Moving on Over

Hey all....just a notice that this site has now moved to:

http://www.commonsensegamer.com/

Direct link here.

Go ahead and update your bookmarks. This site will have a lot more features for me to play around with...hence the move. I appreciate everyones support on this site...so tally-ho onto the next one.

D out

P.S. Please excuse the mess on the new site while I clean it up a bit. It might get a bite dyslexic over there....so be warned.

Left and a bit off center.

Oh man. I always had a sneaking suspicion that the mainstream media did not "get" games...well, more of a strong notion really. We've seen great examples of this lack of understanding due to games being scapegoats over the past couple of years for everything from youth violence to the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa (...ok, I made the last part up...). The latest article that I read that shows how clueless these people are. It's a piece from the BBC technology desk. Here's the beginning of the article:

"With more than eight million subscribers, World of Warcraft dominates the online gaming market but some strong rivals are gearing up to take it on."

Wow, that's quite a bold statement and it's one that we've all debated before...."Who will kill WoW?". Double wow, the BBC is getting into the debate...so they must know something we don't. Who are these "strong rivals" they speak of. Glad you asked...here they are:

• Age of Conan
• Lord of the Rings Online.
• Star Wars Galaxies

...I'll wait while you guys settle down from laughter.

...
...
...

OK, everyone settled down now? Saaaweeet. Moving on.

Now, I know my readers are intelligent enough to know why that list is full of shit...but hey, I blog and like to talk, so I'm going to go through the exercise anyway.

Age of Conan:

This won't even come close to touching WoW. Actually, Conan will be lucky to know WoW's half cousin's dog's sister's boyfriend on his father's side. One reason...Conan is for adults. It will be rated A, which means Battlenet kiddies need not apply, which means the audience is limited, which means niche market, which means not a snowball's chance in hell of "taking on" WoW...ever. Conan will probably see around 250K users which is around 3% of what WoW has at this point.

Lord of the Rings

This one is tougher to call because, like Brad McQuaid mentioned, it's an x-factor...so I have no idea how or why the BBC is calling this one a contender when the jury will be out for some time to come. It does have the look and smell of an alternative to WoW, but that's all it might turn out to be. I've said it before, LoTRO is a solid offering right out of the gate, but it will be about a year until we know what kind of weight it has to throw at WoW. Right now, I'm hearing that LoTRO has in the neighborhood of 500K+ subscribers....and no, this is based on nothing but what I've heard, so save the emails please. Let's put it at ballpark of 100-500K right now, that only puts LoTRO between 1-6% of WoWs numbers. So, it's still got lots of room to get there but honestly, I don't think it will....nor do I think that is Turbine's intention.

Star Wars Galaxies

Are you out of your frackin mind!?


So there you have it. This BBC piece seems more like an editor going up to a correspondent and saying,

"You know what, those video games seem really hip and in with the youngins...slap me up something for tomorrow would ya?".

"But sir, I know nothing of video games. I usually only write about PDAs".

"Bah! Pick a few from this alphabetized list. Call them. Get some quotes and give it to me in the morning."

"Ummm. OK. Sure."

I'm still of a strong mind that the game that will really challenge WoW won't be known until it's actually challenging WoW. Any predictions on what that game is will usually be full of Murloc dung (...this blog included...). My guess, and strap on your Murloc dung suit, that game will probably be designed by Blizzard.

D out.

Starcraft MMO? Maybe...

I don't usually post on the weekends, but this is an exception.

According to this, the next Blizzard MMO will be Starcraft. I still consider this a rumor until I hear otherwise from the belly of the beast. I suggest you treat it the same way. Regardless, we will find out on May 19th.

D out.

The Grab Bag

Funny how things can go from zero to sixy over a course of a day...so let's get to it. This is going to a link/editorial post, so grab some popcorn people.

