MMOre Insight

Converting to Wordpress

2007-07-11T15:24:00.000-05:00

Following Adele's lead, I decided to give wordpress a shot. I'm a little confused trying to figure out some of the options and widgets and the like, but I think there are a lot more options on wordpress, and if I'm willing to fork over 15 bucks a year, I found a great site with thousands of themes to use if anyone else is interested.

Anyways, here is my new page.

~Kanthalos

Player Based Quests

2007-07-11T10:36:00.000-05:00

I’ve been thinking about questing lately and what’s wrong with it. Well, I’m not going to take on the whole issue right now, but here is a little something I’ve come up with.

I think one of the main problems with quests is that you don’t feel like you have any reason to do them, other than for the reward. Even though I realize that this is a good chunk of the problem, I think part of the solution can be found in changing the reward, and the way to do this is to have rewards from other players (in a sense.) From what I’ve heard and read, EVE Online has a contract system in which players contract other players to find or do certain things for them. A similar system could be used when players require something in other games that they need. Say they need a crafted sword or they need materials gathered. They could post on a task board that they will pay for them very similar to an auction, but they will also recieve a visible trinket (which is unique to every player, or at least one of a thousand patterns) could be given to the player as well in order to show that they’ve helped another player. Maybe when the player receives so many of them they could turn them in to an NPC and receive a commendation award or some kind or equip them or use as a decoration for housing. While this isn’t very different from doing a normal quest it does two things. It allows the potential to develop relationships and find players who can help you with certain things in which loyalty can be formed. It also gives players reason to help real people as opposed to an NPC, show off a little bit, and if you choose, to receive a reward once you’ve helped lots of other players. Hopefully they could create a system that allowed for more interesting tasks that players needed assistance with, but this would still be an interesting possibility. They would of course have to make the rewards not so powerful as to exploit the system, but good enough to make it beneficial to do it, possibly consumables or just a novelty item as well that looks cooler. I’ll focus on other aspects of quests later, but there’s a little bit to think about.

~Kanthalos

Player Run Events

2007-07-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

Hello for the second time today. I decided that for this post I’d focus on player run events. This is something that I’ve noticed seems to be relatively nonexistent in the MMO’s I’ve played recently. Back when I was playing Asheron’s Call actively, these were constantly going on on my server. My guild would frequently host things like scavenger hunts that would lead people all over the world solving riddles and performing feats in which the winner would either receive gold or a rare item. I think this is an excellent way to get the community interacting with one another. We would group up with other guilds on occasion which was a great way to meet new players outside of your guild which lead to alliances for questing, grouping, or for PvP. Speaking of PvP, tournaments were also hosted which were a lot of fun, and while there are official tournaments that players and teams can compete in, I find it more fun when the players host the event and can receive a reward in game.

There are many ways in which players can host an event which can be mutually beneficial. Things like races, killing competitions, scavenger hunts and a multitude of other things can all be used which could charge a small fee (say 10g.) Say you get 20 competitors, that’s 200g, with the winner getting 75g and second place getting 30g. That’s a 95g profit for the host, a good prize for the two winners and even if you lose you have fun and only lose 10g. This is a great way for guilds to earn money for raiding supplies or for helping out lower level players. Furthermore, this is something that needs no interaction, regulation, or assistance from the developers. It is solely on the shoulders of the players. Of course, the host needs to be reputable enough that players know they won’t have their money stolen, but again, even if you lose the 10g, you aren’t going to be hurting that badly. I’m honestly surprised I haven’t seen more (or at all for that matter) of these kind of player run events in games recently. Perhaps this is the cause (or effect) of many players thinking communities today are immature, selfish, and just plain rude. It’s something to think about, and maybe work with your guild to host such an event.
~Kanthalos

Update/Initial LotRO Experience

2007-07-10T07:55:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the break all, I spent several days with my fiancée since we are a few hours apart so I was a little too busy to do any real writing so I figured rather than doing a little half-hearted blog entry I would wait until I got back so here I am.

To start things off, a few days before I left I finally caved and bought LotRO. I know that it isn’t going to last me more than a month (or possibly two) but I figured it was worth giving it a shot. So far, its been pretty fun, I started as an elf unlike the Hobbit I made in beta so that I would encounter all new quests and locations (at least to start.) In three days of playing I made it to level 12, and so far the quests have been fairly fun. I will say that I get a bit frustrated when I complete quests and have to run something like 15 minutes to turn it in and get back to where I was to continue on I get a bit frustrated, but it’s a minor complaint. As for the quests themselves, they aren’t revolutionary by any stretch, but they are decent. I haven’t gotten to the point of forced grouping yet, but I can see it looming in the near future, and I must say I’m not thrilled. I’m more of a soloer at heart who groups for the fun of it. I also enjoy a good grinding session from time to time which this game severely frowns upon as quests are about 75% of the experience you gain. I will say that the trait/deed system is rather interesting but still far from stellar. Attempting to stay away from a formal review as a) I’ve only played about 12 hours and b) you’ve read a thousand of them already I’ll just say that a month is all I expect to get out of this game, but that’s ok. I’m going to continue to say that EQ2 is the best fantasy MMO on the market right now, but refuse to play since my graphics card ruins the experience. I’ll be back later today with some stuff I’ve been stewing over about quests and/or player run events.

~Kanthalos

Music and MMO's

2007-06-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

I was just listening to a Jason Mraz CD that I've got at work and I can't help but think back to my time spent in EQ2 over a year ago when I was listening to the same CD. The same thing happens when I listen to Dream Theater and Un'Goro Crater, as well as Switchfoot and Asheron's Call. Does anyone else have similar experiences? I'm curious to know :)

~Kanthalos

Uncanny Valley and MMO’s -- Part 2 of 2

2007-06-27T09:22:00.000-05:00

I described the Uncanny Valley hypothesis and how I related it to MMO’s in my last post, choosing to look at the technical aspects of whether or not players will one day be able to feel as though their avatars are an extension of themselves or whether in fact, they even desire this. For the second part of this, I’m going to focus on the emotional aspect of this idea. Social interaction with other players and NPC’s would play the greatest part of course, as well as character freedom. I will warn you I do get a bit side-tracked at times, but I think everything ultimately relates to the topic.

