Wrapped up in that study, in that fascination for some people, is the number of accounts made, website hits, or downloads downloaded.

I hadn’t had to read about the fascination for a while, thankfully, until Cryptic announced “1 million accounts.” Right away, all sorts of everyone began to scream (myself included) about the fact that this doesn’t mean one million players, or one million anything. In fact, it only represented one million total of something, something that Cryptic thought was worth adding up. Whenever I noted this, though, I made to sure to include “..but that is still impressive.”

The obsession with sub numbers/view numbers/download numbers is strange at best because no one seems to note that in this virtual world we all live in, a world where everything is based on someone’s word, that someone could easily be not only stretching the truth to fit their needs, but that that number that they quoted could actually be a sign of success.We, as the receiver of the information, are at the mercy of the giver. How else would we prove it?

People say “WoW has 3 million players in North America” for example, and use Blizzards success as some kind of proof that this means that “3 million paying players” is the standard for success. (Or, at least, one standard.)

But then you look at a game like Fallen Earth. Try to take a guess at how many players they have. Now ask yourself if people consider Fallen Earth a success. I would say that most people that I asked right now would say that “Fallen Earth is successful” despite the fact that the game has not even been out for a year. Why is that?

I think it is because in the case of obviously smaller developers, people understand that to developers of that size success can come in smaller chunks. 100k players for Blizzard with it’s amazingly huge staff would probably be very bad. But for Icarus, the developer for Fallen Earth, this would be magnificent.

And what about Lord of the Rings Online? I think, for some reason, that 300 thousand players is a roughly agreed on number for how many subscriptions there are for that game. I don’t know why, perhaps they released some information a while ago? (Probably.) And how many people would consider LotRO a success? Most.

Now look at Mabinogi. That game does very well, according to Nexon’s claims and to Nexon’s obvious success, but how many people could even begin to estimate how many players there are for that game? (Note: If you are not familiar with the game, or other small games like it, and you want to consider yourself as some kind of news source for MMORPG gaming, then you need to seriously consider expanding your horizons.)

The point is that, for some reason, we allow the acknowledgment that for some games certain numbers seem to spell success, yet we assume that when a company gives out foggy numbers proudly that this means that they are either lying about being “successful” or are not actually successful.

So why do we seem to know that we have no idea what success might look like for some companies, but pretend that we know of a magic number that needs to be put out there  in order for us to call a company “successful?”

I know, I know. People claim that they just want to know pure facts. In other words, put out exact numbers that show how many players you have.

But even then, the numbers can be deceiving. CCP, for example, says it has 300 thousand players or it’s game “EVE Online.” But before you think that is a success, consider how many of those accounts are double, triple or even quadruple (yes, trust me. There are a lot of players that have 4 accounts) account owners. So let’s say there are only 75 thousand players. Why would we still assume that EVE was successful?

We would assume it because of the actions of the developer. As far as I am concerned, I spell success as “keeping a game open, developing and working well.” These games do not pay for themselves. They need enough players to keep the servers running, and that is hard to do with no players. If your game is making you enough money to keep it going and being developed further, than as far as I am concerned you are successful.

I am sure I will see a few people write that they are concerned with the foggy numbers put out by Cryptic (and now SOE concerning their 8 million registered accounts for Free Realms) but I would like to challenge those that are concerned to ask themselves if they have any idea what success might mean to those companies. Are they privy to insider information? I would think not, being that even the people that I know personally that are in development would not give me any hard numbers (if they did know them) no matter how many drinks I bought for them.

It’s funny how much of this stuff is based on perception. It’s also shocking how many people “hear” something (as with my LotRO numbers) and cannot claim the source. I know someone that wrote on the mmorpg.com forums that SWG was “down to 10,000 players“, thus providing a “victory for the vets.” (whatever silliness that is supposed to mean.) Then I have heard, with my own ears, someone else claim they they read that the game had something near 125,000.

Now, which person was closer to correct? And even if they were correct, what would that mean? Would it mean that SWG didn’t just release a great new update, or that the game is still being enjoyed by, (to keep it simple) a lot of people? And if they were correct in their guess, would thye be able to take those numbers and show how a company like SOE measures success? Of course not.

We all know that companies spout numbers when they are proud of them. Bloggers/podcasters/writers do it, too. And just like those companies, all those websites/writers/podcasters and bloggers sometimes use foggy numbers.

Point being that this is just another wave of players and websites being concerned with things that will never make sense to them, until explained in full detail by the company. (Only possibly upon obtaining a certain job in a certain company. Being employed by SOE does not mean that you know SOE sub numbers.)

And as a nod to those websites like MMORPG.com or Massively: if you are concerned about the foggy math used by Cryptic or by SOE, ask yourself how you sell advertising for your  website, your primary source of revenue. (Of course, I could be wrong about that. But I have a feeling Masssively and MMORPG.com make their money from advertising.) You sell that advertising based on how many virtual eyeballs you can get to look your way. How many views/pageviews counts as something, and those eyeballs are not paying you anything. In essence, you are a F2P game that makes money from advertising. The “players” pay nothing to eat up all your content.

In other words, “one million accounts” is still important because Cryptic, or any other company, can use that as clout to get new investors, advertising on their own sites, or as a way to attract even more players.

And to any bloggers/DIY Journalists out there: if you are concerned about it, ask yourself if you give out the number of truly unique page-views that your blog gets, or if you use other foggy numbers. Or, if you don’t give out hardly any like us, how do you come to the conclusion that you are “successful?”

Each one of us, from amateur bloggers to major gaming websites to the actual gaming companies, have our own definition of success. And if  we say that “accounts” is something to look at when considering our success, then no one can tell us otherwise.

Beau

The glaring lights in his eyes dimmed somewhat, and the house lights came up a bit. He could see, clearly now, an audience of around 200 people sitting nervously. Some of them smiled but most sat with mouths closed, nervously avoiding eye contact. He hated that reaction, that nervous reaction. Too many times had it meant that the person was actually about to attempt something very wrong.  This audience had been hand-picked from a list of millions, though, over the last year. Everyone had been checked and double-checked.

“You seem nervous?” asked the blonde woman opposite Check. She was smiling, but he could tell she was shaky as well.

“No, I’m fine.” he responded.

“Couldn’t you have just bent the light, so it wasn’t in your eyes?” she asked him. The cameras clicked into action, recording now.

“Of course. But that takes energy. Even if it is just a small amount, I don’t like to waste any of it.” He looked at her, and she glanced down at a light blue pad. She touched the screen and studied the next set of questions for a brief moment.

“First of all, thank you for being here. I know that this isn’t the easiest thing to do for you..” she continued.

Check held up his hand. “Easy for me, actually. Hard for you.” He corrected her.

The audience shuffled, uneasy. He knew he did not need to remind them of the chances they took, just by being in the same room with him. They knew of the “curse” that he carried with him, the bad luck that he brought.

“So why do you think that is?” she asked.

“What is? The curse?” he looked at her. She nodded. She was tough, this one. She was young and knew this would make her career.

“Well, they can’t get to me in any way. This has been established.” he answered. ” So how do you get to someone that is untouchable? You get to their loved ones, their families. Of course they can’t get to them, so they work to destroy anyone that even comes in contact with me. They make it seem as though if you get near me, you will die.”

“Is it true?” she asked. “That anyone that gets near you, dies?”

“Statistically, yes. Of course with proper protection you should be OK, but I cannot wrap anyone else, so…you take a chance..” he let the words trail off. Everyone in the audience and the interviewer knew what he meant. Their fate was in their hands, not his. They were warned long before they chose to attend this filming.

“Let’s talk about that, can we? The wrapping?” she asked.

“What about it? I’ve explained it before. You’ve seen my website.”

“Well, when did it all start?”

“Years ago. Years. I fell in love with her, thought that I could protect her as I am protected, and there ya go. Turns out I could. Where ever she goes, she is protected. Then I moved on to my mother, wrapping her. Then my brothers, my sister. I kept wrapping people I wanted to protect. I even wrapped my dogs at one point.”

“And so when did you first notice a problem?” the interviewer sat up straighter, knowing that this was getting good.

“Well, as soon as I hit fifteen I did. Not a problem, really, but just this little voice in my head. I knew number fifteen took a tiny bit of effort, whereas one through fourteen took none at all.”

“So when did you decide to stop, and why?”

“At twenty six. You know this.” Check sighed. Two years to arrange this and he was being asked the same questions as the last time? He decided to just keep going, maybe she would ask something new. “When I got to twenty six, well then I could actually feel it. It was no weakness, it wasn’t like I was like, you know, weaker at that time. I could just feel a very distinct….difference. Then when I went to Australia and had to stop the Shlider crew, that took a lot out of me.”

The interviewer leaned forward. “Took a lot out of you?”

“No, no. Careful now.” Check warned. “I told you, not a weakness. But it did take some effort. I guess I meant to say that comparatively it took a lot out of me. Here, watch this. Since we are doing some kind of freak show thing here..” And with that Check opened the palm of his hand and a split second later one of the audience members, a female in a red skirt and blue top, floated in front him. She was smiling and still in sitting position.

“How do you feel?” he asked her.

The woman smiled wide. “I feel really good, actually. I’m not scared.”