First up is a very interesting article from from the Escapist regarding the plight of modders within WoW...and oh my gawd do I ever feel for them. One of the more revealing entries in this article reads:

After he put so much into the compilation, Mazzlefizz felt betrayed by the community. It wasn't pleasant having such a small issue be the most discussed portion of MazzleUI. "There's just so many young, immature kids, so many bloated egos and such a high degree of self-entitlement. Complaining and criticizing are just the status quo," he said, before adding that not every experience he's had with users was awful. It's just "the negative aspects have outweighed the positive aspects lately and have caused me to … question the time and effort I put into developing my add-ons." To date, MazzleUI hasn't had any significant updates. MazzleFizz keeps busy collecting bug reports and has gone back to just playing the game.

(emphasis is mine)

Lots to say about this....actually, this one paragraph could be blog fodder for a week by my standards. Developing mods for the WoW community must be like cutting yourself and then wading into a pool of sharks with personality disorders. I used lots of mods when I was playing WoW and I have nothing but respect for the amount of time and effort that these people put into their work. I highlighted that one part because it reminded me of a post I did a last month regarding that sense of entitlement that gamers have in regards to access to all levels of a gaming company. I have always thought that gamer culture has this HUGE misplaced sense of entitlement in which they believe a) I shall be able to talk to the CEO at any time, b) I deserve the best right now, c) everything I think is wrong shall be fixed...now, d) all devs shall acknowledge my issues and concerns...now, e) I'm the most important player in the game and everyone else is newbsauce, f)...bah...I'll stop there...you get the picture. You can also see how the bloated egos come in as well. I've encountered a couple of these people in my travels and I just want to throttle them...grrrrrr. Why gaming companies and modders put up with these idiots is beyond me. They are not the normal player...they are social rejects with a superiority complex and need medication, not attention.

Next up, CoH released Issue 9 and it looks like its making a good impression. I haven't gone and checked it out yet, and honestly, I don't know when I will given the other things that I've got up and coming. Anyway, finally, after 2-3 years CoH/V has a crafting system. Too little too late? We'll see.

On the LoTRO front, there is a nice summary of impressions on Turbine's latest MMO over at Gamebunny. One of the summaries there brings up a good point...will LoTRO be the first MMO which has an ending? We all know what the ending is for this story, so it just makes sense that this may be the case. Turbine can prolong this as much as they want, because let's face it, there is a lot of material in those books to be had. There will be an end, no doubt...the big question is what, if anything, will they transition to when the end does come?

On the social commentary side of things, this bit of non-sense came up this week regarding gay marriage in LoTRO. Alright, my stance on this? In the context of LoTRO, there were no gay marriages...at least within the main story line. Given that, gay marriage of two dwarfs within LoTRO makes as about as much sense as a Hobbit with a ray-gun and jet pack. I really don't care if gays marry in the real world, but it doesn't mean we rewrite creative works and games to support it if it doesn't fit in the original context of the story.

Best for last, and I want to thank Cuppy for bringing this to my attention. Apparently, a new race and new adventure zones are coming to EQ2. One word...wow. The new race is called the Arasai and the new zone is Neriak. This is a dark Fae race that will compliment the recent additions from the EoF expansion. This is really great news for SOE and yet another example of how they've really turned EQ2 around from the shipwreck that it was. The only bad news about this is that I will now have to go back into EQ2 to take a look. OK, maybe that's not so bad after all :) Anyway, good show SOE...keep 'em coming. See, it's stuff like this that makes me wonder about why they're even considering taking on Vanguard.

D out.

...that icky, icky feeling.

Just wanted to add a couple more places you should look for reactions to this whole thing.

First is over to Cuppy, who is, ummm, pissed and doesn't hold back her opinion of what's going on....part of the reason why I like reading her site.

Second is over at Broken Toys who makes the same point as I did regarding the upcoming MMO market and Vanguard's tough fight to stand out in it.