I’ll start with social interactions. It’s clear that currently in MMO’s there is very little true social interaction, at least that actual involves your avatar. Sure you can click on an NPC to obtain a quest and type a message to another player on the keyboard, but your character simply sits there while you perform these actions. I think the first step in changing this involves voice communication, which we have recently seen an influx in with the use of software like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak. In fact, some games have already included systems built into the game that allow voice chat, either through a third party program or one they’ve created themselves. Dungeons and Dragons Online has a built in system, Lineage 2 uses MSN messenger, and EVE Online is currently implementing a system as well. Again, though, this is simply for players to communicate what they want or need from other players. Rarely is it used to role play, speaking as the character would. This is part of the problem that many players currently have in using voice chat. They feel that it breaks the illusion when a 13 year old middle-of-puberty boy starts talking in Ventrilo while playing a 300-pound dwarf. While I agree that this breaks the atmospheric feel of the game, I would argue that so does reading the text that people type into a box. You don’t see people walking around with a whiteboard and a dry erase marker writing everything they want to express (I hope,) so why is this any more realistic than a 54 year old man with emphysema talking for a night elf woman? Also, companies have started creating voice chat programs that will altar your voice such as MorphVOX Pro (Vivox is also working on a program as well) to whatever you want yourself to sound like. While they are far from perfect it’s a sign that things are changing and heading in this direction.

More than just talking to other players though, I think a large step towards realism in MMO’s is NPC’s actual talking to you. I know EverQuest 2 has started with this and some of the quests you obtain will actually have the NPC say it out loud to you. The biggest problem you run into with this is getting voice actors that are actually good. If they are poorly done, it’s worse than just reading it so you have to be careful when implementing something like this. Also, I think if you get good voice actors, people might be more interested in actually reading the quests more than they do now, usually just clicking the accept button and reading the objective later, but quests are another subject I’m going to tackle after this. Also bodily movements (expressions) and mouth movement are essential in this. No matter how good the voice actors are, if the NPC is a rock then it will just be awkward and simply won’t work.

True character freedom is also very important in creating a sense of realism in order to feel a part of your character. Characters will need to actually be able to have control of the way they move. While this might not be possible in combat yet, there needs to be some way of doing so when not in combat. Asheron’s Call uses a combat/peace mode system. Perhaps this would work for the proposed situation. This may not be possible with the current mouse and keyboard configuration, but is just one more step towards realism. The ability to push someone, pick up a rusty axe off the ground, hold someone’s hand, or even scratch our characters head (your imagination can come up with all sorts of other possibilities I’m sure) would be incredible addition to a game. While we do have e-motes, they just aren’t the same.

Well there you have it. These are the most essential things that I’ve come up with when it comes to having a more realistic take on our characters we play for hours on end. There are many more things involved in believability in MMO’s, but they involve gameplay which is a completely different subject in my opinion. So is truly connecting with your character something you even desire within a game? Clearly we desire our games to be based on our reality, but how much is too much? These are questions I would love to hear your responses to, so let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed this, and I’ll be back soon to talk about questing and possible improvements that could be made.

~Kanthalos

Uncanny Valley and MMO's -- Part 1 of 2

2007-06-25T13:48:00.000-05:00

A few months ago I came upon the hypothesis of Uncanny Valley (in relation to MMO’s). In a basic summary, it means that as robotics become more realistic, humans will begin to think of them more in terms of a human than a machine and will develop sy(e)mpathy for them. I'm looking at this in relation to MOGers and their avatars. I suppose the title of this post is a bit misleading, because I’m twisting it (or perhaps pushing it further.) While I can see players thinking their characters are realistic, and seeing them as more of a real entity, will the average player (barring psychological issues) ever relate to their avatar enough that they feel a part of their character? MMO’s can be incredibly enjoyable and you can have a lot of fun with your characters, but rarely (at least for me) do I ever feel as though I have just experienced it rather than my character. I’m going to break this up into two elements which are technical and emotional. I’m going to focus on some of the technical aspects here that I can currently think of, focusing on how realistic your character looks and their movements and such. The emotional will focus on character freedom and social interaction and such which I’ll look at in another post.

There are definitely several elements to this, but I think currently the main element has to be graphics. As of now, there aren’t really any games out there that are realistic enough to be considered lifelike to sympathize with your character or actually feel connected to them. While Vanguard and Lord of the Rings Online have upped the bar on graphical expectations of MMO’s, they are still not realistic enough to feel as though you are looking at a living, breathing being. Perhaps with the wave of MMO’s hitting the shelves in Q4 2007 through Q2 of 2008 this distinction will become less noticeable, but it isn’t likely to see extremely lifelike characters until probably 2012 or later. Is that enough, though?

As an extension of the graphics issue, character creation is not nearly customizable enough to make a character that really looks like you currently. Also, there are a lot of people that won’t want to make a character that looks exactly like them anyway. Most people want to make characters that are aesthetically pleasing, regardless of the fact that it won’t look anything like them. This isn’t that unusual as it is a game hence it’s a break from reality, so making a character unlike yourself isn’t strange whether we could do it or not. So if we choose to make characters that don’t look like ourselves, does this break the possibility of truly relating to our character? This is also taking into account only human characters, not elves, dwarves, gnomes, ogres, etc. To me this doesn’t seem possible to truly relate to your character as a different race, but maybe that’s just me putting a limit on my imagination.

Another element that I think breaks the illusion in MMO’s (and many other games) is the third person view. This is sort of bordering on emotional, but it is also technical in the way you actually see your character. While you can use a first-person view in most MMO’s to do so would greatly reduce your field of vision and hamper your game play, so it’s not really feasible to do this. That said, if you are looking for more a role-playing version of the game, then you can do this, but you would always be facing the fact that you are limiting yourself, so could you do this?

The last aspect that I want to focus on right now is actually controlling the way your character moves. While this might not be possible with the current mouse-and-keyboard setup, this will be a very big barrier in terms of believing in our characters and believing they are an extension of ourselves that needs to be solved for this possibility.

I guess the bigger question that needs to be answered is whether we even desire to relate more to our characters or not. I’m sure there are a lot of elements that I haven’t covered, but I’m in a slight hurry right now but I really wanted to get this out, so let me know what you think and I’ll be back later with the second part of this topic.

-Kanthalos

My "I Win" button ain't broken.

2007-06-22T15:50:00.000-05:00

Recently Kanthalos and I were put in the midst of a sticky situation. Kan's WoW account was hacked. We've been fighting with WoW for the last three weeks, trying to get them to believe that Kanthalos is indeed the real Kanthalos (because, well, I know he is!).

Today, friends, I got very good news in my inbox. Kanthalos got his account back!

Neither of us are currently playing WoW, but it's the principle of the thing. Stealing video game accounts instead of doing the work and putting in the hours is uber-lame. We may never play WoW again, but that doesn't mean it's alright for some loser to run off with the fruits of our labors.

