Played Lately: Fly From Evil

• The title of this post is blatant misdirection. I make no apologies, though, because I am playing Fly From Evil in a way. It's the Waiting For The Next Big Thing, FFE Edition. And I've been playing since, according to the Fly From Evil Yahoo group, November of 2002. It feels kind of strange to maintain interest in a product for over six years.
• I first fell in love with detective fiction through Sue Grafton, which eventually lead me to Raymond Chandler. It was around that time that I found out one of my favorite game authors, S. John Ross, was working on his role playing magnum opus, a hardboiled crime game. And since I've enjoyed a lot of what SJR has produced, I eagerly awaited the new release. Now, at the start of 2009, I'm still waiting.
• While it's played in many communities, Waiting For The Next Big Thing is quite popular among Massively Multiplayer Online Gamers. Just last year, Warhammer Online was all anyone could talk about and even got a two month honeymoon of good will upon release. Then reality finally encroached and many people realized Waiting for Warhammer was more fun than playing Warhammer. Luckily, the game is good enough to survive and will grow over time now that the burden of expectation has passed. Now Darkfall seems to be the Next Big Thing but I not playing.
• I don't hold anything against, S. John. I'm not privy to his personal situation, but I do know he's trying to write a full, WotC/White Wolf-class game all on his own. The frustrating part is I know it will be brilliant when I finally get to see it. But I hope a Next Big Thing.

Played Lately: Lord of the Rings Online

• Syncaine at Hardcore Casual recently put up a post suggesting WoW abandon its endgame for a perpetual leveling game. While I'm not sure how feasible this is, there is something to his statement. Designing a game with separate leveling and endgame systems seems archaic now, but few developers have conquered the problem. Players are doing something, though. They're switching games.
• You can find posts and podcasts at Massively, Kill Ten Rats, Gamers With Jobs, Van Hemlock, and others who have found that spark of excitement in Lord of the Rings Online. Even I am finding that leveling up in LotRO is giving me the adventure that I'm missing in WoW.
• Thursday morning, I was sitting at my desk at home, playing LotRO, telling myself "No, working on deeds is not the same as going to work." As opposed to the not-so-revolutionary Tome of Knowledge in WAR, the Deed Logs gives a clear, clean listing of what deeds can be accomplished in a zone and what you'll be awarded with. And while they start hidden, as soon as you take the first step (by killing the right type of monster, finding a landmark, or completing a quest), the game announces that you've discovered a new deed. And once you've discovered a deed, there is nothing mysterious about it. You're presented with the details of what is expected of you and lets you get to it when you're ready.
• What I like about it is that you can tackle deeds in a manner you'd like. If you want to grind out 180 orcs in the Lone-lands, there is nothing to stop you. At the same time, there are many quests where you have to kill orcs or perform other feats in orc-infested areas. So why not just let the deed accrue naturally. By taking the grind out of the quests and moving it to the deed system means that quests can be more story focus while keeping the old school charm intact.
• And the rewards for completing deeds are worthwhile without feeling mandatory. The title are nice, but the virtue traits are as powerful as an additional equipment slot. They serve a similar purpose to the AA system in Everquest 2. You don't need them, but it would be like going into combat without your shoes on.
• If you told me last year that I would enjoy tracking through low level zones to explore and kill hundreds of creatures, I would have thought you were mad. Today, I can say that it is all in the presentation.

Random Shots: 2008 In The Rear View Mirror

• It's hard to see the end of the year approach without taking some stock of what you've done over the last 366 days. What I've done is play video games, watch TV and movies, and read a few books so that's all I have to write about.


• Any review of the year would be lacking without talking about the One True Game, World of Warcraft. I started the year in a small guild raiding the most junior of Burning Crusade instances, Karazhan. By midyear, I'd switched to a larger guild raiding the higher level instances and rushing toward a giant case of burnout. Then as the end of the year neared, Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King. Suddenly I was back in the game and having fun. My ardor for WoW has subsided recently. I don't have the grand desire to raid anymore, but there is plenty to still see in the game. I will enjoy my time in Northrend for a long time to come, though in greater moderation.


• Just as I was burning out on WoW, the MMO blogsphere was reaching a fever pitch in anticipation of Warhammer Online. On paper it sounded like a great game. I was even lured to buying the gorgeous collector's edition of the game. But the more I played, the less I enjoyed myself. There was a lot to enjoy about the game and I'm sure it will get better over time. But they definitely designed it to be a next-gen MMO and I don't have a next-gen computer. On the other hand, the release of Mines of Moria recently drew me to try Lord of the Rings Online for a third time. So far, the third time is the charm. I don't know if Turbine has made the game that much better (though the Warden is awesome), but somehow LotRO is scratching the same itch WoW did, and Guild Wars did before it.


• On the Xbox 360, it was not a huge year. But what I did play was amazing. At the beginning of the year, I was able to finish Bioware's amazing Mass Effect. It would be difficult for me to recommend this game even more. Any fan of role playing games or science fiction would be in for a treat with this game. Writing about it now makes me want to go back and experience the story again. When I wasn't saving the galaxy, I often found myself rocking the world with my plastic guitar skills in Rock Band. Although I had always wondered about the Guitar Hero games, I could not bring myself to spend the money to try it. Lucky for me, a borrowed guitar controller was all I need to find out how much fun it could be. And no matter how silly it might look from the outside, it is a lot of fun.


• Outside of gaming, there was a lot more to keep me occupied. The two movies that I enjoyed most this year were, strangely enough, superhero films. First came Iron Man with a canny mix of humor, fun, and action. For a while, I thought it was the best superhero movie I'd seen. That was until The Dark Knight came out. This movie transgresses the boundaries of its genre so flagrantly that it deserves to be held up with the best of all film, not just locked in the spandex ghetto. It was a towering accomplishment and will not be soon surmounted.