Check looked at the interviewer. “Right now I am stimulating areas of her brain, using the Checks. I see them as little hands…microscopic hands…inside her brain. Thanks to me, she is feeling very relaxed, probably better than she has in her entire life.”

The interviewer sat with her mouth open, staring at the woman.

“The Checks are holding her in the air. She is not floating, but let’s say that she is sitting on a seat made of the Checks, and is encased within a “wrapping” of the Checks. She is completely protected now. I could fling her all the way to the moon and back and she wouldn’t feel the sting of the air, or the burning of her re-entry into the atmosphere. I am allowing oxygen to pass in and out of the Checks, allowing her to breathe.”

“How does it feel for you to do that?” the interviewer asked Check.

“It doesn’t. In fact, it’s almost like I am not even thinking about doing it. Like in a dream, when something just is and you don’t question why it is. You know, like when you are dreaming and you look over and your girlfriend has a snake head, and you just accept it? That’s how this is, right now. The Checks are in my control, but I do not know I am controlling them. I am not really…aware… of that control?”

A second later and the woman was sitting back in her chair, smiling. Her clothes had not even so much as wrinkled and she looked like she had never left the spot.

“That took no effort at all.” continued Check. “But the Schlider incident actually took a tiny amount of effort. I actually had to think about it for a moment. That was scary. So that’s when I knew I had to pull back on the number of wrappings.”

“Ah, yes. That’s when you stopped wrapping fifteen through twenty six?”

“Yes. And look at what happened.” Check looked down at his hands.

“How did they take it when you told them that they were no longer going to be wrapped?”

“A few of them took it wonderfully.” Check smiled. “My old buddy from high school was so cool about it. He laughed it off, he had a great time with it. Which of course made me feel worse. My mother insisted that she was one of the ones I let go. She is a saint, and knew she was getting older anyway. She was probably eighty-nine at that point.”

“But surely she had benefited from your ability to reverse aging? That had to be hard..”

Check held up his hand again. “No, I do not reverse aging. I can help slow it down. And yes, it must have been hard for her. Of course she would never let me know how hard, because she is a saint.”

“And the rest? What about fifteen and twenty one? Surely they knew that you would be un-wrapping them?”

“Of course. They used their invulnerability to commit crimes. They were already on the list long before.” Check paused.  “I feel bad that they had to be treated that way in jail, but they should have known the reactions people would have to someone that had the chance to be almost immortal and invulnerable and then just pissed it away.”

“So you un-wrapped all those until you got down to fourteen. And fourteen and under stay protected to this day?”

“Yes, pretty much. I am not going to take the chance with wrapping anyone else.” Check looked directly at the interviewer. “I might need every single ounce of myself to stop something else, and I cannot risk the welfare of the rest of the world just to protect a few dozen people.”

Suddenly, one of the cameras drooped forward and the man behind it stepped out into the light. He was smiling, but sweat lit up his brow. Check sat up straight.

“This is for all those that you let down!” the man yelled, and then reached down to his belt and pulled at some kind of wire. Immediately he exploded, forming a bubble of pure light. There was a muffled BUMP that shook the stage, and then the bubble looked as though it had been painted on the inside with red paint that began to thickly run down to the bottom.

The audience sat there, scared to do anything at all. One woman fainted, and the interviewer stared at the bubble.

“Don’t worry. No harm done.” Check held up his hand and lifted it suddenly above his head, and the bubble (now filled with white smoke) shot silently through the ceiling.

Check leaned back in his chair and began to bite at a nail. “I should have scanned the damn camera men!” he scolded himself.

The interviewer stared down at her pad, searching for the next question. She was dumb founded.

“Well, what else?” Check asked.

She looked up at him, her lip quivering.

After a few moments of tense silence, Check stood up.

“Thank you all for coming.” he said to the audience.

So I worked today, like last year, on Super Bowl day. All day long people would react to seeing me with plenty of pity, as though I were heartbroken to be working on such an important day. One lady asked me if they were going to allow us to bring a small TV to work so we would not miss any of the holy moments. After I told her that “I don’t follow football..” she laughed and said “But they let Emmit do the coin toss!” I responded with “Do you wanna’ talk about string theory?” She kept taking her cheap canned cat food out of her cart and said “Huh?” I just said “Nevermind. Have a good day!”

I have to be honest, completely honest. I dislike the Super Bowl, and all of football actually, more than most things in my life. As usual, it represents something to me, it sometimes stands for something rotten.

Now, is this to say that people that enjoy the sport are evil people? Of course not.

Here in Texas, though, it is very easy to say that we have a bad educational system. But it does exist, putting us above many countries in the world that have none at all, this is true. I have talked to teachers that would love to have the amount of enthusiasm from parents for their childs education that the parents have for something like football. It’s actually really, really sad when you consider the teen pregnancy rate around here (dropping nation-wide, but still high) and the percentage of drop-outs that the state boasts.

In other words, Texas as a whole loves football and encourages it as though it truly is more important that education. What else am I supposed to think when the sheer amount of money the state and the cities within have given to football and everything surrounding it is mind-boggling, while the basic education of our youth is still such an issue?

All I need for proof is in the papers every day. Google it. Check out how good things are going for football and football related retail, and check out how poorly our students are educated.

Many would say that this is due to the increased number of illegal immigrants, non-English speaking families that “refuse to conform or to do anything else but produce off-spring.” (as though this doesn’t happen in White American families.) I hear this point of view, literally, all the time at work. My place of employment is wedged in between the “nicer” area and the “rougher” area, and so provides a fascinating glimpse at how people live on both sides. We can have a Rolls parked out front next to a beat up ‘93 Corolla. We get homeless customers that scrape together enough change to buy their cheap dog food, and well-off older couples that will spend thousands of dollars in a single visit. From the white older people I hear about how the Mexicans are taking over. From the Mexicans I get quizzical looks as I try to explain to them, in English, how to feed their newborn kittens. I also get a lot of ganster wanna-be’s, asking me where to find “cheap shots” for their pit-bulls. I have, at least 3 times a week, customers that ask me how to “beef up” or “bulk up” their bully breeds. There are such obvious lines drawn between all of these people that I hope for something that could pull them all together.

And no that something would never, ever, be football.

Education is the only thing that pulls people across those type of lines. Education is what I attempt to hand out every time someone asks me a question. Even if it is just knowledge about something basic like puppy care, when they leave the store they know something they didn’t know before they walked out.

Football is stagnant and needs no analyzing. Sure, fans want to say there is something to the study of football, but that’s just an attempt to make their obsessive hobby seem like something more than a hobby of sitting down passively.

And the obscene amounts of money given from cities to help alleviate the costs of a new stadium only goes up. Every year some new stadium is promised in some city, and the city ends up footing a great amount of the bill. This happens in cities with rising crime rates, drop-out rates and amounts of single parents.

Football is a daydream for a lot of kids, but the chances of them actually making a career in football are impossible to overcome. Yet here in Texas so many children and teens are hurt, seriously hurt, during the pursuing of that unrealistic dream, spurred on by parents with Cowboys jerseys on their chest, Cowboys hats on their heads and Cowboys stickers on their cars. Those parents attend almost every one of those pee-wee football games, yet make almost any excuse to skip out on the next parent-teacher night.

Does football bring in some money into the mix, though? Does it provide jobs and opportunities for career advancement? Yes. But so do many other industries. And can you imagine how many jobs and career opportunities would come out of an educational system that was treated with the same worship?

So yeh, have fun watching the games. I am not saying that you should not. But for me, here in Texas, I have had enough. I might have to deal with customers that come in wearing their jersey that cost 84.99 while they scrape (literally digging through pocket fuzz to get enough change together) enough money to buy the cheapest food we have. Meanwhile, their 17 year old daughter hangs on the side, texting to someone while she holds her fatherless baby. (This is a real family, and not rare by any means in my store.)

And before anyone asks, it is not my opinion that everyone that loves football is doomed to failure or contributes to the downfall of the poor. This is not the case, at all. I am simply upset with a state and by it’s citizens that, using all my experiences as evidence over the last 6 years I have lived here, have allowed themselves to care more about a boring game and it’s unrealistic goals for children to never achieve than about educating those children.

The proof is out there. No one will argue that education is doing better than football. Look at the numbers. Even the state admits it. This place is headed in some pretty poor directions. I am not saying that football, football the entity, the corporation, the business, is itself completely responsible for this. Football couldn’t have reached this level of importance around here without the help of millions of bored citizens.

I might sound like some kind of snob that was beat up by jocks when he was a kid (so far from the truth it’s not even funny) but I don’t care. I’m sick of sports being seen as something more than just entertainment.

Beau

No, that's not me silly.

Here it is, 9:30 AM and I’ve already been up for about 3 hours. I have walked the dogs, fed all the animals and fixed myself some breakfast. Leala has decided to sleep late, so I am keeping pretty quiet.

I really enjoy this little job I have, working in this pet store. It’s not glamorous at all and the money isn’t anything much, but I constantly help people there and I constantly learn new things from customers and from the books I borrow off of the shelves. I have learned to never trust only one source, but to go to many many sources to gain a general knowledge about something. In the world of pets/animals, there is opinion and there is science, and sometimes opinion passed off as science.