So, gaming folks, make sure your passwords are airtight. Make sure your information is kept under lock and key. You too may fall prey to the internet scum's scheme to steal accounts. Lucky for Kanthalos, his gear seems to be intact as far as the Armory can tell me. After nearly 5 hours of dealing with Blizzard, numerous hours of us comiserating over the phone back and forth, and the general anger from being robbed has not been fun.

But I win! Kanthalos wins! Just like in Azeroth, justice reigns.
~Anaktoria

(Kanthalos will be back with more gaming news shortly. It's been a very hectic summer, folks. )

Sorry for the Break

2007-06-11T07:08:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the break in posting. I have been extremely busy this summer working and travelling between my apartment at school and living at home as well, on top of going on trips and such. I have had literally no time to play any MMO's so I don't really have anything to say, other than I plan on giving LotRO a shot when I get some time. In two days, I'm going camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan basically in the middle of nowhere with some family for a few days, then I'm going to a cabin in Traverse City for a week, so I should be back to gaming in about two or three weeks, and I should have some things to write about then. Again, I apologize and look for updates when I get back.

-Kanthalos

Asheron's Call -- Not What I Hoped For

2007-05-20T09:24:00.000-05:00

Well after play for about a month now between the beta and a paid month, I must say that I'm not as pleased as I was hoping to be. I think the main problem with this was the mentality that I went into the game with, or rather, how my mentality changed after I resubscribed. Since I was unable to regain my old account, I started from scratch and my original intention was to simply run around to all of my old stomping grounds for nostalic purposes. This meant getting to about level 60, so that I could at least survive while running through the nasty stuff. This changed a lot when I decided to resubscribe. While I did go out to some of the old places that I wanted to see like Aerlinthe, the Direlands, and just general exploring, I haven't spent nearly any time at all on that stuff because I wanted to get leveled quick so that I could experience new content instead. While you can level extremely quickly in AC in comparison to how it used to be (my first level 66 character took 2 months in-game, as compared to being level 70 in two days in game...yeah) it still feels like a drag sitting in the same dungeon while you watch your xp bar go up in a fellowship. I chose a UA character and have my UA skill way up, but I've been trying to get my magic schools up to the point that I can cast level 7 spells for myself instead of relying on buffbots, but in that process, I have gotten rather burnt out quickly. My old friends have taken me through a few new quests that are fun, but I find that I'm having to force myself to get on to play, which flies in the face of everything an MMO is supposed to be. For this reason, I won't be renewing my payment next month. I'm considering hitting up LotRO, so we'll see how that goes.

-Kanthalos

StarCraft 2 - The Clash of Two Gamers

2007-04-28T07:26:00.000-05:00

So it is 99% clear that Blizzard's next game will be based on StarCraft as a) They announced that within the decade (most assume of when the original was created) a new StarCraft game would be out and b) it would be nothing like WoW. Though I'm not quite sure what that means in every aspect I'm going to guess that this means it is going to have a far stronger FPS feel than we currently have with WoW, something similar to Tabula Rasa IMO.

This has some interesting potential to be sure. Almost every MOGer (there it is again :) ) is looking at games for questing, exploration, and skill systems. Of course there are other elements, but none of these elements involve twitch-based systems that require you to get someone locked in your crosshair and fire. What this means is that many of the Quake/Halo/Counter Strike/Other FPS fans are going to end up giving these MMO's a try, which could be good and bad, but I believe it is going to mean a clash of two very different types of gamers, and both of these types of gamers are very set in their ways. FPS players want very fast-paced action oriented games with little downtime. They want to get in, get out, and get back in again. I have a feeling they aren't going to be interesting in heavy questing that involves potentially waiting for other group members, or actually planning for fights before you dive head first around a corner and get fragged by a 6 year old on a cable modem who hasn't even had time to register your character. On the other side, MOGers are also set in their ways and want to analyze their stats (on the most basic level), get quests, trade, craft, go exploring, etc. but the good majority like to take their time to some extent, and that's the way most of these games are built. So in terms of PvE content this is going to be rather interesting watching these groups connect, and I'm not even going to touch on the console debate right now. Now for my PvP concerns.

FPS players (at least a good chunk of them) have really gotten good and the whole aiming and firing bit, since that's what these games are. They are extremely talented, and while the games aren't as deep as MMO's, there is still something to be said about becoming a master of any game genre. That said, for the vast majority of these games (perhaps all) these players simply have to decide which weapons they want to use and fire. There aren't really skills involved that go along with firing their weapons. Again this is a double-edged sword for an MMO incorporating FPS elements into their game. FPSers will come in wanting to get down and dirty and simply start firing, but they will be very confused when they find that there is a skill that gives a slight degree of autoaim, or triples your damage for the next six seconds, affecting the fight drastically. Will they be able to learn to balance their trigger-happy mouse finger with the number mashing of their other hand? Chances are yes, but would they rather just play Quake 4 where they don't have to bother? Also, on the other hand, MMO players (have to balance it out before it catches on) will have a firm grasp on the use of skills at this point, but will they be able to compete with the accuracy that FPSers have honed over the years instead? My answer to this is probably a few, but the vast majority of MMO players are going to be at a great disadvantage in this department. Will this disadvantage, like the use of skills, drive them away from PvP combat in a FPS-based game, just like the use of skills for FPSers? Who knows, but it will be interesting to find out. I'll probably hit on other topics about Blizzard's new game in the days and weeks to come.

-Kanthalos

A Return to Asheron's Call

2007-04-26T11:26:00.000-05:00

So yes, it is going to happen. After playing for around a week, I've decided that I am going to give it another go. Sure the combat system (for melee classes) is a bit rudimentary and the engine is a bit dated, but there is still a lot to offer, especially since I haven't played in nearly 3 years and Turbine puts out monthly content updates and there is a whole new expansion to discover. There is still a decent sized community on my server Leafcull (about 300 accounts active each night) and the three things that mean the most to me in this game (besides the combat system) are community, exploration, and the skill-based system. When I say skill-based system I don't mean the skill you have to play your character, but rather the idea that all the experience you get can be put into whatever skill you choose, rather than improving your attributes through leveling and gear. To me this is something that other MMO's need to implement, as it gives you much more control over your character, and makes you feel as though your character is YOU, and not a replica of nOObPWNr.

My character maxed out at 126 when I was still playing and the current level cap is 275, so that should say something about how much new stuff there is to do. Even the graphics have gotten a huge update, and while they are limited by the engine, they are very crisp and greatly improved since I last played. While it is difficult to determine just how long I will stay, I'm quite sure that I will not be bored within the first month of play.

