Thursday, September 8, 2011

/SIGH!!

Yeah, I know, I have not been around, even though I promised myself I would show up and rant and rave about all sorts of idiots and morons, and bad games, good games, lousy products and all sorts of shit. Hard to pick one when its ALL crawling OUT OF THE WOODWORK!!!

 Honestly, the last few weeks have been, special, to say the least. I have no idea where to start. Really! I know, pretty hard to understand. I usually I have something to talk about.

 So, lets pick something and go from there.

 The big EA Origin digital sales / delivery service VS Valves Steam.

  I think people need to give their heads a shake, and quit standing up for one company over another. There are things at work behind the big bad CEO / president of a company, and they are called share-holders! These are the people you really need to vent at, if you could ever find them. EA is the big bad evil corp now is it? Has anyone really taken a look at what Apple is up to lately? No? Might it interest you to know that they are gearing up to take companies like Samsung, HP, and others over their Tablets? No, didnt know that? Its over alleged copyright infringement and other misguided accusations Apple has decided has taken place.

 iShit! This is prob the really reason Steve Jobs stepped down, and he didnt want to the iMoron running to the courts because Apple now faces some competition over their iPad.

 Maybe Apple should go iFuck themselves!

 whats next on the list.......Oh..
Woody Hearns of gucomics.com fame....and....uuh....fortune?

 Now, I am all in favour of people using their chosen medium to rant, or rave about things. Now, there comes a point when a person should perhaps....just leave off. Now Hearn's disdain for George Lucas is pretty well known if you follow his comic with any regularity. Even though he has only brought it up a few times, I feel he is kicking a dead horse. Calling Lucas a "hack" though is, well.....based on his own opinion. He uses the term hack to define Lucas as "a writer producing dull and routine work".

huh?

 Dull and routine? So GL produces 6 movies (3 really good, and 3.....mediocre), creates a Universe that has several (hundred?) novels, spin-offs, video games, cos-play organizations, (Both of which do lots of Charity work, and I suggest that you check them out, 501st.com, and rebellegion.com) and countless fan fiction, fan pic, fan art, fan song...fan whatever sites.

 And you draw comics....and are begging for money via your website at least once a year.

 Hows that sit with you now? George Lucas = $billions, Woody Hearns =$0
 Perhaps you might want to pull your head out of your ass, and get the Anti-Dipshit Avenger to punch you in the head. Oh wait.....thats yourself in your comic....oh...thats so funny.

 I would bother posting any thing on his forums, he routinely shuts down threads and bans users that call him out. I should know, he did it to. I called him out sometime ago about something he stated as fact, and got it all wrong. I called him on it, and had the post deleted, and was handed a 3 day ban for Rude Behaviour.
 GoiFuck yourself too.

 Ok, pretty sure I got it out of my system for now. I think I will take a page from Extra Credits book, and discuss something sensible.
 Got a hankering to go over "Intellectual Property" and EULA and stuff like that.
 Meaning, just because you bought the game, doesnt mean you get to do what you want with it.

Out!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Dropped the ball

Yeah, the aforementioned post is still coming, however I am going to take some time with it. Valve can suck it, and so can all your fan boys!

 fan Girls can suck something else, and that line starts right here!
 *unzzzziip*

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

drop

Morning,

 New post to come soon, it seems that some idiots within the gamer community need their heads slapped and a wake up call. Im going to discuss EA's Origin, Vs Valves Steam.

 Most of you vavle fan bois can suck a giant corporate dick!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

uuhh.....what?

Sorry for walking away from this again, but for me, I just cannot sit down and punch this one out lately. There is either nothing going on, or too much going on, and I cannot nail down a subject. I could take shots at Blizzard and Activision again, but whats the point in that? They seem quite content to be Public Enemy #1 with gamers and the gaming community lately. The latest having much to do with Diablo 3. Really should have seen some of this coming, but it caught me off guard, and apparently a lot of people as well. Let's take a quick look here, number one, Online play....ONLY. Yeah, you read that right, you can only play Diablo 3 with an active internet connection, not on a plane, or a train, or even in the car or minivan (as long as you aren't driving). Number two, they appear to have an in game auction house, allowing you to sell anything, for in game currency, or real-world money. Add to this the fact that Blizz has not one, nor two, but three surcharges that they will nail you with. First is a listing fee, second is a winners fee, and third, is a fee they charge when you attempt to cash out your account. Sounds shady eh? I thought so. Wonder how much money they are going to make? I am betting it will be in the millions of dollars.
 You know people are going to play, and you know they are going to utilize the Auction House. Blizz gives them another license to print money.

 It us up to you, either bitch, whine, and cry about it, or do not buy the game.

 I am sure there are other issues, but I honestly cannot go on right now. Think my droopy eyes are telling me something.

 Could be sleep now.....or fire Borderlands, and give us some eye candy.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Legal Interruption

So, apparently back in June (26th or 27th) of this year, the Supreme Court of the USofA gave violent video games First Amendment protection, thus ending the ban on the sale of said games to minors. Being a Canuck, the only thing I know about the 1st Amendment, is the Freedom of Speech and the protection of spoken, written and works otherwise. This ruling have caused quite the stir, if not moral outcry from certain sectors in the US.
 "Who will protect the children?" has been the cry so far.

 Guess?

 Their fugging parents, that's who!!

 Maybe it's time for mommy and daddy to take an active interest in little Johnny and little Susie and their well being. Time for the TV and video games to stop being  a baby sitter and return to being entertainment! Should a retailer face legal action if they sell a violent video game to a kid, or should they face the wrath of their parents? Should it even go that far? Why are the parents out there not aware of what the kids are playing, or watching, reading, listening to for music? This goes way back to the PMRC (Parent Music Resource Center) from the mid to late 80s. Formed by Tipper Gore and her fellow uptight anal retentive debutantes after the music their kids listened to featured words like "death", "kill" or "masturbation"
  The PMRC headed spearheaded several Sub-Senate Committee Hearings and Court cases against several musicians and musical groups. This lead to ratings on the music we buy today, and in a roundabout way, lead tothe ESRB ratings on the games today as well.

