Did that stop us? Hell no.

Bregel was, if memory serves, at the time 7. I was 8. Ironbreaker and Runepriest against a level 20 Skaven.
And we were winning! Not quickly mind you, but we were certainly winning. The healing and the runes were keeping Bregel going and we got the Ratman to 50%.
Then he turned around and stabbed me in the face. So ended that fight.

2) Bregel, Zyla and I were in the Khaines Embrace scenario. As usual, despite teamspeak, the two members of the Elder Race gave the keen eyed long limbed Shadow Warrior the slip and went off to wreak havoc as only Dwarfs can. During said havoc, Bregel suffered a graphic glitch and was unable to see. He was still there, but the player himself couldn't see a damn thing and was going to have to restart.
Around that time an entire party of Destruction showed up.
At first, I was able to heal the damage. Only a few of them were paying attention to me and the rest seemed to be considering options. Then they all decided that the Runepriest must go!

Commence backpedalling. But! I had a plan! Surely if I trained this mob over the Ironbreaker whose life I have preserved so often... an Ironbreaker who is only going to exit anyway... surely that is a fair trade? He can lay down his life for me in payment for all the times when I preserved it.
Ohhhh no. They were having none of that. The entire party ran past the otherwise idle Ironbreaker, turned me into mush and then bizzarely kept running. They completely ignored someone who could then capture a point. Bregel was toasted shortly thereafter by Khaines Embrace.

So my final PSA.
Budding Generals and clever guilds. If someone is going to storm a keep or try storm yours. Destroy their battle plan in one easy step. Mount an Archmage or Runepriest on a stick and wave him off to the left. While they fall over themselves in an orgy of destruction, feel free to put the fear of Grungi, Grimnir and Valaya into them.

More later if I remember anything else!

My weekend away

This weekend, I dipped into City Of a few times. Some light rp with my girlfriend and some light snake whomping with my good friend Seph.

The rest of the online time was spent in the Preview weekend for Warhammer.
Man did I have a good time.

First, the bad.

Seems despite Can You Run It assuring me that, yes, yes I can run it, I have trouble. Specifically my GeForce 7300 LE appears to not be up to the job. The sky was constantly artefacted and I cannot look above the horizon without seizure inducing weirdness occuring. This also happened to me in the Tabula Rasa beta, but as I never took the game up due to various reasons, I never followed up the cause. I may need a better graphics card. We'll see.

Secondly, I have more than enough ram, yet tween the graphics issue and my normal online state which is "multitasking" I found that I cannot really alt tab. If theres alot going on and I alt tab to check an email or a post or the TS settings or what people are saying on Trillian... I come back to a black screen. The world just refuses to render. Sooo ctrl alt del, kill WAR.exe
I found that when I behaved and just closed down my browser, I could alt tab with impunity and thus save myself from being killed by she who must be obeyed/messaged.

That said, they were minor technical irritations. Similar to the pathing problem Tobold mentions over here.

What did I do? I rolled up three alts in total.

An Archmage who was .... nice. The first blast just lacks alot of oomph for me. I know you cant have it all, but still. However later on they get the prismatic shield and that is very lovely to watch cast.

A Sorceress, who despite my best attempts, I couldnt get to explode from Dark Magic. I need more abilities :P Also yes, the idea that you get skimpier on your first upgrade is well founded. On removing the starter robes (seems leather lingerie is in for Dark Elves) and wearing the loot drop, I ended up with odd sleeves, lots of leg showing and the impression that someone is cupping her breasts by way of support.
Entertaining I suppose.

My most played and indeed first rolled char was my Rune Priest Orrekai.
Man I had a good time with him. I even got up to Level 11 and Renown 6, allowing me to get my first RvR kit from Barak Varr. I was loving the class before that and promptly fell in love again on decking out my little guy with the good stuff.

I'll do a proper write up of my experiences later on, hopefully with photos. The highlights however of the weekend were

• Meeting Gotrek and Felix
• Exploring Altdorf (Ooo whats the swirly thing)
• Getting pasted along with Bregel, my ever present Ironbreaker companion, by a Great Unclean One
• Firing cannons
• Khaines Embrace RvR scenario.

The Hero of 10,000 faces

I've been following the "discussion" shall we say over at Virgin Worlds.

To sum it up for those who have not been following. Brent didn't like Warhammer. That's his right. He has admitted not being drawn in by the Warhammer world whereas he has been by AoC and so continues to dabble there, despite the fact that the blogosphere at large looks at that game like you would a car crash. An interesting event, but horrible and painful.

I am interested in the push however. The idea that WAR, despite what it is, should have for some reason been something more and thus has offended the sensibilities (or perhaps dashed the hopes) of some by not being revolutionary enough. It doesn't do this, it doesn't do that, I still have to kill 10 rats.

