Virgin worlds and Shut Up. We’re Talking !!!

So I just started jumping to my sites I like to read/check and to be honest with you. I don’t check V W that much but been waiting on the new Shut Up. We’re Talking podcast. And Oh man, Brent said a little bit ago on his twitter that he was going to start up Virginworlds again, and he has. Go HERE to see the new front page, Then HERE to check out the new Shut Up. We’re Talking.

Maybe the world will make sense again.

Why is it, That the one thing I want to do, Is all ways the last thing I do?

All day yesterday I had STO on my mind and all I wanted to do was log in and play, But after getting home and doing all the little things that one person must do before jacking in (yea I said it, Jacking in. I think it sounds coller than it really is) to the internet. I still had a ton of playing time. Week day’s I don’t go in till 9am, So I have a ton of night gaming time I can deal with. So I started out as I all ways do and started going through my email’s, Trashing what needed to be. I get a lot of spam type mail. Then after replying to the one that need so, I went on to the sites that I check each night, Like this one. As I was doing so I had MMO Voices podcast on and Jmo was talking about his new guild in STO. Sounded good so I went and started to join them, By the end I felt like I was signing up to a dating services.

Any way by the time I was done with that and hit all my sites I like to read and some times comment on it was 4 hours later and right at 10pm, Giving me only about an hour to play the game I had been dreaming of all day.

 So why is it, That the one thing I want to do, Is all ways the last thing I do? Is this just me? or does any of you deal with the same thing?

Pretty Colors, Fancy Moves, and Awesome Character Creator

Does any of the title maen any thing to you? Does it come into play for what games you play? I use to think it didn’t for me.  As all should know by now, I am not what you would call rich. Na, na, I am what you would call poor. It was not all ways so. A few years back, I played what ever I wanted, When ever I wanted. I saw a game, I would buy it, and sub right then and there. Just to see if I liked it.

Now days, I am one game at a time when I can afford it. So now I look more closely at what ever MMO/Game I am thinking about buying/Subing/Playing. Now none of the title means any thing to me. I play the MMO for only one reason, FUN. and this surprized me. I thought that what I had been doing all alone. But it was only about 50% of why I would play a game. Every thing in the title came in to play when I had the money for it. Pretty colors, Fancy moves, and Awesome character creator was a must.

If the world did not look good, and was full of colors, If the armor set, Weapons, and Spell effect was not pretty. I would not play the game.

If the Fighting, Walking/Running, Jumping, Riding, Flying did not have some fancy moves to it, Well time to move on to a new game.

If the character creator was not kick ass and give me a way to build the toon/character I wanted. If it would only let me play around with just the face, It was not the game for me.

I never knew this about myself, I allways thought that I played for the fun of it, and the friends I made alone the way. Now I play Wurm Online, Nothing in the title of this post has anything to do with this game, It’s just fun.

So, Do you truly just play for fun? or does a lot of the title have any thing to do with what you play?

What ever happen to the thought …..

of all MMO’s going to be Seamless World’s.

We told our selves that the world of MMO instances was over, and any new MMO was going to have to be a seamless world, And that any MMO co that wanted to be able to survive in the new MMO era, They would have to make there world seamless.

That has been 3 years ago now and we have had a lot of MMO’s come and go. Not very many of them was seamless worlds. Most of them was instance.

So does a MMO having a seamless world really make a difference to any one any more?

The Alik Steel Update

If you read my stuff over at mmovoices.ning.com then you know I lost my internet yet again. and this is my new update on how things are going.

I was abe to get things started and was able to log in last night only for a few minutes, but I was online. Having all types of problems with the modem and/or router. The first DSL modem was bad, Then the next one worked, but now the router want see it. I have the handy dandy helpline phone number that the nice people from AT&T gave me. It was just to late for me to call last night, I had to be at work at 3:30am sunday morning. Also trying to move between the rain as I also try to get the internet working.

So lot’s going on and hope to have every thing up and going by tonight. Really want to get back in Wurm Online and get my little place done. I am hoping that this move will save me the money that it seems it will, and my life will settle on down and I can get on top of all of the bills that have started piling up on me.

my Schedule kinda !?!

Pay all bills off.

Rat hole enough money to pay all bill’s for 6 months. (for a just in case thing)

Buy a better automobile (Car, Truck or Motorcycle)

New Desktop (I know, I know, should be the last thing on the list, BUT I really want a new one.)

Find a better place to live. (So not liking where I am going to be living for the next 6 months to a year)

And the number one thing to do, Find the time and money to date in the middle of all that.