 Truth be told, its about time that something like this happened, and forced the parents to become parents, and take control for once.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Story Time, Pt 2!!

I love a good story, such as George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Absolutely fantastic! That is ok if you disagree, story and subject matter is entirely personal. Even if you enjoyed "Twilight". It doesn't matter the source, Television, movies, books, games, a good story if going to make me play a game. Most times.

  Anyways, story in a game is the backbone of it, the reason to play. Usually, a game will have story in them, even the FPS. Although, I usually find the story is a reason to run around and shoot people, with nothing really to edge it forward, or even link stages together. Adventure games used to draw more on story than even most Role Playing Games. Even some puzzle games drew heavily on story in order to make the game progress, take Myst for instance.
  Given the fact that Adventure games has pretty much fallen off the map in recent years, with games like Lara Croft, and even the Monkey Island series drawing up the end of it, this puts RPGs to become the story tellers of the game industry. Not sure how true that is actually, but that is how it appears to me. Given that FPS do not really rely on a story to progress the game, and racing and sports games.....no story there. Don't even try to convince me otherwise. Action games can draw upon story....are there any action games out there still? Someone, anyone? Let me know.

 Lets take a quick peek at a few games, and compare the story and how they drive the game, making you want to progress. You have to remember, that the games I am going to discuss may not be games you want to play., so keep an open mind for this.

 Lets take a quick look at a game that is trying to revitalize a nearly dead genre, LA Noire. I have yet to get a chance to play this game, but I have heard good things about it. Brought to us by Rockstar games, the same folks behind Grand Theft Auto, LAn draws very heavily upon story to progress the game along, drawing you deeper and deeper into it. Lets not forget that the developers had a depth of interesting news and history to draw from for the era of the game, including the infamous Black Dahlia Murder.

 Moving on, a quick peek into the RPG area, and lets take a look at Bioware's critically acclaimed Mass Effect 2. Now lets hold off a minute, as I have to say, that Bioware has really made the story the focal point of their games. Action is secondary. Not also have they really brought story to the front of the game, they have made it so that the players choices within the story, can alter the ending.
 
 First Person Shooter games really do not rely on story to push the player through the game, relying instead on objectives to move the game along, and centering on guns and the like for action. While Mass Effect does have a shooting element (more along the lines of 3rd person), that game relies more on story than say, Call of Duty does. While Call of Duty, or BattleField may contain a back story, it is merely a shell to draw a player into the action, and then relies solely on the action to keep the player moving through the game, offering missions with objectives to achieve in order to move onto the next stage of the same story.

 Other games out there use story as an initial draw into the game, however, there is usually nothing of note beyond start and end. Mario Brothers is on of those games, a platform jumper that starts off with the "Save the Princess" story, and then falls off from there. Once you reach that goal, and the game begins again, with a harder difficulty. Puzzle games usually have no story to draw you into it, but other things that draw you into it. Look at all the time played on Tetris, lord knows I have spent hours upon hours playing it.

  Next up, going to look at the Story in RPGs, in a West Vs East story style showdown.

 Until next time, happy gaming.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Story Time!!

 You know, I happen to spend time thinking about what I am going to talk about, and rarely how to start this whole thing off. My pup would rather have scratches over letting me devote some attention to my blog. Cannot blame him really, spent all day at work, and could take him for a walk, as it was raining today. He doesn't like walking in the rain. No walks for him.
 
   Anyways, away from that story, and on to another one. I decided to bring up a topic that I like to have in my games....story. Story is one of, if not, the most important thing in a game. It brings you the setting, the history, and even fleshes out your characters more. It gives the game life. For me, it is the most engaging part of the game. If there is no story worth following, then there better be some damned good game play in there.

   The story behind a game is pretty much what the game is about. In retrospect, I think I will have to tackle this subject over the long term, with a few parts to it, looking at RPG and other games, and how story drives the games of different genres, perhaps a view on story in RPG Vs JRPG. (Japanese Role Playing Game, for the uninitiated). Then looking at the Protagonist and Antagonist, their own stories, and how they impact the games own story.

  So it shall be!! I will begin tomorrow.

 I hope, all things considered.

