I HAS PC

I have bandied about my reservations on KOTOR MMO if it would be a subscription based platform, and took time to praise how it could be wonderful on the RMT platform, but actually haven’t discussed the game itself. How could I? There isn’t much known, afterall, and I refuse to get into speculation such as the already thousands of posts on official forums, as well as the several fansites already popping up. The speculation phase builds up the unrealistic expectations of the fan base before release, impending dissappointment ensues.

I have wholly stepped away from the MMO space for now, and have been testing different waters. The post release mega-game discount is just too hard to ignore. Bioshock for $20.00, and I just picked up Mass Effect for $30 on Steam. (Steam is now carrying a bunch of EA titles – yay!)

I am now on my third playthrough of Mass Effect, and my experiences have given me hope on what KOTOR MMO could indeed be – of course, keeping my mind in line with my first paragraph – I am just going to list what I like about Mass Effect and how the game design could mold nicely in the MMO sphere. After the break.

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It sounds much prettier than it looks written, with my bastardization of the language.

Taking the wife and child for 5 days to Mexico, leave at 3am to head to the airport. It is exciting as it will be my son’s first plane ride, first caribbean vacation, and first visit to the ocean.

We’ll be back for Christmas but wanted to wish everyone good gaming and a  and happy holidays. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. =)

As Always,

Chris F

So I have a game design idea. It is a basic dice game, a game we discovered on vacation one year in Jamaica. A bunch of very wealthy guys were sitting around a table gambling with each other on it and we quickly became friends because they, and we, all owned Omega watches. Anyway, we took the basic premise of that game and switched it around and it evolved over the past 8 years. It is a blast, and we all sit around laughing our heads off playing it for hours. We play it in bars, around campfires, anywhere, any time. The game defines us. It is officially called “Sh*t the Bed” but I figured I should tone down the title a bit since it would essentially be a family title.

Graphics needed are minimal, although there is a scoring and math system involved. I used to be quite the programmer – I was on my high school programming team and we went to the Nationals with Turing. (I know, reeks of nerd!). I have been out of the game for a long time, and ask you, who read this, what is a good, simple language to pick up for a simple project such as this? Flash? XBL? I shudder at the thought of C++ for such a simple premise, but figured I would put it out to the experts.

Something I always wanted to put into game form and could be a fun entry back into entry level programming.

As a PC gaming enthusiast, I have decided to spread my wings and try some new things. PC gaming has been made famous not only by the huge budgets and blockbuster titles, but also by little shops/guys in basements who put out some quality (yet often limited) titles. They grab people, make them have a ton of fun, and are a great move away from the $50 titles. I have spent so many years in MMO land, and big budget FPS land, that I nearly forgot the base of which makes PC gaming so special to begin with. A mini-review follows after the break.

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When I first read the Bioware’s Star Wars MMO based in the KOTOR universe (my apologies for making up yet another acronym for it) was going to be micro-transaction based – I rejoiced. I am still in rejoice mode. Doing the math, I spent about $1000 on WoW, between two accounts, two expansions, sub fees, etc. In fact that is probably higher than that. $1000 is a nice round number though.

For the life of me, I can’t think how I can possibly spend the same amount on a micro-transaction based MMO. Even one in the Star Wars Universe. Unless, of course, $1000 lets me be Darth Vadar.

I mentioned before how playing an MMO’s is much like entering into a marriage – it is a full commitment. If the time sinks don’t get you, the subscription fee does – heck, I am paying for it, better get good value from it! A Micro transaction MMO will allow me to enter into a much more mutually beneficial arrangement – I can date the MMO. Not only that, but if the dates get boring I can go on less dates. If I fall behind my friends in the dating scene, I can pay a little out of pocket to catch up. It really is a fantastic idea – one that will push developers to put out a high quality of product to entice people to play. One that will focus on fun, instead of focusing on sucking as much time out of you as possible to lengthen the almighty sub fee. One that will force you to pay $5 to get a cool outfit. I know that last line just sounded wrong – and of course it all depends on what you will be paying for – and then I had an ancillary thought. What if EA learned from their Warhammer mistake?

More after the break.

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Miss me?

I was on a corporate retreat last week, except it was more of a strategy session (retreat sounds so “relaxing”) and little did we know the remote bunker we were hunkered down in had no cell – or email – service. Needless to say it was rediculously stressful. I found an area that gave me those two ‘essential’ services – a five mile drive on top of an old ski hill – and once a day I would fire up there, retrieve all messages and emails, bang off emergency replies as necessary, and go back into hiding. Unfortunately my ‘blog’ didn’t fall into the emergency (or essential) category.

It was a big eye opener on the dependency I have on my devices. I hadn’t been without them for years. A lot of my friends were claiming “how nice it would be” to get that “break”, but really all it did was pile up 400+ emails and 70+ messages that needed to be responded to when I got home. Not nice one bit.

I did get a break from gaming, and find myself even less excited to log into <insert MMO> here, and last night instead of taking a much needed ”play games” break I just caught up on work and played little flash games. Non-commital stuff. I realize I enjoy dating my games much more than marrying them. Video game divorces cost a lot less than real ones (or so I hear).

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.