- ArenaNet has released their Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator. All you have to do is plug in one of your character's name and you will get a break down of what awards you have earn in Guild Wars 2.
- According to the calculator, my main character has received 12 out of the 50 available points. Honestly, I'm surprised I have that much. By the time Eye of the North rolled out, GW was already a backburner game for me. I played through the new content because I really enjoyed the game. Just not enough to play through multiple times. So I never spent much time working on my Hall of Monuments, even though I knew there would be a carry over. However now that I know what the rewards are and what I have to do to acheive them, I'm much more likely to reach a little farther. Really, how hard can it be to hit fifteen or twenty if I work at it.
- On the other hand, my much more hardcore brother is at 41 out of 50. He might try to push for 45, but I'm sure he'll be happy with where he's at already.
- For more info, check out Ravious's post at Kill Ten Rats.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- In a news story run by GamesIndustry.biz and picked up by Massively, Chinese games market analyst firm Niko Partners reports that Chinese gamers are starting to turn away from MMOs as they focus more on social gaming. I haven't seen any chatter about this story in the blogging community, but something about the report struck me.
- China (along with many East Asian countries) has suffered under the stereotype as grind loving no-lifers with no taste in games who would just as soon die as turn off their computers. Niko Partners' report seems to refute the notion by showing gamers turning away from the cookie-cutter MMOs in favor of their local Farmvilles and Mafia Wars.
- And we, the hardcore gamers of the West, scoff at the grindfests they keep churning out. But a quick look at Ten Ton Hammer lists 412 games available. (That number is inflated due to separate entries for expansions and other oddities, but you get the point.) Is it any wonder that we no longer hear about the next WoW killer? Sure, people are still chasing the MMO dollar, but it's not the wild west anymore. Only the big boys can afford play here. Anyone looking to ride the gravy train has gone to seek their fortunes on Facebook before that crashes.
- Times are changing. If we're lucky, there is still enough money to be made that MMOs will continue to be a vibrant field where innovation and tenacity will thrive. If not, MMOs may got the way of the wargame and text adventure.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- We all knew this was coming, but Cryptic have finally released their announcement page for Demonflame, the next adventure pack for Champions Online. This time we get to journey to the Qliphothic Realm to take on Luther Black and thwart his attempt at godhood.
- As with the prior adventure pack, Cryptic is including new costume pieces, new perks, and new pets. Oh, and there's an entire adventure to play through as well.
- Not much else to say. I can't wait for Arcfire to have a new challenge.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- When word came out recently that Blizzard was close to launching their next expansion, I knew it was time to resubscribe. So goodbye for now, EQ2X. LotRO, I never got you installed, but I promise I will sometime next year. I'll always have Champions when I need something different, but I probably won't be back until Demonflame launches. It's time to return to Azeroth.
- The first thing I did when I resubscribed to the game was figure out where the hell my character was. The second thing I did was figure out where I had to go to start the retaking of the Echo Isles quests. That was fun, though the final quest had the same vaguely unsatisfying buff mechanic they used for the Retaking the Undercity event. Nonetheless, I enjoyed playing through the quests. But since I didn't want to return to the daily quest and emblem grind, that was pretty much all I wanted to do with my mage.
- Off I went in search of something else to occupy my time. Where I landed was with my blood elf paladin, the one I was saving as my original content character (which I talked about way back in April 2009). I wanted to experience the original end game content that rarely anyone uses anymore. And I was successful up to a point. I was able to solo most of the group instances by overleveling them. And I picked up some great gear that I never saw my first time through, like some Dungeon Tier 1 and 2 set and the epic Runeblade of Baron Rivendare. However as Cataclysm approaches, I could see that everything that I had come to the end of the line. The old world is going to be remade and my nostalgia tour was about to hit a brick wall.
- But if the old level 60 content was going to be remade, the level 70 content was sitting there, just as unused and unloved. I took my paladin to Outland and I'm seeking a new challenge.
- The Burning Crusade occupies such a strange place in the game now. When the next expansion hits, this will be the oldest content in the game. Levels 58-68 are the ones everyone sprints through now so as to reach Northrend faster. And everyone seems to hate Hellfire Peninsula.
- But when I started playing WoW (just after patch 1.12), TBC was the promised land. Everyone was excited finally move on to the new content. And I still remember running around with my paladin, still around level 30 when the expansion launched, and dreaming of the day I would join everyone in the new world. It seemed like such an exotic place to adventure. And over the last couple of years, I've actually come to miss questing in those zones.
- So far, my paladin has just completed all of Hellfire Peninsula and has moved on to Zangarmarsh. I was able to solo my way through Hellfire Ramparts, but I got stuck on the gauntlet event leading to the second boss in The Blood Furnace. It is amazing to me how long some I've been able to hold onto my level 60 dungeon gear into the expansion. I have been so used to getting massive upgrades with each quest because I always took soloing character through the Dark Portal with green equipment. It's nice to see that the gear reset wasn't so dramatic as I feared. (Of course, my mage was able to carry her raid gear well into the second tier of WotLK zones.)
- To sum up, I'm back in WoW and I'm enjoying myself. I can tell that the game isn't going to eat my life like it once did. But I'm looking forward to Cataclysm and whatever new adventures I can find.
- Have you heard about the Old School Renaissance? If you aren't into RPG blogs, it would be easy to miss. The OSR (as it's referred to by the initiated) is a call back to the role-playing games of yore, specifically the original Dungeons & Dragons and its immediate successors, like the Basic/Expert rules and up to the first edition of AD&D. They contend that game rules don't go bad just because they are old and new is not always better. I cannot help but agree. Several clones of those games have sprung up over the last couple years, works that preserve those rule systems by modifying the Open Game License.
- Since I don't regularly play RPGs any more, I've been content to read about how people have been playing and the rule systems they've been building without diving in myself. That was until I discovered Lamentations of the Flame Princess, written by James Raggi. The subtitle for LotFP is "Weird Fantasy Role-Playing" which I think is important to mention. The real draw of Raggi's design is how he has turned away from the heroic fantasy paradigm. Instead, LotFP supposes a game world based on the weird tale fantasies of yore.
- In most modern games like D&D 4th edition, you play as a superhero in a bright, exciting world. In LotFP, you are just an ordinary person with some specialized training who is trying to get ahead in a world that is out to crush you. You might compare it to Call of Cthulhu in the way it establishes its moods and mysteries. Which is fitting since H. P. Lovecraft was a master of the weird tale, exactly the kind of stories LotFP is looking to emulate.
- The brilliance of the game is the commingling of its eccentric style with the stripped down and streamlined system reminiscent of the original D&D. Raggi has recreated the feel of those early rules while also bringing a modern sensibility to updating the game. From reliable new systems like target number Armor Classes to rationalizing Thief skills (now the Specialist class) with the standard skill mechanics, LotFP makes a lot of sense. It feels like the game you remember playing without all the headaches those games used to cause.
- The game looks amazing too. The box (yes, it came in a box) has a brilliantly evocative cover, as do the books inside. There are four books inside, the Tutorial, Rules, Magic, and Referee manuals, as well as two adventures to get you started. The Tutorial does a great job of introducing you to role playing and teaching you the rules as well as the feel of the game. It also has one of the most amusing Example of Play articles ever published. That was enough to make me want to start a game right then and there.
- Lamentations of the Flame Princess may not be for everyone (price being one consideration). But it is a game I would highly recommend to anyone interested in role playing they way they did in the early years.