 Until then, happy gaming.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

In Requiem

As time moves on, another passing in the MMO world to talk about. The curtain falls on Sony Online Entertainment space mess, "Star Wars Galaxies", as they announced last week that the servers would be shutting down in December of this year. Some people are crying 'foul' while others think...about time. One girl has gone as far as to make a youtube video. decrying this fact, going so far as to tell SOE, SWG, Bioware, and SWTOR to go and fuck themselves (sorry kiddies). I guess i can sympathize with her, to a degree. Nothing sucks (or hurts) more than spending years, building a community and relationships within that community within a game, only to have it cut off. Everything you have strived for mean nothing. Gone....poof....vapourized with the flip of a switch.
  I say, good riddance. That being said, I never played the game. In fact, it was the SOE tag that made me turn around and walk away. I think Lucas Arts made the right choice in not renewing the contract with SOE. In my mind, while SOE is one of the biggest companies out there, they have without a doubt, pretty much destroyed anything they have put to market. I think that EQ and EQ2 are the two game that they have not completely screwed up. I am sure they have done some work that leaves a foul, foul taste in their players mouths, but nothing that they havent fixed. One does not totally screw up their flagship game(s). Like Blizzard.....oops.
  Lets take a walk down SOE memory lane, starting with EQ, when they started down a story path that left many, and I mean many players wondering "WTF?", with their expac 'Gates of Discord". This content was so unpopular, that people kept playing the "Planes of Power" content with alts. Moving beyond that, some people kept wondering why there were more aliens within their fantasy genre. Plausible, but very silly in my eyes. Moving on, with Planetside, a game I truly enjoyed. Three factions, all player based, total PVP. Fast, frantic, action packed, FUN! Of course, that was beta, as once the game went live, many changes happened. Changes that made the game frustrating, lopsided, and not worth playing. Such is the SOE way.  Lets take a look at one of their more recent offerings with DCUniverse Online. This game launched with tremendous amounts of potential. There is the issue, launched with potential. The game was released with a max level of 30, and not much of an end game in sight. People hit that cap, and raided enough to get their top tier armor sets well within the first month, if not few weeks. The replay content of the game is there, with different power sets, abilities and mentor characters. However, I found it hard to bring a 3rd character to max level. The combat was fun, intuitive, and different enough from other games. The story was good, not great, but good.
 Another driving factor for me stopping was SOE itself, as an entity. All the forum threads asking for updates, content, complaints were locked down faster than.......I dont know. I cannot think of a joke to insert here.
 The apparent disdain SOE hold for their player and fan base blows me away. This is something that has not changed from the days of Everquest, and I mean the early days, before kunark. SOE seems to hold the mantra of "this is our game, and you will play it our way" very near and dear.
 Looking back at SWG, their first update, the Combat Upgrade ( I think, dont recall) drove players away en masse. In fact, it took divine intervention from Lucas Arts in order to bring about the New Game Experience, which sadly to say, caused yet another mass exodus of players from the game. Sometime after (2007 or so) LucasArts withdrew their creative contract from SOE, no longer allowing them to create new content for the game. It was revealed shortly there after that Bioware was awarded the contract, and was creating a new Star Wars MMO,

  Perhaps, this will herald changes coming to SOE, perhaps they will take their products and fan base more seriously. After all, they have been losing players to other companies and games for years now. They have a chance now to take a look at things, and perhaps change their model, and start backing up their games.

 Time will tell, as it is shown, the Force is not with SOE.


 As always, Happy gaming.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Best in show....part duexin' it again

 Now that I have had a chance to clear the old noggin out, I can carry on with this article.

 I think the point I am trying to make is that the credibility of a site or journalist that goes ahead and makes a 'trailer' a nomination for best of (insert your fave expo here), is shot all to hell..... in fact, it was eaten by a cat and crapped out, into mud. And stepped on. And dragged through more crap. And dropped into a sewer.
 I think both gametrailers.com and G4TV have some issues. Taking money for a nomination or a best in show award, or taking 'first hands on' or anything like a favour, to me, just......sigh.

 /anger off

 To me, a person who is making a living on reporting, or being a journalist, should maintain a level of integrity and remain impartial. Unbiased. Non-partisan. Just give me the facts. Dont bother with your opinion, its tainted.

 gametrailers.com - up yours, seriously....you people, are a bunch of asses,.

 G4TV - Adam Sessler....drop the gushing fanboi act! Someone replace him....maybe bring back Olivia Munn  to the show....Sara Underwood full time host?
               Moragn Webb -...........umm....spanking?

 Happy Morganing....er..spank.....er...gaming...

 PS - I know that this article didnt make a whole deal of sense. For some reason, I had a hard time putting this one down into words. Its nothing to do with anger, its just having to decide what is worse, the fact they did it, and have done, and will continue to do it, or the fact that they have been caught doing it, and will flaunt it in front of people who are fans, and will continue to do so.... there by destroying any credibility they might have had.

Best in Show?

 Two and a half weeks after E3, and the accolades keep coming out. Recently gametrailer.com announced their award for Best First Person Shooter in E3. Amongst the nominees, was a small title called "Halo 4". Yes, this game, the fourth game in the series, and the first in the next trilogy, was a nominee for top FPS in E3! Thrills and spills, rejoice and cheer!
 
 /sarcasm off

  Halo 4 was a reveal trailer. One minute long or so long, cinematic. No hands on game play.

 This, was enough, to garner the game a Best in E3 nomination. Something wrong with this, something, very wrong. One would think to garner one of these awards, a game should have, oh I don't know, actual hands on game play? I am guessing that there are no guide lines for judging and nominating a title for those?  G4TV also added a game as their Best @ E3 (overall) as Bioshock : Infinite. This game had a 'gameplay trailer' on hand, but again, no actual hands on. (This is running on second hand info, and I am working to confirm this, so hang tight, and I will correct myself, but I will hold onto my opinions). For those that do not know what a 'gameplay' trailer is, it is a short video showcasing the game, using in game graphics and game play engine.

 That is not the same as giving people the actual game play in order to judge what it is that they going to gush over.
 So, I know that Game Journalism is still relatively new to the scene. However, it is no longer in its infancy, it has been around long enough. Game Journalists should no longer be influenced by jingling keys and shiny things. These people should be smart enough, and have a little bit of integrity. With the current batch of gaming sites and reviews, and even TV stations and shows, one can see that there is obvious, or less obvious pandering. Did Microsoft go to gametrailers.com and say "Give us a nomination, and get some exclusives!"? Same thing with Bioshock Infinite, did the publisher / developer head over to the cronies from X-Play and say the same thing? This is something that should make gamers somewhat mad.
  It won't though, as everyone has their favourite game / dev / site that can do no wrong.

 Time to move on and grow up journalists. Time to move beyond the childish behavior and grow some integrity.
 I am going to call it here, and continue later on.

 Happy selling out!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Cata Kill Count Climbs

Hows that for alliteration?

