Because the internet needs another gaming blog.

No doubt by now the entire Internet has heard all the details about Cataclysm, the next expansion for World of Warcraft.  When the details were leaked by MMO-Champion.com I was fairly quick to dismiss it as crazy fan-boy rumour.  I figured there was no way Blizzard could get all of those changes done in any sort of reasonable timeline, but I have to say, I’m quite impressed that all the rumours were true. Cataclysm looks like it will be a gigantic expansion.

The expansion announcement confirmed one thing for me; I have officially broken free from the WoW tractor beam.  After reading the feature list and watching the trailer, my reaction to it is what could best be described as indifference.  It all looks and sounds really cool, but I just don’t care a whole lot.   At least not right now.  I’m getting a kick out of seeing people who I’ve heard say they “never want to see the old world again” rush out and create alts because they’ll “never be able to experience the old world again!”

Despite my current indifference, I fully believe that closer to Cataclysms release I’ll be right back in there with everyone else, but my goodness, this is probably a year away at best.  Blizzard truly is the master.  As more and more people are getting bored with the game and starting to play elsewhere, they announce this expansion and bring a whole bunch of them back.  I’m sure there will be just enough little stuff released between now and the expansion to keep those people going as well.  Just as they’re starting to get bored again, the expansion will be out, and everyone will be starting all over at level one yet again to see all the new content.  I plan on going back to check the new stuff when it’s released, but for now I’ll stay happily unsubscribed.

I’d say Blizzard has the MMO space safely locked up for the next few years for sure.  How can any other MMO compete with World of Warcraft now?

The other day I was discussing the recently released Guild Wars 2 trailer with a friend.  I happened to mention that for the past little while I have been thinking of trying out Guild Wars again; I never did play through to the end of the story, leaving the game at level 14 to play EverQuest II.

The subscription-free games are beginning to appeal to me more and more these days because without the monthly fee, I don’t feel like a slave to the game.  Too often with games that I’ve subscribed to, I kept playing despite a lack of fun just “to get my money’s worth”.  I don’t feel that pressure with subscription-free games.  That’s another reason why I’ve been thinking of Guild Wars lately.

After telling my friend that I was considering giving Guild Wars a shot again, starting from level one, he replied with, “you’ll never make it to level ten before quitting out of boredom”.  That was all the incentive I needed to try it out again, and I accepted his challenge.  While my main goal in this revisit is simply to get to level 11, I would like to see how the story in Prophecies turns out, so I’ll try and play through it to the end.  Of course, I won’t waste any time on a game I don’t like, so if it turns out not to be any fun, I’ll quit.

Having last played the game towards the end of 2005, I can’t say I remember a whole lot.  In fact, I logged in to the level 14 character I had left behind and was completely lost.  I had no idea where I was or what I was supposed to be doing.  I consulted some forums to get an idea as to what’s changed, and what sort of character build is fun to play solo, and quite frankly, I was even more lost.  Guild Wars is a much deeper game than I remember it being.  Ultimately I created a Warrior, the same class I played originally, but this time I’ll choose a different secondary profession.  During my first go around I played as a Warrior/Ranger, whereas this time I’m leaning towards either Necromancer, Monk, or Elementalist for the supporting class.  Looking back, I really had no idea what I was doing when playing.  Now that I’ve gotten a bit more experience with MMOs I’m hoping I can make some better choices with regards to skill and attribute selection.

So far I’ve managed to play for about two hours and am currently level four.  It’s been pretty fun actually.  I still dislike the control scheme, but the graphics look very nice, and the music is great as well.  I’d hate to speak too soon, but I’d wager that I’ll be able to make it past level 10 no problem.

I have now spent a few hours with Dungeons and Dragons Online, completing all of the starting area quests.  While I haven’t played nearly enough to form a concrete opinion on the game, my initial impression is that this isn’t a game I’d pay a monthly fee for.  I have however, quite enjoyed what I’ve experienced so far and am eagerly anticipating the games move to a free-to-play, micro-transaction supported model on September 9th.

What I Like So Far:
Character creation.  Easily the best character creation process I’ve been through in an MMO.  I was led step by step through the whole process and there was detailed information readily available for each step.  I particularly liked how it provides a rating for how easy it is to solo with each given class.  If you actually know what you’re doing you have the option to skip the hand-holding and customize your character however you’d like.  I ended up creating a Human Paladin, following the Flame of Justice path.

