Anyway, yeah…what HAVE I been doing?

1. Working, which is still going really well.
2. Buying a whole new HVAC system (two new AC units, two new coils, two new furnaces). Was that expensive? YES.
3. Dealing with the vagaries of my daughter’s pre-school and summer school schedule. Real school starts in just a week! She’ll be in kindergarten (all day at the Montessori school though, not our public school’s weak-ass half-day thing).
4. Playing WoW occasionally (log in, do dailies, poke around a bit, maybe some crafting, reorganize bank, log out).
5. Playing Left 4 Dead 2 occasionally (log in, shoot a lot of zombies, get frustrated at lag on Steam servers, log out).
6. Catching up on various TV shows – this summer I’ve watched all of the currently available seasons of Parks & Recreation, Boardwalk Empire, Nurse Jackie, and Game of Thrones, plus I’ve caught up to the latest on True Blood. I watch almost all of these shows on my iPad, which ROCKS.
7. Reading. Here are all the books that I’ve read so far this summer:
- All three of the Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins
- All five of the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin
- Dead Reckoning (the most recent Sookie Stackhouse novel) by Charlaine Harris
- Anno Dracula by Kim Newman (I understand this is part of a series too but can’t find the others on Kindle)
- Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
- Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
-  Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
- Already Dead by Charlie Huston (just started this actually)
I also started Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris, but I just can’t get into it. The topic is interesting to me (American movie industry of the late 60s), but maybe it’s the prose? Anyway, it leaves me cold and I suspect I may not finish it.

I still have  a backlog of maybe 20 or so items in my Kindle that I want to read, so I’m not buying ANYTHING new until I’ve finished all of it. This will help me save some money too, which is a good thing (see that painfully expensive new HVAC system, noted above).

And that’s what I have been doing!

Definitions: I’m going to talk primarily about MMOs – massively multiplayer online games. In general, that means an online game that has a persistent world and some social functions. This differentiates MMOs from other games that you just play online, such as shooters like Battlefield or Team Fortress; or strategy games that you can play competitively such as Age of Empires or Starcraft. Sometimes these MMO games are called MMORPGs: massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. That’s an accurate description, since you are generally creating a character and then playing as that character or avatar, whatever it might be. Characters are not particularly reality-based. MMOs is shorter and easier to type, though.

I’m going to to TRY to go in chronological order here. Bear with me, as my memory tends to get just a little fuzzy on this. Dates refer to the year that I started playing the game, when I can remember it, not the launch year (although in some cases this is the same, because I started playing at or close to launch).

The Sims Online (2002): I got into The Sims around 2000 and played it pretty faithfully for the next few years. When TSO was announced, I applied for, and was accepted into, the beta. There were pretty high hopes for this game, but I won’t mince words: it kinda sucked. It quickly degenerated into a grind. Later, long after I stopped playing, there was some controversy about “cyber prostitution rings” and other dramas. Fascinating as a case study of online behavior, but not so fun as a game. TSO has since closed.

Dark Age of Camelot (2003): Now THIS was, and still is, a fun game. My first “real” MMO experience, I played DAOC for a couple years, and met people that I still keep in touch with. The graphics, at first, were pretty basic and crude, though later expansions upgraded the engine and improved the look of the world. There were three “realms” or factions: Albion (based on Great Britain), Hibernia (based on Celtic folklore), and Midgard (based on Nordic mythology). All three were fun, though I mostly played an Alb, primarily a minstrel and a wizard. DAOC really gave me a chance to figure out what play styles I enjoyed (player vs. environment, or PVE, much  more than player vs. player, or PvP), what roles I liked playing on a team (ranged damage, healing, utility), and what roles I did not enjoy (stealth, melee combat).

Star Wars Galaxies (2003): The less said about this, the better, probably. Short version: it was really fun, immersive, and cool. Then SOE screwed us all and ruined it. The end. The only really good thing to come out of SWG is all the great people that I met. I keep in touch with many of them, and play other games with some of them now.

City of Heroes (2004): A really fun game! I’ve played it, off and on, since beta. (Yes, another game that was a beta tester for). This, along with its expansion City of Villains, was the first really successful MMO that wasn’t based on a fantasy setting, instead using super heroes and super villains in mostly urban settings. Lots and lots of free content updates, plus a few expansions. This is the MMO I was playing most recently, before switching to my current MMO (more on that later).