As I'm reading the coverage, a lot of folks are not taking that posting by Brad very well...no, not well at all. This is part of the reason why Brent suggested that he not talk anymore...this point will be well proven at the end of all this I'm sure. Some people are looking at this passage specifically:

The only fix here, again, is time. Vista (especially the Ultimate edition, which is what's being pushed to gamers) wants fast components. Direct X 10 hardware and software will help a lot, especially when there is a DX10 version of Vanguard. A native 64bit client of Vanguard will eventually help a lot too. Bottom line: by the end of 2007, a lot more people should have upgraded, especially if Microsoft succeeds with Vista and native DX 10 games. And if they really push Gaming for Windows like they did, say, the Xbox 360, the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 should be a very different landscape for PC games in general and Vanguard specifically. Was the Vanguard tech ahead of its time? Yes, and there has been a price to pay for that short term (although many people are able to play with older machines - why? Different configurations, different settings, different thresholds for lower framerates, etc.). But MMOGs ideally never end and if you've architected your engine to both push the limits of existing and near future technology as well as easily employ future technologies, then you have a game that doesn't look dated one, two, even three plus years down the road. And that's what we did with Vanguard - so we feel some pain now, but if we can keep the momentum going, this decision pays off in the long run (big time).

The last I checked, Vista was not doing so hot in terms of gaming. In fact, if you were to look at Vista/DX10 as a platform launch (like the XBox360, or PS3), for gaming it was the worse launch in recent memory. How many games launched with the launch of Vista? None. Zero. To date, and correct me if I'm wrong, people are still encountering video card driver issues. Dell recently announced that XP will continue to be an option for their customers since Vista is such a clusterf^%$. So Vista is not ready for gaming and Brad is betting on Vista for Vanguard....ummmmm. From what I'm seeing/hearing/reading, no game is betting on Vista for it's success and that platform has zero buzz in the market right now as the OS of choice for gaming.

This is not good...not good at all. Say if Vista is ready for gaming prime time by 2007-2008, MMO gaming does not work in a vacuum. By that time, like I said, Warhammer will be hitting the scene, LoTRO will be entrenched (plus expansions) and WoW and/or EQ2 will be ratcheting up the marketing RPMs for their next expansions.

D out.

Ever get that feeling...?

So here is a thread you want to keep your eye on for the latest events surrounding the future of Sigil/SOE/Vanguard...whatever. You'll see a post there from Brad (...yes, it is long..and no, it really doesn't say anything he hasn't said before). He goes on, again, about why Vanguard is where it is, what types of players he wishes to target, how they are going to get players interested in Vanguard ("viral" marketing term is used again). He also restates how they overshot the system specs in terms of technology. He gives some insight on what features he wants to bring into Vanguard in the future...but honestly, and I'm cringing as I say this, I don't know how realistic those point really are. I don't even know why he commits that much writing space to future features when they have so much work to do getting other things up to speed. He's already talking an expansion and/or relaunch of VG come 200x...huh??

Here's an interesting thing regarding audience targeting. He was hoping to target burned out WoW players and he mentions LoTRO as an x-factor game. He wants to target those WoW players and he knows that those casual players will move to LoTRO...and understandably so. The window to grab those players is shrinking fast and I don't think VG has even the slightest chance on getting any of them. If you put a bored WoW player in front of VG and then in front of LoTRO...guess which one they'll pick? I'll give you a hint...it's not VG.

Here's what's not fitting to me with this whole thing:
1) SOE is taking a game which will take a lot of time and resources to "fix" and bring to SOE standards (please keep "SOE standards" bashing to a minimum. plskthx). And they are doing this why...?
2) When VG is "fixed", besides the diplomacy system, SOE/Sigil will have a similar product to EQ2. No one has yet been able to convince me that this is not the case. At the most, we'll have a Pepsi vs Coke kind of thing with VG and EQ2.
3) The window for VG to maximize it's potential is, IMHO, gone...especially in the context of the coming 2007-2008 titles. LoTRO is turning out to be the best casual PvE experience right now. If they hold on past Pirates of the Burning Sea, Gods and Heroes, Conan...and gawd help them, Warhammer, they may stay that way. You mix WoW and EQ2 in there and...yikes.