  I had previously stated I would like to do a highlights and wrap up of E3 2011, however, I appear to have dropped the ball on that one. Pity, there was a fair bit at E3 that bears mentioning. Like the fact that I may actually buy a Nintendo console. YEAH, I know! The Wii U. No more kiddie games for nintendo! How about that shit? Killer piece of hardware they displayed there, kudos to you, Nintendo, you have become...relevant once again. I look forward to this unit. Also, Sony, and the PSVita, their new handheld, with...get this, a reasonable launch price. Wi-Fi unit...$249.99 (I think) and 3G and Wi-Fi....$299.99. Looks like I am spending some money in the coming year or so. Giggity!

 Now, onto my oh so clever titular material. Most of you know, that up until Feb 2011, I was an avid WoW fan and player. However, since December 7, 2010, my...favourite(?) past time was becoming....lets just say....no longer a fun place or fun thing to do. To me, there just seemed to be a lack of....new. Shiny. Something that would make me want to keep going in the game. Enough of me complaining about a game and company that no longer cares about content, and cares only about cash, and how to pad their already fat wallets and bank accounts. This is after they pay their bills. The situation hit home to me over the last couple of days, as it appears that the guild I was in, has pretty much ceased to be, in game for the most part. The guild tag is still there, and so is the website. But the people are not logging in. From what I am gathering, the new content to come, The Firelands, in patch 4.2, Blizzards "yay more raids" patch, is geared and focused pretty much at the high-end, top-tier raiding guilds. So, a full content patch, aimed solely at the top 1% - 2% of the WoW gaming community. Hardly seems worth it for a casual raiding guild to hang around.
 To top that off, there was a report that Blizzard is working on End Game Content aimed at the solo players and low end raiding guilds.When this content is due out is not known at this point, but I think it is too late for that. This is only one thing in a long list of things that Blizzard has done to anger or alienate players and fans.Being there for the solo and low end raiders is something that they should have considered a long time ago, even after acknowledging the disparity in end game activities a looong time ago. I would not be surprised to see them losing more active accounts in this last quarter as well, perhaps the same number, or more than the reported 600,000 in the last quarter.
  With games like Rift out, with more going for it right now than WoW has to offer, I would not be shocked to see their subs rise. Also with games like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 on the horizon, I think Blizzard and their aging World of WarCraft are in for a rough ride. Perhaps this is just a sign, a harbinger if you will, that points to a reveal of Blizzards next game, "Project Titan" more than likely will be....shown in some form at Blizz-fan-faire-con-thingy.

 Time will only tell in this matter. Do I want to see Blizz fail, and fall flat on their asses for not dealing with the player base as a whole, and for treating them as self-entitled whining snot-nosed brats. Do I think that they should be working on real content instead of "OOh...shiny new mount" in the pet store? At some point, they will have to start treating the players as paying customers, and not idiots. On the flip side, players will have to stop acting like idiots, and...and.....nope, just stop acting like idiots. I could say the players need to take a look at what they are doing, how much money is going into BLizzard for these pets, AND their monthly subs as well. Start demanding better content from Blizzard, stop buying into their stupid pets (unless its a charity thing, in which case, I support it), and in the end, cancel your sub if you feel strongly about it.

 I did!


 Anyways, to the folks of the guild Reverence, of the Greymane Server,  /salute. You were a fun group to run with, and I wish you all find happiness and enjoyment in what ever game, hobby or pastime you find next. God Bless!
(if for some reason you wind up in SWTOR, look us up at the Ebonchain) Shameless plug, get over it

 As always, happy gaming!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

E3

Well, so far, ......

   I think Microsoft has had the worst Press Conference out of the lot. And I happen to think it was decent. Too much of a focus on the Kinect, but meh. Too much info to go into now. What I am going to do, is perhaps wait until it is all over, and then recap the highlights.

 Until then....
 
  Happy gaming.

Monday, June 6, 2011

E3

 E3 begins today @1200pm Pacific. While I am working during E3, I will do my best to highlights every day.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Oh, your opinion is just silly!

 Ahhh...another week, and another blog / rant! Over the last week, Blizzard released a new 'super special sparkly fun-time' mount for the brainless masses with a credit card, or parents the give their little johnnies and jills everything they desire. On top of 'That Retarded Horse", other wise known as the "Sparkle Pony", Blizz is selling a flying kitty. Frankly, I dont fugging care what it is actually called. It is just another attempt to bilk money from the masses. Of course, it is Blizzard, and it probably worked. I have not gone to see how many people waited in the server queue to purchase one of these mounts, but I am guessing it was plenty enough.

 The worst part of this is, I made my opinion known, on a WoW based website. www.daily-quests.com. They recently featured a strip based on the new purchasable mount. Usually, the art is done by Kelly, and I am guessing the writing is done by...."supervas" . Whatever. Normally, I check it out routinely, as it is a good strip. I will right now, without hesitation, recommend it. It is worth it.
  Just don't speak out against Blizzard or WoW, or that is how it seems. I spoke out against the mount, and was told my opinion was 'silly'?!?!?!
 copy and paste of posts inc.

 starting with Vas response to my opinion. mine was "mount dumb...no new content....wtf?
 
I see this kind of statement a lot when Blizzard releases new pets or mounts, and I think it’s a silly one. First and foremost, the amount of work that goes into creating a new dungeon or even a new quest line is atmospherically more complicated and intensive than designing and animating a mount or pet that they probably already have a base skeleton for.
And besides that, Blizzard is a for-profit company, and Blizzard will always be a for-profit company. If you don’t like their business practices, then don’t buy the mount, but please don’t be mad that it wasn’t a new dungeon or cut scene or scripted quest line–you’re talking about hundreds of hours of production more–and the team that would design them isn’t even the same team that would have designed this mount.