So as you can see I have a lot to do, and want to do it as fast as I can. I really do not like the idea of not being in my own place, But am thankful to have a place to fall back on. Got to love your family.

Special Ed MMO’s 70’s Style playing

This may not be to PC to call it, But this is the way a lot of games feel to me.

Back in the 70’s there was a few kid’s at my school that went to a class called special ed, Later on it would be called LD or learning disability. They was the kids that took longer to learn things than the rest of the kids. 70’s style is talking about the way thing was back then. Now day’s they really learn and people understand how to help them. Back then, They didn’t understand what was going on, and Well it was play time, or more like a daycare for them than any thing. I know, I was there with them. Still today, It takes me way longer to learn things than most people.

That being said

What I all ways found to be a big pull to a MMO is the learning of the game. It was the part that pulled you into the game. A few of us talk about the big red easy button. I think when we talk about that big red button, We are really talking about the lack of learning in the newer MMO’s. I think that is why so many people like EvE so much, But can’t play it long. We have had things so dumbed down for us that when something new like EvE comes out ( I know eve is not that new ) and says this is your world, and it takes some thinking to deal with it. We freak out and go running back to a game that does not make us think so much. I hope that my new main MMO (Fallen Earth) has found itself where the soft spot is with learning. It’s nice an open game and yet has some rules to it so that we don’t freak out to bad.

It seems like instead of trying to find that place where your players has to think a little for them self, and not just pushing them of the side of the cliff with to much thought. Most MMO componeys are going with the hold your hand so no one has to do any thinking, Just like they did way back in the 70’s when I was in special ed.

How did we get to this place where thinking is a bad thing?

Alik Steel

Out with the old, and In with the new!

Hold on, Your not really going to throw them away, Are you?

Sitting here at work and still being sick, makes for a long day. I have had this cold for a week now, and would very much like for it to be on it’s way now. I’m holding my box of Kleenex and reading some blogs has made me start thinking of the (not to far back) old days in EverQuest II.

Maybe it’s this time of year, where you look back at where you was, In hopes that you have moved forward some. That, or It’s just the fever getting to me.

What I have been remembering is the first month’s in eq2. The new experiences that I was having and all the new friends I was making. I never went to a summer camp as a kid, but I would have to think that the way I felt was a lot like a kid has the first time they go to a summer camp. All the new people, Mixed in with some old friends here and there. Every thing new and exciting with a fresh look to it. When I first started playing MMO’s it was with Everquest (1) and it had been out for all most two years. So there was no fanfair when I logged on the first time. Don’t get me wrong there was some magic there, But not the same type of magic as when the game goes live for the first time. With EQ2 I had Beta tested it, So I knew the low level quest, towns, and City’s very well. I was able to help a lot of people out. By being there from the start, With every one doing the start area’s together. A lot of us became friends. We had lot’s to talk about, and ton’s of planing to do. I must have help 20 or more guilds get started in that first few month of play.

I remember after a few weeks and we all knew a lot more about the game, We would test our self on harder mob’s. Back then, There was little solo and a lot of grouping content. When you saw a mob, You had to check things out first. It was not like in today’s MMO’s where you can solo Epic by yourself. Back then, If you was not watching what you was doing, Well you would be doing a lot of running back from the revive area’s to catch up with your mates. There was a lot of excitement soloing, As you had to see just how many mob’s there was that you would be fighting. The mob’s would not all way’s be right there with each other. Lot’s of times a 2nd or 3rd mob would be 50metters or more away. They could even be standing with other mob’s that was not in there chain gang. A many of times after you had killed what you thought was a solo mob and was going to head out to find your next mob. That’s whenthat one or two that that you didn’t  know about comes out of no where and takes you out.

Grouping was just as exciting when fighting in the wood’s. The dang mob’s would move around and as you was fighting one set of mob’s, A the new set of mob’s would come across you. Then would run in at you. You really never knew if you would win or not back then. And all this happening when at lest one person in your group was new to the game and still was trying to learn there role.

Money was rare, and chest was even more so. When you came across a chest sitting in the wood’s with no one around. We would send out OOC’s to see whose it belongs to. After ten minutes or so and no one comes for it, or sends a tell. I would see if I had luck on my side or not. Back in them day’s Unless you was a Scout with good skill’s a chest could be booby trapped and could kill you. They was all types of booby traps that you could die from. But you needed money to the point that you would take that chance. I remember the first time I had a my first gold’s worth of money. It seemed like it took month’s to make that first gold’s worth of money.