But I won’t be at this job forever. Not only has my asthma become almost dangerously worse there, but I have to be honest with myself and say that I tend to move on from job to job anyway. I have done it my whole life, with very few constants remaining at home. Here they are, though:

1) Writing: I write almost every day, which is something I am proud of. I don’t know very many bloggers that write a blog ever week, much less every day. I do not pretend that I am the best at it, but I know that my chops are slowly getting better just out of repetition.

2) Exercising: I walk the dogs, do sit-ups and push-ups, and eat well. I try to take care of my body as much as I can because this hobby tends to make you…unhealthy. Sitting at a PC can be rough on the body, and the (sometimes) convenient diet that goes along with it can be just as bad. Also, the dogs must have their exercise.

3) Art: By art I mean “doing something creative.” It might be writing a song or a role-play story, or coming up with a poem or drawing a picture. Either way, I am always trying to use the creative juice that seems to be stored in my head. I just don’t get how someone can tell me that they never do anything creative, so I am happy that I have the need to express myself that way.

If you notice, though, none of these constants have to do with my “real life” job. I am good at the job and a hard worker, but I could not see myself in retail for that long. My boss has been at the job for 10 years, and she still knows almost nothing about animals. A company that allows people like that to become “the boss” need not be trusted.

My gaming, though, reflects my work life for sure. And some of my “other” life.

I stay with games, but the time is spread out over years and not concentrated into intense 8-month long goals being pursued. I have never cared about virtual loot or virtual glory, so this frees me up to explore the other parts of games that no one seems to notice. You know the parts…the story, the land, the artwork that makes up the game. So my games can be seen as temporary positions for me.

This does not mean that I do not enjoy my visits, or that I will never come back to that position again. In fact, I am intensely loyal to my games, but I maintain a huge list of games that I am loyal to. While some players explore every nuance of their class or of their particular game-world, I explore every nuance of the genre of entertainment. I might pick out systems from SWG to explore one week/s, then will switch to WURM Online. If you want to gain true knowledge about something you are interested in in real life, you read/explore everything you can on the subject. Shouldn’t the same be applied if you are interested in MMORPGs?

I have accepted that this means some limitations for me, both in real life and in gaming. Goals either have to be small and achievable in small amounts of time (I organized the books, I finished that quest) or have to spread out over very large amounts of time (I achieved level 30 in Mabinogi, I became certified in animal behavior.)

Also, it means that I give up on ever having pretty “normal” things like a big beautiful house or 3 small children. Honestly, I have never wanted those things anyway (at least to the point that I would pursue them) but it’s just so happens that I probably wouldn’t be the best father or the best home-owner. I move around too much, I wander too much.

So I am a little envious of those players that can play as though it is their real-life job. They achieve things in game and in real life that I never would. They stay with one company until retirement, they have several of the highest level characters and see all the content a game has to offer. They might get to know the joys of having kids or of having a 30-year mortgage. (That is a joy, right? hehe)

I wouldn’t mind being the highest level, or owning three nice cars instead of one. I wouldn’t mind being able to conquer mighty dragons or being able to send my child to college and eventually on to a family of his own.

But, I won’t achieve certain goals, and I know that. I have had to be honest with myself over the last 10 years or so and ask myself: “What do I want to do?”

The answer?: “Explore.”

It’s a selfish goal, but what can I do?

Luckily I have an incredible wife that seems to enjoy the same thing, and seems to understand that we both do not want to stop doing what we do, even if that means losing out on some of the normal goals of life.

Oh well, odd blog I guess. But I am off to work. Today I will help adopt out a few cats, clean up poop, give some advice to a new puppy owner and check Twitter/read articles the entire time. Enjoy your day.

Beau

Download/listen HERE!

EXPLICIT?

Spouse Aggro

Friday Feb. 5th

The show you listen to today is the result of a couple of technical breakdowns. Our normal amazingly complicated recording device (the iPhone) confused us by cutting off our recordings. By the time we got done, we had gone over the same subjects a few times and were a little tired of talking about them.

It’s especially hard when the first conversation you had was a really good one.

Anyway, we take 3 questions from Sarc over at www.lagwar.com. Thank you Sarc, not only for the great questions, but for the brilliant formatting that allowed Beau to skip your entire email and get right to the questions. Kiddin.

We are happy to be back to the short episode. Those hour/hour and a half episodes can be terribly boring, at least to us. If I talk that long I will usually resort to connecting too many dots.

The music for today is by Santigold, a cool female singer/rapper type person. Go check her out.

Enjoy!

Send emails to spouseaggro at yahoo dot com.

Website found at spouseaggro dot com.

Twitter name: spouseaggro

Skype name: beauturkey

Now GO LOG IN!

The Turkeys

“We got the Tesh, what can we say?” said Aventurine owner/head developer Tico Torres. “He’s going to be a perfect fit for our new player experience, which we announced recently.” Tico spoke proudly about the new up-and-coming changes to the new player experience for their hardcore PvP MMORPG called Darkfall.

“As we’ve mentioned before we’re happy to see an ever-increasing number of new players entering the game and we’re also about to introduce several initiatives and special offers to further increase these numbers.” Tico continued, beaming. “We’re introducing a new feature possibly as soon as the next patch which provides optional protection against player attacks to brand new players. This functionality is very limited and only lasts a few hours but it should be enough to allow someone logging into Darkfall for the first time to learn to control his character and to get his bearings while still having proper access to the live game. ”

Some of those features include a special “Welcome Basket” that can be claimed by any new account holder upon entering the game for the first time. Inside the basket the 19 year old man would find a battle-axe, some incense and a blank journal to keep track of his exploits. Also, the new player will find himself welcomed home by the sound of glittering silver trumpets every time he logs in.

The changes are not without controversy, however, as the official forums for the game hosted post after post of poorly worded threats and entire paragraphs that warned, in detail, of what we think is death. Or disco, we can’t tell.

We reached The Tesh for comment, on break from his whirl-wind 50 city/2 year “Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em” world tour:

While the exact date of release for this new expansion is not known, many fan-sties are estimating it’s arrival some time in the spring.

(No, I don’t think Darkfall is turning into a Candyland. I just thought this was funny.)

There are, needless to say, some very creepy people online. In fact, I would wager that right now there are people that I think I know pretty well that are some very creepy people. I would like to think that I have pretty well-equipped creep radar, but let’s be honest and say that none of us truly know each other until we know each other.

We shouldn’t be surprised when someone turns out to be nuts, or when someone we thought as cool turns out to be…well, even more nuts.

So in all of my web-space living I try to maintain a certain distance from creepy elements. While I like to pride myself on being honest and open with how me and Leala talk and live, the last thing I would want to do is put that openness above our safety. So I had to make some basic rules to follow, and that seems to have helped.

1) If someone starts to act creepy, they go on the giant “ignore” list. This is easy, I simply bump them off any friends list or block them from having any access to anything that is mine. While there are plenty of places to find out information about me, I have worked pretty hard to make the virtual borders of my virtual spaces pretty darn secure. Me and Leala will talk about this on an upcoming show, but I have found that it is far easier to go ahead and block any interactions with someone as soon as I think they even might be that type of weirdo than to wait until they prove it. Have I thought this about certain people and been wrong before? I am sure I have, but let’s be honest here and say that there are millions of friends to be had online. I won’t regret losing one unless they have already been proven a true friend.

2) As soon as someone mentions being associated with any “griefer” groups, they are on the ignore list. In an example, if anyone on MMO Voices mentions being part of one of the many griefer groups that exist throughout various games, they would be banned from the site and all other areas of my life. A couple years ago when GAX was going pretty strong, a few people started mentioning “hacking” groups. When I expressed concern for having such nut-jobs around, a few people told me where and how to find (and some even showed me) their posting boards/websites that bragged about such exploits as placing large pictures of male naughty-bits all over forums for certain online childrens games. I saw the threads talking about it, and talked to a few people that took part in it or knew someone that did. Needless to say, if anyone even mentions even being a “hacker” around me or any of my sites, they would be gone. More than likely they are just some dumb kid that thinks that hacking means to ninja loot something, but I take no chances with creeps.

Also, as I have noted before, there are connections between followers of every type. I don’t like followers. I like individuals that might work together, but not mindless followers. In fact, I find almost no sin greater than not using your own brain and decision making skills, and on the internet no other characteristic should be more valued than individuality.  Members of these hacking/griefing groups are nothing but bored kids with no creativity, and I want nothing to do with them.

3) If someone uses the word “rape” in everyday conversation, they are on the ignore list. I do not tolerate in anyway the changing of the meaning of this word from what it truly is to how someone describes playing a game. If you really look at what they are trying to say and the circumstances in which they usually saying it, you will get nothing but massive displeasure out of hearing it. Unfortunately, people have been popping up left and right to use this word.

4) If someone prides themselves on being a “critic” of online gaming (since these interactions are basically all about online gaming) while they play the online games, they get the ignore. This is not to say that you cannot criticize online gaming or games, or developers. This is just saying that if you are in the habit of doing nothing but whining, complaining, criticizing and moaning about this hobby, then we have no business talking.