• On television, my tastes have narrowed considerably. Luckily for me, this was the year that The Wire wrapped up its five season journey. Though we followed the show primarily on DVD, my wife and I will always rate the show as one of television's best. We also discovered the BBC's new version of Doctor Who this year. Bringing modern sensibilities and production values to the series has made it a great find. And then HBO once again rescued us with True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. While vampire fans were falling all over themselves over the chaste vampirics of Twilight, True Blood was where the blood was really pumping.


• Even with all this, I was able to find the time to do a little reading. My favorite book this year was the creepy T Is For Trespass by Sue Grafton. Grafton is one of the best mystery writers still working and every new book is an event. Because of The Wire, I was inspired to pick up David Chase's Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. Anyone who thinks they know all about the police from Law and Order or CSI would be well served to read this excellent work. 2008 was the year that I discovered Neal Stephenson. Early in the year I read his classic, Snow Crash and was blown away. When he released his newest work, the intricate and dense Anathem, I knew I had to try it out. This was also the year I fell in love with pulp works published by Hard Case Crime. I signed up for the monthly book club and have already read eleven of their books. They are decadent little books that don't waste any time getting to the action and I love them for it.


• I hope 2008 was a good to you and that 2009 is better. At least we won't have to put up with the presidential election this year.

Played Lately: Lord of the Rings Online

• If you've read this post, you might wonder how Lord of the Rings Online could end up in that title. I will forgive you for snickering at me. Two months after giving up a game that I called "boring", the ubiquitous Michael Zenke has lead me to reenlist. And it seems that I'm not the only one. If you're wondering why, there are sure to be several rambling paragraphs to follow that may accidentally swerve into an answer.
• I've always had a soft spot for LotRO. There are so many things that is does right, this would likely be the game I played if I wasn't playing World of Warcraft. The first twenty levels of the game give a better impression than just about any other game I've seen. After twenty, I know the game becomes a grind because that's where my ship ran aground previously. But starting a new character is quite a joy.
• When I restarted my subscription, the first thing I did was roll a Warden character. My previous character, a Champion, felt particularly vulnerable while soloing. The warden, while limited to medium armors, is designed to tank as well as provide hefty damage depending on how they are played. The best part of the class is the gambit skill mechanic. Instead of having thirty individual abilities to cast, the warden relies on four: a basic spear attack, a shield bash, a taunt, and a gambit trigger skill. By using chains of the basic skills, a gambit is opened that have different greater abilities. The shield-shield combo improves your chance to block while spear-taunt opens a double attack. At my current level, I have access to all of the two skill chains, though they can go up to five at the highest levels. I might have to draw up a diagram to keep it all straight.
• I also came back because of the crafting system, still one of the best in an MMO. For my warden, I chose the Explorer vocation, which grants Tailoring, Prospecting, and Forestry. Although I previously complained about this bundling, having two characters with compatible vocations help a lot. So far I've been using the forestry to make leather for my tailoring to make armor. Any wood or ore I've been mining I've sent to my champion to be converted to weaponry. Since my champion's woodworking can make spears and javelins for the warden, there is a nice synergy. So I'm that much happier with crafting system now.
• The entry level quests are as fun as I remember, though I'm playing an elf now instead of a human. I've been able to tackle some lower level group quests, but I'm still worried about whether I'll be able to tackle the epic quests to my satisfaction. I know this is a preemptive worry, along with the impending level 20 grind wall. So I'm trying to enjoy myself and not think about it.
• And this isn't about LotRO, but today is the day to say it. I hope you all have a happy Wintersday, Feast of Winter Veil, Yule Festival, or whatever holiday you celebrate.

Played Lately: World of Warcraft

• As much fun as I'm having with the new expansion, the best time I've had in World of Warcraft of late had nothing to do with my mage's run to level 80. Instead, I started a new priest alt for two reasons. First, I wanted to see what playing a new character with the achievement system in place would be like. Logging in with my old characters and finding them with a bunch of retroactive achievements was interesting, but not nearly as gratifying. Not first, I really wanted an inscriptionist of my own. (I know scribe is the right term, though it's not as much fun.) Since I wanted a priest on the horde side and inscription has some interesting bits for spellcasters, it seemed like a good fit. That's a lot to say to completely miss the point but I'm getting to it.
• The specific bit of fun I'm referring to was an unexpected invitation to run the Shadowfang Keep instance. SFK, as it's known, is a dungeon for characters level 17 to 21 and has been around since the game launched. I was running though the Undercity on Monday morning, thinking I would spend just enough time online to complete my daily Minor Inscription Research, then log off. As I was going about my business, I got a whisper asking if I wanted to run SFK. Many times, I politely refuse such a request since I don't like getting tied down to the expectation of other players for long stretches of time. This morning, though, I couldn't think of a good reason not to. The fact that I had a few days earlier sporting the great looking Robes of Arugal might have tempted me as well.
• So off I went with a rogue, a warrior tank, and a higher level warlock to fight our way though. Even though there were only four of us, we were plenty to win though to the end. Although the robe did not appear, I did win the slightly less impressive Belt of Arugal as well as the Bloody Apron and Feline Mantle.
• My fear, of course, is that now that I've hit level 20, I have to start the long climb through the dreaded middle levels. I still have a lot of fun playing the old world content, but a lot of it was designed with a different paradigm than the expansions. Quests in one zone that take you to another zone on another continent is busy work, not adventure. If you find that I never talk about my priest alt again, you'll know why.