World of Warcraft (2004): This is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, and for good reason. WoW is an excellent game. It’s fun to play, immersive, lots of content, with a low barrier to entry. I was there opening weekend, in November of 2004, and played it off and on right up until early 2009. It has become the de facto standard that all other games are compared to. Every new game that’s announced is going to be “the WoW-killer,” but so far, none of them have been. Love it or hate it, it’s not going away any time soon. I just canceled my sub this spring, and I’d probably still be playing it, but with a little kid now I need a game that’s a little more casual.

Second Life (2005): Not a game, but a virtual world, I included it here just because I did try it. To be honest, I wasn’t really a fan. It’s great for people with some programming or graphics skills, because there are lots of opportunities to create your own content. In that way, it’s sort of a big sandbox. There’s also a lot of porny stuff, which is probably unsurprising.

Guild Wars (2005): Guild Wars is kind of different, in that once you buy the box to install the game, there are no subscription fees (just about all other MMOs cost a monthly fee to play, anywhere from $10 to $15). It’s also a little different structurally, because there is no “server” to choose to play on. Everyone plays together, and public areas are “instanced” so that they don’t get overpopulated. The game is really fun, gorgeous to look at, and not particularly deep. There have been several expansions (I only bought two of them), and the game continues to be fairly popular.

Hellgate: London (2007): HGL was another oddity. It had both a single-player version and an online, multiplayer version. Considered somewhat of a flop, I guess I proved what a weirdo I am by really liking it A LOT. It too was mostly instanced, and it didn’t have a lot of the traditional MMO social niceties (lots of emotes, community events, etc.). The gameplay of HGL mostly consisted of going to a challenge area, running through and killing as much as you could, and picking up all the loot you could carry. It was kind of simplistic and I dug it. Sadly, the studio producing Hellgate went out of business, and the game was closed at the beginning of 2009.

Age of Conan (2008): Sometimes friends talk you into something, and you end up really enjoying it (see: Hellgate, above). Other times, they talk you into something, and you do nothing but regret it! That was Age of Conan for me. Some friends I met through Hellgate talked me into trying it, and I have to admit – the first 20 levels or so were fun. After that, well…it just kind of sucked. To be fair, the game’s been out over a year now and I hear that there have been lots of improvements. I did take advantage of a free trial offer to try it out again a few months ago…and meh. I just couldn’t get into it. If you like lots of blood and gore in your MMO, AoC is for you – it’s got it in spades. Also naked boobs, and generally gorgeous graphics. In fact, the one GOOD thing that came out of me playing AoC was, I actually upgraded my video card. That would come in handy for…

Champions Online (2009): The superhero game I’m playing now. I tried it during the open beta, and was impressed enough to buy it. Since then I’ve come to love it. I’m only just getting into it and I feel like there’s so much more to learn and explore. It’s incredibly customizable, from the costumes to the power sets to the powers themselves. It’s the first game I’ve played that really doesn’t have any classes – you can pick powers from every set, and make yourself a healing/tanking/magician with a submachine gun, if that’s your thing. It is SO MUCH FUN.

So that’s how I’ve wasted my leisure time for the last 10 years or so. Of course, there are some notable MMOs that I did not try, for whatever reason: Everquest, Everquest II, The Matrix Online, Lineage, any of the Final Fantasy games, Warhammer Online, Darkfall. There are also games that I played briefly, as part of a free trial or beta, and didn’t like enough to consider continuing: Free Realms, Runes of Magic, Lineage II, The Lord of the Rings Online, Shadowbane.

What’s on the horizon? Hard to say. I’ll be playing Champions for quite a while, I’m sure. Next year, there’s Star Trek Online to think about, plus Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware. And even Blizzard is working on some new mystery MMO – maybe they’re making their own WoW-killer?

So what are you wishing for this holiday season? I guess I already bought myself a Christmas gift, although I got it at the beginning of November – my iPhone. I love this little toy and have not regretted the purchase for a second. With the iPhone, I’m all taken care of in the Christmas present department.

(Is it sad that one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten came from…me? I’m leaning more towards it feeling “empowered,” rather than “pathetic.”)

