Hello Anyone From Massively!

Sorry, I've not blogged anything much recently. If you fancy a damned good read though, the blogroll is still quite active and there are some fantastic mmo blogs to read on it.
If you fancy a rather not bad read, my interviews with Derek Smart and Ragnar Tornquist are linked to the side.

Temporal Rift

It is 9.04am here in Dublin and I am in the office.

I haven’t slept.

Now I know this is my fault. It may also be the fault of dinner… you know I don’t think chicken fajitas need two whole bell peppers chopped up but eh, what do I know? I will just have to coffee up, keep the brain engaged. I’ll get through this day. What got me through the weekend however was a heady mix of addiction and excitement. (In retrospect, that sentence looks suspicious.)

Rift of course. What else?

You know, for not knowing next to a damned thing about the game, I am having a fantastic time. There are so many games out now with hype machines and detractors/supporters and ads everywhere that well.. I just tune most of them out. Rift was one of those things that got tuned out. I’d get around to it in time. Fortunately for me I did.

Originally I snagged beta invite keys for Beta 6 for myself and Shannon but neither of us actually ended up with the time or desire to download it and test. Bad beta players in other words. Trion on the other hand was far more forgiving, which is to say that their database just sent the invite, and we ended up invited via email to the Open beta like approximately ten billion other people. Nothing special but enough to remind us, so in we went.

Rift has subsequently been pre-ordered for us both. Founders pricing has been locked in. Unless I have a suddenly and inexplicably awful 30+ days between the free month and headstart, Trion is going to get six months out of us both.

That brings me back to having not slept. No I didn’t stay up all night playing Rift, though I easily could have. We’re still blaming dinner for that particular detail. But I did play it endlessly this weekend. Both myself and Shannon turned to each other more than once with excitement in our voices “Want to play some Rift?”. At 3am this morning when neither of us could sleep in any way, shape or form and we finally gave into staying up. Rift.

It may have eaten a good portion of the weekend, when I wasn’t doing things I was supposed to, but it is welcome to what it took. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had such fun in a new game and wanted so hard to play more. For completely missing the hype and having no clue, I am now a convert.

I won’t be playing today though, I’m going to let the rest of the beta pass without me drooling over it. There’s things I have to get done and well.. the dreaded beta wipe. I am already far too attached to one character, I don’t need to make the loss worse. Thursday though, you know where you’ll find me.

Tripping the Rift Fantastic.

No more Intellectuals Please.

IP! Intellectual Properties. If you’re in the business of licensing things, man I bet you love those.

George Lucas has vast armies of people making Star Wars games. Star Trek games come out every so often (and are usually not the best). Movies get adapted to games, games get made from tv shows and there are plenty of properties out there that have been looked at for further video game exploitation.

Given that this will never ever come to pass, I have two requests.

First, no more intellectual properties please. Take a break. Try your hand at something new. Not a universe that lends itself to being turned into an MMO. Not some existing IP that you think could crack the nut that is WoW or emulate its success.

Try new things. Try new worlds. Try making something that no one has ever seen before. Right now there is the trend of taking what someone has done and emulating the crap out of it, as though that process will somehow mystically imbue your title with the same positives and line your pockets. We’ve all seen the huge buckets of money that Minecraft just made. How long until the copies come out, reasoning that a tiny iteration on an established success equals more success?`

Just because something made the splash once, it does not automatically follow that it or any other game directly modelled on it will do the same.

Secondly, as a game company… start lying to us all. I don’t mean lie about features or release dates or content. They’re all very important. Making a good, complete and completed game is vital to you, to your market and to the genre. However…. people are going gaga for or raging at Bioware because of however they currently perceive Star Wars: The Old Republic. People will always look at Mythic a certain way. Reportedly Square Enix lost $26million worth of investment because a player who had the stock didn’t like the latest installment. I personally cannot wait for The Secret World, but there are many who read as far as “Funcom” and stop listening.

So lie to me. Lie to everyone. Spin off subsidiaries and reabsorb them later or drop them if they are unsustainable. Create new companies, new names, new faces and personalities to bring us the next wave of MMOs. Don’t bring us “Bioware presents: Some Game” or “Square Enix FF 75.23”. The same name that sells your games in a single player market brings far too much drama in a massively multiplayer one.

Bring me a new game from a new company and importantly from a new and neutral starting point. Make your success stories on the back of the hard work put into the game rather than on the back of a bought in IP that someone will say you did wrong or on the back of your own reputations which may leave many demanding things that you may not ever be able to deliver.

Would it be difficult to work out who has spun off whom and for what? Probably not. However if the one thing missing from games now days is wonder, leave us wondering and with wonderful things.

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.

Things Man Shouldn't Know

Woo! \o/

The Secret World GamesCom press embargo lifted yesterday and with that you can now read my exclusive interview with Ragnar Tornquist over at www.OnRPG.com

A snippet?