Given all of the hate that I've dropped on Vanguard, it is still calling out to me, and I will probably give it a shot after three or four more updates, and I for one don't see any problem with teleportation devices if it means easier grouping and the like. Also, who cares if SOE takes total control over it? I agree with Cuppycake in that SOE probably has a larger role in the game than we know, and likely has the ultimate decision on what goes into the game anyway, so what does it matter?

Oh, and by the way, I am officially done with WoW for good. I just came to the conclusion that while there are new instances, gear and creatures, that is all they are. Nothing innovative was given to the players with the Burning Crusade, just more of the same, and I for one am not going to pay to spend four hours four nights a week playing the same instances I have played for the past year. The climb was fun once, but I don't want to do it more than that. Change end-game, and I might change my mind, but we won't see another expansion for 1.5-2 years in my estimation, so that won't be for a while.

-Kanthalos

A Return to Asheron's Call...?

2007-04-18T22:17:00.000-05:00

As you know, I have been going crazy trying to find my place in MMO space that continues to grow and improve. I saw recently a 14-day free trial of Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny. Seeing as it's been over three years since I last set foot in the world of Dereth, I decided I'd give it a go. Starting fresh, I created a character on my old server, Leafcull. I was shocked to find that two of my best friends from the game are still playing. I reconnected with them and they were thrilled to see me, urging me to resubscribe. There are a few reasons that I'm not quite sure that I want to do this yet, and here they are.

1) Starting up the free trial, my initial goal was simply to get high enough level to go check out all of my old stomping grounds, explore, and reconnect with my friends if they still played. I still find myself recalling some of the landscapes from AC, thinking about how awesome they looked, even though the graphics are/were sub-par at best, there are still some amazing vistas to be found within the game. I also wanted to remember some of the critters that I'd forgotten, and get a chance to whack at them one more time. To wrap this point up, I was going for a nostalgic conclusion and finally put this game to bed.

2) I'm not sure if I want to open up this can of worms. I spent FAR TOO MUCH time playing this game during high school when I could have been doing hundreds of other things. While I looks back with pleasure on my time spent playing, I can't help but wonder what more I could have done during that part of my life. Expanding on that, coming to the end of my college career, classes are becoming extremely difficult and time-consuming, so between balancing classwork, a social life, and a gaming habit, I almost don't even want to risk opening that border-line obsessive play. I have gone slightly overboard playing WoW (and occasionally in EQ2) but it was nothing like it was during AC's hayday.

3) After becoming spoiled by more modern game-play (mainly combat systems and questing) as well as improved graphics, I'm afraid that after several weeks, I will find myself bored to tears, wondering why I ever resubscribed in the first place. While AC has an absolutely immense amount of content (due in large part to their monthly updates, that I believe other games should include) I'm worried that I will find it all too similar and won't have the drive to see the content that they have added since I last quit.

So there you have it. I still have 12 days to decide whether I'm going to give this game another try, but my gut is telling me that I will likely enjoy this time, get e-mail addresses from my old friends, and move on.

-Kanthalos

And now for something completely different...

2007-04-16T09:18:00.000-05:00

Long time no post from me, but here it is.

Ok, so it's not an MMO, but I am really enjoying Titan Quest.

I officially took the leap and removed WoW from my system last week, and now Titan Quest is on the plate. I won't be playing anymore MMOs till I get a different computer, but until then I've been doing my homework and reading up.

But back to Titan Quest.

The game is simple. Point and click, hit a number every once and a while. Kill some bosses. I've got the expansion but I haven't really done anything with it yet in the multiplayer sense. It is mindless, but it brings me back to the Diablo 2 days. I especially love that it's based in Greek mythology thus far, and I'm pretty much a Classics-nerd here at college. You don't get to personalize your character much beyond tunic-color and sex, but I'll let that slide. For someone who has hardly any time to play games until the end of May, I think it's a good distraction. It's not much of a time commitment, but it still takes your mind off of RL and directs it into the virtual.

For what it is, I think Titan Quest (whether the expansion or the original) is well worth the money if you're looking for a quick fix.

~Anaktoria

Building an MMO for the Future -- Suicide or What?

2007-04-13T12:24:00.000-05:00

I just can't help but wonder what Sigil was trying to do with Vanguard building it for specifications that won't even be possible for another 12-18 months. It's true that technology doubles very quickly, I believe it's 18 months, but still... is that any kind of way to advertise your game?

"OK everybody, we are going to have an awesome game for you to play 18 months after we release it! I know this doesn't make any sense, but we actually need that 18 months to fix all the bugs that we failed to take out in the longer-than-usual production time we had to build this game. So even though there will be more than a dozen new MMO's for you guys to play, we feel confident that you will be ready to try our game once you can buy a computer than can run it at more than 20 FPS"

I don't know about everyone else, but that to me seems like exactly the message they should have slapped on the box of this game before it shipped. My only question is this; How many gamers are actually going to stick around for a year and a half waiting for this game to become playable, when there will be new games coming out left and right (LotRO, WAR, AoC, Spellborn, Huxley, Tabula Rasa just to name a few) that surely won't have such high expectations of its players bank account to buy a top-of-the-line PC? It seems like this is the problem with EverQuest 2. I have a pretty decent computer... 2GB RAM, 2.8 Ghz Pentium 4 processor and a Radeon X600 256MB graphics card. It's a decent computer and I can't even play EQ2 on high settings or else my graphics card shuts down every 5 minutes or so. I'm not going to play a game that I know could look good with a great PC if everything looks blurry and faded on my PC, especially when the game came out over 2 years ago. Just use common sense Sigil. Sure, you will get a few new players when tech rises, but it won't be anywhere near the 1-300k you probably lost by a) releasing too soon and b) asking far too much of your customers. Get it together, and hopefully other companies will realize that they need to build their game for today, not for three years from now so they can retain customers better.

-Kanthalos

Are MOG'ers Socially Inept?

2007-04-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

OK, so yeah, I am going to start using the term MOG'ers because I like it, I think it sounds better than MMORPG players, and it is more concise. So anyway, now I am going to get to my point.