If I had to create a “wish list” for Christmas I’d wish for lot of abstract things – at first. Stuff like perfect health for my daughter, my husband, and me; a job for my husband (now that would be a great Xmas); and the resurgence of progressive values in American society. Unfortunately you can’t fit any of that stuff under the tree, so here are the top 10 items on my Amazon wishlist, commercial and crass as they may be:

1. Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition)
2. Ray-Ban RB 2113 Wayfarers with Flex, tortoise frames/brown lenses
3. Amazon Gift Certificate <———– is that cheating?
4. BioShock for PC
5. Eye-Fi Wireless 2GB SD Memory Card
6. Any set of Justice League (or JL Unlimited) DVDs
7. Extra Pentax DL-I8 battery (for my camera)
8. My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus (Volumes 1 and 2)
10. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Alan Moore)

What’s on your wish list?

Anyway, in my spare time, I still raid with my guild in WoW just about once a week. We have Karazhan practically on farm status now, and my holy priest is really well-geared (at least until the next expansion comes out, and random greens make her epics all useless, but I refuse to consider that just yet). We got the first boss in Zul’Aman down, and made it up to the eagle boss, but man he’s a pain in the ass. We couldn’t even get to the dragonhawk boss yet. We made one attempt on the lynx boss but it was late and everyone was getting tired.

A better choice for stress relief lately has been Hellgate: London. A weird hybrid of shooter and MMO, it reminds me a little bit of Guild Wars in its simplicity. It’s really fun though – basically I can log in, go into a level and literally go on a killing rampage with a machine gun and grenades (and you never run out of ammo!), finish a quest or two, pick up some phat lewts, and be done with it. All in under an hour. This is economical gaming at its finest.  The character I’m playing most of the time is an Engineer (proficient with rifles and other big guns, plus always has four or five drones/bots to keep her company). I think the class is ridiculously overpowered, and I like it that way. It’s nice to feel powerful for a change, and I mean that on many levels.

To attone for my sins (not blogging), another post coming up later today. Something more philosophical. With less violence.

Oh, it’s just the Burning Crusade! Har har. Nice post up on Terra Nova this morning about the new WoW expansion, asking for “observations and discoveries” so far. I posted screenshots and some of my thoughts on the beta on my WoW blog, but I’ll elaborate here.

For one thing, I never thought of gaming the system or coming up with savvy new ways to make money off of people entering Outland based on my beta experiences. Well, okay — I did think that maybe I should take up mining, because with all the people trying out jewelcrafting, minerals, gems and stones are in high demand. However I didn’t really follow through because 1. I’m more of an “idea” person and not a “follow-through” person, and 2. I have a very demanding real life named Veronica who’s almost seven months old.

I’ve started my Blood Elf hunter and Draenei shaman and I have to admit I am having a blast so far. (I called my shaman Pammy. Pammy the Dranny Shammy – get it?) To date I haven’t even gotten my main 60 into Outland, figuring I’d give it a week and go when things calm down a bit. I shouldn’t be too far behind my guildmates and I know they’ll still run Blood Furnace and Ramparts with me until we’re blue in the face. As a mostly Discipline priest I’m pretty popular in groups, and I have intention of respeccing to Shadow for the grind to 70. Speaking of the grind, I’m going to take my time and not stress out about it (see notes on real life above).

I’m intrigued by what the post on Terra Nova refers to as “…massively geared-up level 68+ characters doing it [the current level 58-60 instances] for shits and giggles in bizarre combinations, much the way that players have been experimenting with killing Onyxia with the smallest possible number of uber-geared characters.” I have to admit, in my guild we’ve talked about doing just that. As a guild we’ve only recently begun running Molten Core together, and it’s a pretty big deal for us (a lot of us aren’t hardcore raiders in any sense). But already we’re talking about getting to level 63 or 64 and having MC on “farm status” in an only half-joking way. I think it will actually lead to much fun and hilarity, and I look forward to seeing the machinima evidence all over YouTube soon.

One thing that got a lot of discussion during beta was the high quality of the level 57-60 greens that were dropping. We rightly assumed that once BC went live, we’d all end up replacing most of our blues and purples with these green items, which is what is slowly happening. Some folks in beta general seemed to think that prices on the AH would be extreme (the TN post hints at this as a way to make money if you had beta experience) but so far on my server I’m relieved to see that prices are quite reasonable and realistic. I think people realize that while you might be able to sell some green cloth for over-inflated prices in the first few hours, by the time a weekend has passed the market will be flooded with them, and prices will normalize. Most folks are just skipping the initial gouging attempt and going with what the market will eventually bear.