Granted, if this was 2005-2006, then my whole view on points 1,2 and especially 3 would be completely different.

I'm missing something. Something about SOE taking/partnering/merging (whatever) with Sigil/Vanguard when they (SOE) already have a VG-like product. Something about all these long posts from Brad (we're now at four I think). You know what, it may be nothing. This may just be a simple case of Brad giving it a go and now, when it's not working out, he simply needs help.

You know what, that's probably what the truth of it is...and some have us have been in that situation. You try one of those projects on your own, like finishing a basement, or fixing your car's transmission by yourself. You end up calling your dad who patiently comes over, fixes what you've screwed up, pats you on the back and says, "Now, next time...ask for help stupid."

Regardless, how the relationship between SOE and Sigil works out will be something to keep an eye out. Obviously, my thoughts on this aren't done yet...yayyy for you eh? :)

D out.

I Still don't get it...

Well...apparently this is happening, i.e. SOE is taking Vanguard. Can someone please tell me why this makes any bit of sense? Anyone...? And don't say "because" or I'll feel the need to smack you :)

...shortest...blog posting...everrrrr.

TCSG LoTR Progress

I finally have gotten into an area that I haven't been in beta and now the fun has really started. I've hit the Lone Lands and man are there ever a lot of quests in that little Inn at the start of the zone. I went there for a couple of delivery quests (...and out of curiosity..) and I must have picked up about 12 more in there. In the center of that zone is a huge hill with a bunch of structures at the top...it looks very impressive. No, didn't get a chance to go up there for two reasons, 1) I think I'd get my ass handed to me...yeah, it looks like it would and 2) I don't have a quest for that place, at least I don't think I do. Regardless, I was killing mostly wolves, goblins, orcs and of course, boars. What is it with developers obsession with boars? They put so many of these things in games that it's starting to boarder on fetish....which is disturbing on so many levels. Anyway, as I was killing things, my quest log would update about three quests at a time...which I absolutely love seeing. It really gives me a sense that I'm accomplishing something with what little time I have to play. Great job Turbine! I'm looking forward to logging in tonight. So, it looks like they've hooked me again....bastards :)

I do have a concern about LoTRO...and it's a small one and has only been a small nagging of my little voice and that's the level cap. Now, I have never been to level 50 in this game just yet, but I'm wondering how long it will be before the first player hits that cap and how long it will be before I and other normal (yes...usually the first person there is a bit of a freak /wink) get there. Once we do get there, what will we be doing...raiding? Grinding for titles? Crafting? No idea, and I hope that Turbine has a solution for the end game that doesn't fall into the WoW rut.

For me, level 50 is going to take some time and so far I'm enjoying the ride, which is the point in my humble opinion. Captain Belmirus of Gondor is level 17.5 right now and is kicking some goblin ass and having a blast...so there.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen it yet...and this is a really nice feature...here is a list of some funky titles you can get in LoTRO. Here is the link the the info from Ancient Gaming Noob...but if you're lazy, here they are here:

• the Adorable - Recieve 100 /hug emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Alluring - Receive 100 /flirt emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Befuddling - Receive 100 /confused emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Beloved - Receive 100 /kiss emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Dull - Receive 100 /bored emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Harassed - Receive 100 /beg emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Helpful - Receive 100 /thank emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Infuriating - Receive 100 /angry emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Insulted - Receive 200 /rude emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Intimidating - Receive 40 /cower emotes. This can only be incremented 2 times per day.
• the Naughty - Receive 100 /scold emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Ridiculed - Receive 100 /mock emotes. This can only be incremented 5 times per day.
• the Victorious - Receive 40 /surrender emotes. This can only be incremented 2 times per day.

...heh, amazing. I'm going to have to get Cuppy's character to blow me a lot of kisses and scold me a bit. Ummmm....ok, that comes out a bit wrong, but you get the idea ;)

D out.

TCSG Article over at Virgin Worlds

So here's the article I handed into Brent for his contest. Didn't win with it, but Brent promised me a fruit basket of some sort (.....long story...).