So I was having a conversation with one of my friends the other day (a jaded former WoW player) and he was telling me that "MOG'ers" are socially inept. He assumes that since they aren't face-to-face with another person interacting with them that they have some sort of problem. The main reason that I disagree with this is the use of VOIP systems like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak, or an integrated system as used in EVE Online or DDO. Also, even without the use of a VOIP, people will still be talking to other players, using their social skills to work together, trade, argue, debate, etc. Just because they aren't in person doesn't mean that they are socially inept. This is a very, very broad statement that perhaps can be attributed to quite a few MOG'ers, but cannot be used as a sweeping generalization and is quite untrue for a large portion of them. I, myself play MMO's because I would rather play with other people most of the time than play a dungeon crawler or GTA3 by myself, which I often find him doing. I also make sure that I take time to spend time watching him actually play GTA3. Just kidding, but I do make sure that I get out and take the time to enjoy being with my friends and family and don't get too absorbed in my current MMO that I'm playing. I don't tell him that he needs to get out into the world and interact with people because the game he is playing is isolating him from the people around him, so why should he, when I actually play a game that involves other players who I am actually interacting with and talking to, either through in-game chat or some type of voice-chat system. I am just a bit curious whether anyone else has had a similar experience, or believes that my friend has more validity behind his statement than I give him credit for...?

-Kanthalos

New Guild!

2007-04-11T12:24:00.000-05:00

Hey all,

Just a little update, but I found a new guild for my rogue, so I'll inform you on how things go with that. It's amazing how important guilds are once you reach end-game in an MMO, but I'll comment more on that later. Back in a while.

-Kanthalos

Trying WoW again...

2007-04-09T12:40:00.000-05:00

Well, as you know, I was getting frustrated with WoW due mainly to my guild, so I figured I would take a break for a while. Well, I found out last night that half of my old guild split into a new guild. I honestly had been hoping this would happen, and I think its enough for me to go back and give it another go. While I don't know whether I will go with the newly formed guild or a new guild entirely, I am really excited to try to get through some of the new instances and hopefully I will get this chance now. Wish me luck.

-Kanthalos

How Much Influence Does the Publisher Have?

2007-04-06T12:47:00.000-05:00

I was just posting a reply on MMO Evolution today about how I initially had dismissed Vanguard because I knew that SOE had become its publisher. Since publishers provide a lot of financial backing to these games and get them out to the public, I was just wondering how much influence they really have over different aspects of a game? Is it different for every game or does it have to do with how experienced and successful the creator has been in the past? I would love to hear what anyone has to say about this.

-Kanthalos

The WoW Expectation

2007-04-04T14:03:00.001-05:00

As you know, I have been jumping around from MMO to MMO for the past month or so trying to keep myself busy and entertained, but as of now, I still haven't found anything that captured me the way WoW did pre-70. I am of course excluding Asheron's Call from this statement as I had a lot less real-life obligations and things to keep busy with out of the game, so for that reason I was much more immersed in Asheron's Call than WoW or any other game, and probably any other game in the future. Anyways, getting back to my point, I believe that the main reason (not only) reason for this is the fact that WoW's incredibly unparalleled polish makes me want every aspect of an MMO be flawless in its execution. Even if I find something new and revolutionary or just interesting in a new game I try, if there are flaws with it, then I have trouble getting really excited about it or delving into it for hours at a time and loving every minute of it. My brother used a great analogy of HD TV. WoW is like watching Office Space in HD, as opposed to the Matrix on a standard television. Office Space isn't really known for looking or sounding really cool, but if its in HD, it will look really nice. Matrix would look amazing in HD, it even looks really good on a normal TV, but if it were in HD, it would blow Office Space out of the water. Hopefully you understood that, but I'll follow it up by saying this; While WoW didn't push the boundaries or take any serious risks with the initial creation of WoW, it worked for them simply because everything was implemented so well that no one had any problems with what they did do. This is both a bane and a boon for the rest of the MMO industry. It is good because it raised the expectation of games in terms of polish. Players have grown to expect it, especially if WoW is their first and only MMO. If they jump into Vanguard and their character gets bugged and loses xp, or doesn't recieve an expensive item they just purchased, chances are that is the last they are going to play the game, even if Vanguard has lost of new features and a much larger, realistic world. This goes for everything from the newbie experience, to questing, to raiding, to exploring, and so on. Even though I understand this, it doesn't mean that I can overlook certain flaws in other games, realizing that Blizzard is THE exception that is the definition of polish in MMO's. I still find myself comparing it to WoW, which ends up being the bane. Perhaps Blizzard simply has far more manpower and money than the rest of the companies, and they can afford to spend an extra six months prepping a game for launch, or fixing a quest that doesn't give the proper reward, unlike some other companies. Maybe these are the things that we just need to learn to live with and lower our expectations to pre-World of Warcraft.

-Kanthalos

A Newbie's Review of Saga of Ryzom

2007-03-28T12:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have been absent for a while, but after returning from spring break, I have had a lot of things to deal with that have taken most of my free time, and the rest of my free time has been spent playing MMO's, in this case, Saga of Ryzom. When I got back, I was feeling very fed up with WoW, so I figured I would try the 14-day free trial of Ryzom. I was intrigued by the fact that it was skill-based, which I have always enjoyed more than gear-based games like WoW. I just think its more of a "get out what you put in" kind of thing, where you don't necessarily get punished because you have a small guild or can't raid for 6 hours at a time, and can still progress effectively. Anyways, more about the game. I used the trial for two days, and found that the community, graphics, and skill-based systems were all excellent, so I purchased the full version for one month. Everyone is very mature extremely helpful with questions or missions, which is a point of the game that I feel is not so great. I was lucky enough to talk to a few really good people about the "mainland" who informed me that the missions were nothing like those found on the trial island, which were put there to learn the mechanics of the game.

The missions found in the main part of the game are, for lack of a better word, "bitchwork." Even the developers say the missions are put in place because the NPC's don't want to do it themselves. I think this is a horrible approach to missions, and a lazy one at that. It's as though they wanted to put the content in and work some missions around this as easily as possible. While the game is very open-ended and you are free to do what you want, I don't think this should give you the right to put in junk for missions. That said, there are some great elements to this game.

The landscape graphics are excellent, and quite frankly, the most interesting and beautiful of any game that I've played. In the zone that I went to begin on the mainland, the ground is lush with swaying plants and trees that really bring it to life. I was a bit disappointed with the creature models, which are rather boring, but I believe this is to cut down on lag when huge battles take place for real-time events, which from what I've read occur somewhat frequently.

Another aspect of this game that I really enjoy is the Ryzom Ring that they have recently implemented. While it doesn't look like it's even close to it's potential, the idea behind it is that players can create their own scenario's, using any type of landscape in the game (desert, forest, jungle, etc.) and implant creatures and NPC's as they see fit, and allow other players to access these. This is the first type of player-generated content that I have seen in any MMO, so for that I give the developer's props, but as of now it's not a very big part of the game, so it will be interesting to see how that develops.