It's incredibly hard to keep our mouths shut! All we want to do is show you what we've been working on for so long - but we're not far away from doing just that.

It'll be a sh!t game, don't buy it.

Ragnar Tornquist on The Secret World

Now Live on OnRPG.com !

Conspiracies… myths… half truths, careful lies and dark places. All of these are in The Secret World. All myths are true, for a given value. All conspiracies are being played out by the major factions, so long as it suits them.

Templar, Dragon, Illuminati. A world beneath and a game on the horizon. Whatever you know about The Secret World, game creator Ragnar Tornquist says it best on twitter.

“RagnarTornquist @RarePc No, it'll be a shit game, don't buy it. OF COURSE it's going to be a good game, worth every penny, cross my heart, etc. Peace. #TSW”

Of course he’s joking. This game is his baby and soon we will all get to witness its birth onto the AAA MMO gaming scene. If you haven’t been following the rise and reveals of The Secret World, then more than any other game before you are missing a treat. Sure there is the normal hype surrounding it. Where there are fans, there are huge expectations and opinions. Where there are fans, there are detractors and naysayers. All of that we’re used to, heck for some of us it’s how we got our start in the MMO blog scene. Hype breeds excitement, excitement breeds word of mouth and we all know what word of mouth can do for, or in darker cases to, a game.

This game though, it has been creeping around in all the dark places. It has been waiting, growing. Spinning tales and weaving webs. I speak of course of the many ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) related to The Secret World. Even if you aren’t a fan of MMOs, and if not I’d wonder why you’re reading this, it has been quite an experience.

I personally have followed the tweets of some of the unwitting souls of Kingsmouth. I have read of the Monsters of Maine and the Sanctuary Of Secrets. All of these things are being played out on the internet. Sometimes in bursts, full of action and teases. Other times subtly and over a period of time. Unlike any other game I have watched come from concept art, through the teasing trailers and into the market, The Secret World has won my adulation and interest through its mystery. Through the fact that the more I know, the more I want to. All the conspiracies and myths await, all the promises of a secret world, a hidden war and a story unlike any I personally have played with before are just ahead of me.

For people who are left looking at this entry, wanting more, expecting something other than the gushing of a proclaimed fan, there is plenty to be found. There is information close at hand and on the official game forums. Ragnar himself is answering questions every so often on Formspring.me. The Alternate Reality Games get picked apart by a rabid and dedicated fan base on more than one occasion. Of course the best information comes from community questions on the forums themselves here, here and here.

Will it be, as Ragnar joked, a sh-oh look a kitty-t game? I for one am happy with my expectations. I think it will be every bit as deep, every bit as enthralling and mysterious as advertised. In the end, every game has fans and detractors. Every game will have nay-sayers and rabid supporters. I am going for the game whose manner and mystery caught my imagination… not with pretty graphics or insane game play. They weren’t shown yet when I first was snared by it. No, they made me imagine all the possibilities and that, the promise of the mind, is why I will follow the Templar into the darkness of Argartha. Into The Secret World.

Ardy vs Guild Wars 2

My interview with some of the designers of Arena Nets Guild Wars 2 is up over at OnRPG.Com

Go check it out here!

New World, New Look, New Info.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the absolute latest information from City Of Heroes : Going Rogue.

Firstly, information on the gorgeous Nova Praetoria, the centre of Emperor Coles powerbase.

Nova Praetoria 

This city ward, considered to be the most exclusive district in all of Praetoria, houses the elite of Praetorian society: Cole’s trusted Praetors and the myriad state employees and officials who have been given the special privilege to live and work next to humankind’s savior, Emperor Marcus Cole.

From Cole Tower, the tallest building and most dominant landmark in all of Nova Praetoria, Emperor Cole can survey all that he has fought hard to protect.

In the Magisterium below, his Praetors gather for the day-to-day business in Praetoria, capital of the Empire.

Surrounding the Magisterium courtyard are the five most influential structures in Praetorian government: the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Technology, the Civic Center, the Praetoria Police Headquarters, and the Cole Transport Authority.

Statues of the Praetors stand like sentinels over the Magisterium, reminding all who visit that Cole’s trusted advisors watch over the city with constant vigilance.

But these statues pale in comparison to the glory of Emperor Cole’s likeness, which stands before his tower, hand outstretched in greeting to all who visit here. Before this colossus stands the statue of Praetor White, Praetoria’s enforcer and head of the Powers Division, Praetoria’s super-powered police force.

Where there is a city, there is a support structure and in the darkness below the gem of Nova Praetoria we have The Underground.

The Underground
The Underground is a network of tunnels that traverse the soft underbelly of Praetoria.