...so, if you're not sick of me yet, get on over there and read it. I really enjoyed writing it, so I'll probably send Brent more stuff in the future.

D out.

P.S. Brent...love the little pic you put in there. Classic.

Warhammer is Delayed

...again shocking news that I never would have seen coming. Tobold got the recent news letter (mine is sent to an account I have no access to right now) so I'll send you all there to take a look.

I'm actually glad they did this because this makes me think that they really do get "the polish" message...but we'll have to wait and see to really make the final judgment on that one. Two down for "getting it", 5-6 more to go for 2007.

Now, with it being foretasted to Q1 2008, there is still a possibility that they'll push it out to Q2. I'm not getting that vibe yet, but prepare yourself for that possibility.

D out.

Getting your Hobbit On

LoTRO launched yesterday and I must say that it was very smooth indeed. Seems like there are lots of people reporting the same kind of thing across the internet tubes. Good compilation of thoughts over at Kill Ten Rats....so go check it out. So, they're off to a solid start and they've got some good momentum behind them....now let's see what Turbine does with it.

I logged in last night with my Captain and did about 3 or 4 quests and then called it a night. I didn't get to level 16 with that effort, but I was just happy to be progressing again. The town of Bree was just full of people and the whole world looks to be well populated. One bad thing though and this isn't a knock against the game...the chat channels are getting a little bit nutty. I had to turn off /trade, /advice and other channels due to the smack-down and trash talk that was going on. There were a couple of people who said, "hey guys, just send insulting tells to each other...", but these idiots would have none of that...so they proceeded to pollute it for everyone else. Ummm, what the heck is wrong with you guys? Seriously. Anywho...they're turned off and I'm sure they'll stay that way. Ahhh nuts, now I can't get any advice or sell anything :)

D out.

Neglect in a Box

....as my wife calls video games.

So, LoTR launch day is today and I'm really excited to get into this game...finally. The beta was really nice, but it had the effect of getting me too familiar with levels 1-15...so you can imagine how painful it was to go through those levels for a fourth time. Kind of makes me think about not getting into betas anymore...but not quite. I can't exactly report and review stuff for you guys if I don't get in there.

Couple of articles that I want to point out in regards to LoTR....both are closely related to each other and tackle the question of innovation and LoTR. The first is a review of LoTR. The first paragraph of the review says it all really regarding LoTR:

"In almost every other important aspect of the MMOG experience, LOTRO manages either to extrude the gameplay into some new form which hasn't previously been explored, or to simply buff up and polish an experience with which we were already familiar."

That there, ladies and gents, is your theme for all of the MMOs that will be released in 2007. Sure, it encapsulates LoTR very nicely, but notice the buzz word in there..."polish". You'll see that word used for PoTBS, Warhammer (really 2008...but I'll put it in there), Gods and Heroes etc. Yes, you do have permission to tar and feather me if it's not used for the other titles...and yes, I am expecting one to prove me wrong. Anyway, great review and well deserved for a solid title.

Second article is regarding innovation... and the author seems to be as tired of the word as I am. He's right, and I've mentioned this before...we are not going to see any innovation in MMOs for quite some time. I really appreciate guys like Gary and Ryan, and maybe they are ahead of the curve in terms of gaming expectations, however; I think its a great sign of maturity when software companies concentrate on quality out of the box. This is nothing but good news for the industry and lays some great groundwork for innovations that people are calling for.

I don't know, maybe the author is right...maybe we've already reached the innovation ceiling in terms of feature sets and that the issue is purely technical. People keep calling for innovation in mechanics and they cry "WoW RIP-OFF!!" when they see titles like LoTR. Well, I'm sorry, but standardization is bound to happen because some things just work really well. Everyone reads books. The mechanics of book reading haven't changed in hundreds of years. You've got your paper, your book spine and your print. Lets say I change the mechanics on you...there you go, all of your favorite books are now in Jello format. There you go...I've innovated...and yes, I'm being a smart-ass. Thats what you get when you try and innovate on things that aren't broken in the first place.