Crafting and harvesting are also very big parts of this game. While I haven't tried crafting yet, it sounds like every piece of armor or weaponry is crafted, which really helps the economy as money is constantly going to players, rather than just giving it back to the game itself, and really gives players a lot of power. As for the harvesting, I have tried this. It is a very elaborate system, in which materials might blow up in your face as you try to harvest them, and if you harvest too much in a specific area, you may be attacked, which is an excellent way of preventing farming. As you get better, you find ways to harvest more of a material from a source, or to help prevent it from exploding, or to find more a source in an area. This is very well done, so good job on that.

One last area I want to touch on is the community, which is far and away the best I have seen in my MMO experience, which spans eight years and nearly a dozen games now, with the possible exception of Asheron's Call. Within a day of joining, I had joined a guild who had probably answered 50 questions of varying importance, given me a whole set of new armor, 3000 of these things called catalysts which double your experience earned, and who I just chatted with about totally random things as well. I am looking forward to getting to know these people better, as well as other people on my server (Arispotle I believe).

So there you have my very loose and by no means official review of Ryzom. In a general statement, I am certain that I am going to give this game at least a full month of attention, and make my final decision then as to whether I will keep playing it. In the meantime, I'm also being distracted by Titan Quest, which I recently purchased and have enjoyed playing.

Be back soon.
~Kanthalos

When virtual becomes reality

2007-03-18T09:02:00.000-05:00

First off, we're back! After a lovely vacation, it's time to get back to the grindstone.

I have known Eakon for about two years. Virtually. We leveled from 30 to 40 together in Stranglethorn Vale. However, through the graces of modern technology and Facebook, we began to chat outside of World of Warcraft as well. Whether AIM or whisper chats, we became good friends over the internet waves. Now we know him as Tireen or Anoss, since he shed Eakon long ago. But, now I just know him as Joseph.

Last Thursday Kanthalos and I met him in real life. Outside of the computer. No WoW names. Nothing. I had thought it would be strange, but it was quite fun! We hung out like old friends, chatted, all sorts of non-WoW things.

Anyway, my point (if there is one), is that gaming is more than just killing things and leveling and getting the "phat lootz." You can truly make some good friends. Whether just a grinding buddy, or someone you can always count on as a 5th in your group to someone you can tell all about the shitty RL day you've had, there are all sorts of friends to make in MMOs.

I don't suggest running out and meeting a random MMO buddy if you haven't established that they're NOT an axe murderer, but getting to meet Joseph was a blast and a unique experience.

~Ana~

The MMO shakes

2007-03-07T10:58:00.000-05:00

ad·dic·tion [uh-dik-shuhn] –noun
the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

As a busy college senior, I've had hardly any time to play games. According to my mother, polishing my resume is a lot more important than getting Ana to lvl 70. Psh. So, I've been having what I fondly refer to as the "MMO Shakes." Every time I boot up the laptop, my mouse hovers over the World of Warcraft icon. It'd be so easy to click...so easy. But no, I've got a 12 page paper on Henry James to complete. It's true. MMOs are addictive. I'm going through withdrawals. Every time I see Kanthalos on his account I yearn to play. I weigh running a five man against finishing my portfolio. It's so tempting.

Why?

MMOs give players near-instant gratification. Log on, step out of your own world and worries, and get absorbed in a new one. Easy.

I've found that it's hard to step back OUT of the world though. It's easy to log into WoW and say "I'll get to my RL stuff later..." but logging out is that much harder for me when I've got a pile of chores and work waiting for me. It's tempting to just stay in a world where Early Romantic Literature or Advanced Latin is hovering above my head. And no matter how good my intentions, I don't give that work all the attention it deserves if I'm grumpy because I had to log off to do it. Maybe it's just me, but I find MMOs to be highly addictive. No, not in a crack pipe sort of way, but in a way where it's really easy to forget and push away RL obligations. I don't get the night sweats and have to take a hit off of the ole' Ironforge, but I do find myself wishing I was playing games instead of sitting through hours of class.

There is so much that could be said on MMOs and why people find them so easy to get into but so hard to quit. MMOs are psychologically pleasing if the game is doing it's job. It takes your brain on a journey your body can't, sends you to remote lands, gives you superhuman abilities, and puts you in touch with millions of others who enjoy the exact same thing. Running a new instance or a 40 man raid gives you such a high. I remember the first time my guild took down Oss. It was a rush like nothing else. To know that your efforts, harmonized with that of 19 others, were successful and necessary in completing a task is a great feeling. It's not a feeling you get in daily life too often.

World of Warcraft, pre-expansion, was like Warcrack for me. I'd get home from classes, log on, and run a raid every night. If I went out with friends, I'd be thinking about what loot I had probably missed out on, and what content the guild had conquered without me there. It was a habit. My friends didn't see much of me, my grades suffered, and my apartment began to resemble the pit of despair. So, I had to take a break. No, I wasn't exactly like Cartman ("Mom! Bathroom!") but it was bad.

As I've backed off of WoW more and more, things are coming into perspective for me. Yes, WoW and many MMOs are addictive (just ask Kanthalos about AC) but they are also a fun alternate universe to explore and conquer. They just need to be used in moderation, like all things in life. It's hard for me not to log on when I know I've got things to do, but WoW is much more fun and rewarding when I do work first and THEN play.

~Anaktoria~

AFK

2007-03-07T10:55:00.000-05:00

Kanthalos and Anaktoria will be "AFK" from March 9th to 18th. But then we'll be back. Promise:)

~Anaktoria~

Ramifications of Burning Crusade on Guilds

2007-03-06T13:46:00.000-05:00

Two weeks after Burning Crusade hit shelves, I had leveled my rogue up to 70. While I had a blast leveling and running several of the instances along the way, I wondered what there was to do next. I decided to spend a few days PvPing as well as a few more attaining an exalted reputation with Aldor for the epic sword. I would occasionally run a 5-man instance with my guild-mates (something like 60 active members and 40 of which now have at least one level 70), and have now become attuned to Karazhan. Too bad I won't be able to run this instance for at least a month. Blizzard, at least in my mind, really did their players a disservice with the way they set up the initial end-game content. By making the first extremely difficult instance for only 10 players, they basically forced guilds to pick their best 12-15 players and use them to learn this instance. From what I have heard and can imagine, it is extremely expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating trying to learn this instance and requires impeccable teamwork, which in turn means that you need to use basically the same team every time you attempt it so that you can progress at a reasonable rate. This in turn means only the officers and the veterans of my guild, which makes sense. They have put in their time and effort for the guild, but what are the other 30-40 of us supposed to do while we wait for them to learn the instance? This isn't the only issue, however. When the rest of us are trying to get attuned to Karazhan, most of the officers and veterans, the people who have a lot of experience running the earlier instances, are too busy to help out the other members of the guild, making it extremely difficult for them to get attuned, forcing them into pick-up groups that almost undoubtedly end in failure and a hefty repair bill.