I mentioned previously that it is the failing of an MMO world to accurately depict what our button mashing and stats mean. You're supposed to kill those ten rats to save the towns food supply, or to supply a rat corpse fetishist with some toys, or whatever reason. They cannot yet depict (or do not, I don't know. I'm not a developer) the effect of leaving the rats be. In City of Heroes there is the tongue in cheek NPC text that points out that however much that Hellion struggles, he's never getting that purse off the lady. You, however, at level 1 are easy pickings and he's going to whomp you. Walk back by at level 10 and the struggle continues, and always will unless you choose to intervene.

The MMO worlds we inhabit at the moment are stages set. They're musicals waiting to happen. If myself and some friends go to do a raid, it'll be the same as every other raid of its type before or since. Sure someone may flubb their lines, or maybe the lead singer is sick that week so the audience gets a sub par experience. It is however entertainment bottled. Repeatable. Enjoyable. Staged.
RPG worlds are the same stage, but you are the hero. You can change the world, topple tyrants, save the damsel and interact in a story where you personally are impacting this world, your way.
You just have to remember little Timmy next door bought the same game, is playing the same story, and getting (hopefully) the same enjoyment. But because he's in his world and you yours, you're both the hero.
Thousands upon thousands of people have saved the world from the Covenant in Halo, they all have been the Master Chief. They all have single handedly changed that world. A Halo MMO? Everyone has to try and find the same sense of achievement, but if little Timmy can spend 10 more hours a day and "finish" the world, save the girl and be the hero, what happens then? The world is done, but millions of other players may have been sleeping or working and thus their shot at the story is stolen.

A revolutionary world, quite apart from a revolutionary way to interact with it, has the flaw in that it has people in it. Right now if you get up from your computer and take up a cause, you could possibly change the world. You may very well be shouted down, or possibly die without ever seeing your mark made upon the world. People are everywhere and everyone has their own story. When it's your own world, you can be anyone and do anything. When you have to share, not everyone can be the best. Not everyone gets their name in lights.
That's the entire reason I have never nor ever will play FFXI. It isn't the Fantasy for me. I personally and single handedly will never change the world. The world has to cater to all the heroes, not just me.

When the eureka moment comes and Web 2.0 or 3.0 or z.0mg delivers the revolutionary MMO people claim they want, hopefully it will be like Warhammers Public quests and open groups. Hopefully everyone will exclaim "Oh hey, why didn't we think of that?" rather than deciding this new game is too alien, or too imposing or too... unfun to bother with.

When the new ways of interacting virtually come about, hopefully they will be what Bartle, Brent and everyone besides has sought. A world apart from Earth. A world they can impact, and importantly have the impact matter and be realised on the screen for them. I rather rudely suggested people want Second life with swords when I am beginning to realise, the current call for a revolutionary MMO is more akin to feeling like you aren't the hero here on Earth. People want to push the planet and have it matter, but haven't yet been able to do it virtually, just as how the majority will never push the Earth by ourselves.

A virtual world isn't a world unless populated. A virtual community isn't "fair" unless we can all have the chance to make the impact the box promises. The biggest hurdle for revolutionary game play isn't the technology or the ideas, it is ourselves. We can't all be the hero. We can have a hero with 10,000 faces and 10,000 worlds or a single world where we can all try and be heroic, but equal in our status. When they crack the code to let everyone achieve spectacles and each one still have value, that will be their revolution.

My revolution? I'm going to take the public quests and living cities. It is a step up from what has gone before. And even if it isnt a particularly big step, I unlike some of you, may not have played every single game that preceeded this. This is my big step, my foray into a virgin world and my chance to make ever so small a mark.
Even if I have to kill 10 rats to do it.

Circle Strafe the Moon

Way back a while ago there was a very clever Real Life Comics comic. Here's the link for the interested.

The joke made is a good one I thought. Given a gamers interface, well a gamer can quite probably do anything.

On a related point, Brent over at Virgin Worlds recently made a post wherein he decided he did not like WAR. He said it was not fun and proceeded to give reasons.

In the interests of fairness, linked here is the blog in reply that Brent thinks "got it".

My view? Brent didn't like WAR and thought it wasn't fun because like the pizza analogy from Serial Ganker, he didn't want to play an MMORPG.

MMO's as they stand have certain mainstays. People may not like them, others may find ways to evolve them, but without them, MMO's as we know them would be unrecognisable.
No one has ever suggested that a First Person Shooter could do with less guns and none of that shooting people lark. So why should an MMORPG be entirely stripped of RPG elements? Just because there's more than one player? Soooo what?

