Difused

The overwhelming power that an MMO can have on my gaming time is still a curious thing to me. World of Warcraft was the first MMO that did this to me. I had played a fair amount of MMOs prior to WoW, but it was the first that totally sucked me in and took over my gaming life. (as a brief aside, I just joined a kinship in Lord of the Rings online, at this precise moment. Wonder where THAT is going to end up?). Lately I have not really had a main MMO to get my teeth into. I had hoped that would be Warhammer, but the joy really seems to be draining from that game to me. Still not given up, but it is certainly on the back burner. I am trying to stay away from World of Warcraft. There is so much that annoys me there now, though it is also extremely comforting and familiar, I fear it muchly. My brief time there last week felt like falling off the wagon, and I am glad to be free again. Lord of The Rings online is keeping me pleasantly occupied, but I feel I am dabbling in it, not sure if I have put down any roots as such.

So it has been very refreshing to be playing other games, and not be totally obsessed with one. I am still enjoying Wizardry 8 hugely, it really is everything I want out of a CRPG. I have also been dabbling a bit in Wizardry 7, which I have never got too far in, but I love it dearly, there is a particular mood to the Wizardry games which is unique and which I have a great soft spot for.

Also, I have spent a fair bit playing Fable 2, and so far I can say that it feels like everything I had hoped Fable 1 would be. It is such a rich, believable world, I have been happily exploring and taking it all in, so far so wonderful.

And then tomorrow I shall pick up Fallout 3, really looking forward to some post apocalyptic shenanigans.

There and back again

Things continue to be hit and miss in Warhammer Online. I am progressing very slowly, and the game is feeling very restricted to me. Less of an online world, and more of a series of empty battlefields. I really ought to try to find a nice guild there, I am sure that would help.

My rekindled interest in World of Warcraft had fizzled away, which I am rather relieved about. I actually cancelled my Lich King order today, I wonder if I can stay away.

As for Eve, seems I have run out of steam there too. I am putting it on hold, but I shall certainly be back.

This has all led me back to Lord of the Rings Online once more, which I am enjoying. New start(yet again), new character, lots of fun. Can I make it beyond the level 20 slump? Hopefully. Will I reach level 50 before the expansion? No way. But at least having 2 new classes should mean there will be a flow of players through the low level content, so I might benefit, assuming I am still going. I am sort of coming to terms with being an MMO bee at the moment, flitting from game to game. I guess I am looking for something which is not there at the moment, sadly, and I think Lord of the Rings Online is the nearest thing to it. (actually, I suspect that EQ2 or Vanguard are nearer, but I am not sure how healthy a community I can find there).

So for now, mostly LotrO, and a little bit of WAR when I am feeling extremely patient and forgiving. I subbed for 3 months to WAR, and I hope that something happens in that time to inspire me to carry on.

In other gaming news, been playing some Wizardry 8, a great classic ending to a very fine RPG series. Tomorrow Fable 2 should arrive. I had massive hopes for the first Fable, but found it very linear and lacking the depth I had been hoping for. I have less grand expectations for the sequel, and I have been actually avoiding any previews. This is pretty much my new policy regarding games, I try to grab enough info to get a feel for whether it is something I will be into, then avoid the endless details given in previews. I was reaching a point where it felt like I had already played games I was playing, as they had been written about so much. So I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised by Fable 2.

Then Fallout 3 at the end of the week. Again, avoiding any previews, I am very excited about this. Despite their flaws, I am a huge Elder Scrolls fan, I actually finished Arena and Daggerfall, really ought to do the same with Morrowind and Oblivion. I am also a huge Fallout fan (though thankfully not the scary sort), and I am confident that Bethesda can make a compelling and ambitious RPG in that particular universe. 

Abandonment issues

Things are feeling very sparse on my WAR server at the moment. The zones feel very empty, there are generally no open parties and Public Quests have nobody there to fulfill them. My memories of open beta and the first week of play contain the joy of moving from one crowded public quest to the next, or for variety heading up to the open rvr area in Nordland and fighting for hours. In between this I was doing a bit of questing, and a few scenarios. Now it seems that all the options I have are the later two, and as I am just into tier 3 and pretty much useless in scenarios, all I can do is quest alone in empty zone, looking longingly at the public quest and captured keep markers on my map and wish there were other players about to tackle them with. Progress if you are just questing is very slow. I hope the situation improves. I really like the game, but it really only works if you have other players around.