Blizzard should have set it up so that you started with the 25-man instances so that a) you were forced to help more of your guild mates get attuned to help you run the instance and b) allowed more of the players in your guild to run it with you, not leaving them out in the cold waiting for their chance to get in. The way it is set up now, it really alienates the "elite" guild members from the "common" guild members, and in my guilds case, has caused several members to leave in frustration, one of which was actually an officer because he didn't like the way the other members were being treated. I have heard this from three other guilds on my server, so I know that my guild is not alone in this issue.

Hopefully this will all be resolved in a month or two once all the initial hoopla has come and gone with the new instances, but I fear that, while many of the smaller guilds are now excited that they have been catered to, everyone else will really be struggling to try to get all their players into raids and keep them happy.

~Kanthalos

The Most Confusing 15 Minutes of My Life...

2007-03-05T10:34:00.000-05:00

...were spent trying to figure out Second Life.

Seriously, whatever I expected was not what I found. It's a noob's perspective on it, but it was freaking confusing, clunky, and downright annoying.

I guess the red flag should have went up when a) they offered me in-game money for my credit card number and b) there were furries as a character creation option. Both were equally telling.

After I finally made my character, I was thrust into Second Life's version of Noob Island. The graphics aren't great, and I understand why, but it was entirely too clunky. I couldn't get where I wanted to go very quickly. I couldn't get my outfit and body how I wanted it with the appearance function. I ran into things. Mainly, I was bored to death. It was a yawner all around. The best part was the tutorial of driving the steam roller over what appeared to be mechanical animals. And the rest of the tutorial? Not very helpful at all.

Now, I wasn't expecting WoW. I was hoping for something similar to the Sims. And from my very limited time in Second Life, I didn't see it. I'll admit, I spent about an hour in Second Life, so I don't have much to go on. However, what I saw and did in that hour wasn't enough to make me want to come back and explore any further.

Free games are nice, but this game wasn't the one for me. If I want a cute, free game I guess I'll go back to Neopets, despite not being an MMO. If I want a Sims experience I'll stick to The Sims. Second Life was a let down.

~Anaktoria~

Gold Farmers and WoW - Still Booming?

2007-03-02T12:54:00.000-05:00

One of my guild mates and I were talking last night about gold farmers and whether they were still doing good business as of the Burning Crusade. He thought they wouldn't be, and chose to disagree with him. As you progress to level 70, be it through questing or grinding, chances are, you are going to end up with something like 1800-2000g. You will lose about 200 of that to repairs and food. If you choose to help your guildies out with crafting, that will probably end up costing about 300g depending on whether you can sell some of the stuff that you make. This leaves you with about 1400-1600g for other things. Say you buy one blue that costs 200g, that's 1300 to make it even. Buy yourself a rare flying mount? That's only 300g left. That is 300g by the time you are really ready to dig into end-game content. That is not very much, especially if you are on the front line of your guild learning Karazhan, which will take a slede hammer to your piggy bank. Heroic instances? Just as bad, if not worse. OH YEAH, and if you ever want to get somewhere in outland in a direct path? 5000g. The epic flying mount alone is enough to keep gold farmers in business, not to mention jewels, crafting materials, new gear, repairs (especially once we get into epics). While there are current ways of making upwards of 80g an hour, most people don't have time to simply grind for gold, especially when there are all the new instances to learn, new factions to raise reputation with, and hundreds of other ways to spend your time, in and out of the game.
During the conversation I was having with my guild mate, another one also brought up a really good point whether he was being comedic or not. He said that they are very crafty people, and they will always find ways to make money, and I'm sure this is very true. Don't look for gold farmers to drop off your servers any time soon.

-Kanthalos

Like, totally...a girl's impression of WoW characters

2007-03-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

I have always loved Barbies...and video games. I got a Gem doll and a Nintendo for Christmas in first grade. So, while I'm a girl, I'm a pretty avid gamer. And I will admit, I do love a pretty character. This makes character creation a big issue for me, especially in World of Warcraft.

Let's start off with actual creation. When I created my first toon years ago, I was a little surprised at the lack of options. Character realism was not an issue, I've always loved Warcraft and the characters looked like the Warcraft-universe. But, the lack of control with the toon really grinded my gears. My main, and original toon, is a female human mage.

Faces first. Nearly every face is similar, unless you count the "elderly face" the "mean face." All of the other faces can be grouped into the "vapid face" category. Sure, you could add a piercing to personalize it, but that didn't change much. Hair colors had a little variety, but most of the hairstyles were either a) god awful or b) already being worn by about every other human female.

Besides that, when it came to body shape, I had no choice but to be a busty toned human female. Not exactly a warriors body type, but it worked for a caster. Not that I'd have made a "fat" toon, but I wanted to be able to control some of the important things like height, weight, muscle tone. Things that make your character more personalized would have been great. As a woman, I really don't care for the gigantic rack nearly every female toon in Azeroth sports. I would have went with a more willowy, less endowed toon if I had the choice. The breast obsession just harks back to the fact that far too many men are the ones deciding what these toons look like. Sure, most of the gamer's in WoW are men and I'm sure they love big, busty women, but why do they ALL need to be big and busty?

Off of that rapidly growing argument and onto the wardrobe of all of Azeroth. It all looks the same! Even new items look suspiciously like something you had 4 levels ago. They've got a great team over there at Blizzard, can't they pay a little more attention the the item details? The epics are all good, but blues and below tend to look like everything else. Is there any reason for the Illusionist's robe to look exactly like a mooncloth robe? Couldn't just add one more robe design? I had worked my butt off to get out of my mooncloth robe and into the Illusionist's robe just to find out that...they're the exact same in appearance. Sure, the stats are nice...but back to my Barbie obsession. It's not enough to make me angry at the game, but it'd be great to see even more detail put into an already detailed world.

As for other character races, I'm a big fan of the Draenei females. They've got hooves, horns, and some junk in the trunk and are still bringing sexy back. They blow the Blood Elves right out of the water. I was excited about the elves, and severely disappointed by their execution of the characters. The woman are awkward looking, are in an uncomfortable stance, and look like they're a size -2. The men look like they're out of a cheesy romance novel. Not at all what I had wanted. Dwarves and Gnomes are good as is, I like the female dwarves and the gnomes are button cute. It's those darn Night Elves! They're alright until the females are seen running around Azeroth butt naked (hello Goldshire Inn) and dancing. As for the undead, trolls, orcs, and tauren, I really love that each class looks so entirely different. They're different shapes, sizes, colors, etc. I've not played much on the Horde side, but I've created a toon of each race and really enjoyed my finished product.