A very good response to Brent is as follows

'From Meridian 59 to Warhammer; From Castle Wolfenstein to Halo 3' by Theo
Submitted on 2008-08-20 19:09:46 CST What are we looking for that is
revolutionary?
Has Halo revolutionized FPS gameplay since the days of say doom more than War does from the days of Meridian 59? Pick any genre and answer a similar question. What would suffice? Honestly, the greatest revolution in gaming is the Wii and that is because it changed the entire control scheme - yet is casual and at times ignored by hardcore gamers.
Brent, my point is this. The basis of your disappointment should not be limited to War, but every new release under the sun that has the limits of mouse, keyboard, standard bandwidth, etc. I believe you have now set for yourself a standard that should never find approval with any new release.

In a nutshell, to revolutionise an MMORPG, it needs to stop being an RPG. You're always going to have to kill ten rats. Rats are a major concern for lowbie NPCs. Without regular new guys coming by to kill ten rats, the world in theory would be over run by them.

MMORPGs are based on numbers because the numbers describe the universe.
In City of Heroes I can walk up to one of my Super Reflexes friends and try to blast them point blank in the face. I miss. The numbers calculated, I couldn't beat theirs, I miss. If the game was as real as it is in your imagination, they dodged.
We're always going to kill rats lest they breed. That's the reason. That's the world trying to be real.

If you want a revolution or if like Brent something approaching the world of Snowcrash, you don't want an MMORPG. You want a virtual world, a second exsistence. You want somewhere that has no digital rats and is limited only by the visual representation of the numbers you tweak.

Hell they want Second Life with better graphics and a sword so they can claim it's a poor clone of EQ. Just to make it feel like home.

Out of Order

I blame Regis for this. (Love you mate)

I decided to upgrade the blog to take advantage of Disqus commenting.
Though this has had the effect of removing the old blogroll I had.

There will be improvements/changes over the next few days.

Update : 11.09

I'll give it this, it's easy to enter stuff in the new layouts.
Warhammer and MMO Blogroll - check
Random links - mostly check
Anything else I've forgotten - pending.

New
Feeds - Because some of you may be crazy enough for them.

The other white meat

WAR is coming.

It is coming in a great many ways. There is the preview weekend this weekend. There is the open beta a few weeks from now. There is the live game in under a month.

And fourty thousand years in the future, the war continues.
Dawn of War II has a new cinematic trailer. Go watch. I'll wait.


...


Awesome Y/N?


In related news I've another mission for Games Day. Find the tank, photograph the tank. Love the tank.

And maybe steal it if it is operable...but let's not tell them that bit is on my to do list.

WAR is everywhere, and everywhen. Grab your bolters, there's a hard fight ahead.

In before the storm

It is 9.08am Tuesday morning. The NDA goes down today for Warhammer Age of Reckoning.

There have been two very good points made so far. Tobold (Europe!) has said he'll hold back on his Beta stuff until the official green light is given.

So here I am in before the deluge of information.

Regis over on Wizards & Wenches has posted, not what he knows, but rather what he wants to hear.

Fact is, there's going to be a flurry of posts in all quarters. There will be alot of overlap, alot of repetition and despite that, still quite a few gems.
Ladies and gents, pick your three or four blogs to read first. We're about to get it all.

In related news, checking Warhammer Alliance via the Book of Grudges has given me a good thing.
Check your Mythic account page to see if you have your preview weekend access. I do!

Edit 1.27pm

I got the invite email to my Yahoo! Mail. Word of warning, the sender is nobody@eamythic.com and as a result, Yahoo put it in the spam folder. Anyone going to the weekend should also have word on their Account Page but if you're waiting for an email specifically, don't forget to check the junk.

Fileplanet Download

For those of you watching at home, here's a quick update on the Fileplanet download.

Four hours on and I haven't even gotten as far as Matt over on Bloghammer.

I've not been able to get the file for the Download Manager to not download :P

In the morning perhaps, when America sleeps.

Edit! 7am GMT (2am EST 11pm PST) the site worked for me and I started the download. It was blazing along quite merrily when I left with an estimated completion time of 10-13 hours.
Quite a bit better than the closed beta torrent time we all heard.

Why commuting is bad.

I've made a few comments, both on the Book of Grudges and on Waaagh! as to why there is often miscommunication with regards WAR. My theory is Timezones.
GMT is 5 hours ahead of EA's East Coasty people and 8 hours ahead of Mythic in California.

EDIT : Ardy is a bit daft and has been obsessed with the idea that Mythic is in California. No idea why. As a helpful comment pointed out, they're actually in Virginia, thus EST and thus I fail. No more defending them! Bah :P

That means that at 9am Mythic Office time, it's 5pm here. Time for GOA to bugger off home.
Time for me to do so as well.

So.... for an entire hour I am out of touch while I make my way home. No fancy iPhone here. So things happen.

Here is the result.