It was created to keep the appearance of the aboveground portion of the city unspoiled and uncluttered while the day-to-day maintenance and transportation tasks were carried out away from public view. Using the Lethe as its main artery, the tunnels follow a winding path through Nova Praetoria to Neutropolis and beyond. 

Not all is fun and games in the darkness though. Things lurk and people plot.

 

You’d be best not to take Nova Praetoria at face value…

(More information to come soon we hope and keep an eye on OnRPG.com for my take on Going Rogue soon)

Tinfoil Hat

Not that Tinfoil hat though it is related.

The Blizzard Entertainment Real ID idea has caused a major storm. Suffice to say, people are annoyed (or amused).

So my little tinfoil wrapped titbit is a question. Given that Blizzard is held up on a pedestal and shown to be the company to watch when making an MMO, the company to emulate and the ones who set all sorts of trends… they’re obviously capable of judging how people will react to any given idea to a fair degree.

So if they aren’t going back on Real ID, why are they going forward? I don’t think it’s merely to clean up their forums.

All that data, accessible… that has got to be a marketers wet dream.

Real World Interlude

This entry deals with real world news, so if you’re avoiding all  that nonsense, skip this one.

Anna Chapman is my hero of the hour. But! But but but. Let me explain that statement.

Pictured to the right is Ms Chapman.

The news says she is a suspected Russian spy.

 

Now, I’m not anti America and supporting a spy. I am geeking out over something that Sky News put in my head. When they broke the story, over and over they said it was like a real life spy novel. Personally I didn’t see it. Sure there is a ring of suspects and I have no real idea what they have or have not done. However, when it came to them putting a face to them, the picture shown here is the one they splashed on tv.

Now it’s a real life spy story. Sure the plot is a little lame, but hey, you’ve given us a Bond Girl.

What’s not to love?

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.

Proof of the pudding

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

I previewed Lego Universe for OnRPG here a while back. Keep in mind, the preview was based on early early closed beta stuff. Even on the back of that, I now have my pre-order ordered.

Even if Lego isn't your thing, trust me, this is a gift to get.

Success is commemorated. Failure merely remembered.

Massively have a wonderful interview with Mark Downie from Vigil on Warhammer 40,000.

One good quote I like.

All that we've seen in the trailer is actual gameplay footage?
Mark: Absolutely.

Mark goes on to talk about the work they’re doing with Games Workshop in making the setting properly Warhammer as well as the lovely bonus of

Mark: Pretty much anything that gets added into the 40k universe in our MMO will get added to the canon, part of the war, and will receive the blessing of Games Workshop.

Head on over to the interview to check it out and keep an eye on OnRPG.com where soon I will be going through the background, the build up and the battle that is Warhammer 40,000 Dark Millennium.

(Bonus Fluff Theory: In the closing days of the 41st millennium the Emperors Golden Throne had started to fail. A Q&A I had one Games Day with Sandy Mitchell of the Ciaphas Cain series mentioned that GW was holding up the story for now, letting it all get to the same point. If the game creates canon, is this Dark Millennium the opening chapter of the 42nd and the greatest upheaval The Imperium has ever known? Exciting prospect.)

Also you know, while the Imperium quotes are great for blog titles, it makes everything sound very grimdark. Nor is it necessarily a commentary on Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.

Blind faith is a just cause. (WH40K)

In his Glorious Majesty’s realm, blind faith is a just cause. Granted that says an awful awful lot about the world of the Imperium.

A quick look at my blog list this morning got me a few links. On the one hand we have Shadow-War and We Fly Spitfires on the cautious but positive view. On the other we have Syncaine in his crusade against all things WoW taking a snarky tack, along with The War Realm being unimpressed.

To each their own really. Syncaine insists that Dark Millennium doesn’t look dark and gloomy enough and is WoW in the future. War Realm has come down on the side of the trailer being CGI and thus useless (coughOldRepubliccough).

They may have a point. Perhaps games have been unfairly influenced out of all proportion by World of Warcraft. At the same time maybe that’s because the influences weren’t all negative. Maybe the trailer doesn’t give everything you want to know, but hey that to me looked pretty damn slick and THQ did all its cinematics in the engine for Dawn of War. If they were going the CGI route full of pretty and no substance, they could have gone further.

Me? I’m all for it. We’ve gone from what was just a bullet point on a THQ statement, through small bits of concept art into a trailer that shows me some pretty exciting things. Maybe Syncaine is right and the Kopta isn’t piloted and is more like WoWs griffins. Maybe there will be a ridiculous amount of PvE questing. Maybe all the naysayers will be right on the money and it will be World of Warhammercraft 40k.

Or maybe… just maybe it’s as good as it looks. Given the option of being negative or being an mmo blogger… I’m going to have to go with the unbridled out of proportion optimism. I have faith in Vigil Games and THQ. I am not yet ready to call for the Exterminatus on the Dark Millennium.