Overall, I love World of Warcraft's unique universe, though it'd be great to have some more character options and a bigger variation in wardrobe. It would be nice to have a way to modify your toon's look after creation. Seventy levels is a long time to sport the nose ring and pony tail. I've played games with much more detailed character creation (City of Villains) and those with less detailed (Guild Wars). WoW falls somewhere in between. Azeroth's toons sure aren't Barbies, but they work for me in the long run, even if the lack of options sometimes frustrates me.

~Anaktoria~

Next time: Characters in LotR Online, and EQ2

Response to "The Evolution of MMO Politics"

2007-02-26T13:03:00.000-05:00

I went over to virginworlds.com today as I usually do and found this article about politics in MMO's. I found this to be very interesting, and started to consider the issue myself. What I came to realize is that, while the author, Collin, states that "there's more to success than just warring," I believe that in an MMO, there won't be any sense of politics without PvP. If you are not willing to fight against other characters for certains beliefs or items, then there will be very little sense of politics.

Harkening back to my days in Asheron's Call, on the full PvP server even today I remember how intense the sense of politics were. There was one guild which far and away dominated all the others and for the vast majority of dungeons and mobs of any importance, they would block the entrances to dungeons or constantly farm certain mobs, preventing the weaker guilds from ever having the chance to get such things. This creates two different mindsets. One, you can join them (if they will let you) and reap the benefits, while alienating yourself from all the others and making yourself a target for everyone else, or you can stick with a smaller guild and "fight the good fight" making it extremely difficult to experience the game to the fullest.

As you will see in a lot of my future posts, I am an advocate for the Chronicles of Spellborn. Collin mentioned that there needs to be a scarcity of goods in order for there to be a real sense of politics. In Chronicles of Spellborn, this will be a very large aspect of the game. As there will be five houses, each with different beliefs and benefits, they will have the ability to gain control of "shards" which are land masses. These shards will contain certain goods that can only be found in specific areas (or so I have come to understand) forcing you to choose a side to fight for, and hopefully gain control over these goods, as you will be able to sell them to others or keep them for your house/guild to make and use for yourselves. With the way these houses work, it sounds as though guilds will be able to form strong alliances with other guilds of the same house and work together towards a common objective. As for the "rights, freedoms, and beliefs" you also talked about, this will all be bundled up within the house idea.

As for other games headed our way, I have very little idea how they plan to incorporate a stronger feeling of politics and its importance, but I know that if Chronicles of Spellborn comes through on their plans and pulls it off successfully, I believe that it will have the strongest political system we have seen to date. That said, I have not played Dark Age of Camelot, which looked like it had an impressive Realm vs. Realm system set up. Anyways, that's my two gold on the topic.

~Kanthalos

Immersion in MMOs

2007-02-25T12:29:00.000-05:00

I've recently been looking at reviews about Vanguard and most people's severe disappointment in it, and was wondering what the term "immersion" actually means to an MMO. While it means different things to everyone, some of the things I find to be important are exploration, history/lore, and a sense of importance.

Back during my 4 years of Asheron's Call, I would simply spend hours exploring the continent of Dereth, discovering landmarks that I have never seen before. Dilapidated bridges, old sanctuaries that are no longer being used, shrines, or the hundreds of dungeons that had virtually no use, except that they were fun to explore. I loved seeing just random little landmarks that made the world seem like it had some real history and depth. I have played a half dozen MMO's now, most for at least two weeks, and I have yet to find one that rivals AC's sense of immersion. Sure WoW has tons of stuff to keep me busy and lots of eye candy, but I still don't really get a sense of history or a sense of exploration. I am simply going somewhere to complete a quest or to get to an instance. I like the idea behind Caverns of Time, but it still isn't really what I'm looking for.

Another aspect of immersion that I think is important it having an impact of the world. Again, CoT is scratching the surface with this, but Chronicles of Spellborn sounds like this is going to be a much heavier element in their game with the ancestral quests. These really give you the since that history is important and that you have made a difference, whether you have or not. They also have the shard exploration aspect to consider. Players will be able to discover new "shards" which are landmasses within the Deadspell Storm. This adds an element of adventure, and also gives players the opportunity to truly discover something that no one else has seen yet.

Another aspect Spellborn wants to implement is control over these shards. There are five "houses" in Spellborn each with different doctrines, which will be able to control certain things in the game, like parts of shards, mines, etc. This is huge in immersion as you and your fellow house/guildmates will actually be able to help keep/gain control of certain things in the world.

Anyways, there are a few things that I find to be important when thinking about immersion in an MMO. It sounds like the Vanguard dev's promised a lot of these elements, but due to a rushed release or for other reasons, have left most of their players wanting, which has caused many to leave. Perhaps they will be able to turn it around after a few months, and regain these players, but for now, it sounds like a bug-ridden, most unoriginal, MMO. One thing that I am looking forward to is LotRO. While I haven't seen much, I have seen most of the Shire, which I think is amazing, with the landscapes looking similar to Asheron's Call 2, only slightly improved. This is one game that I have hope for in terms of a sense of immersion, but I'll post more when I have seen more of the zones.

~Kanthalos~

Why We Matter

2007-02-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

First off, welcome to our gaming blog. We're glad you're here. We're not an authority on gaming or all games by any mean, but we like to think we offer helpful insight. We each have a unique take on gaming, and want to voice the opinions of everyday gamers.

Kanthalos

Kanthalos has been playing MMORPG's for around 8 years now, starting just after the release of Asheron's Call. He played this game for four years, briefly playing other games in between. After AC he began playing World of Warcraft, and he has been playing on and off since release. Currently he is playing World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2, and Lord of the Rings Online Beta. He wishes to write on a wide range of topics including exploration, grouping, guilds, reviews, and many others.

List of MMO's played: Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Guild Wars, Everquest, World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Silk Road, City of Villains, Lord of the Rings Online (beta).

Anaktoria

Anaktoria is relatively new to the world of MMOs, but has been gaming her entire life. She is a college senior with a major in Creative Writing. Anaktoria's main gaming experience comes from World of Warcraft, but she has dabbled in all sorts of MMOs and continues to do so. Her main concerns with gaming are character creation, quest writing, the grouping/guild element, and gaming experiences for female gamers.

List of MMO's played: World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings Online (beta), City of Villains

We hope you enjoy our perspectives, and we encourage you to comment and contact us with anything you'd like to say. We can be reaching over AIM at mmoreinsight or by commenting on individual journal entries. Thanks and enjoy!