6:21 PM
me: It's a me
arbitrary: NDA drop tomorrow ;p open beta ready to download
me: o.O
arbitrary: hrrm.. what else did you miss? UK prices reduced ;p
6:22 PM
me: *flail* Remind me to stay in work late in the future
arbitrary: :-)
me: I told you it'd all happen around five :P
arbitrary: yeah, Mark posted over at the Vault
6:23 PM
me: Aaaand now I have a problem. Do I continue my campaign of random emails to get into Closed beta and only have to patch that client, or do I download Open Beta now...
arbitrary: I'd probably download open beta
6:24 PM
me: Yeah. Likely for the best.
6:25 PM
arbitrary: I want to know from you if the download goes smoothly (unlike CB one) and when the NDA drops, you'll be able to say!
me: Ahhh good point!
6:26 PM
arbitrary: cos we know GOA won't put it up for a while
6:27 PM
me: So far, Ive had to refresh Fileplanet twice :P
6:29 PM
arbitrary: :-)
me: And back to the start
arbitrary: and so the frustration starts!
6:30 PM
me: Pardon the following french. WORK YOU BASTARD
arbitrary: ha ha
me: aha! I may be progressing to step 3 of 3
6:33 PM
me: So Fileplanet.
Step 1. Enter or create a fileplanet account.
Step 2. Enter your pre-order open beta access key. Expect delay.
Step 2 and a bit. Image code validaty thingie.
arbitrary: yay!
6:34 PM
me: Step 2 and a little more, dont forget the image thing likes Caps lock.
Step You're kidding. Site times out, press refresh and pray.
arbitrary: ha ha, you should just blog this conversation to save writing it all up again
6:35 PM
me: I think I shall
arbitrary: including the swearing, of course
me: XD

It's now 7.04 and I continue to wrestle with Fileplanet. Updates as I possibly maybe beat someone to them.

Act your shoe size

A thought occured to me a little bit after finishing my previous entry.

Maturity is a bad thing.

Sure everyone wants to play with people they can get along with and more often than not that means peers. There has always been trends in MMO guilds to require that applicants be over a certain age. I've seen them, you've seen them. Surely an older player base is a better player base. Less chance for immaturity or drama. Or at least that is the theory.

A comment made on Tobolds blog (link on the side) about FFXI got me thinking. The idea of Japanese only groups in the game. I've also listened to a friend who has played the game for a long time. In Final Fantasy, there are expectations of how you will act, how you ask for groups and behave within them.
Obviously that works for the game and the people there, but at the same time such ... expectations and required behaviour results in the type of people who will run into a brick wall for 18 hours.

Also take the current trend in City of Heroes. Previously "Mature Roleplayer" basically meant put on your robe and wizard hat. Of course now there's been a shift. That lot are either ERP or "All-RP" tagged players.
People have claimed the mature roleplayer tag back to indicate edgy or dark or generally grown up storylines. The difference between Adam West's Batman and the Dark Knight really.

All of these things require that people must act in a certain way and show particular traits or a supposed level of maturity.

Frankly I think such things are killing our games.

Don't get me wrong, I am not calling for everyone to start acting like five year olds. But when the atmosphere in which you are playing does not permit you to be just a little loony when the mood strikes, why are you there?

Inevitably everyone in an MMO, even in the most laidback of guilds/fleets/warbands/supergroups will have to deal with group drama. No amount of "18+ players only" or "Mature Guild" in the world will stop there from being people who don't get along.

If you find that such restricted groups or enforced manners work for you, then good for you. However, I would sooner be in a group who will run through the newbie zone in underpants than one demands I play a certain way or would have me spend hours on a fruitless task.

Disclaimer, I currently have a problem with a wisdom tooth and haven't really slept. I know I had a point, but Im not entirely sure I made it. Sorry folks!

How long can you go?

18 Hours

The above link to Escapist came to me via Tobolds blog. He asks a fair question of when is a boss fight too long.

Also some of the commenters make good points, both on the state of FFXI and the idea of an unbeatable boss as a brick wall between players and closure. A means to keep them always around in case they really could pull it off.

I however want to have a quick word about a quote from the article.

"People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before
we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people's
lives," said Beyond the Limitation member Sylphet. The fight caused vomiting and
fainting among Beyond the Limitation's ranks.

So... they ended it because some of their members couldn't go on. Instead of a news article of a FFXI player horking up a lung after the battle, they consider an article on the fact they went at it for 18 hours better.
To me it certainly implies that if the members involved hadn't been suffering physically at 18 hours they'd have continued smashing their heads against the wall until someone did.

What could you have possibly learned about the boss encounter after the majority of a day that you didn't know after three or four hours?

Also

Before loading the game, Square Enix displays a health warning: "During your
time here, you will be able to talk, join and adventure with many other
individuals in an experience that is unique to online games.That being said, we
have no desire to see your real life suffer as a consequence. Don't forget your
family, your friends, your school, or your work."

Weeeelllll...I've heard from some FFXI players. They don't forget about those things Squenix, but to get past your challenges, they sometimes have to ignore them. That's one of the major reasons I've never set foot in Vana'diel

Open ze gates

The EA Account management site is up and running!