Spoken like a true Fan-boi! Im going to start in the middle of this, with the profit statement.
 "cough-ahem. NO SHIT YOU MORON!"
 Here I thought Blizz was around to give me all I wanted for free! I think I get that, I had to BUY the game in the first place, and had to pay a monthly Sub fee of $15 per month! believe me, that fact that they are in it to make money has not eluded me over the last 6 yrs! Bloody idiot! Did you work that out yourself, or did you need help. The fact that they are all in it to make money isnt news to me! EA....Mythic, Activision, Trion, Bioware, No, no, they are there to make games and make money.
 Im going to go on by recapping my response to him..(it was cleaner there than it is here, this is MY DOMAIN, and I will do what I want!)

 My own opinion is that Blizz has become too focused on making a profit at the expense of taking their time to come up with new and compelling, challenging content. Instead, they rehashed old content with a layer of 'oooh...pretty' and shoved that out the door for the masses. That, coupled with the recent announcements of nerfing the normal mode raiding content in Cataclysm, to me, does not bode well. No, this mount is a distraction. From all the wrong that Blizz has done in the last few months.

 As for development and creation teams and time? Im gonna have to say BS to that too. They probably are not the same teams, that I can agree on. However, there is still no excuse for this versus new content for the players who are ready for it.
  If Blizz feels so strongly about the micro-transaction market, then they should either A) abandon the P2P sub fees, and move into a F2P with premium content and item market-place, or B) lower the monthly sub and supplement their income with an Item marketplace. Bringing out something like this, to me, just stinks.

 I'm done with this now.....no point in going on, Blizz can suck an egg.
 
 After they get their hands out of 11.5 million subscribers and give them a game worth playing for once. In a looooong time.

  ...and as always, happy gaming, and go buy your retarded flying cat....../sigh


Sunday, May 29, 2011

Bleh

Nothing really new and interesting to go on about. With the E3 (Electronic and Entertainment Expo) happening in about one weeks time, I am sure I will have more to talk about down the road.
 Current speculation is the Bioware will give us a release date for Star Wars : The Old Republic, and something that Blizzard is working on. Honestly, I couldnt care less what Blizz does, other than a release for Diablo 3. SOE will more than likely bring out Planetside 2, and maybe something on Everquest 3.  Yes, EQ3. Two more titles for SOE to bring out, then forget about. Why do they bother?
 
 I'm pretty sure that there will be more going on at E3 than that, but in all seriousness, I can't be bothered. Hop on over to e3expo.com and have a look for yourself. A good number of exhibitors will be on hand. Might be something else there that you will like. Hoping to be able to go to E3 some year, and be able to report on the goings on, would be very interesting.

  In the mean time, I am going to look at setting up a blog based on SWTOR. Not sure what my content is going to be on, or if I will go ahead and do it. Time will tell.

 Oh, cynicalbrit posted his latest podcast, very good stuff. He goes more into in rage on Blizzard in a little more detail. Head over to cynicalbrit.com and give a listen. I personally enjoy his work.

 ..and I'm out for now


 Happy Gaming!!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Salute!

Well, well, well. If you are not aware of the Cynical Brit, the Totalbiscuit, the Totalhalibut, has called an end to his daily show, Azeroth Daily, and his own WoW account. This stems from the recent announcement that Blizzard was going ahead and nerfing current Normal Mode Raiding content and bosses. This is something rather significant, as the next patch for World of Warcraft 4.2, brings only one raid dungeon, and 7 bosses. Now, one would argue that this nothing major for a content update. I would agree with that person, and continue my own hiatus from the game.

  Mr. Biscuit, I salute you, and your choice. I have enjoyed your shows, even though I no longer play the game, is nice to keep in touch, and remember why I no longer play. For more on why he has stopped, please head on over to his Facebook page, where you should be able to find a link to his shows, and view the Azeroth Daily for May 24, 2011. he will go into more detail on his decision, and the game at hand.

  Bad Blizzard, bad, *grabs Blizzards head and rubs their collective noses in their mess*

  And as always, Happy gaming folks.

  Please, I urge you to make you own choices regarding the games you play. Do not go with other peoples words and their own choices, if you still enjoy World of Warcraft despite Blizzards lack of imagination and actual problem solving, then keep playing. Do not stop on someone else s account.

ME, ME, ME ME!!!

So, I made the mistake of going over the Official Community forums over at swtor.com, and actually thinking I would not be taken off guard by anything. How wrong was I? VERY!! It all started with the first thread title I saw at the top of the page "Why Player Housing, Sandbox Worlds, and Player Generated Content is Important". Now, I found this interesting, could this be a rather rousing discussion in which people intelligently, and (more importantly, ADULTLY (yeah yeah, thats not a word, shut it!)) talk about features that could be added in game? Or, more than likely, is it a juvenile flame-fest in which self-entitled snot-bag whiners bitch and whine about what they want. (Guess, go on, guess which one it was!) (Hint: look at the title)

 The Original Poster starts off to state features from another game that he would like to see, because, to him they were interesting and fun. The usual smart ass responses come up from the community at large, which, in cases like these, is to expected, most of those are tame, and kind of funny. OP comes back to indicate that only Sandbox MMOs are successful, and this theme park MMO is doomed to failure without said features. (Ok, he didn't, Im paraphrasing from MANY, MANY people from the thread)
 Perhaps I should go into things a little more such as Sandbox and Theme Park Games. Lets see, to start off, defining a Sandbox game - The developers create the world, and some base rules that govern said world. The players then come along, and create the content of the game. Pretty sure the best example of this is kind of game is EVE Online. Its pretty good, and has a devout following. Given the overall 'theme' of the game, I am sure this is why it made a good sandbox game (eveonline.com)
  While a Theme Park MMO is more along the lines of, World of Warcraft, where the world, the rules, and the content are already there for the players. They just go from ride to ride, taking it all in. Both styles of games have their merits and their downfalls. They have their fans and their detractors. Frankly, I just don't see the point of going and telling someone "Game A sucks, and Game B rules". 
 (I didn't link WoW, because, well, I am sure everyone can find it)

 Now, back to the main point, and with the OP's outlandish statement, and lack of proof with which to back himself up, he never returned to the thread. Funny how that happens. About a page in or so, Georg Zoeller (One of the developers) comments on the style of the game (Theme Park) and how they have not hidden that fact over the last 3 or 4 years. Please notice, this game has been in development since 2008, or earlier, and it is now 2011, and the game is slated for release sometime this year. The first post about the Original subject was brought up May 22, 2011. Kind of late for this line of thought now isn't it? Now, the OP was not the part that made me /facepalm several times, it is posts from people who go out of their way to not only insult the development team, but tells them how to do their jobs!! I just have to wonder which games these people have worked on and put into the market?