5) Anyone that claims to be a member of a hyper-sensitive ultra-liberal group: You will find no one more liberal than me when it comes to animal rights, gay/lesbian/transgendered rights, racial equality and any other of the staple groups that, you know, want or need those rights. But when you run a hyper-sensitive all girl Fem blog (and forbid the use of the word “guys”) then you are cut out immediately. These are the girls and boys that never did anything fun in their life, so connecting to a hyper-sensitive group will give them all the drama they need. They have issues with everything, yet want to be part of every group possible. The last person I had a run-in over this with is in a straight marriage but wants to be considered gay. Fine, that’s possible. Then she wants to pick and choose the parts of football that are sexist, so that she can enjoy the games guilt free (after all, being one of the boys is fun too!) Then she wants to love her horses and wants to stand for animal rights but wants to ignore the obvious animal cruelty that goes on behind horse racings door so that she can she can hang with that crowd. People like this have an explanation for everything, but never just admit it and say “OK, so I like something that might not be normally cool with me. I’m human.”

There are many other criteria, I am sure. And while I do not think that being involved with me is any cooler than being involved with anyone else, (probably less cool!) these are rules I have set for myself. Make your own. Set your standards.

I look at my existence online as something to be very thankful for, and as something that will only become more common as technology drives the internet into places we never thought it would be. There will be more people online in an hour from now than there are now, and more tomorrow, and even more the next day. In a world with such freedoms, there is not a better place for standards.

And yes, I am very aware of the powers of free speech. This is not about that. In America, we have free speech. Still, you cannot walk down the street yelling at the top of your lungs at 3:30 AM, no matter what you are saying. And yes, certain types of speech are prohibited because of the fact that you are saying them in a public place. Free Speech does not mean that you can push your thoughts or words down other peoples throats everywhere and at all times.

And the same goes for the internet. Just because you can say something does not mean that you have the right to do it anywhere. In fact people that push those boundaries for some kind of shock-tactic reasons are actually the enemies of the internet. Their lack of self control will eventually force the government to step in to take control of the situation. Do you expect the powers that be to just sit by while 19 year old griefers post pictures of male naughty-bits on the forums for a childrens game?

So make your own rules and have your standards. Also understand that as you read this there are reasons for me posting this even if you never see the examples I am talking about. I have many, many interactions with people online in many different forms (just like anyone that does what we do.)

I am drawing the line. I will not virtually hang around certain types of people, and will not encourage ridiculous behavior simply because it can be done online.

I want to close out this long strange blog with a thought, a comparison of two different comedians that will hopefully drive my point home. First, we have Bill Cosby, one of the funniest men alive. Watch this clip:

Bill Cosby is different than a comedian, he is a performance artist. In that clip there were only two words spoken: “Challenge” and “YAY!” And watch as he takes his turn dancing. Each time is unique and different than the last. A few of the turns make you think: “Wait, he just DID that..” but then he turns it on it’s ear.Try telling 5 different version of the same simple knock-knock joke, and avoid the use of swear words. It’s hard. It takes creativity.

On the other hand, we have Richard Pryor. While I do think that Richard Pryor was groundbreaking and hilarious, even he had issues with the use of certain words, namely the N word. (I will not type it here or place a clip to his comedy. Many of my readers read from work or around children. I respect that.) After a trip to Africa he became very aware of how the word still held meaning for millions of people, and still carried weight. While it was just a word, it represented so many things. After Richard Pryor became more aware of his fame, he started to reflect on his public image as anyone else would do. ( NOTE: Some of the podcasters/bloggers I know have used the “it’s just a word” defense. In that case, I challenge them to use the worst racist/homophobic language they know on their shows/blogs. They will not, of course, because they know exactly what I am talking about.)

Bill Cosby could have went the way of Richard Pryor and worked blue. But instead he created his own language, his own sense of timing and used words other than the shocking words of the day (occasionally he did use a curse word, though. And who knows what he said in his private life.) to make his points. He talked about common everyday life things, like being a dad or a husband.

Bill Cosby represents what I want the Internet to become when I am in it. I want to be in spaces that are from the Bill Cosby school of thought, meaning that they are creative, original and not reliant on common phrases or shocking terms to say what could have been said in a million other ways.

And look at the most popular black comedians of the day, now. Chris Rock, Katt Williams, and the big fat guy that wears really big suits.  How far has their act come from the days of Richard Pryor? In the meanwhile, Cosby did his thing and didn’t apologize for his art. He didn’t feel the need to have “street cred” because he knew, like we all do, that street cred means that you spent your life on the street. If any of us had a choice we would rather not be there, and that’s the truth.

So if you want on my ignore list be unoriginal, boring, mindless and a follower. Go ahead and be “shocking” and think that you are doing something that has never been done before. Go ahead and be hyper-sensitive while simultaneously maintaining a life of enjoying those things that you gripe about. And go ahead and try to convince me that you speak the way you do on your podcast even around your children.

Anyway, I’m off to watch some Cosby. That guy had guts.

Beau

It’s so cool to see the new updates arrive in my email every so often, but to be honest I never got that far in SWG levels. I explored a lot, flew in my space-ship a lot and played house a lot. Yep, house. As in “Where should I put this space couch hunny?” I played years ago before the NGE and after. The difference? It runs better now, has more options (even with taking away what it did) and still looks pretty darn good.

I happily downloaded the update and logged in to find all my confusing stuff, still sitting there confusingly. Just like in my re-visit to EVE, I had to make some goals fast or my wandering mind would get distracted by some other icon on my desk-top.

OK. Housing. Yes. I need to find a place to plop down a house. While we’re talking about that, how many MMO’s have housing that allows you to just walk up and put a house down? I mean, Vanguard has it’s plots…Darkfall has theirs. WURM Online let’s you put ‘em where-ever you feel like, Anarchy is instanced, WoW doesn’t have any, LotRo is instanced, EQ2 is instanced, I haven’t seen much on Mortal’s yet….hmmmm…oh yeh UO had open everything…

So I flew around on my space bike (I just want to be corrected here) until I found a sweet spot that sat underneath the shadows of some beautiful waterfalls right outside of Theed. Ah, Theed. Home of snobbish Jedi’s that NEVER answer me as I go “Excuse me, how do I get my hot-bar back? Hey MAN!”

Cool thing is, the housing is cheap. Space dirt cheap. And HUGE, too. I had three houses in my inventory so I quickly unpacked the largest and set it down next a group of other houses. A space community, I guess they were.

And I just went nuts. First of all, I /claimed everything I could, from cool posters to neat looking display cabinets. I got awesome plushie dolls. I mean, LOOK AT THIS:

I have a good deal of money on this character, 100’s of millions i believe, so I am going to spend it all on space ships and housing items. And you know that I have never once played a game that allows you to look at anything, absolutely ANYTHING in your inventory just so that you can pull it out as a real-world representation of how COOL YOU ARE. I mean, I thought to myself: “Hey man, a BIG JET ENGINE WOULD LOOK COOL HERE.”

OK, let’s see…hey cool look I have one in my inventory:

So let’s see what happens when I just take it out….and…HOLY CRAP:

For the record, yes I knew that this would happen. I just performed a little skit for you to illustrate how neat it is to be able to do this. To be honest, I don’t even WANT a jet engine thing in my living room. THAT type of item would go into the basement, stupid.

For all of the drama that many think happened around SWG (..it didn’t. The players ran off to play WoW, just like with every other MMO in the entire country at that time.)  the game still survives and holds more cool features than most MMOs that might be a quarter of it’s age.

Not to mention the cool role-play disc item thingy I received upon logging in, the one that allows me to make my own missions to give to people (think Ryzom’s Ring, ‘cept spacier) or the briefly above mentioned appearance slot that has surely spelled doom for my space pocketbook. Not to mention (on top of that) the space stuff, the incredible space ships that allow GROUPS OF PLAYERS to fight together, in real twitchy time…(something that STO could not even get right) and the killer new Civil War thingy going on right now (think the American Civil War ‘cept with laser guns and robots that killed me twice already. Jerks.)

Point being that SWG seems to be doing better than most MMOs. Take advantage of it or not. Hold a grudge against the game for something you think the developers did wrong. Whatever, more room for me and my soon-to-be droid army.

Beau

I logged into my 5 year old account. The first thing I wanted to do was to check a look at the new planet animations/textures. I sat and watched clouds form into swirling masses, and watched twinkling light on a few surfaces. It was very, very impressive. I had to take inventory of all the stuff I had from before and where it all was, and soon realized that not only had I spent/given away most of my 100’s of millions last time, but some of the items I had spent the money on either no longer interested me or were somewhere wayyy off into 0.0 space.

Last time I was active in the game, I became the member of a very nice new-ish corp. We went ratting together and made plans to all learn covert ops together. Soon, though, we were declared on by some corp that had spies (yes, spies) in our little guild. To be honest, it was rather fun with all the drama, the rooting-out of the spies and all that. We pointed fingers, questioned motives. For some reason they didn’t even suspect me. Although I had done nothing, I felt a little hurt? Why couldn’t I be a suspect too?

Soon enough the war took it’s annoying toll on me. Everywhere I went some kid in a frigate followed me, calling me names in local. It wasn’t role-play, and it wasn’t funny. It was just annoying, typical young man insults…questioning my sexuality, questioning my abilities as a pilot. I would have tolerated so much more if they had at least played the role better, insulting my school of study or my ships paint job.