By all means, descend upon it before the SE preorder folks are forced to fight to the death for the limited Preview Weekend spots.


As an aside. Am I the only Collectors Edition guy I know who hasn't gotten into closed beta?
Mythic if you're watching, bahrae at yahoo dot com. I'll have my invite thanks.

Girls who are boys who like boys to be girls

Waaagh! had a piece on "gender bending" in MMO's.

Herein is the blog whereby Ardy elaborates.

Syp makes a handful of good points. The actual avatar you play is not a commentary on you as a person. Sure if you roleplay or imagine the life of your character, you will invest portions of your self into the character.
I have often argued that I am not a particularly good roleplayer, my basis of the arguement being that I more often than not tend to create characters that are for all intents and purposes "me". Sure they are different and may in fact represent different aspects of my personality, but I never play very far outside my own experience. Hearing people say "I felt really bad for X but my character is a bastard so he laughed instead" has always confused me.

Does your digital dolly imply that you're anything other than the person in the chair? Not at all. That doesn't mean you cannot try out other options and play.
In the end, my good friend Seph from CoX said it best.

Feh. We're playing a game in which every character does something we
can't. Last I checked, I don't shoot fire from my hands, nor am I
unkillable, nor can I fly. Why people get so hung up on different gender
when there's all of these other differences in chars is beyond me.

People shouldn't be hung up on the fact that there are only girl Witch Elves or male Orcs or that their friends may catch them playing a Dwarven laaaady.
Don't you think the soul of the player by your side is more important than digital skin?

Secret Lives of Mobs

A while ago the very entertaining comic site The Secret Lives of Mobs was hacked.

To the Hacker, long walk, short pier, do the math.

To Rory/Father Jack over at SLoM, everyone on Blog Warhammer wishes you the best and hopes all's going well for you.
Here's to your eventual triumphant return.

News according to Ardy

Lo folks. I know I've been a bit quiet as of late.

First a little not MMO news, my girlfriend Shannon is flying home tomorrow for the last time. Come January she's here to stay. So the quietness has been me spending quality time.
Also for those interested, yes, a long distance relationship between Sacramento, California and Dublin, Ireland for five years. Insanity, I has it.

So onto the WARworld (Sorry DC).

Characters and the people that love them.

Over on Werit's blog there's the wee piece on why he can't play female characters. Folks have chimed in with the reasons behind online gender bending (myself included). I hereby encourage everyone to not only try the sex restricted classes/races in WAR, I suggest that everyone have at least one alt of the opposite sex to their own. If nothing else it will be a lovely social experiment. Stropp pointed out that on a male character in WoW he's never recieved random gifts of money.
So folks, go on, play the opposite gender as well as the opposite faction. Use it as a barometer for the maturity of your chosen server.
Oh and as I write this I'm also catching up with the various blogs I normally sta... read often. So Waaagh! has a piece on it as well.

The where and the why of it all.

Obligatory link pimpage. I'm on board with the Casualties of WAR. One day I shall rise to supremacy and eliminate an officer so I may burrow into their fleshy husk and ... right. I need to read the Evil Overlord List more.

Aaaanyway. The question has come up both in the guild and in the blogosphere at large. Where to play? Where oh where indeed?
For myself, there's not really an option. I'm going to play everywhere. You see I, like many of my friends in CoX, suffer from chronic Altitis. It is an incurable disease that causes you to run off and roll yet another version of oneself for whatever reason. More often than not for me, because it made me laugh, or will when someone sees it.

Where would I prefer to go? RP
That's where my City Of friends will be. We all come from Virtue which as some may know is the RP server (unofficially) over there and thus well.. we're going to keep up with it. It's fun.

Where will I end up? More than likely Main #2 will be with CoW and my money is on them ending up on a Core server.

What will I do then? Late October, after I've gotten my feet wet I've another friend joining the game. Seph and I are likely going to still play on RP servers, but Im considering examining an Open RvR or Open RP RvR server for the purposes of a small team of stealthy shankers, for when you just want to blow off steam (or someones head in the case of Witch Hunters).

As with the sex locked races and the typed servers and the two factions and on and on and on, I most certainly am going to try see as much of the game as I can.
Sure I may end up always retreating to a certain server much as I do in CoX. I rarely am off Virtue, but that said, it never hurts to see how the other guys live. Even if in the case of Open RvR the answer is "briefly".


UUUNDERDOG!

Regis, our blogging Lord and Commander, has put something up at Wizards & Wenches showing the numbers on the Warhammer Alliance forums for various careers.

My main will be a Runepriest. Guess who is bottom of the list?
My beta main will be an Engineer. Guess who took second last?