  The overall sense of self-entitlement has to stem from somewhere. Im guessing that mommy and daddy didn't use some form of discipline, or, maybe, just maybe, they picked it up somewhere else. Given the current track record of Blizzard rolling over and playing dead with the whiny-assed-snot-nosed 'children' that play their game, I am taking aim at them. Bad Blizzard, BAD!! If I could, I would run your nose in this stinking mess you created! For those that do not know, Blizzard came under fire by the 'community' for making their content too hard. Now, community in this case, is in quotes, because, well, any sense or anything resembling a community DOES NOT EXIST in WoW. EverQuest, had (and still does) a community. Why did this happen? I do not know. Pretty sure it had someone thinking, "hey, if no one knows my real name, I can be a complete and total jackass, with out any repercussions. So far, that train of thought has caught on, and seems to be the mainstream thinking now. And i see the community of SWTOR heading the same way.
 Anyways, with this alleged 'backlash' aimed at Blizzard for challenging content, they turned around, and in the "Wrath of The Lich King" expansion, the end game content was.....dumbed down.

 SERVERELY!

 Instead of having to raid and wait for your turn at Epic lewts, now people can get tokens to get their gear. Not a bad thing, but considering that the tokens (points, badges, whatever) dropped or flowed rather freely, grabbing your gear was pretty easy.

  For me, right now, I am done. Look, if you want people to take your seriously, don't act like a whiny piece of crap.

 Thats it from me right now,  and as always,

 Happy Gaming.


EDIT - Adding a link to what I have just alluded to. Thank you Mr. TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit!
http://www.cynicalbrit.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/totalbiscuit-cynical-brit-site-blog-5.mp3
 I would like to point out really quickly, that again, Blizzard has rolled over, and played dead for the whining masses of self entitled players, by nerfing content again, instead of making players try a little harder to achieve something, and make the game worthwhile.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

You're dripping your WoW into my TOR!

STOP IT! 

  Over the last few years, and several crappy "hands on previews" reviews, a good number of people have stated their own fact, that The Old Republic is nothing more than WoW with a Star Wars skin! If I had my way, these people would beaten with plastic Lightsabers, and dumped at the front doors of Blizzards HO, with fanboi written on the their foreheads in Jiffy Marker (tm). To, to emulate something successful, and borrow things from other games isnt all that bad. The Formula has worked for Blizz for close to seven years now. Good on them.

 The issue that bothers me, is that after every thought that TOR is WOW with a sci-fi skin, is the next thought, that they should take more from WOW to put into TOR, if only to cause some people headaches and the usual nerd-rage flame posts on the official forums.
  The latest of these, 'ideas' is that people want to 'dual-specc' their characters in TOR, bring more WoW drippings into something that already appears to have lots of its own 'flavours'. To those that do not know, dual-speccing your character is to be able to utilize two of the three talent trees used for character development in World of Warcraft, giving said character abilities to define its role within the game. So, in the case of, say, a Warrior, the person could dual specc it to be able to offer up the role of both a Tank (protection, aggro control, mob control damage absorption) or to deal damage, the DPS role (damage per second, mad crits yo!) OR in the case of the Paladin, they can pick two of three roles such as Tank (not too badly) DPS (laughable again, I hear) or Healing (too well, I hear). Now to me, this fits within this fantasy setting. Dont ask me why, to me, it just does. Perhaps because it is the fact that these are talents, and not an example of true class building.
  To add this into The Old Republic, would be...awful. To begin, I would have to point out that they way I feel class advancement is done there, is that, say, Jedi Consular is your "role" rather than class, and then to move into the Shadow, or Sage, would be closer defined as a Class. Heck, even replace "Role" with Archetype" and that would be better. This would then suggest that to head down the 'Sage" line, implies that all you are trained in, Healing, ranged/melee dps, and CC (crowd control). To sit back and say, "Hang on, let me change specc" just doesn't work in the Star Wars universe.

  The same could be said for respeccing. To change your class mid game. Considering that your personal story within the game is based upon the choices you make, this would be kind of immersion breaking to some degree. Also, what mechanic would they use to allow to you change? Use the Force, or drop a star cruiser on your head? Im all for the second one, just to see it happen! Seriously, I would pay for my friends to respecc, on a regular basis!

  Add-ons! Add-ons? Considering the fact that the game has not yet been released, I do not see the need for add-ons.Yet. Now, there are some add-ons I think should be allowed, and some I think that should never see the light of day. Ones I would happily endorse, a threat or aggro meter. Yup. After spending years upon years playing a healer, I know the need for one. Although, I did spend years and years in EQ, raiding, as a healer, and never required one. Hmmm! That took some practice, and because I think that Raid Healing in EQ relied so heavily upon healer rotation, that one person could never really drag threat away from the tank. DPS on the other hand, I remember peeling threat away as easily as some might peel a banana! heheh....squishy dps.
 Anything like DPS meters, or a gear score addon. Nope. While I can admit that both might have had, uuhh, good intentions for their creation (I highly doubt it, but I am going to go with it), but only lead to misuse amongst the 'elite' of the WoW community. Sure, that Prot Warr has a gear score of 10k, but he got carried by his guild through all the raid content, and couldnt hold onto anything, let alone threat or aggro.
 I remember building one of my toons up, and while my dps was getting better each session, it wasnt near the levels I wanted it. I remember getting punted from a non-heroic grp, because my dps wasnt 6k+!! Eh?
  Again, I am sure that someone created these add ons  for use in gauging raid bosses, and trying to find out where they, as a guild stood compared to the encounters they would be facing. However, the were more than frequently misused, leading to backlash amongst the larger community.