D out.

I'm not Dead Yet!

My gawd!! Who would have thought that PC gaming is not dead. This...this is just shocking. OK, so let's just drop this whole prognosticating of the death of PC gaming. It's not dying. It will never die. It is the main technological driver for gaming, not consoles...end of story. You "PC gaming is dead" people are getting up there with the apocalypse people in terms of credibility...and they're not exactly batting 1000. If I read one more article on this subject, I will personally send the author a box full of angry kittens. You've been warned.

Interesting article with Rob Pardo over on Next Generation. Some great insights on creating what is one of the most popular games in PC history. One small little thing jumped out at me though...and it is small, but it still bugged me.

WoW is as close to a cash-generating machine as you’re likely to find, so it’s easy to imagine pressure being applied to take advantage of this audience. He says the reason why WoW is successful is because it delivers a lot of content; not just a grind; and that content takes time and creative effort to produce.

(bold my emphasis)

Ummm...okay, so I'm going to assume that Rob has played WoW at the end game which usually involves a grind for rep (...to get better gear...), or grinding for gold (...to guy better gear...), or grind for mats (...to make better gear...) or raiding (...to possibly get better gear...). It just struck me as an odd thing to say. He is right though, WoW offers a ton of content. My wife was questing last night in WoW and she was mentioning how she will probably run out of levels before she runs out of quests. She's not looking forward to the end of questing though...she's not the grinding type, so the game is essentially over for her at 70.

D out.

Edit: Check out an addition to this article here.

You've got to read this...

...and please spread it around. I want this on every corner of the internet by this time tomorrow. Link it...post it...email it.

Bill Harris from Dubious Quality just put up something that should smack King Asshat right in the head (...intellectually speaking of course). The post is called A New Low.

Every gamer should memorize that FBI monograph so that we are armed with facts when we come up against asstards.

Well done Bill.

D out

Well...ummm...ok.

All this hero talk got myself and Cuppy mentioned on the EQ2 Players Town Crier.

...I really don't know what to say about that. Once again, I am speechless ;)

All of this was spawned off of a comment I got from one of my "online" friends Kevin.

Which got me thinking...if any of you have any topics you'd like me to discuss, just send me an email and I'll try my best to talk about it. I may not get to it right away because I tend to soak an idea before I write about it.

Anyway, good to see TCSG mentioned on EQ2Players. Damnit....now I'm all giddy.

D out.

When we all fall down...

You know, I wasn't going to say a word about what happened recently regarding the event at VT...because I really don't trust myself in making this whole post either about a) gun control, or b) The King Asshat (need I say more) or c) video game violence (see b).

You see, I'm Canadian, so the (a) option has never registered with my brain for anyone to need (note the word "need" not "want") a gun. It's just a cultural difference there. I just think that this murderer would have done less damage had he only had access to a knife or baseball bat. I was a big time hunter when I was in high school. I hunted rabbits, deer and of course, moose. I made it point to use only a single shot weapon, as I personally thought that if I didn't hit the animal the first time, I didn't deserve it. So, I never got the whole for semi-autos for hunting thing. This is just my take, and I know we all have our own. The whole thing just makes no sense what so ever.

I'm a gamer at heart, so it absolutely infuriates me to hear King Asshat and now Dr.Phil (W...T...F!!!). We as gamers know that millions of people play video games. We as gamers also know that if there was any correlation between school shootings and video games, we'd have a bigger problem on our hands than we do now. I get angry enough when a guy like this thinks he had the right to take other peoples lives because he can't deal. It gets me even angrier when lawyers, politicians, TV show hosts and "news" reporters use a high impact event like this to push their own careers along. We've got real families suffering here and these talking heads can't get their heads out of their ass.

As for part (c), well, it's closely linked to King Asshat because thats the drum he likes to beat...repeatedly.

