Suzina over at KTR posts about a couple recent gaming experiences in LOTRO. It’s a good read for several reasons, but mostly because it captures the essence of what is great about MMO’s – success and failure. I shared a snazzy yet true golf analogy in the comments section about “hooks”. MMO’s live on hooks. …
Cool premise? Check. Decent art direction? Check. Story and Lore? Check. WoW treadmill/quest hub/kill ten rats style gameplay? Check. As the business expert Jimmy John Shark would say if developers still don’t understand what “different” is. If every other entrepreneur didn’t figure it out either, we would still be cranking our cars with a handle…
I have switched my browser from good ol’ MSIE 8.0 (the new version) to Safari. I know many out there Firefox it, maybe even Google Chrome, but I just like basic functionality (and not having to learn new things all the time.) I didn’t download it purposely, I am a big fan of the iPhone…
I have been working on a pretty big acquisition of a company past few weeks. Haven’t had much time to sleep, let alone blog. I did have the option of completely neglecting my family – but chose to neglect the blog instead. Little bit of a shame as I was having extra fun blogging throughout…
It really doesn’t. Lots of little gaming going on. Will touch upon them. 1) LOTRO revisted: While I am trying to organize friends to go through the trial, nothing concrete is set up although a little interest and a couply people hopping on Brandywine. I said this before and I will say it again – the fact…
I have been away for a week for work – and the inevitable happened. I ran into an old friend, conversation ensues, and WoW comes up. He plays it too. We chat about raiding, levelling, guilds, etc and the topic shifts to gaming together on the ultimate cruise ship. Things are starting to sound fun,…
This is my 99th post. I was going to wait and do something for the Centennial Post, but after my Montreal Canadiens had a tragic end to their 100th season, and I lost a pretty daring, yet silly bet around it, I think the 100 mark is one of tradgedy, and curses. Not luck and prosperity.…
Here I go again on my own. Help me like Lord of the Rings Online. I don’t need long winded posts epousing how good the game is. You probably, if playing the game, don’t feel like you need to explain why it is so good. I don’t need convincing by any means. I need company.…
A little snippet about game design from Blizzards almightly Lead Game Designer, Ghostcrawler. “Do you know how many professional game designers I know who were trained as game designers? Zero. I imagine that will change over time though. This is, happily, one of the few industries where talent > experience > education. “ Â One of…
I just received an email invite to a closed, alpha stage MMO beta test. I love beta testing. I love seeing a game grow from crap to less-crap-yet-not-ready-for-release-but-released-anyhow. I love interacting with devs on their life’s work (pre crunch time, of course. Once they hit the crunch they all become crabby). I love going into…
Okay, that’s a lie. I always prefer to be fashionably late. I know the Jeff Kaplan interview at GDC is very old news. While I had a lot of thought about it at the time, it was mostly the rehash of the same old stuff already out there, and not until I made it into…
I feel so verklempt. “Let’s go for a coffee” is part of our society. Typically you pick either a greasy spoon, or some fancy overpriced brand variety, and go, sit, drink coffee, and chit chat with a friend (or friends) for a few hours. It could be a date, or just a catch up session…
While navigating the great interwebs of blogs and fansites I came accross this little gem. Simply put, it is a data mining site for WoW. I love data, and in our grand world of MMO secrecy, more data is always good. Since it is straight from the Armory you would have to believe it carries…
I have an assignment and had to resub to Warhammer. I do a little freelance writing on the side for MMO magazines, and have done some prior levelling guides for the game. Another one came accross my desk, and with the desire to check out what has changed in the game here was the perfect…
When I signed up for blogging, I signed up for drama. I was tired of trolling the WoW General boards for days on end to stick it to those imbeciles, so now I am looking for another outlet. Tesh, my good friend made a post of awards in the newest blog-induced tag scheme that has…
Besides topics covered in this semi-rant post previously, I will give one, absolutely cardinal rule on how you will GUARANTEE I will not trial your game. Do not ask me for my Credit Card information. A 10 day trial is for me to see if I like your game, not tether me to a possible…
EQ was my first MMO girlfriend. She was a bit cranky, and demanding on my time, but looking back I wouldn’t change a thing (looking forward is another matter). Those sweet, sweet evenings spent together shaped my gaming expectations and experiences. It is true that you never forget your first. EQ Nostalgia after the break.…
Vacation was nice, thank you for asking. Coming home from vacation is always a bad experience. The plane feels a bit more cramped and the voicemail and email inboxes are a lot more full. I actually tried working through my vacation, dilligently keeping up on my inbox every morning. IHASLAW #1 – for every email you…
Forgot to pop this up last week – I am away on vacation so won’t be checking here for the week. You know, just in case you missed me and stuff. Have a great one, and we will get back to our regularly scheduled program once I return! Thanks, Chris F.
I was checking my lesser-used email accounts, and turns out an old WoW account had it’s password changed around 5am this morning. I hadn’t used the account in a long time. In fact, I cleaned out the account before I let it go dormant. There was no gear, no cash, nada. Sure enough, my 70…
Lately I have had a ton of weird stuff going on with my loveable Gmail account. It all started with me getting weird emails about a “new” account I set up (although I didn’t). These messages started arriving with services I had signed up to (which I didn’t) from an email address I don’t own…
I hope that image didn’t burn your eyes out. I am wearing sunglasses. As mentioned I am back playing WoW. My year long hiatus from the game (despite a brief respite to check out the DK starting area) while mucking around in various other MMO’s and SP games wasn’t ended because I missed the game…
Tagged by good friend Tesh over at Tish Tosh Tesh, us periphery folks are now part of the fun. Like Tesh, I’m not going to follow the format as directly. Unlike Tesh, I don’t keep a lot of my screenshots so finding any was quite the effort. I have two problems with screenshots – I…
I hate apologizing for lack of writing the past couple of weeks, truth be told I am so swamped with work .You can see this here .Which is a good thing in today’s economic climate I suppose. Also, while reading a lot of other blogs I just haven’t had anything to add to the conversations…