Honestly I welcome this. I want to be outnumbered. I want to be rare. I want to be a virtual unknown wild card to most of the opposite realm. Waaaay back in the day when I first started City of Heroes and before I contracted altitis, my main Ortus Sapienta was getting into the 40's.
This is before the Global Defense Nerf and ED. This is before xp changes, mission bonuses or hell before Kheldians (my favourite AT). I played a Forcefield Defender.
The number 1 thing I heard more than anything when getting on teams (after yes the inevitable R U Heelor) was "wow... a bubbler. I haven't seen one in 10 levels. You guys get this high?".

Boatarious said it best about when losing is fun. I am looking forward to being a probably rare and misunderstood class. Not because I want glory and recognition for myself, though that'll be nice. Rather I want to have to make a fight of it, and I want to show people what I or my chosen class/race/other can do before it becomes Flavour of The Month.

There'll be more Chosen than you can shake a stick at. Good thing my stick has runes and will really mess up their day.


The Book got a sequel.

The Book of Grudges recently got a new author. Join me in welcoming Hawley/badjawa on board.
Hey Arb, if ever you need a WAR Correspondant in America, let me know :P

Ode to WAAAGH!!!

I have crawled out of bed this morning. Stupid cant turn you off alarm.

Still no email. Nor shall there be. With regards Closed Beta Mythic has this to say.

James Nichols General News 08/11/2008 @ 04:03:38 EST
While you might be
getting sick of my terrible headlines I hope you still got a fevah for more Beta
Invites!The last batch of CE Beta invites have just been sent out to all
eligible CE Open Beta card holders.We'd love to let everyone in but we still
have a few more roofs to thatch before we're ready to have you move in. Look
forward to the announcements on the preview weekend...they'll be coming to a
Herald near you!

So that's that for now.

There's still the preview and open beta to go. But no CB for Ardy. Sadface.
I'm going back to bed...

Closed beta

Why must you tease me so?

Werit has his code as do a few other Casualties of WAR now.

Don't make me go over there.


Also... I'll uhhh... get back to that blogging thing soon. Like Arb mentioned on the Book of Grudges, after so much good news, the brain is somewhat in neutral.

Coming soon : New Blogroll

Just copying this from my post on Blog Warhammer to update the Blog.
God I'm lazy.

Warhammer Age of Reckoning

/random
Anonymous Defender
Archmagery
Bloghammer
Boathammer
Book of Grudges
Champions of Stuff
Doomdiver
Echoes of Nonsense
Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog
OMGompers
O Rly?! Ya Rly! No Wai!!
Tales of War
The Cogworks
The Frozen elf
The Greenskin
The Order of Destruction
The Secret Life of Mobs
The Tome of Ignorance
The War Corps
The White Lion
Tobolds Blog
Warhammer Alliance
WaaaGH!
Waaagh Insider
Warhammer Insider
WarhammerOnline.tv
Werit Blog
Wizards & Wenches

Blogger and Blog Friend Guild

Casualties of War

Dev/CM Blogs
Paul Barnett's blog
Josh Drescher's blog
Doubt the Stars
Elvish Parsley
Fierce Kitten
Adventures in MMO Community Management

MMO News Links

Massively
Ten Ton Hammer


Updated : 08/08/08

Warhammer Online Newsletter - you saw nothing.

Errr.... It seems I can forward the news letter to display in living colour here.

However it swamped everything else and I'm sure you've all had a copy. So... nothing to see here. Certainly no blunder caused by tooling around with email publishing. Nope.

Rune Priests

The blog wherein Ardy stops giggling like a loon and actually discusses his desired class, Rune Priests.

At the risk of reiterating anything I may have stated before here or elsewhere, I have always found when starting a new MMO I gravitate to whatever represents the support classes. I was a Jenquai Explorer in Earth & Beyond, a good corp miner in EVE, my first City of Heroes character was a Forcefield defender (before the global defense nerf and ED, I was epic). In any other games I go the same way.

So having read the original career choices when I was pointed back at Warhammer Online, I found myself drawn to Dwarves, and the Rune Priest in particular. Finally though, with a release date set and beta drawing ever closer for me, the newsletter has released the Masteries details.

Rune Priest Career Masteries

Path Of Grungni
A master of this path focuses on powerful and direct effects, learning to both restore his allies and smite his enemies with equal skill. The path of Grungni is for those who prefer to focus on a single target at a time, be they friend or foe, and unleash powerful effects upon them.

Follow Grungni, learn to heal the crap out of your friend. Blow up the other guy. This does sound like an interesting path, and I am sure for duo play or in particular situations it will shine through. Main tank getting a little ragged? Bam! Healed up to the gills.
Add to this the little thing we got from the Gamespy Beta preview, you can target an enemy and an ally at the same time, and the various powers will only affect the appropriate targets. You become a frontliners best friend, debuffing and healing/buffing the same one on one combat.
Not for me though, though I am sure there are fantastic options in it.