I have more thoughts on things like jewelcrafting, socketed items, the current state of enchanting prices and materials, and more…but duty calls. Film at 11.

 

I’d like to give my personal responses to some of the theories presented, just for the hell of it.

“Some people simply refuse to play a monthly fee on top of paying for a game. ”

Fair enough. However, there is a pretty fun MMO out there that does not have a monthly fee – Guild Wars. The last expansion was awesome, and while the box itself was expensive, so are standalone RPGs like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I guess this is just a matter of preference for most people, like satellite radio: I pay for Sirius, and enjoy it very much, but a large part of the population still can’t imagine paying for radio. Just like way back in the day, people couldn’t imagine paying for television when cable started. I think most people would come around, if this was their only anti-MMO bias.

“…people don’t feel like they have the time for an MMO, even if they spend lots of time playing videogames otherwise.”

Well there’s some validity to that concern, though many games make it a lot easier now for the casual player. I think the key here is, plenty of people DO spend lots of time playing other types of games, and if they really analyzed the time spent on those games vs. the time they’d spend in an MMO, they’d see that it equals out, for the most part. I certainly feel the pain of time investment myself, now that I have a baby. But I’ve found it’s still fun and easy to get in some meaningful time in the evenings after she goes to sleep, and sometimes on weekends when my better half takes over. Let’s be honest – when you have a job and responsibilities, you’re never going to spend hours and hours playing ANY game!

“Tied to the previous issue is the idea that one’s time is not one’s own in an MMO. For a lot of people, having to adhere to a guild’s schedule or priorities is a responsibility they are unwilling to take on. ”

I feel the pain there too, and all I can say is, “choose your friends wisely.” The thing is, for every serious raiding guild in a game like WoW, there’s another guild made up of people who are casual, don’t want to spend hours raiding, and just want to have fun together. You just have to keep looking until you find them.

“A lot of people complain that it is too hard to just jump into an MMO and start playing.”

I remember my first MMO (DAOC) and what it was like when I started – I was a real “noob” and knew nothing. However, I found that people were generally kind to me and even helped me out, as long as I was polite, respectful, and patient. I see this from the experienced point of view now – if a noob asks questions in a polite way, doesn’t beg, doesn’t shout in all caps, and generally acts in ways that would be considered appropriate in any online or real forum, I’m willing to help them. This is not limited to the MMO world – anyone who’s participated on an online message board or forum pretty much knows how to act (and how NOT to act) in order to gain people’s respect and cooperation.

“Although it’s appealing to play with others, it is a double-edged sword in a level-based system where people have to play at a similar rate in order to be able to continue to play with each other.”

The author on T-N points to the sidekicking system of City of Heroes as one solution to this problem, and that’s a good one. I wish more MMOs had options like that. On the other hand, I’ve found that most of my friends in MMOs have alts of various levels, and no matter what level I am it’s usually possible to find someone to play with.

“Many standard videogame players, especially those attracted to adventure/RPG genres, perceive that MMO gameplay is extremely non-linear with too few concrete goals…”

I guess I just disagree with that. I mean, if you’re into first person shooters or platformers I could see where you might have this complaint. However, if you’re already into RPGs, then you’re used to a certain amount of open-endedness. The solution to this, if true, is to quest. WoW has bar none the best questing system of any game, and will give a player all the linear progression they can handle.

“A LOT of people fear becoming addicted…”

If you have an addictive personality, you can become addicted to any kind of game, not just an MMO. Maybe gaming is not for you, if that’s the case! Even so, I’ve found that game addictions are usually temporary. Everyone burns out eventually, and it doesn’t require losing a job/spouse/home to do it!

“Finally, many non-MMO gamers think that MMOs mean, by definition, PvP, or more accuratel,y open PK-ing.”

Obviously a misconception, and I guess the only way to get around that is to spread the word that not every MMO is full of PK-ers, and most MMOs, even the ones that DO feature PK-ing, are now designed in such a way as to protect those who are just starting out.

It was an interesting article on Terra Nova and a fascinating topic to those of us who do enjoy MMOs. I personally can’t imagine going back to playing only offline, solo games. I recently got into the closed beta for WoW’s upcoming expansion, The Burning Crusade, and I had so much fun this weekend (even with all the server crashes), I’m just drooling for the January release! I guess if you’re either an MMO person or a non-MMO person, I am definitely an MMO person. But I also think there’s a little MMO person in all gamers, if they are willing to give it a try!