All Things Gaming
I guess it’s time I talk a little about where this blog is going. This is both for you and for me – for you to know what I intend and for me to, perhaps, get some feedback on that direction.
This one shouldn’t be incredibly long, but I’ll talk a little about what this blog has been doing, what I’m going to do with it, and how you can influence that if you have such a mind.
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It was probably a year or so ago when I first heard that Cryptic Studios was going to be working on an MMO based on Magic the Gathering. My mind was immediately inundated with World of Warcraft x MTG ideas. It seemed… like it could be something special. Cryptic Studios is the team behind Neverwinter, a Dungeons and Dragons based MMORPG and some others. I played that one a bit and thought it was pretty decent, so I was hopeful they could take their experience, add to it, and apply it to another game adaptation. Unfortunately, when actual information first appeared, it wasn’t the epic MMORPG that I had imagined, it was an ARPG. Now, action role playing games can be fun too, but my expectations (which was my own fault to have) were a bit dashed. Let’s talk a little about what has been announced so far. Also… I may have gotten invited into the beta, so, that’s partially inspiration for this post. Trailer, some links, how to sign up for the beta, and thoughts after the break.
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When Elder Scrolls: Skyrim first came out, I played the hell out of that game. While I had seen other ES games, Skyrim was my first. It was gorgeous, flexible, full of freedom and adventure. I remember thinking…”this would make a great MMO”. My dream for ESO was Skyrim with other players in it. In some ways, I got my dream, but it was all too shortsighted. (more…)
I’m not going to lie. My hopes for ESO are incredibly high. I love the MMO concept; the persistent, massive world; the social environment inside a game, but I’m running out of something to play. I’m a long time World of Warcraft player and it’s a great game, but… Oh, it’s such a but. The game is old. And I don’t just mean that the graphics engine is primarily 10 years old (which, honestly does get to me occasionally). The game is tired. It’s worn out. We’re on episode two hundred and whatever of Dragon Ball Z and while we keep getting new bosses it’s all the same. The interface and features are the best – there’s no arguing that. No other MMO out there matches the quality-of-game improvements that have happened over the years. But you can only polish the same gem so much. It’s still the same. This is where WoW finds itself, it’s the most polished MMO (excluding graphics) but it’s lacking something new to drive interest. So, what else to turn to? TERA looks great but the only unique part (live action combat) feels more gimmicky than a feature. The Secret World has basically the coolest premise out there, but the simple -fun- of game play is so much lower. A friend of mine described Knights of the Old Republic game play as exactly like WoW from 5 years ago. But look… on the horizon is a game that promises to exceed all of them. (more…)
Okay. I know this is a WoW blog, but I’m really exciting about Elder Scrolls Online and today they opened up the pre-order for that game and showed us what we get for it. The pre-order bonuses are awesome. On top of that, while it may have already been out, this is the first I’ve seen the collector’s edition.
Pre-Order
It’s 2011. World of Warcraft is hailed as the largest (and argued by some to be the best) MMO on the planet. WoW boasts 11-12 million active subscribers. Brighthub lists Aion as WoW’s closest competitor at 3.5 million users, which is only a third of the player base. Though if we bend the definition of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online – though usually requiring a permanent world) just a little, we find that Blizzards behemoth already has been trumped and by no small margin. Zynga’s Farmville, the Facebook app, has somewhere between 60 and 80 million users – easily 5 times the player base of WoW. So, hasn’t Zynga already beaten Blizzard? Not quite.
First, we need to remember that Farmville isn’t truly an MMO. Is massive and has many players and is online, but it doesn’t have a true persistent world such as WoW or Aion. Second, FV clearly isn’t trying to be even the same type of game. It’s more so a social networking past-time. A place to loiter for a few minutes a day in between status updates, as opposed to an hour sucking beast that WoW or other MMO’s can be. But MMO gaming companies need to realize, it’s 2011 and social media is king.