Path Of Valaya
An arguably more subtle mastery, the path of Valaya is focused on effects which continue to linger after they've been invoked. A master of this path prefers to stick to tested, tried, and true slow-and-steady abilities, whether he's building up his allies' strength until they become unstoppable, or whether he's grinding his enemies down with inevitable and unescapable doom.

Valaya the Healer. Valaya the DoT path. Valaya the Siege preferred mastery. When time isn't an issue, endurance is. Again, probably not for me. There are those who like subtle effects and gradually changing the course of things. I though, I am called lemming in City of Heroes. No, my path seems to be...

Path Of Grimnir
This path is concerned with runes which affect large, sweeping areas as they unleash their innate power. A specialist in this path is an expert at changing the ebb and tide of combat by either bolstering his allies' entire front line, or by sending vast swaths of crushing power across the enemy masses.

If this works how this reads, I've found my path. I'm going to get stuck right in there and help change how things are going. I think it was Boatarious who blogged about how it can be just as much, if not more so, fun to lose the battle. To have to fight for every step, even though the fight is doomed. This is where I'm going to try and be. The last desperate defenses, the first mad rushes, the front line of the battle. Doesn't matter if we're winning or losing, I'm getting stuck in and having fun.

And who knows? I may even be able to change the tide of the battle once in a while.

Woo and a hoo

Mark Jacobs I love you.

People who doubted the Collectors edition? Ha!

From the VN Boards

• CE Preorder Preview Weekend. Without the closed beta testers.


• Extended headstart period.


• I quote "Regarding the pre-order, Collector’s Edition and the Standard Edition, we are pleased to announce that we will also be inviting our pre-order CE buyers into our Closed Beta test starting next week. "


• NDA lift hopefully in a week.

And lo the Ardy became a happier bunny than he already was. Thanks to Werit for linking this over on Blog Warhammer.

To do : Preorder site

To register for Open Beta:

1. After August 15, 2008 visit the Mythic Entertainment Account Management website.
2. Create a new Warhammer Online game account.
3. When prompted, enter your Open Beta code.

To register for the Head Start and claim your in-game bonus items:

1. After August 15, 2008 visit the Mythic Entertainment Account Management website.
2. Create a new Warhammer Online game account or open your existing game account.
3. When prompted, enter your Head Start and Bonus Items code.

Everyone and their dog will have read the site for that. This is as much for the one guy who forgets (me) as it is for the rest of you.

Friday the 15th.

So bets on NDA drop people?

The time is nigh!

Spinks over at the Book of Grudges (link in title) gives the best news I've had all day.

We have a release date!

Woohoo!

Edit : Slight Ego stroke here. I did say it'd be after Games Day! So... Sunday kiss Mythic. Take Monday off for headstart.

Forums abound

Two new links on the left today.

Firstly I'm now on the Blog Warhammer forum, see the post below for all the details on that. Come by, have a chat, it'll be fun.

Secondly, Jo Bildo has posted the link to the Casualties of War guild which unless I'm completely wrong is the Bloggers/Blogfriends starting guild. Hop on by those forums and have a gander.

Blog Warhammer

Regis from Wizards and Wenches has set up a new forum. Link in the title or on the left. I'll let the man himself explain (in other words copy/paste ftw)

Introducing: Blog Warhammer by Regis on Tuesday, August 05, 2008

I wrote in the last post that I was working on something, and I'm proud to announce what it is now!A while ago I posed an idea I had: to create a community specifically for Warhammer bloggers. Since I only got positive responses I was hoping to make it reality. Before this weekend I was writing a new post where I was looking for someone to host it. I got halfway in the post, and then I wondered "why can't you do, you lazy bastard?". So I did. And I spent the last days in setting up a forum (setting it up is easy, finding a style that looks good is the hard part), and I just finished.

What is it? Blog Warhammer is a community for people who blog about Warhammer. It's that simple; if you got a blog and it's about Warhammer, then
you are welcome to join!

What is it good for? Some people have been blogging for a long time, some have just started, and some are thinking about starting - hopefully the site will satisfy every type. Join into a tighter and friendlier Warhammer blogging community. Share your experience or advice with the community, and hopefully learn something in return. Announce your blog to people who can spread the word.

Only bloggers? Bloggers are not the only ones who can take advantage of Blog Warhammer. If you like to read blogs and Warhammer, then this is the place to find them.

Sounds good? Go there and take part in the community, and help spread the word to other bloggers. I'm also looking for active members that want to serve as moderators, so PM me or something with interest.

With thanks to VG Cats

As Arbitrary pointed out in comments. The Preorder page has changed again. To the 6th.

Thanks to VG Cats for expressing what I feel.

Momentary Rant

Dear Warhammer Preorder Page it is the 5th.

You previously told us the 4th, then changed. It's now 9.15am Californian time. Do not make me go over there and hurt you.