The great thing about EverQuest II was it had two of them first time played game for me. At some point they added PvP server’s to the game, and I was there on day one. I remember how the two severs filled up so fast they had to add another one with in an hour of it going live. Once again, even with me knowing the game so well at this point, When you made level 10 the PvP started. Even knowing that there was little chance that there would be any PvP this close to the start of the new PvP world. The excitement was there. Knowing that there was people that was all ready trying to make there way to our side of the world to kill us. So a lot of us became friends and fast. Thinking it was safer to be with many and not so safe standing off to the side to be picked off. We helped each other with forming guild’s. We made site’s so that the guilds could chat back and forth to make plan’s on how to stop the Freep’s and how to hunt them down. We had hunting parties and raiding parties, And you have never seen a raid till you see 48+ people level 20 and lower having a war, It was crazy cool.

Remembering the good times I had in three of the guilds I have played in EverQuest II. I was in a roleplaying guild for a year or so. I had never been into what most people call RP. But I was out soloing in the Thundering Stepps one day. When a man and woman came up to me and started talking a little funny. Well if you have read my blog for any real amount of time then you know my spelling sucks. And back then, Well let’s just say at one point I have had to ask some one how to spell “is”. My best guess was Ez. So, You may be thinking, How in the world did you RP. I don’t know. The people was great and no one ever talked down to me. But getting back to the man and woman. They had asked if I would be brave enough to face a monster for them. They was telling me how this beast had killed some of there friends and they wanted to destroy it before it could kill again. It was the coolest thing ever to be pulled into the game like that. I was Alik Steel the Barbarian Guardian (Tank). And this man and woman needed my help. So I typed back very fast for me(only took like two minutes, and hit enter as they was walking off) That I would be honored to help them. After that I was given a tell, letting me know that they was RPers. So I told them how cool that was, but I would not be able to play with them, because of my spelling, and the time it took me to spell that bad. I was told not to bug out about it. They was cool with it and would love for me to play with them. By that night I was in there guild and having a blast. I would get tells all the time, telling me how to spell this and that. The one thing you must know is that I was having more fun doing the RP, than I was being a shamed of my lack of spelling. Much in the same way that I do this blog. I have more fun doing it, than I have of the shame I feel some times when I read other blogs and it seems to come to them so naturally. but any way.

The next Guild I enjoyed a lot was on a pvp server. There was RP in this guild and as we had so many people from so many places around the world, We would set out guards for our home town of Willow Wood covering all most all 24 hours of each day. I know it does not sound that fun, But the hard core of the guild would take turn watching the town for one hour at a time. It was very cool to be a real guard for the town.  I don’t know about the other pvp servers, but on ours it was the one town that got hit by the freeps every day. The good and evil guilds would get together and set up war. So that every one would know when and where to be for it.  W e did one a month. On the day of the war, there would be no hunting parties. They were real fun, But the more exciting wars was the ones that just happened. The ones that some group or raid went to the other side and just stayed to damn long. Both sides calling for help would bring people running from all parts of the world. Be for you knew it, We had a war happening. So much fun planing things out and never knowing if this  guy or gal was a spie from the bad side or is this guy for real. Yes people would get another account just to see and hear what the other side was doing.

My 3rd guild that I will remember for a very long time. Was on a pvp server and I was listening to podcast for eq2 at this time. This one podcast was from some real life Brother’s called “The Pwnage Brothers” and they ended up killing off a many of guild’s that they would join. People started thinking of them as bad luck, till one day some one just handed them there very own guild. At that point they invite all there fan’s of the show to come out and play with them on Monday night’s. And that’s how it started. A few fan’s and me coming out on Monday night hunting Freep’s. Soon we started getting more and more people and the core of us started playing full time in the guild. We would go out every Monday night on hunting raid parties. We locked our toons off at level 18, I think it was 18. We would take on every thing from level 10 to level 30 somethings. This was the short of run for me in this guild. I loved being in it. But soon came a money thing and I lost the internet. By the time I got back on my feet it was close to being over with. But we did have a blast. Here is a video link of one of the nights we was out. This night we had Brent from Virginworlds with us. Here is the video here

I would think that most if not all MMO’s have some type of world/sever wide events, and EQ2 is the same. They have a lot of them, But one sticks out more than the rest. I think it was some time in between when the game went live and before the PvP severs came out. I logged into the game like I all ways do, and started talking with what ever friends that was on at the time. After some time of chatting and running my toon to what ever zone I was about to play in. I AFK and went to find me something to eat. Sitting back down and started eating in front of my PC. I see something that I had never seen before. My toon was sick, and not just a little, He was blowing chunks and by that I mean he was vomiting what ever you want to call it. This dude of mine was sick. I freaked out. I sent out tell’s asking if other’s have this glich or bug my guy does. That’s when I found out that all most every one was sick. A plague was running wild in Norrath. I remember think at the time that “You don’t see that every day” and the plague was around for a good long time. Or at lest it seemed like it did. I have never seen any thing like this again, Not even in EQ2. I wish I would see it again, But then, Maybe it’s best that things like this, Is left as memories.