So, I quit. I gave away a bunch of cash and bought a bunch of useless items. Thousands of ammo piles and every type of add-on filled my screen. I knew the first priority would be to insure the ships I wanted to use, and to start figuring out what I wanted to do. I knew that the new exploration abilities sounded nice, and that I needed to buy the Covert Ops ship that I trained for over the last few returns.

If you now hit F-12 you are brought to a tutorial screen, and soon I would be learning the basics of probing/scanning/exploring. I gotta’ say, the new tutorials and the new player experience is so, so, so much better than when I first played those years ago. I have never thought that hiding information from a player, or making a player learn the very basics of your game somehow makes your game better or more complex. In fact, if a player logs into your game and gets stuck, they more than likely will not try to “figure it out for themselves.” They will minimize, go to their browser and look it up.You might as well tell them what they need to know, in game.

EVE gives you the basics, but in a way that does not just hand it to you. The new player experience makes you work through the lessons with an agent, and it feels informative without being boring, and quick without feeling rushed. I would love to be a new player now, I can see the game really grabbing you thanks in part to this much improved new player experience.

So, after learning exploration (the basics) and realizing that I had a lot of money spread out in a lot of useless stuff (how many damn cruise missles do I need exactly?) I am going to have to make a decision. I have a day.

Will I re-sub?

I don’t know, but it has nothing to do with EVE. It has to do mostly with time and a little with finances. While it is easy enough to maintain a couple subscriptions to a couple of games, when you get into 4 or 6 games it not only becomes hairy but a waste of time because you simply cannot play them all enough within that month to make it worth your while.

I have Darkfall right now, the Mortal Online BETA, Vanguard, WURM Online and now Star Wars Galaxies.

I’ll give it one more day before I make my decision. Still, I can always return. And I will bet you that when I do that the game will have become even better. EVE seems to do that every time.

Beau

Thanks to Vanguard, I have discovered a new way of playing, a new of looking at games actually. I have always played a little bit differently, but Vanguard brought my playing to an entirely different level. I think it was a combination of perfect timing and finding a game that was attempting to do something different.

Despite any “controversy” over where the game was supposed to go and where the game went, the game still is. While there have been many changes good and bad to the game, players tend to forget that you can pretty much play any game in almost any way you want, including Vanguard. Each game out there does have it’s physical boundaries that your character cannot cross, but other than that these games of ours have a lot of choices that many players tend to ignore.

I started with Vanguard over 2 years ago just to see how horribly it would run. After all, the game had a reputation (not a truth) for not running at all, period. To this very day, after all the posts, videos and podcasts talking about how playable the game is there are still players that ask me “Doesn’t that game run like molasses?”

I tend to ignore what rumors there might be floating around, anyway. In fact, the more bad rumors I hear about a game the more chances that I will play it. (Which explains my trying out of pretty much every game out there.)

My first real character, Rikoo Rakoo, was a small half man/half fox ranger type character and despite not being a fan of furry little critters, he quickly grew into my favorite character. Soon I was role-playing with him and made a set of rules to dictate how I play with him. Then I took over the Voyages of Vanguard podcast and it just kept growing. While I have always maintained many games and sometimes quite a few subs, Vanguard is that one game that I have the most vivid memories with.

First of all, the lands are so large that’s it’s easy to spend hours exploring, role-playing and traveling.

Then, the Lore is detailed and epic, and can be explained to you while you play a card-style game called “Diplomacy.”

Crafting is complex, similar to EQ2’s, and harvesting is organic and funner than in most games.

While I enjoy combat, it is never the main drive for me in games. That might explain why it take me so long to level. Combat in Vanguard is fluid and fun but not so challenging that it takes most of your time to get anywhere.

The quests range from kill 10 rats to delivery quests, and your character is nicely pushed through the lands as you level. You really feel as though the world is much larger than you ever thought, and that there are a lot of secrets to look into.

There have been so many changes over the years, from adding class changes to the Trial Island that allows new players to download a smaller client so they can get into the game quickly. Performance has always been good enough, but has become better and better over the last years that I have played.

And on and on. To be honest, I don’t have enough time to cover it all in this one post. Just search on this blog (spouseaggro.com) and you will see how much I have been in love with this game. And to be blunt, I am not sure why. The community, while intelligent and nice to newbies, can also be some of the nastiest batch of nerds on the planet. There has been so much drama surrounding this game and it’s changes that I wonder how I ever made 4500 posts on the forums and survived with my sanity. Probably because, deep down, I know that despite everything there are people working very hard to make the game as good as they have the ability to.

You have to have an open mind, some patience and an ease of play to really enjoy Vanguard. If you want a non-stop action/fast paced game, you will be doing yourself a disservice by finding that in Vanguard. I know players like that, players that rushed past all content to get to the high-end raiding. When they finally got there, they became glossy eyed introverts, never leaving a staple few dungeons and groups while thinking that the rest of the game is not important.

Don’t do that with Vanguard. Don’t even ask about the “end game.” Stop worrying about it.

There has been much drama, recently, with the announcement of possible server merges (there are 4 right now) and the closing of the PvP server. (Possibly? I haven’t been back on the forums in a while .)

I think what harmed the game was firstly the rumor that it never, ever ran on any system (which is so far from the truth it’s surreal) then secondly the fact that it had “high end/end game” stuff to do that was such a challenge and had certain bugs that it drove players crazy.

Essentially, you had a small player-base that pushed to the end only to get stuck within a few dungeons with a few key bugs that made them, ironically, obsessively repeat the process. Instead of saying ” I think maybe I should try playing a different way…” they just kept going and going. Also, the existence of the PvP server wasted (in my opinion) valuable resources and money.

Maybe that will all be taken care of, now. The game runs great and looks amazing most of the time, and the trial island is a great excuse to try it out. While I would rather see the game gain 3 million players and 45 servers, it will not happen. While I would like to see all the development team members gain a personal assistant each, and for all their paychecks to grow fatter by several points, the truth is that the game has always been plagued by misinformation and a player-base that commonly thinks that the game should be something it is not or will never be.

So what does the future hold for this fantastic game? I don’t know.

What do I hope to see, and want to see? I want to see the game survive, of course. I think it will, because SOE will keep it around almost as long as the community will have it. But I would like to see some new players discover it and maybe some more role-play events or in-game GM events. The game begs for it, begs for exploring and discovery and for grouping with your friends on a boat under the stars and moon. I would like to see more players “play” the game like that.

But we’ll see. So go try it out, resubscribe, whatever. Take your time and read the lore. Cut down a tree, try some diplomacy. Turn off the chat. Use your horse or run everywhere. Explore. Role-play.

Vanguard is for that, it’s perfect. And I hope it stays around for at least 3 more years for players to explore.

Beau

Just happily exploring along, minding my own business when AGGHHHH!!! some guy runs up to me and starts hacking me up. His name was red and he looked like he had on full armor. CHOP CHOP SLASH CHOP! and I was down. I didn’t even bother attacking back, this guy has has spent a good deal of his time learning how to chop someone up. Good for him.

So, what did I learn by getting murdered (leaving my wife, children and home unattended to, what a bastard!) by some crazed fellow in the middle of nowhere?

For the record, I had been ganked one time before (or was it twice?) last time I subbed to the game. This is the first time I had been murdered this time around. Second time killed, though, being that some kind of skeleton thing killed me a few nights before.

1) DO NOT listen to loud music while playing Darkfall. OK, this should be a given, but I was jamming out to my Pandora station and not listening to the game. If I would have been, I would have heard the guy in the huge heavy shiny armor running around outside of the towns gates that I found.

2) DO NOT make loud noise when you are not wanting to be heard: Again, an obvious. Still, I decided to just go running around having fun, listening to loud music and seeing what I can find. Although I was not wearing heavy armor, my footsteps and jumps had to be heard froma mile away. On a side note, Darkfall can definitely take a lot out of my wrists, being that  I have frequent pain from pretty bad tennis elbow caused by years of drumming, artwork and keyboard use. I have hotkeyed all sorts of actions (Darkfall allows you to re-map a good deal) including a constant crouch position. If I am sneaking around, I will hit the hot key for “auto crouch” and safely, albeit slowly, lurk around. I should have been doing this at the time of my murder.

3) I was not “ganked”, I was “murdered”: Whatever the “true” definition of ganking is, I decided that it means some kind of un-fair killing, or a killing done to someone for almost no reason. The guy that killed me didn’t sneak up to me and kill me, he didn’t happen upon a helpless AFK player, and he didn’t do anything under-handed or sneaky. He heard me, ran up to me and kicked my butt. I know players that would become very frustrated and tell all their friends “That jerk ganked me!” but it is no different than what I might do in the same situation.

4) Do not carry anything that you cannot afford to lose: Luckily, I had nothing on me but some gathering tools, a few basic weapons, a camp-fire (I am trying to carry a camp-fire with me when I am out in the world so I can take realistic “breaks”) a few gold and 200 arrows. He got nothing, and I would bet he left it sitting there.