Caught in the grasp of icy fingers

I was convinced I was through with World of Warcraft. Any info I saw concerning the upcoming expansion seemed either boring or ridiculous. So why on earth did I download the new content patch, re-activate my account and log in last night? I wish I knew, I just suddenly had to have it. And now I feel like an addict who has fallen off the wagon. No idea how long it will last, but I have now ordered Wrath of the bloody Lich King, which I never thought would happen. 

Maybe it is a passing madness, and I will snap out of it in time to cancel the order, but at the moment, damn it I am really enjoying the game. So that means I am currently subscribing to WoW, Eve and WAR. Hmm. I can happily justify 2 MMOs, but 3? Trouble is, I am enjoying them all, for different reasons. I wonder where it will all end up.

Blown up!

So, much sooner into my new Eve career than I expected, I had my chunky old Vexor destroyed by a filthy pirate scumbag in an asteroid field. This was my first taste of Eve pvp, and I was feeling slightly dazed by the whole experience, mostly because it never occurred to me that I was in the sort of space that these things happen. A mighty slap to the face. I was in the final stages of a very heated battle with an npc pirate leader, out in a remote part of 0.4 security space, when suddenly a very large looking player ship arrived, flashing red. Soon I was targeted and watching my shields go down at an alarming rate, and of course the were jamming my warp drives. (Is there any way of escaping from this?) I tried to run away, but the Vexor is such a clunker, I didn't really have a chance. Also factor in the general sense of panic and "What do I do? What do I do?" Turns out what I can do is watch my beloved ship (named Fat Duck) blow up. I zoomed away in my pod, docked at the nearest station and sighed. So that's what it feels like, I suppose. I am not sure of the etiquette involved in these situations. I checked my combat log, found the name of the player and added them to my 'friends' list, in a special new folder I made entitled Grudges. Perhaps one day I shall have my revenge, who knows.

So now I am flying around in my smaller faster ship, salvaging wrecks and killing a few npcs in asteroid belts. I have enough money to replace Fat Duck (Fat Duck II), but I am not sure how I feel about another Vexor. Maybe it will be a good mission running ship, but I really feel that speed is important, particularly after my pirate run in. I shall spend some time harvesting wrecks and looking into my options.

For some reason it seems that Eve has really clicked with me this time round. Could be that I am being more patient, perhaps. Mostly I think I am dealing with the vast amounts of information in a much more manageable way. Rather than thinking there is a right way and a wrong way to go about things, a 'best ship to have', 'best way to make cash' etc, I am just experimenting with different equipment and ships and having a great time doing so. There is something very immersive about Eve, probably due to its extreme depth and freedom. I am also finding it very easy to dip into for a quick hour. 

Currently I have a small, fast ship with a reinforced hull, and a big slow cruiser loaded with drones and rails guns. When I learned how much slower the big ship was, drones and the longer range of the rail gun seemed like and obvious choice, and indeed I now chew through pirate gangs with a frightening swiftness. It can still take a while to approach their wrecks for looting and salvage. I shall look into the concept of tractor beams, I wonder if they work on wrecks? 

I am mostly doing a mixture of missions and salvage at the moment, like I say, still finding my feet. My aim is to save up for a decent ship to go exploring the dangers of lower security space, and when I say decent, I mean expendable. I still haven't even got insurance on my big cruiser, so maybe that should be my immediate short term goal... It seems to me is that there is a huge amount of options for configuring a ship in Eve, but a limited focus for those options. So there is always a trade off; strong ships can be slow and clunky, fast ships can be weak, more cpu or better shields? More cargo space, or stronger hull? That is before you even get into weapon types, ammo types and the seemingly endless amount of electrical systems (tracking disruptor, stasis whatnot, sensor thingamajig) of which I have a massive pile acquired from various pirates. Oh, and of course rigs and implants, which I have not even begun to think about.  

So I am enjoying this learning process, taking my time and gradually stretching my legs. Maybe one day I shall start looking for a corp to join, but at the moment I am enjoying the life a freelance salvager. I feel I would like to get a lot more experience under my belt before I consider anything more than that.

