Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Played Lately: Project: Gorgon

  • I've been meaning to write about Project: Gorgon for a few days now. But then I remembered that Yeebo had already done so already and better than I ever could. So you should just go over there.

  • For the record, I did not turn myself into a cow. So I have that going for me.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Random Shots: The Most Self-Serving Post On This Blog

  • Hello, friend. How are you today? Well, I hope. The baby is fighting off a sniffle which means we'll be sick in about a week. I think I feel a tickle in the back of my throat now. Better not stand to close.

  • Sorry for rambling, but I did have a favor I wanted to ask. Do you remember back in September when I mentioned the 2012 Windhammer Prize? And do you remember the part where I said that it didn't matter if you voted or not, just that I wanted you to read and enjoy some gamebooks?

  • Yeah, it turns out that I lied about that. I would really like to win. Or if not win, I'd love to come in second or third. No need to be greedy. But I really do want to at least show in this race.

  • So if you haven't already, head on over to the Windhammer Prize page and take a look. My entry is Academy of Magic: The First Term. The rules require you vote for two entries, so you can't just vote for me. Which is good for you because there are some other great entries. Say, for instance, Andrew Wright's Guild of Thieves, which I am insanely jealous of.

  • That's all. Thanks so much for making it this far in the post. Back to gaming or complaining about not having time to game next time.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Random Shots: The WoW Annual Pass, One Year Later

  • Since Green Armadillo of Player Versus Developer has already posted his thoughts about his year with the WoW Annual Pass, there's no reason for me to hold off. Last year I signed up for the annual pass, right around the same time GA did. No that the year is almost passed, I have to admit that it was not a good investment. Here's the breakdown:

    • 12 month subscription - One of the features of the annual pass is that you are locked into a 12 month subscription. I chose to pay this off on the semi-annual cycle because it was the cheapest way to fulfill the obligation. If I had played throughout the deal, this would have been a crazy good deal. In the end, I ended up playing for four or five of the twelve months. At some points during the year, I didn't even have the game installed thanks to the Windows 8 preview. That means I paid more for my time than if I had just paid monthly for those months I actually wanted to play.

    • Tyrael's Charger - I used this mount for about a week. Then I got sick of the wings obscuring my view and went back to my flying carpet.

    • Beta Access - I don't really do beta, not for things I know that I'm already interested in. That I have not bought MoP doesn't change that I want to go in fresh when I eventually do. So beta access was a wash.

    • Diablo III - And here is the thing. The big draw of the Annual Pass was getting Diablo III free. Even if I didn't get the annual pass, I would have bought this. And I would have regreted it either way. Like everyone else, I ran afoul of the day one server disaster. But then when I could play, I only did so for a couple of nights. I don't think it is a very good game. And because of various Windows updates, it is no longer installed on my computer.

  • So at the end of one year, I find I have made a very bad decision. I will continue to play WoW from time to time. But from here on out, I'm going to do so on my own terms and no lock myself into a long term committment.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Played Lately: World of Warcraft

  • Even with the new games available (GW2 and TL2 specifically), I find myself returning to World of Warcraft for reasons that are not entirely explicable. I can think of at least three, but there are probably more.

    • Partly is because WoW is the MMO equivalent of comfort food. I always feel welcome in Azeroth.

    • Partly because I'm feeling left out of Mists of Panderia. It will be strange getting to the new zones after all of the events are over.

    • Partly is because of Wilhelm's exploits in the Emerald Dream private server. The nostalgia factor is exceptionally high reading his posts.

  • I haven't gone back to my mage since coming back. She still has to finish Uldum and Twilight Highlands. So far, I'm not super eager to do either. Instead I jumped into my perma-TBC paladin to finish off Nagrand and head into the Blade's Edge Mountains. I'm getting to content now that I haven't seen in a couple of years. Between Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, and Terokkar Forest, it's not hard to hit level 70 and move on to Northrend.

  • I found that the gronn in Blade's Edge have been nerfed to quest target difficulty as well. Which is fine if you're questing through at level, solo. But again, I find myself surprised at how much Blizzard has touched Outland in unexpected ways. I've been letting myself get overleveled so that I can take on the instances. I would having liked to take them out as elites, but it's a very small thing. So far, I haven't cleared many dungeons, but the patch 5.0 changes seem to be making that much easier so far.

  • Speaking of which, playing a paladin after patch 5.0 is a very strange experience. After logging in and respecing, I was surprised to find half of my abilities missing, including my auras. I don't know what to say about that. Considering how much of my damage comes from Exorcism and Judgment, I'm half a ranged class now. Leaving retribution paladins as a cooldown limited class makes her play like a GW2 character. It feels like a lot of what makes them special has been lost.

  • But I haven't spent all of my time on the live servers. Instead, I've been messing around in a private server I've installed on my own computer. It's at patch 3.3.5, which is late Wrath of the Lich King. I'm surprised at how well the game works even when you are the only one in the world. The server is a work in process, so several things are still broken. But when I logged in yesterday, I found that Hallow's End had started. I'm not sure how well implemented it is, but I was able to collect candy, get a costume, and earn a holiday specific achievement.

  • My real goal for this is to see if I can modify the database so that I can convert an instance so that an on-level character can solo it. I suspect I'll start with something small like Ragefire Chasm. A long term goal would be that I can tune Molten Core for an appropriately geared single character. I doubt that will happen anytime soon (and I'm never exposing the server to the internet). But I would love to see if I can do it.

  • As a side note, I'm going to have to keep my WoW sub going indefinitely to assuage my guilt. But that's a whole other matter.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Random Shots: Project: Gorgon Videos

  • I know these videos are linked from the Project: Gorgon Kickstarter page, but I can't help but share them here. Take a look at what they are offering.

  • This first video shows off how he is building his shared dungeons and demonstrates the first quest inside.

  • The second video shows where he finally got visible equipment into the game as well as showing off various systems that he's talked about on his blog.

  • Of course all of this is in a pre-alpha state. The Kickstarter is intended to pay for the art and animation necessary to make it look like a modern game. So if you are at all curious, take a look at the blog, and think about kicking in.

  • Also: Eric posted a link to Kick Assist today. It's a site that will pledge $500 toward the project that gets the most votes. Since a vote doesn't cost you anything (outside of time staring at a Captcha), it's easy to help out!
  • EDIT: And wouldn't you know it. As soon as I get this post up, Eric posts a third video. Here you go.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

News Filter: Project: Gorgon Launches Kickstarter

  • I just found out from Zubon of Kill Ten Rats that the Project: Gorgon Kickstarter is live. This is important and I'll tell you why:

  • Eric Heimberg and Sandra Powers are trying to do something different with this MMO. They are not just building an MMO, they want to build a community. Their passion is running MMOs, as they did with Asheron's Call 2 and other games. But first, they need an MMO to run, so they are building as interesting a game as they can muster.

  • This is a game that must happen and I want to see it done. Go read the Kickstarter page. And if you are intrigued by what you read, go read their blog, Elder Game. What I've been reading for the last several months sounds amazing.

  • Now to figure out just how much I can afford to kick in.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.