The dungeons I saw were all very well done with a definite D&D feel to them.  I quite liked the points of narration by the “Dungeon Master” which really helped add some atmosphere to the game.  The few traps and interactive puzzles I saw were also very nice touches.  The dungeons also have a difficulty selector which appears upon entering, allowing you to select from multiple difficulty settings, including a solo setting.  I’m looking forward to seeing more.

The entire introductory island was well done story-wise.  It was easy, and interesting, to follow with a really cool conclusion.  If the rest of the game has story elements like this it may just be able to keep my interest.

What I Don’t Like So Far:
The character movement feels very “floaty” to me, as though my character is hovering an inch off the ground as opposed to actually walking.  That’s the best way I can describe it.  The camera system is also a little different than what I’ve experienced in other games.  I’m used to using the right mouse button to move my view where I want, but the right click is used to attack in DDO.  I suppose that’s more of a “not used to it yet”, as opposed to a dislike though.

I’m kind of iffy on the combat so far, and it’s leaning more towards dislike.  It’s hard to say, because I’m only level two, but all I’ve done to this point is swing my sword; am I missing something?  Enemy mobs rush at me, I face them, and hold down the right mouse button.  It doesn’t feel very D&D to me.

The good thing so far is that nothing has stood out to me as an obvious dislike.  The two I’ve listed certainly aren’t deal breakers for me; I’m eager to spend more time with the game.

I was originally going to post some more details about the content itself but it’s already been done better than I could ever do back in November 2008 at Pumping Irony:

• DDO Module 8 Hands On: Character Creation
• DDO Module 8 Hands On: New Player Experience: Phase I
• DDO Module 8 Hands On: New Player Experience: Phase II
• DDO Module 8 Hands On: New Player Experience: Phase III
• DDO Module 8 Hands On: New Player Experience: Phase IV

Real life commitments lately have kept me away from any sort of gaming, so I haven’t been able to try out Dungeons and Dragons Online which I picked up for two dollars.  I did manage to get in and create a character the other night but haven’t been able to actually play the game.

I finally have some free time right at this very moment as I write this post, and I was quite eager to get some game time in.  I clicked my DDO icon which started up the games launcher.  A quick little patch was applied and the launcher automatically restarted.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  The launcher came back up and then told me that “Client DAT files do not correspond to those on the patch server” at which point the launcher would just continue retrying unsuccessfully.

I check the forums and see the message above in the screenshot: There is currently an issue with the DDO game client that causes it to download incorrect files, leaving the game in an uplayable state.  At this time we recommend you do not open the launcher to prevent the files from downloading.

Well gosh.  Thanks.

It’s been three weeks since I canceled my World of Warcraft account, and despite the fact that my account won’t actually expire until the first of October, my motivation to play the game has plummeted.  I suppose I just don’t see the point any more, which only reaffirms my decision to cancel.  I had a great time with the game for a while but towards the end, I couldn’t shake the feeling that my character was just a hamster running on a wheel, not doing anything useful, just repeating daily after daily.  It’s a good time for a break.

In the mean time I’ve fallen back in love with Civilization IV.  I had forgotten how addictive that game is and I’ve caught myself several times late at night playing “just one more turn!”.  Unfortunately it doesn’t make for the most interesting blogging material, hence the lack of updates here.

Civ IV has prevented me from playing a few games I picked up on the cheap in the last week.  First, I purchased Supreme Commander for $10.  I’ve always wanted to try it because I loved Total Annihilation back in the day.  I’ve gotten as far as installing it, but haven’t actually played it yet.  Actually, after installing I launched the game only to be told I didn’t have the correct CD in the drive.  A few internet searches later led me to the latest official patch which fixes that issue.  How does that issue even occur?  Stupid DRM.

The other cheap game I picked up was Dungeons and Dragons Online for a whopping grand total of $2.20.  That’s right, two dollars and twenty cents.  I realize of course that the game is going free to play September 9th, but the retail box comes with 30 days free so I figure it was worth two bucks to try it out for a bit.  I’ll try and post some impressions shortly, assuming of course I can pull myself away from Civ IV for a bit.

I have zero experience with DDO, so it’ll be interesting to see how simple or hard it is to start playing an established game.