Also played a fair bit of Warhammer Online over the weekend. My rune priest has moved into tier three and bought a mount, which I hate by the way - give us dwarfs some ponies or rams or something, not that noisy awkward machine. I must admit I was suffering a bit of Warhammer malaise. I am loving the game, but the server has felt a bit empty over the weekend, and it really is an MMO that needs there to be people around. I worry that the traffic through the lower tiers will dry up, leaving them empty. We'll see. It certainly feels like I am traveling in one particular direction towards end game, rather than exploring a world, and I do miss that feeling. And I was actually considering but Wrath of the Lich King, which is a crazy prospect. I just need to keep reminding myself: "Think of the thousands of bunny hopping death knights"

Space is deep and space is endless

It's only been a day, but so far the Eve / Warhammer experiment is going well. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in Warhammer Online, doing some scenarios with my engineer and ploughing through a few quests with my rune priest. I also spent an hour or so in Eve, getting used to the interface and controls again mostly, but also transferring money and goods from an older character I have there to a new one. I decided to start fresh, rather than try to pick up where I left off, so it is nice to have a bit of a head start. I even have a fancy looking ship, which I should be able to fly in ooooh, about 30 hours time. There is a curious passive nature to Eve gameplay at times. There is of course the skill training system, in which skills train in real time, whether you are logged in or not. But extended travel through the galaxy, big mining sessions or similar activities make it a game which it is quite easy to play while you are doing something else. And I sort of love that about it.

Eve is my alt

Even though my gaming time is limited, and 90% of it is spent in Warhammer Online (Last night: Reclaimed several tier 2 keeps, a few PQs, and a few quests) I decided for some reason that I am going to start playing Eve Online as well. Eve was the first MMO that I ever played from launch day, and back at the beginning I stuck with it for about a month before feeling a bit bored with it and leaving. I have been back a few times over the years, but eventually the seemingly endless complexity eventually overwhelms me and I go back to the simple pleasures of killing boars over and over again. You know where you are with boars.

But the trouble is I remain fascinated with the notion of Eve. The sandbox nature of it's world is very appealing. I love the completely player driven economy. I love that it is all on a single server. The open-pvp-but-with-consequences system creates a brilliant atmosphere; as you venture out into lower security space seeking better asteroid fields, any ship you pass is viewed cautiously, as a potential threat. The fact that you can actually loose your ship that you have worked hard to buy gives the concept of conflict real weight.

The biggest problem I have with the game is that I lack a sense of my own character. In Eve, you are represented by a static portrait you create, and ultimately your ships are your characters. It can be a bit hard to relate to a spaceship, after a while. Also, because it is all in space, there is no tangible world to explore, and I miss that. If anybody makes an MMO with the same open ended nature of Eve, but where I get to have a character and explore a world, that would be lovely thanks. Maybe the Whitewolf MMO that CCP are making? I had hoped to find this sort of world in Age of Conan, but I was very wrong.

So why go back to Eve yet again? Several reasons. This time I am going to take it slow, and learn as I go along, rather than panic that I need to know everything right from the start. Also, it is a great change of pace to Warhammer, and I think that playing the two with give me some good gaming options depending on my mood. Then there is the matter of the 'walking around in stations' upgrade which is coming soon, and which I am hoping will not only give me more of a sense of my own character, but also give the universe a more tangible feeling. Let's see how I get on shall we?

Lay of the Land

I think a special mention should go to the landscape design in Warhammer Online. It seems that the designers were thinking vertically as well as horizontally, and I never feel like I am adventuring across a flat plain. There are many hills, mountains and ridges to climb, as well as clumps of rocks and boulders. Fall damage is very unforgiving, and consequently it really helps to be aware of your surrounds. These features also provide plenty of nooks to hide behind and plan ambushes, or to try to heal up after running away (not that we ever run away, right?) As an engineer, I am finding much enjoyment from choosing a suitable spot to set up my turret, and choosing a place with good height and hopefully a little rock for me to pop behind if I start getting attacked at range. If I can position myself near a big drop, even better, as there is nothing finer than using my knockback on a big burly orc that has clambered up to my sniping spot.

Yore

In between the endless playing of Warhammer Online, I have also been enjoying a few games from the past, thanks to being a beta tester for Good Old Games, a great site which sells downloadable DRM free versions of classic PC games which run in XP (probably Vista too, though I am still avoiding Vista). I downloaded Die by The Sword and Stonekeep, both games I can remember playing when they first came out. 

Die by the sword is a third person dungeon exploration and combat game, and its key feature is its mouse driven sword combat, in which the movements of the mouse translate directly to the movement of your sword. It is very tricky, and takes a great deal of getting used to, but the sense of freedom of sword movement and control is thrilling once you get the knack. With some refinement, it could be a really great combat system, and I am surprised nobody ever attempted anything similar. (unless they did and I missed it)

Stonekeep was a big budget, years in the making dungeon crawler rpg published by interplay. It plays a lot like the classic Dungeon Master; you explore, solve puzzles and fight monsters. It is also very good fun, atmospheric and extremely tough. Special mention to the sound design, it is effective and a great deal of tension comes from hearing the sound of a monster close by.

Both remind me of a time when games were a lot less forgiving, and the player was left with much to figure out for themselves.