After all this, I am still not sure how I feel about the PvP in a game like Darkfall, a game that has tried so hard to make such an immersive PvE experience. It’s not that the PvP is bad, it’s just of the FPS style. It feels out of place, and sometimes pretty silly. It also can look very silly, as in the first time I was attacked by a half-naked man in the dark:

That was my first death, back when I first played the game. In the comments section you can see someone telling me to just “disable shadows, it’s easier to see someone that way.” Why would I want to?  My trade-off for having a less realistic and immersive game is that I might be able to see an enemy better? Isn’t that the easier way out?

That’s one of those issues I have, too. The shadows are something you can use to hide, and yet other players can just turn them off. Darkfall is full of contradictions like that…realistic beautiful graphics that allow you the opportunity to “hide”, literally, but that can be toggled off by your enemy. PvP that feels like you logged into a game of Halo or Tribes, fast and sometimes goofy.

It’s as though there are two games being smushed together by Aventurine, one of immersive PvE in a world filled with danger, and a First Person Shooter complete with instant re-spawn and no consequences for your death.

Still, this is an opportunity to get better at avoiding danger, or at destroying my enemies. I decided that my original goal needs to be fulfilled before I venture too far out into the wilds. I need to raise money, and a good deal of it. The only thing that has done well for me so far has been to gather timber, to turn it into wood and to sell it. It’s actually very easy to do this but it does take time. Within a week or slightly less I can raise enough money to train a ton of skills that will help me survive or to craft some better armor so I can withstand the next one.

Until then, when I do venture out, I will not be playing music at top volume!

Beau

A few blogs ago I talked about my top 7 skill-based games, (it was more like 9) so I decided to go after my top 5 favorite developers. I thought of this before, and we have discussed many of these developers many times on the show and through all sorts of places online, but let’s see if I can really make myself (using such strict criteria as “only 5″) get my love for these developers across this screen to you.

1) Kingsisle Entertainment: Where did Kingsisle come from? All of a sudden there is this small “kids game” that takes over the scene, and soon gathers 5 million players under it’s belt. Despite the game being a “freemium” game, to get to the end you would need to pay a small subscription. It would be safe to say that the majority of the Wizard 101 players pay something, so it would be very safe to say that this little team that could has done it.

It was a joy to visit the grounds of Kingsisle studios for a tour. While I tried hard to get a peak at their new MMO under development, I had no luck. Whatever Kingsisle has under development, you can bet that it will be grand. Their philosophy of easy-to-run and fun-to-play gaming is surely going to spell victory for years to come.

2) Sony Online Entertainment: Ah, SOE. You have been inspiring nerd rage for 10 plus years now, and it has been entertaining. The ironic thing is that if you take the opinions of some players as truth, you would think that SOE does not have around 10 MMO’s in it’s pocket, and more coming out all the time. It’s easy to say that I am a fanboy for two developers, SOE and Nexon. And like Nexon, SOE makes me giddy. Their Station Access feels like a toy box with it’s pay-one-price access to all it’s games.

While the company has made their share of mistakes, I have always been from the school of thought that says that if you are not making mistakes, you are not trying anything new. MMO’s are basically a new genre of entertainment, and SOE has been there most of that time. The entire time they have tried different types of games and new ways of paying for those games, and it works more often than not. And their community commitment is matched by none. If ever someone asks if there are any developers that might be willing to take part in an interview or an appearance on a podcast, I tell them to contact SOE. They simply work with their community. When you look at a company like Blizzard and compare them to SOE, you will see how sad community relations can be in other companies.

3) CCP: CCP and Aventurine are one of my favorites for about the same reason. They both tend to listen to their community quietly while they work their butts off delivering that content that the community wanted. While they always try new things, CCP really seems to be a company that wants to make an EVE Online that their players want to play, instead of a game that might attract some separate group. This has worked out for them, this slow and steady approach to developing, by making not only a solid game but a solid development cycle that can be relied on. As much as I would like to pretend that my enjoyment of a game is not effected by how long a game might be around for, it is very reassuring to know that a developer will continue working on that game for as long as we would like them to.

4) Aventurine: Jokingly referred to as “Nectarine” by me, this team has brought Darkfall out of rumors of vaporware to being a really intriguing game for all types of players. They are slowly making headway in the fight to convince PvE players that their game is more than a PvP riot by releasing amazing free patches that contain tweaks, fixes and added content. They also seem to be OK with being such a niche company, developing such a niche game. It’s kind of nice, to see a company actually say “We are big enough, and we are OK with our rate of expansion.”

Of course, they would probably want 3 million subs just like anyone. But until then, their feet seem firmly planted on the ground and their ears planted in the direction of their community. While I wish they were more open with interviews and other communications, the proof is in the pudding. At least we know that their sometimes silence is caused by the fact that they are busy working their butts off.

5) Nexon: Leala looked at me after watching Nexon’s presentation at GDC Austin and said: “They were the only developers to use the word fun.” And she was right. We heard a lot about theories and numbers at the gaming conference, but Nexon was the first that seemed to be actually having fun with the event. And that fun spills over into their games, fun for all by keeping the system specs for their games low and the game-play noob friendly. Mabinogi has become one of my staple favorites and continues to add on skills to learn and places to explore and continues to be one of the deepest games out there.

Nexon is also inspirational in their use of cash shop items. They know how fun it can be to buy fluffy pink items for a few dollars, but they allow you to play their games successfully without them. They have talked about how to figure out where to set your prices, and it’s fascinating to hear them speak about their target audiences and how they spend that money. Nexon is hip, young, smart and bright like an Anime cartoon, without being annoying.

There are so many more small development studios out now, coming from out of nowhere to prove something. Some are doing very impressive things, like Fallen Earth creators Icarus studios. And the new developers for Ryzom seem to have their stuff together, but in many of these examples it simply has not been long enough to see what might happen or I do not play their games much (like Cryptic or Turbine.)

Needless to say, we all have our favorite studios. And for many different reasons, too. But these are mine. These studios manufacture more than games to me, they create art that we can exist in, play in, explore and create art in for ourselves.

I hope to see more out of all them for a long, long time.

Beau

“What? I thought you said EVE sucked Beau!”

“What’s wrong Beau, had to start lissenin’ to Nu Metal???”

Har har, yeh yeh. First of all, my return to EVE has shown me what it has always shown me since I first started my account in July of ‘05: That the game will hook ya, easily. And anyway, I have never said the game sucked, I have only called it a “sausage party” (which it is, with a 4 or 5 percent female population. If you went to a get-together and there were 100 people and only 5 of them were girls..you would call it a…..) and that the general population of the game likes Nu Metal bands like Godsmack and Tool.

By the way, that’s called good-natured-ribbing, something that I assure you the sausage party of CCP knows a lot of. It’s worse than a 7th grade locker room I can assure you. (I am going to email them and ask if there will be male strippers at this years Fan Fest.)

Anyway, I took the game up on the 5 day return to hang out with the MMO Voices crew. Well, I actually started a new 14 day trial before I HAD to check on my main account. So I have been spending some evenings hanging out with ‘Voicers, mainly with my friend Lea that has like, 67 accounts. (I will bet that a third of all the population of EVE is made up of multiple accounts. Still, they get good numbers.)

Last time I was involved I had trained covert ops but snagged a Hawk for fun. My favorite battle-worn Raven sat in a station, waiting for missions. Last time I quit was out of boredom from being attacked by a corp made up of 16 year olds (literally) so this time around I would be sure to avoid anyone with a name that didn’t start with capitalization.

So why does EVE work when it does? For me, it doesn’t have anything to do with numbers or combat or anything really that is within the game at all. It has to do with the images in my head,  the daydreams of sneaky covert ops missions and something like what someone asked about on the forums the other day: “If I want to be like a Han Solo type guy, can I?”

That sentence sums up EVE brilliantly.

The I get home from work to find Jay Jay the Wonder Biscuit telling me that the new Darkfall patch is up and patchin‘. Beautiful! Of course, my friend Lea had to show off by purchasing the 6 month package thingy, but it’ll be nice to have someone I know that can play when I do. (Jay Jay is British and a snobby PvP’er.) The funniest thing is that she asked me on Twitter: “Can’t I just make any race and run her to where you are?”

I literally laughed out loud. I lol’ed.

But then I thought for a moment and told her “Screw it, let’s do it!” Again, such a simple thing that sums up why games like Darkfall getcha’ good. It’s because even finding each other is an adventure, and can be an entire evening of play. Even just finding out what you want to do can be an evening of planning, and completing those tasks, those simple tasks, can be fun.

Granted, you might have to deal with some real buttheads. (Yes, buttheads. Think about it. A butthead would be a pretty bad person.) But they quickly become just another form of mob, and Darkfall does an amazing job of allowing you to literally hide away from those you want to be hidden from.

The other night I had my first “What the Hell is that coming?” moment when I heard a few mounted footfalls coming my way. Needless to say, I hid quicker than a guinea pig. As I sat there up lobbed up two enemies on two weird looking mounts. It was really dark, so I just sat there as they paused and continued on their way. It was thrilling. Darkfall is filled with moments like that because while your death is just a pause and a possible run back to your body, the anticipation is what gets you.