As a father of two little girls, this thing absolutely scares the shit out of me. We haven't had that many of these school shootings up here, but we have had them. Part of me never wants to let my 6 year old go to school again. Part of me just wants to say, "ok, everyone hand in the guns now...enough is enough". Part of me wishes that kid didn't kill himself so that he could truly understand what the moms and dads of those kids are feeling. But, hey, I really can't have any of that...realistically anyway.

D out.

P.S Sorry to law abiding gun owners.

P.S.S I'm not sorry to King Asshat...you truly are a D bag.

P.S.S.S Rush as the voice of common sense...amazing and bravo.

CALLER: What I really think is an issue is video violence, video gaming. I will guarantee you, I'll bet my last dollar in my pocket, that this shooter will be found to have been a compulsive video gamer, and when people are living that kind of lifestyle -- and college students do this a lot.

RUSH: (sigh) Let's say you're right. Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though. There's more to this than that. We can find all kinds of societal problems and ills, but the fact of the matter is that whatever you would look at as a bad influence -- video games as you mentioned -- it may desensitize people, but it doesn't turn everybody into mass murderers.

I know it's natural that everybody wants to throw their theories into this, and perhaps come up with perhaps a unique explanation or to understand, and I think it's natural, because people have a tough time accepting a relatively simple explanation for something of this scale. But how many people are playing video games out there? How many millions of people play video games, and how many millions of people have guns?

If you start blaming the video games, you may as well demand video game control because it's the same thing when you start trying to blame guns for this. You have here a sick individual, an evil individual who committed a random act. But if you want to start blaming the video games, this guy was this or that, weeeeell, then you've gotta maybe talk about banning them because that's the same tack that's taken with guns. You got one guy who used a gun that's it. You're falling prey to the same way the Drive-Bys propagandize, and that's, "Well, we need gun control! We gotta get guns out of the hands of people."

So you gotta be real careful here not to paint with broad brushes on these things. You gotta be very careful not to plug this into your own individual political prism, because then you become no different than what the Drive-Bys are doing. If you just wait, eventually we'll find out more than we want to know about this guy, and you're going to have to listen to what's reported about this guy with keen ears, and you're going to have to read with sharp eyes out there, because the Drive-Bys are going to report about this guy in ways that will advance their political agenda because that's what this story is to them.

Fallout MMO news

Now, this is very interesting. Why? Because of this little gotchya:

"In a special clause of the purchase agreement, Interplay agrees that "full-scale development of its FALLOUT MMOG will commence within 24 months of the Effective Date of this Agreement" and that "Interplay will have secured financing for the FALLOUT MMOG in an amount no less than $30 million" within that time frame or forfeit its license rights for the MMO.

Similarly, "Interplay must, in addition, Commercially Launch... the FALLOUT MMOG within four years of the MMOG Development Commencement Date, or again, "Interplay will immediately lose and permanently forfeit its license rights under this Agreement." If and when the Fallout MMO launches, Interplay has agreed to pay Bethesda 12 percent of the game's sales and subscription fees for the use of the Fallout IP."

Keep an eye on the Fallout MMO, because this clause will play heavily on the quality of this title coming out of the gate.

D out.

Battle of the Sexes...now with more anime

It is said that there are three things you should never talk about amongst strangers: sex, politics and religion. Well, two out of three aren't bad I guess ;)

On the topics of sex (man...just typing the word should bring those 'ol hits up eh?). Some women decided it would be a swell idea if she sold herself for her flying mount in WoW. This goes up there in my "WTF" category. We all wonder why politicians, lawyers and moral police are all over the game industry these days, it's because of people like this. Opportunistic morons, *cough* Lieberman *cough* Jack Thompson* cough cough*, will seize any opportunity for power and this stunt is just giving them more fuel for their crusade. I really don't care what you do with your free time...heck, jump off a cliff for a flying mount for all I care. What I do care about is when your actions end up putting more rules and regulations on me and others because of your apparent lack of foresight. Man...we're devolving right before my very eyes.