Alik Steel

fallen earth: A Goof Video

A Goof Video on Fallen Earth.

The song is “Poker Night” by Michael Gordon Shapiro (used with permission)

The song “What have I done” by Elmer Fudd (used without permission)

Fear from what MMO’s may become.

So we all know there is no turning back now, The big boy’s on the playground has started use RMT and some say Micro Transactions, But as  most things don’t seem like such a micro transaction any more.

So, I wanted to make sure I understand what they are and I looked them up.

micro-transactions refer to a system of small payments within a Game Economy

RMT. Definition: Real Money Trade; when a player exchanges real money for ingame items or ingame currency.

So it looks like what we have here is really only RMT. There still maybe some micro here and there, but for the most part it’s RMT.

So what about all of this am I fearing? Still all most all of it. First of all, If your going to really get into a game, and it does not have a Sub to it, Well that means, For you to play like we still enjoy playing right now, You will be paying out a lot of money. Things are not so much micro any more, and what you would have spent 50cents for, Now will cost you $5 or more for. Now if you have the money to spend, That’s great. As most people will tell you that 80% of the MMO’ers out there are 35 years old men. So most have that money to spend. Most, But not all.

Also, Right now we enjoy buying the fluff stuff. Armor with no stat’s. Just for looks. Pet for the road or house also with no stat’s. Very few things that will break the game as they say. BUT at some point, One of them will start selling the food and drinks, Something small but also something that we will need to play the game. This is what I am fearing most of all. When will they cross the line? and Yes, I think they will cross that line, and maybe some one all ready has. It may not be one of the big boy’s out there but some one will do it. and That’s when it will start. It only takes one to do it, and make it work for a little bit, Then the rest will start to poking at the idea of it. We in the U.S. are still watching the birth of this.

So why do I fear the chang so much? I fear it, Because I see the money that it will take to play a game like I do now. $15.00 a month is great for me. $30.00 a month was great when I had the money to do it with, As for me, I was all up in all the SOE MMO’s and I could play them all for only $30.00, But not now, And as bad as things have got for me, I know there are many gamers that has even less.

When the MMO company’s start to charge for the little things that you got to have to play there games, You will be paying much more than $15.00 a month. Heck if your big into the game you may be paying $15.00 or more a week, Playing the game the same way you do now.

I know there is a lot of you out there that bounce and jump from one MMO to anothere MMO. This type of paying system will work for you great, But for the rest of the MMO players out ther, and I believe that most stick with one game for a long time. Granted I come from EQ, and then EQ2 and played the game for years with the same people. We will pay at the very lest x2 times what we pay now for the same content.

But as I said at the start, There is no turning back now. Pandora’s box has been opened, and there is no closing it back.

Alik Steel

EQ2 (Producer’s Letter – 12.4.09) Let’s talk about this!

So here is the letter I want to talk about. I’ll let you read it first. I made the parts I will point out BOLD

Producer’s Letter – 12.4.09

“Hello Norrathians!

Lots going on in the EQII world!  We are just about to release our next update, Will of a Tyrant.  With this update you are going to see a few hundred lingering bugs fixed in EQII.  Some of these bugs date back to launch and are being knocked out before we gear up for the expansion.  In fact, we have taken to calling this update our “bug bash” as we pulled out our hammers and smashed them into oblivion.  As for content in this update, well it is a little lighter than recent updates, and there is a reason for that, well actually a couple of reasons.  The first is that it was a shorter cycle for us, with only about two months of time between this update and last.  The second is that we are starting to shift many of our resources over to expansion work as that gets closer to launching.  In addition, we have some as yet to be announced surprises coming.  They’re some rather large features, which we hope will excite many of you.  More on those in the months ahead.

One feature we have been receiving a lot of questions over, is the Item Ratings system.  I know that since it was announced, there has been a great deal of confusion over the system and what it is intended to accomplish.  After many internal discussions, and listening to feedback from you, we have decided not to move forward with this system.  We are exploring alternatives that would allow us to continue to grow items and allow your gear to advance in meaningful ways, without giving the impression that you are going backward.