MetamoRTSis

Consider for a moment the type of people you play with. Apart from Casual gamers who go all over the place, alot of people have a preferred genre. MMO, RTS, FPS and so on.

Then consider the draw to certain IPs. There are Star Wars RPGs, FPS', an MMO and quite probably an RTS that I cannot bring to mind.

Warhammer Online poses a question for me.
The offline fans, the tabletop fans, they are more akin to an RTS player than an MMO. Warhammer on the model level is about massed units, different abilities and knowing which unit to send against which. What move to make to deal with a live opponent and as always, how to live with the whims of the dice.

MMO fans are a varied bunch. Sure we all play different things, but even the most team centric guild and group minded person doesn't operate on the same scale as an RTS battle.

Given that RvR is all about constant on going warfare, up to and including the point of sacking the enemy home city. Given than the open grouping mechanic is (I think) intended to make groups form organically and easily.
Given that we're all going to have a stand up brawl someday in a world RvR zone.
Who will come out on top?

The player used to dealing with small groups of certain classes who can win a battle? Or the player used to dealing with massed groups of various strengths who can win a war?

I guess the question is this. As much as it will be and as much as I will enjoy it, will the game be an unruly mob fight or are we going to see guilds arrange themselves in such a way that we become the regiments we take our characters from on the table top?

I for one would adore to see an army on the march, seeking victory, over the still inspiring sight of half my realm zerging the nearest warm body.

Playing Chicken

Pride goeth before a fall.

Right now I am currently playing chicken with Amazon (yes yes, I can hear some of you sniggering).

The details.

• I bought/pre-ordered my CE at the end of March.
• The Warhammer Herald is telling people to look out for an email from Amazon.
• I've had no such email, does that mean I am safe?
• My Amazon page says I get my stuff shipped October 6th.
• The Amazon page for the CE says it ships September 16th.
• To top it off, I have bought two, one for Fluxie in Canada, one for me in Ireland. They are now permitting shipping outside of the US whereas previously they were not.

So the problem is this. Is there a problem?

On the one hand, it's likely that there isn't anything the matter with my order. But I don't know when it will ship. To make matters worse, I'm relying on not one, but two shippings. The item to California and then to me in Ireland. Mythic have said they will have a reasonable grace period between the end of the HeadStart and when people must enter their DVD key.

Should I fork over another $40ish to get it directly to Ireland? I don't know. At any rate, things won't have to be changed on or charged to any credit cards till at least after payday. Gives me the time to either nerve up and see what happens, or chicken out and pay extra for direct shipping in the hopes that nothing is wrong and that I get the game sooner rather than later.

In other WAR news, I forgot to mention it, but the Secret Lives of Mobs comic was hacked a while back. Why people do that, I don't know. All I can do is wish the creators my best and hope that they get everything back that they lost and hopefully aren't too put out by the experience. Frankly it was the best Warhammer/Fantasy MMO comic I'd seen in ages. Good luck lads.

Choose your battles

I return!

Recently (read : all weekend, and I had taken days off too) I came down with a massive headcold and couldn't really take part in all that went on with WAR lately.

To recap

• People got butthurt because Standard Edition (SE) pre-orders are getting Warhammer Open beta as well as the Collectors Edition (CE) folks.
• There's been bugger all news otherwise.
• Still no newsletter.

So! Where do I stand on all of this?

You know, I don't much care. I bought the collectors edition not for the leg up on other players, I bought it for the loot. The swag. The gubbins inside. I justify my $80 (€51.32) quite a few ways. Primarily, I'd end up paying almost as much for a standard edition in Ireland as I will for a CE in America, where I play. Then, €50 is well worth it for a limited edition miniature, art book, graphic novel, in game quests, xp boosting spell, character heads, portable camp and the enjoyment I will get from same.
The pre-order? Well that just is icing on the cake. I get a special power (Guardians Sapphire band iirc), open beta and live game headstart.
Sure there will be standard edition pre-order guys there, but they dont have my toys.

That and honestly now, it's not much of a stress test if there are only 60,000 people plus current beta population. Of course the Standard guys should get in. They're likely paying a pre-order cost anyway.

The other recent news.

First, the Road to War site.
Maybe it's because it is Monday (and there are supposed to be things coming today) but the site is currently rather slow. At any rate I have declared my allegiance. Dwarf and Order. I have also nabbed their little vote thing and bunged it in a post below, which is now also linked on the left. I can has gold please? On that note, if you want to claim I "recruited" you, the email to use is bahrae@yahoo.com.
Also for interest, I have put my little marker thingy in California. Yes I know I am from/in Dublin but that is where my game is shipping to, so why not?

Second.
Boathammer has passed the mantle/ball & chain of the Warhammer bloggers guild to Jo Bildo. I'm the token European and I shall be there!

Road to War Daily Vote