In an real-life example, we used to play hide and seek when we were kids. Now look, we were like 12 or so so we had to man it up a bit. We would run and hide in the pitch black and in the woods and if you were found you became a zombie essentially and had to find someone else to “get”. I ran and hid under some leaves, and I mean covered myself in some leaves (bugs and all) and stayed there for probably 20 minutes while, slowly, my friends were picked off one by one. The guy that was “it” walked by several times, I could hear him breathing heavy in the night and the leaves crunching under his feet. My heart was jumping out of my chest!

That’s kinda’ how Darkfall and EVE can make you feel.

Beau

The game is filled with more skill-based goodness than pretty much any game out there now, and they are always adding content/skills to learn. I’m happy that my EU friends can play it too.

Here is the official press release:

“NEXON Europe the publisher behind popular online games MapleStory and Combat Arms, today announces the launch of their latest release for a brand new MMORPG, Mabinogi.

Following its successful debut in North America, European players can now look forward to experiencing a brand new fantasy life for themselves. This free-to-play game based on Celtic and Welsh mythology embraces key MMO features and offers a robust, universe where people can experience all facets of fantasy life from fighting to farming. Along with content updates and exclusive events this enchanting game lets you experience another world as you embark on your journey through a magical land.

After completion of the recent closed beta test, fans and newbies alike can now enjoy the latest storyline edition to the game. The Generation 2: Paladin update brings new episodes, quests and unique Paladin skills. By becoming a Paladin, players can boost their character attributes once a day for a certain time period. Hard-core Mabinogi fans and new players should keep an eye out for this content, as this is an update not to be missed!

To celebrate the open beta launch and content updates Mabinogi Europe is also announcing a number of exciting in-game events, allowing players to immerse themselves in this new found land. Starting from today users can look out for the Pet Adoption event, where exclusive virtual pets will be offered as rewards to players that complete a request from the NPC Duncan at Tirchonail. Following this an Attendance Reward event and screen shot contest will be launched and users can expect to receive prizes for their participation on both.

If that wasn’t enough to tempt you in then perhaps this is, as In February Mabinogi will also be setting the mood for love with a celebration of Valentine’s Day. Romance is definitely on the cards this month as players will be able to receive chocolates from NPC’s and also share these with one another. As well as this heartfelt gesture, players will also be invited to join the Boss-mob video competition where users can get involved by uploading videos of their character in a bid to win a prize.

And finally, players can maintain their character without reset or wipeout right through the open beta and continuing through the official launch – coming soon.

Mabinogi just got busy, so come and try out the fun along with your European friends!

To find out more about the game and to take part in the events visit http://mabinogi.nexoneu.com

Plus if you want to receive updates and exclusive offers why not become a Facebook fan www.facebook.com/MabinogiEurope or follow the Mabinogi Europe Twitter www.twitter.com/mabinogi_eu

—————————————————————–

Here are some beautiful pieces of art-work from the game as well:

Enjoy!

Beau

Now, let’s be honest. Even within the most skill-based games in existence there are still boundaries and limits on what you can do. And even within a game that has many, many skills to learn it is still very possible to be a carbon copy of someone else. No game has the ability to let us be literally anything we wish, but some are getting close. Also it is important to note that even within games that have seemingly limitless bounds for character creation, players still find a way to create templates for “MAX DPS” or for perfect healing.

Still, I am love with any game that allows me to do what I want.

So I want to talk about some of my favorite games that play like this, and why I like them. Before we start, though, I want to post a disclaimer: DO NOT MENTION THE NGE AND SWG. I HAVE ERECTED AN ANTI-NGE FORCE-FIELD ON THIS POST. I PLAYED IT BEFORE AND AFTER THE NGE, AND THE PRE GAME WAS A BUGGY PRETTY FUN GAME THAT HAS BECOME, AFTER THE NGE, A LESS BUGGY REALLY COOL GAME. IF YOU WANT TO BRING UP THAT TIRED SUBJECT, WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG.

1) Ryzom: Ahhhh, good ole’ Ryzom. There’s just something about this game that breeds the most loyal fan-base ever. This game has been through more owners than a thrift store couch, and yet some of the players have continued to pay that sub the entire time. While I think that achieving max-level in any of the grand skill trees (combat, magic, crafting or gathering) is an absolute grindy nightmare, the Lore, the setting and the people make this game incredible. So, pick out a speciality and settle in for a long time. Just be happy that when you do master a skill that you might have hundreds more to choose from.

2) EVE Online: People seem to confuse my calling of the EVE community a “sausage party” with criticism of the game. The game itself is magnificent, and a roller coaster ride of discovery, learning and action. This game is a perfect example of how such a varied skill game can be pin-pointed to the point of perfection by some players, but don’t let that stop you from trying to make your character as unique as possible. I have only a 10 million SP character after 5 years, and that should show you how off and on I am with this game. But while many might bemoan the fact that some skills were learned and never used, thus becoming “wasted skill points”, I say that those points just make my character unique.

3) Mabinogi: This game is the perfect example of players allowing their distaste for less-than-perfect graphics get in the way of an amazing skill system. Essentially you gain skill points as you level, and can add those points to whatever skill you want. As you hit the higher levels/age and run into a wall of SP earning, you can re-birth your character as a child, thus earning skill points faster and easier again. Right now my character has something like 35 skills learned, and many more to go. I am eager to see where this game goes, because right now it can only be up. It’s a complicated, intense and very unique game wrapped in charming yet Anime-ish graphics.

4) Anarchy Online: I have maintained a free account for AO for quite a while, and have been meaning to get back into it. Ironically, this games graphics do set me off a bit, but then I log in and see all the choices I have as a character. With the recent sightings of the new graphics update, this game will probably be around longer than almost any of them.

5) WURM Online: I have been yelping about WURM for weeks now, and can only tell you that you need to go try it. In case I didn’t make myself clear, there is combat in this game. The animations are not really…well, animations at all, but the games environments still look good. Even with the free server being capped at level 20 for each skill, this leaves so much for you to do it can be over whelming. Download the game, log in and wander a bit. Try and build something and soon you will be hooked. Just watch out for wolves!

6) Free Realms: This is basically a skill based game, when you look at it right. With so many jobs to level, your character can be a conglomeration of skills that would make any expert cry. Cooking? You got it. Mining? Yep. How about racing? Mmhmm. Free Realms often does not get the credit it deserves because it is touted as a “kids game.” If Free Realms and it’s advanced character creation is a kids game, then that makes games like LotRO, EQ2 and WoW the stuff of embryos.

7) Darkfall: I have recently returned to this game to find not only a deeper, more complex game that before but to find the ability to literally do what I want and to go where I want. I meet players that have crafted a trading company for themselves, a anti-PK guild or that just wander like myself. With a few coins you can learn almost anything, and you skill up these skills by just doing them. If I swim, I get better at swimming. If I fight, I get better at fighting. It’s beautifully simple and a blast to play. Don’t let some kind of worry or fear for “hard-core PvP” stop you from playing this game. Trust me, it’s no big deal.

I know I am missing something from this list, but this is also comprised of games that I play frequently. It’s easy to see that the skill-based fan has plenty to do in today’s market, and that skill based games are growing in popularity. The end goal of most gaming (I would hope) is to allow the player to do what they want. In the end, wouldn’t you rather be unique than powerful? A needle in a haystack instead of a cookie?

Maybe it’s it’s just me.

Beau

(EDIT: I forgot Fallen Earth, just like I knew I would. I am not currently subbed, but do consider it a game I am returning to. It’s fantastic. Nuff said.)

Hello Players,

Thanks,
Acclaim Staff

I believe that the Japanese version is the same as the one we can play now, save for the addition of a cash shop. One player noted that from what he could tell, the cash shop items were pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. There were, however, certain armors for sale that were in the Japanese version that actually gave some stats. This has not been confirmed and frankly I don’t care if they sold a card of God-Mode. I just want the game to go on, to be updated and to be alive.

Spellborn was one of those games that I literally dreamed of, falling in love with it’s art-style and atmosphere. When it started to have issues I wondered if it would be able to survive. While it has been completely free in it’s current condition, it does need some help. Looks like we might get it!

It;s just so odd to see such a great game falter in the way that I did, and I wonder why it did. Some think it was because the game was too linear, and others think that the simplicity of the quests did it in. In all truth I think it was the fact that the game was a little too unique for it’s own good. There is also something to the theory that most players don’t like the choice to look how they want, and would rather look silly in armor that is known to be powerful rather than to look how they want because armor stats meant nothing.

Oh well, we’ll see. I certainly don’t want the hard work of the original developer team to disappear. Maybe finding the right payment model (cash shop based) will be just what the game needs. I am a huge fan of the cash shop, so this is good news to me. I am also a fan of sticking it to players that somehow think that cash shop items should not have some effect on the game world or on combat. The cries of “real life financial advantage” have been bogus since subscriptions were ever included in the list of things that are needed to play. If selling gear in the cash shop scares off those type of forum whiners, good by me.

I just wish the game didn’t have to go through all this before it got to this point.

Beau

As I have been traveling, I have been binding myself to whatever town I come across. This isn’t as much of an issue right now and especially not as much of an issue as in other MMO’s where stepping foot in the wrong area will send you right back to your proper place in the funnel. In Darkfall, even if I wind up in a town that is normally surrounded by really scary meanies, I can survive. Recently in one town I was visiting (the towns are pretty dull, though, with a few NPC’s that stand there and maybe a handful of players) I saw the mountains in the distance and told myself that I meant to go there.