Another long announced and long awaited feature has been the rework on the “fighter revamp”. This is another project that is going to fall by the wayside as we now focus on small changes, rather than sweeping revamps.  Fighters are going to see some love here in the near future, thanks to Xelgad, who is taking on some of the class balance responsibilities.  First and foremost, we have identified a problem with a couple of abilities for Crusaders; Holy Ground and Grave Sacrament.  Those abilities, rather than generating an amount of hate toward the hate list, were in fact moving the crusader up by ranks; thereby practically guaranteeing that crusaders would dominate agro.  We are modifying those abilities to generate raw hate, as well as a much more modest rank increase., so that they are still very viable for tanking, but not an automatic pass to the top of the hate list.  Additionally both abilities will have other bonuses added to them.  We want to make sure these are abilities that the Crusader classes will want to keep on their hotbars.

Other classes will be seeing improvements and tweaks as we take a hard look at how each class performs in solo, group and raid play.  Our goal is to make sure every class has a role and will be wanted in groups and raids, as well as being able to successfully solo, for those of you who play these Massive Multiplayer games all alone, like me.  =P

Shader 3.0 work is pretty much complete at this point, with all of the shaders being converted to the new system.  However we will not be releasing it with Will of a Tyrant.  We are not seeing the performance increases that we had hoped so we will continue to optimize and tweak until they provide not only a visual boost, but a performance boost as well.  We do not want to take a step backwards in performance just to make things look shiny.  Currently it looks as though this feature will land with the next game update, on expansion launch day.

I know you are all excited about the upcoming expansion, or at least I hope you are.  We are very excited as a lot of hard work has gone into making Sentinel’s Fate.  We still have a lot to do but the time for release is getting close!  So close, in fact, that you can now sign up for beta which should begin admitting folks in under two weeks. You can sign up on the EQII players site, so if you are interested in joining in, make sure you sign up soon.

So again, lots going on,

See you soon in Norrath!

Alan Crosby
Sr. Producer – EQII”

First off I am not back in EQ2, I was thinking of playing a little of it, Just so that I can keep on top of what is going into the game. With Alan Crosby as the Sr. Producer I am holding out hope for this once great game. So with every thing I am about to say, I am going to start watching him and this game(EQ2) very close after this next expansion. I will give him some lead way till then. As from what I have read, and heard from a lot of people, That most of what is wrong with this game came from the last Sr. Producer (Bruce Ferguson). So after this next expansion, It will be all on Alan Crosby.

*note: I will say this, The first thing he needs to do is change the updates back to every month. Every 3 months is way to long.

Let’s start taking this thing apart.

The first thing I heard about this game update was that it was not going to get any new content to it. from what my Brother has told me, The forums have taken care of that, And there will be some content added to it. But let’s look at what Alan has to say about it.

“With this update you are going to see a few hundred lingering bugs fixed in EQII.  Some of these bugs date back to launch” and “As for content in this update, well it is a little lighter than recent updates”

Bug fix? I do think they need to fix few hundred bugs, But that’s why EQ2 have bug fix/hot fix or what ever they want to call it. Game Updates, From the way EQ2 has showed us from the past is all about the Content. Not about doing bug fixes. Yes fix the dang bugs, but do it 5 days a week like you use to. Leave the Game Updates to content.

This is/was going to be for the top end of the game, Raider. “Item Ratings system” But it’s a no go now, So lets leave it be.

““fighter revamp” . This is another project that is going to fall by the wayside” That’s great, As what little we ever saw, looked like it was going to be bad, But then they go on and say this. “we have identified a problem with a couple of abilities for Crusaders” That would be Paladin and the Shadow Knight. “thereby practically guaranteeing that crusaders would dominate agro” What the hell, You are going to help the Uber class (Shadow Knight) in EQ2 be better? I had to read it a 2nd time, Just to make sure I read it right. This will be one more reason for me NOT to go back to EQ2. Who want’s to play a game that only helps one class over and over. EQ2 YOU need to get your head out of your ass and start looking at what you are doing. I’m not even playing the damn game, and they still can piss me off.

Alan goes on to say that they are looking at every thing from solo to raiding and going to fix all the classes. That get’s a big HA,HA from me.

So the “Shader 3.0” want go in any time soon. I think this is one thing they are doing right. I like that they do not plan to add this to it is ready. “we will continue to optimize and tweak until they provide not only a visual boost, but a performance boost as well“

And if you wish, You can now sign up for beta for EverQuest II expansion: Sentinel’s Fate.

OK that’s about it for now.

Alik Steel