  Lastly, Dungeon-Finders, or Looking For Group tool. I am on the fence with this one. Now, I am in a guild for TOR, and I am going to be running everything with my guild. PVP, Flashpoints, end game raids. I really do not intend to use something like this. I suppose that there are people that will. Cross Server? NO! Emphatic NO! I would wholeheartedly agree with how a cross server LFG system wrecks the community. Random grouping with people from your own server, means you still have to mind your manners, and not be a douche bag! Repercussions will follow if you do. With Cross server, you can be an asshat, and not have worry about randomly grouping with those people again.
 
  I can only wait and see what becomes of all this in the end.

  E3 Prediction, we get a launch date, and it will be in September 2011!!

 Happy gaming everyone.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

A Change in the Guard!

Well then, this has been a day and half. Just the other day, I read over at TORO-Cast.com, that one of the contributors and co-hosts was leaving. Fo'diggity (Matt) is stepping away from the show for various personal reasons, probably the most pressing is his upcoming wedding! Congratulations, and sorry to see you go,but all the best to you and your bride, and your upcoming union!

  Today upon coming home, and relaxing in front of the glow of my good old CRT, I discovered that both Kimmi and Musco have also decided to step away for various personal reasons. Again, another shocker. I guess running the show over a period of 101 weeks will take its toll. With all the planning, editing, casting, recording, further editing, writing of editorials, skimming pages upon pages of forums, digging for those tidbits, more editing, more planning and site work.

 Wow......made me tired just thinking about it.

  Fo, Musco, and Kimmi, just let me say, thank you for the wonderful shows! Thank you for the effort and time put into a great site, fantastic work guys! You will all be missed by the community around Toro-cast.

 Samm, I wish you the best of luck with keeping things going. Considering how big the community is, I am sure that you will find yourself some quality help in keeping things going over there!        
 
  I would drop my name in the hat for working for you, but my own work schedule is pretty random as it is, and even getting to do this on a regular basis is hard. (and oh, yeah, my writing is pretty bad and needs lots of work before I go pro!!)

   Happy gaming guys and girl!!

  Best of Luck to you all!!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Part 2

A number of days ago, I went into rant about the Gaming Community at large, and how we all have become 'experts' in something that I am pretty most of us know nothing about. I felt that at some point, someone could place blame on someone. In that line of thinking, there is a root person, or group of people that we can point at and state "Heretic, Unbeliever!!!" To me, this would be a group of people known as, Game Reviewers. Some of them at least. There are some that do their best to be unbiased and present a game in as neutral fashion as they can. If they liked it, here is why, if they did not like, here is why. That is something I can deal with.


   Then, along comes someone, like, 'Angry Joe'. Enough said! he presents his show in an over the top fashion, yelling at the screen, like we all have been deafened by his previous lunatic rants. I could do on, but honestly why? Upon going back, and re-reviewing his show in a few cases, I found his hands on to be....well, decent. I cannot find fault with his actual reviews, just in his method of delivery. Perhaps if he took more of his prescription, I would find him more bearable. Another person / site to take to task is bit-tech.net, and most of their reviews. I have to wonder how one person could find SWTOR, played over a two day period, for, what, I would think 8 to 10hrs, and gave the game a poor rating. Mind you, this is still a beta build, and with only 20 or so people playing the game at this point. Go on, read the review, take your time. Also, if you want, read up on some of......their..... fans? I do not have the words to describe these people. Something along the lines of 'bible-thumpers' would be close. This is the same site that gave Star Trek Online a 7/10 review right after launch. They did! Good look that one up while you are there!
   If you had the 'luck' to play that game, right after launch, ( I did, on a 10day free pass, and very glad of it) one would see that the game was...devoid of anything beyond the space combat. Away-Missions, were awful, go here and kill 10 Klingons, gather data from the computer, destroy this.
  Pretty much the same crap that they gave SWTOR a hard score for having, and yet they glowed about this one!
  Bit-Tech.....I honestly hope that each one of your reviewers gets anally raped by a rather large Rhino on the way to the store when they are picking up their CE SWTOR at launch. Douche-nozzles. Now, if you had read all their little minions remarks, we can move on.
 To me, that is the most disturbing thing, have we, as a race, let alone a society, become so dependent upon another persons opinion about something, that we can use that as an excuse to not try something? If you really wanted to, you can actually get up off your chair, head to a store, and go 'rent' one of the games that they are reviewing, and try it for yourself! Really! You can! Pretty sure they are services out there that will deliver as well. No need to leave your house, and see other people, and .....the sun. You could do yourself a real favour by doing this, as there are some real great games out there that these guys have crapped all over. Just have a look, and see for yourself. They are out there.

   I guess what I am getting at, is that we need to start thinking and acting for ourselves, and stop taking some of these crack-pots for their word, and their word alone. Hell, I even take the evening news with a grain of salt. Mostly due to the depressing nature of it. I would advise someone to read all the reviews they can find, and then, if that game, movie, book, TV show, still interests you, watch it, read it, play it! I have, and some occasions, I have wondered what the hell I just did. But, on many others, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time, and my money well spent.