Blogging or living in the grim darkness of the far future, blind faith is a just cause.

The Dark Millennium

No waiting. Watch now!

Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online!

A quick breakdown of what I’ve made out.

Factions

• The Imperium
• Chaos
• Orks

Possible Player Characters

• Space Marines (In Nomine Imperator!)
• Mechanicus (As the Omnissiah wills)
• Imperial Guard/Kasrkin (Men of the Emperor!)
• Chaos Space Marines (Khârn is a pretty fun guy)
• Chaos Cultists (Sanity if for the WEAK!)
• Orks (DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!)

Some other things that stick out from the video.

That’s gameplay footage that is! Mmmm gameplay.

There’s something that looks suspiciously like an Eldar Farseer going up against the Chaos Dreadnaut as the music climaxes.

Finally, the means of getting around looks interesting. I saw Space Marine bikes (and of course Chaos bikes), Trukks and Koptas. Flying mounts as well as the purely mundane? Yes please.

The quick run down of things you will not see? Kroot, Tau, Necrons (my favourites), Tyranids and Dark Eldar. Does that mean they aren’t there at all? I couldn’t say. Perhaps they will be NPC factions, perhaps they are for later inclusion or expansions. For all the talk of Warhammer Age of Reckoning needing a third faction, I don’t think a 7+ way war in the 41st Millennium is particularly viable, especially given some of the omnicidal armies.

In conclusion for this first bit, it’s good to be a 40K fan. THQ, having proved themselves more than capable of capturing the feel of the universe in the Dawn Of War series, are bringing us both Dark Millennium and Space Marine. On top of that we have the Ultramarines movie moving forward.

There is only one final thing I need to know from that video…. who do I have to kill to become a Princeps and drive the Titan?

Missed Calling

Why is BioWare making an MMO?

Sure there is all the PR marketing hype. Sure there are the legions of Knights of the Old Republic fans who are salivating over the IP. Sure I suppose it’ll be a very good game.

But why bother making a game when they would be better suited shaming George Lucas and making an epic movie?

If you haven’t yet seen it, that link is for the Star Wars : The Old Republic “Hope” trailer. Seriously EA/BioWare, you can tell me all you want about how many voice actors you’re going to have, how big the game is going to be and all of that but in my mind, you’re better spent on crafting us a different sort of entertainment.

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.

Retropreciation

I’ve only told you like 200 times or some such but my first MMO was Earth & Beyond. This is important because it came out in 2002 and I played it on a 56k modem which thankfully was on one of the first packages in Ireland to offer flat rate unlimited off peak internet.

That was my first foray into the massively multiplayer world and fortunately or unfortunately it was a sci-fi space game. I never had the really old school experiences.

Partially, I never had them because I never heard of MMO gaming until poking around Westwoods site for information on Command and Conquer. Partially I never had them because even if I had discovered Dark Age of Camelot or Everquest at the time they were new I wouldn’t have been able to afford the phone bills. Or my parents wouldn’t have if I am honest.

Why am I dragging these back into the light of day? Well someone else has.

Sure I can understand intellectually that some of those old school mechanics died because they were a pain. Or perhaps they were a barrier to higher subscriptions. Maybe they were simply boring and are just looked on fondly because they are old.

Sure I know that if the games of tomorrow were still being cranked out like the games of that many yesterdays there’d be uproar. But still… so much in the gaming blogosphere is hype. Nostalgia is a hype all of its own and I have to say I can appreciate the retro look, the bygone ways and yesteryears feel.

Would I like to give it a spin? Sure. Though I’ll have to settle for fond remembrances from others passed on which in the end condense all those years of gaming to just the best bits.

Lord of the Rings Online goes F2P

Everyone is talking about it. Seriously. This is but a drop in the ocean but Lord of The Rings Online will be going free to play this summer.

Lifetime Subscribers will according to someone on twitter be getting free VIP for life.

So if you’ve never before followed in the footsteps of the Fellowship, will this shift be enough to get you in for elevenses?

Tourism

Shannon and I are off on a holiday.

Not an actual holiday mind you, just a break from Paragon City. For whatever reason (I suspect a Nemesis plot) Shannon is feeling like a break from the City of Heroes and so in finest “WoW Tourist” (Thanks Syncaine for the now old term even if we’ve never played WoW) tradition, we’re off on a holiday.

It is just a temporary break though given that Going Rogue is right around the corner. At most we’ll be away for a month. Of course it becomes complicated when we factor in Shannons computer having died recently and the replacement being … well… crap. No fancy high end graphics games for her and therefore for us.

So options appear to be

• Allods Online (Suggested to her by OnRPG awesome guy Nic)
• Dungeons & Dragons Online (I wont let it go)
• Anarchy Online (Blame Sareini)
• Something else (This is what the comments section is for)

So. Any suggestions? Preferences? Cautionary tales?