I read a very interesting interview with Richard Garriott regarding the "Culture Clash" between East and West, as well as in Europe to some extent. One of the reasons I hate...yes, hate...Korean MMOs in general is the art and character models. I hate the fact that everyone looks like an asexual schoolgirl. However, I could never figure out why Koreans love it and why North Americans, in general, hate it. Here's a good explanation:

“Asia has a whole set of unique differences,” says Garriott. “Some of these are subtle but important. But one of the most obvious is what a heroic character looks like. In the United States, a heroic character is often very buff, broad shouldered, square chinned, and barrel-chested. The dashing hero is a very clear idea to us. In Asia, characters who look like that are always the bad guys, always.

“The people who are the good guys are young, nerdy, skinny little kids who survive against those big people because of an inner strength that somehow manifests his slight frame. And so when we create heroic characters and try to send them over to Asia they’re saying, ‘why are you making me play these big, dumb brutes who are clearly evil’. That’s a big disconnect.”

Wow...they think big/muscular people are evil and skinny/small people are good. Ummm, I'm not going to touch that one, but it's extremely interesting.

Most of you who read here probably listen to Brent over at VirginWorlds. He announced the winner of his contest in episode #63. The winning article is here...and I'll get around to blogging about the things Julie says later. To answer your question, yes, I did enter and you'll probably see my article up there within the next couple of weeks. No, I didn't win because, quite frankly, Julie rocked with what she wrote. So, grats to Julie...well deserved indeed.

In the rolling article treadmill that Brent has set up for the next couple of weeks, Cuppy's submission showed up yesterday. She tackles the non-issue of girls in games. I agree with her. I have absolutely no idea of why gender is such a big deal to some gamers and why it has anything to do with the games we play. Gamers are gamers, end of story. However, and I've posted this comment over at Cuppy's website, I do think that women fill in a vital roll in our gaming community. Women are natural community builders...they always have been, always will be. Men, well, we're good at smashing stuff. Good thing is that MMOs are a game genre in which social networks go out and smash stuff together....so it's win win for both sexes really. What really surprises me is that women don't equal or slightly outnumber men in MMOs. It's mind blowing to me that this is not the case.

D out.

OK, I lied...well, kinda

...but not intentionally. I more or less misplaced the memory of me doing this.

Remember when I said that Silent Hunter 4 would be my only single player purchase for 2007. Well, not so much. I completely forgot that I purchased Sins of a Solar Empire. This game is created by Stardock...yes, the same company that brought you Galactic Civ II. I absolutely love this little indie company to death. When I heard that they were making a Homeworld II, meets Gal Civ II meets...and I'll say it...Eve Online (my characterization btw...and no, it's not an MMO but does have that vast space feel that Eve gives you), I had to get it. The big bonus is that pre-order customers get into the beta...yayyy. If you want to know what a beta is like from Stardock, here is a snippet from Brad Wardell's expectations of a beta:

Sins of a Solar Empire Beta 1 Objectives:

The goal of beta 1 is for us to test out the game engine. How well does it run on a wide range of PCs? How is the perfomance? How is compatibility?

There has been much discussion on galciv2.com by players who note that our games usually require few "patches" to fix major bugs. This is why. We release publicly the games during early beta to nail down these issues long before it hits the shelves.

These days, many "beta" programs are little more than late-term demos designed with marketing in mind as well as nailing down final balancing issues. That's not what this beta is for.

There will be at least 3 major beta releases. Possibly 4 depending on how well public feedback is.

There are no NDAs involved. If you don't like what we're doing, tell us. We do not require NDAs precisely because we don't want you to feel any constraints on giving feedback.

Most of you have no doubt played games where you later hear the beta testers didn't think the game was ready for release but they were stuck under NDA. I've never seen an example where the beta testers were wrong.

...amen.

For a beta, the game is rock solid and a blast to play. It scares me to think what the final product will be like.

D out.

Holy crap!

...this is a great article regarding violence in video games over at Gamers with Jobs. A...MUST...read.

D out.