I end with a quote, which I am paraphrasing, I think, roughly, from The Cynical Brit, on one of his shows, talking about another one of his shows,
  "Think for your gawd-damned selves!"

 So, quit giving blow-hard rage monkeys like 'Angry Joe' so much worship that they do not deserve, and open your mind to what is out there, you never know, you might find something you might like!!

 and, as always,

 Happy Gaming!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Clarifaction

Let me be clear on something real quick, as I look at the title of my Blog, and see that I could be taken as a complete jack ass with it..

   When I put the title up there, saying "hole" I do not, at any point in time, regard the community at large, as hole. However, there are those individuals, whether it is by accident, or all out honest effort, these people drag down the community with them. As they go about their business, posting their.....own ideas, if you want to call them that, causing people to reply in kind. Now, I am pretty sure that most of us are folks that use common sense, and normally would attempt to reply in a manner that we would like to be replied to. However, our posts usually start off "dear loser, lrn 2 reed stickies".
 

  But I digress. Please, try to use a modicum of common sense, and count to 10000 before you post something, lest you become like those that you detest.


  Part 2 of my Community of Experts will be coming soon, just after I take some time to look into a few things, I do not want to go off without somethings to back myself up, lest I become like those that I am talking about.

 Happy Gaming folks!

Community of Experts?

It behooves me to think that everyone that frequents a game site, is suddenly an expert in everything that the game company in question. Let us take a look in depth at some of the people that frequent the Bioware - Star Wars : The Old Republic site. Go ahead, take a peek. Take your time, I will wait for you. I encourage you to do so. If that game is not one you are interested in, then by all means, pick on of your choosing. I merely suggested SWTOR because it is a game I am waiting for, and because of the scope of the game, and the exposure, is one that I can make many points on.

Just for the record, I am no expert in matters like these. I am not a developer, a code monkey, an artist, nor a professional writer. I do happen to enjoy a debate, and willing to concede defeat in the face of a superior or more learned opponent. However, with this little exercise, we will soon see that there are too many....experts. People who take their own opinion as the fact, without backing up those 'facts' with proof, evidence or anything to back themselves up for that matter.

Some of these people will take the word of one, and only one persons video with a commentary on it, stating something (again it is only the opinion of the person in the video) as the be all, end all of the issue. Some of these people really need to quit looking for fault in something, in order to validate their own fears, distaste, or lack of knowledge on the subject matter. Without taking the time to back yourself up, how is someone supposed to take your word on something? One has to remember that the video in question is only a 'hands on first impression" and not a review on the final product. I guess it is easier for some people to chime in on the negativity of something, because they have some kind of chip on their shoulder.

With a forum name, and a sharp tongue and dull wit, one can whittle away at the community at large, while feeling good about ones self i guess. With the alleged anonymity of the internet, one can speak out, without repurcussion, and then reply in a fashion that you think belittles the person on the other side of the keyboard.

There are several threads out there, in sveral game forums, from people who read a post, or saw a video, and decided that what they saw, read, or heard was the last fact of the matter. I urge you good readers, do not be one of these people. Take your time to learn what you can about something before you sound off. Take what you read with a grain of salt, even this post. You never know when a real expert is the person you are sounding off too!

 I will continue this course in my next post...Experts Pt II! 

Happy gaming!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Why I left WoW.......again

Now, where to start with this? Well, suppose I could start by saying, 'Good Bye Blizzard, see you again sometime down the road."
I did it, I canceled my subscription. For the third time, I think? This time could be for a while though, perhaps, that is it. Its over, all gone.

This time I think the grind got to me. I cannot, for the life of me, continue to play a game that has become yet a second job. This job though, does not pay my pays bills, my mortgage, nor my car payments. It does get me purple gear for my character.

yeah,


So, after working 8 hours a day, coming home, walking the dog, cooking dinner, eating dinner, someone expects me to log into WoW, and then raid for 4 to 5 hours a night? Nope, not happening any more. I cannot justify it. When a game stops being fun and entertaining, and more like another job, requiring more attention and prep work than my real life job, its time to move on. Another thing that has me leaving, is the direction that development is taking. If, Path of the Titans was actually added to the game with Cataclysm, perhaps I would be muddling through it. However, that was not to be, for whatever reason.

Path of the Titans was supposed to be an alternate leveling experience for your characters, opening up new talents and traits, and actually, had my attention as a reason for sticking around. Yet, the good folks at Blizzard did not either get this to 'work properly" or something along that lines, as it was not there. Instead, we were gifted with Archeology (pointless) and........flying in Azeroth.

Leveling to 85 was done, fairly quickly, and then left with running 5mans in order to get better gear, in order to run Heroic 5mans, in order to gear up for the 10man raids, in order to gear up for the Heroic 10man Raids, so forth, and so on. At what point does it stop? Even with DC universe there is running of Duos, hard more alerts, in order to get Tier 1 and tier 2 gear.
Honestly.

I will poke my head in to the Blizzard website every once in a while, and see what is going one.

Tuesday, March 8th, Dragon Age 2 releases.

I will post on that, as well as go into DC Universe and what is going on there.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

New subject and New Topics. I am going to start up with a POV on the direction Blizzard is taking with World of Warcraft ( sub canceled), the incoming competition offered by new games such as Rift, DC Universe Online, and games coming in the future, such as Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I will not only discuss MMOs, but classic titles, recent titles, and again, games taht are coming out soon. One such title will be Bioware's Dragon Age 2. This will release this coming Tuesday, March 8th, 2011.

My old blog is gone, as such, it was never really meant to be viewed and read, it was more of an outlet for the voices in my head. Those voices are now quiet, and I can move to perhaps something a little more fun to talk about.

I will begin posting Sunday, March 6, 2011, and begin with the aforementioned MMO discussion, and go from there.

Everyone have a good night, and


Get your game on!