Sure enough it was just a matter of climbing up the path and the side of the mountain (Darkfall does allow you, pretty unrealistically, to  climb practically straight up a slope) and soon I had crossed the mountain and down the other side. Within no time I had found a player city (judging by the house names) and decided that it might not be the best idea to stick around somewhere that might house pissy players. I headed out but made a note to get a house one day.

Then I came across a familiar looking batch of root things, something that looked like it fell out of Ryzom. This was a nice tough, but again I headed out being that usually these places are brimming with meanies.

What I am enjoying about Darkfall is that fact that, while the systems are definitely limited, the number of systems to play around with are enough to keep you very busy. I am slowly becoming good enough at woodcraft to make a raft (50 more “levels” to go) but can now make campfires, something I want to try out in the wilderness pretty badly.

I can see how someone could just run to a website to get all the information about the game that they could, but at the very least I think a player should wait until they come across that system or want to explore that system before they look it up. And if you do need to find out, why not ask a player?

I have not been attacked once, but a few times by accident. I have joined a group a couple times but to be honest this game is so nicely suited for solo play (contrary to popular belief) that I am loving just exploring, surviving and working my way through the world.

What towns will I find next? What monsters will I attack? I wonder when I will start being dangerously close to the enemy faction players? These are questions that living in a virtual world should ask, I think, mysterious questions that can be answered slowly in game. I don’t care about being the best PvP’er or the richest player, only about being the guy that gets the most out of this game.

Anyway, I’m off to play some more EVE as well, being that it is now the Game of the Site for MMOvoices.ning.com. I will be splitting my time between that game, Darkfall, WURM and a host of F2P’s over the next month or so. Wish me luck, and if you see me in game say hello.

Or kill me. One or the other.

Beau

Download/Listen HERE!

We talk about the announcement of a new documentary about raiding called…wait for it…the Raid Movie. The makers of the film haven’t actually made anything but are asking for your money anyway.

We whine about STO and how we think it might not do very well.

Then we talk about about this wacko raiding couple that, instead of sitting down with a good movie or with a book, want to sit down with their 8 YEAR OLD to raid 3 nights a week, sending him down an early path of stress, extra fatty foods and a lack of D-3.

We chat about how Beau is playing WURM and Darkfall, and about how incredible they both are. If you consider yourself an MMO fan and haven’t played either, you are mean and probably fart in public a lot.

Here is the music from todays show:

The beginning/ending song is by Adele, and the song is called “Hometown Glory” and Beau has a crush on her. It’s alright, though, since Leala agreed a little too strongly that Australian accents are sexay.

The cheesy metal is a Godsmack song called “I Stand Alone” which is probably one of the cheesiest metal songs out there, along with one of the cheesiest metal videos out there. If you notice, the singer gets a tattoo of The Rock on his hand at the beginning.

The good metal song is, of course, by Slayer. Duh.

The squirrel that Bettie was barking at was actually a dog outside of the fence. The trashy people next door do not keep their dogs locked up.

(I could not find a clip of the girl saying “an arm and a leg” so I left it out as a protest.

Send emails to spouseaggro at yahoo dot com.

Website found at spouseaggro dot com.

Twitter name: spouseaggro

Skype name: beauturkey

Now GO LOG IN!

The Turkeys

You know, you get an email that asks you to check out the game again, free, for 10 days. LotRO is doing one right now. The problem with this was that in the email there was no mention of “you need to have an account that has been inactive for 60 days or you will not get the free 10 days.“  Here, look at the email and you can see for yourself. IN fact, it is surprisingly void of much information at all! (The email was dated in my inbox which is based on Central Time as Jan 21st 12:18 PM.)

I have been back and forth with the customer service department, and soon after my first few contacts they put a forum post up on the forum, explaining the promotion. I know, I know…they should have had this information IN THE ORIGINAL EMAIL. (The forum post was posted at 6:56 PM the same day. Not sure what time zone.)

After all this, they have indeed activated my original beta account with the non-existent characters for 10 days. My account that was last played probably over a month ago (before the release of the graphics upgrade) will not be re-activated.They shared the same email.

While I appreciate the promotion, I am hoping that they realize their mistake and don’t do it again. While I will probably re-sub soon (I review and play  A LOT of games, I cannot stay subbed to all of them all the time) I would have returned even sooner if they stuck by what their email said.

Still, the game rules. The game is a blast and do not let this appear as some kind of slap at their customer service. The company seems to be on top of stuff pretty much always. It would just be nice to see them stick by what they have said, though.

Here is the last email I sent them: (a lil whiny? Yeh.)

From: Spouse Aggro [mailto:spouseaggro@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 10:34 AM
To: ———–@fallenearth.com
Subject: No play now button.

I have already discussed this with some of your customer service reps, and they have told me that (although it never said it in the email) that this only effects accounts that have not been active for more than 60 days.

Beau Turkey

And their response: ( I do not post full emails to my other email address, the one I use for community contacts. Even if I hated a company with all the passion of a millions suns, I do not give out one-on-one emails from community reps or developers. Still, they wanted me to pass this part along:)

“If Fallen Earth fans have difficulty accessing the ten free days of gameplay offered in the email promotion on January 21 and feel that they are eligible to receive game time, they should contact customer support at support@fallenearth.com.”

So, there ya go.

Not a big deal, really, but still very interesting in seeing how a smaller company deals with customer service and plain ole’ mistakes. Honestly, I have never had much of an issue with MMO customer service, and this is a good sign that the tradition continues.

Still, I want my damn 10 days!!!

Beau

I decided a long time ago that Darkfall would be a great game for the Immersion Project, a role-playish type of project in which I limit my access to information in order to make myself feel more connected to the world. When I say role-play, I am not just talking about “How art thou?” and not talking about playing a character other than me, but playing my character as though he was me. Or at least a person with my level of intelligence, slightly below average looks and ways of doing things.

Pretty!

In other words, “what would I do in this avatars position” instead of “what would it be like to BE this superhero of a person?” I am not acting as something else, but seeing if I can react to the game as though I might if I were in the game world.

One of the fastest ways to do this is to get rid of, or minimize the use of, the in-game map. The in-game map is magically filled in for you, and your direction is never in question. With Vanguard, for example, I printed out three huge blank maps of the three continents and marked them using a real life pen. When I traveled to Fan Faire, I even had other players mark on the map where something might have been. In the end, I have a set of maps with scrawling all over them..a real life in-game map!

Look at all that phat newbie loot! I actually love the piles.

So I need to find the highest quality blank map of Agon that I can. And it needs the least amount of info on it as possible. Any suggestions would be awesome!

Next, I need to decide which of the original Immersion Rules really are needed anymore. While a game like WURM online keeps track of and considers food in your actual performance, a game like Darkfall can be played without ever using food. It helps things I have noticed, but keeping track of it would be a little distracting. While it would be more realistic to mark down and time when I need to eat, that kind of numbers-keeping is actually the opposite of what I am trying to do. So out with worrying about food until I can find a better replacement system.

Travel is easy enough. I can get a mount eventually or hoof it. My project right now is to build a raft and to go sailing, but I will be removing any ability to instant-travel (teleport) back to my bind point. I like the idea of instant travel, especially when I am out in the middle of nowhere and scared to death, but that is the perfect time to force myself to try and make it home.

Yes, "The Rape." Remember, most players do not use such names.

The weather is nice in Darkfall, but I am not sure if there are rainstorms or snowstorms, anything that might cause my character to be hurt or to be slowed. I will time the day and night cycles to see how long is realistic to travel before resting. I will learn to make camp-fires and try to use one every so often, to represent rest. Also, the lighting and campfires in this game are awesome.

I will skip the perma-death rule, again. I tried it once in Vanguard and I lost the best main of my life!

I need to figure out a trade route besides the official one. I will look into the official one, of course, but many have told me that it is borked right now. Also, it happens at the games pace so I could not do it at mine. In Vanguard my character made arrows and harvested for money, and that might just be this mains job too. I need to figure out if all brokers/auction house type systems are all connected to one another even though it might break my heart. I want to see local ones only, to force or to allow players to travel with their goods to make money.

There is more, I am sure. But for now this covers some basics. I need a real-life blank map, to get rid of the compass on the screen (something that I might or might not be able to do, haven’t checked yet) and to work towards a boat.

In the meanwhile I am slapping some arrows in my pack along with some food and slowly working my way farther out into the world. When I stumble upon a pocket of monsters, I am reminded of Oblivion or Fallout 3 in the way that you can easily get yourself killed while exploring. There’s a real sense of danger to the game that will add some spice to the Immersion Project!

In the meanwhile, go over to Syn’s blog and buy the game. Click on the link in the corner of his blog and he gets a chunk of the change. I believe in rewarding the bloggers and community members that hand out attention to games like Darkfall, (while not getting paid) and he has been yelping about this game longer than anyone I know.

(by the way, thanks to Jay Jay the Wonder Biscuit for helping me get my game. He ruleth.)

See ya on the seas!

Beau